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Will the Kremlin meddle in this election to ensure their preferred candidate, most likely the most authoritarian, continues Iran's brand of religious authoritarianism helping Russia and its pal China to have more control over the planet's oil and gas? Iran is similar to Venezuela, Russia and other countries, rich in natural resources like fossil fuels, the majority of its citizens get by on little little while the rulers and their chosen oligarchs live in luxury.

The Trump campaign has not confirmed whether he would accept these proposals.

The previous president will wait to see what benefits him personally, given his family ties to businesses with CCP members, and his own monetary problems, he will be like he has been his entire life a corrupt person beholden to the highest bidders. He repeatedly speaks about what a bad country the US is, he cares nothing about the nation itself, never has, and in future something about leopards and spots comes to mind. He is like most of his supporters an individual whose guiding principle is what's in it for me, screw everyone else, on that note he has the morality of an alley cat, and his elite establishment backers around the world want him back in office because they know he'll serve them again this time around with even more tax breaks, should he win, dogs forbid.

Moscow warned the United States that drone reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea risked a "direct" military clash.

Putin's an ultrnanationalist, instead of warning other countries he should look out for the safety of Russian civilians living in actual Russian territory, and find ways to protect his citizens. Maybe he should bring his troops home from Ukraine and elsewhere to provide security for Russian people instead of killing civilians in Ukraine and other places outside Russian territory.

@Bss: It is a hellhole, but that’s because of the Democrats toxic policies that put the nation into that situation.

Trump and his MAGAs hate the US, want to destroy it and replace it with a system benefitting primarily the wealthiest, a system which they now have, but that will tilt farther right with their corrupt Supreme Court tearing down environmental protections, worker and consume rights, in their quest to further entrench socialism for the wealthy led by their cult leader Kaiser Don

They seized on Trump’s equivocations on whether he would accept the will of voters this time around

It could be that Trump has learned (doubtful) that his attempt at an insurrection failed, and this time he'll listen to different advisers, some already setting up a post-constitution USA, about a different way to overthrow an election, and if that fails he must know he's got the corrupt Supreme Court to back him and others preferring blatant corporatocracy to historical justice to back him up. Plus the previous guys's support from authoritarian regimes around the world to bail him out, perhaps pay him even more than they had in dark money and gifts. The Supreme Court recently ruled that what had been considered bribery is now not 'really a problem. Curious they did this after allegations some justices have been accepting special favors from billionaires, some as small as tickets to a music concert, still a potential bribe in advance from my perspective, some accepting multi-million dollar trips outside the US in addition to lavish gifts. How much will Trump, if he gets back in office (dogs forbid), charge for pardons this time. The Jan.6 criminals are already probably starting fundraisers to get the money to pay Trump and his minders.

quantifies the growing threat of extreme heat in some of the world's largest urban centers.

On a planet that's long been led by the oil/gas industries and their fossils, and which is currently led by oil fossils like Putin, and rulers like Xi and others that want to burn more burn more, and if the US is led by a someone like The Previous guy who's controlled by other fossils, expect that extreme heat will become even more extreme while the fossils and their fellow billionaire backers might be among the few that are able to stay cooler.

Also expect billions from areas severely affected by extreme heat to move to places where extreme heat might be less of a problem. lots of room in Russia and China for those escaping from the global south. Russia will probably need more people to fight its wars, especially now that so many Russians have been killed in Putin and his pal's war.

@blacklable: biden is horrible.

But Biden has not been convicted of any felonies, and he does not talk about what a horrible country the US is. I think Biden actually likes being a US citizen and likes living in the US, unlike TP Guy and his cult members. Reminder the subways are clean in Minsk and Moscow, at least as reported by a Murdoch entertainer known for spreading disinformation.

One of the worst things about the strict format of this debate, is not being able to hear rambling monologues about wind farms, whales, sharks and electric motors.But I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities ahead, where unhinged rants will once again be the norm, no need for deep fakes to provide comic relief, just gibberish from the whale's mouth.

paying around 69 million yen to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympics board member in charge of selecting sponsors for the pandemic-postponed 2020 Games.

I wonder whether Mr. Takahashi has been charged with accepting a bribe.

both launching highly personal attacks

Sad to see UK pols devolving to WWF (US fake wrestling) levels and resorting to personal attacks. But it appears that for segments of the population discussing policies is either too boring, perhaps too far above their ability to understand. Bombastic attacks are better suited for beerhall rallies or sports matches, actually not the latter, they don't belong there either.

 conducted a series of trash-carrying balloon launches toward South

That 'success' showed NK's degree of competence. I hope they stay down at that level. This part of the planet, like all others, would prefer to remain in peace and that totalitarian regimes China and Russia and their trained wasp North Korea keep their missiles and trash carrying balloons within their respective borders.

Ohtani is having another great season, and his MLB peers think he's MLB's best player:

https://www.mlb.com/news/player-survey-results-2024

Good on Costco, not just for treating workers with respect, but also for bringing lower prices to Japanese consumers. A neighborhood in my area of Kobe has a retail shop selling products from Costco at prices 20-30% higher than an actual Costco's, but still lower than Japanese chain supermarkets nearby. For us an advantage of this store is that we can walk to it, or take a train, and buy a single item, for example one container of an something, instead of a carton. Japan Inc. remains stuck in the same old retail models, where the primary beneficiaries are the already wealthy at the top, most with seemingly little understanding of the effects low wages and high prices on commodities have on many consumers.

Now I would be even happier to see Whole Foods and Trader Joes come to Japan, or for a Japanese company to create similar versions of them.

"What we’re seeing here is still this disconnect between Russian counterterrorism capability and what the terrorists capability is inside of Russia.”

Putin's security forces have not been able to protect worshippers or concert goers.

But who knows which group was responsible, in Potemkin-land it could have been a false flag operation carried out by the state to distract from all the other issues Russian people face. Dogs forbid, but if Putin/Iran/North Korea and China prevail in Ukraine what a horrible future Ukrainians have to look forward to, life for them might become worse than during the days of the USSR. Putin might be so short of Russian security personnel that he pays one of his global partners to provide manpower to keep their boots on the throats of Ukrainians.

Two key advisers to Donald Trump 

Are these the same advisers that are preparing a Post-Constitution nation which gives the president sweeping nearly unlimited powers so the US president can be like kings and dictators. Bye bye republic it didn't live that long, but if the convicted convict gets back in power the elite establishment, people like Tim Mellon can get what their robber baron ancestors (See Andrew Mellon the corrupt former secretary of the treasury and infamous robber baron) always wanted complete control, no longer having to acknowledge there are others in the US that might want to be protected from their insatiable greed,. The elite establishment have a corrupt Supreme Court in place thanks to control given to them by the Republican Party, aided by the Federalist Society and Leo Leonard.

 a rampage by Islamic militants who authorities say killed 20 people, most of them police, and attacked houses of worship in apparently coordinated assaults in two cities.

Shameful, RIP to the victims, once again Putin blamed Ukraine, forgetting that he was the one that initiated hostilities there, so he needs to take responsibility for issues resulting from his personal war in Ykraine. Once again Putin's forces are outside the country terrorizing civilians in Ukraine, he should call his troops back into Russia to provide protection to Russian civilians from Russia's homegrown terrorists. Putin has made Russia, its neighboring sovereign countries, and the world unsafer, yet his cult still claim he's savvy and strong. Maybe he can ask North Korea for help providing security in Russia, I have not read about much dissent within North Korea, only individuals escaping.

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures

While the Kingdom has spent money, some Saudi royals and their close supporters have made lots of money for themselves for centuries off the Hajj. They have managed a system where wealthy Saudis and other wealthy people get better treatment than those at the other end of the wealth spectrum during the Hajj and Umrah. Umrah is another chance for the royals to make money and can occur throughout the year, with climate change making weather even more unpredictable, it could be weather related catastrophes will continue to plague the Kingdom, plus other pilgrimages everywhere.

China threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases for "diehard" Taiwan independence separatists.

Is that because Taiwanese independence separatists have minds of their own, and beliefs different from those of the all powerful CCP, and if so does having those beliefs 'hurt the feelings of the CCP Chinese. '

A Death penalty seems a little extreme to me but then the CCP under Xi are an extremist nation. See Xinpiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet for further examples of extremism, see also the extremist states the CCP align themselves with, those states, e.g Russia, North Korea and Iran tend to be places where opposition, including those holding beliefs different from the beliefs of the ruling caste are killed, too.

Donetsk region said that Russian attacks on Saturday killed two people and wounded four.

The Donetsk region is another place Putin sent one of his goon squads to arm and rile up pro-Russia Ukrainians, curious how many of that cohort have been killed by one of Putin's thugs. Shameful that any Ukrainian, regardless of national allegiance or language spoken has been injured, killed or made houseless because of Putin's latest attempt at a territorial grab. Putin should call his invading murderers back into actual Russian territory, free all the children that have been kidnapped, and provide for the Russian military personnel that have been crippled by his senseless war. Also he should use some of the billions he's embezzled over the years to pay for rebuilding Ukraine.

@obladi:  first thing I did was to look at how close Minamitori Island is to China. I think this island is safe!

Recall China is claiming it has rights to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, because of something it calls 'nearness'. China's redlines are drawn with specially made Sharpies that bleed to cover any territory it covets.

People keep mentioning maps, but ala the movie "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", 'China don't need no stinking badges nor maps', China claim mythical rights to all the lands seas and heavens. Will Elmo X share the moon or Mars with them, or cede his claims to China, as well.

@ebisen: What Japan islands? That was China's, since over 6000 years ago!

China's claims to historical control over all the lands and seas might soon include: 'Pangea' was Chinese controlled two hundred million years ago, and that China has always had control over plate tectonics shaping modern Earth.

deposit contains around 610,000 tons of cobalt,

Good news, as a person who has a prosthesis made in part of cobalt, I hope Japan can maintain control of this area before China claims mythical rights to that part of the sea and tries to take everything found there.

@CC:It's not Putin's fault. He had to do it.

Exactly, the mighty righty as victim, my favorite justification as said by his followers, paid and volunteer, was Biden taunted Putin, because Biden said he thought Putin wasn't going to invade. Which if true that Putin invaded a sovereign nation initiated and maintained a war there because of a taunt, and pulled out the I'm a victim card to defend himself , then Putin is a wuss, and so are most his followers that want to believe he's strong and savvy. The Chinese invade because of myth based territorial claims, the European 'Christians' went on Crusade because of religious beliefs, mighty Putin because he was 'taunted'. What would happen to a country if someone living there said Putin smelled of elderberries.

China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,"

But according to Chinese myths, accepted as rule of law by the CCP, all the seas and lands, even some place called the 'heavens' are ruled by the Chinese emperor.

@kurispu: The video evidence proves otherwise…

Posters here attack something they call MSM, then link to youtube, as mainstream as there is. If people link to a youtube video they should clearly state who the creator of the video was, these days with so many deep fakes coming from Russia and China and others, only the truest of true believers are going to believe what comes from Russia/China and their media.I do not want to click on youtube and make some totalitarian state or one of their bots richer.

climate change is fueling more extreme temperature peaks - making heatwaves more common, more intense and longer-lasting.

But the global fossils, the elite establishment have used scientists they employ to push propaganda to convince their audience otherwise. Putin prefers temperatures to rise hoping the seas that keep his navy iced in for many months of the year will thaw more often so he can use his Russian navy in the Kremlin's quest to conquer more territory, plus thawing seas will make it easier for some of his personal resource corporations to gain easier access to the Arctic. Saudi Arabia and the UAE like Russia continue to deny climate change. But if temperatures keep rising some Saudi Arabian royals could be at risk of losing revenue they've long got from overseeing the Hajj, because fewer people might be able to afford to pay the prices for the expensive passes that allow them to have bits of protection from temperatures above 50 degrees accompanied by high humidity.Even the number off Muslims doingUmrah could be reduced. Now Saudi Arabia claims it wants to open a little to allow tourism, which could also be hurt as temperatures continue to rise.

That Oppenheimer was conflicted showed he was human. His life after the war was not easy for him, or others that were similar. He was accused by the extreme right movement - of the era- as being a 'Communist', and suffered as a result. Shame that one of the brightest minds of any time was used by the government to create the bomb, then discarded afterwards. He was not a WASP, so it was easier for those in power to go after him. For a good movie on the era see "Trumbo"

As long as China is governed by the CCP, which seems to have its beliefs based on Chinese myths of ethnic superiority, and as long as the CCP can continue to manipulate their citizens to believe those myths and no others, the world is stuck with China and its subordinate states Russia,North Korea, Iran and who knows which other authoritarian nations stirring things up around the planet in their quest to be masters of the seas, lands and some place they call heavens. The authoritarians are on a modern day crusade to establish Xi as emperor uber alles. Maybe India and Modi can use their belief systems to say that India should be master over all. Yeat's "The Second Coming" comes to mind: "What rough beast, it' hour come around at last, slouches toward Belthlehem to be born". Old myths exchanged for other old myths. But most old myths probably did not factor in climate change, at least as far a I'm aware.

I hope Sasaki Roki heals quickly and stays healthy, he is a great pitcher, with such a bright future. If he wants to, I hope he goes to MLB next year and chooses a team other than the Dodgers, Angels, or a New York or Texas team.

@Wallace: Vietnam is Putin's next port of call trying to drum up support in Asia.

Moscow, like Beijing, provided lots of aid during what some US Americans call the Vietnam War. I was a tourist in Vietnam in the 1990's, as a white male I was stopped by civilians a couple times asking me if I was American or Russian, when I said American they'd smile and give me a thumbs up, Russians had been there after the fighting was over, too, and were seen as carpetbaggers, not that Americans were seen as good guys, just better than Russians.