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Dec. 24 (UPI) — BP is selling its majority stake in Castrol to U.S. investment company Stonepeak in an effort to pay down its debt.

The company is selling its $10 billion, 65% ownership in the lubricants business to the investment firm. It will keep a 35% stake in the business through a joint venture.

The deal is expected to close at the end of 2026, the company said.

BP will use the $6 billion in proceeds to pay down some of its $26 billion in debt, the company said.

“We concluded a thorough strategic review of Castrol that generated extensive interest and resulted in the sale of a majority interest to Stonepeak,” said Interim CEO Carol Howle in a statement. “And with this, we have now completed or announced over half of our targeted $20 billion divestment program, with proceeds to significantly strengthen BP’s balance sheet. The sale marks an important milestone in the ongoing delivery of our reset strategy. We are reducing complexity, focusing the downstream on our leading integrated businesses and accelerating delivery of our plan. And we are doing so with increasing intensity – with a continued focus on growing cash flow and returns, and delivering value for our shareholders”

BP announced last week that Meg O’Neill would become CEO of BP in April. Murray Auchincloss stepped down as CEO and board director. Howle is interim CEO until O’Neill takes over.

O’Neill, an American raised in Boulder, Colo., is CEO of Woodside Energy.

Maurizio Carulli, analyst at the investment company Quilter Cheviot, called the Castrol deal “a positive step forward for BP, reinforcing its ongoing strategy reset and the aim to reduce its net debt and refocus its downstream business,” The Guardian reported.

Billionaire Larry Ellison has stepped up, agreeing to personally guarantee part of Paramount’s bid for rival Warner Bros. Discovery.

Ellison’s personal guarantee of $40.4 billion in equity, disclosed Monday, ups the ante in the acrimonious auction for Warner Bros. movie and TV studios, HBO, CNN and Food Network.

Ellison, whose son David Ellison is chief executive of Paramount, agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or adversely transfer its assets while the transaction is pending. Paramount’s $30-a-share offer remains unchanged.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board this month awarded the prize to Netflix. The board rejected Paramount’s $108.4-billion deal, largely over concerns about the perceived shakiness of Paramount’s financing.

Paramount shifted gears and launched a hostile takeover, appealing directly to Warner shareholders, offering them $30 a share.

“We amended this Offer to address Warner Bros. stated concerns regarding the Prior Proposal and the December 8 Offer,” Paramount said in a Monday Securities & Exchange Commission filing. “Mr. Larry Ellison is providing a personal guarantee of the Ellison Trust’s $40.4 billion funding obligation.”

The Ellison family acquired the controlling stake in Paramount in August. The family launched their pursuit of Warner Bros. in September but Warner’s board unanimously rejected six Paramount proposals.

Paramount started with a $19 a share bid for the entire company. Netflix has offered $27.75 a share and only wants the Burbank studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Paramount executives have held meetings with Warner investors in New York, where they echoed the proposal they’d submitted in the closing hours of last week’s auction.

On Monday, Paramount also agreed to increase the termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion, matching the one that Netflix offered.

Warner Bros. board voted unanimously to accept Netflix’s $72-billion offer, citing Netflix’s stronger financial position, the board has said.

Three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds representing royal families in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have agreed to provide $24 billion of the $40.4-billion equity component that Ellison is backing.

The Ellison family has agreed to cover $11.8-billion of that. Initially, Paramount’s bid included the private equity firm of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, but Kushner withdrew his firm last week.

Paramount confirmed that the Ellison family trust owns about 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock and that all material liabilities are publicly disclosed.

“In an effort to address Warner Bros.’s amorphous need for ‘flexibility’ in interim operations, Paramount’s revised proposed merger agreement offers further improved flexibility to Warner Bros. on debt refinancing transactions, representations and interim operating covenants,” Paramount said in its statement.

Paramount has been aggressively pursuing Warner Bros. for months.

David Ellison was stunned earlier this month when the Warner Bros. board agreed to a deal with Netflix for $82.7 billion for the streaming and studio assets.

Paramount subsequently launched its hostile takeover offer in a direct appeal to shareholders. Warner Bros. board urged shareholders to reject Paramount’s offer, which includes $54 billion in debt commitments, deeming it “inferior” and “inadequate.” The board singled out what it viewed as uncertain financing and the risk implicit in a revocable trust that could cause Paramount to terminate the deal at any time.

Paramount, controlled by the Ellisons, is competing with the most valuable entertainment company in the world to acquire Warner Bros.

Executives from both Paramount and Netflix have argued that they would be the best owners and utilize the Warner Bros. library to boost their streaming operations.

In its letter to shareholders and a detailed 94-page regulatory filing last week, Warner Bros. hammered away at risks in the Paramount offer, including what the company described as the Ellison family’s failure to adequately backstop their equity commitment.

The equity is supported by “an unknown and opaque revocable trust,” the board said. The documents Paramount provided “contain gaps, loopholes and limitations that put you, our shareholders, and our company at risk.”

Netflix also announced Monday that it has refinanced part of a $59 billion bridge loan with cheaper and longer-term debt.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.

Dec. 21 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $1.6 billion after no one claimed the winning ticket following Saturday’s drawing.

There have been 45 consecutive drawings with no grand-prize winner.

The new jackpot is the fourth largest in the game’s history, and the fifth biggest among all U.S. lottery jackpots, Powerball said.

Saturday’s was the second consecutive drawing with a jackpot in excess of $1 billion that produced no winner.

The last Powerball winner claimed $1.787 billion in September. There have been 45 consecutive winnerless drawings since.

Powerball winners have the choice between taking an annual payout, or a lump-sum prize. If someone wins Monday’s drawing, they will have the option of receiving a $1.6 billion annuitized payment, or a $735.5 million one-time prize.

There was no grand prize winner Saturday, but 112 ticket holders claimed a $50,000 payout, and 22 claimed $150,000 each.

Tickets sold in California, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio each won $1 million.

A winner of the Double Play drawing in New Jersey claimed a $500,000 prize, Powerball said.

The odds of winning the grand prize jackpot are one in 292.2 million, according to Powerball, though they are better for smaller prizes, which can range to as low as $4. Tickets are $2 each.

Drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. EST every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

A MAJOR US airport is set to unveil its $2.2 billion renovation in 2026 after work kicked off in 2019.

The huge regional travel hub will complete the second and last phase of the project in a matter of months, offering a range of perks to travelers including faster security and a new terminal building.

Portland International Airport started work on the multi-billion-dollar project in 2019, with construction starting in 2020.

Phase one, which was completed in August last year, saw the airport boast a new state-of-the-art terminal building and improved security checkpoints.

The new building has top-of-the-range security checkpoints which no longer require passengers to remove items from baggage thanks to updated scanner technology.

Not only does this improve safety, it cuts long wait times at the checkpoints.

There are also new check-in areas, immersive video walls, stadium seating, and nature-inspired interiors that are designed to give travelers the feeling of having a “woodland stroll”, creating a calming space.

In 2026, officials plan to unveil the completed renovation with more shops, lounges, and improved connections between the plane and the concourses.

“Travelers have a lot to look forward to when [it’s] done,” Allison Ferre, spokesperson for the Port of Portland said of the current construction works that account for about 30% of the overhaul project.

“It’s going to be designed and outfitted to match the rest of the new main terminal.

“The bypasses are going to be gone. So they’re going to have new direct routes straight from the concourses to baggage claim. No more construction detours once you land,” she said of the benefits once work is complete.

Travelers will see more seating, shops, restaurants, newsstands, and bathroom facilities when the final result is unveiled next year.

By 2045, the airport expects to be catering for about 35 million passengers per year.

And it’s not the only US travel hub that has undergone a major update.

Last month, Pittsburgh International opened its brand new terminal just in time for Thanksgiving, following $1.7 billion worth of renovations.

Meanwhile, one of the country’s busiest airports has started work on its $6 billion project which includes a brand new vertical take off facility.

The project aims to see the airport more readily meet demand as it breaks passenger records year on year by focusing on customer experience, community, infrastructure, and people.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — European leaders have agreed to continue funding Ukraine in its fight against Russia with a two-year, $105 billion loan to provide the embattled nation with munitions and other material in the ongoing war, the latest battle of which has dragged on since 2022.

European leaders failed to agree on the first choice to arm Ukraine, using frozen Russian state assets as backing for the loan.

The plan to use frozen Russian assets to back the loan fell apart in the final moments, a schism that risked making the EU appear indecisive at a critical moment in negotiations.

European leaders announced Thursday that they will instead use money from the EU budget to fund Ukraine’s defense effort. As a result, the backup plan could be more costly and difficult to mobilize than the original plan to leverage the stash of Russian money currently frozen in Europe.

European leaders said since the end result is the same, getting funds to Kyiv, they celebrated it as a victory.

“This will address the urgent financial needs of Ukraine,” Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, said at a media briefing in Brussels.

Partly because of a cut in funding from the United States, Ukraine is facing a $160 billion shortfall over the next two years, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. The EU sought to fill about $105 billion of that gap.

Costa added that the EU will reserve its right to use frozen Russian assets for continued funding in the future.

WASHINGTON — President Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.

The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” in order to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.

The BBC said it would defend the case.

“We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” it said in a statement.

The broadcaster apologized last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.

BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.

The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”

“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn’t say, and they’re beautiful words, that I said, right?” the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. “They’re beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn’t say that, but they put terrible words.”

The president’s lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.

Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the U.S. given that the documentary was not shown in the country.

The lawsuit alleges that people in the U.S. can watch the BBC’s original content, including the “Panorama” series, which included the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.

The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.

Tesla’s board of directors has earned more than $3 billion through stock awards since 2004, an amount that dwarfs compensation at other major U.S. technology firms. CEO Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal has earned nearly $1 billion, while director Ira Ehrenpreis collected $869 million and board chair Robyn Denholm $650 million. Most of these windfalls came from stock options that appreciated dramatically as Tesla’s share price soared.

Why It Matters
The outsized compensation raises questions about corporate governance and board independence. Experts argue that such high pay could compromise directors’ ability to objectively oversee Tesla and Musk, as a large portion of their wealth is tied to stock performance rather than cash. Critics also note that Tesla is one of the few major firms where directors are paid predominantly in options rather than shares, magnifying upside potential with limited downside risk.

Stock Option Controversy
Tesla directors have received compensation primarily through stock options, rather than shares. This practice allows them to profit if Tesla’s stock rises without incurring losses if it falls, unlike restricted stock which better aligns interests with shareholders. Between 2018 and 2024, Tesla directors averaged $1.7 million annually despite suspending pay for four years, more than double the average of Meta directors, the next highest-paid among the “Magnificent Seven” tech companies.

Legal and Governance Issues
Tesla’s board suspended new stock grants in 2021 following a shareholder lawsuit alleging excessive pay. The board has also faced scrutiny in a Delaware court over Musk’s 2018 compensation package, with the judge ruling that excessive pay and personal ties compromised CEO-pay negotiations. The board proposed a new pay package for Musk in 2024 potentially worth $1 trillion in Tesla stock over the next decade.

Stakeholders include Tesla’s board members, CEO Elon Musk, shareholders, corporate-governance experts, and the wider investment community. Oversight and accountability are central concerns, as compensation structures can influence board decisions and shareholder trust.

Comparison With Tech Peers
Other major tech firms like Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia (“Magnificent Seven”) have also seen stock-based wealth increases for directors, but none have granted awards as concentrated or directly tied to board service as Tesla. Lifetime earnings for Tesla directors far exceed peers when factoring in appreciated stock value.

What’s Next
Governance experts suggest reforms such as paying directors in restricted stock rather than options, and greater shareholder oversight of compensation plans. Tesla’s board must navigate the delicate balance of incentivising directors while maintaining independence in overseeing Musk and the company. Legal proceedings and shareholder scrutiny over Musk’s latest pay package are ongoing and may influence future board compensation practices.

Additional Considerations
The analysis raises broader questions about tech-sector governance, the risks of incentive structures tied to stock performance, and the potential misalignment between directors’ personal wealth and long-term shareholder interests. Tesla’s board, given its outsized compensation, will remain a focus for regulators and investors alike.

With information from an exclusive Reuters report.

Dec. 14 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $1.1 billion after there was no winner in Saturday’s drawing, among the largest prizes in the game’s history. The next drawing is scheduled for Monday night.

The new prize is the sixth-largest jackpot ever, Powerball said on its website. The largest jackpot ever, $2.04 billion, was claimed on Nov. 7th, 2022.

While there was no Powerball grand prize winner Saturday, ticket holders in 7 states won at least $1 million. Those tickets were sold in California. Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Monday’s Powerball winner, should there be one, would have the choice between annual payments totaling $1.1 billion, or a one-time $503.4 million lump sum payout.

Two tickets in Missouri and Texas split the $1.787 billion Powerball prize on Sept. 6, the last time anyone claimed the grand prize. Since then, there have been 42 consecutive drawings with no winners.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball. Tickets are $2 each. Monday’s drawing is scheduled to happen just before 11 p.m. EST in the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.

Powerball is available in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Dec. 11 (UPI) — The Powerball jackpot has jumped to $1 billion after no one stepped forward with the winning ticket in Wednesday night’s drawing.

It’s the second time the prize has climbed to a billion dollars this year, and the seventh biggest prize in the history of the game, Powerball said.

Powerball said the jackpot is worth an estimated $461.3 million in cash value. Winners have a choice between annual payments worth an estimated $1 billion, or receiving a lump sum cash prize.

The largest ever prize in the game’s history, $2.04 billion, was claimed on Nov. 7, 2002.

Since two tickets in Missouri and Texas split the $1.787 billion dollar prize on Sept. 6, there have been 40 consecutive drawings with no winner.

The next Powerball drawing is scheduled for Saturday.

The odds of winning are one in 292. 2 million, according to Powerball. Tickets are $2 each.