Obama endorses Clinton, the accuracy of Brexit polls and Euro 2016 kicks off
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Barack Obama officially endorsed Hillary Clinton to succeed him as US president after Bernie Sanders signalled he would soon bow out of the race and help unite the Democratic party behind the former secretary of state in her fight against Donald Trump. “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” Mr Obama said in a video.
His endorsement came within half an hour of a meeting with Mr Sanders at the White House, after which the Vermont senator suggested he would throw his support behind Mrs Clinton following next week’s final primary in Washington DC. Meanwhile, the Democrats deployed liberal firebrand Senator Elizabeth Warren against Mr Trump — she used a speech to call the former reality TV star a “loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone”.
As the campaign ramps up, keep track of the race with our daily US politics newsletter. Sign up here. (FT)
In the news
Bill Gross warns over $10tn negative-yield bond pile The Janus Capital executive said the bond pile is a “supernova that will explode one day”, underscoring rising nervousness over the previously unthinkable financial phenomenon. Bond yields touched new records in Frankfurt and Tokyo on Friday, as the global fixed income rally continued. (FT)
French blow for Uber A Paris court found the car-hailing app company and two of its executives guilty of starting an “illegal” car-booking service with its now defunct UberPop service, in the first criminal ruling that targets Uber managers. (FT)
Economist wins knife-edge Peru election Former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has won the tightest presidential election in Peru in more than 50 years, defeating Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of an imprisoned former autocrat, by the narrowest of margins — just 41,438 votes. (FT)
Land of the fee Americans paid 22 per cent more than Europeans for bread-and-butter advisory services last year, helping Wall Street's big lenders dominate global investment banking. Data analysed by the Financial Times show US buyers and sellers paid $8bn more in fees than their European peers for similar transactions in the past 11 years. (FT)
Germany concerned over China deals Chinese investors have sought to buy German companies at a rate of roughly one a week this year, fuelling concerns about the country losing hold of its most innovative and technologically advanced businesses. (WSJ)
Test your knowledge with the week in news quiz. How many summer job applications did Goldman Sachs say it received?
It's a big day for
France and football Euro 2016 kicks off with the hosts playing Romania in Paris. There is high security after the jihadist attacks on the French capital last November. France has been in the grip of industrial action, mainly over reforms to labour law, and a train strike could hinder fans heading to the Stade de France. (BBC)
Food for thought
How accurate are the Brexit polls? Two weeks out from the EU referendum, opinion polls are dominating the debate, ramping up uncertainty about the eventual outcome. Can we trust them? Meanwhile, Martin Wolf argues that one thing we cannot trust is the Leave campaign's “dangerous fantasy” of unilateral free trade. (FT)
Boldly not going Ambition in the tech world is still alive and well, writes Richard Waters. But, after years of eye-catching headlines and bold claims about so-called “moonshot” projects, the world is still waiting. (FT)
Why don't more women like Hillary Clinton? Earlier this week, the former secretary of state made history by becoming the first woman to claim a major US political party's presidential nomination. But many young women greeted the milestone with a collective “meh”. Why? (FT)
How to run a Russian hacking ring The cacophony of news about data breaches, ransomware and bank thefts has made hackers sound like omnipotent super-villains. The reality is “as unglamorous as any other business”, shows one report on a Russian cyber crime ring. (The Atlantic)
A year without a heart Last month, 25-year-old Stan Larkin received a heart transplant after living 17 months on an external “heart in a backpack”. The technology — a 1.5kg machine that uses compressed air to take over the heart’s job of pumping blood through the body — could revolutionise healthcare for those on transplant waiting lists. (Cnet)
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