Efforts to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill resumed yesterday after Hurricane Alex prompted a five-day shutdown, amid new questions over how BP would pay for the mounting costs.
Cleanup workers arrived back and skimming operations resumed in Louisiana but high seas kept vessels tied up in harbor in three other states and no controlled burns were being carried out. Officials said other operations to fend off the spill were back on track.
In the wake of Hurricane Alex, beaches, shorelines and marshes lay smeared with thick patches of oil and the sky was still filled with ominous, gray clouds.
“This is definitely the most oil I’ve seen. So far,” said one worker who declined to give his name.
BP now hopes the giant Taiwanese supertanker A Whale can exponentially boost the amount of oil and water mix being scooped up from the surface of the Gulf.
The ship was able to show off its maneuverability during a weekend test in a patch of water just north of the site where an April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. However, stiff winds and choppy seas prevented tests of a containment boom system designed to direct greater volumes of oily water into the ship’s 12 vents or “jaws,” said a spokesman for TMT, the shipping firm that owns the vessel.
Meanwhile, as it faces a massive bill for its efforts to clean up the oily mess — up to US$60 billion by some estimates — BP is turning to rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to fend off a possible hostile takeover bid.
The National, a newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, reported that sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East have proposed making a strategic investment in BP, which has pledged to place US$20 billion in an escrow account to pay for the Gulf cleanup. The firms were also allegedly mulling buying key assets from BP and financially backing any capital BP might plan to raise.
Britain’s Sunday Times said BP was seeking a strategic investor to buy between a 5 percent and 10 percent stake in it with a price tag of up to US$9.1 billion.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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