Author: chicagoinquirer

by Camillus Eboh ABUJA – Nigeria’s oil regulator on Friday granted UTM Offshore Limited the first license to operate a floating liquefied natural gas plant, to tap flared gas from an ExxonMobil oil field in the Niger Delta. Such plants are springing up on the continent as Africa seeks to tap its gas resources. Nigeria has more than 209 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, but loses over $1 billion in annual revenue due to gas flaring, government estimates show. The 2.8 million tons per annum (MTPA) floating vessel owned by UTM will tap flared gas from ExxonMobil’s Oil Mining…

by Rich McKay ATLANTA -Less than an hour after his 14-year-old son appeared in a Georgia courtroom on murder charges on Friday, Colin Gray found himself in the same courtroom seat, anxiously rocking back and forth as prosecutors accused him of bearing responsibility for the deaths caused by the boy’s rampage. The initial appearances by Colin Gray, 54, and Colt Gray, 14, in the Barrow County courtroom came two days after an attack that killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, a city of 18,000 some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Atlanta. Nine others…

by Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August, leaving her with a clear cash advantage over Republican rival Donald Trump with two months to go before Election Day, the campaign said on Friday. It said the August haul left Harris with $404 million in cash on hand at the beginning of September. Trump’s campaign team said on Wednesday that it and the Republican Party raised $130 million in August, leaving $295 million cash on hand at the end of the month. The two candidates will spend more than $1 billion…

by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland WASHINGTON -Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney said on Friday he will vote for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris over Republican former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 U.S. elections, following a similar statement made by his daughter Liz Cheney this week. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Trump and Harris are locked in a tight race for the Nov. 5 vote and face off in a debate next week. Some Republicans upset with Trump’s control over their party and his actions have recently thrown support behind Harris, including dozens of former staffers of former Presidents…

by Ted Hesson WASHINGTON – Biden administration officials are weighing whether to toughen an asylum ban to maintain lower levels of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border since the ban went into effect in June, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official familiar with the matter told Reuters. The ban is designed to be lifted if the number of migrants caught crossing the southern border illegally drops below an average of 1,500 per day for one week, followed by a two-week waiting period. The change under discussion would lengthen the time the number of people caught must remain below that…

by Laurie Chen BEIJING -President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday to step up China’s support to the world’s fastest-growing continent with funding of nearly $51 billion, backing for more infrastructure initiatives and a promise to create at least 1 million jobs. The world’s biggest two-way lender, Beijing showed a desire to move away from funding big-ticket infrastructure and focus instead on selling to developing economies the advanced and green technologies in which Chinese firms have invested heavily. Still, Xi told delegates from more than 50 African nations that the world’s second-largest economy would carry out 30 infrastructure projects across the…

N’DJAMENA, Chad – China has signed multiple agreements with Chad and Senegal involving projects ranging from electricity and infrastructure to drinking water and communications technology at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, the countries’ presidencies said on Wednesday. The world’s biggest bilateral lender, which is hosting 50 African nations, wants to re-align its relations with developing economies around President Xi Jinping’s new mantra of “small and beautiful projects,” instead of big-ticket infrastructure. Leading Chinese companies and institutions have signed six memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Chad in the energy, water, agriculture, infrastructure and defence sectors, the Central African country’s…

CHICAGO – Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney said on Wednesday she will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, calling Donald Trump a “danger.” “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I am voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney said at an event at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, according to a video posted on social media platform X. Cheney supported Trump’s second impeachment for his role in the…

by Jonathan J. Cooper PHOENIX — Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state. Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is scheduled to appear outside Phoenix Wednesday at a rally with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again”…

by Costas Pitas, Susan Heavey CHICAGO, IL -Republican former President Donald Trump will face Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid. Several third-party hopefuls are also running. Here is a list of the candidates. REPUBLICAN PARTY DONALD TRUMP Trump, 78, secured the Republican nomination at his party’s July convention in Milwaukee, just days after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally. Trump has continued to repeat his false claim that Democrats stole the 2020 election as he makes his third bid for the White House amid unprecedented…