It’s my job to unpack beauty culture – but I’m still not immune to it. Plus, it’s a particularly strange time to be a bride, beauty-wise My 91-year-old grandmother had her 1954 wedding album out on her lap when I visited the other day. “I wanted to remember how beautiful I used to be,” she sighed. Every time my mom comes across a photo of her own 1984 nuptials, she says the same thing: “Look at ho...
It’s my job to unpack beauty culture – but I’m still not immune to it. Plus, it’s a particularly strange time to be a bride, beauty-wise My 91-year-old grandmother had her 1954 wedding album out on her lap when I visited the other day. “I wanted to remember how beautiful I used to be,” she sighed. Every time my mom comes across a photo of her own 1984 nuptials, she says the same thing: “Look at how skinny I was!” (Or, sometimes, “Can you believe Daddy wore a white tuxedo with tails ?” Which I cannot.) Why is this column called ‘Ask Ugly’? How do I respond to my friends when they criticize their own weight and looks? How should I be styling my pubic hair? How do I deal with imperfection? Continue reading...
The latest new chapter in Sam Raimi’s classic franchise goes harder than ever before but there’s something missing With the release of Evil Dead Burn, there are now just as many Evil Dead movies not directed by Sam Raimi or starring Bruce Campbell as there are entries with that original team in place. The next film, Evil Dead Wrath, is already set for a 2028 release, when it will officially tip th...
The latest new chapter in Sam Raimi’s classic franchise goes harder than ever before but there’s something missing With the release of Evil Dead Burn, there are now just as many Evil Dead movies not directed by Sam Raimi or starring Bruce Campbell as there are entries with that original team in place. The next film, Evil Dead Wrath, is already set for a 2028 release, when it will officially tip the balance toward non-Raimi film-makers. And unlike the non-James Cameron Terminators or the Spielberg-free Jaws sequels, these post-Raimi Evil Dead movies (which retain the director’s services as a seemingly enthusiastic producer) have so far enjoyed box office success, decent critical notices, and appreciation from their horror fanbase. Yet all three of the post-Raimi Evil Deads still feel as if they take place in the shadows of what came before – specifically, the original 1983 indie horror classic about a bunch of young people who stumble upon the Book of the Dead in a cabin and accidentally unleash demonic hell upon themselves. The reasoning must be that with so many dopey horror comedies failing to competently imitate the splattery slapstick of Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness, and with Ash’s story continued in a three-season TV series, a new version’s only hope is to recapture the nasty (and, yes, sometimes darkly comic) transgressions of the first film. Evil Dead Burn comes closer than the others so far – though maybe not close enough to obliterate the comparisons entirely. Continue reading...
China’s newest and most advanced AI models, such as GLM-5.2 from Zhipu, are closing the performance gap with US competitors and attracting customers with relatively inexpensive prices, according to Yasir Atalan, deputy director and data fellow in the Futures Lab at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It’s a shift that’s starting to reshape the global market for frontier AI. Europea...
China’s newest and most advanced AI models, such as GLM-5.2 from Zhipu, are closing the performance gap with US competitors and attracting customers with relatively inexpensive prices, according to Yasir Atalan, deputy director and data fellow in the Futures Lab at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It’s a shift that’s starting to reshape the global market for frontier AI. European companies are taking advantage of China’s cheaper models. Inceptron, a European AI tech provider, hosts GLM-5.2 for clients, and Amsterdam-based Nebius partnered with Eigen AI earlier this year to develop optimized versions of leading open-source models like DeepSeek and GLM. US companies have warned that the emerging use of Chinese models could have cybersecurity implications, including the circulation of models developed without safety guardrails intended to stop people from using the platforms for illegal hacking. Security researchers warn that the models’ architecture makes them difficult to audit for backdoors or deliberately planted vulnerabilities. Researchers found more than 352,000 suspicious files across 51,700 models on Hugging Face, the largest AI model hosting platform. The Commerce Department added Z.ai to its trade blacklist last year amid suspected ties to the Chinese government. GLM-5.2 can reportedly find software vulnerabilities for about 17 cents each , and hackers have already begun sharing methods to bypass its guardrails. Chinese AI companies claim a lower training cost than American models and don’t need to build as much infrastructure for their open-weight models. Open-weight models can be self-hosted, meaning they run on someone’s personal hardware without relying on third-party infrastructure, according to Atalan. Although there are costs involved with obtaining the necessary hardware, it’s typically worth the cost for multibillion-dollar companies, according to Casey Ellis, co-founder of disclose.io. DeepSeek and Zhipu didn’t respond to request...
Donald Trump said he thinks a short-term truce with Iran may be over , and that he’d probably order more strikes on the country tonight. Speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey , the US president also threatened to reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ports and take Kharg Island, the hub of Iran’s oil industry. Stocks dropped and oil rallied after the comments. While tensions have simmered o...
Donald Trump said he thinks a short-term truce with Iran may be over , and that he’d probably order more strikes on the country tonight. Speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey , the US president also threatened to reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ports and take Kharg Island, the hub of Iran’s oil industry. Stocks dropped and oil rallied after the comments. While tensions have simmered over shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz, with occasional tit-for-tat strikes, they haven’t been this bad for weeks. Each side accuses the other of violating the terms of the ceasefire. If Washington does launch more strikes, Iran said it will likely retaliate. But that doesn’t mean negotiations on a broader deal to end the war — which began at the end of February — are over. Trump had better news for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: At the NATO summit, he announced that he’ll allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors , a priority for Zelenskyy that’s become more urgent as Kyiv has struggled to shoot down Russian missiles. — Caroline Alexander What You Need to Know Today NATO May Scrap 2027 Summit to Avoid Tensions With Trump The US president’s ongoing NATO broadsides have raised the prospect that next year’s summit, set to be held in Albania, could be postponed to avoid creating yet another platform for Trump to disparage allies. Read more UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel moved closer to control of Commerzbank after investors tendered enough shares at the end of the Italican lender’s takeover offer to raise the stake it can potentially oversee to 47.6%. The result leaves Orcel on course to effectively control Commerzbank, after a two-year pursuit that has ruffled feathers from Frankfurt to Berlin. A full takeover would mark Europe’s biggest bank deal in about 20 years and turn the Italian lender into a dominant force in Germany, while boosting its presence in Poland. After losing roughly $1 trillion in market value in less than two months, Nvidia’...
happyphoton/iStock via Getty Images Q3 has so far been the complete opposite of the trend in place in the first half of 2026. Investors and traders have used the first handful of trading days this quarter as an opportunity to sell the year's big winners and rotate into the year's losers. The Nasdaq 100 ETF ( QQQ ) has been volatile over the last month, with nothing to show for it. Of the 20 tradin...
happyphoton/iStock via Getty Images Q3 has so far been the complete opposite of the trend in place in the first half of 2026. Investors and traders have used the first handful of trading days this quarter as an opportunity to sell the year's big winners and rotate into the year's losers. The Nasdaq 100 ETF ( QQQ ) has been volatile over the last month, with nothing to show for it. Of the 20 trading days since 6/8, 16 have seen QQQ move up or down 1%+, yet its price is exactly flat over this period. As shown below, QQQ is now at the bottom end of a flag pattern that forms from a series of lower highs and higher lows. Technicians usually look for big moves whenever these flag patterns break. The Philly SOX semis ETF ( SOXX ) rallied 111% from April lows through June 22nd. It has since fallen 16% and is now just barely hanging onto its 50-DMA, a level it hasn't closed below since early April. Micron ( MU ) was one of the biggest winners in the semis space in Q2, rallying 277% from the end of March through June 25th. MU has lost nearly a quarter of its value in a little over a week since that 6/25 peak: Below is a snapshot of the biggest semis in the US run through our Trend Analyzer tool. After trading in overbought or extreme overbought territory for much of Q2, they're all back in neutral (or oversold) territory now. Companies related to the data center buildout have also been crushed over the last week as investors rotate away from AI infrastructure. In addition to the semis and data center stocks getting crushed, space-related stocks have also been experiencing gravity. These names skyrocketed in May and June, but they've given up nearly all of those gains in a matter of weeks since SpaceX ( SPCX ) became available to equity-market investors. As AI infrastructure and other first-half high fliers get sold, we've seen rotation into areas of the market that had been struggling. Below are software and digital travel stocks that got slammed at various points in Q1 and Q...
JHVEPhoto The Oregon attorney general is asking a judge to delay Paramount Skydance's ( PSKY ) planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) as he seeks documents related to a state probe of the mega media deal. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is asking a Multnomah County judge to delay the deal from closing for 60 days while the state reviews the company’s records, accordin...
JHVEPhoto The Oregon attorney general is asking a judge to delay Paramount Skydance's ( PSKY ) planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) as he seeks documents related to a state probe of the mega media deal. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is asking a Multnomah County judge to delay the deal from closing for 60 days while the state reviews the company’s records, according to a statement on Tuesday. Rayfield wants Paramount ( PSKY ) to turn over documents related to an Oregon Department of Justice probe into its proposed purchase of Warner Bros. ( WBD ). “We’re not going to let Paramount Skydance play hide the ball so they can rush through their massive merger,” said Attorney General Dan Rayfield. “Oregonians have a real stake in this deal – in our film industry, in our economy, in the choices they’ll have as consumers. Paramount had every opportunity to hand over records and answer a few basic questions. Instead, it is trying to run out the clock and evade scrutiny. We’re asking the court to make sure Oregonians get the answers they’re owed before this deal closes, not after.” Oregon has been looking at the deal since it was announced in February. The state's DOJ sent Paramount ( PSKY ) a records request in June, asking for documents about the company’s lobbying of federal officials in support of the transaction, its role in a U.S. Department of Justice statement approving the merger, and an internal effort the company calls “Project Warrior.” The Oregon DOJ plans to present its motion in person in Multnomah County Court on Wednesday. CNBC's David Faber earlier Wednesday downplayed the Oregon request and said he's focused on whether the California AG will file a lawsuit. "I'm just not even going to focus on this, frankly, " Faber said on the business network. "We're waiting on California. We'll see whether they actually make their move in terms of seeking an injunction." Faber on Monday reported that California hired a law firm for a poten...
Palantir Technologies stock slid Wednesday after a Financial Times report raised concerns about the company’s political standing, while shares also ran into technical resistance following a sharp rebound.
Palantir Technologies stock slid Wednesday after a Financial Times report raised concerns about the company’s political standing, while shares also ran into technical resistance following a sharp rebound.
PrathanChorruangsak/iStock via Getty Images The current market trajectory has resulted in increasing the appeal of low-duration asset classes, due to the cautious outlook on interest rates largely due to inflationary pressures and central banks' primary emphasis on keeping inflation in line with target rates. While it doesn't suggest conclusively that long-duration assets might be unattractive sin...
PrathanChorruangsak/iStock via Getty Images The current market trajectory has resulted in increasing the appeal of low-duration asset classes, due to the cautious outlook on interest rates largely due to inflationary pressures and central banks' primary emphasis on keeping inflation in line with target rates. While it doesn't suggest conclusively that long-duration assets might be unattractive since the rates are still high and the yield curve is still positively sloping; however, for investors who are not desirous of exposing themselves to the sensitivities arising from interest rates, they may find certain value in vehicles such as the JPMorgan Limited Duration Bond ETF ( JPLD ). The fund remains a low-duration vehicle; its expense ratio is at moderate levels, and it allocates to higher credit-rated issues, presenting an allocation case primarily for conservative investors either as a yield parking proposition or a cash-plus allocation. Fund Overview JPLD is an actively managed fixed income fund emphasizing low-duration fixed income allocations. The AUM for the fund stands at around ~3.94 billion. The fund at present has a 30-day SEC yield of ~4.4% and a trailing dividend yield of ~4.27% , broadly in line with its SEC yield. The primary focus of the fund and the value that it might offer to an investor is its allocations to mortgage-related securities, MBS, ABS and the use of certain derivatives. The profile of the fund, however, would remain on the conservative side at large. The duration of the fund stands at ~2.05 years for the present, consistent with the mandate of the fund. JPLD fact-sheet Although the fund states that it largely invests in mortgage-related securities, agency MBS, and asset-backed securities for generating incremental return for an investor. However, a considerable portion of the investments is still held in Treasuries, enhancing the stability of the allocation. For example, at the end of May , the fund had over ~30% exposure to Treasuries a...