Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Brussels has said it will build up emergency stockpiles of critical minerals and cable repair kits, as concerns grow over the EU’s vulnerability to attack.
“The EU faces an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape marked by rising geopolitical tensions, including conflict, the mounting impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and hybrid and cyber threats,’’ the European Commission said in a draft document setting out a stockpiling strategy, seen by the Financial Times.
Member states should co-ordinate backup supplies of food, medicines and even nuclear fuel, the EU executive said. It would also accelerate work on EU-level stockpiles of items such as cable repair modules “to ensure prompt recovery from energy or optical cable disruptions” and commodities such as rare earths and permanent magnets, which are crucial for energy and defence systems.
Several instances of potential sabotage to underwater communication cables and gas pipelines in recent years have caused concern about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.
The strategy is part of a wider push by the EU to improve the security and resilience of the 27-country bloc. Last month, General Carsten Breuer, the German chief of defence, warned that Russia could attack an EU member state within the next four years.
The higher-risk environment was driven by ‘‘increased activity from hacktivists, cybercriminals and state-sponsored groups”, the document said.
The EU is also more susceptible than many other regions to the effects of climate change as it is warming twice as fast as the global average. Wildfires in Crete forced 5,000 people to evacuate the island this week.
In a report commissioned by the EU in October, former Finnish president Sauli Niinistö said that security should be considered a “public good” and called for a preparedness mindset.
On stockpiling, he said that Brussels should “define targets to ensure minimum levels of preparedness in different crisis scenarios, including in the event of an armed aggression or the large-scale disruption of global supply chains”.
The EU in March also advised households to stockpile essential supplies to survive at least 72 hours of crisis.
The bloc already maintains a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, a medical evacuation plane, and items such as field hospitals and critical medical supplies across 22 EU countries as part of its emergency response effort for natural disasters.
But the commission said it would establish a “stockpiling network” to improve co-ordination between EU countries. There was “limited common understanding of which essential goods are needed for crisis preparedness against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving risk landscape”, it said in the document.
It would also start compiling regularly updated lists of essential supplies tailored to each region and crisis type. Member states should better incentivise the private sector to help with stockpiling, such as through tax credits, it said.
The bloc should also work with allies on “shared warehousing” and co-ordinate better on managing resources and dual-use infrastructure with Nato.
The need for investment in critical stockpiling would also be considered in proposals for its new multiannual budget, which are due to be put forward later this month.
The draft document is due to be published next week and could change ahead of its presentation.
Investors wondering what to do with their pensions, investments and savings face an uncertain environment on various fronts as the unpredictability of Donald Trump, the US president, shakes up the markets.
Equities have been volatile and the dollar has had its worst start to the year since the 1970s due to uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical events. Fixed income is not playing its usual “stabilising” role in a portfolio to counter inflation concerns, with some wealth managers saying they no longer believe in the traditional 60-40 model of equities versus bonds.
Gold is still seen as a haven but is at a record high price. Cash doesn’t yield as much as it used to, while some investors are pondering the end of US exceptionalism that has helped drive American stocks to record highs.
This has led wealth managers to stress diversification as a way to hedge against the uncertainty and volatility gripping the markets this year.
“You have to think about going into the world more diversified. Is your portfolio really resilient to the increased risk of fat tails [extreme price movements]?” says Justin Onuekwusi, chief investment officer at St James’s Place, the wealth manager.
FT Money looks at various hot topics and speaks to chief investment officers at UK wealth managers to get their views on what investors need to consider when investing for the long term.
Foreign exchange risk
The dollar index has fallen by more than 10 per cent since January, its worst start to the year since the end of the gold-backed Bretton Woods system in 1973. It is currently at its weakest level against rival currencies in more than three years. That poses a threat to investors’ portfolios, many of which have been overweight US equities or using US Treasuries as a safe haven.
Investors have cautioned that Trump’s stop-start tariff war, the US’s huge borrowing needs and concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve have eroded the appeal of the greenback as a haven. Some have even argued that there is a significant threat to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, with demand for other assets such as gold on the rise.
Guy Foster, chief strategist at RBC Brewin Dolphin, says that some clients are, as a result, requesting more hedging in their portfolios against currency swings.
“Some investors who find hedging more difficult may choose to be underweight US equities in case of further dollar weakness, if their reference currency is not in dollars,” adds Caroline Simmons, chief investment officer at Quilter Cheviot, pointing out that while the S&P 500 has a positive return this year in dollar terms, it is negative for sterling investors.
Onuekwusi says currency risk is often overlooked, pointing out that holding non-sterling currencies is the second-biggest driver of risk for sterling-based investors after equities in portfolios.
However, hedging has downsides as well — it is an extra cost, and also means that when currency moves are in your favour you don’t benefit from them as much.
Overall, the outlook for the dollar affects the position wealth managers take in other areas of portfolios, including US and European equities, gold and other safe havens. Onuekwusi argues that US equities are more shielded from the risk of Trumponomics than the dollar and US bonds, as companies have global earnings that aren’t necessarily dictated by US politics.
Is the US still exceptional?
US equities have been a good bet for investors, with the S&P 500 returning more than 100 per cent in the past five years — provided they managed to hold their nerve during the dips. Sharp downward swings occurred during the bear market of 2022 and a period of uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs in April, for example.
The argument for US exceptionalism in financial markets is that US stocks and the economy are more likely to outperform than others. Yet there has been an argument for some time that the US market is both too concentrated on the so-called “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks and overvalued. While wealth managers think the US market will continue to perform well, many are now underweight US equities due in part to concerns over valuation.
Edward Park, chief asset management officer at Evelyn Partners, says the US is still one of the strongest drivers of earnings growth. “I would caution any view that the US equity market dominance is over. It’s a sectoral conversation and a relative conservation and the UK and Europe were undervalued so where we are now is probably fairly priced.”
Ed Smith, co-chief investment officer of Rathbones Investment Management, says that if it were a more typical market environment it would be overweight US equities, but given uncertainty over tariffs and fiscal spending, they are slightly underweight.
Simmons at Quilter Cheviot points out that the US market is still forecast to have higher earnings growth than Europe this year. But she thinks that the extreme outperformance of the US in recent years won’t continue as European economic growth plays catch up. Uncertainties this year, including whether Trump will impose more tariffs on trading partners and his “One Big Beautiful” tax bill, that is expected to increase the deficit, mean Quilter Cheviot is slightly underweight on the US.
Foster says RBC Brewin Dolphin is also slightly underweight US equities, pointing to concerns that Trumponomics will weigh on US returns and certain stocks may be overvalued. However, he argues the bigger force is AI and that the US is the leader in that field, so strategic stock selection is called for. He thinks the companies that will benefit most will be the enablers, such as semiconductor and interconnect companies that help to build AI networks.
Does the 60-40 rule for fixed income still apply?
The role of fixed income in a portfolio is changing, say wealth managers. Traditional portfolio construction theory calls for 60 per cent equities, 40 per cent bonds, as a rough rule of thumb.
Following this theory, bonds are meant to pay a stable income — due to their yields, which move inversely to prices — and they should have a negative correlation with equities, meaning at least one part of your portfolio is doing well at any one time. However, this theory received a knock in 2022, when equity markets performed poorly and inflation also rose, meaning both asset classes suffered at the same time.
Now, managers are not convinced it is the best model for the future. “We think that the golden age of the 60-40 portfolio that lasted from the late 1990s to 2022 is over,” says Smith. With more geopolitical uncertainty ahead, Rathbones has significantly shortened the duration of bonds it buys to just 2.5 years on average. Those shorter-dated bonds, Smith says, still offer a level of negative correlation with equities, so will have a stabilising effect on the portfolio.
Kate Morrissey, head of asset allocation at Evelyn Partners, describes the new normal as more “60 per cent equities and 40 per cent non-equities, rather than fixed income”. That could include hedge funds or gold.
“We’re entering quite a complicated growth-inflation policy rate mix,” she adds. As a result, Evelyn is also limiting its exposure to shorter-dated bonds.
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Foster at RBC Brewin Dolphin describes the current environment as more of a “return to normal” after the financial crisis ushered in an unusual period where investors weren’t prioritising fighting inflation. Now, he says, “You’re less confident your bond element will perform well when equities perform badly.”
SJP’s Onuekwusi argues that bonds are attractive compared to equities on a risk-adjusted basis, but he recommends spreading rate risk across different regions, to avoid the impact of one country having a wobble.
Simmons argues that fixed income still has a “risk off” and diversification role, but since 2022 it no longer works as an inflation hedge. It’s also relatively cheap, she argues. “The valuation of fixed income is really attractive at the moment, so if the shocks don’t happen you still get a decent return, which you weren’t getting pre-2022.”
Many wealth managers say they are underweight corporate bonds, however, as they remain expensive relative to government and index-linked bonds, with the compensation for taking credit risk not as high as it should be given economic uncertainty.
Is it a good time to buy UK equities?
UK equities have not fared nearly as well as the US market since the pandemic, returning just over 40 per cent. Pension funds have been reducing their exposure to the UK, leading to efforts by the government to encourage more domestic investment. Global investors shunned UK assets after Brexit, though there is starting to be a reallocation — and wealth managers say the UK looks cheap after its unloved period.
“UK equities are really quite attractive relative to other markets,” notes Onuekwusi, pointing to political stability as one point in their favour. “It’s unlikely we’ll have five prime ministers in the next five years.”
“UK stocks look pretty good value,” agrees Foster.
While asset owners who sold UK equities after Brexit are starting to come back and investors look at where to reallocate their overweight in the US, Onuekwusi says the UK stock market is still underowned. But given that three-quarters of FTSE 100 revenue comes from overseas, he adds: “We do like UK equities, which is different from saying we like the UK economy.”
Simmons has a similar caveat: “It’s cheap for a reason, because it’s got lower growth.”
Some wealth managers caution against thinking about country specific allocations. Morrissey argues that the rotation from the US to Europe and the UK is not about the relative macro outlook for the regions, but about the composition of the markets and a move from growth to value stocks.
Yet wealth managers are divided over how much of an overweight, if any, UK investors should have in their home market.
UK wealth managers are on average overexposed to domestic equities, holding between 20-30 per cent in UK stocks, compared to just under 4 per cent on the MSCI World.
Smith at Rathbones thinks this is about right, arguing that sterling-based clients should have about 20-25 per cent of overall equity exposure in the UK.
Others are not so sure. Evelyn Partners has been reducing its UK exposure over recent years. It now stands at about a fifth, less than its peers. But in the coming years Park says he expects they will move more towards the MSCI World weighting.
“Time has shown that a global approach is best for clients,” says Morrissey.
Is gold the best safe haven asset?
Central banks have been buying gold in record levels due to concerns over dollar strength and geopolitical instability, leading to the metal overtaking the euro as the second-largest reserve holding behind the US currency.
The theory that gold protects against inflation and outperforms when other markets are going south has helped the price hit record highs.
RBC Brewin Dolphin is positive on gold, though it has reduced its overweight this year. “Gold has been a beneficiary of de-dollarisation and other precious metals don’t offer the same dynamics,” says Foster.
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Morrissey says gold remains “an excellent diversifier” in a portfolio. The diversification in reserves away from the dollar supports the price, she argues, while it also takes tail risk away from big global market events such as wars.
Evelyn Partners is overweight gold, holding 4.5 per cent across its portfolios, compared to what it believes is 2 per cent across the wider wealth management industry.
Yet wealth managers are divided over whether the gold price is a sign of overvalue or of a structural shift in demand. Smith at Rathbones thinks increased demand from sovereign wealth funds and other institutions is likely to stay.
But Simmons at Quilter Cheviot argues that a lot of gold buyers come from the retail space, which can be “fickle”. While the precious metal feels like a safe haven to retail investors, she says, “the problem is it is very hard to forecast as it’s not adhering to normal drivers”.
Onuekwusi agrees that gold is hard to value. “It’s really hard to make a case for gold as a new investment today, given how much it’s moved and how quickly.”
What other assets might protect my portfolio?
Some wealth managers are using hedge funds as a diversifier in the face of inflation risk. Relative value or event-driven hedge funds look to benefit from corporate activity or mismatches in valuation between assets, so they can make returns even when the macro outlook worsens.
Macro or CTA hedge funds, which follow a big trend such as the dollar weakening, can generate performance even if it causes other assets to suffer. Quilter Cheviot buys both types of hedge fund for this reason.
Along with macro hedge funds, Evelyn uses gold as one of its main portfolio stabilisers in place of fixed income. Meanwhile with the dollar proving more volatile, others such as SJP are using the Japanese yen as a haven when equity markets fall.
When banker Louis-Auguste Cézanne bought the Jas de Bouffan mansion and park outside Aix-en-Provence in 1859, he assumed his only son would follow him into the family business and enjoy the place as a county retreat. He never dreamt that within a year the grand salon would be a studio, covered with violent, clumsy, bizarre images, and in the central alcove his own impasto portrait: fierce, unyielding face in profile, engrossed in his newspaper, austerely indifferent to his son’s paintings. A decade after the patriarch’s death, Paul Cézanne still introduced guests to “le papa” glowering on that wall.
Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan at Aix’s Musée Granet is riveting and revelatory from the moment of its opening coup: reuniting a dozen murals which Cézanne in his twenties painted directly on to the salon walls. Not seen together since 1907, when they began to be removed panel by panel, sold and dispersed worldwide, they range from “Bather and Rocks”, a tough, ungainly nude holding up a boulder against a torrent, acquired by Walter Chrysler, to classical figure allegories “The Four Seasons”. They are a prism into a young mind turbulent but already forging his path: taking from tradition to make painting new.
Unfolding how he did so, the show is, of course, ravishing. Rilke wrote of landscapes “made with the blue of the air, the blue of the sea and red roofs conversing together against a green ground”; to see these paintings in Aix is to understand Cézanne’s visceral connection to reality, even as he transformed nature, places he walked, swam, climbed, into near-abstract forms: modern art’s foundational story.
Many radiant pieces demonstrate that formal process: “House at Bellevue”, a geometric arrangement of honey-hued stone walls, steps, terraces, rows of pines; massive, angular orange cliffs below a strip of purple sky and blurred treetops in “The Bibémus Quarry”; proto-cubist houses rising above the water in “The Sea at L’Estaque”, once owned by Picasso.
A room in the exhibiton ‘Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan’ at Aix’s Musée Granet
A majestic, surging “Mont St Victoire”, sun sculpting the close-up mountain face into patches of light and shadow, found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s Nazi-era collection, makes its debut in a Cézanne show. Illuminating juxtapositions include paired “Grove at Jas de Bouffan” paintings, dense in 1871, luminous, freer, in 1875-76, demonstrating impressionism’s influence, and two splendid architectonic harmonies of variegated greens and ochres on an open plain: the Courtauld’s “Tall Trees at Jas de Bouffan” (1883), airy and rustling, and the Guggenheim’s “Neighbourhood of Jas de Bouffan” (1885-87) sombre, receding into emptiness, imbued with resignation.
The Granet’s argument, that just as Provence’s landscape shaped Cézanne, so the Roman city Aix and the 18th-century Jas were pivotal to his sensibility, poised between classicism and modernity, is amplified in a wider summer festival Cézanne 2025. It offers trails to the Jas, restored following a long closure, the studio Les Lauves and, for the brave, descent to the Bibémus rocks. So biography becomes immersive experience, with rewarding discoveries. In 2023, conservators at the Jas unveiled a fragmented unknown Cézanne, “Harbour Entrance” (1860), aping Claude’s port scenes. Also uncovered was a graceful plaster relief of Leda and the Swan, part of the house’s original decor; Cézanne passed it daily — inspiration, we see now, for his quirky painting of the same subject.
In his privileged salon, Cézanne both embraced and fought the Jas’s classical sumptuousness. Across the Granet’s downstairs galleries, fantasies such as “Game of Hide and Seek” (1862-64), imitating a Nicolas Lancret fête galante, alternate with rough, near-expressionist portraits in his early couillard (ballsy) manner, paint slathered on with a knife.
His schoolmate Émile Zola, poor, fatherless and physically weedy, looks particularly despondent, but all the friends — poet Antony Valabrègue, geologist Antoine-Fortune Marion — from Cézanne’s precious youthful coterie appear dark, introspective, downcast. “Paul is a horrible painter,” Valabrègue groaned. “Every time he paints one of his friends it seems as if he were avenging himself for some hidden injury”.
Looming over this evocative gathering is a second paternal portrait, fearful, affectionate: “The Artist’s Father, Reading L’Evenement” — a leftwing newspaper, employing young Zola. Louis-Auguste would not have touched it. Nor did he care for the picture depicted at his shoulder, and on display alongside: “Sugar Bowl, Pears and Blue Cup”, built from thick paint scrapings, crustily refusing convention, proclaiming independence.
Not until after his father’s death in 1886 did Cézanne dare his sole full-frontal view of the Jas. “House and Farm at Jas de Bouffan” (1885-87), from Prague, is the centrepiece of the upstairs landscape galleries, its monumental facade slightly swaying, the blue shutters echoing the clarity of the sky, offset by a brilliant red roof. Earlier depictions, as beautiful, are comparably hesitant: “The House at the Jas de Bouffan”, obscured by trees; “The Pool at Jas de Bouffan” playing with impressionist reflections on water.
From 1887, until he was forced to sell it in 1899, the Jas became Cézanne’s laboratory for three final grand series, all musing on painterly illusion: bathers, still lives, portraits of the estate’s workers.
Friezes of compressed female figures in broken outlines merge with landscape, echoing its slopes, mounds, trees, in “Bathers”: stylised imaginings of Mediterranean unity recalling Poussin, anticipating Matisse. The gauche young friends return, transmuted into awkwardly wading, undressing, reclining youths in “Bathers at Rest”.
“Still Life with Cherries and Apricots” and “Still Life with Apples and Melon”, ripe, rich, oozing, represent the French art of pleasure at its apogee, even as shifting viewpoints, tilting objects, bare areas of canvas — “Kitchen Table”, MoMA’s “Still Life with Apples” — assert painting as artifice.
Finally come “the people of Jas de Bouffan”, grave, humane, fateful. “The Card Players”’ columnar forms, emphatically separate, exist in contemplative, flickering equilibrium. Buttoned into a geometrically pleated blue dress “Woman with a Coffee Pot”, bearing work-hardened hands, is as rigid as her cafetière. Reserved in expression, lively in the restless strokes and dabs of colour, “Man with Crossed Arms” also has crossed eyes, one seen from above, one from below.
In “Peasant in a Blue Smock”, 1896-97, Cézanne at the Jas comes full circle: the worker, stoic, dignified, pensive, poses before a folding screen painted by Cézanne in 1859 with an 18th-century pastoral couple. In this painting of a painting, the peasant, weighty and substantial, is placed to obscure the screen man and imply that the sketchy screen woman, faceless, translucent, is his reverie of youth. Both express Cézanne’s hopes of art as eternal.
“Today everything is changing, but not for me,” he wrote shortly before he died. “I live in the town of my boyhood, and I rediscover the past in the faces of the people of my own age . . . who obey the rules of time”.
To October 12, museegranet-aixenprovence.fr, cezanne2025.com
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Our bodies are unique and how often we poop varies from person to person.
Symptoms such as bloating or hard stools may indicate that you are not going to the bathroom frequently enough.
Staying hydrated, exercising regularly, getting enough fiber and stressing less can help you stay regular.
When it comes to gut health, most people probably assume that pooping every day is the goal. However, experts agree that you can have a healthy gut and not poop every day. Since every body is a little different, not everyone goes No. 2 with the same frequency.
“It’s not bad if you don’t poop everyday, because we all have a different version of normal. If we think of pooping like taking out the trash, then you want to be sure that you’re doing it regularly. So while you may not poop every day, it’s important that there is regularity,” says Amanda Sauceda, M.S., RDN.
If you’ve ever been worried that you aren’t pooping every day, read on to find out why not pooping daily may not be such a bad thing and how to recognize when it may be a problem.
Is It Bad If You Don’t Poop Every Day?
No, you don’t have to poop every day and your gut can still be in tip-top shape. “Bowel habits are variable within the general population. Suppose a person has between three bowel movements per week and three per day, with soft, formed stools and minimal defecatory symptoms. In that case, this is considered within the range of normal bowel patterns,” says Sandhya Shukla, M.D. Shukla goes on to add that there are no negative physiological consequences for otherwise healthy people if you aren’t going No. 2 daily.
So why is there so much variability when it comes to “normal” bowel habits? Several factors influence how frequently a person poops, including diet, hydration, stress, certain medications and activity levels.
What Happens Inside Your Body?
The moment we take a bite of food or a sip of a beverage, our digestive system begins breaking down the food into essential nutrients. So while you may not go No. 2 every day, there is plenty happening in your gut behind the scenes. As waste is formed, it collects in the colon until your body signals that it’s time to head to the bathroom.
However, if you aren’t pooping regularly, you may start to notice some uncomfortable symptoms. First, there’s gas and bloating. Jenna Volpe, RDN, LD, CLT, shares that when stool remains in the intestines, it can ferment, leading to increased gas or bloating. Research suggests that the composition of your gut microbiome may play a role; individuals prone to constipation often have different strains of bacteria present in their gut microbiome compared to healthy individuals.
In addition to the potential for gas and bloating, you may experience dry and hard stools. “When you aren’t pooping regularly you will be more prone to dry, hard stools. This can mean that when you do poop you may notice that you’re struggling a bit, which puts more pressure on your pelvic floor and can lead to developing hemorrhoids and/or anal fissures,” says Sauceda.
So, if pooping is our body’s natural means of eliminating waste, does skipping a day or two allow it to become toxic? While this is a popular selling point for colon cleanses, there isn’t scientific evidence to back up the theory that your poop can poison your body if you aren’t pooping daily. Your microbiome, which is a key player in your immune system, is well-equipped to protect you. In fact, colon cleanses may sweep away the good gut bacteria you need to support healthy bowel habits.
When Skipping Poops Does Become a Problem
While “regular” can mean something slightly different for everyone, healthy bowel movements should meet these criteria: “A healthy, normal consistency (but not too hard), brown in color and about 6 to 12 inches long and 1 to 2 inches in diameter (resembling a sausage or a peeled banana),” says Volpe.
On the other hand, skipping a poop becomes a problem if it has been longer than three days and you are starting to feel uncomfortable. The most common symptoms indicating that you’re not pooping often enough include bloating, excess gas and stools that are hard, dry or difficult to pass. Fortunately, you can address a sluggish digestive system with a few small changes to your diet or lifestyle.
5 Tips to Get Things Moving
If you aren’t pooping regularly, here are a few tips from our experts that can help you get things moving again.
Hydrate: “We all know to eat more fiber, but don’t discount water. While fiber is critical to get things moving, we have to help it along by staying hydrated. If you aren’t drinking enough water, then you can make constipation worse,” says Sauceda.
Manage Your Stress: “Stress can also slow things down in the gut, so addressing the stress can help get things moving. There is a strong connection between the mind and the gut, so if your mind is stressed, that can translate to a stressed gut,” says Sauceda.
Focus on Fiber: “Incorporating fiber-rich foods (such as fresh fruit, veggies or functional foods like chia seeds and/or ground flaxseeds) into the diet can go a long way to help get things moving in most cases,” says Volpe. She adds that you’ll want to make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids when adding more fiber to your diet.
Move Your Body: “Movement and moderate exercise can also help to promote healthy gut motility and regular bowel movements,” says Volpe. “It doesn’t have to be anything too extreme or intense—even 20 minutes of walking each day (or most days) can make a big difference in gut motility!”
Supplement When Needed: If you have tried increasing your fiber and fluid intake as well as being more active, and you’re still feeling backed up, supplements may help. Shukla notes that magnesium or prune juice are good options for getting things moving again.
3-Day Meal Plan to Help You Poop, Created by a Dietitian
When to See a Health Care Provider
Since everyone’s “normal” bowel habits are different, research has found it’s more important to look out for changes in your normal pooping schedule. For example, not going to the bathroom regularly for two weeks or longer is a strong indicator that you should follow up with your doctor. “The red flag symptoms or warning signs that may indicate a more serious underlying condition in a patient presenting with constipation include rectal bleeding, blood mixed in the stool, unexplained weight loss, iron-deficiency anemia, a sudden or significant change in bowel habits, a change in stool caliber and a strong family history of colorectal cancer. The presence of any of these features should prompt further evaluation, typically with colonoscopy, to exclude colorectal malignancy or other serious pathology,” says Shukla.
Our Expert Take
It’s a common misconception that you need to poop every day for optimal gut health. Everyone goes to the bathroom on a different schedule; the key is to recognize what’s normal for you and take note if you’re experiencing discomfort. Symptoms like bloating or hard stools are indicators that you aren’t going to the bathroom frequently enough, and it may be time to adjust your diet or activity to promote regular bowel movements.
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
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Hurdle Word 1 hint
An advantage.
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Hurdle Word 1 answer
ASSET
Hurdle Word 2 hint
To splash.
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Hurdle Word 2 Answer
SLOSH
Hurdle Word 3 hint
Where one might plant a kiss.
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Hurdle Word 3 answer
CHEEK
Hurdle Word 4 hint
A slope.
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Hurdle Word 4 answer
SLANT
Final Hurdle hint
A loather.
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Hurdle Word 5 answer
HATER
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
In the age of self-help, self-improvement and self-obsession, there have never been more places to look to for guidance. Where the anxious and the uncertain might have once consulted a search engine for answers, now we can engage in a seemingly meaningful discussion about our problems with ChatGPT. Or, if you’re in China, DeepSeek.
To some, though, it feels as if our ancestors knew more about life than we do. Or at least, they knew how to look for them. And so it is that scores of young Chinese are turning to ancient forms of divination to find out what the future holds. In the past couple of years, fortune-telling bars have been popping up in China’s cities, offering drinks and snacks alongside xuanxue, or spiritualism. The trend makes sense: China’s economy is struggling, and although consumers are saving their pennies, going out for a drink is cheaper than other forms of retail therapy or an actual therapist. With a deep-rooted culture of mysticism that blends Daoist, Buddhist and folk practices, which have defied decades of the government trying to stamp out superstitious beliefs, for many Chinese people, turning to the unseen makes perfect sense.
Fortune telling sticks, or qiuqian, in a Beijing bar. Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian
This week, I decided to join them.
My xuanxue haunt of choice is Qie Le, a newly opened bar in Beijing’s wealthy Chaoyang district. On a Thursday evening, the bar, adorned with yellow Taoist talismans and draped translucent curtains, is quiet. All the better for hogging the fortune-teller’s attention with questions from my deep wells of narcissism. But Wan Mo, either because of her spiritual intuition or because I am not the first self-involved millennial to seek her services, sees me coming a mile off. It’s strictly one question per drink bought.
Wan Mo, a stylish 36-year-old dressed in a loose white Tang-style jacket fastened with traditional Chinese knots, specialises in qiuqian, or Chinese lottery sticks. The practice involves shaking a cylindrical wooden container full of wooden sticks, while focusing on a question in your mind. Eventually, one of the sticks, engraved with text and numerals, falls out, and a fortune-teller can interpret the answer. Qiuqian dates back to the Jin dynasty (AD266 to AD420) and has survived centuries of war, upheaval, a Cultural Revolution and the rise of artificial intelligence to remain a stalwart of Taoist temples, and now, Beijing cocktail bars.
So I’m hoping that qiuqian will be well placed to answer my first question: Will AI take my job?
“Use both hands,” Wan Mo says firmly. She is a no-nonsense savant. “Focus on your question.” She tells me that as a foreigner, my connection with the sticks might not be as profound as a Chinese person’s. So I need to “think carefully”.
After a few seconds of focused yet vigorous shaking, not one but two sticks drop on to the table between us.
Wan Mo studies the first one. “This stick means that later on, AI will have an impact on your job … even though you’re very talented, you can’t compete with its scale. For example, if you write one article, it can write 10. It will definitely affect you.”
Qie Le, a newly opened bar in Beijing’s wealthy Chaoyang district. Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian
This is not the spiritual salve I was hoping for. Wan Mo tells me that the second stick even provides a timeline for my professional redundancy. “It says that within one to three years, there won’t be a major impact. But after three years, AI will become a major force.”
Wan Mo’s predictions don’t leave me full of hope for my next question. But in the spirit of xuanxue, I decide to try my luck again, and order another round. We take a brief break for Wan Mo to have a cigarette break and catch up with a friend who has wandered into the bar. His chipper demeanour makes me think that he is yet to discover that AI will take his job – or he’s just made his peace with it.
Eventually I muster up enough liquid courage to ask my second question. Wan Mo’s stern demeanour sends a slight chill through my hands as I grasp the qiuqian box for the second time. Shake, shake, shake. Think, think, think. A single wooden stick falls out of the container.
“Will I get a pay rise?” I ask, tentatively. The answer comes unnervingly quickly.
“There’s not much possibility at the moment. Although [the stick] is about transition … it shows there is no major change … There is some hope, but it’s not immediate. You need to make some personal adjustments.”
I ask what kind of personal adjustments I could make, hoping that she won’t make me order another drink to find out.
The fortune table at Qie Le in Beijing. Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian
“If you want a pay rise, xuanxue can only offer support,” she demurs. “For example, the bracelet I’m wearing is for attracting wealth. It’s made from natural materials … we’d recommend wearing something like this. It can help bring in some financial luck and may have a positive effect. But the most important thing is still communicating with the superiors.”
I am not sure if she means my spiritual or editorial superiors. But with that my time is up. Wan Mo’s friend says that everyone comes to Qie Le with the same kinds of questions: how to get rich, stay healthy, find love. I feel as if all I’ve discovered is how dim my chances are on the first question, and it’s getting too late to ask the second and third. I slink off home to get some sleep before my early start the next day. I bet AI doesn’t have to worry about feeling tired.
NATPAT’s new animated series NATPAT Pals represents an organic brand extension that transforms the company’s child-focused wellness philosophy into engaging storytelling. Departing from conventional marketing tactics, the YouTube series builds an original fantasy universe inspired by real customer experiences and the founders’ personal lives, with characters named after their children and pets.
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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) injected a total of Rs13 trillion into the banking system through conventional and Shariah-compliant Open Market Operations (OMOs) on July 4, 2025, in a move aimed at maintaining short-term liquidity.
According to official data, the conventional OMO injection amounted to Rs12.647 trillion, accepted at a return rate of 11.03%, with most of the liquidity injected via 14-day tenor instruments.
In parallel, the central bank conducted a Shariah-compliant Mudarabah-based OMO, injecting an additional Rs361.6 billion through 7-day and 14-day instruments at return rates of 11.11% and 11.10%, respectively.
This large-scale liquidity operation reflects massive rupee circulation and an inflationary environment that erodes public buying power.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee posted a slight decline against the US dollar in the interbank market on Friday, slipping by 0.04%. By the day’s close, the local currency was quoted at 283.97, down by 11 paisas from the previous session’s closing rate of 283.86.
Moreover, gold prices in Pakistan declined on Friday, primarily due to subdued local demand amid Ashura-related closures, even as international bullion markets witnessed a rebound driven by a softer US dollar and renewed safe-haven inflows ahead of potential trade policy moves by former US President Donald Trump.
According to data released by the All-Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association (APGJSA), the price of gold per tola dropped by Rs1,500, settling at Rs355,500. Similarly, the rate for 10 grams of gold fell by Rs1,286 to Rs304,783.
The dip in domestic prices contrasts with gains earlier in the week. On Tuesday, gold had risen by Rs800 per tola, reaching Rs357,000.
Adnan Agar, Director at Interactive Commodities, explained that global market activity remained subdued due to a bank holiday in the United States. “The market is relatively inactive today, with gold trading between $3,325 and $3,344 per ounce. Current levels are hovering around $3,332,” he noted.
Agar added that volatility is expected to return next week when markets reopen, particularly as attention turns to the US president’s reinstatement of trade tariffs.
Jayden Seales ripped out the opening batters to reduce Australia’s second innings to 12-2 and lead over West Indies to 45 runs on day two of the second Test on Friday.
The West Indies’ first innings almost lasted the entire day, but it was all out for 253 — 33 runs behind Australia — which left a tricky half-hour in the day.
The hosts made it as hostile as possible and preyed on Australia’s nervous top order.
Seales bowled Sam Konstas for a duck in the first over and almost claimed Cameron Green on the next ball. Green barely fended off Seales and was fortunate the ball dropped in front of second slip.
Seales then got a nip-backer to trap Usman Khawaja plumb on two. Khawaja’s video review showed it was going to hit middle stump.
Nathan Lyon came in as the nightwatchman, and he and Green just made it to stumps. On the penultimate ball, Lyon took an Alzarri Joseph delivery into his left bicep. He needed on-field treatment.
Seales had two from five from three overs, including a maiden.
For Konstas, it was his third single-digit score in four innings on tour. Opening partner Khawaja has scored 47, 15, 16 and 2. Before that, he had 0 and 6 in the World Test Championship final. No. 3 Green is also still looking for a morale-boosting score.
The West Indies have their own top-order issues.
Kraigg Brathwaite was out for a duck in his first innings in his 100th Test, caught and bowled by Josh Hazlewood in the first over.
Keacy Carty went the same way on 6 to Pat Cummins, and John Campbell wasted a good start of 40 when he skewed Beau Webster to mid-on.
It took Brandon King’s maiden Test half-century and the tailenders’ 73 invaluable runs for the West Indies to get close to Australia’s 286.
The West Indies was 174-7 after lunch, still more than 100 behind, but the Nos. 8-11 batters — notably Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph, not related — frustrated the Australians for 25 overs and led the West Indies past 200 and 250.
King and captain Roston Chase, who took 18 balls to get off the mark, rebuilt West Indies from 64-3 to a confident 110-3 by lunch.
Chase was out straight after lunch, trapped on 16 by Hazlewood after Australia reviewed.
But King lofted Hazlewood for six over square leg, then his seventh boundary brought up his 50 off 77 balls, his first 50 in his second Test and West Indies’ first 50 in the series.
King waltzed down the track to hit Lyon for another couple of sixes as his partnership with Shai Hope began to flourish.
But Cummins ended their 58-run stand when he bowled Hope on 21, and King fell in the next over, nicking Lyon behind. King laboured for 75 off 108 balls with eight boundaries and three sixes.
A third wicket in four overs, Justin Greaves, tumbled West Indies to 174 for seven.
But the Josephs made it to tea and kept going for 51 runs together. Alzarri scored 27 and Shamar 29. Last pair Anderson Phillip and Seales resisted for another nearly 11 overs for 16 runs.
All six Australian bowlers took wickets; Lyon led with three for 75.
