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Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos yesterday said a “significant” discovery of natural gas had been made near the country’s sole producing offshore site. About 98bn cubic feet (2.8bn cubic metres) of natural gas – enough to provide power to 5.7mn homes for a year – has been found east of the Malampaya Field near the island of Palawan, Marcos said. The Philippines has some of the region’s highest energy costs and faces a looming crisis as the Malampaya gas field, which supplies about 40% of power to the archipelago’s main island, Luzon, is expected to run dry within a few years. The discovery – 5kms east of the Malampaya Field – is the first in more than a decade and suggested the potential to produce even more, Marcos said. “This helps Malampaya’s contribution and strengthens our domestic gas supply for many years to come. Initial testing showed that the well flowed at 60mn cubic feet per day,” Marcos said in a statement. Source link
US President Donald Trump has linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought “purely of Peace” as the row over the island threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe. Asked by NBC News in a brief telephone interview yesterday if he would use force to seize Greenland, Trump said “No comment,” adding he would “100%” follow through on plans to hit European nations with tariffs without a Greenland deal. Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow Nato member Denmark, prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures. The dispute is threatening to upend the Nato alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump’s refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence. Trump’s threat has rattled European industry and sent shockwaves through financial markets amid fears of a return to the volatility of 2025’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year. In a text message on Sunday to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, Trump said: “Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.” Norway’s government released the messages yesterday under the country’s freedom of information act. Stoere had sent an initial message on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, calling for de-escalation of tensions and suggesting a call, eliciting a response from Trump less than half an hour later. The Norwegian Nobel Committee annoyed Trump by awarding the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. In his message, Trump also repeated his accusation that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia or China.“… And why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” he wrote, adding: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs from February 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the US is allowed to buy Greenland, home to only 57,000 people. “We are living in 2026, you can trade with people, but you don’t trade people,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said during a visit to London yesterday.In a post on Facebook, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the territory should be allowed to decide its own fate. “We will not let ourselves be pressured. We stand firm on dialogue, on respect and on international law,” he said. Denmark’s military said planes carrying Danish soldiers and army commander Peter Boysen would land in Kangerlussuaq, western Greenland, describing it as a “substantial contribution” to the Arctic Endurance military exercise. Norway’s Stoere amended his schedule, announcing that he would attend the World Economic Forum in Davos tomorrow and Thursday, overlapping with Trump’s planned appearance at the annual gathering of the global political and business elite. Trump is expected to deliver a keynote address tomorrow in his first appearance at the conference in six years. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he too would try to meet Trump tomorrow, adding that a trade dispute was not wanted. “But if we are confronted with tariffs that we consider unreasonable, then we are capable of responding,” Merz said. Source link
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan walks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi upon his arrival at the airport in New Delhi, India, yesterday. India yesterday signed a $3bn deal to buy liquefied natural gas from the United Arab Emirates, making it the UAE’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defence ties. The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to India by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200bn in six years and form a strategic defence partnership. Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5mn metric tonnes of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for 10 years, the companies said. ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20bn. “India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” the company said.The United Arab Emirates is India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by a government delegation that included his defence and foreign ministers. The two sides signed a letter of intent to work towards forming a strategic defence partnership, India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters. …
A shark mauled a surfer off an ocean beach in Sydney yesterday in the Australian city’s third shark attack in two days, authorities said. The surfer, believed to be in his 20s, was in a critical condition in hospital with serious leg injuries after the attack at a northern Sydney beach, police said. All of Sydney’s northern beaches were closed until further notice. The attack at North Steyne Beach in the suburb of Manly came hours after a shark bit a large chunk out of a young surfer’s board about 4kms north along the coast at Dee Why Point. That surfer was uninjured Source link
Smoke and flames billow from a burning house and a vehicle during a wildfire in Concepcion, Chile. – AFP Wildfires raging in southern Chile have killed at least 16 people and forced more than 50,000 to evacuate, the government said Sunday.Security Minister Luis Cordero gave the tolls for the blazes burning for two days now in the Nuble and Biobio regions about 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago.He told reporters Sunday morning that 15 deaths had been confirmed in the Biobio, bringing the total death toll to 16 after the government confirmed a death in Nuble on Saturday.President Gabriel Boric earlier declared a state of emergency as crews battled flames fueled by gusting winds and hot weather in the southern hemisphere summer.Nearly two dozen blazes are burning across the country, many of them in Nuble and Biobio.”We face a complicated situation,” Interior Minister Alvaro Elizalde said.The president announced the state of emergency in Nuble and Biobio in a post on the social media platform X.”All resources are available,” Boric wrote.Among other things, the declaration means the armed forces will now get involved.Alicia Cebrian, the director of the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response, said most of the evacuations were in the Biobio cities of Penco and Lirquen, which have a combined population of around 60,000 people.Images broadcast by local television showed the flames in both cities, with charred cars in the streets.Wildfires have severely impacted south-central Chile in recent years.In February 2024, several fires broke out simultaneously near the city of Vina del Mar, northwest of Santiago, resulting in 138 deaths, according to the public prosecutor’s office.About 16,000 people were affected by those fires, authorities said.Authorities say adverse conditions like strong winds and high temperatures helped wildfires spread and complicated firefighters’ abilities to control the fires.Much of Chile is under extreme heat alerts, with temperatures expected to reach up to 38° Celsius (100° Fahrenheit) from Santiago to Biobio Sunday and Monday.Both Chile and Argentina have experienced extreme temperatures and heatwaves since the beginning of the year, with devastating wildfires breaking out in Argentina’s Patagonia earlier this month. Related Story Source link
Onlookers make their way through large chunks of ice and ice floes washed up along the banks of the Elbe river near Geesthacht, northern Germany, on…
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that Prime Minister Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif received an invitation from US President Donald Trump to join the Gaza Peace Council, which was formed as part of the second phase of the ceasefire process in the Gaza Strip. Pakistani Foreign Ministry's spokesman Tahir Andrabi said, ‘Pakistan will continue its engagement in international efforts to achieve peace and security in Gaza, leading to a lasting solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with UN resolutions.’ The White House revealed on Saturday the identities of some members of the peace council that, under President Donald Trump's plan, will oversee the interim administration of the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the White House said the names include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Special Envoy Steve Witkopf, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, billionaire private equity executive Mark Rowan, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and US National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel. Former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov will serve as the High Representative for Gaza. Additional members of the council will be announced in the coming weeks. Source link
Russia has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin has received an invitation to join a proposed international council tasked with overseeing peace efforts in Gaza.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the invitation was delivered through diplomatic channels and that Moscow was currently examining the details of the proposal. President Putin has received an invitation to participate in the Gaza Peace Council, Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia would hold consultations with the United States to clarify the scope and format of the initiative. The announcement follows earlier remarks by US President Donald Trump, who said his administration was forming a Gaza Peace Council to supervise a temporary governance arrangement for the territory. In a statement, the White House revealed the names of several figures expected to serve on the council. They include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Jared Kushner, the presidentâ€s son-in-law. Other proposed members include billionaire investor Marc Rowan, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and presidential adviser Robert Gabriel. Former UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov is expected to act as Gaza’s high representative. The White House said additional members of the council would be announced at a later stage. Russia has not yet indicated whether it will accept the invitation, with officials stressing that discussions are ongoing. Source link
US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” for postwar Gaza began to take shape yesterday, with the leaders of Egypt, Turkiye, Argentina and Canada asked to join. The announcements from those leaders came after the US president named his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and senior negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to the panel. Trump had already declared himself the chair of the body, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in the Palestinian territory, which lies in rubble after two-plus years of relentless Israeli bombardment. The moves came after a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern Gaza held its first meeting in Cairo which was attended by Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who has partnered with Witkoff for months on the issue. In Canada, a senior aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney said he intended to accept Trump’s invitation, while in Turkiye, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had been asked to become a “founding member” of the board. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Cairo was “studying” a request for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to join.Sharing an image of the invitation letter, Argentine President Javier Milei wrote on X that it would be “an honour” to participate in the initiative. In a statement sent to AFP, Blair said: “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honoured to be appointed to its Executive Board.”Blair is a controversial figure in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure Blair was an “acceptable choice to everybody.” Blair spent years focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as representative of the “Middle East Quartet” — the UN, European Union, US and Russia — after leaving Downing Street in 2007.The White House said the Board of Peace will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilisation.” The other members of the board so far are World Bank President Ajay Banga, an Indian-born American businessman; billionaire US financier Marc Rowan; and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the US National Security Council. Trump has created a second “Gaza executive board” that appears designed to have a more advisory role.It was not immediately clear which world leaders were asked to be on each board.The White House, which said Friday that additional members would be named to both entities, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Washington has said the Gaza plan had gone on to a second phase — from implementing the ceasefire to disarming Hamas, whose October 2023 storming of Israel prompted the massive Israeli offensive.On Friday, Trump named US Major General Jasper Jeffers to head the International Stabilisation Force, which will be tasked with providing security in Gaza and training a new police force to succeed Hamas.Gaza native and former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath was earlier tapped to head the governing committee. Source link
Taking paracetamol, known as Tylenol in the US, during pregnancy is safe, a group of European researchers have said, after compiling data in response to US President Donald Trump’s claims of a link to autism last year. In a review published in the British journal The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health yesterday, the team said they had focused on amassing the best-quality evidence to address the claims. “Paracetamol is safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Asma Khalil, professor of obstetrics and maternal foetal medicine at City St George’s, University of London. “The key message is reassurance: When used as recommended, the best available evidence does not support a causal link with autism, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) or intellectual disability.” She said that she had been asked about the popular pain medication – also known as acetaminophen – by her patients after Trump in September told pregnant women not to take the drug. At the time, national and international medical groups decried the president’s comments, saying they were not evidence-based.Paracetamol/Tylenol is the only pain reliever considered safe for pregnant women, and doctors already advise them to use the smallest amount for the shortest time to control pain and fever during pregnancy. Untreated, these conditions can be risky for both pregnant women and their babies. The researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing data, finding 43 studies that were then assessed for quality and bias using a standard tool. The team particularly focused on studies that looked at children who were born to the same mother who took paracetamol/Tylenol during one pregnancy but not the other.These take into account shared genetic factors and family environments that could be linked to autism or the other conditions studied, Khalil said. There were only three studies of this type, but they were large, covering more than 260,000 children assessed for autism, and around 335,000 and 405,000 for ADHD and intellectual disabilities respectively. They showed no significant link between use of the drug and any of the conditions studied. This remained the case when results from all of the high-quality studies that were assessed were pooled, the authors said.Khalil said much of the work showing a potential link, including a review of 46 studies cited by Trump officials, was prone to bias or confounding factors that her team’s review had tried to account for. Grainne McAlonan, professor of Translational Neuroscience at King’s College London, who was not involved in the research, praised the study, adding: “I hope the findings of this study bring the matter to a close.” – Reuters Source link