BBC's Doctor Who releases teaser images of first ever drag queen star
UK - Doctor Who has been responsible for many different villains, from Daleks and Cybermen to Weeping Angels, and it has been revealed that drag queen Jinkx Monsoon will now play the Time Lord's "most powerful enemy yet". Teaser images have been revealed of Jinkx Monsoon in character, the first-ever drag queen to appear on Doctor Who.
First-look images of Jinkx, who shot to fame after winning RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013, in Doctor Who show the villain dressed in black and white with piano keys decorating the collar and a long black cape. In the show Jinkx's hair is bright orange and styled to point out in two different directions.
It was a historic moment for the LGBTQ+ community, as Jinx was the first drag queen to play the role of Mama Morton, breaking box office records in an extended 8-week run. Jinkx also won RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022 and was the first person to win two seasons of the show across its iterations.
Bacteria skyrockets to 100 times beyond safe levels in some Fort Lauderdale canals
USA - Fort Lauderdale — known as the “Venice of America” for its many waterways — was marred by water dirtier than a toilet during last week’s historical flooding. Data collected by Miami Waterkeeper, a nonprofit focused on clean water and ecosystem protection, indicates that on April 13, the day after last week’s record rainfall, while Fort Lauderdale flooded streets drained into area rivers and canals, those waterways had extremely high bacteria levels. The group collected water samples from 10 sites, and at all 10, enterococci bacteria levels ranged from 38 to 144 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency deems safe for swimming.
Natalia Soares Quinete, a chemist at Florida International University who studies water contamination, said, “Even without flooding, the canals can already have high coliform (bacteria) levels.” When told of the recent Fort Lauderdale measurements, she said, “That’s a lot… Those levels are a good indication of the probable overflow of septic tanks. You have a lot of septic tanks in South Florida, and some of them are failing, but even the good ones, with this water, they might overflow.”
'The minute our country is free, all hostilities will cease'
IRAN - Reza Pahlavi, prominent Iranian opposition leader and son of Iran’s deposed monarch, expressed the hope on Wednesday that Israel and Iran will return to being “strategic partners” as they were under his father’s rule — predicated on regime change that the exiled crown prince has long advocated for the Islamic Republic. “I know that Iranians and Israelis see how important it will be for our future to be our strategic partners, to work together, to address many issues,” he said, in remarks in French, English and Farsi at a press conference in Tel Aviv on the third day of an unprecedented trip to Israel. “I’ve come here to convey this message to Israeli citizens,” he added. He choked up with emotion after describing the “overwhelming” outpouring of support he has received from Israelis since arriving.
Distinguishing between the Iranian public and its militantly anti-Israel government, Pahlavi further said that Iranians are “absolutely, there is no question” ready for normalization with Israel. “As far as the Iranian people are concerned, they are ecstatic, they are enthusiastic, they are happy that finally they are represented in a different light,” Pahlavi added, stressing that this is “something they’ve been dying to tell the world: We are not terrorists. The regime is. We are friends of any nation that respects our sovereignty and our right to freedom and democracy.”
After friendly relations under Pahlavi’s father, Iran and Israel have had no diplomatic ties since the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power. The regime relentlessly advocates the elimination of Israel and is a state sponsor of terror against the Jewish state, through terrorist organization proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has conducted several covert operations against Iran’s nuclear program, which it considers to be an existential threat.
Illinois senator defends violent teen mob
USA - A Democratic Illinois state senator’s attempt to join the leftist chorus defending teen rioters in Chicago was slammed further after the young couple seen being beaten in a viral video came forward about the mob’s intent. “They said they were trying to kill us!”
Meanwhile, Illinois state Senator Robert Peters (Democrat) had knowingly taken to Twitter to goad on those opposed to the unchecked violence in the Windy City and wrote, “Since I’m a glutton for punishment and I’m sure I’m gonna get the most unhinged, crime weirdo replies but: I would look at the behavior of young people as a political act and statement. It’s a mass protest against poverty and segregation. Rest in peace to my mentions.”
The state senator wasn’t alone in defending the radical behavior of Chicago teens as Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson (Democrat) released his own statement decrying the backlash against them, arguing, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
Making matters worse, Ashley claimed the police had driven by as she was getting up from being attacked and had nearly collided with the mob in the street, but did not stop to come to her or DJ’s aid. However, they were assisted by a woman named Lenora and her husband “She gave us shoes, took us home, took us to the hospital. Thank you so much. I don’t know where we would have been without her.”
At least 3 dead after damaging EF3 tornado in Oklahoma
USA - At least three fatalities have been confirmed after a large and damaging tornado struck the town of Cole, Oklahoma, Wednesday evening. As the sun rose Thursday morning, the full scope of the damage in Cole was becoming clearer. The McClain County Sheriff’s Office confirmed two of the victims were county residents. As of Thursday morning, a third fatality had been confirmed by the sheriff’s office, but officials are still trying to determine where the victim was from. The office also noted search and rescue operations are ongoing. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office told News9 it was “reasonable” to expect more fatalities due to the amount of damage the twister caused.
As a twister barreled down on Shawnee, Oklahoma, which is located about 40 miles northeast of Cole, the strong winds blew over a tractor-trailer. “Truck started rocking… next thing I know, I am upside down,” Jim Johnson, the truck driver, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. “Highway patrol stopped. They broke my windshield down for me so that I could get out.”
With three fatalities, Wednesday was the deadliest tornado day in Oklahoma since May 20, 2013, nearly 10 years ago, when 24 people were killed by the tornado that leveled the city of Moore. That twister was also the most recent EF5 tornado to occur in the United States, according to SPC data.
Joe Biden’s New Electric Car Executive Order is Dangerous for America
USA - The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations to date, two plans designed to ensure two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032. If the two rules from the Environmental Protection Agency are enacted as proposed, they would put the world’s largest economy on track to slash its planet-warming emissions at the pace that scientists say is required of all nations in order to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change
What they won’t tell you: The DC and coastal elites won’t tell you that the cars will indirectly run on oil, gas, and coal. The energy source will still be fossil fuels. No amount of pixie dust magic energy production will change that reality anytime soon. Another one million Chinese windmills are not going to make a dent in the fossil fuel reality.
A reliable grid is a foundation of our quality of life. Our lives depend on ultra-reliable electricity for the refrigerators that preserve our food, the water treatment plants that keep our water drinkable, the air conditioning that keeps us cool, the factories that produce our goods, etc.
The root cause of our grid’s reliability problems is simple: America is shutting down too many reliable power plants — plants that can be controlled to produce electricity when needed in the exact quantity needed. And it is attempting to replace them with unreliable solar and wind. Thanks to government mandates and subsidies, solar and wind — “unreliables” — provide about 13% of American electricity. This 13% has already caused big electricity price increases and huge reliability problems. Instead of admitting this failure, Biden is doubling down.
East Asia: The battle lines are being drawn
PHILIPPINES - The United States has strengthened its defenses in East Asia by gaining year-round, permanent access to nine bases in the Philippines. These aren’t American bases, but US troops can move freely in and out for exercises or, for that matter, in a real war. This month, the bases are supporting more than 17,000 US and Philippine troops in the biggest war games in the Philippines in years.
The shift in Philippine policy parallels that in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk-yeol has endorsed joint South Korea-US exercises on the ground, in the air and at sea for the first time since Donald Trump foolishly canceled them after his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018.
In the event of a war for Taiwan, South Korea would be reluctant to join in the fray. The Koreans don’t want to upset China in a conflict for the island. South Korea, like most other countries, including its American ally, recognizes Taiwan only as a province of China, which is by far the South’s biggest trading partner.
The proximity of those Philippine bases to Taiwan is just as important as their relationship to the South China Sea. American warships periodically enter the Taiwan Strait, as they do the South China Sea. It’s as though the battle lines are being drawn for a showdown, though a real war remains a distant cloud on the horizon.
Iran prepared to ‘destroy Tel Aviv’ – president
IRAN - The latest anti-Israel invective came amid heightened tensions between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Tuesday that any hostile move from Israel “will lead to the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv.” Speaking at an annual military parade, Raisi called on the US and other “extra-regional” forces to leave the Middle East for their own good.
Delivering his remarks as armored vehicles rolled by and fighter jets flew overhead, Raisi marked Iran’s annual Army Day by proclaiming that “the smallest hostile move” from the “Zionist regime” in Israel will “lead to the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Iranian leaders often use Army Day to make bombastic threats against Israel and the US. Last year, Raisi issued a similar warning, saying that Iran’s armed forces would target “the center of the Zionist regime” if Israel made “the tiniest move against the nation of Iran.”
While Saudi Arabia is often a target of Tehran’s rhetoric, Raisi’s speech made no mention of Riyadh. The president did, however, say that Iran’s armed forces “warmly shake the hand of regional nations” willing to cooperate on issues of mutual security, likely a reference to the recent Chinese-brokered detente between the two countries.
China’s new defense minister reveals main goal of Russian visit
CHINA - Beijing is fully committed to strengthening military cooperation with Moscow, Li Shangfu says. Newly appointed Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has said that his ongoing visit to Russia is aimed at demonstrating the strength of relations between Beijing and Moscow to the international community.
Li arrived in the Russian capital on Sunday for a three-day trip and has already held talks with President Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, the Chinese minister met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu at the Russian Defense Ministry’s headquarters in Moscow.
“After my appointment as the defense minister, my first visit is made to Russia in order to demonstrate to the outside world the high level of Chinese-Russian relations,” Li said before the beginning of talks. The trip is also intended to stress Beijing’s “firm determination to strengthen strategic cooperation between the militaries of China and Russia,” he added.
Macron Working with Beijing for Peace Deal Between Ukraine and Russia
FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly actively working on a “secret plan” with Communist China to attempt to broker a peace deal by the summer between Russia and Ukraine. French sources speaking to Bloomberg have revealed that Emmanuel Macron, who recently travelled to Guangdong to hold talks with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, has apparently tasked top diplomats from Paris to engage with Beijing in crafting a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to London’s Daily Telegraph, a French official said: “Mr Macron said publicly during his trip that he wanted to get China to commit to playing a constructive role. Naturally, diplomatic discussions took place and there is a follow-up.”
The reports come as Macron cause outrage in Berlin, London, and Washington over his comments following his China trip, in which he said that Europe shouldn’t “follow” America into a conflict with Beijing if the communist nation invades Taiwan and that Europe should develop its own “strategic autonomy” to stop being the “vassal” of the United States.
Industry body warns Germans about future gas shortages
GERMANY - The country’s energy security “has not been restored,” the group has warned. Germany will have to put up with further gas consumption restrictions or face a severe gas shortage if the next winter is cold, the nation’s Gas Storage Association (INES) warned in a forecast published on Wednesday. The current level of consumption and the legal gas storage filling requirements would be inadequate in the event of a cold winter, the forecast said. Currently, German gas storages are only required to be filled to 40% by the end of January 2024, the association noted.
The existing regulations would only allow the nation to get through the next winter “if temperatures are warm,” the INES report said, adding that “if temperatures are medium to cold, the gas storage facilities will be heavily or completely emptied.”
In the worst-case scenario, the storage facilities will be “already completely emptied in January 2024 during cold temperatures,” the forecast said, adding that it is unlikely Berlin would be able to compensate for the missing volumes and would face a severe shortage through the rest of the winter.
Brace for 5% interest rates to cool 'scalding' inflation
UK - Struggling Brits are facing more interest rate pain within weeks after inflation defied predictions by staying in double-figures. Markets are pricing in more action by the Bank of England following headline annual CPI coming in higher than expected at 10.1 per cent in March. Although the figure was down from 10.4 per cent in February, analysts had expected a drop to 9.8 per cent after huge energy bill increases last spring fell out of the index. Instead the biggest surge in food prices since 1977 - especially affecting bread and cereal - offset the benefits.
Inflation is now at the same level as it started the year, having been in double-digits since September and reaching an eye-watering 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October. After figures yesterday showed wages still rising rapidly, traders chalked up a 97 per cent chance of an interest rate rise from 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent at the next meeting on May 11.
Markets are also anticipating a probability that the level will peak around 5 per cent. Until recently there was considered to be a significant chance that the base rate had reached the top.
“Balance World Geopolitics”
BRAZIL - Brazil’s President Lula pushes for negotiated solution – with support from the Global South. “The United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace,” said Brazil’s president. G7 foreign ministers announce further intensification of sanctions against Russia and are meeting growing opposition from several Global South countries calling for peace talks. At their meeting yesterday in Karuizawa, Japan, the G7 ministers agreed to “intensify” sanctions against Russia, to enforce their strict implementation also by third countries and, above all, to take effective measures against arms supplies for Russian troops – ie mainly Iranian drones.
This decision was taken while, during his visits in China and the United Arab Emirates, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was exploring ways to bring about a peaceful settlement between Moscow and Kiev. The USA needs to stop encouraging the war and start to talk about peace,” Lula demanded, and called also on the EU to engage in peace talks. The dispute between the West and the Global South over how to handle the Ukraine war is taking on a principled character, with governments such as the Brazilian pushing for an end to Western hegemony.
The Brazilian government is not only refusing to join the sanctions against Russia or to deliver weapons to Ukraine. Recently it also allowed – under hefty protest from the United States – two warships from Iran to anchor in Rio de Janeiro.
During his visit to China, Lula announced that he constantly asks himself “why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar.” Brasília will raise the level of the strategic partnership with the People’s Republic and, together with China, “balance world geopolitics” – an implicit commitment to strive for the transition from the era of Western global hegemony to a multipolar world. Lula is pursuing, as Foreign Minister Vieira recently explained, “a universalistic foreign policy.”
Latin America is no longer the ‘backyard’ of the US
CHINA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has just returned from his highly anticipated and successful trip to China, generating optimism and enthusiasm for an enhanced role for Latin America as it emerges from the shadow of the US. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s welcoming ceremony was the first sign the trip would be a success for everyone involved. As he and Lula walked down the red carpet, China’s military band played a rendition of ‘Novo Tempo’, an ‘80s Brazilian song associated with the protests against the US-backed dictatorships of that time.
Behind closed doors, 15 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding were signed, including investment deals, research and development plans, food standards, state news agencies, technology transfers, and cooperation on building the seventh China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS). The meeting built upon years of strategic partnership. China displaced the US as Brazil’s largest trade partner in 2009, and the event was about deepening that process.
However, the most interesting facet of the visit was the tone of the public statements by both leaders, as it went beyond diplomatic niceties and showed a clear commitment from both countries in taking on a leadership role that will challenge the years of Washington’s unipolar dominance. The success of Lula’s China trip will clearly put an extra spring in the step of the Latin American governments that will be receiving Russia’s official delegation this week. The win-win cooperation possible with China and Russia stands in clear contrast to the arrogant finger-wagging and interventionism on offer from the US.
G7 ‘maliciously smeared and discredited China’ – Beijing
CHINA - France’s Emmanuel Macron recently declared the US-China showdown over Taiwan a crisis “that is not ours,” and called on European leaders to avoid getting dragged into a confrontation over the island. Nevertheless, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna still put her name to Tuesday’s communique, suggesting that, for now, the bloc remains united in confronting Beijing. A joint communique of the G7 foreign ministers was “full of arrogance” and “grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday. The communique contained a statement of support for Taiwan and accused Beijing of “coercion.”
Taiwan is “part of China’s sacred territory,” Wang responded, stating that “to truly keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful, it is essential to unequivocally oppose and stop” any steps by Taipei toward independence. Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet are “China’s internal affairs that no foreign forces should intervene in under any pretext or in any way,” he declared.
“We urge the G7 to concentrate on their own problems and discard the Cold War mentality,” Wang concluded. “The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting has grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and maliciously smeared and discredited China,” Wang said. “The communique is full of arrogance and prejudice.”
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The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.