SINGAPORE: Eleven men were charged in a Singapore court on Tuesday over their part in an alleged oil theft at Shell’s biggest refinery, court documents showed.
Police in the island-state, Asia’s main oil trading hub, said earlier on Tuesday they had detained 17 men and seized millions of dollars in cash and a small tanker during their investigations into a theft at the Pulau Bukom industrial site.
Royal Dutch Shell, which first reported the theft to authorities in August, said in a news release that the arrests included “a limited number of Shell employees” and that it anticipated “a short delay in the supply operations at Bukom.”
Nine Singaporeans were charged over the theft and two Vietnamese nationals were charged with receiving stolen goods, transferred from Pulau Bukom to a small oil tanker named Prime South, charge sheets showed.
Shipping data from Thomson Reuters Eikon showed the Prime South was shipping fuel between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Singapore for the past 30 days.
Those arrested by police during raids on Sunday, all men, ranged in age from 30 to 63. Police said the six who had not been charged were still under investigation.
The court documents seen so far allege three incidents of gasoil theft: on November 21, 2017, of more than 2,322 tons valued at S$1.277 million (SR3.6 million); and on January 5 and 7 this year of a combined 2,062 tons of gasoil valued at S$1.126 million.
Both Vietnamese nationals were charged with receiving gasoil on January 7, at wharf 5 on Bukom island, the documents show.
Police said they also seized S$3.05 million in cash and the 12,000-deadweight-ton tanker.
They have also frozen the suspects’ bank accounts, the police said.
Bukom is the largest wholly owned Shell refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity, according to the company’s website.
Shell declined to say how much oil had been stolen. The charge sheets specified gasoil as the stolen commodity and listed varying amounts for each man charged. Shipping and oil refining have contributed significantly to Singapore’s rising wealth during the past decades.
The Southeast Asian city-state is one of the world’s most important oil trading hubs, with most of the Middle East’s crude oil passing through Singapore before being delivered to the huge consumers in China, Japan and South Korea.
Singapore is also Southeast Asia’s main refinery hub and the world’s biggest marine refueling station.
Shell is one of the biggest and longest established foreign investors in Singapore. Its oil refinery on Bukom island, situated 5.5 kilometers to the southwest of Singapore, is the company’s biggest such facility in the world, with a processing capacity of 500,000 barrels per day.
Southeast Asia is a hotspot of illegal oil trading. In some cases, oil has been illegally siphoned from storage tanks, but there have also been thefts at sea.
The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) says that siphoning of fuel and oil at sea in Asia, including through armed robbery and piracy, saw sharp increases between 2011 and 2015.
There has been a modest decline since then, although the organization said in a quarterly report that oil theft was still “of concern,” especially in the South China Sea, off the east coast of Malaysia.
The stolen fuel is generally sold across Southeast Asia, offloaded directly into trucks or tanks at small harbors away from oil terminals.
Singapore charges 11 men over Shell oil heist
Singapore charges 11 men over Shell oil heist
Former student kills 10 in Austrian high school shooting
- Shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz
- Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism
The 21-year-old shooter acted alone and took his own life in the toilet at Dreierschuetzengasse high school in Graz, police said.
Investigators found a good-bye letter addressed to the suspect’s parents during a search of his residence, but it included no clues about his motive.
After arriving in Graz, Chancellor Christian Stocker described the shooting as “a national tragedy.”
“This is a dark day,” he told reporters Tuesday as he announced three days of national mourning. A minute’s silence will be observed across the country at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Wednesday.
Nine victims were immediately confirmed and a woman died later in hospital from her wounds, an official said. A 17-year-old French student was among the victims, his father said.
Twelve people suffered serious injuries and police said support was being provided to witnesses and those affected.
According to police, the alleged perpetrator was an Austrian from the Graz region who used two legally owned weapons.
He was a former student at the high school, but never finished his studies there, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters.
Bouquets of flowers and candles were placed in front of the school, which has around 400 students aged between 14 and 18, and nearby businesses closed.
One resident, originally from the United States, whose children attend a nearby elementary school and kindergarten, said she was “shocked” and it was “a lot to take in.”
“In my home country it happens more often as we know, but that it happens here is unheard of,” she said, declining to give her name.
“Graz is a safe city,” said Roman Klug, 55, who said he lived close to the school that he said was “known for its openness and diversity.”
Condolences poured in from across Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “France extends its deepest sympathy to the victims’ families, the Austrian people and Chancellor Stocker during this difficult time.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “our thoughts are with our Austrian friends and neighbors” following the “horrific” shooting.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his “deepest condolences.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the news from Graz touches my heart,” while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathies to the families of the victims following the “tragic news.”
Attacks in public are rare in Austria, which is home to almost 9.2 million people and ranks among the 10 safest countries in the world, according to the Global Peace Index.
While still less common than in the United States, Europe has been shaken by attacks at schools and universities in recent years that were not connected to terrorism.
In France, a teaching assistant was killed in a knife attack at a school in the eastern town of Nogent on Tuesday.
In January, an 18-year-old man fatally stabbed a high school student and a teacher at a school in northeastern Slovakia.
And in December, a 19-year-old man stabbed a seven-year-old student to death and injured several others at a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia.
In December 2023, an attack by a student at a university in central Prague left 14 people dead and 25 injured.
A few months earlier, a 13-year-old gunned down nine fellow classmates and a security guard at an elementary school in Belgrade.
Pentagon slashes in half its request for Air Force F-35s – media report
- The Air Force now plans to seek $3.5 billion for the F-35 aircraft, and another $531 million for advance procurement of materials for it
The Pentagon is scaling back by half its request to Congress for the US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
A US Defense Department procurement request document sent to Capitol Hill this week asked for 24 of the planes, down from 48 that were forecast last year, the report said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Lockheed Martin and the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
The Air Force now plans to seek $3.5 billion for the F-35 aircraft, and another $531 million for advance procurement of materials for it, the report said.
The Pentagon has also requested 12 of the Navy’s carrier version of the F-35, lower than the 17 Congress approved for this fiscal year, while the Marines would also see a reduction of two from this year’s funding, the report added.
In May, Lockheed Martin’s finance chief said the firm expects to be awarded a finalized contract on its F-35 jets, which have been beset by delays related to a technology upgrade.
The defense contractor delivered a total of 110 F-35 fighter jets to the United States and its allies in 2024. Lockheed’s F-35 program accounts for around 30 percent of the company’s revenue.
California governor says ‘democracy is under assault’ by Trump as feds intervene in LA protests
- Gavin Newsom: ‘California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next’
- California governor is head of the heavily Democratic state known as the epicenter of the so-called Trump resistance
LOS ANGELES: Calling President Donald Trump a threat to the American way of life, Governor Gavin Newsom depicted the federal military intervention in Los Angeles as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation’s democracy.
In a speech Tuesday evening, the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate said the arrival of National Guard and Marine troops in the city at Trump’s direction was not simply about quelling protests that followed a series of immigration raids by federal authorities. Instead, he said, it was part of a calculated “war” intended to upend the foundations of society and concentrate power in the White House.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,” a somber Newsom warned, seated before the US and California flags. “Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”
As head of the heavily Democratic state known as the epicenter of the so-called Trump resistance, Newsom and the Republican president have long been adversaries. But the governor’s speech delivered in prime time argued that Trump was not just a threat to democracy, but was actively working to break down its guardrails that reach back to the nation’s founding.
″He’s declared a war. A war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself,” Newsom said. “He’s delegitimizing news organizations, and he’s assaulting the First Amendment.”
Newsom added that Trump is attacking law firms and the judicial branch – “the foundations of an orderly and civil society.”
“It’s time for all of us to stand up,” Newsom said, urging any protests to be peaceful. “What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”
His speech came the same day that Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protective gauntlet around agents as they carried out arrests. The judge chose not to rule immediately, giving the Trump administration several days to continue those activities before a hearing Thursday.
Trump has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders, though the Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters. They were originally deployed to protect federal buildings.
Newsom’s speech capped several days of acidic exchanges between Trump and Newsom, that included the president appearing to endorse Newsom’s arrest if he interfered with federal immigration enforcement. “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump told reporters.
Over the years, Trump has threatened to intercede in California’s long-running homeless crisis, vowed to withhold federal wildfire aid as political leverage in a dispute over water rights, called on police to shoot people robbing stores and warned residents that “your children are in danger” because of illegal immigration.
Trump relishes insulting the two-term governor and former San Francisco mayor – frequently referring to him as Gov. “New-scum” – and earlier this year faulted the governor for Southern California’s deadly wildfires.
Trump has argued that the city was in danger of being overrun by violent protesters, while Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have called the federal intervention an unneeded – and potentially dangerous – overreaction.
The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated in the city’s downtown hub. Demonstrations have spread to other cities in the state and nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made.
Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It’s one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said from the Oval Office.
Ukraine says Russian strikes hit Kharkiv, killing two
- The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said eight children were wounded in the attack
- Peace talks in Turkiye last week failed to yield a breakthrough toward ending the conflict
KYIV; killed two people and wounded 54 including children early Wednesday, authorities said, as Moscow pushed ahead with its relentless attacks after rejecting an unconditional ceasefire.
“Seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs (drones) were carried out in two districts of the city tonight,” Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, later adding that 37 people were wounded and “several people were rescued from houses engulfed in flames.”
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said eight children were wounded in the attack.
Russia has escalated its bombardments of Ukraine despite US President Donald Trump urging Moscow to end its three-year invasion, with Kyiv launching retaliatory attacks deep inside Russian territory.
After a previous overnight barrage of more than 300 drones and seven missiles on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Kyiv’s Western allies to respond with “concrete action.”
“Action from America, which has the power to force Russia into peace. Action from Europe, which has no alternative but to be strong,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Peace talks in Turkiye last week failed to yield a breakthrough toward ending the conflict, with Russia rejecting calls for an unconditional ceasefire and demanding Ukraine give up its territory and bid to join NATO.
But the two sides agreed to swap more than 1,000 prisoners of war and hand over the bodies of dead soldiers, swapping groups of captured soldiers on Monday and Tuesday.
Kharkhiv, which lies less than 50 kilometers from the Russian border, has been hit by a surge in large-scale nighttime attacks over the past week.
Wednesday’s strikes left a five-story building on fire in Slobidskyi district, while several houses were hit in Osnovyansky district, Mayor Terekhov said.
He said “there may be people trapped under the rubble.”
The attack came after Russia pummelled the city on Saturday in what Terekhov called “the most powerful attack” on Kharkiv since the start of the war.
Four people were killed and more than 50 wounded as homes and apartment blocks were hit overnight and guided bombs were dropped on the city on Saturday afternoon.
Ukraine is also stepping up its drone attacks on Russia, targeting military production and bases.
On Tuesday, one person was killed and four others wounded in a drone attack that destroyed a convenience store in the Russian region of Belgorod, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Nevertheless, the two sides carried out a second prisoner of war swap on Tuesday.
The deal should see the freeing of all captured soldiers under the age of 25, as well as those who are sick or severely wounded, though neither side has specified the number of soldiers involved.
But Zelensky has said it is “pointless” to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation – who he previously dismissed as “empty heads” – since they could not agree to a ceasefire.
As a condition for halting its invasion, Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede the territories Moscow says it has annexed and forswear joining NATO.
It has also rejected a proposed 30-day unconditional ceasefire sought by Kyiv and the European Union, arguing that this would allow Ukrainian forces to rearm with Western deliveries.
Ukraine is demanding a complete Russian withdrawal of from its territory and security guarantees from the West.
The US and China have agreed on a framework to resolve their trade disputes
LONDON: Senior US and Chinese negotiators have agreed on a framework to move forward on trade talks after a series of disputes had threatened to derail them, Chinese state media said Wednesday.
The announcement followed two days of talks in the British capital that ended late Tuesday.
The disputes had shaken a fragile truce reached in Geneva last month, leading to a phone call last week between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to try to calm the waters.
Li Chenggang, a vice minister of commerce and China’s international trade representative, said the two sides had agreed in principle on a framework for implementing the consensus reached between the two leaders and at the talks on Geneva, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Further details, including any plans for a potential next round of talks, were not immediately available.
Li and Wang Wentao, China’s commerce minister, were part of the delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. They met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at Lancaster House, a 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace.
Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator, said the disputes had frittered away 30 of the 90 days the two sides have to try to resolve their disputes.
They had agreed in Geneva to a 90-day suspension of most of the 100 percent-plus tariffs they had imposed on each other in an escalating trade war that had sparked fears of recession.
“The US and China lost valuable time in restoring their Geneva agreements,” said Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Now, only sixty days remain to address issues of concern, including unfair trade practices, excess capacity, transshipment and fentanyl.”
Since the Geneva talks, the US and China have exchanged angry words over advanced semiconductors that power artificial intelligence, visas for Chinese students at American universities and rare earth minerals that are vital to carmakers and other industries.
China, the world’s biggest producer of rare earths, has signaled it may ease export restrictions it placed on the elements in April. The restrictions alarmed automakers around the world who rely on them. Beijing, in turn, wants the US to lift restrictions on Chinese access to the technology used to make advanced semiconductors.
Cutler said it would be unprecedented for the US to negotiate on its export controls, which she described as an irritant that China has been raising for nearly 20 years.
“By doing so, the US has opened a door for China to insist on adding export controls to future negotiating agendas,” she said.
Trump said earlier that he wants to “open up China,” the world’s dominant manufacturer, to US products.
“If we don’t open up China, maybe we won’t do anything,” Trump said at the White House. “But we want to open up China.”
