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Good morning. We start today with the vote by Tesla shareholders to reapprove a pay package for chief executive Elon Musk, once valued at $56bn, and to reincorporate the electric-vehicle maker in Texas.
The preliminary results, announced yesterday at Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, will strengthen the company’s hand as it attempts to overturn a January decision by a Delaware court to void the 2018 package of stock options.
If the court’s decision can be overturned, Musk would tighten his grip on the electric vehicle company. His stake would rise to more than 20 per cent from its current 13 per cent.
After the polls closed, Musk emerged on stage to address a rapturous crowd chanting his name, jumping up and down in celebration in front of a blue and pink neon sign in the shape of Texas. Find out what Musk said to the crowd of mainly retail shareholders as he plots Tesla’s future.
And here’s what I’m watching today and over the weekend.
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G7: China tops the agenda on the final day of the G7 summit in the Italian city of Bari. Pope Francis will also make a historic appearance in a discussion about artificial intelligence.
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Economic data: The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index is forecast to report a preliminary reading of 72 in June, up from 69.1 in May.
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Monetary policy: Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee will participate in a fireside chat at the Iowa Farm Bureau Economic Summit. Fed governor Lisa Cook will deliver a speech at the 50-year celebration of the American Economic Association Summer Program in Washington.
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Donald Trump: The former president will host an event in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is expected to make a speech to celebrate his 78th birthday.
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South Africa: The National Assembly holds its first sitting after last month’s election. New lawmakers will be sworn in and the assembly will elect the country’s next president.
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Euro 2024: The football tournament kicks off in Munich today with a match between host country Germany and Scotland.
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Ukraine peace summit: About 80 world leaders are expected to gather at the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock over the weekend, where Kyiv will aim to broaden support among developing nations.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Donald Trump told a gathering of top US chief executives last night that he would slash taxes and regulations while pushing up tariffs, as he tried to win backing for his populist economic agenda from the country’s business leaders. About 100 corporate leaders, including Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Apple’s Tim Cook, and longtime JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, attended the Business Roundtable event in Washington. One executive who was in the room called Trump’s performance “almost business-like”.
2. Joe Biden has pledged support from the US and its allies for Ukraine “until they prevail” in the war against Russia after signing a 10-year defence pact with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the G7 summit in Italy. The US president’s comments marked a show of unity between the leaders following tensions between Washington and Kyiv in recent weeks. The president also secured commitments for the delivery of additional air defence systems to Ukraine — including Patriot missile batteries.
3. The Bank of Japan said it would begin to “significantly” scale back its ¥6tn ($38bn) monthly bond-buying programme, a critical milestone as it begins to unwind its ultra-loose monetary policy and taper its expanded balance sheet. In a widely expected move, the BoJ also said it would maintain its overnight interest rate within a range of about zero to 0.1 per cent. Find out how investors reacted.
4. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has overtaken the Tories in a national opinion poll for the first time, climbing 2 percentage points to 19 per cent. The Conservatives remained at 18 per cent, according to a YouGov poll conducted after the prime minister launched his party’s manifesto on Tuesday. Here’s more on the latest setback for Rishi Sunak.
5. Wells Fargo has fired several staff who had sought to “create the impression of active work” through “simulation of keyboard activity”, according to regulatory filings with Finra, one of the top US securities industry regulators. Read more on the latest example of a crackdown on non-compliant staff in the era of hybrid work.
The Big Read
As the US presidential election approaches, dozens of academics, non-profit workers, volunteers and researchers who participate in initiatives tracking and countering online misinformation have been aggressively targeted by a loose coalition of free speech activists, Republican lawmakers and allies of Donald Trump. The FT spoke to more than a dozen experts in what critics say is a “Censorship Industrial Complex”.
Sign up for our US Election Countdown newsletter for the latest updates on the race to the White House.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
French stocks are heading for their worst week since September 2022 and the gap between French and German government bond yields has risen to the highest level since 2017 as investors fret about the prospect of a far-right government running the Eurozone’s second-largest economy. French President Emmanuel Macron called snap parliamentary elections on Sunday after his party suffered a heavy defeat to Marine Le Pen’s populist Rassemblement National party in EU polls.
Take a break from the news
High-end jeweller Albert Boghossian first visited the Taj Mahal at the age of 18 and remembers being mesmerised by the beauty and scale of the landmark. In his latest 70-piece collection, Palace Voyages, Boghossian draws inspiration from some of the world’s most breathtaking residences.
Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Emily Goldberg