Smart scheduling is key to longevity and avoiding injuries, and the Spaniard has sometimes paid for his imprudence Carlos Alcaraz’s title defence at the Monte Carlo Masters ended two Sundays ago in an intense two-set final loss to his arch-rival Jannik Sinner. While some players would have been desperate for a break after a gruelling week, Alcaraz had other plans. Less than 24 hours later, he land...
Smart scheduling is key to longevity and avoiding injuries, and the Spaniard has sometimes paid for his imprudence Carlos Alcaraz’s title defence at the Monte Carlo Masters ended two Sundays ago in an intense two-set final loss to his arch-rival Jannik Sinner. While some players would have been desperate for a break after a gruelling week, Alcaraz had other plans. Less than 24 hours later, he landed back home in Spain to compete at the Barcelona ATP 500 event, immediately undertaking promotional duties. A few hours after his first practice, the following day, Alcaraz walked on to Pista Rafa Nadal for his opening match. By the next day Alcaraz was out. He had struggled with pain in his right wrist during his first-round match, an injury that turned out to be more serious than first thought. The 22-year-old is uncertain about his return date, and whether he will be able to compete at Roland Garros. He wears a bulky immobilisation cast on his right wrist while awaiting tests on the injury. Continue reading...
The teenager crushed Veselin Topalov 5-1 to become the youngest ever 2700-rated grandmaster, after which his coach said his future target was 2900 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 14, has become chess’s youngest 2700-rated grandmaster, breaking an age record set a decade ago by China’s Wei Yi at 15. The Turkish teenager is already the highest ever rated 12, 13, and 14-year-old, and the youngest to reach the w...
The teenager crushed Veselin Topalov 5-1 to become the youngest ever 2700-rated grandmaster, after which his coach said his future target was 2900 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 14, has become chess’s youngest 2700-rated grandmaster, breaking an age record set a decade ago by China’s Wei Yi at 15. The Turkish teenager is already the highest ever rated 12, 13, and 14-year-old, and the youngest to reach the world top 50. For the moment, his new achievement only shows in the live daily ratings, but will become official when Fide’s monthly list for May is published at the end of the month. Veselin Topalov was the world No 1 20 years ago and was the Fide world champion. However, the Bulgarian has been largely inactive since he finished seventh of 10 at Norway 2022 and the rust showed in his performance. For Erdogmus, it was his third important match success, following his 4-2 victory against the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler and his 3.5-2.5 margin against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. One of his wins from the 2025 Fide Grand Swiss in Samarkand has been dubbed the “Turkish Immortal” due to its brilliant sacrificial conclusion . Continue reading...
PlayStation 5; Housemarque/Sony As a fast-firing spaceman, one minute you’re invincible, the next you’re dead – with every battle like watching a firework show through a kaleidoscope On the planet Carcosa, mangled, blackened trees and crimson flowers take root next to the ruins of some ancient alien civilisation, flanked by statues contorted in pain, tearing at their marble skin. There are metalli...
PlayStation 5; Housemarque/Sony As a fast-firing spaceman, one minute you’re invincible, the next you’re dead – with every battle like watching a firework show through a kaleidoscope On the planet Carcosa, mangled, blackened trees and crimson flowers take root next to the ruins of some ancient alien civilisation, flanked by statues contorted in pain, tearing at their marble skin. There are metallic tunnels deep underground, chasms of impossible size snaked with cables, so you feel as though you’re exploring the intestines of some giant machine. There’s a House of Leaves quality to these spaces, which shift and change and clearly weren’t built for humans. You are Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli), a space security guy who’s on a mission to find missing colonists on an alien world before it all goes a bit Event Horizon and you become the next lost expedition. Classic. There’s some unethical space capitalism happening out here, and Devraj himself is a bit of a traumanaut who brought way too much mental carry-on luggage for this extremely long-haul flight. But it’s nothing that shooting some aliens won’t fix, right? Continue reading...
I’m now at a time of life where a rib injury can feel like a ruptured spleen but playing still trumps watching, so we go again. Again I woke up a few weeks ago with a searing pain under my left ribs. I ruled out heart attack relatively quickly – I haven’t read about your heart sagging as you enter deep middle age, or whatever your late 40s is. Breathing was uncomfortable, but not short – there wer...
I’m now at a time of life where a rib injury can feel like a ruptured spleen but playing still trumps watching, so we go again. Again I woke up a few weeks ago with a searing pain under my left ribs. I ruled out heart attack relatively quickly – I haven’t read about your heart sagging as you enter deep middle age, or whatever your late 40s is. Breathing was uncomfortable, but not short – there were no stabbing pains. Inhaling ached, and it turns out you inhale all the time. Once I was confident of seeing out the remainder of the day, I started Googling other potential ailments in this region, confidently seizing upon ruptured spleen. It sounded impressive enough to put in a WhatsApp group. And so I went with it. Continue reading...
As Trump lurches from tariffs to wars and Farage makes unrealistic pledges about immigration, their impunity needs to end Rightwing populists always promise they will get things done when they get into power. Immigration will be halted. Government waste will be eradicated. Traditional values will be revived. National decline will be halted. National greatness will be restored. Relations with the o...
As Trump lurches from tariffs to wars and Farage makes unrealistic pledges about immigration, their impunity needs to end Rightwing populists always promise they will get things done when they get into power. Immigration will be halted. Government waste will be eradicated. Traditional values will be revived. National decline will be halted. National greatness will be restored. Relations with the outside world will be redrawn. Great tasks that, for decades, have been beyond the capability and will of conventional, compromising politicians will be accomplished – and fast. Populist governments will respond decisively to voters’ accumulated frustrations, cut through bureaucracy, and avoid the delays, U-turns and half-finished projects that usually blight democracies. The business of government will be straightforward and highly productive – even heroic – rather than complicated and disappointing. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Rival to government plans would scrap net zero policies, as party aims to woo sector after decades of job losses Reform UK has asked steel bosses to draw up an “alternative steel strategy” to rival recent government plans, stoking industry fears over a charm offensive by Nigel Farage’s party as it eyes gains in former Labour heartlands. Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, met a group of bosses s...
Rival to government plans would scrap net zero policies, as party aims to woo sector after decades of job losses Reform UK has asked steel bosses to draw up an “alternative steel strategy” to rival recent government plans, stoking industry fears over a charm offensive by Nigel Farage’s party as it eyes gains in former Labour heartlands. Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, met a group of bosses shortly before Labour announced new steel tariffs in March and commissioned them to draft a competing plan that will include scrapping net zero policies. Continue reading...
The alien world of Saros feels like it has been touched by King Midas. The sky is golden after another impossibly frequent solar eclipse; rocks, specifically those of the precious resource Lucenite, radiate a shimmering amber. Even the body of our gruff hero Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli) is liable to turn deep, opulent yellow as he ventures further into the wilds of Carcosa. Should he die (...
The alien world of Saros feels like it has been touched by King Midas. The sky is golden after another impossibly frequent solar eclipse; rocks, specifically those of the precious resource Lucenite, radiate a shimmering amber. Even the body of our gruff hero Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli) is liable to turn deep, opulent yellow as he ventures further into the wilds of Carcosa. Should he die (a regular occurrence), the game cuts to stranger, more cryptic images, one of which is a double bed covered in gold silk sheets. It's a fittingly blingy aesthetic for this time when gaming has scarcely been a more gilded activity (seriously, have … Read the full story at The Verge.
Andrii Dodonov/iStock via Getty Images US insurance companies in 2025 broadened and deepened their participation in the federal home loan bank system, increasing the magnitude of their advances to a new all-time period-end high. The take Advances to US insurance companies increased by 10.4% to $177.85 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, according to data reported by the FHLBanks Office of Finance, markin...
Andrii Dodonov/iStock via Getty Images US insurance companies in 2025 broadened and deepened their participation in the federal home loan bank system, increasing the magnitude of their advances to a new all-time period-end high. The take Advances to US insurance companies increased by 10.4% to $177.85 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, according to data reported by the FHLBanks Office of Finance, marking a second consecutive year and third time in four years of double-digit growth. Life insurers utilizing FHLB funding agreements in connection with spread lending strategies that pair relatively low-cost borrowings with the opportunity to reinvest proceeds in higher-yielding assets fueled the 2025 expansion. Health insurers stepping up their borrowing at a time of rising claims costs also contributed. The heightened FHLB funding agreement activity comes amid a broader surge in deposit-type contracts as life insurers and annuity writers continued to emphasize the generation of incremental yield from their general account investment portfolios. The US life industry's deposit-type contract balance before reinsurance soared net of surrenders and withdrawals by 18.3% in 2025, which represents the largest rate of expansion in at least the last 24 years. We estimate that FHLB funding agreements accounted for $130.63 billion of the $684.50 billion balance of deposit-type contracts in life insurers' general accounts, as compared with $121.68 billion of the $578.49 billion at year-end 2024. Insurers maintain material capacity for increased borrowing, particularly in the property and casualty sector. A generationally strong year for underwriting profitability and, aside from the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, a light year for natural catastrophes contributed to a 4.4% year-over-year decline in aggregate borrowings across the sector. Our analysis finds that P&C insurers utilized only 6.6% of their available capacity, which, in addition to backup liquidity and cash management, may ...
Berkshire Hathaway stock is in the midst of one of its worst periods of underperformance relative to the S&P 500, since Warren Buffett took control in 1965.
Berkshire Hathaway stock is in the midst of one of its worst periods of underperformance relative to the S&P 500, since Warren Buffett took control in 1965.