EvgeniyShkolenko/iStock via Getty Images The market keeps trying to force the AI buildout into an old template. Some investors treat it like a software bubble. Others treat it like a datacenter land grab. Still others reduce it to a single question: is demand real? That is the wrong framing. Demand is real. Scarcity is real. The harder question, the one equity investors actually get paid for answe...
EvgeniyShkolenko/iStock via Getty Images The market keeps trying to force the AI buildout into an old template. Some investors treat it like a software bubble. Others treat it like a datacenter land grab. Still others reduce it to a single question: is demand real? That is the wrong framing. Demand is real. Scarcity is real. The harder question, the one equity investors actually get paid for answering, is whether a company can convert real scarcity into per-share value before its capital structure consumes the upside. That is the frame I keep coming back to: Long the bottleneck, short the cost of capital. In this cycle, many companies are clearly long the bottleneck . They control some combination of scarce power, GPU access, energized capacity, land, cooling, interconnect, logistics, or regulatory position. But many of those same companies are also implicitly short their own cost of capital. They need so much money, so quickly, to monetize the opportunity that the financing stack can become more important than the asset itself. That is the central analytical mistake in today's market. Investors keep treating relevance as return. They see scarcity and assume value accrues automatically. It does not. Value accrues to the owners of scarce assets only if they can finance expansion without turning the common stock into a perpetual funding mechanism. This is why capital structure is no longer adjacent to the thesis. It is the thesis. The AI buildout is an industrial bottleneck story first For all the talk about agents, models, wrappers, and software flywheels, the market remains constrained by a much more basic set of realities: Grid-ready power Permitted sites Substations and transmission access Cooling architecture GPU supply, especially memory-constrained supply Networking and integration Reliable deployment and uptime That is why so many conversations that begin in software end in infrastructure. If compute were abundant, the economic center of gravity would already ...
Key Points TJX Companies, Walmart, and Five Below are all aggressively expanding their store footprints. Retail stores remain a powerful growth engine when paired with strong logistics and merchandising strategies. 10 stocks we like better than TJX Companies › I've always been intrigued by how traditional brick‑and‑mortar stores keep finding ways to stay relevant, even as e-commerce becomes more c...
Key Points TJX Companies, Walmart, and Five Below are all aggressively expanding their store footprints. Retail stores remain a powerful growth engine when paired with strong logistics and merchandising strategies. 10 stocks we like better than TJX Companies › I've always been intrigued by how traditional brick‑and‑mortar stores keep finding ways to stay relevant, even as e-commerce becomes more commonplace and consumer habits evolve. Money is tight these days, and while online sellers and other digital experiences often steal the spotlight, there's something remarkable about companies that are thriving with foot traffic and by not closing stores. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Here are three such companies I think are solid retail stocks to consider. 1. TJX Companies TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) is the off-price juggernaut that thrives in chaos. With 5,300 stores across nine countries and a plan to reach 7,000, the company is opening 146 net-new locations in 2026, its most aggressive expansion year in recent memory. The growth is diversified: 45 new Marshalls/Maxx stores, 35 HomeGoods stores, 24 Sierra stores, 13 Canadian locations, 19 European stores, including the first five in Spain, and 10 in Australia. I recently wrote about Cava Group and how the company's aggressive new-store expansion is a key reason to be bullish on the stock, which has performed well so far this year. I see a similar opportunity with TJX, as its growth strategy and store expansion could drive the stock higher for the same reasons. The strategic moves that matter are happening at the seams of the company. TJX's joint venture with Grupo Axo in Mexico and its 35% stake in Dubai-based Brands for Less opened two entirely new geographies through asset-light partnerships. The aggressive scaling of Sierra, the ou...
Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) shares are surging 16% in Wednesday morning trading, jumping above $112 as investors pile into one of the most explosive AI infrastructure stories on the market right now. The move builds on a strong recent run. NBIS was already up 11.09% over the prior week and has gained more than 300% over ... Nebius Surges 16%: Why NBIS Is the Hottest AI Stock on the Market Right Now
Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) shares are surging 16% in Wednesday morning trading, jumping above $112 as investors pile into one of the most explosive AI infrastructure stories on the market right now. The move builds on a strong recent run. NBIS was already up 11.09% over the prior week and has gained more than 300% over ... Nebius Surges 16%: Why NBIS Is the Hottest AI Stock on the Market Right Now
Investors face a dilemma in the midst of headlines from the U.S.-Iran war seemingly changing by the hour: Risks of all sorts persist in a stock market that's still near all-time highs, making it difficult to decide where to go and what to do. The major averages rose Tuesday, building on their Monday comeback when stocks staged a massive reversal after President Trump said "the war is very complete...
Investors face a dilemma in the midst of headlines from the U.S.-Iran war seemingly changing by the hour: Risks of all sorts persist in a stock market that's still near all-time highs, making it difficult to decide where to go and what to do. The major averages rose Tuesday, building on their Monday comeback when stocks staged a massive reversal after President Trump said "the war is very complete, pretty much." Those remarks helped to whipsaw the market, with the S & P 500 ending the session higher by 0.8% after falling as much as 1.5% earlier in the day. Even with those gains, some investors are skeptical that the all-clear has sounded. Not only is the S & P 500 just 2.5% below its all-time high, expectations of future volatility are high. The VIX — Wall Street's fear gauge, and calculated based on real-time S & P 500 options prices — was last above 20, after nearing 30 on Friday. "While the Trump interview with CBS News and the press conference in Doral, Florida seemed to suggest an early end to the war, he could not provide a date — 'not this week,' he said," Komal Sri-Kumar, president at Sri-Kumar Global Strategies, told CNBC. "Also, the naming of the hardline son of Khamanei as the next Iranian leader suggests that they are digging in for a long war." 'Correction could resume' "So, after the steep fall in oil prices [Monday] and pickup in equity prices, the correction could resume," Sri-Kumar added. Sri-Kumar, the former chief global strategist at TCW, is bearish on both the U.S. economy and the stock market. His base line assumption is that stagflation is coming, a period marked by low economic growth and stubbornly high price pressures — a forecast he's held since September. Given his weak economic outlook, coupled with high equity valuations, an ongoing war and lingering concerns over the health of private credit, Sri-Kumar said investors should lower their exposure to equities. Traders could position defensively in energy and health care stocks, he added. ...
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Zoox CEO Aicha Evans discuss their new partnership to offer Zoox’s purpose-built, fully autonomous robotaxis on the Uber app, starting in Las Vegas and expanding to Los Angeles next year. They speak with Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Open Interest." (Source: Bloomberg)
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Zoox CEO Aicha Evans discuss their new partnership to offer Zoox’s purpose-built, fully autonomous robotaxis on the Uber app, starting in Las Vegas and expanding to Los Angeles next year. They speak with Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Open Interest." (Source: Bloomberg)
Earnings Call Insights: Smith Douglas Homes Corp. (SDHC) Q4 2025 Management View Greg Bennett, President, CEO & Vice Chairman, reported that Smith Douglas Homes delivered 780 homes in the fourth quarter, generating $260 million in revenue, with a home closing gross margin of 19.9% and net income of $17 million or $0.39 per diluted share. For the full year, 2,908 homes were delivered with earnings ...
Earnings Call Insights: Smith Douglas Homes Corp. (SDHC) Q4 2025 Management View Greg Bennett, President, CEO & Vice Chairman, reported that Smith Douglas Homes delivered 780 homes in the fourth quarter, generating $260 million in revenue, with a home closing gross margin of 19.9% and net income of $17 million or $0.39 per diluted share. For the full year, 2,908 homes were delivered with earnings of $1.19 per diluted share. He stated, "Despite a difficult demand environment across much of the industry, we were still able to grow deliveries during the year, which we believe reflects the strength of our operating model and the discipline of our teams in the field." Bennett noted that sales conditions remained choppy, with 532 net new orders for the quarter, and that the company "chose to remain disciplined in how aggressively we pursued sales during the quarter as the combination of seasonal slowness and aggressive year-end discounting from some competitors created a difficult selling environment." He highlighted improvements in company-wide build times, specifically noting Houston’s progress, and emphasized the company's long-term goal to "continue to grow volume and gain market share via targeted investment through our footprint and opportunistically in new markets." The appointment of Scott Bowles as new Regional President for the Southeast was announced, with Bennett expressing confidence in his leadership based on past contributions in Atlanta. Russ Devendorf, Executive VP & CFO, stated, "We finished the fourth quarter with $260 million in revenue, a 9% decrease over the year ago period on 780 closings with an average sales price of $334,000. Our home closing gross margin was 19.9% compared to 25.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024." Devendorf explained the company’s continued focus on a "pace over price" operating philosophy, prioritizing sales absorption and inventory turns over short-term price maximization, especially during periods of weaker demand. Outlook For...
AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, is reportedly flying to South Korea next week to meet with executives to discuss memory and supply chain matters. AMD's CEO Is Expected to Visit South Korea After More Than a Decade, Likely to Secure Supply Capacity Upfront For companies like AMD and NVIDIA, which are involved in the world's largest infrastructure buildout, it's probably in their best interests to keep their su...
AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, is reportedly flying to South Korea next week to meet with executives to discuss memory and supply chain matters. AMD's CEO Is Expected to Visit South Korea After More Than a Decade, Likely to Secure Supply Capacity Upfront For companies like AMD and NVIDIA, which are involved in the world's largest infrastructure buildout, it's probably in their best interests to keep their supply chain partners close, and we have already seen Jensen execute on this. NVIDIA's CEO visited Taiwan and South Korea several times last year to meet with supply chain executives, which has helped the firm maintain an edge in procuring capacity for its current and future products. It appears that AMD's CEO has become proactive in the AI supply chain as well, with Korean media reporting that she will visit South Korea by March 18. According to industry sources on the 11th, AMD CEO Lisa Su will visit Korea on the 18th. This will be her first visit since taking office in 2014. CEO Su plans to meet with key Korean partners, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, and discuss cooperation plans in areas such as data centers. - MK AMD's CEO meeting with executives from South Korea comes at a time when the company is moving into the next generation of AI infrastructure capabilities. We have already seen how determined Team Red is to compete against NVIDIA's offerings with its Instinct MI400 series, and at the same time, AMD has also made massive strides in the server CPU segment as well, which is why the company is confident to be a lot more aggressive in competing within the agentic AI segment alongside NVIDIA. And to ensure AMD can fulfill customer demand, Lisa Su appears determined to bring supply chain partners on board. Image Credits: AMD One of the more important meetings is with Samsung's Chairman Jay Y. Lee, where the focus would likely be on discussing memory and semiconductors. AMD has been a key customer of Samsung's HBM busines...
Oracle Corporation stocks have been trading up by 12.59 percent following key announcements around AI integration and innovation. Key Takeaways The company’s Q4 guidance surpasses expectations, forecasting an EPS of $1.96-$2.00, alongside anticipated revenue growth of 19%-21%. A robust Q3 FY26 performance saw an adjusted EPS of $1.79 with revenues hitting $17.2B, outdoing expectations. Oracle’s Q3...
Oracle Corporation stocks have been trading up by 12.59 percent following key announcements around AI integration and innovation. Key Takeaways The company’s Q4 guidance surpasses expectations, forecasting an EPS of $1.96-$2.00, alongside anticipated revenue growth of 19%-21%. A robust Q3 FY26 performance saw an adjusted EPS of $1.79 with revenues hitting $17.2B, outdoing expectations. Oracle’s Q3 performance obligations rocketed to $553B, leaping 325% year-over-year due largely to substantial AI infrastructure contracts. Enhanced fiscal 2027 revenue outlook raised to $90B, indicating stronger-than-predicted growth. Stock prices climbed by about 7% to $160.48 following remarkable Q3 results and guidance exceeding forecasts. Live Update At 10:02:42 EDT: On Wednesday, March 11, 2026 Oracle Corporation stock [NYSE: ORCL] is trending up by 12.59%! Discover the key drivers behind this movement as well as our expert analysis in the detailed breakdown below. Quick Financial Overview Oracle has been in the spotlight with a series of strong performances, notably in their third quarter of fiscal year 2026. Quarterly revenues soared to $17.2B, an impressive figure surpassing the expected $16.91B. Not only did they achieve a remarkable adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.79 compared to a consensus of $1.23, but they also set the stage for significant earnings with Q4 guidance predicting an EPS range clearly above market expectations. Oracle’s thriving segment, its Cloud Services, continues to climb with an assertive annual increase of 44% in cloud revenue. Additionally, driven by notable contracts within AI infrastructure, Q3 fiscal year 2026 saw a leap in performance obligations to $553 billion. Strong demand for data storage and computational power underpins Oracle’s strategic direction, cemented by the increased expectations laid out for fiscal 2027, showcasing a bold revenue target of $90B which comfortably overshadows existing consensus estimates of $86.37B. More Break...
synthetick/iStock via Getty Images By Anthony Goh, Senior Investment Research Analyst @ Khaveen Investments In our previous pitch on Monolithic Power Systems ( MPWR ), also known as MPS, we were positive because the company was still putting up strong growth even while the broader analog market was weak. The key points were that MPWR was gaining share in power semiconductors, its packaging and pro...
synthetick/iStock via Getty Images By Anthony Goh, Senior Investment Research Analyst @ Khaveen Investments In our previous pitch on Monolithic Power Systems ( MPWR ), also known as MPS, we were positive because the company was still putting up strong growth even while the broader analog market was weak. The key points were that MPWR was gaining share in power semiconductors, its packaging and product execution supported smaller and more efficient solutions, and its mix was increasingly shifting toward faster growth end markets like enterprise data and data center power. We also highlighted that the company’s growth was showing up in the numbers, with strong 2024 growth and an even stronger Q1 run rate, and that valuation still looked reasonable relative to its growth and margin expansion potential. Since our previous analysis, MPS delivered 26.43% revenue growth in 2025, broadly in line with our earlier forecast of 29%, while analyst consensus points to approximately 21.4% growth for 2026. Most of the company’s segments recorded strong growth in 2025, except for Enterprise Data. We now assess whether MPS can continue to sustain growth above 20% going forward. As we previously highlighted, the company focuses on DC-DC ICs, which represented over 90% of its total revenues. We examine what these semiconductors are and how they are used as power semiconductors to better understand the market size opportunity, as well as determine whether it has a competitive advantage that could sustain its long-term competitiveness based on its business model and chip process technologies. We also examine its diverse end-market breakdown and elaborate on its Enterprise Data segment, which has exposure to data center growth, and examine its outlook. DC-DC Converters MPS is a power semiconductor company that specializes in what are called DC-DC ICs, which it mentioned in its previous annual report accounted for a significant majority of revenue in 2023. We examine what DC-DC ICs are and...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) just announced that it has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz, marking the company's largest deal to date. Wiz will be integrated into Google's cloud unit, while its products and services will remain compatible with other major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Clo...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) just announced that it has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz, marking the company's largest deal to date. Wiz will be integrated into Google's cloud unit, while its products and services will remain compatible with other major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud. The offerings will also be available through partner security solutions. Analysts note the acquisition strengthens Google Cloud's cybersecurity capabilities at a time when businesses and governments increasingly rely on cloud services and generative AI. The deal aligns with the company's stated goal of helping organizations innovate while managing digital risks. Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport said the integration allows the firm to scale its security mission across diverse environments, maintaining support for all major cloud and code platforms. The combination of Google's AI resources and Wiz's expertise is expected to enhance preventive measures against cyber breaches.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Canva introduced a new feature that separates flat image files and AI-generated visuals into layered, fully editable designs. The Magic Layers tool is launching in public beta today in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, allowing design components like objects, text boxes, and other graphics to be selected indiv...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Canva introduced a new feature that separates flat image files and AI-generated visuals into layered, fully editable designs. The Magic Layers tool is launching in public beta today in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, allowing design components like objects, text boxes, and other graphics to be selected individually while preserving the original layout. “After a breakthrough from our AI research team, we’re introducing Magic Layers so anyone can take a flat image and turn it into a fully editable design inside Canva,” Canva’s chief product officer, Cameron Adams, said in the press release. “There’s no need to start over, or to figure out the right prompt. Generation is just the beginning - real creative freedom comes from being able to edit without losing momentum.” The feature isn’t only designed to work with AI-generated works — Magic Layers currently supports any single-page PNG or JPEG file, with “expanded capabilities in development.” The focus on how it can be used on AI images isn’t surprising, however, given how aggressively Canva has been pushing its generative AI tools over the last couple of years. The aim here is to prevent Canva users from needing to reprompt an AI-generated image if only a small section needs to be adjusted. It’s also a step above what’s being offered by other creative software providers. Generative AI tools in Adobe apps like Photoshop and Express will add generated elements to their own distinct layer that’s easy to separate from the main design, for example, but don’t currently provide a means to automatically break an entire image into layers. Magic Layers may give creators more manual control over how flat images are edited, at least compared to asking an AI assistant to make small tweaks, but it may also make AI-generated designs harder to distinguish from those made from scratch. Because image generators are (currently) limited to spitting ...
Duolingo (DUOL +1.66%) operates the world's largest digital language-education platform. Unfortunately, that hasn't kept its stock from plummeting by 82% from its mid-2025 all-time high. The drop is primarily tied to two reasons: Investors are worried that artificial intelligence (AI) will disrupt its business. Management plans to target faster user growth, which is likely to affect sales and prof...
Duolingo (DUOL +1.66%) operates the world's largest digital language-education platform. Unfortunately, that hasn't kept its stock from plummeting by 82% from its mid-2025 all-time high. The drop is primarily tied to two reasons: Investors are worried that artificial intelligence (AI) will disrupt its business. Management plans to target faster user growth, which is likely to affect sales and profits. I think those concerns are overwrought. Regarding the first issue, Duolingo has actually proven that AI can be a tailwind for its business, rather than a serious threat. As for the second, while the shift in its business strategy could temporarily result in slower revenue and earnings growth, the company believes it can almost double its daily active users (DAUs) between now and 2028. If I'm right, the sharp decline in Duolingo stock presents a great long-term buying opportunity, especially because the stock is trading at the cheapest valuations it has ever been since going public in 2021. AI is reshaping the learning experience Duolingo takes a mobile-first approach to education, so it can provide interactive and highly engaging lessons to anybody with a smartphone or tablet computer. Its platform had 52.7 million DAUs at the end of 2025, which was a 30% increase from the year-ago period, so its strategy is clearly resonating. The company monetizes its platform by showing ads to free users, and by offering a series of subscription options for eager learners who want to accelerate their progress by unlocking extra features. A record 12.2 million users were paying for a subscription at the end of 2025, a figure that was up 28% year over year. AI has been a major drawing card for subscribers. In 2024, Duolingo launched a feature called Video Call, which enables users to practice their foreign-language speaking skills with a digital avatar named Lily, and it's only available to users who pay for Super Duolingo or Duolingo Max subscriptions. Subscribers who choose the more...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Zack Arnold Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer — David Sproule Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Net Production -- Averaged 45.3 MBOE per day in Q4, with full-year average of 35.3 MBOE per day, reflecting approxi...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Zack Arnold Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer — David Sproule Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Net Production -- Averaged 45.3 MBOE per day in Q4, with full-year average of 35.3 MBOE per day, reflecting approximately 46% growth year over year. -- Averaged 45.3 MBOE per day in Q4, with full-year average of 35.3 MBOE per day, reflecting approximately 46% growth year over year. Adjusted EBITDA -- $94 million in Q4 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of $3.76 per Mcfe, or $22.58 per BOE; full year adjusted EBITDA reached $261 million. -- $94 million in Q4 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of $3.76 per Mcfe, or $22.58 per BOE; full year adjusted EBITDA reached $261 million. Operating Costs -- Averaged $5.56 per BOE in Q4, which "decline approximately 36%" compared to the prior year, attributed to operational efficiency and higher Pennsylvania gas production share. -- Averaged $5.56 per BOE in Q4, which "decline approximately 36%" compared to the prior year, attributed to operational efficiency and higher Pennsylvania gas production share. Capital Expenditures -- Incurred $326 million for 2025, comprised of $274.7 million for drilling/completions, $35.5 million for land, and $16.1 million for midstream/infrastructure. -- Incurred $326 million for 2025, comprised of $274.7 million for drilling/completions, $35.5 million for land, and $16.1 million for midstream/infrastructure. Acquisitions -- Closed a $1.2 billion acquisition of Ohio Utica assets in February, including associated midstream ownership, and completed the Chase acquisition, increasing working interest in the Pennsylvania South Bend field. -- Closed a $1.2 billion acquisition of Ohio Utica assets in February, including associated midstream ownership, and completed the Chase acquisition, increasing working interest in the Pennsylvani...
The revival of this 90s favourite is a retro-futuristic fever dream that is first incomprehensible, then thrillingly evocative. Plus, Donald Glover’s Yoshi debut Back in the mid-1990s, when I was a staff writer for Edge magazine, Marathon was our multiplayer shooter of choice. We all worked on Apple Macs, not PCs, so Bungie’s sci-fi opus was one of the only networked shooters we could all play tog...
The revival of this 90s favourite is a retro-futuristic fever dream that is first incomprehensible, then thrillingly evocative. Plus, Donald Glover’s Yoshi debut Back in the mid-1990s, when I was a staff writer for Edge magazine, Marathon was our multiplayer shooter of choice. We all worked on Apple Macs, not PCs, so Bungie’s sci-fi opus was one of the only networked shooters we could all play together. At the end of every day, staff from magazines around the company loaded it up and played for hours (usually with Chemical Brothers or Orbital blasting from the stereo). This was the era in which video games discovered club culture – Sony employed the legendary Sheffield studio the Designers Republic to create its box art and licensed the latest dance tunes for its marketing and game soundtracks. Western developers swooned over cyberpunk anime, newly available thanks to video distributors such as Viz Media and Manga Entertainment, and the internet was emerging as a weird, wild global meeting place. It felt, for a while, as if we were living in a William Gibson novel. I’m reminded of these things while playing the new version of Marathon, released this week by Bungie and heavily inspired by 1990s futurism. It’s now an online sci-fi extraction shooter in which players beam down to the planet Tau Ceti IV to scavenge for loot, carry out missions and potentially blast each other in the process. Its closest rival is Arc Raiders, which makes a similar use of stylised retro-futurism. In a recent Twitter exchange, Bungie’s global franchise director, Philip Asher, namechecked Sony’s Wipeout game, its Mental Wealth ads for PlayStation and its translucent Dual Shock controllers as inspirations. Continue reading...
Who wouldn’t want to be an influencer? You’re famous and maybe even rich, just for doing what you’d be doing anyway: working out at the gym, hanging out with your mates and mucking about on the internet. You get paid to say what you think (or are at least sent free stuff), and no one’s telling you what to do. Surely only a sucker would do anything else. At least that is the influencing dream, and ...
Who wouldn’t want to be an influencer? You’re famous and maybe even rich, just for doing what you’d be doing anyway: working out at the gym, hanging out with your mates and mucking about on the internet. You get paid to say what you think (or are at least sent free stuff), and no one’s telling you what to do. Surely only a sucker would do anything else. At least that is the influencing dream, and many young men are buying into it. “Content creator” has for years been cited as the most desirable career by generation Z and now gen Alpha. The preferred platforms might have changed over time, with streaming on Twitch and Kick now supplanting posting on Instagram and YouTube, but the aspiration remains the same: to escape the drudgery of a desk job. But Louis Theroux’s new Netflix documentary reveals the catch. Though focused on the misogynistic online manosphere, it is equally compelling as a grim look behind the curtain of influencer production, revealing it to be at best shabby and at worst soul-destroying. Theroux’s featured “creators” claim to have seen through the false promise of conventional careers to find success on their terms. Yes, they have all the trappings: pools, girls, luxury cars and watches, and jaunts to Dubai (though the last may be curtailed now). But going behind the scenes, you see what is absent from the social media highlights and edgy viral clips: life as an influencer is often banal and just as much of a trap as the standard nine-to-five. It is also much harder to get out of. Even the manosphere, characterised in the mainstream as a hotbed of dangerous misogyny, might more accurately be characterised as a large-scale grift, as Theroux told the Guardian. Though it undeniably harbours toxic views, it is perhaps best thought of as a masculine counterpart to the female-focused online world of wellness, with influencers peddling an aspirational image and with it, products and services. For many in the manosphere, the misogyny seems almost besides t...
Just before Valentine’s Day, Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts from his local convenience store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand-new product, released especially for the holiday, tagline: “We’ll never break your heart.” Reese is a Reese’s aficionado who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This isn’t a coincidence: he’s one ...
Just before Valentine’s Day, Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts from his local convenience store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand-new product, released especially for the holiday, tagline: “We’ll never break your heart.” Reese is a Reese’s aficionado who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This isn’t a coincidence: he’s one of the Reeses, a grandson of HB Reese, the former Hershey dairy farmer who invented the peanut butter cup in 1928. Although he’s never worked for Reese’s or Hershey, which acquired the peanut butter cup company in 1963, Reese considers himself a custodian of HB’s legacy. He also takes an avid interest in the Hershey company and its leadership. The Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts proved to be a disappointment. “I took two bites and I had to spit it out,” Reese says. “I’ve never had that happen to me, ever, in the 70 years of my life. There was no taste. It was inedible.” Reese took a closer look at the packaging, specifically the ingredients. He noticed that instead of milk chocolate, the mini hearts were covered in a chocolate-flavored coating that was mostly sugar and vegetable oil; the list of ingredients contained a disclaimer that the candy contained less than 2% cocoa. He visited the candy aisle at a nearby supermarket to investigate further and found that several other Reese’s and Hershey products, including Take 5, Mr Goodbar, and Heath bars, also lacked milk chocolate. View image in fullscreen Candy characters greet visitors at Hershey’s Chocolate World in HersHey, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Amy Lee/Alamy Cocoa, obviously, is the central ingredient in chocolate. It’s a complex food that, on its own, tastes almost bitter. Since humans began eating it, they’ve combined it with other ingredients, such as cinnamon and chilis, to make it more palatable. Hershey, Reese’s, and other commercial chocolate companies use sugar, milk and oil. For Reese, the extras had ...
The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts. By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most violent countries into one of its least violent – but at the cost of human rights and the rule of law. The report, co...
The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts. By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most violent countries into one of its least violent – but at the cost of human rights and the rule of law. The report, compiled by an international group of experts assembled by the Due Process of Law Foundation, documents the arbitrary imprisonment, torture, murder and forced disappearances that have taken place under the state of exception that began four years ago, describing them as “the result of a policy known and promoted by the highest levels of government”. Given these widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population, the authors conclude there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that crimes against humanity are being committed, urging the United Nations to create an international mission to investigate. “The state must protect citizens from organised crime – but with the law, and with respect for human rights,” said Santiago Canton, co-author of the report and general secretary of the International Commission of Jurists. El Salvador has been in a state of exception since 2022, when Bukele suspended constitutional rights and unleashed security forces to take on MS-13 and Barrio 18, the gangs that brutalised Salvadorian society for decades. Roughly 90,000 people have been arrested since. Most are being held in pre-trial detention, in grim conditions. Human rights organisations believe thousands without any ties to gangs have been swept up and have documented more than 400 deaths in custody. Many are in the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot), a showpiece mega-prison built by Bukele specifically for gang members – and also where the Trump administration paid to hold more than 252 Venezuelan migrants it expelled, who have since spoken of the abuse and torture they faced bef...
Warmer days are coming, but it’s not bare-leg weather yet. Our fashion writer put 25 pairs through their paces so you can wear your spring dresses now – and stop wasting money on bad tights • 50 women’s spring wardrobe updates for under £100 Tights are a staple in most women’s wardrobes, yet they’re also one of the most frequently discarded . It’s not unusual to leave the house wearing a new pair,...
Warmer days are coming, but it’s not bare-leg weather yet. Our fashion writer put 25 pairs through their paces so you can wear your spring dresses now – and stop wasting money on bad tights • 50 women’s spring wardrobe updates for under £100 Tights are a staple in most women’s wardrobes, yet they’re also one of the most frequently discarded . It’s not unusual to leave the house wearing a new pair, only to realise by lunchtime that they’re laddered and ready for the bin. Tights’ tendency to rip so easily comes down to the delicate nature of the fabric. Once damaged, it usually can’t be repaired, meaning most tights end up in landfill, where the nylon and elastane can take up to 200 years to decompose . An estimated 8bn pairs of tights are bought and discarded each year, according to the brand Swedish Stockings. To make matters worse, producing traditional nylon tights releases nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. Best black tights overall: Snag 50 denier Best shapewear tights: Calzedonia Strong Sculpt tights Continue reading...