
EU Expands Sanctions on Russia After Trump Call
The European Union has approved its latest sanctions package against Russia, targeting nearly 200 shadow fleet ships as well as addressing hybrid threats and human rights, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas announced on Tuesday.
The package includes measures targeting dozens of individuals, entities and vessels behind Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers, which has helped Moscow skirt the bloc's trade and energy sanctions.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
German watchdog finds no abuse in companies' pre-results calls with analysts
By Tom Sims FRANKFURT (Reuters) -An investigation by Germany's financial watchdog has found no reason to change companies' practice of communicating with analysts before publishing results, following media concerns about the potential disclosure of insider information. Regulators have taken a closer look at so-called pre-close calls after media reports highlighted an apparent connection between high volatility in share prices and the communication with analysts. Germany's BaFin watchdog disclosed at a conference on Monday the findings of a study it began last year. Details will likely be published this week. "We do not currently see any systematic problems with the execution of pre-close calls," Christoph Schell, a BaFin official who studies market surveillance and abuse, said at the conference. Strong price reactions are isolated cases, and there is no need to tighten rules around the calls, he added. Last year, the European Union's securities watchdog warned that companies should not share market-sensitive information with external analysts ahead of their financial statements. The practice of pre-close calls is widespread - not just in Germany. It is typically communication before the publication of financial statements, between a company and analysts who generate research, forecasts and recommendations on the company's shares and bonds. Supporters say the calls contribute to the orderly functioning of markets. Schell said that BaFin found in its study that 63% of companies listed on Germany's DAX index of blue-chips and the MDAX of smaller companies hold pre-close calls. More than 90% of those companies conduct individual chats with analysts, he said. BaFin found that 70% of the market trading around calls it investigated showed no significant market reaction, while only 10% did. "We have investigated these cases and have so far found no evidence of any unauthorized disclosure of insider information," Schell said. He added that companies should nevertheless be as transparent as possible, by announcing the calls on their websites and holding them in a group format rather than individually.

39 minutes ago
EU readying 'countermeasures' if tariffs deal with US crumbles
BARCELONA, Spain -- The European Union on Monday said it is preparing 'countermeasures' against the United States after the Trump administration's surprise tariffs on steel rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed last week to 'accelerate talks' on a deal, but that if those trade negotiations fail 'then we are also prepared to accelerate our work on the defensive side," European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told a press conference in Brussels. 'In the event that our negotiations do not lead to a balanced outcome, the EU is prepared to impose countermeasures, including in response to this latest tariff increase,' Gill said. He said the EU is finalizing an 'expanded list of countermeasures' that would 'automatically take effect on July 14 or earlier.' That's the date when a 90-day pause, intended to ease negotiations, ends in tariffs announced by the two economic powerhouses on each other. About halfway through that grace period, Trump announced a 50% tariffs on steel imports. Trump's return to the White House has come with an unrivaled barrage of tariffs, with levies threatened, added and, often, taken away. Top officials at the EU's executive commission says they're pushing hard for a trade deal to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods. The EU could possibly buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., as well as lower duties on cars, but it isn't likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax — which is akin to a sales tax — or open up the EU to American beef. The EU has offered the US a 'zero for zero' outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that but EU officials have said it's still on the table. The announcement Friday of a staggering 50% levy on steel imports stoked fear that big-ticket purchases from cars to washing machines to houses could see major price increases. But those metals are so ubiquitous in packaging, they're likely to pack a punch across consumer products from soup to nuts.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
EU's Textile Recycling Excellence Project Creates New Blueprint
The European Union-funded Textile Recycling Excellence (T-Rex) Project wrapped with the completion of a blueprint for scaling textile-to-textile recycling processes for post-consumer polyester, polyamide 6 and cellulosic materials. The blueprint, which spotlights insights and recommendations for each phase of the value chain, has been informed by in-depth analysis conducted by the T-Rex consortium throughout the project. That analysis included assessing the technical feasibility, economic viability and environmental impact of the recycling value chain. More from Sourcing Journal EXCLUSIVE: Feben's Mini Twist Finds Pulp Friction With OnceMore Is Europe Ready for a Textile-to-Textile Recycling 'Tipping Point'? Trump Threatens EU With 50% Duties, Says Trade Talks 'Going Nowhere' The plan was formulated to address four key challenges: technical scalability, business viability, environmental impact and policy recommendations. Within technical scalability, two major obstacles stand in the way of textile-to-textile recycling—inefficient sorting processes and the need for pre-processing of garments. Current manual sorting methods have proven to inefficient and costly to scale, but advancements in automated sorting technology such as near infrared (NIR) and AI-powered systems could improve yield, throughput and identification of multi-layer or blended garments. Though the market potential of textile-to-textile recycling in the EU looks promising—with volumes of post-consumer textile waste suitable for recycling projected to reach 1.2 million metric tons by 2030—business viability remains challenging. That's primarily due to limited access to quality feedstock and a lack of infrastructure at scale. Scaling textile-to-textile recycling in Europe will require coordinated financial, regulatory and industrial efforts to overcome these issues. Ensuring textile-to-textile recycling reduces the environmental impact of fiber production hinges on both the type of material being recycled and the specific recycling technology used. Energy efficiency during the recycling process, as well as the entirety of the manufacturing and supply chain is critical for decreasing environmental impact. While the EU has some of the most progressive regulatory protocols for textile sustainability through its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the T-Rex Project calls for additional governmental support and oversight. Proposed initiatives include economic incentives, end-of-waste criteria, recyclability standards and setting realistic, achievable targets for recycled content. According to the European Environmental Agency, more than 6.95 million metric tons of textile waste are generated annually in the EU, and that's projected to increase to 7.3 million metric tons by 2030. Much of that waste is incinerated or ends up in a landfill, with only 2 percent of post-consumer textiles in Europe diverted to fiber-to-fiber recycling. The T-Rex Project launched in 2022 to help combat that problem, assembling 13 stakeholders from across the textile value chain, including Adidas, Aalto University and Infinited Fiber Company, to develop a plan for closed-loop recycling of post-consumer household textile waste in the EU. While the project's recommendations create a framework for implementing scalable textile-to-textile recycling, the group maintains that this should be just one aspect of a larger-scale effort to reduce textile waste. That strategy should also prioritize reuse, repair and demand management of garments and other textiles. The full T-Rex blueprint will be available on the project's website,