2025-12-14 16:02

CAIRO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Egypt signed a contract with Qatar's Al Mana Holding for a first-phase investment of $200 million to produce sustainable aviation fuel from used cooking oil in the Suez Canal Economic Zone at Ain Sokhna, Egypt's cabinet said on Sunday. The project will be developed in three phases and will span 100,000 square metres in the Integrated Sokhna Zone on Egypt's Red Sea coast. The first phase will have an estimated annual production capacity of 200,000 tonnes, the cabinet said in a statement. Sign up here. The deal marks the first Qatari industrial investment in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Egypt said. Egypt has for years been pushing to secure foreign investments, especially from wealthy Gulf states, as it seeks to tackle heavy foreign debts and a gaping budget deficit. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the project "reflects the positive momentum in relations between Cairo and Doha, driven by the shared political will to advance bilateral cooperation through joint investments and increased trade." Last month, the real estate arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund said it would invest $29.7 billion to develop a luxury real estate and tourism project on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. That deal marked the largest Qatari investment in the country since diplomatic relations were restored following a 2017–2021 economic rift when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and aligning too closely with Iran, charges Doha denied. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/egypt-qatars-al-mana-holding-sign-200-million-sustainable-aviation-fuel-deal-2025-12-14/

2025-12-14 06:03

Jose Antonio Kast faced leftist Jeannette Jara Crime concerns defined campaign Kast won about 58% of vote SANTIAGO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Jose Antonio Kast won Chile's presidential election on Sunday, leveraging voter fears over rising crime and migration to steer the country in its sharpest rightward shift since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990. Kast secured a commanding 58% of the vote in a runoff with leftist candidate Jeannette Jara, who won 42% and swiftly conceded. Sign up here. Throughout his decades-long political career, Kast has been a consistent right-wing hardliner. He has proposed building border walls, deploying the military to high-crime areas, and deporting all migrants in the country illegally. His victory marks the latest win for the resurgent right in Latin America. He joins Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, and Argentina's Javier Milei. In October, the election of centrist Rodrigo Paz ended almost two decades of socialist rule in Bolivia. The campaign was Kast's third run at the presidency and second runoff, after losing to leftist President Gabriel Boric in 2021. Once seen by many Chileans as too extreme, he has attracted voters increasingly worried about crime and immigration. His definitive win, even in parts of Chile that traditionally vote for leftist candidates, was also likely driven by voter rejection of Jara, who as a member of the Communist Party was seen by many as too extreme, said Claudia Heiss, a political scientist at the University of Chile. Kast supporters arrived at the president-elect's campaign headquarters in Santiago on Sunday evening, waving Chile flags. Some wore red caps emblazoned "Make Chile Great Again." Ignacio Segovia, a 23-year-old engineering student, was among them. "I grew up in a peaceful Chile where you could go out in the street, you had no worry, you went out and you never had problems or fear," he said. "Now you can't go out peacefully." KAST MAY FACE OPPOSITION FROM DIVIDED CONGRESS While Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, violent crime has spiked in recent years as organized crime groups have taken root, capitalizing on the country's porous northern desert borders with coca-producing neighbors Peru and Bolivia, major international marine ports, and surge of migrants susceptible to human and sex trafficking. The vast majority of migrants in Chile illegally have arrived from Venezuela in recent years, government data shows. Kast's proposals include creating a police force inspired by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to rapidly detain and expel migrants in the country illegally. He has also touted massive cuts in public spending. Chile is the world's largest copper producer and a major producer of lithium, and expectations of less regulation and market-friendly policies have already buoyed the local stock market, peso and equity benchmark. However, Kast's more radical proposals are likely to face pushback from a divided Congress. While right-wing parties won seats in both legislative houses in a November general election, most of those gains came from more traditional parties. The Senate is evenly split between left and right-wing parties, while the swing vote in the lower legislative body belongs to the populist People's Party. He will have to satisfy a wide electoral base, said Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst and professor at the University of Valparaiso. "It is clear that not everyone who voted for Kast is from his party. That is, much of his vote is borrowed," he said. That fact may stay Kast's hand on policies like abortion. He has previously been outspoken against abortion and the morning-after pill, but rarely spoke about it during the recent campaign. Changing the country's abortion laws would require the support of more than half of the Congress - and polls suggest most Chileans support existing rights. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-votes-presidential-race-expected-lurch-country-right-2025-12-14/

2025-12-13 17:38

VILNIUS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy John Coale said on Saturday that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko had promised to stop weather balloons flying from his country into Lithuania. "He agreed recently to do everything he could to stop the balloons," Coale told Reuters in Vilnius, after two days of talks with Lukashenko. Sign up here. The balloons, used by cigarette smugglers, have caused over a dozen closures of Vilnius airport in recent months. Lithuania has accused Belarus of conducting a "hybrid attack" by facilitating the activity, and has declared a state of emergency over the issue, asking parliament to authorise military support for police and border guards to deal with the smugglers. Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Lithuania was exaggerating the problem. "I believe that the president of Belarus is sincerely trying to calm it down. I think it will take some time, but I think it can be resolved. He wants normal relationship with his neighbours - so he assures me", said Coale. "I know Lithuania has done everything they can to stop the receivers of the cigarettes or whatever the hell that is. So I think both sides are working", he added. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on December 1 that the situation at the border was worsening, and called the balloon incursions a "hybrid attack" by Belarus that was "completely unacceptable". https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-says-belarus-agreed-stop-balloon-flyovers-into-lithuania-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 16:35

Dec 13 (Reuters) - U.S. soft drinks company Coca-Cola's (KO.N) , opens new tab proposed sale of Costa Coffee is at risk of collapsing, with the company holding last-ditch talks this weekend with private equity firm TDR Capital in an effort to salvage the deal, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. TDR was selected as Coca-Cola's preferred bidder earlier this week, but talks have stumbled over the price, the report said, adding that the deal includes the soft drinks giant retaining a minority stake in the British coffee chain. Sign up here. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. TDR declined to comment. Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In August, Coca-Cola was said to be working with investment bank Lazard (LAZ.N) , opens new tab to review options, including a potential sale, of Costa, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Lazard also did not respond to a request for comment. In 2018, Britain's Whitbread Plc sold Costa to Coca-Cola for an enterprise value of $5.1 billion. https://www.reuters.com/business/coca-cola-holds-last-ditch-talks-bid-salvage-costa-coffee-sale-ft-reports-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 12:39

Nobel winner Ales Bialiatski among those released Leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava also freed Trump envoy says US lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash VILNIUS, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava in a deal brokered by an envoy for U.S. President Donald Trump. In return, the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Potash is a key component in fertilisers, and the former Soviet state is a leading global producer. Sign up here. The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko since Trump's administration opened talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western governments had previously shunned him because of his crushing of dissent and backing for Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump's envoy John Coale told Reuters that around 1,000 remaining political prisoners in Belarus could be released, hopefully in one big group, in the coming months. "I think it’s more than possible that we can do that, I think it’s probable... We are on the right track, the momentum is there," he said. If no political prisoners remained, most of the sanctions could be removed. "I think it's a fair trade," Coale added. BIALIATSKI SAYS HUMAN RIGHTS STRUGGLE WILL GO ON Nine of the released prisoners left Belarus for Lithuania and 114 were taken to Ukraine, officials said. Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is a human rights campaigner who fought for years on behalf of political prisoners before becoming one himself. He had been in jail since July 2021. Visibly aged since he was last seen in public, he smiled broadly as he embraced exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on arrival at the U.S. embassy in Lithuania. Bialiatski told Reuters he had spent the previous night on a prison bunk in a room with nearly 40 people, and was still getting to grips with the idea of being free. He said the goals of the human rights struggle for which he and his fellow-campaigners had won the Nobel prize had still not been realised. "Thousands of people have been and continue to be imprisoned ... So our struggle continues," he said in his first public comments in the three years since he won the award. The Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed "profound relief and heartfelt joy" at his release. Kalesnikava, a leader of mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020, was among the large group taken by bus to Ukraine. "Of course, it's a feeling of incredible happiness first of all: to see with your eyes the people who are dear to you, to hug them, and understand that now we are all free people. It's a great joy to see my first free sunset," she said in video published by the Ukrainian Telegram channel Khochu Zhit. It showed her embracing Viktar Babaryka, an opposition politician arrested in 2020 while preparing to run against Lukashenko in an election. Babaryka said his son Eduard was still in prison in Belarus. Tatsiana Khomich, Kalesnikava's sister, told Reuters she had been worried she might refuse to leave Belarus and had been prepared to try to persuade her. "I very much look forward to hugging Maria... the last five years was very hard for us, but now I talked to her (by phone) and I feel as if the five years did not happen," she said. US DIPLOMACY AIMS AT DECOUPLING LUKASHENKO FROM PUTIN U.S. officials have told Reuters that engaging with Lukashenko is part of an effort to peel him away from Putin's influence, at least to a degree - an effort that the Belarus opposition, until now, has viewed with extreme scepticism. The U.S. and the European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus after Minsk launched a violent crackdown on protesters following a disputed election in 2020, jailing nearly all opponents of Lukashenko who did not flee abroad. Sanctions were tightened after Lukashenko allowed Belarus to serve as a staging ground for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The exiled Belarusian opposition expressed gratitude to Trump and said the fact that Lukashenko had agreed to release prisoners in return for the concessions on potash was proof of the effectiveness of sanctions. The opposition has consistently said it sees Trump's outreach to Lukashenko as a humanitarian effort, but that EU sanctions should stay in place. "U.S. sanctions are about people. EU sanctions are about systemic change — stopping the war, enabling democratic transition, and ensuring accountability. These approaches do not contradict each other; they complement each other," exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said. Lukashenko has previously denied there are political prisoners in Belarus and described the people in question as "bandits". As recently as August, he asked why he should free people he sees as opponents of the state who might "again wage war against us". Trump has referred to Lukashenko as "the highly respected president of Belarus", a description that jars with the opposition who see him as a dictator. He has urged him to free up to 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners whom Trump has described as "hostages". "The United States stands ready for additional engagement with Belarus that advances U.S. interests and will continue to pursue diplomatic efforts to free remaining political prisoners in Belarus," the U.S. embassy in Lithuania said. Belarusian human rights group Viasna - which is designated by Minsk as an extremist organisation - put the number of political prisoners at 1,227 on the eve of Saturday's releases. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-lifts-sanctions-belarusian-potash-state-media-cite-trump-envoy-saying-2025-12-13/

2025-12-13 11:32

KYIV, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region suffered major blackouts on Saturday after a large overnight Russian attack on the power grid that left more than a million households without power. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. Sign up here. "The brunt of the attack was on our energy system, on the south and Odesa region," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, adding that thousands of families in seven regions across Ukraine were left without power. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was one of the war's largest attacks on Odesa, where supplies of electricity and water had been knocked out. She said supplies of non-drinking water were being brought in to areas of the city. Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko said more than a million households across Ukraine had been left without power and five people had been wounded as a result of the attack. Ukraine's power grid operator said a "significant number" of households were without power in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and that the Ukrainian-controlled part of the frontline Kherson region was totally without power. Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy system since its 2022 invasion, causing hours of daily blackouts countrywide. Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday it had conducted strikes on Ukrainian energy and military-industrial facilities. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraines-odesa-suffers-major-blackouts-after-russian-attack-2025-12-13/