Oil gained for a fifth day on Wednesday, climbing towards $75 a barrel to its highest since April 2019, supported by a recovery in demand from the pandemic and a drop in U.S. crude inventories.

Global oil prices rose for a fifth straight session on Wednesday as the cost of a barrel of oil marches towards $75 a barrel, a global benchmark not reached since late 2018.

Prices are on the rise as demand bounces back from the lows seen during the health crisis when economies were forced into a standstill.

New data released Wednesday in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consuming nation, showed crude inventories dropped more than expected, according to two market sources, in a sign of solid demand as the summer driving season kicks in.

That trend is being repeated in many of the world’s leading economies, where demand growth is outpacing supply, and analysts predict that will continue to be the case over the coming months.

Some see energy demand returning to pre 2020 levels by the second half of next year.

Adding to the growing supply-demand imbalance, OPEC+ does not appear to be in a rush to widely reopen the spigot after a record cut in production last year. It is still withholding millions of barrels of daily supply from the market.

And then there’s Iran. The prospect of a rise in Iranian oil exports looks less likely as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal drag on.

Global crude prices touched a fresh two-year high on Wednesday.

In the U.S. oil prices have nearly doubled from a year ago.

Power and gas prices this week were the highest since the February freeze in Texas boosted prices across the country, as homes and businesses from Texas to Los Angeles cranked up the AC to beat the heat.

Power and natural gas prices in Texas and California spiked this week to their highest levels in months, as homes and businesses cranked up the air conditioning to escape brutal heatwaves.

Power grid operators in both states warned residents to cut their electricity use as much as possible for the rest of this week to avoid blackouts.

Grids in Texas and California have imposed rotating outages over the last year to avoid widespread collapses of their power systems — like the independent grid in Texas, where a winter storm left millions without power in February.

Parts of Texas are expected to see temperatures cross 100 degrees this week.

In California, temperatures reached the 90s in Los Angeles on Tuesday, where National Weather Service issued an Excessive Heat Warning.

And Las Vegas, Nevada, recorded 114 degrees Fahrenheit the same day, with even hotter conditions expected on Wednesday.

British inflation unexpectedly jumped above the Bank of England’s target in May when it hit 2.1%.

British inflation unexpectedly soared to 2.1% in May.

That’s the first time it’s gone above the Bank of England’s 2% target in almost two years.

The acceleration of the consumer price index from April’s 1.5% largely reflected how weak inflation was in May last year, when the economy was reeling from tight restrictions.

The CPI data showed fuel prices in May were almost 18% higher than a year earlier, while clothing and footwear costs rose by 2.1% as people bought new outfits as they finally left their homes.

And it’s expected to rise even further in the coming months.

The Bank of England has said it expects inflation to hit 2.5% by the end of this year before settling back to its 2% target, as the impact of post-lockdown energy price rises fades along with other cost pressures like bottlenecks in supply chains.

Investors around the world are assessing the risks of a sustained jump in prices, especially in the U.S., where annual inflation hit 5.0% in May, the highest in almost 13 years.

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin shake hands in Geneva after standing with their host, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, at the start of their first summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lands in Geneva for summit with Biden

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane lands in Geneva where he is meeting US President Joe Biden at a tense summit, where ghosts of the Cold War will hover over modern-day US concerns about Russian cyber attacks and what the White House sees as a dangerous authoritarian drift.

The two men greeted each other after standing with their host, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, outside the La Grange villa overlooking Lake Geneva, where they are set to meet for up to five hours — with cyber-attacks, election meddling and rights abuses among the many contentious issues on the agenda.

Sitting in the plush villa’s renowned library, on either side of a globe and with their respective flags behind them, the two leaders exchanged a few cordial remarks before the accompanying journalists were asked to leave.

Putin thanked Biden “for your initiative to meet today.”

“The US and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting,” he said, adding: “I hope that our meeting will be productive.”

Biden, who not only took the initiative for the summit itself but also for that first handshake, smiled and said: “It is always better to meet face to face”.

Before the discussions began, Parmelin told the pair that it was “an honour and a pleasure for Switzerland to host you here for this summit, and in accordance with its tradition of good offices, promote dialogue and mutual understanding.”

Top development banks from the world’s richest countries made a landmark joint pledge on Monday to pump $80 billion into African companies and projects over the next five years.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated sub-Saharan Africa will need an additional $425 billion between now and 2025 to fight COVID-19 and reduce poverty levels now being exacerbated by the pandemic.

The region is also being hit hard by climate change and Monday’s $80 billion pledge was the first time the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) from the United States, Europe and other Group of Seven wealthy nations have made a collective commitment to the African continent. David Marchick, chief operating officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said investing more in Africa was now “a top priority” under the Biden administration, while the head of the European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer, which injected over 5 billion Euros ($6 billion) into Africa last year, said it was ready to co-operate further with African and multilateral partners.

The step comes as Western nations fight to counter rapidly expanding Chinese and Russian economic and political influence in Africa with its fast-growing populations and vast mineral resources.

Monday’s pledge followed the G7’s weekend promise to provide 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries over the next year and news that they were also looking at reallocating another $100 billion from the IMF’s war chest to help with the economic fallout.

The scheme has faced setbacks though: production glitches, a lack of support from wealthy nations and a recent move by India, the biggest vaccine manufacturer, to curb its exports following its own massive spike in cases.

Britain’s competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into e-commerce company Amazon.com, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Britain’s competition watchdog is planning a formal investigation into e-commerce giant Amazon.

That’s according to the Financial Times on Thursday (June 10), citing three people familiar with the situation.

The newspaper said the Competition and Markets Authority had been analysing Amazon’s business for months.

Focusing on how the online retailer uses the data it collects on its platform.

The report added that the regulator is scrutinising how Amazon decides which merchants appear in the crucial ‘buy box’.

That’s the white panel to the right-hand side of a product where buyers click to add the item to their cart.

And whether they favour sellers who use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The probe follows similar investigations into Amazon being conducted by the European Union.

British Telecoms group Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics to supply its 5G network equipment in Britain, the pair said on Monday.

British telecoms group Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics to supply its 5G network equipment in Britain.

It’s something of a breakthrough for the South Korean company in Europe’s telecoms gear market.

Mobile operators are increasingly considering Samsung to replace China’s Huawei as a supplier.

Executives from Spain’s Telefonica and France’s Orange have previously told Reuters that they’ve held talks with the firm.

Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network by the end of 2027, citing national security risks.

Samsung is thought to be banking on Europe to maintain growth in its network equipment business as 5G rollouts widen.

The European telecoms equipment market is dominated by Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.

But Samsung has entered the picture after it unexpectedly landed a $6 billion deal with U.S. giant Verizon in September.