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Bulletins and News Discussion from September 2nd to September 8th, 2024 - We Love Our Trans Comrades - Chemicals of the Week: Estrogen and Testosterone

Image is of the Cuban flag and the Pride flag on the Havana Health Ministry building.

Inspired by a highly upvoted recommendation by @Commiejones@hexbear.net:

We need to kill the Mega Posting Wars meme. It wasn't very funny to start with and now I get the feeling some people are taking it way too seriously. Clogging up the news thread with bullshit just to try to out post the trans mega is just dumb and annoying.

The News Megathread is now under trans martial law:

  1. Loving trans people on this site and elsewhere is strictly mandatory.
  2. Posting about the "comment wars" between the trans and news megathreads is now strongly discouraged inside the news megathread. No shame in it - I also recently made jokes about it - but though they were almost always just jokes, it was unrelated to current events and was beginning to feel more like padding the comment count instead of trying to improve the quality of the thread. If you want to boost comments and engagement here, then post articles and analysis!

The COTW (Chemical of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific chemical every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied chemicals. If you've wanted to talk about the chemical or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Chemicals of the Week are Estrogen and Testosterone! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

1.3K comments

  • From a CNN article about the school shooter

    Gray’s parents’ relationship started out with promise. In July 2011, shortly after he was born, his parents bought a small farm in Barrow County, Georgia, outside of the college town of Athens. They planned to “create a non-profit, therapeutic riding school for local, under-privileged children,” his mother, Marcee Gray, who worked in industrial engineering, later wrote in a LinkedIn post. But those plans were derailed in part because her husband, Colin Gray, had at least three “major” back surgeries, she wrote. The couple, who had three children, later sold the farm in 2019, according to property records.

    Bankrupted by medical debt with no support network. Turned to drugs and fascism. Horrible thinking that universal healthcare could have literally prevented this.

  • UK anti-terror police & intelligence services detained journalist Richard Medhurst recently and have now arrested Palestine activist and Gaza linked journalist on terrorism charges.

    She gave the details of her impossible to abide by bail conditions in an interview someone else had to set up as she's forbidden from travelling, touching any electronic device.

    I've had to remove the link entirely. The female journalist in question Sarah Wilkinson. Her Twitter account seems to be being run by a friend or her son now and you can search out the couple of interviews she's given so far

    Sorry for the rubbish links. Xcancel just 403s for me and none of the four Hexbear recommended YouTube link alternatives work. All either don't work at all or are not allowing new users / posts. If the links are too tricky or you don't have time to watch the 30-45min interview here's the key points.

    • First thing in the morning her home was raised by anti-terror police who wouldn't identify themselves, some even wearing balaclavas to hide their identities
    • They claimed a warrant exists but would not show it or tell her what was contained in it as anti-terror legislation says they don't have to
    • She wasn't allowed to dress, call anyone, or get her medication (she suffers from Crohn's disease).
    • The tightness of the cuffs caused injuries to her hands but weren't loosened
    • They ransacked her house and physically restrained her son, including throwing him up against the wall.
    • They confiscated any and all electronic items, phones, and computers, as well as files, address books and more. These are the items that were on the official itemized list they provided her.
    • They also stole money, personal items, and her passport, taking them without listing them.
    • Taking her passport without itemising it guarantees she cannot meet the terms of her bail as she is required to turn it in on a future date. Her bail conditions also stop her applying for a replacement. The penalty for not being able to hand it in is likely to be 5 years in prison without a trial or legal representation.
    • She also cannot travel, including buying any form of train or bus ticket despite living in a rural village, seeming including to her required 'check ins' on future dates.
    • They deliberately desecrated her parents' ashes, spreading them so she couldn't retrieve them all, and damaged the urn.
    • They loaded her into an unmarked black van, cuffed but unsecured and gave her a rough ride.
    • They deliberately drove 45 minutes in the wrong direction, away from the police station they said they were taking her to. At this point she seriously considered that she might be being kidnapped as they still hadn't shown her a warrant or verifiable ID and were hiding their identities.
    • While being held, they denied her any medication meaning that she also couldn't eat, essentially denying her food or drink.
    • They eventually brought her a cup of tea and said she could have her meds as soon as she'd drank it. When she did, they then denied her meds again in an apparent attempt to make her ill.
    • When she demanded to see a doctor they eventually sent in someone they claimed was a nurse. However, she seemed to have little to no medical knowledge, didn't seem to actually know anything about Crohn's disease despoite claiming to and couldn't even spell it when asked to. She did not appear to be a qualified medical professional and wouldn't give any details of her qualifications.
    • They tried to deny her access to a lawyer, claiming she didn't have that right until she repeatedly demonstrated that she knew she did under Section 12 of the law. They eventually relented for the interrogation.
    • She gave a no comment interview, but the questions they asked over several hours were apparently very interesting. They were riddled with racist comments and questions that implied Palestinian's weren't human, they repeatedly asked her "why she would value Palestinians over people like us" which she took to mean white and/or Zionist.
    • She also says that her interrogators frequently used talking points, language, and tactics that organisations like the IDF and Shin-Bet do.
    • Most notable was their interrogation and demand that she give details of the people in Gaza that she works with via a charity that digs wells and provides water. They wanted names, locations, contact details, phone numbers etc. Naturally she refused as she suspects they would be then given to Israel to use for targeting purposes.

  • France has raided the home of and arrested Imane Maarifi, a French nurse who returned from working in Gaza and has been speaking out at protests and the media about the situation there. She's supposedly charged with the crime of making public insults in relation to an Israeli investment and real estate fair being held in Paris this weekend.

  • China being better at capitalism than western nations will never not be funny.

    Capitalists simply being incapable of improving their own game as a result of not being able to use a socialist analysis will never not be funny.

    The fact that China’s socialist analysis of capitalist development is to simply throttle the capitalist system where possible before it becomes self-destructive and less efficient will never not be funny.

    The quote “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.” is being proven true by China’s path of development every single day, and the fact that capitalists just can’t stop themselves from selling ropes to China will never not be funny.

  • In my opinion, the best thing about this election is the permanent destruction of Joe Biden's reputation and legacy. All he had to do was not run and he could have still retired with an army of libs fawning over him.

    But because of his and his family's hubris, he will be forever known as the "dementia president". Just like Taft is the "fat president who got stuck in a bathtub" and Nixon is the "corrupt crook president" Biden will forever be known for being the only nominee to be forced out by his own party due to dementia. Even ultra blueMAGA types have acknowledged this. I honestly think that in like 30 years my future children will be learning about that time we had a senile president. (Assuming the USA still even exists)

    And that miserable piece of excrement deserves it 100%. I've seen a lot of leftists over the years (even some hexbear and Chapo) say things like "he should be retired and golfing". HELL NO! Joe Biden is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people at a minimum (probably millions if you include the Iraq War and Libya). He is directly responsible for genocide and has defended the most nakedly genocidal fascist state for decades. Even domestically, he was an abysmal turd who shilled for corporations his entire life and supported segregation, greatly accelerated the drug war, supported the Patriot Act, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. At a minimum he should be rotting in a dark dungeon with Hillary, Cheney, Obama, Bush, Trump, and the rest of the demons.

    I genuinely hope that before he croaks, he has the final realization that all he will ever be known for is being the "dementia president".

  • Majority of Israelis think sympathy for Gaza civilians should be censored on social media | The Cradle

    Nearly 60 percent of Israelis believe social media posts showing sympathy for civilians in the Gaza Strip should be restricted, according to a poll published by Haaretz newspaper on 5 September.

    The poll was conducted in March by the Pew Research Center.

    Fifty-nine percent of Israelis “think posts expressing sympathy for civilians in Gaza should be restricted, while 41 percent think posts criticizing the government should be censored,” according to the poll.

    The poll also shows that 92 percent of Israelis believe posts inciting violence should be restricted, 87 percent say posts expressing support for Hamas must be censored, and 72 percent want graphic footage from the war removed.

  • A white beluga, known for being accused of being a “Russian spy”, was found dead on Saturday (31) in Risavika Bay, Norway. Hvaldimir, a combination of the word “hval” (whale in Norwegian) and Vladimir Putin's name, was found in 2019 wearing a belt marked “Equipment St Petersburg”, which led to speculation about its origin and its use as a Russian spy apparatus.

    WTF?

  • All Harris supporters are now Russian bots

    "Firstly, (US President Joe) Biden recommended all his supporters support Ms. Harris," Putin said during a question and answer session at Russia's Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. "Here, we are going to do that too, we're going to support her," he added, with a wry smile.

    "She laughs so contagiously that it shows that everything is fine with her," the Russian leader said. "(Former US President Donald) Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions."

  • Brazilian Judge Alexandre de Moraes orders seizure Elon Musk's cars and aircraft in Brazil

    Starlink missed the deadline for appeals. The purpose of the order is to secure funds to pay X fines. In his decision to block Starlink's bank accounts in Brazil, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorizes the seizure of the company's cars and aircraft in the country. Starlink is one of the companies in which billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), is a partner.

    Starlink missed the deadline to appeal against the blockades. According to the Supreme Court, the deadline for challenging the order was Monday (2/9). As a result, the Supreme Court's technical department followed up on the decision and informed the Central Bank about the blocking of the company's funds in the banking system.

    In addition, the order to block vehicles was communicated through the National System for the Unavailability of Assets. The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) and the Port Authority were informed about the blocking of Starlink's aircraft and vessels.

    The magistrate also ordered the blocking of real estate, which could affect the company's operations, affecting gateways, which are physical structures needed to allow customers to surf the internet via satellite. The company currently has around 10 gateways across the country.

  • Weird how school shooters are always on the "FBI's radar", but are left alone yet they always seem to catch all these lone wolf ISIS operatives planning attacks before they actually carry them out.

    Also seems like convenient timing. School shooting and Israel kills an American citizen in the West Bank. What better time for the "good guys" to score a victory against ISIS.

  • Sam Altman (OpenAI), Marc Andreessen (Meta), and Peter Thiel (Palantir) are about to bankrupt the entire country of Honduras.

    The entire thread unrolled is worth a read, as is this article about the local resistance to it but the basics are this...

    • In 2009 the democratically elected government is overthrown in a violent coup, backed by American business and the Obama administration. Hilary Clinton in particular insisted it couldn't be called a coup in the media and was accused of actively supporting it by groups in Honduras.
    • The coup government introduced special enterprise zones known as ZEDEs, a kind of ultra-extreme freeborn where private companies could have their own laws, courts, police, and military with zero oversight or taxation.
    • In return for bribes, the oppressive coup government signed proposals and deals for more and more of these until they could potentially cover a massive amount of the country. And cracked down hard on political opponents and people the companies wanted gone - making Honduras the most violent place on the planet at the time.
    • These deals clearly weren't legal, so the coup government just started the courts with corrupt judges.
    • When the new, elected government got back in during 2021 they naturally passed a law repealling the ZEDEs. The votes were unanimous.
    • Now this group of billionaires is suing Honduras for breaking the agreements, despite the fact that these companies were likely supporting the coup, and many of the coup government members have been invited on not just corruption, but murder and drug trafficking charges.
    • They want $11bn, more than a third of Honduras' GDP.
    • And worst of all, they're probably going to win, bankrupting the country.

    As an additional remember when here's coverage of leading environmental activist Berta Cáceres speaking out about Hilary Clinton's coup backing before she was assassinated.

  • Starlink once again asks the Brazilian Suopreme Court to unblock its bank accounts, after their appeal was denied. The company filed a new request arguing that the restriction on the amounts was imposed without the company having a full right of defense.

    When will Elon Musk learn that the entire Supreme Court of Brazil hates him. They are not going to return anything to him, he is literally in debt with the Brazilian goverment.

  • https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-soldiers-attacked-turkey-port-izmir

    US soldiers attacked in Turkish port of Izmir

    Turkey has arrested 15 members of a radical nationalist youth movement after they were accused of assaulting two US military personnel in the western city of Izmir, authorities said on Monday.

    On Monday, a video circulated on social media showing alleged members of the anti-American Turkish Youth Union (TGB) attacking American service members.

    One US serviceman tries to free himself from the gang but is unable to break their grip.

    "Yankee go home! Yankee go home!” The men scream in English.

    Several people are seen forcing a bag over the head of a person dressed in civilian clothes. One man unfurls a flag with TGB initials and a picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern-day Turkey.

    "American soldiers who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands cannot defile our country," the TGB said in an X post sharing the video.

    The bag over the head referred to an incident from the 2003 Iraq war when US forces in northern Iraq arrested a group of Turkish soldiers, forced hoods over their heads, and held them for three days. The incident outraged many in Turkey and across the Muslim world.

    “We can confirm reports that US service members embarked aboard the USS Wasp were the victims of an assault in İzmir today, and are now safe,” the US embassy to Turkey said on X. “We thank Turkish authorities for their rapid response and ongoing investigation.”

    'Hamas defends Anatolia'

    Erdogan says Turkey 'might enter Israel' as it did Karabakh and Libya

    The attack came after the USS Wasp carried out joint training exercises with Turkish military vessels in the Mediterranean.

    The drills drew criticism from some in Turkish media close to the opposition, which saw the American ship's deployment as part of the United States' support for Israel.

    Since suffering significant losses in Turkey's local elections in March, the Turkish government has intensified its criticism of Israel and taken a series of steps against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed Hamas is defending Turkish lands against Israel, and that Israel - a close US ally - could attack Turkey if its not stopped in Gaza.

    “Israel is not only attacking Palestinians in Gaza; [it is] attacking us. Hamas is the forward line defense of Anatolia in Gaza," he said.

    The statement came as bilateral relations hit a new low after Ankara completely halted trade with Israel earlier this month, demanding an unhindered flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza Strip and a ceasefire.

    "Israel will answer for the 35,000 Palestinians they murdered and the 85,000 people they injured. We will be on their backs," Erdogan said.

  • 4 day old news
    Muslim voters evenly split between Jill Stein and Kamala Harris, new poll finds
    Link to the actual survey and CAIR report

    A new poll conducted this week shows that the majority of Muslim voters in the United States are evenly split on who they plan to vote for as president in the upcoming November election, with roughly 60 percent planning to choose either third-party candidate Jill Stein or Vice President Kamala Harris.

    The new survey, part of a report published on Thursday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), shows that the majority of Muslim-American voters have decided against voting for either Republican candidate Donald Trump or the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.

    Twenty-nine percent of those Muslim voters polled said they were planning to cast their votes for Stein, leader of the Green Party who has made ending Israel's war on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank a key policy priority.

    "We're grateful for the strong support of Muslim voters who share with us an ironclad determination to end genocide in Gaza, as well as the endless wars in the Middle East, and the discrimination and injustice faced by our Muslim neighbours, immigrants and refugees," Stein said in a statement provided to Middle East Eye.

    "We urge all people of conscience to resist the propaganda telling you to hold your nose and vote for genocide. If you vote for genocide, you are actively consenting to it and enabling it. Don’t let them talk you out of your humanity. Stopping genocide is the moral imperative of our time."

    Another 29 percent said they are planning to vote for Harris, who some Muslims and pro-Palestinians have claimed has been more sympathetic to Palestinians but has so far said she would maintain support for Israel and has rebuffed demands for an arms embargo on Israel.

    The poll also showed that around 11 percent of Muslim voters surveyed are planning to vote for Donald Trump, while four percent are choosing third-party candidate Cornel West and 16 percent are still undecided.

    The survey consisted of responses from more than 1,000 registered Muslim voters and was conducted after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. The survey is part of a larger Cair report chronicling the political attitudes of Muslim voters. This report included an additional survey that polled 2,850 Muslim voters between May and July, prior to Biden dropping out of the race.

    "Our latest survey reveals that American Muslim voters are highly engaged in the upcoming presidential election, open to supporting a diverse range of candidates and political parties, and deeply dissatisfied with the current state of the nation, particularly US support for the war on Gaza," Cair national director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

    Side note: Quote from the CAIR survey report

    HIGHLIGHTS & IMPLICATIONS
    ...

    Strong Stance of Human Rights: Respondents showed strong support for global human rights issues, such as the situation of Rohingya and Uyghur Muslims and the genocide occurring in Gaza. This strong support indicates a high level of awareness and concern for international human rights among the Muslim community in the U.S.

    OPPORTUNITY: Advocacy groups should leverage this support to push for more robust U.S. foreign policies that address human rights abuses globally [emphasis mine]

    Is this a spin to get Muslim outrage over Gaza to feed into more support for Imperialist policy? Does this work out, or is it too transparently cynical?

  • In UK policing news

    the Liberty organisation got its hands on an (albiet redacted) copy of the National Police Chiefs’ Council's (NPCC) risk assesments, which prove what anyone paying attention in activist circles already knew - that police chiefs consistantly downplayed the possibility and seriousness of racist groups and rioting, while focussing their efforts on peaceful pro-Palestine protest, the likes of Palestine Action, and environmental groups. Right up to the race riots and pogroms that still haven't been sufficiently dealt with.

    A few choice quotes...

    The paper said of disparate groups making up the extreme far right: “It is also probable that events will be organised by a small cohort of dedicated members, attendance will be at low levels and disruption minimal.”

    Police believed that the disparate nature of the far right reduced the risk it posed. “The lack of cohesion and fractious nature of the groups … has highly likely lessened the impact of events,” the document’s authors said.

    Police referred to the far right in the internal documents produced for the NPCC as “cultural nationalists”.

    This bit hasn't gotten much play, but I think is important if you read between the lines and have been paying attention to state opposition to protests...

    In a document from two years earlier, the far right was listed as a priority potential threat.

    ...it seems pretty clear that what changed over the last two years was increasing protest that the police and state felt they could use the far right to combat it. We saw police protecting fash groups violently attacking drag queen story time events, including police intelligence officers having a friendly chat in a cafe with senior members of Turning Point UK who were regularly given special treatment and had access to senior officers via their friends in the Tory party. We saw memebers of the far right and sympathisers increasingly violently assault peaceful Just Stop Oil demonstrators with little or no legal consequence. And we saw the Tory government publicly call for far right street thugs to attack and disrupt the peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrations in 2023, but all they ended up doing was getting drunk and fighting police at the cenotaph. And because it's disorganised and so much of it's makeup is basically just coked up alcoholics, it once again came back to bite them in the arse.

    There's also a few interesting examples of what the police see as being their role in preventing, especially after they've routinely underestimated or handwaved away the possibility of fash violence despite numerous incidents of them fighting the police and of course the petrol bombing of a refugee detention centre that the state and media outright refused to call terrorism.

    Here, for example, are their concerns about Palestine Action:

    Here's a link to the liberty page and the related (loathed as I am to do it) Guadian article.

  • Israel knows 'nothing' about tunnels in Gaza, says released captive

    Adina Moshe, an Israeli woman formerly held captive by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, stated that the Israeli military knows nothing about Hamas' underground tunnel network, Channel 12 reported on 8 September.

    Moshe was taken captive by Hamas on 7 October and released on 24 November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the US between Hamas and Israel.

    Moshe said that after her release, she was debriefed by the Shin Bet ('Shabak'), Israel's internal security service.

    "The internal security service asked me to draw a map of the tunnels in Gaza because they know nothing about them," Israel's Channel 12 quoted her as saying.

  • Swedish Foreign Minster "suddenly and shockingly" resigned today according to Eurofreak and American media today. To the westoid reader, of course it's weird that the foreign minister of the newest NATO member suddenly resigns without any deeper context. But to us news enjoyers, it's very interesting that he resigns just one day after the deadly Poltava strike by the Russians, where Swedish personnel were hanging out according to reports and there was also a Facebook post by some Swedish ghoul that was mourning a dead friend in Ukraine. It wouldn't be the first time Swedes eat shit in Poltava, history is basically a circle. Media are talking about staff disagreements or whatever, but I'm noooooooticing something very fishy here. The true story about the scope of NATO's involvement in Ukraine will be fascinating when it slowly bubbles up in a few years after they throw the corpse of Ukraine to the wolves.

  • Brazil wins against Elon Musk

    Starlink Tweeted this:

    To our customers in Brazil (who may not be able to read this as a result of X being blocked by @alexandre): The Starlink team is doing everything possible to keep you connected.

    Following last week’s order from @alexandre that froze Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in Brazil, we immediately initiated legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court explaining the gross illegality of this order and asking the Court to unfreeze our assets. Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil.

    We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.

    By the way, the time for actually fighting in the courts to recover the frozen assets and regain access to X is over. They can't do anything because they've actually sent the wrong document.

  • https://archive.ph/jELdo

    A Russian missile exploded near the F-16 shortly before it disappeared off the radar, a U.S. official said, leading to one theory that the explosion either damaged the aircraft or led the pilot to maneuver too low to the ground, contributing to the crash, according to the U.S. official. While Ukraine is leading the investigation, U.S. advisers based in other parts of Europe are advising, defense officials said.

    There it is. And still they still try to blame the pilot. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if they just acknowledged up-front that the plane got shot down by Russia. Instead they put out like five different stories first...

  • During the Snowden leaks, the CIA carried out an analysis to assess whether Glenn Greenwald posed a risk to US security. The conclusion was that he wasn't dangerous because he was an opportunist who would sell his services to the highest bidder.

  • U.S. Charges Hamas Leaders in Oct. 7 Massacre in Israel and Other Terrorist Attacks

    Federal prosecutors charged Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, and five senior members of the group with planning and carrying out years of terrorist attacks in Israel, including the Oct. 7 massacre, according to a sweeping complaint unsealed on Tuesday.

    The criminal complaint, originally filed in New York in February, implicated two other senior members of Hamas not previously thought to be directly involved in the attacks. It also listed the number of Americans believed to have died at 43.

    For some reason, the U.S. has never indicted anyone for Israel's murders of Shireen Abu Akleh or Tawfiq Ajaq, or for that matter their own murders of Anwar or Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.

    (Why is this in the U.S. courts, anyway? If they call it terrorism, they get to indict anyone for anything no matter what jurisdiction it happened in?)

    (Edit - Every count of the indictment includes the phrase "in an offense begun and committed out of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States".)

  • On /r/palestine

    is targeting journalists with bullets and bulldozers. They are killing people who are in line to buy bread. They are bulldozing specifically resturants. They want the West Bank to starve like Gaza.

  • https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/releasing-names-alleged-nazi-war-criminals-canada-could-embarrass-federal-government-bureaucrats

    Releasing names of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could embarrass federal government, bureaucrats told

    Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division fled to Canada after the Second World War.

    A list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could remain secret as federal officials come under increasing pressure to censor the records because they could prove embarrassing to this country.

    Those consulted included members of Canada’s Ukrainian community, records show, but Library and Archives Canada, also known as LAC, did not include Holocaust survivors nor Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals, Jewish and Holocaust academics say.

    Some of the individuals and organizations consulted by LAC argued against releasing any of the information, warning it could be embarrassing or lead to prosecutions of the alleged war criminals.

    “A few stakeholders were concerned that the release of the report would result in new legal action (criminal prosecution, citizen revocation, or otherwise) being brought against the individuals named in the report,” a summary of the library’s discussions noted.

    Other stakeholders who advised LAC worried the list would embarrass Canada’s Ukrainian community or be used by Russians for propaganda purposes, the records show.

    Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division fled to Canada after the war.

    Jaime Kirzner-Roberts of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto questioned why survivors of the Nazis’ genocide campaign were not invited by LAC to give their views on whether the list of Nazis and their collaborators should be made public.

    The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies was also shut out from attending the advisory meetings and was not aware they had been conducted.

    In September 2023, Immigration Minister Marc Miller acknowledged “Canada has a really dark history with Nazis in Canada.”

  • Apple apparently wants Wechat to pay them 30% of every financial transaction that takes place on the platform. So it's basically them wanting to take 30% of a huge chunk of transactions made in China.

  • Latest report from ASPI, who produced that widely talked about report early last year about how China has taken the lead in 37 out of 44 critical technologies that they track, or about 84%. They have expanded their scope this year to 64 technologies, in which China leads 57 of them, with the US leading the other 7. Just 20 years ago, the numbers were essentially reversed.

    ASPI notes that, in the US, "private-sector research is increasingly concentrated in US technology giants"; back 20 years ago, the technological lead was spread across several more (typically US-based) corporations, but now only the largest corporations/monopolies truly matter when talking about the private sector. Massive Chinese corporations do not play nearly as big a role in this regard. In the public sector, US institutions like NASA still matter greatly, but the Chinese Academy of Sciences is an absolute colossus, by itself leading in 31 out of 64 technologies.

    China is the top player in the following categories of technologies:

    • Advanced information and communication technologies (7 technologies)
    • Advanced materials and manufacturing (13 technologies)
    • Energy and environment (8 technologies)
    • Unique AUKUS‑relevant technologies (3 technologies)

    China is only mostly the top player in the following categories of technologies:

    • Artificial intelligence, computing and communications (China leads 5/6, with the US coming out ahead in Natural Language Processing, presumably due to ChatGPT)
    • Defence, space, robotics and transportation (China leads 6/7, with the US coming out ahead in small satellites, presumably due to SpaceX)
    • Quantum technologies (China leads 3/4, with the US coming out ahead in Quantum Computing)
    • Sensing, timing and navigation (China leads 8/9, with the US coming out ahead in Atomic Clocks)

    The competitive field is:

    • Biotechnology, gene technologies and vaccines (4 for China, and 3 for the US; the US leads in vaccines, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy, and genetic engineering)

    I count 14 technologies in which China is bigger than every other country put together.

    Other findings were:

    • India is gaining in a variety of fields, but is still quite far from being the top player in any particular technology; their best shot for a top spot in the next few years is biofuel research.
    • The UK is falling fairly quickly, though they have made a couple gains in things like electronic warfare.
    • If you consider the EU collectively (as some hilariously did for the Olympics) then they are still quite competitive and even take the lead in two technologies (small satellites and gravitational force sensors). In the EU, Germany is ranked first, then Italy, then France.
    • South Korea is doing much better than Japan.
    • Iran has gained significantly over the past 20 years in defence-related technologies; now in the top 5 of eight technologies, when around 2003, it struggled to reach even 17th place in a single technology.
    • The combined power of AUKUS can just about match China in some technologies (like adversarial AI), but still trail China in others like advanced robotics.

  • With the recent surge in articles about supposed Russian election interference and funding of anyone who criticizes Democrats, I decided to take a look at what the

    at r/politics are up to, and yep, Russiagate is back in full force.

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