Latest News
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Financial Times - Jan. 6
The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not validated these stories and does not guarantee their accuracy. Headlines - Amazon's satellite task presses ahead with UK broadband strategies - Elon Musk requires Nigel Farage to be changed as Reform party leader - FirstGroup to include bus and open access rail paths amidst Labour nationalisation - UK deals with 'substantial threat' from procurement collusion, CMA alerts Summary - Amazon's satellite operation, Task Kuiper, is pressing ahead with plans to release a broadband service in the UK, as the tech group founded by Jeff Bezos attempts to handle Elon Musk's Starlink. - Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK in a surprising U-turn hours after the British political leader refused to endorse some of the tech billionaire's newest online claims. - FirstGroup is seeking to strike offers to carve out new train paths and broaden its bus company as the UK's biggest rail operator improves in response to the UK government's. renationalisation of the railways. - Sarah Cardell, head of Britain's Competitors and Markets. Authority (CMA), said the agency was trialling a new artificial. intelligence-backed tool it thinks might help catch companies. that collude when bidding for public contracts.
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Winter storm strikes central United States, takes aim at Washington
A winter storm brought snow, ice and freezing temperature levels to a broad swath of the U.S. on Sunday, with some 60 million people throughout more than a dozen states from Kansas to New Jersey under winter season storm cautions, advisories or watches. The storm was moving toward the mid-Atlantic, where Washington, D.C. was bracing for heavy snow and bitter cold on Monday, the exact same day the U.S. Congress is set to meet and officially accredit Republican Donald Trump's election as president. Republican Politician House Speaker Mike Johnson informed Fox News on Sunday the weather condition would not avoid lawmakers from performing their duties. Kansas and parts of northwestern Missouri were enduring blizzard conditions into Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service stated. Roadways were blanketed in snow and ice, and officials prompted citizens to prevent travel. Overall snowfall of between 6 and 12 inches (15 to 30 cm). was gotten out of southern Ohio to Washington. In northern Kentucky and southern West Virginia, freezing. rain and sleet will produce hazardous ice accumulations, the. service said. The back end of the storm system, on the other hand, was. producing severe thunderstorms capable of spinning off twisters. in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The storm required the cancellation of numerous flights,. consisting of more than 275 in both Kansas City and St. Louis,. according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware. Governors in numerous states, including Kansas, Kentucky,. Arkansas, West Virginia and Virginia, stated states of. emergency situation. The storm will move offshore by Monday night, but. bone-chilling arctic air is set to move in behind it, with. daytime temperature levels on Monday and Tuesday forecasted to be 10 to. 20 degrees F below average from the Great Plains to the East. Coast, according to the weather service.
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Chinese hack of United States telecoms jeopardized more firms than formerly understood, WSJ states
A Chinese hack compromised a lot more U.S. telecoms than previously understood, including Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications and Windstream, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday, mentioning individuals familiar with the matter. Hackers also exploited unpatched network gadgets from security supplier Fortinet and jeopardized large network routers from Cisco Systems, the newspaper reported. In addition to deep invasions into AT&T and Verizon , hackers pierced other networks coming from Lumen Technologies and T-Mobile, according to the report. China rejected engaging in such actions and implicated the United States of peddling disinformation. There is growing issue about the size and scope of the reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and questions about when business and the government will be able to guarantee Americans about the problem. The report included that U.S. nationwide security advisor Jake Sullivan informed telecommunications and innovation executives at a. secret White House conference in the fall of 2023 that Chinese. hackers had gotten the ability to shut down dozens of U.S. ports, power grids and other infrastructure targets at will. The Chinese-linked Salt Hurricane cyberespionage operation. targeted AT&T and Verizon's systems, but the wireless carriers'. U.S. networks are now protected as they deal with law enforcement. and federal government authorities, the business said last week in their. first acknowledgment of the attacks. Lumen said it no longer sees proof of the aggressors in. its network and that no client data was accessed. T-Mobile. said it stopped current efforts to infiltrate its systems from. advancing and safeguarded sensitive consumer information from. being accessed, according to the Journal. Verizon told the newspaper that a small number of. prominent clients in government and politics were. specifically targeted by a risk star and that those people. had actually been informed. Vandana Venkatesh, chief legal officer at Verizon, told the. paper that Verizon has actually contained the activities associated. with this particular incident. Cisco and Fortinet declined to comment to the newspaper. Targets of Salt Hurricane have actually previously reportedly consisted of. authorities linked to Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican. Donald Trump's presidential campaigns.
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United Airlines to bring Musk's Starlink on flights by spring
United Airlines said on Sunday it anticipates to start testing Elon Musk's Starlink in February for inflight web services, and to very first offer the connection on a commercial flight run by Embraer E175 aircraft this spring. The airline company plans to equip its whole two-cabin regional fleet with the service by the end of 2025 and have its very first Starlink-enabled aircraft on major paths in the air by the end of the year. Starlink will eventually be readily available on all its flights, the airline stated in a declaration. Nevertheless, United said access would be totally free just for MileagePlus members, modifying an earlier plan to provide free Wi-Fi to all travelers. Last year, United signed a deal with Starlink to offer in-flight web services throughout its entire fleet of over 1,000 airplane over the next numerous years. Starlink, an unit of SpaceX, has actually tattooed deals with multiple airlines to offer in-flight internet services as it looks for to broaden its reach beyond customers and households in backwoods worldwide with little to no internet gain access to. The satellite-based internet services supplier has previously signed deals with Hawaiian Airlines and regional carrier JSX.
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China looks for to boost ports and air travel hubs in western regions
China stated on Sunday it would launch 15 measures to strengthen the development of its western provinces with the construction of logistical infrastructure such as ports and aviation centers. The General Administration of Customs stated the measures would enhance the integration of rail, air, river and sea links in China's west, state media reported. The steps are to include enhancing worldwide aviation hubs in cities consisting of Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Xi'an and Urumqi, while establishing extensive bonded zones, and integrating these with ports and other transportation links. A number of ports would also be built and broadened. China has actually long sought to strengthen the economic heft of its western regions, which have actually noticeably lagged coastal provinces. But ethnic stress in such locations a Xinjiang and hard-line security measures Beijing states are required to secure nationwide unity and border stability, have drawn criticism from some Western nations. China's western areas make up around two-thirds of the nation's acreage and consist of regions such as Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Xinjiang and Tibet. China's Politburo last year called for a brand-new urbanisation of western China to revitalise rural areas, expand hardship alleviation efforts and reinforce energy resources. Efforts have also been made to increase linkages to Europe and South Asia through trade corridors including rail freight paths.
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Russia clears beaches after Black Sea oil spill, states emergency situation in Crimea
Russia stated a regional state of emergency situation on Saturday in Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, as employees cleared tons of contaminated sand and earth on either side of the Kerch Strait following an oil spill in the Black Sea last month. Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russia-installed governor of the peninsula, said new traces of minor pollution needed immediate elimination and declared a state of emergency situation in the city of Sevastopol - giving authorities more power to take swift decisions such as ordering people to leave their homes. The Kerch Strait runs in between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and separates Crimea's Kerch Peninsula from Russia's. Krasnodar area. Rescue workers have now cleared more than 86,000 metric. lots of polluted sand and soil, the emergency situations ministry. stated on Saturday. The oil dripped from 2 aging tankers that. were struck by a storm on Dec. 15. One sank and the other ran. aground. More than 10,000 people have actually been working to shovel up. thick, foul-smelling fuel oil from sandy beaches in and around. Anapa, a summertime resort. Environmental groups have reported. deaths of dolphins, cetaceans and sea birds. The emergencies ministry stated on the Telegram messaging app. that oil-tainted soil had actually been collected in the broader Kuban. area in Russia and in Crimea, whose annexation by Russia has. not been recognised by many other nations. The ministry published video footage of dozens of employees in. protective suits packing bags of dirt onto diggers and others. skimming dirt off the sand with shovels. Russia's transport ministry said today specialists had. developed that about 2,400 metric tons of oil items had. spilled into the sea, a smaller spill than initially feared. When the disaster struck, state media reported that the. stricken tankers, both more than 50-years old, were carrying. some 9,200 metric loads (62,000 barrels) of oil items in. total. The spill involved heavy M100-grade fuel oil that solidifies. at a temperature level of 25 degrees Celsius
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Russia clears thousands of lots of contaminated sand after Black Sea oil spill
Russian rescue workers have cleared more than 86,000 metric tons of contaminated sand and earth on either side of the Kerch Strait following an oil spill in the Black Sea last month, the emergencies ministry stated on Saturday. The oil dripped from 2 aging tankers that were struck by a. storm on Dec. 15. One sank and the other ran aground. More than 10,000 individuals have been working to shovel up. viscous, foul-smelling fuel oil from sandy beaches around. Anapa, a popular summer resort. Ecological groups have. reported deaths of dolphins, cetaceans and sea birds. The emergency situations ministry stated on the Telegram messaging app. that oil-tainted soil had been collected in the wider Kuban. region in Russia and in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Kyiv. in 2014. The ministry published video footage showing lots of. workers in protective fits filling bags of dirt onto diggers. and others skimming dirt off the sand with shovels. Russia's transportation ministry stated this week experts had. developed that about 2,400 metric lots of oil products had. spilled into the sea, a smaller sized spill than at first feared. When the catastrophe struck, state media reported that the. stricken tankers, both more than 50-years old, were carrying. some 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil products in. total. The spill involved heavy M100-grade fuel oil that solidifies. at a temperature level of 25 degrees Celsius
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Brazil reaches handle airline companies to settle tax responsibilities
Brazil's government said on Friday it has actually reached deals with two of the country's biggest airlines, Gol and Azul, to settle some pending tax responsibilities totaling 7.5 billion reais ($ 1.22. billion). The government has offered the carriers with significant. discount rates and permitted them to make installation payments. WHY IT is essential. The deal might supply monetary relief to the business. Latin. American airlines have been dealing with financial hurdles in the wake. of the COVID-19 pandemic and were forced to restructure. responsibilities as they have problem with high debt loads. Gol has actually been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy defense in the U.S. because early 2024, while Azul just recently struck deals with lessors. to scrap obligations in exchange for an equity stake and. shareholders to obtain fresh financing. BY THE NUMBERS Gol will pay 880 million reais in approximately 120 installments to. settle commitments of about 5 billion reais, the federal government said. in a statement, adding that it would likewise maintain 49 million. reais from the company currently deposited in a judicial account. Azul, meanwhile, will pay 36 million reais instantly and. an extra 1.1 billion reais in as much as 120 installations to. settle more than 2.5 billion reais in financial obligation. SECRET ESTIMATES Mariana Vieira, an authorities in the office of Brazil's. lawyer general, stated the deals were a significant action. towards settling tax issues intensified by the pandemic, and. add to the resumption of growth in the market. Gol in a different statement stated the deal solves tax. liabilities and would not affect its net financial debt. MARKET REACTION. Sao Paulo-traded shares of Gol were up 1.5% on Friday, adding to. gains of more than 5% in the previous session, when the company. supplied a look of the tax deal in a securities filing. Azul shares were up 0.8%, following a rise of 2.8% on. Thursday.
Asian spot prices rise on Europe's gas outlook uncertainty
The Asian spot price of liquefied gas (LNG), which is a form of natural gas, rose to its highest level in a month this week as uncertainty over Europe's gas future was caused by the expiry date for a transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Average LNG price for February deliveries to Northeast Asia
Ukraine allowed Russia to continue pumping gas through its territory, despite almost three years of conflict. However, Kyiv refused a five-year contract that expired on New Year's Day.
The European gas balance is still uncertain, despite the fact that this risk was anticipated. The relatively high withdrawals of European gas inventories that are currently 16% less than last year due to higher gas demand, is a key concern, said Siamak Adibi analyst at consultancy FGE.
Adibi added that while the loss of Russian gas won't directly affect Northwest Europe's gas supplies, increased demand from eastern European markets such as Slovakia could bring additional volumes from Western supply pools.
The suspension of Russian gas via Ukraine could lead to a loss on the European market. This would require higher LNG imports in order to balance the market by 2025.
Martin Senior, the head of LNG prices at the commodity pricing agency Argus, stated that gains in Northwest European delivered gas prices outpaced Asia’s price increases. This was due to the termination of the Russia-Ukraine transit agreement, the downward revisions of minimum temperature forecasts, and the unplanned outage of Norway's Hammerfest terminal.
He said that the inter-basin arbitration has been closed since a few weeks. This means that most U.S. Gulf cargoes are already heading to Europe and not Northeast Asia.
"European Prices Closing Above Asian Prices has also caused most west African cargoes head to Europe rather than Asia -- where they were mostly delivered in 2024."
S&P Global Commodity Insights estimated its daily Northwest Europe Gas Marker (NWM), a price benchmark, for cargoes to be delivered in February ex-ship on January 2, at $14.785/mmBtu. This represents a $0.225/mmBtu reduction from the gas price for February at the Dutch TTF Hub.
Spark Commodities set the price for the product at $14.904/mmBtu. Argus put the price at 13.995/mmBtu.
Due to the TTF rally in February, the U.S. Arbitrage to Northeast Asia through the Cape of Good Hope is closed, signaling that U.S. cargoes will be delivered to Northwest Europe, according to Spark Commodities analyst Qasim Afghanistan. He also added that the U.S. Arbitrage to Northeast Asia through the Panama Canal has been closed.
According to Afghan, the rates for LNG freight in the Atlantic region rose to $24,750/day last Friday. The rates in Pacific increased to $21,750/day.
(source: Reuters)