0x815

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In other news, it is said that companies around the world are starting to cut prices and costs and scale back activity in China.

The interesting bit is that the Asian Times doesn't mention too many specific new German companies which allegedly have been investing in China recently. It just says things like German energy costs are higher.

[Edit for clarity.]

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0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

You can always find something in any article, but here these are red herrings (and, once again we notice, these red herrings emerge only for specific topics, working always in one and the same direction). Even RT itself says they are a propaganda channel receiving orders from the Kremlin.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

Yes, this Euronews article doesn't make sense.

Northvolt says that operations to continue as usual during Chapter 11 reorganization process, with company meeting obligations to customers, vendors and employees. Voluntary reorganization facilitates access to approximately $145 million in cash collateral and $100 million debtor-in-possession financing (from Scandinavian truck maker Scania). This is not even mentioned in the article.

In a nutshell, the liquidity crisis Northvolt faces is serious, we must not downplay that, but it's far from what the article suggests for now. It's not a collapse.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

Strange. Here is the Reuters news about it: https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-proposes-sanctions-against-chinese-firms-helping-russia-bloomberg-news-2024-11-25/

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0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

It's strange that people are defending Russian propaganda here ...

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

There is an interesting analysis by the European Media Observatory on the Romanian election -- (Archived link).

On 'TikTok's role in Romanian politics' and the 'Candidate Performance Metrics', it says, among others:

Călin Georgescu: Notably surged in popularity, garnering 120 million views, particularly in the final two months. This increase was attributed to coordinated campaigns that used both direct promotion and indirect influence via unpaid influencers, often lacking appropriate labeling. A salient example is the #echilibrușiverticalitate campaign, which reached 2.4 million views through these tactics.

The analysis also says:

The lack of effective moderation allowed for widespread dissemination of unverified information, particularly affecting extreme-right candidates.

Concerns around unlabelled or undeclared political content in the 2024 Romanian presidential elections, particularly on TikTok are significant. They emphasize a lack of transparency in political campaigns, notably involving candidates like Călin Georgescu, who used the platform without disclosing the funding and motivations behind their promotion. The employment of influencers without adequate disclosure raises ethical issues complicates voters’ understanding of the content.

[...]

The notable gap between projected poll figures (around 10%) and actual results (over 22%) raises concerns about potential external influences, including foreign interference.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

If we didn’t just fucking kick those platforms and their CEOs into orbit then, we won’t do it now. We already lost. Our only chance is to remove English as an official language of the EU and go back to German or Spanish or French or something else that would increase the cost of mass manipulation.

What a logic. We won't ban it now because we didn't it then. But 'removing English' as 'official language of the EU' would help according to you. This is, of course, complete rubbish.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

Yeah, and hats off to the judges.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

This has long been done :-)

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0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

This is on topic. It shows where the UK stands regarding facial recognition. What's the problem?

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0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

That is a trend clearly heading in the wrong direction.

There is a new analysis regarding on the top 10 countries with the most widespread and invasive use of facial recognition:.

The UK is gaining ground, but China is clearly leading before Russia and the UAE.

China = 5 out of 40: It’s little surprise that China tops the list with it being frequently quoted as the largest purveyor of facial recognition technology. Its government and police use the technology extensively and often with invasive surveillance tactics. For example, police in some parts of Liaoning Province are reportedly making North Korean defectors download a facial recognition app so they can send daily selfies every morning. This is being done in a bid to prevent them from traveling to South Korea. And children don’t escape the privacy-threatening technology, either, as schools frequently use the tech to see how attentive students are. If the children appear unfocused, this is then reflected in their grades.
Russia = 8 out of 40: Russia’s appearance toward the top of the list is perhaps no surprise, either. With facial recognition evident in all of the categories we covered, Russia is another country that’s turning toward facial recognition in many different areas. Mass surveillance in Russia has been expanding at an exponential rate since the Ukraine invasion. Over the last few years there have been numerous examples of protestors being arrested through the use of FRT. They include Andrey Chernyshov, who was arrested numerous times at the metro station in Moscow throughout 2023 after protesting against the Ukraine war. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also ruled that Russia’s use of FRT to arrest a protester in 2019 (also traveling on the subway in Moscow) was unlawful.
The United Arab Emirates = 9 out of 40: As with many of our top 10 countries, the UAE is rolling out facial recognition across many areas to help “speed up processes” and “eliminate fraud.” From using the technology to gain access to government services and public transport to registering attendance at schools, its use across the UAE is widespread. The police in Abu Dhabi had their patrol cars upgraded to include FRT in a bid to help them identify “suspicious and wanted people.”
The United Kingdom= 11 out of 40: Rising from 11th to 4th place this year is the United Kingdom. The country has seen a rise in biometric surveillance across four categories. This includes the worrying growth of FRT in the government and by law enforcement, including the introduction of live facial recognition bodycams by a number of UK police forces. The technology is increasingly used schools and on trains. A recent report from Network Rail highlighted how travelers using a number of stations, including Manchester Piccadilly, London Waterloo, and London Euston, as well as smaller stations, had their faces scanned for the last two years with Amazon AI software.
Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, and the USA = 12 out of 40: All of these countries have some use of FRT (or FRT is in discussion) across all of the categories we studied [...]
Australia and North Korea [...]
Mexico [...]
Argentina and South Korea [...]
France, Hungary, Malaysia, and Canada [...]
Philippines and Taiwan [...]

[Edit typo.]

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

This is unfortunately not limited to Germany but a global disease.

According to a Unicef study published a few weeks ago, one in eight women or girls alive today around the globe experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18.

A newer UN Women study on femicide—the most extreme form of violence against women and girls— says that globally, 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2023. 60 per cent of these homicides –51,100- were committed by an intimate partner or a family member. The data shows that 140 women and girls die every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative, which means one woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes.

That a huge problem across all continents, countries, and cultures.

0x815 @feddit.org 1y ago

No, not every user is a tankie there. I perfectly agree with that. Many users are unaware when they join the server.

But those who are responsible there are the same or at least have the same mindset like the Bear and Grad servers.

0x815 @feddit.org 2y ago

They are not back, they have never been away. And it's not just the hedge funds but also the regulated banks that gamble with such risks (although the former hold much more assets).

There is a good analysis from May 2024. Among others, it says:

According to financial data at the [U.S.] Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), as of December 31, 2023, JPMorgan Chase held $3.227 trillion off-balance sheet, of which $528.5 billion is undefined and marked as “other.” To put that in perspective, $528.5 billion is the size of the assets of the seventh largest bank in the United States and yet the public has no idea what the $528.5 billion off-balance sheet at JPMorgan Chase is made up of or what kind of risks it presents.

The article also deals with possible solutions. One major issue would be to prohibit deposit-taking banks from merging with investment banks, a measure that has been introduced in the U.S. as a response to the Great Depression in the 1930s and was ditched in the 1990s. The U.S. must urgently reintroduce such a law, and Europe and the rest of the world must follow.

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0x815 @feddit.org 2y ago

So it's the only community that is openly supporting genocide, right? That's obvious I guess.

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0x815 @feddit.org 2y ago

This is largely part of what Ukraine has been initiating in the late 2010s as the article suggests, and there is more to come by the EU.

EU launches Call for EU business to invest in Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction

At [the] first “European Union - Ukraine Investment Conference” organised by the EU and the Government of Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland, the EU launched a Call for Expression of Interest to mobilise private EU investment in critical areas to support Ukraine’s rebuilding efforts.

Under the Call, EU businesses, including joint ventures, or consortia involving both EU and Ukrainian companies, are invited to submit proposals until 1st March 2025. Proposals will be reviewed and connected to the best suited investment projects funded the Ukraine Investment Framework, which is an integral pillar under the EU’s €50 billion Ukraine Facility. By encouraging business partnerships and EU private sector engagement in Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, the EU also helps further integration of Ukraine into the EU Single Market.

Addition: There are comprehensive analyses on Ukraine's post-war reconstruction, its involvement of the Ukrainian people and civil society, and Ukraine's future EU membership by the Bankwatch Network for those interested.