With echoes of Balzac and Proust, this tale of obsessive love evokes the dangers and delights of forbidden desire Wayne Koestenbaum has built himself a slow-burn reputation as one of America’s sharpest queer iconoclasts, but the title of his latest novel suggests Netflix-ready realism. Will My Lover, the Rabbi be a sober yet uplifting account of the conflict between religious orthodoxy and forbidd...
With echoes of Balzac and Proust, this tale of obsessive love evokes the dangers and delights of forbidden desire Wayne Koestenbaum has built himself a slow-burn reputation as one of America’s sharpest queer iconoclasts, but the title of his latest novel suggests Netflix-ready realism. Will My Lover, the Rabbi be a sober yet uplifting account of the conflict between religious orthodoxy and forbidden desire? Not a bit of it. The book’s central and anchoring fact – the overwhelming desire of a man who works as an antique furniture restorer for a man who works in a synagogue – is accepted as a given by every single character. The writing, meanwhile, treats all realist convention with a kind of exalted scorn, conjuring the dangers and delights of obsession in prose that is itself unashamedly obsessive – and wonderfully frank when it gets down to the physical details. The result is as fierce and strange as anything you’re going to read this year. The fierceness begins immediately. All the book’s 188 chapters are short, but the first one comes in at only four lines. Putting both punctuation and vocabulary to tactically unexpected use, it plunges the reader straight into a world of carnality, confusion and bizarrely specific detail. Like all but a handful of the chapters, it also includes the title of the book itself. And as the book proceeds, this reiteration of the title begins to toll like a bell through the architecture of its prose, becoming almost a mantra. Far from being style-for-style’s sake, this insistent and anxious formality is at the heart of the book’s uncanny life; a quite brilliant matching of style to subject. Continue reading...
The 40th anniversary re-release of the coming-of-age drama about four boys on a quest to see a dead body is a masterclass in directing, storytelling and acting Rob Reiner’s film, adapted by screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans from Stephen King’s novella The Body, transformed King’s story into a glorious, mainstream American classic like something by Mark Twain. The film was released in 19...
The 40th anniversary re-release of the coming-of-age drama about four boys on a quest to see a dead body is a masterclass in directing, storytelling and acting Rob Reiner’s film, adapted by screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans from Stephen King’s novella The Body, transformed King’s story into a glorious, mainstream American classic like something by Mark Twain. The film was released in 1986; since 1993 its added poignancy had resided in the fact that one of its actors, River Phoenix, died of a drug overdose. But now there is a terrible new layer of sadness superimposed on the film’s themes of innocence and death: the murder in 2025 of Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner. One hot summer day in the late 50s, remembered in flashback with narrative voiceover, four boys go on what amounts to a secret, secular pilgrimage in search of the corpse of a missing kid their own age rumoured to lie next to some distant railway tracks, having been hit by a train. The resulting adventure – bizarre, mysterious and moving – is about lost youth and the recovery of innocence through writing and memory. It is also one of those vanishingly rare films where child actors have to carry almost the entire drama. Continue reading...
Qarsoq Høegh-Dam aims to use his seat in Danish parliament to shift power from Copenhagen to Nuuk It’s not the standard motto for a newly elected parliamentarian, but Qarsoq Høegh-Dam is adamant: if he does his job properly, there will soon be no need for it. “I want to make myself as obsolete as possible,” he said. Last month, Høegh-Dam, a Greenlandic politician, became the first member of the pr...
Qarsoq Høegh-Dam aims to use his seat in Danish parliament to shift power from Copenhagen to Nuuk It’s not the standard motto for a newly elected parliamentarian, but Qarsoq Høegh-Dam is adamant: if he does his job properly, there will soon be no need for it. “I want to make myself as obsolete as possible,” he said. Last month, Høegh-Dam, a Greenlandic politician, became the first member of the pro-independence Naleraq to be elected to the Danish parliament. The new MP is clear that if all goes to plan, the largely autonomous Arctic territory will be the sole responsibility of the parliament in Nuuk, the island’s capital. And there will no longer be any need for two seats representing Greenland in Copenhagen, its former colonial ruler. Continue reading...
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) batteries are set to become safer and more powerful, as carmakers including SAIC Motor and Chery Automobile outline road maps for the commercialisation of solid-state technology. Solid-state batteries – which use a solid electrolyte to conduct ions between electrodes – are widely seen as a superior alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries that rely on liquid ...
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) batteries are set to become safer and more powerful, as carmakers including SAIC Motor and Chery Automobile outline road maps for the commercialisation of solid-state technology. Solid-state batteries – which use a solid electrolyte to conduct ions between electrodes – are widely seen as a superior alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries that rely on liquid or gel-based materials. Analysts say the technology promises higher energy density, improved safety...
Currency hedging and cash management platform MillTech raised $60 million in a deal with Apax Digital Funds — the latest signal of robust appetite for tools that streamline trading in the $9.5 trillion per day foreign-exchange markets. The investment, in which Apax will take a minority stake, is MillTech’s largest so far and values the company at $325 million, according to a statement Wednesday. T...
Currency hedging and cash management platform MillTech raised $60 million in a deal with Apax Digital Funds — the latest signal of robust appetite for tools that streamline trading in the $9.5 trillion per day foreign-exchange markets. The investment, in which Apax will take a minority stake, is MillTech’s largest so far and values the company at $325 million, according to a statement Wednesday. The UK-based company plans to use the investment to expand in North America as well as develop artificial intelligence tools for investors. The deal comes as global asset managers and multinational corporations seek to smooth operations and protect against heightened market volatility following the launch of President Donald Trump ’s trade war last year and the US and Israeli war against Iran. As evidence of that demand, MillTech saw revenue grew 73% last year, and it now oversees some $35 billion in client hedging programs and about $500 billion in annual trading volume, said the company, which started up in 2019 as the execution and technology arm of currency manager Millennium Global Investments Ltd . “When you see periods of heightened uncertainty and heightened macro volatility,” it makes effective hedging all the more valuable, Eric Huttman , MillTech’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. A MillTech survey earlier this year of 250 chief financial officers and treasurers in the UK and US revealed that eight in 10 experienced losses from unhedged currency positions in 2025. Companies Boost Currency Hedging as Tariffs Spark Losses MillTech Partners with BlackRock on New Cash Management Tool Traders Are Being Replaced by Algos Like Viper in New FX Era MillTech’s latest fundraising follows the launch of a partnership with BlackRock Inc to offer a new cash management product for global investment managers and corporates, as well the introduction of an AI tool designed to model currency hedging strategies. A survey this year by financial services research firm Cris...
Hong Kong’s director of immigration will have his service extended beyond the retirement age until June next year, authorities have announced. The announcement to extend the term of Benson Kwok Joon-fung was made on Wednesday, a day before he reached the retirement age. “The purpose of granting Director Kwok’s service extension is to ensure a smooth transition in the senior management of the Immig...
Hong Kong’s director of immigration will have his service extended beyond the retirement age until June next year, authorities have announced. The announcement to extend the term of Benson Kwok Joon-fung was made on Wednesday, a day before he reached the retirement age. “The purpose of granting Director Kwok’s service extension is to ensure a smooth transition in the senior management of the Immigration Department,” a government spokesman said. He added that Kwok had been granted an extension of...
Average price dips back below £300,000 after higher energy costs have knock-on effect on mortgage rates UK house prices fell in March, as the housing market lost momentum amid uncertainty over the conflict in the Middle East and the impact on the economy and interest rates. Figures from Halifax, which is part of Lloyds – Britain’s biggest mortgage lender – showed property prices dipped by 0.5% in ...
Average price dips back below £300,000 after higher energy costs have knock-on effect on mortgage rates UK house prices fell in March, as the housing market lost momentum amid uncertainty over the conflict in the Middle East and the impact on the economy and interest rates. Figures from Halifax, which is part of Lloyds – Britain’s biggest mortgage lender – showed property prices dipped by 0.5% in March compared with a month earlier. As a result, the average price of a home slipped back below £300,000, to £299,677, after first crossing the milestone in January. Continue reading...
As part of the agreement, set to take effect immediately, Trump said the U.S. and Israel would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran following through on its commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage during the ceasefire period. (Image credit: STR)
As part of the agreement, set to take effect immediately, Trump said the U.S. and Israel would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran following through on its commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage during the ceasefire period. (Image credit: STR)