The price of oil has breached the $95 a barrel mark for the first time in six weeks as the escalating Middle East conflict threatens further disruption to global supplies.
Oil price surge
The benchmark oil price rose sharply on Wednesday as renewed US-Iran aggression over the strait of Hormuz was compounded by Houthi threats to target vessels carrying Saudi oil through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
Brent crude peaked at $126 a barrel in April during the conflict but had eased to as low as $71 at the start of July. However, the price has shot up since the war has reignited in recent days and reached $95.24 on Wednesday, before easing to $94.40 by lunchtime, up more than 3% on the previous day.
UK inflation falls
UK inflation dropped by more than expected in June to 2.6%, in a boost for Andy Burnham's plans to reduce the cost of living.
The new prime minister has pledged to bring down the cost of living to give households more disposable income and improve the outlook for the economy, announcing a winter VAT cut on electricity bills and lowering the cap on bus fares in England.
Last month's consumer prices index reading outdid economists' forecasts of a slide from 2.8% in May to 2.7%, amid a fall in the prices of fuel, particularly diesel, helped by the unstable truce in the Middle East conflict.
Lloyd's of London compliance breach
Lloyd's of London has ruled that its former boss John Neal breached compliance rules by failing to disclose a "close relationship" with a female colleague that risked triggering conflict of interest concerns at the insurance market.
An investigation by the Council of Lloyd's, which is responsible for the market's management and supervision, said it could not find any "conclusive evidence" Neal was romantically involved with the company's then corporate affairs director, nor that there were any process failures relating to her promotion during Neal's tenure.
Harry Potter publisher to receive settlement
The publisher of Harry Potter has received a multimillion-pound payout as a beneficiary of a $1.5bn (£1.12bn) copyright settlement between the AI startup Anthropic and thousands of authors over the use of their protected work to power chatbots.
Bloomsbury, which is home to the bestselling novelists Sarah J Maas and Susanna Clarke as well as JK Rowling, said it had 14,087 titles listed within the settlement, with a proposed compensation of about $3,000 a title.
The London-based company expects to receive the cash from the settlement in instalments, potentially starting in the second half of this fiscal year, with the proceeds to be split with authors.
