Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

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Former US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene met the Mayor of Bethlehem on Sunday, she announced in a post on X/Twitter.

Greene lauded Bethlehem for being the birthplace of Jesus, but condemned alleged "Christian persecution" occurring in the area.

"What is the Holy Land without Christians?" Greene rhetorically asked in her post.

According to Greene, Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati described Christians being killed in the bombings in Gaza, as well as churches being attacked. He also said that residents of Bethlehem want to live in peace with Jewish and Muslim neighbors, but that settlers "continue to take their homes."

This year’s Munich Security Conference was milder than last year’s, but Donald Trump has fundamentally changed transatlantic ties.

European and American leaders spent three days pledging cooperation and offering to slap a new coat of paint on the façade of the transatlantic relationship. But the cracks are still showing.

The United States was less combative than a year ago in its showing at the Munich Security Conference, when Vice President JD Vance launched a scorching attack on Europe.

But the gathering showed that while the alliance continues to function, the old order that bound the two sides of the Atlantic for decades has broken down. There is no consensus on how the relationship can move forward given the regular seismic shocks the Trump administration revels in delivering to the system.

MBFC
Archive

• Western officials said China increased its support for Russia's war in Ukraine in 2025 and is likely to deepen cooperation with Moscow further this year.
• The officials described Beijing as the key facilitator of the war, saying Russia's war in Ukraine wouldn't be able to continue without ongoing Chinese support.

Archived

[...]

Russia’s war in Ukraine wouldn’t be able to continue without ongoing Chinese support, particularly the export of dual-use components and critical minerals used in Russian drone production, the officials said. They described Beijing as the key facilitator of the war.

“China could call Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow,” US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said during a panel late Friday at the Munich Security Conference. “This war is being completely enabled by China.”

[...]

Chinese officials may have initially been concerned by the economic impact of Russia’s war but they have since come to the view that it benefits Beijing because it means Europe is focused on Ukraine rather than Asia, and relations between Europe and the US have become strained, the people said.

“These frank reflections on China’s integral role in providing the materials that support Russia’s war machine beg the question of how sustainable it is to keep up the pretense that China can be a trusted or serious trading partner for the UK,” said Sam Goodman, a senior policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute.

[...]

European leaders have argued that only by engaging with Xi can they hope to influence his position on security issues. Still, they have also used their visits to Beijing to pursue closer trade ties.

China has helped blunt the effects of Western sanctions since the earliest days of the war, buying Russian oil and selling dual-use goods to its neighbor. A Bloomberg News investigation last year reported how Moscow had capitalized on its friendly ties with Beijing to skirt Western sanctions and acquire the know-how and capability to build drones to attack Ukraine.

[...]

Trade between the two sides [China and Russia] has increased to $253 billion in 2024 from $152 billion in 2021. Over that period, Russia rose to China’s fifth-largest trading partner from its 10th.

[...]

Exclusive: Figures said to reflect increased Russian military targeting of cities and infrastructure

Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by bombing soared by 26% during 2025, reflecting increased Russian targeting of cities and infrastructure in the country, according a global conflict monitoring group.

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said 2,248 civilians were reported killed and 12,493 injured by explosive violence in Ukraine according to English-language reports – with the number of casualties an incident rising significantly.

An average of 4.8 civilians were reported killed or injured in each strike, 33% more than in 2024, with the worst attack taking place in Dnipro on 24 June. Russian missiles hit a passenger train, apartments and schools, killing 21 and injuring 314, including 38 children.

Iain Overton, executive director of AOAV, said the figures showed “Ukraine fits a wider collapse of restraint that is now visible across multiple wars”, and respect for the distinction of proportionality in war “has broken”.

MBFC
Archive

Honestly, I would fall into this trap.

The federal agent genuinely sounds like she is a person having car trouble, this trap would work on me because I guess I too am a fundamentally decent person.

Would it be worh adding communities for each state and territory? I know there are communities for the capital cities eg Sydney, but sometimes I come across a story specific to NSW, so instead I post it here.

That takes balls, doesn't it?

For those of you tuning in from outside NZ, check these out:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/586975/winds-gust-to-240km-h-on-lower-north-island-s-east-coast

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/587001/weather-local-farmers-clear-mudslide-which-trapped-20-vehicles

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/586968/in-pictures-heavy-rain-and-wind-hits-wellington-region-bringing-down-trees-flooding-roads

BTW it's summer here.

Access options:

• gift link — uses shortener because lemmy mangles the gift token
• archive.today — should load after this post goes up
• ghostarchive.org

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50924425

The country’s online regulator aims to curb social media fuelling ‘marriage phobia’ and ‘fertility anxiety’ over the lunar new year.

Archived

[...]

No online jokes about useless husbands, bossy mothers-in-law, marriage being a trap or the joys of singledom will be allowed, all in the name of encouraging people to tie the knot.

[...]

A running joke of the season, when millions of Chinese people head from the cities to their childhood homes and villages, is that it is when the first duty of filial piety comes into effect: the requirement to tell parents and grandparents why you do not have a boyfriend or a girlfriend; if you have one, why you are not yet married; or, if you are married, why you do not have a child.

Enforcement of that duty is being taken over by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the chief censorship body for the internet and social media, which has issued its instructions for the holiday season, which starts on Tuesday.

“Regulators will crack down on content that promotes ‘anti-marriage’ or ‘anti-childbirth’ narratives, fuels gender antagonism or exaggerates so-called ‘marriage phobia’ and ‘fertility anxiety’,” according to a stern article in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

[...]

This is not just about online joshing. It covers influencers and particularly artificial intelligence-generated content, and seems acutely focused on what happens in families everywhere when they are forced to spend time together.

[...]

Last year the number of babies born [in China] was the lowest since records began in 1949 and the rate of decline is accelerating. Cities and provinces have attempted a variety of “interventions”, ranging from childcare subsidies to the more direct practice of phoning young women and asking them why they are not pregnant — an extreme form of grandmother behaviour, as some have noted.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43236372

Feb. 14, 2026

Despite the inspiration by the Sumud project, the Mexican and Chinese deliveries of aid suggest that there is currently no indication that the U.S. would use its military to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching the island; Israel’s navy, conversely, intercepted the GSF before it reached the Gazan coast.

Major groups participating in the flotilla include Progressive International, an international left-wing activist organization, and Code Pink, a female-led grassroots peace and social justice group.

The flotilla’s mission has been endorsed by a variety of leading international figures, such as Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, member of Colombia’s Chamber of Representatives María Fernanda Carrascal and U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

Prominent left-wing American streamer Hasan Piker has confirmed his participation in the project. It has also been speculated that prominent Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will take part.

About one in five residents in Lithuania lives in poverty, the State Data Agency (VDA) reported, with the most affected groups including people struggling to enter the labour market, pensioners and those with disabilities.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43189320

Access options

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