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India Aviation Watchdog Finds 263 Faults in Indian Airlines' Annual Audit
India's aviation regulator announced on Wednesday that it found 263 safety-related mistakes at the country's airline companies, including 23 at IndiGo, the largest carrier, and 51 at Air India, the second largest. This was part of the regular audit conducted by the agency every year. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the audits were conducted in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization requirements as well as global best practices. The DGCA found 51 safety lapses in Air India's July audit. These included lack of training for some pilots as well as the use of simulators that were not approved. The audit had nothing to do with the Boeing 787 crash that claimed 260 lives in Ahmedabad last month. Air India's budget carrier, Air India Express, was also cited by the DGCA as having 17 deficiencies. The regulator discovered 25 mistakes at Air India Express. Air India Express is the budget airline. Akasa Air has not yet been audited. The regulator did no specify what type of violations were found, but divided the list into "Level II", or other non-compliances. The DGCA reported that 19 "Level 1" breaches had been found by Indian airlines. Reporting by Abhijith Ganahapavaram, Editing by Kim Coghill
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Ukraine's farming unions raise barley exports from China
The UAC, a farming union, said that Ukraine exported 140,000 metric tonnes of barley in July so far and will likely ship between 350,000 and 400,000 tons in the month of August. "China has contracted 500,000-555,000 tons of barley (for July-August). UAC's weekly report stated that another 350,000 to 400 tons of barley still needs to be shipped by August. The total volume of barley exported for the months of July and August was 770,000 tonnes. Barva Invest, a Ukrainian analyst, said that Chinese companies had contracted to purchase up to 700 000 tons of barley from Ukraine in 2025. Ukraine is one of the largest barley producers and exporters in the world. Beijing has certified it to supply barley for Chinese markets. According to the Ukrainian grain traders' union UGA, China will be the largest importer of Ukrainian barley for the 2023/24 crop season. The volume of imports is 702,000 tons. (Reporting and editing by David Goodman.)
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Minister says that Turkey will begin supplying natural gas to Syria on August 2.
Alparslan Bayraktar, Energy Minister at the state-owned Anadolu News Agency, said that Turkey will begin supplying Syria with natural gas as of August 2. Azerbaijan will also be involved in exports through Turkey's Kilis Province. Ankara has become the main foreign ally of the new Syrian Government. It is also positioning itself as a key player in Syria’s reconstruction. In May, during a trip to Damascus, the Turkish Energy Minister Bayraktar said that Turkey would supply Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, along with 1,000 megawatts. In a statement made this month, he said that SOCAR of Azerbaijan could also be a part of the project. He said that the gas would also help Syria meet its electricity requirements, and would be used to produce electricity in Syria's existing power stations. He said that "we made a swap deal with Azerbaijan and the gas from Azerbaijan is going to be exported via Kilis, Syria, to Aleppo." Qatar will also be involved, he added, in terms of finance, and on Saturday, the ministers of all three countries will mark the beginning of the gas flow. He added, "With the 6,000,000 cubic metres of natural gas we plan to send to that country, we'll be able produce 1,200 Megawatts of electric power." Bayraktar stated that Ankara will also supplement this with 500 megawatts to help Syria's energy needs.
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Logitech: Production shift to China reduces tariff impact
Hanneke Faber, the chief executive of Logitech International, said that they are making progress in moving their production lines from China to reduce any impact from U.S. duties on computer peripherals. In April, the changes were announced to reduce the impact of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. These duties currently range between 20% and 30% for the Logitech keyboards and mice that are made in China. Faber said after Logitech announced its Q1 2026 results that "we stated in April that we were at 40 percent of products bound for U.S. coming from China, and by the year's end we will be at 10 percent." She added, "We're a bit better than 30% right now. We are on track." She said that the shift of production lines from Malaysia to Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan did not lead to an increase in material costs. (Reporting and editing by John Revill)
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Microsoft restores service to Russia-backed Nayara Energy
Microsoft has restored its services to the Russian-backed Indian refiner Nayara, Nayara’s lawyer said in a New Delhi Court, just days after it terminated services because of European Union sanctions. Nayara has been forced to scale back operations at its 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery for lack of sufficient fuel storage and vessel owners' demand to end their contracts after it was hit by the EU's latest sanctions. Microsoft has suspended its service following the EU's new round of sanctions against Russia, its energy sector and Nayara. Nayara is majority owned by Russian entities like oil giant Rosneft. Nayara approached a New Delhi Court to order the restoration of Microsoft services. It claimed that its employees could not access company emails or data for their day-today operations. Nayara’s lawyer informed the judge on Wednesday that "the matter has been resolved", as Microsoft had restored services to Nayara. Microsoft has confirmed that it has restored Nayara Energy's services in a press release. Microsoft also added, "We are in constant discussions with the European Union regarding service continuity for the Organization." Rosneft, the Russian oil giant, owns 49.13% of Nayara, and a consortium led by Italy's Mareterra Group, and Russian investment group United Capital Partners, also holds a similar share. Nayara runs India's largest refinery and third-largest retail fuel outlet at Vadinar, in western Gujarat. As reported previously, Nayara turned to the Indian company Rediff.com for communication between its employees after Microsoft's services were discontinued. Reporting by Arpan chaturvedi Editing done by Eileen Soreng, Frances Kerry
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Kazakhstan and Turkey discuss an increase in oil exported via BTC
The press service for the president of Kazakhstan said that the two leaders discussed a possible increase of oil exports from Kazakhstan via the Baku, Tbilisi and Ceyhan (BTC), oil pipeline. The statement did not provide any additional information. "The delegations talked about issues of energy cooperation, including the prospects for increased exports via Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan oil pipe." Tokayev visited Turkey to attend a high-level meeting of the strategic cooperation council between Turkey and Russia. The agenda included cooperation on power generation, agriculture, and mining. According to state statistics, Kazakhstan increased its oil exports via BTC by 12% in the first half 2025 compared to last year's same period to 785,000 tonnes (34,000 barrels per days). Oil is transported to Baku via tankers from Aktau through the Caspian Sea. This port would need to be upgraded to increase export levels. The quality of the crude oil that enters the BTC pipeline also limits the amount of oil exported via BTC. In its development plan for the period up to 2029, Kazakhstan considered the construction of a transcaspian oil pipeline as well as marine terminals along the Kazakh and Azerbaijani coastlines of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked nation in the world. Its main source of income is oil exports. The two main routes to export its oil to the international market pass through Russia, to its Black Sea or Baltic ports. Statisticians state that the share of Kazakh oil exported outside Russian ports was just 5.9% in the first six months of 2025, and this percentage remained the same as it was in 2024. Tokayev has called for a rise in oil exports to bypass Russia by 2022. Kazmunaigaz, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and the Tengiz Oil Field in Azerbaijan signed an agreement to transport 1.5 million tonnes per year of oil from the Tengiz field to BTC.
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Aena's net profit in Spain increases 10.5% with passenger traffic
Aena, the Spanish airport operator, announced on Wednesday that its net profit for the first half of the year was up 10.5% compared to the same period last year as the passenger traffic in the second most visited country worldwide after France continued to increase. The company that manages Spanish airports, the largest airport system in the world in terms of passenger traffic, announced on Wednesday that it had made a profit of 893.8 millions euros ($1.03billion) during the first half of the year. This was slightly below the average analyst's forecast of 904.2million euros based on an LSEG study. Aena saw a 4.5% increase in passenger traffic year-on year. 150.6 million passengers passed through its terminals in Spain over the first half of the year. This helped the company to boost revenues by 9%, reaching 2.9 billion euro. Aena, the Spanish airport authority, reported that international traffic at Spanish airports increased by 6.5% during the first half of this year while domestic traffic grew by 0.4%. Spain's strategy to target long-haul visitors, who spend more, was reflected in the results. Tourism is projected to grow by 3.3% in 2018, outpacing the Spanish economy's 2.4% growth. Commercial revenues increased by 10% while flight-related incomes grew by 6%. Aena approved an increase of 6.5% in the fees that airlines will pay next year. They can expect to pay up to 11.03 euros for each passenger. The company wants to partially fund the expansion of Madrid's main airports. Barcelona More flights to Asia and America.
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New York Times Business News - July 30,
These are the most popular stories from the New York Times' business pages. These stories have not been verified and we cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports. Vinay Prashad, chief medical and scientific officer of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has resigned from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (which oversees the FDA). After a rare 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Russia's east coast, the National Weather Service upgraded its tsunami warning to cover a 100-mile stretch of Northern California coastline between Cape Mendocino bordering Oregon. Union Pacific announced that it would purchase smaller rival Norfolk Southern for $85 billion, creating the first coast-tocoast freight railroad operator in the United States. This will reshape how goods are moved across the country from grains to automobiles. Apple is closing a retail store in Northeastern China this August. This will be the first time Apple has closed a location since opening its first outlet there in 2008. (Compiled by Bengaluru Newsroom)
America's largest grid struggles to meet the demand from AI
America's biggest power grid is being strained by data centers and AI bots that consume more power than can be produced. In some areas of PJM Interconnection territory, which includes 13 states from Illinois to Tennessee to New Jersey, electricity bills will increase by over 20% this summer. This region has the most data centres in the world. Pennsylvania's governor has threatened to abandon the grid. The CEO announced his departure. And the chairman of PJM’s board of directors and another member of the board were voted out. The turmoil at PJM began a year ago when prices at the annual capacity auction jumped by more than 800%. The auction prices are passed on to the power bills of everyday people.
Now PJM is rushing towards its next auction of capacity on Wednesday when prices could rise even more.
The auction is designed to prevent blackouts. It establishes a rate that generators will agree to supply electricity at during times of extreme grid stress, which are usually the coldest and hottest days of the year.
The auction's high prices should have spurred new power plant construction. However, this hasn't been done quickly enough in PJM’s region where aging power plants are continuing to retire while data center demand is exploding.
PJM made things worse by delaying the auctions and pausing applications for new plants. This was according to more that a dozen experts, including power developers, energy lawyers, and regulators.
In an interview, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said: "We need speed and transparency from PJM. We also need to keep costs low for consumers with PJM." "I'm encouraged by the fact that they have taken steps in this direction. We'll continue to work on it."
PJM claims that the crunch in supply and demand is largely due to factors beyond its control. These include state energy policies, which closed fossil-fuel-fired power plants too early, and the growth of data centers in "Data Center Alley", in Northern Virginia, and other burgeoning Mid-Atlantic hubs.
Jeffrey Shields, PJM spokesman, said that prices will continue to rise as long as the demand for energy continues to grow faster than supply. "Right away, we need all the megawatts we can get."
Shields stated that new projects with a total of 46 gigawatts – enough to power 40,000,000 homes – have been approved in the past few years. "But they are not being built due to local opposition, supply-chain backups, or financing issues which have nothing to do PJM," Shields explained.
PJM lost over 5.6 gigawatts of net power in the past decade, as more plants closed than were put into service. This is according to a PJM report filed this year with regulators. PJM will add about 5 gigawatts to its power generation capacity by 2024. This is less than the smaller grids of California and Texas.
Data center demand continues to grow. PJM anticipates an increase in demand of 32 gigawatts on its system by 2030. All but two of these gigawatts will come from data centers.
POWER HUNGRY CHABOTS
In the last few years, a convergence of events has resulted a skyrocketing rate for power capacity at PJM.
PJM regulators have repeatedly delayed auctions as they considered multiple rule changes, giving developers less planning time for the construction of power plants.
In 2022, PJM halted processing new applications for power plants connections, after being overloaded by more than 2,000 requests. Each of these projects required engineering studies to connect to the grid. PJM claims that its interconnection line has not caused the shortage in supply.
In 2023, ChatGPT was a household brand and the demand for it exploded. The tech giants began searching the U.S. grid for available capacity, which contributed to a spike in the auction prices in 2024.
Consumer advocates from Maryland and New Jersey, among other states, filed complaints to federal regulators asking for the auction to be re-done.
Shapiro repeatedly threatened to remove Pennsylvania from the grid, as it is the largest electricity exporting state, and the "P", in PJM if the costs didn't come down. In June, when asked if the option of leaving PJM was still open, Governor Shapiro replied: "It's on the table."
During the fallout of the scandal, PJM CEO Manu Ashthana announced that he was leaving his post by the end the year. He cited a move to Texas with his family.
Asthana has not responded to any requests for comment.
In May, citing fears of blackouts and the need to maintain two natural gas and oil power plants in Pennsylvania that were scheduled to retire by May, the Trump Administration ordered them to operate through the summer.
DELAYS IN CONNECTION Shields stated that PJM, in response to the backlash of protests, has implemented multiple reforms. These include capping prices at 325 megawatts per day and holding auctions every 6 months instead annually.
PJM has also moved to speed up the connections of 51 projects to its network, although many are expected to be online in 2030 or 2031. Constellation Energy’s Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, now known as Crane Clean Energy Center and restarted by Microsoft, is one of them. The plant won't be ready to operate until at least 2027, even under PJM’s expedited plan.
Joshua Macey is an energy expert at Yale Law School and says that PJM does not process new applications quickly enough. He said, "It is pointless to fix the interconnection queue if it hasn't been done." Reporting by Laila KEARNEY (Editing by Liz Hampton, Michael Learmonth and Michael Hampton)
(source: Reuters)