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IAEA primary gos to two nuclear sites throughout Iran trip
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog visited two Iranian nuclear sites on Friday as part of a see to Iran, ahead of an anticipated European diplomatic push over Tehran's atomic activities before Donald Trump's go back to the White Home. During the check out, Iran's foreign minister told International Atomic Energy Company chief Rafael Grossi that Tehran wants to solve outstanding disputes over its nuclear program however will not catch pressure. Grossi went to the Natanz nuclear plant and the Fordow enrichment site, which is dug into a mountain around 100 km (60. miles) south of the capital Tehran, state media reported,. without providing details. Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over. several long-standing issues including Iran barring the company's. uranium-enrichment specialists from the nation and its failure to. discuss uranium traces discovered at undeclared sites. The ball remains in the EU/E3 court, Foreign Minister Abbas. Araqchi composed on X following talks in Tehran with Grossi on. Thursday, describing 3 European nations - France,. Britain and Germany - which represent the West together with the. United States at nuclear talks. Going to work out based on our national interest and. inalienable rights, however not prepared to negotiate under pressure. and intimidation, Araqchi stated. France's foreign ministry spokesperson told press reporters the 3. European powers would wait to see the outcomes of Grossi's check out. before deciding how to react. We are fully mobilised with our E3 partners and the. United States to bring Iran to the full application of its. global responsibilities and commitments in addition to cooperation. in great faith with the firm, he stated. That mobilisation is available in various methods, consisting of. through resolutions ... so we expect that these messages are. passed throughout Rafael Grossi's check out and we will adjust our. reaction accordingly. Trump's go back to workplace as U.S. president in January upends. nuclear diplomacy with Iran, which had actually stalled under the. outbound administration of Joe Biden after months of indirect. talks. During Trump's previous tenure, Washington dropped a 2015. nuclear offer between Iran and six world powers that curbed. Tehran's nuclear operate in exchange for remedy for worldwide. sanctions. Trump has actually not fully spelled out whether he will resume his. optimal pressure policy on Iran when he takes office.
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French winter season grain sowings ahead of in 2015 after dry weather condition
French farmers had sown 78% of the anticipated soft wheat location for next year's harvest by last Monday, ahead of the location sown by the very same stage last year, FranceAgriMer stated, in a sign that this month's dry weather enabled field work to accelerate. The soft wheat area sown compared to 62% a week previously and 70% a year earlier however was still behind the five-year average of 83%, the farm workplace stated in a crop report on Friday. French sowings and maize harvesting this year have been obstructed by heavy rainfall during the wettest September in 25 years and in October. The hold-up raised bad memories of last year's harvest when late sowing due to damp weather condition was one of the issues that led to among the worst soft wheat harvests in 40 years. In winter season barley, 89% of the anticipated area for next year's. harvest had actually been planted by Monday, versus 78% a week earlier and. 83% by the exact same stage in 2023. That compared to a 2019-2023. average of 91%. The maize harvest was 71% complete by Nov. 11, up from 58% a. week earlier however below 96% a year back and a five-year. average of 93%, FranceAgriMer said. Growers were speeding up field work before rains begin again. next week, Franck Laborde, the head of French maize growers. group AGPM, said. The regions lagging furthest behind are the west and the. south-west. Climate condition there ought to enable collecting to. continue until mid-week, so we certainly have a window of. opportunity to get closer to normal harvest development, Laborde. informed Reuters. Farmers are mobilised to generate the harvest so as to. maintain quality, because from now on, and even since a couple of days. ago, there is a risk of quality deterioration if the harvest. does not happen really quickly, he included.
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FuelCell Energy to lay off 13% of labor force to lower operating expense
Renewable power company FuelCell Energy said on Friday it will lower 13% of its labor force as part of an international restructuring of its operations in the U.S., Canada and Germany. Shares of the company increased 14.1% in premarket trading. The business stated it aims to decrease operating expense by almost 15% in 2025 and protect its competitive position amid slower-than-expected financial investments in clean energy. High rates of interest and policy unpredictabilities around capital-intensive tidy energy tasks have required numerous renewable resource firms to review their growth plans. FuelCell said it had already made reductions to its workforce in September, with the most recent layoffs bringing the total cuts to 17% of its workers. It anticipates the restructuring plan to be considerably finished by the end of the first quarter (Nov-Jan) of financial year 2025, and to record charges of about $1.7 million to $2. million in expenses associated with severance. The company stated the strategy will not impact its carbonate. making capabilities at its Torrington, Connecticut. center. The Danbury, Connecticut-based company stated it would offer. extra details regarding the restructuring plan throughout its. fourth-quarter earnings get in touch with Dec. 19.
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Romania signs main engineering agreement for two atomic power plants
Romanian stateowned nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica signed the main engineering contract to include two more reactors at its plant in Cernavoda on the Danube river with a consortium of four firms, it stated on Friday. The European Union state presently has 2 706-megawatt (MW). reactors which utilize Canadian CANDU innovation, owned by. AtkinsRealis, formerly referred to as SNC-Lavalin group, accounting. for a fifth of Romania's power production. It prepares to include 2 more 700 MW reactors using the same. innovation by 2031 and 2032, respectively. Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja has said the contract,. which was signed on Friday at COP29 in Baku, will set the brand-new. systems on a course of no return. The consortium makes up Canada's AtkinsRealis, U.S. Fluor. Corporation, Sargent & & Lundy and Italy's Ansaldo Nucleare. The. contract is estimated to cost 3.2 billion euros ($ 3.38 billion). and take 9 years to complete pending a final financial investment. decision. Today marks a significant turning point in the improvement and. ultimately the completion of Romania's tactical Cernavoda Systems. 3 and 4 task, the business's president Cosmin Ghita. said. Once Units 3 and 4 are connected to the grid, 66% of. Romania's clean energy will be supplied by nuclear energy. The business did not expose the upgraded expense quote for the. units. Prior estimates varied from 6.5 billion to 7 billion. euros in overall. U.S. Exim Bank has actually committed financing for the. job.
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Households gather at South African mine shaft where hundreds are feared underground
Desperate family members of unlawful miners believed to number in the hundreds waited outside a disused mine shaft in South Africa on Friday in the hope of their loved ones emerging from the hole in the ground. The miners remain in a standoff with authorities, who have actually obstructed their materials of food and water and are attempting to require them out to detain them for illegally getting in the abandoned mine in search of leftover gold - a typical problem in South Africa. More than 1,000 unlawful miners have already resurfaced in recent weeks as the cops have split down, and a minimum of one dead body has been brought up. It was unclear if those staying in the mine in Stilfontein, North West province, were unwilling or not able to leave the shaft, which comes down vertically for more than 2 km (1.2 miles) underground. Police and community members stood around the rocky entryway, where a wheel had actually been established to hoist males out. I'm here waiting for youths who are underground, who are dying, Zimbabwean nationwide Roselina Nyuzeya informed Reuters from behind the cops barricade obstructing access to the open hole. A woman sobbing close-by was waiting for her spouse, who had been underground since April, Nyuzeya stated. Illegal mining has actually plagued South Africa for years through small-time pilfering and arranged criminal networks. A number of those who do the dangerous work of getting into old commercial mines are immigrants from neighbouring countries. They are referred to as zama-zamas - a local term that comes from the Zulu expression for taking a chance. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Wednesday the government would not send help for lawbreakers but rather would smoke them out Some community members held signs that read Smoke ANC out. in action, referring to the governing African National Congress celebration. We are requesting help from the government to assist us so our children can come out of the mine. All we are requesting is their remains to come out, said Matsidiso Ramolla, a. 41-one-year-old homeowner of Stilfontein.
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South Africa's revised carbon tax to be harsher however with more offsets, Treasury says
South Africa's revised carbon tax intends to balance the rival demands of climate activists and polluters by lowering taxfree allowances while letting business make greater use of offsets, the Treasury's. acting tax chief said on Friday. The modifications, to come into effect in 2026, will help South. Africa satisfy environment commitments however provide 'hard-to-abate' sectors. more versatility, said Chris Axelson, Performing Head of Tax and. Financial Sector Policy at the Treasury. South Africa is one of the world's top 15 greenhouse gas. emitters and the only nation in Africa with a carbon tax. It definitely is a change to the previous structure (in. which) ... the offsets were quite a little percentage, Axelson. informed Reuters in a videocall interview. At COP29 talks in Azerbaijan, developing countries pressured. their richer equivalents for approximately $1 trillion in climate. finance to help nations traditionally least responsible for the. crisis to move to greener energy and adjust. A Treasury policy paper launched on Wednesday shows the. offset allowance for combustion emissions going up to 25%, from. 10%, after 2026. But this is counterbalanced by slashing. tax-free allowances from 60% currently to half in 2026, and by a. additional 2.5 percentage points yearly till 2030. South Africa enacted its carbon tax in May 2019 after almost. a decade of shelving it over objections from mining business,. steelmakers and state-owned power energy, Eskom. Since then,. market has actually complained the tax is too difficult while climate. activists decry it as too generous. We're in a place where they're all screaming at us, Axelson. said. We're searching for that balance ... We do not want one. side to say, 'well, you're harming us excessive' and the other. side to say, 'well, you aren't doing enough'. The proposition also changes a 3.5 cent per kilowatt levy on. non-renewable power with the carbon tax, which Axelson said. would motivate Eskom - whose overreliance on coal has actually made. South Africa a bigger emitter than Britain or France - to utilize. renewables but however without the capacity of passing on expenses to. the customers..
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VEGOILS-Palm rises after 3 days of fall, logs first weekly drop in four
Malaysian palm oil futures increased on Friday after three straight sessions of losses, supported by recovery in competing vegetable oils and talks of possible modifications in Indonesia's export levy, yet it posted the initially weekly decline in four weeks. The benchmark palm oil agreement for January shipment on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange got 118 ringgit, or 2.38%, to 5,081 ringgit ($ 1,137.20) a metric lot at closing. The agreement fell 0.37% for the week. This rumour about a possibility of Indonesia modifying levy or tax structure triggered some panic buying, a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said. There was no official announcement on the levy changes and Indonesian authorities did not react to Reuters' ask for remarks about the rumour. Profit taking ahead of the weekend and recovery in Chicago soyoil and Dalian palm olein added strength to the contract, another trader said. Dalian's most-active soyoil contract fell 0.46%, while its palm oil agreement increased 2.06%. Soyoil costs on the Chicago Board of Trade were up 2.33%. Palm oil tracks rate movements of competing edible oils, as it completes for a share in the worldwide veggie oils market. Malaysian palm oil exports in Nov. 1-15 decreased between 6%. to 7.3% from a month ago, data from AmSpec Agri and freight. property surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Friday, however improved. from Nov. 1-10 export information. Indonesia's federal government reaffirmed to lawmakers today a strategy to carry out a 40% necessary. biodiesel mix with palm oil-based fuel, called B40, in January. 2025, as part of the brand-new federal government's fast wins programs. The European Parliament sought on Thursday to water down a. restriction on the import of commodities such as beef and soy linked to. logging, and backed a 1 year delay to the new rule, in a. fresh push-back against the EU's ecological program.
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More mass displacement possible in Ukraine if energy sector hit, UN warns
Any additional Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy system might set off a further wave of mass displacement as winter techniques, a senior U.N. official stated on Friday. As the war grinds towards its third winter, civilians are more vulnerable than at any other winter season during the dispute due to Russian strikes on its energy system and donor fatigue, said U.N. Humanitarian Organizer in Ukraine Matthias Schmale. The genuine issue is if they were to target the energy sector again, this might be a tipping point ... for more mass motions, both inside the nation and outside the country, he told reporters in Geneva. Any further displacement would contribute to the 3.6 million that are presently displaced within Ukraine and the more than 6 million who have fled across its borders to get away the dispute that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Around 65% of Ukraine's own energy production is presently offline due to Russian strikes which is more than at this exact same point of the year in 2022 or 2023, Schmale stated. Ukraine now relies mostly on power produced by its nuclear plants and its grid operator this week introduced power limits for companies in the very first such relocation given that August after a. huge Russian rocket and drone attack. The United Nations and partners are carrying out the. Humanitarian Winter Reaction Strategy intending to address emergency. needs by delivering fuel and other products to help people remain. warm. Shelters, known as Invincibility Points, where homeowners can. heat up and consume tea have actually also been set up, he said. Schmale voiced particular concern about individuals stranded in. high-rise buildings and the handicapped and senior living close to. the cutting edge in Kharkiv and Kherson. So far, aid workers have reached about half of the 1.7. million individuals targeted however moneying shortages are constraining. efforts, he said. This year, the U.N. humanitarian reaction has received $1.8. billion out of $3.1 billion sought which is less than in 2022. and 2023, he stated. So the pattern is plainly down, however we still get a lot. of money compared to other crisis situations and our plea is. that this is preserved because the war is not over..
Pakistan's Punjab shuts construction and schools, and lockdown looms to fight smog
Pakistan's Punjab declared a. health emergency situation due to harmful smog on Friday, prohibiting. building, shutting schools for another week and moving. universities online, with a threeday lockdown possible, the. province's senior minister stated on Friday.
Punjab fights harmful smog every winter season as cold air traps. dust, emissions, and smoke from prohibited stubble burning on. fields. Air quality has actually degraded considerably in current weeks. and the province's capital Lahore currently ranks as the world's. most contaminated city, states IQAir.
A total lockdown will be imposed on Friday, Saturday,. and Sunday (next week) if the circumstance does not enhance by. Wednesday, stated Punjab Elder Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb,. addressing a press conference in Lahore.
Citizens were encouraged to stay inside. Air Quality Index. ( AQI) readings in Lahore reached 637 at 3 p.m. (1000 GMT),. according to Swiss group IQAir, considerably greater than levels. advised by the World Health Organization.
The federal government had actually bought the closure of building,. brick kilns, and furnace-based plants in Lahore and the city of. Multan, the minister said.
Punjab's federal government had recently ordered schools to close. up until Nov. 17, and on Friday the shift to online learning was. extended for another week. Institution of higher learnings will also. closed down, moving to virtual classes.
The eastern province has actually currently banned entry to parks,. zoos, playgrounds and other public areas.
South Asia deals with extreme contamination each year due to caught. dust, emissions and stubble burning - the practice of setting. fire to fields after the grain harvest.
Punjab has blamed this year's especially high contamination. levels partially on poisonous air streaming from neighbouring India,. where air quality has also reached dangerous levels.
India's capital of New Delhi, the world's most contaminated. capital city, prohibited all non-essential construction, moved. younger children to virtual class and asked locals to. avoid using coal and wood from Friday to fight increasing air. contamination.
New Delhi's air quality level reached 539 on Friday,. according to live rankings by IQAir, the worst amongst global. capitals.
(source: Reuters)