Latest News
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Cyprus on standby to help evacuations from Middle East
Cyprus has actually completely triggered a. mechanism to permit thirdcountry nationals evacuating the Middle. East safe passage through the island as the crisis in the area. worsens, government officials said on Wednesday. One nation has sought Cyprus's assistance for the. evacuation of civilians, and Cypriot authorities had actually provided. facilities to nine other nations in helping smaller sized groups. of individuals to leave, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos stated. He did not identify the countries. Kombos said that while airports in the area remained. practical, usage of the Cypriot center may be unneeded. If, as a result of yesterday's developments, airports in. the area shut, the (evacuation) strategy enters play, Kombos. said after a conference of the island's national security council,. leading advisers to the government on security concerns. He was describing Tuesday's rocket attack by Iran on. Israel, which had actually previously released a barrage of attacks. versus the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, decimating. its senior command. Close to 60,000 individuals from Lebanon were evacuated through. Cyprus in 2006, during the last large-scale dispute in between. Israel and Hezbollah. The island is the closest European Union member state to. Lebanon, about 40 minutes by air and 10 hours away by boat. Some. people from Lebanon have actually already started arriving on the. island on personal luxury yachts, Cypriot officials stated.
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Toyota to invest $500 million in electric air taxi business Joby Air travel
Toyota Motor said Wednesday it will invest another $500 million in Joby Air travel to support accreditation and industrial production of Joby's. electric air taxi. The Japanese car manufacturer's brand-new financing is on top of $394. million in previous financial investments it made in Joby and is part of a. strategic alliance on commercial manufacturing. The financial investment. will remain in the form of money for common stock, with the first. tranche set to close later in 2024 and the 2nd next year. Electric vertical departure and landing aircraft (eVTOL) have. been touted as the future of city air movement, though they. face difficulties to win over regulators. Joby stated it continues to make progress towards. commercialization and certification and recently broke ground on. a broadened center in California. We share Joby's view that sustainable flight will be. main to easing today's persistent movement challenges,. said Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa. Toyota is currently Joby's biggest external investor, said. Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt in an interview. This will further. cement their amazing partnership with Joby, he stated. Both. business are extremely dedicated to shaping this next generation of. transport as we move to the air for our everyday. transportation requirements. Toyota engineers are working side-by-side with the Joby group. in California and last year the two companies signed a long-term. arrangement for Toyota to provide crucial powertrain and other. parts for Joby airplane. Car manufacturers have taken interest in the sector. Chrysler-parent Stellantis stated in July it would. invest an additional $55 million in Archer Aviation. after making prior investment and equity purchases. Airline companies are looking at establishing transport services using. battery-powered airplane that can take off and land vertically. to ferry tourists to airports or on brief trips in between cities,. enabling them to beat traffic. In 2022, Delta Air Lines stated it was investing $60. million in Joby for a 2% equity stake, in a partnership that. aims to initially use guests air taxi transport to and. from airports in New york city and Los Angeles. At the time, the objective. was to launch service in 2024. Bevirt told Reuters Tuesday the. business is absolutely targeting the next few years for. release.
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Deutsche Bahn supervisory board directly clears sale of Schenker to DSV
Deutsche Bahn's. supervisory board on Wednesday narrowly authorized the sale of its. profitable logistics company Schenker to Denmark's DSV. , batting away union opposition and pushback from rival. bidder CVC. The Danish business accepted buy Schenker for 14.3 billion. euros ($ 15.8 billion) in an offer that state-run Deutsche Bahn. hopes will permit it to concentrate on enhancing Germany's. railway infrastructure and services while also decreasing debt. We are extremely delighted that Deutsche Bahn has actually verified that. their 2 conditions for authorizing the sale of Schenker to DSV. have actually been obtained, stated Jens Lund, CEO of DSV, whose shares. rose 5% after the board's approval. This suggests that we can continue our efforts to be ready for. closing this transformational transaction according to the. agreed plans. The supervisory board vote was close. There were nine votes. against the sale, generally due to the issues of worker. agents on the board, people knowledgeable about the ballot. result stated. There were 10 votes in favour of the deal and one. abstention. The railway union EVG had actually stated its members would decline the. offer, partly since of the danger to tasks. We think about the decision to sell Schenker to be a major. strategic mistake, stated the head of the EVG union, Martin. Burkert. DSV won the bidding versus the financial financier CVC. DSV and Schenker are number three and 4 in the fragmented. worldwide logistics market. Together they would be number one. globally. Both utilize over 70,000 individuals worldwide. The sale is anticipated to be completed in the course of 2025. after all regulative approvals have been gotten, Deutsche Bahn. said in a separate statement, calling it an important milestone. in order to concentrate on overhauling domestic rail facilities.
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Nigeria boat crash leaves dozens dead in River Niger
Residents and a local official said that dozens of people are believed to be dead after a boat capsized in northern Nigeria carrying mostly women, children and returning from a religious event. Abdullahi Baba Arah is the head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency. He said that the accident occurred around 8:30 pm (1930 GMT), on Tuesday, when the wooden boat with almost 300 passengers went down in the River Niger. He added that rescue workers and volunteers in rural Mokwa, Niger's local government area, had rescued 150 individuals. In a press release, Arah stated that the search and rescue operations are still underway to find more survivors. Ismaila Umar who heads an association of boat skippers in Mokwa said that the chances of finding survivors are slim. It is the second major boating accident to have occurred in Niger in the last 18 months, after another boating accident that killed more than 100 people. Most boat accidents in Nigeria are caused by overcrowding, poor maintenance and lack of safety measures. Reporting by Garba Mohammed in Kaduna, and Ahmed Kingimi at Maiduguri; writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe with editing by Barbara Lewis.
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Toyota to invest $500 million in electrical air taxi company Joby Air travel
Toyota Motor stated Wednesday it will invest another $500 million in Joby Aviation to support accreditation and business production of Joby's. electric air taxi. The Japanese automaker's new financing is on top of $394. million in prior financial investments it made in Joby and is part of a. tactical alliance on commercial production. The investment. will be made in the type of money for common stock, with the. initially tranche set to close later on in 2024 and the second next. year. Joby stated it continues to make crucial development towards. commercialization and certification and just recently broke ground on. an expanded facility in California. We share Joby's view that. sustainable flight will be central to alleviating today's. relentless movement obstacles, said Toyota Motor The United States and Canada. CEO Ted Ogawa. Toyota engineers are working side-by-side with the Joby group. in California and in 2015 the two companies signed a long-term. contract for Toyota to provide key powertrain and other. elements for Joby aircraft.
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Italian rail services interfered with after glitch in Rome
Lots of trains in Italy were postponed or cancelled on Wednesday after a technical malfunction on a stretch of line between the Italian capital's 2 primary stations, train operator Trenitalia stated. It's just been chaos as we attempt to figure out and browse the station, stated Rachel Dame, an American traveler traveling to Florence from Rome's primary Termini station, where screens displayed hold-ups for most locations. The problems originated from a failure at 6:20 a.m. (0420 GMT). of an electric cabin that provides energy to an intersection. in between Termini and Tiburtina stations in Rome, stated Gianpiero. Strisciuglio, CEO of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, which handles. Italy's railway facilities. The type of failure is rare, Strisciuglio told Italian. radio, including the company is investigating the causes. However, train traffic slowly resumed at the Rome. crossway from around 9 a.m., national rail company Ferrovie. dello Stato (FS) said in a note. The intersection affected is a main crossroads for train. services connecting Italy's north and south. Angelo Bonelli, a member of parliament for the opposition. Green Europe celebration, regreted constant breakdowns which cut. Italy in 2 and burden employees and trainees, urging. Trenitalia and the federal government to act. Transportation interruption and hold-ups are a typical headache in. Rome, a city going through a facelift as it prepares to host as much as. 32 million tourists during the 2025 Roman Catholic Holy Year. All it takes is for a train to break down at six in the. early morning and maybe till noon the line will not run, stated Luca, who. added he was a regular commuter. The malfunction affected almost 80 regional, intercity and. high speed trains run by Trenitalia, which were either. delayed by as much as 4 hours, rerouted or cancelled outright, the. group stated. Private operator Italo said in a different statement that it. had actually cancelled ten of its journeys. FS anticipates delays to progressively reduce and return to. typical throughout the day.
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Australia's renewables to set essential output turning point in 2024: Maguire
For the first time, electrical power generation from Australian solar and wind farms might match that originating from the country's coalfired power plants this summer. Integrated solar and wind electrical energy generation is on track to hit between 8 and 9 terawatt hours (TWh) a month during the heart of the Australian summer season, according to Reuters projections utilizing historic information from energy think tank Coal. Coal-fired electrical energy generation is likely to decrease to similar levels over the very same duration, and mark the very first time that renewables take a crack at of surpassing coal as Australia's. chief source of electricity. TURNAROUND The truth that renewables generation is even coming close to. that from coal plants in Australia highlights the remarkable. turnaround in the country's electrical power mix. A years back, coal-fired generation was 10 times the. combined output from solar and wind farms, and coal accounted. for more than 64% of Australia's electricity materials up until. 2020. Fast renewables growth has turned things around, however. Combined generation from solar and wind farms has grown by. 22% a year given that 2018, and this year could supply over 30% of. total electrical energy for the first time, information from Coal shows. Australian electrical energy production from solar and wind farms. jumped from less than 30 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2018 to 77 TWh. in 2023, and is on track to go beyond 80 TWH in 2024. The almost 170% jump in solar and wind production from 2018. to 2023 contrasts with a nearly 20% decline in coal-fired. generation over the same duration, and led to a sharp. reconfiguration of Australia's generation mix. Coal-fired emissions have dropped due to the output cuts,. from nearly 140 million metric lots of co2 (CO2) in. 2018 to 110 million tons in 2023, helping to advance nationwide. pollution decrease efforts. TURNAROUND? Up until now in 2024, an almost 20% drop in output from hydro dams. and flat production from wind farms has actually triggered a nearly 4%. climb in coal-fired generation. Nevertheless, the peak generation window for renewables output is. still ahead, which must enable energies to curb coal. production over the latter half of the year. Solar production during August was 3.2 TWh, but historically. rises by around 75% by December, which is typically the peak. month for solar production in Australia. A repeat of that pattern in 2024 would put this December's. solar production at around 5.5 TWh. However, so far in 2024 solar generation is running around. 11% ahead of 2023's regular monthly overalls, thanks to capability increases. brought online this year. That suggests that this year's solar output throughout the peak. production window could increase by a similar degree, and push overall. solar generation closer to 6 TWh by December. Wind output in December has balanced around 2.5 TWh since. 2021, therefore would bring total solar and wind generation to. around 8.5 TWh that month this year if solar production matches. expectations. COAL CUTS? Coal generation has averaged 11.2 TWh a month up until now in. 2024, but has actually historically hit its lowest generation levels for. the year in September, October and November throughout the. Australian spring. In 2023, the coal output low for the year was 9.2 TWh in. September, while in 2022 the annual low was 9 TWh embeded in. November. This year, a drop listed below 9 TWh is possible in October or. November if both solar and wind generation increase as expected, and. might result in combined solar and wind output matching. coal-fired generation for the first time. Coal output will likely increase once again in December due to. greater need for cooling, which would seal coal's place as. Australia's primary electrical energy source. However for a short window this summer, coal's supremacy could. be matched by renewables for the first time, signalling a taste. of things to come if the country's energies continue to roll. out more sustainable capability. << The viewpoints expressed here are those of the author, a. writer .>
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Russian drones attack port facilities, power substations in Ukraine
Russian drones over night assaulted port facilities in Ukraine's southern Odesa area, damaging a grain facility and buildings at a border crossing to Romania, along with cutting power to thousands in the northern Sumy area, authorities said. The attack struck Ukraine's Izmail district near the Danube river, the local governor Oleh Kiper stated on Telegram messenger. Russia continues to wage war versus grain and worldwide food security, Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy prime minister for repair, said on Telegram, reporting damage to the grain facility and administrative structures at the Orlivka crossing. The crossing briefly suspended operations due to the attack, Kiper included. Two truck drivers, consisting of a Turkish resident, were injured, according to officials. Separately, the attack hit an electrical substation in the northern Sumy area, destructive equipment, Ukraine's energy ministry stated on Telegram. Sumy area grid operator stated the attack resulted in power cuts for over 80,000 customers. Substations in the central Cherkasy region likewise lost power due to falling drone particles, the ministry stated. Ukraine's air force stated it had ruined 11 out of 32 Russian attack drones launched over night. Another 4 drones left Ukrainian airspace in the instructions of Russia and 10 drones were lost in northern and central Ukrainian regions as an outcome of electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
What are countries doing to get nationals out of Lebanon?
Western countries are ramping up contingency plans to leave people from Lebanon after a. sharp escalation in the conflict in between Israel and the Lebanese. armed movement Hezbollah, coupled with Iran's rocket attack on. Israel on Tuesday.
No nation has released a large-scale military evacuation. yet, though some are chartering aircraft as Beirut airport stays. open. Strategies to leave to Cyprus by sea will allow movement of. larger groups.
Here are details on contingency planning:
AUSTRALIA
Its contingency plans might consist of evacuation by sea,. though authorities have urged an estimated 15,000 residents in. Lebanon to leave while Beirut airport stays open.
BELGIUM
Belgium's foreign ministry has actually advised citizens to leave as. soon as possible, the Belga news company stated.
CHINA
More than 200 Chinese people have actually been securely left by. the federal government, China's main Xinhua news company stated.
CANADA
Report from Canada suggest it will co-operate with. Australia in leaving nationals by sea. The strategy involves. contracting a commercial vessel to shuttle out 1,000 people a day,. the Toronto Star newspaper stated.
CYPRUS
The European Union member state closest to the Middle East. is a likely hub for evacuations, having processed about 60,000. people getting away the Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006. Neighbouring. Turkey has used centers too.
Cyprus has actually asked Greece to offer an aircraft that could be. used to leave its nationals who wish to leave. There are an. approximated 1,500 Cypriots in Lebanon.
FRANCE
France has not issued an evacuation order, despite having. had prepare for numerous months. Present contingency strategies centre. on Cyprus and Beirut airport, while it is also discussing. evacuations by means of Turkey. France has a warship in the region,. while a French helicopter carrier will arrive in the eastern. Mediterranean in the coming days and take up position in case a. decision is required to leave foreign nationals from Lebanon.
GERMANY
Germany has left non-essential staff, households of. embassy workers and German nationals who are medically. susceptible from Lebanon and will support others attempting to leave,. the foreign and defence ministries stated in a joint statement on. Monday.
GREECE
The Greek foreign ministry has actually prompted its citizens to leave. Lebanon and prevent any travel there, with a frigate on standby in. case help is needed.
ITALY
Italy has cut diplomatic personnel and beefed up security. workers at its Beirut embassy. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. has actually repeatedly prompted nationals to leave the country and sought. guarantees from Israel over the security of Italian peacekeepers. in the location.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands will send out a military plane to repatriate. nationals from Lebanon with two flights on Oct 4 and 5, the. Dutch Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. The flights to the. military airbase in Eindhoven will likewise be offered for individuals. from other nations if there suffices room to accommodate. them, it said.
POLAND
Poland will limit staff numbers at its Beirut embassy, a. foreign ministry representative said on Tuesday, adding that. Warsaw would organise transportation for people wishing to leave. Lebanon.
PORTUGAL
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has advised against travel to. Lebanon, which helped in the evacuation of a little number of. Portuguese residents living there.
SPAIN. Spain prepares to send out two military aircraft to evacuate as numerous. as 350 people from Lebanon as early as Thursday.
TURKEY
Turkey is prepared for a possible evacuation of Turks from. Lebanon by means of air and sea, and is working with about 20 countries. for a possible evacuation of foreign nationals through Turkey. About. 14,000 Turkish people were registered at the consulate in. Lebanon, however the number was not conclusive.
UNITED KINGDOM
Britain has prompted nationals to leave instantly. It has. moved about 700 soldiers to Cyprus, reinforcing its military. assets, including two Royal Navy ships. It likewise has 2 military. bases on the island. Britain has chartered a flight to assist meet. any additional demand from Britons wanting to leave on. Wednesday, and will fly them straight back to London.
UNITED STATES
The United States has bought lots of soldiers released to. Cyprus to help get ready for situations such as an evacuation of. Americans from Lebanon. It is working with airlines to include. flights out of Lebanon, with more seats for Americans, the State. Department said on Tuesday.
(source: Reuters)