And Bitcoin jumps to a new all-time high, touching US$109,500.
Mōrena. It's Budget Day here in New Zealand but first, let's catch up on the major business and political headlines from around the world.
To begin, US President Donald Trump has made baseless claims that white farmers in South Africa are being executed and has presented footage to that country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, which Trump claims as evidence of a "white genocide" in the country.
Trump also showed Ramaphosa copies of articles he claimed related to the deaths of white South Africans, saying they were being "executed" and having their land taken away. "They're not," Ramaphosa is reported as responding.
Ramaphosa said there was crime in his country, but that the majority of victims were black. Trump, however, cut him off to say: "The farmers are not black," The Guardian reported.
Trump has previously accused South Africa of seizing land from white farmers, cancelled aid to the country, expelled South Africa's ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners.
US President Donald Trump.
Elsewhere, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that "in the end", the entire Gaza Strip will be under Israeli security control and that Hamas will be defeated, reports the BBC.
In a news conference today, Netanyahu also said Israel was open to a temporary ceasefire and a hostage release deal. He was prepared to end the war "under clear conditions that ensure Israel's security", he added.
That involved all Israeli hostages being released, Hamas laying down arms, its leadership being exiled, and the area being "completely disarmed".
It comes after UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Israel's military escalation in Gaza "morally unjustifiable" and the UK suspended trade talks with Israel.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Madrid, a former leading Ukrainian official, 51-year-old Andriy Portnov, has been shot dead outside a school where he had just dropped off his children.
Portnov had been an MP and deputy head in the administration of Victor Yanukovych, the former pro-Russian president who was ousted in 2014.
In business news, OpenAI has announced the acquisition of an AI devices startup for US$6.4 billion.
The company, io, was founded a year ago by former Apple designer Jonny Ive, with the OpenAI deal being paid for in stock. It is the company's largest acquisition to date.
Ive, meanwhile, takes on “deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io”, OpenAI said in a statement. The company said that io was merging with OpenAI, while Ive and his “creative collective” called LoveFrom would stay independent.
Open AI's Sam Altman.
Markets were down overnight as US Treasury yields continued to push higher on worries a new US budget bill could put even more stress on the country's deficit.
The Dow Jones was down 1.5%, the S&P500 fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq was off 0.7%. The 30-year Treasury bond yield was trading at around 5.07%, while the 10-year was at 4.58% – slightly below levels seen earlier this week when Moody's downgraded US bonds.
Republican leaders are working to finalise a budget bill that would lower taxes, which investors worry will worsen the US deficit.
“The question now is, from a fiscal perspective, what will the tax bill look like, and will it undo all of the recent fiscal frugality by simply raising the debt level at a slower rate of pace? So I think that’s why the 10-year yield is moving higher – because investors are worried that we’re really not doing anything to slow the pace of inflation and to reduce the debt,” Sam Stovall, CFRA Research chief investment strategist, told CNBC in an interview.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has hit a new all-time high, touching US$109,500 earlier today. The cryptocurrency is up 16% in May after slumping on tariff concerns.
“Bitcoin’s new high has been concocted by an array of favourable ingredients in the macro cauldron, namely softer US inflation numbers, a de-escalation in the US-China trade war and the Moody’s downgrade of US sovereign debt, which has put the spotlight on alternative stores of value like bitcoin,” CNBC reported Antoni Trenchev, cofounder of crypto exchange Nexo, as saying.
Finally today, and looping back to the US President, the Trump administration has officially accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jet from the government of Qatar. The aircraft is valued at about US$200 million.
The aircraft will now be assessed for possible use as a new Air Force One.
“The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” said Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, in a statement to the New York Times. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have questioned Qatar's motives behind the gift.
