Fiona Collins and Stephen Pound on crossing borders I was delighted to read Phil Coughlin’s nostalgic account of Spike Milligan’s border-straddling pub in Puckoon ( Letters, 1 May ). But, here in Wales, we have the real thing in the little village of Llanymynech in Powys, where the border between two nations goes through the Bradford Arms hotel. Sunday drinking was illegal in Wales until 1961, so ...
Fiona Collins and Stephen Pound on crossing borders I was delighted to read Phil Coughlin’s nostalgic account of Spike Milligan’s border-straddling pub in Puckoon ( Letters, 1 May ). But, here in Wales, we have the real thing in the little village of Llanymynech in Powys, where the border between two nations goes through the Bradford Arms hotel. Sunday drinking was illegal in Wales until 1961, so customers would crowd into the private bar, which, being to the east of the border, was not under Welsh drinking laws. For the rest of the week, most customers were more comfortable in the public bar, on the west side of the border. Continue reading...
Paul McGilchrist, Jean Wilson and Chris Keil on the Spanish artist’s haunting images • Charlotte Higgins’s appraisal of Francisco de Zurbarán is insightful and compelling ( Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán, 30 April ). However, Zurbarán’s painting The Crucified Christ contains the same conundrum that haunts so many depictions of this scene. Whatever th...
Paul McGilchrist, Jean Wilson and Chris Keil on the Spanish artist’s haunting images • Charlotte Higgins’s appraisal of Francisco de Zurbarán is insightful and compelling ( Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán, 30 April ). However, Zurbarán’s painting The Crucified Christ contains the same conundrum that haunts so many depictions of this scene. Whatever the style, however moving, whoever the artist and however painstaking the rendering, the crucified body rarely conveys the intolerable heaviness of a body hanging by a single nail in each hand and through the feet. Even those evocations that include a small platform beneath the feet mostly fail to show the excruciating slump of a body suspended in this way. It is not that suffering needs to be conveyed – this is often not the purpose of the artist’s rendering. The sheer heft of the body’s suspension would exert distorting pressures on the frame, distensions of the arms and probable contortions of the shoulders and rib-cage that are peculiarly absent in most of those within the genre, including those in a realist tradition. There are exceptions (Peter Paul Rubens, for example), but surprisingly few. Paul McGilchrist Cromer, Norfolk • In the long dining room at Auckland Palace in Bishop Auckland , County Durham, there is a wonderful collection of Francisco de Zurbarán’s work: Jacob and his 12 sons. They have been there since 1756, after being purchased by Bishop Trevor, and went on display when the palace opened to the public in 2019 after an extensive renovation project. The bishop was outbid on one of the portraits and commissioned a copy to be made by Arthur Pond to complete his set. They are a reminder of Bishop Trevor’s religious tolerance, as he supported a bill giving equal rights to the Jewish community; the 12 sons of Jacob each headed one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jean Wilson Carshalton, Surrey Continue reading...
A little more than three years since NASA's Ingenuity helicopter ended its pioneering mission at Mars, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are designing next-generation Martian rotorcraft to carry heavier payloads longer distances through the planet's low-density atmosphere. Ingenuity was a resounding success , becoming the first airborne platform to explore another world. The...
A little more than three years since NASA's Ingenuity helicopter ended its pioneering mission at Mars, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are designing next-generation Martian rotorcraft to carry heavier payloads longer distances through the planet's low-density atmosphere. Ingenuity was a resounding success , becoming the first airborne platform to explore another world. The dual-bladed helicopter made 72 flights, overachieving NASA's original goal of five flights over 30 days, after delivery to Mars by the Perseverance rover. By the time the mission ended with a crash-landing in January 2024, Ingenuity had shown scientists a new way to explore other worlds, using air to travel longer distances and reach locations inaccessible to ground vehicles. NASA plans to send three more helicopters to Mars on the SkyFall mission, which could launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall is set to ride to the red planet aboard a nuclear-powered spacecraft named Space Reactor-1, or SR-1, one of the tech demo initiatives announced earlier this year by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Read full article Comments
More than two dozen passengers left the cruise ship before the outbreak was identified. The race is on to connect with them to monitor their health — and the health of those they've interacted with. (Image credit: lakshmiprasad S/iStockphoto)
More than two dozen passengers left the cruise ship before the outbreak was identified. The race is on to connect with them to monitor their health — and the health of those they've interacted with. (Image credit: lakshmiprasad S/iStockphoto)
Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory is not in doubt despite its volatility, according to Lightspark CEO David Marcus. "The interesting thing about the price of Bitcoin is that it ebbs and flows, but over the very long run, it always trends in...
Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory is not in doubt despite its volatility, according to Lightspark CEO David Marcus. "The interesting thing about the price of Bitcoin is that it ebbs and flows, but over the very long run, it always trends in...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Whenever we talk about Palantir Technologies Inc. ( PLTR ) almost every analyst can name one thing - the stock is overvalued. And I see a lot of people always defending the stock that the valuation does not really matter if it grows. Sadly, recent earnings showed completely different scenario. Q1 results from the first sight look very good, and for my kin...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Whenever we talk about Palantir Technologies Inc. ( PLTR ) almost every analyst can name one thing - the stock is overvalued. And I see a lot of people always defending the stock that the valuation does not really matter if it grows. Sadly, recent earnings showed completely different scenario. Q1 results from the first sight look very good, and for my kind of momentum strategy I would jump right in. Revenue growth was 85% YoY, U.S. revenue grew 104%, U.S. commercial segment 133% and adjusted EPS reached $0.33. More importantly the management even increased guidance for 2026, which shows that growth story did not end. Normally results like these should push the stock up, but reality as of today is different. This is the reason why I believe we should now focus less on the results, but more on stock reaction. After beat and raise quarter PLTR shares dropped about 7%. To be fair, we know the strategy called sell the news. What does it say to us? The problem is not in business quality. The problem is that the market has priced in beyond perfect scenario and investors are not buying the story, they are selling into strength. In other words, the results were actually good, but they were not good enough for current share price. For my strategy, this is a completely red flag. When a strong stock after strong results drop, it signals that overvaluation has caught up with it. Ideally, I always look for new impulse or at least results holding the share price. But when the company announced 85% revenue growth, strong EPS beat, increases guidance and shares still drop, this means that expectations were too high. We could even say this is priced to perfection situation, when everything must be so perfect, that perfect is not good enough anymore. Then risk to reward ratio quickly changes. My Main Argument The problem I have with Palantir is that the market still values the company as a software/SaaS business. Although the model is more co...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Whenever we talk about Palantir Technologies Inc. ( PLTR ), almost every analyst can name one thing—the stock is overvalued. And I see a lot of people always defending the stock that the valuation does not really matter if it grows. Sadly, recent earnings showed a completely different scenario. Q1 results from the first sight look very good, and for my ki...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Whenever we talk about Palantir Technologies Inc. ( PLTR ), almost every analyst can name one thing—the stock is overvalued. And I see a lot of people always defending the stock that the valuation does not really matter if it grows. Sadly, recent earnings showed a completely different scenario. Q1 results from the first sight look very good, and for my kind of momentum strategy, I would jump right in. Revenue growth was 85% YoY, U.S. revenue grew 104%, the U.S. commercial segment grew 133%, and adjusted EPS reached $0.33. More importantly, the management even increased guidance for 2026, which shows that the growth story did not end. Normally results like these should push the stock up, but reality as of today is different. This is the reason why I believe we should now focus less on the results but more on stock reaction. After a beat-and-raise quarter, PLTR shares dropped about 7%. To be fair, we know the strategy called "sell the news." What does it say to us? The problem is not in business quality. The problem is that the market has priced in beyond the perfect scenario, and investors are not buying the story; they are selling into strength. In other words, the results were actually good, but they were not good enough for the current share price. For my strategy, this is a completely red flag. When a strong stock, after strong results, drops, it signals that overvaluation has caught up with it. Ideally, I always look for new impulse or at least results holding the share price. But when the company announced 85% revenue growth, a strong EPS beat, and increased guidance, and shares still dropped, this means that expectations were too high. We could even say this is a priced-to-perfection situation, where everything must be so perfect that perfect is not good enough anymore. Then the risk-to-reward ratio quickly changes. My Main Argument The problem I have with Palantir is that the market still values the company as a soft...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images The April jobs report delivered another month of resilient payroll growth and a stable headline unemployment rate, offering little evidence that the labor market is either rapidly deteriorating or reaccelerating. Beneath the surface, however, the details were somewhat softer, with labor force participation easing, household employment declining, and bro...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images The April jobs report delivered another month of resilient payroll growth and a stable headline unemployment rate, offering little evidence that the labor market is either rapidly deteriorating or reaccelerating. Beneath the surface, however, the details were somewhat softer, with labor force participation easing, household employment declining, and broader measures of labor underutilization moving higher. Wage growth remained firm but generally consistent with the broader disinflationary trend. Altogether, the report is unlikely to materially shift the Federal Reserve’s outlook, leaving policymakers focused on balancing a gradually cooling labor market against still-elevated inflation pressures. Establishment Data BLS After a period of choppy month-to-month jobs data, the April jobs report delivers the second straight month of job gains for the first time in a year. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 115,000 to start the second quarter, building on the job growth of 185,000 in March. The number was ahead of the consensus estimate of growth of 75,000 and, by all means, a comfortably strong read of labor demand. The advance estimate for April was not diluted much by revisions, as the BLS reported that only 23,000 jobs were lost to adjustments to the February and March headline job gains: February was revised down by 23,000 to -156,000, and March was revised up by 7,000 to 185,000. BLS The details of the employment growth show a lot of the same labor market trends that we have observed in the last year or so: The private sector continues to be the primary source of job growth, and in April’s case, it added all of the jobs. Private employment increased by 123,000, beating expectations of a 73,000 rise and even topping the ADP print of an increase of 109,000. Government payrolls, on the other hand, fell for the third straight month, down -8,000 in April, led by a further decline in federal employment. Within the private ...
OnlyFans , the platform best known for adult content, agreed to sell a minority stake to Architect Capital in a deal that values the British company at about $3.15 billion. San Francisco-based Architect Capital agreed to buy about 16% of the business for $535 million, the companies said in a statement on Friday. As part of the deal, Architect would work with OnlyFans, operated by UK-based Fenix In...
OnlyFans , the platform best known for adult content, agreed to sell a minority stake to Architect Capital in a deal that values the British company at about $3.15 billion. San Francisco-based Architect Capital agreed to buy about 16% of the business for $535 million, the companies said in a statement on Friday. As part of the deal, Architect would work with OnlyFans, operated by UK-based Fenix International Ltd., to develop new financial services and products to offer the platform’s creators, they said. The sale follows the death last month of OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky at 43. The company, which is held in his family trust, has been exploring a sale of part of its business for at least a year, but progress has been slow. It generates significant revenue and a generous dividend for its owner, but its association with sex work has narrowed the field of potential investors, deterring mainstream funds and institutions concerned about reputational risk and regulatory scrutiny. Read More: Leonid Radvinsky, Who Changed Porn With OnlyFans, Dies at 43 Founded in 2016 by British father and son Guy and Tim Stokely, OnlyFans hosted pornographic material forbidden on most social networks. Radvinsky, a secretive, Florida-based billionaire, bought a majority stake in the platform in 2018 and turned it into a cultural phenomenon by allowing creators to charge directly for their content. It shot to prominence during pandemic lockdowns, when adult film actors and sex workers turned to the platform for alternative sources of income. Radvinsky had sought to sell a 60% stake that would give OnlyFans an enterprise value of around $5.5 billion. Architect Capital, a little-known investment firm, held talks to lead an offer for equity and around $2 billion in debt, Bloomberg News previously reported. Read More: OnlyFans in Talks to Sell Stake Valuing Firm at $3.5 Billion Radvinsky paid himself about $1.8 billion in dividends from the platform since 2021. His net worth was $3.8 billion...
Beware the wind | The ‘Brailsford’ apple | National treasures | Local election results | Andy Burnham’s plight I had a similar experience to Zoe Williams ( The day had come to scatter my mum’s ashes. What could possibly go wrong?, 5 May ) when I scattered my dad’s ashes near the first tee at his golf club. After reaching into the urn and grabbing a large handful of his ashes, I threw them into the...
Beware the wind | The ‘Brailsford’ apple | National treasures | Local election results | Andy Burnham’s plight I had a similar experience to Zoe Williams ( The day had come to scatter my mum’s ashes. What could possibly go wrong?, 5 May ) when I scattered my dad’s ashes near the first tee at his golf club. After reaching into the urn and grabbing a large handful of his ashes, I threw them into the air only to have them all blown back at me by a sudden gust of wind. Friends always said I looked very much like him and I felt a tremendous sense of pride as parts of him went into every orifice. Bob Dawson Greenmount, Greater Manchester • Glad to read about the campaign to save the mother of Bramley apples tree ( Report, 5 May ). How about a campaign to rename the apple itself the “Brailsford” apple? It’s surely time to reverse the patriarchal appropriation of Mary Ann Brailsford’s beautiful tree and her stunning apple by Matthew Bramley in cahoots with Henry Merrweather. Vicky Barnes Condover, Shropshire Continue reading...
Key PointsArcher stock posted a double-digit gain last month as hopes for de-escalation with Iran helped support bullish momentum for the broader market.
Key PointsArcher stock posted a double-digit gain last month as hopes for de-escalation with Iran helped support bullish momentum for the broader market.
China’s international arbitration efforts have made significant progress, but more work is needed to attract foreign parties to arbitrate in China amid US-China rivalry, according to arbitrators and law scholars. China’s newly revised Arbitration Law took effect in March, marking the most significant overhaul of the country’s commercial dispute framework since 1994, in a move to promote cities suc...
China’s international arbitration efforts have made significant progress, but more work is needed to attract foreign parties to arbitrate in China amid US-China rivalry, according to arbitrators and law scholars. China’s newly revised Arbitration Law took effect in March, marking the most significant overhaul of the country’s commercial dispute framework since 1994, in a move to promote cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to develop into international arbitration centres, competing...