Chinese Plastics Makers Risk Losing Iran Supply on US Crackdown
Iranian methanol exports to China — which have so far flown under Washington's radar — may be subject to scrutiny after the US threatened to impose secondary sanctions on buyers of the country's oil.
About 40% of China's methanol imports, around 5.2 million tons, came from Iran last year, Kpler data show. The chemical compound made from natural gas is used as a feedstock to create olefins, which are in turn used to make plastics. Methanol-to-olefin, or MTO, plants are the biggest buyers of cargoes originating in Iran, according to price-reporting and analytics firm ICIS.
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The Hill
7 hours ago
- The Hill
Trump denies Iran deal will allow uranium enrichment
President Trump on Monday evening denied the U.S. was advancing a new deal with Iran that would allow some enrichment of uranium at nuclear facilities, apparently contradicting a report from Axios published earlier in the day. In a statement on his social media site Truth Social, Trump said 'Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!' Axios reported that U.S. officials on Saturday gave Iran a proposal for a nuclear agreement that would allow low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil for a to-be-determined time. Trump's top negotiator with Iran, special envoy Steve Witkoff, has sent mixed signals on the issue of enrichment, walking back his suggestion that Iran would be allowed to enrich to limits that were outlined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2019. In April, Witkoff said any deal with Iran must 'eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as National Security Advisor, has also said the position of the U.S. is that Iran can not have the ability to enrich uranium. 'They believe that it makes them a threshold nuclear power and as a result becomes untouchable and that is the crux of the situation we're facing right now,' Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. Both the U.S. and Iran have expressed public optimism about a path toward a new deal, however many questions remain about what that deal would look like. A senior, unnamed Iranian official told CNN that the Trump administration's latest proposal is 'incoherent and disjointed,' raising doubt over Trump's optimistic pronouncements last week that a deal is within reach. 'The fact that the Americans constantly change their positions has so far been the main obstacle to the success of the talks and now makes the work more difficult than ever,' the official told CNN. The official also alleged the latest text directly contradicts prior understandings. 'The text is clearly in conflict with the latest agreement reached during the fifth round of negotiations,' the official stated. Reuters reported on Monday that Iran is poised to reject the U.S. proposal. The U.S. and Iran have held five meetings on negotiating the deal.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Iran seeks to turn 'new page' in ties with Lebanon
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese officials on Tuesday that Iran wanted to turn a "new page" in relations with Beirut, hinting at a shift in diplomatic ties that were long grounded in supporting Tehran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Hezbollah was once a powerful armed movement and political party with sway over Lebanon's state, but it was severely weakened by Israel's bombing campaign last year. Since then, Lebanon's U.S.-backed army commander was elected president and a new cabinet with curtailed influence for Hezbollah and its allies took power. Araqchi's one-day trip to Beirut on Tuesday was his first since February, when he attended the funeral of Hezbollah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, killed in Israeli air strikes in September. Araqchi told both Lebanon's prime minister Nawaf Salam and foreign minister Youssef Raggi that he wanted to "turn a new page" in Iran's ties with Lebanon, according to statements by Salam and Raggi's offices. "Araqchi affirmed his country's keenness to open a new page in bilateral relations with Lebanon, based on mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs," Salam's office said. Araqchi also extended a formal invitation for Salam to visit Iran. The statement from Raggi's office said the pair had a "frank and direct discussion," including on establishing the state's monopoly on the use of arms - an apparent reference to possible negotiations on the future of Hezbollah's arsenal. The top Iranian diplomat briefly addressed reporters on Tuesday after meeting with Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is a key Hezbollah ally. Unlike previous addresses by Iranian diplomats, his comments did not mention Hezbollah. The visit followed several turbulent episodes in ties between the two countries. Lebanon's foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador to Beirut in April over comments alleging that plans to disarm Hezbollah were a "conspiracy". Last year, then-prime minister Najib Mikati also issued a rare rebuke of Iran for "interfering" in internal Lebanese affairs. In February, Iran blocked Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Tehran after Lebanon said it would not allow Iranian aircraft to land in Beirut because of Israel's threats that it would bomb the planes.
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Forbes
Selena Gomez, Michele Kang Join Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian Among America's 100 Richest Self-Made Women
Bigger fortunes. More billionaires. Increasing impact. We mark the 10th anniversary of our annual list of America's most successful self-made women by celebrating how far these 100 entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers have come. Together these ceiling-breakers are worth a combined $155 billion, more than ever before. There are 38 billionaires this year, with fortunes originating in everything from cars to cosmetics to Chardonnay. That's more than double the 18 billionaires we found on our first list in 2015 and an increase from 31 billionaires in 2024. The minimum net worth to make the cut is $350 million, up from $300 million last year. Back in 2015, when we ranked only 50 women, the minimum to qualify was $250 million. Thirty-six members of the original list from a decade ago made the 2025 edition. Jamel Toppin for Forbes One of those list originals–and the richest this year–is billionaire Diane Hendricks, the 78-year-old chair and owner of roofing and building materials wholesaler ABC Supply. She takes the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, with an estimated $22.3 billion fortune. Hendricks, who cofounded ABC Supply in 1982 with her husband Ken (who died in 2007) has been No. 1 for all but two years–she ranked No. 2 in 2015 and 2017. Her fortune has risen sixfold since appearing on the first list with a net worth of $3.7 billion. Revenue at the Wisconsin-based company has grown from $4.8 billion in 2014 to $20.7 billion last year. Among this year's nine newcomers are three billionaires, including the majority owner of the National Women's Soccer League's Washington Spirit, Michele Kang, who sold her health care IT company Cognosante to Accenture for more than $1 billion last year (more on Kang here); Lauren Leichtman, a private equity investor who with her husband bought the National Women's Soccer League's San Diego Wave in October; and Iranian immigrant and biotech executive and investor Maky Zanganeh, who helped turn around and sell drug developer Pharmacyclics to AbbVie for $21 billion in 2015 and today runs Summit Therapeutics with her husband (and fellow billionaire) Robert Duggan. The highest profile and youngest newcomer is musician and actress Selena Gomez, who at 32 is worth an estimated $700 million. The vast majority of the star's fortune comes from her stake in Rare Beauty, the cosmetics company she founded in 2020 and that Forbes estimates is now worth $1.3 billion. (For more on how Gomez built her fortune, see here.) She is now one of 16 celebrities in the ranks. The oldest newcomer is Gail Federici, 76, a hair care entrepreneur who founded her current company, Color Wow, in 2013. Other new faces include two executives at sizzling chip design firm Nvidia: chief financial officer Collete Kress, who joined the semiconductor company in 2013, reportedly after her two young sons endorsed the brand, which they knew as the designer of the chips powering their favorite computer games; and Debora Shoquist, Nvidia's executive vice president of operations and an 18-year veteran of the company, who oversees the logistics and supply chain. Eight members of last year's list became billionaires in the past year, several thanks to higher valuations of private tech companies. That includes SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell; Daniela Amodei, president and one of seven cofounders of AI unicorn Anthropic; Theresia Gouw, America's wealthiest female venture capitalist thanks to her time as a partner at Accel; and Lucy Guo, who became the world's youngest self-made female billionaire at age 30 in April. Her fortune grew 160% since last year due to the increased value of Scale AI, the artificial intelligence data labeling firm that she cofounded in 2016 with Alexandr Wang, enough to make her the biggest gainer in percentage terms. A sale of insider shares in April pushed the value of the privately held firm to $25 billion, up from $13.8 billion. Though Guo left Scale AI in 2018 and went on to found OnlyFans competitor Passes, she has held on to a nearly 5% stake, which now makes up the vast majority of her net worth. Cofounder of Little Caesar's pizza chain, Marian Ilitch is the biggest gainer in dollar terms, up $2.3 billion from a year ago to an estimated $6.9 billion fortune, thanks in part to a more than $1 billion jump in the value of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, which she owns. Alice Schwartz, cofounder of research and diagnostic firm Bio-Rad Laboratories, is the oldest member of the list, at age 98. Kylie Jenner, who made her debut on the list at age 21, holds onto her position as the youngest member, at 27. More than half of the women on the list–58–saw their fortunes grow since last year, while the net worths of 12 members are unchanged from 2024. Twenty-one are worth less than last year, including pop star Rihanna, whose net worth slipped by $400 million to an estimated $1 billion, due to setbacks at her key businesses. The CEO of her lingerie brand Savage X Fenty quit in August 2024 to take over Victoria's Secret, and investors marked down their valuation of the company. Sales are estimated to be flat at Fenty Beauty, the cosmetics line which she co-owns with luxury conglomerate LVMH. Sara Liu, who cofounded data storage and server maker Super Micro Computer was a billionaire last year, lost $540 million as shares of Super Micro plunged nearly 60% in the past year. Six members of the 2024 list dropped off the ranking altogether, including dating app Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd and Pepsico's former chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi, as shares of their companies tumbled 50% and 20% respectively, in the past year. Three others, all members of the original 2015 list, died: Love's truck stop cofounder Judy Love, who was 87; casino entrepreneur Elaine Wynn, 82; and former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, 56. To compile net worths, Forbes valued individual assets including stakes in public companies using stock prices from May 2, 2025. We valued private companies by consulting with outside experts and conservatively comparing them with public companies. To be eligible for the list, women have to have substantially made their own fortunes in the U.S. and/or be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. While none inherited their wealth, some climbed farther and overcame more obstacles to get into the ranks. To measure just how far some have come, women are given a self-made score of 6 (hired hand) to 10 (rags-to-riches entrepreneur). We attempted to vet numbers with all list entrants. Some cooperated, others didn't. Ages are as of June 3, 2025. For more information, including details on the self-made scores, see
