2025-08-30 00:21
HOUSTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - California's Energy Commission voted on Friday to temporarily set aside penalties for excessive refining profits that were adopted after gasoline pump prices climbed over $8 a gallon in 2022. The five-year delay in implementing the penalties comes as Phillips 66's (PSX.N) , opens new tab Los Angeles refinery is preparing to begin shutting production as early as next week ahead of a permanent closure. Sign up here. "The fact is, supply is declining faster than demand, and we need to bring them into alignment: that means slowing supply loss while aggressively pursuing the transition to zero emission vehicles," the Commission's staff said in an emailed statement. California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom had proposed the penalties, but has since switched direction amid worries of price spikes in 2026 after the closure of the Phillips 66 refinery and a San Francisco-area plant operated by Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) , opens new tab next year. Both companies said declining gasoline demand promoted by state's policies in favor of non-fossil-fuel-powered vehicles made the once-lucrative California market untenable in the long-term. California has adopted a goal to ban the sale of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles by 2035. The delay was supported by Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), which had called for the penalties to be delayed for 20 years, saying prices were determined by global oil markets and not the state's policies. The state's Consumer Watchdog group faulted the change in direction by California officials. "By taking the penalty off the table, you are opening the market to the price spikes we suffered in 2022," said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court in a letter prior to the vote. In addition to putting penalties on hold, the commission also voted to adopt policies to stabilize California's refinery capacity, increase motor fuel imports and promote development of the state's oil reserves. California is isolated by the Rocky Mountains from the U.S. refining centers along the U.S. Gulf Coast and in the Midwest. The state relies on what plants in that state and Washington can make as well as imports from Asian refineries. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/california-sets-aside-penalties-high-refinery-profits-2025-08-30/
2025-08-29 23:51
BEIJING, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Russia and China jointly oppose "discriminatory" sanctions in global trade that hinder the world's socio-economic development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a written interview with China's official Xinhua news agency. The two countries will continue to work to reduce mutual trade barriers, Putin said in the interview published on Saturday on the eve of a visit to Russia's biggest trading partner. Sign up here. Putin will be in China from Sunday to Wednesday, in a four-day visit that the Kremlin has called "unprecedented." The Russian leader will first attend the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the northern port city of Tianjin. Putin will then travel to Beijing to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend a massive Chinese military parade marking the end of World War Two after Japan's formal surrender. "To sum up, economic cooperation, trade and industrial collaboration between our countries are advancing across multiple areas," Putin said. "During my upcoming visit, we will certainly discuss further prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation and new steps to intensify it for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and China." The visit to China - Putin's first since May last year - comes as he seeks to reverse a slowdown in bilateral trade while Russia's war in Ukraine rages on despite a recent summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska. When Western nations severed ties with Russia after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China came to the rescue, buying Russian oil and selling goods from cars to electronics that pushed bilateral trade to a record $245 billion in 2024. Putin and Xi declared a "no limits" strategic partnership in 2022. The two have met over 40 times in the past decade. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-china-oppose-discriminatory-sanctions-global-trade-says-putin-2025-08-29/
2025-08-29 23:51
Putin says Russia, China oppose "discriminatory" trade sanctions Putin to visit China August 31 to September 3 for regional summit, military parade China is Russia's biggest trading partner BEIJING, Aug 30 (Reuters) - On the eve of a visit to China, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blasted Western sanctions as his country's economy teetered on the brink of recession, wounded by trade curbs and the cost of his war in Ukraine. Russia and China jointly opposed "discriminatory" sanctions in global trade, Putin said in a written interview with China's official Xinhua news agency published on Saturday. Sign up here. Putin will be in China, Russia's biggest trading partner, from Sunday to Wednesday in a four-day visit that the Kremlin has called "unprecedented." The Russian leader will first attend the two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The security-focused SCO, founded by a group of Eurasian nations in 2001, has expanded to 10 permanent members that now include Iran and India. Putin will then travel to Beijing to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend a massive military parade in the Chinese capital commemorating the end of World War Two after Japan's formal surrender. Earlier in May, Xi attended a military parade on Moscow's Red Square marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazi Germany. It was Xi's 11th visit to China's giant neighbour since he became president more than a decade ago. Russia has been hammered by multiple rounds of Western sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. U.S. President Donald Trump said he might impose "massive" sanctions on Russia depending on whether progress was possible in his bid to secure a peace deal. "To sum up, economic cooperation, trade and industrial collaboration between our countries are advancing across multiple areas," Putin said of China, which the West accuses of backing Russia's so-called special military operation in Ukraine. "During my upcoming visit, we will certainly discuss further prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation and new steps to intensify it for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and China." When Western nations severed ties with Russia after Moscow's launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China came to the rescue, buying Russian oil and selling goods from cars to electronics that pushed bilateral trade to a record $245 billion in 2024. China was by far Russia's leading trading partner by volume and transactions between the countries were almost completely carried out in rubles and yuan, Putin said. Russia was a leading exporter of oil and gas to China and the two sides continued joint efforts to reduce bilateral trade barriers, he added. "In recent years, the export of pork and beef to China has been launched. Overall, agricultural and food products occupy a prominent place in Russia's exports to China," he said. He made no mention of EU accusations of Chinese support for Russia's war in Ukraine, which the bloc describes as a serious threat to European security. China denies the allegations. Putin and Xi declared a "no limits" strategic partnership in 2022. The two have met over 40 times in the past decade. Wanted by the International Criminal Court over accusations of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, Putin last travelled in China in 2024. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/putin-lambasts-trade-sanctions-eve-visit-china-2025-08-29/
2025-08-29 23:32
SAN SALVADOR, Aug 29 (Reuters) - El Salvador, the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, will move its reserves of the popular cryptocurrency to multiple new addresses from the single address it previously used in order to improve security, it said on Friday. The country's National Bitcoin Office said on X each address would hold up to 500 Bitcoin (around $54 million as of recent prices), and that a public dashboard would make the full balance across these addresses transparent to the public. Sign up here. The Central American nation has for years been consolidating its Bitcoin position. As of Friday, it held around $682 million worth in the volatile cryptocurrency. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-transfer-bitcoin-reserves-multiple-addresses-2025-08-29/
2025-08-29 22:36
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Friday that there had been an IT breach at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American disaster response agency that has been buffeted by deep cuts and is slated for elimination. Noem's statement gave few specifics about the nature of the breach except to blame FEMA's staff, two dozen of whom she said she had fired. Sign up here. Noem said the hack threatened "the entire Department and the nation as a whole" but at the same time said that "no American citizens were directly impacted." She added: "No sensitive data was extracted from any DHS networks." DHS did not immediately respond to a message seeking further clarity on what happened. Noem devoted nine paragraphs of her statement about the breach to attacks on FEMA's IT staff, accusing them of "failure," "neglect," "incompetence" and dishonesty. She said 23 of them had been fired. Reuters could not immediately verify her claims. News of the FEMA breach - and the mass firing purportedly connected to it - follows an open letter , opens new tab of dissent against the agency's leadership signed by scores of current and former FEMA employees. The letter warned Congress that the inexperience of top appointees of President Donald Trump's administration could lead to a catastrophe on the level of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States 20 years ago. Trump has said he wants to eliminate FEMA, a linchpin of the United States' disaster response, and instead distribute federal money through his own office. FEMA has extended a hiring freeze through at least the end of this year, according to three sources familiar with the matter, as the peak of hurricane season approaches. The Department of Homeland Security "is committed to ensuring FEMA delivers for the American people," a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. The spokesperson did not respond to a question about the hiring freeze. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-homeland-security-chief-reports-breach-fema-fires-23-employees-2025-08-29/
2025-08-29 22:18
BRASILIA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's 2026 annual budget bill, submitted to Congress on Friday, projects a primary surplus of 34.5 billion reais ($6.36 billion) for the central government, equivalent to 0.25% of the country's gross domestic product. The forecast meets the 0.25% of GDP primary surplus target for next year proposed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government in April, still pending congressional approval. Sign up here. The calculation, however, excludes 57.8 billion reais in expenses not counted toward the fiscal target, notably linked to court-ordered payments. Without this adjustment, the projection would show a primary deficit of 23.3 billion reais, equivalent to a 0.17% of GDP shortfall. Many economists have criticized the exclusion of large expenditures from Brazil's calculation of its primary balance, saying it masks the true fiscal picture even though the practice is legal. While the government may hit its targets on paper, the exemptions still drive spending and add to the hefty debt of Latin America's largest economy. The Treasury estimated in July that gross debt as a share of GDP - a key fiscal indicator - will have risen more than 10 percentage points under Lula, who took office in 2023. The leftist leader introduced a new fiscal framework with a more flexible spending-growth rule alongside primary budget targets. Initially, his economic team projected a primary surplus equivalent to 0.5% of GDP for this year, followed by 1% of GDP surplus by the end of his mandate in 2026. However, the fast-growing cost of pensions and social benefits, reluctance to pursue deeper spending cuts and challenges in raising new revenue led the government to abandon its original plan last year in favor of a more gradual fiscal adjustment. ($1 = 5.42 reais) https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-2026-budget-bill-projects-primary-surplus-025-gdp-2025-08-29/
