Author: ricardofrancois

Construction workers at a new residential construction project in Hoerth, western Germany, on April 5, 2023.Inna Fassbender | AFP | Getty ImagesShares of German real estate giant Vonovia fell as much as 7% on Friday, highlighting the deepening real estate crisis in Europe's largest economy.The share price trimmed its losses slightly, falling 5.4% at 10:35 AM London time.The residential real estate company on Thursday reported an annual loss of €6.76 billion ($7.37 billion) for 2023, citing a declining valuation trend that has “weakened significantly” over the year.This was more than 10 times the size of the €669.4 million loss reported…

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The union effort trapped between the show's performers and the stable hands at Buena Park's medieval castle is over.The American Guild of Variety Artists, the union that supports workers who staged in Buena Park as well as at another location of the popular New Jersey dinner theater, has filed paperwork to withdraw its support. The move came after representatives at both sites supported petitions asking the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election to remove AGVA as their union representative. They filed their petitions to decertify the union with pro bono legal assistance from the National Right to Work…

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Washington – Without polls, you can't understand politics. With them, you can misunderstand a lot. With the presidential nominations decided by both major parties, we have entered a season in which anxiety about the polls can become an obsession. This is especially true this year, as former President Trump holds a small but persistent lead over President Biden in most national polls and swing states. This has led many Democrats to dig deeper into the polls in an often disingenuous search for what is wrong.The reality is that polls continue to get election results right the vast majority of the…

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Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.How did you start:Our philosophyOur goal is simple. Maximize total returns over the long term. To do this, we aim to own the world's most distinguished public and private growth companies. We limit fees so shareholders keep more of any returns generated.Invest in progressThe returns we aim to achieve for shareholders will appeal to many, but the path we took to achieve them may not. Investing in companies undergoing structural change means that stock price rises and falls are inevitable, both for…

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Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.Vodafone has agreed to sell its Italian operations to Swisscom for €8 billion in cash as part of Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle's plans to streamline the UK-based telecoms group.The company also said it would return €4 billion to shareholders through buybacks and cut its dividend to 4.5 cents per share from next year, down from 9 cents in the year to March 2023.Della Valle said the sale represents “the third and final step in the reshaping of our European operations.” Vodafone…

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Calls for a wealth tax on the world's richest people are gaining attention again after US President Joe Biden said he would impose a new “billionaires tax” on the country's richest people if he is re-elected in November.As he laid out his 2025 budget proposals on Monday, Biden targeted the wealthy and reiterated his plans to impose a 25% tax on Americans whose wealth exceeds $100 million.“No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, sanitation worker or nurse,” he said Thursday.These plans, previously outlined in the president's 2024 budget, have reignited a decades-long debate over how best…

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Nio is holding a product event in Shanghai on September 21, 2023.Evelyn Cheng | CNBCBeijing – A Chinese company for distinguished electric cars New It said Thursday that it plans to unveil its mass-market brand in May.Executives confirmed that the new brand will be called “Le Dao” in Chinese, and said the name is intended to reflect families – the target consumer segment – spending happy time together.Nio, founded in late 2014, has so far focused on the higher end of the market with SUVs and sedans that can cost more than a Tesla Model S or Model Y, but…

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A currency trader monitors exchange rates in the trading room of Cape Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea.Jung Eun Ji | AFP | Getty Images South Korea's financial regulator will consider accelerating corporate reforms proposed last month and could add new measures, after market participants expressed concerns that the steps announced may not be enough to address the so-called “Korean discount.”The Financial Services Commission held a meeting on Thursday with local institutional investors and the country's pension fund, where Vice Chairman Kim Soo-young said the timeline for previously announced reforms would be accelerated, according to a Reuters report.“We will do…

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Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based technology to monitor components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported. While neither Apple nor DarwinAI announced the deal, several members of the startup's team joined Apple's machine learning teams in January, according to their LinkedIn profiles. DarwinAI has raised over $15 million in funding across various rounds from investors including BDC Capital's Deep Tech Venture Fund, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Inovia Capital. BDC Capital confirms on its website that it has received an exit from DarwinAI, while Obvious Venture has updated…

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A San Gabriel Valley man was found guilty of murder Wednesday in the beating death of two of his nephews during an overnight rampage that began when he attacked his wife and hospitalized her in 2016, an Alhambra court found guilty of murder in the San Gabriel Valley.Dion Shea, 52, was found guilty of two counts of murder with a special circumstance for use of a deadly weapon in the deaths of 15-year-old Anthony Lane and 16-year-old William Lane. He was also convicted of felony injury to his then-wife, Eugene “Amy” Lane.But in a strange development, relatives claim that Xi's…

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