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Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday said the Iran war must become a turning point for Britain after two decades of crises, and he promised to strengthen the country's economy and military to cope with a more "volatile and dangerous" world. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire in the six-week-old Iran conflict, but there is no sign yet of Tehran lifting its near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to energy supplies in history. Starmer said the crisis, which has already pushed up fuel prices in Britain and is expected to drive further inflation and economic disruption, had to become "a line in the sand" for the country. "Britain has been buffeted by crises for nearly two decades now," he wrote in the Guardian newspaper, citing the 2008 global financial crash and the austerity that followed it, Brexit, the COVID pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "The war in Iran must now become a line in the sand, because how we emerge from this crisis will define all of us for a generation. And instead of hoping to return to the world of 2008, we will forge a new path for Britain – one that strengthens our energy, our defence and our economic security in a new age."
Only a small number of ships began transiting through the Strait of Hormuz after President Trump announced a two-week cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran on Wednesday. How many ships are passing through? Eight dry bulk and container ships moved cargo to Iran on Thursday, according to Marine Traffic data. That’s up from four ships that were allowed to pass Wednesday, the fewest so far in April, according S&P Global Market Intelligence. In peacetime about 135 ships a day move in and out of the Persian Gulf, which puts this week’s traffic at a trickle. The bottleneck of ships waiting to move through the vital waterway includes more than 425 oil and fuel tankers and nearly 20 vessels carrying liquefied natural gas. The deal to halt hostilities doesn’t mean the shipping lane will return to normal in the short term.
Italy's Treasury has proposed the reappointment of Claudio Descalzi for a fifth term as CEO of state-controlled energy group Eni, it said late on Thursday, cementing his position as the longest serving CEO of a Western-listed oil major. His new stint at Eni will start in May after his nomination is approved at the group's shareholders meeting, where the Italian government calls the shots. Descalzi, 71, has built a career in the Italian energy group as an upstream and exploration expert with a focus on Africa. No other CEO among Western-listed oil majors has been in charge longer than Descalzi, who has led Eni since May 2014, though TotalEnergies' Patrick Pouyanne, who became CEO in October 2014, is not far behind.
Julius Baer is replacing its chief financial officer, a step that rounds off a shake-up in the private bank's top management since it racked up heavy losses linked to risky lending. The bank confirmed the search in a statement after Reuters reported the news. CFO Evie Kostakis will be stepping down from her role to pursue another international leadership opportunity following an orderly transition, expected for the second half of the year, the bank said. Kostakis did not reply to a request for comment. Kostakis took on the job in 2022, making her the highest-ranking survivor of a management team that has undergone extensive change over the past two years since the Swiss bank began revealing a string of painful losses and writedowns. The CFO hunt has been in motion for several weeks, according to a source. In Julius Baer's 2022 and 2023 annual reports it said the CFO was in charge of overseeing credit risk - a period that ultimately proved a challenging one for the bank.
The spring session of the Nova Scotia legislature did not work out quite as Premier Tim Houston had hoped, according to opposition parties and a political scientist. The session was marked by weeks of protests over budget cuts, a remarkable reversal on some of those cuts, and new restrictions on access to the visitors galleries inside the legislature. Houston seemed to want to quickly pass his budget – which included a deficit of nearly $1.4-billion and hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to programs – but that did not go as planned, Tom Urbaniak, a political scientist with Cape Breton University, said in an interview Thursday.
Empire a annoncé jeudi avoir « conclu un accord portant sur l’acquisition » du détaillant québécois, qui s’était placé il y a quelques mois à l’abri de ses créanciers, tout en gardant ses magasins ouverts. En mettant la main sur Mayrand, Empire pourra faire son entrée sur le marché des épiceries au rabais actuellement dominé par Maxi (Loblaw) et Super C (Metro). La société, qui gère notamment au Québec, par sa filiale Sobeys, les enseignes IGA, Rachelle Béry et les Marchés Tradition, n’a pas de magasin à bas prix dans la Belle Province, contrairement à ailleurs au Canada où elle exploite l’enseigne FreshCo. « Cette acquisition permet à Empire de faire une entrée stratégique sur le marché québécois de l’alimentation de type entrepôt à prix compétitifs, un segment en pleine croissance qui dessert à la fois les ménages et le secteur de la restauration et des services alimentaires », peut-on lire dans le communiqué diffusé par l’entreprise jeudi en fin de journée, peu de temps après que les employés de Mayrand eurent appris la nouvelle.
CarMax will add two members to its board following discussions with activist investor Starboard Value, which agreed to withdraw its director nominations ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting. The new board members will be Jim Kessler and William Cobb, the latter of whom was one of Starboard’s two nominees to the board, CarMax said Thursday. The move comes after Starboard urged the used-car retailer’s new chief executive officer, Keith Barr, to revamp its pricing framework, streamline its digital processes, and cut costs. Starboard has a roughly $350 million stake in CarMax and nominated both Cobb and Starboard CEO and Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Smith to the board.
La présence d’un seul enseignant ainsi que l’absence de directions d’école et de membres du personnel de soutien scolaire au sein du conseil d’administration de l’Institut national d’excellence en éducation (INEE) soulèvent des critiques au sein du réseau, a constaté Le Devoir. La semaine dernière, la ministre de l’Éducation, Sonia LeBel, a dévoilé l’ensemble des membres du conseil d’administration de l’INEE, dirigé depuis juillet dernier par l’ancien directeur général du Centre de services scolaire (CSS) des Chênes, à Drummondville, Lucien Maltais. La société d’État pourra ainsi procéder, « de façon prioritaire », à l’adoption d’un budget et d’un plan d’effectifs, indique au Devoir sa conseillère aux communications, Patricia Faucher. Ce n’est qu’alors que l’organisation pourra pleinement remplir le mandat que lui a donné Québec, qui est notamment de cibler les meilleures pratiques à mettre en place dans les écoles de la province afin d’améliorer la réussite scolaire des élèves et la formation des enseignants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial will resume on Sunday, the courts' spokesperson said on Thursday, hours after Israel lifted a state of emergency imposed over its war with Iran. Iran began targeting Israel with ballistic missiles and drones after Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump launched air strikes on Iran on February 28, citing the aims of preventing it projecting force abroad, ending its nuclear programme and encouraging the overthrow of its rulers.
Elections BC has fined the BC United party for fraudulent election activities during the precampaign period for the 2024 provincial vote. An investigation by the non-partisan election agency found that BC United, which at that time served as B.C.’s official opposition party, hired an agency to run a false campaign to undermine its rival: the BC Conservative party. “The distribution of false information during elections can undermine public confidence in our democratic institutions and the security of our elections,” wrote Kerry Pridmore, deputy chief electoral officer, in the report released Wednesday.
Alors qu’il avait dégringolé mercredi pour terminer la séance à 94,41 dollars, le baril de West Texas Intermediate (WTI), pour livraison en mai, rebondissait de 5,83 % à 99,91 dollars vers 9 h 05 (heure de l’Est) jeudi, après avoir dépassé brièvement la barre des 100 dollars. Le baril de Brent de la mer du Nord, pour livraison en juin, prenait 3,67 % à 98,23 dollars. Les frappes israéliennes sur le Liban mercredi, qui ont fait 203 morts et plus de 1000 blessés selon les autorités libanaises, font peser un « grave danger sur le cessez-le-feu et les efforts menés en faveur d’une paix durable et générale dans la région », a affirmé dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi le secrétaire général de l’ONU Antonio Guterres, via un communiqué de son porte-parole. L’optimisme initial lié au cessez-le-feu annoncé avait fait dégringoler les cours de l’or noir mercredi, mais « le marché s’est rapidement recentré sur la réalité sous-jacente : le détroit d’Ormuz reste de facto soumis à des restrictions, et le système pétrolier mondial est loin de fonctionner normalement », a souligné Ole Hansen, analyste chez Saxo Bank.
Liberal Party members are gathering in Montreal and, for the first time in more than a decade, Justin Trudeau and his personal brand of politics won’t tower over the party’s proceedings. Party faithful will gather as Mark Carney’s ever-expanding big tent of MPs stands on the cusp of achieving a majority government following a series of floor-crossings in Parliament. The convention, which runs Thursday through Saturday, starts just ahead of three by-elections set for Monday, and a day after a fifth opposition MP crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus. It comes at a high point for the Liberals, who, a little more than a year ago, felt like they were marching their way out of office. Polling aggregator 338 Canada has the Liberals at a staggering 45 per cent support nationally. “There’s strong support across the country right now for the Prime Minister and for the party,” said Jonathan Kalles, a consultant with McMillan Vantage, who formerly served as Quebec adviser to Trudeau.
La Financière Outremont, propriété de l’homme d’affaires Pierre Karl Péladeau, achète la quasi-totalité du distributeur alimentaire Colabor. L’entente survient au terme d’un processus de vente mené par Raymond Chabot (RCGT), sous la protection de la Cour supérieure, dans le cadre d’une procédure de restructuration engagée en janvier en vertu de la Loi sur les arrangements avec les créanciers (LACC). Lourdement endettée, aux prises avec des dettes de plus de 300 millions $, l’entreprise de distribution Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville et de la quasi-totalité de ses filiales, Transport Paul-Emile Dubé, Pêcheries Norref Québec, et Groupe Resto-Achats, sont directement visées par cette opération. Le montant d’acquisitions de chacune de ces entitées n’ont pas été divulguées. Elles doivent encore être approuvées par le tribunal le 13 avril prochain, avant qu’elles ne soient réalisées dans les semaines suivantes.
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Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit by Massachusetts' attorney general alleging that the Facebook and Instagram parent deliberately designed features to addict young users, the state's top court ruled on Friday. The ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court marked the first time a state high court has considered whether a federal law that generally shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by their users would also bar claims that companies like Meta knowingly addicted young users. Meta has denied the allegations and says the company takes extensive steps to keep teens and young users safe on its platforms. The decision comes in the wake of a landmark trial in which a Los Angeles jury on March 25 found Meta and Alphabet's Google negligent for designing social media platforms that are harmful to young people. It awarded a combined $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund manager, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), on Friday said it backed the reappointment of Luigi Lovaglio as chief executive of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. NBIM held a 2.87% stake in Monte dei Paschi (MPS) at the end of 2025, with a market value of $935 million, the fund manager said on its website. NBIM is the sixth largest shareholder in MPS, according to LSEG data. Lovaglio has been ruled out for reappointment by the MPS board, which is proposing naming as CEO Fabrizio Palermo - currently at the helm of utility ACEA and the former head of Italian state agency CDP. Palermo also sits on the board of insurer Generali where he has been appointed by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, a key shareholder in both Generali and MPS.
Austrian oil and gas group OMV is set to appoint Emma Delaney as CEO and chair of the executive board from September, the company said in a statement on Friday. Delaney has been with BP since 1995 and would replace current chief executive Alfred Stern, who has held the post since September 2021 and had announced in May that he would not stand for re-election when his contract expires at the end of August. "The Executive Board nomination of Emma Delaney will give OMV an even stronger international visibility," said Edith Hlawati, OMV's deputy chair, adding that Delaney would become the group's first-ever female chief executive.
Stefano Gabbana has stepped down as chairman of the Italian fashion house that he co-founded with Domenico Dolce, but will continue in his creative role, the company said on Friday. Gabbana’s resignation from oversight roles was effective Jan. 1. Alfonso Dolce, Domenico Dolce’s brother, was named chairman later that month, according to the company’s filing with the Milan chamber of commerce. Dolce & Gabbana in a statement called the move “a natural evolution of its organizational structure and governance.” The news was first reported by Bloomberg, which cited sources saying that Gabbana, 63, was considering options to exit his 40 per cent stake in the 41-year-old fashion house.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency parliamentary committee to study all possible steps to protect private land ownership – known as fee simple title – in Canada. His is the latest in a long list of voices expressing concern about the Cowichan decision, a B.C. Supreme Court ruling from August, 2025, that declared Aboriginal title is a senior interest above fee simple. Mr. Poilievre spoke to reporters Thursday at a dusty crossroads between farmers’ fields in Richmond, B.C., the city where the courts have recognized that the Cowichan Tribes have Aboriginal title to about 300 hectares of developed land.
L'économie canadienne a créé 14 000 emplois en mars, selon Statistique Canada, tandis que le taux de chômage est resté stable à 6,7 %. Cette création d'emplois est en phase avec les attentes des économistes. Elle marque un léger rebond du marché du travail après les pertes importantes enregistrées en janvier et février. Au Québec, l'emploi est resté stable en mars, mais une baisse du nombre de personnes à la recherche d'un emploi a entraîné un recul de 0,5 point de pourcentage du taux de chômage, qui s'est établi à 5,4 %. L'économie québécoise avait perdu 57 000 emplois en février.
The former chief executive of failed Australian tech firm Big Un has pleaded guilty to sharing inside information, the country's corporate regulator said on Friday, in another conviction linked to one of Australia's most prominent technology sector failures. Richard Evans, formerly known as Richard Evertz, entered the guilty plea in Sydney's District Court over disclosures made to a shareholder in early 2017, when Big Un was one of the top-performing stocks on the Australian Securities Exchange. Big Un collapsed in 2018 after its shares were suspended from trading and the company later entered administration, in what Reuters has previously reported as a test case for Australia's enforcement of market misconduct laws.
The head of RBC says the bank plans to launch a growth fund to invest up to $1 billion in Canadian companies in the coming years. Speaking at the bank’s annual general meeting, chief executive Dave McKay said the fund will help companies build and scale in Canada. He says that too often Canadian entrepreneurs feel they need to leave the country to find enough capital to grow. McKay says the bank will also be hiring and expanding in key areas of national importance including its defence sector practice, infrastructure and project finance capabilities and helping more Canadian companies expand abroad.
Several big North American pension systems are standing by their private credit holdings even as the sector faces choppy waters, a sign of both the industry's potential resilience and its long reach into workers' retirement plans. For instance, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS, has holdings in private credit funds including some run by Blue Owl Capital Inc, and it is the biggest investor in one of that firm's publicly traded business development companies (BDCs), Blue Owl Capital Corp, according to LSEG data. Blue Owl limited withdrawals in two of the non-traded versions of its BDCs last week after investors put in record redemption requests. The firm is the latest in a string of BDC managers facing redemption stresses as investors fret about competition, falling returns and the risk of artificial intelligence upending software businesses financed by private credit.
Viktor Orban, uniquely endorsed by both U.S. President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, could lose his 16-year iron grip on power on Sunday, opinion polls indicate, in an election many Hungarians believe will decide their country's fate in Europe. Orban, the European Union's longest-serving prime minister, has led Hungary since 2010, entrenching his power by curbing independent media and democratic rights and building an "illiberal democracy" that has earned him fans on Europe's far right and in Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. However, three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs, along with the enrichment of oligarchs close to the government, have angered voters. Orban's campaign has also been ruffled by press reports that his government has colluded with Moscow. A former Orban loyalist, Peter Magyar, has successfully tapped into Hungarians' discontent and his centre-right Tisza party now comfortably leads most polls.
Alternative investment manager Ares Management has agreed to buy real-estate investment trust Whitestone REIT in an all-cash transaction valued at about $1.7 billion. The companies on Thursday said Ares will pay $19 a share for Whitestone, a 12% premium to Wednesday’s closing price of $16.94 for the Houston company. The takeover price is 26% above Ares’ closing price of $15.02 on March 5, before Reuters reported that the REIT was exploring a sale. The deal is slated to close in the third quarter. Shares of Whitestone were recently up 11% at $18.79 in premarket trading.
La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) s’allie à la société américaine Prologis afin de créer une nouvelle entreprise spécialisée dans l’acquisition de propriétés logistiques en Europe. Cette coentreprise, Prologis Logistics Investment Venture Europe (PLIVE), disposera d’un portefeuille initial d’un milliard €, l’équivalent de 1, 62 G$, dans des actifs logistiques en France, en Allemagne, aux Pays-Bas, en Suède et au Royaume-Uni. Selon les premières informations communiquées, la Caisse détiendra une participation de 70 %, tandis que Prologis agira en tant que partenaire d’exploitation et apportera son expertise en gestion d’actifs et en développement.
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