03 World

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California Democrats are advancing a new bill that would establish two Muslim holy days as state holidays while authorizing the state to develop a new model curriculum for students to “acknowledge and celebrate” these Islamic observances in the classroom.

Funny how the Democrats are militant about separation of church and state but mosque and state? Not so much.

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that the Trump administration will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement in its current form after a joint review.

The USMCA replaced NAFTA during President Donald Trump’s first term.

“The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries,” announced Greer. “However, the Agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination.”

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Oil prices rose on Tuesday morning following a report of an Iranian attack on commercial ships in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

The reported attacks in the waterway, which typically handles around 20% of the world’s oil traffic, reaffirm the fragility of the U.S. and Iran’s interim peace agreement, as they negotiate a permanent end to their war.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with September delivery traded 1.5% higher at $73.09 per barrel, extending earlier gains.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with August delivery advanced 1.5% to $69.56, after closing at its lowest level since Feb. 27 in the previous session.

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Islamabad:

After Pakistan’s civilian government, its military establishment has also vowed to take “all necessary measures” to ensure what it called the country’s “rightful share” of water under the Indus Water Treaty. The 1960 vintage water-sharing treaty was put in “abeyance” by India as one of the punitive measures against Pakistan after last year’s Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

The treaty has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between the two nuclear-powered neighbours since then.

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Cuba has suffered its third nationwide power blackout since the start of the year, as the country’s fuel reserves diminish and its electric grid crumbles due to an energy crisis precipitated by the US fuel blockade.

The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported on Monday by the state-run Electric Union, which said that the cause is under investigation.

Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said protocols were quickly activated to restore electricity throughout Cuba after the outage.

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President Donald Trump said Monday the United States would either reach a deal with Iran or “finish the job,” renewing his threat of military action as Tehran projects defiance following the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Indirect US-Iran talks ended last week without any public sign of headway toward a lasting peace.”We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job. OK. And it won’t be tough to finish the job. I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply…. They don’t have any money now. We haven’t given them any money.”Trump spoke after Khamenei’s weekend funeral where, rather than looking weakened by the war, Iranians appeared to be united and determined to shape what comes next.Iranians call for revengeIranians called for revenge Monday during the funeral procession of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and voiced their opposition to negotiations with those behind the supreme leader’s death.

“We don’t want a deal. We want Trump’s head!” they chanted, referring to the US president.His death as a “martyr” has whipped up fervour among Iranians, according to mourner Gholamreza Khanbabai, who was also present in 1989 for the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.“If I had to compare this ceremony to that one, I’d say… the crowd seems more enthusiastic this time,” said Khanbabai.

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OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — The Canadian government’s appeal of the acquittals of Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber on intimidation charges will not be heard until the spring of 2027. 

In an X post last week, Lich said that her original 18-month house arrest sentence will be “served January 21, 2027, and then it’ll be back to court to start this process all over again.”

“By the time this is over, if it ever truly is, the Ontario taxpayers will be on the hook for around $15M for the prosecution of our case alone,” she wrote.

World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab Finds Spying Device in His Home wltreport.com
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This is almost ironic…

Notorious globalist Klaus Schwab, who founded the World Economic Forum, says that a listening device was recently uncovered in his home office.

We don’t know why or how long it was there, or who planted it.

But, Schwab has filed a criminal complaint, and Swiss authorities are currently investigating the matter.

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The AI “actor” known as Tilly Norwood will be used in a new feature film entitled Misaligned, its first lead role as a digitally generated persona.

Particle6, the AI production studio that built Norwood, is developing and producing the film, the company told Global News in an email statement. The company is led by comedian and writer Eline Van der Velden.

 

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Machine learning is giving scientists a powerful new way to search for superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance. An international team has demonstrated that AI can rapidly narrow an almost limitless number of possible material combinations to identify the most promising candidates. According to Aalto University Professor Päivi Törmä, who leads the SuperC consortium, the approach could dramatically speed the discovery of new superconductors.

Superconductors allow electric current to flow without losing energy, but only when cooled to extremely low temperatures where quantum effects emerge. These remarkable materials are already used in technologies ranging from quantum computers and medical neuroimaging systems to fusion reactors and maglev trains.

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An unexpected visitor caused an overnight power outage that left thousands of people without electricity. A snake triggered an outage affecting about 6,500 Dominion Energy customers across the Shenandoah Valley shortly after midnight on July 1. The reptile caused the disruption by slithering across a critical piece of equipment at an electrical substation, reported People.com.

Dominion Energy spokesperson Craig Carper said that the snake’s contact with the equipment activated an automatic safety shutdown designed to protect the electrical system from more extensive damage.

While the cause may sound unusual, Carper said it was not unheard of.

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Vice President JD Vance intends to run for POTUS in 2028. Vance and other Republicans who seek political office should think twice before discarding Israel in order to appease low life podcasters such as Tucker Carlson, Dave Smith, Megyn Kelly, et al.

Related – While the World Turns on Israel, Evangelicals Stand Firm

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According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in China fell 13% year over year during the month-long 618 shopping festival, as major brands raised prices to offset higher memory costs. Between May 26 and June 21, all major Chinese smartphone brands except Huawei posted double-digit sales declines. Promotions were less aggressive than last year, dampening consumer demand. Honor’s sales dropped 33%, while Xiaomi’s fell 24%.

Ivan Lam, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said: “Some Chinese smartphone brands priced both their new and existing models higher than comparable devices a year ago. Discounts during this year’s 618 shopping festival were also generally less aggressive, both in terms of price reductions and the range of products included in promotions.” [Jiwei, in Chinese]

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Among the many industries that China and the USA are competing in, space is a rising battleground. The two countries that have tried their best to form a bond in trade and truth but remain contentious in spirit. China is rapidly advancing its lunar exploration program and is expected to eventually send taikonauts to the Moon, as per media reports.

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A report from Ireland’s Health Service Executive, released Friday, tells us that in 2024 the numbers of abortions had nearly doubled since 2019, the first year abortion was legalized in Ireland.

Tragically, the huge increase from 6,666 to 10,852 comes shortly after the Dáil (the lower house of Parliament) voted to end the three-day waiting period for abortion. All told, the report—“Termination of Pregnancy Services in Ireland Report (2019–2025)”–shows there were 46,861 abortions in Ireland in the six years from 2019 to the end of 2024.

However, “Just one in 10 GPs have signed up to provide medical abortion, and only 10 of the 19 maternity units in the country do planned [surgical] terminations,” Eilish O’Regan reported for the Irish Independent.

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WASHINGTON — A court in eastern China on Monday sentenced a former local official to death over taking bribes that authorities said amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars during a three-decade period.

Yang Youlin, a former economic development official in the Jiangsu Province capital of Nanjing on China’ s east coast, “illegally accepted property and assets” valued over 2.21 billion yuan ($325 million) from 1993 to 2023, the Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.

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Sometimes the great verities are pretty straightforward. For example, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,” an observation made famous by economist Herb Stein. Let’s stick with that one, given its sensible application to the Trump administration’s current quasi-licensing regime for frontier AI models. The effort has proven to be a vibey, ad hoc process that The Economist correctly describes as “opaque, unpredictable—and unsustainable.” Good news that a more structured process apparently is coming soon.

The Financial Times reports that, as early as this week, the White House will roll out “voluntary standards for the release of new models” that would “set benchmarks for models with cutting-edge cyber capabilities and establish release timelines in an effort to streamline future launches.” What’s more, the guidelines would clarify “who is able to access advanced models, both domestically and abroad, in a move that could set the stage for a global framework including US allies.” Definitely seems less haphazard, I’ll give it that.

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TORONTO, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Canadians are calling out one of Canada’s largest police forces, the Toronto Police Service, for promoting a “happy” time at a “pride” parade yet ignoring the fact that men paraded around nude at the event.

“Happy PRIDE!!! It’s a beautiful day for a parade — so be safe and have fun at this incredible event!” wrote the Toronto Police in an X post on June 28, the same day as the city’s annual “pride” parade.

One commentator shared the post from Toronto Police, blasting it, saying, “They are, intentionally, presenting illegal public nudity as normal” at what was billed as a “family-friendly” event.

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The Ukrainian military said Monday that its drones struck Russia’s largest oil refinery in the western Siberian region of Omsk, marking one of the deepest attacks on Russian territory since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Gazprom Neft-operated refinery is located on the northern outskirts of the city of Omsk, around 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from the border with Ukraine. NASA satellites recorded multiple fire hotspots at the facility on Monday evening.

“An impact with subsequent fire was recorded on the territory [of the refinery]. The extent of the damage is being verified,” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement on Facebook. “This is the last of the 11 largest gasoline producers in Russia that have been hit.”