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Britain will scrap carbon tax on electric generation in April 2028
By ?Susanna Twidale LONDON 16 APRIL - Britain will scrap its carbon 'tax' on electricity production in April 2028. The?government announced this on Thursday as it tries to control the rising cost of energy. The Carbon Price Support tax was introduced in Britain on April 13, 2013 to make coal power more expensive and help meet its climate targets. In the budget of last year, the government set a tax of 18 pounds ($24), per metric ton of carbon dioxide, until April 2028. "CPS is no longer suited to its original purpose. Dan Tomlinson said, "Coal has been pushed?off grid" in a written announcement to parliament. The last coal-fired plant in Britain closed its doors in 2024. Since then, the government has accelerated its use of?renewable energy to achieve a goal to decarbonize Britain's electricity sector largely by 2030. Tomlinson stated that "with 'our Clean Power 2030 mission we are already reducing the reliance of our electricity system on volatile fossil fuels, and we do not need this additional tax to provide incentives to our grid to 'decarbonise it," The tax is paid on top of the costs under the Emissions Trading System in which benchmark prices are currently around 49 pounds per tonne by fossil fuel electricity generators.
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Bank of Ireland seeks shareholder support for LSE delisting
Bank of Ireland said it will seek shareholder approval for a 'delisting' from the London Stock Exchange, citing the negligible volumes of shares traded on the UK exchange over the past few years. This could be a blow to the London Market. If approved, two Irish banks will be removed from the UK stock market over the next year. Permanent TSB, an Irish retail lender, agreed on Tuesday to be acquired by Austrian lender BAWAG Group for a total of 1.62 billion euros. London has lost major firms in recent years, including CRH (Irish supplier of building materials), as companies reassess UK listings due to persistently low values and better liquidity abroad. In recent years, UK-based firms have become targets for takeovers. The company issued a statement saying that "the board" believes the costs of maintaining the LSE listings are no longer in the 'interests of the company or its shareholders as a whole." Ireland's largest lender announced that it would propose delisting during its annual general meeting, which will be held on May 21, 2019. If shareholders approve the move, it is anticipated that the cancellation will take place on June 29, while Dublin's listing will remain unchanged.
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Merz: Germany is ready to secure the transit of Hormuz after the end of hostilities
Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Germany was in?principle? ready to assist with securing?transit routes across the Strait of?Hormuz once hostilities ended,?provided?there?is?a?mandate, preferably coming from the United Nations and German parliamentary consent. Merz told reporters that "we are still far from all that" a day prior to talks in Paris, which he said would address the question of possible U.S. military participation. He refused to answer a specific question about a newspaper article stating that Germany is 'prepared to offer maritime surveillance and demining expertise. The German Ministry of Defence did not respond immediately to an email request for comments on the report. The U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has led to unprecedented disruptions in global oil and gas. The war has caused a halt to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz which carries 20% of the world's oil, liquefied gas and natural gas. Merz said, 'at a joint press conference with his Irish counterpart that a 'provisional ceasefire will be required before any mission in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian military nuclear program must also end.
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Iran's peace hopes and renewed rate-cut bets have led to a gold gain on the back of inflation fears.
Gold prices rose on Thursday, as the?hopes of a?peace deal between?the U.S.A. and Iran eased inflation concerns and improved prospects for low interest rates. As of 9:00 am, spot gold was up 0.6% at $4,816.14 an ounce. ET (1300 GMT) after reaching a month-high in the previous session. U.S. Gold Futures rose?0.3% at $4,838.10. David Meger is the director of metals trading for High Ridge Futures. He said that as war tensions continue de-escalate inflationary pressures are easing, which increases the chances of Federal Reserve rate cuts this year. This will also support demand for non-yielding steel. Sources said that optimism grew as the Iran war was nearing an end. A key Pakistani mediator had made a breakthrough in "sticky issues", but Iran still warned about the fate of its nuclear program. The initial fall in gold prices was due to the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which began late February. Liquidity pressures and inflation fears arose as energy prices rose. This led markets to reduce expectations of interest rates being cut. Gold is a zero-yielding investment that tends to lose its appeal when interest rates rise. At the moment, traders believe that there is a 36% probability of a U.S. rate cut in this year. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the U.S. economy would be slower in this 'quarter due to a heightened sensitivity towards Iran, but that it was still healthy and that it will recover. He also said that oil prices did not seem to be impacting inflation expectations. Silver spot?rose by 0.3%, to $79.27 an ounce. Silver is on track to reach its sixth consecutive year of structural deficit. 762 million troy ounces have been drawn from stock since 2021. This raises the risk of renewed liquidity pressure despite lower demand expectations. Palladium rose 0.3% to $1,578.06 and platinum increased 0.9% at $2,129.55. Ashitha Shivprasad, Bengaluru (reporting) and Emelia Sithole Matarise, editing.
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Jansson, the deputy governor of the Swedish central bank, says that it is important to be alert about spillovers from Middle East conflict.
Per Jansson, Riksbank's deputy governor, said that the central bank of Sweden must be alert to the potential effects on inflation caused by the war in the Middle East, particularly the rising energy prices. Jansson stated that the war caused considerable uncertainty but that it was very different than the situation in 2022 when inflation started to soar. He cited lower inflationary pressures and weaker demand, as well as a stronger Swedish krona. Jansson summarized a speech by saying, "This means that the risk is spillover effects are lower now than they were?then." He said that the impact of higher oil prices on inflation would be gradual but it was still too early to draw any conclusions. He told reporters that "it feels a bit more stable now". He said: "The stock markets are up and the market has also made this interpretation. The oil price is down, rates are down a bit, and the stock markets have gone up. But these issues need to be resolved right away." At its latest policy-setting?meeting the Riksbank maintained?its key interest rate at 1.75%, and added that it expected no changes for some time, but cautioned the Middle?East War made the forecast uncertain. The markets are pricing in a rate increase of?1 per cent by the end of the year. The next rate decision by the bank, which targets inflation of 2%, is expected to be announced on May 7. This week, the statistics office reported that annual headline inflation for March was 1.6%.
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Magyar, the Magyar of Hungary, will meet with MOL's Hernadi in order to discuss fuel security.
Peter Magyar, Hungary's election-winning candidate, said he will meet Zsolt Henadi (executive chair of MOL) later on Thursday to discuss the "security" of fuel supply and dividend payments to an institution that was linked to his predecessor. The centre-right Tisza party (Respect and Freedom), led by Magyars, won the election in a landslide. This ended Viktor Orban’s 16-year nationalist rule. Orban released a portion of the state's fuel reserves in response to a January halt in Russian oil deliveries through a pipeline that Kyiv claims was damaged by a Russian air strike. Magyar stated on Wednesday that the actions of the government over the next 20-30 days are vital. Magyar said in a post on Facebook that he did not expect MOL to pay a record dividend for the Orban-linked Mathias Corvinus Colllegium, an educational institution and think-tank. The Fidesz-dominated Parliament of Hungary in 2020 granted MCC 10% of MOL shares, which were previously owned by state. The institution also received 10% of shares at Hungary's pharmaceutical company, Richter. MOL's annual general meeting on April 10 approved a dividend payment total of 241 billion Forints (about $779.03 million) in 2025. This is 9% more than the previous year. Orban implemented a fuel price cap in early March as the global fuel and diesel prices rose due to soaring oil prices. The war in Iran was a major factor. ($1 = 309.3600 forints). Reporting by Krisztina than and Anita Komuves. Editing by Philippa Fletcher.
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Russell: China added crude oil to its massive stocks in March. But the outlook has changed.
China built the largest crude oil stockpile in the world during March, even as other countries began to use their inventories to make up for the millions of barrels lost due to the effective closure of Strait of Hormuz. According to calculations based off official data, China, the largest crude importer in the world, had a surplus of 1,74 million barrels a day (bpd). The 'first quarter' of China saw an excess of crude oil of 1,41 million barrels per day, down from a?record high of 2.67million bpd set in December. However, this is still higher than the average of 1,13million bpd over the entire 2025 period. China does not reveal the volume of crude oil flowing in or out of strategic and commercial stocks, but it can be estimated by subtracting the amount processed from total crude produced domestically and imported. Not all of the excess crude is likely to have gone into storage. Some was processed in plants that are not included in the official data. Even if you ignore these gaps, the fact remains that China began importing crude oil at a rate far greater than was necessary to meet its domestic fuel needs in March 2025. In March, China imported 11.77 million barrels per day of crude oil while its domestic production was only?4.49million bpd. Refinery processing reached 14.52 million barrels per day, leaving 1.74 million barrels per day for storage. China's crude oil stockpiles continued to grow in March, despite the fact that imports were not affected by the conflict?in the Middle East which began on February 28, when Israel and the United States launched an aerial attack against Iran. Oil delivered to China before the start of the conflict would have left the Strait of Hormuz, but imports from April will likely be affected. It is important to ask how China will respond to the lower crude imports that are expected to begin in April. These may be further restricted if the U.S. The military successfully executes President Donald Trump's directive to?blockade vessels from Iranian port. Kpler, a commodity analyst, estimates that China's seaborne oil imports for April were 8.7 million barrels per day. While this number is likely to rise as more cargoes arrive before the month's end, arrivals are likely to be at their lowest level since August 2022, when 7.97 million barrels per day arrived. Options If it wants to maintain domestic refinery rates at current levels, China can use some of its vast crude oil stockpile. Beijing has not revealed the exact number of commercial and strategic stocks, but analysts estimate that at least 1.2 million barrels are in these inventories. It would take two years to exhaust the stockpile if China released up to 2,000,000 bpd of its reserves to maintain refinery output. It is clear that this is an extreme situation, but the truth is that crude oil flow from the Middle East is likely to return at some point to levels similar to those prior to the start of the conflict. China can easily continue to refine fuels and increase the amount of processing it, allowing for the export of fuels. Beijing has placed informal limits on this since the beginning of the conflict. Kpler's tracking of shipments for April shows that China exported 1.19 million barrels per day (bpd) of refined fuels. Jet fuel and diesel prices both reached record highs in March due to the loss of refined fuel exports from China. Beijing probably expects the Iran conflict will end within the next few weeks, and that crude oil and other products from the Middle East can resume. If the Strait of Hormuz is closed for a long time, the risks to China increase. China can keep its domestic fuel supplies for a long time because it has a large amount of crude oil reserves. However, if Asian neighbours experience shortages or their economies begin to shut down, it won't be long before this will affect China's export industries. You like this column? Open Interest (ROI) is your new essential source of global financial commentary. ROI provides data-driven, thought-provoking analysis on everything from soybeans to swap rates. The markets are changing faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, X. These are the views of a columnist who writes for.
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Stocks return to record highs on Middle East peace hopes
The world stock market rose for the 10th consecutive day on Thursday to reach?new records highs. This marked the end of a six-week journey that began with the massive selloffs caused by Israel and the United States' attacks on Iran. The optimism over a possible 'deal to end war' continues to grow. MSCI 47-country world stock index rose 0.25%, with oil at $95 a barrel now far below the $120 highs of March. Wall Street hoped to see more gains in the future. The S&P 500 reached a new high on Wednesday after rising tech stocks and positive global bank earnings lifted it above 7,000. Manpreet Gil, Chief investment officer for Africa, Middle East, and Europe at Standard Chartered, said: "It looks almost like a perfect V-shaped rebound." He added that the U.S. tech stock market and the falling oil prices were the main drivers of the rebound. European stocks are still not back at their pre-war levels, but they have moved up 0.2% as bond traders continue to reduce bets on sharp interest rate hikes by the top central banks in the region. When the European Central Bank met last month, there were growing fears about a surge in European and worldwide inflation due to energy. Gill stated that rate-makers are more likely to try and "look past" this move if energy prices do now drop, and if inflation is only a temporary one off. He said: "I think everyone is going to be quite careful about whether we can see any second-round impacts that come later." OIL ON BOIL Brent crude oil prices remained volatile at a little above $95 per barrel, after a Tehran-briefed source said that Iran might consider allowing ships sailing freely on the Omani side of Strait of Hormuz to avoid attack in its negotiations with the United States. After eight days of consecutive declines, the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures greenback strength against a basket six currencies, gained around 0.15%. In addition to war-watching, U.S. president Donald Trump has reignited the spat with Fed chair Jerome Powell. He threatened to remove him from his seat as a single member of?the U.S. Central Bank's Board of Governors, unless Powell vacates his seat when his term ends on May 15th. The dollar's movement also caused the euro to lose traction at just below $1.18, after having edged up to within touching distance from its highest level since World War I began. After meeting with U.S. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, Japan's Finance Minister said that Tokyo and the U.S. agreed to intensify their communication?on the exchange rate after her Wednesday meeting. Khoon 'Goh, head of Asia Research at ANZ said: "As the markets price out the war premium we could see further pressure on the dollar and a resumption of the downward trend that has been established basically since last year." AUSSIE DOLLAR AND GOLD GAIN Chinese stocks rose over 1% in the first quarter, and the yuan was nearing a three-year-high of 6.8152 to the dollar on the offshore markets. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4%, setting a new record. Taiwan and Korea were not far behind, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), a pillar of the AI industry, posted a 58% increase in profits. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a report that they "remain constructive" about emerging market stocks, as the "underlying profit growth will likely be strong". The Australian dollar reached a record high of four years after the release of employment data. Bitcoin and ether, on the other hand, remained at just below $74,700 each and $2,340 in the cryptomarkets.
A Frenchman who was jailed in Israel for a hit-and run in Paris is killed in an upscale Parisian street
French prosecutors reported that a Frenchman, whose role in an alleged fatal hit-and run in Israel more than a decade earlier sparked a diplomatic dispute between Paris and Jerusalem, was shot dead on a street of the wealthy Paris suburb Neuilly sur Seine on Thursday.
According to the judicial authorities, Eric Robic died at around 9:30 am (0730 GMT), in a?public?street. Early witness accounts described several handgun shots being fired by two men on a scooter. They fled the scene immediately.
Robic was best known for the '2011 killing' of Israeli woman Lee Zeitouni who was killed by his speeding SUV.
Robic and the passenger fled Israel hours after the accident. This sparked public outrage, and a diplomatic dispute?after France refused Israel’s extradition request due to its policy not to extradite its own citizens.
The case led to a sustained public and political pressure in both countries.
Robic was subsequently?tried under French law in Paris. In 2014, the French court sentenced him to five years of prison for aggravated involuntary murder and failure to assist a person who was in danger.
Authorities have yet to comment on the possible motives behind Thursday's murder. (Reporting and editing by PhilippaFletcher; Charlotte Van Campenhout)
(source: Reuters)