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RIYADH — Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a visit that is likely to focus on energy ties but also follows months of tensions with the United States.

Xi, recently reanointed as leader of the world's second biggest economy, arrived in the capital Riyadh, Chinese and Saudi state media said, for a three-day visit that will include talks with the Saudi rulers and other Arab leaders.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan and Riyadh Governor Prince Faisal Bin Bandar were among those who welcomed Xi at the airport, where a ceremonial purple carpet was laid out from the steps of the plane. 

On major roads in Riyadh, the red-and-gold Chinese flag alternated with the green Saudi emblem. 

China is the top customer for oil from Saudi Arabia, the leading exporter of crude, and both sides appear keen to expand their relationship at a time of economic turmoil and geopolitical realignment.

The trip — only Xi's third overseas journey since the coronavirus pandemic began, and his first to Saudi Arabia since 2016 — comes after US President Joe Biden's visit in July, when he pleaded in vain for higher oil production.

It will feature bilateral meetings with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler, as well as a summit with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and a wider China-Arab summit.

Oil markets 

The programme represents the "largest-scale diplomatic activity between China and the Arab world since the founding of the PRC", or People's Republic of China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Wednesday.

The official Saudi Press Agency said the kingdom accounted for more than 20 per cent of Chinese investment in the Arab world between 2005 and 2020, "making it the biggest Arab country to receive Chinese investments during that period". 

Oil markets are expected to be a top agenda item for talks between China and Saudi Arabia, especially given the turbulence the markets have experienced since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The G-7 and European Union on Friday agreed to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil in an attempt to deny the Kremlin war resources, injecting further uncertainty into the markets.

On Sunday, the OPEC+ oil cartel led jointly by Saudi Arabia and Russia opted to keep in place production cuts of two million barrels per day approved in October.

Saudi and Chinese officials have provided scant information about the agenda, though Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the government, said he expected "a number of agreements to be signed".

Beyond energy, analysts say leaders from the two countries will likely discuss potential deals that could see Chinese firms become more deeply involved in mega-projects that are central to Prince Mohammed's vision of diversifying the Saudi economy away from oil.

They include a futuristic $500 billion megacity known as NEOM, a so-called cognitive city that will depend heavily on facial recognition and surveillance technology.

Tensions with Washington 

The OPEC+ production cuts approved in October represented the latest blow to the longtime partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States, which said they amounted to "aligning with Russia" on the war in Ukraine. 

Xi's visit is expected to be closely watched in Washington, which entered into what is often described as an oil-for-security partnership with Saudi Arabia towards the end of World War II.

While the Biden administration has smarted over the production cuts, Riyadh has at times accused the United States of failing to hold up the security end of the bargain, notably after strikes in September 2019 claimed by Yemen's Huthi rebels temporarily halved the kingdom's crude output.

China and Saudi Arabia already work together on arms sales and production. 

Yet analysts say Beijing cannot provide the same security assurances Washington does — nor does it wish to. 

Nevertheless, if the Saudis are "looking to extract more security guarantees from the US... signalling that they have the opportunity of strengthening ties with China is something that suits them well," said Torbjorn Soltvedt, of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

The GCC-China summit will be held in Riyadh on Friday, the bloc said in a statement. 

BERLIN — Less than three months after a high-profile stock market debut, luxury carmaker Porsche is set to join Germany's blue-chip DAX index, edging out sportsgear maker Puma. 

Porsche will be promoted onto the Frankfurt index of Germany's 40 leading firms on December 19, stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse said in a statement late Monday.

The firm's "fast entry" into the DAX showed that "our business model is robust and attractive to investors, even in a challenging environment", Porsche's chief finance officer Lutz Meschke said on Tuesday.

The maker of the iconic 911 sports car raced onto the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September with one of Europe's biggest listings in years.

Parent company Volkswagen (VW) raised around 9 billion euros ($9.4 billion) in the IPO, money that will help finance the group's costly shift to electric vehicles.

Porsche has quickly become an investor favourite, its share price climbing by almost 30 per cent from 82.50 euros initially to around 106 euros in early afternoon trading on Tuesday.

The company's current valuation, at just over 96 billion euros, now surpasses that of its parent VW at 83.5 billion euros, according to Bloomberg.

Porsche has also outpaced fellow German carmakers Mercedes-Benz, valued at 68.8 billion euros, and BMW at 56.5 billion.

Porsche's arrival in the top 40 will push Puma out of the DAX.

It will instead be listed on the MDAX index for medium-sized companies, Deutsche Boerse said.

Like its competitors, Puma is going a through turbulent time as high inflation and ongoing COVID 19-related restrictions in key market China weigh on demand. 

The company recently lost its CEO, Bjorn Gulden, to German rival Adidas.

MANILA — Philippine lawmakers have proposed a $4.9 billion sovereign wealth fund to be chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to boost growth, but critics warn it will be prone to graft and risk Filipino pensions.

Congressmen Sandro Marcos and Martin Romualdez — the president's son and cousin respectively — are among the six authors of the bill filed to the House of Representatives and will be examined by several committees before being debated in the house.

The "Maharlika Investments Fund" (MIF) would be seeded with 275 billion pesos from government financial institutions, including two pension funds and two banks, according to the latest version of the bill.

It would help the Marcos administration achieve its goals of getting the Philippine economy to "soar to greater heights in spite of external shocks", the authors wrote.

The word "maharlika" is widely associated with Marcos Jr's late dictator father and namesake, who presided over widespread human rights abuses and corruption during his two decades in power. He was ousted in 1986.

Marcos Sr claimed to have led an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit called Ang Mga Maharlika during World War II, but he has been accused of lying about his war record.

The MIF has been met with concern from business groups, economists, activists and opposition figures, who have questioned the need for a sovereign wealth fund in the debt-laden country.

They argue pension funds were already being invested and that diverting them to the MIF would expose them to additional risk.

Even the president's own sister, Senator Imee Marcos, said it was "risky to gamble" retirement funds.

"We all know about our neighbour Malaysia where their 1MDB was a real disaster where the money was looted," she said, referring to the graft scandal that involved billions of dollars of state funds.

A lack of safeguards also meant "the potential for corruption is almost limitless", Vincent Lazatin, former executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, told AFP on Tuesday.

'A lot of questions' 

The bill's proponents highlighted Indonesia as an example of a sovereign wealth fund successfully being used to attract direct investments into infrastructure and emerging industries.

But Natixis senior economist Trinh Nguyen said Indonesia's fund has a "very clear" investment objective, while the Philippine proposal "lacks a direction".

"There are a lot of questions... How is it going to benefit the longer-term development objective of the Philippines because it's not very clear to me that it would," she said.

Under the proposed bill, MIF funds would be "exempt from any regulatory restrictions".

Investment options would include financial derivatives, equities, infrastructure projects and "other investments as may be approved by the Board".

Congressman Joey Salceda, who leads the technical working group examining the bill, told AFP the fund's governing board would be chaired by the president.

Former president Gloria Arroyo, who has backed the bill, said it was a "powerful statement that the highest official of the land will hold himself as ultimately accountable to the Filipino people for the performance of the Fund".

But Lazatin noted that the country had a dismal record of punishing elected officials for corruption. 

"Our laws are good on paper, but in practice... we have not been able to hold public officials accountable," he said.

An estimated $10 billion was stolen from state coffers over the course of Marcos Sr's rule, while the family has been accused of owing more than $3.6 billion in estate taxes.

No one in the clan has been jailed.

BRUSSELS — The price cap on Russian oil agreed by the EU, G-7 and Australia came into force on Monday. It aims to restrict Russia’s revenue as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine, while making sure Moscow keeps supplying the global market.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday the measure would contribute to a de-stabilisation of world energy markets and would not affect Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Embargo and cap 

The cap took effect alongside an EU embargo on maritime deliveries of Russian crude oil, which comes several months after an embargo imposed by the United States and Canada.

Russia is the world’s second-largest crude exporter and without the cap it would be easy to find new buyers at market prices.

The measure means only oil sold at a price equal to or less than $60 per barrel can continue to be delivered.

Companies based in the EU, G-7 countries and Australia will be banned from providing services enabling maritime transport, such as insurance, with oil above that price.

The G-7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States — provide insurance services for 90 per cent of the world’s cargo and the EU is a major player in sea freight.

This means they should be able to pass on the cap to the majority of Russia’s customers around the world, making for a credible price cap.

There is a transition period, and the cap will not apply to cargoes loaded before December 5, and a further cap on oil products will come into effect on February 5.

Market impact 

The West has adopted the cap of $60, well above the current cost of producing oil in Russia, so Moscow will have an incentive to continue pumping crude. Russia will continue to earn revenue, even if it is reduced.

“Russia must retain an interest in selling its oil” or risk reducing global supply and causing prices to soar, said one European official, who did not believe the Kremlin’s threats to stop deliveries to countries complying with the cap.

The official said Russia would remain concerned about maintaining the state of its infrastructure, which would be damaged if production is halted, and keeping the confidence of its customers, including China and India.

Experts are worried about a leap into the unknown and keeping a close eye on the reaction of the 23-nation OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

“We will sell oil and oil products to countries that will work with us on market terms, even if we have to reduce production somewhat,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said after an OPEC+ videoconference on Sunday.

“We are currently working on mechanisms to prohibit the use of the price cap tool at any level,” Novak added, warning that the cap can only cause “further market de-stabilisation”.

But Brussels insists the cap will help stabilise the markets and “directly benefit emerging economies and developing countries”, which will be able to get hold of Russian crude at a lower cost.

The market price of a barrel of Russian Urals crude is currently hovering around $65 dollars a barrel, suggesting the measure may have only a limited impact in the short term.

Ukraine said the cap should have been set even lower, arguing that $60 is not enough to penalise the Kremlin.

A revisable cap 

The cap will be reviewed from mid-January and then every two months, with the option to modify it according to price changes. 

The principle is for the cap to be at least 5 per cent below the average market price.

Any revision would need the agreement of the G-7, Australia and the EU.

Effectiveness 

All countries are invited to formally join the measures. States that do not adopt them can continue to buy Russian oil above the price cap, but without using Western services to acquire, insure or transport it.

“We have clear signals that a number of emerging economies, particularly in Asia, will observe the principles of the cap,” said a European official, adding that Russia is already “under pressure” from its customers to offer discounts.

It would be very complicated to find alternatives for services provided by European companies, which dominate tanker transport and insurance, the official said. Improvised substitutes, including insurance for oil spills, would be “extremely risky”, he said.

Risks 

Each EU and G-7 state will have to monitor companies based in its territory.

If a ship flying the flag of a third country is identified carrying Russian oil at a price above the cap, Western operators will be banned from insuring and financing it for 90 days.

While Russia could be tempted to create its own fleet of tankers, operating and insuring them itself, Brussels believes “building a maritime ecosystem overnight will be very complicated” — and such make-do measures could have trouble convincing customers.

SKOKIE — At LanzaTech's lab in the Chicago suburbs, a beige liquid bubbles away in dozens of glass vats.

The concoction includes billions of hungry bacteria, specialised to feed on polluted air — the first step in a recycling system that converts greenhouse gases into usable products.

Thanks to licensing agreements, LanzaTech's novel microorganisms are already being put to commercial use by three Chinese factories, converting waste emissions into ethanol.

That ethanol is then used as a chemical building block for consumer items such as plastic bottles, athletic wear and even dresses, via tie-ins with major brands such as Zara and L'Oreal.

"I wouldn't have thought that 14 years later, we would have a cocktail dress on the market that's made out of steel emissions," said microbiologist Michael Kopke, who joined LanzaTech a year after its founding.

LanzaTech is the only American company among 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize, an award for contributions to environmentalism launched by Britain's Prince William and broadcaster David Attenborough. Five winners will be announced on Friday.

To date, LanzaTech says it has kept 200,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, while producing 50 million gallons (190 million liters) of ethanol.

That's a small drop in the bucket when it comes to the actual quantities needed to combat climate change, Kopke concedes.

But having spent 15 years developing the methodology and proving its large-scale feasibility, the company is now seeking to ramp up its ambition and multiply the number of participating factories.

"We really want to get to a point where we only use above ground carbon, and keep that in circulation," says Kopke — in other words, avoid extracting new oil and gas.

Industry partnerships 

LanzaTech, which employs about 200 people, compares its carbon recycling technology to a brewery — but instead of taking sugar and yeast to make beer, it uses carbon pollution and bacteria to make ethanol.

The bacteria used in their process was identified decades ago in rabbit droppings.

The company placed it in industrial conditions to optimise it in those settings, "almost like an athlete that we trained", said Kopke.

Bacteria are sent out in the form of a freeze-dried powder to corporate clients in China, which have giant versions of the vats back in Chicago, several meters high.

The corporate clients that built these facilities will then reap the rewards of the sale of ethanol — as well as the positive PR from offsetting pollution from their main businesses.

The clients in China are a steel plant and two ferroalloy plants. Six other sites are under construction, including one in Belgium for an ArcelorMittal plant, and in India with the Indian Oil Company.

Because the bacteria can ingest CO2, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, the process is extremely flexible, explains Zara Summers, LanzaTech's vice president of science.

"We can take garbage, we can take biomass, we can take off gas from an industrial plant," said Summers, who spent ten years working for ExxonMobil.

Products already on the shelves include a line of dresses at Zara. Sold at around $90, they are made of polyester, 20 per cent of which comes from captured gas.

"In the future, I think the vision is there is no such thing as waste, because carbon can be reused again," said Summers.

Sustainable 

aviation fuel 

LanzaTech has also founded a separate company, LanzaJet, to use the ethanol to create "sustainable aviation fuel" or SAF.

Increasing global SAF production is a huge challenge for the fuel-heavy aviation sector, which is seeking to green itself.

LanzaJet is aiming to achieve one billion gallons of SAF production in the United States per year by 2030.

Unlike bioethanol produced from wheat, beets or corn, fuel created from greenhouse gas emissions doesn't require the use of agricultural land.

For LanzaTech, the next challenge is to commercialise bacteria that will produce chemicals other than ethanol. 

In particular, they have their sights set on directly producing ethylene, "one of the most widely used chemicals in the world", per Kopke — thus saving energy associated with having to first convert ethanol into ethylene.

NEW YORK — Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried apologised on Wednesday for a "lot of mistakes" in the abrupt collapse of the cryptocurrency firm and said he did not knowingly behave fraudulently.

"I didn't ever try to commit fraud on anyone," Bankman-Fried told the Dealbook conference hosted by CNBC and The New York Times.

"I'm deeply sorry about what happened," Bankman-Fried said. "Clearly I made a lot of mistakes or things I would be able to give anything to be able to do over again."

Bankman-Fried, appearing by video from the Bahamas and donning his trademark t-shirt, said he was "shocked" by many of the details that have surfaced amid the cryptocurrency platform's collapse, depicting the problems as stemming from lax oversight and corporate controls rather than an intent to defraud. 

On November 11, Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX filed for bankruptcy protection while facing a large financing shortfall and a deluge of withdrawals from panicked customers. The firm at its peak had been worth some $32 billion.

At the time, FTX had taken some $10 billion in customer funds without authorisation, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Much attention has focused on the relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, an affiliated trading firm. 

Bankman-Fried acknowledged an "embarrassing" lack of attention to conflicts of interest between the two firms, but insisted that he was not abreast of the details on Alameda and did not run Alameda.

Among the revelations, the digital currency news site CoinDesk reported on November 2 that Alameda's balance sheet was heavily built on FTT — a token created by FTX and not based on an asset with independent value. 

The value of FTT plunged in early November as both Alameda and FTX cratered and has not recovered.

Bankman-Fried said that he was also surprised at the scale of Alameda's positions on FTX that were troubled and which ultimately stressed the firm.

"I didn't think it was existential for FTX," Bankman-Fried said of Alameda's financial stress, adding that he thought the problem would "end up having some small impact on FTX, but not a significant one, not one that hurt customers at all".

Bankman-Fried said he didn't knowingly "comingle" funds between the two firms.

FTX's newly installed CEO John J. Ray has lambasted his predecessors in a November 17 filing in bankruptcy court.

"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray said in the filing. 

"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented," he said.

Bankman-Fried on Wednesday said he was not aware that he was the subject of a criminal probe, adding that he rejected his lawyer's advice to stay silent now.

"I have a duty to explain what happened," he said. "And I think I have a duty... if there is anything I can do to try and help customers out here."

Bankman-Fried suggested US investors in FTX could recover their losses, but did not explain how this might happen.