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  • Strike at Canada’s Pacific ports ends with tentative, 4-year deal

    Strike at Canada’s Pacific ports ends with tentative, 4-year deal

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    [1/5]Union members with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) remove strike signs from a picket line outside the despatch hall in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada July 13, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 13 (Reuters) – Dock workers at ports along Canada’s Pacific coast and their employers accepted a tentative wage deal on Thursday, ending a 13-day strike that disrupted trade at the country’s busiest ports and risked worsening inflation.

    “The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada are pleased to advise that the parties have reached a tentative agreement on a new 4-year deal,” the BCMEA said in a statement.

    The ILWU also said there was an agreement, which must now be ratified by both sides. The union had made demands including wage increases and expansion of their jurisdiction to regular maintenance work on terminals.

    Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the ILWU walked off the job on July 1 after failing to reach a new work contract with the BCMEA representing the companies involved.

    The strike upended operations at two of Canada’s three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert – key gateways for exporting the country’s natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials.

    Economists have warned that the strike could trigger more supply-chain disruptions and fuel inflation while the Bank of Canada tries to cool the economy.

    “The scale of the disruption has been significant,” Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a joint statement.

    “We do not want to be back here again. Deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table, are the best way to prevent that.”

    On Tuesday, O’Regan said the differences between the parties were not sufficient to justify a continued work stoppage.

    He offered terms drafted by a federal mediator and gave the union and employers 24 hours to decide if they were satisfied. The deal was reached at 10:20 am PT (1720 GMT), 10 minutes before the deadline, the ILWU said.

    The parties, with help from federal mediators, had been negotiating a new contract since late April.

    More than half of Canadian small business owners in a survey released on Tuesday said the strike at the Port of Vancouver will affect their operations, according to preliminary results from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

    The strike is estimated to have disrupted C$6.5 billion of cargo movement at the ports, based on the industry body Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters’ calculation of about C$500 million in disrupted trade each day.

    Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, editing by Deepa Babington, Alexandra Hudson

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy

    Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy

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    July 13 (Reuters) – The sale of struggling Silicon Valley startup zGlue’s patents in 2021 was unremarkable except for one detail: The technology it owned, designed to cut the time and cost for making chips, showed up 13 months later in the patent portfolio of Chipuller, a startup in China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen.

    Chipuller purchased what is referred to as chiplet technology, a cost efficient way to package groups of small semiconductors to form one powerful brain capable of powering everything from data centers to gadgets at home.

    The previously unreported technology transfer coincides with a push for chiplet technology in China that started about two years ago, according to a Reuters analysis of hundreds of patents in the U.S. and China and dozens of Chinese government procurement documents, research papers and grants, local and central government policy documents and interviews with Chinese chip executives.

    Industry experts say chiplet technology has become even more important to China since the U.S. barred it from accessing advanced machines and materials needed to make today’s most cutting edge chips, and now largely underpins the country’s plans for self-reliance in semiconductor manufacturing.

    “U.S.-China competition is on the same starting line,” Chipuller chairman Yang Meng said about chiplet technology in an interview with Reuters. “In other (chip technologies) there is a sizeable gap between China and the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan.”

    Barely mentioned before 2021, Chinese authorities have highlighted chiplets more frequently in recent years, according to a Reuters review. At least 20 policy documents from local to central governments referred to it as part of a broader strategy to increase China’s capabilities in “key and cutting-edge technologies”.

    “Chiplets have a very special meaning for China given the restrictions on wafer fabrication equipment,” said Charles Shi, a chip analyst for brokerage Needham. “They can still develop 3D stacking or other chiplet technology to work around those restrictions. That’s the grand strategy, and I think it might even work.”

    Beijing is rapidly exploiting chiplet technology in applications as diverse as artificial intelligence to self-driving cars, with entities from tech giant Huawei Technologies to military institutions exploring its use.

    More major investments in the area are on the way, according to a review of corporate announcements.

    CHINA’S CHIPLET ADVANTAGE

    Chiplets, or small chips, can be the size of a grain of sand or bigger than a thumbnail and are brought together in a process called advanced packaging.

    It is a technology the global chip industry has increasingly embraced in recent years as chip manufacturing costs soar in the race to make transistors so small they are now measured in the number of atoms.

    Bonding chiplets tightly together can help make more powerful systems without shrinking the transistor size as the multiple chips can work like one brain.

    Apple’s high-end computer lines use chiplet technology, as do Intel and AMD’s more powerful chips.

    About a quarter of the global chip packaging and testing market sits in China, according to Dongguan Securities.

    While some say this gives China an advantage in leveraging chiplet technology, Chipuller chairman Yang cautioned the proportion of China’s packaging industry that could be considered advanced was “not very big”.

    Under the right conditions, chiplets that are personalised according to the needs of the customer can be completed quickly, in “three to four months, this is the unique advantage China holds,” according to Yang.

    Needham’s Shi said according to import data published by China’s customs agency, China’s purchase of chip packaging equipment soared to $3.3 billion in 2021 from its previous high of $1.7 billion in 2018, although last year it fell to $2.3 billion with the chip market downturn.

    Since early 2021 research papers on chiplets started surfacing by researchers of the Chinese military People’s Liberation Army and universities it runs, and state-run and PLA-affiliated laboratories are looking to use chips made using domestic chiplet technology according to six tenders published over the past three years.

    Public documents by the government also show millions of dollars worth of grants to researchers specializing in chiplet technology, while dozens of smaller companies have sprouted throughout China in recent years to meet domestic demand for advanced packaging solutions like chiplets.

    CHIPLETS ON THE TABLE

    Against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-China tension, Chinese company Chipuller acquired 28 patents either owned by zGlue or invented by people whose names are on zGlue’s patents, according to an analysis using IP management technology firm Anaqua’s Acclaim IP database.

    The acquisition was through a two-step transfer, first through British Virgin Islands-registered North Sea Investment Co Ltd, according to documents seen by Reuters and confirmed by Yang.

    The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful Treasury-led committee that reviews transactions for potential threats to U.S. security, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment about whether such sales would require their approval.

    CFIUS lawyers Laura Black at Akin’s Trade Group, Melissa Mannino at BakerHostetler and Perry Bechky at Berliner Corcoran & Rowe say patent sales alone would not necessarily give CFIUS authority over the deal, as it depends whether the assets purchased constitute a U.S. business.

    Representative Mike Gallagher, an influential lawmaker whose select committee on China has pressed the Biden administration to take tougher stances on China, told Reuters zGlue’s case highlights the “urgent need to reform CFIUS”.

    “(People’s Republic of China) entities should not be able to act with impunity to take advantage of distressed U.S. firms to transfer their IP to China,” he said in an emailed statement.

    Chipuller’s Yang said zGlue’s lawyer communicated with both CFIUS and the Department of Commerce to ensure the sale to North Sea would not fall foul of export controls.

    These discussions did not include mention of Chipuller or the possibility of a Chinese entity ending up in possession of the patents, according to a Chipuller spokesperson.

    “Everything was done very transparently and in accordance with (U.S.) law,” Yang said.

    Yang said he considered himself a founder of zGlue as he became an investor in the company in 2015, soon after its formation, and later became a director and chairman.

    CFIUS visited zGlue offices in 2018 to conduct an investigation because the company’s largest non-U.S. investor, Yang, was from China, the chairman said.

    “So we have spent a lot of time communicating with CFIUS,” Yang said, adding that Chipuller currently does not supply any Chinese military or U.S.-sanctioned entities.

    Chipuller isn’t the only firm with chiplet technology.

    Huawei, China’s tech and chip design giant that has been put on the U.S.’s most restricted list, has been actively filing chiplet patents.

    Huawei published over 900 chiplet-related patent applications and grants last year in China, up from 30 in 2017, according to Anaqua’s director of analytics solutions Shayne Phillips.

    Huawei declined to comment.

    Reuters identified over a dozen announcements over the past two years for new factories or expansions of existing ones from companies using chiplet technology in manufacturing across China’s tech sector, representing an investment totalling over 40 billion yuan.

    They include domestic giants TongFu Microelectronics (002156.SZ) and JCET Group (600584.SS), as well as fast-growing startups such as Beijing ESWIN Technology Group, which spent 5.5 billion yuan on a factory for its chiplet-focused subsidiary that began operating in April.

    One article published in May by an outlet run by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) urged big Chinese tech firms the use of domestic packaging companies such as TongFu to help build China’s self-sufficiency in computing power.

    “Use Chiplet technology to break through the United States’ siege of my country’s advanced process chips,” it said.

    MIIT did not respond to a request for comment.

    Chipuller chairman Yang puts it this way: “Chiplet technology is the core driving force for the development of the domestic semiconductor industry,” he said on the company’s official WeChat channel. “It is our mission and duty to bring it back to China.”

    ($1 = 7.2205 Chinese yuan renminbi)

    Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee and Eduardo Baptista; Additional reporting by Echo Wang and Stephen Nellis; editing by Kenneth Li, Brenda Goh and Lincoln Feast.

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Reports on global trends in computing from covering semiconductors and tools to manufacture them to quantum computing. Has 27 years of experience reporting from South Korea, China, and the U.S. and previously worked at the Asian Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters TV. In her free time, she studies math and physics with the goal …

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  • Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ movie over South China Sea map

    Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ movie over South China Sea map

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    HANOI, July 3 (Reuters) – Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’ highly-anticipated film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.

    The U-shaped “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.

    “Barbie” is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016. China refuses to recognise the ruling.

    In 2019 the Vietnamese government pulled DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” and last year it banned Sony’s action movie “Unchartered” for the same reason. Netflix also removed an Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” in 2021.

    [1/2]Actor Margot Robbie is photographed during a photocall for the upcoming Warner Bros. film “Barbie” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake

    “Barbie”, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally slated to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.

    “We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the paper reported, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.

    Warner Bros did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Vietnam and China have long had overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the South China Sea. The Southeast Asian country has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of violating its sovereignty.

    Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Titanic sub firm’s late CEO was committed to safety, says co-founder

    Titanic sub firm’s late CEO was committed to safety, says co-founder

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    MADRID, June 23 (Reuters) – The co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, which owned the submersible that imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck, defended on Friday the chief executive’s commitment to safety and risk management after he died with four others on the craft.

    Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009, left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake. Rush was piloting the Titan submersible on the trip that began on Sunday. Debris from the vessel was found on Thursday.

    “Stockton was one of the most astute risk managers I’d ever met. He was very risk-averse. He was very keenly aware of the risks of operating in the deep ocean environment, and he was very committed to safety,” Söhnlein told Reuters.

    Questions about Titan’s safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit by OceanGate’s former head of marine operations, which was settled later that year. This incident has prompted further debate.

    “I believe that every innovation that he took … was geared toward two goals: One, expanding humanity’s ability to explore the deep ocean. And secondly, to do it as safely as possible,” he said in video interview from his home in Barcelona.

    The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken SS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photograph. OceanGate Expeditions/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo

    Söhnlein said he completely trusted Rush, even though they did not always see “eye-to-eye on things”.

    OceanGate has not addressed queries by industry experts about its decision to forgo certification from industry third parties such as the American Bureau of Shipping or the European company DNV.

    “There’s this tendency in the community to equate classification with safety. While that could be the case, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be safe without classification,” he said, adding that people should wait for an official report analyzing the incident rather than speculate.

    “There’s going to be a time for (making assessments), and I don’t think right now is the right time to do that,” he said.

    Despite the tragedy, he said continuing with deep-sea exploration was vital for humanity and that it was the best way to honor those who died in the submersible.

    “Let’s figure out what went wrong, learn some lessons and let’s get down there again,” he said.

    Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Aislinn Laing and Edmund Blair

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    David Latona

    Thomson Reuters

    Madrid-raised German-American breaking news in Spain and Portugal. Previously covered markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with a special focus on chemical companies and regular contributions to Reuters’ German-language service. Worked at Spanish news agency EFE (Madrid/Bangkok) and the European Pressphoto Agency (Frankfurt).

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  • Indian PM Modi wraps up Washington trip with appeal to tech CEOs

    Indian PM Modi wraps up Washington trip with appeal to tech CEOs

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    WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with U.S. and Indian technology executives in Washington on Friday, the final day of a state visit where he agreed new defense and technology cooperation and addressed challenges posed by China.

    U.S. President Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet for Modi on Thursday, declaring after about 2-1/2 hours of talks that their countries’ economic relationship was “booming.” Trade has more than doubled over the past decade.

    Biden and Modi gathered with CEOs including Apple’s (AAPL.O) Tim Cook, Google’s (GOOGL.O) Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Satya Nadella.

    Also present were Sam Altman of OpenAI, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, and Indian tech leaders including Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, the White House said.

    “Our partnership between India and the United States will go a long way, in my view, to define what the 21st century looks like,” Biden told the group, adding that technological cooperation would be a big part of that partnership.

    Observing that there were a variety of tech companies represented at the meeting from startups to well established firms, Modi said: “Both of them are working together to create a new world.”

    Modi, who has appealed to global companies to “Make in India,” will also address business leaders at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

    The CEOs of top American companies, including FedEx (FDX.N), MasterCard (MA.N) and Adobe (ADBE.O), are expected to be among the 1,200 participants.

    NOT ‘ABOUT CHINA’

    The backdrop to Modi’s visit is the Biden administration’s attempts to draw India, the world’s most populous country at 1.4 billion and its fifth-largest economy, closer amid its growing geopolitical rivalry with Beijing.

    Modi did not address China directly during the visit, and Biden only mentioned China in response to a reporter’s question, but a joint statement included a pointed reference to the East and South China Seas, where China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.

    Farwa Aamer, director for South Asia at the Asia Society Policy Institute, in an analysis note described that as “a clear signal of unity and determination to preserve stability and peace in the region.”

    Alongside agreements to sell weapons to India and share with it sensitive military technology, announcements this week included several investments from U.S.-firms aimed at spurring semiconductor manufacturing in India and lowering its dependence on China for electronics.

    White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the challenges presented by China to both Washington and New Delhi were on the agenda, but insisted the visit “wasn’t about China.”

    “This wasn’t about leveraging India to be some sort of counterweight. India is a sovereign, independent state,” Kirby said at a news briefing, adding that Washington welcomes India becoming “an increasing exporter of security” in the Indo-Pacific.

    “There’s a lot we can do in the security front together. And that’s really what we’re focused on,” Kirby said.

    Some political analysts question India’s willingness to stand up to Beijing over Taiwan and other issues, however. Washington has also been frustrated by India’s close ties with Russia while Moscow wages war in Ukraine.

    DIASPORA TIES

    Modi attended a lunch on Friday at the State Department with Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Asian American to hold the No. 2 position in the White House, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    In a toast, Harris spoke of her Indian-born late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who came to the United States at age 19 and became a leading breast cancer researcher.

    “I think about it in the context of the millions of Indian students who have come to the United States since, to collaborate with American researchers to solve the challenges of our time and to reach new frontiers,” Harris said.

    Modi praised Gopalan for keeping India “close to her heart” despite the distance to her new home, and called Harris “really inspiring.”

    On Friday evening, Modi will address members of the Indian diaspora, many of whom have turned out at events during the visit to enthusiastically fete him, at times chanting “Modi! Modi! Modi!” despite protests from others.

    Activists said Biden had failed to strongly call out what they describe as India’s deteriorating human rights record under Modi, citing allegations of abuse of Indian dissidents and minorities, especially Muslims. Modi leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has held power since 2014.

    Biden said he had a “straightforward” discussion with Modi about issues including human rights, but U.S. officials emphasize that it is vital for Washington’s national security and economic prosperity to engage with a rising India.

    Asked on Thursday what he would do to improve the rights of minorities including Muslims, Modi insisted “there is no space for any discrimination” in his government.

    “There is no end to data that shows Modi is lying about minority abuse in India, and much of it can be found in the State Department’s own India country reports, which are scathing on human rights,” said Sunita Viswanath, co-founder Hindus for Human Rights, an advocacy group.

    Reporting by Steve Holland, Simon Lewis and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Doina Chiacu, David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Don Durfee and Grant McCool

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Jeff Mason

    Thomson Reuters

    Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA’s work was recognized with Deutsche Welle’s “Freedom of Speech Award.” Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA’s “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure” award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists’ “Breaking News” award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.

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  • Russia accuses mercenary chief of armed mutiny after he vows to punish top brass

    Russia accuses mercenary chief of armed mutiny after he vows to punish top brass

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    • Prigozhin says army bombed his men, vows ‘justice’
    • Moscow accuses him of calling for armed mutiny
    • Wagner chief takes feud with top brass to new level
    • Prigozhin earlier accused army of deceiving Putin

    LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) – Russia accused mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin of armed mutiny on Friday after he alleged, without providing evidence, that the military leadership had killed a huge number of his fighters in an air strike and vowed to punish them.

    The standoff, many of whose details remained unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis President Vladimir Putin has faced since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – something he called a “special military operation” – in February last year.

    As the standoff between Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary force, and the defence ministry appeared to come to a head, the ministry issued a statement saying Prigozhin’s accusations were “not true and are an informational provocation”.

    Prigozhin said his actions were not a military coup. But in a frenzied series of audio messages, in which the sound of his voice sometimes varied and could not be independently verified, he appeared to suggest that 25,000 fighters were en route to oust the leaders of the defence establishment in Moscow.

    He said: “Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance …

    “There are 25,000 of us and we are going to figure out why chaos is happening in the country,” he said, promising to tackle any checkpoints or air forces that got in Wagner’s way.

    At about 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, Moscow time (2300 GMT), Prigozhin issued a new message saying his forces had crossed the border from Ukraine, and were in the southern Russian city of Rostov.

    He said they were ready to “go all the way” against the top brass, and to destroy anyone who stood in their way.

    At around the same time, the state news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying all Russia’s main security services were reporting to Putin “round the clock” on the fulfilment of his orders with respect to Prigozhin.

    Security was being tightened in Moscow, TASS said, focusing on what it called the capital’s most important government sites and infrastructure.

    Earlier on Friday, Prigozhin had appeared to cross a new line in his increasingly vitriolic feud with the ministry, saying that the Kremlin’s rationale for invading Ukraine was based on lies concocted by the army’s top brass.

    The FSB domestic security service said it had opened a criminal case against him for calling for an armed mutiny, a crime punishable with a jail term of up to 20 years.

    “Prigozhin’s statements are in fact calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on Russian territory and his actions are a ‘stab in the back’ of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces,” the FSB said.

    “We urge the … fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forcible actions against the Russian people, not to carry out the criminal and traitorous orders of Prigozhin, to take measures to detain him.”

    Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves a cemetery before the funeral of Russian military blogger Maxim Fomin widely known by the name of Vladlen Tatarsky, who was recently killed in a bomb attack in a St Petersburg cafe, in Moscow, Russia, April 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photo

    GENERALS URGE PRIGOZHIN TO BACK DOWN

    Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev issued a video appeal asking Prigozhin to reconsider his actions.

    “Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his authority,” he said.

    Army General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine whom Prigozhin has praised in the past, in a separate video said that “the enemy is just waiting for our internal political situation to deteriorate”.

    “Before it is too late … you must submit to the will and order of the people’s president of the Russian Federation. Stop the columns and return them to their permanent bases,” he said.

    Prigozhin, whose men spearheaded the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, has for months been openly accusing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, of rank incompetence and of denying Wagner ammunition and support.

    An unverified video posted on a Telegram channel close to Wagner showed the purported scene of an air strike against Wagner forces. It showed a forest where small fires were burning and trees appeared to have been broken by force. There appeared to be one body, but no more direct evidence of any attack.

    It carried the caption: “A missile attack was launched on the camps of PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner. Many victims. According to eyewitnesses, the strike was delivered from the rear, that is, it was delivered by the military of the Russian Ministry of Defence.”

    Prigozhin has tried to exploit Wagner’s battlefield success, achieved at enormous human cost, to publicly berate Moscow with seeming impunity, while carefully avoiding criticism of Putin.

    But on Friday he for the first time dismissed Putin’s core justifications for invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, something for which many Russians have been fined or jailed.

    “The war was needed … so that Shoigu could become a marshal … so that he could get a second ‘Hero’ [of Russia] medal,” Prigozhin said in a video clip. “The war wasn’t needed to demilitarise or denazify Ukraine.”

    Marat Gabidullin, a former Wagner commander who moved to France when Russia invaded Ukraine, told Reuters that Wagner’s fighters were likely to stand with Prigozhin.

    “We have looked down on the army for a long time … Of course they support him, he is their leader,” he said.

    “They won’t hesitate (to fight the army), if anyone gets in their way.”

    Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Daniel Wallis

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • China says it respects sovereignty of ex-Soviet states after EU uproar

    China says it respects sovereignty of ex-Soviet states after EU uproar

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    • Chinese ambassador to Paris caused uproar in EU
    • Comments focused on Ukraine, ex-Soviet states
    • Beijing says he was expressing personal views
    • EU welcomes ‘clarification’

    LUXEMBOURG, April 24 (Reuters) – China respects the status of former Soviet member states as sovereign nations, its foreign ministry said on Monday, distancing itself from comments by its envoy to Paris that triggered an uproar among European capitals.

    Several European Union foreign ministers had said comments by ambassador Lu Shaye – in which he questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine and other former Soviet states – were unacceptable and had asked Beijing to clarify its stance.

    Asked if Lu’s comments represented China’s official position, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that Beijing respected the status of the former Soviet member states as sovereign nations following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Mao told a regular news briefing that it was her remarks on sovereignty that represented China’s official government stance.

    The Chinese embassy in Paris issued a statement later on Monday to say that Lu’s comments on Ukraine “were not a political declaration but an expression of his personal views”.

    Both statements, following the backlash, appeared to be an effort to ease the tension with the EU while Washington also cited growing closeness between Beijing and Moscow.

    “Beijing has distanced itself from the unacceptable remarks by its ambassador,” Josep Borrell told a news conference, saying it was “good news”.

    The French foreign ministry said it was “taking note” of Beijing’s “clarifications” and that the minister’s chief of staff had met with Lu on Monday, told him his comments were unacceptable and urged him to speak in a way “that is in line with his country’s official stance.”

    Lu has earned himself a reputation as one of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats, so-called for their hawkish and abrasive style.

    Asked about his position on whether Crimea was part of Ukraine or not, Lu had said in an interview aired on French TV on Friday that historically it was part of Russia and had been offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

    “These ex-USSR countries don’t have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to materialize their sovereign status,” Lu added.

    Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky speaks during a news conference, in Riga, Latvia April 21, 2023. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

    ‘TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE’

    Monday’s statements from the Chinese foreign ministry and embassy in Paris came after criticism from across the EU.

    Speaking ahead of a Luxembourg meeting of EU foreign ministers earlier in the day, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said Lu’s comments were “totally unacceptable”.

    “I hope the bosses of this ambassador will make these things straight,” he told reporters.

    A spokesperson for Germany’s foreign ministry said it had taken note of Lu’s comments “with great astonishment, especially as the statements are not in line with the Chinese position we have known so far.”

    Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the three Baltic countries would summon Chinese representatives to officially ask for clarification.

    He said Beijing was “sending the same message” as Moscow on questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet countries, which he described as “dangerous”.

    Lithuania and its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, but regained independence after its break-up in 1991.

    EU leaders would discuss the bloc’s stance towards China and its future relations with Beijing during their next summit in June, EU Council President Charles Michel said.

    Lu has been summoned to France’s foreign ministry several times in the past, including for suggesting France was abandoning old people in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and for calling a respected China scholar at a French think-tank a “mad hyena”.

    Asked about Chinese officials’ comments, White House spokesperson John Kirby told MSNBC broadcaster that China and Russia are clearly aligning, adding: “These are two countries that want to challenge outright the international rules-based order … that respects sovereignty around the world.”

    “They want to undermine it. They want to reduce and diminish not only the United States and our influence around the world but also our allies and partners.”

    Reporting by Bart Meijer

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  • Russian charged with war crimes may brief U.N. Security Council

    Russian charged with war crimes may brief U.N. Security Council

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    UNITED NATIONS, April 3 (Reuters) – Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, is likely to brief an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council this week, according to a note seen by Reuters on Monday.

    Russia, which holds the monthly rotating presidency of the 15-member body for April, told council members in a note that it plans to hold an informal meeting on Wednesday on Ukraine, focused on “evacuating children from conflict zone.”

    “Participants will hear ‘first hand’ information from the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Federation, as well as from children evacuated from the conflict area,” read the note.

    The commissioner is Maria Lvova-Belova. The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, as well as the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since Moscow invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

    “They cannot invite a credible briefer because they do not have any credibility on this issue,” Britain’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told Reuters in a statement. “Russian leaders have been charged by the ICC with unlawfully deporting children from Ukraine to Russia. That is a war crime.”

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that the meeting briefers would be announced shortly. Such meetings are held at U.N. headquarters, but not in the Security Council chamber, and briefings can be done virtually.

    ‘APRIL FOOL’S JOKE’

    Moscow has not concealed a program under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

    Nebenzia told reporters last month that the informal meeting of Security Council members to be held on Wednesday had been planned long before the ICC announcement and it was not intended to be a rebuttal of the charges against Putin and Lvova-Belova.

    While a feature of Russia’s presidency, members do not need to be the rotating monthly president to hold such meetings.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to travel to New York to chair formal Security Council meetings later in the month on the Middle East and on “effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the U.N. Charter.”

    The 193-member U.N. General Assembly has criticized Russia for violating the founding U.N. Charter by invading its neighbor and called for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in line with the principles of the U.N. Charter.

    Given Russia’s Security Council presidency started on April 1, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters on Monday: “It’s like an April Fool’s joke … We expect that they will behave professionally.”

    “But we also expect that they will use their seat to spread disinformation and to promote their own agenda as it relates to Ukraine, and we will stand ready to call them out at every single moment that they attempt to do that,” she said.

    Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Don Durfee and Bill Berkrot

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  • Ukraine’s Zelenskiy aims for Western warplane coalition; Russians pressure Bakhmut

    Ukraine’s Zelenskiy aims for Western warplane coalition; Russians pressure Bakhmut

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    • Poland pledges more MiG jets for Kyiv during Zelenskiy visit
    • Zelenskiy cites difficult situation for Kyiv’s forces in Bakhmut
    • France’s Macron in China to nudge it to help end Russia’s war

    KYIV, April 5 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a trip to Warsaw on Wednesday that Poland would help form a coalition of Western powers to supply warplanes to Kyiv, adding that Ukrainian troops were still fighting for Bakhmut in the east but could withdraw if they risked being cut off.

    Neighbouring Poland is a close ally of Ukraine and helped galvanise support in the West to supply main battle tanks to Kyiv. During Zelenskiy’s visit, Poland announced it would send 10 more MiG fighter jets on top of four provided earlier.

    “Just as your (Polish) leadership proved itself in the tank coalition, I believe that it will manifest itself in the planes coalition,” Zelenskiy said in a speech on a square in Warsaw.

    Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops faced a really difficult situation in Bakhmut and the military would take “corresponding” decisions to protect them if they risk being encircled by Russian invasion forces.

    Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut sometimes advanced a little only to be knocked back, Zelenskiy said, but remained inside the city.

    “We are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control it,” Zelenskiy said.

    BOMBARDMENT

    Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-occupied Donetsk province, has proven one of the bloodiest and longest battles of Russia’s invasion, now in its 14th month. Kyiv’s forces have held out against a Russian onslaught with heavy losses on both sides and the city, a mining and transport hub, reduced to ruin after months of street fighting and bombardment.

    “For me, the most important is not to lose our soldiers and of course if there is a moment of even hotter events and the danger we could lose our personnel because of encirclement – of course the corresponding correct decisions will be taken by generals there,” Zelenskiy said.

    He appeared to be referring to the idea of withdrawing.

    However, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said later in that the situation at the front was “completely under control” despite repeated Russian attempts to take Bakhmut and other cities in the east.

    Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

    Ukrainian military commanders have stressed the importance of holding Bakhmut and other cities and inflicting losses on Russian troops before an anticipated counter-offensive against them in the coming weeks or months.

    [1/6] Ukrainian service member, Naza, 21, commander from 28th mechanised brigade repositions his machine gun during a fire exchange at the frontline, amid Russia?s attack on Ukraine in the region of Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

    Mercenaries from the Wagner group – who have spearheaded the assault on Bakhmut – said at the weekend they had captured the city centre, a claim dismissed by Kyiv.

    The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said the Wagner fighters had made advances in Bakhmut and were likely to continue trying to consolidate control of the city centre and push westward through dense urban neighbourhoods.

    PLAYING THE CHINA CARD

    French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, was visiting China after he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed they would try to engage Beijing to hasten the end of the Russian assault on Ukraine.

    China has called for a comprehensive ceasefire and described its position on the conflict as “impartial”, even though the Chinese and Russian presidents announced a “no limits” partnership shortly before the invasion.

    Both Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, due in Beijing shortly after him, have said they want to persuade China to use its influence over Russia to bring peace in Ukraine, or to at least deter Beijing from directly supporting Moscow in the conflict.

    The U.S. and NATO have said China was considering sending arms to Russia, which Beijing has denied.

    ‘SHOULDER TO SHOULDER’

    Poland has played a big role in persuading Western allies to supply battle tanks and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, which helped Kyiv stem and sometimes reverse Russian advances so far.

    “You have stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and we are grateful for it,” Zelenskiy said after Polish President Andrzej Duda presented him with Poland’s highest award, the Order of the White Eagle.

    Duda said Warsaw was also working to secure additional security guarantees for Ukraine at a NATO summit to be held in the Lithuania in July.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV that Moscow needed to maintain relations with Washington even though American supplies of weapons to Ukraine meant “we are really in a hot phase of the war”.

    In addition to MiG-29s, Kyiv has also pressed NATO for F-16 jet fighters but Duda’s foreign policy adviser, Marcin Przydacz, said Poland would not decide soon on whether to send any.

    Reporting by Pavel Polityuk with additional reporting by Ron Popeski, Mike Stone, Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz and Tom Balmforth; writing by Angus MacSwan, Mark Heinrich and Idrees Ali; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Nick Macfie and Grant McCool

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  • Nordic countries plan joint air defence to counter Russian threat

    Nordic countries plan joint air defence to counter Russian threat

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    COPENHAGEN, March 24 (Reuters) – Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark said on Friday they have signed a letter of intent to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia.

    The intention is to be able to operate jointly based on already known ways of operating under NATO, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces.

    The move to integrate the air forces was triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters.

    “Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country,” Dam said.

    Norway has 57 F-16 fighter jets and 37 F-35 fighter jets with 15 more of the latter on order. Finland has 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets and 64 F-35s on order, while Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order. Sweden has more than 90 Gripens jets.

    It was unclear how many of those planes were operational.

    The signing at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany last week was attended by NATO Air Command chief General James Hecker, who also oversees the U.S. Air Force in the region.

    Sweden and Finland applied to join the trans-Atlantic military alliance last year. But the process has been held up by Turkey, which along with Hungary has yet to ratify the memberships.

    The Nordic air force commanders first discussed the closer cooperation at a meeting in November in Sweden.

    “We would like to see if we can integrate our airspace surveillance more, so we can use radar data from each other’s surveillance systems and use them collectively,” Dam said. “We are not doing that today.”

    Reporting by Johannes Birkebaek and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by Terje Solsvik, Niklas Pollard and Anne Kauranen; Editing by Nick Macfie

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  • Indian truckers say Hindenburg report a godsend in Adani dispute

    Indian truckers say Hindenburg report a godsend in Adani dispute

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    • India’s Adani reopens two cement plants after freight dispute
    • Truckers believe Hindenburg report was answer to their prayers
    • Adani says amicable resolution reached after negotiations

    DARLAGHAT, India Feb 23 (Reuters) – For truckers transporting cement from Adani’s factories in a hilly north Indian state, a U.S. short-seller’s critical research report on the giant conglomerate was a godsend they say helped them save their livelihoods.

    For weeks, around 7,000 truck owners and drivers in India’s Himachal Pradesh resorted to protest rallies against Adani’s Dec. 15 decision to shut two cement plants over a dispute on freight rates. Adani argued the plants were “unviable” at the trucking rates it wanted to slash by around half.

    On Monday, the Gautam Adani-led group said it had “amicably resolved” the issue with a 10-12% reduction in rates. Truckers rejoiced, with a union leader in a street address labelling it as a victory after late-night talks with Adani.

    The settlement comes four weeks after U.S.-based Hindenburg Research accused Adani of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, allegations the group called baseless.

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    The Jan. 24 report triggered a $140 billion rout in group’s stocks, sparked regulatory investigations and saw the billionaire Adani slip to 26 on the Forbes global rich list, from third.

    While the truckers’ settlement will have only a small impact on the overall Adani empire, it was a big win for the drivers and owners in a state were most people live on around $7 a day.

    The report “played a crucial role in our battle against India’s biggest business group, helped mobilize truckers and gain political support,” said Ram Krishan Sharma, one of the lead negotiators for protesting truckers.

    Adani negotiators had refused to budge for weeks. So Hindenburg’s report, some truckers believe, was godsent.

    Just a day before it was published, many truckers visited a small, revered Hindu temple in Darlaghat which overlooks one of Adani’s cement plants, and offered a traditional semolina sweet offering to a deity as they sought to resolve the dispute.

    Bantu Shukla, a protest leader, showed Reuters a photo and video of truckers that day offering prayers inside the temple. Some stood with folded hands, while a person rang a temple bell in a typical Hindu worship ritual.

    ‘AMICABLE RESOLUTION’

    Adani Group did not answer Reuters questions on whether the Hindenburg report’s fallout contributed to its decision in Himachal.

    Adani Cements in a statement said it was “grateful” to all stakeholders including the unions, the local state chief minister and other departments, adding the “amicable resolution” was in interest of everyone including the state.

    A source familiar with Adani’s negotiation said the group had been under pressure following what it thinks was a “negative campaign” by Adani’s opponents after the Hindenburg report, and the settlement to reopen plants is a relief.

    Himachal is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s staunch rival, the Congress party. After the Hindenburg report, Congress has renewed its claims that Modi for years has unduly favoured Adani. Both Adani and India’s government deny that.

    The source added the move will also help Adani signal it can resolve commercial matters in states ruled by Modi’s rivals.

    Without citing Hindenburg, the Himachal chief minister’s office on Monday said “we have been successful in resolving the issues” to end the 67-day dispute.

    WHATSAPP CHATS, PRAYERS AT TEMPLE

    Adani became India’s second largest cement manufacturer when it acquired ACC (ACC.NS) and Ambuja Cements (ABUJ.NS) in a $10.5 billion deal with Swiss giant Holcim (HOLN.S) last year.

    In December, it shut plants in the villages of Gagal and Darlaghat in Himachal, saying truckers were charging too much.

    The Adani group wanted freight rates to be lowered to around 6 rupees ($0.0725) per tonne per km, from around 11 rupees. Many truckers told Reuters they struggled to make their loan repayments as their incomes shrank after the shutdowns.

    As a stalemate worsened, truckers formed WhatsApp groups to coordinate efforts, vent frustration and later share Hindenburg’s impact on Adani companies and stock prices to further drum up support.

    One such WhatsApp group chat of around 1,000 truckers, reviewed by Reuters, showed sharing of a local reporter’s video discussing the sharp fall in Adani’s shares and his alleged close ties to Modi.

    Although they accepted a small cut in freight rates when Adani agreed to pay 9.3-10.58 rupees per km per tonne, truckers felt they saved their jobs, and prayers at the Hindu temple were organised again this week.

    “We felt our deity had accepted our prayers when we saw the fall in the share prices of Adani companies,” protest leader Shukla said. “The Hindenburg report was a gift that saved our businesses.”

    (This story has been refiled to remove extraneous word in paragraph 20)

    Reporting by Manoj Kumar, Aditya Kalra and Anushree Fadnavis; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Indian shares fall ahead of inflation data; Adani stocks slide

    Indian shares fall ahead of inflation data; Adani stocks slide

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    BENGALURU, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Indian shares were off to a muted start on Monday, ahead of domestic retail inflation data due later in the day and U.S. inflation data due tomorrow, while the ongoing uncertainty and spillover effects from the Adani Group’s market rout continued to create an overhang.

    The Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was down 0.29% at 17,804.60 as of 9:37 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.35% to 60,472.28.

    Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined, with information technology stocks (.NIFTYIT) falling nearly 2% amid worries of a growth slowdown in the U.S., from where they get a significant share of their revenue.

    On the flip side, metals (.NIFTYMET) gained with a 1% rise.

    Twenty-seven of Nifty 50 constituents advanced with Titan Co (TITN.NS) and Eicher Motors Ltd (EICH.NS) among top gainers.

    Wall Street equities closed lower on Friday, on fears of a longer-than-expected high-rate regime after hawkish comments from key Federal Reserve officials.

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    Asian markets fell, with the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) sliding 0.63%.

    Investors await India’s retail inflation data for January, due today. A Reuters poll of economists showed that India’s annual retail inflation rose from a 12-month low in December, but stayed within the 6% upper limit of RBI’s tolerance band in January.

    The uncertainty over the Adani conglomerate added to concerns in domestic markets.

    “The Adani group saga continues to weigh on investors’ minds and hence the sentiment has been negative,” said Prashanth Tapse of Mehta Equities.

    The group has lost over $100 billion in market value since Jan. 24, when U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens.

    India’s market regulator is probing the group’s links to some of the investors in its scrapped $2.5 billion share sale of the flagship Adani Enterprises.

    ($1 = 82.5250 Indian rupees)

    Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Nivedita Bhattacharjee

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  • Adani slashes growth targets amid rout sparked by Hindenburg – Bloomberg News

    Adani slashes growth targets amid rout sparked by Hindenburg – Bloomberg News

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    Feb 13 (Reuters) – India’s Adani Group has halved its revenue growth target and plans to scale down fresh capital expenditure, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

    Listed companies controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani have lost more than $100 billion in market value since Jan. 24, when U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the conglomerate of stock manipulation and improper use of offshore tax havens.

    The group has rejected the allegations and denied any wrongdoing.

    The Adani Group will now shoot for revenue growth of 15% to 20% for at least the next financial year, down from the original target of 40%, Bloomberg News said citing people familiar with the matter.

    Holding back on investments for even as little as three months could save the conglomerate as much as $3 billion, the report said, adding that the plans are still imminent.

    A spokesperson for the Adani Group said the report was “baseless, speculative”, without elaborating further.

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    The group has also been a part of India’s market regulator’s investigation into its links to some of the investors in its scrapped $2.5 billion share sale.

    Earlier this month, India’s ministry of corporate affairs started a preliminary review of the group’s financial statements and other regulatory submissions made over the years, Reuters reported, citing two senior government officials.

    Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill and Savio D’Souza

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  • Adani’s market losses top $100 bln as crisis shockwaves spread

    Adani’s market losses top $100 bln as crisis shockwaves spread

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    • Market rout deepens in Indian tycoon Adani’s shares
    • Adani Enterprises loses $26 bln in value since report
    • Falls after Adani pulled share sale, investors spooked
    • Analysts say signals confidence crisis in Indian market

    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Adani’s market losses swelled above $100 billion on Thursday, sparking worries about a potential systemic impact a day after the Indian group’s flagship firm abandoned its $2.5 billion stock offering.

    Another challenge for Adani on Thursday came when S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove Adani Enterprises from widely used sustainability indices, effective Feb. 7, which would make the shares less appealing to sustainability-minded funds.

    In addition, India’s National Stock Exchange said it has placed on additional surveillance shares of Adani Enterprises <ADEL.NS>, Adani Ports <APSE.NS> and Ambuja Cements <ABUJ.NS>. read more

    However, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is in talks with lenders to prepay and release pledged shares as he seeks to restore confidence in the financial health of his conglomerate, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. read more

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    The shock withdrawal of Adani Enterprises’ share sale marks a dramatic setback for founder Adani, the school dropout-turned-billionaire whose fortunes rose rapidly in recent years but have plunged in just a week after a critical research report by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.

    Aborting the share sale sent shockwaves across markets, politics and business. Adani stocks plunged, opposition lawmakers called for a wider probe and India’s central bank sprang into action to check on the exposure of banks to the group. Meanwhile, Citigroup’s (C.N) wealth unit stopped making margin loans to clients against Adani Group securities.

    The crisis marks an dramatic turn of fortune for Adani, who has in recent years forged partnerships with foreign giants such as France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and attracted investors such as Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company as he pursues a global expansion stretching from ports to the power sector.

    In a shock move late on Wednesday, Adani called off the share sale as a stocks rout sparked by Hindenburg’s criticisms intensified, despite it being fully subscribed a day earlier.

    “Adani may have started a confidence crisis in Indian shares and that could have broader market implications,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank.

    Adani Enterprises shares tumbled 27% on Thursday, closing at their lowest level since March 2022.

    Other group companies also lost further ground, with 10% losses at Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) and Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone shed nearly 7%.

    Since Hindenburg’s report on Jan. 24, group companies have lost nearly half their combined market value. Adani Enterprises – described as an incubator of Adani’s businesses – has lost $26 billion in market capitalisation.

    Adani is also no longer Asia’s richest person, having slid to 16th in the Forbes rankings of the world’s wealthiest people, with his net worth almost halved to $64.6 billion in a week.

    The 60-year-old had been third on the list, behind billionaires Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.

    His rival Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) is now Asia’s richest person.

    [1/4] Indian billionaire Gautam Adani addresses delegates during the Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata, India April 20, 2022. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

    Reuters Graphics

    BROADER CONCERNS

    Adani’s plummeting stock and bond prices have raised concerns about the likelihood of a wider impact on India’s financial system.

    India’s central bank has asked local banks for details of their exposure to the Adani Group, government and banking sources told Reuters on Thursday.

    CLSA estimates that Indian banks were exposed to about 40% of the $24.5 billion of Adani Group debt in the fiscal year to March 2022.

    Dollar bonds issued by entities of Adani Group extended losses on Thursday, with notes of Adani Green Energy crashing to a record low. Adani Group entities made scheduled coupon payments on outstanding U.S. dollar-denominated bonds on Thursday, Reuters reported citing sources.

    “We see the market is losing confidence on how to gauge where the bottom can be and although there will be short-covering rebounds, we expect more fundamental downside risks given more private banks (are) likely to cut or reduce margin,” said Monica Hsiao, chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based credit fund Triada Capital.

    In New Delhi, opposition lawmakers submitted notices in parliament demanding discussion of the short-seller’s report.

    The Congress Party called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee be set up or a Supreme Court monitored investigation, while some lawmakers shouted anti-Adani slogans inside parliament, which was adjourned for the day.

    ADANI VS HINDENBURG

    Adani made acquisitions worth $13.8 billion in 2022, Dealogic data showed, its highest ever and more than double the previous year.

    The cancelled fundraising was critical for Adani, which had said it would use $1.33 billion to fund green hydrogen projects, airports facilities and greenfield expressways, and $508 million to repay debt at some units.

    Hindenburg’s report alleged an improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation by the Adani Group. It also raised concerns about high debt and the valuations of seven listed Adani companies.

    The Adani Group has denied the accusations, saying the allegation of stock manipulation had “no basis” and stemmed from an ignorance of Indian law. It said it has always made the necessary regulatory disclosures.

    Adani had managed to secure share sale subscriptions on Tuesday even though the stock’s market price was below the issue’s offer price. Maybank Securities and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had bid for the anchor portion of the issue, investments which will now be reimbursed by Adani.

    Late on Wednesday, the group’s founder said he was withdrawing the sale given the share price fall, adding his board felt going ahead with it “will not be morally correct”.

    Reporting by Chris Thomas, Nallur Sethuraman, Tanvi Mehta, Ira Dugal, Aftab Ahmed, Sumeet Chatterjee, Anshuman Daga, Summer Zhen, Ross Kerber and Bansari Mayur Kamdar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Jason Neely and Alexander Smith

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Adani crisis ignites Indian contagion fears, credit warnings

    Adani crisis ignites Indian contagion fears, credit warnings

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    • Both houses of parliament adjourned amid row
    • Flagship Adani firm plunges 35% at one point
    • Moody’s warns will find it harder to raise capital

    NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Financial contagion fears spread in India on Friday as the Adani Group’s crisis worsened, with ratings agency Moody’s warning the conglomerate may struggle to raise capital and S&P cutting the outlook on two of its businesses.

    Chaotic scenes in both houses of India’s parliament led to their adjournment on Friday as some lawmakers demanded an inquiry after a dramatic meltdown in the stock market values of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies.

    The crisis was triggered by a Hindenburg Research report last week in which the U.S.-based short-seller accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and unsustainable debt.

    Adani Group, one of India’s top conglomerates, has rejected the criticism and denied wrongdoing in detailed rebuttals, but that has failed to arrest the unabated fall in its shares.

    In the latest sign of the crisis widening, India’s ministry of corporate affairs has begun a preliminary review of Adani Group’s financial statements and other regulatory submissions made over the years, two government officials told Reuters.

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    Although shares in Adani companies recovered after sharp falls earlier on Friday, the seven listed firms have still lost about half their market value, totalling more than $100 billion since Hindenburg published its report on Jan. 24.

    Moody’s warned the share plunge could hit the Adani Group’s ability to raise capital, although fellow credit ratings agency Fitch saw no immediate impact on its ratings.

    “These adverse developments are likely to reduce the group’s ability to raise capital to fund committed capex or refinance maturing debt over the next 1-2 years. We recognise that a portion of the capex is deferrable,” Moody’s said.

    For Adani, a former school drop-out from Gujarat, the western home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the crisis presents the biggest reputational and business challenge of his life, as his firm struggles to assuage investor concerns.

    Amid fears the turmoil could spill over into the broader financial system, some Indian politicians have called for a wider investigation, and sources have told Reuters the central bank has asked lenders for details of exposure to the group.

    “Contagion concerns are widening, but still limited to the banking sector,” Charu Chanana, a market strategist with Saxo Markets in Singapore, said on Friday.

    The Reserve Bank of India said the country’s banking system remains resilient and stable. State Bank of India said it was not concerned about the exposure to Adani Group, but further financing to its projects would be “evaluated on its own merit”.

    Adani Enterprises shares closed 1.4% higher, after earlier slumping 35% to hit their lowest since March 2021. That low took its losses to nearly $33.6 billion since last week, a 70% fall.

    Shares fell 5% in Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), a joint venture with France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), which said its exposure to Adani companies was limited.

    Traffic moves past the logo of the Adani Group installed at a roundabout on the ring road in Ahmedabad, India, Feb. 2, 2023. REUTERS/Amit Dave

    Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) was up 8%, while Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) and Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) were both down 10%.

    “There is a risk that investor concerns about the group’s governance and disclosures are larger than we have currently factored into our ratings,” S&P said, as it cut its outlook on Adani Ports and Adani Electricity to negative from stable.

    India’s divestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Reuters that Life Insurance Corp (LIC) shareholders and customers should not be concerned about its exposure to the Adani Group.

    State-run LIC (LIFI.NS) has a 4.23% stake in the flagship Adani Enterprises, while its other exposures include a 9.14% stake in Adani Ports.

    Reuters Graphics

    ‘ONE INSTANCE’

    Adani, 60, has in recent years forged partnerships with, and attracted investment from, foreign giants as he pursued global expansion in industries from ports to power.

    The market and financial crisis means foreign investors, many already underweight on India as they consider its stock market overpriced, are reducing exposure.

    “One instance, however much talked about globally it may be … is not going to be indicative of how well Indian financial markets are governed,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Network18 when asked about the market weakness.

    Reuters Graphics

    Hindenburg’s report said key listed Adani companies had “substantial debt” and shares in the seven listed firms had a downside of 85% due to what it called sky-high valuations.

    The Adani Group has called the report baseless and said over the past decade, its companies have “consistently de-levered”.

    The listed Adani firms now have a combined market value of $107.5 billion, versus $218 billion before the report.

    That has forced Adani to cede the crown of Asia’s richest person to Indian rival Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS), and he has slid to 17th in Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people.

    He had ranked third, behind Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.

    Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Chris Thomas, Ankur Banerjee, Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Shivam Patel, Tanvi Mehta and Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Germany, U.S. to send battle tanks to Ukraine, Russia slams decision

    Germany, U.S. to send battle tanks to Ukraine, Russia slams decision

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    • U.S. providing Abrams tanks, Germany to send Leopard tanks
    • Biden: Tanks pose ‘no offensive threat’ to Russia
    • Russian-backed leader: Wagner force advancing on Bakhmut

    WASHINGTON/BERLIN/KYIV, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The United States and Germany have announced plans to arm Ukraine with dozens of battle tanks in its fight against Russia, which denounced the decisions as an “extremely dangerous” step.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the commitments and urged allies to provide large quantities of tanks quickly.

    “The key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,” he said in a nightly video address on Wednesday. “We have to form such a ‘tank fist’, such a ‘fist of freedom’.”

    Ukraine has been seeking hundreds of modern tanks to give its troops the firepower to break Russian defensive lines and reclaim occupied territory in the south and east. Ukraine and Russia have been relying primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tanks.

    The promise of tanks comes as both Ukraine and Russia are expected to launch new offensives in the war and as fighting has intensified in Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east.

    Ukrainian forces destroyed 24 drones, including 15 over Kyiv, that Russia launched in overnight attacks, the military said on Thursday, adding there was major danger of more Russian air raids. An alert had been declared over most of the country.

    U.S. President Joe Biden announced his decision to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks hours after Berlin said it would provide Leopard 2 tanks – the workhorse of NATO armies across Europe.

    Maintaining Kyiv’s drumbeat of requests for more aid, Zelenskiy said he spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and called for long-range missiles and aircraft.

    Ukraine’s allies have already provided billions in military support including sophisticated U.S. missile systems.

    The United States has been wary of deploying the difficult-to-maintain Abrams but had to change tack to persuade Germany to send to Ukraine its more easily operated Leopards.

    Biden said the tanks pose “no offensive threat” to Russia and that they were needed to help the Ukrainians “improve their ability to manoeuvre in open terrain”.

    Germany will send an initial company of 14 tanks from its stocks and approve shipments by allied European states.

    The Abrams can be tricky, but the Leopard was designed as a system that any NATO member could service and crews and repair specialists could be trained together on a single model, Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kevlyuk told Espreso TV.

    “If we have been brought into this club by providing us with these vehicles, I would say our prospects look good.”

    ‘DANGEROUS DECISION’

    [1/17] Spanish army tank Leopard 2 of NATO enhanced Forward Presence battle group fires during the final phase of the Silver Arrow 2022 military drill on Adazi military training grounds, Latvia September 29, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

    Russia reacted with fury to Germany’s decision to approve the delivery of the Leopards.

    “This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation,” said Sergei Nechayev, Russia’s ambassador to Germany.

    Since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, Russia has shifted its rhetoric on the war from an operation to “denazify” and “demilitarise” its neighbour to casting it as a face-off between it and the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

    Senior U.S. officials said it would take months for the Abrams to be delivered and described the decision to supply them as providing for Ukraine’s long-term defence.

    Germany’s tanks would probably be ready in three or four months, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said.

    Pledges to Ukraine from other countries that field Leopards have multiplied with announcements from Poland, Finland and Norway. Spain and the Netherlands said they were considering it.

    Britain has offered 14 of its comparable Challenger tanks and France is considering sending its Leclercs.

    BAKHMUT FIGHTING

    The Kyiv government acknowledged on Wednesday its forces had withdrawn from Soledar, a small salt-mining town close to Bakhmut in the east, that Russia said it captured more than a week ago, its biggest gain for more than six months.

    The area around Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of 70,000, has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the war.

    Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces were attacking in the direction of Bakhmut “with the aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region and regardless of its own casualties”.

    The Russian-installed governor of Donetsk said earlier that units of Russia’s Wagner contract militia were moving forward inside Bakhmut, with fighting on the outskirts and in neighbourhoods recently held by Ukraine.

    Analyst Kevlyuk said losing Bakhmut would not change much in terms of the tactical scheme of things but that he was more concerned by Russian efforts to regroup and concentrate resources in the Luhansk region.

    Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas region. Russian forces control nearly all of Luhansk, while Russians and their proxies say they control about half of Donetsk.

    Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

    The 11-month war has killed thousands of people, driven millions from their homes and reduced cities to rubble.

    Reporting by Reuters bureaus; writing by Cynthia Osterman and Himani Sarkar; editing by Grant McCool, Robert Birsel

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act

    Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act

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    • Alireza Akbari was a former Iranian deputy defence minister
    • Arrested in 2019, he was accused of spying for Britain
    • UK’s Sunak calls it ‘a callous and cowardly act’
    • Britain had said Iran must not follow through with sentence

    DUBAI/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary reported on Saturday, defying calls from London for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.

    Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari as politically motivated, condemned the execution and said it would not stand unchallenged.

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people”.

    The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the execution early on Saturday, without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence – a call echoed by Washington.

    “Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government’s intelligence service … was executed,” Mizan said.

    The report accused Akbari, arrested in 2019, of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for spying.

    In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture.

    Sunak said on Twitter he was “appalled by the execution”. Cleverly said in a statement it would “not stand unchallenged”. “We will be summoning the Iranian Charge d’Affaires to make clear our disgust at Iran’s actions.”

    British statements on the case have not addressed the Iranian charge that Akbari spied for Britain.

    Iranian state media broadcast a video on Thursday that they said showed that Akbari played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel.

    In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.

    Iran’s state media often airs purported confessions by suspects in politically charged cases.

    Reuters could not establish the authenticity of the state media video and audio, or when or where they were recorded.

    Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defence minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.

    ‘3,500 HOURS OF TORTURE’

    Reflecting Iran’s worsening ties with the West, London-Tehran relations have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact, to which Britain is a party.

    Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on anti-government protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September.

    A British foreign office minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering proscribing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation but has not reached a final decision.

    Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown on the unrest, executing at least four people.

    In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture.

    “With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness… and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats,” he said.

    Reporting by Dubai newsroom and Michael Holden in London; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by William Mallard and Angus MacSwan

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success

    Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success

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    • Wagner Group spearheaded assault on Ukraine’s Soledar
    • Mercenary chief, in PR push, claims credit for Wagner
    • Success hailed by some, played down by others

    LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – In the twilight of the Soviet Union, Yevgeny Prigozhin was languishing in prison for theft. Now as the founder of Russia’s most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin’s favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine.

    His aim is to leverage the success that Wagner Group, his mercenary outfit, had this week in pushing Ukrainian forces out of the salt mining town of Soledar, a move that revives Russian plans to seize more of eastern Ukraine after multiple defeats.

    Russia claimed victory on Friday but Ukraine said its troops were still fighting in the town. Reuters could not immediately verify the situation.

    Prigozhin, 61, who is sanctioned in the West and casts himself as a ruthless patriot, had posed in combat gear with his men in a salt mine beneath Soledar and said they were fighting alone, an assertion initially contradicted by defence officials.

    The Kremlin on Thursday spoke of the “absolutely heroic selfless actions” of those fighting in Soledar. The defence ministry on Friday attributed victory to its airborne units, missile forces and “artillery of a grouping of Russian forces”.

    Prigozhin said Russian officials were not giving his forces due credit.

    “They constantly try to steal victory from the Wagner PMC (private military company) and talk about the presence of other unknown people just to belittle Wagner’s merits,” he complained.

    The defence ministry responded hours later with a new statement “to clarify” the situation which acknowledged that Wagner fighters, whose actions it hailed as “courageous and selfless,” had been the ones to storm the town.

    Some commentators have said Prigozhin could one day be made defence minister, but it is not fully clear how much influence the businessman from St Petersburg has gained with Putin, who tends to balance factions with a strategy of divide and rule.

    ‘A NEW HERO’

    Prominent Putin supporters, some with access to the Russian leader, have contrasted Prigozhin’s progress with what they say has been a less impressive performance by the regular military.

    Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, has hailed the shaven-headed mercenary chief as “a new hero.”

    “Prigozhin has flaws too. But I won’t tell you about them. Because Prigozhin and Wagner are now Russia’s national treasure. They are becoming a symbol of victory,” Markov wrote on his blog, saying they should be given more resources by the state.

    Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-controlled RT channel and close to the Kremlin, thanked Prigozhin for Soledar.

    Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speech writer, suggested on his blog that Prigozhin was manoeuvring in case Putin removed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, 67, his long-standing ally.

    Prigozhin has played down the idea he is seeking official elevation in the past, while not emphatically ruling it out. His press service, and the Kremlin, did not immediately reply to requests for fresh comment.

    Putin has said Wagner does not represent the state and is not breaking Russian law and has the right to work and promote its business interests anywhere in the world.

    One of the military bloggers who help shape Russians’ view of the conflict likened Prigozhin to a Roman centurion licensed to operate above and outside the law to achieve Putin’s goals.

    “A couple more successful Wagner operations and online votes proposing Prigozhin for Minister of Defence will cease to be fantasy,” said Zhivov Z.

    Yet Igor Girkin, a Russian nationalist and former Federal Security Service officer who helped launch the original Donbas war in 2014 and is under U.S. sanctions, has said Prigozhin is careless with the lives of his men. He has also said capturing Soledar and nearby Bakhmut would not be militarily significant.

    Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s Chef” by Western media because he once ran a floating restaurant in St Petersburg where Putin ate, has plenty to gain or lose.

    He has his own future to consider at a time of tumult as well as the commercial interests of Wagner, which Russian officials say has military and mining contracts in Africa and is active in Syria. He also has a vast catering company serving state entities, as well as troll farms and media outlets.

    “In essence, he is a private businessman who is highly dependent on how his relations with the authorities are structured. This is a very vulnerable position,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik analysis firm.

    The attendance on a Wagner training course this month of the governor of Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine looked like another way for Prigozhin to enhance his connections, she said.

    ‘UNSPECIFIED SAFEGUARDS’

    Russia has allowed Prigozhin to recruit tens of thousands of convicts from its prisons for Wagner, which U.S. officials say is a 50,000-strong force, and let him equip them with tanks, aircraft and missile defence systems.

    It has also stood by while he flung sometimes profane criticism at the top brass, although some Western military analysts suggested the appointment of the most senior general to lead the war in Ukraine was designed to balance his influence.

    Before Russia’s invasion, something Moscow calls “a special military operation”, Prigozhin had denied his Wagner connection. In September, he said he had founded the mercenary group in 2014.

    Despite its sometimes publicly strained ties with the Russian defence ministry, some Western military analysts suspect Wagner is closely affiliated with it.

    Leonid Nevzlin, an Israel-based former executive at oil major Yukos which he says was illegally appropriated by the Russian state, something it denies, said this week there was a risk Wagner could throw off Kremlin control.

    One source close to the Russian authorities, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the Kremlin viewed Prigozhin as a useful operator but maintained unspecified safeguards over leaders of armed groups.

    “There is a ceiling (of growth) and mechanisms in place,” said the source, who declined to provide more details.

    Reporting by Andrew Osborn; editing by Philippa Fletcher

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Nine dead, more casualties expected after tornadoes rip through U.S. Southeast

    Nine dead, more casualties expected after tornadoes rip through U.S. Southeast

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    ATLANTA, Jan 13 (Reuters) – At least nine people died in tornadoes that destroyed homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands in the U.S. Southeast, local officials said on Friday, and the death toll in hard-hit central Alabama was expected to rise.

    The storms on Thursday stretched from Mississippi to Georgia. At least five tornadoes touched down in central Alabama, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jessica Laws. One of those twisters potentially tracked about 150 miles (241 km) from southwest Selma, Alabama, to the Georgia-Alabama state line, she said.

    Rescue teams were searching for missing people in Alabama’s Autauga County, where seven deaths have been reported, emergency management director Ernie Baggett said on MSNBC. He credited schools for saving more lives by not releasing students early.

    County coroner Buster Barber told Reuters the number of casualties would rise.

    “We are finding more bodies as we speak,” he said in a phone interview. “We’ve got search teams out in the area.”

    Storms damaged as many as 50 properties in Autauga County, according to the local sheriff’s office.

    In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp confirmed two people had died in Thursday’s storms. A 5-year-old child was killed after a tree fell on a car, leaving an adult passenger in critical condition as they were driving home, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said.

    A state employee also was killed while responding to the storm, Kemp said.

    Images from the severe storms showed widespread damage in Selma, a pivotal site of the U.S. civil rights movement. A tornado tore off rooftops and hurled debris. Multiple businesses and homes were destroyed, and trees were ripped from their roots.

    [1/5] Whole rooms are seen without walls on the second floor of a home the day after a tornado struck Dallas County near Selma, Alabama, U.S. January 13, 2023. Mickey Welsh/USA Today Network via REUTERS

    Residents were visibly shaken by the experience, and some counted themselves lucky to be alive.

    One woman began to cry as she described riding out the storm in her bathtub. She said the winds picked up her trailer, destroying everything inside.

    Ray Hogg said he found shelter inside a country club.

    “You could hear the roar, glass going everywhere,” he said. “You could hear the roof literally being torn off right over our heads.”

    Officials confirmed four tornadoes touched down in Georgia, largely southeast of Atlanta but causing damage across the state, with winds peeling off roofs, knocking down houses and uprooting trees.

    Just southeast of Atlanta, a freight train had three of its cars blown off the tracks, blocking traffic. No injuries from that incident were reported, officials said.

    Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday declared a state of emergency for the six counties of Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa.

    Nearly 20,000 customers were without power in Alabama on Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. The storm also led to power outages in neighboring states of Mississippi and Georgia.

    Tornado sirens in Monroe County in northeast Mississippi, where a twister made landfall, failed to activate as the storm moved through the area, local news reported.

    Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta
    Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Matthew Lewis and Josie Kao

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • U.S. FDA allows abortion pills to be sold at retail pharmacies

    U.S. FDA allows abortion pills to be sold at retail pharmacies

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    WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency said on Tuesday, even as more states seek to ban medication abortion.

    The regulatory change will potentially expand abortion access as President Joe Biden’s administration wrestles with how best to protect abortion rights after they were sharply curtailed by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and the state bans that followed.

    Pharmacies can start applying for certification to distribute abortion pill mifepristone with one of the two companies that make it, and if successful they will be able to dispense it directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.

    The FDA had first said it would be making those changes in December 2021 when it announced it would relax some risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, on the pill, that had been in place since the agency approved it in 2000 and were lifted temporarily in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The changes included permanently removing restrictions on mail order shipping of the pills and their prescription through telehealth.

    The agency finalized the changes on Tuesday after reviewing supplemental applications from Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, the two companies that make the drug in the United States.

    “Under the Mifepristone REMS Program, as modified, Mifeprex and its approved generic can be dispensed by certified pharmacies or by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber,” the agency said on its website on Tuesday.

    Mifeprex is the brand name version of mifepristone which, in combination with a second drug called misoprostol that has various uses including miscarriage management, induces an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in a process known as medication abortion.

    Abortion rights activists say the pill has a long track record of being safe and effective, with no risk of overdose or addiction. In several countries, including India and Mexico, women can buy them without a prescription to induce abortion.

    “Today’s news is a step in the right direction for health equity,” Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.

    “Being able to access your prescribed medication abortion through the mail or to pick it up in person from a pharmacy like any other prescription is a game changer for people trying to access basic health care,” Johnson added.

    NO EQUAL ACCESS

    The regulatory change will, however, not provide equal access to all people, GenBioPro, which makes the generic version of mifepristone, said in a statement.

    Abortion bans, some targeting mifepristone, have gone into effect in more than a dozen states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to terminating pregnancies when it scrapped the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling last year.

    Women in those states could potentially travel to other states to obtain medication abortion.

    The president of anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said the latest FDA move endangers women’s safety and the lives of unborn children.

    “State lawmakers and Congress must stand as a bulwark against the Biden administration’s pro-abortion extremism,” she said in a statement.

    FDA records show a small mortality case number associated with mifepristone. As of June 2021, there were reports of 26 deaths linked with the pill out of 4.9 million people estimated to have taken it since it was approved in September 2000.

    Retail pharmacies will have to weigh whether or not to offer the pill given the political controversy surrounding abortion, and determine where they can do so.

    A spokesperson for CVS Health (CVS.N) said the drugstore chain owner was reviewing the updated REMS “drug safety program certification requirements for mifepristone to determine the requirements to dispense in states that do not restrict the dispensing of medications prescribed for elective termination of pregnancy.”

    A spokesperson for Walgreens (WBA.O), one of the largest U.S. pharmacies, said the company was also reviewing the FDA’s regulatory change. “We will continue to enable our pharmacists to dispense medications consistent with federal and state law.”

    Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Eric Beech in Washington, Shivani Tanna, Rahat Sandhu, and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Ahmed Aboulenein

    Thomson Reuters

    Washington-based correspondent covering U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical policy with a focus on the Department of Health and Human Services and the agencies it oversees such as the Food and Drug Administration, previously based in Iraq and Egypt.

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