Airbus issues A320 jet recall over flight control incident

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

1.

Grounded fleet: Europe’s Airbus said on Friday that it was ordering an immediate software change on a “significant number” of its A320 family of jets that are currently in service. Industry sources told Reuters that the recall would involve up to 6,000 jets, over half of the global A320 fleet. Airbus said that a recent incident involving an A320 aircraft revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls. Airbus then identified a significant number of A320 aircrafts currently in service which may be impacted. Sources told Reuters that the recall will result in a relatively brief grounding for around two-thirds of the affected jets, but the operation is set to significantly disrupt travel as the US heads into its busiest weekend of the year. The incident that prompted the recall involved a JetBlue flight from Mexico to New Jersey in October, sources told Reuters, which made an emergency landing in Florida after a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude. (Airbus)(Reuters)(Capital Brief)

2.

Wartime corruption: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his chief of staff and lead negotiator in peace talks, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after becoming embroiled in a corruption probe. Zelensky did not elaborate on his aide’s decision in a video posted on Telegram announcing the news, but said “There will be a reboot of the Office of the President of Ukraine…I want there to be no rumors or speculation.” Earlier on Friday Yermak’s apartment was raided by anti-graft investigators following a widening probe involving several ministers and a former business partner of Zelensky. Zelensky said that he would consider Yermak’s replacement on Saturday. The shakeup comes at a pivotal moment, as Russia continues to advance on the battlefield and Kyiv is being pressured by Washington to make concessions to end the war. Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, promising the leader he would keep buying Russian oil, defying the EU. (Bloomberg)(WSJ)(Reuters)

3.

Thin trading: US stocks edged up on Friday during a shortened and thinly-traded post-Thanksgiving session, led by retail gains and tech stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.65% to close at 23,365.69, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones gained 0.54% and 0.61% respectively. The three indexes posted strong weekly gains, while the Nasdaq was the only index of the trio to close down on the month, reflecting concerns over AI and tech valuations. Risk-on sentiment has re-emerged as expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut in December strengthened throughout the week, helping underpin sentiment across equity markets. The last trading day of November was hit by a 10-hour CME Group outage that temporarily froze futures and options trading at the world’s largest derivatives exchange. A spokesperson for the Texas-headquartered CyrusOne told CNBC the company was actively responding to a cooling system issue at its CHI1 data centre in the Chicago area, which had impacted customers including CME Group. (CNBC)(Reuters)(WSJ)(Capital Brief)

4.

AI alliance: Microsoft spent two years leading a little-known, informal alliance of data centre operators to influence the Albanese government and encourage federal spending on digital infrastructure. That behind-the-scenes effort has now evolved into a formal peak body with ambitions to put Australia “at the front of the global AI infrastructure race”. Speaking to Capital Brief after the in-person launch of Data Centres Australia in Sydney’s CBD on Friday, CEO Belinda Dennett said the group formed amid frustration that policy settings were not keeping pace with the sector’s rapid expansion. That founding group was made up of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and local data centre owners NextDC, CDC Data Centres and AirTrunk. According to Dennett, those five companies currently account for around 80% of Australia’s data centre capacity. Occasional discussions shifted into shared policy work, including a report designed for government on how data centres consume energy, contribute economically and underpin the broader digital economy. (Capital Brief)

5.

Blackout Friday: US shoppers spent 5% more than last year on Thanksgiving, as more consumers turned to laptops and phones instead of heading in store to snag deals over the Black Friday shopping weekend. Overall online spending on Thanksgiving Thursday rose 5.3% year-over-year to USD6.4 billion ($9.77 billion), according to Adobe Analytics. The strong early figures were better than anticipated, as shoppers become more selective amid a dip in consumer confidence. Investors are also paying close attention to how AI-powered shopping fares this Black Friday weekend as Amazon’s crackdown hits more AI search startups. The Information reported that Amazon dropped AI-powered shopping search startup Dupe from the list of companies able to make money from linking shoppers to its marketplace. The move came just weeks after suing Perplexity for allegedly disguising its Comet browser agent as a human user to get past agent restrictions. (Reuters)(FT)(The Information)(ABC News)

6.

Israel-Syria clash: Thirteen people were killed in an Israeli raid in southern Syria overnight on Thursday, with Damascus accusing Israel of a “criminal attack.” SANA news agency said that residents of Beit Jinn "confronted" Israeli troops, leading to a firefight. Air strikes were also carried out. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops entered the village on the edge of the occupied Golan Heights to detain a militant who it said "advanced terror attacks against Israeli civilians". Several Israeli reservists were injured, three of them severely, the IDF said. SANA said three people were arrested by the troops before they withdrew. The Israeli raid was the latest in a series of escalating cross-border incursions into southern Syria since Bashar al-Assad was ousted by Islamist rebels in 2024. Israel says it will not allow the Syrian army, which it considers to be a threat, to deploy in the area. (Reuters)(BBC)(NYT)

7.

Reform plans: Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his state and territory counterparts agreed to add new reforms to the National Competition Policy plan and advance priorities from the Economic Reform Roundtable on Friday. An updated National Competition Policy Federation Funding Agreement Schedule was finalised to include additional reforms and states that implement the reforms will receive payments from the $900 million National Productivity Fund. The reforms added to the schedule include: occupational licensing reforms and partnering with employers and unions; harmonising standards for household electrical consumer goods, waste and recycled products, building and construction, and a Commonwealth-only reform on food standards; heavy vehicle reforms; and, allowing health practitioners to work at their full scope of practice. The Commonwealth also agreed to extend its ‘right to repair’ reforms to agricultural machinery, legislate its ban on non-compete clauses, advance work on boosting housing supply and to streamline approval pathways for data centres as a priority. (Capital Brief)

8.

Up in the air: A fire at Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 1 on Friday evening disrupted the travel plans of thousands of around 1,500 people who were delayed by two hours. The fire broke out at around 7pm, prompting the Qantas terminal to be evacuated. A number of cancellations were listed including flights to and from Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide. Elsewhere in aviation, budget airline Ryanair axed its loyalty ‘Prime’ program as passengers were costing the airline more money than it generated. The scheme offered early access to discounted tickets on up to 12 journeys for a flat fee of €79 ($44.58) or £79, and was capped at 250,000 passengers. About 55,000 people signed up, generating €4.4 million in subscription fees for the business, but Prime members have received more than €6 million in fare discounts. Ryanair said that those who paid for the service can continue using it until October 2026, but the airline will not sign up any new members. (ABC)(Herald Sun)(FT)(Ryanair)