Los Angeles declares itself an immigration 'sanctuary'

 

Los Angeles, the second largest US city, is setting itself up for a standoff with President-elect Donald Trump over immigration.

On Tuesday, its city council passed a "sanctuary city" ordinance to bar using local resources to help federal immigration authorities.

LA's public school system also reaffirmed itself as a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ students in a series of emergency resolutions.

Trump, who will be sworn in in two months, has promised mass deportations once he returns to the White House. His chosen "border czar", Tim Homan, has urged sanctuary cities to "get the hell out of the way" of federal immigration crackdowns.

The term "sanctuary city" has been popular in the US for more than a decade to describe places that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities. Since it is not a legal term, cities have taken a variety of approaches to becoming "sanctuaries", such as setting policies in laws or simply changing local policing practices.

Aimed at making a 2019 executive order into city law, the city council's sanctuary city ordinance prohibits using city resources for immigration enforcement, including cooperating with federal immigration agents, NBC News Los Angeles reports.

The ordinance will "prevent federal immigration enforcement from being able to access city facilities or to use city resources in the pursuit of immigration enforcement", council member Nithya Raman told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, ahead of the vote.

It will also prohibit some data sharing between immigration authorities and city officials and agencies.

The ordinance will go into effect once it has been signed by Mayor Karen Bass.

Officials in a number of other cities, including Boston and New York City, have similarly promised that local resources would not be allocated to helping federal immigration enforcement issues.

Since Trump was elected the first time, dozens of school districts have declared themselves "sanctuaries" or "safe havens" to reassure students they will not be deported.

The Los Angeles school district - roughly 140 miles (225km) from the country's southern border with Mexico - also voted on a series of emergency resolutions explicitly aimed at combatting what the board's president, Jackie Goldberg, has described as an anti-immigrant and LGBTQ sentiment from the incoming president.

As well as restating a sanctuary policy for students and families within the school district, the resolution also calls for training for teachers and staff about how they should communicate with immigration authorities.

"We're not going to be running in fear," she said in quotes cited by the LA Times ahead of the resolution's passing. "We're going to fight you, every inch of the way."

The move is likely to put the city on a collision course with the incoming Trump administration, which has vowed it will begin a large-scale mass deportation effort from the very beginning of the administration.

Trump's chosen "border czar", former acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan, has repeatedly said that "sanctuary" city designations would not prevent the administration from carrying out its immigration policy goals.

In an 11 November interview with Fox, Homan said "nothing will stop us from deporting migrant criminals."

"We're going to do the job with you, or without you," he said.

Bernd Debusmann Jr

BBC News, Washington

 

Robots podem substituir imigrantes

 

 A Agility Robotics trouxe para o Web Summit o seu robot Digit, que pretende solucionar os problemas de logística nos armazéns, aliviando os trabalhos de carga pesada dos trabalhadores.  A Agility Robotics está focada em realizar tarefas de logística que os humanos não conseguem fazer através de robots humanoides. Os humanos movem caixas e outros objetos pesados de um lado para o outro, revelando danos nos joelhos e costas ao longo do tempo. A empresa quer aliviar esse peso dos trabalhadores.

O maior desafio que a empresa pretende solucionar com os humanoides é exatamente tornar os robots mais humanos. Segundo Peggy Johnson, CEO da Agility Robotics, durante um painel no Web Summit, fazê-los de forma correta é muito difícil, mas tem sido algo que a empresa tem vindo a trabalhar nos últimos 10 anos. O Digit é o resultado desse processo de trabalho.

Este é o primeiro robot humanoide no conceito robots-as-a-service, que poderão ser os próximos colegas de trabalho num armazém. O robot bipedal tem um peso de 72 quilos e mede 1,75 metros, tendo assumindo o palco do Web Summit.

O corpo já estava criado, mas agora a IA generativa veio reforçar o seu cérebro, simulando os dados através de modelos LLM para que os operadores interajam facilmente com o robot. Os gestores de empresas de logística podem dar-lhes comandos para executarem trabalhos diferentes, por exemplo, de manhã e de tarde. Durante três anos, a empresa fez testes em locais reais de operações de logística. Esses dados recolhidos foram utilizados para treinar o modelo de IA do Digit.

O Digit pode fazer os trabalhos por períodos de tempo mais longos, os chamados “trabalhos sujos”. Peggy Johnson disse que nos Estados Unidos existem cerca de um milhão de vagas de trabalhos abertas nesta área e ninguém as aceita, pelos problemas físicos associados. Os robots podem assumir esses trabalhos, com o seu software para gerir os robots nas organizações.

Fez-se a comparação entre os humanos e os robots no que diz respeito ao tempo seguido que conseguem trabalhar. A líder da empresa diz que os humanos ainda duram mais tempo a trabalhar, cerca de 4 para 1 nos seus cálculos, no que diz respeito à energia despendida. No entanto, os seus robots conseguem perceber quando a sua carga está a acabar e procuram, de forma autónoma, o local para se recarregarem.

As mãos do robot podem ser trocadas mediante o trabalho que pretendem fazer. Pode misturar dedos com garras, e no exemplo em palco, o Digit estava preparado para dobrar roupa. A empresa chama-lhe “indefectors”, as ferramentas que podem ser colocadas nas mãos dos robots. As pernas do robot são também especiais, têm dobras para trás. A empresa explica que quando se baixa para apanhar algo, as pernas podem estorvar com o objeto à sua frente que procuram interagir, por isso, dobram-se para trás.

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The Next War: Attacks on U.S. Digital Infrastructure?

 

 

It's an old saying repeated by military strategists who consistently warn, "Don't prepare to fight the last war..."

Their inference is that, while there are lessons to be learned from studying the last conflict, the next one may well be profoundly different than what you previously endured, catching a nation totally unprepared.

For America, the "next one" may already be upon us. It is not the scenario we anticipated, namely enemy aircraft coming over the pole to attack with nuclear weapons, or a catastrophic exchange of ICBMs. Even the lessons gained from the current Russian war on Ukraine may not be fully applicable to America's defense of the homeland.

Consider the current assault as revealed in media reports. Chinese hackers sought to target the mobile phones of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and intercepted data meant for our law enforcement agencies.

A sworn enemy, Iran, is also looking to wage their war against "The Great Satan" by seeking to hit our nation's most vulnerable targets: our digital infrastructure.

Meanwhile, today's Pentagon is wrestling with multibillion dollar projects that are not going well. The Army has been stymied in developing a new attack helicopter, at a cost to the taxpayer that is staggering.

The Air Force is still profoundly unhappy with its next generation tanker aircraft built by Boeing, and rightfully so.

The Navy lost an aircraft carrier to an accidental fire.

Based on these multibillion-dollar woes, the idea that the incoming Trump administration intends to shake up the Pentagon should not only come as no surprise but should be lauded and welcomed by Americans who want a strong, credible and effective defense. However, whoever sits in the corner office of the Pentagon needs to embrace the clear and urgent warning that we not only can't fight the last war, but our enemies are already engaged in the next one, intent on defeating America where we live: online.

Gatestone Institute

 

 

Ho denies changes in interpretation of ‘one country, two systems’

 

 

Macau’s outgoing Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, assured on Tuesday that there have been no changes in the interpretation of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, which has been in effect in the city since its administrative transfer and guarantees a certain degree of autonomy.

“We adhere to this principle and work in accordance with it,” Ho Iat Seng stated at a press conference on Tuesday after presenting a summary of his five years in office to the Legislative Assembly.

The concept of ‘one country, two systems,’ originally proposed by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) and first applied in 1997 and 1999 with the handover of Hong Kong and Macau to China, respectively, ensures a degree of autonomy for the two regions over a 50-year period, protecting citizens’ freedoms and rights.

International bodies, such as the European Union and the United Nations, have highlighted an “erosion of freedoms” in the SAR in recent years—criticisms that the local government has rejected.

“‘Macau governed by its people with a high degree of autonomy’ and ‘one country, two systems’ have not undergone any changes. Looking back, during this term and previous ones, there have been no changes,” Ho emphasised.

Freedom of the press was another topic discussed during the session with journalists, with Ho asserting that he had “done his best to safeguard” this legally protected right.

Earlier this month, the Macau Journalists Association, one of the city’s five main media workers associations, denounced earlier this month a “severe deterioration” of press freedom in the SAR and urged authorities to end “excessive restrictions” imposed on media workers, particularly regarding access to press conferences. In reaction to these remarks, the Government Information Bureau stressed it “has always safeguarded press freedom” in the SAR.

“During my tenure, I tried to do my best to ensure press freedom. As for the future, (…) I cannot answer for them, but I believe they will follow the same direction,” he concluded.

Ho Iat Seng took office in December 2019, with the first three years of his five-year term marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Reflecting on this period, Ho pointed out that just “ten days” into his role, he had to confront the public health crisis.

“Yet we managed to overcome this challenge and also achieved recovery in our gross domestic product (GDP),” he said.

Since 2020, Macau has only managed to maintain a positive balance through transfers from its financial reserves, which reached MOP 10.5 billion in 2023. However, the SAR is expected to close next year with a surplus of MOP 7.7 billion, according to the budget proposal submitted last week to the Legislative Assembly and presented today by the Chief Executive.

Ho, who reiterated that he did not seek re-election due to health reasons, will step down on 19 December. His successor, Sam Hou Fai, is set to take office the following day, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Macau Special Administrative Region, marking the transfer of administration from Portugal to China.

 

in Macau Business 

 

Cape Verde says Macau Legend “flagrantly and repeatedly” violated obligations

 

The Cape Verdean government has accused casino operator Macau Legend Development (MLD) of “flagrantly and repeatedly” breaching its obligations in a tourism and gaming project in the country’s capital Praia. This, it said, justified the termination and reversal of contracts, announced on Monday.

“Given that MLD flagrantly and repeatedly violated its obligations (…), the State of Cape Verde has no choice but to proceed with the termination of the contracts,” stated the Council of Ministers in a decision regarding the €250 million investment, announced a decade ago but never completed.

“The State of Cape Verde gave MLD companies [in Cape Verde] every opportunity to resume construction works, negotiate the sale of shares, or transfer their contractual position to a potential interested party to continue the project,” the statement added. However, no alternatives were presented.

The government stated that “contractual violations committed by MLD occurred on several levels,” giving Cape Verde, as the “aggrieved party,” the right “to terminate the Establishment Convention and the contracts derived from it,” according to the document signed by Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva.

The resolution by the Council of Ministers was published in the Official Gazette, alongside an ordinance from the Ministry of Finance and Business Promotion, which ordered the reversal of ceded and constructed assets.

The government further alleged that MLD violated the legal framework governing gaming operations by “transferring more than 20 per cent of its share capital without authorisation from the Cape Verdean government.”

Additionally, it cited “convictions by the courts of the Macau Special Administrative Region involving shareholders, directors, and other individuals with rights and responsibilities in MLD,” as well as the “financial and economic situation of the parent company.”

O princípio do fim

 

Macau: The “one country, two systems” policy is over

 

Public employees who carry out acts considered disloyal to the Macao SAR – including Portuguese employees – may be dismissed, according to the proposed amendment to the Macau Public Administration Workers' Statute presented on Friday by the Executive Council.
André Cheong, Secretary for Administration and Justice and also spokesperson for the Executive Council, warned that private conversations or comments published on social media may be taken into account when assessing loyalty."

Mad Britain: Nine-Year-Olds Being Investigated by Police for Non-Crime Hate Incidents

  

• Mainstream Britain might finally be waking up to the fact that it elected a totalitarian government that increasingly seems to behave like the Chinese Communist Party.

• Since 2014, British police have reportedly recorded more than 250,000 non-crime hate incidents in England and Wales. The non-crime incidents, logged in a system, can even show up, when employers ask for a copy of a prospective employee's criminal record.

• Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson... was visited by police earlier this November, informing her that she was accused of a "non-crime hate incident." A tweet she had posted more than a year ago, the police told her, was "stirring up racial hatred." She asked who accused her and why, but the police told her she could not be told what her offending tweet was, nor the "victim's" name. She is now under investigation for spreading material allegedly "likely or intended to cause racial hatred".

• There are lots of things... the mainstream British media has ignored for decades: Mass migration from the Muslim world; rampant violence and terrorism; Muslim grooming gangs, raping, torturing, sometimes killing, hundreds of thousands of British children and young women, while the police covered up their crimes.

• "As a Rotherham grooming gang survivor, I want people to know about the religious extremism which inspired my abusers. Grooming gangs are not like paedophile rings; instead, they operate almost exactly like terrorist networks, with all the same strategies. As a teenager, I was taken to various houses and flats above takeaways in the north of England, to be beaten, tortured and raped over 100 times." — Ella Hill, survivor of abuse by Rotherham grooming gangs, The Independent, March 18, 2018.

• Hundreds of people were handed prison sentences for up to several years, for social media posts about the brutal murder of three little girls in Southport this summer. They were jailed for criticizing mass migration and Islamization, but the government said they were stirring up racial hatred. Now, it turns out that the murderer of the three girls, who still has not gone on trial, was in fact an Islamist terrorist, a fact that Starmer's government covered up and lied about.

• Will the British mainstream media fight to see that the many -- who were jailed for speaking their minds about these murders on social media -- are now freed?

• Tommy Robinson was severely punished by British authorities for making documentaries about the grooming gang scandals. A few weeks ago, he was imprisoned, again, for refusing to be silenced, and moved to one of Britain's most notorious prisons, which houses some of the most murderous Islamist terrorists. Nobody in mainstream British media seems the least bit concerned about his safety.

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