The biggest shock to India’s currency market in years is set to worsen as banks prepare to unwind billions of dollars more in arbitrage trades. The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to clamp down on bearish rupee positions late Friday sparked a race by bankers to plead for a rethink as they fielded anxious client calls and gamed out ways to limit losses on trades estimated to be worth at least $30 ...
The biggest shock to India’s currency market in years is set to worsen as banks prepare to unwind billions of dollars more in arbitrage trades. The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to clamp down on bearish rupee positions late Friday sparked a race by bankers to plead for a rethink as they fielded anxious client calls and gamed out ways to limit losses on trades estimated to be worth at least $30 billion . When trading resumed on Monday, dealers encountered a panic-stricken market with thin liquidity. One of them compared the pressure of getting trades done to an intern performing open-heart surgery. While exact figures are hard to come by, people familiar with the matter estimate banks closed out anywhere from $4 billion to $10 billion of arbitrage positions targeted by authorities. That means the vast majority of trades still need to be unwound before an April 10 deadline imposed by the central bank, unless authorities walk back their order. That possibility led some banks to stay on the sidelines Monday, even though the RBI has given no indication of backing down. Indian foreign-exchange markets are shut Tuesday and Wednesday for a holiday. “Based on client data and NDF flows, it appears that around 25-30% of total positions could have been unwound on Monday,” said Ashhish Vaidya , head of treasury at DBS Bank in Mumbai. “That indicates fresh volatility in the currency market once trading resumes.” The RBI’s move is one of its boldest attempts in more than a decade to rein in currency speculation. After an initial jump, the rupee changed course and slid to a fresh low, highlighting the deeper pressures — from elevated oil prices to persistent capital outflows and a widening trade deficit. India is particularly exposed to the fallout from the Iran war and surging energy costs due to its reliance on imports. The currency closed around the 94.80 per dollar level on Monday, with the gap between the day’s high and low the widest since 2013. The directive left banks sc...
A moist bake with a deep carrot and cinnamon flavour, plus a showstopper of crisp meringue, strawberry and chocolate fudge sauce Carrot cake is heaven at any time of year, but especially around Easter. Thanks to a generous glug of olive oil and heaps of finely shredded carrots, this single-layer version stays moist for days. A supple crumb, deep carrot flavour, a halo of cinnamon: it’s as close to...
A moist bake with a deep carrot and cinnamon flavour, plus a showstopper of crisp meringue, strawberry and chocolate fudge sauce Carrot cake is heaven at any time of year, but especially around Easter. Thanks to a generous glug of olive oil and heaps of finely shredded carrots, this single-layer version stays moist for days. A supple crumb, deep carrot flavour, a halo of cinnamon: it’s as close to divinity as I’ll ever get. For something more unexpected, meanwhile, I love this Neapolitan-inspired pavlova: a crisp, strawberry meringue piled with bittersweet fudge sauce, tangy vanilla cream cheese whip and bright strawberry compote. It’s impressive yet simple, and a raucous pleasure to devour communally with spoons. Continue reading...
The philosophy was embraced by film noir, the French New Wave and modern hitmen questioning life’s purpose. Now dust off your turtlenecks, for Sirāt and a new version of Albert Camus’ The Stranger look set to make ennui on-trend again “For it all to be consummated, to feel less alone, I had only to wish for a big crowd on the day of my execution, and for them to greet me with cries of hate.” The l...
The philosophy was embraced by film noir, the French New Wave and modern hitmen questioning life’s purpose. Now dust off your turtlenecks, for Sirāt and a new version of Albert Camus’ The Stranger look set to make ennui on-trend again “For it all to be consummated, to feel less alone, I had only to wish for a big crowd on the day of my execution, and for them to greet me with cries of hate.” The lacerating signoff of Albert Camus ’s L’Étranger isn’t a collection of words you’ll see appearing as life advice in some influencer’s Instagram caption any time soon. In the age of vapid social media self-help, François Ozon’s new film adaptation of the existentialist masterpiece rears up like a great monolith. Eighty-four years after the novel was published, that’s rather unexpected; as far as IP goes, L’Étranger (The Stranger) was probably some way behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on the film industry’s revival list. Does this mean that existentialism is suddenly back in vogue? Or is the film just a farewell tour for every angsty student’s favourite source of tattoo quotes? It should be said that Ozon’s version is a big improvement on Luchino Visconti’s ill-conceived 1967 stab at Camus’s novel, Lo Straniero (the only other direct adaptation). Filmed in serenely aloof silvery monochrome, the new film is a tasteful but pointed interpretation. Newcomer Benjamin Voisin is superb in the lead as antihero Meursault, who is famously unmoved by his mother’s death and says the sun’s glare is what makes him shoot an Arab. This Meursault is hard-edged in his nonconformism, coming across at times like a sociopathic, colonial-era Patrick Bateman , next to the book’s sleepily acquiescent figure. And Ozon is on politically strident form, recentring the story on colonial power relations from the prologue onwards – which features a chirpy newsreel-style propaganda film about Algiers’ “smooth blend of Occident and Orient”. Continue reading...
Italian art provocateur to play priest in Catholic-inspired work that invites people from around world to be absolved “If you’re here to confess your sins, press one …” That’s the message awaiting callers to a special hotline from Thursday. But it’s not a digital Catholic church initiative for the Easter weekend: instead, it’s the latest intervention of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who sc...
Italian art provocateur to play priest in Catholic-inspired work that invites people from around world to be absolved “If you’re here to confess your sins, press one …” That’s the message awaiting callers to a special hotline from Thursday. But it’s not a digital Catholic church initiative for the Easter weekend: instead, it’s the latest intervention of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who scandalised some with his 1999 sculpture La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), which showed a lifesize Pope John Paul II being struck down by a meteorite. Continue reading...
Embassy Village offers 40 canal-side flats and support with budgeting, cooking and finding work, to help men start new lives and rediscover community It costs a lot to live by the canal in central Manchester, with even the pokiest of studios renting for £1,000. But in Embassy Village, the city’s newest waterside community, residents do not need to be rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. To live ther...
Embassy Village offers 40 canal-side flats and support with budgeting, cooking and finding work, to help men start new lives and rediscover community It costs a lot to live by the canal in central Manchester, with even the pokiest of studios renting for £1,000. But in Embassy Village, the city’s newest waterside community, residents do not need to be rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. To live there, you have to be male, homeless and ready to get your life back on track. Nestled between the River Irwell and the Bridgewater canal, just across from the fashionable Castlefield district, Embassy’s 40 studio flats have been built under two Victorian viaducts carrying the city’s trams and trains. Continue reading...
Research from the University of Exeter find that the method could help reduce thefts by as much as 50% Gulls thrive on snatching chips from unwary beachgoers, but now research shows that painting a pair of eyes on takeaway boxes could put gulls off, reducing thefts by as much as 50%. Laura Kelley, from the University of Exeter, and colleagues presented herring gulls with tempting takeaways at a nu...
Research from the University of Exeter find that the method could help reduce thefts by as much as 50% Gulls thrive on snatching chips from unwary beachgoers, but now research shows that painting a pair of eyes on takeaway boxes could put gulls off, reducing thefts by as much as 50%. Laura Kelley, from the University of Exeter, and colleagues presented herring gulls with tempting takeaways at a number of seaside towns in Devon and Cornwall. When faced with a choice between a box with eyes painted on it and a plain box, the gulls were slower to approach the box with eyes and less likely to peck at it. And the findings, which are published in Ecology and Evolution , show that the effect is sustained, with gulls remaining wary of the boxes with eyes on them, even after repeated exposure. Continue reading...
Thanks to a sustained ideological assault on regulation, our country has been turned into a literal dump This country’s a dump. I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean it literally. From the point of view of criminal waste gangs, it is one big potential landfill. The chances of being caught range between minimal and nonexistent, and the penalties are mostly laughable. Successive governments have ...
Thanks to a sustained ideological assault on regulation, our country has been turned into a literal dump This country’s a dump. I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean it literally. From the point of view of criminal waste gangs, it is one big potential landfill. The chances of being caught range between minimal and nonexistent, and the penalties are mostly laughable. Successive governments have given criminals a licence to print money. Last week, the Commons public accounts committee reported that illegal waste dumping is “out of control”. The UK is now blighted with between 8,000 and 13,000 illegal waste sites. Most consist of a few lorry loads. Some contain tens of thousands of tonnes of waste, which might incorporate everything from household products to asbestos , heavy metals and highly toxic, flammable and explosive organic chemicals. The rubbish blows through local neighbourhoods, flows into rivers and seeps into soil and groundwater. And, in most cases, nothing is done. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
From medieval church wall paintings to Liam Gallagher’s viral X post, charity has catalogued more than 6,600 pieces Some of the UK’s smallest public murals are on bollards in Shrewsbury while one of the biggest is on a 1960s 16-storey block of flats in Gosport . Perhaps the funniest though is in Cardiff. Ahead of last summer’s Oasis concerts it was a straightforward copy of Liam Gallagher’s viral ...
From medieval church wall paintings to Liam Gallagher’s viral X post, charity has catalogued more than 6,600 pieces Some of the UK’s smallest public murals are on bollards in Shrewsbury while one of the biggest is on a 1960s 16-storey block of flats in Gosport . Perhaps the funniest though is in Cardiff. Ahead of last summer’s Oasis concerts it was a straightforward copy of Liam Gallagher’s viral post on X declaring: “Because Cardiff is the bollox.” Continue reading...
No home in Balochistan is safe and enforced disappearances are widespread. Detaining me and other rights activists only confirms the justice of our cause It’s 9pm and I’m sitting alone in my cell in block nine as I write these lines. I’ve been in solitary confinement for a year now. In fact, I turned 30 here. The silence has a weight to it, something that presses in on you the longer you sit with ...
No home in Balochistan is safe and enforced disappearances are widespread. Detaining me and other rights activists only confirms the justice of our cause It’s 9pm and I’m sitting alone in my cell in block nine as I write these lines. I’ve been in solitary confinement for a year now. In fact, I turned 30 here. The silence has a weight to it, something that presses in on you the longer you sit with it. Continue reading...
John Aylward ’s Sona Asset Management is eyeing Japan for new opportunities and is adding personnel to lead the effort, as the credit manager continues to expand globally. Sona is expected to open an office in Japan’s capital later this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm is exploring opportunities to develop private financing deals with prospective borrowers across ...
John Aylward ’s Sona Asset Management is eyeing Japan for new opportunities and is adding personnel to lead the effort, as the credit manager continues to expand globally. Sona is expected to open an office in Japan’s capital later this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The firm is exploring opportunities to develop private financing deals with prospective borrowers across Sona’s credit strategies, the firm said in an emailed statement. Sona also opened an office in Hong Kong in 2024. “We see strong and growing interest from Japanese investors in accessing global credit strategies, particularly those offering top-tier performance in European markets,” Sona Chief Executive Officer Aylward said in an emailed statement. The firm is hiring Suzutaro Kuroyanagi and Mark Tanase to lead the effort. Kuroyanagi will be based in Tokyo. Tanase, a former financials portfolio manager at the firm who is rejoining to lead its strategic development in Japan, will be based in London. The hires and expansion into Asia are part of the firm’s broader expansion in recent years after growing its staff in London and New York. Aylward, a former Deutsche Bank trader, started Sona in 2016 with about $300 million and has grown assets under management to about $17.5 billion. The firm manages strategies across its flagship, capital solutions and collateralized loan obligation funds. Read More: John Aylward’s Sona Adds Senior Managers From BofA, Barclays