Archive article: https://archive.is/AkYUu

Um.... What the f....

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5697633

A former Philippines mayor who was accused of spying for China has been found guilty of human trafficking for her role in running a scam centre.

On Thursday, she and three others were sentenced to life in prison and a fine of 2m pesos ($33,832; £25,942).

The case of Alice Guo has gripped the Philippines for years, after authorities uncovered one of the country's biggest scam centres in her small town of Bamban. Some 800 Filipinos and foreigners were later rescued from the scam hub after a raid, with many of them saying they were forced to run "pig butchering" scams.

The 35-year-old, who was arrested last year after being on the run for weeks, has denied all allegations against her.

It is not yet clear if she might appeal.

There are still five ongoing cases against Guo, including one where she has been charged with money laundering.

...

In 2022, Guo was elected as the mayor of Bamban, north of the capital Manila. Residents of Bamban earlier told the BBC she was seen as a caring and empathetic leader.

But in 2024, the sleepy town was thrust into the national spotlight after authorities uncovered a sprawling scam centre there that was hiding under online casinos, known locally as Philippine Online Gaming Operations (Pogo).

Pogos cater to clients in the Chinese mainland, where gambling is illegal.

Guo initially denied all knowledge of the compound, but a senate investigation that followed questioned her inability to detect the eight hectare centre that was located near her office.

It later emerged that the compound - which contained 36 buildings - was built on land which Guo previously owned.

They also found discrepancies in her life story – she was not, as she had claimed, born in the Philippines, but had migrated from China with her family as a teenager. MPs later found that her fingerprints matched those of a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping.

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It is unclear if Trump administration backs deal that would mean Kyiv giving up territory and slashing size of military

US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday as Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 25 people in the city of Ternopil.

The draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would force draconian measures on Ukraine that would give Russia unprecedented control over the country’s military and political sovereignty. The plan is likely to be viewed as surrender in Kyiv.

Hi guys!

I'm looking for a replacement travel dongle to play my Jellyfin movies whenever I'm traveling. My goto device up to this point has been a Chromecast (with GTV I think). But it's becoming increasingly clear its playback is very unreliable, hanging mid-playback for long periods. I blamed it initially on bandwidth issues over very long distances (the server is on a different continent at the moment!). But playing on the laptop via browser or via the jellyfin media player flatpak works just beautifully. So it clearly seems to be issues with the Chromecast as it's connected to the same Wifi and TV as the laptop.

So I am thinking...what other devices could I look into as Chromecast replacement? There's over 3yr old recommendations about a Walmart device (but I don't live anywhere near the American continent). The other go-to device would be an Nvidia Shield, the canister-looking one. But that still seems a bit hefty for traveling. After all these years, is there any device you'd recommend to use as light-to-bring dongle for traveling?

Thanks!

Or am I the only one?

The U.S. has signalled to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine must accept a U.S.-drafted framework to end the war with Russia that proposes Kyiv giving up territory and some weapons, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20251119165732/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-proposals-end-russias-war-involve-ukraine-giving-up-land-some-weapons-sources-2025-11-19/#selection-1273.27-1273.271

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5683395

Archived version

No silence is more haunting than the one following an explosion. It does not only concern what war takes away from human life, but also what it takes away from nature: forests turned to ash, fields reduced to dust, waterways contaminated by military vehicles and weapons. In Ukraine, this silence has a date, 24 February 2022, but also an echo that extends beyond the present.

Wars do not end when the guns fall silent: they continue to cause damage for decades, frequently far from the eyes and geopolitical priorities of the moment. It is with this awareness that an unprecedented event is taking place: Ukraine intends to ask Russia for $43 billion in climate compensation.

That Kyiv intended to file this claim was already known, but today, Tuesday 18 November, the figure was made public for the first time. This is not a generic compensation for environmental damage, but a precise calculation of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the attack, to which the “social cost of carbon” is applied, a yardstick used in climate studies to assess the economic impacts of global warming.

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The historical significance of this request is not only technical, but also legal and political. For the first time, an attacked country is arguing that an aggressor state must be held accountable for emissions caused by an illegal act of war; and the international mechanism to which Kyiv will turn – established by the Council of Europe following a UN General Assembly resolution – will accept claims for environmental compensation based on climate damage for the first time. The claim that Ukraine will file in 2026 will thus set an important precedent for other countries.

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The request is based on the report Climate Damage Caused by Russia's War in Ukraine – 36 months (opens pdf), a pioneering study that calculates the emissions generated by the conflict: 294 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. This figure alone exceeds the annual emissions of 175 countries worldwide.

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Felt like some classic thrash again today. Can't beat the almost scratchy guitars and the fantastic riffs and solos, Mark Osegueda's crazy screams. Nope, can't stop the screaming. Somebody help. Anyone. 😶

But for real, hope you all enjoy the good tunes.

Tidal, RateYourMusic, Encyclopaedia Metallum

Die Fertigstellung des Bauprojekts Stuttgart 21 verzögert sich weiter. Die für Dezember des kommenden Jahres geplante Eröffnung ist dadurch nach SWR-Informationen geplatzt. Schuld sind offenbar technische Probleme.

Major central banks are now openly warning that the AI hype is inflating a dangerous equity bubble. After the Bank of England’s alarm over “stretched” valuations and the risk of a sharp correction, the European Central Bank (ECB) is also warning that AI-driven stock prices could fall abruptly, with systemic consequences for global markets.

The core function of the planned EU Travel App is for the Council, the option for travellers to transmit their data to the responsible authorities before arriving at the border. This will allow border officials to verify travel documents remotely and also to compare them with police and migration databases.

Despite the promised travel facilitation, civil rights activists and data protectionists are urgently warning against the consequences of digitizing travel documents. They see it as an expansion of the biometric surveillance infrastructure at the EU level. The digital travel app initially provides for automated facial recognition for biometric identification, but it is likely to pave the way for comprehensive and automated collection and evaluation of biometric data. This would restrict freedom of travel in the long term.

https://archive.is/vRG0P

Hello, i am working in a cinema and we are trying to replace the snacks we have with european and maybe a little more fair alternatives. What we are still struggling with are chips like pringles and M&Ms. We tried to replace pringles with the brand "kesselchips" once, but it proved to be not very economical as people didn't buy it for a long period of time. Do you have other ideas on what snacks to use as alternative that might be a bit more similar in the looks? (For example coke is pretty easy as fritz-cola looks and sounds very similar in name)

The new Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is here.

I just bought and setup the Connect ZBT-1 a few weeks ago... 😭

This reporter behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way toward her colleagues on the plane,” an official said in a statement. “If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take.

DU bist Deutschland.