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Finland suspects ship damaging cable in Baltic Sea in latest incident
The Finnish police announced on Wednesday that they had seized a ship believed to be responsible for damaging an undersea cable connecting the Estonian capital Tallinn to Helsinki, across the Gulf of Finland. This area has been plagued by alleged sabotage in recent years. The police declined to identify the ship, its nationality or provide any other details about it and its crew. Eight NATO countries border the Baltic Sea which borders Russia. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they have been on high-alert after a series of outages along power cables, teles links and pipelines running along the relatively shallow seabed. NATO has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea with aircraft, frigates and naval drones. Police and the Finnish Border Guard Authority said that the vessel suspected of being responsible for the damage was dragging an anchor in the water and had been directed into Finnish territorial waters. Police said that the cable belonged to Finnish telecoms group Elisa. Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland, said that he is monitoring the situation. Finland is ready to face any security challenge, and we will respond as needed," he said on X. In December 2024, Finland boarded the Russian oil tanker Eagle S. Investigators claimed that the Eagle S had damaged an electrical cable and several telecoms links by dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea. The Eagle S captain and other crew members were dismissed from a criminal case by a Finnish court on October 28th. They ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove any intent, and that the flag state of the ship or the home country of the crew should be prosecuted for any negligence. Essi, Terje, and Alexandra Hudson contributed to the reporting. Louise Heavens edited.
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After power failure, passengers of the Channel Tunnel Rail face a second day of disruption
Train companies announced that services between Britain, continental Europe and Canada would resume on Tuesday but warned about further disruptions after technical problems suspended travel on Monday and left some passengers stranded on trains for the night. Chaos in rail services between London, Paris and Brussels, as well as Amsterdam, one of Europe's most busy international rail corridors, hit at the height of New Year travel. Eurostar, the company that runs passenger rail service, announced on Wednesday morning that services were resumed after "a power problem in the Channel Tunnel yesterday" and other issues with 'rail infrastructure overnight". It said: "We intend to run all our services today. However, due to knock-on effects there may be some delays and possibly last-minute cancellations." On Tuesday, a power failure forced the suspension of travel in?the 50 km (31 mile) tunnel. The UK network was hit by a technical issue in the evening, which made the situation worse for passengers. Some were trapped overnight in trains as some trains began to run. Eurostar 9152 arrived at Lille, in northern France, from London, at 0630 GMT, eleven hours later than expected. The trip usually takes 80 minutes. Herve, a passenger on the train, told BFM TV: "We are annoyed because we're tired and don't have hot drinks. It's a very unpleasant situation. A passenger named?Ghislain planque said, "People had accepted the situation." We could not do anything. Water was given to us. "We weren't abandoned completely." Eurostar was used by nearly 20 million passengers last year. Le Shuttle, a second rail service that transports passenger vehicles and trucks under the Channel Tunnel, also worked to minimize the impact of the shutdown after it had also suspended its operations on Tuesday. Getlink, the company that operates tunnel infrastructure and Le Shuttle service, said "the tunnel has recovered its maximum capacity."
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Drivers in Poland are stuck in tailbacks up to 20 km long due to heavy snowfall
Police reported that heavy snowfall caused a 20-kilometer (12.43-mile) tailback on an autobahn between Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, and Gdansk, a Baltic port town. The police report was made on Wednesday. According to the police, hundreds of people were trapped in their vehicles in freezing temperatures. However, the traffic was moving again by early Wednesday morning. Tomasz Marcowski, a police spokesperson in Olsztyn, said that the difficult situation started 'yesterday afternoon after 4 pm, when the first truck on the S7 route began to have difficulty approaching the slopes. This?led to an?overnight traffic jam that stretched approximately 20 kilometers." Stanislaw Bulkowiec, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, told a news conference that no one was injured as a result the traffic situation. Anna Karczewska is a spokesperson for the Ostroda police. She said that officers tried to assist drivers who were stuck. Ostroda is located on the highway, about 40 km west of Olsztyn. She said, "We did our best to help, and the Ostroda City Hall prepared hot tea and coffee for the drivers." State news? Agency PAP reported there were also some disruptions to rails and airports but that services are returning to normal.
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Eurostar announces the return of train services, but warns about delays and cancellations
Eurostar announced that it will resume all of its cross-Channel service on Wednesday, but warned that there could be delays and cancellations at the last minute after a power failure had suspended train trips throughout much of Tuesday. A fault in the overhead power supply caused a disruption on Tuesday that disrupted plans for thousands of passengers across 'London, Paris and Amsterdam during one of the busiest weeks of travel. On its website,?Eurostar announced on Wednesday that services had resumed following an electrical problem in the?Channel Tunnel yesterday as well as some additional?issues with rail equipment overnight. It said: "We intend to run all of our services today, but due to knock-on effects?there could still be some delays or last-minute cancellations." (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus; Dominique Vidalon)
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Monorail train crash in India leaves over 100 injured
A district official reported that two monorail trains collided late on Tuesday at a hydropower plant being built in India’s?northern?state of Uttarakhand. At least 109 employees were injured. The official said that the majority of workers suffered minor injuries. Four workers suffered fractures. The trains collided in a 'tunnel' in Pipalkoti. This is the site of a upcoming 'hydropower project owned by Tehri Hydro Development Corp. (THDC) and NTPC Ltd. Gaurav Kumar, top?administrative official in the?area, said by phone that the accident happened on Tuesday night, after brakes of a monorail train failed. The trains were used to transport workers and construction materials. Kumar stated that the tracks were cleared and work on the project will resume on Wednesday. About?51 gigawatts (about 505 gigawatts) of India's installed power capacity is hydropower. Uttarakhand has more than 10 operational hydropower plants, each with a capacity of around 2.0 gigawatts. Reporting by Saurabh sharma; editing by Raju gopalakrishnan
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Three children among the four injured in Russian attack on Odesa
Regional authorities reported a drone attack by Russia on Ukraine's Odesa Region overnight. The drone caused damage to?residential structures and infrastructure, and injured four people, including three children. Odesa is a major Black Sea Port that has been repeatedly attacked by Russian drones and missiles over the past four years. Strikes have often?hitted energy, transport, and port infrastructure, as well as residential areas. Oleh Kiper said that drones had attacked the residential, logistic and energy infrastructure of?our region on the messaging app?Telegram. Serhiy lisak, head of Odesa’s military administration, told Telegram that four people, including a 7-month-old baby, two children and a man aged 42, were injured in Odesa, the?administrative?centre for the wider Odesa area. He claimed that drone debris, direct hits and window damage caused by high-rise apartment blocks. Lisak shared images of a smoke billowing from an apartment building with several windows showing flames and what appears to be the water jet of a firefighter aimed towards the facade. Could not independently verify reports. Russia did not immediately comment on the Odesa attacks. (Reporting and editing by Saad Saeed in Melbourne, Lidia Kelly from Melbourne)
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Air China buys 60 Airbus planes for $9.5 billion
Air China, China's largest carrier, announced on Tuesday that it and its subsidiary signed a "pact" with Airbus for the purchase of 60 A320NEO aircraft. The deal is worth approximately $9.5 billion in list prices. This announcement is just the latest of a series made by carriers in the second largest aviation market in the world, including Spring Airlines and Juneyao Airlines. Both plan to buy Airbus aircraft. Air China has informed the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it will deliver its planes in batches from 2028 to 2032. Airbus said that it was "very pleased" with Air China's decision to order additional aircraft of the A320 family. Li Hanming is an independent aviation analyst based in the United States. He said that this purchase was part of a framework agreement between China Aviation Supplies Holding Company and Airbus for 2022. This?deal covered about 132 A320 family aircraft and eight A350 Widebodies with a total value of around $17 billion. Li stated that "negotiations of individual contracts can take time." Airbus has gained an advantage due to the tensions between Beijing and Washington. (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez; Brenda Goh and Sophie Yu contributed to this report).
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Ukraine drone attack damages port, gas pipeline in Tuapse, Russia says
The regional administration reported that a Ukrainian drone attacked the port infrastructure and a gas pipe in a residential area in Russia's Black Sea Port of Tuapse on Wednesday. No injuries were reported. The operational headquarters of Krasnodar Region said via the Telegram messaging application that emergency crews had been dispatched to repair damage. The port's dock had been damaged. A Telegram news channel with Russian security service sources said that a series of explosions were heard late Tuesday over Tuapse and residents in one area reported a fire. On?Telegram, several Ukrainian media outlets, including RBC-Ukraine, published photos that appeared to show a fire in the distance burning at night with a communication mast in the foreground. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attack. Could not independently verify the report, or the extent to which the damage was caused. Tuapse, one of Russia's most important Black Sea outlets for oil, is anchored by Rosneft Tuapse's export oriented refinery. It has a capacity to process 240,000 barrels a day and provides products such as naphtha fuel oil, and diesel. The port and refinery were repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drones during the war that Russia started nearly four years earlier. Previous strikes reportedly caused fires or disrupted operations. Reporting by Lidia Kelley in Melbourne, Editing by Chris Reese & Lincoln Feast.
Maguire: US LNG export dominance will be tested as sellers look past Europe to Europe.
The U.S. has risen to the top in the global LNG exporter rankings thanks to a potent combination of American innovation and full-throated support from the political establishment. This narrative suggests that "freedom gas' shipments will continue to climb to all markets over the next few years.
The U.S. is expected to export liquefied gas in the amount of a third of what the second largest exporter will do by 2025. However, due to the high proportion of LNG sales going to Europe, American LNG suppliers are at risk of experiencing rapid drops in volume as European consumers reduce gas consumption.
The U.S. shares of LNG exports to the region with the highest imports, Asia, are far lower than those from Australia and Qatar, who enjoy much more affordable shipping times for key markets like Japan, China, and India.
Exports will have to increase sharply on key markets outside Europe, where countries like Australia, Malaysia, and Russia already dominate.
The increased competition will test the U.S.'s ability to remain as the world's top LNG supplier. It will result in higher transit costs and lower profit margins for U.S. sellers as they compete to get deals.
EURO CENTRIC
The European countries accounted for more than two-thirds (67%) of U.S. LNG exported this year. This is the largest concentration of U.S. LNG flows to one continent since 2022 when Europe's LNG demand spiked after Russia's invasion in Ukraine.
Kpler data show that while Europe's total LNG needs in 2025 have increased by only 2%, despite the fact that Europe's LNG volumes have risen by 25% from last year. This is because Europe's power sector has re-tooled its generation sources to move away from fossil fuels.
As Europe's utilities continue to accelerate the deployment of renewables and batteries, the regional gas demand will likely decline by 2030, leading to a shrinking LNG market.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its latest outlook, forecasts that the total European Union's gas demand will decline by a little over 10% by 2035, due to a greater use of heat pumps and electric, as well as higher energy efficiency, and resulting from more renewables.
FAR-FLUNG HEEADWINDS
In order to offset the shrinking volume into Europe, U.S. LNG suppliers will need to look further afield and compete with other major LNG sellers in Asia to gain market share. Asia is currently the largest LNG-importing region.
To sustainably increase volumes in cost-sensitive markets like China and India, U.S. Exporters may have to undercut their rivals' prices while incurring higher delivery costs.
In 2025, U.S. LNG exports are only 8% of total LNG exports. Other exporters, such as Australia and Qatar, hold much higher Asian market share.
For U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas to grow its share, it will have to be more affordable than other suppliers.
The challenge will be to lower the sale price, as shipping LNG from Europe to Asia is more than twice the cost of shipping LNG from Europe to Asia.
According to LSEG, the journey time of an LNG vessel between Sabine Pass (U.S.) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) is approximately 15 days.
The journey from Sabine Pass in Louisiana to Dahej in India takes over 30 days. This is a double in travel time, as well as a greater amount of LNG leaking during the trip, which will reduce cargo revenue.
The combination of lower sales prices and higher transit costs can not only erode profits, but also affect exporter creditworthiness. Longer journeys may require short-term credit because they will tie up cash flow for longer.
The overall risk of LNG exporters will increase if they shift from servicing only cash-rich European customers to attracting demand from emerging markets firms with lower credit ratings. This may also result in higher credit line costs.
TRADE TENSIONS
The aggressive moves of U.S. LNG producers to increase market share in Asia may also cause trade tensions with Qatar. Qatar is heavily dependent on gas exports to earn its national income and plans to dramatically boost its LNG export volume.
Qatar has pledged to invest heavily in the U.S. in the next decade, including in facilities which export LNG from the U.S. Gulf Coast. It could therefore renege on these commitments if U.S. LNG expansions are considered too disruptive.
Canada, Russia Australia, Mozambique, and Mexico also have plans to increase LNG export volumes over the next few years. They will therefore be competing for the same markets as U.S. Exporters.
In general, increased supplies from other suppliers and higher delivery costs for new markets could slow U.S. LNG growth in the future, forcing LNG exporters over time to accept a smaller share of global LNG exports.
These are the opinions of a columnist who writes for.
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(source: Reuters)