2025-03-23 08:03

KYIV, March 23 (Reuters) - Online services of Ukraine's state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia are not working due to a technical failure, the company said on Sunday, providing no additional details. "Ticket sales via the app and website, online ordering services and reference services are temporarily not working," the company said on Telegram messenger. Sign up here. After the Russian invasion in 2022 and the closure of airspace over Ukraine, trains became the main mode of transportation for domestic and international passengers. The railway company did not specify what caused the technical failure. Ukrainian state authorities have often blamed Russian hackers for outages of state and private online services since the beginning of the war. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-state-railway-reports-large-technical-failure-2025-03-23/

2025-03-22 20:19

MOSCOW, March 22 (Reuters) - An oil products spill occurred at the oil depot that caught fire in southern Russia's Krasnodar region after a drone attack last week, regional officials said on Sunday. The area of the fire at the depot near the village of Kavkazskaya increased to 2,000 square metres from the 1,250 square metres previously reported, said state news agency TASS. Sign up here. There were no casualties and other buildings and tanks at the depot were not damaged, regional officials wrote on messaging app Telegram. Russia's Foreign Ministry said this week that the attack amounted to violation of an agreement to halt attacks on energy infrastructure as part of efforts to secure a broader ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. Local authorities had brought in firefighting trains loaded with water to help to battle the blaze on Saturday. The depot is a rail terminal for Russian oil supplies for a pipeline to Kazakhstan. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-authorities-bring-trains-fight-oil-depot-fire-2025-03-22/

2025-03-22 15:54

March 22 (Reuters) - India will remove a 20% duty on onion exports starting April 1, the government said on Saturday. The move follows nearly five months of export restrictions, including minimum export prices and outright bans, imposed to ensure domestic availability. The 20% export duty had been in effect since Sept. 13, 2024. Sign up here. The government said the decision reflected its commitment to ensuring fair prices for farmers while maintaining affordability for consumers. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-scrap-20-onion-export-duty-april-1-2025-03-22/

2025-03-22 15:10

Paris lags other European capitals in green infrastructure Car traffic has more than halved since turn of the century, town hall data shows Critics argue changes hinder suburban commuters into city centre PARIS, March 22 (Reuters) - Parisians vote in a referendum on Sunday to decide whether an extra 500 of the city's streets should be pedestrianised and greened, in a new push by the French capital's left-leaning town hall to curb car usage and improve air quality. This is the third such referendum in Paris in as many years, following a 2023 vote that approved a ban on e-scooters, and a decision last year to triple parking charges for large SUVs. Sign up here. "For the past 25 years we've gradually been reclaiming public space for pedestrian traffic, for gentle traffic, and with 'garden streets', to create lungs within neighbourhoods, the places where we live," Deputy Mayor Patrick Bloche told Reuters ahead of Sunday's vote. Paris town hall data shows car traffic in the city has more than halved since the Socialists assumed power at the turn of the century. Mayor Anne-Hidalgo, in office since 2014, has overseen significant transformation in the city's streets. Since 2020, 84 km (52 miles) of cycle lanes have been created and bicycle usage jumped 71% between the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns and 2023, the data shows. If approved, Sunday's referendum will eliminate 10,000 extra parking spots in Paris, adding to the 10,000 removed since 2020. The capital's two million residents will be consulted on which streets will become pedestrian areas. PARIS BOTTOM OF LIST OF EUROPE'S GREENEST CAPITALS Despite recent changes, Paris lags other European capitals in terms of green infrastructure - which include private gardens, parks, tree-lined streets, water and wetlands - making up only 26% of the city area versus a European capitals average of 41%, according to the European Environment Agency , opens new tab. Critics of the changes say the town hall's measures make it increasingly challenging for the 10 million people living in the outer suburbs, where the public transport network is less dense, to commute to work and shop in the city centre. "It's important to know that the city of Paris isn't a museum. It's still a city where people work, where workers are forced to get around, where people from the greater Paris region are forced to come, where there are stores," said Philippe Noziere, head of the automobile owners' association 40M. Car ownership illustrates the divide between central Paris and the suburbs: only one out of three households own a car in the former versus two out of three in the latter. Excluding Paris and its region, car ownership in France is 85%. If Parisians vote in favour of the proposal, the 500 streets to be vegetated will bring the total of these "green lungs" to nearly 700, just over one-tenth of the capital's streets. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-residents-vote-making-500-more-streets-pedestrian-2025-03-22/

2025-03-22 14:22

NEW DELHI, March 22 (Reuters) - India's key manufacturing scheme received investments of nearly $19 billion as of November last year, the trade ministry said on Saturday, a day after Reuters reported New Delhi will let the $23-billion incentive program lapse amid disappointing results. The incentive scheme will not be expanded beyond 14 pilot sectors and production deadlines will not be extended despite requests from some participating firms, Reuters has reported. Sign up here. The trade ministry, in a statement, said private firms had produced goods worth nearly $163 billion under the scheme, 90% of the target until fiscal year 2024/25, and the government had in turn paid out less than $1.7 billion in incentives. The payouts make for 8% of the scheme's intended subsidies, Reuters had reported. Projects are implemented over two to three years and claims are usually made after the first year of production, as per the statement. "Hence, most of the projects are at implementation stage and will be filing incentive claims in due course." The trade ministry's statement did not mention the Reuters report. ($1 = 85.9900 Indian rupees) https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-draws-investments-worth-19-billion-under-key-production-scheme-government-2025-03-22/

2025-03-22 11:43

March 22 (Reuters) - Some European central banking and supervisory officials are questioning whether they can still rely on the U.S. Federal Reserve to provide dollar funding in times of market stress, six people familiar with the matter said, casting some doubt over what has been a bedrock of financial stability. The sources told Reuters they consider it highly unlikely the Fed would not honour its funding backstops — and the U.S. central bank itself has given no signals to suggest that. Sign up here. But the European officials have held informal discussions about this possibility - which Reuters is reporting for the first time - because their trust in the United States government has been shaken by some of the Trump administration's policies. President Donald Trump has made a sharp break from long-standing U.S. policy in several areas, such as appearing to endorse Russia's position on Ukraine, raising questions about U.S. commitment to European security and imposing tariffs on its allies. In some European forums where participants assess potential risks to the financial system, these officials have discussed scenarios under which the U.S. government might pressure the Fed to suspend the dollar backstops, two of the sources said. Some officials have been gaming out whether they can find alternatives to the U.S. central bank, the two sources said. In times of market stress, the Fed has provided the European Central Bank and other major counterparts with access to dollar funding. The takeaway from these discussions: there is no good substitute to the Fed, said the six sources, who include senior ECB and European Union banking supervisory staff with first-hand knowledge of the conversations. The sources all requested anonymity to speak candidly about the private deliberations. The ECB and the Fed declined to comment for this article. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Fed is an independent institution, accountable to Congress. The central bank has never suggested that it would not stand behind its backstops, which it maintains as a first line of defense against foreign economic or financial trauma spilling over to the U.S. Separately, five senior euro zone central bank officials said the informal conversations - held outside regular policymaker gatherings - were not driven by any signals from the Fed or from ECB leadership. One of the sources with direct knowledge of the conversations said the matter has been discussed in recent weeks in working groups that help officials examine issues, and involved senior European central banking and supervisory staff. Another said the question of whether Europe can rely on the Fed's backstops is expected to also come up in more formal discussions soon. One of the sources said the discussions come amid "the potential for less international cooperation on the part of American authorities." During a European Parliament hearing on Thursday about the U.S. shift to protectionism and its impact on the European economy, ECB President Christine Lagarde said the relationship with the Fed had not changed since Trump took office in January. RISK ASSESSMENT As the central bank for the 20 euro zone countries, the ECB sets monetary policy and is responsible for increasing the financial system's resilience and identifying potential risks. It also supervises the region's top banks, which are among the world's largest. The discussions about funding alternatives are part of a broader analysis of the vulnerabilities in the euro zone's financial system, which the ECB and other EU regulators do as a matter of course, the sources said. The U.S. dollar is the dominant currency for economic trade and capital flows. In times of stress, investors, companies and financial institutions rush to the safety of the world's reserve currency. Most recently in 2023, the Fed provided tens of billions of dollars to the Swiss central bank, which in turn enabled Credit Suisse to meet client demand for cash. While Credit Suisse eventually had to be rescued, the Fed helped avert an implosion that could have wrecked the financial system, analysts say. Despite the doubts expressed by banking officials in private conversations, the possibility the Fed would ever curtail its financing lines is seen by European officials as only a very remote possibility, according to the five eurozone central bank officials, who also spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. That's because such a move by the Fed would have profound ramifications for global markets, financial stability and the economy. It would also likely ricochet back on the U.S. economy, threaten the dollar's dominance and depress demand for U.S. government debt, several of the sources said. While the Fed's independence is not under question, four of the six sources familiar with the discussions said some European officials felt it was possible that the Trump administration may increase pressure on the central bank over time, leading to the scenario where it doesn't provide dollar funding. The Fed declined to comment on that possibility, while the White House did not respond to a request for comment. One of the sources said EU officials are concerned about European banks' short-term borrowings in dollars, which make continued access to the Fed's credit lines vital. About 17% of euro-zone banks' funding is in dollars, a recent ECB study showed. https://www.reuters.com/markets/some-european-officials-weigh-if-they-can-rely-fed-dollars-under-trump-2025-03-22/