PhilipTheBucket

The US just launched its biggest effort yet to compensate victims of human trafficking, setting up a process to dole out $200 million from seizures related to shutting down the notorious online escorts ad service Backpage.com.

In an announcement on Thursday, the Department of Justice confirmed that "this marks the largest remission process to date to compensate victims of human trafficking."

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said the effort to redistribute millions of ill-gotten gains "underscores the Department’s unwavering commitment to use forfeiture to take the profit out of crime and to compensate victims." It comes after Backpage's "owners and key executives and businesses related to the platform" were found guilty of facilitating crimes including money laundering and "unlawful commercial sex using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce," the DOJ said.

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There’s $42.5 billion in broadband grants are headed to the states thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill most Republicans voted against (yet routinely try to take credit for among their constituents).

But Republicans, despite a supposed feud between Trump and Elon Musk, have been rewriting the grant program’s guidance to eliminate provisions ensuring the resulting broadband is affordable to poor people, and to ensure that Elon Musk gets billions in new broadband subsidies for his expensive and increasingly congested satellite broadband company, Starlink.

The rewrites delayed the underlying grant program, forcing many states to revamp their plans for the already earmarked funds. That includes a new bidding process. Unsurprisingly, in states like Tennessee and Colorado, Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper and Elon Musk’s Starlink are now poised to dominate the bidding process, resulting in a lot of taxpayer funds likely going toward satellite services… instead of fiber:

“SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper flooded the Tennessee office with applications, submitting more than twice as many broadband grant applications as fiber builders, while requesting on average about 10 times less in funding – at least according the application areas.”

Republicans revamped the program to make billionaires happy. Though they claim they revamped the program because they were looking to cut costs. But we’ve noted repeatedly how these Low-Earth orbit satellite broadband efforts have massive problems that make them ill-suited to tackling America’s digital divide at any serious scale.

Starlink has been criticized for harming astronomical research and the ozone layer. Starlink customer service is largely nonexistent. It’s too expensive for the folks most in need of reliable broadband access. The nature of satellite physics and capacity means slowdowns and annoying restrictions are inevitable, and making it scale to permanently meet real-world demand is expensive and not guaranteed.

One recent study found that Starlink struggles to deliver the FCC’s already flimsy definition of broadband – 100 megabits per second (Mbps) down, 20 Mbps up – in any areas where Starlink subscribership exceeds 6 households per square mile. In many areas, these capacity constraints are causing Starlink to issue “congestion” charges as high as $750.

So yes, it’s technically cheaper for taxpayers to fund expensive, congested satellite broadband service, but it results in slower, more expensive service that can’t actually deliver on the promises it’s going to be making. Republicans don’t really care about that, and later on, after the subsidies have been doled out and public is frustrated by the substandard result, they’ll just ignore the problem they caused.

The other problem is money directed to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is money directed away from a lot of locally owned municipal and cooperative broadband providers that have been recently using taxpayer money to deploy “future proof”, symmetrical gigabit fiber for prices as low as $60 a month.

Many states had only just started funding these promising emerging competitors, but the Trump revamp of this BEAD (Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment) program means that if the Trump administration doesn’t like your proposal (it doesn’t reward Musk, it tries to help the poor, or it funds community broadband access) your state could lose millions or billions in funds, permanently.

Another problem: the Trump administration’s lower standards means that companies like Comcast that had originally been encouraged to deploy fiber, are now deploying slower (but still as expensive for consumers) cable broadband service. From Tennessee:

“In the initial round of funding, Comcast applied for funding for 27 project areas. In the Benefit of the Bargain round, Comcast applied to serve 39 project areas. The key difference is that, in the initial round, Comcast proposed to serve these areas with fiber broadband and is now proposing to serve them with cable broadband at a lower cost.”

Fiber providers may have higher up front construction costs, but they’re fixing the problem permanently and properly. As opposed to throwing the lion’s share of taxpayer money at a technology that literally and technically can’t accomplish what’s being asked of it. And, in at least one case, into the lap of a company owned and run by an overt white supremacist with a head full of conspiracy theories.

Ideally, you want taxpayer money going primarily to fiber. After that, to stuff like fixed wireless and 5G wireless. After that, you fill in the gaps with LEO satellite service. LEO satellite service shouldn’t be the primary choice. But because the U.S. is too corrupt to function, that logic’s flying right out the window, and most of the funding is now poised to get dumped into the laps of Trump’s favorite billionaires.\

Newgrounds, a gaming forum, has some clever ways for non-intrusively complying with the shambling disaster that is the "UK Online Safety Act".

For years, I've been doing something similar to this when generating internal reports on DNA Lounge demographics: e.g., if someone bought a ticket for an 18+ event 5 years ago, they must be at least 23 years old now.

Newgrounds: Here is our current plan for UK users:

1. If your account is more than ten years old, we will assume you are currently over 18. This is in line with one of the methods of effective age assurance, which involves paying a third party to match your email address against some sort of database of scraped data, which determines if your email has been in use for a long time. We have our own long-term data, so we'll use that instead.

2. If your account ever bought Supporter status with a credit card and we can confirm that with the payment processor, we will assume you are over 18 because you need to be 18 in the UK to have a credit card.

3. If your account ever bought Supporter status more than two years ago, we will assume you are over 18 because you need to be at least 16 to have a Paypal or debit card in the UK (assuming we are right about this).

4. If none of the above applies, you will have the opportunity to pay a small one-time fee via credit card as confirmation of your age.

We are not planning to offer things like ID checks or facial recognition because these require us to pay a third party to confirm each person.

All Kateryna Naralnyk saw was black smoke after a Russia ballistic missile hit her apartment building in Kyiv early on July 31.

"I woke up, and I couldn't hear anything," the 66-year-old grandmother told the Kyiv Independent hours later outside her destroyed home, as rescuers cleared the rubble looking for more bodies.

"It was the end of the world (for me)."

Another large-scale overnight Russian missile and drone attack struck Kyiv on July 31, killing at least 15 people and wounding over 130, the local authorities reported. The death toll is expected to climb, as relatives continue to wait outside to find out the fate of their loved ones.

The National Police told the Kyiv Independent that 10 to 15 people were still missing as of 5 p.m., but they said they were still clarifying the information.

Naralnyk and her son were the only ones to make it out from her apartment on the first floor, which began to collapse as soon as the missile hit the ninth floor of the Soviet-era residential building.

Her daughter, along with two grandsons aged 21 and 17, were still under the rubble as of 6 p.m. on July 31.

"I don't even know what I am waiting for," Naralnyk said, tears flowing from her blue eyes.

Residents of the house that was damaged due to Russian overnight attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 31, 2025. (Anna Donets / The Kyiv Independent)

No sign of peace

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the overnight attack saw the largest number of children injured in Kyiv since the beginning of the full-scale war.

As the U.S. tries to push Moscow into peace talks, Russia has ramped up its attacks across Ukraine, often targeting cities far from the battlefield.

Showing frustrations over Russia's continued attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, U.S. President Donald Trump said his country would impose new tariffs on Russia unless it agreed to end the war in 10 days.

"Ten days from today. And then we're gonna put on tariffs and stuff," Trump told reporters on July 29, shortening the previous ultimatum of 50 days.

The residents of the apartment building that endured the deadly attack said that they weren't surprised Russia launched drones and missiles despite Trump's ultimatum, adding that no such threats would stop Moscow.

The residents also told the Kyiv Independent that they expected Russian missile and drone attacks to continue, and admitted that they are not expecting the war to end soon.

Most of the apartments had broken windows or balconies, but the furthest section — where Naralnyk’s family lived — was completely destroyed. Those whose apartments were largely intact said they would still live there as long as electricity, gas, and water resumed. Those whose apartments were largely intact said they would still live there as long as electricity, gas, and water resumed.Those whose apartments were largely intact said they would still live there as long as electricity, gas, and water resumed.

"It's not a war — it's a destruction of a nation."

What feels surreal is how normal it was last evening, Naralnyk says. As usual, she cooked dinner for the family — it was pasta that day — and everyone went to bed at their own time.

But Naralnyk says she couldn't fall asleep until about 3 a.m., which she thinks may have been due to a foreboding feeling. She slept on the sofa for about an hour till the explosion woke her up.

The consequences of Russian overnight attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 31, 2025. (Anna Donets / The Kyiv Independent)

State Emergency Service workers near a house damaged due to Russian overnight attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 31, 2025. (Anna Donets / The Kyiv Independent)

Naralnyk yelled out her loved ones' names, but heard nothing. After five minutes, she was escorted out through the windows, not knowing what had happened to others, including her still missing grandsons, Vladyslav and Roman.

Vladyslav had just graduated from a university, studying international relations, Roman finished high school, and was looking to start working to earn money, the grandmother recalls.

"Such a pity for kids, grandkids…" Naralnyk said, breaking into tears as she recalled how they would always try to help their grandmother with chores.

The silence after the missile attack was scarier than screams, Naralnyk said.

"It's not a war — it's a destruction of a nation."

Families destroyed

Another resident, Anton Melnychonok, who serves in the military, said he was on the balcony when the Russian missile hit his apartment building.

Melnychonok said he was smoking cigarettes and getting his bicycle ready for his upcoming bike trip to neighboring Zhytomyr Oblast. The glass from the balcony window flew in the other direction, saving him from possible injuries.

The air raid sirens began first, at around 4:30 a.m., and then the attack happened about two minutes later, he recalled.

"I didn't even hear how (the missile) flew (to us)," Melnychonok told the Kyiv Independent in his apartment, which remained mostly untouched by the attack.

Anton Melnychonok, who was formerly in the army, near the house he lives in that was damaged due to Russian overnight attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 31, 2025. (Anna Donets / The Kyiv Independent)

Melnychonok went outside to see what had happened and saw his neighbor screaming and trying to get to his apartment, where his elderly, bedridden mother and younger sister remained.

The neighbor had a routine to walk his dog at 4 a.m., which ended up saving his life since his apartment was destroyed, Melnychonok said.

Valentyna Polivida, a cleaning lady who lives across the road, said she first heard the explosions from Shahed-type drones, and then she went to the kitchen to look out the window to understand what happened. Then, the missile hit.

Sixty-one-year-old Polivida said she wished for the Russians to feel what they forced on Ukrainians — pain and suffering.

Early on, Canada-based The Metals Company cast the rocks it seeks to mine from the deep seafloor as a crucial resource for electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies, positioning them as a solution to the accelerating climate crisis. However, in 2024, another message overtook the first in TMC’s communications, according to an analysis by Mongabay and collaborators. It now cast these same rocks as strategic assets, essential for strengthening the mineral dominance and national security of the U.S., where the company has a subsidiary. This narrative pivot seems to have helped TMC position itself to act on potential U.S. approval for deep-sea mining even before the Trump administration gave its formal authorization in April, and may well provide the momentum needed to launch this contentious and still highly speculative industry. TMC did not address the specific claims Mongabay presented in this investigation regarding the company’s narrative strategies. Instead, in a statement, TMC criticized Mongabay for being “increasingly captured by activist narratives,” while offering no comment on its own messaging aimed at investors and the public. This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. It is part two of an investigation into TMC, its investors, partners and business strategies. Read part one here. There are at least two versions of the pitch. One casts polymetallic nodules — metal-rich rocks scattered across flat stretches of the deep seafloor — as a crucial resource for electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies, positioning…

Independent game developer Paolo Pedercini wanted to announce his new game Future? No Thanks! a few weeks ago, but said it was delayed because Steam found a screenshot it planned to share “had suggestive themes.” The screenshot? A low-polygon woman in a short dress with her legs closed together.

Future? No Thanks! was meant to be announced weeks ago but the Steam page didn't pass the first review because a screenshot marked as "Suitable for all ages" had suggestive themes.
The screenshot? This one:

— Molleindustria - Wishlist FUTURE? NO THANKS! (@molleindustria.org) 2025-07-30T14:31:04.532Z

Future? No Thanks!’s page did land on Steam, just a little late. “I thought the screenshot flagging was funny because they seem to have interpreted that low poly character as having no underwear, maybe due to the purple color matching the hair,” Pedercini, who releases games under the name Molleindustria, told 404 Media.

According to Pedercini, he had submitted the game to Steam earlier this month, a process which requires a developer to send in a trailer and at least four screenshots that are “suitable for all ages.” He marked the screenshot above as suitable, but Steam rejected it on July 10.

“The trailer does have a suggestive clip with a sexbot, and a hyperbolic disclaimer…so I guess that's fair,” Pedercini said. He pushed back against Steam and asked for a review. “Both reviews took more than a week, which I think it's longer than usual. I wonder if they were figuring out how to respond to the payment processor deal.”

Pedercini’s problems with Steam came at a time when the platform was facing pressure from credit card companies to remove adult games from its platform. Earlier this month, the credit card companies Visa and Mastercard pressured video game distributors Steam and Itch to remove adult games from their storefronts.

The payment processors themselves were bowing to a pressure campaign from the organization Collective Shout, which describes itself as being “for anyone concerned about the increasing pornification of culture” and which argued that many of the adult games normalized violence against women. But a lot of games with queer themes were kicked off Itch and Steam as part of the purge, and it’s not always clear what the lines are and who is drawing them.

“We live in a golden age of independent cultural production, but digital distribution is still extremely concentrated. There are a handful of entities that can instantly make huge swaths of digital culture disappear,” Pedercini said. “We thought digital marketplaces like the Apple Store were the main agents of market censorship, but now we've found out there are even more monopolistic companies upstream from them.”

Those upstream monopolies, pressured by outside lobbying groups, are now defining what can and can’t be said online. Payment processors have pushed other kinds of content to the margins before, video game storefronts are just the latest example. “Such marketplaces may default to freedom of expression because it's cheaper to not moderate content, but they will easily bow to calls for censorship because it's less trouble than advocating for controversial products. It cuts both ways: a few years ago, major online stores removed products showing the Confederate flag,” Pedercini said.

“Conservative groups are willing to exploit these vulnerabilities and are trying to put illegal content such as child pornography on a continuum with porn and queer representations,” he added. “I think they genuinely believe that homosexuality is in the same set as bestiality or rape, as something forbidden by the Bible or whatever, but we can't let that view be enshrined into law or into commercial content guidelines.”

Pedercini has been through something like this before. His 2007 game Operation: Pedopriest, a game about the well documented abuse of children in the Catholic Church, earned the ire of an Italian Christian group which accused the game of depicting virtual child pornography. “The accusation immediately lead the provider to shut down the site, legal charges, and a point of order all the way up to the Italian parliament,” Pedercini said.

Gamers, a group that can be particularly aggressive when politically activated, have launched a counter-pressure campaign on the payment processors. It’s too early to tell if Visa and Mastercard will bend to gamers the same way it did to collective shout.

The future of video games as a form of cultural expression is at risk of massive damage. “The status of video games as culture is still being negotiated. If thematic restrictions like the ones defined by itch.io were to be applied to movies or books, limiting their distribution, it would be major news immediately,” Pedercini said. “Arguably, most video games are currently moving away from culture and morphing into pseudo-cultural objects like slot machines, or apps for wasting time and feeling nothing. The problem is that those of us who still make video games as some kind of artform will be caught in the dragnet.”

Steam did not immediately respond to 404 Media’s request for comment.