Think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has warned that Venezuela is poised to adopt Chinese AI systems to enhance surveillance systems that already rely on Middle Kingdom tech, and called for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to do something about it. ASPI outlined the Venezuelan situation in a recent report [PDF], titled Warning signals: Venezuela and the risk of Chinese AI-enabled digital authoritarianism. The document explains that Venezuela’s government built a surveillance state a decade ago, largely using technology from Chinese companies. In 2025, according to the report claims, then Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodríguez led an effort that culminated in “an agreement to adopt Chinese-built AI systems … to use Chinese AI to enhance existing state-sponsored surveillance.” One of the companies involved in that agreement is iFlytek, which the US banned in 2019 for its role in helping Beijing to repress the Uyghur Muslim population of China’s Xinjiang region. The USA effectively took over Venezuela in January 2026 and installed Rodríguez as the nation’s leader. ASPI can find no signs she’s changed course on her plan to adopt more Chinese surveillance tech. “Venezuela will become one of the first countries outside China to import China’s new generation of LLM-based AI systems for surveillance and control, and the most advanced adopter in the Western Hemisphere,” the report claims. And while ASPI’s analysts don’t think Venezuela’s government can recreate “China’s full-stack surveillance apparatus.” They do worry that “Chinese or other AI tools could strengthen a domestically directed apparatus already used to manage dissent, restrict information and preserve political power.” That arguably leaves Venezuelans no better off than they were before the US decided to replace former president Nicholas Maduro. And it leaves the USA effectively running a nation that relies on Chinese surveillance tech to maintain power, even as Washington seeks a greater role in Venezuelan affairs. ASPI called on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who effectively acts as viceroy of Venezuela, to dismantle the surveillance apparatus and enact political change. The think tank’s analysts believe doing so would signal that democracies are willing to combat China’s attempts to export its surveillance tech, and dismantle it when possible in the name of civil liberty. “Beijing for its part recognizes this opening, and the risk it poses to Chinese companies and China’s political influence there,” the report states. “China’s leaders appear to understand that assets and investments of its national champions are at risk in Venezuela. Beijing’s approach seems to be, in part, strengthening oversight of state-owned assets abroad to assist in risk protection and management.” The report does not address whether greater adoption of Chinese surveillance by Venezuela increases the risks the USA faces as it seeks to control the South American country. ®

WELLINGTON (ANP/RTR) - Nieuw-Zeeland heeft geen besprekingen gevoerd met de Europese Unie over het worden van een "geassocieerd lid". Dat heeft een woordvoerder van de Nieuw-Zeelandse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Winston Peters vrijdag laten weten.

"Er zijn geen besprekingen geweest met de EU over het worden van een geassocieerd lid voor Nieuw-Zeeland", aldus de woordvoerder.

Dit gebeurde nadat EU-commissievoorzitter Ursula von der Leyen woensdag Canada had verwelkomd om het eerste geassocieerde lid van de Europese Unie te worden.

Voorzitter van het Europees Parlement Roberta Metsola zei donderdag dat Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland in de voetsporen van Canada zouden kunnen treden door de banden met de EU aan te halen. "Ik twijfel er niet aan dat er in de toekomst ook andere landen bij zullen komen", zei ze in een interview met televisiezender Euronews.

"We zien dit al terug in de wetgeving die we aannemen: partners van over de hele wereld - met Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland als voorbeelden - geven aan dat ze hun relatie met ons willen verdiepen."

LOS ANGELES (ANP/RTR) - Een voormalig Syrische overheidsfunctionaris, die onder de afgezette president Bashar al-Assad leiding gaf aan de centrale gevangenis van Damascus, is door een Amerikaanse rechter veroordeeld tot 60 jaar gevangenisstraf. Hij werd schuldig bevonden aan foltering.

Volgens het Amerikaanse ministerie van Justitie is Samir Ousman Alsheikh (74) - die functies bekleedde binnen het staatsveiligheidsapparaat - de hoogstgeplaatste voormalige functionaris van de regering-Assad die buiten Syrië persoonlijk terecht heeft gestaan ​​en veroordeeld is.

Alsheikh gaf ondergeschikten opdracht om gevangenen fysieke en psychische pijn toe te brengen om verzet tegen de regering van Assad te ontmoedigen; zelf was hij soms ook persoonlijk bij dergelijke incidenten betrokken.

Alsheikh werd ook schuldig bevonden aan het liegen tegen Amerikaanse immigratieautoriteiten over het plegen van de misdrijven en het op frauduleuze wijze verkrijgen van een 'green card'.

Syrische rebellen maakten eind 2024, na een bliksemopmars, een einde aan meer dan 50 jaar bewind van de familie Assad.

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Halloween Costumes is an illustration project created as part of Inktober 2025. The series brings together several Inktober prompts under one common concept: a group of kids getting ready for Halloween and putting together their costumes. I wanted to reinterpret the individual prompts through a shared visual theme and explore how different ideas could work together as part of one cohesive series. All illustrations were created digitally, with a focus on recreating the look and feel of traditional black-and-white pencil drawing. I wanted to preserve the feel of hand-drawn artwork, with particular attention to texture, hatching, and expressive character design.

President’s United Russia party faces no meaningful opposition after liberal anti-war party barred from ballot

Russians are going to the polls to elect a new State Duma in a tightly controlled vote stripped of meaningful competition and with little doubt about the result.

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia is expected to extend the grip on parliament it has held for 23 years, alongside a handful of nominal opposition parties that reliably vote with the Kremlin on the issues that matter. The three-day vote begins on Friday, with results expected after polls close on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Since the ancient Olympics, athletes like Hyrox competitor Joanna Wietrzyk have experienced runner’s diarrhoea. What does the science say about extreme exercise’s ‘mechanical jostling of the intestines’?

Soiling yourself in public sounds like a bad dream. But the Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has now apologised for doing just that at the Hyrox games in Beijing on Saturday.

Wietrzyk won the fitness race but not before using communal equipment with faecal matter visibly running down her legs – and muddying Hyrox’s reputation.

Continue reading...