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Trump calls Iran's response to US peace proposal 'totally unacceptable'
Iran sent its response to the latest US proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but US President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” - the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring. Iranian state television reported that Tehran rejected the US proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the US, full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets”. Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!" France 24, May 11

Saudi Aramco chief says Iran war could disrupt oil until next year
Disruption to global oil markets from the Iran war could extend into next year unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened imminently, according to the world’s largest oil company. Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, said the world had lost about one billion barrels of oil over the past two months, after the start of the Middle East war in late February. While the state-owned Saudi petroleum and gas company has been able to redirect some oil via its east-west pipeline to the Red Sea to bypass the strait, global oil supplies have been strained. Nasser said that if the crucial trade waterway was not reopened soon, the disruption to markets would get progressively worse. The Times, May 11

Modi urges Indians to WFH and limit foreign travel as Iran war continues
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to Indians to revive working from home, buy less gold and limit foreign travel to deal with a surge in global energy ​prices because of the continuing crisis in the Middle East. Modi said the austerity measures, reminiscent of the Covid era, would reduce India's fuel use and help save foreign exchange. India imports 90 per cent of its oil and its crude bill has seen a multi-billion dollar spike since the US and Israel's war on Iran, with the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow Gulf chokepoint, shut for more than two-and-a-half months now. Analysts described Modi's appeal, made at a public event in the southern city of Hyderabad on Sunday, as the "most drastic" so far. "Patriotism is not only about the willingness to sacrifice one's life on the border. In these times, it is about living responsibly and fulfilling our duties to the nation in our daily lives," Modi said. "In the current situation, we must place great emphasis on saving foreign exchange," he added. BBC news, May 11

NHS to grant Palantir contractors ‘unlimited access’ to patient data
NHS England has granted external staff from companies including Palantir “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data while working on a part of its flagship data platform. The change, first outlined in an internal briefing note seen by the FT, relates to the National Data Integration Tenant, described as a “safe haven for data” before it is “pseudonymised” and transferred to other systems. The NDIT is an area within the Federated Data Platform, a tool that connects disparate NHS data into a single system, which Palantir won a £330mn contract in 2023 to build. Under the plan, NHS England has agreed to create an “admin” role, which the briefing acknowledges “permits unlimited access to non-NHSE staff” to the NDIT and the identifiable patient information held within it. As well as Palantir employees, this could include staff from consultancy firms who have been drafted in to work on the FDP. The change marks a significant departure from the current practice, which requires any individual working with the NDIT to apply for clear data access for specific data sets. Financial Times, May 11

UK government unit targets £99bn of investment from Australian pension funds
A plan to target £99bn of overseas pension investment into key UK projects by 2035 has been announced only weeks after the government struggled to pass its pensions schemes bill. A new “Supers Unit”, led by the Office for Investment, aims to boost collaboration and streamline investment from Australian pension funds into growth sectors, including infrastructure, real estate and private markets. This follows a memorandum of understanding signed at last month’s IMF meetings between UK chancellor Rachel Reeves and Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers to support greater investment between superannuation and pension funds in both countries. This new unit “will pave the way for vital investment into key UK projects”, said Lord Jason Stockwood, investment minister, who will visit Australia, Malaysia and Singapore next week to meet investors. This plan will “deliver long-term economic growth while boosting our already strong trade relationship with Australia,” he added. Financial Times, May 11

US strikes Iranian targets after attacks on warships
US forces carried out strikes against Iranian military targets on Thursday in response to an attack on three American destroyers in the Strait, threatening a month-old ceasefire. Iran’s central military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by attacking an oil tanker and another ship. US Central Command said no US assets were struck as they moved through the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman. “Centcom does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” a statement said. Iranian state media claimed the exchange came after the US military attacked an oil tanker, prompting Tehran to fire missiles at US ships. The Times, May 8

Court blocks Trump’s 10% tariff
A panel of federal judges ruled today that President Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on most US imports is illegal. The decision appeared to place, for now, strict new limits on the president’s trade powers. In a split ruling, the Court of International Trade found that Trump had wrongly invoked a decades-old trade law when he applied across-the-board tariffs in February. The president had imposed the levies after his previous set of tariffs was struck down by the Supreme Court. While the court declared Mr Trump’s tariffs to be illegal, it only explicitly blocked their collection from small businesses and some states that had sued over their legality. It remained unclear how the administration would interpret that order, though it is widely expected to appeal. New York Times, May 7

US businesses urge Trump to intervene over new EU consumer rules
US businesses have pleaded with the Trump administration to intervene over new EU consumer protection rules that they fear will leave them open to an avalanche of class-action lawsuits. A group of five major US trade associations, led by the US Chamber of Commerce, wrote to top Trump administration officials earlier this year requesting “active engagement with the European Commission” over rules that would require companies to prove their products were not at fault if a customer alleged injury. The changes, due to be introduced from December as part of an update to the EU’s Product Liability Directive, threaten to become a new flashpoint in transatlantic relations. The Trump administration is already piling pressure on the bloc over a range of regulations, in particular its digital rules. The lobby groups raised their concerns about the new consumer protection rules in a letter to US trade representative Jamieson Greer, expressing “significant concerns” about updates to the directive to include injuries caused by digital products. Financial Times, May 8

French prosecutors seek charges against Musk and X over Grok content
French prosecutors are seeking charges against Elon Musk and his social platform X over child sexual abuse images on the platform, deepfakes, disinformation and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform's artificial intelligence system, Grok. The Paris public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday it has opened an investigation into X on charges including complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images and unlawfully collecting personal data. It's also investigating charges of disseminating non-consensual images or other content and denial of crimes against humanity. X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday. France 24, May 8

Anthropic weighs deal for near $1tn valuation as revenue surges
Anthropic is weighing raising tens of billions of dollars this summer to fund a vast expansion in computing capacity, in a move that would catapult it past rival OpenAI to a valuation of almost $1tn. The Claude maker, which was valued at $380bn in February, has been fielding interest from investors including Dragoneer, General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners as its revenue continues to rise, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Those people expect Anthropic’s annualised revenue, which extrapolates full-year revenue based on recent weeks, to cross $45bn imminently - a fivefold increase from $9bn at the end of last year. “People are ready to throw any dollar amount at Anthropic. It’s just about when [Anthropic] want to pop their heads up and say ‘we’re ready’,” said one investor in the company. Financial Times, May 8

US to revoke passports of parents with child support debt
The US State Department has said it will start to revoke the passports of Americans who owe significant amounts of child support. The department announced that parents who have outstanding debt of more than $2,500 (€1,844) in child support payments could be impacted, but would be targeting those with "significant outstanding" debt. The State Department said it is using "commonsense tools to support American families and strengthen compliance" with US laws in an approach it said would enforce parents' "legal and moral obligations to their children". Those with such debt were advised to arrange payment to relevant state agencies to prevent passport revocation. Once a passport has been revoked, it will no longer be able to be used for travel. Those whose passports are revoked won't be eligible for a new one until their child support debt has been paid, the State Department said. BBC news, May 8