The UK’s Defence Investment Plan is still missing, with MPs warning the delay is damaging credibility ahead of the Nato summit in early July. The timing is awkward — Starmer is simultaneously fighting off internal Labour pressure, having hardened his position on any leadership contest after Andy Burnham signalled he’d enter the race. Neither story is resolved, but both speak to a government managing political noise rather than setting the agenda.

On the Gulf, Trump’s relationship with his closest regional partners is visibly fraying. The FT reports that the administration is considering using frozen Iranian assets to compensate Gulf allies for war damage sustained during the US-Iran conflict — a sign of how strained those relationships have become. Separately, Trump’s threat against Qatar, a longstanding mediator, has rattled allies who are increasingly uncertain about the consistency of Washington’s posture. Pakistan, meanwhile, has sent its interior minister to Tehran with a letter for Khamenei, suggesting back-channel diplomacy is still active even as Gulf states warn of further escalation.

On OpenAI, there are two threads worth tracking together. The company is planning its biggest overhaul of ChatGPT since launch, recasting the chatbot as a gateway to higher-margin products ahead of a potential IPO — the commercial logic being that the current product is a loss-leader and the real money is in what sits behind it. At the same time, Trump has said publicly he is in discussions about a deal that would give the American public an equity stake in AI, with OpenAI having already proposed a sovereign-wealth-style fund to that end. Sriram Krishnan departing as White House AI adviser this week adds a personnel wrinkle — he’s reportedly setting up a new institution to continue shaping policy from outside, which may or may not smooth the OpenAI-government relationship.

Apple’s WWDC opens tomorrow, with a revamped Siri and updated Apple Intelligence suite expected to be the centrepiece. For anyone watching the competitive dynamics in enterprise AI, how Apple positions on-device intelligence against cloud-dependent rivals will be worth following closely.

WWDC keynote is tomorrow, Monday 8th June.

Sources

BBC News, Guardian, Al Jazeera, FT, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, Politico, The Economist — 2026-06-07