2024-10-26 15:54

CAIRO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Italian energy company Eni and British oil giant BP have resumed exploration in Libya after onshore drilling was halted in 2014, Libya's national oil corporation (NOC) said on Saturday. NOC also said in a statement that Eni had started drilling in an area of Ghadames basin on Saturday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/italys-eni-bp-resume-onshore-drilling-libya-after-10-year-hiatus-noc-says-2024-10-26/

2024-10-26 01:21

CAIRO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's transport ministry suspended flights across all airports until further notice "due to regional tensions," the Iraqi state news agency INA reported after the Israeli military said it conducted strikes against Iranian military targets early on Saturday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-suspends-flights-until-further-notice-due-regional-tensions-ina-says-2024-10-26/

2024-10-26 01:03

［ワシントン ２５日 ロイター］ - ＮＢＣニュースとＡＢＣニュースの両米メディアはイスラエル関係者の話として、イスラエルによるイランへの攻撃目標に核施設や油田は含まれず、軍事目標のみが対象だったと報じた。 Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/-2024-10-26/

2024-10-25 23:42

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The prospect of lower oil prices puts "lots of pressure" on Angola, the country's finance minister told Reuters on Friday, adding that she expected to see prices average around $70 to $72 per barrel compared with $75 in 2024. The government of Africa's second-largest crude oil exporter will also continue to phase out fuel subsidies, Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa said in an interview on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington. "How many steps we didn't decide yet, but our idea is to do it in steps," she said, confirming that subsidies were amounting to around 4% of GDP this year. Angola left the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at the beginning of this year. Brent crude futures settled up 2.25% to $76.05 a barrel on Friday. Analysts have warned that oil prices would come under pressure next year due to ample supply and lackluster demand. Daves de Sousa said the government will present its budget to Parliament next week, with figures on external financing needs being finalized over the next few days. She said Angola was internally examining the possibility of requesting a financing program from the International Monetary Fund. "We asked for a note with options of programs in case we request, and considering our current situation, what they understand as a good program for us," she said. She said the government was also considering other options, such as a mix of funding from other multilateral sources such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, as well as domestic capital markets and banks. The most recent IMF program with Angola was for $3.7 billion, approved in December 2018 after global crude prices tanked, decimating the country's revenues. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/prospect-lower-oil-prices-puts-pressure-angola-finance-minister-says-2024-10-25/

2024-10-25 23:06

LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Britain's climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), has recommended in a letter to government that it should commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 in its upcoming budget next month. The new Labour government is expected to announce increases in public spending and taxes in its first budget in 14 years next week. The emissions cut target recommended by the advisers is higher than the current target of a 78% reduction by 2035 compared with 1990 levels and excludes international aviation and shipping emissions. However, it would make a credible contribution towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the committee said. "With climate damages already felt around the world, targeting an 81% emissions reduction by 2035 sets the right level of ambition," said Piers Forster, interim chair of the committee. "Our analysis shows this can be achieved in a way that benefits jobs and the economy, provided we hit the country’s 2030 target - set in line with the CCC’s advice in 2020," he said. The government needs to set out an updated climate plan and targets for 2035 before a U.N. deadline of February 2025. In July this year, the CCC said Britain might miss its 2030 emissions reduction target and was off track to meet a longer-term target of net zero emissions by mid-century. The advice will also form part of the committee's seventh carbon budget plan covering the years 2038-2042 which is due to be published in February next year. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/britains-climate-advisers-urge-steeper-emissions-cut-target-2035-2024-10-25/

2024-10-25 22:18

Contamination of produce harder to control than that of beef, experts say Cooking beef acts as a 'silver bullet' against contamination, unlike fresh produce Fast-food chains urged by expert to modernize and harmonize safety standards for produce Oct 25 (Reuters) - Moves by major U.S. fast-food chains to temporarily pull fresh onions off their menus on Thursday, after the vegetable was named as the likely source of an E. coli outbreak at McDonald's (MCD.N) , opens new tab, laid bare the recurring nightmare for restaurants: Produce is a bigger problem for restaurants to keep free of contamination than beef. Onions are likely the culprit in the McDonald's E. coli outbreak across the Midwest and some Western states that has sickened at least 75 people and killed one. McDonald's pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu at one-fifth of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Of the 61 people on whom information was available, 22 were hospitalized, and two developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. In past years, beef patties dominated the dockets of foodborne illness lawyers, before U.S. federal health regulators cracked down on beef contamination after an E. coli outbreak linked to Jack in the Box (JACK.O) , opens new tab burgers hospitalized more than 170 people across states and killed four. As a result, beef-related outbreaks became much rarer, experts say. "Produce is a much harder problem," said Mike Taylor, a lawyer who played leadership roles in safety efforts at the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and today is on the board of a nonprofit called STOP Foodborne Illness. Experts say the biggest difference is that beef is cooked while fresh produce, by definition, is not cooked. Proper cooking is a "silver bullet" against contamination, said Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science and safety expert. Large-scale industrial produce is washed, sanitized and tested to a similar degree that beef is, but tests cannot catch sufficiently low levels of contamination, experts say. Crops are often grown outdoors, where feces from wildlife or nearby agricultural animals can seep into irrigation water or floodwater. E. coli is a normal pathogen in the guts of animals. Cattle have it more than others, but it has also been detected in geese, boars, deer and others, said Mansour Samadpour, a food safety specialist. Contamination could arise from using untreated manure or contaminated irrigation water, or from holding or slicing the onions in a way where they became contaminated, Schaffner said. Samadpour, who is chief executive of IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group, and who was hired by Chipotle (CMG.N) , opens new tab to overhaul its food safety regime after a series of contamination episodes in the mid-2010s, said U.S. Department of Agriculture officials insisted on stronger testing of beef. "We went from one or two beef recalls a month to one recall every year or three," Samadpour said. Similar rigorous testing is applied to produce, and fast-food chains and other buyers often require it. But tests do not detect everything. The cleaner the product, the harder it is to detect, Samadpour said. TOUGHER REGULATIONS Both McDonald's and Taylor Farms, a supplier of yellow onions to McDonald's in the affected states, are large and sophisticated companies, and widely regarded by food safety experts as standard-bearers for safe practices. On Friday, McDonald's said it would stop sourcing onions from  Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility indefinitely. The slivered onions from this facility were distributed to about 900 of its restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and portions of other states in the region, the company said. McDonald's suppliers test produce frequently and did so in the date range given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the outbreak, and none of them identified this E. coli strain, company spokespeople said. Wendy's (WEN.O) , opens new tab in 2022 pulled lettuce from restaurants in several states after the CDC suspected it was the source of an E. Coli outbreak that sickened dozens. In 2006, lettuce from Taco Bell was identified as the likely source of an E. coli outbreak that sickened 71 people. Taco Bell is currently owned by Yum Brands (YUM.N) , opens new tab. Contamination can extend even beyond pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella. McDonald's previously dealt with a parasitic outbreak in 2018 , opens new tab linked to McDonald's salads that sickened nearly 400. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 required the Food and Drug Administration to establish standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables. The FDA introduced regulations for farm produce that previously was not subject to much regulation, Rutgers' Schaffner said. “Very often the pattern is we have a public health problem or a food safety problem and eventually Congress will react and we’ll have regulations," Schaffner said. Taylor, the former FDA official, said that while beef contamination was more or less solved through government regulation, improving the safety of produce is best left to buyers, such as McDonald's and other fast-food chains. Taylor believes the fast-food chains and grocery stores, as major buyers of produce, can collectively "modernize and harmonize" the standards they expect from suppliers. The produce marketplace is fragmented and diverse. "The only thing that could for sure destroy the microbes is radiation - but no one wants it," food-safety expert Samadpour said. It is impractical at the volumes of produce that are sold, he said. In addition, for many people radiation carries an "ick factor" when applied to food. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/mcdonalds-e-coli-crisis-reveals-why-vegetable-contamination-is-harder-problem-2024-10-25/