Aurelia Butler

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Smoke shrouded Western Canada on Monday as wildfires flared again in the main oil-producing province of Alberta, while firefighters in Quebec doused some of the worst early season blazes, allowing thousands of evacuees to return home.Canada is enduring its most destructive start to wildfire season, with about 4.8 million hectares (48,000 square kilometers) – an area larger than the Netherlands in western Europe – already burnt. Forest fires regularly occur in the summer but the scope of the current conflagration – and its early arrival – are unprecedented. On Monday, some 449 fires were burning across Canada, including 219 out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.”If you look at western Canada, it’s completely covered by the smoke and that continues into Tuesday,” federal meteorologist Gerald Cheng told reporters on Monday. “The risk for smoke is very high because the winds are really transporting the smoke throughout Alberta today and even into Tuesday.” The fires in Alberta are sending plumes of smoke eastward over prairie provinces Saskatchewan and Manitoba.TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) said two compressor stations and a gas storage facility near wildfires in Edson had to be shut down on Saturday. (Click here to read what health experts say about wildfire smoke.)Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index put the Alberta provincial capital Edmonton and oil sands hub Fort McMurray in the “high risk” category. The eastern province of Quebec has seen the number of active fires diminish to about 110 on Monday from nearly 150 last week that sent a veil of smoke over the U.S. East Coast. Cheng said some rain was in Quebec’s forecast on Monday, but not enough in the places with the most active fires.”On top of that, only showers are in the forecast with thunderstorms, lightning – especially later for the week,” Cheng said, noting the risk of lightning igniting new fires.Nearly 5,000 firefighting personnel are deployed in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec, and Canadian Defence Minister Anita told a briefing on Monday that more army members will be deployed to Edson.The fires have also forced Canada’s forestry industry to shut down sawmills, driving up lumber prices and setting production back for months just as housing construction has slowed due to higher costs and a tight labour market. More

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment rose 0.2% in June to 79.2, steadying near recession lows and suggesting pessimists greatly outnumbered optimists.But the slight improvement masked a significant difference in sentiment readings before and after the Reserve Bank Australia’s decision to hike by another quarter-point on June 6, with the confidence reading coming in at 72.6 after the hike, and at 89.0 before. “While the full survey showed little net change in sentiment, responses within the survey week show a big rate rise impact,” Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said.”Of most concern is confidence around jobs – which has been the single bright spot in otherwise bleak consumer surveys over the last year. This now looks to be fading fast.” More

BRASILIA (Reuters) -European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday said the EU hopes to finalize its long-delayed trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries by the end of the year at the latest.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after meeting with von der Leyen, criticized an addendum the EU has added to the agreement, which has been on hold since 2019 largely due to European concerns over Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) deforestation.Lula said he told her that the so-called additional tool or side letter to the accord included obligations that could lead to sanctions if they were not complied with.”The premise between partners should be mutual trust, not distrust,” he said in a joint news conference.The European Union is waiting for a Mercosur response to its proposal to attach sustainability and climate change commitments to the deal struck in 2019 with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.”We have been discussing the trade deal for two decades now … Now finally, we are close to the finishing line. It is time that we cross that line,” von der Leyen said later in a speech to industrial executives and diplomats.She said she and Lula both committed themselves to concluding the accord “as soon as possible, the latest by the end of this year.”Lula said earlier this month his country would not sign the trade pact without adjustments, specifically pointing to the procurement clause and his government’s opposition to allowing European companies to sell to Brazil’s public sector.Von der Leyen praised Lula’s leadership on climate politics and his plan to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, and she offered 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in European funding to develop green hydrogen production in Brazil.She announced that the EU was almost doubling to 10 billion euros the funds available to Latin America and the Caribbean in the 300 billion-euro Global Gateway plan for funding sustainable development. Von der Leyen met Lula at the start of a four-nation trip to Latin America to bolster political and trade ties. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has cast around for “like-minded” partners to provide other sources of trade and critical minerals required for its green transition and help reduce its reliance on China.Her talks with the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico will prepare the ground for the EU meeting with 30 leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at a summit in Brussels on July 17-18.EU and Mercosur negotiators are scheduled to meet again in Buenos Aires on June 29-30 and the South American countries will present a counterproposal. Brazil hopes to remove any possibility of sanctions, arguing that the Paris Agreement on climate set voluntary goals.A spokesman for Brazil’s foreign ministry said a counterproposal will be presented. He gave no date, but added that Mercosur negotiators will meet to agree on a joint stance before the next round of talks with the EU in Buenos Aires.”Before the meeting with the Europeans, there will be an intra-Mercosur meeting to coordinate positions,” he said. ($1 = 0.9295 euros) More

Speaking at an event hosted by IDV, a group that brings together major retailers in Latin America’s largest economy, Campos Neto said long-term inflation expectations have started to fall and the yield curve has dropped sharply, demonstrating that “the market is giving credibility to what is being done” by the central bank to reduce price pressures.Campos Neto added that this situation “opens room for monetary policy action ahead,” without specifying the time frame for such action. The central bank has consistently expressed concern about increased long-term inflation expectations to justify the need to keep its benchmark interest rate at a cycle high of 13.75%, where it has remained since September despite cooling inflation.President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized this policy stance, saying it hampers economic growth.Brazil’s central bank is scheduled to make its next monetary policy decision on June 21, which Campos Neto said he could not anticipate.Campos Neto said on Monday that future interest rates have decreased by around three percentage points since the government presented new fiscal rules, addressing worries about uncontrolled growth in public debt.He also affirmed that the exchange rate is “moving in the right direction.” The Brazilian real has strengthened 8.4% against the U.S. dollar this year. “An environment is opening up for us to work with lower interest rates at some point in the future,” he said.Despite acknowledging that efforts to curb inflation are progressing positively, he warned they should not be prematurely halted, as this could lead to increased costs in achieving disinflation later.While a weekly central bank survey with private economists shows expectations of rate cuts starting in September, prices on the yield curve point to kick-off in August.Campos Neto on Monday predicted there would likely be a negative inflation reading in June.He projected inflation would end this year between 4.5% and 5%, lower than policymakers had initially expected. However, he said core inflation remains high.The official inflation target for this year is 3.25%. More

A former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) banker leaked details of potential corporate mergers to a friend who traded on the information, a prosecutor told a New York jury during opening arguments of a trial on Monday.Former Goldman Sachs Vice President Brijesh Goel faces securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly tipping his friend Akshay Niranjan to deals the bank was considering funding in 2017 and 2018.Prosecutors say Goel gleaned the information on at least six occasions about potential transactions – including Japanese chemical manufacturer Kuraray’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Calgon Carbon Corp – from internal Goldman emails, and then tipped Niranjan over games of squash.Goel’s attorney Adam Ford said his client was framed, and that Niranjan fabricated a story to cover his own trading.A Goldman Sachs spokesperson has called Goel’s alleged conduct “egregious” and said the bank is cooperating with authorities.Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Thomas said that after being contacted by investigators, Goel met with Niranjan in the stairwell of an apartment building to delete their texts.Niranjan, who is expected to testify as part of a nonprosecution agreement, allegedly traded on the information using his brother’s account and agreed to split around $280,000 in profits with Goel.Goel worked at private equity firm Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) at the time he was charged. A spokesperson for Apollo said Goel was placed on indefinite leave.The case was one of several U.S. Attorney Damien Williams announced last summer as part of an insider trading crackdown.In another case, former U.S. Congressman Stephen Buyer was convicted in March of trading on inside information he learned in 2018 as a consultant to T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) Inc ahead of its $23 billion merger with Sprint.The case is U.S. v. Goel, No. 22-00396, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. More