But it turns out the drama had barely begun: just days after Fátima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe in Thailand, the co-owners of the organisation are both facing arrest warrants.

On Wednesday Mexican media revealed that Raúl Rocha Cantú, the Mexican businessman who owns half of the Miss Universe Organisation, was under investigation for drug, gun and fuel trafficking between Guatemala and Mexico.

Rocha, whose conglomerate spans industry, casinos and the beauty pageant, has denied wrongdoing. When asked about the case by El País, he said: “It is completely false that I have an arrest warrant.”

The other half of the Miss Universe Organisation is owned by the Thai media mogul Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, for whom an arrest warrant was also this week issued by a Thai court.

At the start of November Bosch – then Miss Mexico – went viral when she staged a walkout after being berated as “dumb” by the pageant’s director, who singled her out for failing to post promotional content.

Bosch beat the crowd favourite, Miss Thailand, to win the crown – only for allegations of vote rigging to cast a shadow on her triumph.

I'm posting this to hopefully stop the posts that keep appearing, suggesting that progress has been made to defeat chat control. That's not correct.

The article:

Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has “backed away” from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance. Patrick Breyer, digital freedom fighter and expert on the file, warns journalists and the public not to be deceived by the label “voluntary.”

While the Council removed the obligation for scanning, the agreed text creates a toxic legal framework that incentivizes US tech giants to scan private communications indiscriminately, introduces mandatory age checks for all internet users, and threatens to exclude teenagers from digital life.

“The headlines are misleading: Chat Control is not dead, it is just being privatized,” warns Patrick Breyer. **“What the Council endorsed today is a Trojan Horse. By cementing ‘voluntary’ mass scanning, they are legitimizing the warrantless, error-prone mass surveillance of millions of Europeans by US corporations, while simultaneously killing online anonymity through the backdoor of age verification.” ** Continue reading here - https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-check-eu-council-chat-control-vote-is-not-a-retreat-but-a-green-light-for-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-the-end-of-right-to-communicate-anonymously/

A bill to legalize the execution of Palestinians represents an effort to institutionalize revenge and erase all remaining limits on state violence.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5824673

Archived version

Protesters in Georgia have been taking to the streets for 364 straight days. On October 26, thousands joined an anti-government march in central Tbilisi marking the anniversary of the country’s disputed parliamentary vote, which saw the ruling party, Georgian Dream, declare victory despite reports of widespread fraud ... This is a Q&A session with Vasil Sikharulidze, Georgia’s former defense minister and former ambassador to the United States, to get an expert perspective on this year-long standoff.

...

Vasil Sikharulidze: The response to public protests has been marked by terrible violence. Demonstrators were dragged into vans, beaten, and intimidated, and no one was held responsible. On the contrary, some policemen involved in these acts were even rewarded.

...

We now have over 120 political prisoners, which for a country of 3.5 million is a staggering figure. The government continues to spread a mix of disinformation and conspiracy theories, including absurd claims that the West is trying to drag Georgia into the war [with Russia] and that Georgia is resisting a so-called “global war party” or “deep state.”

...

Despite the violence and intimidation, protests continue every day in downtown Tbilisi and other cities. People are demanding two basic things: freedom for political prisoners and free and fair elections. At the same time, the government is moving to ban major political parties and restrict voting rights for Georgians abroad. Overall, the situation is worsening, and Georgia is moving dangerously close to a Russian-style autocracy.

...

Russia has always been a dangerous neighbor — an expansionist, openly revisionist, militarized regime that invades, occupies, and destabilizes countries around it to impose its will. It invaded Georgia in 2008 and continues to occupy 20 percent of our territory, and it has never stopped waging a hybrid war aimed at undermining the Georgian state. At its core, the Kremlin views freedom and democratic governance as existential threats to its authoritarian model, and it consistently works to erode them wherever they appear — especially in countries along its borders.

...

The European Union has been consistently and increasingly critical of the political situation in Georgia. Throughout the past year, E.U. institutions — especially the European Parliament — have issued numerous statements and resolutions that strongly condemn politically motivated detentions, the imprisonment of opposition figures and civil activists, the crackdown on civil society and independent media, and the broader democratic backsliding underway in the country.

...

We are also seeing targeted measures from E.U. member states. Several have begun imposing individual sanctions on those responsible for democratic backsliding, human rights violations, and the violent suppression of protesters — including officials linked to police brutality. At the political level, the E.U. has effectively frozen high-level engagement with the Georgian government. When the E.U. recently met with aspiring member states, Georgia was not invited — an unprecedented and very clear signal that Brussels no longer considers the current government aligned with the values and commitments required for E.U. integration.

This situation sends a powerful message, even if the ruling party tries to downplay it. Meanwhile, Georgia’s opposition parties and civil society actors continue to call for stronger measures to counter the government’s authoritarian trajectory and to support the democratic aspirations of the Georgian people.

...

The protests are being sustained by the people themselves. Despite intimidation, violence, and mass detentions, Georgians continue to come out into the streets because they understand that the country’s future depends on defending democracy. These are not protests organized by a single party or leader; they are grassroots movements, driven by citizens from every walk of life — university professors and students, journalists and small business owners, artists, writers and doctors, workers and ordinary citizens from every part of the country.

Importantly, these protests have been non-stop, every single day, for a year now. Even in the face of over 120 political prisoners and thousands more hit with heavy fines or short-term imprisonment, people keep returning.

...

While the authoritarian environment severely restricts how opposition parties can operate [...] the overwhelming majority of Georgians reject the path toward autocracy and want a democratic, European future.

Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a former close ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez into custody in a corruption investigation that has threatened to topple the leftist government.

The probe into Jose Luis Abalos, a former transport minister and Socialist party heavyweight who helped propel Sanchez to power in 2018, is one of several corruption affairs rattling his fragile minority coalition.

Abalos, his ex-adviser Koldo Garcia and another former senior Socialist figure, Santos Cerdan, are suspected of pocketing kickbacks for the awarding of public contracts for sanitary equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abalos and Garcia will be remanded in custody without bail on suspicion of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement and for an "extreme" flight risk, the Supreme Court said in a statement.

"Numerous rational indications of criminality exist against both," and the measures ordered against them came "combined with a foreseeably imminent trial", the court added.

Prosecutors have demanded 24 years in jail for Abalos, who was expelled from the Socialist party and sits as an independent MP in parliament, and 19 and a half years for Garcia.

...

Cerdan, who was released last week, spent almost five months in jail after relinquishing his powerful post as Socialist organisation secretary and as an MP.

...

The scandal has rocked a government that came to power promising to clean up Spanish politics after the main conservative Popular Party was convicted in its own graft affair.

...

I passed by a bus stop yesterday and there is now a no trespassing sign and a no loitering sign up. That seems odd for a public bus stop.

The statement said: “Many Democratic governments, including the United States government, have previously reviewed such proposals and reached the same conclusion: that classifying the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group is completely detached from reality and not supported by any evidence (..) The facts have not changed.”

It added: “But what has only changed is the level of external pressure, especially that exerted by the United Arab Emirates and Israel, to adopt policies that serve foreign agendas and not the interests of the American people”.

If Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been a site of tension in your family for the last two Thanksgiving holidays, this year should be no different. The so-called ceasefire might seem like a good excuse to bury the hatchet and enjoy a quieter turkey dinner, but when we look at the harrowing status quo for Palestinians in Gaza today, there is no peace to be thankful for — especially not on a day that marks the remembrance of this country’s own genocide against Indigenous Americans.

To be clear, if two years of livestreamed annihilation have failed to shift your loved ones’ support away from the Israeli ethnostate, I doubt there is anything a dinner table argument could do to persuade them. There can be no reasoning with a worldview that forecloses seeing Palestinians as fully human.

I navigate this with pro-Israel members of my own British Jewish family. It’s painful, and I don’t have any good advice. Whatever your approach with your family, there can be no pretense that the genocide in Gaza is over.

"My pronouns are double bacon cheese burger!"

Please note this was written in 1993, so the wheels of time turned to prove Hugh White wrong in some of his assessments. But the strategic choices Australia has made feel a little clearer from reading this. Especially in this year 2025 as the geo-strategic game has violently woken from its long slumber under US domination.

Why Great Powers Sleepwalk to War — A Masterclass with Hugh White - podcast

Hugh Whites Strategy Reading List ^I haven't had time to read this, but its part of the supplementary material for the podcast conversation^

https://archive.ph/J6dMs

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42589825

Web archive link

...

The highly-discussed draft 28-point peace plan (now reportedly revised to 19 points) endorsed by the United States seems to address, although not resolve, all the major points, including the return of abducted children of Ukraine.

According to the available text of the initial plan, “A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve open issues,” including the return of civilian detainees and reunification of families. In the current version, such a committee will be launched after the deal is agreed upon. Such an approach is dangerous.

Russia has attempted many times to turn Ukrainian abducted children into bargaining chips. Suggestions to exchange them for POWs have been unsuccessfully floated during the Istanbul talks. The proposal demonstrates Russia’s approach to children in general: a source of leverage that can be pulled to extract concessions, muddy the waters, and delay the agreements.

Ukraine made it clear: abducted children should be returned unconditionally and before the deal is finalized with Putin. Otherwise, Russia has no incentive to return children and will take forever to give back a fraction of those who have been kidnapped. What prevents Russia from signing an agreement, having sanctions lifted, and taking ten years to find children that it has “rescued”? By that time, most children will either be adopted, drafted to the army, or brainwashed beyond the point of no return. And Russia will bear no consequences for its actions.

...

The current peace plan also does not mention anything about children in the occupied territories of Ukraine. 1.6 million Ukrainian children are trapped under the Russian occupation, facing militarization and conscription into the Russian army. At least 600,000 children are of school age and forced to study in Russian schools and visit notorious military camps. Many of them want to go to Ukraine but have no safe way to do so. Many are waiting to be liberated and hope to go back to their normal lives. The current peace plan serves those children to Putin on a silver platter by giving up their homeland and omitting the need to rescue them from the Russian occupation.

...

The fact that there is no mention of international legislation that regulates the issue of crimes against children (the Genocide Convention or the Convention on the Rights of the Child) is very alarming. Those documents provide concrete procedures for executing the returns and would pressure Russia to comply. Leaving them out of the deal would give Russia an upper hand in organizing the return of children. Nothing in the current deal prevents Russia from returning a dozen children and calling it even. Without third-party access to Russian records and effective monitoring mechanisms for the return process, talk of rescue risks becoming performative rather than effective.

Overall, a peace plan in its current version allows Russia to dictate the fate of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted or live under occupation. This can easily turn from a humanitarian catastrophe to a national security threat. Russia will turn Ukrainian children into soldiers for future wars against NATO. The administration should reaffirm its commitment to saving children everywhere by including Ukraine in peace negotiations and making the return of children a precondition for further negotiations.

[Edit to insert the link.]

Web archive link

...

The highly-discussed draft 28-point peace plan (now reportedly revised to 19 points) endorsed by the United States seems to address, although not resolve, all the major points, including the return of abducted children of Ukraine.

According to the available text of the initial plan, “A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve open issues,” including the return of civilian detainees and reunification of families. In the current version, such a committee will be launched after the deal is agreed upon. Such an approach is dangerous.

Russia has attempted many times to turn Ukrainian abducted children into bargaining chips. Suggestions to exchange them for POWs have been unsuccessfully floated during the Istanbul talks. The proposal demonstrates Russia’s approach to children in general: a source of leverage that can be pulled to extract concessions, muddy the waters, and delay the agreements.

Ukraine made it clear: abducted children should be returned unconditionally and before the deal is finalized with Putin. Otherwise, Russia has no incentive to return children and will take forever to give back a fraction of those who have been kidnapped. What prevents Russia from signing an agreement, having sanctions lifted, and taking ten years to find children that it has “rescued”? By that time, most children will either be adopted, drafted to the army, or brainwashed beyond the point of no return. And Russia will bear no consequences for its actions.

...

The current peace plan also does not mention anything about children in the occupied territories of Ukraine. 1.6 million Ukrainian children are trapped under the Russian occupation, facing militarization and conscription into the Russian army. At least 600,000 children are of school age and forced to study in Russian schools and visit notorious military camps. Many of them want to go to Ukraine but have no safe way to do so. Many are waiting to be liberated and hope to go back to their normal lives. The current peace plan serves those children to Putin on a silver platter by giving up their homeland and omitting the need to rescue them from the Russian occupation.

...

The fact that there is no mention of international legislation that regulates the issue of crimes against children (the Genocide Convention or the Convention on the Rights of the Child) is very alarming. Those documents provide concrete procedures for executing the returns and would pressure Russia to comply. Leaving them out of the deal would give Russia an upper hand in organizing the return of children. Nothing in the current deal prevents Russia from returning a dozen children and calling it even. Without third-party access to Russian records and effective monitoring mechanisms for the return process, talk of rescue risks becoming performative rather than effective.

Overall, a peace plan in its current version allows Russia to dictate the fate of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted or live under occupation. This can easily turn from a humanitarian catastrophe to a national security threat. Russia will turn Ukrainian children into soldiers for future wars against NATO. The administration should reaffirm its commitment to saving children everywhere by including Ukraine in peace negotiations and making the return of children a precondition for further negotiations.

[Edit to insert the link.]

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/31211123

I honest to fucking God don't understand how cybersec is so fucking bad that there are so many damn data breaches that I lost count. I had a few accounts on chatgpt (that I dont use anymore) but they are all compromised now...

Just what the fuck is this shit? Are they done by lone actors or cybercrime gang? Or are they state actors or state-backed actors? Or are they inside jobs to allow the company to sell data illegally to make more money? Flock has admitted to using data from data breaches to their system.

You also notice how rarely you hear about cybercriminals getting caught? It's almost like if you take even a minor bit of opsec you can get away with anything.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39392633

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian court on Wednesday sentenced former President Martín Vizcarra to 14 years in prison after finding him guilty of taking bribes while serving as governor of a southern state.

Vizcarra was sentenced to immediate imprisonment and a nine-year ban from public office. He is expected to appeal the decision.

“This is not justice, it is revenge,” Vizcarra said on social media. “But they will not break me.”

Vizcarra alleged his sentence was retribution for “standing up” to the right-wing political groups that control Congress, among which the influence of the late former President Alberto Fujimori is particularly prominent. Vizcarra clashed with these groups when he led the South American country between 2018 and 2020 and eventually dissolved Congress.

The criminal court in the capital, Lima, concluded that Vizcarra received illegal payments from companies in exchange for awarding them contracts for two major projects — an irrigation system and the construction of a hospital — during his time as governor of Moquegua.

An unholy alliance between Big Tech and the far right is taking shape.

Together, they fuse the ruthless pursuit of profit with systems of control and violence. It is an assault on democracy and freedom — in the workplace and beyond.

Amazon sits at the heart of this machine.