FirstFT: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves UK after striking plea deal

Good morning.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK after striking a plea deal with US prosecutors to end his long-running legal saga over leaked military documents and allow him to walk free after years of incarceration and confinement.

WikiLeaks said on X on Tuesday that Assange had been released from Belmarsh, a high-security prison in London, and had already flown out of the UK after being granted bail.

The case involves what prosecutors have described as one of the biggest leaks of classified material in US history. Washington has long maintained that intelligence agents’ lives were put at risk because of the information disclosure — a claim Assange’s lawyers have disputed. Here’s more on what Assange’s lawyers agreed with US prosecutors.

And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Monetary policy: Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman will deliver a speech in London while fellow governor Lisa Cook will speak at an Economic Club of New York lunch. 

• Economic data: The Case-Shiller 20-City Composite index is updated today against the backdrop of a high mortgage rate environment. The Conference Board is expected to report its index tracking consumer confidence ticked down.

• French election: A TV debate will pitch Prime Minister Gabriel Attal against Rassemblement National president Jordan Bardella and leftwing alliance leader Manuel Bompard ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday.

• EU-Ukraine: EU ministers will meet Ukrainian officials to begin official accession talks, a hugely symbolic moment for a country fighting off Russia’s full-scale invasion, now in its third year. The talks come a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sacked one of his generals.

Five more top stories

1. Brussels has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive behaviour by bundling its Teams app with its Office suite. The move comes as Microsoft is facing heightened scrutiny over its partnership with OpenAI, as Brussels examines whether to launch a full probe, and follows a bruising battle with EU regulators last year over its $75bn acquisition of game maker Activision Blizzard. Here’s more on the biggest set of charges against Microsoft by the EU for two decades.

2. Israel’s supreme court has unanimously ruled that the military must conscript ultraorthodox religious students, in a decision that will test the unity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition with far-right and religious parties. Opposition politicians hailed the closely watched ruling while ultraorthodox leaders reacted with anger. Here’s more reaction to the historic decision from James Shotter in Jerusalem.

3. Legislative paralysis in Washington is threatening to trigger a global tax war as countries prepare for the likely failure of a landmark agreement overhauling taxation of big multinationals. With a self-imposed deadline of June 30, negotiators for more than 140 countries are on the cusp of emerging this week with an OECD-brokered treaty text on taxing digital companies, starting the long-delayed process of countries signing and ratifying the deal.

4. JPMorgan Chase has attracted more than $15bn in assets from wealthy clients to its nascent tax strategy business, according to people familiar with the matter, as the US bank seeks to win a bigger share of the business from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Clients look to lower tax bills by selling stocks at a loss as a write-off against other gains. Here’s more on the scheme.

• More banking news: Goldman Sachs has appointed oil tycoon John Hess to its board of directors as the Wall Street investment bank advises his company on its $53bn takeover by Chevron.

5. Brazil’s financial markets have sold off sharply this year as investors grow increasingly anxious about the spending plans of leftwing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government. The Brazilian real is the second-worst performing emerging market currency against the US dollar so far this year. Meanwhile, the local Bovespa equity index has dropped 8.6 per cent over the same period. Here’s more on what’s unsettling investors in Brazil.

The Big Read

A giant ExxonMobil project to expand one of the largest offshore oil developments in history could turn Guyana into the world’s last petrostate, just as global policymakers pledge to shift away from fossil fuels. More than 11bn barrels of oil reserves have already been discovered about 120 miles off the coast of the South American country and now work is under way to find more. But critics fear the oil bonanza could turn the South American country into a victim of the “resources curse”.

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

• Biden’s petrol problem: US voters are worried about inflation in general and the cost of filling up their cars in particular, writes Daniel Yergin.

• Isis threat: The brutal jihadist group, believed to be territorially defeated in 2019, is once again seeking to launch attacks internationally.

• France: A market meltdown following a victory in parliamentary elections for the far-right Rassemblement National would rapidly become the EU’s problem, argues Gideon Rachman.

Chart of the day

Nvidia has shed more than $500bn in market value since briefly becoming the world’s most valuable company last week. Its shares fell almost 7 per cent yesterday, wiping roughly $550bn from Thursday’s peak and taking its market value to $2.91tn, lower than Microsoft and Apple. Nvidia’s share gains alone this year had been responsible for roughly a third of the S&P 500’s increase in 2024 but yesterday’s falls prompted concerns about a broader market sell-off.

Take a break from the news

For too long, women’s sportswear has suffered the “shrink it and pink it” approach, says Rebecca Taylor of Soar Running. These new brands are here for the long run, making what women runners really want: pockets to put things in.

Additional contributions from Camille De Guzman and Emily Goldberg