Comment on HSBC pretax profit rises 4% as investment banking bounces back

Dear Amy: I am a divorced mom in my early-30s, with primary custody of my 8-year-old child. I have been dating “Ben” for the past two years. He is a great guy and he is very good with my son. We have been talking about getting married. He has never been married before (no kids) and I am gun-shy, to say the least. I own my home, my son is happy, and I am trying to be extremely careful about our future. Last week Ben took me out for a drink.

Moon Alert: Avoid shopping or important decisions from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT today (12 noon to 2 p.m. PDT). After that, the Moon moves from Pisces into Aries. Happy Birthday for Saturday, May 4, 2024: You are well-mannered, gentle and reserved. You are also generous and constantly supportive to others.

Crazy stuff from around the world. It's Friday and I'm tired. If that's not to your liking, here's some crazy cats. Open thread below read more

The Rockies, oh so desperately needed someone to make a big splash. Two players delivered Friday night — one of them literally — in the Rockies’ 3-2 win over the Pirates at PNC Park. Ryan McMahon led off the Rockies’ three-run sixth inning with a 445-foot homer that splashed down in the Allegheny River.

The best Taylor Swift needle drops will make you think about her music a little differently. A show like You might play with tone, turning an emotional ballad into comic relief, while The Buccaneers might help christen a new Swiftie classic with one pivotal scene. Some music syncs feel so seamless you may start to believe they were written specifically for a movie, while others, like Swift’s Valentine’s Day sweetheart anthem “Today Was a Fairytale,” actually was.

In a fast-food culture, there may be few things better for your health than making a simple home-cooked meal. But while the meal itself may be a good idea, the cooking part can be a problem—at least if you own a natural gas or propane stove. That’s the conclusion of a new study in Science Advances, showing that dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are emitted by both kinds of stoves. The findings are a result of new work conducted at Stanford University by environmental scientist Rob Jackson and graduate researcher Yannai Kashtan.