2025-07-07 07:13

Investigators say Starovoit likely took his own life Starovoit had held transport brief for barely a year He previously ran the Kursk region next to Ukraine His successor there was embroiled in a corruption case Ukrainian troops seized part of Kursk for months July 7 (Reuters) - Russia's sacked transport minister has been found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on Monday, hours after President Vladimir Putin fired him. A presidential decree published earlier on Monday gave no reason for the dismissal of Roman Starovoit, 53, after barely a year in the job, though political analysts were quick to raise the possibility that he may have been dismissed in connection with an investigation into corruption in the region he once ran. Sign up here. Reuters could not independently confirm these suggestions, though a transport industry source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Starovoit's position had been in question for months due to questions about the same corruption scandal. That investigation centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles ($246 million) earmarked in 2022 for fortifying Russia's border with Ukraine in the Kursk region was properly spent or whether some of that money was embezzled. Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement it was working to establish the precise circumstances of Starovoit's death. A pistol belonging to Starovoit, who was divorced with two daughters, had been found near his body, various Russian media outlets cited law enforcement sources as saying. Some Russian media, citing law enforcement sources, also said his body had been found with a gunshot wound to the head in bushes near his car, a Tesla, rather than in the car itself. The vehicle was left near a park not far from his home in the Moscow region. Before being appointed transport minister in May 2024, Starovoit had been governor of the Kursk region for nearly five years. Three months after he became transport minister, Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Kursk in the biggest foreign incursion into Russian territory since World War Two and were only pushed out earlier this year after fierce fighting and widespread destruction. In April this year, Starovoit's successor as governor and his former deputy, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling money earmarked for defence purposes amid accusations that funds intended for border defences had been stolen, leaving Kursk more vulnerable to Ukrainian attack. Various Russian media outlets reported on Monday that Smirnov had told state investigators that Starovoit had also been in on the fraud. Reuters could not confirm that, and a lawyer for Smirnov - who has pleaded not guilty to embezzlement - told the state RIA news agency that he couldn't comment. TRANSPORT CHALLENGES Starovoit's dismissal comes at a time of significant challenges for Russia's transport sector as the war in Ukraine drags on for a fourth year. Russia's aviation sector is short of spare parts and Russian Railways, the country's largest employer, is grappling with soaring interest costs as high rates - needed to curb higher inflation exacerbated by the war - take their toll. Long-range Ukrainian drones also frequently force Russian airports to suspend their activities for safety reasons, sometimes causing major disruption. The Kremlin said Andrei Nikitin, a former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed acting transport minister, and it published photographs of him shaking hands with Putin in the Kremlin. Asked about Nikitin's swift appointment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin thought Nikitin had the right professional qualities and experience for the job. The transport ministry declined to comment. At his meeting with Putin, Nikitin spoke about working to digitise Russia's transport industry in an effort to reduce cargo bottlenecks and ensure smoother cross-border flows of goods. ($1 = 78.6955 roubles) (This story has been refiled to fix spacing in paragraph 5) https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russian-president-vladimir-putin-dismisses-transport-minister-starovoit-2025-07-07/

2025-07-07 06:45

Trump announces 25% tariffs on imports from Japan, South Korea US dollar up 0.4% China's central bank buys gold for eighth straight month in June July 7 (Reuters) - Gold prices pared earlier losses on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on goods from Japan and South Korea starting August 1, prompting some safe-haven interest, though a strong U.S. dollar continued to add pressure on the yellow metal. Having initially slid more than 1% on a strong U.S. dollar, spot gold recovered to be down 0.1% at $3,332.62 an ounce by 0149 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT). Sign up here. U.S. gold futures were little changed, settling at $3,342.8. The stronger dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab, up 0.4% against a basket of other major currencies , makes dollar-priced gold more expensive for buyers with other currencies. "Gold is edging higher in reaction to Trump's 25% tariffs on Korea and Japan," said Tai Wong, an independent metals trader. "The rest of the complex reacting the opposite way. Stocks are sliding a bit." Major stock indexes declined after Trump slapped tariffs on Japan, South Korea as investors await further announcements in the White House's trade negotiations. Minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting and speeches by several Fed officials are due this week for further insights into the central bank's policy path. Elsewhere, China's central bank added gold to its reserves in June for an eighth consecutive month, official data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) showed on Monday. "The PBoC in particular has been diversifying foreign exchange reserves substantially and an uptick in uncertainty and geopolitical risk may speed up the process," said Zain Vawda, analyst at MarketPulse by OANDA. Bank of America in a note said central banks are buying gold to diversify reserves, reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, and hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty, adding that it expects the trend to continue. In other precious metals, spot silver edged 0.5% lower to $36.72 an ounce, platinum slipped 1.9% to $1,365.56 and palladium lost 2.5% to $1,106.96. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/gold-falls-trade-deal-progress-tariff-reprieve-extension-2025-07-07/

2025-07-07 06:37

Narrows guidance on second-quarter LNG and gas output Unplanned US maintenance weighs on chemicals business Shares underperform wider European energy index LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab expects quarterly earnings to be hit by weaker trading in its integrated gas division and losses at its chemicals and products operations, it said on Monday ahead of second-quarter results due on July 31. The energy group's chemicals business suffered unplanned maintenance at its Monaca polymer plant in the United States while trading in its chemicals and products business was significantly lower than in the first quarter, it said. Sign up here. Shell shares were down 2.9% at 25.52 pounds by 1133 GMT, against a 1.3% decline for the wider European energy sector (.SXEP) , opens new tab. RBC downgraded its forecast for Shell's second-quarter net income to $3.6 billion from $4.8 billion after the trading update while Citi analysts cut theirs to $4.1 billion from $6.3 billion. Shell has previously said it wanted to explore strategic and partnership opportunities for its chemicals assets in the United States and might close some chemicals businesses in Europe. A weaker trading performance was probably to be expected, but the trading update points to a significantly worse than expected downstream performance, said RBC analyst Biraj Borkhataria. In its oil-focused upstream division, Shell raised the lower end of its guided output, projecting 1.66 million to 1.76 million boed, up from the previously forecast 1.56 million to 1.76 million boed. The business is expected to record a $200 million exploration write-off, it said without providing further detail. For its integrated gas division, Shell gave production guidance of 900,000 to 940,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), compared with the company's previous projection of 890,000 to 950,000 boed. LNG production by the world's biggest LNG trader is set to come in at 6.4 million to 6.8 million metric tons in the second quarter, it said, compared with a previous range of 6.3 million to 6.9 million tons. A Shell spokesperson declined to comment when asked for further detail. While trading results in its integrated gas division are expected to be significantly lower than in the first quarter, Shell is targeting a 4-5% annual increase in LNG sales over the next five years and 1% annual production growth. Adjusted earnings at its marketing division, meanwhile, are set to rise from the first quarter on sales volumes of 2.6 million to 3 million barrels per day (bpd), slightly below previous guidance of 2.6 million to 3.1 million bpd. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-trims-second-quarter-gas-lng-output-outlook-2025-07-07/

2025-07-07 06:12

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange (LME) has recorded its highest quarterly volumes since 2014 thanks to the market turmoil that followed U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs. The LME Index basket of base metals (.LMEX) , opens new tab plunged 11% after the blanket tariffs were announced on April 2 as metal markets took fright at the prospect of a full-blown trade war. Sign up here. The wholesale unwind of positions and subsequent re-engagement as prices staged a partial recovery resulted in record daily volumes on April 7 and all-time high monthly trading action. Chaos tends to be good business for the 148-year old London market, which has been owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388.HK) , opens new tab since 2012. Activity last spiked in April 2024, when the United States and UK announced sanctions on Russian metal. A more nuanced tariff impact on the CME (CME.O) , opens new tab exchange in the United States suggests the heightened trading activity has been driven by the physical supply chain rather than funds. BACK FROM THE BRINK Trump's tariffs' blizzard has accelerated the LME's recovery from the 2022 nickel crisis, when it risked what then head of LME Clear Adrian Farnham described as "a death spiral". It took almost a year for volumes to recover after the exchange's decision to suspend its nickel contract and cancel trades, a call that was ultimately vindicated in the London High Court. Nickel volumes returned to pre-crisis levels last year and average daily volumes surged another 25% in the first half of this year despite the price spending most of the time treading heavy water around four-year lows. It helps that there is a lot of nickel to be financed. LME stocks have risen from 34,000 metric tons in the middle of 2023 to over 200,000 with another 71,000 tons sitting off warrant in LME warehouses. Low prices and an oversupplied market have also combined to revive the LME's dormant cobalt contract. First-half volumes of 6,089 lots were the highest since 2019 and there are currently over 1,000 tons of the battery metal in LME warehouses, most of it off warrant. The LME, however, is still playing catch-up with its U.S. counterpart in the battery metals space. CME's first-half cobalt volumes jumped by 86% year-on-year and those of lithium hydroxide by 76%. WHO'S AFRAID OF DOCTOR COPPER? The copper market has been particularly tumultuous ever since the Trump administration announced an investigation into U.S. imports back in February. The focus has been on the arbitrage between the CME's U.S. contract and the international price traded on the LME. However, that's not been reflected in trading volumes on the CME futures contract which fell by 40% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. It's been a highly volatile trade and one dominated by physical traders moving metal to the United States to beat the possible imposition of import tariffs. The investment community which normally populates the CME copper contract has evidently been scared off. Money manager positioning is historically light with outright long positions flat-lining since early April and outright short positions falling to three-year lows. Chinese investors have become equally risk-off with copper activity on the Shanghai Futures Exchange falling sharply in May and June. Copper trading activity shrank by 14% year-on-year over the first half of the year. PHYSICAL ALUMINIUM BOOM CME's physical aluminium premium contracts, by contrast, saw activity mushroom after Trump lifted U.S. import duties to 25% in March and then doubled them to 50% in June. Since the CME's futures contract mirrors the LME's international product, the arbitrage has been traded in the U.S. Midwest premium , which has unsurprisingly rocketed to record highs. So too have volumes, which surged by 69% year-on-year to over 1.7 million tons in January-June. The other leg of the physical arbitrage is evidently the CME's European duty-paid contract . Volumes more than doubled to 48,142 contracts in the first half of 2025, almost matching last year's full 12-month tally. These contracts are by their nature aimed at meeting the needs of the physical supply chain and it's clear that industrial hedgers have been actively using them to mitigate risk as global flows of metal readjust to U.S. tariffs. TINY TIN HAS NEW FRIENDS Tin has historically been the smallest and least liquid of the LME's core base metals contracts, but has been steadily attracting more interest over the last couple of years. LME volumes increased by 16% in both 2023 and 2024 and they were up another 17% in the first half of this year. A total 902,965 lots traded in January-June, equivalent to four and a half million tons. It's the highest level of activity in the first half of any year since 2014. The LME market was carrying high stocks of over 12,000 tons back then. Current inventory is around a third of that, split between on and off-warrant stocks. Fund participation, though, has been rising with investors holding record-sized long positions on the LME contract in March. They got rewarded with an April price meltdown. But tin's combination of bullish electronics demand story and a structurally challenged supply chain has put it firmly on the investment radar. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/london-metal-exchange-reaps-rewards-tariff-turmoil-2025-07-07/

2025-07-07 06:03

Town of Kerrville, on flooded river, accounts for most fatalities Death toll likely to rise with dozens still listed as missing Fatalities include 27 campers and counselors from girls' retreat Search helicopter collides with unauthorized drone over flood area KERRVILLE, Texas, July 7 (Reuters) - Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over a flood-ravaged central Texas landscape on Monday as hopes dimmed for finding more survivors among dozens still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children. Three days after a torrential predawn downpour transformed the Guadalupe River into a raging, killer torrent, a Christian girls' summer camp devastated by the flash flood confirmed that 27 campers and counselors were among those who had perished. Sign up here. Ten girls and a camp counselor were still unaccounted for, officials said on Monday, as search-and-rescue personnel faced the potential of more heavy rains and thunderstorms while clawing through tons of muck-laden debris. The bulk of the death toll from Friday's flooding was concentrated in and around the riverfront Hill Country town of Kerrville, including the ill-fated grounds of Camp Mystic. By Monday afternoon, the bodies of 84 flood victims - 56 adults and 28 children - were recovered in Kerr County, most of them in the county seat of Kerrville, according to the local sheriff. As of midday Sunday, state and local officials said 12 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across five neighboring south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other people were still listed as missing outside Kerr County. The New York Times, one of numerous news media outlets publishing varying death tolls on Monday, reported that at least 104 people had been killed across the entire flood zone. 'ROUGH WEEK' AHEAD While authorities continued to hold out hope that some of the missing would turn up alive, the likelihood of finding more survivors diminished as time passed. "This will be a rough week," Mayor Joe Herring Jr said at a briefing on Monday morning. Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian girls' retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe was at the epicenter of the disaster. "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy," the camp said in a statement on Monday. Richard "Dick" Eastland, 70, Mystic's co-owner and director, died trying to save children at his camp from the flood, multiple media, including the Austin American-Statesman reported. He and his wife, Tweety Eastland, have owned the camp since 1974, according to its website. "If he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way, saving the girls that he so loved and cared for," Eastland's grandson, George Eastland, wrote on Instagram. MISHAP IN THE SKY Authorities lost one of their aviation assets on Monday when a privately operated drone collided in restricted airspace over the Kerr County flood zone with a search helicopter, forcing the chopper to make an emergency landing. No injuries were reported, but the aircraft was put out of commission, according to the Kerr County Sheriff's Office. National Weather Service forecasts on Monday predicted that up to 4 more inches of rain could douse Texas Hill Country, with isolated areas possibly receiving as much as 10 inches (25 cm). Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said the potential for renewed flooding was particularly heightened by the saturated condition of the soil and mounds of debris already strewn around the river channel. A flood watch was posted until 7 p.m. State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday, ahead of the July Fourth holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of flash floods based on National Weather Service forecasts. But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said. Rice said the outcome, the result of an unpredictable combination of circumstances, was unforeseen and unfolded in a matter of two hours. "Why didn't we evacuate? Well, evacuation is a delicate balance," he said in response to reporters' questions on Monday. "If you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses, or cars, or vehicles or campers on roads into low-water areas, trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging." "It's very tough to make those calls, because what we also don't want to do is cry wolf." The chief meteorologist for commercial forecaster AccuWeather, Jonathan Porter, said authorities had ample time to move people to higher ground before the flood struck. Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, said the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy of weather forecasts and warning systems, would be scrutinized once the immediate situation was brought under control. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday asked a government watchdog to investigate whether budget cuts imposed by the Trump administration contributed to any delays or inaccuracy in forecasting the floods. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said there would be time to examine whether more could have been done to prevent the loss of life but that now was not the time for "partisan finger-pointing." https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/search-teams-scour-texas-flood-zone-dozens-missing-78-confirmed-dead-2025-07-07/

2025-07-07 06:00

MUMBAI, July 7 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee weakened on Monday, tracking losses in its regional peers on the back of uncertainty about U.S. tariff policies. Dollar bids from a large local private bank and few foreign lenders also pressured the rupee , which declined 0.4% to 85.72 per U.S. dollar as of 10:25 a.m. IST. Sign up here. The price action appears to be "flow-driven," a trader at a Mumbai-based bank said. India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex (.BSESN) , opens new tab and Nifty 50 (.NSEI) , opens new tab, were both down 0.1%, tracking losses in regional equities sparked by confusion over U.S. tariff policies. The United States is close to finalising several trade agreements in the coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by July 9, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, with the higher rates to take effect on August 1. Trump also threatened an additional 10% tariff on any countries aligning themselves with the "Anti-American policies" of the BRICS group of developing nations, whose leaders kicked off a major summit in Brazil on Sunday. Trump did not clarify or expand on the "Anti-American policies" reference. India is among the founding members of the BRICS group and it wasn't immediately clear if the tariff threat would impact the country's ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S. There is a high probability that the rupee may decline below 86-86.20 levels in the near-term, said Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex. The dollar index was up 0.1% at 97.1 while Asian currencies declined by 0.1% to 0.5%. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-weighed-down-by-weak-asia-fx-interbank-dollar-bids-2025-07-07/