We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Singapore’s refusal to negotiate over Hormuz creates waves in Malaysia Singapore’s pushback against negotiating with Iran over access to the Strait of Hormuz has triggered...
We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Singapore’s refusal to negotiate over Hormuz creates waves in Malaysia Singapore’s pushback against negotiating with Iran over access to the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a backlash from Malaysian politicians, who saw its statements as “lecturing” them on how best to...
Researchers examined trends in 10 global cities, with Sydney’s summer growing at two-and-a-half times the average Scientist Ted Scott could feel that summers in his home state of Minnesota were not what they used to be. With the climate crisis accelerating, Scott could feel and see the seasons changing from their usual patterns – especially summer – and he wanted to know what the data said. Contin...
Researchers examined trends in 10 global cities, with Sydney’s summer growing at two-and-a-half times the average Scientist Ted Scott could feel that summers in his home state of Minnesota were not what they used to be. With the climate crisis accelerating, Scott could feel and see the seasons changing from their usual patterns – especially summer – and he wanted to know what the data said. Continue reading...
Spain's annual inflation rate was revised to 3.4% in March 2026, above the preliminary 3.3% reading and up from 2.3% in February. The Consumer Price Index increased 1.20% in March of 2026 over the previous month, above estimates of 1%. More on Spain EWP: Spain Steadies Itself After A March Correction, Low-Teens P/E EUFN: A Maturing Rally With Room To Run EUFN: Why European Financials Profit-Taking...
Spain's annual inflation rate was revised to 3.4% in March 2026, above the preliminary 3.3% reading and up from 2.3% in February. The Consumer Price Index increased 1.20% in March of 2026 over the previous month, above estimates of 1%. More on Spain EWP: Spain Steadies Itself After A March Correction, Low-Teens P/E EUFN: A Maturing Rally With Room To Run EUFN: Why European Financials Profit-Taking Is Prudent (Downgrade) Spain's service sector growth sustained in March Spain shuts airspace for U.S. planes involved in Iran attacks
Derick Hudson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Following the Llama 4 fiasco and almost 9 months after rebuilding the Meta Superintelligence team (MSL), Meta ( META ) has finally released a new model: Muse Spark ! Just a month ago, The New York Times depicted a pretty unflattering picture of how Meta’s efforts in developing the frontier model are not going in the right direction and claimed Meta w...
Derick Hudson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Following the Llama 4 fiasco and almost 9 months after rebuilding the Meta Superintelligence team (MSL), Meta ( META ) has finally released a new model: Muse Spark ! Just a month ago, The New York Times depicted a pretty unflattering picture of how Meta’s efforts in developing the frontier model are not going in the right direction and claimed Meta would delay the release of the model to May. Meta was a month early on that timeline, which was a positive surprise for investors. Perhaps the more welcome surprise is that this actually appears to be more than a decent model. In Arena’s (formerly LMArena) leaderboard , Muse Spark currently lags behind just Claude 4.6 in text and vision, although it still lags materially in some areas, such as coding. Nonetheless, given Meta AI’s target consumer market, coding may not be the use case they need to be best at. Of course, there are legitimate concerns related to “benchmaxxing,” which means the most credible sign of Meta being back in the model race may actually come from app store ranking. As of this writing, Meta AI is actually ahead of all other AI apps on the iOS App Store. Zuckerberg has been making the case for a while that once the underlying quality of Meta’s model improves, it will lead to higher usage and engagement. From the 3Q’25 call: “what we see is that as we improve the quality of the model, primarily for post-training Llama 4 at this point. We are -- we continue to see improvements in usage. So our view is that when we get the new models that we’re building in MSL in there and get like truly frontier models with novel capabilities that you don’t have in other places, then I think that this is just a massive latent opportunity” I don’t think Meta has unleashed any novel capability with Muse Spark yet. I actually don’t think they need to get such capability for increasing adoption of Meta AI. Ultimately, what Meta (and Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL )) needs is to offer ...
Bloomberg Daybreak Europe is your essential morning viewing to stay ahead. On today's show, a US-sanctioned tanker linked to China is making its way through the Strait of Hormuz, testing President Donald Trump’s naval blockade. Rich Starry was blacklisted by Washington in 2023 for helping Tehran evade energy sanctions. It's making its second attempt in 24 hours to exit the Persian Gulf. Global sto...
Bloomberg Daybreak Europe is your essential morning viewing to stay ahead. On today's show, a US-sanctioned tanker linked to China is making its way through the Strait of Hormuz, testing President Donald Trump’s naval blockade. Rich Starry was blacklisted by Washington in 2023 for helping Tehran evade energy sanctions. It's making its second attempt in 24 hours to exit the Persian Gulf. Global stocks are rallying and oil fell on hopes of more talks between Iran and the US. US Vice President JD Vance says the ball is in Iran's court. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country is prepared to continue discussions within a framework of international law. Plus Goldman Sachs' disappointing first quarter bond- and rates-trading revenue unsettles investors ahead of earnings from Wells Fargo, Citi and JPMorgan. Today's guest: Pilar Gomez-Bravo, MFS Investment Management, Co-CIO Fixed Income (Source: Bloomberg)
Anna Edwards, Guy Johnson, Tom Mackenzie and Mark Cudmore break down today's key themes for analysts and investors on "Bloomberg: The Opening Trade." (Source: Bloomberg)
Anna Edwards, Guy Johnson, Tom Mackenzie and Mark Cudmore break down today's key themes for analysts and investors on "Bloomberg: The Opening Trade." (Source: Bloomberg)