2025-12-12 21:40
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged the European Commission not to weaken the bloc's 2035 ban on new CO2-emitting cars, a letter seen by Reuters showed, as Brussels readies proposals to potentially roll back the policy. A leading German EU lawmaker on Friday the Commission will move next week to water down the policy, which would effectively ban new combustion engine cars from 2035 by requiring all cars sold after that date to have zero CO2 emissions. Governments, including Germany and Italy, have pressured the EU to weaken the 2035 ban, arguing this would protect automakers struggling with tough competition from China. Sign up here. In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, dated Thursday, Sanchez said weakening the policy would risk jobs and factory closures by undermining Europe's attempts to transform its car industry into a powerhouse for manufacturing electric vehicles. "Any additional relaxation (of the policy) would risk triggering a significant delay in modernization investments, linked to a temporary slowdown in electric vehicle demand," the letter said. "We therefore reject that combustion vehicles or other technologies without proven viability could continue to be marketed beyond 2035," it said. Sanchez also called for a "green steel label" to reward auto manufacturers for using low-carbon materials, and a mandatory minimum share of EU-manufactured content in cars. The Commission is due to make an announcement on the policy on Tuesday. Manfred Weber, president of the largest lawmaker group in the European Parliament, the EPP, suggested this week the Commission would propose weakening the target to a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions for automakers' fleet targets for 2035. The planned ban is a key part of the EU's strategy to drive the continent's decarbonisation and boost the development of electric vehicles. Automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have urged the EU to weaken the policy, amid slower-than-expected electric car sales. Sweden's Volvo Cars and others say they have already heavily invested in the transition to electric, and any reversal on the ban would be a betrayal. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/spain-urges-eu-not-weaken-2035-combustion-engine-ban-letter-shows-2025-12-12/
2025-12-12 21:03
BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - European Union countries are set to vote early next week to determine whether the bloc should sign a contentious trade agreement with South American bloc Mercosur by the end of the year, Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said on Friday. The EU and the bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay reached agreement last December to create the EU's largest ever trade accord , opens new tab, some 25 years after negotiations were launched. However, France and other EU countries have expressed reservations, fearing increased imports would hurt their farmers. Sign up here. The European Commission, which negotiated the agreement, is seeking approval from EU members so that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can travel to Brazil to sign it. "In the planning of the Danish presidency the intention is to have the vote on the Mercosur agreement next week to enable the Commission president to sign the agreement in Brazil on December 20. That has not changed," a Danish presidency official said on Friday. The outcome is uncertain. Approval requires a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU population. Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries are clear supporters. However, Poland has said it will oppose the agreement, while the French and Italian positions are unclear. If those three, plus one more country, vote against or abstain, the deal would be rejected. The EU executive presented the accord , opens new tab for approval in September and sought to soften opposition by adding a mechanism that would allow the suspension of Mercosur preferential access for some farm products, such as beef, poultry and sugar. Supporters of the agreement, which would be the largest in terms of tariff reductions that the EU has struck, say it is an essential part of the EU's diversification strategy of seeking new markets and greater access to critical minerals amid geopolitical disruption in the form of U.S. tariffs and Chinese curbs on exports of chips and rare earths. Some EU diplomats said France had sought to delay a vote until January and believe it is now make-or-break time for the agreement. "If we don't sign Mercosur in the next days it will be dead," one EU diplomat said. "If we can't agree on Mercosur, we don't need to talk about European sovereignty anymore. We will make ourselves geopolitically irrelevant". https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/eu-vote-mercosur-trade-deal-set-next-week-denmark-says-2025-12-12/
2025-12-12 20:47
MILAN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Agnelli family has no intention of selling Juventus (JUVE.MI) , opens new tab to crypto group Tether or anyone else, sources close to the family's holding company Exor said, after Tether bid for Italy's most historically successful soccer club. Tether said on Friday it had submitted an all-cash proposal to Exor to buy its entire stake in the Turin-based Serie A club. Sign up here. It is offering Exor 2.66 euros per share, a separate source said, valuing Juventus at just over one billion euros ($1.17 billion). The price offered provides a 21% premium over Juventus' closing share price on Friday of 2.19 euros. Juventus has not made an annual net profit for almost a decade, and its shares are down 27% so far this year. TETHER IS ISSUER OF STABLECOIN PEGGED TO DOLLAR Tether, the issuer of a U.S. dollar-referenced stablecoin dubbed USDT, has already built a stake of more than 10% in Juventus this year, becoming its second-largest shareholder after Exor. Its proposal contemplates the acquisition of Exor's entire shareholding in the club, representing 65.4% of the total share capital, Tether said in a press release, without officially disclosing the price at which it would buy the shares. It added that it would make a public tender offer for the remaining Juventus shares at the same price offered to Exor, and that it planned to invest one billion euros to support the club if the acquisition is completed. Juventus declined to comment on the offer. Exor and Tether were not immediately available for comment. Exor CEO John Elkann said in November that the Agnelli family had no intention of selling shares in Juventus. The family's ties with the club date back to 1923 when Edoardo Agnelli became chair. Investors, led by Exor, have poured around one billion euros of fresh cash into Juventus in the past seven years through a series of capital increases. Tether's USDT accounts for more than half the market of stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, according to the Bank of Italy. JUVENTUS HAS STRUGGLED IN LAST FIVE YEARS Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino is an Italian national and Juventus supporter. Juventus has won the Italian championship 36 times, more than any other club, but has struggled since winning a ninth consecutive title in 2020. It currently sits in seventh place in Serie A. The USDT had a market capitalization of around $186 billion as of Friday. The company's token is backed by U.S. dollars and U.S. Treasuries, and Tether is one of the 20 largest holders of U.S. government debt. Stablecoins are digital tokens that aim to maintain a stable value through a one-to-one peg to a traditional currency and are back by reserves, mostly in the form of government bonds or deposits. ($1 = 0.8519 euros) https://www.reuters.com/sports/tether-submits-offer-buy-italian-soccer-club-juventus-2025-12-12/
2025-12-12 20:32
Only Chevron-chartered tankers sailing into international waters About 11 million barrels stuck in vessels in Venezuela Some cargoes are onboard Washington-sanctioned ships HOUSTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports have fallen sharply since the United States seized a tanker earlier this week and imposed fresh sanctions on shipping companies and vessels doing business with the Latin American oil producer, according to shipping data, documents and maritime sources. Oil tanker movements into and out of Venezuelan waters have come to a near standstill as the U.S. prepares to seize more vessels. Washington is ratcheting up political and economic pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, who relies on oil export revenue to finance his government. Sign up here. The U.S. has executed a large-scale military build-up in the southern Caribbean and U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing to oust Maduro. The seizure of the vessel on Wednesday was the first interdiction of an oil cargo or tanker from Venezuela, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2019. Since then, only tankers chartered by U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab have sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude, the data and documents showed. Chevron has a U.S. government authorization to operate through joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA in the country and export its oil to the U.S. Chevron has exported two cargoes of Venezuelan heavy crudes to the U.S. so far this month, both of which departed after the seizure. Two more were loading on Friday, according to the data. The U.S. company said this week it was operating in Venezuela "without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable." PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. Venezuela this week criticized the seizure and said it constituted "theft." STUCK IN VENEZUELAN WATERS The threat of further seizures of vessels has left tankers that have loaded about 11 million barrels of oil and fuel stuck in Venezuelan waters, according to the sources and data. Some of those tankers have been hit by U.S. sanctions on Iran or Russia. The U.S. is likely to target vessels that are sanctioned or have carried sanctioned crude in any further action, according to sources. The ship the U.S. seized on Wednesday, the Skipper, had transported both Iranian and Venezuelan crude. Venezuela exported some 952,000 barrels per day of crude and fuel in November, the third-highest monthly average so far this year. About 80% of those shipments were sent directly and indirectly to China, while exports to the U.S. rose to some 150,000 bpd. The OPEC country's oil exports flowed normally in the first days of December prior to the seizure, data and documents showed. Washington this week also sanctioned six supertankers that recently loaded Venezuelan oil, along with related shipping companies, in an escalation of U.S. pressure on Maduro. PDVSA and Venezuela's oil ministry on Friday called executives, workers and joint venture managers to a teleconference led by minister Delcy Rodriguez from the company's Caracas headquarters, according to a document seen by Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venezuelas-oil-exports-fall-sharply-after-us-tanker-seizure-only-chevron-ships-2025-12-12/
2025-12-12 20:26
Dec 12 (Reuters) - Iran has seized a foreign tanker allegedly carrying 6 million liters of "smuggled diesel" in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian state media said on Friday. Iran, which has some of the world's lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states. Sign up here. State broadcaster IRIB did not mention the name of the vessel or give its nationality on its website. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-seizes-foreign-tanker-carrying-6-million-liters-smuggled-diesel-gulf-oman-2025-12-12/
2025-12-12 20:21
Rain-swollen Skagit River crests at all-time high Entire town of Burlington under evacuation order One-hundred thousand people statewide urged to seek higher ground National Guard assists in evacuations, food deliveries BURLINGTON, Washington, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Residents and emergency crews in towns along the rain-engorged Skagit River in western Washington state braced on Friday for potential levee failures while National Guard troops assisted in evacuations after days of severe flooding in the Pacific Northwest. The entire town of Burlington, a community of about 9,200 people near Puget Sound, was under evacuation on Friday after the river crested at an all-time high of nearly 38 feet (11.6 meters), well above major flood stage, at the city of Mount Vernon just downstream. Sign up here. "We haven't seen flooding like this ever," said Karina Shagren, a spokesperson for the state's emergency management division. So far there were no reports of casualties or missing people, she said. The Skagit River flood plain as a whole, a rural area home to about 78,000 people north of Seattle, was already under a Level 3 evacuation notice urging residents to immediately move to higher ground. Evacuation notices covered an estimated 100,000 people statewide. National Guard troops and sheriff's deputies were going door to door to facilitate the evacuation, and some were seen paddling stranded Burlington residents to safety in inflatable river rafts through muddy floodwaters. Flood control levees appeared to be holding firm immediately following the river's historic crest, testing their strength for the first time since repairs to the earthen embankments were made following the last major flood in that area in 2021, state officials said. Rains were abating as of Friday. But the National Weather Service posted a flash-flood watch for the river basin downstream to the mouth of the Skagit, where it drains into Puget Sound, citing the potential for levee failures under heavy pressure from the high water. "Extensive flooding of streets, homes and farmland will be possible" if levees and dikes give way, the Weather Service said. A levee failure would greatly magnify widespread flooding already occurring across much of western Washington state. Aerial footage broadcast by CNN showed communities inundated in deep, brown water with many homes submerged almost to their rooftops. The Burlington-Mount Vernon area in Skagit County remained the epicenter of widespread flooding caused by days of torrential downpours extending from northern Oregon north through western Washington state and into British Columbia. South of Skagit County, National Guard troops also were dispatched to deliver food and check on stranded residents in a number of communities cut off by flooding in adjacent Snohomish County, Shagren said. The flooding washed out or forced the closure of dozens of roads throughout the region, including most of the Canadian highways leading to the British Columbia port city of Vancouver. Several lengthy stretches of the BNSF Railway, a major freight line serving the Pacific Northwest, were also shut down on Thursday. The heavy rains were unleashed by an atmospheric river storm, a vast airborne current of dense moisture siphoned from the ocean and swept inland over the Pacific Northwest earlier in the week. Parts of northern Idaho and western Montana also were hit. (This story has been corrected to change flood advisory to flash-flood watch, instead of warning, in paragraph 7) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/flood-stricken-towns-washington-state-brace-potential-levee-failures-2025-12-12/
