SYDNEY: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected on Sunday questions about whether Australia’s ambassador in Washington was becoming a problem, after local media reported fresh remarks made about Kevin Rudd by US President Donald Trump.
Labor leader Albanese is a supporter of Rudd, a former Labor prime minister, who called Trump in 2020 “the most destructive president in history,” later deleting the comment from social media when he was appointed ambassador.
Albanese, who this week signed a critical minerals deal with the US at a summit in Washington, has endorsed Rudd as doing a “fantastic job” as envoy, describing comments by Trump at the summit that he does not like the ambassador as “light-hearted.”
On Sunday local media reported that Trump, on Friday night Washington time, said of Rudd: “I think he said a long time ago something bad. You know, when they say bad about me, I don’t forget.”
Asked on Australia’s Seven Network television if Rudd’s role was becoming a problem, Albanese said: “No, it’s not.”
“Kevin Rudd’s doing a great job as ambassador,” he added, according to a transcript.
Albanese has praised the ambassador’s work to build support for the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal in Congress and to prepare for his first summit with Trump, which Australia has declared a success.
Australia’s main conservative opposition party called for Rudd to be sacked after Trump made the initial comments about the ambassador at a media conference in Washington on Monday.
Rudd swept to power as prime minister in 2007 as a Mandarin-speaking progressive, returning center-left Labor to office after a decade in opposition. He was dumped by his party in 2010 but returned as prime minister briefly in 2013.
Australia PM says ambassador Rudd doing ‘great job’ after fresh Trump comments
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Australia PM says ambassador Rudd doing ‘great job’ after fresh Trump comments
- Albanese has praised the ambassador’s work to build support for the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal in Congress
Italy says it can reactivate coal-powered plants if Gulf crisis worsens
- Fratin said Italy has “coal-powered stations that I wouldn’t like to re-activate but they are there in reserve to safeguard our country“
- Italy has a diversified portfolio of gas suppliers, which include Norway, Algeria and Azerbaijan
ROME: Italy’s energy minister said on Wednesday that the country can reactivate some coal-fired power stations if conflict in the Middle East should lead to an energy crisis.
Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said in a television interview that Italy has “coal-powered stations that I wouldn’t like to re-activate but they are there in reserve to safeguard our country.”
Israeli and US forces struck targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian strikes against energy infrastructure in other Gulf states considered US allies, in a region that accounts for just under a third of global oil production.
Iran has also targeted tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Traffic remained effectively closed for a fourth day after Iran attacked five ships.
Italy has a diversified portfolio of gas suppliers, which include Norway, Algeria and Azerbaijan among others.
In addition the country’s quantities of gas storage are at relatively high levels.
“On the (energy) security front, our country is ... quite safe quantitatively,” Pichetto Fratin said.
“We have the highest storage levels in Europe, we have diversified sources, and therefore we can say there is not an extremely severe situation regarding the quantities of resources, and I am speaking mainly about gas,” he added.
