Le Journal

On Oceania Cruises’ new flagship, the spot occupied by the library on her older sister is now The Crêperie on Deck 14, trading the quiet rustle of pages for the alluring aroma of vanilla and caramelized sugar. Celebrity Cruises’ brightest and shiniest answers with a different kind of reinvention: At the aft of Deck 5, the boundary between ship and shore dissolves entirely at The Bazaar, reshaping a once-underactivated space in ways that sensorially redefine the Edge‑class experience. Whether discovering tasty nooks or cultural crannies, few joys rival boarding a brand‑new ship. With several fresh vessels already welcoming guests and more set to debut in 2026, a wave of new hardware beckons, promising surprises for ocean‑bound travelers drawn to uncharted pleasures. From splashy stage productions to novel dining concepts, these ships brim with reasons to climb aboard. The new year boasts a boatload of inaugural seasons. The unusually high swell of newbuilds earning their sea legs in 2026 has industry experts projecting that between 30% and 40% of the 21.7 million Americans expected to cruise over the next 12 months will do so on debuting or recently refurbished vessels. If you’re tempted to join these ocean‑bound early adopters, this roundup of the nautically new should easily float your boat. Premium/Upper-premium classes We’ll start with a deep dive into two buoyant beauties from the premium and upper‑premium classes — the middle tiers in the familiar “good‑better‑best” framework that, in cruising, typically aligns with mainstream, premium and luxury. “Typically” is the operative word as the new Caribbean‑bound flagships mentioned earlier are already nudging the definition of “best” forward. Bridging premium and luxury in several key areas, the latest and greatest from Oceania and Celebrity showcase two distinct interpretations of modern cruising — one boutique and culinary‑driven, the other big‑ship and theatrical. Oceania Allura — Oceania Cruises (oceaniacruises.com): While Oceania prepares to open bookings Jan. 21 for its next flagship, Sonata, arriving in August 2027, the upper-premium line is already in the spotlight thanks to the just‑out Allura — a 1,200‑guest ship that doubles down on the space and polish that define the brand. The design leans contemporary without tipping into flash: bright lounges trimmed in marble, a Grand Dining Room framed by floor‑to‑ceiling windows and a pool deck that feels more European seaside than megaship resort. A banoffee crêpe pairs well with a flat white on the Oceania Allura. (Photo by David Dickstein) Allura expands the line’s culinary footprint with 11 dining venues, including the new Crêperie, which replaces the library found on Vista. The concept adds French crêpes, Belgian and bubble waffles and gelato sundaes to the morning rotation, while refreshed menus at French-accented Jacques and expanded Japanese‑Peruvian dishes at Red Ginger broaden the global mix. Oceania’s hallmark 1:10 chef‑to‑guest ratio remains intact, and the Grand Dining Room’s over-the-top brunch returns with caviar, crab legs and regional specialties that shift with the itinerary, be it to the Caribbean out of Miami or the Mediterranean, for starters. Creative and enrichment spaces give Allura a sense of purpose on sea days. The Culinary Center features 24 individual workstations for hands‑on classes, while the Artist Loft hosts rotating instructors for drawing, painting and mixed‑media workshops. Aquamar Spa + Vitality Center’s nutrition consultations add to a lineup that leans toward learning and immersion. On port days, small-group outings led by onboard chefs — called Culinary Discovery Tours — involve market visits, vineyard tastings and regional cooking classes that tie directly back to the ship’s culinary program. Evenings onboard stay intentionally low‑key, with polished lounges, well‑paced entertainment and a bar program built around classics rather than theatrics. It’s a ship designed for travelers…

By Christine Benz of Morningstar If you’d like to do a thorough review of your portfolio and plan, here are the key steps to take. I recommend doing them over a series of sessions, not all at once. Step 1: Gather your documentation This could be your current investment statements, plus Social Security and pension. Pro tip: Set up a My Social Security account to get an overview of your benefits and earnings history. Step 2: Ask and answer: How am I doing? To find out if you’re on track to reach your financial goals, review your current portfolio balance, combined with your savings rate. Tally your contributions across all accounts. A decent baseline savings rate is 15%, but higher-income folks will want to aim for 20% or more. Also factor in other goals you’d like to achieve, such as college funding or a home down payment. Are they realistic? Make sure you’re not giving short shrift to retirement. If you’re retired or about to be, the key gauge of the viability of your total plan is your withdrawal rate—your planned portfolio withdrawals divided by your total portfolio balance. The 4% guideline is a good starting point, but aim for less if you can. Related Articles Inequality and unease are rising as elite Davos event opens with pro-business Trump set to attend What to know about the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos What’s open and closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day US futures sink after Trump warns of higher tariffs for 8 countries over Greenland issue IMF upgrades outlook for surprisingly resilient world economy to 3.3% growth this year Step 3: Check up on your long-term asset allocation Does your total portfolio’s mix of stocks, bonds, and cash match your targets? High-quality target-date series such as those from Vanguard and BlackRock’s LifePath Index Series can help benchmark asset allocation. My model portfolios can also help. A portfolio that tilts mostly or even entirely toward stocks makes sense for younger investors. If your portfolio is notably equity-heavy and you’re within 10 years of retirement, shifting to bonds and cash is more urgent. Just mind the tax consequences when you rebalance. Step 4: Assess liquid reserves Holding some cash is crucial to ensure you don’t have to tap your investments or resort to credit cards in a financial crunch. For retired people, I recommend holding six months to two years worth of portfolio withdrawals in cash investments. For those still working, holding three to six months’ worth of living expenses in cash is a good starting point. Step 5: Assess suballocations, sector positioning, and holdings Your broad asset-class exposure largely determines how your portfolio behaves. But your positioning within each asset class also deserves a look. Market strength has recently broadened, but growth stocks and funds that own them have outpaced value by a wide margin over the past decade. Finally, check up on your sector positioning, allocation to foreign stocks, and actual holdings. Step 6: Identify opportunities to streamline Why have scores of accounts and holdings if a more compact portfolio could do the job just as well? If you’ve changed jobs, you may have multiple 401(k)s and rollover IRAs. Consider consolidating into a single IRA. If you have several small cash accounts, you may be losing out on a (slightly) higher yield. Could you reduce the number of holdings in your portfolios? Index funds and ETFs provide pure asset-class exposure and a lot of diversification in a single package. I also like target-date funds for smaller accounts to provide diversification without any maintenance obligations. Step 7: Manage for tax efficiency At this point, if you think changes are in order, be sure to take tax and transaction costs into account. Focus any selling in your tax-sheltered accounts, where you won’t incur tax costs and you can usually avoid transaction costs, too. Within your taxable accounts, review the tax implications and/or get tax advice before executing trades.…

By NICOLE WINFIELD and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO ROME (AP) — Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats of acquiring Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace. Related Articles Hawaii’s strict gun law faces Supreme Court scrutiny in landmark case AP Source: Fed Chair Powell to attend Supreme Court argument on Cook case As faith in the US fades a year into Trump 2.0, Europe tries to end a reliance on American security Diplomacy or retaliation? The EU mulls its options as tensions with U.S. rise over Greenland Trump’s Board of Peace has several invited leaders trying to figure out how it’ll work In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington’s foreign policy was mired in “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.” “Most of the United States and the world are adrift morally in terms of foreign policy,” McElroy told The Associated Press. “I still believe the United States has a tremendous impact upon the world.” The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy have asserted their voice against a Trump administration many believe isn’t upholding the basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire U.S. conference of Catholic bishops condemned the administration’s mass deportation of migrants and “vilification” of them in the public discourse. The three cardinals, who are prominent figures in the more progressive wing of the U.S. church, took as a starting point a major foreign policy address that Pope Leo XIV delivered Jan. 9 to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. The speech, delivered almost entirely in English, amounted to Leo’s most substantial critique of U.S. foreign policy. History’s first U.S.-born pope denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order. Leo didn’t name individual countries, but his speech came against the backdrop of the then-recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, U.S. threats to take Greenland as well as Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Cardinals question the use of force The three cardinals cited Venezuela, Greenland and Ukraine in their statement — saying they “raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace” — as well as the cuts to foreign aid that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration initiated last year. “Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,” they warned. “We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy,” they wrote. “We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.” Tobin described the moral compass the cardinals wish the U.S. would use globally. “It can’t be that my prosperity is predicated on inhuman treatment of others,” he told the AP. “The real argument isn’t just my right or individual rights, but what is the common good.” Cardinals expand on their statement in interviews with AP In interviews, Cupich and McElroy said the signatories were inspired to issue a statement after hearing from several fellow cardinals during a Jan. 7-8 meeting at the Vatican. These other cardinals expressed alarm about the U.S. action in Venezuela, its cuts in foreign aid and its threats to…

Sans dragons, la fête est plus folle Pour ne pas mentir, on n’a pas beaucoup cru à A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms pendant tout son premier épisode. La série débute par un enterrement solennel, et la passation d’une épée qui permet à Dunk, écuyer un peu dadais, de devenir à son tour un chevalier. […]