From Headlines From Clear Law…

In today’s news, I bring to you that:

1. Oil: Saudi Aramco increases dividend to nearly $100bn despite oil price falls

2. Energy: Cheap power for UK battery plants to curb China's control

3. Nuclear: Great British Nuclear delays decision on mini-nuke sites

4. Business: Russia’s rail was boosted by the demand to move goods to Europe after the Red Sea attacks

5. Employment: Stalling job market puts pressure on Bank to cut interest rates

Saudi Aramco increases dividend to nearly $100bn despite oil price falls

The state-owned giant raised its dividend by 30% year-on-year, powered by its second-highest annual profit ever. This performance is quite impressive considering the low oil prices.

This shows: that the world’s biggest oil producer seems to be doing just fine despite the world’s transition to renewables.

Cheap Power for UK battery plants to curb China control

The government is going to start to offer cheaper power to energy-intensive manufacturers under its British Industrial Supercharger scheme from next month. This will boost the production of key minerals used in wind turbines, EVs and defence technologies. China has a stranglehold on global refining as it accounts for 70% of the world’s cobalt refining, 70% of nickel, 60% of battery-grade lithium and 90% for some rare earth elements.

This means: That the world is very over-reliant on Chinese products for the use of tech, it is so important for everyone to develop alternative means for developing tech.

Great British Nuclear Delays Decision on mini-nuke Sites

As a public body that is responsible for overseeing the “nuclear renaissance” has decided to postpone a decision on where the first mini-nuclear reactors (SMRs) will be sited after the next election. The selection of sites has now been postponed to June, which means that the actual rewarding of contracts will be virtually impossible to squeeze in before the next general election.

This means: The slowdown is said to have occurred because rushing the process could expose the final decision to legal challenge.

Russia’s rail was boosted by the demand to move goods to Europe after the Red Sea attacks

Troubles in the Red Sea are boosting demand for the movement of goods from Asia to Europe by rail via Russia. Germany’s DHL said that requests to transport products via Russia have jumped by about 40% since container ships had to go the long way around while RailGate Europe reported an increase in demand of 25-35% and Rail Bridge Cargo said that the Cargo rail traffic on this route had increased by 31% compared to this time last year.

This means: Despite the war in Ukraine many providers have opted to run their business operations via Russia.

Stalling jobs market puts pressure on Bank to cut interest rates

Report by REC-KPMG which highlights a sudden drop in the pace of wage growth and slowing demand for staff. The start of growth in starting salaries has dropped to its slowest pace in almost three years. The risk is that if the Bank of England takes too long to cut interest rates it could force the country into recession.

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