The US president will arrive with tech leaders including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, with trade, AI and Taiwan all set to be discussed Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade, as he seeks to mend power and prestige weakened by the war in Iran. Trump will bring tech leaders, including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of...
The US president will arrive with tech leaders including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, with trade, AI and Taiwan all set to be discussed Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade, as he seeks to mend power and prestige weakened by the war in Iran. Trump will bring tech leaders, including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, and plans for headline-grabbing deals. He has said he expects China’s leader, Xi Jinping, would “give me a big, fat hug when I get there”. Continue reading...
Remember those devastating learning losses that began during the pandemic? Turns out, they began years before COVID-19. Some states are finally turning things around.
Remember those devastating learning losses that began during the pandemic? Turns out, they began years before COVID-19. Some states are finally turning things around.
As the market indexes hover near all-time highs, investors appear optimistic, as stocks tied to areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) continue moving higher. Nonetheless, such moves may worry long-term investors. The Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio , which averages earnings over a 10-year period adjusted for inflation, is now at around 42. The only other time it reached that level was d...
As the market indexes hover near all-time highs, investors appear optimistic, as stocks tied to areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) continue moving higher. Nonetheless, such moves may worry long-term investors. The Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio , which averages earnings over a 10-year period adjusted for inflation, is now at around 42. The only other time it reached that level was during the dot-com boom, and as many long-term investors know, that gave way to a dot-com bust. That history has me concerned. Although I'm not giving up on the stock market, I'm making three moves that I think will protect me should the worst happen. Continue reading
Rather than bribery, or hiding carrots under ketchup, the key may be to expose foetuses to healthy flavours It is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables. Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli . Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt a...
Rather than bribery, or hiding carrots under ketchup, the key may be to expose foetuses to healthy flavours It is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables. Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli . Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt and call it icecream . Or resort to plain bribery. Continue reading...
They just want to help children safely across the road on their way to and from school. Yet lollipop people are having to wear body cameras after an increase in abusive and dangerous drivers. How did things get so out of hand? There aren’t many jobs that often involve jumping out of the path of speeding cars – but for the lollipop people of Britain today, this is the sad reality. And it doesn’t st...
They just want to help children safely across the road on their way to and from school. Yet lollipop people are having to wear body cameras after an increase in abusive and dangerous drivers. How did things get so out of hand? There aren’t many jobs that often involve jumping out of the path of speeding cars – but for the lollipop people of Britain today, this is the sad reality. And it doesn’t stop there: aggression, swearing and middle fingers are just a few examples of the intimidation and abuse they face on our roads. “Oh my God, I mean, abuse of lollipop people? What has the world come to?” says Lynne Gorrara. It’s a crisp, sunny afternoon in Ipswich and the 61-year-old is holding a towering stop sign above her head, clearing a crossing for a stream of schoolchildren. This spot – on a narrow residential road, with a hospital in one direction and shops in the other – is notorious for abusive drivers. Continue reading...
When she broke through the glass ceiling and became chancellor, Reeves found her office had its own latrine. Rosie Holt reveals why she turned the story into a play called Churchill’s Urinal Britain is a conservative country, we are repeatedly told. So when Labour came into government, and Rachel Reeves became the UK’s first ever female chancellor of the exchequer, there were barriers to making ch...
When she broke through the glass ceiling and became chancellor, Reeves found her office had its own latrine. Rosie Holt reveals why she turned the story into a play called Churchill’s Urinal Britain is a conservative country, we are repeatedly told. So when Labour came into government, and Rachel Reeves became the UK’s first ever female chancellor of the exchequer, there were barriers to making change. The most striking, reports the satirist Rosie Holt, was to be found in the toilet of Reeves’ office in Westminster. “There was a urinal in No 11,” says Holt. “And Reeves told an interviewer, ‘I’m going to break glass ceilings and urinals.’ She was setting up getting rid of this urinal as a symbolic win. I thought that was funny and interesting.” But things did not go according to plan. “She couldn’t get it removed, not only because the building was listed, but because the urinal was an object of historical significance. It had been pissed in by various chancellors – including Winston Churchill.” For Holt – standup, online character comic but also a lapsed theatre-maker – this story was irresistible. On last year’s fringe, she workshopped a new play making antic political farce out of Reeves’ battle with a historic pissoir. One year on, Churchill’s Urinal – written by and starring Holt with contributions from her ex-partner, the comedian Stewart Lee – has its London premiere. Continue reading...
Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissent When Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the rest...
Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissent When Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials. Continue reading...
The festival is a celebration of cinema and a frantic trade show all at once. After 25 years, I can’t help but go back Nothing prepares you for the shock that is the Cannes film festival: the adrenaline, the fatigue, the elation and the emotion, but also the hunger, the anger, the magic and the ridicule. For young cinephiles, and for almost everybody who works in the film industry, it is the mecca...
The festival is a celebration of cinema and a frantic trade show all at once. After 25 years, I can’t help but go back Nothing prepares you for the shock that is the Cannes film festival: the adrenaline, the fatigue, the elation and the emotion, but also the hunger, the anger, the magic and the ridicule. For young cinephiles, and for almost everybody who works in the film industry, it is the mecca of cinema and has been so for nearly eight decades. Anyone going for the first time this week, as I did 25 years ago, should not listen to the old grognards – Cannes’ battle-worn veterans – who will lament that the festival has become an abominable circus and swear this year will be their last. It is a circus, and you can bet they will be back for as long as their knees can take it. For there is nothing quite like it. Born to counteract Benito Mussolini’s Venice film festival, its first edition was planned for September 1939, but Adolf Hitler had other plans. The previous year, under pressure from Berlin and Rome, the Venice film festival’s top prize, the Coppa Mussolini, was handed to Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Olympia , prompting the French, British and American delegates to walk out. Hence Cannes, conceived as the festival of the “free world”. More than 80 years later, for all its sins, it has remained faithful to that founding promise. Agnès Poirier is a political commentator, writer and critic for the British, American and European press Continue reading...
Soapy, spicy and incredibly moreish, there’s a new hockey romance in town and I love it. Move over, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie! Off Campus is, in all senses, a straight copy of Heated Rivalry. The latter was based on the wildly popular gay romance novel series by Rachel Reid. The former is an adaptation of the wildly popular heterosexual romance novel series by Elle Kennedy. It’s a slick, ...
Soapy, spicy and incredibly moreish, there’s a new hockey romance in town and I love it. Move over, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie! Off Campus is, in all senses, a straight copy of Heated Rivalry. The latter was based on the wildly popular gay romance novel series by Rachel Reid. The former is an adaptation of the wildly popular heterosexual romance novel series by Elle Kennedy. It’s a slick, soapy, spicy load of fun set in the world of hot twentysomething hockey-playing college students instead of pro-hockey teams and their hot twentysomething rising stars. I can recommend it to all who appreciate hot twentysomethings, bums, boobs, hockey (though as with Heated Rivalry there’s only a bit of that and mostly to get them naked in the showers again) and perfectly made trash TV. Sit back with your beverage of choice, turn off your brain and relax. As with its progenitor-competitor, Off Campus knows exactly what it’s doing, where it’s going and why – and so do you. It is deeply soothing and incredibly moreish. First protagonist up is Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), captain of the Briar University hockey team and son of a hockey legend, Phil Graham (Steve Howey). He appears to have it all – but does he? He has his quota of sex but refuses to let anyone become his girlfriend. Is he a playa as opposed to a player, simply being fair to them as he claims, because his heart belongs to hockey, or could there be a deeper reason for his emotional unavailability? Is it to do with his mother, who died from cancer years ago? What are we to make of the hostility he has towards his father? Or the flashbacks to a childhood full of raised voices and bruised knuckles? Hmm. Maybe he’ll have another shower while we ponder. What a handsome – I mean complicated – young man. Continue reading...
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2020: Travel bloggers have flocked to Pakistan in recent years – but have some of them become too close to the authorities? By Samira Shackle. Read by Lucy Scott Continue reading...
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2020: Travel bloggers have flocked to Pakistan in recent years – but have some of them become too close to the authorities? By Samira Shackle. Read by Lucy Scott Continue reading...
System in ‘deep crisis’ six months after documentary exposed alleged network used to delay graft convictions The courtroom was silent but tense, the whir of camera lenses the only sound as dozens of journalists fixed their eyes on the bench. An extraordinary press conference had been called after the airing of a documentary late last year that claimed the top of Romania’s justice system was riddle...
System in ‘deep crisis’ six months after documentary exposed alleged network used to delay graft convictions The courtroom was silent but tense, the whir of camera lenses the only sound as dozens of journalists fixed their eyes on the bench. An extraordinary press conference had been called after the airing of a documentary late last year that claimed the top of Romania’s justice system was riddled with corruption. Seated at the bench at the Bucharest court of appeal was its president, Liana Arsenie, flanked by her two vice-presidents. Behind them, in support, stood about 30 judges. Continue reading...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: US inflation is rising, and not just because of gasoline prices . That drove a brief reversal of momentum in US stocks . Xi holds some cards as he prepares for his summit with Trump. Starmer is still UK prime minister as 30-year gilt yields hit a 28-year high . AND: It could be much worse — like Britai...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: US inflation is rising, and not just because of gasoline prices . That drove a brief reversal of momentum in US stocks . Xi holds some cards as he prepares for his summit with Trump. Starmer is still UK prime minister as 30-year gilt yields hit a 28-year high . AND: It could be much worse — like Britain in 1975... Too Hot US inflation is too hot for comfort. The numbers for April reveal that the headline rise in consumer prices reached 3.8%, continuing an upward trend that started before the Iran war and well above the Federal Reserve’s upper band target of 3%. Overall inflation hasn’t been this high in three years: The greatest problem is, of course, the spike in energy prices driven by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. Energy prices are always erratic and there is little monetary policy can do to control them, which is why central banks tend to look at core inflation, excluding both food and fuel. Merely removing energy is enough to bring inflation down to 2.8%. CPI minus energy looks far more contained than it did at the worst of the post-pandemic spike: However, inflation excluding energy is still rising, while an array of other statistical measures of core price increases are also turning upward. Even if fuel prices are ignored (something that people in the real world aren’t able to do), the median and the trimmed mean (in which the outlying components are excluded and an average taken of the rest) are rising. Sticky prices, which take time to move and are hard to reduce, have ticked back up above 3%, while the Fed’s so-called “Supercore” (services inflation minus shelter) rose sharply. There is more to this than the first-order effects from the oil shock: The really bad political news is on affordability . Prices can rise without making life less affordable if wages rise faster, which is what usually happens. But last month, consumer prices rose faster than ave...
Chinese satellite imagery firm MizarVision, which rose to fame with its analysis of American military deployments in the US-Israel war on Iran, is treating its addition to the US sanctions list as a badge of honour in its hiring campaign. The open-source intelligence (OSINT) start-up, formally known as Meentropy Technology Hangzhou Co Ltd, specialises in analysing data from commercial satellites a...
Chinese satellite imagery firm MizarVision, which rose to fame with its analysis of American military deployments in the US-Israel war on Iran, is treating its addition to the US sanctions list as a badge of honour in its hiring campaign. The open-source intelligence (OSINT) start-up, formally known as Meentropy Technology Hangzhou Co Ltd, specialises in analysing data from commercial satellites and has conducted several observations of US military movements in recent months. It was added to the...
kyoshino/E+ via Getty Images 7:00 AM MBA Mortgage Applications The Mortgage Bankers' Association compiles various mortgage loan indexes. The purchase applications index measures applications at mortgage lenders. 8:30 AM PPI-Final Demand The Producer Price Index ( PPI ) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a family of indexes that measures the average change over time in the prices received b...
kyoshino/E+ via Getty Images 7:00 AM MBA Mortgage Applications The Mortgage Bankers' Association compiles various mortgage loan indexes. The purchase applications index measures applications at mortgage lenders. 8:30 AM PPI-Final Demand The Producer Price Index ( PPI ) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a family of indexes that measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. PPI-FD is seeing energy price effects with a big 0.5 percent rise expected in the month and a whopping 4.8 percent in the year. 10:30 AM EIA Petroleum Status Report The Energy Information Administration (EIA) provides weekly information on petroleum inventories in the U.S., whether produced here or abroad. 11:30 AM Susan Collins Speaks Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Susan Collins delivers remarks and participates in a fireside chat before the Boston Economic Club. 1:00 PM 30-Yr Bond Auction Treasury notes are sold at regularly scheduled public auctions. The competitive bids at these auctions determine the interest rate paid on each Treasury note issue. 1:15 PM Neel Kashkari Speaks Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari participates in a moderated discussion hosted by the St. Paul Area Chamber. 7:00 PM Lorie Logan Speaks Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Lorie Logan participates in a moderated conversation on the energy sector before a "Global Perspectives" event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the Dallas Citizens Council. More on U.S. Markets Higher Inflation Is Becoming Baked Into Expectations U.S. Bonds Hit 5%: Mayday Latest Middle East Turmoil Revives Inflation Worries Fed funds futures turn more hawkish after hot CPI report Tuesday’s Economic Calendar
Europe’s reliance on natural gas from the US is expected to surge to a record this year as the country helps offset supplies lost from the Middle East, according to an energy think tank. Europe may get two-thirds of its liquefied natural gas from the US, a larger share than ever before, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a report. America might even leapfrog Norway, ...
Europe’s reliance on natural gas from the US is expected to surge to a record this year as the country helps offset supplies lost from the Middle East, according to an energy think tank. Europe may get two-thirds of its liquefied natural gas from the US, a larger share than ever before, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a report. America might even leapfrog Norway, currently Europe’s biggest piped-gas supplier, in terms of total gas share. In the years since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has sought to diversify its sources of gas to avoid heavy dependence on one single supplier. Seaborne deliveries of American LNG have proven a crucial replacement for piped flows from Russia, but some European officials have warned that the continent risks swapping one over-reliance for another. Increased exposure to the volatile global LNG market also leaves the EU vulnerable to soaring prices at times of geopolitical turmoil, such as during the current war in Iran. “LNG has become the Achilles’ heel of Europe’s energy-security strategy, leaving the continent exposed to high gas prices and to new forms of supply disruption,” said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz , lead energy analyst for Europe at IEEFA. Norway became Europe’s largest piped-gas provider after Russian flows dwindled amid the war in Ukraine. But Norwegian supply is largely maxed out, while growth in the US continues. Norway accounted for 30% of the EU’s total gas imports in the first quarter, while the US was hot on its heels at 29%. Overall gas supplies from the US to the EU could exceed those from Norway if Qatari LNG producers face a prolonged outage from the Iran war, Jaller-Makarewicz said. Last year, the US accounted for about 58% of all LNG imports into the EU, the UK and Turkey, and that share increased to 63% in the first quarter of this year, according to IEEFA. The EU alone may source 80% of its LNG imports from the US by 2028, the report showed. Russia al...
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