Business

By Matt Tracy

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) – Hedge fund Citadel is “doubling down” on its Miami ventures, revising its plans in the city to make the firm’s office building larger, CEO Ken Griffin said at the 2026 Milken Institute Conference on Tuesday.

Griffin was responding to questions about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, who in April ‌filmed a video titled, “Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich,” in front of Griffin’s penthouse.

Griffin said during the Milken event that Mamdani’s video in front of his home was “creepy and weird.”

The new tax, which would impose an added annual charge on second houses, condos and co-ops valued at over $5 million if the owner doesn’t list them as their permanent residence, fuels the debate over a potential exodus of New York City’s mega-rich.

“You know, Mamdani’s making it really clear: New York doesn’t welcome success,” Griffin said on Tuesday. “Are these states trying to push away from their populations those who really do believe in the merits of capitalism, the merits of a free society, the importance of education?”

When asked about Citadel’s plans for its massive office redevelopment project in Midtown Manhattan, Griffin said the project was “still a point of discussion internally.” Meanwhile the firm has revised its plans to expand its Miami office, he added.

Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Matt Tracy; Editing by Megan Davies and Mark Porter)

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Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment for the Caucasus mountains nation that has formally declared its ambition to join the bloc and is cautiously loosening its ties with longtime ally Russia.

The EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan follows the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, which brought dozens of European leaders to the Armenian capital. The officials addressed European security issues and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran in remarks on Monday.

The two meetings underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence. Armenia’s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decades-long rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with its war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

The war was “a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, told The Associated Press.

Since then, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the EU.

In remarks to the EPC conference on Monday, EU Council President Antonio Costa thanked Pashinyan for “the courageous political decisions he has taken to bring Armenia closer to the European Union.”

“The direction of travel is unmistakable,” Costa said, stressing that it was “vital to strengthen Armenian democracy and fight external interference and misinformation.”

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, stressed in remarks to the EPC that Armenia played an important role for European supply chains, “specifically on the connectivity to the South Caucasus and Central Asia.”

Armenia joined the International Criminal Court in 2023, a move Moscow condemned as an “unfriendly step.” The court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

Armenia also froze its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024.

The following year, the Armenian parliament passed a law formally declaring the country’s intention to seek EU membership.

It is the EU, rather than the United States, that has stepped into the vacuum left by Russia, Giragosian said.

“EU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,” he added.

However, Armenia remains a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union — a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capital and labor. The organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — and Putin has made the trade-offs plain.

Speaking at talks with Pashinyan in Moscow earlier this year, Putin warned that Armenia could not simultaneously belong to both the EEU and the EU, noting that Yerevan currently receives Russian natural gas at prices far below European market rates. Pashinyan acknowledged the incompatibility but said Armenia could, for now, combine EEU membership with deepening EU cooperation.

Giragosian described Tuesday’s summit as “a focus on deepening the preexisting relationship” rather than a step toward candidacy, referencing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that has governed EU-Armenia ties since coming fully into force in 2021.

“The symbolic significance is much greater as a message to Russia,” he said.

Yet some concrete results are expected, Giragosian said. Financing for domestic reform and military assistance through the European Peace Facility — a fund created primarily to support Ukraine — is among the anticipated announcements. An EU monitoring mission has been deployed along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan for several years, and a new mission targeting hybrid threats has recently been approved.

Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018 and faces parliamentary elections in June, stands to benefit politically from the international profile the European meetings confer. Giragosian noted that Pashinyan’s government is likely to be returned largely by default, with the opposition unable to offer a credible alternative program.

But Giragosian warned against framing Armenia’s foreign policy as purely a pivot from Russia to the West.

“Armenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,” he said, pointing to significant diplomatic investment in Asia, including with Japan, South Korea and China. “This is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.”

The summit also comes at a moment of heightened tension between Azerbaijan and the EU. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the EU ambassador last week to protest a European Parliament resolution demanding the release of Armenian prisoners of war and criticizing the treatment of Armenians in Karabakh. Lawmakers in Azerbaijan subsequently voted to suspend all cooperation with the European Parliament.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the EPC conference via video link, accused the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) of “double standards” for placing sanctions on Azerbaijan’s PACE delegation.

There were also protests outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by tight security. Demonstrators held photos of Armenian prisoners being held in Azerbaijan.

Opposition leader Aram Sargsyan, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told the Armenian Press Agency that the European officials were voicing support for Pashinyan ahead of the election and have “forgotten about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.”

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Morton reported from London. Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed.

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HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks declined Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street after U.S. stocks retreated from record highs.

Oil prices fell back after rising earlier on escalating tensions in the war between the U.S. and Iran.

U.S. futures edged 0.1% higher.

Regional trading was thin, with markets in Japan, South Korea and mainland China closed for holidays.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 25,757.56, while Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.3%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4% to 8,659.90 after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35%, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation. The cash rate hike on Tuesday was the Reserve Bank of Australia’s third quarter percentage point rise this year.

The bank said Australia’s inflation for the year through March was 4.6%. The bank manipulates interest rates to steer inflation toward a target band of 2% to 3%.

India’s Sensex lost 0.7%.

The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was tested Monday after the U.S. military said it had sank six Iranian small boats targeting civilian ships, while two U.S.-flagged ships successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The key waterway for oil and gas tranport remains largely closed despite repeated demands from the U.S. for Iran to reopen the strait and as the United States imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom” plan under which the United States would help guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz began on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell $1.13 to $113.31 per barrel. It surged above $114 a barrel on Monday, gaining nearly 6%. Before the war began in late February, it was trading near $70.

Benchmark U.S. crude slipped $2.04 to $104.38 per barrel.

Talks on a permanent end to war have stalled. Tensions escalated when the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally, said it came under attack from Iran for the first time since the ceasefire last month.

“We are seeing the first signs of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran breaking down amid a re-escalation in the Persian Gulf,” ING Bank analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note Tuesday.

“Continuation of ‘Project Freedom’ risks further escalation,” they wrote. “Any relief from stranded vessels making their way through the Strait will be temporary, with very few inbound vessels moving into the Persian Gulf.”

On Monday, Wall Street closed lower with the benchmark S&P 500 slipping 0.4% from its latest record heights to 7,200.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% to 48,941.90, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2% to 25,067.80.

Shares of GameStop sank 10.1% after it said it wants to acquire eBay, which has a market value that’s roughly four times of GameStop’s.

The U.S. dollar rose to 157.27 Japanese yen from 157.25 yen. The euro was trading at 1.1680, down from $1.1689.

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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk contributed.

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By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Mathieu Rosemain, Lawrence White and Elizabeth Howcroft

LONDON/PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) – Europe’s investment banks are struggling to maintain market share as Wall Street titans power ahead, fuelled by regulatory changes and vast pools of capital they can deploy to compete.

First-quarter earnings from BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and other European majors last week painted a mixed picture for their trading and advisory arms, with several reporting falls in revenue or only tiny rises.

By contrast, U.S.-based giants including JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley posted record sales as their traders seized on market volatility wrought by the Iran war.

While quarterly numbers can be volatile, and while Swiss bank UBS outperformed its European peers with a record three months for its traders, the otherwise weak results underline how investment banking competition remains fierce in a playing field that is tilting further in Wall Street’s favour.

U.S. investment banks have gradually stolen market share from their European counterparts since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, aided initially by a faster clean-up of their balance sheets and ever since by deeper and more profitable domestic capital markets that can subsidise their businesses elsewhere.

The Trump administration has moved to cut regulation for U.S.-based banks. Proposed changes to the so-called “Basel III” and “GSIB surcharge” rules could reduce capital levels at Wall Street banks by around 4.8%. The decision was a victory for the U.S. banking industry, which fought hard to water ​down an original plan that had envisaged 20% hikes.

“The further apart it goes, the greater the competitive friction we’re going to have to overcome,” Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan told reporters last week, referring to the gap between Europe and the more deregulated U.S. “We’ve done a good job overcoming it, and we’ll continue to overcome it, but it is a competitive edge that the U.S. banks get as these disparities grow,” he said.

European investment banks such as Societe Generale and Barclays have also retreated from key markets.

In addition, Europeans are losing business in areas other than stock and bond trading. Their share of global investment banking fees – for areas like M&A and capital raising – fell to 21% last year from 29% in 2015, while U.S. banks have increased their share of the haul to 51% from 46%, according to LSEG data.

The European share shrank further to 20% in the first quarter of this year, the lowest of any annual percentage since LSEG records began in 2000. The U.S. share hit 54%, the data showed.

Banks globally have also lost business to market-making firms such as Citadel Securities and XTX in equities and foreign exchange trading.

“DISAPPOINTING ACROSS THE BOARD”

BNP Paribas reported a 0.8% drop in overall investment banking revenue, while at SocGen’s investment banking division – its largest – revenue declined by 4.5%, dragged down by an 18% slump in fixed-income trading.

SocGen CEO Slawomir Krupa blamed that result on weaker client activity and volatile short-term rates, adding that a lack of diversification left it more exposed than its U.S. peers. Citi analysts described SocGen’s investment banking performance as “disappointing across the board”.

At Deutsche Bank’s investment bank, which operates from Sydney to New York, revenue was flat. Bank executives said capital market issuance activity took a hit in March but was recovering in April. Rates trading also was relatively weak.

European investment banks’ market share in capital markets shrivelled to an estimated 32% in 2025, from 41% in 2012, Oliver Wyman said last year.

Their share of revenue from market trading, by contrast, has held relatively steady in recent years at 31% of the total brought in by U.S. and European investment banks combined, according to data for 2021 to 2025 from Coalition Greenwich.

To be sure, analysts expect European investment banking revenue to grow this year, driven by a favourable backdrop of volatile markets and dealmaking, even as lenders lose market share to U.S. players. Deutsche upgraded its outlook for investment bank revenue for 2026, expecting it to be higher rather than just slightly higher.

UBS stood out after investment bank revenue jumped 27% year-on-year, boosted by its trading arm. Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner cited the bank’s “capital-light approach”.

Rival European banks are often more active in fixed income and balance sheet-heavy financing, where U.S. peers and their newly freed up capital can outcompete.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain, Elizabeth Howcroft, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Lawrence White; Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London, Tom Sims in Frankfurt and Ariane Luthi in Zurich; Graphic by Lawrence White; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Rae Wee

U.S. President Donald Trump’s operation “Project Freedom” hasn’t got off to a promising start.

Sure, Maersk’s U.S.-flagged vehicle carrier Alliance Fairfax might have exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by U.S. military assets.

But several merchant ships in the Gulf also reported explosions or fires, the U.S. said it had destroyed six small Iranian military boats, and an oil port in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large U.S. military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said that authorities would investigate the cause of a fire on a South Korean-operated ship in the Strait.

All that and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz remains largely at a standstill.

The fragility of the U.S.-Iran truce left markets in a precarious mood on Tuesday, with stocks in Asia falling and oil prices holding well above $100 a barrel.

Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp was the latest lender to warn about the risks stemming from the Middle East conflict as it reported lower-than-expected first-half profit.

As the global energy shock drags on, the pain is becoming increasingly costly for governments in Asia, who are scrambling to find alternative fuel sources and insulate their economies from the worst of the crisis.

Philippine annual inflation accelerated to a three-year high in April, data on Tuesday showed, as a surge in fuel prices raised the chance of more policy tightening.

Geopolitics aside, the earnings season is also in full swing, with chip giant AMD and pharmaceutical firm Pfizer among those set to release results later in the day.

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed 83% of S&P 500 companies that have already reported have beaten EPS estimates and 78.2% have exceeded revenue estimates.

A slew of central bankers across the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are also due to speak across various events, on the heels of last week’s policy meetings that saw several turn more hawkish.

Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:

– Bank of England’s Sam Woods speaks

– European Central Bank’s Christine Lagarde and Philip Lane speak

– Federal Reserve’s Michael Barr and Michelle Bowman speak

– Earnings include AMD, Pfizer, KKR, PayPal, AMC Entertainment

– U.S. ‘JOLTS’ job openings (March)

(Editing ny Kate Mayberry)

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By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE, May 5 (Reuters) – Stocks fell in Asia on Tuesday while oil prices retreated after the previous day’s surge but remained well above $100 a barrel, as the U.S. and Iran traded blows over the Strait of Hormuz, leaving a fragile truce hanging in the balance. 

Traders also had their eyes on the yen after the Japanese currency briefly jumped in the previous session, stoking speculation of another round of intervention from Tokyo.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures were down 0.3% and FTSE futures shed 1%, while DAX futures lost 0.4%.

In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.6% in thin trade, with markets in Japan and South Korea closed for a holiday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost more than 1% while China’s CSI300 blue-chip index was little changed.

The U.S. and Iran launched new attacks in the Gulf on Monday as they wrestled for control over the Strait of Hormuz with duelling maritime blockades, not long after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new effort to get stranded tankers and other ships through the vital energy-trade chokepoint.

Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged vehicle carrier operated by its Farrell Lines subsidiary, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by U.S. military assets on Monday.

Still, the renewed hostilities jolted markets and served as a stark reminder that the war in the Middle East was far from over.

“We started yesterday with high hopes that operation ‘Project Freedom’ would be, I guess, a success on the ground, that it was being pitched as more of a humanitarian effort,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.

“But as we saw, the Iranians weren’t taking that bait at all… It really signifies that the stalemate remains in place, it’s been a very shaky start.”

In oil markets, Brent crude futures fell 1.3% to $112.93 a barrel while U.S. crude slid 2.3% to $104 per barrel, having both jumped in the previous session on heightened worries about supply disruption.

Geopolitics aside, investors were also bracing for earnings reports this week, with Advanced Micro Devices and Pfizer among those set to release results later in the day.

Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed 83% of S&P 500 companies that have already reported have beaten EPS estimates and 78.2% of them have beaten revenue estimates.

Nasdaq futures rose 0.26% and S&P 500 futures were up 0.17%, after both indexes ended lower in the overnight cash session.

“With no signs of slowing down, AI-driven spending will likely continue to do the heavy lifting for S&P 500 earnings growth, led by the technology sector,” said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial.

YEN INTERVENTION WATCH

The yen was last steady at 157.26 per dollar, after Monday’s short-lived surge that saw the Japanese currency touch an intraday high of 155.69.

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama on Monday spoke out against speculative trading in foreign exchange, leaving market participants on alert for further intervention after sources told Reuters Tokyo intervened to prop up its ailing currency on Thursday.

Abbas Keshvani, Asia Macro Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said authorities could intervene again if dollar/yen continues to test 160 which they have historically defended, noting that in 2022, Tokyo “fired three volleys of intervention in a few weeks”.

“We suspect intervention will merely act as a lid on USD/JPY, not a catalyst for protracted yen strength,” he said.

In other currencies, the Australian dollar last traded 0.08% lower at $0.7162, after the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday raised rates for a third time this year in a widely expected move.    

The U.S. dollar meanwhile firmed on safe-haven demand.

The outlook for Federal Reserve policy could be shaped by a raft of data this week which includes April’s nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

Expectations are for the U.S. economy to have added 62,000 jobs following March’s outsized 178,000 gain, though problems with seasonal adjustment make for much uncertainty.

Markets currently expect the Fed to leave its policy interest rate on hold this year, owing to inflationary pressure from the global energy shock.

Elsewhere, spot gold rose 0.3% to $4,533.68 an ounce, trading well within recent ranges. [GOL/]

(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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By Nick Carey

BEIJING, May 5 (Reuters) – China’s carmakers are hunting for their own “Yaris moment” – the kind of locally tailored breakthrough that helped Toyota conquer Europe – as they race to turn booming exports into lasting overseas growth.

After early attempts that largely involved exporting China-designed cars with minor tweaks, automakers are now re-engineering vehicles from the ground up for foreign buyers, driven as much by fierce margin pressure at home as by opportunity abroad.

China’s overcrowded domestic market has been locked in a bruising price war for years, leaving many manufacturers struggling to make money. Overseas markets, by contrast, offer room to grow – and to charge more – if Chinese brands can persuade consumers they understand local tastes.

Major carmakers including BYD, Chery, Changan, SAIC’s MG brand and FAW’s premium Hongqi all have models in the pipeline designed specifically for export markets – from small hatchbacks for Europe to pickup trucks for Australia and Mexico.

At home, Chinese automakers cram cars with technology and sell them cheaply to compete. In Western markets such as Europe, they can often sell at double the price and still undercut established brands.

At the Beijing Auto Show in late April, Hongqi unveiled a small “global SUV” targeted for sale in 80 countries. But the vehicle was primarily designed for urban European buyers, design chief Giles Taylor told Reuters.

“That’s the reason why that car exists,” Taylor said.

BYD’s Dolphin G hatchback was designed specifically for Europe and will launch in June. Stella Li, the electric vehicle maker’s No. 2 executive, said the model was critical because hatchbacks account for more than 40% of new car sales in parts of southern Europe – a segment that barely exists in China.

“If we don’t have the right car in this sector, we lose,” Li told Reuters.

A SURVIVAL STRATEGY

For many Chinese carmakers, exports are a matter of survival as analysts predict consolidation will thin an industry crowded with more than 100 manufacturers. Vehicle sales in China are expected to remain flat or decline.

That excess capacity has already helped make China the world’s largest vehicle exporter, overtaking Japan in 2024.

Gartner analyst Pedro Pacheco described the push to design cars for export as Chinese automakers’ “Yaris moment”, referring to Toyota’s Yaris hatchback, designed in Europe for European buyers and credited with helping the Japanese carmaker gain a foothold on the continent after its 1999 launch.

Dan Hearsch, global co-leader for automotive at consultancy AlixPartners, said globally relevant models are “the Holy Grail for automakers,” because scale lifts margins.

In Britain, Chinese brands doubled their market share in the first quarter to 14.2%. Across Europe, they nearly doubled their share last year to 6% from 3.5% in 2024, according to consultancy Inovev.

DESIGNING FOR EUROPEANS

Chinese automakers’ rapid export growth risks stalling if it remains heavily reliant on vehicles designed for Chinese tastes.

“In China, they’re quite experimental with expressions of colour,” and material, said Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s senior vice president for global design. Nissan’s N7 EV in China features options – including a “pinkish mauve” interior – unlikely to resonate elsewhere.

The average Chinese car buyer is also far younger than consumers in Europe or the U.S., shaping design choices and optional features, said Francois Roudier, secretary general of the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.

For younger Chinese consumers, “karaoke in the car is certainly important”, he said. “But for my dad – he’s 95 – no.”

Analysts say matching regional preferences will increasingly determine success as European rivals respond to Chinese competition.

“Just competing on price works first time around,” said Phil Dunne, a managing director at consultancy Grant Thornton Stax. “But the Europeans are fighting back on cost.”

He added: “The Chinese need to take it to the next level,” by designing cars in Europe for Europeans.

For Europe, that also means going smaller.

Chery, China’s biggest vehicle exporter, is heavily skewed towards SUVs, which accounted for 2.3 million of the 2.8 million vehicles it sold globally in 2025. But Ivan Dulanovic, head of design at Lepas – Chery’s new international brand – said a Europe-focused hatchback, the Lepas 2, is in development.

“We have recognised a need in the market,” he said, “and we are tackling that.”

SAIC’s MG also plans an MG2 hatchback for Europe where consumers “don’t like huge cars”, design chief Jozef Kaban said.

BYD aims to roll out more Europe-specific models and has told investors it wants half of sales to come from overseas by 2030.

LAUNCH PLANS

Pressure to grow overseas sales is also reshaping launch strategies.

Jetour, an SUV brand owned by Chery, designed its first fully electric car – the compact TX – with European buyers in mind, said Jetour International President Ke Chuandeng. Its upcoming F700 pickup will target markets such as Australia and Brazil and will launch in Mexico ahead of China, he said.

Chery will also bring a plug-in diesel hybrid pickup to Australia this year, said local managing director Lucas Harris.

“We’re not kind to our utes,” Harris said, using the local name for pickups. “So if it can survive here, it could probably survive anywhere.”

State-owned Changan is developing a range of hatchbacks, compact SUVs and pickups for Europe and other markets, with launches expected from late 2027, design chief Klaus Zyciora said.

“The competition is so fierce and the investments are very high,” Zyciora said. “So you need to make sure you get enough scale.”

(Reporting By Nick Carey. Additional reporting by Qiaoyi Li. Editing by Brian Thevenot and Mark Potter)

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — For roughly 380 right whales left in the North Atlantic, which can die after getting tangled in fishing ropes or hit by ships, the Trump administration said this month it wants to delay new protections by almost a decade in favor of commercial fishing interests.

The sleek black whales, which weigh as much as a midsized bulldozer, are critically endangered and their numbers have declined sharply in recent decades. Environmental groups say reducing deaths and injuries caused by people is essential to the species’ recovery.

The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia before making a long migration north to feed off New England and Canada. Protected areas of ocean aid them on their journey, but scientists have said they have strayed from those zones in recent years in search of food as the oceans have warmed.

A proposal by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, would push back new federal protections for right whales to 2035, and allow time to craft regulations that are less burdensome to the fishing industry. The White House released a memo Friday saying it “strongly supports” the plan and that President Donald Trump’s senior advisors would recommend he sign it into law if it passes Congress.

The proposal comes as the government already paused any new federal rules about right whales until 2028.

According to Golden, Maine’s iconic lobster industry would’ve been crushed by the now-paused regulations, which he said were “based on flawed science and hypothetical scenarios rather than the reality on the water.”

A longer delay would give the government time to “get the science right” about threats to whales, Golden said in a statement Friday.

The U.S. lobster and crab fishing industries are worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the docks.

“This legislation is critical to ensuring the long-term stability of American fisheries for generations to come,” said John Drouin, vice president of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association.

Environmental groups like California-based In Defense of Animals have pushed back against efforts to weaken whale protections. They cite how the whales’ population fell by about a quarter from 2010 to 2020, and recent years of recovery have been slow.

Some signs about the whale’s population have been encouraging. This year’s birthing season produced 23 mother-calf pairs, the most since 2009, the New England Aquarium said in a statement.

The whale, which has been federally protected for more than 50 years, remains critically endangered, the aquarium said. They were once abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated during the era of commercial whaling.

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By Marianna Parraga, Mircely Guanipa and Mariela Nava

PUNTO FIJO/MARACAIBO, May 4 (Reuters) – When potential providers and financiers for Venezuela’s electric industry, including Siemens Energy and GE Vernova, held meetings with officials in Caracas in April, questions of how they might get paid to shore up the country’s deteriorated grid were top of mind, two sources involved in the talks said.

Those executives came away hesitant, the sources said, as the nation tries to jumpstart a $100 billion reconstruction plan pushed by Washington. 

Securing stable electricity is among interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s top priorities since she replaced deposed President Nicolas Maduro in January, but the cash-strapped country has so far failed to guarantee timely payments to suppliers that would help key industries – like its oil-and-gas sector – recover.

“I returned very skeptical from Venezuela,” said an executive from an equipment provider that worked with the government and state energy firm PDVSA, who attended one of the Caracas meetings. “The power plants have not been properly repaired in 10 years, so the needs are almost infinite. But they still have no clue on how we would get paid.” 

Less than 40% of Venezuela’s generation capacity is currently available, leading to frequent outages and limiting the nation’s manufacturing capacity. The country’s thermal plants were expanded under late President Hugo Chavez through 2013, but the projects left billions of dollars in unpaid bills to contractors, some of whom are now being asked to return.

A lack of clarity over which projects will be prioritized and supplies needed to reinforce the country’s transmission lines and fix its thermal and hydroelectric plants remains. That, coupled with uncertainties about payments and authorizations needed from Washington and Caracas, will delay investment, the sources said.

Venezuela’s communication ministry, state utility Corpoelec, and state-run oil company PDVSA did not reply to requests for comment.

NO PAYMENT SOLUTIONS IN SIGHT

Following the April meetings with foreign executives, Rodriguez’s government approached firms including Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Mitsubishi Power about repairing the grid. 

Siemens Energy and GE Vernova confirmed meetings with government officials. “We are motivated to meet the moment in supporting the people of Venezuela,” a spokesperson for GE Vernova said. Mitsubishi Power did not reply to a request for comment.

Of the 36,000 megawatts (MW) of Venezuela’s installed generation capacity, less than 13,000 MW are currently available, mainly due to the bad condition of its fuel-powered plants, which are only contributing some 2,500 MW, or about 13% of their capacity, according to independent data.

Rodriguez has not elaborated on her plans, saying early efforts are focused on repairing two large thermal plants that have been underperforming for years.

“Solutions won’t come overnight,” she said last week in a rally in Valencia, one of many cities hit by frequent power cuts.

The experience of multinationals from the Chavez era has made some wary about returning to Venezuela. Several companies who went unpaid filed for arbitration or resorted to legal action abroad after taking promissory notes Venezuela gave them instead of cash. Many traded those at large discounts. 

None did further work in the ensuing years, in part due to U.S. sanctions that are now being eased. 

Rodriguez’s government recently rejected a proposal from a group of foreign firms seeking to be prepaid for initial repairs and spare parts, citing legal obstacles, according to the source. 

Some proposed getting direct payments from U.S. Treasury-supervised accounts that are collecting the country’s oil sale proceeds, said an executive from a potential financier.

Venezuela also has existing debts with multilateral institutions and banks, another obstacle for financing, the sources said. 

LENGTHENING BLACKOUTS AND RATIONING

The power issues have hamstrung Venezuela’s oil and gas sector, its most important industry. 

At the Paraguana Refining Center, one of the world’s largest with 955,000 barrels of daily installed capacity, several blackouts this year have prevented PDVSA from restarting gasoline-making units. That has delayed distribution, leaving long lines of drivers waiting for fuel. 

PDVSA is assessing its needs for repairs and equipment, one of the sources said. But the company he represents “won’t repeat past mistakes,” he added, referring to its position on extending any credit to Venezuela. 

At least $15 billion is needed to repair the grid through a three-year stabilization plan. Without it, only minor repairs will be made, according to power expert Miguel Lara. “It’s a very complex problem, a puzzle,” he said. “I don’t know which power supply will support the economic reactivation they are talking about.”

Demand last year was 14,700 MW, leaving a deficit of at least 1,500 MW, Lara said. The grid had 35 large outages in the first quarter, compared with a historic average of three to five events per year. Theft and misuse of spare parts are also contributing to the infrastructure problems, he added.

Bernerd Da Santos, executive vice president at U.S. utility AES, warned at an online conference in March about the urgent need to reinforce Venezuela’s transmission lines. If the government adjusts tariffs to ease subsidies and provides legal certainty for contracts, investment could be possible, he said.

Some energy producers, including Spain’s Repsol, have already launched open requests to source their own power plants and related supplies, a company document seen by Reuters showed. Repsol did not reply to a request for comment.

Residents, meanwhile, endure increasingly long stretches without power, sometimes up to 10 hours a day. 

In the western city of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-most important after Caracas, a group of young men often play basketball on an old court illuminated only by a motorcycle headlight. 

“We used to play here every day, but rationing is growing,” said 20-year-old student Fernando Urdaneta. “At least this way we don’t stop exercising, don’t get bored and escape the house, which turns into an oven.”

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Georgina McCartney in Houston, Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Mariela Nava in Maracaibo, Tibisay Romero in Valencia and Mayela Armas and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; editing by David Gaffen)

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May 4 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes slipped after market open on Monday as heightened investor anxiety over the Middle East conflict tempered the optimism from last week’s earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82.6 points, or 0.17%, at the open to 49,416.66. The S&P 500 fell 1.7 points, or 0.02%, at the open to 7,228.38​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.3 points, or 0.01%, to 25,112.18.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Pooja Desai)

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