One of Australia’s most-decorated soldiers was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly murdering unarmed prisoners while serving in Afghanistan, police and local media said following a sweeping war crimes investigation. The Australian Federal Police said they arrested a 47-year-old former Australian soldier, who was widely named in local media as Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith. Federal polic...
One of Australia’s most-decorated soldiers was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly murdering unarmed prisoners while serving in Afghanistan, police and local media said following a sweeping war crimes investigation. The Australian Federal Police said they arrested a 47-year-old former Australian soldier, who was widely named in local media as Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith. Federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said the soldier had been linked to a string of murders while serving...
In this article DAX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 16: A truck and a bicyclist pass by a petrol station that shows gasoline prices well over EUR 2.00 per litre on March 16, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. The German government, in response to dramatic price increases of petrol in Germany since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran, is consid...
In this article DAX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 16: A truck and a bicyclist pass by a petrol station that shows gasoline prices well over EUR 2.00 per litre on March 16, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. The German government, in response to dramatic price increases of petrol in Germany since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran, is considering new legislation to help lower the price hikes. Petrol prices have risen higher in Germany than elsewhere in Europe. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images European stocks are set to open marginally higher on Tuesday as investors brace themselves ahead of President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen the Straight of Hormuz, due later in the day. London's FTSE 100 looks set to open 0.2% higher, according to IG data. France's Cac 40 is on course to rise 0.2%, while Germany's Dax is set to open 0.1% higher. European markets are returning from a 4-day Easter break, after finishing Thursday's session in mixed territory. Investors are struggling to digest the U.S. administration's mixed messaging on a potential resolution to the conflict. Trump has threatened to target Iran's civilian infrastructure if a peace deal is not reached in less than 24 hours, while also signaling that the Iranian leadership was negotiating "in good faith." In an address on Monday, Trump reiterated his demand for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday, which would allow traffic to start flowing again through the vital route for global energy supplies. He warned the U.S. would decimate every bridge and power plant within four hours of that deadline not being met. Asia-Pacific markets whipsawed in volatile trading on Tuesday, with major indices flipping to losses in the morning session, as uncertainty surrounding the war weighs on investor sentiment. Investors will also be monitoring PMI manufacturing data for the U.K. and Eurozon...
CBI figures showing surprise jump in financial sector’s growth will be welcome news for Rachel Reeves Britain’s financial services companies have reported a strong recovery in activity at the start of the year, in a surprise boost to the government after a gloomy end to 2025. Banks, insurers and investment managers said their businesses were growing, with a positive balance of nearly two-thirds no...
CBI figures showing surprise jump in financial sector’s growth will be welcome news for Rachel Reeves Britain’s financial services companies have reported a strong recovery in activity at the start of the year, in a surprise boost to the government after a gloomy end to 2025. Banks, insurers and investment managers said their businesses were growing, with a positive balance of nearly two-thirds noting an expansion, according to a long-running survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a lobby group. That contrasted with the negative balance of 38% in December, despite the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...
Ancient hill carvings of horses, crosses and crowns have fascinated artists, writers and travellers for centuries. I went in search of their stories In the churchyard next to Wilmington Priory in East Sussex, I found a yew so ancient and stooped that its trunk had eaten half a gravestone. Its boughs were supported by long poles, a creepy sight that made me shudder. I had come here to see something...
Ancient hill carvings of horses, crosses and crowns have fascinated artists, writers and travellers for centuries. I went in search of their stories In the churchyard next to Wilmington Priory in East Sussex, I found a yew so ancient and stooped that its trunk had eaten half a gravestone. Its boughs were supported by long poles, a creepy sight that made me shudder. I had come here to see something just as strange, but more benign than this folk-horror vision – the figure of the Long Man of Wilmington on the hillside opposite, on the steep scarp of the South Downs. He treks over the hill, a stave clasped in each hand. Climbing Windover Hill, just beneath the South Downs Way, I saw that while he was once a chalk giant, his lines are now marked with concrete blocks. The Long Man may be Anglo-Saxon in origin – the shape is similar to the design on a buckle discovered in Kent in 1964 by the archaeologist Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, which probably represents the god Odin (or Woden); but he may be a much later adornment for the hillside, made to be viewed from the priory. His form entranced the photographer Lee Miller and her husband, the artist Roland Penrose, who lived close to the Long Man. Penrose painted a surrealist representation of the Long Man on the inglenook fireplace at Farleys, their home – for them the figure was a protective spirit. It also inspired the Black composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor, the folk collective the Memory Band, and Benjamin Britten picnicked at its feet. Continue reading...
Experts have been alarmed at the growth of deep misogyny dressed up as self-help on social media. We profile seven men from across the continent who are gaining traction It is not just Europe and the US that are grappling with a growing landscape of misogynistic influencers online. While Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, Sneako and other voices grow in toxicity in the manosphere of the west, across Afric...
Experts have been alarmed at the growth of deep misogyny dressed up as self-help on social media. We profile seven men from across the continent who are gaining traction It is not just Europe and the US that are grappling with a growing landscape of misogynistic influencers online. While Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, Sneako and other voices grow in toxicity in the manosphere of the west, across Africa – which has more than 400 million people aged between 15 and 35 – several individuals are gaining traction. The manosphere is a loose network of communities that claim to address men’s struggles such as dating and fitness, but often promote harmful misogynistic attitudes. Sunita Caminha, who leads UN Women on ending violence against women and girls in east and southern Africa, first started noticing its presence in Africa about five years ago, and believes it is on the rise. “Research and data that keeps coming out is very consistent [in] showing this is an alarming issue in different countries and contexts across the continent.” Continue reading...
DC Universe supremo Gunn’s thinly conceived debut feature gets a glossy repackaging for seemingly no other reason than his later success This grotesquerie-heavy exercise in comic body horror was writer-director James Gunn’s first feature in 2006; a commercial flop at the time, it was Gunn’s crack at the big time, made long before he went on to direct the likes of the Guardians of the Galaxy franch...
DC Universe supremo Gunn’s thinly conceived debut feature gets a glossy repackaging for seemingly no other reason than his later success This grotesquerie-heavy exercise in comic body horror was writer-director James Gunn’s first feature in 2006; a commercial flop at the time, it was Gunn’s crack at the big time, made long before he went on to direct the likes of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the most recent iteration of Superman and take over as head honcho for the DC cinematic universe. His subsequent success (apart from that time he got briefly cancelled for ill-advised tweets) might partially explain why this early work is getting a glossy repackaging now. It’s the film industry equivalent of a reputational glow-up, as if a flawed, underwhelming early work should now be considered a misunderstood work of genius. Sadly, Slither is by no stretch of the imagination a work of genius. Its science fiction elements are thinly conceived, while the use of rubbery practical effects and lame jokes feel much closer to the work of the Troma brand where Gunn got his training wheels. The main conceit here is that an alien lifeform, whose larvae look like flaccid phallic worms with severe sunburn, crash lands on Earth via an asteroid and then proceeds to take over a small South Carolina town. The first to be possessed is Grant (Michael Rooker, a Gunn regular ever since), a good ol’ boy with a unhealthy obsession with his wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks, displaying her typically professional comic chops); she still has a soft spot for local head of police Bill (Nathan Fillion). One by one, members of the town are penetrated through various orifices by the worm larvae, some of them becoming evil minions and some, like unlucky area woman Brenda (Brenda James), turning into hideously swollen incubators for further larvae. Continue reading...
Through no fault of their own, she faces repaying £100 a month until she is 93 or face legal action My 66-year-old mother has been told that she has been overpaid her civil service pension by £40,000 and must repay it, or face legal action. Once the tax she’s paid on the income is deducted, she owes £32,000. Her monthly pension payments have now been cut, which means her annual income will fall fr...
Through no fault of their own, she faces repaying £100 a month until she is 93 or face legal action My 66-year-old mother has been told that she has been overpaid her civil service pension by £40,000 and must repay it, or face legal action. Once the tax she’s paid on the income is deducted, she owes £32,000. Her monthly pension payments have now been cut, which means her annual income will fall from £19,700 to £12,000, and she was, additionally, ordered to repay £496 a month for five years. This was later reduced to £100 a month, and a charge was put on her house as security. She’s been told she will have paid everything she owes when she’s 93. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Health secretary says industrial action in England also threatens to derail NHS progress on waiting times Wes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England. The health secretary said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages bu...
Exclusive: Health secretary says industrial action in England also threatens to derail NHS progress on waiting times Wes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England. The health secretary said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages but that the British Medical Association had scuppered any chance of a breakthrough when it rejected what he said was a serious offer from the government to transform medics’ conditions. Continue reading...
It’s all about the austere beauty of concrete in photographer Paul Tulett’s starkly stunning shots of the country’s jaw-dropping, rapidly evolving architectural highlights Continue reading...
It’s all about the austere beauty of concrete in photographer Paul Tulett’s starkly stunning shots of the country’s jaw-dropping, rapidly evolving architectural highlights Continue reading...
In an attempt to mimic cervical traction therapy used in hospitals, a new trend known as the “neck-hanging exercise” has emerged among young Chinese people. The exercise involves people hanging by their head from trees to relieve cervical spondylosis. According to the 2024 China Cervical Spine Health White Paper, more than 200 million people in China suffer from cervical spine disorders, with over...
In an attempt to mimic cervical traction therapy used in hospitals, a new trend known as the “neck-hanging exercise” has emerged among young Chinese people. The exercise involves people hanging by their head from trees to relieve cervical spondylosis. According to the 2024 China Cervical Spine Health White Paper, more than 200 million people in China suffer from cervical spine disorders, with over 40 per cent of patients under the age of 30. The new hanging trend has been gaining traction...
Lacheev/iStock via Getty Images Originally published on April 4, 2026 The analysis below covers the employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the Headline Report, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on. Current Trends The jobs report showed a gain of 178k jobs ...
Lacheev/iStock via Getty Images Originally published on April 4, 2026 The analysis below covers the employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the Headline Report, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on. Current Trends The jobs report showed a gain of 178k jobs for the month of March. While that beat expectations, it will most likely be revised down in future months. Furthermore, the Household Survey showed a loss of 64k jobs. This is another consistent trend: the Household Survey continuously underperforming the Headline Report. Figure 1: Primary Report vs. Household Survey – Monthly To show the magnitude of this underperformance, consider the chart below. YTD, the Headline Report shows a gain of 205k jobs, whereas the Household Survey shows a loss of 1.4M jobs. Figure 2: Primary Report vs. Household Survey – Annual The BLS publishes the data behind their Birth/Death assumptions (formation of new business). The data showed that the BLS assumed a job loss of 47k jobs in March. Figure 3: Primary Unadjusted Report With Birth/Death Assumptions – Monthly For the year, the birth/death assumption is -18k jobs. Figure 4: Primary Unadjusted Report With Birth Death Assumptions – Monthly The big report released earlier this month is the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages ( QCEW ) . According to the BLS, this is a far more accurate and rigorous report covering 95% of jobs available at a highly detailed level. Due to the rigor, the report is released quarterly on a several month lag. The latest report is for Q3 2025. As shown, July and September were both below the Headline Report. Figure 5: Primary Report vs QCEW – Yearly This QCEW data reveals that the economy lost jobs through 3 quarters in 2025. The revised Headline Report also shows this job loss, but the QCEW shows an even more negative picture of -633k (vs. -560k for the Headline...
France's Debt Spiral: Tax Hikes Mask A Looming Crisis Submitted by Thomas Kolbe On both sides of the Franco-German border, the same problem persists: overburdened and reform-averse politicians struggle against a rapidly accelerating debt spiral. Their preferred tool: higher levies. Last week, France’s Finance Minister Roland Lescure reported a revision of the projected budget deficit for the curre...
France's Debt Spiral: Tax Hikes Mask A Looming Crisis Submitted by Thomas Kolbe On both sides of the Franco-German border, the same problem persists: overburdened and reform-averse politicians struggle against a rapidly accelerating debt spiral. Their preferred tool: higher levies. Last week, France’s Finance Minister Roland Lescure reported a revision of the projected budget deficit for the current year. Initial estimates for 2026 had suggested a deficit well above five percent. Yet numerous fiscal measures brought last year’s deficit down to 5.1%. For 2026, the Finance Ministry expects it to stabilize at around five percent—provided the ongoing energy crisis and the war in Iran do not cast a lasting shadow over the year, and the economy does not abruptly collapse. With total public debt at roughly 115% of GDP , France cannot possibly meet the Maastricht criteria under this level of new borrowing. Do restrictive fiscal rules, such as the increasingly fading Maastricht criteria, even matter anymore in the Eurozone? It’s a rhetorical question: public spending dynamics are no longer controllable. One could also say: EU nations have entered a phase of fiscal fatalism. After a 4% increase in government spending in 2024, outlays rose again last year, this time by 2.5%. The state apparatus continues to expand, regardless of the dramatic debt levels, pushing the public-sector share of GDP to 57%. Similar to Germany, this figure does not account for the bureaucratic overhead borne by the private sector on behalf of the increasingly feudal state. Hundreds of thousands of private-sector jobs exist solely to fulfill government reporting and compliance obligations. Massive Tax Hikes Meanwhile, the French government remains stuck in its involuntary role as a reform-incapable instrument of the crumbling status quo. Parliament’s majority arithmetic leaves it paralyzed. A reform process to shrink the welfare state, reduce the massive bureaucracy, and achieve sustainable budget mana...
(RTTNews) - Evotec SE (EVO, EVOTF), a German-based drug discovery and development company, on Tuesday announced that it has proposed the election of Dieter Weinand as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at its Annual General Meeting scheduled for June 11.
(RTTNews) - Evotec SE (EVO, EVOTF), a German-based drug discovery and development company, on Tuesday announced that it has proposed the election of Dieter Weinand as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at its Annual General Meeting scheduled for June 11.
4月7日，智元机器人宣布正式开源—— AGIBOT WORLD 2026 数据集，首个覆盖具身智能全域研究的开源数据集。据智元介绍，该数据集基于海量真实场景，围绕五大具身领域研究主题构建，每个主题均设有专属采集方法与精细化的标注体系，以精准支持不同细分领域研究者的需求。数据集将分五个阶段持续开源，覆盖更多主题与场景，旨在为具身领域提供覆盖广泛、即取即用的高质量真实数据。（界面新闻）
4月7日，智元机器人宣布正式开源—— AGIBOT WORLD 2026 数据集，首个覆盖具身智能全域研究的开源数据集。据智元介绍，该数据集基于海量真实场景，围绕五大具身领域研究主题构建，每个主题均设有专属采集方法与精细化的标注体系，以精准支持不同细分领域研究者的需求。数据集将分五个阶段持续开源，覆盖更多主题与场景，旨在为具身领域提供覆盖广泛、即取即用的高质量真实数据。（界面新闻）
dogayusufdokdok/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Toyota ( TM ) has gained a strong edge over BYD ( BYDDF ) ( BYDDY ) in Japan's EV market, driven by favorable government subsidies and robust sales of its updated bZ4X SUV, according to a Nikkei report . The government subsidies for its models increased by roughly $6,000 compared with the Chinese automaker, giving Toyota ( TM ) a significant prici...
dogayusufdokdok/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Toyota ( TM ) has gained a strong edge over BYD ( BYDDF ) ( BYDDY ) in Japan's EV market, driven by favorable government subsidies and robust sales of its updated bZ4X SUV, according to a Nikkei report . The government subsidies for its models increased by roughly $6,000 compared with the Chinese automaker, giving Toyota ( TM ) a significant pricing advantage for consumers. Under Japan’s updated EV incentive program, Toyota ( TM ) models qualify for up to ¥1.3 million ($8,188), while BYD’s ( BYDDF ) vehicles remain eligible for only ¥350,000–¥450,000 ($2,204–$2,834). This gap of nearly $6,000 per vehicle significantly alters the cost equation for buyers. BYD ( BYDDF ) had previously led Japan’s EV market in 2024, selling approximately 2,223 vehicles compared with Toyota’s ( TM ) 2,038. Furthermore, Toyota ( TM ) sold over 2,000 bZ4X units in Japan in February 2026, its fourth straight month as the top domestic EV. More on Toyota Motor, BYD Co ADR BYD Tech Advances, Interest In Racing Are Clues To Further International Expansion BYD: Too Cheap To Ignore, Too Unclear To Buy Toyota's Abrupt CEO Switch Signals Big Spending To Keep Up With AI And Chinese Rivals Auto demand remains solid amid geopolitical headwinds, buoyed by higher-income buyers Toyota Motor February sales slip amid China EV competition
Hong Kong’s home affairs minister has pledged that a briefing set to be held ahead of an owners’ meeting petitioned for by residents of the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court will address their concerns, saying it will not clash with ongoing inquiry hearings or the schedule for their return home. More than 300 homeowners petitioned for a general meeting with Hop On Management, a Chinachem Group subsidiary ap...
Hong Kong’s home affairs minister has pledged that a briefing set to be held ahead of an owners’ meeting petitioned for by residents of the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court will address their concerns, saying it will not clash with ongoing inquiry hearings or the schedule for their return home. More than 300 homeowners petitioned for a general meeting with Hop On Management, a Chinachem Group subsidiary appointed by the government as the estate’s interim administrator, to address unresolved issues. Hop...
Oil rose a third day as US President Donald Trump escalated threats to obliterate key Iranian infrastructure if his terms aren’t met before a Tuesday deadline. Bloomberg's Anthony di Paola reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
Oil rose a third day as US President Donald Trump escalated threats to obliterate key Iranian infrastructure if his terms aren’t met before a Tuesday deadline. Bloomberg's Anthony di Paola reports. (Source: Bloomberg)