2024-06-08 06:28

TOKYO, June 8 (Reuters) - Nippon Steel (5401.T) New Tab, opens new tab Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori met with U.S. Steel's (X.N) New Tab, opens new tab employees and community leaders this week to gain better understanding of its proposed acquisition of the U.S. company and saw positive reaction, a company spokesperson said. Mori, the key negotiator for the U.S. Steel deal, returned to the United States this week, soon after a May 20-26 trip, in an effort to close the deal amid growing regulatory scrutiny and political opposition as well as objections from the powerful United Steelworkers (USW) union over fears of job losses. Mori held talks with employees of the U.S. Steel's plants in Gary Indiana and Mon Valley, Pennsylvania, outlining the Japanese steelmaker's plans, including commitments to jobs and investments on blast furnaces, the spokesperson said in an email late on Friday. "We are pleased to see the positive and supportive reaction to Mori's visits, and we remain focused on directly communicating our vision to the people who stand to benefit the most from this transaction," the company said. The world's No. 4 steelmaker wants to build public opinion to back the deal, hoping this may push the union to come to the table, Mori told Reuters in a recent interview. The two steelmakers said last month that they have received all regulatory approvals outside of the United States for their proposed $14.9 billion merger, a step forward towards the completion of the controversial deal. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/nippon-steel-executive-saw-positive-reaction-us-steel-workers-others-2024-06-08/

2024-06-08 00:58

June 7 (Reuters) - UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, appealed on Friday for international aid to help prepare violence-plagued Haiti for a dangerous Atlantic hurricane season that could be deadly for the island's many displaced people. The hurricane season that traditionally begins in June and runs through November is forecast to be severe this year. A gang-fueled crisis has devastated Haiti, and the U.N. estimates 360,000 people in the Caribbean nation are displaced. "With every cyclone, every tornado, every flood, children will lose their homes, their livelihoods, their lives, and the season has barely started," Bruno Maes, UNICEF representative in Haiti, said in a statement. "Support from the international community is essential for us to enhance our preparedness and response capabilities for the worst-case scenarios," he said. UNICEF said a late May tornado in northern Haiti, which left some 4,350 people homeless, marked an "omen of a potentially devastating cyclone season." The agency said it was preparing for the season by pre-positioning food, medical supplies and other necessities to shorten delivery times in the country. Haiti's supply routes are controlled by armed groups, slowing aid efforts and endangering humanitarian workers. A combination of climate change heating ocean temperatures and the periodic La Nina phenomenon has led weather forecasters to predict a highly active season. Colorado State University has said the Atlantic could face 23 named storms this season, including 11 potential hurricanes. Last year's Atlantic season was the fourth-most active on record with 20 named storms. At a summit last month, leaders from small island developing states, many in the Caribbean, urged wealthy nations to honor their pledges to lower emissions and help heavily indebted island nations mitigate the impacts of climate change. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/un-agency-appeals-aid-help-haiti-weather-hurricane-season-2024-06-08/

2024-06-08 00:23

SYDNEY, June 8 (Reuters) - Heavy rain brought flash flooding to Australia's largest city, Sydney, on Saturday, prompting rescues and evacuation orders for several low-lying suburbs. Emergency authorities said they carried out 13 rescues and received 297 calls for assistance from residents in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, in the 24 hours to 5 a.m. local time, because of floods sparked by the heavy rain. Ten emergency evacuation orders were in place for suburbs in the city's northwest, the New South Wales State Emergency Service (SES) said in a statement on Saturday morning. The nation's weather forecaster warned that major flooding could occur in the northwest of Sydney, a city of about 5 million, later on Saturday. Sydney's Hawkesbury-Nepean valley is a floodplain prone to dangerous flooding, as it is fed by five tributaries and has chokepoints limiting flows to the sea, so water backs up during heavy rain. SES Acting Assistant Commissioner Dallas Burnes told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that there was "still a lot of water moving around" and urged affected residents to be prepared to leave their homes. New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said the rain had fallen on swollen catchments, resulting in "a much more profound effect". "Our dams are full, our waterways are full, our grounds are saturated," Dib said in a televised news conference in Sydney, adding that some roads and bridges had been affected. The latest emergency comes after more than 150 people were rescued from floodwaters in eastern Australia in April. Flooding is the second-deadliest type of natural disaster after heatwaves in Australia, accounting for about 20% of natural disaster deaths between 1900 and 2022, according to the federal government's Australian Climate Service agency. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/heavy-rains-australias-east-spark-flash-flooding-rescues-2024-06-08/

2024-06-07 23:38

SAO PAULO, June 7 (Reuters) - Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Friday that resistance from some sectors to tighter rules for the use of tax credits will dissipate and Congress will make the best decision on whether the new rules are permanent. This week, the ministry unveiled tighter rules for the use of tax credits by companies, triggering a strong backlash from the most affected industries, including the powerful agribusiness sector. "The repercussion has a lot of heat of the moment. This will dissipate as people understand the objective of reducing tax expenditure," he told journalists. The new rules aim to raise as much as 29.2 billion reais ($5.52 billion) to offset a revenue loss of 26.3 billion reais from tax benefits passed by Congress for the payrolls of some economic sectors and small cities. The measure was included in an executive order sent to Congress earlier this week. It takes effect immediately but needs legislative approval within four months to remain valid. Additionally, the so-called presumed PIS-Cofins tax credit will still be usable but no longer refundable in cash, cutting the government's tax expenditures. Brazilian lobbies from soybean companies to the biofuel sector have come together to strongly criticize the new rules, increasing the odds that Congress, heavily influenced by farming interests, will reject the measure. "What did these sectors expect? For us to remain inert? We could not be inert, and this seemed to be the fairest of measures, because sectors that do not need subsidies were being benefited," Haddad said in response to industry backlash. "Congress will make the best decision... We have time to explore possibilities and to open up the numbers to lawmakers," he added. CONTINGENCY MEASURES Haddad said on Friday that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government might have to impose budget blocks this year to meet its hard-to-reach fiscal target. "We have a fiscal framework we have to respect. If we exceed the limit established in the fiscal framework, you must have contingency measures," he told journalists. In May, Brazil's government raised its primary deficit forecast for this year to 14.5 billion reais ($2.81 billion), or 0.1% of GDP. The goal for 2024 is to eliminate the primary deficit, with a tolerance margin of 0.25 percentage point of GDP in either direction. Haddad also said on Friday the government expects to send to Congress a decree to regulate the country's inflation target this month. He reinforced that the current inflation target of 3% will not change, as previously reported by Reuters. The country's National Monetary Council (CMN) currently sets an annual inflation target that must be met each calendar year. Haddad, however, has been calling for a shift to a continuous target horizon, which, in practice, would imply a 24-month period to assess compliance. ($1 = 5.2912 reais) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/resistance-new-brazil-tax-credit-rules-will-dissipate-minister-says-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 21:52

HOUSTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Mexican state utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) need not pay a Texas natural gas supplier's claim for hundreds of millions of dollars stemming from the huge spike in gas pricing during a deadly winter storm, an international arbitration panel ruled. Severe cold during 2021's Winter storm Uri pushed U.S. natural gas prices to record highs as demand soared and wells and pipelines froze shut. Suppliers passed along the huge price increases to their customers, resulting in dozens of lawsuits. A Houston arbitration panel last month rejected WhiteWater Midstream LLC's claims against CFE, and awarded the state power utility undisclosed damages, fees and costs, according to a document filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Houston. An attorney and a media spokesperson representing Austin, Texas-based WhiteWater declined immediate comment. CFE's separate breach of contract lawsuit against former executives Guillermo Turrent and Javier Gutierrez, who awarded the contract to Whitewater, remains pending. An attorney for Turrent and Gutierrez did not respond to requests for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/mexicos-cfe-wins-contract-arbitration-case-against-texas-gas-supplier-2024-06-07/

2024-06-07 21:33

June 7 (Reuters) - U.S. federal and state agencies are planning research into potential respiratory spread of bird flu among dairy cattle, according to a Reuters interview with Michigan state agriculture and public health officials. Scientists and government officials hope the research will guide efforts to contain the virus and reduce exposure to humans. Respiratory spread could give the virus more opportunity to evolve, they said. Scientists have so far suspected the virus spreads among animals and humans through contact with infected milk or aerosolized milk droplets, or from exposure to infected birds or poultry. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is working with Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to plan research on farms to evaluate respiratory spread, Tim Boring, the department's director, said in an interview. "This is an area of concern that we're building out and looking more into," Boring said. The research is a high priority and will be important to guiding the state's public policy, he said. A spokesperson for the USDA said the agency is researching respiratory infection in dairy cows with partners including universities across the country to better understand the virus and control its spread. Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 states since late March. The exact mechanics of the spread of the virus are still unclear, though there is evidence of spread to cows from wild birds and other cows. The virus has been identified mainly in milk, but also in nasal swabs at lesser levels, said Zelmar Rodriguez, a dairy veterinarian and assistant professor in Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine who has researched affected farms. "If it's present in the nose when the cow is shedding (virus), it's potentially transmitted through air," he said. Any change in how the virus is transmitting gives it the opportunity to evolve, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization. "We certainly don't want that," Webby said. But for the virus to be a more significant threat to human health, it would need to undergo further genetic mutations, Webby said. The third dairy worker to contract avian flu, who lives in Michigan, reported respiratory symptoms, including coughing. Flu experts said the worker was most likely infected through close contact with milk through splashes or aerosolized droplets. Respiratory symptoms have often been seen in prior human bird flu infections. The first two U.S. workers known to be infected during this outbreak only reported symptoms of conjunctivitis, or pink eye. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the latest case does not change its assessment that bird flu is a low risk to the general public, and that it has not seen evidence of human-to-human transmission. The worker with respiratory symptoms was still recovering as of a few days ago, said Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, in an interview. Michigan aims to begin its study of blood samples looking for evidence of prior bird flu infection among farm workers this month, Bagdasarian said. Reuters reported on May 30 that the state and CDC would be conducting the study to understand the prevalence of human illness and whether any dairy workers had previously contracted the virus. "We have folks from the CDC who are in the state right now," Bagdasarian said. "We've been working really closely and collaboratively with them, our protocols are in place Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-research-possible-respiratory-spread-bird-flu-cows-2024-06-07/