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natural gas project in the United Arab Emirates

So instead of investing in renewables and trying to help Japan become energy independent, while providing jobs for Japanese workers, Mitsui will spend billions to keep Japan more dependent on a foreign nation. Thereby further enriching UAE's so-called royals whose allegiances vary with the winds. Plus the UAE is located in a risky area where wars over control of gas/oil and their shipment have been commonplace. The UAE has sent its military forces to Yemen to fight alongside Saudi Arabia in a war that is devastating Yemen. How will the gas be transported to Japan, all methods and routes involve risks. Long passed time to move out of the fossil era, and stop making the global fossils, especiall the oil/gas fossils richer so they can fight more wars.

@kiplinq: She is a woman and non white. That is why and how she got her job.

the above is another example of the binary thinking cult and other white male supremacists.

The vice president's mix of identities can sometimes perplex her detractors

Many of her detractors in the cult have a tendency to see things in binary terms: black or white, complexity indeed perplexes them. And when things get complex they often create 'theories' to justify their positions. An example wildfires result for many reasons, but rather than trying to understand them better, they create stories like "Jews hired aliens to use their UFO ET to fire lasers".

where a children's hospital was reduced to debris.

Who knows what actually happened in this instance, but Russia has claimed it's able to precisely fire missiles, and when It's bombed hospitals in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere denied responsibility saying the hospitals were hiding places for weapons, but never admitting it was Russia that invaded, fired the first shots, and armed Russian sympathizers living in Ukraine thereby up ramping up Russian military actions in Ukrainian territory. Russia's war crimes keep adding up, while civilians including children keep being slaughtered, on a children aside, is Putin going to return the Ukrainian children to their blood families in Ukraine, or does he expect to train them for his next wars?

the Asia-Pacific region, where China has stepped up its military assertiveness and North Korea has repeatedly launched ballistic missiles

And China and North Korea's partner warmongering Russia continues threatening neighboring nations and the planet. Individual sovereign nations by themselves probably cannot stand up militarily to the bloc of China/Russia/North Korea/Iran , and who knows which other nations, maybe India? that want to expand areas of control, but collectively might be able to at least make the bloc have second thoughts about going to war to enlarge their territories.

the airline adds fuel to flight plans

Further fattening the bank accounts of the globe's fossil fuel corporations. How will Putin reward Kim?

@badhairct:  Just watch out for the threat in your own backyard.

It's roughly 2 kilometers from Hokkaido to Kamchatka, recall a Moscow regime wanted larger bites of Japan. And the current Kremlin boss wants to add even more territory plus an educated and talented Japanese population that he can say he personally controls. Russian imperialism backed by China's, another imperialist wannabe in Japan's backyard, make Japan under threat, and then you add in North Korea in Japan's backyard, and it's easy to see why some here are wary.

tate-backed Chinese hackers, saying they were "actively" looking for targets to compromise.

Russia-based hackers in 2022 breached one of Australia's largest private health insurers

Russia and China, aided whichever other nations they have control over, continue to do nearly whatever they want, including bombing children's hospitals. They must think they have control over enough anti-democracy western politicians, media, and corporations, which are willing to appease them, that they can get away with pretty much anything, and so far it looks like they are right. The notion of individual nations having sovereignty was nice while it lasted, China and Russia, the newest global power bloc will do what they can to continue weakening nations, see Tibet and Ukraine, among other examples. I despise the word 'globalist' because it was used by the Nazis, and is used by far rightists today, but China and Russia have huge global control over resources, manufacturing and trade. And huge control over the lives of individuals within their domains.

@zaphod: The European elites...

Did Charles Veitch approve this post?

Maintaining an increased number of female ministers is a challenge because of a shortage of women with seniority.

The seniority system keeps Japan from making better progress, but then 'progress' is a negative concept to too many, including those with the greatest wealth, many with familial ties to money and political power.

And if it’s not Joe Biden, I’m with her.”

The alternative is fully turning over the republic to the aristocratic caste led by a convicted felon backed by a corrupt Supreme Court. Sadly the Court will remain in place, regardless who gets the most votes. On a who gets the most votes aside, that should be what determines election results in the republic, but it's doubtful the Republicans and their militias will accept the outcome if Trump doesn't win. This time they might go full out assault mode on the Capital, the wealthiest Americans have long controlled the land, but now with Trump backing them the sheet's off the face of the US and the nation's latent-fascism is on open display.

The stances by Pezeshkian, now Iran's 69-year-old president-elect,

A 'reformist' leader, showing signs of compassion, must not make Iran's partners in the Kremlin happy, nor the hardliners within his own country. Best wishes President-elect Pezeshkian, may you be a great leader for all Iranians, hopefully Iran's best and brightest that have left the country will be given a chance to return, and hopefully the best and brightest now in Iran will stay to help grow grow the country.

Ideally the new leaders will be able to use the huge fortunes got from selling oil and gas to improve the lives of all Iranians in all parts of the country. True story, I'm not a Zelig-like Republican: while living in Dubai my wife and I were fortunate to be able to spend a couple weeks in Iran, where we were able to meet people that wanted to interact with people from the 'west', it's a country with great history and gorgeous monuments, plus tasty food, nice to think it could open up.

@banthu: Look back at what the left wing controlled corporate media assured us last month.

Thw media report what they do for their own purposes, it's up to individuals to decide what to believe for themselves, two of the largest US media corporations are those controlled by Murdoch and Sinclair Broadcasting, what both report has long been anti-Biden, often pro-Russia. They 'assure' us that democracy has many problems that could be dealt with by a handful of the wealthiest backing their own equally corrupt politician controlling rhe masses. Both media giants have been big supporters of Trump.

Japan is expected to field more than 400 athletes,

Best wishes to each of them, may each stay healthy and return to Japan with heads held high.

@guruM: And USA, you have ignored India

Perhaps the nation, but millions of Indian individuals have gotten out of India, have come to the USA where they have prospered, and brought their families with them. Will Russia be able to provide similar opportunities to those fleeing India and other BRIC nations as climate change continues to take its tolls. If Modi gets cheap oil and gas from Russia, will their burning create more environmental problems resulting in more Indians seeking other nations to escape to. The Indian brain drain to the US has been greatly beneficial to the US and other nations, especially in healthcare, technology and the sciences.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday makes his first visit to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine,

I'm a bit surprised Modi has not spent more time with Putin, given they they are both authoritarians. India has sold lots of weapons to Russia backing Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. Because so many people from South Asia are being affected by climate change and lack of opportunities, many are doing what they can to get to 'western' countries where they have more chances; will Russia take in those fleeing India, or would there be opportunities in Russia beyond serving in Putin's military and being fodder for the next Russian invasions.

@Bss: . I have at the moment someone in my family that is going through the same thing

Zelig redux?

@calej: Media must be fair and balanced and seek to present both sides of the story.

I do not believe media's job is to be fair and balanced, I do believe media outlets should be honest, for me to get a sense of what the far right are reading I check up on what Rupert Murdoch and Sinclair Broadcasting are reporting, and I see what to me is extreme bias, but I know both are for profit corporations trying to attract more viewers and more ad revenue, and millions of Americans want to be told by them what to think. Neither Murdoch nor Sinclair have criticized Trump's wack rants about Hannibal Lector, sharks and whales, but both love to show clips of Biden walking unsteadily, also both media giants love to report on crime in the US, usually by trying to blame those problems on 'others'. I said the outlets should be honest, but also think the candidates should be. I do not blame Biden as much as I blame the Democrat Party nabobs, for not having a better candidate, same with the GOP for pushing a failed human, most likely suffering from dementia, on top of delusions of grandeur, sociopathy and narcissistic impairment plus obesity, which is a great contributor to dementia.

Orban should tend to problems in Hungary, a nation with one of the highest rates of alcoholiam, rivaling those of Russia and Belarus. Could it be that life under authoritarian regimes is not always so nice?

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hungary+belarus+russia+alcoholism&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

the fearlessness of youth

Fearless indeed and tough, concrete is hard, after all. Fortunately board technology has improved considerably from the days when skaters attached wheels from old roller skates to a piece of plywood.

Weakness of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar

With a failed business person and his fellow oligarchs strong-arming the US economy for their own personal benefit, who knows how much time it will take for the US dollar to crash. Sorry for all the Americans here in Japan living off social security and military retirement benefits, losing them and their spending power could hurt the Japanese economy.

I recall during the bubble years having Japanese business people, often flush with temporary wealth from the stock market, ask me how much Manhattan was worth, and I knew Brits that were asked how much land in some part of London was worth; I, and most British people I knew would typically say "don't know" then the businessman would say, 'if such and such property with a hotel on it in Tokyo was sold, that money could be used to buy all of Manhattan', or something similarly silly to that. And then the bubble burst...what has been learned since then? It reinforced to me that unchecked greed can have serious negative consequences, but I, often just a casual acquaintance of the company worker had many high priced meals, courtesy of middle level managers using their company's credit card.

@bass: So it’s a win, win for both men.

Hard for the anti-democracy/anti-republic herds to accept, but the founders wanted to create a nation for all citizens, not just privileged individual men, they had tried to establish a nation unlike those they and their ancestors came from, i.e nations that were run by individual 'royal leaders. However, it could be the home and religious schooled sorts were not taught that. But the convicted felon and his cabal know they can get even richer if they get a corrupt person like Trump back, especially with a corrupt Supreme Court. Trump will try to compete with his pal Putin to see which despot can end up with the greatest wealth embezzled while in office, and as long as Trump shares what's been embezzled with the the most powerful of the elite establishment and some selected few cult members backing him he should prevail, unless another criminal gang overpowers him while he's on the throne, back to the vicious past, most reasonable people wanted to keep locked away, yet still seen today in places like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others run by the nastiest and their goons.

U.S. president to be criminally prosecuted as well as the first former president convicted of a crime

But because the previous president and his advisors backed by elite establishment groups like the Federalist Society have packed the courts, particularly the Supreme Court with judges and justices that prefer to see a single figure lead the country (especially a venal single leader who has a history of being corrupt therefore can be more easily bought off by the globe;s weaalthiest) the US if X-45 is elected dogs forbid will be just another nation dragged down by a criminal personality leading a cult.

@miles T: Typical knee jerk reaction to blame all a country's problems on illegals and migrants

That reaction is reinforced by media, especially outlets controlled by a former? Australian (who knows which country he claims to be part of) who has switched passports and national allegiances several times. But he has gained great wealth and influence pushing 'others' as the root of most problems, sadly a certain proportion of the population, people I've never heard called 'reasonable' believe him. By stoking ethnic fires and further diving people, he and media owners like him are aiding Russia and China while weakening the countries that have given him passports.

as volunteers continue to work hard.

Hats off to those that volunteer!

@blacklable: “But Trump lied!”

And his cult members with similar lack of ethics, those who admire him because he's like them in that way, encourage him to keep lying. They do live in an alternative reality, one here Jews hire aliens to start wildfires, and Kremlin disinformation is more trutswrthy than US intelligence findings.

I'm amazed that Biden according to the Q-crowd has been a mastermind controlling the country all these years, but then all of. sudden they say he does not have the ability to lead. Which is it MAGAs? How are things down in Gilbert Arizona, a MAGA stronghold, even Murdoch media have pointed out life there is a bit rough. And not because of immigrants.

The Hokusai Wave is nice. As someone with poor vision, these look like they might be easier to distinguish. Coins on the other hand will remain a challenge, and so it goes.

@ kuku: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village

Kyiv denied the accusations, which it described as Russian propaganda.

Of course the Russian Federation, aka the Potemkin nation, issues state propaganda, and the Kremlin have lots of useful idiots on all forms of media, social and corporate, to parrot the Kremlin's messages, many use methods from the Soviet Era such as ';whatabout' and 'that would be...' among others and resort to pushing blatant lies and conspiracy theories and demonizing opposition groups plus those they consider 'others' to keep things even more divided, angrier and muddier, not surprising their leaders do similar things. George f all you've got is 'the left say so' save it for your local gun club newsletter, or a Sinclair broadcasting 'news' site, maybe 8Chan.