Author: damazah@gmail.com

“The Pulse With Francine Lacqua” is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today’s guests: Mike Bell, RBC BlueBay Market Strategy Head; Ionela Ciolan, Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies Research Officer (Source: Bloomberg)

Meta on Tuesday unveiled Muse Image, its new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s dedicated AI unit. The feature, which was internally code-named Mango, is now available for free through the Meta AI app, as well as on Instagram Stories and WhatsApp. Unfortunately, the new model is already causing controversy. What exactly can you do with Muse? It sounds like the use cases are similar to most other AI image generators — you’ll be able to create plenty of goofy, cartoonish images, for instance. If you’re short on inspiration and can’t come up with original prompts…

A failure to put in place safeguards ahead of a change to the law that will result in offenders being released early will leave abuse victims at risk, ministers have been warned.In a rare coordinated intervention, the victims commissioner and the domestic abuse commissioner have written separately to ministers urging them to immediately pause planned early releases of offenders convicted of crimes against women and girls in England and Wales.It comes as charities warn that a growing number of victims have been thrown into panic, with some installing CCTV for their own protection, after receiving letters informing them that offenders…

Passengers on the London Underground during the heatwave on 26 JuneGuy Bell / Alamy The heatwave that hit Europe at the end of June was the hottest ever and came less than a month after another record-breaking heatwave in May. Now, another heatwave has started that is forecast to last even longer, bringing temperatures of up to 34°C (93°F) to the UK. To better understand the impacts of this heat, I visited the University of Brighton’s Environmental Extremes Laboratory, just across a field from the stadium of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, which has worked with the lab to…

The Golden State Warriors will not match the three-year, $30 million offer sheet for reserve center Quinten Post, league sources told ESPN, allowing the restricted free agent to join the Memphis Grizzlies.Post’s deal isn’t as fearsome as it appears at face value. Only the first season is guaranteed at $9 million, but the Grizzlies strategically added $1.35 million in unlikely incentives, league sources said, which hits the apron calculations and makes it more unappealing for a projected tax team like the Warriors to match.The final two seasons of Post’s contract are both for $8.5 million and include $1.2 million in…

The ever-expanding “Jay-Z30” celebrations will see Hov take the stage at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in September Jay-Z has expanded his upcoming run of international performances with a new London show this fall. The hip-hop icon is set to perform at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Friday, Sept. 4, as part of a slate of shows celebrating the anniversaries of his debut album Reasonable Doubt and 2001 classic, The Blueprint. The newly announced U.K. date will be followed by a performance at Stade de France in Paris on Thursday, Sept. 10. Jay will then return to the United States for…

Before the FIFA World Cup first descended on the United States, in the summer of 1994, soccer was chiefly available to Americans in the form of posters, magazines and video games. U.S.A. ’94 brought us football in the flesh. But that year’s tournament had another important effect: merging the love of soccer with the love of fashion — passions that, at least in America, had never been truly melded.For a brief moment, the Americans’ “denim jersey” became as recognizable as Brazil’s canary yellow “Amarelinha” or Italy’s “Azzurri” kits. And though the sport has yet to move fully into the American…

The Karachi-bound aircraft lost contact with air traffic control after reporting a navigational ⁠system fault.Published On 8 Jul 20268 Jul 2026Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan is searching for a Boeing cargo aircraft missing over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board.The Karachi-bound 737-400 plane operated by a Pakistani carrier took off from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and lost contact with air traffic control about 9:18pm (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday after reporting a navigational ⁠system fault, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listMinutes later, data from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, showed the…

The United States launched dozens of strikes on Iran early on Wednesday in what it said was retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on commercial ships in the highly contested Strait of Hormuz, sparking widespread fears of the renewal of all-out war in the Middle East.After the US attacks, President Donald Trump told reporters at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, that he thinks the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran is “over”. While he “might” allow peace talks to continue for now, he said, he believed they were a “waste of time”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listBrent crude rose…

Temasek International’s Chief Investment Officer Rohit Sipahimalani tells Bloomberg that it would take time to get to “some resolution” of the Iran conflict, noting that while both sides are interested in deescalation, the process will not be a straight line. (Source: Bloomberg)