Run it back 🏃

Happy Monday. Ballot results for the London Marathon were revealed last week, and it was another record breaker. Here’s the numbers:

More than 1.13 million people applied for the ballot entry places, of which there are around just 17,000. That means your chances of winning are roughly just 1.5%! If you were successful and are reading this, I hope you feel more Charlie Bucket with a golden ticket and less overwhelmed with the thought of training through winter (and running for 26.2 miles!).

MARKETS

Data: Google Finance, 5-day Market Close

Notable UK earnings this week: Carnival Plc (CCL), Babcock Int (BAB), Moonpig (MOON).

Notable US earnings this week: Micron Technology (MU), Nike (NKE), Paychex (PYX), Fedex (FDX), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA).

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PROJECT WATCH

🌊 Expro appointed for well testing services for UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage project. Read more

🏗️ Govt publish 10 year strategy for UK infrastructure, worth £725bn - full document in link. Read more

🛫 MAG launch £600m airport works framework. Read more

☢️ Plans submitted to demolition of turbine hall at Sellafield. Read more

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Poundland trying to turn it aroundland
After years of stacking 'em high and watching the margins fall low, Poundland is finally putting down the frozen peas and backing slowly away from e-commerce in what it's calling a “rescue plan”.

In the latest twist from the newly Gordon Brothers-owned chain (genuinely bought for £1), 68 stores face closure, and rents are set to be haggled across hundreds more. The aim is to trim the 800-strong estate down to a fighting-fit 650–700. It's all part of what boss Barry Williams calls a “financially sustainable operating model”, though punters in towns where Poundland was the last gasp of retail needn’t feel very sustained.

Interestingly, the brand’s making a U-turn to revive its general merchandise and clothing lines erased during the transition to Pepco-sourced stock. Because nothing says recovery like going back to what you were doing before it all fell apart.

Bank of England hit snooze on interest rate decision
Just as Britain braces for a heatwave (or what we optimistically call ‘shorts weather’), the Bank of England has chosen to leave interest rates parked at 4.25%. They've stuck the kettle on and decided against stirring the monetary policy—again. This marks another ‘pause’ in their peculiar one-meeting-on, one-meeting-off rate-cutting rhythm they’ve adopted since August 2024. Bit like a political U-turn but with more spreadsheets.

Governor Andrew Bailey described the world as “highly unpredictable”—fair enough? In May, inflation did cool to a breezy 3.4%, down from the eye-watering highs we’ve mulled over for months, but it’s stubbornly wide of the BoE’s 2% target.

Markets saw this coming, especially given the ongoing chaos in the Middle East giving oil prices a healthy caffeine shot. Brent crude blew up by 8.5% in a week thanks to escalating hostilities in the Middle East—handy if you're holding fossil stocks, less ideal if you're fuelling a school run.

POLITICS

A historic step for assisted dying as Commons votes yes
MPs have taken a momentous step, voting 314 to 291 in favour of legalising assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales. The Terminally Ill Adults Bill now heads to the Lords for further scrutiny and a likely battle of amendments.

With political heavyweights on both sides, including PM Sir Keir Starmer backing, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch opposing, the issue transcends party lines. The Lords now hold the bill's fate, and Britain’s decades-long debate on assisted dying moves one step closer to a reckoning.

Every newborn to have DNA mapped
The NHS is poised to rewrite the script on healthcare: diagnose later, or predict sooner? Under Wes Streeting’s bold £650m plan, every baby born in the UK could have their entire genome sequenced within the next decade. The aim? To pre-empt disease before it strikes and offer personalised treatments based on individual genetic risks.

From heart disease to hereditary cancers, this genomic crystal ball could one day render reactive medicine obsolete. But with it come thorny questions on ethics, privacy and parental consent, not to mention the siren song for hackers, with genetic data fast becoming a goldmine. Still, officials say it’s a revolution worth the risk. The NHS was once built to treat illness; now it hopes to dodge it entirely.

Scottish government bans WhatsApp
The Scottish government has officially hit ‘delete’ on WhatsApp for official business, following revelations during the UK Covid Inquiry that senior ministers, including Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, had wiped pandemic-era messages. The new policy, announced by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, mandates that only government-approved apps like Teams and email be used.

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ACROSS THE POND

Trump Mobile - Make calls great again!
The Trumps are at it again. Trump Mobile, the latest flamboyant venture brandishing the President’s name, has been unleashed upon the American public like the political equivalent of Marmite. With a launch at the grandiloquent Trump Tower, it’s being dubbed the golden gadget of 2025 — sleek, America-made* (*terms and conditions apply) — all for the snip of $499. Move over Apple, there's a new orange on the block!

In a show of patriotism akin to waving a Union Jack during the Last Night of the Proms, the Trump family has assured that call centres and eventually manufacturing will happen Stateside. Although, give them time, as details on the manufacturing partner are as elusive as a straight answer from, well.. politicians.

Getting down to brass tacks, Trump Mobile subscribes to a trend of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), piggybacking on any one of America’s big three phone carriers. Typically a pretty niche approach with only 3-4% of U.S. mobile users tune in to such services. Unless Trump Mobile attracts a million gossip-loving subscribers, it may be toast faster than our Wimbledon hopes.

Utilising a numeric nudge-nudge nod, the pricing at a rather patriotic $47.45 a month pays tribute to Trump’s presidential sequence (45th and 47th president.. but hey, may as well get the extra $2). Very clever. Questions about conflicts of interest stand around this endeavour more awkwardly than a politician in wellies at a country fete.

Tesla’s robotaxi hits the streets in Austin
The long-anticipated robotaxi by Tesla - the darling of the Silicon Valley circuit - made its inaugural rounds in Austin this weekend. The initial batch of Model Y vehicles, will offer rides available by invite only.

Musk, ever the optimist even when his predictions are more off than your Nan's Wi-Fi, previously promised this would happen in 2020. Now, he's cautiously sending a merry band of ten cars into Austin, ready to expand to LA and San Francisco if all goes well.

Will Tesla usher in a golden age of driverless delights, or is this just another spin around the same roundabout? Well, some say this venture might catapult Tesla into trillion-dollar territory, doubling its current stock value faster than you can say "cybertruck". However, Tesla has slipped behind the likes of Waymo, which is already autonomously joyriding its way across the U.S., including a pit stop in the Big Apple.

TECH

Mosquito drones and 400 mph maglevs
China’s military scientists have gone full sci-fi, unveiling a mosquito-sized microdrone for battlefield surveillance, so discreet it could land on your sleeve unnoticed. While Western forces tinker with palm-sized Black Hornets, China is shrinking its drones to insect-scale, raising fresh questions about battlefield ethics and espionage.

Meanwhile, in Hubei province, Chinese engineers have made maglev magic. In seven seconds, a 1.1-tonne prototype hit 650 km/h (404 mph) on a 600-metre test track. No rails, no friction. Unlike traditional maglevs needing long tracks, this version uses ultra-precise sensors and aerodynamic shielding to pack extreme acceleration into a sprint. Plans are already underway to push it to 800 km/h.

ESA creates first artificial solar eclipse with 'driverless' spacecraft
In a celestial ballet of remarkable precision, two European satellites have performed a world first: creating a man-made solar eclipse in space. ESA’s Proba-3 mission lined up one craft to block the Sun while its twin captured unprecedented images of the solar corona, the fiery outer atmosphere usually only glimpsed during natural eclipses.

The shadow? Just 8 centimetres wide. The separation? 150 metres. And it’s all autonomous, meaning no human joystick required. Instead of waiting for nature’s rare eclipse moments, ESA can now create them every 19 hours, for up to six hours at a time. Space weather forecasting just got a serious upgrade.

Signing bonuses being matched at $100m
In Silicon Valley’s AI arms race, OpenAI boss Sam Altman claims Meta is dangling eye-watering offers, including $100 million signing bonuses, to poach his top AI engineers. While Meta splashes billions to boost its AI arsenal (and just bought 49% of Scale AI), Altman insists his team is staying put for the “mission” of building superintelligence, not just super-compensation.

WORLD

Panama declares emergency
In Panama’s Bocas del Toro province, better known for bananas than bedlam, the government has declared a state of emergency after protests over pension reforms turned ugly. What began as a strike by banana workers has spiralled into looting, vandalism and airport attacks.

Chiquita Brands, whose plantations dominate the region, peeled away thousands of strikers last month, triggering an escalation that’s seen roadblocks and violent clashes with police.

A rare Belarus release
In a plot that reads like a Cold War novella, Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko has freed opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski, along with 13 others, following a surprise visit from Trump’s envoy, Keith Kellogg.

Tsikhanouski, jailed since daring to challenge Lukashenko in 2020, walked free and into the arms of his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, now herself a prominent exiled opposition leader. The EU calls it “a powerful symbol of hope”; sceptics suspect backroom deals as Belarus angles for sanctions relief. One certainty: Lukashenko still reigns, and over 1,100 political prisoners remain locked up.

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