Interest moves from banks to Olympics 🥇

The eagle-eyed amongst us may have spotted the Louis Vuitton shelves the medals have been presented to Olympic athletes on the podium. It’s the first time we’ve seen such branding at the Olympic Games. If you hadn’t noticed them, I’m sure you will now.

Ad-free traditions have been dashed in favour of relieving the taxpayer of some of the financial burden of the games - and yes, that explains the cringe of the Samsung podium selfie too! LV, Samsung and Coca-Cola are the most prominent product placements you’re likely to see at the games, you can use this paragraph as a tick sheet once you’ve seen them all if you like.

Another quirky placement? Iron medals. The medals at the games each feature a genuine piece of metal from the Eiffel Tower. In a quest for extra sentiment, medal designers were given permission to raid the secret stash of iron taken from the tower as it is continually refurbished and refreshed part by part each year!

MARKETS

Data: Google Finance, 7-day Market Close

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PROJECT WATCH

📚 Blackpool “multiversity” project appoints Morgan Sindall for £65m campus construction. Read more

☢️ Hinkley Point modular fabrication providing boost to Bristol activity. Read more

🛢️ Parkmead and Orcadian Energy JV granted North Sea licence. Read more

🗼 Sellafield electricity towers set to be dismantled. Read more

ECONOMY & FINANCE

Finally good news on interest rates.
Britain’s high street lenders are slashing mortgage rates following the Bank of England’s first interest rate cut in over four years. HSBC, Santander, and Nationwide are already on the rate-cutting bandwagon after the BOE trimmed its Bank Rate to 5% from 5.25%. A whole 25 basis points of joy!

Homeowners with tracker mortgages—which follow the Bank's base rate—will be the first to benefit. A round of applause for Barclays, Santander, Metro Bank, Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, and HSBC, who’ve all trimmed their repayment costs - it might only be 0.25% but every little helps.

Even those on standard variable rates will see minuscule savings. Santander, Lloyds, and Halifax will respectively cut their SVR rates in September. Not monumental, but a beacon of hope when you’re drowning in living costs.

Alas, the vast majority of UK mortgage holders are on fixed rates. But fret not, good people, as analysts predict the reductions will trickle down eventually. Nationwide even offered a sub-4% deal on its five-year fixed rate ahead of the BOE’s decision. It’s like Christmas in August, but without presents, just pork pies and paperwork.

BP profits soar, again.
It’s a familiar story, climate crisis and oil major profits. BP posted a jaw-dropping second-quarter profit of nearly £2.2 billion, sending investors into a joyous frenzy akin to teenagers discovering TikTok. Analysts had expected a mere £2 billion – shows what they know! The oil giant’s half-year profit is a hefty £4.3 billion, although that's a tad down from last year's £5.9 billion, thanks to lower refining margins and an "average" performance in gas marketing.

Despite the decline, BP is giving its shareholders reasons to smile and probably order another round of Pimm's. The company is upping its dividend payments and buying back £1.35 billion in stock over the next three months. That's £2.7 billion worth of buy-backs for the year, because why not?

Critics, like Alice Harrison from Global Witness, couldn't hold back. “BP’s making billions while the planet boils – talk about fiddling while Rome burns!” she quipped. Harrison's right; while the UK swelters in record-breaking heat, Olympic-level huffing and puffing over BP’s 'dirty' oil projects hasn’t melted their icy resolve to rake in more cash.

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POLITICS

Keir Starmer has announced the creation of a new police unit to combat violent disorder, following far-right riots sparked by the incident in Southport. The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of a coordinated response to such incidents, likening the needed approach to measures used against football hooliganism. This includes wider deployment of facial recognition technology and criminal behaviour orders to restrict the movements of known troublemakers. Civil liberties groups have criticized the expanded use of facial recognition, arguing it could lead to a de facto national ID system and raise significant privacy concerns.

In a dramatic move to repair a colossal £22bn black hole in public finances, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has rolled out extensive spending cuts. Branding the legacy of the previous Tory government as the "worst inheritance since the Second World War," Reeves revealed Labour’s emergency measures to Parliament on Monday. Labour plans to slash £5.5bn this year and £8bn the next to claw back funds.

Family doctors across England have overwhelmingly voted to take collective action for the first time since the Beatles were still together. A whopping 98.3% of more than 8,500 GPs decided to protest against their new contract in a move that threatens to bring the NHS to a "standstill," but fear not, this is aimed at NHS bureaucracy rather than the patients.

On the blue side of town, the Conservative leadership race continues to heat up, with Robert Jenrick focusing his campaign on strict immigration policies. Jenrick, who quit Rishi Sunak’s government over the handling of immigration, has proposed detaining and deporting individuals arriving in the UK on small boats within days. He also supports reimposing the Rwanda scheme and potentially capping immigration to fewer than 10,000 people a year. Jenrick's campaign faces competition from other candidates, including Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride, and Priti Patel.

ACROSS THE POND

Not so golden arches.
For the first time in over three years, McDonald's has reported a global sales drop, with the golden arches dimming slightly as frugal consumers opt for home-cooked meals. The burger behemoth saw a 1% decline in sales for the April-June quarter, a phenomenon not seen since the pandemic's peak in late 2020.

Internationally, the situation is even more grim in their ‘developmental licensed markets,’ with sales falling by 1.3%. Consumer sentiment in China remains weak, and the Middle East has seen boycotts tied to the chain's perceived support for Israel.

CEO Chris Kempczinski lamented that McDonald's had become the last resort for many cash-strapped diners, but even the cheap eats allure was losing its lustre. “Consumers are becoming very discriminating,” he mused, adding that shoppers are quick to cut discretionary spending, even for fast food.

Despite the gloomy sales report, McDonald's shares didn't sag, instead rising by 9.4% last week! Investors appear confident in the company’s strategy to ramp up promotions, including a $5 meal deal, to regain market share—a task that, like a supersized meal, won't be quick to digest. 

Bitcoin bailout?
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, no stranger to controversy, has flipped his 2019 anti-crypto stance like a seasoned pancake flipper. Now running for the White House again, he's embraced bitcoin, making millions from digital trading card collections and putting himself in the same crypto camp as Wall Street giants and Shark Tank (Dragon’s Den with stars and stripes) millionaire, Mark Cuban.

Last week, Trump proposed using Bitcoin to tackle the U.S.'s astronomical $35 trillion debt. With Janet Yellen admitting fears over the future of the U.S. dollar, could this be Trump's audacious gambit to trigger a Bitcoin price boom? He's already predicted Bitcoin could eclipse gold's $16 trillion market cap.

In an attempt to win the hearts and wallets of crypto enthusiasts, Trump pledged to create a "strategic national bitcoin reserve" and is accepting campaign donations in Bitcoin. Meanwhile, despite recent crackdowns, China is still advancing with its state-backed digital currency.

TECH

Wind and solar power have dethroned fossil fuels in Europe for the first half of 2024. Wind turbines and solar panels generated 30% of the EU’s electricity, leaving fossil fuels to sulk with a measly 27%. This first is almost as momentous as when Bowie changed personas, ‘Let’s Dance’ to the beat of sustainability.

Another sustainable development from China: scientists have cracked the code on all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASLBs), promising a staggering 20,000 charging cycles. If your eyes are glazing over, think of it this way: your future gadgets could run longer than a post office queue on a Saturday morning.

US lawmakers are getting all Big Brother on us with the NO FAKES Act, aiming to stop AI from creating digital replicas of people without consent, alive or dead (for 70 years after they depart). With deepfakes causing chaos, this bill is set to be the digital world’s knight in shining armour. Similarly, in Old Blighty, the Labour government is shelving £1.3bn in tech funding but focusing on an AI bill to rein in big guns like ChatGPT, turning voluntary agreements into legally binding commitments.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have unveiled a solar-powered device that can pull water out of thin air, churning out three litres per square metre daily. This tech could be the oasis in a rapidly drying desert, and the best magic trick to produce water since biblical times.

Staying biblical, the sequel to Noah’s ark has been announced. Scientists are planning to send endangered species to the Moon. This lunar ark would keep cryogenically preserved samples safe from Earth’s myriad disasters. If Noah had a spaceship, this would be his jam.

For the DIY crowd, two enterprising hackers have unveiled a $500 laser tool that can hack computer chips. The RayV Lite, as it’s called, makes James Bond gadgets look like child’s play.

WORLD

China’s badminton champion Huang Yaqiong experienced a double triumph at the Paris Games, winning a gold medal in mixed doubles and accepting a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, fellow badminton player Liu Yuchen. Could she really say no on live TV though? This joyous moment followed her previous silver win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The Kremlin has admitted that Vadim Krasikov, the assassin freed by Germany in a historic prisoner swap, is a serving officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), confirming his 2019 murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin was state-ordered. This unprecedented admission came as Krasikov was one of eight Russians released in exchange for 16 people freed from Russian custody, including US reporter Evan Gershkovich.

In Antarctica, a near-record heatwave has caused ground temperatures to soar 10°C above normal, with spikes reaching up to 28°C above expectations. This aligns with predictions that polar regions would face the most significant effects of climate change. Speaking of heat, Delhi recently experienced record-breaking rainfall, with 147mm recorded in a single day, breaking a 14-year record.

From the freezer to the furnace, the Paris Olympics faced a heatwave with temperatures reaching 36°C. The high humidity and subsequent thunderstorms have made conditions challenging for athletes and spectators, prompting changes in sports rules and cooling measures to ensure safety.

Cuppa Chat Cheat Sheet

🐆🎉 Edinburgh Zoo welcomes its first cheetah in 24 years as Cleo arrives from Ireland. Visitors will soon be able to meet her, with a fundraising prize draw offering a chance to get up close and personal.

🌶️🏥 Around 30 high school students in Japan were taken to hospital after consuming "super spicy" crisps labelled "18+ curry chips". The crisps, containing ghost pepper, caused nausea, stomach, and mouth pain among the students.

🏺🧫 Archaeologists in Italy discovered a well-preserved skeleton in the 2,200-year-old "Tomb of Cerberus" near Naples, adorned with grave goods and a shroud. Researchers believe the tomb belonged to an influential family and hope to study it further to uncover insights into ancient Naples.

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