Latest Developments

Europe
BBC Business

Trump to meet AI leaders to discuss US investment in their companies

US President Donald Trump is planning to meet the bosses of some of the country's most notable artificial intelligence (AI) companies to discuss the government taking a financial stake in their future. Speaking on Air Force One, Trump said the goal of the US government investing in AI companies was to "create almost a partnership with the American public". He expects to meet leaders of major AI companies at the White House - likely next week. Although the president did not name specific companies, the biggest companies in the US working on AI are Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic - the latter two of which are expected to go public in the coming weeks. A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment. Representatives of the other four companies did not respond to requests for comment. Trump compared the prospective investment in AI to the US government last year taking a 10% stake in Intel, a company that makes computer chips. He claimed the US has already made money on that investment. Part of the US investing directing in AI companies, however, would be to improve Americans' views of the technology, which have grown increasingly negative. "We're talking about it,"Trump said, referring to conversations with AI leaders "where the American people can benefit from the success of AI, the American people will like it better". Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, this week travelled to Washington DC and met Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders recently said he intended to propose a sort of sovereign wealth fund in which the US would take a 50% stake in AI companies. Asked about Sanders' plan, President Trump insisted he had been considering the US investing in AI companies for a year, but did not dismiss the senator's notion. "Where economics are concerned, we have things that aren't that far apart," Trump said.

Trump to meet AI leaders to discuss US investment in their companies
Europe
BBC Business

Tech stocks plunge in Asia after record rally and renewed Middle East attacks

South Korea's stock market was forced to halt trading for 20 minutes after the Kospi index plunged by nearly 9% within minutes of Monday's opening. The halt is part of a circuit breaker mechanism designed to prevent panic trading and was triggered for the third time this year after a sharp sell-off in technology stocks. Japan's Nikkei 225 index slid by around 4.5% - the most in three months - as shares of major tech companies fell. Oil prices also rose on Monday, fuelling concerns of inflation, after Iran and Israel exchanged strikes for the first time since a ceasefire was agreed between the sides and the US in April. Traders are nervously watching a "messy mix" of several shocks to the market mainly tied to the tech sector and accelerated by rising energy prices, said chief investment strategist Charu Chanana from Saxo. Tech stocks have seen a strong run in recent weeks, but investors are "repositioning" over fears the investments into artificial intelligence may be overvalued, she said. Markets like the Kospi and Nikkei are particularly exposed to such shocks given their exchanges are dominated by tech stocks. The losses follow a sharp drop on Wall Street on Friday, where a sell-off in tech stocks saw shares on the Nasdaq lose about 4% - its biggest drop in more than a year. Part of the decline on Friday followed fears of a hike in US interest rates, due to a lower-than-expected US unemployment rate in April as well as persistently high inflation linked to the war in the Middle East. Trading in South Korea has resumed since the circuit breaker was triggered, with the Kospi index down by about 7.9% in the early afternoon. The share prices of major South Korean tech companies were sharply lower, including those of chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said on Monday that the stock market was expected to experience volatility but he believed domestic shares were still "slightly undervalued".

Tech stocks plunge in Asia after record rally and renewed Middle East attacks
Europe
BBC Business

M&S launches new traineeship for 1,000 young people

Marks and Spencer is launching a new training scheme for young people trying to get on the career ladder in a bid to tackle the "growing youth unemployment challenge". Aimed at 16 to 24-year olds, it will create 1,000 training places in the UK and Ireland over the next 18 months. M&S said the paid scheme was intended to help tackle the rising number of young people not in employment, education or training, or Neets as they are known. The latest official figures show more than a million young people are Neets - the highest level in more than 12 years and equating to roughly one in eight young people. Last month, a key review warned one in six would be Neet in five years if action was not taken. The review found job and career opportunities for those hoping to enter employment were "not growing, they're shrinking". Its author, former minister Alan Milburn, warned of a potential "lost generation". It said there was no one single factor causing the crisis, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, smartphones, health issues and the current jobs market, which has seen a sharp drop in the number of entry-level positions. High Street retailers and hospitality businesses such as restaurants, cafes and pubs often offer the first experience of work for many. M&S said its new scheme would provide six months of training, with successful participants then receiving further training to become a store manager. Retail director Thinus Keeve said: "We want more young people to see retail not just as a first job, but as a career with real opportunity, real responsibility and real progression... "This programme is about opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive." Over the weekend, the government announced a partnership with industry and trade unions examining how artificial intelligence (AI) affects entry-level roles.

M&S launches new traineeship for 1,000 young people
North America
CNBC Finance

Harry's and Coterie owner Mammoth Brands has ambitions to be the next CPG giant

Mammoth Brands wants to take on traditional consumer packaged goods companies, armed with a portfolio of disruptors in the personal and baby care categories that have won over consumers and retailers alike. For the last decade, upstarts like those owned by Mammoth have challenged the relevance and longstanding dominance of legacy giants like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark. The trend has also played out across packaged food and beverage companies, like Poppi and Olipop taking on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Consumers' loyalty no longer draws on just brand recognition. Newcomers can offer shoppers something different: better prices, higher quality or fewer ingredients that scare them. "A lot of these companies call these smaller brands 'ankle biters' — tells you exactly what you need to know about how they view the threat," said Nik Modi, co-head of global consumer and retailer research for RBC Capital Markets. "But I think that they're taking it a lot more seriously. I think it's gotten to a tipping point." With brands like Harry's razors, Lume Deodorant and Coterie diapers, Mammoth is reshaping the consumer goods landscape, and it has ambitious plans. "We're trying to build a leading modern [consumer packaged goods] company, like if Procter & Gamble and Unilever were getting built today," Mammoth co-founder and co-CEO Andy Katz-Mayfield told CNBC. In 2024, Mammoth saw revenue of $835 million and almost $100 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to a statement from the company. While legacy consumer giants still dwarf the company with their tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, Mammoth said it has seen a greater than 20% revenue compound annual growth rate over the prior five years through 2024. Soon, a wider swath of investors could bet on the company's vision. Mammoth is weighing an initial public offering as soon as the second half of this year, according to a Bloomberg report. "Today, our private company, we make money, which is great, and we have opportunity to continue to invest in the brands in our portfolio," said Mammoth's other co-founder and co-CEO Jeff Raider. "We'll continue to evaluate the right capital structure for the business over time to enable us to achieve that long-term outcome." The early seeds of Mammoth began in 2013, when Katz-Mayfield and Raider founded Harry's. Katz-Mayfield came up with the idea for the startup based on his frustration with the status quo of buying $20 replacement razor blades. "I called up Jeff," Katz-Mayfield said. "We decided to build a men's grooming brand that was a really high quality product at great value, a better overall experience, online led, and I really do think that's really at the core of everything that guides Mammoth Brands." Katz-Mayfield and Raider had previously worked together at Charlesbank Capital Partners and Bain & Company. Before founding Harry's, Raider co-founded Warby Parker. Like the glasses startup, Harry's began online, becoming another disruptor during the era of direct-to-consumer brands. By 2016, it had gained enough customers to land on Target shelves.

Harry's and Coterie owner Mammoth Brands has ambitions to be the next CPG giant
Europe
BBC Business

Spain's visitor numbers hit new highs as tourists avoid Middle East

From the rooftop terrace of a hotel, Fede Fuster looks out across Benidorm, at the nearby high-rise buildings and the town's famous, sweeping beach. "With all its virtues and its defects this is a place we feel proud of," he says. "It's a place of opportunities." Fuster is the president of the local tourism association, and his family was one of the first to build a hotel in this Mediterranean city, in the 1950s. Benidorm's population is still only 77,000, but it swells to around five times that number in the height of summer, due to its status as one of Spain's prime tourism draws. Since the Covid pandemic left resorts like Benidorm virtually deserted and the Spanish tourism industry at a standstill there has been a remarkable recovery. Foreign arrival numbers into the country have broken records each year, and totalled 97 million in 2025. Currently the world's second-biggest tourist destination, just behind France, Spain is expected to consolidate its recent success in 2026. "I think this is going to be a great year," Fuster says. "I'm optimistic, we're talking about reaching 100 million tourists in Spain. If we keep growing like this we're going to be number one [in the world] very soon." Industry experts had originally expected 2026 to see more modest growth. But the outbreak of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran has made Spain an attractive alternative compared to Middle Eastern holiday destination Dubai, and countries in the eastern Mediterranean, such as Turkey and Cyprus. "In these moments of crisis, of [military] strikes or wars, the bookings always increase," says Fuster, who recalls a similar phenomenon in 2011, during the turmoil of the Arab Spring, although he insists he would prefer to compete with other countries without this advantage. "Any time that you have a crisis in the [eastern] Mediterranean or the Middle East, Spain is seen as a secure place to go," says Francisco Femenia-Serra, a lecturer in geography at Madrid's Complutense University. He explains that "part of the tourists that would normally go to Turkey or Egypt because of the [low] prices, for instance, might end up in Spain". Spain's official tourist arrival figures appear to bear this out. The country received 9.1 million international visitors in April, a new high for the month. This was 5.2% more, or 450,000 additional people, than April 2025.

Spain's visitor numbers hit new highs as tourists avoid Middle East
North America
CNBC Economy

Long-term unemployment is surging in the U.S. There are hidden costs for workers and the economy

The 29-year-old had been employed consistently since he was a teen, first on a factory floor and most recently in medical sales. But the St. Petersburg, Florida, resident hasn't been able to start a new gig after losing his job shortly before the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday. Taylor has become part of a group of more than 1.8 million Americans classified as long-term unemployed — which the government defines as jobless for at least 27 weeks — in a given month this year. That figure is up about 45% from 2019 and 55% from 2023, a CNBC analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data found. "This can't go on much longer without some type of catastrophic change to my life," Taylor said. "That this era of my life could affect my long-term future — my family's future, my future children's future — is something that I go to sleep thinking about." Without a steady income, Taylor's retirement planning and long-term investing strategy has come to a "screeching halt." He's significantly cut back on spending for everything from food to social experiences to make ends meet. Taylor said he's applied to around 100 jobs and has completed several interviews to no avail. On a macro level, the growing number of Americans in this boat raises red flags about the strength of the labor market and overall economy. For the long-term unemployed, it can have ramifications on financial, emotional and family health that linger even after they reenter the workforce. "It tells us a lot about economic health," said Cory Stahle, an economist at job site Indeed. "It tells us about how good of a job the labor market is doing at absorbing people." The long-term unemployed account for roughly one out of every four jobless workers, according to the latest available U.S. government data. Friday's nonfarm payroll report will offer a fresh reading of the U.S. labor force's makeup. Reports released this week on job openings and private payrolls came in stronger than economists anticipated. Long-term unemployed workers' pay was approximately 32% lower after a decade than those who had not lost work, according to a working paper from the Boston Federal Reserve. Those who were unemployed for shorter periods took a 9% cut over the same time frame. Studies also show there may be a link between long-term unemployment and depression. A Pew Research report found that the long-term unemployed were over two times more likely to seek professional help for depression or other mental health challenges compared with those without work for under three months. "Other than the death of a family member or a close friend, this is one of the most devastating things that people face," said Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. "It's a very serious health problem and an economic problem." Research also shows how unemployment — particularly over long stretches — can negatively impact families and communities. Parental job loss increases the chance that their child will repeat a grade by about 15%, a working paper found. A study of Wisconsin state data found workers displaced in their prime years are less likely to participate in social and community events. Communities with a larger percentage of long-term unemployed people have a higher rate of crime and violence, the Urban Institute reported.

Long-term unemployment is surging in the U.S. There are hidden costs for workers and the economy
Europe
BBC Business

You may be saving for retirement without realising it. Here's how to check

We all know we are supposed to put something away for a rainy day, including our old age, it is just hard to find the money. A recent report suggested more than three-quarters of workers are set to miss out on a moderate standard of living in later life. But there is a simple check you can do now that could put you in a more comfortable financial position when you get older. It will help make sure you don't miss out on free money from your employer. You may even find out you are already saving for your retirement without realising it. Most workers aged 22 and over, and earning more than £10,000 a year (or £192 a week; or £833 a month) should automatically see some of their wages transferred to pension savings. Usually, 5% of your salary will go into a pension savings pot (this is an additional pension pot, separate from what you'll eventually receive in a state pension). If you don't put this money into a pension, it will be taxed, so you will lose some of it anyway. Crucially, your employer will then add money into the pot, the equivalent of at least 3% of your wages. This is money you can only access in retirement, so if money is really tight then you can opt out and have the money in your wages now. But the more money saved and invested now, the more it will grow over time, data shows.

You may be saving for retirement without realising it. Here's how to check
North America
CNBC Finance

Trump's 'big beautiful bill' has a 'double taxation' trap for top earners, tax experts say

The "one big beautiful bill" came with many tax benefits for top earners, despite limiting how much they can deduct. However, lawyers and accountants for the wealthy said they have discovered a surprise buried in the footnotes of a tax law guide released last week by Congress' policy staff that could amount to double taxation. The deduction cap is imposed on trusts and estates, the experts said, which was unexpected. Even if a trust gave all its income to its beneficiaries, it would have to pay taxes on a portion of that income, according to their interpretation of the document. While the consequences are steeper for trusts and estates of the ultra-wealthy, trusts with as little as $16,000 in income would also be subject to additional taxes, the experts said. "There is potentially an element of double taxation," said Dan Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Bank. "This is something that is going to affect somebody with a $400,000 special-needs trust. It's not just going to be something that $100 million dynasty trusts suffer with." Griffith said he is especially concerned about trusts that are obligated to distribute all their income. Trusts will either have to sell assets to pay the taxes, sacrificing future investment returns, or reduce their distributions to beneficiaries, he said. This provision creates a "mathematical nightmare" for tax lawyers and financial advisors, according to Justin Miller, national director of wealth planning at Evercore Wealth Management. Miller gave the example of a wealthy couple wishing to leave their estate to charity. "If I have to pay income taxes, that means I'm giving less money to charity because I'm giving money to the IRS. That means I now have to adjust my deduction even more because less money is going to charity," he said. "Did Congress really intend to create an algebraic formula?" Historically, trusts and estates have been able to deduct income given to beneficiaries, which is then taxed on the individual level. This distribution deduction is designed to make sure income is only taxed once. However, the new deduction limitation on top-earning individuals now applies to trusts and estates, according to a footnote in the Joint Committee on Taxation's recent tax explainer, better known as the Bluebook. The JCT is nonpartisan and serves to explain legislation. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's limit on itemized deductions means that taxpayers in the top bracket only get a deduction benefit of 35 cents for every dollar, rather than 37 cents. It applies to charitable deductions, and experts say it has already influenced how top earners give. While the Bluebook is an interpretation of the OBBBA rather than law in and of itself, this provision is causing concern in the financial advisory community, according to Robert Keebler, a certified public accountant. For instance, he frequently sets up trusts for clients on their second marriages that will provide their surviving spouse with income but leave the remainder for children from the first marriage. Consider a trust that distributes all $370,000 of its net income to a widow, he said. Applying the deduction limit to trusts means that the trust can only deduct $350,000 from its distributable net income and $20,000 would be subject to taxes, even though the widow is taxed on the entire $370,000, according to Keebler. To pay the tax, the trust either has to dip into its corpus, reducing the children's future benefit, or get permission to give less to the spouse, which can require going to court.

Trump's 'big beautiful bill' has a 'double taxation' trap for top earners, tax experts say
Europe
BBC Business

Tata Steel says new £1.25bn furnace may be delayed due to electrical issue

Plans for a £1.25bn electric steel-making furnace in Port Talbot may be delayed for up to eight months due to problems with electrical connectivity, Tata Steel has warned. The new electric arc furnace was hoped to be up and running by the end of 2027, replacing the traditional blast furnaces which closed two years ago with the loss of 2,000 jobs. Tata Steel is working with the National Grid to upgrade electrical infrastructure and support the new electric arc furnace. But it has emerged that boss Koushik Chatterjee warned investors during a conference call last month that problems with electrical connectivity might put the project back. Chatterjee said the project was progressing with major demolition work completed, and that "securing access to high power electricity is critical for our planned transition". "While we are working with the electricity system operator and the National Grid for new electrical infrastructure, National Grid has formally alerted us that their connectivity project is delayed. "This is critical for Tata Steel UK for the project commissioning, we are in conversation with National Grid and the UK government on resolution of the issues." Asked about how long the delay might be, Chatterjee, Tata's executive director and chief financial officer, said: "Somewhat between, say, six months to eight months will certainly be there, maybe higher, after we have built the plant." He said the company was working with partners including the UK government, the National Grid and its electricity supplier to "see if we can mitigate". In a statement, Tata said, as with many major projects, "timelines continue to evolve as detailed engineering, construction and infrastructure work progresses". It said it was "discussing potential adjustments to the commissioning timetable" with its partners "to deliver the project safely and as quickly as possible". National Grid said the work involved constructing two new substations, installing transformers as well as laying 2km of underground cables.

Tata Steel says new £1.25bn furnace may be delayed due to electrical issue