China's long-running effort to build out its energy sources is getting fresh momentum from the war in Iran. It's reinforcing a strategy that’s sent grid operators on a bond-selling binge and funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the market. Bloomberg's Dan Murtaugh and David Fickling discuss on The China Show. (Source: Bloomberg)
China's long-running effort to build out its energy sources is getting fresh momentum from the war in Iran. It's reinforcing a strategy that’s sent grid operators on a bond-selling binge and funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the market. Bloomberg's Dan Murtaugh and David Fickling discuss on The China Show. (Source: Bloomberg)
In the Middle East, the occupation is the original sin. And those who banked on this US-backed ‘stability’ now find it giving way beneath them A war spiralling in the Middle East . A death toll now in the thousands across Iran and Lebanon . Energy prices soaring . The Gulf seized up with Iranian strikes . It’s one of those eras that feels bewildering, incomprehensible, out of control. But there is...
In the Middle East, the occupation is the original sin. And those who banked on this US-backed ‘stability’ now find it giving way beneath them A war spiralling in the Middle East . A death toll now in the thousands across Iran and Lebanon . Energy prices soaring . The Gulf seized up with Iranian strikes . It’s one of those eras that feels bewildering, incomprehensible, out of control. But there is, at the heart of it, a simple logic: everything that is unfolding is a result of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians. As the conflagration spreads, the connection to Palestine becomes obscured. But it is clear how much of the stability of the Middle East was secured at the expense of the Palestinians. Look at the region before 7 October 2023. US policy on the Middle East focused on “integration’’: containment of Iran, signing up more Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel and the creation, therefore, of a bloc of economic and security interests under the US military umbrella. Continue reading...
Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas. Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the al...
Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas. Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security found. The group’s inquiry into the benefits and costs of international health worker recruitment heard that the scale of NHS reliance on overseas workers meant the government’s plan to reduce international recruitment to around 10% by 2035 was overambitious. “The NHS has not operated at that level for decades,” said Andrew Mitchell, the former development minister who chaired the inquiry. Thirty-six per cent of UK doctors and 24% of nurses and midwives were trained elsewhere in the world. The number of visas granted to healthcare professionals has fallen sharply in recent years. But overseas staff would be needed “for the foreseeable future”, the APPG said. Mitchell added: “We must grow our own workforce. But in a shrinking world, pretending health workforces are purely national assets, is no longer credible. If we benefit from health workers trained overseas, we also have a duty to help strengthen the systems they come from.” The World Health Organization forecasts a global shortage of 11 million health workers by 2030. Today, almost a quarter of the world’s doctors, nurses and midwives are concentrated in just 10 high-income countries. There are around 30 doctors for every 10,000 people in the UK, compared with nine in India, six in the Philippines and one in Ghana. Giving evidence to the inquiry, representatives from Kenya and Uganda said they were losing significant numbers of experienced doctors, nurses and clinical educators. That would have detrimental effects on the next generation of health workers a...
More than 100 Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to stop the House of Lords from blocking the assisted dying bill and give it more time to return to the Commons, with the legislation now certain to fall owing to lack of time. The private member’s bill, sponsored by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, will fall when the parliamentary session comes to an end in May because peers have used multiple amendmen...
More than 100 Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to stop the House of Lords from blocking the assisted dying bill and give it more time to return to the Commons, with the legislation now certain to fall owing to lack of time. The private member’s bill, sponsored by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, will fall when the parliamentary session comes to an end in May because peers have used multiple amendments and lengthy debates to prevent it from being put to a vote. A number of ministerial aides – parliamentary private secretaries – are also believed to have written to the prime minister separately. Ministers have told the Guardian they have also made the case to Starmer, saying it would be a moment to show some leadership on an issue popular with the public as well as a way to demonstrate he will not allow the Lords to block the will of the elected House of Commons. Opponents of the bill, who have submitted more than 1,200 amendments, say they are not deliberately filibustering and that it is unfit for purpose. In a private letter to Starmer, the Labour MPs wrote that he should ensure it returns to the Commons in the next session after the king’s speech. If it passes the Commons again, it would mean supporters could use the Parliament Act to bypass any further blocking by the Lords. It would be the first time the 1911 Parliament Act has been invoked for a private member’s bill. View image in fullscreen The House of Lords, pictured in November last year, has spent more than 100 hours debating the assisted dying bill so far. Photograph: House of Lords/UK Parliament/PA The letter said Starmer would not need to sacrifice government neutrality on the issue itself and said it was a fundamental democratic principle that the Lords should not block the will of the Commons. The bill was passed by MPs in June last year with a majority of 23. To use the Parliament Act, supporters would either need to win the ballot for a new private member’s bill or Starmer could agree to give the bil...
The UK’s public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into a controversial government anti-fraud scheme that resulted in thousands of families being wrongly stripped of their child benefit payments. The National Audit Office (NAO) will examine how HM Revenue and Customs designed and implemented a scheme that used flawed Home Office travel records to identify parents suspected of living a...
The UK’s public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into a controversial government anti-fraud scheme that resulted in thousands of families being wrongly stripped of their child benefit payments. The National Audit Office (NAO) will examine how HM Revenue and Customs designed and implemented a scheme that used flawed Home Office travel records to identify parents suspected of living abroad while still claiming child benefit. The inquiry follows a series of articles in the Detail and the Guardian which exposed how HMRC relied on faulty travel data which recorded outgoing journeys, including airline bookings that were never used, and frequently failed to record return journeys by holidaymakers and business travellers. HMRC took the data in good faith from the Home Office and ended up incorrectly suggesting that families had emigrated and were fraudulently claiming the support from abroad. Among those who hadn’t even flown abroad but were stripped of child benefit was a woman who did not board the plane after her child had an epileptic seizure at the departure gate, and another woman who did not travel to Norway after the wedding she was planning to attend was cancelled. Some people in Northern Ireland had their benefits stripped after returning via Dublin airport, while others simply had their child benefit frozen because the Home Office had no record of their return to the UK, an issue that neither the Home Office nor HMRC have fully explained. HMRC suspended payments for 23,794 families between July and October last year in an anti-fraud crackdown. Parents received letters referring to past holidays, sometimes as far back as three years ago, for which the Home Office had no record of return journeys. More than 17,000 of those families were found to be legitimate claimants, as of 31 December, while 1,019 (4.3%) were claiming incorrectly. The number of legitimate claimants is expected to rise, with thousands of cases still unresolved. The NAO investigatio...
The Glasshouse, Gateshead Conductor John Wilson and players delivered an Enigma Variations that veered between whispers and full-throttle intensity. Soloist Alexandre Kantorow, too, proved a master of extremes with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 Once upon a time, a young man from Gateshead went to London to study music, established his own orchestra and gained a reputation for impeccably turned o...
The Glasshouse, Gateshead Conductor John Wilson and players delivered an Enigma Variations that veered between whispers and full-throttle intensity. Soloist Alexandre Kantorow, too, proved a master of extremes with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 Once upon a time, a young man from Gateshead went to London to study music, established his own orchestra and gained a reputation for impeccably turned out performances of Hollywood musicals and symphonic jazz. Fast forward a few decades and John Wilson is still hand-picking musicians and still serving up performances so polished they leave critics scrabbling for superlatives. These days Wilson’s main outfit is the Sinfonia of London , and he is as likely to be conducting the symphonic mainstream as showtunes. But fresh from collecting the conductor award at the 2026 RPS awards , and on stage at the Glasshouse for the Sinfonia of London’s official first performance as an artistic partner of the Gateshead venue, this local lad made good remains an irrepressible entertainer. Continue reading...
High levels of debt on essential bills have become the “new normal” for many low-income households, the charity StepChange said on Monday, with average arrears for housing, utilities and council tax all going up last year. People’s budgets have been stretched in recent years as they have faced higher prices for many goods and services, and the crisis in the Middle East has led to concerns over a n...
High levels of debt on essential bills have become the “new normal” for many low-income households, the charity StepChange said on Monday, with average arrears for housing, utilities and council tax all going up last year. People’s budgets have been stretched in recent years as they have faced higher prices for many goods and services, and the crisis in the Middle East has led to concerns over a new wave of increases. Figures from the debt charity show that its clients were already struggling with growing arrears. Despite slower growth in mortgage costs and rents in 2025, the debt charity said its clients had fallen increasingly behind on related payments. Average rent arrears climbed by 15% to £2,372, while average mortgage arrears grew by 22%, from £10,239 in 2024 to £12,534 in 2025. StepChange’s data shows there were significant numbers of households behind with energy bills, even though prices had fallen from the highs of 2022. Over a third of clients were in debt to energy companies, which was down from 40% in 2024, but the average debt had grown by £220 to £2,560. Two in five of the clients seen by the charity over the year were receiving universal credit, and three in five lived in rented accommodation. Vikki Brownridge, the chief executive at StepChange, said: “The reality is that rising essential bills and with that rising arrears types across housing, energy, and consumer credit debt, have become the new normal for many households. “The cost of everyday essentials remains prohibitively high for many households, and our client data has reflected this pressure for several years. Rising household arrears show little sign of slowing down.” The charity is calling for more action from the government to prevent people from falling into debt just to meet essential costs. It wants to see national social tariffs for energy and water, which Brownridge said would “bring costs back down to a level that is affordable for those with low incomes or high needs”.
Britain is rapidly losing the charity habit, with public donations to good causes plummeting by more than £1.4bn last year and millions of people saying they can no longer afford – or do not want – to give, according to an analysis. The Charities Aid Foundation (Caf) said in its annual report that, while the British remained generous at heart, society was witnessing a big transformation in attitud...
Britain is rapidly losing the charity habit, with public donations to good causes plummeting by more than £1.4bn last year and millions of people saying they can no longer afford – or do not want – to give, according to an analysis. The Charities Aid Foundation (Caf) said in its annual report that, while the British remained generous at heart, society was witnessing a big transformation in attitudes towards charitable giving. Just half of people gave to charity in 2025, down from 61% a decade earlier. Charity giving was no longer a “deeply embedded cultural norm” amid rising living cost pressures, and a more sceptical society, said the Caf managing director, Mark Greer: “Charities can no longer depend solely on habitual generosity or goodwill from the public,” he said. The consequences have been felt across the voluntary sector in recent months, with even some of the UKs biggest charities – including Macmillan Cancer Support, Samaritans and Oxfam – making big cuts to staff and budgets. The latest annual figures marked a striking downward shift after years in which the number of donors declined but overall donation levels stayed stable, propped up by what Caf calls “a group of dedicated donors” who gave bigger donations. Last year, however, donor numbers flatlined, and donations fell. The collapse in overall donations from £15.4bn to £14bn in 2025 was driven by a fall in the average size of charitable gifts from £72 to £65. Nearly half of people (49%) who did not give to charity in 2025 said it was because they could not afford to, up from 44% in 2024. Cost of living pressures have exacerbated a longer-term contraction in the size of the UK’s donor base over the past decade, a trend that accelerated during the Covid pandemic. Caf estimates 6 million fewer people gave to charity last year compared with 2016, potentially shrinking total voluntary sector income by about £12bn. “The decline in charitable donors over the past decade is stark. Giving is no longer a habit i...
Young people in China are contributing to a fake account generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to lecture their parents about healthy and scientific life values. A social media account called “Lao Zhao jiang dao li”, or “Mr Zhao talks sense”, went viral recently, amassing over 200,000 followers in just two months. The man surnamed Zhao, based in southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality, cla...
Young people in China are contributing to a fake account generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to lecture their parents about healthy and scientific life values. A social media account called “Lao Zhao jiang dao li”, or “Mr Zhao talks sense”, went viral recently, amassing over 200,000 followers in just two months. The man surnamed Zhao, based in southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality, claimed in his profile that he is a retired professor who has specialised in parent-child relationships for over three decades. The artificial intelligence-generated professor, above, has become popular among young internet users. Photo: Handout He also said he had published over 10 SCI papers, studied in Singapore and won the “Touching China organising committee special award” and the “Champions of the Earth” award. Advertisement Zhao’s achievements look amazing, except for the fact that he does not exist. He is a persona generated by AI, created by a young woman who goes by the nickname “shicaomeiweidemao”. Advertisement The woman created the account because she could not stand the “toxic chicken soup” her parents believed in.
Raja Pradhan is sitting cross-legged, scrolling on his phone in his village in eastern India when a green WhatsApp chat bubble pops up on the screen. “Namaskar! Apana bahare kama pain jauthibe? Apananka suchana diaantu.” (Hello! Are you going outside for work? Please share your information.) He reads the message twice, unsure whether to respond. “I don’t know where this information would go,” he s...
Raja Pradhan is sitting cross-legged, scrolling on his phone in his village in eastern India when a green WhatsApp chat bubble pops up on the screen. “Namaskar! Apana bahare kama pain jauthibe? Apananka suchana diaantu.” (Hello! Are you going outside for work? Please share your information.) He reads the message twice, unsure whether to respond. “I don’t know where this information would go,” he says. “Would someone use it against me? The internet can be tricky at times. Why should I even share my details in the first place?” A volunteer from a nonprofit organisation explains it is a chatbot called Bandhu (friend) that aims to connect the largely undocumented migrant workforce of the state of Odisha to emergency services and keep their families updated on their location. “Your details will not be shared publicly. It is only to help you in case of emergencies,” says field worker Subhalata Pradhan. India has an estimated 140 million migrant workers, according to nonprofit organisations and researchers who point to large gaps in data on their numbers and locations. This has led to inadequate and delayed responses during emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic, when tens of thousands of workers were forced to walk home after the central government imposed a nationwide lockdown. More than a million migrant workers returned to Odisha during the pandemic. But in the absence of any reliable data on who they were or where they were travelling from, the authorities struggled to coordinate their return. Lack of data also affects access to and delivery of welfare and aid, researchers and campaigners have repeatedly flagged. View image in fullscreen Migrant workers leave New Delhi to return to their villages during the Covid-19 lockdown in India, March 2020, when a lack of data on peoples’ movements affected delivery of aid. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP More than 400 migrant workers from Odisha have died over the past nine years while working in other states, according to a writ...
Qualcomm (QCOM) could be a good pick for your portfolio, with its high cash yield, good fundamentals, and discounted valuation. Companies like this can use cash to fuel additional revenue growth, or simply pay their shareholders through dividends or buybacks. Either move makes them attractive to the market What Is Happening With QCOM QCOM stock is currently trading at P/S (Price-to-Sales) ratio th...
Qualcomm (QCOM) could be a good pick for your portfolio, with its high cash yield, good fundamentals, and discounted valuation. Companies like this can use cash to fuel additional revenue growth, or simply pay their shareholders through dividends or buybacks. Either move makes them attractive to the market What Is Happening With QCOM QCOM stock is currently trading at P/S (Price-to-Sales) ratio that is at a meaningful discount to its 3-month and 2-year highs, and also below its 3-year average. The stock may not reflect it yet, but here is what’s going well for the company. Qualcomm’s Q1 FY2026 saw record automotive and IoT revenues, with automotive exceeding $1.1 billion for the second consecutive quarter, driven by Snapdragon Digital Chassis demand. Recent CES 2026 announcements included Leapmotor adopting dual Snapdragon Elite chips for unified vehicle compute. At MWC 2026, the new Snapdragon Wear Elite gained design wins from Samsung and Google for next-gen AI wearables, underscoring diversification into personal AI devices and robust market traction beyond traditional handsets. QCOM Has Good Fundamentals Good Cash Yield : Not many stocks offer free cash flow yield of 9.3%, but Qualcomm stock does : Not many stocks offer free cash flow yield of 9.3%, but Qualcomm stock does Strong Margin : Last 12 month operating margin of 27.2% : Last 12 month operating margin of 27.2% Growth : Last 12 revenue growth of 10.3% – low growth, but this selection is all about high yield and margin : Last 12 revenue growth of 10.3% – low growth, but this selection is all about high yield and margin Valuation: QCOM stock currently trading at 41% below 2Y high, 11% below 1M high, and at a PS lower than 3Y average. Below is a quick comparison of QCOM fundamentals with S&P medians. QCOM S&P Median Sector Information Technology – Industry Semiconductors – Free Cash Flow Yield 9.3% 4.3% Revenue Growth LTM 10.3% 6.6% Revenue Growth 3YAVG 2.3% 5.5% Operating Margin LTM 27.2% 18.7% Operating M...
Berlin Youth Center Hid Girl's Gang-Rape By The Usual Suspects To Avoid 'Typical Muslim' Label Via Remix News, A Turkish-Kurdish schoolgirl is said to have been groped by nine boys of Arab descent in the back room of a Berlin youth center in Gropiusstadt, Neukölln. It then came out that she was raped in November, in the youth center garden. A scandal has erupted after it was reported that the yout...
Berlin Youth Center Hid Girl's Gang-Rape By The Usual Suspects To Avoid 'Typical Muslim' Label Via Remix News, A Turkish-Kurdish schoolgirl is said to have been groped by nine boys of Arab descent in the back room of a Berlin youth center in Gropiusstadt, Neukölln. It then came out that she was raped in November, in the youth center garden. A scandal has erupted after it was reported that the youth center staff did not file a police report, reportedly out of fear that the suspects would be labeled as the “typical Muslims.” For months, there were already troubling reports from Berlin youth center in the multicultural neighborhood of Neukölln: involving unwanted embraces, girls having their breasts and buttocks touched without consent, and being pulled onto boys’ laps. All of these incidents were allegedly happening in plain sight of staff. Then, in January, the incident involving the mass groping of the Turkish-Kurdish victim occured by the nine boys, with each one taking turns molesting her while one boy stood guard in the doorway. They only stopped when a staff member walked in. Three days later, the girl admitted to staff something worse had happened to her. She had already been raped in November — in the youth center’s garden, in the evening. Afterwards, she crouched in a corner for hours. When she finally tried to leave the area, the entire area was locked. She had to climb over the fence to get out, breaking her ankle in the process. The assault had also been filmed. The boy, known by the nickname Medi, 17, allegedly used the footage as a weapon. “I want to see you here every Monday, or I’ll send this to your parents.” Once word of the video spread, other boys in the group began taunting her: “You’re letting yourself be screwed.” They also wanted the girl to introduce them to her 14-year-old sister. A cover-up because the suspects were Muslim? Now, the youth center is in the crosshairs for its unbelievable response. Reportedly, instead of going to the authoriti...
Reflexpixel/iStock via Getty Images Korea Electric Power Corporation ( KEP ) could be entering a phase of positive changes to take advantage of its energy potential. It is the main state utilities company in South Korea, with 848 units of generation, and an installed capacity of 85.4 GW. According to the IEA, the country consumes annually 600 TWh and possesses a total installed capacity of between...
Reflexpixel/iStock via Getty Images Korea Electric Power Corporation ( KEP ) could be entering a phase of positive changes to take advantage of its energy potential. It is the main state utilities company in South Korea, with 848 units of generation, and an installed capacity of 85.4 GW. According to the IEA, the country consumes annually 600 TWh and possesses a total installed capacity of between 130 and 140 GW, hence KEP's weight is very important The government is proposing an energy reform to boost renewable sources by 2030 and to phase out coal. What I liked the most about that proposal is that it will maintain the adoption of nuclear energy , which represents almost 33% of the company's generation. This seems to me to be a contribution that will become increasingly important for the future given the resurgence of nuclear energy in the U.S. Korea shares that view with the policies of President Trump and it could take advantage of the SMR (Small Modular Reactors) projects. IEA The energy transition is only one of the catalysts I'm looking at in KEP. The other two important factors are the update of electricity prices in Korea, the boom of AI data centers, and the high demand for semiconductors. AI is already generating record exports for 2026. The Kobeissi Letter Furthermore, after the recent KOSPI fall due to the Middle East tensions, I believe it is a very good entry opportunity. Not in tech companies themselves, but in a company that is the energy source for those tech companies, such as KEP. I will also assess the risks of a possible escalation of tensions in the Middle East and its effects on rising oil prices. But I'm thinking of a long term investment. Before the conflict in Iran, I calculated a crude oil overstock on a global level, and I maintain that perspective. I believe that geopolitical events pass, and the solid investment thesis in the long term stays. That's why I see solid fundamentals in KEP, a company that's connected more than it seems, to t...