Latest News
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BlackRock sells Naturgy 7% stake for $2 billion
BlackRock sold a 7.1% stake in Spanish gas utility Naturgy through an accelerated placement managed by JPMorgan for around 1.7 billion euro ($1.9?billion). After completing the accelerated placing of 68.825,911 share at a cost of 24.75 euro per share, BlackRock now holds around 11.42% of Naturgy. This represents a?discount of around 5.4% on Wednesday's closing share price of 26.16 euro. At 09:21 am (0821 GMT), Naturgy's shares were down by 5% to 24.86 euro, making it the worst performers in Spain's Ibex 35 blue-chip index. BlackRock acquired Global Infrastructure Partners in 2024, which had invested previously in Naturgy. BlackRock, the fourth largest shareholder in the company, will become the company after selling its stake. The company is currently owned by Spanish holding company Criteria which has a stake of almost 24 %. CVC, a private equity firm, holds 18.6% of the company and IFM, an Australian fund, 15.2%. Sabadell wrote in a client note that "the transaction will close the door on a possible new shareholder entering the company, and pave the way for CVC to exit the future." The transaction is expected to increase Naturgy’s free float towards its target of 25%. It follows a period in which the company has performed well, reporting record earnings of approximately?2 billion euro annually for the last two years. Since the April 28 grid failure, the company has seen increased output from its combined-cycle plant, which has operated for more hours. This has improved supply security and helped to avoid widespread disconnection.
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The first climate migrants from the sinking Tuvalu arrive in Australia
Foreign?affairs officials confirmed on Thursday that the first climate migrants who left Tuvalu, a remote island nation in the Pacific, had arrived in Australia. They hoped to maintain links with their island home. A deal between Australia and Tuvalu two years ago saw more than a third of the 11,000-strong population of Tuvalu apply for a climate visa to migrate. The annual intake of visas is limited to 280 in order to avoid a brain-drain from the small island nation. Officials from the Australian government said that among the islanders chosen in the first intake of climate migrants are Tuvalu's only female forklift operator, a dental specialist, and a minister who is focused on preserving the spiritual life of the people thousands of kilometers (miles). Tuvalu is a grouping of low-lying islands scattered between Australia and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Manipua Poafolau from Tuvalu's Funafuti island arrived in Australia about a week ago. He is a trainee pastor at the largest church in Tuvalu and plans to move to the small town of Naracoorte, in South Australia. In a video?released by Australia's Foreign Affairs Department, he stated that "for the people moving into Australia, it isn't only for their physical and economical well-being but also for spiritual guidance." Tuvalu officials reported that Feleti Teo, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, visited the Tuvaluan Community in Melton last month. He was there to stress how important it is to maintain strong cultural bonds and ties across borders, as people migrate. In many places, Tuvalu's main island of Funafuti is not much wider than a road. Due to the lack of space, families live under thatched roofing and children play on the runway at the airport. NASA scientists predict that by 2050, the daily tides of Tuvalu will submerge Funafuti Atoll. This atoll is home to 60% Tuvalu residents. The villagers are clinging to a 20-metre strip of land. The forecast assumes an increase of one metre in sea level, but the worst-case scenario would see 90% of Tuvalu's main island submerged. CLIMATE VISAS OFFER 'MOBILITY with DIGNITY. Penny Wong, Australia's Foreign Minister, said climate migrants will contribute to Australian society. Wong, in a press release, said that the visa provided "mobility in dignity" by allowing Tuvaluans to live, study and work in Australia, as climate impacts continue to worsen. Australia is establishing support services to assist Tuvaluan families in settling in Melbourne on the east coast, Adelaide in South Australia, and the northern state Queensland. Kitai Haulapi is the first female forklift operator in Tuvalu. She recently got married and plans to move to Melbourne. The city has a population of five million. In a video by Australia's Foreign Affairs department, she said that she hopes to "find a job" in Australia and to continue contributing to Tuvalu through sending money to her family. Masina Matholu is a dentist who will be moving to Darwin, a city in northern Australia, with her husband and three children. She intends to work with Indigenous communities. She said, in a video message: "I can bring back whatever I learn from Australia to my culture to help." (Reporting and editing by Michael Perry; Kirsty needham)
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China will start commercial operation of the first small modular reactor in 2026
An official from the China National Nuclear Corporation's (CNNC) research arm said that China would begin commercial operation of the Linglong One small modular reactor in the first half of 2026. The APC100 reactor, also known as APC100 was the first SMR approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2016. The first project to use the Linglong One technology, CNNC's project on China's island of Hainan began in 2021. Wang Zhenqing of the China Institute for 'Nuclear Industrial Strategy', spoke at an international energy conference in Beijing. SMRs can be built faster and smaller than traditional reactors, and they can also be installed on ships and aircraft. They can also be manufactured in factories. However, there are still questions about whether they provide as much power as larger reactors. The energy department wants to develop small reactors in the United States by 2030. It announced funding of $800 millions for their development from Tennessee Valley Authority and private company Holtec. In November, Britain approved a project to build mini reactors in North Wales and connect them to the grid before 2030. (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez; Colleen howe)
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Iron ore prices fall as China's demand outlook dims
Iron ore futures prices fell?on Friday on concerns about demand in China, the world's largest consumer of iron ore. This was fueled by a decline in steel consumption and outweighed hopes of policy signals from Beijing. The daytime trading price of the most traded iron ore contract at China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was 1.3% lower, closing at 757 Yuan ($107.22). As of 0702 GMT, the benchmark January iron ore traded on Singapore Exchange fell 1.36% to $100.35 per ton. After data revealed a decline in steel demand, prices of the key ingredient for steelmaking fell. Data from Mysteel revealed that the apparent consumption of five major products in steel fell by?2.8% on a weekly basis for a third week running, to 8.4 million tonnes. Morning trading prices were rangebound, as investors awaited Beijing's policy signals. They had their eyes fixed on the annual "Central Economic Work Conference", where Beijing is expected set important growth targets and policies priorities for next. Analysts at Jinyuan Futures say that after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates, expectations of China announcing new stimulus measures increased. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged China on Wednesday to make a "brave decision" to speed up structural reforms, as the pressure mounts for the world's largest economy to move to a consumption model and reduce its reliance?on exports that are financed by debt. IMF raised its China growth forecast from 4.8% to 5% for 2025, citing strong exports from the production powerhouse. It also increased its forecast from 4.2% to 4.5% for 2026. Fundamentally, a growing iron ore production and a weakening steel demand continue to pressure ore prices. Coking coal and coke, which are used to make steel, also fell by?4.39% apiece. The benchmarks for steel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange have lost ground. Rebar dropped 1.32%; hot-rolled coils fell 1.19%; stainless steel declined 0.44%; and wire rod dropped 0.62%. ($1 = 7,0604 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting and editing by Amy Lv, Lewis Jackson and Janane Vekatraman).
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Silver reaches record high after Fed splits rates. Gold falls
After the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a divided rate cut, investors were uncertain of the pace at which the Fed will ease next year. Silver, however, reached a new record high. As of 0707 GMT spot gold dropped 0.4% to $4210.88 an ounce after reaching its highest level since December 5, earlier in the session. U.S. Gold Futures for February Delivery gained 0.3% per ounce to $4,238.10 Tim Waterer, KCM Trade's Chief Market Analyst, said that gold was "unable to move forward today" because the Fed had essentially stated that further rate reductions would be rare. In a divided vote, the Fed lowered its interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday. However, it indicated that the Fed may not lower rates further while waiting for more clear signs of a cooling labor market and an inflation that is "somewhat elevated." Six officials, a record number, oppose even the quarter-point cut made on Wednesday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has also refused to give any guidance about the timing of further rate cuts. Gold and other non-yielding investments benefit from lower interest rates. Investors are now awaiting U.S. job and inflation data from November, followed by an in-depth?third quarter economic growth report. Spot silver increased 0.2%, to $61,90 per ounce, after reaching a record high at $62,88 earlier in the session. This brings its year-to date gain to 113%, on the back of strong industrial demand and falling inventories, as well as its inclusion in the "U.S. Spot silver added 0.2% to $61.90 per ounce after hitting a record high of $62.88?earlier in the session, bringing its year-to-date gain to 113% on strong industrial demand, falling inventories and its addition to the?U.S. Silver hasn't paid much attention to the outside world and has rallied all on its own. Ilya Spivak is the head of global macro for Tastylive. He said that there was nothing here to suggest that silver would turn. Spivak said that silver's next significance level is when it approaches $64. Palladium, on the other hand, fell by 0.1%, to $1473.68. (Reporting and editing by Sumana Aich, Rashmia Aich and Ishaan Aroor in Bengaluru)
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Vietnam restricts exports of rare earths refined and reaffirms ore trade ban
The Vietnamese parliament approved on Thursday a revised bill that limits the exports of?rare earths refined and reaffirms an ore -export ban. This is in an effort to support a domestic industry that has been struggling for years to extract its significant reserves. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Vietnam has one of the largest reserves of rare earths in the world. However, earlier this year, the government agency significantly reduced its estimate of the?reserves of the country to 3.5 millions metric tons from 22 million tonnes. The new law states that "deep processing must be associated with building a contemporary industrial ecosystem in order to improve the domestic value chain and ensure autonomy," thus restricting the export of refined earths. West has been scrambling to find alternatives to China's refined earths used in cars, renewable energy infrastructure, and other sensitive industries. Beijing, the dominant supplier of?global supply, implemented export controls in April, at the height its trade war against the United States. Vietnam's export restrictions won't have an immediate impact, as the country has virtually no refining capability at the moment. Since at least 2021, the country has prohibited exports of?rare-earth ores. But regulatory obstacles have prevented the exploitation by local enterprises and foreign partners of its reserves for a long time. The new law reiterates the export ban and emphasizes that "exploration and exploitation activities, as well as processing activities" must be closely monitored. (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus; Khanh Vu and Francesco Guarascio)
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Copper extends gains after Fed lowers rates
After the U.S. Fed lowered interest rates, copper prices retreated from their earlier gains. However, they still rose for a second consecutive session. By 0503 GMT, the most traded copper contract at?the?Shanghai Futures Exchange had risen 0.51%, to 92130 yuan (US$13,046.43) a metric ton. It reached an intraday peak of 93,000 yuan. This is close to the record high of 93300 yuan set on December 8. The benchmark three-month Copper on the London Metal Exchange increased by 0.48%, to $11,611.5 a ton. It had reached an intraday high of $11,727.5 and was approaching an all-time record high of $11,771 in December. The dollar eased on Wednesday after the Fed cut policy rates by 25 basis points, broadly in line with expectations. The dollar price of commodities is cheaper for those who use other currencies. The Fed said it would also start buying short-dated Government bonds on Friday in order to manage market liquidity and ensure that the central bank maintains its firm control over interest rate targets. Xiao Jing is a Beijing-based broker at SDIC Futures. She said that the Fed's balance sheet expansion policy was what boosted copper prices. Investors will continue to digest 'theme? in the short-term." Prices were also impacted by the lower copper production of Chilean miner Codelco. Aluminium also posted gains, as global producers of aluminium sought premiums between $190 and $203 per ton for primary metal shipments from Japanese buyers. This is up 121%-136% compared to the current quarter. Both benchmarks, SHFE and LME, rose by 0.3%. SHFE Nickel nudged down by 0.09%. Lead gained by 0.7%. Tin jumped by 0.57%. Zinc eased back 0.13%. Other LME metals mainly gained. Lead, zinc, and tin all rose. Nickel was barely changed. ($1 = 7.0617 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting and editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Rashmia Aich and Lewis Jackson)
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WSJ reports that Trump's plans include major U.S. investments in Russia and a restoration of oil flow to Europe.
Donald Trump's peace plan in Ukraine includes proposals to?restore Russian energy flows into Europe and major U.S. The Wall Street Journal reported that investment in Russian rare earths, energy, and frozen Russian sovereign assets was being considered. The newspaper reported that the plans were included in annexes to peace proposals sent to European counterparts over recent weeks. The plan includes a plan to use $200 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets for projects in Ukraine. This would include a new major data center powered by the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, now under Russian control. U.S. firms would invest in strategic Russian sectors, such as rare-earth mining and oil drilling in Arctic regions, and Russian energy flow to Western Europe and around the world?would be restored. Unidentified European officials were quoted in the paper as comparing the proposed U.S. and Russian?energy deals with the 1945 Yalta conference. The Soviet Union,?the United States, and Britain divided their interests in Europe at that meeting. After eight years of fighting in the Donbas (formed by the Donetsk-Luhansk region), Russia invaded Ukraine on February 20, 2022. (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez; Guy Faulconbridge)
100 Days of DOGE: Lots of chaos and not much efficiency
The Social Security Administration is sending lawyers, statisticians, and other senior agency officials from its Baltimore headquarters to the regional offices in order to replace veteran claim processors that have either been fired by the Trump administration or bought out. Two people who are familiar with the situation say that most of the new employees don't have the skills to perform the tasks, which will lead to longer waiting times for the disabled and elderly Americans, who depend on the benefits. In an email, a SSA official responded that reassigned staff "have vast knowledge of our programs and services." Since President Donald Trump sent remote workers to overcrowded offices, the Internal Revenue Service's internet is so patchy that employees are using personal hotspots to access the web, which crashes their computers during tax season. IRS officials did not respond when asked for a comment. The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
Jessica Riedl is a fellow of the Manhattan Institute. A fiscally conservative think-tank that advocates streamlining government, she said, "DOGE does not seem like a serious undertaking." She believes that DOGE is only saving $5 billion and will cost more in the end.
These examples, which were previously unknown, span 14 government agencies. They were revealed in interviews conducted with 30 federal workers and experts on governance. These accounts don't provide a complete picture of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency's project to reduce the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. However, they reveal the collateral damage caused by DOGE's attempts to make the sprawling bureaucracy of the federal government more efficient.
Harrison Fields, White House spokesperson, responded to questions regarding the impact of DOGE cuts on government efficiency in a press release. Fields stated that Musk's group "has already modernized and improved government technology, prevented fraudulent activity, streamlined processes, identified billions in savings for American tax payers." Fields didn't give any examples of how the government's computer systems and workforce have improved.
SAVE BILLIONS
Musk confirmed Tuesday that he would step down from his position as DOGE's leader next month. The end of May was the deadline for his 130-day special government employee mandate. He said that he would continue to work with Trump on the overhaul of government but not full time. The future of DOGE is in doubt because of his reduced role, but experts say that cost-cutting measures will continue.
Musk and his lieutenants are yet to provide any concrete evidence of how the government will operate more efficiently due to the massive layoffs and the termination of government contracts.
Dozens of government officials told us that DOGE teams have buried themselves into government agencies, and their computers systems are operated in secrecy. DOGE's website, which provides regular updates about the $160 billion it claims to have saved U.S. tax payers so far, is riddled with mistakes and corrections.
The White House gave examples of cost-savings, including the discovery of $630 million worth of fraudulent loans by the Small Business Administration made to applicants aged over 115 but under 11 years old in 2020-2021. $382 million was fraudulently paid out by the Labor Department in unemployment benefits since 2020.
I was not able to independently verify these claims.
DOGE has not responded to any requests for comments. Musk told Fox News' Bretbaier that his team was careful in making cuts, admitted and fixed errors, and had discovered "astonishing amounts" of fraud and waste.
You can't buy dry ice
DOGE has announced that it has cancelled almost 500,000 government-issued credit cards in its efforts to reduce costs. The agency has also imposed a limit of $1 on some cards and centralized decision-making within certain agencies. This means that managers at some regional offices cannot buy basic supplies.
It took a scientist a whole month to obtain authorization from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to purchase $200 worth of dry ice for preserving urine samples. This is a purchase that would normally be made in a local grocery store. A colleague from another regional office, who had a government-issued credit card, paid for the dry air, but the cost was $100 more because the administration barred employees from purchasing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), which supervises NIOSH did not respond when asked for a comment.
DOGE and White House also prohibited many agencies from contacting outside vendors, as they stopped thousands of federal contracts.
A chemical analysis machine worth nearly half a million dollars at a CDC in Cincinnati has been sitting idle for months, because scientists cannot schedule training with the supplier to begin using the device, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The CDC has not responded to a comment request.
In the first week in March, the Social Security Administration's computer systems crashed ten times in four days. One IT worker said that because a quarter the agency's staff has quit or been terminated, it takes longer to bring the systems back online, which disrupts the processing of claims.
Few would dispute that the SSA computer systems are outdated, frequently crash and in need of updating. Musk told Baier that the agency's computers are "failing" and "we're fix it."
HUMANITARIAN AID CUT DOGE, since its creation on Trump's very first day as President, has largely closed down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides humanitarian aid to those in need around the globe, and canceled more than 80% of its programs. By September, almost all the employees of the agency will be terminated, and all its overseas offices will close. Some functions are being absorbed by the State Department.
A tally shows that the overhaul of the government has led to the dismissal, resignation and early retirement of 260,000 civil service employees.
In February, over 20,000 probationary employees (newly hired or recently reassigned workers) were terminated. After court rulings, they were reinstated. However, most were sent back home with full pay. After further court rulings, many are being fired once again.
Trump and Musk both said that the U.S. Government is plagued by fraud and waste. Many civil servants, governance experts and others do not dispute that efficiencies could be made. However, they say that there are people within the federal bureaucracy who already try to save taxpayer dollars. DOGE has targeted some of these offices for cutbacks.
Trump fired 17 inspectors in January. Their mission as government watchdogs included reducing fraud and waste.
Christi Grimm was fired from her position as inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. She said she expected $14.5 billion in "cold, hard cash" to be recovered over the next three years through audits and fraud investigation.
The DOGE eliminated 18F, one of only a few government units tasked with streamlining technology throughout the federal government. Waldo Jaquith who worked at 18F from 2016 to 2020 said that the team saved the Pentagon $500,000,000 in just one project lasting three days after noticing two departments doing the same unknowingly work.
I was not able independently to verify this figure.
Musk and his team have a very specific idea of how they want the government to function. Jaquith stated that when Musk's team discovered it, it was destroyed.
Thomas Shedd, an appointee of Trump at the General Services Administration (GSA), in an email sent to staff members last month, called 18F "noncritical". (Reporting and editing by Ross Colvin, Suzanne Goldenberg, and Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper, Leah Douglas and Julie Steenhuysen)
(source: Reuters)