Latest News
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Trump unveils $700 million coal support program using emergency powers
A White House official said that President Donald Trump is expected to announce Thursday that he would use his Cold War emergency powers to send nearly $700,000,000 to the U.S. coal sector to ship the fuel to Asia, and to power companies in the United States to burn the fuel domestically. The official and industry source confirmed that Trump intends to use the Defense Production Act, a law passed in 1950 that granted presidents broad authority to oversee industries considered critical to national defense, to finance?upgrades to more than a dozen power plants powered by coal, as well as to help finance two coal plants and to support the construction of an export terminal on the West Coast. The White House public schedule shows a 3:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), Trump's announcement about "Beautiful, Clean Coal." The Trump administration has framed the energy policy as an issue of national?security to ensure that electricity is available for AI data centers, and to reduce reliance on foreign countries. POLLUTION CONCERNS Environmentalists condemned the plan. Patrick Drupp of the Sierra Club's climate policy department called the plan a taxpayer-funded subvention for a polluting business and said that the group would challenge the initiative in court. Drupp stated that it was "disgusting and reprehensible" for the President of the United States to "give away our taxpayer dollars in order to build deadly and expensive coal-fired plants." Rich Nolan said that the National Mining Association's CEO would use the funds to increase production of a fuel that will help insulate energy consumers from price volatility and support the rising demand for electricity. Nolan stated that "the?administration supports that strategy by taking decisive actions at home to ensure upgrades are made to existing energy assets, and in?our ports to make sure that U.S. Coal can meet the needs of the world." As utilities shift to cheaper natural gas sources and renewable energy sources, coal, which accounted for more than half the electricity generated in the U.S. in 1990, is now responsible for less than one fifth. The official stated that more than half of this funding would be used to upgrade thirteen coal-fired plants. Additional money will also go towards coal facilities in Alaska and Maryland, as well as the West Gateway coal export terminal, which has been long planned in Northern California.
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Gold prices rise as hopes for a Middle East ceasefire pressure bond and dollar yields
Gold prices rose more than 1% on Thursday, as oil prices fell due to optimism about a possible end to the Iran Conflict. This led to a fall in bond yields and a pressure on the dollar. As of 11:50 am EDT (1550GMT), spot gold was up by 1% to $4,474.07 an ounce. U.S. Gold Futures for August Delivery gained 0.8%, to $4$4,501.90. Independent metals trader Tai Wong says that reports of a ceasefire agreement between?Israel? and Lebanon? have pushed the dollar and bond yields up, allowing gold to hold above?the 200-day moving aver?, which is an important indicator. Israel and Lebanon announced late on Wednesday that they had agreed to implement ceasefire. This raised hopes of a deal being reached between Washington and Tehran. Oil prices dropped by more than 3% in response to the news amid hopes of a reopening of 'Strait of Hormuz. Gold's appeal was boosted by the lower yields of U.S. Treasuries including the 10-year bond, as well as a 0.2% decline in the dollar. Wong stated that "record highs in gold prices this year are unlikely to happen unless there is a lasting, clean ceasefire between Iran and the West, which opens Hormuz. This will allow energy prices to fall, and for markets to stop worrying over possible higher rates." Gold, the traditional "safe-haven" asset, reached a record of $5,594.82 an ounce on January 29. Since the start of the Iran conflict, in late February, it has lost about 16%. The high interest rates are a burden on non-yielding gold. Investors will now be focusing on the release of the May U.S. Employment Report. The data may shed light on the health of the labor market, which will help determine the direction the Federal Reserve takes in the future. Silver spot rose by 1.4%, to $73.74 an ounce. Platinum gained 1.7%, to $1890.40. Palladium increased 1.3%, to $1318.75. (Reporting and editing by Paul Simao in Bengaluru, Shalesh Kuber and Anjana Anil)
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European stocks rise, Wall Street is mixed as Broadcom drags down tech; oil prices dip
Investors weighed the impact of a snag on AI and a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon on oil prices. The S&P 500, Dow and Dow Jones were all higher. However, the Nasdaq was down. Technology shares drove the losses while healthcare stocks led the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.70 %, the S&P 500 rose 0.25 %, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.17%. Broadcom shares fell more than 14 percent, pulling down semiconductor stocks, after disappointing results from the chipmaker disappointed investors who had bet on a surge in demand for its AI chips. Europe's stock exchanges increased by 0.42%. MSCI's global stock index fell by 0.01%. James St. Aubin is chief investment officer of Ocean Park Asset Management, Santa Monica,?California. "Today's tech action is emblematic of how fragile sentiment can be for a group that experiences massive gains in a short period of time." Brent crude prices fell?3% to return below $95 per barrel. The U.S. president Donald Trump's attempts to stop the fighting in Lebanon were undermined after the pro-Iran Hezbollah group?rejected a new ceasefire, and Israel announced that it would not be withdrawing troops from the country.
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Boston Fed paper: Fed should focus on inflation risks amid energy crisis
New research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston suggests that a change in the way Americans use energy could allow the Federal Reserve to concentrate monetary policy decisions on the inflationary effects of the Middle East oil price shock. In a report published on Thursday, economists at a bank said that U.S. exposure to global economic growth has changed "fundamentally", since the 1970s. This is due to increased energy efficiency and domestic production. These changes mean an increase in oil prices has less of an impact than it did before. In the meantime, the increased production of domestic energy means that higher prices are able to spur employment, and offset the job losses in the sector that would have occurred in the past. The job market is less affected by the energy crisis, which would normally lead to a large number of job losses. This would also reduce the impact on inflation. The economists concluded that "the U.S.'s economy's vulnerability to shocks from oil has fundamentally changed. It has not been eliminated, but rather reconfigured." These findings suggest that monetary policies should be more focused on the inflationary effects of oil shocks, rather than the employment effects. The paper stated that although the current shock was notable, it had a smaller economic impact than either the 1973-1974 OPEC Oil Embargo or the 1978-1980 Iranian Revolution. The authors said that "the diminished aggregate employment impacts of oil shocks decrease the likelihood of'stagflation style tradeoffs between unemployment and inflation which characterized the 1970s." The Boston Fed paper came out as Fed officials struggled to decide the future of monetary policy. The Fed will meet on 16-17 June in a meeting where policymakers are almost certain to maintain their 'interest rate target range' between 3.50% - 3.75%. Officials are trying determine if the increase in inflation pressures caused by the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran will have to be tempered with a tighter monetary policies. Officials are largely in favor of keeping rates steady, while they wait to see what the long-term impact of the war will be on price pressures. The longer war continues, the more likely it is that inflation will continue to be high. It has been consistently above the Fed's 2% target over the years. Fed officials are speculating that interest rates may need to be raised later this year, if inflation doesn't start to ease. Boston Fed research indicates that such a path would not likely lead to significant job market problems. (Reporting and editing by Andrea Ricci; Reporting by Michael S. Derby)
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Helion, a nuclear startup, has raised $15.5 billion in its latest funding round
Helion, a nuclear fusion energy firm, announced on Thursday that it had raised $465'million in its most recent funding round. The investment was led by Thrive Capital. The round nearly triples Helion’s valuation from its last Series F round of funding in January 2025 when it raised $425m at a valuation $5.4bn. The financing highlights the increasing demand for electricity in massive data centers that are dedicated to artificial-intelligence operations. Helion now has a total funding of $1.5 billion. The company stated that proceeds from this latest round would be used to?accelerate commercial deployment, increase manufacturing capacity and support the delivery of clean electricity to customers. Helion is a company backed by OpenAI founders Sam Altman & Greg Brockman. They are among the many?public and private firms working on fusion's main challenge: generating more energy from a?reaction that is needed to initiate and contain it. Alta Park Capital and Ford Motor CEO Bill Ford were among the investors in the latest Series G round of funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Mithril Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 as well as Good Ventures Foundation, all existing backers, also participated in the funding. The funding was announced after Helion's Polaris test machine reportedly used fusion fuel, and reached temperatures of?above?150 million degrees Celsius. The company has signed agreements in 2023 with Microsoft for the supply of electricity by 2028 and Nucor to build a 500MW Fusion Power Plant. OpenAI's Sam Altman left Helion's Board earlier this year as the two companies began to explore collaborating "at significant scale". Helion was founded in 2013 by David Kirtley, John Slough Chris Pihl and George Votroubek. Orion, its first power plant is currently under construction in Malaga (Washington). (Reporting and editing by Ditta Pujara in Bengaluru, Pranav Mathur from Bengaluru)
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After Ukrainian strikes, Russian-held Crimea tightens up fuel restrictions
Russian-controlled Crimea tightened rationing on?fuel supplies Thursday. It suspended all cash sales of gasoline, and issued a 'new coupon' to buy it. The peninsula is grappling with a shortage of fuel linked to Ukrainian drone attacks. In recent days, drivers in the Crimea region, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, faced long queues at gas stations after Kyiv's attacks restricted supplies from adjacent Russian-controlled territory in southeast Ukraine. Sergei Aksyonov - the Kremlin's appointed head of Crimea - announced the new measures, which tighten restrictions on petrol sales imposed a month ago. He said that the sale of gasoline in cash would be suspended for several days. No new coupons will be issued either. The maximum amount of fuel that can be purchased with coupons is 20 litres. He blamed the rationing on "difficult conditions" without giving further details. Ukraine has been attacking fuel infrastructure near Crimea and elsewhere for a number of months, in an attempt to limit Moscow's financial ability to fund its four-year-old?war against Ukraine during a period of high global oil prices. Local Russian authorities said that Ukrainian drones attacked the Black Sea peninsula on Thursday, killing 4 people and damaging buildings. This was a day after Moscow & Kyiv exchanged strikes in each other's cities.
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Gold prices rise as hopes for a Middle East ceasefire pressure bond and dollar yields
Gold prices rose more than 1% on Thursday, as oil prices fell due to optimism about a possible end to the Iran Conflict. This led to a fall in bond yields and pressured the dollar. As of 9:05 am EDT (1305 GMT), spot gold was up by 1.7% to $4,505.35 an ounce. U.S. Gold futures for August delivered gained 1.5%, to $4,532.80. The dollar and bond yields have been pushed up by reports of a?deal for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, according to independent metals trader Tai Wong. This has helped gold hold just above the 200-day moving averge. Israel and Lebanon announced late on Wednesday that they had agreed to implement ceasefire. This raised hopes for a possible deal between Washington?and Tehran. The news prompted oil prices to drop by more than 3% amid hopes of a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Dollars fell by 0.3% making greenback bullion cheaper for holders of other currencies. Lower yields on U.S. Treasuries including the 10-year bond also boosted gold's appeal. Wong stated that "record highs in gold for this year are unlikely until we have a lasting, clean ceasefire with Iran, which opens Hormuz and allows energy prices to fall, as well as markets not worrying about possible higher rates." Gold, the traditional safe-haven, reached a record of $5,594.82 an ounce on January 29. Since the start of the Iran conflict, in late February, it has fallen by 16%. Interest rates are high and this weighs on bullion that does not yield. Investors will now be focusing their attention on the U.S. Employment Report for May, which is due to be released this Friday. The data may shed a little?light on?the health of the?labor market, which can help to?guide Federal Reserve's future policy. Spot silver increased 3.1% to $74.96 an ounce. Platinum gained 1.9%, reaching $1,895.29. Palladium rose 1.6%, to $1.322.01. (Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao)
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Mozambique tightens its grip on mining by imposing a 15% stake for the state and local processing
Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo?signed a law requiring 15% state ownership in?all mining and processing ventures, tightening its control over resources at a time when demand for battery materials is growing. Mozambique ranks third in the world for graphite production, which is used to make batteries and energy storage systems. According to a government notice from June 3, the mining law approved by Parliament in may aims to improve Mozambique’s “management of strategic resource in defence of national interest”. The new law, which was seen on Thursday, states that the state will have a minimum participation of 15 percent, "free and non-dilutable", in all mining projects. The 'new rules' did not apply immediately to existing mines that are covered by long-term contracts. The Mines Ministry was not available for immediate comment. Mozambique joins a growing list of African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the continent's top producer of lithium, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the world's largest producer of?cobalt and a major copper supplier to the global market, who are tightening their control over raw commodity exports in order to gain greater economic benefits from their resources. Syrah's Balama operations in the north of the nation, Mozambique, has a graphite deposit that is one of the largest in the world. According to the U.S. Geological Survey China and Madagascar are two of the world's top graphite producers. Rio Tinto and Brazil's Vale owned significant coal assets in Mozambique, including the?world's biggest ruby mine?, Montepuez. The new regulations prohibit the export of semi-processed or unprocessed minerals, unless they are covered by an approved plan to process them locally, and are covered by specific ministerial authorization. Reporting by Custodio Cosse and Manuel Mucari; Writing by Nelson Banya, Editing by Elaine Hardcastle
Social media is the new source of information for youth voting in Bolivia's election
Young Bolivians can influence the outcome of general elections
Doria Medina, presidential candidate, has a strong presence on social media
Social media is a source of news for more young Bolivians
By Nathalie Iriarte
The young people of the country seem to be enjoying the lively and entertaining posts made by the business magnate.
"I don’t know why but I like Him." "I see other politicians that look forced and they don’t use social media the way he uses," said Veronica Mamani (19), a first time voter.
Bolivia has a young electorate, with nearly half the population under 35 years old - 3.3 million voters. This could determine the outcome of August's general elections.
Amples Regiani is a social media expert who said that most youths and voters were undecided. Many Bolivians have become disillusioned by "dirty politics."
Experts said that engaging voters depends in part on reaching young people via social media, particularly TikTok.
Doria Medina stated in an interview that he had taken this view to heart.
"For me, millions of followers have allowed me to not only communicate, but to also listen to young people's concerns and establish a relationship with them," Doria Medina said at his luxury Hotel Los Tajibos in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, the second largest city.
Inflation at its highest level in four decades, lack of employment opportunities and fuel shortages are the top concerns for young voters.
He said that Doria Medina began her foray into the social media five years ago not out of political strategy, but more as a curiosity.
"I opened up my Twitter and Instagram account before my children even used Facebook. "During the pandemic TikTok was launched, and I heard from young people that it would be the fastest growing social network," said he.
Doria Medina is the presidential candidate of National Unity Party. His businesses include fast-food franchises, hotels and a cement company. He describes himself as centrist.
A poll conducted by Ipsos-Ciesmori on August 10, showed Doria Medina in the lead with 21,2%. She was followed by conservative candidate Jorge "Tuto", a former Bolivian President (2001-2002), and candidate for Libre Alliance, with 20%.
If either candidate wins, it would be a turning point to the right in Bolivia and bring an end to two decades of leftist government.
Andronico Rod is the last in the race, and his poor showing indicates a decline in support for candidates associated with the ruling Movement to Socialism party (MAS), according to a Ipsos/Ciesmori survey conducted in July.
Bolivia's polarized politics has been characterized by a power battle that has caused the MAS to fracture. According to polls, it won only 12% of Sunday's vote.
A runoff will be held on the 19th of October if no candidate wins. A candidate can avoid a runoff if they receive more than 40% of votes and are ahead by at least 10%.
The pollsters are predicting a second voting round, which will be the first time in Bolivian history.
Online Business Tips
Doria Medina’s humorous, chatty online content offers business advice as well as a diet and exercise plan along with campaign pledges.
Many young voters ask him about how they can become millionaires.
"I have been following him ever since he began giving advice to entrepreneurs via TikTok, because I appreciate that he speaks to us clearly so we can know what to do to our money," said Marina Rivero a 21-year old business administration student and owner of a cupcake company.
She added, "What I love... is that it's his money he uses for his campaign. He doesn't have to pay any political favors."
The number of followers on his TikTok page is 575,800. This is nearly three times the number of "Tuto", Quiroga's TikTok, which he launched just before the start date of this campaign in December.
The videos of "Tuto Quiroga" discuss his plans for the government, with dancing and jokes interspersed.
Mamani, and other young voters, say that his online presence pales compared to Doria Medina's. Her language and expressions are more appealing to young Bolivians.
His jokes and dance moves are so popular that they have gone viral across the country of 12,4 million people.
Bolivia's electorate under 35 has never known a political era apart from that shaped Evo Morales as Bolivia's first Indigenous Leader, and the current President Luis Arce who is Morales' MAS Successor, but does not seek re-election.
Morales served three terms as president between 2006 and 2019. He founded the ruling MAS Party. After a failed attempt at changing the constitution, he is not allowed to run for another term.
Saul Montano is a comedian and content creator from Bolivia. He said that Doria Medina had learned how to establish a social media presence long before the campaign.
Montano stated that it's more than just repeating political discourses, but about creating a coherent persona and format on social media, and engaging the collective imagination.
Montano stated that Doria Medina is prone to laughing off criticism. This "humanizes" him and takes him away from his pedestal as a serious politician and businessman.
Social media is the new source of information for young people around the world. Traditional news media have lost their financial support and are being eclipsed by online personalities.
According to the Institute for the Study of Journalism, in the United States more than half of those under 35 years old rely on video and social media networks as their primary source of news.
TikTok, the most popular platform in Bolivia, is used by almost half of young Bolivian voters to get their information.
Vania Sandoval, journalism professor, says that this is a worrying trend. Candidates are being interviewed online without journalistic rigor on superficial topics instead of a deeper look at the issues.
Sandoval, an instructor at UPSA in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, said, "These elections will undoubtedly be marked by misinformation."
(source: Reuters)