US grants waiver to allow India to buy Russian oil amid Iran war
The US has temporarily allowed India to buy Russian oil currently stuck at sea in an effort to keep global supplies flowing and temper further price increases.The US treasury has issued a 30-day waiver allowing India to buy Russian oil, having previously imposed heavy sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.“To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the treasury department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil,” the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said in a statement posted to social media on Thursday.“This stopgap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage.”In August the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an additional 25% import tariff on India over its purchase of cheap Russian oil, arguing that New Delhi’s purchases were undermining US sanctions and helpingVladimir Putin bankroll the invasion of Ukraine.
“This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorises transactions involving oil already stranded at sea,” Bessent said.He added that he expected India to eventually buy more US oil.Meanwhile, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday that the war in Iran had fuelled demand for Russian energy products.China imported record levels of Russian crude last month but some market observers have warned that Russia may not have the capacity to increase its output further.Iran’s effective blockade on the strait of Hormuz after last weekend’s strikes by the US and Israel has ignited fears of energy supply shortages across the globe.
Qatar’s energy minister warned on Friday that the escalating regional conflict could “bring down the economies of the world” by causing a surge in energy costs.Saad al-Kaabi told the FT that Gulf energy exporters would be forced to shut down oil and gas production within days, which could drive oil to $150 (£112) a barrel.Kuwait has reportedly begun cutting production at some oilfields, pushing up the price of oil 5% to above $90 a barrel on Friday.Indian refiners are buying millions of barrels of Russian crude oil cargoes as India seeks to navigate an oil supply crunch triggered by the Middle East conflict.“The [US] measure is aimed at Russian oil that is already stranded at sea, so should be viewed as more of a short-term relief for Asian refiners,” analysts at Deutsche Bank said.
Global Witness accused the White House of helping to “fuel Putin’s war machine”, and warned that this “effectively sacrifices the people of Ukraine to combat an oil price crisis that the US and Israel have, themselves, triggered”,The Global Witness chief executive, Mike Davis, said: “After four years of war, countries should be coming together to end the bloodshed, not inflating Putin’s war chest,It is time for peace,”India was the top buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, but in January its refiners started to reduce purchases under pressure from Washington,Cutting Russian oil purchases helped New Delhi avoid 25% tariffs and clinch an interim trade deal with the US.
India is vulnerable to energy supply shocks, with crude stocks covering only about 25 days of demand.India receives about 40% of its oil imports from the Middle East through the strait of Hormuz.A source directly involved with the matter said India had approached Trump’s administration seeking approval to buy Russian crude imports because of the Iran conflict, Reuters reported.The state refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals are reportedly talking to traders for prompt delivery of Russian cargoes.Separately, the International Energy Agency executive director, Fatih Birol, said on Friday that looking to Russia for gas supplies would be economically and politically wrong.
“The current crisis in the Middle East has led to questions in some quarters about whether to go back to Russia or not,” Birol told reporters after a meeting of the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and EU commissioners on global energy markets.“One of Europe’s historical mistakes was the overreliance of its energy sources on one single country, Russia.”The European Commission is considering reducing the taxes and tariffs that inflate many countries’ energy bills, or letting governments use more state aid to support energy-intensive industries, two EU officials told Reuters.In the UK, ministers are discussing the possibility of intervening to protect the public against soaring household energy bills.
UK’s private dentistry market faces review after price jumps of more than 23%
The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a review into the £8bn private dentistry market after the price of a consultation increased by nearly 25% over a two-year period.One in five people in Great Britain sought private dental care in 2024 in part because they could not access NHS treatment. Announcing its investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it wanted to make sure the market was “working well for UK consumers”.The CMA said dentistry played “a critical role in people’s health and wellbeing” and that demand for private services had risen sharply in recent years. Against this backdrop the regulator pointed to independent price data that showed average prices had “increased significantly”
‘A space of their own’: how cancer centres designed by top architects can offer hope
Maggie Keswick Jencks received her weekly breast cancer treatment in a windowless neon-lit room in Edinburgh’s Western general hospital. Her husband, the renowned landscape designer Charles, later described it as a kind of “architectural aversion therapy”.It was then, in the early 1990s, that the Scottish artist and garden designer imagined her own blueprint that would allow cancer patients “a space of their own” within the alienating, clinical confines of the hospital estate, one where they might “not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying”.The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996, a year after her death, designed by Richard Murphy and housed in a converted stable block in the Western general grounds.Three decades on, there are more than 30 of these hospital-adjacent cancer support centres across the UK and overseas, and this legacy of conscious design is celebrated in a free exhibition at the V&A Dundee from Friday
UK government ‘effectively allowed’ child sexual abuse, campaigners say
Campaigners have accused the UK government of in effect allowing child abuse to continue by having an “inconsistent and arbitrary” approach to implementing recommendations from a seven-year statutory inquiry.The claim was made at the high court in London, where a judge said a legal action against the Home Office could continue.The Maggie Oliver Foundation is taking action over the government’s alleged failure to adopt all the changes recommended by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which conducted investigations between 2015 and 2022.At a hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Kimblin allowed the legal action to continue, saying it was arguable that the foundation had a “legitimate expectation” that the government would implement the recommendations. The Home Office is defending the claim
Circumcision classed as potentially harmful practice in new CPS guidance
Circumcision has been classed as a potentially harmful practice in new official guidance for criminal prosecutors in England and Wales, but controversial plans to class it as possible child abuse have been dropped.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided against including circumcision alongside dowry abuse, witchcraft and female genital mutilation in its new guidance on honour-based abuse, after objections from Jewish and Muslim groups when the plans were revealed by the Guardian.Instead it has included a similar section on circumcision in updated guidance on offences against the person. It says: “In certain circumstances, such as the procedure being carried out by those falsely claiming to be suitably qualified practitioners or carried out in non-sterile conditions, it can cross the line into a harmful practice.”Prosecutors are advised to consider child cruelty offences under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 or assault offences under the Offences against the Person Act 1861
Scientists laud potentially life-changing drug for children with resistant form of epilepsy
Scientists have hailed a potentially life-changing drug for children with a hard to treat form of epilepsy, after promising early clinical trial results.Dravet syndrome is a genetic disorder which causes treatment resistant epilepsy and is often accompanied by speech and developmental delays. About 3,000 people are thought to have the condition in the UK. Current treatments aim to control the number and severity of seizures, but often do not work.These preliminary trials, led by UCL and Great Ormond Street hospital (GOSH), found that the drug appeared to be safe and well tolerated by the 81 children taking part
More than 220m children will be obese by 2040 without drastic action, report warns
Without drastic action more than 220 million children could have obesity by 2040, an international report has warned.Globally, in 2025 about 180 million children were obese. But new figures from the World Obesity Federation suggest that by 2040, about 227 million of all five- to 19-year-olds will have obesity and more than half a billion will be overweight.According to the federation’s 2026 world obesity atlas, that would mean that at least 120 million school-age children would have early signs of chronic disease caused by their high body mass index (BMI).Someone is classed as obese if their BMI is 30 or above, and overweight if it is above 25
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