British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday announced his resignation as both prime minister and leader of the Labour Party following a rebellion within his party, paving the way for a new leadership contest.

The move is expected to strengthen the prospects of Andy Burnham, a left-wing former mayor, who is widely seen as a leading contender to become Britain’s sixth prime minister in seven years.

Starmer’s decision comes just days after Burnham was elected to Parliament on a pledge to launch a leadership challenge aimed at removing Starmer and reshaping the Labour Party. The development comes at a difficult time for Labour, which has been trailing the anti-immigration Reform UK party in public-opinion polls, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Starmer promises orderly transition

In remarks following his announcement, Starmer pledged to support whoever succeeds him as prime minister and said he would work to ensure a smooth transfer of power.

“I will do everything I can” to guarantee an orderly handover, Starmer said, adding that his successor would receive his full support, according to a BBC report.

He said the incoming leader would inherit a Britain that is “stronger and fairer” than it was two years ago. Starmer also thanked his friends, colleagues, No. 10 staff and the “extraordinary civil service” for their support throughout his six years in leadership.

HSBC has launched its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) in the UAE, expanding its digital money capabilities in the region and enabling eligible corporate and institutional clients to move funds in real time across jurisdictions using blockchain-based infrastructure.

The launch marks the latest step in HSBC’s digital asset strategy and introduces the UAE dirham to the bank’s growing tokenised deposits network, which already supports the euro, pound sterling, US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Singapore dollar.

The service combines traditional bank deposits with blockchain-based settlement rails, allowing clients to transfer funds 24 hours a day, seven days a week, both domestically and across borders. HSBC said the solution is designed to improve liquidity management, enhance treasury operations and support global trade and investment flows.

Mohamed Al Marzooqi, chief executive officer, UAE, HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, said: “This launch marks another significant step in the future of money movement, and the UAE is uniquely positioned to lead this shift. The introduction of tokenised deposits to the UAE is a reflection of the maturity of the local regulatory environment when it comes to digital finance and the genuine demand from corporates operating in and through this market for more capable treasury tools.”

According to HSBC, the platform enables treasury centres and subsidiaries to move funds instantly and on-chain, providing continuous access to liquidity while maintaining compatibility with existing banking and treasury infrastructure.

Kyle Boag, regional head of Global Payments Solutions, HSBC MENAT, said: “The demand for instant, secure, always-on liquidity solutions is only increasing as businesses seek to compete in a globalized and highly digitalised world. Tokenised deposits are a natural extension of our global digital asset strategy into one of the world’s most dynamic financial hubs.”

The bank said key benefits of the service include accelerated settlement within the tokenised deposit network, continuous availability for domestic and international transfers, enhanced visibility of cash positions, more efficient working capital management and reduced manual processing through straight-through automation.

The launch forms part of HSBC’s broader effort to build an interoperable digital money ecosystem that connects traditional banking infrastructure with emerging digital asset networks. The bank said the platform can support a range of use cases, including real-time treasury management, settlement of tokenised assets and integration with regulated digital money solutions.

The Tokenised Deposit Service is available to eligible HSBC corporate and institutional clients in the UAE, subject to onboarding requirements, approvals and documentation processes.

Thirteen years ago, hosting Kobe Bryant for a fitness weekend at DMCC felt like a statement of intent, and in retrospect, it was. As one of the most celebrated athletes in the history of sport, Bryant’s decision to bring his brand of physical excellence to Jumeirah Lake Towers was not only an honour but a signal that Dubai had matured beyond a purely commercial destination into an emerging centre for health, performance, and wellbeing. Over a decade on, that early instinct has evolved into something considerably more substantive.

In response, DMCC is currently formalising the DMCC Longevity Centre, a dedicated health and wellness community that will structure its ecosystem around the 308 health-focused companies already operating within the free zone into something much more impactful. Among this figure includes 108 businesses approved by the Dubai Health Authority, covering a wide spectrum of clinical, therapeutic, and wellness-adjacent services.

The catalyst and inspiration for formalising that commitment is underpinned by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, who recently established the Dubai Longevity Authority (DLA) by Emiri Decree on June 10. Created to regulate and develop Dubai’s longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, the DLA represents one of the most significant institutional endorsements of health as a strategic economic pillar the emirate has seen to date, and with it, an opportunity to align directly with its long-term vision. For DMCC, this starts with its existing member companies, which are already making a tangible impact.

The breadth of activity within JLT, from wellness technology startups to specialist nutritional consultancies and rehabilitation providers, reflects exactly the kind of ecosystem that benefits from formalised structure. A prime example is Smart Salem, a DMCC-registered healthcare company operating premium wellness centres across Dubai. Licensed by the DHA and accredited by the College of American Pathologists, Smart Salem offers a broad range of services from visa medical fitness tests and preventative health screenings to personalised DNA analysis and gut microbiome diagnostics. Equally illustrative is the Scandinavian Physiotherapy Center, a DHA-certified clinic based in Platinum Tower, with a team of specialist physiotherapists delivering everything from sports rehabilitation and biomechanical analysis to shock wave therapy, osteopathic techniques, and paediatric care.

By providing a dedicated community, DMCC will generate the connective tissue that turns individual businesses such as Smart Salem, into a coherent, commercially legible sector. At the time of writing, that would potentially include shared regulatory guidance, curated networking, sector-specific programming, and a level of authenticity that signals credibility to investors, partners, and clients alike.

This ethos is already visible in DMCC’s partnership with Nook, the sports, fitness, and wellness-focused free zone operating within JLT. Since 2018, Nook has offered entrepreneurs within the sector a discounted pathway to a DMCC licence, with coworking access, community events, and recognition from the Dubai Sports Council. This model has proven the commercial logic that when you reduce the barriers to entry and embed like-minded businesses within a structured community, you create compounding value for every member. A broader DMCC health and wellness community will extend that logic to a much larger cohort.

What makes DMCC’s position particularly distinctive, however, is the proximity of its health community to one of the most dynamic technology ecosystems in the region. DMCC is home to more than 4,000 technology firms, including dedicated centres for artificial intelligence and gaming. On face value, these may appear to occupy separate commercial lanes, however, in practice, the boundaries between them and health are dissolving rapidly. The med-tech and wearables sectors, both of which are accelerating globally, depend on the same AI infrastructure that DMCC’s technology community is already building.

From continuous health monitoring devices to AI-driven diagnostics and personalised supplementation platforms, the hardware and software being developed within DMCC’s technology ecosystem has direct and immediate application to the health and wellness companies operating alongside them. The same is true of gaming. Physically interactive gaming, from movement-based rehabilitation platforms to competitive fitness technology, represents one of the most commercially exciting intersections of sport, health, and entertainment. DMCC’s gaming community, already one of the most active in the Gulf, is naturally positioned to collaborate with health and wellness businesses on products that make physical activity more engaging, more measurable, and more commercially viable. These are not theoretical adjacencies, but business opportunities that a formalised ecosystem would be structured to facilitate.

An integrated ecosystem

Beyond the professional services layer, DMCC has a uniquely compelling asset to integrate into this ecosystem in the form of its commodity centres. The DMCC Coffee, Tea, Honey, Saffron, Cacao, Water, and Meat Centres collectively represent a world-class infrastructure for the sourcing, testing, certification, and trade of some of the most health-relevant commodities in global supply chains. The science supporting coffee’s antioxidant properties, honey’s therapeutic applications, as well as saffron’s documented metabolic effects are not peripheral conversations, but central to it. As consumer demand continues to shift towards provenance, purity, and functional nutrition, DMCC’s commodity infrastructure is positioned to become a direct supplier to the very companies operating within a health and wellness community. The opportunity to commercialise that connection, whether through dedicated supply agreements, research partnerships, or branded ingredient certification, is both credible and significant.

Looking further ahead, the proposed introduction of peptides across both research and development and regional commercial distribution illustrates the trajectory of this ambition. As one of the most rapidly expanding frontiers in longevity and performance medicine, peptides represent exactly the kind of high-value, regulation-intensive industry that DMCC is structured to attract, and one that sits naturally alongside the commodity and health businesses already operating within the free zone.

DMCC has also maintained a long-standing commitment to the physical wellbeing of its own community. Its regular blood drives are a visible expression of that culture, as is the robust presence around physical and mental wellbeing, a good example being the 11 yoga studios and 11 meditation centres currently present in the community. DMCC has also been deeply committed to philanthropic causes, most prominently demonstrated through a donation of Dhs300,000 to Al Jalila Foundation in 2022 to support cancer research.

Established by Sheikh Mohammed to uplift the health of the UAE population through medical treatment, education, and research, the foundation represents exactly the kind of cause that a community serious about health must support. These gestures, institutional and personal alike, reflect a genuine conviction that the health of a business community and the health of the individuals within it are inseparable considerations.

DMCC has already achieved a lot within the health and wellness sector, however, following the inspired move by Sheikh Mohammed to embody longevity as a core mandate of the national agenda, the door is now wide open for us to formalise the DMCC Longevity Centre, and accelerate our efforts towards the global frontier.

The vision for longevity is not only about living longer, but building systems, institutions, and communities that sustain human performance at every level. That is a mission DMCC has always understood, and one it intends to lead.

UAE-based proptech and fintech company Rentify has raised $2m in seed funding to support the launch of Earn AI, an artificial intelligence platform designed to automate rental revenue management for landlords and property managers.

The investment brings the company’s total funding to $2.5m, following a $500,000 pre-seed round completed in 2025. The latest round was backed by a syndicate of real estate and fintech investors.

Rentify said the launch marks its expansion from payment infrastructure into a broader operating and intelligence platform for the real estate sector, with Earn AI designed to automate key tenancy management functions including rent collection, tenant onboarding, payment reminders and lease renewals.

The platform is already being used by five enterprise customers — Gargash Real Estate, New Star Property Management, Arabian Acres Real Estate, Purecare Management and RSH Holiday Homes Rental — which collectively manage thousands of residential and commercial units across the UAE.

According to Rentify, Earn AI has been trained on live rental unit data, tenant payment behaviour, renewal patterns, pricing gaps and occupancy risks generated through its platform. Based on analysis of its existing customer portfolio, the company estimates landlords and property managers may be leaving between 8 per cent and 14 per cent of annual rental income unrealised due to pricing lag, unmanaged tenant churn and payment leakage.

The company claims the platform is the first rental revenue management solution in the region built natively in Arabic, designed specifically around GCC tenancy structures, payment systems and landlord-tenant dynamics.

Rajneel Kumar, co-founder and chief operating officer of Rentify, said: “Most landlords can’t answer the most basic question about their own portfolio: which unit is under-earning, and by how much. The answer, on average, is eight to fourteen per cent of annual rental income lost to pricing lag, unmanaged churn and payment leakage. That’s not a data problem. It’s an infrastructure problem. Earn AI by Rentify fixes it, autonomously.”

Rashed Hareb, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rentify, said the company aims to create a unified operating system for rental real estate by combining rent collection, embedded finance, tenant rewards and AI-driven revenue optimisation into a single platform.

The newly raised capital will be used to enhance Earn AI’s modelling capabilities, expand its autonomous agent layer, grow its property manager access programme and support international market expansion.

Four liquefied natural gas tankers controlled by Qatar were heading into the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, despite a fall in ship traffic after Iran announced that it had again closed the waterway over the weekend, shipping data showed.

The tankers – Wadi Al Sail, Mekaines, Al Sadd and Mesaimeer – were entering the strait via the Iranian route for the first time since the US-Israeli war with Iran started, shiptracking data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

QatarEnergy, whose LNG exports have been heavily curbed since the war began on February 28, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Marshall Islands-flagged dry bulk vessel Summit Success also entered the Gulf on Monday, LSEG data showed.

Five vessels passed the strait on Sunday, from 26 ships spotted a day earlier, Kpler data showed. These included three Very Large Crude Carriers carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi crude and fuel oil each, one of which was heading to Japan.

There could be more ships plying the strait with their transponders switched off.

Iran lifted its effective blockade of Hormuz last week after agreeing with the United States to extend an April ceasefire for 60 days to allow for peace negotiations, but Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the waterway shut once again, in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

The US Central Command said 55 merchant ships transited the strait on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil for global markets.

Among the ships that exited the strait on Saturday, there were three VLCCs carrying crude from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq, and there were three tankers carrying various oil products, the data showed.

There were 13 ships that entered the strait on Saturday, including two VLCCs, the data showed.

Over 25 million barrels of Iranian oil have passed through the virtual blockade line since Monday, the head of the National Iranian Oil Company, Hamid Bovard, told state TV on Sunday.

Gulf producers Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and Kuwait Petroleum Corp have issued tenders selling crude with the option of loading from inside and outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Two vessels operated by South Korea also passed through the strait after the US and Iran signed their interim peace deal last week, Seoul’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Monday, without naming them.

Meanwhile, two ADNOC-controlled LNG tankers were delivering cargoes to India on Monday, having exited the strait recently, Kpler and LSEG data showed.

The Al Hamra tanker was discharging at the Ennore LNG terminal, while the tanker Mubaraz was set to offload its cargo at the Kochi terminal on June 23, the data showed. Both tankers were last seen in ballast and east of the strait in late May to early June, before reappearing again on shiptracking data over the weekend, located off the coast of India loaded with cargoes.

ADNOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Al Hamra and Mubaraz have each now completed two “dark” voyages out of Hormuz since the war started.