Futurology Today

Edit: My bad guys,Image wasn't visible, I uploaded the image as URL thumbnail rather than post.

Wellington (AFP) – New Zealand's former deputy police commissioner admitted on Thursday to possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material, which he had stored on his work devices.

Jevon McSkimming, previously the second-highest ranking police officer in New Zealand, was arrested and charged in June with eight counts of possessing objectionable material.

The courts had prevented media from reporting his name or other details of the case but his right to anonymity lapsed in August.

McSkimming admitted to three representative charges of possessing objectionable material, his lawyer told the Wellington District Court on Thursday.

The original charges alleged the 52-year-old had possessed child exploitation and bestiality material between specific dates.

One of the charges stated the offenses happened between July 2020 and December 2024.

McSkimming was suspended from his job on full pay in December 2024, when an investigation into his conduct was launched.

Details of those allegations cannot be reported.

He was on leave for six months before his resignation in May.

McSkimming will be sentenced in December.

New Zealand's Police Commissioner Richard Chambers described the case as "disgraceful" on Thursday.

"The outcome shows all police, no matter their rank, are accountable to the laws that apply to us all," he said.

Archive: https://archive.is/PonDp

For some reason the article doesn't link to the actual store, so here it is.

Also not mentioned: these are "print on demand" items; basically Amazon's version of Cafe Press or Redbubble, I'd guess. I find that rather disappointing, but YMMV.

The group "Muslim Interaktiv" called for setting up a caliphate in Germany, abolishing democracy. The German interior ministry has banned the association, which was popular mainly with very young people.

The German Interior Ministry on Wednesday banned the group "Muslim Interaktiv," which calls for a worldwide caliphate and rejects the democratic order enshrined in Germany's constitution, the Basic Law.

A ministry press release described the association "Muslim Interaktiv" as "opposed to the constitutional order and the idea of international understanding," adding: "The association will be dissolved. The assets of Muslim Interaktiv will be confiscated."

The association views the Muslim community in Germany as a minority that is discriminated against and ostracized from society. Founded in 2020, authorities believe the group is affiliated with the Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) organization, which was banned in 2003 after promoting violence and the killing of Jewish people.

Src: danbooru

Archived version

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One UK-based China scholar has since described being a victim of death threats and a smear campaign, while another was sanctioned for her work on human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and can no longer travel to China to conduct her research.

Others described “soft” or “indirect” pressure being brought to bear, leading academics to self-censor and risk-averse universities to avoid research that could bring them into conflict with China, which controls the flow of students to financially vulnerable UK universities.

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Andreas Fulda, a political scientist and China scholar based at the University of Nottingham, is among those to have been targeted as a result of his critical scholarship and media commentary. At one point, “spoof” emails bearing his name were sent to his colleagues announcing his resignation and inviting them to his farewell drinks.

He does not know who sent the emails. There have also been death threats to him and his family. “What I’ve come to learn is that once you reach a certain perception threshold in the eyes of the Chinese security agencies, you are punished to dissuade you from airing your views,” he said.

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Jo Smith Finley, a reader in Chinese studies at Newcastle University, was sanctioned by China in 2021 for her work on human rights abuses against the Uyghurs. She said: “Ever since then, Newcastle University has been walking a very difficult tightrope in its treatment of me, because I’ve become a liability in a context where universities are all dependent on Chinese student tuition fees.

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Other academics in the field were reluctant to comment publicly. Against a backdrop of mass redundancies across the sector, one academic said: “I’m scared I will lose my job if I talk about my experiences of working on China in British universities.”

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Universities UK, which represents the sector, said: “UK universities are committed to upholding free speech and academic freedom. They work hard to protect these fundamental freedoms and meet significant legal duties in this area set out by the Office for Students. This commitment extends to international research and partnerships with institutions around the world.

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NGL I’m excited for this.

New York (AFP) – Tesla shareholders will determine on Thursday the fate of a massive pay package meant to retain Elon Musk long enough to achieve technological breakthroughs he vows will change the world.

Musk -- who has boasted that Tesla's engineering prowess in artificial intelligence, autonomy and robotics will leave rival tech giants in the dust -- stands to garner as much as $1 trillion in an unprecedented package tied to performance benchmarks.

Tesla Chair Robin Denholm has appeared on CNBC and other broadcasts in recent weeks to sell the plan in a sign of the board's continued enthusiastic backing for Musk, despite criticism that the billionaire's embrace of far-right political figures has weighed on sales.

"Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value, as our company may no longer be valued for what we aim to become: a transformative force reimagining the fundamental building blocks of mobility, energy and labor," Denholm said in an October 27 message to shareholders.

Musk himself has hinted he could leave Tesla or take a back seat if his ownership share is not raised enough to give him the influence over its future that he desires.

The package could lift Musk's holding to more than 25 percent of Tesla shares from its current level of more than 12 percent.

"It's not like I'm going to spend the money," Musk said on a conference call in October. "It's just if we build this robot army, (I want to) have at least a strong influence over that robot army."

The outcome of the vote will be announced at the annual shareholder meeting at Tesla's factory in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.

Anti-Musk protesters plan a demonstration outside the Tesla gigafactory that day, after an anti-Musk rally in downtown Austin on Wednesday.

"A trillion dollars is way too much any person should have under any circumstances," activist Ethan McBride told AFP, calling the package a means of "enriching the man who is funding degradation of our democracy."

He must hit 12 milestones related to market capitalization to receive the full pay package. The first tranche would be available if and when Tesla reaches $2 trillion in market value.

The plan also involves a series of operating profit and product goals, such as the delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles. The package aims to ensure Musk stays at Tesla for at least seven-and-a-half years.

Musk has described Tesla's potential growth as nearly boundless, saying in July that "Tesla will be the most valuable company in the world by far" if the company delivers on its vision for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.

Musk's success in growing Tesla, SpaceX and other ventures has inspired many believers. However, skeptics have complained that the company has been slow to introduce new models and that Musk has a penchant for pushing back or not delivering on targets that sound difficult if not impossible.

The pay proposal has been panned by Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), advisory firms Musk has referred to as "corporate terrorists."

An October 17 ISS analysis of the proposal criticized the rationale for the potential windfall, noting that Musk's financial interests are already closely tied to Tesla's fate.

As structured, the separation of the overall package into tranches of "unprecedented" value "could undermine the necessity for all goals to be realized," said ISS, which also flagged the lack of explicit requirements that the busy Musk keep focused on Tesla.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, one of Tesla's 10 largest shareholders, said this week it was voting no.

"While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr Musk's visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution and lack of mitigation of key person risk -- consistent with our views on executive compensation," Norges Bank Investment Management said on its website.

Florida state officials have endorsed the plan, noting Musk's record of creating equity value and calling the package the "gold standard for executive compensation."

"Canada told the fossil fuel industry greenwashing was illegal, and its response was that having to be honest and transparent would make it too hard to do business. Apparently the threat worked, so now Canadians will be subjected to more false claims and have fewer ways to protect themselves against industrial disinformation, despite polling showing over 80% of Canadians want the country to do more on disinformation, not less," said Phil Newell, co-chair of Climate Action Against Disinformation.