Good morning. The US Treasury secretary calls for a review of the Federal Reserve’s renovation of its headquarters. The Bank of England is said to be considering shelving plans for a digital pound. And Victoria Beckham’s fashion company is on the road to profitability. Listen to the day’s top stories.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there should be review of the Federal Reserve’s decision to renovate its headquarters. The central bank should conduct an internal examination of its non-monetary policy operations given the “significant mission creep,” he posted on X.
Markets latest: European stock futures dipped along with Asian shares as investors awaited earnings from megacap companies this week. Japanese stocks fluctuated on concern about fiscal spending with the setback of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition in the weekend elections.
Bank of England officials are considering shelving plans for a digital pound for everyday spending, people familiar said. The central bank is willing to step back if private companies continue to roll out new electronic payment systems. The BOE declined to comment.
A UK retailers’ association called for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists, which it says may bring in an additional £3.65 billion from EU visitors
Corporate roundup: Sarepta Therapeutics said it will pause shipments of its Elevidys gene therapy. Oracle is said to be negotiating a $100 million annual cloud software deal with Skydance.
Deep Dive: Stalin Makes a Comeback
Photographer: Contributor/Getty Images Europe
Joseph Stalin is making a comeback in Russia as a victorious World War II leader rather than the man responsible for the deaths of millions of his citizens. The Communist Party, the second largest in the parliament, voted this month to press for full political rehabilitation of the Soviet dictator.
The Kremlin is also reviving Soviet-era practices of censorship and prison sentences to suppress dissent and present Russian society as united behind Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
The president signed an order earlier this year to rename Volgograd’s airport as Stalingrad in honor of the WWII battle in the southern Russian city, after the local governor said veterans including from the war in Ukraine had made the request.
The governor of the Vologda region, north of Moscow, told a cheering crowd that Stalin was “one of the greatest figures in the history of our country,” as he unveiled a statue to him in December.
Don’t look to the rumor mill for any clues on Xi Jinping’s future, Karishma Vaswani writes. Speculation about the opaque inner workings of the Politburo has become an obsession, but most talk about what’s next for the Chinese president will be wrong.
Beckham at Centurion New York. Source: Adrian Gaut
Spend it like Beckham. Victoria Beckham’s fashion empire is close to making a profit. The former Spice Girl is set to star in her own Netflix show this fall, following the success of a documentary about her husband in 2023.
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