2024-08-24 23:22

SAO PAULO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Wildfires blazed through sugarcane fields in northern Sao Paulo state on Saturday, sending up clouds of smoke that covered nearby towns so thoroughly that officials prohibited outdoor sports. A soccer match of the Brazilian championship was canceled due to the ban in Ribeirão Preto, a city in the most critical region in the west of São Paulo state. Some state highways were closed due to reduced visibility. Local television showed images of corpses of cattle that had died in fields from heat and smoke inhalation. "The firefighters are unable to control the flames. We can't do anything," farmer Silvio Dantas, 56, told Reuters, on his field as a column of gray-white smoke rose on the horizon. "The fire has burned plants, destroyed houses and killed cattle. This is very tough," he said, The São Paulo government said 36 cities were on "high alert" due to fires that have spread at the peak of the dry season when fields are parched and temperatures high. "We are chartering planes to spray water in addition to fire department aircraft," said São Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, who set up an emergency task force to deal with the situation. On Friday, in Urupes, near Ribeirão Preto, two firefighters died while trying to extinguish flames in a sugar mill in an area where 200 hectares of sugar cane plantation were destroyed. Raizen (RAIZ4.SA) , opens new tab, the world's largest sugarcane processor, said operations at one of its plants in Sertaozinho had been halted since Thursday due to fires in the sugarcane fields. In São Paulo, 350 km to the south, Brazil's largest city, smoke filled the sky on Friday, but had cleared on Saturday. Brazil's wildfire season typically peaks in August and September. This year wildfires started unusually early in Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, in late May, while the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest surged to a two-decade high for the month of July, government data showed. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/wildfires-rage-sugar-cane-fields-brazils-southeast-2024-08-24/

2024-08-24 18:35

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Brazil's central bank chief said on Saturday that discussing monetary policy transmission will become increasingly difficult without addressing fiscal issues, citing the growing burden of public debt driven by expanded government spending. Speaking at the Kansas City Federal Reserve's annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Roberto Campos Neto stressed that income transfer programs implemented during the pandemic are now larger and have become permanent. In Brazil, 50 million people are "gaining money from the government compared to 43 million people who are employees and entrepreneurs," he added. Without directly mentioning President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government, he said, "We need to think about accurate strategy and understand the efficiency of these government programs, especially in emerging market countries, and what that did to the debt." "I think we need to start communicating better the misallocation of resources." In July, Brazilian policymakers kept the Selic benchmark interest rate unchanged at 10.5% for the second consecutive time but toughened their rhetoric, citing the need for "even greater caution" and "diligent monitoring of inflation conditioning factors." In the minutes of the decision, the central bank said it was closely monitoring how recent fiscal developments impact monetary policy and financial assets, amid market concerns that Lula's leftist government will not eliminate its primary deficit this year and next as promised under new fiscal rules, due to increasing expenditures. "We need to address the debt in factoring the dynamics of the markets from now on, and unfortunately, it's going to be very difficult to talk about the (monetary policy) transmission without talking a little bit more about the fiscal," said Campos Neto, whose term ends in December. He said that recent volatility may be showing the market is pricing in less room for fiscal and monetary intervention in the future. Speaking about China's deceleration, he said this could impact Brazil through terms of a trade shock or lower import prices for Chinese goods, though the net effect would depend on how big the slowdown is. Central bankers from around the world flew into Jackson Hole this week to attend what has become the globe's premier economic gathering, the annual symposium in Grand Teton National Park. The panel Campos Neto spoke on discussed monetary transmission, or exactly how much effect interest rate movements have on economic activity. His remarks followed recent communication efforts by rate-setting members of the Brazilian central bank to emphasize that they remain united, considering all options for the upcoming Sept. 17-18 policy decision including a rate increase if necessary. Campos Neto and other central bank directors have highlighted that there is no set guidance for the future, a stance they described as data-dependent. Annual inflation in Brazil reached 4.5% in July, drifting further away from the 3% official target, which has a tolerance band of 1.5 percentage points in either direction. Interest rate futures are pricing an over 80% chance of a rate hike next month, which, if confirmed, would occur as the U.S. Fed readies monetary loosening. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/brazils-campos-neto-says-markets-perceiving-less-monetary-intervention-2024-08-24/

2024-08-24 16:19

BUDAPEST, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Hungary's foreign minister said on Saturday the European Commission's decision not to mediate in a dispute over a blockage of oil supplies from Russia via Ukraine into his country suggested that Brussels was behind the stoppage. Hungary and its neighbour Slovakia have been protesting since Ukraine put Russian oil producer Lukoil (LKOH.MM) , opens new tab on a sanctions list in June, stopping that company's oil from passing through Ukrainian territory to Slovak and Hungarian refineries. The assertion from Hungary's Peter Szijjarto, which he made without providing evidence, came a day after the European Commission declined a request from Hungary and Slovakia for it to mediate between them and Ukraine over the sanctions. "The fact that the European Commission declared that it was unwilling to help to secure the energy supply of Hungary and Slovakia suggests that the order was sent from Brussels to Kyiv to cause challenges and problems in the energy supply of Hungary and Slovakia," Szijjarto said at a conservative political festival. A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on Szijjarto's remarks. The Commission, which has been supportive of Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion, has repeatedly urged EU countries to end their dependency on energy supplies from Moscow. The EU has imposed sanctions on most Russian oil imports. On Friday, a Commission spokesperson said there were no indications that Ukraine's sanctions had endangered European energy supplies, as Russian oil continued to flow through the separate Druzhba pipeline, which also connects Russia to Slovakia and Hungary via Ukraine. Ukraine's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Hungarian statement on Saturday. Slovakia and Hungary are both EU countries that have opposed Western allies' military aid to Ukraine as it fights the invasion that Russia launched in February 2022. The pipeline's southern branch runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and has served as their refineries' primary supply source for years. Last month Szijjarto made similar comments when he accused the European Commission of blackmail in the oil dispute and said that maybe "Brussels, not Kyiv, that invented the whole thing". A Hungarian government official said on Thursday that Hungarian oil company MOL (MOLB.BU) , opens new tab was in the final stages of discussions to establish a scheme to ensure crude oil flows from Russia. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarys-foreign-minister-accuses-eu-disrupting-oil-supplies-russia-2024-08-24/

2024-08-24 10:27

TERMINI IMERESE, Italy, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation over the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian, which killed seven people, a senior investigator said on Saturday. The investigation is not yet targeting any individual person, he added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-prosecutors-open-manslaughter-probe-over-sinking-luxury-yacht-2024-08-24/

2024-08-24 10:22

Not all residents of artsy Taos take kindly to national chains Town council supports the store for employment and tax revenue Police think they know the culprits but lack evidence Taos' first drive-through Starbucks still hopes to open in spring 2025 TAOS, New Mexico, Aug 24 (Reuters) - After two arson attacks at a Starbucks (SBUX.O) , opens new tab construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain's first drive-through cafe in the mountain town with a history of revolts and opposition by some to national chains. It did not take long for locals in this community of 6,500 to come up with a nickname for the would-be coffee shop: "Charbucks." Meanwhile, the building contractor from Albuquerque, the state's largest city, has installed video cameras and a security guard sleeps at the site in a camouflage trailer. Just over a mile north of the site of the store, which Starbucks hopes to open in the spring of 2025, patrons at one of Taos' oldest independent coffee shops are tight-lipped about the attacks. "We don't know who did it, but we loved it," said Todd Lazar, a holistic healer, as he chatted with other regulars on a bench outside the World Cup, just off Taos' central plaza. Their conversation echoes criticism Starbucks faced as it moved into Europe and Asia that the U.S. coffee chain clashes with local culture and will shovel money out of communities. Starbucks operates or licenses around 39,500 cafes worldwide. Stickers plastered on locally owned businesses show the Starbucks logo - which features a mermaid - on fire, with the mermaid's face replaced by La Calavera Catrina, a skull character associated with Mexico's Day of the Dead and that country's national identity. After the first fire in August 2023, the word "NO" preceded by an expletive was spray-painted on the partially burned structure intended to be a Starbucks. From the 1680 Indigenous Pueblo Revolt against Spanish settlement, to the 1847 Taos Revolt against U.S. occupation and more recently an arson attack on a development tycoon and opposition to a billionaire's ski resort development, Taos locals have resisted outside forces. "Taos is a dynamic and volatile contact zone between different groups, imperial powers, ecotones," said Sylvia Rodriguez, emerita professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico who has conducted research on her home town of Taos for decades. Located 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) above sea level in northern New Mexico's high mountain desert, Taos is known for its UNESCO World Heritage Site Native American settlement, art scene and steep ski runs. The area also has deep social inequalities and disconnect between Indigenous, Hispano - descendants of colonial settlers - and other communities, with New Mexico's highest property crime rate , opens new tab. People like Lazar complain that a wave of remote workers during and after the pandemic are driving demand for national chains and exacerbating housing shortages common in U.S. West resort towns. Taos’ town council supported the store on grounds it would provide employment and tax revenue, according to Christopher Larsen, the town's economic development director "NOT COOL" World Cup owner Andrea Meyer said jobs were not the problem. "People are showing up saying 'I'd love to work here, I can't afford to live here,'" said Meyer, who runs a cash-only cafe with no Wi-Fi so as to encourage patrons to talk to one other. Few , opens new tab working households , opens new tab can afford Taos' average home price , opens new tab of $460,000. Around a third of housing units sit vacant, some as second homes and vacation dwellings, others after traditional Hispano families left the area, or other factors, according to census data , opens new tab. Two or three national chains pulled out of Taos projects after Starbucks burned a second time on Oct. 23, 2023, according to Larsen. "The feeling is that Taos doesn't want corporate America," he said. Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said employee safety was its top priority and it would work closely with police once the store opened. No one has been injured in the fires. The town has licensed Starbucks outlets in two supermarkets. Jefferies said the performance of cafes in nearby towns was a factor in opening a Taos store. Based on news reports over the last three decades, Taos appears to be the only place in the world where a future Starbucks cafe has been burned to the ground. Neither contractor Hart Construction nor Arizona-based developer and building owner Clint Jameson responded to requests for comment. On his company website, Jameson, who plans to lease the property to Starbucks, describes himself as "relentless" and a "development maverick." The town and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have offered a $30,000 reward for information on the fires. Police believe they know the culprit, or culprits, but lack evidence to place them at the site during the blazes, Larsen said. Taos Police Chief John Wentz declined to comment. ATF spokesman Cody Monday said the agency continued following leads and searching for the suspect or suspects. At the Coffee Apothecary a mile south of the town's central plaza, owner Pablo Flores vouched for demand for Starbucks-like drinks such as iced caramel frappes, which he tells disappointed customers he does not serve. The specialty coffee roaster lamented the cookie-cutter sameness of national chains sprouting south of town but abhorred their destruction. He saw the fires as an example of how dialogue has broken down amid political polarization across the country. "Taos is changing and if you don't like the way it's changing, do not support that business," said Flores, whose family has lived in Taos for generations. "Don't burn it down, that's not cool." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-mexico-starbucks-nicknamed-charbucks-after-arson-attacks-2024-08-24/

2024-08-24 08:24

OSLO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and campaigners from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion blocked a small oil terminal that is part of Norway's gas processing plant Kaarstoe on Saturday. Gas exports from Kaarstoe to Europe were not affected, the plant's technical service provider Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab told Reuters. "There are activists trying to block off our oil terminal by sea and some onshore entrances," said a company spokesperson. The oil terminal processes condensate and has a "very small production", she added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greta-thunberg-activists-block-norwegian-gas-processing-plant-media-reports-say-2024-08-24/