Nostr notes by Sepia

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56888795 > Japan is ...

2026-08-18T13:40:07Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56888795

> Japan is set to test hypersonic missiles and other advanced weapons on Australian soil as both nations push to increase military cooperation against a “challenging and volatile” strategic landscape.
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> On Tuesday Defence Minister Richard Marles hosted security talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi in Canberra, but in a separate meeting Anthony Albanese passed up a chance to apologise in person for the recent “Melongate” controversy.
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> Following formal security talks in Canberra, Mr Marles said both countries were also strengthening information sharing between their defence forces, and declared the military relationship was now at a “high point”.
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> “At a time in the world where our strategic landscape is challenging and volatile, we deeply appreciate the relationship that we have with Japan. We have never been more strategically aligned,” he said.
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> Months after Tokyo announced it had operationally deployed its first batch of long-range strike missiles in the field, Mr Koizumi described the prospect of testing in Australia as a “groundbreaking development” and “second only to similar cooperation with the United States.”
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> The two ministers also announced successful trials of a jointly developed high-energy laser that can detect incoming missile and drone threats, named the Boobook project in honour of an Australian owl “that can see very well in the dark”.
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> Earlier Mr Koizumi became the first Japanese Defence Minister to visit the highly secure Joint Operations Command headquarters outside Canberra, and the Nightly has been told he also toured the cyber intelligence agency, the Australian Signals Directorate.
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> [Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260818130649/https://thenightly.com.au/politics/japan-hypersonic-missiles-set-for-australian-tests-under-decade-long-defence-arrangement-as-china-threat-rises-c-22740759)

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56159234 > *Op-ed ...

2026-08-03T16:54:25Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/56159234

> *Op-ed by Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada.*
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> On July 1, China brought into force its Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, converting a decade of Xi Jinping’s doctrine of “forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation” into binding law.
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> Most attention has gone to its domestic machinery: entrenching Mandarin over minority languages, unified state textbooks and “inter-embedded” neighbourhoods engineered to dilute concentrations of Uyghurs and Tibetans among the Han majority. In other words, this is an assimilationist project that’s already far advanced.
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> The provision that matters most to the world outside China is buried near the end. Article 63 declares that organizations and individuals outside Chinese territory who “undermine ethnic unity” or “create ethnic division” shall be pursued for legal liability.
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> The Chinese government is therefore asserting, in statute, that its authority follows its critics across oceans into other countries, including Canada, home to some of the world’s largest Chinese, Uyghur and Tibetan diaspora communities. The danger is not that the law reaches across borders. It is what it criminalizes, whom it targets and how it’s enforced.
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> The intimidation inherent in the new law already violates many domestic harassment and foreign interference laws in jurisdictions around the world. Prosecutors, here, should use them against the agents carrying out the coercion, not the exiles who are its victims.
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> Governments should shut the unlicensed “police stations,” and press Interpol to reject politically motivated notices aimed at diaspora activists.
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> Governments can also build dedicated channels for those targeted: a clear law enforcement contact, protective guidance for Chinese and minority diaspora communities and training for officers who could mistake transnational repression for an ordinary domestic dispute.
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> Finally, asylum systems should treat Article 63 as evidence: a statute in which China announces that diaspora advocacy invites retaliation is close to proof of persecution for those seeking to flee.
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> China has every right to legislate for its own territory and citizens. What it cannot legitimately do, however warmly it speaks of unity, is disregard borders. The task for all nations, Canada included, is to insist, in law and in practice, that borders still exist.
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> [Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260803164055/https://theconversation.com/china-is-claiming-the-right-to-punish-its-critics-anywhere-on-earth-288175)

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/55337382 > ... > ...

2026-07-18T12:21:20Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/55337382

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> An investigation of 30 TikTok accounts found a factory-like system behind over 550 videos. Nearly all (98 per cent) were assembled by taking AI-generated, manipulated or copied female personas ...Nearly nine in 10 videos pushed false or misleading claims about Singapore and Malaysia, drawing more than 3 million views in total.
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> Between October 2025 and June 2026, they repeatedly advanced a worldview where Singapore’s fortunes were dictated by China. The narratives blended fact, distortion and outright invention: The most outlandish one claimed that Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan had unsuccessfully begged China and Indonesia not to let a new shipping route bypass Singapore’s port. **No such thing happened.**
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> The videos’ creators’ ... use genuine news as hooks for baseless claims. One alleged that Singapore’s port dominance was about to “collapse” now that China’s Hainan Free Trade Port had become fully operational in December. Another seized on an unrelated event, ExxonMobil’s Singapore plant closure, as supposed proof of Singapore’s decline.
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> Another set of [Tiktok] videos used the same tactic – of trying to blur the line between truth and falsehood – by leaning on how Singapore has been China’s largest foreign investor since 2013. This real statistic served, however, as the foundation for subsequently arguing that Singapore had prospered by aligning itself with China’s rise, and for implying that other countries should do the same.
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> But Singapore is not the only target of the disinformation campaign.
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> Where the Singapore-focused claims cast China as a patron, the Malaysia ones took on a more contentious framing, with several blaming the country’s allegedly slower development on policies that sidelined its ethnic Chinese population.
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> The **goal appears to be to erode trust and fracture social cohesion**, said Associate Professor Saifuddin Ahmed from Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.
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> >“Any audience that grows to distrust its own government's narrative is more susceptible to external influence over time,” he added.
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> The experts also suggested that beyond domestic Singapore and Malaysia audiences, the global Mandarin-speaking diaspora could be a target. There is strategic value, for instance, in attempting to shape how investors might perceive the stability and political orientation of the two countries, said Assoc Prof Saifuddin.
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> “TikTok's short-form, high-volume format means users encounter the same narratives repeatedly across different accounts without necessarily recognising it as a coordinated campaign,” Assoc Prof Saifuddin explained. “That repetition alone, independent of content quality, increases the likelihood that claims feel familiar and therefore plausible.”
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> The same tactic has been observed in previously documented influence as well as marketing campaigns. According to reports in 2024, **Chinese state-linked groups had targeted the Taiwanese elections** that year with AI-generated news anchors. And in June this year, a network of fake female dating profiles were found pushing propaganda ahead of local polls in Taiwan.
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> Asked about the effectiveness of the videos, Assoc Prof Saifuddin said that “view counts tell you about reach, not about whether minds were actually changed”.
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> But he also reiterated that the operation “doesn't need to convince people outright; **it just needs to make certain framings feel familiar and recurring**”.
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> The use of Mandarin is also a factor, with fact-checking and debunking efforts in this space lagging behind English-language cases, said Mr Benjamin Ang, who heads the centre of excellence for national security at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) think-tank.
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> [Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260716044918/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/tiktok-ai-women-disinformation-deepfake-presenters-6250271)

Orenburg Mayor Albert Yumadilov said he had planned to hire North ...

2026-07-14T05:34:41Z

Orenburg Mayor Albert Yumadilov said he had planned to hire North Koreans as street cleaners but that they would not work for the wages the city can offer.

“As far as I know, workers from North Korea won’t come for 55,000 rubles. Wages there are two to three times higher. Sure, their efficiency is higher too — they work like robots. I’ve seen it with my own eyes; over there, they really are robots… But we just can’t afford the wages,” Yumadilov said, as quoted by the Orenburg city portal 1743.ru.

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Meanwhile, Senegalese nationals are working in the city’s housing and utilities sector, Yumadilov said. The first 10 arrived in April. Thirty-one Senegalese now sweep the streets of Orenburg, and four more are due soon. Yumadilov praised the quality and productivity of their work.

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[Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260714052744/https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/07/13/russian-mayor-says-north-korean-street-cleaners-cost-too-much-for-his-city-so-he-hired-senegalese-workers-instead)

Inking a security agreement with Fiji will be the first stop in ...

2026-07-05T09:10:32Z

Inking a security agreement with Fiji will be the first stop in the Prime Minister's Pacific tour to lock in more pacts to counter China's reach in the region.

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Anthony Albanese is off to Fiji to sign a landmark treaty, as Australia and China face off in a diplomatic fight for influence in the Indo-Pacific.

The prime minister arrives in Suva on Sunday and is expected to sign the Vuvale Union agreement with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka on Monday.

He will then push on to the Solomon Islands on Tuesday to progress negotiations on a new treaty with Honiara, as part of a three-day Pacific tour.

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The whirlwind round of diplomacy doesn’t stop there either, with Mr Albanese to meet Narendra Modi in Melbourne later in the week.

The Indian prime minister will spend three days Down Under from Wednesday for the annual leaders’ summit between the two nations.

Mr Albanese will meanwhile become the first foreign leader to participate in Solomon Islands’ Independence Day celebrations.

His message will be that Australia is a nation the Pacific can rely on.

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Newly-elected Solomons Prime Minister Matthew Wale made Australia his first international trip as leader during a visit to Canberra in June.

He is also the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and flagged that he would review his nation’s controversial policing deal with China, signed in 2022.

Mr Wales has also called for a Pacific-wide security deal, which Australia has said it is open to pursuing.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will also take part in the Pacific trip, has previously described Australia as in a “state of permanent contest in the Pacific”.

Engaged in a diplomatic “knife fight” with China for regional influence, the Albanese government has since inked a number of security and economic deals with Pacific Island nations.

The latest among them is the breakthrough $500 million Nakamal Agreement signed with Vanuatu, which rules out the use of its territory for foreign military bases.

The deal previously fell through last September, after Port Vila raised concerns its sovereignty would be undermined through Australia’s push for a veto over major foreign investment in critical infrastructure.

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Canberra has signed a historic mutual defence pact with Papua New Guinea called the Pukpuk Treaty, and the world-leading Falepili Union with Tuvalu, which allows the population to resettle in Australia.

Mr Albanese’s visit would be significant and he had built “momentum” with the region’s leaders, Lowy’s Pacific Program director Oliver Nobetau said.

“Albanese, despite all the domestic pressures, sees that this is a permanent contest, and he’s willing to make those strides and those commitments and build those relationships out in the Pacific,” he told AAP.

“Permanent contest, it is a good framing because it doesn’t allow for anyone to take things for granted as to where the goodwill of the relationships are.”

Under the Nakamal Agreement, both Australia and Vanuatu committed to support dialogue addressing the dark historical practice of blackbirding, where thousands of Pacific Islanders were forced to work and live under harsh conditions on Queensland plantations.

They were taken from countries across the region, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Mr Nobetau said unlike China, Australia faced the “hurdle” of its colonial past and image in the region.

“When we saw the mention of blackbirding ... that was such a significant step in looking at how mature these relationships can get,” he said.

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[Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260705085551/https://thenightly.com.au/politics/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-off-to-fiji-australia-builds-on-momentum-with-fresh-pacific-deal-c-22532058)

European Union officials have confirmed that China provided ...

2026-06-14T10:18:29Z

European Union officials have confirmed that China provided military training to hundreds of Russian soldiers who were subsequently deployed to participate in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

During a briefing in Brussels on June 12, a high-ranking EU representative stated that intelligence services have gathered clear evidence of this training. Training took place across multiple locations within Chinese territory, [according](https://www.dw.com/uk/cinovnik-es-kitaj-navcav-soldativ-rf-ti-potrapili-na-front/a-77529761?maca=Ukr-Red-Telegram) to Deutsche Welle.

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On June 15, EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Luxembourg to address this development. The agenda includes a broader discussion on relations with China, focusing on security and foreign policy. Ministers will also examine the European defense industry's reliance on Chinese supply chains and potential strategies to mitigate those dependencies.

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Previous reports from various international sources have suggested that these training programs, which allegedly occurred in late 2025, utilized six military bases in China.

These programs were reportedly focused on the operation of drone systems, electronic warfare tactics, and advanced battlefield simulations. Some of the soldiers involved were reportedly linked to elite Russian drone units that have been active in the front-line regions of Ukraine.

At the same time, Russia launched a three-day exercise involving its nuclear forces on May 19, mobilizing around 64,000 troops and 7,800 units of military equipment just hours before Russian leader Vladimir Putin departed for a two-day trip to China.

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47899546 > ... > ...

2026-02-23T13:10:16Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47899546

> ...
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> The three-judge panel dismissed appeals from the 12, including ex-lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, former journalist Gwyneth Ho and Gordon Ng, an Australian citizen. The campaigners smiled and waved from the dock to their supporters in the public gallery, which included defendants in the same case who had finished serving time.
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> Pro-democracy activist Chan Po-ying, wife of defendant Leung, said the outcome was "absurd" and that judges "presumed that the defendants wanted to subvert state power." Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Fernando Cheung said the court had "missed a critical opportunity to correct this mass injustice."
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> Aged between 28 and 69, the group included democratically elected lawmakers and district councillors, as well as unionists, academics and others ranging from modest reformists to radical localists. In 2024, the court convicted 45 people and acquitted two.
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> The 45 convicted campaigners were given sentences ranging from four years and two months to 10 years, depending on their role and whether they received reduced penalties. After Monday's defeat, the appellants can take their case to Hong Kong's top court, though they have yet to confirm if they will.
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> [Archive link](https://archive.ph/c3Gz4)

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47898127 > [Archive ...

2026-02-23T12:54:09Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47898127

> [Archive link](https://archive.ph/0mXsp)

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47134012 > On 9 ...

2026-02-09T10:53:30Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/47134012

> On 9 February 2026, Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law, including spurious charges of "collusion with foreign forces” and conspiring to publish “seditious” material. Prosecutors cited more than 160 Apple Daily articles as examples of “seditious publications.” Forced to close by Hong Kong authorities in June 2021, Apple Daily was the territory’s largest mainstream independent newspaper, known for delivering independent reporting. His guilty verdict was delivered on 15 December 2025, but sentencing has been delayed by two months.
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> Jimmy Lai was tried alongside six former senior staff at Apple Daily. CEO Cheung Kim-hung received six years and nine months in prison; chief editor Ryan Law Wai-kwong, 10 years; executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, 10 years; associate publisher Chan Pui-man, seven years; managing editor of the English edition Fung Wai-kong, 10 years; and lead editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee, seven years and three months. Two other co-accused, pro-democracy activist Chan Tsz-wah, and activist Andy Li, were respectively sentenced to six years and three months, and seven years and three months. Li is believed to be forcibly held in a high-security psychiatric institution in Hong Kong.
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> Since 2020, the Hong Kong government has prosecuted at least 28 journalists, eight of whom are currently detained. Hong Kong is ranked 140th in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, having plummeted down the rankings from 18th place in just two decades. China ranks 178th of the 180 countries and territories surveyed.
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> [Web archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260209075524/https://rsf.org/en/jimmy-lai-sentence-exposes-collapse-press-freedom-hong-kong)

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45880128 > Here is ...

2026-01-20T18:50:40Z

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45880128

> Here is the [Canadian government's release](https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2026/01/minister-sidhu-announces-launch-of-mutual-recognition-agreement-for-architects-between-canada-and-european-union.html).
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> The EU and Canada have concluded a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on the recognition of professional qualifications of architects. The MRA became binding on 18 December 2025 and is now in force. The MRA allows EU architects to obtain a Canadian architect’s license. It also allows Canadian architects to obtain a license in an EU Member State. To do so, they must meet certain qualification and experience-based criteria.
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