Latest News
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TenneT Hires Asso.subsea for Cabling Work off Germany
Subsea cable services company Asso.subsea has secured the nearshore cable installation contract for three key projects under TenneT’s 2 GW grid program, including BalWin4, LanWin1, and LanWin5.The projects are located off the northwestern coast of Baltrum Island, in northern Germany, and mark the beginning of a new collaboration with Jan De Nul, acting as the main contractor, with TenneT as the end client.Each project involves the transportation and nearshore installation of a complex cable bundle comprising 2 x HVDC power cables, one metallic return cable, and one fiber optic cable.Installation will be executed in 2027 (BalWin4), 2028 (LanWin1), and 2029 (LanWin5) respectively.The scope of work includes cable transpooling from load-out ports in the Netherlands or Germany, nearshore installation operations using the cable laying vessel (CLV) Atalanti, which will be specially modified to accommodate the four-cable bundle configuration.Also, Asso.subsea will be involved in precision cable landing via beaching operations with spud cans, and cble free-lay in intertidal zones and wet storage of cable ends“These nearshore operations are highly sensitive to tidal conditions, requiring detailed planning and precise execution. Our in-house capabilities, vessel adaptability, and commitment to engineered solutions ensure that we’re ready to meet the unique demands of these technically challenging works,” said Asso.subsea.
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Allseas-Boskalis Consortium Bags $1.4B Offshore Gas Pipeline Job in Taiwan
The 50-50 consortium between Allseas and Boskalis has been awarded a large contract by CPC Corporation Taiwan for the second offshore gas pipeline from Yongan to Tongxiao (YT2) in Taiwan.Under the contract, the consortium will design, construct, install and pre-commission the new YT2 36-inch offshore natural gas pipeline, which will run approximately 232 kilometers parallel to the existing YT1 pipeline, connecting the Yongan LNG terminal in the Southwest with the Tongxiao transfer station in the Northwest.The comprehensive scope of work includes trenching, pipeline installation with 34 crossings over existing and future infrastructure and assets, backfilling and two landfalls.Within the consortium, Allseas will carry out the pipeline installation and pre-commissioning, including the pre-lay installation of concrete mattresses. For these activities, Allseas will deploy two of the most advanced pipelay vessels in the industry.Boskalis will be responsible for the landfalls and associated microtunnelling activities, as well as nearshore and offshore trenching, backfilling, and the installation of rocks for the 34 pipeline crossings. For these activities, Boskalis will deploy two large hopper dredgers, a large backhoe dredger, and a subsea rock installation vessel.The total contract value for the landmark energy project, developed to accelerate energy transition and improve gas supply capacity in Taiwan, is approximately $1.4 billion (€ 1.2 billion).Project execution is scheduled to begin in 2026, with completion anticipated in 2028.
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Gold prices rise on lower Treasury yields, but Fed policy is still pending
The gold price edged upwards on Wednesday. This was supported by lower Treasury yields, and a slight drop in the dollar. Investors are now awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve policy statement, which is scheduled to be released later that day, for further guidance on the future path of monetary policy. As of 0236 GMT, spot gold rose 0.1% to $3,329.27 an ounce. U.S. Gold Futures increased 0.1% to $3326.90. The Treasury yields are showing that there is a possibility that the Fed will start to lean towards the dovish end of the pendulum. Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst at OANDA, added that the strength of the dollar was also being moderated. On Wednesday, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were hovering near a 1-month low. Despite Donald Trump's repeated calls to lower rates, it is expected that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged. The markets continue to price-in a possible rate cut in September. In an environment of low interest rates, gold tends to perform well. Wong stated that if gold prices rise above $3,350 before the end of the week, due to the release of U.S. employment and inflation data, this could swing the momentum in the direction of a price increase, at least on the short-term. After two days of talks, U.S. officials said that Trump would make the final decision. The International Monetary Fund slightly raised its global growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 on Tuesday, citing stronger-than-expected buys ahead of a jump in U.S. tariffs on August 1 and a drop in the effective U.S. tariff rate to 17.3% from 24.4%. Silver spot fell by 0.1%, to $38.14 an ounce. Platinum lost 0.6%, to $1,386.31, and palladium increased 0.4%, to $1,262.99. (Reporting and editing by Harikrishnan Nair, Sumana Nandy, and Anmol Choubey from Bengaluru)
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Shanghai evacuates 280,000 people in response to Tropical Storm
China Central Television (CCTV), reported Wednesday that Shanghai had relocated over 280,000 people as a precaution in preparation for heavy rains due to the arrival of tropical cyclones in eastern China. Co-May, a tropical cyclone, made landfall in Zhoushan (Zhejiang Province) in the early morning hours of Wednesday. The maximum sustained wind speed near the centre was 23 metres per second 83 kph. Co-May's winds are less powerful than those of a typhoon, but the Chinese financial center and other cities along the Yangtze Delta have not taken any chances. They cancelled flights and trains, suspended schools and moved people from high-risk areas. Forecasters predict that Co-May will make a second landfall nearer to Shanghai on Wednesday. Shanghai rarely receives direct hits from powerful typhoons, which usually land further south in China. Bebinca, China's most powerful tropical storm since 1949, was the most recent typhoon to land directly in Shanghai. (Reporting and editing by Tom Hogue, Raju Gopalakrishnan, and Ryan Woo)
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Sino-US trade talks yield iron ore benefits
Iron ore futures prices rose on Wednesday amid hopes for a longer-term extension of the tariff truce, but caution before a high level meeting in China, the top consumer, limited gains. As of 0211 GMT, the most traded September iron ore contract at China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was trading 0.69% higher. It was 798 yuan (US$111.23) per metric ton. As of 0205 GMT, the benchmark September iron ore traded on Singapore Exchange was trading at $102.9 per ton. U.S. officials and Chinese officials have agreed to extend their 90-day trade truce after two days of constructive talks between both parties in Stockholm. The goal was to defuse an escalating global trade war that is threatening the growth of the two largest economies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has quashed any expectations that Donald Trump would reject the extension. The International Monetary Fund, in an effort to boost market sentiments, raised its forecast of China's economic expansion this year from 4.0% to 4.8%. Analysts at Everbright Futures stated in a recent note that the iron ore market is now more influenced by macro sentiment. Iron ore prices rose, but were then capped off by fears that Beijing might not announce more stimulus measures by the end of July. This meeting is expected to determine the economic policy of the country for the remainder. Coking coal and coke, which are used to make steel, have recovered from two sessions in which they fell. They rose by 5.66% and 5.33% respectively. The Shanghai Futures Exchange steel benchmarks gained due to higher raw material costs. Rebar climbed by 1.48%. Hot-rolled coils jumped 2.11%. Wire rod grew 1.62%. Stainless steel ticked up 0.58%. ($1 = 7.1741 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting and editing by Amy Lv, Lewis Jackson)
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Asian stocks hold steady as investors prepare for the tariff deadline and Fed
Investors were cautious on Wednesday after the U.S.-China trade talks ended without a substantive agreement, and before the Federal Reserve policy announcement. MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.3% led by gains in Taiwanese shares, after U.S. stock markets ended their previous session with modest losses, as traders prepared for a flood of corporate earnings. Australian shares rose 0.7%. The Nikkei index in Japan fell 0.03% and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong dropped 0.4%. The euro rose from its one-month low to $1.1564 as the markets assessed the EU's deal with Trump. The next few days will be filled with several key central bank decisions and economic reports, as well as corporate earnings. This culminates in the August 1 deadline for tariffs set by U.S. president Donald Trump. Federal Reserve officials are expected to keep interest rates the same at their policy meeting on Wednesday. However, some may be in favor of lowering borrowing costs. Tom Kenny is a senior international economist with ANZ, Sydney. He said in a podcast that some officials were concerned about tariffs leading to higher inflation expectations and more persistent pressure on prices, rather than just a one-time hit. "Our expectation is the Fed will be in a good position to reduce rates at its September meeting." Treasury bonds in the United States advanced ahead of the Fed meeting. The yields fell to their lowest level in nearly four weeks after a successful auction of notes with a maturity of seven years, which helped calm fears about dwindling demand for government debt. Last week, the yield on 10-year Treasury Notes was 4.328%. This is the lowest since July 3. The yield on two-year Treasury notes, which increases with traders' expectation of higher Fed Fund rates, was unchanged at 3.873%. Tariffs, corporate earnings Bank of Japan will likely hold steady Thursday. The focus will be on the comments it makes to determine when the next rate hike will occur. A trade agreement between Japan and the U.S. has cleared the way for BOJ to continue its rate-hike journey. Some countries were preparing to negotiate with the U.S. until the last minute before Trump's deadline for a deal that would avoid the imposition of "Liberation Day tariffs". On Tuesday, U.S. officials and Chinese officials agreed that they would seek to extend their 90-day truce in tariffs. However, no major breakthroughs had been announced. U.S. officials stated that it was up President Trump to decide if he would extend the trade truce, which expires August 12, or if he would allow tariffs to rise to triple-digit numbers. Two Indian government sources say that India will also face higher U.S. duties -- between 20 and 25 percent -- on certain exports, as it delays new trade concessions before the deadline of August 1. Three South Korean Cabinet-level Officials met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to try and finalize a deal. Prices of oil rose after Trump set a short deadline for Moscow to end the conflict in Ukraine. Brent crude futures increased 14 cents or 0.19% to $72.65 per barrel. Microsoft and Meta, two of the biggest U.S. technology companies, are expected to release their earnings on Wednesday. This will set the tone and pace for the rest the week and earnings season. Chris Weston is the head of research for Pepperstone. He said, "It has been a good reporting season in the U.S., but now that the bar has been raised, these megacaps need to go all out and make a splash." The Singapore dollar strengthened 0.2% after Singapore's central bank kept its monetary policy settings unchanged on Wednesday following stronger-than-expected economic growth in the second quarter.
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After Trump's Russia-Utterance, oil prices remain steady
The oil prices rose in early trading Wednesday, after rising by more than 3% the previous session. This was due to the potential shortages that could arise after U.S. president Donald Trump gave Moscow a short deadline for ending the conflict in Ukraine. Brent crude futures rose by 14 cents or 0.19% to $72.65 a barge at 0048 GMT, while U.S. West Texas intermediate crude climbed by 2 cents or 0.03% to $69.23 a barge. On Tuesday, both contracts settled at their highest level since June 20. Trump announced on Tuesday that he would begin imposing measures against Russia, including 100% secondary duties on its trading partners if the country did not end the war in 10-12 days. This was a move up from an earlier deadline of 50 days. "Secondary 100% tariffs in effect would cause a dramatic change on the oil market." ING analysts stated that a number of major buyers of Russian crude oil, especially large U.S. traders, would be reluctant to keep buying it. While this allows OPEC+ to begin unwinding further tranches of the supply cuts, a worst case scenario would still see a market deficit. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. warned China, which is the biggest buyer of Russian crude oil, it would face large tariffs if they continued to buy. The U.S. and the EU were holding trade negotiations in Stockholm. Analysts from JP Morgan said that India had signaled its willingness to comply with U.S. Sanctions, putting at risk 2.3 million barrels of Russian oil per day. The U.S.-EU avoided a trade conflict with a deal which included 15% U.S. Tariffs on European Imports. This eased concerns over the impact of trade tensions and economic growth, and offered further support for oil prices. After talks last week on the topic, foreign partners of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA still await authorizations from the U.S. This could bring some supply back to the market and ease pressure to increase prices. (Reporting and editing by Muralikumar Aantharaman; Colleen Howe)
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Bloomberg News reports that US Fermilab was hit by a cyberattack against Microsoft SharePoint.
Bloomberg News, citing an official from the Department of Energy, reported that one of 17 national laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy was targeted by hackers in a recent hacking campaign to exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's SharePoint. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy told Bloomberg that "attackers did try to access Fermilab’s SharePoint servers", referring to U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The impact of the attack was minimal. No sensitive or classified information was accessed, the spokesperson added, Fermilab servers are now back online and operating normally. Microsoft, Fermilab, and the U.S. Department of Energy have not responded to our requests for comment. Microsoft's security patch, released last month, failed to fix a critical vulnerability in its SharePoint server software. The flaw was identified by the U.S. technology giant in May. This opened the door for a global cyber-espionage campaign. According to its website, Fermilab was established in 1967 and is "America's accelerator and particle physics laboratory". A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy said last week that on July 18, a security flaw in SharePoint affected its systems, including the National Nuclear Security Administration which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons inventory. The department has stated that all affected system are being restored. Reporting by Abu Sultan from Bengaluru, Editing by Sandra Maler, Muralikumar Aantharaman
The World Court's climate opinion puts the heat on governments
Lawyers are citing the landmark opinion of the United Nations highest court that states governments must protect climate, in courtrooms. They say this strengthens their legal arguments against companies and countries.
Last Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (also known as the World Court) laid out that states have a duty to limit the harm caused by greenhouse gases, and to regulate the private sector. The court said that failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could be a transnationally wrongful act. It also found that international treaties, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement for climate change, should be considered legal binding.
The court did not name the United States but said that countries not party to the United Nations Climate Treaty should still protect climate in accordance with human rights law and international customary law.
On the last day of hearings in a case regarding whether or not planning permits for wind turbines should prioritize climate concerns over rural views, lawyers representing a windfarm handed out copies of the World Court's opinion to seven judges of Ireland's Supreme Court.
The Irish court has not yet announced its decision.
Coolglass Wind Farm lawyer Alan Roberts said that the opinion would strengthen his client's argument, which is that Ireland's obligations in terms of climate change must be considered when considering domestic laws.
The ICJ opinion is not binding but it has legal weight if national courts use it as a benchmark in their legal deliberations. This is what most U.N. member states do.
It is becoming more likely that the United States will be an exception, as it has never been clear about whether ICJ decisions are binding on domestic courts. Under U.S. president Donald Trump, all climate regulations have been scrapped.
Lawyers said that not all U.S. state are skeptical about climate change. However, they expected to see the opinion cited in U.S. court cases. Lawyers say that the ICJ's opinion will have the greatest impact in upcoming climate cases in Europe. Recent examples of governments respecting court rulings include Britain reopening negotiations late last year with Mauritius to return the Chagos Islands to the Indian Ocean. The ICJ had ruled in 2019 that London should relinquish control.
BONAIRE VERSUS NETHERLANDS
In a Dutch case that will be heard in October, Greenpeace Netherlands, and eight Dutch citizens from Bonaire, an island low-lying in the Caribbean, are arguing that the Netherlands climate plan does not do enough to protect Bonaire against the rising sea level. The World Court stated that national climate plans should be "stringent", and in line with the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius (2.7% Fahrenheit) over the pre-industrial standard. The court said that countries should be held accountable for their fair share of historic emissions. In the hearings at the ICJ last December that led to this week's opinion many wealthy countries including Norway, Saudi Arabia and The United States argued that national climate plans are not binding.
Lucy Maxwell is the co-director of Climate Litigation Network. She said, "The court said (...) That's not right."
In the Bonaire case the Dutch government argues that a climate plan will suffice. Louise Fournier of Greenpeace International said that the plaintiffs argued it would not reach the 1.5C threshold, and that the Netherlands should do its part to keep global heating below this.
Fournier, a Bonaire resident, said that the ICJ's opinion would be of great help.
"URGENT AND PRESENT THREAT"
The ICJ opinion stated that climate change is an "urgent existential threat" citing decades worth of peer-reviewed scientific research. However, skepticism has increased in certain quarters led by the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a document obtained by, may be questioning the research that underpins mainstream climate science. It is also preparing to revise its scientific determination about the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions.
Jonathan Martel, of the U.S. firm Arnold and Porter, represents clients in the industry on environmental issues.
He said that a court of law could challenge the EPA's new regulations, given the fact that a global court had deemed climate change science to be unambiguous and settled.
He said that this could create an obstacle for those who advocate against regulatory actions based on the scientific uncertainty about climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S. EPA's changes will affect its regulations for tailpipe emissions of vehicles running on fossil fuel.
Legal teams are examining the impact of this ruling on lawsuits against fossil fuel producers and governments who regulate them.
The World Court stated that the states can be held responsible for the actions of private actors who are under their control. It specifically mentioned the licensing and subventioning of fossil fuel production.
The French NGO, Notre Affaire a Tous (whose case against TotalEnergies will be heard in 2026) expected that the advisory opinion would strengthen their arguments.
This opinion will strengthen our case, because it states (...) the granting of new licenses to new oil-and-gas projects could be a constitutionally and internationally wrongful act", said Paul Mougeolle.
TotalEnergies has not responded to our request for comment. (Reporting and editing by Barbara Lewis; Stephanie van den Berg, Alison Withers. Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington.
(source: Reuters)