Particles: The Beginning of a New Age in Decentralization – PR Newswire

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

CINCINNATI and BERLIN, June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pre-seed round tech startup Anomaly Scienceannounced its patent-pending business proposal for "Particles" - a method for the management and fiscal sponsorship of open-source projects, Web3 initiatives, decentralized projects, and tokenization of intellectual property rights through the creation and utilization of smart contracts and blockchain technologies.

"Anomaly Science is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio," explained 19-year-old CEO Jacob Haap, "But I knew we needed to be ready to do business in multiple countries. That's why I moved to the European Union."

Haap's vision is to lower the entry-level to computer programming, and potentially other types of business, for people who have ideas but no corporate structure for support.

"(Jacob Haap) is going to make it so that everybody, anybody, can create any kind of breakthrough software with a variety of different programmers who are all going to work independently, and together, at the same time,"said American venture capitalist Tim Draper. "And it's going to be really awesome because all of those programmers (won't) have to deal with the SEC and all that other stuff because they are all under one corporate roof, but they can operate as entrepreneurs. They can have ownership in what they do. I think if you're a programmer, you should talk to Jacob."

Haap is a 2021 graduate of Draper's Hero Training program through Draper University, one of the top pre-accelerator programs in the world.

"I didn't know what to expect when I enrolled forDraper's Hero program," says Haap. This year's cohortfeatured over 80 entrepreneurs from an original applicant pool of over 2,000. The average age of the participants was 29. "As someone who just graduated from high school, I originally felt different from people who had been actively working in the business for years. But very quickly, I realized I was onto an idea with real potential."

During an event called Demo Day, over 80 entrepreneursgathered in San Mateo, California to give pitches to an audience of investors. A panel of judges ranked Haap's presentation third place, adding even more traction to his startup. Since then, Haap took his initial investment, continued to develop his business plan, and built proof-of-concept interfaces for linking crypto walletswith his hybrid source-code repository. "We are ready to take the next step with an investor who sees the amazing potential in the model we have built around Particles," explained Haap.

"Particles open a new door," continued Haap, "enabling greater collaboration and sharing of work, creating knowledge pools and hybrid-source codebases, and a means to do business in our growingly decentralized world that can function across international borders nearly seamlessly."

Anomaly Science is currently trying to start seed round funding with a goal of 500k. This is an opportunity for investors to become part of a transformational approach to doing business.

About Anomaly Science

Anomaly Science is a company building the bridge to Web3, making it easier for decentralized projects to take flight, lowering the level of entry to software development, and giving power back to software developers.

To learn more about Anomaly Science, you can reach us via email:[emailprotected]or visit our websiteanomsci.comto join the waitlist.

Media ContactJacob Haap[emailprotected]+49 175 2954140

SOURCE Anomaly Science

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Particles: The Beginning of a New Age in Decentralization - PR Newswire

Iterative Introduces First Machine Learning Experiment Tracking Extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code – Business Wire

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Iterative, the MLOps company dedicated to streamlining the workflow of data scientists and machine learning (ML) engineers, today announced a free extension to Visual Studio Code (VS Code), a source-code editor made by Microsoft, for experiment tracking and machine learning model development.

VS Code is a coding editor that helps users to start coding quickly in any programming language. The DVC Extension for Visual Studio Code allows users of all technical backgrounds to create, compare, visualize, and reproduce machine learning experiments. Through Git and Iteratives DVC, the extension makes experiments easily reproducible, unlike traditional experiment tracking tools that just stream metrics.

This is an open source VS Code extension for machine learning practitioners looking to accelerate their model development experience, said Ivan Shcheklein, co-founder and CTO of Iterative. It simplifies data scientists' machine learning model development workflows and meets ML modelers where they work. This extension eliminates the need for costly SaaS solutions for experiment tracking, turning VS Code into a native ML experimentation tool, built for developers.

The extension complements the existing VS Code UX with features using the Command Palette, Source Control view, File Tree explorer, and even custom in-editor webviews, to aid data scientists in their model development and experimentation workflows. Users can pull and push versioned data, run and reproduce experiments, and view tables and metrics.

"Beyond the tracking of ML models, metrics, and hyperparameters, this extension also makes ML experiments reproducible by tracking source code and data changes," said Dmitry Petrov, CEO of Iterative. Iteratives experiment versioning technology that was implemented in DVC last year makes this reproducibility possible."

The VS Code extension offers data scientists the ability to view, run, and instantly reproduce experiments with parameters, metrics, and plots all in a single place, as well as manage and version data sets and models. The extension also provides resource tracking so that data scientists can see which data sets and models have changed and allows exploration of all files of a project or model. Other features include live tracking to see how metrics change in real-time, cloud-agnostic data versioning and management, and native plot visualization.

The VS Code extension helps organizations:

DVC, the underlying open-source technology behind the extension, brings agility, reproducibility, and collaboration into the existing data science workflow. It provides users with a Git-like interface for versioning data and models, bringing version control to machine learning and solving the challenges of reproducibility. DVC is built on top of Git and creates lightweight metafiles, which enable the data science and ML teams to efficiently handle large files that otherwise cant be stored.

To learn more about the VS Code extension, check out the blog and get started today.

About Iterative

Iterative.ai, the company behind Iterative Studio and popular open-source tools DVC, CML, and MLEM, enables data science teams to build models faster and collaborate better with data-centric machine learning tools. Iteratives developer-first approach to MLOps delivers model reproducibility, governance, and automation across the ML lifecycle, all integrated tightly with software development workflows. Iterative is a remote-first company, backed by True Ventures, Afore Capital, and 468 Capital. For more information, visit Iterative.ai.

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Iterative Introduces First Machine Learning Experiment Tracking Extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code - Business Wire

The prospect of jobs in Web3.0 – The Financial Express

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

By Guneet Kaur

The new version of the Internet called decentralized web or Web3 or a blockchain-based Internet is trending these days. Recent graduates, as well as professionals from various industries, seem really curious to find out how to land a career in Web3 and its sub-sectors, including Metaverse, Digital assets, and Non fungible tokens (NFTs).

Although there is no hard and fast rule in joining or switching to a new career, what matters is your knowledge and skills. So, anyone looking for a job in Web3 needs to acquire the necessary education or real-world expertise. That said, this article will help you grasp essential insights on how to land a career in Web3.

Learn the basics

Understanding how blockchain technology and cryptocurrency function will put you ahead of the competition. You dont have to be an expert, simply learn the fundamentals. You can learn the basics by doing free courses on Coursera (accessible through financial aid).

Additionally, look for freely available MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) such as the one offered by the University of Nicosia titled Introduction to Digital Currencies. The next start date is September 2022, so hurry up! Cointelegraphs Cryptopedia articles may also help you transform from a beginner to an expert in various fields like DeFi, Metaverse, NFTs, etc.

While such courses and MOOCs are more suitable for beginners or non-developers, software engineers and blockchain developers need to learn programming languages like Solidity, Python, Rust, JavaScript, Vyper, etc. GitHub is a great place to store your projects and let others assess and authenticate them.

Get involved and improve your visibility

There are an increasing variety of ways to get involved and help companies discover you. These include meetups, conferences, mentoring programs, and events that exist globally. If you do some research, you should be able to join your first conference this month, such as ETH NYC.

Also, you can apply for a scholarship to join an 18-Week mentoring program called NFT Talents by the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center. The first cohort has already started on 7th June 2022. Stay tuned for the next one!

In addition to the above, you can also start writing blog posts on Medium so that people know that you are contributing to the Web3 space. Consistent engagement on CryptoTwitter is also an ideal way to help others discover your potential. As a developer, you can also add open-source libraries on GitHub (the ones developed by you), and contribute to other projects.

Join communities

Joining Discord, Reddit or Telegram channels of projects in the Web3 space can help you be aware of the opportunities (both paid and non-paid). And if you can add value to the project, such as finding a bug (if you are a developer) or voluntarily promoting a decentralized automated organization or DAO (if you are a marketer), dont be surprised if you get a full-time job offer (of course, a paid one).

Look for employment openings on job sites and platforms

Relying upon someone to send you a job opportunity may not help you get your dream job. In order to be successful in your job hunt, look for open job positions at Web3-centric job boards like web3.career or cryptocurrencyjobs.io. Also, actively apply for jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed. Finally, freelancers can search for opportunities on Upwork, Fiverr, etc.

Start by applying for internships if you are a recent graduate or a beginner in this space. Something is better than nothing; remember! However, do not go for something you wont be working on for long! Consistency is the key to becoming an expert in your area of interest.

Key takeaways

Millions of people have been empowered by blockchain technology to pick how they make a living, providing them options that never existed before. Web3 defies all of the conventional wisdom about how people earn money and spend their time. That said, remote work and getting paid in cryptocurrencies is the new normal!

As Web3 attracts the brightest minds, it will undoubtedly have a juggernaut effect, resulting in the creation of a decentralized Internet unlike anything weve ever seen before. Opportunities are many; you just need to leave your comfort zone and prepare yourself to land a career in Web3.

The author is technology editor, Cointelegraph

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The prospect of jobs in Web3.0 - The Financial Express

BLS signatures on BitcoinPairing-based cryptography: Part 2 – CoinGeek

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

This post was first published onMedium.

Boneh-Lynn-Shacham(BLS) is a signature scheme based onbilinear pairings.

Compared toECDSAorSchnorrsignatures, it enjoys several salient advantages:

Due to its minimal storage and bandwidth requirements, it has been adopted by multiple blockchains such as Ethereum, Dfinity, Algorand, and Chia. We illustrate how to implement it on Bitcoin natively.

BLS Signatures: the Theory

Hash to Curve: H(m)

In ECDSA, a messagemis hashed into a number. In BLS, we hash it to a point on the elliptic curve.

One naive way is to hash the message and multiply the result with the generator pointGto get a curve point. However, it isinsecure.

To do this securely, we first hash the message using SHA-256 and treat the 256 bit result as the x-coordinate of a point. If no such point exists on the curve, we increment the x-coordinate and try again, till we find the first valid point.

Sign

Signing is trivial. We simply multiply:

pkis the private key andmis the message. Note no random number is needed.Sis just a curve point and can becompressedto 33 bytes, about half the size of an ECDSA signature.

Verify

To verify a signature, we simply compare two pairings:

To see why the verification works,

Bilinear pairingeallows us to move scalarpkfrom the first input to the second.

Implementation on Bitcoin

We have implemented BLS signature verification usingthe pairing library.

Note we let users passy-coordinate directly and verify it, to avoid computing modular square root.

Summary

We have only demonstrated how to verify a single BLS signature on Bitcoin. BLSs main power lies inaggregated signatures and keys. We leave their implementations on Bitcoin as exercises to readers.

***

NOTES:

[1] This approach is called Hash and Pray, which runs in non-constant time. Constant time approach exists, such asFouque and Tibouchi, but are harder to implement.

[2] We assume a curve point with the x-coordinate exists for ease of exposition here. A hash and pray approach can be easily added.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

What’s In a Crypto Wallet?: Understanding the Role of Cryptos Essential Tool – Grit Daily

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

Cryptocurrency is known for not being a beginner-friendly technology, requiring new users to learn a lot of concepts and tools. While this is not surprising due to its highly technical nature, users tend to fall for cognitive biases as they progress through their crypto journey. While not necessarily the case for everybody, it is not uncommon to see clear representations of the Dunning-Kruger effect in so-called veterans.

Probably the greatest example of crypto users overestimating their own knowledge is their understanding of crypto wallets. While Crypto wallets are probably the most important tool when it comes to interacting with crypto and blockchain, most people misunderstand them. Starting with the idea that crypto wallets store cryptocurrency, these misunderstandings can prove disastrous in the long term.

There is also a group of crypto enthusiasts that understand that cryptocurrency wallets dont store crypto but the keys to interact with it. Private and public keys serve different purposes, allowing a range of actions from receiving cryptocurrency to authorizing transactions. To truly understand how these keys allow for such operations, a user would need to have an understanding of cryptography and basic blockchain infrastructure

The understanding of how crypto wallets work gets even more difficult as concepts like custodial, non-custodial, asymmetric cryptography, digital signature, hot/cold wallets, and multisig get thrown around. While it is true that understanding such concepts is not necessary to make use of a cryptocurrency wallet, misunderstanding them must be avoided at all costs. As such, making crypto wallets easy to use without the need to understand the technology is essential.

Making such a wallet might not sound that difficult but in truth, it can be especially complex given the decentralized nature of crypto. Decentralization comes with more freedom of choice at the cost of safeguards, putting developers in a tough spot. With new movements like web3, NFTs, and GameFi gaining momentum, the importance of these decisions continues to increase.

Dilemmas like these are what Robin Guyard, CTO of Laguna; Blake Commagere, Co-founder and COO of Vault12; and Doug Horn, Chief Architect of Telos, sat to discuss during Grit Daily House at Consensus 2022. Rachel Wolfson, Enterprise Blockchain Analyst at CoinTelegraph, moderated the panel titled Whats In a Crypto Wallet? by asking insightful questions on the role wallets are to play in the future of the crypto space.

If you missed the chance to attend Grit Daily House in person and to hear what these experts had to say about this topic, worry not. Not only will you be able to watch the panel in the video below but you can also find other panels on Grit Dailys official YouTube Channel.

Juan Fajardo is a News Desk Editor at Grit Daily. He is a software developer, tech and blockchain enthusiast, and writer, areas in which he has contributed to several projects. A jack of all trades, he was born in Bogota, Colombia but currently lives in Argentina after having traveled extensively. Always with a new interest in mind and a passion for entrepreneurship, Juan is a news desk editor at Grit Daily where it covers everything related to the startup world.

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What's In a Crypto Wallet?: Understanding the Role of Cryptos Essential Tool - Grit Daily

GUEST ESSAY: We need to talk about crypto crash and its inevitable recovery – Daily Maverick

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

A disinterested observer may be bemused, or even gleeful at this red sea. The walls reverberate with I told you sos. I suspect if you are a stakeholder in this new ecosystem, particularly an innocent one, the humour will be lost on you.

I am one of those stakeholders, personally and professionally. But I am still smiling, albeit through gritted teeth, holding on to my optimism with whitened knuckles.

Here is why.

Cryptography has been around for thousands of years but lurched forward in the 1970s as many researchers started developing new techniques for keeping secrets. More importantly, the market for this arcane mathematics grew quickly from military, to telecommunications, to industry, to the Internet. But the industry we generally now refer to as crypto and see daily in the headlines was really borne in 2009, which was when Bitcoin was conceived.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the explosion of innovations since then has been breathtaking hard to follow, hard to digest and hard to predict. Cryptocurrencies, financial services, NFTs, crypto-secured supply chains, the metaverse, gaming, governance-communities and other wondrous things have emerged (and continue daily to do so), all built on the back of cryptography.

This is to say that the quantum of brain power committed to this industry mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, economists, financial engineers, innovators, inventors, developers, educators and dreamers has become voluminous and adamant. There are hundreds of thousands of them and new ideas and experiments pour out daily, most of them utterly unconnected to the world of cryptocurrencies and the token prices which so consume the news cycle.

The price of Bitcoin or Ether or any other crypto asset will be of transient consequence to these people with their heads down building new worlds and better, fairer services. At worst, less investment will pour into the sector for a brief period. At best, pretenders and grifters and dodgy projects will disappear.

So the stuff happening deep in the bowels of the cryptoverse is largely unconcerned with the price of Bitcoin. There is simply no chance of this wave ending; these are fertile plains of abundant innovation in myriad matters of human interaction.

In any event, markets have a short memory. A much more serious bear market occurred at the end of 2017 with many tokens up to 80% down from highs. Prior to that, a number of other crashes dating back to 2013, also more merciless and eye-popping than this one. The crypto market recovered quickly from all of them, as I expect it will do from this one.

More importantly, it is important to retain perspective and context here. Most tech stocks, including giants like Netflix, are down more than 50% off their highs. Even those stocks in unrelated sectors like real estate and insurance are growling like bears. So the question that needs to be asked: is crypto crashing because crypto is toxic kryptonite (in the words of one of richest men in the world), or is crypto crashing because everything is crashing?

Institutional money started pouring into crypto in the last 18 months as it became evident that the asset class was not a bubble. This means that it has started to get caught in the net of big moneys risk-on/risk-off calculations. So when money flees from high-risk bets to low-risk safe harbours, it will flee from emerging markets, high-growth stocks, fancy derivatives. And it will flee from crypto, now sadly correlated with everything else in traditional finance. Crypto is crashing mostly because everything is crashing, save for a few terrible bloopers like the Terra stablecoin of which I have previously written.

Meanwhile, it is indeed painful to watch.

I submit that no one remembers the crypto crash of 2017 because it was simply swamped by the subsequent value of crypto-fueled inventions that came in its wake, and the growth of the industry wiped memories clean.

And I submit that is what will happen again this time, sooner rather than later. DM

Steven Boykey Sidley (Professor of Practice, JBS, University of Johannesburg)

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GUEST ESSAY: We need to talk about crypto crash and its inevitable recovery - Daily Maverick

Apple’s Passkeys aim to replace passwords, here’s why you need them – T3

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

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You'd be forgiven for missing the Passkey announcement that came as part of Apple's WWDC 2022 keynote. There was a lot of information there, even for a well-versed tech journalist to follow. Among MacOS Ventura features might not be as flashy as the new continuity camera or stage manager but it's arguably far more important.

Passkeys have the potential to completely change web security by eliminating the need for you (or even your password manager) to enter a password on a website. The theory is that if there's no password exchanged, there's nothing that can be compromised.

Perhaps the most important factor though is that Passkeys aren't a Mac-only technology. It is part of the work being done by the FIDO Alliance, which also includes Microsoft and Google, to create a passwordless internet. Apple's version, however, will be synced between your devices using the iCloud Keychain that's also secured using end-to-end encryption.

(Image credit: Apple)

The process of using a Passkey won't feel that different to using Apple's Keychain or Google's Password manager. When you sign up to a site, or update your security settings on an account, you will be given the option to use a Passkey instead of a password. Then each time you visit that site, instead of inputting a password, you will be asked to use your TouchID or FaceID to verify much as you can at the moment to access those stored passwords.

The difference is happening behind the scenes. With Passkeys, no information is actually exchanged. It's all based on a clever WebAuthn standard that includes a public key and a private key and the cryptography between them. The private key never leaves your device, it is simply verified for the site by your own device. This means it can't be phished or leaked as it isn't stored on a web server.

While Apple's Passkeys are designed to work across all Apple devices, the collaboration with the FIDO alliance means that you will be able to access websites on non-Apple devices too. In the keynote, Apple shows a QR code on a website, which can then be scanned by your iPhone to access your passkey again, without sharing it with the website or third-party device.

The beauty of this is that it mean you can still use the security on your work machine, or even a shared computer in a hotel lobby, without worrying about hackers.

While Apple admits the move to Passkeys is a journey, it's a significant one that brings genuine benefits to users. It will take time for websites to provide the facility for one, but I can't wait to ditch my password manager and use it.

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Apple's Passkeys aim to replace passwords, here's why you need them - T3

Chelsea Manning dodges question about rumoured relationship with Grimes

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

(DIRK WAEM/BELGA MAG/AFP / ANGELA WEISS/AFP / Getty Images)

Chelsea Manning has spoken candidly about keeping her personal life private, as she avoided answering any questions about her rumoured relationship with Grimes.

The 34-year-old former whistleblower, who was previously imprisoned for passing classified information to WikiLeaks, was asked if the dating rumours about her and the 34-year-old musician were true during a recent interview with The Daily Beast.

In response, Manning said that she was not going to discuss her dating life or the speculation around it, before acknowledging how she prefers to keep [her] private life private.

Im not gonna get into my dating life, she explained. Theres been a lot of speculation and a lot of news stories. I have not changed my perspective on this: I dont like speculation about my private life. I prefer to keep my private life private. I dont want to create a precedent either.

She also said that because she doesnt want people to think shes open to discussing her private life, she wont confirm or deny any rumours being spread about her.

Another concern that I have is I dont want to confirm or deny anything in my private life because I dont want to make it seem like Im open to having people digging into my personal life, real or imagined, she explained. I see a lot of people struggling with this, and I dont want to get sucked into celebrity-culture stuff.

However, Manning did address where her hometown is, detailing how she resides in New York when shes not travelling.

The one thing I will say is that I live entirely in New York, she added. I dont know where this idea came about that I would live remotely close to Texas. I travel a lot, but Im based in New York.

Last March, Page Six reported that, following her second split with Elon Musk, Grimes had begun dating Manning. The musician and Tesla founder share two children,X A-Xii, two, and Exa Dark Siderl, six months, together.

Theyre getting serious. They U-Hauled it, a source told the publication about Manning and Grimes. Theyve been living together in Austin.

Story continues

The pair were spotted interacting on Twitter that same month, as Grimes tweeted that she had been postponing her appearance on a YouTubers twitch stream, like ten times, because she kept not being in LA. In response, Manning tweeted: vouch.

Although neither Grimes and Manning have confirmed their relationship, The Daily Beast discussed how Elon Musk had tweeted transphobic memes at the time, when rumours first circulated about his exs new partner.

According to the publication Musks memes seemed like subtweets about Manning, as she is a transgender woman. In response, the security consultant expressed how the business magnates tweets, at the time, definitely seemed transphobic.

My response was a meme back, she explained. The one thing I will say is: he around that time definitely seemed transphobic, and rumour or speculation aside, thats off-limits. Im going to respond to it. Any transphobia in a transphobic environment is not OK.

Last April, Musk had shared a tweet that said: If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying! And authenticate all real humans.

Mannings meme, in response to Musk, featured a cartoon girl, with pink hair, holding her hand up and frowning, as the text next to the photo reads: A billionaire occupying your mind rent free.

In the second part of the meme, that same girl could be seen smiling and wearing a shirt with the transgender flag on it, as the text reads: Occupying a billionaires mind rent free.

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Chelsea Manning dodges question about rumoured relationship with Grimes

Chelsea Manning dodges Grimes relationship questions

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

Chelsea Manning dodged questions about her relationship with musician Grimes by refusing to talk about her personal life.

The Daily Beast asked the famed whistleblower about her romance with the Genesis singer, and in response Manning drew a line in the sand.

Im not gonna get into my dating life. Theres been a lot of speculation and a lot of news stories. I have not changed my perspective on this: I dont like speculation about my private life, Manning told the publication.

I prefer to keep my private life private. I dont want to create a precedent either. Another concern that I have is I dont want to confirm or deny anything in my private life because I dont want to make it seem like Im open to having people digging into my personal life, real or imagined.

Manning, 34, continued to explain that she doesnt want to get sucked into celebrity-culture stuff but acknowledged that shes based in New York.

Page Six broke the news in March that Grimes, 34, had started dating Manning after her relationship with Elon Musk ended for the second time. Grimes and the Tesla founder share two children.

Theyre getting serious. They U-Hauled it, a source told us of Manning and Grimes fast-paced nature of their relationship. Theyve been living together in Austin.

Our insider also noted that Manning still had her Brooklyn apartment, where she remains when not spending time with Grimes.

Neither Grimes nor Manning has publicly confirmed the relationship, but around the time that we published our exclusive report, 50-year-old Musk began tweeting seemingly transphobic memes. The Daily Beast speculated that they were directed at the couples relationship, as Manning is a transgender woman.

My response was a meme back. The one thing I will say is: he around that time definitely seemed transphobic, and rumor or speculation aside, thats off-limits, Manning told the outlet.

Im going to respond to it. Any transphobia in a transphobic environment is not OK.

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Chelsea Manning dodges Grimes relationship questions

Will Julian Assange be extradited to the U.S.? Where his case stands now – NPR

Posted on June 19, 2022 by admin

Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks in front of the U.K. Home Office in London as protesters demand Julian Assange's release on May 17. Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the extradition order on Friday. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption

Julian Assange is another step closer to trial in the U.S., where he faces 18 federal counts related to his publishing classified diplomatic cables and sensitive military reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

On Friday, the British government formally ordered the WikiLeaks founder to be extradited but Assange has two weeks to appeal that order from the U.K.'s Home Office.

"This is disappointing news that should concern anyone who cares about the First Amendment and the right to publish," Assange's attorney, Barry Pollack, said. "The decision will be appealed."

U.K. authorities arrested Assange in April of 2019, as the U.S. unsealed an indictment accusing him of a criminal conspiracy resulting in "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States."

A federal grand jury indicted Assange in the Eastern District of Virginia. If he loses his appeal and is extradited, his first court appearance would be in the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C. The case is assigned to District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

If Assange is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each of the 17 most serious felony counts against him although the Justice Department notes, "Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties."

The U.K. Home Office said British courts had not found extradition would be incompatible with Assange's "human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression."

"That last point is pretty crucial," London-based journalist Willem Marx told NPR. It's where legal experts believe Assange will focus his appeal, Marx says, adding "as well as on this really interesting potential political motivation his team allege [is] behind this extradition request."

The extradition fight has dragged on since Assange was jailed in the U.K. in 2019. A British magistrate ruled in Assange's favor in early 2021, saying he faced a high risk of suicide if he were sent into the U.S. justice system. But the U.S. appealed that decision and won.

In March, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled Assange couldn't appeal the lower court's ruling against him, saying his case "didn't raise an arguable point of law." One month later, another judge formally approved the U.S. extradition request, putting the next move in the hands of Home Secretary Priti Patel who then signed the extradition order.

Protesters gather outside the Home Office last month to demand Julian Assange's immediate release in London. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption

Protesters gather outside the Home Office last month to demand Julian Assange's immediate release in London.

U.S. prosecutors accuse Assange, 50, of helping Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who had a top-secret security clearance, to crack a password on Defense Department computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network in 2010. The U.S. government uses the network to share classified information and material.

The charges against Assange have grown in number and detail, outlined in three separate indictments that were previously under a court seal. The most serious counts against him include conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information. The least serious charge Assange faces is the first one leveled against him: conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

Assange has been fighting extradition for years, going so far as to jump bail and live in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years to elude the authorities. At the time, he was concerned both about U.S. espionage charges and also an extradition request over rape allegations in Sweden (which have since been dropped).

WikiLeaks has published a massive number of documents on its website and has also given information to journalists. The subjects include some 490,000 sensitive military reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, along with around 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments and about 250,000 State Department cables.

By publishing unredacted sensitive documents, the U.S. says in court filings, Assange revealed the names of people who shared information or otherwise helped the U.S. despite potential repercussions not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in China, Iran and Syria.

The initial federal charges focused on Assange's contacts with Manning. But in 2020, a new indictment alleged that Assange also recruited hackers from groups such as Anonymous, LulzSec and Gnosis to launch cyberattacks against government agencies, cybersecurity firms and other entities, hoping to compromise internal databases and gather sensitive documents.

Assange has insisted he was acting as a journalist, working for transparency and exposing secrets. But his critics, including the U.S. government, counter that he's attempting to use the First Amendment to shield himself from being held responsible for allegedly illegal actions.

Assange's defenders, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the U.S. should drop the charges against him. For one thing, they note, the information he published was true.

A U.S. prosecution of Assange "would be unprecedented and unconstitutional," the ACLU's Ben Wizner said last December, "and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations."

But the Justice Department says the charges against Assange aren't for receiving classified information, but for allegedly working to obtain that information through illegal hacking. It also says the charges aren't a response to him publishing U.S. secrets in bulk, but to revealing specific confidential information about people facing dangerous reprisals.

"Julian Assange is no journalist," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, when he announced a raft of felony charges against Assange.

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Will Julian Assange be extradited to the U.S.? Where his case stands now - NPR