The UK government is currently doing one of the things it does best: running two contradictory policies.

The first is to make the UK an almost comically unattractive place to invest. There is the endless political chaos — what Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adrian Wooldridge calls ruling by “emotional spasm.” There are the seemingly relentless rises in regulation and business taxes; specific investment taxes — the UK has the world’s second-highest financial transaction tax (stamp duty on equity trading); and, right now, the leaks about what just might come next.

Investors should switch their focus to defensive sectors if the artificial intelligence trade starts to unravel, according to Sebastian Raedler, head of European equity strategy at Bank of America Corp.

Raedler questioned whether AI will ever become a high-margin business capable of justifying its hefty capital expenditure. He suggested investors should look at “left-behind” sectors such as consumer staples and pharma, where underlying business logic still functions well, to protect themselves from downside risk.

The growing threat posed by a so-called “super El Niño” to global food supplies is spurring the creation of a new commodities fund.

Hedge fund Moreton Capital Partners is targeting $500 million for a special-purpose vehicle to trade multiple commodities that stand to be impacted by the weather phenomenon, including South African corn, Malaysian palm oil and Australian wheat. The markets are underestimating risks, according to Moreton’s co-founder Les Finemore.

One morning last November, Amber Salamon went to deal with the mess of Weetabix her young son had smeared all over the kitchen. “I was just about to clear everything up, turned the tap on, and there was no water,” she recalls.

It was the first of many days without running water for Salamon’s family and about 60,000 other residents in the town of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. When the water returned five days later, it wasn’t clean enough to drink. In January the water cut out again, returning only temporarily each day. Local businesses were forced to close. Alex Greig, the owner of Fuggles Beer Cafe, estimates the outage cost him more than £10,000 ($13,400) in profit. “We’re in this situation where we can’t rely on one of the most essential services,” he says.

Jio Platforms Ltd. plans to use part of the proceeds from its proposed initial share sale to repay its telecom unit’s external commercial borrowings of almost $3 billion, a draft IPO document showed.

Jio, a crown jewel of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-retail conglomerate, filed the draft documents on Friday for an IPO that includes the issuance of as many as 270 million new shares, kick-starting a long-awaited process of unlocking shareholder value.

Ships can consider transiting the Strait of Hormuz along the southern route, day or night, with their transponder signals on, a key naval information group has said.

Vessels that choose to do so also aren’t required to coordinate with the US naval unit that’s supporting the region, though they are encouraged to do so, the Joint Maritime Information Center said in an advisory published Saturday, referring to American Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping or NCAGS.

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is emerging as the frontrunner to acquire a controlling stake in telecom tycoon Patrick Drahi’s French fiber optic company XpFibre, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The New York-based investment firm has pulled ahead of rival bidders and is in advanced negotiations on terms of a potential deal, the people said. It could reach an agreement as soon as the coming weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Supertankers laden with almost 80 million barrels of oil are sitting in the Persian Gulf and ready to cross the Strait of Hormuz at a moment’s notice, if traders and shipowners give the go-ahead.

This non-sanctioned crude from Persian Gulf producers excluding Iran is on 40 very large crude carriers in the gulf, data from Vortexa compiled by Bloomberg show. The volume of crude in the gulf is likely to be higher if smaller tankers are added to the tally. Last year, about 15 million barrels a day of oil from the region was delivered to Asia.

The judge who convicted former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak over the 1MDB scandal said the plunder of the sovereign wealth fund was so vast that it eclipsed the exploits of Attila the Hun, one of history’s most notorious conquerors.

“The scale of the plunder that took place (financially speaking, of course) made Attila the Hun look like a choirboy in comparison,” Collin Lawrence Sequerah said in the introduction to his 809-page grounds of judgement.

When Eli Ben-Sasson helped create the Zcash cryptocurrency nearly a decade ago, the cryptographer worried about human adversaries. He didn’t expect that machine intelligence would one day expose a flaw that had eluded years of expert human judgment.

That reality rattled investors recently after a security researcher working with Zcash used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 to uncover a critical vulnerability that had gone undetected for more than four years. After Zcash disclosed the flaw on June 4, the token — which traded at far higher levels just weeks earlier — tumbled about 50% as traders reassessed the security of one of crypto’s most prominent privacy networks.

A California real estate investor whose firm was accused by Western Alliance Bancorp of an almost $100 million fraud was criminally charged by the US, the latest fallout from a portfolio of commercial properties that sparked credit concerns at several banks last year.

Mahender Makhijani, 44, was charged Wednesday with bank fraud for allegedly falsifying documents to get a loan, according to a statement issued by the US attorney in Los Angeles.

Germany will undertake a strategic effort to become a global leader in aviation over the next 15 years, with focused investment in military aircraft manufacturing, sustainable fuels and top technology.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet will approve the plan on Wednesday, which aims to bolster the country’s competitiveness in aviation as well as strategic sovereignty, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg News. It foresees some €2 billion ($2.3 billion) to ramp up research for sustainable aviation fuels from 2030 to 2039.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. condemned the Canadian government’s offer of loans to help carriers hit by high jet fuel costs in the wake of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Calgary-based company “strongly opposes” Canada’s plan to lend as much as C$150 million ($108 million) to blunt the effect of high airline fuel prices, it said in an emailed statement Monday.

Austria lost its last top credit score from a major assessor because of persistently high budget deficits, ending a decades-long streak as one of Europe’s best-rated issuers.

Morningstar DBRS lowered Austria to AA (high) from AAA because of deteriorating debt metrics, according to an update published late Friday. The outlook is now stable.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday stripping job security from nearly 8,000 federal positions, expanding his authority to fire career employees who work on policy matters and accelerating a civil-service overhaul that’s drawn legal and political pushback.

The move was more restrained than expected. The Office of Personnel Management had initially estimated the new job classification could apply to as many as 50,000 federal employees. Still, the directive will transform the upper echelons of the civil service, allowing the president to fire at will staffers who fail to implement and advocate for his policies.

Yen traders face a heightened risk of intervention over the next two weeks after Japan’s currency defied historic attempts to prop it up.

The currency underperformed all its Group-of-10 peers in May despite record spending by Japan. That puts it in danger of weakening to 160 against the dollar well before any support comes from the Bank of Japan in the form of an expected interest hike on June 16.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva blasted a US decision to label two major Brazilian criminal groups as terrorist organizations, calling it a threat to the nation’s sovereignty that won’t help its fight against drug trafficking.

“We refuse to be treated like children, as if this were some kind of banana republic,” Lula said at an event in Sergipe state Friday.

• 

  New Zealand 2026 Budget: Who Are the Winners and Losers

Welcome to the inaugural edition of On Books, a new subscriber-only newsletter from Bloomberg Weekend.

We’re bringing you a fresh take on the new (and sometimes old!) books dominating the world’s cultural, social and economic conversations. Our reviews and expert recommendations will keep you up to date on ideas from around the Bloomberg newsroom and beyond.

• 

  What Happens When Someone You Love Changes Their Face

The yield on the US Treasury’s long-dated bond rose to the highest in almost three years as investor concern over accelerating inflation fueled a selloff in global debt.

The 30-year rate increased as much as four basis points to 5.16% after oil extended gains as US President Donald Trump renewed pressure on Tehran to come to a deal to end the Iran war. That’s the highest level since October 2023.

No region of the world produces more oil and gas than the countries straddling the Persian Gulf. Most of this energy can only be exported aboard tankers that cross the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that’s effectively been blocked for more than two months.

Iran has throttled traffic through the strait since being attacked by the US and Israel in late February, and has refused to reopen the vital shipping route until the US lifts a naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports. It’s expanded its claimed area of control and announced new rules for vessels seeking to transit the waterway.

Alphabet Inc.’s C$8.5 billion ($6.24 billion) bond deal is driving corporate and provincial spreads wider in Canada as investors’ enthusiasm for the hyperscaler’s debt tests the market’s ability to absorb it.

The Google parent is selling the debt in four-parts of loonie-denominated bonds maturing from five to 30 years. It’s Alphabet’s first loonie-denominated debt deal and the biggest Canadian bond market offering on record. Order books had grown to around C$19 billion to C$20 billion by mid-morning, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

A group of 13 Swiss lawmakers will meet in Bern on Monday to kickstart the legislative process that will shape the future of UBS Group AG.

The closed-door hearing of the Upper House’s Economic Affairs and Taxation Committee, which begins at 10:15 a.m. local time, will help set the terms of the debate in the parliamentary chamber that will vote on the bill first, potentially as early as June.

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate unveiled plans to overhaul its operating model, in an effort to cut decision-making time as it pushes for accelerated growth across businesses.

The Adani Group will introduce a three-layer organizational structure with fewer decision-makers, and have greater focus on liquidity and access to capital, Adani said in an internal memo to employees on Labor Day, without giving the specifics.

The London Stock Exchange Group Plc has converted £1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) of bonds into a new format designed to make corporate debt more accessible to retail investors.

It’s the first use of the UK’s so-called “Plain Vanilla Listed Bonds” conversion under a new framework introduced at the start of this year. That’s designed to broaden access to the UK corporate bond market by enabling smaller denominations and simpler structures.

A proposed law to legalize assisted dying in England and Wales fell by the wayside on Friday when the bill ran out of legislative time after becoming snarled in the House of Lords.

The legislation passed the House of Commons last June, before being saddled with more than 1000 proposed amendments in the upper chamber, the House of Lords. Only seven of the bill’s 59 clauses have been discussed in almost 120 hours of debate, according to a letter written by peers who support it.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG will scrub 20,000 uneconomic short-haul flights from its European summer schedule to save on jet fuel, which has doubled in price since the start of the Iran war.

The cuts will amount to 1% of available seat-kilometers and save around 40,000 tons of jet fuel, Europe’s largest airline group said in a statement late Tuesday. The move comes after the carrier last week announced the shut down of its Cityline regional unit and the grounding of 27 older, fuel-guzzling aircraft.

• 

  Bulgaria’s Former President Seeks to Turn Popularity Into Power

Japan’s largest labor union group reported that workers under its umbrella secured an average pay increase exceeding 5% in this year’s wage talks even after results from smaller firms were factored into the tally, an outcome that will keep the Bank of Japan on track for a near-term interest rate hike.

Unions under the federation known as Rengo have so far won an average wage gain of 5.08%, according to an updated tally released Friday. While down from an initial 5.26%, the overall figure stayed above the group’s 5% target for a third straight year.

Morning, I’m Louise Moon from Bloomberg UK’s breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today’s top business stories.

Exceptional. A word rarely heard in company statements. That is how BP has described its oil trading so far this year.

The Philippines said Chinese forces fired flares directly at its coast guard aircraft over the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea, calling the incident “a clear and deliberate act of bullying.”

The Philippine Coast Guard was conducting routine monitoring over Mischief Reef and Subi Reef on Thursday when Chinese forces fired the flares, according to its spokesman, Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela. The Chinese also issued radio transmissions, claiming “indisputable sovereignty” over the areas, he said.

“These reckless and aggressive actions by China represent yet another escalation in their campaign of intimidation and harrassment,” Tarriela said in a post on X. China’s embassy in Manila didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Philippines and China have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway believed to be rich in natural resources. The Southeast Asian nation has bolstered military ties with the US to help safeguard its claims in the disputed sea, leading to repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine ships.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television last month, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signaled he’s open to restarting talks with Beijing on a joint oil and gas project in the disputed seas, saying the war in Iran may provide the impetus for a breakthrough.

Technology stocks have returned to attractive levels for investors willing to play the long game after a pullback from last year’s record highs, according to veteran strategist Ed Yardeni.

Uncertainty around the impact of artificial intelligence on software businesses, coupled with the effects of the war on Iran, have pushed information technology stocks down 13% since the sector reached an all-time closing high in October. During that period, earnings estimates for the sector have accelerated, pushing its price-to-earnings multiple to 20.6. This is almost in line with the multiple of 19.6 for the S&P 500 Index.

#TechStocks #StockMarket #Investing #EdYardeni #AI #MarketDip #BuyTheDip #WallStreet #S&P500 #LongTermInvesting

For years, airlines in the US and Europe have gawked at the rise of Middle East carriers funneling ever more passengers through their gleaming hubs in Dubai and Doha at competitive prices with the latest jets.

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways offered a viable alternative in the Gulf, leveraging a perfect position between three continents – Europe, Africa and Asia.

Traders added to wagers that UK interest rates will rise this year, sending gilts lower, just a day after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said markets were getting ahead of themselves in pricing tighter monetary policy.

While the drop was largely in line with Thursday’s losses elsewhere in global bonds — in contrast to much of the past month when gilts have often significantly underperformed — market participants said it was too soon to say whether Bailey’s comments to Reuters would have much of an impact.

Months after he stepped down as chair of the Federal Reserve in January 2006, Alan Greenspan visited the Bloomberg News office in Washington, DC. Looking back over the previous decade or so, he explained what was behind that period’s extraordinary slowdown in US inflation. One indicator in particular was key, he said.

Having read up on Greenspan’s analysis before the event, I couldn’t help interjecting. “The import price of Chinese goods!” I blurted out. Greenspan looked over at me and asked whether I cared to deliver the rest of the presentation. I quickly apologized and, of course, deferred to the maestro. While I regret that moment of rudeness on my part, the exchange served to ingrain Greenspan’s point in my mind. And it’s one that rips a hole in a narrative now propagated by President Donald Trump’s economic team.

#AI #AIBoom #Economy #Greenspan #MacroEconomics #TechTrends #Innovation #GlobalEconomy #AIImpact #FutureTech

Iran has started charging transit fees on some commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, another sign of Tehran’s control over the world’s most important maritime energy channel.

Payments of as much as $2 million per voyage are being sought on an adhoc basis, effectively creating an informal toll on the waterway, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive dealings. Some vessels have made the payment, though the mechanism wasn’t immediately clear — including the currency used — and it doesn’t appear to be systematic, the people said.

#Iran #Hormuz #OilMarket #EnergyCrisis #OilSupply #GlobalTrade #Geopolitics #Shipping #EnergyNews #OilPrices

Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda agreed to “de-escalate tensions” and implement a peace agreement reached with the help of US President Donald Trump last year.

Officials from both nations agreed on “concrete steps” toward lasting peace in the war-torn eastern Congo during talks held on March 17-18 in Washington, according to a statement by the Department of State.

“These efforts include a mutual commitment to specific measures to support each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the scheduled disengagement of forces/lifting of defensive measures by Rwanda in defined areas in DRC territory,” according to the statement.

The agreement comes days after the US sanctioned Rwanda’s army and four of its top officials for backing the M23 rebel group that’s created an autonomously governed region in eastern Congo. Rwanda said the sanctions had unjustly targeted only one party of the Washington Accords signed in December.

Read More on the Congo, Rwanda Tensions:
US Sanctions Rwandan Army for Backing M23 Rebels in Congo

Trump Aides Urged Sale of Congo Lithium Claim to a US Company

Congo State Miner Proposes Deal for Cobalt Producer Prized by US

The government in Kinshasa on its part has continued to coordinate with FDLR rebels to fight the M23, despite pledges in Washington that it would neutralize the group, according to a UN experts’ report.

In addition, Congo agreed to intensify efforts to neutralize the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a rebel militia better known as FDLR, and protect all civilians.

#Congo #Rwanda #PeaceTalks #AfricaNews #Geopolitics #GlobalNews #Diplomacy #ConflictResolution #WorldPolitics #BreakingNews

Delivery Hero SE has downsized and widened the price of its loan offering to gauge investor interest, after the food delivery platform struggled to gain traction in the primary market in recent days amid market turmoil, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The JPMorgan Chase & Co.-led $1.4 billion loan is being offered at an interest of 5% over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, and a discounted price of 96.5 cents on the dollar, said the person familiar, who requested anonymity to discuss a private transaction. The loan rate was first indicated in the 4.5% to 4.75% range over SOFR and a discounted price of 99 cents, while the principal amount was $100 million larger. A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Delivery Hero did not respond to a request for comment.

#DeliveryHero #JPMorgan #LoanMarket #CorporateDebt #MarketVolatility #GlobalMarkets #FinanceNews #DebtDeal #Investing #BusinessNews

• 

  Sánchez Faces First Regional Vote After Iran War What to Watch

The European Union’s financial support for Rwandan troops helping to fight an Islamic State-linked insurgency in Mozambique expires in May and there are no plans to extend it, according to people familiar with the matter.

The bloc in 2024 approved €20 million ($23 million) of assistance for the Rwanda Defence Force operating in Mozambique’s gas-rich Cabo Delgado province, matching the amount it agreed to provide almost two years earlier. The funding, under the European Peace Facility, was allocated to cover the cost of personal equipment and logistics, the European Council said.

After two decades of dithering and about-turns, Britain is finally moving ahead with plans for a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport. Look at the usage data, and it’s hard to doubt the economic case for expansion: Europe’s busiest airport carries far more passengers relative to its size or number of runways than rival hubs. Yet the proposal has already turned into a dogfight between airlines and the airport’s owners over costs. Given the UK’s checkered record with infrastructure mega-projects, anxieties are justified.

The positives of an enlarged Heathrow are easy to see. Leaving aside the objections of environmental campaigners and local communities that stand to be disrupted, it’s clear that the demand is there. Heathrow’s capacity constraints have resulted in some of the world’s highest airport charges, with carriers willing to pay tens of millions of dollars for slots. The Iran War may further burnish the appeal of relatively stable Western Europe over competing Gulf hubs. Increasing the number of flights by more than half will inject competition, give more airlines a foothold and broaden the range of destinations. In the future, passengers may be able to fly direct to countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Peru that aren’t currently served, and to more secondary cities in China and India. What’s not to like?

The price, perhaps. Heathrow Airport Ltd., or HAL, has put forward a proposal for a third runway, new terminal building and associated modernization works at an estimated cost of £49 billion ($65 billion). Its plans include demolishing Terminal 3, the airport’s oldest, and so will mean consigning to history the arrivals hall that featured in Love Actually (arguably a piece of critical UK emotional infrastructure). They also involve diverting the M25, the London ring road that is Britain’s busiest motorway (particularly around Heathrow), which will have to run through a tunnel under the third runway. That won’t be cheap.

The project’s scope and expense are generating resistance. HAL puts the cost at about £15 per passenger in additional charges, spread over more than a decade. Heathrow Reimagined, a campaign group formed last year by businesses including British Airways owner IAG SA and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., reckons it will be more like £30 — potentially adding £240 to the cost of a holiday for a family of four.1 Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, and Chris Sununu, chief executive officer of Airlines for America, are among the industry officials who have expressed concern about the impact of higher costs on ticket prices and traffic, according to the Times.

To some extent, this may be rhetorical theater. Airlines want a project that’s delivered as cheaply as possible, offering growth opportunities without eroding margins; HAL, owned by an investment group led by French private equity firm Ardian and the Qatar Investment Authority, has an incentive to spend — because that’s how the company is compensated, with returns tied to its allowed investment, known as the regulated asset base. These conflicting interests mean there’s an inevitable tug-of-war going on, with competing research and narratives — such as the “world’s most expensive car park” — representing attempts to shape the debate as regulator the Civil Aviation Authority considers changes to the framework that will govern the expansion.

Fears of a cost blowout aren’t without foundation. That, after all, is the history of Britain’s attempts to undertake major infrastructure developments. Every mega-project since 1980 has been over budget and the majority have been delivered later than planned, the Office for Value for Money, a Treasury unit, said in a June 2025 report. Some have done better than others. But the archetypal example of failure is HS2, the high-speed rail project that was forecast to cost £35 billion in 2010, and is now likely to come it at more than £100 billion, as well as at least seven years late, despite having been repeatedly cut back in length.

There are key differences between the two — most notably, the Heathrow expansion won’t be publicly funded. Indeed, HAL says this will be the largest privately financed infrastructure project in Europe. Even so, there are parallels and cautionary lessons to draw from HS2. One is to beware of optimism bias: Cost estimates are worth little before detailed design and planning work has been done. And in any case, they only go up.

Another is the danger of speed. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, in a hurry for economic growth catalysts, has set a target of securing planning approval by 2029 and having the new runway in operation by 2035. That schedule is “highly optimistic,” according to a report by Paul Mansell, an infrastructure adviser to the Treasury who predicted HS2’s cost overruns before parliament approved the project.

Moving ahead too quickly before budgets and designs are mature risks more cost escalation down the line. Taking the time to build political consensus and create optimal regulatory incentives is likely to yield dividends later. “Think slow, act fast” is the maxim of Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish academic and author of books on how to manage mega-projects.

Private financing, meanwhile, is no guarantee against disaster. Infrastructure owners rely heavily on debt, and HAL, with £17.6 billion of net debt at the end of last year, is more leveraged than most peers. The runway expansion would “require a substantial amount of debt be added to the airport’s already indebted capital structure,” S&P Global Inc. said in August. Heathrow is critical national infrastructure, however it’s funded. If financing falters, the state may have no choice but to pick up the pieces, a reality underlined by the crisis at Thames Water.

Heathrow’s third runway was always going to be expensive, given the UK’s high embedded cost structure and the constraints of a site that’s hemmed in by motorways and houses. That should be reason for greater caution and scrutiny. (Is it really necessary to knock down one terminal complex to build another? Does the airport really need to erect Britain’s largest car park?) The airport expansion promises significant economic benefits to the UK and should go ahead. But not at any price

#Heathrow #London #UK #AirportExpansion #ThirdRunway #Aviation #AirTravel #Infrastructure #MegaProject #UKeconomy #AirportNews #Airlines #TravelNews #GlobalTravel #Transport #Runway #EuropeTravel #AviationNews #TravelIndustry #HeathrowExpansion

The headquarters of Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security was on fire after an overnight Iranian attack on the Gulf state that also targeted the country’s main airport for the second time since the conflict began.

PIFSS said it would continue operating from alternative sites and that all data had been backed up, state-
run KUNA reported on Sunday

#Kuwait #Iran #DroneAttack #MiddleEast #BreakingNews #WarNews #GulfRegion #AirportAttack #Geopolitics #WorldNews

Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and expanded its ground presence inside Lebanon, stepping up a campaign against the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck command centers and multi-story buildings and completed what it said was a “broad-scale wave of strikes.” Its jets also struck Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim town in north Lebanon and killed a Hamas commander.

South Korea’s equity benchmark is on track to enter a correction, as risk-off sentiment spurred by the Middle East conflict drives a steep selloff in one of the world’s hottest stock markets.

The Kospi fell as much as 6.1% Wednesday, taking the decline from its Feb. 26 record high to more than 10%. Chip heavyweights Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. dropped more than 6% each, among the biggest drags on the gauge.

The artificial intelligence boom had helped drive big gains in Korean stocks, pushing the Kospi up nearly 50% this year at its peak. With surging oil prices on the Iran war threatening the outlook for Federal Reserve easing, investors are rethinking overheated equity bets.

“This reads like a positioning unwind more than a Korea-specific fundamental break,” said Dave Mazza, chief executive officer at Roundhill Investments. “When global risk appetite turns and energy and foreign exchange volatility jump, you get fast de-risking in the biggest, most liquid index names.”

President Donald Trump told NBC News that reports of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death appear to be a “correct story.”

Several outlets, including Reuters and Axios, reported Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Saturday, citing Israeli officials. Trump later told ABC News that he wasn’t ready to definitely declare the Iranian leaders dead, but “we believe he is.”

The US and Japan still need to do a lot of work to hammer the funding details for three projects announced as part of a US-Japan trade deal, according to the head of a Tokyo-backed bank involved in the negotiations.

“We believe these projects have become bankable, but there is still a lot of work that remains,” Nobumitsu Hayashi, the chief of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, said Thursday during a news conference held in Tokyo.

Hayashi said that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s upcoming trip to the US to meet with President Donald Trump in March is a timeline that the bank is conscious of as they work to push forward investments.

The initial batch of investment projects, announced earlier this month, includes outlays for a data infrastructure project, a deep sea oil terminal and a facility to manufacture synthetic diamonds used for semiconductors.

Read more: Japan, US Reach $36 Billion of Gas, Mineral Deals in Trump Pact

JBIC, a government-backed bank, has become a crucial player in the US-Japan trade deal as it takes on some of the funding of the $550 billion investment initiative alongside private companies and banks with a combination of loans and investments.

“We may want to progress in a certain way, but the question of whether the US will respond in kind remains. They may also have different ideas,” he said, adding that he couldn’t say at this point how negotiations will progress.

“Of course, we have in mind the 45 day time frame and the US-Japan leadership summit,” he added, referring to a clause in the trade agreement that indicates Japan will provide the funding for projects within 45 days of Trump selecting the project or risk a potential increase in tariffs.

The comments came after Trump instated a fresh 10% levy on Tuesday in response to the Supreme court’s decision last week to strike down an initial round of so-called reciprocal tariffs as illegal. Japan agreed in July to create the $550 billion investment vehicle in exchange for securing a lower reciprocal tariff rate and lower duties on auto exports.

Japan’s government has said it will continue to work on implementing the investment deal, even though the tariffs that had formed the basis for that agreement had been ruled illegal.

“We will continue to work on implementing the trade deal steadily and surely, and we will continue to seek the US to do so as well,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a regular press briefing held Tuesday.

The Trump administration is likely to face legal obstacles if it argues against refunds for the tariffs struck down by the US Supreme Court — thanks to statements by Justice Department lawyers.

In a 6-3 decision last week, the justices declared President Donald Trump’s use of an economic emergency powers law illegal. The majority was silent on whether the companies that paid more than $170 billion in contested duties will get their money back, sending the issue to lower court to sort out. Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned in a dissent that a refund process was “likely to be a ‘mess.’”

The Trump administration is likely to face legal obstacles if it argues against refunds for the tariffs struck down by the US Supreme Court — thanks to statements by Justice Department lawyers.

In a 6-3 decision last week, the justices declared President Donald Trump’s use of an economic emergency powers law illegal. The majority was silent on whether the companies that paid more than $170 billion in contested duties will get their money back, sending the issue to lower court to sort out. Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned in a dissent that a refund process was “likely to be a ‘mess.’”