Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13023984 The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s latest working conditions report “Masks Off, Barriers Remain” describes another challenging year for international media in 2023. Difficulties persisted in spite of an improved reporting environment due to the end of China’s tough “COVID Zero” policy and related restrictions on movement, restoring reporters’ ability to move around the country relatively freely. No respondents said reporting conditions surpassed pre-pandemic conditions. Almost all respondents (99%) said reporting conditions in China rarely or never met international reporting standards. Four out of five (81%) respondents said they had experienced interference, harassment, or violence. 54% of respondents were obstructed at least once by police or other officials (2022: 56%), 45% encountered obstruction at least once by persons unknown (2022: 36%). Correspondents are accustomed to receiving such treatment in areas the Chinese authorities consider “politically sensitive”: 85% of journalists who tried to report from Xinjiang in 2023 experienced problems. However, the definition of “sensitive” areas appears to be expanding: An increasing number of journalists encountered issues in regions bordering Russia (79%), Southeast Asian nations (43%) or in ethnically diverse regions like Inner Mongolia (68%). Technology plays an increasingly important role in the surveillance toolkit deployed by the Chinese authorities to monitor and interfere in the work of the foreign journalist community. For the first time, respondents told the FCCC of authorities using drones to monitor them in the field. A majority of respondents had reason to believe the authorities had possibly or definitely compromised their WeChat (81%), their phone (72%), and/or placed audio recording bugs in their office or home (55%). 82% of respondents reported they had interviews declined by sources who stated they were not permitted to speak to foreign media or required prior permission. More than a third (37%) of respondents said reporting trips or interviews already confirmed were canceled last minute because of official pressure (2022: 31%).
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13023984 The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s latest working conditions report “Masks Off, Barriers Remain” describes another challenging year for international media in 2023. Difficulties persisted in spite of an improved reporting environment due to the end of China’s tough “COVID Zero” policy and related restrictions on movement, restoring reporters’ ability to move around the country relatively freely. No respondents said reporting conditions surpassed pre-pandemic conditions. Almost all respondents (99%) said reporting conditions in China rarely or never met international reporting standards. Four out of five (81%) respondents said they had experienced interference, harassment, or violence. 54% of respondents were obstructed at least once by police or other officials (2022: 56%), 45% encountered obstruction at least once by persons unknown (2022: 36%). Correspondents are accustomed to receiving such treatment in areas the Chinese authorities consider “politically sensitive”: 85% of journalists who tried to report from Xinjiang in 2023 experienced problems. However, the definition of “sensitive” areas appears to be expanding: An increasing number of journalists encountered issues in regions bordering Russia (79%), Southeast Asian nations (43%) or in ethnically diverse regions like Inner Mongolia (68%). Technology plays an increasingly important role in the surveillance toolkit deployed by the Chinese authorities to monitor and interfere in the work of the foreign journalist community. For the first time, respondents told the FCCC of authorities using drones to monitor them in the field. A majority of respondents had reason to believe the authorities had possibly or definitely compromised their WeChat (81%), their phone (72%), and/or placed audio recording bugs in their office or home (55%). 82% of respondents reported they had interviews declined by sources who stated they were not permitted to speak to foreign media or required prior permission. More than a third (37%) of respondents said reporting trips or interviews already confirmed were canceled last minute because of official pressure (2022: 31%).
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s latest working conditions report “Masks Off, Barriers Remain” describes another challenging year for international media in 2023. Difficulties persisted in spite of an improved reporting environment due to the end of China’s tough “COVID Zero” policy and related restrictions on movement, restoring reporters’ ability to move around the country relatively freely. No respondents said reporting conditions surpassed pre-pandemic conditions. Almost all respondents (99%) said reporting conditions in China rarely or never met international reporting standards. Four out of five (81%) respondents said they had experienced interference, harassment, or violence. 54% of respondents were obstructed at least once by police or other officials (2022: 56%), 45% encountered obstruction at least once by persons unknown (2022: 36%). Correspondents are accustomed to receiving such treatment in areas the Chinese authorities consider “politically sensitive”: 85% of journalists who tried to report from Xinjiang in 2023 experienced problems. However, the definition of “sensitive” areas appears to be expanding: An increasing number of journalists encountered issues in regions bordering Russia (79%), Southeast Asian nations (43%) or in ethnically diverse regions like Inner Mongolia (68%). Technology plays an increasingly important role in the surveillance toolkit deployed by the Chinese authorities to monitor and interfere in the work of the foreign journalist community. For the first time, respondents told the FCCC of authorities using drones to monitor them in the field. A majority of respondents had reason to believe the authorities had possibly or definitely compromised their WeChat (81%), their phone (72%), and/or placed audio recording bugs in their office or home (55%). 82% of respondents reported they had interviews declined by sources who stated they were not permitted to speak to foreign media or required prior permission. More than a third (37%) of respondents said reporting trips or interviews already confirmed were canceled last minute because of official pressure (2022: 31%).
www.aljazeera.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13000698 Beijing often states that there are about 60 million people of Chinese origin living abroad in nearly 200 countries and regions, presumably excluding those living in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that the CCP claims as its own. People of Chinese ethnicity can trace their roots back centuries in countries like Malaysia, where they make up some 23 percent of the population, and Thailand and Indonesia. In the telling of China’s story, Xi has recently highlighted the role that “Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad” must play in “uniting all Chinese people to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. According to Associate Professor Ian Chong Ja, who teaches Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, Xi’s language suggests that the CCP sees ethnic Chinese across the world as a vehicle to mobilise support and advance Beijing’s interests, even if those people are not nationals of China and have no allegiance to the country.
www.aljazeera.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13000698 Beijing often states that there are about 60 million people of Chinese origin living abroad in nearly 200 countries and regions, presumably excluding those living in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that the CCP claims as its own. People of Chinese ethnicity can trace their roots back centuries in countries like Malaysia, where they make up some 23 percent of the population, and Thailand and Indonesia. In the telling of China’s story, Xi has recently highlighted the role that “Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad” must play in “uniting all Chinese people to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. According to Associate Professor Ian Chong Ja, who teaches Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, Xi’s language suggests that the CCP sees ethnic Chinese across the world as a vehicle to mobilise support and advance Beijing’s interests, even if those people are not nationals of China and have no allegiance to the country.
www.aljazeera.com
Beijing often states that there are about 60 million people of Chinese origin living abroad in nearly 200 countries and regions, presumably excluding those living in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that the CCP claims as its own. People of Chinese ethnicity can trace their roots back centuries in countries like Malaysia, where they make up some 23 percent of the population, and Thailand and Indonesia. In the telling of China’s story, Xi has recently highlighted the role that “Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad” must play in “uniting all Chinese people to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. According to Associate Professor Ian Chong Ja, who teaches Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, Xi’s language suggests that the CCP sees ethnic Chinese across the world as a vehicle to mobilise support and advance Beijing’s interests, even if those people are not nationals of China and have no allegiance to the country.
World News
Ukraine-sceptic government ally Peter Pellegrini wins Slovakian presidential election
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
This is the G-free link without AMP: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/06/government-candidate-peter-pellegrini-wins-slovakias-presidential-race
If you could change the link it would be very appreciated.
www.telegraph.co.uk
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12997488 Originally from the coastal city of Mariupol, Ukrainian teenager Bohdan Yermokhin was forced to live in Moscow for almost one and a half years after he and 30 other Ukrainian orphans were rounded up by Russian forces and deported against their will. Nicknamed the Mariupol 31, he and his friends had already lived through months of brutal siege, witnessing widespread death and destruction as Vladimir Putin’s forces turned their home city to rubble. Mr Yermokhin said the Russians tried to gain his trust, treating him nicely at first, but things deteriorated over time when he retained his positivity towards Ukraine – he would regularly argue with those around him and it was a constant psychological strain. The Mariupol 31 were quickly turned into a propaganda tool for Moscow to “prove” they had saved the city. Mr Yermokhin’s best friend, Pylyp Holovnya, became a poster boy for Russia’s so-called rescue missions when he was adopted by Maria Lvova-Belova, the ombudsman for children’s rights. A half-hour documentary called This Is My Child broadcast on a nationalist TV channel last year told the story of Mr Holovnya’s removal from Mariupol, with Mrs Lvova-Belova declaring: “The moment I spoke to him I realised he’s mine: this is my child.” A few months before, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mrs Lvova-Belova, as well as Putin, over the unlawful removal of Ukraine’s children.
www.telegraph.co.uk
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12997488 Originally from the coastal city of Mariupol, Ukrainian teenager Bohdan Yermokhin was forced to live in Moscow for almost one and a half years after he and 30 other Ukrainian orphans were rounded up by Russian forces and deported against their will. Nicknamed the Mariupol 31, he and his friends had already lived through months of brutal siege, witnessing widespread death and destruction as Vladimir Putin’s forces turned their home city to rubble. Mr Yermokhin said the Russians tried to gain his trust, treating him nicely at first, but things deteriorated over time when he retained his positivity towards Ukraine – he would regularly argue with those around him and it was a constant psychological strain. The Mariupol 31 were quickly turned into a propaganda tool for Moscow to “prove” they had saved the city. Mr Yermokhin’s best friend, Pylyp Holovnya, became a poster boy for Russia’s so-called rescue missions when he was adopted by Maria Lvova-Belova, the ombudsman for children’s rights. A half-hour documentary called This Is My Child broadcast on a nationalist TV channel last year told the story of Mr Holovnya’s removal from Mariupol, with Mrs Lvova-Belova declaring: “The moment I spoke to him I realised he’s mine: this is my child.” A few months before, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mrs Lvova-Belova, as well as Putin, over the unlawful removal of Ukraine’s children.
www.telegraph.co.uk
Originally from the coastal city of Mariupol, Ukrainian teenager Bohdan Yermokhin was forced to live in Moscow for almost one and a half years after he and 30 other Ukrainian orphans were rounded up by Russian forces and deported against their will. Nicknamed the Mariupol 31, he and his friends had already lived through months of brutal siege, witnessing widespread death and destruction as Vladimir Putin’s forces turned their home city to rubble. Mr Yermokhin said the Russians tried to gain his trust, treating him nicely at first, but things deteriorated over time when he retained his positivity towards Ukraine – he would regularly argue with those around him and it was a constant psychological strain. The Mariupol 31 were quickly turned into a propaganda tool for Moscow to “prove” they had saved the city. Mr Yermokhin’s best friend, Pylyp Holovnya, became a poster boy for Russia’s so-called rescue missions when he was adopted by Maria Lvova-Belova, the ombudsman for children’s rights. A half-hour documentary called This Is My Child broadcast on a nationalist TV channel last year told the story of Mr Holovnya’s removal from Mariupol, with Mrs Lvova-Belova declaring: “The moment I spoke to him I realised he’s mine: this is my child.” A few months before, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mrs Lvova-Belova, as well as Putin, over the unlawful removal of Ukraine’s children.
www.aljazeera.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12996823 Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has called for “telling China’s story well” and spreading “positive energy”. Since Xi came to power in 2013, the media environment has tightened. Internet freedom has also declined. In Freedom House’s 2023 report on internet freedom around the world, China was rated “not free: with a score of only nine points out of 100, one point less than the year before. In RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, meanwhile, China fell four spots compared with 2022, ranking second to bottom and just above North Korea. More journalists are currently in jail in China than anywhere else in the world. “There has been a very clear development towards greater state control over the media in China in recent years leaving very little space for media,” Alfred Wu, a scholar of public governance in China at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera. This development has also affected state media, according to Yuan at Rutger’s University. “Under the rule of President Xi Jinping, state media in China have been consolidated and aligned closer with the ideology of the CCP,” he said. "This involves regular ideological education and training, aiming to make sure that reporting reinforces Xi Jinping Thought [Xi’s ideology] and the objectives of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this is why we are witnessing foreign staff members resigning from media outlets like [formerly more independent media company] Sixth Tone.”
www.aljazeera.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12996823 Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has called for “telling China’s story well” and spreading “positive energy”. Since Xi came to power in 2013, the media environment has tightened. Internet freedom has also declined. In Freedom House’s 2023 report on internet freedom around the world, China was rated “not free: with a score of only nine points out of 100, one point less than the year before. In RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, meanwhile, China fell four spots compared with 2022, ranking second to bottom and just above North Korea. More journalists are currently in jail in China than anywhere else in the world. “There has been a very clear development towards greater state control over the media in China in recent years leaving very little space for media,” Alfred Wu, a scholar of public governance in China at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera. This development has also affected state media, according to Yuan at Rutger’s University. “Under the rule of President Xi Jinping, state media in China have been consolidated and aligned closer with the ideology of the CCP,” he said. "This involves regular ideological education and training, aiming to make sure that reporting reinforces Xi Jinping Thought [Xi’s ideology] and the objectives of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this is why we are witnessing foreign staff members resigning from media outlets like [formerly more independent media company] Sixth Tone.”
www.aljazeera.com
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has called for “telling China’s story well” and spreading “positive energy”. Since Xi came to power in 2013, the media environment has tightened. Internet freedom has also declined. In Freedom House’s 2023 report on internet freedom around the world, China was rated “not free: with a score of only nine points out of 100, one point less than the year before. In RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, meanwhile, China fell four spots compared with 2022, ranking second to bottom and just above North Korea. More journalists are currently in jail in China than anywhere else in the world. “There has been a very clear development towards greater state control over the media in China in recent years leaving very little space for media,” Alfred Wu, a scholar of public governance in China at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera. This development has also affected state media, according to Yuan at Rutger’s University. “Under the rule of President Xi Jinping, state media in China have been consolidated and aligned closer with the ideology of the CCP,” he said. "This involves regular ideological education and training, aiming to make sure that reporting reinforces Xi Jinping Thought [Xi’s ideology] and the objectives of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this is why we are witnessing foreign staff members resigning from media outlets like [formerly more independent media company] Sixth Tone.”
World News
An Australian citizen under surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party: "I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination"
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
@Hegar
what we say in the west is generally less threatening to the power of our governments.
So, what do Chinese dissidents say that is 'threatening the power of their government so much that it justifies the unacceptable atrocities and unacceptable human rights violations they suffer?
World News
An Australian citizen under surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party: "I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination"
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
This has nothing to do with the article nor with @some_guy's comment.
Technology
Surveilling Alone: In the U.S., home security cameras are booming in an era of rising crime and declining trust. But they’re driving neighbors further apart.
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
I was wondering the same, especially as the article doesn't mention any numbers or the like. But I didn't want to change the original title.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12976581 Freely accessible [archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20240406111847/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2024/04/06/how-it-feels-live-under-surveillance-china#mtr). "The actions of mine that were deemed treasonous [by China] involved writing about China’s concentration camps, which hold up to a million Uighurs, and forced Uighur labour that implicated global supply chains," says Vicky Xu, an Australian journalist and researcher, previously with The New York Times and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "In the visit of Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi last month, there was positive talk of trade and bilateral relations between Australia and China but nothing about me or the many other Australian citizens and residents targeted by the Chinese state on Australian soil. I thought I’d remind people of our existence and present my point of view." "It has grown tiresome for me to recount how my life has been ruined by the Chinese state, how my family and friends were taken away as a result of my journalistic work on China. In Australia I’ve been followed around. Strange East Asian men stood in front of my apartment complex like voluntary doormen. I changed my number, got new email addresses, installed home security systems, moved again and again. Counter-surveillance has been a full-time job. As I write this, I do not have a stable home address because my current solution to the problem is leading a nomadic lifestyle to stay a step ahead of Chinese Communist Party goons. I don’t know what their plans are if and when they catch up with me again. I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination." [Edit typo.]
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12976581 Freely accessible [archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20240406111847/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2024/04/06/how-it-feels-live-under-surveillance-china#mtr). "The actions of mine that were deemed treasonous [by China] involved writing about China’s concentration camps, which hold up to a million Uighurs, and forced Uighur labour that implicated global supply chains," says Vicky Xu, an Australian journalist and researcher, previously with The New York Times and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "In the visit of Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi last month, there was positive talk of trade and bilateral relations between Australia and China but nothing about me or the many other Australian citizens and residents targeted by the Chinese state on Australian soil. I thought I’d remind people of our existence and present my point of view." "It has grown tiresome for me to recount how my life has been ruined by the Chinese state, how my family and friends were taken away as a result of my journalistic work on China. In Australia I’ve been followed around. Strange East Asian men stood in front of my apartment complex like voluntary doormen. I changed my number, got new email addresses, installed home security systems, moved again and again. Counter-surveillance has been a full-time job. As I write this, I do not have a stable home address because my current solution to the problem is leading a nomadic lifestyle to stay a step ahead of Chinese Communist Party goons. I don’t know what their plans are if and when they catch up with me again. I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination."
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12976581 Freely accessible [archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20240406111847/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2024/04/06/how-it-feels-live-under-surveillance-china#mtr). "The actions of mine that were deemed treasonous [by China] involved writing about China’s concentration camps, which hold up to a million Uighurs, and forced Uighur labour that implicated global supply chains," says Vicky Xu, an Australian journalist and researcher, previously with The New York Times and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "In the visit of Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi last month, there was positive talk of trade and bilateral relations between Australia and China but nothing about me or the many other Australian citizens and residents targeted by the Chinese state on Australian soil. I thought I’d remind people of our existence and present my point of view." "It has grown tiresome for me to recount how my life has been ruined by the Chinese state, how my family and friends were taken away as a result of my journalistic work on China. In Australia I’ve been followed around. Strange East Asian men stood in front of my apartment complex like voluntary doormen. I changed my number, got new email addresses, installed home security systems, moved again and again. Counter-surveillance has been a full-time job. As I write this, I do not have a stable home address because my current solution to the problem is leading a nomadic lifestyle to stay a step ahead of Chinese Communist Party goons. I don’t know what their plans are if and when they catch up with me again. I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination."
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Freely accessible [archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20240406111847/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2024/04/06/how-it-feels-live-under-surveillance-china#mtr). "The actions of mine that were deemed treasonous [by China] involved writing about China’s concentration camps, which hold up to a million Uighurs, and forced Uighur labour that implicated global supply chains," says Vicky Xu, an Australian journalist and researcher, previously with The New York Times and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "In the visit of Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi last month, there was positive talk of trade and bilateral relations between Australia and China but nothing about me or the many other Australian citizens and residents targeted by the Chinese state on Australian soil. I thought I’d remind people of our existence and present my point of view." "It has grown tiresome for me to recount how my life has been ruined by the Chinese state, how my family and friends were taken away as a result of my journalistic work on China. In Australia I’ve been followed around. Strange East Asian men stood in front of my apartment complex like voluntary doormen. I changed my number, got new email addresses, installed home security systems, moved again and again. Counter-surveillance has been a full-time job. As I write this, I do not have a stable home address because my current solution to the problem is leading a nomadic lifestyle to stay a step ahead of Chinese Communist Party goons. I don’t know what their plans are if and when they catch up with me again. I’m not the only China scholar who lives in fear of abduction or assassination."
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12976164 Finland's president on Wednesday signed a 10-year security deal with Ukraine in Kyiv where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed Russia planned to mobilise 300,000 new troops for its war by June. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said the Ukrainian president's assertion about a new Russian mobilisation was untrue. The pact signed by President Alexander Stubb and Zelenskiy made Finland the eighth NATO member this year to commit to long-term security cooperation and defence backing for Kyiv as it battles to hold back Russian forces. Finland, which shares a 1,340-km (830-mile) border with Russia, joined NATO a year ago. Stubb said Finland would also send 188 million euros ($203 million) in additional military aid, including air defences and heavy-calibre ammunition. That sum took Finland's overall defence contribution to around 2 billion euros during the war. "We are not giving this military support only for Ukraine to defend itself, we are giving this military support for Ukraine to win this war," Stubb told a joint news conference in Kyiv.
Finland's president on Wednesday signed a 10-year security deal with Ukraine in Kyiv where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed Russia planned to mobilise 300,000 new troops for its war by June. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said the Ukrainian president's assertion about a new Russian mobilisation was untrue. The pact signed by President Alexander Stubb and Zelenskiy made Finland the eighth NATO member this year to commit to long-term security cooperation and defence backing for Kyiv as it battles to hold back Russian forces. Finland, which shares a 1,340-km (830-mile) border with Russia, joined NATO a year ago. Stubb said Finland would also send 188 million euros ($203 million) in additional military aid, including air defences and heavy-calibre ammunition. That sum took Finland's overall defence contribution to around 2 billion euros during the war. "We are not giving this military support only for Ukraine to defend itself, we are giving this military support for Ukraine to win this war," Stubb told a joint news conference in Kyiv.
rhg.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12975746 Capacity utilization rates in China have declined over the past couple of years in every surveyed manufacturing sector except non-ferrous metals. Products linked to the property sector, such as plastics and non-metal minerals, are experiencing severe overcapacity because of weak demand in their downstream markets. But many other sectors are seeing declining capacity utilization, too, from machinery to food, textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. But the drop in capacity utilization rates observed in the past few years is only one aspect of a more profound phenomenon that should draw equal concern for policymakers in Brussels and other economies—China’s growing domestic production surplus. Chinese companies, across a wide range of sectors, now produce far more than domestic consumption can absorb. This domestic surplus can produce low factory utilization rates. But it can also find its way into foreign markets, creating a growing trade surplus and, at times, global redundancies that threaten industrial ecosystems in other countries. Those imbalances are not new, but they have reached unprecedented levels since the pandemic.
rhg.com
Capacity utilization rates in China have declined over the past couple of years in every surveyed manufacturing sector except non-ferrous metals. Products linked to the property sector, such as plastics and non-metal minerals, are experiencing severe overcapacity because of weak demand in their downstream markets. But many other sectors are seeing declining capacity utilization, too, from machinery to food, textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. But the drop in capacity utilization rates observed in the past few years is only one aspect of a more profound phenomenon that should draw equal concern for policymakers in Brussels and other economies—China’s growing domestic production surplus. Chinese companies, across a wide range of sectors, now produce far more than domestic consumption can absorb. This domestic surplus can produce low factory utilization rates. But it can also find its way into foreign markets, creating a growing trade surplus and, at times, global redundancies that threaten industrial ecosystems in other countries. Those imbalances are not new, but they have reached unprecedented levels since the pandemic.
www.thenewatlantis.com
Today, a different form of efficient design is eliminating “eyes on the street” — by replacing them with technological ones. The proliferation of neighborhood surveillance technologies such as Ring cameras and digital neighborhood-watch platforms and apps such as Nextdoor and Citizen have freed us from the constraints of having to be physically present to monitor our homes and streets. When debates arise over the threat such technologies might pose to privacy, of both their users and the broader public, critics often focus on the power of large technology corporations to control our personal data. But surveillance clearly provides benefits — and means of abuse — to far more people than Big Tech titans and law enforcement. These are wildly popular technologies among private citizens. We like to look at ourselves and to monitor others, and there are an increasing number of new technologies encouraging us to do just that. This prompts some slightly different questions about the benefits and dangers of surveillance technologies: What kind of people are being formed in a world of everyday surveillance? What assumptions do they make about their neighbors and communities? What expectations do they have for privacy and visibility in their own homes and in their interactions with family members? How can they build relationships of trust without the reassurance surveillance offers of the behavior of others?
edri.org
A CCTV company owned by the municipality of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, had sued the Slovenian Data Protection Authority (DPA) in order to block the release of municipal CCTV system data. But the ruling of an administrative court made it clear that making the CCTV system data available is in the public’s interest, not just because the system was paid for with public funds but also because the citizen have the right to know where and how the municipality is surveilling them. During the hearings of this case, the municipally-owned company used several bad faith arguments to block the release of the data under the local FOIA law. First, they tried to shift the responsibility to the municipality, which previously named the company as the relevant actor. The company then claimed that the data set is too big to compile. Other ineffectual arguments used were: the release of the data will have negative consequences for crime prevention and that the data was not in the public interest.
World News
‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
'Everyone in the World Needs to See This': Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans
"There is no way they could have been considered combatants," said one writer and analyst. "This is unreal."
(Warning: Watching the video embedded in the article may distress users.)
blog.documentfoundation.org
Schleswig-Holstein, the northern German federal state, will be a digital pioneer region and the first German state to introduce a digitally sovereign IT workplace in its state administration. With a cabinet decision to introduce the open-source software LibreOffice as the standard office solution across the board, the government has given the go-ahead for the first step towards complete digital sovereignty in the state, with further steps to follow. The some 30,000 public employees will replace Microsoft Office with LibreOffice, Windows with a yet-to-be-determined Linux desktop distro, and use Nextcloud, Open Xchange/Thunderbird, and the Univention Active Directory (AD) connector to replace Sharepoint and Exchange/Outlook. The state also intends to replace Telekom-Flexport by an Open Source solution. "The use of open source software also benefits from improved IT security, cost-effectiveness, data protection, and seamless collaboration between different systems," says Dirk Schrödter, digitalization minister for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. "We have no influence on the operating processes of [proprietary] solutions and the handling of data, including a possible outflow of data to third countries," he adds. "We have a great responsibility towards our citizens and companies to ensure that their data is kept safe with us, and we must ensure that we are always in control of the IT solutions we use and that we can act independently as a state." As The Document Foundation, the organization backing LibreOffice, put it, "The term digital sovereignty is very important here. If a public administration uses proprietary, closed software that can't be studied or modified, it is very difficult to know what happens to users' data."
news.harvard.edu
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12956314 "I push back on doomism because I don’t think it’s justified by the science, and I think it potentially leads us down a path of inaction,” said Mann during a talk last Thursday at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “And there are bad actors today who are fanning the flames of climate doomism because they understand that it takes those who are most likely to be on the front lines, advocating for change, and pushes them to the sidelines, which is where polluters and petrostates want them.”
news.harvard.edu
"I push back on doomism because I don’t think it’s justified by the science, and I think it potentially leads us down a path of inaction,” said Mann during a talk last Thursday at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “And there are bad actors today who are fanning the flames of climate doomism because they understand that it takes those who are most likely to be on the front lines, advocating for change, and pushes them to the sidelines, which is where polluters and petrostates want them.”
www.theguardian.com
Conservative domination – maintained by gerrymandered districts, disenfranchised voters and an increasing sense of political despair – insulates Tennessee Republicans from political consequences for unpopular decisions. Challenged in public by increasing activism on the left and apocalyptic rhetoric on the right, Tennessee Republicans stopped just chipping away at democratic norms and began hammering full-on like coalminers on Rocky Top. Republicans are increasingly targeting municipal government. In the wake of the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols in 2023, Memphis and other communities created police oversight boards with the power to investigate and punish misconduct. Last week, Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, signed legislation blocking those boards and any local ordinance that limits the ability of a law enforcement agency to take all necessary steps “to prevent and detect crime and apprehend criminal offenders”.
www.theguardian.com
Meet Richard Grenell, vocal tribune of Trump’s America First credo on the international stage and the man hotly tipped to become secretary of state if the presumed Republican nominee beats Joe Biden in November’s presidential election. A senior executive in the rightwing Newsmax cable channel, Grenell, 57, has crafted a persona as the archetypal Trump man, keen and ever-ready to troll liberals, allies and foreign statesmen in public forums and social media. Grenell – who served as a rambunctious ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term – has carved a niche as the articulator-in-chief of a Maga approach to global affairs that appears to echo his political master’s voice. Seasoned analysts fear his hyperactivity is already unsettling US diplomats even while Trump is out of office. In recent months, for example, he has pitched up in Guatemala, where he tried to stymie US state department pleas for a peaceful transition of power by backing rightwing efforts to block the inauguration of the liberal president-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, on supposed electoral fraud grounds about a poll previously declared “free and fair” by international observers.
www.russiapost.info
Cross:posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12953917 Over the past few years, Russian authorities have significantly tightened control over what is taught in schools and how. For example, starting in September 2022 students have been attending a weekly flag-raising ceremony and listening to the national anthem before classes. They also attend mandatory lessons called “Conversations about Important Things,” where they learn about patriotism from the Kremlin’s viewpoint. Any dissent schools is persecuted. In spring 2023, sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva drew an antiwar picture during a class, depicting the Ukrainian flag, the slogan “Glory to Ukraine” and Russian missiles. "The teacher ran to the principal, who then called the police. The art teacher went and threatened my daughter, so when the officers arrived and waited for Masha at the entrance, asking all the children for their first and last names, my daughter immediately understood what was going on. She managed to slip away: she gave a false last name. She ran home, out of breath, and said, ‘dad, I was almost caught by the police, I drew a picture.’ My daughter was scared. I promised that the next day I would come to school and wait for her until the end of classes," said Masha’s father, Alexei Moskalev. Later, antiwar statements were found on social media belonging to Moskalev. He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison.
www.russiapost.info
Cross:posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12953917 Over the past few years, Russian authorities have significantly tightened control over what is taught in schools and how. For example, starting in September 2022 students have been attending a weekly flag-raising ceremony and listening to the national anthem before classes. They also attend mandatory lessons called “Conversations about Important Things,” where they learn about patriotism from the Kremlin’s viewpoint. Any dissent schools is persecuted. In spring 2023, sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva drew an antiwar picture during a class, depicting the Ukrainian flag, the slogan “Glory to Ukraine” and Russian missiles. "The teacher ran to the principal, who then called the police. The art teacher went and threatened my daughter, so when the officers arrived and waited for Masha at the entrance, asking all the children for their first and last names, my daughter immediately understood what was going on. She managed to slip away: she gave a false last name. She ran home, out of breath, and said, ‘dad, I was almost caught by the police, I drew a picture.’ My daughter was scared. I promised that the next day I would come to school and wait for her until the end of classes," said Masha’s father, Alexei Moskalev. Later, antiwar statements were found on social media belonging to Moskalev. He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison.
www.russiapost.info
Over the past few years, Russian authorities have significantly tightened control over what is taught in schools and how. For example, starting in September 2022 students have been attending a weekly flag-raising ceremony and listening to the national anthem before classes. They also attend mandatory lessons called “Conversations about Important Things,” where they learn about patriotism from the Kremlin’s viewpoint. Any dissent schools is persecuted. In spring 2023, sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva drew an antiwar picture during a class, depicting the Ukrainian flag, the slogan “Glory to Ukraine” and Russian missiles. "The teacher ran to the principal, who then called the police. The art teacher went and threatened my daughter, so when the officers arrived and waited for Masha at the entrance, asking all the children for their first and last names, my daughter immediately understood what was going on. She managed to slip away: she gave a false last name. She ran home, out of breath, and said, ‘dad, I was almost caught by the police, I drew a picture.’ My daughter was scared. I promised that the next day I would come to school and wait for her until the end of classes," said Masha’s father, Alexei Moskalev. Later, antiwar statements were found on social media belonging to Moskalev. He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison.
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12950703 As the threat of secondary sanctions deters Chinese banks from facilitating trade with Russia, companies are flocking to the one Russian bank with a Chinese branch and facing up to six months of delays, five people familiar with the matter said. Russia's largest banks rushed to open accounts in China following sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western nations on Russia's financial system after Moscow sent its army into Ukraine in February 2022. By the end of that year, 90% of Russian banks had yuan accounts in Chinese banks.
As the threat of secondary sanctions deters Chinese banks from facilitating trade with Russia, companies are flocking to the one Russian bank with a Chinese branch and facing up to six months of delays, five people familiar with the matter said. Russia's largest banks rushed to open accounts in China following sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western nations on Russia's financial system after Moscow sent its army into Ukraine in February 2022. By the end of that year, 90% of Russian banks had yuan accounts in Chinese banks.
www.theguardian.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12949038 A team of researchers at Chinese, German and Canadian universities have tracked the impacts of deteriorating air at that time. They found that particle pollution deaths in China were increasing at about 213,000 a year and peaked at 2.6mn people in 2005. More positively, the impact of rapid improvements in China’s air pollution were also seen, with decreases of 59,000 deaths a year from 2013 to 2019. Air pollution in China is still far worse than in many developed countries. In 2019, about half of China’s cities failed to meet their own national standards, let alone those from the World Health Organization. [Edit typo.]
theconversation.com
If Australia can kickstart a viable solar industry, the country could take better advantage of the talent and research knowhow in Australia to begin building next-generation cells, and unlock other parts of the green economy, write Brett Hallam and Fiacre Rougieux from the UNSW Sydney. "Cheap and plentiful solar power could make it viable to crack water to make green hydrogen or make green steel and aluminium," they add. "Many initiatives have to be set in train now to gain the benefits in five or ten years’ time. [...] But in a sun-drenched country, it makes sense to aim for the skies."
www.icij.org
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12949945 An investigation examining hundreds of leaked IRS forms offers a glimpse into the often-hidden challenges the U.S. tax agency faces in tackling the favorite new global investment vehicles of the ultrawealthy. That review and interviews with more than a dozen former tax officials show an agency struggling with not only a shortage of experienced agents, but also with an entire regime of federal rules — some of those created by the IRS itself — that have enabled investors seeking secrecy to run circles around the agency. Accountants and lawyers who prepare these investors’ tax returns have eagerly exploited weak rules and years of lax enforcement to heap layers of secrecy between their rich clients and the IRS agents attempting to audit them.
www.icij.org
An investigation examining hundreds of leaked IRS forms offers a glimpse into the often-hidden challenges the U.S. tax agency faces in tackling the favorite new global investment vehicles of the ultrawealthy. That review and interviews with more than a dozen former tax officials show an agency struggling with not only a shortage of experienced agents, but also with an entire regime of federal rules — some of those created by the IRS itself — that have enabled investors seeking secrecy to run circles around the agency. Accountants and lawyers who prepare these investors’ tax returns have eagerly exploited weak rules and years of lax enforcement to heap layers of secrecy between their rich clients and the IRS agents attempting to audit them.
www.bbc.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12949861 It defaulted on its overseas debt last year and faces a winding-up petition. In January, rival real estate giant China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court. Country Garden said "due to the continuous volatility of the industry, the operating environment the Group confronting is becoming increasingly complex", when it announced its earnings report would be delayed.
www.bbc.com
It defaulted on its overseas debt last year and faces a winding-up petition. In January, rival real estate giant China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court. Country Garden said "due to the continuous volatility of the industry, the operating environment the Group confronting is becoming increasingly complex", when it announced its earnings report would be delayed.
www.reuters.com
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12949136 Russia's energy sector is struggling in the face of Western sanctions to repair their refineries, built with the help of U.S. and European engineering firms, according to at least 10 Russian industry sources. The difficulties have been exacerbated by Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck at least a dozen Russian refineries this year, the industry sources said. The attacks forced Russian refineries to shut in some 14% of capacity in the first quarter, according to Reuters calculations. "If the stream of drones continues at this rate and Russian air defences don't improve, Ukraine will be able to cut Russian refining runs quicker than Russian firms will be able to repair them," said Sergey Vakulenko, an expert on Russia's energy industry and non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank.
Cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12949136 Russia's energy sector is struggling in the face of Western sanctions to repair their refineries, built with the help of U.S. and European engineering firms, according to at least 10 Russian industry sources. The difficulties have been exacerbated by Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck at least a dozen Russian refineries this year, the industry sources said. The attacks forced Russian refineries to shut in some 14% of capacity in the first quarter, according to Reuters calculations. "If the stream of drones continues at this rate and Russian air defences don't improve, Ukraine will be able to cut Russian refining runs quicker than Russian firms will be able to repair them," said Sergey Vakulenko, an expert on Russia's energy industry and non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank.
World News
Satellite images reveal China built a replica of Taipei’s presidential district in remote Inner Mongolia, fuelling speculation that Beijing uses the site as training ground for an invasion of Taiwan
tardigrada 6 months ago • 90%
Outrage! : China trains soldiers
China trains soldiers for an invasion. They appear to plan for an unprovoked aggression.
Interesting Global News
"Transnational repression": Activists, dissidents fleeing their home countries are increasingly targeted for their work even when on foreign soil, rights group warns
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
Hungary.
World News
Israeli attack that killed aid workers consistent with multiple precision strikes, analysis shows
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
'Everyone in the World Needs to See This': Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans
"There is no way they could have been considered combatants," said one writer and analyst. "This is unreal."
(Warning: Watching the video embedded in the article may distress users.)
World News
Elderly Chinese rights lawyer who was tortured in detention is finally free after six years and six months behind bars
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
Damn, that's the kind of shit you'd expect in an American prison.
The U.S. prison system is bad as far as I read, and it may often not be what you'd expect in a democracy, but what happened to Ms. Li Yuhan is arguably much likelier in a totalitarian country where human rights don't matter.
U.S. News
Ben Gurion, founder of Israel, admits having stolen land from Arabs and that's there's no reason for arabs to make peace. See more of his behaviour on this article
tardigrada 6 months ago • 100%
Ben Gurion, founder of Israel, admits ...
I'm more concerned about the current government of Israel, and there is a lot wrong if you'd conduct some research.
How is a quote of a person who died in 1973 'news', let alone if the quote comes from Wikipedia citing a book published in 1978?
I'm not the mod here but that sounds strange to me.
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
US officials deliver warning that Chinese hackers are targeting infrastructure
Hackers linked to the Chinese government are targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, preparing to cause "real-world harm" to Americans, FBI Director Christopher Wray says.
Water treatment plants, the electric grid, oil and natural gas pipelines and transportation hubs are among the targets of state-sponsored hacking operations, he told the House of Representatives Select Committee [...]
"They're not focused just on political and military targets. We can see from where they position themselves across civilian infrastructure, that low blows aren't just a possibility in the event of conflict, low blows against civilians are part of China's plan," Wray said.
World News
China is perpetrating human rights abuses on a massive and intensive scale in the Uyghur Region, researcher says
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Canada
Canada lags behind on efforts to address human rights abuses in seafood supply chains, researchers say
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Insights into the global seafood supply chain can be found at The Outlaw Ocean if interested. [Edit typo.]
Technology
The Global Green Energy Transition Has an Uyghur Forced Labor Problem, Report Says
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Texas wants solar energy but forced labor in China is a concern
While the deployment of affordable renewable energy is great for Texas, the broader solar supply chain is cause for concern. Unfortunately, many solar panel manufacturers are entirely reliant on cheap Chinese materials with opaque traceability and forced labor concerns in the Xinjiang province. The State Department has concluded that since Xinjiang produces 45% of the global polysilicon capacity and a significant amount of silicon metal, much of the global solar supply chain could include inputs made with forced labor from the region.
As a result, U.S. Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in late 2021, creating a rebuttable presumption that all goods, made in whole or in part, from the region contain forced labor and are thus barred from entering U.S. commerce. Customs and Border Protection is tasked with enforcing the law and Congress specifically directed CBP to target polysilicon from Xinjiang. Since enforcement began in June 2022, CBP has detained over $2 billion in goods.
Technology
The Global Green Energy Transition Has an Uyghur Forced Labor Problem, Report Says
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Forced labor appears to have a broader meaning than slavery as far as I can understand, for example, from the ILO definition or here. But I don't know either.
AskBeehawtardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Possibly not for a five-year-old, but most people have an email account, and technically this is a federated network. Tuta, Proton, Posteo, and all the others are independent networks, but they can communicate with each other (unlike Facebook, Twitter, and others which require an account on each platform for communication).
U.S. News
Chinese student faces US trial for alleged threats to activist who posted fliers supporting democracy in China and threatened to report her activities to Chinese law enforcement
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
There is a related incident including a thread at https://feddit.uk/post/6966929
China
"It is fair to say that we don’t believe these numbers:" Doubts mount over China’s steel, GDP data
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
World News
North Korean government in 2023 continued to use the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to maintain “shoot on sight” orders on its northern border, rights group says
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
North Koreans Executed By Kim Regime For Violating COVID Restrictions
A new report from the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU) provides eyewitness testimony that the Kim regime publicly executed violators of Pyongyang’s draconian COVID-19 quarantine measures.
Reports of shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to cross the North Korean border during the pandemic were previously covered by NKNews in October 2020, but new testimony in the KINU report grants further credence to these dark realities.
Public executions have long been a feature of the Kim regime’s policies – ranging from public executions of Christians for being caught with a Bible to the purging of Pyongyang’s elites to tamp down on any semblance of revolutionary spirit. A 2019 report from the Transitional Justice Working Group put a finer point on the matter – of the 600 defectors interviewed, they documented “323 reports of sites of state-sanctioned killings”. According to the same report, 83 percent of North Koreans surveyed said they witnessed a public execution.
World News
Rare footage shows North Korean teens being sentenced in front of hundreds of their peers, getting 12 years of hard labour for watching South Korean videos
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
It just puzzles me that you don't know which media you trust. How do you verify then? What do you read?
World News
Rare footage shows North Korean teens being sentenced in front of hundreds of their peers, getting 12 years of hard labour for watching South Korean videos
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
What sources do you trust if I may ask?
Technology
Google Discloses That Incognito Mode in Chrome Isn't Entirely 'Private'
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Google makes billions from targeted advertising every year, don't expect it to improve privacy unless it's forced to by regulation or competition.
Yeah, I have been wondering my whole life that there are so many people believing in 'privacy tools' by companies like Google. This is one of the things that mystifies me most.
World News
Rare footage shows North Korean teens being sentenced in front of hundreds of their peers, getting 12 years of hard labour for watching South Korean videos
tardigrada 8 months ago • 96%
I guess whoever made this footage and made it available to Western media may have risk their lives. Everything else than govrrnment propaganda is strictly prohibited in countries like North Korea.
Just one recent information:
North Korea Events of 2023 - Freedom of Expression and Information
In March and April [2023], authorities reportedly conducted public trials in Ryanggang province under the law. One trial targeted 17 young people for watching unsanctioned videos and using South Korean language. One leader of the group was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor. In another trial, 20 youth athletes were sentenced to three to five years of forced labor for using South Korean vocabulary.
Technology
OpenAI CEO Altman: future AI depends on energy breakthrough
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
At least to some (large?) extent this is another red herring to distract from other and arguably more important AI topics such as copyright issues as well as legal and ethical issues imho.
World News
‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates face jail and forced confession
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Just two more pieces for those interested.
China's Pioneering Gay Rights Group Halts Operations Under 'Force Majeure' (May 2023)
The 15-year-old Beijing LGBT Center, one of the pioneers of the "different sexual orientation movement" in China, announced this week that it had terminated its operations without explanation.
Analysts said the closure of the well-known rights center was seen as inevitable and a reflection of the increasingly repressive political environment in China under Xi Jinping.
[...] In 2019, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the Special Act on Same-Sex Marriage, becoming the first country in Asia to allow same-sex marriage, but the regulations stipulated that married same-sex couples could adopt only children biologically related to one of the partners [...] Taiwan is now leading Asia in same-sex marriage legislation.
The Chinese government claims LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination. Our interviews with 26 activists tell another story (October 2023)
The evidence suggests LGBTQ+ activists in China have had a particularly tough time since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013. The effects of targeting have spiralled in the past few years, reflected in the abrupt closure of the Shanghai Pride in 2020, and the 2021 shutdown of LGBT Rights Advocacy China – an organisation that held law-based campaigns.
World News
Taiwan’s vote is a crack in the new axis of autocracy - (Opinion)
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
You appear to be in the 'wrong' area :-) ... here we go: https://web.archive.org/web/20240114053659/https://www.afr.com/world/asia/taiwan-s-vote-is-a-crack-in-the-new-axis-of-autocracy-20240114-p5ex2n
Technology
None of these people exist, but you can buy their books on Amazon anyway
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Amazon has been having problems with books written by LLMs for almost a year, and it doesn't appear to do anything about it. For example:
AI Detection Startups Say Amazon Could Flag AI Books. It Doesn't (Sep 2023)
A new nightmare for writers shows how AI deepfakes could upend the book industry—and Amazon isn't helping (August 2023)
These are just two examples, you'll find many more. But people keep buying there and support this business.
[Edit typo.]
U.S. News
IRS says it collected $360 million more from rich tax cheats as its funding is threatened yet again
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Biden Crackdown Hauls In $520 Million In Back Taxes From The Ultrawealthy
Using new funding earmarked for the IRS to target wealthy and corporate tax cheats, the IRS since mid-2022 has collected more than $520 million from about 1,600 households with income of more than $1 million and that are known to have unpaid tax bills of more than $250,000.
[...]The money [to fund the IRS] comes from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Known as the Biden administration’s climate and infrastructure bill, the $369 billion law also set aside $78 billion over the next decade for the IRS to hire customer support staff for ordinary taxpayers and new auditors who would focus on the filings of the ultrarich.
U.S. News
The Texas National Guard has seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, and is denying U.S. Border Patrol agents access to the area
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Three migrants drowned near Eagle Pass park after Border Patrol was denied access
A woman and two children drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande, near the Eagle Pass park that Texas troopers have taken control over, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed on Saturday.
World News
How the term “genocide” is misused in the Israel-Hamas war
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
That was in the 1980s.
World News
How the term “genocide” is misused in the Israel-Hamas war
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
@astral_avocado, you appear to have (intentionally?) missed some details.
strip them naked [...] forcing them to sit on their knees in the street for hours while being harassed and treated with contempt.
How many hours does it take to "determine whether they have a bomb vest on," especially when they are naked?
Why exactly do they do that while people sit on their knees in the streets and treated with contempt?
This is really hard to grasp, maybe you can enlighten me.
World News
How the term “genocide” is misused in the Israel-Hamas war
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
In Israeli army camps, Gazan detainees subjected to torture and degrading treatment
New testimonies concerning the systematic torture and inhumane treatment meted out to Palestinian detainees in Israeli army camps—some of whom have been forcibly disappeared from the Gaza Strip—have been received by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet investigators have treated the Palestinian detainees like “non-human animals”, according to testimonies received by Euro-Med Monitor from newly-released people who spent several days in Israeli custody.
The majority of the horrific torture operations, according to the testimonies, start as soon as people are taken from their homes or asylum centres, where many Gazans are sheltering from the ongoing Israeli attacks. Soldiers then beat the detained people and strip them naked, except for their undergarments, forcing them to sit on their knees in the street for hours while being harassed and treated with contempt.
It's should be unnecessary to say, but as here are some 'whataboutists' around: yes, Hamas is terrorist organisation. And so is the Israeli right-wing, racist government of Benjamin Netanyahu. There is no difference between the two.
Humanities & Cultures
If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t sleep with them
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
I don't know, but that's a good question 😅
Technology
TikTok restricts tool used by researchers - and its critics - to assess content on its platform
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Just something like that?
United Kingdom
Fujitsu's HorizonIT - How to remedy an injustice ignored by politicians: make a good television series
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Former Post Office chief Paula Vennels hands back CBE as Horizon scandal intensifies
What a harsh punishment.
World News
Armed gang storms Ecuador TV station as state of ‘internal armed conflict’ declared
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
The mafias that control Ecuador from inside their prison cells
Gangs are running profitable businesses inside the correctional facilities, and even have the keys to their own units. Recent rioting showed the extent of their power, posing a difficult challenge for the government of Daniel Noboa.
China
Cognitive warfare and weather balloons: China accused of using ‘all means’ to influence Taiwan vote
tardigrada 8 months ago • 100%
Taiwan confronts China’s disinformation behemoth ahead of vote
China is using disinformation and propaganda to try to influence Taiwan’s election. A scrappy coalition of civil society organizations are fighting back.
World News
China feels the country isn’t patriotic enough. A new law aims to change that.
tardigrada 9 months ago • 90%
Regarding the '1984 social credit system' there are a lot of good resources which tell a story far diffrrent from yours. One recent example is tbe documentary 'Total Trust' by Chinese film maker Zhang Jialing. The film's introduction says:
Total Trust is an eye-opening and deeply disturbing story of surveillance technology, abuse of power and (self-)censorship that confronts us with what can happen when our privacy is ignored. Through the haunting stories of people in China who have been monitored, intimidated and even tortured, the film tells of the dangers of technology in the hands of unbridled power.
Watch the film. There are many reviews about it (and other sources about surveillance in China). It's really easy to find on the web.
I think this law has similar intentions.
Addition: @megopie it would be great if you could post a source of what you say. Thanks in advance.
U.S. News
FBI issues warning of China’s government possibly targeting US citizens who question Chinese Communist Party in Texas
tardigrada 9 months ago • 100%
As FBI director Wray is cited in 'How China Tries to Intimidate Its Dissidents Living Overseas' (2020), for example:
In one case, according to Wray, the CCP “sent an emissary to visit the target’s family here in the United States.” This emissary warned the target that he or she “had two options: return to China promptly, or commit suicide.”
A more recent analysis on China's illegal police stations can be found at 'China's Consular Volunteers.'
But there are very good sources across the web.
Addition:
In December 2021, a 'Private Investigator' working for the CCP has been advised to also consider physically attacking the Victim. In a voice message intercepted by the police, it was said:
You can start thinking now, aside from violence, what other plans are there? Huh? But in the end, violence would be fine too. Huh? Beat him [chuckles], beat him until he cannot run for election. Heh, that’s the-the last resort. You-you think about it. Car accident, [he] will be completely wrecked [chuckles], right? Don’t know, eh, whatever ways from all different angles.
World News
China feels the country isn’t patriotic enough. A new law aims to change that.
tardigrada 9 months ago • 100%
There's a long read on what has changed since Xi has been leading the CCP. The rules have slightly changed.
Xi Jinping only wants the most devoted Chinese Communist Party members
Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose real power derives from his position as the head of the ruling Communist Party, has placed more emphasis on quality over quantity. He has demanded absolute loyalty from party members, launched an ideology drive to shore up their faith, and unleashed a crackdown on internal dissent. Members are bound by more stringent rules – and millions of cadres have been investigated for violating them in the past nine years since Xi took control of the party.