Chief-Exec.com

Xi welcomes Putin in Beijing, hails China’s ‘unyielding’ ties with Russia
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing at the start of a visit focused on energy security. While Xi hailed his country's "unyielding" ties with Russia, Putin praised the "unprecedentedly high level" of bilateral cooperation despite "unfavourable external factors", without naming any third country. France 24, May 20

EU mulls Angela Merkel or Mario Draghi as possible Vladimir Putin whisperer
EU governments are discussing whether former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi or ex-chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel could represent the bloc in potential negotiations with Vladimir Putin, as momentum gathers to reopen formal channels with Russia. Foreign ministers will discuss the merits of possible candidates at an EU meeting in Cyprus next week after Washington and Kyiv expressed support for Europe to engage with Russia’s president over the war in Ukraine, said people briefed on the discussions. Donald Trump’s administration, currently distracted by its own war in the Middle East, has informed EU counterparts that it is not opposed to Europe talking to Putin in parallel to US-led peace talks, three of the people said. “They know it’s not working,” said one, referring to existing efforts to end the conflict. Brussels shut off formal communication channels with Moscow following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, aside from sporadic outreach attempts by some EU leaders. Financial Times, May 20

UK loosens Russian oil sanctions as fuel prices rise
The UK government has loosened strict sanctions on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise. The waiver begins on Wednesday and reflects growing supply concerns over certain fuels due to the effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran. Some sanctions on the transport of Russian liquefied natural gas were also lifted. The government said that overall sanctions had got tougher but extra flexibilities were required. A similar move by the US was widely criticised. European jet fuel prices more than doubled after the war started but are now around half higher while UK pump prices continue to rise. According to motoring firm the RAC, the average price of unleaded petrol reached 158.52p a litre on Monday, the highest since the start of the war. Several airlines operating in the UK and around the world have cancelled flights and raised prices in response to sky-high jet fuel prices. BBC news, May 20

Deal on compensation fund blocks IRS claims against Trump and his family
The Justice Department has granted President Trump, his family and businesses immunity from ongoing inquiries into their taxes, a potentially lucrative arrangement that could shield the president from significant financial liability. The provision, quietly inserted on Tuesday as a supplement to a remarkable deal that also created a $1.8 billion compensation fund aimed at benefiting Mr. Trump’s allies, protects the president, his relatives and his businesses from pending audits and tax prosecutions. The one-page document, signed by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the government would be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” pending tax claims against Mr. Trump, his family members and businesses. The provision invited immediate criticism as tax experts raised the possibility that it was illegal. That the addendum to the deal was posted, without fanfare, on the department’s website belied its bare-knuckled audacity. It revealed the determination of Mr Trump and his appointees to ram through maximalist measures with minimum outside scrutiny at a moment when they still have uncontested control of government. New York Times, May 19

UK inflation fell to 2.8% in April despite Middle East energy shock
UK inflation fell more than expected to 2.8 per cent in April, in what economists said would be a temporary reprieve from the energy shock triggered by the Middle East war. April’s reading was pushed down in part by a reduction in the government’s cap on household energy bills introduced last month, which reflected prices before the outbreak of the conflict. Wednesday’s figure from the Office for National Statistics was below both March’s 3.3 per cent reading and the 3 per cent forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. The resurgence in inflation is expected to resume in coming months as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas supplies, keeps upward pressure on energy prices. The Bank of England is grappling with how aggressively to respond to the repercussions from the war, which as well as pushing up energy prices has also had a chilling effect on economic activity. Financial Times, May 20

Sick notes ‘scrapped’ under plans to reduce benefit claimants
GPs will no longer issue “sick notes” under a government trial that aims to reduce the number of benefits claimants who are signed off work because of poor health, The Times understands. The pilot programme is set to refer workers struggling with their health to “social prescribers” based in their doctors’ surgery, who will recommend patients take up alternatives such as exercise regimes and job coaching to help them stay in work. More than 11 million people were given a “fit note”, formerly called a sick note, last year, according to official statistics. Almost all of them declared the recipient “not fit for work”, meaning they received no further support on re-entering employment. A rise in “sick-note culture” over the past decade has been blamed for stifling Britain’s economic growth. They enable people to stay off work, claim sick pay and in some cases qualify for welfare payments. They are usually issued by a GP but some other health professionals, including nurses and pharmacists, are able to issue them. The Times, May 20

Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that Putin might ‘regret’ invasion of Ukraine
Xi Jinping told Donald Trump during their talks last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin might end up regretting his invasion of Ukraine. According to several people familiar with the US assessment of last week’s summit in Beijing, the Chinese president made the comments during wide-ranging talks that touched on Ukraine and included Trump suggesting that the three leaders should co-operate against the International Criminal Court. Xi’s comments about Putin’s decision to launch his full-scale invasion of Russia’s neighbour in 2022 appeared to go further than in the past. One person familiar with Xi’s meetings with former president Joe Biden said that while the leaders had held “frank and direct” conversations about Russia and Ukraine, Xi had not offered an assessment of Putin and the war. The revelation comes as Putin prepares to arrive in China on Tuesday for a summit with Xi, four days after the Chinese leader hosted the US president for only their second meeting since Trump returned to the White House. Financial Times, May 19

Russia to conduct three-day nuclear drills on May 19-21
Russia's army on Tuesday began three days of nuclear weapons drills involving thousands of troops across the country, as Kyiv escalates its drone attacks and with President Vladimir Putin headed to China. Throughout its more than four-year offensive in Ukraine Moscow has flaunted its possession of nuclear weapons and repeatedly threatened to use them. The drills also come months after the last nuclear arms pact between Russia and Washington broke down and amid a fresh spate of comments from Putin touting the prowess of Moscow's atomic forces. "From May 19 to 21, 2026, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are conducting an exercise on the preparation and use of nuclear forces in the event of a threat of aggression," the defence ministry said. France 24, May 19

Israel seizes 1,000 sq km under Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy
Israel has seized about 1,000 sq km of territory since Hamas’s October 7 attack as Benjamin Netanyahu forged a new, more aggressive military doctrine in the wake of the nation’s worst security failure. Israeli forces have established positions in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, taking control of land equivalent to roughly 5 per cent of Israel’s 1949 borders, according to FT calculations. While the approach of Netanyahu’s far-right government has been cheered by ultranationalist settlers, who have long sought to expand Israel’s borders, the offensives have displaced millions, destroyed urban areas and sparked deep unease in the region. More than half the roughly 1,000 sq km is in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have advanced as much as a dozen kilometres to create what officials call a “security zone”. Their aim is to push Hizbollah back so the militant group may struggle to fire anti-tank missiles at Israel’s border communities. Financial Times, May 19

Musk loses OpenAI court battle after jury finds he waited too long to sue
A California jury has tossed out Elon Musk's high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman. In a unanimous verdict, the jury agreed that Musk had waited too long to file his lawsuit, leaving all of his claims essentially expired. Musk had accused Altman of breaching a non-profit contract by shifting the ChatGPT-maker to a for-profit company after Musk donated $38m (£28.5m) early in OpenAI's history. Musk claimed Altman had deceived him by accepting his money and then reneging on OpenAI's original non-profit mission to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the benefit of humanity. Jurors spent just about two hours on Monday deliberating on the case, but they had spent three weeks viewing internal correspondence and hearing testimony from Musk, Altman and other tech industry executives, such as Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella. Musk had accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting OpenAI in its allegedly improper transition to a more for-profit company. BBC news, May 18

UK unemployment rate unexpectedly rises
The UK unemployment rate has unexpectedly gone up while the number of job vacancies has fallen to its lowest level in five years as the initial impact of the Iran war on firms starts to be felt. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 5 per cent in the three months to March from 4.9 per cent in the three months to February. Analysts said the figures show the first effects of the Middle East war on the jobs market, and warned demand for workers would likely continue to weaken the longer the conflict goes on. The rise in unemployment combined with slowing wage growth will give the Bank of England more time to decide whether interest rates need to rise to contain inflation, experts added. Early estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest the number of job openings fell by 28,000, or 3.9 per cent, to 705,000 between February and April, its lowest level since April 2021. "Lower-paying sectors such as hospitality and retail have seen some of the largest falls in vacancies and payroll numbers, both in recent months and over the last year," ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said. BBC news, May 19

BA demands millions from Heathrow over latest baggage failure
British Airways has demanded that Heathrow airport pays millions of pounds in compensation for a system failure that left thousands of passengers without their bags. A technical fault on Friday with the baggage system at Terminal 5, the main hub for British Airways, meant that bags could not be processed for several hours. Passengers arriving had to wait for their bags, and some went home without them. Departing passengers flew off with their bags still at the airport, meaning that an estimated 20,000 bags failed to arrive at their destinations. British Airways is working through the backlog by using courier services and carrying extra bags on its other flights, but it may take until Thursday for the backlog to be cleared. Some passengers will have been without their belongings for almost a week. The Times, May 19