The 267th Block: Paragon of propaganda

(An oxymoron)

Jun 15, 2025

This week…

Your reading time is about 5 minutes. Let’s start.

Yesterday, there was a… concept of a parade somewhere on this continental landmass, and it wasn’t a pride parade. (The gays would have done it better.) I’m sure you know that marching is one of the first things you learn in basic training—and this could start even in school, if you’ve been part of a marching band or other uniformed bodies like cadet corps or scouting—and it’s not something that you will ever forget how to do, even if it’s no longer part of your daily routine. So we’re all thinking these political pawns just didn’t like being paraded around like show ponies for a wannabe dictator, right?

At national service, I was a platoon leader (the one giving out marching commands). I had a commanding voice, crisp diction, and impeccable timing, apparently. But that wasn’t enough, because the unit had to unit as a unit and whenever just one person was out of sync, I was physically and verbally abused by my drill sergeant. I disliked that man so much because I never felt I was responsible for the failures of any individual under my command (girl, I was 17 and all I wanted to do was explore my sexuality, I didn’t ask to be platoon leader) but that man could do a pistol squat, so when I went to university later that year, I started going to the gym so that I could do pistol squats. Took me a few years but I got there. Anyway, I hope they don’t get punished for their unenthusiastic parade performance. But it was funny, I was entertained, sadly.

Your Wikipedia this week: Throffer

And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.

ICYMI: The Previous Block was about privacy, surveillance, and data breaches.

CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified.

SMART SURVEILLANCE

European journalists targeted with Paragon Solutions spyware, say researchers

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Angela Giuffrida for The Guardian:

The hacking mystery roiling the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government is deepening after researchers said they had found new evidence that two more journalists were targeted using the same military-grade spyware that Italy has admitted to using against activists.
A parliamentary committee overseeing intelligence confirmed earlier this month that Italy had used mercenary spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions against two Italian activists.
But the same committee, which launched an investigation into the hacking scandal in March, said it had been unable to determine who was behind the targeting of a prominent Italian investigative journalist, Francesco Cancellato, whose news outlet has been critical of the Meloni government.
Now a report by researchers at the Citizen Lab has revealed that a close colleague of Cancellato, Ciro Pellegrino, who is head of the investigative outlet Fanpage.it’s Naples bureau, was also targeted by a user of Paragon Solution’s spyware, which is called Graphite. The Citizen Lab said a third journalist, who chose to remain anonymous and is described as a “prominent European journalist”, had also been targeted with the spyware, it said.

Loosely linked:

Two Italian journalists’ phones were infiltrated with spyware. Nobody seems to know why by Marina Adami for RI.
Download festival rockers told to take off smartwatches after moshpits spark emergency alerts by Harriet Sherwood for The Guardian.
University researchers tout using smartwatches to steal data from air-gapped systems by Stephen Warwick for Tom’s Hardware.
I’m watching my expensive smart gadgets become useless and it’s infuriating by Faith Leroux for Android Police.

WAR OF WORDS

South Korea halts propaganda broadcasts along border with rival North in a move to ease tensions

Kim Tong-Hyung for AP:

South Korea’s military shut down loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korea propaganda along the inter-Korean border on Wednesday, marking the new liberal government’s first concrete step toward easing tensions between the war-divided rivals.
The South resumed the daily loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a yearslong pause in retaliation for North Korea flying trash-laden balloons toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the move, ordered by President Lee Jae-myung, was part of efforts “to restore trust in inter-Korean relations and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Kang Yu-jung, Lee’s spokesperson, described the decision as a “proactive step” to reduce military tensions and ease the burden for South Koreans residing in border areas, who have also been affected by North Korea’s retaliatory loudspeaker broadcasts.

Loosely linked:

How China wins in the new propaganda war by J.D. Capelouto for Semafor.
Russia using museums for ideological indoctrination about the Ukraine invasion, study shows by Kerra Maddern (University of Exeter) for Phys.org.
How six months in the West Bank undid a lifetime of Zionist indoctrination by Sam Stein for +972 Magazine.

What I read, listen, and watch

I’m reading Medical Ethics (2018) by Michael Dunn and Tony Hope. A little bit of armchair philosophising, why not.

I’m listening to The Decibel on the black maret for getting hacked Meta accounts back.

I’m watching The Killing Call, a BBC documentary on the murder of Punjabi hip-hop icon Sidhu Moose Wala. Part 2 here.

Chart of the week

TIL there is a Pizza Index that shows that a surge in pizza deliveries to The Pentagon is an accurate predictor of war. It happened again moments before Israel’s attack on Iran. More here by Eleanor Wicklund for News.com.au.

The Starting Block

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