China Celebrates Its Allegiance to Hamas’ Cause

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envoy, Wang Kejian, joined Hamas’ political head, Ismail Haniyeh to praise the organization and reiterate China’s shared vision with Hamas. He called Hamas “part of the Palestinian national fabric” while echoing Hamas’ talking points, stating their support for “the Palestinian people’s just demands for freedom, independence, and the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

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Excerpt from freebeacon.com

A top Chinese diplomat emphasized China’s relationship with Hamas during the first meeting between a Chinese official and a Hamas leader since the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel…

“The two parties discussed political and field developments related to the situation in the Gaza Strip and ways to stop the war and deliver urgent aid, especially in light of the killing, starvation, massacres, and attempts to create chaos,” Hamas added in the statement.

Haniyeh, meanwhile, expressed his “pride in the close relationship between the friendly Palestinian and Chinese peoples,” while praising the Chinese government for trying to broker a ceasefire and sending humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The Hamas leader also stressed “the need to quickly stop the aggression and massacres” and “achieve the political goals and aspirations of establishing an independent Palestinian state.”

Washington State Strikes Down Bar Requirement to Hire More “Diverse” Lawyers

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

Washington State’s Supreme Court has ruled that the state bar exam is no longer a requirement for people seeking to practice law in their state. The reason given for the ruling is the exam “disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks” people in leftist preferred groups from becoming lawyers.

Excerpt from resistthemainstream.com

Washington State’s Supreme Court has declared that the bar exam is no longer a requirement for becoming a lawyer within the state, according to a pair of orders released on Friday.

This landmark ruling approves alternative methods for demonstrating competency and acquiring a law license, following a 2020 initiative where a task force was established to explore this matter.

The Bar Licensure Task Force discovered that the conventional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” individuals from marginalized groups from entering the legal profession and deemed it “at best minimally effective” in ensuring competency, as per a news announcement from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.

Washington thus becomes the second state, after Oregon, to eliminate the bar exam requirement, with Oregon having made the change at the beginning of this year. Other states like Minnesota, Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah are also considering alternative licensure pathways.

“These recommendations come from a diverse body of lawyers in private and public practice, academics, and researchers who contributed immense insight, counterpoints and research to get us where we are today,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, who chaired the task force, said.

Texas Can Arrest Illegals… SIKE!

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas can enforce its law that grants law officers the power to arrest illegal aliens since the Biden administration refuses to enforce national law. The vote was 6-3, with the 3 dissenting votes coming from the far-left Judges. But just hours after the ruling, a U.S. 5th Circuit panel seemed to somehow reverse the SCOTUS ruling 2-1 to lift the administrative state.

Excerpt from www.nbcnews.com

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to enforce a contentious new law that gives local police the power to arrest migrants.

The conservative-majority court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected an emergency request made by the Biden administration, which said states have no authority to legislate on immigration, an issue the federal government has sole authority over.

That means the law can go into effect while litigation continues in lower courts.

The law in question, known as SB4, allows police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border from Mexico and imposes criminal penalties. It would also empower state judges to order people to be deported to Mexico.

Excerpt from www.reuters.com

A Republican-backed Texas law that would allow state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border was blocked again by an appeals court on Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for it to go into effect.

A late night ruling on Tuesday from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the enforcement of the law ahead of oral arguments on the issue scheduled for Wednesday.

…The 5th Circuit panel, in a 2-1 vote, lifted the administrative stay ahead of arguments on whether to once again put on hold the lower-court injunction while Texas pursues an appeal.

The majority in the appeals court’s order included Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, and U.S. Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Biden appointee. U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, a conservative appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, dissented.

World’s Most Efficient Solar Cell Created

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Researchers from the National University of Singapore claim to have created the world’s most efficient solar cell, which registered a power conversion efficiency of 27.1%, a new world record. The researchers created what is called a triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell.

“Remarkably, after 15 years of ongoing research in the field of perovskite-based solar cells, this work constitutes the first experimental evidence for the inclusion of cyanate into perovskites to boost the stability of its structure and improve power conversion efficiency,” says Assistant Professor Hou Yi, a lead researcher on the team.

California Truckers Remain Unprotected from State’s Contractor Laws

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Judge Roger T. Benitez of the US District Court for the Southern District of California declined an appeal of a newly-passed California law that makes it more difficult for companies to designate employees as being eligible for independent contractor status.

The lawsuit appealing the constitutionality of the law was brought by the California Trucking Association and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. The ruling by the Judge means the trucking industry as a whole in California could potentially become much more expensive to utilize and develop in the loss of employment of thousands of California truckers.

Excerpt from news.bloomberglaw.com

A federal judge declined to block a California law that makes it harder to classify freight hauling drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Judge Roger T. Benitez of the US District Court for the Southern District of California rejected the California Trucking Association and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association motions for a new injunction to block the state law known as AB 5. The law, which codified a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling, was enacted to address the widespread problem of classifying certain workers as independent contractors who usually lack benefits such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, etc…

College Professor Wins Back Job After Being Fired for Being Christian

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Dr. Johnson Varkey has won back his job that was lost after St. Philip’s College fired him for teaching students men are men and women are women, both in keeping with scientific fact and his own Christian beliefs. First Liberty Institute filed the case for Varkey after his firing.

Varkey said of the victory, “I was so excited. And thank the Lord for that outcome. I am excited to go back and teach.” He added, in response to a question from CBN about what he hopes others take from this story, “I would say, don’t quit, because there are people very supportive just like First Liberty. Stand for the truth.”

Excerpt from www.cbn.com

As CBN News previously reported, a biology professor for the past 20 years, Varkey consistently taught the same facts about the human reproductive system without any problems. But that changed last year, when he received a notice of dismissal.

“I was surprised and I was shocked, because, you know, never expected for such a letter from, or such an email from, the school because I’ve been teaching that for that school for the last 20 years and without any complaints,” he said.

Varkey believes his lessons on human biology and sex being determined by chromosomes X and Y sparked complaints leading to his dismissal.

“On the 12th of January [of 2023], I received an email from the vice president of the department of the school that they are doing an ethic violation investigation on me, so I responded to his email and asked him, ‘What are the complaints?’” Varkey said. “So, what he said was the human resources will contact me.”

The professor said, although he asked about complaints, he received no response from HR and didn’t get a chance to defend himself before his firing.

“When I got the letter of termination, what the VP mentioned was that some of the complaints were offensive to the homosexuals and transgender,” he said. “So, I presume … that, very possibly, it is based on a human reproductive system, which I taught, which was in November [2022].”

Arizonans Could Soon Vote on Measure to Protect Gun Companies from “Debanking”

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Republicans in Arizona are hoping to pass legislation that will give the voters a chance to decide if they’d like to protect firearms companies from being de-banked, from having their bank accounts cancelled by banks that disapprove of Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.

Banks have threatened the public with higher bond rates if the measure passes because banks will simply leave the state rather than allow gun companies to do legal, constitutionally-protected business providing a constitutionally-protected service for American citizens.

U.S. Looks to Delay Order By Niger Junta to Leave Country

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The Pentagon has announced it has no plans to withdraw its troops despite an announcement by the Niger Junta that the military agreement between the two countries was now over. Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said, “We want to see our partnership continue if there is a path forward.” The Pentagon also claimed it was seeking “clarification” on the order.

Excerpt from www.al-monitor.com

The Pentagon has not yet issued orders for US troops to withdraw from Niger, officials said Monday, as the Biden administration hopes to negotiate with the country’s leaders in a bid to offset Russia’s military inroads in Africa.

A spokesperson for Niger’s ruling military junta announced on Saturday that it was ending its counterterrorism ties with Washington following a tense meeting with senior US officials led by the State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee.

Did Boeing Whistleblower Telegraph His Own Death?

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The Boeing Whistleblower, John Barnet, 62, who was found dead with a single gunshot to his head in his pick-up truck outside a hotel in South Carolina, may not have killed himself if one person’s claim is true. The alleged suicide happened soon after he had just testified in a case against Boeing. A woman only calling herself “Jennifer” made a claim to ABC News that, just before his death, he told her he wasn’t scared “but if anything happens to me it’s not suicide.”

Jennifer added, “I know he did not commit suicide there’s no way. He loved life too much, he loved his family too much, he loved his brothers too much to put them through what they’re going through right now…I think somebody didn’t like what he had to say and wanted to shut him up and didn’t want it to come back on anyone so that’s why they made it look like a suicide.”

Japan’s Interest Rates Turn Positive for the First Time in 17 Years

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The seemingly perpetual negative interest rates of Japan came to an end suddenly after the Bank of Japan raised their overnight borrowing lending rate from minus 0.1% to 0% to .1%. This was the first rate hike since 2017 when the negative interest rate policies began.

Excerpt from finance.yahoo.com

… The negative interest rate policy, combined with other measures to inject money into the economy and keep borrowing costs low, “have fulfilled their roles,” Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda told reporters.

The bank has an inflation target of 2% that it used as a benchmark for whether Japan had finally escaped deflationary tendencies. But it had remained cautious about “normalizing” monetary policy, or ending negative borrowing rates, even after data showed inflation at about that rate in recent months.

Ueda said there was “a positive cycle” of a gradual rise of wages and prices, while stressing that monetary policy will remain easy for some time.

Although private sector banks and other financial organizations will make their own decisions about rates, he said did not foresee any drastic rises. The central bank will watch for any big moves in rates, which would cause confusion, he added.