Tax Day: Here’s what you need to know if you haven’t filed your return yet — and even if you have
Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a story that originally ran on April 14, 2023.
New York
CNN
—
It’s April 18, the official deadline to file your federal and state income tax returns for 2022. (It is also, apparently, National Animal Crackers Day for those who celebrate.)
Whether you have already filed your tax return or still need to, the good news is this tax filing season has gone much more smoothly than the past three, which were hurt by the pandemic.
“This is the first tax season since 2019 where the IRS and the nation were on normal footing,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a call with reporters.
For instance, Werfel noted that since January, thanks to an infusion of some new funding after years of budget cuts, IRS employees have been able to answer 87% of calls from filers with questions. Last year, they answered fewer than 15%. And the wait times on those phone calls dropped to just 4 minutes this filing season from 27 minutes last filing season.
The agency also added a roster of new online tools for filers, he added.
Those online tools may be especially helpful today if you are scrambling to get your return in before midnight. Or, if you’ve come to the realization that you need to file for an extension. Either way, here are some key things to know:
Not everyone has to file on April 18: If you live in a federally declared disaster area, have a business there — or have relevant tax documents stored by businesses in that area — it’s likely the IRS has already extended the filing and payment deadlines for you. Here is where you can find the specific extension dates for each disaster area.
Thanks to many rounds of extreme weather in recent months, for instance, tax filers in most of California — which accounts for 10% to 15% of all federal filers — have already been granted an extension until Oct. 16 to file and to pay, according to an IRS spokesperson.
If you’re in the armed forces and are currently or were recently stationed in a combat zone, the filing and payment deadlines for your 2022 taxes are most likely extended by 180 days. But your specific extended filing and payment deadlines will depend on the day you leave (or left) the combat zone. This IRS publication offers more detail.
Lastly, if you made little to no money last year (typically less than $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for married couples), you may not be required to file a return. But you may want to anyway if you think you are eligible for a refund thanks to, for instance, refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. (Use this IRS tool to gauge whether you are required to file this year.) You also are likely eligible to use IRS Free File (intended for those with adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less) so it won’t cost you to submit a return.
Your paycheck may not be your only source of income: If you had one full-time job you may think that is the only income you made and have to report. But that’s not necessarily so.
Other potentially taxable and reportable income sources include:
- Interest on your savings
- Investment income (e.g., dividends and capital gains)
- Pay for part-time or seasonal work, or a side hustle
- Unemployment income
- Social Security benefits or distribution from a retirement account
- Tips
- Gambling winnings
- Income from a rental property you own
Organize your tax documents: By now you should have received every tax document that third parties are required to send you (your employer, bank, brokerage, etc.).
If you don’t recall receiving a hard copy of a tax form in the mail, check your email and your online accounts — a document may have been sent to you electronically.
Here are some of the tax forms you may have received:
- W-2 from your wage or salaried jobs
- 1099-B for capital gains and losses on your investments
- 1099-DIV from your brokerage or company where you own stock for dividends or other distributions from their investments
- 1099-INT for interest over $10 on your savings at a financial institution
- 1099-NEC from your clients, if you worked as a contractor
- 1099-K for payments for goods and services through third-party platforms like Venmo, CashApp or Etsy. The 1099-K is required if you made more than $20,000 in over 200 transactions during the year. (Next year the reporting threshold drops to $600.) But even if you didn’t get a 1099-K you still must report all the income that you made over third-party platforms in 2022.
- 1099-Rs for distributions over $10 that you received for a pension, annuity, retirement account, profit-sharing plan or insurance contract
- SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S for Social Security benefits received.
“Be aware that there’s no form for some taxable income, like proceeds from renting out your vacation property, meaning you’re responsible for reporting it on your own,” according to the Illinois CPA Society.
One very last-minute way to reduce your 2022 tax bill: If you’re eligible to make a tax-deductible contribution to an IRA and haven’t done so for last year, you have until April 18 to contribute up to $6,000 ($7,000 if you’re 50 or older). That will reduce your tax bill and augment your retirement savings.
Proofread your return before submitting it: Do this whether you’re using tax software or working with a professional tax preparer.
Little mistakes and oversights delay the processing of your return (and the issuance of your refund if you’re owed one). You want to avoid things like having a typo in your name, birth date, Social Security number or direct deposit number; choosing the wrong filing status (e.g., married vs single); making a simple math error; or leaving a required field blank.
What to do if you can’t file by April 18: If you’re not able to file on time, fill out Form 4868 electronically or on paper and send it in no later than today. You will be granted an automatic six-month extension to file.
Note, however, that an extension to file is not an extension to pay. You will be charged interest (currently running at 7%) and a penalty on any amount you still owe for 2022 but haven’t paid by April 18.
So if you suspect you still owe tax — perhaps you had some income outside of your job for which tax wasn’t withheld or you had a big capital gain last year — approximate how much more you owe and send that money to the IRS by the end of today.
You can choose to do so by mail, attaching a check to your extension request form. Make sure your envelope is postmarked no later than April 18.
Or the more efficient route is pay what you owe electronically at IRS.gov, said CPA Damien Martin, a tax partner at EY. If you do that, the IRS notes you will not have to file a Form 4868. “The IRS will automatically process an extension of time to file,” the agency notes in its instructions.
If you opt to electronically pay directly from your bank account, which is free, select “extension” and then “tax year 2022” when given the option.
You can also pay by credit or debit card, but you will be charged a processing fee. Doing so, though, may become much more costly than just a fee if you charge your tax payment but don’t pay your credit card bill off in full every month, since you likely pay a high interest rate on outstanding balances.
If you can’t pay what you owe in full, the IRS does have some payment plan options. But it might be smart to first consult with a certified public accountant or a tax preparer who is an enrolled agent to make sure you are making the best choice for your circumstance.
If you still owe income taxes to your state, remember that you may need to go through a similar exercise of filing for an extension and making a payment to your state’s revenue department, Martin said.
Use this interactive tax assistant for basic questions you may have: The IRS provides an “interactive tax assistant” that can help you answer more than 50 basic questions pertaining to your individual circumstance on income, deductions, credits and other technical questions.
If you’ve already filed your return, you’re probably glad to have it in the rear view mirror. But you may still have a few questions about what’s ahead.
What about my refund? If you are due a refund, the IRS typically sends it within 21 days of receiving your return. When yours does arrive, it may be smaller than last year, even if your financial life didn’t change much. That’s because a number of Covid-related tax breaks expired.
So far, the average refund paid was $2,878 for the week ending April 7, down from $3,175 at the same point in last year’s filing season.
Will I be audited?: The reasons and methods for auditing a taxpayer can vary — and many audits result in “no change,” meaning you don’t end up owing anything more to the IRS. But one thing is common for the vast majority of US tax filers: Audit rates are exceedingly low.
For filers reporting incomes between $50,000 and $200,000, only 0.1% of them were audited in 2020, according to the latest data from the IRS. Even for very high income filers, audit rates were quite low: Just 0.4% for those reporting income of between $1 million and $5 million; 0.7% for those with income between $5 million and $10 million; and 2.4% for returns with income over $10 million.
Looking ahead, the IRS commissioner noted in a press call that the agency will be using money from the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster its compliance efforts to focus more on auditing high-income individuals — defined as making $400,000 or more. As for filers with income below that level, he said he did not anticipate any change in the likelihood they would be audited.
Around 258 million need emergency food aid: UN-backed report
Roughly 258 million in 58 countries faced acute hunger at crisis levels or worse, and people in seven countries faced potential starvation, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC).
This is the highest number in the seven-year history of the report, although much of the growth reflects an increase in the population analysed.
A ‘stinging indictment’
“More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. That’s unconscionable,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the foreword to the report.
He described this latest edition as “a stinging indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition for all.”
More than 40 per cent of people at crisis or worse levels resided in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, parts of Nigeria, and Yemen.
Young lives threatened
People in seven countries faced starvation and destitution, at some point last year, with nearly 60 per cent in Somalia. The other countries were Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen and, for the first time, Haiti.
Furthermore, in 30 of the 42 major food crisis contexts analyzed in the report, more than 35 million children under five, are wasted or acutely malnourished.
Some 9.2 million of these boys and girls suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of undernutrition and a major contributor to increased child mortality.
Innovation and coordination
While conflicts and extreme weather events continue to drive acute food insecurity and malnutrition, economic fallout from the СOVID-19 pandemic and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine have also become major factors, particularly in the world’s poorest countries.
The report noted that the international community has called for a paradigm shift towards addressing root causes of food crises, rather than responding to their impacts when they occur.
This will require innovative approaches and greater coordination by international organizations, governments, the private sector, regional organizations, civil society and communities.
The annual report, produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), was launched on Wednesday by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC).
The international alliance consists of the UN, the European Union, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.
NordVPN vs. Surfshark: Which VPN is better for you?
When choosing a VPN, you’ve got a lot of choices to make. In our best VPNs guide and speed test guide, we’ve narrowed down the list from the 50+ branded commercial options out there to our top 10. But once you narrow the list down even more, how do you choose? In this article we’ve compared our top two choices: NordVPN and Surfshark.
Aren’t they the same company?
Before we get into it, let’s discuss the Nord/Surfshark merger. In early February 2022, Nord Security and Surfshark announced they were merging, making Nord Security the owner of both companies. According to SurfShark’s merger blog post, the companies say they will continue to operate as separate companies, with separate VPN infrastructures.
We have no doubt this is true… for now. Merging large infrastructures takes time, and neither player wants to cede performance or position to their competitors due to a botched operational merger.
That said, we don’t expect this to be the case in the long term. The merger was not unexpected given the upward trend of VPN mergers. Plus, these VPN powerhouses would be foolish not to consolidate infrastructures, teams, and technologies — and these players are anything but foolish.
But for now, you’re here choosing between the two separate VPN options, and our overview content below remains relevant.
Now, let’s dive in.
Specifications
Both VPNs offer similar support and almost identical services. The key differences, as we’ll discuss, revolve around price and extended feature set.
|
Spec |
Surfshark |
NordVPN |
|
Servers |
3200+ |
5436 |
|
Countries |
100+ |
60 |
|
Simultaneous connections |
unlimited |
6 |
|
Ad blocker |
yes |
yes |
|
Malware scanner |
no |
yes |
|
Kill switch |
yes |
yes |
|
Logging |
Emai |
Email address and billing info |
|
Multi-hop |
yes |
yes |
|
Best price |
$59.76 for 24 months ($2.49/month) |
$89 for two years ($3.30/mo) |
|
Trial/MBG |
30-day refund guarantee |
30-day refund guarantee |
|
Supported platforms |
iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Linux |
iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Linux |
|
Additional support for |
FireTV, Smart TVs (Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast), Router, Xbox, PlayStation |
Router, FireStick, Xbox, PlayStation, Oculus Quest, Kindle Fire, Nintendo Switch, Raspberry Pi, Chromebook, Chromecast, Android TV |
You should get Surfshark if…
1. You want to save a few bucks
Surfshark is less expensive than NordVPN. Prices do change regularly, but at the time of writing, Surfshark is about $30 less over two years, or about a buck less a month. There are some performance differences for this price savings, though. Read on to our discussion of why you might want to buy NordVPN if that’s important to you.
2. You want to use more than six simultaneous devices
NordVPN allows you to connect six devices at once to its VPN service. Surfshark sets no limits at all. If you’re traveling with just a few devices, that won’t matter much. But if you’re at home or in the office, the device count can add up.
Now, I’ll admit I’m a bit of an outlier, but I switch between four main computers, a few spare machines, three iPads, my phone, and a bunch of console games and smart TVs. With unlimited simultaneous connections, I just wouldn’t have to worry how many machines were going out to the internet. Surfshark just lets you do what you need to do.
3. You want ad-free protected searches plus antivirus and breach alerts
Surfshark has a $1.49/mo upsell (because of course it does) called Surfshark One. This adds what the company calls an “ad-free lightweight search engine” that doesn’t keep any search records. Also in Surfshark One is an antivirus engine and breach alerts, but both of those are also available from NordVPN.
You should get NordVPN if…
1. You want predictably fast download performance
In our fastest VPN guide, we took a look at both our own in-house tests and how the internet overall rated open VPNs. We compared VPN rankings in speed tests from 10 sites besides ZDNet.
To help us determine whether a VPN has a consistent ranking, or simply if different reviewers got distinctly different numbers, we compared the standard deviation of the 10 other sites.
As the above slide shows, NordVPN not only had a better aggregate average ranking but a considerably lower standard deviation. This means that pretty much wherever you are, your NordVPN performance should be pretty good. By contrast, how Surfshark will perform is likely to be considerably less predictable.
2. You want no-upsell antimalware and adware protection
Surfshark starts off less expensive, but if you want malware protection and adware blocking, you have to upgrade to the Surfshark One program. But those features are included in the basic NordVPN plan. So, while you’re saving a buck a month on Surfshark, you’re paying a buck fifty a month more for those added features. For the full set, NordVPN is actually less expensive.
But wait, there’s more…to buy. Because, of course, NordVPN also has upsells. You can spend another buck a month and get Nord’s password manager and breach-alert tracker. And if you add yet another buck a month, you can get a terabyte of encrypted cloud storage.
3. You want business-oriented features or fixed IP
NordVPN offers full business plans with team management, admin consoles, and everything you’d need to deploy a VPN for a full company or department. If you don’t want all the business and team management features of an enterprise VPN, but you just want a fixed IP to run a server or for remote access, that’s available for an additional $4.19/month. Just be aware that it’s not available at all locations, so check the available locations before signing up.
There you go. Surfshark vs. NordVPN. It’s not a super cut-and-dry answer. One isn’t wildly better than the other. But the decision tree above should help you pick the winner given your own needs.
VPN FAQ
Yes, in most countries. Some countries (and you should read my guide for more in-depth info) have made VPN use illegal. And even in countries where it’s legal, it’s likely to be illegal to use a VPN to spoof a streaming service into giving you content that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible.
Logging is the recording of data about your usage, and it occurs everywhere. Every website, at minimum, records an IP address, time, and data accessed so they can track traffic.
All VPN providers have to check credentials against recorded personal data to make sure you paid, but a few let you sign up with Bitcoin, allowing you to completely hide your identity.
When we say a VPN doesn’t log data, we mean they don’t track what sites you visit and for how long, but they may track how much of their own infrastructure you use.
I’ll give you a personal example. When I travel, I often take my laptop and my tablet. I use the laptop to write, and I use the tablet as a second screen to look stuff up. I have two connections I’m using at once and I want my VPN to protect both. If my wife is also doing the same thing, that’s four connections. Add our phones, and you have six connections. If we’re using all those devices at once, that’s simultaneous connections. The more, the better.
You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.
Israel: UN experts demand accountability over death of Palestinian hunger striker
The 45-year-old Palestinian died in his prison cell on Tuesday morning following a nearly three-month hunger strike. He had been protesting Israel’s widespread policy of arbitrarily detaining Palestinians in “abhorrent conditions” and in violation of fair trial guarantees.
The call for greater accountability came from the independent expert, or Special Rapporteur, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng.
Long history of hunger strikes
Mr. Adnan began his hunger strike protest shortly after being arrested – for the last time – on 5 February, facing terrorism-related charges.
Despite the serious deterioration of his health, Israeli authorities refused to release him, or transfer him to hospital, and continued to detain him in a prison hospital facility, reportedly without providing adequate healthcare, the experts said.
The Human Rights Council-appointed experts noted that Mr. Adnan had been arrested at least 12 times in the past, spending a total of around eight years in prison, mostly in administrative detention, and had been on hunger strike five times previously.
‘Tragic testament’
“The death of Khader Adnan is a tragic testament to Israel’s cruel and inhumane detention policy and practices, as well as the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable in the face of callous illegalities perpetrated against Palestinian inmates,” the experts said.
Hundreds held without trial
The experts noted that Israel currently holds approximately 4,900 Palestinians in its prisons, including just over 1,000 administrative detainees who are held for an indefinite period without trial or charge, based on secret information.
The number of administrative detainees in Israeli detention facilities is at its highest since 2008, despite repeated condemnation from international human rights bodies and calls for Israel to immediately end the practice.
The UN rights office OHCHR said in its press release, that many Palestinian prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes to “protest the brutality of Israel’s detention practices”.
‘Colonial’ occupation
The experts said they could not separate Israel’s prison policies, “from the colonial nature of its occupation, intended to control and subjugate all Palestinians in the territory Israel wants to control”.
“The systematic practice of administrative detention, is tantamount to a war crime of wilfully depriving protected persons of the rights of fair and regular trial”, said the two experts.
They added that it was ever more urgent for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its illegal acts in the occupied territory and stop the normalisation of war crimes.
“How many more lives will have to be lost, before an inch of justice can be delivered in the occupied Palestinian territory?” they concluded.
About the Rapporteurs
Independent human rights experts are all appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, under its Special Procedures.
They are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
Human rights experts alarmed over ‘imminent executions’ in Saudi Arabia
“Despite being charged with terrorism, they were reportedly arrested for resisting forced evictions in the name of the NEOM project and the construction of a 170km linear city called The Line,” the UN experts said.
‘Smart city’ project
NEOM is a futuristic urban development project backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Mr Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Mr Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti were sentenced to death on 5 August last year, and their sentences were backed by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal, on 23 January.
Three other members of the Howeitat tribe were sentenced to “severe prison terms” said a press release issued on behalf of the experts: Abdelnasser Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti received a 27 year sentence; Mahmoud Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, 35 years; and Abdullah Dakhilallah al-Huwaiti was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
“Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’, involving intentional killing,” the experts said. “We do not believe the actions in question meet this threshold.”
Investigate allegations
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts urged the Saudi authorities to investigate allegations of torture and other mistreatment involving the men, promptly and impartially.
They also asked authorities to review the sentences imposed, and, if appropriate, to retry them according with the norms and standards of due process. “Any statement that is proven to have been made as a result of torture is inadmissible in any proceedings,” the human rights experts said.
‘Vague’ anti-terror law
“All six individuals have been charged under the overly vague 2017 Saudi law on combating crimes of terrorism and its financing,” the experts said, warning that this law does not appear to be in line with international law, as raised several times by Special Procedures.
They expressed serious concern that some of the detainees had allegedly been subjected to torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions of guilt, and that due process safeguards had not been followed to ensure their right to a fair trial.
Tribal rights
The authorities have reportedly made several moves to evict members of the Howeitat tribe from their homes and traditional lands, in three villages, all related to the NOEM project development, since January 2020.
Despite promises that they would be involved in the process and receive fair compensation, many have allegedly been evicted and their homes demolished without suitable compensation, the experts said.
During the initial protests, one member of the tribe was reportedly killed in his own home by members of the Saudi Special Forces.
“Given the circumstances, we cannot consider that the requirements of consultation and free, prior and informed consent of the Howeitat people of the three villages have been met,” the experts said.
“On the contrary, these actions would certainly amount to forced evictions, which are prohibited under international law as a violation of the right to adequate housing. The actions also constitute flagrant violations of the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”
Plea to foreign investors
“We urge all companies involved, including foreign investors, to ensure that they are not causing or contributing to, and are not directly linked to serious human rights abuses,” the human rights experts said.
The experts reminded Saudi Arabia of its obligations under the UN Convention against Torture. They urged the authorities to recognise core international human rights instruments, including the two International Covenants, as soon as possible, to establish an official moratorium on all executions with a view to the complete abolition of the death penalty, and to allow external scrutiny, including by accepting pending country visit requests from the Council-mandated Special Procedures section.
The experts have already contacted the Government, the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the Neom Company, as well as 18 foreign companies and the States where they are domiciled, to raise concerns over the issue.
Independent human rights experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva. They are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
15 Best Web Hosting Control Panels for Server Management
As an owner of the website, it is very difficult to manage multiple websites without a control panel. However, to suit the needs, we need a custom hosting plan.
A Web hosting control panel is a totally web-based interface that has the capability to manage your web services under a single location. These web-based control panels can manage email accounts, FTP accounts, file management functions, creation of subdomains, disk space monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, create backups, and many more.
The web hosting control panels provide an elegant solution for Linux newbies to host multiple websites on VPS (Virtual Private Servers) and Dedicated Servers.
This kind of hosting panel offers easy-to-use management software to simplify the process of handling servers without the need for expert knowledge of server administration.
The most famous and powerful control panels are cPanel and Plesk. These two popular panels are paid software and the hosting provider will charge a monthly fee for installing it on the server.
Fortunately, there are a few more alternate open-source control panels available to download at no cost with similar features.
Now, let’s move further to explore the 21 most preferred open-source/paid control panels one by one. For your reference, I’ve included the screen grabs along with relevant links to each portal.
1. cPanel
cPanel is a Unix-based hosting control panel that offers an elegant graphical interface that helps you to manage your Website and web hosting accounts very easily and quickly. The automation tools are designed to simplify the process of a website.
cPanel gives you complete control over the various aspects of the website and administration through a standard web browser and also streamlines the process such as creating a database, setting up an email account, autoresponder, and managing website files.
2. Plesk
Plesk is a hosting control panel similar to cPanel which allows you to manage your hosting account through a web-based interface. You can use this panel with VPS, Shared, and Dedicated servers.
Plesk also enables you to control thousands of virtual hosts under a single machine. The control panel allows you to automate many tasks which in turn reduces the cost and resources. It also increases profitability, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
Plesk Key Features:
- Create an FTP account for users.
- Manage and create email accounts and databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL.
- Add domains and subdomains.
- Restore and take back up of files.
- Manage DNS and other resources.
3. ISPConfig
ISPconfig is an open-source multilingual control panel that enables you to manage multiple servers under one control panel.
ISPConfig is licensed under the BSD license and comes as an open-source control panel that is also capable of managing FTP, SQL, BIND DNS, Database, and Virtual servers.
ISPConfig Key Features:
- Manage more than one server from one control panel.
- Easy-to-use web interface for administrator, reseller, and client login.
- Manage web servers like Apache and Nginx.
- Configuration mirroring and clusters.
- Manage email and FTP servers.
- And many more
4. Ajenti
Ajenti is the only open-source feature-rich, powerful, and lightweight control panel that provides a responsive web interface for managing small server set-ups and is also best-suitable for Dedicated and VPS hosting.
It has many built-in pre-made plugins for configuring and managing server software and services such as Apache, Nginx, MySQL, FTP, Firewall, File System, Cron, Munin, Samba, Squid, and many other programs like File Manager, Code Editor for developers and Terminal access.
5. Kloxo
Kloxo is one of the advanced and free web control panels for Red Hat-based distributions that come with ftp, spam filter, PHP, Perl, CGI, and much more.
Features like messaging, backup/restore, and ticketing system modules are inbuilt in Kloxo. It helps end-users to manage/run a combination of Apache with BIND and switch the interface between these programs without losing their data.
6. OpenPanel
OpenPanel is an open-source web-based control panel for server administration and configuration that is licensed under GNU General Public and comes with an AJAX Web interface and a command line interface to manage users, domains, email, and other hosting-related services.
It can manage Apache, AWStats, Bind DNS, PureFTPD, Postfix, MySQL databases, IPTables firewall, Courier-IMAP e-mails, and more.
7. EHCP
EHCP (Easy Hosting Control Panel) is a free web hosting software for maintaining a web-based hosting server. With the use of EHCP, you can manage MySQL databases, email accounts, domain accounts, FTP accounts, and much more.
It is the only control panel that has built-in support for Nginx and PHP-FPM with completely throwing out Apache and provides good performance for low-end servers.
8. Virtualmin
Virtualmin is one of the most popular web-based hosting control panels for Linux and Unix systems that is available as an open-source version, and a premium version.
Virtualmin is specially designed to manage Apache virtual hosts, MySQL databases, BIND DNS domains, mailboxes with Sendmail or Postfix, and the entire Server from one friendly interface.
9. Webmin
Webmin is a super functional and powerful web hosting control panel and system administration tool that is designed to manage Unix and Linux platforms in a simple way.
Webmin is capable enough to manage various components of the web-based environment from setting a webserver to maintaining FTP and email server.
Webmin Key Features:
- Configure and create a virtual server on Apache.
- Manage, install, or delete a software package (RPM format).
- For security, you can set up a firewall.
- Modify DNS settings, IP address, and routing configuration.
- Manage database, tables, and fields on MySQL.
10. DirectAdmin
DirectAdmin is a premium easiest-to-use web hosting control panel that enables server administrators to manage servers and websites through a graphical interface from a web browser more efficiently.
It is configurable to manage server tasks such as installing/upgrading software packages (such as Apache HTTP Server, PHP, and MySQL), creating/modifying DNS records, and starting/stopping services from within the control panel – simplifying server and hosting configuration.
11. InterWorx
InterWorx is a secure server management system and web hosting control panel that offers a set of tools to manage domains, emails, and websites.
InterWorx control panel is basically divided into two operating modes.
- Nodeworx: Nodeworx is an administrator mode that helps manage servers.
- SiteWorx: SiteWorx is a website owner view that helps end-users to manage their hosting account and features.
12. Froxlor
Froxlor is an open-source lightweight server management control panel that can be used to manage personal VPS, and dedicated or shared hosting platforms. It’s an alternative to a very famous software called cPanel or Webmin, which offers the same features to make server administrations easy.
13. BlueOnyx
BlueOnyx is an open-source server distribution based on AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and CentOS. It provides a fully-integrated web hosting control panel that comes with web, email, DNS, and file transfer services.
The latest version of BlueOnyx runs on RHEL 9 and clones such as AlmaLinux and RockyLinux. It includes reseller management, sFTP, SSH key management, PhpMyAdmin, MySQL, web virtual hosts, and email statistics.
14. Vesta CP
Vesta CP is another open-source web control panel that comes with a bunch of features to manage and configure your Linux systems from a simple and clear interface.
It comes with Softaculous which offers an auto installation of web applications on a website using predefined scripts. It is able to install more than 439 apps with one click to build all types of websites.
VestaCP is currently supported by RHEL/CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian.
15. aaPanel
aaPanel is a simple, but powerful control panel for managing web servers through a web-based GUI (Graphical User Interface). It offers the one-click installation of LNMP/LAMP developing environment and software on Linux systems. Its main objective is to help system administrators to save time in deploying and focus on their own projects.
Conclusion
That’s it for now, these are the best Open Source/Commercial control panels, which I’ve gathered from the web according to their popularity. From the list, you can choose the best, one that suits your requirements also do tell us which control panel you’re using to manage your Linux Servers, and also tell us if you know any other tool that is not listed in this list via comment section.
Pressure required to launch a rock from Mars into space much lower than thought, discovers study
In August 1865, a 10-pound rock fell from space to Earth, landing with a bang in the remote village of Sherghati, India. After being recovered by witnesses to the event, the stone passed into the possession of a local British magistrate who endeavored to identify the source of the strange object. After more than a century of studying the meteorite fragments—so-called shergottites—researchers in the 1980s finally determined its alien origins: our neighboring planet, Mars.
Until humans are able to bring back samples from Mars, the only pieces of the Red Planet found on Earth are Martian meteorites such as the shergottites. The journey for these little Martian travelers has been violent: for Mars rocks to get to Earth, they must have been ejected from the Red Planet’s surface with enough force to escape Martian gravity. This ejection was likely due to a large impact on Mars. The rocks withstood the massive temperatures and pressures of this impact and flew through the vacuum of space, eventually crash-landing on our own planet.
For decades, scientists have worked on modeling the kind of Martian impact events that send bits of the Red Planet to Earth. Now, researchers at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA, have conducted experiments to simulate the so-called “shock pressure” experienced by Martian rocks. They have found that the pressure required to launch a rock from Mars into space is much lower than originally thought.
The research was conducted in the laboratory of Paul Asimow, the Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geology and Geochemistry. The study is described in a paper appearing in the journal Science Advances on May 3 and is a collaboration with JPL.
Meteorites from varied sources have been discovered on Earth for millennia, but their origins were not known until much more recently. As NASA’s Viking orbiters made measurements of Mars’s atmospheric composition in the late 1970s, Caltech’s Ed Stolper (now the Judge Shirley Hufstedler Professor of Geology) was one of the first to suggest that shergottites are from Mars—confirmed later when gases in the thin Martian atmosphere matched up with the gases encapsulated in the meteorites.
But that is not all a meteorite‘s composition can tell us about its journey. One major component of Martian rocks is the crystalline mineral plagioclase. Under high pressures, such as an intense impact, plagioclase transforms into the glassy material known as maskelynite. Finding maskelynite in a rock, therefore, indicates the types of pressure the sample came into contact with. In the last five years, Martian meteorites have been discovered with a blend of both plagioclase and maskelynite, indicating an upper bound for the pressures they were subjected to.
In the new study, led by Caltech staff scientist Jinping Hu, the team conducted experiments to smash plagioclase-containing rocks from Earth and observe how the mineral transforms under pressure. The team developed a more accurate method to simulate Martian impacts in shock-recovery experiments, utilizing a powerful “gun” to blast rocks with projectiles traveling over five times the speed of sound. Previous shock-pressure experiments required reverberating shock waves through a steel chamber, which gives an inaccurate picture of what happens during an impact event on Mars.
“We’re not on Mars, so we can’t watch a meteorite strike in person,” says Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at JPL and a co-author on the study. “But we can recreate a similar kind of impact in a lab setting. By doing so, we found it takes much less pressure to launch a Mars meteorite than we thought.”
Previous experiments had shown that plagioclase turns into maskelynite at a shock pressure of 30 gigapascals (GPa), which is 300,000 times the atmospheric pressure one experiences at sea level, or 1,000 times the pressure a submersible comes into contact with while diving beneath 3 kilometers of ocean water.
This new study shows that the transition actually happens at around 20 GPa—a significant difference from previous experiments. In particular, the new pressure threshold is consistent with evidence from other high-pressure minerals in these meteorites indicating that their shock pressures must have been less than 30 GPa. Nine out of the 10 high-pressure minerals found in Martian meteorites were discovered at Caltech in studies led by mineralogist Chi Ma, Caltech’s director of analytical facilities, and a co-author of the study.
“It has been a significant challenge to model an impact that can launch intact rocks from Mars while shocking them to 30 GPa,” Asimow says. “In this context, the difference between 30 GPa and 20 GPa is significant. The more accurately we can characterize the shock pressures experienced by a meteorite, the more likely it becomes that we can identify the impact crater on Mars from which it originated.”
More information:
Jinping Hu et al, Shock-recovered maskelynite indicates low-pressure ejection of shergottites from Mars, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf2906
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Pressure required to launch a rock from Mars into space much lower than thought, discovers study (2023, May 3)
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Human rights ‘best antidote’ to advance peace, Security Council hears
Ambassadors met to examine the Council’s efforts towards building trust that leads to sustainable peace, in light of current and emerging threats.
“Full compliance with human rights is the best antidote to the inequalities, unaddressed grievances and exclusion which are often at the root of instability and conflict,” said Mr. Türk, speaking via videolink from Nairobi.
“An unwavering human rights lens and strong human rights action – based on norms tried and tested – lead us away from chaos and conflict; advance development; and build trust,” he added.
Critical at all stages
Human rights are essential at every stage of the “peace continuum” spanning prevention, conflict and resolution, he said, citing examples such as the current crises in Haiti and Sudan.
At the same time, trust – which underpins both human relations and the social contract between people and State institutions – is the foundation of conflict prevention and lasting peace.
“It is, indeed, the comprehensive advancement of all human rights that builds trust,” he told the Council.
“I have experienced this time and time again when engaging with victims, with human rights defenders and refugees. It is their voices that human rights seek to amplify and bring to the table.”
Haiti ‘human rights emergency’
Mr. Türk outlined how a human rights perspective applies at all stages of the peace continuum, starting with early warning and preventive action to detect and address the drivers of conflict.
“In Haiti, early warning signals pointed persistently to the profoundly destructive impact of inequalities, corruption and exclusion on both trust and stability,” he said.
Last year, the Council established an arms embargo and targeted sanctions in response to the rampant armed gang violence gripping the country, but the human rights chief insisted that more action is urgently needed now.
“I visited the country in February. It is dangling over an abyss,” he said.
“The State’s lack of capacity to fulfill human rights has completely eroded people’s confidence. The social contract has collapsed. The current lawlessness is a human rights emergency that calls for a robust response.”
Building trust in Sudan
Meanwhile, when conflict has erupted, human rights monitoring puts focus on the impact on people, while also serving to counter misinformation that can feed hostility and fear.
Mr. Türk addressed the conflict in Sudan, where rival military forces have been battling for nearly three weeks, endangering hopes of a transition to civilian rule.
“We know that Sudan’s future depends on building trust between the Sudanese people and the institutions that are supposed to serve them,” he said.
“Human rights, an end to impunity, and participation by the population – particularly women and young people – must be the driving forces out of the current crisis, so that Sudan can stabilise at last.”
Participation and press freedom
Furthermore, the full range of human rights standards are also crucial in ending conflict and establishing sustainable peace, Mr. Türk said, referring to the principles of accountability, non-discrimination, and participation, especially by women and girls, minority groups and youth.
He noted how participation has been crucial to building trust in Colombia, following the signing of the 2016 peace deal that ended five decades of conflict between the authorities and the FARC-EP militia group.
The agreement also addresses deep-rooted structural issues around land reform, discrimination, and inequality.
“In Colombia, as elsewhere, human rights and justice will be the best guides on the longer road towards reconciliation and sustainable peace,” he said.
As the meeting was held on World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on 3 May, the UN rights chief also underscored the importance of press freedom and protection of journalists.