Brent crude is trading above $125 a barrel after the FT reported the Strait of Hormuz blockade is now in its 62nd day. Overnight, Axios reported that US Central Command has prepared plans for a wave of “short and powerful” strikes on Iran. Trump has publicly urged Tehran to “give up,” saying the port blockade is working. European equities and government bonds both fell on the news, with the energy shock reviving fears of a prolonged inflation spike across developed markets.
The Bank of England decision next week is now more complicated. The BBC reports that analysts are already flagging that the Iran conflict makes future base rate moves genuinely hard to call. Higher oil feeding into headline CPI gives the MPC political cover to hold, even if underlying domestic demand would otherwise argue for a cut. Watch Bailey’s language carefully.
On UK politics, Nigel Farage has confirmed he received a £5 million personal gift from Reform mega-donor Christopher Harborne shortly before the 2024 general election, disclosed only after the Guardian approached him for comment. Farage says the money was for personal security. He has been referred to the parliamentary standards watchdog. The story lands in the same week as local elections where Reform is expected to make significant gains, and it will test whether the party’s voters treat financial opacity differently when it comes from their own side.
The Golders Green stabbings are now being treated as a terrorism offence. Police say the suspect was specifically targeting anyone visibly Jewish. It follows a series of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London since March. The Metropolitan Police have released body-worn camera footage of the arrest.
On Big Tech earnings, Alphabet’s cloud division grew faster than both AWS and Azure in the latest quarter. Meta’s stock dropped after it raised capital expenditure guidance. Across the five major AI-investing hyperscalers, total planned capex is now running at $725 billion, per the FT. Separately, Anthropic is reported by TechCrunch to be fielding pre-emptive funding offers valuing the company at between $850 billion and $900 billion, which would make it one of the most valuable private companies ever. Given that Anthropic has no public revenue disclosure, that number is entirely a bet on AI infrastructure demand — the same demand now being priced into oil markets via data centre power consumption.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee decision is due next Thursday, 7th May.
Sources
- Oil price jumps after report Trump to be given new Iran options — BBC News
- Oil surges past $125 as fears of prolonged supply disruption grow — FT
- Rockets defeat Lakers in Reaves’s return, force Game 6 in NBA playoffs — Al Jazeera
- Google outpaces rivals as Big Tech’s AI spending plans rise to $725bn — FT
- Iran war: What’s happening on day 62 as Trump asks Iran to ‘give up’? — Al Jazeera
- European stocks and government bonds fall as oil price climbs — FT
- Could the US-Iran war become a protracted ‘frozen’ conflict? — Al Jazeera
- Iranian officials to miss FIFA Congress over alleged mistreatment in Canada — Al Jazeera
- Revealed: British ad firm’s billion-dollar greenwash of US oil industry — Guardian
- Labour is facing wipeout in its final stronghold. Why? It’s housing, housing, housing | Aditya Chakrabortty — Guardian
- It once hosted Eric and Ernie and a boxing kangaroo – now it’s all pigeons and decay. How did Hulme Hippodrome fall so low? — Guardian
- ‘We will kill you and burn your house’: Council staff under attack from High Street gangs — BBC News
- Russia loses its way in the Sahara — FT
- AI companies are just companies — FT
- Does trade cause peace? Ask an economist — FT
- Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán — Guardian
- The Rendlesham Forest mystery: ‘It’s the perfect storm of a UFO case’ — Guardian
- As a Ukrainian journalist, I’ve covered the US for 20 years. I find it increasingly shocking — Guardian
- SoftBank is creating a robotics company that builds data centers — and already eyeing a $100B IPO — TechCrunch
- Have the royals got their mojo back from US visit? — BBC News
- ‘Attacked 28 times in a day’ - BBC visits heavily targeted US-UK base in Iraq — BBC News
- Amazon, Meta join fight to end Google Pay, PhonePe dominance in India — TechCrunch
- Amazon’s cloud business is surging — and so is its capital spending — TechCrunch
- Endometriosis could be diagnosed earlier with new scan technique — BBC News
- The city caught in the middle of the big energy shift debate — BBC News
- Sources: Anthropic could raise a new $50B round at a valuation of $900B — TechCrunch
- Interest rates expected to be held as uncertainty over Iran war continues — BBC News
- Watch: Met Police body-worn footage of Golders Green arrest — BBC News
- Europe’s unpopular leaders are paralysing the EU — The Economist
- SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are already public companies — The Economist
- ABC can beat Trump FCC’s license threat if owner Disney is willing to fight — Ars Technica
- How Kevin Warsh could save the Federal Reserve — The Economist
- OpenAI Codex system prompt includes explicit directive to “never talk about goblins” — Ars Technica
- Howdy’s dated $3/month ad-free streaming service said to have 1M subscribers — Ars Technica
- New Sam Bankman-Fried trial would be huge waste of court’s time, judge says — Ars Technica
- Swashbuckling oil-services firms are preparing for a boom — The Economist
- Police treating stabbing of two men in Golders Green as terrorism — Guardian
- Farage’s attempt to get ahead of £5m gift story only raises more questions — Guardian
- A rare Mamdani-Menin alliance — Politico
BBC News, FT, Al Jazeera, Guardian, TechCrunch, The Economist, Ars Technica, Politico — 2026-04-30