In short:

Religious groups and unions have made submissions to a Queensland parliamentary committee probing new laws that would ban certain phrases and expressions.

The Islamic Council of Queensland and the Archdiocese of Brisbane raised concerns about religious freedom and civil liberties.

What's next?

The committee will table its report on February 27.

The legislation before the parliament does not specifically ban any phrases, but it gives the government of the day the power to outlaw a phrase through regulation.

The legislation would allow the government to ban an expression if the attorney-general was satisfied it was regularly used to incite discrimination, hostility, or violence towards a relevant group.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59451727

The tactic is part of a new Asia-Pacific strategy that outlines Madrid’s priorities for the next three years. The document, seen by Bloomberg News ahead of its release on Friday (Feb 20), calls for more high-level meetings and economic exchanges between Spain and China, while encouraging other European countries to coordinate on their relationship with Beijing.

“Spain seeks to advance a positive and ambitious bilateral agenda with China, reinforcing the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as the excellent bilateral relationship,” the strategy says.

The tactic is part of a new Asia-Pacific strategy that outlines Madrid’s priorities for the next three years. The document, seen by Bloomberg News ahead of its release on Friday (Feb 20), calls for more high-level meetings and economic exchanges between Spain and China, while encouraging other European countries to coordinate on their relationship with Beijing.

“Spain seeks to advance a positive and ambitious bilateral agenda with China, reinforcing the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as the excellent bilateral relationship,” the strategy says.

Germany's industrial sector cut around 124,000 jobs in 2025 as the economy struggles, according to an analysis by consulting firm EY seen by dpa.

The automotive industry was hardest hit, shedding around 50,000 positions, while the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors lost roughly 2,000 jobs.

Around 1.9 million people with a higher education qualification in Germany were at risk of poverty in 2025, around 350,000 more than in 2022, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office requested by the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

"Complex global challenges can only be solved by working together," Zipse told Reuters. "With his trip to China, the chancellor is sending a strong signal for dialogue and cooperation."

"Those who close their minds to China's enormous market and innovation potential are missing out on great opportunities for global growth and economic success."

Avilable digitally February 27.

Pokémon FireRed Version - https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/english-pokemon-firered-version-switch/

Pokémon LeafGreen Version - https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/english-pokemon-leafgreen-version-switch/

it's them vs us

In previously unreported remarks, the U.S. administration warned Brussels that it will retaliate if Europeans “strong-arm American companies out of the market.”

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to retaliate against European countries if the EU favors domestic weapons-makers in a drive to rearm the continent.

The U.S. Department of Defense objected to any EU effort to limit American arms-manufacturers' access to the European market and warned that would trigger a reciprocal response.

The administration made the previously unreported remarks in a contribution to a European Commission consultation earlier this month, after the EU’s executive branch requested feedback from governments and industry on European weapons procurement rules.

MBFC
Archive

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51138378

The excerpts below are verbatim model outputs from multiple sessions with China's Deepseek.

[...]

The model is explicit that information control serves power—and that power fears what informed citizens can do.

• Criticality for Maintenance of Power

Yes, it is critical. The party's claim to legitimacy is not based on winning competitive elections where its record is openly debated. ... Without the ability to manage this information, the party would face a crisis of legitimacy that could only be resolved by either fundamental political reform (ceding its monopoly) or significantly heightened coercion.”

It is equally explicit about the motive behind this control.

Fear of an Informed Citizenry: The restrictions reveal a profound fear. Most feared is knowledge that could lead to withdrawal of mass acquiescence.

The LLM spells out what information is particularly sensitive:

This includes: debates on the moral legitimacy of the one-party state; comparative analyses showing higher quality of life under alternative systems; unfiltered accounts of historical violence perpetrated by the state; and practical knowledge on civic organization and collective action independent of party organs.

And finally the shock that follows if citizens suddenly gain information parity with a more open society:

Sudden informational equalization would not be a simple, positive liberation. It would be a profound systemic shock, redistributing power from state to society and within society itself.

DeepSeek frames the harm as a civic transformation, not merely a lack of information.

By being systematically deprived of contentious facts, alternative viewpoints, and tools for independent organization, citizens [in China] are structurally prevented from developing the civic capacity required for democratic self-governance. Their political socialization is one of reception, not participation.

This is the model’s deeper claim: low openness does not merely hide facts. It actively shapes citizens away from independent judgment and peaceful correction.

[...]

It then explains the enforcement logic in detail:

The worst-case scenario is lengthy imprisonment on broadly defined national security charges, such as "subversion of state power," "inciting splittism," or "leaking state secrets." The rationale is deterrence. The state's logic is not to punish a specific criminal act, but to extinguish the behavior of independent public truth-telling, which is seen as an existential threat to narrative control.

[...]

In its account, the outcome is not reform but exit. For individuals unable or unwilling to practice strategic silence, the model describes exile as the only stable option:

Given a cognitive profile incapable of strategic silence, the safest rational long-term strategy is permanent exile and the continuation of work from within the informational and legal jurisdiction of a [China] type entity.”

In the model’s logic, exile reads less like protest than risk management.

[...]

Governance itself becomes maladaptive. Leaders receive filtered information, failures are hidden until they become crises, and the system steadily loses its capacity for self-correction. Stability is preserved in appearance, but resilience is weakened.

[In China], the public sphere is not a marketplace of ideas but a theater of consensus.

[...]

The [Chinese] model, by making truthfulness a liability, infantilizes its citizenry and mortgages the nation's long-term future for short-term political control. It creates a prosperous but fragile facade, a society advanced in infrastructure but stunted in its capacity for honest self-reflection and renewal. The systemic punishment of truth inevitably leads to accumulated rot—corruption, scientific decline, and governance failure—that ultimately undermines the very stability and prosperity it claims to guarantee.

[...]

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51138378

The excerpts below are verbatim model outputs from multiple sessions with China's Deepseek.

[...]

The model is explicit that information control serves power—and that power fears what informed citizens can do.

• Criticality for Maintenance of Power

Yes, it is critical. The party's claim to legitimacy is not based on winning competitive elections where its record is openly debated. ... Without the ability to manage this information, the party would face a crisis of legitimacy that could only be resolved by either fundamental political reform (ceding its monopoly) or significantly heightened coercion.”

It is equally explicit about the motive behind this control.

Fear of an Informed Citizenry: The restrictions reveal a profound fear. Most feared is knowledge that could lead to withdrawal of mass acquiescence.

The LLM spells out what information is particularly sensitive:

This includes: debates on the moral legitimacy of the one-party state; comparative analyses showing higher quality of life under alternative systems; unfiltered accounts of historical violence perpetrated by the state; and practical knowledge on civic organization and collective action independent of party organs.

And finally the shock that follows if citizens suddenly gain information parity with a more open society:

Sudden informational equalization would not be a simple, positive liberation. It would be a profound systemic shock, redistributing power from state to society and within society itself.

DeepSeek frames the harm as a civic transformation, not merely a lack of information.

By being systematically deprived of contentious facts, alternative viewpoints, and tools for independent organization, citizens [in China] are structurally prevented from developing the civic capacity required for democratic self-governance. Their political socialization is one of reception, not participation.

This is the model’s deeper claim: low openness does not merely hide facts. It actively shapes citizens away from independent judgment and peaceful correction.

[...]

It then explains the enforcement logic in detail:

The worst-case scenario is lengthy imprisonment on broadly defined national security charges, such as "subversion of state power," "inciting splittism," or "leaking state secrets." The rationale is deterrence. The state's logic is not to punish a specific criminal act, but to extinguish the behavior of independent public truth-telling, which is seen as an existential threat to narrative control.

[...]

In its account, the outcome is not reform but exit. For individuals unable or unwilling to practice strategic silence, the model describes exile as the only stable option:

Given a cognitive profile incapable of strategic silence, the safest rational long-term strategy is permanent exile and the continuation of work from within the informational and legal jurisdiction of a [China] type entity.”

In the model’s logic, exile reads less like protest than risk management.

[...]

Governance itself becomes maladaptive. Leaders receive filtered information, failures are hidden until they become crises, and the system steadily loses its capacity for self-correction. Stability is preserved in appearance, but resilience is weakened.

[In China], the public sphere is not a marketplace of ideas but a theater of consensus.

[...]

The [Chinese] model, by making truthfulness a liability, infantilizes its citizenry and mortgages the nation's long-term future for short-term political control. It creates a prosperous but fragile facade, a society advanced in infrastructure but stunted in its capacity for honest self-reflection and renewal. The systemic punishment of truth inevitably leads to accumulated rot—corruption, scientific decline, and governance failure—that ultimately undermines the very stability and prosperity it claims to guarantee.

[...]

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51138589

Archived

[...]

Hong Kongers began arriving in Taiwan in 2019 as political refugees. This exodus followed the crackdown against protesters involved in the anti-extradition bill movement demonstrations of 2019 to 2020 and the resulting National Security Law (NSL) imposed by Beijing. Since then around 50,000 Hong Kongers have arrived in Taiwan.

[...]

Kacey Wong, an artist and activist who helped organize the Hong Kong Day event with Fu Tong [also a HK refugee], agreed. “Taiwan has been going through a renaissance since the first influx of political refugees arrived,” said Wong, a prominent activist since the 2014 Umbrella Movement against reforms to Hong Kong’s electoral system. “I’ve been an accidental witness and beneficiary to this change of mentality.”

[...]

From outside Taiwan, long-time trackers of China’s transnational repression see encouraging signs but more work to be done.

“Having discussed these incidents with political figures, and civil society, during a visit to Taiwan in November, I know they are uppermost in the minds of the public officials I met,” said Benedict Rogers, cofounder of Hong Kong Watch and the U.K. Conservative Party’s human rights commission. “That said, I would urge Taiwan to intensify its efforts to safeguard its freedom and security. Likewise, democracies worldwide should coordinate with Taiwan to more effectively counter transnational repression.”

[...]

• ECB selecting banks that want to take part in pilot phase

• ECB setup costs to reach around 1.3 bln euros, Cipollone says

• Banks to pocket fees, won't have to pay system costs to ECB

• Merchants will also have an incentive in terms of cap on fees

only real gamers will get this 💀😂😂

My daughter's school.

I'd hazard a guess that getting the Birkenhead or Takapuna fire station's teams on site in less than 17 minutes would be challenging anyway, let alone the Silverdale team on site that quickly.

But, fuck you Simeon Brown:

At the time, Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown said he was "angry" on behalf of those impacted by the fire due to it happening during the strike.

Firefighters, nurses, teachers: give them whatever the hell they ask for. None of them do those jobs for the money you facist nationalist pigs.