Ministers rebuff trade body’s call to boost North Sea oil and gas production
The UK government has dismissed a warning from an energy trade body that failing to produce more homegrown North Sea oil and gas will leave the UK increasingly reliant on imports at a time of rising global instability,The industry group, Offshore Energies UK, has said the UK “urgently” needs a greater supply of domestically produced energy or consumers will be left “more exposed to global volatility and higher emissions”,The warning came as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week,The escalating conflict has triggered the biggest oil and gas supply shock in the history of the market and caused UK gas prices to more than double in under a month,But the industry’s call for more support to help slow the decline of the North Sea as a provider of energy was rebuffed by the government.
A spokesperson said: “Issuing new licences to explore new fields cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills.”They added: “Regardless of where it comes from, oil and gas is sold on international markets, which set the price for British billpayers – making us a price taker.The only way to truly protect ourselves from these price spikes is to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets.”The decline of the North Sea oil and gas basin means that the UK’s reliance on gas imports – which are sourced from countries including the US and Qatar – is likely to increase sharply from about 14% last year to more than a quarter of its gas supply by 2030, and almost half by 2035, it said.The group’s flagship annual report added that the UK will continue to use oil and gas for decades to come and sourcing this from the North Sea gas would have a lower emissions footprint than importing liquified natural gas on super-chilled tankers from overseas.
David Whitehouse, the chief executive of OEUK, said: “Recent events have shown how quickly energy markets can tighten and how easily cargoes can be diverted away from the UK when other buyers bid higher,Energy security means backing homegrown oil and gas alongside renewables,”He argued that a stable new tax regime for the industry was “essential to reduce reliance on volatile imports, protect skilled jobs and supply chains, and ensure the UK can decarbonise while keeping energy secure and affordable”,The UK continues to rely on oil and gas for about 75% of its energy needs and hydrocarbons will still meet about a fifth of the UK’s primary energy demand in 2050 under its net zero plans, according to the OEUK’s research,Enrique Cornejo, the OEUK’s energy policy director, said: “What we’re setting out here is that there is a pathway to meet climate targets that makes a responsible use of our homegrown resources, and that also ensures that we do not offshore those emissions to other countries.
“Because of how accounting of carbon emissions works for every country, it would be very easy for us to just say we will not produce our energy in the UK, or we will not produce our steel in the UK, and we’re just pushing that problem elsewhere.”
‘Kids say they take a quick look at TikTok’: a new kind of distracted driving is on the rise
As watching videos, using touchscreens, and even livestreaming behind the wheel become more common, experts warn of increased risk of crashes Jackie was on her way to a doctor’s appointment last fall when she realized her Uber driver’s eyes were not fully on the road. “He had a video playing on his phone and was intermittently looking at it,” she said. Jackie, who is 32 and lives in New Jersey, could not tell exactly what the driver was watching, but she remembers seeing shots of people talking – she guessed it was a video podcast. “I was definitely feeling a lot of dread and distress.”As they continued on their 40-minute drive down the New Jersey Turnpike – a hectic highway that is not easy driving – Jackie considered saying something
iPhone 17e review: Apple upgrades its cheapest new smartphone
The cheapest new iPhone has been upgraded for this year with a faster chip, double the storage, automatic portraits and MagSafe, providing even more of the core Apple smartphone experience for less.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The iPhone 17e is an upgraded version of the mid-range “e” line launched last year with the first iPhone 16e and is the latest member of the iPhone 17 family
Campaign groups rail against Palantir, but the UK contracts keep coming
Palantir’s latest UK contract takes the AI and data analytics company into the heart of one of Britain’s biggest industries: financial services, which accounts for 9% of the economy.The Miami-based company embedded its technology in the NHS in 2023, the police in 2024 and the military in 2025. Land and expand, they say in the tech industry. Palantir has followed the script, building contracts worth more than £500m.Now in 2026, its deal with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to dive into the terabytes of information it gathers gives it yet another unparalleled view of the inner workings of the British authorities
Palantir extends reach into British state as it gets access to sensitive FCA data
Palantir is to be granted access to a trove of highly sensitive UK financial regulation data, in a deal that has prompted fresh concerns about the US AI company’s deepening reach into the British state, the Guardian can reveal.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has awarded Palantir a contract to investigate the watchdog’s internal intelligence data in an effort to help it tackle financial crime, which includes investigating fraud, money laundering and insider trading.The Miami-based company, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel, has been appointed for a three-month trial, paying more than £30,000 a week to analyse the FCA’s vast “data lake”, which could lead to a full procurement of an AI system.The deal is part of the FCA’s drive to use digital intelligence to better focus resources on rule-breaking among the 42,000 financial services firms it regulates, from major banks to crypto exchanges.There was only one other, unnamed competitor for the contract
New crypto regulations likely to be big favor to the Trump family, industry insiders say
On Tuesday, major US financial regulators published rules for the cryptocurrency industry that may reduce regulatory requirements and that insiders believe will benefit the Trump family’s ventures.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new guidelines for the cryptocurrency industry to answer the longstanding question of what does or does not qualify as a security, a classification that entails strict oversight. SEC chair, Paul Atkins, has dubbed the framework a “token taxonomy” for the sector. Published jointly with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the guidelines classify most of crypto-based assets as commodities, collectibles, payment tokens or “digital tools”, exempting them from the SEC’s more stringent oversight and disclosure requirements. Only blockchain-based representations of existing securities, such as stocks and bonds, remain classified as securities under this new framework
‘Thank God they’re still alive’: Kaiser therapists claim its new screening system puts patients at higher risk by delaying their care
Ilana Marcucci-Morris is worried about the patients she treats and how long it took for them to arrive in her office. At Kaiser Permanente’s psychiatry outpatient clinic in Oakland, California, she says she increasingly finds herself assessing people experiencing more severe mental health issues than two years ago. For those who do make it to their appointments, she thinks: “Thank God they’re still alive.”It wasn’t always this way, according to Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker. Licensed professionals used to almost always be the first point of contact for patients with behavioral health issues at Kaiser, she said
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