The Law Society, according to your report (Mahmood’s move to make asylum temporary ‘may undermine refugee convention’, 2 March), believes the home secretary’s changes to “refugee status” might not comply with the UK’s legal obligations. That is important, but our wider concern should be with our moral and humanitarian obligations. The UN’s refugee convention was drawn up to give those driven from ...
The Law Society, according to your report (Mahmood’s move to make asylum temporary ‘may undermine refugee convention’, 2 March), believes the home secretary’s changes to “refugee status” might not comply with the UK’s legal obligations. That is important, but our wider concern should be with our moral and humanitarian obligations. The UN’s refugee convention was drawn up to give those driven from their homes by persecution not just sanctuary, but an opportunity to build new lives. It requires a response that is compassionate as well as legal, but the new rules will leave refugees in a cruel state of uncertainty. Refugees will not be able to settle in any meaningful way if they know their right to live in the UK is to be reviewed every 30 months. Who will give them mortgages to buy homes if they can’t guarantee being here for more than a couple of years; how can they develop their careers when employers know that their employment may only be short-term; and how can young people plan their education when college courses may last longer than their right to stay? Is this really how a Labour government should be treating those who have needed to flee from their homes and whose claims for asylum have already been accepted? What has happened to the “moral crusade” which Harold Wilson believed Labour must be? I am sure that I am not the only person who remains a Labour member in hope that Labour will rediscover its soul, but is thankful that our electoral system will not let the party know how we cast our votes. Dr Ken Ritchie Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross The home secretary talks about her reforms to the asylum system, including reprocessing applications every two and a half years, as a means to end “pull factors” for refugees. This shows a disturbing lack of awareness about the current system. The majority of those seeking asylum who we work with come to the UK because they have existing ties to this country. It is where they feel the safest in rebuilding their lives aft...
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Amazon's (AMZN 2.61%) latest results was the additional $200 billion it plans to spend -- mostly on Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- this year. That figure blew well past analyst expectations and shows just how much Amazon and companies like it are betting on AI. It's really no wonder why. AWS was far and away Amazon's fastest-growing revenue stream as of its latest qua...
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Amazon's (AMZN 2.61%) latest results was the additional $200 billion it plans to spend -- mostly on Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- this year. That figure blew well past analyst expectations and shows just how much Amazon and companies like it are betting on AI. It's really no wonder why. AWS was far and away Amazon's fastest-growing revenue stream as of its latest quarter, with sales up 24% year over year for the 2025 fourth quarter. While Amazon does design some of its hardware in-house, even Jeff Bezos' brainchild doesn't have all the money and expertise it needs to create its own AI hardware ecosystem. And, like most other companies involved in the AI industry, Amazon needs to work with Nvidia (NVDA 2.94%) to bring its goals to fruition. So, I expect Nvidia will be one of, if not the biggest beneficiary of Amazon's $200 billion investment. With a little help from its friends Nvidia doesn't need much in the way of an introduction. The company was probably the biggest stock market story in 2025, especially when it broke out above $5 trillion in valuation late last year. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the preferred hardware for all the most advanced AI programs out there. And while Nvidia is facing some competition now, namely from Alphabet's (GOOG 0.87%) Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), it remains the dominant AI hardware player with about 92% market share. Amazon and Nvidia have a rather cozy relationship stretching back 15 years, and it seems to be a mutually beneficial one. AWS' AI infrastructure runs on Nvidia hardware, and the two companies have heavily integrated their technology. In December of last year, Amazon and Nvidia expanded their partnership with AWS, adding support for Nvidia's NVLink Fusion AI infrastructure. Amazon also plans for its Trainium4 chip to integrate and play nice with Nvidia's products. The partnership expansion includes the integration of Nvidia's software into AWS' AI suite, meaning AWS develope...
Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Meta Platforms signed multi year AI chip and infrastructure agreements with Nvidia, AMD, and Google to support its next generation AI systems. The company is pursuing a major data center expansion, including a potential site in Texas that previously had interest from Oracle and O...
Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Meta Platforms signed multi year AI chip and infrastructure agreements with Nvidia, AMD, and Google to support its next generation AI systems. The company is pursuing a major data center expansion, including a potential site in Texas that previously had interest from Oracle and OpenAI, with Nvidia involved in facilitating a possible lease. Meta also secured a content licensing deal with News Corp to use premium news content for AI training across its platforms. For investors tracking NasdaqGS:META, these moves come as the stock trades around $644.86 and has returned 3.4% over the past year and very large gains over 3 years. The company is reinforcing its role in large scale AI, tying together hardware access, infrastructure, and content as inputs for future products and services. Looking ahead, the combination of long term chip supply, expanded data center capacity, and licensed content gives Meta more control over key resources for AI development. For you as an investor, the focus now is how efficiently Meta converts this heavier AI spend into products that keep users engaged and advertisers interested. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Meta Platforms by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Meta Platforms. NasdaqGS:META Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Mar 2026 3 things going right for Meta Platforms that this headline doesn't cover. These agreements indicate that Meta wants to secure the raw ingredients of AI at scale: compute, data centers, and premium data. The multi year chip deals with Nvidia, AMD, and Google give Meta access to different types of AI hardware for both training and inference, which can matter for recommendation systems, generative AI tools, and ad products across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The potential Texas data center and simi...
Like it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely going to be the driving theme of this market over the coming years. As such, let's look at two AI stocks to hold for the next two years. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing One of the best ways to play the AI infrastructure boom, in my opinion, is through an investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 4.37%). Making logic chips is not...
Like it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely going to be the driving theme of this market over the coming years. As such, let's look at two AI stocks to hold for the next two years. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing One of the best ways to play the AI infrastructure boom, in my opinion, is through an investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 4.37%). Making logic chips is not easy, as foundries need to continually work to shrink nodes (make chips denser) to improve chip performance, and fabs (chip factories) need to run at nearly full utilization to typically be profitable. As such, most chip companies today outsource their manufacturing to independent foundries like TSMC. The company has become the clear market leader for manufacturing advanced chips at small nodes due to its technological expertise and scale. As competitors have struggled to achieve high yields (few defects) for smaller-sized nodes at a large scale, TSMC has established itself as a virtual monopoly for manufacturing advanced chips. As such, the company will continue to be a huge winner from the AI data center boom because it will be the main manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs) and other AI chips. Meanwhile, it will also have an opportunity with advanced central processing units (CPUs), which will become increasingly necessary with the advent of agentic AI. This makes it a stock to own over the next two years and beyond. Expand NYSE : TSM Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Today's Change ( -4.37 %) $ -15.47 Current Price $ 338.39 Key Data Points Market Cap $1.8T Day's Range $ 336.70 - $ 348.69 52wk Range $ 134.25 - $ 390.20 Volume 750K Avg Vol 13M Gross Margin 58.73 % Dividend Yield 0.91 % ServiceNow The market has deemed infrastructure stocks winners and software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks as losers when it comes to AI, but don't be surprised if the beaten-down SaaS sector outperforms over the next couple of years. One of my favorites in the space is ServiceNow (...
Key Points TSMC is one of the best ways to play the AI infrastructure boom. ServiceNow is a great beaten-down software-as-a-service stock that looks poised to rebound. 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing › Like it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely going to be the driving theme of this market over the coming years. As such, let's look at two AI stocks to ho...
Key Points TSMC is one of the best ways to play the AI infrastructure boom. ServiceNow is a great beaten-down software-as-a-service stock that looks poised to rebound. 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing › Like it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely going to be the driving theme of this market over the coming years. As such, let's look at two AI stocks to hold for the next two years. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing One of the best ways to play the AI infrastructure boom, in my opinion, is through an investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). Making logic chips is not easy, as foundries need to continually work to shrink nodes (make chips denser) to improve chip performance, and fabs (chip factories) need to run at nearly full utilization to typically be profitable. As such, most chip companies today outsource their manufacturing to independent foundries like TSMC. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » The company has become the clear market leader for manufacturing advanced chips at small nodes due to its technological expertise and scale. As competitors have struggled to achieve high yields (few defects) for smaller-sized nodes at a large scale, TSMC has established itself as a virtual monopoly for manufacturing advanced chips. As such, the company will continue to be a huge winner from the AI data center boom because it will be the main manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs) and other AI chips. Meanwhile, it will also have an opportunity with advanced central processing units (CPUs), which will become increasingly necessary with the advent of agentic AI. This makes it a stock to own over the next two years and beyond. ServiceNow The market has deemed infrastructure stocks winners and software-as-a-service (SaaS) st...
In suggesting there is a possibility that we all lie somewhere on an ADHD continuum, your correspondent (Letters, 27 February) is missing the point. ADHD – and autism – are neurodiversities, meaning that the brains of individuals with ADHD and/or autism are “wired” differently from those of people with “typical” brains. In other words, you either have it or you don’t. To suggest that everyone is a...
In suggesting there is a possibility that we all lie somewhere on an ADHD continuum, your correspondent (Letters, 27 February) is missing the point. ADHD – and autism – are neurodiversities, meaning that the brains of individuals with ADHD and/or autism are “wired” differently from those of people with “typical” brains. In other words, you either have it or you don’t. To suggest that everyone is a bit ADHD or a bit autistic is insulting to those of us who actually are ADHD/autistic, and diminishes our lived experience. Yes, self-help tools can be useful. But the affirmation of a diagnosis can also be hugely beneficial. I am a children’s health professional who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 56 and ADHD at the age of 57. I cannot overstate the difference this has made to my mental health and my approach to my life. I spent my life pre-diagnosis unknowingly developing strategies to cope with my neurodiversities, while at the same time suffering from depression and low self-esteem, wondering why on earth I couldn’t just do things like everyone else and wondering why people told me I was “weird”. If I had been diagnosed at an early age, I would hopefully have understood myself better, not had to mask my difficulties and not been so hard on myself. I am now able to reflect on past behaviours and mistakes and forgive myself for these. These diagnoses are not “labels”. They are explanations of who people are. In my professional role I advise parents to pursue assessment for ADHD or autism for their children. The process of diagnosis is robust and not undertaken lightly. Please don’t campaign to take this away from us. Francesca Finch-Andrews Belper, Derbyshire
Your editorial on adult services websites (4 March) rightly raises urgent questions about platform harm and the government’s responsibility to act. Unseen’s modern slavery helpline indicated 799 potential victims of sexual exploitation in 2025. Reports of child sexual exploitation more than doubled in 2024 – from 53 to 110. These are not projections. They are cases reported directly to us by victi...
Your editorial on adult services websites (4 March) rightly raises urgent questions about platform harm and the government’s responsibility to act. Unseen’s modern slavery helpline indicated 799 potential victims of sexual exploitation in 2025. Reports of child sexual exploitation more than doubled in 2024 – from 53 to 110. These are not projections. They are cases reported directly to us by victims and frontline workers with nowhere else to call. The structural point your editorial identifies is the right one. This is not isolated bad actors using neutral tools. Platform design embeds harm and restricts exit routes. That is a design question, and design questions require design answers. The Online Safety Act already provides the framework. What is missing is the will to enforce it. Removing platforms does not end exploitation. It moves it underground and severs victims from support. The question is not whether these platforms should face tougher regulation. They should. The question is whether the response is designed to reduce harm or merely to reduce visibility. Those are not the same thing. Andrew Wallis CEO, Unseen, Bristol
The news doesn’t stop when markets close. Hosts David Gura, Christina Ruffini and Lisa Mateo bring clarity, context and a bit of humor to the weekend’s biggest headlines, LIVE from New York. Joined by S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, The Atlantic Staff Writer Nancy Youssef, 6-Time Olympic Medalists Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, Former US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, BIMCO Ch...
The news doesn’t stop when markets close. Hosts David Gura, Christina Ruffini and Lisa Mateo bring clarity, context and a bit of humor to the weekend’s biggest headlines, LIVE from New York. Joined by S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, The Atlantic Staff Writer Nancy Youssef, 6-Time Olympic Medalists Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor, Former US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, BIMCO Chief Safety & Security Officer Jakob Larsen, Senator Mike Rounds, Puck News Washington Reporter Abby Livingston and Journalist & Author Philip Delves Broughton. (Source: Bloomberg)
Jane Logan pays tribute to her late husband’s lifelong passion for classifying organisms My late husband, Niall Logan , professor of bacterial systematics at Glasgow Caledonian University, would have been astonished that his lifelong field of academic study, taxonomy, in his case the genus Bacillus , would merit an entire article in the Guardian ( ‘I love midges because I know what their hearts lo...
Jane Logan pays tribute to her late husband’s lifelong passion for classifying organisms My late husband, Niall Logan , professor of bacterial systematics at Glasgow Caledonian University, would have been astonished that his lifelong field of academic study, taxonomy, in his case the genus Bacillus , would merit an entire article in the Guardian ( ‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out?, 2 March ). It is certainly not sexy science, and chasing funding for research projects was always tiresome. However, how about mentioning some of the spinoffs of his research, which many would have thought dry in the extreme? He spent time in the Antarctic researching Bacillus species found in geothermal soils, his expertise was sought when old tannery sites were to be redeveloped to exclude presence of anthrax, and the food industry needed his expertise when investigating food spoilage. His knowledge was valued and his guest lectures were welcomed worldwide. Continue reading...
Fans clashed on the Ibrox pitch after Celtic knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup on penalties. The visitors progressed to the semi-finals despite failing to register a single shot on target in 120 minutes of action. Celtic secured a 4-2 shootout victory after the goalless draw before dozens of their fans invaded the pitch. That sparked an invasion from hundreds of Rangers supporters and missil...
Fans clashed on the Ibrox pitch after Celtic knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup on penalties. The visitors progressed to the semi-finals despite failing to register a single shot on target in 120 minutes of action. Celtic secured a 4-2 shootout victory after the goalless draw before dozens of their fans invaded the pitch. That sparked an invasion from hundreds of Rangers supporters and missiles were thrown as police and stewards moved to form a barrier. Flares were thrown and some minor skirmishes appeared to take place before order was restored and the 7,500 Celtic fans were left to celebrate alone. The Rangers captain, James Tavernier, hit the bar with the first penalty before his fellow substitute Djeidi Gassama blazed over, with Tomas Cvancara then sealing the victory and prompting the chaos. The Celtic striker Daizen Maeda had a goal disallowed for offside following a video assistant referee review, but Martin O’Neill’s side otherwise never threatened. Statistics showed that Rangers managed 24 shots and they also had a goal wiped out by VAR following an obvious handball by Emmanuel Fernandez. But the hosts struggled to seriously test Viljami Sinisalo and were denied on a number of occasions by some penalty-box blocks. View image in fullscreen Police officer and stewards form a line to separate the fans on the pitch after the end of the game. Photograph: Steve Welsh/PA Celtic were missing their captain, Callum McGregor, and Kieran Tierney after injuries picked up in the midweek win at Aberdeen. Luke McCowan came into central midfield, while Liam Scales moved to left-back as Auston Trusty came in amid a three-match league suspension. Maeda started through the middle. There was also a notable omission in the Rangers team as John Souttar was dropped to the bench along with Tochi Chukwuani. The hosts forced the early pressure and there was flashpoint when Trusty blocked Youssef Chermiti’s strike with an arm. But it was tucked into his body and video assistant, ...
The performing arts industry in the UK is “inhospitable to parents” and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research. The report, titled “the Motherhood penalty”, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out. Its author, Jennifer Tuckett,...
The performing arts industry in the UK is “inhospitable to parents” and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research. The report, titled “the Motherhood penalty”, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out. Its author, Jennifer Tuckett, a playwright, said: “Caring responsibilities were one of the major issues affecting women’s careers in the arts. “We were shocked to find problems like schedules being sent out the night before and the impact this has on parents, and we would urge both arts organisations and policymakers to look at new models which support both women and men to achieve success in the workplace and at home.” The actor Gemma Arterton, who was involved in the research, said “long working hours, a lack of flexibility and the need to travel without there being support in place” were all familiar issues for women and mothers in the industry. Potential solutions included initial meetings to discuss needs, schedules being sent out earlier, greater flexibility, and targeted projects to help parents return to the workplace, Tuckett added. The report, which is the outcome of a Women in Theatre research project supported by Equity and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain among others, drew on focus groups and questionnaires of 10 senior industry professionals, all of whom felt there was a need for the arts to improve how they support mothers and parents. It was intended to identify the problems and form the basis for further research under the umbrella of two new organisations, Women in Arts and Women in Theatre, which will also run mentoring programmes and networking events. An Arts Council England spokesperson said it had been building on the work through the establishment last July of a task and finish group to address the needs of women across the cultural sector, including glass ceilings, harassme...
Nigel Farage’s attempt to reach the Chagos Islands military base was made on a private jet that appears to be linked to Reform UK’s mega-donor Christopher Harborne, it has emerged. Harborne, who has donated £12m to Reform UK, has links to two charter planes that flew Farage to the Maldives and, separately, a group of Chagossian campaigners to Sri Lanka, before they attempted to reach the archipela...
Nigel Farage’s attempt to reach the Chagos Islands military base was made on a private jet that appears to be linked to Reform UK’s mega-donor Christopher Harborne, it has emerged. Harborne, who has donated £12m to Reform UK, has links to two charter planes that flew Farage to the Maldives and, separately, a group of Chagossian campaigners to Sri Lanka, before they attempted to reach the archipelago by boat. The Thailand-based cryptocurrency and aviation investor did not reply to requests for comment about whether he owns the planes that facilitated the stunt. The trip ended in failure for the Reform UK leader after he was unable to reach the islands without permission from the UK government to access the military base. Farage said he undertook the trip to highlight the plight of the Chagossians, whose families were removed from the islands in the 1960s and are seeking to return. He also opposes the UK government’s decision to hand sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius to comply with international law while continuing to lease the base from them. Although Farage did not reach the islands, it generated attention for Reform as the party sought to set the political agenda on the Chagos Islands controversy. While a precise equivalent cost for the trip is unavailable, private jets of the size of those used would typically cost upwards of £10,000 an hour between the two. The disclosure underlines the importance of Harborne, one of the biggest donors in British political history, to Farage’s operation. It emerged this week that he donated a further £3m to Reform in the last quarter of 2025 after a record £9m gift last summer. The intensely private mega-donor’s ongoing generosity is likely to renew demands for greater transparency into the sources of donations in British politics. Farage has in the past raised questions about the optics of donors providing funding to leading political figures. When Keir Starmer was revealed to have accepted more than £16,000 for work clot...
Markets enter a critical week following last week's February jobs report that showed the U.S. economy lost around 92,000 jobs, which was a dramatic miss that has intensified recession concerns and raised questions about economic resilience amid escalating geopolitical tensions. The unexpected job losses create a challenging backdrop for Wednesday's all-important February CPI report at 7:30am, whic...
Markets enter a critical week following last week's February jobs report that showed the U.S. economy lost around 92,000 jobs, which was a dramatic miss that has intensified recession concerns and raised questions about economic resilience amid escalating geopolitical tensions. The unexpected job losses create a challenging backdrop for Wednesday's all-important February CPI report at 7:30am, which will test whether inflation is finally moderating enough to allow aggressive Fed accommodation or if price pressures remain stubbornly elevated despite weakening employment. Developments in the Iran conflict and energy prices will dominate attention, with any comments from President Trump potentially moving markets as investors assess whether Middle East tensions will escalate further or find diplomatic resolution. Friday delivers another big economic data day with January Core PCE Price Index, durable goods orders, and additional inflation metrics all releasing at 7:30am, providing comprehensive perspectives on price pressures and business investment. The earnings calendar features Oracle (ORCL) Tuesday testing cloud infrastructure demand, followed by Alibaba (BABA) and Adobe (ADBE) Thursday offering Chinese consumer and creative software insights. Here are 5 things to watch this week in the Market. Iran Conflict Escalation and Energy Market Dynamics The ongoing Iran war continues driving energy prices higher while creating broader market volatility as investors grapple with geopolitical risk premium and potential economic impacts from sustained oil price elevation. President Trump's comments on the conflict will be closely monitored for any signals about military strategy, diplomatic efforts, or policy shifts that could influence tension trajectories. Higher energy prices create a complex challenge for markets: supporting energy sector stocks while pressuring airlines, transportation, and consumer-facing companies through margin compression, and threatening to reignite ...
With agentic AI, businesses are conducting business more dynamically. Instead of traditional pre-programmed bots and static rules, agents can now “think” and invent alternate paths when unseen conditions arise. For instance, using a business domain ontology like FIBO (financial industry business ontology) can help keep agents within guardrails and avoid unwanted behavior. The bottleneck is now in ...
With agentic AI, businesses are conducting business more dynamically. Instead of traditional pre-programmed bots and static rules, agents can now “think” and invent alternate paths when unseen conditions arise. For instance, using a business domain ontology like FIBO (financial industry business ontology) can help keep agents within guardrails and avoid unwanted behavior. The bottleneck is now in the user experience (UX) layer. While agents are dynamic and transform with the data drift guided by ontology, the user interface is still very much static. These experiences with fixed fields and configurations can hamper the creative freedom given to agents. Modern standards like AG-UI (agent User interface) help streamline communication between UX and agents — but still the screens must be pre-defined at design time. A newer technology is taking this to the next level, dynamically allowing agents to render their desired user screen based on specific content. One is A2UI - agent to user interface . With A2UI, we first define a UX schema for how components should be rendered. This loosely coupled schema allows agents to build screens as per the data. Agents now communicate with a A2Ui compliant “renderer” that dynamically renders screens based on JSON content that agents produce dynamically. Screens are fully interactive and can communicate back with respective agents using AG-UI. Companies like Copilotkit are actively building A2UI renderers that can dynamically build the UI from JSON spec and wire it together back to the agent via AG-Ui. Moreover, using newer compression standards like token object notation (TOON) can help obtain highly efficient compression and include schema like ontology and A2UI into context prompts. Of course, as models get smarter, they will also include capability to auto generate screens compliant with A2UI and AG-UI via pre-training. The below schematic explains one view of this architecture. As shown, the A2UI specification is complementary to ...
John Crace asserts that Kemi Badenoch is “the worst leader of the Tory party in living memory” (Badenoch gives a borderline disgraceful performance at PMQs on Iran, 4 March). Really? Worse than Liz Truss? Roshi Saul Avening, Gloucestershire A warm welcome to “Britain’s newest affordable towns” (Revealed: the new affordable commuter hotspots in Great Britain, 7 March). Could this replace the Fantas...
John Crace asserts that Kemi Badenoch is “the worst leader of the Tory party in living memory” (Badenoch gives a borderline disgraceful performance at PMQs on Iran, 4 March). Really? Worse than Liz Truss? Roshi Saul Avening, Gloucestershire A warm welcome to “Britain’s newest affordable towns” (Revealed: the new affordable commuter hotspots in Great Britain, 7 March). Could this replace the Fantasy house hunt series, please? John Pelling Coddenham, Suffolk Perhaps it takes longer to learn dog owners’ names because they don’t so frequently have to be called to heel (Letters, 5 March). Maggie’s owner, whom I first met while dog walking on the sand dunes at least seven years ago, decided to introduce himself last week. Valerie Pedlar Southport, Merseyside Emma Brockes reports that the most shoplifted chocolate in London is Ferrero Rocher (Digested week, 27 February). Must be those light-fingered ambassadors. Quentin Rubens Twickenham, London I too had a Belling bed warmer when I was young (Letters, 3 March), which I swapped for a husband. I have him still, although after 50 years, the heat output may not be what once it was. Margaret Ward Carluke, South Lanarkshire Interesting though they are, the letters on how to fall asleep are of little use to me (Letters, 4 March). As a 95-year-old with a tendency to doze off, I would prefer some advice on how to stay awake, especially in front of the television. Cyril Duff London
President Emmanuel Macron will visit Cyprus on Monday, his office said, as France deploys warships to the Mediterranean following a drone attack on the island EU member days ago. Macron will meet Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paphos to show “solidarity” and detail moves to “strengthen security around Cyprus and in the eastern Mediterranea...
President Emmanuel Macron will visit Cyprus on Monday, his office said, as France deploys warships to the Mediterranean following a drone attack on the island EU member days ago. Macron will meet Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Paphos to show “solidarity” and detail moves to “strengthen security around Cyprus and in the eastern Mediterranean”, the Elysee said on Sunday. The visit will take place as the war pitting US and Israel against Iran is in its second week, affecting much of the Middle East. Advertisement Cyprus on Monday was targeted by Iranian-made drones, leading Macron to order France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean and a frigate and air defence units to Cyprus. “This trip is intended to demonstrate France’s solidarity with Cyprus, a member state of the European Union with which we have a strategic partnership” and which was recently hit “by several drones and missile strikes”, the Elysee said. Advertisement France has insisted its stance in the region is “strictly defensive”. The visit to Cyprus will also allow Macron “to emphasise the importance of guaranteeing freedom of navigation and maritime security in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, in particular through the European Union’s Aspides maritime operation,” it added.