Thursday , 18 December 2025

Pentagon’s new copter for Afghans lacks lift of old Russian-made ones

Bloomberg The US Army’s Black Hawk helicopters are less capable for some missions conducted by Afghanistan’s Air Force than the Russian-made ones they’re replacing, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general. It’s a setback six years after lawmakers started pushing for the US to stop buying the Mi-17 sold by Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-owned weapons exporter, in light of President Vladimir Putin’s …

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Qantas Air ‘nosedives’ over Pacific after hitting jet wake

Bloomberg A Qantas Airways Ltd. A380 superjumbo suddenly lost altitude for about 10 seconds more than 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean after flying through the wake of another plane. Flight QF94, two hours after taking off from Los Angeles to Melbourne on the night of June 10, plunged upon hitting the wake turbulence of another Qantas A380 that was …

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Toys ‘R’ Us mascot, orphaned by bankruptcy, finds home

Bloomberg Geoffrey the Giraffe has gone from the morgue to the hospital. Toys ‘R’ Us, the toy retailer that’s liquidating in bankruptcy, found a New Jersey children’s hospital that was willing to take the 16-foot tall statue of the African mammal that stood in the lobby of its headquarters. The chain has held going-out-of business sales at its stores and …

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Mubadala to launch European tech fund

LONDON / WAM Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala) of Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday announced its intent to create a $400 million fund to invest in leading European technology companies. The fund will be managed by Mubadala Ventures, the venture capital arm of Mubadala. SoftBank Group will participate as a strategic investor via its SIMI US Holdings I, Inc investment subsidiary. The …

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Russia seeks rollback of most of OPEC cuts

Bloomberg Russia plans to propose that OPEC and its allies be allowed to return production to October 2016 levels, rolling back most but not all of their output cuts within three months, according to a person familiar with Moscow’s thinking. All the nations would proportionally share out a 1.8 million barrel-a-day increase to their output limit starting as soon as …

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Iran, Venezuela oil output could slump by 30%: IEA

Bloomberg OPEC members Iran and Venezuela could lose almost 30 percent of their oil output next year due to US sanctions and economic upheaval, requiring extra supplies from the group’s Gulf members, the International Energy Agency said. In its first detailed forecast for 2019, the IEA said new oil output from outside OPEC — in particular US shale — should …

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Exxon to take baby steps to expand its oil trading unit

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. is dipping its toe in the world of oil trading, hiring executives and showing an appetite for expanding its operations. Yet, the US-based company is moving carefully, still far away from building an in-house trading unit similar to the mighty businesses run Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Total SA. Exxon recently hired Paul Butcher, …

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Top US regulators don’t back claim that grid faces emergency

Bloomberg Top US energy regulators declined to endorse the notion that power grids face a national emergency during a Senate hearing, tacitly rebuffing President Donald Trump’s argument to prop up struggling coal and nuclear plants. The five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission were testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee when asked by New Mexico Democrat …

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American gas prices could double by 2040

Bloomberg American gas prices could double by 2040 as the US exports more liquefied natural gas, but consumers will be shielded as production of the fuel increases and trade balances improve. That’s the conclusion from a study commissioned by the US Department of Energy that found an almost 50 percent chance of gas reaching $5 to $6.50 per million British …

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US lowers domestic, world 2019 crude output forecasts

Bloomberg Next year, the US government doesn’t see global or US crude production as high as it once did. The Energy Information Administration decreased its 2019 forecast for global production to 102.21 million barrels a day, with most of the downward revision from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries. World demand growth is unchanged. At the same time, it sees …

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