Tsunami warning after 2 large quakes off Russia's Pacific coast
MOSCOW (AP) — The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a threat forecast for Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula after two quakes — the larger with a magnitude of 7.4 — struck in the sea nearby on Sunday.
The larger quake was at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles) and was 144 kilometers (89 miles) east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A few minutes earlier, a quake with a magnitude of 6.7 was recorded nearby.
The PTWC initially said there was a danger of major tsunami waves but later downgraded its warning to say that waves of up to a meter (3.3 feet) could occur.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry also issued a tsunami warning following the second quake, urging residents of coastal settlements to stay away from the shore.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
On Nov. 4, 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves in Hawaii.
World’s largest copper producer says Trump’s tariffs are causing ‘anxiety’
Codelco’s chair says he does not understand what the US wants to achieve with levies on the metal
The world’s largest copper producer says US tariffs are causing anxiety as the $250bn industry awaits details of proposed levies on the metal less than two weeks before they are due to kick in.
President Donald Trump this month said he would impose a 50 per cent tariff on copper from August 1 but did not clarify if this would apply to the refined metal, semi-finished products or copper ore. Miners and industrial users have questions over the timing and nature of the tariffs.
Máximo Pacheco, chair of Codelco, a state-owned Chilean copper miner and a major supplier to the US, said the uncertainty was difficult to manage.
“Our customers have some anxiety and they need to understand where all this will end,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. Free trade “is valuable for both parties”, and Chile was happy to supply the US with more refined copper to support domestic manufacturing, he added.
Executives have raised concerns about the planned tariffs on the metal, and analysts have warned they will threaten key US industries from electric vehicles to data centres and defence.
Chile has a trade agreement with the US and accounts for more than 60 per cent of American imports of refined copper.
“If the US really wants to develop more manufacturing of copper products, it is clear to us that they will need more copper cathodes,” Pacheco said, referring to a type of refined metal that can be used to make products such as wires and rods.
While the US produces some copper ore, it does not have enough smelting capacity to refine all the material that it consumes. It would be very difficult to quickly replace the imported refined metal with domestic production because smelters typically take several years to build.
The threat of levies also comes as the copper industry globally is struggling to boost mine supply, amid declining ore grades and rising costs that make it expensive to develop new mines.
For Codelco the US accounts for 11 per cent of cathode sales.
“We don’t fully understand what it is that the US is trying to achieve with this announcement,” Pacheco said.
Analysts have questioned whether the White House will reduce the level of the copper tariffs, or make exemptions that lessen their impact. The US has walked back on several tariff initiatives, leading to the so-called “Taco” trade in markets, an acronym for “Trump always chickens out”.
One possibility is the US might impose levies on semi-finished products such as wires, tubes and strips but allow refined copper to enter without additional tariffs.
“If the [copper] tariffs go into effect, the domino effect on end users — such as data centres and the automotive sector — will be very strong,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“Once the domestic industry feels the impact of tariffs they will very likely be revisited, because it threatens our [US] growth agenda,” she added.
Czech Eurosceptic frontrunner vows to defy 5% Nato spending target
Andrej Babiš would join Spain in resisting defence spending rise if elected in October
The frontrunner in the Czech election intends to break Prague’s pledge to raise defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP if he wins office, joining Spain in rejecting the target demanded by US President Donald Trump.
Billionaire former premier Andrej Babiš, whose Eurosceptic ANO opposition party is leading polls ahead of October’s parliamentary elections, told the Financial Times that he remained an admirer of Trump but he wanted to prioritise domestic social spending.
“I’m a politician working for the Czech people and we are not subordinates, and maybe somebody has to explain to Mr Trump that 5 per cent is not realistic,” he said in an interview. “If Trump says that I have to jump from the window, I will not jump.’’
The warning from Babiš, who has sparred with Brussels and questioned the EU’s continued support for Kyiv, could add strain to Nato and EU efforts to preserve unity on defence, as the bloc re-arms in response to Russian aggression and Trump’s demands.
Babiš — whose party sits in a group with France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the European parliament — said that President Vladimir Putin made a “big mistake” by attacking Ukraine, but that the Russian threat is overblown.
“I’m really not afraid of Putin, because we are already strong,” he said. “Are we saying that Putin who has a military budget 13 times smaller than Nato can do something against us, when he is luckily not even capable of moving 1km forward in Ukraine?”
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine have been advancing at the fastest rate since November in recent weeks. Babiš said if he wins the election, he would not supply more aircraft and weapons for Ukraine and would halt a Czech-led initiative to purchase ammunition from third countries for Kyiv.
That stance has helped current premier Petr Fiala to portray the election as a choice between keeping Prague anchored within the EU and Nato, or allowing his opponent to side instead with pro-Russia governments in Hungary and Slovakia. Babiš “helps Vladimir Putin, it’s very clear”, Fiala told the FT earlier this year.
“To say that I’m helping Putin is a real lie. I never spoke with Putin, I never went to Russia as a politician but Fiala is now building this campaign about me being pro-Russian,” Babiš responded.
Fiala agreed with Nato allies last month to more than double defence spending from the current 2 per cent target. If Babiš wins the election and overturns that decision, the Czech Republic would be the second holdout after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who opted out saying that he wanted to protect the welfare state.
Prague had debt equivalent to 43 per cent of GDP at the end of last year, about half the EU average of 81 per cent, according to Eurostat.
The former Czech prime minister argued taxpayers’ money could be better spent than on building weapons stockpiles. “The world is now spending record amounts on arms but the word that is written nine times in the charter of Nato is peace,” he said. “Pedro Sánchez is telling the truth by saying that he needs money for the social system.”
Babiš entered politics in 2011, launching ANO after building a business empire stretching from food to fertilisers. He became prime minister in 2017, but was ousted in 2021 after four years in power when Fiala’s Civic Democratic party managed to form a coalition to keep him out of government.
During his time in office he adopted a defiant stance towards Brussels, particularly after the European Commission demanded the reimbursement of EU funds received by his business Agrofert. A Czech high court last month overturned his previous acquittal to reopen a fraud trial related to EU subsidies. Babiš denies wrongdoing and called the case “nonsense”, invented by his political opponents.
Fiala’s party has been trailing behind in the polls amid internal feuding that prompted one of his coalition partners to abandon the government in October. Last month he survived a parliamentary vote triggered by a bitcoin scandal that forced his justice minister to resign.
CVC Capital Partners explores refinancing of its sporting portfolio
Goldman Sachs, PJT Partners and Raine Group picked to manage a plan to borrow against assets valued at £9bn
CVC Capital Partners is exploring a potential refinancing of its sporting portfolio that would value a collection of assets ranging from English rugby and women’s tennis to Indian cricket and Spanish football at more than £9bn.
The Amsterdam-listed firm has long been one of the most active private equity players in the world of sport, beginning in the late 1990s when it pushed into motorsport by buying MotoGP. It later owned Formula 1, which became one of its most profitable investments when it sold it to Liberty Media in 2016 for more than $8bn.
CVC’s current holdings include stakes in the commercial operations of Six Nations Rugby, the Women’s Tennis Association and volleyball’s global governing body. It also has a minority stake in the Gujarat Titans cricket franchise, and paid €3.5bn for a share in the broadcast and sponsorship income of the Spanish and French football leagues.
The firm has picked Goldman Sachs, PJT Partners and Raine Group to manage a plan to borrow against the combined assets, which will be brought together in a new entity dubbed SportsCo valued at more than £9bn, according to a person familiar with the matter.
While the different portfolio companies will remain independent, CVC hopes to bring more cohesion to its various sports properties, the person added, such as through sharing best practice and seeking joint opportunities.
CVC declined to comment. News of the refinancing plan was first reported by Sky News.
Sport has been attracting growing interest from private equity firms keen to gain exposure to rising income streams from broadcast and sponsorship.
Team valuations in many sports have also been climbing rapidly. Last month the owners of the LA Lakers agreed to sell the basketball franchise for $10bn, a new record for the sports industry.
While CVC was an early mover, several US-based firms including Ares Management, Sixth Street, Silver Lake, RedBird and Arctos have invested billions in the sector in recent years.
Some of the assets in CVC’s portfolio have faced a bumpy few years. Premiership Rugby, the top tier of English professional rugby union, suffered a financial crisis during the pandemic, which resulted in three of its then 13 clubs going bust. However, league executives believe the competition has turned a corner and is set to grow in the coming years.
The French football league has also endured a challenging 18 months after a botched broadcast rights auction led to a steep drop in TV income. It is now planning to launch its own streaming service to offer live matches direct to consumers, and is discussing a possible overhaul of its governance structure.
Why Levi’s is back in fashion
Denim powerhouse has resurrected fading brand by paying down debt, cutting costs and revamping its supply chain
Once dismissed as a ’90s fashion faux pas, jorts — a portmanteau of jeans and shorts — are staging a major comeback. So is jort purveyor and denim powerhouse Levi Strauss & Co.
The company’s stock is up more than a fifth this year, giving it a market value of $8.3bn. That makes it an outlier among apparel companies that are struggling to get inflation-weary consumers to spend more on new clothes.
Levi’s performance is all the more remarkable because the company has had a rocky ride since its heyday in the mid-1990s, when sales peaked at almost $7bn. A consumer shift towards leggings and yoga pants chipped away at sales. Then came the rise of skinny jeans in the early 2000s. The silhouette went on to dominate the market for almost two decades, leaving shoppers with little reason to update their wardrobes.
Over the past decade, though, Levi’s has orchestrated a remarkable brand resurrection under chief executive Michelle Gass and her predecessor Chip Bergh.
The company has sold off Dockers, its underperforming khakis business, and exited Denizen, its value-denim brands. It has paid down debt, cut costs and revamped its supply chain to reduce lead times. Efforts to transform itself from just a jeans maker into a “head-to-toe denim lifestyle” company have also borne fruit. With athleisure fatigue giving rise to a denim resurgence and the revival of ’90s and Y2K trends, Levi’s pulled in $6.4bn in net sales last year, the most since 1997.
A move to sell more directly to consumers has also helped improve profitability. The company’s gross margin hit a record high of just under 63 per cent in its most recent quarter. That compares with under 50 per cent at both Gap and H&M and almost 61 per cent at Zara owner Inditex.
Healthy sales growth and margin gains mean Levi’s has room to absorb most of the costs it faces as a result of tariffs. Less than 1 per cent of clothing sold in the US is sourced from China. So while it expects tariffs to result in a 20 basis points net impact, it is still expecting its gross margin to grow by 80bp this year.
Levi’s direct-to-consumer strategy is not without risk. Nike is a cautionary tale in the cost of building up such businesses, which involve intricate logistics. Levi’s operating margin — which stood at 7.5 per cent in its most recent quarter — is still less than half that of Inditex’s.
Nonetheless, Levi’s is back in fashion — as is the company’s stock, which, at more than 16 times this year’s earnings, has regained its premium to Wrangler jeans owner Kontoor Brands. Trends are fickle, of course. But Levi’s has widened its appeal beyond its ’90s products, and that’s a good look.
EU cracks down on state meddling in bank M&A
Twin warnings to Rome and Madrid come as Brussels steps up efforts to revive consolidation
Brussels is ratcheting up pressure on national governments to stop blocking bank consolidation, issuing twin broadsides this week against meddling by the Italian and Spanish governments in banking tie-ups.
Several commission officials told the Financial Times that warnings to Rome and Madrid were connected, as Brussels steps up efforts to encourage banking consolidation and boost the bloc’s ailing economy.
“The problem is that this is pure political posturing and the rules are clear and governments have no formal power to prevent these mergers from happening,” said one senior European official.
“The question here is who are you really competing with . . . our competitors are not inside the EU, they are outside the EU.”
The comments come after the European Commission on Monday sent a private letter to Giorgia Meloni’s government that said it had reached a preliminary conclusion that Rome had “infringed” EU merger laws through its use of golden powers in UniCredit’s €10bn takeover bid for rival Banco BPM.
Three days later, the commission slapped Spain with a “formal notice” over its move to block a merger between BBVA and Banco Sabadell for at least three years, demanding it review its decision and change laws that give Madrid the power to intervene in banking deals.
Brussels views a network of fewer, bigger banks as essential to creating a globally competitive financial sector as Europe’s financial institutions fall further behind their US counterparts, and has grown increasingly frustrated with hostility from national governments.
Europe has to “stop with the philosophy of national champions”, said Enrico Letta, the former Italian premier who wrote a landmark report on EU market integration last year.
“We have to transform these national champions into European champions, having an equal presence in different countries. We need to have the Airbus of banks,” he added.
Europe’s banking sector has experienced a flurry of attempted M&A activity over the past year. However, deals including BBVA’s offer for domestic rival Sabadell, UniCredit’s bid for BPM and its overtures towards Commerzbank in Germany have all met intense domestic political resistance.
The opposition has irritated EU officials and prompted the commission to issue rebukes to both the Spanish and Italian governments in recent weeks.
In its 55-page letter to Rome, the commission went further than a public statement on Monday in which it said Italy’s actions “may contravene” EU merger rules.
Brussels said in the letter that all five conditions imposed on UniCredit’s bid for BPM were incompatible with EU law and handed the Italian government an ultimatum of 20 working days in which to respond. Meloni’s office has said that the government would “answer the clarification requests [in the letter] in a collaborative spirit”.
The commission took particular umbrage with Rome’s argument that the deal may pose a “serious threat to public security”.
“The commission is not aware of any case — nor have the Italian authorities indicated any — of a transaction in the banking sector in the EU that has posed a sufficient and real threat to public security,” the letter said.
It added a demand by Rome that UniCredit exit Russia as a condition of the deal “infringes EU law”.
Meloni’s office said in a statement to the FT that an Italian administrative court had already recognised the legitimacy of the government’s intervention. The prime minister’s office added that the Italian court ruling stated that the government was well within its powers to impose such limitations, including the demand that UniCredit exit Russia, on national security grounds.
The commission did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
The commission is not yet at the stage where it would take formal action against the German government, as UniCredit has not made a full-blown takeover bid for Commerzbank.
But the Italian lender has already attracted substantial opposition from the German government to its stakebuilding in Commerzbank, where in recent weeks it has started to convert derivative positions to direct equity holdings.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday said that he would oppose the tie-up unless UniCredit could satisfy him that a combined bank would not pose a significant risk to the financial system.
“It’s an unfriendly approach that we do not accept and do not support,” Merz said. “The resulting institution could, due to its balance sheet structure, pose a significant risk to the financial market. And unless that issue is clearly resolved, I will not change my position.”