Inclusion of first Black woman in US to write a symphony in Vienna’s New Year’s Day Concert was a long overdue recognition. But how much of her music was actually played? The first of January feels a long time ago. But barely 10 weeks have passed since conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought in 2026 with the Vienna Philharmonic in its New Year’s Day Concert. On the programme was one piece which sym...
Inclusion of first Black woman in US to write a symphony in Vienna’s New Year’s Day Concert was a long overdue recognition. But how much of her music was actually played? The first of January feels a long time ago. But barely 10 weeks have passed since conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought in 2026 with the Vienna Philharmonic in its New Year’s Day Concert. On the programme was one piece which symbolised that even this ultra-traditionalist event was beginning to open up its repertoire. Instead of the Strauss and more Strauss that has defined the New Year’s Day programmes for many decades, there was music by Florence Price on the lineup. Price is a composer Nézet-Séguin has done more to champion than any other conductor of a major US orchestra, putting music by the first Black woman in the US to write a symphony at the centre of his discography. Yet the Rainbow Waltz that is credited to Price on Sony’s album of the concert isn’t actually a piece by Price. Wolfgang Dörner’s supposed “arrangement” of Price’s original music for solo piano has been called by the Price expert John Michael Cooper – who has edited and published more of Price’s work than any other musicologist – the “sincerest form of insult” to Price and her music, labelling the work a “forgery”. Continue reading...
Climate aid to developing countries from the UK will be cut by about 14% to roughly £2bn a year under government plans, in a move critics said would put national security and lives overseas at risk. The move follows bitter rows with the Treasury, which wanted deeper cuts owing to pressure on spending resulting from the war in Iran. Overall, the UK’s aid budget was slashed to 0.3% of gross national...
Climate aid to developing countries from the UK will be cut by about 14% to roughly £2bn a year under government plans, in a move critics said would put national security and lives overseas at risk. The move follows bitter rows with the Treasury, which wanted deeper cuts owing to pressure on spending resulting from the war in Iran. Overall, the UK’s aid budget was slashed to 0.3% of gross national income, with programmes on health, education and humanitarian assistance all facing the axe. Climate spending will be “around” £6bn over three years, the government said before the announcement on Thursday. But experts told the Guardian this was likely to mean less than £6bn, rather than more. Under the previous five-year arrangement, the UK provided £11.6bn over five years, or about £2.3bn a year. The previous earmark of £3bn in funding for nature and forest projects has also been scrapped. The climate funding pledge abandons the previous practice of setting five-year budgets, to allow for longer-term projects of the kind that experts said were more efficient. The Guardian understands the Treasury was arguing in key meetings last weekend that the overall aid budget should be slashed even further than the cuts, announced last year and only now being fully implemented, from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income. The Treasury argued that more money was needed for defence and to shore up the economy because of the war in Iran. View image in fullscreen UK-supplied temporary shelters for Yazidi people displaced from their homes by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, 2023. ‘Responding to desperate humanitarian crises’ was central to Britain’s interests, said Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary. Photograph: Eddie Gerald/Alamy Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said: “At a time when conflict is raging in many parts of the world, we will maintain and protect our support to people in Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine and Lebanon, and match this with diplomatic action to prevent an...
The advent of the steam age ushered in a great social revolution, but as Maciej Drygas’s film points out, the technology also took us off the rails Like Koyaanisqatsi with an Interrail pass, this often-fascinating documentary – constructed entirely of archival footage, with no voiceover – surveys the sweeping 20th-century changes ushered in by steam trains: a great acceleration of modern society t...
The advent of the steam age ushered in a great social revolution, but as Maciej Drygas’s film points out, the technology also took us off the rails Like Koyaanisqatsi with an Interrail pass, this often-fascinating documentary – constructed entirely of archival footage, with no voiceover – surveys the sweeping 20th-century changes ushered in by steam trains: a great acceleration of modern society that transformed logistics and leisure, from travel for the masses to war mobilisation, introducing new consumer opportunities and abrupt psychocultural disruptions. As per the 1920s flappers gazing brightly out of the window early on, director Maciej Drygas acknowledges the liberation and optimism offered by the locomotive. But prefaced by a Kafka quote – “There is plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope … But not for us” – his proposition seems to be that the technology led us quickly off the rails. The glowering initial sequence, of a steam engine being assembled, is like watching ancient cultists assemble a great Molochian idol. All too soon, newly forged shell casings, to be fired from railroad howitzers, give off unholy light in the black-and-white footage. Full speed to hell. Continue reading...
At first, and without the context, someone looking at this collection of 150-year-old photographs of Indian men and women might think they were looking at compelling portraits. The faces are of individuals with piercing eyes and a striking presence. But context changes everything. The images were taken by British colonialists as part of a great project of photographic ethnography, intended to clas...
At first, and without the context, someone looking at this collection of 150-year-old photographs of Indian men and women might think they were looking at compelling portraits. The faces are of individuals with piercing eyes and a striking presence. But context changes everything. The images were taken by British colonialists as part of a great project of photographic ethnography, intended to classify and categorise their subjects. They are the opposite of celebrating individuals. And Indians visiting an exhibition at Delhi art gallery (DAG), that accompanied the release of the book Typecasting: Photographing the Peoples of India 1855-1920, are able to see how the British enlisted photography as a tool to further the imperial project. View image in fullscreen Untitled (Indian family in Singapore), late-19th century, GR Lambert & Co Even before photography came along, surviving records of censuses and surveys show how zealous the British had been about the documentation and classification of the people in the countries they occupied. But with the advent of photography In the subcontinent, they undertook a large-scale project called the People of India 1868-1875 took this to another level. Its intention, argues the book, was to classify its subjects as “generic types”, the better to understand their motivations, personality traits, and customs in order to more effectively exert control. The project included the work of British photographers such as Benjamin Simpson and James Waterhouse, along with Indian commercial photographers. View image in fullscreen Untitled (Native Man from Chotanagpur drawing Bow and Arrow), 1861-62, Willoughby Wallace Hooper More than 160 of the surviving photographs which have been compiled for the book supplemented the meticulous record keeping, censuses and surveys that remain of this era of British rule. The sitters have no names. The captions speak of “ethnic specimens”: water carriers, aboriginals, manure dryers, “coolies”, snake charmer...
LGBTQ+ rights in Europe are caught in a “chill wind” from east and west as Vladimir Putin’s Russia exports its conservative agenda and the “Americans are off the pitch” under Donald Trump, Ireland’s former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Varadkar, who in 2017 became Ireland’s first out gay prime minister, said Europe needed to “step up” to avoid the continent becoming further squeezed by global f...
LGBTQ+ rights in Europe are caught in a “chill wind” from east and west as Vladimir Putin’s Russia exports its conservative agenda and the “Americans are off the pitch” under Donald Trump, Ireland’s former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Varadkar, who in 2017 became Ireland’s first out gay prime minister, said Europe needed to “step up” to avoid the continent becoming further squeezed by global forces seeking to chip away at recent progress. “I’m afraid of where things are going,” he said. “Europe is still the light when it comes to human rights and democracy and freedom of expression, given what else is going on in the world – but it’s a flickering light.” Varadkar, who unexpectedly stepped down in 2024, said his role as a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights had given him a frontline view of global efforts to reshape LGBTQ+ rights. “It’s clear that Russia has decided that this is one of the issues that they’re taking an interest in. Putin has embraced … a particularly conservative form of Christianity, and they’re spreading that message into Europe,” he said. Russia’s efforts had long been countered by the US, particularly in central and eastern Europe, he added. But now, as anti-diversity rhetoric surges across the US, boosted by the introduction of more than 600 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights, Varadkar said he had been told of US corporations pulling back from sponsoring events such as Pride, and US diplomats declining to attend events once a mainstay on their calendars. “So in many ways they had a kind of liberal influence from America pushing one way and very conservative forces from Russia pushing the other way. And now the Americans are off the pitch,” he said. “There’s a chill wind coming in from the west as well as from the east – and that’s where Europe is now caught.” View image in fullscreen Varadkar at Belfast Pride in 2019. He has warned that progress in human rights is not guaranteed and can be reversed. Photograph:...
On 16 January, the average rate on a new two-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.78%, according to the financial data company Moneyfacts. Two months later, it was 5.20%. Between those two dates, the Bank of England voted to keep the base rate at 3.75%. More significantly, though, the US and Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran and a conflict broke out. The US air attacks on Iran have caused economic s...
On 16 January, the average rate on a new two-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.78%, according to the financial data company Moneyfacts. Two months later, it was 5.20%. Between those two dates, the Bank of England voted to keep the base rate at 3.75%. More significantly, though, the US and Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran and a conflict broke out. The US air attacks on Iran have caused economic shocks across the world. Stock markets have tumbled, petrol and heating oil prices have gone up and there have been warnings of higher bills to come, for everything from food to holidays. All of this feeds into interest rate expectations, and from there into mortgage rates. Most mortgages are offered on a fixed interest rate – meaning you are guaranteed that, for a set time, you will be charged the same rate. In the UK this will typically be for two, three or five years, and funded by a mixture of money saved in banks and building societies and money that lenders have borrowed on the wholesale markets. This is where swap rates come in. Swaps are a financial instrument used by banks to manage the risks posed by interest rate changes. They involve one bank paying a fixed interest rate to another, in return for that second bank paying it a floating (variable) rate – the first bank “swaps” the risk from a possible rise in interest rates with the second bank. View image in fullscreen Stock market falls feed into interest rate expectations, which affects mortgage rates. Photograph: Bloomberg Creative/Getty Images/Bloomberg Creative Photos To provide the money for mortgages, “lenders use their own funds and also borrow money at variable rates, which comes with risk”, says Adam French, head of consumer finance at Moneyfacts. “They swap the interest rates on these cashflows for a fixed rate … That’s how they manage the risk. They’re not swapping cash; they’re swapping interest rates.” Olly Cheng, senior financial planning director at the wealth management company Rathbones, says that...
Where does it come from, this passion for an animal that isn’t even hers? An astonishing debut delves into deep truths about love, motherhood and care Mare, Emily Haworth-Booth’s wonderful first novel for adults, is about a woman confronting three life-altering crises. The first is an early menopause that means that she can now never have a child. Second, after years of success as a children’s boo...
Where does it come from, this passion for an animal that isn’t even hers? An astonishing debut delves into deep truths about love, motherhood and care Mare, Emily Haworth-Booth’s wonderful first novel for adults, is about a woman confronting three life-altering crises. The first is an early menopause that means that she can now never have a child. Second, after years of success as a children’s book writer, she finds herself bereft of ideas. The third should, by all rights, be the least important: a passion for a horse that isn’t even hers. She pays to ride, feed, groom and muck out for the animal a few times a week. Perverse though it seems, this horse soon becomes the centre of her life: her beloved. In a sense, Mare is about childlessness. It opens with reflections on motherhood: “I knew a mother who said, You want to know what it’s like? Write a list of all the things you love doing and then cross them out, one by one.” But also: “I knew a mother who knew all the other mothers. As she walked through the park … this mother stopped every few strides to be greeted by other mothers, some with buggies, some pregnant. Other mothers stuck to this mother like burrs. Meanwhile I hung by her side, dragged along like a limp kite.” The narrator has decided against having a baby, not for things-you-love-doing reasons, but because the idea of her child’s future in this ailing world terrified her. Considering it, her mind filled with images of “abandoned landscapes hostile to life. Burning cities, flooded cities, desertified meadows.” Continue reading...
Winners of LCE photographer of the year 2026 – in pictures London Camera Exchange has announced the winners of its competition. Nearly 14,500 entries were received, demonstrating the contest’s growing reputation as one of the UK’s leading competitions for photographers of all abilities and experience. The competition has 14 categories including the publicly voted ‘people’s choice’, and ‘emerging t...
Winners of LCE photographer of the year 2026 – in pictures London Camera Exchange has announced the winners of its competition. Nearly 14,500 entries were received, demonstrating the contest’s growing reputation as one of the UK’s leading competitions for photographers of all abilities and experience. The competition has 14 categories including the publicly voted ‘people’s choice’, and ‘emerging talent’ dedicated to photography students
Ski accommodation can be prohibitively expensive, but a cosy youth hostel puts the Montafon resort and its glorious runs within reach for those on a budget ‘Want to come skiing in Austria at half-term?” I asked my 13-year-old son. “It’ll be just like one of those luxury chalet holidays, only we’ll make our own beds, cook our own dinners and carry our gear back to our accommodation ourselves.” Osia...
Ski accommodation can be prohibitively expensive, but a cosy youth hostel puts the Montafon resort and its glorious runs within reach for those on a budget ‘Want to come skiing in Austria at half-term?” I asked my 13-year-old son. “It’ll be just like one of those luxury chalet holidays, only we’ll make our own beds, cook our own dinners and carry our gear back to our accommodation ourselves.” Osian didn’t hear the caveats. “Sounds amazing,” he said, his eyes glazing to a cinematic sweep of white powder and the chance to perfect his 360. For many families, the dream of a catered chalet – and its ready-lit fires, homemade strudels and chauffeured lift shuttles – remains just that. Apartments offer access to the slopes at less vertigo-inducing prices, but they tend to come with a minimum seven-night stay. If you only have a few days to spare, or a budget that won’t stretch to a full week’s lift pass, hotels fill the gap, but then you’re back navigating the moguls of cost. Continue reading...
With U.S. stock futures trading mixed this morning on Thursday, some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are as follows: Check out our premarket coverage here Photo via Shutterstock
With U.S. stock futures trading mixed this morning on Thursday, some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are as follows: Check out our premarket coverage here Photo via Shutterstock
tugores34/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly review The fund outperformed the Bloomberg Short-Term Government/Corporate Bond Index benchmark for the quarter. Sector allocation, duration, and quality decisions were additive throughout the period, while curve positioning detracted and issue selection had a neutral overall impact on fourth quarter performance. Market review Despite a government shutdo...
tugores34/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly review The fund outperformed the Bloomberg Short-Term Government/Corporate Bond Index benchmark for the quarter. Sector allocation, duration, and quality decisions were additive throughout the period, while curve positioning detracted and issue selection had a neutral overall impact on fourth quarter performance. Market review Despite a government shutdown that created short-term uncertainty and volatility in economic data reporting, available indicators suggest the U.S. economy remained resilient in the fourth quarter of 2025 and grew at roughly its historical trend pace. Growth was driven by solid consumer spending, supported by real income gains, healthy household balance sheets, and limited layoffs. Business investment also remained an important tailwind, with continued strength in artificial intelligence and data center-related capital expenditure helping offset softness in more rate-sensitive areas of the economy. At the same time, the expansion remained uneven, with a K-shaped dynamic evident across both households and industries. Higher-income consumers and technology-intensive sectors continued to benefit from asset-price gains, productivity-enhancing investment, and relatively loose financial conditions, while interest and trade-sensitive industries, along with lower-income households, faced various headwinds, including still-elevated interest rates, tariffs, and the elevated price level. Inflation continued to moderate in the fourth quarter, led by ongoing services disinflation and easing shelter costs, while core goods inflation rose at a gradual pace. Most inflation measures ended the year lower, even as labor market and growth conditions remained healthy. Hiring slowed modestly to just under breakeven levels, and the unemployment rate edged higher but remained low by historical standards. Against this backdrop of improving inflation and a gradually cooling labor market, the Federal Reserve (Fed) continued eas...
BARCELONA, Spain, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, highlighted the progress of its partnership with 3D AI Studio, a next‑generation, AI‑powered 3D content creation platform. Building on a collaboration launched in November 2025, the two companies are co-developing advanced, scalable AI-powere...
BARCELONA, Spain, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, highlighted the progress of its partnership with 3D AI Studio, a next‑generation, AI‑powered 3D content creation platform. Building on a collaboration launched in November 2025, the two companies are co-developing advanced, scalable AI-powered solutions to meet growing global demand for high-quality 3D content from designers, developers, and creators worldwide. Consumers now expect 3D experiences to be fast, reliable, and visually consistent. For 3D AI Studio, ensuring dependable 3D model generation was critical to building user trust and engagement. As a B2C SaaS product, the company faced challenges in handling highly variable demand with sudden usage spikes, while avoiding inconsistent outputs or failed generations—issues that quickly become visible in consumer workflows. The company needed a solution that could deliver production-grade stability and scalability without the cost and complexity of developing and maintaining its own heavy infrastructure. To address these challenges, 3D AI Studio adopted Tencent HY 3D Global as the backbone of its core feature. Powered by Tencent's self-developed generative AI model, HY 3D Global delivers API-based services that enable high-quality generation and processing of 3D models. This solution helps professional creators reduce production costs and accelerate model creation, while also lowering the barrier for everyday users to engage in 3D modeling. By integrating this API, 3D AI Studio gained the reliability, scalability, and speed it needed to deliver a stable, high-performance experience even under fluctuating demand. This allowed the company to allocate more resources to product quality and user experience, accelerate its feature roadmap and avoid the overhead of building and maintaining a full infrastructure stack internally. 3D AI Studio has also benefited from d...
The administrator of Native Instruments Group is nearing a sale of the music technology firm after its private credit lenders shied away from a takeover that could have averted an insolvency filing. Selected bidders for the Berlin-based developer of DJ’ing platforms including Traktor and Kontakt will conduct in-depth due diligence in the coming weeks, according to a statement from provisional inso...
The administrator of Native Instruments Group is nearing a sale of the music technology firm after its private credit lenders shied away from a takeover that could have averted an insolvency filing. Selected bidders for the Berlin-based developer of DJ’ing platforms including Traktor and Kontakt will conduct in-depth due diligence in the coming weeks, according to a statement from provisional insolvency administrator Torsten Martini at law firm Görg. Native Instruments’ private credit lenders Bain Capital Credit LP and Bridgepoint Group Plc had initially been in talks to take over the company as part of a restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter. Nonbank finance firms have become increasingly used to taking the keys of their cash-strapped debtors, betting they will be able to turn around the business with a leaner capital structure. In this instance, however, the private credit funds decided against a takeover, the people said. Native Instruments filed for insolvency in January. Spokespeople for Bain Capital Credit and Bridgepoint declined to comment. A spokesperson for Native Instruments declined to comment beyond a statement from Jan. 29. “A number of strategic investors from the music industry, as well as financial investors, have submitted indicative offers,” according to the administrator’s statement, which also noted 25 million registered users across the company’s product suite. The group’s other brands include mastering software producer iZotope and Plugin Alliance. Post Pandemic The struggles of Native Instruments, a mainstay for both professional and amateur musicians, is another example of the many pandemic-era bets that went awry. Private equity firm Francisco Partners Management LP snapped up the German company in 2021 when hobbyists were flocking to buy controllers, amps and audio-production tools amid enforced lockdowns. But the group’s growth rates proved difficult to sustain following the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, accor...
Ben Snider, Goldman Sachs’ new U.S. equity strategist, is bullish on stocks and corporate earnings. Why he likes solar energy, cybersecurity, and AI infrastructure plays.
Ben Snider, Goldman Sachs’ new U.S. equity strategist, is bullish on stocks and corporate earnings. Why he likes solar energy, cybersecurity, and AI infrastructure plays.