Author: bahrainezine.com

PANAMA / RankWire.AI / – The Panama Canal is considering another reduction in daily ship transits as drought pressure weighs on its water supply. Administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta said traffic could fall to about 29 vessels a day in February or March 2027. Any further cut would depend on continued dry conditions and reservoir levels. The waterway is already moving toward a daily limit of 32 transits from Sept. 15. The Panama Canal Authority began reducing capacity after rainfall and watershed inflows fell below expected levels during the wet season. Daily crossings first dropped to 34 before the planned…

BERLIN / RankWire.AI / – German automaker Volkswagen AG agreed Monday to sell its Osnabrück manufacturing plant to Israeli private equity firm Aurelius Capital and the German state of Lower Saxony, setting up the site’s conversion into a dedicated defense manufacturing facility. Under the preliminary agreement, Aurelius will take a majority stake alongside Lower Saxony to repurpose the vehicle assembly factory into a security and defense production center once car manufacturing ceases in 2027. The strategic transaction marks the first major conversion of a German automotive facility into a military hardware production site amid a broader industrial restructuring across Europe’s auto…

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA / RankWire.AI / – The United States is adding battery factories while trying to cut its dependence on China. Domestic cell production has grown, but major supply gaps remain further upstream. Chinese companies still lead global production of several materials needed for lithium-ion batteries. That dominance covers graphite anodes, cathode materials and lithium iron phosphate technology. The challenge now extends beyond assembling batteries to securing the minerals, components and processing capacity that feed those plants. China produced more than 80% of global battery cells in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. It also made about…

ABU DHABI / RankWire.AI / – Etihad Airways will begin year-round flights between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Airport on Oct. 4, 2026. The carrier will operate one weekly service at launch. It will raise the frequency to two flights a week from Oct. 25. The new link will make Red Sea International the sixth Saudi destination in Etihad’s network and add another nonstop connection from the UAE capital to Saudi Arabia. Etihad will use an Airbus A320 on the route, with eight Business Class seats and 150 Economy Class seats. The aircraft will offer 158 seats…

LONDON / RankWire.AI / – Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal and Erling Haaland are among the 30 nominees for the 2026 Ballon d’Or. Organizers announced the men’s shortlist on September 8 before the awards ceremony in London on October 26. Ousmane Dembélé, Rodri and Vinícius Júnior also made the field. Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Achraf Hakimi feature among the other leading candidates. The London Palladium will stage the ceremony during the award’s 70th anniversary year. The shortlist spans players from major European clubs and international teams. Paris Saint-Germain has several representatives, including Dembélé, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, João…

TANGERANG, INDONESIA / RankWire.AI / – Indonesia reopened Jakarta’s main airport and several regional airports Tuesday after ash from Anak Krakatau disrupted air travel. The volcanic activity affected nearly 3,000 flights and more than 340,000 passengers across the country. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport resumed operations after authorities found that ash conditions had eased. Monitoring teams recorded three smaller eruptions Tuesday morning. The volcano remained at Level III, the second-highest alert status in Indonesia. The Ministry of Transportation said Soekarno-Hatta, Halim Perdanakusuma and Husein Sastranegara airports reopened shortly after midnight Tuesday. Budiarto Airport and Pondok Cabe Airport resumed operations a little more…

CAIRO, EGYPT / RankWire.AI / – Egypt’s net international reserves reached a record $57.2145 billion at the end of August 2026. The Central Bank of Egypt reported the provisional figure on September 7. Reserves had stood at $56.2939 billion at the end of July. The monthly increase came to about $920.6 million, or 1.6%. The latest total marks the first time Egypt’s official reserve holdings have moved above $57 billion. The August reading also extended a steady rise recorded throughout 2026. Egypt started the year with reserves of $52.5938 billion in January. The total increased to $52.7455 billion in February…

SEOUL / RankWire.AI / – South Korea and African partner nations will launch a major economic cooperation framework focused on artificial intelligence and technology-driven development at the 8th Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Seoul. The upcoming ministerial gathering marks the 20th anniversary of the bilateral platform, bringing together cabinet ministers, development financiers, and technology industry executives. Official announcements confirm that Korea Africa chart new course AI digital infrastructure deployment across emerging trade corridors while reviewing two decades of joint capital investments. The ministerial summit, running from September 8 to 11, operates under the theme of leveraging artificial intelligence and…

NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – In a historic push for cartographic accuracy, the United Nations General Assembly passed an African Union-backed resolution urging international institutions and educational systems to phase out distorted world map projections. The action addresses longstanding criticisms of the 1569 Mercator projection, which exaggerates high-latitude landmasses while artificially shrinking the relative scale of equatorial regions. By formally endorsing equal-area alternatives, the global assembly aims to align modern mapping standards with objective geographical realities and eliminate inherited Eurocentric biases in global communications. The international measure focuses directly on the widely utilized Mercator map projection, which was originally…

SHARJAH / RankWire.AI / – Low-cost carrier operator Air Arabia announced a strategic expansion of its Southeast Asian operations on Friday, increasing flight frequencies between the United Arab Emirates and Thailand. Starting October 25, 2026, the airline will introduce a fourth daily non-stop service connecting Sharjah International Airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. The added operational schedule brings the carrier’s weekly non-stop connections on the Sharjah-Bangkok route to 28 flights, enhancing schedule flexibility for leisure and business travelers. Air Arabia increases Bangkok frequency with four daily flights from Sharjah to meet growing regional travel demand across commercial corridors. The expanded…