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☆ Where to go this summer: A dozen destination ideas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Marnie Hunter | Jane Levere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Peru"Peruvians are welcoming travelers back with open arms," says travel one travel expert. And perhaps most importantly, the city offers excellent value, in part because it will be the winter/low season there during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. It’s home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including megalithic temples that date to the 4th millennium BC. Although summer is the rainy season, Gellis says showers are often brief and intermittent. AlbaniaAlbania is a Mediterranean gem that’s likely to be less crowded this summer than Greece and Croatia, says Joao Donadel, another EMBARK Beyond travel advisor.

☆ Floating tiny homes in London's financial district are on sale for $300,000. Take a look inside.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Three unusual floating homes are on sale in Canary Wharf, east London. The houses are docked alongside houseboats and barges in a wharf near the financial district. Loading Something is loading. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyThree unusual floating homes are up for sale in London's Canary Wharf, the UK capital's financial district. Real estate agents Hamptons told Insider said the 344 square foot properties are among several boat residences that have become popular in marinas across London.

☆ Column: World can't afford US-style home energy consumption habits
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Gavin Maguire | Thomson Reuters | Gavin Maguire Is The Global Energy Transition Columnist. He Was Previously Asia Commodities | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

HOMES RULEA key driver behind America's outsized electricity consumption is the preference for single family homes over all other types of residences. For many in the United States, owning your own home is a key part of the so-called American Dream. According to the EIA's latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey 57% of electricity used by detached households is used for space heating, and 64% for air conditioning. OTHER WAYS OF LIVINGThe United States is not alone in facing rising living costs while trying to improve the efficiencies of buildings. Similarly, a vast majority of China's population lives in apartments, and apartments are more popular than individual houses in the cities of India, Japan and Southeast Asia.

☆ Revealed: Vladimir Putin's secret Black Sea bunker
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | Anastasiia Carrier | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

You would think that the architects who designed Vladimir Putin's palace thought of everything. They failed to hide plans showing two elaborate tunnels running beneath the palace complex — plans that any competent state-security apparatus would fight tooth-and-nail to keep secret. The underground complex beneath Putin's palace consists of two separate tunnels connected by an elevator that descends roughly 50 meters below the surface. Gelendzhik is the town closest to the palace complex, a five-hour drive from the resort city of Sochi. "With the war in Ukraine," Kimmage said, "there's speechmaking, there's propaganda, there's exaggeration — there's this performative aspect that plays to Russia's domestic politics.

☆ County with high rate of overdose deaths doesn’t use opioid settlement funds for addiction program
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Aneri Pattani | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Greene County, Tenn., resident Nancy Schneck wants opioid settlement funds to be used for addiction and mental health treatment. In Tennessee, 15% of the state’s opioid settlement funds are controlled by the legislature and another 15% by local governments. Greene County, Tenn., is directing some of its opioid settlement money into the county's capital projects fund. Pack, from East Tennessee State, urges them to increase access to medications that have proven effective in treating opioid addiction. Some Greene County residents want to see opioid settlement funds go to local initiatives that are already operating on the ground.

☆ New York Is Full of Empty Offices After Covid. Make Way for the Playground City. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Edward L. Glaeser | Carlo Ratti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

We are witnessing the dawn of a new kind of urban area: the Playground City. The transformation toward the Playground City will not happen on its own. To draw people into the Playground City, we need to show, not tell. 6.Engage citizensGovernments should empower citizens to participate directly in making the Playground City. The Playground City sees people as both a means and an end, and it should involve them in the process of its creation.

☆ Shaq tries to dismiss FTX lawsuit, saying he was inadequately served court papers because they were 'tossed' at his moving car
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

O'Neal was served last month after a three-month chase, according to tweets from a law firm. Shaquille O'Neal is trying to get his FTX lawsuit dismissed, saying the way he was served with papers was "inadequate." "Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house," The Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted on April 17. Representatives for Shaq and The Moskowitz Law Firm did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours. In November, investors filed a proposed class-action against several celebrities and public figures who endorsed Sam Bankman-Fried's failed FTX.

☆ DC Mayor Muriel Bowser wants to expand tax breaks for developers turning empty downtown offices into much-needed housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

DC's mayor has proposed an expansion of tax relief for developers who convert offices into residences. The city has more than 20 million square feet of unused office space — an unprecedented vacancy rate, according to the DowntownDC Business Improvement District's 2021 report. —Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) December 15, 2022The mayor and city officials say the tax relief, called the Housing in Downtown (HID) Abatement, is necessary to incentivize and speed up costly commercial building transformations. "We know that creating new housing in downtown will lead to a more vibrant neighborhood and 24/7 economy. The Housing in Downtown Abatement Program will incentivize more conversions, and bring about more housing affordability and retail opportunities."

☆ Meet the urban investor combining real estate, venture capital, and private equity to spend $5.5 billion making cities more liveable
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Urban Partners will combine real estate, venture capital, private equity, and credit under one company. "We started thinking about what real estate investing can do beyond just a piece of investment," Claus Mathisen, CEO of Urban Partners, told Insider. "You start thinking about servicing customers – the stakeholders who actually use the real estate – and you design around them." Urban Partners is working with mayors to figure out what they need to make their cities more livable. Cobe ArchitectsInstead of focusing on financial return on investment, Urban Partners is also using environmental impact as a KPI.

☆ What Record Office Vacancies Mean for New York City’s Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Matthew Haag | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Why It Matters: Office buildings tell the story of New York City’s economy. Before the pandemic, office buildings drove a significant share of the city’s economy. Private-sector workers in office buildings make about double the average annual salary than everyone else, according to the New York State Comptroller, underscoring their significance to the city’s economy. Office buildings are vital to New York’s economy for another reason: Their property taxes supply a chunk of New York City’s annual revenue. As vacancies linger, New York City, as well as other municipalities, have floated the idea of converting some buildings into residences.

☆ Billionaire Investor Buys Epstein’s Private Islands for $60 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Matthew Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A billionaire investor with ties to the U.S. Virgin Islands paid $60 million to buy Jeffrey Epstein’s island residences off the coast of St. Thomas — closing another chapter in the financial dealings of the disgraced financier who died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The investor, Stephen Deckoff, paid roughly 50 percent less than the price Mr. Epstein’s estate listed for the two private islands last year. A portion of the sale proceeds will go toward a $105 million settlement that Mr. Epstein’s estate reached last year with the government of the U.S. territory in the Caribbean. Mr. Deckoff, in a news release, said he planned to build a 25-room resort on the islands. A lawyer for Mr. Epstein’s estate confirmed the sale but declined to comment further.

☆ As cost of living crisis bites, some Brits are questioning spending money on glitzy coronation As cost of living crisis bites, some Brits are questioning spending money on glitzy coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

The church operates the cafe alongside a food bank which offers free food, clothes, household items and other necessities to locals who are struggling. When it first opened before the pandemic, the food bank was serving mostly homeless people. Liz Coopey, left, a volunteer at the Given Freely Freely Given food bank in Doncaster, helps local resident Angela Davis with her shopping bags. The Given Freely Freely Given food bank in Doncaster offers its clients other items than just food, including household goods and clothing. Liz Coopey, one of the volunteers there, said she understands the idea of having to rely on a food bank might be scary to many.

☆ New York poised to pass first statewide law banning natural gas in new buildings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The law would likely take effect in 2026 for most new buildings under seven stories and in 2029 for larger buildings. The statewide ban would follow legislation passed by New York City in 2021 that bans natural gas hookups in new buildings by the end of this year. New York was the sixth-largest natural gas consumer among the states in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And in 2021, the residential sector — where three out of every five households use natural gas for heating — comprised over one-third of the natural gas delivered to New York residents, the agency found. "New York state is leading the way in ending America's devastating addiction to fossil fuels," said Food & Water Watch Northeast Region Director Alex Beauchamp.

☆ Opinion | American Road Deaths Show an Alarming Racial Gap
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Adam Paul Susaneck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

The year before, pedestrian deaths reached a 40-year high. Pedestrian and cyclist injuries tend to be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods that have a larger share of Black and Hispanic residents. Roosevelt Boulevard North Philly High Injury Network West Philly 3 miles Percent Black and Hispanic 20 40 60 80% Washington D.C. Oslo and Helsinki, which adopted Vision Zero in the 1990s, recorded zero traffic deaths in 2019, and Helsinki had just two pedestrian deaths in 2021. In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, pedestrian deaths have actually risen since the adoption of Vision Zero.

☆ Royal castles to luxury getaways: How to spend King Charles III's coronation weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | Rob Goss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The king has pledged a more scaled-back affair than that celebrated by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953. Here's CNBC Travel's top picks for how to spend the coronation weekend. Watch the ceremonial processionThe coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6 in a service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Buckingham Palace, London residence of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, is open for tours outside of the coronation weekend. Picnic in the Royal ParksLondon's Royal Parks offer a more low-key way to absorb the royal atmosphere over the coronation weekend.

☆ Luxury hotel opens atop Vietnam’s tallest building
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Lilit Marcus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The new Vinpearl Landmark 81 has just opened inside the country’s tallest building, Landmark 81, in Ho Chi Minh City. It clocks in at 461 meters (1,512 feet) high and overlooks the Saigon River in the eastern stretch of Vietnam’s biggest city. The rest of Landmark 81 is a mix of private residences and public attractions. Vinpearl Landmark 81 is located about 11 km (7 miles) from Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Vietnam’s biggest and busiest airport. Vinpearl Landmark 81, 720A Đ. Điện Biên Phủ, Phường 22, Bình Thạnh, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam; +84 28 3971 8888

☆ How to avoid getting dropped from Medicaid as states narrow coverage
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

As a pandemic-era policy winds down, millions of people on Medicaid may lose their coverage — even though they remain eligible, advocates say. For the last three years, due to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, states have been required to provide continuous Medicaid coverage to enrollees in order to get federal funding. That meant people on Medicaid couldn't be dropped from the program during that time. "From March 2020 to March 2023, people could only enter Medicaid, and no one was at risk of losing coverage," said Kosali Simon, professor of health economics at the O'Neill School at Indiana University. Here's how to avoid losing your Medicaid coverage if you believe you remain eligible.

“According to the information we have in Khartoum, 50% of hospitals have been out of action in the first 72 hours,” said Abdalla Hussein, the Médecins Sans Frontière operational manager for Sudan. On Wednesday, Japan said it was preparing to send its military to evacuate nationals from Sudan. Smoke rises during clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, Sudan, on Wednesday. The RSF denied the claims, blaming Sudan’s armed forces for committing the crimes while wearing RSF uniforms. The armed forces have denied involvement in the violations, and reiterated accusations that the RSF has committed crimes against humanity.

Stringer/ReutersThe RSF denied those reports, telling CNN in a statement that it “will never assault any UN staff or employees. Meanwhile, tense efforts to establish a ceasefire have ramped up, with the UN calling for rival factions to end their hostilities. Satellite imagery of the smoke plume at Khartoum International Airport on Sunday. The Sudanese Armed Forces later issued conflicting statements on a proposed 24-hour ceasefire, intended to go into effect later on Tuesday. Both sides had previously agreed to a three-hour ceasefire on Sunday, and again on Monday, with fighting resuming afterward, Perthes said.

☆ How to Get a Mortgage
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +15 min

“Houses cost more than the money invested to purchase them,” says Brian Rugg, chief credit officer at mortgage lender loanDepot. Research mortgage loan types and lendersThere are two basic categories of mortgage: private and government backed. “Look at customer reviews from past borrowers,” says Alex Shekhtman, a mortgage broker and founder of LBC Mortgage in New York. “Mortgage lenders use appraisals to protect their investment in the home,” says Liz Lopez, a real-estate agent at RelatedISG Realty. Since mortgage payments are made in arrears—meaning you pay on the first of the month for the previous month’s charges—you won’t owe a mortgage payment until the start of the second month following your closing date.

☆ Elon Musk says he sometimes sleeps on a couch in the library of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk says he has a sleeping spot in Twitter's San Francisco offices. "There's a couch there and I sleep there sometimes," Musk told the BBC. And, uh, there's a couch there, and I sleep there sometimes," Musk told the BBC during a live-streamed interview on Tuesday night. And in December, he turned some office space at the San Francisco headquarters into bedrooms. The topics covered included Twitter's content moderation, the company's mass layoffs, Musk's intention to turn Twitter's San Francisco office into a homeless shelter, and his dog Floki, who he jokingly calls Twitter's CEO.

☆ Ukrainian civilians are attending military trainings and workout sessions to prepare for an expected influx of draft notices ahead of a spring offensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some civilians are participating in military trainings to prepare for possibly being drafted. "If the war lasts another year, we're all going to be in the army," one man told The Washington Post. Ukrainian civilians, as a result, are starting to realize that they may soon be drafted, according to a Washington Post report. He told the outlet that he anticipates being sent to the frontlines following his military training. "I'm 100% sure I'll be drafted sooner or later," Sasha, the casting director, told the Post, citing the spring counteroffensive.

☆ Celeb parties, ex-presidents, and safe-deposit boxes full of jewelry: What it's like to manage a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Rebecca Goldberg has been hotel manager of The Peninsula Beverly Hills for over two years. Now, Goldberg has made her way to becoming the hotel manager of The Peninsula Beverly Hills — just a walk away from the iconic Rodeo Drive. "It's about finding a balance," she said, between new guests, regular guests, and the Beverly Hills community who come to the hotel's restaurants and spa. The front entrance of The Peninsula Beverly Hills. The Peninsula Beverly Hills bar.

The seafront used to be lined with Atafona’s grandest houses, the summer residences of wealthy sugar cane barons. They were the first to go, said Joca Delbons, one of the few real-estate agents who has stuck it out in Atafona. He said there is still demand farther inland, either from those who were evicted by the sea or by investors hoping to buy cheap and sell for a big profit if there is ever a solution to halt the waters.

☆ Putin built identical offices across Russia to conceal his location, a Russian intelligence officer who defected says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Vladimir Putin has replicas of his offices across Russia, a former intelligence officer said. The officer, who defected from Russia, shed light on Putin's paranoia and obsession with safety. Karakulov told the Dossier Center that offices in Putin's residences in St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Novo-Ogaryovo had been designed to look identical. Karakulov said that Putin sometimes further obscured his location by sending his motorcade to the airport despite remaining at home. While in actual fact, he would stay in Sochi," Karakulov said.

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