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Canary Wharf in London is boosted by Europe's largest office sale in four-years
Barclays' acquisition of the 'London headquarters' for PS750 million ($993 millions) marks Europe's largest office deal in nearly four years. This could be a potential boost to Canary Wharf following a long slump in investment activity. After COVID, the area's former Docklands became a symbol for the global office property decline. High-profile tenants like HSBC left the area as demand dropped. According to MSCI, while lettings have increased in Canary Wharf, thanks to companies sending staff back to work and a lack of quality space, no property worth more than PS50million had been sold for over two years before the Barclays deal. Investors and property agents expressed their hope that the Barclays deal would thaw out the local market. Others cautioned that high borrowing costs, political uncertainty, or both could keep activity in check. Richard Bloxam is the CEO of Capital Markets for?JLL. He said that it was encouraging to see such a large amount of capital being deployed in a gateway city. This reflected an increase in sales of major offices worldwide, including Europe. Many properties in Canary?Wharf remain in limbo. 5 Churchill Place, for example, has been under administration since 2023. BLACKSTONE SHELVED SALES PLANS Sources familiar with the situation said that Blackstone halted in recent months talks to sell the nearby Cargo building, after the conflict in the Middle East soured the market due to increased borrowing costs. The Barclays deal, they added, could improve the conditions. Blackstone declined comment. Unnamed property investors said that political uncertainty in Britain following the resignation of Prime Minister Keir starmer had also dampened activity. Two deals were put on hold pending clarification. Canary Wharf Group said that proceeds from the sale of the Barclays Tower, which is jointly owned by Qatar's sovereign fund and Canadian investor Brookfield would be re-invested. Canary Wharf is undergoing a multi-year transformation, which includes a planned renovation of the soon-to be-vacated HSBC tower as well as building?more apartments, restaurants and labs. According to CoStar, there are signs of progress. The latest Docklands office vacancy rate has fallen to 18.1%, from a high of 19.1% at the beginning of 2025. However, it's still higher than the city center. Chris Gore, principal of Avison Young, the property agency, stated that the sale price for Barclays' Tower - about PS750 per sq. ft. - is also a discount compared to City where space costs between PS800 and PS1,200. Barclays said the deal would give them long-term certainty over costs. They added that the acquired 999 year lease would save money on their existing lease, which was much shorter. It would also be neutral in terms of capital and earnings. Gore, however, said that this structure could limit direct comparisons to other transactions.
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CMA CGM will buy FedEx's third-party logistics division for $1.4 billion
CMA -CGM, a French shipping company, has acquired FedEx's "third-party logistics" business, valued at $1.4 billion. The deal was announced on Wednesday, in an effort to increase its presence both in the United States and the logistics industry. The deal, which is expected to be completed later this year, will give CMA CGM, via its CEVA Logistics subsidiary a total of 20,000 contract logistics employees and 150 warehouses in North America. CMA CGM announced that following the acquisition the companies will also develop partnerships, under which CMA CGM would be the "preferred ocean carrier" for FedEx, and they would collaborate on air freight, CMA CGM stated in a press release. CMA CGM announced last year plans to invest $20 Billion in the United States for four years. This earned praise from President Donald Trump, who has made revitalizing the U.S. Shipping Sector a "policy priority". CMA CGM also pursued diversification into 'logistics, terminals at ports and non-transport activities in order to counter the volatility of ocean shipping. FedEx spun off its trucking division, FedEx Freight FDXF.N earlier this month, to 'focus on a delivery business. Financial Times reported CMA CGM’s acquisition of the?third party logistics business, FedEx Supply Chain.
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Data shows that Russian pipeline gas exports into Europe fell 3.7% year-on-year in June.
Calculations showed that the average daily natural gas supply to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline fell by 3.7% compared to a year earlier to 36.2 million cubic meters in June. The only remaining transit route for Russian gas into Europe is through Turkey after Ukraine decided not to extend the five-year agreement with Moscow that expired in January 2025. According to calculations based on data from the European Gas Transmission Group Entsog, total Russian gas supplies via TurkStream to Europe were?1.09 billion cu?metres in June 2018, down from 1.13 Bcms in 2025. The half-year supply increased by around 5%, to 8.7 bcm. Gazprom did not respond to an inquiry for comment. It 'hasn't published its own statistics every month since 2023. According to calculations, the 'company's' gas exports to Europe dropped by 44% to 18 bcm last year, the lowest level since the mid-1970s, following the closing of the Ukrainian route. calculations. In 2018-2019, Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe reached a peak of?around 180 bcm. (Reporting and writing by Oksana Kobieva; Editing and editing by Gleb Brynski)
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Five injured in firebombings at homes of Greek ruling party
Police said that attackers firebombed three residences in Thessaloniki, a northern city,?linked to Greece’s ruling party?, before dawn on Wednesday, injuring five people, including a candidate for the parliament. A police official said that both the New Democracy candidate and her mother, who is a member of the ruling centre-right party, suffered burns. Unknown assailants disposed of gas canisters, which had been?lit on fire? outside three buildings in the hour leading up to 5:00 am. One official said that the first two attacks resulted in?blasts which caused only material damages, while the third attack injured?five people, damaged two cars, and destroyed two motorcycles. Two of the buildings targeted were apartments that housed New Democracy figures. The third building was owned by a local party politician. No one has claimed responsibility for these attacks. Greece has had a long history of arson and bomb attacks against politicians. However, in recent years these incidents tend to cause only minor damage. Pavlos Marinakis, a spokesperson for New Democracy and the government, condemned the attacks on Wednesday and said that government was determined to clamp down on violence. Reporting by Yannis?Souliotis, Writing by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Peter Graff
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Data show that in June, Russia's seaborne gasoil and diesel exports dropped by 39%.
Data from market sources and LSEG show that Russia's seaborne gasoil and diesel exports plummeted in June. They fell by 39% from the month before to 1.8 million metric tonnes and 46% from 3.35 mtonnes in the same month a year ago, as waves of drone strikes forced unplanned shut downs at key refineries. According to traders' calculations and estimates, the number of ultra-low-sulphur Diesel shipments from Primorsk - Russia's largest outlet for diesel exports - has fallen by over half since May. The Russian authorities haven't made a definite decision yet about banning diesel exports. However, traders believe that exports of ULSD may fall to "minimal" levels or "almost zero" in July due to unplanned and prolonged maintenance at some major refineries as well as strong domestic demand. The sharp decline in production is the result of a series drone strikes that took place between?May?and?June?targeting major refineries, such as Lukoil's Volgograd refinery; Gazpromneft?s Moscow refinery; Rosneft?s Ryazan?refinery?and Surgutneftegaz?s Kirishi refinery?one of Russia?s largest diesel producers?. The private Tyumen refining plant also halted production after an accident. The disruption is affecting the domestic market. As output shrank, and seasonal demand surged, fuel supplies became tighter, leading to restrictions in multiple Russian regions. Shipping data revealed that in June, Turkey and Brazil were the dominant buyers. Together, they absorbed at least half of all available cargoes. Tankers carrying a total of 250,000 tons diesel from Russian ports will be heading to the anchorages near Port Said, Egypt and Limassol, Cyprus for "ship-to ship transfers". These cargoes have not yet been assigned a final destination. LSEG data show that tankers with a total of 100,000?tons diesel are yet to 'declare' their discharge ports. Shipping data revealed that, in addition to the major buyers, Morocco Egypt and Senegal were also among the top importers of Russian Diesel cargoes during June.
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Maguire: The solar boom in Europe is masking an increasing strain on the power markets.
Solar power in Europe is soaring to new heights, but the power markets of this region are under increasing stress. Solar generation in the European Union is on track to break new records this year. Capacity additions are continuing at a rapid pace, and the favorable weather conditions have boosted outputs across key markets, such as Germany, Spain, and France. Solar power now accounts for more than half the midday electricity mix in some areas. The surge in output is an indication of the success of Europe’s clean energy drive, but it also reveals a growing mismatch between the time when electricity is generated and the time when it is required. This imbalance is pushing prices down during peak production, which in turn reduces revenues for renewable generators. Grid operators are also forced to curtail their supply. Europe has learned that producing cheap, clean energy at scale is just part of the problem - capturing their value is much harder. SOLAR RAPID RISE There are few comparables to the scale of Europe's expansion in solar power. Solar capacity in both residences and utilities has risen dramatically due to policy support provided by the Green Deal, REPowerEU and falling installation costs. Spain is a solar powerhouse that exports surplus production to neighbouring markets. Germany, on the other hand, continues to be a leader in the deployment of distributed solar. Southern Europe's increased irradiation is accelerating this shift. However, even the northern markets are experiencing strong growth. This results in a system that is increasingly shaped and influenced by the daily solar production profile. There are sharp peaks in output around midday followed by steep drops in the evening. Especially in areas with limited storage or interconnection, the midday production sometimes exceeds the local demand. CAPTURE LOSS The power price is being reshaped by this. Solar's capture rate, or the price that it earns in relation to wholesale prices on average, is declining across Europe. It's simple: When solar overwhelms the grid at peak hours, the prices are depressed. In extreme situations, prices can turn negative. This means generators have to pay in order to remain online. LSEG data show that the average capture price during the first six months of 2026 - across Germany, France and the Netherlands as well as Belgium, Italy, Spain, is down by 42% compared with the same period in 2023. The implications for solar developers and utilities are huge. The production of solar panels does not guarantee a rise in revenue. Each additional megawatt of power cannibalizes existing production. Merchant projects, or those exposed to wholesale markets, are particularly vulnerable. Even projects that are contracted feel the pressure as counterparties hesitate to lock in prices for long-term in a volatile market. CUTTING GROWTH Grid constraints force operators to waste more clean electricity. In high-solar areas, curtailment is more common. It has reached record levels in Germany and Spain in 2026. According to LSEG, in May, Germany's energy firms cut back on solar output by an estimated 1,28 terawatt-hours (TWh), while utilities in Spain curtailed more than 2.4 TWh. When prices drop below zero, many producers will simply stop production rather than lose money. UTILITY STRAIN Solar boom has become a double-edged blade for utilities. One side of the equation is that renewable energy generation continues to grow rapidly. This supports decarbonization and asset growth over time. The revenue profile for these assets is also deteriorating. The price of power is becoming more volatile. There are deep troughs in sunny hours, and sharp peaks when there is low renewable output. This volatility is good for flexible generation, such as hydro, gas and storage, but can be a problem for solar-heavy portfolios. Utilities respond by seeking more revenue stability by investing in power purchase agreements and balancing services. These strategies do not fully offset the structural decline of capture prices. FLEXIBLE FIX Too much solar is not the problem, but rather too little flexibility. Battery storage is growing rapidly, but it's not at the scale required to absorb midday excesses. The demand-side response is still underdeveloped. Industrial consumption remains relatively rigid, and new sources of demand such as heat pumps and electric vehicles are not fully optimized to balance the grid. Another bottleneck is the expansion of transmission. To move power from "surplus regions" in the south, to the demand centers of the north, requires major infrastructure investment that is often slowed down by permit delays and public resistance. The system will struggle until these gaps are filled to convert the growing renewable energy into valuable and usable electricity. This creates a balancing act for policymakers. Europe cannot afford to delay its solar rollout in order to achieve climate targets and reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. Adding capacity to grids without improving storage, market design and grids risks undermining economics. There are many potential solutions, such as incentives for co-located energy storage, reforms in electricity pricing and stronger signals to encourage flexible demand. Implementing them at scale and quickly enough to keep up with solar growth remains a challenge. The continent has mostly solved the problem of producing clean electricity at scale and low cost. Next comes the harder part: integrating that power into an existing system. If flexibility, infrastructure and market structures do not evolve simultaneously, the paradox will become worse - cleaner power but with less value per unit produced. It is not about how much energy Europe can produce, but how efficiently it can utilize it. These are the opinions of the columnist, who is also an author. This column is great! Open Interest (ROI) is your new essential source of global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, X and X. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast daily on Apple, Spotify or the app. Subscribe to the Morning Bid podcast and hear journalists discussing the latest news in finance and markets 7 days a weeks.
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Images from Estonia show machine guns on Russian LNG carriers in Baltic
Estonia released images of a Russian-flagged LNG carrier in the Baltic Sea this spring with machine guns and sandbags, indicating a more aggressive stance from Moscow to 'protect its civilian fleet. Surveillance images show machine gun positions fortified on the roof of the Marshal Vasilevskiy civilian vessel, which has its home port in Kaliningrad. Yoruk isik, a geopolitical expert who runs the Bosphorus Observer consulting, described it as "a crazy step" by civilian vessels operating in the Baltic. Isik said that "this is a hostile act by Russia" to send a signal to EU and NATO nations, saying it would actively oppose any attempts to detain or inspect its ships. "There's no justification for a self-defence posture such as a machine gun on the Baltic... It is clear that the high seas are becoming more lawless. According to LSEG tracking data, the Marshal Vasilevskiy (owned by Gazprom's unit Gazprom Flot LLC) has transported LNG from a port in St Petersburg to Kaliningrad four times since 2025 began, and most recently, last May. The route follows the coastline of Estonia. A spokesperson for Estonian Police and Border Guard Service said that the images were taken in the spring of this year on the Baltic Sea, within Estonia's responsibility area. A spokesperson for the Estonian Navy said that the Estonian Navy had not found any civilian vessels in the 'Estonian Area of Responsibility' with weapons on board. Gazprom has not responded to a request for comment. "We cannot tolerate the blocking of our main maritime routes." In an interview published in June 15, Nikolai Patrushev said that the Baltic and Black Seas are responsible for most of our maritime trade. It is vital to ensure that the Russian fleet can counter all threats. Sanctions and Seizures Since the beginning of the year, nine suspected shadow fleet oil tanks - vessels with a Russian connection and opaque ownership that sail under flags to skirt Western sanctions - have all been seized in Europe. The most recent was by France on 26th June. The United Kingdom sanctioned the Marshal Vasilevskiy in October 2024. Canada in February 2025, and Australia in December 2020. Gazprom flot was sanctioned in April by the EU. Unofficially, a Baltic security official said that the vessel is unlikely to be seized as it doesn't fall under the shadow fleet and sails with the Russian flag. The official stated that it was difficult to know what the Russians were thinking. Since the Baltic Sea became a NATO lake in 2004, Russians are stressed by anything going on there. So maybe they're just overthinking and reacting." Ivo Vark, the Estonian Navy Commander, stated in April that Russia was increasing its military presence between Estonia and Finland. This is the route leading to the ports of?St Petersburg where a large share of Russia's?energy exports are loaded. Vark said in April that Estonia has stopped trying to detain vessels with a Russian connection which do not present an immediate threat because "the risks of military escalation are too high". In January 2019, Putin inaugurated the Marshal Vasilevskiy which is capable of regasifying LNG directly into a gas pipeline. This was to provide a backup gas supply for Kaliningrad, a militarised exclave in Russia, in case gas supplies through NATO member Lithuania were disrupted. (Reporting and editing by Ros Russell in Vilnius)
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Wayve, a new AI-driven driving system that can learn like humans, is attracting automakers.
Wayve, a startup in autonomous-driving technology, is riding the wave of investor interest. The London-based startup has?raised $2.8 billion in funding from a list of investors and strategic partnerships that includes major names from the automotive and technology sectors, including Nvidia, Mercedes-Benz and?Nissan. Wayve announced in June that it would deploy its robotaxis system from Jeep maker Stellantis to Uber's ride hailing network. Wayve uses an ?artificial-intelligence ?technology called end-to-end machine learning to navigate roadways, which is supposed to instantly translate sensor-generated data into driving decisions, much like a human driver. This is different from the more traditional approach that combines AI with high-definition mapping and software coding to create presets rules for how a car should react in various scenarios, such as unforeseen events. Wayve's method is similar to that of another major autonomous-driving company, Tesla. Tesla moved to a end-to-end approach a few year ago. Wayve's technology is not like Tesla's, however, as it uses a variety of sensors, including AI chips, to create its system. It could then license the technology to any developer of driverless cars, according to Wayve CEO Alex Kendall. Kendall is a 33-year old New Zealander and co-founded Wayve in 2017, the same year that he finished his PhD in AI deep-learning at Cambridge University, England. Kendall said earlier this year that he wanted to make self-driving possible for any car, any brand and anywhere in the world. He was sitting behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang Mach-E equipped with Wayve’s driverless technology, which autonomously navigated San Francisco Bay Area neighbourhoods where the company has a major tech center. WAYMO EXPANSION FUELS INDUSTRY MOMENTUM After years of missed targets and overstated promises, the competition in the autonomous driving industry has intensified. Alphabet’s Waymo has experienced rapid growth over the last two years. It now offers paid rides in a dozen cities after more than 10 years of development. Kendall was one of the few researchers who pursued end-to-end AI a decade ago. Many autonomous-driving developers are now integrating at least some aspects end-to-end AI into their systems. The AI-centric approach does raise a dilemma: because end-to-end navigation systems are ambiguous and "black boxes" in nature, it is difficult to understand the driving decisions of the vehicle. In earlier versions of driverless vehicles, the software code was used to guide the vehicle to a safe route. It was therefore easier to understand why a car took a particular path. Wayve's AI driving engine creates a safety map for traffic situations that are unfolding and determines the safest paths for vehicles. Wayve engineers believe the conventional, programming-intensive safety approach hinders an AI driving system's ability to stay safe in unusual cases because it is hard to write rules to prepare for very unusual situations. Vijay Badrinarayanan is Wayve's vice-president of AI. He said that when such difficult-to-predict situations occur, the safety logic of a preprogrammed system becomes "brittle". Human drivers are safe because they adjust conservatively to unknown situations. Shooting for Safety at Scale Waymo is using end-to-end AI, but it also uses a conventional, rules-based method achieved by software coding and mapping, which, according to the company, is still necessary for safety. The company said that "end-to-end" models were not enough to ensure safety on a large scale. Nissan, one of Wayve's clients, has yet to feel comfortable with the safety approach. Eiichi Akashi is Nissan's Tech?chief. His team is closely evaluating Wayve's technology ahead of Nissan's plans to deploy it on a people mover van named Elgrand in Japan during the year that ends March 2028. He says the system is the "most advanced" but that it's "difficult?to?peer in and see how it makes decision?" Kendall says that Wayve with its major operations in Tokyo Stuttgart and Vancouver should be able expand into new markets quickly because it doesn't need to do the tiresome step of mapping and writing code for local road quirks. Wayve claims to have successfully tested its AI-driven driving system in hundreds cities around the globe without doing any initial preparation work. Siddartha Khastgir, professor of safe autonomy at University of Warwick in England, says end-to-end model deployment should be quicker than more traditional approaches. He said that he would not say one technology was safer than another. Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor and autonomous-technology expert, said Wayve's method for handling unusual traffic situations is but one approach, and others may also prove successful. He still believes it will take at least 10 years to safely deploy driverless vehicles across the U.S. It will probably require new innovations to get there.
Canada - July 1,
These are the 'top stories' from selected Canadian newspapers. The accuracy of these stories has not been verified by us.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
**Bank of Montreal has struck a cash deal worth A$142m ($97.87m) to buy Euroz Hartleys Group, a Perth-based financial services firm that focuses on metals and mining.
**Canadian Prime minister Mark Carney said he does not expect to sign a new trade agreement with the United States or Mexico during the six-year review scheduled for Wednesday. This is because the U.S. has indicated that it would like to renegotiate the deal.
**Canada's prime minister?Carney?said that there has not been a private-sector supporter for Alberta's initial proposal for a new oil pipeline to West Coast. Adding that the talks are continuing, and the process will continue through the summer.
(source: Reuters)