United Kingdom

The author of the report that plunged BBC into crisis claimed the broadcaster wasn't "institutionally bias" but had editorial flaws. He hoped his criticisms could help to fix these. Michael Prescott, former external editorial advisor, has compiled a dossier of issues at BBC News. This includes allegations of bias regarding its coverage of the Israel/Hamas conflict and trans issues. The leaked report led to the resignations by Director General Tim Davie, and Deborah Turness as head of news, as well as a threat from Trump to sue up to $5 billion. This plunged the public broadcaster in its worst crisis...

The author of the report that plunged BBC into crisis claimed the broadcaster wasn't "institutionally bias" and had hoped to improve things with his criticisms. Michael Prescott, former editorial advisor, has compiled a dossier of issues at BBC News. This includes allegations of bias regarding its coverage of the Israel/Hamas conflict and trans issues. Leaked reports led to the resignations by Tim Davie, Director General, and Deborah Turness as head of news, and Trump threatened to sue the broadcaster for up to five billion dollars. This was the biggest crisis the public broadcaster has faced in decades. Prescott said to...

The U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion made by Toronto-listed Gold Reserve on Tuesday to stop all proceedings in the court ordered auction of Citgo Petroleum’s parent company in Delaware. This is yet another setback to the miner, who has been fighting in court for its $7.9billion bid for Citgo Holding's parent PDV Holding. PDV Holding is a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state-owned energy firm Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). In late August, a court officer supervises the sale of goods. Recommended by A rival offer by an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management. Motions Disqualify The earlier this month,...

Exxon Mobil announced Tuesday that it will close its Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) located in Scotland by February 2026. The company said the plant is no longer viable due to high supply costs, weak markets and the UK’s economic and political environment. The European Union's fourth largest exporting sector, after machinery, automobiles and pharmaceuticals has been under pressure due to soaring energy prices following Russia's invasion in Ukraine, and an aging infrastructure. This has led them to become more dependent on imports for key feedstocks like ethylene and propylene. Exxon said that the closure would affect 179 employees and 250...

The oil prices fell on Tuesday, as traders assessed the impact of Western sanctions against Russian flows, and supply concerns eased after the loading of cargo at a Russian hub was resumed following a drone strike in Ukraine. Brent crude futures fell 46 cents or 0.72% to $63.74 per barrel as of 0420 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 45 cents or 0.75% to $59.46 per barrel. According to two industry sources, and LSEG data, the Russian port of Novorossiysk resumed oil loadings Sunday after a two-day interruption caused by a Ukrainian drone and missile attack. In a...

The Information reported Monday that Databricks, a data analytics company, is in discussions to raise money at a valuation exceeding $130 billion. This is about 30% more than the last round of financing two months ago. The company refused to comment on the article. The report stated that Databricks had not signed any term sheets with investment firms. Could not confirm immediately the report. In September, the San Francisco company closed a $1 billion funding round, which valued it at 100 billion dollars, making it the most valuable private company in the world. Databricks announced at the time that it...

The French antitrust authority fined TotalEnergies and Rubis a total of 187 million euro ($217.3) for an anticompetitive agreement that increased fuel prices in Corsica. The island's population is just over 350,000 and it relies heavily on automobiles for transport. All fuels are imported through DPLC depots, which are jointly owned by Rubis TotalEnergies, EG Retail, and TotalEnergies. The watchdog stated that between 2016 and 2023, no other company is allowed to use these depots. The watchdog stated that the agreement reserving the use of Corsican depots for DPLC shareholders only is anticompetitive, and will likely shut out competitors at...

Phillipe Casale, director of investor relations at Raizen and one of the top sugar producers in the world, said on Friday that the company has already locked in prices for half the volume of sugar it expects to make in the 2026/27 harvest. Casale, a Brazilian company, said that the Brazilian firm had so far achieved prices of 114 cents real ($0.2110) per kilogram. He added that the price of sugar for the crop year 2025/26 is set at 111 cents real per pound. According to Raizen, weather problems will cause his sugarcane crushing to be lower than the 72-75...

Citgo Petroleum announced on Thursday that its profit grew to $167 millions in the third quarter, up from $100 million the previous period. The company also said that the refiner's liquidity increased from $2.6 to $2.75. The Houston-based firm, which returned to profitability in the second quarter after two consecutive periods in losses, is fighting to stop the auction of PDV Holding in Delaware, as part of a court ordered process to pay creditors in Venezuela for defaults on debt and expropriations. The Delaware judge Leonard Stark, who oversees the auction in Delaware, denied the Venezuela parties' and Gold Reserve's...

On Thursday, a U.S. court filed showed that a U.S. Judge denied Venezuela's and Gold Reserve's motions to disqualify a judge, two advisory firms, and a court official overseeing the auction of shares of Citgo Petroleum parent company, which is a U.S. refiner. The Toronto-listed Gold Reserve miner, which was the winner of the auction with its bid, and Citgo, the owner of Venezuela, both accused the firms that advised the court of receiving $170 million from Elliott Investment Management affiliates, whose offer had been recommended to the court as the auction's winning offer, as well as bondholders who would...

Oil prices fell on Thursday, continuing losses from the previous day, after a report indicating rising crude inventories at the U.S. heightened concerns that global supplies are more than enough to meet the current fuel demand. Brent crude futures dropped 9 cents or 0.1% to $62.62 per barrel at 0336 GMT after falling 3.8% the day before. U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude fell 11 cents or 0.2% to $58.38 per barrel, continuing a 4.2% drop on Wednesday. According to market sources, who cited American Petroleum Institute data, U.S. crude stocks rose by 1.3m barrels during the week ending November 7,...

Gold Reserve, a Toronto-listed company, filed a lawsuit in Delaware against Rusoro Mining on Monday for alleged breach in contractual obligations. The consortium agreement required Rusoro to bid in an auction for Citgo Petroleum's parent company in the United States. In August, Elliott Investment Management's affiliate was recommended to be the winner of the auction. This bid beat Gold Reserve's bid of $7.9billion. The auction of Venezuela's PDV Holding is intended to compensate up 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela. As part of both bids, Rusoro agreed to allow the use of its $1.5 billion claim relating...

MMG, a Hong Kong-listed mining company that owns Anglo-American Nickel in Brazil, announced on Monday that European Commission has extended its review of the deal. Early November, the EU Competition enforcer, the Commission, initiated phase II of the merger investigation. MMG stated on Monday that it was unclear how long it would take the European Commission to complete its review. The extension highlights the need for greater regulatory caution, and increased scrutiny of resource agreements with China. Anglo American announced in February the sale of two ferronickel projects and two greenfields in Brazil. Earlier this month, the Commission warned that...

The government announced that Britain has launched a new critical minerals strategy to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers. By 2035, it aims to supply 10% of the domestic demand with UK-produced materials and 20% through recycling. The strategy, which is backed by new funding of up to 50 millions pounds, aims to ensure that no more than 60 percent of UK supply of any critical mineral will come from one country by 2035. In a statement, British Prime Minister Keir starmer stated that critical minerals are "the backbone of modern living and our national safety." He argued that increasing...

The competition for essential minerals has now reached the lowest part of the metal supply chain. Maros SEFCIOVIC, EU Trade chief, says that aluminium scrap is a strategic commodity. Over a million tons of aluminium scrap is exported from the EU every year. Sefcovic, the European Commission's Director of Communications and Public Affairs, described this as "a measure that is balanced" in order to keep more recyclable materials in Europe. The industry association European Aluminium blames the United States for the price differential created by the country's import duties, which is causing more European scraps to be exported to the...

A union official announced on Friday that American Industrial Partners, an investment firm based in the United States, plans to sell or list Aluminium Dunkerque on the stock exchange, France's biggest aluminium plant. Johan Vlietinck told CGT that the local management had informed the workers of AIP’s plan. Bloomberg News reported earlier that AIP considered a sale or listing of Aluminium Dunkerque. The company acquired the property four years ago after GFG Alliance defaulted on its debts. GFG Alliance is owned by commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta. A spokesperson from AIP France stated that the fund did not deny the reports...

The competition for essential minerals has now reached the lowest part of the metal supply chain. Maros SEFCIOVIC, EU Trade chief, says that aluminium scrap is a strategic commodity. Over a million tons of aluminium scrap is exported from the EU every year. Sefcovic, the European Commission's Director of Communications and Public Affairs, described this as "a measure that is balanced" in order to keep more recyclable materials in Europe. The industry association European Aluminium blames the United States for the price differential created by the country's import duties, which is causing more European scraps to be exported to the...

Muddy Waters founder Carson Block announced on Wednesday that he had taken a position long in Canadian gold mining company Snowline Gold Corp. This marks a departure from the famous short seller. Snowline Gold Corp. is working on potential projects that Block believes are undervalued in comparison to gold prices and the amount of valuable metals the sites can produce. Block spoke at the Sohn Conference, held in London. Block, in describing the public reports that the junior miner released, said that the company took a conservative approach with its own growth forecasts. Block said, "We believe this project is...

Rio Tinto, Australia's largest alumina refinery company, announced on Tuesday that it would cut production at its Yarwun plant in Queensland by 40 percent starting October of next year. This will extend the life of the plant to 2035 while allowing time for modernization. Under current production rates, Yarwun’s tailings storage facility, which is used to store mining waste, will reach full capacity in 2031. The company said it had looked into options for a new tailings facility but that the required investment was "substantial" and "not currently economically viable." Rio Tinto stated that the reduction will affect around 180...

In a statement released on Monday, the European Investment Bank of the EU and Australia's government announced that they would intensify their cooperation in relation to critical raw materials as Western powers struggled to reduce their dependence on China. Except for Japan, Group of Seven and EU countries are heavily or exclusively dependent on China to supply a wide range of materials, from rare earth magnets (REMs) to battery metals. European officials and sources from the industry say that financing is a major obstacle in the efforts of the EU to secure its supply chain for strategic minerals. The EU's...

The High Court of London ruled that BHP is liable for the collapse in 2015 of a dam located in the southeast region Brazil. This ruling was made in a case which lawyers representing the claimants had previously estimated at up to 48.32 billion pounds (36 billion pounds). BHP was sued by hundreds of thousands of Brazilians as well as dozens of local governments, and about 2,000 companies, over the collapsed Fundao Dam in Mariana (southeastern Brazil), which BHP's joint venture with Vale, Samarco, owned and operated. Brazil's worst ecological disaster released a toxic sludge wave that left 19 dead,...

Ibram, a Brazilian mining lobby group, said on Thursday that the law firm Pogust Goodhead would have to refund 811,000 pounds (about $1 million) after it dropped a London lawsuit filed against Ibram over a dam disaster in 2015. This amount is due to Ibram for the costs incurred as part of a lawsuit filed by 25 Brazilian municipalities represented by PG regarding the collapse of a Samarco dam, a joint-venture between Vale, BHP and Vale, that killed 19 people and contaminated a major river. A London court will announce its decision regarding BHP's responsibility in this case on Friday....

T.V. Narendran, the chief executive of Tata Steel India, hopes that the government will extend the import tariffs for some steel products in order to protect against imports from China and other countries. Narendran said on Thursday. Narendran, in an interview, said that although the import volumes in India are small, they still affect the market. Narendran stated that "China exports a lot" of steel globally, and added that Indian steel producers had no choice but to export due to the "over-saturation" of most markets by Chinese competitors. In April, India, the second largest crude steel producer in the world,...

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that Vice Premier Liu Guozhong visited the Simandou Iron Ore Mine Project in Guinea this past week. The project, which is 75% owned by China, will be the largest iron ore mine in the world, with a production capacity of 120 million tons per year. It will also be key to the green transformation in the global steel industry. Xinhua reported that the Chinese vice-premier called the project a result of the friendship and cooperation of China with Guinea and Africa for nearly 70 years. He added that the project would contribute to Guinea’s...