Firm said in October it had not paid any UK windfall taxes because of heavy investment in North Sea
Shell has revealed it expects to pay about $2bn (£1.7bn) in UK and EU windfall taxes for the final quarter of 2022 – the first time it has paid UK tax for five years.
The oil company had previously sparked anger in October when it said it had not paid any UK windfall taxes because of heavy investment in the North Sea.
Continue reading...Abnormally high temperatures caused by orientation of high and low pressure, but also point to effects of climate change
Exceptionally high temperatures affected large parts of Europe last week, with longstanding records across the central and western regions broken in a number of locations. The abnormally high temperatures developed due to the orientation of high and low pressure across the continent, which helped push very mild air in from the south-west. Although the pressure pattern was not particularly unusual, the temperatures were unprecedented in many places, and scientists are certain that they would not have been achieved without the influence of human-induced climate change.
Temperatures peaked at 18.9C in Warsaw, Poland, on New Year’s Day, smashing the previous record set in 1993 for the month of January by an astonishing 5C. In Bilbao, Spain, 25.1C was recorded, more than 10C above the seasonal average, which is typically around 14C.
Continue reading...Ukraine rejects Russia’s proposed ceasefire; Germany sending additional Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected out of hand a Russian order for a truce over Orthodox Christmas, saying it was a trick to halt the progress of Ukraine’s forces in the eastern Donbas region and bring in more of their own. Speaking pointedly in Russian and addressing both the Kremlin and Russians as a whole on Thursday, Zelenskiy said Moscow had repeatedly ignored Kyiv’s own peace plan.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine from noon on Friday to midnight on 7 January, the Kremlin said. Russian troops must hold fire for 36 hours in order to allow people “in the areas of hostilities” to mark Orthodox Christmas, Putin said.
The war would end, Zelenskiy said, when Russian troops left Ukraine or were thrown out. “They now want to use Christmas as a cover, albeit briefly, to stop the advances of our boys in Donbas and bring equipment, ammunitions and mobilised troops closer to our positions,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly video address. “What will that give them? Only yet another increase in their total losses.” He said the war “will end either when your soldiers leave or we throw them out”.
The US state department expressed skepticism over Putin’s announced ceasefire, describing it as “cynical” given Moscow’s New Year’s Day attack on Ukraine and saying the US had “little faith” in the announcement’s intentions.
Putin’s announcement came hours after the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, called for a ceasefire and a Christmas truce in Ukraine. In a statement, Kirill said he appealed to “all parties involved in the internecine conflict” for the ceasefire, so that “Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and the day of the Nativity of Christ”.
Germany will join the US in supplying an additional Patriot air defence battery to Ukraine, the White House has announced, after the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the US president, Joe Biden, spoke by phone. The two leaders “expressed their common determination to continue to provide the necessary financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as needed”, the White House said in a statement.
The US believes that Vladimir Putin’s ally Yevgeny Prigozhin is interested in taking control of salt and gypsum from mines near the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, a White House official said on Thursday. There were indications that monetary motives were driving Russia’s and Prigozhin’s “obsession” with Bakhmut, the official added. Prigozhin is the owner of private Russian military company Wagner Group.
Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said Germany providing weapons to Ukraine was a “good decision” during a Thursday briefing. Habeck’s department has to approve weapons exports.
Continue reading...Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz indicate shift in position on supplying heavier weapons to Kyiv to help in war against Russia
Joe Biden and his German counterpart Olaf Scholz have agreed to send infantry fighting vehicles to help Ukraine fight Russia, a day after France said it would supply its own armoured vehicles to Kyiv in an attempt to create a breakthrough in the 10-month war.
The joint announcement followed a phone call between Biden and Scholz and amounts to a step change in western military support for Ukraine, which has asked for up to 700 armoured vehicles to help force the Russians out.
Continue reading...Annalena Baerbock makes appeal as she holds talks in London with UK foreign secretary James Cleverly
Disputes over implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol have become “the achilles heel” of the EU’s relations with the UK, the German foreign minister said on Thursday as she held talks with her UK counterpart in London.
Annalena Baerbock’s appeal to find a solution to the deadlock over the protocol came during wide-ranging and much delayed talks with James Cleverly in London, which also covered the war in Ukraine and the state of Anglo-German relations.
Continue reading...If global heating continues at current rate of 2.7C, losses will be greater with 68% of glaciers disappearing
Half the planet’s glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if humanity sticks to goals set out in the Paris climate agreement, according to research that finds the scale and impacts of glacial loss are greater than previously thought. At least half of that loss will happen in the next 30 years.
Researchers found 49% of glaciers would disappear under the most optimistic scenario of 1.5C of warming. However, if global heating continued under the current scenario of 2.7C of warming, losses would be more significant, with 68% of glaciers disappearing, according to the paper, published in Science. There would be almost no glaciers left in central Europe, western Canada and the US by the end of the next century if this happened.
Continue reading...Kyiv says Moscow’s declaration of truce, after Russian president cited appeal from patriarch, is ‘hypocrisy’
Ukraine has rejected an announcement by Vladimir Putin of a 36-hour ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas, saying there will be no truce until Russia removes its invading forces from occupied land.
The Kremlin said Putin had ordered his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to introduce a temporary ceasefire along the entire line of contact in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas from midday on Friday to midnight on Saturday.
Continue reading...The Russian president has called for ceasefire to take place from noon 6 January to midnight 7 January for Orthodox Christmas
The UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, has posted a picture from Cornwall of people celebrating Christmas with Ukrainian flags, commenting: “Pretty amazing to see how strong support for Ukraine remains in the UK after nearly a year of the Russian invasion.”
Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy oblast, has said on Telegram that the night passed without incident in his region, which borders Russia.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands gather to see Pope Francis bury his predecessor
An estimated 100,000 Catholics have descended on St Peter’s Square for the funeral of the former pope Benedict XVI.
Benedict died on Saturday, aged 95, almost a decade after becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign. He will become the first former pontiff in the modern history of the Catholic church to be buried by an incumbent pope, Francis, who arrived outside St Peter’s Basilica in a wheelchair on Thursday.
Continue reading...Removing sculptures from Greece was like ‘removing Eiffel Tower from Paris’, says actor
The removal of the Parthenon sculptures from Athens was akin to removing the Eiffel Tower from Paris or Stonehenge from Salisbury, Stephen Fry has said, as he called for the return of the classic Greek sculptures to their country of origin.
The actor and writer, who has been advocating for the return of the sculptures held at the British Museum in London, said there was a “win-win” solution to the centuries-old debate over ownership of the Parthenon marbles. He called for a cultural partnership under which other incredible Greek artefacts would be exhibited in the UK for the first time.
Continue reading...After Bolsonaro’s defeat and Duterte’s departure, 1.7 billion people are now living under populist rule, report says
The number of populist leaders around the world has fallen to a 20-year low after a series of victories for progressives and centrists over the past year, according to analysis from the Tony Blair Institute showing the number of people living under populist rule has fallen by 800 million in two years.
The research claims 2023 could be an equally decisive year for populism, with critical elections in Turkey and Poland. Those two elections could see two of the most influential populist governments in the world fall, though that may yet require divided opposition parties in both countries to form clearer coalition programmes than they have managed so far.
Continue reading...Publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ‘will not go without effective response’, says Tehran foreign minister
Iran has summoned the French ambassador over publication of caricatures of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The weekly magazine published dozens of cartoons ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic republic as part of a competition it launched in December in support of the protest movement that began in Iran last September.
Continue reading...Residents watched in amazement as tents, caravans and seven stages set up near village centre
The music blared for days, thumping through dozens of speakers hastily erected in the dusty fields. Against the backdrop of Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains, thousands of revellers danced while others perused stands selling homemade soap, piercings and slices of pizza from a makeshift mud oven.
The illegal rave began on Friday, choking off traffic and leaving pulsating beats wafting over the nearby village of La Peza. “It was 24 hours a day of chin chin boom,” said Fernando Álvarez, the mayor of the municipality.
Continue reading...Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised ads
The business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.
Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads.
Continue reading...Resorts open hiking trails and lifts for mountain bikes amid unseasonably high temperatures and lack of snow
Europe’s record-breaking warm winter weather has closed ski slopes and forced resorts to open summer trails or shut altogether, as grass and mud replace seasonal snow from Chamonix in France to Innsbruck in Austria.
Eight countries across the continent have recorded their warmest January day ever, with temperatures in parts of Switzerland and southern Germany exceeding 20C and 90 monitoring stations in France setting new records over new year.
Continue reading...Bernard Squarcini and 10 others await magistrates’ decision on hearing charges including influence peddling and forgery
French prosecutors have called for the former head of the country’s internal intelligence agency to stand trial on charges of influence peddling and forgery.
Bernard Squarcini, who was head of the DCRI agency – the French equivalent of MI5 – until 2012, is also accused of complicity in breaches of professional and judicial secrecy.
Continue reading...Ukrainian shelling that killed 89 recruits aided by mobiles switched on near frontlines, claims Russia defence ministry
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that killed dozens of conscripts, sparking anger among relatives of the soldiers.
Commenting on the deadliest single incident Moscow has acknowledged since the start of the war that it said killed 89 servicemen, Lt Gen Sergei Sevryukov said in a video statement that a commission was working to investigate the circumstances of what had happened.
Continue reading...Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab
The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.
She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.
Continue reading...Bloc recommends negative coronavirus tests from all arrivals despite warnings from Beijing of retaliation
The European Union wants all travellers from China to take pre-departure Covid tests, in response to surging levels of the virus after Beijing hastily abandoned strict controls.
EU officials meeting on Wednesday in the “integrated political crisis response” format said there should be a requirement for a negative Covid test from all travellers from China, despite warnings from Beijing of retaliation.
Continue reading...Kyrylo Budanov says he expects fighting to be ‘hottest’ in March, with a Ukraine counter attack in the spring. This blog is now closed
The city administration in Kyiv has said that 160 million passengers used the city’s subway in 2022, compared with 319 million passengers the previous year. It also said that about 5.200 people used the network for shelter on New Year’s Eve. In a statement posted to Telegram, the city authority said:
On new year’s eve, during the air raid, about 5,200 people, including almost 400 children, used underground stations as shelter. The subway infrastructure operates 24/7 as a shelter and provides the most necessary conditions: drinking water, sanitary facilities and the possibility of recharging gadgets.
Continue reading...