what if i just go and do a padi course

Lingua Sinica spoke with Adina Masalbekova, a researcher on China’s engagement with the region, about how Chinese state media have gained a foothold in Kyrgyzstan — and how Russia’s parallel media strategy reinforces many of the same messages. lingua-sinica.org/watching-chi...

Student emailed asking how they could have possibly failed the class and the answer turned out to be "didn't even attempt half the final exam"

"Authorities also began a region-wide censorship campaign, shutting down Mongolian WeChat groups and removing Mongolian-language books from the shelves of retail outlets. ... if you lose your language, you lose everything," Mr Togochog, director of SMHRC said." www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...

'Cultural genocide': China's new laws set to wipe out 55 ethnic groups

China's new ethnic unity law is threatening to make the languages and culture of 55 different ethnic groups extinct.

abc.net.au

If Americans are going to name more politicians by their initials can we get some new ones. We already had Magic: The Gathering and now we have Actually Existing Socialism??

The KMTPP have still refused to pass even an amended version of *this year's* budget btw www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/a...

Cabinet to unveil budget this month - Taipei Times

The Executive Yuan is to unveil the central government’s general budget for the next fiscal year in a Cabinet meeting on Aug. 20, which might include President William Lai (賴清德) committing to allocati...

taipeitimes.com

Thailand is rolling out the red carpet for Min Aung Hlaing - a corrupt war criminal and the General accused of overseeing the Rohingya genocide. Shame. 🇹🇭🇲🇲 english.dvb.no/the-red-carp...

The red carpet to nowhere: Min Aung Hlaing's upcoming visit to Thailand - DVB

Guest contributor Kannikar Petchkaew Thailand has every reason to roll out the red carpet. It has fewer reasons to expect miracles from the man walking over it.  When Min Aung Hlaing returns to Bangko...

english.dvb.no

When you think about it, HKers are actually being forced to pay for the people and weapons used to repress them, which is all sorts of effed up. Same in a lot of other places as well.

The Economist@economist.com · 4d ago

Hong Kong’s police seem eager to justify the HK$18bn ($2.3bn) spent on national security since the pro-democracy protests in 2019. And authorities want to please a watchful China

For those wondering whether HK has become more egalitarian under CCP socialist rule

Trouble at lunchtime as Hong Kong private club spat escalates

Golf and Tennis Academy members unhappy that Carlyle & Co members can now use their exclusive Town Club

ft.com

After the Japanese-era term "savages" was discarded, but before the KMT's civic-minded plains/mountain "mountain compatriots", the KMT used the equally essentialist term Gaoshan 高山族. The same dismissive term now used by Beijing for all 17 tribes/nations – out of date by two naming cycles.

Min Chao@wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · 4d ago

Taiwan's Indigenous peoples are the original owners of this land. Yet new settlers referred to them as "savages" and "mountain compatriots." Name rectification came in 1997 through a constitutional amendment. Aug 1 declared Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2005. Siraya just recognized as the 17th tribe.

I think Labour was right to reinstate Abbott, but her speech last month shows why she should’ve retired long ago. She thinks that the toppling of Assad a coup and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is actually a NATO campaign against Russia and the the US is responsible for both. Such an insane worldview.

Dr Anna Hájková@ankahajkova.bsky.social · 4d ago

Diane Abbott’s naming of the Russian full scale war in Ukraine as “NATO campaign against Russia” is a disgrace. m.youtube.com/watch?v=SMBj...

Taiwan's Indigenous peoples are the original owners of this land. Yet new settlers referred to them as "savages" and "mountain compatriots." Name rectification came in 1997 through a constitutional amendment. Aug 1 declared Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2005. Siraya just recognized as the 17th tribe.

Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · 6d ago

The outcome of many decades of campaigning by Siraya people and a milestone for indigenous reconciliation in Taiwan. The PRC rejects the concept of indigenous and defines all 17 tribes as a single "ethnic minority" and would dismantle all this if it annexed Taiwan. focustaiwan.tw/society/2026...

He fled the Taliban 4 years ago. He’s been working and learning German. He made the mistake of trying to go on holiday in Rome for a few days, and for that crime Germany is deporting him straight to the Taliban

Refugees@refugees.skyfleet.blue · 5d ago

Germany widens deportations to Afghanistan #Refugees

New in @ForeignAffairs: @tendor and I argue that China’s new ethnic-unity law does not abolish minority autonomy on paper. It does something more insidious: it gives statutory force to assimilation while hollowing autonomy out in practice. www.foreignaffairs.com/china/next-p...?

The Next Phase of China’s Minority Crackdown

Forced assimilation is now the law.

foreignaffairs.com

A good read from an expert in the field. The new ethnic unity law has received some coverage in the press but it’s important to recognize the ways in which it is an escalation of an existing assimilative trajectory in ethnic policy.

Foreign Affairs@foreignaffairs.com · 6d ago

China’s new ethnic unity law codifies, “under the guise of civic inclusion,” a requirement that Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs “become part of a single, party-defined Chinese identity,” write James Leibold and Tenzin Dorjee.

Gapu Ŋupan, the storytelling collaboration between Yolŋu people in the NT and Amis and Paiwan people from Taiwan, at the Garma Festival this week and the Darwin Festival August 5-6.

The outcome of many decades of campaigning by Siraya people and a milestone for indigenous reconciliation in Taiwan. The PRC rejects the concept of indigenous and defines all 17 tribes as a single "ethnic minority" and would dismantle all this if it annexed Taiwan. focustaiwan.tw/society/2026...

Cabinet officially recognizes Siraya as Taiwan's 17th Indigenous tribe - Focus Taiwan

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Thursday approved the official recognition of the Siraya as one of Taiwan's Indigenous tribes, making it the country's 17th officially recognized tribe and the first Plai...

focustaiwan.tw

Having failed to substantiate any of their wild claims about the CIA paying protesters and masterminding 2019-20, this is what has become of the argument blaming foreigners for the pro-democracy movement: the vague notion that foreign ideas, somewhere along the line, might’ve inspired folks¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Joel Chan@kjoules.org · 7d ago

In a “news” article, Hong Kong paper The Standard claims Western exchange programs and scholarships are covert recruitment schemes designed to groom Hong Kong students, journalists and politicians into anti-China agents, largely by linking overseas study to their later criticism of the government.

“London’s rare book shops appear to have been targeted by AI companies searching for books to train their models, after court documents revealed Anthropic bought, scanned AND DESTROYED [emphasis added] millions of physical books…”

Jeppe Mulich@jmulich.bsky.social · 6d ago

This week in "how can AI companies be more villainous"

Big step for Indigenous recognition. Siraya are the first Plains Indigenous people to be formally recognised, usually considered more "assimilated" than the recognised Mountain Indigenous peoples. focustaiwan.tw/politics/202...

Cabinet officially recognizes Siraya as Taiwan's 17th Indigenous tribe - Focus Taiwan

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Thursday approved the official recognition of the Siraya as one of Taiwan's Indigenous tribes, making it the country's 17th officially recognized tribe and the first Plai...

focustaiwan.tw

Every now and then I think about this absolutely insane linguistics experiment that somehow got university ethics approval but had its funding cut

Finishing off the last of the hotel inheritance, gun running for the anti-treaty IRA, or struggling as refugees

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d ago

Enough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?

"police alleged Au had colluded with an unspecified anti-China group outside the city" As with HK book shop, detaining people for unspecified activities. Cowardly, deeply insecure, behavior.

Macao’s first national security case raises concerns over fairness a year after arrest

Since former Macao pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San was arrested under a national security law in July 2025, little about his case has been made known.

apnews.com

They should make a Beowulf that isn't a motion capture fever dream

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · last wk.

Studio execs are going to want to adapt more poems for the big screen now

Al Jazeera, owned by the extremely rich Qatar, just dumped 25 of the most at-risk journalists in the world during a genocide that has directly targeted more journalists than most states since WWII combined.

Megaphone News@megaphone.news · last wk.

Al Jazeera’s outlets ended their collaboration with 25 journalists, photographers and contributors in Gaza. What’s the story behind this decision?

Many books from the University of Hawai'i's Pacific and Asian Linguistics Institute series are available for free, after registration, on the Micronesian government's digital library. ✅ Link: www.micronesian.school/library #Micronesia #Grammar #Linguistics

"Mr. Zhang took part in nighttime raids on Uyghur homes to confiscate Qurans and other religious items. “I was usually the first to charge in,” he recalled. “I believed they were bad people" www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/b...

He Helped China Repress Uyghurs. He Says He’s a Victim, Too.

nytimes.com

When some Chinese nationalists say 留島不留人 re: Taiwan, this is what they fantasize about

Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤@ryanhk.blue · last wk.

To say nothing of how mushroom cloud imagery continues to inspire glee amongst state media and online nationalists, 80+ years later…

How did "limousine" become so popular for "airport bus", are we really all that class-embarrassed about taking a bus