2025-12-03 20:02

BRUSSELS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Over two-thirds of the member states of NATO have committed to the weapons for Ukraine through the so-called Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), which has received commitments worth $4 billion so far, the alliance's secretary general Mark Rutte said on Wednesday. "We heard from Australia and New Zealand who will also contribute to PURL, the first NATO partners to do so. And this means that allies and partners have already committed now really over 4 billion," Rutte told reporters on Wednesday in Brussels. Sign up here. (This story has been corrected to say 'over two-thirds' instead of 'two-thirds' in the headline and paragraph 1) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/two-thirds-nato-member-states-committed-purl-rutte-says-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 19:52

SANTIAGO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Chile's state-run copper producer Codelco (COBRE.UL) and Glencore (GLEN.L) , opens new tab, a Swiss trader and miner, have signed an initial agreement to collaborate on a smelter project in Chile, the companies said on Wednesday. The deal calls for Codelco to provide copper concentrate and for Glencore to build the smelter in the key mining region of Antofagasta, in northern Chile, with capacity to process about 1.5 million metric tons a year. Sign up here. Industry experts say a project of this size would likely require a $1.5 billion to $2 billion investment. Glencore will now carry out a pre-feasibility study, with the companies aiming to finalize their agreement in the first half of next year. If the project moves forward, it would start construction in 2030 and begin operations between 2032 and 2033, the companies said. Codelco added that it selected Glencore after a competitive bidding process. It agreed to offer Glencore up to 800,000 metric tons of concentrate annually for at least a decade as part of the deal. Chile accounts for just 6% of global smelting capacity, and sends much of its copper for processing to China, which holds half the world's copper smelting capacity. With China's highly efficient smelters competing for limited concentrate, treatment charges - the fees paid by miners to convert concentrate into metal - have fallen below zero and forced some overseas smelters out of business. Chile is aiming to increase its own smelting capacity, including a $1.7 billion smelter modernization led by state-run mining company ENAMI. Codelco Chairman Maximo Pacheco said the Glencore smelter's location in the Antofagasta region, where most of Chile's copper is mined, is intended to allow for logistical benefits, and would be built with strong operational and environmental standards. He added that increasing Chile's smelting capacity was intended to benefit Codelco as well as help with "strengthening Chile's sovereignty and strategic security." https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/codelco-signs-agreement-with-glencore-chilean-smelter-project-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 19:47

SAO PAULO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's state of Para has delayed the deadline for the introduction of tracking devices in its cattle herds, a blow to environmental efforts to introduce a regional policy that advocates say is key in preventing deforestation. According to a decision published in the state's official gazette on Wednesday, Governor Helder Barbalho has allowed the identification of bovine and buffalo to be completed by December 31, 2030. Sign up here. Previously, Para cattle ranchers had until January 1, 2026 to identify the herd with ear tags, provided they had their animal transit records in order. The final deadline for identifying and tracking all of the state's animals was January 1, 2027. Improvements in cattle traceability efforts would be a powerful tool to choke off ranching in illegally deforested farms in Brazil, the world's largest beef exporter, according to environmentalists. In a statement, non-profit Imaflora said the extension of the compliance deadline in the Amazonian state is a response to ranchers' requests regarding what they see as "challenges" of putting the measure into practice. "The ambitious deadline originally set was in line with the urgency imposed by climate change and created a favorable environment for generating innovative public policy solutions," Imaflora said. Para has a herd of 26 million head, nearly the same size as Australia's, and is Brazil's second-biggest cattle-herding state after Mato Grosso. Implementation of Brazil's national cattle tracking program will be in four stages, according to a Ministry of Agriculture norm issued this year. Under the norm, the federal government will ban all movement of cattle and buffalo that are not individually identified and registered in the official system from January 1, 2033. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/brazil-amazonian-state-postpones-cattle-tracking-key-preventing-deforestation-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 19:09

Bessent advocates for residency requirement for Fed bank presidents Current Fed leaders often hired from outside their districts Fed Act lacks residency rules; merit cited in leadership selection Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said he plans to advocate for a requirement that the 12 regional Federal Reserve bank presidents reside in their districts for at least three years before being appointed to those positions. Bessent, speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, said going forward he would press that appointments of candidates who have not satisfied that threshold be vetoed by the Fed's Board of Governors in Washington. "The chair and the board have the final say on who ... the regional bank boards can select," Bessent said. "So I believe that ... unless someone's lived in the district for three years, we're going to veto them." Sign up here. Bessent, who is in the process of selecting a candidate to recommend to President Donald Trump as the successor for Fed Chair Jerome Powell, said the fact that many of the current regional bank presidents were hired from outside their districts is at odds with the spirit of how the U.S. central bank's system was designed. The leaders of that system include seven Fed board members based in Washington and appointed by the president and subject to Senate confirmation. The 12 heads of quasi-private regional reserve banks are hired by their own local boards of directors, although the Fed in Washington can weigh in on the process. The system, set out in the Federal Reserve Act, was designed to ensure that U.S. central bank policy reflected input from officials from around the country, not just political appointees based in Washington. The Treasury secretary, who like Trump wants interest rates set by the Fed to be lower, has repeatedly complained that several regional bank presidents are not from the districts they were hired to represent. "I do believe that there is now a disconnect from the original framing," Bessent said. "Now there's this idea of importing a bright, shiny object," Bessent said, referring to some of the current bank presidents who have worked previously at the New York Fed. "So do they represent their district? So I am going to start advocating, going forward, not retroactively, that regional Fed presidents must have lived in their district for at least three years." A strong majority of current regional Federal Reserve bank presidents have been drawn from outside their districts. The current presidents of the Cleveland and Dallas Fed banks, for example, came from New York, with the Texas central bank now helmed by Lorie Logan, who led monetary policy implementation for the New York Fed. The current leader of the New York Fed, John Williams, was formerly the leader of the San Francisco Fed. St. Louis Fed leader Alberto Musalem is also an alumnus of the New York Fed. Neel Kashkari, leader of the Minneapolis Fed, ran for governor of California before being tapped to lead his bank, while the new Philadelphia Fed chief was previously research director at the Chicago Fed. The Federal Reserve Act does not impose any residency requirements on regional bank presidents. Regional Fed banks have repeatedly argued that in selecting new leaders merit and ability have driven their decision-making, and they've noted a desire to cast a broad net when searching for a new chief. That said, the opaque process through which new leaders are selected with limited public input has been a long-running matter of concern for some. The Atlanta Fed noted in a press release last month announcing the retirement of bank leader Raphael Bostic that it would conduct a "nationwide" search for a new president "who will continue to advance the critical work of the central bank and is committed to strengthening the economy and our communities by fostering the stability, integrity, and efficiency of our nation's monetary, financial, and payments systems." Bessent's residency push could create other challenges for the Fed. Over the years some observers have lamented an overrepresentation of academics in the ranks of central bank leaders. Many of the current Fed leaders have market experience, which gives them greater insight into the interaction of Fed policy and the financial conditions monetary policy affects to achieve the central bank's inflation and job mandates. LEGAL PATH QUESTIONED Although Bessent has been a consistent critic of the Fed on many fronts, Fed watchers are not totally discounting his regional Fed leadership proposal. "I am broadly sympathetic with the idea that we should seek diversity of inputs into monetary policymaking," said Peter Conti-Brown, a Fed historian at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Geographical diversity is at the heart of the current structure of the Federal Reserve System, a fact undermined by the selection of Reserve Bank presidents with no obvious connection to their districts." But Conti-Brown warned there could be legal issues and Fed independence concerns with what Bessent wants to do. "I do not see the legal path" for any formal rule creating a residency requirement, and what the Treasury secretary wants could be "an opening gambit in a series of loyalty tests that the administration will impose on the incoming Fed chair." The ranks of regional Fed leadership have represented a particular challenge to the Trump administration's desire for the Fed to slash interest rates. Many of these officials have been hesitant about or outright opposed to rate cuts due to concerns about still-high inflation. The hawkishness of many of these officials has added considerable uncertainty over whether the Fed will cut rates at its Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week, although financial markets currently expect central bankers to deliver a quarter percentage point easing in what is now a 3.75% to 4% federal funds rate target range. The fate of regional Fed leaders has loomed large in Trump administration attempts to bring the central bank to heel. Current officials are going through a renomination process that happens every five years and has historically resulted in essentially all of them holding their jobs. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bessent-plans-press-fed-bank-president-district-residency-requirement-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 19:04

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Climate and energy remain top of mind for long-term investors looking to ensure robust portfolios, panelists at the Reuters Next conference in New York said on Wednesday. Investors cannot avoid climate in building resilient portfolios, Temasek's head of North America, Jane Atherton, said. Sign up here. Atherton said she expects to see more focus on energy as a security issue. Builders Vision Chief Investment Officer Noelle Laing noted that 2025 has been a strong year for clean energy, helped by rising energy demand. Despite the Trump administration's push to promote fossil fuels and roll back some climate policies, climate and energy investing have held their own this year. The S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index (.SPGTCLTR) , opens new tab has risen about 48% this year, compared with a 16.5% rise for the S&P 500 index (.SPX) , opens new tab. The Smithsonian Institution, which receives most of its budget from the U.S. Congress and has come under fire from the Trump administration for promoting what it called "divisive" ideologies, still has levers to pull to ensure the endowment's health, Chief Investment Officer Amy Chen said. View the live broadcast of the World Stage here and read full coverage here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/climate-energy-top-mind-long-term-investors-panelists-say-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 16:01

FRANKFURT, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The European Commission's proposal to use Russian central bank assets to extend reparations loans to Ukraine is a stretch from a legal and financial point of view, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday. The European Commission presented EU member states with two options to give Ukraine 90 billion euros ($105 billion) for the next two years - use Russian frozen assets or borrow money on international markets. Sign up here. Lagarde said the former option was "something that is stretched" and that "hopefully is in compliance with international law (and)...financial stability". She said it was the ECB's job to flag these risks because a key cog in the European financial system, the clearing house Euroclear where the Russian assets are parked, and the region's very reputation were at stake. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ecb-says-eu-use-russian-assets-ukraine-loans-is-stretch-2025-12-03/