Brent crude oil futures rose 78 cents or 1.2% to $68.20 a barrel by 1052 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 73 cents or 1.2% at $63.06

International News via Reuters:

Oil prices gained over 1% on Wednesday after falling in the previous session as investors assessed developments in Russia-Ukraine and U.S.–Iran talks.

Brent crude oil futures rose 78 cents or 1.2% to $68.20 a barrel by 1052 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 73 cents or 1.2% at $63.06.

Keeping a risk premium on prices was the abrupt end of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva on Wednesday after only two hours. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the discussions had been difficult and accused Russia of deliberately seeking to delay progress toward a deal to end the four-year-old war.

Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said the talks had been difficult but business-like, and that a new round of talks would be held soon.

The U.S.-mediated peace talks in Switzerland have been taking place as U.S. President Donald Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskiy to take steps to ensure the talks were successful.

On Tuesday, oil prices fell after Iran and the U.S. reached an understanding on “guiding principles” in talks aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, though that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.

Just as talks began on Tuesday, Iranian state media said Iran was temporarily shutting parts of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, due to “security precautions” while its elite Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills there. Later, state media said the strait had been shut down for a few hours, without making it clear if it had fully reopened.

“Iran knows Trump’s negotiation tactics now. It also knows that a disruption in oil exports out of the Strait of Hormuz and a rally in the oil price to $150 per barrel is the very last thing Trump wants,” said SEB chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop in a note. “Iran has time to negotiate in calmness.”

Iran and Russia will conduct navy drills in the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean on Thursday, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency reported, a few days after Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Political consultancy Eurasia Group said in a Tuesday note to clients that it thinks there is a 65% probability of U.S. military strikes against Iran by the end of April.

Investors will watch for weekly reports by the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters estimated that U.S. crude oil stockpiles likely rose last week, while distillate and gasoline inventories probably fell.

Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Katya Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Kim Coghill, Philippa Fletcher

Efforts to limit climate-damaging fossil fuels have not been enough and the world is on course to miss its climate goals

International News via Reuters:

Ten years after the Paris Agreement took effect, newly released climate datasets show the world warming at an accelerating pace, with 2025 ranking among the three hottest years ever recorded, and sea‑ice, ocean heat and sea levels crossing new thresholds. 

Efforts to limit climate-damaging fossil fuels have not been enough and the world is on course to miss its climate goals. Data from some of the world’s leading scientific agencies show global warming has sped up markedly since the mid‑2010s.  

EMISSIONS: A WIDENING GAP 

The World Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmosphere Watch network shows concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide climbing to record highs, driving the temperature spike observed from 2023 to 2025, scientists say. 

Global fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions were projected to climb to a record 38.1 billion tonnes in 2025, driven by rising coal, oil and gas use despite rapid growth in renewable energy, according to the latest Global Carbon Budget report. 

The report – produced by an international team of more than 130 scientists – estimated global fossil fuel CO₂ emissions would rise 1.1% in 2025, pushing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations to roughly 52% above pre‑industrial levels.  

Researchers warn there is only room for about 170 billion more tonnes of CO₂ – equivalent to roughly four years of emissions at current rates – if the world wants to cap global warming at 1.5° Celsius above the pre-industrial average. 

Regional trends are mixed: emissions were projected to increase in 2025 in China, India, the United States and the European Union, while falling in Japan.

TEMPERATURES: A DECADE OF ACCELERATION 

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said the Earth’s surface in 2025 was 1.19°C above the 1951–1980 average, effectively tying with 2023 as one of the warmest years ever measured.  

The WMO’s consolidated dataset places 2025 at 1.44°C above pre‑industrial levels, ranking it among the top-three warmest years over the 176 years of recorded temperatures. [nasa.gov] [wmo.int] [berkeleyearth.org] 

ARCTIC: RAPID COLLAPSE OF SEA ICE 

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2025 Arctic Report Card confirmed that October 2024–September 2025 was the warmest period since 1900, and the region continues to warm more than twice as fast as the global average.  

Sea‑ice extent reached the lowest winter maximum ever recorded in March 2025, at about 14.47 million square kilometers, according to the U.S. National Ice Center.  

OCEANS: HEAT AND RISING SEAS 

The oceans absorbed record amounts of heat in 2025, setting a new global high for upper‑ocean heat content, according to NOAA and Berkeley Earth.  

Sea levels, measured by tide gauges and satellites, continue to rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a 0.20–0.29 meter rise by 2050 relative to 1995–2014.

Reporting by Canan Sevgili, Vera Dvorakova, Lucie Barbier and Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Simon Jessop and David Holmes

As a currency managed directly by the ECB through accounts users will open with the central bank, the digital euro project has sparked fears among banks they will lose their role in handling payments

International News via Reuters:

The digital euro will be designed to ensure it protects European card schemes and keep banks at the core of the euro zone payments system, a senior European Central Bank policymaker said on Wednesday.

As a currency managed directly by the ECB through accounts users will open with the central bank, the digital euro project has sparked fears among banks they will lose their role in handling payments.

Digitalisation of payments has reduced the role of cash, the only form of central bank money currently existing, prompting the ECB to opt to issue a central bank digital currency to compete with private forms of money.

ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone said that changes in the payments industry meant that banks ran that risk regardless of the digital euro, which would actually help them.

Speaking to the steering committee of Italy’s banking association ABI, Cipollone said the digital euro meant to “preserve the central position of banks in payments”.

“Banks could lose their role in payments not just because of stablecoins but also due to other private solutions,” he said.

Banks would not just lose revenues but, more importantly, access to the payments data of their customers, information which they need to offer them other more profitable services.

HIGHER FEES?

The ECB also wants to protect European payments schemes, such as Italy’s Bancomat card scheme, or Spain’s Bizum peer-to-peer scheme, Cipollone said.

To boost their role, the digital euro system will be structured in a way that it will still be cheaper for shopowners to use those networks, he added.

“The cap on the fee that merchants will pay on the digital euro network will be lower than what the international payments network, normally the costlier, charge, but higher than what domestic payments scheme, normally the cheapest, charge,” Cipollone said.

Only eight of the 21 euro zone members have a national payments scheme, with the others relying entirely on international networks.

“The digital euro will effectively favour domestic payments schemes,” he added.

Fraying transatlantic ties have prompted the ECB to brand as a strategic risk the fact that more than three quarters of transactions in Europe take place through international payments schemes such as Visa or Mastercard.

After stalling for two years the ECB’s law proposal which it needs to pass to allow the central bank to issue the digital currency, the European parliament this month gave its first major backing to the digital euro.

In December, the EU Council had done the same by declaring the project key for Europe’s economic security and it would be “available to the general public and businesses to make payments anytime and anywhere in the euro area”.

Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti and Kim Coghill

Four départements are under red alert – the highest level – with nine more under orange alert, meaning major to significant flooding is occurring or expected within the next 24 hours

International News via Reuters:

A man trying to navigate the swollen river Loire has been swept away, officials said on Wednesday, as much of western France was placed under high alert for floods, with yet more heavy rain expected.

Four départements are under red alert – the highest level – with nine more under orange alert, meaning major to significant flooding is occurring or expected within the next 24 hours.

The 53-year-old man fell off a small boat or a kayak south of the city of Angers, BFM TV reported.

Search operations were underway but considering the flow and speed of the Loire after such heavy rains “there is objectively little chance of finding that person,” senior official Francois Pesneau told BFM TV and other local media.

In the nearby town of Denee, residents are moving around by boat as the river submerged streets and flooded houses.

“There’s no access anymore (to Denee), the roads are not functional due to the floods. And so the only way to come to the village is by boat,” municipal worker Jason Garnier said on Tuesday. “People who want to go to work, well, they leave by boat in the morning, and they go home in the evening by boat.”

French Environment Minister Monique Barbut said the level of humidity in soils in France was unseen since 1959, after more than 30 days of bad weather.

Spain, Portugal and Britain are among other European countries badly hit by flooding this year due to unusually heavy rain.

Reporting by Stephane Mahé and Ingrid Melander; editing by Philippa Fletcher