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Britons are being warned about an "alarming rise" in online ticket selling scams, leaving victims out of pocket by hundreds of pounds. Get Safe Online, a safety advocacy group, released findings showing that over 50% of consumers wrongly trust social media as a safe platform for buying or selling live event tickets. Out of the 42% who admitted to purchasing tickets via social networks, one in eight said they had been scammed. The pressure to attend events is causing fans to take risks, with 27% conceding that "desperation" drove them to unsourced sellers, which became especially apparent during the Oasis ticket sale fiasco that left millions queued online and ultimately led many to resort to unofficial websites and social platforms—where plenty fell prey to scams. Lloyds Bank data revealed that those snared by fraudulent Oasis ticket sales lost an average of £346 each, noting that 90% of these incidents happened through social media. CEO Tony Neate of Get Safe Online said, 'We are witnessing a perfect storm. Heightened fan passion, limited ticket supply, a single primary seller, a chaotic and pressurised on-sale primary ticketing process - all of which create an environment for fraudsters to operate with alarming success." A specific case saw Carly J losing £100 to a scammer on Facebook Marketplace who posted a counterfeit concert ticket for sale. She recounted her ordeal: "Finding tickets for Fred Again felt like an impossible task after they first sold out. I thought I'd had a lucky break when I found a pair on Facebook Marketplace for £100. But after I paid, the seller vanished and deactivated their account", reports the Express . Keep up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East with our free newsletter "I felt completely powerless and foolish. I reached out to Facebook for help but got no response. The experience has really opened my eyes to how vulnerable we are on social media where there is no protection or anything you can do to get your money back." Mr Neate said: "Fans urgently need safe alternatives with robust consumer protections. Increasing competition also opens the market, giving fans more choices about where and how they purchase tickets safely. It is essential that consumers are fully aware of the risks associated with purchasing tickets on social media and have access to multiple platforms and regulated marketplaces where they are protected by a guarantee." Lloyds Bank previously shared the following top tips for people purchasing tickets online. ChronicleLive is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our communities. We have a number of communities to join, so you can choose which one you want to be part of and we'll send you the latest news direct to your phone. You could even join them all! To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is choose which community you want to join, click on the link and press 'join community'. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the ChronicleLive team. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice . Join the ChronicleLive Breaking News and Top Stories community Join our Court & Crime community Join the Things to do in Newcastle and the North East community Join our Northumberland community Join our County Durham community Join our Sunderland community Join our NUFC community Join our SAFC community Join our Great North Run communityNatixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Burlington Stores, Inc. ( NYSE:BURL – Free Report ) by 66.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,419 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,939 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Burlington Stores were worth $5,907,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Archer Investment Corp raised its stake in shares of Burlington Stores by 35.7% during the 3rd quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 570 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in Burlington Stores by 5.4% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 2,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Burlington Stores by 5.5% in the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Burlington Stores during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in Burlington Stores by 19.7% in the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 10,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738 shares during the last quarter. Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, Director Paul Sullivan sold 1,705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.05, for a total value of $472,370.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,048,230.65. The trade was a 18.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website . 0.91% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. Burlington Stores Trading Up 4.9 % Burlington Stores ( NYSE:BURL – Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.25. Burlington Stores had a return on equity of 47.43% and a net margin of 4.18%. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Burlington Stores’s revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Burlington Stores, Inc. will post 7.94 EPS for the current year. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In BURL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Loop Capital raised their target price on Burlington Stores from $270.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Burlington Stores from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Burlington Stores from $279.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Burlington Stores from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Burlington Stores from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $297.56. View Our Latest Research Report on BURL Burlington Stores Company Profile ( Free Report ) Burlington Stores, Inc operates as a retailer of branded merchandise in the United States. The company provides fashion-focused merchandise, including women's ready-to-wear apparel, menswear, youth apparel, footwear, accessories, toys, gifts, and coats, as well as baby, home, and beauty products. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BURL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Burlington Stores, Inc. ( NYSE:BURL – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Burlington Stores Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Burlington Stores and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
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Trump taps Rollins as agriculture chief, completing proposed slate of Cabinet secretariesTHE future of Boots has been plunged into uncertainty while a buyout fund negotiates with its US owner. Pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance, which bought Boots in 2014, is understood to be in takeover talks with private equity firm Sycamore Partners. News of the talks leaked on Tuesday night, causing Walgreens’ shares to rocket. Walgreens Boots Alliance’s market value has collapsed in recent years, falling from a peak of $100billion (£78billion) in 2015 to $7.5billion (£5.8billion) earlier this week. Sources said there would be no immediate impact on Boots’ business . But it is likely that any buyer will try to run Boots as a separate British firm. READ MORE ON BOOTS Executive chairman Stefano Pessina, who engineered the creation of Walgreens Boots Alliance after a lucrative deal-making career, still owns a 17 per cent stake, worth around £1billion, and will be kingmaker in any deal. Bosses have previously tried to boost the US firm’s valuation with spin-off plans for Boots without success. Two sale processes have been launched and scrapped in the last two years. In 2022 a £5billion auction for the British high street chain included interest from Asda owners the Issa brothers. Most read in Business But talks faltered after bidders balked at the price Walgreens was asking for a business that required a lot of investment. A few years ago Boots seemed to be the problem child of the US group. But the tables have turned and the UK chain is now the strongest part of the business, generating significant cash. Walgreens is trying to overhaul its retail business and has said it would shut 1,200 US stores after a $3billion (£2.3billion) loss. Future in his hands EXECUTIVE chairman Stefano Pessina told The Sun last month: “Boots is an important business. It will be for many years to come.” His fondness for the 175-year-old chain was clear. The 83-year-old had flown into London for the National Portrait Gallery’s unveiling of a portrait of Florence Boot, wife of the firm’s founder. Mr Pessina cemented his legendary dealmaker status, and fortune, through Boots — initially with an Alliance merger, then a KKR private equity deal and eventually a Walgreens tie-up, which now looks like a mistake. One more deal could untangle the last and rewind the clock a decade. Captain, trader, legend CHELSEA legend John Terry took part in ICAP’s charity day where traders donate commissions to good causes. He joined TV’s Rachel Riley and actors Ray Winstone and Joely Richardson at the London HQ. It comes a day after ICAP’s founder Lord Michael Spencer said UK bosses should be paid like “top-rate footballers”. Standing charges optional ENERGY firms will be made to offer customers the option of tariffs without standing charges, under plans by regulator Ofgem . The fixed fees have been criticised during the cost-of-living crisis, as they are unavoidable even when the heating is off. Savings guru Martin Lewis said: “Standing charges are a £338-a -year poll tax on energy bills .” He added that they made people reluctant to cut usage, and punished elderly customers who only used gas for heating in winter by making them pay every day in summer . Suppliers like UTILITA do offer little to no standing charges, but typically charge more per unit of energy used. Energy experts Cornwall Insight said standing charges currently make up a fifth of household energy bills . Ofgem is also probing how to tackle the industry’s £3.8billion of bad debts from consumers struggling to pay bills, and the potential for levels of support. BANK shares jumped yesterday as the Supreme Court gave lender Close Brothers permission to appeal against a landmark ruling on the growing motor finance scandal. Close Brothers saw its own shares go up by more than 12 per cent, while they rose by 4.4 per cent at Lloyds. Close Brothers will contest an earlier ruling on the commissions scandal, which put the entire car finance industry on the hook for compensation claims from millions more drivers than previously predicted. Xmas high flier HEATHROW is preparing for its busiest Christmas Day ever amid a rush of holidaymakers. The airport expects 21 per cent more passengers to travel through its terminals on December 25. Numbers for the whole of December are also set to beat last year’s 6.7 million record. It comes as travel firm TUI yesterday said annual pre-tax profits had jumped by a third. The German group, which recently ditched its listing on the London stock market to focus on Frankfurt, revealed a 12 per cent rise in revenues. READ MORE SUN STORIES ELON Musk has become the first person to amass a fortune of $400billion (£313bn). The tycoon, who owns Tesla , SpaceX , and X, has seen his worth jump by two thirds since Donald Trump’s election victory, the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index says. AVERAGE home rental costs are £270 higher a month since the pandemic, research shows. Renters now face an average annual bill of £15,240, Zoopla said — up by more than a quarter since Covid ended. A rapid rise started in 2021, as people looked to move after the pandemic, while supply of homes was limited. Meanwhile, the average asking price for a house will rise by 4 per cent by the end of 2025, a Rightmove forecast says. It also predicts the average mortgage rate will have fallen to 4 per cent by then.TCU's TD barrage breaks open tight game vs. Arizona
ENDEAVOR Witnessing Pope Francis place the red hat on newly consecrated Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David – only the 10th Filipino to receive the honor – prompted me to reflect on the challenge of promoting more vocations in our predominantly Christian nation. Last month, while participating in a meeting of the Don Bosco School of Theology (DBST) board of trustees, I became more keenly aware of the problem of declining vocations. Fr. Francis Gustilo, SDB, who serves as DBST president, highlighted the urgency of meeting the challenge, as he pointed out that the current crop of senior professors needs substantial augmentation. Radio Veritas Asia reports in its website that last April, there were 852 participants in a vocation congress organized by the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan in Mindoro island province. The outcome was heartwarming: “(A)t the end of the daylong event, themed ‘Kalampag ng Pagtawag sa Hapag’ (#Kalap,Kaisa, KaMisa), which is after the vicariate's core program that emphasizes gathering, unity, and the Eucharist, about 20 young people stood up when asked who would enter the religious life.” Zooming out into the Asian scenario, I gathered from an internet search some salient features of the vocation landscape: “The Philippines has about 8,700 priests, but the Catholic Church needs about 25,000 to serve its 85 million Catholics. The ratio of priests to parishioners is currently 1:15,000, but the ideal ratio is 1:2,000 or 1:5,000.” Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar, whose early schooling was in a Salesian-run boarding school in Mandalay, wrote a comprehensive essay on “The Challenge of Holy Orders and Religious Vocations – An Asian Perspective” that was published by Licas News, an arm of the Roman Catholic Mission of Bangkok. He echoed two questions that resonate among bishops, religious superiors and vocations directors and promoters: “‘Why is there a decline in vocations to the priestly and religious life?’ and ‘What can we do to promote and increase the same?’” He analyzed five causes underlying the decline of vocations: first, rapid economic development; second, changes in family structure; third, technological and ideological impact; fourth, poverty and migration; and fifth, lack of role models. “Religiosity tends to decline with economic development.” With ever-increasing prosperity, there is likely to be further diminution of vocations, as young people aspire to become entrepreneurs and business owners. Manifestations of changes in family structure include “fertility decline (low birth rates), increasing divorce rates, the rising average age of marriage, single-parent families, and absent-parent syndrome (where parents are away for work and children are brought up by grandparents or relatives).” Previously, a call to vocation was associated with the concept of the “sincere gift of self.” Ironically, post-modern culture has flipped this into a focus on developing oneself as an autonomous individual. This has raised the hurdles to vocations that impel a selfless commitment to follow Christ by taking on Holy Orders. The fourth factor, poverty and migration, provides the macroeconomic perspective. The World Bank estimates more than 320 million Asians living in extreme poverty that is rooted in economic inequality. The primary imperative is survival or “getting out of the vicious cycle of poverty,” a scenario that is not conducive to fostering vocations. Cardinal Bo responds to the fifth challenge: “Promoting vocations calls us toward creating spaces for young men and women to imagine and experience this way of life. Part of this includes those of us who are already in this way of life, setting an example with a spirit of humility and witnessing what it is to follow Christ daily and faithfully witness to the faith in these changing times.” I recall that in grade school, I was a member of the Knights of the Altar, the group that served as sacristan or acolytes, assisting the priest at mass. Early on, I memorized the Latin prayers, such as Dominus Vobiscum/Et cum spiritu tuo (The Lord be with you, and with your spirit); as well as Pater Noster, the Latin translation of The Lord’s Prayer. In our grade school yearbook, my ambition read: “To be a Salesian priest.” Two of my classmates, Andrew Wong and Francis Gustilo went on to become aspirants, then novices, on their way to become full-fledged Salesians of Don Bosco. I passed up the opportunity to start preparing for the priesthood as early as in first year high school, and did not pursue the vocation. Andrew and Francis went on to become the highest ranked Salesians in the Philippines and in Asia. If memory serves, Andrew is part of the Rome-based governing council of the order. Vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, which means to call. A vocation is a calling from God that starts at baptism. It is nurtured and fostered as a person matures and discerns such calling while going through the phases of adolescence and adulthood. Nestor David, elder brother of the new prelate, shared in a media interview: “After class, during his elementary years, he would pass by, himself, over the church and then say a prayer. It’s like, sabi niya, ‘I was conversing with Jesus.’ Probably ‘yun ang signs na ang vocation niya talaga ay priesthood.’” Interviewed by TV Maria, Cardinal David said: “Ang ibig sabihin para sa akin ng pagiging Kardinal ay humihingi ng tulong ang ating Santo Papa na alalayan siya, suportahan siya sa kanyang gawain bilang Pontifex Maximus na ang ibig sabihin ay Supreme Bridge Builder, ang taga-tayo ng mga tulay na nag-uugnay sa particular church at universal church.” (I discern that in appointing me, the Pope wants me to assist in carrying out his work in being a Supreme Bridge Builder, who creates linkages that will unify people of all faiths.) Truly, this is a blessed season for Filipinos, a timely opportunity for affirming and living their Christian faith. Comments may be sent to [email protected]NFL world reacts with excitement, surprise, questions after Bill Belichick is hired to coach UNC
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