Super Bowl 60 is set and it's a rematch from 11 years ago: Patriots vs. Seahawks toggle caption John Froschauer/AP Drake Maye vs. Sam Darnold. Two stingy defenses. A second-year head coach vs. a veteran coach in his second act. Super Bowl 60 is set and it's a rematch: The New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks. The Patriots will seek their NFL-record seventh Super Bowl victory when they fac...
Super Bowl 60 is set and it's a rematch from 11 years ago: Patriots vs. Seahawks toggle caption John Froschauer/AP Drake Maye vs. Sam Darnold. Two stingy defenses. A second-year head coach vs. a veteran coach in his second act. Super Bowl 60 is set and it's a rematch: The New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks. The Patriots will seek their NFL-record seventh Super Bowl victory when they face the Seahawks on Feb. 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Led by Maye, coach Mike Vrabel and a stifling defense, the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl for the first time since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their sixth ring together seven years ago. Sponsor Message The Patriots (17-3) beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 on Sunday in the AFC championship game to advance to their 12th Super Bowl. Darnold, Mike Macdonald and a suffocating defense have led the Seahawks to the big stage for the fourth time in franchise history. They're seeking their second Lombardi. Darnold, a No. 3 overall pick in 2018 now with his fifth team, played one of his best games to lead the Seahawks to a 31-27 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC title game. He threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers. toggle caption Ashley Landis/AP "That doesn't matter to me," Darnold said about the doubters he's proven wrong. "I just come to work every single day with these guys. These guys in the locker room, that's what it's about to me, man. The way we've come to work ever since April in OTAs, training camp, one day at a time and we're here. We did it." It was a wacky finish when Brady and the Patriots beat Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll's Seahawks 11 years ago. Brady threw four TD passes and rallied New England from a 10-point deficit to win the fourth of his seven rings when Malcolm Butler intercepted Wilson's pass from the 1-yard line to secure a 28-24 victory on Feb. 1, 2015. Seattle fans still lament why Marshawn Lynch didn't get the ball on a handoff at the 1. Sponsor Messag...
Global investment company Sixth Street is opening an office in Abu Dhabi later this year, as the firm sees improving capital markets and a pro-business environment in the region. Alan Waxman, Co-Founder & CEO of Sixth Street spoke to Bloomberg’s Horizons Middle East and Africa anchor Joumanna Bercetche on the opportunities they see in the region. (Source: Bloomberg)
Global investment company Sixth Street is opening an office in Abu Dhabi later this year, as the firm sees improving capital markets and a pro-business environment in the region. Alan Waxman, Co-Founder & CEO of Sixth Street spoke to Bloomberg’s Horizons Middle East and Africa anchor Joumanna Bercetche on the opportunities they see in the region. (Source: Bloomberg)
AleMasche72/iStock via Getty Images The rallies in both Gold ( XAUUSD:CUR ) and Silver ( XAGUSD:CUR ) over the last 12 months have been nothing short of staggering. With the latter officially hitting $100 per ounce and gold coming within a hair of $5,000, the yellow metal is up nearly 80%, and silver has more than tripled since last January: 1yr performance (Seeking Alpha) Gold miners have held th...
AleMasche72/iStock via Getty Images The rallies in both Gold ( XAUUSD:CUR ) and Silver ( XAGUSD:CUR ) over the last 12 months have been nothing short of staggering. With the latter officially hitting $100 per ounce and gold coming within a hair of $5,000, the yellow metal is up nearly 80%, and silver has more than tripled since last January: 1yr performance (Seeking Alpha) Gold miners have held their own as well. Up over 180% in the last year, the mining sector absolutely crushed the broader equity market in 2025 and is off to a stellar start again in 2026. Given the unrelenting rallies in each of these assets to begin the year, is it time to consider allocating some downside protection in the miners? And a better question is, if it is indeed time, is the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 2X Shares ( DUST ) the right product for hedging a long position in gold miners? DUST Fund Details and 2x Leverage Risks AUM: $128 million Expense Ratio: 0.93% Dividend: 19.15% Inception: December 2010 While I've covered leveraged funds several times for Seeking Alpha in the past, DUST is not one that I have ever written about before. The objective of the fund is very simple; a bet on a DUST is a leveraged bet against the VanEck Gold Miners ETF ( GDX ). There are numerous risks to consider before taking a position in any 2x leveraged ETF like DUST. Direxion makes it very clear through its own materials that DUST is not an investment product; it's a trading product: Trading is different than investing. Use our insights and educational resources to make sure you’re ready to trade in Direxion’s Leveraged and Inverse ETFs. Since these are actively managed funds that are rebalanced on a daily basis, there is a long-term fund decay that disincentivizes holding for longer than a few days or weeks (at most). You can see the 1-year performance of the fund in the chart below: Data by YCharts At negative 91% in both price and total return, anyone who has actually held DUST for this entire perio...
Getty Images Shares of Cohen & Steers ( CNS ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about a quarter of their value. While the company is controlling what it can fairly well, appetite for real estate-oriented investments has been very poor, which has limited fund flows and compressed its multiple. I last covered shares in July , rating CNS a "Sell," and since then, the stock has los...
Getty Images Shares of Cohen & Steers ( CNS ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about a quarter of their value. While the company is controlling what it can fairly well, appetite for real estate-oriented investments has been very poor, which has limited fund flows and compressed its multiple. I last covered shares in July , rating CNS a "Sell," and since then, the stock has lost 12% while the market has gained 8%, meaningful relative underperformance that justifies the rating. With shares around my $65 price target and some hopes real estate activity could be bottoming, now is a good time to revisit shares. Seeking Alpha In the company's fourth quarter , Cohen & Steers earned $0.81 per share, which matched estimates as revenue grew nearly 3% to $144 million. For the full year, CNS earned $3.09; I was expecting $2.95-$3.20, so results were right in line with my expectations. Operating income was also up 3% to $52 million as its operating margin expanded 30 bps from last year to 36.4%. Management targets compensation expenses being about 40% of revenue, and in Q4, it came in at 39%. Compensation is over 60% of the company's expense, as is the case for most investment managers. Compensation was down $200k from last year to $56.2 million as CNS managed headcount and variable compensation given the muted growth environment for its products. Weak REIT Demand Has Limited Growth AUM ended the quarter at $90.5 billion, which fell a bit sequentially, given year-end dynamics where many funds pay a larger dividend. As you can see, average AUM was up slightly. Relative to last year, CNS ended the year with ~5% more AUM, reflecting ~2% of inflows and ~3% of appreciation. This modest AUM growth during a pronounced equity market rally speaks to the fact that investor appetite has been geared towards higher growth sectors like tech than income-oriented ones like real estate. Cohen & Steers Importantly, 95% of its funds are beating benchmarks on a 1-, 3-, 5-, and ...
如果把现在的 AI 模型比作一个学霸，它们的工作方式通常是这样的：在学校（预训练阶段）读万卷书，把知识固化在脑子里（参数冻结）。 等到考试（推理阶段）时，它们靠的是「回忆」和「逻辑推演」来答题。 即便像 OpenAI 的 o1 这种「会思考」的模型，也只是在考场上多打了打草稿（CoT思维链），它的大脑回路（权重）依然是锁死的。 但就在本周，一篇名为《Learning to Discover at ...
Ryanair Holdings Plc raised its full-year guidance for passenger growth and fares as the Irish budget carrier benefits from improved Boeing Co. aircraft deliveries and stronger travel demand. Traffic for fiscal 2026 is set to rise 4% to almost 208 million passengers, up from the 207 million predicted in November, Ryanair said on Monday. Fares will exceed 7% growth as they trend higher than the yea...
Ryanair Holdings Plc raised its full-year guidance for passenger growth and fares as the Irish budget carrier benefits from improved Boeing Co. aircraft deliveries and stronger travel demand. Traffic for fiscal 2026 is set to rise 4% to almost 208 million passengers, up from the 207 million predicted in November, Ryanair said on Monday. Fares will exceed 7% growth as they trend higher than the year prior, the airline said. Ryanair said it’s “cautiously guiding” for full-year profit after tax excluding exceptional items of €2.13 billion to €2.23 billion. In the third quarter, profit after tax fell to €115 million, excluding a provision of €85 million for a fine from Italy’s competition authority. That’s down from €149 million the previous year and compares with the €90.2 million average of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “Consumers continue to travel in numbers, capacity continues to be hugely constrained in Europe, and all of this is leading to slightly higher air fares,” Ryanair Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said in an interview. Read More: Ryanair Says Online Sparring With Musk Is Good for Business Europe’s biggest budget carrier cited good progress with Boeing deliveries, a turnaround from its frustration a year ago as its sole aircraft supplier struggled to hand over jets on time. The airline expects the final four Max 8 models to be delivered by February, while the newer Max 10, which hasn’t been certified yet, is set to come into Ryanair’s fleet in spring 2027. The deliveries will allow Ryanair to raise its fiscal 2027 passenger goal from 215 million to 216 million, it said. The airline previously raised its passenger growth target for fiscal 2026 to 207 million, compared with a previous forecast of 206 million. Shares are down about 3% so far this year in Dublin trading, following a 55% jump last year. The results come days after Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary clashed with Elon Musk over the economics of SpaceX ’s Starlink Wi-Fi se...
When Labour dignitaries gathered at the Titanic hotel in Liverpool on Friday night, one question loomed above all others: to change captain or not? For many, that question has become even more pressing after Keir Starmer’s allies brutally stopped Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster before it had even begun. There were plausible practical reasons for blocking the Greater Manchester mayor from runn...
When Labour dignitaries gathered at the Titanic hotel in Liverpool on Friday night, one question loomed above all others: to change captain or not? For many, that question has become even more pressing after Keir Starmer’s allies brutally stopped Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster before it had even begun. There were plausible practical reasons for blocking the Greater Manchester mayor from running in the newly vacant Gorton and Denton seat: not least that the byelection to replace him would be the biggest and most expensive in modern British history. But many Labour MPs, including Burnham acolytes and agnostics alike, view the decision as a clear attempt to save the prime minister as the party heads towards a giant political iceberg. This diverse south-east Manchester seat is home to about 119,000 people, including the left-leaning young professionals of Levenshulme, the white working-class Reform voters of Denton, and a significant Muslim population – 28% of the total – around Rusholme and Gorton. Andrew Gwynne, the former minister who retired on medical grounds this week after an 11-month suspension over leaked WhatsApp messages, won with a 13,413-vote majority in 2024, with Reform UK finishing second. Although it is a new constituency introduced as a result of boundary changes, it is formed from three seats that have voted Labour for decades. In Gorton, voters have elected a Labour MP since George V was on the throne. Reform UK will run the byelection as a referendum on the government and Starmer in particular. Nigel Farage’s party has an eight-point lead in the national polls on average, while the prime minister’s popularity has tanked since the general election. Four miles west, Labour will be pulled from the left by the Greens and any Gaza-focused candidate, whether that is an independent, a recruit for Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party, or even George Galloway (yes, the 71-year-old has teased another comeback). “The voters that are pissed off with Labour are liab...
As the demolition excavator crashes its metal jaws through Warrington’s former Unilever soap factory, Carl Oates says the town is good at handling change. Once contractors have finished, his company plans to open a datacentre,reinventing a site from the first Industrial Revolution for the next. “As one industry closes, Warrington has been quite good at opening new ones – and we hope datacentres is...
As the demolition excavator crashes its metal jaws through Warrington’s former Unilever soap factory, Carl Oates says the town is good at handling change. Once contractors have finished, his company plans to open a datacentre,reinventing a site from the first Industrial Revolution for the next. “As one industry closes, Warrington has been quite good at opening new ones – and we hope datacentres is one of those new spaces.” A director of a local property firm, Dante Group, he knows the blue corrugated-metal factory looming over Bank Quay station is a well-known local landmark on the Cheshire skyline. Alongside wire, beer and gin, soap helped to power Warrington’s industrial development. But few will miss it. “There’s a mentality here around of just getting on with it. We’re trying to do big things here if we can.” In an age of stalling economic progress, Britain could do with a few more towns like Warrington. According to a report published on Monday by the Centre for Cities, the town on the Mersey, between Manchester and Liverpool, has enjoyed economic growth 2.2 times faster than the national average since 2013. If this growth had been replicated nationwide, the thinktank says the average UK urban resident would have had £3,200 more in their pocket, and the British economy would be 4% larger – enough to undo the economic damage from Brexit. “Increasing living standards at more than twice the national average is a significant achievement, and Warrington shows what sustained, place-based growth can deliver,” says Andrew Carter, the Centre for Cities chief executive. “These places offer practical lessons for how growth can be unlocked elsewhere.” That Warrington should be an economic template could raise eyebrows. At the heart of the post-industrial north-west of England, it often gets lumped in with the “red wall” towns of the M62 rugby league belt, where living standards more generally have gone sideways at best. As the first thing visitors see at Bank Quay, the rus...
Catterick Catterick is my favourite baffling TV show. It stars Vic and Bob and a stellar backup cast – Reece Shearsmith, Tim Healey, Mark Benton, Matt Lucas and Morwenna Banks. It starts off innocuously enough with Carl Palmer (Bob) returning to Catterick to visit his brother Chris (Vic) but quickly descends into anarchy. The extremely loose plot centres around the criminal antics of mummy’s boy T...
Catterick Catterick is my favourite baffling TV show. It stars Vic and Bob and a stellar backup cast – Reece Shearsmith, Tim Healey, Mark Benton, Matt Lucas and Morwenna Banks. It starts off innocuously enough with Carl Palmer (Bob) returning to Catterick to visit his brother Chris (Vic) but quickly descends into anarchy. The extremely loose plot centres around the criminal antics of mummy’s boy Tony (Shearsmith) but there are more tangents than a geometry conference. From ripped up posters of George Clooney and haunting dance routines to Chris Rea and Foreigner, Catterick should be top of your TV destinations. Tom Whelan, South Shields Monkey Dust I first caught a glimpse of the sharp, dreamlike animation Monkey Dust back on BBC Three in the mid-2000s. I was mesmerised by its dark slice of post-millennium British life. Every week, each episode played somewhat the same, but with a tragic, twisted or nightmarish spin befalling the sad bunch of urban dwellers. Why did Clive perform depraved acts with German businessmen, his father in-law, or a dog and some peanut butter? How did Divorced Dad survive his dire ending every week? I haven’t seen anything this dark or hypnotic since. Liam, 40, Amsterdam The OA View image in fullscreen Enter the twilight zone … The OA. Photograph: Nicola Goode/Netflix I don’t what the hell it was about. Inter-dimensional travel. Time travel. Long philosophic conversations that went nowhere. I remember being up at 2am in the morning watching it and thinking: oh my God, I have entered the twilight zone. Where am I? Gaverne, 56, London Mrs Davies View image in fullscreen Brilliant and bizarre … Betty Gilpin in Mrs Davies. Photograph: Youtube Nobody else seems to have heard of this, but Mrs Davies, starring Betty Gilpin, is brilliant, funny and bizarre. It starts off straightforwardly enough with a flashback to a medieval secret society and the holy grail, then back to modern day and a crimefighting nun in a world ruled by a benign AI. From the...
The BBC will face “profound jeopardy” over its future unless it embraces significant changes to its funding, its outgoing director general has said, as he signalled his support for an overhaul of the licence fee. Speaking to the Guardian, Tim Davie called for supporters of the corporation to “stand up and fight” for it, amid increased hostility from its commercial and political critics. He said th...
The BBC will face “profound jeopardy” over its future unless it embraces significant changes to its funding, its outgoing director general has said, as he signalled his support for an overhaul of the licence fee. Speaking to the Guardian, Tim Davie called for supporters of the corporation to “stand up and fight” for it, amid increased hostility from its commercial and political critics. He said the BBC would be “in trouble” without serious changes to its funding model and more flexibility over the services it offers. In a sign that the BBC leadership is looking at changes that would draw more households into funding the broadcaster, Davie said he did not want to simply increase the amount demanded from each licence fee payer. “We do want reform,” he said. “We do want reform of the licence fee. However, we’re not just about driving the amount we get from households higher. “My biggest fears are that we just roll on and think it’s going to be OK. We don’t reform enough. At that point, we don’t get regulatory reform and more flexibility. That’s my biggest worry. And I think, if we don’t do that, we’re in trouble.” However, Davie rejected a suggestion that the BBC should be funded by advertising or subscriptions – options raised in a government paper on the public broadcaster’s future released last month. View image in fullscreen Tim Davie rejected the idea that the BBC should be funded by advertising or subscription. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA “If you go to advertising or subscription, you’re no longer a universal service,” he said. “It’s a societal choice.” The BBC is in the process of examining how the licence fee could be made more progressive for some groups. Samir Shah, the BBC’s chair, has previously suggested switching to a household levy that could be collected through council tax. It would remove the need to enforce licence fee payment through controversial home visits. It would also allow the payment to be adjusted so that poorer groups pay less. However, the ...
Eleven towns and cities in the UK, including Warrington, Barnsley and Wakefield, have seen their disposable incomes rise twice as fast as the rest of the UK over the past decade, a study has found. A report from Centre for Cities, a thinktank, showed that between 2013 and 2023, disposable income for residents of these top performing towns and cities rose by an average of 5.2%, compared with an inc...
Eleven towns and cities in the UK, including Warrington, Barnsley and Wakefield, have seen their disposable incomes rise twice as fast as the rest of the UK over the past decade, a study has found. A report from Centre for Cities, a thinktank, showed that between 2013 and 2023, disposable income for residents of these top performing towns and cities rose by an average of 5.2%, compared with an increase of 2.4% for urban areas in the UK overall. The report said that if all 63 of the UK’s largest towns and cities had experienced the same rate of growth as the top 11 performers over this period, people would have pocketed an extra £3,200 on average in disposable income. It found that the top-performing towns and cities in its report all focused on building a strong local business base and higher-skilled jobs, with a significant number of productive firms in “tradeable” industries, such as software, marketing and finance, that can sell to markets outside the local area. Centre for Cities argued that central and local government were often too focused on piecemeal actions to improve the cost of living, such as capping bus fares or providing money for energy bills, rather than focusing on policies aimed at improving economic growth, which it said led to stronger incomes for everyone. “By focusing on tinkering with the symptoms, the government runs the risk of losing sight of the cause,” the report said. “The problem underpinning cost of living pressures, stagnant incomes, and persistent deprivation is the lack of economic growth.” Andrew Carter, the chief executive of the thinktank, said: “If you look at these top performers, what they focus on is increasing higher-skilled, cutting-edge jobs in their area and being very deliberate about trying to do that.” In Barnsley, which has used its M1 corridor location to become a logistics hub, the council has opened up industrial land around motorway junctions to help activity in this space to grow, according to the report. Since ...
Met Office data and legal documents from the National Archives could be used by artificial intelligence systems as the UK government pushes ahead with plans to employ nationally owned material in AI tools. The government is providing funds for researchers to test how Met Office content could be used by the technology, such as in helping agencies and councils know when to buy more road grit. Anothe...
Met Office data and legal documents from the National Archives could be used by artificial intelligence systems as the UK government pushes ahead with plans to employ nationally owned material in AI tools. The government is providing funds for researchers to test how Met Office content could be used by the technology, such as in helping agencies and councils know when to buy more road grit. Another project will explore whether legal data from the National Archives – the UK’s repository for official documents – could help medium- and small-sized businesses with legal support. The government has also announced plans to license content from national institutions such as the National History Museum and the National Library of Scotland for AI development. Ian Murray, the minister for digital government and data, said the National Archives plan was “what smart use of the public sector” looked like. “Whether you’re a cafe owner trying to understand employment law or a shopkeeper navigating health and safety requirements, time spent wrestling with legal jargon is time spent away from customers,” he said. “By exploring how authoritative legal data from the National Archives could be made AI-ready, we could help small businesses get quick, reliable answers to common questions – freeing up evenings and weekends and giving them more confidence to invest and grow.” Data is a key component of AI models, the underlying technology for tools such as ChatGPT, and has become a battleground between the UK’s creative industries and the government over proposals to change copyright law. Ministers have been criticised for proposing that AI companies should be allowed to use copyright-protected work without first seeking artists’ permission, unless the artists indicates that they wish to “opt out”. The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said this month the government was seeking a “reset” on these plans via an official review due to be published in March. However, the government has made c...