German defence minister responds to US president’s announcement that 5,000 US troops will leave bases in Germany Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said that it was “foreseeable” that the US would withdraw troops from Europe , after the Pentagon announced it would pull thousands of American soldiers from Germany. Trump...
German defence minister responds to US president’s announcement that 5,000 US troops will leave bases in Germany Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said that it was “foreseeable” that the US would withdraw troops from Europe , after the Pentagon announced it would pull thousands of American soldiers from Germany. Trump said he is “not satisfied” with a new proposal from Iran on ending the war, as peace talks remain stalled despite a weeks-long ceasefire. Iran delivered the proposal text to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, Iranian state news agency Irna reported, without detailing its contents. The US state department said it was approving military sales totalling more than $8.6bn to Middle Eastern allies Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. It came as Washington warned European allies including the UK, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia to expect long delivery delays for US weapons as it scrambles to replenish stockpiles depleted by the Iran war, according to a report in the Fianancial Times citing multiple sources. In Lebanon, 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the south, Lebanon’s health ministry said, including in the town of Habboush, where the Israeli army had issued an evacuation order despite the continuing ceasefire. Israeli warplanes “launched a series of heavy strikes … less than an hour after” the warning, the state-run National News Agency said. The US Treasury Office warned that any shipping companies that paid tolls to Iran for passage through the strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, would risk punitive sanctions. Tehran has proposed charging fees on vessels passing through the strait, as part of a deal to end the war. Trump wrote to US lawmakers on Friday declaring hostilities with Iran “terminated” , despite no change in the US military posture, as he faces continuing pressure ...
Her philosophical approach to therapy has become a global phenomenon, and inspired a new book. Could a session with her change Sophie McBain’s life? The existential therapist Emmy van Deurzen moved to the UK inspired by RD Laing, the Scottish anti-psychiatrist who said insanity is a “perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world”. It was 1977 and Van Deurzen, who is Dutch and had studied philos...
Her philosophical approach to therapy has become a global phenomenon, and inspired a new book. Could a session with her change Sophie McBain’s life? The existential therapist Emmy van Deurzen moved to the UK inspired by RD Laing, the Scottish anti-psychiatrist who said insanity is a “perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world”. It was 1977 and Van Deurzen, who is Dutch and had studied philosophy and psychology in France, found work with the Arbours Association in London, a therapeutic community based on Laing’s ideas, in which people in crisis, psychiatrists and therapists lived together as equals. It was a rude awakening. Arbours aimed to create space for people to “explore their madness”. “Now that was a very interesting idea,” Van Duerzen says, “but in practice it meant that people self-medicated, with alcohol and pot, and it was not a happy situation.” The residents were often very depressed or psychotic, and it was common to be woken up at night because someone was seeing things or had become suicidal. Van Deurzen came to believe that anti-psychiatry had “lost courage”: it had proposed a different way of thinking about madness, but having released people from asylums and taken them off neuroleptic drugs, it was “kind of leaving them to it”. “And this is what I realised wasn’t good enough,” she says. When people are experiencing a mental health crisis, they need help to make sense of what has happened to them, and to find their way to healing. “From that moment on I just knew: nobody’s doing this. I’m going to have to do it myself,” she says. Continue reading...
As a Mast of Fraternity and Memory is unveiled in Nantes, calls are growing for Macron to announce framework for discussions In the French port city of Nantes, once France ’s largest departure point for ships that trafficked enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, a new wooden mast rises 18 metres into the sky from the waterside. The Mast of Fraternity and Memory , inaugurated this month, marks a t...
As a Mast of Fraternity and Memory is unveiled in Nantes, calls are growing for Macron to announce framework for discussions In the French port city of Nantes, once France ’s largest departure point for ships that trafficked enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, a new wooden mast rises 18 metres into the sky from the waterside. The Mast of Fraternity and Memory , inaugurated this month, marks a turning point in France’s complicated relationship with the legacy of its history of enslavement – just as the French president, Emmanuel Macron , comes under pressure to make key announcements on a process of reparatory justice. Continue reading...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Two years ago, Citadel's Ken Griffin paid almost $45 million for a stegosaurus skeleton, making it the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. So why are dinosaur bones joining the collections of millionaires instead of museums? How does the private market for fossils actual...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Two years ago, Citadel's Ken Griffin paid almost $45 million for a stegosaurus skeleton, making it the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. So why are dinosaur bones joining the collections of millionaires instead of museums? How does the private market for fossils actually work? And how similar is it to the market for art and other antiquities? In this episode, we speak with Salomon Aaron, a director at London-based gallery David Aaron, where he is the gallery's in-house broker for dinosaur fossils. We talk about how fossils are found and priced, what it's like to work alongside dinosaur hunters, how his gallery identifies potential buyers, and why Joe thinks something about the birds-to-dinosaurs evolutionary pipeline is off.
A celebrity cat in China which died following a medical blunder has prompted the hospital involved to offer compensation and provide free sterilisation for stray cats. The feline’s owner, Deng Feng, a Shenzhen-based cattery operator and pet influencer with 5 million social media followers, breeds rare-coloured British Longhair and Shorthair cats. Since 2017, his cattery, GoldenTales, has produced ...
A celebrity cat in China which died following a medical blunder has prompted the hospital involved to offer compensation and provide free sterilisation for stray cats. The feline’s owner, Deng Feng, a Shenzhen-based cattery operator and pet influencer with 5 million social media followers, breeds rare-coloured British Longhair and Shorthair cats. Since 2017, his cattery, GoldenTales, has produced world-champion felines. In 2024, Deng donated three million yuan (US$440,000) to a fund for rescuing...
Two years ago, Citadel’s Ken Griffin paid almost $45 million or a stegosaurus skeleton, making it the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. So why are dinosaur bones joining the collections of millionaires instead of museums? How does the private market for fossils actually work? And how similar is it to the market for art and other antiquities? In this episode, we speak with Salomon Aaron, ...
Two years ago, Citadel’s Ken Griffin paid almost $45 million or a stegosaurus skeleton, making it the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction. So why are dinosaur bones joining the collections of millionaires instead of museums? How does the private market for fossils actually work? And how similar is it to the market for art and other antiquities? In this episode, we speak with Salomon Aaron, a director at London-based gallery David Aaron, where he is the gallery’s in-house broker for dinosa
A friend asked me recently what the fuss was about stablecoins. After all, he said, aren't they just like using online banking or mobile phone payments, but with less regulation? From a consumer point of view, he has a point. A customer can swipe a card to make an immediate purchase without being affected by settlement times or transaction fees, which merchants often pay and tack on to prices. The...
A friend asked me recently what the fuss was about stablecoins. After all, he said, aren't they just like using online banking or mobile phone payments, but with less regulation? From a consumer point of view, he has a point. A customer can swipe a card to make an immediate purchase without being affected by settlement times or transaction fees, which merchants often pay and tack on to prices. The appeal of stablecoins -- blockchain versions of traditional currencies -- is that they offer lower transaction costs and faster payment settlement, reducing the behind-the-scenes friction in payments. According to research from The Motley Fool , it can take days for a debit or credit card transaction to fully settle -- the point where it is finalized, and the seller receives the money. Blockchains can do it in minutes. The biggest benefit of stablecoins for today's consumers is that they reduce the costs of global money transfers, which currently average 6.5% of the transfer amount. Even so, my friend was missing the bigger picture. If stablecoins become the default way to pay for goods and services, it would be similar to the shift from cash to credit cards. We're talking about a change in the world's financial plumbing. Continue reading
Inspired by the Rhodes Scholar program, Schwarzman's philanthropic initiative brings students in their early-to-mid-20s to spend a year immersed in understanding how China works.
Inspired by the Rhodes Scholar program, Schwarzman's philanthropic initiative brings students in their early-to-mid-20s to spend a year immersed in understanding how China works.
Japan and South Korea are closing ranks as they prepare for high-level meetings aimed at steadying ties amid growing regional volatility, with analysts saying the diplomatic push reflects shared concern over China, North Korea and the reliability of US commitments under President Donald Trump. Both countries appear willing to put past differences aside, at least for now, as they confront an assert...
Japan and South Korea are closing ranks as they prepare for high-level meetings aimed at steadying ties amid growing regional volatility, with analysts saying the diplomatic push reflects shared concern over China, North Korea and the reliability of US commitments under President Donald Trump. Both countries appear willing to put past differences aside, at least for now, as they confront an assertive China and an unpredictable US administration that has unsettled long-standing allies and...
(RTTNews) - Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) announced it is prepared to assist travelers affected by Spirit Airlines' cessation of operations. Customers holding Spirit reservations can access special Southwest fares at ticket counters located at their departure airport for eligible
(RTTNews) - Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) announced it is prepared to assist travelers affected by Spirit Airlines' cessation of operations. Customers holding Spirit reservations can access special Southwest fares at ticket counters located at their departure airport for eligible
Supatman/iStock via Getty Images The GENIUS Act demonstrates that regulatory clarity can unlock institutional adoption. The CLARITY Act would extend that framework across the entire digital asset market, giving altcoins a defined legal pathway out of securities classification, establishing federal registration regimes for exchanges and custodians, and providing DeFi developers with statutory prote...
Supatman/iStock via Getty Images The GENIUS Act demonstrates that regulatory clarity can unlock institutional adoption. The CLARITY Act would extend that framework across the entire digital asset market, giving altcoins a defined legal pathway out of securities classification, establishing federal registration regimes for exchanges and custodians, and providing DeFi developers with statutory protections for the first time. For the first time, altcoin projects have a defined legal pathway to transition from SEC-regulated security to CFTC-regulated commodity, replacing enforcement-driven classification with a replicable, criteria-based process. The Act will give protocol developers, node operators, and infrastructure builders a defined legal perimeter, the condition that institutional capital requires before committing to DeFi-adjacent tokenization and settlement infrastructure at scale. Passage in 2026 is roughly 60%; five unresolved issues, stablecoin yield, DeFi developer protections, SEC flexibility, ethics provisions, and commissioner nominations, must each be settled on a tight legislative calendar. Stablecoins as Proof of Regulatory Impact The GENIUS Act established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. Before the Act, the U.S. had only fragmented state-level rules and ongoing regulatory uncertainty, which limited institutional participation and kept many banks/fintechs on the sidelines. The post-enactment market response has been measurable. Total stablecoin market capitalization stood near $260 billion at the time of signing in July 2025 and reached approximately $321 billion by April 21, 2026. Banks and fintechs began exploring or announcing their own stablecoin issuances and tokenized deposit programs. Major issuers like Circle saw USDC gain ground. Cross-border payments and real-world asset (RWA) use cases accelerated as TradFi confidence rose. The GENIUS Act demonstrates what targeted regulatory clarity produces in a single asset...