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Russian tax revenue from crude oil and petroleum products plummeted by 48% in February from a year earlier due to the much lower price of Russia’s flagship crude grade after the EU banned imports of Russian oil, according to Bloomberg estimates based on official Russian data. Total tax revenues from oil and natural gas dipped by 46% year over year to $6.9 billion (521 billion Russian rubles) in February, per data from the Russian Finance Ministry published on Friday. Russia’s revenues from crude oil and oil products alone crumbled by 48% annually to $4.8 billion (361 billion rubles), according to...

Five-year Fight To Expose Child Abuse At A "Christian" Boot Camp In October 2011, a concerned mother called Capt. Charles Kennedy of Prichard, Alabama, concerned about her son enrolled at Restoration Youth Academy, a Christian "Youth Treatment Facility." Shocked at what he discovered, Kennedy launched a 5-year struggle to expose abuse and torture suffered by students at the hands of instructors. Even after retiring, Kennedy campaigned for criminal charges and closure of Restoration Youth Academy, and the arrest of its owner and instructor William Knott. He appealed to the local Mobile County District Attorney, the Alabama Department of Human Resources,...

In September, Indian refiners are not expected to buy any ESPO crude from Russia because of the higher shipping rates. African and Middle East crude becomes more attractive as shipping rates on long voyages have jumped... However, with a recent surge in freight rates, Russian oil doesn't look so cheap. Moreover, the travel time from Russia's Far East, where the ESPO grade is loading for exports, is a month to India, compared to a week necessary for a Middle Eastern cargo to reach India... "On net back basis after factoring in the freight, the landed cost of ESPO is turning...

Natural gas demand in major consuming countries stood in June at 104 percent of year-ago levels, but production was flat compared to 2021 levels, new data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday. While U.S. natural gas production has been rising in recent months alongside LNG exports, Russian gas production has plummeted since Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. In June, Russian gas production plummeted 18 percent month on month, falling for three consecutive months. Russia’s gas output in June was at 70 percent of March levels, according to data from JODI, which compiles self-reported...

Asian nations are letting up on discounted Russian oil exports, with Bloomberg data showing a 13% decline over the past four weeks as Chinese and Indian demand ease, chipping away at Russian oil revenues. China and India account for purchases of 55% of Russia’s seaborne oil exports; however, Chinese demand over the past four weeks has dropped by 52,000 barrels per day, while Indian demand has eased by 18%, according to Bloomberg. Reuters also reports that Chinese state-run Sinopec–the biggest refiner in Asia–reduced purchases of discounted Russian ESPO crude oil this month after refusing to outbid Indian buyers. Citing trading...

Japan is facing an energy crisis that can severely hurt the world's third-largest economy as it is forced to tackle a combination of a weak local currency, the fallout from the Ukraine war, and a heatwave. Japan already had a significant energy import bill as it depends on foreign oil and gas for 90 percent of its needs. But as the yen fell to the lowest in 20 years, Japan's bill became even bigger, with the price rise in crude oil, which has been some 40 percent in dollar terms since the start of 2022, reaching a whopping 70 percent...

After I joined the staff of the Spectator magazine 30 years ago, I was taken to the House of Commons as part of my political apprenticeship. We watched a debate from the press gallery and pottered through the lobbies of the cavernous building before repairing at around 9 p.m. to one of the dozen or more bars found in the Palace of Westminster. There we fell in with a Tory MP, the original vaudeville drunk, glassy eyes, slurred speech, teetering on his bar stool. I bought him one or two more and then I helpfully asked if I could find...

Charles Kennedy, leader of Britain's third-biggest party, resigned on Saturday after support from his colleagues evaporated when he admitted he had had treatment for alcohol abuse. The Liberal Democrats, the only major party in Britain to oppose the Iraq war, will now face a leadership contest. Kennedy, 46, decided to step down after days of turmoil following his surprise admission on Thursday. He had previously always denied having a drink problem. "I am standing down as leader," he told reporters at Liberal Democrat headquarters. "When nominations open (for the leadership) I shall not be putting my name forward." He said...

LONDON, England (AP) -- The leader of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats resigned under heavy pressure from the party Saturday, days after he acknowledged battling a drinking problem. Charles Kennedy initially resisted stepping down despite calls from nearly half of the party's lawmakers for him to resign, saying the Liberal Democrats' rank and file still backed him.

London — Leading members of Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats demanded the resignation of party Leader Charles Kennedy on Friday, warning that his unprecedented public acknowledgment of a drinking problem has made him a “dead man walking.” Parliamentary deputies began turning against the 46-year-old Scotsman after he acknowledged in a public statement late Thursday that he had sought medical treatment for the problem. The party's Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, handed a letter to Mr. Kennedy signed by 11 senior party legislators, saying his was position was untenable. International development spokesman Andrew George and trade and industry spokesman Norman Lamb announced that...

New HampshireThe day after the election, the BBC reported that the Iranian government was interested in buying MG Rover. This was a useful reminder of what one might call the internal contradictions of Blairism. It would be difficult to imagine circumstances in which the mullahs would buy, say, General Motors, yet here was George W. Bush’s alleged poodle presiding over a land where what’s left of the native automobile industry is happy to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Axis of Evil. I’ve no idea what MG Rover makes these days, but no doubt it will soon be changed...

On election day, I happened to be motoring through the leafy lanes of Warwickshire, and thinking, as I do every couple of years or so, well, maybe I ought to get out the car and pick up some local colour and so forth. And, just as the thought occurred, I passed a Porsche dealership and a riding club and I realised, oh, no, I'm in Solihull. Nothing against Solihull, I hasten to add, but let's face it, it's not exactly the liveliest posting on anybody's election battleground map. "Conservative since the dawn of time," as the chap on the BBC's...

Americans are accustomed to thinking of Britain as their most reliable ally, always there in a crisis. Broadly speaking that has been true since 1941 — and mutual. With the exception of a few wobbles like Suez and Edward Heath's refusal of landing rights to U.S. planes supplying arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur war, the Brits have shared a common approach with the U.S. on defense policy, intelligence cooperation, nuclear weapons, trade liberalization, and much else. Margaret Thatcher's backing for Reagan's Libyan raid and Tony Blair's commitment of British forces to the Iraq war strengthened this habitual cooperation....