Australia

Trumpism, whether full-strength or in the watered-down form seen in Australia, is not an answer to the failure of neoliberalism. But until centre-left parties can escape the mental prison built by decades of soft neoliberalism, it is what we are likely to get.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26355302

Includes a variety of statistics on the size, time, and nature of massacres, as well as an interactive map

In short:

Farmers on Western Australia's south coast are challenging the norm by selling blueberries in cardboard punnets instead of plastic.

A similar concept has been trialled successfully across more than 30 stores in northern New South Wales.

What's next?

Most blueberries are still sold in plastic punnets, but the industry is trialling solutions.

These families never imagined their loved ones would be drawn to Neo-Nazi groups. Now they're fighting to get them back and begging the government to help.

So a pretty general article but this part stood out to me:

in vintage Lambie style she warned him not to "suck up".

"[America] need[s] Australia more than what we need them, and they need our critical minerals. So, if Trump wants to play with Australia, I suggest you start getting your cowboy hats on," Lambie said.

"… Don't play bloody Trump's bluff. Don't play it. You don't move Albo. Don't you move on him. Don't you dare. Don't suck up."

Why does she think they rely on us more than them?

Average Australian has an iphone, uses facebook/instagram/whatsapp/facebook messenger/marketplace, google, gmail and youtube, and all its services along with Apple/Microsoft, most corporates are damn near 100% Microsoft, Microsoft Windows on Microsoft laptops with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Edge and MIcrosoft Office365, all our movies are American, all our top hit singles in music are American, TV shows, netflix, Food with McDonalds, KFC, products with Amazon, Amazon prime etc Walk around a shopping centre and count the NBA/NFL/American tshirts

Why does she think Americans rely on us more than us on them? We are deeply embedded in America at this point

Neither lowering fares or simply increasing enforcement can solve fare evasion alone. Investing in better services and winning public trust are just as important.

Australia's defence ministry said it "expressed concerns" to its Chinese counterparts over the "unsafe and unprofessional interaction".

No one was injured and there was no damage to Australia's P-8A surveillance jet after Tuesday's incident, the ministry said.

But China said the Australian aircraft "intentionally intruded" into its airspace and that the Chinese fighter jet responded in a "legitimate, lawful, professional, and restrained" manner.

This is the latest in a string of encounters between the two countries' militaries in the region, where China's vast claims over islands and outcrops overlap with those of its neighbours.

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In May last year, Australia accused a Chinese fighter plane of dropping flares close to an Australian navy helicopter that was part of a UN Security Council mission on the Yellow Sea.

In November 2023, Canberra accused Beijing's navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan, resulting in Australian divers suffering injuries.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Canberra said it was monitoring three Chinese navy vessels operating to the north-east of Australia.

These vessels had travelled through South East Asia before entering Australia's maritime approaches, with one of the vessels transiting into waters in the country's north, the defence department said.

"Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, just as we expect others to respect Australia's right to do the same," it said.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/32722013

Source, details and zoomable map

Australia's Global Lithium Resources is pressing the government to halt what it calls a takeover attempt by Chinese investors of its cornerstone asset ahead of a shareholder meeting this week.

The company is counting on government intervention after the nation's Takeovers Panel declined last week to review what Global Lithium says may be an unlawful association among China-linked shareholders seeking to control its Manna lithium project in Western Australia.

The company's campaign poses a test for a government that is pushing for critical minerals projects to drive economic growth and boost security links with the United States, its key global ally, while not wanting to anger its top resources customer, China.

Global Lithium management wants Australia's treasurer, who receives advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board, to force the shareholders pushing for board changes to sell down their stakes. The treasurer could block them from voting at Thursday's shareholder meeting, the Western Australia Supreme Court said in a ruling in November.

The company froze development of its Manna lithium project late last year amid a protracted downturn in the battery raw material market. Global Lithium management alleged in filings with regulators that director Dianmin Chen was working with a group of foreign-linked investors holding between 30% and 40% of shares to take control of the board and its main asset.

ALLEGATIONS OF POTENTIAL ILLEGALITY

Led by Executive Chairman Ron Mitchell, Global Lithium management has advised shareholders to reject proposals to reappoint Chen, appoint other Chinese-born directors and cap the board at three directors.

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Mitchell alleges an undisclosed association among shareholders may violate Australia's takeover laws and the foreign takeovers act. He made the accusations in filings to the Australian Securities Exchange, the Western Australian Supreme Court, and in a report to Australia's Treasury last year.

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• r/nbn

Shit's fakked

I hope we respond by putting tariffs on American pickups. Democratic nations need to cut the US out of the global economy entirely until they learn how to act right.

Apologies if there's any weirdness in this post, it's my first one.

For menopausal women, the hormone replacement therapies Prometrium, Estrogel and Estrogel Pro – or estradiol and progesterone – will go on the PBS for the first time in 20 years. About 150,000 women using those treatments currently pay up to $670 a year, but this will come down to $380, a saving of $290.

Contraceptive pills Yaz and Yasmin, which are used by 50,000 women and typically cost $380 a year, will be the first new oral contraceptives added to the PBS in more than 30 years. Government subsidies will bring them down to $126 a year, or $31 for concession cardholders, saving $254. Both changes will come into effect on March 1.

Great that this isn’t an election pledge. It’s coming in on March 1!

Taiwan’s top diplomat in Canberra has said Taipei stands by to offer Australia advice in tackling disinformation campaigns as the nation braces for a surge in conspiracy theories and fake news in the run up to the Federal election.

The Australian Electoral Commission has expanded its efforts to counter false or misleading information about the voting process, with a “Stop and Consider” campaign designed to help voters spot AI deep fakes and false rumours on the internet.

After spending years on the front lines against cyber-attacks and online propaganda campaigns, Taiwan has become a world leader in identifying and tackling disinformation and is already exchanging information with the UK and other European nations about its strategy.

The Taiwanese had developed a strong mechanism for independent fact-checking groups to work hand in hand with government ministries to quickly stamp out fake news, explained Douglas Hsu, Taiwan’s chief Representative to Australia, in an exclusive interview with The Nightly.

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Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices and systems over what it says is the security risk the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup poses.

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Growing - and familiar - concerns

Western countries have a track record of being suspicious of Chinese tech - notably telecoms firm Huawei and the social media platform, TikTok - both of which have been restricted on national security grounds.

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An Australian science minister previously said in January that countries needed to be "very careful" about DeepSeek, citing "data and privacy" concerns.

The chatbot was removed from app stores after its privacy policy was questioned in Italy. The Italian goverment previously temporarily blocked ChatGPT over privacy concerns in March 2023.

Regulators in South Korea, Ireland and France have all begun investigations into how DeepSeek handles user data, which it stores in servers in China.

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Generally, AI tools will analyse the prompts sent to them to improve their product.

This is true of apps such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini as much as it is DeepSeek.

All of them gather and keep information, including email addresses and dates of birth.

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