A spokesperson for major energy commodities trading company Gunvor said an “incident” occurred during maintenance work on one of its storage tanks
International News via Reuters:
A blast at a storage facility for petroleum products at the Netherlands’ Rotterdam port killed one person and wounded six others on Thursday, officials said, as police investigated the cause of the explosion.
A spokesperson for major energy commodities trading company Gunvor said an “incident” occurred during maintenance work on one of its storage tanks. A police spokesperson said that there was no immediate sign of sabotage and that all possible scenarios were under investigation.
The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe and a major hub for crude oil and fuel imports and storage. It hosts Europe’s largest oil refinery, Shell’s 404,000-barrel-per-day Pernis plant, in addition to other oil refineries operated by BP, ExxonMobil, and Vitol.
The explosion occurred at around 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT).
Gunvor said it was cooperating with local authorities.
Shell said its operations at the port were unaffected by the blast.
A Rotterdam Port spokesperson said LNG terminals were not affected by the blast. Data from European gas transmission group ENTSOG showed a temporary drop in gas sendout from Rotterdam’s Gate LNG terminal, and then volatile flows. It was not clear if that was a consequence of the blast or an unrelated power outage elsewhere in the sprawling port.
Any prolonged disruption would be closely watched by traders, as Gate is one of northwest Europe’s key LNG import hubs and Dutch gas storage sites are currently only around 40% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data, ahead of the winter heating season.
ExxonMobil said the power outage had been resolved and that its operations were normal at its 191,000-barrel-per-day refinery, declining to confirm an alert from Wood Mackenzie seen by Reuters that all monitored units had shut down.
Rotterdam Port said there was no connection between the blast and the power outage. The port had experienced several power outages earlier in the day, but none were connected to the blast, the local safety authority said.
Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Inti Landauro; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Toby Chopra, Hugh Lawson and Sharon Singleton
The NTSB is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window
International News via Reuters:
Bird remains were found in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window shortly after takeoff from Greece in July, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.
The NTSB is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window. The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing.
The NTSB said in its preliminary report into the July 10 incident that four suspected bird strikes to the airplane’s No. 2 engine were reported by flight crew in the 12 months preceding the accident.
“Bird remains were reportedly found in two of the cases,” although no damage was located during subsequent maintenance, it said.
The NTSB said the CFM engine made by a venture between France’s Safran and U.S.-based General Electric had been inspected in May with no findings.
Boeing and Ryanair declined to comment on Thursday. GE and Safran were not immediately available for comment.
The NTSB, an independent U.S. government agency that investigates civil transportation accidents, is leading the investigation into the Ryanair flight.
The agency said it is still looking at whether the incident is similar to other cases, such as an April 2018 engine failure on a U.S. Southwest Airlines flight that killed a passenger who was partially sucked out the window.
“The investigative team is aware of previous … events with similar engine models that resulted in damage to engine inlets or cowlings and fuselage structures,” the report said. “Determination of any relevant similarities or details between this accident and previous events remains under investigation.”
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters in an interview: “I don’t think the early indications are that (the recent Ryanair problem) mimics what the Southwest incident was.”
Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Matthew Lewis
Road safety has been the topic of the week – as Bermuda recording its 13th road fatality of the year. Police and government agencies are pushing forward various initiatives – including the deployment of speed cameras, which has been under discussion for years. But would they reduce deaths and injuries? The answer seems to be a resounding ‘yes’, according to most people Kendal Trott spoke to in the city of Hamilton.
The ruling, which comes as Shein aims for a more than $30 billion valuation in a Hong Kong initial public offering, concerns the first round of the companies’ London legal battle
International News via Reuters:
Online fast-fashion platform Shein on Thursday lost its London lawsuit against rival Temu over alleged copyright infringement, in a ruling that could be beneficial for online marketplaces hosting third-party sellers.
The ruling, which comes as Shein aims for a more than $30 billion valuation in a Hong Kong initial public offering, concerns the first round of the companies’ London legal battle. Temu’s counterclaim that Shein broke competition law by tying suppliers to exclusive agreements is due to go to trial next year.
Shein had accused Temu of breaching its copyright “on an industrial scale”, arguing at a trial in May that Temu – owned by PDD Holdings – used photos of Shein’s own-brand clothing to “piggy-back” on a more established competitor.
Judge Kelyn Bacon rejected Shein’s arguments that Temu infringed Shein’s copyright and said that, even if it had infringed, Temu would not be liable.
Shein had initially argued that Temu reproduced Shein’s photos, but did not pursue that at the trial as Temu’s servers are outside the United Kingdom and any reproduction was outside the UK, Bacon said in her ruling.
A Shein spokesperson said there was no dispute that Shein owned the thousands of photos it had sued over and that they had appeared on Temu’s website.
“Yet despite copying on an industrial scale, it has avoided liability in the UK simply because the servers supporting its UK website happen to sit in Ireland,” the spokesperson said. Temu did not immediately comment.
FAST-FASHION RIVALS FACE OFF
The case is part of a global legal battle between Shein and Temu, which have expanded rapidly in international markets with low-cost clothing, accessories and gadgets.
In her written ruling, Bacon rejected the argument that Temu authorised the infringement of Shein’s copyright by merchants who uploaded photos to its website, saying Temu “prohibits merchants from uploading infringing content”.
The judge also significantly ruled that, if there had been copyright infringement, Temu could have relied on the so-called hosting defence, because it was only an “intermediary” and did not have the requisite knowledge of any infringement.
“In so far as any infringements could be established in this case, Temu did not have either actual knowledge of the infringements or awareness of facts or circumstances from which the infringements would have been apparent,” Bacon said.
She also upheld Temu’s counterclaim, which sought damages for having to remove listings when Shein obtained an injunction in relation to images for which Shein did not own the copyright.
Reporting by Sam Tobin; additional reporting by Helen Reid; editing by William James and Susan Fenton
People wearing face masks, some clutching pets, boarded dingies and boats in the seaside town of Siviri as the fire ate through a forest and large columns of smoke turned the cloudless sky a dark gray
International News via Reuters:
Tourists and residents fled villages in the Halkidiki region of northern Greece by land and sea on Thursday as a wildfire fanned by strong winds engulfed houses and trees near resorts during the heart of holiday season.
People wearing face masks, some clutching pets, boarded dingies and boats in the seaside town of Siviri as the fire ate through a forest and large columns of smoke turned the cloudless sky a dark gray. Inland, the fire charred holiday apartments and their sea-facing balconies.
The coast guard said that more than 300 people have been evacuated by boat from Siviri, which sits on a picturesque peninsular of woodland, olive groves and beaches south of Greece’s second city Thessaloniki. Patrol and fire boats and fishing vessels were involved in the operation, it said in a statement.
More than 140 firefighters were deployed to battle flames raging on both sides of the main road from Siviri to the town of Kassandreia. Nine aircraft and seven helicopters were also deployed, the fire brigade said in a statement posted on X. One firefighter was injured and traffic has been stopped.
“Our effort is focused on extinguishing the fire and the safe transport of people,” fire brigade spokesman Giannis Artopios told Protothema news portal.
Across Europe, successive heatwaves this summer have intensified drought, strained water supplies and left vegetation tinder-dry, helping wildfires in Spain, France, Greece scorch near unprecedented amounts of land.
Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Edward McAllister
Traditionally, consumers have browsed, logged in and paid directly through online channels
International News via Reuters:
The increasing prevalence of AI chatbots handling consumer shopping is pushing merchants to uphold more direct customer relationships over fears of losing their loyalty and repeated purchases, payments firm Adyen said on Thursday.
Traditionally, consumers have browsed, logged in and paid directly through online channels. AI-driven shopping assistants could take over that sequence — recommending products, choosing merchants and initiating payments on their own — eroding the direct relationships retailers rely on.
Adyen co-CEO Pieter van der Does told Reuters that a merchant he spoke with this week generated 70% of its volume through direct channels and wanted to retain that share as shoppers increasingly begin their searches through chatbots.
“Loyalty becomes way more important,” van der Does said.
Adyen, which processes payments for high-end retailers such as Hermès and Hugo Boss, has introduced a platform designed for enterprise merchants and AI-agent payments, and recently bought loyalty software firm Talon.One and billing provider Orb to strengthen its retention-focused services.
These moves reflect the expectations that merchants will require robust tools to sustain customer retention and adapt to AI software companies charging usage-based fees rather than fixed subscriptions.
“AI is really impacting our merchants,” van der Does said.
“We are their partner, not just for the payments, (but) also for loyalty to make sure that they link their consumers to themselves and that they don’t suddenly get disintermediated, that their demand suddenly comes only through LLMs.”
JPMorgan analysts said Adyen’s signing of OpenAI as a customer was an unexpected positive in the company’s half-year update, as it showed the Dutch payments processor gaining ground among AI companies.
AI is also affecting the infrastructure behind payments. Adyen is pulling forward spending on computing and storage capacity from next year, citing higher prices and supply constraints. Roughly two-thirds of the company’s capital expenditures go to private cloud systems running its core services, according to van der Does.
Reporting by Leo Marchandon and Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak
The package would help utilities to remove so-called forever chemicals and improve drinking water quality, Ofwat said in a statement, and would support housebuilding and data centre development
International News via Reuters:
Five British water companies will be allowed to raise customer bills after regulator Ofwat on Thursday provisionally approved up to £3.4 billion ($4.59 billion) of additional spending on infrastructure and environmental measures.
The package would help utilities to remove so-called forever chemicals and improve drinking water quality, Ofwat said in a statement, and would support housebuilding and data centre development.
Britain’s water industry has come under intense scrutiny and faces an overhaul to fix environmental breaches, soaring debt levels, high dividend payouts and rising customer bills.
“I know that households across the country are watching every pound and I share their frustration that years of underinvestment and toothless regulation has led to this,” Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said.
SOUTHERN WATER CUSTOMERS TO SEE THE BIGGEST RISE IN BILLS
Five of the 13 companies which have received the approvals have been allowed to increase customer bills between 2027 and 2030, including Thames Water, Severn Trent, Southern Water, and Wessex Water.
Southern Water, with over 4 million consumers across Britain, will see the largest bill increase. They will rise by £43 for 2027-28 and £37 for 2029-2030.
“The additional funding reflects unavoidable increased costs and is needed if we’re to meet strict obligations to protect the environment and secure the long-term water supplies the population needs,” a spokesperson for Southern Water said.
Britain’s largest utility Thames Water, which is struggling to avoid a collapse, will be allowed to raise bills by £3 for 2027-28 and by £5 for 2029-2030.
“This funding will allow us to continue to develop vital water security projects, which will keep the taps flowing for millions of customers across London and the South East,” a Thames Water spokesperson said in a statement.
‘EXPENDITURE CAN BE CLAWED BACK’
“We will track performance to ensure companies are delivering the expected improvements for customers and the environment,” said Ofwat Executive Director for Delivery Helen Campbell. “If they don’t, expenditure can be clawed back.”
Ofwat said £477 million of the additional funding will be used to address rising demand linked to housebuilding and data centre development.
United Utilities, which plans to invest in water infrastructure for data centres in east Manchester, received the highest approval of £995 million, compared with the £1.11 billion it had requested.
Ofwat will make its final decision in December.
($1 = 0.7410 pounds)
Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Muvija M, Anushka Chourasia and Nithyashree R B; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jan Harvey
The UK government has signed the High Seas Treaty into law, a crucial step towards the Sargasso Sea being fully protected as an ocean sanctuary. Today campaigners are calling for the government in Bermuda to work with the UK to deliver the strongest possible protection for the Sargasso Sea – as one of the first high seas ocean sanctuaries – and also to secure a vital role for Bermuda in managing the sanctuary.
Why is the Treaty significant?
The High Seas Treaty is the most important global agreement on the environmental crisis since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. With less than 1% of the High Seas currently fully or highly protected, the Treaty is crucial to expanding ocean protection, establishing sanctuaries that allow biodiversity to recover and wildlife to thrive, helping to mitigate the climate crisis, and safeguarding food security for the billions who depend on ocean resources. The High Seas Treaty provides the tool required to create the largest network of global marine protected areas in history. This could shield over a third of the ocean from destructive activities, like industrial fishing and oil drilling, and give marine life space to survive and thrive, including in the Sargasso Sea.
Why does effective ocean governance matter?
In just one year on the high seas of the Sargasso Sea in 2023, fishing vessels used drifting longlines with an estimated combined total length of 1,980km, more than enough to cover the distance from Bermuda to New York City. Thirty-three longline vessels were active on the high seas area of the Sargasso Sea in 2023, spending a combined total of 22,881 hours engaged in apparent fishing activity.
Deep-sea mining isn’t currently taking place commercially anywhere in the world but it poses a huge threat to the global seafloor. Polymetallic sulphides and gas hydrates deposits have been found on the Sargasso’s seabed, and while these are not considered commercially significant, an exploration mining contract has been granted for the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by the International Seabed Authority in waters just outside the Sargasso Sea.
What role does Bermuda play in global ocean conservation?
Bermuda has already led pioneering efforts to conserve the Sargasso Sea, aiming to protect the species that inhabit and migrate through it. It must now expand and continue this work in partnership with the UK government, for the long term, ensuring the Sargasso Sea is preserved for all future generations.
“The success of the High Seas Treaty will not be measured solely by the number of protected areas that are created, but by how they are created. It will rightly be measured by the recovery of whales, sharks, seabirds, turtles, fish, and countless other species. But we should not forget that the people of small island communities are part of that biodiversity too.
“Nowhere is that more evident than in the tiny island of Bermuda, where the health of the Sargasso Sea and the wellbeing of our people are inseparable. The people who call these oceans home hold centuries of knowledge that cannot be found in scientific journals alone. Global decision-makers have a responsibility to listen, learn, and ensure that our knowledge helps shape these new international ocean policies. Our goal is the same: A thriving ocean.
“This Treaty gives global leaders an opportunity not only to protect one of the world’s most remarkable marine ecosystems, but also to demonstrate that truly sustainable conservation can only be achieved when international policy and human rights are allowed to advance together. Bermudians are not asking to stand in the way of conservation – we are inviting leaders to share their privilege, so that together we can build stronger international ocean policy to protect the Sargasso Sea that we call home.”
The Sargasso Sea Advisory Council, set up and chaired by Noelle Young, has been established to campaign for lasting international protection for the Sargasso Sea and ensure Bermuda has a direct, formal voice in how that ecosystem is governed.
The potential environmental, social and economic benefits to Bermuda of a Sargasso Sea Ocean Sanctuary are significant, but as an Overseas Territory, Bermuda doesn’t have a direct voice in the United Nations. Therefore, the UK must take the cause forward on the global stage.
Chris Thorne, Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner, said:
“The UK’s new prime minister Andy Burnham must seize the opportunity that the High Seas Treaty brings and champion bold proposals to protect vast swathes of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Sargasso Sea, as part of a promise to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. Greenpeace has been collaborating with environmental groups, scientists, fishers and politicians in Bermuda, the islands of which are surrounded by the Sargasso Sea. This uniquely biodiverse part of the Atlantic Ocean must be prioritised as one of the first ocean sanctuaries under the Treaty, free from all destructive industrial activity, and Bermuda should have a vital role in managing the sanctuary. We must ensure protection for the Sargasso’s precious sea life, including whales and other important migratory species.”
As advised by scientists, governments around the world set the ambitious target to protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 but, with biodiversity in steep decline and less than five years left on the clock, the race is on to achieve this. Governments must mobilise swiftly and use the next six months before the first Ocean COP (COP1), in January 2027, to develop proposals for new high seas sanctuaries, including the Sargasso Sea. These areas must be fully or highly protected to ensure that vast areas of the ocean are closed to extractive and destructive human activities, unlike many current Marine Protected Areas, including those in the UK, which are protected in name only.
Governments need to ensure that the development of sanctuaries is based on robust scientific evidence and with participation from Indigenous Peoples and local communities to ensure the process is both driven by science and is socially just.
The recent statement by the US Consulate confirms why it was important to ask the Government if full CARICOM membership would affect visa-free travel for Bermudians.
It was not a scare tactic, but a question that needed a clear answer—and now it has been received.
This was never about claiming that full CARICOM membership would automatically end visa-free travel to the United States. It was about making sure the Government had done its homework before asking Bermudians to support such a significant change.
When I asked whether the Premier consulted the United States about any possible implications for our visa-free travel and pre-clearance arrangements, the Government dismissed the concern and said there was “no basis” for it.
We now know that Bermuda’s visa-free access is a matter of US policy, not a bilateral agreement with Bermuda or the United Kingdom, and that US policy can be revised.
The United States is Bermuda’s largest trading partner and our most important travel connection. Thousands of Bermudians depend on easy access to the US for business, education, healthcare, family and holidays.
The Premier therefore needs to answer a very simple question. Before launching his public campaign for full CARICOM membership, did his Government seek and receive assurances from the United States that the change would have no impact on Bermuda’s existing travel arrangements?
If the answer is yes, tell the public when those discussions took place and what assurances were received.
If the answer is no, then the Premier and his Government have been irresponsible with something that is far too important to Bermudians to simply assume.
And this is bigger than one question about US travel. Full membership in CARICOM would represent a significant change in Bermuda’s relationship with the region. The Government should not be campaigning for a predetermined outcome while important questions remain unanswered.
Give Bermuda the real facts. Answer the real questions. Then trust the people of Bermuda to decide for themselves through a referendum.That is what proper consultation should look like.
Bas-Uele would not be added to the list of affected provinces until there is a case involving local transmission
International News via Reuters:
Democratic Republic of Congo health authorities have identified a person who has died from Ebola in a province not previously affected by the ongoing outbreak, an official told Reuters, raising fears of wider transmission from multiple exposures before and after the patient’s death.
• The case involves a motorcycle taxi driver who travelled to Bas-Uele province, where no cases had previously been reported, from Haut-Uele province, where cases had already been confirmed, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, head of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, told Reuters.
• The patient died in Bas-Uele’s capital Buta after developing haemorrhagic symptoms consistent with Ebola and tested positive for the virus after he died, Muyembe said.
• Haut-Uele, one of five provinces affected by the outbreak, which was announced on May 15, has recorded 113 confirmed cases, according to the latest available government data published on Tuesday.
• Bas-Uele would not be added to the list of affected provinces until there is a case involving local transmission.
• But Muyembe said the motorcycle taxi driver visited several health facilities before his death, and fellow motorcycle taxi drivers tried to retrieve his body, prompting the local police to intervene, raising fears that several people may have been infected.
• The ongoing Ebola outbreak, Congo’s 17th, has so far infected 4,566 people, including 2,128 deaths, according to government data released on Wednesday. The number of cases makes it the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the outbreak in West Africa that lasted from 2014 to 2016.
Reporting by Fiston Mahamba; Writing by Clement Bonnerot; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Alison Williams
The Bank of England has long refused to release some 31 metric tons of Venezuelan gold held in its vaults because it did not recognize the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro’s government
International News via Reuters:
Venezuelan authorities plan to focus on reconstruction efforts and recovering gold reserves worth an estimated $4 billion held in the Bank of England’s underground vaults, National Assembly chief Jorge Rodriguez said on Wednesday, as monthly inflation surged to 20%.
The Bank of England has long refused to release some 31 metric tons of Venezuelan gold held in its vaults because it did not recognize the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
The Bank of England declined to comment. Britain’s Foreign Office did not immediately comment.
The bullion has been the subject of a long-running legal battle in British courts, and it has not been released despite Maduro’s capture by the U.S. in January and a request by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to King Charles.
The South American nation was hit by devastating twin earthquakes at the end of June that killed more than 6,000 people.
Rodriguez said the government and lawmakers had agreed to focus on projects aimed at rebuilding households, health capacities, electricity availability and clearing rubble, and to this end, “concentrate efforts to promote the recovery of Venezuela’s international assets in the Bank of England.”
Venezuela’s central bank said the earthquakes had contributed to inflation rising to 19.9% in July compared to 13.8% the prior month, as the disaster disrupted the distribution of goods. It said it expected inflation to decline in August.
With July’s result, year-on-year inflation stands at 575.9%, according to Reuters calculations based on figures from the central bank.
Reporting by Mayela Armas; additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London. Editing by Daina Beth Solomon, Sarah Morland, Jamie Freed and Toby Chopra
Since becoming prime minister in July, Andy Burnham has made AI a Cabinet-level priority
International News via Reuters:
Britain’s economy is showing the clearest signs yet that it is benefitting from the global artificial intelligence boom, with data on Thursday showing rapid growth in related industries and a surge in computer hardware investment.
While the Office for National Statistics said Britain’s economy grew by 0.4% in the second quarter, the information and communications sector contributed almost half of that expansion — more than any other industry.
Within the sector, the ONS said the output of computer programming, consultancy and related activities — which would include AI companies — surged by 3.7% on the quarter, on top of a 3.8% rise in the previous quarter.
Since becoming prime minister in July, Andy Burnham has made AI a Cabinet-level priority.
His team has signalled a shift away from the previous government’s U.S.-centric approach towards greater emphasis on British ownership, “tech sovereignty” and protecting workers from disruption.
U.S. data has also pointed to AI’s growing impact on the world’s largest economy.
ONS investment data on Thursday offered more evidence of an AI impact.
Spending on plant and machinery across the economy has grown strongly this year, rising to £22.1 billion ($29.8 billion) in the second quarter — within a whisker of a one-off record high hit in early 2022 caused by the timing of tax breaks.
An ONS spokesperson said the most recent strong reading reflected ICT equipment, particularly computer hardware as well as government spending on weapons systems.
The ONS’s quarterly survey of business capital assets also showed a strong increase in computer hardware investment.
“A big step up in investment into information and communications technology suggests that the build out of computing power needed to run artificial intelligence boosted business investment,” said Andrew Wishart, senior UK economist at Berenberg.
British manufacturers are also benefitting.
Output across British computing, electronic and optical product manufacturers grew by 10.7% in annual terms in the second quarter — ranking top among the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors for the first time since early 2017.
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