LONDON – Prime Minister Liz Truss on Wednesday sought to bolster her authority after a brutal first month in office by claiming that while not everyone supports the changes her new government is pushing, “all will benefit from the result – a growing economy and a better future.”

But just moments after her keynote address at the annual Conservative Party Convention, she was interrupted by Greenpeace protesters carrying a banner that read: “Who voted for it?” They were quickly removed from the hall.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss was harassed by two protesters holding a Greenpeace banner during her speech October 5 in Birmingham, England. (Video: Portal)

The Conservative Party Conference, with a new Prime Minister, was a moment the party had hoped would mark a fresh start after the many scandals of its predecessor, Boris Johnson. Instead, Truss had to defend the first few weeks of her premiership, already marked by historic economic volatility, a revolt within her party and voters turning away in droves from the Conservatives.

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“I’m ready to make the tough decisions,” she said. She warned of “stormy days” ahead but insisted Britain must “do things differently” and that “whenever there’s change, there’s disruption”.

“I am committed to taking a fresh approach and breaking out of this cycle of high tax and low growth,” she told party supporters gathered in Birmingham, England.

Referring to the protesters later in her speech, she spoke disparagingly of an “anti-growth coalition” made up of a broad mass of people in the country, including opposition politicians, “the militant trade unions, the interest groups disguised as think tanks, the Talking Heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the room earlier.”

“The fact is, they’d rather protest than do. They’d rather talk on Twitter than make tough decisions,” she said. “They roll from north London townhouses to the BBC studios to sack anyone who challenges the status quo. From the show to the podcast, they peddle the same old answers. It’s always more taxes, more regulation and more interference. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Truss took office with a lot to prove. Although she had a fairly prominent role as foreign secretary during the war in Ukraine, she wasn’t as well known to the British public as Johnson – a colorful former Mayor of London and newspaper columnist – was before he took the helm.

Truss was not driven by a general election, but by a leadership contest within her party. Even then, she wasn’t the first choice of Conservative Party lawmakers, and some of the grassroots party members who have rallied around her have admitted they already missed Johnson.

Any momentum Truss had as the new Prime Minister was wiped out after two days by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The new Prime Minister toured the four nations of the United Kingdom alongside the new King, but she played a minor role.

When attention finally returned to politics, things took a dramatic turn for the worse. Her government’s plan to boost the economy through tax cuts aimed primarily at the wealthy and funded by billions in loans prompted investors to divest British assets. The pound fell to an all-time low against the dollar. The Bank of England had to step in to quell a financial markets revolt.

The pound is recovering after the UK government reversed some of the fiscal policy that brought it down

It was only after 10 days of economic turmoil and under intense pressure from her party that Truss reversed course, announcing on Monday that she was abandoning the most controversial element of her economic plan: a proposal to end the top tax rate.

Since then, the pound has recovered. But disagreements within the Conservative Party remain, as this week’s conference report made clear. Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Tuesday lashed out at those within the party who “staged a coup” that “unprofessionally undermined our prime minister’s authority.”

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party’s public opinion has plummeted 20 to 30 points over the past two weeks.

“This is the most dramatic shift in public opinion polling of my life,” said Chris Curtis, head of political polling at Opinium Research.

The Conservatives “have lost the sense of being the economically competent party — it’s as simple as that,” Curtis said.

A opinion poll The report released Tuesday night showed the opposition Labor Party leading the Conservatives by 38 points in the “red wall” areas of northern England, trailing the Conservatives in the 2019 election.

If elections were held today, according to pollsters, the Labor Party would win the largest majority.

“This shift in the polls shows that the UK electorate is increasingly volatile. It is based less and less on party affiliation. Voters will move from one party to the next,” said Will Jennings, professor of political science at the University of Southampton.

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Politics in Britain is much less polarized than in the United States. That’s partly because of Brexit, which prompted many people to walk away from parties they had supported for decades and instead view themselves as “dropouts” or “remainers” – labels that crossed party lines. Now that Brexit is a done deal, Voters are open to being influenced by other causes.

This volatility means the pendulum could swing back and forth a few times before the next election, which could last until January 2025, and therefore neither the Conservative Party nor Truss are in immediate danger.

Still, the Conservatives have been known to ruthlessly dump leaders who no longer look like vote-winners. Johnson was ousted halfway through his term after a series of scandals, despite leading his party to a whopping majority in 2019.

If Conservatives think Truss will drag her down, she could be booted out just like Johnson.

“She’s in a vulnerable, delicate situation,” Jennings said. “If the Conservatives stay where they are in the polls, [members of Parliament] will be very concerned. One should never presume too much about the political future, but it is certainly true that it is in a difficult position. Regaining the support of their MPs and constituents will be an enormous challenge.”

The member countries of the international organization met physically in Vienna for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

OPEC+, which was back in Vienna on Wednesday for the first time since March 2020, wanted to mark the occasion: it decided to drastically cut oil production quotas to support prices, at the risk of offending the White House. The thirteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia and its ten partners led by Russia have agreed on a drop of “two million” barrels a day for the month of November, the alliance said in a statement.

“This is the largest reduction since the pandemic began,” Srijan Katyal of brokerage firm ADSS said in a statement. It will likely “push up prices,” he added, bucking Western efforts to stem soaring energy costs that are weighing on global growth. The decision comes “just as consumers breathed a sigh of relief” as prices at the pump have fallen sharply since this summer, recalls Oanda’s Craig Erlam. The two global crude oil benchmarks have lost ground in recent weeks, hovering around $90 a barrel, a far cry from the highs recorded in March at the start of the war in Ukraine (nearly $140).

The White House in search

Such an announcement “will not be well received by the White House in the run-up to next month’s midterm elections,” Tamas Varga had warned before the meeting at PV Energy. US President Joe Biden has been struggling for months to stem rising prices that are eroding household spending power, even going so far as to travel to Riyadh in July during a highly controversial visit.

At the White House, we tried to put Wednesday’s meeting into perspective, with a senior official stressing that OPEC+ meets “every month with clockwork precision.” The day before, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre had declined any hasty comment but reminded Washington “continues to take action to protect American consumers (…) and ensure adequate supplies to meet needs.”

“Technical Organization”

Asked on arrival about Washington’s likely response, Emirati Energy Minister Souhail ben Mohammed Al-Mazrouei came forward and said it was a “technical organization” that did not interfere in political affairs. Saudi Prince Abdel Aziz bin Salman, who is also present, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is responsible for energy issues, will address a press conference. A sharp drop in crude oil volumes suits Moscow, “and could therefore be perceived as a further escalation of geopolitical tensions,” comments Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote.

Established in 1960 with the aim of regulating the production and price of crude oil through setting quotas, OPEC expanded to include Russia and other partners in 2006 to form OPEC+. In a historic gesture, the members of the alliance decided in spring 2020 to cut almost 10 million euros in view of the collapse in demand in connection with the Covid 19 pandemic. A recipe that worked. This time they want to “get a head start on a possible recession by taking proactive measures,” says Bjarne Schieldrop from Seb. “This would allow them to avoid potential stockpiling and hence low oil prices.”

Back in September, the group lowered its target slightly (by 100,000 barrels) and said it was ready to do more. If the rumors are confirmed, it would be the biggest drop since the pandemic shock. After a bounce earlier in the week, prices showed little reaction as of 13:00 GMT on Wednesday, trading at $91.84 for a barrel of North Sea Brent and $86.36 for a barrel of WTI, its American counterpart.

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New instant start for the Italian Eurofighter engaged in air policing activities in Poland intercept four Russian fighters who had violated Polish and Swedish airspace before being forced to re-enter the airspace of Kaliningrad. This is a new episode of the war in the skies between Born and Russiawith the tension that remains very high since Moscow raised the specter of nuclear war and even world war if the west were to help Ukraine again, especially after the farcical annexation of the four regions by referendum.

In a note, the Italian Air Force said Russian fighter jets took off from Kaliningrad before violating Polish airspace. The planes of Putin They then crossed the Baltic Sea to Sweden before being “forced” to return to base.

#scramblenew immediate start for the #Eurofighter Italians engaged in air policing activities in Poland to intercept four Russian fighter jets that had impacted Polish and Swedish airspace before being forced to re-enter Kaliningrad airspace pic.twitter.com/xY6b3YA4YI

– Air Force (@ItalianAirForce) October 5, 2022

Poland has long been a member of the alliance, while Sweden only signed the accession protocols this year in response to Putin’s invasion Ukraine. Kaliningrad is a heavily militarized territory cut off from the main Russian state and surrounded by Poland and Lithuania. And it’s often at the center of tensions between Putin and NATO, with Moscow threatening to station nuclear weapons in the enclave earlier this year.

The consequences of the last few weeks

Already in the last few days the Born had warned of a Russian plane on the border with Poland. A presence that had not been communicated and therefore, according to procedure, the Alliance sent two planes to determine the target and operations. Skirmishes at high altitude, a warning of the voltage level in the area. The Italian fighters are actually stationed in the base Malborkin northern Poland, not far from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. And again, in recent weeks, other Italian Eurofighters in Poland had intervened on similar cases in the NATO air policing mission, intercepting three Russian planes flying near the Atlantic Alliance’s northeastern flank. In short, certainly not a novelty in wartime. But another sign of how high the attention threshold is worldwide.

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Florida, Babcock Ranch, first proposed solar-powered community. Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

• At no time did residents lose power and no major damage was reported

• With only 2,000 apartments, the “heart” of the city is a piece of land with 700,000 solar panels

• The city’s power and internet cables are buried underground to protect them from the wind

Renewable energy isn’t just another convenience for residents at Babcock Ranch. It’s just part of everyday life.

Babcock Ranch describes itself as “America’s first city powered entirely by solar energy‘, and this week he made headlines when it was revealed he had managed to keep the lights on while 4 million lost power during Hurricane Ian’s devastating passage.

Just 12 miles from Fort Myers, Fla. and with just 2,000 homes, Babcock Ranch was successful proof that “an environmentally conscious city can withstand the wrath of a storm approaching Category 5,” reported a report Monday CNN.

No power outages or major damage

“We have water, electricity, internet and we may be the only happy people in Southwest Florida,” Nancy Chorpenning, 68, a community resident, told CNN.

A spokesman for Babcock Ranch confirmed that residents They never lost power and no major damage was reportedalthough the gusts of more than 240 km/h managed to uproot some trees and loosen roof tiles.

The “heart” of the city is a huge 870 hectare matrix consisting of 700,000 solar panels. The system produces more electricity than the city consumes and includes batteries to power it on cloudy days and at night.

Visitors to Babcock Ranch can also find solar panels in commercial areas and public spaces, as well as in the homes of some residents, many of whom They drive electric cars.

Florida, Babcock Ranch, photovoltaic array. Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

According to a CNN review, former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys football player Syd Kitson is the brainchild of the project. Kitson envisioned it as a green and innovative neighborhood, safe and resilient to catastrophic hurricanes.

Continue reading the story

A life powered by the sun

With an approach grounded in sustainability and resilience to climate events, the community’s development began in 2015 with the construction of its solar array, currently managed by Florida Power and Light. The first residents arrived three years later, and since then the community has doubled in size.

The city was built over the storm surge area, with Roads designed to minimize flooding. The campus of the new Babcock High School doubles as a storm shelter.

According to CNN, the city’s power and internet cables are buried underground to protect them from the wind. Half of the city’s cultural area is entirely devoted to green parks, lakes and trails.

“A life powered by the sun” – this is how the Babcock Ranch website advertises itself.

Florida, Babcock Ranch, autonomous electric vehicle at charging station. Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Most of Florida’s electricity comes from natural gas power plants. Hurricane Ian left more than 4 million customers without power in Florida, according to Portal agency. Almost 400,000 homes and businesses were still without power as of Tuesday.

“It certainly exceeded our expectations for a hurricane like this,” Anthony Grande, a community resident who moved from Fort Myers three years ago primarily because of hurricane risk, told CNN.

Grande, 58, said Hurricane Ian moved “like a freight train” through Southwest Florida. but I was no longer afraid of losing everythinglike when I lived in Fort Myers.

“It’s not what it was 20 or 25 years ago; The storms are getting bigger and that’s no surprise as the warnings have all been there. I think the future of Babcock Ranch just got brighter,” he added.

According to its website, Babcock Ranch is planning a second phase of development that will expand its boundaries and include new neighborhoods. Meanwhile, it offers distinctive neighborhoods for each generation to rise with “the best builders in the nation and Southwest Florida.”

“You will surely find your people,” the website says. “We offer many house designs ideal for young millennials, growing families, empty nesters and retirees alike.”

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Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin completed the illegal annexation of the occupied parts of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Donetsk by signing the relevant decrees. He signed the “laws on the integration of regions into Russian territory” previously passed by the State Duma and the Federation Council and thus put them into effect, as the Kremlin announced on Wednesday.

However, Moscow currently only controls parts of these areas in southern and eastern Ukraine. Recently, Ukraine has repeatedly reported land gains. According to his own statements, the Ukrainian army only snatched other cities in southern Ukraine from Russian troops on Wednesday. Despite military setbacks in the four regions, Putin is confident. The situation should soon stabilize, he said on Russian television.

“Forever in Russia”

“They will always belong to Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency TASS on Wednesday. Some areas still need to be taken, Peskow said, with a view to the neighboring country’s counteroffensive. “Let’s consult the population that wants to live with Russia.” On the size of the annexed areas, Peskov said that the current issue is the borders in force at the time the regions were admitted to the Russian Federation.

Initially, the regions will be headed by officials appointed by Moscow, as the regional parliaments will not be elected until September next year. As can be seen from the decrees signed by Putin, former separatist leader Denis Pushilin will be installed as head of regional government in the Donetsk region and local separatist leader Leonid Passechnik in Luhansk. Evgeny Balizki, the previous governor, will be responsible for the Zaporizhia region. Vladimir Saldo becomes the head of the Kherson region. He was previously team leader.

On Friday, Putin signed the internationally unrecognized accession treaties with the occupiers seconded by Moscow. Along with the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, which was annexed in 2014, Russia now controls more than 16% of Ukraine’s territory seven months after the start of its war of aggression.

Meanwhile, EU countries have launched an eighth package of sanctions against Russia. On Wednesday, the permanent representatives of member states approved, among other things, legal requirements for a price cap on oil imports from Russia backed by the G7 countries. The agreement still needs to be confirmed by the capitals in the written procedure. This must be done by Thursday morning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (5) signed the law on the annexation of four Ukrainian regions and the decrees formally appointing the rulers, which Moscow had already installed in the regions.

The texts signed by Putin provide for the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to be incorporated into the Russian Federation in accordance with the country’s constitution.

Despite international outrage and military defeats on the battlefield, Putin has annexed the four regions partially controlled by the Russian army, believing they are legitimately returning to Russia after the hasty organization of controversial referendums.

Putin also signed decrees formally appointing the current Moscowbacked leaders in the four regions as his governing bodies.

Prior to Putin’s signature, the annexation bill was unanimously supported by the lower and upper houses of the Russian parliament.

Putin presided over a grand ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday, where he signed the annexation deals with officials from the four regions, despite criticism from Kyiv and the western powers.

The four territories form a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The five regions make up nearly 20% of Ukraine, but Russian forces do not have full control of Kherson and Zaporizhia. Moscow did not say which areas of these regions were annexed.