Latest News
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After power failure, passengers of the Channel Tunnel Rail face a second day of disruption
Train companies announced that services between Britain, continental Europe and Canada would resume on Tuesday but warned about further disruptions after technical problems suspended travel on Monday and left some passengers stranded on trains for the night. Chaos in rail services between London, Paris and Brussels, as well as Amsterdam, one of Europe's most busy international rail corridors, hit at the height of New Year travel. Eurostar, the company that runs passenger rail service, announced on Wednesday morning that services were resumed after "a power problem in the Channel Tunnel yesterday" and other issues with 'rail infrastructure overnight". It said: "We intend to run all our services today. However, due to knock-on effects there may be some delays and possibly last-minute cancellations." On Tuesday, a power failure forced the suspension of travel in?the 50 km (31 mile) tunnel. The UK network was hit by a technical issue in the evening, which made the situation worse for passengers. Some were trapped overnight in trains as some trains began to run. Eurostar 9152 arrived at Lille, in northern France, from London, at 0630 GMT, eleven hours later than expected. The trip usually takes 80 minutes. Herve, a passenger on the train, told BFM TV: "We are annoyed because we're tired and don't have hot drinks. It's a very unpleasant situation. A passenger named?Ghislain planque said, "People had accepted the situation." We could not do anything. Water was given to us. "We weren't abandoned completely." Eurostar was used by nearly 20 million passengers last year. Le Shuttle, a second rail service that transports passenger vehicles and trucks under the Channel Tunnel, also worked to minimize the impact of the shutdown after it had also suspended its operations on Tuesday. Getlink, the company that operates tunnel infrastructure and Le Shuttle service, said "the tunnel has recovered its maximum capacity."
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Drivers in Poland are stuck in tailbacks up to 20 km long due to heavy snowfall
Police reported that heavy snowfall caused a 20-kilometer (12.43-mile) tailback on an autobahn between Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, and Gdansk, a Baltic port town. The police report was made on Wednesday. According to the police, hundreds of people were trapped in their vehicles in freezing temperatures. However, the traffic was moving again by early Wednesday morning. Tomasz Marcowski, a police spokesperson in Olsztyn, said that the difficult situation started 'yesterday afternoon after 4 pm, when the first truck on the S7 route began to have difficulty approaching the slopes. This?led to an?overnight traffic jam that stretched approximately 20 kilometers." Stanislaw Bulkowiec, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, told a news conference that no one was injured as a result the traffic situation. Anna Karczewska is a spokesperson for the Ostroda police. She said that officers tried to assist drivers who were stuck. Ostroda is located on the highway, about 40 km west of Olsztyn. She said, "We did our best to help, and the Ostroda City Hall prepared hot tea and coffee for the drivers." State news? Agency PAP reported there were also some disruptions to rails and airports but that services are returning to normal.
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Eurostar announces the return of train services, but warns about delays and cancellations
Eurostar announced that it will resume all of its cross-Channel service on Wednesday, but warned that there could be delays and cancellations at the last minute after a power failure had suspended train trips throughout much of Tuesday. A fault in the overhead power supply caused a disruption on Tuesday that disrupted plans for thousands of passengers across 'London, Paris and Amsterdam during one of the busiest weeks of travel. On its website,?Eurostar announced on Wednesday that services had resumed following an electrical problem in the?Channel Tunnel yesterday as well as some additional?issues with rail equipment overnight. It said: "We intend to run all of our services today, but due to knock-on effects?there could still be some delays or last-minute cancellations." (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus; Dominique Vidalon)
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Monorail train crash in India leaves over 100 injured
A district official reported that two monorail trains collided late on Tuesday at a hydropower plant being built in India’s?northern?state of Uttarakhand. At least 109 employees were injured. The official said that the majority of workers suffered minor injuries. Four workers suffered fractures. The trains collided in a 'tunnel' in Pipalkoti. This is the site of a upcoming 'hydropower project owned by Tehri Hydro Development Corp. (THDC) and NTPC Ltd. Gaurav Kumar, top?administrative official in the?area, said by phone that the accident happened on Tuesday night, after brakes of a monorail train failed. The trains were used to transport workers and construction materials. Kumar stated that the tracks were cleared and work on the project will resume on Wednesday. About?51 gigawatts (about 505 gigawatts) of India's installed power capacity is hydropower. Uttarakhand has more than 10 operational hydropower plants, each with a capacity of around 2.0 gigawatts. Reporting by Saurabh sharma; editing by Raju gopalakrishnan
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Three children among the four injured in Russian attack on Odesa
Regional authorities reported a drone attack by Russia on Ukraine's Odesa Region overnight. The drone caused damage to?residential structures and infrastructure, and injured four people, including three children. Odesa is a major Black Sea Port that has been repeatedly attacked by Russian drones and missiles over the past four years. Strikes have often?hitted energy, transport, and port infrastructure, as well as residential areas. Oleh Kiper said that drones had attacked the residential, logistic and energy infrastructure of?our region on the messaging app?Telegram. Serhiy lisak, head of Odesa’s military administration, told Telegram that four people, including a 7-month-old baby, two children and a man aged 42, were injured in Odesa, the?administrative?centre for the wider Odesa area. He claimed that drone debris, direct hits and window damage caused by high-rise apartment blocks. Lisak shared images of a smoke billowing from an apartment building with several windows showing flames and what appears to be the water jet of a firefighter aimed towards the facade. Could not independently verify reports. Russia did not immediately comment on the Odesa attacks. (Reporting and editing by Saad Saeed in Melbourne, Lidia Kelly from Melbourne)
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Air China buys 60 Airbus planes for $9.5 billion
Air China, China's largest carrier, announced on Tuesday that it and its subsidiary signed a "pact" with Airbus for the purchase of 60 A320NEO aircraft. The deal is worth approximately $9.5 billion in list prices. This announcement is just the latest of a series made by carriers in the second largest aviation market in the world, including Spring Airlines and Juneyao Airlines. Both plan to buy Airbus aircraft. Air China has informed the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it will deliver its planes in batches from 2028 to 2032. Airbus said that it was "very pleased" with Air China's decision to order additional aircraft of the A320 family. Li Hanming is an independent aviation analyst based in the United States. He said that this purchase was part of a framework agreement between China Aviation Supplies Holding Company and Airbus for 2022. This?deal covered about 132 A320 family aircraft and eight A350 Widebodies with a total value of around $17 billion. Li stated that "negotiations of individual contracts can take time." Airbus has gained an advantage due to the tensions between Beijing and Washington. (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez; Brenda Goh and Sophie Yu contributed to this report).
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Ukraine drone attack damages port, gas pipeline in Tuapse, Russia says
The regional administration reported that a Ukrainian drone attacked the port infrastructure and a gas pipe in a residential area in Russia's Black Sea Port of Tuapse on Wednesday. No injuries were reported. The operational headquarters of Krasnodar Region said via the Telegram messaging application that emergency crews had been dispatched to repair damage. The port's dock had been damaged. A Telegram news channel with Russian security service sources said that a series of explosions were heard late Tuesday over Tuapse and residents in one area reported a fire. On?Telegram, several Ukrainian media outlets, including RBC-Ukraine, published photos that appeared to show a fire in the distance burning at night with a communication mast in the foreground. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attack. Could not independently verify the report, or the extent to which the damage was caused. Tuapse, one of Russia's most important Black Sea outlets for oil, is anchored by Rosneft Tuapse's export oriented refinery. It has a capacity to process 240,000 barrels a day and provides products such as naphtha fuel oil, and diesel. The port and refinery were repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drones during the war that Russia started nearly four years earlier. Previous strikes reportedly caused fires or disrupted operations. Reporting by Lidia Kelley in Melbourne, Editing by Chris Reese & Lincoln Feast.
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CSX train carrying toxic sulfur derailments near Kentucky-Tennessee border
Emergency officials?stated that a CSX derailment near the 'Kentucky/Tennessee border early on Tuesday caused 30 cars to 'fall off the tracks. One car was?carrying molten sulfur, which caught fire, and prompted a halt in the train until the toxic threat cleared. CSX, Todd County emergency officials, and the Kentucky Department of Transportation are still investigating what caused the derailment near rural 'Trenton, Kentucky. The town has about 350 residents, is located 60 miles north of Nashville in Tennessee. The accident happened around 7 a.m. Firefighters battled a fire from a rail car carrying liquid sulfur. This is commonly used in industrial applications such as fertilizer manufacturing. Officials said that it released toxic gasses in the smoke. Todd County Emergency Management said the fire was contained by noon. Officials confirmed that air quality testing has shown there is no threat to the public. There were no reported injuries. CSX shares fell just under 1% to $36.36.
After US tanker seize, over 30 ships sanctioned by the US are at risk in Venezuela
Shipping data shows that Washington could punish more than 30 U.S. sanctioned oil vessels doing business in Venezuela after the Coast Guard confiscated a supertanker transporting Venezuelan crude to be exported.
The President Donald Trump announced the seizure on Wednesday. It was the first time that an oil "cargo" from Venezuela had been seized. Venezuela has been subject to U.S. sanctions against it since 2019. This is also the first action taken by the Trump administration since he ordered the massive military buildup of the region.
Shipping sources say that the U.S. actions, in which Trump intensifies pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, have put many ship owners, operators, and shipping agencies on high alert. Many are now reconsidering their plans to leave Venezuelan waters as planned.
Experts and analysts claim that the targeting of Venezuelan cargoes will cause short-term delays in exports and could scare away some vessel owners. Washington has not interrupted Venezuelan oil exports before, as they are transported by third-party vessels.
VENEZUELA: OVER 80 TANKERS ARE WAITING IN OR NEAR VENEZUELA
Venezuela accused the U.S. "of blatant theft", describing the seizure of the goods as "an international act of piracy."
The supertanker seized, referred to by a group of risk managers as the Skipper is part of "a shadow fleet" of vessels that transport sanctioned oil from their origins to their final destinations. They may turn off their signals or hide their location in other ways. Since Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela, traders and shippers who deal with Venezuelan oil have increasingly used these tankers.
Prior sanctions against Venezuelan-related vessels and oil flows left a swirling of tankers loaded with oil waiting for weeks or even months to leave to avoid "conflicts". According to data collected by TankerTrackers.com, on Wednesday, there were more than 80 vessels in Venezuelan waters, or near the coast, that had oil or were waiting to load it. This included more than 30 vessels under U.S. sanction.
According to Lloyd's List Intelligence, an analysis of maritime data, the global shadow fleet comprises 1,423 tanks, 921 of which are subject to U.S. or European sanctions. The tankers are usually old, the ownership is opaque and they do not have top-tier insurance to meet international standards.
According to vessel monitoring data, the ships mainly transport sanctioned crude oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela to Asian -destinations. Many ships have taken separate trips, carrying oil from Venezuela or Iran and then Russian cargoes.
Shipping and company data indicate that in Venezuela, the vessels load under false names at ports operated by PDVSA, the state-owned PDVSA. Typically, they do not reveal their location until after leaving the Atlantic Ocean on their way to Malaysia or China.
PDVSA didn't immediately respond to a comment request.
Frontline, a Cyprus-based oil shipping company, estimates that 15% of the global fleet of very big crude carriers, capable of carrying a maximum of 2 million barrels of cargo per voyage, have been sanctioned.
In recent years, the U.S. added nearly all of PDVSA’s fleet, as well as a few?tankers that transport Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba. Cuba is also under U.S. sanction.
Russia and China - both heavily sanctioned - have been using similar strategies for years to circumvent these restrictions.
Venezuelan oil exports jumped to over 900,000.00 barrels per day during November. Imports of naphtha, which is needed to dilute Venezuela's extra-heavy crude oil, mainly from Russia, also doubled at 167,000 bpd. This increased stocks for the upcoming weeks.
Venezuela and Iran have also collaborated for the past to use their fleets.
Chevron, PDVSA’s main joint-venture company, confirmed on Wednesday that the company is operating normally. (Reporting and editing by Christian Plumb, William Mallard and Marianna Saul)
(source: Reuters)