2025-07-10 23:18
HOUSTON, July 10 (Reuters) - Oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab told its trading counterparts that it will not buy the Mars crude oil grade until a zinc contamination issue is fixed, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Zinc contamination in the Mars crude oil stream has pushed down demand and slashed prices for the flagship crude oil produced off the U.S. Gulf coast, sources said earlier this week. Sign up here. Mars traded at a 10-cent premium on Thursday to crude oil at the Cushing storage hub in Oklahoma, dealers said. It had eased to 10-cent discount earlier in the week compared with a $1 premium at the end of June. Exxon did not respond to requests for comments. Zinc does not typically occur naturally in crude oil and running crude with zinc could lead to damage to refining units and catalysts used in processing oil. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-halt-mars-crude-purchases-until-zinc-contamination-fixed-sources-say-2025-07-10/
2025-07-10 23:02
US Education Dept probing GMU, DOJ probing Minnesota Trump has attempted to crackdown on DEI His government has made funding threats over several issues WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday announced probes into hiring practices and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives by the state of Minnesota and Virginia's George Mason University. It was the latest crackdown on such programs by President Donald Trump's administration. Sign up here. The U.S. Education Department said it opened an investigation into George Mason University over its DEI practices. The department alleges that they violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars racial discrimination in U.S. education programs that receive federal funding. The U.S. Justice Department said its civil rights division opened an investigation into Minnesota, including the Minnesota Department of Human Services, to determine whether it has engaged in race- and sex-based discrimination in its state employment hiring practices. George Mason University said it received a department letter on Thursday morning and would "work in good faith to give a full and prompt response," adding it did not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. The Education Department statement cited a complaint from some professors at the university. "According to the complaint, GMU leadership have promoted and adopted unlawful DEI policies from 2020 through the present, which give preferential treatment to prospective and current faculty from 'underrepresented groups' to advance 'anti-racism,'" the department said in its statement. The Minnesota Department of Human Services said it followed all state and federal hiring laws. "Justification of non-affirmative action hires for some vacancies has been required by state law since 1987," it said in a statement. The Trump administration has threatened educational institutions and some U.S. states with federal funding cuts over DEI practices, climate initiatives, transgender policies and pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's military assault on Gaza. Trump has signed multiple executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity initiatives, and has cast DEI as anti-merit and discriminatory against white people and men. Civil rights advocates say DEI practices help address historic inequities for marginalized groups like women, the LGBT community and ethnic minorities. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Thursday it would no longer consider a farmer's race or sex in many of its farm loan, commodity and conservation programs, ending a longstanding effort to address the agency's history of discrimination. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-probes-minnesota-george-mason-university-over-dei-hiring-practises-2025-07-10/
2025-07-10 22:50
ATHENS, July 10 (Reuters) - Greece's Cosmoship Management on Thursday said one person is believed dead and four more have not been seen since Houthi militants attacked the Eternity C cargo ship in the Red Sea this week. Maritime security sources have said that four people were believed to have been killed during the repeated raids on the Liberia-flagged ship that started on Monday. Sign up here. Twenty-one mariners, including at least two armed guards, later abandoned the vessel. Since then, 10 of them have been rescued. The manager of the Eternity C said another 10 individuals remain unaccounted for and that the company was working through multiple channels to verify a Houthi claim that the Iran-aligned group had picked up some crew after the vessel went down on Wednesday. The company said it has asked all ships in the area to assist in the ongoing search, and is also working to provide families with timely updates. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/eternity-c-manager-says-one-individual-believed-dead-four-unaccounted-after-2025-07-10/
2025-07-10 22:43
OTTAWA, July 10 (Reuters) - The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has determined there is reasonable indications China, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam have dumped steel strapping, harming Canada's domestic industry, the tribunal said on Thursday. The tribunal, an independent quasi-judicial body that reports to the Canadian parliament, also found indications that steel strapping from China was subsidized. Sign up here. The findings were the result of an inquiry related to dumping and subsidizing investigations by the Canada Border Services Agency, which will issue preliminary determinations by August 8, the tribunal said in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/canadian-industry-likely-harmed-by-dumped-steel-strapping-china-three-others-2025-07-10/
2025-07-10 22:34
July 10 (Reuters) - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday launched an investigation into Robinhood Crypto, alleging that the platform may have misled customers by promoting itself as the least expensive way to buy cryptocurrencies. The AG's office said in a statement , opens new tab that it issued a subpoena to the unit of Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O) , opens new tab to obtain internal documents as part of the probe into possible violations of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Sign up here. "When consumers buy and sell crypto assets, they deserve transparency in their transactions," Uthmeier said. "Robinhood has long claimed to be the best bargain, but we believe those representations were deceptive," he added. The platform lets users buy and sell stocks and cryptocurrencies without charging direct commissions. Instead, the company makes money by routing client orders to third-party firms, which pay Robinhood under a practice known as payment for order flow (PFOF), the AG's statement said. Robinhood Markets General Counsel Lucas Moskowitz said the company discloses "pricing information to customers during the lifecycle of a trade that clearly outlines the spread or the fees associated with the transaction and the revenue Robinhood receives. We are proud to be a place where customers can trade crypto at the lowest cost on average." Robinhood Crypto has until July 31 to respond to the subpoena. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ag-probes-robinhood-crypto-over-claims-low-cost-trading-2025-07-10/
2025-07-10 22:28
US raises Brazil's tariffs to 50% from 10% on August 1 50% tariff would halt Brazil's coffee flow to US - trade sources Brazil is world's largest coffee grower, US the top consumer A third of the coffee used in the US comes from Brazil NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - The 50% tariff that the Trump administration has slapped on Brazilian imports has rattled the global coffee market and could make the price of a cup of coffee in the U.S. jump beyond recent highs. Brazil is the world's largest grower and exporter of coffee, while the U.S. is its biggest client and the world's largest drinker of the beverage, with nearly 200 million Americans having a cup every day. Sign up here. Coffee trade sources said the new duty announced on Wednesday, if confirmed on August 1, could halt new shipments of Brazilian coffee to the U.S., which imported 8.14 million 60-kg bags of the product from the South American country in 2024, or 33% of its total consumption. "A tariff of this size would all but shut down that flow. Brazilian exporters won't absorb it. U.S. roasters can't," said senior coffee broker and consultant Michael Nugent, owner of California-based MJ Nugent & Co. "Bottom line: Brazil will sell its coffee elsewhere. The U.S. will buy coffee from someone else - Colombia, Honduras, Peru, Vietnam - but not at Brazil's volume or price," he said. Traders said alternative coffee supplies would be more expensive, since there is not a lot of it in the market. "Countries buy more from Brazil because it offers way better value versus expensive other origins," said the director of a trading house based in the U.S. West Coast. "It is not if Brazil would sell, but would U.S. buy (with the tariff)? Probably not," he said. Coffee drinkers around the world, including in the U.S., are already paying record or near-record prices for the beans after last year's 70% price spike caused by tightening supplies. Arabica coffee futures jumped 1.3% on Thursday due to the planned tariff hike. EYES ON EUROPE Paulo Armelin, a large Brazilian coffee producer that sells directly to U.S. roasters, said his clients would not be able to pay up if the tariff is applied. "We will have to look for other markets, maybe Germany," he said, adding that it was already difficult to close deals earlier this year after the recent increases. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month during a Congress hearing that some natural resources that are not available in the U.S., such as tropical fruits and spices, could be exempt from tariffs, depending on negotiations with the countries producing and exporting them. The U.S. produces only a fraction of the coffee it uses, with farms in Hawaii and a few in California. "I hope that diplomacy will work and in the end coffee will be added to any exemption list," said Eduardo Heron, a director at Brazilian coffee exporter group Cecafe, adding that exports could be made unfeasible by the tariff. OJ, ETHANOL Beyond coffee, more than half of the orange juice sold in the U.S. comes from Brazil, which exports other products such as sugar, wood and oil. Orange juice futures rose 6% in New York on Thursday as the market fears a squeeze in supplies. The U.S. has become more dependent on orange juice imports in recent years due to a sharp decline in domestic production due to the "citrus greening" crop disease, hurricanes and spells of freezing temperatures. A report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year forecast the U.S. orange harvest would hit an 88-year low in the 2024/25 season while production of orange juice would slump to a record low. Brazil is the world's second largest producer of the cane- or corn-based biofuel ethanol. The South American country produced some 35 billion litres of ethanol in 2024, but exported less than 6%, of which only some 300 million litres went to U.S., according to a report from BTG Pactual. https://www.reuters.com/business/us-coffee-orange-juice-prices-could-surge-if-trumps-brazil-tariffs-stick-2025-07-10/
