King Charles' Home Reopens After Closing Due to 'Health and Safety Reasons'Daily Dose of Social Media: Aryna Sabalenka dances to 'The Ketchup Song' at F1 Grand Prix – Tennis stars join Abu Dhabi fun
As a kid, Jack Cowin shoveled snow, delivered newspapers and sold Christmas cards for cash. By the time he reached his 20s, it was burgers instead of cards. Fast forward to today: The 82-year-old is a billionaire, thanks to his fast food empire. Cowin is the founder and chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, the company that operates Burger King as "Hungry Jack's" in Australia. He is also the largest shareholder of Domino's Pizza in Australia, and backs a plant-based meat substitute company called v2food. > Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Before founding Hungry Jack's, Cowin was responsible for bringing Kentucky Fried Chicken to Australia in 1969. Then in 2013, he sold off his KFC franchise of 55 stores in a deal worth about $71 million, according to a representative at Competitive Foods Australia. Today, his business is worth over $3 billion and brings in over $300 million a year, Cowin told CNBC Make It. Growing up in Canada, Cowin realized early on that he wanted freedom in life. His father was an employee at the Ford Motor Company and was required to travel frequently for work. "He had a phone call one day, you're going to Brazil, or you're going to Mexico, or things like this ... When you work for a big corporation, the corporation decides where you're going to be, [and] what you're going to do," Cowin said. "And as a kid, I wanted to have the freedom to do what I wanted to do. I think I saw that relatively early, because [I saw that] dad's on the treadmill of here, there and everywhere," he said. He didn't want to be at the "whims and beckon call of a corporation." So as a child, Cowin spent his time outside of school mowing lawns and delivering newspapers. "I never had to ask for money as a kid," he said. "I was a sales guy from very early, like 8 or 10 years old." By the time college rolled around, Cowin was going from farm to farm selling "trees, shrubs and nursing stock," he said. He was so successful at it that he was making $8,000 a year while his university professors were making only $5,000 a year, he said. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1964, and went on to get a job selling life insurance he said he was very good at. "I had a reputation of being someone that could sell," he said. By the late 1960s, Cowin had begun to settle down in Canada with his wife and his first child when he one day received a phone call from a couple of high school friends. His friends had landed a job with the American Kentucky Fried Chicken company and were sent to Australia to do some market research about whether they should expand into the country. "Since my father had been there [for work], and I was the only guy ... that knew where Australia was on a map ... they phoned me up and said: 'You should be down here. You should come and see this.' So without a moment's notice, I'm on a plane and I fly to Australia," Cowin said. Cowin landed in Australia in February 1969, and spent three weeks there helping his friends conduct research — ultimately finding that there was indeed a market for fast food in Australia. "At that stage of the game, the restaurant business in Australia was fish and chip shops, Chinese restaurants and fancy white tablecloth restaurants," he said. Meanwhile, McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other fast food restaurants were all rising in popularity in North America. "So at the end of the three weeks, I pay $1,000 as a deposit on a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise [and] if the American company is going to open a store, then I was going to have a 10 store franchise," he said. Six months later, he received a phone call saying that the American KFC company agreed to expand into Australia and Cowin had the opportunity to own his first franchise location. But he didn't have the funds, so he started raising money. Imagine this "kid comes into your office and says he wants to borrow $10,000, which is probably about $100,000 today or more ... he's got no experience in the business, no interest on your money ... how long before you throw him out of your office for wasting your time?" "The biggest break I've had in my life was ... I got on my bike and I got 30 Canadians to lend me $10,000 each, so got $300,000," he said. "Otherwise I'd still be shoveling snow in Canada. I hadn't had the finances back then." By December 1969, Cowin moved his family to Perth, Australia, where he opened his first KFC franchise. "It was like drilling oil and hitting oil on your first wildcat well, because it was a booming success," he said. "Then, you open two more, you get into the hamburger business, you get into the pizza business, you get into the food manufacturing business, and today, that business is a $3 billion business and makes $300 million a year." Today, Cowin owns 98% of his company while the other 2% is held by some of his original investors and shareholders, he said. "That original $10,000 is $40 million at book value [today]. So everybody's got their money back, and those that stayed in have done increasingly well," he said. When asked what his secret to sales is, he said, "I think the secret is, whatever you do, do it well ... The people that lent me the money really backed me as the investment. I was the investment." " And an expression [I have is] when you can't tell the difference between work and play, you're in the right place ... I've never really worked a day in my life because I've enjoyed it." Want to earn more money at work? Take CNBC's new online course How to Negotiate a Higher Salary . Expert instructors will teach you the skills you need to get a bigger paycheck, including how to prepare and build your confidence, what to do and say, and how to craft a counteroffer. Sign up today and use coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 50% off through Nov. 26, 2024. Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.
Party City to close its stores as company files for bankruptcy LOS ANGELES (AP) — Party City announced that it's going to “wind down” its retail and wholesale operations as it prepares to shutter nearly 700 stores nationwide. The company said Saturday it has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "to maximize value for the benefit of the company’s stakeholders.” The New Jersey-based retailer said it will keep more than 95% of its 12,000 employees to help with the process of closing down. Customers have flocked to Party City for Halloween costumes, favors for children’s birthday parties and decorations for New Year’s Eve celebrations for nearly 40 years. It has faced growing competition from Walmart and Target and from occasion-based pop-up stores such as Spirit Halloween. A million taxpayers will soon receive up to $1,400 from the IRS. Who are they and why now? Approximately 1 million taxpayers will automatically receive special payments of up to $1,400 from the IRS in the coming weeks. The money will be directly deposited into eligible people’s bank accounts or sent in the mail by a paper check. Most people shouldn't get their hopes up about receiving the cash. The IRS says it’s distributing about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who failed to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns after missing one of the COVID stimulus payments or receiving less than the full amount. The IRS says most taxpayers eligible for the federal stimulus payments received them. Bluesky finds with growth comes growing pains — and bots Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms. The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter and was eventually intended to replace it. While this is still very much a pie in the sky, Bluesky’s growth trajectory could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms. With growth, though, comes growing pains. It’s not just human users who’ve been flocking to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites. 'Sonic 3' bests 'Mufasa: The Lion King' at the box office NEW YORK (AP) — In the holiday season battle of big-budget family movies, Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” sped past the Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” to take the top spot at the box office. The results came just ahead of the lucrative Christmas corridor in theaters. According to studio estimates, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” debuted with $62 million in ticket sales over the weekend. “Mufasa,” however, was humbled in its opening weekend, coming in notably shy of expectations. It returned just $35 million in domestic ticket sales. Amazon and Starbucks workers are on strike. Trump might have something to do with it Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract. Strikes during busy periods like the holidays can help unions exercise leverage during negotiations or garner support from sympathetic consumers. One expert says he thinks workers at both companies are “desperate” to make progress before President-elect Donald Trump can appoint a Republican majority to the National Labor Relations Board. Workers at Starbucks, Amazon and some other prominent consumer brands are fighting for their first contracts after several locations voted to unionize. Farmers are still reeling months after Hurricane Helene ravaged crops across the South LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Farmers in Georgia are still reeling more than two months after Hurricane Helene blew away cotton, destroyed ripened squash and cucumbers and uprooted pecan trees and timber. Agribusinesses in other Southern states saw costly damage as well. The University of Georgia estimates the September storm inflicted $5.5 billion in direct losses and indirect costs in Georgia alone. In rural Toombs County, Chris Hopkins just finished harvesting his ravaged cotton crop and figures he lost half of it, costing him about $430,000. Poultry grower Jeffrey Pridgen in Georgia's Coffee County had four of his 12 chicken houses destroyed and others badly damaged. Farmers say more government disaster assistance is needed. Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI’s strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. But he grew disillusioned with the company and told The Associated Press this fall he would “try to testify” in copyright infringement cases against it. Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge shows price pressures eased last month WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge that is closely watched by the Federal Reserve barely rose last month in a sign that price pressures cooled after two months of sharp gains. Prices rose just 0.1% from October to November. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, prices also ticked up just 0.1%, after two months of outsize 0.3% gains. The milder inflation figures arrived two days after Federal Reserve officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, rocked financial markets by revealing that they now expect to cut their key interest rate just two times in 2025, down from four in their previous estimate. Albania to close TikTok for a year blaming it for promoting violence among children TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister says the government will shut down video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teenager following a quarrel that started on TikTok. Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a meeting with teachers and parents, said TikTok “would be fully closed for all. ... There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania.” Rama says the ban will begin sometime next year. Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers. Stock market today: Wall Street rises to turn a dismal week into just a bad one NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to turn what would have been one of the market’s worst weeks of the year into just a pretty bad one. The S&P 500 rallied 1.1% Friday to shave its loss for the week down to 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 500 points, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1%. A report said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than expected. It’s an encouraging signal after the Fed shocked markets Wednesday by saying worries about inflation could keep it from cutting interest rates in 2025 as much as earlier thought.
DALLAS -- The Hilton Anatole has become Major League Baseball's top destination this week as teams converge for the winter meetings with writers, agents and even some fans circling the vast lobby floors. The biggest offseason news came down Sunday night, when the New York Mets and star free agent slugger Juan Soto reportedly agreed on a 15-year, $765 million deal, which would be the largest contract ever given to a professional athlete. That was a key talking point when managers started meeting with the media on Monday. Nationals manager Dave Martinez reflected on when he was Soto's first manager in the big leagues back in 2018. "This kid, he was different," Martinez said. "The ball comes off his bat differently. The way he approaches the hitting was way different than a lot of kids I've seen. But the one thing that I always remember about him, the first conversation I had, the first thing that came out of his mouth when I asked him what motivates him, what drives him, and he just came out and said, 'I love baseball.' Truly you can see it in him. He loves playing the game." The Red Sox were among the clubs in the mix for Soto. Boston manager Alex Cora didn't get into specific details, but he enjoyed the organization's pursuit of the four-time All Star. "It was fun in a way, you know, to get to know people and players of that status," Cora said. "It's amazing. The kid, he gets it. He gets it. Let me put it that way." Royals manager Matt Quatraro, meanwhile, spoke about the impact such a monumental contract may have on smaller market teams in order to compete in today's market. "We have to be creative. We have to put the best 26 guys on a roster or the best 40 guys on a roster, not the best one or two," Quatraro said. "At the end of the day, you have a chance to compete against those guys. Soto is going to hit four to five times a night. Those are impactful at-bats, but there's other ways to combat that with a full 26-man roster." Sasaki Posted Outside of the Soto reaction, Monday's other main storyline - at least going into the afternoon hours - centered on Japanese ace right-hander Roki Sasaki officially being posted. The 23-year-old phenom is available to sign as a free agent from Tuesday through 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 23. The rumor mill was churning with plenty of speculation and talk about where Sasaki might sign. He was just one of many big-name players being discussed on Monday. The list of top free agents behind Soto includes pitchers Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and infielders Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Christian Walker. On the trade front, much attention is being placed on White Sox left-handed starter Garrett Crochet. It was a relatively quiet Day 1 through the standard working hours, although things are always subject to change at meetings of this nature. Tito is Back Terry Francona joked that his desire to manage again resurfaced when his daughters went on a 10-day trip to Europe. "I watched the grandkids. That was the one day I thought maybe I'll go back to baseball," Francona said, laughing. All joking aside, Francona said it simply happened that when the Reds reached out, the timing felt right. He's healthy and refreshed as he's set to enter his 24th season as a manager. "I had a really good year and maybe I just needed that," Francona, 65, said. "Then, when these guys called, it just felt right." Honoring Mays The winter meetings kicked off with MLB announcing that its annual charity auction during the event would help revitalize Willie Mays Park in the late Hall of Famer's hometown of Fairfield, Ala. At a news conference, April Brown, MLB's senior vice president of social responsibility and diversity, said the vision for the project includes access for all levels of players, from youth leagues to advanced levels. "This effort will not just be MLB alone," Brown said. "We have the blessing of so many connected to his legacy and that have the mission to instill the love of our game that Willie had to all of the youth in the area growing up in the neighborhood where he grew up." The auction, which features items from every major league club, runs through Thursday. --Drew Davison, Field Level MediaNone
Oracle shares fall 8% in extended trade on disappointing growth, denting cloud enthusiasmNone
Brainy, 'normal guy': the suspect in US insurance CEO's slayingBy Sally Round of RNZ A cow pill, vaccines, and specially treated grass seed are among the products it is hoped will be in farmers ’ methane-busting toolkits in the not-too-distant future. As debate intensified last week over reduction targets for the potent greenhouse gas, scientists, industry leaders and farmers were meeting in Wellington to look at some of the technology out there and some of the hurdles ahead. New Zealand farmers will need a suite of options to reduce emissions, according to Harry Clark, chief scientist of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre , co-organisers of this year’s Agriculture and Climate Change conference. “But we will need some high-impact technologies at some point.”
DALLAS -- The Hilton Anatole has become Major League Baseball's top destination this week as teams converge for the winter meetings with writers, agents and even some fans circling the vast lobby floors. The biggest offseason news came down Sunday night, when the New York Mets and star free agent slugger Juan Soto reportedly agreed on a 15-year, $765 million deal, which would be the largest contract ever given to a professional athlete. That was a key talking point when managers started meeting with the media on Monday. Nationals manager Dave Martinez reflected on when he was Soto's first manager in the big leagues back in 2018. "This kid, he was different," Martinez said. "The ball comes off his bat differently. The way he approaches the hitting was way different than a lot of kids I've seen. But the one thing that I always remember about him, the first conversation I had, the first thing that came out of his mouth when I asked him what motivates him, what drives him, and he just came out and said, 'I love baseball.' Truly you can see it in him. He loves playing the game." The Red Sox were among the clubs in the mix for Soto. Boston manager Alex Cora didn't get into specific details, but he enjoyed the organization's pursuit of the four-time All Star. "It was fun in a way, you know, to get to know people and players of that status," Cora said. "It's amazing. The kid, he gets it. He gets it. Let me put it that way." Royals manager Matt Quatraro, meanwhile, spoke about the impact such a monumental contract may have on smaller market teams in order to compete in today's market. "We have to be creative. We have to put the best 26 guys on a roster or the best 40 guys on a roster, not the best one or two," Quatraro said. "At the end of the day, you have a chance to compete against those guys. Soto is going to hit four to five times a night. Those are impactful at-bats, but there's other ways to combat that with a full 26-man roster." Sasaki Posted Outside of the Soto reaction, Monday's other main storyline - at least going into the afternoon hours - centered on Japanese ace right-hander Roki Sasaki officially being posted. The 23-year-old phenom is available to sign as a free agent from Tuesday through 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 23. The rumor mill was churning with plenty of speculation and talk about where Sasaki might sign. He was just one of many big-name players being discussed on Monday. The list of top free agents behind Soto includes pitchers Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and infielders Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Christian Walker. On the trade front, much attention is being placed on White Sox left-handed starter Garrett Crochet. It was a relatively quiet Day 1 through the standard working hours, although things are always subject to change at meetings of this nature. Tito is Back Terry Francona joked that his desire to manage again resurfaced when his daughters went on a 10-day trip to Europe. "I watched the grandkids. That was the one day I thought maybe I'll go back to baseball," Francona said, laughing. All joking aside, Francona said it simply happened that when the Reds reached out, the timing felt right. He's healthy and refreshed as he's set to enter his 24th season as a manager. "I had a really good year and maybe I just needed that," Francona, 65, said. "Then, when these guys called, it just felt right." Honoring Mays The winter meetings kicked off with MLB announcing that its annual charity auction during the event would help revitalize Willie Mays Park in the late Hall of Famer's hometown of Fairfield, Ala. At a news conference, April Brown, MLB's senior vice president of social responsibility and diversity, said the vision for the project includes access for all levels of players, from youth leagues to advanced levels. "This effort will not just be MLB alone," Brown said. "We have the blessing of so many connected to his legacy and that have the mission to instill the love of our game that Willie had to all of the youth in the area growing up in the neighborhood where he grew up." The auction, which features items from every major league club, runs through Thursday. --Drew Davison, Field Level MediaBy Lawrence Delevingne and Carolina Mandl BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -As a money manager, Scott Bessent's years of inconsistent performance have contributed to a nearly 90% decline in his hedge fund's assets. Now, with other business lines expanding, he has scored on perhaps his biggest bet yet: President-elect Donald Trump. Bessent spotted what he called an anomaly in the market: that political and market analysts were too negative on what a Trump victory would mean, according to a letter to clients in January seen by Reuters. His Key Square Capital Management put on bets that U.S. stocks and the dollar would gain, helping earn a double-digit percentage profit so far in 2024, with November as its best month, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bessent's even bigger wager and apparently win is on Trump, the future president. He's been a donor, economic adviser and booster on TV to Trump. On Friday night, news broke that Bessent was Trump's pick to be Treasury Secretary. "Scott is widely respected as one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists," Trump wrote on Truth Social. A representative for Bessent did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the nomination. Trump has talked Bessent up as “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street." While parts of Bessent's business have expanded, such as advising other family offices and money managers, details of his fund's performance, reported here for the first time, show a mixed track record in the decade since he launched his own hedge fund firm. Ted Seides, the former president of Protege Partners, an investment firm where Bessent earned strong returns in the late 2000s, told Reuters that Bessent's track record should be taken in the context of macro investing, where big profits can be followed by less attractive returns. So-called macro hedge funds bet on global macroeconomic trends and are not open to retail investors. "If you only look at the part of a track record with lean years, it’s like saying Aaron Judge struck out a lot last year," Seides said, referring the baseball star known for hitting home runs. "But he was just named MVP." Bessent has long been considered a top contender to run Treasury and his candidacy in the hotly-contested role has heightened interest in the fund manager. If he were to take a job in the new administration, Key Square could be wound down, sold, or put in "sleep mode," according to the same person. BIG START Bessent, who grew up in a small town in South Carolina and went to Yale College before landing on Wall Street, started Key Square in late 2015. The firm quickly raised $4.5 billion - then one of the largest hedge fund launches in history. That included $2 billion from famed macroeconomic investor George Soros, for whom Bessent had helped earn billions of dollars over two stints at Soros Fund Management. Key Square's main fund returns surged 13% in its first year, 2016, according to a second person familiar with the firm. That year, it gained on correctly predicting the British pound's decline around "Brexit," a vote for Britain to leave the European Union, according to the first person familiar with the situation. Later, Key Square made money when Bessent correctly anticipated a U.S. stock and dollar rally when Donald Trump was elected that November, according to the first person. But Key Square lost 7% in 2017, and then lost money or just broke even from 2018 to 2021, according to the second person and performance disclosures from one of its investors, New York City Police Pension Fund. The hedge fund gained double digits in both 2023 and 2024 and is up "double digits" over its history, according to the second person. That uneven performance appears to have scared away some clients. Assets under management shrank from a peak of around $5.1 billion at the end of 2017 to $577 million as of December 2023, while the number of institutional investors fell from 180 in December 2017 to 20 by the end of 2023, according to regulatory disclosures tracked by Convergence Inc. While Key Square's hedge fund assets have declined, it has other business lines that have expanded, including providing investment ideas to other money managers, with up to $1 billion to draw from and invest for a large macro investment firm; an advisory business for family offices, foundations and endowments, including one client with $11 billion in assets; and fees from a spin-out firm, $3.4 billion Ghisallo Capital, part of Key Square's incubation business, according to the two people familiar with the firm and regulatory filings. It also has plans to launch an ETF, according to a recent securities filing. Soros took back most of his capital in 2018, per a previous agreement with Bessent to return the money, according to a third source familiar with the matter. Soros no longer has any money managed by Bessent, according to the third person. The two men have not spoken since 2016, Bessent said in a recent interview with Trump ally Roger Stone. Other large clients who no longer have money with Key Square include Australia's Future Fund, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, and the New York City Police and Fire pension funds, according to public records and regulatory disclosures. One large hedge fund allocator told Reuters that they pulled their money several years ago from Key Square because the returns had been “too inconsistent.” Another large Key Square investor withdrew from the hedge fund last year because of Bessent’s support of Trump, according to the second person familiar with the firm. The University of California redeemed its assets from Key Square amid a broader pull back from using hedge funds, but Bessent has remained "deep source of knowledge for us," chief investment officer, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, told Reuters via email. Another longtime client to stick with Key Square is Brevan Howard Asset Management, the $34 billion macro hedge fund manager co-founded by British billionaire Alan Howard. "Scott is one of the best macro investors in the world," a spokesperson for Brevan Howard said via email. "His understanding of markets, public policy, and the global economy is largely unmatched." Semafor previously reported that selective Key Square performance numbers were being shared around Wall Street chats as Bessent competed for the coveted post of U.S. Treasury Secretary. The report did not reveal the numbers shared. POLITICAL BET Bessent contributed to Trump’s inauguration following his 2016 election win. He was more involved during the 2024 election cycle, serving as an economic adviser to the campaign in addition to being a top fundraiser. Since the election, he has made TV appearances and written opinion pieces in support of Trump's proposed economic agenda. “I was all in for President Trump. I was one of the few Wall Street people backing him,” Bessent recent said in the interview with Stone. In January this year, Bessent predicted a “Trump Rally” in stocks as long as the Republican remained ahead in the election polls. “We are expecting an upward trajectory in the U.S. equity markets,” he wrote in the letter to Key Square clients. “Barring (President Joe) Biden pulling ahead in substantial fashion, all pullbacks should be bought.” (Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Carolina Mandl in New York; editing by Paritosh Bansal, Megan Davies, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft)
Critics raise eyebrows over plan to send prohibited firearms to Ukraine war effort (Canada)
©2014-2025 game 5 schedule pba 版权所有