2025-03-15 06:39

DAMBULLA, March 15 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka began a wildlife census on Saturday to count monkeys, peacocks and giant squirrels, aiming to manage their populations as farmers complain of agricultural losses. Agriculture accounts for 8% of the country's economy and employs 8.1 million people, government data showed. Sign up here. Sri Lanka is the fourth-largest coconut products exporter globally and produces about 3 billion cashew and other nuts annually, according to the Exports Development Board (EDB). But coconut production, along with vegetable and fruit cultivation, has been hit due to crop destruction by monkeys, peacocks and giant squirrels, a top government official said. "The problem has become so bad people are giving up farming. We are losing about 20% of total agricultural production. It is estimated that 90 million coconuts are lost every year," Namal Karunaratne, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, told Reuters. "The census is the first step to understanding the density of these animals in farming areas so we can formulate proper policies to manage them." The census comes after an incident in February when a monkey caused a nationwide blackout and power cuts lasting for three days. Edirisinghe Arachchilage Gnanasena, a 72-year-old farmer, counted 45 monkeys, six giant squirrels and nine peacocks, in the five minutes allocated for the census. His eight-acre plot of farmland in Dambulla, a city in central Sri Lanka, has been struggling with crop losses for years. With an air gun across his shoulder and lead pellets in a plastic bag, Gnanasena spends hours patrolling the neat rows of coconut, mango and banana plants he has carefully grown. But tribes of monkeys still strip trees of hundreds of coconuts and pick mangoes, while peacocks swallow long beans whole, Gnanasena said. "Monkeys are used to the air gun, so I light firecrackers to scare them off. But they always come back." Farmers attribute the rising numbers of monkeys, peacocks, porcupines and wild boars in the area to habitat loss. "I hope this census leads to long-term solutions. That is what we want," he added. "This is not the fault of the animals. It is the fault of the humans." https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/sri-lanka-counts-monkeys-peacocks-squirrels-tackle-crop-damage-2025-03-15/

2025-03-15 01:50

HAVANA, March 14 (Reuters) - Cuba's national electrical grid collapsed late on Friday, the country's Energy and Mines ministry said, leading to widespread blackouts in the capital Havana and across the Caribbean island nation. Energy ministry officials said an electrical substation in Havana failed around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT), knocking out power to a large swath of western Cuba, including the capital. Sign up here. The lights were out across all of Havana's waterfront skyline, a Reuters witness observed, with only a scattered few tourist hotels operating on fuel-fired generators. Reports on social media from outlying provinces both east and west of the capital city suggested much of the country of 10 million people was without power. The grid failure follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba's frail and antiquated power generation system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis. Hours-long rolling blackouts have been the norm for months. Severe shortages of food, medicine and water have made life increasingly unbearable for many Cubans, who in recent years have fled the island in record-breaking numbers. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cubas-electrical-grid-fails-widespread-blackouts-reported-2025-03-15/

2025-03-15 00:05

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Britain's steel industry has called on the government to help with electricity prices that it says can be it 50% higher than those paid by European competitors. Earlier this week, the sector was hit by a 25% tariff on exports to the U.S. that make up around 9% of the value of Britain's steel exports. Sign up here. "Uncompetitive electricity prices must be addressed to ensure the steel industry can thrive, secure thousands of jobs, and safeguard national steel production as geopolitical turbulence increases," said Frank Aaskov, Director, Energy and Climate Change Policy at industry group UK Steel. The group, which represents the country's main steel producers, has called on the government to set fixed electricity prices for the sector via a contract-for-difference. Under the system, if wholesale electricity prices rise above a threshold called the strike price, the government would subsidise the difference, and if it fell below a certain level, the steel makers would pay back the difference. "The strike price could be set at regular intervals to reflect changes in wholesale electricity prices and provide the steel sector with much-needed protection from price volatility,” a report by consultancy Baringa, commissioned by the steel industry said. The Baringa report said UK producers pay around 68 pounds per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity, compared with 52 pounds/MWh in Germany and 44 pounds MWh in France. Last month, the government launched a consultation on a strategy for the steel sector, said it sought to invest 2.5 billion pounds ($3.23 billion) and look at issues including high energy costs. A government spokesperson said the government was "already bringing energy costs for steel closer in line with other major economies" through a package of measures to support industry. "This fully exempts eligible firms from certain costs linked to renewable energy policies, particularly those exposed to the high cost of electricity, such as steel." Steel UK members include British Steel, Liberty Steel and Tata Steel. ($1 = 0.7738 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/british-steel-industry-calls-help-with-electricity-prices-2025-03-15/

2025-03-14 22:46

BUENOS AIRES, March 14 (Reuters) - Argentina has allowed state oil firm YPF to join a stimulus program unlocking government funds for a pipeline project from the massive Vaca Muerta shale formation to a port in the Patagonian province of Rio Negro, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Friday. The project is estimated to cost nearly $3 billion. Once it is up and running, it should pump more than $15 billion in oil exports a year, Caputo said in a post on X. Sign up here. YPF (YPFDm.BA) , opens new tab is developing the project along with partners such as Shell, Chevron, Vista and Pan American Energy. The group applied for the government stimulus - part of a program by President Javier Milei to attract large investments in the country and turn around the flagging economy - last year. Argentina hopes to cement its status as a net energy exporter through Vaca Muerta, the world's second largest shale gas reserve and fourth largest for shale oil. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/argentina-government-oks-stimulus-ypf-pipeline-project-2025-03-14/

2025-03-14 22:45

Consumer sentiment at 57.9 in March Tesla up on report it is planning lower-cost Model Y in Shanghai Nvidia gains ahead of next week's GTC conference Indexes up: Dow 1.65%, S&P 500 2.13%, Nasdaq 2.61% NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rebounded on Friday as investors hunted for bargains at the end of a tumultuous week in which U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating trade war fueled recession fears and doused risk appetite. A broad rally boosted all three major U.S. stock indexes to solid gains, with recently battered tech-related megacaps enjoying a comeback. Every one of the so-called Magnificent 7 artificial intelligence-related momentum stocks advanced, although six of them remain down on the year. Sign up here. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq logged their biggest one-day percentage gains since November 6, the day after the U.S. presidential election. Chips (.SOX) , opens new tab were outperformers, rising 3.3%, while the FANG group of tech-adjacent momentum stocks (.NYFANG) , opens new tab advanced 3.2%. "I don't see a catalyst that would spark this huge upside we're seeing in markets," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. "We're obviously down 10% from all-time highs and pretty oversold, which sets good conditions for a rally even if the fundamental problems are not solved." Even with Friday's bounce, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched their fourth straight weekly losses. The Dow also posted a Friday-to-Friday dip. Encouraging inflation data on Wednesday and Thursday was overshadowed this week by mounting uncertainties arising from Trump's frequently shifting policies, including tariff threats against the biggest U.S. trading partners. Those uncertainties sent investors fleeing from equities in favor of safe-haven assets, lifting gold prices above the $3,000 per ounce level for the first time. "The market doesn't like the tariff stuff, the added uncertainty that keeps them from planning and making decisions," said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital, in St. Louis, Missouri. "Trump is ... wreaking havoc, with his advisors talking about detox, about how maybe a recession is coming, maybe not. It's unsettling, indecisive, it's bad for the economy and bad for the stock market." Those anxieties were laid bare by a dire report from the University of Michigan, which showed consumer sentiment plummeting to its most pessimistic level in nearly two years and one-year inflation expectations spiking to 4.9%. The report echoes other recent downbeat survey data, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll of Americans conducted March 11-12 that showed 57% of survey participants believe Trump's policies will do more harm than good. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 674.62 points, or 1.65%, to 41,488.19. The S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab advanced 117.42 points, or 2.13%, to 5,638.94 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab gained 451.07 points, or 2.61%, at 17,754.09. All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended higher, with technology shares (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab enjoying the largest percentage gain, rising 3.0%. Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab rose 3.9% following a report on the electric vehicle maker's plans to make a lower-cost version of its best-selling Model Y in Shanghai, aiming to regain ground lost during a price war in its second-largest market. Nvidia's (NVDA.O) , opens new tab shares jumped 5.3% ahead of next week's GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which is expected to culminate in a hotly anticipated keynote address from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.42-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 75 new highs and 90 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 3,281 stocks rose and 1,114 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.95-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and five new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 34 new highs and 161 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 14.64 billion shares, compared with the 16.56 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/futures-rise-after-volatile-week-consumer-data-tap-2025-03-14/

2025-03-14 22:13

HOUSTON, March 14 (Reuters) - Exports of liquefied natural gas from Alaska could begin by 2030, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said on Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump talked up the proposed $44 billion Alaska LNG project in his address to Congress last week. The project is expected to deliver about 3.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day, much of it for international markets, from the state's North Slope gas fields. Sign up here. The project needs an 800-mile pipeline to bring gas from Alaska's north to send it to customers in Asia and no final investment decisions have yet been made. Alaska is talking to potential buyers in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, Dunleavy told an energy conference in Houston. "We're looking at an expedited process to build a pipe," he said. Construction for the LNG pipeline would begin in 2026 with gas flowing in 2028, and the conditioning plant and export facility completed in 2030, the governor's office said in an emailed statement later on Friday. "We have all the permits, feedback from all the court cases, we have the support of the president of the United States, we have Asian allies that need gas," Dunleavy said when asked about his optimistic timeline. The project, which was approved during Trump's first term as president, received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorization in 2020 and final legal approval in 2022, despite opposition from environmental groups. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said all options for supporting the project are on the table, including a potential loan guarantee from his department's Loan Programs Office. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-alaska-lng-project-could-start-up-soon-2030-state-governor-says-2025-03-14/