Sterling extended losses after UK Prime Minister Starmer announced his resignation. The move was widely anticipated; Starmer had faced pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy Burnham, who won last week's by-election and has positioned himself for a leadership bid. GBP/USD was down 0.3% on the day and EUR/GBP was up 0.1%, both little changed versus pre-announcement levels.

National Energy Group said its installed power generation capacity exceeded 400 GW in June 2026, roughly one-tenth of China’s total and up from 300 GW in May 2023. The group said its thermal and wind fleets are both the largest worldwide. As of end-May 2026 it has commissioned 65 1,000-MW-class ultra‑supercritical coal units, about 30% of the national total for that class. New-type energy storage capacity stands at 8.01 GW/19.21 GWh. The group is developing integrated wind‑solar‑storage‑hydrogen projects and source‑grid‑load‑storage coordination to boost renewable absorption and system flexibility.

Iranian media reported on the 22nd that the first round of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland reached an agreement comprising five key points.