2025-02-19 23:04
Russian drones hit Odesa for second successive night Many thousands without power or heat One injured in latest attack ODESA, Ukraine, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Russia unleashed a mass drone attack on Ukraine's southern city of Odesa for the second night running on Wednesday, knocking out power for thousands of residents and plunging parts of the city into darkness, the regional governor said. Governor Oleh Kiper, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the latest night-time strikes had triggered a blackout for some 5,000 residents. Kiper said nearly 90,000 people had been left in the dark in Odesa district in and around the city from the successive nights of attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a similar number was without heating. Kiper also said the strikes had triggered a fire at a restaurant and a storage facility and damaged an administrative building. One person was injured. Photos on social media showed areas of the city in darkness. Four people, including a child, were injured in the initial attack on Tuesday. Heating was interrupted to about 500 apartment buildings, 13 schools, a kindergarten, and several hospitals, officials said. The temperature in the Black Sea port was about minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 F). "Rescue operations are underway in Odesa after another Russian attack on the energy infrastructure," Zelenskiy wrote after the first attack. "It is civilian energy facilities against which the Russian army has not spared neither missiles nor attack drones for almost three years," he said. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 167 drones overnight on Tuesday in the region and elsewhere in the country. Air defence units and mobile drone hunting groups shot down 106 of them, and 56 drones were 'lost' in reference to the military using electronic warfare to counter unmanned aircraft, it said. Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure since March 2024, knocking out about half of the available generating capacity and causing widespread blackouts. Schools and kindergartens in the district were closed on Wednesday. “Everybody ran to the building hall. All the windows were blown out. The next hits scattered all the debris around. The furniture fell, the door was blown out as well," Tetiana, an Odesa resident who declined to share her last name, told Reuters. "Even the ventilation in the bathroom was knocked down – and they say that a bathroom is a safe place. No, it is not.” Russia says it does not target civilians, though thousands have been killed since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/mass-russian-drone-attack-leaves-much-ukraines-odesa-without-power-heat-2025-02-19/
2025-02-19 22:32
Feb 19 (Reuters) - Environmental groups on Wednesday moved in court to block President Donald Trump’s administration from allowing offshore oil drilling along broad swaths of U.S. coastline, in what appeared to be the first legal challenges to the Republicans’ efforts to boost fossil fuel production. A new lawsuit seeks to block Trump from revoking former President Joe Biden’s ban on offshore drilling in certain coastal areas, while a new filing in a case from the first Trump administration seeks to reinstate prohibitions against drilling in 128 million acres of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Biden banned new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines ahead of Trump taking office, though the move was considered mostly symbolic because it did not impact areas where drilling was already underway and mainly covered zones lacking important development prospects. Trump sought to undo that move as part of a flurry of executive orders within hours of his inauguration aimed at boosting the nation's already record-high oil and gas production and unwinding Biden's climate agenda. The Wednesday legal challenges, filed in Alaska federal court, are the first legal challenges to Trump’s environmental policies, according to the groups that filed them. “We defeated Trump the first time he tried to roll back protections and sacrifice more of our waters to the oil industry. We’re bringing this abuse of the law to the courts again,” Steve Mashuda of the advocacy group Earthjustice said in a statement. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. In the new lawsuit, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and other groups allege Trump has no authority to undo Biden’s permanent protections against drilling in parts of the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, which Trump recently renamed to the Gulf of America. The groups say drilling in those areas would have “significant, wide-ranging adverse impacts” on endangered species, sensitive ecosystems and local tribes. Also on Wednesday, a group led by the League of Conservation Voters made a new filing in a dormant case from the first Trump administration concerning former President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of parts of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans from future oil leasing, which Trump sought to undo. Litigation over Trump’s removal of those protections was dismissed after Biden reinstated the protections, but Trump has moved in his second term to undo them again. “The areas President Obama withdrew from leasing in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans are thus again threatened by offshore oil and gas activities,” the groups said in the lawsuit, asking a judge to enforce a prior court order finding Trump’s actions in his first term were illegal. The Trump administration faces more than 70 lawsuits challenging its efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and end birthright citizenship, roll back legal protections for transgender people and dramatically shrink the federal government with his top adviser Elon Musk. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/environmental-groups-sue-block-trumps-offshore-drilling-expansions-2025-02-19/
2025-02-19 22:29
SAO PAULO, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run lender Banco do Brasil (BBAS3.SA) , opens new tab expects its adjusted net profit to grow by up to some 8% in 2025, it said on Wednesday, while also posting near in-line fourth-quarter results and announcing fresh dividends. Banco do Brasil said its adjusted net profit is expected to settle between 37 billion reais ($6.5 billion) and 41 billion reais ($7.2 billion) this year, from the 37.9 billion reais posted last year. The center of the target released by Banco do Brasil stands at 39 billion reais. Analysts polled by LSEG project a 2025 adjusted profit of 39.2 billion reais for the bank. One of the largest lenders in Brazil, Banco do Brasil's numbers come after its main rivals Santander Brasil , Bradesco and Itau Unibanco (ITUB4.SA) , opens new tab all published their results and projections in recent weeks. Banco do Brasil reported on Wednesday an adjusted net profit for the quarter ended in December of 9.58 billion reais, up 1.5% year-on-year and compared to 9.53 billion reais expected by analysts. Its return on equity, a measure of profitability, came in at 20.8%, down from 22.5% a year earlier and 21.1% in the third quarter. In a separate filing, Banco do Brasil announced some 776 million reais in dividends, as well as a further 1.96 billion reais in interest on equity to shareholders. It also approved a payout of between 40% and 45% to shareholders this year, compared to 45% last year. ($1 = 5.7214 reais) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/lender-banco-do-brasil-sees-2025-adjusted-profit-between-65-billion-72-billion-2025-02-19/
2025-02-19 21:55
Fulcrum LNG to receive gas from Exxon for processing, LNG exports Exxon yet to decide what it will do with its portion of gas Petrochemical, power projects to take advantage of the gas GEORGETOWN, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab plans to boost natural gas output and supply in Guyana through a large-scale project announced on Wednesday, following the government's call for more gas to fuel onshore power and petrochemical projects. The "Wales Gas Vision", outlined by Exxon's Guyana head, Alistair Routledge, at an energy conference in Georgetown, is set to provide gas for several petrochemical and power projects through a $1 billion pipeline completed last year. The government will take a portion of the gas, produced by Exxon at its massive Stabroek Block and transported through the pipeline for power generation and natural gas liquids production. Also planned is a gas processing and liquefied natural gas (LNG) offshore facility to be built by U.S. company Fulcrum LNG. Exxon might be in charge of building a separate set of pipelines to transport the gas the government is entitled to as profit gas to Fulcrum LNG's facility, energy minister Vickram Bharrat told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. The plant will allow LNG exports and gas supply to Guyana's Berbice area for producing fertilizers and alumina. Exxon and the government have not disclosed total investment figures for the projects. A complete assessment of gas resources at Exxon's block is needed for that, and Exxon must decide how it will use its portion of the gas to be produced, Bharrat said. But the government believes there is enough gas for commercial projects, the minister added. Guyana is aiming to add natural gas to an energy mix dominated by oil output, helping to open new sources of revenue, Bharrat said. "There will be a shift towards gas utilization and monetization," the minister said at the conference. The government is expected to launch its ambitious gas strategy this year. GAS TO FLOW The Exxon-led consortium in Guyana, in which U.S. Hess (HES.N) , opens new tab and China's CNOOC (600938.SS) , opens new tab participate, plans to ramp up gas output in the coming years, especially through projects involving gas not associated with oil, such as Longtail. A final investment decision for Longtail, which would be the group's eighth project in the South American country and deliver up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas, is expected next year. Exxon is "ready to deliver gas" to shore, Routledge said at Guyana's Energy Conference. The group's fourth floating oil production facility, built by SBM Offshore (SBMO.AS) , opens new tab that departed from Singapore this week, will start operations in the third quarter, Exxon said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-plans-large-scale-gas-project-oil-dominated-guyana-2025-02-19/
2025-02-19 21:53
WELLINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr said on Thursday that New Zealand was now in an environment of low and stable inflation but warned the volatile international landscape could impact New Zealand's economy. Orr added that New Zealanders should feel in 2025 like things are improving and that there will be "GDP growth, employment growth coming through, and low and stable inflation." However, Orr, who was speaking in front of a New Zealand parliamentary committee, added there was currently "geoeconomic fragmentation, so global potential growth will be lower and we will see international price volatility." Orr's comments come after New Zealand's central bank cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points on Wednesday to 3.75% and forecast the cash rate would be at 3.0% before the end of the year. Central Bank chief economist Paul Conway told the committee that as the trade war escalates "there will be more inflation there, and lower growth and a less efficient global economy, and that will spill over into New Zealand." "The best thing we can do is have headline inflation at 2% so that we can sort of absorb that future volatility," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rbnz-governor-orr-says-new-zealand-is-low-stable-inflation-environment-2025-02-19/
2025-02-19 21:47
Feb 20 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. The People's Bank of China's interest rate decision tops a busy Asia-Pacific economic event calendar on Thursday, with many stock markets around the world at new peaks or hugging recent highs as investors try to make sense of the blitz of headlines surrounding global trade tensions. A trade war between the U.S. and its major trading partners would be damaging for growth and markets, so you would think investors are pricing that risk into their portfolios. Minutes of the Federal Reserve's Jan. 28-29 policy meeting on Wednesday showed that officials were concerned about the inflationary impact of Trump's agenda, with firms saying they expect to raise prices to pass through the cost of import tariffs. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, said that discussions were "constructive," after China condemned tariffs launched or threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump that could upend the global trading system. But these risks may be losing their grip on markets. That's not to suggest complacency is taking over - there have been a few wobbles recently - but the S&P 500, MSCI World, and benchmark European and UK equity indices are forging new highs. Perhaps investors are becoming inured to it all, or they believe Trump's stance is posturing to secure concessions and the outcome will be less severe than feared. Either way, Asian markets are struggling more, with China's travails, the strong dollar and high U.S. bond yields cooling local optimism. But there are pockets of strength, like Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech shares, and sentiment and capital flows toward China are improving. Investors cheered the optics of President Xi Jinping's meeting this week with the country's private sector leaders, the result of which could be a more substantial recovery in China's growth, especially the tech sector. Indeed, Bank of America's latest fund manager survey showed that China macro sentiment improved in February for the first time in four months. This was the first uptick in China's prospects outside of any policy stimulus announcement in the past three years, suggesting a 'DeepSeek effect' may be at play. The most bullish development for risk assets this year would be a pick-up in Chinese growth, the survey showed, far outweighing other potential scenarios like AI productivity gains, Fed rate cuts or a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. The PBOC on Thursday is expected to leave its benchmark one- and five-year lending rates unchanged at 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively, as authorities walk the fine line between prioritizing financial stability and providing more stimulus at a time when Beijing is facing fresh trade tensions. The PBOC has shifted towards implementing an "appropriately loose" monetary policy stance this year, but the weak exchange rate and banks' evaporating profits are limiting its easing efforts. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Thursday: - China interest rate decision - Australia unemployment (January) - South Korea producer price inflation (January) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphics-2025-02-19/
