Latest news with #DiamondDistrict
Android Authority
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
Google is teaming up with Roblox for a new Play Points experience
Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Google and Roblox have teamed up to create an experience for Play Points members. Players will be able to access an area called the Diamond District that offers an obstacle course, mini-games, and weekly drops. Diamond, Platinum, and Gold members of Play Points will have access to a VIP vault to claim digital items for their avatar. Occasionally, Google does a little something extra for its users. For example, the company created a VIP experience for Play Points members at events like San Diego Comic-Con and G-Star last year. The tech giant is now at it again, this time teaming up with Roblox to create a new experience and give access to new merchandise and collectibles. Google has announced that from now until July 2, Play Points members will be able to visit a new Diamond District area in Roblox. This experience is available in all markets where the Play Points program is available. As Google explains, the Diamond District includes an obstacle course that contains gems and special portals. This area also offers weekly drops you can collect and other mini-games you can play. If you happen to be a Diamond, Platinum, or Gold Play Points member, you'll also have access to the VIP Vault. This exclusive space is said to have special digital items for your avatar. Before you can access the vault, however, Google says you'll need to link your Play Points account to confirm your status. Additionally, all Play Points members will have a chance to get custom merchandise. Some of the items the company lists are a Google Play x Backbone One controller, a mini fingerboard collectible and limited-edition gift box, and portal pins. The blog also mentions that Google is rolling out new merchandise and collectibles to use your points on. The images above show a few of these items, like a shirt, an Android plushie, and a Duolingo plushie. Google says it has partnered with other top developers and lifestyle brands to add even more apparel, accessories, and so on. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Economist
02-06-2025
- Business
- Economist
Negotiation: From no, no, no, no, no
Whether you're acquiring a company or haggling for higher pay, you need a negotiating toolkit. In this episode, host Andrew Palmer gets tips from New York's Diamond District, a leading ransomware negotiator and one of the world's top football agents. To listen to the full series, subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. If you're already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Gold fever makes a comeback as buyers and bankers recoil from uncertainty
New York's famous Diamond District was teeming last week. But the subject on many minds in the city's jewelry district was not diamonds but gold. Covid, Ukraine and now Donald Trump's trade wars have all sparked new interest in gold – which can trace its history as a currency back to 600BC. On West 47th St, gold trader Becky Algozhoeva at GT Findings was showing coins and ingots stamped with the Roman goddess Fortuna, also known as 'Lady Fortuna', to customers. 'Regular people are thinking gold is the key. They don't even believe in banks any more because the economics are shaky, and they don't even want to invest in institutions. They want to have it under their pillow. And gold doesn't go bad. It's not milk, right?' The price of gold is up more than 20% since Trump's election in November, and 95% over the past five years. Gold prices have declined from the record of $3,500 an ounce set last month, partly on expectations that Trump will further dial down trade tensions. But gold bugs love uncertainty and it seems likely there is more of that to come. Every mention of gold by government officials, in the media, on Instagram and TikTok, was contributing to it coming back as 'the only currency that is recognized universally', said Algozhoeva. Over the first few months of the year, US demand has grown so great that traders started sending 400-ounce gold bars from London vaults to Switzerland, where they were converted into kilo bars and sent to the US in the hold of commercial airliners, four tons at a time. 'It's been unprecedented,' says Philip Newman, managing director of the precious metals consultancy Metals Focus. 'We saw some rise during Covid but this has been more structural and long-lasting.' As a result, US gold inventories have doubled, with over 20m ounces, or roughly 600 tons, being transported into vaults in New York City. In February, JPMorgan alone said it planned to deliver $4bn of gold to the US, according to filings on the US Comex exchange. After last month's disappointing US economic growth numbers, some economists said that an unusually large amount of non-monetary gold – bullion, gold coins, unwrought gold, semi-manufactured gold and gold scrap – had accounted for some of the jump in imports. Since the beginning of April, when it became clear that the US would not tariff gold and silver, the market has quieted down. But there's no sense that it will remain so. 'There's uncertainty over what Trump will do tomorrow, and that uncertainty is ongoing,' Newman says. The gold rush of 2024 may be more deep-seated than an attempt to offset Trump's US-led trade war and concerns about the global economy and rising debt levels. Central banks have been buying gold to diversify assets since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 at double the annual rate – 1,000 tons a year – over the previous decade. In the final quarter of 2024, when Trump won the US election, central bank purchases accelerated 54% year-on-year to 333 tons, according to an estimate from the World Gold Council (WGC). Michael Widmer, a commodity strategist with Bank of America, told Reuters that central banks should increase their reserves by 11,000 tons of gold. 'Emerging market central banks currently hold around 10% of their assets in gold,' he said. 'They should really hold 30% of their assets in gold.' At the same time, it's not only central and commercial banks that are buying more gold. Consumers purchased 13% less gold jewelry but increased purchases of bars and coins in 2024 by 3% to 325 tons. Overall. The first quarter of 2025 was the second-strongest on record for global gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, according to the WSG, as investors poured $21bn into the gold-owning investment vehicles in the first three months of the year. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo estimated that the retailer Costco was making $100m to $200m a month by selling gold bars. The company began selling 1-ounce bars made of nearly pure 24-karat gold priced at about $2,000 last year. In October, Costco's chief financial officer, Richard Galanti, told investors, 'they're typically gone within a few hours.' Despite the recent drop in gold prices, many see no immediate end to gold fever. Deutsche Bank expects bullion to hit $3,700 an ounce by next year, and the billionaire investor John Paulson told Reuters that central bank gold buying and global trade tensions were likely to push bullion prices to near $5,000 an ounce by 2028. Paulson's fund, Paulson & Co, is reported to have earned a $3.7bn on a 2007 bet the the subprime mortgage boom would end in collapse, as it did, is already the largest shareholder in Idaho's Perpetua goldmine and earlier this month bought an $800m, or 40%, stake in NovaGold's Donlin gold project in Alaska from Barrick. 'As central banks and people look to put their money in a more stable source … I think gold will increase its position in the world,' Paulson told Reuters. He said western confiscation of Russia's foreign reserve holdings after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine as a catalyst for the world's central banks – especially China's – to pile into gold. 'When the war started, [Russia] kept their physical gold, that was safe, but all their cash – the paper reserves – were confiscated,' Paulson said. 'So that caused other central banks to wake up and say … 'What happens if there's a conflict with the US? Could the US keep our treasuries, and all our savings would disappear?'' Paulson said. But gold fever, with the metal's long historical record as a desirable asset goes beyond Costco survivalists, central banks and money managers. 'It's the only thing you can trust, right?' ventured Konstantin 'Gino' Popolis, a manager at Green Diamond buyers. 'It's the only thing that can prove you have assets. Nothing else. There's no more digital, no AI, no bubbles, no shortages. With gold, you have the proof.'
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Antiques Roadshow star arrested after sisters accused him of stealing $6 MILLION in precious gems hits back
An Antiques Roadshow star who was arrested after his sisters accused him of stealing $6 million in precious jewelry has responded to the wild allegations. Kevin Zavian, 67, who regularly appears on the PBS show appraising jewelry and watches, has filed a $165 million lawsuit against his younger sisters, Ellen, 61, and Robin, 66 - claiming they are actually the ones who are thieving and conniving. The sisters had filed a police report against Kevin back in February, alleging he stole pieces from Cluster Jewelry - a store founded by their grandfather and their great uncle. But Kevin says he was just acting on behalf of their elderly father, Berj, 95, and that all of the jewelry he took belonged to either Kevin, himself, their father, or William Doyle Auction House - where Berj launched a jewelry department back in 1974. He argues in the complaint that he has since returned much of the items to the Manhattan jewelry store, but his reputation has been permanently destroyed by their claims. Meanwhile, both Kevin and Berj claim the sisters have 'systematically looted' at least $1 million worth of diamonds and jewelry 'without proper documentation or accounting' from Cluster Jewelry. The losses, they argue, have forced the landlord to refuse to renew their family business' lease in New York City's acclaimed Diamond District. 'This disgraceful plundering of the family heritage demonstrates the depths to which Defendants are willing to sink in their ruthless scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of their brother and elderly father,' reads the suit, which was filed in New York State Supreme Court on Friday. According to the lawsuit, Berj - who is named as a co-plaintiff - had always intended for his three children to evenly own Cluster. But in 2014, it says, Ellen 'induced' Berj, who was 84 years old at the time , to sign a legal document making her and Robin the sole owners of the jewelry firm. 'Ellen deliberately did not fully explain to Berj that the document excluded Kevin as owner, contrary to Berj's wishes and intentions,' the lawsuit says, noting that Ellen works as a lawyer and her father trusted her legal experience. 'This shocking betrayal of her own father's trust represents a disgraceful exploitation of the parent-child relationship,' lawyers for Kevin and Berj argue, saying her behavior also revealed a 'disturbing willingness to destroy her brother's rightful place in the family business' and a 'willful intent to disinherit' Kevin behind his back. Yet Kevin was allegedly left unaware for more than a decade that he was no longer a co-owner. Everything then seemed to change when his sisters accused him of stealing from the family business in early February, leading to his arrest. One month later, the complaint says, Ellen and Robin wrote a letter claiming Kevin stole from the shop - and saying he has 'never been an owner' of Cluster Jewelry and 'has not been an employee of Cluster Jewelry for many years.' He had instead taken over for Berj as the senior appraiser at William Doyle Galleries in 2010. 'Defendants knew these statements were false when they made them, particularly Ellen, who signed the tax returns identifying Kevin as a one-third owner,' the suit contends. It then goes on to note that the sisters distributed their letter throughout the Diamond District of New York City - known for its jewelers, which caused 'substantial damage' to Kevin's good name. He has lost clients as a result and numerous industry associates have since declined to work with him, Kevin alleges. 'This callous attack on Kevin's professional reputation by his own sisters reveals a shocking disregard for family bonds and basic human decency.' The suit also accuses Ellen and Robin of 'surreptitiously and systematically looting... other assets of Cluster Jewelry Co Inc.' worth at least $1 million in jewelry and diamonds. It further claims they have been misappropriating funds - and have thus far refused to hand over financial records, inventory lists or other documentation that Kevin and Berj have requested. 'This disgraceful plundering of the family heritage demonstrates the depths to which Defendants are willing to sink in their ruthless scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of their brother and elderly father,' the suit argues. In one shocking detail alleged in the suit, Robin is accused of physically assaulting both Kevin and Berj. The attack on Kevin was allegedly caught on video surveillance outside their family's jewelry shop, and in a separate incident Robin allegedly hit their father on the head 'causing him pain and distress.' 'That a daughter would raise her hand against her elderly father - a man who has dedicated his life to building a business for his children's benefit - is deeply disturbing and reveals a profound moral failure that this Court should take into account when assessing the credibility of the Defendants,' Kevin and Berj argue. Nevertheless, the lawsuit claims, Ellen and Robin had the nerve to try to take out a protective order against their brother - which was ultimately dismissed for lack of merit. The lawsuit ends by saying that the sisters' actions have caused Kevin emotional distress, humiliation and a loss of sleep. Berj, meanwhile, has allegedly suffered 'distress at seeing his son's reputation attacked, physical pain from being assaulted, anxiety over the fate of the family business he built and the profound emotional trauma of having his daughters betray his trust.' The suit claims: 'At 95 years old, Berj has been forced to witness his daughters' cruel attempt to destroy the legacy he spent a lifetime building for all his children - a devastating blow to a man in the twilight of his life who deserves peace and the comfort of knowing his family will honor his wishes.' The father-and-son duo are now asking the New York State Supreme Court to hand down an order barring the sisters from making any more defamatory statements, to retract the ones they have already made and to formally recognize Kevin as a one-third owner of the family business. They are seeking $15 million on 11 causes of action, for a total of $165 million in damages plus court costs and attorneys fees.
Forbes
10-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Richmond Flying Squirrels Transform Their Future With New Stadium
The Richmond Flying Squirrels Double-A baseball team has been in Virginia since 2010, a year after the Atlanta Braves' affiliate left town. The team has been a consistently strong performer and has topped all Double-A team average attendance for the past two seasons. What the Squirrels have been missing until now is a stadium that matches their ambitions. At the start of the 2026 season, the Richmond Flying Squirrels will move into their new stadium, CarMax Park. The new venue will seat 10,000 spectators and, weather permitting, will have the capacity to host large-scale events year-round. The $110 million stadium will also be the centerpiece of the new Diamond District, a 67-acre development project that aims to transform the area around the ballpark into a mix of residences, commercial space, and green space. Rhode Island firm Gilbane Building Co. and Virginia-based Prestige Construction Group are building CarMax Park. Machete Group, a venue advisory firm with experience delivering stadium projects for MLS, NBA, NFL, and NHL clients, is managing the new ballpark. It has been a long road to this moment. Squirrels' owner Lou DiBella says that when he agreed to bring the team to Richmond, he was promised a new ballpark within three years. His gut told him it would take longer than that, but he says, 'I didn't expect 16 years.' Speaking to me over the phone, DiBella said that the Squirrels' current stadium, The Diamond, 'was obsolete when we moved into it.' The Diamond was built in 1984 and hasn't seen many refurbishments since. It has a capacity of over 12,000, but for safety and advertising purposes, the upper deck is closed off for Squirrels games, limiting seats to just 9,500. Concessions are limited as are points of purchase, and lines often go around the concourse at one of the best-attended stadiums in the Minor Leagues. DiBella notes that on rainy days, 'the ceiling leaks onto our employees' heads.' For elderly fans, The Diamond is particularly difficult to enjoy. To get into the park, there is a giant cement staircase, and once inside, there is only one elevator that can transfer fans from the lower to the upper concourses. Over the past sixteen years, DiBella has spent millions patching up a decrepit ballpark that has been home base for his club and the Virginia Commonwealth University baseball team. Despite success on the field and strong attendance, the Squirrels haven't been able to maximize their revenue and continue to fall behind their competitors. At the same time, DiBella has been working with lobbyists, lawyers, and countless mayoral administrations to deliver a new home for his players and fans. Seeing the project get delayed time after time, DiBella began to lose faith. He admits he was 'really despondent,' adding, 'I never thought we'd be where we are today.' However, the team's fortunes changed around the COVID-19 pandemic. Major League Baseball took full control of its minor leagues and delivered Richmond an ultimatum. The Squirrels were told they needed a new ballpark by April 2025 or baseball would leave Richmond for good. Major League Baseball's ultimatum spurred DiBella and his team on. As he noted, 'I was operating to save my business and save baseball for Richmond.' In 2023, with his back against the wall, DiBella finally put together a proposal that pleased all parties. Having felt like Don Quixote fighting the windmills for a decade, DiBella is thrilled that CarMax Park is 'comfortably on schedule' to be ready for Opening Day of the 2026 season. Although most players have historically enjoyed playing for Richmond, DiBella is convinced this will take their appreciation for the club and the city to a new level. In his words, the move from The Diamond to CarMax Park is 'like going from a Motel 6 to a Four Seasons.' CarMax Park is the latest in a line of new sports stadiums offering a premium experience in smaller-market American cities. It also follows the macrotrend of mixed-use sports developments that help rejuvenate a particular neighborhood within a city. According to David Carlock, Founder and Managing Partner of Machete Group, a new stadium, like CarMax Park, simply offers a better live experience. Traditionally, attending games offered better resolution, proximity to the action, stats boards, and a sense of community. With modern technology, the stats boards, resolution, and even proximity to the action can feel similar from the living room. What stadiums continue to offer are a sense of connection to fellow fans and an array of products specifically designed to enhance viewer entertainment. The Diamond is being replaced with a state-of-the-art facility with an industrial design that pays homage to Richmond's railway heritage. The new ballpark will offer more concessions and points of purchase, traditional suites, dugout suites, boxcar suites built out of surplus railway boxcars, and party decks, which have no seating but provide a fun space for kids to run around and play while adults relax with bar access. Carlock says this design is consistent with what he is 'seeing in many secondary and some primary markets.' The smart design of a new stadium, alongside apartments and commercial space, can attract human capital and open cities like Richmond up to new possibilities. As Carlock notes, cities like Richmond are working to retain their graduates and attract new companies. CarMax Park can be a source of attraction, delivering quality entertainment (baseball and concerts) at a lower cost than in premier markets, while driving other hospitality opportunities. Carlock fully expects that 'old stadium builds will become the exception to the rule.' As municipalities and team owners look to maximize their revenue streams, they will continue to invest in mixed-use properties that offer an array of services. A Minor League Baseball stadium has 71 home games per year, plus the ability to host an extra 20 to 40 events depending on weather, staff, and other factors. Moreover, Carlock argues that sports franchises have realized that fans associate whatever happens around their team's venue with the team. Neighborhoods and eateries in the vicinity become intertwined with the overall experience. Ownership groups that invest in these areas, like the Baltimore Orioles in Camden Yards, control the value and experience the fan walks away with. These ballpark neighborhoods also generate higher foot traffic and more media exposure. After sixteen years, the Richmond Flying Squirrels will finally have a new home. The ballpark is expected to transform part of Richmond's downtown and transform the gameday experience for players and fans alike. Owner Lou DiBella is just happy the work is behind him. As he says, he's taking a 'great degree of satisfaction in finally getting it done.' Now, the Squirrels can just focus on their baseball.
