If artificial intelligence (AI) spending wasn't already at eye-watering levels, it's officially there now. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Meta (NASDAQ: META) recently released their first-quarter financial results, and both said they're increasing their capital expenditures (capex) to a collective $335 billion this year alone. Alphabet will spend up to $190 billion, while Meta will sp...
If artificial intelligence (AI) spending wasn't already at eye-watering levels, it's officially there now. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Meta (NASDAQ: META) recently released their first-quarter financial results, and both said they're increasing their capital expenditures (capex) to a collective $335 billion this year alone. Alphabet will spend up to $190 billion, while Meta will spend up to $145 billion, the companies said. With an AI race currently underway, it's tempting to believe that all the spending is justified and that if investors give the companies enough time, the massive spending will pay off. Continue reading
Getty Images If you have been anywhere near the financial media in the last 6 or 7 months, you would probably think private credit is the next subprime crisis. Blue Owl ( OWL ) has been ground zero for that narrative. Since its 2025 peak, the stock has tanked more than 62% for a company that grew revenue from like $250 million in 2021 to $2.9 billion in 2025. This is the kind of drawdown that need...
Getty Images If you have been anywhere near the financial media in the last 6 or 7 months, you would probably think private credit is the next subprime crisis. Blue Owl ( OWL ) has been ground zero for that narrative. Since its 2025 peak, the stock has tanked more than 62% for a company that grew revenue from like $250 million in 2021 to $2.9 billion in 2025. This is the kind of drawdown that needs an explanation. Data by YCharts Data by YCharts And the explanation, at least from the market's perspective, goes something like this: private credit is opaque, BDC redemptions are spiking, and AI is going to destroy the software loans, and this is 2008 all over again. And I have to say that I spent a lot of time researching whether this is as severe as the headlines say. I also recently listened to a podcast here on Seeking Alpha about it. And after going through all of it, my conclusion is that some problems are legit, but the selloff in OWL's stock price has overshot too much compared to the actual risk to the business. In my opinion, the 2008 subprime analogy is not accurate when you look at the leverage ratios. At that time the banks were leveraged 30 to 40 times . Their balance sheets were subject to margin calls and bank runs. Blue Owl's BDCs are at roughly 1.19x leverage, and in some cases, like tech BDCs and OTIC, the net leverage is 0.75x. What that means in plain English is that for every dollar of equity in the fund, there is only about a dollar of borrowed money sitting on top of it. In OTF and OTIC's case, it is actually less than a dollar. At 1x leverage, you would need the underlying loan portfolio to lose roughly half its value before equity holders are impaired. And the underlying loans themselves are first-lien senior secured, with weighted average loan-to-values in the low 40s. First-lien senior secured means Blue Owl's BDCs sit at the very top of the capital structure. If a borrower defaults, they get paid first before any junior debt holders or equit...
Orban Wallace’s documentary avoids big clashes between landowners and campaigners in favour of wide-ranging exploration Orban Wallace’s film about the right-to-roam movement shows us a campaigning group with a simple, reasonable aim: to give walkers in England and Wales the same rights that people have in Scotland, courtesy of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code , brought into being by the Land Refor...
Orban Wallace’s documentary avoids big clashes between landowners and campaigners in favour of wide-ranging exploration Orban Wallace’s film about the right-to-roam movement shows us a campaigning group with a simple, reasonable aim: to give walkers in England and Wales the same rights that people have in Scotland, courtesy of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code , brought into being by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003. There, walkers have the right to temporary, non-motorised access – which is to say walking, cycling and camping, carried out responsibly – to most land, public or private. These rights have now existed for some time without the apocalyptic end to the countryside as we know it. Whether some in the right-to-roam movement in England want something more than that, or are prepared to protest more vehemently than simply organising peaceful mass trespass events, is another question. The film interviews landowners such as Francis Fulford, who has long been the media’s favourite outspoken reactionary toff, a sort of posh version of Viz Comic’s Farmer Palmer, snarling “Get off my land”. There are other, more thoughtful landowners, including Hugh Inge-Innes-Lillingston, who cheerfully admits how silly his name is, and is open to developing new ideas about managed access. As far as profiteering goes, I found myself thinking of a remark made by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson : “Land doesn’t really bring in a lot of money until they build a motorway through it.” Continue reading...
I thought the ceremony, at my mother’s cottage, would pass without a hitch. I don’t think she’d have been impressed by what followed … If you’re looking for sound, practical advice on what happens when an elderly parent dies – the so-called “sadmin” – then you shouldn’t come to me because all the bits that went OK, my sister did, and all the bits that went unaccountably awry were when I got involv...
I thought the ceremony, at my mother’s cottage, would pass without a hitch. I don’t think she’d have been impressed by what followed … If you’re looking for sound, practical advice on what happens when an elderly parent dies – the so-called “sadmin” – then you shouldn’t come to me because all the bits that went OK, my sister did, and all the bits that went unaccountably awry were when I got involved. If, however, you are looking for advice on the ceremony of ash-scattering, then I have loads, all of it learned five to 10 minutes after it would have been good to know. We’d actually planned this pretty carefully, insofar as we knew where we wanted to go – a cottage our mum rented for years, which is still empty. When my mum died, a friend gave me a lovely hanky, so I took that, in case I got upset. It was a beautiful day; I had my cherished loved ones, a bottle of water and my vape. What could possibly go wrong? Continue reading...
England suffered four defeats in dismal Six Nations Bill Sweeney says improvement not ‘one simple answer’ Steve Borthwick and his coaching staff are to remain in charge of England’s men’s team despite the squad’s worst Five or Six Nations for 50 years. The Rugby Football Union has opted to back Borthwick and his lieutenants through to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia having completed what ...
England suffered four defeats in dismal Six Nations Bill Sweeney says improvement not ‘one simple answer’ Steve Borthwick and his coaching staff are to remain in charge of England’s men’s team despite the squad’s worst Five or Six Nations for 50 years. The Rugby Football Union has opted to back Borthwick and his lieutenants through to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia having completed what it described as “a detailed and robust review” of England’s latest campaign. Despite having lost four Five or Six Nations games in the same season for the first time since 1976, the RFU has chosen to keep faith with the Borthwick regime in the belief that things can only get better. The union has decided that sacking the head coach is not the optimal solution, having previously dispensed with Eddie Jones’s services nine months prior to the 2023 World Cup. Continue reading...
South Korea’s first home-grown combat aircraft, the KF-21, still has a “long way to go” competing globally against products from the US, Europe and China, analysts said, as the fighter jet finally rolls out. In March, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) officially unveiled the first production unit of the KF-21 Boramae, placing Seoul in an elite group of now eight countries capable of indigenously de...
South Korea’s first home-grown combat aircraft, the KF-21, still has a “long way to go” competing globally against products from the US, Europe and China, analysts said, as the fighter jet finally rolls out. In March, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) officially unveiled the first production unit of the KF-21 Boramae, placing Seoul in an elite group of now eight countries capable of indigenously developing their own advanced supersonic combat aircraft. The roll-out marked the start of mass...
Four years after Shanghai’s harsh citywide lockdown, there are signs the city’s expatriate population – which thinned significantly during the pandemic – is starting to rebound, though with a notably different demographic profile. The sound of English, Korean and French is once again often heard drifting through the plane-tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession – widely seen as t...
Four years after Shanghai’s harsh citywide lockdown, there are signs the city’s expatriate population – which thinned significantly during the pandemic – is starting to rebound, though with a notably different demographic profile. The sound of English, Korean and French is once again often heard drifting through the plane-tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession – widely seen as the heart of the city’s international community. And local residents point to a gradual, though...
On a small island off eastern China, a group of mothers is rewriting the rules of work and family life. Known as the “Female Knights”, this determined band of women has turned food delivery into a path to financial independence and self-empowerment. Qushan Island, in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, has a population of around 55,000. Its main industries are fishing and stone mining, and access to the ...
On a small island off eastern China, a group of mothers is rewriting the rules of work and family life. Known as the “Female Knights”, this determined band of women has turned food delivery into a path to financial independence and self-empowerment. Qushan Island, in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, has a population of around 55,000. Its main industries are fishing and stone mining, and access to the outside world requires a two-hour ferry ride. While most men work at sea or in the city, many women...
The U.S.’s lessened dependency on crude also shows a decline in consumption of crude derivatives such as gasoline and diesel, even as prices at the pump are a major source of frustration for Americans right now.
The U.S.’s lessened dependency on crude also shows a decline in consumption of crude derivatives such as gasoline and diesel, even as prices at the pump are a major source of frustration for Americans right now.
PRINCETON, N.J., May 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: IART), a leading global medical technology company, today reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2026.
PRINCETON, N.J., May 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: IART), a leading global medical technology company, today reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2026.