Latest News
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Poste agreement between China and France is defended by the French government
France's Commerce Minister defended on Friday an agreement between the Chinese ecommerce website Temu and the state-owned Postal Service, reached just weeks before Paris Prosecutor opened an investigation into online marketplaces. France threatened to ban Shein’s online marketplace Wednesday after discovering child-like sex toys and banned weapons on its platform. Ministers are due to report on their preliminary findings on Friday regarding whether the company is in compliance with local laws. Serge Papin, speaking on BFM TV said that France must take action to stop a "digital Wild West" where customs are frequently finding illegal goods in small packages at its borders. Papin, when asked to explain a state-owned La Poste agreement with Temu (an online marketplace owned PDD Holdings, a Chinese ecommerce company), said that the company was required to "do their job". La Poste will deliver parcels from Temu to customers in the last mile. In recent weeks, lawmakers have criticized the deal for supporting a company which is damaging French industry and aggravating environmental problems. Temu and La Poste did not immediately respond to a comment request. In a Wednesday statement, La Poste stated that the agreement was a “classic” logistics services contract which extended the collaboration already in place ever since Temu's arrival in France in 2023. La Poste must treat all customers the same, and apply the same conditions of sale. "As such, the company cannot deny access to its service," it stated. Reporting by Dominique Vidalon & Dominique Patton. Mark Potter edited the story.
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Sources say that a LNG tanker avoided pirates as attacks on Somalia escalated
Sources in maritime security said that a liquefied gas tanker was able to outrun pirates who approached the vessel on a speedboat, off the coasts of Somalia, on Friday. This added to fears of a resurgence in piracy following years of calm. Recent armed attacks in the region, including the first in which suspected Somali pirates were involved in over a year, have reignited fears about the safety of the shipping lanes that transport vital energy and goods into global markets. An official from maritime security firm Diaplous confirmed that the incident on Friday occurred near the location of the attack the day before, which targeted the Malta flagged products tanker Hellas Aphrodite. According to British maritime risk management company Vanguard, and maritime security experts, the Marshall Islands flagged LNG tanker Al Thumama reported a small craft approaching with three people aboard. Sources said that the master of the tanker reported to them that it had outrun the speedboat. The tanker was on its way from Ras Laffan in Qatar, via Cape of Good Hope to Swinoujscie in Poland. NYK LNG Shipmanagement of Japan, the vessel's operator could not be reached immediately for comment. Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Jonathan Saul; editing by Joe Bavier
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Musk predicts that Tesla's Full Self-Driving Software will win China's full approval in early 2026
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said that he expected the Full Self-Driving Software, an automaker's driver assistance system to be fully approved in China by early next year. Musk said at the annual general meeting of his company on Thursday that "we have partial approval in China and we hope to have a complete approval in China by February or March." The China's Industry Ministry did not respond immediately to a comment request. China is Tesla's largest market, but its share of the market has fallen to 8% from a high of 15.4% during the first quarter 2023. Local brands are winning over customers by offering similar features of driving assistance, many times at no additional cost. Since February, the Tesla system (also known as FSD) has been approved partially in China. Tesla owners were able to use an older and less expensive autopilot system before. Some Chinese Tesla owners paid 64,000 yuan (about $9,500) for FSD in the hope that the full rollout wouldn't take too long. However, the failure of the FSD to be approved has been a major source for friction between Tesla owners and the automaker. FSD is only partially approved in China, which means it falls short of the capabilities that FSD has in the United States. In China, it is illegal to change gears. This means that the vehicle cannot complete a journey from one parking spot to another on its own. It has also been difficult for the system to identify local traffic signs in China.
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German Spot to Rise on Monday Due to Falling Wind Output
German power prices will rise on Monday due to a drop in the output of wind and solar energy. LSEG data showed that the German and French baseload power contracts for Monday were not traded by 813 GMT on Friday. According to LSEG analyst Riccardo Paraviero, the German residual load – that portion of electricity consumption that must be met by controllable sources like coal or gas – is expected rise on Monday due to "cratering" wind power supplies. Data compiled by LSEG shows that German wind power production is expected to drop by 2.6 gigawatts on Monday, while French wind generation is projected by 550 megawatts up to 6.4 GW. The German solar energy supply is expected to drop by 2.4 GW - 3.2 GW. On Monday, power consumption is expected to decrease by 540 MW in Germany to 58.3 GW while in France it is predicted to decline by 1.3 GW at 49 GW. The French nuclear capacity has increased by two percentage points, to 76%. The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets increased by 0.2%, to 80.32 Euros per metric ton. According to a report from market intelligence firm Veyt, there was a 17.5% increase in the number of European renewable energy certificates cancelled in early 2025. This indicates a growing demand for green electricity, despite low prices.
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Belgium's Liege Airport temporarily closed again due to drone sighting
The Belgian airport of Liege has resumed flight after a temporary stop due to a sighting of a drone, the country’s air traffic service announced on Friday. This is the second incident in this week. Skeyes, the Belgian air traffic control service, said that it had received a report about a drone flying over the airport at 06:30 GMT. The airport was closed for 30 minutes. Kurt Verwilligen said, "We must take every report very seriously". Flights had resumed, he said. He added that flights had resumed. Drones flying over military bases and airports have been a problem in Belgium for the past few days. They have also caused major disruptions in Europe. In Sweden, airports were temporarily closed on Thursday. Some officials blamed the incidents upon "hybrid war" by Russia. Moscow denies any involvement in the incidents. On Thursday, the Belgian government convened an emergency meeting with key ministers of government and security officials to discuss what the defence ministry called a coordinated assault. (Reporting and editing by Alessandro Parodi, Benoit van Overstraeten)
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Wizz Air defers Airbus deliveries, cuts long-haul jet orders
Wizz Air announced on Friday that it would delay the delivery of 88 Airbus aircraft to 2033 from 2030 and reduce its commitment to long haul jets, as the budget carrier seeks to maximize profitability. Wizz also converted 36 A321XLR jets with a long range to A321neo jets, reducing the total A321XLR order to 11 planes from 47 previously, and keeping its 273-plane orderbook unchanged. Wizz Air, a Hungary-based airline, has struggled to compete with other European carriers in recent years due to engine problems with its Airbus aircraft. This led it to miss its first-quarter profits targets in July. The airline announced on Friday that it would have a fleet of only fuel-efficient, neogeneration aircraft by the year 2029. (Reporting from Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Yadarisa Shabbong; editing by Rashmi aich)
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IAG, the owner of British Airways, reports a third-quarter profit that is in line with expectations
IAG, the owner of British Airways, reported on Friday a slight rise in operating profit in the third quarter. This was in line with expectations, but it highlighted a continuing weakness in their U.S. economy cabin point-of sale offering. The airline is the latest to announce a decline in transatlantic travel since the election of Donald Trump. His policies, which are seen by many as anti-foreigner, anti-trade and anti-trade abroad, have impacted the market. The group, which owns Iberia and Vueling, also said that its passenger load factors - a measure of performance used to evaluate the performance of airlines - had fallen in all regions. Most pronounced being A 2.4-point decline on lucrative North Atlantic routes. The company's consensus estimate for its three-month profit ended on September 30 was 2.1 billion euro, which is 2% higher than the previous year. Reporting by Yamini Kalya and Shashwat AWASTHI in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Phillips and Josephine Mason
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India's highest court declares that the Air India crash report is not a slander against the pilot
India's highest court announced on Friday that the preliminary report of an Air India crash in which 260 people died in June did not implicate anything against the captain. However, it will listen to a request from the father of the pilot on November 10, for an independent investigation. After criticising the government's investigation, 91-year old Pushkar Raj Sabharwal called for an independent investigation to be conducted by a panel led by a retired Supreme Court Judge. He claimed that two officials of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, who visited him, had suggested that his son, pilot Sumeet Saharwal, had cut the fuel supply to the plane's engines after takeoff. The investigation was described as "very thorough" and "very clean" by the government. India's air accident investigation body published a preliminary report in early this year that said the fuel engine switches on the plane had switched from run to shutoff almost simultaneously just after takeoff. (Reporting and writing by Arpan Chaturvedi, Delhi; editing by Mrigank Dahniwala and Michael Perry).
Brazil lifts coal imports to record as hydro struck lingers: Maguire
Brazil is set to import almost 900,000 metric tons of thermal coal this month, the highest regular monthly tally on record and 3 times the monthly average for 2024 so far, according to data from shiptracking firm Kpler.
The coal buying binge comes as a long-lasting dry spell has slashed hydropower output to three-year lows, leaving power manufacturers short on power-generating fuels heading into the hottest months of the year when electricity need peaks.
Power firms have actually also raised imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to their greatest because late 2021, showing that a. high rise in fossil fuel-fired generation is looming in South. America's largest economy.
Greater usage of nonrenewable fuel sources will in turn lift Brazil's power. sector emissions, which are currently at their greatest because 2021.
HYDRO DISAPPOINTMENT
Hydro power generally represents around 65% of Brazil's. utility-scale electrical energy production, with hydro-electricity. generation balancing simply under 40 terawatt hours (TWh) a month. throughout the first half of 2024, Cinder data programs.
However, in September hydro output was up to simply 28.7 TWh as. a drop in rainfall from the year before hit dam output.
Cumulative rainfall in Brazil's southeast - home to many of. the nation's greatest dam systems - was just 584mm (23 inches). over the very first 10 months of the year, according to LSEG.
That was 10% less than the average from 2019 through 2023,. and marks the 2nd straight year of less than 600mm of rain. over the opening 10 months of the year.
The drop in real hydro output likewise cut hydro's share of. Brazil's generation mix to simply 50% in September, requiring power. providers to enhance output from alternate sources in order to. satisfy system demands.
TIDY CUT
While Brazil has one of the world's cleanest power systems,. utilities will likely rely on nonrenewable fuel sources to generate much of. the lost hydropower as output from gas and coal-fired power. plants can be quickly adjusted to stabilize system needs.
Up until now this year, hydro dams have actually created around 63% of. total electricity supplies, wind farms have represented around. 15%, while solar farms have actually produced around 10%.
Nuclear plants have actually represented an extra 2.5% share,. while bioenergy plants - which mainly burn sugar walking stick pulp -. have actually produced an extra 1.5%.
The cumulative share of power generation from clean sources. up until now in 2024 is 92%, which stays among the highest. internationally.
Nevertheless, the staying 8% share of generation has come from. nonrenewable fuel sources, which look primed to be used in even greater. volumes over the coming months if hydro output stays impeded.
Natural gas has actually generated around 6% of Brazil's electrical energy. up until now in 2024, while coal and oil-fired plants produced an. extra 2.2%.
PEAK NEED
A high climb in total power consumption is also putting. Brazil's power companies under pressure to lift output.
Brazil's electricity demand over the first nine months of. 2024 is up nearly 7% from the exact same months in 2023, which is the. strongest growth pace for that duration given that 2021 when the. nation's economy recovered from COVID-19-related restrictions.
However total power need is likely to climb higher still. heading into 2025 as homes, factories and offices all dial up. the use of power-hungry cooling systems throughout summer.
Average temperatures in Sao Paolo - Brazil's most populous. city - can balance over 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 degrees. Celsius) more during November through February than throughout the. other months of the year, according to Weatherbase.
Those greater summer season temperature levels - which can top 30C (86F) -. tend to increase making use of air conditioning system all the time, and. stress power networks.
To satisfy those higher demand levels, energies look set to. lift output from the country's coal and gas-fired power plants,. which will be well stocked from the arranged imports of both. coal and LNG that are en path.
A sharp rebound in rainfall levels could assist bring back. output from dam networks and restrict the total usage of fossil. fuels in 2025.
But for the rest of 2024 a minimum of, considerably higher. generation from coal and gas looks imminent, and suggests a flare. up in local power emissions will follow. << The opinions revealed here are those of the author, a. writer .>
(source: Reuters)