Using handmade needles and thread, Lucie Kamusekera has recorded the decades of conflict she has lived through in the Congo She could hear the sounds of artillery. “I have no idea how I am still alive,” says Lucie Kamusekera. When the city of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, fell to a rebel offensive in early 2025 , the 82-year-old artist was hiding at home. Kamusekera, 82, s...
Using handmade needles and thread, Lucie Kamusekera has recorded the decades of conflict she has lived through in the Congo She could hear the sounds of artillery. “I have no idea how I am still alive,” says Lucie Kamusekera. When the city of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, fell to a rebel offensive in early 2025 , the 82-year-old artist was hiding at home. Kamusekera, 82, stitches scenes of contemporary Congolese history on to tobacco sacks Continue reading...
The world’s top financial stability watchdog unveiled a tentative plan to tame private credit risk, as bankers’ and policymakers’ escalating warnings about potential dangers collide with a political push toward deregulation. The Financial Stability Board , which convenes central banks, regulators and finance ministries from the world’s most powerful economies, on Wednesday said “significant data c...
The world’s top financial stability watchdog unveiled a tentative plan to tame private credit risk, as bankers’ and policymakers’ escalating warnings about potential dangers collide with a political push toward deregulation. The Financial Stability Board , which convenes central banks, regulators and finance ministries from the world’s most powerful economies, on Wednesday said “significant data challenges” had frustrated its almost year-long effort to assess vulnerabilities in the $1.5 to $2 trillion market. Exploring new ways to address those data challenges is a key part of the plan laid out by the FSB to mitigate risks. Other action points include “facilitating supervisory discussions” on how vulnerabilities could be monitored, carrying out further risk analysis directly, and hammering out commonly agreed definitions for parts of the private credit ecosystem. The FSB also published almost two dozen core metrics that supervisors could monitor to get a handle on potential risks, based on the data they already collect or can obtain “relatively” easy, and a longer list of ‘nice to have’ metrics. It stopped short of any policy recommendations and did not commit to a timescale for further work on the area, which has emerged as a top concern for policymakers including FSB chair and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey . Rather than conclusively give the sector a clean bill of health or otherwise, the FSB’s 48-page report highlighted where potential fault lines might lie in a market that Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr last week warned could spark “psychological contagion” and a broader credit crunch. One area of concern for the FSB is links between private credit and banks; the report which the FSB began working on last July cited industry estimates of $270-$500 billion of drawn and undrawn bank loans by private credit firms based on data from 2024. More recent Bloomberg calculations show thirteen European banks had collective private credit exposure of $135 bi...
How German Media Became The PR Arm Of The Expanding State Submitted by Thomas Kolbe How does economic growth emerge? Let us turn to Ludwig von Mises, one of the defining economists of the 20th century – and paraphrase his idea: growth arises where private capital is guided in a free market by an undistorted price system. Prices signal scarcity and direct scarce resources to where they generate rea...
How German Media Became The PR Arm Of The Expanding State Submitted by Thomas Kolbe How does economic growth emerge? Let us turn to Ludwig von Mises, one of the defining economists of the 20th century – and paraphrase his idea: growth arises where private capital is guided in a free market by an undistorted price system. Prices signal scarcity and direct scarce resources to where they generate real value. When this system is distorted by ideological intervention, capital is misallocated – potential growth simply evaporates. That is the theory. And there is no doubt that the reality of emerging economies has repeatedly confirmed the teachings of the Austrian School. Take Argentina, for example: the economic policy shift under President Javier Milei is leading to a rollback of the state and new private investment impulses. That is how it should be: the state as a rule-setting referee, not a player in the economy. This thesis meets maximum resistance in German editorial offices. There prevails a staunchly statist spirit, a vulgar Hegelianism that regularly loses itself in the labyrinth of economic causality. As a reminder: Milei is the libertarian whom Chancellor Friedrich Merz and German media denounced as a far-right eccentric, accusing him of trampling on his own people. As said: ideologically blinded, intellectually shallow. On Thursday, Handelsblatt presented its readers with the result of the marriage between green-statist ideology and editorial missionary zeal. In its morning briefing, the author made clear how she interprets the world: at the top, the all-knowing state; far below, the misguided, dependent individual. The piece appeared under the title “When Father State must save German growth” and stands as a case study of the spirit dominating German media. The individual counts for nothing, the state for everything. A hint of Orwell runs through these lines. They are meant to remind us that our economic fate now lies in the hands of an all-knowing federal go...
Veolia Environnement SA press release ( VEOEY ): Q1 Revenue of €11.43B (-0.7% Y/Y). EBITDA of €1,766M, an organic growth of +5.1%, in the target range of +5% to +6%, and margin increase of +73bps. 2026 guidance and GreenUp plan trajectory fully confirmed. GUIDANCE FULLY CONFIRMED Our 2026 targets are fully confirmed: Solid organic (4) revenue growth excl. energy prices Organic (4) EBITDA growth of...
Veolia Environnement SA press release ( VEOEY ): Q1 Revenue of €11.43B (-0.7% Y/Y). EBITDA of €1,766M, an organic growth of +5.1%, in the target range of +5% to +6%, and margin increase of +73bps. 2026 guidance and GreenUp plan trajectory fully confirmed. GUIDANCE FULLY CONFIRMED Our 2026 targets are fully confirmed: Solid organic (4) revenue growth excl. energy prices Organic (4) EBITDA growth of +5% to +6% Current net income Group share (5) growth of minimum +8% at constant forex and excl. Clean Earth Current EPS Group share (5) to grow in line with current net income Group share (5) (thanks to share buyback plan to compensate the impact of the employee shareholding program) Dividend growth in line with current EPS Group share growth (5) Leverage ratio equal or below 3x excluding Clean Earth (equal or slightly above 3x with Clean Earth) More on Veolia Environnement SA Veolia Environnement SA (VEOEY) Shareholder/Analyst Call Transcript Veolia Environnement SA (VEOEY) Discusses Innovation for Environmental Security Transcript Veolia Environnement SA (VEOEY) Discusses Integration of ESG as a Value Driver in Financial and Operational Strategy - Slideshow Veolia to develop reclaimed-water systems for cooling data centers with Amazon Veolia targets more than €1B in annual revenues from data centers, chips by 2030
(RTTNews) - German automajor BMW Group (BMW.L, BAMXF.PK, BAMXY.PK) reported Wednesday weak profit and revenues in its first quarter, mainly hurt by lower vehicle deliveries. Further, the firm maintained fiscal 2026 outlook.
(RTTNews) - German automajor BMW Group (BMW.L, BAMXF.PK, BAMXY.PK) reported Wednesday weak profit and revenues in its first quarter, mainly hurt by lower vehicle deliveries. Further, the firm maintained fiscal 2026 outlook.
(RTTNews) - DSM Firmenich AG (DSFIY, DSFIR.AS, DSMFF), a Swiss-Dutch chemical company, on Wednesday reported adjusted EBITDA and sales declined in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the previous year.
(RTTNews) - DSM Firmenich AG (DSFIY, DSFIR.AS, DSMFF), a Swiss-Dutch chemical company, on Wednesday reported adjusted EBITDA and sales declined in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the previous year.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek could be valued at as much as $50 billion in its maiden fundraising drive, three sources said, as the large language model builder seeks to reverse its years-long strategy of rejecting outside funding. China's 60-billion-yuan ($8.8 billion) national artificial intelligence fund, founded in January last year, is in talks to be a lead investor in DeepSeek's fundraisin...
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek could be valued at as much as $50 billion in its maiden fundraising drive, three sources said, as the large language model builder seeks to reverse its years-long strategy of rejecting outside funding. China's 60-billion-yuan ($8.8 billion) national artificial intelligence fund, founded in January last year, is in talks to be a lead investor in DeepSeek's fundraising, said one of the sources familiar with the matter. The start-up could raise $3 billion to $4 billion from the funding round to fuel its computing capabilities and improve employee benefits, said separate sources with knowledge of the matter.
Vladimir Zakharov/iStock via Getty Images By Michiel Tukker , Senior UK & Eurozone Rates Strategist | Padhraic Garvey, CFA , Regional Head of Research, Americas New record highs for sterling rates, but don’t just blame politics Sterling rates are reaching new record highs, but even though politics are easily blamed, external factors are the more obvious culprit. The 10Y gilt yield touched 5.1% dur...
Vladimir Zakharov/iStock via Getty Images By Michiel Tukker , Senior UK & Eurozone Rates Strategist | Padhraic Garvey, CFA , Regional Head of Research, Americas New record highs for sterling rates, but don’t just blame politics Sterling rates are reaching new record highs, but even though politics are easily blamed, external factors are the more obvious culprit. The 10Y gilt yield touched 5.1% during intraday trading, a level last seen in 2008. Gilts are facing a double-whammy, being both sensitive to inflation through higher oil prices and being relatively vulnerable to spillovers from US markets. Already since the start of the crisis, markets have had a more hawkish take on the Bank of England’s reaction function to higher oil prices. It is more hawkish than for the Fed or the European Central Bank (ECB). Secondly, gilts’ tight correlation with USTs is pushing rates higher on the back of US optimism. With equities in the US hitting new records, the 10Y UST yield has now drifted above 4.4% and seems to find little resistance. A sharp risk-off episode could push yields down again, but so far market sentiment seems very resilient. US macro data is also sturdy, which means that real rates are not showing any signs of economic weakness. Gilt yields can therefore rise even higher from here, with politics posing the risk of turning the situation into a triple-whammy. So far, however, we’re not seeing clear signs of investors turning more wary of the UK because of the political turmoil. For instance, the spread between gilt yields and swaps, which is often seen as a gauge of gilt market stress, has been relatively stable. Also, our FX strategists point out that the currency is not showing any weakness when accounting for rate dynamics. This could change, of course, but with eyes still fixated on the Middle East conflict, politics is likely to remain in the passenger seat. The US backdrop has come off extremes, but the problems that drove us there remain Key US market rate...
When I became pregnant, all I wanted was a healthy baby. Discovering I would be having a son gave me a new perspective on the narratives around masculinity At the 20-week ultrasound, because of the baby’s position, my partner and I didn’t get any proper pictures to take home. Instead, the sonographer printed us a shot of the genitals. So, there it was, in black and white: I was having a boy. Growi...
When I became pregnant, all I wanted was a healthy baby. Discovering I would be having a son gave me a new perspective on the narratives around masculinity At the 20-week ultrasound, because of the baby’s position, my partner and I didn’t get any proper pictures to take home. Instead, the sonographer printed us a shot of the genitals. So, there it was, in black and white: I was having a boy. Growing up, boys were a slightly alien concept. Our household was female-heavy – a mum, two sisters, a dad with no interest in conventional “boy stuff”. We did have two male cats, neutered, extremely fluffy and ironically named Mr White and Mr Orange by my dad (“Reservoir Cats”). Continue reading...