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Chevron to sell off its remaining North Sea oil and gas fields

US company denies decision is linked to UK’s 35% windfall tax on North Sea producers

Chevron is preparing to call time on more than five decades in the North Sea with a plan to sell its remaining oil and gas fields in the ageing oil basin.

The US oil company said on Thursday that it will launch a sale of its North Sea interests, including a 19.4% stake in the giant Claire oilfield in the West of Shetland region, which could raise up to $1bn.

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© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

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© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Post-Brexit deal on border between Gibraltar and Spain remains unresolved

16 May 2024 at 15:43

European Commission vice president, Maroš Šefčovič, cites progress on trade and economy for territory but not border checks

Talks on a post-Brexit deal to govern the border between Gibraltar and Spain have broken up without an agreement, although both sides insisted a deal was “getting closer”.

David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, met the European Commission vice president, Maroš Šefčovič, in Brussels to discuss the British overseas territory on the Iberian peninsula, which has been in limbo since Britain left the EU.

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© Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Red Cross and Foreign Office to discuss plan to visit Palestinians in Israeli detention

ICRC is denied access to prisoners in what is said to be breach of Geneva conventions but critics say UK plan may weaken rule of law

Red Cross officials are to hold talks with the UK over a Foreign Office plan to visit Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Critics say this bypasses a duty on Israel under the Geneva conventions to give the Red Cross access to detainees.

Israel has suspended the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from access to Palestinian detainees since the Hamas attack on 7 October, and says it will not rescind the policy until Hamas grants access to Israeli hostages.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Alleged ‘deal’ offer from Trump to big oil could save industry $110bn, study finds

Ex-president at Mar-a-Lago last month hosted more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental

A “deal” allegedly offered by Donald Trump to big-oil executives as he sought $1bn in campaign donations could save the industry $110bn in tax breaks if he returns to the White House, an analysis suggests.

The fundraising dinner held last month at Mar-a-Lago with more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, reportedly involved Trump asking for large campaign contributions and promising, if elected, to remove barriers to drilling, scrap a pause on gas exports, and reverse new rules aimed at cutting car pollution.

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© Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares

A group of determined teenagers is in dispute with the state for not doing more to protect their community from the noxious byproduct of oil extraction in the northern Amazon

Fourteen-year-old Leonela Moncayo gets angry when she talks about the gas flares burning near her home. She grew up on the outskirts of Lago Agrio, a city on the edge of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, at the heart of its oil industry, where patches of tropical forest canopy are interspersed with oil wells spewing huge flames of fossil gas.

For Moncayo, these gas flares have meant disease and death for many in her community, which is why she and other schoolgirls have been leading the fight to have them turned off.

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© Photograph: Kimberley Brown

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© Photograph: Kimberley Brown

Will prison van ambush put law and order at heart of EU elections in France?

Opposition has seized upon killings that shine spotlight on two big issues: prisons crisis and violent drug trade

As police continued to hunt the gunmen who killed two prison guards at a Normandy toll booth and freed a convict linked to gangland drug killings, the debate on law and order in France has intensified before next month’s European elections.

Both Gérald Darmanin, the hardline interior minister, and Jordan Bardella, the far-right president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, used the same dramatic vocabulary to warn of “savagery” in French society.

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© Photograph: Social media

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© Photograph: Social media

Why are there riots in New Caledonia against France’s voting change, and why does it matter?

By: Reuters
15 May 2024 at 07:05

Deadly clashes have erupted over move to increase number of French nationals eligible to vote in Pacific territory

Deadly violence has erupted in New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the South Pacific, after lawmakers in Paris approved a constitutional amendment to allow recent arrivals to the territory to vote in provincial elections.

The amendment, which some local leaders fear will dilute the vote of the Indigenous Kanak people, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long tussle over France’s role in the island.

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

France declares state of emergency in New Caledonia after deadly riots

Macron holds crisis meeting amid unrest over plan to increase number of French nationals eligible to vote in Pacific territory

France has said it will impose a state of emergency in New Caledonia for at least 12 days, after a second night of unrest over changes to voting rights in the overseas territory that has resulted in the deaths of at least four people.

More than 130 people have been arrested and more than 300 injured, according to the french high commission.

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Delphine Mayeur/AFP/Getty Images

UnitedHealth’s CEO Slammed Over Cyberattack

Several lawmakers questioned whether the company had become so large — with tentacles in every aspect of the nation’s medical care — that the effects of the hack were outsize.

© Ting Shen for The New York Times

Andrew Witty, the chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, acknowledged before the Senate Finance Committee that hackers had found a weakness in its cybersecurity that forced the shutdown of a vast billing and payments system.

‘Smartphones on Wheels’ Draw Attention From Regulators

30 April 2024 at 10:03
Modern cars are internet-connected and have hundreds of sensors. Lawmakers and regulators have concerns about what’s happening with all that data.

© Mark Abramson for The New York Times

Government attention to the car industry is intensifying, experts say, because of the increased technological sophistication of modern cars.

Is Garry Tan San Francisco’s ‘Twitter Menace’ or True Believer?

29 March 2024 at 13:21
The deep pockets of the tech investor Garry Tan are valued by his allies, but his pugnacious online habits are creating plenty of enemies in the city he says he wants to save.

© Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times

The tech investor Garry Tan has courted San Francisco’s moderate Democrats and angered its progressives.
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