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Tech buff Steve Caplin explains the global IT outage caused by a Crowdstrike software update and Microsoft's extraordinary advice. There's an Italian litter-picking robot dog. Small aerial drones can learn to navigate by studying ants. Other drones can mimic geckos to cling to things. Spray-on trainers for athletes are now a reality, while athletes can also run faster if shielded from wind resistance. There's a crowd-funded Dymo-type printer. And Disney are retiring an animatronic attraction – for fear it will offend alcoholics.

Russell Pointon of Edison Group summarises the company's quarterly consumer report, which finds signs of better momentum in profit reports and, despite a tough macro background, sees consumer confidence increasing. Among companies that are lowly valued relative to their peers, Russell highlights Card Factory. Under relatively new management, it is extending its range beyond greetings cards into gifts and party goods and also moving into suitable overseas markets. Despite good growth prospects, its multiple is still in the high single digits and it has returned to paying dividends.

While box office is down 12%, James Cameron-Wilson is excited by Twisters, taking £3.1m at #2, thinking the disaster movie is ripe for revival. A standalone sequel, he found this big slice of popcorn escapism with Daisy Edgar-Jones intense and totally engrossing. He wished he'd been able to see Kevin Costner's gargantuan Western project Horizon: An American Saga Part One on the big screen but had to settle for its streaming appearance. Although flawed and sometimes hard to understand, he still found it brilliant and visually amazing. He wanted to like Russell Crowe as a detective with memory loss in Sleeping Dogs on Amazon Prime but, despite the presence of Karen Gillan, it's a B-movie which is formulaic and implausible.

Political commentator Mike Indian is surprised that so little attention has been paid to one of the more radical things in the King's Speech, the boosting of employment rights. He discusses the rebellion of 7 Labour MPs over the child benefit cap. While insignificant now with such a large majority, he feels that things could get trickier with such a broadly-based range of MPs from the second year onwards. He explains how much the American electoral landscape has changed with the exit of Joe Biden from the Presidential race. Harris, he feels, could be a serious contender against Donald Trump but that her choice of Vice President will be key.

The State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 17th July was somewhat of a watershed after fourteen years of Conservative governments. Here is the unabridged King's Speech, encapsulating in just over twelve minutes the priorities of the new Labour Government. Image source: Daily Express. Background music following the speech: 'Pastorale' by Joel Cummins

It's official - we're complaining about our neighbours more, new data shows. When it comes to noise, many appear sick of barking dogs, squeaky trampolines and loud music ruining the enjoyment of our homes. Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost talk about neighbour wars — and what we can do about it. And sticking to the property front, does it matter if you're a 'super' nimby? And if you do want to fight back against developments in your area, what's the sensible way to do it? We also look at the danger of pricing your home too high - and the Rightmove data that shows just how risky it can be. Grandparents and parents are digging deeper than ever to send children to university. What do young adults need to know before they take out a student loan? Lee goes back to school to talk to kids about money and the working world - but what did HE learn from the experience? And from festivals to sporting events, why has having fun become so expensive?

After a year and a half of the big names pushing the market forwards, some of the smaller companies are starting to go on a run. Bill Mann and Jason Moser discuss the Russell 2000s unusual spike, and why it’s a mix of good news and bad news, the Crowdstrike update that grounded planes and the stock this morning, and what it says about cybersecurity overall, and earnings updates from Netflix, Domino’s, and Five Below. The, 19 minutes in, Cava CEO Brett Schulman spoke at FoolFest 2024 this week – we air a portion of his conversation with analyst Kirsten Guerra about his company’s stellar performance so far as a publicly traded company, how they’ll get to 1,000 locations and what he puts in his bowl when he visits the restaurant. Finally, 34 minutes in, Jason and Bill break down two stocks on their radar: Danaher and Alphabet. Stocks discussed: CRWD, AAPL, META, NFLX, DPZ, FIVE, DHR, GOOGL, GOOG. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Bill Mann, Jason Moser, Kirsten Guerra, Brett Schulman

Alphabet eyes its biggest acquisition of all time in Wiz, and a struggling retailer’s outlook gets worse – but it might be a buying opportunity for investors. Jason Moser and Dylan Lewis discuss retirement lessons and a reminder to ignore the exogenous from our colleagues at FoolFest 2024, why Alphabet is eying a $23B cybersecurity acquisition, Five Below’s stock going on sale, and whether new leadership can put the struggling retailer back on track. Then, 16 minutes in, Alison Southwick and Brian Feroldi continue their summer school series, running through the financial metrics that can help investors understand a company's valuation and one less common ratio that can tell you a lot about profitability. Companies discussed: GOOG, GOOGL, FIVE, AAPL, NVDA, MSFT. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Jason Moser, Alison Southwick, Brian Feroldi

The entanglement of phobias and beliefs is a curious characteristic of the human condition. This episode tackles one such, in relation to birds — but the approach which Adam Cox takes to interrupt that association could help in other areas too. Most phobias are maintained by association, but what is it that builds these fears? Maybe something you've read or watched, but it may also be an association subconsciously introduced by others. Break that association! Lose that phobia ..