Covidsafe Application Priva... by Michael Smith on Scribd

DFAT's just issued this statement in response to the Chinese Embassy's media release (below).

In diplomatic terms it's pretty strong stuff.

António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) at the Petersberg Virtual Dialogue (Berlin, Germany) The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our societies and economies to global shocks, such as disease or climate disruption. As we recover, we must build back better for people and the planet. We have the guides and tools we need -- the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. Governments have pledged to present, within a year, new nationally determined contributions and long-term strategies to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This commitment must be maintained. And the main economies, the G20 countries, must lead by example. I have proposed six climate-positive actions for building back: Invest in green jobs. Do not bail out polluting industries. End fossil-fuel subsidies. Take climate risks into account in all financial and policy decisions. Work together. And, most important, leave no one behind. Together, we can improve health, reduce inequalities and re-energize struggling economies. Like the coronavirus, greenhouse gases respect no boundaries. Isolation is not a solution. No country can succeed alone.

Thanks to anOtherVoice@anOtherVoice11 for the tip!

Since 1971 China has prevented Taiwan, which Beijing insists is a rogue province, from fully participating in the World Health Organization (WHO). Now the Covid-19 pandemic has put in sharp relief the deadly consequences of placing East Asia’s regional politics before global health.

Ambassador Cheng elaborated clearly China's relevant position, stressing that no matter what excuses the Australian side has made, the fact can not be buried that the proposal is a political maneuver. Just as a western saying goes: Cry up wine and sell vinegar. Ambassador Cheng flatly rejected the concern expressed from the Australian side over his remarks during the recent AFR interview, and called on Australia to put aside ideological bias, stop political games and do more thing to promote the bilateral relations.

MALIBU, CA—Many described the scene as breathtaking or awe-inspiring. Others were so touched they couldn't find the words to communicate how they felt. Most simply wept. 

No matter how they expressed their emotions, everyone agreed that the scene off the Malibu coast Monday morning was exactly what America needed to get through this pandemic. Celebrities gathered their multi-million-dollar yachts on the waters of the Pacific Ocean and spelled out "WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER."

"We're just like you," said Ellen DeGeneres on her Instagram as her servants sailed her yacht into position to form the apostrophe. "Yes, maybe I have a yacht and you've only ever been on the Storybook Canal boats at Disneyland, but still. It's pretty much the same thing."

"Stay home, save lives -- it's not that hard," said Patton Oswalt, whose fleet of yachts made up several of the letters. "Look, poor people, it's not worth risking your life just to go to Fuddruckers or work a job or whatever it is you peasants do all day."

After the stunt was over, Oswalt had his chauffeur drive him home in his hot tub limousine as he snorted several million dollars' worth of powdered caviar.

"All of humanity is fighting this together and we're all as one," said Lady Gaga, who was wearing a bathing suit made out of gold bricks. "Though, I mean, don't try to get on my yacht. My guards will literally shoot you. That's not a metaphor."

Thanks to our mate John Ruddick for the tip

Ever since Google shut this site down during the week of GILLARD's appointment as Chair of the Clinton-linked Global Partnership for Education I've had an innate distrust of electronic communications.

A Financial Times reporter listened in on confidential and sensitive video calls at rival news organisations as staff were told about salary cuts and furloughs by editors and senior managers, an investigation by The Independent has established.

Mark Di Stefano, who has been suspended by the FT pending an investigation into the incident, accessed private Zoom meetings held by The Independent and The Evening Standard as journalists learnt how measures introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic would affect them.

Log files show an account registered to Di Stefano’s FT.com email address joined the private video call for The Independent staff on Thursday for 16 seconds. The caller’s video was disabled, but journalists saw his name flash briefly on screen before he left the meeting.

Five minutes later, a separate account joined the call, this time unnamed. Again, video was switched off so that only a black square was displayed among the screens showing up to 100 people who had been invited to attend. The anonymous user account, which remained in the meeting until the end, was later shown to be linked to the mobile phone used by the same Financial Times reporter.

Di Stefano posted the news on Twitter while The Independent’s staff were still being told details of, and reasons behind, salary cuts and furloughs, and before the editor, Christian Broughton, and senior management at the title had contacted other journalists who could not join the video call, including those based in the US.

Shortly afterwards, the Financial Timespublished a report by Di Stefano, including confidential details about the company’s advertising downturn and quoting chief executive Zach Leonard. The article stated that “people on the call” were the source of the story.

The investigation by The Independent also shows that the account linked to Di Stefano’s mobile phone gained access to an Evening Standard video call made by editor George Osborne, announcing large-scale furloughs and salary cuts to staff on 1 April.

Again, the details appeared on Di Stefano’s Twitter account, describing the “internal Zoom call” before it had ended, and a report quoting Osborne in the private meeting appeared on the Financial Times website.

Use of the video call app Zoom has soared as millions around the world have abandoned offices to work from home, and it is the same software used by the Cabinet during the pandemic.

Di Stefano joined the FT as a media and technology reporter in January from Buzzfeed, where he gained a reputation as a quick source of media news and gossip, breaking stories to his 100,000 followers on Twitter.

The FT’s code of conduct specifies: “The press must not seek to obtain or publish material acquired by … intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails. Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge … can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.”

The editor of The Independent Christian Broughton said: “We respect freedom of speech and understand the challenges of newsgathering, but The Independent considers the presence of a third-party journalist in a staff briefing to be entirely inappropriate and an unwarranted intrusion into our employees’ privacy. Our spokesperson had a full statement prepared for the press – any interested reporters only needed to call and ask.”

A spokesperson for the Evening Standard said: “For a journalist from the FT to have illegitimately accessed a private Zoom call is unacceptable. We are sure the FT will want to offer an immediate explanation and an apology.”

The Independent separately contacted the Financial Times for comment for this article but they declined. Mark Di Stefano also declined to comment.