11-11-2023, 04:53 AM
US NEWS
EUROPEAN NEWS
AFRICAN NEWS
ASIAN NEWS
Quote:Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a resolution Thursday to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Greene introduced the resolution after two constituents of her Northwest Georgia district were killed Wednesday near the border by a human smuggler who crashed head-on with their vehicle while evading police.
The resolution is privileged, which means the House must address it within two legislative days, setting up a showdown in the House next week.
Greene said Thursday from the House floor:
Rather than adhering to an oath he took to defend and secure our country and uphold the Constitution when he was sworn in as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas has engaged in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with the laws of the United States.
Green laid out a myriad of violations she qualifies as “high crimes and misdemeanors” that meet the bar necessary to impeach Mayorkas, who has become one of Republicans’ top foils in the Biden Administration. The border crisis he has overseen has created a political headache for President Joe Biden as Democrat political leaders in liberal cities and states across the nation have called for a solution to the escalating catastrophe.
Other News
EUROPEAN NEWS
Quote:Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a retired Spanish right-wing populist politician who was shot in the face at point-blank range as he left church on Thursday is in intensive care in a Madrid hospital but is conscious and able to speak to police officers. Investigators are now considering whether the attack, which may have been meant to be fatal, could have been motivated by a personal grievance or whether it was politically motivated.
Vidal-Quadras, who once led the Catalan branch of Spain’s main conservative Party and was a co-founder of the right-wing-populist Vox party is involved with the Iranian opposition-in-exile and it is thought possible his support of those who work against the regime in Tehran may have led to the attack. Spanish newspaper El Pais reports Vidal-Quadras himself has spoken to police officers despite the serious injury to his face about the potential Iranian connection and that is being investigated.
Despite 24 hours having now passed since the attempted assassination, which according to an assessment by ABC was only not fatal because Vidal-Quadras turned his face away from the shooter at the last moment, no arrests have yet been made. The gunman who approached Vidal-Quadras as he walked back from mass to his home in an upmarket Madrid neighbourhood was wearing a motorcycle helmet and fired once before fleeing to a waiting accomplice on a motorcycle.
It is believed the burnt-out remains of the Yamaha bike have been found. A police source speaking to ABC said of the professional nature of the attempted killing that it had the hallmarks of a killing “to order” and that it may have been “to settle some type of personal debt, or… in retaliation for Vidal-Quadras’ support for the dissidents of the Iranian regime”.
Quote:London is due to see Armistice Day commemorations, a major Israel-Palestine protest, and the ancient Lord Mayor’s Show all take place within a matter of hours on Saturday, and while there have been calls for the protest to be banned as not in keeping with the sombre commemoration of the 105th anniversary of the end of the Great War, police instead have published a management plan. The Palestine protest will go ahead, but is being confined to a marching route to the west of Westminster, going around the Royal Green Park, the back of Buckingham Palace, through Pimlico and over the river Thames into Vauxhall.
In their statement, the force acknowledged that breakaway groups splitting off from the main Palestine march route and then causing violence has been “escalating” over repeated events in recent weeks and vowed to use their powers to try and stop this, including threatening to arrest those who refuse to disperse. Nevertheless, to underline the order on Palestine protesters to stick to the authorised route, Police have also announced three exclusion zones in London for the weekend and a 24-hour police guard for the Cenotaph memorial itself.
AFRICAN NEWS
Quote:Three senior South African government officials told Reuters on Thursday that South Africa will miss its climate change targets under the Paris Agreement because shutting down the country’s eight coal-fired power plants would cause a massive energy crisis.
South Africa’s big miss is no small matter for the climate change movement because, as Reuters pointed out, it is “the world’s 11th biggest greenhouse gas emitter and has one of the world’s highest per capita emissions.”
The original plan called for South Africa to shut down six of its coal-fired power plants by 2030 and two more by 2034. The officials who spoke to Reuters said those goals are now considered “unrealistic,” although the government might set a “new decommissioning target for 2035.”
The South African environmental ministry issued a statement saying it was “too early” to conclude the Paris Agreement targets for 2030 cannot be met.
South Africa is already in the midst of a major energy crisis, even with all those coal plants puffing away. The World Bank announced in mid-October that talks were underway for a billion-dollar loan to help South Africa recover from rolling blackouts that have put a major crimp on economic growth.
The World Bank already loaned South Africa’s state utility company, Eskom, $497 million in 2022 to decommission one of its coal power plants. The plant, an aging facility located near the city of Komati east of Johannesburg, was shuttered last October, but the “transition to cleaner energy” was a disaster.
ASIAN NEWS
Quote:The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) released a report this week that found China has become a leading power in operating seaports across the globe, as well as “the world’s largest trading country and second-largest economy.”
China owns or operates a seaport on every continent except Antarctica and, at last count, it had stakes in 92 active seaport projects.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping’s launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and the introduction of the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road, which connects China to Europe and the Arctic Ocean via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, have supercharged China’s overseas port investment and construction activities,” CFR said.
Interestingly, China became a dominant port power without becoming a major naval power, at least not yet. The Communist tyranny developed “significant geoeconomic influence over international sea-lanes and commercial ports underpinning the global flow of goods” without building many naval bases outside its borders.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has certainly grown large enough for force projection. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) reported last month that China now has “the world’s largest navy, with a battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines,” including three aircraft carriers and three amphibious assault ships. China’s air force is also “rapidly catching up to Western air forces,” according to U.S. officials.
China’s network of overseas ports is impressive, but its domestic ports are nothing to sneeze at. China runs some of the world’s largest and busiest container ports, led by Shanghai, which has been the world’s most active port for 13 years running.
Quote:The number of high-level Chinese business executives who have vanished without warning during dictator Xi Jinping’s latest political purge keeps growing, and it has evidently made foreign investors nervous enough to hinder Xi’s efforts to lure them back after his insane coronavirus lockdowns.
...
Chen Shaojie, chief executive of livestreaming firm DouYu, has been unreachable since October, a person familiar with the matter said. The Nasdaq-listed company declined to comment on Chen’s status but said its “business operations remain normal.” Chinese tech giant Tencent owned a nearly 38% stake in DouYu as of March.
Separately, Shenzhen-listed Shandong Wohua Pharmaceutical said that its chairman, Zhao Bingxian, has been detained and asked to cooperate with an investigation. In a corporate filing dated Monday, Wohua didn’t provide details about the probe but said it wasn’t involved in the matter, and that authorities haven’t notified the firm or sought its assistance.
Neither Chen nor Zhao could be reached for comment. It couldn’t be determined what prompted Chen’s disappearance, which was first reported by a Chinese media outlet, Cover News.
The WSJ speculated that Chen might have been whisked off to secret prison because China’s Internet regulators found something they did not like during a May investigation of DoYu for allegedly streaming “pornographic and crude” material. The BBC mentioned suspicions that DoYu was involved in illegal gambling activity.
Quote:The U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) and Stockholm Environment Institute published a report Wednesday that said governments around the world, led by fast-growing India and world’s worst polluter China, plan to exceed the Paris Agreement’s limits on fossil fuels by more than 110 percent by 2030.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report a “startling indictment of runaway climate carelessness” and fumed that “governments are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production,” which “spells double trouble for the people and the planet.”
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The report surveyed 20 countries that produce and consume the majority of the world’s fossil fuels, headed up by India and China. Both have rapidly growing industrial sectors and neither is interested in restraining their energy needs to appease climate activists, although China loves to talk about it while exhorting Western countries to make greater sacrifices, and it wholeheartedly favors growing the electric vehicle (EV) industry, which Beijing has under hammerlock control.
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According to UNEP and Stockholm Environment Institute researchers, India will increase its coal production by a stunning 460 percent by 2030, plus increases of 83 percent in gas and 29 percent in oil. China is already producing and burning peak amounts of coal, producing 57 percent of the world’s output and importing even more to fuel its energy appetite.
The report gave China a great deal of credit for spending heavily on green energy and pledging to “achieve carbon neutrality before 2060,” without dwelling on how China’s feverish construction of new coal-burning power plants might call the sincerity of its climate promises into question.
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UNEP found similar, but smaller, contrasts in 17 of the 20 countries it surveyed, dinging them for making “net zero” pledges while continuing to increase fossil fuel production and consumption. Researchers said the “disconnect” between production increases and climate promises is evident for coal, gas, and oil, bringing global carbon dioxide emissions to the highest levels on record in 2022.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
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Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE