Punching Upwards

A majority of European Members of Parliament have again rejected the EU’s scheme to spy on the private digital communications of its citizens. But a temporary extension to the law was passed anyway.

Punching Upwards, Episode 44 for 12 July 2026

Topics: Privacy / Crypto Wars

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric, Sir Galteran and joeydd for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching...

Dissecting Biden’s 2021 law that will require cars in the US to monitor drivers and to turn themselves off if the AI thinks the driver is impaired. Is it coming in 2027? Is it even feasible at all?

Punching Upwards, Episode 43 for 5 July 2026

Topics: Technology / Privacy

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric, Sir Galteran and joeydd for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* P...

In this somewhat different episode, I explain my passion for podcasting, try to give an overview of what constitutes a podcast (technically and in spirit) and argue why the medium is worth protecting.

Punching Upwards, Episode 42 for 28 June 2026

Topics: Technology / Free Speech

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 12: No Suc...

An analysis of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran. What does it mean for the future of world politics and how has it been reported on in the media?

Punching Upwards, Episode 41 for 21 June 2026

Topics: Politics / War in Iran

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upward...

The company pulling off the most successful IPO in the history of stock exchanges, SpaceX, is losing money hand over fist. And its promised future money-maker, data centres in space, is a pipe dream.

Punching Upwards, Episode 40 for 14 June 2026

Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upward...

Are humans on the internet being pushed out by bots? Is this a lunatic fringe conspiracy theory or does Cory Doctorow’s thesis of enshittification accurately describe what is happening?

Punching Upwards, Episode 39 for 7 June 2026

Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 22: Moltbook Madness

Source...

The EU’s attempt to assume that all of its citizens are guilty of crimes and to then scan all of their communications is finally dead. But the dangerous ideas that spawned this insanity live on.

Punching Upwards, Episode 38 for 31 May 2026

Topics: Privacy / Crypto Wars

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punc...

China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed into a hill near Wuzhou in 2022, killing 132 people. What do we know about this Boeing 737 crash and what secret is the Chinese government keeping?

Punching Upwards, Episode 37 for 24 May 2026

Topics: Aviation / China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 11: What Happened to UPS...

The Straits of Hormuz are closed, blocking about 20% of oil shipments from reaching the global economy. But what does closed actually mean?

Punching Upwards, Episode 36 for 17 May 2026

Topics: Politics / War in Iran

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Routes through the Straits of Hormuz according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)

Routes through the Straits of Hormuz according to the BBC (BBC)

Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galter...

How the Pentagon switched decision making from humans to machines. And what it means for the future that computers now decide who lives and dies.

Punching Upwards, Episode 35 for 10 May 2026

Topics: Politics / War in Iran

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 34: Scam Altman

* Punching Upwards 27: LLMs Are a...

A deep dive on investigative journalist Ronan Farrow’s profile of Sam Altman’s leadership at OpenAI. The piece lays bare many of the enduring issues that make Silicon Valley so problematic.

Punching Upwards, Episode 34 for 3 May 2026

Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Fadi Mansour, Bennet Piater, Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 27: LLMs Are a Dead...

YouTuber Nick Shirley says California’s proposed AB2624 law was made to stop him and other independent journalists from reporting on fraud. How much of that is true?

Punching Upwards, Episode 33 for 26 April 2026

Topics: Politics / Free Speech

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 23: The Minnesota Welfare Fraud Scandal

* Punc...

Driven by a national delusion that Germans are somehow naturally very bad at digital technology, the country’s government is rushing headfirst into a disastrous implementation of AI in government.

Punching Upwards, Episode 32 for 19 April 2026

Topics: Politics / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and Fairero Voltier for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

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* Punching Upwards 27: LLMs Are a Dead-E...

Depending who you ask, NASA’s new mission to the moon was either the scientific breakthrough of the century or an utterly boring waste of money. Which is it?

Punching Upwards, Episode 31 for 12 April 2026

Topics: Science / Space

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Some of the photos taken by the Artemis II crew (images courtesy of NASA):

The astronauts back on Earth (images courtesy of NASA):

NASA photo galleries:

* Artemis II Launch

* Artemis II Journey to the Moon

* Artemis II Lunar Flyby

The war in Iran is having a tremendous impact on the aviation industry. An underreported detail is what happens when your flight deviates around the closed airspace over Iran via Afghanistan.

Punching Upwards, Episode 30 for 5 April 2026

Topics: Aviation / War in Iran

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and John C. for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

Sources

* Everything We Know About...

With the cancellation of Starfleet Academy, there is no Star Trek series in active production for the first time in a decade. Why is that and what does it reflect about the state of our culture?

Punching Upwards, Episode 29 for 29 March 2026

Topics: Politics / Culture

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and John C. for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

Sources

* “Star Tre...

Even though it has been in the US news a lot recently, almost everybody over there seems to be getting wrong what Antifa actually is. This is an overview from someone who grew up around this movement.

Punching Upwards, Episode 28 for 22 March 2026

Topics: Politics / Trumpism

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and John C. for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

Sources

* Ve...

Why current AI technology can’t get us what its proponents are promising. Why the media keeps getting the AI story wrong. Why AI layoffs are just an excuse to re-hire workers for cheaper.

Punching Upwards, Episode 27 for 15 March 2026

Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and John C. for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

See Also

* Punching...

Trump’s war on Iran is a huge blunder, both militarily and politically. The US can’t possibly win this war and Trump is tanking his presidency, and the whole Republican Party, along with it.

Punching Upwards, Episode 26 for 3 March 2026

Topics: Politics / War in Iran

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vlad A Gouf, Bennet Piater, Sir Galteran and John C. for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it!

Sources

* Full T...

I’ve been digging through the Epstein files for weeks now and I’m finding that there are a lot of issues with the coverage in the press. This is an attempt to explain some of them.

Punching Upwards, Episode 25 for 1 March 2026

Topics: Politics / Epstein Files

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

...

An MIT professor developed the first chatbot in 1964 and discovered that we tend to ascribe human traits to even the simplest computer programs. This would foreshadow today’s widespread AI delusion.

Punching Upwards, Episode 24 for 22 February 2026

Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

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* Punc...

A several-billion-dollar welfare scam hit national news shortly before the riots erupted in Minneapolis. And the people egging on the protesters seem to be directly involved in this fraud.

Punching Upwards, Episode 23 for 15 February 2026

Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

See Also

* Punching Upward...

The AI tech bros are going crazy: They are convinced their chatbots are gaining consciousness, which is why they made a chatbot-only social network for them, where the bots have gotten religion now.

Punching Upwards, Episode 22 for 8 February 2026

Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

See Also<...

Another protestor was shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis. Why are these agents so bad at their job? Who would take a gun to a protest? Where is the local police? And did Pretti’s P320 fire on its own?

Punching Upwards, Episode 21 for 1 February 2026

Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing...

What does Donald Trump’s power play over Greenland and the ensuing confrontation with European allies mean for the future of the military alliance? Does NATO without the US even make sense?

Punching Upwards, Episode 20 for 25 January 2026

Topics: Politics / Trumpism

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

See Also

* Punc...

An entitled Karen meets a hot-headed, dumb cop, gets killed and all hell breaks loose. How ideology is wiping out common sense and endangering democracy in the United States.

Punching Upwards, Episode 19 for 18 January 2026

Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* What we know a...

How did the Trump government manage to capture the Venezuelan head of state in Caracas? And where they allowed to do so? Your won’t hear the correct answer to that question from the legacy media.

Punching Upwards, Episode 18 for 11 January 2026

Topics: Politics / Trumpism

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially!

Sources

* New details in daring US military operation to capture Maduro, his wife in Venezuel...

An overview of the background and the history of the War in Ukraine. Plus some analysis of what will happen next. Does peace between Russia and Ukraine have a chance at all?

Punching Upwards, Episode 17 for 4 January 2026

Topics: Politics / War in Ukraine

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* “F**k the EU...

After the Graham Linehan debacle, London’s Metropolitan Police is now set to stop arresting people for non-crime hate incidents. This policy obviously was a bad idea in the first place.

Punching Upwards, Episode 16 for 28 December 2025

Topics: Politics / Free Speech

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

See Also

* Punching Upwards 1: The Arre...

A recent patent application that made the news in Germany looks suspiciously like someone with chatbot delusion tried to vibe code a threat to NATO’s nuclear deterrence strategy.

Punching Upwards, Episode 15 for 21 December 2025

Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Plötzlich Staatsgeheimnis, ARD Tagesschau, 15 December 2...

The EU still wants to read through every digital message every one of its citizens ever sends. After some pushback, the newest idea is that platforms should now do the dirty work for the police.

Punching Upwards, Episode 14 for 14 December 2025

Topic: Privacy / Crypto Wars

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Reality Check: EU...

How a programming mistake in an avionics software update combined with a stray neutron from outer space to take down the best-selling passenger jet in the world. And no, it wasn’t a solar flare!

Punching Upwards, Episode 13 for 7 December 2025

Topic: Aviation

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen, Fadi Mansour and Evgeny Kuznetsov for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2025-24-51...

There is a big difference between the German freedom to have an opinion and actual freedom of speech in the American sense, as a new report on the German state’s speech crackdown clearly illuminates.

Punching Upwards, Episode 12 for 30 November 2025

Topic: Politics / Free Speech

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen and Fadi Mansour for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide hefty financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* The Censorship Network: Regul...

On 4 November, an MD-11 cargo plane operated by UPS crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, killing fourteen people. We know that the airplane lost its left engine on take-off. But why did that happen?

Punching Upwards, Episode 11 for 23 November 2025

Topic: Aviation / UPS Flight 2976

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen and Fadi Mansour for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide hefty financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report DCA26MA024 (UPS...

Canadian officials killed over 300 ostriches, a full year after they recovered from the avian flu they had suffered from. Out of pure bureaucratic spite. And the media did its best to cover it up.

Punching Upwards, Episode 10 for 16 November 2025

Topic: Science / H5N1

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen and Fadi Mansour for subscribing to the podcast on Substack and supporting it financially! Additional thanks to Sir Galteran who continues to provide hefty financial backing via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Shooting at B.C. ost...

Norwegian public transport authority Ruter has discovered undocumented cell modems in electric buses built by Chinese company Yutong, which enable the manufacturer to turn the buses off remotely.

Punching Upwards, Episode 9 for 9 November 2025

Topic: Infosec

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Credits

Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen for being the first paying subscriber to the show! I appreciate this immensely.

Thanks to Sir Galteran for supporting the show via Fountain.fm

Sources

* Norway transport firm steps up controls after tests show Chinese-made buses can be halted remotely, The...

According to the Wall Street Journal, the 1X NEO is a $20,000 robot that does your chores. The problem is that NEO is really bad at it. And the thing actually isn’t a robot, either.

Punching Upwards, Episode 8 for 2 November 2025

Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Credits

Thanks to Sir Galteran for supporting the show via Fountain.fm

Sources

* I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Got Weird, The Wall Street Journal, 28 October 2025

* NEO Home Robot, 1X Technologies

* I Tried...

The story of how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane was allegedly attacked by GPS jamming is a particularly egregious example of journalists not doing their job properly.

Punching Upwards, Episode 7, for 26 October 2025

Topic: Aviation / War in Ukraine

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Credits

Thanks to Sir Galteran for supporting the show via Fountain.fm!

Sources

* Russia accused of sabotaging EU chief’s plane by jamming GPS, BBC News, 2 September 2025

* THIS Just makes Me So ANGRY and Frustrated!, Mentour Now!, 12 September 2025

* GPS...

For now, the EU’s Chat Control legislation has been halted by German opposition. What is this new law? And why is it so dangerous?

Punching Upwards, Episode 6 for 19 October 2025

Topic: Privacy / Crypto Wars

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Sources

* Why chat control is so dangerous, Netzpolitik.org, 2021

* Chat Control: The EU Wants to Break Encryption & Germany Is The Deciding Factor, Tuta, 24 September 2025

* RFC 4949: Internet Security Glossary, Version 2, Robert Shirey, IETF Network Working Group, 2007

* Doomed to Repeat History? - Lessons from the Crypto Wars of the 1...

The story of an IT consultant turned unwitting security researcher, who found a security vulnerability, reported it to the software vendor and instead of getting a reward got prosecuted for hacking

Punching Upwards, Episode 5 for 12 October 2025

Topic: Infosec

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Sources

* Tagesthemen report featuring Hendrik Heinle

* heise online — Datenleck bei Modern Solution: Sicherheitslücke betrifft rund 700.000 Käufer

* heise online — Datenleck bei Modern Solution: Hausdurchsuchung statt Bug Bounty

* heise online — Kommentar zu Modern Solution: Der Staat darf kein Handlanger von Stümpern sein

...