bond

Published on
23/06/2026 – 10:53 GMT+2

SpaceX shares closed at $154.63 on Monday, down around 16% on the day. That leaves them within touching distance of the $150 at which the shares first changed hands when public trading opened, the level set once underwriters finished building the order book, though still some way above the $135 price at which the IPO itself was struck.

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The slide has erased more than $600 billion (€524.2bn) in market value over three trading days, dragging the company down from a peak that had lifted it past Amazon and, fleetingly, Microsoft, in terms of market capitalisation.

Its valuation now sits just above $2 trillion (€1.74tn), below Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), making it the seventh most valuable company in the world.

The retreat unwinds a remarkable opening run.

After the open at around $150 on 12 June, shares climbed to almost $226 by 16 June, a gain of roughly two-thirds before the company had published a single set of results as a public firm.

Currently, SpaceX is trading over 30% lower than the intraday high of around $226 and only 3% higher than the opening price.

That rally always rested on a thin pool of freely traded shares and lofty expectations for its AI ambitions, leaving it exposed to a sharp reversal once sentiment turned.

Tapping debt to fund the AI push

The latest leg down on Monday coincided with SpaceX’s first move into the corporate debt market.

The company announced an inaugural offering of senior unsecured notes, with people familiar with the plans reportedly putting the target at around $20 billion (€17.4bn).

The proceeds are earmarked chiefly to repay a bridge loan taken on during its merger with Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI earlier this year, with the remainder going to general corporate purposes.

The debut bond sale follows the investment-grade credit ratings awarded last Friday by all three major agencies, Moody’s at Baa1, Fitch at BBB+ and S&P Global at BBB, which open the door to cheaper borrowing and a wider pool of institutional lenders.

In documents tied to the offering, SpaceX also disclosed a cash position of roughly $100.8 billion (€88bn) as of 19 June, much of it raised in the IPO, alongside $29.1 billion (€25.4bn) of long-term debt.

That mix of vast cash reserves and fresh borrowing so soon after a record flotation has unsettled some investors, who see the rapid fundraising as a sign of heavy spending ahead as SpaceX scales its AI and data centre plans.

Opting for debt rather than new shares does, however, spare existing shareholders further dilution, preserving their economic stake while the company funds its expansion.

Jennie Bond was BBC Royal Correspondent for 14 years and struck up a friendship with Lady Diana.

Jennie Bond’s illustrious journalism career stretches back over five decades, during which she has covered a vast array of remarkable stories.

In 1989, she took on the role of Royal Correspondent for the BBC, a position she held for 14 years before stepping down in 2003 to dedicate more time to her family and pursue freelance work.

During her time as a royal reporter, however, she forged a close friendship with Lady Diana, which she discussed with Raj Bisram during her appearance on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. A repeat of that episode aired this evening (June 20) on BBC Two.

The BBC antiques expert quizzed her on just how close their relationship was, to which she responded: “I was a journalist that she got along with and shared confidences with.

“You know, ‘There were three of us in this marriage,’ all this sort of stuff.”

“Then, at the end, annoyingly, she’d say, ‘Of course, Jennie, this is just between you and me and these four walls.’ I’d think, ‘Ugh!’ So I kept it that way.”

Raj then asked which interview throughout Jennie’s career had left the greatest impression on her, reports Devon Live.

She answered: “I suppose, when I challenged her in Angola on the land mine mission, when she was trying to get an international ban on land mines.

“I said, ‘Ma’am, you’ve been accused of being a loose cannon,’ and she was very shocked and said, ‘I’m just trying to be a humanitarian. That’s it.'”.

“That was pretty momentous. It made an awful lot of news.”

At the time, Lady Diana was described as a ‘loose cannon’ by a junior government Cabinet minister who condemned her position on landmines.

The tense exchange, which took place in 1997, was captured in a documentary of the time, showing Lady Diana’s response to Jennie’s pointed question.

She said: “I’m only trying to highlight a problem that’s going on all around the world. That’s all.”

She was subsequently filmed climbing into a waiting car, visibly moved by Jennie’s remark, as she told the camera team: “I might really burst into tears now. Who said I’m a loose cannon?”

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Vesuvius views on the Sorrentine coast

The Hotel Villa Garden, Sant’Agnello is a ravishing but small, friendly, family-run hotel about 25 minutes walk from the centre of Sorrento. The view from the cliff-edge dining terrace over to Vesuvius is breathtaking and the stylish pool is a delight. The decor is crisp and sunny. It’s the kind of place where they bring you a free glass of rosé while you wait for your taxi to the airport. Very Billy Wilder. Very Avanti.
Jan Colley

An idyllic island stay on the French Atlantic

We loved our stay at L’Hôtel La Jetée on Île de Ré (doubles from €85 B&B), which is perched on the corner of the Vauban fortified port of Saint Martin de Ré. An attractive courtyard garden filled with designer furniture is surrounded by floral balconies leading to light, airy and tasteful coastal-themed rooms. Breakfast was a real pleasure, taken in the courtyard or in the salon. The hotel’s front aspect overlooks the charming harbour with seafood restaurants and renowned ice-cream vendor La Martinière. Bike hire is available a couple of doors down for exploring the island (try a tandem) and the catamaran trip that leaves from the harbour is an elegant way to dabble in yacht life without the price tag.
Anna Kennett

Beachfront bolthole in Galicia, Spain

Forty miles south of Santiago de Compostela, Hotel Nanin (doubles from about €100 B&B) has a great location right on the beach. We had a stunning view from our room, overlooking the pool and the bay. We came across this spa hotel on a road trip around the Portuguese and Spanish coast, and we’ve returned to it since. It is about a 30-minute walk into the town of Sanxenxo, where there are more beaches, loads of restaurants and a lively promenade.
Louise

Five-star Italian luxury on the Adriatic

The abundance of hotels in the Italian resort of Rimini keeps prices competitive – I even found a good deal at the five-star Grand Hotel. If you ask for a room in the annex (doubles from €120 B&B), you can still enjoy the hotel’s facilities and services, including the open-air pool and palm-filled gardens. The wood-panelled library has fascinating photos of old movie stars and huge chandeliers. Fresh fruit in the generous breakfasts is brought in from Rimini’s daily market, and sunloungers on the nearby beach are reserved for guests. The whole hotel has an atmosphere of faded 1960s charm – I could have imagined Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni strolling in, champagne glasses in hand.
Penelope

A Biarritz time machine, France

The hotel Eduardo VII (doubles from about €104 B&B) in Biarritz is in a three-storey wooden building that feels more like a private guesthouse than a hotel. It’s like a time machine that takes guests back to when Biarritz was the height of fashion and elegance. The charming building has kept many of its original features, including wood panelling, creaky wooden floors and ornate mirrors. Bedrooms are small but cosy. Having breakfast on the sea-facing terrace was a great start to our days there – making my husband and I feel like movie stars, ready to go out and shoot a scene in a Jean Luc Goddard film by strolling along the long sandy beach.
April

Art deco vibes in Corsica

Just outside the little town of Piana, an hour’s drive up the Corsican coast from Ajaccio, is the wonderful Hotel les Roches Rouges (doubles from about €170 B&B). Built in 1912, it has a glamorous art deco vibe (and plenty of old photos on the walls). But it’s all about the view over the sea from the terrace, where the sun sets over the pink granite coastline, and you could sit all day and evening watching the colours flame and change. And the restaurant is wonderful, so you needn’t leave at all.
Laura

An oasis in southern Tenerife

Southern Tenerife is associated with boilerplate package holiday hotels. But the 1920s time capsule Hotel Reverón Plaza (doubles from £181 B&B in September) is an art deco oasis, only steps away from the beach. Step inside from the street to sip champagne amid vintage wrought-iron furniture and antique switchboards. Skip the lift and take the stairs to see them glowing under century-old stained-glass windows. On the rooftop, an unpretentious pool serves up stunning 360-degree views of the sea and surrounding hills. At around £130 a night – complete with a fantastic Spanish breakfast – it’s an absolute steal.
Erin

Faded grandeur on a car-free Greek island

On Kastellorizo, a tiny car-free island in the Dodecanese, the Megisti hotel (doubles in September from about £250 B&B a night) feels like a step back in time to the 1960s. You are immersed in aged, elegant glamour and half expect James Bond to appear in a white tuxedo and order a martini. Megisti’s spectacular setting and crystal-clear waters offers great views of loggerhead sea turtles that are often seen here as you walk around the gorgeous natural harbour.
Karen Stewart

Beachside glamour in Norway

On the island of Stokkøya in central Norway, Stokkøya Strandhotell sits beside a sweeping white-sand beach that looks more Caribbean than Nordic. The stylish timber cabins (from around £160 a night), some built partly into the dunes, offer a design-hotel feel without luxury-resort prices. Days are spent swimming, hiking coastal trails or warming up in the beach sauna after a dip in the sea. Evenings mean local seafood and a drink at the laid-back Strandbar (beach bar). It feels wonderfully remote and glamorous in a distinctly Scandinavian way, yet remains surprisingly affordable for Norway.
Sabine

Winning tip: spa bargain on a volcanic Italian island

As a lifelong backpacker, it takes a real bargain for me to entertain a spa hotel. Lo and behold I found myself on the island of Ischia, off Naples, where thermal waters are abundant and spa hotels are wildly affordable. The art deco Hotel Hermitage was a short walk from the ferry port, with views of the Aragonese castle, and comes complete with four thermal pools. For £50 a night [at the time, website rate now from around £90] I had my own large single room, balcony, delicious buffet breakfast and full access to the spa. The closest my backpack and I will ever come to true Italian glamour.
Clare

Published on
16/06/2026 – 11:49 GMT+2

The world’s most valuable company, the chipmaker Nvidia, priced a $25 billion (€21.5bn) bond offering on Monday, marking its first issuance since 2021 and one of the largest by a technology company this year.

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The deal was originally pencilled in at around $20 billion (€17.2bn) but was enlarged after demand ran more than three times the size of the bond, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg.

Investor appetite was the headline of the sale.

Orders reached as high as $85 billion (€73.2bn), allowing Nvidia to upsize the transaction and tighten its borrowing costs in the process.

The timing was also favourable.

The announcement of a US-Iran framework deal to end the conflict in the Middle East steadied credit markets, pushing investment-grade spreads to their narrowest levels since early February, before the Iran war began.

That backdrop helped Nvidia lock in relatively cheap long-term financing.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Robert Schiffman, inexpensive long-dated debt lowers Nvidia’s weighted average cost of capital and helps bankroll its AI investments without threatening its AA credit rating.

A company spokesperson stated that the proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes, including repaying and refinancing existing notes.

Nvidia last tapped the investment-grade market in June 2021, when it sold $5 billion (€4.3bn) of notes across four maturities, according to a regulatory filing.

The contrast in scale underscores how quickly its financing needs have grown alongside the data centre build-out and increased demand from hyperscalers.

A wider borrowing frenzy

Nvidia joins a queue of technology giants raising vast sums to fund AI infrastructure.

Meta and Oracle have each issued $25 billion (€21.5bn) in bonds this year, while Amazon completed a single $37 billion (€31.8bn) deal, the largest US investment-grade offering of this year before Nvidia’s issuance on Monday.

For Nvidia, the raise also keeps share dilution off the table, giving it greater flexibility as capital commitments mount. The firm has invested $5 billion (€4.3bn) in Intel, pledged up to $10 billion (€8.6bn) to Anthropic and contributed $30 billion (€25.8bn) to OpenAI’s latest funding round.

Nvidia shares closed up 3.5% at $212.45 after the deal, valuing the company at about $5.14 trillion (€4.42tn).

On the other hand, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, opted for equity instead, pricing an upsized $84.75 billion (€73bn) capital raise earlier this month, after originally seeking around $80 billion (€68.9bn), according to a company filing.

The transaction, which includes a $10 billion (€8.6bn) private placement from Berkshire Hathaway, ranks as the largest equity capital raise on record and is intended to fund the group’s AI compute expansion.

Management has guided 2026 capital expenditure to between $180 billion (€155.1bn) and $190 billion (€163.7bn).

However, the equity move came on top of an already heavy borrowing run. According to its own filing, Alphabet raised more than $85 billion (€73.2bn) of debt across six major currencies and markets in the first quarter of 2026, taking its total debt balance above $100 billion (€86.1bn).

That included a US dollar bond round early in the year, leaving Google relying on both debt and equity financing to bankroll its AI ambitions.

A BOND Girl has been spotted on rare outing 50 years after her sizzling scenes aired in one of the most iconic 007 movies.

Former Bond Girl Gloria Hendry, who played CIA agent Rosie Carver, was seen out and about looking amazing this week while running some errands.

50 years after starring opposite Roger Moore in the iconic flick Live and Let Die, Gloria, now 77, was spotted in Las Vegas.

The model and actress wore a casual brown and black top with some black leggings and slip on shoes for the low-key trip.

Looking youthful and content, Gloria wore her hair in a short light brunette bob, which was very different to the afro she sported in the movie.

Florida-born Gloria shot to fame in her 20s when she became 007‘s first African-American woman to become romantically involved with James Bond.

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In the 1973 movie, she was fresh-faced and vibrant, showcasing a voluminous afro that framed her face.

The model-turned-actress played the part of Rosie Carver, who famously gets shot and killed in Bond’s arms.  

Her steamy scenes with Roger Moore catapulted her into the spotlight in the Ian Fleming classic.

The movie theme of Live and Let Die was famously written by Paul McCartney. 

In his memoir, 007 star Roger described how the passion between himself and Gloria impacted his marriage.

“As Bond, I make love to Rosie Carver, played by the beautiful black actress Gloria Hendry, and my wife Luisa has learned from certain Louisiana ladies that if there is a scene like that they won’t go to see the picture,” he penned.

He added: “I personally don’t give a damn, and it makes me all the more determined to play the scene.”

Before her Bond Girl fame, she was a model and spent time at the Playboy Club.

She worked as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club from 1965 until 1972.

Her model past led to her acting debut in Sidney Poitier’s For Love of Ivy, which then led to her bagging the James Bond role.

Following her Bond Girl fame, she has maintained a relatively low profile in Hollywood.

However, she did enjoy a moment in the spotlight as the writer and director of Glamour Girls, which was showcased at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles in October 2011.

Away from the screen, Gloria was married to Phillip W. Wright from 1995 until his passing in 2022.

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker William D. Caballero won the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression for his intensely personal, multimedia feature debut, “TheyDream.” During his acceptance speech, he made a powerful statement.

“In case ICE were ever to harm me or kill me, this film will serve as the truth of who I am, and who my family is, before Fox News or this administration ever makes us out to be the villain[s],” he recalls paraphrasing during a recent interview.

Blending live action footage with different animation techniques — as well as the 3-D-printed miniatures that have been a fixture of Caballero’s work for more than a decade — “TheyDream” honors the filmmaker’s Puerto Rican loved ones, particularly his mother, Milly.

She collaborated with him in the making of this one-of-a-kind portrait of loss, resilience and shared healing. Their heartfelt exchanges throughout this process are also shared on-screen.

“Seeing her light up and become transformed throughout was just invigorating, because it allowed us to talk about heavy things and bond throughout the process of creating a story that’s personal [for us] both,” Caballero says. “It’s like, ‘Let’s guide each other and instead of me taking your stories and making magic with them, let’s make this magic together.’”

The brilliantly unconventional piece of autobiographical storytelling will screen as the closing night film of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) on Sunday. Recently, John Leguizamo and Ben DeJesus joined the film as executive producers.

Starting with his 2013 short film “How You Doin,’ Boy? Voicemails From Gran’pa,” Caballero has used miniatures to immortalize his loved ones. That bite-sized introduction to his Boricua grandfather’s humorous wisdom evolved into the HBO Latino show, “Gran’pa Knows Best.”

“When I started working on ‘Gran’pa Knows Best,’ I knew that 3-D printing was this new technique,” he says. “But I’d never seen anyone that looked or sounded like my grandfather in it. I realized that it could be a really creative method to preserve his voice and his story. “

Then came the 2017 short “Victor & Isolina” about his grandparents’ relationship, and more recently in 2022, he debuted “Chilly and Milly,” which focused on his parents. Some of the sets from these shorts, tiny replicas of places familiar to Caballero, and a few of the miniature characters were reused in “TheyDream.”

“Being able to create these things in miniature is almost like getting back in touch with the idea of play,” Caballero explains. “As a child, you invent lots of stories all the time. But now as an artist, I’m able to tell stories that touch upon reality and painful memories, but also hopes and dreams in a way that hearkens back to the innocence of childhood.”

Filmmaker William D. Caballero will screen “TheyDream” on Sunday at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF).

(William D. Caballero)

“TheyDream” is a culmination of the eclectic and nimble artistic practice that Caballero has developed since he studied digital art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

“I’d always just been attracted to new ways of expressing myself and expressing stories. And I say this both in a way that brings me pride, but also brings me a bit of a headache, because I don’t think I’ll ever be a conventional filmmaker,” he says, laughing.

Still, working outside the margins of traditional moviemaking requires great adaptability.

When Caballero received funding for “TheyDream” in 2021, the money wasn’t enough to conceive it as he had originally envisioned it: entirely told with 3-D-printed figures in physical sets. The lack of resources forced him to rethink his approach, and he opted for hiring two Puerto Rican animators, Julisse Tinoco and Frank Martinez, each of whom animate in distinct styles, to help him create some of the sequences needed.

“This all goes back to the resourcefulness that I learned when I was young,” Caballero says. “When you’re born Latino and low-income in this society, you can’t let yourself be written off or you’re already defeated before you even begin.”

Caballero grew up in housing projects in New York City, and later in a trailer in his grandmother’s backyard in Fayetteville, N.C. Both of his parents were disabled.

Filmmaker William D. Caballero poses as his father for a reference shot in the making of his 2026 film “TheyDream.”

For Caballero, he says the arts have provided an escape that he “needed in order to survive and not feel weighed down by American consumerism, by poverty and by feeling trapped.” Whenever grief has perturbed him, Caballero has processed it through creativity.

With “TheyDream,” he wished to extend that vehicle for self-reflection to his mother. The film addresses complicated familial bonds and his mother’s experience caring for others.

“Throughout the years, we’ve lost several of my family members that we were both close to, but my mother especially,” he says. “She feels their absence much stronger than I do. I live in Los Angeles, my mother still lives in North Carolina. Knowing that she was alone in the mobile home, it just made me feel like, ‘That can’t be good for her.’”

His mother, he says, deals with self-esteem issues because her identity has for so long been reduced to being a caretaker for elderly relatives, who, inevitably, pass away — leaving her feeling like a failure. In reality, it was thanks to her devotion that they added years of life.

Caballero’s mother was at the Sundance premiere of “TheyDream,” where she witnessed how others saw her through the film she helped her son craft.

“I wanted her to feel like, ‘Mom, look at all these people that are clapping for you. They’re clapping for you because you are a hero. You deserve to hold yourself high and be strong and know that there’s something incredible in your story that’s indicative of the stories of many low-income Americans, regardless of race,’” Caballero says, visibly moved.

A prolific and highly regarded artist (he is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow), Caballero has several other projects in the works that he’s trying to shop around. One of them is an episodic series titled “Second Fiddle,” about a 15-year-old Latino boy who gets accepted to a prestigious summer youth orchestra camp — and whose overbearing mother decides she’s going to stay in the camp with him.

Caballero’s mother, Milly, got the animated treatment in “TheyDream.”

“I never saw a Latino playing violin on TV or the big screen. I didn’t see any quirky, nerdy, artsy Latino kids like I was,” he says. “And I felt in my core that [it] was just wrong and something that I could change.”

Another project, “Raúl Playing Game,” is “an adult version of Pixar’s ‘Inside Out,’ ” that takes place in the mind of a closeted bisexual man. Caballero himself is bisexual. In 2022, “Raúl Playing Game” was selected for the LALIFF Inclusion Fellowship, which provided support for a short film version that serves as proof of concept for a potential TV show.

“I always wanted to make sure that I was telling authentic stories even if not necessarily always positive stories,” he says. “I’m very happy that I never lost track of that. Because I do believe that we need to tell our own stories, in our own unique voices, before someone else does it for us.”

When Compton Unified School Board President Micah Ali checked his mailbox last week, he was in for a shock.

The school district has been making headlines as a state and national leader in student performance gains, and it has been upgrading and replacing its aging campuses to help advance that growth. Next week’s ballot includes a $360-million bond measure called CPT, which would keep that momentum going and replace badly dated Dominguez High School.

So when Ali opened a slate mailer titled “Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ Sample Ballot and Voter Recommendations,” he couldn’t believe her advice on Measure CPT.

Vote “no.”

Given Waters’ stature as a congressional representative for 35 years, Ali said, her slate mailers can swing outcomes.

“Yes, it does carry weight,” Ali said, and the thumbs-down recommendation “can literally cripple our ability to pass this bond.”

Ali was doubly surprised because the mailers went out to voters just a few weeks after Waters attended an unveiling ceremony for the new Compton High School campus. Compton High alums and hip-hop heavyweights Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre joined the celebration, and the latter was honored for his $10-million donation to the new performing arts center.

Lunch tables and a temporary cafeteria are set up outdoors at Dominguez High School because of a fire three years ago.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

A second district high school, Centennial, is being replaced with a modern campus, and district officials are hoping Measure CPT passes so Dominguez students aren’t left behind, but also because the district’s other schools would get multiple upgrades and repairs, from infrastructure to classrooms to athletic fields.

I met with Ali on Wednesday afternoon at Dominguez, along with Principal Caleb Oliver. The school turned 70 this year, and it shows. The grounds are scruffy, wiring and plumbing are outdated, the gymnasium air conditioning hasn’t worked in years. To walk the campus is to step back in time — to the Eisenhower administration.

While we were talking, Oliver called out to a senior named Angelina Ramirez, referring to her as a superstar student. I asked Angelina what kind of upgrades the campus could use.

Dominguez High School Principal Caleb Oliver.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

“Well, I like to use the cafeteria as an example,” she said, pointing to where it used to be.

What happened to it?

“It burned down,” she said. An electrical problem was the suspected cause, her principal added.

That was more than three years ago, and since 2023, the cafeteria has been an outdoor plaza.

“I feel like that’s affected students a lot,” Angelina said.

The big question, of course, is why Waters’ campaign committee — Citizens for Waters — recommended a no vote.

I’d like to tell you why it is that a rapper has written a $10-million check in support of Compton’s students while a congresswoman has told them to go fly a kite. But I’ve asked by phone, text and email, and I still don’t have an answer.

After contacting Citizens for Waters, which referred me to the congresswoman, I called her office and emailed her press office, which sent me this response at 7:43 p.m. Thursday:

“Per US House Ethics rules, we are unable to respond to your request.”

I don’t know what rules those are, but the rulebook needs some rewriting if a congresswoman can’t answer a simple question about why her campaign mailer recommends a no vote on a school bond measure.

“We have no idea, and we’re baffled,” Ali said. “Who would oppose the construction of a new school in a community like Compton?”

In the working-class community, the student population is roughly 84% Latino and 14% Black.

I suggested that Ali consider having students march over to Waters’ district office and ask for an explanation.

“We’d rather have these children’s butts in seats and learning,” Ali said, adding that “we need … to continue driving up these test scores.”

Compton school board candidate Tana McCoy talks to school board President Micah Ali about the mailer.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s not as if there is no reasonable opposition to Measure CPT. These kinds of bonds cost taxpayers real money over the course of many years, and CPT would add about $60 per $100,000 of assessed property to annual tax bills.

That would hit working folks and retirees with an added tax burden of between a few hundred and several hundred dollars a year. And taxpayers have been paying off two previous school improvement bond issues, one passed in 2015 and one in 2022.

In addition to the financial burden, according to district parent Anthonia Limon, who wrote the statement against CPT for the L.A. County sample ballot, safety issues have undermined community trust in district leadership.

“Infrastructure alone does not create safe schools,” Limon wrote.

If Waters has similar concerns, that would be one thing. But to my knowledge, and to Ali’s, there has been no public explanation for recommending a no vote. And when you read the fine print on the slate mailer, which advises voters to “take Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ recommendations with you to vote,” it only raises more questions.

“This document was prepared by Citizens for Waters, not an official party organization. Appearance in this mailer does not necessarily imply endorsement of others appearing in this mailer nor does it imply endorsement of, or opposition to, any issues set forth in this mailer,” it says.

Huh?

Are they endorsements or aren’t they?

The Times reported in 2004 that the rep’s daughter, Karen Waters, “has charged candidates for spots on her mother’s ‘slate mailer,’ a sample ballot that many voters in South Los Angeles use to guide their choices.” Last year, the Waters campaign paid a $68,000 fine for campaign finance law violations following a Federal Election Commission investigation that involved Citizens for Waters.

Rep. Maxine Waters’ slate mailer.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Also in the fine print on the current mailer:

“Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure which is designated by” an asterisk.

So are these endorsements or paid advertisements? There’s an asterisk on nearly every endorsement in the mailer, from city council to governor to judgeships to Measure CPT. The way I read this is that various parties paid for endorsements, but the mailer does not reveal who paid, or how much they ponied up. Such mailers, by the way, are not uncommon in California, according to election law experts.

“I think this is misleading for voters,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley law school. Although he thinks the endorsements are a form of protected free speech, he said this “reflects a very deep problem in our elections with dark money, when we don’t know where the money is coming from.”

On Thursday, I visited Tana McCoy, a Compton High grad and retired city employee who is running for Compton Unified school board. She showed me the slate mailer delivered to her home, but said she’s going to vote yes on CPT despite Waters’ recommendation.

“Children need to feel good about their environment, because that’s all part of their mental health,” McCoy said.

At Dominguez, where graduates have a 96% college acceptance rate, according to district officials, junior Zaiden Ross gave me a tour that included a stop at a gymnasium fountain that he said hasn’t worked in years. Some fountains are dirty, he added, “and some of the pipes on campus produce water that has, like, extremely high amounts of lead and magnesium.”

Student Zaiden Ross demonstrates a nonworking sink in a bathroom on the campus of Dominguez High School in Compton.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Zaiden took me to a classroom to show me water samples he’s still testing. Then we visited the robotics classroom, where he turned on a faucet, and the flow was closer to the color of apple juice than water. The air conditioner was rattling, and teacher G.C. Esiobu, who runs the engineering and robotics club, said there had been an “emergency” fix for a busted system. Zaiden gave me a quick rundown of dated computers and other equipment students use to design drones and robots.

And yet despite all that, a display case was filled with trophies. At competitive meets, Esiobu said, “we have been winning with little or nothing.” With equipment upgrades, she added, “just imagine the level we will go.”

There’s still time, before Tuesday’s election, for Waters to visit Dominguez High and maybe get a tour from Zaiden and Esiobu.

If she does, she might rethink that endorsement.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Two major stars of BBC’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder have formed a close friendship on the set of the hit thriller’s second season

The pair play brothers in the BBC phenomenon’s second season.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder stars Jude Morgan-Collie and Eden Hambelton Davies have revealed they’re now living together after portraying brothers in the BBC drama’s second season.

The popular series based on the books by Holly Black premiered back in 2024 and quickly generated a passionate fanbase, which continued to grow once the first season was released internationally on Netflix.

With millions of fans expected to tune into the second season, now on iPlayer as of Wednesday, 27th May, they’re keen to know more about the show’s stellar cast.

Emma Myers will of course be returning as teenage sleuth Pip Fitz-Amobi, who is now investigating the mysterious disappearance of Jamie Reynolds, portrayed by newcomer Eden Hambelton Davies.

Speaking to Reach ahead of the premiere, the actor revealed he quickly forged a strong bond with his co-star Jude Morgan-Collie, who portrays his younger brother Connor.

“To step into that world that’s already pre-established, I think there’s an expectation that comes with joining an already made cast and you’d expect it to sort of just be work, and it absolutely wasn’t,” he shared.

“It was a fantastic opportunity, I’ve met some people I hope will stay in my life for a very long time, forever. I live with Jude Morgan-Collie, who plays my brother in the show.”

Based on Black’s second novel in the series, Good Girl, Bad Blood, season two darkens the tone this time around with new directors Asim Abbasi and Jill Robertson taking the helm, as well as the author taking on screenwriting duties to ensure the adaptation remains faithful to the gripping source material.

Rather than feeling daunted by the prospect of joining the cast of a highly anticipated second outing, Hambelton Davies reveals he “slot right in” with the ensemble.

“The cast is so well-established with one another,” he went on, “the chemistry is so fantastic, to step into that and be so welcomed in, which I was, it’s impossible not to get an exact understanding of the mood and slot right in, so I felt very welcomed.

“It made the work a lot easier and allowed me to feel more comfortable, but also, as a person, it was such a lovely privilege to be welcomed in as I was.”

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His co-star Morgan-Collie also confirmed their living situation, saying: “It’s very cool. I’ve done another show where I’ve had a sibling [Here We Go], so it’s always really fun to play with that dynamic. And having any family in a show and getting them in the scene is always really fun.”

He also revealed that their friendship started with a misunderstanding: “I remember both of our first days in Bristol for season two, I said ‘let’s go for a brotherly pint’.

“I’ve since learned that he didn’t realise that it was me who texted him and he just thought that someone in the cast had worded something really weirdly. He didn’t realise that I was saying ‘let’s work on this!’

“But I think, as a cast, we’re all really close, and we were very quick to become mates,” he added. “Despite playing my older brother we’re the same age and we’re young adults and we’re living here in a new city, we’re messing about. It’s really good fun and we got a lot of downtime in the evenings so we’re all going out for dinner and stuff. It’s good fun.”

Filming for the second season wasn’t all fun, however, as Morgan-Collie recalled a particularly difficult scene. “I got slammed against the bonnet of a car for a day,” he recalls.

“At first I was like ‘Hell yeah, this is wicked’. Then you very quickly learn… it gets old very quickly.”

Tune into another instalment of the BBC’s enthralling young adult thriller to find out why.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 is available on BBC iPlayer and internationally on Netflix.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven met in Paris to address rising global financial instability triggered by a bond market selloff and concerns over inflation linked to the ongoing conflict involving Iran.

The meeting comes at a time when global bond markets from Tokyo to New York are under pressure, as investors anticipate that higher energy prices could force central banks to maintain or increase interest rates.

Officials are also preparing for a broader discussion on structural global imbalances and coordination ahead of an upcoming G7 leaders summit.

Bond Market Pressure and Inflation Concerns

Bond yields have risen sharply across major economies as investors reassess inflation risks. Markets are increasingly focused on whether rising energy costs will translate into sustained price pressures that limit the ability of central banks to ease policy.

French officials have described the current situation as a correction rather than a crisis, though they acknowledge growing sensitivity around sovereign debt levels and fiscal sustainability.

The volatility has raised concerns particularly in highly debt sensitive economies such as Japan, where bond market movements are closely watched for spillover effects.

Diverging Views Within the G7

Despite the shared concerns, divisions remain among G7 members over how to respond to global economic instability.

European officials have emphasized the need for coordinated, temporary, and targeted responses to market shocks, while acknowledging that consensus with the United States may be difficult.

Some members argue that global economic imbalances are becoming structurally entrenched, with consumption and investment patterns increasingly misaligned across major economies.

Global Imbalances and Structural Concerns

A central focus of the discussions is the growing imbalance in global economic activity. European officials argue that long term trends show excessive consumption in some economies, under consumption in others, and insufficient investment in parts of Europe.

These structural disparities are seen as contributing to persistent trade tensions, capital flow imbalances, and financial market instability.

Officials warn that without coordinated policy responses, these imbalances could eventually lead to more severe market corrections.

Critical Minerals and Supply Chain Strategy

Another key agenda item is the global competition over critical minerals and rare earth supply chains, which are essential for electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and defense technologies.

G7 members are exploring ways to reduce dependence on dominant suppliers, particularly China, through coordinated investment, joint procurement strategies, and diversification of supply chains.

Proposals under discussion include pooled purchasing mechanisms, market monitoring systems, and industrial policy coordination to strengthen supply security.

Analysis

The G7 meeting highlights a convergence of financial instability and geopolitical fragmentation. Rising bond yields and inflation fears are no longer isolated market issues but are now directly linked to geopolitical disruptions in energy supply and global trade routes.

At the same time, disagreements within the G7 reflect deeper structural tensions in the global economy, particularly around debt levels, consumption patterns, and industrial policy priorities.

Efforts to coordinate on critical minerals signal a shift toward more strategic economic alignment among advanced economies, where supply chain security is becoming as important as price stability.

Overall, the meeting underscores a global transition toward a more fragmented and politically driven financial system, where economic coordination is increasingly shaped by geopolitical risk rather than purely market based forces.

With information from Reuters.

Published on
14/05/2026 – 14:35 GMT+2

Long-term US borrowing costs climbed to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis after the Treasury auctioned $25bn (€21.3bn) in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 5.058% on Wednesday, according to the department’s own data.

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The sale came only hours after the US Senate voted to confirm former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as the next chairman, succeeding Jerome Powell.

The auction result immediately complicated the backdrop for Warsh’s arrival at the central bank, underlining the pressure facing policymakers as inflation is rising.

At the time of writing on Thursday, US 30-year bonds are trading at 5.02% while 10-year notes are selling with a yield of 4.44%.

US inflation figures released earlier this week showed consumer prices rose 3.8% from April 2025 as the 10-week Iran war pushed energy costs higher and distanced inflation from the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Producer price data also pointed to persistent underlying cost pressures across the economy, reinforcing expectations that the central bank may struggle to ease monetary policy quickly.

Rising Treasury yields have broad implications for the economy because they influence borrowing costs on mortgages, corporate debt and other forms of credit.

Higher long-term yields can also increase financing costs for the US government at a time when public debt is nearing $40 trillion (€34.1tn).

Investors are increasingly concerned that a combination of resilient economic growth, elevated energy prices and sustained government borrowing could keep inflationary pressures alive despite two years of restrictive monetary policy.

The yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond being auctioned above 5% is a symbolic threshold last reached in 2007 before the onset of the global financial crisis.

While market conditions today differ substantially from that period, the move nonetheless underscores the sharp repricing that has taken place in global bond markets over the past two years.

Kevin Warsh inherits a difficult policy environment

Kevin Warsh takes over the Federal Reserve at a delicate moment for the US economy.

The former Morgan Stanley banker and Fed governor has previously argued in favour of maintaining the central bank’s credibility on inflation, while also signalling support for reforms to the institution’s communication strategy and balance sheet policies.

Warsh’s confirmation comes as financial markets remain divided over how aggressively the Federal Reserve should respond to persistent inflation pressures.

Some investors believe rates may need to stay higher for an extended period, while others warn that maintaining tight monetary conditions for too long could weigh heavily on economic growth and employment.

The main driver of the rise in inflation is the current disruption to global energy markets caused by the Iran war which also leaves the central bank at the mercy of geopolitics and not able to effectively control the situation.

Analysts stated that Wednesday’s Treasury auction illustrated the immediate challenge confronting the incoming Fed chair.

Elevated bond yields can help tighten financial conditions without additional rate increases from the central bank, but they can also amplify risks for heavily indebted households, businesses and the federal government itself.

For Warsh, the market reaction served as an early reminder that restoring confidence on inflation may prove more complicated than simply holding interest rates at restrictive levels.

US President Donald Trump hailed the “cherished bond” between the United States and the United Kingdom as he welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the White House, seeking to mend a rift over issues including the war on Iran.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A U.S. special forces soldier who took part in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be released on bond on charges accusing him of using classified information about the operation to win more than $400,000 in an online prediction market, a federal magistrate said Friday.

The magistrate in North Carolina said he would allow Gannon Ken Van Dyke to be released and told him to report to a New York federal courthouse by Tuesday to continue his case there.

Bearded with arm tattoos, Van Dyke said little during the nearly hourlong hearing, during which he was appointed a federal public defender who declined to comment afterward. The $250,000 unsecured bond did not require Van Dyke to put up any money.

Federal prosecutors say Van Dyke used his access to classified information about the operation to capture Maduro in January to win money on the prediction market site Polymarket.

The sites allow people to trade on almost anything — from the Super Bowl to U.S. elections and even the winners of the TV reality shows.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C., was charged Thursday with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He could face up to 10 years on four of the criminal counts, and up to 20 years on a fifth, the government said Friday. A publicly listed phone number listed for Van Dyke isn’t in service.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved for about a month in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro, according to the New York federal prosecutor’s office. He signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, but prosecutors say he used what he knew to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, said it found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the Justice Department and “cooperated with their investigation.”

Massive profits from well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid in Venezuela and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets.

The sudden rise of these markets has led to growing scrutiny by Congress and state governments. Some lawmakers alarmed by highly specific, well-timed trades on the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran and wagers on President Trump’s next moves have pushed for guardrails against insider trading.

The Trump administration has been supportive of the industry’s expansion. The president’s eldest son is an advisor for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi,, and is a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday that it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces flew into Caracas and seized Maduro.

Van Dyke made a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas.

The bets resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint says.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman.

Robertson writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Allen G. Breed in Raleigh and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.