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Germany says it has clinched long-term gas supply deal with Qatar

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Germany says it has clinched long-term gas supply deal with Qatar

Germany stated it had sealed a long-term settlement with Qatar for the provision of liquefied pure gasoline as Berlin seeks various power suppliers to Russia.

In Doha as a part of a Gulf tour, Germany’s financial system minister Robert Habeck on Sunday stated the deal could be a “door-opener” for the nation’s financial system as a result of it could scale back its reliance on imported Russian gasoline, which at the moment accounts for greater than half of annual provide.

He declined to offer particulars on the portions and different phrases mentioned. The ministry stated it could be as much as particular person German power corporations, the bosses of which have accompanied Habeck on the journey to Qatar, to signal offers with the Arab state’s enterprises.

“We’d nonetheless want Russian gasoline this yr, however not sooner or later,” Habeck was quoted as saying by DPA in Doha. “It begins like this — so he who has ears ought to begin to pay attention,” he stated, in a thinly veiled message to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Qatar welcomed in an announcement Germany’s resolution to “fast-track” the event of two LNG terminals and stated the international locations’ “respective industrial entities would re-engage and progress discussions on long run LNG provides from Qatar to Germany”.

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Germany’s transfer comes as EU leaders put together to fulfill in Brussels on Thursday to debate how to reply to the shock of rising power costs, which have been exacerbated by the Ukraine struggle and a want to wean themselves off Russian gasoline following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Berlin’s coalition authorities has dominated out prolonging the lifetime of Germany’s remaining nuclear crops, that are because of be switched off on the finish of the yr, and is pinning its hopes on LNG terminals to cut back the quantity of gasoline it imports through pipelines from Russia.

Other than efforts to seek out various suppliers of power, EU governments are looking for to protect households and companies from rising power prices.

On Sunday, Austria introduced that it was going to spend €2bn to subsidise power prices for its residents.

On Friday, Italy stated it aimed to lift €4.4bn by levying a ten per cent tax on elevated earnings reported by corporations between October 2021 and March 2022 in contrast with the earlier yr, if that enhance exceeds €5mn.

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With the brand new tax, Italy intends to chop duties on the petrol pump by 25 cents a litre till the tip of April, and protect the nation’s 5.2m poorest households from additional will increase of their family power payments. Vitality corporations which are prone to be hit by the tax embody Eni and Enel.

“We are going to tax a part of the extraordinary earnings that corporations are making because of the rise within the prices of uncooked supplies, and redistribute this cash to companies and households in issue,” stated Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Italy has already spent €16bn since final summer season to attempt to protect poor households and small companies from surging power prices.

Nevertheless, the Italian enterprise foyer, Confindustria, known as Rome’s initiative “disappointing” and warned that the windfall revenue tax was “probably towards the Structure”. The CISL, or Italian Confederation of Employees’ Commerce Unions, known as the ten per cent extra revenue tax “too low” and urged a rise.

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi stated the tax on power corporations’ earnings will likely be redistributed ‘to companies and households in issue’ © Riccardo Antimiani/AP

Italy shouldn’t be alone in turning to power corporations’ windfall earnings. The Labour social gathering within the UK is urgent for a tax on North Sea oil and gasoline corporations, which might in any other case reap large monetary rewards from the present worth surges. In September, Spain launched a windfall tax on power corporations however revised it after trade stress, lowering the quantity it was because of elevate.

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Electrical energy pricing can also be set to be a contentious situation on the upcoming EU summit. Southern member states are pushing for modifications to the best way wholesale markets operate, to alleviate stress on households however are going through robust resistance from northern Europe.

Spain and Italy each need to see the EU change its electrical energy pricing guidelines, which have successfully linked the value of electrical energy to the hovering value of gasoline, and allowed renewable power teams to cost properly above value.

Rome and Madrid are additionally pushing for the EU to collectively negotiate on power purchases to get higher offers, significantly for piped gasoline coming from Russia, which would cut back payouts to Russian power corporations.

“I can’t say this might be the optimum ethical resolution, however it could have an effect,” stated Roberto Cingolani, minister for ecological transition.

The like-minded leaders of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece have been engaged in intense diplomacy, assembly final Friday to attempt to construct momentum for his or her proposed power market reforms.

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That evening, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez dined with German chancellor Olaf Scholz — one of many key figures Madrid must persuade — and Sánchez is because of journey to Paris to fulfill French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

Nevertheless, diplomats warn that there isn’t any consensus on any of those market reforms, which some say may undermine incentives for recent funding in renewable power. Some international locations such because the Netherlands argue that the near-term focus ought to stay on saving power and filling up gasoline storage amenities.

Extra reporting by Sam Fleming in Brussels, Daniel Dombey in Madrid and Andrew England in London

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Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok extension to avoid ban

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Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok extension to avoid ban

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President-elect Donald Trump said he would “most likely” extend the deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to divest the video app which faces a nationwide ban that is set to come into effect on Sunday.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump said he was considering issuing a 90-day extension to the deadline. His comments come one day after TikTok warned that its 170mn users would face an imminent blackout after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the divest-or-ban law that Congress passed last year to address China-related national security concerns.

“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump said. “We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation . . . If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”

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On Friday, Trump said he had spoken to President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok with the Chinese leader. Chinese state media said the two leaders had spoken but did not specify if TikTok was part of the conversation.

The Biden administration on Friday said it would leave decisions about enforcement of the law, which comes into effect at midnight on Saturday eastern time, to the incoming Trump administration.

That means the companies that provide the video platform — including Apple, Google and Oracle — have to decide whether to risk violating the law between the midnight deadline and Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Apple and Oracle declined to comment, while Google did not immediately respond.

TikTok said statements from the Biden administration “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans”.

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It also warned that the video app would “go dark” on January 19 unless the Biden administration “immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement”.

In an overwhelming bipartisan vote last March, Congress passed a law that required ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid a nationwide ban on the app.

Lawmakers and US security officials believe that Chinese ownership of the app poses a national security risk because it could be used for espionage and disinformation by the Chinese Communist party. TikTok has denied that the Chinese government has any influence over the app.

In his first term, Trump issued an executive order to block TikTok from operating in the US, but it was stymied by the courts at the last minute. In early 2024, he came out in opposition to the congressional divest-or-ban measure on the grounds that it would help Facebook, which banned him from its social media platform for two years.

Trump has appointed several China hawks who oppose Chinese ownership of TikTok to his administration, including Mike Waltz, a former green beret and Florida congressman, who will serve as national security adviser.

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Earlier this week, Waltz said the incoming administration would put “measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark”, saying the legislation allowed for an extension as long as a “viable deal” was on the table.

Following the TikTok statement on Friday, Rush Doshi, a former senior Biden administration China official, wrote on X that the company only had itself to blame.

“TikTok had 268 days to sell itself so it wasn’t operated by China. That would have solved everything. But they didn’t even try. China wouldn’t let them,” Doshi said.

“Now, with time short, they want Biden to ignore a bipartisan law SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US) upheld 9-0. If they shut down, it’s on them.”

Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy and Michael Acton

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Biden Proclaims That The Equal Rights Amendment Is The Law Of The Land—But What Does That Mean?

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Biden Proclaims That The Equal Rights Amendment Is The Law Of The Land—But What Does That Mean?

President Joe Biden announced on Friday that, as far as he’s concerned, the Equal Rights Amendment is the “law of the land,” a somewhat symbolic move that is poised to allow more women across the country to sue their states for gender discrimination—including challenges to abortion bans.

The ERA, originally drafted over a century ago and passed by Congress in 1972, has faced a long and hard-fought journey toward ratification and implementation as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. If formally recognized, the ERA would constitutionalize gender equality.

“The Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land—now!” Biden said in a speech to the United States Conference of Mayors. “It’s the 28th amendment to the Constitution—now.”

While Biden’s declaration is expected to spur legal and political repercussions nationwide, the president’s announcement isn’t so simple.

Immediately following Biden’s announcement on Friday, the National Archives, which publishes constitutional amendments, stated it had no plans to formally add the ERA to the Constitution. When Congress passed the ERA over 50 years ago, the initial preamble required that 38 states move to ratify within seven years (that deadline was extended to 1982). By that year, the amendment was three states short of implementation.

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View of Pro-Choice supporters, including several people with ‘Honored Guest’ sashes, as they take part in a March for Women’s Equality, Washington DC, April 9, 1989. Among the visible signs as ones supporting NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) and Physicians For Choice. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images)

Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Thanks to anti-abortion, anti-feminist activists like Phyllis Schlafly, the ERA was squashed. It wasn’t until 2020 that Virginia became the crucial 38th state to ratify the ERA. Yet, because the deadline had long passed and thanks to Donald Trump’s Justice Department saying at the time that ratification took too long, the ERA has remained outside of the founding text—even as about eight in ten US adults, including majorities of men and women and Republicans and Democrats alike, say they at least somewhat favor adding the ERA to the Constitution, according to Pew.

United States Archivist Colleen Shogan, a Biden appointee and the first woman archivist, has repeatedly stated that the ERA’s eligibility has expired and could not be added to the Constitution now unless Congress acts. Last month, Shogan and the deputy archivist released a statement saying they could not certify the ERA “due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.” On Friday, the Archives reiterated its position. “The underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed,” they said in a statement. Biden is also not going to order the archivist to certify and publish the ERA, the White House told reporters.

Biden’s Friday announcement about the ERA comes as the president has filled his last moments in office with sweeping executive measures, including designating national monuments in California, removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, blocking a Japanese company’s takeover of United States Steel, extending protected status to nearly 1 million immigrants, and commuting the sentences of almost everyone on federal death row, as detailed by The Washington Post this week.

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Under Trump’s Big Tent, Republicans Are Starting to Clash

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Under Trump’s Big Tent, Republicans Are Starting to Clash

Democrats have long been viewed as the big-tent party — a proudly noisy collection of differing views and competing interests, often prompting headlines describing them as “in disarray.”

Now, Donald J. Trump’s commanding victory may be ushering in a big-tent era for Republicans.

Even before he takes the oath of office on Monday, cracks in his freshly expanded coalition have emerged. With their divides, the incoming president and his party are being forced to confront a reality that has often tripped up Democrats: A bigger tent means more room for fighting underneath it.

In recent weeks, some congressional Republicans have dismissed Mr. Trump’s threats of military force against Greenland. Republicans from farm states have squirmed at his plans to impose new tariffs on all goods entering the United States. Opponents of abortion have grumbled about his selection of an abortion rights supporter for his cabinet. Mr. Trump’s embrace of tech billionaires has troubled conservatives who blame their companies for censoring Republican views and corrupting children.

And last week, a fight over the direction of immigration policy prompted Stephen K. Bannon, an architect of Mr. Trump’s political movement, to attack Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump adviser, as a “truly evil person.”

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“The big battles are all on our side of the football — meaningful, tough,” Mr. Bannon told The New York Times.

This wide range of internal fights over policy and power may be run-of-the-mill in politics, but they are somewhat extraordinary for the Trump-era Republican Party. Since Mr. Trump, a former Democrat unbound by strict ideology, effectively hijacked the party in 2016, the internal clashes have largely been between two clear factions: the traditional Republicans and the Republicans who embraced Mr. Trump.

But eight years later, most of the old guard has been thoroughly conquered or converted. Mr. Trump is entering a Washington where nearly all Republicans consider themselves part of his movement. They just don’t all agree on what, exactly, that means.

Inauguration Day will offer a vivid display of the new crosscurrents in the party. When he takes the oath of office, Mr. Trump will be joined not only by Vice President JD Vance, who spent years railing against big tech, but by at least four technology executives who are part of a crop of industry moguls who warmed to Mr. Trump in recent months, pouring money into his inauguration committee.

For most of his political career, Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on pleasing the voters who elected him. In his first term, Mr. Trump largely worried about holding on to his core group of supporters: white, working-class voters.

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But with a bigger, more diverse coalition, that task has grown more complicated and far less clear. Mr. Trump’s victory in November was marked by notable gains in traditionally liberal cities and suburbs and among the Black, Latino, female and younger voters who have long been central to the Democratic Party’s base.

While those voters largely supported Mr. Trump’s goals of lowering prices and curbing illegal immigration, it’s unclear whether they also support the full scope of conservative policies — like ending automatic citizenship at birth and banning abortion nationwide — that some of his hard-right supporters are eager to implement.

“This is the most racially diverse incoming governing coalition for a G.O.P. since at least 1956, and that has the potential to change things,” said Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist and founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who said he had attended every Republican inauguration over the past four decades. “But they’re good challenges to have.”

Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, pointed to two policy debates that will help show whether the party is ready to cater to its new voters.

One is whether Republicans support a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, a cohort of immigrants who were brought to the country as children. Stripping them of their legal status comes with the political risk of alienating moderate voters, Mr. Gingrich said.

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A second test, he said, would be whether Republicans can muscle through a tax bill before July 4 in order to stimulate the economy and help the party keep control of the House through the 2026 midterms.

“There will be mistakes and confusion and tension, but there will also be enormous changes,” he said.

Mr. Trump doesn’t have much wiggle room in Congress, where even slight ideological differences could have an outsize impact on his ability to enact his agenda. The party’s slim, three-vote margin in the House means that any Republican lawmaker has the power to slow down legislation, if not scuttle it entirely. In the Senate, Republicans have 53 votes, leaving little room for dissent on a majority vote.

During his first term, Trump’s grip on his voters — backed up by frequent political threats — stifled most opposition within the party. Whether his political hold remains as strong in his second — and final — term remains to be seen.

Republican strategists say there are plenty of issues where there is broad agreement across the party, including expanding the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration and curbing illegal immigration.

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Even within those issues, the challenge may be in the details. Already, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Musk have tangled over H-1B visas, a skilled-worker immigration program that has long been a key source of labor for Silicon Valley. Mr. Trump suspended H-1B visas during his first term, but last month seemed to indicate support for keeping the program.

The debt ceiling has created distance between Mr. Trump and deficit hawks in his party, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who last month refused to free him of the spending constraint.

Republicans also disagree over setting a new corporate tax rate and how much of the new tax cuts should be paid for by slashing spending.

A group of Republicans from swing districts in New Jersey, New York and California have vowed to block the tax bill unless a cap on a state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, is raised significantly. Many other Republicans oppose the measure, which would largely benefit wealthier families in blue states.

Foreign policy is another area with considerable intraparty divides, particularly over ending the war in Ukraine and over the role Russia should play in the region. Whether Republicans follow Mr. Trump’s lead and take a softer position toward Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, may offer hints of the party’s direction on America’s traditional alliances abroad.

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Still, Brad Todd, a Republican strategist, said no one understood the temperature of the Republican Party quite like Mr. Trump, who spends hours calling different lawmakers, donors and activists to get their views.

“Trump is not ideological,” Mr. Todd said. “He’s a pragmatic, practical person. He is a populist in that he wants to do popular things.”

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