Shell’s success could drive Taroom growthNorthern Territory Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News. The new owners of Darwin’s “best hotel” will spend millions upgrading accommodation at the premises, but change comes with a promise to retain the popular pub’s “local” feel. Executives at the Endeavour Group were in Darwin visiting their six Top End hotels and 17 bottleshops as they consolidate the Cavenagh Hotel purchase, which was finalised in September. Endeavour Group chief executive Steve Donohue said the company was “custodian” of the more than 350 hotels it owned nationally, and the same would apply with the Cavenagh. “Historically The Cav has been perceived to be the best pub in town, so lucky for us to be the custodians,” Mr Donohue said. “It’s great to have it in our portfolio and we’re looking forward to putting more into it to make it even better again.” Endeavour Group chief executive Steve Donohue (left) with Endeavour's Territory assets manager Russell Reid. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin Within weeks of the purchase being finalised, Endeavour rebranded The Cav’s drive-through bottle-shop as BWS, with the hotel’s accommodation next in the group’s sights. The seventh-largest hotel accommodation provider in the country through its Nightcap brand, Endeavour will upgrade accommodation to that of its other about 2500 rooms across Australia.. “The bottleshop’s been upgraded to BWS with new fixtures, a new fit-out, new fridges, a new range, and the accommodation will be the next thing,” Mr Donohue said. “There’s 80-odd rooms and we’ll go to tender in the new year doing an uplift of the accommodation there. “You have an opportunity to have a scaled accommodation offering at The Cav. You’ve got some amazing rooms right on the pool there. You’ve got the balcony rooms and you’ve got a whole bunch of other rooms around the outside and through the middle, so not all of them are created equal. Endeavour Group is now expected to consolidate it’s NT portfolio. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin “You’re going to have family rooms, smaller rooms a diverse range of rooms at a standard that meets our Nightcap standard.” He said renovations to the pub, if any, would be largely determined by the patrons. “We don’t run a chain of pubs, we run a collection of hotels that are local pubs,” he said. “We run a chain of retail outlets with BWS but our pubs are local pubs and we run them with local teams and they’re run by local people. “We’re always focused on trying to devolve that ownership or custody of the local pub to the local patrons and leadership group of local people.” Experienced venue manager Russell Reid has been appointed to manage Endeavour’s six Top End hotels. The Cav is Endeavour’s sixth Top End acquisition along with the Airport Hotel, Palmerston Tavern, Parap Tavern, Bell Bar and Bistro and Beachfront Hotel. It spent millions last year upgrading the Airport Hotel and is in the process of doubling the size of the Beachfront Hotel’s decking . Endeavour’s most recent two Top End acquisitions have caught the eye of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which probed both purchases to ensure they didn’t breach competition rules. Endeavour is cautious about further NT acquisitions. “I think we’ll take a breather for the moment,” Mr Donohue said. “The Beachfront and The Cav were both two big buys and we’re already jumping into how we’re going to raise their standards a bit. “So we’ll probably look back through it in a year or two’s time and take stock to see where we want to go.” More Coverage Company behind Australia’s iconic pubs investing $10m in Top End Camden Smith Popular Darwin hotel changes owners Camden Smith, Business Reporter Originally published as Endeavour Group’s plan to upgrade Cavenagh hotel rooms Join the conversation Add your comment to this story To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout More related stories Northern Territory ‘We all need to stand up’: Open day kicks off 16 days of activism A 16-day campaign against gender based violence is kicking off in the Territory, with one Red Centre clinic holding an open day to coincide. Find out more. Read more News Inquest into woman’s death in Top End crisis shelter ‘Like there’s a death sentence hanging over your head’: Self harm tragedy in domestic violence shelter being investigated by the Territory coroner. *WARNING: DISTRESSING* Read moreMike McDaniel stepped in to keep Dolphins from trading veteran DT Calais Campbell to Ravens
The South Carolina women's basketball team has been defeated for the first time since March 31, 2023. The No. 1 Gamecocks fell Sunday in Los Angeles as Lauren Betts posted a double-double effort to lead No. 5 UCLA to a 77-62 triumph. The Gamecocks (5-1) suffered their first defeat after 43 consecutive victories, dating back to the loss to Iowa 77-73 in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. South Carolina defeated Iowa last season for the national championship. Betts finished with 11 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks to power the Bruins (5-0) to a historic victory. UCLA also got 15 points from Londynn Jones on 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point range, 13 points from Elina Aarnisalo and 11 each from Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jacquez. It's the first time UCLA has beaten South Carolina since 1981. The Bruins lost twice to the Gamecocks in the 2022-23 season, including in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Te-Hina Paopao had 18 points for South Carolina on 4-of-4 3-point shooting, while Tessa Johnson had 14 points. UCLA won the rebounding battle 41-34, marking the second time this season the Gamecocks have been outrebounded. South Carolina also got outscored in the paint 26-18. It's rare that a Dawn Staley-coached team -- units that typically revolve around dominant centers from A'ja Wilson to Aaliyah Boston to Kamilla Cardoso -- gets beat in the paint and on the glass, but with 6-foot-7 Betts, UCLA had the recipe to outmuscle the Gamecocks in those areas of the game. South Carolina never led after UCLA began the game with an 18-5 run, capped off by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jones. The Gamecocks cut the deficit to nine points in the second quarter, but the Bruins responded with a 17-5 run and entered halftime ahead by 21 points. Aarnisalo scored seven points during that run. From there, the Gamecocks never got within single digits of the lead in the second half. It's the first time in 21 tries that UCLA has beaten an AP-ranked No. 1 team. And it's the first time South Carolina lost a true road game since 2021, a streak of 33 games. The schedule doesn't get any easier for South Carolina. While UCLA faces UT Martin next on Friday, the Gamecocks play No. 8 Iowa State on Thursday. --Field Level MediaAndrew Luck returns to Stanford as the GM of the football program
India mourns distinguished leader: PM Modi on Manmohan Singh's demise
The price of bitcoin soared past the long-awaited $100,000 benchmark for the first time ever late Wednesday evening. The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 7% at $102,874.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $103,844.05. Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are The move came hours after President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to nominate Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a move viewed by the crypto community as being in keeping with his promise not just to replace Gary Gensler — who has become something of a villain in crypto for the agency's regulation-by-enforcement approach to the industry under his leadership — but to set up a more supportive regulatory environment for the crypto industry more broadly. In the same day, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said bitcoin is "just like gold only it's virtual, it's digital," speaking at the DealBook conference . He further clarified that "people are not using it as a form of payment, or as a store of value" and that "it's not a competitor for the dollar, it's really a competitor for gold." It's a day of celebration for longtime bitcoin investors, who have held on for dear life, or "HODL'd" through several of the cryptocurrency's boom and bust cycles, during which government and financial institutions remained dismissive — and even hostile — toward the asset class. That's largely because of the cryptocurrency's anti-establishment roots. The original idea for Bitcoin was proposed at the height of the 2008 financial crisis: a "peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution," its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, wrote in the Bitcoin Whitepaper . In recent years, however, the industry has demonstrated the value of bitcoin to much of the institutional investing world. BlackRock , Fidelity, Invesco and others launched the first spot bitcoin ETFs at the beginning of this year — bitcoin's "IPO" moment — and the growing demand for them by institutions has helped drive the price higher. In November, Rick Wurster, the incoming CEO of Charles Schwab , said the firm is preparing to enter spot crypto trading , pending regulatory changes expected in the next Trump administration. "We're witnessing a paradigm shift. After four years of political purgatory, bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream," Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, told CNBC. Bitcoin had been widely expected to reach the landmark $100,000 level since the U.S. presidential election. However, excited investors sent bitcoin closer to this mark much sooner than initially anticipated; it rose as high as $99,849.99 on Nov. 22. There is much hope that President-elect Trump will deliver on several pro-crypto initiatives in the year ahead – including the establishment of a national strategic bitcoin reserve or stockpile, no taxes on crypto transactions and opening up the crypto public equity markets with more IPOs. "Over the long term, I'm bullish," Novogratz added. "It won't be a straight line up, and investors should always consider taking gains off the table. But, with a pro-crypto administration about to take charge in the U.S., it'll be hard for the rest of the world not to take notice."Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passes away at 92