Tag: Construction

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere
Health

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but last month the White House awarded $3.1 billion to the California High-Speed Rail project. This was supposed to be a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. Instead, its costs keep rising even as the state scales back the plan. Since 2008, when California voters authorized a $10 billion bond issue for the train, they’ve been sold a bill of goods.The original total estimated construction cost to taxpayers was $33 billion. That’s risen to at least $100 billion. The authority decided to offer service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in Phase I, then eventually extend the train service north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. Phase I was to have been completed by 2020. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company...
Japanese Investors Return to Overseas Real Estate With Lessons Learned From the 1990s
World

Japanese Investors Return to Overseas Real Estate With Lessons Learned From the 1990s

TOKYO—Big Japanese investors stumbled disastrously into the U.S. commercial real-estate market in the late 1980s, when they bought high-profile properties like New York’s Rockefeller Center not long before the market fell hard.Now some Japanese institutional investors and real-estate companies are back—but this time it isn’t about flaunting trophy purchases. It is about diversifying portfolios for the long term and getting good bargains while the market is slumping.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
China Ends Underwhelming Year With Fresh Signs of Weakness
World

China Ends Underwhelming Year With Fresh Signs of Weakness

Dec. 30, 2023 10:18 pm ETChina’s economy showed fresh signs of weakness as the year drew to a close, piling pressure on Beijing to take bold new steps to fire up growth in 2024.Surveys suggest factory activity slid deeper into contraction in December due to thin order books at home and abroad, while the services sector struggled as consumers kept a tight leash on spending.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing
World

The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing

Listen to article(2 minutes)The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Russian Strike on Ukraine Sent Warhead Through Polish Airspace, Warsaw Says
World

Russian Strike on Ukraine Sent Warhead Through Polish Airspace, Warsaw Says

KYIV, Ukraine—Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on cities across Ukraine, killing at least 30 people and allegedly sending a warhead through Polish airspace in one of the biggest barrages of the war.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched around 110 missiles on Friday morning. The majority were shot down, according to Ukrainian officials, but damage was nonetheless widespread. Schools, apartment buildings and a maternity hospital were all hit. Casualties were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv—the six largest Ukrainian cities not under Russian occupation.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
In Sedona, a Rust-Covered Home Is Disguised by the Desert Landscape
World

In Sedona, a Rust-Covered Home Is Disguised by the Desert Landscape

Ian and Anne Rowland are married software engineers who can work from almost anywhere. And that, during New England’s long gray winters, means anywhere but Cambridge, Mass. “We wanted a place that felt very different from our home, and a building that reminded us of that difference, even if we were sitting inside, working,” Ian says.That explains why they built a vacation house in Sedona, Ariz. If you’re trying to avoid gray, there is no better place than that Yavapai County town, which is set among some of the reddest rocks on earth.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Israeli Military Reveals Tunnel It Says Hamas Built for Large-Scale Attack
World

Israeli Military Reveals Tunnel It Says Hamas Built for Large-Scale Attack

Dec. 17, 2023 10:47 am ETGAZA—A quarter of a mile from a civilian border crossing between Israel and northern Gaza lies what Israel’s military says is the largest tunnel discovered in the enclave. It is large enough that large vehicles can drive through it, and yet, until recently, Israel didn’t know the tunnel reached right up to its border.Israeli troops uncovered the tunnel exit buried under a sand dune a few weeks ago. Israeli officials believe that the tunnel, up to 50 meters deep at points, and 2½ miles long, took years and millions of dollars to build and was meant to facilitate a large-scale attack on Israel.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Property Crash Draws Short-Sellers. Better Late Than Never.
Money

Property Crash Draws Short-Sellers. Better Late Than Never.

With interest rate cuts looking more likely, now isn’t an obvious time to make bearish bets on real estate. Luckily for short sellers, the Fed probably won’t move fast enough to wreck their favorite new trade.Mortgage real-estate investment trusts, which offer bridging loans to commercial property owners, have caught the eye of short sellers. Carson Block’s Muddy Waters hedge fund announced a stake in blue chip Blackstone Mortgage Trust last week. Viceroy Research, the fund that previously bet against troubled real-estate stocks SBB and Adler Group, went public with a position in Arbor Realty Trust in mid-November.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Country Garden to Make CNY3.07 Billion Disposal to Aid Debt Restructuring
Money

Country Garden to Make CNY3.07 Billion Disposal to Aid Debt Restructuring

Chinese property giant Country Garden will sell a stake in a commercial center operator for about $428 million, using the proceeds to help restructure offshore debt.The indebted developer said Thursday that a group subsidiary will sell its entire 1.79% stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group for 3.07 billion yuan ($428.0 million).Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Country Garden to Make CNY3.07 Billion Disposal to Aid Debt Restructuring
World

Country Garden to Make CNY3.07 Billion Disposal to Aid Debt Restructuring

Chinese property giant Country Garden will sell a stake in a commercial center operator for about $428 million, using the proceeds to help restructure offshore debt.The indebted developer said Thursday that a group subsidiary will sell its entire 1.79% stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group for 3.07 billion yuan ($428.0 million).Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8