Qatar Airways plans flights to western Sydney from late 2027



Jackdaw gasfield announcement signals UK’s commitment to North Sea industry but undermines green credentials
The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.
Miatta Fahnbulleh and John Healey, the energy secretary and chancellor respectively, will make the announcement from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning after more than a year of deliberations over whether doing so would violate the UK’s climate commitments.
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© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images
FIRST ON FOX: Popular grocery delivery company Instacart has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) after it was accused of discriminating against American workers.
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division says it has reached a $5 million settlement with Maplebear Inc., which operates the delivery service used by Americans to get groceries sent to their front doors. The resolution addresses allegations that the company purposefully discriminated against U.S. and American workers based on country of origin, which the DOJ says violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).
The company, according to the Justice Department, was abusing the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process by placing undue burdens on American applicants by requiring them to physically mail applications to the company, deviating from Instacart's standard electronic application process. The scheme occurred from December 2023 through February 2026.
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"This significant resolution marks the 15th settlement agreement the Civil Rights Division has reached under my leadership to protect U.S. workers," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. "Our record demonstrates that the Justice Department is holding companies who prefer workers with temporary employment visas accountable. We will not stop fighting for U.S. workers until there is a fair playing field."
The settlement was secured in conjunction with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Instacart will be required, under the settlement, to set up a $4 million fund to compensate applicants who may have been wronged, and another $1 million in civil penalties.
The PERM program allows employers to sponsor temporary visa workers for permanent residence in the United States. However, companies using the PERM program are required to make a "good-faith" effort to hire American workers before resorting to foreigners.
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Companies cannot create "additional burdens for U.S. and American workers; publishing job advertisements that disfavor, limit, specify, or otherwise discriminate against U.S. and American workers; or use processes that limit, segregate, or classify applicants in any way that tends to deprive U.S. and American applicants of employment opportunities," according to the DOJ.
The settlement is the 15th of its kind since President Donald Trump began his second term in office in January 2025 and is part of a broader effort to ensure American workers aren't illegally discriminated against.
The EEOC has dubbed the mission "Project Firewall."
"Today’s settlement makes clear that when employers erect unlawful barriers that harm American workers, the EEOC will act decisively," said Andrea Lucas, the chair of the EEOC. "The EEOC is committed to holding companies accountable when they deny equal work opportunities to U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs. Discrimination against workers based on their American national origin has no place in our economy."
"We're proud to be a U.S.-based grocery technology platform, employing thousands of American workers and serving millions of customers, retailers, shoppers and brands. We encourage qualified U.S. jobseekers to apply to join our team," an Instacart spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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"Hiring and investing in American workers across our U.S. business is our priority, and we actively promote every role across many channels to ensure qualified U.S. candidates are always first in line for opportunities. While we maintain that our practices complied with all applicable laws and regulations, we’re pleased to have resolved this matter so we can keep our full focus on delivering on our mission for customers, shoppers, retailers and brands."

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Defence City, Ukraine’s special support regime for arms makers, now has 63 member companies, the Defense Ministry said in a 19 October release. That is more than double the late-May count, and Euromaidan Press calculations show the newcomers are, on average, much smaller firms.
Ukraine already buys most of its weapons at home. More than 75% of its 2025 weapons procurement budget went to domestic manufacturers. Most new weapons models cleared for military use are Ukrainian too: 892 of the 1,000 authorized from the start of 2026 to mid-June. Defence City is meant to turn that demand into more production capacity, and our calculations suggest it is now reaching smaller producers too.
Each resident’s figure in the ministry’s count is its qualified income, meaning revenue from selling weapons and military equipment. Applicants file details of their defense contracts for the previous calendar year with their application, the ministry’s guide shows. So the combined total changes as members join. It does not track month-to-month sales.
The 63 current residents have a combined qualified income of nearly $2.47 billion. At the end of May, 31 residents had $2 billion, the ministry reported. By July, 45 residents had over $2.07 billion, it added.
By Euromaidan Press calculations, the 32 companies added since May bring about $15 million each on average. The first 31 averaged about $64 million each. The math assumes all 31 early members remain, with unchanged figures. If they do, the newcomers are smaller producers on average, because each figure reflects a firm’s own prior-year weapons sales.
The profit-tax break comes with a condition. Residents choose where their untaxed profit goes, but it must go to purposes the tax code allows, the ministry explained. If the money goes elsewhere, the break does not apply.
Residents also get customs incentives and state support to relocate plants and better protect production sites. They can rent state property without an auction. They can also ask to restrict access to sensitive information about them in public registries. Some defense export procedures are simplified too.
Resident status also makes a company eligible to be designated critically important to the defense industry. That lets it defer up to 100% of its staff liable for military service from the draft, the ministry noted.
To join, a company must confirm it meets the legal requirements and file an application with supporting documents. By law, the ministry has 10 working days to decide. If approved, a ministerial order grants the status, and the company enters the Defence City register.




More than 160 offshore rig workers plan walkout amid rising tensions between unions and oil companies
North Sea workers are preparing to strike at oil rigs across the ageing basin over the coming weeks in a sign of growing tensions between trade unions and oil companies.
The Unite union said on Monday that more than 160 offshore rig workers would take part in a 24-hour strike from Wednesday that could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies.
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© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy






Firms turning crude oil into the ‘workhorse’ fuel stand to gain most despite economic fallout from record prices
Days after Donald Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel into the US in an effort to lower soaring pump prices, the world’s energy watchdog has warned that the global fuel shortage will drag into 2027.
Trump’s temporary sanctions reprieve was criticised for offering “too little, too late” to temper the sky high pump prices triggered by the shutdown of war-damaged refineries in the Middle East and Russia – once the world’s second-largest diesel exporter behind the US.
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© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP
Parliament in Greece has approved a government bill concerning the country’s two major water utilities, EYDAP and EYATH in Athens and Thessaloniki respectively. The bill passed amid strong opposition criticism that the legislation could lead to the privatization of water services. The bill, introduced by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, passed with support from […]
The post Greece’s Water Reform Bill: Privatization and prices increases underway? appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.