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Oil at three-week high as US-Iran peace talks stall; China blocks Meta’s takeover of AI agent Manus – business live | Business

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Oil at three-week high as US-Iran peace talks stall

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.

The new week begins with the oil price rising, again, as the stalled US-Iran peace talks threaten to extend disruption to crude supplies from the Middle East.

Brent crude has jumped about 2% this morning to a high of $107.97 a barrel, the highest level since the two sides agreed a ceasefire on 7 April.

Prices rose after Donald Trump cancelled his plan to send US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for ceasefire talks in Pakistan on Saturday, saying “too much time” has been “wasted on travelling”.

The US president then doubled down on this position, telling Fox News:

double quotation mark“If they ⁠want to talk, they ​can come to us, or ​they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have ​nice, secure lines.”

However, there are signs of positive developments… Axios are reporting that Tehran has given the US a new proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz, and end the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later date.

So, geopolitics will continue to dominate the markets, at the start of a big week, with several big central banks taking interest rates decisions in the days ahead.

As Mohit Kumar, economist at Jefferies, explains:

double quotation markTalks have stalled between US and Iran as Iran has stated that it will not negotiate till the US blockade remains in place, while US has stated that it doesn’t know who it is negotiating with.

Our base case remains that we are moving towards a deal but tail risk of short term escalation remains. It is not in the interest of either parties to escalate further. The latest Iran proposal shows the wiliness of Iran to negotiate, while Trump already wants a deal. Hence, we believe that we will eventually move towards a deal, but with some speed bumps along the way.

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Pound at one-week high against the dollar

The pound has hit its highest level against the US dollar in just over a week.

Sterling has gained 0.2% against the dollar to $1.355 this morning, its highest level since Friday 17 April.

The dollar has dropped this morning, as investors anticipate change at the top of the US Federal Reserve.

Yesterday, Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he will allow Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh to face a vote in the Senate. That should clear the way for Donald Trump’s choice of Fed chair to take control of the US central bank.

Tillis dropped his opposition to a vote on Warsh after the Department of Justice said on Friday that it would drop its criminal investigation into current Fed chair Jay Powell, whose term ends next month.

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David Guetta and Sia’s song Titanium got me through my fertility treatment | Dance music

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At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.

I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.

I was recovering from my second miscarriage that year when I heard Sia’s raspy voice on the car radio belting out words that sounded emotionally weighty for an electronic dance number – her David Guetta collaboration, Titanium.

It’s not a song I would have necessarily rated or listened to again – I’m more likely to play 00s R&B and hip-hop – but it came at the perfect time in my life. I had forgotten how days felt before fertility drugs and the diarised cycles of administering them. I’d been constantly wearing a brave face and cramming in hospital appointments before and after work, going about my job through a fog of longing and hormones. It had left me in a “cry on the bedroom floor” kind of a heap. I needed something to drag the hope back into me.

I turned the radio up and listened to the lyrics: “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose / Fire away, fire away.” It felt as if it was talking to and about me, issuing a riposte to all those shots of disappointment that had been fired our way. As Sia’s vocals ascended through the chorus with Guetta’s soaring synths – “Ricochet, you take your aim” – I cried, but I felt myself gaining power with her, too. “You shoot me down, but I won’t fall / I am titanium.” Those were the words I needed to hear.

I felt like a puppet pulled upright again. I streamed it on repeat in the days that followed. I might not have been able to face the work Christmas party but I wasn’t going to languish on the bedroom floor any more.

Over the next months, I spent a lot of time in my car, travelling to work and to fertility appointments to get my blood tested, hormones measured or insides scanned. Listening to Titanium became routine. Each time, its cinematic surge had the same empowering effect and I’d turn up the volume, wind down the windows and defiantly sing along in my terrible voice so it could wash over me.

The following May, when my husband and I headed to the clinic for another IVF embryo transfer, I let it motivate me; when we drove back from scans confirming we were six weeks, then 12 weeks pregnant, I celebrated with it. As I nervously made my way through my pregnancy, I turned to it when I needed the boost.

In January 2013, our first son was born. Today, he is the eldest of three: his brother arrived 15 months later, via IVF too (the last of our fertilised embryos) and four years later, another brother, without fertility treatment. We consider ourselves unspeakably lucky; for many, the outcome is not the same.

In our family, everyone knows Titanium is my fight song. It’s the only big commercial dance hit on my playlists, and a marker of something I overcame.

My kids call me in whenever it streams or plays on TV. When I made my husband a playlist for our 15th wedding anniversary, it’s the song that represented our 2011. And the other week, when he was out with friends, he sent me a voice note from the bar: he’d recorded it playing in the background.

There’s something all-consuming about fertility treatment: you view life only through the filter of your efforts to get pregnant. If you’re lucky, the filter lifts. It did for me, but the fight song remained. So, now, elsewhere in life, when I need a shot of strength and find myself alone in the car, down goes the window and on it goes.



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Parents 'facing uncertainty' as SEN children left without school places

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Amy Gibney says she is one of eight families at her child’s school to find out that they don’t have a place for next year.



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Edinburgh airport reopens after security alert but passengers warned of ‘knock on’ effect | Scotland

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Edinburgh airport reopened on Saturday morning after parts of the terminal building were evacuated on Friday night because of a security alert.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the airport to investigate what Police Scotland described as a “potentially suspicious package” discovered at about 6.50pm on Friday.

An evacuation was ordered and a police cordon was set up, with roads closed.

Passengers faced disruption as result of the operation and the airport warned that schedules would continue to be affected on Saturday.

In a statement at about 3am on Saturday, the airport confirmed it had reopened and would work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Following investigations by specialist teams, the airport has now reopened.

“This incident will have knock-on impacts throughout today and staff are working hard to address these and support passengers.

“Operational teams are continuing to work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight.”

The statement did not provide an update about the examination of the suspicious package.



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