That company is the saudio oil giant saudi aramco, and its feeling the effects of lower oil prices, lower than expected demand from china, and thinner Profit Margins for refining oil. Between april and june, the company made a Profit Ofjust over 30 billion, lot of money by anyone s metric, but significantly down from more than the 48 billion it made in the same period a year ago. The main reason is, as you can see here, that oil prices during the period were at the lowest point in the last year, as the boost they got from russias invasion of ukraine wore off. And last week, in an effort to keep them that way, saudi arabia said it would only produce nine Million Barrels a day. That extended Production Cuts by the 0pec group of big oil producers, who profit more from a higher price. When it comes to saudi aramco, those higher prices mean higher Dividend Payments for shareholders, and its boosted those to nearly 30 billion in the current period. So i put it to our middle east Business Cor
are going to impeach you, and it s happening very, very soon. on this vote the yeas are 214 and the nays are 216. the resolution is not adopted. you know, i have to say the season took an unexpected turn last night. willie, one of the more surprising but really good introductions to the season, who knew mike johnson would star as a happless speaker of the house who couldn t even get an impeachment through. all we re missing is the slow push in on his face. that was truly we have four hours, luckily, today to go through one of the most humiliating days in the house of representatives. they couldn t pass their own impeachment of mayorkas, couldn t get through an israel bill. they did find time to pass a resolution that says donald trump did not commit an insurrection around january 6th. want to make sure they protect him on that. they re getting ready to have a vote today, a procedural vote to turn away the senate immigration bill they ve been asking for for two gene
minister laurence boone, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, zeinab. why have the authorities decided to ban the use of fireworks during the july 14th bastille day celebrations this year? so, you know, after the riots last week, things have calmed down. it has been a huge drama and obviously people were really moved. and there s also been some riot that are absolutely unacceptable. the tension has softened and it s gone away and we think the situation is under control. but usually bastille day is the opportunity of fireworks, celebration and sometimes obviously some incidents. so given how close we are to the time of the riots, it was better to calm things down and avoid this. as well, you know, in some areas of france, there has been drought, and with fireworks, we better be careful. all right. does the government have a clear strategy to deal with this latest crisis? yeah, very much so. i mean, as you know, this is not a french specificity. it happened here in the uk exactly a
it s wednesday, 31st january. our main story. scotland s former first minister, nicola sturgeon is due to give evidence about the decisions she took during the pandemic, when she appears before the covid inquiry today. ms sturgeon, who led the scottish response to the coronavirus outbreak is expected to face questions surrounding lockdowns, and missing whatsapp messages as the inquiry continues sitting in edinburgh. our scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. 1,044 positive cases were reported yesterday. nicola sturgeon was at the helm throughout scotland s pandemic response. as head of the scottish government, she was the key decision maker and first in the firing line when things went wrong. we will have made mistakes on all aspects of the handling. now about to be questioned on that handling and how decisions the truth, the whole truth. the former first minister s closest political ally amongst those who admitted texts between the pair no longer exist. are those t
finally the votes. you can find that in bookstores not line right now. that is all in on tuesday night, all in starts right. now the body doubles are happening before any of the trials actually begun, which is the staggering part about all of this it s the ice beneath the water line. in terms of what this means for all the people that interact with it. this is happening to all of them. it s what it means to be holding up democracy in this day and age. you have to be prepared for a late night cell phone calls, threatening your family. thank you my friend. and thank you for joining us this hour. the matchup of the years set. it s a rematch of 2020. it s the same teams. it s the red team, versus the other red team. that is right. kansas city chiefs are set it s super bowl 58. okay. all right. if you thought that was a wind up to the lightly battle between president biden and donald trump in 2024. it is also that to. and that is because, bear with me here, a segment of ri