2025-09-21 13:46

Sept 21 (Reuters) - Sunday's Ligue 1 game between Olympique Marseille and champions Paris St Germain has been postponed by a day due to forecasts of heavy rain and storms, hosts Marseille said in a statement. An "orange alert" for storm and rain-flooding has been placed in effect since midday, the prefect of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, where the city of Marseille is located, said in a statement on social media. Sign up here. "Rainfall could reach 70 to 90 mm in some areas and locally 120 mm in a few hours," the prefect said on Sunday. "These weather forecasts raise fears of heavy rainfall across the region between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., i.e. at the start and end of the match, which was expected to attract nearly 70,000 supporters to the Orange-Velodrome stadium." The match will now kick off on Monday at 2000 local time. "The club informs its supporters that tickets purchased for the match scheduled for this evening will remain valid for the rescheduled match tomorrow," Marseille said. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/marseille-v-psg-called-off-due-rain-flood-alert-2025-09-21/

2025-09-20 20:56

Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has canceled the USDA’s annual food insecurity survey, ending a decades-long effort to track how many Americans struggle to access enough food, the Agriculture Department said on Saturday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the Household Food Security Report had become "overly politicized" and was no longer necessary, though the 2024 edition will still be released in October; the 2025 survey will not be conducted, the USDA said in a statement. Sign up here. The cancellation of the report, which has been conducted for 30 years, comes amid rising food insecurity and recent cuts to federal food assistance programs, including tighter work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. The USDA said it will continue to have access to more "timely and accurate data" and claimed the annual report was "rife with inaccuracies, wrong metrics, zero accountability and a massive drive for bigger and larger government programs." The Wall Street Journal first reported on the survey's cancellation. The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-cancels-usdas-annual-food-insecurity-survey-wsj-reports-2025-09-20/

2025-09-20 20:41

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Flight operations at two Dallas-area airports returned to normal operations on Saturday as the Federal Aviation Administration detailed telecom failures by a telecommunications company that it said led to more than 2,000 flight disruptions. American Airlines (AAL.O) , opens new tab, the largest carrier at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, said more than 100,000 passengers were impacted following telecom issues that began on Friday around 2 p.m. CT and were not resolved until Saturday morning. Sign up here. American said it was forced to cancel 530 flights Friday, 160 flights Saturday, and had to divert another 65 flights that had been bound for Dallas. Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) , opens new tab, the largest carrier at Dallas Love Field, delayed more than 1,100 flights Friday, or a quarter of its operations, and more than 200 Saturday, but canceled only one flight, according to Southwest and FlightAware, which tracks flights. Southwest said it had 580 extreme delays on Friday. American, which also delayed more than 350 flights since Friday, warned there could be some additional operational impacts. The FAA said "multiple failures" of telecommunications data services provided by Frontier Communications (FYBR.O) , opens new tab led to the outage that impacted the FAA’s Dallas Terminal Radar Approach Control, which handles operations for both Dallas airports. Frontier has agreed to be acquired by Verizon Communications VZ.N, but the deal has not yet closed. "Oversight by L3Harris, an FAA contractor, failed to ensure that redundancies in the system functioned properly," the FAA said. A Frontier spokeswoman said a third-party contractor in Argyle, Texas, accidentally cut its fiber lines, impacting communication systems at the Dallas airports. "Our team worked overnight, closely coordinating with the FAA and the airports to stabilize the systems, and as a result the airports are up and running today," she said. American Airlines, in detailing the events that led to the flight disruptions, said two cut fiber optic cables on Friday impacted data supporting FAA radars, radio frequencies and computer systems. American Airlines' chief operating officer, David Seymour, said in an email to employees that efforts to restore service by L3Harris (LHX.N) , opens new tab and Frontier did not move fast enough and said the airline was working to determine the financial impact of the outage. Seymour and the airline's CEO, Robert Isom, had a difficult time "reaching leadership at Frontier and L3Harris. We are extraordinarily disappointed that neither provider seems to have any sense of urgency to resolve this matter," Seymour said in the email. An L3Harris spokesperson said a fault in the local telecommunication carrier’s switching gear and a fiber cut impacted flights. "L3Harris immediately assisted with troubleshooting impacted circuits and critical services were restored to the FAA," the company said. "We will continue working with the telecom provider and FAA to completely restore services to their full resiliency." The FAA has faced an unending series of tech issues in recent years highlighting the fragile state of the aging U.S. air traffic control system. Congress in July awarded $12.5 billion to overhaul the system. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/dallas-airports-return-normal-faa-details-problem-that-caused-outage-2025-09-20/

2025-09-20 12:40

NEW DELHI, Sept 20 (Reuters) - India has signed a 15-year contract with the International Seabed Authority for exclusive rights to explore polymetallic sulphides in the Indian Ocean, the government said on Saturday. Polymetallic sulphides, which form around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, contain high concentrations of metals such as copper, zinc, gold and silver - essential for clean energy technologies, electronics, and other high-tech applications. Sign up here. India is the first country to hold two ISA contracts for polymetallic sulphides. An earlier agreement with the United Nations body, which regulates mineral exploration and exploitation in international seabed areas, covered the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges. The country now holds the largest exploration area allotted by the ISA for these deep-sea mineral deposits, a government statement said. It is also seeking exploration licences in the Pacific Ocean, Reuters reported previously. India’s Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said the agreements would help enhance the country’s maritime and mineral exploration capabilities. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-signs-deepsea-mining-exploration-deal-with-international-seabed-authority-2025-09-20/

2025-09-20 12:06

Sept 20 (Reuters) - India is considering setting up a strategic reserve of critical minerals for emergency use in defence manufacturing, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing a defence official. The reserve of critical minerals and metals would be used to "tide over immediate requirement" when needed, the report added, citing Rajesh Kumar Singh, a top Ministry of Defence official who was speaking at a media event in New Delhi. Sign up here. The Indian defence secretary's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. India has been quietly tapping rare-earth mines in Myanmar to diversify its supply chain away from China, in an unusual engagement with the Kachin Independence Army, Reuters reported this month. Beijing has sharply restricted exports of processed rare earths to major economies like India this year as it builds geopolitical leverage in a trade war with the United States. India does have reasonable stocks of critical minerals by all accounts which it should be able to better utilise in the future, Singh said, according to the report. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-plans-strategic-rare-earths-reserve-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-09-20/

2025-09-20 10:50

China repeats position on TikTok, following Trump, Xi call Says encourages a deal that "strikes a balance of interests" Calls for U.S. to give Chinese firms better market access BEIJING, Sept 20 (Reuters) - China stuck to its stance on the future of TikTok in the U.S. on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump said a deal to switch short video app TikTok to U.S.-controlled ownership was progressing. "China's position on TikTok is clear: The Chinese government respects the wishes of the enterprise, and welcomes it to carry out commercial negotiations in accordance with market rules to reach a solution compliant with China's laws and regulations, and strikes a balance of interests," China's Commerce Ministry said in a statement, reiterating a position it has maintained over the past week. Sign up here. Key questions remain about the potential U.S./China deal after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call on Friday. They include the precise ownership structure of TikTok, how much control China will retain over the app's inner workings, and what Beijing gets from backing down and letting the U.S. muscle in on one of China's most successful companies. Progress over the future of the social media app - which has 170 million U.S. users - is seen key to unlocking concessions in other areas - from airplanes to soybeans - as the world's two largest economies chart a path beyond their current tariff truce. "It is hoped that the U.S. side will work towards the same goal as China, earnestly fulfil its corresponding commitments, and provide an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory business environment for the continued operation of Chinese enterprises in the U.S., including TikTok," the Commerce Ministry statement added. Since a framework deal was struck in Madrid earlier this week, Chinese officials and state media have called it a "win-win", promising to review TikTok's technology exports and intellectual property licensing. The framework deal was one hurdle Trump needed to clear to keep TikTok open. U.S. Congress had originally ordered the app to be shut down for U.S. users by January 2025 if its U.S. assets were not sold by Chinese owner ByteDance. He Yadong, a spokesperson for China's Commerce Ministry, reiterated China's hope that the U.S. reduce the barriers to trade facing Chinese firms, when asked what Beijing had got out of the Madrid deal during a news conference on Thursday. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-urges-us-ensure-fair-business-environment-tiktok-other-chinese-firms-2025-09-20/