China Construction Bank Corp. (CCB) may appoint an external executive as its dedicated Communist Party committee deputy chief, as China tightens party oversight of the financial sector. The bank is expected to appoint Sun Xiaokun, an executive vice president at the Agricultural Development Bank of China, to the role, people familiar with the matter told Caixin.
China Construction Bank Corp. (CCB) may appoint an external executive as its dedicated Communist Party committee deputy chief, as China tightens party oversight of the financial sector. The bank is expected to appoint Sun Xiaokun, an executive vice president at the Agricultural Development Bank of China, to the role, people familiar with the matter told Caixin.
Despite the US pushing a peace proposal, the war in the Middle East continues unabated . Saudi Arabia intercepted a drone in the east of the country, while a strike targeting Kuwait set ablaze a fuel tank at its main airport. Iranian media said more missiles were fired at Israel. The US sent Iran a 15-point plan , which Pakistan delivered, according to people familiar with the matter. The details ...
Despite the US pushing a peace proposal, the war in the Middle East continues unabated . Saudi Arabia intercepted a drone in the east of the country, while a strike targeting Kuwait set ablaze a fuel tank at its main airport. Iranian media said more missiles were fired at Israel. The US sent Iran a 15-point plan , which Pakistan delivered, according to people familiar with the matter. The details remain unclear, though Donald Trump has publicly signaled that any peace agreement would have to include a prohibition on Iran ever obtaining a nuclear weapon or enriching radioactive material for civilian purposes. It’s not known if Israel, which triggered the war alongside the US with strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, has signed off on Trump’s overtures. Israeli officials have said they’ll continue striking Iran for now. Tehran has shown little willingness to compromise, at least in public. On Wednesday, Iran’s armed forces added to a stream of messaging that ruled out ceasefire talks with the Trump administration. “The level of your internal conflicts has reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves,” the statement said, according to state-run IRIB News. It added that Iran wouldn’t allow oil and energy prices to return to their previous levels until all threats against the country are fully removed. At the same time, Trump has ordered thousands of troops to the Middle East as he weighs options for ending Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. While an opportunity for peace is on the table, right now no one appears to be backing down. What You Need to Know Today Investors are hoping for the best. Oil fell, with Brent dropping as much as 7% toward $97 a barrel as Washington’s diplomatic overtures boosted optimism that disruption to shipping flows could ease, before paring the drop. S&P 500 futures rose 1.1%. Global bonds rebounded , led by gains in Europe as fears of an oil-driven inflation shock moderated. Gold edged higher while the dollar dropped 0.2%. “M...
China and the United States are trying to navigate their differences to ensure that they maintain a basic level of stability in their relationship, an academic conference in Beijing heard last week. At the forum held by Tsinghua University in Beijing on Friday, academics and former officials discussed the need to prevent open confrontation. US President Donald Trump’s planned visit – now postponed...
China and the United States are trying to navigate their differences to ensure that they maintain a basic level of stability in their relationship, an academic conference in Beijing heard last week. At the forum held by Tsinghua University in Beijing on Friday, academics and former officials discussed the need to prevent open confrontation. US President Donald Trump’s planned visit – now postponed for “five or six weeks” as he focuses on his war with Iran – was seen as a key opportunity by many...
If one were to travel to central China, in what is now Hubei province, 4,500 years ago, they might have been fortunate enough to discover a vibrant civilisation characterised by palaces, advanced engineering, and luxuries such as jade. However, in the generations that followed, this culture gradually declined, with its people dispersing across the region. Until now, the reasons behind the collapse...
If one were to travel to central China, in what is now Hubei province, 4,500 years ago, they might have been fortunate enough to discover a vibrant civilisation characterised by palaces, advanced engineering, and luxuries such as jade. However, in the generations that followed, this culture gradually declined, with its people dispersing across the region. Until now, the reasons behind the collapse of such a thriving civilisation were not well understood. A group of scientists now believe that...
MF3d Artificial intelligence-linked stocks have posted strong gains in select pockets of the market so far in 2026, with upside increasingly concentrated in companies tied directly to the buildout of AI infrastructure. Firms supplying critical components for data centers, ranging from optical networking and power systems to storage and semiconductor testing, are seeing strong momentum as hyperscal...
MF3d Artificial intelligence-linked stocks have posted strong gains in select pockets of the market so far in 2026, with upside increasingly concentrated in companies tied directly to the buildout of AI infrastructure. Firms supplying critical components for data centers, ranging from optical networking and power systems to storage and semiconductor testing, are seeing strong momentum as hyperscalers continue to ramp up spending. Lumentum ( LITE ) has emerged as one of the standout performers, climbing more than 100% year-to-date on rising demand for high-speed connectivity solutions. Power and thermal management providers such as Bloom Energy ( BE ) and Vertiv ( VRT ) are also posting sharp gains, reflecting growing investor focus on the energy intensity of AI workloads. Meanwhile, companies like Teradyne ( TER ) and Seagate ( STX ) are benefiting from increased demand for chip testing and data storage. Deal activity is also reinforcing the trend. Nebius ( NBIS ) recently signed a $27B, five-year agreement with Meta Platforms to provide access to advanced AI infrastructure, highlighting the scale of capital flowing into the ecosystem. Nvidia has also committed $2B to Nebius, underscoring confidence in the company’s positioning within next-generation compute networks. Beyond these areas, investors are placing greater emphasis on companies that can demonstrate clear revenue traction from AI, with execution and earnings visibility increasingly driving performance. Against this backdrop, let’s take a look at the top AI-linked performers year to date. Lumentum ( LITE ): +117.58% Bloom Energy ( BE ): +67.89% Vertiv ( VRT ): +67.21% Teradyne ( TER ): +65.40% Seagate ( STX ): +54.31% Tower ( TSEM ): +53.99% MKS Inc. ( MKSI ): +52.42% Nova Ltd. ( NVMI ): +47.82% Qnity Electronics ( Q ): +44.94% Entegris ( ENTG ): +44.42% Dell ( DELL ): +40.54% Onto Innovation ( ONTO ): +39.02% MACOM ( MTSI ): +38.50% Nebius Group ( NBIS ): +37.28% Quanta Services ( PWR ): +37.05% BESIY ( BE...
It’s easy to focus on authoritarians and their petty victories. But zoom out and the picture is more encouraging, says the woman who popularised the term ‘mansplaining’, whether it’s in feminism, or the environment, or civil rights When I speak to Rebecca Solnit, she is beaming, and I can’t immediately figure out why. Her new book, The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change, bla...
It’s easy to focus on authoritarians and their petty victories. But zoom out and the picture is more encouraging, says the woman who popularised the term ‘mansplaining’, whether it’s in feminism, or the environment, or civil rights When I speak to Rebecca Solnit, she is beaming, and I can’t immediately figure out why. Her new book, The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change, blasts in with a pragmatic positivity, it’s true. She writes with a “pull yourself together, don’t even think about despair” tone. But that’s not why she’s smiling – it’s because Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor just got arrested. “Why is the UK doing these things the US should be doing? Why now? Wow!” This “feminist chortling” (as she calls it) about the disgraced royal is right in the bailiwick of the writer who virtually invented the term mansplaining. A truly hilarious story about a man explaining her own book to her at a party became the pandemically viral essay Men Explain Things to Me in 2008, then a fierce, controlled critique of the patriarchy in a book of the same name in 2014. Continue reading...
Buying lard-like tubs of boring moisturiser is not your only option – ungreasy, effective derma body lotions are now available I could write a thesis on derma body lotions, but it would be as boring to read as they are to use. You know the ones – rows of near-identical white and blue family moisturisers for extra dry skin, smelling of nothing, feeling like lard and standing unhappily away from the...
Buying lard-like tubs of boring moisturiser is not your only option – ungreasy, effective derma body lotions are now available I could write a thesis on derma body lotions, but it would be as boring to read as they are to use. You know the ones – rows of near-identical white and blue family moisturisers for extra dry skin, smelling of nothing, feeling like lard and standing unhappily away from the fun aisles full of fruity, silky and whipped creams costing half as much. The joyless, pricey pharmaceutical aisle is where we dryness-, cracked-, eczema- or sensitivity-prone skin types must shop, because a vat full of something more elegant would barely lubricate an elbow. Continue reading...
Trump’s oil blockade is starving the island of vital resources. His brute force isn’t making America great again – it’s breeding resentment across the globe The US has become a power that knows only how to destroy. In the Ramón González Coro maternity hospital in Havana, Cuba, I saw what that looks like in human terms. Maria lies on a hospital bed, wrapped in a dark blue blanket, two friends at he...
Trump’s oil blockade is starving the island of vital resources. His brute force isn’t making America great again – it’s breeding resentment across the globe The US has become a power that knows only how to destroy. In the Ramón González Coro maternity hospital in Havana, Cuba, I saw what that looks like in human terms. Maria lies on a hospital bed, wrapped in a dark blue blanket, two friends at her side. She is 50, with terminal cervical cancer, and nothing but praise for her doctors. But she is also a victim of a decades-long US siege, drastically intensified by Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to threaten tariffs against countries that deliver fuel to Cuba. The result has been no fuel imports for three months, meaning the island is running out of diesel and fuel reserves. The electricity grid is collapsing and life is grinding to a halt. Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
George Raynor led Sweden to Olympic glory and a World Cup final, but he was never appreciated back home By The Set Pieces Nobody wanted him. An ambitious young English coach who was bursting with new ideas grew more and more frustrated as his efforts to land a job in his homeland fell flat. Application after application came to nothing, his reputation as a lower-league player meaning he rarely rec...
George Raynor led Sweden to Olympic glory and a World Cup final, but he was never appreciated back home By The Set Pieces Nobody wanted him. An ambitious young English coach who was bursting with new ideas grew more and more frustrated as his efforts to land a job in his homeland fell flat. Application after application came to nothing, his reputation as a lower-league player meaning he rarely received a reply. But then came hope. A new opportunity opened up in Sweden. It was a relative football outpost, but it was the foothold the coach had been craving. George Raynor was finally going to be a football manager. Raynor’s big break in 1946 has a few parallels to the path that Graham Potter has taken in management. Potter is unlikely to win an Olympic gold medal or lead Sweden to the World Cup final but that was not the aim for Raynor either. Swedish football was very different when Raynor took the job in the 1940s. The domestic league maintained a staunch amateur philosophy that extended to the national side. Continue reading...
By the time you read this, the Audi RS6 Avant is dead. Production at the factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, has already switched over to new models ; any unsold wagons at dealerships will be the last of their kind. Time moves on, leaving the unelectrified 2026 RS6 Avant Performance as a relic from a bygone age where people didn't care quite so much about melting glaciers. In this regard progress is g...
By the time you read this, the Audi RS6 Avant is dead. Production at the factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, has already switched over to new models ; any unsold wagons at dealerships will be the last of their kind. Time moves on, leaving the unelectrified 2026 RS6 Avant Performance as a relic from a bygone age where people didn't care quite so much about melting glaciers. In this regard progress is good and climate catastrophe is bad, but there are other things to like about the RS6 Avant, and much that Audi could and should bring to its other cars. The car was always something of a unicorn here in the US. As the SUV became ascendant, the station wagon suffered a corresponding decline with the general public, and automakers like Audi responded by not importing them anymore. The economics, we were told, didn't add up: wagon sales would just cannibalize SUV sales but at too small a rate to make the imported wagons profitable. But with smaller volumes, the math made more sense, which is why in 2019 the car maker buckled to pressure and said fine, we'll import the RS6 Avant . And with a starting price of $130,700, you can understand why this is a low-volume model. Subtly swollen A look down its flanks reveals wheel arches that bulge to accommodate larger wheels, part of Audi Sport's RS transformation applied to the sedate A6 starting point. Larger wheels provide clearance for larger brakes, which in turn help stop it from prodigious velocities—if you have a long enough runway or the right stretch of German Autobahn, top speed for this version, the Performance, tops out at 190 mph (305 km/h). Under the hood, hidden from view by plastic paneling, lies a twin-turbocharged 4.0 L V8 engine, which generates 621 hp (463 kW) and 627 lb-ft (850 Nm), sending power to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. Read full article Comments
GUANGZHOU, China, March 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Viomi Technology Co., Ltd (“Viomi” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: VIOT), a leading technology company for home water solutions in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second half and full year ended December 31, 2025, and declared a special cash dividend.
GUANGZHOU, China, March 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Viomi Technology Co., Ltd (“Viomi” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: VIOT), a leading technology company for home water solutions in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second half and full year ended December 31, 2025, and declared a special cash dividend.
It can be hard to feel happy about Social Security. It provides vital retirement income to most of us when we're older, yes, but the amount we receive is often not what we'd hoped for or need. (The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $2,076 as of February -- which amounts to less than $25,000 a year.) What's worse, however, is that the program is facing a shortfall, and if nothi...
It can be hard to feel happy about Social Security. It provides vital retirement income to most of us when we're older, yes, but the amount we receive is often not what we'd hoped for or need. (The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $2,076 as of February -- which amounts to less than $25,000 a year.) What's worse, however, is that the program is facing a shortfall, and if nothing is done to strengthen it, Social Security's trust funds' surplus will run out within a few years. This will result in benefits shrinking to roughly three-quarters of the amount due to beneficiaries. So a $2,000 monthly benefit could become $1,500. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Overview These are exciting times in the market with the growth of artificial intelligence. It seems like businesses across every sector are trying to utilize AI in some capacity to increase earnings. It can be difficult to assess hundreds of companies and determine which opportunities are the highest quality. The Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF ( ...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Overview These are exciting times in the market with the growth of artificial intelligence. It seems like businesses across every sector are trying to utilize AI in some capacity to increase earnings. It can be difficult to assess hundreds of companies and determine which opportunities are the highest quality. The Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF ( CHAT ) makes it extremely easy by providing direct exposure to many of the large-cap leaders across the technology sector. The fund is still relatively new, with an inception dating back to May of 2023. Despite the short operating history, CHAT has delivered excellent performance and demonstrated its ability to participate in the upside momentum of the technology market. Looking at the performance on a YTD basis, we can see that CHAT has significantly outperformed traditional index-tracking ETFs, such as the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( SPY ) and the Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ). CHAT's outperformance during this time of uncertainty may be attributed to the slight global exposure that the fund provides, as well as the exposure to the actual builders of the AI infrastructure. CHAT tends to focus its holdings on the large-cap players across the technology sector while minimizing exposure to more speculative bets. Data by YCharts The fund also offers a higher-than-average dividend yield of 2.6%, which may be attractive for investors that prefer to collect a dividend from their holdings. While I am optimistic about the outlook of the AI sector, there are some challenges that can slow growth momentum. For instance, massive capex spending levels are causing investors to question whether or not this will lead to higher earnings. Furthermore, CHAT's concentration on the tech sector means that investors should anticipate that there's the potential for greater volatility compared to standard index-tracking ETFs. Fund Strategy According to the fund overview , CHAT has total assets und...