Women and children among those kidnapped in Nigeria
Maiduguru — Armed men on motorbikes killed 11 people and kidnapped at least 70 others, including women and children, in a village in northwest Nigeria, witnesses said, in a region plagued by mass abductions and unrest.
The attackers opened fire as they rode into Sabongarin Damri in Zamfara State late on Saturday, resident Isa Sani said.
“They came on motorcycles, shooting randomly before abducting our daughters and children. As of today, we haven't heard anything from them. Everywhere is quiet,” he said on Monday.
Groups known locally as “bandits” have killed hundreds of people and seized thousands across the state in recent years. They often hold captives for months and demand ransoms for their release. Reuters
Eurostar warns of delays after disruption in France
Paris — Eurostar warned passengers on Monday to expect severe disruption and cancellations throughout the day on routes to and from Paris, after a section of the French rail network, operated by France’s railway company SNCF, was temporarily closed.
The high-speed train operator urged travellers to postpone their journeys if possible.
“Passengers can exchange their tickets free of charge or request a full refund,” a Eurostar spokesperson said, adding that the London-Amsterdam, London-Brussels and Brussels-Amsterdam routes were unaffected by the disruption in France.
SNCF said the disruption was caused by a power outage near Moussy, about 50km north of Paris, which began at 8.30am and was expected to last until late evening as “major repairs” were required. Reuters
BP makes large oil and gas discovery in Brazil
Bengaluru — BP said on Monday it has made its largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years in Brazil's Santos basin, a so-called pre-salt area in deep water offshore which is believed to be a large reservoir of oil and gas.
BP returned its focus to fossil fuels last year to regain investor confidence and revive underperforming shares after a troubled push into renewable energy.
Its London-listed shares rose 1.4% in early trade.
BP, which has plans to grow its global oil and gas production to 2.3-million-2.5-million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2030, said this was its 10th discovery so far this year, after findings in Trinidad, Egypt, Brazil and other countries.
Production in 2024 was 2.4-million barrels of oil equivalent. BP expects production to be lower in 2025. Reuters
US factory orders decline in June
New orders for US-manufactured goods fell in June as commercial aircraft orders plunged, reversing the surge in aircraft orders that had driven the overall upswing in orders in the prior month.
Factory orders tumbled 4.8% after an upwardly revised 8.3% increase in May, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Monday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory orders would decline 4.8% after a previously reported 8.2% jump in May. Orders were up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis in June.
Manufacturing, which accounts for 10.2% of the economy, remains constrained by President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs on imported goods. Reuters
German minister urges quick solution to US tariffs
Washington — German finance minister Lars Klingbeil said on Monday that there was a lot to clarify about the EU’s trade deal with the US, adding that the bloc had been too weak during the negotiations.
Speaking in Washington ahead of a meeting with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, Klingbeil said there needs to be a quick solution to the trade conflict with the US. Reuters
Trump to raise tariffs for India over Russia oil deals
Washington — US President Donald Trump said on Monday he will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India over its purchases of Russian oil.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Because of this, I will be substantially raising the tariff paid by India to the USA.”
He did not elaborate on what the tariff would be. Reuters
US mulls bonds for some tourist and business visas
Washington — The US could require bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas under a pilot programme launching in two weeks, a government notice said on Monday, an effort that aims to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas.
The programme gives US consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice.
Bonds could also be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focus of his presidency, boosting resources to secure the border and arresting people in the US illegally.
He issued a travel ban in June that fully or partially blocks citizens of 19 nations from entering the US on national security grounds. Reuters
SpaceX delivers joint astronaut crew to ISS
An international crew of four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday aboard a SpaceX rocket. It’s a routine Nasa mission that could be the first of many to last a few months longer than usual.
The four-person crew — two Nasa astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut — boarded SpaceX’s Dragon capsule atop its Falcon 9 rocket at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre on Friday and beat a gloomy weather to blast off at 3.43pm GMT.
While normal crew rotation missions last about six months, the crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months, intended to better align US mission schedules with Russia's missions, Nasa said. Reuters
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