London-based Napier AI announces more than 100 jobs at new Belfast office
Once the jobs are filled, Napier AI said it will contribute almost £5m in additional salaries to the Northern Ireland economy.
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The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Money issues? The financial psychotherapist will see you now
I am surprised that Vicky Reynal, a financial psychotherapist, is soft and reaffirming when I meet her. Perhaps I shouldn't be – she is a therapist, after all. But something about her line of work, helping people untangle their issues with money, had primed me to expect someone more brisk, more clinical. I think of how many business executives she meets with, how prohibitively expensive her time must be, and how strong her boundaries probably are. I even panic at the thought of logging into our Zoom meeting one minute late, because time, after all, is money. Reynal, I'm sure, would find this compelling. She believes that we often have thoughts and feelings about money that actually have nothing to do with cold, hard cash, and everything to do with our earliest emotional experiences, deepest yearnings or misgivings. It can be frustrating, then, that Reynal won't talk much about herself. I'm genuinely curious – especially when I ask about her fascination with Warren Buffett, whom she has read extensively about and once met in person. She admits she was drawn to him growing up, but offers only vague hints as to why: references to formative financial experiences and the symbolic weight he held within her family, though she declines to elaborate. As a psychotherapist, she tries to obscure her own life from her clients, to prevent it obstructing their process. Anonymity, it turns out, is a very good therapeutic tool. 'People try to guess where I'm from, and their guesses tell me so much about their internal world. Some people who have very strict and ungiving parents guess that maybe I'm eastern European, because of how cold they perceive me to be. Others guess I am Mediterranean or South American – from a warm country – because of how loving and giving [they think] I am.' When Reynal was younger and went through therapy herself, she had a transformative experience working through some of the feelings about money. This, she thought, must be an area ripe for psychotherapeutic practice. But after nearly a decade studying psychology and psychotherapy, she was surprised to find that only a handful of research papers and textbooks directly focus on it. 'I thought, 'Wait a minute, we are talking about our relationship with food, with sex, with people, why aren't we talking about people's relationship with money?' It comes in the therapy room anyway, because it's part of leading a life and people get into all sorts of messes because of it – and as therapists we have the lens to understand that.' When Reynal began to explicitly market herself as a financial psychotherapist, she was suddenly overwhelmed by patients queueing up to talk to her. Her inbox was full of emails from would-be clients, telling her how relieved they were to find her. 'They were saying: 'I didn't know a money psychotherapist existed, and I need your help,'' she says. She sees some clients on a concession fee or a reduced rate, as they may be unemployed or struggling with debt. But others don't need it. These are patients who know what they need to do when it comes to money on a rational level, but they just can't bring themselves to do it: the client who obsessively buys shoes, or the one that can't bring himself to buy basic things like a coat in the winter, because he feels a deep and bewildering desire to deny himself nice things – despite having more than ample means to buy them. Others have more than enough cash, but can't find contentment. They come to her thinking: 'Maybe you won't judge me, for being wealthy and yet unhappy.' Finances are central to how we relate to the world. The way we deal with our income affects our families, shapes our conversations with partners, and can cast long shadows over our relationship to our parents. But as with so much in therapy, when people think they are coming to talk about money, it is actually not about the money at all. And beneath all that, it often reflects the lessons we absorbed growing up. 'It's just a language that we use, because I think it's easier to say: 'You are being stingy,' than to say: 'I wish you were more affectionate with me,' or 'I don't feel you love me enough,' or 'I love you more than you love me,'' says Reynal. She also meets clients who are struggling to make ends meet, who have the sense that they are being childish and impulsive with money – they feel belittled by the way that they spend. When Reynal raises this, I can't help but wonder whether her clients attach those negative descriptions to themselves because in the US and the UK, poverty is often described as being about bad choices rather than broader economic conditions. Most of us can point to relationships in our lives – certainly with ourselves – where the way in which we spend serves as a proxy for something deeper. The colleague who is a constant under-tipper, who feels hard done by despite always contributing least to the bill; the sibling who works like a dog but can never, ever ask for a raise; the friend who constantly feels on the edge of financial ruin, despite having more than enough. So what are the subconscious motivators beneath these interactions? Reynal will often see clients who come in to talk to her about one thing: for example, a recurring frustration that they are always too generous and give far beyond their means, even to the point that it leaves them feeling resentful and angry; which in turn leads to a conversation about people pleasing and where the urge to put others' needs first came from in their life. Those behaviours, it turns out – just like infidelity or drug use, or any of the more obvious topics that we associate with therapy – may originate from a time in our lives when we felt unsatisfied. An incredibly generous person might have struggled to fit in during their teenage years, while another's hunger for wealth might be due to an unmet need to be loved by their caregiver as a baby or feeling constantly rejected or dismissed as a child. 'They are non-obvious links on the surface … but they help us get to the real longing underneath, the real unmet desire.' Her practice has helped her understand broader shifts, too. She remains shocked at how social media use has led to an unprecedented level of lifestyle inflation. People are no longer comparing their lives with their neighbours, but to totally unattainable lifestyles displayed by people paid to look rich. 'There's this manic level of social comparison,' she says. 'People begin to believe that everyone has more money than they do. A lot of clients of mine are men who come under an enormous amount of pressure because they have taken on mortgages bigger than they could afford or cars that they couldn't afford. They have to accept that they have failed against their own standards, or the shame of not being able to provide what their family wanted or was hoping for.' In some ways, it's no surprise that many of her clients feel a sense of relief after finding her. These kinds of struggles aren't often met with much sympathy – especially in an economy where so many are simply trying to make ends meet. 'There's this idea that is quite common that money will fix everything. And of course, if you are struggling to pay your bills, money would make that better. But to make the leap that if people have money they must be happy, or they have no right to be unhappy – that's a big leap,' she says. She lists many of the ways that people struggle with wealth. Some clients have more than their families did, and self-sabotage as a result, perhaps believing they don't deserve it. They don't invoice clients properly for work, or feel guilty when there's a lot of money in their account. Others spend money extravagantly, almost to rid themselves of it. And in the therapy room she often learns about how the stories clients have heard growing up affect them: if their families thought of wealth as immoral or greedy, for example, what does that say about them if they become wealthy? But Reynal also stresses the many stabilizing and positive relationships people have with money – like feeling empowered after years of struggle, or wanting to be financially independent because it is freeing. 'It's not about stripping emotions out of financial decisions,' she says. 'It's about becoming aware of them.' In that sense, she invites readers to be inquisitive about their own attitudes towards money, how they spend it, and where their own beliefs about financial security come from. 'We can't all afford therapy. But opening up that curiosity can be enough: why am I buying this thing? Or why am I feeling guilty about spending money on that thing, if I have enough for it? What's the longing behind that?' she says. Some may think there are just a number of different ways to split the bill. But for those who look deeper, they may just find out something new about themselves.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Judge tells divorcee to pay her ex-husband half the £160,000 cost of his trans surgery in millionaire couple's court battle
A judge has ordered a divorcee to pay half of her ex-husband's £160,000 trans surgery bill. In what is thought to be the first case of its kind, the judge said the surgery was a 'need' and not a 'whim' - meaning it was 'reasonable' for the couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to split the cost. The wife, 60, claimed her husband's decision to transition led to the breakdown of the their marriage and therefore unfair for her to shell out £80,000 for the procedure. During the hearing at Brighton Family Court, the husband, 58, argued 'it would be like saying someone who had cancer should not have the surgery and that accordingly the cost of that surgery should be met from joint funds'. The pair first met in London in the late 1990s while working in the financial sector before marrying in 2002, when the husband was living as a man. Twenty years later, in 2022, the husband revealed to his wife he was 'intending to 'transition to a woman' and 'commenced hormone therapy at that stage', the judge said. The wife started divorce proceedings two months later, the Telegraph reports. The couple had accumulated £3million in joint assets during their marriage and were described as having a 'very international lifestyle living in several countries in different continents and purchasing properties in various countries'. They shared two children, who are now at university after they were privately educated. The husband's surgery took place in 2024, after the couple had separated for two years, and was paid using their joint money. The £160,00 cost was at the centre of the legal dispute, which is understood to have cost the couple almost £1 million in legal fees. During the separation, the husband claimed he could not afford to pay the court-ordered maintenance to his wife and children. However, the husband, who has retrained as a massage therapist and Reiki practitioner, spent £14,000 on an Amex card in one month 'mainly on clothing, nails, jewellery and restaurants' and got £13,000 worth of tattoos in six months He argued his surgery should be 'treated in the way of any other medical costs which would ordinarily be met from the joint assets'. In his ruling the judge said that the husband, who says his wife always knew he was tran, had provided medical evidence of gender dysphoria which had caused 'significant anxiety, depression and distress'. The wife said in her evidence that 'she was not aware that the respondent wished to transition until the end of the marriage'. She added it was 'devastating and a big surprise' and was 'deeply shocked' when her husband 'stated that she intended to live her new life as a lesbian woman'. She argued that the surgery costs should be paid out of his personal asset, saying that it was unfair she had to stump up the money as the decision to transition 'caused the end of the marriage'. The husband responded: 'You marry a trans person. You live with a trans person. You benefit from a trans person. They are suicidal and you support them.' Judge Stuart Farquhar said that while 'this has been a hugely difficult and emotionally draining experience' for the trans woman, the husband had 'shown no understanding whatsoever that her decision to transition to a woman has had an impact on anyone else, and particularly' his ex-wife. However, he said the court could 'not consider the reasons that a marriage broke down within financial remedy proceedings'. He said he was satisfied the 'surgery was meeting a genuine and deep-felt medical/psychological need' and not 'carried out as a whim'. The judge therefore ruled it was 'reasonable' for the money to be spent 'out of joint resources'.
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Lab-grown cheese is coming – but would you eat it?
In an unassuming building in Stratford, east London, British start-up Better Dairy is making cheese that has never seen an udder, which it argues tastes like the real is one of a handful of companies around the world hoping to bring lab-grown cheese to our dinner tables in the next few there has been a trend away from meat-free foods recently, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).The statutory research organisation says that plant-based cheese sales across the UK declined 25.6% in the first quarter of 2025, while sales of cow's cheese grew by 3%.One reason for this, the AHDB tells the BBC, might be because the number of vegans in Britain is small – just 1% of the population (the Vegan Society puts it at 3%), far fewer than the amount of dairy cheese eaters – and has slightly declined Vegan Society insists that the meat-free food market remains "competitive" and steady. Other reasons may be concerns about health and price. A recent government survey found that that food being ultra-processed - a key challenge with vegan cheese - was the second-greatest concern for consumers, the first being cost. Plant-based cheese is generally more expensive than cow's cheese, the AHDB are these efforts a recipe for success or disaster? Some think the coming years present an the Netherlands, Those Vegan Cowboys expects to bring its cheeses to the US later this year, and Europe in three to four years due to regulatory hurdles. This is because lab-made cheeses count as a "novel food" and so need EU approval to go on chief executive, Hille van der Kaa, admits the appetite for vegan cheese is low right now, but her company is targeting a "silent revolution" by swapping cheeses people don't often think about."If you buy frozen pizza, you don't really think of what kind of cheese is on that," she explains. "So it's quite easy to swap."Meanwhile, French firm Standing Ovation plans on launching in the US next year, and in the UK and Europe in back in Stratford, London-based Better Dairy hasn't launched its lab-grown cheese yet because it would cost too much right chief executive Jevan Nagarajah plans to launch in three or four years, when he hopes the price will be closer to those seen in a cheesemonger, before getting it down to the sorts seen in a supermarket. So does it taste any good?Better Dairy invited me – a committed carnivore and dairy devotee – to its lab to poke holes in this new the company is only making cheddar because it sees vegan hard cheeses as having the biggest "quality gap" to dairy cheeses. It has made blue cheese, mozzarella and soft cheese, but argues the proteins in dairy don't make as big a difference in process starts with yeast that has been genetically modified to produce casein, the key protein in milk, instead of alcohol. Jevan says this is the same technique used to produce insulin without having to harvest it from companies also use bacteria or fungi to produce the casein is made through this precision fermentation, it is mixed with plant-based fat and the other components of milk needed for cheese, and then the traditional cheese-making process tried Better Dairy's three-month, six-month and 12-month aged cheddars, I can say they tasted closer to the real thing than anything else I've tried. The younger cheese was perhaps a bit more rubbery than usual, and the older ones more obviously salty. On a burger, the cheese melted well. Jevan accepts there's room to improve. He says the cheese I tried was made in his lab, but in future wants artisanal cheesemakers to use the firm's non-dairy "milk" in their own labs to improve the the company cannot use dairy fats, it has had to "optimise" plant-derived fats to make them taste better."If you've experienced plant-based cheeses, a lot of them have off flavours, and typically it comes from trying to use nut-based or coconut fats – and they impart flavours that aren't normally in there," Better Dairy scientist Kate Royle Those Vegan Cowboys is still focusing on easy-to-replace cheeses, like those on pizzas and burgers, while Standing Ovation says its casein can make a range of cheeses including these new cheeses find their match?It'll be a tall order. Of those who bought vegan cheese on the market in the past year, 40% did not buy it again, according to an AHDB survey – suggesting taste may be a Watson from the Vegan Society points out that resemblance to the real thing may not even be a good thing."Some vegans want the taste and texture of their food to be like meat, fish or dairy, and others want something completely different," he tells Judith Bryans, chief executive of industry body Dairy UK, thinks the status quo will remain strong."There's no evidence to suggest that the addition of lab-grown products would take away from the existing market, and it remains to be seen where these products would fit in from a consumer perception and price point of view," she tells the BBC. But both Better Dairy and Those Vegan Cowboys tout partnerships with cheese producers to scale up production and keep costs down, while Standing Ovation has already struck a partnership with Bel (makers of BabyBel).Standing Ovation's CEO Yvan Chardonnens characterises the recent unpopularity as a first wave in the vegan "analogues" of cheese faltering because of quality, while he hopes that will improve in the next the current concerns about a shrinking vegan market, taste, quality and price, the issue of ultra-processed foods is one that these companies may have to grapple argue a lack of lactose, no cholesterol and lower amounts of saturated fats in lab-made cheese can boost its health benefits - and that any cheese is fermentation may also allow producers to strip out many ultra-processed elements of current vegan suggests it's a question of perception. People have a "romanticised view" of dairy farming, she says, despite it now being "totally industrialised" - a point backed by AHDB polling, which found 71% of consumers see dairy as natural."I wouldn't say that's really a traditional, natural type of food," Hille argues."We do have an important task to show people how cheese is made nowadays."
