Armed with a new album inspired by ‘dead English blokes’, the revered musician discusses writing nasty songs about his neighbours and how he’s finally made it in Nashville aged 73 ‘I owe a lot to a dead man’s cock.” So begins the first song, a propulsive piece of Lennonesque powerpop called I Am This Thing, on The Confuser, the latest album by the 73-year-old English gentleman survivor of the 60s/...
Armed with a new album inspired by ‘dead English blokes’, the revered musician discusses writing nasty songs about his neighbours and how he’s finally made it in Nashville aged 73 ‘I owe a lot to a dead man’s cock.” So begins the first song, a propulsive piece of Lennonesque powerpop called I Am This Thing, on The Confuser, the latest album by the 73-year-old English gentleman survivor of the 60s/70s frontline, Robyn Hitchcock. The album has been recorded by a crack team of session guys in Nashville, where Hitchcock lives and runs a boutique record label with his second wife, the Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift. “I’m not just some sort of old public school dilettante floating around the South Bank or whatever,” Hitchcock protests, unbidden. “Making it work in Nashville means I actually am a real musician songwriter in the real musician songwriter town. And I think, ‘OK, I actually did do this!’ I wanted to go to Nashville when I, as a 13-year-old boarding school boy, heard those Dylan records he made here. And a mere 60 years later, here I am!” Continue reading...
Intensive farming has all but destroyed England’s ancient woodlands and freshwater wetlands. On a farm in Lincolnshire a radical aristocrat hopes to show there’s money in protecting nature • The summer issue of the Long Read magazine is out now. Click here to order In the silent countryside south of Grantham, three vast steel barns rattled in the breeze. Gathered in a loose circle beside them were...
Intensive farming has all but destroyed England’s ancient woodlands and freshwater wetlands. On a farm in Lincolnshire a radical aristocrat hopes to show there’s money in protecting nature • The summer issue of the Long Read magazine is out now. Click here to order In the silent countryside south of Grantham, three vast steel barns rattled in the breeze. Gathered in a loose circle beside them were 15 landowners, land agents and a couple of young investors; all expensively dressed men, many with a sceptical mien. It was June 2022, and Sir Charles Raymond Burrell, 10th Baronet, was explaining how the purchase of 1,525 bleak acres (617 hectares) of prairie fields of wheat and beans could revolutionise farming and nature conservation, not just in South Lincolnshire but across Britain and beyond. Burrell, known by everyone as Charlie, led the group on a walk from the barns beside the unlovable modern farmhouse, a red-brick behemoth with small windows like piggy eyes. We began by crossing a field of broad beans. Less than a century ago, it had been a patchwork of 10 fields. As we walked over the hard, cracked ground, we encountered not a single insect. Later, by a verge, a couple of butterflies flew. As for humans, we didn’t meet a single other person in our two-and-a-half-hour stroll across a range of footpaths and field edges. “This is a ruined landscape,” said one of the guests, the architectural historian Matthew Rice. “Not because of the soils. Because there are no people here. I’m sorry there are not enough stoats but I’d like there to be some children here, too.” Continue reading...
I didn’t see being a couple of years away from technically qualifying for an 18-30s jaunt to be a problem. But the booze, humiliation and a ‘mystery pooer’ made me rethink my entire life ‘First the bad news,” yelled our lairy Irish club rep as the coach drove us from Ibiza airport to our hotel. “All the great clubs: Amnesia, Space, Pacha … they’re CLOSED!” A confused silence descended. “But the go...
I didn’t see being a couple of years away from technically qualifying for an 18-30s jaunt to be a problem. But the booze, humiliation and a ‘mystery pooer’ made me rethink my entire life ‘First the bad news,” yelled our lairy Irish club rep as the coach drove us from Ibiza airport to our hotel. “All the great clubs: Amnesia, Space, Pacha … they’re CLOSED!” A confused silence descended. “But the good news?” he yelled. “We’re gonna have a fucking amazing time anyway!!!” Continue reading...
Georgia’s tea industry collapsed alongside the Soviet Union but is now reaching a luxury market Rainclouds shroud the Caucasus mountains as the day’s harvest begins on a rural estate in western Georgia. A tea picker moves quickly between bushes with confidence, her hands plucking only the greenest, most recent growth on each plant. When Pati began picking tea leaves as a teenager this was a collec...
Georgia’s tea industry collapsed alongside the Soviet Union but is now reaching a luxury market Rainclouds shroud the Caucasus mountains as the day’s harvest begins on a rural estate in western Georgia. A tea picker moves quickly between bushes with confidence, her hands plucking only the greenest, most recent growth on each plant. When Pati began picking tea leaves as a teenager this was a collective farm in the Soviet Union – following its collapse it was abandoned and the bushes swallowed by the surrounding forest until new growers began cutting them free in the 2010s. Continue reading...
Two-thirds of ultra-rich expatriates living in Hong Kong plan to retire in the city, thanks to stronger financial benefits, according to a survey by St James’s Place. The findings were published after the British financial advice and wealth management company surveyed 450 affluent and high-net-worth residents in the city. Of the total, 17 per cent held Hong Kong or mainland China passports, with t...
Two-thirds of ultra-rich expatriates living in Hong Kong plan to retire in the city, thanks to stronger financial benefits, according to a survey by St James’s Place. The findings were published after the British financial advice and wealth management company surveyed 450 affluent and high-net-worth residents in the city. Of the total, 17 per cent held Hong Kong or mainland China passports, with the rest being citizens of jurisdictions around the world ranging from Australia to Spain, according...
Chinese geologists have determined that an active fault line directly beneath the world’s largest hydropower project poses a threat to the mega dam now being built on Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River. The scientists said a fracture in the Earth’s crust in the eastern Himalayan region would significantly affect the integrity of the massive hydropower project’s infrastructure. In a paper ...
Chinese geologists have determined that an active fault line directly beneath the world’s largest hydropower project poses a threat to the mega dam now being built on Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River. The scientists said a fracture in the Earth’s crust in the eastern Himalayan region would significantly affect the integrity of the massive hydropower project’s infrastructure. In a paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology,...
Is America still the best place in the world for Americans to invest? Recent research from Vanguard suggests that international stocks might offer stronger opportunities in the next few years. The company's 2026 economic and market outlook said that "ex-U.S. equities" -- international stocks not including the U.S. -- are expected to deliver 4.9% to 6.9% average annual returns for the next 10 years...
Is America still the best place in the world for Americans to invest? Recent research from Vanguard suggests that international stocks might offer stronger opportunities in the next few years. The company's 2026 economic and market outlook said that "ex-U.S. equities" -- international stocks not including the U.S. -- are expected to deliver 4.9% to 6.9% average annual returns for the next 10 years, while U.S. stocks are expected to deliver only 4% to 5% returns. Another Vanguard report in June predicted that some of the best long-term gains from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom might go not to AI stocks, but to "developed markets outside the U.S." as global companies use AI to improve their operations. Although Vanguard's research doesn't recommend any specific stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), if you agree with this forecast, buying international dividend stocks could be a good strategy. That's because international stocks that pay high dividend yields tend to come from developed markets such as Japan, Canada, and Western Europe. Continue reading
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US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said “the Islamic Republic of Japan” fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier, apparently confusing long-time ally Japan with Iran. Trump made the remark during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Turkish capital Ankara on the sidelines of a Nato summit. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said. He went o...
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said “the Islamic Republic of Japan” fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier, apparently confusing long-time ally Japan with Iran. Trump made the remark during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Turkish capital Ankara on the sidelines of a Nato summit. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said. He went on to say that the missiles were shot at the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln over a period of one...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images Robust AI demand is creating a strong foundation for memory stocks such as Micron Technology ( MU ) driving a strong buy rating for the name. While I am bullish on Micron Technology stock, we note that the share has sold off and are now trading 13% lower compared to the price at publication of my previous report . I already cautioned that investors may not be full...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images Robust AI demand is creating a strong foundation for memory stocks such as Micron Technology ( MU ) driving a strong buy rating for the name. While I am bullish on Micron Technology stock, we note that the share has sold off and are now trading 13% lower compared to the price at publication of my previous report . I already cautioned that investors may not be fully focused on the Q3 earnings, but instead focus on supply and demand including capital expenditures. Capital expenditures are expected to be higher than previously anticipated and news that Micron has been sued in the US for price fixing obviously do not help the stock price. In this report, I briefly share my view on the price fixing allegations, analyze the Q3 results and guidance which included very useful comment from management and I update my price target. My Take On The Price-Fixing Allegations Before sharing my view on the pricing fixing allegations, I believe first and foremost it is important to point out that the companies have not been found liable for now and no trial date is set. The complaint claims that companies reduced DDR3 and DDR4 memory production capacity toward high-margin AI HBM chips. Furthermore, the plaintiff argues that ain a competitive market rising prices should attract more supply, but production cuts continued instead. I believe that neither allegation makes sense or points at price fixing. HBM margins are higher than margins for typical DDR3/DDR4 memory and for that reason it does make sense that to allocate DDR production to HBM production capacity. The argument that rising prices typically attract higher supply is disjoint from any sense of the supply chain complexity, disruptive force of AI and the opportunity costs. Rising prices could attract higher supply if output can be scaled quickly. That is definitely not the case and Micron has significantly increased CapEx in an effort to meet demand. The argument fails to acknowledge that the ...