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China cancels some flights when Typhoon Matmo approaches Hainan during high holiday travel
Chinese authorities have cancelled flights and ferries on Hainan Saturday night, before Typhoon Matmo strikes the province in the south. This is likely to disrupt a busy holiday travel season for the island resort. The official Xinhua agency reported that all flights from and to the international airport of the provincial capital Haikou are expected to be canceled at 11 p.m. Sanya's Maritime Safety Bureau, the resort city of Hainan, has also announced that all tourist ferries and ships will be banned in its jurisdiction as of 6 p.m. Sunday is expected to be a landfall day Matmo is expected to land around noon Sunday, after it has approached east of Hainan. Its maximum wind speed will be between 42 and 48 meters per second. Haikou will stop all schooling, work, and transport on Sunday afternoon, Xinhua reported, while Zhanjiang, a port city in Guangdong, is also planning to do this. Xinhua reported on Wednesday that during the eight-day holiday, which begins with China's National Day, on October 1, the average daily trip is expected to increase by 3.2% compared to the same period in the previous year. According to Hainan official social media, Haikou planned more than 150 cultural events, including sports competitions, and Sanya planned 170 arts and tourism activities during the holiday season. Citing meteorological experts, the state media CCTV asked the public to be vigilant, as Matmo would have a severe impact on tourism and transport during a busy travel period. At noon, the Hong Kong Observatory upgraded its Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal to Strong Wind No. 3 and said it would assess whether higher signals are needed later on Saturday. The Hong Kong Observatory raised its tropical cyclone warning signal to Strong Wind Signal No. 3 at 12 noon and said that it would evaluate the need for higher signs later on Saturday. The observatory reported on Friday that the financial hub had issued 12 tropical-cyclone warnings this year. This is the highest number since 1946. Clare Jim is the reporter. (Editing by William Mallard, Mark Potter and Clare Jim)
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Russian strikes passenger train in Ukraine injuring dozens
Officials said that a Russian drone struck a passenger train in a station at the northern Sumy region of Ukraine, injuring several dozen people. "A brutal Russian strike on the railway in Shostka region, Sumy," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on Telegram. He included a video showing a burning wrecked passenger carriage, as well as others that had their windows blown out. He claimed that dozens of rail workers and passengers were injured. Oleh Hryhorov, regional governor of Ukraine, said that the attack occurred on a train traveling from Shostka towards the capital Kyiv. He said that medics and rescuers had been working at the scene. Oksana Tarasiuk, the head of district administration in the area, told Ukraine's national broadcaster that the strike had injured about 30 people. In the immediate aftermath, no fatalities were reported. The Russians couldn't have been unaware they were attacking civilians. Zelenskiy wrote that the world cannot ignore this act of terrorism. In the past two months, Moscow has intensified its airstrikes against Ukraine's rail infrastructure. It has been hitting it nearly every day. (Reporting and editing by Max Hunder. Editing by Alexandra Hudson. Mark Potter (Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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After drone sightings in the late night, Munich Airport begins a slow reopening
Munich Airport said Saturday that it would gradually resume flights at 7 am (0500 GMT), and delays were expected throughout the day. This comes after the airport had closed both runways for the second time within 24 hours because of a drone sighting. After the closure on Friday evening, the airport asked travellers to contact their airline as it prepared for a restart two hours later than initially scheduled. Authorities said that dozens of flights were diverted or canceled, leaving 6,500 passengers stranded. In recent weeks, drone sightings have repeatedly thrown European aviation into chaos. Some authorities blamed Russia for the incidents. The Kremlin denies any involvement. The authorities have not yet attributed the drone sightings on Thursday or Friday to a particular actor. A statement posted on the airport's website stated that "German air traffic management restricted flight operations in Munich Airport due to unconfirmed sightings of drones, and suspended them until further notification." The airport updated its website later and said that 23 flights had been diverted to Munich, 12 flights had been cancelled, and 48 departures were postponed or cancelled. The report added, "As in the previous evening, airports and airlines looked after passengers." "Camp beds and blankets were distributed, as well as drinks and snacks." The captain of a London bound aircraft who had its departure cancelled informed passengers the previous night that the runways were closed due to drone sightings "near the take-off runways and landing runways", and that helicopters from the police department were in the air. Airport website indicated that due arrivals were diverted beginning at 8:35 pm (1835 GMT). Munich Airport was closed late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning after drone sightings disrupted many flights. Alexander Dobrindt, the German interior minister, promised on Friday that he would introduce legislation to make it easier for police to request the military to shoot down drones. (Reporting and additional reporting by Kirstiknolle and Mrinmay dey; Writing and editing by Thomas Escritt, Chris Reese and Rosalba o'Brien, William Mallard, and Chris Reese)
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China cancels some flights when Typhoon Matmo approaches Hainan during high holiday travel
Chinese authorities have cancelled flights to Hainan Saturday night, before the typhoon Matmo strikes the province in the south. This is likely to disrupt a busy holiday period on the island. The official Xinhua agency reported that all flights from and to the international airport of the provincial capital Haikou are expected to be canceled at 11 p.m. Matmo is forecast to land on Sunday. Haikou will suspend all school, work, and transport between Saturday afternoon and Sunday, Xinhua reported. Xinhua reported on Wednesday that during China's eight day National Day holiday which began on March 23, people will make approximately 2,36 billion passenger journeys, with the daily average trip forecast to increase by 3.2% compared to the same period in 2013. According to Hainan official social media, Haikou planned more than 150 cultural events, including sports competitions, and Sanya planned 170 tourism and art activities. Citing meteorological experts, state media CCTV asked the public to be vigilant, as Matmo would have a significant impact on tourism and transport, while the number travellers has increased significantly. Hong Kong Observatory has announced that it will raise the Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal to Strong Wind Signal No. At 12:20 pm (0420 GMT), the Hong Kong Observatory will raise the tropical cyclone warning signal to Strong Wind Signal No. The observatory reported on Friday that the financial hub had issued 12 tropical cyclone alert signals this year - the most in the past 46 years. Clare Jim, William Mallard and William Jim are the editors.
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FT reports that Pakistan is courting the US for a new Arabian Sea port.
Financial Times, citing an alleged plan, reported that Field Marshal Asim Muniz's advisers had approached U.S. officials to offer to build and operate a port in the Arabian Sea. According to the Financial Times, the plan involves American investors building and running a terminal in Pasni to access Pakistan's vital minerals. Pasni lies in Gwadar District, in the province Balochistan which borders Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Munir and Pakistan's prime minister Shehbaz Shariff met with Donald Trump, the U.S. president, at the White House back in September. Sharif requested investment in the U.S. mining, energy, agriculture and technology sectors during that meeting. According to the FT the offer was made with some U.S. government officials and shared with Munir before a meeting at the White House with Trump late last month. The FT reported that the blueprint does not include the use of the port as a base for U.S. bases. Instead, it aims to attract funding for a railway network connecting the port with mineral-rich provinces in the west. Could not verify the report immediately. A request for comment was not immediately responded to by the U.S. State Department or White House. The Pakistani Army was not immediately available. Reporting by Abu Sultan from Bengaluru, edited by Chris Reese & Shri Navaratnam
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Grupo Mexico, the mining giant, has made a new offer to Citi Banamex
Grupo Mexico, a Mexican mining and transport giant, has made a binding bid to buy Citi's retail business in the country (Banamex), more than two year after scrapping previous plans. Grupo Mexico stated in a filing in which it said that its bid demonstrated its "unwavering faith" in the country, and that a similar purchase would make Banamex once again competitive with its peers. It said that the firm controlled by Mexican billionaire German Larrea would buy 25% of Banamex for 0.85x its book value and the remaining 75% for 0.80x its book value. Citi paid Banamex $12.5 billion in 2001. The offer was made a week ago by Fernando Chico Pardo. He is the chairman of airport operator ASUR. A deal was made for a 25 percent stake at $2.3 billion. Banamex to be acquired by Grupo Mexico The 2023 Fallout Sources claim that tensions between the two parties and the then-administration of Andres Manuel Obrador caused them to cancel the agreement. (Reporting and editing by Natalia Siniawski, Kylie Madry)
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Key Democrat blasts a 'rapid' end to popular US tariff exemptions for package shipments
The top Democrat of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has accused the Trump Administration of inadequate customs procedures. This is because the administration ended the "de minimis", or U.S. exemption from tariffs for packages below $800. This led to major disruptions to mail shipments sent to U.S. consumers and small businesses. In a letter sent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Senator Ron Wyden asked for answers about how the department determined that it had adequate systems in place to collect duty on low-value packages since the exemption expired on August 29, 2009. Wyden, a member of the Democratic Party who is influential in Congress on tax and trade issues, tried to cast a negative light on the claim by the administration that it had closed a dangerous loophole. The de minimis exception allowed nearly 1.4 million packages to enter the U.S. without paying duty in 2024. This fueled an explosion in direct-to consumer ecommerce shipments by Chinese ecommerce firms Shein, and Temu. Wyden called the change "hurried" and said it would lead to "massive disruptions of international shipments and confusion, as well as increased costs for American small businesses and consumers." Wyden cited UPU data showing that total postal shipments into the U.S. fell 81% on August 29, when the de minimis exemption was lifted. In a letter to Lutnick, Wyden said: "I am concerned about your judgement and would like to know more information regarding your involvement in the decision that was made to end de minimis so abruptly without the proper systems to manage the change." The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency which is responsible for collecting import duties did not respond immediately to a comment request, and neither did the Commerce Department. In the coming weeks, a spokesperson for UPU stated that the agency will update its U.S. shipping figures. These numbers do not include commercial express shipments, such as those sent by FedEx and United Parcel Service. The U.S. The U.S. De minimis has also been exploited by shippers of illicit drugs, including fentanyl and precursor chemicals. This is due to the limited inspections that are conducted on many packages that claim exemption. (Reporting and editing by Diane Craft; Lisa Baertlein, David Lawder)
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Union Pacific locomotive technicians ratify a new five-year agreement
BLET-Teamsters, a union representing locomotive engineers at Union Pacific, announced on Friday that the locomotive engineers ratified a five-year contract. The new contract will see nearly 6,000 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a division of International Brotherhood of Teamsters' rail conference, receive raises of 18,8% over the course of the agreement. Union members said that the contract includes enhanced health and welfare benefits. Last week, the largest U.S. railway union, SMART-TD approved Union Pacific’s $85 billion purchase of Norfolk Southern. This deal was expected to be met with resistance by unions and regulators. The deal will establish the first coast-tocoast freight railroad operator in the United States and transform the movement of goods across the country, from grains to automobiles. By late October or January 2026, the Surface Transportation Board (which oversees rail service and competition) will receive a formal application from both companies.
Contentious COP29 deal reveals climate cooperation tearing at edges
When COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev stepped to the podium at the closing conference of the Baku climate summit on Sunday morning, wishing to clinch a hardfought arrangement on worldwide environment finance, he brought with him two speeches.
One was crafted around a hoped-for offer being struck, while the other for the possibility of a summit-collapsing deadlock, according to 2 sources familiar with the matter who talked to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Yes, we had actually prepared various variations of the speech for numerous situations, however as we stepped onto the phase, we were positive in our success, said among the sources, an authorities in the COP29 presidency. In the end, Babayev managed to gavel through the $300 billion financing strategy to assist developing countries cope with the soaring costs of global warming over the next years before critics had time to object, allowing him to read the more favorable speech. He applauded the arrangement as a development and shamed the offer's. skeptics as wrong, even as a lot of the climate deal's intended. recipients knocked it as woefully inadequate.
Babayev's preparation for various results at the divisive. summit in the Caspian Sea country of Azerbaijan showed what. numerous in the audience had already known before it began: the Baku. environment talks were never going to go efficiently.
Expectations for an offer were depressed by worries of a. looming U.S. withdrawal from global environment cooperation,. geopolitical chaos, and an increase of isolationist politics that. had shunted environment change off much of the world's top. top priorities list. Those challenges loomed large in Baku and will continue to. overshadow global climate efforts in the months ahead as Brazil. gets ready for next year's much broader conference in the Amazon. rain forest city of Belem - where the world will plot a. years-long course for steeper emissions cuts and structure. durability in the fight versus environment change.
Multilateralism as a whole is under threat, stated Eliot. Whittington, chief systems change officer at the Cambridge. Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Indeed, the UNFCCC is probably the brilliant area-- showing that. even in the face of exceptionally hostile geopolitics and on. fundamentally difficult concerns, an offer can be made, he stated,. describing the U.N. body sponsoring the annual environment top. But the slow rate of progress, with worldwide emissions still. increasing, has actually raised stress and calls for reform.
This is something that requires to be looked at, when simply a. handful of countries, based upon their own financial interests, can. nearly wreck the whole process, Sierra Leone Environment. Minister Jiwoh Abdulai informed Reuters.
TRUMP RESULT
Among the most significant factors clouding the negotiations in Baku. was the looming return of environment skeptic Donald Trump as. president of the U.S., the world's greatest economy, biggest. historical emitter of greenhouse gases, and leading producer of oil. and gas.
Trump, who takes workplace in January, has pledged to withdraw. the U.S. from the worldwide Paris Arrangement on environment modification, as. he did during his very first 2017-2021 term in the White House, and. has actually called environment change a hoax. Mediators at the Baku conference stated that while the U.S. delegation had helped in developing the climate financing. deal, the nation was not able to take a prominent management. role like it has in past environment tops, and it could not. offer assurances the next administration would honor its. promises.
With the United States, well, the citizens have voted and. that's the way it is. What they're going to do, we do not understand,. South African Environment Minister Dion George said. U.S. officials at the COP29 conference sought to assure global. partners that market forces, existing federal subsidies, and. state mandates would make sure continued renewable resource. implementation even if Trump disengages from the global process.
The war in Ukraine and rising dispute in the Middle East,. meanwhile, have diverted global attention to security and energy. accessibility, and led lots of governments to tighten their purse. strings, experts stated. That made getting a bigger climate financing number hard,. observers to the talks stated.
Even preserving climate finance at present levels in the. current political environment is a substantial battle, stated Joe. Thwaites, senior supporter on international environment finance at. the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
The agreement to offer $300 billion every year by 2035 would. in theory triple abundant nations' previous dedications to. provide $100 billion by 2020. That earlier objective was reached in. complete only in 2022, and expires in 2025. The objection of rich nations to provide more cash and. the pressure to conclude even a weak deal ahead of more. political turbulence ended up being a major source of disappointment for. the Least Developed Nations and small island states, who told. the Baku conference they felt sidelined in the negotiations. At one point in the summit's final stretch, negotiating blocs. representing both groups walked out of talks in demonstration,. delaying a deal by hours.
We came in excellent faith, with the safety of our neighborhoods. and the wellness of the world at heart, Tina Stege, the. environment envoy for the Marshall Islands, said at the closing. plenary.
Yet, we have actually seen the extremely worst of political opportunism. here at this COP, playing games with the lives of the world's. most vulnerable people.
India's envoy, Chandni Raina, used her time to roundly. reject the environment finance offer gaveled through by Babayev.
We are disappointed in the result which plainly highlights. the hesitation of the industrialized country celebrations to fulfil. their obligations, she told the summit. Environment advocates said that, while the deal is better than an. outright impasse, the rifts exposed by the conference in addition to. the loss of rely on the procedure amongst poorer countries will. position an issue for Brazil as it gets ready for COP30.
I think this is a hazardous chalice for Belem, and it's going. to be approximately Brazil how they're going to bring back the trust, said. Oscar Sorria, director of the Common Initiative, a think tank. focused on international financial reform.
(source: Reuters)