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China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units … enough to power the UK more than three times over – despite calls from climate experts at the UN for all new coal plants to be cancelled. …

Catharina Hillenbrand von der Neyen, the author of the report, said: “These last bastions of coal power are swimming against the tide, when renewables offer a cheaper solution that supports global climate targets.

Five Asian countries account for 80% of new coal power investment

China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units

A prominent statue of Queen Victoria has been torn down by protesters in Canada as anger grows over the deaths of indigenous children at residential schools.

The protesters cheered as the statue at the legislature in Manitoba’s capital Winnipeg was toppled on Thursday.

A smaller statue of Queen Elizabeth II was also upended nearby.

Statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II torn down in Canada

Monuments are torn down in Manitoba at a protest over the deaths of indigenous Canadian children.

Screenshots shared on Twitter showed a notice asking “Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?” and another that alerted users “you may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently.” Both included links to “get support.”

Facebook asks: Are your friends becoming extremists?

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is starting to warn some users they might have seen “extremist content” on the social media site, the company said on Thursday.

Nothing underscores this more dramatically than the mega-fiasco surrounding the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. As the world knows now, some 135,000 non-existent votes were somehow magically injected into the system.

The winner of this supposed “ranking system” election (it certainly was “rank” in every sense of the world) is naturally suing and we seem headed for a do-ever.

What the New York Election Fiasco Tells Us About Voter Fraud

Commentary This morning, the ever-popular Daily Mail writes of the latest Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona’s new election …

Pyongyang has not officially acknowledged any changes to Kim’s weight or health, so the interview amounts to the most official confirmation to date of the secretive North Korean leader’s sudden change of appearance.

North Koreans ‘heartbroken’ by Kim’s purported weight loss

North Korean state television aired an unusual interview in which a Pyongyang resident said he and others …

Xi Jinping has projected himself as the ‘Strong Horse’ and painted China as an attractive future in contrast to Joe Biden and the self-hating West which cannot even find something good to say about itself.

‘A Form of Brainwashing’: China Remakes Hong Kong

Neighbors are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. Officials are pressed to pledge their loyalty.

The town of Xianpu looks and feels like it has been lost in time, stuck in China’s bygone days and filled with picturesque landscapes and a population that appears as though it was plucked directly from that era. But the “rural” city is entirely fake, created by several teams of photo crews and actors who masquerade as farmers and fishermen and provide tourists with perfect, repeatable photo opportunities.

This Popular Chinese Photo Tourist Spot is Entirely Fake

Meet Xiapu, a town in the Fujian province of southern China.

Robbers held up a television crew at gunpoint during an interview with the director of violence prevention in Oakland amid the city’s huge wave of violence, police have said.

The attack took place outside City Hall on Monday just hours after the police chief blasted his city’s decision to defund its police department by $18.5million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders.

The NBC Bay Area news crew was interviewing Guillermo Cespedes at around 3pm when two armed men tried to take their camera, the Oakland Police Department said.

TV crew held up at gunpoint while interviewing anti-violence chief

The attack took place outside City Hall on Monday just hours after the police chief blasted the decision to defund police by $18.5million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders.

There is dysfunction inside the VP’s office, aides and administration officials say. And it’s emanating from the top.

‘Not a healthy environment’: Kamala Harris’ office rife with dissent

There is dysfunction inside the VP’s office, aides and administration officials say. And it’s emanating from the top.

In the late afternoon, around dusk, reports emerged that pro-Iranian groups had shelled areas in eastern Syria across from Deir Ezzor, ostensibly targeting US forces near the Omar oil fields. This is an important and strategic area and US forces who support the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been reported to have a facility or base in this area. The attack was linked to airstrikes the US had carried out in Syria targeting pro-Iranian groups on Monday.

Pro-Iranian forces claim they shelled Americans in Syria

Pro-Iranian militias have fired eight rockets at the American base in Syria in response to US airstrikes.

Mysterious ‘grave incident’ may lead to unspecified crisis Nokor leader warns.

North Korea Warns of ‘Grave’ Coronavirus Incident

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says a “grave incident” has threatened his country’s coronavirus prevention efforts — a rare admission by Pyongyang, which claims to be free of COVID-19. During a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, Kim chastised senior officials for unspecified carelessn…

The basic issue in Bill Cosby’s shocking release from prison is whether the ends justify the means. The PASC held Cosby had been technically deprived of his 5th Amendment rights by a prosecutorial legal maneuver the court thought was improper.

New at the Belmont Club. More than losing control of the Global World. Losing control period.

How the Global World is Losing Control

Artificially stupid agents

The military dictatorship now ruling the Southeast Asian nation has brushed aside the entreaties and threats, even as the country of 54 million people hurtles toward paralysis and possibly civil war that could destabilize the region.

Confident in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

The generals who seized power five months ago have shown no inclination to heed international pleas to reverse themselves, even as Myanmar slides into a failed state.

Most Americans likely don’t know that approximately 40 percent of the world’s polysilicon, a key component of solar panels, is manufactured in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, where the United States has determined the Chinese government is perpetrating a genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. As evidence amassed in recent months that the Chinese solar industry was employing these minorities without giving them any say in the matter, pressure mounted on the Biden administration to act.

More than 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid-19 in the U.S. even though they’ve been fully vaccinated, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC says roughly 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid breakthrough infections after vaccination

At least 750 fully vaccinated people have died after contracting Covid but the CDC noted that 142 of those fatalities were asymptomatic or unrelated to Covid.

His comments included telling Sky News that bodies like the Australian Institute of Marine Science “can no longer be trusted” and saying that many scientists examining the health of the Great Barrier Reef were “emotionally attached” and “not objective”.

He was also accused of “failing to act in the collegial and academic spirit”, and of denigrating the university and one of his colleagues.

Controversial scientist gets chance to fight his dismissal in High Court

A Queensland academic who was sacked from James Cook University after making critical comments about the research of his colleagues gets the chance to argue his case in the High Court.

It turns out China is a geopolitical threat too