Hard Pass

Donald Trump said Thursday that federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, his pick for acting director of national intelligence, would not be his “permanent” choice for the critical security post.

The Republican president’s disclosure that he was ruling out installing Pulte in the position full-time came after bipartisan pushback on Capitol Hill in recent days over Pulte’s lack of national security experience. The position requires Senate confirmation, something that lawmakers indicated was unlikely if Pulte were the nominee.

sounds good, but why do I have a feeling these will all be red state cities?

Canada's spy agency and close international partners warn that China's military intelligence services are using professional networking sites and online job platforms to target current and former government and military personnel.

Archived link

The alert was issued Wednesday by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Australia Security Intelligence Organization, the New Zealand Intelligence Community, the United Kingdom’s MI5 and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

They say China ultimately seeks privileged military, political and economic intelligence that can provide Beijing with a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.

...

CSIS says Chinese intelligence officers or their affiliates pose as employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources firms, and place online job advertisements for foreign policy and defence analysts.

It says that while applicants often have no direct access to classified information, successful candidates are then pressured to provide "non-public" information, including unclassified data on government policy or on military strategy, capabilities and installations.

CSIS says that even a small piece of information can be collected and combined with more sensitive reporting to undermine Canada’s interests.

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I liked some of what he said around focusing on applications across industries e.g. save fertilizer in farming, decrease diagnostic time in healthcare. I liked the talk about enacting privacy legislation.

I did not like how for everything he said about sovereign AI infra ended with "and if we fail to do it ourselves we'll buy it" (from you know who.) I didn't hear any contingency plan for tackling potential rising unemployment as a result of AI integration. Seems like they're betting on the AI-creates-more-jobs-than-it-destroys scenario.

He did not address the question about losing sovereignty by embedding US tech into our economy, e.g. what happens if the US turns off our AI access at a point when our economy is reliant on it.

Ultimately I'm very skeptical even though I think there's genuine potential for social benefit from productively applying AI where it makes sense. I'm skeptical that this bunch would deliver those social benefits. I think they're likely to deliver benefits to capital/business from instead of working Canadians. I'd be happy to be wrong.

What did you think about it?

Archived link

Liberal MP Judy Sgro said she still plans to lead a delegation of MPs to Taiwan this October, despite China’s decision to impose sanctions on New Zealand lawmakers who recently visited the self-governing territory claimed by Beijing.

Ms. Sgro is chair of the Canada-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group in Ottawa.

The veteran MP, a member of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberal caucus, said she’s not deterred by the punishment China is levying on Western politicians.

“I will not be told what to do by a foreign government,” Ms. Sgro said in a statement. “I am a duly-elected parliamentarian who believes in democracy and thinks it’s time China did too.”

She said her trip will include both Conservative and Liberal MPs.

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The Chinese government confirmed Thursday that it had barred four New Zealand MPs from traveling to China for a year because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip. It considers such visits to be interference in its internal affairs.

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Canada ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1970 and instead, under then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, recognized the PRC.

Since then, Canada’s One China policy recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China but at the same time neither challenges nor endorses Beijing’s position that Taiwan is China’s territory. Like many Western countries, Canada maintains robust unofficial relations with Taiwan.

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China’s envoy in Canada recently warned the Carney government that a new strategic relationship it struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be damaged if Ottawa sent more military vessels through the Taiwan Strait or if Canadian parliamentarians kept travelling to Taiwan to meet with the territory’s government.

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Shortly after, Conservative MP Michael Chong visited Taiwan and met with Taiwan’s President, and Canada sent the frigate HMCS Charlottetown through the Taiwan Strait on May 22-23.

Mr. Chong, the Conservative foreign affairs critic, predicted China would increase the pressure on Canada to stop parliamentarians from visiting Taiwan.

“This is a precursor of a test of the Liberal government’s new strategic partnership with the People’s Republic of China that will come when Canadian MPs travel to Taiwan in the coming months,” he said in a statement.

“Under the strategic partnership, it appears that Beijing wants to stop MPs from going to Taiwan and wants the government to remain silent when Beijing uses belligerent tactics against those MPs.”

Mr. Chong urged Mr. Carney’s government to publicly state “its support for Canadian MPs visiting Taiwan and by publicly defending those MPs against Beijing’s coercive tactics.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cafe/post/36161954

Revealed Thursday as part of Bell Media's coming screen projects, The Littlest Hobo revamp is set to be an hour-long, live-action scripted drama, with 10 episodes to start.

TL;DR: Big Tech steals all of human knowledge, packages it all up into models and sells it back to you, making billions off other people's work. The heist makes the Napster case look insignificant in comparison. Bernie Sanders thinks AI company should be charged for what they stole.

The video's title is terrible and it's complete gibberish to me, but the video is interesting.

Hello /c/Canada

You know how there's a 2nd amendment in the U.S. on the right to bear arms? I know that it was originally meant to allow people to form militias and defend their rights should the government become an authoritarian regime and stop following the constitution.

Is there anything similar in Canada in terms of laws or rights and freedoms?

ㅣㅣ ㅣㅡ

lyozz