Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) spent 2025 proving it could operate like a real business. Profitability improved, revenue diversified, and S&P 500 inclusion marked a milestone in credibility. Now comes the more challenging part. In 2026, Robinhood doesn't need to prove it can grow. It needs to prove it can stabilize, integrate, and scale with discipline. Continue reading
Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) spent 2025 proving it could operate like a real business. Profitability improved, revenue diversified, and S&P 500 inclusion marked a milestone in credibility. Now comes the more challenging part. In 2026, Robinhood doesn't need to prove it can grow. It needs to prove it can stabilize, integrate, and scale with discipline. Continue reading
Malaysia’s king said the country’s anti-corruption commission is one of the institutions that’s on his ‘radar’ as he urged governing authorities to step up the fight against graft. “Be careful, those in the Royal Malaysia Police, Immigration Department, Royal Malaysian Customs Department and many more,” Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor , the current monarch, said in a statement posted on his offic...
Malaysia’s king said the country’s anti-corruption commission is one of the institutions that’s on his ‘radar’ as he urged governing authorities to step up the fight against graft. “Be careful, those in the Royal Malaysia Police, Immigration Department, Royal Malaysian Customs Department and many more,” Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor , the current monarch, said in a statement posted on his official Facebook and Instagram accounts. “The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is also not left out,” the king wrote. The title of his statement was ‘Mission to fight corruption: More on the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong’s radar.’ Yang Di-Pertuan Agong is the official title of Malaysia’s king in Malay. A representative of the Royal Press Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office also didn’t respond to a request for comment. Representatives from the anti-graft agency, the police, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Finance Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The statement comes after two reports by Bloomberg News last week about the anti-graft agency, better known as the MACC, which caused an outcry in the country, sparking protests in the capital and igniting a debate about abuse of power. One report covered Chief Commissioner Azam Baki’s shareholdings, the other alleged collusion between MACC officers and businessmen trying to take over companies. Malaysia’s Cabinet Orders Probe Into Anti-Graft Chief Azam Who’s Watching Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Watchdog? Malaysian Anti-Graft Chief Returns to Stocks After Outcry Black-Clad Malaysians Protest Against Anti-Graft Chief Azam has denied he did anything wrong with his shareholdings and called Bloomberg’s reporting malicious and misleading. A police investigation has been opened into the shareholding report, according to local media reports. “MACC rejects any suggestion that its investigations are influenced by private interests,” a spokesman for...
Romanian inflation eased less than expected as the government’s tax hikes and austerity measures continue to weigh on prices and prevent the central bank from easing monetary policy. Consumer prices rose 9.6% from a year earlier in January, compared with 9.7% in the previous month, the statistics office in Bucharest said Monday. The reading was above the 9.4% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey ...
Romanian inflation eased less than expected as the government’s tax hikes and austerity measures continue to weigh on prices and prevent the central bank from easing monetary policy. Consumer prices rose 9.6% from a year earlier in January, compared with 9.7% in the previous month, the statistics office in Bucharest said Monday. The reading was above the 9.4% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey . Prices advanced 0.9% from the previous month. Romania’s central bank is waiting for inflation to slow before it can consider potential interest rate cuts that could ease the strain on the recession-hit economy. Price growth jumped to almost 10% last year when the government raised some taxes and curbed spending after the country emerged from its worst political crisis in decades. Read More: Romania Slips Into Recession After Austerity Push to Cut Deficit The measures, which included scrapping of a cap on energy prices, were needed to narrow the European Union’s widest budget deficit. Bickering inside the four-party ruling coalition has delayed more spending cuts aimed at trimming the gap to 6.2% of GDP this year, from 7.7% in 2025, but Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan expects to push through additional measures in the next few weeks. The central bank, which has an inflation target range of 1.5% to 3.5%, sees price growth slowing to 3.7% at the end of 2026. Governor Mugur Isarescu signaled in November that any talk of interest rate cuts wouldn’t likely happen before summer. Officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss monetary policy and a fresh inflation outlook, after holding the key rate at 6.5% since the middle of 2024.
ACCC alleges the supermarket breached the law by offering ‘illusory’ discounts on many products with ‘Down Down’ promotion Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Coles disguised price increases on at least 245 products by offering discounts that were “literally true” but also “utterly misleading”, the competition regulato...
ACCC alleges the supermarket breached the law by offering ‘illusory’ discounts on many products with ‘Down Down’ promotion Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Coles disguised price increases on at least 245 products by offering discounts that were “literally true” but also “utterly misleading”, the competition regulator has argued at the beginning of a high-profile court case. A federal court battle between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Coles began on Monday, testing allegations the supermarket breached the law by offering “illusory” discounts on many everyday products. Continue reading...
In this article NFLX PSKY 6758.T-JP CMCSA WBD DIS Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Signage at a ByteDance offices in Beijing, China, on June 30, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Chinese tech giant ByteDance has said it will strengthen safeguards on a new artificial intelligence video-making tool, following complaints of copyright theft from entertainment giants. The tool, ...
In this article NFLX PSKY 6758.T-JP CMCSA WBD DIS Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Signage at a ByteDance offices in Beijing, China, on June 30, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Chinese tech giant ByteDance has said it will strengthen safeguards on a new artificial intelligence video-making tool, following complaints of copyright theft from entertainment giants. The tool, Seedance 2.0, enables users to create realistic videos based on text prompts. However, viral videos shared online appear to show copyrighted characters and celebrity likenesses, raising intellectual property concerns in the U.S. "ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0.," a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC. "We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users," the spokesperson added. ByteDance's response comes after receiving backlash and stern warnings from Hollywood groups like the Motion Picture Association (MPA), a trade association representing major Hollywood studios including Netflix , Paramount Skydance , Sony , Universal , Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney . The group issued a forceful public statement at the end of last week demanding that ByteDance immediately cease what it called "infringing activity." "In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale," said MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin in the statement. "By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs." According to a report from Axios, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter Friday to ByteDance, accusing the company of distributing and reproducing its intellectual property throu...
Protesters welcome high court decision but many remain in legal limbo as government prepares to lodge appeal Retirees making up some of the nearly 3,000 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action since the organisation was proscribed have said they feel “vindicated” by the high court’s decision to overturn the ban this week. However, uncertainty remains over whether their trials under terror ...
Protesters welcome high court decision but many remain in legal limbo as government prepares to lodge appeal Retirees making up some of the nearly 3,000 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action since the organisation was proscribed have said they feel “vindicated” by the high court’s decision to overturn the ban this week. However, uncertainty remains over whether their trials under terror laws may still go ahead after the government revealed it plans to appeal against the judgment made on Friday by three of the UK’s most senior judges. Continue reading...
What is Blue Labour? Can Andy Burnham’s ‘Manchesterism’ be replicated elsewhere? And is the two-party system over in British politics? In a special episode, Pippa and Kiran take your questions. Please keep sending them to politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com You can listen back to Pippa and Kiran’s interviews with Andy Burnham at the Labour party conference here , and with the Green party leader, Zack...
What is Blue Labour? Can Andy Burnham’s ‘Manchesterism’ be replicated elsewhere? And is the two-party system over in British politics? In a special episode, Pippa and Kiran take your questions. Please keep sending them to politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com You can listen back to Pippa and Kiran’s interviews with Andy Burnham at the Labour party conference here , and with the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, here . Watch John Harris’s Anywhere But Westminster in Gorton & Denton here . Continue reading...
Fresh fruit and other items now available but at high prices in territory where unemployment is estimated at 80% Every morning, Mansour Mohammad Bakr sets out from the small rented room in Gaza City he shares with his pregnant wife and two very young daughters. The 23-year-old walks past the port and the breaking waves of the Mediterranean where he once earned his living. Before the two-year war t...
Fresh fruit and other items now available but at high prices in territory where unemployment is estimated at 80% Every morning, Mansour Mohammad Bakr sets out from the small rented room in Gaza City he shares with his pregnant wife and two very young daughters. The 23-year-old walks past the port and the breaking waves of the Mediterranean where he once earned his living. Before the two-year war that devastated Gaza, Bakr was a fisher, sharing tackle and a boat with his father and brothers. Now his brothers are dead, his father is too old, and his equipment was destroyed during the conflict. Like hundreds of thousands of others across Gaza, Bakr needs a job. Continue reading...
A rare lymphoma diagnosis meant Giorgi Gagoshidze had to abandon a film project on the economic factors behind the USSR’s collapse – until he found new meaning in medical terminology In autumn 2022, Giorgi Gagoshidze was in the middle of making a documentary film about the unravelling of the Soviet Union when he experienced his own personal system collapse. After returning from filming in Tbilisi ...
A rare lymphoma diagnosis meant Giorgi Gagoshidze had to abandon a film project on the economic factors behind the USSR’s collapse – until he found new meaning in medical terminology In autumn 2022, Giorgi Gagoshidze was in the middle of making a documentary film about the unravelling of the Soviet Union when he experienced his own personal system collapse. After returning from filming in Tbilisi to Berlin, where the 42-year-old Georgian artist lives, he was suffering from shortness of breath. An X-ray revealed that both his lungs had filled with water. He was told to get a taxi to the German capital’s Charité hospital straight away if he wanted to live. Gagoshidze was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a rare, aggressive and fast-growing form of blood cancer in an advanced but curable stage. A brutal cocktail of chemotherapy followed by an eight-month hospital stay in isolation was his only shot at survival. Continue reading...
The journalist and polymath probes the mysteries of the mind in this unsettling yet life-affirming investigation The brain, wrote Charles Scott Sherrington, is an “enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern”. The British neuroscientist created this striking image more than 80 years ago, a time when mechanised looms, not computers, embodied the idea of technology....
The journalist and polymath probes the mysteries of the mind in this unsettling yet life-affirming investigation The brain, wrote Charles Scott Sherrington, is an “enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern”. The British neuroscientist created this striking image more than 80 years ago, a time when mechanised looms, not computers, embodied the idea of technology. Even so, the symbolism feels relevant. We struggle to talk of our brains or minds without recourse to the machine metaphor: once it was clocks, then looms, and now computers. We say that our brains are hardwired; we talk of our ability to process information. The quote appears as merely a footnote in Michael Pollan’s new book, A World Appears, a fabulous and mind-expanding exploration of consciousness: how and why we are self-aware. But the whole thing can be read as a lucid and impassioned riposte to Sherrington’s conception of the mind as a machine. In Pollan’s view, we have become imprisoned by such narratives, which have obscured the richness and complexity of human and non-human consciousness. Bridging both science and the humanities, Pollan mines neuroscientific research, philosophy, literature and his own mind, searching for different ways to think about being, and what it feels like. Continue reading...
Mimosas and violets are already out in the south of France, making it the perfect time for a pre-spring road trip As I take my seat in Galimard’s Studio des Fragrances, in the Provençal town of Grasse, I limber up my nostrils for the task ahead: to create my own scent from the 126 bottles in front of me. Together they represent a world of exotic aromas, from amber and musk to ginger and saffron. B...
Mimosas and violets are already out in the south of France, making it the perfect time for a pre-spring road trip As I take my seat in Galimard’s Studio des Fragrances, in the Provençal town of Grasse, I limber up my nostrils for the task ahead: to create my own scent from the 126 bottles in front of me. Together they represent a world of exotic aromas, from amber and musk to ginger and saffron. But given that I have left the grey British winter behind to come here, I am more interested in capturing the sunny essence of the Côte d’Azur. Here in the hills north of Cannes, the colours pop: hillsides are full of bright yellow mimosa flowers, violets are peeping out of flowerbeds and oranges hang heavy on branches over garden walls, even though it’s not yet spring. It is the perfect antidote to the gloom back home, and the chance to bottle these very scents is a joy. Continue reading...
As Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation hits the screens, the historian Dominic Sandbrook takes a deep-dive into the novel’s dark themes. Plus, how to battle phone addiction The latest release from Goalhanger hears historian Dominic Sandbrook in English teacher mode, as he dissects classic novels with producer Tabitha Syrett. Luckily, it doesn’t feel like homework: their first episode, on Wuthering He...
As Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation hits the screens, the historian Dominic Sandbrook takes a deep-dive into the novel’s dark themes. Plus, how to battle phone addiction The latest release from Goalhanger hears historian Dominic Sandbrook in English teacher mode, as he dissects classic novels with producer Tabitha Syrett. Luckily, it doesn’t feel like homework: their first episode, on Wuthering Heights, revels in Emily Brontë’s dark themes, confusingly-named protagonists, and the author herself – from her tragically tiny coffin to the graveyard water that may have led to her premature death. Hannah J Davies Widely available, episodes weekly Continue reading...
Canadian experimentalist Isiah Medina’s latest flits between radical and grandiloquent, but deserves close reading and exasperated sighs in equal measure ‘If cinema was a 19th-century dream actualised in the 20th century through chemistry, then the auteur was a 20th-century dream that needs to be actualised in the 21st through digital.” Canadian experimentalist Isiah Medina is hellbent on that tas...
Canadian experimentalist Isiah Medina’s latest flits between radical and grandiloquent, but deserves close reading and exasperated sighs in equal measure ‘If cinema was a 19th-century dream actualised in the 20th century through chemistry, then the auteur was a 20th-century dream that needs to be actualised in the 21st through digital.” Canadian experimentalist Isiah Medina is hellbent on that task in his latest feature, which almost entirely comprises a troupe of po-faced cineastes declaiming such theory-freighted slogans, and bemoaning what dogs the genuine auteur these days: western-centric power hierarchies, industry racism, the economic exclusion of serious artistic work, the tyranny of language. It’s dense stuff, and staged at an ironic, if not quite playful, remove. Mark Bacolcol plays Clem, a director struggling to finance his next feature in the face of the system. Boyfriend Ez (Kalil Haddad) is an unblinking ideologue, who peps Clem up by telling him: “Be proud: regardless of race, most people don’t like your work.” Collaborators Nico (Jonalyn Aguilar) and March (Charlotte Zhang) are struggling to hurdle the same structural obstacles. A hipster collage in his office juxtaposes Mao’s Cultural Revolution with the title of Armond White’s 2020 book Make Spielberg Great Again. Needless to say it’s not the great white hope Clem is holding out for. Continue reading...
The charger firm claimed the site operated 24 hours a day, but the parking operator had different ideas I charged my electric car at the 24-hour Mer EV charging station in my local B&Q car park. I then received a £100 parking charge notice (PCN) from the car park operator, Ocean Parking. It said no parking is allowed on the site between 9pm and 6am. Continue reading...
The charger firm claimed the site operated 24 hours a day, but the parking operator had different ideas I charged my electric car at the 24-hour Mer EV charging station in my local B&Q car park. I then received a £100 parking charge notice (PCN) from the car park operator, Ocean Parking. It said no parking is allowed on the site between 9pm and 6am. Continue reading...
(RTTNews) - Sanofi (SNY) said a universal respiratory syncytial virus immunization program using Beyfortus or nirsevimab was associated with a statistically significant reduction in RSV-related hospitalizations in the second RSV season among infants immunized during their first s
(RTTNews) - Sanofi (SNY) said a universal respiratory syncytial virus immunization program using Beyfortus or nirsevimab was associated with a statistically significant reduction in RSV-related hospitalizations in the second RSV season among infants immunized during their first s
As families across China gather for the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday, pre-made dishes at their reunion dinners – the centrepiece of Spring Festival celebrations – have again come under scrutiny. Chinese households, many of which tend to reduce their budget, have increasingly been cautious, following a high-profile row over food transparency and quality involving a star influencer with millions of f...
As families across China gather for the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday, pre-made dishes at their reunion dinners – the centrepiece of Spring Festival celebrations – have again come under scrutiny. Chinese households, many of which tend to reduce their budget, have increasingly been cautious, following a high-profile row over food transparency and quality involving a star influencer with millions of fans online and a national restaurant chain. “I work all year round overtime and do eat pre-made food...