Being a passenger in this vast country is ‘a full-blooded immersion in the local’, says the novelist whose latest protagonist is lured by the romance of the rails I carry my train journeys in my bones, the juddering song of the Indian rail. Our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, famously likened India to a palimpsest, no layer quite effacing the one that went before. That’s how I think of Ind...
Being a passenger in this vast country is ‘a full-blooded immersion in the local’, says the novelist whose latest protagonist is lured by the romance of the rails I carry my train journeys in my bones, the juddering song of the Indian rail. Our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, famously likened India to a palimpsest, no layer quite effacing the one that went before. That’s how I think of Indian railway journeys. They inscribe on the mind our fellow travellers, our ways, our thousand languages, our landscapes, our climate. I think of a rail journey I made in 1998 – that brutal summer of nuclear testing – setting out from Mumbai, in an ordinary three-tier sleeper, for Dehradun, 1,000 miles (1,600km) north. The frazzled train fell off any semblance of a schedule. The voyage grew longer, past 50 hours; hotter, past 50C. I remember the metallic burn on the window grilles; the hot, killing wind that blew through them; the sizzle of water drops splashed on the face when theyhit the uncovered platforms in the heart of the country; the melt of my rubber soles. A fortnight later, having trekked to the mouth of a tributary of the Ganges, completing my expedition from the Arabian Sea to a Himalayan glacier, it was possible to look back on the rail ordeal with affection. Continue reading...
When the Davydenko family woke up at night shivering in their winter coats and hats under several layers of duvets, they knew it was time to move. Systematic Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid had left their 12th-floor flat with no electricity for eight days and heating for almost two weeks. Luckily, the family has a cafe near the city centre they could decamp to ‘They want to break us’: Rus...
When the Davydenko family woke up at night shivering in their winter coats and hats under several layers of duvets, they knew it was time to move. Systematic Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid had left their 12th-floor flat with no electricity for eight days and heating for almost two weeks. Luckily, the family has a cafe near the city centre they could decamp to ‘They want to break us’: Russian energy grid strikes give freezing Kyiv some of its darkest days Continue reading...
Spanning eras of conflict and Covid in Lebanon, this irresistible queer coming-of-age tale explores what it means to be truly free Meet Raja, the narrator of Rabih Alameddine’s new novel. A 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher and drag entertainer, he is a stickler for rules and boundaries, living in a tiny Beirut flat with his octogenarian mother, the nosy and unfettered Zalfa. Invited to a writing...
Spanning eras of conflict and Covid in Lebanon, this irresistible queer coming-of-age tale explores what it means to be truly free Meet Raja, the narrator of Rabih Alameddine’s new novel. A 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher and drag entertainer, he is a stickler for rules and boundaries, living in a tiny Beirut flat with his octogenarian mother, the nosy and unfettered Zalfa. Invited to a writing residency in the US, Raja will use the occasion to relate his life – that is, if you don’t mind him taking the scenic route. “A tale has many tails, and many heads, particularly if it’s true,” Raja tells us. “Like life, it is a river with many branches, rivulets, creeks and distributaries.” Winner of the 2025 US National Book Award for fiction, Alameddine’s seventh novel opens and closes in 2023, but the bulk of its action takes place earlier: encompassing the lead-up to and aftermath of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), the Covid pandemic, Lebanon’s 2019 banking crisis, and the Beirut port explosion in 2020. If this timeline makes the book sound like a punishing tour of Lebanese history, I promise it isn’t. More than a war chronicle or national exposé, it is a queer coming-of-age tale, an exploration of the bond between a mother and a son, and a meditation on storytelling, memory, survival and what it means to be truly free. Told in a voice as irresistibly buoyant as it is unapologetically camp, this rule-breaking spin on the trauma plot holds on to its cheer in the face of sobering material. Poignant but never cynical, often dark but never dour, wise without being showy and always eager to crack a joke, this is a novel that insists that the pain of the past need overwhelm neither present nor narrative, identity nor personality. With Sartre as his guide, and a drag fabulousness all his own, Raja shows us how. Continue reading...
People are (rightly) complaining about the records being set for extreme rainfall. Personally, I’m finding it oddly rewarding Whenever it rained when I was a child, my mother did something that seemed normal at the time yet seems quite mad looking back: she dragged the huge, heavy plants from the living room – the massive bird of paradise; the hulking clivias in their enormous tubs – out on to the...
People are (rightly) complaining about the records being set for extreme rainfall. Personally, I’m finding it oddly rewarding Whenever it rained when I was a child, my mother did something that seemed normal at the time yet seems quite mad looking back: she dragged the huge, heavy plants from the living room – the massive bird of paradise; the hulking clivias in their enormous tubs – out on to the patio so they could “enjoy a drink”. She came from the southern hemisphere where water was in short supply and, while she grew depressed every January and hated English winters, she never found rain less than thrilling. Well, here we are in February after more than a month of what the Met Office is delicately calling the “unusually southerly jet stream”, what Shakespeare neatly immortalised with “for the rain it raineth every day” and what the rest of us have been summarising with the sentiment “is it ever going to fucking stop”? I’m English, so talking about rain and its related conditions occupies 30% of my personality at any given time, but most of us have hit a wall at this point. According to the weather people, 26 weather stations in the UK set new records for the highest-ever January rainfall last month and in Aberdeen they haven’t seen the sun since the iron age. Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The trusty cartoon franchise brings Daffy Duck and Porky Pig back for fresh antics, updated pretty neatly for our times The Looney Tunes franchise has been regularly resuscitated and rebooted for new generations ever since Warner Bros stopped making the original cartoons back in the 1960s, creating more minutes of screen time than all the Dracula, Wuthering Heights and Jurassic Park remakes and sp...
The trusty cartoon franchise brings Daffy Duck and Porky Pig back for fresh antics, updated pretty neatly for our times The Looney Tunes franchise has been regularly resuscitated and rebooted for new generations ever since Warner Bros stopped making the original cartoons back in the 1960s, creating more minutes of screen time than all the Dracula, Wuthering Heights and Jurassic Park remakes and spin-offs combined. Like some fiendish glue from the Acme corporation, the Looney Tunes IP is sticky, resilient stuff: instantly recognisable, easily dubbed into other languages, with codes and quirks peculiarly pleasing to audiences of all ages, and yet easily malleable to fit the comic modes and manners of each age. This feature, starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza), feels very 2020s – in that it’s not embarrassed about getting sappy from the off and then resolving its core dramatic problems with a big dose of child psychologist-friendly empowerment lessons about accepting people for who they are and the value of loyalty. Bizarrely for anyone raised on Saturday-morning repeats of the original 1930s-50s toons where the two were usually adversaries, Daffy and Porky are best friends forever here, raised together like brothers by their adoptive parent, Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore), who then promptly carks it in the first 10 minutes after enjoining them to always stick together. Continue reading...
syahrir maulana/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Calamos Timpani Small Cap Growth Fund Q4 2025 Commentary. For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, the fund returned 3.77% (Class I shares at NAV), outperforming the Russell 2000 Growth Index return of 1.22%. Fund Holdings - Contributors Lumentum Holdings Inc. ( LITE ) 4.7% of fund as of 12/31/25 Profile: Lumentum...
syahrir maulana/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Calamos Timpani Small Cap Growth Fund Q4 2025 Commentary. For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, the fund returned 3.77% (Class I shares at NAV), outperforming the Russell 2000 Growth Index return of 1.22%. Fund Holdings - Contributors Lumentum Holdings Inc. ( LITE ) 4.7% of fund as of 12/31/25 Profile: Lumentum Holdings Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of optical and photonic products used in telecommunications, data centers, industrial manufacturing, and consumer electronics. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Lumentum is categorized as a communication equipment company in the information technology sector. Analysis: Lumentum's stock advanced 126% during the quarter. Lumentum's stock strength in Q4 2025 was driven by a clean earnings beat and accelerating momentum in AI-related optical demand. The company reported quarterly revenue of $480.7 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.88, both above expectations. The company rode a wave of demand for cloud and AI data-center components such as EML chips, pump lasers, narrow-linewidth lasers, and 800G modules. It also posted record EML shipments, strong cloud-module growth, and first-time optical-circuit-switch revenue, while management projected continued demand strong enough to surpass $600 million in quarterly revenue by mid-2026. These operational wins and bullish guidance fueled a positive market reaction, helping drive the stock's strong performance. Owlet Inc. ( OWLT ) 1.1% of fund as of 11/30/25 Profile: Owlet is a digital parenting technology company that provides real-time infant health and sleep monitoring products—such as smart socks and connected cameras—to parents in the US, UK, and international markets. The company was founded in 2012 by a team of parents and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah. Owlet operates in the healthcare sector and the medical devices industry. Analysis: Owle...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images Performance Review The Fund (Institutional Class) returned 1.33 percent in the fourth quarter, outperforming its benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate 1–3 Years Index, by 0.15 percent. Positive relative performance was driven by the Fund’s yield advantage over the benchmark. An overweight allocation to Agency residential mortgage-backed securities ( RMBS ) contribu...
Funtap/iStock via Getty Images Performance Review The Fund (Institutional Class) returned 1.33 percent in the fourth quarter, outperforming its benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate 1–3 Years Index, by 0.15 percent. Positive relative performance was driven by the Fund’s yield advantage over the benchmark. An overweight allocation to Agency residential mortgage-backed securities ( RMBS ) contributed positively to absolute and relative returns compared to the benchmark as spreads compressed. Allocations to other credit sectors detracted modestly from relative returns as corporate and structured spreads slightly widened. Duration detracted from returns over the quarter, while its impact on relative performance was neutral. Strategy and Positioning The Fund increased allocations to certain structured credit sectors in the fourth quarter, including collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and non-Agency RMBS that can offer attractive risk-adjusted yields, supporting strong carry income and offering total return potential should spreads tighten. The Fund’s overall duration and active duration was modestly reduced over the quarter. The Fund selectively increased its allocation to investment-grade ( IG ) corporates over the quarter. QTD Contributors / Detractors Carry contributed 1.3 percent to absolute return and 0.2 percent to relative return. Spread tightening in Agency RMBS contributed on an absolute and relative basis. IG corporates spread tightening contributed marginally to absolute performance. Duration detracted by 0.1 percent on an absolute and was neutral relative. Economic and Market Review Economic growth in 2025 was resilient despite policy uncertainty and a cooler labor market. The recent third quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) reading revealed positive underlying growth momentum driven by consumer spending and a continued boost in artificial intelligence ( AI ) investment. Looking ahead, we expect the U.S. economy to move toward equilibrium in 2026 w...
OMA SAVINGS BANK PLC, STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 12 FEBRUARY 2026 AT 9.00 A.M. EET, FINANCIAL STATEMENTS RELEASE Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Financial Statements Release 1 January – 31 December 2025: Commission income increasing, cost growth halted – Q4 comparable profit before taxes EUR 17.2 million
OMA SAVINGS BANK PLC, STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 12 FEBRUARY 2026 AT 9.00 A.M. EET, FINANCIAL STATEMENTS RELEASE Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Financial Statements Release 1 January – 31 December 2025: Commission income increasing, cost growth halted – Q4 comparable profit before taxes EUR 17.2 million
Växjö, Sweden, 12 February 2026 * * * JLT Mobile Computers , a leading supplier of rugged computers for demanding environments, publishes its Year-end report for the full year 2025
Växjö, Sweden, 12 February 2026 * * * JLT Mobile Computers , a leading supplier of rugged computers for demanding environments, publishes its Year-end report for the full year 2025
Växjö, Sverige, 12 februari 2026 * * * JLT Mobile Computers , ledande leverantör av stryktåliga datorer för krävande miljöer, släpper idag delårsrapport för perioden januari–december 2025.
Växjö, Sverige, 12 februari 2026 * * * JLT Mobile Computers , ledande leverantör av stryktåliga datorer för krävande miljöer, släpper idag delårsrapport för perioden januari–december 2025.
German MPs Shoot-Down Idea Of Paying WWII Reparations To Poland With Weapons Via Remix News, German politicians stress cooperation in the wake of the suggestion that Germany finance Polish armaments as reparations for World War II. Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, had proposed that Germany provide Poland with military equipment , emphasizing that “Poland is a frontli...
German MPs Shoot-Down Idea Of Paying WWII Reparations To Poland With Weapons Via Remix News, German politicians stress cooperation in the wake of the suggestion that Germany finance Polish armaments as reparations for World War II. Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, had proposed that Germany provide Poland with military equipment , emphasizing that “Poland is a frontline state.” Poland has been vocal in its demand for what it says amounts to €1.3 trillion in World War II reparations Germany must pay for the crimes, deaths, and massive property destruction caused by the 1939-1945 occupation. Despite some discussions, Germany has long maintained that Poland renounced all claims to reparations in 1953. “From the Polish perspective, the issue of reparations remains unresolved,” he said in an interview for Die Welt, cited by wPolityce . “What if Germany, recognizing Poland’s role as a frontline state, gave Warsaw a submarine, a frigate or a few tanks?” Ischinger asked. German politicians and experts have since expressed their concerns with the idea. Thomas Erndl, spokesman for the defense policy of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told Die Welt that there was no need for this because a strong Bundeswehr protects not only Germany but also its allies. “The brigade stationed in Lithuania is a visible sign of our solidarity as allies… If we all focus our efforts on rapidly expanding our military capabilities, and thus on guaranteeing our European security, historical sensitivity will play a subordinate role,” Erndl argued. Adis Ahmetović, spokesman for foreign policy of the SPD parliamentary group, emphasized that gaining Poland’s trust can only come from a stronger foundation. “Some of our partners, such as France and Poland, sometimes show reticence. Trust is not built through symbolic gestures like military donations, but through reliable and close cooperation. Therefore, it is essential to consistently deepen and further deve...
“Bloomberg: The China Show” is your definitive source for news and analysis on the world's second-biggest economy. From politics and policy to tech and trends, David Ingles and Annabelle Droulers give global investors unique insight, delivering in-depth discussions with the newsmakers who matter. (Source: Bloomberg)
“Bloomberg: The China Show” is your definitive source for news and analysis on the world's second-biggest economy. From politics and policy to tech and trends, David Ingles and Annabelle Droulers give global investors unique insight, delivering in-depth discussions with the newsmakers who matter. (Source: Bloomberg)