Nvidia shares have fallen on each trading day since the company’s quarterly report on May 20, which was remarkably strong. Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Nvidia Corp. shares have been a curious underperformer among major chip stocks lately. Last week's blowout earnings report did little to li...
Nvidia shares have fallen on each trading day since the company’s quarterly report on May 20, which was remarkably strong. Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Nvidia Corp. shares have been a curious underperformer among major chip stocks lately. Last week's blowout earnings report did little to lift the stock, nor did an $80 billion buyback authorization or a dividend raise. In fact, CEO Jensen Huang went so far as to say that the stock move remains a “mystery” for him. Now, another risk appears to be weighing on the stock. On Monday, China’s Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Huawei’s Chip Threat To NVDA Huawei’s LogicFolding approach improves chip performance by stacking computing blocks vertically, so data travels shorter distances within the processor, rather than relying mainly on shrinking transistors. Its approach is unique because Huawei is proposing a far more aggressive redesign of chip architecture and packaging to work around U.S. export restrictions and the limits of its manufacturing technology. Using LogicFolding, Huawei said it aims to produce semiconductors with performance comparable to 1.4nm chips by 2031. That would still leave Huawei years behind TSMC, which is targeting similar advances by 2028, but it would represent a substantially narrower gap than what exists today. NVDA Stock Under Pressure Nvidia shares have dropped 10.1% from their peak of $236.54 on May 14, signaling that the stock has entered correction territory. Despite a sharp run-up last month, NVDA shares are up 14% this year, well below peers in the chip sector. Intel and Micron have risen 225% to 230%, while AMD is up 132% – pushing the sector’s benchmark, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), 87% higher. Last week, Nvidia reported blowout quarterly results, announced an $80 bi...
NVDA’s surprising underperformance has left retail traders frustrated. A netizen is checking NVIDIA logo on his mobile phone and NVIDIA webpage on his computer. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loadin...
NVDA’s surprising underperformance has left retail traders frustrated. A netizen is checking NVIDIA logo on his mobile phone and NVIDIA webpage on his computer. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Nvidia shares have fallen on each trading day since the company’s quarterly report on May 20, which was remarkably strong. Stocktwits sentiment for NVDA dropped to ‘bullish’ from ‘extremely bullish.’ Nvidia Corp. shares have been a curious underperformer among major chip stocks lately. Last week's blowout earnings report did little to lift the stock, nor did an $80 billion buyback authorization or a dividend raise. In fact, CEO Jensen Huang went so far as to say that the stock move remains a “mystery” for him. Now, another risk appears to be weighing on the stock. On Monday, China’s Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Read Next Loading... Loading... Huawei’s Chip Threat To NVDA Huawei’s LogicFolding approach improves chip performance by stacking computing blocks vertically, so data travels shorter distances within the processor, rather than relying mainly on shrinking transistors. Its approach is unique because Huawei is proposing a far more aggressive redesign of chip architecture and packaging to work around U.S. export restrictions and the limits of its manufacturing technology. Using LogicFolding, Huawei said it aims to produce semiconductors with performance comparable to 1.4nm chips by 2031. That would still leave Huawei years behind TSMC, which is targeting similar advances by 2028, but it would represent a substantially narro...
Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Nvidia shares have fallen on each trading day since the company’s quarterly report on May 20, which was remarkably strong. Stocktwits sentiment for NVDA dropped to ‘bullish’ from ‘extremely bullish.’ Nvidia Corp. shares have been a curious underperformer among m...
Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. Nvidia shares have fallen on each trading day since the company’s quarterly report on May 20, which was remarkably strong. Stocktwits sentiment for NVDA dropped to ‘bullish’ from ‘extremely bullish.’ Nvidia Corp. shares have been a curious underperformer among major chip stocks lately. Last week's blowout earnings report did little to lift the stock, nor did an $80 billion buyback authorization or a dividend raise. In fact, CEO Jensen Huang went so far as to say that the stock move remains a “mystery” for him. Now, another risk appears to be weighing on the stock. On Monday, China’s Huawei discussed a new approach to developing advanced semiconductors that would enable it to produce vastly superior chips more quickly. See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox Huawei’s Chip Threat To NVDA Huawei’s LogicFolding approach improves chip performance by stacking computing blocks vertically, so data travels shorter distances within the processor, rather than relying mainly on shrinking transistors. Its approach is unique because Huawei is proposing a far more aggressive redesign of chip architecture and packaging to work around U.S. export restrictions and the limits of its manufacturing technology. Using LogicFolding, Huawei said it aims to produce semiconductors with performance comparable to 1.4nm chips by 2031. That would still leave Huawei years behind TSMC, which is targeting similar advances by 2028, but it would represent a substantially narrower gap than what exists today. NVDA Stock Under Pressure Nvidia shares have dropped 10.1% from their peak of $236.54 on May 14, signaling that the stock has entered correction territory. Despite a sharp run-up last month, NVDA shares are up 14% this year, well below peers in the chip sector. Intel and Mic...
Late last year, an infectious-disease surveillance company was tracking the spread of an unusually contagious virus as it moved through Argentina. Not only were people getting sick in parts of the country where the virus hadn’t appeared before, BlueDot Inc. ’s intelligence showed, but the death rate was higher too. On Dec. 14 the firm issued an alert to subscribers — including countries, cities, a...
Late last year, an infectious-disease surveillance company was tracking the spread of an unusually contagious virus as it moved through Argentina. Not only were people getting sick in parts of the country where the virus hadn’t appeared before, BlueDot Inc. ’s intelligence showed, but the death rate was higher too. On Dec. 14 the firm issued an alert to subscribers — including countries, cities, airlines, drugmakers and even defense alliances such as NATO — about the swelling danger of the Andes strain of hantavirus . That was four and a half months before the disease erupted on a Dutch cruise ship off Cape Verde, infecting almost a dozen travelers and leaving three people dead. Now something even friendlier to contagion than a cruise ship is on its way: the FIFA World Cup . Over the next two months some 6 million people from every inhabited continent will spend 39 days milling around in packed stadiums in 16 cities across three countries, creating what the Toronto-based company calls a “hospitable environment,” and they don’t mean for us. Pathogens always love a crowd, but this summer already has the feel of a horror movie’s opening act. In mid-May, less than a month before the first whistle, Ebola broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country whose team will be competing in the games. (In response to immediate American restrictions on travelers from stricken countries, the Congo national team, slated to play Portugal in Houston June 17, moved its training camp to Belgium.) At the same time, mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika are surging in the soccer-fanatic nations of South America. In the US, one of the host countries, a rise in vaccine hesitancy has helped fuel the resurgence of such highly transmissible diseases as whooping cough and measles. “People come from all over the world. They gather, and they stay. The longer they stay, the more time for any disease that may be present to spread, and while that’s happening the path...
Key Points Nvidia's revenue growth accelerated to 85% in fiscal Q1, and the company's fiscal Q2 guidance points to even faster growth. The company boosted its dividend 25-fold and added $80 billion to its share repurchase authorization. Customer concentration and large forward supply commitments may be giving some investors pause. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Shares of artificial intelli...
Key Points Nvidia's revenue growth accelerated to 85% in fiscal Q1, and the company's fiscal Q2 guidance points to even faster growth. The company boosted its dividend 25-fold and added $80 billion to its share repurchase authorization. Customer concentration and large forward supply commitments may be giving some investors pause. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Shares of artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) have struggled lately. The stock closed at about $213 on Wednesday, down about 6% over the past week and off about 10% from an all-time high of $236.54 earlier this month. That weakness comes despite a fiscal first-quarter report on May 20 that, by almost any measure, was outstanding. Revenue rose 85% year over year to a record $81.6 billion. Data center revenue climbed 92% to $75.2 billion. And management raised the quarterly dividend from $0.01 per share to $0.25 per share while authorizing an additional $80 billion in share repurchases. 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 » So, what is going on? The quarter itself was exceptional Nvidia's fiscal first quarter of 2027 (the period ended April 26, 2026) really was something. The headline 85% revenue growth marked a sharp acceleration from 73% growth in fiscal Q4 -- and the chipmaker's profit trajectory was equally striking. Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $1.87 rose 140% year over year, and free cash flow climbed to $49 billion in the quarter alone. And underpinning this business momentum was relentless data center demand, with hyperscalers accounting for roughly half of data center revenue -- and the rest from a widening mix of AI cloud and enterprise customers, alongside a fast-growing sovereign AI vertical. Data center networking revenue alone nearly tripled year over year to about $15 bill...
Shares of artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) have struggled lately. The stock closed at about $213 on Wednesday, down about 6% over the past week and off about 10% from an all-time high of $236.54 earlier this month. That weakness comes despite a fiscal first-quarter report on May 20 that, by almost any measure, was outstanding. Revenue rose 85% year over year to a record...
Shares of artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) have struggled lately. The stock closed at about $213 on Wednesday, down about 6% over the past week and off about 10% from an all-time high of $236.54 earlier this month. That weakness comes despite a fiscal first-quarter report on May 20 that, by almost any measure, was outstanding. Revenue rose 85% year over year to a record $81.6 billion. Data center revenue climbed 92% to $75.2 billion. And management raised the quarterly dividend from $0.01 per share to $0.25 per share while authorizing an additional $80 billion in share repurchases. 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 » So, what is going on? Image source: Getty Images. The quarter itself was exceptional Nvidia's fiscal first quarter of 2027 (the period ended April 26, 2026) really was something. The headline 85% revenue growth marked a sharp acceleration from 73% growth in fiscal Q4 -- and the chipmaker's profit trajectory was equally striking. Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $1.87 rose 140% year over year, and free cash flow climbed to $49 billion in the quarter alone. And underpinning this business momentum was relentless data center demand, with hyperscalers accounting for roughly half of data center revenue -- and the rest from a widening mix of AI cloud and enterprise customers, alongside a fast-growing sovereign AI vertical. Data center networking revenue alone nearly tripled year over year to about $15 billion. Even more, management expects even stronger growth ahead. Nvidia guided to fiscal Q2 revenue of $91 billion, plus or minus 2%. This implies about 95% year-over-year growth. "Demand has gone parabolic," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during the company's fiscal first-quarter earnings call. "The reason is simple. Agentic AI has arrived. AI c...
For centuries, the custodians of the Cerne Giant have clambered up the dizzyingly steep hill every decade or so to rechalk the outline, making sure the hulking figure can be seen far and wide across the rolling Dorset countryside. But the painstaking job, which involves hacking out the grubby old chalk by hand and packing in fresh, felt all the more urgent this week because effects put down to the...
For centuries, the custodians of the Cerne Giant have clambered up the dizzyingly steep hill every decade or so to rechalk the outline, making sure the hulking figure can be seen far and wide across the rolling Dorset countryside. But the painstaking job, which involves hacking out the grubby old chalk by hand and packing in fresh, felt all the more urgent this week because effects put down to the climate emergency are making the giant a little duller and perhaps a touch more fragile. “The giant is hundreds of years old but the modern world is certainly affecting him,” said Luke Dawson, a National Trust lead ranger, as he supervised workers and volunteers who were at work restoring the giant to gleaming glory. “We’ve noticed algae growth starting to dull the giant’s bright white outline. We can’t say for certain what’s driving that, but warmer, wetter conditions may be a factor. The milder winters and wetter summers make perfect growing conditions. “We’re also seeing more intense rainfall, which can increase water runoff and gradually wear away the chalk, so we’re planning further monitoring to understand the impacts.” View image in fullscreen Jane Hanney-Martin, 50, left, volunteered to help with the rechalking, but the steep terrain can make it an arduous task. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian The custom has been to rechalk the 55-metre-tall giant roughly every seven to 10 years. It was last done in 2019 and before that in 2008. “It may be we have to adapt and perhaps rechalk more often,” Dawson said. “We will also explore ways to retain more water within the landscape, for example by allowing areas of scrub to develop and establishing permanent grassland.” The rechalking technique is being adapted. In 2008 and 2017, it involved packing in dry chalk and tamping it down. “But that’s very difficult because the hill is so steep,” Dawson said. So this time they are experimenting with mixing chalk (they need 17 tonnes of it) with water to create a paste. Dawson sai...
The fact many men no longer use their hands and physicality on a daily basis may be driving some of the toxic traits in modern masculinity, according to Sting. The singer, who on Wednesday announced that his musical about the last days of a shipyard was coming to the West End this autumn, told the Guardian that one of the byproducts of deindustrialisation was the loss of physical productivity for ...
The fact many men no longer use their hands and physicality on a daily basis may be driving some of the toxic traits in modern masculinity, according to Sting. The singer, who on Wednesday announced that his musical about the last days of a shipyard was coming to the West End this autumn, told the Guardian that one of the byproducts of deindustrialisation was the loss of physical productivity for men. He said: “I work with my hands every day as a musician, and I’m lucky. It’s a rare thing for modern men to actually use their hands and use their strengths to do anything. We’ve lost something there. “I don’t have any answers, but maybe the toxicity in society at the moment is [a result of the fact] that we’ve lost that direction for our energy, that male strength. It’s rare we have to use it.” The Last Ship, which debuted in Chicago in 2014 before a run on Broadway, focuses on the fate of men who work at a shipyard similar to Swan Hunter’s in Wallsend where Sting grew up, before the yards closed during deindustrialisation in the 1970s and 80s. Sting, who wrote the music for the show and will star in a run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in September, said the closure of the shipyards began an era when the north of England was failed by successive governments. “Britain’s wealth was created in the coalfields and the steel towns and the mill towns and the shipyards,” he said. “All of those skill sets were thrown on the scrapheap … for Thatcher’s dream of a service economy.” Lots of male characters in the musical are in a moment of crisis as their identity is being taken from them. One asks: “For what are we men without a ship to complete?” But Sting says the production isn’t an attempt to romanticise what could be a brutal industry where there were hundreds of accidents a year and fatalities were not uncommon. “I’m the guy who didn’t want to work there and for good reason,” he said. “They were working in asbestos, all kinds of toxic chemicals. At the same time, I’m nosta...
Be more strident and ambitious, take on economic inequality, and progressive voters will reward you as they have the UK’s Greens Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford European Green parties have been through a phase of stagnation and crisis in recent years. Long gone seem the days of the “green wave” across Europe. Back in 2019, Green parties secured thei...
Be more strident and ambitious, take on economic inequality, and progressive voters will reward you as they have the UK’s Greens Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford European Green parties have been through a phase of stagnation and crisis in recent years. Long gone seem the days of the “green wave” across Europe. Back in 2019, Green parties secured their best-ever result in the European parliament elections, with 74 seats. In the same year, Green parties also scored record results in Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. Shortly after, they were part of governing coalitions in Finland, Germany, Ireland and Austria. But more recently, there has been much discussion of a “greenlash” : a backlash against climate policies and other green projects throughout Europe. Across the continent, Green parties dropped out of nearly all government coalitions, and these parties’ recent election results have often failed to meet expectations. With apparently declining enthusiasm for the climate movement, and the decreasing salience of climate breakdown at the ballot box, Green parties are debating how to turn their fortunes around. Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford Continue reading...
When Sofia Coppola logs on to our video call, her friend and fellow film-maker Andrew Durham – whose directorial debut, Fairyland, she has produced – is telling me about being nine or 10 years old, and accidentally outing his father as gay. “Have you heard this story, Sofia?” he asks breezily from Los Angeles. “About Pietro? The Italian guy that my dad was maybe having an affair with when we lived...
When Sofia Coppola logs on to our video call, her friend and fellow film-maker Andrew Durham – whose directorial debut, Fairyland, she has produced – is telling me about being nine or 10 years old, and accidentally outing his father as gay. “Have you heard this story, Sofia?” he asks breezily from Los Angeles. “About Pietro? The Italian guy that my dad was maybe having an affair with when we lived in England?” At home in New York, Coppola furrows her brow. “Uh, yeah. A long time ago, I think. I forgot …” double quotation mark I showed my mum a crumpled love letter I found in the bin – from Pietro to my father The subject is germane: after all, their movie is adapted from Alysia Abbott’s 2013 book Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, in which the author details her childhood and adolescence with her gay dad, the writer and poet Steve Abbott (played by Scoot McNairy), who came out after her mother’s death. Alysia (Nessa Dougherty in the film’s first half, then Emilia Jones in later scenes) grows up amid her father’s friends and lovers in a blizzard of glitter and feather boas. At one of her birthday parties, she blows out the candles while the adults blow their minds on acid. It overlaps closely with Durham’s own life. Like Abbott, he grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco in the 1970s. After his parents separated, he spent weekends with his dad, Jerry, a museum curator. Also like Abbott, in later life Durham nursed his father after he contracted HIV. Both Steve and Jerry died in the same year, 1992. View image in fullscreen ‘A true auteur’ … producer Coppola and director Durham. Photograph: Leon Bennett/Getty Images No wonder Coppola, who optioned the book, thought Durham would be a perfect director for the film. They have known each other since the 1990s, when Durham produced Coppola’s achingly cool TV show, Hi-Octane, as well as her first short, Lick the Star, about a middle-school clique. Since then he has been the on-set photographer for most of her movies. “Her t...
Last month at Beijing’s half marathon, a robot named Lightning beat the human world record by nearly seven minutes. It’s the latest in a string of AI-powered milestones that have got people wondering whether robots are about to enter our everyday lives, just as chatbots have. And the country leading the charge is China, where the government has pledged to invest more than £100bn in robotics over t...
Last month at Beijing’s half marathon, a robot named Lightning beat the human world record by nearly seven minutes. It’s the latest in a string of AI-powered milestones that have got people wondering whether robots are about to enter our everyday lives, just as chatbots have. And the country leading the charge is China, where the government has pledged to invest more than £100bn in robotics over the next 20 years. To find out how robots are already entering the workforce, and what needs to happen to get them cleaning our homes and weeding our gardens, Ian Sample hears from the Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, and from Nathan Lepora, professor of robotics and AI at Bristol University, who researches how robots can achieve human-like dexterity Clips: Global News, BBC, CGTN Continue reading...
A record-breaking hot year is almost certain by 2030 as the climate crisis intensifies, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has warned. With an El Niño event expected later this year, the global temperature record could fall as soon as 2027. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are continuing to rise, trapping more heat and driving more extreme weather, including the record-breaking h...
A record-breaking hot year is almost certain by 2030 as the climate crisis intensifies, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has warned. With an El Niño event expected later this year, the global temperature record could fall as soon as 2027. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are continuing to rise, trapping more heat and driving more extreme weather, including the record-breaking heatwave that has hit the UK and Europe this week. Global heating is already estimated to be taking one life every minute, with the toll likely to rise unless emissions fall rapidly. The report, produced for the WMO by the UK Met Office, predicts an 86% chance that at least one year between 2026 and 2030 will surpass 2024 as the hottest ever recorded. There is a 75% chance that the average temperature for the five-year period from 2026 to 2030 will be more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial average. Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said: “The latest heatwave in Europe is a brutal reminder of the spiralling impacts of the climate crisis, both human and economic. Many other parts of the world are also getting hit hard, such as India and other parts of Asia.” “Protecting human lives, businesses and economies from extreme heat and the many other soaring costs of climate change is core business for every nation, and it starts with kicking the fossil fuel addiction much faster,” he said, noting that clean power is now cheaper than fossil fuels and faster to produce. Scientists have repeatedly warned that warming of more than 1.5C risks unleashing more severe heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods, and makes it harder for communities to adapt. However, every fraction of a degree of warming avoided reduces damage. The Paris agreement goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is assessed over a 20-year period, but is now unlikely to be met. The weaker 2C target remains within reach if urgent action is taken. The WMO report found a less than a 1%...
After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life. The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger. Ellie*, 42, an artist from Tehran, was able to connect for the first ...
After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life. The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger. Ellie*, 42, an artist from Tehran, was able to connect for the first time since 28 February. “I lit a cigarette, played SoundCloud and listened to our favourite music,” she said. “Ali [her husband] and I held back tears, then cried and convinced ourselves that this was a small taste of a much greater freedom after the fall of this regime … and we truly believe it.” The part-restoration hit global headlines, with many regime supporters applauding the government. Maryam*, a photographer in Tehran, said it was “nauseating to watch the celebrations and applause”. “What an absolute joke,” she said. “It’s been truly absurd watching western media celebrate partial restoration as if it’s an achievement to applaud the regime for. The internet is our basic right.” She said it had been more than six weeks since she had booked an assignment, she had had to borrow money from her parents, and part-restoration would not allow her to work effectively. “Mobile internet still can’t connect,” she said. “WhatsApp is barely in use, the only thing is that VPNs are easier to connect to now. That’s all.” Authorities initially imposed an internet blackout from 8 January in a crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests. Connections were gradually restored in February, before a new blackout after the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran in late February. A small number of people managed to get online intermittently through costly VPNs and satellite internet, but the vast majority were stuck in digital isolation. For those unable to afford the rocketing price of VPNs that rarely worked, Tuesday was the first time they were able to post on their social medi...
She made millions as a tween and teenager by posting clips of herself and her friends on YouTube. Then the business collapsed amid acrimony. What does her success in the adult industry, at 18, say about surveillance, social media and sexualisation? ‘Honestly, the answer is kind of gross,” says Piper Rockelle, in a recent TikTok video, reflecting on why she is so popular on OnlyFans. In the clip, s...
She made millions as a tween and teenager by posting clips of herself and her friends on YouTube. Then the business collapsed amid acrimony. What does her success in the adult industry, at 18, say about surveillance, social media and sexualisation? ‘Honestly, the answer is kind of gross,” says Piper Rockelle, in a recent TikTok video, reflecting on why she is so popular on OnlyFans. In the clip, she fidgets her fingers and swings in her swivel chair. “It’s because I look so young. I mean, I am really young. I’m literally like fresh turned 18 … and people kind of like that, unfortunately.” This is an accurate and honest assessment. At the end of last year, not long after turning 18, the former child star and teen influencer began an online countdown, telling her millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram that she would be launching herself on OnlyFans on 1 January. Every day or so since, she has posted pictures of herself on the platform, sometimes posing in a typical teenager’s bedroom – a pink cuddly stuffed pig on the bed behind her, fairy lights on the wall – wearing teddy-bear-themed pants and bras, or fluffy underwear decorated with bunny-rabbit faces and floppy ears. Continue reading...
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing a long and difficult summer as corruption cases involving his brother, his wife and his predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero come before judges over the coming days and weeks. The socialist leader – who took power eight years ago after using a vote of no confidence to topple the corruption-mired government of the conservative People’s party (PP)...
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing a long and difficult summer as corruption cases involving his brother, his wife and his predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero come before judges over the coming days and weeks. The socialist leader – who took power eight years ago after using a vote of no confidence to topple the corruption-mired government of the conservative People’s party (PP) – has insisted there has been no wrongdoing by his family. He has also defended Zapatero and his right to the presumption of innocence. But with two of his former right-hand men also accused of corruption and his former attorney general banned from his post for two years after being found guilty of leaking confidential information, Sánchez has a lot to contend with ahead of next year’s general election. Here’s a rundown of the cases. What’s going on with Sánchez’s brother? The prime minister’s younger brother, David Sánchez, will go on trial in the south-west region of Extremadura on Thursday, accused of influence peddling and misuse of public office. Ten other people face the same charges. The case springs from a complaint brought by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a long history of using the courts to pursue those it deems to pose a threat to Spain’s democratic interests. According to the complaint, David Sánchez was handed a bespoke job by the socialist-led council of the south-western city of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) but not yet prime minister. David Sánchez, who denies the charges, faces a three-year prison term if found guilty. And what about his wife? The prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, has also found herself in court as the result of a complaint brought by Manos Limpias. Last month, a judge in Madrid charged Gómez with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end ...
Jonathan Whitcomb, attorney for Lesley Groff, 5 June 2020 “She did not know.” Lesley Groff, longtime executive assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, has always claimed she knew nothing of his crimes. Complicity requires knowledge. To be legally complicit in a crime, you have to know you are helping to commit it. To be morally complicit, the bar is lower. You don’t even have to play an active part. To have...
Jonathan Whitcomb, attorney for Lesley Groff, 5 June 2020 “She did not know.” Lesley Groff, longtime executive assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, has always claimed she knew nothing of his crimes. Complicity requires knowledge. To be legally complicit in a crime, you have to know you are helping to commit it. To be morally complicit, the bar is lower. You don’t even have to play an active part. To have knowledge of the crime and do nothing is enough. But how do we know what someone knows? I think of all the times I’ve closed my eyes or shut down a thought or turned away from something wrong, large or small, a planet-level ecological harm or a sub-fiver theft in the supermarket right in front of me. Surely, I say to myself, someone else will do something. It’s not my fault or my responsibility; I am too inconsequential to make a difference here. Somewhere in the course of those thoughts, I decide not to let the knowledge of what I’ve seen or heard or inferred take up residence in my mind. In this way, over time, I’ve found that it is much easier to live with what I know if I do not admit what I know even to myself. FBI interview with Lesley Groff, 24 September 2021 Groff met with a headhunter, and he told her that “there was a job to organize one man’s life. This man was EPSTEIN, a Manhattan socialite. GROFF had never heard of EPSTEIN before this.” Lesley Groff never planned to be an assistant. After college at the University of Texas in Dallas, she moved to New Jersey with her first husband, worked for an office supplies company for nine years, divorced, worked as a salesperson at the department store Nordstrom, met her second husband at a triathlon and then decided she wanted to try to find work as an events planner on Wall Street. In 2001, a headhunter found her resumé on Monster, a jobs listing site, and set up Groff, then in her mid-30s, with an interview to be an assistant to a wealthy financier. For the interview, Groff went to Epstein’s offices on the 4th floor of...
The German duo are returning with the results of their whirlwind session with the late dub legend, best heard in a ‘spatial audio’ installation. They explain why such an unexpected move is par for their artistic course Interviewing Mouse on Mars is no easy feat. Not because the duo are hard to find, even though their current studio is hidden in a courtyard deep in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Nor ...
The German duo are returning with the results of their whirlwind session with the late dub legend, best heard in a ‘spatial audio’ installation. They explain why such an unexpected move is par for their artistic course Interviewing Mouse on Mars is no easy feat. Not because the duo are hard to find, even though their current studio is hidden in a courtyard deep in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Nor because they continue to be notoriously busy, particularly since one half of the band, Jan St Werner (born Jan Stephan Werner), is now a professor in pop music, at the Folkwang University of the Arts in the western German city of Essen. No, a conversation with Mouse on Mars is an exercise in perseverance and endurance. Which does not mean it is unpleasurable to chat with Andi Toma and St Werner, as well as their unofficial member and longtime collaborator, the percussionist Dodo NKishi. But any answer to a question may end up somewhere entirely different than originally intended, spanning from the quality of the fruit juice NKishi brought to the studio, to esoteric, tech-optimist digressions on the possibility of forensic resynthesising of the past through archival audio. Continue reading...
Bankers are preparing to sell a jumbo debt package to support the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. It’s a risky deal and comes at a moment when the bond markets have been wobbling. Even with the backing of the billionaire Ellison family, this will be a major test of debt investors’ willingness to support megamergers. Paramount Skydance Corp., led by Top Gun: Maverick co-prod...
Bankers are preparing to sell a jumbo debt package to support the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. It’s a risky deal and comes at a moment when the bond markets have been wobbling. Even with the backing of the billionaire Ellison family, this will be a major test of debt investors’ willingness to support megamergers. Paramount Skydance Corp., led by Top Gun: Maverick co-producer David Ellison, agreed to buy Warner in February after outbidding streaming giant Netflix Inc. The financial resources of his father, Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, were central to winning the auction. After all, Paramount’s market value is barely $12 billion and it’s already weighed down with debt. The main item on the bill is paying Warner shareholders $81 billion in cash to satisfy the $31-per-share offer price. Paramount must also assume Warner’s $29 billion of net debt. Around half of this will be rolled over into the enlarged company through a deal agreed this week. That still leaves $15 billion of Warner borrowings needing to be refinanced. As for the sources of cash to cover all this, the starting point is the Ellisons and their Gulf sovereign wealth fund partners writing a check for $47 billion. Roughly half of that equity is being provided by the family. It will be for the debt markets to stump up $49 billion to cover the rest of the purchase price and the refinancing. On its face, the investment case here looks pretty scary. The merged business will start life with extremely high leverage. Paramount’s existing debt, Warner’s rolled-over borrowings and the new debt add up to nearly $90 billion. Net debt will be 6.5 times this year’s forecast profit as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. That’s the kind of credit ratio you see in a private equity buyout, not a public company. What makes this so nerve-wracking is that Paramount is doubling down on cable-TV, an industry that’s losing customers to streaming services. T...