Khan begins austerity drive for Pakistan
Calling for Pakistan to “stand on its own two feet,” freshly inaugurated Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has launched an austerity drive to reduce debt. Urging the rich to pay taxes, Khan explained that Pakistan had formed a bad habit of living on loans and aid from other countries. “No country can prosper like this,” he said. The Guardian reports that Khan will reduce the prime minister’s servant staff from 524 to just 2 and will also sell off a fleet of bulletproof cars.
Mixed message from Iran on EU stance
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif appeared to contradict his vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, in an interview on the EU’s efforts to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action--the so-called Iran nuclear deal. “If the deal really is an important security pact for the EU, then it should be prepared to accept the costs,” Zarif told Iran’s YJC news agency. The Algemeiner reports that in a separate interview Jahangiri said that “there has been no limit in doing business with Europe so far:”
Superdry millionaire backs People’s Vote
Superdry co-founder Julian Dunkerton is donating £1 million to the People's Vote campaign, which calls for a referendum on the final Brexit agreement, Reuters and Business Insider, among others, report. “I’ve got a good instinct for when a mood is going to change and we’re in one of those moments now,” Dunkerton said.
EU regulators getting firmer on British banks
Standard Chartered’s CEO for Europe and the Americas, Tracy Clark, claims that her bank may end up moving more jobs due to Brexit than originally planned. The Guardian reports that the European Central Bank has told banks they must move significant operations to the EU in order to sell services. Citing delays in a licence approval sought by Standard Charter, Clark says the ECB alongside German regulators and the European Banking Authority are “getting firmer about what they expect to see, and their stance is therefore becoming a bit tougher.”
Digital bank quadruples valuation
London-based digital bank Monzo has organised $150m of funding from investors that will value it at up to $1.5bn the Financial Times reported. That is about four times the £280m value placed on the bank in November 2017. Just three years old, the bank appeals to millennials because it allows customers to organise their money on a smartphone.
Cruise ship passenger rescued
A British woman who fell off a cruise ship in the Adriatic on Saturday night was rescued on Sunday morning after spending 10 hours in the water, the BBC reports. 46-year-old Kay Longstaff says she fell of the back off the Norwegian Star as it sailed along the Croatian coast on its way from Vargarola to Venice.
Djokovic wins Cincinnati
Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to claim his first Cincinnati Masters title. The Serb is the first player to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 events since the series started in 1990. The Cincinnati tournament is seen as a guide to form ahead of the US Open, which starts next week.
Today's breakfast briefing was written by Duncan Roberts