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U.S. Gas Prices Climb Further as Effects of Iran War Reverberate

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U.S. Gas Prices Climb Further as Effects of Iran War Reverberate

Oil prices continued to climb on Wednesday as the disruption to Persian Gulf energy supplies persisted. The effects are being felt far beyond the region, with the average price of U.S. gasoline setting a record high since the start of the war in Iran.

The rise in energy costs is a concern for investors, but stock markets have been buoyed by solid corporate earnings, keeping indexes elevated. Traders are also looking to officials at the Federal Reserve, who announce their latest decision on interest rates on Wednesday, for guidance on the outlook for inflation, economic growth and interest rates.

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Rivian to place more than 100 new EV chargers around Caruso properties

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Rivian to place more than 100 new EV chargers around Caruso properties

Real estate developer Caruso is partnering with the electric vehicle company Rivian to add more than 150 public EV chargers to Caruso’s properties, including malls and apartment buildings.

Caruso owns several iconic Southern California destinations, such as the Grove and Palisades Village, which is scheduled to reopen this summer after last year’s wildfires. Rivian is an Irvine-based luxury EV brand that has risen in popularity in the Golden State as Tesla has lost some traction.

The multi-year partnership will add two new Rivian showrooms to the Commons at Calabasas and the Americana at Brand in Glendale. Each space will be designed like a gallery and offer private experiences, the companies said.

The DC fast chargers will be available to all EV drivers and powered entirely by renewable energy. Caruso did not specify where the new chargers would be installed. It owns residential buildings in Glendale and near Beverly Hills, as well as the Miramar Resort in Montecito.

“We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with Caruso, a partner with a shared belief in creating meaningful experiences for its community,” Marc Navarro, senior manager of real estate at Rivian, said in a statement.

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The collaboration will include ride-and-drive experiences across the Caruso portfolio in Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Thousand Oaks and other locations.

Rivian was also named a presenting partner for the 25th Annual Christmas at the Grove event. Rivian owners enrolled in Caruso’s membership program will receive free parking at all Caruso properties.

“This partnership enhances the first-class retail experience while adding meaningful convenience for our guests,” said Caruso’s chief financial and revenue officer, Jackie Levy, in a statement. “We’re creating destinations that reflect how today’s consumers live, shop and move.”

California has more than 90,000 public EV charging ports and more than 125,000 shared private ports, according to the California Energy Commission. Combined, that’s 68% more EV chargers than gasoline nozzles in the state.

Los Angeles County has nearly 4,000 public DC fast chargers, the most in the state, followed by San Diego and San Bernardino counties. As of the end of last year, 2.2 million zero-emission vehicles were registered in California, including EVs and plug-in hybrids.

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There are still shortages of EV chargers in some California counties, including Modoc and Siskiyou counties in the northern-most part of the state and in Inyo County northeast of Los Angeles.

After several rounds of layoffs in 2025, Rivian signaled a comeback earlier this year with strong earnings, reporting gross profits for 2025 of $144 million compared to a net loss in 2024 of $1.2 billion.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney Says Canada’s Economy Is Expected to Grow and Deficit to Fall

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Prime Minister Mark Carney Says Canada’s Economy Is Expected to Grow and Deficit to Fall

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada presented a budget update on Tuesday showing that his government’s deficit would be less than projected last fall and that the country’s economy would most likely grow over the coming year despite several key industries being buffeted by President Trump’s tariffs.

The spring economic update, a mini budget of sorts, came exactly one year after Mr. Carney returned the Liberal Party to power in his first political campaign and a few weeks after special elections and defections to the Liberals by members of other parties gave him a majority and the voting control of Parliament he had been denied in that election.

But if Mr. Carney intends to use his newfound political control to change direction, there was no indication. Instead, the update underscored his broad push to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the United States by expanding trade with other countries and cutting government spending in some areas to expand military spending and large infrastructure projects like pipelines and nuclear power reactors.

“The world has been more uncertain than ever, but despite that, the Canadian economy has been resilient,” François-Philippe Champagne, the finance minister, told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re definitely entering a new world order.”

Mr. Carney, the former central banker of Canada and England, was an investment executive until he moved into politics last year. At that time, the Conservatives seemed certain to win the election to come. Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leader at the time, had become unpopular after more than nine years in office, and his government was seen as profligate by many voters.

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But Mr. Carney’s background in finance reversed the party’s fortunes when voters appeared to be searching for stability in the midst of Mr. Trump’s trade war on Canada and his calls to turn the country into the 51st U.S. state.

Since then, Mr. Carney has, publicly at least, appeared to largely operate as his own finance minister. He again upstaged Mr. Champagne this week by announcing the only major change to be found in the update. On Monday, Mr. Carney said that Canada would set up a sovereign wealth fund like those found in Norway and several oil-rich nations in the Middle East. While the fund of 26 billion Canadian dollars, about $19 billion, is considerably smaller than those other countries’ pools of money, Canadians will be able to invest their own money in Canada’s new projects.

The update clarified that the 26 billion Canadian dollars will be pulled out of the government’s general revenues over the next three years.

The only other significant measure outlined in the update was a plan to spend 2 billion Canadian dollars, or $1.5 billion, to train 80,000 to 100,000 people in skilled construction jobs, and an additional 3.4 billion Canadian dollars, or about $2.5 billion, to fund apprenticeships.

That program follows similar efforts by the federal government and provinces going back several years to deal with Canada’s chronic shortage of construction workers.

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Mr. Champagne said that previous efforts had been fragmented but that the new program would be more comprehensive.

“How many people know all these programs and all these agencies?” he said.

The document also forecast that, despite declines in the jobs-heavy automotive, steel, aluminum and forestry industries brought on by American tariffs, the economy would grow by 2 percent this year. Last year, it reached 1.7 percent after falling by 0.6 percent in the final three months.

The government said that it now expected the deficit for the current fiscal year, which began this month, to be 67 billion Canadian dollars, 11 billion dollars less than it had anticipated in the November budget.

While the recent spike in oil prices is being felt by Canadian motorists, air travelers and many industries, it is benefiting Canada’s oil industry and increasing tax revenues as well as employment in that sector. Overall, the government now expects its revenues to be 9 billion Canadian dollars higher than forecast in part because fewer people are likely to lose their jobs.

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In the months since November’s budget, it remains unclear exactly what jobs and programs will be lost to budget cuts. And the government has introduced a variety of new spending measures like the investment fund and a temporary removal of a federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel to partly offset the recent price hikes.

Mr. Champagne repeatedly said that the deficit remained low relative to other industrialized nations and that the government was “fiscally prudent” and careful where it cut.

“By spending less, we can invest more in the things that really matter to Canadians,” he said.

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Quixote production services vendor to wind down most of its soundstage business in L.A.

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Quixote production services vendor to wind down most of its soundstage business in L.A.

Production services vendor Quixote said it will wind down most of its soundstage business in Los Angeles — including its main commercial studio in West Hollywood and its North Valley studio in Pacoima — as the industry continues to grapple with the slowdown in film and television work.

The company will also close its operations in Atlanta as part of the cost-reduction effort, Quixote parent company Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. said in a statement Tuesday.

About 70 employees in Atlanta and L.A. will be laid off, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment. They did not provide a breakdown of how many layoffs would occur in each place.

Some equipment from Atlanta will be sent to L.A. and New York, where Quixote will continue its business in lighting and grip, communications rental services and production supplies and vehicles such as the Star Waggons trailers.

Hudson Pacific Properties expects to save about $21 million to $27 million a year. Quixote’s Griffith Park studio will remain open.

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“Like many of you, we have persisted through the prolonged and ongoing slowdown in commercial, television and film production,” Quixote wrote in a Tuesday note to clients and partners. “But ultimately, industry conditions have forced difficult decisions.”

Hudson Pacific will instead focus on its commercial office business, as well as “higher performing segments of our studio business,” Mark Lammas, president of Hudson Pacific, said in a statement.

The Los Angeles-based real estate company bought Quixote in 2022 for $360 million, saying at the time that the acquisition would address the growing demand for soundstage space. Quixote was originally founded in 1995.

Hudson Pacific’s Sunset Studios business is not affected by the Quixote news. The company says its main Hollywood stages are 96% leased and new stages in Manhattan are completely full.

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