cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39011502

Um.... What the f....

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered Cloudflare to pay $3.2 million to major Japanese publishers after the U.S. firm was accused of hosting servers for manga piracy sites. ……

Four major publishing firms — Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa — accused Cloudflare of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles. ……

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/49194514

The core function of the planned EU Travel App is for the Council, the option for travellers to transmit their data to the responsible authorities before arriving at the border. This will allow border officials to verify travel documents remotely and also to compare them with police and migration databases.

Despite the promised travel facilitation, civil rights activists and data protectionists are urgently warning against the consequences of digitizing travel documents. They see it as an expansion of the biometric surveillance infrastructure at the EU level. The digital travel app initially provides for automated facial recognition for biometric identification, but it is likely to pave the way for comprehensive and automated collection and evaluation of biometric data. This would restrict freedom of travel in the long term.

Beyond parody.

Israel would not have been able to decimate Gaza to this extent without the TNT production capacity of Nitro-Chem, which after the Cold War emerged as the largest producer of the explosive among NATO and EU members. During the October War of 1973, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) adopted the U.S.-made Mk 80 series, which features an admixture of aluminum powder to increase the heat and destructiveness of the charge. Israel’s air campaign in Gaza mostly featured the largest bombs in the series—the 1,000-pound Mk 83 and the 2,000-pound Mk 84. By April of 2024, Israeli pilots had detonated around 75,000 tons of Polish-made TNT on the densely populated enclave. In nuclear terms, this is an explosive force equivalent to a 75-kiloton fission bomb—significantly more than twice the combined yield of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Along with Vietnam, the Mk 80 supply chain echoes another dark chapter of history—one closer to the mixing site of its main ingredient. The Nitro-Chem plant is located on the former grounds of one of the biggest arms factories built by the Nazis between 1940 and 1944. The authors of the TNT report note that, during the German occupation, Polish resistance cells repeatedly “infiltrated the plant and carried out acts of sabotage.” No such acts have been reported in recent years, as the TNT used in the Gaza genocide uses roads and train tracks in the vicinity of multiple Holocaust memorials, including the site of a mass grave known as the Valley of Death, and the Potulice Concentration Camp, where an estimated 25,000 prisoners were processed.

The bank remained vague about the actual nature of its relationship with the convicted sex trafficker. Newly released documents reveal that Epstein and de Rothschild’s personal relationship was much closer than the bank previously acknowledged. According to emails released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee on November 12, Epstein planned to see a Broadway play with de Rothschild in January 2014, and scheduled a private trip with her to Montreal that September.

A second set of documents—the leaked inbox of former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak, hacked by Handala and uploaded by non-profit whistleblower Distributed Denial of Secrets—sheds light on Epstein’s efforts to leverage his personal friendship with de Rothschild to raise funds for the development of Israeli cyberweapons. After Barak’s retirement from government in 2013, he recruited Pavel Gurvich, a graduate of the Israel Defense Forces’ secretive Unit 81 technology unit, to source cyberweapons startups from the Israeli intelligence community. Gurvich did not respond to a request for comment.

Private communications between Barak and Gurvich show discussions about a wide range of cyberweapons concepts drawn from Israeli military research, inspired in part by the astonishing scope of U.S. global surveillance apparatus revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. Epstein pushed forward a plan to finance Israeli “offensive cyber” startups with the hope of winning de Rothschild’s support.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5697622

Archived version

Chinese intelligence officers attempted to recruit “thousands” of people linked to Westminster in a vast online operation that specifically targeted the “weak underbelly of parliament”, Whitehall sources have said.

Officials believe the agents used two recruitment “headhunters”, Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, to contact parliamentary staff, advisers and policy specialists as part of a “scattergun” effort o identify people with access to sensitive political information. The pair were highlighted, sources said, because they were allegedly the most prolific among a wider group of Chinese intelligence assets still operating.

“They kissed a lot of frogs,” one Whitehall source said. “This was a widespread scattergun targeting. They certainly sent out thousands of approaches. Some of it was dismissed as spam but it was an effort spread far and wide. They only need one out of hundreds to respond; that’s a win for them.”

...

MI5 told MPs and peers that China was offering “large financial incentives for seemingly low-level information” as a way of building relationships and encouraging targets to provide “non-public sensitive information”. Those approached included advisers to former Conservative ministers, including an ex-chancellor, advisers to Labour ministers, officials and researchers at several think tanks, among them the Tony Blair Institute.

The agency said China was attempting to “cultivate” people who were “one step removed” from high-priority parliamentary figures, and urged MPs to be wary of “unusual questions” from colleagues or contacts that might indicate intelligence-gathering.

...

Ordinary Britons should also be cautious about unsolicited online contact from potential Chinese intelligence operatives, the defence minister said.

...

In a letter to MPs, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, said it was of the “utmost importance” that everyone working in parliament understood “how this activity happens and how to protect ourselves against it”. Chinese state entities, he said, were “relentless” in seeking to influence Westminster.

Qiu, chief executive of BR-YR Executive Search, and Shen, co-founder of the Internship Union, have been identified by MI5 as operating LinkedIn accounts used by the Ministry of State Security to “conduct outreach at scale”. Officials believe the pair were specifically tasked with approaching people working in parliament, while other Chinese operatives are deployed against academics, the military, scientific institutions and private industry.

...

Among those contacted was a staff member in the office of Neil O’Brien, the Conservative MP and head of policy for Kemi Badenoch, who has been sanctioned by Beijing. The aide received a message from Shen offering remote consultancy work and praising them as an “excellent candidate”. James Price, a former special adviser to Nadhim Zahawi when he was chancellor, received a similar unsolicited approach framed as a “professional headhunting” opportunity. Both ignored the messages.

...

In September the case collapsed against two men accused of spying for China, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, in which prosecutors alleged they had passed information to Beijing. The pair deny wrongdoing.

The National Protective Security Authority, part of MI5, said last month that Chinese agents were posting fake job adverts online to lure British professionals into handing over secret material. Thousands had already been identified.

...

Hello everyone, I am a long time lurker of this channel, and I finally decided to write my first post.

Two years ago I used my old desktop PC to run a home server using TrueNAS Scale. It is still running at the time of writing this.

It works so well in fact that I have grown more dependent on it over time. First it was just Jellyfin, then came all the Arr apps, Adguard, Syncthing, Immich, Forgejo, Wireguard...

What was supposed to be the "PC for backups" has turned into the angular stone of all my computers and devices.

The reason why I am posting today is because I am afraid of the day my server dies or I have to move out of my place (which might happen soon)

Does anyone know if it is possible to rent a cloud server where I could install TrueNAS and then have that be a "replica" of my local one to use in case of an emergency? Is this a bad idea? What is the ideam solution for this issue?

Following Drug Factory Raid, a Battle Royale Begins to Take Shape Between Haiti’s Viv Ansanm Coalition and the U.S.-Backed Regime

Commodore Floyd Moxey (left), Commander of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, and Godfrey Otunge, Commander of the GSF, review Guatemalan GSF soldiers in their Port-au-Prince base on Nov. 14, 2025. Photo: GSF

Last week began with Joseph “Lanmò Sanjou” Wilson, leader of Croix-des-Bouquet’s armed group 400 Mawozo, announcing that his soldiers had raided an illegal drug factory just north of Port-au-Prince belonging to the prominent bourgeois Apaid family.

Although neither the Apaids nor the U.S.-installed Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) confirmed or denied Wilson’s account, one of Washington’s long-time Haitian assets did.

Stanley Lucas, the scion of big landowners (grandon) responsible for the infamous Jean-Rabel massacre in Haiti’s Northwest, who was the Haitian point man for the International Republican Institute (IRI) – a CIA cut-out agency – in the lead-up to the 2004 coup d’état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, took to the airwaves on Nov. 12 to argue that the plant did, in fact, belong to the Apaids (Lucas worked closely with Andy Apaid to carry out the 2004 coup) but was legal because it was growing “medical marijuana” for sale in the U.S.. Never mind that the cultivation and consumption of marijuana is completely illegal in Haiti.

Wilson’s raid revealed, and Lucas’ rationalization confirmed, what most poor Haitians have known and resented for decades: that Haiti’s fabulously rich bourgeoisie is above the law.

Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier (center), president and spokesman of the Viv Ansanm political party, walking with his soldiers in Lower Delmas. Photo: Vant Bèf Info

In retaliation, the Haitian National Police (PNH), the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAdH), and Washington’s newly contrived international Gang Suppression Force (GSF) launched a massive and unprecedented 15-hour retaliation on Nov. 14, ostensibly to punish Wilson’s group for their temerity in uncovering and then publicizing the Apaids’ criminal operation. For the whole joint operation, the authorities claimed to have killed “several” of Wilson’s soldiers and captured “a M50-caliber Barrett rifle, six assault rifles, and three pistols” plus “the gang’s armored bulldozer… which had been used to erect road barricades.” The bulldozer actually was shared with an armed group from the neighboring town of Canaan, which along with 400 Mawozo also belongs to the Viv Ansanm coalition, which has now formed itself into a political party.

U.S. Army veteran and YouTube commentator Rod Joseph cast doubt on the joint task force’s claim of killing “several” of Wilson’s soldiers. “All they showed were some guns, but they didn’t show any bodies,” he told a Haitian TikTok show.

Many Haitians suspected, however, that the real accomplishment, if not purpose, of the huge joint operation was to set fire to the Apaid factory compound and thereby get rid of all proof of cocaine production and human organ trafficking, which Wilson claimed to have uncovered.

In a Nov. 15 video message, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier asked Haitians to stay out of the streets because the Viv Ansanm was going to launch a counter-offensive to that of Haitian cops and foreign troops.

A helicopter used in the operation “was forced to make an emergency landing due to a mechanical malfunction,” according to the authorities, and the “elite team on board was immediately secured and evacuated by ground units, who came under heavy gang fire while conducting the rescue.” The helicopter was then burned by Viv Ansanm soldiers. One Viv Ansanm leader claimed that the helicopter was rented in the Dominican Republic and helped set fire to the Apaid factory “to destroy all the evidence… before the eyes of all the Haitian people.”

As the raid in Croix-des-Bouquets was underway, a high-level delegation from the Bahamas joined the GSF and PNH commanders in Port-au-Prince to “reiterate… [their] unwavering commitment to disrupting gang activity” and “restoring basic security,” vowing that “criminal groups will not be allowed to regain influence” and “will be pursued decisively; on land, at sea, and in the air,” according to their press release.

However, the intended show of force may have done the opposite as it underlined that the ballyhooed GSF is, at least to date, simply a name change for the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), which ended after a dismal two-year run on Oct. 2. The GSF is still composed of the same small handful of nations – Kenya, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Belize, and Bahamas – and the latter’s emissaries, Commodore Floyd Moxey, Commander of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, and Ms. Jerusa Ali, Ambassador-Director General of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, were decidedly underwhelming, particularly from a country with a population of only 400,000, smaller than most major Haitian cities.

The new PNH chief, Vladimir Paraison, put out a statement that also attempted to inspire confidence. “The police force, which I’m now directing, is no longer on the defensive,” he said. “We’re now on the offensive. No matter what happens, instead of waiting for them to come to me, they are now the ones who are going to be waiting for me. And I want you to know, that one way or another I will get to them, no matter what.”

Around midnight on Nov. 17, the PNH, which works closely with Erik Prince’s Vectus International mercenaries, used a drone to attack the community swimming pool in Delmas 6, the neighborhood of Viv Ansanm president and spokesman Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier. That night, the PNH massed 13 armored vehicles outside both Cherizier’s Lower Delmas neighborhoods and 13 more around Wilson’s in Croix-des-Bouquets, according to Cherizier.

GSF Commander Godfrey Otunge standing by an armored bulldozer captured from Viv Ansanm forces on Nov. 14, 2025. Photo: GSF

The attacks were likely in response to a statement Cherizier made on Nov. 15, which went viral on Haitian social media. “This message is addressed to the Haitian people in general,” he began. “Starting this Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, unless absolutely necessary, do not go out. All drivers’ unions, stay home. All public transport drivers, stay home […] We are announcing this without taking drastic measures, in order to inform the public about what will happen, to prevent them from becoming victims. Those who don’t need to, do not go out into the streets. Leave the streets to Viv Ansanm and the police so that we can confront them… If you ignore this and go out, we are not responsible for what might happen to you. The time has come, Haitian people, to unite to liberate this country.”

Indeed, on Nov. 17, the capital’s streets were largely empty, and gunfire was heard around the city, but no major battles took place. The same was true for Nov. 18, the 222nd anniversary of the Battle of Vertières, at which Napoleon’s French expeditionary force was defeated, resulting in Haiti’s Jan. 1, 1804 independence.

A heavily guarded CPT delegation scurried to the MUPANAH museum on the mostly deserted central Champ de Mars square to lay a wreath of flowers at the memorial, but afterwards gunfire crackled all around the area.

“Today, it is no longer government decisions that dictate daily life, but the pronouncements of the gangs,” wrote Jameson Joseph in Quotidien 509. “Every time they claim they want to ‘block the country,’ the capital empties. When they say ‘don’t go out,’ doors slam shut, and families lock themselves in their homes. Their words, whether spread through social media messages, rumors, or direct statements, have become a far more powerful warning signal than any government communication.”

Jacques Sauveur Jean, a famous Haitian singer-turned-politician-turned-gentleman-farmer added to the Viv Ansanm’s cachet when he praised Wilson’s raid on Apaid’s factory and later called for peace talks.

“We could resolve this problem with dialogue,” he said in the latter video. “Someone could say to me, Jacques, we’re going to observe a truce, whether Lanmò Sanjou, or Andy [Apaid], or Barbecue, or [South Department vigilante government commissioner Jean Ernest] Muscadin, we’ll give you 24 hours of truce where neither side fires on the other, the time to meet with each guy… That means dialogue.” Indeed, the Viv Ansanm has spent the past few months repeatedly calling for national dialogue.

Christ-Roi “Krisla” Chéry, a Viv Ansanm leader in Carrefour: “If we let this opportunity pass, we’ll have to wait for many, many years for another opportunity like this.”

A similar nod to Viv Ansanm came from Jeff Louis, a former soccer star from Mirebalais on the Haitian national team. Invoking the 1803 battle, he said “today is Nov. 18, 2025, where our selection is fighting for the 2026 World Cup qualification” against Honduras. “I would like to ask you, Viv Ansanm gentlemen, the time has come for us to think of the Haitian people, of those who are like us, of peace, so that we can live and celebrate the qualification of the national team together… Haiti is in a battle, grenadier alaso [revolutionary soldiers, charge!], long live Haiti, long live the revolution.” Indeed, there was no fighting or gunfire during the match which Haiti won, to everyone’s delight and celebration. Haiti had not qualified since the 1974 World Cup, so the victory is huge and symbolic.

But this moment was probably best captured Christ-Roi “Krisla” Chéry, the Viv Ansanm leader of the Ti Bois neighborhood in Port-au-Prince’s Carrefour, who just released on Nov. 15 a hit music video entitled “Nou we anba yo” (We see them below).

“For several years, the Haitian people have asked for Viv Ansanm to turn its weapons on the corrupt bourgeois and politicians,” he said in a Nov. 17 video message, which also revealed the national and psychic importance of Haiti’s Nov. 18 soccer match. “Today, that is being done… Lanmò Sanjou discovered the factory where they were making cocaine, marijuana, and human organ trafficking. Today, Haitian people, what are you going to do? Are you still going to stand and watch?

“If we let this opportunity pass, we’ll have to wait for many, many years for another opportunity like this,” Krisla continued. “The corrupt bourgeoisie have taken the nation hostage… They use the nation’s wealth and the state’s treasury to become rich… No black man can do any serious business in Haiti… Viv Ansanm is yours, Haitian people. Today, the Haitian people should mobilize to attack this system, the bourgeoisie’s and politicians’ corrupt system. I don’t think you can ever again argue that Viv Ansanm doesn’t attack the bourgeoisie…. even though we have attacked lots of bourgeois already, but you didn’t say anything… Haitian people, open your eyes. It is time for us to escape from the situation we are in. And tomorrow, Nov. 18, I hope God and Nature give us a chance for Haiti to qualify, because if Haiti qualifies, we have a chance for national reconciliation. That’s what I hope for. And I’m confident, Haiti can win… We have a nation to save.”

Kim Ives

Hi all, I've been looking for a solution for keeping track of the versions of my docker containers and when they might need updates. I tried cup and cupdate but I didn't feel like I had enough granular control of which docker images were showing up and it was tricky to find github release notes for each release. I found argus which allows more control (indeed, you have to manually configure each service you add) and you essentially scrape github for version numbers and then either scrape your service webpage for a version number or use a service's api for version. This works for a lot of services, and I really like it so far. However, I have no idea how to get version numbers for some services like karakeep or actual. My question is: are there hacky ways that I can expose version numbers from my services, or am I shit out of luck if it's not on the login page or exposed by an API?

Thanks!

To oversimplify the situation:

• Victorian Socialists^[wikipedia]^ are an electoral political party. They publicly announced themselves and registered in 2018 as a collaboration between Socialist Alternative (SAlt)^[wikipedia]^, Socialist Alliance^[wikipedia]^ and a few other politicians.
• In 2020, Socialist Alliance withdrew from Victorian Socialists. Official article.
• In mid-2025, Victorian Socialists announced plans to expand nationwide, and to change their name to Socialist Party. Branches have been launched in all other states and territories, with some already being registered.
• This month, VS announced their attempts to rename with the AEC and to register with the NSW Electoral Commission were both refused on the basis of similarity with Socialist Alliance's name. They emphasised that Alliance has not acted to prevent the registration, Alliance have given permission, it's the AEC and NSWEC blocking them. Official statement and call for unity with Alliance. [November 12]
• Less than a week later, VS have sent another statement to Alliance calling for unity. Official statement [November 17].

While I don't see it bluntly stated, I think it's fair to say VS want Alliance to join their party and deregister.

I am not well-networked with VS, Alliance, SAlt, RCO, etc., and I've often found that online arguments are different to the reality on-the-ground, so it's hard to know what the situation truly is. Two of the main, contradictory perspectives I've heard so far are:

• One claims that Alliance's 2020 claim of SAlt being a dominant anti-collaborative faction still applies today, and perceives VS as essentially a SAlt electoral front, or otherwise controlled by them. There is a history of allegations like this against SAlt, such as the Freedom Socialist Party and associated Radical Women claiming that SAlt joined CARF after other groups and "over time through undemocratic measures, dismantled the unity and took control."
• The other points to the Communist Caucus - the minority faction in VS - and two successful former caucuses (Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers' Caucus) as evidence of their openness to diversity of politics and open factions. The Communist Caucus formed by the Revolutionary Communist Organisation and allies. RCO's article about their faction. The Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers' Caucus are both discussed in this recent article by a VS independent and former member of Socialist Unity - SU met almost all of its demands and had little reason to continue existing, and the SWC were incorporated as an official party body.

I don't see any official statements from Alliance on their publication Green Left, although an RCO Partisan! article published today contains an excerpt of an official email sent to Alliance members, raising objections towards SAlt dominating through stacking VS's undelegated conferences, and alleging that VS's repeated calls for unity are not designed to leave the door open for regroupment or to build trust.

Unity supporters are arguing that Alliance and Socialist Party have near identical politics and that them existing as separate parties is counterproductive.

The alleged abuses, including the torture and killing of dozens of civilians, took place at TotalEnergies' liquefied natural gas project in the restive northeastern Cabo Delgado province, the ECCHR said in a statement.

The announcement came hours after the Saudi crown prince announced he would increase his investments in the U.S. to nearly $1 trillion.

Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have entered into a security agreement that will ease weapons transfers and elevate the relationship between the two countries.

Under the agreement, Saudi Arabia would be designated a “major non-NATO ally,” a formal relationship that deepens defense cooperation but does not include a security guarantee. The Kingdom would join 19 other countries in that category, a list that includes Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The announcement followed the crown prince’s announcement that he would increase his nation’s investments in the U.S. from about $600 billion to nearly $1 trillion — and after Trump dismissed a question about the 2018 killing of a Washington Post columnist in which Mohammed was implicated by the CIA.

At least five West Bank villages have been targeted as settlers lit Palestinian homes, cars, and a mosque ablaze, while the army delayed emergency vehicles.

The issue was not caused, directly or indirectly, by a cyber attack or malicious activity of any kind. Instead, it was triggered by a change to one of our database systems' permissions which caused the database to output multiple entries into a “feature file” used by our Bot Management system. That feature file, in turn, doubled in size. The larger-than-expected feature file was then propagated to all the machines that make up our network.

The software running on these machines to route traffic across our network reads this feature file to keep our Bot Management system up to date with ever changing threats. The software had a limit on the size of the feature file that was below its doubled size. That caused the software to fail.