The political situation at Westminster has moved fast. Burnham has formally been cleared to stand in the Makerfield by-election, and his allies are now openly saying they want him in Downing Street in time to address Labour’s autumn conference in Liverpool. That’s an aggressive timetable — it would require winning the seat, being elected Labour leader, and forming a government inside roughly four months. The Economist is already tracking leadership odds. Meanwhile, the BBC’s account of Thursday’s events — Rayner, Streeting, and Burnham each making separate interventions in a twelve-hour window — reads as a coordinated softening of the ground rather than coincidence. Starmer is not gone yet, but the briefing war is clearly under way.

On the Fed, Trump’s nominees to the Federal Reserve board are reportedly opposing the terms under which Jerome Powell would remain as chair pro tempore while Kevin Warsh awaits confirmation. The Fed itself has said Powell stays in the role until Warsh is sworn in, which could happen as early as next week. The nominees’ resistance adds a layer of institutional friction at a moment when markets are already watching Fed independence closely.

NextEra and Dominion Energy are in talks over a tie-up that would create a utility with a combined value around $400bn. The driver is straightforward: AI data centre demand for electricity is outpacing what either company can finance or build alone. If this goes ahead it would be the largest utility merger in US history and would have meaningful implications for infrastructure and energy pricing across the eastern seaboard.

Trump’s summit with Xi has produced divergent accounts from both sides on what, if anything, was agreed on trade, Taiwan, Iran, and AI. The Economist’s read is that little of substance was achieved. Separately, Trump warned Taiwan against declaring independence within hours of the meeting concluding — a notable piece of public signalling that will be read in Taipei and Beijing as the US recalibrating its tone, even if policy hasn’t formally shifted.

The Anthropic copyright settlement — originally $1.5bn — is in trouble. A judge has delayed approval after lawyers were accused of rushing the deal to capture $320m in fees. The case matters beyond Anthropic: it is one of the defining legal tests for whether training large language models on copyrighted material constitutes infringement, and a messy settlement process extends the uncertainty for the whole sector.

The Makerfield by-election, triggered by Burnham’s candidacy, will be contested by Reform UK. Watch for a campaign date announcement in the next few days — that will set the clock on how quickly the Labour succession question resolves itself.

Sources

Al Jazeera, Guardian, BBC News, FT, Ars Technica, Politico, The Economist, TechCrunch — 2026-05-16