R.NF

As the title says. Ive recently found a job but I still unfortunately need to find a way to eat for the next two weeks before I’m officially paid. I was wondering if there was a loan or borrow community in this lemmy instance. We can set up an agreement, I provide you with my name/id/social media etc. If this post isn’t allowed no worries I’ll figure something out.

Share your SOTD for Wednesday!

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World leaders have congratulated Mark Carney on leading the Liberals to victory on Monday with some signaling that it marks the start of a stronger relationship with Canada in the face of growing unease with U.S. President Donald Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the bond between Europe and Canada is strong — and growing stronger.”

Were there any plot holes or inconsistencies that bothered you?

New York (AFP) – Canada's The Metals Company said Tuesday it applied to the United States to mine deep-sea minerals in international waters, a world first made possible by President Donald Trump's embrace of the industry.

Metal-containing deep-sea nodules, which have the appearance of potato-size pebbles and typically contain nickel and cobalt, are highly sought for use in electric vehicle batteries and electric cables.

But environmental groups have raised the alarm about the ecological cost of their extraction.

The request for a commercial exploitation license, submitted to US authorities by the TMC USA subsidiary, is for the mining of polymetallic nodules -- deposits made up of multiple metals -- in 9,700 square miles (25,200 square kilometers) of the Pacific's Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

"Today marks a major step forward -- not just for TMC USA, but for America's mineral independence and industrial resurgence," said Gerard Barron, chairman and CEO of The Metals Company.

TMC, which hopes to be the first firm to harvest the valuable nodules, said in March it would seek the first commercial deep-sea mining license from Washington.

It marked an abrupt shift in strategy as it had initially indicated that it would submit its request to the International Seabed Authority in June, which has jurisdiction over the seabed in international waters.

TMC justified cutting out the ISA because of the organization's slow pace in adopting a mining code that establishes the rules for exploiting seabed minerals.

Just weeks after TMC's about-turn, Trump signed an executive order speeding up the review of applications and the issuing of exploitation permits -- including in international waters.

"This latest development is just a confirmation they are a rogue and dangerous actor," Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition told AFP.

"A moratorium at the ISA would send a clear signal to states and companies that are choosing to act outside the ISA that the global community is united in defending international law."

Washington, not a member of the ISA, governs the commercial extraction of minerals from the international seabed under a 1980 law that was the basis of Trump's executive order.

The United States hopes underwater mining will create 100,000 jobs and increase GDP by $300 billion over a decade, according to a US senior administration official, who also emphasized Washington's desire to outpace China in the field.

Beijing has strongly condemned Trump's move, accusing him of violating international law and harming the interests of the international community as a whole.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which established the ISA but has never been ratified by the United States, the seabed in international waters is considered the common heritage of humanity.

Greenpeace campaigner Ruth Ramos said the announcement would "be remembered as an act of total disregard for international law and scientific consensus."

Environmental campaigners argue that deep-sea mining threatens ecosystems about which little is known.

Archiv-Link

In Kürze:

• Tägliche Direktflüge aus China bringen 100’000 oft ungenügend deklarierte Pakete nach Zürich-Kloten.
• Wichtige Medikamente und Maschinenteile erreichen wegen der Paketflut ihre Empfänger hierzulande mit Verzögerung.
• Schweizer Detailhandelsvertreter fordern einheitliche Regeln für alle Online-Marktplätze.

[...]

Die Situation dürfte sich bald zusätzlich verschärfen, wenn hiesige Konsumenten bei einem weiteren Billiganbieter aus China online shoppen können und zwar über die Social-Media-App Tiktok. Der Tiktok-Shop soll in der Schweiz demnächst starten.

[...]

Auch in der EU wächst der Widerstand gegen die Billigware «Made in China». Die Kommission plant eine komplette Aufhebung der Zollbefreiung für Waren unter 150 Euro sowie eine Zoll-Bearbeitungsgebühr für Pakete von Onlinehändlern wie Temu und Shein.

[...]

Auf die Kritik, zu wenig gegen mangelhafte China-Ware zu unternehmen, erklärt das Seco [das Schweizer Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft ]: Wer Produkte einführe, sei verantwortlich dafür, dass sie den Vorschriften entsprechen. Es gebe stichprobenartige Kontrollen durch die Marktüberwachungsbehörden.

Wie viel mehr Ware es zu kontrollieren gebe, zeigt die Zunahme bei den Zollanmeldungen. Letztes Jahr verzeichnete das Bundesamt für Zoll und Grenzsicherheit (Bazg) rekordhohe 58 Millionen Anmeldungen. Der Anstieg dürfte laut einer Bazg-Sprecherin insbesondere auf die steigende Anzahl Sendungen im Onlinehandel aus Asien zurückzuführen sein.

[...]

Für Sandro Küng vom Schweizer Spielwarenverband ist der kürzliche Start des Tiktok-Shops in Europa und der baldige Markteintritt in der Schweiz Anlass, den Druck auf den Bundesrat zu erhöhen. «Wir verlangen ein Importverbot von unsicheren Spielwaren. Die Spielzeugverordnung muss auch von Temu, Shein und Tiktok eingehalten werden», so Küng.

[...]

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is projected to lose his longtime rural Ottawa seat to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.

Archived

New Zealand will continue its military assistance to Ukraine until at least December 2026, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced this week, with up to 100 NZDF personnel remaining deployed across Europe to support training, intelligence, logistics, and liaison operations.

...

Framed as a show of “unwavering support” for Ukraine, the announcement signals a long-term commitment to a conflict that remains fluid, with ceasefire negotiations reportedly under way.

Of the $152 million committed, $102.3 million has been spent on military training, logistics, and equipment. Only $31.9 million has gone toward humanitarian support, and a further $5.2 million to legal and human rights monitoring

While over 53,000 Ukrainian troops have reportedly been trained through allied efforts, New Zealand’s marginal impact must be weighed against the opportunity cost.

...

Additionally, the United Kingdom government has announced a deal worth £30 million (NZ$66.8 million) for drones produced by New Zealand company SYOS Aerospace.

New Zealand is also expected to announce increased support for the joint Operation Interflex training Ukrainian forces in the UK, extending it until the end of the year. More than 54,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained there to date.

...

Robotics business SYOS manufactures drones at its factory in Hampshire, southeast of London, and they have been deployed to combat zones.

...

Royal New Zealand Navy frigate HMNZS Te Kaha will also join a UK carrier strike group leaving Portsmouth for the Indian Ocean.

"As the world becomes an increasingly dangerous place, I am proud how much we are doing together to support our national and economic security - stepping up our defence spending, deploying our navies together in the Indo-Pacific and continuing our work to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia," [UK PM] Keir Starmer said.

Hong Kong (AFP) – Several former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the city's largest national security case were released on Tuesday after over four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom.

Ex-legislators Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were part of a group of 47 public figures -- including some of Hong Kong's best-known democracy advocates -- were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election.

The case fell under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijng and drew international condemnation and warnings about Hong Kong's declining freedoms and tolerance of dissent.

Mo, Tam, Kwok and Fan had been kept in custody since 2021 and were each sentenced to four years and two months behind bars after they pleaded guilty.

All four were taken out of prison just before sunrise on Tuesday in cars with curtains drawn.

Speaking outside his home, Mo's husband Philip Bowring said the ex-lawmaker was resting and not in a position to speak to the media.

"She's well and she's in good spirits... We look forward to being together again," Bowring said at his flat, with a "Welcome home mum" banner visible in the dining room.

"We'll be here for a while and getting used to living in Hong Kong again and then probably we'll go to England at some point to see our grandchildren," he added.

Fan told local media he was on his way to reunite with his family and thanked Hongkongers for their concern.

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub.

Authorities said an informal primary election held by the former lawmakers which aimed to win a legislative majority, with the ultimate goal of indiscriminately vetoing the government budget, amounted to a conspiracy to subvert state power.

The landmark case involved figures across Hong Kong's once-diverse political spectrum -- including elected lawmakers, district councillors, unionists and academics with views ranging from moderate to radical.

The prison sentences, delivered in November last year, were condemned by Western governments and rights groups.

Mo previously worked as an AFP journalist and cited her experience covering Beijing's bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown as pivotal in her political awakening.

She helped found the now-shuttered Civic Party in 2006 and won a legislative seat in 2012, but later quit the party to campaign on a platform emphasising Hong Kong's distinctive identity from mainland China.

Kwok, 63, and Tam, 49, were also former Civic Party lawmakers. Before entering politics, Kwok worked as a doctor and Tam as an airline pilot.

Fan, 58, was a co-founder of Neo Democrats, a party that advocated for electoral reform and pushed back against China's political and cultural influence on Hong Kong in the 2010s.

Each of the four defendants had their prison terms trimmed due to their guilty pleas, with an additional six-month reduction on account of "past public service and ignorance of the law".

Hong Kong tightened its rules last year so that prisoners convicted of serious national security crimes could not be released early for good behaviour.

The four ex-lawmakers who returned home on Tuesday received the lightest penalty among the defendants and were released taking into account the time they served before trial.

The heaviest penalty in the case -- a 10-year jail sentence -- was imposed on legal academic Benny Tai, whom prosecutors described as the "mastermind" of the subversion plot.

The court is set to hear appeals launched by 14 of the convicted defendants in July.

Hong Kong has arrested 322 people for national security crimes. It has convicted 163 of them as of the start of this month.

Hong Kong enacted a homegrown national security law last year on top of the Beijing-imposed law, an arrangement officials say is needed to restore order.

Apocalypse Hotel, episode 4

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Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20250428111050/https://www.wired.com/story/police-records-car-subscription-features-surveillance/

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It's very likely that the Liberals will have to work with the NDP to form government. Isn't it a no brainer for the NDP to make electoral reform a deal breaking issue?

Lack of proportional representation is what has led to their laughable 7 seats.

The liberals will find working with the bloc a lot harder than the NDP, so electoral reform seems like an acceptable deal from their end too, right?

Should we be excited for this?