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Airbus inspects some A380 jets for cracks on wings
Airbus announced on Wednesday that it would support?inspections of a subset?of?A380 aircraft, after Europe's aviation regulator had ordered urgent 'checks' on the wing structures of these?jets. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the agency responsible for ensuring aviation safety in Europe, published an urgent airworthiness directive Monday. It required inspections of 16 A380s and warned about cracks discovered in wing spars which could have a negative impact on structural integrity. Five planes must be inspected prior to the next flight, and the rest within 25 flight cycles. Flightradar24, which tracks flights, says that 15 of the affected aircraft were operated by Emirates, and one was operated by Qantas in Australia, based upon the manufacturer serial numbers. Emirates has not responded to a comment request. Airbus has identified a small group of aircraft that have similar histories, and is'supporting' inspections for those jets. A spokesperson for the company said that, "Depending on the results of the inspection, Airbus will determine with EASA if?repairs? are required or if?the aircraft can return to commercial service?." EASA stated that cracks found in certain aircraft could reduce the structural integrity of the wing. The A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Airbus ended production of its?jet, which was introduced in 2007, in 2021 due to a waning demand. Bill Berkrot, Gianluca Nostro and Tim Hepher; Reporting by Hugo Lhomedet.
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Binance vows that it will remain in Europe despite a license setback
Binance, the crypto platform, plans to remain in 'the European Union, and will seek permission to operate there again, according to a senior executive. This is after Binance's application under a reformed?licence regime was rejected, which threatened access to millions of users. Gillian Lynch told? that Binance was not going to leave Europe after the failed attempt to obtain a license in Greece for the purpose of offering services like crypto trading within the EU. She said, "We might just need to take a different route in order to be approved." "If Greece is not an option, I am looking at alternatives." Binance is now on a collision course with European regulators. The company only has a week to obtain a license before the current permit to operate in Europe expires. This would force it to shut down its EU operations. Binance, according to two people familiar with the process, has met with regulators from Ireland and Greece. However they have not been able to reach an agreement. Officials expressed concern about the past money-laundering penalties of the company, its international structure, and what they perceived as a culture of risk taking. The regulators in all three countries refused to comment or didn't respond. The letters sent to regulators show how one of the largest crypto companies in the world has struggled with regulatory resistance and obtaining an EU license. Lynch stated that Binance didn't know the reason for its rejection and had previously believed that the Greek regulator intended to grant a license. She stated that Binance contacted at least four regulators, but had only submitted one application to Greece. Binance's spokesperson said that the company has not been in contact with Ireland's central banks for several years. Lynch, when asked about Binance's previous problems, said that Binance had invested heavily in compliance and internal control, had employed 1,500 compliance personnel, and did not have any outstanding issues relating to its application. Regulatory Concerns Binance's failure to obtain an EU license before the deadline of June 30 raises doubts about its future within the EU. The EU's new crypto regulations will be tested to see if authorities can enforce what amounts to a prohibition. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on Tuesday that crypto firms without a license must "take immediate measures to wind up their EU activities in a timely manner". MiCA (the EU's groundbreaking crypto regime) came into effect last year. Firms have until the end of June to get an authorisation to serve customers in all 27 member states. Binance claims to have more than 300 millions customers worldwide, but has declined to disclose how many of those are in the EU. Sensor Tower estimates that the app was downloaded over 4 million times last year in the EU, with France, Germany, and Spain being the most popular downloads. Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said that regulators evaluating Binance's offer were also concerned with the backgrounds of senior executives, and the exchange’s track record in money laundering controls. They viewed these as being inadequate. One source pointed to the influence and complexity of Binance's global structure, which was attributed to founder Changpeng Zhao. Zhao said in a podcast in February that he remained Binance’s ultimate beneficial owner. Lynch told Zhao that Zhao was "100% removed from the company." Binance struggled in the past to gain regulatory approvals elsewhere. Binance is not authorised in the UK, and it was asked to leave Japan for operating without a license. Its primary licence is in the United Arab Emirates. Zhao, also known as CZ, pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. laws against money laundering as part of an $4.3 billion settlement after a year-long investigation. He spent nearly four months behind bars before being pardoned by U.S. president Donald Trump last year. Binance, according to U.S. authorities, has violated anti-money laundering laws and sanctions laws by failing to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions that were linked to groups designated as terrorist organizations in Washington. COORDINATION OF REGULATORS MiCA allows crypto firms to?apply via a single regulator national and use this as a "passport". This will allow them to sell services throughout the bloc. One source said that regulators in Latvia, Ireland, and Greece worked closely together to ensure "a consistent approach" to Binance’s application. Some regulators are concerned that inconsistent enforcement may undermine efforts to supervise a multi-billion dollar industry. They warn it could destabilise the markets, facilitate illegal finance, and harm investors if properly supervised. Eleanor Hughes, Binance's general counsel, said that Binance believed it met MiCA requirements. While national regulators issue licences, ESMA can discuss applications. Reporting by John O'Donnell and Elizabeth Howcroft. Francesco Canepa, Lefteris papadimas. (Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes. ElisaMartinuzzi, Mark Potter and Mark Potter.
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US airline stocks increase as oil prices fall to pre-Iran War levels
U.S. airlines stocks rose between 3% and 7% on Wednesday, after crude prices dropped to their lowest level since the Iran War. This sparked a hope that the pressure on carrier's earnings would ease. However, the benefits will not be passed directly to passengers. S&P 500 Passenger Airlines Index jumped up to 5%, reaching an all-time record. It is now up 13% from its June 12 close. This was the day after U.S. announced a peace deal with Iran. The benchmark S&P has dropped by 0.5% during that period. Brent crude futures dropped below $74 per barrel on Wednesday amid signs more oil tankers are set to leave the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is a conduit that supplies a fifth of world oil. Airlines will save billions in extra costs, as jet fuel prices have risen faster than fares during the Iran war. A sudden drop in airfares is unlikely due to the tight supply. Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens stated that "sudden changes in fuel prices can affect the airline's profit in the short term (in the opposite directions of the fuel price), because many tickets have been sold assuming the prior fuel cost." UBS stated in a Tuesday note that it believes the third quarter earnings per share of airlines could exceed Wall Street's expectations if fuel costs moderate. Analysts say that while all airlines will benefit from lower?jet fuel prices, those with smaller fleets, a lower percentage of premium seats, and fewer customers, are likely to profit more as their margins can be more sensitive to spikes in?fuel prices. Delta, JetBlue, and Frontier each rose by 3%, while Delta rose by 3.7%, and Southwest rose 4.5%. Alaska Air, United and American Airlines were each up around 6%. According to the International Air Transport Association, jet fuel prices have fallen from a high of more than $170 to a weekly average of $119.17. This is a significant drop from a previous peak of nearly $170. Michael Ashley Schulman is a partner at Cerity Partners. He said that the drop in oil prices was part of the story, but the end of the conflict with Iran also means the resumption of some industrial ventures which were put on hold. The shares of online travel companies such as Booking Holdings, Expedia and others rose between 7% to 10%.
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Baltic Exchange defends their tanker rates during Iran war as reliable
In a London court document, the Baltic Exchange defended the flagship oil 'tanker benchmark' saying that it accurately reflected the market conditions during the U.S. - Israel conflict with Iran, despite the?disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. The benchmark is used to 'price and settle billions in freight trades around the world. Its reliability is at issue with Mercuria, one of the largest commodity traders in the world, who claims it has mispriced market. Mercuria filed a court document on April 30 stating that it was suing the Baltic Exchange for losses caused by incorrect pricing data. The company claimed the price data did not take into account the "effective closure" of the Strait following the start of the conflict in February. It claimed to have suffered or 'will suffer' losses in the hundreds millions of dollars U.S. on freight and derivative freight contracts related to?the TD3C Route. In a court document, The Baltic Exchange, which is the largest provider of shipping rates in the world, stated that its indexes still reflect market conditions because sailings continue through the Strait. In its defence filed on June 16, the Exchange stated that despite the reduced number of transits, the lawful passage was still possible and the panelists were continuing to assess the freight market. The Baltic believes that input data is representative of 'the market or economic realities and that benchmarks can continue to be published," the company said in a filing that was seen by. Baltic Exchange panelists are shipbrokers that provide independent assessments of rates for freight which are then used to create indexes. According to the Baltic Exchange website,'shipowners and chartered cannot be panelists. The London-based Baltic Exchange, which is owned by Singapore's SGX said it had separately conducted "appropriate consultations with members of the Baltic, as well as other stakeholders". The Baltic is confident in its processes and believes that the claim made by Mercuria lacks'merit'. It will defend this claim?to the maximum extent possible," the company said in a recent statement. Mercuria declined to comment further, saying it would respond to the Baltic Exchange defence in court. Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Robert Harvey; editing by Eliza Hardcastle
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US airline stocks increase as oil prices fall to pre-Iran War levels
U.S. airlines stocks rose from 3% to 7% on Wednesday, after crude oil prices dropped to their lowest level since before the Iran War. This has raised hopes that the pressure on carrier's earnings will ease. However, the benefits won't be passed to passengers right away. The S&P 500 Passenger Airlines Index has risen as much as 5%, to an all-time record high. It is now up almost 13% from its close on June 12, when the U.S. announced that it had reached a peace deal with Iran. In that period, the benchmark S&P?500 index has fallen by 0.5%. Brent crude futures dropped below $74 per barrel on Wednesday amid signs more oil tankers will be leaving the Strait of Hormuz - a channel for a fifth of world's oil supplies. Airlines will save 'billions of dollars on additional costs as crude prices and supplies are set to decrease. The rise in jet fuel prices that occurred during the Iran War outpaced the growth in fares. A drop in airfares for flyers is unlikely due to the tight supply. UBS analyst Atul Mahaeswari says that the decline in oil combined with a resilient demand has driven airline stocks higher. In a note published on Tuesday, the brokerage stated that if fuel costs moderated, it could see airlines' earnings per share for the third quarter exceeding Wall Street expectations. Analysts say that while all airlines are expected to benefit from lower jet fuel prices, those with smaller fleets and a lower percentage of premium seats will likely gain the most, since their margins can be more sensitive to fuel price spikes. Delta, JetBlue, and Frontier each rose by 3%, while Delta rose by 3.7%, and Southwest rose by 4.5%. Alaska Air, United and American Airlines were each up around 6% in early trading. According to the International Air Transport Association, jet fuel?prices have fallen from a high of $170 to a weekly average of $119.17. This is despite the fact that the price had reached a record high in February.
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US Postal Service defends plan to require states to disclose mail voting lists
The U.S. The head of the U.S. U.S. postmaster general David Steiner?said 'at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that under this proposal, USPS will not deliver ballots to states where officials refuse compliance. "The proposed rule essentially coerces the states to comply with these new requirements and give over their absentee voters rolls, or else face the consequences of not being able?to vote by mail", said Senator Gary Peters. "That's unacceptable." Steiner said the plan was more efficient, and mirrored what many states do currently. USPS makes sure that "we match what a state thinks they are sending out with what is actually sent?out." States would be required to give the USPS names and barcodes that are attached to their mail-in votes for federal elections. The proposal would require the states to apply unique barcodes to both outbound and returned ballot mail envelopes. This, it says, "will facilitate law enforcement efforts and help determine compliance with federal law." The 47 Democratic Senators sent a letter on Wednesday to the Postal Service, asking it to abandon the plan. They called it an "unconstitutional, illegal attempt" to turn the USPS into a White House-controlled election administration agency. Democratic Senator Elissa slotkin stated that Steiner is a pawn in Trump's obsession with taking over elections. Slotkin stated that "you are being 'used' (by Trump)." "He doesn't believe that elections he loses were valid elections." The proposed regulation is the result of Trump's executive order from March that aimed to restrict mail-in votes, which he claimed was prone to fraud without presenting any evidence. A U.S. Judge ruled last week that Democratic-led states, and voting rights groups, could challenge the order for mail-in voting. Trump's order instructs the Homeland Security Department to compile and send to each state a list of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote, derived from naturalization and citizenship records as well as other federal databases.
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Telecom Italia files complaint against KKR-backed FiberCop over network tariffs
Two sources have confirmed that Telecom Italia has filed a 'complaint' with a Milan court regarding new landline tariffs set forth by KKR-backed 'FiberCop, which purchased TIM’s telecoms network in 2024. The dispute centers on the terms governing TIM’s access to fixed-line assets that it sold to a KKR led consortium as part a broader restructuring aimed to reduce TIM’s debt by EUR14billion. Two people who are familiar with the matter, on condition of anonymity, said that the court complaint was filed as part of a fast track procedure. A first hearing in the case is scheduled for early July. Third person stated that the new tariff scheme entails dozens or millions of euro in extra costs each year for TIM. It now pays to use grid it used to own. TIM refused to comment. FiberCop'said that in a written statement that it would file its defense within the 'court-set deadlines. It maintained that its conduct.was fully appropriate, and that TIM s actions are unfounded. FiberCop operates Italy's largest landline telecommunications network. It is owned 37.5% by U.S. Investment firm KKR and 16% by the Italian Treasury. NETWORK SALES As part of the network sale in 2024, TIM signed a contract with FiberCop that governs TIM's access FiberCop landline assets. Under this agreement, TIM 'buys' capacity to be sold to end users, and pays around EUR2 billion per year. The people stated that TIM requested the court to order FiberCop to follow the tariff scheme set out in the agreement. They did not provide any further details. FiberCop revised its pricing framework after Italy's Telecoms Watchdog AGCOM classified it as a Wholesale-Only Operator and set out lighter regulations in a resolution dated March 16. The ruling by?AGCOM removes the previous cost-based price controls in most of Italy and replaces them with a fair, reasonable, and objective pricing assessment. This gives FiberCop more flexibility when setting tariffs. FiberCop stated that TIM's lawsuit does not'suspend AGCOMs ongoing tariff review or impose pricing conditions', which are under the authority?s remit. After a six-month period of transition, the new pricing will be implemented on September 16, 2026. Existing regulated prices will remain in place up until that date. (Reporting and editing by Gavin Jones. Valentina Za, Keith Weir, and Elvira pollina)
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US Postal Service asks Congress for help because it is running out of money
U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner said to Congress on Wednesday that the financially struggling agency had a broken business?model and needed help from legislators to re-energize its.operations. "The bottom line is that we're out of money." Steiner said in his written testimony to a U.S. Senate Committee that they were borrowing money from the retirement funds of their employees to continue operating. He warned it would run out of funds if it didn't stop deferring payments. Congress must act to fix the Postal Service's broken business model. Steiner wants Congress compensated for "money-losing" operations and to make other reforms. Steiner announced in March that the Postal Service would be hiring restructuring advisors to help it address its financial problems. Steiner stated that the USPS should continue delivering?to 170 millions addresses six days a weeks, at a cost of $3.4 billion per year. Steiner also said that 70% of these routes are losing money. Around 58% of the 18,000 Post Offices in the US also lose money. Since 2007, the Postal Service reported net losses totaling about $120 billion. This is because the Postal Service's most profitable product - first class mail - has declined sharply due to the shift from paper communication to digital, while the agency still has to maintain costly nationwide delivery operations. USPS announced last month that it would halt non-essential expenditures on consultants, office supplies, and travel. Steiner explained in a memo that the move was made "to protect our core?operations" and to ensure we could continue to meet all essential responsibilities. The Postal Service announced last month that it would suspend payments to federal pension programs by employers and raise the price of first class mail stamps to 82c from 78c, starting July 12. The Postal Service will save $2.5 billion by stopping employee contributions to pensions through September 30, and up to $15 billion between 2030. Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Chizu nomiyama
Sources say that Russia is set to export record volumes of oil from its western ports in June
As a result of the Ukrainian drone attacks, Russia will ship record volumes of crude oil from its western ports in June.
Sources said that loadings at the Baltic ports Primorsk and Ust-Luga as well as the Black Sea port Novorossiysk are expected to be around 2.7 million barrels per day this month. One source said that shipments could reach as high as 2,8 million barrels per day.
This would be a significant increase over the 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) exported in May, and about 1 million above the initial forecast for the month.
As a result of repeated drone attacks, several major refineries have been forced to shut down. Moscow has redirected crude oil into export channels in an effort to avoid production reductions.
The outages also have put pressure on the domestic fuel supply. Several Russian regions have restricted sales, citing shortages in some gasoline and diesel grades as well as?long lines at filling station.
As refinery output remains below normal levels, Russia is trying to balance the rising crude exports against the potential fuel shortages in its own country.
According to traders, higher Russian exports may put "additional" pressure on the global oil price already under stress from increased Iranian supply. Recent U.S. waivers have allowed buyers in India and China to switch from Russian crude to Iranian grades. This has intensified competition on key markets.
(source: Reuters)