cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/5028069

> Meta threads will open federation to the fediverse soon, and while this is mainly to mastodon it will still affect lemmy. They are acting like they won't be evil, but let's be real this is Facebook when have they ever done that. > > This article which has been trending lately explains some of the issues. https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html > > This comment here is a simple analogy if you can't be bothered reading the article. https://lemmy.ca/comment/5702922 >

G'day all! Just thought I'd chuck up this random thread for a bit of a yarn. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a chinwag about anything and everything – could be your latest DIY project, a recipe you're stoked about, or even just how your day's been. It's all about sharing the good vibes and having a fair dinkum chat. So, what's the goss? Jump on in and let's have a good old chit-chat, like a bunch of mates sitting 'round the table. Cheers!

Hello everyone ,

There have been concerns raised lately over issues with the Auto tl;dr bot which creates summaries of news articles from several known sites, however only really ABC news is applicable here. Relevant threads:

• Truck stowaway 'lucky to be alive' after travelling nearly 400km on metal racks beneath B-double (no problem with summary - just discussion of concerns)
• Small modular nuclear reactor that was hailed by Coalition as future cancelled due to rising costs (Australian Politics)

There are also many other occurrences (I haven't been keeping track), if there are some you would like appended to this list comment with a link below.

Most concerns are that the bot misses important information and/or gives a misleading summary. I'd like to see where people sit on the issue and how we could potentially deal with it. There are a few options I can think of:

1. Remove the bot (through a ban)
2. Get @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone to comment a disclaimer underneath all of its comments
3. Get @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone automatically delete all comments by the bot which have been reported (may open door for abuse)
4. Do nothing

I don't hate the bot - it can be useful, and I like the concept, however, just like us it gets things wrong.

Anyway feedback is welcome, if you have an opinion on this please comment below so I can judge where we all stand on this and try to make the right decision

NOTE: Video sponsored by the ACTU

Key points

• It would make house prices increase by more than the maximum amount people could withdraw
• It would cost the government $1 trillion in the long run
• It would leave people with $200k less in retirement savings
• It would significantly affect the returns on all superannuation as funds would need to keep more cash reserves uninvested so it is available for withdrawal

Streisand Effect, do your work!

(Not me) Official video from David McBride's Official Youtube channel. If you don't know who he is - I don't blame you, with how little coverage this story has gotten

Let’s party!

!

Not sure if anyone has a similar thing they do. There have been some arguments lately in our car so I guess here we are.

>Alon Levy, co-lead of the transportation and land use program at New York University’s Marron Institute, has spent years studying why some countries are able to build transport infrastructure cheaply and others aren’t.

>Though the preliminary business case of the expansion of Gold Coast light rail includes few details, Levy estimates that the project may ultimately cost as much as 10 times more than comparable European infrastructure.

-----

>Those include, Levy says, a lack of contracting transparency, over-engineering, politicisation, poor allocation of cost risk – and above all, contracting out to the private sector.

The inner workings of China's notorious secret police unit and how it hunts down dissidents living overseas – including in Australia – have been exposed by a former spy in a Four Corners investigation, raising tough questions about Australia's national security.

It is the first time anyone from the secret police – one of the most feared and powerful arms of China's intelligence apparatus – has ever spoken publicly.

The investigation also found the existence of an espionage operation on Australian soil only last year and the secret return of an Australian resident to China in 2019. Spy speaks out

The spy — who goes by the name Eric — worked as an undercover agent for a unit within China's federal police and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) between 2008 and early 2023.

The unit is called the Political Security Protection Bureau, or the 1st Bureau. It is one of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) key tools of repression, operating across the globe to surveil, kidnap and silence critics of the party, particularly President Xi Jinping.

"It is the darkest department of the Chinese government," Eric said.

"When dealing with people who oppose the CCP, they can behave as if these people are not protected by the law. They can do whatever they want to them."

Four Corners has chosen not to publish Eric's full name or the identities of his secret police handlers due to concerns for the 39-year-old's safety.

Eric fled China and arrived in Australia last year where he revealed his history to ASIO, Australia's domestic spy agency.

ASIO declined to comment for this story.

Eric revealed to Four Corners how China collects intelligence on those it deems enemies of the state – and in some cases the tactics it uses to see them return to China to face prosecution.

He was tasked by his handlers with hunting down dissidents across the globe, sometimes by using elaborate cover stories — once as a property executive and another as an anti-CCP freedom fighter — to try to gain their confidence and lure them to countries where they could be abducted and returned to China.

Four Corners has seen hundreds of secret documents and correspondence that back up Eric's story about his assignments and targets which covered China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Canada and Australia. 'Secret agents in Australia'

In 2023, AFP officers raided a Sydney location and uncovered a Chinese espionage operation targeting Australian residents.

One of them was Edwin Yin, a political activist whose online videos have targeted President Xi and his daughter.

The AFP spoke to Mr Yin after the raid.

"They told me ... they had disrupted an intelligence agency in Australia," he said.

"They acquired information and material that indicated the CCP was looking for me in Australia through this intelligence agency."

Four Corners understands the AFP's investigation is ongoing.

In 2021, Mr Yin was the victim of a physical attack in Melbourne that left him with a broken nose. Mr Yin thought the two men who attacked him, and a third who filmed it, were Chinese government agents.

"I don't feel safe in Australia," he said.

Eric was asked to target Mr Yin in 2018.

He told Four Corners he has no doubt Chinese secret agents currently operate in Australia, and that they rely on a network of support organisations and businesses.

"In an area where there are secret agents, a support system is required so when the agents are dispatched there, they can receive the necessary support," he said.

"They certainly have established a support system in Australia."

China says it is seeking Mr Yin's return over several financial fraud allegations. Four Corners spoke to one of his alleged victims who maintained the crimes happened.

Mr Yin says he was framed. China's global reach

Counter-intelligence experts said it was "political security" with which China's vast spying network was most concerned.

Holden Triplett previously led the FBI's office in Beijing where he regularly dealt with the Ministry of Public Security.

"The MPS portrays itself as a police service … but in my mind, they're anything but that," he said.

"Their job is to protect the party's status … and when I say status, I mean control … The party has to remain in control."

Under Mr Xi's rule, that control has become much tighter. Since becoming leader in 2012, Mr Xi has reordered the Chinese security and intelligence services and strengthened the party's grip on the Chinese population overseas.

"Now they're heavily engaged in the world, they need resources from all sorts of places," Mr Triplett said.

"So anyone within the Chinese population internally, or in the diaspora … that could threaten the party's control … that's what they would be investigating, opposing and disrupting if necessary."

MPS works with other elements of China's national state security including the country's foreign spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, and the CCP's main foreign influence arm, the United Front Work Department (UFWD).

The UFWD is tasked with increasing China's influence abroad and UFWD-associated community groups exist in virtually all countries where there is a significant Chinese population – including Australia.

"United Front work creates tall grass to hide the snakes," said former CIA analyst Peter Mattis.

"The MPS are some of those snakes." Citizens returned

Mr Xi has used his anti-corruption campaigns Fox Hunt and Sky Net to return more than 12,000 so-called fugitives to China since 2014. Many were returned in covert operations without the knowledge or permission of local authorities.

As part of Fox Hunt, in 2014 two Chinese police officers covertly entered Australia to pursue and return a Melbourne bus driver. When it was made public the following year, it caused a major diplomatic incident and the Chinese government promised it would never happen again.

In 2019, Chinese officers came to Australia again and returned with a 59-year-old Australian resident.

"The MPS sent officials … to Australia to have a so-called heart-to-heart with a female who was then persuaded to come back," said Laura Harth, campaigns director at human rights NGO, Safeguard Defenders.

"They used the [Australian] Chinese consulate-general and embassy to help them."

Four Corners has established that the AFP did approve the 2019 visit, but the Chinese officers didn't follow the agreed protocol and the woman was escorted back to China by them without the AFP's approval.

Do you know more about this story? Contact Four Corners here.

Last month, Safeguard Defenders released a report documenting more than 280 cases of foreign citizens and residents being repatriated to China. The individuals are accused of committing economic crimes.

There were at least 16 successful individual extrajudicial returns from Australia between 2014 and 2023, according to the report, which relied on Chinese state media. Four of those returns took place last year.

"These successful operations — or even the attempts at operations that turn out not to be successful — are a clear violation of Australia's sovereignty," Ms Harth said.

A spokeswoman for the AFP said it "will never endorse or facilitate a foreign agency to come to Australia to intimidate or force foreign nationals to return home".

"Under Australian law, that is a crime," she said.

"It is an offence for foreign governments, or those acting on their behalf, to threaten culturally and linguistically diverse communities, or anyone else in Australia. This includes harassment, surveillance, intimidation and other coercive measures."

An Australian Government spokesperson said defending against malicious foreign interference was "a top priority".

"Australia's law enforcement and intelligence agencies assess, investigate, disrupt and where possible, prosecute acts of foreign interference."

"The ASIO and AFP-led Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce is actively investigating a range of foreign interference cases."

The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Australia and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

8PM (right now) +/- 10 hours

Better call the tiberium harvester back in.

Wtf ?

This petition is part of the Stopkillinggames.com campaign led by Scott Ross (Accursed Farms), to end in Australia the practice of software licensors to render purchased software completely unusable at arbitrary points in time.

This petition closes relatively soon so please get the word out to your fellow mates.

Thank you!

Video concentrates on particular roads in Victoria, and points out Victorian road rules, but the vast majority of this content is applicable around the whole country.

No obligation to ride in the bike lane in Queensland at least. Don't know about other states.

> > > A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. > > > > What started as a simple Senate inquiry into grocery prices and supermarket power has delivered a lengthy 195-page-long report spanning supermarket pricing’s impact on customers, food waste, relationships with suppliers, employee wages and conditions, excessive profitability, company mergers and land banking. > > > > The report makes some major recommendations, including giving courts the power to break up anti-competitive businesses, and strengthening the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). > > > > It also recommends making the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory for supermarket chains. This code governs how they should deal with suppliers. The government’s recent Independent Review of the Food and Grocery Code also recommended making it mandatory for the supermarket giants. > > > > But at this point it’s hard to say what, if anything, the recommendations will mean for everyday Australians and the prices they actually pay. > >

source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6sUpWuIf3y/

Video by Boy Boy, features David McBride, Afghanistan war crimes whistleblower.

update: David was sentented and put in prison on Tue 14 May. 5 years and 8 months prison, of which a non-parole period until mid-August 2026.

-> ALT: a Poster incl a picture of David with a x drawn over his mouth.

MISSING

THE LONELY WARRIOR

WANTED

FOR HUNTING GENERALS

WHISTLEBLOWERS SHOULD GET REWARDS NOT JAIL

WHERE'S HURLEY?

14TH MAY 2024 SUPREME COURT ACT

Hey guys and girls. We don't have a health and fitness community. I was thinking of starting one where we can post achievements, fitness videos, questions etc. Would anyone be interested?

-> Alt text:

David vs Goliath in a nutshell:

Government: 'he stole [newspeak for copied] information but we can't tell you what it is, so we took it off his lawyers and put it in a safe. We'll all refer to it as the docs in the safe.'

Judiciary: 'oh, ok, np!'

Defence Department Whistleblower: 'Those docs showed what I believed to be leadership misconduct. I have no defence now; I plead guilty.'

6 months later...

Government: 'Please jail him with non-parole period'

Judiciary: 'lemme think about this for another week 🤔'

-> end alt-text

-> https://twitter.com/BeeDemocracy/status/1787773353438413019

A Chinese fighter jet endangered an Australian military helicopter during an "unsafe" and "unacceptable" confrontation over the Yellow Sea, Australia said on Monday.

The Chinese air force J-10 jet dropped flares above and several hundred meters ahead of an Australian MH60R Seahawk helicopter which was on a routine flight on Saturday in the Yellow Sea as part of an operation to enforce sanctions against North Korea, Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a statement.

The helicopter, flying from destroyer HMAS Hobart, dodged the flares, but the possible impact would have been "significant".

"This is a very serious incident, it was unsafe and it is completely unacceptable," he said.

"We have formally expressed our concerns about this incident, and formally expressed that this was both unsafe and unprofessional."

The confrontation put the aircraft and those on board at risk, although no one was hurt, the Department of Defence said in a separate statement.

This is the second such incident in six months to mar what has otherwise been a growing rapprochement between the two countries after years of strained relations and trade disputes.

Australia said in November a Chinese naval vessel injured some of its divers in Japanese waters using an underwater sonar. China denied it had used its sonar, however Australia rejected the explanation.

HMAS Hobart continues to operate in the area despite Saturday's confrontation, Marles said. Australia has been participating in missions to enforce sanctions against North Korea in the region since 2018.

China's Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What the absolute fuck? Has anyone else seen this ad play on SBS, how can they advertise for such a piece of shit to spread his brand of hate here.

I saw that they weren't going to go ahead last year, but now apparently there will be a pilot.

I've had YouTube Music since it was Google Music, but the price has recently doubled and at the same time I've started noticing my "Radio" keeps playing the same dozen songs over and over again. Started to feel like I was listening to Triple M.

Yesterday was the final straw as every song played on repeat until you manually skipped which is just... wtf? How does that even happen?

I have jumped on to Spotify for the minute, but find it is too heavily focused on "pop" music - it seems to choose songs that are broadly more popular, but aren't really the same as what I'm choosing to play. I somehow always end up back with top 50 chart artists in the queue, even if I started on like bluegrass or hillbilly or something. Also if I select a song or artist and choose "Radio", it always the same 50 songs and then just stops which doesn't seem like what "Radio" should be at all.

What other options are there that are accessible from Australia, and preferably have a decent amount of Australian local content? I have zero interests in podcasts being jammed in, I just want music. And preferably music that I can just say "play stuff that sounds like this" and it'll go on a deep dive to focus on things I haven't heard before.

Critical:

• No ads
• Able to actually choose the music and skip and what not, so not Sirius or similar
• Good catalogue of Australian artists
• Android and Desktop clients
• "Family" plan or similar for 2 people

Budget not really an issue.

> Qantas is investigating reports of customers having access to other passengers' information on their app.

> In a statement issued this morning, the airline said it would provide more information as soon as possible.

> "Qantas is investigating reports of an issue impacting the Qantas app this morning," a spokesperson for their airline said.

> The scale of the issue has not yet been confirmed.

Luckily I can't afford to travel anywhere so this won't affect me, but probably will others.