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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35887823

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The Czech Republic has issued a rare and sharply worded rebuke of the People’s Republic of China, formally attributing a long-running cyber-espionage campaign targeting its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to APT31 — a notorious hacking group directly associated with China’s secret police, which has systematically targeted U.S. politicians, election candidates and campaign staff, journalists, corporations, and critics of the Chinese Communist Party, alongside similar assaults on Canada and democracies worldwide.

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“These activities undermine the credibility of the People’s Republic of China and contradict its public declarations,” the Czech government stated. “They are contrary to the norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace as endorsed by all UN Members.”

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The BIS, Czechia’s domestic intelligence service, also addressed the issue in its 2024 annual report. The agency warned that cyber operations are only one facet of the threat posed by Chinese state actors, writing: “The Chinese embassy logically focuses on gaining information about the Czech political scene.”

The campaign drew swift and strong expressions of solidarity from the European Union, NATO allies—and from Taiwan, which many officials and experts now view as the front line of China's cyber and cognitive war playbook.

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“These allegations pull back the curtain on China’s vast illegal hacking operation that targeted sensitive data from U.S. elected and government officials, journalists, and academics; valuable information from American companies; and political dissidents in America and abroad. Their sinister scheme victimized thousands of people and entities across the world, and lasted for well over a decade,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York.

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Canadian intelligence reported by The Bureau alleges that regional MSS bureaus across China competed for impact in Canada’s 2019 federal election, suggesting the brute force that decentralized MSS teams seek to impact upon foreign nations to achieve high-level objectives for MSS bosses in Beijing. In Canada’s case, The Bureau reported, MSS teams sought to win the release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, rather than having her extradited to American justice, which would pose a catastrophic risk to Beijing’s security arms.

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At a 2024 conference in Ottawa attended by U.S. and Taiwanese officials, Shun-Ching Yang of Doublethink Lab and Eve Chiu of the Taiwan FactCheck Center warned that Taiwan has lived for decades under this form of “cognitive warfare”—a term used to describe China’s deliberate campaign to reshape perceptions, sow division, and disable democratic defenses through information dominance.

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To conceal attribution, the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP now routes many of its bot-driven propaganda operations through servers and agents in Cambodia—a proxy state for Chinese intelligence. Sophisticated, automated accounts flood WeChat, Twitter, and other platforms with disinformation dressed in local political commentary, targeting ethnic groups and migrant workers to provoke tension.

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“China has a very sick skill in reframing thinking of the society,” Yang said. “We have to be very careful about their sophisticated brainwashing of ideology, which we call cognitive warfare.”

“We have been facing this for decades, ever since I was a child,” Chiu added. “I think China’s government is trying to colonize Canada, because you are an ally of the United States. So they are trying to manipulate Canada against the U.S., because now is a very big competition between China and the U.S.”

The Czech Republic’s investigation shows how far this competition now extends—from the neural networks of fake social media posts to the physical servers of foreign ministries.

Hundreds of wildfire evacuees who were allowed to carry only one bag with them as they scrambled to get out of northern Manitoba are in need of donations, as it could be weeks before they can go back home.

Roughly 240 evacuees from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, have been sheltering at the Winnipeg Soccer Federation North complex on Leila Avenue, along with about 400 people from Pimicikamak Cree Nation.

Thousands of people in both northern Manitoba communities were put under mandatory evacuation orders last week after separate out-of-control wildfires moved closer to the First Nations.

Mary Sylvia Caribou, an emergency measures co-ordinator with Pukatawagan, said each evacuee was only allowed to bring one bag with them from their homes, and donations are needed.

If you'd like to help you can donate money through this website ... https://redrivermetismarketplace.ca/product/emergency-response-contribute-now/

Former prime minister Stephen Harper called on Canada to renew its ties with India, arguing in a speech on Saturday that the country is an indispensable partner in a volatile world.

He also said Canadian political parties — including the Conservative Party he once led — should cut all ties with activists calling for the creation of a Sikh nation.

In his remarks at an event in Brampton, Ont., Harper did not mention the RCMP linking the government in New Delhi to widespread acts of murder, extortion and coercion across Canada.

At 2 a.m. one night in March 2023, two Ottawa police officers pulled into a shopping plaza at the corner of Merivale and Baseline roads to get food at a fast food restaurant when they noticed something strange in the lot: a parked red Subaru, which was running, with someone asleep in the driver's seat.

That someone turned out to be a 29-year-old man known to police. And inside the vehicle, Const. Anthony Kiwan and Const. Ali Sabeeh found everything they needed to put him away for a while.

In plain view on the back seat was a prohibited Glock handgun with a round in the chamber and a prohibited over-capacity magazine capable of holding 30 rounds attached. The officers also found significant quantities of meth, cocaine, crack and Oxycodone pills. And to top it off, on his cellphone were pictures and videos of the man:

• Posing with 14 handguns, sometimes with multiple guns in the same image, some of which were equipped with prohibited over-capacity magazines.
• Preparing and packaging what looked like drugs.
• Flaunting large piles of cash.

But last month, he walked out of the Ottawa Courthouse a free and innocent man after the trial against him collapsed.

All the evidence found in the Subaru was excluded because the officers had seriously breached the man's Charter rights. They'd detained him under the guise of a sham impaired driving investigation, falsified their reports, then continued the lie in court under oath, according to the transcript of a decision read in court last month by Ontario Court Justice Mitch Hoffman.

Humber River Health is suing the consortium contracted to build and maintain its Toronto hospital for $100 million, alleging that negligent design and construction is creating health and safety problems for patients and staff.

The lawsuit, filed in early April, alleges that a "sizable portion" of the hospital's floors are not level or flat and that some of the flooring itself is deteriorating.

"Floor levelness is a critical operational and safety issue," reads Humber River Health's claim, filed in Ontario Superior Court.

"Non-level floors make it difficult for staff to move equipment, supplies, food, and patients on wheeled transportation devices. Often, wheeled carts have to be placed behind rubber stoppers to prevent the carts from sliding out of position."

The fraudster who called Judge asked for his birth date and mother's maiden name, which Judge shared. But then the fraudster asked him to share a "one-time passcode" — a type of two-step verification — that was texted to his phone.

Judge says he refused to do that, because the message also told him not to share the code with anyone, and said that no one from Scotiabank would ever ask for it.

The fraudster claimed that he stopped the charges from going through and hung up.

But two days later, Judge discovered a charge for $17,900 to Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K. on his statement, and a second for $1,800, supposedly paid to someone by the name of Paula S. Taylor.

"All that the bank has done is accuse [Judge] of either negligence or malice," said Claudiu Popa, who has 35 years' experience in cybersecurity and wrote The Canadian Cyberfraud Handbook.

There was cautious optimism in the air as provincial and territorial premiers began arriving in Saskatoon to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The first ministers are meeting on Monday, and Carney has said he wants to hear provincial ideas for "nation-building projects."

The prime minister struck an optimistic tone as he spoke to the premiers in front of reporters at the meeting table on Monday.

"The coming weeks and months will be critical, really, to turn the momentum that's been created by you around this table — that the federal government is looking to add to — to translate that momentum, those ideas into action," Carney said.

Crown corporation has asked Ottawa to force union vote on its latest proposals

The sexual assault trial that began in late April for five former Hockey Canada world junior players continued today in Ontario Superior Court in London.

All of the defence teams have rested their cases. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin the morning of June 9.

The detective who led the 2022 investigation that resulted in charges testified this morning.

Det. Lyndsey Ryan said the case was reopened four years after an initial probe ended without charges so the London Police Service could ensure “everything was done properly.”

This has to be the dumbest thing I've seen a lawyer do. And I just re-watched Better Call Saul.

What are your thoughts? Paywall link

https://archive.is/u8vpv

More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remain active and diminish air quality in parts of Canada and the US, according to officials.

Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week. About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday, along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders there said the number could climb.

Smoke was worsening air quality and reducing visibility in Canada and into some US states along the border on Sunday.

A Green and Liberal MPP have worked together to develop a plan they say could fix the Ontario housing crisis in 10 years.

Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy and Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Lee Fairclough are co-sponsoring a private member's bill that they say creates a housing-first plan. Experts CBC News spoke to say while not perfect, if passed, the bill would take important steps to really addressing the homelessness crisis being felt in municipalities across Ontario.

Bill 28, Homelessness Ends with Housing Act includes the creation of a portable housing benefit, setting up an advisory committee of people with expertise and collecting data on supportive housing to make sure the province is meeting its targets.

"Every Ontarian deserves a stable, safe, affordable place to live, and this new legislation offers a solution and a clear path rooted in evidence, compassion and a commitment to housing as a human right," Clancy said in a news conference on Tuesday.