Daily briefing: London raids, Qatar cut off, California’s green rush

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Police in the UK carried out fresh raids in east London on Monday as they tried to determine whether there was a broader conspiracy behind the weekend’s deadly terror attack in the UK capital. Twelve people were arrested on Sunday and “a number” of others were detained in the latest raids. Isis claimed responsibility for the attack, the third time in 10 weeks that Britain’s counter-terrorism defences were breached.

The vibrant area around Borough Market remained unbowed as the working week got under way, but the trend of DIY attackers and soft targets is exposing holes in UK security. Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to step up Britain’s fight against Islamist extremism, announcing a four-point plan. She also put tech companies on notice, saying they cannot continue to allow extremists “safe spaces” online. The issue of security was seized upon by opposition politicians as campaigning restarted ahead of Thursday’s general election. Jeremy Corbyn, of the Labour party, criticised the prime minister for cutting police numbers when she was home secretary, and both he and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron challenged her to publish a long-delayed report into foreign funding of UK jihadi groups. (FT, BBC, Guardian, ABC News, Reuters)

In the news

Cutting ties with Qatar
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar for what they say is the gas-rich country’s support of terrorism. In fact, the move is part of a long-running spat over the Gulf Arab state’s relationship with Iran and its support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Doha says there is “no justification” for the decision, which it insists was based on “baseless” allegations. (Bloomberg, FT, Jazeera)

The eurozone’s surprise recovery
Economic growth in the single currency area was more than twice as fast in the first quarter of 2017 than in the US, where the so-called Trump Bump has proved more feeble than expected. (FT)

Tough times for China’s university graduates
A glut of degree holders and a slowing economy have left Chinese graduates’ salaries falling for the second year in a row, according to a large-scale survey. (FT)

Rosneft ready to step up
Russia’s largest oil company is ready to increase crude output if an Opec deal to limit production falters. Separately, Saudi Arabia is expected to make a decision on an international stock exchange for the IPO of its state energy company within weeks. But New York, its preferred location, poses the greatest litigation risk of any jurisdiction. (FT)

Mrs May’s shaky polling
The latest poll ahead of the UK’s general election this week shows that the ruling Conservatives could lose their parliamentary majority. The YouGov poll shows the party on track to win just 305 seats, 21 short of a 326-seat majority. Here’s the FT’s own poll tracker, which shows the Conservatives likely to get 44 per cent of the vote. (Reuters, FT)

The day ahead

Ocean experts gather at the UN
The UN hosts an Ocean Conference this week in New York, the first such event of its kind. The conference will highlight the need to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources for development. 

Apple’s developer conference
The tech giant’s annual developer shindig kicks off in California. Among the announcements expected are updates to the iOS and macOS, as well as a few surprises. (Quartz)

Keep up with the important business, economic and political stories in the coming days with the FT’s Week Ahead.

What we’re reading

Elon Musk’s billion-dollar crusade to stop the AI apocalypse
The billionaire is scared of Silicon Valley’s latest rush to embrace artificial intelligence — and he thinks we should be frightened too. (Vanity Fair)

Why ‘and’ quota is a false economy
Lucy Kellaway says the World Bank chief economist being punished for ordering his staff to write more clearly is “one of the saddest stories I have read in ages”. But she does have one quarrel with Paul Romer’s crackdown on sloppy writing: his persecution of the word “and”. (FT)

Trouble for India Inc
A flurry of infrastructure company collapses has exposed problems at the heart of India’s banking sector — and how it has undermined investment. (FT)

Asia’s 50-year transformation
A remarkable half-century of population increase, greater life expectancy (mostly) and dramatic growth in wealth are captured in a series of animated charts. (NAR)

California’s Laotian green rush
A century and a half ago, the mountains of northern California were filled with miners digging for gold. Now the area is the centre of a new search for riches in cannabis cultivation, and has become the unlikely home to members of a hill tribe from Laos, who see echoes of the opium-growing regions of their former homeland. (NYT)

Video of the day

The week ahead
Seb Morton-Clark highlights the main stories the FT is watching in the week ahead, including the UK election, former FBI chief James Comey testifying in the Russia probe and US factory orders and services data. (FT)