Hello and welcome to your latest wrap of the major business and political news from around the world that you need to know this Monday morning.
First up, US President Donald Trump has warned Palestinian militant group Hamas will face "complete obliteration" if it refuses to give up power and control of Gaza.
Trump's remarks came in an interview with CNN aired on Sunday, and followed Hamas earlier agreeing to three points of Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan. Hamas agreed to release all 48 hostages, the surrendering of power and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but said the rest of the deal – including a request it disarms – required negotiation.
Trump told CNN Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with ending the bombing in Gaza and said he expected to know shortly whether Hamas was committed to peace.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sticking with Trump, and the US President authorised the deployment of 300 National Guard troops to Chicago to address what he called out-of-control crime.
Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, called Chicago "a war zone" in an interview with Fox on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman who had been accused by US Customs and Border Protection of doxing its agents. She was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Democratic Illinois governor JB Pritzker, however, accused the administration of fueling the crisis: "They are the ones who are making it a war zone," he told CNN.
Elsewhere, The Guardian has reported Ukraine President Volodymer Zelensky's remarks after an attack by Russia on the western city of Lviv killed six people and injured 18.
Zelensky accused the West of "zero real reaction" to Russia's bombing campaign against Ukraine. About 500 drones and more than 50 missiles were used in Sunday's attack.
“There is no worthy, strong reaction from the world to everything that is happening. To the constant increase in the scale and audacity of the strikes. That is why Putin is doing this: he is simply laughing at the West, at its silence and lack of strong action in response.”
Ukraine President Volodymer Zelensky.
To Japan now, where the country is set to have its first female prime minister after 64-year-old Sanae Takaichi was elected leader of the country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. That put her on course to be the country's first female prime minister.
Takaichi, once a drummer in a heavy metal band and television host, recently told a group of children during her campaign her goal was "to become the Iron Lady", with Takaichi seen as a staunch conservative.
“From a normal woman’s perspective, she’s what you might call an idol for ‘old men,’” Mieko Nakabayashi, politics professor at Waseda University, told Bloomberg. “She’s someone who expresses ‘old man’ opinions from a woman’s mouth and makes them happy.”
The group comprising the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia (OPEC+), meanwhile, has agreed to raise oil output from November by 137,000 barrels a day, CNBC reports.
Oil prices finished last week 8.1% lower on expectations of potential supply increases, with Brent crude futures closing on Friday at US$64.53 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate crude at US$60.88. Prices peaked this year at US$82 a barrel.
In Australia, the Australian Financial Review has reported that Deloitte Australia will issue a partial refund to the federal government after admitting that artificial intelligence was used in the creation of a $440,000 report littered with errors.
Those errors included three nonexistent academic references and a fake quote from a Federal Court judgment, with a new version of the report for the Department of Workplace Relations uploaded on Friday featuring more than a dozen deletions, a rewritten reference list, and corrections to multiple typographic errors.
A DEWR spokesman told AFR Deloitte had “agreed to repay the final instalment under its contract”, but declined to reveal the amount. Deloitte Australia was reported to have entered contracts worth about A$25 million with DEWR since 2021.
Taylor Swift.
Finally, Taylor Swift has broken records after a three-day album release party ahead of the release of her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl.
A 90-minute movie was brought to cinemas for one weekend, bringing in US$33m domestically in what CNBC reports makes it the biggest album debut even in cinema history. The event generated a further US$13m internationally.
The release party featured a music video as well as behind-the-scenes footage and personal reflections from Swift, and was produced in collaboration with NYSE-listed AMC. A 2023 collaboration with AMC related to Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ concert generated more than US$261m at the global box office, the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
“On behalf of AMC Theatres and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I extend our sincerest appreciation to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to movie theatres this weekend,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said. “Her vision to add a cinematic element to her incredible album debut was nothing less than a triumph.”
