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‘Waiting To Die’: The Dirty Business Of Recycling In Vietnam

Crouched between mountains of discarded plastic, Lanh strips the labels off bottles of Coke, Evian and local Vietnamese tea drinks so they can be melted into tiny pellets for reuse.

More waste arrives daily, piling up like technicolour snowdrifts along the roads and rivers of Xa Cau, one of hundreds of “craft” recycling villages encircling Vietnam’s capital Hanoi where waste is sorted, shredded and melted.

The villages present a paradox: they enable reuse of some of the 1.8 million tonnes of plastic waste Vietnam produces each year, and allow employees to earn much-needed wages.

But recycling is done with few regulations, pollutes the environment and threatens the health of those involved, both workers and experts told AFP.

“This job is extremely dirty. The environmental pollution is really severe,” said Lanh, 64, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of losing her job.

It is a conundrum facing many fast-growing economies, where plastic use and disposal has outpaced the government’s ability to collect, sort and recycle.

Even in wealthy countries, recycling rates are often abysmal because plastic products can be expensive to repurpose and sorting rates are low.

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Bondi Beach Shows Why Self-Defense Is a Vital Right

At Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a father-son team of ISIS-inspired terrorists murdered attendees at a celebration of the first day of Hanukkah. One of the attackers was disarmed by a heroic civilian who was shot in the process, while others lost their lives trying to help.

Contrasting Responses to Threats

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the shooting with promises to further tighten gun laws in the already restrictive country—a measure more likely to disarm potential victims than to inconvenience those planning a homicidal attack. In the U.S., by contrast, Jews stepped up security by themselves and alongside police. At the request of my wife’s rabbi, I recruited a friend who served as a Force Recon Marine. We strapped on armor and pistols to patrol the crowd at the menorah lighting in Sedona, Arizona. Members of the congregation carried concealed weapons of their own.

Nothing happened, but we were there to deter problems and respond if necessary. There’s a big difference between doubling down on failed state policies and taking responsibility for your own safety.

According to Prime Minister Albanese’s office, after the attack, “leaders agreed that strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action” and promised “to strengthen gun laws” with further restrictions. Of course, that’s what Australia did in 1996 after the Port Arthur mass shooting. The government banned a variety of firearms, with compensation for their surrender. Compliance was limited and the effort spawned a significant black market for guns.

But Australia’s millions of guns didn’t kill 15 people at Bondi Beach. Two men with known Islamist ties who traveled last month to the Philippines for training at terrorist summer camp committed the murders. They chose guns as their tools, but they could just as easily have used explosives, vehicles, incendiaries, or something else to cause mayhem.

“The issue is not gun laws. It’s hatred of Jews,” Rabbi Daniel Greyber of Durham, North Carolina commented after the Bondi Beach attack.

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Florida Enacts Historic Law Banning Minors from Attending “Drag” Shows, Strengthening Child Protection, Parental Authority, and Traditional Values

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed this week a law prohibiting minors from participating in “drag” shows.

The law is already in effect and responds to growing concern over children and teenagers being exposed to sexualized content at public events, where adults dressed in female attire perform in front of young audiences.

State authorities emphasize that the law aims to protect childhood, restore common sense, and reinforce parental authority in the education of their children.

Republican lawmakers defended the measure, highlighting that parents’ right to decide what their children are exposed to should take precedence over ideological agendas that promote sexualized behavior from an early age.

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The Things Young Kids Are Using AI for Are Absolutely Horrifying

New research is pulling back the curtain on how large numbers of kids are using AI companion apps — and what it found is troubling.

A new report conducted by the digital security company Aura found that a significant percentage of kids who turn to AI for companionship are engaging in violent roleplays — and that violence, which can include sexual violence, drove more engagement than any other topic kids engaged with.

Drawing from anonymized data gathered from the online activity of roughly 3,000 children aged five to 17 whose parents use Aura’s parental control tool, as well as additional survey data from Aura and Talker Research, the security firm found that 42 percent of minors turned to AI specifically for companionship, or conversations designed to mimic lifelike social interactions or roleplay scenarios. Conversations across nearly 90 different chatbot services, from prominent companies like Character.AI to more obscure companion platforms, were included in the analysis.

Of that 42 percent of kids turning to chatbots for companionship, 37 percent engaged in conversations that depicted violence, which the researchers defined as interactions involving “themes of physical violence, aggression, harm, or coercion” — that includes sexual or non-sexual coercion, the researchers clarified — as well as “descriptions of fighting, killing, torture, or non-consensual acts.”

Half of these violent conversations, the research found, included themes of sexual violence. The report added that minors engaging with AI companions in conversations about violence wrote over a thousand words per day, signaling that violence appears to be a powerful driver of engagement, the researchers argue.

The report, which is awaiting peer review — and, to be fair, produced by a company in the business of marketing surveillance software to jittery parents — emphasizes how anarchic the chatbot market really is, and the need to develop a deeper understanding of how young users are engaging with conversational AI chatbots overall.

“We have a pretty big issue on our hands that I think we don’t fully understand the scope of,” Dr. Scott Kollins, a clinical psychologist and Aura’s chief medical officer, told Futurism of the research’s findings, “both in terms of just the volume, the number of platforms, that kids are getting involved in — and also, obviously, the content.”

“These things are commanding so much more of our kids’ attention than I think we realize or recognize,” Kollins added. “We need to monitor and be aware of this.”

One striking finding was that instances of violent conversations with companion bots peaked at an extremely young age: the group most likely to engage in this kind of content were 11-year-olds, for whom a staggering 44 percent of interactions took violent turns.

Sexual and romantic roleplay, meanwhile, also peaked in middle school-aged youths, with 63 percent of 13-year-olds’ conversations revealing flirty, affectionate, or explicitly sexual roleplay.

The research comes as high-profile lawsuits alleging wrongful death and abuse at the hands of chatbot platforms continue to make their way through the courts. Character.AI, a Google-tied companion platform, is facing multiple suits brought by the parents of minor users alleging that the platform’s chatbots sexually and emotionally abused kids, resulting in mental breakdowns and multiple deaths by suicide. ChatGPT maker OpenAI is currently being sued for the wrongful deaths of two teenage users who died by suicide after extensive interactions with the chatbot. (OpenAI is also facing several other lawsuits about death, suicide, and psychological harm to adult users as well.)

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EU to Scrap 2035 Combustion-Engine Cars Prohibition, as Even Brussels Establishment Begins to Covertly Adopt Rightwing Policies

EU Commission walks back some suicidal ‘green’ policies.

The measure of the success by the right-wingers in Europe expresses itself not only by the high popularity numbers that the anti-Globalist parties are showing – leading in Germany, France and the UK.

There’s also the fact that leftist-liberal-Globalist politicians all over the continent are rushing to present some semblance of policy changes that mimic the successful right-wing ideas that deeply resonate with the voters.

The two most relevant examples deal with unchecked mass migration and ‘climate change/Net zero’ lunatic policies.

This basically demonstrates that patriotic forces come armed with better ideas and more effective policies.

To see the EU now defending the creation of ‘return hubs’ for illegal migrants – a clear copy of UK’s former PM Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan – is very significant.

And then, we have the promised EU ban on new combustion-engine cars starting in 2035, which has just been ditched, in one of the EU’s biggest walk-backs from its ‘green’ policies in recent years.

Reuters reported:

“The move, which still needs approval from EU governments and the European Parliament, would allow continued sales of some non-electric vehicles. Carmakers in regional industrial powerhouse Germany and in Italy had sought easing of the rules.”

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Who is José Antonio Kast, Chile’s new pro-Israel, ultra-conservative president?

Chile elected a new ultra-conservative and pro-Israel president on Sunday, a result set to mark a sharp shift in the country’s foreign policy.

José Antonio Kast, 59, defeated his communist rival Jeanette Jara by 58 percent to 42 percent, campaigning on a platform focused on security and immigration reform, including tighter controls along Chile’s northern borders with Peru and Bolivia.

Kast is a deeply polarising figure among Chileans, due to both his family history and his ultra-conservative views.

A controversial family

A lawyer by profession, Kast is a staunch Catholic and has been active in politics for around three decades, with this election marking his third presidential bid.

In 2016, he broke away from Chile’s main conservative party to found the Republican Party.

Beyond his opposition to abortion, same sex marriage, divorce and euthanasia, Kast has openly expressed admiration for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a period marked by widespread human rights abuses. One of Kast’s brothers served as a minister during that era.

His family background has also drawn scrutiny. Kast’s parents settled in Chile in 1950 after leaving post-war Germany.

His father was a member of the Nazi Party during the Second World War and served in the German military. Kast has denied that his father was a Nazi, saying he was “forcibly” conscripted.

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Troops Discharged Over Biden’s Vaccine Mandate to Receive Honorable Status.

The Trump administration is directing the Pentagon to proactively review and upgrade the records of service members discharged from the U.S. military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine under the former Biden government. Administration officials say the effort aims to restore honor to individuals who received “general discharge” as a result of the mandate.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in a December memorandum, emphasized the progress made since the initial directive to reinstate veterans who were involuntarily discharged or voluntarily left military service due to the “unfair, overbroad, and unnecessary” COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The new directive expands these efforts by ordering a review of personnel records to identify those discharged solely for vaccine refusal and facilitate appropriate upgrades.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell explained the impetus for the new directive, “Under the previous administration, the Department involuntarily separated approximately 8,700 Service members for failing to comply with the Department’s since-rescinded COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Of those, more than 3,000 received less-than-honorable discharge characterizations.” Parnell added that military departments have been instructed to complete their reviews within one calendar year, with no action required from former service members.

Military service members impacted by the former Biden government vaccine mandate may also access the military board review website to address any perceived errors or injustices in their records. “The Department is committed to ensuring that everyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge receives one and continues to right wrongs and restore confidence in, and honor to our fighting force,” Parnell noted.

Additionally, an Executive Order signed by President Donald J. Trump in November reinstated GI benefits for veterans discharged due to the vaccine mandate.

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The Inconvenient Truths Within Trump’s New National Security Strategy

Recently, the Trump administration, as most administrations do at the beginning of their four-year term, issued a National Security Strategy—I guess we would call it a white paper—outlining the approach of the administration to foreign affairs and the protection of the security in the United States.

It’s written in a different style than past reports, different than the first term. And it has a lot of emphasis, as most do, on sections of the world. But what has caused the most controversy are two things.

Abroad, the report tells Europe that it’s experiencing “civilizational erasure,” and gives advice to the Europeans about what they must do to correct that, but in a manner of brotherly love or help, which the Europeans, of course, will see as condescending and interference into their internal affairs, except they want us to do it in the NATO part of the equation, but not the EU part. And that’s caused a lot of controversy.

The other is, the critics feel that it’s not critical enough of Russia and China. But if you read it very carefully, the whole point of its Pacific discussion is to bolster the alliances of Japan and South Korea, and to warn China to keep away from Taiwan and Australia.

And then, when we get to the economic domestic aspects of the National Security Strategy, it’s all aimed at China. It’s all aimed at China. It just says that we cannot be a successful, dominant power in the world, and we don’t want any other power to be dominant. And by inference, that’s Russia and China. But on matters of trade, under matters of natural resources, under matters of the South China Sea, it’s aimed at China.

And it does say explicitly that the old paradigm that previous, both Republican and Democratic, presidencies had adhered to, namely, the more money you invest from us and put it over there in China, and the more that you import their products here, even though you’re dealing with an asymmetrical trade system—and I think the report uses the word that it’s free but not fair—don’t kid yourself. That ensuing prosperity will not create a huge consumer class who desires freedom and liberty and then will become a force for the democratization of China. That’s not gonna happen.

Instead, that foreign exchange extravaganza will be put into the largest ship-building—and I mean military ship-building—the largest aircraft production, and the largest small arms and major arms industry in such a short time that we’ve ever seen. And that’s what China’s doing. And that is outlined.

The other controversy is: Why didn’t the National Security Strategy be more condemning of Russian President Vladimir Putin? It says that the Europeans have promised to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on military matters and have promised to increase that to 5%, which would be extraordinary.

And of course, the paper says that they should and they must be watched to keep their promises, but it doesn’t really condemn Vladimir Putin in the strongest of terms.

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The UK’s Plan to Put an Age Verification Chaperone in Every Pocket

UK officials are preparing to urge Apple and Google to redesign their operating systems so that every phone and computer sold in the country can automatically block nude imagery unless the user has proved they are an adult.

The proposal, part of the Home Office’s upcoming plan under the premise of combating violence against women and girls, would rely on technology built directly into devices, with software capable of scanning images locally to detect material.

Under the plan, as reported by FT, such scanning would be turned on by default. Anyone wanting to take, send, or open an explicit photo would first have to verify their age using a government-issued ID or a biometric check.

The goal, officials say, is to prevent children from being exposed to sexual material or drawn into exploitative exchanges online.

People briefed on the discussions said the Home Office had explored the possibility of making these tools a legal requirement but decided, for now, to rely on encouragement rather than legislation.

Even so, the expectation is that large manufacturers will come under intense pressure to comply.

The government’s approach reflects growing anxiety about how easily minors can access sexual content and how grooming can occur through everyday apps.

Instead of copying Australia’s decision to ban social media use for under-16s, British ministers have chosen to focus on controlling imagery itself.

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has praised technology firms that already filter content at the device level. She cited HMD Global, maker of Nokia phones, for embedding child-protection software called HarmBlock, created by UK-based SafeToNet, which automatically blocks explicit images from being viewed or shared.

Apple and Google have built smaller-scale systems of their own. Apple’s “Communication Safety” function scans photos in apps like Messages, AirDrop, and FaceTime and warns children when nudity is detected, but teens can ignore the alert.

Google’s Family Link and “sensitive content warnings” work similarly on Android, though they stop short of scanning across all apps. Both companies allow parents to apply restrictions, but neither has a universal filter that covers the entire operating system.

The Home Office wants to go further, calling for a system that would block any nude image unless an adult identity check has been passed.

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A Story of a 1930s Uprising Against British Colonialism Is Key To Understanding Gaza Today

Anyone wondering why the British state and media, despite the latter’s pretension to serve as a watchdog on power, continue to cheerlead Israel’s genocidal slaughter of civilians in Gaza will find the answers in a new film.

It recounts not the current period of history, but a story from nearly 90 years ago.

Palestine 36, directed by the remarkable Palestinian film-maker Annemarie Jacir, illuminates more about the events unfolding for the past two years in Gaza than anything you will read in a British newspaper or watch on the BBC – if, that is, you can find anything at all about Gaza in the news since Donald Trump rebranded the killing and dispossession of Palestinians as a “ceasefire”.

And Palestine 36 does so, unusually for a Palestinian film, with a budget worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster and with a cast that includes names recognizable to western audiences, from Jeremy Irons to Liam Cunningham.

This is a major episode of British colonial history told not through British eyes but, for once, through the eyes of its victims.

The “36” of the title refers to 1936, when Palestinians rose up against British colonial tyranny – more usually, and deceitfully, referred to as a “British Mandate” issued by the League of Nations.

The problem for Palestinians was not just the systematic violence of those three decades of tyranny. It was that Britain’s role as a supposed caretaker of Palestine – an “arbiter of peace” between native Palestinians and mostly Jewish immigrants – served as cover for a much more sinister project.

It was British officials who ushered Jews out of Europe – where they were unwanted by racist governments, including Britain’s – to implant them in Palestine. There, they were actively nurtured as the foot soldiers of a coming “Jewish state” that was supposed to be dependent on Britain and assist in strengthening its imperial, regional agenda.

In effect, an overstretched British empire hoped over time to outsource its colonial role to a “Jewish” fortress state.

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