World Briefing: March 21, 2025

Heathrow airport has shut down after a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a mass power outage overnight. At least 1,351 flights going to and from the airport will be impacted by the closure, with major disruption set to trigger chaos at airports around the world. Inbound planes have been diverted to other airports, including Shannon in Ireland and Charles de Gaulle in Paris, with aviation experts saying the impact of disruption is “similar to 9/11”. A Heathrow airport spokesman said the site will be closed all day and will not reopen until midnight tonight. Some 100,000 homes in west London were without power overnight as 70 firefighters and 10 fire engines battled the blaze on Nestles Avenue in Hayes. London Fire Brigade said the fire is now under control and London Ambulance Service confirmed that there were no casualties. The cause of the blaze is yet to be determined but Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, said there was no suggestion of “foul play” - Telegraph

A British government official has said there is no suggestion at present that the fire was caused by sabotage. Asked by the Financial Times whether there was any evidence of foul play behind the incident on Friday, the official said: “There isn’t, no.” Shares of airlines fell in early trading on Friday following Heathrow’s closure. International Airlines Group, the parent of British Airways, was down more than 3 per cent, the FT reported. Lufthansa dropped 2.4 per cent, easyJet slipped 2 per cent and Air France-KLM fell 3 per cent.

The closure of Heathrow Airport could delay the shipment of a significant amount of goods and packages, causing disruption for businesses that rely on air freight. Nearly half of all British air cargo, measured by weight, went through Heathrow in 2023, according to the airport, and 70 percent when measured by value. Among the most-shipped items are pharmaceuticals and salmon - NYT

The closure of Europe’s busiest airport had caused major disruption that travel experts believe could last for days. Rory Boland of Which? Travel, the consumer group, said affected passengers will have the choice of being rerouted on another flight or accepting a refund. He added that customers who accept a refund would have to arrange any further flights as airlines have no “further duty of care”. Passengers who opt to be rerouted have the right to reclaim “reasonable” additional costs, such as overnight hotel accommodation if no alternative flights are available, and onward travel costs if they are flown to a different airport. But airlines will expect claimants to provide receipts. In previous incidents, some airlines have encouraged passengers to first try and claim via their travel insurance. Holidaymakers who have booked package holidays have greater protections. “If your flight is part of a package holiday, you will have the highest level of protections,” said a spokesperson from Abta. “Your travel company will be in touch regarding your holiday.” - FT

Vladimir Putin’s forces are bombing stations along their own crucial gas pipeline in an effort to sabotage any ceasefire deal with Ukraine, Kyiv’s military has said. A gas pumping station in Sudzha, in the Russian border region of Kursk was on fire on Friday morning after being rocked by a major explosion. Ukraine’s general staff has denied that his forces struck the pipeline and instead said it had been “repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves”. The army accused Russia of seeking to pin the blame on Ukraine with “groundless” accusations its military was involved – all to undermine any truce and longer peace deal currently being negotiated by Donald Trump and the US. The Sudzha pipeline has been a critical hub for Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer has warned Putin will face “severe consequences” if he breaches any peace deal with Ukraine, as western military planners begin drawing up plans to enforce any agreement between the two countries that Mr Trump and the US is trying to secure.

In Ukraine, a mass drone attack launched by Russia on Odesa overnight caused fires in three different parts of the city. Ukrainian Telegram channels quoting officials saying 214 drones were fired by Russia overnight. In Odesa, shops, a shopping center, a multi-storey apartment building and a cemetery were damaged. Three regions of Odesa are without power, Kyiv-24 News reported.

Vladimir Putin will face “severe consequences” if he breaches a peace deal with Ukraine, Keir Starmer has warned as western military planners begin drawing up plans to enforce any agreement between the two countries. The British prime minister issued his warning to the Russian president after meeting officials from 31 countries at the Northwood military base outside London, where they have started sketching out which western forces might be deployed to protect Ukraine in the future. Starmer said Putin would not be allowed to veto how Kyiv decides to defend itself, after the Russian president demanded Ukraine’s demilitarisation as part of any peace deal. But the prime minister did not reiterate his promise to put boots on the ground, instead saying allied forces would be deployed to support Ukrainian troops, including by sea and air, rather than replacing them - Guardian

Sudan’s military said it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last bastion in the capital of rival paramilitary forces, after nearly two years of fighting. Social media videos showed its soldiers inside giving the date as the 21st day of Ramadan, which was Friday. A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s rank made the announcement in the video, and its details confirmed the troops were inside the compound. The palace appeared to be in ruins in part, with soldiers’ steps crunching broken tiles underneath their boots. Soldiers carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!” The fall of the Republican Palace – a compound along the Nile River that was the seat of government before the war erupted and is immortalized on Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps – marks another battlefield gain for Sudan’s military. It has made steady advances in recent months under army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan. It means the rival Rapid Support Forces, under Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been expelled from the capital of Khartoum after Sudan’s war began in April 2023 - France 24

Since President Donald Trump took office, there have been several high-profile incidents of tourists being stopped at U.S. border crossings and held for weeks at U.S. immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense, the Associated Press reported. They include another German tourist who was stopped at the Tijuana crossing on Jan. 25. Jessica Brösche spent over six weeks locked up, including over a week in solitary confinement, a friend said. On the Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent nearly three weeks at a detention center before flying home this week. And a Canadian woman on a work visa detained at the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention before returning home last weekend. The detained travellers say it was never made clear why they were taken into custody even after they offered to go home voluntarily. Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit that aids migrants, said in the 22 years he has worked on the border he has never seen travelers from Western Europe and Canada, longtime U.S. allies, locked up like this. “It’s definitely unusual with these cases so close together, and the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It doesn’t justify the abhorrent treatment and conditions” they endured. On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, an actress and entrepreneur who had a visa to work in the U.S., was detained at the Tijuana crossing. She was released Saturday, her friend Brittany Kors said. Before Mooney’s release, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed concern, saying, “It certainly reinforces anxiety that many British Columbians have, and many Canadians have, about our relationship with the U.S. right now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions.”

European Union governments have expressed fears that the radical spending plans announced by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting will end up skewing the bloc’s single market and could give the country an unfair competitive edge. A month on from an election that made Friedrich Merz almost certainly the next leader in Berlin, the upper house of parliament is set on Friday to approve a historic change to the country’s basic law to exclude defense investment above 1 percent of economic output from the nation’s strict spending rules, along with a €500 billion fund for infrastructure and green energy. While Germany’s allies in Europe have broadly welcomed Berlin’s long-awaited loosening of the purse strings, there is a sense of unease about the impact it could have at a time when economies are still struggling to recover after the twin shocks of Covid and the Ukraine conflict, and with the looming threat of a trade war with the U.S. - Politico

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