Airline pilots have voiced fears over the safety of a fleet of Boeing aircraft after a crucial fire-fighting system has been found to have the potential to malfunction.
Boeing has issued an alert to airlines using its flagship B787 Dreamliner, warning that the switch used to extinguish an engine fire has failed in a “small number” of instances. The switch also severs the fuel supply and the hydraulic fluid to prevent flames spreading.
Continue reading...Rise in bars stocking 0% beers to meet demand of drinkers who wish to ditch the hangover
During last year’s sweltering summer in Europe, workers of the Störtebeker beer brewery stood at the doors of the bottle depot eagerly awaiting the empty returns so they could be washed and refilled as quickly as possible. A bottle shortage swept the country due to the rate at which beer was being consumed to quench the overheated nation’s thirst.
But it wasn’t the demand for their classic range of beers that surprised the brewery bosses most, rather the rate at which its alcohol-free varieties were being drunk.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yana Peel co-owns NSO Group that licensed Pegasus software to authoritarian regimes
A leading human rights campaigner and head of a prestigious London art gallery is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents, the Guardian can reveal.
Yana Peel, the chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries and a self-proclaimed champion of free speech, co-owns NSO Group, a $1bn (£790m) Israeli tech firm, according to corporate records in the US and Luxembourg.
Continue reading...The explosions, on a vital passageway for the world’s oil supply, may prove Trump’s policy of coercion has backfired
The explosions were bigger and the damage more extensive. But the message and its means of delivery have some similarities.
Thursday’s attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman caused jitters in global markets and unease across a region that has been bracing for conflict throughout much of the year. As with the earlier attacks on 12 May, news of the latest strikes was again broken by media outlets aligned to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran, who broadcast images of the attacks within minutes of them taking place.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as tanker fires send crude prices soaring
Iran hasn’t said who it thinks is responsible for today’s attacks off its coastline.
But on Twitter, foreign minister Javad Zarif has described the attacks as beyond suspicious:
Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM @AbeShinzo was meeting with Ayatollah @khamenei_ir for extensive and friendly talks.
Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what likely transpired this morning.
Iran's proposed Regional Dialogue Forum is imperative.
Here’s the key line from president Rouhani’s speech on Iranian TV:
“Security is of high importance to Iran in the sensitive region of the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East, in Asia and in the whole world. We have always tried to secure peace and stability in the region.”
Continue reading...Banknotes of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 bolívar denominations will begin circulating on Thursday, the central bank said
Venezuela is releasing new banknotes for the second time in less than a year, the central bank said on Wednesday, after hyperinflation eroded the effects of an August 2018 monetary overhaul meant to improve availability of cash.
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, last year cut five zeroes off the currency and prices. The move was supposed to ease shortages of cash that pushed most of the economy toward debit and credit card operations and put heavy strain on digital commerce platforms.
Continue reading...Oil giant looked to make tax-exempt donations to universities and civic groups in the early 1990s to promote the company’s interests
Oil giant Mobil sought to make tax-exempt donations to leading universities, civic groups and arts programmes to promote the company’s interests and undermine environmental regulation, according to internal documents from the early 1990s obtained by the Guardian.
Related: How Mobil pushed its oil agenda through 'charitable giving'
Continue reading...‘Unprecedented’ government move comes four years after firm issued safety warning
The government is to order an “unprecedented” recall of up to 500,000 Whirlpool tumble dryers – four years after fire safety concerns were first raised.
The move is a dramatic escalation in a long-running controversy involving the company’s “fire-risk” tumble dryers, and its handling of an issue that may have left dangerous machines in UK homes.
Continue reading...BP report reveals that swings in global temperatures are increasing the use of fossil fuels
Carbon emissions from the global energy industry rose by the fastest rate in almost a decade in 2018 after surprise swings in global temperatures stoked extra demand for fossil fuels.
BP’s annual global energy report revealed for the first time that fluctuating temperatures are increasing the world’s use of fossil fuels in spite of efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Electricity costs have tripled in the past decade under a utility company plagued by debt and corruption claims, wiping out decades of progress
Electricity, when it arrived in Nosisi Rasmeni’s life, seemed to promise a better future.
Like most black South Africans who grew up during apartheid, she was raised with gas stoves, candles and paraffin heaters. Her family’s shack was poorly lit and smelled of fumes. “Electricity was only for whites,” says Rasmeni, 37.
Continue reading...Overseas investment flowed to Cadre while Trump’s son-in-law works as US envoy, raising conflict of interest questions
A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.
Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.
Continue reading...The Trump administration’s acting budget chief is asking for a delay in restrictions against Huawei products, according to a letter to Vice-President Mike Pence and nine members of Congress.
Related: ‘All I have done, no credit!’ Enraged Trump defends US-Mexico migrant deal
Continue reading...Pascal Lamy said Trump’s actions went against the spirit of diplomacy after Mexico agreed to expand asylum program
The immigration deal imposed on Mexico by Donald Trump under the threat of punitive tariffs is a victory for “hostage-taking” over international rules, a former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Saturday.
Related: Trump calls off tariffs after US-Mexico deal but Mnuchin says threat remains
Continue reading...Airport will be world’s first accredited for serving sustainably sourced fish
Heathrow is to become the world’s first airport accredited for serving sustainably sourced fish and seafood, as all its restaurants pledge to help tackle overfishing.
Outlets whose menus still include “red-rated” fish – deemed by the Marine Conservation Society to be the least sustainable – have pledged to remove them by June 2020. Fish in that category include wild atlantic salmon, bluefin tuna and king prawns from non-certified farms.
Continue reading...Dollar slides after America only created 75,000 new jobs last month, weaker than the 175,000 expected
Earlier:
Let’s get some details on the weakest US jobs report in three months.
The government cut 15,000 jobs in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while private companies hired 90,000 people.
The unemployment rates for adult men (3.3 percent), adult women (3.2 percent), teenagers (12.7 percent), Whites (3.3 percent), Blacks (6.2 percent), Asians (2.5 percent), and Hispanics (4.2 percent) showed little or no change in May.
Continue reading...French government blamed as €33bn deal to create world’s third largest carmaker stalls
The proposed €33bn merger of Fiat Chrysler and Renault has collapsed after an intervention from the French government, Renault’s biggest shareholder.
Fiat Chrysler, an Italian-American company, withdrew from a 50-50 merger proposal for its French rival after a board meeting on Wednesday. A deal would have created the world’s third-largest carmaker behind Volkswagen and Toyota.
Continue reading...Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’
Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with top Mexican officials who are seeking to head off the administration’s threatened tariffs, the Hill reports.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is representing his country at the talks and expected to argue Mexico is already taking steps to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Paul Manafort should not be held in solitary confinement, and nor should anyone else. Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, is reportedly heading for Rikers Island where he’s likely to be held in solitary while awaiting trial on New York state charges.
Yes - released from solitary.
NYT used the term solitary confinement, & that’s what I am commenting on.
“Protective custody” IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.
Italy’s debt amounts to 132% and servicing it costs more than annual education budget
The EU is poised to punish Italy over its “snowballing” spending and borrowing, putting Brussels on a collision course with the populist government in Rome.
In a move expected to raise tensions with Italy, the European commission paved the way for an initial fine of as much as €3.5bn (£3.1bn) on Wednesday after advising the country had met the threshold for disciplinary action.
Continue reading...Christine Lagarde says world must avoid the ‘self-inflicted wounds’ of a tit-for-tat wrangle
The International Monetary Fund has called for a speedy end to the deepening trade war between the United States and China after calculating that the tit-for-tat tariffs will cost $455bn (£357.5bn) in lost output next year – more than the size of South Africa’s economy.
Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, underlined her organisation’s growing concern at the most serious outbreak of trade tension since the 1930s and said “self-inflicted wounds” had to be avoided.
Continue reading...Brexit and trade disputes push bank’s policy uncertainty index to record high, says report
Donald Trump’s trade wars with China, Mexico and Europe have sent global investment tumbling, according to a World Bank report that forecasts worldwide growth this year will slip back to levels not seen since 2016.
The Washington-based lender to developing world countries said in its half-yearly global health check that spiralling political uncertainty was to blame for a slowdown in trade and a collapse in investment spending that will push down GDP growth to 2.6% this year “before inching up to 2.7% in 2020”.
Continue reading...