Sonya Hepinstall News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday that unvaccinated foreign nationals under the age of 18 traveling to the United States by air do not have to self-quarantine upon arrival.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Saturday signed a revised order clarifying that foreign national children who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to isolate for seven days upon arrival in the United States.A CDC order issued on Monday had raised alarm among some foreign travelers that their children would need to quarantine for that long after arriving.On November 8…

A U.S. trade group representing companies selling luggage, backpacks and other travel products has written President Joe Biden asking that regulations on shipping and other fees be strictly enforced to help bring down the cost of shipping.The Travel Goods Association, whose companies do some $1 billion in U.S. sales annually, asked for "immediate action – aggressive enforcement, leadership to bring the full gamut (of) stakeholders to the table, provide immediate relief, and more."They…

Missouri prosecutors filed state charges on Friday against three employees involved in a 2018 boat accident on a lake in the tourist town of Branson in which 17 people were killed.Kenneth McKee, the boat's captain, and managers Curtis Lanham and Charles Baltzell each face 17 counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter for taking the World War Two-style duck boat out in stormy weather.Stone County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Selby and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced the charges…

Vineyard Wind on Friday announced a deal to use union labor to help construct what will become the nation's first major offshore wind project off the Massachusetts coast near Martha's Vineyard.The labor agreement with the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Trades Council covers 500 jobs, most of which will go to local workers, the company said in a statement. It also includes hiring targets for women and people of color.The pact is the first in the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry and comes as President Joe Biden…

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he decided to waive sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline because the project was nearly complete, and doing so could have harmed ties with Europe.Biden, who is preparing for his first visit to Europe and his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month, told reporters he had opposed the new pipeline since its inception, but held off on sanctions because it was "almost completely finished" by the time he took office in January.Asked why he was letting Germany and Russia complete the project…

The Biden administration will seek to approve more than a dozen offshore wind projects in the next four years and open new areas for leasing off the coast of California as it seeks to supercharge development of the nascent U.S. industry, an Interior Department official said on Tuesday.The effort is part of the administration’s broader plan to fight climate change by decarbonizing the U.S. power sector by 2035 and the entire economy by 2050.Amanda Lefton, director of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told the Reuters U.S.

Germany will next week present a multi-billion-dollar proposal to Lebanese authorities to rebuild the Port of Beirut as part of efforts to entice the country’s politicians to form a government capable of warding off financial collapse, two sources said.A chemical explosion at the port last August killed 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods in Lebanon’s capital, plunging the country deeper into its worst political and economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.According to two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the plans…

Oil prices jumped about 6% on Wednesday after a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, and worries that the incident could tie up crude shipments gave prices a boost after a slide over the last week.The crude benchmarks, U.S. crude and London-based Brent, added to gains after U.S. inventory figures showed a further rebound in refining activity, suggesting U.S. refiners are mostly recovered from the cold snap that slammed Texas in February.Brent crude settled at $64.41 a barrel, gaining $3.62, or 6%, after tumbling 5.9% the previous day.

Venezuela’s oil exports rose in February to over 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), their highest level in 10 months, pushed by more sales of fuel oil cargoes to new clients in Asian markets, according to Refinitiv Eikon’s tanker tracking data and documents.A growing number of clients with no track record in oil trading has been helping Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA to allocate crude and fuel in Asia, especially since the U.S. Treasury Department halted oil swaps by PDVSA’s long-term customers in the last quarter of 2020 as part of tightening sanctions.These buyers…

Members of Congress have joined state and local leaders in urging California officials to hasten COVID-19 vaccinations for workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest, hit hard by pandemic workforce disruptions and surging imports.As of Wednesday, 27 arriving container ships stood anchored off the twin ports complex waiting for berths to clear at terminals piled high with cargo from previous shipments, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern…

The loading of five cargo ships in different grains ports in Argentina has been stalled for days due to strikes by port workers, the labor union representing the employees and an industry source said on Wednesday.ADM and the local ACA cooperative have each had a ship waiting since Saturday to complete cargo loading at the companies' terminals in Puerto General San Martín and San Lorenzo, the shipping hub north of Rosario, according to the URGARA union.Another ADM ship and one for Louis Dreyfus are also waiting to be loaded in the port of Bahía Blanca.

Venezuela's oil exports fell to a historic low of 359,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October as most of state-run PDVSA's long-term clients paused trade to meet a U.S. deadline to halt business with the firm, according to data seen by Reuters on Monday.The United States set an October-November deadline for PDVSA's long-term customers - including Italy Eni, Spain's Repsol and India's Reliance Industries - to stop oil swaps it had authorized this year as exceptions to sanctions on Venezuela.None of those companies loaded cargoes of Venezuelan crude in October…

Eleven vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came dangerously close to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships in the Gulf, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, calling the moves “dangerous and provocative.”While such interactions had occurred occasionally a few years ago, they had stopped, and this incident comes at a time of increased tensions between the two countries.According to the statement, the Iranian vessels approached six U.S. military ships while they were conducting integration operations with Army helicopters in international waters.At one point…

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday confirmed that it will assist authorities in Lebanon investigating the cause of the explosion that devastated Beirut and killed 172 people."At the request of the Government of Lebanon, the FBI will be providing our Lebanese partners investigative assistance in their investigation into the explosions at the Port of Beirut on August 4th," FBI headquarters said in a statement to Reuters."As this is not an FBI investigation, the FBI will not offer additional comment at this time.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he may get involved in a deepening crisis in the Navy after its top civilian on Monday ridiculed a revered former commander whose letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier was leaked to the public.In a surprise speech to crew members of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt that was meant to be a private address, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly defended his decision to relieve Captain Brett Crozier of his command…

March imports dropped 26% at the Port of Los Angeles and 5% at the adjacent Port of Long Beach - the busiest U.S. sea trade gateways - as the novel coronavirus wrecked havoc on commerce around the globe.Imports at major U.S.

Brazil's Petrobras said that its platforms P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77 located in the deepwater Buzios oil field, the largest in the world, achieved record production levels on June 27, totaling 664,000 bpd and 822,000 boed.The oil company said it sold 764,000 cubic meters of diesel between June 14 and June 20, compared to 757,000 in the last week of March, before restrictions were put in place in parts of Brazil to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus.The highest-selling week since March 1 took place between May 3 and May 9, when Petrobras sold 879,000 cubic meters of diesel.Gas sales were

The trading arm of Mexican state oil company Pemex is mulling options to slash the number of fuel cargoes the country imports in May and June as demand plummets because of the coronavirus, three sources close to the talks told Reuters.Pemex last week declared force majeure over fuel supplies from its trading arm PMI Comercio Internacional after a bottleneck of more than 60 vessels built up outside Mexican ports, waiting to discharge.But PMI still has not declared force majeure…

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday that a large semi-submersible rig drifted into and ran aground in the Sabine Bank Channel, limiting vessels entering the Sabine-Neches Waterway to those with a maximum draft of 32 feet (9.8 meters).The waterway sits on the Texas-Louisiana border and connects the Gulf of Mexico to Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant and to oil refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas.That area is west of where two hurricanes struck in recent weeks. Nearby refineries are owned by Exxon Mobil Corp, Valero Energy Corp, Total SA, and others.The semi-submersible rig, called the Jasminia, drifted into the Sabine Bank Channel and ran aground on Friday, a Coast Guard spokesman said. The rig had housed offshore workers in the past.

A powerful blast in port warehouses near central Beirut storing highly explosive material killed 78 people, injured nearly 4,000 and sent seismic shockwaves that shattered windows, smashed masonry and shook the ground across the Lebanese capital.Officials said they expected the death toll to rise further after Tuesday's blast as emergency workers dug through rubble to rescue people and remove the dead. It was the most powerful explosion in years in Beirut, which is already reeling from an economic crisis and a surge in coronavirus infections.President Michel Aoun said that 2…

The first of a group of three tankers carrying Iranian fuel for gasoline-starved Venezuela entered the waters of the South American nation on Monday, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, in the most recent sign of the countries' expanding trade.The two OPEC members have increased cooperation this year by exchanging crude, fuel, food, equipment for refineries and other industrial goods. Many details about the transactions are not available, however.The Iran-flagged tanker Forest, transporting some 270,000 barrels of fuel loaded in the Middle East, entered Venezuela's exclusive economic zone around 8:05 a.m. local time (1205 GMT) without any disturbances…

Venezuela's state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has created a new unit to run its oil terminals, according to a copy of the government's official gazette seen by Reuters and a person with knowledge of the matter.The launch of the new unit, PDV Puertos S.A., comes after socialist President Nicolas Maduro last month named a new PDVSA president and oil minister to try to revive the once-prosperous OPEC nation's crude output, which has fallen to decades-lows due to years of underinvestment and mismanagement as well as U.S.

Brazil has agreed to release water at the giant Itaipu hydroelectric dam to raise low water levels in the Parana River, a key thoroughfare for grains shipments, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.Decade-low water levels on the Parana are forcing Argentine exporters to load less soy and other grains on ships bound largely for China, adding a new problem to a sector already beset by bottlenecks due to the coronavirus pandemic.The agreement with Brazil will allow for an additional 1,400 cubic meters of water flow to be added to the river, the ministry said in a statement.