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China’s Youngest Female Billionaire Selling Sydney Pad for A$18 Million

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Zetian Zhang, known as “Milk Tea Sister,” bought the three-story penthouse in 2015

A three-story penthouse is furnished in the midcentury and contemporary design.

A Chinese internet sensation who became one of the country’s youngest billionaires is selling her three-story penthouse in Sydney for A$18 million (US$13.565 million).

Zetian Zhang, 24, found sudden celebrity status as the “Milk Tea Sister” after an image of her in high school holding a tea drink went viral. She went on to marry one of China’s richest men, Qiangdong “Richard” Liu, the founder of Chinese e-commerce behemoth, JD.com. Forbes estimates Mr. Liu is worth US$10.1 billion.

Ms. Zhang bought the posh four-bedroom apartment at the Stamford Residences in The Rocks, a historic district at the center Sydney, for A$16.2 million (US$12.21 million) in April 2015, according to listing agent Michael Lowdon, the director of Ray White Residential in Sydney’s business district. The home is on the 28th floor and offers views over the city’s Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour.

“It is located in the heart of the historic Rocks precinct and is ideally placed to benefit from what I can describe as an axis of sheer opulence,” Mr. Lowdon said. “This apartment will have an outstanding view across to Barangaroo and the forthcoming Crown Casino.”

The home, completed five years ago, spans nearly 598 square meters (6,437 square feet) and has both formal and informal living spaces, a separate media room and its own elevator, according to the listing.

Images of the interior show Ms. Zhang decorated the home with midcentury modern and contemporary design elements, such as deep-set leather couches and colorful, abstract art to offset an otherwise neutral color palette.

The Stamford also spoils residents with a laundry list of luxury amenities, such as a 24-hour concierge, pool, gym and rooftop terrace with a barbecue, according to the listing.

The penthouse is expected to generate serious interest from foreign buyers, Mr. Lowdon said.

“An iconic property in such an iconic location in the heart of The Rocks will surely attract worldwide attention,” he said.

Ms. Zhang could not immediately be reached for comment.

Inspired by Segway – This Robotic Suitcase Follows You Around The Airport

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90Fun

Want to bring a carry-on, but still walk through the airport hands-free? A China-based company is launching a new suitcase that followers travelers around, well, as the name implies, like a puppy. The 90Fun Puppy 1 (say that five times fast) is slated to launch in the U.S. at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Puppy 1 may not be the first smart suitcase with auto-follow features, but the company says that its following suitcase is the first to use self-balance technology, thanks to a partnership with Segway. Despite having two wheels rather than four, the suitcase will self-balance as it follows you around the airport.

The follow feature is set up using an auto-follow chip and a positioning system, 90Fun says. The follow mode is adjusted through a remote control, which also allows travelers to “summon” the suitcase, according to the company.

The suitcase offers 20 inches of packing space and, despite the auto-follow, still includes a rolling handle.

Puppy 1 may be the company’s first launch in the U.S., but the brand has had success in China, where 90Fun recently took the top sales in luggage on a popular shopping day with 160,000 suitcases sold in 24 hours.

“Targeting the U.S. market is the first step in 90Fun’s international branding strategy because this is where first adopters of new technology gather and the strong curiosity inherent in this region makes it a perfect place to launch our smart suitcase,” Miao Liu, 90Fun CEO, said in a press release.

The idea of a suitcase that follows you around isn’t entirely new — the Cowarobot R1, which launched last year, also boasts auto follow and sensors to preventing it from running into other travelers or down a flight of stairs. Unlike the Puppy 1, the Cowarobot balances on four wheels rather than the Segway-inspired two wheels.

The Puppy 1 joins a growing line of smart luggage, from the autofollow and the ride-on types to the suitcases that convert to other items, like a desk or high chair.

The 90Fun brand is part of Shanghai Runmi Technology Co. Ltd., a company that launched in 2015. Details on the smart suitcase’s availability and price have not yet been released, but that information could be coming at CES.

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Solid U.S. Job Growth Expected in December; Wages Seen Rising

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U.S. employers likely maintained a brisk pace of hiring in December while increasing wages for workers amid growing confidence in the economy, which could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates in March.

Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 190,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after a gain of 228,000 in November. Despite the anticipated moderation, employment gains would still be above the monthly average of 170,000 over the past three months.

Harsh weather in some parts of the country likely contributed to some of the job growth slowdown in December.

For all of 2017, the economy is expected to have created around 2 million jobs, slightly below the 2.2 million added in 2016. The Labor Department is due to release its closely watched employment report at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT) on Friday.

Job growth surged in October and November after being held back in September by back-to-back hurricanes, which destroyed infrastructure and homes and temporarily dislocated some workers in Texas and Florida. A solid employment report would add to the upbeat assessment of the economy signaled in housing, consumer spending and manufacturing data.

“Fed officials continue to look for signs that the U.S. economy remains on the expansion path, December’s employment report should further support such an outlook,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We believe the Fed will be in a position to raise rates in March.”

Job growth in line with expectations could heighten criticism of a $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump last month.

The fiscal stimulus, which includes a sharp reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, is occurring with the economy operating almost at capacity. There are concerns the economy could overheat.

“With the tax cuts we get solid GDP growth in the near-term and then a fiscal hangover, which will likely put the economy at a greater risk of recession,” said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

JOB GROWTH SEEN SLOWING

Economists expect job growth to slow this year as the labor market hits full employment, which will likely boost wage growth as employers compete for workers. The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population.

Average hourly earnings are expected to have risen 0.3 percent in December after gaining 0.2 percent in the prior month. So-called base effects are expected to, however, keep the annual increase in wages at 2.5 percent. Economists are optimistic that annual wage growth will top 3.0 percent by the end of this year.

The unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. With the December employment report, the Labor Department will incorporate annual revisions to the seasonally adjusted household survey data going back five years.

The unemployment rate is derived from the household survey, which means the series is likely to be revised. The jobless rate has declined by seven-tenths of a percentage point since last January.

Economists believe it could drop to 3.5 percent by the end of this year. That could potentially unleash a faster pace of wage growth and translate into a much stronger increase in inflation than currently anticipated.

That, according to economists, would force the Fed to push through four interest rate increases this year instead of the three it has penciled in. The U.S. central bank raised borrowing costs three times in 2017.

“If the unemployment rate declines and wages rise faster, which is likely, the Fed is going to start worrying about wage inflation,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.

Employment gains were likely broad in December, mirroring the pattern of the previous two months. Construction payrolls probably increased further, reflecting recent strong increases in homebuilding.

Another month of steady gains is expected in manufacturing employment. A strong holiday shopping season likely boosted retail payrolls in December.

Macy’s said last month it would hire an additional 7,000 temporary workers for its stores to deal with heavy customer traffic in the run-up to the holiday shopping season.

NASA Reveals 2 Finalists for Missions to Distant Worlds

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Winning mission would launch in 2025
Dragonfly is a drone-like rotorcraft that would land on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and be able to explore the moon for hundreds of kilometres, flying from location to location.

NASA’s next robotic mission to a far-off world may be either landing on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, or a mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that would return samples to Earth.

The two finalists in the space agency’s New Frontiers Program were announced Wednesday afternoon in a teleconference.

The Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be a return to the remnant of our early solar system that was visited by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission in 2014. While that mission had a lander, Philae, it was not a sample-return mission.

“As everybody knows, comets are among the most scientifically important objects and they are the most poorly understood,” said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who will lead the mission should it be chosen. “They contain the primitive building blocks of planets.”

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Squyres said that they chose to return to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as the comet has been well mapped out, which will aid in choosing a landing location. CAESAR would launch in 2025. Once there, it would collect samples from the comet’s nucleus, or core, and then return them to Earth in 2034.

CAESAR NASA comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The CAESAR mission, if chosen, would launch in 2025 and acquire samples from the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and return them to Earth in 2034. (NASA)

The second mission to make the cut is Dragonfly. This drone-like rotorcraft would land on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon that has Earth-like weather systems and lakes, only consisting of methane rather than water. It would be able to explore the moon for hundreds of kilometres, flying from location to location.

This is another location that has been visited before. On Jan. 14, 2005, the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe — part of the Cassini mission that orbited the Saturn system until last September — landed on Titan, descending through the volatile clouds and revealing a rocky world.

Titan surface Cassini Saturn
This view of Titan’s surface is built with images taken on Jan. 14, 2005, by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens mission, after touch-down. Objects near the centre of the picture are roughly the size of a man’s foot, while objects at the horizon are less than an average man’s height. (ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

“We can evaluate how far chemistry has progressed in an environment that we know has the ingredient for life,” said Elizabeth Turtle of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who will be the lead investigator. “Water-based life or hydrocarbon life.”

The two chosen missions have until January 2019 to prepare their final mission concept. The final decision will be chosen in July 2019.

Though two other missions — one to look for life around another of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, and a second that would focus on exploring Venus — did not make the final cut, they will receive technology development funds to prepare them for the possibility of future missions.

 

4,000 New Immigrants Called Nova Scotia Home in 2017

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Scenes like this became familiar in Nova Scotia in 2016. Here, the Beechville-Lakeside-Timerberlea refugee sponsorship group welcome the Ali family after a long journey from Syria.

The Nova Scotia government says 2017 was a banner year for attracting immigrants to the province, with nearly 4,000 newcomers calling Canada’s Ocean Playground home.

By late October, 3,845 immigrants had settled here, said Immigration Minister Lena Diab. She expects that number to pass 4,000 when the full 2017 numbers are in. The top three countries of origin were India, the Philippines and China.

“The more the merrier, as far Nova Scotia is concerned,” she told CBC News.

Immigrant-started businesses flourishing.

Lena Diab said “the more, the merrier,” when it comes to immigrants choosing Nova Scotia.

“Immigrants do well in Nova Scotia and they do much better in Nova Scotia than other parts of the [country],” said Diab, who is the daughter of immigrants.

She was born in Nova Scotia, moved with her family to Lebanon when she was two, and then returned to Nova Scotia when she was 11.

Diab said immigrants in Nova Scotia have higher employment rates than the Canadian average and are two times more likely to work in their field if they’re internationally trained, compared with those in other provinces.

For immigrants who have started businesses, those businesses have a higher success rate (71 per cent) after three years of operation in Nova Scotia compared with the Canadian average (48 per cent).

Nova Scotia’s 2017 immigration numbers are lower than the previous year’s because in 2016, about 1,500 Syrian refugees settled in the province, such as the Hadhad family, known for their Peace by Chocolate business.

‘They live with us, among us. They are us’
The provincial government said most Nova Scotians believe immigrants make Nova Scotia a more interesting place and that immigration is key to growing our province.

It pointed to research conducted in the fall on behalf of the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration that suggested 85 per cent of Nova Scotians “believe that immigration has a positive impact on our province,” compared with 36 per cent in 2016.

Gerry Mills, executive director of Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS), and Miia Suokonautio, executive director of the YWCA Halifax, spoke to CBC Radio’s Information Morning about the changing attitudes to immigrants.

“It is an astounding difference. We’re seeing a change, for sure,” Mills said. “We’re seeing more employers open up, more volunteers. We’re seeing public institutions like libraries, hospitals — and especially Halifax Regional School Board — taking on the responsibility, so it’s not only ISANS’s responsibility.

Gerry Mills is the executive director of ISANS, the province’s largest settlement agency

Nova Scotia’s population has never been higher, thanks to immigration
“These are not immigrant families, these are not refugee families. They’re Nova Scotian families. They live with us, among us. They are us.”

Both Mills and Suokonautio said having so many private citizens get involved in welcoming Syrians to Nova Scotia and helping them settle in changed a lot of attitudes.

“That’s something Nova Scotians are really, really good at. When it touches them personally, they become involved and positive about it,” Mills said.

Suokonautio, too, said she has seen changing attitudes.

“Things that are happening in the U.S. — sometimes Canadians, we do a counterpoint. Whether that’s based on genuine immigration policies being different or not, we like to differentiate ourselves by saying we are more welcoming,” she said.

Poverty must be tackled

Mills noted that child poverty rates and poor housing remain big problems for newcomers. ISANS is currently helping 600 immigrants seek work. Many of them are highly educated, including physicians, she said.

“Lots of people can’t find family doctors. We know the provincial government is seeking internationally educated doctors,” she said. “They’re seeing immigration as part of the solution to some of those demographic issues.”

Miia Suokonautio is the executive director of the YWCA Halifax

New Brunswick has the highest proportion of young college graduates in Canada: census
Suokonautio said more needs to be done to help those newcomers experiencing poverty and unemployment find work.

“Attitudes aren’t enough,” she said.

Nova Scotia’s population reached 957,600 in 2017 and is on track to reach 961,650 by 2025.

Canadian Sales of Light Trucks, Cars Top 2 Million for 1st Time

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Trucks accounted for an all-time record 68 per cent of sales in the Canadian light vehicle market in 2017, according to an automotive consultant.

Canadian sales of light vehicles rose by 4.6 per cent in 2017, cracking 2 million units for the first time, thanks to record strength in truck sales.

According to a report from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, overall Canadian light vehicle sales, which include light trucks and passenger cars, hit 2,038,798 last year, up from 2016’s 1,948,895.

“Quite a spectacular year,” Dennis DesRosiers told CBC’s Meegan Read. “The eighth consecutive year of growth, and the last four have been all-time records.”

Sales of light trucks rose by 8.7 per cent year-over-year to reach almost 1.4 million vehicles. Conversely, passenger car sales slipped by 3.4 per cent last year to come in at 639,823.

Light trucks accounted for 68 per cent of the market, an all-time record, DesRosiers said, adding that passenger car sales tumbled to their lowest level since 1964.

For the month of December, overall sales fell year-over-year by 1.1 per cent as a 12.5 per cent drop in passenger car sales overwhelmed a 3.8 per cent rise in light truck sales.

Among the automakers, GM Canada reported that it sold 302,826 vehicles in 2017, up 13.3 per cent from 2016.

Ford Motor Company of Canada said it sold 308,669 vehicles last year, up 1.3 per cent from 2016. The company’s truck sales were up by 5.2 per cent, while car sales tumbled almost 20 per cent year-over-year.

Fiat Chrysler said its full-year sales dipped four per cent to 267,052 units, as growth in its Ram brand was offset by softness in sales for its Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge brands.

Honda Canada reported a sales increase of six per cent in 2017, on sales of 197,251 units by Honda and Acura. The company said its Honda division set a fourth consecutive annual sales record, up six per cent over last year, on sales of 176,951 units in 2017, while Acura sales topped 20,000 unit but were flat compared to 2016.

Toyota Canada said record hybrid, truck and Lexus sales helped it to its best year on record, with overall sales up 3.1 per cent and 224,547 vehicles sold.

DesRosiers also pointed out that four German brands — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Porsche — all set all-time records for sales.

“The luxury market is hot,” DesRosiers said.