Latest News
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Pentagon probes crash by 'experienced' Black Hawk crew, stops flights
The U.S. Army helicopter involved in an over night collision with a guest jet near Washington involved a relatively knowledgeable team that was operating with night vision safety glasses, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated on Thursday, as the Pentagon purchased a 48hour time out in flying for the system associated with the crash. A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter hit an American Airlines guest jet on Wednesday night near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, with both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River. The military helicopter was on a training flight, but it is uncertain what caused the crash. Authorities have said there were no survivors. In a video declaration, Hegseth stated that the crew of three soldiers was on an annual proficiency training flight. We prepare for that the examination will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the passage and at the ideal elevation at the time of the incident, Hegseth said. The helicopter from the 12th Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, would be grounded for 2 days, Hegseth said. The unit is accountable for helicopter flights in the Washington D.C. location. Reuters was first to report on the functional pause. One official said that other helicopters, like those from the National Guard, will still be allowed to help in healing efforts, the official included. Military helicopters are a common sight around the U.S. capital region that is home to various military bases. It is not unusual for the military to order pauses after accidents or crashes.
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U.S. Army unit associated with Washington collision to temporarily stop briefly flights
The U.S. Army system whose helicopter was involved in the over night collision with a. traveler jet near Washington has been placed on a functional. time out, two U.S. authorities informed Reuters on Thursday, significance. helicopters from that unit will not be flying for the time. being. A U.S. Army BlackHawk helicopter hit an American. Airlines passenger jet on Wednesday night near Reagan Washington. National Airport, with both aircraft plunging into the Potomac. River. The military helicopter was on a training flight, but it. is uncertain what caused the crash. Authorities have actually stated there. were no survivors. Among the authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity,. said helicopters from the 12 Air travel Battalion, based at Fort. Belvoir in Virginia, would be momentarily grounded. It is not. clear how long the time out would last. Other helicopters, like those from the National Guard, will. still be permitted to assist in recovery efforts, the official. included. Military helicopters are a common sight around the U.S. capital region that is home to various military bases. It is. not unusual for the military to order pauses after accidents or. crashes.
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Russia's Yamal LNG gets new tanker, LSEG information programs
Russia's melted gas plant Yamal LNG, led by Novatek, has acquired a brand-new gas provider for shiptoship operations near the Arctic port of Murmansk, shiptracking LSEG information showed on Thursday. According to the information, the tanker called North Moon is located near the island of Kildin in the Barents Sea, where LNG dispatched from Yamal LNG is being re-loaded from ice-class Arc7 tankers. Ship-to-ship transfers generally involve moving LNG from ice-class tankers on to conventional ones, but can also be utilized to complicate cargo tracking. Yamal LNG restarted the operations in the Murmansk region last November. Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine in addition to shortages of gas providers are a challenge for Russia in its pursuit of raising its share on international LNG marker to 0% of the international LNG market by 2030-2035, compared to around 8% at present. Nord Moon was built in 2024 and is owned by Singapore-registered Arctic Emerald no. 2 LNG Shipping, operated by Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL). Russia, the world's fourth largest LNG manufacturer behind the U.S., Australia and Qatar, currently has two massive LNG plants: the Novatek-led Yamal LNG, which produced around 20 million tons in 2015, and Gazprom's Sakhalin-2, with an output of more than 10 million loads in 2015. Novatek's another plant, Arctic LNG 2, has been having a hard time to offer freights despite starting operations in late 2023. An market source informed Reuters last October that Novatek shut down commercial operations at Arctic LNG 2 without any plans to restart it during winter season.
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Norway Finance Minister Resigns In Exodus Of Eurosceptics
Trygve Slagsvold-Vedum, Norway's Finance minister, said that his eurosceptic Centre Party and he would resign as a result of a disagreement between the Labour Party and him over the adoption by EU energy policies. Centre Party, which has been in power since 2021 and holds eight of the 20 seats in the Norwegian cabinet, including Finance Minister, Defence minister, and ministers of justice and security, and Labour holds the other 12 positions. Labour, who has stated that Norway must maintain good relationships with the EU due to the threat of a trading war between Europe an the United States, can now govern alone as a minority until the September elections. Ministers of the government have stated that Labour wants Norway, an EU member state outside the EU, to adopt union directives regarding renewable energy consumption, energy performance in buildings and increased energy efficiency. The Centre Party has opposed all three directives because it believes they will undermine Norwegian autonomy. It has also maintained for years that Norway, a power and gas exporter, should seek to take back control of regulation from the EU. Vedum said at a press briefing that "the conclusion for us is the Centre Party doesn't want to be a part of this" development. In opinion polls, Norway's centre-left two-party minority government trails right-wing parties ahead of parliamentary elections in the fall. (Reporting and editing by GwladysFouche, Terje Solsvik)
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After robotaxi failure, GM software bet turns to chauffeur support
General Motors is charting a technological future concentrated on its Super Cruise chauffeur help technology, similar to Tesla's. Auto-pilot, with the expectation of bringing in billions of. dollars in income. GM's push on handsoff driving system Super Cruise comes as the. automaker exits its multibilliondollarlosing robotaxi. company Cruise, which focused on selfdriving vehicles hailed. by an app. GM projection on Tuesday that Super Cruise would bring in about $2. billion in total yearly income within 5 years, aiding in its. efforts to be understood like Tesla for innovation as much as it is. for cars. The earnings from Super Cruise is much higher-margin than. making lorries and would lead the way for customer. approval of entirely self-driving automobiles, stated Morningstar. expert David Whiston. Super Cruise is conceptually similar to Tesla's Autopilot. in that they both offer partly automated driving innovation. The difference is Super Cruise utilizes a more robust noticing. system than Auto-pilot to make sure the chauffeur stays mindful to. the roadway, according to Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market. research for Telemetry Insights. Super Cruise is offered on about 20 more recent higher-end. fuel and electric automobile models, consisting of many Cadillacs. and big SUVs. It is standard on some lorries and optional on others. For. the optional cars, customers can access the technology for. $ 2,200 to $2,500. Super Cruise is complimentary for three years and after that. consumers are offered a subscription at $25 a month or $250 a. year. GM's push into the innovation has yet to bring Tesla-like. benefits to its stock assessment. The Elon Musk-run electric lorry maker's stock is trading. around 120 times expected incomes, reflecting an understanding of. it as a high-growth tech company, according to LSEG data. By. comparison, GM is valued at around 5 times its earnings. Investors are also concerned about the impact of the Trump. administration's proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico on GM,. which sent shares down 8.9% after its outcomes on Tuesday and a. even more 0.5% on Wednesday. However driver support technology remains a promising development. area, GM CEO Mary Barra said on Tuesday, with the automaker. anticipating to double the about 360,000 cars in the Super. Cruise fleet in 2025. In 2024, about 20% of approximately 18,000 users signed up for a Super. Cruise subscription after the complimentary membership ended,. Barra said. Another 33,000 automobiles will end a three-year trial. duration in 2025 and GM is targeting to more than double. subscription profits, she added. There are hardware costs related to Super Cruise,. consisting of video cameras, radar and the motorist attention system. Nevertheless, software tends to be extremely profitable, Edward. Jones analyst Jeff Windau said. In addition, if it is a. feature the clients worth, you might see a high renewal rate.
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UPS projections weak 2025 earnings as it pares Amazon exposure, shares fall
United Parcel Service on Thursday anticipated 2025 income below expectations as the parcel delivery huge works to lower direct exposure to its largest consumer, Amazon, and as other consumers go with more affordable, slower groundbased deliveries. UPS' shares fell 5% before the bell after the company said it had reached a contract with Amazon-- without naming the firm however referring to it as its largest consumer-- to cut volumes it transports with UPS by more than 50% by the 2nd half of next year. The move comes as Amazon has also been reducing its reliance on UPS as the e-commerce company continues to expand its own shipment network. UPS forecast 2025 revenue of $89 billion, compared with the average expert price quote of $94.88 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It likewise anticipate full-year revenue of $89 billion, compared with quotes of $94.88 billion. UPS and competing FedEx have actually been cutting costs given that customers switched to slower, less expensive deliveries in the wake of the early pandemic's e-commerce boom. Atlanta-based UPS also anticipated full-year combined running margin at 10.8%, a boost from the 9.8% it reported for 2024. The business reported fourth-quarter profits of $25.3. billion, missing out on price quotes of $25.42 billion. UPS reported an adjusted revenue of $2.75 per share for the. quarter ended Dec. 31, beating price quotes of $2.53 per share.
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Southwest Airlines revenue exceeds expectations on enhanced prices power
U.S. budget carrier Southwest Airlines' fourthquarter earnings exceeded Wall Street estimates on Thursday, helped by robust travel demand and enhanced airfares. The airline company also anticipated better-than-expected unit income ( RASM), a proxy for prices power, for the first quarter. Airlines throughout the U.S. have actually cut seating to improve fares after a surplus capability, introduced last summertime in anticipation of a need rise, required airlines to use discount rates and sacrifice margins. Air travels in December rose at their fastest pace in 21 months. This assisted Southwest report an adjusted profit of 56 cents per share for the 4th quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with analysts' average price quote of 44 cents, according to data put together by LSEG. Its operating profits rose 1.6% to $6.93 billion from a year earlier. At its financier day in September, the airline company revealed strategies including holiday packages and aircraft sale-leasebacks to improve its revenue and liquidity, at a time when the industry battles with inflated labor and aircraft upkeep expenses. While we still have much work to do, we are delighted that the improvements from our tactical efforts are materializing faster than anticipated, and our development continues to be further supported by a constructive demand environment and market backdrop, CEO Bob Jordan said. The company expects first-quarter RASM to grow about 5% to 7%, compared with analysts' expectation of a 2.62% boost. It sees expense per readily available seat mile, omitting fuel, to be up 7% to 9% as it bears the force of expensive labor agreements. Southwest, which has an all Boeing fleet and has actually been hit hard by the planemaker's jet delivery delays, anticipates to receive 38 737 MAX 8 airplane from the planemaker in 2025.
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Morning Bid AMERICAS - Megacaps mixed with Fed pause; ECB cuts and GDP next
Mike Dolan gives us a look at what the U.S. market and global markets will be like today. With Federal Reserve policy likely to be paused until next year and megacaps delivering mixed results, overnight stock markets were calm as they shifted their attention towards European interest rates and an assessment of U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter. Microsoft's and Meta's quarterly results after the bell Wednesday attracted different reactions. China's DeepSeek disclosure this week has thrown the artificial intelligence topic into flux more generally. Microsoft shares fell 4% overnight due to their heavy AI spending, which was defended by the respective CEOs. Meta, however, jumped 4%. The cloud business outlook of the former was a concern for traders, but Meta's performance was taken at face value. Tesla's stock rose 4% in the meantime as it appeared that plans to release cheaper models next year had offset a disappointing earnings report. Apple and Intel topped another busy earnings report on Thursday. Before Thursday's opening, index futures were up to a half-percent higher. This was despite the Fed's decision on Wednesday to hold rates while it assessed the impact of Washington's new policies. Jerome Powell, the Fed's Chairperson, said that the Fed is not "hurried" to change its "well-positioned" position even though President Donald Trump blasted the central bank as doing a terrible job in tackling inflation and claimed it was spending too much time on climate change and diversity. Fed futures are largely unchanged. They price in another cut for mid-year. There is only a 20% probability of an earlier March move and two cuts in total in 2025. Treasury yields, however, have fallen since the decision. This is partly due to signs that the economy weakened in the last quarter of 2014 and the fact that interest rates fell elsewhere. Bank of Canada reduced its policy rate by another quarter-point on Wednesday. The Bank cited in part Trump's tariffs as a threat to the economy. It is widely expected that the European Central Bank will slash another 25 basis points from its key interest rate on Thursday. TRADE DEFICIT As traders awaited Thursday's release of U.S. gross domestic product figures for the fourth quarter, the news on Wednesday of a dramatic increase in the international trade deficit re-calibrated some estimates about how fast growth will be this year. The U.S. trade deficit in goods reached a new record in December. This prompted the Atlanta Fed’s closely watched "GDPNow” model to recalibrate its estimate to 2.3% from an earlier estimate of 3.2%. Prior to the release of the trade report, the GDP growth forecasts were based on a rate of 2.6% annualized for the third quarter. This was down from the 3.1% pace during the period July-September. The economy will have grown by 2.8% for the entire year, just shy of the 2.9% growth rate recorded in 2023. The yields on ten-year Treasury bonds fell to near the lows of the year, around 4.5%. This was helped by the fact that U.S. crude prices have fallen to their lowest level since January 2, with crude falling as much as 7.0% year-on year for the first month. The dollar index remained steady while the euro dipped slightly before the anticipated ECB rate reduction. The ECB has every reason to continue easing its policy despite the disappointing German and French GDP figures for Q4. Germany's economy shrank more than expected during the fourth quarter of 2013. Europe's largest economy is struggling with trade concerns and uncertainty ahead of federal elections next month. The GDP dropped by 0.2% compared to the previous three months in the fourth quarter. France also contracted unexpectedly, amid budget and political impasses. Italy stagnated as well, leaving Spain the only big country in the Eurozone with a positive Q4 growth rate. The reports contained a sliver optimism from a rise in the economic sentiment of the euro zone in January. Also, thanks to ECB easing measures, stocks in the euro zone rose another 0.5% Thursday. This was despite some major European companies suffering losses on earnings days. Deutsche Bank dropped 6% following a larger-than-expected decline in profits for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. STMicroelectronics, one of Europe’s largest chipmakers fell 8% after a bad forecast for the first three months. Trade worries are high, and the possibility of Trump's first tariffs being implemented as early as next week is still very real - even if officials have indicated that they will continue to review the situation until April 1 despite expressing optimism about a possible deal. Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, said Canada and Mexico could avoid Trump's threatened 25 percent U.S. tariffs on imports if both countries act quickly to stop allowing illegal immigrants and fentanyl into the United States. He said: "And from what I can tell, they're acting quickly, and if the execute, there won't be any tariff." The following developments should give U.S. stock markets more direction on Thursday:
Much of United States South coated in ice after historical winter storm
The uncommon deep freeze in the wake of a historical winter season storm that swept across the U.S. South this week will remain through Sunday, leaving the area in the grip of severe cold and ice and producing dangerous driving conditions.
The cold extended from Houston through New Orleans and Florida's Panhandle to the coast of the Carolinas, stranding travelers on closed highways and bringing cities to a near standstill given that Tuesday, with snow, sleet and freezing rain.
The winter season storm pressed out to sea overnight after leaving record-breaking snow accumulations across the area.
In Milton, Florida, on the state's Panhandle, 9 inches (23. cm) of snow fell, while New Orleans was buried under 8 inches,. and 9 inches accumulated on parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Yancy Roberts, a clerk at Freret Hardware store in New. Orleans, said he walked 8 blocks to work on Thursday morning. through piles of snow, sliding on ice and taking one fall on. black ice he didn't see.
The city ain't defrosted out yet, he said. Possibly tomorrow it. will.
A winter wonderland of images appeared online, revealing. kids making snow angels in Savannah, Georgia, and utilizing. kayaks as sleds in Pensacola, Florida. In Charleston, South. Carolina, icicles hung from the ubiquitous Spanish moss that. drapes over tree limbs throughout the South.
Kameron Tanner, a 27-year-old Florida native who works at. the Vice Society coffee shop in Tallahassee, said she had never ever. seen a snowstorm of this scale before in the area.
A lot of it melted currently, but it's still incredibly slippery,. she stated. Everybody's type of slipping and sliding around. here.
Even locations where temperatures crept above freezing on. Wednesday stay unsafe for travelers as the snow melt. refroze overnight, producing slippery roadways for travelers. unaccustomed to driving in such conditions, the National Weather condition. Service reported.
Even today, with temperatures in those areas inching towards. the 40s, that snow and ice will refreeze as temperature levels drop. back into the 20s on Friday, said meteorologist Richard Hurley. of the NWS's Weather condition Forecast Center in College Park,. Maryland.
Records for cold were tied or broken all over the South on. Thursday, Hurley stated.
In Augusta, Georgia, the mercury plunged to 16 degrees F. ( -8.8 C), connecting a record for this day embeded in 1874. Tallahassee,. Florida's capital city, was a frigid 21 degrees F; Mobile,. Alabama, was 19 and Gulfport, Mississippi was 23. Temperature levels. in the 60s or low 70s are more typical in those locations, he. said.
The subfreezing temperature levels ought to reduce by Sunday, he stated.
Ratings of schools were closed throughout the Deep South,. consisting of Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Travel delays were reducing however more than 1,200 flights were. either canceled or delayed in the U.S. at an early stage Thursday,. according to the tracking site Flightaware.com.
A minimum of a dozen individuals died in the weather, authorities. reported, with 5 people diing after a multi-vehicle. mishap in Zavala County in western Texas on Tuesday, and at. least 7 people dying from exposure to the cold in Texas, Alabama. and Georgia.
(source: Reuters)