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[ad_1] Wow! These are RARE discounts on 7 For All Mankind Denim! Zulily is running a 7 For All Mankind Denim Sale today! You can score super rare discounts on these popular brand-name jeans and shorts. Plus, you’ll get an extra $10 off a $60 purchase at checkout as our reader! There are several styles of jeans and jean shorts to choose from, but shop quickly because sizes are selling out FAST. Shipping starts at $6.99. But if you place one order today, the rest of your orders will ship for FREE through 11:59 p.m. PT tonight! [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Zelenskiy warns Russia is eyeing other countries after Ukraine [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the leading financial institution for MSME sector, has entered into an MoU with West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation Limited (WBSIDCL) to develop the eco-system for micro and small enterprises in the state, a spokesman said on Saturday. The MoU was exchanged by Nikhil Nirmal, MD of WBSIDCL,and Sudatta Mandal, deputy managing director, SIDBI, in the presence of H K Dwivedi, chief secretary of the West Bengal, during the MSME sectoral session of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), held in Kolkata on April 21, 2022. The objective of this MoU is to enhance cooperation between the state government and SIDBI to further accelerate the development of MSMEs in West Bengal in a structured and planned manner and facilitate the entrepreneurs with handholding support and financial assistance from SIDBI at a competitive price, for meeting their financial and developmental needs. Under the MoU, WBSIDCL shall provide a dedicated desk to SIDBI for setting up an MSME facilitation desk, while the latter shall provide the required resources. After allotment of land to the eligible MSMEs, WBSIDCL shall forward a copy of the land allotment letter to SIDBI which shall undertake assessment of the applications originated through the MSME facilitation desk/WBSIDCL/other state agencies on fast-track basis. SIDBI may make payment towards eligible cost of land for the support of worthy projects directly to WBSIDCL, out of the loan sanctioned to the eligible MSME on merits. WBSIDCL shall allow dissemination of the facilities available with SIDBI and shall share the relevant database/information related to MSMEs, and WBSIDCL shall designate a nodal officer for co-ordination with SIDBI, the spokesman added.Dwivedi stated that this MoU would be beneficial to the MSMEs in the state of West Bengal, in terms of acceleration in setting up their units and getting institutional support in a faster way [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] This week’s HW+ member spotlight features Matthew Blanchard, producing sales manager at Academy Mortgage Corporation. Blanchard previously worked art Loan Depot before joining in growing Academy Mortgage Corporation. Standing proudly since 1988, AMC has continued to build and promote a united culture for the lives of their employees, partners, homeowners, and communities. Below, Blanchard answers questions about the housing industry: HousingWire: What were some of your biggest takeaways from last year’s HW Annual event? Matthew Blanchard: I flew out from Boston to hear Logan Mohtashami’s 2022 forecast, not really knowing what to expect from the event, but knowing I wanted to be one of the first to hear what he had to say. I arrived back home, not just with Logan’s insight about what to expect in the year to come, but also where the future of our industry is headed. HousingWire: Why do you think people should attend HW Annual this year? Matthew Blanchard: We all have our own focus and interests. HW Annual pulls you back and provides a bird’s eye view of all that’s happening in the industry. It’s a great couple of days to pull the blinders off and listen, learn, and then be ready for the future. HousingWire: What is your current favorite HW+ article and why? Matthew Blanchard: Without question, it is Logan’s America’s Back Recovery Model article. When the rest of the world was looking around wondering what was happening, he drew a line in the sand, forecast what was to come- and he nailed it. Leveraging his insight from this article allowed me to understand what happened in the last two years and stay ahead of what was to come. HousingWire: What is the weirdest job you’ve ever had? Matthew Blanchard: I was a paperboy for six years. I started when I was 10 years old. After school I’d ride around the different neighborhoods near me on my bike and drop off the evening news. It didn’t seem weird then, but it sure does now! You don’t see many kids with saddle bags on their bike slinging newspapers anymore. Let’s not forget, it snows a lot around here! My parents worked incredibly hard and instilled that work ethic in me at an early age. There were days when I would much rather have gone to the park or over to a friend’s house, but this was a commitment. This work ethic has stayed with me ever since and is a key to my success in this business. I still see a lot of the people from my route in town today. It’s pretty fun to be at this point in life and still be referred to as “Matt the paperboy.” HousingWire: If you could have picked a different career, what would it be? Matthew Blanchard: I’d run a waterski school. I love teaching and educating and there’s nothing more fun than watching someone learn something new. Water Skiing is a pastime of mine that I truly enjoy sharing with others. It’s not a common activity so there is a never-ending opportunity to teach people something new, different, and incredibly fun. I love to be outside, especially on the water, so this would be the perfect combination of doing something I love, teaching people something new, and being in the environment I love. HousingWire: What is the best piece of advice you’ve received? Matthew Blanchard: You can’t golf and boat. Pick one. I don’t golf. Just kidding! I think the best piece of advice is simple- “just be honest.”  We have hard conversations in our business. They are my least favorite part of the job but at the end of the day, being transparent and fair is all anyone really wants. HousingWire: When do you feel success in your job? Matthew Blanchard: I sit at the closing table with clients I’ve been working with for months or years – finally buying their first home. I built my career teaching first time home buyer seminars. So many of my clients started their home buying journey in those classes and it’s amazing to walk them through their first set of questions all the way to the day they get their keys. Some take more time than others, some don’t seem feasible in the beginning, and after careful planning, hard work and commitment it’s amazing to see them finally get to their goal. It really is an incredible feeling to be a part of such a moment in their lives.  HousingWire: What are 2-3 trends that you’re closely following? Matthew Blanchard: I think the Fed has their work cut out for them trying to implement policy that can adequately fight inflation and still come in for a soft landing, not creating further recessionary concerns. This policy is having a massive impact on the current potential home buyer and the affordability of home ownership. Secondly, all eyes are on inventory. Mine included. I’m wondering when the levy will break, and we’ll start to see more movement in the industry. HousingWire: What keeps you up at night (think of a problem or issue in the housing space) and why? Matthew Blanchard: The affordability of home ownership. The increase in home prices compounded with the rise in interest rates has made home ownership harder than ever, especially for first time home buyers who do not have existing equity to leverage. As the housing shortage continues and demand remains strong, I’m very worried for our younger generation who are stuck renting when they would love to own. Owning a home is such an important step in long term financial stability so it’s hard to watch monthly payments continue to rise. To learn more about HW Annual 2022, click here. To become an HW+ member, click here. For more information on HW+ benefits, click here. To view past issues of our HW+ exclusive HousingWire Magazine, go here. The post HW+ Member Spotlight: Matthew Blanchard appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] This 4-Tier Industrial Console Table is so unique and pretty! You can get this 4-Tier Industrial Console Table for just $129.99 shipped when you use the promo code BCPTABLE at checkout! This is regularly $269.99 and is such a great price! Choose from three color options. Valid through April 29, 2022. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The new HM Treasury regulations: The good, the bad and the ugly [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Russia and Ukraine hurtled toward what could be an epic battle for control of the country’s industrial heartland as Ukrainian officials reported that Moscow had shifted a dozen crack military units from the shattered port of Mariupol to eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia reported Friday that one serviceman was killed and 27 others were left missing after the fire on board the warship Moskva, which sank a week ago following what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack. The Russian military previously reported everyone aboard had been rescued. Also Friday, new satellite images showed a second possible mass grave site in a town near Mariupol, where Ukrainian defenders are holed up in a steel plant. The Russian Defense Ministry did not acknowledge an attack on the warship. It continued to say a fire broke out after ammunition detonated, without explaining how that happened. The loss of the guided missile cruiser — the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — was a humiliating setback for Moscow.In Mariupol, reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city’s highest point, its TV tower. It also showed what it said was the main building at the city’s besieged Azovstal steel plant in flames. The Kremlin has thrown over 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. “We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” he said. Numerous cities and villages came under bombardment in the Donbas — the industrial region in the east that the Kremlin has declared the new, main theater of war — as well as in the Kharkiv region just to the west, and in the south, authorities said. Russian forces pummeled the 2,000 Ukrainian fighters still holed up inside the sprawling Azovstal plant, the last known pocket of resistance in the strategic southern port city, the mayor’s office reported. “Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. “Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.” In other developments, a senior Russian military official publicly outlined Russian war aims that appeared to be wider than what the Kremlin has stated in recent weeks. Rustam Minnekayev said Russia’s forces aim to take full control of southern Urkaine, in addition to eastern Ukraine, and that doing so would open the way to the nation of Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria. Responding to Minnekayev’s declaration about Russian forces opening a route to Moldva from southern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine was assumed to be just the beginning; further, they want to grab other countries.” Moldovan officials are warily watching Putin’s actions in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak added that Russia “was always lying to everyone and that, in fact from the very beginning, it wanted stupidly to steal some of Ukraine’s territory to secure an outlet to Transnistria.” The latest satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be a second mass grave site near Mariupol. The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 metres long, Maxar said in a statement. A day earlier, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city. “This confirms again that the occupiers arrange the collection, burial and cremation of dead residents in every district of the city,” Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app. The Ukrainians estimated that the graves seen in the photos released Thursday could hold 9,000 bodies. The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite pictures. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared victory in the battle for Mariupol despite the steel-mill holdouts. He ordered his forces not to storm the plant to finish off the defenders but to seal it off instead in an apparent bid to force them to surrender. Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014.It would also allow Putin to throw more of his forces into the potentially climactic battle for the Donbas and its coal mines, factories and other industries, or what the Kremlin has now declared to be its main objective. Danilov reported that some 12 to 14 of Russia’s elite military units have, in fact, left Mariupol and begun moving to the east to take part in the fighting there. “It will now be difficult for our forces, because our guys in Mariupol were taking (those units) on themselves. It is their courage and feat,” he said. Danilov also said Kyiv managed to deliver weapons via helicopter at great risk under cover of night to the Mariupol steelworks, which have been bombarded for weeks. Putin said Russia gave Ukrainian forces inside the plant the option to surrender, with guarantees to keep them alive, and offered “decent treatment and medical care,” according to an account of a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel, provided by the Kremlin. “But the Kyiv regime does not allow them to take this opportunity,” Putin charged. More than 100,000 people — down from a prewar population of about 430,000 — are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, and over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the nearly two-month siege, according to Ukrainian authorities. Most attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed because of what the Ukrainians said was continued Russian shelling. Days into the Russian offensive to take

[ad_1] Nima Ghamsari, CEO and founder of mortgage fintech Blend Labs. Publicly traded mortgage tech company Blend Labs isn’t changing its strategy to survive a shrinking mortgage market, even though a drop in originations is sapping its revenue stream and forcing it to trim its workforce.  The Nima Ghamsari-led fintech is doubling down on its long-term strategy to offer a complete digital origination journey for clients. Blend won’t abandon its usage-based fee revenue model. And it doesn’t plan to cut prices.  “While we are conscious of aligning our costs with market realities, we are still committed to the long-term vision for the company,” Tim Mayopoulos, president of Blend and a former CEO of Fannie Mae, told HousingWire in an interview this week.  For investors, a warning: it means that profitability will take some time to achieve.  To contain ballooning costs, Blend announced a decrease of 10% in its workforce this week, eliminating about 200 positions. Company executives say this will yield approximately $35.4 million per year in savings.   “The reason we’re doing this is that, obviously, we expect mortgage volumes to decline significantly during the course of the year,” the executive said. “The refinance volume, in particular, is expected to be down 60% to 70% from last year’s volumes.” Blend is reducing general and administrative expenses in human resources, finance, and legal, but decided not to cut costs related to engineering and product development.  The main cost reduction target is Title365, a business acquired from Mr. Cooper Group for $422 million in March 2021. The title arm, basically driven by refinancing, will have most of the job cuts (the company did not disclose the total number).  Blend says it’s still long on title, even amid industry grumblings that it overpaid for Title365.  “The way we think about mortgage origination is that the entire process should be data-driven and digitized,” Mayopoulos said. “That’s why we’ve made a strategic decision to invest in a title agency, and we believe that the industrial rationale for this deal continues to be strong.” Mayopoulos said Blend did not acquire Title365 to be in the legacy title business. The idea is to get Blend’s software customers into the title platform, which will happen with Mr. Cooper around mid-year.   Blend, whose white-label technology powers mortgage applications on the websites of major lenders such as Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank, is doubling down on the long-term plan of offering a digital origination journey, not only for mortgage loans but also for other financial products.  “We fully expect that our presence in the mortgage market will continue to grow, but it will also grow in terms of the activities that lenders will be able to do on Blend, including title, escrow, settlement, closing,” Mayopoulos said.  He added: “The other element is that we have expanded beyond mortgages, into consumer banking more broadly, such as home equity lending, personal loans, auto loans, credit cards. Over time, we expect to diversify our revenue streams.” In 2021, Blend processed more than 1.8 million transactions for mortgage lenders, representing 38% growth from the previous year. Meanwhile, consumer banking transactions totaled just 300,000 last year, from 87,000 in 2020, according to the company’s most recent earnings statement.  Blend claims it grew its mortgage market share from 10% in 2020 to 15% in 2021. Even in the tumultuous conditions in 2022, it expects to increase market share to 20%. According to Mayopoulos, the fintech will get there without cutting prices but by adding value for its clients.  The fintech operates a usage-based billing model, so its clients pay more as they use the platform more. The company also does not get paid until its client gets paid by customers.  “We recognize that that introduces perhaps more volatility and unpredictability in our revenue,” Mayopoulos said. “But asking the customer to make a big upfront commitment just creates a point of friction, especially in a market that is unpredictable in terms of how much volume there’s going to be.” Blend had $547 million in cash as of December 31, 2021, and does not plan to raise capital, executives told HousingWire. The company has never been profitable – Blend lost $169.1 million in 2021, compared to $74.6 million in 2020 during the refi-boom. “I wouldn’t say that getting to profitability is irrelevant to us. But it’s not our highest priority,” Mayopoulos said. “The objective is to make sure that we manage our expenses appropriately, in light of our revenues and market realities. But, if getting to profitability means that we had to stop investing in creating great new technologies valuable to our customers, we don’t think that would be the right answer.” Now, Blend needs to convince its investors: the stock that debuted in July 2021 at $20 a share closed at $4.58 on April 20.  The post How Blend plans to survive a shrinking mortgage market  appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Do you have a Panera Unlimited Sip Club Subscription yet? If you love Panera drinks, it’s sure to save you TONS of money each month!! And you can try it for FREE right now! {Be sure to stop by for Panera Bagel Tuesdays to save on breakfast! And check out all our recent restaurant deals to save even more when eating out!} Get FREE unlimited drinks at Panera through July 4th! Panera recently rebranded their coffee subscription and it is now called the Unlimited Sip Club. They’ve updated it to include so many more drinks! You can now choose from iced or hot coffee, specialty iced teas, hot tea, soda, lemonade, or even their brand new charged lemonades! And new members can currently try it for FREE through July 4, 2022. If you love it, you can continue your subscription for just $10.99/month after your initial free trial. If it’s not worth it for you, simply cancel your subscription in your My Panera Rewards account before it auto-charges you. Psst! Meg here! I’ve found that every time I go to cancel my subscription after my free months, they ask me if I’d like to continue for another couple free months. I’m always able to say “yes” and it’s been over a year since I’ve paid for coffee/drinks at Panera! And from what I’ve heard, this is true for many other people as well! How Does Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club Work? Just go here to sign up for the Unlimited Sip Club and add the subscription to your My Panera Rewards account. You’ll be charged $10.99 per month (after your free trial), and then each time you order a drink, you’ll just use your rewards account to get the drink for free! It’s really simple! Unlimited Drinks Each Month? Really?! Yep! I know it sounds too good to be true, but it’s not! With the Panera Unlimited Sip Club, you’ll get unlimited drinks all month long every single month. You can redeem your subscription once every two hours. So even if you’re sitting in a Panera Cafe all day, you can get refills for free every two hours. Is It Worth The Cost? The price of a regular cup of Panera coffee is about $2, so if you order more than five cups of Panera coffee each month, it’s definitely worth it to sign up! And now that they’ve added on the specialty drinks, it’s even more worth it! Their new Charged Lemonades are $3-$5, depending on where you live, so it’s a really amazing value! Buy just three of those in a month, and it’s worth it! Even if you spend a couple long Saturdays each month working at Panera or meeting up with a friend for a long afternoon coffee date, it’s probably worth it! What Drinks Are Included? Up until this month, you could only choose from iced/hot coffee or hot tea. But now it includes many other drinks! Choose from iced/hot coffee, hot tea, specialty iced teas, fountain drinks, lemonade, and even their brand new Charged Lemonades! (I tried one of their new Charged Lemonades yesterday and it is SO yummy and refreshing — perfect for summertime!) So even if you’re not a coffee drinker, you might want to check out this deal! Is It Easy to Cancel? If you find you’re not using the subscription as much as you thought you would, you can cancel your subscription at any time! Just log in to your My Panera Rewards account, visit the subscription section, and follow the directions to cancel. (And like I said, more than likely, they’ll offer you an extension on your free trial!) Go here to get started. Have you tried the Panera Unlimited Sip Club yet? Let us know your thoughts! [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] EU sets new online rules for Google, Meta to curb illegal content [ad_2] Source link