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[Source: Reuters] With the bodies of its fighters still strewn on the battlefield, Hezbollah must bury its dead and provide succour to its supporters who bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive, as the first steps on a long and costly road to recovery, four senior officials said. Hezbollah believes the number of its fighters killed during 14 months of hostilities could reach several thousand, with the vast majority killed since Israel went on the offensive in September, three sources familiar with its operations say, citing previously unreported internal estimates. One source said the Iran-backed group may have lost up to 4,000 people – well over 10 times the number killed in its month-long 2006 war with Israel. So far, Lebanese authorities have said some 3,800 people were killed in the current hostilities, without distinguishing fighters from civilians. Hezbollah emerges shaken from top to bottom, its leadership still reeling from the killing of its former leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and its supporters made homeless en masse by the carpet bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the destruction of entire villages in the south. With a ceasefire taking hold on Wednesday, Hezbollah’s agenda includes working to re-establish its organisational structure fully, probing security breaches that helped Israel land so many painful blows, and a full review of the last year including its mistakes in underestimating Israel’s technological capabilities, three other sources familiar with the group’s thinking said. Israel’s campaign has focused largely on Hezbollah’s Shi’ite Muslim heartlands, where its supporters were badly hit. They include people still nursing casualties from Israel’s attack on its mobile communications devices in September. The Israeli offensive displaced more than 1 million people, the bulk of them from areas where Hezbollah has sway. A senior Lebanese official familiar with Hezbollah thinking said the group’s focus would be squarely on securing their return and rebuilding their homes: “Hezbollah is like a wounded man. Does a wounded man get up and fight? A wounded man needs to tend to his wounds.” The official expected Hezbollah to carry out a wide-ranging policy review after the war, dealing with all major issues: Israel, its weapons, and the internal politics of Lebanon, where its weapons have long been a point of conflict. Iran, which established Hezbollah in 1982, has promised to help with reconstruction. The costs are immense: The World Bank estimates $2.8 billion in damage to housing alone in Lebanon, with 99,000 homes partially or fully destroyed. The senior Lebanese official said Tehran has a variety of ways to get funds to Hezbollah, without giving details. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, is urging wealthy Lebanese Shi’ites in the diaspora to send funds to help the displaced, two Lebanese officials said. The officials also expected significant donations to come from Shi’ite religious foundations across the region. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a detailed request for comment for this story. Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Boise State's legacy includes winning coaches and championship moments
Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg Leads Suit Against South Coast Air Quality Management District's Effective Ban on Certain Gas Appliances
A 19-year-old pro-democracy activist who went from finishing secondary school in the UK to becoming one of Hong Kong’s most wanted critics has vowed that she will not be silenced by Chinese fear and suppression. Hong Kong authorities have accused Chloe Cheung, 19, alongside five other activists, three of whom are UK-based, of violating national security laws introduced in 2020 following protests the year before, which opposed China’s swelling anti-democratic influence on the city. Arrest warrants have been issued for the six activists, while a HK$1 million (£103,000) bounty has been put out for their capture. It is the second year in a row that Hong Kong authorities have issued such warrants and bounties on Christmas Eve. “Today, in my adopted UK home, I’ve endured constant threats, both online and physical. But this didn’t stop me from speaking out and now I have a bounty on my head,” Ms Cheung said. “Fear cannot restrain me. Suppression cannot silence me. I will wear this burden with pride and without fear.” Official documents accuse her of publishing articles as a “core member” of the US-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHKF), giving speeches and posting on social media “advocating separating Hong Kong from China and requested foreign countries to impose sanctions or blockade, engage in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong”. Just a year ago, however, Ms Cheung was finishing her final year of secondary school, living in a country into which she had been forced to flee at the age of just 15 and attending local, pro-Hong Kong democracy marches. The teenage activist, who attended some of the protests back in Hong Kong in her school uniform, having gone straight from class to the marches when she was as young as 13, has been described as a “brave” and “fiercely pro-democracy” figure by those that know her. During those protests, she says she “faced tear gas and batons and bullets from the Hong Kong police” before being forced to give her name to the authorities, prompting her departure from the city. After navigating her way through secondary school here in the UK, she quickly applied to join CFHKF. “In the space of a year, she’s gone from being a teenager that participated in local Hong Kong parades and marches to a bountied individual,” says Mark Sabah, the head of UK operations at CFHKF. “She works hard. She is dedicated. She is very clever and fiercely pro-Hong Kong democracy. She’s just brilliant to have on our team. “She keeps going and going. She’s an absolutely outstanding colleague and we are completely in support of her.” Mr Sabah described the latest warrants and bounties as “shocking yet not surprising” as he urged the British government to do more to fight Chinese and Hong Kong efforts to suppress free speech abroad. Criticising the new Labour government’s approach to China - in November, Sir Keir Starmer became the first prime minister in six years to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping , where the pair reportedly spoke about future trade - Mr Sabah urged Downing Street to stop “pandering” to Beijing. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to visit China in the spring of next year for talks with vice premier He Lifeng. “On the one hand, we have the Chinese authorities, or the Hong Kong authorities, actively pursuing people who are safely living in the UK,” says Mr Sabah. “Yet in the same breath as expressing concern and saying they stand with Hong Kong, the British government are pursuing business and trade deals, as well as economic relations, with Beijing. “What needs to happen before they make the correlation that this constant appeasement and pandering is what gives the Hong Kong authorities and the Chinese Communist Party such brazen impunity to keep on doing this to people living in the UK?” Ms Cheung echoed that sentiment, calling on the government to “finally stand with the people of Hong Kong” to take “real action to protect us from transnational repression on British soil”. The other three activists now residing in the UK who were included on the latest arrest warrant list include Chung Kim-wah, 64, a commentator and former pollster, Tony Chung, 23, former head of a pro-independence group who fled to the UK last year after serving four years in prison for a national security offence, and Carmen Lau, 29, a member of the Hong Kong Democracy Council and former district councillor. These four, alongside Canada-based former actor Joseph Tay, 62, and YouTuber Victor Ho, 69, have all had bounties put out for their arrest, while an additional seven others had their Hong Kong passports revoked. The total number of exiled Hong Kongers with arrest warrants and bounties worldwide is now 19. The government had previously issued two rounds of arrest warrants and bounties for more prominent activists, including ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Nathan Law. Former district councillor Ms Lau wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that she would not “back down” from her fight to ensure a free and democratic Hong Kong. “[I] will not back down only because of an arrest warrant and a bounty,” she wrote. “And I hope to have every one of you standing with me in this fight for Hong Kong.” Megan Khoo, policy director of UK-based Hong Kong Watch, described the warrants as “clear attempts of transnational repression, designed to silence dissent and extend the reach of authoritarian control beyond Hong Kong’s borders”. She called on the UK, US, Canadian and Australian governments to “urgently respond” by imposing sanctions on the Hong Kong officials responsible and strengthening measures to counter “extraterritorial intimidation”.
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A multibillion-dollar plan to create “clean” hydrogen from brown coal and ship it to Japan is on the brink of collapse, according to Japanese media reports suggesting that Kawasaki Heavy Industries has withdrawn from the trial, blaming procurement delays. The controversial plan was billed as a lifeline for the Latrobe Valley’s ageing brown coal industry. Under the plan, hydrogen would be extracted from coal, creating the world’s first liquefied hydrogen supply chain. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has reportedly withdrawn from plan to create “clean” hydrogen from brown coal sourced from the Latrobe Valley. Credit: Eamon Gallagher Proponents said the joint venture, led by Japan’s largest industrial conglomerates, would use commercially unproven CO2 capture and storage technology to sequester carbon in the Bass Strait. It was also to send the super-cooled hydrogen extracted from coal in purpose-built bulk carriers out of Hastings to Kawasaki in the Asian nation’s industrial heartland. The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project (HESC) was a partnership between international fossil energy companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI), Royal Dutch Shell and AGL. Japanese outlet Nikkei reported that Kawasaki Heavy Industries had abandoned its bid to establish an international supply chain to procure hydrogen from Australia because it had become “difficult to procure hydrogen in Australia within the deadline”. “With the completion of the demonstration test by fiscal year 2030, as originally scheduled, being an absolute requirement for ensuring competitiveness, the company has changed hydrogen procurement to domestic,” Nikkei reported. “It has also downsized its hydrogen carriers and is now steering toward a more ‘realistic’ solution.” Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio raised doubts about the project last year at an Australian Financial Review Energy and Climate Summit, saying it was not clear that the proponents would be able to adequately capture the carbon from the coal and safely sequester it. “That is a question that is yet to be answered,” she said. The AFR reported that Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ chairman Yoshinori Kanehana told a separate event last year that his business had been focused on winning “social license” from Victorian communities and hoped to avoid “ideological divides”. Friends of the Earth gas campaigner Freja Leonard said Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ decision to withdraw indicated the project wasn’t financially or practically feasible. “It’s just an absolute nonsense to use brown coal in a climate crisis to produce hydrogen,” she said. “Hydrogen is notoriously difficult to contain. It’s incredibly expensive to produce, and any project that expects to successfully ship hydrogen from one country to another without significant leakage is doomed to failure.” A commercial-in-confidence report on the proposal compiled by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources in 2022 and released under freedom of information laws argued the plan was broadly supported in the Latrobe Valley. “There are a limited number of groups within the Latrobe Valley that do not support the use of fossil fuels and are against CCS [carbon capture and storage],” it stated. “However, the predominant sentiment in the Valley is one that supports the HESC [Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain].” Identifying challenges getting stakeholders like the local council on board, the report noted that the HESC had “revised [its] messaging”, “highlighting the carbon neutrality” the project could achieve by combining biomass with coal. This, it said, “softens the image of HESC as a coal-driven project”. Under the plan, the cooled hydrogen would have been piped more than 150 kilometres from Gippsland to the Port of Hastings and shipped to Japan. In January 2022, according to the confidential report, hydrogen was successfully generated under trial from brown coal and biomass. However, it reported cost overruns and lengthy delays to the trial. More to come Get to the heart of what’s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of manufacturers, businesses, affordable housing interests, and workers seeking to prevent enforcement of South Coast Air Quality Management District regulations that effectively ban certain gas appliances. The plaintiffs, representing thousands of California residents, businesses, and workers, include Rinnai America Corporation , Noritz America Corporation , National Association of Homebuilders , California Manufacturers & Technology Association , California Restaurant Association , California Hotel & Lodging Association , and California Apartment Association , all represented by RJLF and Sean Kneafsey of the Kneafsey Law Firm . Californians for Homeownership is represented by Matt Gelfand , Restaurant Law Center is represented by Angelo Amador , and the California State Pipe Trades Council by McCracken, Stemerman & Holsberry . The coalition's suit asserts that the District's zero-NOx emissions rule for certain appliances, which effectively bans those gas appliances, is preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) and should be blocked. The District's rule not only effectively mandates the use of electric appliances in new buildings but also forces costly retrofits to electric in existing buildings when appliances are replaced. This rule threatens the reliability and affordability of energy for millions of Californians, will impose enormous costs and disruption on businesses and workers, and will reduce the availability of affordable housing. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Berkeley, California's ban on gas piping in new buildings was preempted by EPCA ( California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley , 89 F.4th 1094 (9th Cir. 2024)) . The District's rule is legally indistinguishable, and the same result applies. "This case is pivotal to reinforcing the federal and state roles in setting national energy policy," said Sarah Jorgensen , lead counsel for the plaintiffs at RJLF. "The District's mandate for electric appliances in both new construction and forced retrofits not only jeopardizes our clients' work, business, and interests but also disregards established federal law. California must comply with the law." The case is Rinnai America Corp. et al. v. South Coast Air Quality Management District , No. 2:24-cv-10482 , in the United States District Court for the Central District of California . About Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF) is a national trial firm that handles high-stakes energy, commercial, intellectual property, and white collar disputes. The firm is majority women-owned, reinventing the practice of law without the billable hour in favor of fee arrangements that align client interests. RJLF's attorneys are diverse, exceptionally credentialed, and passionate about trial advocacy. From offices in Silicon Valley, New York , Washington, D.C. , Austin , and Atlanta , the firm tries cases and argues appeals throughout the country. For more information, visit www.reichmanjorgensen.com . Contact Sarah Jorgensen sjorgensen@reichmanjorgensen.com (650) 623-1403 View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reichman-jorgensen-lehman--feldberg-leads-suit-against-south-coast-air-quality-management-districts-effective-ban-on-certain-gas-appliances-302324441.html SOURCE Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLPTess Daly’s £6 ‘hero product’ that she swears by for flawless wrinkle-free skin – it leaves your face ‘supple & soft’