Latest News
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Ukraine's Naftogaz appoints Fedorenko as CEO
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Friday that the state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz would appoint Sergiy Fedorenko as CEO to replace Sergii Koreteskyi, who was appointed prime minister following a sudden government reshuffle. Zelenskiy stated that Fedorenko will be leading the company for a set period of time. However, he did not specify how long this term would last. Zelenskiy wrote in a blog post that it was important to implement all the plans we made for winter, despite 'the ongoing Russian attacks. The Russian campaign against Ukraine's Energy Sector has made Naftogaz the primary target. On Friday, its gas production facility located in the northeastern Kharkiv Region was again attacked. Zelenskiy, who endorsed Koretskyi's appointment as the head of Ukraine's Government, praised his experience in protecting?Naftogaz infrastructure from strikes and ensuring enough gas was stored for the winter season. Officials in Ukraine warn that the country should prepare for the harshest winter yet if it is to continue the four-year conflict with Russia. They say that Russian attacks on the energy sector during the previous winter have caused significant damage. (Reporting and editing by Yuliia Dyesa)
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Twenty pupils die in Uganda bus crash, government bans all school outings
Authorities said that 20 schoolchildren were killed when a bus carrying them crashed late on Thursday night, after returning from a visit to some 'waterfalls' in eastern Uganda. On Friday, the government announced that it would ban all school trips following the tragic events of last week. Online posts and outpourings in grief urged better safety standards. In a police post on X, they said that preliminary investigations?suggested that the driver had lost control and the bus veered?off?the road, then turned over when it hit a large rock. Police said that the bus was owned by King David Junior School, located in Kampala's capital, on its way back from an educational trip to Sipi falls. It crashed in Chekwatit Village in Kapchorwa District. Officials said that three adults, as well as several children, were also injured. Road accidents in Uganda are not uncommon. Experts blame poor maintenance of vehicles and lack of street lighting. In October of last year, 46 people died in a bus accident on one of the main highways of the country between the capital and the northern city?Gulu. Chrysostom muyingo, the Education Minister had "put on hold all school trips and excursions effective immediately" and until further notice. This was announced by a government communications agency on Friday. (Reporting and writing by Elias Biryabarema, Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani, Editing by Alexander Winning & Andrew Heavens).
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Telstra CEO points out undocumented change in software as cause of outage during Senate testimony
Telstra CEO Vicki. Brady said on Friday that the outage last week at Australia's biggest telecoms.firm was probably caused by a.missed software update and an undocumented.design change.on a network.time-keeping.device. Last Wednesday's outage was the latest of a series that has hit Australia's telecoms sector in the last few years. It cut off phone service for thousands of customers and disrupted wireless payment systems. Optus, Australia's second largest telecoms company, experienced a?13 hour disruption in emergency call services, which may have led to four deaths. This was followed by a cyberattack in 2022 that exposed the personal information of millions of people and an outage in 2023, which left millions without internet or phone for a whole day. Brady stated in her opening remarks to the Senate that maintenance work on network timing and synchronisation gear triggered a software configuration which reset the device's time to 2006. Telstra's network was affected by this failure, resulting in voice and data services being disrupted, as well as calls to Triple Zero. This issue occurred because a design change made to the time-keeping system to correct a previous fault was not properly documented. The maintenance team did not know how the equipment would react when it was restarted. The device also lacked a software update. Brady said to the Senate that the outage might not have occurred if the software update had been completed or if the design change was properly documented and reviewed after the previous incident and reflected in the maintenance procedure. Our investigation will examine why the design change wasn't documented, why the software update wasn't completed, and what changes need to be made in our control systems so that known risks can be captured, prioritised, and closed before they affect customers. Brady moved to Telstra from Optus, owned by Singtel. (Reporting and editing by Vijay Kishore; Rajasik Mukherjee)
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Greece warns that EU sanctions against Russia could lead to a loss of LNG market share by rivals
Two Greek government officials stated on Friday that Greece objected to a'sanctions package' against Russia and warned the EU about a possible loss of market share by non-EU competitors if a ban was imposed on the transfer of Russian 'gas' to third countries. Two sources claim that European Union envoys were unable to reach an agreement on Wednesday on the 21st package against Russia because a number of countries, including Greece and Austria, objected. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said on Monday that EU countries are undecided about tightening restrictions against Russian liquefied gas. Greece dominates Europe's market for LNG carriers and is one of the largest players in the world, competing with Japan, China and United States. One of the officials said: "From Athens’ perspective, any new restrictive package must be carefully calibrated in order to maximise pressure on Moscow, while minimising unintended consequences for European consumers, businesses, and competitiveness." As a result of its sanctions policy, Europe should not be able to surrender entire economic sectors or market shares to non-EU actors. The official stated that sanctions should be designed to erode Russia's economic capability, not create strategic windfalls at the expense of Europe. Due to the sensitive nature of the issue, both?officials as well as the two sources spoke under the condition of anonymity. The EU has pushed the talks on the 21st package of sanctions to July 23. Until then, the price of Russian oil will remain at $44.10 per barrel.
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Kuwait claims Iranian attack damages water desalination and power generation station
Kuwaiti authorities reported?on?Friday that an Iranian attack?hit one of Kuwait's power generating and?water -desalination stations, causing a fire, damage, and the interruption of a number of electricity generation units. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy reported that firefighters brought the fire under control, while technical teams assessed the damage, secured the station and worked to restore service as quickly as possible for the affected electricity generation units. Iran claimed to have launched a new attack on U.S. military facilities in the Middle East on Friday. This included 'the first direct attack on Syria, following a sixth night of 'U.S. Attacks on Iranian military installations. The?Irani military announced early on Friday that it had?attacked?U.S. Facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. (Reporting and editing by William Maclean, Ahmed Elimam)
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Sources: Assailants board a chemical products tanker near Yemen in suspected hijacking.
Sources from maritime security said that armed 'assailants' are believed to be in control of the chemical tanker Asana, which was seized by armed gangs on Friday off the southern coast of Yemen and in the Gulf of Aden. Ship tracking data revealed that the small tanker had not confirmed its flag and had named Bosaso, a port in Somalia, as its next destination. One of the maritime safety sources stated that based on initial assessments the incident seemed to be more related to Somali pirates than Yemen's Iran aligned Houthi militia. The British Navy agency UKMTO reported on Friday that an unauthorised person boarded a vessel while it was transiting east through the Gulf of Aden 65 nautical miles south of Yemen's Al Mukalla Port. Vanguard, a British maritime risk management company, said that details about the number of attackers, the circumstances surrounding the boarding and the condition of the vessel and its crew were still unclear. An official of the Greek maritime security company Diaplous confirmed that a South Korean warship was dispatched to the area. Ambrey, a British maritime security company, said that there was no armed security team on board the vessel when the incident took place. The attackers were believed to be members of a pirate group. Exon Energy of the Marshall Islands was listed as the vessel's operator in?shipping database, but it could not be contacted for comment. Sources told Reuters that Iran had asked Yemen's Houthis if the United States struck Iranian power infrastructure to be ready to shut down?the Red Sea Oil Route. This poses a new and potent threat to global energy supply. Reporting by Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou. Editing by William Maclean.
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There are some flights to the Middle East that have resumed but there is still disruption.
Some airlines have maintained their suspensions, while others are increasing the number of flights they offer to certain parts of the Middle East following the conflict caused by the U.S.-Israeli?strikes against Iran. Here is an alphabetical update on the status of flights. AEGEAN AIRLINES The largest airline in Greece has cancelled flights to Dubai and Erbil until September 30. AIRBALTIC The cancellation of flights to Dubai is effective until October 24. AIR CANADA Canadian Airlines has canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Dubai and Abu Dhabi until October 24. AIR FRANCE-KLM Air France suspends its Beirut flights from August 2 to August 2. KLM has suspended its flights to Riyadh and Dubai until the 15th of July, according to a website statement. CATHAY PACIFIC Hong Kong Airlines has delayed the return of passenger and freight services to Middle East. The resumption of passenger flights to Dubai and Riyadh has been pushed back until October 25 and 26. The original August 1 date for the Riyadh Freight service has been pushed back. The U.S. airline has suspended service for the Atlanta-Tel Aviv routes until December 18. The airline plans to resume New York JFK-Tel Aviv flights starting September 6. Meanwhile, the Boston-Tel Aviv flight, originally scheduled for late October, will now be delayed. FINNAIR It has canceled its Doha flights up to October 2 and continues to avoid the airspaces of Iraq, Iran Syria, and Israel. The airline will resume its Dubai flights in October, which are only operated during the winter. British Airways, owned by IAG, delayed the return of its flights from?Riyadh to August 8 and from?Doha to August 1. Flights from Dubai, Tel Aviv and Bahrain to Amman and Amman will be suspended until the end the summer season. They are expected to resume on 25 October. When the airline resumes its services, it plans to reduce flights to Dubai, Doha and Riyadh to just one flight per day, while removing Jeddah from their list of destinations. JAPAN AIRLINES Japan Airlines has suspended its scheduled Tokyo-Doha and Doha-Tokyo flight until September 1; The Polish airline will begin operating its winter route from Dubai in October, and resume its operations to Beirut during the summer of 2027. LUFTHANSA GROUP SWISS delayed the return of flights to Tel Aviv till August and Brussels Airlines suspended its operations until 24 October. The suspension of Dubai flights by SWISS and Lufthansa will continue until September 13th. Lufthansa and?SWISS have suspended flights from Abu Dhabi to Amman, Beirut Dammam, Riyadh Erbil Muscat and Tehran. Eurowings, the low-cost airline, expects to resume flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Erbil and other Middle East destinations this autumn. ITA Airways also extended its suspension of flights to Riyadh to July 31 - and to Dubai to October 24 - for operational reasons. NORWEGIAN AIR Low-cost carrier has delayed the launch of its Tel Aviv and Beirut flights indefinitely. No new dates have been set. SINGAPORE Airlines In response to increased demand, the carrier has extended its Singapore-Dubai suspension until October 24. It also added services on Singapore-London Gatwick and Singapore-Melbourne routes between late March and October 24. TURKISH AIRLINES SunExpress, Turkish Airlines joint venture with Lufthansa plans to resume Antalya - Dubai route later on the 15th of July. WIZZ AIR Since mid-September, the low-cost carrier has suspended its flights from Europe to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Amman. (Compiled by Josephine Mason and Jamie Freed; edited by Louise Heavens, Jan Harvey, Philippe Fletcher, Matt Scuffham, Tiago Branao, Agnieszka Olesska, Bernadette HOG, Boleslaw LaSocki, Alexander Klyve Gudbrandsen, Romolo tosiani, and Julie Zhu)
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Five thousand French without electricity after two deaths in France due to violent storms
At least two people have died in violent thunderstorms that hit France overnight after a prolonged heatwave. French media and the local grid operator Enedis reported that 53,000 households had no power on Friday. * A woman was killed in Saint-Victurnien in central Haute-Vienne after a tree fell on her Thursday evening. In 'Dolomieu, to the east, a man died late Thursday night after a lightning strike ignited a fire in a workshop. Enedis, the grid operator, said that on Friday 53,000 households had lost?power. The cuts were mainly in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region in the 'Southeast' and in Nouvelle Aquitaine to the 'Southwest. Meteo-France, the French weather service, lifted its orange alert on Friday for thunderstorms that had previously been reported in 'all departments' of Southeastern France.
Air China and Shenzhen Airlines purchase 55 Airbus jets at a list price of $12.4 Billion
Air China and Shenzhen Airlines, China's flag carrier, will purchase 55 -Airbus aircraft at a list price of $12,4?billion. The move is part of the Chinese flag holder's efforts to modernise and expand its fleet.
Air China has agreed to purchase 15 A350-900 wide body jets. Shenzhen Airlines, on the other hand, will buy 40 narrow-body A320neo family aircraft. This is according to an Air China filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Delivery of the A350-900 jets is scheduled between 2030 and 2032. The A350 900 jets are valued at about $6.09billion based on Airbus list prices for January 2025. The A320neo aircraft family, worth a total of $6.35 billion, based on the January 2024 list prices, is scheduled for delivery between 2029-2032.
Air China stated in its filing that Airbus would offer significant discounts on large aircraft orders, which is a common practice. Both airlines will finance the purchase through a combination of their own funds and commercial bank loans, as well as other financing arrangements.
Chinese carriers are re-building and expanding their fleets in response to the pandemic. Air China stated that the new aircraft would help 'optimise its fleet structure,?routes network, improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs.
The A320neo competes with the medium-haul Boeing 737 MAX while?the A350 900 is largely?used for long-haul international flights. Reporting by Julie Zhu, Time Hepher, Ethan Wang, Ryan Woo, and Ethan Wang in Hong Kong; editing by Susan Fenton
(source: Reuters)