Crashes involving light aircraft are relatively common in eastern Africa
International News via Reuters:
A small plane carrying medical staff crashed in a densely-populated neighbourhood in Kenya’s capital on Thursday afternoon, killing six people, local authorities said.
The Cessna plane, run by AMREF Flying Doctors, came down as it was flying to Hargeisa, the capital of Somalia’s breakaway territory of Somaliland, the charity said in a statement.
Kiambu County Commissioner Henry Wafula said the four people on board and two people on the ground were killed.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said the plane took off from Wilson Airport at 02:14 PM (1114 GMT) and lost contact with air traffic control three minutes later.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident involving an air ambulance mission,” KCAA said in a statement.
One witness, who asked not to be named, told Reuters she heard a loud sound, then saw a fireball and debris scattered over the neighbourhood.
Unverified videos shared on social media showed firefighters trying to douse burning debris inside what appeared to be a residential compound.
Crashes involving light aircraft are relatively common in eastern Africa.
In April last year, Kenya’s military chief was among 10 people killed when their military helicopter crashed shortly after take-off.
Reporting by Ammu Kannampilly, Edwin Okoth, Humphrey Malalo and Vincent Mumo; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Andrew Heavens and Ed Osmond
British short-term government bond yields rose sharply and stocks fell after the announcement
International News via Reuters:
The Bank of England cut interest rates on Thursday but four of its nine policymakers – worried about high inflation – sought to keep borrowing costs on hold, suggesting the BoE’s run of rate cuts might be nearing an end.
The contrasting views of the BoE’s top officials meant the Monetary Policy Committee held two votes for the first time since it was created in 1997 in order to reach a decision.
With the MPC facing the conflicting risks posed by an inflation rate that the BoE forecasts will soon be double its 2% target and a worsening of job losses, Governor Andrew Bailey and four colleagues backed lowering Bank Rate to 4% from 4.25%.
But that was only after a first round of voting ended in a 4-4-1 split, with external MPC member Alan Taylor initially backing a half-point cut.
“It remains important that we do not cut Bank Rate too quickly or by too much,” Bailey told a press conference after the decision, highlighting that the rise in inflation was expected to be short-lived.
“We stand ready to adjust our course if we see shifts in the balance of risk to the medium-term outlook for inflation.”
The four members of the MPC who backed keeping rates on hold included Clare Lombardelli, the deputy governor for monetary policy, who broke from the majority for the first time. Chief Economist Huw Pill also voted to keep Bank Rate at 4.25%.
British short-term government bond yields rose sharply and stocks fell after the announcement. Sterling jumped by about half a cent against the U.S. dollar.
Investors trimmed their bets on the possibility of another BoE rate cut by the end of 2025 and were only fully pricing in a cut to 3.75% in February next year, according to data from LSEG.
“The close vote split and the minutes of the meeting underscore the division on the MPC,” KPMG UK’s chief economist Yael Selfin said. “The division reflects the two-sided risks to the inflation outlook and the uncertainty under which policymakers are operating.”
Selfin said she expected one final BoE rate cut in November.
The central bank repeated its guidance about “a gradual and careful approach” to further cuts in borrowing costs but added a new line to its message on the outlook.
“The restrictiveness of monetary policy had fallen as Bank Rate had been reduced,” it said. It repeated that there was no pre-set path for borrowing costs.
A halt to the process of cutting rates would be a blow for finance minister Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who have struggled to meet their promise to voters to speed up Britain’s slow economic growth.
Bailey said rates were still on a downward path but added there was “genuine uncertainty now about the course of that direction of rates … I think that the path has become more uncertain.”
James Smith, an economist with ING, said he still thought the next rate cut would come in November. “But were the next couple of inflation reports to surprise to the upside, or if the recent falls in private-sector employment start to ease off, then we’ll be rethinking,” he added.
CONFLICTING RISKS
The BoE is being pulled in different directions, leaving analysts as well as its own policymakers divided on its most likely moves in the coming months.
Britain’s jobs market has weakened in recent months, in part due to a tax hike by Reeves on employers and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
But inflation is rising. The BoE revised up its forecast for a peak in inflation to 4% in September from 3.7% and said it would remain alert to the risk that rising prices – especially for food – could push up wage deals and longer-term price pressures.
“Overall, the MPC judges that the upside risks around medium-term inflationary pressures have moved slightly higher since May,” the summary of the meeting said.
The BoE said it expected inflation to return to its 2% target only in the second quarter of 2027, three months later than its previous forecast.
By contrast, the European Central Bank expects inflation in the euro zone to hold below 2%. It has cut borrowing costs eight times since June of last year, three more reductions than those of the BoE.
Inflation has been above the BoE’s 2% target almost constantly since May 2021.
It said on Thursday that it expected economic growth of 0.3% in the July-to-September period, up from 0.1% in the second quarter. Longer-term growth forecasts were little changed from its report in May, with annual growth of just over 1% expected in the coming years.
Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans
Daniel Augustus has missed the cut at the Imagine Cruising Masters on the Clutch Tour, despite a much-improved performance in his second round. Augustus, who was returning to the tour after a minor injury, carded an even-par 72 at Cumberwell Park Golf Course. He needed a strong round to make the cut, and his performance saw him record two birdies and thirteen pars. However, two bogeys on the day meant his total for the two rounds finished at three-over par, a score that was not enough to see him progress to the weekend’s play. He finished the tournament in a tie for 107th place. While the result will be a disappointment, the improved second round is a positive sign for Augustus as he continues his comeback and looks to build momentum for the remainder of the tour.
The Army said it was too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting
International News via Reuters:
Three of the five U.S. soldiers wounded in a military base shooting in Georgia on Wednesday have been released from a hospital and all are expected to make a full recovery, the U.S. Army said on Thursday, praising the fast actions by fellow soldiers to subdue the shooter and treat the injured, saving lives.
A U.S. Army sergeant is suspected of having shot and wounded five soldiers with a personal handgun on Wednesday at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah.
The suspect, who was taken into custody, has been identified as Quornelius Radford, 28, an active-duty sergeant specializing in automated logistics.
Brigadier General John Lubas, who commands Fort Stewart, said one of the injured soldiers had a “little bit longer road to recovery,” but doctors expected her to fully recover.
Lubas, along with Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, recounted how one soldier tackled the suspect and wrestled his gun away when the shooting started.
A second soldier jumped on the suspect and restrained him until police arrived. Others attended to the wounded soldiers.
“We talked to doctors, and one of the things that I can say unequivocally is that the fast action of these soldiers, under stress and under trauma and under fire, absolutely saved lives from being lost,” Driscoll told reporters.
The Army said it was too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting.
Mass shootings are relatively common in the United States, where guns are widely available, and military bases, which are among the highest-security places in the country, have not been spared.
The deadliest was at the Fort Hood Army base in 2009, when a major fatally shot unarmed soldiers in a medical building with a laser-sighted handgun, killing 13 people and injuring more than 30. Less than five years later, a soldier at the same Texas base fatally shot three service members and injured 16 others before killing himself.
Fort Stewart is located in Hinesville, about 225 miles (362 km) southeast of Atlanta and 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Savannah. Nearly 9,000 people live at the base, according to the 2020 Census.
The base supports approximately 15,000 active-duty Army military personnel, as well as thousands of military retirees, family members and others, according to its website.
Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Franklin Paul and Mark Porter
14 new police recruits set to join the ranks – MP Jason Hayward suggests BELCO is ‘skirting around the pollution issue’ – St George’s Cricket Club formally apologises for Cup Match behaviour… and more
Kaden Hopkins has continued his resilience at the 74th Tour Cycliste International de la Guadeloupe, navigating a demanding Stage Five and moving up the overall standings. Riding for Uni Sport Lamentinois, Hopkins competed in a grueling 158.2km race with over 11,000 feet of climbing, finishing in 34th place with a time of 4:42:23. The stage was won by Stiven Chaves, who crossed the line in 4:20:14. Despite the gap to the stage winner, Hopkins’s consistent performance has paid off in the general classification. He moved up five places to finish the day 35th overall with a combined time of 18:35:41. While he is now 29 minutes and 47 seconds behind the new overall leader, Camilo Ardila Andrés, Hopkins’s ability to maintain his position in the top half of the field after a challenging few stages demonstrates his determination to compete at a high level
Bermuda’s Under-15 boys’ national football team suffered a setback in their Concacaf Boys’ U-15 Championships campaign, going down 2-0 to Trinidad & Tobago in their third group stage match. After a thrilling comeback victory against Barbados, Bermuda entered the game with renewed confidence. However, they fell behind early as Trinidad & Tobago’s Adasa Richardson headed home from close range in the seventh minute. Despite creating some opportunities in the second half, Bermuda struggled to find the final touch. Trinidad & Tobago doubled their lead in the 51st minute when Jeremai Nanton headed in a corner unchallenged. The young Bermudian side continued to press but were unable to break down the organised Trinidad defence. The defeat sees Bermuda finish with four points from their three group games, which was not enough to advance to the semi-finals.
Indian rescuers used helicopters on Thursday to pluck to safety people stranded by flood waters in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand two days after a sudden inundation and landslide killed four people, while more than a dozen were still missing.
With roads cleared as rain eased, rescue teams arrived in Dharali, where Tuesday’s wall of water had submerged in sludge homes and cars in the village on the way to the Hindu pilgrim town of Gangotri.
Helicopters were carrying to safety those who had been stranded, the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said in a post on X, adding, “The heli-rescue operation … started in the affected areas this morning.”
Authorities said about 400 people stuck in Gangotri were being rescued by air, with nine army personnel and seven civilians among the missing.
But communication links with rescuers and residents remain disrupted, as mobile telephone and electricity towers swept away by the floods have yet to be replaced, officials said.
“We were stuck in the slush for about 20 minutes and were then rescued by the Indian army,” said Amardeep Singh, an army contractor on a rescue mission when his team was hit by another flash flood in Harsil, the site of an army camp.
Earlier, army rescuers used their hands, as well as machinery, to shift boulders from roads turned into muddy, gushing rivers, visuals showed. More than 225 army personnel were drafted into the rescue, its Northern Command said on X.
“We saw Dharali falling before our eyes,” said Anamika Mehra, a pilgrim headed for Gangotri when the flooding hit.
The hamlet of about 200 people in the state’s Uttarkashi district stands more than 1,150 m (3,775 ft) above sea level on the climb to the temple town.
“We were very scared, but the locals helped us and the army reached the next day to rescue us,” Mehra told news agency ANI.
Uttarakhand is prone to floods and landslides, which some experts blame on climate change.
In 2021, a flash flood swept away two hydroelectric projects to send water, rocks and debris into a valley, killing more than 200 in an event scientists said could have been unleashed by a large avalanche of glacier ice.
Reporting by Saurabh Sharma; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Markets largely shook off U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff volleys
International News via Reuters:
Global equities rose on Thursday, with Japanese shares hitting a record high, as tech-led gains on Wall Street, upbeat earnings, growing hopes for a ceasefire in Ukraine and expectations for U.S. rate cuts boosted sentiment.
Markets largely shook off U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff volleys, including an additional 25% tariff on U.S. imports from India over purchases of Russian oil and a threatened 100% duty on chips.
“It’s surprising that everything that gets thrown at the market that it just continues to melt-up,” said Eddie Kennedy, head of bespoke discretionary fund management at Marlborough.
Europe’s STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, with major indexes in Frankfurt and Paris up 1% and 0.8%, respectively. Britain’s FTSE 100 was the outlier, dropping 0.3%.
Plans for a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine also helped sentiment in European equities and underpinned the euro.
“It (a ceasefire) would be an extra positive,” said Emmanuel Cau, Barclays head of European equity strategy.
“If there is a de-escalation, it would clearly be supportive. It’s not the key driver but it’s definitely been a lingering issue for Europe.”
In Asia, Japan’s broad Topix index rose 0.7% to a record closing high, with the more tech-focused Nikkei also gaining by about the same.
Taiwan’s stock benchmark surged as much as 2.6% to a more than one-year peak. Shares in chipmaker TSMC, which this year announced additional investment in its U.S. production facilities, soared 4.9% to a record high.
The KOSPI added 0.6%, with South Korea’s top trade envoy saying Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix would not be subject to 100% tariffs.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5%, although mainland Chinese blue chips were only slightly higher on the day. The yuan firmed slightly to 7.1819 per dollar in offshore trading.
U.S. S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%. On Wednesday, the cash index climbed 0.7%.
“Wall Street seems to have gotten its mojo back,” Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda wrote in a note.
“However, there are persistent risks to the downside. Downside surprises in official data are increasing,” he said. “Valuations are also stretched, with forward price to earnings hovering around the highest in four years. And trade uncertainty persists.”
DOLLAR ON BACK FOOT
The U.S. dollar remained lower against major peers on Thursday, with expectations of easier policy from the Federal Reserve stoked both by some disappointing macroeconomic indicators – not least Friday’s payrolls report – and Trump’s move to install new picks on the Fed board that are likely to share the U.S. President’s dovish views on monetary policy.
Focus is centring on Trump’s nomination to fill a coming vacancy on the Fed’s Board of Governors and candidates for the next chair of the central bank, with current Chair Jerome Powell’s tenure due to end in May.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was little changed at 4.2365%. The two-year yield, which is more sensitive to changes in interest rate expectations, was up 1 basis point at 3.7134%, close to a three-month low of 3.659% touched on Monday.
The dollar index, which gauges the currency against the euro, sterling and four other counterparts, eased 0.2% to 98.031, extending a 0.6% drop from Wednesday.
The euro added 0.2% to $1.1686, following the previous session’s 0.7% jump.
Sterling rose 0.2% to $1.3378.
The BoE looks poised to cut interest rates for the fifth time in 12 months later on Thursday, but nagging worries about inflation are likely to split its policymakers and cloud the outlook for its next moves.
Two Monetary Policy Committee members may push for a half-point rate cut, and two may lobby for no change.
In commodities, spot gold added 0.3% to $3,376 an ounce, after earlier hitting its highest level in two weeks.
Reporting by Samuel Indyk and Kevin Buckland; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson
France’s biggest wildfire in nearly eight decades has killed one person and destroyed dozens of houses
International News via Reuters:
A massive wildfire that has scorched through 16,000 hectares of forest and villages in southern France since Tuesday has lost intensity but is still not under control, officials said on Thursday.
France’s biggest wildfire in nearly eight decades has killed one person and destroyed dozens of houses. Plumes of smoke rose over the forest area in the Aude region.
Three people are missing and two people including a firefighter are in a critical condition, local authorities said.
Drone footage showed swathes of charred earth after the fire swept across an area one-and-a-half times the size of Paris.
The blaze, around 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Spain, not far from the Mediterranean Sea, has spread unusually rapidly, fanned by strong winds and very dry vegetation, following months of drought in the area.
It is now advancing more slowly, Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told France Info radio on Thursday morning.
“The night was cooler, the fire is progressing more slowly, but it remains the most significant wildfire France has experienced since 1949,” Pannier-Runacher said.
“This is a wildfire that is a consequence of climate change, of drought in this region,” she added.
Christophe Magny, one of the officials leading the firefighting operation, told BFM TV that he hoped the blaze could be contained later in the day.
But he warned: “As of now, the fire has not been brought under control.”
Officials said an investigation was under way to find out what caused the blaze.
Scientists say the Mediterranean region’s hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires.
France’s weather office has warned of a new heatwave starting in other parts of southern France on Friday and due to last several days.
Reporting by Manon Cruz, Abdul Saboor, Horaci Garcia, Marco Trujillo, additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Zhifan Liu; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alison Williams
Markets expect a 25-basis point rate cut, while pricing a total of 86 bps of rate cuts by December 2026
International News via Reuters:
Sterling rose against a weakening dollar on Thursday with the markets watching whether the Bank of England will maintain its “gradual and careful” language on the pace of policy easing at its meeting due later in the day.
That slow and steady path no longer looks so clear, with inflation above the BoE’s projections and forecast by some economists to reach 4%, double the bank’s target, in the coming months.
Markets expect a 25-basis point rate cut, while pricing a total of 86 bps of rate cuts by December 2026. “Recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)-speak has leaned dovish, although it has been light,” said Jamie Searle, rate strategist at Citi. “The tail risk is that this MPC has shown in recent years that it isn’t afraid to surprise.”
The pound was up 0.18% versus the dollar at $1.3380, its highest since July 30..
“Our view remains that the UK economy is likely to grow around 1-1.2% for the next three years, versus Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts of 1.7-1.9%,” said Mohit Kumar, economist at Jefferies.
“Lower growth implies that the BoE would need to do more than currently priced in (in terms of rate cuts), and the fiscal picture is worse than (what) the current official estimates show,” he said.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves is expected to raise taxes again in a budget statement towards the end of 2025 in order to meet her own targets for fixing the public finances.
A survey showed on Wednesday that activity in Britain’s construction sector fell by the most in more than five years.
The single currency rose 0.15% at 87.42 pence per euro, its highest since July 28. It hit last week 87.69, its highest level since May 2023 as the European Central Bank is almost done with its monetary easing cycle.
The euro hit a fresh 1-1/2-week high against a weakening dollar on Thursday as investors monitored Ukraine peace talks.
“While we are bracing for a 7-2 split vote, we would not be overly surprised if (Swati) Dhingra and/or (Alan) Taylor voted for a 50-bp cut, as they did in May,” said Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, adding that such a move would likely trigger a sell-off in the pound.
Reporting by Stefano Rebaudo, editing by Harikrishnan Nair
Maersk, viewed as a barometer of world trade, said it now expected global container volumes to increase by 2% to 4% this year
International News via Reuters:
Shipping group Maersk raised its full-year profit forecast on Thursday as robust global container demand defied fears that tariffs would hit trade, although the company predicted a slowdown later this year.
Maersk, viewed as a barometer of world trade, said it now expected global container volumes to increase by 2% to 4% this year, compared with a range of down 1% to up 4% estimated in May. The new range implies lower second-half growth, it said.
A drop in U.S. imports after President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of tariffs on foreign goods “was more than offset” by strong growth in imports into other regions, including Europe, the Danish firm said in its second-quarter earnings statement.
CEO Vincent Clerc told reporters that most customers – which include Walmart and Nike – are taking a wait-and-see approach to potential changes in their supply chains, and that container shipping was immune to trade tariffs in the short term.
Chinese shipments into Europe and other regions started increasing last year and continued into 2025, Clerc said, adding that Maersk’s own data did not suggest this growth was fuelled by U.S. tariffs.
“The normal relationship between how things are going in the U.S. and how things are going in the rest of the world is changing as China plays a larger and larger role in the global economy,” Clerc told reporters in Copenhagen.
“This has meant that despite volatility in the U.S., we have seen very stable high demand for container shipping in the rest of the world,” he said.
Maersk shares rose as much as 6%, and were up 2.6% at 0951 GMT. The shares have risen about 60% since April, when Trump upended global trade relations.
GEOPOLITICAL UNCERTAINTY
Trade between China and the U.S. plummeted earlier this year amid escalating tit-for-tat tariffs.
While a truce was agreed, investors remain on edge over whether the world’s two largest economies can clinch a deal before an August 12 deadline.
Maersk said it now expected underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation this year of between $8 billion and $9.5 billion, compared with its previous guidance of between $6 billion and $9 billion.
It said EBITDA rose 7% year-on-year in the second quarter to $2.3 billion, above the $1.98 billion expected by analysts.
Sales rose 3% year-on-year to $13.1 billion, also beating the $12.61 billion forecast by analysts in a company poll.
Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen. Editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Potter
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