BREAKING NEWS
Five things to start your day fresh!

Good morning all! This is probably something you did not expect to get in your mailbox today. But I am starting a new format of my newsletter: bizapprentice

bizapprentice will provide you with a quick update every morning of all the things you need to know to start your day with a head start without reading through all the newspapers and headlines.

Also, once a week, I will deep dive into a business story and explain everything that happened and more. Are you ready? Here are four more stories you need to know to start your day!

UK ELECTIONS
Rishi Sunak Calls for General Elections in the UK

What is happening?
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has called for early elections, which will be held on the 4th of July. It was expected that general elections would be held later in the year, giving the Conservative Party more time to improve their standing in the polls.

Why is it important
The Conservative Party, led by Sunak, is currently trailing significantly in the polls and has suffered losses in recent local elections. It is likely that the Tories will lose control of Parliament for the first time since David Cameron's victory in 2010. The Labour Party is expected to regain control, which would signal a shift towards a more left-leaning and pro-EU stance in the UK.

What’s Next?
The upcoming election campaign will be brief and intense, lasting no more than 46 days. It is expected that the Tories will put up a strong fight to retain their majority.

INFLATION
Inflation is stickier than expected

What is happening?
Worries that inflation is stickier than expected remain high. After the UK inflation rate came in hotter than anticipated (2.3% instead of 2.1%), market expectations for a rate cut in June by the Bank of England decreased. Adding to market concerns were the FED minutes, which revealed that participants are worried about the inflation rate not falling fast enough, indicating that more economic tightening may be necessary.

Why is it important
Higher inflation and additional economic tightening significantly reduce the likelihood of achieving a soft landing, which refers to the process of lowering inflation without triggering a recession.

What’s Next?
Next US inflation data will come be published around 12 June which will show if inflation is actually slowing down or not, which will be closely watched by the markets!

OPENAI
Don’t we all want… Her?

What is happening?
Last week, OpenAI announced its new AI model, GPT-4o, which included a new voice model that resembled the voice of Samantha, in the movie Her (I just watched it, highly recommended!!). A day after, Scarlett Johansson, who played Samantha in the movie, stated that OpenAI indeed reached out to her, but that she told them to not use their voice.

While OpenAI would be able to state that the model was not trained on Scarlett Johanssons voice, it became undeniable after OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, tweeted three letters

Why is it important
With the whole AI Boom, there are already multiple allegations of copyright infringements by OpenAI and other AI companies. Last year, the New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright violations.

What’s Next?
In the Scarlett/OpenAI saga, we have to see if it comes to a lawsuit in the end. OpenAI already apologised for it and stated that they will not use her voice for the new model any more.

TOUR THE EUROPE
What is happening in Europe Today

🇫🇷 Emmanuel Marcon is making in surprise visit to New Caledonia after the unrest on the Pacific island remains after the French release plans to give voting rights to non-indigenous residents of the Island

🇩🇪 The leading candidate of the radical-right party Alternative Fur Deutschland (AfD) for the European elections next month, Maximilian Krah, was removed from the party’s leadership and is not allowed to campaign for the party anymore after its controversial statements about the Waffen-SS in a Italian newspaper.

🇪🇸 🇮🇪 🇳🇴 Three European countries announced today are going to recognise the Palestinian state. This is deviation from the status quo in western countries, as most of them do not recognise the Palestinian State. It immediately lead to a diplomatic reprimands by Israel, who summoned the ambassadors of the respective countries for “reprimand talks”.