2025-12-26 02:50
SYDNEY, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Defending line honours champion LawConnect took the early lead in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Friday as the fleet of 129 boats, led by the supermaxis, pushed out of a cloudy Sydney Harbour and into choppy seas in the South Pacific. LawConnect was the first past the turning mark after the starting cannons fired at 1 p.m. (0200 GMT) as the supermaxi aims to win line honours for the third straight year in the 80th running of Australia's premier yachting event. Sign up here. Fellow favourite Master Lock Comanche was among the leaders, sailing close behind, as crews brace for wet and wild weather. Australia's weather bureau forecast strong southerly winds of up to 25 knots and swells reaching 4m (13 feet) after leaving Sydney Harbour, but conditions are expected to ease slightly along the New South Wales and Tasmanian coasts at the weekend. Sailors, while passing Bondi, will pay tribute to the victims of the Bondi mass shooting nearly two weeks ago. Fifteen yachts - one for each of those killed - will scatter rose petals off the stern of their boats, the race organiser Cruising Yacht Club of Australia said. Six 100-foot supermaxis, the largest and fastest yachts in the fleet, are the primary contenders to finish first this year, though the race includes several smaller boats competing across divisions. LawConnect won last year's race in 1 day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds. The 2024 edition was marred by the deaths of two sailors in separate incidents when they were struck by booms during the race. Five-times Olympic swimming gold medallist Ian Thorpe is among the crew aboard the LawConnect this year. Covering about 630 nautical miles (1,170 km), the gruelling annual race takes yachts south along Australia's east coast, across the notoriously treacherous Bass Strait and on to the finish in Hobart, capital of the island-state of Tasmania. https://www.reuters.com/sports/lawconnect-seizes-early-lead-sydney-hobart-race-2025-12-26/
2025-12-26 01:45
TOKYO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's cabinet on Friday approved a record $785 billion budget for the next fiscal year, aiming to strike a balance between her proactive fiscal policy and debt blowout concerns by limiting new bond issuance. Faced with rising government bond yields and a weak yen, the Takaichi administration has stepped up efforts to reassure investors that the government will not resort to irresponsible debt issuance or tax cuts. Sign up here. The budget for the year starting from April, to be submitted to parliament early next year, will total a record 122.3 trillion yen ($784.63 billion), exceeding this year's initial budget of 115.2 trillion yen. Still, new government bond issuance will increase only slightly from this year's 28.6 trillion yen to 29.6 trillion yen, with the debt dependence ratio falling to 24.2%, the lowest since 1998. Higher tax revenues, projected to rise 7.6% to a record 83.7 trillion yen, will help fund increased spending, though they will not fully offset surging debt-servicing costs, along with higher social welfare and defence outlays. Debt-servicing costs for interest payments and debt redemption will jump 10.8% to 31.3 trillion yen, with the assumed interest rate set at 3.0%, the highest level in 29 years, as the Bank of Japan exits ultra-loose monetary policy. Japan already has the highest debt burden in the developed world at more than twice the size of its economy, making it highly sensitive to rising borrowing costs and complicating Takaichi's plans to pursue aggressive fiscal stimulus measures. Takaichi intends to drop the idea of using the annual primary budget balance as Japan's fiscal consolidation goal and set a new goal that extends through several years to allow more flexible spending. ($1 = 155.8700 yen) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japans-cabinet-approves-record-785-billion-budget-vows-keep-debt-check-2025-12-26/
2025-12-25 19:14
CAIRO, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Baghdad, the Kurdish government and international companies have agreed to extend an oil export deal through March 31, Kurdistan broadcaster Rudaw quoted the director of Iraq's state oil company SOMO as saying on Thursday. The renewal extends a three-month deal agreed in September, allowing Iraq to restart the export of oil from its Kurdish region to Turkey. Supplies had been halted for more than two years. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iraq-kurdistan-renew-three-month-agreement-oil-exports-through-march-31-kurdish-2025-12-25/
2025-12-25 18:20
MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Russia's gas corporation Gazprom (GAZP.MM) , opens new tab supplied 38.8 billion cubic metres of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline this year, the company's CEO, Alexei Miller, said on Thursday, up by nearly a fifth from the previous year. "By the end of 2025, we have not only reached our gas supply target for China of 38 billion cubic metres, but more importantly, we will supply China with almost 800 million cubic metres more than our contractual obligations," Miller said at a meeting held to summarise the company's preliminary results of the year. Sign up here. A source familiar with the data told Reuters on Monday that Russia's pipeline exports of natural gas to China were expected to reach around 38.6-38.7 billion cubic metres this year, up from 31 bcm in 2024 and exceeding the pipeline's planned annual capacity of 38 bcm. Miller said in October that supplies via the Power of Siberia would exceed 38 bcm this year. Russia began pumping gas from eastern Siberia to China in late 2019 via the Power of Siberia 1 pipeline. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gazprom-supplied-38-bcm-gas-china-via-power-siberia-pipeline-2025-2025-12-25/
2025-12-25 13:47
BEIJING, Dec 25 (Reuters) - China's Guangzhou Futures Exchange will adjust minimum daily opening positions and trading limits for certain platinum and palladium futures contracts starting December 29, the exchange said on Thursday. The exchange will increase the minimum opening position for platinum futures contracts PT2606, PT2608, PT2610, PT2612 from one lot to two lots, while maintaining the minimum closing position at one lot, according to a statement. The same changes apply to palladium futures contracts PD2606, PD2608, PD2610, PD2612. Sign up here. The exchange will also set a daily opening position limit of 300 lots for non-futures company members or clients for each of the specified platinum and palladium contracts while hedging transactions and market-making trades will be exempt from these restrictions, a notice from the exchange showed. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinas-guangzhou-futures-exchange-adjust-platinum-palladium-trading-limits-2025-12-25/
2025-12-25 09:51
KYIV, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine launched British Storm Shadow missiles and its domestically produced long-range drones to hit several Russian oil and gas facilities, Ukrainian military and security officials said on Thursday. Ukraine has previously used the British-made missiles to attack Russian industrial targets that it says help Moscow's war. Sign up here. The Ukrainian General Staff said that the air force used Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region. "Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit," the General Staff said on the Telegram app on Thursday. It said the refinery was one of the biggest oil product suppliers in southern Russia and was supplying diesel and jet fuel to the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Ukraine's SBU security service said that the locally made long-range drones hit oil product tanks in the Russian port of Temryuk in the Krasnodar region and a gas processing plant in Orenburg in southwestern Russia. The Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, is located about 1,400 km (about 870 miles) from the Ukrainian border. In the Krasnodar region, Russian regional authorities said that two oil product tanks caught fire at the southern port of Temryuk after the drone attack. Flames covered an area of about 2,000 square metres, authorities at the Krasnodar operational headquarters said on the Telegram app. As Russia's war in Ukraine approaches its four-year mark and diplomatic efforts to end it have so far failed to produce any tangible results, both Kyiv and Moscow have stepped up their drone and missile attacks on energy facilities. Kyiv has increased its strikes on Russia's oil refineries and other energy infrastructure since August as it seeks to cut Moscow's oil revenues, a key source of funding for its war effort. The Ukrainian General Staff also said that Ukrainian troops hit a military airfield in the Russian city of Maikop in the republic of Adygea in the North Caucasus region. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-drones-hit-oil-gas-facilities-russia-sbu-official-says-2025-12-25/
