Apple laptop sets new performance bar with more storage, new chips and plenty of options, but now has two-tier specs depending on processor Apple’s Macs have been on a roll this year with the brand new budget MacBook Neo and a faster MacBook Air M5 , but now it’s time for its workhorse MacBook Pro to be upgraded with the fastest, most powerful M-series chips. The latest MacBook Pro comes in two sc...
Apple laptop sets new performance bar with more storage, new chips and plenty of options, but now has two-tier specs depending on processor Apple’s Macs have been on a roll this year with the brand new budget MacBook Neo and a faster MacBook Air M5 , but now it’s time for its workhorse MacBook Pro to be upgraded with the fastest, most powerful M-series chips. The latest MacBook Pro comes in two screen sizes and a large range of chip and configuration options. The 14in version starts with the M5 chip costing £1,699 (€1,899/$1,699/A$2,699) and then jumps to the more powerful M5 Pro from £2,199 (€2,499/$2,199/A$3,499) before climbing further for the 16in version or the top M5 Max chip. A pricey machine for professional workloads. Continue reading...
Vivid, tactile details make Lutz’s biography a beautifully textured and convincing read Both Emily Brontë and her only novel Wuthering Heights have been called “deranged”, “crazed” or (especially online, in the wake of the recent film ) “unhinged”. So it’s a relief to read a biography where she comes across, instead, as more grounded, steady, sane. Deborah Lutz, whose 2015 book The Brontë Cabinet:...
Vivid, tactile details make Lutz’s biography a beautifully textured and convincing read Both Emily Brontë and her only novel Wuthering Heights have been called “deranged”, “crazed” or (especially online, in the wake of the recent film ) “unhinged”. So it’s a relief to read a biography where she comes across, instead, as more grounded, steady, sane. Deborah Lutz, whose 2015 book The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects made such an impression, anchors her narrative in solid things: the too-short bed Emily squeezed herself into; the pockets she stuffed with paper, pencils and moorland treasures; the laundry she looked after, including stockings with “AB5” sewn into them to indicate they were her sister Anne’s fifth pair. Lutz’s Emily is an eminently practical woman who wrote “while baking, in front of a peat fire perched on a little stool, or while walking” and who “used the tactile keeping of order as a prop and prompt to lose herself in the sublimity of art-making and moor-haunting”. For Lutz, Emily’s writing is also “tactile”. She counts the sampler Emily made at 10 as one of her “earliest extant writings”, and while other scholars have dismissed it as a collection of copied platitudes, Lutz notices that one line Emily stitched, from Proverbs – “Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?” – suggests that maybe she was already thinking about wuthering. She lovingly describes the little books the Brontë children made as “delightful, tiny objects to match their toys and still-small selves, texts holding secretive and insular qualities”. She calls the one-page diaries Emily made with Anne “a new writing practice, one that feels distinctly modern, even avant garde”, as they crammed in descriptions of their cooking, their chatter, their animals, their made-up heroines; stream of consciousness nearly a century before Virginia Woolf. Continue reading...
It cheerily addressed letters to my late spouse, and threatened penalties if he terminated his contract After my husband died suddenly, I discovered he had been paying £171 a month for our EE broadband and TV contract. EE initially offered me a monthly deal at £44.99 on the phone. There followed two letters, one day apart, cheerily addressed to my late husband. The first stated that he would have ...
It cheerily addressed letters to my late spouse, and threatened penalties if he terminated his contract After my husband died suddenly, I discovered he had been paying £171 a month for our EE broadband and TV contract. EE initially offered me a monthly deal at £44.99 on the phone. There followed two letters, one day apart, cheerily addressed to my late husband. The first stated that he would have to pay £1,007 to terminate his contract; the second giving a termination fee of £520 . The letters told him he could take the contract with him when he moved house. Continue reading...
Shop price inflation rose by 1% year-on-year in April, slowing from 1.2% in March, the BRC says Price rises in UK shops have slowed as retailers applied “heavy discounting” to their goods in an effort to entice shoppers amid weakening consumer confidence, the industry’s trade group said. Shop price inflation rose by 1% year-on-year in April, a slowdown from 1.2% in March and below the three-month ...
Shop price inflation rose by 1% year-on-year in April, slowing from 1.2% in March, the BRC says Price rises in UK shops have slowed as retailers applied “heavy discounting” to their goods in an effort to entice shoppers amid weakening consumer confidence, the industry’s trade group said. Shop price inflation rose by 1% year-on-year in April, a slowdown from 1.2% in March and below the three-month average of 1.1%, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Continue reading...
Nigerian actor and director Iyabo Ojo’s entertaining but imperfect tale about warring clans unfolds across Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania This Nigerian thriller unfolds mostly in the bustling city of Lagos but it makes excursions to Ghana and Tanzania and casts actors from all three countries, making for a diverse, textured tale that is thoroughly entertaining. That said, there are still plenty of im...
Nigerian actor and director Iyabo Ojo’s entertaining but imperfect tale about warring clans unfolds across Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania This Nigerian thriller unfolds mostly in the bustling city of Lagos but it makes excursions to Ghana and Tanzania and casts actors from all three countries, making for a diverse, textured tale that is thoroughly entertaining. That said, there are still plenty of imperfections, especially in the editing, and the acting ranges from professional and polished to amateur and awkward, so it’s a bit of a bumpy ride. Still, it is yet more evidence that the increasingly well-financed Nollywood industry can hold its own internationally, and grow audiences beyond Africa. Even if a male character’s run for president is a major engine of the story, this is very much a female-centric film, encompassing women across several generations in an assortment of configurations, often far from harmonious. That comes across very clearly in an early scene in which we see bossy matriarch Aisha Williams (Mercy Aigbe), wife of aspiring politician Marcus Williams (William Benson), having a screaming match with her sister-in-law as members of the household look on aghast. A complicated character to say the least, Aisha can turn on the charm when she needs to, for example when her son, aspiring actor Mandla (Enioluwa Adeoluwa), brings home his fiancee Simisola (Prisca Lyimo) to meet the family. But as soon as Aisha meets Simisola’s aunt Bridget (Bimbo Akintola), a devout preacher, the hospitality spigot is abruptly turned off. By degrees, we learn that there’s a long history between the two older women who are connected through familiarity with Simisola’s birth mother Arinzo (played by director Iyabo Ojo) who everyone thought had died years ago. Continue reading...
From the Cambrian Mountains to Cardigan Bay, the 83-mile Teifi Valley Trail is a grassroots initiative designed to revive a once-thriving area Up here, the river was a mere gurgle; a babbling babe finding its way into the world. A few sheep roamed, a kite wheeled and a spring-clean wind ruffled the tussocks on the barren hills and rippled the pools. It was a stark yet striking beginning. As we fol...
From the Cambrian Mountains to Cardigan Bay, the 83-mile Teifi Valley Trail is a grassroots initiative designed to revive a once-thriving area Up here, the river was a mere gurgle; a babbling babe finding its way into the world. A few sheep roamed, a kite wheeled and a spring-clean wind ruffled the tussocks on the barren hills and rippled the pools. It was a stark yet striking beginning. As we followed a brand new fingerpost, skirted Llyn Teifi – the river’s official source – and picked up the fledgling flow, there was a sense great things lay ahead, for us both. The Teifi rises in Ceredigion’s Cambrian Mountains – the untramped “green desert of Wales” – and pours into Cardigan Bay 75 miles (120km) south-west. It’s one of the longest rivers wholly within Wales and, historically, one of its most significant: the beating heart of the country’s fishing and wool-weaving industries, 12th-century abbeys at either end, Wales’s oldest university en route. Continue reading...
Claim by environment minister opens new report into profound ecological damage allegedly done by IDF forces Lebanon’s minister for the environment has accused Israel’s military of committing “an act of ecocide” in the foreword to a report detailing the harm done to the country’s natural resources during the invasion of 2023 to 2024. Israeli military aggression “reshaped both the physical and ecolo...
Claim by environment minister opens new report into profound ecological damage allegedly done by IDF forces Lebanon’s minister for the environment has accused Israel’s military of committing “an act of ecocide” in the foreword to a report detailing the harm done to the country’s natural resources during the invasion of 2023 to 2024. Israeli military aggression “reshaped both the physical and ecological landscape” of southern Lebanon, according to the report, which does not consider the impacts of Israel’s latest barrage of attacks this spring. Damaged 5,000 hectares (12,350 acres) of forest cover, including broadleaf, pine and stone pine stands, destroying habitats, disregulating local climates and causing soil erosion. Destroyed $118m (£87m) of physical agriculture assets, including crops, livestock facilities, forestry resources, fisheries and aquaculture infrastructure. Caused further losses of $586m (£433m) in lost agricultural production as a result of disrupted harvests and reduced yields. Destroyed 2,154 hectares (5,320 acres) of orchards, including 814 hectares of olive groves and 637 hectares of citrus plantations, and caused extensive damage to banana plantations. Contaminated soils with phosphorus concentrations up to 1,858 parts a million, with particular contamination hotspots in south Lebanon and Bekaa valley in the east. Caused widespread air pollution episodes extending well beyond immediate strike zones and releasing particulates; sulphur and nitrogen oxides; and toxic compounds such as dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Continue reading...
Coordinated attack by JNIM and the Tuareg minority inflicted significant casualties on government forces and Russian auxiliaries When al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants launched a series of attacks on military bases and raids into major towns in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso last summer, observers suggested they had been inspired by their counterparts in Syria, who had overthrown the regim...
Coordinated attack by JNIM and the Tuareg minority inflicted significant casualties on government forces and Russian auxiliaries When al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants launched a series of attacks on military bases and raids into major towns in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso last summer, observers suggested they had been inspired by their counterparts in Syria, who had overthrown the regime of Bashar al-Assad and taken power six months or so earlier. Despite the tactical successes that earned them the fearful title of the “Ghost Army”, seizing swathes of territory and denying cities and the military of fuel and other essentials, the chances of Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) definitively defeating Mali’s military regime and the thousand or so Russian mercenaries hired to defend it looked poor. Continue reading...
Maria Lax’s images are inspired by the phenomenon of ‘stray sod’, in which patches of enchanted land are said to lead astray anyone who steps on them Continue reading...
Maria Lax’s images are inspired by the phenomenon of ‘stray sod’, in which patches of enchanted land are said to lead astray anyone who steps on them Continue reading...
A Chinese man has miraculously survived after his heart stopped beating for 40 hours, sparking an online discussion about the latest life-saving medical techniques. The case came to light after emergency doctor Lu Xiao from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine posted it on his social media account, which has three million followers. Lu said the 40-year-old man h...
A Chinese man has miraculously survived after his heart stopped beating for 40 hours, sparking an online discussion about the latest life-saving medical techniques. The case came to light after emergency doctor Lu Xiao from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine posted it on his social media account, which has three million followers. Lu said the 40-year-old man had a cardiac arrest and no heartbeat could be found after several electric defibrillations. The...
sankai/iStock via Getty Images A couple of weeks ago, Meta’s ( META ) internal dashboard for “tokenmaxxing” got a lot of attention after The Information reported (subscription required) on it. Although such tokenmaxxing phenomena only started getting attention recently, Shopify ( SHOP ) has been doing something similar since mid-2025. It is also hardly a Meta or Shopify-specific thing; Microsoft (...
sankai/iStock via Getty Images A couple of weeks ago, Meta’s ( META ) internal dashboard for “tokenmaxxing” got a lot of attention after The Information reported (subscription required) on it. Although such tokenmaxxing phenomena only started getting attention recently, Shopify ( SHOP ) has been doing something similar since mid-2025. It is also hardly a Meta or Shopify-specific thing; Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Salesforce ( CRM ) are also apparently following something similar. In a recent podcast , Shopify’s CTO, Mikhail Parakhin, shared some interesting data on AI tool usage at Shopify. Perhaps the most interesting data point is nearly everyone on Shopify is using at least one of the AI tools daily. In the image below, the green line indicates the percentage of employees at Shopify who use at least one AI tool daily. In early 2026, only half of Shopify employees used one of the AI tools daily. Today, this number is basically approaching 100%. Opus 4.5 was basically a game changer for adoption, which has been driving the tokenmaxxing era at full speed. Parakhin didn’t share exactly what each of the lines below denotes, but since he mentioned CLI-based tools are becoming more popular within Shopify, it’s probably fair to assume that the brown/tan line refers to Claude Code (Anthropic ( ANTHRO )), and orange to Codex ( OPENAI ), which are currently used by ~70% and ~55% of employees, respectively, on a daily basis in Shopify. Interestingly, he also indicated that tools that require IDEs, such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor are still growing, but they’re losing share rapidly (red line in the image). Any Shopify employee can use any AI tool with an unlimited token budget. Source: Screenshot from Latent Space podcast One interesting tidbit from the conversation is that even though everyone is using AI tools on a daily basis, there is a fair amount of inequality in usage. The top 10 percentile is actually growing significantly faster than the rest at Shopify, and I suspect th...
ttart/iStock via Getty Images By Warren Patterson , Head of Commodities Strategy Lingering supply disruptions lifting floor for the oil market Eight weeks have now passed since US and Israeli strikes on Iran. This led to the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for the global oil market, with roughly 20m b/d of oil moving through the strait prior to the war. After considering...
ttart/iStock via Getty Images By Warren Patterson , Head of Commodities Strategy Lingering supply disruptions lifting floor for the oil market Eight weeks have now passed since US and Israeli strikes on Iran. This led to the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for the global oil market, with roughly 20m b/d of oil moving through the strait prior to the war. After considering the diversion of some oil via pipelines and the trickle of tankers still making it through the Strait of Hormuz, around 14m b/d of oil supply is currently disrupted. Over the first 2 months of the conflict, around 850m barrels of supply have been lost. Clearly, the disruption grows every day that passes without a resolution. While Iranian oil had been moving through the Strait of Hormuz largely unaffected, the US blockade poses some risk to these flows. Prior to the blockade, we were estimating Iranian oil exports of around 1.5m b/d. In our base case, we initially assumed that we would start to see a gradual resumption of flows through the Strait of Hormuz in April. However, this has clearly not materialised. Therefore, we are updating our base case assumptions and, as a result, revising higher our ICE Brent forecasts. We are now assuming that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz will slowly start resuming in May and June and remain below pre-war levels for most of the year. This longer return allows for the gradual resumption of upstream production, which has had to shut in due to storage constraints. It also allows for potential infrastructure damage, which could further slow the return to pre-war levels. Our new base case sees ICE Brent averaging $104/bbl ($96 previously) over 2Q26, while the significant inventory drawdown and slow recovery towards pre-war flows see Brent averaging $92/bbl ($88/bbl previously) over 4Q26. Low inventories and the need to restock, whether commercial or strategic reserves, also suggest that oil prices will remain relatively well supported...
Orbán Vs Magyar: Did The EU Get Played? Authored by Arthur Schaper via American Greatness, Viktor Orbán, the valiant populist, the restorer of the Christian faith in Hungary, the welcome thorn in the side of the EU establishment, and the strong ally of President Trump since his first bid for office, has lost his own re-election bid. I had a feeling it would come to this. Sixteen years of uninterru...
Orbán Vs Magyar: Did The EU Get Played? Authored by Arthur Schaper via American Greatness, Viktor Orbán, the valiant populist, the restorer of the Christian faith in Hungary, the welcome thorn in the side of the EU establishment, and the strong ally of President Trump since his first bid for office, has lost his own re-election bid. I had a feeling it would come to this. Sixteen years of uninterrupted administration as a strong force for conservative, right-wing nationalist populism have come to an end, at least with Orbán as the head of it. Sometimes, voters have a strange fatigue when it comes to governments. Fourteen years of a “conservative” UK government ushered in the Labour Party in 2024. However, fatigue doesn’t explain Orbán’s crushing loss. What set that off? Corruption charges and the argument that his administration had looked the other way when sex abuse scandals broke out at a local school. Economics reared its ugly head, as well, since the EU was cutting off its funding. Orbán’s supposed lack of judicial reforms, as well as his uniform check on EU policy, frustrated Brussels. Orbán faced a crisis election, and inviting US VP JD Vance to campaign on his behalf didn’t help. Why would Hungarian voters care what a foreign politician thinks? This desperate move only exacerbated how out of touch the Orbán government had become. Critics also saw him as too close to Russian “president” Vladimir Putin and unhelpful in resolving the Russo-Ukrainian war. The EU had been waiting for this opportunity: an unpopular Orbán facing electoral collapse. They were salivating for a post-Orbán Hungary, one that would stop its Christian restorationism, welcome more LGBT promotion, tolerate more spending, and open its borders. Would the Orbán replacement accomplish their scheme? His challenger, Péter Magyar, was trained and prepped as an Orbán acolyte. In 2024, he broke from his party, but not over core policy. Magyar (whose name means “Hungarian,” for what it’s worth) campai...
Dynatrace ( DT ) stock price jumped about 8% on Tuesday pre-market trade after a report that activist hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a significant stake and is pushing for strategic changes. The activist investor is pushing for changes that could help boost the stock, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites a draft letter. The letter, authored by managing member Peter Feld , is ...
Dynatrace ( DT ) stock price jumped about 8% on Tuesday pre-market trade after a report that activist hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a significant stake and is pushing for strategic changes. The activist investor is pushing for changes that could help boost the stock, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites a draft letter. The letter, authored by managing member Peter Feld , is expected to be delivered on Tuesday. Starboard, now one of Dynatrace’s ( DT ) top five shareholders, is urging the company to accelerate its share buyback program and push margins higher, arguing the stock trades at a discount to software peers. The move comes after Dynatrace’s ( DT ) shares had fallen more than 17% year‑to‑date, amid concerns over slowing revenue growth and short‑term execution. More on Dynatrace Dynatrace, Inc. (DT) Presents at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2026 Transcript Dynatrace: Growth Should Start To Accelerate Dynatrace Is Still Growing Quickly Despite A Conservative Valuation Dynatrace, Elastic in focus as Goldman Sachs starts coverage Datadog, Palantir have potential to accelerate growth, raise outlook: Morgan Stanley
Good morning . Keir Starmer counts on Labour support ahead of a political showdown. South Korea’s stock market overtakes the UK’s. And the Ray-Ban heir is buying out two siblings for €10 billion. Listen to the day’s top stories . Any hope that Keir Starmer had of putting aside the Peter Mandelson saga will have to wait as the British prime minister braces for another day of parliamentary inquiry i...
Good morning . Keir Starmer counts on Labour support ahead of a political showdown. South Korea’s stock market overtakes the UK’s. And the Ray-Ban heir is buying out two siblings for €10 billion. Listen to the day’s top stories . Any hope that Keir Starmer had of putting aside the Peter Mandelson saga will have to wait as the British prime minister braces for another day of parliamentary inquiry into his disastrous appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Starmer faces a high-stakes vote today on whether to begin an investigation into his assurances to Parliament that due process had been followed in the appointment. The debate will come alongside several hours of committee hearings on the vetting process that cleared Mandelson to take up the post in Washington despite red flags raised by security officials. Mideast latest . The White House was weighing Iran’s latest proposal , but maintained “red lines” on any deal to end the war. The Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump and his advisers were wary of Tehran’s offer, particularly regarding the country’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, an LNG tanker appeared to exit the Strait of Hormuz, the first since the start of the conflict. Check out our Markets Today live blog for all the latest news and analysis relevant to UK assets. Trump welcomed King Charles III to the White House for a state visit . The British monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, were greeted by the president and First Lady Melania Trump at the start of a four-day trip, his first state visit to the US since becoming king in 2022 . The couples exchanged handshakes and posed for a photo at the South Portico of the White House before walking inside. South Korea has leapfrogged the UK to become the world’s eighth-biggest stock market, fueled by a rally in its AI-linked technology companies. The total market capitalization of Korean-listed companies has surged more than 45% this year to $4.04 trillion, while the UK’s has climbed about 3% to $3...