frantic00/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction During the recent AI/software growth scare, Microsoft's ( MSFT ) stock price has been pushed down to around $400, back to its level 2 years ago. Despite the GenAI wave starting around 2022, the overall growth of the tech world has not changed significantly over the past 3 years or so, as will be shown later in this article. A similar growth ...
frantic00/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction During the recent AI/software growth scare, Microsoft's ( MSFT ) stock price has been pushed down to around $400, back to its level 2 years ago. Despite the GenAI wave starting around 2022, the overall growth of the tech world has not changed significantly over the past 3 years or so, as will be shown later in this article. A similar growth trajectory has been the case for Microsoft's total sales growth. Even though the last quarter's earnings reported by MSFT in late January have been more positive than I expected at my last coverage , the revenue growth average has been at a similar level in the mid-14 for the past 3 and 5 years. I will continue to keep the HOLD rating for now, but the stock price looks more interesting for the long-term investors who still have faith in US technology dominance for the reasons explained below. Company Recent Update As a predominant industry leader in enterprise IT, Microsoft has maintained its formidable market leadership for a long time, thanks largely to the cloud offerings, which have been strengthened by the AI infrastructure arms race since 2023. Microsoft reported a cloud revenue of $51.5 billion in the last quarter (Q2 of fiscal year 2026), which represented a rapid 26% year-over-year increase. Azure in particular reported an astonishing 39% revenue spike in 2026, driven by huge AI cloud demand for both inference and training workloads. If we look at the overall cloud landscape, Azure has jumped from a distant second public cloud service provider behind Amazon's AWS to a very close second. Azure now holds about 23-28% of the global cloud market , compared to AWS at 29-31%. I suspect it could surpass AWS in 2026 if a similar growth rate as we have seen in the last quarter can be maintained for a few more quarters down the road. Organic overall growth in the IT space could be slightly better than I expected. The most recent 17% growth in revenue and the outlook of aroun...
Likelihood of winning to decrease after NS&I cut the proportion of the total invested amount paid out in prizes There was some bad news this week for Britain’s 22 million-strong army of premium bond holders: the odds of winning a prize are to get worse. National Savings and Investments (NS&I) says it is cutting the proportion of the total invested amount paid out in prizes from 3.6% to 3.3% a year...
Likelihood of winning to decrease after NS&I cut the proportion of the total invested amount paid out in prizes There was some bad news this week for Britain’s 22 million-strong army of premium bond holders: the odds of winning a prize are to get worse. National Savings and Investments (NS&I) says it is cutting the proportion of the total invested amount paid out in prizes from 3.6% to 3.3% a year with effect from April’s draw. Continue reading...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: Al...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World . Continue reading...
For one heart surgeon, seeing the Renaissance artist’s anatomical drawings gave him a natural understanding of the body that was often overlooked in modern medical science If you’d asked my teenage self, growing up in a small village in Shropshire, what I wanted to do with my life, I would have talked about art and music long before I spoke of scalpel blades and operating theatres. As an 18-year-o...
For one heart surgeon, seeing the Renaissance artist’s anatomical drawings gave him a natural understanding of the body that was often overlooked in modern medical science If you’d asked my teenage self, growing up in a small village in Shropshire, what I wanted to do with my life, I would have talked about art and music long before I spoke of scalpel blades and operating theatres. As an 18-year-old, I intended to go to art school, until my mother sat me down and told me rather bluntly that being an artist wouldn’t earn me much money. As she spoke, a surgical documentary flickered across the screen of the black-and-white television in our living room. I told her, half joking, that that was what I’d do instead. Which is how I ended up repeating my A-levels and fighting my way into medical school, where I qualified in 1975. By 1986, I was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Papworth hospital in Cambridge, repairing failing hearts in a nascent field of medicine. Since then I’ve repaired more than 3,000 mitral valves – more than any surgeon in the UK – but the work that truly reshaped me came not from a textbook but from an encounter with centuries-old drawings. Continue reading...
From Curthose, Rufus and Beauclerc to ‘the Somme with Santana’, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 Which country is named after the creator god Ptah? 2 What did music writer David Hepworth call “the Somme with Santana”? 3 Which wildlife census attracts more than half a million participants each January? 4 What is the largest blood vessel in the body? 5 China’s Hou Yifan is the women’s wo...
From Curthose, Rufus and Beauclerc to ‘the Somme with Santana’, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 Which country is named after the creator god Ptah? 2 What did music writer David Hepworth call “the Somme with Santana”? 3 Which wildlife census attracts more than half a million participants each January? 4 What is the largest blood vessel in the body? 5 China’s Hou Yifan is the women’s world no 1 in what game? 6 Which fabric’s name comes from the Persian for “milk and sugar”? 7 Which philosopher designed the Panopticon prison? 8 Who was infamously acquitted of an 1892 axe murder in Massachusetts? What links: 9 Yates, white; Cavendish, green; Millar (now York), polka dot; Wiggins, yellow? 10 Curthose; Rufus; Beauclerc? 11 Gentlemen only, ladies forbidden; New York, London; port out, starboard home? 12 Taurus-Littrow (17); Descartes Highlands (16); Hadley-Apennine (15); Fra Mauro (14)? 13 Jonathan Anderson; Matthieu Blazy; Sarah Burton; Demna; Alessandro Michele? 14 Georgie Fame; Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot; Beyoncé and Jay-Z? 15 Mississippi v Loire; East, Harlem and Hudson v Foss and Ouse? Continue reading...
Case brought by 29 workers and backed by UVW union seen as test case that could lead to changes at other restaurants Harrods is facing legal action over its addition of a £1-a-head cover charge to diners’ bills that does not go to workers, in a test case that could lead to changes at a string of upmarket restaurants. Legislation, which came into force in October 2024 , requires business owners to ...
Case brought by 29 workers and backed by UVW union seen as test case that could lead to changes at other restaurants Harrods is facing legal action over its addition of a £1-a-head cover charge to diners’ bills that does not go to workers, in a test case that could lead to changes at a string of upmarket restaurants. Legislation, which came into force in October 2024 , requires business owners to hand over all tips and service charges to staff. Some restaurants, including those at Harrods, add a mandatory cover charge as well as an optional service charge and only pass on the latter to their workers. Continue reading...
Steve Conrad’s dark comedy is full of twists and sad laughs. As for the fate of Harbour’s character, does Lily Allen have an alibi? Last October, Lily Allen released a jaw-dropping album about the sexual politics of her marriage to actor David Harbour . It was a musical assassination – reportedly written in the wake of her personal sleuthing into his long-term infidelities via the dating app Raya....
Steve Conrad’s dark comedy is full of twists and sad laughs. As for the fate of Harbour’s character, does Lily Allen have an alibi? Last October, Lily Allen released a jaw-dropping album about the sexual politics of her marriage to actor David Harbour . It was a musical assassination – reportedly written in the wake of her personal sleuthing into his long-term infidelities via the dating app Raya. Therefore the timing of DTF St Louis (Monday 2 March, 9pm, Sky Atlantic), in which Harbour plays a man in a stagnant marriage who downloads a hook-up app to enjoy some extramarital boom boom, is juicy. For everyone except his publicist. From the trailer, this was a hard-to-read show. Was it a dark comedy, a bedroom farce, a police procedural? The answer turns out to be yes, to all of those things. I also wondered whether it might be a televisual return to the erotic thrillers of the 90s. The answer to that one is no, although it’s a show with sex on the brain. Continue reading...
Briton overcame crippling self-doubt to become F1 world champion and is determined not to relinquish his crown Lando Norris recalls being rendered speechless with joy when he was given his first contract with McLaren. Sitting in the cramped office of a paddock truck, the confirmation that he had made it to Formula One left him “very smiley for a long time”. Seven years on, he enters the new season...
Briton overcame crippling self-doubt to become F1 world champion and is determined not to relinquish his crown Lando Norris recalls being rendered speechless with joy when he was given his first contract with McLaren. Sitting in the cramped office of a paddock truck, the confirmation that he had made it to Formula One left him “very smiley for a long time”. Seven years on, he enters the new season having achieved his lifelong ambition of becoming world champion and is wearing an equally irrepressible grin as he sets about defending his title. Claiming the championship after a monumental season-long tussle that went to a thrilling three-way fight at the finale in Abu Dhabi was the defining moment of the 26-year-old’s career and perhaps something of a turning point. Continue reading...
Litter picking groups struggle to stem tide of rubbish after reported incidents rose 10% in last year Last Wednesday, in a layby outside Brackley, Northamptonshire, Trish Savill and her band of self-styled Wombles proudly took photos of their morning’s work: 28 bags stacked neatly against the verge. It had taken them an hour, but they had barely made a dent in the sprawl of unrecognisable, rotting...
Litter picking groups struggle to stem tide of rubbish after reported incidents rose 10% in last year Last Wednesday, in a layby outside Brackley, Northamptonshire, Trish Savill and her band of self-styled Wombles proudly took photos of their morning’s work: 28 bags stacked neatly against the verge. It had taken them an hour, but they had barely made a dent in the sprawl of unrecognisable, rotting refuse already working its way into the soil, mixed with dumped white goods and some more dubious finds. Continue reading...
In this week’s newsletter: After a controversial awards moment thrust the condition into the spotlight, we look at the new biopic of John Davidson and the decades of portrayals that led to it • Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The wildfire surrounding last week’s Bafta ceremony – where Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur at actors...
In this week’s newsletter: After a controversial awards moment thrust the condition into the spotlight, we look at the new biopic of John Davidson and the decades of portrayals that led to it • Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The wildfire surrounding last week’s Bafta ceremony – where Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur at actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, and the BBC aired the moment – continues to rage. Criticisms have been levelled at, and investigations opened by, the Beeb and Bafta; hundreds of news stories and comment pieces have been devoted to the incident (if you read anything, make sure it’s this clear-eyed piece from Jason Okundaye, who was at the ceremony); and the climate on social media has been toxic, with much of the ire directed at Davidson himself. It’s an ire that is based on a complete misunderstanding of coprolalia, the form of Tourette syndrome (TS) that Davidson has, which results in the unintended and completely involuntary utterance of offensive or inappropriate remarks. There’s an unhappy irony at play here because Davidson, arguably more than any other person in Britain, has been responsible for raising awareness of TS. There’s an unfortunate symmetry, too, to the fact that the incident was shown on primetime BBC, because that was where Davidson was first brought to national attention as the subject of the landmark 1989 documentary John’s Not Mad. Directed by film-maker Valerie Kaye, and aired as part of the popular science series QED, the half-hour film – available on DVD or to rent or stream on Prime Video – shadows a 15-year-old Davidson around his home town of Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, as he struggles both with his condition and the intolerance of those around him (his own grandmother claimed that he was possessed by the devil). Continue reading...
The IPC’s Andrew Parsons tries to ease growing tension as Ukrainian president calls the decision ‘dirty’ The Paralympic torch left its home in Stoke Mandeville this week and has arrived at the gateway of the Dolomites. The towns of Bolzano and Trento will host “flame festivals” over the weekend to welcome the Paralympic movement and commemorate its progress on the 50th anniversary of the first Win...
The IPC’s Andrew Parsons tries to ease growing tension as Ukrainian president calls the decision ‘dirty’ The Paralympic torch left its home in Stoke Mandeville this week and has arrived at the gateway of the Dolomites. The towns of Bolzano and Trento will host “flame festivals” over the weekend to welcome the Paralympic movement and commemorate its progress on the 50th anniversary of the first Winter Games. It will be a joyous, poignant start to what could be a fractious fortnight. While the flame is being passed between torch bearers, the leaders of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will be scrambling to contain what increasingly resembles a diplomatic incident. A decision last week to invite 10 Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Winter Paralympics at Milano Cortina has been met with full-throated criticism from across Europe and beyond. Continue reading...
As high rents push more adult children back to the family nest, it is vital to have a conversation about who pays what When her 27-year- old son and 24-year-old daughter moved back home, Tricia Carter decided to ask them to pay rent. The 63-year-old, who lives in south London, charges them £300 each a month to cover bills including electricity and groceries. She has a comfortable income, but their...
As high rents push more adult children back to the family nest, it is vital to have a conversation about who pays what When her 27-year- old son and 24-year-old daughter moved back home, Tricia Carter decided to ask them to pay rent. The 63-year-old, who lives in south London, charges them £300 each a month to cover bills including electricity and groceries. She has a comfortable income, but their contributions help to keep the books balanced. The money is also a way to make her children aware of the financial burden of living somewhere, she says. Continue reading...
Goaded by Tottenham and lampooned by Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side face Chelsea this weekend with rivals hoping to prey on their sensitivities Arsenal had to expect the jibes from Tottenham and they were not disappointed. Just before kick-off in last Sunday’s north London derby , the Spurs support in the South Stand of their stadium spelled out a giant message in mosaic form. “North Ldn since 1882,”...
Goaded by Tottenham and lampooned by Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side face Chelsea this weekend with rivals hoping to prey on their sensitivities Arsenal had to expect the jibes from Tottenham and they were not disappointed. Just before kick-off in last Sunday’s north London derby , the Spurs support in the South Stand of their stadium spelled out a giant message in mosaic form. “North Ldn since 1882,” it read. A clear dig, then, at Arsenal’s south of the river history from the Woolwich days and, as mentioned, very much a part of a rivalry where goading and baiting go hand in hand with the loathing. Arsenal had been similarly provocative before the derby against Spurs at the Emirates Stadium last November, lighting the pre-match scene with a tifo featuring images of various club greats. The most prominent at the top of it? Sol Campbell, of course. Continue reading...
Hearts are threatening to upset the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in a break from the deadening European trend, which could be just what audiences need There’s a good advert right now on the rolling TV sports news channels. It starts with a rush of beeps and plinks and flashing symbols, generating instantly the flat, glazed, hungry quality of the online casino. A well-groomed middle-aged woman i...
Hearts are threatening to upset the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in a break from the deadening European trend, which could be just what audiences need There’s a good advert right now on the rolling TV sports news channels. It starts with a rush of beeps and plinks and flashing symbols, generating instantly the flat, glazed, hungry quality of the online casino. A well-groomed middle-aged woman is shown sitting in an armchair in a suburban living room. It’s a jarring tonal shift, but we’re still in that same space, betting graphics dancing around her head. The middle-aged woman turns to the camera and says: “The games are all different … It never gets boring, ” eyes gleaming strangely, hands gripping the struts of her chair. Here is a person who is not just pleased, but uncontrollably energised by the prospect of WowBet.com’s 10bn mildly divergent AI-generated gambling patterns. At this point the words “Sandra Frottwangle, funeral director” appear on the screen. Continue reading...
You don’t have to travel to Japan to see a stunning floral display. Every spring, this corner of Extremadura is transformed as two million trees come into bloom It’s late March and the villagers of the Jerte valley in Extremadura, Spain’s wild west, are twitchy – as if they’re hosting a party and wondering if all the guests will show up. The event they’re waiting for is the flowering of the valley...
You don’t have to travel to Japan to see a stunning floral display. Every spring, this corner of Extremadura is transformed as two million trees come into bloom It’s late March and the villagers of the Jerte valley in Extremadura, Spain’s wild west, are twitchy – as if they’re hosting a party and wondering if all the guests will show up. The event they’re waiting for is the flowering of the valley’s cherry trees, which number about two million. So far, only a handful – a variety called Royal Tioga – have dared to don their frilly spring frocks. The rest are still clutching their drab grey winter garb. Predicting the arrival of blossom is always tricky, but thanks to an unseasonably wet March the trees are three weeks late when I visit. With snow still cloaking the surrounding sierras, the tourist office in Cabezuela del Valle, halfway up the valley, is hastily finding alternative activities for the coachloads of blossom-seekers from Madrid. As with any nature-reliant activity, such as whale watching or aurora hunting, timing is challenging. But unlike hit-and-miss spectacles involving wild animals, at least I know the blossoming will happen eventually. (Sadly wildfires later affected parts of the Jerte valley last summer, but thankfully few cherry trees were affected.) Continue reading...
Understanding biodiversity within species is key to our understanding of why nature works the way it does, say researchers Words and photographs by Roberto García-Roa Twelve miles from the heart of Rome, Dr Javier Ábalos pauses his walk, lifts his sunglasses and points. To his right, perched on a rocky wall, sits a beautiful lizard. Its body is coated in charcoal-black tones speckled with striking...
Understanding biodiversity within species is key to our understanding of why nature works the way it does, say researchers Words and photographs by Roberto García-Roa Twelve miles from the heart of Rome, Dr Javier Ábalos pauses his walk, lifts his sunglasses and points. To his right, perched on a rocky wall, sits a beautiful lizard. Its body is coated in charcoal-black tones speckled with striking yellow across a green dorsum, and its head, with a prominent jaw, is splashed with fluorescent blue spots. The reptile basks in the sun, unconcerned by our presence. About 80 miles (130km) drive farther along the road that connects the capital with the small village of Poggio di Roio, the researcher from the University of Valencia has barely stepped out of the car when he spots another lizard. This one is smaller, with a brownish body and a narrower head crisscrossed by a network of dark stripes. Researchers fear the common wall lizard of the white morph could be driven to extinction by the arrival of a new variation Continue reading...
Falling groundwater, extreme heat and water-intensive farming are accelerating land collapse, forcing a rethink in agricultural practices Fatih Sik was drinking tea with friends at home when he heard a rumbling sound outside that grew to a loud boom, like a volcano had erupted nearby. From the window, he saw water and mud shoot into the sky, as high as the tallest trees, less than 100 metres away....
Falling groundwater, extreme heat and water-intensive farming are accelerating land collapse, forcing a rethink in agricultural practices Fatih Sik was drinking tea with friends at home when he heard a rumbling sound outside that grew to a loud boom, like a volcano had erupted nearby. From the window, he saw water and mud shoot into the sky, as high as the tallest trees, less than 100 metres away. The 47-year-old knew what it was, because it is common in Karapınar, Konya, a vast agricultural province known as Turkey’s breadbasket. A giant sinkhole had opened up on his land. Fifty metres wide and 40 metres deep, it had appeared almost a year to the day after a previous one had formed. It was August – the hottest month of the year. Continue reading...
The fallout from the violent death of Quentin Deranque exposes Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s flaws – and leaves the wider left facing an impossible dilemma In 2023 Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand leader of the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), made a fundamental miscalculation. He publicly promoted a small group of young antifascist activists. La Jeune Garde, founded in Lyon in 2018, were pol...
The fallout from the violent death of Quentin Deranque exposes Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s flaws – and leaves the wider left facing an impossible dilemma In 2023 Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand leader of the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), made a fundamental miscalculation. He publicly promoted a small group of young antifascist activists. La Jeune Garde, founded in Lyon in 2018, were politically inexperienced and had organised a series of sometimes violent confrontations with far-right groups. Members of the group, which was banned in 2025 , are now suspected of involvement in a killing that has convulsed France. The victim, Quentin Deranque, was a 23-year-old mathematics student and a far-right activist. Continue reading...