Latest news with #J
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
I'm going on holiday with another Zoe. Am I going to need a new name?
It's weird that it should happen for the first time so late in life, but next week I'm going on holiday with someone else called Zoe. I wasn't particularly worried about it, since it's generally easy enough to distinguish who is meant by the context, even when two people are the same age and do exactly the same things, as you will know if your name is Ben. In this case, the other Zoe is a teenager, so it will immediately be obvious who's who, as our activities will scarcely overlap. Any Zoe who has made a serious error – lost someone else's passport, backed into a tree – will be me and any Zoe who has forgotten her swimming costume or wants to go paddleboarding will be her. 'You haven't thought this through,' said my friend J. 'You're obviously going to be Big Zoe. You should start getting used to it now. By day four, you'll probably just be Big 'Un.' I did not like this idea. I also think the other Zoe is taller than me, especially since my height has cascaded, via the march of time and some lying when I was young, from 5ft 10in (178cm) to 5ft 8in. Young people are much, much taller than this now. 'Would you rather be Old Zoe?' asked J. There is no right answer to this, because if I insisted upon being the default, so we were Zoe and Young Zoe, that would still make me old. The director of the Vagina Museum in London has the whole same name as me; when I need to disambiguate from her, I go with 'non-vagina Zoe Williams', but this would take a bit of unpacking. I wouldn't mind Wise Zoe, but I don't think I'd get away with it (see passports, trees). 'Could I be Woke Zoe?' I suggested. J mocked me for ages, because I don't even know the meaning of the word compared with a woke teen, which puts me – surprisingly – in the same bracket as the rest of society. I may just go without a name for the week. It's surprising how much you can do without on holiday. I almost never remember a swimming costume. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jacobs Solutions Stock: Is J Underperforming the Industrial Sector?
Jacobs Solutions Inc. (J), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a leading technical professional services provider. With a market cap of $15.3 billion, the company offers engineering and construction services, as well as scientific and specialty consulting for a broad range of clients including companies, organizations, and government agencies. Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as 'large-cap stocks,' and Jacobs Solutions perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the engineering & construction industry. Jacobs Solutions' market leadership stems from its comprehensive service offerings, robust brand, and diversified sector expertise, spanning water, transportation, healthcare, technology, and chemicals. 2 Outstanding Stocks Under $50 to Buy and Hold Now 3 ETFs with Dividend Yields of 12% or Higher for Your Income Portfolio Nvidia's Bringing Sovereign AI to Germany. Should You Buy NVDA Stock Here? Our exclusive Barchart Brief newsletter is your FREE midday guide to what's moving stocks, sectors, and investor sentiment - delivered right when you need the info most. Subscribe today! Despite its notable strength, J shares slipped 15.4% from their 52-week high of $150.54, achieved on Nov. 13, 2024. Over the past three months, J stock has gained 4%, underperforming the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund's (XLI) 7.8% gains during the same time frame. In the longer term, shares of J dipped 4.7% on a YTD basis but climbed 8.4% over the past 52 weeks, underperforming XLI's YTD gains of 7.9% and 15.5% returns over the last year. To confirm the bearish trend, J has been trading below its 200-day moving average since late February. However, the stock is trading above its 50-day moving average since late April, with slight fluctuations. J's underperformance is due to a mark-to-market loss on their investment in Amentum, resulting in lower earnings. On May 6, J shares closed down more than 6% after reporting its Q2 results. Its adjusted EPS of $1.43 topped Wall Street expectations of $1.41. The company's adjusted revenue stood at $2.1 billion, up 3.1% year over year. J expects full-year adjusted EPS in the range of $5.85 to $6.20. In the competitive arena of engineering & construction, TopBuild Corp. (BLD) has taken the lead over J, showing resilience with 4.3% loss on a YTD basis. However, BLD shares lagged behind the stock with a 27.6% downtick over the past 52 weeks. Wall Street analysts are moderately bullish on J's prospects. The stock has a consensus 'Moderate Buy' rating from the 15 analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $144.04 suggests a potential upside of 13.1% from current price levels. On the date of publication, Neha Panjwani did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Malay Mail
08-06-2025
- Malay Mail
‘I really hate him for what he did': Wife at the centre of Singapore's shocking rape ring case speaks out
SINGAPORE, June 8 — After years of silence, the survivor of a deeply disturbing rape case in Singapore involving her husband and six other men shared her story with The Straits Times in the hope of helping others. Annie (not her real name) used to break down reading her husband's letters from prison. Now, she barely glances at them. 'I don't love him anymore,' she said quietly. 'I've let go and moved on.' Her husband, known only as 'J' in court reports, is at the heart of one of Singapore's most disturbing sex crime cases: a calculated and brutal scheme where four men drugged their wives and allowed others to rape them. Annie was the first known victim — and the woman at the centre of it all. J, who recruited the most accomplices, drugged Annie and facilitated her rape by five men, one of whom attacked her on their wedding anniversary. She told her story to The Straits Times twice — first in 2024 and again in May 2025 on camera. The pain was raw. 'I really hate him for making me go through this,' she said through tears. 'But I tell myself I have to go on.' Annie met J in 2008 at a karaoke bar. She was in her 20s, drawn in by his humour and charm. Within months, she was pregnant and reluctantly married him. 'I told him, 'I don't feel secure with you,'' she recalled. He promised he had changed. But shortly after their first child was born, Annie discovered he had been checking into hotels regularly. At first, he lied, then claimed a woman was 'just giving massages.' She forgave him, wanting to keep the family intact. 'I didn't want my child to grow up in a broken home,' said Annie, who had been raised by a single mother. But the cycle repeated. Even during her second pregnancy, she caught J lying about his whereabouts. Eventually, Annie herself had a brief affair — something J would later use to justify his actions. Unbeknownst to her, J had already been planning her violation, exchanging fantasies with a man she had contacted briefly online. 'He even gave him details about me — where I studied, what drinks I liked,' she said. 'Everything was so nicely plotted. I thought it was my fault.' There were signs. J installed a camera in their bedroom, supposedly to watch their children — but later shared access online, where strangers watched them have sex. Another time, he called someone to listen in as they were intimate. Annie was furious. Her mother-in-law slapped J and told him: 'This is your wife, not some prostitute.' Annie suggested counselling, but gave up when only group therapy was available. 'I just felt hopeful,' she said. 'I wanted a happy family.' He remained outwardly devoted to their children and successful in his job, so she kept forgiving him. Everything unravelled on New Year's Day in 2020. Annie came home from a party and found sexually explicit messages on J's phone, including photos of herself — blindfolded and unconscious. 'I felt very blank. I couldn't believe he had done this to me,' she said. She confronted him, but he refused to explain. Her family urged her to go to the police. At first, she didn't — afraid of what it might mean for her children. Later, she confronted one of the men mentioned in the chat, referred to as 'K', and he admitted to raping her. Her sister filmed the exchange. That was when Annie finally filed a police report. 'I was afraid my children would become victims too if he wasn't arrested.' J and K were arrested on January 2, 2020. As police investigations progressed, Annie discovered the true extent of the betrayal. J had orchestrated multiple rapes, drugging her with Dormicum pills bought illegally. He photographed her unconscious body and shared the images with his accomplices. 'I couldn't imagine someone I loved doing this to me,' she said. 'The only 'lucky' thing was that I wasn't awake for the assaults.' Looking back, she recalled waking up groggy and disoriented, her underwear missing, and wondering why she was taking so many pills. 'He said it was medicine I asked for,' she said. She also recognised some of her assailants — one had flirted with her online; another had joined her and J for drinks, making her feel uneasy. Annie's case helped expose the harrowing crimes committed by her husband and six other men, all of whom have since been convicted. Now in her 40s, she's focused on rebuilding her life and raising her children. She speaks out not for sympathy, but to ensure others know such abuse can happen — even within a marriage. 'I want women to know this kind of thing really happens,' she said. 'And they're not alone.'
CBC
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Q&A: How this Guelph author's research on World War II led to writing her 2nd novel
Social Sharing When aspiring writer Samara moved with her boyfriend J. to the little town of Upton Bay to write a story, she wasn't expecting to discover that behind the town's charming facade is a dark history. That's the premise of Guelph author Karen Smythe's new book A Town With No Noise. The novel will have its official launch next month. Smythe joined CBC K-W's The Morning Edition g uest host Josette Lafleur to talk about her inspiration and her writing process. Audio of this interview can be found at the bottom of this story. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Josette Lafleur: Tell us a little bit more about A Town With No Noise and what readers can expect. Karen Smythe: Well, the book is about two fictional small towns actually, and it's told in two parts. The first part of the book focuses on Upton Bay, which is… a southern Ontario pretty town that is very attractive to tourists. Part two is actually set back in World War II in Norway. But the link is the narrator, whose name is Sam. She's an aspiring writer. She's on assignment in Upton Bay. She's to write an article about the town. The novel opens with Sam traveling to Upton Bay with her boyfriend. His name is J. and they stay with J.'s grandfather, who's a German immigrant. And while there, she does uncover some secrets about the town, including its treatment of migrant workers, but also about J.'s family and its past in Nazi Germany. Then the novel becomes focused on Sam's investigation of her own family's past in occupied Norway. She becomes much more interested in researching and writing about what happened in Norway under the German occupation. So there are lots of surprises in that part of the book also. Lafleur: So what inspired you to write this book? Smythe: Well, I started out writing the book about a town like Upton Bay. There were so many stories that I wanted to tell about the people who lived there and the changes that the town had undergone, from becoming an agricultural area gradually transitioning into kind of a winery destination and a tourism hotspot. But as I was writing and developing characters, the one character who kind of took over for me in terms of the story line was J.'s grandfather, Otto, who had immigrated just after WW II to Canada. And the stories that I was uncovering as I was thinking about and researching, that aspect of that character kind of turned into more of a wide research into WW II. My narrator, Sam, had a Norwegian family background, so the research took off from there, and that's how the book kind of evolved and became what it is. Lafleur: What else did you learn during your research? Because you do combine fiction and nonfiction in this novel. Smythe: So the novel is kind of a hybrid, especially in part two of fact and fiction. When I was researching about the Norwegian experience under German occupation, I discovered a lot of things that I hadn't known. I do have a family background based in Norway. My grandparents on my mother's side immigrated to Canada from Norway, and I hadn't heard about any of the things that I discovered about the war, Norway, and what it was like for not only my family and Norwegians in general but also that the Jewish population in Norway. So it was kind of surprising and shocking to me to learn about how the Holocaust took place in Norway, as well as in other countries in Europe during the war. Lafleur: So Sam almost sounds like you. Smythe: She is – and she isn't. She's a young woman and she is aspiring to be a writer, but she's not a fiction writer. She's more of an investigator, and so she's more interested in writing about history and writing about social issues and things like that. In the book, she changes the course of her future by shifting her career as well. She doesn't become me by any means. Lafleur: The Norwegian connection as well. It does sound like there's a little bit of inspiration there. Smythe: Yeah, although the stories about Norway are completely imagined. None of my family experience is what is experienced by the characters in my novel. But certainly a lot of the research I did uncovered a lot of stories that did happen to people exactly the way they happen in the novel, but they're fictionalized. Lafleur: So Karen, this is your second full length novel. You are usually prone to writing short stories, and they're included in a compilation of short stories called Stubborn Bones. What's your process when you're preparing a short story opposed to a longer novel? Smythe: That's a great question. When I'm writing short stories, which I haven't done for many years, I have been focusing on the novel, but when I'm writing short stories, I'm very alert to details. And as I'm writing stories, I'm always making notes about very specific images, sounds, and details. When you're writing a novel, those things are important and do come into the writing process for sure, but the scope is so much larger. So in my process for writing a novel, I also have notes and keep track of all kinds of thoughts and ideas and images, but also map out a story line and the characters. I put a big white sheet on the wall with markers, and make maps kind of the shape of the novel and how the characters are interconnected. So that's, I guess that would be a general way of describing the difference. The short stories are much more narrow and focused versus the timelines that happen in the novels. Lafleur: So what do you hope readers take away when they pick up A Town With No Noise? Smythe: I think I want them to realize that how we think about the past and remember the past is not always what you think and that it's really important to understand how history is written and remembered. So the novel is not only about these characters and these towns and these stories, but it's about how history is written and how history and memory get passed down through the generations. Lafleur: So what's next for you, Karen? Are you sticking with longform or are you doing more short stories? Smythe: I'm kind of doing a little bit of both. I have some ideas percolating for short stories, but I also have another novel that I'm polishing off and some ideas for yet another one after that. So lots of stuff going on, not exactly sure which one I'm going to tackle first.
AsiaOne
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- AsiaOne
Gossip mill: Wife of veteran Hong Kong actor Ai Wai dies of liver disease, Kwon Yul announces wedding, Shinee's new single has same name as late Jonghyun's final album
Veteran Hong Kong actor Ai Wai's wife Lisa Chan died on May 18 from liver disease while waiting for a transplant. She was 61. According to Hong Kong media, she suffered from complications related to polycystic liver and kidney disease and, in 2015, had surgery to remove a 6kg uterine tumour. Following the surgery, fluid reportedly built up in her liver and kidneys, leading to her liver function decreasing to 20 per cent. Ai Wai, known for his roles in Running Out of Time (1999), Flash Point (2007) and Hooked on You (2007), made an appeal on Facebook on May 10 after Chan was hospitalised. The 66-year-old wrote: "My wife's condition is critical, and she was put on the waiting list for a liver transplant about two months ago. Unfortunately, there is still no suitable liver, and all her young family members are not healthy enough. "Now I can only do my best. I would like to appeal here, hoping that there are kind-hearted people willing to donate. Hong Kong's liver transplant technology is very mature now, and the risk of accidents to donors is as low as one to two per cent... I would be very grateful." However, Chan was transferred to the ICU after contracting a bacterial infection and developing fluid in her abdomen, according to TVB Entertainment News. She succumbed to her illness at around 1pm on May 18. The couple married in 2002. They separated in 2020 over her mahjong addiction, but reunited two years later. Kwon Yul announces wedding [embed] South Korean actor Kwon Yul is about to get married. Earlier today, his agency J,wide-Company released a statement announcing the good news. "Actor Kwon Yul has met a precious person with whom he wishes to spend the rest of his life, and the two will be tying the knot on May 24," they wrote. "Out of consideration for the non-celebrity bride-to-be and both families, the wedding will be held privately at a location in Seoul. "We ask for your warm blessings and support for actor Kwon Yul who is about to embark on a new chapter in life. Kwon Yul will continue to greet [audiences] through various projects as an actor, showing his best on screen. Thank you." Kwon Yul, 42, made his acting debut in 2007's Mackerel Run. His acting credits include My Fair Lady (2009), Dali & Cocky Prince (2021) and My Sweet Mobster (2024). Shinee's new single has same name as late Jonghyun's final album [embed] K-pop boy band Shinee is set to release a new single on May 25 that shares the same name as late member Jonghyun's final album: Poet | Artist. The day also marks the group's 17th debut anniversary. Shinee posted a trailer for the upcoming project that included mascots of all the members, including Jonghyun, earning comments of "Shinee is five" and "5hinee" from fans. Jonghyun died in December 2017 from suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, and his album Poet | Artist was released posthumously the next month. [embed] The plushies are included with the upcoming release, and fans were also heartened to find out that while each living member "holds" their plushie on the packaging, Jonghyun's plushie is "held" by the other four members: Onew, Key, Minho and Taemin. Shinee is also holding a three-day concert between May 23 and 25 in Seoul to commemorate their anniversary. [embed] Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444 Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019 Institute of Mental Health's Mental Health Helpline: 6389-2222 Silver Ribbon: 6386-1928 Tinkle Friend: 1800-274-4788 Community Health Assessment Team: 6493-6500/1 Counselling TOUCHline (Counselling): 1800-377-2252 TOUCH Care Line (for seniors, caregivers): 6804-6555 Care Corner Counselling Centre (Mandarin): 1800-353-5800 Online resources [[nid:717827]] drimac@
