2025-08-19 12:11
Oct 21 (Reuters) - With electricity demand in the United States set to hit record highs in 2025 and 2026, utilities are doubling down on assets that can boost their power generation capacity while shedding others to fund their massive spending plans. The dealmaking spree comes as the industry prepares for rapid growth in electricity consumption nationwide, partly driven by power-hungry data centers needed to support the boom in artificial intelligence usage. Sign up here. Power demand from data centers in the U.S. is expected to nearly triple in the next three years and consume as much as 12% of the country's electricity, according to a Department of Energy-backed study. Here are some of the biggest mergers, acquisitions and divestitures announced in 2025: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-utilities-dealmaking-spree-blockbuster-2025-2025-05-19/
2025-08-19 12:07
Aug 19 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency firm Tether has appointed former White House crypto policy executive Bo Hines as a strategic adviser to help steer its expansion in the United States, the company said on Tuesday. In his new role, Hines will advise on digital assets and U.S. market strategy, engaging with policymakers and industry groups to strengthen the firm's presence in the world's largest economy. Sign up here. "His deep understanding of the legislative process, combined with his passion for practical blockchain adoption, makes him an invaluable asset as Tether enters the biggest market in the world," Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino said. Hines, who until recently served as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, supported the passage of the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin regulatory framework, and helped shape broader crypto regulation. He stepped down from his White House role in August to return to the private sector. "During my time in public service, I witnessed firsthand the transformative potential of stablecoins to modernize payments and increase financial inclusion," Hines said. Stablecoins, digital tokens tied to assets such as the U.S. dollar, are riding a surge of investor demand as clearer regulation paves the way for wider adoption. https://www.reuters.com/business/crypto-firm-tether-hires-ex-white-house-crypto-adviser-bo-hines-2025-08-19/
2025-08-19 11:59
Fed minutes due on Wednesday Fed's Jackson Hole symposium scheduled for August 21-23 Trump says U.S. would help assure Ukraine security in peace deal Aug 19 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Tuesday, buoyed by lower treasury yields and a weaker dollar amid prospects of lower U.S. interest rates, while investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve chair's speech at Jackson Hole later this week. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $3,340.62 per ounce by 1152 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.2% to $3,385.30. Sign up here. The dollar index (.DXY) , opens new tab fell 0.1% against its rivals, while benchmark 10-year yields also slipped. "Gold has been in a tight range over recent weeks, being pulled in different directions amid the ebb and flow of trade frictions, efforts to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, and weak U.S. labor data, but we believe the risks will drive it higher over the medium term," said UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trumppledged to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the U.S. would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end the war with Russia, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear. Trump hosted Zelenskiy and a group of European allies days after he met with Putinin Alaska, which ended without an agreement. Meanwhile, market attention is on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks at the Jackson Hole symposium through August 21-23, which could offer clarity on the central bank's economic outlook. Investors expect an 83% probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the Fed's September meeting, per the CME FedWatch tool. FEDWATCH "With several data points between now and the next FOMC meeting there might be no commitment (from the Fed) on next steps," UBS' Staunovo said. Minutes from the Fed's July meeting, due for release on Wednesday, are also expected to provide cues into the United States' economic outlook. Elsewhere, spot silver rose 0.2% to $38.08 per ounce, platinum was up 1.5% at $1,342.38 and palladium gained 0.3% to $1,125.93. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/gold-gains-weakness-dollar-yields-jackson-hole-summit-focus-2025-08-19/
2025-08-19 11:55
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Rescue workers on Tuesday recovered more bodies from a mountain village in northwest Pakistan where flash floods triggered by a cloudburst brought down homes and buildings, bringing the death toll there to at least 20, the local district commissioner said. The toll contributed to a total of 358 deaths in the floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since Friday – more than 200 of them in the worst hit district of Buner. Sign up here. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority says 30 children are among the dead. A cloudburst is a rare phenomenon where more than 100 mm (4 inches) of rain falls within an hour in a small area, officials say. Authorities have warned of more rains to come in two spells of monsoon until September 10. In Buner, there was more than 150 mm of rain within an hour on Friday morning. A massive downpour from another cloudburst struck near Gadoon in the mountains of Swabi district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday. District Commissioner Nisar Khan said that as well as the death toll there increasing from 11 on Monday, several residents remained missing from the remote village. "We are utilising all available resources, including heavy machinery such as excavators, to recover the missing bodies," he said. The raging flood water came down from the mountains and swept away the houses, he said. The intense rain has claimed lives and spread destruction in several northwestern districts, with most people killed in flash floods, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. More relief equipment including tents, blankets, electric generators, pumps, medicine and rations have been sent to the flood-affected areas, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Tuesday. It said the torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 695 people across Pakistan since late June. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/twenty-bodies-found-pakistan-mountain-village-after-cloudburst-flooding-2025-08-19/
2025-08-19 11:45
Kiruna Church will inch 3 miles down Arctic roads Part of massive city relocation as mine expands Sami community fears for impact on traditions, livelihood KIRUNA, Sweden, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Sweden's landmark Kiruna Church will begin a two-day trip to a new home on Tuesday, inching down an Arctic road to save its wooden walls from ground subsidence and the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine. Workers have already jacked up the 600-ton, 113-year-old church from its foundations and hefted it onto a specially built trailer - part of a 30-year project to relocate thousands of people and buildings from the Lapland city. Sign up here. Mine-operator LKAB has spent the last year widening the road for the journey which will take the red-painted church - one of Sweden's largest wooden structures, often voted its most beautiful - 5km (3 miles) down a winding route to a brand new Kiruna city centre. The journey will save the church, but take it from the site where it has stood for more than a century. "The church is Kiruna's soul in some way, and in some way it's a safe place," Lena Tjarnberg, the vicar of Kiruna, said. "For me, it's like a day of joy. But I think people also feel sad because we have to leave this place." For many of the region's indigenous Sami community, which has herded reindeer there for thousands of years, the feelings are less mixed. The move is a reminder of much wider changes brought on by the expansion of mining. "This area is traditional Sami land," Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chair of the local Gabna Sami community, said. "This area was grazing land and also a land where the calves of the reindeer were born." If plans for another nearby mine go ahead after the move, that would cut the path from the reindeer's summer and winter pastures, making herding "impossible" in the future, he said."Fifty years ago, my great-grandfather said that the mine is going to eat up our way of life, our reindeer herding. And he was right." SYMBOL OF TRANSFORMATION The church is just one small part of the relocation project. LKAB says around 3,000 homes and around 6,000 people need to move. A number of public and commercial buildings are being torn down while some, like the church, are being moved in one piece. Other buildings are being dismantled and rebuilt around the new city centre. Hundreds of new homes, shops and a new city hall have also been constructed. The shift should allow LKAB, which produces 80% of the iron ore mined in Europe, to continue to extend the operation of Kiruna for decades to come. The state-owned firm has brought up around 2 billion tonnes of ore since the 1890s, mainly from the Kiruna mine. Mineral resources are estimated at another 6 billion tonnes in Kiruna and nearby Svappavaara and Malmberget. LKAB is now planning the new mine next to the existing Kiruna site. As well as iron ore, the proposed Per Geijer mine contains significant deposits of rare earth elements, a group of 17 metals critical to products from lasers to iPhones and green technology key to meeting Europe's climate goals. Europe - and much of the rest of the world - is currently almost completely dependent on China for the supply and processing of rare earths. In March this year, the EU designated Per Geijer as a Strategic Project which could help speed up the process of getting the new mine into production. Around 5km down the road, Kiruna's new city centre will also be taking shape. "The church is ... a statement or a symbol for this city transformation," mayor Mats Taaveniku told Reuters. "We are right now half on the way. We have 10 years left to move the rest of the city." https://www.reuters.com/world/wooden-church-sets-off-slow-swedish-road-trip-escape-mining-subsidence-2025-08-18/
2025-08-19 11:36
Wang Yi visits India for border talks, meets Doval, PM Modi China promises to expedite export licenses for India NEW DELHI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - There is an upward trend in India-China relations and Beijing has promised to address New Delhi's needs on rare earths, a top Indian official and a source said on Tuesday, as the neighbours rebuild ties that were damaged by a 2020 border clash. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting India for the 24th round of border talks with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and is also due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, days before Modi travels to China for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Sign up here. "There has been an upward trend. Borders have been quiet. There has been peace and tranquillity," Doval told Wang as he opened the talks. "Our bilateral engagements have been more substantial." "The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we are working on," he said. Wang told Doval that "the stable and healthy development of China-India relations is in the fundamental interests of the two countries' people," according to a readout of the meeting released by China's foreign ministry. The two sides "should enhance mutual trust through dialogues and expand cooperation," Wang said, and should aim for consensus in areas such as border control and demarcation negotiations. Earlier on Tuesday, an Indian source said that China had promised to address three key Indian concerns. Wang, the source said, had assured Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar that Beijing is addressing India’s need for fertilisers, rare earths and tunnel boring machines. The Indian foreign and mines ministries did not respond immediately to Reuters requests for comment. China's commerce ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether China had agreed to approve export licenses faster or grant blanket exemptions for India. China has previously committed to speeding up export licenses for Europe and the U.S. without actually dismantling the control regime. China's exports of rare earths and related magnets jumped in June after these agreements and as the commerce ministry worked through a huge backlog of applications. However, rare earth magnet exports to India were still down 58% compared to January levels, according to Chinese customs data. June is the last month for which country-level data is available. India has the world's fifth-largest rare earth reserves, at 6.9 million metric tons, but has no magnet production and relies on imported magnets, mainly from China. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-pledges-address-indias-rare-earth-needs-indian-source-says-2025-08-19/
