"The Pulse With Francine Lacqua" is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today's guests: Gilles Moëc, Axa Chief Economist; John Aylward, Sona Asset Management Founder & CIO; Anand Menon, UK In A Changing Europe Director; Greg Fleming, Rockefeller Capital Management President & CEO (Source: Bloomberg)
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Keir Starmer has confirmed he will resign as Britain's prime minister and leader of the Labour party. Starmer said he accepted with 'good grace' that he was not the best person to lead Labour into the next election. It comes as Andy Burnham, likely frontrunner for the post, makes his return to parliament Continue reading...
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The U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has resigned—a day after Donald Trump pre-announced it for him. Starmer, 63, who, as prime minister, is also the leader of the ruling Labour Party, confirmed his departure in an emotional statement outside the prime minister’s official Downing Street residence on Monday morning. He told reporters he would quit as Labour leader after concluding he was no longer the man to take it into the next election.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces the timeline for his resignation, following Andy Burnham's decisive victory last week in the Makerfield by-election, outside 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, June 22, 2026.
In an emotional speech at 10 Downing Street, Keir Starmer said he will step down after days of mounting pressure and speculation over his future. It comes as leadership contender Andy Burnham returns to parliament.
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Bloomberg Daybreak Europe is your essential morning viewing to stay ahead. Live from London, we set the agenda for your day, catching you up with overnight markets news from the US and Asia. And we'll tell you what matters for investors in Europe, giving you insight before trading begins. Allies of Keir Starmer expect him to set out a timetable for his departure as UK prime minister imminently, putting Britain on course for its seventh premier in a decade and paving the way for Andy Burnham to replace him. The US and Iran made “encouraging progress” in talks on a peace deal and will continue technical-level discussions this week, mediators said, even as President Donald Trump again threatened strikes if Hezbollah keeps attacking Israel. Today's guest: Shriya Samarth, EMEA Head of Rates, StoneX (Source: Bloomberg)
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House of the Dragon may be very different from Game of Thrones, but one thing is the same: the opening theme. Ramin Djawadi’s theme full of pulsing strings is part of the show’s epic image, and that’s one element that hasn’t changed in House of the Dragon. But in Season 2, the opening credits sequence that unfurled to that theme changed drastically. Season 1’s sequence emphasized the Fire and Blood inspiration while still echoing the miniature depiction of Westeros in Game of Thrones, but Season 2 changed things up with a new opening inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, the real-world massive embroidery depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In Season 2, the images depicted in the opening caught us up on ancient Targaryen history, including Aegon’s conquest, houses Stark, Tully, and Arryn bending the knee, and the construction of the Red Keep. But there were also events from Season 1 shown, like the tragic loss of Lucerys. Now, in Season 3, much of the same ancient history is shown, but it adds a few key moments recapping Season 2 of the series. Here’s everything that was added. Warning! Spoilers for House of the Dragon ahead! The first big difference addresses the two tragedies that defined the beginning of the Dance of Dragons: the loss of Lucerys Targaryen at the end of Season 1, and then the reciprocation ordered by Daemon that ended in the loss of one of Aegon’s children, Jahaerys. That was supposed to even the score, but it only sparked more resentment from both sides, all building to the first real battles of the conflict. The next additional scene shows a brutal battle between two dragons: one gold and another red. This is the Battle of Rook’s Rest, where Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys were defeated by Aegon and his dragon Sunfyre. However, then Aemond and his dragon Vhagar turned their sights against the king, and Aegon and Sunfyre were both left gravely injured. This betrayal is how Aegon ended up bedridden for the last few episodes of Season 2, leaving Aemond to rule as Prince Regent. Now, Aegon and Larys are on the run, and Aemond is off to take Harrenhal, something that will bring him face to face to the only House of the Dragon character as spooky as he is: Alys Rivers. While the Greens were dealing with infighting, the Blacks had a unique strategy to tip the odds in their favor. They gathered anyone, even commonfolk, who could possibly have Targaryen lineage and allowed them to bond with dragons. These characters, known as the Dragonseeds, may not be the brightest or the most strategically-minded of their newfound family, but they provide a huge advantage over the other side. But how effective are they really? Season 3 will tell us. This is just how the opening sequence looks now. Just like in Season 2, it’s likely this opening will change to add new events as we go along. You may skip this intro every time, but it secretly contains all the recap you need about Targaryen history.
Full spoilers follow for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 1. High stakes. High seas. High treason. This season opener has everything. This is the Battle of the Gullet and it is every bit as spectacular as we could have hoped, all pirate battles and flaming missiles and hand-to-hand combat. It’s surrounded by the sort of scheming, seduction, confession and devastation that makes for good character drama too. If the rest of the season is anything like this, this Game of Thrones spin-off might finally have a way to outfight its predecessor. We’ll come back to the character stuff. The centrepiece of this episode is a hugely exciting air-and-navy clash between Lord Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) fleet and the Tyroshi fleet led by Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn). For Lohar, it’s a grudge match; for Corlys, it’s only part of his blockade of King’s Landing on behalf of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her “Blacks” in the civil war called the Dance of Dragons against her cousins, the “Greens.” Lohar’s determined to hit the Sea Snake where it hurts, sending half her fleet to burn his home: “High Tide is a monument to the Sea Snake himself. Do you think his focus will hold when he sees his treasure aflame?” She’s right: it is another devastating blow to a man who already lost a wife and two children. Happily, he’s also a badass. He lures Lohar away from the fleet, sinks two of her companion ships thanks to some fancy-pants sailing through a narrow channel, and then fights hand-to-hand against the ferocious Tyroshi captain. Abigail Thorn is great as Lohar here, absolutely convincing as a leader of men and a serious threat to Corlys. She’s already come close to taking down a dragon before getting to this personal vendetta. Given that Corlys begins the episode having a moving heart-to-heart with his formidable illegitimate son Alyn (Abubakar Salim) and that he then earns Alyn’s respect as a sailor and a captain during the battle, you have to wonder if he’ll survive this fight; he’s missing at the end of the episode. If this is how he goes out, fair play. It’s an exceptionally well-shot, almost entirely practical battle; apparently the ship tanks and sets were so massive at Leavesden Studios that they overshadowed the new Harry Potter’s Privet Drive. The battle in the air goes less well. Yes, Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Baela (Bethany Antonia) ride into the fight and decimate the Tyroshi fleet, but Jace’s dragon Vermax is almost taken down by Lohar early on, and then Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) joins the battle to devastating effect. In this episode, we see that she’s finally wooed a dragon of her own, but in one of those rabbit’s foot scenarios her half-feral beast refuses to obey her and attacks friends and foe alike in the heat of the moment. Her attempts to help contribute to the battle’s biggest loss as Vermax is harpooned in the chest and drags Jace into the drink with him. It’s a devastating finale. On the bright side, at least it saves Rhaenyra from having to confront her son’s high treason: the reason she is not there on her own dragon is because he locked her in her room for her own protection. She’s on a high this episode, convinced by Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) offer to surrender King’s Landing and confident in her new dragonriders, who are waiting grumpily near Harrenhal to ambush awful Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his massive dragon Vhagar. (So oversized. What is he compensating for?) Of course, this follows two seasons of dithering, so you can understand why her team isn't so convinced. It’s a bit late for her to start quoting Elizabeth I now. Rhaenyra’s line, “I may appear to have the weak and feeble body of a woman but I possess the heart and spirit of a king” is a historical lift from a speech that also preceded a major naval encounter. Anyway, she sends for her husband, Daemon (Matt Smith), who’s just destroyed a Green-aligned Lannister army at Red Fork with the help of the Riverlords, and enjoying the blood-splattered look. The late-arriving Starks bring Daemon the head of Lord Jason Lannister (Jefferson Hall), while his fully-armoured twin Tyland tries to keep control of his Tyroshi allies on the Gullet. So much for one Green army, but the spoiled, rather prissy Ormund Hightower (James Norton) has another on the way, including the dragon Tessarion. Oh, and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is out there with his forces, alongside Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), who’s increasingly horrified by Cole’s nihilism and his lack of control of his thuggish men. That’s a lot of potential fighting men still on the board. Then there are the main members of the Green royal family. Alicent is horrified, on her return to King’s Landing, to find Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) missing and Aemond all too present, when she had promised Rhaenyra precisely the opposite.
So the opening of Season 3 drops us on that mysterious Isle of Faces, a little island in the God’s Eye lake that’s basically a holy ground for the Children of the Forest. The First Men and the Children signed their ancient peace there, carving faces into the weirwoods so the gods could watch. Because of that, the island stays sacred and barely anyone dares to set foot on it.
Our dragon‑seed trio—Ulf the White, Hugh Hammer and Addam of Hull—are told to lie in ambush there, waiting for Aemond and his massive dragon Vhagar. While they wait, the island starts feeling…odd. Ulf wanders off and bumps into a black goat, a nod to the old Alys Rivers legend that Daemon also saw. Then Hugh and Addam hear a rustle, turn, and spot a tall figure with antlers and goat‑like legs watching them before vanishing.
That creepy figure is almost certainly one of the Green Men, an order the books say was created to guard the deep forests and the Children after the First Men war. Their look is fuzzy in lore—some say they’re green‑skinned with antlers, others picture them in green robes with antlered headpieces—but the brief glimpse lines up with Martin’s Fire and Blood where Addam meets a Green Man on the island.
In short, the antlered stranger isn’t a random Easter egg; it’s a nod to the ancient protectors of the Children, tying the show back to the deeper mythos of Westeros and setting up more of that old‑world magic for the season.
In 2023, after years of pollution, equipment failures, and health concerns, the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee was slated to close within the decade. The coal-fired plant had been part of a multibillion-dollar settlement in 2011 after its operator, the Tennessee Valley Authority, failed to install pollution control technology a decade earlier. Regulators cited the plant for more air-pollution violations in 2017 and 2023. TVA said it would shutter Cumberland’s units in 2026 and 2028. Then the Trump administration replaced four of TVA’s board members, and the agency reneged on its retirement plan in February. Now, TVA has a federal pledge for $46 million to extend Cumberland’s lifespan—part of a nationwide push by President Donald Trump to keep older coal plants running.
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