2024-02-24 00:54

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N) , opens new tab Chief Executive Steve Schwarzman took home $896.7 million in pay and dividends last year, a 29% decline from his record take in 2022, according to a regulatory filing , opens new tab on Friday. Schwarzman reaped over $1.26 billion in pay and dividends for 2022, including more than $1 billion in dividends from his shares of Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm. For 2023, dividend payouts accounted for $777 million of Schwarzman's total. He also received $119.8 million in compensation, down 53% from the $253.1 million he received in 2022, according to the filing. Schwarzman owns about 231.9 million shares of Blackstone, and the company paid an annual dividend of $3.35 per share, the filing showed. Blackstone did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last month, Blackstone reported a 4% rise in its fourth-quarter distributable earnings, as it cashed out on more of its assets across real estate, credit, and hedge funds. Distributable earnings, which represent cash used to pay dividends to shareholders, rose to nearly $1.4 billion in the three months to Dec. 31, up from $1.3 billion a year earlier. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/blackstone-ceo-schwarzman-received-8967-mln-pay-dividends-2023-2024-02-24/

2024-02-24 00:04

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. rice exports to Haiti, which account for the bulk of supplies of the country's key food staple, contain unhealthy levels of arsenic and cadmium, heavy metals that can increase risks of cancer and heart disease, according to a recent study by the University of Michigan. Haiti is among the United States' top buyers of rice, alongside Mexico and Japan, and cheap imports are more affordable than local options in the Caribbean nation, the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere. According to the study, average arsenic and cadmium concentrations were nearly twice as high in imported rice compared to Haitian-grown product, with some imported samples exceeding international limits. Nearly all imported rice samples exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommendation for children's consumption. The study did not evaluate levels of toxins in other importing countries. The U.S. FDA and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The study, which attributed the dominance of imported rice to lower import tariffs and long-term contracts signed during political turmoil in the late 1980s and 1990s, said Haiti imports nearly 90% of its rice, almost exclusively from the U.S. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who helped push subsidies of U.S. rice to Haiti, later called the move a "mistake" saying it had battered local production capacity. The study also pointed to comparatively loose U.S. limits on concentrations arsenic and cadmium, which can leach from both human and naturally occurring sources to contaminate food and water. Rice is especially prone to absorb these metals. The report cited Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas as top exporting states. When researchers ran the study in 2020, they found that Haitians on average consumed 85 kg (187 lb) of rice per year, compared to 12 kg in the U.S., putting especially young Haitians at far greater risk of developing related health complications. "The flooding of U.S. rice into Haiti is not only economically violent for Haitian peyizan who struggle to sell their local product, but also violent toward the long-term health of Haitian consumers," the report said. "By maintaining a system dependent almost exclusively on U.S. rice, Haiti is importing a substantial amount of risk." The report called for an ethical investigation into U.S. rice exporters, measures to strengthen Haiti's agricultural sector and flagged a "dire need" to boost the country's food safety regulations. A violent conflict between heavily armed gangs has been spreading to Haitian farmlands, further pushing up food prices. The United Nations estimates over 300,000 have fled their homes and that some 40% of the population is going hungry. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-rice-exports-haiti-have-unhealthy-levels-arsenic-study-finds-2024-02-24/

2024-02-23 23:16

SYDNEY, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A bushfire in Australia's Victoria state raged out of control on Saturday, with authorities issuing a fresh evacuation alert at the highest danger rating for hundreds of residents in the state's west. The emergency warning followed the downgrading on Saturday of another bushfire, sparked earlier this week, that has killed livestock, destroyed properties and forced more than 2,000 people to leave western towns and head to the city of Ballarat, 95 km (59 miles) west of state capital Melbourne. The new blaze was threatening the rural town of Amphitheatre, population 223. "Leaving immediately is the safest option, before conditions become too dangerous," Vic Emergency said on its website, adding that the fire was "not yet under control". The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Saturday that three homes and several outbuildings had been destroyed this week in Victoria's bushfire emergency. Around 1,000 firefighters supported by more than 50 aircraft have battled the fires since they started. Australia is currently in the grips of an El Nino weather pattern, which is typically associated with extreme phenomena such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts. The last two bushfire seasons in Australia have been subdued compared with the 2019-2020 "Black Summer" when bushfires destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people and 3 billion animals. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/fresh-warnings-issued-bushfire-threatened-australian-towns-2024-02-23/

2024-02-23 23:09

NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A former oil trader at Vitol, one of the world's largest energy trading companies, was convicted on Friday of corruption charges stemming from more than $1 million in bribes he paid to officials in Ecuador and Mexico to win business. A federal jury in Brooklyn found Javier Aguilar guilty of three counts of foreign bribery, foreign bribery conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Aguilar sent bribe money from his Geneva-based employer to the officials through a series of middlemen and shell companies in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a U.S. law that prohibits paying bribes to foreign officials. "The people of Ecuador and Mexico deserved better and companies that play by the rules should know that the process is not rigged," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement. Aguilar had pleaded not guilty. He faces up to 30 years in prison, but would likely get a lesser punishment. "We disagree with the jury’s verdict and intend to appeal," Daniel Koffmann, a lawyer for Aguilar, said in an email. The defense had argued that Aguilar hired consultants he thought were legitimate to help Vitol win a 30-month, $300 million contract to ship crude produced by Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador in 2016. It also said the consultants paid bribes without Aguilar's knowledge, and that the payment structure was created by a top Vitol executive. Aguilar was the first person to stand trial in the U.S. as part of a sprawling Justice Department probe into commodity trading firms paying bribes to win business from state-run companies across Latin America, a scandal that has roiled energy markets from Mexico to Brazil. Vitol in December 2020 admitted to bribing officials in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador and agreed to pay $164 million to resolve U.S. and Brazilian probes. Rival trader Gunvor is bracing for a fine of up to $650 million to resolve U.S. probes into its business dealings in Ecuador. Aguilar's eight-week trial featured testimony from several intermediaries and bribe recipients, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. That included two former employees of a Houston-based subsidiary of Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex, who testified that Aguilar paid them around $600,000 in bribes to steer a $200 million contract for the supply of ethane gas toward Vitol. Aguilar's lawyers argued that the Pemex employees were not foreign officials, meaning the payments were not bribes under U.S. law. Aguilar faces additional charges in federal court in Houston over the alleged Pemex scheme. He has pleaded not guilty. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/former-vitol-oil-trader-convicted-ecuador-mexico-corruption-charges-2024-02-23/

2024-02-23 22:38

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS Four Western leaders in Kyiv to show solidarity Italy, Canada sign security pacts with Zelenskiy Biden to join G7 video conference, Zelenskiy invited Russian drones hit Odesa, Ukraine attacks Russian steel plant KYIV, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The prime ministers of Italy and Canada signed security deals with Ukraine on Saturday as Western leaders rallied round a war-weary Kyiv on the second anniversary of Russia's military invasion, with no end in the sight to the fighting. After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered recent setbacks on the eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of growing shortages of both arms and soldiers. Looking to dispel concerns the West is losing interest in the conflict, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Canada's Justin Trudeau came to Kyiv early on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. "The message I want to send today to ... all the Ukrainian people is that they are not alone. I want you to know that we are deeply grateful," Meloni said as she signed a 10-year defence pact with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Trudeau signed a similar accord and pledged some $2.25 billion in financial and military support this year. "We will stand with Ukraine with whatever it takes, for as long as it takes," Trudeau said. Ordinary Ukrainians held services to commemorate the anniversary, laying flowers to honour their many dead, amid fears that the war would continue for years, with Russian President Vladimir Putin showing no sign of backing down. "I'm a realist and understand that most likely the war will drag on for the next three or four years. I hope society will mobilise, I hope we'll be able to somehow defeat Russia," said Denys Symonovskiy, a Kyiv resident. Zelenskiy took the foreign leaders to see Hostomel airport - the site of a ferocious battle at the start of the invasion as Russia tried to fly in paratroopers to seize the capital Kyiv a few kilometres away. "Two years ago we met enemy troopers here with fire, and two years later, we are meeting our friends, our partners, here," Zelenskiy said in a televised speech delivered against a backdrop of wrecked aircraft. "Any normal person wants the war to end. But none of us will allow our Ukraine to end," he added. "The word 'independent' will always stand next to the word 'Ukraine' in future history." Outside Kyiv, the war continued unabated. Russian drones attacked the port of Odesa for a second night running, hitting a residential building, killing one person, the regional governor said. In Dnipro, a Russian drone hit an apartment building and a rescue operation uncovered two dead. Meanwhile, a source in Kyiv said Ukrainian drones had caused a blaze at a Russian steel plant, which a Russian official identified as one in Lipetsk, some 400 km (250 miles) from Ukraine, that is responsible for about 18% of Russian output. US AID STILL BLOCKED The Canadian and Italian security deals mirrors similar pacts signed recently with France and Germany. However, $61 billion in aid promised by U.S. President Joe Biden is being blocked by Republicans in Congress, casting a long shadow over Kyiv's hopes of pushing back the much larger, better supplied Russian military. Biden was due to take part in a video conference of fellow leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on Saturday, with Zelenskiy invited to join in. The West sees the invasion as an unjustified act of aggression that must be repelled and Italy, current chair of the G7, said it was vital to challenge perceptions that it was wearying of the conflict and Russia was winning. When Russian tanks and infantry streamed across the border before dawn on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine's 40 million people defied expectations by slowing and stopping their advance. But as the war enters its third year, setbacks in the east have left Ukraine's army looking vulnerable. Seeking to maintain Western focus on Ukraine, Zelenskiy has warned that Putin may not stop at Ukraine's borders if he emerges victorious. Putin dismisses such claims, and casts the war as a wider struggle with the United States, which he says aims to dismantle Russia. Anniversary events were planned across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv, hundreds of kilometres from the fighting, where grieving women cried as a priest led a prayer at a service in a cemetery festooned with blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, each marking the death of a soldier. "The boys are holding the front line. We can only imagine what effort and price is paid for every peaceful day we have. I want to believe it is not all in vain. We have funerals every day," Evhenia Demchuk, a widow and mother-of-two, told Reuters. The initial shock of the invasion has gradually faded into familiarity and then fatigue, as the world watched initial Russian gains and a stunning Ukrainian counteroffensive in late 2022 slow into grinding trench warfare. Russia, with a much bigger population to replenish the army's ranks and a larger military budget, might favour a drawn-out war, although its costs have been huge as it seeks to navigate sanctions and a growing reliance on China. UKRAINE'S POSITION GROWS PRECARIOUS Ukraine's position is more precarious. Villages, towns and cities have been razed, troops are exhausted, and Russian missiles and drone strikes rain down almost daily. Russia this month registered its biggest victory in nine months, capturing the eastern town of Avdiivka and ending months of deadly urban combat. Yet Zelenskiy remained defiant. "I am convinced that victory awaits us," he told diplomats in Kyiv this week in an emotional address. "In particular, thanks to unity and your support." A recent World Bank study said rebuilding Ukraine's economy could cost nearly $500 billion. Two million housing units have been damaged or destroyed, and nearly 6 million people remain abroad after fleeing the invasion. In addition to seeking money and weaponry, Zelenskiy is promoting legislation allowing Ukraine to mobilise up to half a million more troops - a target some economists say could paralyse the economy. Russia's finances have so far proved resilient to unprecedented sanctions. While natural gas exports have slumped, oil sales have held up, thanks largely to Indian and Chinese buying, and the economy has been boosted by massive defence spending. Russia has also ruthlessly punished dissent over the war. On Feb. 16, Putin's most formidable domestic opponent, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly of unexplained causes in an Arctic penal colony where he was serving terms totalling more than 30 years. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-defences-under-strain-war-enters-its-third-year-2024-02-23/

2024-02-23 22:35

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Air Canada (AC.TO) , opens new tab said on Friday that it will cap fares and add more than 6,000 seats in some markets operated by Lynx Air in light of the imminent suspension of operations by the troubled Canadian budget airline. Air Canada said that the measures would help Lynx Air customers impacted by the shut down of the airline to return home or make alternative arrangements for planned trips. Calgary-based Lynx Air filed for court protection from creditors on Thursday, and said it would cease operations from Feb. 26 as it grapples with higher operating costs, fuel prices, and airport charges. According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Lynx has 9 Boeing 737 MAX 8 in service and is scheduled to operate 569 flights in February. Air Canada said the capped fares will be available for purchase before Feb. 26 for travel across Canada up until April 2, to aid travel during the spring break and Easter holiday periods. The added capacity of above 6,000 seats on Lynx Air routes will be available in certain locations in Canada, as well as the U.S., and Cancun in Mexico between Feb. 25 and March 19, the airline said. Air Canada added that flights were already "relatively full" due to high demand during the winter travel period, and its ability to increase capacity further was limited. WestJet, Air Canada's smaller rival, has also promised to offer discounts on routes previously served by Lynx. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/air-canada-cap-fares-increase-capacity-take-lynx-air-fliers-2024-02-23/