2025-11-08 20:21
Nov 8 (Reuters) - A tornado accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain struck the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing six people, the state government said on Saturday. The town of Rio Bonito do Iguacu was hit hardest late Friday, with the state's civil defense agency reporting that over half of the urban area suffered roof collapses, along with multiple structural failures. Sign up here. Roads were blocked and power lines damaged. Authorities said 437 people were treated for injuries and about 1,000 were displaced. The nearby city of Guarapuava was also affected. According to the Parana Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring System, the tornado's winds reached speeds between 180 kph (111 mph) and 250 kph (155 mph). Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann said she would travel to the area on Saturday with acting Health Minister Adriano Massuda and other federal officials to support relief efforts and reconstruction. "We will continue to assist the people of Parana and provide all the help needed," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X, expressing condolences to the victims' families. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/tornado-southern-brazil-kills-six-injures-hundreds-2025-11-08/
2025-11-08 19:12
BUDAPEST, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Hungary said on Saturday it had obtained an indefinite waiver from U.S. sanctions to use Russian oil and gas, but a White House official reaffirmed that the exemption was for one year only. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried a threat of further sanctions against entities that buy oil from those firms. Sign up here. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime Trump ally, met with Trump at the White House on Friday to press for a reprieve. Hungary relies heavily on Russian energy and Orban, 15 years in power, faces a close election next year. "The prime minister was clear. He has agreed with the U.S. President that we have obtained an indefinite exemption from the sanctions," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook. "There are no sanctions on oil and gas shipments to Hungary for an indefinite period." But a White House official repeated in an email to Reuters on Saturday that the exemption is for one year. HUNGARY EXPECTED TO BUY U.S. LNG The official added that Hungary would also diversify its energy purchases and had committed to buying U.S. liquefied natural gas with contracts valued at some $600 million. Hungary has maintained its reliance on Russian energy since the 2022 start of the conflict in Ukraine, prompting criticism from several European Union and NATO allies. Speaking in Washington late on Friday, Orban also said Hungary had received an indefinite exemption for energy imports via the TurkStream gas pipeline and the Druzhba oil pipeline. "There are no sanctions that would restrict Hungary's supply through these routes or make it more expensive. This exemption is general and has no time limit," Orban said. International Monetary Fund figures show Hungary bought 74% of its gas and 86% of its oil from Russia in 2024, warning that an EU-wide cutoff of Russian natural gas alone could cost Hungary more than 4% of its GDP. Orban said that, without the agreement, energy costs would have surged, hitting the wider economy, pushing up unemployment and generating "unbearable" price rises for households and firms. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/hungarys-waiver-us-sanctions-russia-energy-is-indefinite-minister-says-2025-11-08/
2025-11-08 18:00
Nov 8 (Reuters) - A second external power line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been restored, the station's Russian operators were quoted as saying on Saturday. The plant - Europe's largest, with six reactors - was seized by Russian troops in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine regularly accuse each other of military actions that compromise nuclear safety. Sign up here. The plant currently produces no electricity, but needs external power to cool the nuclear fuel and avoid the risk of a meltdown. The station's Russian operators, in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, said the second line known as Ferosplavna-1 was reconnected on Saturday. They said the completed action "significantly increases the stability of the station's power system". The line had been down since May 7. The first Dniprovska line was restored on October 23. With both lines out of operation, the plant had been without external power links for 30 days and relied on diesel generators. Fighting nearby had prevented emergency crews from carrying out repair work, prompting the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency to help arrange local ceasefires. The latest ceasefire took effect on Friday. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/second-external-power-line-restored-russian-held-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-2025-11-08/
2025-11-08 15:58
Nov 8 (Reuters) - Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo told investors in New York the country plans to repurchase sovereign bonds and begin building foreign reserves, even as the peso trades within its band, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. President Javier Milei does not intend to float Argentina’s currency, but will keep it trading within established bands, Caputo said in a meeting with about 40 investors hosted by JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) , opens new tab on Friday, the report said. Sign up here. Caputo may accelerate the pace of band adjustments to 1.5% per month, depending on inflation and peso demand, the report said, adding that currently the upper and lower limits of the trading range are adjusted by 1% a month, allowing the peso to gradually weaken. Caputo plans to present the full proposal within 30 days, which includes a timeline for reserve accumulation, the debt buyback and a debt-for-education bond, the report said. JP Morgan and Argentina's Economy Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside business hours. Earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Argentina may not ultimately need a bank loan, and that Milei is doing a good job overhauling the country's troubled economy. Milei's party cruised to victory in midterm legislative elections in October as voters handed him a mandate to keep pushing through his overhaul of the economy, which has included deep austerity measures. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-will-build-reserves-buy-back-bonds-caputo-tells-bankers-bloomberg-news-2025-11-08/
2025-11-08 14:47
BERLIN, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition government plans to re-examine its trade policies towards China including on energy, raw material imports and Chinese investment in critical German infrastructure and will set up a committee of experts to report to parliament. The plan comes after a recent rise in trade tensions between the world's second and third biggest economies. The committee will examine "security-relevant trade relations between Germany and China" and make recommendations to the government, according to a motion submitted by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and their Social Democratic coalition partners, seen by Reuters on Saturday. Sign up here. The motion is likely to be passed next Friday and the committee - which will be staffed by a dozen academics, industry associations, labour representatives and think tank members - will be established shortly afterwards. For decades, Germany saw China, another major exporter, as a natural ally in advocating for the open global trading system that helped Germany's manufacturing sector flourish. But a series of recent blows - including Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports that threatened to paralyse Germany's crucial car industry - have prompted a rethink. The new committee will report to parliament twice a year. "The aim of the committee is to examine from a legal, economic and political perspective the need for changes to foreign trade rules," the motion read. The committee will also look at other countries' trade ties with China. Last month, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who has criticised China's rare earth export restrictions and tacit backing for Russia in its war against Ukraine, postponed a trip to China at the last minute after Beijing confirmed only one of his requested meetings. This week Chancellor Merz broke with decades of German free trade dogma by calling for Europe to adopt protectionist measures to sustain Europe's steel industry in the face of a Chinese competitive onslaught. Social Democrat Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil talked of the need for "a little more European patriotism". https://www.reuters.com/world/china/germany-re-examine-security-relevant-china-trade-policies-2025-11-08/
2025-11-08 12:41
FLORENCE, Italy, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Italian banks support the European Central Bank's digital euro project but want investments required by them to implement it to be staggered over time because the costs are high, a top official of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said. The ECB has been working on a digital version of the single currency to strengthen the euro area's monetary sovereignty, but the legislative process has been slow as some French and German banks in particular have opposed the project. They say it could see millions of Europeans use an online ECB wallet for daily payments, draining away their bank deposits. Sign up here. "We're in favour of the digital euro because it embodies a concept of digital sovereignty," ABI General Manager Marco Elio Rottigni told a press seminar in Florence on Friday. "Costs for the project, however, are very high in the context of the capital expenditure banks must sustain, they could be spread over time." The ECB's plan aims to ensure that central bank money remains accessible and relevant in an increasingly digital economy, while also reducing reliance on non-European payment service providers, and responding to the rise of stablecoins. At its meeting in Florence on October 29-30, the ECB's Governing Council decided to advance the digital euro project to its next phase, after completing a two-year preparation period. The launch is expected in 2029 after a pilot phase in 2027, contingent on the adoption of EU legislation expected in 2026. European parliament member Fernando Navarrete, of Spain's Partido Popular, is heading the parliament's assessment of the digital euro. On October 28 he presented his draft report promoting a scaled down version of the scheme to safeguard private payment initiatives such as Wero, which is backed by 14 European lenders. "We're in favour of a twin approach, a central bank digital currency and commercial bank digital currencies which may develop faster, because what Europe shouldn't do is fall behind," Rottigni said. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/italys-banks-back-digital-euro-want-costs-spread-over-time-2025-11-08/
