2024-06-22 12:33

ANKARA, June 22 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have brought under control an agricultural fire that killed 12 people and wounded 78 others in a region near the Turkish border with Syria and Iraq, local media reported on Saturday. The fire had started late on Thursday due to the burning of straw and spread because of strong winds, the local governor's office said. Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said in a post on X on Friday. Broadcaster NTV and others said the fire was now under control and authorities were working to cool the scorched areas. NTV said many animals trapped in the fire were also killed. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said late on Friday that the treatment of the wounded was still underway, with some in critical condition. "We are continuing the treatment and monitoring of five of our wounded. Three of our five wounded receiving treatment in Diyarbakir are intubated," Koca said on X. Burning straw is a common practice by farmers and villagers in central Anatolia following harvest periods. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/agricultural-fire-that-killed-12-southeast-turkey-under-control-media-says-2024-06-22/

2024-06-22 11:56

BUENOS AIRES, June 22 (Reuters) - Argentines, famed for steakhouses, sprawling cattle ranches and asado barbecues, are consuming less beef than ever, forced to tighten their belts by triple-digit inflation and a recession. Beef consumption is down almost 16% this year so far in the South American nation where beef has always been an essential part of the social fabric, along with soccer and mate tea. Many Argentine homes have in-built "parrilla" grills where families gather. Steakhouses dot street corners around Buenos Aires and people will huddle around make-shift barbecues for a taste of beef, even on construction sites or at protests. "Beef is an integral part of the Argentine diet, it is as if pasta were eliminated for Italians," retiree Claudia San Martin, 66, told Reuters while waiting in line at the butcher shop. She said she was willing to cut back on other purchases such as cleaning products, but beef was sacred. "Argentines can eliminate anything, I believe, in difficult times like this. But we can't do without meat," she said. Still, the latest data show Argentines are this year eating beef at a rate of around 44 kilograms (97 lbs) per year, down sharply from more than 52 kg last year and as much as 100 kg a year in the 1950s. Part of the long-term decline is a longer-term shift toward other meats like pork and chicken, as well as cheaper staples such as pasta. But this year's plunge has been driven by nearly 300% inflation and a stalling economy along with tough austerity measures by libertarian President Javier Milei. Poverty is up, more people are homeless in major cities and lines have grown at soup kitchens. Many families have reduced consumption of staples New Tab, opens new tab like meat, milk and vegetables. They say they are yet to feel the benefit of slowing monthly inflation. "The situation right now is critical. Consumer are taking decisions thinking just about their wallets," said Miguel Schiariti, president of local meat chamber CICCRA, who expected meat consumption to remain depressed. "People's purchasing power is weakening month by month." LESS MEAT, MORE PASTA Out in the farmlands of Buenos Aires province, cattle ranchers are feeling the pinch. "The drop in consumption is worrying," said Luis Marchi, 48, an agricultural engineer and the third generation to run the family farming business producing grains and livestock. "Beef consumption has been dropping quite sharply recently," he added, blaming inflation and the economic slump. "Consumers try to replace beef with cheaper foods, other types of meat or pasta." Another rancher, 53-year-old Guillermo Tramontini, said input costs had risen while drought last year hit many herds. "Beef is not that expensive, but people's purchasing power has been reduced terribly," he said, adding farmers were being careful with capital expenditure to avoid firing workers. As local consumption has slid, exports have risen, but weaker global prices have dampened the boost for farmers. By far the top buyer of Argentine beef is China, though it imports cheaper cuts not used domestically. "The export sector is going through a very tough time even though it keeps exporting big volumes. Prices in the international market have fallen a lot," Schiariti said. 'CHEAPEST CUTS' In his butcher shop in Buenos Aires where he has worked for 40 years, Gerardo Tomsin, 61, said people were still coming to buy beef, but were always hunting for cheaper deals. "People keep coming, the issue is that they consume less. There are people who turn to other products. It is a permanent search for prices," he said. Another butcher Dario Barrandeguy, 76, said people were buying the cheapest cuts of beef or other less expensive meats. "The consumption of chicken and pork has increased a lot recently," he said. Milei, a free market economist who calls himself an anarcho-capitalist, ended the previous Peronist government's freeze on beef prices. "Things have become very expensive and when it's so costly we just don't buy," said Facundo Reinal, a 41-year-old teacher, adding it meant spending less time socializing around the grill "We're seeing overall people doing fewer barbecues, which is a key part of the culture here in Argentina." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/meat-loving-argentines-eat-less-beef-inflation-bites-2024-06-22/

2024-06-22 09:15

TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - Engine trouble forced a Japan Airlines (9201.T) New Tab, opens new tab plane flying to the western region of Osaka from northern Aomori to turn back for an emergency landing on Saturday, a company spokesperson said, but there were no injuries among the 47 aboard. JAL Flight 2154, an Embraer 170, returned after take-off from Aomori airport to land just over half an hour later, the spokesperson said, adding that the company was investigating details of the engine trouble. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/japan/jal-flight-makes-emergency-landing-northern-japan-2024-06-22/

2024-06-22 08:52

Attacks damage energy facilities in the southeast, west Russia says facilities supported military production Power cuts increasingly common in Ukraine KYIV, June 22 (Reuters) - A new barrage of Russian missiles and drones damaged energy facilities in southeastern and western Ukraine on Saturday, wounding at least two energy workers and forcing record electricity imports, officials said. National grid operator Ukrenergo said equipment at its facilities in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west had been damaged in the second large Russian air attack this week. Two workers in Zaporizhzhia were taken to hospital for treatment, it said. The Russian strikes also hit a gas infrastructure facility in the west of the country, the energy ministry said. "After eight massive attacks by the enemy on the power system since March, the situation in the energy sector remains difficult," it added in a statement. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had used long-range missiles fired from aircraft and ships, and drones, to strike ammunition depots and energy facilities that it said supported military production. Ukraine's navy said it was the first time since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that Russian forces had launched missiles from the Sea of Azov rather than the Black Sea. "This is an important turning point, because they use it, considering it a safer water area than the Black Sea," Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk told local television. Ukraine's air defence shot down 12 of 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said. The air alerts in Ukrainian regions lasted for several hours in the middle of the night. RECORD IMPORTS Ukraine's energy ministry said the strikes meant the country would import a record 33,559 megawatt hours (MWh) of power on Saturday. The government would also have to expand by several hours scheduled electricity cut-offs across the country. At the bombed power facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Lviv, firefighters fought to put out fires and repair squads raced to fix the damage, regional officials said. Lviv's regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, said 67 firefighters and 12 special vehicles were involved in putting out the fire in his region on Ukraine's Polish border. Also in the west of Ukraine, in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, the strikes damaged a building of an oil and gas university and 14 other commercial and residential buildings, the mayor said. Moscow has said airstrikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure were in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory. Since March, Russian forces have intensified their bombardments of Ukraine's power system, knocking out about half of the country's available generating capacity and causing an energy crunch that has led to increasingly frequent blackouts. In the capital Kyiv and other cities, the hum of private generators can be heard constantly despite lower levels of electricity consumption during the summer. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-downs-12-missiles-all-drones-launched-by-russia-new-attack-2024-06-22/

2024-06-22 08:25

FRANKFURT, June 22 (Reuters) - Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has agreed there will be no redundancies as a result of a planned joint venture with German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp's (TKAG.DE) New Tab, opens new tab steel division, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported on Saturday. Spokespersons for Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE), which employs 27,000, and for Kretinsky in Germany were not immediately available for comment. An agreement safeguarding employment prospects, drawn up by TKSE's supervisory board, has been signed by top management and by Kretinsky, the newspaper said, naming group CEO Miguel López and human resources officer Oliver Burkhard, as well as TKSE CEO Bernhard Osburg and TKSE HR officer Markus Grolms, as signatories. The Thyssenkrupp group plans to close the sale of a 20% stake in the steel division to Kretinsky by the end of September, while talks over the sale of an additional 30% in TKSE are continuing. TKSE is a top employer in Germany's industrial Ruhr area where the IG Metall labour union is powerful. The union has raised concerns over TKSE's funding requirements as it implements a costly transition to climate neutral steelmaking. Labour representatives have warned of dire economic consequences for the region, should Kretinsky's plan lead to underfunding. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/thyssenkrupp-steel-division-kretinsky-exclude-redundancies-newspaper-reports-2024-06-22/

2024-06-22 06:50

BEIJING, June 22 (Reuters) - Proposed European Union tariffs on Chinese goods are not a "punishment", Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Chinese officials in Beijing on Saturday. Habeck's visit to China is the first by a senior European official since Brussels proposed hefty duties on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) to combat what the EU considers excessive subsidies. China warned on Friday ahead of his arrival that escalating frictions with the EU over EVs could trigger a trade war. "It is important to understand that these are not punitive tariffs," Habeck said in the first plenary session of a climate and transformation dialogue. Countries such as the U.S., Brazil and Turkey had used punitive tariffs, but not the EU, the economy minister said. "Europe does things differently." Habeck said that for nine months, the European Commission had examined in great detail whether Chinese companies had benefited unfairly from subsidies. Any countervailing duty measure that results from the EU review "is not a punishment", he said, adding that such measures were meant to compensate for the advantages granted to Chinese companies by Beijing. "Common, equal standards for market access should be achieved," Habeck said. Meeting Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Habeck said the proposed EU tariffs were intended to level the playing field with China. Zheng responded: "We will do everything to protect Chinese companies." Proposed EU import duties on Chinese-made EVs would hurt both sides, Zheng added. He told Habeck he hoped Germany would demonstrate leadership within the EU and "do the correct thing". He also denied the accusations of unfair subsidies, saying the development of China's new energy industry was the result of comprehensive advantages in technology, market and industry chains, fostered in fierce competition. The industry growth "is the result of competition, rather than subsidies, let alone unfair competition," Zheng said during the meeting. The EU provisional duties are set to apply by July 4, with the investigation set to continue until Nov. 2, when definitive duties, typically for five years, could be imposed. Habeck told Chinese officials the conclusions of the EU report should be discussed. "It's important now to take the opportunity that the report provides seriously and to talk or negotiate," Habeck said. After his meeting with Zheng, Habeck spoke with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who said he would discuss the tariffs with EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Saturday evening via videoconference. CLIMATE DIALOGUE Although the trade tensions were a key topic to be discussed, the goal of the meeting was to deepen cooperation between both industrialised nations for the green transition. This was the first plenary session of the climate and transformation dialogue after Germany and China signed a memorandum of understanding in June of last year for cooperation on climate change and the green transition. The countries acknowledged they had a special responsibility to prevent global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures, a level regarded by scientists as crucial to preventing the most severe consequences. China installed almost 350 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable capacity in 2023, more than half the global total, and if the world's second-biggest economy maintains this pace it will likely exceed its 2030 target this year, a report published in June by the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed. While Habeck praised the expansion of renewable energy in China, he noted that it is important not to look only at the expansion of renewables, but also the overall CO2 emissions. Coal still accounted for nearly 60% of China's electricity supply in 2023. "China has a coal-based energy mix," Zheng said. China, India and Indonesia, are responsible for almost 75% of the global total coal burned, as governments tend to prioritise energy security, availability and cost over the amount of carbon emissions. Zheng said China was building coal-fired power plants as a security measure. "I still believe that the enormous expansion of coal power can be done differently if one considers the implication of renewables in the system," Habeck replied. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-tariffs-china-not-punishment-says-german-economy-minister-2024-06-22/