2025-11-16 02:47
LIMA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Peruvian state oil company Petroperu said in a regulatory filing on Saturday it appointed four new board members, including a new chairman, after accepting the resignations of four prior members. KEY CONTEXT • Four board members resigned on November 15, effective immediately: Chairman Fidel Augusto Moreno Rodriguez, David Quispe Figueroa, Jose Luis Carlos Balta Chirinos and Cesar Rodriguez Villanueva. Sign up here. • The company named Luis Alberto Canales Galvez as its new chairman. • Three other directors were appointed: Elba Rosa Rojas Alvarez de Mares, Jesus Valentin Ramirez Gutierrez and Oscar Gerardo Zapata Alcazar. • The changes were made under Law 32103 and Emergency Decree 004-2024, which allows the immediate board recomposition at Petroperu and waive standard selection procedures. • Shareholders will decide at a future meeting if the new board members qualify as "independent directors." https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/peruvian-oil-firm-petroperu-reshuffles-board-appoints-new-chair-2025-11-16/
2025-11-16 00:00
SYDNEY, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Australia on Sunday cautiously welcomed President Donald Trump's rollback of his tariffs on beef, while pressing the U.S. to eliminate all tariffs on Australian goods. Trump on Friday removed tariffs he had imposed on more than 200 food products, including beef, amid consumer concerns about rising U.S. grocery prices. Australia in 2024 became the biggest shipper of red meat to the U.S., offering lower prices and lean cuts that the U.S. lacks. Sign up here. "We welcome the lifting of these tariffs. That's a good thing for Australian beef producers," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told Australian Broadcasting Corp television. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his Labor government would continue "to advocate for genuine reciprocal tariffs, which would be zero". Among the various tariffs Trump has imposed on goods shipped into the U.S., he calls some of them "reciprocal", based on the size of the U.S. goods-trade deficit with a given country. "We believe very firmly, and will continue to advocate for us to have zero tariffs," Albanese said in televised remarks from Melbourne. Wong would not say whether Albanese's centre-left government, which has previously lobbied for a reprieve, now expected Trump to wind back his 50% tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium imports. "We'll keep advocating our position," she said. Trump in April singled out a beef trade disparity with Australia, which exports more than A$4 billion ($2.61 billion) worth of beef to the U.S. annually. Months after Trump's comments, Australia said it would ease restrictions on beef imports from the U.S., in place since 2003 due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. Australia has shipped between 150,000 tons and 400,000 tons of the product every year since 1990 to the U.S., where it is popular with fast-food chains. ($1 = 1.5300 Australian dollars) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-foreign-minister-says-us-removal-beef-tariffs-good-thing-2025-11-16/
2025-11-15 17:04
Portugal, Spain have faced days of extreme weather Tornado strikes southern Portugal on Saturday Flooding hits parts of Wales and England LISBON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Violent weather brought on by Storm Claudia killed three people and injured dozens in Portugal, authorities there said on Saturday, while in Britain rescue workers were organising evacuations due to heavy flooding in Wales and England. Portugal and parts of neighbouring Spain have faced days of extreme conditions brought on by Storm Claudia, which had reached parts of Britain and Ireland by Saturday. Sign up here. Rescue workers found the bodies of an elderly couple inside their flooded home in Fernao Ferro, across the River Tagus from Lisbon, on Thursday. They had apparently been sleeping and were unable to flee as the water rose during the night. On Saturday, a tornado struck Albufeira in southern Portugal, emergency services said. Footage shot from a distance that was posted online showed the tornado damaging and destroying caravans at a camping area, where regional civil protection commander Vitor Vaz Pinto said an 85-year-old British woman was killed. Twenty-eight people were injured at a nearby hotel, he said, adding that two of them were in hospital with serious injuries. In a statement on Saturday, Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed "his solidarity with the family of the victim who died" in Albufeira and wished a speedy recovery to those injured. Portuguese weather service IPMA placed the entire Algarve and districts of Beja and Setubal on amber alert, its second-highest alert level. STORM CLAUDIA CAUSES FLOODING IN WALES, ENGLAND In Britain, severe flooding hit the town of Monmouth and surrounding areas in southeastern Wales on Saturday. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was conducting rescues, evacuations, and welfare checks. "Storm Claudia has caused significant flooding in parts of Wales overnight, which continues to affect homes, businesses, transport and energy infrastructure," a spokesperson for the Welsh government said. Aerial footage showed widespread flooding in Monmouth, with water inundating the town centre and residential areas after a nearby river burst its banks overnight. Natural Resources Wales has issued 11 flood warnings, four of which are severe, as well as 17 flood alerts. In England, according to the Environment Agency's latest update, there were 49 active flood warnings and 134 flood alerts. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/storm-claudia-kills-three-portugal-causes-flooding-britain-2025-11-15/
2025-11-15 14:51
BEIJING, Nov 15 (Reuters) - China has begun preparations to send a Shenzhou spacecraft to its permanently inhabited space station ahead of schedule, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday. Shenzhou-22 is being sent without anyone on board to the Tiangong space station six months ahead of its planned launch in order to put China's manned space programme back on track. Sign up here. The Shenzhou missions have run like clockwork since 2021 until ten days ago when Shenzhou-20 was damaged while docked at Tiangong, forcing its three-person crew to stay an extra nine days along with another trio of astronauts. On Friday, the Shenzhou-20 crew boarded the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft and successfully returned to Earth, leaving the newly arrived trio of astronauts who had arrived two weeks ago without a vessel that could take them home in the event of an emergency. Shenzhou-22 is being sent ahead of schedule to plug this security risk and allow the Shenzhou-21 crew to return to Earth around April 2026, once they complete their half-year shift. "Preparations for the Shenzhou-22 mission have commenced. The spacecraft will carry a full cargo load, including astronaut provisions and equipment for the space station," CCTV reported. Tiangong has a maximum capacity of six crew, but this can only be temporarily sustained as the facility is designed to host three astronauts for six months. China has not yet announced what will happen to the damaged Shenzhou-20, which is suspected to have been hit by space debris, slightly cracking the window of the its return capsule. Experts have suggested the vessel could be undocked from Tiangong and deorbited over the Pacific. https://www.reuters.com/science/china-readies-shenzhou-mission-ahead-schedule-after-spacecraft-damage-2025-11-15/
2025-11-15 12:16
Gazprom Neft and Gazprom hold together majority stake in NIS US gives NIS owners three months to look for a buyer, says minister NIS operations threatened as banks halt payments BELGRADE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Serbia secured a three-month licence from the U.S. to try to find a buyer for its Russian-owned oil company, NIS, which is under sanctions that threaten fuel supplies ahead of winter, energy minister Dubravka Djedovic-Handanovic said on Saturday. Serbia said this week that Russia's Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) , opens new tab and Gazprom (GAZP.MM) , opens new tab - which together hold a controlling stake of 56% in the country's only oil refiner (NIIS.BEL) , opens new tab - had sent a request to the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), stating readiness to cede control of the company to a third party. Sign up here. OFAC initially placed sanctions on Russia's oil sector, including Gazprom (GAZP.MM) , opens new tab, in January, but for NIS they were postponed several times and finally came into effect on October 8. The U.S. Treasury Department has approved a three-month licence for NIS to give the company's owners time to look for a buyer, Djedovic-Handanovic said on live TV. The company and its oil refinery will not be allowed to operate in the meantime. "An approval for ownership negotiations has been received ... until February 13," she said. Banks have stopped processing NIS payments, and Croatia's JANAF (JANF.ZA) , opens new tab pipeline stopped delivering crude oil, with officials estimating that the refinery can only operate until November 25 without new crude supplies. The U.S. also wants to see the Russian owners entirely leave the company. Belgrade may also seek to take over NIS, she said. "As the energy minister, I believe we have tough decisions to make, whether to take over the company and compensate (Russian owners) for damages. I know the President (Aleksandar) Vucic is against it," she said, adding the government would discuss a potential solution at a session on Sunday. Russia's Gazprom Neft owns 44.9% and Gazprom has a 11.3% stake in NIS. The Serbian government owns 29.9% of the shares, while the remainder belongs to small shareholders and employees. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/serbia-secures-three-month-reprieve-us-sanctioned-oil-firm-nis-says-official-2025-11-15/
2025-11-15 10:58
Tanker seized in Gulf waters on Friday Incident is first Iranian vessel seizure since April 2024 DUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Iran confirmed on Saturday that its Revolutionary Guards had seized a tanker in Gulf waters carrying a cargo of petrochemicals bound for Singapore over alleged violations, Iranian state media reported. A U.S. official and maritime security sources had said on Friday that Iranian forces intercepted the oil products tanker and diverted it into Iranian territorial waters. It was the first report of Tehran seizing a tanker since Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran in June. Sign up here. Iranian state-run television read a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stating that "the tanker was in violation for carrying unauthorized cargo". It did not provide further details of the alleged violations. The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, the Talara, had been sailing off the United Arab Emirates' coast, maritime sources said, and was carrying a cargo of high-sulphur gasoil through the Indian Ocean en route to Singapore from Sharjah in the UAE. The vessel's manager Columbia Shipmanagement said it lost contact with the Talara Friday morning around 20 nautical miles off the coast of Khor Fakkan, UAE. It added that it was working closely with relevant parties, including maritime security agencies and the vessel's owner, to restore contact. The ship is owned by Cyprus-based Pasha Finance. In a statement, the U.S. military said it was aware of the incident and was actively monitoring the situation. Iran's IRGC has periodically seized commercial vessels in Gulf waters in recent years, often citing maritime violations such as alleged smuggling, technical infractions or legal disputes. However, the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was surprising since Iran had not carried out any such operations in recent months. Iran has curbed its military activities in the region since the 12-day Israeli bombing campaign in June, which was joined by the United States. Its last reported seizure of a vessel was in April 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-confirms-seizure-tanker-carrying-petrochemical-cargo-2025-11-15/
