FirstFT: UK energy groups feel the heat

Good morning. Britain’s electrical energy mills will face strain from ministers to take a position their “extraordinary profits” in new inexperienced energy tasks, quite than paying out the windfall to shareholders.

Some have made large income from surging electrical energy costs which have risen in step with the hovering price of fuel, even when the energy they produce comes from renewables or nuclear energy.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi will at the moment preserve alive the prospect of hitting mills with a windfall tax if they don’t make investments their income in renewable energy schemes. He has instructed officers to attract up an inventory of coverage alternate options for whoever turns into UK prime minister on September 5.

Zahawi and enterprise secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will meet mills together with Centrica and RWE to debate the energy disaster, together with the soar in family payments, with common annual fuel and electrical energy payments forecast to hit £4,420 by spring — greater than 3 times the degree at the begin of 2022.

Kwarteng has had officers engaged on a spread of “reasonable worst-case scenarios”, together with a possible shortfall in electrical energy provides of as much as a sixth of peak demand this winter, in case Russia turns off fuel to Europe.

Liz Truss, a Tory management frontrunner, yesterday vowed to do all she may to assist households combating the price of residing disaster, in what her rival Rishi Sunak described as a “major U-turn” of an enormous coverage situation.

Thanks to readers who took our ballot yesterday. Seventy-two per cent of respondents mentioned outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson, Truss and Sunak ought to convene to agree on an emergency Budget to sort out hovering family payments. Here’s the remainder of at the moment’s information. — Jennifer

Five extra tales in the information

1. Credit Suisse steps up $400mn SoftBank dispute The Swiss lender has intensified its legal fight in opposition to the Japanese tech investor because it seeks to recoup lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} on behalf of its wealthiest purchasers that it had lent via the defunct Greensill Capital.

2. Disney provides 14.4mn streaming subscribers Walt Disney defied considerations about an trade slowdown by adding subscribers to its Disney Plus service in the newest quarter, pushing its complete variety of paying clients to 221mn. But the media group diminished its long-term steering resulting from its lack of rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket matches.

3. Elon Musk sells virtually $7bn of Tesla stock forward of courtroom combat with Twitter The Tesla chief govt has taken benefit of a latest rebound in the electrical carmaker’s stock value to promote $6.9bn value of its shares since the finish of final week, in line with regulatory filings.

4. UK to ‘urgently’ supply polio vaccine booster to London kids aged 1 to 9 The Health Security Agency mentioned the transfer would assist strengthen safety in opposition to polio-related paralysis and interrupt transmission of the virus that sewage surveillance suggests is going on in components of the capital.

5. Donald Trump pleads the Fifth in New York state probe The former US president refused to reply questions at a deposition in a New York state probe into his companies yesterday, invoking his constitutional proper in opposition to self-incrimination amid deepening authorized woes.

The day forward

Russian crude restored to southern Druzhba pipeline Hungarian energy firm MOL has paid oil transit charges to Ukraine on behalf of a Kremlin-controlled firm with a view to restart flows of crude. The Energy Information Administration and Opec additionally publish their month-to-month oil market experiences.

Timothy Schools sentencing A former solicitor who funnelled virtually £20mn from a “no win, no fee” litigation finance fund into his personal pocket shall be sentenced. He was discovered responsible of all 5 counts in opposition to him at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday after a UK Serious Fraud Office probe.

Corporate earnings Companies resulting from report quarterly outcomes embody Aegon, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens. Results for the first half of the yr are additionally in for Salzgitter and Zurich Insurance.

PGA Tour playoffs start A US choose has denied a request from three skilled golfers to play in the first occasion of the playoffs in Memphis, Tennessee, after they defected this summer time to the LIV Golf circuit, a start-up league backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

US financial knowledge Producer value index figures are anticipated to have risen at a slower tempo in July than in June, however they have been nonetheless at elevated ranges. Unemployment insurance coverage filings are additionally forecast to have increased throughout the week ended August 6. (FT, WSJ)

Join us in particular person or on-line for the FTWeekend Festival on Saturday, September 3, and luxuriate in a day of debates, tastings, performances and extra. Hear from audio system that embody Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, MP and former well being secretary Jeremy Hunt, Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and psychotherapist Esther Perel. Claim £20 off your festival pass through the use of the promo code FTWFxNewsletters.

What else we’re studying

The purchasing revolution shall be livestreamed Internet platforms together with TikTok, YouTube and Amazon are declaring reside ecommerce as the way forward for retail. But early experiments in the UK and the US recommend there is still a long way to go to beat low viewing numbers, poor gross sales, clunky tech and logistical challenges.

In reward of boredom The final time Jemima Kelly was actually bored was a yr in the past, throughout a seemingly endless church service in France. But after the ordeal was over, she seen that her emotions of pleasures had intensified. Boredom, it turns out, could help our ultra-connected lives.

Germany’s economic system stutters The nation’s prospects have develop into “fragile”, in line with its finance minister, with progress forecasts downgraded and life changing into “much more expensive for lots of people”. Here’s how the eurozone’s powerhouse became a weak link.

Tory terror spurs conflict with the state Following his resignation final yr, David Frost, Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, printed an essay — the newest salvo in the ever-shortening cycle of disavowal that characterises Conservative politics. In his essay, Frost captures the terror of a celebration that fears it has misplaced the creed of true Toryism, writes Robert Shrimsley.

What’s subsequent for Brittney Griner — and for girls’s sport? Griner is at the moment the most well-known basketball participant in the world, not for her two Olympic gold medals or her 5 skilled championships throughout the EuroLeague and the WNBA, however as a result of she’s develop into a political pawn.

Prime property

A €1 dream scheme is sparking a wider homebuying development in Sicily, with deserted homes serving to to attract in patrons from northern Italy and overseas.