Thousands of homes are spending another day without power after two storms battered parts of Scotland. More than 80,000 homes lost supply during Storm Malik on Saturday before Storm Corrie hit 38,000 more on Sunday. The electricity network in the North East and the Highlands were worst affected by the gusts of up to 92 mph. Power has been restored to many homes but 40,000 were still off grid on Monday morning, half of them related to two faults in Stonehaven and Deeside. Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) said they were prioritising the 7,000 customers who have been without supplies since the first storm. A number of welfare centres have been opened in Aberdeenshire for people needing showers and power, while hot food is being served at various school canteens. Food trucks have also been sent to areas most in need. Anyone without power who needs advice or support can call an assistance phone line on 0808 196 3384. About 19,000 cases relate to two major faults affecting customers in the Stonehaven area (13,000) and Deeside (6,000). ADVERTISEMENT SSEN said restoration efforts from Storm Corrie would continue into Tuesday, with the possibility that for "small clusters" of customers this may extend into Wednesday.
"Our teams are scouting the lines now, we've got helicopters out now we've got light to make sure we've got full assessment of the impact of the damage and give accurate restoration times to our customers," he said. "The firm has 21 welfare vehicles providing hot food and drink to customers, and an offer of alternative accommodation has been made to those who are still without power because of Storm Malik." Mr Keddie said they have tried to give accurate times that people can expect to have supply restored. We've told our customers that where we didn't have the full details of the fault it would be Tuesday evening and that is four days from when the impact arrived from Storm Malik. "If we can outperform that target, if we can get there quicker we will change that restoration time." Some residents have told BBC Scotland they have struggled to get information from the energy supplier. Pauline Thom, from near Huntly, is isolating with Covid and is relying on support from her sons to bring her supplies. 'Back to where we were'"I can't go out and access any food or get water or anything," she said. "I've got lots of animals - I've got sheep and horses. I've tried phoning the electric companies and Scottish Water but nobody seems to know if there's any help." Douglas Morrison from near Kemnay told BBC Scotland: "We got power last night for three hours yesterday, but then the first couple of gusts of wind we lost the power again so we're back to where we were before." "It's almost like it's every time there's a storm now - the last four storms we've had three power cuts." BBC Scotland's Euan McIlwraith said the wind blew across the stubble fields in Banff and picked up the chaff, creating a bizarre spectacle. "We had drifts of straw three feet deep so we were blocked off by what looked like snow drifts but was actually drifts of straw. It was the most bizarre thing," he told Good Morning Scotland. Several schools in Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and Moray were closed due to storm damage or power outages. In the Highlands, SSEN welfare centres were set up in Cannich and Munlochy to offer hot food and drinks for people without power. On Sunday evening, Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team had a "full team call-out" for a missing walker in high winds and snow on the Cairngorm Plateau. The person was found by a climbing party and escorted to safety. Most routes are expected to reopen during the course of the morning but travellers should check before they travel.
Other travel problems include:
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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.London (CNN Business)Uncertainty around the Federal Reserve's plans just drove Wall Street to its worst week since the start of the pandemic.
But it's not the only reason traders are jittery. Investors are starting to tune in to the situation in Ukraine as fears grow that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been amassing troops on the country's border, could order an invasion.Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, told me that the "tipping point" was news that the United States and United Kingdom are withdrawing some staff from their embassies."That's really given European markets a really hard nudge lower," he said. Germany's DAX index and France's CAC 40 are both down about 2% in early trading. US futures are also in the red, though the declines are narrower.The US dollar and Japanese yen, both considered safe haven assets, are gaining ground. Enter your email to subscribe to the CNN Five Things Newsletter. close dialog News comes at you fast. The 5 Things newsletter makes it easy to stay up to speed. Sign Me Up By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy. State Department officials said that the decision was made out of an "abundance of caution" and that the threat to US personnel in the country has not increased in recent days. But investors are nervous. "I think it's important not to underestimate how big a deal this is," Hewson said. "It suggests there is a real concern that diplomacy alone may not be enough to prevent a Russian incursion into Ukraine." Surging inflation has forced investors to reconsider how quickly the Fed could raise interest rates this year. That's rattled stock and bond markets, which had become accustomed to rock-bottom rates during the pandemic. The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index finished last week in "fear" territory. The Fed's course of action remains the main source of anxiety. But Wall Street is worried that an escalation in Ukraine could disrupt the flow of energy supplies to Europe, sending already-elevated prices into the stratosphere. Hewson said that oil prices could quickly rocket to $100 per barrel in that case. Oil is currently trading around $88 per barrel globally, near its highest level in seven years. Natural gas prices would be heavily exposed, too. "Should tensions between Russia and the Ukraine escalate, the initial uncertainty around its impact on gas flows would likely lead the market to once again add a significant risk premium to European gas prices," Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent note to clients. A shock to energy markets would hurt the region's economy as it recovers from the pandemic. An important gauge of activity from IHS Markit, released Monday, showed that output hit an 11-month low in January due to restrictions tied to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The market mood is already on the rocks. Instability in Ukraine presents another reason to stress. "The more markets are feeling this could evolve into a fully-fledged geopolitical disaster, the more risk sentiment will be impacted," ING analyst Francesco Pesole told me.Why Unilever's stock has snapped back Unilever's stock got hammered last week after the company revealed it had made three failed bids to acquire GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health care business. But investors are seeing reason for optimism on Monday. The latest: Shares are up 6% in London following reports that activist investor Nelson Peltz has built up a stake in the consumer goods behemoth, which makes products like Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Dove soap. Shareholders are hungry for a turnaround at Unilever after shares stagnated in recent months. Peltz's involvement could feed momentum for a bold overhaul. On the radar: CEO Alan Jope has promised to reveal a new strategy soon — though it's not yet clear what that will entail. Last week, Jope defended Unilever's attempts to buy the GlaxoSmithKline unit that makes Advil and Tums, saying that he saw ramping up the company's exposure to health items and cosmetics as a winning strategy. And yet: Unilever said Thursday that it would not raise its rejected £50 billion ($68 billion) offer, raising questions about Jope's next move. Unilever's stock, which fell 10% in 2021, is now down 1% year-to-date.Is the stock market a 'superbubble' about to burst? Jeremy Grantham is not the only high-profile investor to warn that easy money has set off an unsustainable feeding frenzy. But as stocks fall, the latest amped-up admonition from the British money manager is getting lots of attention. The scoop: In a report published last week, Grantham — who studies market bubbles and was also bearish ahead of the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis — said US stocks are in their fourth "superbubble" of the past 100 years, and that a massive pullback can "begin at any time." Grantham said stocks were in an "epic bubble" this time last year. The market wrapped up 2021 near record highs and with its third straight year of gains. But Grantham's new letter is gaining traction as Wall Street debates what's next for the market now that the Fed is backing away from crisis-era policies. Grantham blamed the central bank for creating "superbubble" conditions by instituting near-zero interest rates and executing hundreds of billions of dollars in asset purchases. The public, he said, will pay the price. "One of the main reasons I deplore superbubbles — and resent the Fed and other financial authorities for allowing and facilitating them — is the underrecognized damage that bubbles cause as they deflate and mark down our wealth," he said. As asset prices soar and personal wealth grows, people start spending accordingly, Grantham continued. That causes real pain when the party ends. "As bubbles break, they crush most of those dreams and accelerate the negative economic forces on the way down," he said. "To allow bubbles, let alone help them along, is simply bad economic policy." - CNN Beijing city officials are recommending people stop ordering items to be delivered from overseas, after saying a local woman may have been infected by Omicron after opening a parcel.
They repeated the theory that Covid-19 could be spread internationally on imports of frozen food, something many scientists have questioned. Officials said the woman who tested positive had no history of travel. They added they found traces of the virus on a package she received. The infection comes less than three weeks before Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympics. On Monday, China announced that it would not be selling tickets to members of the public for the Games. As part of virus control measures, only people invited will be allowed to attend. It is not yet clear how they will be selected or whether they will have to quarantine.
Health official Pang Xinghuo told reporters on Monday the virus had been found on the surface of a letter the infected person had received from Canada, as well as inside the unopened letter, the AFP news agency reports. Dozens of letters from the same batch were tested, and five showed positive traces of Covid-19, Ms Pang said, including samples from inside unopened letters. Beijing's Centre for Disease Control said the possibility that the woman was infected by a parcel from another country could not be ruled out. If deliveries from abroad are opened, it has been suggested that this should be done outside, with the opener wearing gloves and disposing of the packaging. What Beijing calls its "dynamic zero Covid" strategy combines mass vaccination with a regime of constant testing, nationwide monitoring of people's movements, temperature-taking and phone apps to prove you don't pose a threat, says the BBC's Robin Brant. All of that amounts to hyper vigilance about any new outbreak - if and when one is spotted the reaction is severe. China has been wedded to this approach since the beginning because it's likely the leaders from Xi Jinping down consider anything less would cause illness and death on a scale that would be politically, economically and socially unacceptable. - BBC News Ten people died when a cliff collapsed onto tourist boats on a lake in Brazil, officials said Sunday after the bodies of two missing people were found. On Saturday a large rock fragment broke free of a ravine and plunged onto four boats in Furnas Lake in Brazil's eastern Minas Gerais state, as panicked tourists watched helplessly from other vessels. Dramatic videos shared on social networks captured the moment the cliff collapsed. The bodies of the two remaining missing individuals were found Sunday by rescuers, civil police commissioner Marcos de Souza Pimenta told reporters. The death toll Saturday was originally given as seven, with three people missing.
The 10 who died were part of a group of family and friends on the boat that suffered the biggest impact from the rockfall, according to rescuers. The victims were all Brazilian nationals, aged between 14 and 68, according to preliminary investigations. WATCH MORETennis star Novak Djokovic wins legal battlein AustraliaTourists flock to see the cliffs, caverns and waterfalls that surround the green waters of Lake Furnas, formed by the hydroelectric dam of the same name. One video, shared on social media, showed the minute before the incident, with several people warning that "lots of stones are falling" and yelling at the occupants of other boats to move away from the rock face. President Jair Bolsonaro retweeted some of these videos on his account, and said that "as soon as the unfortunate disaster occurred, the Brazilian Navy moved to the site to rescue victims and transport the injured." Fierce winter storm lashes South, mid-Atlantic with heavy snow, wind; 400,000 without power1/3/2022 A potent winter storm packing heavy snow was moving across the South and mid-Atlantic on Monday, snarling traffic, causing power outages and shutting the federal government in Washington, D.C. In the core of the storm's heavy snow, there is the potential for 6-12 inches and locally higher amounts to pile up, AccuWeather said. That heavy amount of snow is most likely to fall from parts of eastern Virginia to the eastern shore of Maryland, much of Delaware and southern New Jersey. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the area until 4 p.m. EST Monday. Wind gusts of up to 35 mph were forecast, and travel was expected to be very difficult because of the hazardous conditions, the weather service said. The Weather Prediction Center said 2 inches of snow per hour could fall in some areas, and thundersnow was reported in at least five states, the Weather Channel said. In Washington, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced that federal offices in the area would be closed on Monday. Several school districts in the region said they would be closed, delayed or have virtual learning Monday. More than half the flights at Washington, D.C.'s three major airports were either delayed or canceled Monday morning, FlightAware said. MESSY END TO HOLIDAY TRAVEL:1,800+ flights canceled Monday amid winter storm warnings The storm is also producing gusty winds, which have contributed to some power outages in parts of the Southeast, Weather.com said. More than 400,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity in portions of Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas as of early Monday, according to poweroutage.us.
In the mid-Atlantic, the heavy wet snow will also accumulate on power lines, leading to additional power outages the Weather Service said. A cold front associated with the storm will be the focus for scattered showers and thunderstorms across the Carolinas and into Florida on Monday. Damaging winds and a few tornadoes appear to be the main concerns with this severe weather threat. STORM ROLLS ACROS US:Snow pummels 18 states as winter storm rolls through Midwest; warm East in for a shocker The storm had dumped snow on Plains, Midwest and interior Northeast over the past few days. - USA TODAY |