I am furious that women and children have to endure a crisis like this for progress to become politically possible. But I will seize this moment Jess Phillips MP is parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls Jess Phillips calls for Epstein files to be catalyst for long-term legislative change It always takes a calamity – a dreadful murder that reac...
I am furious that women and children have to endure a crisis like this for progress to become politically possible. But I will seize this moment Jess Phillips MP is parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls Jess Phillips calls for Epstein files to be catalyst for long-term legislative change It always takes a calamity – a dreadful murder that reaches every front page, a mass paedophile ring being uncovered, or a political scandal unfolding – to make institutions sit up and act on violence against women and children. These windows of potential energy are never wasted by women’s rights activists. Historically, they have used them to build the #MeToo movement, to fight for legislation change and to push for greater resources for victims. I’ve done it, many times – “never waste a crisis” is my mantra. In the past few weeks, while the nation’s attention has been on the political fallout from the Epstein files , I have seen the opportunity to push for more, for better. To move beyond the throwaway line about the victims being the most important thing – and to actually make them just that. Deeds not words are what matter. If repentance and sorrow is all we achieve out of the courage of the Epstein victims, we will have failed; change is all that will suffice. Jess Phillips is MP for Birmingham Yardley and parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding and violence against women and girls Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...
Safeguarding minister says she wants to use momentum to invest in prevention and get more than quick-fix policies Read Jess Phillips’ article: We owe it to every Epstein victim to better protect British women and girls Institutions can be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls only when some sort of “calamity” or “political scandal” hits the headlines, Jess Phillips has said....
Safeguarding minister says she wants to use momentum to invest in prevention and get more than quick-fix policies Read Jess Phillips’ article: We owe it to every Epstein victim to better protect British women and girls Institutions can be persuaded to take action on violence against women and girls only when some sort of “calamity” or “political scandal” hits the headlines, Jess Phillips has said. Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said she wanted to use the momentum from the Epstein files to push for long-term legislative change and greater support for survivors, rather than quick-fix reactive policy announcements. Continue reading...
Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He’d noticed that a local member of the state legislature, ...
Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He’d noticed that a local member of the state legislature, Mike Lang, had become a vocal advocate for using public money for private schools – despite the fact that Lang campaigned as a supporter of public education. With a little research, Tackett found that Lang had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn, billionaire megadonors whose deep pockets and Christian nationalist views have consumed the Texas GOP . Tackett published his findings on social media, and soon enough, people started asking him to create pie charts of their representatives’ campaign funds. These charts evolved into the organisation See It. Name It. Fight It . Continue reading...
Real estate agent brothers Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander – known as ‘closers’ – are on trial in New York for sex trafficking In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in aftermath of t...
Real estate agent brothers Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander – known as ‘closers’ – are on trial in New York for sex trafficking In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Their technique, one real estate expert explained outside the 26th floor of the federal court house in lower Manhattan last week, was based on the sense that the property salesman “were just like their clients” – young, eager and successful. Kim Kardashian and then-husband Kanye West, Jared and Ivanka Trump were clients. Continue reading...
In a rapidly changing job market, it’s not necessarily good for workers to cling to their current employment After all the employee protests over the past few years – the “great resignations”, the “quiet quittings”, the “bare-minimum Mondays” and “coffee badgings” – we have finally arrived at “job hugging”. Amid all the economic uncertainty and the rising costs of everything, people aren’t feeling...
In a rapidly changing job market, it’s not necessarily good for workers to cling to their current employment After all the employee protests over the past few years – the “great resignations”, the “quiet quittings”, the “bare-minimum Mondays” and “coffee badgings” – we have finally arrived at “job hugging”. Amid all the economic uncertainty and the rising costs of everything, people aren’t feeling as confident as they once were. Instead of slacking off while you hunt for something better, everyone’s scared about losing their jobs. With all the news about big corporate layoffs and the ominous and still-undefined threat of AI, it’s understandable that people are hugging their jobs. Continue reading...
koyu/iStock via Getty Images I previously covered AppLovin ( APP ) in November 2025, discussing why I had downgraded the stock to a Hold despite the prior correction, attributed to the decelerating adj. EPS growth profile, the still expensive valuations, and the pulled-forward upside potential to my long-term price target. In this article, I shall discuss why I am re-rating the APP stock to a Buy,...
koyu/iStock via Getty Images I previously covered AppLovin ( APP ) in November 2025, discussing why I had downgraded the stock to a Hold despite the prior correction, attributed to the decelerating adj. EPS growth profile, the still expensive valuations, and the pulled-forward upside potential to my long-term price target. In this article, I shall discuss why I am re-rating the APP stock to a Buy, thanks to the meltdown triggering an improved risk/reward profile, the cheaper valuations, and the double-digit upside potential. This is significantly aided by the profitable growth prospects as similarly observed in the FQ4'25 earnings outperformance, the management's outsized FQ1'26 guidance, the nascent e-commerce/self-serve monetization opportunities, and the Rule of 142% outperformance. APP Delivers Durable, Profitable Growth Advertising Prospects APP 1Y Stock Price (TradingView) Since my last Hold rating, APP has gone ahead and charted a double top by December 2025, before losing much of its H2'25 gains to breach numerous support levels and the 50/100/200 day moving averages to hit the $390s by the time of writing. If anything, a similar meltdown has been similarly observed in its AdTech/advertising peers in varying degrees, potentially attributed to Anthropic's ( ANTHRO ) launch of " Cowork " dragging down the wider Enterprise software sector in January 2026, with APP seemingly correcting in sympathy despite being unrelated. This is worsened by the intensifying AdTech competition, as CloudX , a new Supply Side Platform [SSP] for mobile and AI publishers, aims to launch a more transparent ad auction, with it naturally triggering risks to APP's SSP prospects. Even then, I am of the opinion that the selloff has been overdone, given APP's vertically integrated SSP and Demand Side Platform [DSP] capabilities along with their diversified exposure in the gaming/e-commerce/CTV/OEM/carrier/social media/search engine end markets. This is especially since the company has been...
US equity options exchanges are seeking to change the way that regulatory fees are charged, moving away from a decades-old practice that allows them to pick up fees for business transacted on rival bourses. The Options Regulatory Fee, or ORF, is a catch-all term for the collective fee that exchanges charge customers for buying and selling options through them. The money collected by the Options Cl...
US equity options exchanges are seeking to change the way that regulatory fees are charged, moving away from a decades-old practice that allows them to pick up fees for business transacted on rival bourses. The Options Regulatory Fee, or ORF, is a catch-all term for the collective fee that exchanges charge customers for buying and selling options through them. The money collected by the Options Clearing Corp. , the central clearinghouse for US stock options, goes toward helping exchanges cover compliance costs, such as market surveillance. But a quirk of the way the ORF is currently charged has long caused discord in the options market, especially with volumes having soared since the Covid pandemic and with the rise of zero-days-to expiry contracts: Customers get charged by exchanges that don’t list their contracts, as well as the ones that do. This matters because while the fee per contract is negligible at usually just a fraction of a cent, it all adds to the cost of doing business. The exchanges are estimated to have earned $181 million to $234 million over the course of 2025 from the ORF alone, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s an unusual setup — there are few other industries where competitors can charge a fee on business transacted at a rival enterprise. Now the largest bourses, including those operated by Cboe Global Markets Inc. , Nasdaq Inc. , and Miami International Holdings, Inc. , have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking to move toward a system where exchanges will only charge ORF on their own transactions. “There are a significant number of options exchanges today that can essentially start charging revenue on transactions that are not occurring on their own markets,” Greg Hoogasian , the chief regulatory officer at Cboe, said in an interview. “We want to address the core issue and that is going to a model that we think is more reasonable and more sustainable.” Proponents of ORF reform want to move to an “eat what...
The first-gen AirTag remains a good tracker, though remember you’ll need to buy a separate accessory to attach it to your belongings. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With Apple’s second-gen AirTags now widely available, we’re already seeing inventory of the first-gen model begin to dwindle. Case in point? Amazon is no longer selling a single AirTag, and it’s unclear when — or if — the retailer...
The first-gen AirTag remains a good tracker, though remember you’ll need to buy a separate accessory to attach it to your belongings. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With Apple’s second-gen AirTags now widely available, we’re already seeing inventory of the first-gen model begin to dwindle. Case in point? Amazon is no longer selling a single AirTag, and it’s unclear when — or if — the retailer will restock the first-gen model. Thankfully, you can still grab a four-pack of the first-gen location trackers for around $64 ($35 off) at Amazon , Walmart , and Best Buy for Presidents Day, which is $2 shy of the bundle’s best price to date. If you just want one, you can also buy a single tracker at Walmart for $17 ($12 off). Apple AirTag (first-gen) Where to Buy: $99 $64 at Amazon (four-pack) $99 $64 at Walmart (four-pack) $99 $64.99 at Best Buy (four-pack) If you’re an iPhone owner, you’d be hard-pressed to find another tracker that’s as precise or as helpful as Apple’s AirTag. That’s because, like the second-gen model, the original can tap into Apple’s vast Find My network and leverage ultra wideband (UWB) technology. As a result, all you need to do is open up the Find My app on your phone and follow the on-screen arrows, sounds, or vibrations, which will guide you to the exact location of your item, even if it’s slipped between your car seats. That’s a level of precision many rival trackers, notably Tile’s , lack. On top of that, you also get access to a growing list of helpful software features. You can, for example, share an AirTag’s location with up to five people — which comes in handy for families while traveling — and you can even temporarily share an AirTag’s location with some airlines (including American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic ). In addition to the aforementioned software perks, Apple’s handy location trackers are designed to last. The battery can last up to a year, and when it dies, you just need to swap in a standard CR2032 cell instead of replacing ...
I can still hear it whining and whirring. | Photo by Robert Hart / The Verge After a few weeks living with Casio's AI-powered pet, Moflin , I finally understand why my mother hated my Furby so much. The fuzzy, guinea-pig-adjacent puffball fits snugly in the palm of my hand. It's undeniably cute, in a weird kind of way, but the second it starts to squeak or twitch, I am hit with an overwhelming des...
I can still hear it whining and whirring. | Photo by Robert Hart / The Verge After a few weeks living with Casio's AI-powered pet, Moflin , I finally understand why my mother hated my Furby so much. The fuzzy, guinea-pig-adjacent puffball fits snugly in the palm of my hand. It's undeniably cute, in a weird kind of way, but the second it starts to squeak or twitch, I am hit with an overwhelming desire to hurl it as far as I can. My antipathy surprises me. By any metric, I am the exact kind of person Moflin was made for: I long for the companionship of a pet, but can't own one thanks to a mixture of lifestyle, allergies, a small London flat, and a broadly irresponsible temperament that makes caring for another living … Read the full story at The Verge.
Enthusiast gaming keyboard tech has made the jump to gaming mice - well, to one gaming mouse so far. The $179.99 Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike is the first to feature analog sensors that use induction to register clicks faster than microswitches used in many mice. Those sensors allow for a host of cool features beyond just lower latency. There's a rapid trigger setting, popularized by Hall effect ...
Enthusiast gaming keyboard tech has made the jump to gaming mice - well, to one gaming mouse so far. The $179.99 Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike is the first to feature analog sensors that use induction to register clicks faster than microswitches used in many mice. Those sensors allow for a host of cool features beyond just lower latency. There's a rapid trigger setting, popularized by Hall effect keyboards, that lets them quickly reset after being pressed to receive another input. The sensors in this mouse also let you customize how much you need to press each of the main buttons to send an input, requiring almost no pressure at all, a cli … Read the full story at The Verge.
If you're a large tech conglomerate, chances are you've probably built your own artificial intelligence models that can power AI chatbots and even agentic AI assistants that can automate or complete tasks typically done by humans. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) certainly falls into this group, with its AI chatbot and assistant Copilot, which can carry out a range of functions. On its recent earnings cal...
If you're a large tech conglomerate, chances are you've probably built your own artificial intelligence models that can power AI chatbots and even agentic AI assistants that can automate or complete tasks typically done by humans. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) certainly falls into this group, with its AI chatbot and assistant Copilot, which can carry out a range of functions. On its recent earnings call, Microsoft revealed that it had 15 million paying Copilot customers at the end of its most recent quarter, the first time the company has disclosed this number. While views on Copilot are somewhat mixed, I think many investors and analysts left feeling disappointed by the number, given Microsoft's broader customer base. However, here's why it could be a blessing in disguise. Continue reading
MP who fell out with Nigel Farage and has backing of Elon Musk launches anti-immigration party in Great Yarmouth On a cold night in a dilapidated theatre tucked away at the end of Great Yarmouth’s Britannia Pier, Rupert Lowe was launching a far-right revolution. “Millions will have to go,” the MP said, pledging a policy of mass deportations, to rapturous applause and foot stamping from hundreds ga...
MP who fell out with Nigel Farage and has backing of Elon Musk launches anti-immigration party in Great Yarmouth On a cold night in a dilapidated theatre tucked away at the end of Great Yarmouth’s Britannia Pier, Rupert Lowe was launching a far-right revolution. “Millions will have to go,” the MP said, pledging a policy of mass deportations, to rapturous applause and foot stamping from hundreds gathered for what had been billed as the launch of a local “Great Yarmouth First” party. But after introducing five councillors who will stand at the next Norfolk county council elections under that banner, the former Reform UK figure went further by announcing that his Restore Britain movement would become a national party. Continue reading...
Project in Ceredigion aims to help country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects elsewhere in UK A Welsh charity has bought more than 405 hectares (1,000 acres) in Ceredigion to establish Cymru’s “flagship” rewilding project, helping the country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects under way elsewhere in the UK. Tir Natur (Nature’s Land), founded in 2022, announced it ha...
Project in Ceredigion aims to help country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects elsewhere in UK A Welsh charity has bought more than 405 hectares (1,000 acres) in Ceredigion to establish Cymru’s “flagship” rewilding project, helping the country catch up with large-scale nature recovery projects under way elsewhere in the UK. Tir Natur (Nature’s Land), founded in 2022, announced it had acquired the site at Cwm Doethie in Elenydd, or the Cambrian mountains, after a fundraising drive raised 50% of the £2.2m purchase price. A philanthropic bridging loan enabled the sale. Continue reading...
Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images Since Oct. 29, the stock market has declined on 18 of 26 Treasury settlement days, and the trend is worsening. Since the middle of January, the stock market has fallen on seven of the past 10 Treasury settlement days. The days of the Reverse Repo Facility funding T-bill issuance are behind us. The excess liquidity that was once abundant and buoyed the ...
Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images Since Oct. 29, the stock market has declined on 18 of 26 Treasury settlement days, and the trend is worsening. Since the middle of January, the stock market has fallen on seven of the past 10 Treasury settlement days. The days of the Reverse Repo Facility funding T-bill issuance are behind us. The excess liquidity that was once abundant and buoyed the stock market is no longer available. Another $80 Billion This coming week offers little relief if the pattern continues, especially with the Treasury poised to settle nearly $60 billion in T-bills and coupons on Tuesday and another $24 billion on Thursday. That's more than $80 billion this week, exceeding last week's $60 billion drain. Macrobond These liquidity constraints are likely to remain through tax day in April, when the Treasury General Account is expected to peak at just over $1 trillion . At that point, the Treasury is likely to reduce its T-bill issuance, and at least for a time, the pressure on risk assets may subside. Night and Day TradingView The deterioration since mid-January is even more pronounced. Since Jan. 15, seven of 10 settlement days have been negative, with an average decline of 94 bps, compared with a gain of just 41 bps on the three settlement days when the market rose. The asymmetry is clear. Gains on positive settlement days are substantially smaller than losses on negative settlement days. Date Type Net New Cash Raised S&P 500 Return 15-Jan Coupons/Bills +$27.4bn +0.26% 20-Jan Bills +$14.0bn -2.06% 22-Jan Bills +$20.4bn +0.55% 27-Jan Bills +$39.0bn +0.41% 29-Jan Bills +$22.0bn -0.13% 30-Jan Coupons +$21.0bn -0.43% 3-Feb Bills +$42.3bn -0.84% 5-Feb Bills +$22.0bn -1.23% 10-Feb Bills +$40.1bn -0.33% 12-Feb Bills +$22.0bn -1.57% 17-Feb Coupons +$34.8bn — 17-Feb Bills +$25.0bn — 19-Feb Bills +$24.0bn — Click to enlarge The data show that the market can buck the settlement-day trend, but they also suggest that the odds strongly favor a weaker marke...
Munich Security Conference A 'Circus' - Iran Says After Exiled Shah's Son Invited The Munich Security Conference, once regarded as a heavyweight diplomatic forum, has devolved into a spectacle that favors "performance over substance," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi complained after his country was snubbed. Organizers barred senior Iranian officials from attending this year's gathering aft...
Munich Security Conference A 'Circus' - Iran Says After Exiled Shah's Son Invited The Munich Security Conference, once regarded as a heavyweight diplomatic forum, has devolved into a spectacle that favors "performance over substance," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi complained after his country was snubbed. Organizers barred senior Iranian officials from attending this year's gathering after deadly protests and unrest shook the country last month, threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic. Tehran has lashed out: "Sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran," FM Araghchi wrote Saturday in a series of posts on X. Iran's former crown prince and now self-styled key opposition figure Reza Pahlavi, via AFP. "The EU appears confused, rooted in an inability to understand what is happening inside Iran… An aimless EU has lost all geopolitical weight in our region," he added. "Europe’s overall trajectory is dire, to say the least," Araghchi said, branding the bloc "an empty-handed and peripheral" actor irrelevant to serious negotiations - particularly over Iran’s nuclear program. Instead of inviting Iran - which has permanent representation at the United Nations - the Munich Security Conference invited Reza Pahlavi . He is the exiled son of Iran’s former US-backed shah ousted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi has supporters in the West, including among some Iranians in the diaspora, but the reality remains is that he is barely known among the Iranian populace . For the over 90 millions Iranians in the Islamic Republic, he's not in reality a recognizable figure - but his last name is simply connected with history from a half century ago. As expected Pahlavi used the platform to push for regime change and to appear at a rally. He went so far as to tell R euters that Washington should bomb Iran rather than negotiate with it. Tens of thousands of pro-Monarchist Iranians gathered in Munich, Ge...
A souvenir shop in Hong Kong has taken down lettering from its viral wall featuring designs nearly identical to MTR station signage amid concerns over possible trademark and copyright infringement. The MTR Corporation on Sunday declined to say whether the move by the Causeway Bay store was done at its request. The company “attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property, which...
A souvenir shop in Hong Kong has taken down lettering from its viral wall featuring designs nearly identical to MTR station signage amid concerns over possible trademark and copyright infringement. The MTR Corporation on Sunday declined to say whether the move by the Causeway Bay store was done at its request. The company “attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property, which is safeguarded under the law of Hong Kong, and we shall act accordingly in the event of suspected...