Brickston News Cooperation (BNC, English Regional)

[Brickston]

"Brickston has changed" - Portovans on Republic Day

Reginald Yukutamo
Portovo has recently been flooded with citizens - who came back from overseas to visit their families on Republic Day. Many have never seen the new glimmering urban and developed environment. Just 30-35 years ago, Brickston's economy was a quarter the size of what it is today.

Our crew asked returnees about what they think about Brickston today.

"It's really exciting," says an elderly woman, who was born here but raised overseas. "I feel pride when I look at the new Brickston. I'd heard about it on the news, but to see it with my own eyes is fascinating."

Brickston was once one of the poorest E.U. nations, with a GDP per capita of $2,104. Today, the average Briekish citizen earns more than $70,000 (DY35,000 estimated).

[Brickston]

Portovo's under-construction Northern Line faces controversy

By Kevin Luthenstein
The recently built Northern Line, requested by the population of Petro-North, is now facing a backlash. Environmentalists state that the train is not fire-resistant and that the company engineering these trains is underpaying their workers (under the minimum wage of 6.13 Dubbeh per day). On the other hand, residents of the sparsely populated Petro-North want this line to be built as soon as possible. "We want to be connected to Central Portovo. We have no other means of transport but a bus, which runs at 20 kilometres per hour.

The Supreme Court, under the Law on Regional Voting, has requested all residents with a Portovo D.C. registered S.C. (Security Card) to vote for or against the Northern Line. The court will also investigate the wages in Reyali Corporation (Brickston's most valued company at $122 billion dollars), which is manufacturing the trains.

[Brickston]

The Brickston Stock Exchange reopens: Symbolizes a liberal economy

By Reginald Yukutamo
What the Briekish population was waiting for: the reopening of the Stock Exchange. It is located in Potdasmer Lane, Financial District, Portovo, Brickston. There are currently no companies listed on the Portovo Stock Exchange, but what we do know so far is that the symbol for the stock exchange is XBR and that there are 3 companies waiting to be listed.

Under the Maduro Revolution, the country had socialistic ideologies, which resulted in a restricted economy. Authoritarian Nicholas Maduro (Ex-leader) closed the stock exchange. In the last 25 years, the Briekish Economy has been increasingly liberalizing. Therefore, under the Lavoie Administration, the first legitimate stock exchange has opened back up.

[Brickston]

Teenage Billionaire builds an island

Katherune Wurst
Greg Walton, a 19-year-old multi-billionaire has built himself a private island in Doh Tin Mah City. The exceptional teenager was born in rural Edgemorta and is now a CEO, an investor, a stand-up comedian and a singer. He even has 10% of Reyali Corporation, hence making him the youngest billionaire in Brickston and the second youngest billionaire in the European Union.

However, with all his fame, he is still a helper. He tells BNC, "I plan to donate 15% of my money earned to a charity in Edgemorta, because the people of Edgemorta really helped me. Moreover, I plan to start a non-profit [organization] to help children on the streets."

[Brickston]

Economists say that Brickston needs to trade more

By Jack Wulfe
PORTOVO: Brickston has experienced a surplus in oil, decreasing the oil prices in the country to as cheap as plastic.

"Brickston needs to look for countries which need refined oil. And fast," says the chief business writer in our studio, Glender Kai.

Environmentalists are also concerned, as many car companies have halted manufacturing electric cars for the most part.

[Brickston]

New Mystery Virus in Pondi

Simon Addenburg
PONDI: A new moderately contagious virus has been discovered in the Eastern District of Metropolitan Pondi. For context, Pondi is the 7th largest city in Brickston, with a population of around 4.2 million people. Due to the virus, the Council of Pondi (following the Supreme Court's orders) has closed down the whole city. There are currently 2 cases of the new virus, with more than 1,000 people being tested for symptoms (which include coughing, loss of taste or smell and sometimes hazy eyesight). Scientists are currently testing the samples of the virus, which they say may result in the death of people (although it is very unlikely).

[Brickston]

Virus eradicated: Acknowledged by Pondi

William Hagure
The novel virus, with a lesser than 2 week span has been eradicated due to its nature of not spreading through surfaces and effective government response. However, the Briekish Government has issued a statement saying that they will continue their research related to the new virus to understand its nature.I

Pondi has ended its lockdown and the government has effectively prevented the virus from spreading overseas.

The Government has also passed a bill allowing the EHO to investigate and coordinate with the BHS (Briekish Health Service) and laboratories in the event/looming threat of a pandemic.

[Brickston]

Large Scale crime has ceased to exist in Brickston, says Lavoie

Stefan Luthenstein
The Briekish President was invited to interview in the famous TV show, "The Daily Show with Thobias Nitschke", in which the host asked him some political questions, one of them being "Many Briekish Citizens and experts think that law enforcement is not being funded sufficiently. What do you think?". This question resulted in massive outrage, with many radical Lavoie supporters issuing death threats to the host after the show.

Thobias Nitschke remarked upon the incident by saying, "It's a part of my job. I get death threats almost every month. Ich bin stressig [It is stressful], but I'm used to it."

President Lavoie in the interview replied, "Brickston doesn't need extreme funding anymore. [Do] you know why? We have not had a terrorist attack in 30 years! Large crime has ceased to exist. I don't see why would waste money to fix something if it's already fixed."

[Brickston]

Brickston strengthens relations with its neighbours

Felix Addenburg
Brickston's new influence in the European Union comes with a larger economy. Unlike the report a month ago which suggested a plummet in the Briekish Economy, economists now predict a 4% growth in the economy for the next quarter. This is huge for a developed country.

Much of this growth comes from loosening business restrictions due to a policy that was repealed 2 weeks ago by the Briekish Supreme Authority. To add to that, many nations are interested to trade with a nation rich in oil, uranium and gold reserves.

However, a growing threat in Brickston is the age demographic. Brickston has an ageing population. However, the population of the youth is seeing signs of growth, with more than 400,000 people entering the workforce every year.

[Brickston]

With 90% of the country's votes counted, the votes are almost tied

Jørge Denver
The House för Vertrer is yet again dominated by two parties - Brickston Demokratiska Partiet and the Brickston Labour Party, is what The Briekish voting poll Artificial Intelligence Security System (BVAISS abbreviated) says. The machine has finished counting the voting participation, with an exact number of 9,567,312 people voting (around 75% of the population).

Nothing else has been revealed yet in the interests of preventing unethical modifications in the election process.

[Brickston]

Okonkwo Cyryl Lavoie wins the 2021 Elections

Steven Kalrshruff
With the Brickston Democratiska Partiet winning 91 seats and the Brickston Democratic Prosperity Alliance having 112 seats, Okonkwo Cyryl Lavoie will officially continue to be the president of the Republic from the 6th of August, 2021.

The leader wishes to further focus on the economy and generate employment through minimal government intervention. Crowds in coastal and southern Brickston cheer as the eastern bits being eerie, which may be the repercussions of the party not having prominence in that region.

The Briekish Women League Party is a game-changer for people who want a higher representation of women in the Government. With the party winning 11 seats, their candidates will all be women. Brickston had a women representation percentage of 67 seats last term. This term, the Parliament will now have 78 women.

Many capitalist and anarchist parties are rising too, with ideological radicality rising, particularly in rural districts near the metropolitan area of Doh Tin Mah City.

[Brickston]

New Initiative by Reyali Corporation to build a semi-autonomous futuristic metropolitan city on a mega-manmade island

Katie Winsburgen
DOH TIN MAH CITY: The Briekish population is obsessed with water; islands in particular! Reyali Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company has begun building a metropolitan city on an island.

More than 68 small and medium islands have been built along the coast of Brickston, all for luxury. But this island hopes to host a minimum population of 1,600,000 people! Under the "Right to Ownership", all private property must be protected and owners may enforce restrictions or regulations of any legal form. Reyali Corporation has capitalized on that.

The city will be entirely planned by a private corporation, which in political terms can be considered as communist-capitalism. It is absolutely mind-boggling to political thinkers. The city is being built by more than 5,000 people.

Ideals:

• Electric cars only
• Mandatory Multiculturalism
• Currency QR Code system
• No income or property taxes

That last bullet point sounds too good to be true. But it is one of the marketing phrases the company is using to attract "Citistomers", which is what residers were referred to. The downside of coming to the city is that the cost of buying a home is 3 times higher than the average house cost in Brickston.

[Brickston]

Brickston is officially a trillion-dollar economy

Felix Addenburg
In an official statement released by the Briekish Government, Brickston is now a trillion-dollar economy. The statement was released through a press conference yesterday evening (Briekish Standard Time).

That's all there is to say.

[Brickston]

This post is deleted!

[Brickston]

Should companies be allowed to be monopolies?

Keith Margen
As Reyali Corporation in Brickston is undoubtedly a monopoly, concerns about how big a company can be are starting to rise up. The founder of a rival company of the Reyali Corporation who wishes to be anonymous, says that monopolies create a centralized economy, but through a private company. "When companies become monopolies, it's no different than having a centralized communism [communistic] model. The only difference is that a private corporation runs it," they say.

Research shows that monopolies have a negative impact on smaller companies. This results in the smaller companies having no or little profit. We got the opportunity to speak to Jacob Zulasruker, who advocates for having a limit to how much monopolies can grow. "When there is no profit for smaller companies, workers get lesser pay, eventually getting laid off. It can cause national crises."

[Brickston]

Lavoie's Brickston and Authoritarian-Capitalism

Notknowo Syric Levoari
As CCTV footage is more common in public areas in cities like Portovo and Brownhill, the civilians who live there are questioning if their privacy is being stomped on. "Everywhere I go, I see these surveillance cameras," says Barne, who lives in Brownhill. "But if that wasn't enough, on every other day I see drones. It's really scary, 'cause da president might turn out [to] be a dictator."

But that might as well be exaggerated. "President Lavoie takes voting [political] and cash [economic] freedoms very seriously," says John from Hufenhurf, Portovo, Barne's friend.

[Brickston]

Quadranscentennial Provincial Border Redrawing takes place today

John Kent | 05/10/21
Brickston's borders are to be redrawn today at midnight, to preserve the 100-year long tradition of changing the provincial borders every 25 years (locally known as Provinzzirkusschach). A whopping 146 participants proposed designs 2 weeks ago for new provincial borders.

The tradition of Provinzzirkusschach has been thought to have lasted ever since the foundation of the Bricksvvad Empire but has been thought to have stopped for a few centuries (the 14th Century to the 20th Century). Although this theory is not fully proven, it is still an important part of Briekish Culture.

The winner, named Angela Merkel-Übersetzerin, presented the design below:

The winning design presented by Angela Merkel, above

The farewell ceremony, to honour the old provincial borders (this ceremony is known as Provinzehren) will take place at midnight, with the President and the Monarch paying respects.

Current Provincial Borders, will be no longer in effect on midnight in Briekish Standard Time (BST), 5/10/21

[Brickston]

Briekish Quality You can Trust

Frank Walter
What started as a punishment due to the poor quality of Briekish products grew into a revolution which led to Brickston having an outstanding reputation for its products. For more context, Brickston used to have the worst reputation in Europe for working conditions and the quality of products.

This resulted in the World Trade Organization addressing this issue and enforcing laws which made products worldwide to have country tags. This may not seem catastrophic, but it certainly was for Brickston.

A "Made in Brickston" tag of a local medicinal bottle in the 1940s
This rule was especially enforced on Brickston. Labourers working in the Manufacturing Sector and employers experienced heavy losses. The communist Maduro Government at the time subsidized Briekish Factories to increase yields. But after the fall of communism, North Brickston was not going to make the same mistake. Therefore, to increase the trust of the tag "MADE IN BRICKSTON", quality increased.

Today, Brickston has a high reputation for the quality of goods it produces (even in the private sector).

[Brickston]

Province Honouring Ceremony

John Kent
PORTOVO: The provinces were changed at midnight, followed by the President of Brickston honouring the old provinces. This grand ceremony took place in the Presidential Palace's exquisite hall, and was attended by more than 10,000 people, with millions watching on TV. Breakfast dining will be available as an end to the ceremony to all attendees.

The capitals are to be announced on the 17th of October.

[Brickston]

New anti-racism legislations passed by assembly; many sections controversial

Jeremy Wüttenwurst
PORTOVO: A series of legislations passed by the Assembly banned racism related derogatory terms used in public, as well as made government officials more accountable (to segregating groups of people or/and using the terms mentioned in the beginning of this news article). In addition, sentences of 1 to 2 years have been enforced, with 3 to 4 years if the perpetrators are law enforcement officials or other government officials. This seemingly decent legislation, passed 3 days ago, has resulted in controversy. Many vetoes were expressed through elapsed ballots, posted in the "Veto:Reason Box" in Portovo. Many who oppose say that "they should be able to say anything they wish", or that Brickston is a democratic country and does not have a place for this legislation".