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(Sharecast News) - Ukraine launched a fresh longrange strike on Russian energy infrastructure early on Saturday, hitting an oil terminal outside St Petersburg, according to The Telegraph. Dozens of drones targeted Russia's secondlargest city overnight, with one impacting the terminal and another crashing within the grounds of Peterhof, the former imperial residence. St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said on social media that an oil facility in the city's Kirovsky district had been struck, adding that Russian air defences shot down 72 drones.
Next is drawing up plans for a potential bid for luxury departmentstore chain Harvey Nichols, The Telegraph reported. The retailer's Hong Kongbased owner has put the business up for sale, and sources told Sky News that Next was "serious" about exploring an offer. Next, valued at more than 17.5bn, has acquired several struggling highstreet brands in recent years, including FatFace, Joules and Russell & Bromley. According to The Telegraph, it remains unclear whether any deal would include Harvey Nichols' regional stores or focus solely on the brand.
Barratt Redrow now faces mounting pressure from shareholders to launch multibillionpound share buybacks or risk a boardroom revolt, The Times reported. Major investors fear the FTSE 100 housebuilder could become vulnerable to a cutprice takeover unless the board acts to support the share price. Phoenix Asset Management Partners cofounder Gary Channon has published a 430page report arguing for up to 1bn in annual buybacks over the coming years. Phoenix, one of Barratt Redrow's longeststanding shareholders, holds a 200m stake and was the group's thirdlargest investor, according to The Times.
The head of Rome Fiumicino airport has called for the EU's new entry/exit system (EES) to be switched off until design flaws causing long delays are resolved, The Times reported. Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma, said borderprocessing times had doubled since the system's full rollout in April. Troncone said the airport had reduced processing times to around 90 seconds, but that remained incompatible with daily passenger volumes of up to 60,000. He added that Rome Fiumicino had spent 12m preparing for EES, yet queues remained severe due to the system's design rather than implementation.
Elon Musk posted about UK race and immigration issues twice as often as he did about SpaceX in the runup to the company's IPO, according to The Guardian. The review of Musk's X activity between 31 May and 12 June found his posts heavily centred on UK politics during a period of heightened tension following farright protests, online misinformation and riots in Belfast. The period coincided with preparations for SpaceX's public listing on 12 June, which The Guardian said made Musk the world's first trillionaire.
OpenAI's flagship UK datacentre plan, Stargate UK, appears to have been far less developed than previously suggested, The Guardian reported. The project was paused in April over regulatory and energycost concerns, but the paper said OpenAI had not visited one of the key proposed sites. According to The Guardian, around 20bn of the 30bn in "potential" investment promoted by the UK government appears to have been hypothetical, raising doubts over the scale and substance of the project.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has said the UK should rejoin the EU, calling it "the only patriotic thing to do", according to The Independent. In an interview with the paper, Kinnock urged incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to abandon Labour's previous "red lines" on Europe and pursue closer integration for the sake of future generations. He argued that anyone who "truly loves Britain" should support rejoining the bloc and criticised restrictions on considering singlemarket or customsunion membership.
Andy Burnham has been advised to consider meanstesting the state pension to help fill a 4.7bn defencebudget shortfall, The Independent reported. The suggestion came from tax expert Dan Neidle, who published 37 potential options to fund the unfunded portion of Sir Keir Starmer's Defence Improvement Plan. Neidle said restricting pension payments for the wealthiest could save 1bn a year, though it would break the longstanding principle of a universal state pension funded by National Insurance. Burnham has ruled out raising income tax, VAT or NI contributions, The Independent noted.