Author: Press Room

Construction of the White House, a global symbol of American power and political stability, began with the laying of its cornerstone on this day in history, Oct. 13, 1792.”James Hoban, an Irish-born and trained architect then living in South Carolina, won the design competition for the White House,” reports the White House Historical Association.”It was planned and constructed under the personal supervision of President George Washington.”ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, OCT. 12, 2000, TERROR ATTACK ON USS COLE KILLS 17 AMERICAN SAILORS, WOUNDS DOZENSHoban had arrived in the United States in 1785. His vision for the neoclassical mansion was selected…

Venture capital dealmaking in the US has stayed at historically high levels in recent months, despite a partial retreat from the coronavirus pandemic-era boom in start-up financing that has followed this year’s decline in tech stocks.The surprising resilience in the VC market, revealed in the latest quarterly data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association on Thursday, comes as cash has continued to flood into the sector. Investors poured $151bn into venture funds in the first nine months of this year, topping the previous full-year record of $147bn set in 2021.“There are even larger funds being raised, and a…

Franklin Templeton’s only portfolio-shielding exchange traded fund will make its holdings fully public by the middle of December, filings show.The fund’s board voted to change the $3.2mn ClearBridge Focus Value ESG ETF from an ActiveShares non-transparent ETF to a conventional transparent ETF by December 16, the firm has disclosed.A Franklin Templeton spokesperson said the fund’s underlying strategy and portfolio management would not change.“Although the fund will be permitted to invest in a wider range of investments as a result of this transition, it’s expected to be managed in a substantially similar manner to how it is currently managed,” she said.She…

CNN  —  The House select committee investigating the US Capitol insurrection long ago dropped the notion of being a narrowly focused quest for the facts as members use their probe to try to defend democracy in its intensifying struggle with Donald Trump. The panel returns to the public eye Thursday after its late-summer break with a televised hearing that sources tell CNN will serve as a pre-midterms warning that the ex-President is a clear and present danger to free elections. But are the American people listening? And do the committee’s efforts to undermine Trump’s cadre of election denier candidates in…

Shutterstock (3)As Kim Kardashian continues to deal with Kanye West’s social media activity in real-time, her sisters Kendall Jenner and Khloé Kardashian came to her defense on the Thursday, October 13, episode of The Kardashians. “It has gotten completely out of control all the false narratives that people believe in. It is just exhausting,” the 26-year-old model said while discussing backlash to Kim’s “get your ass up and work comment” from the family’s Variety cover story, which dropped in March. “And then it goes into the whole situation that you are dealing with.” Kim, 41, agreed. “Kanye posted that he…

Scott Disick, Kourtney Kardashian. John Salangsang/Shutterstock ; Courtesy of HuluHe’s back! Scott Disick popped up on the Thursday, October 13, episode of The Kardashians — despite ex Kourtney Kardashian saying she had “no idea” if he would be making a future appearance.  “I literally don’t know,” the Poosh founder, 43, said on an episode of the “Not Skinny but Not Fat” earlier this month, noting that she was upset by how season 1 of the Hulu series used her romance with now-husband Travis Barker to highlight 39-year-old Disick’s heartbreak. “I was upset that they chose to take my fairy tale and include…

Imagine waking up to early morning yoga in the hills of Piedmont. Archery lessons overlooking a sprawling castle. Limousines, five-star hotels and Michelin-starred cuisine. But this isn’t a holiday. This is a company offsite.As we emerge from pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, many companies are maintaining a fully remote model. In some cases, in-person interactions have become a thing of the past, making it challenging to establish a strong company culture.For some companies, a team lunch doesn’t cut it anymore. They’re looking at far-flung locations, luxury hotel stays and meticulously designed experiences to quickly establish trust between employees that have only…

Hedge funds are betting that the dollar still has further to rise after big gains this year, propelled by the US Federal Reserve’s determination to curb inflation with tighter monetary policy.Hedge funds are running more wagers on the greenback advancing against the Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and euro than they are on it falling, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Brevan Howard, one of the world’s biggest macro funds, is among the firms that have been betting on dollar strength, according to a recent investor letter. Such trades come even as the US currency has climbed…

With violence gripping the streets of Port-au-Prince and no neighbourhood spared from the insecurity wrought by armed gangs or critical shortages of fuel, virtually everyone in Haiti’s capital is living in a state of uncertainty, says resident Judes Jonathas. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” Jonathas, senior programme manager at the Mercy Corps humanitarian group in Haiti, recently told Al Jazeera in a video call, describing how not a day had gone by in the past week in which he hadn’t heard gunshots ring out. “It’s as if we’re living minute to minute. We go out, we don’t know…

It was a long, long, long day – turned into night – in Atlanta, but for Braves fans, it was all worth it.Rain delayed the game close to three hours, but the Braves tied the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 3-0 win in Game 2.After the delay, both Kyle Wright and Zack Wheeler wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, so they traded zeros for the first five and a half innings, which lasted about 90 minutes. The Phillies wasted a leadoff double by Bryce Harper in the second – he moved to third on a…