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At Aquinore. UK. Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, April 18th, and this is your

FT news briefing. Iran's oil business is booming and there's one thing AI can't generate, power.

Plus countries in the EU are fighting over whether to unify capital markets.

I'm Sonia Hudson and here's the news you need to start your day. Iran's oil exports hit a six-year high in the first quarter. It sold an average of about

one and a half million barrels a day. Virtually all of those exports went to China.

That relationship has largely shielded Iran

from Western sanctions.

The new export data underscores how difficult it is

for Western countries to apply

economic pressure to Iran, which the US and the EU want to increase after Tehran's

air attack on Israel. one central capital market and they want Brussels to oversee it.

But a majority of smaller EU countries are fighting back against the idea.

The proposal has been kicking around for about a decade and EU leaders are expected to meet today to discuss how to move forward.

I'm joined now by the F.T.'s Paola Tama.

Hi Paola.

Hello. So what exactly is the proposal on the table here?

Give me some of the details. So there is a push that is led by France and

supported by some of the blocks bigger economies that is Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland

to essentially revive efforts to unify the EU's capital markets.

The goal will be to have just one single capital market instead of 27,

...