Latest news with #Veronica
The Irish Sun
19 hours ago
- General
- The Irish Sun
I'm a gardening pro – this is exact amount of seconds to water plants for during a heatwave & the best time of day
It's been really hot this week and the plants are really feeling it. High temperatures can cause wilting, leaf scorch, stunted growth and a reduced ability to photosynthesis. 2 Let your lawn go brown - if its healthy it should grow back 2 Check there's no hosepipe ban in your area - if there is use a watering can Credit: Getty There' s all sorts of way you can reduce the pressure on the plants to cope. If you've got plants in pots - move them into the shade - and group them together - so they give each other protection. Water early in the morning before it starts getting really hot - so it doesn't all evaporate - or if that's not an option - when the sun's gone down. However morning is the best option - as slugs move around at night and love the damp soil. Read More Gardening It's best to give them a really good soaking once or twice a week rather than a light water daily. And experts reckon you should count to between 20 and 25 seconds as you water each plant - to make sure the water soaks down through the soil to the roots. It's not what we want - but there's no problem with letting your Raise your mower's cutting level and let the cuttings fall as Most read in Fabulous Keep Save and store any 6 ways to get rid of slugs and snails Or you could splash out on a You could also set up an irrigation system - although these are costly - but a leaky hose can work just as well. Choose drought tolerant plants like Agapanthus, Lavender, Geums and hardy Geraniums. Also in Veronica's Gardening Column this week... The best new plants on the market - plus a competition to win a Lawncare flower bundle A BRAND new cherry tree called Japanese Lantern has won the prestigious From growers The winners were… Annuals, Tender Perennials: LaBella Dahlia Grande Chocolate Rose - from Cacti & Succulents: Cotyledon Green Footprint - from Flowering Houseplants: Cyclamen persicum Super Serie Dragon Deep Blue - from Foliage Houseplants: Calathea 'Velvet Glory' - from Herbaceous Perennials : Hosta 'Silly String' - from Shrubs (including Conifers): Hydrangea Zeta Noir - from Trees Prunus Sumaura Fugenzo Japanese Lantern - from Frank P Mathews Ltd (BEST IN SHOW) WIN! Our friends at NEWS! Dragon's Den OG Theo Paphitus has launched a new online garden centre at JOB OF THE WEEK Pinch out the tips of fuchsia to encourage more flowers. Pick sweet peas to get more blooms. Stake tall perennials like Goura, deadhead spent geraniums, For more tips and news, follow me
Elle
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Step Into Lorena Pipenco's Wild, Wonderful Universe
Lorena Pipenco has always been bold and imaginative, more at home with bright colors and maximalist patterns than basic black and white. The 24-year-old graduate of the Parsons School of Design creates collections that pop with layered texture, theatrical structure, and absurdist proportions—and there's always a strong storyline, too. Unsurprisingly, musicians love her work: She dressed Karol G for her tour and has outfitted Doja Cat's dancers. Pipenco's debut collection was inspired by the 1972 Romanian musical Veronica, a movie she loved as a kid. What she thought was whimsical, Pipenco now recognizes as propaganda. For fall 2025, she reimagined the tale of Dracula, fantasizing about what the women in the vampire's life might have been like and what they would have worn. There's real tension between appreciating a classic and critiquing it through a modern lens, and this space is where Pipenco thrives. Likewise, the designer sees fashion as a means to explore the cultural tug-of-war she felt growing up in the U.K. with Romanian roots. When she was younger, she remembers 'feeling quite ashamed of my heritage,' she says. There's that theme of tension again, that pull between feeling ostracized by peers and the desire to be proud of where she came from. As she's started collaborating with her mother and grandmother (a lifelong seamstress), Pipenco has grown to embrace her background and now even sources textiles from her motherland. 'I want to be a Romanian brand. I want there to be space to push my culture, and for people to feel connected to two different heritages. I think it's important to have these stories within fashion.' Whether she's making pop culture commentary or expressing a personal reckoning, Pipenco offers a universal mantra: Two things can be true at once. As for her next big inspiration, she's still trying to work that out. It might be 'grannycore,' but then again, it could be linen. Either way, it's sure to be entirely her own. 'When it comes to the collections, I really try to block out the noise of what other people are doing. It just gets in your head. If I'm not working on my collection, I'm doing things that are completely unrelated, like watching reality TV or just really silly things.' Because I know you're curious—'silly things' include karaoke three times per week. (ABBA, often, but she's looking to refresh her repertoire.) No matter what this emerging star dreams up next, you can be Lorena Pipenco will stay true to herself.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why investors should avoid 'over-risking' in equities right now
Wells Fargo's (WFC) Investment Institute released its 2025 mid-year outlook last week, offering insights for investors. Veronica Willis, Wells Fargo Investment Institute global investment strategist, joins Morning Brief to explain the report's findings, why investors should stay positioned in small-cap and mid-cap equities, and where she's seeing opportunity. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. It is time now for today's strategy session. Wells Fargo's Investment Institute, releasing its 2025 mid-year outlook with insight and guidance for investors, joining me now, we've got Veronica Willis. Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Global Investment Strategist, Veronica, great to see you, thanks so much for hopping on after the opening bell, walk us through some of the key takeaways from that report. Yeah, absolutely. One major key takeaway in our outlook is that through 2026 we're expecting stock market um to move higher. There's going to be some volatility this year. There are a lot of economic, geopolitical and policy uncertainties that are going to contribute to some market volatility this year. We think through 2026 as the economy growth reaccelerates, we are going to see those higher stock prices and so we're really focused on keeping investors invested in the market at this point. And so with that in mind, one of the notes that I was looking at is your views and how you're evaluating this entire outlook, uh across periods of volatility that are being expected here. You mentioned within this outlook, viewing further periods of volatility as an opportunity to lean into equities, to position for the gains that you expect through 2026. What does that mean in terms of an asset class that you would be looking to and and kind of over indexing towards? That's right. So we want to be selective in that equity space and we're focusing on quality. So we like the large cap and the mid cap space over small caps, and we like developed markets over emerging markets. So thinking about moving a little bit up in quality, not over risking within the equity space. So on those down days when the market pulls back, that's where we want to add exposure, the US um large cap space and the mid cap space. And then if you're underweight any in an international space, adding to developed over adding to emerging markets. You know, we had one of our guests earlier um from Ritholtz Wealth uh Kelly Cox who had said that a lot of executives may not need to actually come out swinging and say, hey, everything is now fine, when in fact, everything is not very much fine. Tariff trouble, as you know, within your own outlook as well, that's still going to persist. And so with that persistence, what is the likelihood that in this next earnings season to begin in a couple weeks, that we actually have even more or any type of clarity from and a C-suite across corporate America that is trying to best figure out, okay, how long could this linger and be a headwind to our own results? Yeah, I think we're likely to see another earnings quarter where, you know, companies are reiterating caution or a lot of uncertainty still related to tariffs. I think with the rebounds from the April lows with the market, we might have been lulled into a false sense of security around the tariffs, but the fact remains that a lot of things are still unsettled. We've got that, you know, mid-July deadline for, you know, reimplementation of some tariffs. Potentially we might see some trade deals between now and then, but uh the fact remains that that's still an uncertainty. And so we could at the start of this, you know, Q2 earnings season, start to see some companies still a little bit uncertain, not quite knowing what to do with forward guidance. And so as I'm looking through some of the top five things that you're looking for in top five portfolio ideas for the balance of 2025, one of the things that jumped out to me was how you're looking across some of not just the policy uncertainty, but then also trying to figure out where within this diversification strategy, investors could potentially see some outperformance. And we had actually a viewer that commented to one of our conversations last week on Twitter saying, where have there been surprising elements of resilience even in the diversification strategy right now? Where have you been seeing that? Yeah, I think what we've been seeing is a bit of strength in the international space. So so far this year, developed markets, XUS, equities have really picked up the slack where other um equity markets have, you know, disappointed. We haven't fully recovered from that pullback in the US markets and so had you had that developed market exposure as a part of a globally diversified allocation, would have helped a lot during that pullback that we saw earlier this year. We are continuing to expect some volatility that's going to be pretty much US-centric, and so continuing to have that developed market exposure is a good idea for this year. And what do you expect of the long tail of the generative AI trade to look like in all of that? Yeah, we think with AI, it's been thought of as only a tech story, but we think that there are some other sectors that are really going to benefit from the um AI space. So communication services in particular, industrials and energy, we think are all other sectors that are going to benefit really well. Those companies are going to be able to, you know, utilize AI or they're, you know, a part of the supply chain for providing the energy necessary for generative AI. And so we think, you know, don't just focus on the tech sector, which we are still favorable on, but broadening that out into some of these other sectors is going to be a really good way to play the AI trade. Veronica, always great to grab some time and insights from you. Thank you. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Push for major road rule change affecting hundreds of thousands of Aussies
Calls are mounting from within the nation's capital to reduce speed limits in school zones and across high pedestrianised areas, amid a rise in "near-misses". The push comes as several other jurisdictions around the country look to make similar changes, with safety experts insisting decreased limits also significantly reduce the likelihood of serious injuries in crashes. In the ACT this week, concerned mum Veronica said a car zoomed by her in a school zone when she had her "sons in a pram" and "daughter standing right next to me". Veronica is pushing for major reform across the territory in school zones, including wombat crossings. It comes amid mounting calls across the jurisdiction to lower speed limits from 40 to 30 kilometres an hour in school zones. "I think it would make a huge difference, because it would make the area more welcoming to pedestrians," she told the ABC. "Speed bumps are not close enough to the crossing, and we may need more of them. A wombat crossing [raised zebra crossing]… would really help because it would force cars to slow down right before they got to where children are." Across the country, various local councils have already implemented speed reductions in school zones and high pedestrian areas, including the bustling inner-city suburbs of Fitzroy and Collingwood in Melbourne, and other major hubs such as Manly and Parramatta in Sydney. In both NSW and Victoria, proposals have recently been made to broaden these rules. Peter Frazer OAM, whose daughter was killed by a distracted truck driver, is one fierce advocate for reduced speed limits. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, he argues that lower speeds significantly improve safety outcomes. "People continue to speed through zones, putting our most vulnerable at risk," Peter said. "When we consider that 40 per cent of all fatalities are also associated with speed, if we were just to concentrate on this number for the next 12 months and get it down by 40 per cent, that would equate to about 550 fewer people being killed nationally." At 30 km/h, the risk of a pedestrian being killed if hit by a car drops dramatically compared to higher speeds — a key reason health and road safety experts support the change. Slower speeds also create a more liveable environment, encouraging walking, cycling, and local commerce. In areas such as school zones, shopping strips, and densely populated residential streets, reduced speed limits are seen as a simple and effective way to prevent serious injuries and fatalities while improving the overall experience for all road users. In the ACT school zones apply between 8 am and 4 pm, Monday to Friday, during school terms. In most other states and territories in Australia, including NSW, Victoria and South Australia, standard school zone speed limits are 40 km/h. But in some parts of Queensland, they're as high as 60 km/h. Veronica said she's been pushing for changes in ACT school zones, but so far, nothing has shifted. "I've had a near-miss myself... they were supposed to stop at those crossings when the flags are out… they didn't," she said. Dr James Thompson, a road safety expert at the Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR), led a significant study assessing vehicle speeds in school zones across the ACT. The research, published this year, aimed to evaluate current speed compliance and its implications for child safety in these areas. The study's findings underscored the necessity for stricter speed regulations to enhance pedestrian safety. It revealed that while the existing 40 km/h speed limit in ACT school zones is a positive measure, compliance rates were not optimal, and the actual speeds often exceeded this limit. The study recommended that the ACT government consider implementing a 30 km/h speed limit in school zones to align with best practices in road safety. 🚙 Major road rule changes coming into effect on July 1 across Australia 💰 Little-known road rule with $600 fine shocks Aussie drivers 🚘 Drivers warned major road rule change with $961 fines 'just weeks' away This recommendation is supported by broader evidence indicating that lower speed limits in high-pedestrian areas, such as school zones, can substantially reduce the severity of accidents and enhance overall safety. For instance, a study by the Monash University Accident Research Centre found that reducing speed limits to 30 km/h in high-pedestrian activity areas could reduce crashes resulting in serious injury by up to 50 per cent. The full report, "Vehicle speeds through school zones in the Australian Capital Territory," is available for public access and provides detailed insights into the study's methodology and findings. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
The Irish Sun
14-06-2025
- General
- The Irish Sun
I'm a gardening pro – my easy steps – including a £2.25 Dunelm trick – will banish garden pests like aphids this summer
WE may well be seeing lower slug and snail numbers this summer thanks to colder weather in winter and the recent dry spells. But mother nature never makes it easy for us. Instead - of course - there's a new pest in town. Advertisement 2 RHS members have found aphids to be the biggest problem this year Credit: Getty 2 Adam Woolcott told Sun Gardening how to get rid of garden pests Credit: Supplied There's over 500 different species found in the UK - and can be red, yellow, black, green, brown or pink. They feed by sucking sap from Chelsea award winning gardener Advertisement Read More Gardening APHIDS Physically remove the Use natural insecticidal soaps. Blast off with water jets. Encourage predators such as ladybirds, lacewings, and hoverflies VINE WEEVIL Both the adult Adults — all female — chew distinctive 'U-shaped' notches in leaves, particularly on evergreen shrubs like rhododendrons, escallonias, and viburnums. Underground: larvae feed on plant roots and can kill container plants like Heucheras. Remove adults at night when they're most active Break the life cycle with biological controls such as nematodes (apply in spring and autumn when grubs are active) Chemical treatments are a last resort, but offer longer-term control LILY BEETLE The bright red beetles and their larvae are both covered in their excrement. They can strip a plant in days, affecting flowering and bulb health. Remove beetles by hand where practical Encourage wildlife into the garden. Birds and ground beetles will eat the larvae Grow a resistant variety. Tolerate some damage if you can — total eradication isn't always necessary. Advertisement Most read in Fabulous CATERPILLARS Especially troublesome in veg patches. Cabbage white butterfly Remove the caterpillars by hand if you can and destroy any badly affected plants (if practical) to stop the infestation from spreading. Use biological sprays like nematodes. In some cases, hot water and a mild detergent can help. Ecover is on sale at As a last resort, chemical controls can be effective Also in Veronica's Column this week... Top tips, Gardening news, and a competition to win a £250 lawnmower NEWS KING Charles made a surprise visit to TOP TIP JUNE is actually a good time to take Remove the lower leaves - leaving just one or two at the top. Then dip the end in rooting powder or gel - then pop it straight in a pot. You could splash out on seeding and cutting compost - but multi purpose will do - just add a bit of grit or perlite. Then keep them out of direct sunlight and keep moist. They should have rooted within about a month. NEWS A RARE 'sheep-eating' South American plant has flowered in an English primary school for the first time. The Puya Chilensis, with its iconic spike pattern, is normally found in the Andes in Chile. But after it was planted 10 years ago by school horticulturalist Louise Moreton, it has sent out a 10ft spike at Wicor Primary School in Portchester, Hants. It's called a Sheep Catcher as it would normally entangle wildlife, hold onto it - and then when the animal died - would take the nutrients. Ms Moreton said it was exciting but a worrying sign of global warming. WIN! Keep your lawn looking its best this summer by winning a TOP TIP IF you want to get more flowers from your sedums (now called Hylotelephiums) and prevent them from collapsing - pinch them out around now. Pinch off around four sets of leaves down - which will make them bushier. JOB OF THE WEEK Weeds thrive this month - keep on top of them by hoeing. Tie in sweet peas, and give your plants a good feed - liquid seaweed feed is great - and Tomorite works with nearly everything. Give agapanthus a high-potash feed every couple of weeks. For more top tips and gardening news, follow me
