UK Economics and Business

1. The Confederation of British Industry, Britain’s most prominent business lobby group, has announced that it will reform its governance and culture. They are attempting to bring to an end the months of crisis and alleged misconduct following the departure of boss Tony Danker, who was accused of taking bribes. The plan won its members’ endorsement with 93% voting in favour.
2. The UK has announced that in an effort to boost investment in the North Sea it will scale back a windfall tax on oil and gas producers. It will do this by introducing a price floor of $71.40 per crude oil barrel and £0.54 per therm (100 cubic feet) of gas.
3. The NHS will experience severe disruption in coming days with junior doctors starting industrial action at 7am on Wednesday. The British Medical Association announced that it will strike for a minimum of 3 days each month throughout the summer if the government does not improve its offer of a 5% salary rise. The union instead requests a 35% increase in their salaries.
4. The US and UK have agreed that they will work together on electric vehicle supply chains as part of the ‘Atlantic Declaration’. This deal aims to support supply chains of materials for electric vehicles but not fully assembled cars, and more broadly targets better green investment flows between the two countries.
5. The Prime Minister has ordered a review of ‘Drip Pricing’, where producers hide the true costs of goods and services by charging extra fees to their consumers. This is part of an effort to tackle the wider cost of living crisis.

World Economics and Business

1. A merger has been announced between LIV Golf, DP World tour and the PGA tour. The LIV tour, launched by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, had been attracting the sports biggest names away from the PGA with hugely lucrative contracts and this merger will see an end to legal disputes between the three companies. The merger will also increase the market power of the gulf state within the sport.
2. Chinese Exports have fallen by 7.5% in the month of May compared to 2022 as American demand declined by 18.2%. This reflects a decrease in global demand for Chinese goods which has fuelled fears that the country’s economic recovery is beginning to lose steam.
3. Saudi Arabia has announced that it will reduce its oil production by 1 million barrels a day in July in an attempt to boost falling oil prices, which have decreased from $126 dollars a barrel in late 2022 to just over $70 dollars a barrel at present.
4. Persistent inflation in Australia has led to the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates by 0.25% to 4.1%. The Bank of Canada also increased its policy rate by 0.25%, and both of these moves have surprised economists and investors alike.
5. Sequoia Capital, a American venture capitalist giant, has announced that from 2024 it would be splitting up into three separate companies. This would mean that it would lose both of its Indian and Chinese subsidiaries. It named geopolitical tensions as the reason for doing so, claiming that it has become “increasingly complex to run a decentralised global investment business”.
6. Microsoft has reached a settlement with the American Federal Trade Commission where it will be made to pay $20 million as part of a settlement agreement. The investigation found that it had wrongly been collecting children’s biometric data from Xbox consoles. Microsoft has since pledged to make privacy of children a priority.

UK Politics

1. On Sunday, Police Scotland arrested Nicola Sturgeon in the SNP finances enquiry, although she was later released without charge under investigation. She was arrested by appointment, which was expected as the other two signatories of the party accounts had previously both been arrested and interviewed themselves.
2. Chaos continues in the Conservative Party, as the aftermath of Boris Johnson’s resignation has split the party. Johnson resigned as an MP on Friday after receiving the Partygate report from the Parliamentary Standards Committee, saying he had been forced out by a ‘kangaroo court’ of investigating MPs. His resignation came only hours after his controversial resignation honours list was published.
3. Two other Tory MPs, Nigel Adams and Nadine Dorries, both allies of Johnson, have also resigned in the past few days, meaning that the Tories will now face 3 by-elections in the coming months.
4. The government was accused of trying to bypass parliament and rewrite legal definitions for prohibited forms of protest, expanding police powers to restrict protests owing to ‘cumulative impacts’ on a community, defined as any citizen who might be affected. They have attempted to do this through the passing of regulations, rather than legislation, which by convention aren’t challenged by the Lords.
5. As expected, a recall petition will open next week in Margaret Ferrier’s constituency after her suspension from the House of Commons for breaching COVID rules and attending parliament while awaiting a test result in September 2020. Her 30 day suspension began last Wednesday.

World Politics

1. In the early hours of the 6th June, Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed, and current evidence suggests Russia destroyed the vital structure. Thousands are believed to be trapped by floodwaters currently spanning 600 square km of the Kherson region, most of which is Russian occupied. Recent reports suggest that while Ukraine is providing aid to those evacuating from Ukrainian held areas, there is a significantly reduced effort by occupying Russian forces, and the American Red Cross has recently asked the US government to step in to use ‘diplomatic means’ to ease the situation. Ukraine is currently cranking up a highly anticipated counter-offensive to reclaim control of the occupied East and South.
2. Control of the private military group Wagner, who are currently playing a major role in the war in Ukraine fighting for the Russian forces, appears to have been taken by the state. Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin insisted that his group was well integrated with the Russian military, but said that its effectiveness would be damaged by having to report to the defence minister, and pledged to not sign any direct contracts with the state.
3. As a 24 hour ceasefire in the conflict in Sudan expired, fighting broke out again between the country’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has reportedly killed at least 1,800 people and displaced nearly 2 million.
4. Honduras last week opened an embassy in China, having cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan earlier this year. China now demands that countries with which it has formal ties acknowledge its territorial claim, and therefore only enjoys full diplomatic relations with 13 countries at present.
5. The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety, the Prime Minister announced on Wednesday, as the UK continued its summit with the USA that had a large focus on the technological and innovation-led future of the two nations.
6. Donald Trump faces seven charges over mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing a federal investigation into these actions. He is the first former president ever to be criminally prosecuted by the federal government he once headed.

Written by Angus McIntyre and Nico Sesson Farre