Oil at three-week high as US-Iran peace talks stall, and Goldman lifts price forecast – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.The new week begins with the oil price rising, again, as the stalled US-Iran peace talks threaten to extend disruption to crude supplies from the Middle East.Brent crude has jumped about 2% this morning to a high of $107.97 a barrel, the highest level since the two sides agreed a ceasefire on 7 April.Prices rose after Donald Trump cancelled his plan to send US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for ceasefire talks in Pakistan on Saturday, saying “too much time” has been “wasted on travelling”

Nationwide could have first customer on board for nearly 25 years

Nationwide building society could have a customer on its board for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century after one of its longtime members secured enough support for a spot on the lender’s annual ballot.James Sherwin-Smith will be up for board elections at Nationwide’s annual general meeting (AGM) in July, having gathered more than the 250 peer nominations necessary to run alongside existing directors.If successful, the 45-year-old from West Sussex would be the first Nationwide customer – known as members – to sit on the board of the building society for 24 years, with the last having retired in 2002.The last time a member-nominated customer was even on the AGM ballot was 2005, though they failed to secure enough votes to be elected to the board.The building society’s board members are typically appointed by the existing directors

Musk and Altman’s bitter feud over OpenAI to be laid bare in court

The bitter rivalry between two of the tech world’s most powerful men arrives in court this week, as Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI heads to trial in Oakland, California. The case is set to feature some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, and its outcome could affect the course of the AI boom.Musk’s suit, filed in 2024, focuses on the formative years of OpenAI when he, Altman and others co-founded the artificial intelligence company as a nonprofit with a grand purpose.“OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” reads the company’s mission statement, published in late 2015

UK departments at odds over energy demands of AI datacentres

One vision of the UK’s future involves a decarbonised economy powered by clean, renewable energy. Another involves making the UK an AI superpower.The government departments responsible for these two visions do not appear to have agreed on their numbers.The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) thinks AI datacentres will consume 6GW of electricity by 2030. The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) appears to think they will use less than a tenth of that

Ireland revenge mission falls flat amid flurry of squandered chances but England march on | Sarah Rendell

Ireland sent out mixed messages from their camp before their game with France on Saturday: was this a revenge mission for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit or not? The head coach, Scott Bemand, had denied it but the captain, Erin King, admitted the World Cup game had added some “venom” to the encounter and the full-back Stacey Flood said France should be “worried if I was them”.The Irish team may have had the image of Axelle Berthoumieu biting Aoife Wafer, an action that was not caught during the quarter-final but the France back row was given a nine-game ban afterwards, for added motivation if any was needed. There was certainly no love lost between the teams, with the fixture full of tension, squabbles and huge hits.But Ireland missed the chance to land a vengeful blow on their rivals and the opportunity slipped through their fingers with three disallowed first-half tries and a missed penalty. The visitors’ inability to put daylight between themselves and France on the scoreboard allowed the hosts to take the game away from them in the final 25 minutes

Storm success was as certain as death and taxes. So how has it all gone wrong? | Nick Tedeschi

For over two decades, Melbourne Storm have been the standard for how an elite sporting organisation operates in Australia. Led by head coach Craig Bellamy and head of football Frank Ponissi, the Storm have known nothing but success. The only time they have missed finals under Bellamy was during a ban following the 2010 salary cap scandal. In 23 years with Bellamy in charge, the Storm have won nine minor premierships, finished in the top four 18 times and played in 11 grand finals, winning five. Success has spanned players, spanned time and spanned the changing nature of the game