Crypto News: Bending without breaking

The government is now hinting at an "unbanning" of onshore wind development. Business Secretary Grant Shapps was out this morning doing the media round. He was notionally promoting the new public energy conservation campaign but mostly the questions were about whether he was bowing to rebellion by former PMs Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.

He declared there would be more onshore wind projects "where communities are in favour of it" and said there wasn't a "massive gulf" between the rebels and the rulers: "We are all basically saying the same thing."

Grant Shapps, UK business, energy and industrial strategy secretary. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Normally, Shapps is very good (in government, I often thought he could do each day's media himself) but on this — the status quo can't be the solution since that regime has put up just 20 turbines.

Bloomberg political editor Kitty Donaldson summed up the potential U-turn: "If Sunak does climb down, the government is likely to argue that shifting circumstances and rising energy costs due to Russia's war in Ukraine have changed the calculations. But the problem is it would also foster the sense that he is being buffeted by political winds rather than shaping them."

This will be the recurring challenge. There are so many issues where Sunak will face a rebellion, he'll be under pressure to give. The skill will be bending, without his authority breaking.

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The stories you need to know about this evening

The protests against China's Covid Zero strategy represent one of the most significant challenges to Communist Party rule since the Tiananmen crisis more than 30 years ago.
Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan has a form of lymphoma and will undergo treatment for several months.
Turmoil at Apple's key manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou is likely to result in a production shortfall of close to 6 million iPhone Pro units this year.
Many top Republicans have remained silent on Donald Trump's dinner with a notorious white supremacist.

Even though his diary has sent the new PM to Europe, Africa and Asia in only five weeks in office, tonight at Mansion House in the City of London, is the first time we'll hear a fully-formed foreign policy argument from Rishi Sunak. Whereas Truss and Johnson were both foreign secretaries with well-known positions, Sunak comes to this as a former chancellor.

The audience will want hear his plan to "get Brexit done better." This graph showing growing voter Bregret highlights, even for poll-sceptics out there, a remarkable change in opinion.

And this piece, from Bloomberg's Liza Tetley, has a survey of British businesses saying four in five rank Brexit as the biggest "headache" for their firms. That's above Russia's war in Ukraine, energy costs and even Covid.

Bloomberg's fair and forensic economic double act — Philip Aldrick and Andrew Atkinson — have produced a handy print out and keep rundown of six years of Brexit, but also the allegations levelled at Brexit. Their conclusion? "The UK's economic growth has matched EU nations since Brexit but surging inflation has clobbered living standards."

It's a strong piece of analysis. I'll give you a quick summary but it's worth reading the article in full:

GDP: "As national income is the broadest measure of economic performance ... it is the most important. Since Brexit, the UK has effectively held its own."
Sterling: "Well below pre-referendum levels."
Households: "Real household disposable income ... Has trailed all four major EU peers except Spain."
Employment: "The UK has the second-lowest unemployment rate of the largest EU economies after Germany."
Migration: The new post-Brexit rules means numbers have "turned out to be more open than expected" with overall net migration at similar levels (just from non-EU origin countries).
Productivity: "On this key measure, the UK has lagged behind France, Germany and the US for some time."
Trade: "The most apparent evidence of Brexit damage."

The pre-brief of the speech says tonight the prime minister will also touch on how to go about "reinvigorating relations in Europe." Bloomberg journalists' work shows how necessary that is.

The UK will miss its energy targets without an additional tens of billions of pounds of funding for the government's new home insulation program, ministers have been privately warned.

If Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's headline goal of reducing energy demand by 15% by 2030 is to be met, more money will be required, an official familiar with the internal government advice told Bloomberg.

Read more from Alex Wickham.

Get ahead of the curve

Bargain buys. UK homebuyers are starting to get discounts on properties in the latest sign of turbulence in the country's housing market.

Crypto fraud. It's risen over 32% in the UK this past year as scammers increasingly target more inexperienced investors.

Aviation first. EasyJet and Rolls-Royce say they have successfully tested a converted jet engine running on hydrogen for the first time.

Warmer winter. The Met Office now forecasts a milder season ahead, potentially blunting the impact of soaring energy bills.

Mpox. The WHO says the monkeypox virus should be renamed "mpox" to avoid racist and stigmatizing language surrounding the disease.

4,000

The amount of European doctors who opted not to work in the NHS following the Brexit vote in 2016, research has revealed.

One key story, every weekday

Empty offices in the financial district in Frankfurt, Germany. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

The global economy is stuttering, and some of the world's biggest names are already laying off thousands of employees. But there's a glimmer of good news: This time around, workers have a better-than-usual shot at holding onto their jobs if recession arrives.

Almost three years after Covid-19 hit, companies around the world still complain that they can't get the talent they need. They worry about labor shortages that will likely last beyond not just the pandemic, but the next downturn too. Deeper forces, such as changes in population and immigration, are shrinking the pool of workers they can hire from.

Read The Big Take.

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