ReportWire

Tag: Energy industry

  • Europe scrambles to help Ukraine keep the heat and lights on

    Europe scrambles to help Ukraine keep the heat and lights on

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — European officials are scrambling to help Ukraine stay warm and keep functioning through the bitter winter months, pledging Friday to send more support that will mitigate the Russian military’s efforts to turn off the heat and lights.

    Nine months after Russia invaded its neighbor, the Kremlin’s forces have zeroed in on Ukraine’s power grid and other critical civilian infrastructure in a bid to tighten the screw on Kyiv. Officials estimate that around 50% of Ukraine’s energy facilities have been damaged in the recent strikes.

    France is sending 100 high-powered generators to Ukraine to help people get through the coming months, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Friday.

    She said Russia is “weaponizing” winter and plunging Ukraine’s civilian population into hardship.

    British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, arriving Friday in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, said a promised air-defense package, which Britain valued at 50 million pounds ($60 million), would help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s bombardments.

    “Words are not enough. Words won’t keep the lights on this winter. Words won’t defend against Russian missiles,” Cleverly said in a tweet about the military aid.

    The package includes radar and other technology to counter the Iran-supplied exploding drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian targets, especially the power grid. It comes on top of a delivery of more than 1,000 anti-air missiles that Britain announced earlier this month.

    “As winter sets in, Russia is continuing to try and break Ukrainian resolve through its brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and energy infrastructure,” Cleverly said.

    His visit came a day after European officials launched a scheme called “Generators of Hope,” which calls on more than 200 cities across the continent to donate power generators and electricity transformers.

    The generators are intended to help keep essential Ukrainian facilities running, providing power to hospitals, schools and water pumping stations, among other infrastructure.

    Generators may provide only a tiny amount of the energy that Ukraine will need during the cold and dark winter months.

    But the comfort and relief they provide is already evident, as winter begins in earnest and power outages occur regularly. The whine and rumble of generators is becoming commonplace, allowing stores that have them to stay open and Ukraine’s ubiquitous coffee shops to keep serving hot drinks that maintain a semblance of normality.

    Ukrainian authorities are opening thousands of so-called “points of invincibility” — heated and powered spaces offering hot meals, electricity and internet connections. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said late Thursday that almost 4,400 such spaces have opened across most of the country.

    He scoffed at Moscow’s attempts to intimidate Ukrainian civilians, saying that was the Russian military’s only option after a string of battlefield setbacks. “Either energy terror, or artillery terror, or missile terror — that’s all that Russia has dwindled to under its current leaders,” Zelenskyy said.

    Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials and energy workers continued their push to restore supplies after a nationwide barrage Wednesday left tens of millions without power and water.

    Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said Friday morning that heating was back on in a third of the capital’s households, but that half of its population still lacked electricity.

    Writing on Telegram, Klitschko added that authorities hoped to provide all consumers in Kyiv with electricity for a period of three hours on Friday, following a pre-set schedule.

    As of Friday morning in Kharkiv, all residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city had had their electricity supplies restored, but more than 100,000 in the outlying region continued to see interruptions, the regional governor said.

    In the south, authorities in the city of Mykolayiv said that running water was set to start flowing again after supplies were cut off by Russian strikes on Thursday.

    ———

    Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Asian shares mixed as investors eye Tokyo inflation data

    Asian shares mixed as investors eye Tokyo inflation data

    [ad_1]

    TOKYO — Asian shares were mixed Friday as worries deepened about the regional economy and Japan reported higher-than-expected inflation.

    Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong, but rose in Sydney and Shanghai. Oil prices advanced.

    Investors have their eyes on China‘s lockdowns and restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus infections, as the direction China takes will have great impact on the rest of Asia.

    “Reopening policies have pivoted in China, which will be a gradual process. COVID control measures will vary across cities, but positive top-down approaches will be ongoing,” said Stephen Innes, Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% in morning trading to 28,286.40. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 7,262.40. South Korea’s Kospi edged down 0.1% to 2,438.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.8% to 17,521.11. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.5% to 3,105.36.

    Data on inflation in Tokyo for November beat analysts’ expectations, with the core consumer price index showing a 3.6% rise, the highest in more than four decades.

    The Federal Reserve and the world’s other central banks have been raising interest rates to try to rein in decades-high inflation. But the Bank of Japan has resisted tightening monetary policy, a move that would counter inflationary pressures by discouraging borrowing by businesses and consumers.

    “With the Bank of Japan being one of the few outliers which has not embarked on a rate-hiking process, the point of pivot will be a key question into next year,” Jun Rong Yeap of IG said in a commentary.

    Shares finished higher Thursday in France, Germany and Britain. U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving. Wall Street will have a shortened session on Friday.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 46 cents to $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up $3.01 to $77.94 per barrel on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 29 cents to $85.55 a barrel in London.

    In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 138.64 Japanese yen from 138.58 yen. The euro cost $1.0410, inching down from $1.0411.

    ———

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • EXPLAINER: What’s the effect of Russian oil price cap, ban?

    EXPLAINER: What’s the effect of Russian oil price cap, ban?

    [ad_1]

    FRANKFURT, Germany — Western governments are aiming to cap the price of Russia’s oil exports in an attempt to limit the fossil fuel earnings that support Moscow’s budget, its military and the invasion of Ukraine.

    The cap is set to take effect on Dec. 5, the same day the European Union will impose a boycott on most Russian oil — its crude that is shipped by sea. The EU was still negotiating what the price ceiling should be.

    The twin measures could have an uncertain effect on the price of oil as worries over lost supply through the boycott compete with fears about lower demand from a slowing global economy.

    Here are basic facts about the price cap, the EU embargo and what they could mean for consumers and the global economy:

    WHAT IS THE PRICE CAP AND HOW WOULD IT WORK?

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has proposed the cap with other Group of 7 allies as a way to limit Russia’s earnings while keeping Russian oil flowing to the global economy. The aim is to hurt Moscow’s finances while avoiding a sharp oil price spike if Russia’s oil is suddenly taken off the global market.

    Insurance companies and other firms needed to ship oil would only be able to deal with Russian crude if the oil is priced at or below the cap. Most of the insurers are located in the EU or the United Kingdom and could be required to participate in the cap. Without insurance, tanker owners may be reluctant to take on Russian oil and face obstacles in delivering it.

    HOW WOULD OIL KEEP FLOWING TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?

    Universal enforcement of the insurance ban, imposed by the EU and U.K. in earlier rounds of sanctions, could take so much Russian crude off the market that oil prices would spike, Western economies would suffer, and Russia would see increased earnings from whatever oil it can ship in defiance of the embargo.

    Russia, the world’s No. 2 oil producer, has already rerouted much of its supply to India, China and other Asian countries at discounted prices after Western customers shunned it even before the EU ban.

    One purpose of the cap is to provide a legal framework “to allow the flow of Russian oil to continue and to reduce the windfall revenue for Russia at the same time,” said Claudio Galimberti, a senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.

    “It is essential for the global crude markets that Russian oil still finds markets to be sold, after the EU ban is operative,” he added. “In the absence of that, global oil prices would skyrocket.”

    WHAT EFFECT WOULD DIFFERENT CAP LEVELS HAVE?

    A cap of between $65 and $70 per barrel could let Russia keep selling oil and while keeping its earnings to current levels. Russian oil is trading at around $63 per barrel, a considerable discount to international benchmark Brent.

    A lower cap — at around $50 per barrel — would make it difficult for Russia to balance its state budget, with Moscow believed to require around $60 to $70 per barrel to do that, its so-called “fiscal break-even.”

    However, that $50 cap would be still be above Russia’s cost of production of between $30 and $40 per barrel, giving Moscow an incentive to keep selling oil simply to avoid having to cap wells that can be hard to restart.

    WHAT IF RUSSIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES WON’T GO ALONG?

    Russian has said it will not observe a cap and will halt deliveries to countries that do. A lower cap of around $50 could be more likely to provoke that response, or Russia could halt the last of its remaining natural gas supplies to Europe.

    China and India might not go along with the cap, while China could form its own insurance companies to replace those barred by U.S., U.K. and Europe.

    Galimberti says China and India are already enjoying discounted oil and may not want to alienate Russia.

    “China and India get Russia’s crude at a huge discount to Brent, therefore, they don’t necessarily need a price cap to continue to enjoy a discount,” he said. “By complying with the cap set by the G-7, they risk alienating Russia. As a result, we do believe that the compliance with the price cap would not be high.”

    Russia could also turn to schemes such as transferring oil from ship to ship to disguise its origins and mixing its oil with other types to skirt the ban.

    So it remains to be seen what effect the cap would have.

    WHAT ABOUT THE EU EMBARGO?

    The biggest impact from the EU embargo may come not on Dec. 5, as Europe finds new suppliers and Russian barrels are rerouted, but on Feb. 5, when Europe’s additional ban on refinery products made from oil — such as diesel fuel — come into effect.

    Europe will have to turn to alternative supplies from the U.S., Middle East and India. “There is going to be a shortfall, and this will result in very high prices,” Galimberti said.

    Europe still has many cars that run on diesel. The fuel also is used for truck transport to get a huge range of goods to consumers and to run agricultural machinery — so those higher costs will be spread throughout the economy.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • EXPLAINER: What’s the effect of Russian oil price cap, ban?

    EXPLAINER: What’s the effect of Russian oil price cap, ban?

    [ad_1]

    FRANKFURT, Germany — Western governments are aiming to cap the price of Russia’s oil exports in an attempt to limit the fossil fuel earnings that support Moscow’s budget, its military and the invasion of Ukraine.

    The cap is set to take effect on Dec. 5, the same day the European Union will impose a boycott on most Russian oil — its crude that is shipped by sea. The EU was still negotiating what the price ceiling should be.

    The twin measures could have an uncertain effect on the price of oil as worries over lost supply through the boycott compete with fears about lower demand from a slowing global economy.

    Here are basic facts about the price cap, the EU embargo and what they could mean for consumers and the global economy:

    WHAT IS THE PRICE CAP AND HOW WOULD IT WORK?

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has proposed the cap with other Group of 7 allies as a way to limit Russia’s earnings while keeping Russian oil flowing to the global economy. The aim is to hurt Moscow’s finances while avoiding a sharp oil price spike if Russia’s oil is suddenly taken off the global market.

    Insurance companies and other firms needed to ship oil would only be able to deal with Russian crude if the oil is priced at or below the cap. Most of the insurers are located in the EU or the United Kingdom and could be required to participate in the cap. Without insurance, tanker owners may be reluctant to take on Russian oil and face obstacles in delivering it.

    HOW WOULD OIL KEEP FLOWING TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?

    Universal enforcement of the insurance ban, imposed by the EU and U.K. in earlier rounds of sanctions, could take so much Russian crude off the market that oil prices would spike, Western economies would suffer, and Russia would see increased earnings from whatever oil it can ship in defiance of the embargo.

    Russia, the world’s No. 2 oil producer, has already rerouted much of its supply to India, China and other Asian countries at discounted prices after Western customers shunned it even before the EU ban.

    One purpose of the cap is to provide a legal framework “to allow the flow of Russian oil to continue and to reduce the windfall revenue for Russia at the same time,” said Claudio Galimberti, a senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.

    “It is essential for the global crude markets that Russian oil still finds markets to be sold, after the EU ban is operative,” he added. “In the absence of that, global oil prices would skyrocket.”

    WHAT EFFECT WOULD DIFFERENT CAP LEVELS HAVE?

    A cap of between $65 and $70 per barrel could let Russia keep selling oil and while keeping its earnings to current levels. Russian oil is trading at around $63 per barrel, a considerable discount to international benchmark Brent.

    A lower cap — at around $50 per barrel — would make it difficult for Russia to balance its state budget, with Moscow believed to require around $60 to $70 per barrel to do that, its so-called “fiscal break-even.”

    However, that $50 cap would be still be above Russia’s cost of production of between $30 and $40 per barrel, giving Moscow an incentive to keep selling oil simply to avoid having to cap wells that can be hard to restart.

    WHAT IF RUSSIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES WON’T GO ALONG?

    Russian has said it will not observe a cap and will halt deliveries to countries that do. A lower cap of around $50 could be more likely to provoke that response, or Russia could halt the last of its remaining natural gas supplies to Europe.

    China and India might not go along with the cap, while China could form its own insurance companies to replace those barred by U.S., U.K. and Europe.

    Galimberti says China and India are already enjoying discounted oil and may not want to alienate Russia.

    “China and India get Russia’s crude at a huge discount to Brent, therefore, they don’t necessarily need a price cap to continue to enjoy a discount,” he said. “By complying with the cap set by the G-7, they risk alienating Russia. As a result, we do believe that the compliance with the price cap would not be high.”

    Russia could also turn to schemes such as transferring oil from ship to ship to disguise its origins and mixing its oil with other types to skirt the ban.

    So it remains to be seen what effect the cap would have.

    WHAT ABOUT THE EU EMBARGO?

    The biggest impact from the EU embargo may come not on Dec. 5, as Europe finds new suppliers and Russian barrels are rerouted, but on Feb. 5, when Europe’s additional ban on refinery products made from oil — such as diesel fuel — come into effect.

    Europe will have to turn to alternative supplies from the U.S., Middle East and India. “There is going to be a shortfall, and this will result in very high prices,” Galimberti said.

    Europe still has many cars that run on diesel. The fuel also is used for truck transport to get a huge range of goods to consumers and to run agricultural machinery — so those higher costs will be spread throughout the economy.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • IEA chief sees energy crunch for Europe next winter

    IEA chief sees energy crunch for Europe next winter

    [ad_1]

    BERLIN — Europe should be able to cope with the natural gas supply crunch in the coming months thanks to considerable reserves although the continent could face a bigger energy crisis next winter, the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

    Fatih Birol said that, barring unforeseen events, “Europe will go through this winter with some economic and social headaches, bruises here and there” as a result of efforts to wean itself off Russian gas and the wider increase in energy costs resulting from the war in Ukraine.

    “Next winter will be more difficult than this winter” he said.

    Birol cited the fact that Russian gas supplies to Europe may end completely next year, while China’s demand for liquefied natural gas looks set to rebound as its economy recovers from the pandemic.

    Meanwhile, the IEA projects new gas capacity coming online in 2023 to be the lowest in two decades, he said.

    “(This) is the reason Europe needs to prepare today for next year,” Birol said, adding that solidarity among European nations was key.

    Speaking at an energy symposium in Berlin hosted by the German government, the IEA chief said Russia can also expect to feel some costly effects of its falling out with European energy buyers over Ukraine.

    With 75% of Russia’s gas exports and 55% of its oil going to Europe before the war, Moscow needs to find new markets for its output, he said.

    Birol called it “completely wrong” to assume Russia will simply deliver to Asia, noting that pipelines through Siberia would take a decade to build and oil tankers need ten-times longer to reach clients in the East than in Europe.

    Additionally, the departure of specialized oil and gas technology companies from Russia due to the sanctions means production at challenging extraction sites is likely to fall.

    “Russia is set to lose the energy battle big time,” Birol said, adding that the IEA has calculated Moscow will lose about $1 trillion in revenue by 2030 because of its war in Ukraine.

    While noting that the energy crisis also has severe impacts on developing nations, Birol said it would help speed up the transition to alternatives to fossil fuels.

    “When I look at the (efforts to ensure) energy security, climate commitments and industrial policy drivers, I am optimistic that the current energy crisis will be a turning point in the history of energy policy making,” he said.

    Still, this will require a five-fold increase in clean energy investments compared to today, said Birol.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • EU nations work on rift over gas price cap as cold sets in

    EU nations work on rift over gas price cap as cold sets in

    [ad_1]

    BRUSSELS — On winter’s doorstep, European Union nations have not been able to surmount bitter disagreements as they struggle to effectively shield 450 million citizens from massive increases in their natural gas bills as cold weather sets in.

    An emergency meeting of energy ministers Thursday only shows how the energy crisis tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine has divided the 27-nation bloc in almost irreconcilable blocs.

    A massive August spike in natural gas prices stunned all but the wealthiest in the EU, forcing the bloc to look for a cap to contain volatile prices that are fueling inflation. Following several delays, energy ministers are back trying to break a deadlock between nations that are demanding cheaper gas to ease household bills — including Greece, Spain, Belgium, France and Poland — and those like Germany and the Netherlands that are insisting a price cap could cut supplies.

    A solution was nowhere near the horizon — to the frustration of many.

    “It’s already minus 10 (Celsius) in Poland,” said the nation’s energy minister, Anna Moskwa. “It’s winter now.”

    Natural gas and electricity prices have soared as Moscow has slashed gas supplies to Europe used for heating, electricity and industrial processes. European officials have accused Russia of energy warfare to punish EU countries for supporting Ukraine.

    So finding a deal is not only about providing warmth to citizens but also about showing a united front to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Talks have dragged on for months and even if a summit of EU leaders proclaimed some sort of breakthrough last month, nothing has been visible on the ground. Nations had been waiting for a proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to set a threshold for a price cap, and when it came Tuesday, there was dismay and accusations it could never work.

    The commission set a threshold for a “safety price ceiling” to kick in if prices exceed 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks and if they are 58 euros higher than the price for liquefied natural gas on world markets.

    In political language, it means that such a system might not even have averted hikes as high as in August.

    “Setting a ceiling at 275 euros is not actually a ceiling,” said Greek Energy Minister Konstantinos Skrekas, who called for a cap that could go as low as 150 euros.

    “We are losing valuable time without results,” he added.

    In comparison, the price stood at 125 euros per megawatt-hour on Europe’s TTF benchmark Thursday. Since the price has fallen since the summertime peaks, diplomats have said the urgency has abated somewhat, even though it could pick up quickly again if the weather is colder than normal and supplies get tight.

    Some 15 nations are united around these views, but Germany and the Netherlands lead another group wanting to ensure that gas supply ships would not bypass Europe because they could get better prices elsewhere.

    “Security of supply is paramount. Europe still has to be an attractive gas market,” Estonian Economy Minister Riina Sikkut said.

    No decisive breakthrough was expected at Thursday’s meeting.

    Czech Industry Minister Jozef Síkela, who chaired the emergency meeting, said he was well aware of the “emotional reactions” the commission proposal had sparked and predicted that talks would be “rather spicy.”

    As a result of trade disruptions tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, EU nations have reduced the overall share of Russian natural gas imports to the EU from 40% before the invasion to around 7%. And gas storage has already far exceeded targets and stand nearly at capacity.

    The EU has relied on increased imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, including from the United States, to help address the fall in Russian supplies.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Report: Norway sentences Russian for flying drone

    Report: Norway sentences Russian for flying drone

    [ad_1]

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A 34-year-old Russian was sentenced to 90 days in prison on Wednesday for flying a drone and thereby breaching sanctions which came into force after Russia went to war against Ukraine.

    The man, who was not identified, was not suspected of espionage, the Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende reported.

    He admitted to flying the drone in southern Norway to photograph nature, the daily said, adding he claimed to be unaware that this was banned.

    Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory.” Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves and decided on the ban earlier this year after the invasion.

    The prosecution had asked for a 120-day sentence. Prosecutor Marit Formo said she was “very satisfied with the verdict” of the Hordaland District Court.

    Numerous drone sightings have been reported near offshore oil and gas platforms belonging to NATO member Norway, a major oil and gas producer, in recent weeks. Several Russian citizens have been detained over the past few weeks for flying drones or taking photographs of sensitive sites in Norway.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Asian shares gain after earnings-fueled rally on Wall Street

    Asian shares gain after earnings-fueled rally on Wall Street

    [ad_1]

    BANGKOK — Asian shares advanced on Wednesday after solid earnings pushed retailers higher on Wall Street ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

    New Zealand’s share benchmark fell 0.9% after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a point to 4.25%, striving to rein in inflation that is now at 7.2%.

    It’s the first time the bank has raised rates by more than a half-point since introducing the Official Cash Rate in 1999. The new rate is the highest in New Zealand since early 2009.

    Markets were closed in Japan for a holiday.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 0.9% to 17,600.93 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.5% to 2,417.97. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.7% to 7,231.80.

    The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.2% to 3,082.95. Shares rose in Southeast Asia.

    On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 1.4% to 4,003.58 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2% to 34,098.10. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite added 1.4% to 11,174.41.

    Smaller company stocks also got a boost. The Russell 2000 rose 1.2%, to 1,860.44.

    All the company sectors in the benchmark S&P 500 index rose, with technology stocks driving much of the rally. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 4.7%.

    Best Buy soared 12.8% after the Minneapolis-based consumer electronics chain did better than analysts expected and said a decline in sales for the year will not be as bad as it had projected earlier.

    Energy stocks notched the biggest gain as the price of U.S. crude oil rose 1.5%. Chevron rose 2.6%.

    Long-term Treasury yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 3.76% from 3.84% late Monday.

    The Federal Reserve will release minutes Wednesday from its latest policy meeting, potentially giving investors more insight into its decision-making process. Wall Street has been hoping that the central bank might ease up on its aggressive rate increases. Its benchmark rate currently stands at 3.75% to 4%, up from close to zero in March.

    “Ahead of the release of Fed minutes, much focus has been placed on a slowing down on the pace of rate hikes,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. “Nonetheless, even if a Fed rate hike step down might be imminent, the picture on risk/growth outlook is far from certain.”

    Investors have very little other news to review this week, but several retailers and technology companies are closing out the latest round of corporate earnings with their financial results.

    Dell Technologies rose 6.8% after the computer maker reported strong third-quarter profit and revenue. Zoom Video slumped 3.9% after giving investors a weak profit and revenue forecast.

    Several retailers made particularly strong gains following solid financial results. Abercrombie & Fitch surged 21.4% and American Eagle jumped 18.2%.

    The Fed has warned that it may have to ultimately raise rates to previously unanticipated levels to cool the hottest inflation in decades. That raises the risk it could go too far in slowing economic growth and bring on a recession.

    The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is forecasting modest economic growth globally this year and more tepid growth in 2023. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues threatening energy supplies and key food commodities including wheat. A resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China continues threatening the world’s second-largest economy and global supply chains.

    “In 2023, we expect less pain but also no gain,” stated a report from Goldman Sachs looking ahead to the new year.

    The investment bank expects inflation and high interest rates to essentially flatten out corporate earnings and hold the broader stock market at its current levels, with the S&P 500 ending 2023 where it currently sits at around 4,000 points.

    In other trading Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude gained 11 cents to $81.06 per gallon in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It added 91 cents to $80.95 per gallon on Tuesday.

    Brent crude, the standard for pricing international oil for trading, was unchanged at $87.70 per gallon.

    The dollar rose to 141.38 Japanese yen from 141.24 yen. The euro was trading at $1.0326, up from $1.0302.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

    ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine could face rolling blackouts across the country through March, an energy expert said, due to what another official described Tuesday as the “colossal” damage done to Ukraine‘s power grid by relentless Russian airstrikes. Ukrainians are being told to stock up on supplies, evacuate hard-hit areas — or even think about leaving the country altogether.

    Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said the company was under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital Kyiv and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

    “Although there are fewer blackouts now, I want everyone to understand: Most likely, Ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko warned in a Facebook post.

    “I think we need to be prepared for different options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about what will help you wait out a long shutdown,” he said, addressing Ukrainian residents.

    Russia has been pummeling Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure from the air for weeks, as the war approaches its nine-month milestone. That onslaught has caused widespread blackouts and deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water.

    “This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, due to the lack of power and Ukraine’s damaged health facilities.

    Temperatures commonly stay below freezing in Ukraine in the winter, and snow has already fallen in many areas, including Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions out of fear that the winter will be too hard to survive.

    Kovalenko said even if no more Russian airstrikes occur, scheduled outages will be needed across Ukraine to ensure that power is evenly distributed across the country’s battered energy grid.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian missile strikes have damaged more than 50% of the country’s energy facilities.

    “The scale of destruction is colossal” on the power grid from the Russian barrage last week, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the state-owned power grid operator, told Ukrainian TV on Tuesday.

    He said Ukraine has “practically no intact thermal (or) hydroelectric power plants” following the large-scale attack by Moscow on Nov. 15.

    Also Tuesday, the Kyiv regional authorities said more than 150 settlements were enduring emergency blackouts due to the onset of winter weather, including snowfall and high winds. More than 70 repair teams have been deployed to restore power across the province.

    The battle for terrain has continued unabated despite the deteriorating weather conditions, with Ukrainian forces pressing against Russian positions as part of a weeks-long counteroffensive and Moscow’s forces keeping up shelling and missile strikes.

    In a key battlefield development, a Ukrainian official acknowledged that Kyiv’s forces are attacking Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit, which is a gateway to the Black Sea basin and parts of the southern Kherson region that are still under Russian control.

    Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South, said in televised remarks that Ukrainian forces are “continuing a military operation” in the area.

    The Kinburn Spit is Russia’s last outpost in Ukraine’s southern Mykolayiv region, directly west of Kherson. Ukrainian forces recently liberated other parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Moscow has used the Kinburn Spit as a staging ground for missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Mykolaiv province, and elsewhere along the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast.

    Ukraine recently recaptured the city of Kherson, on the western bank of the Dnieper River, and surrounding areas.

    Recapturing the Kinburn Spit could help Ukrainian forces push into territory that Russia still holds in the Kherson region “under significantly less Russian artillery fire” than directly crossing the Dnieper, a Washington-based think tank said. The Institute for the Study of War added that control of the area would help Kyiv alleviate Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern seaports and allow Ukraine to increase its naval activity in the Black Sea.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s presidential office said Tuesday that at least eight civilians were killed and 16 were injured over the previous 24 hours, as Moscow’s forces once again used drones, rockets and heavy artillery to pound eight Ukrainian regions.

    In the eastern Donetsk region, fierce battles continued around the city of Bakhmut, where the Kremlin’s forces are keen to clinch a victory after weeks of embarrassing military setbacks. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also said Russia launched missiles at the city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian military hub, and on the strategic city of Avdiivka.

    He added that power and communications were nonexistent in most of the Donetsk region.

    According to Ukraine’s presidential office, one civilian was killed and three others wounded after Russia shelled the city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured on Nov. 10.

    Since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the war has killed at least 16,784 civilians and injured 10,189, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates.

    But U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated earlier this month that some 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded.

    ———

    Follow all AP stories about the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • US stocks rise, remain unsteady ahead of Thanksgiving

    US stocks rise, remain unsteady ahead of Thanksgiving

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Stocks rose on Wall Street Tuesday morning but trading remained unsteady ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

    The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 276 points, or 0.8%, to 33.880 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.3%.

    Financial and technology companies gained ground. ground. Charles Schwab rose 2.6% and chipmaker Nvidia rose 1.3%.

    Energy stocks moved higher along with a 2% rise in U.S. crude oil prices. Chevron rose 2.1%.

    Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, slipped to 3.78% from 3.84% late Monday.

    Investors have very little news to review this week, but several retailers and technology companies are closing out the latest round of corporate earnings with their financial results. Best Buy surged 9.8% after the electronics retailer did better than analysts expected and said a decline in sales for the year will not be as bad as it had projected earlier.

    Dell Technologies rose 4.2% after the computer maker reported strong third-quarter profit and revenue. Zoom Video slumped 7.5% after giving investors a weak profit and revenue forecast.

    Nearly every company in the S&P 500 has reported their latest financial results, according to FactSet, and the results have been mixed. Companies in the index have reported overall earnings growth of about 2%, but have also issued various warnings about weaker consumer demand and crimped sales as inflation continues squeezing consumers.

    Inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fight to tame it remains the main concern for Wall Street. The central bank on Wednesday will release minutes from its latest policy meeting, potentially giving investors more insight into its decision-making process.

    Wall Street has been hoping that the central bank might ease up on its aggressive rate increases. Its benchmark rate currently stands at 3.75% to 4%, up from close to zero in March.

    The Fed has warned that it may have to ultimately raise rates to previously unanticipated level to cool the hottest inflation in decades. That strategy raises the risk that it could go too far in slowing economic growth and bring on a recession.

    Markets in Europe and Asia were mostly higher.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • UN climate boss settles for no cuts on emissions

    UN climate boss settles for no cuts on emissions

    [ad_1]

    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Given an energy crisis in Europe and progress made in helping climate victims, the new climate chief for the United Nations said he’ll settle for a lack of new emissions-cutting action coming out of the now-concluded climate talks in Egypt.

    It could have been worse, UN Executive Secretary for Climate Simon Stiell said in a seaside interview with The Associated Press. The talks did achieve the historic creation of a fund for poor nations that are victims of climate disasters, he said.

    The progress made last year at the global climate meeting in Glasgow was maintained. “There was no backtracking. Which as a result, one could say, is highly unambitious. And I would actually agree,” a tired Stiell said hours after the Egyptian climate talks finished with one last around-the-clock push.

    “To say that … we have, stood still. Yeah, that’s not great,” Stiell said. But he still likes the overall outcome of the first set of climate talks he oversaw, in particular the long-sought compensation fund for nations that didn’t cause warming.

    Outside experts agree with Stiell that nothing was done on the central issue of reducing emissions that cause climate change and disasters like flooding in Pakistan.

    “In the shadow of the energy crisis, there were no major new climate protection commitments at the conference,” said climate scientist Niklas Hohne, founder of the NewClimate Institute in Germany. “Glasgow a year ago was a small but important step in the right direction, with many new national targets and new international initiatives. None of that happened this year.”

    That’s despite the fact that more than 90 nations repeatedly asked — many of them publicly — for the agreement to include a phase down of oil and gas use. The Glasgow agreement calls for a phase down of “unabated coal” — that is, coal burning where the carbon goes into the atmosphere rather than being captured somehow. Poor nations point out that they rely more on coal whereas oil and gas are used more in rich countries. These should also be required to phase down they said. In closing remarks at the talks, Stiell himself called for a phase down of oil and gas.

    But the Egyptian presidency never put the proposal, which came from India, in any of the decision documents. The country that hosts and runs the climate talks has the power to make that choice.

    Critics — including negotiators during the talks — blasted the Egyptian presidency and its agenda setting. Environmental groups repeatedly pointed out Egypt’s dependence on exports of natural gas, its role as operator of Suez Canal petroleum traffic and income from neighboring oil states. Oil and natural gas are both principal contributors to climate change.

    Next year’s climate talks will be held in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil power. Environmental advocates and outside experts fear that oil and gas phase down language won’t get a fair shake next year either.

    Asked about the wisdom of having fossil fuel exporting countries host and control climate talks, Stiell said: “They are part of the problem, but they are also part of the solution.” To try to manage this process without their involvement, would give “an incomplete picture,” he said.

    “The global economy is still based certainly on oil and gas. And that is the challenge,” Stiell said.

    Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, a climate scientist, called this a serious problem.

    “The massive presence of oil and gas interests at the COP undermines the integrity of the UN climate process and could be slowly eroding its legitimacy,” Hare said. “The suspected influence of petrol states and oil and gas lobbyists on the Egyptian presidency Is unhealthy to say the least.”

    Analyst Alex Scott of E3G said Egypt showed “a sense of willful ignorance” in not considering a document with a call for oil and gas phase down. The influence of petro states on the presidency happens out of site and “is the right question to ask,” she said.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the climate talks president, didn’t answer a shouted question Sunday about oil and gas phase down language.

    Stiell said countries have to keep coming back and putting pressure on each other to include language calling for a phase down on oil and gas. That worked for this year’s key accomplishment — the establishment of a fund for poor nations that are victims of climate disasters.

    But that also took more than 30 years.

    While critics bash Egypt and cite the influence of fossil fuel interests in the lack of action on reducing emissions, also known as mitigation, Stiell attributed the inaction to other things going on.

    He said there were complaints that last year’s climate talks were too mitigation oriented and this year’s talks restored balance.

    “You cannot do too much mitigation!” Hohne responded in an email. The global goal of limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, “remains in intensive care as conditions deteriorate. The conference met the minimum requirements, but that is far from enough.”

    But getting the climate fund was a big and all-consuming accomplishment, Stiell said. Before he took the UN climate chief job this summer, he had been working on it as a cabinet minister for the small island nation of Grenada.

    “This is a 30-year discussion,” Stiell said. “I’ve been involved in that for ten years as a Grenadian minister, hearing just how ‘this can’t be done’ and how ‘this is impossible’.”

    Mohamed Adow of the environmental group Powershift Africa agreed. “COP27 was a surprise precisely because for once the needs of the vulnerable were actually listened to,” he said.

    As he looks back, Stiell said he still has great hope.

    “So progress: incremental, slight, insufficient. A lot more to be done,” Stiell said summing up climate change fighting efforts. “We’re still right there in the middle of crisis mode.”

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    ———

    Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

    ———

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • UN climate boss settles for no cuts on emissions

    UN climate boss settles for no cuts on emissions

    [ad_1]

    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Given an energy crisis in Europe and progress made in helping climate victims, the new climate chief for the United Nations said he’ll settle for a lack of new emissions-cutting action coming out of the now-concluded climate talks in Egypt.

    It could have been worse, UN Executive Secretary for Climate Simon Stiell said in a seaside interview with The Associated Press. The talks did achieve the historic creation of a fund for poor nations that are victims of climate disasters, he said.

    The progress made last year at the global climate meeting in Glasgow was maintained. “There was no backtracking. Which as a result, one could say, is highly unambitious. And I would actually agree,” a tired Stiell said hours after the Egyptian climate talks finished with one last around-the-clock push.

    “To say that … we have, stood still. Yeah, that’s not great,” Stiell said. But he still likes the overall outcome of the first set of climate talks he oversaw, in particular the long-sought compensation fund for nations that didn’t cause warming.

    Outside experts agree with Stiell that nothing was done on the central issue of reducing emissions that cause climate change and disasters like flooding in Pakistan.

    “In the shadow of the energy crisis, there were no major new climate protection commitments at the conference,” said climate scientist Niklas Hohne, founder of the NewClimate Institute in Germany. “Glasgow a year ago was a small but important step in the right direction, with many new national targets and new international initiatives. None of that happened this year.”

    That’s despite the fact that more than 90 nations repeatedly asked — many of them publicly — for the agreement to include a phase down of oil and gas use. The Glasgow agreement calls for a phase down of “unabated coal” — that is, coal burning where the carbon goes into the atmosphere rather than being captured somehow. Poor nations point out that they rely more on coal whereas oil and gas are used more in rich countries. These should also be required to phase down they said. In closing remarks at the talks, Stiell himself called for a phase down of oil and gas.

    But the Egyptian presidency never put the proposal, which came from India, in any of the decision documents. The country that hosts and runs the climate talks has the power to make that choice.

    Critics — including negotiators during the talks — blasted the Egyptian presidency and its agenda setting. Environmental groups repeatedly pointed out Egypt’s dependence on exports of natural gas, its role as operator of Suez Canal petroleum traffic and income from neighboring oil states. Oil and natural gas are both principal contributors to climate change.

    Next year’s climate talks will be held in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil power. Environmental advocates and outside experts fear that oil and gas phase down language won’t get a fair shake next year either.

    Asked about the wisdom of having fossil fuel exporting countries host and control climate talks, Stiell said: “They are part of the problem, but they are also part of the solution.” To try to manage this process without their involvement, would give “an incomplete picture,” he said.

    “The global economy is still based certainly on oil and gas. And that is the challenge,” Stiell said.

    Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, a climate scientist, called this a serious problem.

    “The massive presence of oil and gas interests at the COP undermines the integrity of the UN climate process and could be slowly eroding its legitimacy,” Hare said. “The suspected influence of petrol states and oil and gas lobbyists on the Egyptian presidency Is unhealthy to say the least.”

    Analyst Alex Scott of E3G said Egypt showed “a sense of willful ignorance” in not considering a document with a call for oil and gas phase down. The influence of petro states on the presidency happens out of site and “is the right question to ask,” she said.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the climate talks president, didn’t answer a shouted question Sunday about oil and gas phase down language.

    Stiell said countries have to keep coming back and putting pressure on each other to include language calling for a phase down on oil and gas. That worked for this year’s key accomplishment — the establishment of a fund for poor nations that are victims of climate disasters.

    But that also took more than 30 years.

    While critics bash Egypt and cite the influence of fossil fuel interests in the lack of action on reducing emissions, also known as mitigation, Stiell attributed the inaction to other things going on.

    He said there were complaints that last year’s climate talks were too mitigation oriented and this year’s talks restored balance.

    “You cannot do too much mitigation!” Hohne responded in an email. The global goal of limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, “remains in intensive care as conditions deteriorate. The conference met the minimum requirements, but that is far from enough.”

    But getting the climate fund was a big and all-consuming accomplishment, Stiell said. Before he took the UN climate chief job this summer, he had been working on it as a cabinet minister for the small island nation of Grenada.

    “This is a 30-year discussion,” Stiell said. “I’ve been involved in that for ten years as a Grenadian minister, hearing just how ‘this can’t be done’ and how ‘this is impossible’.”

    Mohamed Adow of the environmental group Powershift Africa agreed. “COP27 was a surprise precisely because for once the needs of the vulnerable were actually listened to,” he said.

    As he looks back, Stiell said he still has great hope.

    “So progress: incremental, slight, insufficient. A lot more to be done,” Stiell said summing up climate change fighting efforts. “We’re still right there in the middle of crisis mode.”

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    ———

    Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

    ———

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Qatar’s World Cup opener shows its reemergence after boycott

    Qatar’s World Cup opener shows its reemergence after boycott

    [ad_1]

    AL KHOR, Qatar — Qatar opened the Middle East’s first World Cup on Sunday with its ruler sitting next to the leaders of two countries that only a year and a half earlier had been part of a boycott trying to bring the energy-rich nation to its knees.

    No leaders of major Western countries were seen at the opening ceremony for the tournament in Qatar, which has faced intense criticism, particularly in Europe, over its treatment of migrant laborers and the LGBTQ community.

    The presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi shows how far Qatar has come since the boycott that saw its sole land border and air routes cut off for years as part of a political dispute.

    Also on the dais with leaders was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who provided a vital lifeline to Qatar during the crisis. But missing were the leaders of the two other nations involved the dispute — Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — illustrating that a full rapprochement across the typically clubby Gulf Arab nations remains far off.

    Prince Mohammed smiled broadly and sat only one seat away from Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ruling emir, at the opening ceremony in Al Khor north of the capital, Doha. Between them was Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, the governing body of world soccer.

    At the height of the crisis, newspaper columns even suggested digging a trench along the 87-kilometer (54-mile) border and filling it with nuclear waste. While rhetorical bluster, it showed how deeply the anger ran in the region amid the dispute — which Kuwait’s then-ruler suggested nearly sparked a war.

    Its root came from Qatar’s stance in supporting the Islamists who rose to power in Egypt and elsewhere following the 2011 Arab Spring. While Qatar viewed their arrival as a sea change in the gerontocracies gripping the Mideast, other Gulf Arab nations saw the protests as a threat to their autocratic and hereditary rule.

    Qatar also faced criticism from the West as groups they funded initially in Syria’s civil war became extremists. Qatar later would deny that it ever funded Islamic extremists, despite criticism from across the American political spectrum from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump.

    Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, follows an ultraconservative version of Islam known as Wahhabism. Yet the country allows alcohol to be served in hotel bars and at a FIFA Fan Zone in the country. Already, some in the country have criticized what they view as Western cultural extravaganzas of the tournament — likely leading to the stadium beer ban.

    Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based arm of the extremist group, issued a communique Saturday criticizing the Qataris for hosting a tournament “bringing immoral people, homosexuals, sowers of corruption and atheism.”

    “We warn our Muslim brothers from following this event or attending it,” the group said, calling on scholars not to support it. However, the al-Qaida arm did not directly threaten the tournament and has been weakened by years of drone strikes from American forces and engulfed by Yemen’s ongoing war.

    On hand Sunday night at the opening was U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

    Kuwait’s crown prince came, along with the director-general of the World Health Organization and Djibouti’s president.

    But the biggest applause came for Sheikh Tamim and his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who secured the tournament back in 2010.

    Meanwhile, Iran sent just its minister of youth and sports — not its hard-line president — as the Islamic Republic faces monthslong protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman earlier detained by the country’s morality police.

    It was unclear at what level Western nations were represented at the ceremony and the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. On Saturday, Infantino delivered an unusual speech at a news conference where he scolded Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record ahead of the tournament, saying they were in no position to give “moral lectures” given their history.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Lujain Jo contributed to this report.

    ———

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • How major US stock indexes fared Friday 11/18/2022

    How major US stock indexes fared Friday 11/18/2022

    [ad_1]

    Stocks ended higher on Wall Street but still wound up with weekly losses after several days of bumpy trading.

    Some retailers posted big gains after reporting surprisingly strong quarterly results and giving investors encouraging forecasts. Gap, Ross Stores and Foot Locker all rose sharply. Energy stocks fell along with crude oil prices.

    The S&P 500 rose Friday. The Nasdaq ended just barely in the green and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which helps set mortgage rates, gained ground.

    On Friday:

    The S&P 500 rose 18.78 points, or 0.5%, to 3,965.34.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 199.37 points, or 0.6%, to 33,745.69.

    The Nasdaq rose 1.10 points, or less than 0.1%, to 11,146.06.

    The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.61 points, or 0.6%, to 1,849.73.

    For the week:

    The S&P 500 is down 27.59 points, or 0.7%.

    The Dow is down 2.17 points, or less than 0.1%.

    The Nasdaq is down 177.27 points, or 1.6%.

    The Russell 2000 is down 33.01 points, or 1.8%.

    For the year:

    The S&P 500 is down 800.84 points, or 16.8%.

    The Dow is down 2,592.61 points, or 7.1%.

    The Nasdaq is down 4,498.91 points, or 28.8%.

    The Russell 2000 is down 395.58 points, or 17.6%.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • West Texas earthquake causes damage hundreds of miles away

    West Texas earthquake causes damage hundreds of miles away

    [ad_1]

    MENTONE, Texas — A strong earthquake that struck a remote area of the West Texas desert caused damage in San Antonio, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, officials said.

    University Health said Thursday that its Robert B. Green historical building was deemed unsafe because of damage sustained from the quake, which hit Wednesday in a remote area near the New Mexico border. The historical building is more than 100 years old and has been closed off for safety reasons, University Health said.

    The quake initially had a 5.3 magnitude but that was revised upward to 5.4. The earthquake’s epicenter was about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Mentone, a tiny community about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio.

    It was one of the strongest earthquakes on record in Texas and hit in an area known for oil and gas production. On Thursday, the state’s Railroad Commission — which regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry — sent inspectors to the site to determine whether any actions were needed.

    Earthquakes in the south-central United States have been linked to oil and gas production, particularly the underground injection of wastewater. The U.S. Geological Survey said research suggests that a 5.0 magnitude quake that struck the same West Texas area in 2020 was the result of a large increase of wastewater injection in the region.

    In neighboring Oklahoma, thousands of earthquakes of varying magnitudes have been recorded in the past decade, leading state regulators to direct producers to close some injection wells.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Sweden: Traces of explosives found at Baltic Sea pipelines

    Sweden: Traces of explosives found at Baltic Sea pipelines

    [ad_1]

    HELSINKI — Investigators found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminary investigation said Friday.

    Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigators carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significant methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.

    “Analysis carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found” at the site, Ljungqvist said in a statement.

    The prosecution authority said the preliminary investigation was “very complex and comprehensive” and further scrutiny would show whether anyone could be charged “with suspicion of crime.”

    Investigators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are looking into what happened. Danish officials confirmed in October that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions.”

    The leaks, which stopped after several days, occurred in international waters but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Investigators have not given indications of whom they think might be responsible but reported earlier that the blasts were likely to have involved several hundred pounds of explosives.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”

    Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.

    Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

    The governments of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculating over who may be behind the sabotage, saying only that there’s no sufficient proof yet to identify the perpetrator.

    But some Nordic and other European media outlets have pointed a finger of blame on Moscow, hosting military experts suggesting that Russia has all the resources to carry out such a precise attack requiring careful advance planning.

    Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said late September it was “very obvious” who was responsible of the pipeline sabotage, suggesting Russia’s involvement.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of blowing up the pipelines and singled out the United States as profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

    Earlier this week, Germany marked the completion of port facilities for the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to get running as it replaces the Russian pipeline gas that once accounted for more than half its supplies.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic

    High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic

    [ad_1]

    OSTRAVA, Czech Republic — In this part of northeastern Czech Republic, huge piles of coal are stacked up ready to sell to eager buyers and smoke belches from coal-fired plants that are ramping up instead of winding down.

    Ostrava has been working for decades to end its legacy as the most polluted area of the country, transitioning from an industrial working-class stronghold to a modern city with tourist sights. But Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered an energy crisis in Europe that as paved the way for coal’s comeback, endangering climate goals and threatening health from increased pollution.

    Households and businesses are turning to the fuel once considered obsolete as they seek a cheaper option than natural gas, whose prices have surged as Russia slashed supplies to Europe.

    Demand for brown coal — the cheapest and most energy inefficient form — used by Czech households jumped by almost 35% in the first nine months of 2022 over a year earlier.

    In the same period, production rose more than 20%, the first increase after an almost continuous, decadeslong decline, the Czech Industry and Trade Ministry said.

    “We’re worried,” said Zdenka Němečková Crkvenjaš, who is responsible for environment as a member the governing council of the Moravian-Silesian region. “If the prices won’t go down, what might happen is that we’ll be facing an increased pollution.”

    The region is part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, a large industrialized area straddling the Czech-Polish border with rich deposits of coal and factories producing steel, power and the type of coal used for steel-making that date to the 19th century.

    A combination of burning coal for residential heating and industrial plants resulted in “catastrophic” air pollution at the end of the communist era in 1989, said Petr Jančík from Technical University Ostrava, an air pollution expert who cooperated on the Air Tritia project that recently produced an online model of the polluted air on the Czech-Polish-Slovak border.

    Coal-fired power is not only disastrous for climate, it’s also a health hazard, releasing heavy particle emissions, nitrogen oxides and mercury, which contaminates fish in lakes and rivers.

    A decline of industrial and mining activities and advent of new environmental standards after the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004 vastly improved air quality.

    But big challenges remain.

    Airborne dust emissions — PM10 particles — now meet environmental limits in the region, but concentrations of smaller PM2.5 particles that can reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream still do not hit World Health Organization standards.

    A 2021 study of more than 800 European cities by Spain’s Barcelona Institute for Global Health, or ISGlobal, puts the regional capital of Ostrava and the nearby towns of Karviná and Havířov among the top 10 most polluted European cities. It estimated that 529 deaths a year could be avoided in those three cities if air quality guidelines are met.

    Burning coal also spews the dangerous substance benzo(a)pyrene, whose levels are still high despite government programs that pay to replace old furnaces with more effective ones that reduce pollution.

    Some 50,000 furnaces still need to be replaced in the Ostrava region, said Němečková Crkvenjaš, estimating that figure at 500,000 in a more populated and polluted area across the border in Poland.

    “I’m afraid this winter won’t be ideal as far the air pollution is concerned,” she said. “I’ll be delighted if I’m wrong.”

    Roman Vank, a board member for coal seller Ridera in Ostrava, said coal sales went up some 30% compared with last year. The cheapest form — brown coal — was most in demand.

    Jančík, the scientist, said the impact to air quality is hard to predict right away, especially if it’s another mild winter, and that pollution “might get only slightly worse.”

    He said a positive development is that high natural gas and electricity prices force people to acquire solar panels, more effective heating systems and try to become less dependent on sources of energy.

    “There are two opposing trends: The first one is that people have been trying to use better and more efficient furnaces, and the second one is they consider using more coal and wood,” Jančík said. “That’s perhaps a result of a shock or worries, and they want to get supplies ready.”

    Czech Greenpeace spokesman Lukáš Hrábek expected a negative impact in the near future.

    “We see conflicting trends right now. We see higher coal consumption, but at the same time, we see a massive investment in renewable energies, in heat pumps, in insulation,” Hrábek said. “So it’s hard to say what the long-term effect will be, but the short-term effect is quite obvious, the air pollution will be worse because of the higher coal consumption.”

    In another sign of coal’s revival, the Czech Republic has reversed plans to completely halt mining near Ostrava to help safeguard power supplies amid the energy crunch.

    The state-owned OKD company will extend its mining activities in in the Ostrava region until at least the end of next year, citing “enormous” demand. It will be mostly used for generating power and household heating, with coal-fired power plants producing almost 50% of the country’s electricity.

    The decision came after the European Union agreed to ban Russian coal starting in August over the war in Ukraine and as it works to reduce the bloc’s energy ties to Russia.

    The Czech government aims to phase out coal in energy production by 2033 and increase its reliance on nuclear power.

    ———

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • US moves to shield Saudi crown prince in journalist killing

    US moves to shield Saudi crown prince in journalist killing

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration declared Thursday that Saudi Arabia‘s crown prince should be considered immune from a lawsuit over his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign trail denunciations of Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal slaying.

    The administration said the senior position of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and recently named prime minister as well, should shield him against a suit brought by the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and by the rights group Khashoggi founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.

    The request is non-binding and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. But it is bound to anger human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers, coming as Saudi Arabia has stepped up imprisonment and other retaliation against peaceful critics at home and abroad and has cut oil production, a move seen as undercutting efforts by the U.S. and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.

    The State Department on Thursday called the administration’s call to shield the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi’s killing “purely a legal determination.”

    The State Department cited what it said was longstanding precedent. Despite its recommendation to the court, the State Department said in its filing late Thursday, it “takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”

    Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. They are believed to have dismembered him, although his remains have never been found. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had approved the killing of the widely known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing of those he considered rivals or critics.

    The Biden administration statement Thursday noted visa restrictions and other penalties that it had meted out to lower-ranking Saudi officials in the death.

    “From the earliest days of this Administration, the United States Government has expressed its grave concerns regarding Saudi agents’ responsibility for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder,” the State Department said. Its statement did not mention the crown prince’s own alleged role.

    Biden as a candidate vowed to make a “pariah” out of Saudi rulers over the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.

    “I think it was a flat-out murder,” Biden said in a 2019 CNN town hall, as a candidate. “And I think we should have nailed it as that. I publicly said at the time we should treat it that way and there should be consequences relating to how we deal with those — that power.”

    But Biden as president has sought to ease tensions with the kingdom, including bumping fists with Prince Mohammed on a July trip to the kingdom, as the U.S. works to persuade Saudi Arabia to undo a series of cuts in oil production.

    Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and DAWN sued the crown prince, his top aides and others in Washington federal court over their alleged roles in Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia says the prince had no direct role in the slaying.

    “It’s beyond ironic that President Biden has singlehandedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable,” the head of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement, using the prince’s acronym.

    Biden in February 2021 had ruled out the U.S. government imposing punishment on Prince Mohammed himself in the killing of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area. Biden, speaking after he authorized release of a declassified version of the intelligence community’s findings on Prince Mohammed’s role in the killing, argued at the time there was no precedent for the U.S. to move against the leader of a strategic partner.

    The U.S. military long has safeguarded Saudi Arabia from external enemies, in exchange for Saudi Arabia keeping global oil markets afloat.

    “It’s impossible to read the Biden administration’s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS’s fake immunity ploy,” Whitson said.

    A federal judge in Washington had given the U.S. government until midnight Thursday to express an opinion on the claim by the crown prince’s lawyers that Prince Mohammed’s high official standing renders him legally immune in the case.

    The Biden administration also had the option of not stating an opinion either way.

    Sovereign immunity, a concept rooted in international law, holds that states and their officials are protected from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts.

    Upholding the concept of “sovereign immunity” helps ensure that American leaders in turn don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries, the State Department said.

    Human rights advocates had argued that the Biden administration would embolden Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world in more rights abuses if it supported the crown prince’s claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.

    Prince Mohammed serves as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the stead of his aged father, King Salman. The Saudi king in September also temporarily transferred his title of prime minister — a title normally held by the Saudi monarch — to Prince Mohammed. Critics called it a bid to strengthen Mohammed’s immunity claim.

    ——

    Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani contributed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Scientists try to bolster Great Barrier Reef in warmer world

    Scientists try to bolster Great Barrier Reef in warmer world

    [ad_1]

    KONOMIE ISLAND, Australia — Below the turquoise waters off the coast of Australia is one of the world’s natural wonders, an underwater rainbow jungle teeming with life that scientists say is showing some of the clearest signs yet of climate change.

    The Great Barrier Reef, battered but not broken by climate change impacts, is inspiring hope and worry alike as researchers race to understand how it can survive a warming world. Authorities are trying to buy the reef time by combining ancient knowledge with new technology. They are studying coral reproduction in hopes to accelerate regrowth and adapt it to handle hotter and rougher seas.

    Underwater heat waves and cyclones driven in part by runaway greenhouse gas emissions have devastated some of the 3,000 coral reefs making up the Great Barrier Reef. Pollution fouls its waters, and outbreaks of crown of thorns starfish have ravaged its corals.

    Researchers say climate change is already challenging the vibrant marine superstructure and all that depend upon it — and that more destruction is to come.

    “This is a clear climate change signal. It’s going to happen again and again,” said Anne Hoggett, director of the Lizard Island Research Station, on the continuing damage to the reef from stronger storms and marine heat waves. “It’s going to be a rollercoaster.”

    ———

    RELATED: Damage and regrowth on the Great Barrier Reef

    ———

    Billions of microscopic animals called polyps have built this breathtaking 1,400-mile long colossus that is visible from space and perhaps a million years old. It is home to thousands of known plant and animal species and boasts a $6.4 billion annual tourism industry.

    “The corals are the engineers. They build shelter and food for countless animals,” said Mike Emslie, head of the Long-Term Monitoring Program of the reef at the Australian Institute for Marine Science.

    Emslie’s team have seen disasters get bigger, and hit more and more frequently over 37 years of underwater surveys.

    Heat waves in recent years drove corals to expel countless tiny organisms that power the reefs through photosynthesis, causing branches to lose their color or “bleach.” Without these algae, corals don’t grow, can become brittle, and provide less for the nearly 9,000 reef-dependent species. Cyclones in the past dozen years smashed acres of corals. Each of these were historic catastrophes in their own right, but without time to recover between events, the reef couldn’t regrow.

    In the last heat wave however, Emslie’s team at AIMS noticed new corals sprouting up faster than expected.

    “The reef is not dead,” he said. “It is an amazing, beautiful, complex, and remarkable system that has the ability to recover if it gets a chance – and the best way we can give it a chance is by cutting carbon emissions.”

    The first step in the government’s reef restoration plan is to understand better the enigmatic life cycle of the coral itself.

    For that, dozens of Australian researchers take to the seas across the reef when conditions are ripe for reproduction in a spawning event that is the only time each year when coral polyps naturally reproduce as winter warms into spring.

    But scientists say that is too slow if corals are to survive global warming. So they don scuba gear to gather coral eggs and sperm during the spawning. Back in labs, they test ways to speed up corals’ reproductive cycle and boost genes that survive higher temperatures.

    One such lab, a ferry retrofitted into a “sci-barge”, floats off the coast of Konomie Island, also known as North Keppel Island, a two-hour boat ride from the mainland in Queensland state.

    One recent blustery afternoon, Carly Randall, who heads the AIMS coral restoration program, stood amidst buckets filled with coral specimens and experimental coral-planting technologies. She said the long-term plan is to grow “tens to hundreds of millions” of baby corals every year and plant them across the reef.

    Randall compared it to tree-planting with drones but underwater.

    Her colleagues at AIMS have successfully bred corals in a lab off-season, a crucial first step in being able to at scale introduce genetic adaptions like heat-resistance.

    Engineers are designing robots to fit in a mothership that would deploy underwater drones. Those drones would attach genetically-selected corals to the reef with boomerang-shaped clips. Corals in specific targets will enhance the reef’s “natural recovery processes” which would eventually “overtake the work that we’ve been doing to keep it going through climate change,” she said.

    Australia has recently been slammed by historic wildfires, floods, and cyclones exacerbated by climate instability.

    That has driven a political shift in the country as voters have grown more concerned with climate change, helping sweep in new national leadership in this year’s federal elections, said Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics.

    The nation’s previous prime minister, Scott Morrison, was a conservative who was chided for minimizing the need to address climate change.

    The new center-left government of Anthony Albanese passed legislation to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and includes 43% green house gas reductions by 2030. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas, and lags behind major industrial countries’ emission targets.

    The new government has blocked a coal plant from being opened near the Great Barrier Reef, yet recently allowed other coal plants new permits.

    It is also continuing investment to boost the reef’s natural ability to adapt to rapidly warming climate.

    The Italy-sized reef is managed like a national park by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

    GBRMPA chief scientist David Wachenfeld said that “despite recent impacts from climate change, the Great Barrier Reef is still a vast, diverse, beautiful and resilient ecosystem.”

    However, that is today, in a world warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit).

    “As we approach two degrees (Celsius) and certainly as we pass it, we will lose the world’s coral reefs and all the benefits that they give to humanity,” Wachenfeld said. He added that as home to over 30% of marine biodiversity, coral reefs are essential for the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people all over the tropics.

    The reef is “part of the national identity of Australians and of enormous spiritual and cultural significance for our First Nations people,” Wachenfeld said.

    After long mistreatment and neglect by the federal government, Indigenous groups now have a growing role in management of the reef. The government seeks their permission for projects there and hires from the communities to study and repair it.

    Multiple members of the Yirrganydji and Gunggandji communities work as guides, sea rangers and researchers on reef protection and restoration projects.

    After scuba diving through turquoise waters teeming with fish and vibrant corals, Tarquin Singleton said his people hold memories more than 60,000 years old of this “sea country” — including previous climatic changes.

    “That connection is ingrained in our DNA,” said Singleton, who is from the Yirrganydji people native to the area around Cairns. He now works as a cultural officer with Reef Cooperative, a joint venture of tourism agencies, the government and Indigenous groups.

    “Utilizing that today can actually preserve what we have for future generations.”

    The Woppaburra people native to Konomie and Woppa islands barely survived Australian colonization. Now they’re forging a new kind of unity “in a way that wouldn’t happen normally” by sharing ancient oral histories and working on research vessels, said Bob Muir, an Indigenous elder working as a community liaison with AIMS.

    For now, reef-wide farming and planting corals is plausible science fiction. It’s too expensive now to scale up to levels needed to “buy the reef time” as humanity cuts emissions, Randall said.

    But she said that within 10 to 15 years the drones could be in the water.

    But Randall warns that robots, coral farms and skilled divers “will absolutely not work if we don’t get emissions under control.”

    “This is one of many tools in the toolkit being developed,” she said. “But unless we can get emissions under control, we don’t have much hope for the reef ecosystem.”

    ———

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment and Sam McNeil on Twitter @stmcneil

    ———

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • US VP Harris arrives in Thailand for Asia-Pacific summit

    US VP Harris arrives in Thailand for Asia-Pacific summit

    [ad_1]

    BANGKOK — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived Thursday in Thailand, where she plans to affirm America’s commitment to Southeast Asia and drive home the message that the region can count on the United States.

    Harris’ visit for a two-day Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit comes just after U.S. President Joe Biden attended a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia and Group of 20 meetings in Indonesia.

    She and other APEC leaders are expected to discuss the Ukraine war, soaring inflation, food and energy shortages and a more assertive China. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also attending the summit, which is taking place in a heavily guarded venue in Bangkok.

    Harris is standing in for Biden, who returned to Washington to host his granddaughter’s wedding at the White House.

    A senior U.S. administration official said the trips to Southeast Asia by Biden and Harris show the deepening of America’s engagement with the region, and that it is a friend and partner that can be counted on. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely.

    Harris will also deliver a speech to a business conference on the summit sidelines. Officials said she will outline priorities for next year’s APEC summit, which the U.S. will host.

    Leaders of the 21 countries and territories in APEC, whose official mission is to promote regional economic integration, are meeting formally in closed-door sessions Friday and Saturday. Most of APEC’s work is technical and incremental, carried out by senior officials and Cabinet ministers, covering areas such as trade, tourism, forestry, health, food, security, small and medium-size enterprises and women’s empowerment.

    Over the weekend, Harris will hold talks with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha that are expected to focus on expanding cooperation on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development. They may also discuss the situation in Myanmar, where violence has escalated since the military seized power last year.

    She will host a roundtable discussion with activists and business leaders on climate change and the Mekong region before departing for the Philippines.

    Biden held highly anticipated talks with Chinese President Xi during the G-20 summit earlier this week in which they attempted to manage their differences, including over Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory. They expressed a “shared belief” that the use or even the threat of use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war was “totally unacceptable,” Biden said.

    The White House said they also agreed to resume cooperation on a range of shared global challenges including climate change, health and food stability. Beijing had cut off such contacts in protest after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.

    ———

    Associated Press journalist Christopher Megerian in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link