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Concerns over airport embankment, bird strikes as South Korea air crash penetrated
Concerns grew on Tuesday over the crash of a Jeju Air jetliner as cops hurried to identify victims and as families of those killed in the deadliest aircraft crash on South Korean soil pushed authorities for more details. The National Police Agency said it is making full-scale efforts by adding personnel and quick DNA analysers to shorten the recognition duration. 5 bodies remained unknown as of Tuesday. Member of the family gathered at the nation's Muan International Airport, where the crash happened, have promoted quicker identification and more details from authorities. All 175 passengers and 4 of the six crew were eliminated when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, appearing in a fireball as it slammed into a wall. Two team members were pulled out alive. South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday purchased an emergency situation safety assessment of the nation's entire airline operation as investigators looked for to find out what triggered the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil. The Transportation Ministry said representatives from the U.S. National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Air travel Administration, and airplane maker Boeing have joined the investigative body and strategy to meet in Muan on Tuesday to go over future schedule. The U.S. team led by the NTSB is on the ground in South Korea supplying support, board chair Jennifer Homendy said in an interview. The NTSB stated in a statement it sent 3 detectives consisting of individuals with specializeds in functional elements and airworthiness to South Korea to assist the investigation. If we need more specialists we will send them, Homendy stated. Private investigators are analyzing bird strikes, whether any of the airplane's control systems were disabled, and the apparent rush by the pilots to try a landing right after stating an emergency as possible consider the crash, fire and transportation officials have stated. Authorities have actually also dealt with pointed questions about design features at the airport, particularly a large dirt-and-concrete embankment near completion of the runway utilized to support navigation equipment. The plane slammed into the embankment at high speed and emerged into a fireball. Bodies and body parts were thrown into surrounding fields and the majority of the aircraft broke down in flames. South Korean officials state the embankment was built according to requirements, and that there are similar features at other airports consisting of in the United States and Europe. But numerous specialists said its proximity to the end of the runway defied best practices and likely made the crash even more deadly than it might have been otherwise. The runway style absolutely (did) not satisfy industry best practices, which prevent any difficult structure like a berm within a minimum of 300 metres (330 lawns) of the runway's end, said John Cox, CEO of Security Platforms and former 737 pilot. The airport's concrete berm appears to be less than half that range from the end of the pavement, according to Reuters' analysis of satellite images. South Korean authorities have actually stated it is about 250 metres from the end of the runway itself, though a paved apron extends past that. The plane appeared in video footage to be slowing down and in control when it went off the runway, Cox said. When it hits that berm is when it turns into tragedy.
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Aircraft flight records of Kazakhstan crash headed to Brazil
Flight records for the aircraft made by Brazil's Embraer that crashed last week in Kazakhstan are headed to the South American nation so the data can be drawn out, the Brazilian Flying force said in a declaration on Monday. Information from the cockpit voice and flight data recorder will be processed in a laboratory run by Brazilian aeronautical private investigators in the capital Brasilia, in a process that will be kept track of by agents from Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan, according to the statement. The data will then be sent to private investigators in Kazakhstan. On Sunday, Azerbaijan commemorated the pilots and guests of the Azerbaijan Airlines traveler airplane. The crash killed 38 individuals after Russian air defences were used versus Ukrainian drones. The airplane crashed last Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were attacking numerous cities.
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Chinese toy maker Bloks Group applies for up to $188 mln Hong Kong IPO
Bloks Group is aiming to raise as much as HK$ 1.46 billion ($ 188.01 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering, as the Chinese toy maker aims to ramp up product development and output while capitalizing the reviving IPO market. Bloks will be selling a total of 24.1 million shares, priced in between HK$ 55.65 and HK$ 60.35 each, according to a regulatory submitting made on Tuesday. The deal will raise between HK$ 1.34 billion and HK$ 1.46. billion, and the shares sold will represent 10% of the business's. overall shares, the filings revealed. Shanghai-based Bloks, which assembles the Ultraman and. Transformer toys, will utilize the profits from the IPO to complete. its self-operated factory in 2026 and hire 400 extra. employees. Bloks is China's biggest player in the assembly character. toy section, according to a report it commissioned to. consultancy company Frost & & Sullivan. The listing prepares come while there seem green shoots. of recovery in the Hong Kong IPO market following an extended. slump duration over the last few years. Regional cosmetics firm Mao Geping recently raised. $ 300 million in its oversubscribed Hong Kong IPO, while courier. group S.F. Holding raised $749.3 million. Bloks reported a first-half loss of 254.9 million yuan. ($ 34.92 million) while publishing 1.05 billion yuan in income,. more than triple from a year ago. Xinyao (Criss) Wang, an expert at Smartkarma, stated the. newest pre-IPO assessment for Bloks has actually reached 7.2 billion yuan. but need to be lower than global toy designer Pop Mart. Bloks' service model is more comparable to Pop Mart, rather. than LEGO, but Bloks' profitability is dragging both of. them, added Wang and also flagged that Bloks' present high. profits growth may not be sustainable. LEGO is a privately-held Danish toy business. Goldman Sachs and Huatai International are joint bookrunners. on the offering.
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Germany's Scholz advises residents to vote in NYE address
Chancellor Olaf Scholz interested his fellow Germans to enact breeze elections in February as the country argues over migration and the rise of the farright Option for Germany (AfD), according to a New Year's speech seen ahead of time. I interest you today: Please go vote! By browsing in the world, you will know what a great accomplishment complimentary and reasonable elections are, Scholz said in the address, which is set to air at 1910 GMT. Germans will head to the surveys in a parliamentary election on Feb. 23 after a fractious Scholz-led union federal government comprising his Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP ended in collapse. In the address, Scholz likewise mentioned a current stand-off with U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, who has endorsed the AfD and called for Scholz to resign in the wake of a deadly attack in Magdeburg. The future of Germany will not be chosen by the owners of social media channels, Scholz stated in the address. It won't be the person who yells loudest who will decide where Germany goes from here - rather, that will depend on the vast bulk of reasonable and good people, he included. 5 people were eliminated and some 200 people hurt in a. car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the German city of. Magdeburg on Dec. 20, stiring the flames of a dispute over. limiting migration and a harsher position on deportations.
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Brazil's Vale reaches $1.8 bln train concessions deal
Brazilian miner Vale has actually reached a contract with local authorities to pay up to some 11 billion reais ($ 1.78 billion) to renegotiate two train concession agreements, the company revealed in a. securities filing on Monday. Brazil's federal government has actually been intending to eliminate discounts. offered to rail companies by the previous administration when some. received early contract renewals. In its filing, Vale noted that it has actually reached arrangement on. general terms with the federal government and land transport regulator. ANTT for the renegotiation of the Carajas and Vitoria a Minas. trains concessions, which in 2020 were extended through 2057. The company added that the contract still awaits. additional approvals, and will cause a boost of 1.7. billion reais in its arrangements associated with railways concessions.
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Swiss cabin crew member passes away after flight with smoke issues
Swiss International Air Lines stated on Monday a member of its cabin crew who ended up in intensive care recently when the flight he was on suffered engine issues and smoke inside the aircraft, has passed away in hospital. The Jet A220-300 from Bucharest to Zurich made an emergency landing in the Austrian city of Graz on Dec. 23 after the problems arose. The guy was then taken to healthcare facility in Graz where he died. We are all deeply shocked by the death of our cherished colleague. The news leaves us deeply saddened and stunned. Our ideas are with the young man's relatives, whose pain must be boundless, said Jens Fehlinger, CEO of Swiss. The airline company said it was not supplying further information about the late team member or the cause of death out of factor to consider for his grieving loved ones. The flight in question was carrying 74 passengers, 12 of whom got healthcare. Those hospitalized were later on able to leave hospital. Swiss stated last week preliminary findings indicated a technical issue in one of the engines, while noting their investigations were also concentrating on using protective devices for the cabin team called protective breathing equipment.
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Li Haslett Chen to resign from Warner Bros Discovery Board
Li Haslett Chen, a member of the Warner Bros. Discovery board and a member of the company's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, will resign from her positions, efficient Jan. 31, 2025, the business revealed in a regulative filing on Monday. Chen, who signed up with the board in April 2022, released a statement stating she needed to invest more time at her company, Growl, referred to as a brand-new market for social networks creators and brand names to team up. As Howl enters a significant phase of growth in 2025, I have decided to commit my full attention to the company, Chen stated in a statement Monday. Chen could not instantly be grabbed comment. Warner Bros Discovery is anticipated to fill the job on its board .
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German air taxi start-up Volocopter apply for insolvency
Air taxi startup Volocopter GmbH filed for insolvency procedures on Monday, citing its inability to raise brand-new funds to preserve regular operations. The Mercedes-Benz and Honeywell-backed company plans to continue company operations throughout the insolvency proceedings while seeking extra financing. Despite current intensive fundraising efforts, discovering a. feasible service to maintain regular operations beyond. insolvency proceedings has actually not been possible, the Bruchsal,. Germany-based firm said. The electrical vertical departure and landing (eVTOL) market. is facing a financial crunch, with business persistently. seeking new investments to support their capital-intensive. operations as companies prepare for industrial operations. In November, peer Lilium stated it would declare insolvency. soon, after stopping working to solve its monetary problems. Founded in 2011, Volocopter was scheduled to enter the. market in 2025 with its city eVTOL, the VoloCity.
US drives global gas demand to brand-new highs in 2024: Maguire
Power producers in the United States have lifted natural gasfired generation to new highs over the first nine months of 2024, sustaining the country's position as the leading chauffeur of global gas intake.
Natural gas's share in the U.S. generation system also climbed to new highs this year. Gas provided a record 46% of total power considering that June, LSEG information shows, as power firms enhanced output from all sources to meet rising power need.
The fast growth pace of gas use in the U.S. undermines the country's trustworthiness as a potential leader in energy transition efforts, and is at odds with stated ambitions to lower fossil fuel usage in power generation by 2030.
Yet most crucial power systems within the U.S. - which is likewise the world's biggest natural gas producer - reveal no indications of reducing gas usage over the near term, and look more likely to continue raising gas-fired output for years to come.
This widening inconsistency between international climate promises and national-level power generation trends leaves the U.S. open up to fresh criticism from climate advocates, who might attempt to ratchet up pressure on the U.S. to suppress gas usage.
LEADING THE CHARGE
Through the very first nine months of the year, total power generation from gas-fired power plants in the United States was 55.6 million megawatt hours (MWh), according to LSEG.
That total was up nearly 5% from the exact same months in 2023, and the greatest because a minimum of 2021.
Which development speed was well above a number of other significant gas-consuming countries, consisting of China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy and Russia, data from energy think tank Ember shows.
Indeed, of the 10 biggest gas-fired electrical energy manufacturers, just Mexico, Qatar and Thailand grew gas usage much faster than the U.S. over the very first half of 2024, Coal information shows.
However as those 3 nations create less than a quarter of the gas-fired electrical energy produced by the U.S., the United States' share of worldwide gas-powered electrical energy hit a brand-new high of 30% so far in 2024, from less than 29% in 2023.
HOME GROWN
The primary chauffeurs of U.S. gas demand development are a handful of power systems that are taking actions to decrease output from coal-fired plants in order the cut contamination, but are having a hard time to fulfill increasing power need without gas-fired output.
The PJM Interconnection system - covering Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and big parts of the Midwest - has the largest total share of U.S. gas-fired output, at 21%.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operation (ISO), with a. service location stretching from Arkansas to North Dakota, accounts. for around 13% of national gas-fired power output.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power. system accounts for another 12%, while the Florida power system. represent around 11%.
Of those systems, Florida posted the steepest year-to-date. rise in gas use, of 13.4% from the same months in 2023.
The Midcontinent and PJM systems grew gas use by around 3%,. while ERCOT increased gas-fired generation by 1%, LSEG information. shows.
The primary stand-out amongst large gas-fired power systems was. the SERC Reliability Corporation, which serves clients throughout. the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and other states.
SERC gas-fired generation was 2.5% down from the very same months. in 2023, however was offset by greater output from system nuclear. plants and a 5% climb in coal-fired output.
Gas stays the single biggest source of power within the SERC. system, nevertheless, and so looks set to stay an integral power. fuel because system for the foreseeable future.
And gas looks set to end up being of increasing value in. other significant U.S. power systems too, specifically in locations. where outdated coal-fired generation is being phased out and. needs to be changed by other on-demand power plants.
And as long as that coal phase-out process continues, total. U.S. gas-fired generation looks set to keep climbing up, regardless. of any country-level aims to curb power output from fossil. fuels.
Only when U.S. generation capacity of clean power, including. renewables, is considerably greater, and is backed by a hefty. battery storage network, will U.S. power producers have the ability to. make substantial cuts to gas-based power.
<< The viewpoints expressed here are those of the author, a. columnist .>
(source: Reuters)