French Commandos Board & Seize 4th Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Vessel Since September France announced Monday another weekend interdiction of a Russian "shadow fleet" vessel in international waters near its coast. The French Navy boarded and detained a sanctioned oil tanker, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, in an operation which had the assistance from the UK Royal Navy and other allies. Thi...
French Commandos Board & Seize 4th Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Vessel Since September France announced Monday another weekend interdiction of a Russian "shadow fleet" vessel in international waters near its coast. The French Navy boarded and detained a sanctioned oil tanker, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, in an operation which had the assistance from the UK Royal Navy and other allies. This marks the fourth time since September that French commandoes have intercepted a boarded a sanctioned Russian vessel in regional waters. via AFP/French military The vessel, identified as the Tagor, originated from Murmansk, Russia, and was taken by French authorities while it traversed around 400 nautical miles (740 km) west of the tip of Brittany. "It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than 4 years ," Macron wrote in a post on X. The apparent legal justification France's navy has relied on for such actions is the practice of "flag-hopping" - which involves a crew repeatedly changing displayed flags, along with often invalid registrations to thwart international tracking monitors. At the time of boarding, via soldiers rappelling from helicopter, the ship was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag while reportedly en route to the coastal African city of Limbe, Cameroon. Macron confirmed further on X: "This operation took place in the Atlantic Ocean, on the high seas, with the support of several partners, including the United Kingdom, in strict compliance with the law of the sea." The Kremlin again condemned such 'unlawful' seizures in international waters, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, "We consider these acts as illegal, they border on international piracy … Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo." The vessel's captain is a Russian citizen, according to an embassy disclosure from Paris. According to more : Guillaume Le Rasle, ...
SPDR SSGA My2027 Municipal Bond ETF ( MYMG ) - $0.0551 . 30-Day SEC Yield of 2.86% as of May 28. Payable Jun 04; for shareholders of record Jun 01; ex-div Jun 01. More on State Street My2027 Municipal Bond ETF Dividend scorecard for State Street My2027 Municipal Bond ETF
SPDR SSGA My2027 Municipal Bond ETF ( MYMG ) - $0.0551 . 30-Day SEC Yield of 2.86% as of May 28. Payable Jun 04; for shareholders of record Jun 01; ex-div Jun 01. More on State Street My2027 Municipal Bond ETF Dividend scorecard for State Street My2027 Municipal Bond ETF
Michaela Hall’s family bring claim against Devon and Cornwall police and Probation Service The family of Michaela Hall, who was murdered by her partner five years ago, has launched a legal challenge over failings by the police and probation service that could have prevented her death. Lee Kendall, a serial violent offender, is serving a 21-year minimum sentence for stabbing Hall through the eye at...
Michaela Hall’s family bring claim against Devon and Cornwall police and Probation Service The family of Michaela Hall, who was murdered by her partner five years ago, has launched a legal challenge over failings by the police and probation service that could have prevented her death. Lee Kendall, a serial violent offender, is serving a 21-year minimum sentence for stabbing Hall through the eye at her home in Truro, Cornwall on 1 June 2021. An inquest and a police watchdog investigation into the handling of the murder revealed a string of errors by public agencies that contributed to her death. Continue reading...
Tingting Ji/iStock via Getty Images XPeng Inc. ( XPEV ) missed EPS estimates for its first fiscal quarter amid a significant drop-off in delivery volumes in Q1'26. Because of this, XPeng booked a double-digit year-over-year revenue decline and swung back to a loss, despite achieving GAAP profitability for the first time just in the previous quarter. XPeng also saw downward pressure on its vehicle ...
Tingting Ji/iStock via Getty Images XPeng Inc. ( XPEV ) missed EPS estimates for its first fiscal quarter amid a significant drop-off in delivery volumes in Q1'26. Because of this, XPeng booked a double-digit year-over-year revenue decline and swung back to a loss, despite achieving GAAP profitability for the first time just in the previous quarter. XPeng also saw downward pressure on its vehicle margins in Q1'26, which were published at 12.1%. The delivery outlook for Q2, aided by the new release of the competitively-priced GX SUV, however, indicates that XPeng could soon return to a situation of margin growth and higher revenues. For those reasons, I maintain my bullish rating on XPeng for the time being, but would be willing to downgrade XPeng if the current margin trend got worse as the year progressed. Data by YCharts Previous Rating I rated shares of XPeng a ‘Buy’ previously because the EV enterprise posted double-digit vehicle margins and turned profitable on a GAAP net income basis in Q4'25, which reduced investment risks at the time. I maintain a 'Buy' rating on shares of XPeng for now, despite pressure on delivery volumes and margins, amid a more challenging operating environment in the Chinese EV start-up market, due to a new product launch that has seen positive reservation momentum. GX Launch Set To Be A Catalyst For Margin Growth The electric vehicle company missed bottom-line expectations last week amid a significant year-over-year contraction in delivery volumes and pressure on its profitability profile: XPeng reported non-GAAP earnings of $(0.26) per share, which fell short of the average consensus EPS figure by $0.10 per share. The revenue line came in at $1.92B, beating the average prediction by $29M. Seeking Alpha XPeng suffered a significant reduction in electric vehicle volumes in the first-quarter amid a broad sector slowdown, in part related to Chinese Lunar New Year holidays that shut down factories, as well as a transition period before the...
Anthropic PBC has confidentially filed draft paperwork to go public as it races rival OpenAI to make a Wall Street debut as soon as this fall. The number of shares to be offered and the price have not been set yet. Ed Ludlow reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
Anthropic PBC has confidentially filed draft paperwork to go public as it races rival OpenAI to make a Wall Street debut as soon as this fall. The number of shares to be offered and the price have not been set yet. Ed Ludlow reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
xphotoz Evercore ISI upgraded Essex Property Trust ( ESS ) to Outperform from In Line and downgraded Equity Residential ( EQR ) to In Line from Outperform. Analyst Steve Sakwa said he prefers apartment REITs operating primarily in coastal markets and cited ESS's recently released stronger Q2 update. The firm is still cautious on the apartment sector overall. While supplies in Sunbelt markets are m...
xphotoz Evercore ISI upgraded Essex Property Trust ( ESS ) to Outperform from In Line and downgraded Equity Residential ( EQR ) to In Line from Outperform. Analyst Steve Sakwa said he prefers apartment REITs operating primarily in coastal markets and cited ESS's recently released stronger Q2 update. The firm is still cautious on the apartment sector overall. While supplies in Sunbelt markets are moderating, it's not yet enough to materially boost revenue growth in 2027, Sakwa said in a note to clients on Monday. Essex ( ESS ) is solely focused on the West Coast, and Equity Residential ( EQR ) is a national apartment REIT that's in the early stages of merging with AvalonBay ( AVB ). Ahead of its presentation at NAREIT's REITweek conference, Essex ( ESS ) said year-to-date growth is tracking ahead of its expectations on strength in northern California. Blended rent rate growth increased to 3.7% in May, according to preliminary data, up from 3.1% in April and 1.4% in Q1 2026, the company said in its update. The update showed better trends on several key production indicators, including new lease growth, renewal growth, and economic occupancy, Sakwa said. "All of these better trends helped boost our SS (same-store) revenue growth outlook for the balance of ’26 & ’27, which, in turn, increased our NAV and DCF valuations." By contrast, the Equity Residential ( EQR )/AvalonBay ( AVB ) merger "is going to take time for the market to fully digest" its implications and, ultimately, the benefits the combined company can achieve. "While valuation isn’t stretched at this point, we don’t expect multiple expansion to unfold near term and believe the stock won’t outperform during the courting and honeymoon phase of the deal," the analyst wrote. Essex Property ( ESS ) stock rose 2.6%, and Equity Residential ( EQR ) stock increased 1.9% in Monday midday trading. Sakwa's Outperform rating on Esses is more bullish than the SA Quant system and the average Wall Street rating, both at Hol...
From stunning goals and shocking interviews to unforgettable celebrations, some sporting moments are made to be watched, not just read about - and that's why BBC Sport are launching Shorts.
From stunning goals and shocking interviews to unforgettable celebrations, some sporting moments are made to be watched, not just read about - and that's why BBC Sport are launching Shorts.
Comments such as ‘their lives are ruined’ or ‘they’ll never heal’ aren’t necessarily helpful, says one reader I write about the recent coverage of the Fordingbridge case ( Court of appeal to review rape sentences of three teenage boys, 26 May ). I experienced a remarkably similar crime over 20 years ago: same number and age of perpetrators, same incident, same court outcome. The differences were t...
Comments such as ‘their lives are ruined’ or ‘they’ll never heal’ aren’t necessarily helpful, says one reader I write about the recent coverage of the Fordingbridge case ( Court of appeal to review rape sentences of three teenage boys, 26 May ). I experienced a remarkably similar crime over 20 years ago: same number and age of perpetrators, same incident, same court outcome. The differences were that I was younger, and that, mercifully, being before the days of social media, it wasn’t filmed (though word of mouth in the community resulted in similar name-calling). There also wasn’t public outcry at the outcome; it’s nice to see progress, if too slow, in our understanding of the impact of these crimes. Still, I’m worried by some of the discourse for the girls in question and others who have experienced similar. There have been comments in print and social media which, in attempting to emphasise the severity of the crime, have said things like “their lives are ruined” or “they’ll never heal”. Continue reading...
Luke McCullough , the corporate affairs director at BBC Scotland, responds to an article reporting ‘deep unease’ about female presenters being axed Your report on staff concerns about the number of female presenters on BBC Radio Scotland’s new schedule is mystifying ( ‘Deep unease’ at BBC Radio Scotland as majority of axed presenters are women, 28 May ). When the new schedule starts, of the 25 day...
Luke McCullough , the corporate affairs director at BBC Scotland, responds to an article reporting ‘deep unease’ about female presenters being axed Your report on staff concerns about the number of female presenters on BBC Radio Scotland’s new schedule is mystifying ( ‘Deep unease’ at BBC Radio Scotland as majority of axed presenters are women, 28 May ). When the new schedule starts, of the 25 daytime programmes across the week Monday to Friday, six will routinely be presented solely by men, and the other 19 will be routinely presented either solely by women, or jointly by women and men. More than half of the programmes will be routinely presented solely by women. To somehow raise questions about female diversity in that presenting lineup is surely ignoring the actual evidence of the BBC schedule here in Scotland. Continue reading...
Yvonne Singh says the government needs to hold South East Water to account after elderly and vulnerable residents had to queue at water stations in the hottest week of the year The story is a depressingly familiar one: from bank holiday Monday, thousands of homes in Kent had no water all last week ( ‘They’re a private company, run for profit!’: fury in Kent at South East Water’s outages, 28 May )....
Yvonne Singh says the government needs to hold South East Water to account after elderly and vulnerable residents had to queue at water stations in the hottest week of the year The story is a depressingly familiar one: from bank holiday Monday, thousands of homes in Kent had no water all last week ( ‘They’re a private company, run for profit!’: fury in Kent at South East Water’s outages, 28 May ). This on the hottest week of the year so far. No water for drinking, flushing toilets, washing hands, bathing or cleaning, let alone sprinklers in the garden. Vulnerable and elderly people and families were forced to queue in the searing heat for bottled water at water stations. Those on priority lists did not received promised deliveries and had to rely on the kindness of friends and families. In Whitstable, the first hot week of the summer promised profit. Instead, cafes, pubs, famed oyster bars and leisure centres were forced to close, resulting in thousands of pounds being lost from the local economy. Continue reading...
Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is the next evolution of AI, and with it will come another big opportunity in the chip space. Instead of graphics processing units (GPUs), though, the chips leading the charge in the agentic AI race are central processing units (CPUs). CPUs act like the brain of the computer, and more will be needed to handle the sequential reasoning and tools required to manag...
Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is the next evolution of AI, and with it will come another big opportunity in the chip space. Instead of graphics processing units (GPUs), though, the chips leading the charge in the agentic AI race are central processing units (CPUs). CPUs act like the brain of the computer, and more will be needed to handle the sequential reasoning and tools required to manage AI agents. While AI training typically has an 8-to-1 GPU-to-CPU ratio, with agentic AI, the ratio moves to 1-to-1. Now, the opportunity isn't as big as the one for GPUs, as CPUs cost about a tenth of the price, but it is still sizable, and the average selling price of CPUs should be on the rise as agentic AI works best with high-performance CPUs with high core counts, which work like individual workstations. The higher the core count, the pricier the CPU. Meanwhile, the market has been estimated to rise to as much as $200 billion in the coming years. Continue reading
Time is a resource that reflects power, raising the question of who gets to decide how it is spent, says Dr Louise Lawson Writing this letter has been a productivity gain for me as a full-time academic, parent and unpaid carer for my disabled partner. While Tania Roettger’s reflection on parenthood and productivity was refreshing and resonated, it risks reinforcing a narrow narrative about time, w...
Time is a resource that reflects power, raising the question of who gets to decide how it is spent, says Dr Louise Lawson Writing this letter has been a productivity gain for me as a full-time academic, parent and unpaid carer for my disabled partner. While Tania Roettger’s reflection on parenthood and productivity was refreshing and resonated, it risks reinforcing a narrow narrative about time, work and care, shaped by persistent gender inequalities in paid and unpaid labour ( Whisper it: becoming a mum can make you a more productive writer, 28 May ). For many women, productivity gains are less about drafting a paragraph for a novel and more about contending with chores that remain gendered. Policy debates from the four-day week to Living Hours increasingly recognise problems of too much versus too little paid work. Yet framing time solely in terms of the number of hours worked misses a crucial issue. The rhythms, scheduling, predictability and control of working time are fundamental to wellbeing, especially given women’s disproportionate responsibility for unpaid labour, which continues to structure and constrain how time is experienced. Continue reading...