He is not yet in power but President-elect Donald Trump rattled much of the world with an off-hours warning of stiff tariffs on close allies and China -- a loud hint that Trump-style government by social media post is coming back. With word of these levies against goods imported from Mexico, Canada and China, Trump sent auto industry stocks plummeting, raised fears for global supply chains and unnerved the world's major economies. For Washington-watchers with memories of the Republican's first term, the impromptu policy volley on Monday evening foreshadowed a second term of startling announcements of all manner, fired off at all hours of the day from his smartphone. "Donald Trump is never going to change much of anything," said Larry Sabato, a leading US political scientist and director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "You can expect in the second term pretty much what he showed us about himself and his methods in the first term. Social media announcements of policy, hirings and firings will continue." The first of Trump's tariff announcements -- a 25 percent levy on everything coming in from Mexico and Canada -- came amid an angry rebuke of lax border security at 6:45 pm on Truth Social, Trump's own platform. The United States is bound by agreements on the movement of goods and services brokered by Trump in a free trade treaty with both nations during his first term. But Trump warned that the new levy would "remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country" -- sowing panic from Ottawa to Mexico City. Seconds later, another message from the incoming commander-in-chief turned the focus on Chinese imports, which he said would be hit with "an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs." The consequences were immediate. Almost every major US automaker operates plants in Mexico, and shares in General Motors and Stellantis -- which produce pickup trucks in America's southern neighbor -- plummeted. Canada, China and Mexico protested, while Germany called on its European partners to prepare for Trump to impose hefty tariffs on their exports and stick together to combat such measures. The tumult recalls Trump's first term, when journalists, business leaders and politicians at home and abroad would scan their phones for the latest pronouncements, often long after they had left the office or over breakfast. During his first four years in the Oval Office, the tweet -- in those days his newsy posts were almost exclusively limited to Twitter, now known as X -- became the quasi-official gazette for administration policy. The public learned of the president-elect's 2020 Covid-19 diagnosis via an early-hours post, and when Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Trump's order, the Republican confirmed the kill by tweeting a US flag. The public and media learned of numerous other decisions big and small by the same source, from the introduction of customs duties to the dismissal of cabinet secretaries. It is not a communication method that has been favored by any previous US administration and runs counter to the policies and practices of most governments around the world. Throughout his third White House campaign, and with every twist and turn in his various entanglements with the justice system, Trump has poured his heart out on Truth Social, an app he turned to during his 20-month ban from Twitter. In recent days, the mercurial Republican has even named his attorney general secretaries of justice and health via announcements on the network. "He sees social media as a tool to shape and direct the national conversation and will do so again," said political scientist Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University professor. cjc/ft/dw/bjt

NFL commissioner says Jay-Z rape allegation won't impact Super Bowl halftime show relationshipLawmakers and Free Speech Groups Urge SCOTUS to Overturn Impending TikTok Ban

American and European stock markets mostly rose on Wednesday after inflation data cemented expectations that the US Federal Reserve will trim interest rates next month. While the Dow fell slightly, the other two major US indices advanced, led by the tech-rich Nasdaq, which piled on almost two percent to close above 20,000 points for the first time. The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 2.7 percent last month from a year ago, up slightly from 2.6 percent in October. "With the CPI numbers broadly in line, it is likely that the Fed will not be derailed and will cut rates again next week," Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. "The data is not a showstopper for the current bull run on Wall Street," he added. Ahead of the data, investors priced in an 86 percent chance the Fed will cut interest rates next week by a quarter percentage point. That rose to more than 98 percent after the CPI data was published. Stocks in Paris and Frankfurt rose ahead of the European Central Bank's own interest rate announcement on Thursday, with analysts expecting another cut as it seeks to boost eurozone growth. Investors are also eyeing political developments in France, where officials said President Emmanuel Macron aims to name a new prime minister "within 48 hours" as he seeks to end political deadlock following the ouster of Michel Barnier. In company news, shares in German retail giant Zalando shed more than four percent on Frankfurt's DAX index, after it acquired domestic rival About You in a deal worth around 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). Shares in Zara owner Inditex slid more than six percent after a record quarterly profit for the group fell short of market estimates. Among US companies, Google parent Alphabet earned 5.5 percent as it announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date. That added to gains after Google also announced Tuesday details of a breakthrough quantum chip. Shares in Shanghai rose but Hong Kong gave up an early rally to end in the red. Traders were keeping tabs on China to see if it will announce further measures to support its struggling economy as leaders were to gather Wednesday for a conference to hammer out next year's agenda. President Xi Jinping and other top leaders on Monday announced their first major shift in policy for more than a decade, saying they would "implement a more active fiscal policy and an appropriately relaxed" strategy. Those remarks sparked hopes for more interest rate cuts and the freeing up of more cash for lending. - Key figures around 2150 GMT - New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 44,148.56 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 6,084.19 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 20,034.89 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 8,301.62 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,423.40 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 20,399.16 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: FLAT at 39,372.23 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 20,155.05 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,432.49 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0498 from $1.0527 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2752 from $1.2771 Dollar/yen: UP at 152.40 yen from 151.95 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.31 from 82.42 pence Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.8 percent at $73.52 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $70.29 per barrel burs-jmb/mlm

Subsea7 awarded contract in the US Gulf of Mexico

‘Oh, Canada’ review: Richard Gere shows the price of a lifetime of deception

Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’

None

Hail Flutie: BC celebrates 40th anniversary of Miracle in MiamiThe Internal Revenue Service (“ IRS ”) and Department of the Treasury last week released final regulations (the “Final Regulations ”) relating to investment tax credits under Section 48 of the (the “ ITC ”) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “ Code ”). The release of the Final Regulations follows the issuance of proposed regulations in November 2023 (the “ Proposed Regulations ”), which we described here . The Final Regulations are available here . The Final Regulations largely adopt the Proposed Regulations, with a few exceptions. Mandatory applicability dates differ slightly between the various provisions of the proposed regulations, and the regulations provide some flexibility for taxpayers to apply them to projects that are already under construction or in service. The following provides a summary of several key points from the Final Regulations, including changes from the Proposed Regulations and areas where the Treasury Department and the IRS declined to make any changes that had been requested by some commenters. The Final Regulations for the ITC The Final Regulations contain a few key differences and confirmations from the Proposed Regulations, including: Qualified Interconnection Property. The Final Regulations retain the rule from the Proposed Regulations that the 5 MW (AC) limitation for qualified interconnection property is measured at the level of the energy property—rather than at the energy project level. The Final Regulations no longer require that reimbursements from a utility must be accounted for when determining ITC-eligible interconnection costs. Instead, the effect of reimbursements on ITC-eligibility is subject to general income tax principles and, accordingly, there may be some situations where reimbursement for interconnection costs may cause some interconnection costs to not be eligible for the ITC. The Final Regulations confirm that interconnection property is not subject to the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, and is not taken into account in determining whether an energy property satisfies the requirements for the domestic content or energy community bonus credits. Revisions to Single Project Determination. In response to taxpayer concerns regarding the single project rule set forth in the Proposed Regulations, the Final Regulations contain several changes to provide taxpayers additional flexibility. First, rather than implementing an “ownership plus two factors” test for multiple energy properties to be treated as a single energy project under the Proposed Regulations, the Final Regulations now require “ownership plus four factors.” This should provide taxpayers with some relief for projects that were truly not single projects in the ordinary sense but would have been treated as a single project under the “ownership plus two factors” scheme of the Proposed Regulations. Second, the single energy project analysis may be assessed, at the taxpayer’s option, at any point during construction of the energy properties or during the taxable year the energy properties are placed in service. This will clearly help taxpayers to separate projects that are developed as one in early stages but are broken up and ultimately sold to unrelated taxpayers. Finally, the Final Regulations decline to adopt the “consistent treatment” rule contained in the Proposed Regulations that required multiple energy properties to be treated as a single energy project for purposes of the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, domestic content bonus credit amount and energy community bonus credit amount if such energy properties were treated as a single energy project for beginning of construction purposes. Many commenters suggested that different types of energy property should not be susceptible to aggregation as a single energy project. For example, if solar and storage are combined as a single energy project, several commenters noted that it was not fair to test the combined property for eligibility for the domestic content adder. These commenters noted that in many cases the solar may qualify for the adder on a standalone basis, but when the analysis required a combination of solar and storage then neither energy property would qualify for the adder. The IRS and Treasury declined to adopt this request and, accordingly, multiple types of energy property technology are tested together for purposes of the single energy project determination, including application of the domestic content adder. In line with the above, the Final Regulations also clarify that an energy project will be deemed placed in service when the last energy property within the energy project is placed in service. This is a helpful clarification in connection with adders, including the energy community adder, eligibility for which is generally determined on the placed in service date for the energy project. 80/20 Rule. The IRS and Treasury received multiple comments to the application of the 80/20 rule, which generally outlines the requirements for retrofits of energy property for purposes of obtaining the ITC for the retrofit costs. Among the most impactful decisions, IRS and Treasury determined that energy property generally does not include equipment that is an addition or modification to existing energy property unless the rigorous 80/20 test is satisfied. Changes to Qualified Biogas Property. With respect to qualified biogas property, the Final Regulations clarify that gas upgrading equipment constitutes cleaning and conditioning property since such upgrading equipment is used interchangeably with cleaning and conditioning equipment that may be needed to make the biogas suitable for sale or productive use. As such, under the Final Regulations, gas upgrading equipment that is used to make the gas suitable for sale or productive use constitutes qualified biogas property eligible for the ITC. In addition, the Final Regulations clarify that combustion in the form of flaring will not disqualify a qualified biogas property from being eligible for the ITC, provided that the primary purpose of such qualified biogas property is sale or productive use of biogas and any flaring complies with all relevant laws and regulations. The Final Regulations also provide flexibility with respect to qualified biogas property ownership requirements. Because of the unique ownership structures in the biogas industry, in many cases the owners of the biogas production facility do not also own the associated waste feedstock collection system or landfill gas collection system. The Proposed Regulations essentially required that a taxpayer had to own both the biogas production facility and the associated collection systems; the Final Regulations change this rule by permitting separate ownership of these collection systems (which would not, if owned by a taxpayer unrelated to the owner of the conversion system, be eligible for the ITC). Calculation of Maximum Net Output for the 1 MW (AC) Exception to Application of the Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship Requirements for the 30% ITC. The Final Regulations provide a new rule for energy properties that generate electricity in direct current. Under this new rule, a taxpayer may choose to determine the maximum net output of each energy property that is part of the energy project (in alternating current) by using the lesser of (1) the sum of the nameplate generating capacities within the unit of energy property in direct current, or (2) the nameplate capacity of the first component of property that inverts the direct current electricity into alternating current. However, in other respects the Final Regulations adopt the 1 MW (AC) exception as set forth in the Proposed Regulations. For example, the IRS and Treasury declined to adopt taxpayer comments that electrochromic glass property, fiber-optic solar energy property, and microgrid controllers should be eligible for the 1 MW (AC) exception notwithstanding that such property does not generate electrical or thermal energy. Accordingly, all of these properties must satisfy the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements to be eligible for the 30% ITC. In addition, the preamble to the Final Regulations includes confirmation regarding a handful of significant questions from commenters, including: Confirmation that energy storage technology is eligible for the ITC if it satisfies the requirements under Section 48 of the Code, even if the energy storage technology is co-located with or shared by a facility that is otherwise eligible for the tax credits under Sections 45, 45V, or 48 of the Code. Confirmation that Treasury Regulations Sections 1.45-7, 1.45-8 and 1.45-12, regarding the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, are generally incorporated for the ITC by cross-reference.