Explainer-How Ukraine's gas infrastructure could be of interest to Trump
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. administration suggested this week the United States could help run and possibly own Ukraine's power plants and energy infrastructure as part of a ceasefire deal with Russia.
Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he and Trump discussed only the vast Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the country has also started importing U.S. gas to cover its domestic needs.
Kyiv also offers to store gas in its large underground storage to help supply Europe.
U.S. IMPORTS
Since taking office for his first term in 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump has been pushing Europe to replace Russian gas with U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.
At first, the idea looked far-fetched as Russia was supplying Europe with around 40% of its gas needs under long-term contracts at relatively cheap prices, ensuring the competitiveness of economies such as Germany and Austria.
But Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed it all.
In the three years since the war started, Russia's gas export pipeline monopoly Gazprom lost almost all of its EU customers, who switched to buying LNG, largely from the United States, and increased pipeline gas imports via other routes.
Since taking office for the second time this year, Trump has pushed Europe to buy even more U.S. gas to help address what he sees as the EU's unfair trade surplus.
For decades, Ukraine relied on imports of Russian gas, and even in recent years some Russian gas volumes have reached Ukraine via reversed flows from Europe. All Russian gas flows via Ukraine stopped in 2025.
Ukraine this week agreed a second deal to buy U.S. LNG and Kyiv says it aims to expand purchases.
U.S. exports of gas into Ukraine have the potential to strengthen an economic partnership with Washington and its presence in Ukraine's storage facilities could deter Russian attacks and encourage more gas to be stored.
HUGE STORAGE
Ukraine cannot import U.S. LNG directly as it is lacking regasification facilities on the Black Sea.
Those could be built fairly quickly although the first project to build an LNG terminal in Odesa never took off.
Ukraine's current U.S. gas imports can come either via pipelines from regasification terminals in Poland or Germany, or from further south from regasification terminals in Greece.
"The U.S. has a significant amount of LNG capacity set to start up between now and the end of the decade. Export capacity is set to grow by 65%. A large part of this capacity is being built on the back of expectations that Europe will be there as a buyer," said analysts at ING.
Ukraine has the largest underground gas storage in Europe and the third largest in the world, capable of holding more than 30 billion cubic metres of gas.
In comparison, the whole of Europe has a maximum capacity of around 100 bcm to serve gas demand of around 450 bcm a year.
Ukraine's storage is well connected with Europe's gas network, offering traders space to store surplus gas in summer when demand is usually lower.
VAST PIPELINES
In 2020, Ukraine harmonised its regulatory framework with that of the EU and cut shipping fees and duties.
EU companies and traders stored gas in Ukraine in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons but suspended those activities over the past year as Russian attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure intensified, damaging compressor stations at storage facilities.
Ukraine's ability to fill storage with gas - including U.S. LNG - is limited by the capacity of pipelines which connect to neighbouring Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Analysts at Bruegel estimate this capacity at 1.5-1.8 bcm a month or up to 22 bcm a year.
The capacity for shipping gas from Ukraine to Europe is much bigger because its pipelines have been designed to ship Russian gas to the continent.
Pipelines crossing Ukraine cam pump more than 60 bcm a year or some 13% of Europe's gas needs.
They can supply buyers in Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania and customers further away in Austria, Italy, Germany, France and Greece.
That means direct imports of U.S. LNG into Ukraine by sea - were they ever to happen - could result in large flows reaching Europe via a vast pipeline network, which was once used by Moscow to dominate EU's gas markets.
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In addition, Swatch Group ( Chief Executive Nick Hayek called on Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter to meet President Trump in Washington to negotiate a better deal than the 39% tariffs announced on Swiss imports into the United States. Hayek told Reuters on Monday he was confident an agreement could still be reached before the tariffs, which were announced on Friday, went into effect on Aug. 7. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Malaysia agrees to boost tech, LNG purchases from US as part of trade deal Reuters reports: Read more here. Reuters reports: Read more here. Trump presses India, China to halt Russian oil buys as trade talks roll on The US and China are making progress on a trade deal, but a major sticking point remains: Washington wants Beijing to stop buying oil from Iran and Russia. China has pushed back, saying it will secure energy based on its own national interests. 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The US and China are making progress on a trade deal, but a major sticking point remains: Washington wants Beijing to stop buying oil from Iran and Russia. China has pushed back, saying it will secure energy based on its own national interests. 'China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,' China's Foreign Ministry posted on X on Wednesday following two days of trade negotiations in Stockholm, responding to the U.S. threat of a 100% tariff. 'Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests," the ministry said. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejected pressure from President Trump, encouraging people to buy local goods. India has not told its oil refiners to stop purchasing Russian oil, and those decisions remain up to each company. 'The world economy is going through many apprehensions — there is an atmosphere of instability,' Modi said at a rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. 'Now, whatever we buy, there should be only one scale: we will buy those things which have been made by the sweat of an Indian.' Japan PM: Win-win trade deal with US may be hard to implement Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Trump tariff policy leaves some partners losers but few winners WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught left a lot of losers — from small, poor countries like Laos and Algeria to wealthy U.S. trading partners like Canada and Switzerland. They're now facing especially hefty taxes – tariffs – on the products they export to the United States starting Aug. 7. The closest thing to winners may be the countries that caved to Trump's demands — and avoided even more pain. But it's unclear whether anyone will be able to claim victory in the long run — even the United States, the intended beneficiary of Trump's protectionist policies. 'In many respects, everybody's a loser here,'' said Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at the New York Law School. Barely six months after he returned to the White House, Trump has demolished the old global economic order. Gone is one built on agreed-upon rules. In its place is a system in which Trump himself sets the rules, using America's enormous economic power to punish countries that won't agree to one-sided trade deals and extracting huge concessions from the ones that do. Read more here. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught left a lot of losers — from small, poor countries like Laos and Algeria to wealthy U.S. trading partners like Canada and Switzerland. They're now facing especially hefty taxes – tariffs – on the products they export to the United States starting Aug. 7. The closest thing to winners may be the countries that caved to Trump's demands — and avoided even more pain. But it's unclear whether anyone will be able to claim victory in the long run — even the United States, the intended beneficiary of Trump's protectionist policies. 'In many respects, everybody's a loser here,'' said Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at the New York Law School. Barely six months after he returned to the White House, Trump has demolished the old global economic order. Gone is one built on agreed-upon rules. In its place is a system in which Trump himself sets the rules, using America's enormous economic power to punish countries that won't agree to one-sided trade deals and extracting huge concessions from the ones that do. Read more here. Switzerland business minister says it could revise tariffs offer ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss government is open to revising its offer to the United States in response to planned heavy tariffs, Business Minister Guy Parmelin said, as experts warned the 39% import duties announced by President Donald Trump could trigger a recession in Switzerland. Switzerland was left stunned on Friday after Trump hit the country with one of the highest tariffs in his global trade reset, with industry associations warning of tens of thousands of jobs being put at risk. The country's cabinet will hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss its next steps, with Parmelin telling broadcaster RTS that the government would move quickly before the U.S. tariffs are imposed on August 7. "We need to fully understand what happened, why the U.S. president made this decision. Once we have that on the table, we can decide how to proceed," Parmelin said. Read more here. ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss government is open to revising its offer to the United States in response to planned heavy tariffs, Business Minister Guy Parmelin said, as experts warned the 39% import duties announced by President Donald Trump could trigger a recession in Switzerland. Switzerland was left stunned on Friday after Trump hit the country with one of the highest tariffs in his global trade reset, with industry associations warning of tens of thousands of jobs being put at risk. The country's cabinet will hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss its next steps, with Parmelin telling broadcaster RTS that the government would move quickly before the U.S. tariffs are imposed on August 7. "We need to fully understand what happened, why the U.S. president made this decision. Once we have that on the table, we can decide how to proceed," Parmelin said. Read more here. Greer: Latest tariffs 'pretty much set' and unlikely to change (Reuters) -The tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed last week on scores of countries are likely to stay in place rather than be cut as part of continuing negotiations, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday. Ahead of a Friday deadline, Trump set rates including a 35% duty on many goods from Canada, 50% for Brazil, 25% for India, 20% for Taiwan and 39% for Switzerland, according to a presidential executive order. In trade talks since Trump returned to office, the White House has lowered some rates from levels initially announced, including halving import duties set last week as part of a deal with the European Union. Greer told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, however, that this would not be the case on the most recent round of tariffs. "A lot of these are set rates pursuant to deals. Some of these deals are announced, some are not, others depend on the level of the trade deficit or surplus we may have with the country," he said. "These tariff rates are pretty much set." Read more here. (Reuters) -The tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed last week on scores of countries are likely to stay in place rather than be cut as part of continuing negotiations, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday. Ahead of a Friday deadline, Trump set rates including a 35% duty on many goods from Canada, 50% for Brazil, 25% for India, 20% for Taiwan and 39% for Switzerland, according to a presidential executive order. In trade talks since Trump returned to office, the White House has lowered some rates from levels initially announced, including halving import duties set last week as part of a deal with the European Union. Greer told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, however, that this would not be the case on the most recent round of tariffs. "A lot of these are set rates pursuant to deals. Some of these deals are announced, some are not, others depend on the level of the trade deficit or surplus we may have with the country," he said. "These tariff rates are pretty much set." Read more here. Trump introduces tiers for trade partners in latest approach to tariffs President Trump is moving forward on a new suite of tariff rates with an approach increasingly focused on grouping countries into tiers, as opposed to a previous approach of simply looking at the trade balance. The new approach remains heavily influenced by either a trade surplus or a deficit but has grown more complex — some might say more subjective — leading to some consolidation in rate levels and the lowering of rates for many countries to a key new standard of 15%. The new landscape was reflected in Thursday night's executive action announcing rates, which centered around the 15% rate set to be in place next week in about 40 countries. Countries facing that rate include major trading partners that recently struck deals, such as Europe and Japan, as well as smaller nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. More than 100 countries were excluded altogether from this week's announcement, meaning their rate will stay at 10%. Meanwhile, a third group of about 30 countries will see higher rates ranging from 18% to 50%. Trump and his team are taking an approach that could simplify future negotiations and be more in line with global trade dynamics. Read more here. President Trump is moving forward on a new suite of tariff rates with an approach increasingly focused on grouping countries into tiers, as opposed to a previous approach of simply looking at the trade balance. The new approach remains heavily influenced by either a trade surplus or a deficit but has grown more complex — some might say more subjective — leading to some consolidation in rate levels and the lowering of rates for many countries to a key new standard of 15%. The new landscape was reflected in Thursday night's executive action announcing rates, which centered around the 15% rate set to be in place next week in about 40 countries. Countries facing that rate include major trading partners that recently struck deals, such as Europe and Japan, as well as smaller nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. More than 100 countries were excluded altogether from this week's announcement, meaning their rate will stay at 10%. Meanwhile, a third group of about 30 countries will see higher rates ranging from 18% to 50%. Trump and his team are taking an approach that could simplify future negotiations and be more in line with global trade dynamics. Read more here. 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- Yahoo
Palantir raises annual revenue forecast again
Palantir Technologies has once again adjusted its annual revenue forecast upward due to increased demand for its AI services among businesses and government agencies. The data analytics and defence software provider now anticipates revenue between $4.14bn and $4.15bn for the year. This revision exceeds both its earlier estimate and the average analyst forecast of $3.9bn, as reported by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). This marks Palantir's second revenue forecast revision in 2025, following an initial update in May, when the company raised its full-year revenue projection to a range of $3.89bn to $3.9bn. Palantir is benefiting from a focus on national security in the US and changes in the Pentagon's software procurement strategy favouring commercial and "non-traditional" providers, according to a report in Reuters. Recently, the US Army indicated potential service purchases from Palantir amounting to $10bn over a decade. Palantir's shares rose by 4% in extended trading, and have more than doubled in 2025. This growth has been driven by investors' confidence in the company's ability to capitalise on AI advancements and increased government spending on defence technology. In the second quarter of 2025, US government sales for the company increased by 53% to $426m. This represents more than 42% of total quarterly revenue, which reached approximately $1bn. For the full year 2025, Palantir anticipates US business revenue to exceed $1.3bn, up from earlier guidance of more than $1.18bn. The company posted a 68% year-on-year increase in total US revenue to $733m for the second quarter ending 30 June 2025. Palantir reported GAAP net income of $327m, representing a 33% margin. In terms of contracts, Palantir closed 157 deals worth at least $1m each, including 66 deals of at least $5m and 42 deals worth more than $10m. The total contract value reached $2.27bn, marking a 140% increase year-over-year. Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp said: 'This was a phenomenal quarter. We continue to see the astonishing impact of AI leverage. Our Rule of 40 score was 94%, once again obliterating the metric. 'Year-over-year growth in our US business surged to 68%, and year-over-year growth in US commercial climbed to 93%. We are guiding to the highest sequential quarterly revenue growth in our company's history, representing 50% year-over-year growth.' In June 2025, Palantir formed a partnership with Accenture Federal Services to deliver AI-powered solutions to US federal agencies, aiming to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. "Palantir raises annual revenue forecast again" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
San Francisco Chronicle
22 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: Being called ‘Jew' offends me. Should it be banned? Who gets to decide?
Regarding 'Trump wants to 'Make Indians Great Again' — by bringing back slurs to a school gymnasium near you' (Open Forum, July 28): Who determines what's offensive? A Washington Post op-ed says 'Jew' is fine, and the Chronicle uses it commonly. I'm Jewish, and I find that offensive. I was called 'that Jew boy' growing up. Is it OK for people of color to use the N-word all the time? Roosevelt Drive may be offensive to Japanese Americans because they had family members who were imprisoned under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's order during World War II. There are so many names offensive to one person and not another. Where does it stop? Maybe just give everything a digital address. James Sandler, Pleasanton Defend higher education By structuring success for immigrants, low-income youth and other underrepresented young people, universities help to build an educated populace. What do all of us have to gain from investment in forward thinking like this? Hopeful, engaged and skillful people in our communities. The institutions and programs now under attack are those that build the capacity of students while spreading affirmative energy into all our lives. When young people in our community achieve and thrive, we are all uplifted and enriched. Shirl Buss, San Rafael Stop the blame game Unfortunately, many of them declare Hamas responsible for Israel's war tactics. Could Hamas really end Israel's siege by releasing the hostages or by surrendering power? Maybe. Maybe Ukraine could end Russia's invasion by severing its alliances with the West. Maybe if Israel had ceased its decades of occupation and violence against Palestinians before 2023, Hamas would not have initiated the Oct. 7 attack. True or not, this kind of victim-blaming is unseemly. We should hold perpetrators of violence — including U.S. and Israeli leaders — responsible for their own actions. Jewish groups blaming Hamas for Israel's campaign of mass murder only succeed in making Jews look grotesque. Harry Chomsky, Albany Tariffs don't add up Let's do the math. U.S. imports of goods in 2024 were $3.3 trillion. A 15% overall tariff would bring in $495 billion. U.S. consumers will pay this tab, not corporations. There were 340 million people in the U.S. in 2024. That's $1,455 per person. The tariffs are a tax on consumers. Low-wage earners spend all their income on goods and services. The investor class spends a small portion of their income on goods and services. Who then benefits the most? Think about it. Barry Shiller, San Francisco Rethink MAGA support Regarding 'Why S.F.'s Democratic sheriff endorsed a MAGA supporter for California governor' (Joe Garofoli, Aug. 1): Perhaps San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto should take a good look in the mirror. He and I are subject to being detained and relocated under the Trump administration, just as his Japanese American ancestors were during World War II. Vickie Downey, Corning Group won't capitulate The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced Aug. 1 that it would no longer accept any federal dollars to support its programs because of the Trump administration's policies, particularly those regarding diversity, equity and inclusiveness. According to the group, DEI is integral to its mission. I am so proud that my professional organization has taken this stand. I hope that other professional organizations will be brave enough to follow its lead.
