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The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Awkward silence after Trump praises English of Liberian president
The US president, Donald Trump, said Joseph Boakai, the president of Liberia where English is the official language, had spoken 'such good English' during a meeting with African leaders. Boakai was advocating for US investment in his country and a joint approach to peace and security in the region. Trump asked him where he had 'learned to speak so beautifully', causing embarrassment
The National
34 minutes ago
- The National
North Sea oil firms warned of fines over well decommissioning delays
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the industry regulator, said firms are "running out of time" to address a backlog of more than 500 wells needing to be plugged. The estimated cost of decommissioning these wells is £41 billion, which is shared between the private sector and the taxpayer according to BBC reports. READ MORE: 'No way' convicted felon Donald Trump should be welcomed in Scotland, Greens say Further delays could add £4 billion to the total cost, the NSTA warned. When an oil well reaches the end of its productive life, the operator is responsible for permanently decommissioning it. NSTA launched an investigation after identifying hundreds of wells that had missed their plugging deadlines. The regulator said the delays risk rig operators and supply chain companies relocating their equipment and personnel to other regions. If that happens, the regulator believes future decommissioning work in the North Sea would become more expensive. Currently, there are not enough rigs in UK waters to carry out all the forecasted decommissioning work. If the backlog continues, NSTA warned that more than 1000 additional wells could require decommissioning by the end of the decade. Pauline Innes, NSTA's director of supply chain and decommissioning, called on companies to act without delay. She said: "The stark reality is that operators are running out of time to get to grips with the backlog as more contractors consider taking their rigs abroad, which damages the supply chain's ability to meet demand and remain cost competitive." She added that while NSTA is willing to support firms, it will "get tough" on persistent delays. READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: The SNP must take up zonal pricing fight – why aren't they? In 2024, only 103 wells were decommissioned to the final abandonment stage, with some form of work completed on 223 wells. However, 300 wells per year need to be fully decommissioned to clear the backlog. Industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said businesses are working to meet their obligations, but challenges remain. Decommissioning manager Ricky Thomson said: "Policy instability, including the Energy Price Levy and pauses in the Environmental Assessment process, has introduced significant uncertainty for the sector resulting in project delays and cost increases." He said the sector is working with the Government to ensure stable regulatory and fiscal conditions for safe, efficient decommissioning.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Two Chinese nationals arrested in Neptune missile espionage case
Ukraine said it had arrested a Chinese father and son, both suspected of spying on Kyiv's Neptune cruise missile programme. Counterintelligence officials detained a 24-year-old former student in Kyiv after they provided him with 'technical documentation' related to Neptune production, Ukraine's SBU said. They later swooped on his father when he visited Ukraine from China to 'personally coordinate' his son's work and smuggle out the documents to the Chinese special services, the SBU said. A Ukrainian official told Reuters the two men were the first Chinese people arrested for spying since Moscow's 2022 full-scale invasion. Kyiv has repeatedly accused China of supplying parts and technologies central to the Russian drone and missile programme. China's government insists there has been no such trade. The Chinese embassy in Kyiv did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the Neptune case and a lawyer for the men could not immediately be found. The US resumed delivering artillery shells and mobile rocket artillery missiles to Ukraine, US officials told Reuters and the Associated Press on Wednesday, on the instructions of Donald Trump who claimed he did not know who ordered the shipments' suspension last week. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 155mm artillery shells and GMLRS (mobile rocket artillery) missiles were being provided. The shipment paused last week included 30 Patriot missiles, 8,500 155mm artillery shells, more than 250 precision GMLRS missiles and 142 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles. Kyiv was again under bombardment early on Thursday morning. As air defences fought off Russian drones, one struck an apartment building in the centre of the capital, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration, and debris fell in different districts of the city. Reuters witnesses reported loud explosions. On Wednesday, Russia pummelled Ukraine with its largest missile and drone attack in more than three years of war – a dark record that is seemingly reset higher every few days. Lutsk, a town in western Ukraine, was heavily targeted for its military airfield and infrastructure. Kyiv's air force said Russia fired 728 drones and 13 missiles at Ukraine, with air defence systems cutting down 711 drones and seven missiles. Air force representatives said new Ukrainian drones played an important role in defending against the attacks and most of the Russian drones were decoys. A one-year-old boy was killed in a Russian attack on the village of Pravdyne in the southern Kherson region, local officials announced. Some reports said he was hit by a drone in his back yard along with his grandmother who was badly injured. Ukrainian prosecutors said Russian drone and bombing attacks in two towns in Donetsk killed eight civilians on Wednesday. Officials published images showing the remains of two people burnt to death in their car, which officials said was hit by a Russian drone. Casualties included three people killed and one injured in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, the national emergency services said. A one-storey administrative building was destroyed and rescue teams pulled bodies out of the rubble. Firefighters extinguished blazes in four buildings. Vadym Filashkin, governor of Donetsk oblast, said it was time to 'take a responsible decision. Evacuate to less dangerous regions of Ukraine!' Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Keith Kellogg had a 'substantive' conversation, the Ukrainian president said after meeting the US president's Ukraine envoy in Rome. 'We discussed weapons supplies and strengthening air defence … We also covered the purchase of American weapons, joint defence manufacturing, and localisation efforts in Ukraine.' Both men were in Italy ahead of a conference on 10-11 July dedicated to Ukraine's recovery and long-term reconstruction. Zelenskyy said he and Kellogg had discussed at length proposals to slap tougher sanctions on Moscow. He expressed hope for progress in a sanctions bill before the US Congress, sponsored by Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Donald Trump has been aiming unusually direct criticism at Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian ruler's statements on moving towards peace were 'meaningless' and 'bullshit'. The Guardian's diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, considers whether the Trump-Putin bromance may have run its course. 'If so it is a transformatory moment, and a vindication for both Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives in Rome for the annual Ukraine reconstruction conference and for those others, notably the British and the French governments, who have patiently helped the scales to fall from Trump's eyes about Putin's true intentions. At long last and after many false starts, the US president seems to have accepted he is unpersuadable on ending the war. Europe's top human rights court delivered damning judgments on Wednesday against Russia in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands. Judges at the European court of human rights ruled that Russia committed a string of human rights violations in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, in the downing of the MH17 flight that year and in invading Ukraine in 2022. Russia violated the convention through 'extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel' outside of combat, 'torture', 'forced labour', 'unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians' as well as looting in its invasion of Ukraine, the judges found.
