Billed as part of a “reset” in relations after Britain’s 2016 exit from the EU, the two sides agreed last year they will link their carbon emissions trading systems
International News via Reuters:
The European Union and Britain will launch negotiations next week on linking their carbon emissions trading systems, the EU’s climate commissioner told Reuters.
Billed as part of a “reset” in relations after Britain’s 2016 exit from the EU, the two sides agreed last year they will link their carbon emissions trading systems, a move that would allow UK companies to avoid the bloc’s carbon border tariff.
“We’re going to start the negotiations next week,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said in an interview.
“The UK has been doing, over the years and across the political aisle, a great job in terms of climate action. So, in my view, this is imminently doable.”
Hoekstra said Brussels was ready to have “speedy” talks, but declined to say whether the EU is aiming to land a deal by a certain date.
British companies have urged the government to quickly link the carbon markets to avoid the levy, which the government has said would apply to 7 billion pounds worth of UK exports to the bloc.
A UK government spokesperson declined to comment on when negotiations would launch.
“We are delivering on our commitment to secure a carbon linking agreement with the EU as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said.
Starting this month, the EU’s carbon border tariff imposes CO2 emissions costs on imports of goods including steel and cement, a move designed to put European industries on a level footing with producers abroad.
UK industries had hoped to get a temporary exemption from the EU border fee while the carbon market linkage negotiations were underway, but Brussels has said it cannot offer exemptions until the link is complete.
In principle, British power exports to the EU should not face the carbon border costs because British power plants already pay CO2 costs higher than those in the EU, the Commission has said. But the same is not true for other goods including steel.
Reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels; additional reporting by Susanna Twidale in London; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
Bermudian all-rounder Katherine Bean-Rosario and her Leeward Islands teammates enjoyed a dream start to their Cricket West Indies (CWI) T20 Blaze campaign, securing a gritty nine-run victory over a formidable Jamaica side.
Despite losing a wicket to the very first ball of the match at the Arnos Vale Ground, the Leeward Islands showed immense resilience to recover, posting a competitive 108-5 from their 20 overs.
The backbone of the innings was a brilliant half-century from Shawnisha Hector, who anchored the side with 55 off 55 balls. Bean-Rosario was not required to bat as the top order held firm against a testing spell from Jamaica’s Chedean Nation (2-15).
Jamaica’s chase was largely a solo effort from Nation, who followed up her bowling performance with a defiant unbeaten 48.
The game hung in the balance during a crucial third-wicket partnership between Nation and the legendary former West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor. However, once the Leewards broke the 48-run stand, the momentum shifted decisively.
Leeward Islands: 108-5 (20 overs)
Jamaica: 99-8 (20 overs)
Result: Leeward Islands won by 9 runs
Hector capped off a superb individual day by taking 2-15, mirroring Nation’s figures and restricting Jamaica to just 99.
The victory provides the Leeward Islands with vital momentum in a landmark year for women’s cricket in the Caribbean. The T20 Blaze serves as the primary selection platform ahead of a busy international summer schedule.
Bermuda Under-20 internationals Harlem Bean-Fox and Kennahz Fray have joined Championship side Blackburn Rovers for a high-stakes trial this week.
The pair, who have been developing at the Coventry-based Future Pro Academy, will integrate with the Rovers’ Under-18 squad at the club’s senior training centre as they eye a professional breakthrough in England.
The week is set to culminate in a Professional Academy fixture, where both players are scheduled to feature against Accrington Stanley.
Bean-Fox and Fray arrive in Lancashire on the back of impressive displays in the National Football Youth League, where they have helped Future Pro maintain an unbeaten run at the top of the Under-23 table.
Fray has been particularly clinical of late, scoring a standout goal in the English Association of Colleges National Cup. For Bean-Fox, the move represents another chance to impress at this level following a previous trial with Coventry City.
In a statement, Future Pro Academy said the invitation was a major validation of their elite development programme.
“Having two players invited into an EFL Championship Academy is a strong reflection of the pathways we are creating. It shows the performance standards we continue to raise.”
The duo are looking to join a growing contingent of Bermudians in the English Football League, following the likes of Kalen Brunson, who recently made his professional breakthrough at Queens Park Rangers.
If they impress against Accrington, a permanent move to Ewood Park could be on the horizon.
Maxanne Javita Caines was sworn in this month as the newest Residents’ Councillor for the City of Hamiton
The City of Hamilton’s newest Resident Councillor is looking to tackle safety concerns and vagrancy in the North Hamilton neighbourhoods as part of her first order of business.
The City’s youngest councillor spoke with Jasmine Patterson on Tuesday.
Flights were suspended into and over Greece on January 4 when air traffic controllers lost contact with most planes, including dozens heading for Greek airports, as radio frequencies went down
International News via Reuters:
An eight-hour radio outage at Greek airports last week that forced authorities to clear the country’s airspace and divert dozens of incoming flights was in part due to an outdated communications system, investigators said in a report.
Flights were suspended into and over Greece on January 4 when air traffic controllers lost contact with most planes, including dozens heading for Greek airports, as radio frequencies went down and were replaced by static.
Aviation experts said the incident was unprecedented in the southern European country.
The exact cause of the outage, which occurred when multiple systems fell out of sync, causing a scramble in communications between airport towers and planes, remains unclear, the report from a five-member investigating committee commissioned by the government found.
It ranked the incident as “low risk” regarding flight safety, ruled out a cyberattack and said that pilots and air traffic controllers responded effectively.
However, the Civil Aviation Authority’s voice communication system and critical supporting telecommunications infrastructure are based on outdated technology that is no longer supported by manufacturers and lacks operational guarantees, according to the report, which was submitted to Greece’s transport ministry and published late on Tuesday.
The report said that Greek telecommunications provider OTE had since 2019 warned the civil aviation authority that its systems needed new circuits. The report called for upgraded transceivers and other changes. It also recommended the creation of a crisis-response mechanism between the civil aviation authority and OTE.
Greece’s systems are in line with EU standards, a transport ministry official said in reaction to the report, although the ministry has implemented an upgrade plan expected to be completed in 2028.
But unions, who have been calling for upgrades for years, say the system is dangerous, especially amid a tourism boom with millions of tourists flying to Greece every year. On Wednesday, they said that the report “fully vindicates” their protests.
Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Edward McAllister and Sharon Singleton
The Middle East-focused venture will trade in relation to products from Bapco’s 267,000 barrels-per-day Sitra refinery
International News via Reuters:
French oil major TotalEnergies has formed a 50-50 joint venture with Bahrain’s Bapco Energies called BxT Trading, it said on Wednesday.
The Middle East-focused venture will trade in relation to products from Bapco’s 267,000 barrels-per-day Sitra refinery.
The partnership builds on a 2024 deal under which Total agreed to help expand and modernise Sitra to reach throughput capacity of 380,000 barrels per day and share the French firm’s trading expertise, while exploring options to partner with Bahrain on projects in renewable energy or liquefied natural gas.
In December, Bapco announced a new capacity increase to 405,000 bpd at the site.
“Through this partnership with TotalEnergies we are enhancing our global trading capabilities, strengthening our downstream value chain, and reinforcing Bahrain’s position as a competitive and trusted player in the international energy markets,” Bapco Energies Chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa said in a statement.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said the joint venture strengthened Total’s Middle East presence
The two executives held a signing ceremony on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.
Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris. Editing by Mark Potter
The next town hall meeting takes place tomorrow evening at the Leopards Club
We want “open and candid” discussions with residents about how to improve our electoral system.
This from Diallo Rabain, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation.
As we reported previously, Government has organized public meetings to address the issue of electoral reform.
Alisa Bernardo spoke to Minister Rabain yesterday about the aims of the consultation and how input gathered from these meetings might influence policy direction and legislative changes.
WATCH the above report.
Electoral Reform Town Hall Tour Schedule
Tuesday, January 13, 2026 St. David’s Primary School 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 15, 2026 Leopards Club 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Monday, January 19, 2026 Warwick Workman’s Club 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 Bermuda College 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean
International News via Reuters:
Isaline Attelly, a native of the Caribbean island of Martinique, had been living in Benin for nearly a year before she learned that her family’s connection to the West African country went back much further.
Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean.
The discovery last year prompted Attelly, a 28-year-old content creator, to enrol in a new programme offering Beninese citizenship to people of African descent.
The “My Afro Origins” programme is an important piece of President Patrice Talon’s plan to raise his country’s profile, including among prospective tourists, by highlighting its prominent role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people.
“For me, it’s a source of pride. It feels like my journey has come full circle,” Attelly told Reuters after her naturalisation ceremony. “I am proud and very happy to be able to represent my ancestors.”
PROJECTS HIGHLIGHT BENIN’S ROLE IN SLAVERY
The first naturalisation ceremonies have coincided with the unveiling of projects intended to bring that history to life, including a new “Door of No Return” in Ouidah, a common departure point for transatlantic trafficking, and a replica of an 18th-century ship that transported enslaved people with sculptures inside representing nearly 300 captives. Both are still under construction.
The government also plans to open this year a new International Museum of Memory and Slavery at the former residence of Francisco Felix de Souza, a prominent trafficker of enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Talon, who survived a coup attempt last month and is expected to end his 10-year tenure after a presidential election in April, has recruited star power to publicise his vision.Filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lee Lewis were last year named ambassadors for the programme to the African-American community.
“Our brothers and sisters in Benin are telling us: come home, welcome us home, come back to the motherland. Come back (to) where your roots are,” Lee told France 24 last year.
In July 2025 American R&B star Ciara became one of the first beneficiaries of Beninese citizenship. She performed last week at a concert in Ouidah as part of an annual festival devoted to voodoo, playing hits such as “Level Up” during a set that ran until 3 a.m.
Her husband, American football quarterback Russell Wilson, attended and said he was hoping to become a citizen himself “real soon”.
PUSH FOR ‘RIGHT OF RETURN’
Around 50 people have received Beninese citizenship since the “My Afro Origins” programme launched last year, according to the Justice Ministry, which is sorting through thousands of applications and receives about 100 more each day.
To qualify, applicants need to be 18 years old and produce documents or a DNA test proving their ties to the continent, and they cannot be citizens of another African country, Foreign Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told Reuters.
At the naturalisation ceremony on December 27 in Cotonou, Benin’s biggest city and economic capital, Attelly and nine others received their citizenship certificates and posed for pictures next to the Beninese flag.
Benin’s programme is similar to an initiative in Ghana that, since 2016, has granted citizenship to 684 members of the African diaspora, according to Kofi Okyere Darko, presidential adviser on diaspora affairs.
CARICOM, the regional bloc of the Caribbean, has endorsed a “right of return” for descendants of enslaved people, as part of a reparations plan adopted in 2014.
Resettlement should be funded by “those states that are responsible for the forced movement and enslavement” of millions of people, CARICOM says, meaning European states and governments.
Though no significant progress has been made towards such a comprehensive effort, Benin’s government hopes the programme can nevertheless strengthen ties between Africans and the diaspora while showcasing the country’s history, said Bakari, the foreign minister.
“We believe that Africa cannot develop without a strong involvement of its diaspora,” he said.
“What we are looking for is people who will definitely recognise themselves as African, having the proof that they are part of this continent.”
Reporting by Pulcherie Adjoha and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Ouidah; Additional reporting by Emmanuel Bruce in Accra; Editing by Alison Williams
Prospective cadets aged 10–17 invited to Recruitment Night on January 16 in St. George’s
The Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps (BSCC) is excited to announce its upcoming Recruitment Night for prospective cadets and their families. The event will take place on Friday, January 16, at the BSCC Unit building located at 2 Convict Bay Lane, St. George’s, starting at 6.45pm. Recruitment is open to girls and boys between the ages of 10 (or turning 10 before 30 June this year) and 17.
This information session is designed to introduce young people and their guardians to the Sea Cadet programme, which offers unique opportunities for personal development, leadership, and maritime skills, all in the context of Royal Navy traditions.
Families will receive a detailed overview of the programme and its key policies, along with guidance on uniform requirements and expectations. The session will also cover volunteer standards and safeguarding principles to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all participants. Prospective cadets will also have the opportunity to join in with the training activities and meet current cadets, and there will be a Q&A segment, to give everyone the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about what it means to be part of the Bermuda Sea Cadets.
Prospective cadets should attend in school uniform or neat civilian attire.
“Joining the Sea Cadets is more than just learning skills; it’s about having fun and building confidence, teamwork and leadership in a safe and supportive environment. We look forward to welcoming new cadets and helping them chart a course for success!” – Lieutenant Commander (SCC) Michael Frith, RNR, the Commander of the Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps.
The British company said in a trading statement on Wednesday ahead of its results on February 10 that the impairments are excluded from underlying replacement cost profit, its version of net income
International News via Reuters:
Oil major BP expects to book $4 billion to $5 billion in fourth-quarter impairments, mainly tied to its energy transition businesses, as it reroutes spending to oil and gas to boost returns under new leadership including Chair Albert Manifold.
The British company said in a trading statement on Wednesday ahead of its results on February 10 that the impairments are excluded from underlying replacement cost profit, its version of net income. A spokesperson declined to say which projects were affected.
New CEO Meg O’Neill will replace interim chief Carol Howle in April after Murray Auchincloss’s abrupt exit last month.
LOWER OIL PRICES, TRADING TO WEIGH ON EARNINGS
BP warned that weaker oil trading and falling prices will weigh on fourth-quarter earnings.
It expects lower oil prices to reduce quarterly earnings by $200 million to $400 million while weaker gas prices could trim another $100 million to $300 million. European benchmark gas prices fell 9% in the period, and Brent crude < averaged $63.73 a barrel, down from $69.13 in the third quarter, as oversupply fears hit markets.
BP shares were down 1.1% by 0841 GMT versus a 0.4% dip in a broader index of European energy companies.
NET DEBT FALLING DUE TO DIVESTMENTS
BP expects net debt to have dropped to $22 billion–$23 billion by the end of 2025 from $26.1 billion in the third quarter, helped by divestments of about $5.3 billion, above earlier guidance. The figure excludes $6 billion from selling a majority stake in its Castrol lubricants unit. BP aims to cut debt to $14 billion–$18 billion by 2027.
Refining margins slipped to $15.20 a barrel from $15.80 in the previous quarter. BP’s 440,000-barrel-per-day Whiting refinery in the U.S. suffered outages after an October fire, adding to earlier disruptions from flooding and a major 2024 outage.
BP also raised its expected tax rate for 2025 to 42% from 40%.
Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Taylor was part of a five-strong majority on the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee that approved a cut in the BoE’s benchmark interest rate to 3.75% from 4% in December
International News via Reuters:
Interest rates set by the Bank of England should continue to fall as inflation is likely to settle around the central bank’s 2% target soon, BoE policymaker Alan Taylor said on Wednesday.
“We can now see inflation at target in mid-2026, rather than having to wait until 2027 as in our previous projection,” Taylor said in the text of a speech he was due to give at the National University of Singapore.
“I see this as sustainable, given cooling wage growth, and I now therefore expect monetary policy to normalise at neutral sooner rather than later….Interest rates should continue on a downward path, that is if my outlook continues to match up with the data, as it has done over the past year.”
Taylor was part of a five-strong majority on the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee that approved a cut in the BoE’s benchmark interest rate to 3.75% from 4% in December. The other four MPC members favoured no change to borrowing costs.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey has said inflation – which stood at 3.2% in its most recent reading – could fall to around 2% in April or May this year. Investors are close to pricing two further quarter-point rate cuts by the BoE in 2026.
In his speech on Wednesday, Taylor focused on the outlook for global trade which he expected to recover in the long run from shocks in recent years including U.S. President Donald Trump’s import tariffs, helping to reduce inflation pressures.
“Smoother international trade is, at the end of the day, a positive supply shock – for those countries who choose to participate, at least,” he said.
Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Sarah Young
The accident took place on Wednesday morning in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a train from the capital bound for Ubon Ratchathani province
International News via Reuters:
A train derailed in northeastern Thailand on Wednesday after a construction crane fell on three of its carriages, killing at least 25 people and injuring about 80, police said.
The accident took place on Wednesday morning in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a train from the capital bound for Ubon Ratchathani province.
“The death toll has now reached 25. The search for more bodies is ongoing,” Police Colonel Thatchapon Chinnawong told Reuters by phone.
Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said in a statement that there were 195 people on board, adding that he had ordered a thorough investigation to be carried out.
Those killed were in two of the three carriages hit by the crane, he said.
The crane was working on a high-speed rail project when it collapsed and hit the passing train, causing it to derail and briefly catch fire.
Images shared by the ministry showed carriages overturned next to shrubland and firefighters extinguishing a blaze as smoke billowed out.
Footage of the crash site verified by Reuters shows rescue workers trying to extract casualties from one of the buckled carriages, with some badly injured passengers already being loaded into ambulances.
The elevated high-speed rail project, one of several under construction in Thailand, was being built above the existing rail line. Part of the collapsed crane is still propped up by the stanchions built to support the new rail link.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing that the Chinese government attached great importance to the safety of projects and personnel and was looking into the situation.
“At present, it seems that the relevant section was under construction by a Thai enterprise. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.”
The high-speed rail project will connect to China through Laos. The government said last year that more than a third of construction had been completed in the segment connecting Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, and the whole line to Nong Khai at the border with Laos would be ready by 2030.
Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um, Additional reporting by Ethan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Martin Petty and David Stanway
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