Lawmakers and activists across the political spectrum called on American tech firms to stop selling surveillance equipment to Chinese police and for Congress to examine the issue after The Associated Press reported that U.S. technology had played a far greater role than previously known in enabling human rights abuses by Beijing.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told AP he wanted to summon tech companies before Congress to address how their technology exports were used. Hawley, a longtime critic of U.S. technology companies, bemoaned Silicon Valley’s general lack of cooperation with Congress on that and similar inquiries.

“I think eventually we’re going to have to subpoena these people,” Hawley said.

In a post on the social media site X this month, Hawley vowed that “Big Tech must cut ties with the CCP - or face my committee,” referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Hawley sits on several Senate panels that might have jurisdiction to examine technology issues

An AP investigation published this month revealed that U.S. technology companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state. Firms including IBM, Dell, and Cisco sold billions in technology to Chinese police and government agencies, despite repeated warnings that such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious sects and target minorities. Companies named in AP’s reporting said they complied with all export control laws.

Yang Caiying, who told AP for its investigation about how her family was targeted by Chinese surveillance using American technology because of their activism in rural Jiangsu, said she was “shocked by the pivotal role that major U.S. tech companies have played” in her family’s ordeal. Yang is now collecting signatures for petitions urging Washington to bar U.S. firms from selling to Chinese police, both online and on the street.

Other lawmakers from both parties urged Congress to beef up export laws to prevent more American technology from being used to fuel human rights abuses abroad.

“China has been utilizing partnerships with U.S. tech companies to build malignant ‘smart cities’ that are used for mass surveillance and human rights abuses against millions of innocent Chinese people,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. The panel is charged with examining the strategic global competition between the U.S. and China.

“As executives at Nvidia and other American tech companies chase business in China, they cannot deny that their technology will be used to commit atrocities, strengthen China, and weaken America,” Moolenaar said.

Moolenaar called for American companies to work with Congress to write new laws that restrict the export of technologies that enable oppression. and work harder to keep their products from being smuggled into China.

That's right I'm a swinger 😏

When Moore shot at Ford with a .38 revolver, narrowly missing Ford, Sipple dove towards her and grabbed her arm;[8] [...] Initial news reports noted that Sipple was a former Marine, but did not mention that he was gay.[10] [...] two phone messages identifying Sipple as gay. One was from Reverend Ray Broshears, the head of a gay activist group called the Lavender Panthers.[12] The other was from local gay activist Harvey Milk, a friend of Sipple on whose city council campaign Sipple had worked.[12] Milk wanted to portray Sipple as a "gay hero" to help "break the stereotype of homosexuals [as] timid, weak and unheroic figures";[5][6][8] he told a friend, "It's too good an opportunity. For once we can show that gays do heroic things, not just all that caca about molesting children and hanging out in bathrooms."[11] According to historian Harold Evans, "[T]here was no invitation to the White House for Sipple, not even a commendation. Milk made a fuss about that."[13] [...] Two days after the thwarted assassination attempt, unable to reach Sipple,[12] Caen wrote of Sipple as a gay man and a friend of Harvey Milk, speculating Ford offered praise "quietly" because of Sipple's sexual orientation. Sipple was besieged by reporters, as was his family. His mother refused to speak to him.

(my main instance doesn't appear to federating atm so i reposted on this alt acc of mine. apologies if this shows up as a duplicate post)

#lgbt #lgbtq+ #us #assassination #activism #70s

Students at West Florence High School, around 80 miles east of the state capital, Columbia, had been complaining about a bizarre odor since August 25, with many reporting that it was making them feel unwell.

The school launched an urgent investigation into the smell, spending $55,000 on inspections and air conditioning repairs. Even the high school's gas lines, propane systems, and air quality had been inspected.

However, the source of the odor remained a mystery.

Eventually, students began experiencing nausea, dizziness, and migraines with some seeking medical attention for respiratory issues connected to the smell.

1. Polyworking is alive and well - 29% of employees have additional jobs or side hustles.
2. Over half (51%) of workers schedule personal appointments during traditional working hours.
3. 70% of managers believe that working hybrid/remotely has made their team more productive.
4. 87% of employees use or have experimented with AI in their work.
5. 38% of workers say their level of work-related stress has increased since last year.
6. Over 1 in 3 workers (39%) say their employer’s/colleague’s political opinions have made them not want to go to the office.
7. 68% of parents are concerned that their caregiving responsibilities might affect their job performance.
8. On average, full-time in-office and hybrid workers have a 35-minute commute.
9. 67% of workers are interested in microshifting: structured flexibility with short, non-linear work blocks matched to their energy, duties, or productivity.
10. Over 1 in 2 workers (51%) would be interested in having an AI avatar replace them in a meeting.
11. Only 17% of workers said their company isn’t using employee tracking software.
12. Nearly a third (31%) of workers admitted that they have posted about their job/employer negatively on social media.

Our Qobuzissime award is traditionally reserved for an artist’s first or second album—a debut statement that brings something fresh to the musical landscape. However, every so often, an album comes along that warrants bending the rules. Te Whare Tīwekaweka, Marlon Williams’ fourth solo album, is one such rare exception. This record, his first sung entirely in te reo Māori, is a stunning departure from his established sound, offering an intimate and profound exploration of identity, language, and connection.

Having spent the past decade crafting his distinctive Southern Hemisphere take on folk-pop, country, and bluegrass, Williams returned home to Lyttelton, Ōtautahi, reconnecting with family and deepening his understanding of his ancestral tongue. With the guidance of Lyttelton-based rapper Kommi, he embarked on a journey to express his deepest emotions in te reo Māori, resulting in a work that is both a personal milestone and a cultural triumph.

The album’s title, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, draws inspiration from a Māori proverb meaning “The Māori language is a window to the Māori world.” Through these songs, Williams discovers a new means of musical expression, embracing a lyrical honesty that transcends language barriers.

...

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/magazine/story/2025/04/06/qobuzissime-marlon-williams-te-whare-tiwekaweka/

Archived

Russian forces took an underage girl hostage to use her as a human shield after murdering her parents in a front-line village in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps reported on Sept. 24.

The civilians were killed in the area of responsibility of the 3rd Army Corps, in the village of Shandryholove in Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian authorities have documented a number of cases of Russian troops murdering civilians in front-line areas since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022, part of a wider pattern of abuse and repression.

"Russia is using (the captured girl) as a human shield for its unit advancing in the Lyman sector," the military unit said.

[...]

I mean, they're real, but they are still a joke.

If so

(BTW I claim that one piece is anarchist which is not ML but it's close!)

They're more dangerous than you'd think. (Maybe not you, specifically, the collective "you.")

I noticed recently that /c/acecombat is currently without any moderators, and so would like to request for either myself or one of the other active community members (like @Gaxsun@lemmy.zip) to be made a moderator in case we need to clean anything up. Thanks in advance.

• The Register Forums.

A chimeric citrus that should have greatly improved hardiness. Are there other fruits where this could have merit? They will need to be graft compatible and have species with differing hardiness. Also, they would need to have fruit that develop from different parts of the meristem than the rest of the plant. This is true with citrus but I have no idea for other plant groups.

I haven’t checked graft compatibility for all of these but here are some preliminary ideas of species that could have their cold hardiness improved with this technique:

Peaches: apparently only minor hardiness differences for some varieties, so likely not with the effort.

Almonds: early blooming might be problematic. Hardiness difference with other stone fruit is about 10F, so there is some benefit here.

Avocados: apparently quite narrow graft compatibility, only grafts with closely related species from similar environments. I couldn’t find much information on their environmental tolerances but it does not seem promising.

Black sapote or other tropical Diospyros: so many species here and most are not well tested, but apparently black sapote (hardy to 28F) is graft compatible with the very hardy American persimmon (-25F). This is a stunning 50 degree difference although it seems unlikely a chimera would be quite this hardy. What would happen with a chimera between an evergreen and deciduous species? Would dormancy, important for frost protection, be disrupted? American persimmon is also fairly heat and drought tolerant. This is the most promising yet, though having never tried black sapote, I don’t know if it’s worth the effort.

Tropical figs? Are any worth eating?

Mulberries—a few more tropical varieties exist

Any others that come to mind?

Could this technique also improve drought and heat tolerance?

“It’s a good organization, it’s well-meaning, but it's not well-equipped,” Barrack told The National in an interview. “Because who are they going to fight? We’re gonna arm them so they can fight Israel? I don’t think so. So, you’re arming them so they can fight their own people. Hezbollah.”

US President Donald Trump delivered a fascist rant Tuesday to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in which he proclaimed “America First” should be the world’s organizing principle, threatened war and aggression the world over, and lionized the criminal actions of his administration at home and abroad.

He attacked both America’s ostensible allies and states long in Washington’s military-strategic crosshairs in a meandering speech that lasted almost triple his allotted time.

Trump reveled in displaying his disdain and contempt for international law, making clear that Washington will accept no restraints on the ruthless assertion of its imperialist interests, whether through trade war, assassinations, regime-change operations or global war.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37984337

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37984564