Kia ora here’s your Friday summary of global business and political news.
First up, Iran said the latest US proposal partly resolved the gap between both sides, but fresh comments from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei clouded the outlook, Bloomberg reported.
The Iranian leader issued a directive that the country's uranium should not be sent overseas, according to Reuters, which galvanised Iran’s stance on one of the main US demands.
US President Donald Trump again promised to retrieve Iran’s stockpile, but Iranian officials told Al Jazeera that Tehran would “down blend” the material itself.
Asked about Iran’s proposal to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said: “We’re looking at it”.
“We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade has been 100% effective. Nobody has been able to get through it; it’s like a steel wall,” Trump told reporters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, CNN noted that Trump had a tense conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that reflected their different views on how to proceed with the Iran war.
On the ground, Iran had already restarted some of its drone production during the six-week ceasefire, one sign it was rapidly rebuilding certain military capabilities.
US retailer Walmart warned higher fuel prices resulted in spending cuts elsewhere as the war squeezed household budgets. The company expected sales growth between May and July to slow significantly from the previous three months, the BBC said.
Meanwhile, oil markets could enter a “red zone” as global stocks deplete and as demand picks up, according to International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol.
He said the most important solution was a full and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. If that fails, oil markets “may be entering the red zone in July or August,” Birol warned.
In developing news, Microsoft is in talks to supply its custom artificial intelligence chips to Anthropic, CNBC reported, which would represent a win for the software firm against rivals Amazon and Google.
Last November, Microsoft said it would invest US$5 billion in Anthropic, which also used cloud services from Amazon and Google.
In the UK, officials secured a trade deal with a group of six Gulf states, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates that would remove about £580 million a year in tariffs once fully implemented, the BBC reported.
It would make it easier for UK firms to expand and partner in the Gulf to support employment. UK products, including cheddar cheese, butter, and chocolate would have tariffs removed.
Meanwhile, former health secretary Wes Streeting called for a wealth tax and proposed equalising capital gains tax with income tax, which could raise £12b a year, the Guardian said.
He told the BBC that loopholes should be closed that allowed people to disguise income from work as capital gains, and lower rates of capital gains tax could be offered to entrepreneurs who were developing companies.
Finally, an appeal court in Paris found Air France and Airbus guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a 2009 crash killed 228 people. The court ruled that the companies were "solely and entirely responsible”.
They were ordered each to pay €225,000, the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter, the AFP and Reuters reported. The companies denied criminal liability and blamed pilot error.
