US and Ukraine signal pure assets deal after weeks of fraught talks

Good morning and welcome to FirstFT on the day after the US and Ukraine signed a minerals deal following weeks of tense negotiations. We’ll break down the settlement for you and likewise convey you information of:

• Tesla denies it’s on the lookout for a brand new CEO

• An interview with the doubtless successor to David Solomon at Goldman

• Australia’s crunch election

• New information on New York’s congestion cost

The US and Ukraine have agreed an “financial partnership” that may give Washington entry to the nation’s vital minerals and pure assets. The deal was signed following a gathering between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral on the weekend and amid rising frustration throughout the White Home with Vladimir Putin and Russia. Right here’s what we all know.

The phrases: A “reconstruction funding fund” will spend money on vital mineral, oil and fuel extraction, in addition to associated infrastructure and processing. Ukraine will decide what pure assets are extracted, and for the primary decade, all earnings might be reinvested within the nation. Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated the fund could be “collectively managed” on a “50/50 foundation” and that her nation would retain full possession and management over “all assets on our territory and in territorial waters”.

Why it issues: The deal has been an enormous supply of stress between Washington and Kyiv, and comes as Trump is struggling in his effort to dealer a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent stated it signalled to Russia that the US was “dedicated to a peace course of centred on a free, sovereign, and affluent Ukraine over the long run”. Svyrydenko stated the US, along with making monetary contributions to the fund, would possibly supply additional assist, together with air defence programs. Ukraine doesn’t have any debt obligations because of the deal. Ukraine’s bonds rallied on the announcement. Listed here are extra particulars.

Right here’s what else we’re holding tabs on at present:

• Meta lawsuit: The corporate heads to courtroom towards a bunch of US authors in one of many first massive authorized assessments of whether or not tech teams can use copyrighted materials to coach AI fashions.

• Outcomes: Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Eli Lilly, KKR and McDonald’s are amongst these reporting. Full checklist in our Week Forward e-newsletter.

How ought to central banks navigate the brand new world order? Pose questions to Chris Giles and different FT consultants about financial coverage, and have them answered in a dwell Q&A subsequent Wednesday

5 extra prime tales

1. The Trump administration’s early commerce offers may set off a binary response from monetary markets and decide how traders view tariffs, stated the president of Goldman Sachs. “It might or is probably not bullish, however it may function a template,” John Waldron, broadly considered because the probably successor to chief govt David Solomon, stated in an interview with the Monetary Occasions.

• Extra commerce information: Chinese language state media has stated there could be “no hurt” in holding commerce talks with the Trump administration, in what analysts stated was a softening of Beijing’s place in the direction of the US.

2. South Korea’s appearing president has introduced his resignation, throwing Asia’s fourth-largest financial system into additional uncertainty. Han Duck-soo, a profession technocrat who has by no means held elected workplace, had been anticipated to steer the fiercely divided nation via to the presidential election on June 3 however now appears to be making ready to face for president himself.

3. Tesla chair Robyn Denholm has known as studies that the board is searching for to exchange chief govt Elon Musk “completely false”. Denholm was responding to a Wall Road Journal report that claimed the board had contact headhunters in response to plunging gross sales and a widespread backlash towards his alliance with Trump.

4. Sam Altman’s digital ID challenge World, which manufactures eyeball-scanning “orbs” to generate distinctive IDs, has launched within the US. The group goals to make the US its core market after initially rolling out the product exterior the nation in 2023, partly due to the Joe Biden administration’s extra hostile angle to crypto. Learn extra on the deliberate rollout introduced final evening in San Francisco.

5. Apple has been referred to a prison prosecutor by a US decide who discovered the tech big “thwarted” her authorized order to alter its US App Retailer guidelines. The decide dominated that considered one of Apple’s executives lied underneath oath to cowl up an try to bypass the injunction, marking a shocking rebuke to the iPhone maker and a brand new twist in its lengthy authorized battle with Epic Video games.

At this time’s massive learn

As Australia heads to the polls, it’s dealing with a geopolitical crunch and deep financial challenges. It depends on the US for safety ensures whereas China is its largest buying and selling accomplice. It’s also making an attempt to regulate to a world the place fossil fuels — a mainstay of its financial system — are being changed by renewable vitality. The Trump administration’s aggression in the direction of its allies, which so dramatically affected the Canadian election, has additionally dominated the marketing campaign. Australia’s fame as “the fortunate nation” is dealing with a reckoning.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• The greenback: It’s onerous — not not possible — to see how the greenback and Treasuries reclaim their historic function as dependable security valves for skittish markets, writes Katie Martin.

• AI’s subsequent aggressive benefit: Success might be measured not by how a lot capital an organization can elevate, writes June Yoon, however how little it must win.

• Pope Francis’s reforms: The late pontiff sought to battle corruption within the Vatican, however his successor will face a steep problem in balancing the books.

• Starbucks: Bringing again the “espresso home vibe” to Starbucks, as Brian Niccol plans to do, comes at a price.

Chart of the day

The primary-quarter contraction of the US financial system was largely pushed by corporations speeding to purchase items from overseas forward of the introduction of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, economists stated. The surge in imports in the end contributed to inventories, consumption and funding — optimistic elements in calculating GDP not being absolutely mirrored in yesterday’s information.

Take a break from the information

When Norwegian minnows Bodø/Glimt from the Arctic Circle — often known as the “fish hippies” — tackle Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur of their £1bn stadium this night it will likely be 11 towards 11, says chief govt Frode Thomassen. “There are not any boundaries for what you are able to do,” he says. Their success isn’t any flash within the pan. Right here’s extra on Bodø’s giant-killing run.