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Nordics reject Trump’s claim that Chinese and Russian vessels are near Greenland. FT reports
Financial Times reports that Nordic diplomats have rejected Donald Trump's claim of Russian and Chinese vessels near Greenland. The FT reported that there have been no signs in recent years of Russian or 'Chinese' ships?or subs around Greenland, citing senior Nordic diplomats who had access to NATO intelligence. The report could not be verified immediately. The White House as well as NATO have not responded to comments. It is simply not true. I've?seen intelligence. The FT quoted a senior?diplomat who said, "There are no submarines or ships." A second Nordic diplomat has said that claims that Russian and Chinese vessels were "crawling" in the waters surrounding Greenland are unfounded. They added that this activity is on the Russian side of the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly said that Russian and Chinese ships are operating near Greenland. Denmark disputes this claim. He hasn't provided any evidence. Trump said that the U.S. should own Greenland - an autonomous part within the Kingdom of Denmark - to stop Russia or China from occupying this strategically located, mineral rich territory. Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Danish Foreign Minister, said this week that the image of Russian and Chinese vessels right inside?Nuuk Fjord with massive Chinese investments is incorrect. MarineTraffic data and LSEG vessel tracking data show that there are no Chinese or?Russian ships near Greenland. Greenland’s Assembly said late Friday that it would convene a meeting on Monday to discuss the response to U.S. threat to take control of island. Trump's renewed push to get Greenland after the U.S.'s military intervention in Venezuela worries many of Greenland's 57,000 residents, who have a common goal to become an independent country.
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Dar Global and Trump Organization Launch $10 Billion Saudi Developments
Ziad El Chaar, CEO of Saudi real estate developer Dar Global, announced on Sunday that two Trump-branded luxury projects will be launched in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Jeddah (Jordan). Chaar said that the projects include the Trump National Golf Course in Riyadh and the Trump International Hotel at Diriyah. This is a massive project located on the western edge of the Saudi capital. Chaar said that a mixed-use development called Trump Plaza is planned for Jeddah. Chaar stated that the projects were in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to diversify its economy and move away from oil. The aim is to attract direct foreign investment. Saudi Arabia will also allow foreigners to own property in certain areas for the first-time starting this month. According to Eric Trump, son of U.S. president Donald Trump and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, the latest in a long line of partnerships between the Trump Organization and Dar Global (the international arm of Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan) is expected to be completed within the next four or five years. (Reporting and editing by Tomasz Janovski and David Goodman in Riyadh)
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Maersk is exploring more ethanol for green fuel in order to reduce its reliance on China.
The Financial Times published an interview with Maersk's CEO, Vincent Clerc, on Sunday. This could reduce the company's dependence on China, and help the industry to decarbonise. Clerc stated that the U.S. and Brazil are the leading producers of ethanol in the world. Clerc?told FT that if all the benefits are concentrated in China then some countries may object. But if they're more evenly distributed then many more will be supportive ?.?.?. It will allow more countries to see the benefits of the green transition. The shipping industry is more difficult than others to reduce emissions. This requires expensive retrofits for existing vessels or new ships that are able run on efuels. Hapag-Lloyd?and North Sea Container Line (NCL), two shipping companies, won a tender late last year to use low-emission fuels made from hydrogen on container ships starting in 2027. The contract will run for three years. (Reporting from Gnaneshwar rajan in Bengaluru, editing by Kate Mayberry.)
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Ukrainian drone attack injures four, damages buildings in Russia's Voronezh, governor says
The governor of Voronezh Region said that an overnight Ukrainian drone strike inflicted injuries on at least four people and caused damage to a number of buildings. The governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram that an emergency service facility, six houses, and seven apartment buildings were damaged by the attack. The?reports could not be independently verified. Ukraine claims that it has been attacking targets in Russia since the Kremlin launched its war nearly four years ago. This is in response to the repeated drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Russia launched a missile at a Ukrainian site near NATO member Poland on Friday, an attack Kyiv's European partners characterized as a ploy to dissuade them from continuing their support for Ukraine. (Reporting and editing by Alistair Bell in Melbourne)
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Mississippi man accused in killing six people, including a 7-year old child and a pastor
Officials from law enforcement said that a man was arrested and charged for first-degree homicide in the deaths of six people on Friday night, including a young child, in Clay County, Mississippi. Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott announced on Saturday that Daricka Moore, 24, is suspected of killing several members of her family and a pastor in the area before she was taken into custody. Officials said that the charge against Moore is likely to be upgraded to capital murder and a death penalty could be imposed if he is found to have mental competency. This is horrible. "This is as bad as it gets," said Scott Colom. He's the district attorney of Mississippi's Sixteenth Circuit Court. His jurisdiction includes Clay County. Scott claims that Moore shot his father, brother and uncle in the head, killing them, on Friday night. He then stole a truck, drove to another location, where he attempted to sexually abuse a 7-year old girl who was related to him before shooting her dead in the head. The?law enforcers responded to the 911 call and were directed to a third location where they found two other males who had been fatally shot. One of those men was a pastor from the area. Moore was arrested at a nearby area 'just before midnight', Scott reported. Scott stated that the motives of the murders were unknown. Scott said at a press conference that the incident had "really?shaken" his community. "I personally don't know why someone would kill a seven-year-old." Scott stated that autopsies will be conducted by the Mississippi Crime Lab. Moore will appear in court Monday. Clay County is located in northeastern Mississippi. It has a population close to 20,000. (Reporting and editing by Sergio Non in Houston, Mark Potter and Rod Nickel.
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Local media and law enforcement say that a suspect has been arrested after six people were killed in Mississippi
Local news outlets and police have not provided any additional information, but say that at least six people died after being shot in Clay County, Mississippi. The suspect is in custody. According to WTVA (an NBC News affiliate), the deaths took place at?three separate shooting locations. Eddie Scott, the Clay County Sheriff, announced on social media that the suspect was "in custody" and no longer posed a threat to 'our?community. WTVA reported that six people were killed. Scott and the Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to an?ask for comment. Scott posted on Facebook: "I ask you to lift up our victims and their families in your prayers." Clay County is located in the?northeast part of Mississippi. It has a population close to 20,000. Reporting by Ernest Scheyder. (Editing by Sergio Non, Mark Potter and Mark Potter.
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Four tankers, which had left Venezuela in "dark mode", are now back in its waters
Four tankers, the majority of which were loaded, left Venezuela early in January in "dark mode" - that is, with their transponders turned off despite a "strict" U.S. blockade. According to the state company PDVSA, and the monitoring service TankerTrackers.com, the blockade is now in place. Last month, a flotilla consisting of at least three empty ships and a dozen vessels with cargo left Venezuelan waters. This was in apparent defiance to an embargo that President Donald Trump imposed on Venezuela since mid-December. The U.S. seized the?supertanker M Sophia with a Panamanian flag this week as it returned to the country. Another Aframax Tanker Olina, flying a Sao 'Tome and Principe flag, was also?intercepted, but was released to Venezuela Friday by state company PDVSA. Tankertrackers.com spotted three more vessels in Venezuelan waters on Friday night through satellite images. These were the Panama-flagged Merope and Cook Islands-flagged Min Hang, as well as Panama-flagged Thalia III. U.S. authorities had announced on Friday that Olina, formerly known as Minerva m, would be released. They said that the next step in the negotiations between Caracas, Washington and the U.S. for a $2 billion oil deal would be to begin organized crude exports. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that arrangements had been made for a supply of oil in a meeting with executives from top oil companies on Friday. Sources said that Vitol, Trafigura and other global trading houses received the first U.S. licensing to carry Venezuelan exports and to negotiate with Venezuela. Naphtha is also expected to be supplied to the OPEC nation, according to sources. Marianna Pararaga, Julia Symmes Cobb and Marianna Parraga contributed to this report.
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Kyiv scrambles after Russian attack to repair the damaged power grid
Kyiv’s heating and water systems were restored after they had been briefly turned off on Saturday due to a particularly cold day. Engineers scrambled for stabilisation of a power grid that was pushed to its limits by a series of Russian airstrikes, including the one from two nights ago. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been bombarding Ukraine's power system with intense force. This has caused blackouts that last for several hours each day in many major cities. The heat and water infrastructure has also been severely affected over the past few weeks. This is a growing concern as temperatures have already dropped below minus 10 degrees Celsius. Around noon local time (1100 GMT) on Sunday, the city administration announced that Ukrenergo, the state grid operator, had ordered that the city's power system be shut down. The water and heating systems, as well as the?electrified transport would stop working. Ukrenergo reported that engineers had resolved the immediate problem, caused by previous Russian attacks, and power was returning to parts of Kyiv within an hour. The Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated that the heating system in Ukrainian cities, which pumps hot water into homes through pipes and is centralised, will also be re-started. She said she expects heat to be restored to all homes on Saturday. She said, however, that power was still a problem in the capital, because the grid had been badly damaged and more people were using electric heaters due to the cold. After the latest Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv, about 6,000 apartment blocks were left with no heating as bitter cold settled in. Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said that half of these blocks had their heat restored by Saturday. However, it was then shut off again because there was a problem with the power grid. (Reporting and editing by Max Hunder, Emelia Sithole Matarise and Mark Potter)
The third quarter of 2018 was a record-breaking period for global M&A.
The third quarter of recent history was both one of best and worst for dealmakers around the world. According to Dealogic, megadeals generated a staggering $1.26 trillion worth of global mergers and purchases during the third-quarter - an increase of 40% over the previous year. This was the second best third-quarter ever by deal value. Data show that only 8,912 transactions were completed, a drop of 16% compared to last year. This is the lowest third-quarter deal volume for 20 years. Dealmakers are in a strange situation, as they had high hopes for 2025 following the election of Donald Trump. Trump's punishing Tariffs, which were unveiled on Liberation Day, and a continuing antitrust crackdown against Big Tech sent the markets soaring in the second quarter. This led many corporations to postpone M&A plans and IPOs while trade negotiations took place. In recent months, a combination of pent-up demand from companies and new stock market highs have sparked a flurry big deals and IPOs that have saved an otherwise dormant year for the industry. Data show that although fewer deals are being signed, the average deal size increased to $141.4m in the third quarter. This is up from $85.5m at the same time last. Liberation Day occurred right at the start of what was going to be an exciting second quarter. In an interview, Naveen Nataraj said that people, "understandably," took their foot off of the pedal as they tried to grasp the implications. As the year progressed, people have become more confident that the tariff landscape will be a place they can navigate. The IPO market was revived earlier this month by several big initial public offerings, such as StubHub’s $800m IPO, and the $1.37bn trading debut of fintech company Klarna, which offers buy-now, pay-later. Approximately 987 companies around the world have raised $115 billion through their IPOs this year. This is down by 24% and 9% from the same time last year.
Some IPOs in Europe are being done again. Martin Thorneycroft is the global co-head for equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley. He said that the relatively low IPO issuance since September of last year was primarily because we had not seen large-cap, high-quality companies come to market. But now, we are beginning to see this. CHINA DELISTING THREATENS IN THE US IPOs in Asia and second listings were especially hot. This was particularly true on the Hong Stock Exchange, where on Tuesday the Chinese company Zijin Gold International raised $3.2 billion in its debut. Data from Dealogic shows that companies have raised $23 billion so far in Hong Kong this year. This is more than three-times the amount of money raised in the same period of 2024.
Dealmakers report that the pipeline of IPOs remains robust. However, a glitch could arise for new listings as U.S. Congress is at loggerheads with the Trump Administration over federal budget negotiations, and the United States faces a possible government shutdown on Wednesday. This would lead to a halt in IPOs, as federal regulators who are responsible for approving new listings will be furloughed. David Bauer, JPMorgan's co-head of equity markets for the Americas, said that "the IPO backlog is strong and we expect a steady stream of IPOs to come to market until year-end." Investors have profited from IPOs so far this year, but as the market becomes more volatile it is important to price equity accordingly. M&A deals and IPOs were dominated by anything related to AI, be it software, infrastructure, or chips. Dealogic didn't include the $100 billion investment by Nvidia in OpenAI in its league tables. However, other deals, such as CyberArk Software’s $24.5 billion purchase of Palo Alto Networks in July, were included. This Israeli software company uses AI for network and cloud security. Camila Panama, an M&A partner at Mayer Brown, said that almost every client - regardless of their industry - is considering AI as part of their M&A strategies. She said that there is a "robust pipeline" for Q4, and they are expecting a good quarter. They expect to see a lot of activity in the financial sector, insurance deals, as well inbound/outbound Japan deals. M&A GOING FOR SCALE Cross-border deals are also on the rise, with a 44% increase to $931 billion. This is the largest jump since 2021, and represents a new peak.
Dealmakers claim that companies are aiming for scale. Dealmakers say that smaller deals below $500 million aren't resonating with investors anymore. Data show that 49 deals have been done over $10 billion this year, up 75% compared to the first nine month of last year. The $55 billion leveraged purchase of Electronic Arts on Monday was the largest deal in the third quarter. But it wasn't the only one. According to Dealogic, the largest deal of the quarter was Union Pacific's $88.18 Billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern in July.
(source: Reuters)