• appearance
• probably some kind of fungus maybe a black mould
• vibes based engineering
• aggressive and yearns for violence
• british accent

Despite building an increasingly screen-focused world, billionaire tech leaders are keeping their own children away from the tech they helped create.

As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”

Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video.

At the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, early Facebook investor and billionaire Peter Thiel joined Chen among the ranks of tech leaders who are setting strict limits on screens. Thiel said he only lets his two young children use screens for an hour-and-a-half per week, a revelation that prompted audible gasps from the audience.

Other tech CEOs, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk, have also spoken about limiting their children’s access to devices. Gates has said he did not give his children smartphones until age 14 and banned phones at the dinner table entirely. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, in 2018, said he limits his child to the same 1.5 hours per week of screen time as Thiel. And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.

Yet, as the trials against social media companies continue and country after country moves toward legislating what Silicon Valley’s billionaires have quietly practiced for years, the private behavior of the world’s most powerful tech figures stands in contrast to what they’re promoting and building

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said they are preparing "an appropriate and calculated response" to Pakistani air strikes that killed at least 18 people in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51252387

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51251702

Archived

Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines should establish a formal NATO-style defence alliance to counter China’s growing military power in Asia, according to a former top adviser to Joe Biden.

Ely Ratner, who served as Biden’s assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, also urged the Albanese government to significantly increase military spending to ensure that AUKUS does not cannibalise the defence budget and drain resources for other important investments.

[...]

He said he was concerned by Donald Trump’s lack of focus on competition with China and that he feared the US president could make damaging concessions to Beijing when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this year.

“The threat is mounting from China. China’s ambitions have not moderated. It is building a military to be able to dominate the Indo-Pacific, and it has ambitions for which only combat-credible deterrence will prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific,” Ratner said in an interview.

[...]

And this motherfucker thinks China is not socialist. 😂

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51252490

Public broadcaster ABC said some Chinese riders with food delivery service HungryPanda in Australia were in a dispute over their pay and conditions.

They discussed protest plans in a group chat on Chinese messaging app WeChat, the ABC said.

Some riders reportedly said police in China then called them directly or warned them through their families not to get involved in protests.

HungryPanda, an Asian food delivery firm founded by a Chinese international student in Britain in 2017, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"The Australian Government does not tolerate surveillance, harassment, or threats towards any Australian citizens or individuals lawfully in Australia," said a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs.

Australia's counter foreign interference taskforce was "aware" of the ABC report on HungryPanda riders, the spokesperson said, declining, however, to comment on individual cases.

[...]

In its annual threat assessment last year, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said "multiple foreign regimes" attempt to monitor, harass and intimidate Australians and Australian residents.

This month, Australia's federal police charged two Chinese nationals with foreign interference, accusing them of spying on a Buddhist group at the behest of police in China.

[...]

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office released figures on Friday showing that China is back on top as the country’s most important market with €251bn (£219bn) in trade in 2025, up 2.2% on 2024 when the US was the country’s leading export destination.

Pakistan has carried out multiple overnight air strikes on Afghanistan, which the Taliban has said killed at least 18 people, including women and children.

Islamabad said the attacks targeted seven alleged militant camps and hideouts near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and that they had been launched after recent suicide bombings in Pakistan.

Afghanistan condemned the attacks, saying they targeted multiple civilian homes and a religious school.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51251424

The Albanese government has created a new unit in Treasury to inject intelligence insights into economic decision-making for the first time.

The new branch is working with intelligence agencies and international partners to identify and communicate trends, threats and opportunities for economic security.

[...]

Archived

[...]

“Geopolitical tensions and conflicts around the world are a major driver of global economic uncertainty,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the Australian Financial Review.

“Economic security and national security are now almost indistinguishable.”

The idea of a “distinct economic security function” – including staff seconded from security agencies – was first raised in the Independent Intelligence Review that was made public last year. The review identified economic security as an emerging area of policy at a time of rising national security challenges.

[...]

“Our pitch to international investors is not that we are immune from uncertainty but that we are well-placed to manage it and grasp the opportunities that flow from it,” he said, pointing to Australia’s well-regulated financial system, deep capital markets, and long track record as a reliable home for capital.

However, a recent report by the United States Studies Centre urged both government and business to urgently step up contingency plans to better navigate heightened risks from global crises.

[...]

Australian businesses had been “sluggish” to prepare for geopolitical threats across the supply chain because of the complexity and costs involved, said the report.

Companies “should consider ‘war gaming’ different disruption scenarios to help them anticipate and plan for geopolitical pressure and supply chain disruptions”, it warned.

[...]

It also said Australia was well-positioned to play a key role in targeted areas like critical minerals and supporting AI expansion through energy production and as a hub for data centres.

“Part of the solution is for government to think broadly about how Australia can plug holes in the global supply chain,” said Channer.

[...]

Public broadcaster ABC said some Chinese riders with food delivery service HungryPanda in Australia were in a dispute over their pay and conditions.

They discussed protest plans in a group chat on Chinese messaging app WeChat, the ABC said.

Some riders reportedly said police in China then called them directly or warned them through their families not to get involved in protests.

HungryPanda, an Asian food delivery firm founded by a Chinese international student in Britain in 2017, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"The Australian Government does not tolerate surveillance, harassment, or threats towards any Australian citizens or individuals lawfully in Australia," said a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs.

Australia's counter foreign interference taskforce was "aware" of the ABC report on HungryPanda riders, the spokesperson said, declining, however, to comment on individual cases.

[...]

In its annual threat assessment last year, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said "multiple foreign regimes" attempt to monitor, harass and intimidate Australians and Australian residents.

This month, Australia's federal police charged two Chinese nationals with foreign interference, accusing them of spying on a Buddhist group at the behest of police in China.

[...]

When Nigel Farage told a journalist this week she should “write some silly story … and we won’t bother to read it”, it provoked an instant – and divided – reaction. For some it was a “masterclass” in dealing with mainstream media, but for others it was “rude, dismissive, misogynistic, arrogant”.

Behind the scenes, Farage’s treatment of the Financial Times’s Anna Gross – which was met with mirth and applause among Reform diehards in the room – provoked disquiet and anger among lobby journalists across the political spectrum.

As the Reform UK leader was leaving the event, a Guardian political reporter suggested he had been rude and had upset the journalist. “Good,” Farage responded.

It is not the first time Farage has been accused of patronising a female journalist. When the former BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain asked him about the potential consequences of shooting down Russian planes last October, Farage responded: “Listen love, you’re trying ever so hard.” A month later he accused the Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey of playing a “silly little game” when she asked who his chancellor would be.

Amid a busy news cycle, his most recent condescension could have been easily forgotten. But in a week where Farage hired a hardline anti-abortion theologian as his head of policy and promised to repeal the Equality Act on his party’s first day in government, it has sparked the question: does Reform UK, and its leader in particular, have a women problem?

Archived

Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines should establish a formal NATO-style defence alliance to counter China’s growing military power in Asia, according to a former top adviser to Joe Biden.

Ely Ratner, who served as Biden’s assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, also urged the Albanese government to significantly increase military spending to ensure that AUKUS does not cannibalise the defence budget and drain resources for other important investments.

[...]

He said he was concerned by Donald Trump’s lack of focus on competition with China and that he feared the US president could make damaging concessions to Beijing when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this year.

“The threat is mounting from China. China’s ambitions have not moderated. It is building a military to be able to dominate the Indo-Pacific, and it has ambitions for which only combat-credible deterrence will prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific,” Ratner said in an interview.

[...]

The Albanese government has created a new unit in Treasury to inject intelligence insights into economic decision-making for the first time.

The new branch is working with intelligence agencies and international partners to identify and communicate trends, threats and opportunities for economic security.

[...]

Archived

[...]

“Geopolitical tensions and conflicts around the world are a major driver of global economic uncertainty,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the Australian Financial Review.

“Economic security and national security are now almost indistinguishable.”

The idea of a “distinct economic security function” – including staff seconded from security agencies – was first raised in the Independent Intelligence Review that was made public last year. The review identified economic security as an emerging area of policy at a time of rising national security challenges.

[...]

“Our pitch to international investors is not that we are immune from uncertainty but that we are well-placed to manage it and grasp the opportunities that flow from it,” he said, pointing to Australia’s well-regulated financial system, deep capital markets, and long track record as a reliable home for capital.

However, a recent report by the United States Studies Centre urged both government and business to urgently step up contingency plans to better navigate heightened risks from global crises.

[...]

Australian businesses had been “sluggish” to prepare for geopolitical threats across the supply chain because of the complexity and costs involved, said the report.

Companies “should consider ‘war gaming’ different disruption scenarios to help them anticipate and plan for geopolitical pressure and supply chain disruptions”, it warned.

[...]

It also said Australia was well-positioned to play a key role in targeted areas like critical minerals and supporting AI expansion through energy production and as a hub for data centres.

“Part of the solution is for government to think broadly about how Australia can plug holes in the global supply chain,” said Channer.

[...]

If you want to donate: https://republik.social/@republik_magazin/116096708108187775

Hezbollah said on Saturday that the group “no longer has any option” but to defend itself after the deadliest Israeli strikes in weeks hit eastern Lebanon on Friday.

The strikes killed at least 10 people, including a Hezbollah military official, in the Bekaa Valley region, in another violation of the ceasefire signed in November 2024. Twenty-four people, including three children, were wounded.

In a speech broadcast on Hezbollah’s television channel Al-Manar, the deputy chairman of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qamati, described the attacks as “a new massacre and a new aggression.”