Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Elgar’s more-tea-vicar salon Victoriana sat primly beside Simpson’s cataclysmic celebration of occultism, while Sibelius’s climactic payoff needed a bigger buildup Elgar’s much-loved Serenade for Strings was given its unofficial 1892 premiere by the amateurs of the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral Class. The perfect piece of salon Victoriana, it was an ideal more-tea-vicar...
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Elgar’s more-tea-vicar salon Victoriana sat primly beside Simpson’s cataclysmic celebration of occultism, while Sibelius’s climactic payoff needed a bigger buildup Elgar’s much-loved Serenade for Strings was given its unofficial 1892 premiere by the amateurs of the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral Class. The perfect piece of salon Victoriana, it was an ideal more-tea-vicar, bone-china-and-bread-and-butter scene-setter for the cataclysmic eruptions of Mark Simpson’s The Immortal. Inspired by Victorian occultism, Simpson’s 2015 oratorio invites its audience to a Victorian seance. Texts collated by Melanie Challenger represent the scattered anxieties, pleas and nonsense of the automatic writing produced by mediums of the time. Against these are set the words of Frederic Myers: founder of the Society for Psychical Research, obsessed with the afterlife since the suicide of his childhood sweetheart. Continue reading...
DNY59/iStock via Getty Images Introduction What a wild couple of weeks the market has seen since the war in the Middle East reaccelerated, and it’s all happened after major fears over AI, jobs, and CapEx spending in 2026. As a result, the S&P 500 ( SPX ) has dropped about 7% YTD, while the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) is down almost 10%. My own risky portfolio, the one I usually discuss here on Seeking...
DNY59/iStock via Getty Images Introduction What a wild couple of weeks the market has seen since the war in the Middle East reaccelerated, and it’s all happened after major fears over AI, jobs, and CapEx spending in 2026. As a result, the S&P 500 ( SPX ) has dropped about 7% YTD, while the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) is down almost 10%. My own risky portfolio, the one I usually discuss here on Seeking Alpha, has dropped about 10% over this timeframe, which is not surprising given my heavy focus on the tech sector and AI. Data by YCharts I know how painful it can be for investors, and especially for those who are just getting started. I started this specific portfolio in April 2025, one year ago, adding money gradually, slowly at first, and investing most closely to the mid-end of 2025. Even though I've left about 20% of my cash untouched, it's hard to view this drop as a buying opportunity while my portfolio is in the red. At the same time, I am not in this position for the first time. As a Ukrainian living in Israel who began investing (never did it before) only one year before the war in Ukraine began and the market went into a 2022-2023 pullback, taking my newly created portfolio into 2 years of "losses", I can tell you with confidence - today I feel like a kid in a candy shop. In 2023, my portfolio was down by about 50% since its inception. I wasn't panicking, as I liked my "bets" nonetheless, and I had other things and problems to worry about. Long story short, later, in the span of one year, that exact portfolio multiplied by 4, without me touching it, and then, after I finally decided to come back and manage it actively, it shot up some more. Overall, with the drop in 2026, my old portfolio is up by 110%, while the S&P 500 is up by 63%. I am actually very surprised I was lucky enough to beat the S&P by a margin like this, and I say "lucky" because I was. Data by YCharts I just started investing a little over 5 years ago, and I had little clue what I was doing. If...
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said more households will benefit from energy aid this year after the government identified additional eligible recipients. Almost 700,000 extra households will receive checks for an average of €153 ($176), bringing the total number of beneficiaries to around 3.8 million at a cost of €600 million for the state. In a message posted on X, Lecornu said the mech...
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said more households will benefit from energy aid this year after the government identified additional eligible recipients. Almost 700,000 extra households will receive checks for an average of €153 ($176), bringing the total number of beneficiaries to around 3.8 million at a cost of €600 million for the state. In a message posted on X, Lecornu said the mechanism, which has existed since 2018, helps the poorest households “cope with energy expenses and pressure on purchasing power” by directly reducing electricity, gas, or heating oil bills. The French government is under pressure from opposition parties to do more to support businesses and households facing a sharp increase in fuel costs as oil prices surge on the conflict in Iran. But France has hesitated to follow other European governments with new measures after vast spending on energy support in 2022 contributed to a sharp widening of the budget deficit. On Friday, the finance ministry announced temporary fuel support for road freight, farmers and the fishing industry limited to €70 million. France Unveils Limited Aid to Offset Iran War Impact on Economy Germany to Consider Additional Fuel Measures, Minister Says Europe’s Economy Starts to Feel Pain From Trump’s Iran War