Latest News
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Virgin Australia reports 2nd successive annual earnings ahead of possible IPO
Virgin Australia said on Monday it had taped its 2nd successive annual profit and a 6.8%. yearonyear boost in earnings, putting it in a more powerful. monetary position as it looks to pursue an ultimate initial. public offering. Qatar Airways stated two weeks ago it would purchase a 25% stake in. Australia's No. 2 provider, which would act as a cornerstone. financial investment ahead of an awaited return of Virgin Australia. into public ownership. The airline was bought by U.S. private equity firm Bain. Capital after it collapsed into voluntary administration in. 2020, and the essential competitor to Qantas Airways in 2015. returned to profit for the very first time in 11 years. Continued enhancement in profitability suggests we are. well-positioned to deliver great value and choice to Australian. tourists, Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said in a. statement. It is essential to our capability to re-invest in our. business and client experience, and strongly compete with. our major rival. Hrdlicka, who said in February she prepared to step down as. CEO when a replacement was discovered, said it had been a challenging. year for the air travel industry. Chief Financial Officer Race. Strauss recognized expense inflation as a crucial challenge. Virgin Australia did not release after-tax profit figures,. however reported hidden profits before interest and tax of. A$ 519 million ($ 350 million) for the financial year ended June. 30, a boost of 18.2% over in 2015's result. Qantas in August reported a 16% drop in yearly underlying. revenues before tax to A$ 2.08 billion, which it credited to. lower fares, greater spending on consumers and weaker freight. profits.
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North Korea set to explode cross-border roads with South amid drone row, Seoul says
North Korea is preparing to explode roads that cross the heavily militarised border with South Korea, Seoul said on Monday, in the middle of an intensifying war of words after the North implicated its rival of sending out drones over its capital Pyongyang. North Korean troops were working under camouflage on the roads on its side of the border near the west and east coasts that are most likely preparations to explode the roads, perhaps as early as on Monday, South Korea's military spokesperson stated. Last week, North Korea's Army stated it would completely cut roads and railways connected to South Korea and fortify the locations on its side of the border, state media KCNA reported. Individually, North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending drones to scatter a big number of anti-North brochures over Pyongyang, in what it called a political and military justification that could cause armed dispute. Lee Sung-jun, a representative for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, decreased on Monday to answer concerns over whether the South Korean military or civilians flew the drones. In further declarations over the weekend, North Korea cautioned of a horrible catastrophe if South Korean drones were again discovered to be flying over Pyongyang. On Sunday, it stated it has actually put 8 fully armed artillery units at the border on standby to open fire. South Korea's armed force has said its rejection to answer questions on the drones is due to the fact that resolving what the North has alleged would be to get drawn into a technique by Pyongyang to fabricate excuses for justifications. South Korea has looked for to boost its anti-drone defences considering that 2022, Lee said, when 5 North Korean drones entered its airspace and flew over the capital Seoul for several hours. Lee Kyoung-haing, a professional in military drone operations at Jungwon University, said civilians would have no difficulty getting drones with ranges of 300 km (186 miles), the round trip from the South to Pyongyang, with light payloads such as brochures. On Sunday, North Korea's defence ministry said the drones, which it stated were identified over Pyongyang on three days earlier this month, were the kind that required an unique launcher or a. runway and it was impossible a civilian group could introduce them. The two Koreas are still technically at war after their. 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The cross-border links are remnants of durations of. rapprochement in between the nations including a 2018 top. in between the leaders when they declared there would be no more. war and a new era of peace had opened. North Korea has actually reestablished heavy weapons into the. Demilitarized Zone border buffer and restored guard posts, after. the 2 sides stated a 2018 military arrangement targeted at easing. tensions no longer valid.
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India's space strategy: harness information and tiny satellites to catch market beyond SpaceX
India has a plan to sculpt out a beachhead in the fight for business area, officials say: crunching space information, building small satellites and introducing them inexpensively into orbit rather than challenging heavyweights such as SpaceX headon. In specific, it is taking goal at supplying economical services and hardware to sectors such as communications, farming and commodities, where top quality information is a. valuable resource. At stake is a launch market worth $14.54 billion by 2031,. and an associated data services market pegged at $45 billion by. 2030. The world has actually gone from satellites the size of a Boeing. plane to the size of a laptop computer, stated AK Bhatt, director general. of the Indian Space Association, an industry body. This is a sector that India can win, rather of challenging. heavy launches where Elon Musk has dominance. The country. currently has a historic benefit in data mining and. analysis. Because February, India has opened its area sector to private. players and developed a 10 billion rupee ($ 119 million) endeavor. fund to support space startups. It has likewise revealed prepare for. crewed area exploration and a mission to Venus, however the focus. is on establishing business ventures. In numerous ways it will be an uphill battle. Other nations. such as Japan and China have advanced area industries, and. styles on low-cost launches. Spaceflight itself is tough; the. start-up landscape worldwide is cluttered with failed boosters and. satellite designs. For India, the tech exists and the ability exists ... however space is challenging and really competitive, and while private. companies have actually shown that they can create a specific niche for. themselves, we need more evidence of idea, stated Namrata. Goswami, an area policy expert at Arizona State University. She added that the Indian federal government must be an anchor. customer for private market. The majority of the earnings growth is expected to come from. so-called downstream information applications, said Pawan Goenka,. chairman of IN-SPACe, India's space regulatory body. Those involve crunching data from orbit to assist improve crop. yields on earth, build more accurate navigation systems, strengthen. telecommunications, tighten up border security and fight climate. change, Goenka stated. Indian business such as Bellatrix Aerospace, Pixxel,. Agnikul Cosmos, Dhruva Space and others are already constructing or. have actually introduced little satellites or satellite elements. India's space firm, ISRO, last month finished the third. and last developmental flight for its Small Satellite Launch. Automobile. The style will then be handed to private business. Completion uses of Earth observation are large, Goenka said. What we are doing is address numerous parts of the puzzle. Bengaluru-based SatSure, for example, has been offering. real-time satellite information to the Airports Authority of India to. enhance air traffic management and security, assisting planes prevent. weather condition hazards. The project is expected to save 37.5 billion. rupees ($ 446 million) in fuel costs for airline companies each year by. 2025 and lead to an approximately 70% decrease in airport process. planning timelines, the authority said. Earth observation (EO) satellites - orbiting cams and. sensors - can open comparable cost savings in other areas, stated the. company's president, Prateep Basu. EO is solving problems that span throughout energies,. navigation, trading, markets, helping save millions of. dollars, Basu stated. GOVERNMENT PUSH Given that the government opened up the market, business big and. small have leapt in, with tradition IT firms like Infosys. investing in satellite imaging business GalaxEye Area. Solutions, Google-backed Pixxel signing agreements with. NASA, and Baring- and Promus-backed SatSure handling clients. such as HDFC Bank and worldwide seed company Syngenta. Dhruva Area turned into one of the very first to be handed a permit. to operate satellite communication centres on earth - to date. the dominion of ISRO. India is a software application powerhouse and produces some of the. best minds in the world in data science, artificial intelligence, and. expert system. The area downstream market is, at the. end of the day, a software application play, stated Aravind Ravichandran,. founder of France-based advisory company Terrawatch Space. The consultancy Euroconsult forecasts that in between 2023 and. 2032, about 26,104 little satellites - weighing less than 500. kilogrammes (1,100 lb) - will be put in orbit, averaging 1.5. lots of everyday launch mass. The firm expects the total little. satellite industry to be worth $110.5 billion in the next. decade. Indian space companies have actually already seen an influx of. financing - $126 million in 2023, a 7% increase from the $118. million raised in 2022 and a boost of 235% from the $37.6. million raised in 2021, according to Tracxn data. However India has just about 2% of market share in industrial. area activities, demand is still mainly dependent on international. clients, and reputable U.S., Russian and Chinese. business are formidable rivals. To really make a dent, (Indian) options need to scale to. the rest of south Asia and after that to the remainder of the world, stated. Pixxel founder and CEO Awais Ahmed.
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Port Tampa Bay resumes vessel operations
Port Tampa Bay resumed vessel operations and the port's shipping channels reopened, with vessel motions restricted to daylight hours, it stated on Saturday, days after Hurricane Milton barreled through Florida. A few of the very first vessels to return will be fuel tankers, cruise liner and vessels bring disposable freight, Port Tampa Bay stated in statement. Port Tampa Bay, Florida's largest freight port by tonnage, was shut for all vessel traffic from Oct. 8 due to typhoon Milton. More than 43% of Florida's fuel imports move through Port Tampa Bay, according to the port's website. Increasing floodwaters, fuel lacks and power blackouts are hindering cleanup efforts in Florida after Milton, that made landfall as a Classification 3 typhoon. Milton compounded the destruction left by Hurricane Helene which hit less than two weeks previously. At least 17 deaths have been reported from Milton, far less than the more than 200 individuals killed by Helene.
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During visit, Chinese premier may inaugurate airport built by Beijing in Pakistan
Attaullah Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, told reporters that the Chinese premier Li Qiang may inaugurate the operations of an airport built by China in Pakistan's Balochistan Province during his visit in the next week. Government and aviation sources confirmed that the start of operations for the $200 million Gwadar International Airport was delayed to allow time for a review of security following the August attacks in the region by militant separatists. Li will be visiting Pakistan with other ministers and officials from October 14 to 17. Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced this on Sunday. The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes nine members including China, India Iran and Russia will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16. According to Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (PAA), the new airport will handle both domestic and international flights and will be one country's largest airports. Officials said that the initial plan called for Shehbaz to open the airport with Chinese officials on August 14, but this was cancelled after an ethnic Baloch group began a sit-in demonstration. Separatist militant groups have been waging a decades-long war in Balochistan, resulting in frequent attacks on the Chinese government and army in the area to demand a piece of the mineral-rich resources in the region. The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan reported that two Chinese nationals died in an explosion last week near the international airport in the southern Pakistani town of Karachi. The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. It said that it targeted Chinese nationals including engineers. China announced on Thursday that it will work with Pakistan to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and projects in Pakistan. The region is home to a number of Islamist militants who are active since 2022, after the government revoked a ceasefire. (Reporting and writing by Gibran Pishmam in Islamabad, Ariba Sharif in Karachi, Editing by Emelia S. Sithole-Matarise).
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DP World's UK port investment is going ahead, minister says
Port and logistics firm DP World is going on with a 1 billion pound ($ 1.3 billion). financial investment in its London Gateway port, Britain's government stated. on Sunday after reports last week that the business had actually paused. the project in demonstration. In what had been a humiliation for the federal government in the past. a major investor conference, Sky News reported on Friday that DP. World had actually put the organized financial investment on hold after two ministers. criticised practices at its subsidiary P&O Ferries. DP World declined on Friday to comment on the reports. On Sunday, company minister Jonathan Reynolds stated the. investment was proceeding after talks with the Dubai-based. business. We needed to have a conversation following some of the press. reports, he told Sky News, including: The investment's going. ahead, DP World are attending the summit. In 2022, P&O Ferries made 800 staff redundant with immediate. effect, triggering a backlash from political leaders and unions who. criticised plans to hire less expensive firm workers rather. P&O Ferries stated at the time it needed to make swift and. significant modifications to make business sustainable. Recently Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and transport. minister Louise Haigh were once again vital of P&O Ferries over. the incident. A Bloomberg report released on Saturday stated DP World's. chairman would stick with the original plan to be part of the. event and estimated a DP World declaration as officially revealing the. financial investment. Inquired about that report, a spokesperson for the business said. in an emailed statement: Following useful and positive discussions with the. Federal government, we have actually been provided the clarity we need. We look. forward to participating in Monday's International Investment. Top. The statement emailed to Reuters did not refer to the status. of the scheduled financial investment.
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Vietnam, China indication 10 documents during Chinese Premier's visit to Hanoi
Vietnam and China signed 10 arrangements varying from farming cooperation to crossborder QR code payments on Sunday, during Chinese Premier Li Qiang's. threeday visit to Hanoi. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner and an essential. source of imports for its production sector, with bilateral. trade leaping 21% for the very first three quarters from the exact same. period last year to $148 billion. The signing event followed Li's meeting with Vietnamese. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Li and Vietnam's Communist Party. chief, President To Lam, agreed on Saturday to enhance economic. ties, farm produce cooperation. Vietnam and China likewise signed a document on upgrading. development on cross-border train links connected to website survey. The two Asian neighbours have actually repeatedly revealed interest in. enhancing rail links but have actually not announced concrete strategies or the. approximated expenses to update connections. The primary route relies on tracks linking Kunming in the. southern Chinese province of Yunnan to Hanoi and the Vietnamese. port city of Haiphong. That railway was developed by the French. during their colonisation of Vietnam more than a century earlier and. is still in use in Vietnam. China has replaced its path with. high-speed connections. On Saturday, the National Payment Corp of Vietnam and. China's UnionPay International signed an arrangement to release. cross-border payment between the 2 countries.
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One dies in crash landing of little Russian airplane in Siberia
Someone was killed in a crash landing of Russia's Antonov3 guest and freight aircraft in the Yakutia area of Siberia, the regional branch of the emergency situation ministry said on Sunday. Three team and two travelers were on board, the ministry stated on the Telegram messaging app. Preliminary information indicates a loss of engine thrust forced the emergency landing, the East Siberia prosecutor's. workplace said on Telegram. Photos posted by the emergency situation ministry revealed a little white. and red airplane sitting amongst broken birch and other trees, with. parts of its fuselage torn out and fragments of its wings. around. The emergency landing happened near the town of Olekminsk in. Russia's Far East, which surrounds the Arctic Ocean to the north,. the ministry said. The Soviet-designed passenger and cargo airplane, which. operates from paved and unpaved airfields, was produced in small. series between 2000 and 2009, according to Russian media. reports.
Hurricane Ernesto threatens to soak Puerto Rico, power outages possible
Hurricane Ernesto on Tuesday threatened to bring heavy rainfall, harmful storm surges and strong winds to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, leading the U.S. territory to prepare for power interruptions.
The storm, last observed northwest of the island of Guadalupe and bring optimal winds of 45 miles per hour (75. kilometers per hour), could enhance into a cyclone by. Thursday after passing over Puerto Rico and diverting north into. the Atlantic, the National Cyclone Center stated.
Ernesto - the 5th called storm of the season - is expected. to miss out on Florida and the U.S. Southeast, which are still reeling. from Hurricane Debby.
Recently, slow-moving Debby hit Florida's Gulf Coast as a. Category 1 typhoon, before soaking some parts of the Carolinas. with up to 2 feet of rain.
Like Debby, Ernesto's greatest hazard is torrential rain,. which might stimulate flash floods and landslides, specifically in the. mountainous interior of Puerto Rico and close-by Caribbean. islands.
Puerto Rico Guv Pedro Pierluisi said on X that the. government had actually activated emergency protocols and expedited food. advantages for households ahead of the storm's arrival.
Puerto Rico, with its fragile power grid, has a history of. highly devastating storms. In 2022, Cyclone Fiona knocked out. power for about 80% of the island's clients. 5 years. earlier, Typhoon Maria plunged the area into darkness.
LUMA Energy, the private operator of Puerto Rico's. transmission and circulation system, stated on X it had actually activated. its emergency situation operations, activated teams ahead of the storm,. and advised citizens to brace for power interruptions.
The storm is anticipated to cross parts of the Leeward Islands,. that include Martinique, on Tuesday, reaching the U.S. and. British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by night.
Total rains over the Leewards and Virgin Islands could. rise to 6 inches, while some areas in Puerto Rico might get. up to 10 inches, the NHC stated.
Storm surges might bring water levels as much as 3 feet (1. meter) above ground level on Puerto Rico's eastern coast and in. the Virgin Islands, the center said.
(source: Reuters)