Happy Monday. World Cup? Sorry, never heard of it mate.

Today Andy Burnham takes the reins of the country on from Kier Starmer. Despite his best efforts, Kier won’t be ending his tenure to attend an open top bus showing off the World Cup trophy, and of course no extra bank holiday either - let’s pencil that in four years from now.

Notable UK earnings this week: EasyJet (EZJ), Centrica (CNA), BT Group (BT.A), Morgan Sindall (MGNS), Kier Group (KIE), Mony Group, (MONY), PensionBee (PBEE).

Notable US earnings this week: Coca-Cola (KO), General Motors (GM), Tesla (TSLA), IBM (IBM), Alphabet (GOOGL), Intel (INTC), American Express (AXP).

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🌊 Harbour Energy acquisitions increase North Sea hydrocarbon portfolio. Read more

🏗️ MoD unveils £26bn rebuild of naval bases. Read more

🛣️ £270m highway framework launched for South Wales. Read more

Government nationalises British Steel
China’s government has criticised the UK after British Steel was brought into public ownership on “national interest” grounds, with Beijing’s commerce ministry saying it “firmly opposed” the move. In other words: diplomacy has once again entered the arena wearing steel-toe boots.

The Department for Business and Trade confirmed on Thursday that the Chinese-owned Jingye Group had been stripped of its assets following new legislation. The government says the decision protects thousands of jobs at British Steel and across the supply chain, while also safeguarding a sector that remains rather important, despite the best efforts of modern economics to behave like a mischievous raccoon in a discount bin.

British Steel was taken under government control in April last year after Jingye, which bought the company in 2020, reportedly planned to shut Scunthorpe’s two blast furnaces. Ministers said talks went nowhere, and that no agreement could be reached that both secured the company’s future and gave taxpayers a decent deal - a rare moment when everyone discovered that “easy fix” was not, in fact, on the menu

Scunthorpe’s plant is the UK’s last producer of virgin steel made from raw materials, and it supplies rails to Network Rail as well as products for construction and automotive industries. High energy costs have made life difficult, with estimates suggesting the site has lost up to £700,000 a day; not exactly the sort of margin that gets the boardroom doing cartwheels.

Economy edges back to growth
The UK economy nudged back into growth in May, but only just - the economic equivalent of turning up to a meeting five minutes late and still expecting applause. The Office for National Statistics said GDP rose by 0.1%, helped by a better showing from the services sector, while production and construction dragged their heels.

It follows a slight fall in April, and analysts said the latest figures suggest the economy proved a bit sturdier than feared in the face of rising energy prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East.

Caffeine curfew
England will ban under-16s from buying high-caffeine energy drinks from April, covering shops, cafés, vending machines and online sales. Red Bull, Monster, Prime and their jittery cousins breach the 150mg-per-litre limit; tea, coffee and Diet Coke escape the naughty step.

Ministers hope the move will curb poor sleep, anxiety, concentration problems and obesity among the roughly 100,000 children drinking them daily. Retailers ignoring the rules could face £2,500 fines - enough to cause palpitations without the caffeine.

Digital disappearing act
Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham says he will scrap the digital ID scheme and redirect its resources towards the cost of living and local economies. The plan had already shrunk from a mandatory ID for workers into a voluntary “one-stop” app after nearly three million people signed a petition against it. The digital driving license definitely isn’t a digital ID.

So this is less shredding Big Brother’s passport than removing its new name badge. Opponents welcome the retreat, while Conservatives accuse Burnham of claiming credit for cancelling something already largely cancelled. A fresh government, then, beginning with Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

Tariff refunds reach $81bn
The US has handed back tens of billions of dollars in tariff money after the Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump’s broad global levies unlawful. So far this fiscal year, the government has refunded $81bn - a rather pricey reminder that when trade policy goes wrong, it can go wrong in a big, beige-bureaucratic way.

The refunds only started in May, after the court struck down the tariffs in February. In plain English: companies paid the tax, the courts said “not so fast”, and Washington has been scrambling to return the cash ever since. A federal judge has since warned the government that its appeal is slowing the whole process down, which is hardly a shock - American politics does sometimes move with the urgency of a commuter train after a heatwave.

Teleprompter operator sent on unpaid leave after alleged insider trading
Donald Trump’s teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid leave after allegations he used his insider knowledge to bet on what the president would say in major speeches. In a plot twist fit for Washington’s least subtle production, Gabriel Perez - who has reportedly worked on Mr Trump’s teleprompter since 2016 - is said to have made the wagers on Kalshi, the online prediction market.

According to US media reports, Perez allegedly bet on the contents of speeches including this year’s State of the Union, and is claimed to have pocketed more than $100,000, or about £74,000. Not exactly loose change down the back of the White House sofa.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump was aware of the allegations and described the situation as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace”. She added that the White House has “extremely strict ethical guidelines”, which, given the decade-long revolving door of Trump-era scandals, sounds a bit like saying the Titanic had a strict water policy.

In unrelated news, Trump Media & Technology Group says it will launch a premium data service giving Wall Street firms and institutional investors near-instant access to Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts. In a world where traders will happily pay for milliseconds, and where the presidents tweets or “truths” have swung the market significantly.

Bot bother
China’s robots are getting punchy. At Shenzhen’s first humanoid MMA tournament, one T800 lost its head yet still won 3–2, proving resilience is now apparently downloadable. Meanwhile, Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-source model rivals and out competes OpenAI and Anthropic. The real contest is not fists but algorithms - with Silicon Valley firmly in the ring.

Scroll control
The UK plans a midnight-to-6am social-media curfew for 16 and 17-year-olds, alongside limits on autoplay and infinite scrolling. Teenagers can simply switch it off, prompting critics to call it less a curfew than a mildly inconvenient bedtime suggestion.

Two young hackers, meanwhile, have received five-and-a-half-year sentences for a TfL cyberattack that stole millions of records and caused £39m in damage. Screen time, it turns out, can cause derail.

Truth toll
Trump Media will sell traders millisecond-fast access to influential Truth Social posts from August. Since Donald Trump’s tariff musings can jolt markets, firms may soon pay for the privilege of panicking first. The president’s family remains the company’s majority shareholder, adding a distinctly premium layer to “public” communication.

Bookshop blues
Hong Kong police have arrested five people after raiding two independent bookshops accused of selling “seditious” titles that incite hatred against the government, courts and police. Books were seized, and those detained could face seven years in prison under national security laws.

One shop, founded by former journalists, had already announced its closure, blaming finances and an increasingly mysterious “red line” over acceptable material. Amnesty says the uncertainty is fuelling fear and self-censorship - not exactly a bestseller for free expression.

Cockroach charge
In Delhi, thousands of students, parents and activists are preparing to march on parliament under the gloriously stubborn banner of the Cockroach Janta Party. The satirical movement began over exam paper leaks and cancellations that disrupted millions of students.

Educator Sonam Wangchuk was taken to hospital on day 21 of a hunger strike but is still fasting, while founder Abhijeet Dipke has taken his place. Protesters want the education minister to resign and, after the police intervention, have added Prime Minister Narendra Modi, likely wanting to squash these cockroaches, to the bill.