In this week’s Hong Kong Edition, we map out the pressures facing international schools in the city. We also sit down with the new head of the M+ museum and chart the trajectory of Asia’s AI-driven stock rally. For the Review, we see if Bakehouse can hold its own as a dinner venue. To subscribe to this weekly newsletter for free, click here . School Blues For a city with global ambitions like Hong...
In this week’s Hong Kong Edition, we map out the pressures facing international schools in the city. We also sit down with the new head of the M+ museum and chart the trajectory of Asia’s AI-driven stock rally. For the Review, we see if Bakehouse can hold its own as a dinner venue. To subscribe to this weekly newsletter for free, click here . School Blues For a city with global ambitions like Hong Kong, elite schools are a vital part of the appeal. They give access to top-notch education to the children of banking executives and tech tycoons and also serve many locals — if they can afford it. So when the most popular schools run into trouble, the impact ripples out across the community. Most recently, eight operators — including the English Schools Foundation, the city’s largest English-language system with more than 18,000 students in 22 institutions — were reportedly found to have fallen short of the government’s minimum limit for foreign passport holders. International schools lost large chunks of their customer base when political upheaval and Covid restrictions compounded to send many expats packing. Now, the government is stepping up scrutiny over compliance with rules requiring a majority of non‑local students. The strain is compounded by declining education allowances from international companies. HSBC Reviews $38,000-Per-Kid School Fee Perk for HK Bankers Read more To go deeper into the school crunch and puzzle out what might happen next, we answer some key questions here: Why did some international schools get in trouble? International schools operated by the English Schools Foundation and those that have signed service agreements with the Education Bureau need to meet minimum quotas for non‑local students. Since 2009, they are obligated to maintain a level of at least 70% non-local students. According to the government’s classification, a non-local student is anyone without a Hong Kong SAR or British National (Overseas) passport. Holders of other passport...
From the rooftop terrace of Kosovo’s innovation center, Shpend Lila pointed out a red-brick building on a recent weekday morning. Originally the headquarters of a local publishing agency, the modernist structure was Pristina’s tallest for decades. Today, it is dwarfed by high-rises housing a growing mix of tech companies — including SPEEEX , a business processing outsource firm on track to become ...
From the rooftop terrace of Kosovo’s innovation center, Shpend Lila pointed out a red-brick building on a recent weekday morning. Originally the headquarters of a local publishing agency, the modernist structure was Pristina’s tallest for decades. Today, it is dwarfed by high-rises housing a growing mix of tech companies — including SPEEEX , a business processing outsource firm on track to become the country’s first unicorn. Kosovo’s vibrant IT scene isn’t just changing the capital’s skyline. It is helping to curb one of the most stubborn post-war economic problems in the Western Balkan nation of 1.6 million people: high youth unemployment. Government officials and entrepreneurs hope this will, in turn, slow a long-running brain drain. “Tech is the only sector that helps to keep young people in Kosovo,” said Lila, a manager at the Innovation Centre Kosovo , which has been teaching computer skills for nearly 15 years, in an interview. “They can stay here if they get good salaries.” It’s been nearly two decades since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, and Europe’s youngest country remains one of its poorest. But its economy has been growing steadily, projected to reach around $12 billion this year, with tech and IT contributing around 6% of output , according to Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Youth unemployment dropped from a high of 61% in 2014 to around 10% in 2025, according to official data and local authorities interviewed for this story. The trend began during the Covid pandemic around five years ago, as people stayed indoors in front of their screens. The country hasn’t yet attracted global giants like Amazon or Google. Some 45,000 people working in the sector are employed by around 2,500 local firms, from small start ups that often come and go to SPEEEX. They earn on average about €1,000 ($1,170) a month — well below European levels but roughly double the national average. Senior roles and remote work for international companies sometimes pay much more tha...
4月30日，预热许久的“labubu”冰箱正式上线。 据悉，本次发布的labubu冰箱分为Home款和House of the Monsters款两个版本，两个版本均为全球限量发售999台，售价5999元。每一台产品都拥有独立限定编号，消费者可通过京东、天猫等渠道购买。 如果只从品类看，这就是一场跨界。 但比起“泡泡玛特开始卖冰箱”这件事，更值得讨论的是：当labubu被装进一台冰箱里，消费者买的...
In 1980, two US airmen reported an extraordinary encounter near a military base in the east of England. What really happened? In 1996, Nick Pope wrote his first book. Open Skies, Closed Minds was a semi-autobiographical examination of well-known UFO cases mixed with his own research. Pope worked at the UK Ministry of Defence for more than two decades, from 1985 to 2006. For three of those years – ...
In 1980, two US airmen reported an extraordinary encounter near a military base in the east of England. What really happened? In 1996, Nick Pope wrote his first book. Open Skies, Closed Minds was a semi-autobiographical examination of well-known UFO cases mixed with his own research. Pope worked at the UK Ministry of Defence for more than two decades, from 1985 to 2006. For three of those years – 1991 to 1994 – he worked on what was known colloquially in the department as “the UFO desk”. The desk’s official name, the Secretariat (Air Staff ) Sec (AS) 2a, was responsible for assessing the defence significance of reported UFO sightings. To promote the book, Pope appeared on BBC Newsnight. The UK’s flagship news programme was famous for its adversarial interviews that left even the most formidable politicians and intellectuals looking like startled deer. Given the subject matter and the platform, this could have gone horribly wrong, but Pope held his own. “I wasn’t nervous, probably because I’d been media-trained by the MoD,” he says. “The irony was that when I was posted to the UFO desk, I occasionally had to go on television in my role as the department’s subject-matter expert and play down both the phenomena and the true extent of our interest and involvement in the subject.” His interrogator that night was Peter Snow. “What do you believe now that you didn’t believe five years ago?” Snow began. Continue reading...
He painted sea battles, the labours of Hercules and breathtaking still lifes. But, as a major new exhibition makes clear, it was in his thrilling depictions of the spiritual that the Spanish master showed his true genius Against an impenetrable black ground, the crucified figure looms pale and shining. There’s almost no colour, beyond the trickle of blood on Christ’s feet from the nails driven thr...
He painted sea battles, the labours of Hercules and breathtaking still lifes. But, as a major new exhibition makes clear, it was in his thrilling depictions of the spiritual that the Spanish master showed his true genius Against an impenetrable black ground, the crucified figure looms pale and shining. There’s almost no colour, beyond the trickle of blood on Christ’s feet from the nails driven through his flesh. His head slumps, and his carefully modelled face is at peace (no agony here). But the most striking part of the picture is surely the loincloth, which folds and crumples and bunches around his midriff – you can imagine passing your hand over it, feeling the linen’s volume and texture. In its original home, the monastery of San Pablo el Real in Seville, the painting was displayed with “little light”, according to the 17th-century Spanish artist and writer, Antonio Palomino. “Everyone who sees it, and does not know it, believes it to be a sculpture.” The paleness of the body, the fabric, must have loomed out of the dark like a vision. Francisco de Zurbarán, who painted this solitary crucified Christ, is one of the three great artists of the Spanish 17th century. But, unlike his peers Velázquez and Murillo, he has never had a show to himself in the UK – until now, as his work forms the basis of a major exhibition about to open at the National Gallery in London. Compared with his precise contemporary and friend Velázquez (born in 1599, a year after Zurbarán), his work can seem stilled, becalmed. You can see the contrast clearly, in works commemorating Spanish military success that each of them were commissioned to paint for Philip IV of Spain’s new palace, the Palacio del Buen Retiro. Both are now in the Prado. Zurbarán’s The Defence of Cádiz Against the English has the quality of a frieze, as the Spanish generals look down serenely at the sea battle below. Velázquez’s The Surrender of Breda is all drama, encounter: a quicksilver painting that captures time as i...
Madeleine Finlay sits down with co-host and Guardian science editor Ian Sample to talk through three eye-catching stories from the week, including the news that the number of years people in the UK are spending in good health has declined compared with a decade ago. Also on the agenda is the science, tech and nutrition behind two runners at this weekend’s London marathon breaking the two-hour thre...
Madeleine Finlay sits down with co-host and Guardian science editor Ian Sample to talk through three eye-catching stories from the week, including the news that the number of years people in the UK are spending in good health has declined compared with a decade ago. Also on the agenda is the science, tech and nutrition behind two runners at this weekend’s London marathon breaking the two-hour threshold, and an answer to why some old houses feel particularly spooky People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds Spooky feelings in old houses may be caused by boiler sounds, study suggests Continue reading...
My country has been under occupation, dogged by corruption and war. Yet even I’ve been bewildered by the way the US seems to be fracturing A version of this piece appeared in the Dial under the headline No Common Ground In 2008, when I was a reporter for a leading Ukrainian TV station, I insisted on following Barack Obama’s campaign for US president. Few Ukrainian media outlets could afford to sen...
My country has been under occupation, dogged by corruption and war. Yet even I’ve been bewildered by the way the US seems to be fracturing A version of this piece appeared in the Dial under the headline No Common Ground In 2008, when I was a reporter for a leading Ukrainian TV station, I insisted on following Barack Obama’s campaign for US president. Few Ukrainian media outlets could afford to send a journalist to travel around the US to report on the election; even the newsrooms of those that could took some convincing. As a media student in 2004, I had spent two months on the streets of Kyiv during the Orange Revolution, where people protested a stolen election and succeeded in defending their vote. The excitement of the fight for freedom and justice, combined with the energy of mass gatherings, was seductive. I recognised a similar momentum in the US during Obama’s campaign and wanted to see how things felt on the ground. As a Ukrainian, I could relate to Obama’s promises to restore respect for human rights and the rule of law, and his desire to mobilise people around the idea of “hope”. It also stood in contrast with what I knew of the US: I had studied foreign news reporting at the time of the US invasion of Iraq and the military’s crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Continue reading...
Gothenburg promised to optimise school admissions with a piece of code. The resulting chaos showed how unaccountable systems are ruining lives We like to imagine that injustice announces itself loudly. That when something goes wrong in the public system, alarms go off and someone takes responsibility or is held accountable if they do not. But in 2020 in Gothenburg, injustice arrived quietly, disgu...
Gothenburg promised to optimise school admissions with a piece of code. The resulting chaos showed how unaccountable systems are ruining lives We like to imagine that injustice announces itself loudly. That when something goes wrong in the public system, alarms go off and someone takes responsibility or is held accountable if they do not. But in 2020 in Gothenburg, injustice arrived quietly, disguised as efficiency. For the first time, the city used an algorithm to allocate places in its schools. After all, working out geographical catchment areas and admissions is an administrative headache for any municipality. What better than a machine to optimise distances, preferences and capacity? The system was designed to serve public efficiency: framed as neutral, streamlined and objective. Charlotta Kronblad researches digital transformation at the University of Gothenburg. Continue reading...
Once the Madrid museum’s biggest draw, The Year of the Famine in Madrid fell out of favour for political and aesthetic reasons No trip to the Prado these days is complete without a visit to room 12 of the Madrid museum, where Diego Velázquez, a five-year-old princess and a sleepy mastiff stare down from the enormous canvas of Las Meninas . Two hundred years ago, however, the must-see exhibit at th...
Once the Madrid museum’s biggest draw, The Year of the Famine in Madrid fell out of favour for political and aesthetic reasons No trip to the Prado these days is complete without a visit to room 12 of the Madrid museum, where Diego Velázquez, a five-year-old princess and a sleepy mastiff stare down from the enormous canvas of Las Meninas . Two hundred years ago, however, the must-see exhibit at the newly established museum was not Las Meninas, but a gigantic allegorical work that sought to remind Spaniards of their heroic resistance to the Napoleonic occupation and their loyalty to King Ferdinand VII. Continue reading...
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Given their wild valuations paired with the apparent need for more capital spending before things really start paying off, any hesitation to step into a new artificial intelligence (AI) stock is more than understandable. But the world still can't seem to get enough of this technology, even if it's still not certain how to get the most out of it while simultaneously sidestepping its inherent flaws....
Given their wild valuations paired with the apparent need for more capital spending before things really start paying off, any hesitation to step into a new artificial intelligence (AI) stock is more than understandable. But the world still can't seem to get enough of this technology, even if it's still not certain how to get the most out of it while simultaneously sidestepping its inherent flaws. Industry research outfit Technavio expects the worldwide AI infrastructure business to grow at an average annual pace of nearly 25% through 2030, although it's likely to grow at a comparable rate well beyond that point. That's why a handful of companies are perfectly positioned as we head into the heart of 2026. These names are cashing in on the continued demand for more and more artificial intelligence infrastructure, which means their stocks remain fantastic investments for the indefinite future. Continue reading
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction Sanmina's ( SANM ) share price has experienced a significant surge over the past 2 months after initiating coverage on the stock. Since then, Sanmina's share price has rallied 63% on the back of the broader AI tech industry rally. The largest movement came when the company released its Q2 earnings, which delivered a solid beat and a subseque...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction Sanmina's ( SANM ) share price has experienced a significant surge over the past 2 months after initiating coverage on the stock. Since then, Sanmina's share price has rallied 63% on the back of the broader AI tech industry rally. The largest movement came when the company released its Q2 earnings, which delivered a solid beat and a subsequent 11% post-earnings rally. In my view, Sanmina remains a Buy opportunity despite the recent gain, premised on: First, the stock is still trading at roughly 19x FY2026 P/E, which is still a significant discount relative to its AI and EMS peers. As highlighted in my initiation report, Sanmina acts as a proxy to AMD and is positioned to benefit immensely from the upcoming release of the MI400 platform. Furthermore, the company also released strong FY2026 guidance, with EPS projected to nearly double from $6 in FY2025 to $11 at the midpoint of guidance. Lastly, management outlined its three-phase growth strategy, which paves a clear pathway to achieving its $16 billion FY2027 revenue target. Sanmina's Q2 FY2026 Earnings Review Sanmina delivered a solid beat in its Q2 earnings , with EPS coming in 31% above consensus. Core Sanmina growth was relatively tepid at just +7% YoY, consistent with management's expectations. However, ZT Systems delivered $1.8 billion in revenue, which was significantly above management's implied guidance of slightly above $1 billion. Overall, this outperformance was due to the early pull-in by customers for future orders; orders originally scheduled for 2H of FY2026 were instead pulled in early to Q2 due to Sanmina's strong execution abilities. While management was initially expecting supply chain constraints to hamper its ability to deliver orders ahead of schedule, its capability to bypass these bottlenecks proves Sanmina's competence to clear its growing server backlog. Figure 1: Sanmina's Q2 FY2026 Financial Results against Consensus Estimates, Sou...
Warren Buffett is fond of saying, “This is such an interesting movie, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.” Warren is really good at understanding the interrelationships of apparently unrelated events and taking advantage on behalf of Berkshire ( BRK.B ). On the other hand, one of his superpowers is the ability to distinguish between the most important things and the interesting noise. We will tr...
Warren Buffett is fond of saying, “This is such an interesting movie, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.” Warren is really good at understanding the interrelationships of apparently unrelated events and taking advantage on behalf of Berkshire ( BRK.B ). On the other hand, one of his superpowers is the ability to distinguish between the most important things and the interesting noise. We will try to be as discerning in delivering this quarterly “review” of the investment movie. One of the loudest and most distracting subplots of today’s feature is the domestic political scene. (With the midterm elections looming in November, the volume will not go down from here.) Washington provides plenty of dark humor , but the polarization of Congress and the resultant abdication to the executive branch (which did not begin with this president) is not funny. No comedy here. The country needs solutions to a number of serious problems (debt and deficits, immigration, healthcare, education, poverty...), but the inability to compromise or to give the other side credit for anything makes this aspect of the movie a tragedy . It just does not have to be this hard. A year ago at this time, the biggest economic story out of D.C. was tariffs. After months of turmoil, the process quieted down considerably when China briefly played the “rare earths” card, showing that it could shut down global manufacturing at will. Then, as businesses and trading partners were settling into the new reality, the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs illegal. Although courts at various levels, including the “big” one, have spent a lot of time and energy on this, it seems more like a legal slog than a thriller . We entered 2026 with multiple wars in progress—Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan—and at the end of February, the president initiated a war with Iran. The process was unusual in that neither Congress nor our allies were consulted. It was expected to be short—a few weeks—and the shooting may have stopped by the time thi...
tifonimages/iStock via Getty Images Following the Q1 production report of Anglo American plc ( AAUKF ) ( NGLOY ), we are back to comment on the company's results. Performance was solid, and again, we are up by another 20%. Last time, we reported that we believed Wall Street sentiment was turning more constructive, with upside to valuation driven by the copper segment. Additionally, we were the fir...
tifonimages/iStock via Getty Images Following the Q1 production report of Anglo American plc ( AAUKF ) ( NGLOY ), we are back to comment on the company's results. Performance was solid, and again, we are up by another 20%. Last time, we reported that we believed Wall Street sentiment was turning more constructive, with upside to valuation driven by the copper segment. Additionally, we were the first to believe in Anglo American’s ongoing restructuring process; together with the Teck transaction, we saw a de-risked equity investment. With a sum-of-the-parts valuation and asset disposals, we reported substantial upside to the market valuation. Mare Ev Lab Rating Udpate Fig 1 Q1 Production Results and Our Positive Take The company's Q1 production was slightly ahead of the Wall Street consensus. Copper Q1 output reached 170 kt and was 3% above estimates, thanks to stronger performance at Los Bronces, which partially offset softer volumes at Collahuasi & Quellaveco. The Los Bronces mine benefitted from a plant restart, while Collahuasi grades fell to 0.77% and Quelleveco production declined by 8% on an annual basis. This was due to lower planned grades; however, production should be supportive in H2. Still, the company made no changes to its 2026 production guidance of 700-760 kt. This implied a midpoint of copper increase of +35 kt. Iron ore production reached 15.2 Mt and was again 4% above Wall Street expectations, with both Kumba & Minas Rio performing positively. Again, Anglo reiterated its 2026 outlook of 55-59 Mt, with Q1 already annualizing to ~60 Mt. Here at the Lab, we are positive on the iron price and believe realized prices were robust in Q1. At first sight, manganese production increased significantly by 118%. However, this reflected last year's suspension caused by a tropical cyclone that hit Australia in March. For exiting businesses, the rough diamond index price decreased by 17% year over year. Anglo reported that the market is still weak due to "ongoing...