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AI, nuclear ‘catastrophe’ and Putin: UK spells out deadly threats to Brits

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

LONDON — Fancy losing sleep tonight? Just read the U.K. government’s list of all the massive threats it believes are currently facing the U.K.The U.K. government’s National Risk Register, unveiled Thursday by Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, sets out key vulnerabilities and threats to the country. And it reveals previously classified information about the U.K. government’s thinking in a bid to encourage firms to up their mitigation strategies. The register details a total of 89 risks that meet the threshold of potentially having a “substantial impact on the U.K.’s safety, security and/or critical systems at a national level.”The threat posed to European gas supplies by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine is listed in the register for the first time. The cheery document states that the “reasonable worst case scenario assumes that war, political upheaval or a more benign cause would significantly disrupt global oil supply, resulting in mu...

UK set to delay post-Brexit border food checks amid inflation worries

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

LONDON — The U.K. is set to once again delay the implementation of post-Brexit border checks for EU imports amid concerns the new regime will further stoke inflation.Britain was planning to roll out the first stage of the new border model from October, with further stages implemented throughout 2024 that would see more checks on food and animal products entering the country.The Financial Times first reported the fresh delay, the fifth time these post-Brexit border checks have been put off, due to the potential inflationary effect of the new red tape.A senior government official refused to deny the story on Thursday morning on three occasions, but downplayed the effect that inflationary pressures have had on the decision-making process.The official told POLITICO that “we’ve been reflecting on the feedback we’ve had from stakeholders” and that “we’re conscious that businesses need time to prepare for checks to be introduced.”A second official, working for the Foreign Office...

Offshore Wind Project Plans Mid-October Power Delivery

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

The first clean wind power generated by the Vineyard Wind 1 project is expected to flow onto the regional grid by mid-October and the first-in-the-nation offshore wind project should be fully operational by this time next year, project officials said Wednesday during a boat tour of the construction.Project developers have maintained for years that the $4 billion project they are building about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard would start to generate cleaner energy by the end of 2023, but they told a group of state lawmakers, clean energy advocates, organized labor representatives and others Wednesday that the target is now mid-October, or just over two months from now.At first, the project will send power generated by a string of six turbines onto the grid, totaling about 78 megawatts, with plans to ramp the project up to between 200 and 300 MW by the end of the year and full commercial operations of 806 MW expected by mid-2024, according to Sy Oytan, Avangrid’s chief...

US State Department orders evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family members from Niger

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

(CNN) — The US State Department on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family members from Niger following last week’s military takeover.“On July 26, President Mohamed Bazoum was placed under house arrest amidst efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government of Niger. Subsequent events have severely limited flight options,” the State Department said in an updated travel advisory.“Given this development, on August 2, 2023, the Department ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey,” it said. “The U.S. Embassy in Niamey has temporarily reduced its personnel, suspended routine services, and is only able to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens in Niger.”The travel advisory warns Americans not to travel to Niger, setting the advisory level at its highest possible: Level 4.“With the ongoing efforts to overturn constitutional order, there may be increased dem...

Barr obliterates Trump’s defense: ‘He knew well that he had lost the election’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

(CNN) — Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday undermined a key pillar of his old boss’s defense in the special counsel’s probe into 2020 election interference, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Donald Trump “knew well he lost the election.”A central premise of the special counsel’s case is that Trump knew the election claims he was making were false after being told by several close aides that he had lost the election. Trump’s lawyers have argued that his statements were protected under the First Amendment, a position that Barr, in his first interview since Trump’s third indictment, said was not a valid argument.“As the indictment says, they are not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants, he can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better,” Barr said on “The Source.” “But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy.”He added: “At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to belie...

Hyundai and Kia recall nearly 92,000 vehicles and tell owners to park them outside due to fire risk

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are telling the owners of nearly 92,000 vehicles in the U.S. to park them outside because an electronic controller in an oil pump can overheat and cause fires.The affiliated Korean automakers are recalling the vehicles and also are telling owners to park them away from structures until repairs are made.The recalls cover certain 2023 and 2024 Hyundai Palisades, as well some 2023 Tucson, Sonata, Elantra and Kona vehicles. Affected Kias include the 2023 Soul and Sportage as well as some 2023 and 2024 Seltos vehicles.The companies say in documents posted Thursday by U.S. safety regulators that a capacitor on a circuit board in the oil pump assembly for the transmission may have been damaged by the supplier during manufacturing. That can cause a short-circuit and increase the risk of a fire.Kia says it has six reports of melting components but no fires or injuries. Hyundai says it has confirmed four “thermal incidents” and no injuries.Dealers...

Chicago White Sox snap their scoreless streak at 26 innings, but still suffer 11-1 blowout loss

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

Dylan Cease didn’t make it out of the second inning. Pedro Grifol was ejected in the third.The Chicago White Sox offense, meanwhile, put up zero after zero for the third straight game.It was another tough night for the Sox, who were blown out by the Texas Rangers 11-1 on Wednesday in front of 28,735 at Globe Life Field.“It was a rough one,” Cease said of his start. “Not enough strikes, not enough execution and they did a good job of hitting it.”The Sox lost for the ninth time in 11 games and are a season-high 23 games under .500 at 43-66.The rough times continued for the Sox offensively as they saw a scoreless streak extend to 26 innings before Seby Zavala hit a home run with two outs in the eighth.“We’re hitting too many groundballs,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “They’re pitching us down in the zone and we’re hitting too many groundballs. We chased quite a bit today, too. We’re not putting good swings on hittabl...

A car-carrying ship that burned for a week on the North Sea is towed to a Dutch port for salvaging

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

EEMSHAVEN, Netherlands (AP) — Tugboats towed a freight ship that burned for a week on the North Sea while carrying thousands of cars into a Dutch port on Thursday for salvaging, laying to rest fears that it could sink close to shipping lanes and a protected habitat for birds.The Fremantle Highway was taken to the northern port of Eemshaven, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said. A boat that has special booms to clean up oil spills accompanied the nearly 200-meter-long (around 650-foot-long) vessel as a precaution.The ship with 3,784 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones, on board caught fire on July 25 while traveling from the German port city of Bremerhaven to Singapore.Much of the gray paint on the ship’s sides was gone, apparently scorched off by the heat inside the ship when the fire was raging.The fire on the Fremantle Highway burned out of control for a week as it floated near busy North Sea shipping lanes and the shallow Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World...

Bank of England hints that UK borrowing rates will stay high after its new hike

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England raised its main interest rate Thursday to a fresh 15-year high and indicated it would stay high for some time to bring down persistently high inflation — another potential blow for those seeing their rents and mortgages rise during a cost-of-living crisis.The widely anticipated quarter-percentage point increase, to 5.25%, was the central bank’s 14th hike in a row. The bank said some of the risks from more stubborn inflation, notably higher wages, had “begun to crystallize,” leading it to push borrowing costs higher.There had been fears, certainly among hard-pressed households and businesses, that the bank would repeat its outsized half-point increase from June. But figures last month showing that inflation fell more than anticipated to 7.9% eased the pressure to act as aggressively again.In new forecasts, the central bank said inflation is expected to drop to 4.9% by the end of the year, with food price rises set to moderate.“Inflation is falling, a...

The 3 Baltic nations plan to accelerate their exit from Russia’s power grid by almost a year

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:33:57 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The prime ministers of the three Baltic countries agreed Thursday to speed up their nations’ disconnection from Russia’s power grid by nearly one year and connect with the continental European energy network by February 2025.In a joint declaration, Kaja Kallas, Krisjanis Karins and Ingrida Simonyte – the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, respectively – pledged the countries would complete the decoupling as soon as the technical capacity was in place.“The shifted geopolitical situation, resulting from the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, has also significantly deteriorated the energy security situation in the region and increased the risks of unplanned de-synchronization of the Baltic states’ electricity systems” from the Russian grid, the three prime ministers said.The Baltic countries, which used to be part of the Soviet Union, do not currently buy electricity from Russia but remain physically connected to t...