❌ Dead Man Walking: US Prisoner Set to Become First Executed by Nitrogen

Convicted killer Kenneth Eugen Smith has already survived one horribly botched attempt at executing him but on Thursday he will be put to death by a wholly untested method - that has been decried as inhumane by legal experts and deemed unfit even for killing most mammals.

Alabama’s Department of Corrections officials will strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney in Holman Correctional Facility and pump his lungs full of pure nitrogen.

The capital punishment is so experimental that Smith’s spiritual adviser has been required to sign a waiver that forces him to maintain a distance of at least three feet – in case the mask detaches, filling an area around him with the potentially deadly odourless, tasteless, invisible gas.

Alabama’s dark history of bungled executions has death penalty advocates raising the alarm about the potential dangers of it becoming the first state to use nitrogen asphyxia.

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➡️ JUST IN: Microsoft Culls 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox Employees - The Verge

The cuts work out to roughly 8% of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that stands at around 22,000 employees in total.

The layoffs come the same month Riot Games, Google, Discord, Twitch, Unity, eBay, and others announced cuts.

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☄️ BREAKING: Lloyds Banking Group to cut 1,600 jobs - as major 🇬🇧 financial institution shifts towards online banking

The West is spiralling quickly towards a cashless society.

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❌ NEW: Biden to Dispatch CIA Chief William Burns to “Broker Deal” Between Israel and Hamas - WaPo

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☄️ BREAKING: Former adviser to Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, sentenced to four months in prison for defying J6 Committee subpoena

Biden administration selective “justice” strikes again.

Will Hunter get the same treatment?

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📉DENIM BLUES: Levi Strauss plans to cut at least 10% of global corporate workforce in restructuring (CNBC)

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⚠️ JUST IN: Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Trucks from Entering Gaza Through Karm Abu Salem Border Crossing for Third Consecutive Day - amid reports of Palestinians dying from starvation

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❌ China Evergrande on Brink of 'Immediate Liquidation' (Reports)

A key offshore bondholder group of China Evergrande will join a petition to liquidate the developer at a hearing in a Hong Kong court on Monday. (Reuters)

The group owns more than $2bn in offshore notes guaranteed by Evergrande and its support to a winding-up petition reportedly ‘significantly increases’ the chances of an immediate liquidation order from the court.

If a liquidation order is issued, a provisional liquidator and then an official liquidator will be appointed to take control and prepare to sell the  world's most indebted developer’s assets to repay its debts.

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📣 “Invasion Day”: Thousands Demonstrate ‘Australia Day’ Protesting British Colonization

Large crowds gathered in every major 🇦🇺city Friday urging for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning on the holiday some call “Invasion Day.”

The holiday marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying convicts at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788.

For many, the day marked the beginning of a sustained period of discrimination and expulsion of Indigenous people from their land without a treaty.

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❗️Bane of Brexit: Trade Negotiations Between UK & Canada Breakdown

The UK has stopped its trade talks with Canada, after nearly two years on a post-Brexit agreement, following a row over beef and cheese.

Trade between the two countries currently takes place under the terms of a deal the UK rolled over from when it was an EU member in a time-limited agreement.

UK's trading terms with Canada will now be worse than when it was part of the EU. Higher tariffs for British cheese had already kicked in earlier this month, after the previous terms expired at the end of 2023.

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