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Shareholders of Dominion Energy (D) and NextEra Energy (NEE) overwhelmingly approved the companies’ proposed $67B merger deal, according to 8-K filings on Thursday (I, II).
The deal, which is pending regulatory approvals, would create one of the world’s largest electric utilities with an
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Here are the major earnings before the open Friday
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Revolut gets an OCC thumbs up to launch a US bank, but lending ambitions are another issue.
Technically, financial technology company Revolut is already a bank across several regions—it holds licenses in the U.K., France, Mexico and Australia.
Now, in the U.S. market, it is one step closer to bankhood.
The London-based startup announced Thursday that it has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter. The move would help the company grow its customer base from 80 million to 100 million by mid-2027.
It also exemplifies Revolut’s agility as a fintech compared to traditional banks, which typically take years to pull off similar expansion efforts.
“Legacy banks are working with legacy systems,” David Tirado, Revolut’s VP of Profitability and Global Business, told Global Finance in an interview last year. “Revolut, on the other hand, built our proprietary technology from the ground up with a global mindset. While competitors struggle to scale across different markets and regulatory landscapes, our systems were designed for this from day one.”
Revolut still needs a green light from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, as well as final sign-off from the OCC, before it can open the proposed bank.
Once fully approved, Revolut said it would offer U.S. customers loans, credit cards, FDIC-insured deposits, and access to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
In a prepared statement, Revolut founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said the conditional approval was “an important first step towards establishing the proposed Revolut Bank US,” adding that it gives the company “the foundation to build in the world’s largest financial market.”
The U.S. bid follows Revolut’s expansion across Latin America, where the company recently launched a bank in Mexico and is pursuing licenses in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. This year, Revolut has also obtained banking licenses in France, Australia and the U.K., a payments license in the United Arab Emirates, and is seeking a banking license in South Africa.
The company claims to add roughly 1 million customers every 17 days.
Whether Revolut can become a customer’s primary financial institution without being a major loan underwriter remains to be seen. Revolut’s consumer lending segment remains small relative to its tens of billions in customer deposits. Still, it’s worth noting that the so-called neobank’s loan book, as of March, is up 120% year over year at $2.9 billion.
Felipe Peñacoba Martinez, CEO of Getnet Platforms Payments Hub and former CIO at Revolut Bank (EU), told Global Finance in June: “Revolut is aware this takes time, and they’re going slower than in other areas.”
Ultimately, the central question facing the industry is whether fintechs like Revolut can scale core banking products faster than traditional incumbents can modernize their digital ecosystems.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
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The European Commission suspended imports of meat from Brazil on Thursday over concerns about antibiotic use, after Brasília failed to convince the EU executive that its products comply with European standards.
The move comes as Brazilian meat imports lie at the heart of opposition to the free trade agreement signed in January 2026 by the Commission with Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
EU farmers accuse Latin American producers of failing to comply with the bloc’s phytosanitary and food safety standards, arguing that this gives Latin American products an unfair advantage on the EU market.
“We have rules that ban antimicrobials or using antimicrobials for growth,” Commission spokesperson Eva Hrncirova said. “On the 3rd of September, the list of countries that basically comply with our rules on antimicrobials comes into application.”
The spokesperson added that Brazil was not currently on the list, meaning its imports were suspended as of Thursday.
The suspension, which resulted from a vote by national experts in May, covers beef, poultry, eggs and honey.
Imports of some products could resume following an audit of poultry and honey, launched on the basis of written guarantees of compliance provided by Brasília. The audit is expected to run until the end of the week, although the conclusions will take longer.
Hrncirova said no such guarantees had been provided for beef, adding that they must cover the animals’ entire life cycle, which is naturally longer for cattle.
Brazil’s ambassador to the EU, Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, told Euronews ahead of the summer that technical discussions with the Commission were ongoing. However, Brazil ultimately failed to prevent the suspension from taking effect.
Trade in agricultural products was the most contentious issue throughout the 25-year negotiations over the Mercosur agreement.
The deal was provisionally applied in May after the European Parliament suspended the ratification process with a legal referral to the European Court of Justice.
Responding to Trump’s tariff barrage, Canada pivots from continental nostalgia to global dealmaking.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
Following President Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024, something extraordinary occurred, not seen since the War of 1812. The president not only took aim at Canada as a potential annexation target, but also breached his own USMCA trade deal by imposing punitive tariffs on the country to the north (among many others).
This prompted Canadians to turn away from their traditional focus on continental trade and pursue deals with other, friendlier markets (and, in protest, take liquor from the U.S. off their shelves).
The Liberal Party’s electoral victory soon after, and Mark Carney’s ascension as prime minister, expedited the process. Responding to the newly hostile environment, the new PM pledged to double Canada’s exports by 2035, diversify foreign trade, and reduce reliance on what was, and still is, Canada’s largest trading partner.
“The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” he said. On another occasion, he was even more pointed: “Our relationship with the United States will never be the same as it was, even though, in the new protectionist world, we have the best trade deal of any country.”
That was then. Of course, now a war of words has become a full-blown trade war. With Canada backing away from what it considered a bad deal, the U.S. added tariffs to autos, auto parts, and aluminum, beginning January 2027, as a punishment for breaking off recent talks. Canada retaliated with tariffs of its own ranging from 15% to up to 50% on many American goods. As Carney stated at a news conference, “You’re at war when you are attacked. And we were attacked.”
But a trade reorientation for Canada made sense on its own, some experts say. About four-fifths of the world’s economic activity occurs outside the U.S., much of it in Asia, according to the Fraser Institute, a nonpartisan Canadian think tank. “These facts suggest Canadian policymakers are right to emphasize the importance of expanding trade with non-U.S. markets,” it concluded.
Carney, accordingly, has been crisscrossing the globe, cutting deals with countries including India, China — where it reduced tariffs on electric vehicles, against U.S. wishes — and the United Arab Emirates, and has engaged with ASEAN members on a possible free trade agreement. All this is occurring, incidentally, as he continues to pursue tariff reduction with the U.S. and salvage as much of the free trade Canada has enjoyed with its neighbor to the south as possible.
This past summer, Maninder Sidhu, Minister of International Trade of Canada, established a new Strategic Exports Office and a Strategic Exports Advisory Council. The aim is to bring together diplomatic, commercial, and financial experts to help break down global trade barriers and open doors for Canadian businesses.
The new bodies “mark a decisive step toward doubling our exports to non-U.S. markets,” he said, “and they give Canadian businesses the whole-of-government support they need to compete and win around the world.” Goods exports to non-U.S. markets are up about 17% from 2024 to 2025, an increase of C$33 billion (US$24 billion), Sidhu’s office said. To some observers, the pivot is not only something to navigate but also an opportunity for the world’s 11th-largest economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
In the long term, Canada’s economy could expand its manufacturing base and raise its standard of living.
Joel Kranc is a contributing writer based in Canada.
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PayPal (PYPL) quickly ticked higher by 0.7% amid some renewed takeover speculation.
There’s some speculation that the fintech company has received takeover interest, according to traders, who cited a Betaville “uncooked” alert that was circulating on Thursday.
It’s not clear
ronniechua
China’s service sector activity expanded at a faster pace in August 2026, with the RatingDog China General Services PMI rising to 51.4 from July’s 50.4, which had marked the softest growth since September 2024.
The latest reading comfortably beat market
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This monthly report counts and categorizes announcements of corporate layoffs based on mass layoff data from state departments of labor.
Updating the goods portion of the advance
Boom, goes the Clippers.
Steve Ballmer has been tattered. Lawrence Frank has been shredded. Their team future has been flattened.
Boom, goes those damn Clippers.
They had transformed themselves from the ridiculed Clip Joint to a top-shelf NBA organization, with the billionaire owner, the beautiful arena, the best coach and the most devoted fans … but they apparently got greedy, seemingly played dirty, and now have been affixed with a scarlet eight letters that will follow them forever.
Cheaters.
The NBA has ruled that the Clippers are cheaters.
Ballmer, cheater. Frank, cheater. Even president of business operations Gillian Zucker, cheater.
The NBA suspended Ballmer and Zucker for one year and Frank for six months Wednesday for violating salary cap rules when they signed Kawhi Leonard in 2019.
In arguably the harshest punishment in sports since SMU was given college football’s death penalty in 1987 — this is even worse than the USC sucker punch of 2010 — the league added injury to insult by stripping the team of five consecutive draft picks from 2029 to 2033.
The league also fined the team $30 million and Leonard $700,000 but the issue here is not money.
The issue is trust.
How can any of the Clippers partners or sponsors or fans trust this team with their dollars or their time or their affection after they were apparently caught knowingly breaking one of the NBA’s cardinal rules?
You don’t mess with the salary cap. Period. It’s the one thing that keeps these disparate teams and markets competing on a level field. Period.
Yet according to the findings of a lengthy investigation by the NBA, the Clippers’ top three executives — Ballmer, Frank and Zucker — helped arrange rich endorsement deals for Leonard that allowed him to make considerably more money than his contract states. Leonard did little if any endorsing, collected the extra checks, and essentially was paid above and beyond the salary cap.
The circumvention was first revealed a year ago by the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” which cited a $28-million endorsement deal with the now-bankrupt Aspiration, a sustainability services company. The subsequent NBA investigation discovered three more endorsement deals that amounted to similar salary cap circumvention, a charge which drew the particular ire of the league because the Clippers had been warned about salary cap circumvention with Leonard before.
Kawhi Leonard, above during a game against the Golden State Warriors at Intuit Dome in January, signed with the Clippers in 2019.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
Bottom line, the Clippers seemingly flouted the rules, got burned, got punished, and now you have to wonder, how on earth do they move forward from this?
They started the recovery process immediately Wednesday by issuing a statement that accused the NBA of not playing fair.
“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,” the statement began.
They can let out one of those trademark Ballmer screams and it still won’t matter. There is no arbitration or appeals process available. The NBA’s ruling is final.
All of which leaves the Clippers facing serious questions about their future.
First, will Ballmer still have the local support to own the team? His absence from his traditional seat under the basket will serve as a nightly reminder that he commanded a dirty ship. Their most vocal cheerleader is now their biggest scoundrel, and how do you come back from that?
Although he made great strides in dragging the Clippers back into relevance since buying the team from the shamed Donald Sterling in 2014 — even building that cool arena in Inglewood — Ballmer has lost much credibility with this decision.
He may need to sell to help the organization shed its stink. There’s been so much peddling of billion-dollar franchises around town lately, surely some rich group is in a position to take the Clippers off his hands.
Stan Kroenke? Too late. Bob Iger and Josh Kushner? Too late. Mark Walter? Um, no. How about those Buss kids, or are they too busy making nice with Manny Machado?
Then there’s the matter of Frank, who was struggling to build sustained success before this scandal. It would be a surprise to see him return, just as it would be a surprise to see Zucker return. For the Clippers to come out of this mess, they’re going to need to retool at the top.
Which brings this story to one Clipper leader who was not indicted in the investigation. How much longer will Ty Lue, one of the league’s very best coaches, want to stick around this mess? He has three years left on his contract. That could be three long years.
Finally, what of Kawhi Leonard? The Clippers thankfully traded him back to Toronto this summer, and hopefully that is where he’ll stay if the trade gets taken off hold with the investigation complete.
In all, just when you thought the Clippers reputation in this town had long since moved past all those years of losing and insults and embarrassments and Sterling scandals, just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…
It just got worse.
Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith has been accused of taking part in a scheme that allegedly scammed $2.5 million from a Native American investment firm.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, a tribal owned and operated economic developmental agency for the North Carolina-based Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians claimed the former Dallas Cowboys superstar, his longtime business partner David Mosley and their real estate development and renewable energy company 4 13 Solutions Inc. borrowed the money, did not use it for its intended purpose and have not paid it back.
According to the lawsuit, Smith and Mosley convinced the tribal agency, Kituwah LLC, to help their company acquire a proposed solar energy farm in Texas.
“By using false projections and data, misrepresenting the level of interest and potential investments from other investors, making promises that they had no intention of fulfilling, and relying on the participation of other coconspirators, Smith and Mosley induced Kituwah to form a joint venture with their company, 4 13 Solutions, and to loan $2.5 million to the joint venture,” the complaint states.
“Smith and Mosley promised to use the funds to acquire an interest in a renewable energy project in Texas (‘Project Exodus’), transfer that interest back to the joint venture, and ultimately repay Kituwah’s money. But instead, they took the money and used it to improperly pay Wilson Holdings, with whom they had partnered on other ventures.”
Smith, Mosley, 4 13 Solutions, Wilson Holdings and its principal owner, Darrel Wilson, and the group’s joint venture firm, Jabez 4 10 LLC, were named as co-defendants. Representatives for Smith, Mosley and 4 13 Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The loan came due on Feb. 1, 2024, according to the complaint, and remains unpaid despite numerous efforts to collect. Smith is accused of fraudulent inducement and breach of fiduciary duty. Seeking the return of its investment as well as interest and other costs and expenses, Kituwah says it is owed more than $3 million.
“Moreover, despite 4 13 Solutions’ representation that Project Exodus would be up and running by the end of 2024, Kituwah has not seen any evidence that Project Exodus has made any meaningful progress towards completion,” the lawsuit states.
“Kituwah commenced an investigation. It has determined that 4 13 Solutions’ representations were part of Smith’s and Mosley’s scheme to cheat Kituwah out of $2.5 million dollars. Instead of using the loan proceeds to acquire Project Exodus as promised, 4 13 Solutions used the $2.5 million to pay Wilson Holdings, apparently for money that Wilson Holdings had previously invested. Essentially, like a Ponzi scheme.”
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By Euronews Persian
Published on •Updated
The US dollar broke above 2.1 million Iranian rials on Tehran’s free market on Wednesday, setting a new record as the rial lost around 60% of its value against the dollar since the start of the Iranian calendar year in March — when the dollar traded at approximately 1.35 million rials.
The rial’s slide has accelerated since the US reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports in July, following the collapse of a short-lived ceasefire.
The euro hit an unprecedented 2.55 million rials, and the UK pound reached 2,976,000 rials.
The UAE dirham, which serves as the benchmark for pricing the rial on regional markets, reached 600,000 rials for the first time.
One gram of 18-carat gold climbed above 225.7 million rials, and the Imami gold coin — a standard unit of value in Iran — changed hands at 2.26 billion rials.
Iran operates a dual exchange rate system. The official rate, set by the Central Bank and used for state transactions and subsidised imports of essential goods, is significantly stronger than the free market rate available to ordinary Iranians and businesses.
The gap between the two has widened sharply since the war began, with the free market rate now more than double the official rate.
The rial has been in freefall since the US-Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February launched the ongoing war, now in its seventh month, and has accelerated as Washington has tightened its economic pressure campaign.
The US Treasury has cut off Iran’s access to regional banks, severing one of the Islamic Republic’s main channels for accessing foreign currency and clearing import payments.
The naval blockade of Iranian ports has compounded the pressure by restricting trade routes and reducing Iran’s oil export revenues.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, said the bank was ready to inject $2 billion into the foreign exchange market to stabilise the rial. He attributed the latest slide primarily to psychological factors rather than fundamental economic ones.
“The dust created in the foreign exchange market will settle, and the recent increase in exchange rates is driven more by psychological factors than by real economic factors,” he said.
Hemmati acknowledged that inflation had placed heavy pressure on households.
“Although inflation and rising prices have placed heavy pressure on people’s livelihoods and daily lives, and these difficulties are tangible, the Central Bank has been able to control the accelerating pace of inflation by using monetary, supervisory and prudential tools,” he said.
He rejected US claims that Tehran lacked access to financial reserves.
“These claims are completely baseless. The reserves have not been frozen, and the Central Bank has access to stable resources as well as multiple oil and non-oil revenues,” he said, claiming that more than $18 billion in foreign currency had been provided for imports of essential goods, medicines, animal feed and raw materials since March.
He provided no further details to support the figure.
The rial’s collapse is feeding directly into consumer prices. Iran was already experiencing high inflation before the war, while the currency’s further depreciation has raised the cost of all imported goods, raw materials and energy inputs.
Iranians who hold savings in rials have seen their purchasing power roughly halved in less than six months. Gold and hard currency have become the primary store of value for those who can access them.
Iran’s official currency is the rial, although most Iranians conduct everyday transactions in tomans — a colloquial unit equal to 10 rials that is so deeply embedded in daily use that shops, restaurants and property listings quote prices almost exclusively in tomans.
At Wednesday’s free-market rate, the US dollar traded at about 220,000 tomans. The government announced plans in 2020 to formally replace the rial with the toman and remove four zeros from the currency, a redenomination that has not yet been fully implemented.
In an exclusive interview, European Union Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told Euronews that the EU is not in a position to mediate in the trade war between Canada and the United States following the collapse of their trade talks.
Ten days ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from the negotiations with the Trump administration, blaming them for pressuring Canada over the use of the French language.
In the following days, US President Donald Trump announced 50% US tariffs on Canadian cars and trucks, to which Ottawa retaliated with tariffs on more than 700 US imports, worth about $20 billion (€17.2 billion).
“I don’t think that we are in a position to mediate,” Šefčovič said. “At the same time I know that they [Canada and the US] have such a close economic relationship that, despite the current tension, sooner or later there will be attempts to resolve it.”
The Commissioner added that “tariffs are taxes which are paid in the end by the economic operators or by the citizens”, a message he has reiterated several times over the last year during the EU’s own trade dispute with Washington.
“We clearly support free and fair trade with the lower or no tariffs at all,” he told Euronews.
Since the trade talks stopped, Carney has called for a closer relationship between Ottawa and Brussels and announced he will attend European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union in Strasbourg in mid-September, one of the main events in Brussels’ political calendar.
An EU-Canada summit is also scheduled for later this autumn.
Šefčovič said the Commission is ready to explore “all possibilities” to increase cooperation with Canada, but he added that any new arrangements “would very much also depend on how comfortable the Canadian side would feel and what is its level of ambition”.
He pointed out that after Brussels clinched a trade deal with Ottawa in 2016, trade between the EU and Canada grew by 75% – but he also suggested that the deal could be pushed further.
“On both sides, we have certain elements which we can improve, still certain barriers, certain sensitivities for the products. I really think that we can explore much more that.”
Šefčovič said that a digital agreement might be signed with Canada before the end of the year, and he also cited coming cooperation in critical raw materials with potential joint investments.
Ottawa is seen by Brussels as a like-minded partner sharing its vision of the new global trade order, and Šefčovič hopes to have its backing to get closer to members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which has liberalised trade between 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas, including Canada – but not the US. The UK became the pact’s first and to date only European member in 2024, with Canada ratifying its full accession as of 1 September.
“Canadians are very important partners for forging a new level of cooperation with the CTPPP,” Šefčovič said, “which represents together 40 percent of global trade.”
As Head of Group Transaction Banking at Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), I have witnessed how European exporters navigate an increasingly complex global trade environment. With over 30 years of experience in cash management and transaction banking, I have come to view success in international business as a function of resilience, digital readiness, and the right network of partners.
At RBI, we support European exporters by combining robust transaction banking capabilities with deep local knowledge across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and other markets. Our international network connects clients with markets far beyond their home base. This global reach allows us to offer comprehensive solutions such as cash and liquidity management, letters of credit, guarantees, and other trade finance solutions through a single banking relationship. This integrated approach is vital for companies managing cross-border business in multiple currencies and jurisdictions.
The landscape of trade finance and cash management is evolving rapidly, driven in part by the accelerating pace of trade finance digitalization. Centralization, real-time visibility, and digital connectivity are no longer optional, but essential. Exporters increasingly require treasury structures that operate seamlessly across countries and currencies, with direct ERP integration and enhanced reporting capabilities. Solutions such as CMIplus and multi-bank connectivity are designed to reduce manual work and increase efficiency. Investment in AI-supported digital documentary workflows and improved data handling is beginning to show results by accelerating trade processes, enhancing transparency, and strengthening risk control.
European exporters face significant challenges in today’s market environment. Geopolitical tensions, sanctions, foreign exchange volatility, and divergent legal and regulatory frameworks complicate international trade, particularly across the diverse CEE region. Some markets are part of the EU or the euro area, while others operate under different currencies and legal systems. This complexity demands careful local assessment and practical risk management, including stronger compliance checks, diversified market exposure, and closer monitoring of counterparties. In this context, a banking partner that combines local expertise with international reach is crucial.
Client needs are evolving alongside these market dynamics. Exporters expect fast, secure, and transparent payment solutions, reliable financing, and support that operates effectively across multiple markets, currencies, and systems. They value banks that can efficiently connect headquarters and subsidiaries, balancing local presence with centralized control. At RBI, we tailor our services by integrating local account coverage, trade finance, supply chain finance, and treasury connectivity, enabling clients to manage liquidity and trade flows more efficiently across CEE and beyond.
Looking ahead, the outlook for international business and transaction banking remains constructive. Significant opportunities remain, but success will increasingly depend on digital readiness, resilience, and strong networks. Centralization and better visibility will shape the future of banking services, with partners such as RBI supporting growth across Austria, CEE, and global markets.
Ultimately, our mission at RBI is clear: Make international business happen.
Discover practical insights and solutions for navigating international trade with confidence here.
America’s second-largest oil company is preparing to deepen its presence in a country most of its rivals abandoned two decades ago.
An unnamed US official briefed reporters and said Chevron executives would appear alongside US Energy Secretary Chris Wright in Venezuela to unveil fresh investment, which would be the first corporate move to follow the agreement that just cleared Venezuela’s National Assembly.
Wright landed in Caracas late on Tuesday after the Venezuelan vote, with the signing set for Wednesday.
Chevron is the only major American producer to have stayed in Venezuela since Hugo Chávez completed the nationalisation of the industry in 2007, a move that drove Exxon and ConocoPhillips out.
Speaking in Spanish for an interview posted online on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the arrangement in blunt terms.
“Essentially, this is now an agreement with the US government, specifically involving the Defense Department, which holds a special account allowing it to take possession of a certain percentage of these assets,” Rubio said, adding that American backing would help the company attract the private investment needed to develop the fields.
The “vast majority” of the 17 fields had been in Chinese and Russian hands, Rubio pointed out as the White House has also cast the agreement as a reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine.
Those fields come with 100-year rights for North American Blue Energy Partners and hold 65 billion barrels. A new company will be created in which the US Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital takes a 35% stake, with the US State Department entitled to buy 20% of output at production cost.
US citizens must form a majority of the board, and Washington holds a veto over appointments.
Venezuelan lawmakers approved the agreement by a show of hands, though some opposition members abstained, saying they had not seen the terms.
“We need and are obliged to know what is written in the fine print,” said opposition lawmaker Luis Emilio Rondón.
“Who benefits from this oil if it stays underground?” argued the National Assembly chief Jorge Rodríguez in return.
NABEP is owned by Alejandro Betancourt, who has faced investigations over alleged money laundering in Spain and Switzerland without charges being filed and has been accused of involvement in a corruption scheme at state producer PDVSA.
An unnamed US official called him a “proven operator” while conceding that geopolitics sometimes means dealing with imperfect figures.
“I’m not nominating anyone for sainthood here,” the official said. “What I am telling you is that this is a person that, in the past, has been helpful to the United States government.”
Analysts remain sceptical that output can be revived quickly, with estimates ranging from one to ten years before new barrels reach the market. Washington is not investing money in the venture, officials say, arguing its backing alone will attract the capital needed.
US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that others would follow Chevron.
“We have Exxon going in, we have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in,” Trump stated.
However, Exxon’s position appears unchanged as a spokesman said on Tuesday that “nothing has changed” after CEO Darren Woods also called Venezuela “uninvestable” earlier this year.
For the US administration, the urgency is domestic.
US President Donald Trump just met oil executives at the White House on Tuesday as petrol prices climbed because of new US strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, posting afterwards that “we are unleashing American Energy Dominance!”
Cheaper fuel is a priority before November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans could lose control of both the House and the Senate.
Additional sources • AP
Beijing must deliver “concrete results” by October or face “harsher measures”, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has warned in an exclusive interview with Euronews, as Brussels sets an October deadline to rein in China’s record trade surplus with the bloc.
With talks already underway, Šefčovič said the stakes go well beyond trade, with the future of European industry at play. The next two weeks are set to be crucial, with a video call between the EU’s trade chief and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, planned for mid-September, as both sides work towards the October deadline.
“This is super political,” he told Euronews, stressing that European leaders want to see results by October. Earlier this week, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a business forum in France that dialogue only works if it brings results.
If dialogue does not deliver results, the EU could resort to defensive instruments.
While Šefčovič did not go into detail about what retaliatory measures could look like, he said Brussels is looking to finalise a “diversification instrument” designed with China in mind. He also said the EU is now far more united in its objectives for the negotiations.
“They [EU27] want to see the direction of travel. They want to even have a concept for the solution of this issue, a pilot scheme,” Šefčovič said.
“I’m trying to do it through these negotiations, but they have to bring us very concrete results. Otherwise, of course, there will be a strong political movement to push for, I would say, harsher measures.”
Šefčovič will travel to China in October, ahead of an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels where the issue is expected to be high on the agenda.
All EU countries now run a trade deficit with China.
Brussels and Beijing have been on the verge of a trade war in recent months following the Commission’s introduction of several measures restricting Chinese companies’ access to the EU market and threats of retaliation from China.
A group of EU officials were in Beijing in recent days, as first reported by Euronews, to push forward the talks. They are expected to return to Europe on Thursday for a debrief.
Despite the sensitive discussions with Beijing, the Commission has already launched several probes into Chinese products over the summer over alleged unfair trade practices. Von der Leyen said the investigations were being stepped up “significantly”.
As pressure mounts ahead of the October deadline, Šefčovič said securing better access for European companies in China would not happen overnight, but stressed that the outline of a deal would be needed to move into a second phase of implementation talks.
“It’s an issue which would require clearly more time than until October,” Šefčovič said. “But what I think it’s very important for us to have by October [is] some kind of proof of concept.”
He added that EU leaders expect the Commission to bring solutions to rebalance the trade relationship, particularly in areas considered “sensitive”, such as “cars, medical devices, agri-food products”.
“We have now unprecedented intensity of our negotiations. I think we never talked to our Chinese counterparts as frequently, as intensely than right now.”
Dell’s management highlights persistent shortages, especially in DRAM and NAND, as limiting supply, with additional constraints in CPUs, optics, and other components. Supply issues are cited as the primary limiter to fulfilling record AI and infrastructure demand.
Erin Piacenti, 32, died following an unprovoked attack in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, police said.
NEW YORK—Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president, was killed Monday in a Times Square stabbing that left another person injured.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones,” the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said in a statement to Global Finance on Tuesday.
The alleged perpetrator reportedly charged at NYPD officers and was fatally shot moments later. A second victim remains hospitalized but in stable condition.
Piacenti began her career as a legal intern with Major League Baseball before taking M&A roles at Morgan Stanley and law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, respectively. She joined Bank of America’s business selection and conflicts unit in 2025, per her LinkedIn profile.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the incident during a press briefing Monday: “I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse. This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that the unprovoked attack began near West 41st Street and 7th Avenue when a woman pulled two knives from a Target bag. Responding NYPD officers first deployed a Taser and fired their weapons at the alleged perpetrator, fatally wounding the alleged attacker.
Both victims and the suspect were transported to Bellevue Hospital.
Piacenti is reportedly from Chester, New Jersey.
Though violent crime is at historically low levels in New York City, another fatal stabbing occurred around the same area back in May.
Monday’s attack is the latest high-profile attack involving financial executives and corporate leaders in Midtown Manhattan over the past two years.
In July 2025, Blackstone Inc. executive Wesley LePatner was among four people killed in a shooting at the firm’s office on Park Avenue.
Before that, in December 2024, UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers passed laws that would ensure insurance companies provide better coverage for smoke-damaged homes and financing for upgrades protecting residences from future fire damage.
The measures were among a slew of bills approved during the 2026 legislative session to deal with the continuing aftermath of the devastating 2025 Los Angeles area fires.
The Eaton and Palisades fires, which destroyed more than 16,000 structures and killed 31, were two of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history. Like with catastrophic fires before them, tragedy spurred action.
Much of the focus on wildfire issues by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers in the waning days of the legislative session focused on a proposal to shift liability away from utilities whose equipment ignites wildfires.
The complex, high-stakes policy debate attempted to address the needs and financial risks faced by the utilities, their customers and insurance companies following the catastrophic wildfires that have plagued California in recent years, but a proposed compromise recently pieced together by lawmakers and the governor fell through Tuesday.
However, lawmakers did pass several bills this year to help fire victims navigate burdensome insurance requirements in the aftermath of a disaster and increase prevention efforts. All head to Newsom for his consideration.
Two complementary bills approved Monday ensure homes that survive a wildfire but are contaminated by the onslaught of smoke are properly remediated before residents move back in.
The bills were prompted by the 2025 Eaton fire, which left thousands of homes contaminated with lead, some at levels hundreds of times what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. Homeowners routinely reported that their insurance companies refused or delayed claims, advocated for cleaning methods that experts deemed insufficient and pushed residents to move back before testing showed their homes were safe.
The first bill, AB 1642, would direct the Department of Toxic Substances Control to create scientific standards for what constitutes a safe home and provide guidance on how to properly remediate homes. The second, AB 1795, would require insurers to abide by those standards in the claims process and do so in a timely manner.
The companion laws only take effect if Newsom signs both.
The two bills originally conflicted with one another. The scientific standards bill was supported by many Eaton fire survivors from the get-go. However, the insurance bill — born out of a Department of Insurance task force — was widely criticized by survivors for leaving insurance companies wiggle room to deny claims and placing a burden on homeowners to prove their home was in fact contaminated by a fire.
In an eleventh-hour sprint of “sleepless nights,” “five-hour Zooms” and intervention from the governor’s office, advocates won additional protections for fire survivors in the insurance bill and brought the two into harmony, said Dawn Fanning, managing director at the smoke-damaged home advocacy group Eaton Fire Residents United.
“It took a lot of work to get here, and we’re really happy where we landed,” Fanning said.
After the Eaton fire, “it was the Wild West, trying to scramble to find answers,” she said. “If these laws were in place, so many thousands of people would be back home by now.”
Separate legislation by Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), who is in a hotly contested race for California Insurance Commissioner, seeks to give homeowners more notice and options before being dropped by their insurer, a problem homeowners increasingly face as wildfires have become more frequent and destructive.
Many nonrenewal notices sent by insurance companies include vague reasoning, Allen said during a May hearing on the bill, SB 1301. His legislation would require specific information so property owners can have a chance to mitigate problems and keep their insurance.
Another bill from Allen, who represents the Palisades area that burned in 2025, would create a new loan program to help property owners mitigate fire risks through home hardening, or installing fire-resistant materials on the outside of a structure.
“It can sometimes cost tens of thousands of dollars for homeowners and there’s simply not a lot of financing for this kind of work. There’s not a market for that,” Allen said during an April hearing.
The program is expected to help fund 1,000 projects in its first year and up to 2,400 within five years, according to a bill analysis.
A budget bill approved Tuesday morning also includes $25 million for home hardening grants, rebates or loans to be distributed through a separate program to be created by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. It would cap assistance at $25,000 per homeowner or property.
But other proposals to provide financial incentives for home hardening did not pass, including bills by Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) to exclude home hardening upgrades from property tax reassessment and to require insurance companies to provide two quotes to inquiring homeowners: one for the property as is, and another for if it met full home-hardening certification by the state.
Another bill on Newsom’s desk seeks to get restitution for victims of utility-caused wildfires who in some cases have waited more than a decade, said Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin).
In 2019, the state established a wildfire fund paid by utility companies that reimburses claims stemming from wildfires caused by the companies’ equipment. But the fund was not retroactive, and some people who suffered losses before its creation are still waiting to be paid.
Patterson’s bill requires the California Public Utilities Commission to determine how much is still owed to those victims, including for losses from the deadly Camp fire that was sparked by a PG&E power line and destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.
“For years, wildfire survivors have been forced to wait for answers while restitution shortfalls remain unresolved,” Patterson said in a statement after the bill passed. “AB 2700 is about doing what is right for wildfire survivors who have waited far too long to be made whole.”
Borrowing costs across some of Europe’s biggest economies have surged to their highest levels in more than 15 years, as a renewed sell-off in global bond markets gathers pace.
The global bond rout pushed Germany’s benchmark borrowing costs to a 15-year high on Tuesday, with France, Italy and the Netherlands all seeing similarly steep rises.
Germany’s 10-year Bund climbed above 3.36% on Tuesday, according to Trading Economics. Later, the yield went down a bit and traded at around 3.34%.
Bond yields move inversely to prices. When investors sell bonds, prices fall, and because a bond’s fixed interest payment becomes worth more relative to that lower price, the effective yield rises.
In short — the more bonds get sold, the more it costs governments to borrow.
Sovereign debt came under renewed pressure as rising oil prices and increasingly hawkish signals from major central banks reinforced bets that interest rates will stay higher for longer.
The yield on Germany’s 30-year Bund surged above 3.84%, also its highest level since 2011. The French 10-year OAT yield rose to its highest level since November 2008, trading slightly above 4.215% at around 10.45 CEST on Tuesday. The equivalent Italian yield was trading slightly lower at 4.188 at the same time.
At the same time, the Dutch 10-year government bond yield increased to 3.43%, its highest level since May 2011. Spain’s 10-year yield climbed above 3.80%, its highest level since November 2023.
Investors are concerned that rising energy prices will fuel inflation around the world, potentially prompting interest-rate increases by central banks in the US, Japan and the eurozone, among others.
These concerns were reinforced in the eurozone on Tuesday morning, as the latest flash inflation data from Eurostat showed that energy prices were 14.3% higher than a year earlier. This helped push eurozone inflation to 3.3% in August, up from 2.9% in July. This is significantly above the ECB’s 2% target.
The central bank is due to hold its next monetary policy meeting next week, and most investors are betting on a 25-basis-point rate hike.
Leo Barincou, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said: “With inflation still accelerating, the ECB is all but certain to hike at next week’s meeting, in line with our expectations.”
Looking at the largest European economies, analysts say Germany’s Bund has moved largely in line with global benchmarks, while France faces an additional risk premium because of its political and fiscal outlook.
French 10-year borrowing costs have exceeded Italy’s for much of the summer, as France increasingly replaces Italy as the main focus of European debt concerns.
According to the IMF, France’s gross government debt is projected to reach 118.4% of GDP this year and 120.5% in 2027. France currently has the third-highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU, after Greece and Italy.
The Banque de France expects the budget deficit to reach 5.2% of GDP this year. Difficult budget negotiations ahead of the 2027 presidential election have raised doubts about the government’s ability to reverse this trend.
Robert Timper, BCA’s chief fixed-income strategist, previously told Euronews Business: “We have held the view for some time that France is the country in the euro area with the most unsustainable fiscal outlook, and its borrowing cost should reflect that.”
“To get back to a sustainable fiscal path, France needs to do substantial reforms, which will be unpopular as they will curtail welfare spending,” Timper said. “A large political majority is therefore necessary for such reforms, or a bond market riot will force reforms.”
Expectations of persistently high inflation and rising borrowing costs also pushed the yield on 10-year US Treasuries to its highest level since January 2025. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was trading at around 4.78% on Tuesday.
In the US, higher energy prices have added to already stubborn inflation, which remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Inflation has weighed on household spending and consumer confidence, complicating the Fed’s decisions on interest rates.
According to Bloomberg, traders raised the probability of a September US rate hike to about 70%, extending a repricing that began last week when Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh doubled down on a pledge to tame inflation.
The sell-off also spread to Asia, where Japan’s benchmark 10-year government bond yield reached 3.00% for the first time since 1996.
Government bonds have traditionally been seen as safe-haven assets during periods of uncertainty.
That role is being tested as investors become increasingly concerned that global conflicts and higher energy prices could produce a prolonged period of stagflation — a combination of high inflation and weak or zero economic growth.
Shares in fast-fashion giant Shein fell as much as 10% on their trading debut on Hong Kong’s stock market on Tuesday, before recovering some of their losses, following years of delay to the company’s plans to list publicly and regulatory setbacks in Europe and in the US.
Shein’s initial public offering opened on 24 August, with the final share price set a week later on 31 August. Trading began the following day, on Tuesday.
The gap reflects standard IPO process, as investors placed their orders over about a week, the banks running the deal then fixed the final price and decided who got shares, and trading opened a few business days later once the exchange gave the final go-ahead.
The listing marks the end of a long search for a stock market willing to take Shein after plans to list in New York and London stalled amid scrutiny over its Chinese supply chains, forcing the company to turn to Hong Kong instead.
New US and EU tariffs on low-cost parcels from China, along with rising shipping costs from the war in Iran, have contributed to Shein’s swing from a $395 million (€340mn) profit to a $99 million (€85mn) loss in the first quarter of this year.
Shein raised about $1.7 billion (€1.46bn), pricing shares at HK$48.56 (€5.33) each, in one of the city’s biggest share sales this year.
“Shein’s Hong Kong listing marks a new starting point,” said Leigh Gui, Shein’s chief financial officer, in a short speech at its listing ceremony.
But in early trading, the shares fell to below HK$44 (€4.83) before losses narrowed.
Shein has built its appeal to customers on ultra-fast, affordable fashion, delivered from China to the West within days.
However, the end of “de minimis” tariff exemptions in the US and the European Union has raised duties on low-value parcels from China, including Shein’s products. Higher logistics costs, driven partly by the war in Iran, have also squeezed the company’s low-price business model and profitability.
Tariff costs have forced Shein to raise prices, “cutting into its main advantage,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies.
Shein, pronounced “she-in,” earlier explored listing its shares in New York and London, and moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in 2021.
But increasingly strict scrutiny by Beijing and by regulators in the US and Europe led it to embrace its Chinese roots and switch to a Hong Kong listing.
Launched in 2012 in China, much of Shein’s operations were in the southern province of Guangdong before it moved its corporate headquarters out of the country.
“Guangdong is Shein’s roots, and the starting point of our journey,” founder Sky Xu said in a speech in February.
Pivoting its focus back to China also highlighted the advantages Shein derives from a supply chain system that “only exists” in Guangdong, said William Ma of GROW Investment Group, referring to its small-batch, fast-response manufacturing model.
Shein has hit other roadblocks in expanding in Europe. In February, the EU launched a probe into the company with a focus on “illegal” products, including alleged child sexual abuse material.
In May, Shein acquired San Francisco-based eco-friendly clothing retailer Everlane, a move some analysts said was not the best fit.
The company’s market value was roughly $27 billion (€23.2bn) as it listed in Hong Kong, a fraction of its peak valuation a few years ago.
“Shein has probably missed its golden listing window due to the shift of momentum toward AI and tariffs, which can affect valuations and profitability,” said Gary Ng, a senior economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis.
Still, Shein’s listing is welcome news for Hong Kong, as the Chinese territory makes increasing efforts to hold onto its role as a global financial hub following a downturn in 2023.
Hong Kong’s stock exchange has had a strong year for IPOs, raising more than $40 billion (€34.4bn) so far.
There is also a backlog of companies seeking to list there, said Lorraine Tan at investment research firm Morningstar.