Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Climate campaigners attack Shell over ‘windfall’ profits from Iran war
The Danish shipping giant Maersk has maintained its profit guidance for the year, even as it reported a spike in fuel costs and warned that traffic through the strait of Hormuz “remains at a near standstill”.
The company, which transports goods around the world via sea, road, rail and air, said demand for shipping containers remained strong, but that war in the Middle East was ramping up costs.
“The reopening of the strait of Hormuz, whether it happens in the days to come or the months to come, will have limited impact on cargo flows.
What really are the most important factors to consider: first is our ability to mitigate the cost increases we have been suddenly faced with. And I would say so far we have been successful with both our cost measures and the revenue, the commercial measures that we have put in place to mitigate the impact of these increases t
Guido Reichstadter, a 45-year-old former jeweler, began sitting atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge on May 1 to protest A.I. development and the war in Iran.
After Donald Trump announced a pause to the US operation in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's online propaganda machine was quick to declare victory. Explosive Media, one of the groups behind Lego-style videos mocking Trump, proclaimed it "TACO Tuesday", i.e. that the US President had “chickened out.” Meanwhile, Minecraft, the Minions, and Simpsons-style characters are joining the legions of copycats. Technology Correspondent Peter O’Brien looks at how these videos are actually made.
Yes, Trump might carry them to victory in the midterms. But he can’t carry them much longer – especially not in the 2028 elections
All told, Democrats already seem as though they’re headed for a great midterm election. Voters already troubled by the state of the economy now have the impacts of Donald Trump’s teeter-tottering war in Iran to contend with, and polls tell us they aren’t happy – per poll averages from the analyst Nate Silver, nearly 55% of Americans oppose the war in Iran, 61% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, and 57% of Americans disapprove of Trump overall. As it stands, Democrats have a six-point advantage in generic congressional ballot polling over Republicans.
And Republican hopes that a mid-decade redistricting rush would save their tight majority in the House have been frustrated. The partisan gerrymandering war of the last several months peaked with the victory of a ballot measure in Virginia that allows the state’s Democratic legislature
Meta is planning to pump billions more into AI investments this year, despite noting that millions of users have seemingly started to abandon its platforms. In an earning call on Wednesday, Meta reported that figures for "Family daily active people" - the term Meta has coined for all collective users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger - declined by 20 million this quarter compared to the previous three months.
Meta attributes this fall to "internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia." It's up to you whether you take Meta on its word, given that by bundling the user stats together across …
Read the full story at The Verge.
