Andrew Bogut wants Basketball Australia to do more after its decision to ban Lexi Rodgers from elite level competitions

Andrew Bogut has welcomed Basketball Australia's decision to ban trans athlete Lexi Rodgers, but he doesn't believe the fight is over with many still complaining to him about trans athletes "playing in those sports and hurting young girls".

Former NBA star Andrew Bogut has thrown his support behind Basketball Australia’s decision not to allow transgender athlete Lexi Rodgers to play in a semi-professional Victorian competition.

Basketball Australia on Tuesday declared Rodgers was “ineligible” for elite level competitions after an investigation and consultation with an expert panel amid backlash from the sporting community.

Bogut – a former captain of Australia's nation team, the Boomers – has been a vocal advocate for keeping trans athletes out of female sports, saying it was the right decision but more was needed to protect female competitions.

“The fight’s not over and why I say that because when you look at local junior sports this is still rife it’s still everywhere so this is a win for semi-professional sport,” he told Sky News Australia host Paul Murray on Tuesday night.

“But what I hear from the community, people messaging me, is there’s netball leagues, rugby league, basketball, volleyball, whatever it is, there’s males who transitioned to females playing in those sports and hurting young girls and that’s still okay to this day.”

However, Bogut has suggested opening up a “third category” for trans athletes who wanted to compete at a high level.

He insisted “there’s a lot of people who are really angry” about trans athletes competing in community and junior level sports where regulatory bodies, such as Basketball Australia, cannot investigate and intervene with every case.

“I guess my message to those people in junior sports and families is show up to your game and (if) you’re not okay with it, protest the game," he said.

"If you’re a 100 metre runner and you show up get everyone on the page so when that gun goes off none of you run. That’s the only way this is going to stop.

“A lot of these local community sport organisations are very arrogant, they take their fees and the messaging that I’ve got from people who have complained is: ‘If you don’t like it leave go somewhere else’, and that’s just not right especially when it is a silent majority.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/sport/andrew-bogut-wants-basketball-australia-to-do-more-after-its-decision-to-ban-lexi-rodgers-from-elite-level-competitions/news-story/afb6ab715364d8af7a3980d5c47bebef

Speaker McCarthy will address the Knesset during Israel trip

McCarthy will address the chamber on May 1.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will address the Israeli Knesset as part of a planned trip to the country, becoming the second House Speaker after Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to do so.

McCarthy confirmed the trip via Twitter on Tuesday, saying "[m]y first trip abroad as Speaker will be a return to Israel to commemorate their 75th year of statehood. The US-Israel relationship is as important as ever, and I’m proud to accept @AmirOhana’s invitation as the 2nd Speaker of the House in history to address the Knesset."

McCarthy will address the chamber on May 1, The Hill reported. His delegation will include 20 lawmakers, among them members of both parties. McCarthy's visit comes at a time of tension between the Israeli government and the White House.

President Joe Biden previously indicated opposition to a proposed judiciary reform that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports. McCarthy had lent his voice to Netanyahu on the matter.

Israeli Speaker Amir Ohana celebrated news of McCarthy's address, saying "Mr. Speaker, we are very excited to host you in your second home - the Knesset. Thank you for your longstanding support for Israel!"

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/speaker-mccarthy-will-address-knesset-during-israel-trip

Court blocks nation's first gas stove ban

The three judges on the 9th Circuit panel unanimously overturned the ban.

A federal court on Tuesday has overturned a citywide ban on natural gas implements in new buildings that Berkeley, Calif., had implemented in a first of its kind decision.

The appeals court took the side of Berkeley's restauranteurs who challenged the ban on grounds that it would adversely impact their businesses, according to the Washington Times. The California Restaurant Association had brought the suit, asserting that "Cities and states cannot ignore federal law in an effort to constrain consumer choice, and it is encouraging that the 9th Circuit upheld this standard."

The three judges on the 9th Circuit panel unanimously overturned the ban. Two of the judges were Trump appointees while the third received the nod from Ronald Reagan. Their ruling upends a lower court ruling in support of the ban. The Berkeley City Council has not indicated plans to appeal as of press time, though it could conceivably reach the Supreme Court should they opt to pursue the matter.

Their decision comes amid a nationwide push to eliminate the use of natural gas in new construction due to climate change concerns. The federal government attracted scrutiny over comments from Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., who in January called the appliances a "hidden hazard."

Though the federal government has backed off somewhat from a nationwide ban, some states such as New York have attempted to embrace such policies at lower levels of government.

The panel's ruling may have legal implications for other comparable bans.

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/court-blocks-nations-first-gas-stove-ban

China Brings Peace To Yemen, Syria And … Palestine?

Peace is breaking out in the Middle East and the U.S. is pushed aside by more friendly actors.

On March 10 the world was surprised with a China mediated deal that restored ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran:

There are winners and losers in this.

The winners are:

Iran, which will now be even more able to break through the sanctions wall the U.S. has put up around it.

Saudi Arabia, which now will likely be able to end its disastrous and costly war on Yemen.

China, for outplaying the U.S. State Department by achieving this.

Iraq, Syria, Yemen as they will become more peaceful as the two middle powers influencing policies on their grounds end their rivalry.

The losers are:

Israel, because the chances for its attempts to get the U.S. into a war with Iran are now diminished. Its hoped for coalition with the Saudis will not come into being.

The U.S. for having been outplayed on its traditional 'home grounds' in the Middle East.

Anti-Iran hawks everywhere.

The Emirates for losing at least some of the sanction busting trade with Iran to Saudi Arabia.

…

Reviving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will make a lot of new things possible.

That Iran and Saudi Arabia accepted China's mediation is a recognition of Beijing's new standing in world policies. That alone is enough reason for the White House to hate the deal.

I predicted that the U.S. and Israel would do their best to sabotage the deal or at least make its implementation difficult.

The U.S. sent CIA director Bill Burns to warn the Saudis off. However the deal has held so far and the Saudis are repairing their relations with countries against which they previously waged wars. Yesterday a senior Saudi official visited Sanaa and shook hands with Yemeni Houthi officials:

Saudi Arabia’s military intervention against the Shiite Houthis began in 2015. Bolstered by extensive American military and intelligence support, it came to include 25,000 air raids, according to a count by the Yemen Data Project. The years of fighting created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and resulted in the deaths of more than 377,000 Yemenis by the end of 2021 from both war and hunger, the United Nations calculates.

The Houthis have made Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies pay a high price for their failed bid to return to the capital the internationally recognized government after it was ousted by the Houthis. They have launched more than 1,000 missiles and 350 drones into Saudi territory, increasingly deeply since 2019, prompting Riyadh to search for a way out of its military quagmire.

The accelerated moves follow just weeks after a high-profile rapprochement brokered last month by China between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran – both of which turned Yemen’s civil war into a proxy battleground to expand their regional influence.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/04/china-brings-peace-to-yemen-syria-and-palestine.html#more

UN Report on Libya: Human Rights Catastrophe is Worsening – European Union Is Funding Entities Involved in Human Slavery – Militias Cracking Down Hard on Christians

Not many people in the West can find Libya on the map. The geopolitical importance of this North African nation is generally not well understood, and many just figure it’s none of our business, whatever goes on there.

This is less true than it seems. In 2011, the west, led by the US, UK and France, toppled the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, ‘to make Libya freer, transparent, democratic and allow Libyans to freely express themselves without the shackles of the Gaddafi regime’.

Middle East Monitor Reports:

“12 years after being freed from Gaddafi, [Libya] still does not have a constitution, lacks basic freedoms and its many security apparatus still operate with a greater degree of impunity.

In fact, many people would confess to the fact that. when it comes to personal freedom, freedom of expression and rule of law, the country now is worse than it was over a decade ago.”

Worse still – Libya now has solidified itself as a human trafficking hub and the scourge of slavery is leaving its mark smack in the 21st century.

And the west – in this instance the European Union – keeps feeding the trafficking machine:

Read: Dr. Peter McCullough On "The Holy Grail Of COVID-19 Vaccine Detoxification"

“EU funding is facilitating the commission of abuses against migrants in Libya who are being systematically tortured and forced into sexual slavery.

The warning came out of a probe by the United Nations which said that the European Union had given support to organizations that have ‘aided and abetted the commission of the crimes.’

The investigation found that there were grounds to believe that migrants have been targeted by state security forces and armed militia groups in detention centers under the control of Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCMI) and Libya’s coast guard.

‘These entities receive technical, logistic and monetary support from the European Union and its member states for the interception and return of migrants,” said the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya’s chairman, Mohamed Auajjar.”

Illegal migrants, mostly from African nations, who seek to cross over the Mediterranean into Europe, are preyed upon, and “there are reasonable grounds to believe that sexual slavery, a crime against humanity, was committed against migrants”.

“The report came in the middle of a crackdown by the country’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) against people and organisations it accuses of ‘spreading’ Christianity and encouraging ‘young Libyans’ to become Christians – an apostasy crime, punishable by death in Libya.

Between 25 March and this week, ISA’s website and its Twitter account published a number of videos of people confessing to committing apostasy. ISA, in a statement, accused a US based religious organization named ‘Assemblies of God’ of operating illegally in Libya and spreading Christianity in the predominantly Muslim country.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/un-report-on-libya-human-rights-catastrophe-is-worsening-european-union-is-funding-entities-involved-in-human-slavery-militias-cracking-down-hard-on-christians/

Hillary’s 2016 Campaign CFO and Current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Claims He Wasn’t Aware of Payment for Steele Dossier …Yet He Was Hillary’s CFO?

Gary Gensler was the CFO for Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 Election campaign yet he claimed under oath today that he “wasn’t aware” of the payment from her campaign to pay for the Steele Dossier.

This is highly unlikely.

TGP wrote a year ago in February 2022:

When Hillary Clinton was putting together her 2016 Presidential campaign, she brought in Gary Gensler as her Chief Financial Officer. CNN reported in April 2015:

Support Gateway Pundit by using promo code TGP at MyPillow.com – and get up to 80% off!

Hillary Clinton’s campaign will add to its top ranks a man who’s known for being tough on Wall Street.

Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will serve as the Clinton campaign’s chief financial officer, Bloomberg reported.

Gensler would bring a wealth of knowledge about the financial industry, as well as the federal agencies that regulate it, to the newly launched campaign.

He was chairman of the CFTC, the government agency that oversees the derivatives markets, from 2009 to 2014. He previously served in senior Treasury Department roles under President Bill Clinton, and prior to joining the Clinton administration worked at Goldman Sachs for almost 20 years.

By early January of 2016, things had worn off and Hillary had some competition. Those supporting her only competitor, socialist Bernie Sanders, were not happy with Gensler, the former Goldman Sachs guy. The Intercept wrote at that time:

Hillary Clinton is using a prominent surrogate to attack Bernie Sanders’ emphatic proposals for reforming Wall Street: Gary Gensler, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

As a result, the Clinton campaign has tapped him to fend off Sanders and make the difficult case that Clinton is genuinely interested in cleaning up Wall Street.

It was also clear at this time that Gensler was running Hillary’s campaign finances. Gensler also worked with Hillary’s attorney Marc Elias in creating the Hillary Victory Fund, according to Bloomberg in a piece in June 2016:

Gensler’s portfolio stretches into other areas as well. He, along with campaign lawyer Marc Elias and national finance director Dennis Cheng, led the process last year to create the Hillary Victory Fund, which jointly raises money for the campaign, the DNC, and state Democratic parties.

Elias was Hillary’s general counsel at the time Gensler was CFO.

It was during this time when Gensler oversaw the Hillary campaign’s finances that Hillary’s campaign paid millions to law firm Perkins Coie. This was also the time that the Steele dossier was paid for.

We know that Gensler has hidden meetings he had with Hillary, Soros, Pelosi and others from his calendar.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/hillarys-2016-campaign-cfo-and-current-sec-chairman-gary-gensler-claims-he-wasnt-aware-of-payment-for-steele-dossier-yet-he-was-hillarys-cfo/

Asa Hutchinson And His Son Are Doing Business With Chinese Communists

Joe and Hunter Biden aren’t the only father-son-team turning on America for Communist China.

Asa Hutchinson’s international law firm boasts of having companies from Communist China as clients. The Asa Hutchinson Law Group takes money from Chinese companies that got sweetheart deals at the expense of Arkansas taxpayers. The firm’s website proudly lists its Chinese clients but portions of the site are blocked when using American IP addresses.

Dragon Woodland, Risever Equipment & Machinery, and T.Y. Garments are Chinese companies from the Shandong Province and all of them benefited from Arkansas tax dollar packages via the state’s economic development fund, which was controlled by former Governor Asa Hutchinson

Other clients listed include another foreign company from Cambodia and the globalist retail juggernaut Wal-Mart.

On November 27, 2019, a local ABC station in Little Rock filed a report titled “Is the Governor of Arkansas’ Son Benefiting from His Father’s Position”.

Chronologically documenting the Hutchinson family’s ties to Communist China, the report reads in part:

“In 2016, TY Garments USA was offered an annual tax rebate worth nearly $1.6 million, including a $1 million infrastructure assistance grant and a $500,000 stipend for worker training.

In 2017, Hefei Risever Machinery announced they were coming to Jonesboro. The state offered the company $1 million from a state incentive fund and a $100,000 training grant including payroll rebates and sales tax refunds.

In April 2019, the Dragon Woodland Corporation in Helena-West Helena held its grand opening. They received more than $1 million, including money for training, equipment and road improvements.”

The same Chinese companies that received sweetheart deals at the expense of Arkansas taxpayers are also doing business with Asa Hutchinson’s law firm on the side.

The Hutchinson revelations are the latest example of an American politician who courts foreign governments who make their children rich, at the expense of their own country. This should be highly illegal and is further evidence that a communist takeover of America is underway in both political parties, with the Hutchinsons’ dealings drawing an easy comparison to those of the Bidens.

Former Governor Hutchinson is listed prominently on the Asa Hutchinson Law Group’s website as its “founder”.

Curiously, over the last several weeks the website has blocked American IP addresses from browsing the site and was only accessible via VPN services using a Spanish IP address. The law firm claims to have an office in Madrid.

As of this writing the homepage of the website has now been made accessible to United States IP addresses. However, the section of the website that provides more detail about Governor Asa Hutchinson remains blocked to U.S. IP addresses.

https://nationalfile.com/asa-hutchinson-and-his-son-are-doing-business-with-chinese-communists/

Alleged Chinese Operative Arrested By FBI For Opening ‘Secret Police Stations’ Attended Ritzy Dem Events

An alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operative arrested by the FBI on Monday was pictured meeting with several prominent New York Democrats at swanky dinners and campaign events, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Lu Jianwang, whom the FBI arrested Monday for conspiring to act as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is pictured with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and even attended an apparent fundraiser for New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng, according to multiple Chinese-language news reports and photographic evidence. Lu allegedly operated an overseas police station on behalf of the Chinese government.

The FBI charged Lu with “obstructing justice by destroying evidence of [his] communications with a [Ministry of Public Security] official,” just months after the FBI raided the office of America Changle Association, the nonprofit at which Lu previously served as chairman, sometime in fall 2022.

Multiple photos taken at events in New York City reveal that Lu Jianwang met with Meng, Adams and Schumer during events in 2022 and 2023.

The DCNF identified Lu Jianwang, who served as America Changle Association’s chairman between 2012 and 2018, by matching his photo found on an archived version of America Changle Association’s website with photos from events with Meng, Adams and Schumer.

On April 24, 2022, Lu took part in a fundraiser held in Flushing, New York, for Rep. Meng’s congressional campaign, according to photos posted on CareerEngine.US, a Chinese-language news website. Campaign finance records confirm that Meng’s campaign committee, Grace for New York, held an event at the Crown One Restaurant that day, and photos of the restaurant match the images on CareerEngine.US.

Lu Jianwang attended the April 2022 fundraiser, according to the report which featured an image of Meng and Lu standing side-by-side.

Additionally, Lu Jianshun, the current America Changle Association chairman, also attended the April 2022 fundraiser, according to the report and an included photo which depicts the non-profit’s chairman seated at a table with several men.

Before the FBI raid, America Changle Association allegedly served as an outpost for an overseas Chinese police station linked to an international Chinese police unit known as 110 Overseas, which is headquartered in China’s Fujian province, according to a report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group which first revealed the existence of Beijing’s global police network in September.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/18/chinese-police-station-fbi-democrats-new-york/

04.18.2023

Credit Suisse Maintained Nazi-Linked Accounts into 21st Century, Subpoenaed Records Show

Bank limited scope of internal investigation and terminated Independent Ombudsperson, leaving blind spots in forensic search for Nazi-linked records

WASHINGTON — Multiple reports shine a new light on Credit Suisse’s historical servicing of Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts, which in some cases continued until as recently as 2020. The reports, released by the Senate Budget Committee on Holocaust Remembrance Day, detail a multi-year internal investigation by a forensic research firm retained by Credit Suisse and initially overseen by an Independent Ombudsperson who was inexplicably terminated by the bank during the course of the review. While the resulting reports are incomplete and were hampered by scoping restrictions, they nonetheless reveal nearly 100 previously undisclosed Nazi-linked accounts and related information, and they raise new questions about the bank’s potential support for Nazis fleeing justice following World War II via so-called “Ratlines.”

The reports were provided to the Budget Committee pursuant to a subpoena and a subsequent bipartisan investigation by Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The Committee has jurisdiction over the federal budget, including budget requests related to the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues. Because of the Committee’s investigation, the reports are now public and Credit Suisse has pledged to continue its own investigation into remaining unanswered questions.

“When it comes to investigating Nazi matters, righteous justice demands that we must leave no stone unturned. Credit Suisse has thus far failed to meet that standard. While Credit Suisse initially agreed to investigate evidence of previously unidentified Nazi-linked accounts as a result of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s relentless pursuit of justice, the information we’ve obtained shows the bank established an unnecessarily rigid and narrow scope, and refused to follow new leads uncovered during the course of the review. Its removal of an Independent Ombudsperson and insistence on redacting portions of his report as well as its initial refusal to pursue leads on accounts that may be associated with Nazi ratlines is no way to conduct a thorough and complete investigation. Now that the bank has pledged to continue investigating as a result of our oversight, we’ll keep a close eye on its thoroughness going forward. Holocaust survivors and their families deserve nothing less,” Grassley said.

“When presented with credible, new evidence of Credit Suisse’s historical servicing of Nazi clients and their enablers, along with continued efforts to downplay its significance, the Committee had an obligation to act,” said Senator Whitehouse, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “I share Ranking Member Grassley’s commitment to leaving no stone unturned when it comes to investigating Nazis and seeking justice for Holocaust survivors and their families, and we commit to seeing this investigation through. The fact that Credit Suisse has agreed to expand the scope of its initial investigation in response to the Committee’s investigation demonstrates the power of congressional oversight of corporate malfeasance.”

Investigation History

In March of 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) notified Credit Suisse that it had credible information the bank held potential Nazi-linked accounts that had not previously been disclosed, including during the many Holocaust-related investigations of the 1990s. As a result, the bank voluntarily agreed to investigate. It retained forensic research firm AlixPartners Ltd to conduct the review, and, with SWC’s support, subsequently retained Neil Barofsky of Jenner & Block LLP in June 2021 to oversee AlixPartners’s review and serve as Independent Ombudsperson. In February 2023, Ranking Member Grassley received credible allegations of potential wrongdoing related to Credit Suisse’s internal investigation, including specifically the questionable removal of Mr. Barofsky in late 2022. Ranking Member Grassley also learned that, consistent with his contract with Credit Suisse, Mr. Barofsky had drafted a report of his findings for the bank, but it had not been released.

Ranking Member Grassley approached Chairman Whitehouse, and they agreed that pursuing the allegations was in the public interest. Accordingly, with full bipartisan support, Chairman Whitehouse and Ranking Member Grassley issued the Committee’s first subpoena since 1991 to compel Mr. Barofsky to produce his report.

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/credit-suisse-maintained-nazi-linked-accounts-into-21st-century-subpoenaed-records-show

‘We’ve got aliens living on this planet’ – India’s first cosmonaut

The real “aliens” are those who destroy our planet for personal gain, Rakesh Sharmatold RT

https://www.rt.com/india/574965-india-cosmonaut-alien-life/

Border Patrol reports a 900% spike in Chinese migrants crossing at the southern border

>>18718012

Demons are coming home to roost

Ron Johnson: Biden Welcomes Nearly Five Million Illegal Aliens to U.S., Exceeding Populations of 28 States

Close to five million border crossers and illegal aliens have been welcomed into the United States under President Joe Biden, according to figures detailed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). This is a foreign population that exceeds the populations of 28 states.

During a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday, Johnson questioned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the total number of border crossers and illegal aliens released into the U.S. interior, as well as those who successfully crossed the southern border since the start of 2021.

DHS, though, does little to track and concisely publish the figure, though it is among the most consequential for American citizens and the U.S. labor market.

Johnson said he calculated the total to be anywhere from four to five million border crossers and illegal aliens who entered the U.S. interior over the last two years — including those directly released by DHS, known got-aways, and unknown got-aways.

“Somewhere between four and five million people during this administration have come to this country, but probably don’t qualify for asylum,” Johnson said:

Basically, what we’re looking at is, 22 states have populations less than four million people. 28 states have populations less than five million people. That is the magnitude of the problem. [Emphasis added]

Johnson’s estimate also suggests that the millions of border crossers and illegal aliens entering the U.S. interior since Biden took office is well above the annual number of U.S. births, which sat at just under four million in 2021.

For this and other issues, Johnson said, Mayorkas “ought to resign.”

Center for Immigration Studies resident fellow Andrew Arthur calculated a similar total, finding that at least 3.4 million border crossers and illegal aliens have entered the U.S. interior since Biden took office with likely hundreds of thousands more of whom DHS is unaware.

“That’s just 375,808 fewer people than live in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city,” Arthur notes. “Add in the [unknown got-aways], and the migrant total likely exceeds LA’s population.”

The unprecedented inflow of border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior is serving as a boon for big business, real estate developers, and Wall Street as more people equates to a lower cost of labor, additional consumers to whom products can be sold, and more renters and home-buyers to drive up housing costs.

As Breitbart News reported in February, the Biden administration has been hugely effective in growing the U.S. labor market — not by getting employers to entice Americans on the sidelines but rather by adding millions more foreign workers to artificially drive down labor costs.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, for example, close to two million fewer native-born Americans were working in jobs compared to the same time in 2019, while two million foreign-born workers were added to the workforce.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/18/ron-johnson-biden-welcomes-nearly-five-million-illegal-aliens-to-u-s-exceeding-populations-of-28-states/

Michigan lawmaker probing whether Whitmer-backed Chinese clean energy firm working with Taliban

The energy giant has already made headlines for its deep ties with the Chinese Communist Party.

A Michigan lawmaker is probing whether a Chinese-owned clean energy firm that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to support with state tax dollars is seeking a deal with the Taliban government in Afghanistan for rights to mine the nation's vast deposits of lithium, a key input in lithium-ion batteries, a component central to the manufacture of defining products of the 21st century high-tech economy, including cell phones, laptops and electric and hybrid vehicles.

Gotion Inc. is a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, "one of the earliest enterprises engaged in the independent research and development, production and sales of new energy vehicle power lithium-ion batteries in China," according to the China-based parent company's website. In 2014, Gotion expanded to the U.S. for battery research and development.

In October, Whitmer announced "Project Elephant," a plan for Gotion to build a $2.3 billion battery plant in Big Rapids, Mich., calling it a "transformational investment." Whitmer aimed to grant Gotion hundreds of millions of dollars of state incentives, but the funding was paused after pushback over the company’s China ties.

The pushback grew last week after a reported meeting in Afghanistan to discuss Chinese access to the nation's vast lithium reserves.

On Thursday, executives of a Chinese company met with Afghan Minister of Minerals and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar, a senior leader of the Taliban, and offered a $10 billion investment for access to Afghanistan's lithium deposits. The company was identified as "Gochin" on the ministry's website​​​​​.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/exclusive-michigan-lawmaker-investigate-whether-whitmer-tapped-business

On day one of a historic Chinese trade mission, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has unwittingly reignited a feud with shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie after a microphone picked up his disparaging comments made about Hastie’s views on China.

McGowan’s office on Tuesday sent footage from the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce lunch in Beijing where McGowan spruiked WA as an investment destination while accompanied by Australia’s Ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher and the chamber’s chair, Vaughn Barber.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/western-australia/live-mic-picks-up-wa-premier-badmouthing-shadow-defence-minister-andrew-hastie-at-beijing-lunch-20230419-p5d1hl.html

How Anthony Albanese's government wants to change the car you drive forever: New pollution rules to be introduced to drive the uptake of electric vehicles

Australia will adopt a fuel-efficiency standard

It put on limit on pollution from petrol and diesel vehicles

It will likely drive sales of electric and low-emission cars

Australian drivers are expected to see more electric cars race into the country after the federal government pledged to introduce a policy forcing automakers to launch more of their greenest vehicles locally.

A new fuel-efficiency standard will place a limit on pollution from petrol and diesel vehicles and will encourage the import of more zero and low-emission cars that the government estimates could save motorists $519 in annual fuel costs.

A draft of the policy is expected by the end of the year, following consultation with industry and community groups.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Transport Minister Catherine King announced the commitment on Wednesday as part of the government's response to the National Electric Vehicle Strategy, which attracted more than 500 submissions last year.

Mr Bowen said Australia's lack of a fuel-efficiency standard meant fewer electric cars had been launched in Australia and, on average, cars in the country used 40 per cent more fuel than in Europe, 20 per cent more than in the US, and 15 per cent more than cars in New Zealand.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11988125/Anthony-Albanese-government-introduce-mandatory-pollution-cap-cars.html