Microsoft is to discontinue the Microsoft Action Pack and Microsoft Learning Pack on January 21, 2025, sending partners off to potentially pricier and cloudier options. From a report: The Action Pack and Learning Pack, alongside Silver or Gold Membership, gave Microsoft partners access to many on-premises licenses for the company's software. The company's recommended replacements, Partner Success Core Benefits and Partner Success Expanded, abandon those benefits in favor of cloud services. According to Microsoft, it is "evolving the partner benefits offerings to provide partners with the tools and support they need to continue to lead the way in the shifting tech landscape." Or cutting back on some things in favor of others. After all, it would never do to have all that software running on-premises when Microsoft has a perfectly good cloud ready to take on partner workloads. A Register reader affected by the change told us: "The first impact for us will be cost. We'll need to go from Action Pack ($515 + VAT) to Partner Success Core ($970 + VAT). Secondly, the benefits appear to have moved all online. "That's not a problem for day-to-day operations but it will make it harder when trying to recreate a customer environment with legacy software."

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Device manufacturers across multiple industries are lobbying against proposed legislation that would require military contractors to provide the U.S. military with easier access to repair materials and information, according to a document obtained by 404 Media. The legislation, Section 828 of the Defense Reauthorization Act, aims to address the military's current inability to repair equipment ranging from fighter jets to Navy battleships without relying on contractors. Sen. Elizabeth Warren highlighted the issue in a May hearing, citing examples of how repair restrictions lead to increased costs and operational delays for the Department of Defense. The lobbying effort extends beyond military contractors to include organizations representing industries such as irrigation equipment, motorcycles, tractors, plumbing, medical devices, and consumer technology. In a letter to lawmakers, these groups argue that the legislation would impose significant burdens on contractors and undermine existing technical data rights statutes.

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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a Wells notice to OpenSea, the leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, threatening legal action over alleged securities violations. The SEC contends that NFTs traded on OpenSea's platform may constitute securities, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the digital art and collectibles industry. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer denounced the SEC's action as an overreach that could stifle innovation and harm creators. The company pledged $5 million to cover legal fees for NFT creators and developers who receive Wells notices.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Indian IT firm Infosys has been accused of being "exploitative" after allegedly sending job offers to thousands of engineering graduates but still not onboarding any of them after as long as two years. The recent graduates have reportedly been told they must do repeated unpaid training in order to remain eligible to work at Infosys. Last week, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an Indian advocacy group for IT workers, sent a letter, shared by The Register, to Mansukh Mandaviya, India's minister of Labor and Employment. It requested that the Indian government intervene "to prevent exploitation of young IT graduates by Infosys." The letter, signed by NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja, claimed that NITES received "multiple" complaints from recent engineering graduates "who have been subjected to unprofessional and exploitative practices" from Infosys after being hired for system engineer and digital specialist engineer roles. According to NITES, Infosys sent these people offer letters as early as April 22, 2022, after engaging in a college recruitment effort from 2022â"2023, but never onboarded the graduates. NITES has previously said that "over 2,000 recruits" are affected.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Over 192,000 publicly available charging ports are now online, and approximately 1,000 new chargers are being added each week. To build on this momentum, the federal government has awarded $521 million in grants to further expand the national network, with new chargers being deployed across 29 states, two Federally Recognized Tribes, and the District of Columbia. The $521 million investment is divided into two key areas: 41 community projects ($321 million) and 10 corridor fast-charging projects ($200 million). The grant awards also support President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which aims for 40% of the overall benefits of federal investments to flow to disadvantaged communities, with over half of the funding going to sites in disadvantaged communities. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating, "The Biden-Harris Administration has been clear about America leading the EV revolution, and thanks to the historic [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] package, we're building a nationwide EV charger network to make sure all drivers have an accessible, reliable, and convenient way to charge their vehicles."

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ole_timer shares a report from Ars Technica, written by Beth Mole There's more bad news for the company behind an experimental MDMA therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, which the Food and Drug Administration roundly rejected earlier this month. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the FDA is now expanding an investigation into clinical trials behind the experimental psychedelic therapy -- even though the agency has already rejected it. Agency investigators reportedly interviewed four additional people last week, asking questions regarding whether the trials underreported side effects. People involved in the trial have previously alleged, among other things, that ill effects, such as suicidal thoughts, went undocumented, and trial participants were discouraged from reporting them to bolster the chances of FDA approval. Overall, the MDMA trials faced crushing criticism amid the FDA's review, with outside experts and agency advisers calling out allegations of sexual misconduct at one trial site, as well as flaws in overall trial designs, multiple sources of biases, and claims that the company behind the therapy, Lykos, fostered a cult-like belief in psychedelics. According to the Journal, the recent interviews were being conducted by the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, which oversees inspections, and a subdivision of that office called Biomedical Research Monitoring Program, which works to ensure the quality and integrity of data submitted to FDA. Notably, when the agency rejected MDMA, it advised Lykos to conduct a new trial. While the FDA's rejection and expanded investigation are bad enough for Lykos, the company announced this month that it's laying off 75 percent of its staff and overhauling its leadership. The moves were in response to the FDA's rejections, the company said. Additionally, a scientific journal retracted three of the company's MDMA studies, citing "protocol violations amounting to unethical conduct" in its trials, echoing claims raised amid the FDA review.

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snydeq writes: CSO Online's Sarah Wiedemar reports on a rising trend in the Russia cybersecurity community: bug bounty programs, which the researcher says could have far-reaching implications as the bounty ecosystem matures. From the report: "Given the current uncertainty that Russian bug bounty hunters and vulnerability researchers are facing when dealing with Western bug bounty programs, Russian IT companies have begun to fill that vacuum. [...] Russian bug bounty platforms have a high probability for substantial growth in the next few years. They provide a credible Western alternative not only to Russian hackers, but also for all other vulnerability researchers located in countries that could potentially face international financial sanctions in the future. From a Western perspective, a potential problematic development could be that Russian hackers decide to sell vulnerabilities found in Western products to Russian zero-day acquisition companies such as Operation Zero. Thus, instead of reporting them to Western bug bounty platforms for free, they sell to the highest bidder. Those zero-day acquisition companies in turn sell them on to Russian law enforcement and security agencies, which could lead to increased espionage campaigns in Western countries. Western policy makers would do well to keep an eye on the evolution of Russia's bug bounty ecosystem." Although bug bounty programs have existed in Russia since 2012, they weren't widely adopted due to distrust from the government and dominance of Western platforms. Recently, new platforms like Bug Bounty RU, Standoff 365, and BI.ZONE have emerged, attracting thousands of bug hunters and major Russian companies. "In 2023, the total number of bug hunters on these platforms amounted to 20,000 people," notes Wiedemar. The Russian government has also begun participating, launching programs for 10 of its e-government systems. However, legal ambiguities remain, as ethical hacking is still considered illegal in Russia, with potential prison sentences. Despite this, there are ongoing legislative efforts to legalize ethical hacking, alongside broader government initiatives to enhance cybersecurity, including increased fines for data breaches and the potential creation of a cybersecurity agency akin to the US CISA.

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Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Ars Technica, written by John Timmer: While solar power is growing at an extremely rapid clip, in absolute terms, the use of natural gas for electricity production has continued to outpace renewables. But that looks set to change in 2024, as the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) has run the numbers on the first half of the year and found that wind, solar, and batteries were each installed at a pace that dwarfs new natural gas generators. And the gap is expected to get dramatically larger before the year is over. According to the EIA's numbers, about 20 GW of new capacity was added in the first half of this year, and solar accounts for 60 percent of it. Over a third of the solar additions occurred in just two states, Texas and Florida. There were two projects that went live that were rated at over 600 MW of capacity, one in Texas, the other in Nevada. Next up is batteries: The US saw 4.2 additional gigawatts of battery capacity during this period, meaning over 20 percent of the total new capacity. (Batteries are treated as the equivalent of a generating source by the EIA since they can dispatch electricity to the grid on demand, even if they can't do so continuously.) Texas and California alone accounted for over 60 percent of these additions; throw in Arizona and Nevada, and you're at 93 percent of the installed capacity. The clear pattern here is that batteries are going where the solar is, allowing the power generated during the peak of the day to be used to meet demand after the sun sets. This will help existing solar plants avoid curtailing power production during the lower-demand periods in the spring and fall. In turn, this will improve the economic case for installing additional solar in states where its production can already regularly exceed demand. Wind power, by contrast, is running at a more sedate pace, with only 2.5 GW of new capacity during the first six months of 2024. And for likely the last time this decade, additional nuclear power was placed on the grid, at the fourth 1.1 GW reactor (and second recent build) at the Vogtle site in Georgia. The only other additions came from natural gas-powered facilities, but these totaled just 400 MW, or just 2 percent of the total of new capacity. The EIA expects a bit over 60 GW of new capacity to be installed by the end of the year, with 37 GW of that coming in the form of solar power. Battery growth continues at a torrid pace, with 15 GW expected, or roughly a quarter of the total capacity additions for the year. Wind will account for 7.1 GW of new capacity, and natural gas 2.6 GW. Throw in the contribution from nuclear, and 96 percent of the capacity additions of 2024 are expected to operate without any carbon emissions. Even if you choose to ignore the battery additions, the fraction of carbon-emitting capacity added remains extremely small, at only 6 percent."

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Bruce66423 shares a report from the Los Angeles Times: In a milestone breakthrough, more than half of Caltech's incoming undergraduate class this fall will be women (source paywalled; alternative source) for the first time in its 133-year history. The class of 113 women and 109 men comes 50 years after Caltech graduated its first class of undergraduate women, who were admitted in 1970. "What this means for young women is that we are a place that can be representative of them and their experiences ... where they can grow and thrive and excel and become really impressive, extraordinary scientists and engineers and go on to make a difference in this really research-heavy profession," said Ashley Pallie, dean of admissions Gloria L. Blackwell, chief executive of the American Assn. of University Women, lauded Caltech's achievement as critical progress in reducing the substantial gap of women in science, technology, engineering and math. Although women hold about 60% of degrees in biological sciences, they represent only about 18% in computer science and 20% in engineering, Blackwell said. Research has shown that boys are not better at math and science than girls, but a persistent message in society says otherwise -- and especially discourages Latinas and Black girls from pursuing the fields because they face discrimination and have less access to role models, resources and opportunities, the AAUW says. The report notes that Caltech isn't the first educational institution to reach gender parity in STEM. Harvey Mudd College, a small private institution in Claremont, "enrolled more women than men in 2010 for the first time in its history and in 2014 graduated more women than men in engineering," reports the LA Times. "Today, women make up 52.8% of majors in computer science, 50.5% in engineering and 68.2% in mathematical and computational biology." UC Berkeley is another powerful producer of STEM graduates, with "nearly half of students majoring in those fields [identifying] as women or nonbinary." However, the report notes that the field they enter varies significantly. "They make up more than two-thirds of students in biological and biomedical sciences, but about one-third in engineering, computer and informational sciences, and mathematics and statistics."

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Apple announced that CFO Luca Maestri will step down at the start of next year, transitioning to head of its corporate services team to lead "information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development." Kevan Parekh will take over as CFO. The Verge reports: Maestri joined Apple in 2013 after serving as the CFO of Xerox. He became the CFO just one year later, replacing Peter Oppenheimer. CNBC notes that when he took over, Apple's annual revenue was $183 billion, and last year, it reached $383 billion. Apple also announced an expansion to its share repurchase program to $90 billion, which Maestri would oversee. This spring, Apple announced it would increase the amount from $90 billion to $110 billion, breaking its own record of $100 billion. It also reported an increase in revenue from its services business of 14 percent, even as sales of iPhones and iPads were down from the previous year. In Apple's announcement, it said, "...Maestri enabled essential investments and practiced robust financial discipline, which together helped the company more than double its revenue, with services revenue growing more than five times." Kevan Parekh, Apple's vice president of financial planning and analysis, will take Maestri's place managing the finances of the now $3 trillion company. Parekh has been at Apple for 11 years and previously worked in senior leadership positions at Thomson Reuters and General Motors. Last week, Apple announced that it's splitting its App Store group into two teams, with App Store vice president Matt Fischer leaving the role in October.

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After 13 years of being exclusively available on the iPhone, Snapchat is finally introducing native support for the iPad. 9to5Mac reports: The latest version of the Snapchat app for iOS enables iPad support. This means that the app now runs full screen on iPadOS. "It's still the same Snapchat you know and love, but this time on the big screen," the company says in the update's release notes. However, it seems that Snapchat hasn't had time to fully optimize its app for tablets. That's because, at least for now, it can only run in portrait mode. There's no way to use the app in landscape mode. The iPad interface also seems a bit glitchy in this first version. The app is available to download from the App Store for devices running iOS 13 or later.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: [...] Anthropic, in its continued effort to paint itself as a more ethical, transparent AI vendor, has published the system prompts for its latest models (Claude 3 Opus, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Haiku) in the Claude iOS and Android apps and on the web. Alex Albert, head of Anthropic's developer relations, said in a post on X that Anthropic plans to make this sort of disclosure a regular thing as it updates and fine-tunes its system prompts. The latest prompts, dated July 12, outline very clearly what the Claude models can't do -- e.g. "Claude cannot open URLs, links, or videos." Facial recognition is a big no-no; the system prompt for Claude Opus tells the model to "always respond as if it is completely face blind" and to "avoid identifying or naming any humans in [images]." But the prompts also describe certain personality traits and characteristics -- traits and characteristics that Anthropic would have the Claude models exemplify. The prompt for Claude 3 Opus, for instance, says that Claude is to appear as if it "[is] very smart and intellectually curious," and "enjoys hearing what humans think on an issue and engaging in discussion on a wide variety of topics." It also instructs Claude to treat controversial topics with impartiality and objectivity, providing "careful thoughts" and "clear information" -- and never to begin responses with the words "certainly" or "absolutely." It's all a bit strange to this human, these system prompts, which are written like an actor in a stage play might write a character analysis sheet. The prompt for Opus ends with "Claude is now being connected with a human," which gives the impression that Claude is some sort of consciousness on the other end of the screen whose only purpose is to fulfill the whims of its human conversation partners. But of course that's an illusion. "If the prompts for Claude tell us anything, it's that without human guidance and hand-holding, these models are frighteningly blank slates," concludes TechCrunch's Kyle Wiggers. "With these new system prompt changelogs -- the first of their kind from a major AI vendor -- Anthropic is exerting pressure on competitors to publish the same. We'll have to see if the gambit works."

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The Verge's Ash Parrish reports: Last week, as a part of the updates to Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition -- collectively known as the 2024 revision -- the publisher announced that it would update D&D Beyond, the tabletop RPG's official digital toolkit that players use to reference content and create characters using a host of official and third-party sources. The update would add the new 2024 rulebooks to the toolkit, mark outdated content with a "legacy" badge, and change players' character sheets to reflect all the new rules and features. That last part is critical to understanding why some D&D players (including my own dungeon master) spent the last 72 hours in a state of panic. Though some of the 2024 revisions are essentially cosmetic in nature -- for example, "races" will be updated to "species" -- other updates like the ones to weapons, spells, and magic items fundamentally alter the game. Wizards of the Coast would have essentially overwritten every user's character sheet with the new information whether they wanted it or not. "All entries for mundane and magical items, weapons, armor, and spells will also be updated to their 2024 version," Wizards said in its initial announcement. The publisher did say that players would have the option to continue to use the 2014 version of spells and magic items. But doing so requires using the game's homebrew rules. which aren't known for being user-friendly. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast isn't in the car business, and after a weekend of backlash on social media, the company will no longer force the new changes on players. "We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play," Wizard's said in its latest announcement. Current character sheets will only be updated with new terminology while the older versions of spells, magic items, and weapons will be preserved. Also, players who have access to both the 2014 and 2024 digital versions will have the option to use both when creating new characters.

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A quarter of young adults aged 18-34 never answer phone calls, according to a recent Uswitch survey. The study reveals a generational shift in communication preferences, with 70% of respondents in this age group favoring text messages over voice calls. Experts attribute this trend to the rise of mobile technology and social media. While avoiding calls, younger generations maintain constant contact through group chats and social media platforms. Voice notes have emerged as a compromise, with 37% of 18-34 year-olds preferring them to traditional calls. This communication shift extends to the workplace, causing challenges for some employers.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently unveiled its latest draft definition for "open source AI," aiming to clarify the ambiguous use of the term in the fast-moving field. The move comes as some companies like Meta release trained AI language model weights and code with usage restrictions while using the "open source" label. This has sparked intense debates among free-software advocates about what truly constitutes "open source" in the context of AI. For instance, Meta's Llama 3 model, while freely available, doesn't meet the traditional open source criteria as defined by the OSI for software because it imposes license restrictions on usage due to company size or what type of content is produced with the model. The AI image generator Flux is another "open" model that is not truly open source. Because of this type of ambiguity, we've typically described AI models that include code or weights with restrictions or lack accompanying training data with alternative terms like "open-weights" or "source-available." To address the issue formally, the OSI -- which is well-known for its advocacy for open software standards -- has assembled a group of about 70 participants, including researchers, lawyers, policymakers, and activists. Representatives from major tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon also joined the effort. The group's current draft (version 0.0.9) definition of open source AI emphasizes "four fundamental freedoms" reminiscent of those defining free software: giving users of the AI system permission to use it for any purpose without permission, study how it works, modify it for any purpose, and share with or without modifications. [...] OSI's project timeline indicates that a stable version of the "open source AI" definition is expected to be announced in October at the All Things Open 2024 event in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Microsoft has decided to donate the Mono Project to the developers of Wine, FOSS that allows Windows applications to run on Unix-like operating systems. "Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily create cross platform applications," notes GameOnLinux's Liam Dawe. "It is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime." "Wine already makes use of Mono and this move makes sense with Microsoft focusing on open-source .NET and other efforts," adds Phoronix's Michael Larabel. "Formally handing over control of the upstream Mono project to WineHQ is a nice move by Microsoft rather than just letting the upstream Mono die off or otherwise forked." Microsoft's Jeff Schwartz announced the move on the Mono website and in a GitHub post: The Mono Project (mono/mono) ('original mono') has been an important part of the .NET ecosystem since it was launched in 2001. Microsoft became the steward of the Mono Project when it acquired Xamarin in 2016. The last major release of the Mono Project was in July 2019, with minor patch releases since that time. The last patch release was February 2024. We are happy to announce that the WineHQ organization will be taking over as the stewards of the Mono Project upstream at wine-mono / Mono - GitLab (winehq.org). Source code in existing mono/mono and other repos will remain available, although repos may be archived. Binaries will remain available for up to four years. Microsoft maintains a modern fork of Mono runtime in the dotnet/runtime repo and has been progressively moving workloads to that fork. That work is now complete, and we recommend that active Mono users and maintainers of Mono-based app frameworks migrate to .NET which includes work from this fork. We want to recognize that the Mono Project was the first .NET implementation on Android, iOS, Linux, and other operating systems. The Mono Project was a trailblazer for the .NET platform across many operating systems. It helped make cross-platform .NET a reality and enabled .NET in many new places and we appreciate the work of those who came before us. Thank you to all the Mono developers!

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A type of genetically modified wheat developed by Argentina's Bioceres may be safely grown and bred in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday. From a report: Bioceres must still complete additional steps, including field trials, that will take years before it can commercialize HB4 wheat, modified to tolerate drought, industry group U.S. Wheat Associates said. Still, USDA's finding moves genetically modified wheat closer to production in the U.S. in a potential win for farmers grappling with drought and more severe weather, despite concerns among some consumers. "Wherever wheat is grown in the world, drought takes its toll on yields and quality, so an innovation like HB4 holds a lot of interest for growers like me," said Michael Peters, an Oklahoma wheat farmer and past chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates. Genetic modification involves altering a plant's makeup by transferring DNA from one organism to another and is common in crops such as corn, used for livestock feed. Some consumer groups oppose genetic modification of wheat over concerns about human health since it is widely used to make bread and pasta, and therefore consumed directly by people. USDA's decision on HB4 wheat is farther than the agency has ever gone with genetically modified wheat, U.S. Wheat Associates said.

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France is to trial a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, seeking to give children a "digital pause" that, if judged successful, could be rolled out nationwide from January. From a report: Just under 200 secondary schools will take place in the experiment that will require youngsters to hand over phones on arrival at reception. It takes the prohibition on the devices further than a 2018 law that banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on the premises but allowed them to keep possession of them. Announcing the trial on Tuesday, the acting education minister, Nicole Belloubet, said the aim was to give youngsters a "digital pause." If the trial proves successful, the ban would be introduced in all schools from January, Belloubet said. A commission set up by the president, Emmanuel Macron, expressed concern that the overexposure of children to screens was having a detrimental effect on their health and development. A 140-page report published in March concluded there was "a very clear consensus on the direct and indirect negative effects of digital devices on sleep, on being sedentary, a lack of physical activity and the risk of being overweight and even obese ... as well as on sight."

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Staggering numbers of dead pine trees have been reported in southern Finland this summer, with researchers linking the phenomenon to climate change. From a report: Over 1,350 patches of dead pine trees have been reported in southwestern Finland since April, when researchers started collecting observations from the public. "Every day we receive more in our mapping service," Turku University geography professor Risto Kalliola told AFP. He described the phenomenon as a "local mass-death of patches of pine trees." Most affected were rocky coastal areas with barren soil easily exposed to drought, he said. Browned groups of dead pines suddenly started to appear along Finland's southern coast a few years ago, and researchers are now trying to find out the cause of the phenomenon. "Something is happening in our nature and we have to take it seriously," Kalliola said. Similar deaths of pine trees have also occurred in other northern European countries, including neighbouring Sweden. "What is new in Finland is that this phenomenon has quite recently begun to be common," he said. He believed several factors could be causing the local die-offs, such as insect pests and fungal diseases -- all exacerbated by global warming.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. military is using ads to warn people across Lebanon not to attack the United States or its allies amid rising tensions across the Middle East. Some of those ads have turned up in an unlikely place: the dating app Tinder. Freelance reporter Seamus Malekafzali posted on X screenshots of the ads seen in the Tinder app, warning residents of Lebanon to "not take up arms." The ads, written in Arabic, say that the U.S. will "protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies," which operate across the region, referring to groups like Hezbollah located in Lebanon. The ads, which are not clandestine in nature, display the logo of U.S. Central Command and link to a tweet featuring F-16 and A10 fighter jets. These kinds of military psychological operations (or psyops), aimed at influencing the views of a target audience or population, are not new, even if their placement on a dating app is raising eyebrows in the military community, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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