Consumer spending on travel is down for the first time in five years while card spending edges up in March UK consumers have cut back on travel spending for the first time in five years, as they worry about the rising cost of living amid the Iran war. Overall consumer card spending increased 0.9% year on year in March, down from February’s 1%, according to data from Barclays. Continue reading...
Consumer spending on travel is down for the first time in five years while card spending edges up in March UK consumers have cut back on travel spending for the first time in five years, as they worry about the rising cost of living amid the Iran war. Overall consumer card spending increased 0.9% year on year in March, down from February’s 1%, according to data from Barclays. Continue reading...
Wagnerites rejoice! Parsifal and the climax of Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed Ring cycle are in the pipeline. The director of opera talks about scoring a bullseye, the storms that rocked last season – and how to avoid sending audiences to sleep The morning I meet Oliver Mears, the director of opera at Covent Garden, I’m still walking on air. The day before I’d seen Wagner’s epic Siegfried , the third pa...
Wagnerites rejoice! Parsifal and the climax of Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed Ring cycle are in the pipeline. The director of opera talks about scoring a bullseye, the storms that rocked last season – and how to avoid sending audiences to sleep The morning I meet Oliver Mears, the director of opera at Covent Garden, I’m still walking on air. The day before I’d seen Wagner’s epic Siegfried , the third part of the Ring cycle. Nearly six hours long, it is an immersion into a world of gods and giants, heroes and warrior women – but also profound and poignant human relationships. With the remarkable Andreas Schager in the title role among a superb ensemble cast, it is the Royal Opera at its best. On the way to his office, Mears walks through the backstage labyrinth. Singers are warming up; wardrobe people are discussing a costume’s last-minute fix; and a couple of mice scurrying across the canteen lend a bohemian atmosphere. Heaven (give or take the rodents). Mears tells me about next season: course after course of operatic banquet. There will be a new Parsifal, conducted by music director Jakub Hrůša and directed, in his house debut, by the “brilliantly charismatic and interesting” Kazakhstan-born Evgeny Titov. There’s a new Un Ballo in Maschera by Verdi, with another director fresh to the house, the “stylish and rigorous” German Philipp Stölzl. There’s a return for Richard Jones’s brilliant production of Janáček’s Kát’a Kabanová with Hrůša conducting – whose interpretation of Janáček’s Jenůfa last season was one of the musical experiences of my life. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Ministers accused of trying to keep investment firm’s withdrawal from partnership with NatureScot under wraps A funding deal to raise £100m from private investors for urgently needed nature restoration in Scotland has fallen through without the Scottish parliament being told. The Guardian has learned that Aberdeen, the investment firm, decided to withdraw from a partnership with the age...
Exclusive: Ministers accused of trying to keep investment firm’s withdrawal from partnership with NatureScot under wraps A funding deal to raise £100m from private investors for urgently needed nature restoration in Scotland has fallen through without the Scottish parliament being told. The Guardian has learned that Aberdeen, the investment firm, decided to withdraw from a partnership with the agency NatureScot to raise at least £100m for conservation projects from commercial and private investors late last year. Continue reading...
Data from 22 police forces shows spending has more than tripled since the ban came into force in 2024 Police spending on kennels and veterinary bills in England and Wales has more than tripled since the XL bully ban came into force, with some forces recording an almost 500% spending increase since the new law was enacted in 2024. Data from 22 police forces obtained via freedom of information reque...
Data from 22 police forces shows spending has more than tripled since the ban came into force in 2024 Police spending on kennels and veterinary bills in England and Wales has more than tripled since the XL bully ban came into force, with some forces recording an almost 500% spending increase since the new law was enacted in 2024. Data from 22 police forces obtained via freedom of information requests showed police spending had soared from an average of £137,400 per force in 2022-23 to £423,136 in 2024-25. Continue reading...
We must hope this vote will be the start of a wider backlash – and send hard-right populism back to the fringes where it belongs The forces of darkness rolled back on Sunday. The mighty combined power of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Donald Trump’s America were defeated in Hungary, as European liberal democratic values triumphed . The populist-nativist right put their all into keeping Viktor Orbán i...
We must hope this vote will be the start of a wider backlash – and send hard-right populism back to the fringes where it belongs The forces of darkness rolled back on Sunday. The mighty combined power of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Donald Trump’s America were defeated in Hungary, as European liberal democratic values triumphed . The populist-nativist right put their all into keeping Viktor Orbán in power. The US vice-president, JD Vance, mid-war in Iran, took time out to parade his patronage in Budapest , one month after the hard-right US Conservative Political Action Conference took place there. In January, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in a video endorsing Orbán , with salvoes of support from Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen. Herbert Kickl of Austria’s Freedom party declared that “a patriotic wind is blowing across Europe”. Maybe, but not in their direction. Patriotism does not belong to them. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink? On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here Continue reading...
Have a forage for buttery and tender young nettles (or wild garlic), and turn them into a cheesy, Spanish-style omelette When I was growing up in the small village of Talaván in Extremadura, Spain, we never ate nettles. They were wild plants that grew along the edges of the fields, and the sort you tried to avoid: like many children, I learned about them the hard way, brushing against them while p...
Have a forage for buttery and tender young nettles (or wild garlic), and turn them into a cheesy, Spanish-style omelette When I was growing up in the small village of Talaván in Extremadura, Spain, we never ate nettles. They were wild plants that grew along the edges of the fields, and the sort you tried to avoid: like many children, I learned about them the hard way, brushing against them while playing and getting stung. It was only when I came to the UK that I first saw nettles used in cooking, which surprised me: suddenly, this wild plant had a place in the kitchen. Now, whenever I visit my mum, Isabel, I see them everywhere . It makes me smile to think that at this year’s Chelsea flower show I will be cooking among a world of magnificent plants and gardens. Perhaps not too many nettles on show, but who knows? Continue reading...
chachamal Asian equity markets rose on Tuesday due to widespread buying, especially in technology and chip stocks, despite weaker-than-expected trade data from China. President Trump said Iran contacted Washington after a US oil blockade. Oil prices fell, easing inflation and interest rate concerns. Crypto Momentum: Bitcoin ( BTC ) maintained its strength in mid-April, holding above the $74,000 ma...
chachamal Asian equity markets rose on Tuesday due to widespread buying, especially in technology and chip stocks, despite weaker-than-expected trade data from China. President Trump said Iran contacted Washington after a US oil blockade. Oil prices fell, easing inflation and interest rate concerns. Crypto Momentum: Bitcoin ( BTC ) maintained its strength in mid-April, holding above the $74,000 mark and reaching a four-week high. Gold prices climbed to around $4,760 per ounce on Tuesday. WTI crude futures dropped more than 2% to below $97 per barrel on Tuesday. The benchmark KOSPI rose more than 3% to around 5,995 on Tuesday. The South Korean won hovered around 1,485 per dollar. Japan ( NKY:IND ) rose 2.36% to above 57,700 on Tuesday, marking a six-week high. The Japanese yen strengthened toward 159 per dollar on Tuesday, ending a three-day losing streak. China's ( SHCOMP ) rose 0.55% to 4,006 on Monday, extending the previous session’s gains, while the Shenzhen Component climbed 1.2% to 14,575, and the offshore yuan traded around 6.81 per dollar, hovering near its strongest level since March 2023. China's March 2026 trade surplus fell to USD 51.13 billion, down from USD 101.93 billion a year earlier and below expectations. Exports grew 2.5%, while imports surged 27.8%, indicating significant economic shifts. Hong Kong ( HSI ) rose 0.45% to 25,940 on Tuesday, bouncing after a brief pullback in the previous session. India ( SENSEX ) markets closed. The Indian rupee hovered near 93.3 per dollar. Separately, markets also digested inflation data showing India’s annual rate rose to 3.4% in March 2026 from 3.21% in the previous month. Australia ( AS51 ) rose 0.59% to 8,993, ending a two-day decline. The Australian dollar remained around $0.709, close to a four-week high The NAB Business Confidence Index fell to -29 in March 2026, and the Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index dropped 12.5% to a two-and-a-half-year low of 80.1 in April 2026. RBA Deputy Govern...
OpenAI ( OPENAI ) has acquired Hiro Finance—an AI-powered personal finance and financial planning startup—signaling that OpenAI is building deeper money management capabilities into ChatGPT. The startup was founded in 2023 and built an AI-powered personal finance planning tool that helped users model “what-if” scenarios based on income, debt, and spending data. Hiro founder Ethan Bloch said in a L...
OpenAI ( OPENAI ) has acquired Hiro Finance—an AI-powered personal finance and financial planning startup—signaling that OpenAI is building deeper money management capabilities into ChatGPT. The startup was founded in 2023 and built an AI-powered personal finance planning tool that helped users model “what-if” scenarios based on income, debt, and spending data. Hiro founder Ethan Bloch said in a LinkedIn post that they will be shutting down operations on April 20 and deleting all data from their servers on May 13, while existing users can export their data before the shutdown. Its team, including founder Ethan Bloch, moves over to OpenAI ( OPENAI ). Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hiro was backed by prominent fintech VCs such as Ribbit, General Catalyst, and Restive Before launching Hiro Finance, Bloch founded Digit, a digital banking service designed to help users automatically save money. Oportun acquired Digit in 2021 for over $200M. More on OpenAI Nadella's Flip-Flop OpenAI's Dilemma Wall Street Lunch: ChatGPT Tops 800M Weekly Active Users Claude usage more than doubles month over month while Gemini steadily climbs: BNP OpenAI to open London office by 2027
A Hong Kong barrister faces additional charges after a second victim accused him of indecent assault, joining a former pupil who levelled similar accusations over events that took place nine years ago. Prosecutors on Tuesday told Eastern Court that a second victim had come forward to file a complaint against Simon So Shun-yan, who was admitted to the bar in 2018 and founded his own chambers that s...
A Hong Kong barrister faces additional charges after a second victim accused him of indecent assault, joining a former pupil who levelled similar accusations over events that took place nine years ago. Prosecutors on Tuesday told Eastern Court that a second victim had come forward to file a complaint against Simon So Shun-yan, who was admitted to the bar in 2018 and founded his own chambers that same year. The 32-year-old faces two new counts of common assault and another of indecent assault, in...
北京时间4月13日深夜，OpenRouter低调上线100B参数匿名模型Elephant Alpha，主打token效率而非规模化。该模型在代码补全、调试及轻量级Agent场景表现突出，被视为“实用主义”路线回归。社区热议其真实身份，猜测指向智谱GLM-5.1-Air、MiniMax M2.8、Kimi、DeepSeek Lite V4等国产模型，亦有观点认为是全新实验室出品，不太可能是国产模型。...
北京时间4月13日深夜，OpenRouter低调上线100B参数匿名模型Elephant Alpha，主打token效率而非规模化。该模型在代码补全、调试及轻量级Agent场景表现突出，被视为“实用主义”路线回归。社区热议其真实身份，猜测指向智谱GLM-5.1-Air、MiniMax M2.8、Kimi、DeepSeek Lite V4等国产模型，亦有观点认为是全新实验室出品，不太可能是国产模型。（科创板日报）
Aldi Irvan Darmansyah/iStock via Getty Images Q1 2026 Market Review The Davenport Insider Buying Fund ( DBUYX ) gained 2.73% during the first quarter compared to a decline of 4.33% for the S&P 500 ® Index. The market's proverbial "wall of worry" now includes a few additional partitions, including war in the Middle East, a back-up in bond yields, and increasing concern about the ramifications of ar...
Aldi Irvan Darmansyah/iStock via Getty Images Q1 2026 Market Review The Davenport Insider Buying Fund ( DBUYX ) gained 2.73% during the first quarter compared to a decline of 4.33% for the S&P 500 ® Index. The market's proverbial "wall of worry" now includes a few additional partitions, including war in the Middle East, a back-up in bond yields, and increasing concern about the ramifications of artificial intelligence. Fund Update Contributors: The Fund's top contributors during the fourth quarter were Darling Ingredients, Inc. ( DAR ), ConocoPhillips ( COP ), and Keysight Technologies, Inc. ( KEYS ). Entering the quarter, Conoco was the Fund's second-largest holding, albeit not based on any premonition about war in the Middle East. That the stock sat near the top of the quarterly leaderboard after oil prices surged 78% is unsurprising. While Conoco's largely domestic resource profile should be an increasingly valuable asset, nearly half its production is natural gas, for which domestic prices declined -8% in the quarter. It's also worth highlighting that 10 different insider sales occurred at Conoco in March, subsequent to the outbreak of the war (including $79.5M by its CEO), and we chipped about half our position into the strength as well. While oil prices may remain "higher for longer," we also want to respect both the insider signal and the cyclicality that commodities often exhibit. Elsewhere, Darling benefited from the US government finalizing Renewable Volume Obligations for 2026 and 2027, which should drive significant growth in renewable diesel – Darling is a 50% owner of Diamond Green Diesel, one of the nation's largest biofuel refiners. Keysight posted a sizable beat-and-raise quarter, with several of its heretofore moribund markets beginning to show signs of improvement. Detractors: The Fund's top detractors during the quarter were Builders FirstSource, Inc. ( BLDR ), TransUnion ( TRU ), and Wynn Resorts Ltd ( WYNN ). Rising interest rates conspired aga...