Party backed by generals set for landslide as 'sham' Myanmar election ends 2 hours ago Share Save Jonathan Head , South East Asia correspondent, Nyaungshwe, Shan state and Josh Cheetham Share Save BBC Around half of Myanmar was not expected to vote Polls in Myanmar have closed after a third and final stage of voting in what are widely viewed as sham elections. Many popular parties are banned from ...
Party backed by generals set for landslide as 'sham' Myanmar election ends 2 hours ago Share Save Jonathan Head , South East Asia correspondent, Nyaungshwe, Shan state and Josh Cheetham Share Save BBC Around half of Myanmar was not expected to vote Polls in Myanmar have closed after a third and final stage of voting in what are widely viewed as sham elections. Many popular parties are banned from standing and voting has not been possible in large areas of the country because of a five-year-long civil war. The dominant party backed by the ruling military junta is expected to win a landslide victory. The current regime has rejected international criticism of the election, maintaining that it is free and fair. Around one-fifth of the country's 330 townships, including the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, voted in the last stage. Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), fielded candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates decided to contest state and regional levels. Two previous rounds were held on 28 December and 11 January - giving overwhelming victories to the USDP. The party won only 6% of parliamentary seats in the last free election in 2020. A BBC team visited several polling stations in Shan state and described a climate of fear As in previous rounds of this strange, month-long election, voting was orderly and peaceful at the polling station in Nyaungshwe, Shan State, which a BBC team observed. Set in a large school, shaded by huge rain trees, there were ample volunteers an officials to guide voters where to go, and how to make their choice using the new, locally-made electronic voting machines. You could be forgiven for believing this was a normal democratic exercise, not the sham its critics say it is. However polling day was preceded by a campaigning period marked by fear, intimidation and a pervasive sense that little will change after the inevitable victory by the USDP. Everywhere ...
Key Points If you do it right, you won't have to pay taxes on contributions, capital gains, or withdrawals for an HSA. Reviewing your funds and considering growth stocks can lead to higher returns. The stock market is volatile, and it's important to stay invested in assets with strong fundamentals when they endure corrections. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › A...
Key Points If you do it right, you won't have to pay taxes on contributions, capital gains, or withdrawals for an HSA. Reviewing your funds and considering growth stocks can lead to higher returns. The stock market is volatile, and it's important to stay invested in assets with strong fundamentals when they endure corrections. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › A health savings account (HSA) is one of the best ways to save on taxes. You don't pay taxes on contributions, get to grow your portfolio tax-free, and don't even have to pay taxes on withdrawals if they are used for qualified medical expenses. Although this account offers many advantages, you can only maximize these perks by boosting your HSA returns. Higher returns translate into more money that isn't taxed if it is used for the right expenses. These are the three strategies you can use to enhance your gains. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » 1. Review your funds Investors can choose from thousands of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). If you have the benefit of having longer investment timeframes ahead of you, then you should focus on funds that can deliver higher returns. A bit of risk-taking can go a long way as your returns compound over time. In other words, if you do not need the money for at least another five years, it's good to focus on growth-oriented funds. While it's good to check a fund's performance and review its assets, some people forget about the expense ratio. This percentage reflects the fund's annual cost. You don't see the money slip out of your bank account, but it is taken from the fund's value. Many passively managed funds that follow benchmarks have expense ratios below 0.1%. However, some funds have expense ratios above 0.5%, resulting in investors losing a lot of money in fees over the long run. 2. I...
Extreme heat, erratic rainfall, and disease are disrupting cocoa production in West Africa, which supplies most of the world’s chocolate. As climate change pushes growing conditions past their limits, Ecuador is rapidly expanding output and positioning itself as a key alternative supplier. Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu reports from cacao farms near Guayaquil, with insights from Climate Central’s Kristina...
Extreme heat, erratic rainfall, and disease are disrupting cocoa production in West Africa, which supplies most of the world’s chocolate. As climate change pushes growing conditions past their limits, Ecuador is rapidly expanding output and positioning itself as a key alternative supplier. Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu reports from cacao farms near Guayaquil, with insights from Climate Central’s Kristina Dahl, cocoa exporter Ivan Ontaneda, farmer Johann Zeller, and chocolatier Oded Brenner on why climate stress, genetics, and farming practices are reshaping the global chocolate industry. (Source: Bloomberg)
HNvisual/iStock via Getty Images While some investors see the recent sell-off as an opportunity to buy a great dividend stock at a lower price, I’d say that McCormick ( MKC ) was overpriced before and now looks fairly valued after the sell-off. This company is still well-positioned for the current market, which is focused on value. McCormick’s spices and flavorings help shoppers stretch their budg...
HNvisual/iStock via Getty Images While some investors see the recent sell-off as an opportunity to buy a great dividend stock at a lower price, I’d say that McCormick ( MKC ) was overpriced before and now looks fairly valued after the sell-off. This company is still well-positioned for the current market, which is focused on value. McCormick’s spices and flavorings help shoppers stretch their budgets while buying inexpensive food at the grocery store, and restaurants and institutions use the company’s flavorings as well. But right now, the company is also dealing with rising costs because of inflation and tariffs. In the fourth quarter of 2025 , McCormick reported that revenue rose 2.9% to $1.85 billion. It also reported that adjusted EPS rose 7.5% to $0.86 per share. This was a relatively rare earnings miss for the company. McCormick’s gross profit margin also fell 130 basis points to 38.9%, and its operating margin fell 20 basis points to 16.8%. So, it appears that investors may be worried about McCormick’s bottom line. In general, this seems like a well-run company that has effective strategies to deal with its current problems. It plans to improve its margins in 2026, and its plans seem like they could work. McCormick’s revenue is expected to rise double digits in 2026 because it’s increased its stake in its Mexican subsidiary. It will also be able to use its savings from reduced tariff costs to make investments that support long-term growth. And its new ERP system will also improve its long-term performance even if it comes with more short-term costs. But the first topic I’d discuss is how the company plans to deal with inflation. How McCormick Plans to Beat Inflation On the call , McCormick CFO Marcos Gabriel said he expects mid-single-digit inflation in 2026, which seems reasonable in comparison to projections I’ve seen from other food companies. But that doesn’t mean it can pass on mid-single-digit price increases to consumers. Like the grocery stores, McCor...
American workers adopted artificial intelligence into their work lives at a remarkable pace over the past few years, according to a new poll. Some 12% of employed adults say they use AI daily in their job, according to a Gallup Workforce survey conducted this fall of more than 22,000 U.S. workers. The survey found roughly one-quarter say they use AI at least frequently, which is defined as at leas...
American workers adopted artificial intelligence into their work lives at a remarkable pace over the past few years, according to a new poll. Some 12% of employed adults say they use AI daily in their job, according to a Gallup Workforce survey conducted this fall of more than 22,000 U.S. workers. The survey found roughly one-quarter say they use AI at least frequently, which is defined as at least a few times a week, and nearly half say they use it at least a few times a year. That compares with 21% who were using AI at least occasionally in 2023, when Gallup began asking the question, and points to the impact of the widespread commercial boom that ChatGPT sparked for generative AI tools that can write emails and computer code, summarize long documents, create images or help answer questions. Home Depot store associate Gene Walinski is one of the employees embracing AI at work. The 70-year-old turns to an AI assistant on his personal phone roughly every hour on his shift so he can better answer questions about supplies that he is not “100% familiar with” at the store’s electrical department in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. “I think my job would suffer if I couldn’t because there would be a lot of shrugged shoulders and ‘I don’t know’ and customers don’t want to hear that,” Walinski said. AI at work for many in technology, finance and education While frequent AI use is on the rise with many employees, AI adoption remains higher among those working in technology-related fields. About 6 in 10 technology workers say they use AI frequently, and about 3 in 10 do so daily. The share of Americans working in the technology sector who say they use AI daily or regularly has grown significantly since 2023, but there are indications that AI adoption could be starting to plateau after an explosive increase between 2024 and 2025. In finance, another sector with high AI adoption, 28-year-old investment banker Andrea Tanzi said he uses AI tools every day to synthesize documents and da...
Serbia will speed up preparations for its first nuclear power plants as it faces a surge in consumption even while attempting to phase out outdated, thermal-power units, said President Aleksandar Vucic . The government must urgently amend laws to enable the construction of small nuclear reactors, or SMRs, and select among projects offered by builders from China, Japan, the US, France and South Kor...
Serbia will speed up preparations for its first nuclear power plants as it faces a surge in consumption even while attempting to phase out outdated, thermal-power units, said President Aleksandar Vucic . The government must urgently amend laws to enable the construction of small nuclear reactors, or SMRs, and select among projects offered by builders from China, Japan, the US, France and South Korea , Vucic said on Sunday, speaking at an open session with Prime Minister Djuro Macut and his cabinet ministers. Serbia has a non-binding framework agreement on nuclear power development with France ’s EDF , but bids are also possible from Russia’s Rosatom and US-based Westinghouse , he said. “I just spoke to EDF and asked them to come here in 15 days,” Vucic said, warning that authorities must avoid a power crisis in which “people die in the dark.” Serbia lifted its decades-old ban on nuclear power in November 2024, but needs to regulate future atomic projects. Output is declining at the Balkan nation’s dominant, state-run power producer Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS). The trend will likely accelerate since as a candidate for European Union membership, Serbia must gradually phase out almost a dozen of its oldest, coal-fired power units, Vucic said. Nuclear facilities will also help Serbia reduce costs from the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM, a levy on imports from countries with weaker pollution standards. A sharp rise in power consumption is expected over the next several years, driven by at least four new data centers that the government plans to embrace the use of AI.
AlexLMX/iStock via Getty Images A lot has happened since my last article titled “$100 Silver Could Be Next ”. As I am writing this, silver prices are around $100 per ounce, which makes me say that my $100 target has been reached. Let me talk of the recent developments on the silver market as well as further potential of the grey shiny metal to appreciate further. Recap of my previous publication I...
AlexLMX/iStock via Getty Images A lot has happened since my last article titled “$100 Silver Could Be Next ”. As I am writing this, silver prices are around $100 per ounce, which makes me say that my $100 target has been reached. Let me talk of the recent developments on the silver market as well as further potential of the grey shiny metal to appreciate further. Recap of my previous publication In my previous article published on 19 September 2025, I wrote that silver prices appreciated to total $42/oz, close to 2011 highs thanks to the Fed’s dovishness, institutional investors, and green energy trends. At the time I wrote that silver was undervalued, given the inflation-adjusted historical prices for the grey shiny metal. Silver prices also seemed low relative to the S&P 500. Among the upside factors for silver I mentioned were a dovish Fed, asset bubbles, and also a possibility of silver becoming a medium of exchange. Among the downside risks I argued were the Fed getting hawkish, weak industrial demand, and higher physical supply of the metal. Still, I wrote that the grey shiny metal had a strong upside potential. As I am writing this, the grey precious metal is trading close to $100 per ounce. Let me explain why my bullish case still remains firm. Industrial demand and supply of silver Despite the fact that the demand for paper silver (XAG) is surging rapidly, the demand for physical silver is rising at an even more staggering pace. As I have mentioned many times in my other publications about precious metals, there is much more paper silver than physical silver. In fact, the paper-to-physical metal ratio for silver is said to be around 356, meaning that for one ounce of physical silver, there are 356 ounces of paper silver. So, the price of physical metal is much higher than it is for the paper metal. In fact, some time ago when the price for one ounce of XAG touched the $80 mark, the price of one ounce of physical silver briefly touched the $130 mark because ...
Apple shakes up its AI efforts with a Google partnership, management changes and two new versions of Siri . Also: The company gets ready to kick off its 2026 Mac launches and puts CEO candidate John Ternus in charge of design . Last time in Power On : Apple’s iOS 27 will be a Snow Leopard-style update — aside from new AI features. The Starters In June 2025, I reported on a major inflection point i...
Apple shakes up its AI efforts with a Google partnership, management changes and two new versions of Siri . Also: The company gets ready to kick off its 2026 Mac launches and puts CEO candidate John Ternus in charge of design . Last time in Power On : Apple’s iOS 27 will be a Snow Leopard-style update — aside from new AI features. The Starters In June 2025, I reported on a major inflection point inside Apple Inc. After a disappointing launch of the Apple Intelligence platform and delays to a new Siri digital assistant, software chief Craig Federighi and other executives were seriously considering sidelining the company’s internal AI models in favor of a third-party provider. The story sent shockwaves through Apple’s foundation models team, which builds its underlying AI technology. Beyond the reputational sting, the report raised existential questions about the future of the group — and the jobs of its employees. Within hours of that story’s publication on June 30, Apple’s top AI leadership moved to contain the fallout. Mike Rockwell, who oversees Siri, and John Giannandrea, then Apple’s head of AI, convened an emergency all-hands meeting with the foundation models team. The message from leadership was unequivocal: Apple wasn’t putting its own models on the back burner. Rockwell even dismissed the article as “bulls--t,” according to people in the meeting. Few in the room were persuaded. It was obvious that Apple Intelligence lagged behind rival platforms and that the Siri delay was deeply embarrassing. The company was at risk of missing the biggest technology shift since the internet, and seeking outside help made a lot of sense. Over the following months, the models group steadily lost talent — including its leader , Ruoming Pang. At the time, the company was already in discussions with both Anthropic PBC and OpenAI about supplying models to rebuild Siri and power parts of Apple Intelligence. At the start, Google wasn’t considered a likely partner for this. The Alp...
Despite tariffs and geopolitical issues with China, Apple ( AAPL ) is still expected to deliver its largest year-over-year revenue jump in four years when it releases its first quarter fiscal 2026 financial results on Thursday, Jan. 29. Apple CEO Tim Cook said first-quarter revenue is expected to demonstrate year-over-year growth ranging from 10% to 12%, which translates to $136.7B to $139.2B. Thi...
Despite tariffs and geopolitical issues with China, Apple ( AAPL ) is still expected to deliver its largest year-over-year revenue jump in four years when it releases its first quarter fiscal 2026 financial results on Thursday, Jan. 29. Apple CEO Tim Cook said first-quarter revenue is expected to demonstrate year-over-year growth ranging from 10% to 12%, which translates to $136.7B to $139.2B. This would easily eclipse Apple's previous record high quarterly revenue of $124.3B set during the first quarter of fiscal 2025. What's more, it would stand as Apple's most significant year-over-year revenue jump since the first quarter of fiscal 2022, when it posted an 11.2% increase. A consensus estimate expects Apple to report GAAP earnings per share of $2.67 on revenue of $138.47B. If the consensus estimate for EPS proves correct, it would break the previous record of $2.40 set during the first quarter of fiscal 2025. "As always, Q1 results are key to monitoring the performance of the iPhone (56% of revenues in Q1 25)," said HSBC analysts, led by Nicolas Cote-Colisson, in an investor note. This metric should prove positive as Apple led the global smartphone market in 2025 with a 20% share and 10% YoY shipment growth, the highest among the top five brands, according to preliminary estimates from Counterpoint Research . Apple also led Q4 smartphone shipments, accounting for a quarter of global shipments, its highest-ever share, followed by Samsung ( SSNLF ) at 17%. What's more, Apple led China's smartphone market in the fourth quarter with a 21.8% share. "Apple's success is largely driven by the success of the iPhone 17 series, in particular, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the continued success of the iPhone 16 in key emerging markets," Cote-Colisson said. However, it will be important to monitor the effects of rising memory prices due to the supply crunch related to unprecedented demand stemming from AI data centers. Several reports have said data centers will co...
The PLA Navy hospital ship Silk Road Ark arrived at the Uruguayan port of Montevideo last Tuesday for a four-day technical stop. The port call, as reported by China’s state news agency Xinhua , marked the first visit by a Chinese naval vessel to Uruguay – which sits between South America’s two biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina. Analysts said the inaugural visit signalled that Beijing’s effor...
The PLA Navy hospital ship Silk Road Ark arrived at the Uruguayan port of Montevideo last Tuesday for a four-day technical stop. The port call, as reported by China’s state news agency Xinhua , marked the first visit by a Chinese naval vessel to Uruguay – which sits between South America’s two biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina. Analysts said the inaugural visit signalled that Beijing’s efforts to expand its military exchanges in the western hemisphere were unaffected by America’s military raid in Venezuela earlier this month. Advertisement Amid the broader US-China competition for regional influence, Uruguay has sped up economic and diplomatic alignment with China. The Chinese naval visit came at a sensitive time – barely a fortnight after the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as part of President Donald Trump’s attempts to restore Washington’s strategic sway in the region. Cui Shoujun, professor and deputy director of the Institute of International Development Studies at Renmin University, said the port call indicated that China’s naval exchanges with South American countries remained unaffected.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released new guidance on how to protect children’s mental health in the digital age – emphasizing the need for systemic changes as well as parental engagement that goes beyond limiting screen time. Jessica Schleider, an adolescent psychologist and professor at Northwestern University whose lab develops digital mental health interventions, said the new policy ...
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released new guidance on how to protect children’s mental health in the digital age – emphasizing the need for systemic changes as well as parental engagement that goes beyond limiting screen time. Jessica Schleider, an adolescent psychologist and professor at Northwestern University whose lab develops digital mental health interventions, said the new policy statement was “really refreshing to see”, because it contrasts with conventional wisdom that places too much of the safety burden on individual parents. Common advice like “limiting individual youth access to screens”, or asking parents to keep tabs on their children’s every digital movement is “not only impossible, but for adolescents in particular, potentially invasive”, Schleider said. Instead, the AAP is “putting more emphasis on the structural responsibility of companies and society”, Schleider said. Their statement recommends regulations that limit “overt, sexualized, commercialised, or harmful content to youth”, including algorithms that send teens and children down rabbit holes with damaging themes. This guidance is also more nuanced than recent moves towards outright social media bans for certain age groups. Last month, Australia imposed a ban on all social media accounts for youth under 16. Schleider says the ban is “very unfortunate” because while social media platforms are indeed designed in a harmful way, bans do nothing to make those platforms safer. “Social media is the first and often only place that young people seek out help and support, and cutting that off immediately with no warning has really adverse consequences,” she said. In her own research, Schleider has found that youth who need mental health treatment are more likely to get access in states that do not require parental consent. This is one example of why, in Schleider’s view, it’s healthier for teens to have some level of autonomy in their digital lives. The AAP policy statement does include adv...
Leicester City are on the brink of sacking Martí Cifuentes after dropping to 14th in the Championship. Leicester are to hold crunch boardroom talks on Sunday to determine the manager’s future. Leicester slumped to a humiliating home defeat against struggling Oxford United on Saturday and have won one of their past five matches. Leicester appointed Cifuentes on a three-year contract last summer wit...
Leicester City are on the brink of sacking Martí Cifuentes after dropping to 14th in the Championship. Leicester are to hold crunch boardroom talks on Sunday to determine the manager’s future. Leicester slumped to a humiliating home defeat against struggling Oxford United on Saturday and have won one of their past five matches. Leicester appointed Cifuentes on a three-year contract last summer with designs on an instant return to the Premier League but have failed to establish themselves as promotion contenders. Leicester are thought to have lost faith in the Spaniard, who spent the previous two seasons at QPR. Leicester’s owner, Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, attended Saturday’s defeat at the King Power Stadium, during which supporters chanted against Cifuentes and also the club’s hierarchy. Fans have grown disillusioned with the ownership after being relegated from the Premier League in 2022-23. The director of football, Jon Rudkin, is under fierce scrutiny. After the defeat by Oxford, Cifuentes said: “It’s not a pleasant situation as a manager and as a person because you want to do well for them and it’s sad that they feel this way. At the same time, I know football is about results. At the moment, there’s a number of fans who are not happy with a lot of things. But as the manager you need to be accountable and responsible.” Leicester are hamstrung by profitability and sustainability regulations and face a points deduction this season for allegedly breaching rules. Leicester are limited to signing loan players before the transfer deadline on Monday 2 February. The Foxes are without a clean sheet in 23 league games and have struggled to find consistency. Leicester return to league action at home to Charlton next Saturday.
Altman’s campaigning for his company coincides with its use of enormous present resources to serve an imagined future Sam Altman has claimed over the years that the advancement of AI could solve climate change, cure cancer, create a benevolent superintelligence beyond human comprehension, provide a tutor for every student, take over nearly half of the tasks in the economy and create what he calls ...
Altman’s campaigning for his company coincides with its use of enormous present resources to serve an imagined future Sam Altman has claimed over the years that the advancement of AI could solve climate change, cure cancer, create a benevolent superintelligence beyond human comprehension, provide a tutor for every student, take over nearly half of the tasks in the economy and create what he calls “universal extreme wealth”. In order to bring about his utopian future, Altman is demanding enormous resources from the present. As CEO of OpenAI, the world’s most valuable privately owned company, he has in recent months announced plans for $1tn of investment into datacenters and struck multibillion-dollar deals with several chipmakers. If completed, the datacenters are expected to use more power than entire European nations . OpenAI is pushing an aggressive expansion – encroaching on industries like e-commerce, healthcare and entertainment – while increasingly integrating its products into government, universities, and the US military and making a play to turn ChatGPT into the new default homepage for millions. Continue reading...
Clootie dumpling is, let’s face it, a much better name than spotted dick, but if you were fond of the latter at school, you’ll probably enjoy this very similar, classic Scottish steamed pudding. Not too sweet and, thanks to the apple and carrot, lighter than it sounds, this is a proper winter dessert and the perfect end to a Burns supper, especially when served with custard or ice-cream. Prep 20 m...
Clootie dumpling is, let’s face it, a much better name than spotted dick, but if you were fond of the latter at school, you’ll probably enjoy this very similar, classic Scottish steamed pudding. Not too sweet and, thanks to the apple and carrot, lighter than it sounds, this is a proper winter dessert and the perfect end to a Burns supper, especially when served with custard or ice-cream. Prep 20 min Cook 3 hr 15 min Serves 8-10 110g fresh suet, or dried suet or a vegetarian alternative 225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp fine salt 1 tsp mixed spice 1 tsp ground ginger ¼ tsp ground allspice ¼ tsp nutmeg 110g soft brown sugar 75g fine fresh breadcrumbs 25g coarse oatmeal, or 25g extra breadcrumbs 200g currants 100g sultanas or raisins – golden ones look especially pretty 1 large green apple 1 carrot Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed orange or lemon 1 egg, beaten 2 tbsp treacle About 60ml milk Half-fill a large saucepan for which you have a lid with water, then bring to a boil (if you have a pan with handles on the side, so much the better). Soak a clean tea towel (a smooth one, rather than anything fluffy or towel-like) or cheesecloth in water. And have ready some butcher’s string, or similar. 2 A note on the suet Though suet sounds heavy, its high melting point gives the dumpling dough a fluffy lightness. Fresh suet (the hard fat from around the kidneys, rather than generic beef fat) has the best flavour, but dry stuff, which also comes in vegetarian versions, will do fine. If using fresh, put it in the freezer while you prepare the rest. 3 Start the dumpling mix Put the flour (if you prefer wholemeal, you may need to use more milk later) in a large bowl with the baking powder and salt. Whisk in all the spices (cinnamon would be a nice addition, or you might just use two teaspoons of mixed spice). Then, whisk in the sugar (dark brown sugar would give a richer flavour, but white is acceptable). The breadcrumbs should be the fluffy and fres...
“I don’t say this lightly, but I feel traumatised by this,” said Sarah*, a leaseholder who owns a one-bedroom flat in Moseley, south Birmingham. “Every time I open the front door to my house I’m expecting some frightening letter with lots of zeros on it. It has ruined my life, to be honest.” Sarah works full-time as a school teacher, but has been forced to take up a second job to pay the spirallin...
“I don’t say this lightly, but I feel traumatised by this,” said Sarah*, a leaseholder who owns a one-bedroom flat in Moseley, south Birmingham. “Every time I open the front door to my house I’m expecting some frightening letter with lots of zeros on it. It has ruined my life, to be honest.” Sarah works full-time as a school teacher, but has been forced to take up a second job to pay the spiralling bills from the management company of her building. While she was aware of the annual service charge of around £1,400, she wasn’t prepared for the bills for a reserve fund which have risen steeply as the management company aims to secure an extra £400,000 from residents for a roof replacement and other projects. At one point she was paying £800 a month to cover the service charge and reserve fund contributions, and then, just before Christmas, a notice asking her for almost £14,000 landed on her doorstep. “I just did not expect any of this when I purchased my property,” she said. “I feel like it is the worst decision I’ve ever made – it has ruined me financially. I’m sure there are lots of people feeling the same as me. If the government want people to purchase property, this needs to stop.” Leaseholders across England have urged the government to speed up its long-awaited leasehold reform, which has passed into law but much of which has yet to be implemented via secondary legislation. Labour initially promised to abolish leasehold within 100 days of taking office, but dropped this pledge because of the complicated nature of the task. View image in fullscreen Leaseholders across England have urged the government to speed up its long-awaited leasehold reform. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian There are reports of infighting in the Cabinet Office over the exact details of the secondary leasehold reform bill, which was originally due to be published before Christmas but has yet to materialise. The government has promised changes, including making it cheaper to extend lea...
In this article STLA GM F Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT U.S. President Donald Trump and CEO of Ford Jim Farley clap, as President Trump visits a Ford production center, in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., January 13, 2026. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters DETROIT — The only consistency has been inconsistency for the U.S. automotive industry during the first half of this decade — a trend that'...
In this article STLA GM F Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT U.S. President Donald Trump and CEO of Ford Jim Farley clap, as President Trump visits a Ford production center, in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., January 13, 2026. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters DETROIT — The only consistency has been inconsistency for the U.S. automotive industry during the first half of this decade — a trend that's expected to continue amid challenging market conditions in 2026. The U.S. auto sector — a crucial driver of the economy estimated around 4.8% of America's gross domestic product — has endured rolling crises since the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered U.S. assembly plants in early 2020. The global health crisis was followed by yearslong supply chain issues, semiconductor chip shortages , political whipsawing, tariffs and other challenges for all-electric and autonomous vehicles. Automakers have been surprisingly resilient during the challenges, but those issues are now combining with more traditional industry problems of affordability and slowing consumer demand. That's all creating a more challenging environment for automakers in 2026. "We've got to plan for the worst and hope for the best," Hyundai North America CEO Randy Parker told CNBC during an interview. "That's the situation that we're in right now." Other executives have expressed similar sentiments as they prepare for a "new" U.S. automotive industry: one that's more expensive, smaller and, by many means, less predictable. Automotive forecasters are calling for steady to lower sales this year, despite industry sales only hitting 16.3 million units last year . That was the highest level since the pandemic in 2020, but down from more than 17 million for five consecutive years before the global health crisis, according to industry data. "Anyone in the auto industry … we should all be very careful about consumer demand," Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said Jan. 13 during an event for the Detroit Auto Show. "That's really import...
Liubomyr Vorona/iStock via Getty Images Performance Assessment Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) has slightly lagged the broader market index since my last article on the stock: Performance since Author's Last Article on TSLA (Seeking Alpha, Author's Last Article on TSLA) Thesis Tesla is due to release its Q4 FY25 results on Wednesday, 28 January. Here's how I'm looking at the stock ahead of this earnings rele...
Liubomyr Vorona/iStock via Getty Images Performance Assessment Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) has slightly lagged the broader market index since my last article on the stock: Performance since Author's Last Article on TSLA (Seeking Alpha, Author's Last Article on TSLA) Thesis Tesla is due to release its Q4 FY25 results on Wednesday, 28 January. Here's how I'm looking at the stock ahead of this earnings release: Tesla is making promising progress on scaling robotaxis. Favorable revenue mix shifts allow for gross margin expansion. Believe it or not, the valuations are reasonable. TSLA/S&P 500 ( SP500 ) may be ready to break out to the upside. Tesla is Making Promising Progress on Scaling Robotaxis In the last quarter's earnings call , Musk stated that they expect robotaxis to be running without the supervision of safety drivers by the end of 2025: But we are expecting to have no safety drivers in at least large parts of Austin by the end of this year. So within a few months, we expect to have no safety drivers at all at least in parts of Austin. - CEO Elon Musk in the Q3 FY25 earnings call . As Musk has a tendency to overpromise and deliver late, I believe it is a big success for them to hit this milestone just 1 month later than forecast . Unsupervised robotaxis for Tesla is a major validation of the company's cameras-only approach. This strategic choice makes production more cost-efficient and scalable than Alphabet's ( GOOGL , GOOG ) Waymo, which relies on expensive LIDAR technology. In the upcoming earnings call on January 28th, I would be keen to hear updates showcasing continued momentum in the robotaxis rollout. In my opinion, this is the single biggest narrative driving the value of TSLA stock right now. Notice that some long-time Tesla bulls are banking on adoption rates surprising to the upside: We’re keeping an eye on how quickly Tesla’s footprint is expanding here, and it’s expanding a lot faster, I think, than many people expected... So I think this is actually goi...
MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in August of last year, I argued that a recession is imminent absent a major change by the US government. Years of inflationary pressures and high-interest rates aimed at combating them, in addition to tariffs that prove to be a tax on the American consumer, would ultimately feed the culprits. We have yet to see that recession, but I do remain a...
MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in August of last year, I argued that a recession is imminent absent a major change by the US government. Years of inflationary pressures and high-interest rates aimed at combating them, in addition to tariffs that prove to be a tax on the American consumer, would ultimately feed the culprits. We have yet to see that recession, but I do remain adamant that my assessment was correct. If there is going to be anything that disproves my stance on the matter, it would very likely be the industrial economy. The industrial sector specifically has achieved performance in recent months that is conflicting, to say the least. In some ways, it is performing horribly. And in other ways, its performance is relatively robust. I think, however, that when you read between the lines and look at the picture in its entirety, we are still looking at a rather precarious situation. Broadly speaking, the economy is struggling in some key ways. That doesn't mean that there won't be bright spots along the way. And at some point, one of two things will have to break. Either the data that is coming in strong right now will have to weaken, or everything else will have to get stronger. The good news is that we should get some more insight in the coming days. This is because some of the major industrial firms out there, such as The Boeing Company ( BA ), Lockheed Martin ( LMT ), RTX Corporation ( RTX ), Caterpillar ( CAT ), GE Vernova ( GEV ), and Honeywell International ( HON ), are expected to announce financial results for their latest quarters this week. As we approach that time, analysts do expect revenue to improve for most of these firms. And from a profitability standpoint, the expectation is mixed. But hopefully, as this data comes in, we will get a better idea of what is going on. Now, however, I think that a more cautious stance is warranted. A Mixed Bag If you look at almost any other aspect of the economy, with perhaps the one othe...
z1b/iStock via Getty Images Earnings season can be a great time to take advantage of market irrationality, especially when short-term investors on Wall Street hit the panic sell button on otherwise well-rounded companies. This creates opportunities for long-term retail investors who are hunting for bargains with proven track records of shareholder value creation. This brings me to Abbott Laborator...
z1b/iStock via Getty Images Earnings season can be a great time to take advantage of market irrationality, especially when short-term investors on Wall Street hit the panic sell button on otherwise well-rounded companies. This creates opportunities for long-term retail investors who are hunting for bargains with proven track records of shareholder value creation. This brings me to Abbott Laboratories ( ABT ), which I last covered back in August 2022, highlighting its strong business segments and strategic opportunities in the diabetes and cardiovascular spaces. ABT stock has come under pressure as of late. This is due to weakness in the Nutrition business and softer performance in the diagnostics segment as COVID-19 test volumes continue to decline. Recently, underperformance in the Nutrition unit during Q4 2025 drove the stock price down. At the current price of $107, ABT trades at the low end of its 52-week range, as shown below. ABT Stock 1-Yr Trend (Seeking Alpha) Nonetheless, ABT has still way outperformed the S&P 500 ( SPY ) over the past three decades with a 2,048% total return, more than doubling that of SPY, as shown below. ABT vs S&P 500 Total Return (Seeking Alpha) In this article, I revisit ABT, including recent business results , and discuss why the recent drop creates an opportunity for long-term value investors, so let’s get started! Why ABT? Abbott Laboratories is a globally diversified healthcare technology company with a presence in over 160 countries. It operates across the medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition, and established pharmaceutical markets. Its healthcare products are used in virtually every stage of life and encompass life-changing medical technologies. This includes continuous glucose monitoring systems, cardiovascular devices, diagnostic instruments, and infant and adult nutritional products. ABT has a long legacy of innovation and research to address chronic and acute health care needs. Over the past year, it generated $44 billion...