News of the World

[kyonides]

China Buys Up Share of Qatar Natural Gas Project,
Expanding Deeper into Middle East

China’s oil and gas giant Sinopec announced on Wednesday that it had signed a deal with QatarEnergy, which manages the nation’s prodigious supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), to become a shareholder in the latter’s North Field East (NFE) expansion project, granting China unprecedented control over an LNG source.

“The total investment of the NFE project is $28.75 billion, which will raise Qatar’s LNG export capacity from the current 77 MTPA to 110 MTPA [million tonnes per annum],” Sinopec detailed in its announcement. “The signing of the agreement makes Sinopec the first Asian shareholder in the NFE project. The cooperation will help Sinopec optimize the energy consumption mix in China and secure long-term and reliable clean energy supply to the nation.”
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The agreement gives Sinopec, a Chinese government-owned company, a 1.25-percent stake in the project. Other stakeholders including ExxonMobil, Shell, and ConocoPhillips, according to S&P Global. QatarEnergy is owned by the government of that country; Saad al Kaabi, the CEO of QatarEnergy, is also the country’s minister of state for energy affairs.

Sinopec and QatarEnergy have invested years in strengthening ties. In November, the two companies announced an agreement in which the Qatari company agreed to provide Sinopec with 4 million tons of LNG annually for 27 years. The LNG was slated to come from the NFE project that Sinopec announced it now partially owns as of this week.

At the time, the Sinopec deal was viewed as a significant setback for Europe, and specifically Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas and attempted to strike a deal with Qatar, but failed. According to Asian News International (ANI), QatarEnergy was frustrated with Germany for seeking shorter-term arrangements as part of its “green” energy agenda to eliminate LNG entirely.

Al-Kaabi, the Qatari energy minister, also lamented in December that negotiations with Germany were difficult because German leaders openly condemned Qatar’s abhorrent human rights abuses.
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On Wednesday, al-Kaabi hinted that the major advance of Chinese industry into the Qatari sphere had not reached its conclusion and the two companies would cooperate “even further” in the future. He suggested QatarEnergy would prioritize Sinopec over other potential partners.

The deal represents a significant advance for Beijing’s ambitions in the Middle East and its plans to establish control over critical energy resources. China is the world’s largest importer of LNG and the world’s largest importer of crude oil, as it does not have significant known amounts of reserves of either fuel. China already relies heavily on Saudi Arabia for its oil needs – and recently signed a deal for Saudi-owned Aramco to build new refineries on Chinese soil – but has dedicated the past year to expanding both influence and market presence in the rest of the region.

Republican Lawmakers Rip Hunter’s Trip
to Ireland: ‘He’ll Make Another Corrupt Deal’

Republican lawmakers on Thursday slammed President Joe Biden for allowing Hunter Biden to travel with him to Ireland.

Hunter, who is infamous for peddling his last name for profit, was brought to Ireland for a days-long excursion across the country, while his father holds official business with world leaders.

This is not the first time Joe Biden has brought Hunter abroad. Hunter took 411 trips across 29 countries between 2009 and the middle of 2014, according to Secret Service travel records obtained by Judicial Watch.
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“I’m sure he’ll make another corrupt deal using his daddy’s name and make sure he kicks back 10% for ‘the big guy,'” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) told Breitbart News.

“The fact that Hunter is still walking the streets as a free man, instead of being locked behind bars, is the most illuminating example of the two-tiered justice system we have here in the U.S.,” he added.
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On one of Hunter’s 411 trips abroad, he stopped with Joe Biden in Beijing, China. Ten days after the 2013 visit, Hunter secured a ten percent interest in BHR Partners, a Chinese state-backed investment fund. According to his lawyer in November 2021, Hunter divested his ten percent interest in the fund.
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The business license for Hunter’s company, founded in Washington, DC, which holds the ten percent stake in BHR Partners, Skaneateles LLC, was revoked upon dissolution in September 2021, many months after Joe Biden assumed office.

Chinese records show Skaneateles still owns ten percent of BHR Partners.
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Despite the national security concerns, Biden praised his son by telling Ireland that he is “proud” of Hunter. A video shows Hunter turning around to wave at the slowly applauding crowd.

Brazil: Ax-Wielding Teen Injures Nine-Year-Old Girls
in Fourth School Attack This Month

A 14-year-old Brazilian student attacked two nine-year-old girls with an ax at the Alcântara Costa Municipal School in the rural area of the city of Farias Brito in the state of Ceará on Wednesday, gravely injuring one of the girls.

The incident marks the second ax attack in a Brazilian school in a single week after a 25-year-old man killed four children with an axe and injured five more at a Brazilian daycare center on April 5.

It is the fourth school attack in Brazil in less than a month. Also this week, a child reportedly either 12 or 13 years old attacked two students and a teacher at the Adventist Institute of Manaus on Monday. A 13-year-old student stabbed four teachers and a classmate in a school in São Paulo on March 27, killing a 71-year-old teacher.

Brazilian news website UOL reported that the assailant in Wednesday’s attack, who is a ninth grade student of the same school whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, entered the school’s fourth grade classroom and suddenly attacked the victims with the ax he had brought concealed to school. Witnesses stated that the 14-year-old assailant was immobilized and detained by one of the school’s teachers before Brazilian Military Police apprehended him.

One of the girls suffered a superficial injury on the head and was discharged on the same day. The other victim suffered a deep injury on the frontal region of her head that left her skull exposed. She was transferred to the pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Santo Antônio hospital in Barbalha with stable vital signs and general condition, and underwent surgery Wednesday evening.

The assailant was transferred to the regional police station of Crato, where he will be processed for attempted homicide, according to the Secretary of Public Security of Ceará.

Nuclear Power Shutdown Risks Causing Power Shortages, Group Warns

Germany’s planned shutdown of all of its remaining nuclear power plants risks causing power shortages, one industry group in the country has warned.

The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has warned that the country’s green agenda-loving government’s plan to close the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants in a few days risks causing energy shortages.

Current plans have the three remaining plants closing forever on April 15, despite the fact that the country is in the midst of an ongoing energy crisis that threatened rolling blackouts last winter.

According to a report by the Rheinische Post, the DIHK warned that the nuclear shutdown would have significant adverse effects on German industry, and that the government was ultimately risking energy shortages with the stunt.

“Despite the drop in gas prices, energy costs remain high for most companies in Germany,” group president Peter Adrian warned. “At the same time, we are not out of the woods when it comes to security of supply.”

Adrian went on to argue that Germany must “expand the supply of energy and not restrict it any further” with the country being heavily reliant on all of its energy sources, including nuclear.
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Such a warning from the DIHK have also been made by others in Germany, with even one party within the country’s ruling government coalition admitting that the power plant closures are a “strategic mistake“.

Nevertheless, green-obsessed officials have insisted the closures go ahead, with Climate Action minister Robert Habeck dismissing fears over the destruction of nuclear in the country.

Paper Tiger? German Army Reserve
Only Exists ‘On Paper’, Says Volunteer Boss

The German reserve forces are only a fraction of the officially stated size, lack equipment and training, and is a force “that still largely exists on paper”, says the chief of the German reserves association.

Berlin is looking to make its armed forces more effective after years of under-investment, and Russian aggression reaching the borders of the European Union. The reserve forces are seen to be an important part of this plan, yet as the leader of the group which represents the interests of reserve soldiers, it is far from being able to meet these goals and appears to resemble more a paper tiger than a valued defence component.

Speaking to German newspaper the Stuttgarter Zeitung, retired Lieutenant Colonel, former conservative (CDU) member of Parliament, and now reserve forces association leader Patrick Sensburg said they are badly run and considerably underfunded.

Far from the official total number of reserves on the books of around 930,000 people — achieved because by law everyone in Germany with past military service is a reservist forever — actually only “around 34,000” of them are in any way active or recently trained. And even those, Sensburg says, are trained under “poor conditions”.

The reserves have to beg the regular forces for uniforms, even routine military training like target shooting practice is difficult to achieve, and have no military vehicles. At best, says the association boss, reservists can use civilian cars and most bizarrely of all, reserve tank commanders don’t get to train in real tanks. Instead, they perform their manoeuvres “on foot”.

Exercises don’t happen often Sensburg revealed, but when they do, morale and interest is so low officers are “happy if only a third of the soldiers notified turn up”.

The reserves would have a wide range of roles in a time of crisis, from guarding power stations and transporting the wounded to filling gaps on the front line, yet at present the force isn’t capable of doing those jobs, says Sensburg. Indeed, it is a “force that still largely exists on paper.”

...Sensburg told the paper that there should at least be a requirement for soldiers in the reserve to put in a fortnight’s training every two years.

In comparison, the British Army Reserve — which is also struggling to recruit — asks its members for 27 days of service a year. If reservists meet this requirement, they get a tax-free cash bonus, known in traditional military parlance as a ‘bounty’.

Anti-Macron Protesters Pile Trash Outside French Constitutional Court
as Riots Continue, Judgement Expected

French protesters piled trash outside France’s Constitutional Court as anti-Macron riots in the country continue and the body prepared to rule on the legality of Macron’s retirement age reform.

Members of the French public are said to have barricaded the French Constitutional Court with trash on Thursday as others clashed with police on the country’s 12th day of Anti-Emmanuel Macron protests.

The court is expected to declare on Friday whether or not the French government’s pension reforms are legal, with many opposed to the Macron administration urging the court to shoot down the bill in its entirety.

According to a report by Euractiv, some of the 42,000 protesters marching in Paris used bins to blockade the entrances to the French court building, with footage of the riots depicting others as clashing with police.

France’s Interior Ministry has now banned protests outside the building until Saturday in an apparent attempt to keep the peace.

Protesters also reportedly targeted the country’s Central Bank offices, as well as the headquarters of LVMH, the company that owns the designer label Louis Vuitton.

Overall, some 380,000 people are thought to have taken part in Thursday’s demos across France protesting the Macron government.

However, while this remains a very large figure, it marks a considerable downward drift compared to the protests a number of weeks ago.

Finnish embassy in Russia receives letter with suspicious substance

Finland's embassy in Moscow has received a letter containing an unknown powder and has reported the matter to the Russian authorities, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.

Relations between Moscow and Helsinki have deteriorated sharply since Finland formally joined NATO on April 4, becoming the 31st member of the US-led military alliance. Finland shares a long land border with Russia.

The embassy received three letters on Thursday, one of which contained a powder, the RIA news agency reported.

"In line with the security rules of the Finnish foreign ministry, the letters in question were handed to official representative organs of Russia which will study the matter," RIA quoted the embassy as saying.