cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/43371009

Archived

The alleged plot has echoes of a Cold War-era spy novel. A hesitant young woman is directed by her security agency handler to “infiltrate the enemy’s inner circle”, using a false identity to burrow deep for secrets she can dispatch back to senior officers.

But the scene is not set in the atmospheric mists of Prague’s Charles Bridge or the hectic bustle of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Instead, it takes place in the sleepy suburbs of Australia’s Bush Capital, where a 37-year-old Chinese woman and her two co-defendants have been charged with “reckless foreign interference” for allegedly spying on an unassuming Buddhist association.

Documents released this week by Canberra’s Magistrates Court reveal how the unusual alleged surveillance mission unfolded over three years before it was abruptly interrupted by the Australian Federal Police, but may also offer an alluring insight into the techniques of suspected Chinese state influence and interference operations now expanding not only in Australia but globally.

The AFP statement of facts from Operation Autumn Shield, led by the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, details alleged WeChat messages between “Foreign Official 1” – a member of China’s Public Security Bureau – a woman operating under the pseudonym Thomas Tyler and her co-accused Zheng Siru, 31, and Joseph Vance, 25, also using a pseudonym.

[...]

The court materials show police alleged the defendants gathered information on the Buddhist group and its associated media company from many open sources, including SBS Chinese programs and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

In the messages released by the court, Foreign Official 1 allegedly urges Tyler to “slip in, climb as high as you can” within the ranks of Guan Yin Citta’s Canberra branch, despite her protestation that this “seems to be developing rather quickly … Then you’ll have me arrested.”

The task has a “bit of spy thriller feel to it”, responds the official, encouraging his charge that, “if you climb high enough, you’ll be commended directly to the leaders in Beijing”.

The three accused have been bailed and are expected to plead not guilty when the court resumes the case later this year.

While the targeting of a fringe Buddhist organisation – whose founder once claimed that former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a Chinese man in a past life – may seem strange, close observers of the ruling Chinese Communist Party point to the regime’s deep-seated paranoia about overseas religious and political groups it fears could internally destabilise China.

[...]

A joint February 11 media release from the AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, announcing the charging of the two younger Chinese nationals in the Canberra case, referred to past statements by ASIO chief Mike Burgess, that foreign interference remains one of Australia’s principal security concerns.

“A complex, challenging and changing security environment is becoming more dynamic, diverse and degraded,” Burgess said in his annual threat assessment in 2025.

“Multiple foreign regimes are monitoring, harassing and intimidating members of our diaspora communities. This sort of behaviour is utterly unacceptable and cannot be tolerated,” he said.

[...]

China’s United Front

Under President Xi Jinping, the expansion of Chinese state influence and interference operations globally, and the increased surveillance of diaspora groups and individuals, has been well documented.

It has been carried out in part by the loosely defined and secretive Communist Party agency known as the United Front Work Department.

The UFWD – described by Xi as a “magic weapon” – and the Chinese security agencies operating within its strategy, conducts an opaque mix of intelligence gathering, surveillance of the Chinese diaspora and a campaign to shape the global political environment and narratives in Beijing’s favour.

The agency focuses on the management of potential opposition groups inside China but is also used by the Communist regime to engage in transnational repression and the silencing of critics living abroad.

While declining to comment on the Canberra case, Chris Taylor, the head of the statecraft and intelligence policy centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the overseas actions of authoritarian regimes like China, Iran and Cambodia were driven by a sense of vulnerability about their political structures and social systems.

[...]

install it on your ass

Companies sending goods up and down the country's railways could begin to favour road transport as KiwiRail manages declining assets, an expert says.

KiwiRail is focusing on upgrades and electrification in Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga - the so-called "golden triangle" - and other main freight lines while it manages older assets elsewhere.

The company said it was the only option that would allow it to meet budget cuts of $200 million over the next three years.

Drug lord who was killed by Mexican special forces on Sunday led a cartel known for aggression and military-style arsenal

The drug lord “El Mencho”, who was killed on Sunday by Mexican special forces, was the co-founder and leader of a gang that in recent years had become the country’s most powerful criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

While less internationally famous than the Sinaloa cartel of the now imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the CJNG is a household name in Mexico, where it is known for its displays of ultraviolence and its big, military-style arsenal.

The cartel, based in the state of Jalisco, has been one of the most aggressive in its attacks on the military – including on helicopters – and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. An effort to capture El Mencho, real name Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a 59-year-old former police officer, ended badly in 2015, with cartel gang members shooting down an army helicopter with a rocket launcher.

MBFC
Archive

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/SB26-051

Paywall? https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.politico.eu/article/iceland-fast-track-vote-eu-membership/

NZ first are on to something with their bill for much harsher penalties for people who own dogs that attack someone, it happens far too often, and owners are far too casual about the damage a dog can do.

Also, good to see the same quotes you always hear after a dog attack. They're such sweet dogs, this hasn't happened before, they're great with the baby, etc.

I'm sick of reading the same story every other year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43575238

from +972’s Sunday Recap
972 Magazine [published in Israel]
Feb.22, 2026

Local Call reporter Oren Ziv reported from the Jordan Valley, where the Israeli army is issuing evacuation orders and seizing land to prepare a massive new separation wall that will sever the region from the rest of the West Bank — part of a wider project to annex the Palestinian “breadbasket.”

Also:

• ICE tripled its reliance on Microsoft in last six months, leaked files reveal
• Israel’s new separation wall will sever Jordan Valley from rest of West Bank
• No explanation, no appeal: Israel revoking entry authorization of foreign activists
• In widening Saudi-UAE rift, Israel is at the heart of a narrative war
• With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid

The researchers suggest that policymakers should focus on design elements with an eye on psychological needs, “discouraging agency-reducing features like autoplay and infinite scroll,” rather than implementing broader rules on screen time or on social media regardless of platform. Beyond this, politicians and regulators would be wise to follow the authors’ lead and embrace the complexity of the relationship between adolescent social media use and mental health by paying attention to regulations’ impact on minorities, divergent psychological effects, and the constant flux in platform features and how they are used.

These people just never learn.... And they cry when Labor wins govt.

Failure to follow the order is subject to a $2,000 fine or up to 3 months in jail.

The behaviours mentioned in the video (that are not in the draft explanatory note ^pdf^):

• Behavior indicating an intent to inhabit a public place
• Rough sleeping
• All forms of begging
• Breaching the peace
• Obstructing or impeding someone from entering a business
• Disorderly, disruptive, threatening, or intimidating behavior

Hon Mark Mitchel (Minister of Police) chimes in at 10:23 to acknowledge that the people subject to the order are vulnerable people.

At 17:54 a reporter asks about descretionary enforcement and Mitchel confirms the planned use of selective enforcement which increases the risk of targeting marginalised populations.

The YT comments are gold.

Full RNZ article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/587562/government-announces-homeless-move-on-orders-for-all-town-centres-not-just-auckland

This was also reported on in November '25.

Some group on Bandcamp probably did it back in like 2016 and then broke up in 2017 after releasing 3 singles. But I don't feel like googling it.

“El Mencho” was the longtime head of one of the nation’s most powerful cartels. Armed groups set fire to cars and buildings across Mexico in the wake of his death.

I'm asking not specifically about smoke detectors but any device that beeps but does not make any other, non-beeping sounds. Examples include microwaves, the timers on ovens, the fare system on a bus when you give it your fare, the little beepy heart monitor things in hospitals and old-school digital watches. These things beep but they seem to only beep; they do not make any other, non-beeping sounds.

So my question is: how do these things beep? It must be a speaker right (?), and if it is a speaker then why do these devices never make any other sounds other than beeping? (Because presumably speakers have a greater range than just a few beeps.) Or do these devices have specialized speakers that can only make a few sounds? If so, how do these speakers work?

I'm not sure if I articulated this very well but hopefully that makes sense.

I am so broke and I'm so fired

I need some fuel to build a fire

The fash next door, his lights are out , yeah, ooh

The landlord's gone , I'm down and out

It's warm bean time again You know it'll always win warm bean time again

You know it is the only thing that keeps us together

It's time to leave and get more beans

Around the corner at the beanis store 🏪

Heh-heh, the cheapest stuff is all I need

To get me back on my feet 🦶again

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59614670

From Brazil’s cattle pastures to Indonesia’s palm oil plantations, so-called green European funds that claim to combat climate change are financing companies involved in deforestation and rising emissions.

These €9B in investments may well come from European customers who are unaware that they are entrusting their savings to portfolios holding companies with a high deforestation risk. A recent report from the Sustainable Finance Observatory shows that while 74% of EU retail investors have sustainability-related objectives, in 57% of advice meetings these preferences were not automatically assessed.