Swordsmyth
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No America citizen should have to fight to be put ahead of illegals. But such is the case when Democrats crave new voters. And that’s why Americans find ourselves in jeopardy. Along with double the crimes committed by illegals, their status notwithstanding, there exist other perils. As the LA Times reports, illegals can now get on America’s organ donor registry: Ana Puente was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care. She underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a child in 1989 and a third in 1998, each paid for by the state. Just so we are clear, a non-citizen of the United States brought her illegal niece to America. And she received two livers ahead of other citizens. So Puente potentially killed two Americans waiting on livers. Things went bad for Puente when she turned 21. Because she aged out of her state-funded health insurance and was unable to continue treatment at UCLA.

OPEC’s production cuts and the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and Iran have been limiting the availability of heavy and sour crude grades to Europe, where prices for heavier grades have recently shot up amid an increasingly tightening market, crude traders tell S&P Global Platts. The U.S. sanctions on Iran had already limited some of the heavy grade supply into Europe. Then with the new round of OPEC/non-OPEC cuts that began in January, Iraq’s Basra Light and Heavy—typically very popular among European refiners—have also been in short supply on the spot market in Europe as Iraq is diverting more barrels of Basra to the premium market for Middle Eastern producers: Asia. “There are no destination-free Basrah cargoes at the moment coming to Europe for the end of February as they’re targeting Asia,” a crude trader told Platts. To top off the sanctions on Iran and the OPEC cuts, the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela at the end of January further tightened the heavy crude market in Europe, and traders expect the market to tighten even more in the coming months. The sanctions on Venezuela and on Iran, as well as OPEC’s cuts, have led to a huge imbalance between light sweet grades and heavy sour grades, especially in Europe, as Middle Eastern and other oil producers are targeting to keep their sales on the Asian market. Due to tighter supply of medium and heavy sour crude oil, Middle Eastern benchmarks for sour crude grades traded higher than Brent Crude prices at the beginning of February in a rarely seen development in global oil prices. In Europe, some sour crude grades, such as Russia’s Urals, have started to trade at premiums to sweeter crudes because of the limited sour and heavy crude availability, according to S&P Global Platts data. “Urals is at positive numbers, Basrah is trading at dramatic premium to OSP and I don’t see why sour should soften, demand is there but there is not much available,” a trader told Platts. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Europe-Scrambles-For-Sour-Crude-Oil-Amid-Tight-Market.html

Australia on Monday said a "sophisticated state actor" had hacked the country's main political parties and parliament, just weeks before a closely fought election. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told lawmakers that investigators looking into a hack of parliament computer systems revealed two weeks ago "also became aware that the networks of some political parties" had been breached. "Our cyber experts believe that a sophisticated state actor is responsible for this malicious activity," he said. Australian security agencies said they did not know who was behind the attack or their motives. It is not yet clear what, if any, material was stolen during the hacks, how long the perpetrators went undetected, or whether it could make some political figures vulnerable to blackmail. Earlier this month, Australia reported a "security incident on the parliamentary computing network". That forced users -- including the prime minister and the cabinet -- to change passwords and take other security measures. Experts warn that attribution is time-consuming and difficult. "I think it's definitely too early to say," said Fergus Hanson, a cybersecurity expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He added, however, that there were only "one or two actors" capable of carrying out such an attack.

One of Israel’s most prominent dovish politicians, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, said on Monday she was leaving politics and warned "democracy is in danger".A former peace negotiator with the Palestinians, Livni won recognition abroad for her part in U.S.-brokered talks that aimed to end the decades-old conflict and which collapsed in 2014.But her career has foundered in recent years, along with the Middle East peace process. The United States plans to present a new peace plan after Israel's April 9 election, although expectations of a breakthrough are low. "I am leaving politics but I will not let Israel abandon the hope for peace," a tearful Livni told a televised news conference in Tel Aviv. "These past years have been hard for me and for the things I believed in ... peace became a dirty word, and democracy is in danger," she said, citing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's criticism of legal authorities conducting corruption probes against him and attacks he has made on the local media. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing. Opinion polls have shown that Livni's centrist Hatnua party was expected to win no seats in parliament in the election in which the right wing, led by Netanyahu's Likud party, looks likely to prevail. Hatnua had been part of the biggest left-wing faction in parliament, the Zionist Union, together with the Israeli Labour party. But in January the alliance, which led the opposition, ended after Labour head Avi Gabbay dumped Livni on live television as he announced he was dissolving the partnership. Livni, now 60, served as foreign minister from 2006 to 2009. A former junior officer in the Mossad intelligence agency, she has been a member of several parties and coalition governments since entering politics in 1999 and has quit politics before only to return.

When he swept into office back in 2015, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised supporters of a Liberal Party reinvigorated by a decade of conservative rule that he would bring about "real change" - both in Ottawa, and for a Liberal Party marred by allegations of corruption. So far, he has largely failed at both, cozying up to the country's energy industry while masking his maintenance of the pro-business status quo with legalized marijuana and a "progressive" agenda that has included banning misgendering and hiring the first cabinet in Canada's history with an equal number of men and women. Yet as Canada's leader braces for what promises to be a bruising reelection campaign ahead of a vote in October, his office has been marred by a blossoming scandal surrounding reports that it pressured the former attorney general into dropping years-old corruption charges against Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian construction company with close ties to Trudeau's party. In a sign that this scandal won't easily disappear, no matter how many times Trudeau stands in front of a gaggle of reporters and breezily denies the allegations, one of his closest aids resigned on Monday over allegations that he or his staff pressured the former AG, who was abruptly demoted last month. The aide, Principal Secretary Gerald Butts, denied the allegations, and said he was resigning to avoid distracting Trudeau from the hard work ahead. It's unclear whether he will have any role on the Trudeau campaign. He is considered the second most influential official in Trudeau's government after Chief of Staff Katie Telford. Principal Secretary Gerald Butts issued a statement Monday, during a long weekend in much of Canada, announcing his resignation in order to prevent the issue from distracting “from the vital work the Prime Minister and his office is doing for all Canadians.” A report this month by the Globe and Mail newspaper raised allegations the prime minister’s office pressured Trudeau’s former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to settle fraud and corruption charges against construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The controversy escalated last week after Wilson-Raybould, who had been moved into a new ministry recently, quit cabinet. In his statement, Butts said he “categorically” denied the allegation that he or any of his staff pressured her. "My reputation is my responsibility and that is for me to defend," Butts said in the statement. "It is in the best interests of the office and its important work for me to step away."

Engineers from Scotland and Italy have developed a new wave energy technology that could generate low-cost electricity for thousands of homes. Engineers from the University of Edinburgh and from several universities in Italy have designed, developed, and tested a device that costs less than conventional designs and that can be incorporated into existing ocean systems, the University of Edinburgh has said in a statement, describing the scientists’ study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A scientific magazine. The ocean and sea waves can provide a source of renewable energy, but few wave energy converters have moved past pre-commercial stage because of the high costs and the often harsh marine environment, the authors of the paper argue. So they designed the so-called Dielectric Elastomer Generator (DEG) using flexible rubber membranes. The device is cheaper than conventional designs, has fewer moving parts, and uses durable materials, the engineers say. The device was designed to be placed on top of a vertical tube in the sea. As sea waves pass the tube, the water inside it pushes trapped air above to inflate and deflate the generator placed on top of the device. “As the membrane inflates, a voltage is generated. This increases as the membrane deflates, and electricity is produced. In a commercial device, this electricity would be transported to shore via underwater cables,” the University of Edinburgh said. More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Scientists-Develop-Wave-Energy-Device-That-Generates-Low-Cost-Electricity.html