Author: ricardofrancois

Just minutes after I gloated that my pension had reached half a million pounds two weeks ago, Mum called to say Dad had fallen off his motorbike and was in hospital.My dignity. His downfall. I've never read the Old Testament, but I'm pretty sure that's not how Proverbs 16:18 is supposed to work. A car ran a red light and his intestines ruptured.Not what you need at 82 years old. By the time I landed in Sydney, my plane was sold out, and my father was out of the operating room. Something has happened, I told the surgeon. Let's hope…

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Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is the former global head of capital markets at Bank of America, and is now a managing director at Seda Experts“The sun is shining, the weather is beautiful,” sings Bob Marley. “Makes you want to move your dancing feet.”With stock markets enjoying all-time highs, now seems like a good time for private equity firms to move to unload some of their $3 trillion global stock of assets. After all, investors are hungry for IPOs after a two-year deal famine.But recent…

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Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.The dramatic split between Microsoft and Chinese gaming giant NetEase last year ended a nearly 15-year partnership. This affected not only investors but millions of gamers in China. Reconciliation will be good news for all parties involved.NetEase and US gaming rival Microsoft, which bought Activision Blizzard last year, said on Wednesday they would bring back popular Blizzard games such as online role-playing game World of Warcraft to China starting this summer. A dispute last year over control of intellectual property led to…

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Misguided investors and analysts have been forced to tear up their optimistic expectations of broad interest rate cuts this year, as rising oil and metal prices add to inflationary pressures, reigniting fears that borrowing costs will remain “higher for longer.” In a dramatic shift in sentiment, markets are now betting that the Fed will only cut interest rates by a quarter point or two this year. That compares to the six or more cuts expected in January and the three cuts expected by the more conservative Federal Reserve. But after the US inflation rate this week exceeded expectations for the…

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The kickoff to the annual Make Waves Film Festival, hosted by the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, was scheduled to be the culmination of months of planning by Kenneth Taylor, 21, of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.The mechanical engineering student from Richland, Washington, was known for championing the outdoors as much as he enjoyed it. Taylor was a founding member of the school's Alpine Club and served as a trip leader for the campus's Poly Escapes program, which provides trip planning and outdoor training services to students.His friends said he loved snow sports and rock climbing to the hilt.School…

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A federal judge indicated Friday that more than 1,000 pages of confidential documents from a federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and the Department of Water and Power will be unsealed.The Times and Consumer Watchdog requested the documents to better understand the government's criminal case and whether former City Atty. Mike Feuer bears no responsibility for a scandal involving a sham lawsuit and an extortion plot. Foer has long denied any wrongdoing.In a preliminary ruling, US District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said the documents, which mainly consist of dozens of search warrants filed during the government…

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A man injured by a falling part of a street lamp will receive a settlement of up to $21 million from the city of Los Angeles.In November 2020, Ismael Soto Luna was at the corner of Roscoe Street and Noble Street in Van Nuys when his head struck the 2-pound metal shade of a streetlight, causing him to fall to the ground, according to his lawsuit against the city. . The impact fractured his skull, and three months later he was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, the suit said. His condition gradually worsened, and in 2023 he was…

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Drivers charge their Teslas in Fountain Valley, CA, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.Jeff Gretchen | Media News Group | Getty ImagesTesla It said on Friday it would lower the price of a subscription to its premium driver assistance system for customers in the United StatesMarketed as a Full Self-Driving, or FSD, package, Tesla customers will now pay $99 per month, down from $199 previously.The price cut goes against previous promises made by CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly said the cost of FSD will only rise as Tesla adds features and functionality to the system.“The price of FSD will continue…

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Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up for the War in Ukraine myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.The US and UK have launched a crackdown on Russia's mineral trade, in a move aimed at limiting Moscow's export revenues and restricting its ability to finance the war in Ukraine. The action, announced by the two countries on Friday, represents an aggressive effort by allies to hurt Russia's income, but could disrupt trading on exchanges including the London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.“Our new ban on base metals, in coordination with our partners in the UK, will continue…

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Noname Security, a cybersecurity startup that protects APIs, is in advanced talks with Akamai Technologies to sell itself for $500 million, according to a person familiar with the deal. Noname was founded in 2020 by Oz Golan and Shai Levy and is headquartered in Palo Alto but has Israeli roots. The startup has raised $220 million from venture investors and It was last estimated at $1 billion In December 2021 when it raised $135 million in Series C led by Georgian and Lightspeed. While the sale price represents a significant discount from that valuation, the deal as it stands will…

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