IrishDailyStar

A suggestion by President Emmanuel Macron that the West should offer Russia guarantees to return to negotiations to end the Ukraine war has been condemned by Kyiv and its allies. Mr Macron told French TV at the weekend that Europe needed to improve its security infrastructure and think "how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table". Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said it should be the other way around. "Civilised world needs 'security guarantees' from barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia," Mr Podolyak tweeted on Sunday. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said a "denuclearised and demilitarised" Russia offer be the best guarantee of peace. "Someone wants to provide security guarantees to a terrorist and killer state?" Mr Danilov wrote on Twitter. "Instead of Nuremberg — to sign an agreement with Russia and sh...

Search and evacuation efforts resumed on Monday as improved weather allowed rescuers look for possible victims, after a volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island erupted the previous day. Thousands of residents in Indonesia's East Java were on high alert as authorities imposed an 8km no-go zone and forced the evacuation of entire villages. The provincial search and rescue agency deployed teams to the worst-affected areas near Mount Semeru to assess damage, with low rainfall giving some reprieve, National Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Tholib Vatelehan said. “Yesterday, the rainfall level was high, causing all the material from the top of the mountain to come down. But today, so far, there's no rain, so it's relatively safe,” he said. No casualties have been reported and there has not been any immediate disruption to air travel. The 3,676-metre volcano erupted at 2.46pm local time on Sunday. Footage shot by local residents showed Mt Semeru spewing a giant clou...

Three deals announced last week herald a profound reconfiguration of the global gas market. One sends gas to Asia, another to Europe and a third opens up Middle East gas. And the world’s greatest gas power of all is on the losing end. On 21 November,  QatarEnergy  agreed an exceptionally long and large contract to send 4 million tonnes (5.4 billion cubic metres, bcm) of the chilled fuel,  liquefied natural gas (LNG) , annually to China’s Sinopec for 27 years. Starting in 2026, this would run beyond mid-century, when the majority of the world economy is supposed to have reached net-zero carbon (China’s own target is 2060). On Tuesday,  ConocoPhillips  and QatarEnergy concluded arrangements to ship two million tonnes of LNG to Germany a year over 15 years. And last Monday,  Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)  announced it would combine its LNG and gas processing arms, and conduct an initial public offering of the new entity next year. The essential u...

Tesla, the world's biggest electric car manufacturer, has entered the truck market with the delivery of its first Semi model. It has been a long time coming, having been unveiled by chief executive Elon Musk in 2017. But how environmentally friendly is it and is it capable of long-distance haulage? Here's all you need to know: How is the Tesla Semi different from other trucks? First and foremost, it's all electric, so has significantly reduced emissions, while also having impressive acceleration — for a truck — of zero to about 100kph in 20 seconds. Mr Musk said the Semi has three times the power of any diesel-powered lorry and uses regenerative braking to improve efficiency. Tesla said charging with electricity is about 2.5 times cheaper per mile than refuelling with diesel. Trucks in Semi's category represent just 1 per cent of US vehicle sales but 20 per cent of overall vehicle emissions, the company said. “This thing has crazy power relative to a diesel truck,” Mr M...

Business activity in the non-oil private sector economy of Saudi Arabia continued to improve in November, growing at the fastest pace since August 2015 as new order growth accelerated to a 14-month high, leading to a sharper rise in purchasing activity. The reading on Riyad Bank's purchasing managers’ index for Saudi Arabia jumped to 58.5, from 57.2 in October, well above the neutral 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. The reading was also the highest since September 2021 and above the long-run series average of 56.8. “The Saudi economy is continuing its expansion in the non-oil sector … business conditions have improved across the board in light of rising demand,” said Naif Al-Ghaith, chief economist at Riyad Bank. “Output levels have expanded at the fastest pace in seven years, driving cost pressures higher and resulting in increased prices charged to consumers. Improved business expectations [were] also observed as a result of the ongoing execution of Vision 2030 ini...

A landslide engulfed a road in a remote area of Colombia on Sunday, leaving three people dead and about 20 trapped in the mud. Crews were searching for people travelling on a bus and a motorcycle that were caught up in the landslide in a remote area of Pueblo Rico municipality, in the north-west of the country. “Nine rescued, three fatalities and an estimated 20 who remain to be found. It is a tragedy,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter. Civil defence officials said one of the dead was a girl aged about seven. A survivor said the driver of the bus managed to dodge the worst of the landslide. “Part of it was coming down and the bus was a little bit back from that. The bus driver was backing up when it all came crashing down,” Andres Ibarguen told radio station Lloro Stereo. The bus had set out from the city of Cali with 25 passengers, civil defence officials said. This rainy season that began in August is Colombia's worst in 40 years, according to the government, causing acci...

Dubai has topped the list of cities with the highest spending by international visitors this year, pulling ahead of Doha and London in the top three places, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said. The Gulf tourism and finance hub has raked in $29.4 billion in international visitor spending so far this year, overtaking Doha where tourists spent $16.8 billion and London with $16.1 billion, WTTC said in its latest Cities Economic Impact report. The cities that have recovered best, compared to pre-pandemic levels of 2019 in terms of international visitor spending, are Doha with a 21 per cent rise in tourist spend, Orlando, Florida, with a 19 per cent increase and Antalya in Turkey with 15 per cent. "It was in 2022 that cities began their true recovery, as travel restrictions were lifted and demand for international travel returned," said Julia Simpson, president and chief executive of the WTTC. "As tourism recovers, overcrowding in some destinations is a risk. It i...

An Albanian who traveled to Britain hidden in a truck has told the Daily Mail that he served lunch to the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Ismet Shehu, now 32, made the dangerous journey aged 17 after traveling to Italy and then France, where in Lille he entered the back of a truck heading for Britain. Shehu entered the construction and hospitality industries after arriving in the UK, working low-wage jobs before signing up to a university course teaching high-end catering in London. That course, as part of its training program, offered a small group of students — including Shehu — the opportunity to serve lunch to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Now back in Tirana, the Albanian capital, Shehu has used his experience in hospitality to open a range of successful restaurants.  

 Authorities in China have announced a further easing of Covid-19 curbs, with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport. The relaxation of testing requirements comes even as daily virus infections reach near-record highs, and follows protests across the country by residents frustrated by the rigid enforcement of anti-virus restrictions that are now entering their fourth year. The southern technological manufacturing centre of Shenzhen said on Saturday that commuters no longer need to show a negative Covid-19 test result to use public transport or when entering pharmacies, parks and tourist attractions. Meanwhile, the capital Beijing said on Friday that negative tests would no longer be required for public transport from December 5. However, a negative result obtained within the past 48 hours will still be necessary to enter public places such as shopping malls. Some Beijing residents had complained that even though the cit...