Opec resists output cap, ECB plays down hopes of growth uplift and $100m to change the world

Opec won’t be slashing output anytime soon, as a near-doubling of crude prices since January eased tensions among oil exporters and Saudi Arabia's new energy minister rallied Opec support for maintaining production.

Khalid Al Falih said the 13-member group should “encourage the rebalancing” of the market as prices recover from the worst crash in more than a decade. (FT)

In the news

Ryan endorses Trump After months of withholding his support, the Republican House speaker endorsed his party's nominee, Donald Trump. The announcement came in the middle of a foreign policy speech by Hillary Clinton in which she railed against the “temperamentally unfit” former reality-TV star and his “dangerously incoherent” ideas. (FT, Vox)

Cameron gets grilled Any aliens tuning into the Sky News Brexit debate would have wondered whether they were watching some form of ritual sacrifice. David Cameron wanted to talk about the UK beef industry. The audience wanted to talk about their beef — with the EU, the NHS, the Turkish parliament and the prime minister himself. (FT)

ECB plays down hopes of growth uplift Mario Draghi warned that the pace of the eurozone’s recovery may be slowing, as the bank kept interest rates at record lows. Meanwhile, the ECB said it would wait at least three more weeks before allowing Greek institutions access to the loans, dealing a blow to Athens’ attempts to rehabilitate its ailing financial system. (FT)

Ex-AIG chief facing fraud charges A ruling by New York state’s highest court allows the attorney-general’s office to try to recover bonuses earned by Hank Greenberg, the financial group’s former chairman, while participating in alleged accounting fraud. (FT)

Back to benefits Morgan Stanley is hoping to woo its investment bankers by introducing paid sabbaticals for newly promoted vice-presidents and making earlier job offers to those at the start of their careers. (FT)

$100m to change the world The MacArthur Foundation, famous for its “genius” grants, launched a new competition that will award $100m to an organisation with the best proposal to solve a global problem. (NYT)

It's a big day for

Asian relations The region’s most prestigious defence summit — the Shangri-La Dialogue — begins in Singapore. Talks are likely to focus on China’s continued military build up in the South China Sea. (Straits Times)

Parisians Floodwaters in the French capital are forecast to peak with the River Seine due to reach 6m above its normal level. The Louvre and Orsay museums have been shut so staff can move artworks to safety. (BBC)

Food for thought

Lunch with James Baker The Republican grandee sits down with FT editor Lionel Barber to discuss Nixon’s culinary tastes, Reagan’s pragmatism, the meaning of Trump and how best to wield American power. (FT)

Musk: The Matrix is real Well, not quite, but the billionaire explained that while we may think we are flesh-and-blood beings, we are most likely actually computer-generated entities living in a more advanced society’s video game. “Given that we’re clearly on a trajectory to have games that are indistinguishable from reality, and those games could be played on any set-top box or on a PC or whatever, and there would probably be billions of such computers or set-top boxes, it would seem to follow that the odds that we’re in base reality is one in billions.” (Vox)

A frightfully British purge I say, Jeeves, this is a bad business. To read the cover of one of Britain’s leading periodicals, the nation is heading for a “purge of the posh”, writes Robert Shrimsley. “If this is a purge, it is a frightfully British one.” (FT)

A private jet for £100 each way JetSmarter, a Florida start-up whose investors include that classic corporate alliance of the Saudi royal family and Jay Z, is aiming to shake up the private-jet industry with potentially rock-bottom prices. (FT)

Abenomics sputters Anaemic domestic consumption and economic concerns over China and other emerging markets have been cited as major factors behind Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to postpone a consumption-tax rise. But Japan can ill-afford to let excuses further delay crucial reforms if it wants to ensure a bright future. (NAR)

Yoga and ‘the fire of life’ If yoga ever needed a sales pitch, Tao Porchon-Lynch would be it. The stiletto-wearing instructor is a one-time film star, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr and drank with Ernest Hemingway. She now teaches regular classes in New York. Ms Porchon-Lynch is 97. (NYT)

Video of the day

Cautious ECB keeps rates on hold The European Central Bank has raised its growth and inflation forecasts, as it kept interest rates on hold at record lows. This, says the FT’s Claire Jones, shows that Mario Draghi is still cautious, despite strong eurozone growth earlier in the year. (FT)