0x815

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5134551

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• The Chinese industry ministry issued final – but not binding – investment guidelines for solar PV manufacturing projects after the local industry has been calling for government intervention to curb the booming solar manufacturing.

• The government now wants a minimum capital ratio of 30% for solar PV projects, up from 20% previously. This ratio typically refers to the share of total investment shareholders invest with their own assets.

The manufacturing boom and the competition for market share have prompted some Chinese manufacturers to sacrifice quality for the sake of higher profits, an industry executive said earlier this year. Companies are looking to survive in the race to the bottom in China’s solar component market and some are skimping on quality and testing.

The Chinese solar panel market remains oversupplied and this glut could last up to two more years, Longi Green Energy Technology said in July.

The company, which is one of the world’s top solar panel manufacturers, warned it would book a loss for the first half of 2024, amid a fierce price war and overcapacity in the sector.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5134376

The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, Taiwan's National Security Bureau said.

'State Organs' (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities.

From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said.

[...]

Threats have also been received from Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, Spain and Russia, suggesting that the criminals are using virtual private networks to hide their origins, it added.

The threats are part of a larger strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere with all levels of Taiwan’s society, the bureau said.

[...]

The bureau vowed to continue to closely monitor the [Chinese Communist Party's] CCP’s cyberintimidation attempts against Taiwanese, bolster domestic security and keep the public informed.

It also said it would seek to build up its international intelligence cooperation as well as domestic security initiatives to confront the CCP’s attempts at isolating and diminishing Taiwan.

[...]

Archived link

The Russian leader is revisiting the Cold War playbook by using mental manipulation to silence dissidents and its use is growing

[...]

A new Russian bill, which will become law in 2025, will allow the police to gain access to the medical records of people suffering from certain mental illnesses and who are deemed by psychiatrists to be a threat to public order.

Dmitry Kutovoy, a member of Russia’s Psychiatric Association, said he had concerns that amending legislation could contribute to creating a system of oppression using psychiatry. He warned that the authorities might put pressure on medical workers to designate certain people as “activists, political opponents, and so on”.

[...]

Abuse of psychiatry to persecute and intimidate state critics was a popular practice in the Soviet Union. Dissident Alexander Skobov was condemned to compulsory psychiatric treatment twice, in the 1970s and the 1980s [and is already being used by the Russian government to silence critics, e.g., against those to oppose Russia's war in Ukraine].

[...]

One recent high-profile case was that of Viktoria Petrova, who was arrested in May 2022. She was accused of “spreading false information” about the Russian military in anti-war social media posts.

Activist Anush Panina went to support Petrova during her trial in St Petersburg.

“All of a sudden, the court announced that the hearings would be closed to the public, and sent her to a psychiatric hospital,” Panina remembered, speaking to Index from exile.

“It was outrageous and frightening.”

Panina suspects Petrova was punished for continuing to speak up while in detention and on trial. In her final statement to the court, Petrova said that Russia’s war in Ukraine was “a crime against humanity”.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5134376

The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, Taiwan's National Security Bureau said.

'State Organs' (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities.

From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said.

[...]

Threats have also been received from Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, Spain and Russia, suggesting that the criminals are using virtual private networks to hide their origins, it added.

The threats are part of a larger strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere with all levels of Taiwan’s society, the bureau said.

[...]

The bureau vowed to continue to closely monitor the [Chinese Communist Party's] CCP’s cyberintimidation attempts against Taiwanese, bolster domestic security and keep the public informed.

It also said it would seek to build up its international intelligence cooperation as well as domestic security initiatives to confront the CCP’s attempts at isolating and diminishing Taiwan.

[...]

Archived link

• The Chinese industry ministry issued final – but not binding – investment guidelines for solar PV manufacturing projects after the local industry has been calling for government intervention to curb the booming solar manufacturing.

• The government now wants a minimum capital ratio of 30% for solar PV projects, up from 20% previously. This ratio typically refers to the share of total investment shareholders invest with their own assets.

The manufacturing boom and the competition for market share have prompted some Chinese manufacturers to sacrifice quality for the sake of higher profits, an industry executive said earlier this year. Companies are looking to survive in the race to the bottom in China’s solar component market and some are skimping on quality and testing.

The Chinese solar panel market remains oversupplied and this glut could last up to two more years, Longi Green Energy Technology said in July.

The company, which is one of the world’s top solar panel manufacturers, warned it would book a loss for the first half of 2024, amid a fierce price war and overcapacity in the sector.

[...]

The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, Taiwan's National Security Bureau said.

'State Organs' (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities.

From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said.

[...]

Threats have also been received from Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, Spain and Russia, suggesting that the criminals are using virtual private networks to hide their origins, it added.

The threats are part of a larger strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere with all levels of Taiwan’s society, the bureau said.

[...]

The bureau vowed to continue to closely monitor the [Chinese Communist Party's] CCP’s cyberintimidation attempts against Taiwanese, bolster domestic security and keep the public informed.

It also said it would seek to build up its international intelligence cooperation as well as domestic security initiatives to confront the CCP’s attempts at isolating and diminishing Taiwan.

[...]

Archived link

Information manipulation tends to have specific aims in the here and now: to shift a policy, to confuse voters, to create instability in a society seen as hostile. But sometimes, these aims are best achieved by projecting manipulation into the past. The symbolic dates of 3 October and 9 November are good recent examples.

3 October, a public holiday in Germany, marks the day in 1990 when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were reunited in a single state. German unification had been made possible by the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.

But 9 November also marks another occasion, as the pro-Kremlin disinformation outlet RT Deutsch gleefully pointed out last year(opens in a new tab) – the first large-scale anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany in 1938, known as Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass).

[...]

[The] RT German pieces question the meaning of 9 November and how German unification is being commemorated in contemporary politics in Germany. They shed doubt on the historical accuracy of the parallels being drawn between distinct events in an effort to address current issues related to anti-Semitism, violence, immigration, and the European position towards Russia.

While not immediately apparent as disinformation, the cumulative effect of such assertions is clear enough: a wholesale rewriting of recent history, at the service of contemporary agendas.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5105313

Archived link

The decision comes after a landmark 2023 ruling by the same court shut the door on legalising same-sex marriage, but gave the government two years to set up an "alternative legal framework" to safeguard rights for such couples.

Tuesday marked the end of a six-year legal battle after resident Nick Infinger took the government to court when he and his partner were excluded from public rental housing on the grounds they were not an "ordinary family".

The case was later heard together with that of Henry Li and his late husband, Edgar Ng, who challenged government policies on subsidised housing and inheritance rules that barred same-sex couples.

[...]

Chief judge Andrew Cheung said policies that excluded same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidised flats sold under the city's Home Ownership Scheme "cannot be justified".

"(For) needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the (government's) exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all," Cheung added.

[...]

On the issue of inheritance, judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro wrote that existing rules were "discriminatory and unconstitutional", adding that authorities had "failed to justify the differential treatment" of same-sex couples.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5105313

Archived link

The decision comes after a landmark 2023 ruling by the same court shut the door on legalising same-sex marriage, but gave the government two years to set up an "alternative legal framework" to safeguard rights for such couples.

Tuesday marked the end of a six-year legal battle after resident Nick Infinger took the government to court when he and his partner were excluded from public rental housing on the grounds they were not an "ordinary family".

The case was later heard together with that of Henry Li and his late husband, Edgar Ng, who challenged government policies on subsidised housing and inheritance rules that barred same-sex couples.

[...]

Chief judge Andrew Cheung said policies that excluded same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidised flats sold under the city's Home Ownership Scheme "cannot be justified".

"(For) needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the (government's) exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all," Cheung added.

[...]

On the issue of inheritance, judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro wrote that existing rules were "discriminatory and unconstitutional", adding that authorities had "failed to justify the differential treatment" of same-sex couples.

[...]

Archived link

The decision comes after a landmark 2023 ruling by the same court shut the door on legalising same-sex marriage, but gave the government two years to set up an "alternative legal framework" to safeguard rights for such couples.

Tuesday marked the end of a six-year legal battle after resident Nick Infinger took the government to court when he and his partner were excluded from public rental housing on the grounds they were not an "ordinary family".

The case was later heard together with that of Henry Li and his late husband, Edgar Ng, who challenged government policies on subsidised housing and inheritance rules that barred same-sex couples.

[...]

Chief judge Andrew Cheung said policies that excluded same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidised flats sold under the city's Home Ownership Scheme "cannot be justified".

"(For) needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the (government's) exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all," Cheung added.

[...]

On the issue of inheritance, judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro wrote that existing rules were "discriminatory and unconstitutional", adding that authorities had "failed to justify the differential treatment" of same-sex couples.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5104693

Archived link

Russia's hybrid attacks began after the annexation of Crimea and are becoming increasingly brazen, security experts say. The West has started to acknowledge the danger but still does not treat individual incidents as parts of the same anti-Western hybrid war.

In Västerås, Sweden, about a hundred kilometers from Stockholm, stands a Russian Orthodox Church. The Swedish Security Service has reported that the church has ties to Russian intelligence in Sweden and that Russia uses the Russian Orthodox Church as a cover for intelligence activities. Nearby are an airfield, a water treatment plant and energy companies.

"Sensors can be installed there – cameras or some sort of listening devices – to monitor communications. Additionally, it could be used for accommodation, including housing special forces. It was later discovered that the planning process did not follow legal procedures, but the church is there today," said security expert Martin Hurt.

Hurt also pointed out that not all Scandinavian countries have developed the same sense of threat awareness as those bordering Russia.

"Unfortunately, in some Scandinavian countries that have enjoyed long periods of peace, some people continue to live in that mindset," he noted.

[...]

"There have been attacks on railway systems. Trains have been halted in Germany and Sweden. In France, for example, on the opening day of the Olympic Games, there was a strange attack in three locations simultaneously on railway lines leading to Paris," [security expert Eerik-Niiles] Kross noted.

[...]

"There has been a reluctance to acknowledge that this is a systematic, centrally directed sabotage campaign targeting not just one country or another, but the Western world as a whole," he said.

Kross highlighted the so-called "triple A model," introduced in NATO and the European Union in recent years, derived from the English terms: acknowledge the event, assess it and attribute it to the perpetrator. According to Kross, a fourth "A" – act – is missing.

"Every time something like this happens, €100 million in frozen Russian assets should be taken and handed over to Ukraine," he suggested as an example.

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5104693

Archived link

Russia's hybrid attacks began after the annexation of Crimea and are becoming increasingly brazen, security experts say. The West has started to acknowledge the danger but still does not treat individual incidents as parts of the same anti-Western hybrid war.

In Västerås, Sweden, about a hundred kilometers from Stockholm, stands a Russian Orthodox Church. The Swedish Security Service has reported that the church has ties to Russian intelligence in Sweden and that Russia uses the Russian Orthodox Church as a cover for intelligence activities. Nearby are an airfield, a water treatment plant and energy companies.

"Sensors can be installed there – cameras or some sort of listening devices – to monitor communications. Additionally, it could be used for accommodation, including housing special forces. It was later discovered that the planning process did not follow legal procedures, but the church is there today," said security expert Martin Hurt.

Hurt also pointed out that not all Scandinavian countries have developed the same sense of threat awareness as those bordering Russia.

"Unfortunately, in some Scandinavian countries that have enjoyed long periods of peace, some people continue to live in that mindset," he noted.

[...]

"There have been attacks on railway systems. Trains have been halted in Germany and Sweden. In France, for example, on the opening day of the Olympic Games, there was a strange attack in three locations simultaneously on railway lines leading to Paris," [security expert Eerik-Niiles] Kross noted.

[...]

"There has been a reluctance to acknowledge that this is a systematic, centrally directed sabotage campaign targeting not just one country or another, but the Western world as a whole," he said.

Kross highlighted the so-called "triple A model," introduced in NATO and the European Union in recent years, derived from the English terms: acknowledge the event, assess it and attribute it to the perpetrator. According to Kross, a fourth "A" – act – is missing.

"Every time something like this happens, €100 million in frozen Russian assets should be taken and handed over to Ukraine," he suggested as an example.

[Edit typo.]