Moody’s cuts Poland’s outlook to negative
Warsaw — Credit ratings agency Moody’s lowered Poland’s outlook to “negative” from “stable” on Friday amid rising spending pressure and political gridlock.
“Our decision to change the outlook to negative reflects a materially weaker outlook for fiscal and debt metrics compared to our earlier expectations,” the agency said in a statement.
Poland’s economy has remained resilient, supported by domestic demand and EU funds, with trend real GDP growth near 3%, though a standoff between the government and the president risks slowing reforms and EU funds absorption. Reuters
Mauritius central bank governor asked to step down
Port Louis — Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said on Saturday he has asked central bank governor Rama Sithanen to step down and will appoint a new second deputy governor on Monday and thereafter a new governor, amid signs of a power struggle at the bank.
Deputy central bank governor Gerard Sanspeur resigned on August 29 after clashing with the son of the governor, whom he accused of trying to meddle in the running of the institution. Sanspeur was the third most senior official at the central bank and held the title of second deputy governor.
Sanspeur told a press conference last month that the governor’s son “wanted to interfere in banking licences processes, in recruitment and laying off of staff and tender procedures.”
Sithanen has said the accusations against his son were false. Reuters
Germany scrambles jets after Russian incursion
Berlin/Frankfurt— Germany’s air force on Sunday morning sent two Eurofighters to track a Russian IL-20m military aircraft that had entered neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea, it said, before handing the escort over to Nato partners in Sweden.
“Once again, our quick reaction alert force, consisting of two Eurofighters, was tasked by Nato with investigating an unidentified aircraft without a flight plan or radio contact in international airspace,” Germany’s air force said in a statement.
“It was a Russian IL-20M reconnaissance aircraft. After visual identification, we handed over escort duties for the aircraft to our Swedish Nato partners and returned to Rostock-Laage.”
Nato’s North Atlantic Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace, two officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
Tallinn said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had entered Estonian airspace without permission on Friday and stayed for a total of 12 minutes before they were forced to withdraw. Reuters
Tesla to test autonomous robotaxis in Arizona
Bengaluru — Tesla has been approved to start testing autonomous robotaxi vehicles with a safety monitor in Arizona, the state transportation department said in an email to Reuters on Friday.
Tesla had applied in June for a permit to begin trials for an autonomous vehicle ride-sharing service, and now plans to test robotaxis in the Phoenix Metro area using safety drivers, the Arizona Department of Transportation said in its email.
Tesla rolled out a small test of its robotaxi service in a limited area of Austin, Texas, in June, with about a dozen vehicles, a select group of passengers and many restrictions, including a safety monitor in the front passenger seat. Reuters
Google ends Financial Times enterprise subscription
Bengaluru — Google is ending its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times as part of its cost-reduction efforts, TechCrunch reported on Friday, citing sources.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Reuters
China’s rare earth magnet exports continue to rise
Beijing — China’s exports of rare earth magnets in August jumped for a third straight month to hit a seven-month high, indicating a steady recovery in outflow of the minerals crucial to electric vehicles after Beijing’s curbed shipments in April.
August’s outbound shipments from the world’s largest rare earth magnet supplier climbed 10.2% from July to 6,146 tonnes, up 15.4% from the year before, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday.
The increase follows a series of agreements between Beijing and the US and Europe to expedite shipments and ease export controls that China had imposed in April in response to US tariffs. Reuters
Trump blocks US Steel from closing Illinois plant
Bengaluru — The Trump administration blocked US Steel’s plan to shut down production at one of its plants in Illinois, flexing its so-called golden share authority, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
US Steel, now owned by Tokyo-based Nippon Steel , said in a statement on Friday that it has reversed its decision to shut down the plant, which employs nearly 800 workers.
According to media reports, the company had likely planned to halt production at the plant in November. Reuters
Australia’s Optus to probe emergency calls outage
Sydney — Optus, Australia’s No 2 telecom carrier, said on Sunday that a departure from regular processes on a network upgrade sparked a technical failure that disrupted emergency call services for 13 hours and has been linked to four deaths.
There has been growing outcry in Australia over the glitch, which Optus said occurred during a network firewall upgrade at 12.30am on Thursday and potentially affected 600 customers.
The government on Friday said it would investigate the company’s “unacceptable” failure, and Optus said the next day it would co-operate with any effort to look into the incident.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue said in a statement on Sunday the company’s own initial investigation has shown that established processes were not followed on the upgrade. Reuters
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