Neil Woodford freezes fund trades
Woodford Investment Management has suspended redemptions in its flagship LF Woodford Equity Income Fund after £600m was withdrawn over the past month. The fund has gone from managing £10.2bn two years ago to roughly £3.77bn today. Sources: BBC, CityAM, the Financial Times and Guardian.
Malware leads lab to halt operations
Eurofins Scientific, a Luxembourg-based food and pharmaceutical product testing lab, took some of its IT systems offline after being hit a ransomware attack. Sources: The Register, Reuters and The State of Security.
Tech stocks down on possible antitrust investigations
Shares in US tech giants tumbled after reports that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google would face several investigations over alleged abuse of their market power. Sources: Financial Times, New York Times and Reuters.
More Boeing 737 Max safety issues
Faulty wing parts were possibly installed on some Boeing 737 Max jets, which have been grounded after two fatal crashes, and will need to be replaced. Sources: BBC, The Guardian and Reuters.
Swedish prosecutor’s Assange request rejected
A Swedish court declined to order the detention of Julian Assange, which would be the first step in an extradition request to the UK, since he is currently in a British prison. Sources: Deutsche Welle, the Financial Times and Guardian.
Imam in France convicted of selling dinghies to people smugglers
A French court sentenced an imam to two years in prison for aiding migrants cross the Channel in inflatable boats; one of his parishioners was jailed for nine months. Sources: AFP, BBC and The Times.
Later today
Marketing: The House of Entrepreneurship holds a beginner’s workshop on building a website using Wordpress, 3:30pm-5:30pm (part 2 held on Friday). Architecture: The Luxembourg Center for Architecture hosts the roundtable “Building Utopia - Activism vs Urban”, 6:30pm. Mindfulness: Outdoor yoga in Kirchberg, 6:30pm.
Looking ahead
Wednesday 5 June: The microfinance group ADA hosts a “Optimising impact: pairing inclusive finance and insurance” lunchtime conference, 12noon-2pm. Thursday 6 June: 13th edition of the Creative Young Entrepreneur Luxembourg awards, 6:30pm. Friday 7 June: Women in Digital hosts an introductory level cybersecurity training session for women, 9am-12:30pm.
Semenya can run without testosterone restriction, for now
The South African runner Caster Semenya will be allowed to compete without taking medication to reduce her testosterone level after a Swiss court temporarily blocked a recently introduced athletics rule. Sources: Deutsche Welle, Independent and NPR.
Good deed of the day
Four orthodox Jewish high school students saved a man with a Nazi tattoo from drowning near Boston, reported NBC Boston.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald