Bloomberg Daybreak EU

Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day. On today's podcast: (1) Xi Jinping warned Donald Trump of a potential conflict over Taiwan if the issue is mismanaged, saying it could push the China-US relationship into a highly dangerous situation. (2) Angela Rayner, the UK’s former deputy prime minister, has been cleared of deliberate wrongdoing in an investigation into her tax affairs, potentially paving the way for a leadership bid against Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (3) European Union leaders must show courage in strengthening the bloc’s foundations, according to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. “Europe now finds itself in a world that is far less forgiving of the gaps in its institutional architecture,” she said Wednesday in Aachen, Germany. “Institutions that were built for an earlier age are being tested by demands they were not fully designed to meet.” (4) The US Senate narrowly confirmed Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve, setting up the most controversial leadership transition at the US central bank in decades and a test of its political independence. (5) More UK estate agents have reported falling house prices in April as the war in Iran and elevated borrowing costs hit buyer confidence, according to a closely watched survey. (6) Back in the 2000s, the market for pension risk transfers was an eat-what-you-kill industry, and pickings were slim. Nearly two decades on, PRTs are a much easier sell and there are £1.3 trillion of assets to fight for. 

Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day. On today's podcast: (1) UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer survived in post on Tuesday despite a slew of ministerial resignations which have so far failed to force his downfall. (2) As UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer slowly loses allies in government and fights for his survival, the escalating political drama is heaping fresh pressure onto a bond market already battered by the country’s deep-rooted fiscal and economic problems. (3) Jamie Dimon warned the UK that any move to hike taxes on banks in the event Keir Starmer is replaced as the UK’s prime minster would see JPMorgan Chase & Co. scrap plans to invest billions in a new London headquarters in Canary Wharf. (4) France’s economy is showing signs of faltering as the fallout from the Middle East conflict hits growth and ratchets up inflation pressure, according to the central bank’s monthly survey of companies. (5) Oil shipments from Iran’s main export terminal appear to have come to a standstill over the past several days, according to satellite images, the first sign of a prolonged halt since the start of the war. (6) US President Donald Trump said he would prioritize trade discussions during his summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and downplayed the amount of attention they would devote to the Iran war. (7) When President Donald Trump sits down for talks with China’s Xi Jinping this week, the focus will be on whether the world’s two-biggest powers can stabilize a fraught relationship. But it is the countries caught in between that have been forced to navigate the fallout from the geopolitical storm.

Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day. On today's podcast: (1) Keir Starmer was facing growing pressure to step down as Britain’s prime minister after dozens of members of Parliament, including Cabinet allies, joined the calls for him to set out a timetable for his departure. (2) A Schroders bond-fund manager is steering clear of UK debt on concern that political upheaval will drag yields higher in the coming months. (3) The ceasefire between the US and Iran reached a particularly precarious moment Monday as President Donald Trump said the agreement was on “massive life support” after he rejected Tehran’s latest peace offer. (4) The US sanctioned a dozen entities and individuals over the sale of Iranian oil to China, stepping up economic pressure just days before President Donald Trump meets his counterpart Xi Jinping. (5) Michael Burry, the investor made famous in The Big Short, is warning that the Nasdaq 100 Index is headed toward a dramatic reversal after a “parabolic” surge that has driven technology valuations to unsustainable heights. (6) In the time it usually takes to watch one football match, the Kospi index shed more than $300 billion in value as the gauge slumped on Tuesday. That’s a bit more than $3 billion a minute in the benchmark index alone, and the scale of the slide helped sour sentiment across Asia. (7) On the 13th floor of the Berlaymont building in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen has built a presidential operation that exerts control over every aspect of what goes on inside the European Commission