2024-09-17 08:28
At least 19 killed in central Europe floods since weekend Polish town Nysa repairs broken embankment Historic Wroclaw prepares for high waters At least 15,000 evacuated in Czech Republic Hungarian, Slovak capitals deal with high waters in Danube NYSA, Poland, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Volunteers shored up defences to stem swollen rivers in the Polish city of Nysa on Tuesday, one of dozens of towns and cities across central Europe deluged by devastating floods that have killed at least 19 people. Rivers were still bursting their banks in the Czech Republic, while the River Danube was rising in Slovakia and Hungary, and parts of Austria and Romania have also been inundated by floodwaters. The Czech-Polish border areas are among the worst-hit since the weekend, as gushing, debris-filled rivers devastated historic towns, collapsing bridges and destroying houses. Flooding has killed seven people in Romania, where waters have receded since the weekend, four in Poland, five in Austria, and three in the Czech Republic. Tens of thousands of Czech and Polish households were still without power or fresh water. Overnight, volunteers helped rescue workers heave sandbags to build up the broken embankment around Nysa, a city of more than 40,000 people in southwestern Poland. National fire chief Mariusz Feltynowski said on Tuesday that the Nysa embankment was sealed, with military helicopters joining the operation to drop sandbags. Some residents returned to check their homes were safe after evacuations on Monday, despite assurances from Prime Minister Donald Tusk that authorities would act "ruthlessly" against looters. "(They) assured us that services would take care of our belongings and property. But we are afraid ... because we are already hearing that looters have become active," Nysa resident Sabina Jakubowska, 45, told Reuters. Poland has declared a state of disaster in the area and set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) for flood victims. WROCLAW PREPARES Historic Wroclaw, Poland's third city, was preparing for peaking water along the Oder river. "We have buses provided, if there is a need for evacuation," Wroclaw Mayor Jacek Sutryk told a crisis meeting. "Today we will also be reinforcing further embankments, also in the Odra (Oder) river basin." The city's zoo called for volunteers to help pack sandbags to protect animal enclosures and employees and volunteers began to move some of the 450,000 books from the city's main church archive to higher floors of the Archdiocesan Archives building. Polish authorities have filled 80% of a giant reservoir near the Czech border, aimed at cutting water levels and preventing flood peaks from coinciding on the Oder and Nysa, as happened in the disastrous 1997 floods in Wroclaw. In neighbouring Czech Republic, Governor Josef Belica said 15,000 people had been evacuated in the northeastern Moravia-Silesia region, one of two badly affected. Helicopters were delivering aid to areas cut off by floodwaters. Credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS estimated losses from flooding across central Europe at between several hundred million euros to more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion). But Belica said the damage in his region alone would reach tens of billions of crowns (over $1 billion). In the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava, a broken barrier on the Oder at its confluence with the Opava river caused flooding on Monday of the city's industrial area including the BorsodChem chemical plant, coking plant OKK Koksovny and others. In Hungary, at the historic towns of Visegrad and Szentendre, north of Budapest, authorities have put mobile dams in place preparing for the Danube floods. Budapest is preparing for waters peaking near record levels, and has closed Margaret island, a recreational area with hotels and restaurants, where people have piled up tens of thousands of sandbags to protect it. Hungary said as many troops as necessary would be deployed to the flood-defence effort, with 1,400 already assisting on the ground. In Slovakia, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said the Danube had peaked at nearly 10 metres overnight and water levels would now slowly fall. He said that the damage caused by floods throughout the country was estimated at 20 million euros. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-fortifies-towns-deadly-floods-afflict-central-europe-2024-09-17/
2024-09-17 08:24
BENGALURU, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Reliance's (RELI.NS) , opens new tab Jio users on Tuesday reported a network outage across India, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com , opens new tab. More than 10,000 Jio users have reported the issue, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. Jio did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/reliance-jio-users-report-network-outage-across-india-downdetector-shows-2024-09-17/
2024-09-17 08:23
HARARE, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe plans to cull 200 elephants to feed communities facing acute hunger after the worst drought in four decades, wildlife authorities said on Tuesday. The El Nino-induced drought wiped out crops in southern Africa, impacting 68 million people and causing food shortages across the region. "We can confirm that we are planning to cull about 200 elephants across the country. We are working on modalities on how we are going to do it," Tinashe Farawo, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson, told Reuters. He said the elephant meat would be distributed to communities in Zimbabwe affected by the drought. The cull, the first in the country since 1988, will take place in Hwange, Mbire, Tsholotsho and Chiredzi districts. It follows neighbouring Namibia's decision last month to cull 83 elephants and distribute meat to people impacted by the drought. More than 200,000 elephants are estimated to live in a conservation area spread over five southern African countries - Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Namibia - making the region home to one of the largest elephant populations worldwide. Farawo said the culling is also part of the country's efforts to decongest its parks, which can only sustain 55,000 elephants. Zimbabwe is home to over 84,000 elephants. "It's an effort to decongest the parks in the face of drought. The numbers are just a drop in the ocean because we are talking of 200 (elephants) and we are sitting on plus 84,000, which is big," he said. With such a severe drought, human-wildlife conflicts can escalate as resources become scarcer. Last year Zimbabwe lost 50 people to elephant attacks. The country, which is lauded for its conservation efforts and growing its elephant population, has been lobbying the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to reopen trade of ivory and live elephants. With one of the largest elephant populations, Zimbabwe has about $600,000 worth of ivory stockpiles which it cannot sell. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zimbabwe-cull-200-elephants-feed-people-left-hungry-by-drought-2024-09-17/
2024-09-17 08:06
MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russia has tentatively agreed to the construction of a fuel pipeline in the Republic of Congo, according to a government decree published late on Monday. The pipeline will link the western port of Pointe-Noire to the capital Brazzaville. Moscow said a joint venture to construct the pipeline would be set up with Russia controlling 90% of the entity. The technical and economic issues are set to be defined in a concession agreement. Russia pledged to provide funds, equipment and personnel for the construction of the pipeline as well as fuel to fill it if and when necessary. The Republic of Congo is expected to agree to various tax relief measures. Russia has been forging close ties with Africa following the collapse of relations with the West over the conflict with Ukraine, which started in February 2022. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/russia-clears-fuel-pipeline-construction-congo-2024-09-17/
2024-09-17 08:06
Ten of the 11 Crop Watch locations received no rain last week Lack of rain combined with warm temperatures may have trimmed top-end soybean potential in central Corn Belt states Minnesota and the Dakotas welcomed last week's warmth to push corn closer to maturity Upcoming rains could help later-planted fields Three Crop Watch soybean fields and one corn field may be harvested this week NAPERVILLE, Illinois, Sept 16 (Reuters) - A handful of the U.S. Crop Watch corn and soybean fields will be ready for harvest this week or next, but recent dry weather has raised some questions over yield potential. North Dakota was the only Crop Watch location to observe rain last week and the amounts of up to 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) were beneficial to fields there. Temperatures were well above average last week across the entire Corn Belt, delighting producers in the Dakotas and Minnesota, where corn development has been lagging. Elsewhere, the warm and dry week was less welcome because of how scarce moisture has been in recent weeks. At least four of the 11 producers (in western Iowa, southeastern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio) directly mentioned the recent weather shrinking yield potential, especially for beans. Harvest activity has yet to pick up in earnest, but some producers report that early bean yields in their areas have not been as high as previously hoped. Talk in Indiana includes bean yields being "great but not as good as last year." The western Iowa producer added that 2024 is "another year of late heat and dryness taking the top end off (of yields)." Producers in Nebraska and eastern Iowa heard of some good-to-very-good corn results in their areas, but there are not enough reports from which to draw conclusions. SOY YIELDS EASE Crop Watch producers continue to rate yield potential on a 1-to-5 scale. Yield potential incorporates both visible and non-visible elements where 3 is around farm-average yield, 4 is solidly above average and 5 is record-high or close to it. The 11-field average soybean yield dropped to a season low of 3.45 from 3.52 in the prior week based on a full-point cut in western Iowa, which is now rated at 4. Soy yield in Nebraska also eased slightly, but last week's favorable weather in North Dakota boosted those beans by a half-point to 2.5. The western Iowa producer has started harvesting the Crop Watch soybeans and says that the disappointing results so far might be related to the variety, which performed well a year ago. Average corn yield ticked up slightly to 3.32 from 3.3 a week earlier because of a quarter-point boost in North Dakota. All other corn scores were unchanged. RAINS POSSIBLE LATE WEEK The Corn Belt is in store for yet another week of well-above-average temperatures, but there are some chances for rain by the weekend that could benefit crops that have not reached full maturity. Rain is scheduled to hit Iowa and areas to the north and west, meaning that Illinois and points east will probably stay dry for at least the next 10 days. The western Iowa and western Illinois soybeans are projected for harvest on Monday, and the Indiana soybeans and Ohio corn could be completed by the weekend. The Kansas corn is the only one of 22 Crop Watch fields harvested so far. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/crop-watch-dry-weather-skims-soy-yields-heat-helps-northern-corn-2024-09-17/
2024-09-17 08:04
MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russian company RusChemAlliance has filed new lawsuits against five European banks that stopped financing the construction of a gas project in Russia after the West imposed sanctions against Moscow over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The lawsuits, all filed with St Petersburg's Arbitration Court on Sept. 16, were addressed to Italian bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI) , opens new tab and German lenders Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) , opens new tab, Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) , opens new tab, Bayerische Landesbank and Landesbank BadenWurttemberg, with no additional details given. RusChemAlliance and Commerzbank declined to comment. The other banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. RusChemAlliance, a joint venture 50% owned by Russian gas producer Gazprom (GAZP.MM) , opens new tab, has filed several other suits against European banks after German industrial gases company Linde (LIN.DE) , opens new tab stopped work on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga in 2022. The St Petersburg court has frozen some Linde assets in Russia and ordered that some of its assets outside Russia be frozen, too, as it tries to recoup funds lost over the gas processing plant's abrupt construction halt. The same court has previously ordered all five banks to pay damages. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-ruschemalliance-sues-five-european-banks-over-aborted-gas-project-2024-09-17/
