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Spain investigates whether the outbreak of swine flu was caused by a lab leak
Catalonia's regional government announced on Friday that it would look into a research center outside Barcelona, after the Spanish Agriculture Ministry reported a recent swine fever outbreak A laboratory leak could have caused the problem. Spain, Europe's largest pork producer, is trying reassure its trading partners following the positive test results of 13 wild boars in the hills surrounding the city. The virus is not harmful to humans, but it can be fatal for wild boars and pigs. The ministry reported that a Madrid laboratory's genome sequencing revealed the strain to be "very similar" with one originally detected in Georgia in 2007. This strain is now widely used for research and vaccine development. The ministry said that other cases in Europe are from a different group of genetics. The Agriculture Ministry stated that "the discovery of a similar virus to that which circulated in Georgia does not exclude the possibility that it may have its origin in a biological storage facility." Catalan officials believed that the virus spread when a wild boar consumed contaminated food. It could have been a sandwich imported from abroad by a driver. The ministry stated that "the report suggests that there is a possibility that the virus' origin is not animals or animal products in any of the current countries where it is present." In its statement, it did not mention any labs. Oscar Ordeig said that the Catalan government will investigate the state-funded Centre for Research in Animal Health. The centre is situated next to the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and it falls within the confinement zone of six kilometers (four miles) imposed by the authorities following the outbreak. Ordeig stated that other laboratories may also be investigated. In 2017, the World Organization of Animal Health designated Cresa a research center into swine flu. The laboratory did respond immediately to a comment request, but told news verification website Maldita.es that it found no evidence pointing towards it being the cause of the outbreak. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, "Georgia 2007," swine flu spread to Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as Russia and Belarus and eastern EU states by 2014. In 2018, it reached China, causing massive losses. In 2019, the Chinese pork meat production fell by 27%. Reporting by Charlie Devereux and Joan Faus; editing by Mark Potter, Heinrich and Mark Potter.
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Delta resumes flights at Detroit after brief halt
Delta Air Lines announced on Friday that it has resumed its operations at the Detroit Airport after a short ground stop due to a connectivity issue. The airline issued a waiver of travel fees for Friday and Saturday passengers. FlightAware data shows that 36 flights were cancelled and 97 delayed. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport stated in a posting on X that the issue was specific to Delta. According to the website of the airline, the airport is one the largest hubs for Delta with flights to over 106 destinations worldwide. Ground stops are temporary air traffic control measures that stop flights from leaving for a particular airport or region. This is usually done due to safety issues, weather conditions, or operational concerns. Delta apologized to its customers for any inconvenience and thanked them for their patience while Delta teams worked to safely restore normal operations. (Reporting and editing by Anshuman tripathy in Bengaluru, Anil D'Silva, and Sriraj Kalluvila).
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Southwest Airlines lowers its full-year EBIT as bookings are hit by the government shutdown
Southwest Airlines lowered its forecast for 2025 of the key profit metric, EBIT. The airline cited lower revenues due to the recent shutdown and higher fuel prices. The company now expects to earn about $500 million in earnings for the full year before interest and tax, as opposed to its previous estimate of $600 to $800 millions. In premarket trading, shares of the company fell 2.3%. The longest government shutdown in U.S. History, 43 days, caused flight disruptions across the country, forcing thousands to work without pay. Flight reductions were ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration at 40 major airports due to staffing shortages. Some Wall Street analysts have cut their fourth-quarter profit forecasts for U.S. Airlines by as much as 30% due to the combined impact of both the shutdown and extreme winter weather. JetBlue said on Tuesday that Hurricane Melissa and shutdown-related cancellations in Jamaica also affected its operational performance. The airline expects to see a reduction of one point in available seat miles (ASM) during the fourth quarter. The impact was also felt on non-fuel unit costs. Delta Air Lines announced earlier this week that it expected to take a $200 million hit to its fourth quarter pre-tax profits due to the shutdown. (Reporting from Abhinav Paramar in Bengaluru, and Doyinsola Oladipo. Editing by Elaine Hardcastle).
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Asia spot prices fall to a new two-month low due to mild weather
The Asian spot prices of liquefied gas have fallen to their lowest levels in the last two months due to high inventories, mild weather and low demand. Average LNG price for delivery to North-east Asia in January Industry sources estimate that the price per million British thermal unit was $10.66, its lowest since early October, and is down from $10.90/mmBtu, last week. Klaas Dzeman, a market analyst with Brainchild Commodity Intelligence, said that "Asian Prices are on a slightly downtrend, as the economic demand has not surprised to the upside. China's Manufacturing PMI was disappointing at 49.2". He said that a weaker coal demand was weighing on prices. The weather is not the coldest for this time of year, and the mainland China could remain warm through the middle of October, while the South Korean cold phase has just passed. Dozeman said that "the relatively high shipping costs create an additional burden for Asian buyers who will need to bid higher than their European counterparts as long as the situation continues." Martin Senior, Argus' head of LNG pricing, said that spot prices have reached $10, which is the price point where buyers who are price-sensitive will consider imports. Gas prices in Europe continued to drop on the back of forecasts for warmer and windier conditions. S&P Global Energy's daily North West Europe LNG Marker price benchmark (NWM) for cargoes to be delivered in January, on an ex ship (DES) basis, was $8.787/mmBtu as of December 4. This represents a $0.45/mmBtu reduction from the price at TTF hub. Argus estimated the price to be $8.830/mmBtu while Spark Commodities put it at $8.827/mmBtu. Seb Kennedy, an independent gas analyst, reported that investment funds increased their net short positions in TTF futures as a result of the robust LNG supply to Northwest Europe, which offset concerns about EU gas storage depletion. Senior, Argus' Senior, said that Egypt and Turkey continue to be the main sources of demand for goods in the Atlantic basin. As a result, buyers in northwestern Europe had to increase their bids in order to remain competitive. The U.S. benchmark Henry Hub gas price spiked to its highest level in the last three years this week at over $5/mmBtu. This was due to a combination between cold weather in the Northeast of the U.S. and an increase in demand for feedstock from LNG plants. The spread between Henry Hub prices and TTF has decreased to its lowest level since April 20,21. Some long-term U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas contract costs are now higher than U.S. FOB prices. The stronger spot charter rates also decreased profits for U.S. Gulf of Mexico off-takers. "We are not yet at the point that any U.S. Cargo Turndown would be considered," Senior stated. According to Spark Commodities analyst Qasim Afghan, the U.S. arbitrage for the front-month to North-East Asia via Cape of Good Hope points marginally towards Europe while the arbitrage through the Panama Canal strongly points to Asia. Afghan said that the global LNG freight rate in the Atlantic has dropped for the first since October, to $130,000/day. The Pacific rates are also down, at $87.500/day.
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Southwest Airlines lowers its full-year EBIT as bookings are hit by the government shutdown
Southwest Airlines cut the forecast for its key profit metric, EBIT, in 2025 on Friday. The airline cited lower revenues due to the government shutdown that occurred recently and the impact of higher fuel prices. The company now expects to earn about $500 million in earnings for the full year before interest and tax, as opposed to its previous estimate of $600 to $800 millions. In premarket trading, shares of the company fell 2.3%. The longest government shutdown in U.S. History, 43 days, caused flight disruptions across the country, forcing thousands to work without pay. Flight reductions were ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration at 40 major airports due to staffing shortages. Some Wall Street analysts have cut their fourth-quarter profit forecasts for U.S. Airlines by as much as 30% due to the combined impact of both the shutdown and winter weather. Delta Air Lines announced earlier this week that it expected to take a $200 million hit to its fourth quarter pre-tax profits due to the shutdown. Reporting by Abhinav Paramar in Bengaluru
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Analyst: Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports have reduced grain imports.
Analyst Barva Invest stated on Friday that the constant Russian attacks have caused Ukraine's export terminals to reduce grain intake. This has a negative impact on trading. Ukraine is a major corn exporter in the world. It relies on Black Sea Ports near Odesa for 90% of its agricultural products, which are targeted by Russian drones and missiles almost every day. Some ports and terminals have limited the acceptance of goods due to Russian shelling. This has further slowed down the trading activity in the Ukrainian corn markets, which were already struggling with complicated logistics and a lack of supply," Barva Invest stated on Telegram. The Ukrainian economy ministry announced on Friday that the country's corn exports for the season 2025/26 had fallen to 3,99 million metric tons by December 5, compared with 7,6 million tons at the same time last year. UAC, the largest Ukrainian farmer's union, has reported a low rate of corn exports. This is attributed to the slow harvesting as well as the need to dry grain before shipping. Analysts reported this week that farmers harvested corn on 78% of their planted area by December 4 compared to 95% at this time last. Farmers have also complained that there are not enough locomotives to export grain from the central Ukrainian regions. This has led to an increase in the amount of time required to transport grain to the ports.
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Sources say that Poste Italiane is considering selling broadband units as a way to maintain its grip on TIM.
Poste Italiane has been weighing up options for keeping a large stake in Telecom Italia, including the possibility of selling its broadband division to the former phone monopoly, in exchange for stock, according to three sources with knowledge. Poste (which runs parcel, mail, payments, energy, and broadband services) is a state-backed company that operates TIM. It bought stock from France's Vivendi and the French state lender CDP. This stake is below the 25% threshold required to trigger a takeover. One person said that Poste doesn't plan to takeover, but it wants to remain near the new threshold of 30% for buyouts the government will introduce as part of a reform to the financial code. Three people declined to give their names as the information was not public. They said that Poste could sell its PosteMobile division to TIM. Poste would receive TIM ordinary shares in return. Sources said that extra shares could help offset a possible conversion of TIM’s savings shares to ordinary shares, which would reduce Poste’s current stake by about 17%. Sources added that no decision had been made regarding a deal or a timing. Poste and TIM declined comment. Analysts at Intermonte estimate that PosteMobile's deal with TIM to use its mobile network from next year onwards could be worth 900 million euro ($1.1 billion) and serve about five million subscribers. According to LSEG, another option being considered is the purchase of Vivendi’s remaining 2,5% stake. This would be worth around 200 million euros at present prices. Vivendi declined to comment.
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Sources: Russia will increase oil exports to western ports by 27% in December after a November slump.
Sources say and calculations show that Russia will increase oil exports from its western ports and transit by 27% from November due to excess crude storage and large rollover volume from last month because of bad weather and drone strikes. Estimates suggest that shipments of Urals and Siberian Light grades through Primorsk and Novorossiisk, as well as Ust-Luga, could increase to 2.44 million barrels a day (bpd), up from the 1.92 million bpd in November. The loading of crude oil from Novorossiisk (including Urals, KEBCO, and Siberian Light grades) is expected to reach multi-month peaks of around 0.9m bpd. Primorsk, Ust-Luga, and other ports will combine to load about 1.6m bpd for Urals and KEBCO. Industry sources say that November's exports from Russia’s western ports fell far short of the planned 2.3 million barrels per day. Some of last month's cargoes are now being loaded on tankers early in December. Novorossiisk has handled 0.7 million tons of crude oil from the lifting plan for November in December. Around 2.4 million barrels per day were exported and transported from Russia's western port in October, including some volumes that had been carried over from the previous month. The Russian Black Sea port Novorossiisk temporarily halted oil exports following a Ukrainian drone and missile attack on the terminal at Sheskharis on November 14. On November 24, a drone strike disrupted oil flows out of Novorossiisk, and from the CPC terminal. Sources claim that Russia's western port operated at near capacity in September, and October. In October, Novorossiisk's throughput reached 0.85 million barrels per day (bpd), including rollover volume from September. Kirsten Donovan (Reporting and Editing)
Waymo issues recall for self-driving cars that drove past school buses stopped
Waymo announced Friday that it would recall its self-driving cars after Texas officials reported that the Alphabet Unit's vehicles illegally passed at least 19 school buses in recorded incidents.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which opened its first investigation in October of Waymo's vehicles near school busses, asked the self driving car company to answer questions on Wednesday about the Texas incidents.
"Holding to the highest safety standards requires that we recognize when our behavior needs improvement. We have decided to file a voluntary recall of software with NHTSA in order to ensure that vehicles are appropriately slowing down and stopping when faced with these scenarios," Waymo stated, adding that it believes the software updates installed by November 17 had improved performance. (Reporting and editing by Diane Craft; David Shepardson)
(source: Reuters)