If you’re looking to elevate your patio, decking or patio with a luxe-looking lead planter but don’t want to spend a fortune, this end-of-season sale could be just the ticket
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Sale offers gardeners last chance to buy stylish faux lead planters for £30 less(Image: Gardening Express)
Decorate your outdoor area with stylish planters that won’t break the bank, thanks to this Gardening Express clearance sale. These Grosvenor Grey Cube Planters boast a gorgeous faux lead design that’s set to add a luxurious touch to any patio, decking, or balcony, and right now, they’re up for grabs with a £30 discount.
Normally retailing for a steep £49.97, these planters are now available for the reduced price of £19.99 while this end-of-season sale lasts.
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This Grosvenor Faux Lead Grey Cube Planter was £49.97 but is now £19.99(Image: Gardening Express)
These planters, available in a range of sizes, are an attractive way to elevate your plants for less. They have a grey, lead-like appearance and are ideal for all types of garden designs. Inspired by classic garden planters from times gone by, they are touted as both classy and timeless.
Coming in a time-honoured style that you might better associate with stately homes, these planters are sure to match any exterior aesthetic. Their simple design adds elegance while allowing your plants to be the stars of the show.
Use two on either side of an entrance or archway, or dot around your outdoor space to create stunning centrepieces with a timeless flair. Ready to be filled with soiled and used as soon as they’re delivered, the medium planter pictured above boasts a 44cm diameter and a 33cm height that makes it ideal for shrubs and bushes.
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Now is your chance to add these faux-lead planters to your garden for a whopping £30. But you may want to hurry, as this clearance sale won’t last forever.
Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, the company’s CEO, warned that layoffs at Novo Nordisk could be inevitable as the Danish pharmaceutical giant’s fierce competition against its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy, which is in the midst of mounting pressure from rival Eli Lilly, is in decline.
Due to the drug’s declining market share and slow sales growth, especially in the United States, Novo Nordisk, which last year became Europe’s most valuable company worth $650bn thanks to Wegovy’s booming sales, is in a crucial moment.
It has warned of much slower growth this year because of shortages and the ability of compounders to create copycat drugs based on the same ingredients as Wegovy. Novo Nordisk, which has 77, 000 employees on its website, cut its annual sales and profit forecasts last week, cutting $ 95 billion from its market value.
The company, which has become one of the most popular investment stories in the world, has undergone a massive and abrupt turnaround, which has resulted in a rapid expansion of both its manufacturing and sales capabilities. The business is currently considering potential cost-savings strategies.
There are likely layoffs.
There are some places where you have to have fewer people and some places where you have to be smaller, Jorgensen told Danish broadcaster DR. “We probably won’t be able to avoid layoffs,” Jorgensen said.
However, he added that Maziar Mike Doustdar, the company’s veteran, will take over any decisions regarding layoffs when he takes office on Thursday.
According to Jorgensen, the market for copycat versions of Wegovy’s class of drugs, or GLP-1 receptor agonists, is “equal size to our business,” and we sell compounded versions of Wegovy at a “much lower price point.”
After the US Food and Drug Administration banned the compounded copies of Wegovy on May 22, Novo Nordisk said it anticipated a slowdown in compounding in the third quarter and that it anticipated the transition to branded treatments for many of the roughly one million US patients using compounded GLP-1 drugs.
However, finance chief Karsten Munk Knudsen stated on Wednesday that compounded GLP-1s are still being used by more than one million Americans and that the company’s lowered outlook has “not assumed a reduction in compounding” this year.
When asked when the company might experience negative growth in the final six months of the year, Knudsen responded that “the obesity market is volatile.” According to him, “unexpected events” would be at the bottom of the firm’s new full-year guidance range, such as “stronger pricing pressure in the US than expected.
In the second half of 2025, sales at the lower end of the range would be expected to be around 150 billion Danish krone ($23 billion), up from 157 billion krone ($24.5 billion) during the same time last year.
Knudsen reiterated that the business was working to stop unlawful mass compounding, including filing lawsuits against compounding pharmacies.
The most recent US prescription data for Wegovy, according to Jorgensen, encouraged the business. In terms of US prescriptions, the lead has decreased over the past month, despite Eli Lilly’s Zepbound’s competition being earlier this year.
Wegovy’s second-quarter sales increased by 36 percent in the US and by more than a quarter in markets outside the US, according to Novo Nordisk.
Wegovy’s US pricing remained constant throughout the quarter, but the company anticipated a larger decline in the important US market in the second half as a result of higher rebates and discounts for insurers as well as a larger share of sales expected from direct-to-consumer or cash-pay channels, according to Knudsen.
He claimed that Novo Nordisk was expanding its March-launched direct-to-consumer platform to include customers in some markets outside the US and that it may need to pursue “cash sales” directly to patients.
Cost reductions
Following last week’s profit warning, Novo Nordisk reiterated its full-year earnings expectations on Wednesday.
With the announcement that it would terminate eight research and development projects, Jorgensen stated that the company was “ensuring efficiencies in our cost base.”
We’re not sure if this is a result of a strategic re-assessment or just a coincidence, according to Jefferies analysts in a note, but it does appear to be larger than usual.
In the booming weight-loss drug market, investors have questioned whether the company can remain ahead. Since last week, several equity analysts have cut their stock price targets and recommendations.
Novo Nordisk’s stock dropped 30% last week, its worst weekly performance in over 20 years. Since the New York market opened, the stock has continued to decline. The pharmaceutical tycoon was down by more than 3.3 percent as of 12 p.m. local time (16:00 GMT).
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, making it the first and only nation in history to launch an nuclear attack.
While the death toll of the bombing remains a subject of debate, at least 70, 000 people were killed, though other figures are nearly twice as high.
At least 40, 000 people were killed when the US dropped yet another atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later, killing the city.
Initial impressions of the shocking impact on Japanese civilians appeared to be unimportant, with pollsters reporting that the bombing’s approval rate reached 85 percent in the days that followed.
To this day, US politicians continue to credit the bombing with saving American lives and ending World War II.
However, as the US commemorates the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima’s bombing, perceptions have gotten more and more conflicting. Americans are roughly evenly divided into three categories, according to a Pew Research Center poll last month.
Nearly a third of respondents believe the use of the bomb was justified. Another third believes it wasn’t. The rest are unsure of their choice.
“The trendline is that there is a steady decline in the share of Americans who believe these bombings were justified at the time”, Eileen Yam, the director of science and society research at Pew Research Center, told Al Jazeera in a recent phone call.
Americans have gotten less and less enthusiastic about this as time goes on.
Tumbling approval rates
Doubts about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the advent of nuclear weapons in general, did not take long to set in.
According to US author Kai Bird, who has written about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “from the beginning it was understood that this was something different, a weapon that could destroy entire cities.”
His Pulitzer-winning novel American Prometheus served as the inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film Oppenheimer, which was based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
Bird pointed out that, even in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, some key politicians and public figures denounced it as a war crime.
Albert Einstein, a physicist, and Herbert Hoover, a former president, were early critics of the bloodshed that occurred in the first decades.
Within days of the bombing, Hoover wrote, “The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.”
Survivors of the atomic explosion at Hiroshima in 1945 suffered long-term effects from radiation]Universal History Archive/Getty Images]
The most widely accepted justification for the atomic attacks has become increasingly doubtful as historians have over time, claiming that they contributed significantly to World War II’s resolution.
According to some academics, other factors were likely to be more important in the Japanese’s surrender, including the Soviet Union’s August 8 declaration of war against the island nation.
Others have speculated whether the bombings were meant mostly as a demonstration of strength as the US prepared for its confrontation with the Soviet Union in what would become the Cold War.
In addition, Japanese survivors’ accounts and media reports helped to alter public opinion.
For instance, John Hersey’s 1946 profile of six victims occupied The New Yorker magazine for the entire year. It chronicled, in harrowing detail, everything from the crushing power of the blast to the fever, nausea and death brought on by radiation sickness.
A growing majority in the US was already in favor of the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by 1990, according to a Pew poll. Only 53% of people thought it was merited.
Rationalising US use of force
The impact of the attacks remained contentious in the US even after the 20th century.
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC had planned a special exhibit for the occasion of the bombing anniversary in 1995.
But it was cancelled amid public furore over sections of the display that explored the experiences of Japanese civilians and the debate about the use of the atomic bomb. Even after it underwent extensive revision, US veterans’ organizations argued that the exhibit undermined their sacrifices.
The American Legion, a veterans organization leader, William Detweiler said at the time, “The exhibit still basically states that we were the aggressors and the Japanese were the victims.”
Incensed members of Congress opened an investigation, and the museum’s director resigned.
However, the exhibit was never made available to the general public. The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, was all that was left.
Erik Baker, a lecturer on the history of science at Harvard University, says that the debate over the atomic bomb often serves as a stand-in for larger questions about the way the US wields power in the world.
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the US attack on Hiroshima on August 5, a pair of protesters march with a “Free Palestine” banner past the Atomic Bomb Dome [Richard A. Brooks / AFP]
According to him, “What’s at stake is the role that World War II played in legitimizing the American empire’s history right up to the present day.”
Baker explained that the US narrative about its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan — the main “Axis Powers” in World War II — has been frequently referenced to assert the righteousness of US interventions around the world.
There is no objection to the US doing what is necessary to defeat the “bad guys” today, he said, if it was justifiable for the US to go on war rather than simply go to war.
a resurgence of nuclear panic
But as the generations that lived through World War II grow older and pass away, cultural shifts are emerging in how different age groups approach US intervention — and use of force — abroad.
Young people, who are particularly sceptical of policies like US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, have a large share of their opinions.
The Pew Research Center discovered a significant generational gap in Americans regarding the issue of global engagement in a poll conducted in April 2024.
Approximately 74 percent of older respondents, aged 65 and up, expressed a strong belief that the US should play an active role on the world stage. Only 33% of the younger respondents, who range from 18 to 35, shared this view.
The ages of people in the Pew poll last month also showed stark age differences. People over the age of 65 were more than twice as likely to believe that the bombings were justified than people between the ages of 18 and 29.
The “most pronounced factor” in the results, according to Yam, the Pew researcher, outpacing other factors like veteran status and party affiliation.
A new heightened state of worry about nuclear weapons is also at the time of the Hiroshima bombing’s 80th anniversary.
US President Donald Trump, for instance, repeatedly warned during his re-election campaign in 2024 that the globe was on the precipice of “World War III”.
Trump remarked at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, that “the threat is nuclear weapons.” “That could occur tomorrow.”
“We’re at a place where, for the first time in more than three decades, nuclear weapons are back at the forefront of international politics”, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US-based think tank.
According to Panda, these worries are related to geopolitical tensions between different states, citing, for instance, the recent fighting between India and Pakistan in May.
Russia and the US, the two biggest nuclear powers in the world, have since exchanged nuclear-themed threats due to the conflict in Ukraine.
And in June, the US and Israel carried out attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities with the stated aim of setting back the country’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
However, advocates for the US hope that the change in public opinion will spur international leaders to stop rattling nuclear weapons and work toward the end of them as the country approaches the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings.
Countries with nuclear weapons claim that their arsenals discourage acts of aggression, according to Seth Shelden, the UN liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. But he said those arguments diminish the “civilisation-ending” dangers of nuclear warfare.
He said that as long as nuclear-armed states place their own security precedence over others, they will encourage other countries to do the same.
The most recent lifeline to revive Syria’s war-torn economy has been signed a number of investment agreements with international companies, covering 12 major strategic projects in the fields of infrastructure, transportation, and real estate, valued at a total of $14 billion.
According to Talal al-Hilali, head of the Syrian Investment Authority, the plans include a $ 4 billion investment project signed with Qatar’s UCC Holding and a $ 2 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates national investment corporation to establish a metro in the Syrian capital.
The new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been dealing with the severe fallout from sectarian violence that broke out on July 13 between Bedouin and Druze fighters in the southern province of Suwayda. To halt the conflict, government troops were dispatched. Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces and bombed Damascus’ capital on the pretext of protecting the Druze, worsening the bloodshed.
Other significant investment-related developments include the $ 2 billion Damascus Towers project signed with UBAKO, a $ 500 million deal for the Baramkeh Towers project, and a $ 60 million agreement for the Baramkeh Mall.
Syria’s new government has worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure that was destroyed in the country’s devastating, nearly 14-year civil war since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in December in a lightning rebel offensive.
According to al-Hilali, the projects “will span Syria and represent a qualitative shift in infrastructure and economic life,” adding that the future of Syria will depend on the agreements.
At the signing ceremony, according to Syria’s official SANA news agency, Al-Sharaa and American Special Envoy Tom Barrack, both of whom were present.
Barrack praised the Syrian government for “another great accomplishment” and declared that “trade and prosperity will grow as a result.”
More than $400 billion has been estimated by the UN for Syria’s post-war reconstruction costs. There have already been numerous announcements for deals.
Saudi Arabia and Syria signed significant investment and partnership agreements worth $6. 4 billion last month.
According to state media reports, Syria also signed an $800 million contract with DP World, a company based in the UAE, to develop the port of Tartous in July.
As part of its efforts to revive its crippled power sector, Syria signed a $ 7 billion energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish, and US companies in May.
Seven victims were abducted along the Chinkai–Kente–Wukari road in the Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State, according to operations from the 6 Brigade Nigerian Army and Sector 3 of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS).
The victims were allegedly kidnapped on August 3 by suspected abductor(s).
The kidnappers abandoned the victims and fled after being overpowered by superior firepower and sustained pressure during the operation.
On August 5, 2018, four victims were unharmed in Chinkai Forest, and three other female victims were rescued in Owedi Community, Wukari Local Government Area, on August 6.
Read more about the suspected murder of a police officer and eight others in Benue.
Lieutenant Umar Muhammad, the 6 Brigade’s spokesman, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.
He cited the Nigerian Army’s commitment and professionalism in preventing kidnapping and ensuring the security of residents of Taraba State.
Brigadier General Kingsley Uwa, commander of the 6th Brigade NA/Sector 3 OPWS, commended the soldiers’ hard work and described the operation as a significant success in the fight against crime.
The Jigawa State Government claims to have completed all 26 of the state’s previous administrations’ road projects, totaling 976 kilometres, and has also begun work on 48 additional state road projects.
The governor’s representative, Hamisu Muhammad Gumel, who claimed the developments are part of the state’s effort to improve connectivity and infrastructure, especially in rural areas, disclosed this in a press release released by the governor’s spokesperson, Hamisu Muhammad Gumel.
“All 26 inherited road projects have now been completed, some of which were in their early stages or didn’t even begin when we took over,” Gumel said. “These roads have made it easier for farmers, traders, and residents to move between hundreds of rural communities.”
Since taking office in 2023, he revealed that the government has also started 48 new road projects. 48 new road projects totaling 976 kilometers were flagged off by the administration of Governor Namadi. 30 of these projects are in advanced stages of completion right now, according to Gumel.
He noted that despite economic strains like the naira devaluation and hyperinflation, the government has continued to deliver on its infrastructure promises.
Read more about the suspected murder of a police officer and eight others in Benue.
The Sundimina – Birnin Kudu Road, one of the biggest projects, received praise for being completed in seven months. He said, “We are proud to say that that road has already been completed,” adding that it cost N11.5 billion.
The 47-kilometer Sara-Gantsa Road, which was awarded an N11 billion, and 15 feeder roads that are 70 to 80 percent finished, are other significant projects that are in progress. According to reports, the Dutse township network and the urban road projects in Bulangu and Gandun Sarki are working toward 60 to 70% of their goals.
Gumel added that the state is also carrying out repairs to several sluggish or flood-damaged roads. He said, “We are not only building new roads, but we are also maintaining defunct sections, many of which were previously either poorly constructed or flooded with water.”
The Eastern Bypass, Madobi-Danguli Road, Zakirai-Gujungu-Hadejia Road, Basirka-Gwaram Bridges, Balago-Auno-Kafinsa Hausa Road, Andaza-Aujara Road, Unguwar Mani-Koreyal-Koreyal-Koreyal-Gwiwa Road, and Tsamiya-Yalwan Damai Road are some
Gumel disclosed that the administration inherited N82 billion in inherited liabilities on the financial front. Before resigning, “the previous administration only paid N32 billion.” The government of Governor Namadi has since received the remaining N50 billion, he claimed.
The development has received favorable reviews from residents and observers, who cite the road projects as essential for agricultural transportation, economic growth, and state connectivity as a whole.