Archived link

Addition: This is a Witness Statement to the U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China (pdf) by Cedric Witek, a French national and corporate-crime investigator who has helped foreign nationals imprisoned in China.

An Australian Senate Committee has been told that around 10,000 foreigners, including Australians, are currently held in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) prison system.

At an inquiry hearing on Sept. 26, Peter Humphrey, a former British journalist and businessman involved with China for 50 years, shared his experience of being wrongfully detained by the communist regime. Humphrey and his Chinese American wife were arrested in 2013 on false charges of illegal “information gathering.”

[...]

Humphrey also said the CCP did not provide Australians or foreigners with proper legal proceedings. “Not a single Australian prisoner has had a fair and transparent trial. Some are in dire health. Some are over 50, aging rapidly,” he told the Senate Committee.

[...]

The former businessman explained that all organs of the judicial system–the police, the prosecution, the judiciary, the prisons, and Chinese lawyers–formed an organic whole under the regime’s complete control.

“No judge is independent or impartial. He is just a messenger of the party,” he said.

“The system is exploited by connected individuals to harm people they have a grudge against."

“Cases are built upon forced confessions, often televised and upon forced witness statements.”

At the same time, Humphrey shared about the harsh living conditions of prisioners [...] in CCP’s prisons, where they had to sleep on the floor in a small cell full of people and eat filthy, appalling food.

[...]

There was also the withholding of proper medical treatment [from prisoners], even for cancer, Humphrey added.

[...]

Furthermore, Humphrey said Australia and other countries had a mindset of putting commercial relations above the interests of individual citizens who had been wrongfully detained.

[...]

Specifically, Humphrey said there needed to be legislation that would put a greater onus on the Australian government to act, and legislation that would punish China for its acts of arbitrarily and unjustly detaining Australian citizens.

“You need to send out the message that if you touch an Australian, we’re going to make you and your friends’ life hell,” he said. “Western democracies should link hands in this approach and put on a united front.

[...]

Bank-owned ATM numbers are down almost 60%, with many spots now taken by privately-owned machines charging about $3 per withdrawal

source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=8709502339094581

group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/auroraaustralia

EDIT: Apparently you're going to want to see some red on the map here: https://seetheaurora.com/live-data

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13929272

So, what's the take away here ? make it so expensive to live people choose cycling and we get better cities ?

Andrew King, a lecturer in climate science at the University of Melbourne, said there was "evidence to suggest climate change is intensifying those kind of extreme rain events".

"With larger cities and larger urban areas, we'd expect to see more incidents like these floods affecting more people," he said.

It fell out of the air and died right next to me. Spotted in Melbourne Australia. Quite small, a bit smaller than the tip of a standard flathead screwdriver

A bit of Google Lens'ing suggests it looks quite similar to Eupeodes lapponicus, but that's a European/North American species. I'm a bit awestruck by the pattern

No stinger

PM warns against importing ‘radical ideologies of conflict’ and home affairs minister condemns ‘any indication of support for a terrorist organisation’

Man left voice recording in 64-year-old’s mailbox, outlining how he had been watching her on his mail run, but quit when confronted by his employer

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/21795594

When?

Oct 1st, 8:30am CEST

More info on the event:

https://pace.coe.int/en/news/9600/julian-assange-to-attend-a-pace-hearing-in-strasbourg-on-his-detention-and-conviction-and-their-chilling-effect-on-human-rights

With Senator David Shoebridge & lawyer Eddie Lloyd.

David McBride, a military lawyer, was convicted and imprisoned for his disclosures to the ABC, Australia's national broadcaster, regarding serious misconduct by the country's Special Forces in Afghanistan.  

On the very day McBride was sentenced, Australia's Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, belatedly released an unclassified 3-year report from a body called 'The Afghanistan Inquiry Implementation Oversight Panel'. He claimed that the release had been delayed, pending advice from the Office of Special Investigator, on whether the report “would, or could reasonably be expected to prejudice legal proceedings - specifically current and future war crimes prosecutions”.

The panel was to look into how cultural and professional reforms were being implemented in the Australian military, as had been the case for four years, and then in accordance with recommendations laid out in the 2020 Brereton Report, an inquiry into alleged crimes, including war crimes, committed by some Special Forces between 2005 and 2016. Brereton recommended that 19 soldiers be investigated by police for the "murder" of 39 Afghan prisoners and unarmed civilians, and the cruel treatment of two others. Besides McBride, only one soldier has been prosecuted to date, and oddly enough, McBride's case was neither cited as “current” by the Minister of Defence, nor by the Oversight Panel. Nor has its lengthy report had much attention from the media.

Terence Darrell Kelly, who pleaded guilty to 2021 kidnapping, will be eligible for parole after serving 11 years and six months

Sky News host and newspaper columnist Peta Credlin has a swag of awards for journalism, a prime time nightly TV show and occupies significant real estate in the Murdoch press twice a week.

In addition to her various platforms, according to evidence heard in the federal court, Credlin has also been described as a “Liberal party mentor”, dispensing advice from the sidelines.

Ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming told the defamation trial she brought against the Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, that she has kept Credlin “in the loop, in general, at all times”.

....

cross-posted from: https://vegantheoryclub.org/post/490206

I've sent them an email to ask for clarity and will update with their response.

Having a read of the food labeling standards (https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/food-standards-code/legislation) 1.2.2, 2.4, and schedule 10-2 any edible oil is only required to be identified as follows:

(a) The statement of ingredients must declare:

(i) whether the source is animal or vegetable; and

if the food is a dairy product, including ice cream—the specific source of animal fats or oils.

(b) This generic name must not be used for >diacylglycerol oil.

As such it turns out anything labelled as vegetable oil could contain palm oil, which is relatively likely given it's ~36% of global oil trade and the number 1 producer. https://ourworldindata.org/palm-oil

So I recommend that unless you have specific knowledge, if anything has a thick texture at room temp and claims not to be hydrogenated you should assume it is palm oil. Especially if it's quite low in saturated and polyunsaturated fats which is a bit of a coconut oil tell.

RIP to a delicious one.

• A former sinner

Investigation finds that the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of personal information and to protect personal information from unauthorised disclosure

The report: https://ovic.vic.gov.au/regulatory-action/investigation-into-the-use-of-chatgpt-by-a-child-protection-worker/

Investigation into the use of ChatGPT by a Child Protection worker

In December 2023, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) reported a privacy incident to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OVIC), explaining that a Child Protection worker had used ChatGPT when drafting a Protection Application Report (PA Report). The report had been submitted to the Children’s Court for a case concerning a young child whose parents had been charged in relation to sexual offences.

Despite its popularity, there are a range of privacy risks associated with the use of generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT. Most relevant in the present circumstances are risks related to inaccurate personal information and unauthorised disclosure of personal information.

After conducting preliminary inquiries with DFFH, the Privacy and Data Protection Deputy Commissioner commenced an investigation under section 8C(2)(e) of the Privacy and Data Protection (PDP) Act with a view to deciding whether to issue a compliance notice to DFFH under section 78 of that Act.

OVIC’s investigation considered whether the Department took reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of personal information and to protect personal information it holds from misuse, as required by the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and Information Privacy Principles 3.1 and 4.1.

The full investigation report:

https://ovic.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DFFH-ChatGPT-investigation-report-20240924.pdf