France's Billionaire Kings of Bling Are Under Pressure
At the peak of its powers a few years ago, Francois-Henri Pinault's luxury conglomerate Kering – owner of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga — was valued at over $100 billion on the stock market. Since then, its shares have tumbled more than 75%, Gucci is in trouble and after two decades at the helm Pinault is handing the operational reins to veteran auto executive Luca de Meo.
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15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Piastri wins rain-delayed Belgian GP after Norris overtake
Oscar Piastri passed McLaren team-mate Lando Norris on the first racing lap of a wet-dry Belgian Grand Prix to take his sixth victory of the year and extend his championship lead. The Australian swept past Norris as the race started after an hour-and-a-half delay for heavy rain and two laps behind the safety car and controlled the race from there. Norris' side of the McLaren team chose a divergent tyre strategy when the drivers pitted to switch to slick, dry-weather tyres as the track dried. The hope was that Norris would be able to go to the end on the hard tyres chosen while Piastri, who stopped one lap earlier, would have to make a pit stop for a second set of his mediums. But Piastri, despite expressing initial misgivings about whether his rubber would last, made it to the end without stopping again. His impressive win, mixing keen racing instinct with calm tyre management, moves him 16 points clear in the championship heading to the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc hung on ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the tricky opening laps on a wet track despite using a lower-downforce set-up, and was able to consolidate the final podium place in the dry part of the race. Verstappen took fourth in a largely static race and is now 81 points behind Piastri in the championship, his hopes all but over. Mercedes' George Russell took fifth after passing Williams' Alex Albon in the wet early stages, while Lewis Hamilton drove an excellent race to take seventh from his pit lane start. Another decisive move from Piastri Piastri sealed his win with a trademark committed, decisive move on Norris when the conditions were at their most treacherous when the race finally started. The original start was abandoned because of heavy rain and poor visibility after formation lap behind the safety car. The drivers then sat in the pit lane for an hour and 20 minutes, followed by four laps behind the safety car before the race was finally allowed to start 90 minutes later than scheduled. Piastri tracked Norris closely through the first corner and through the high-speed swerves at East Rouge before diving around the outside into the les Combes chicane at the end of the long Kemmel straight. Norris complained over the radio that he was down on battery power, but was told he had used it up at the start behind the safety car. And after the race he admitted that Piastri had simply done a better first lap by pushing harder through Eau Rouge, where in the wet drivers have to choose how much to lift off, when it is flat in the dry. "Oscar did a good job, nothing more to say," Norris said. "Committed a bit more through Eau Rouge and had the slipstream and got the run and that was it. Love to be up top but Oscar deserved it today." Piastri said: "I knew that lap one was going to be probably my best chance of winning the race. "I got a good exit out of Turn One and then lifted as little as ai dared through Eau Rouge and it worked out pretty well. We had it mostly under control after that. "I was a bit disappointed it was a rolling start because I thought that would take away some opportunity but when I was that close I knew I was going to lift a little bit less than Lando did. A bit lively over the hill but then the slipstream helped me out." Once in front, Piastri inched away in the lead until he was just under two seconds in front when he chose to stop for slick tyres on lap 12, his position in front giving him priority on stop timing and forcing Norris into a difficult position. Piastri fitted the medium tyres while Norris had to do an extra lap on a drying track on highly worn intermediate tyres. His engineer asked him if he would like hard tyres and try to run to the end, a decision Norris agreed with, and he rejoined 9.1 seconds back from Piastri after his stop. By around lap 20, Piastri told his engineer that he thought it would be "tough" to get his intermediates to the end but for a long time he held the lead at about eight seconds or so, and it slowly became apparent that he had decided not to stop again. In the final few laps, Norris began to make significant inroads into Piastri's lead, and was within four seconds of the leader with three laps to go. But Piastri managed the gap expertly to win by 3.4 seconds. Behind the leaders, the drivers were stuck in their positions after the pit stops, even if there was some tension for Leclerc as Verstappen pushed him hard in the closing laps. Much of the excitement in the race was provided by Hamilton. The seven-time champion started from the pit lane after Ferrari decided to change his set-up after his error in exceeding track limits in qualifying left him down in 16th on the grid. And Hamilton justified the decision with a series of excellent, improvisational overtaking moves to move up to 13th place before becoming the first driver to stop for slicks on lap 11, one before Piastri. That won him a chunk more places, and Hamilton was promoted to seventh by the pit-stop period, which he held to the end of the race. He closed to within a second of Albon on the final lap but was unable to pass. Full results Red Bull focused on retaining Verstappen - Mekies Andrew Benson Q&A: Send us your questions
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The US is nearing a trade deal with Europe. Will Trump stand in the way?
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is flying to Scotland to meet directly with President Donald Trump on Sunday, in a sign that a trade deal with America's largest trading partner is within sight. But European diplomats aren't counting on a deal until it is officially rolled out, after being burned before by Trump's penchant for last-minute reversals. That's because the president's modus operandi when it comes to trade deals is clear: He wants to deal one-on-one with foreign leaders, applying an arm twist at the highest level to try and eke out final concessions. That doesn't work as well with the European Union, the 27-nation bloc that makes decisions, literally, by committee. That fundamental issue has turned the talks between the EU and the Trump administration into a series of stops and starts, as negotiators painstakingly piece together compromises, only for them to be slapped down when presented to Trump or European countries. And it's why, even as the von der Leyen-Trump meeting raises hopes of reaching a deal to avoid a stiff U.S. tariff increase Aug. 1, they are not counting on it. 'Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,' said one EU diplomat. 'I guess everyone is quite tense,' said another. Trump himself underscored the uncertainty Friday after touching down in Scotland for what initially was billed as a weekend golf getaway. "I will be meeting with the EU on Sunday and we will be working on a deal. ... Ursula will be here. A highly respected woman. So, we look forward to that. That will be good," he told reporters, adding, "I think we have a good 50-50 chance. That's a lot." Asked about what issues are still under discussion, he replied, "I don't want to tell you what the sticking points are. But the sticking points are having to do with maybe 20 different things. You don't want to listen to all of them." Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration about dealing with the EU, a bloc that he claims was created to 'screw' the U.S. One senior White House official said Trump still holds out hope, however improbable, of cutting deals with individual EU member countries, particularly Germany, whose influential auto sector has been pummeled by Trump's 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts. Per EU rules, however, only the European Commission can negotiate trade deals for member countries, with input from the European Parliament and the heads of state for each nation. 'Yes, it's complicated with the EU,' said the official, who was granted anonymity to describe the president's thinking on the matter. 'But if some of these countries had the opportunity to do a deal with us on their own, they would jump at the chance.' It's true that, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has observed on several occasions, the EU 'has a collective action problem,' with leading economies like Germany and France pushing different priorities and negotiating strategies. Germany's conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has lobbied hard for an accord that would offer some relief to the country's powerful auto industry, while French President Emmanuel Macron has led calls to tough things out with Trump by backing retaliatory tariffs and calling to activate the EU's so-called trade bazooka — the Anti-Coercion Instrument — an all-purpose weapon that would only need supermajority support to hit back against the U.S. But Merz and Macron met in Berlin on Wednesday and pledged to present a united front on trade issues during a series of meetings seeking to bolster a flailing Franco-German relationship. And EU countries on Thursday approved plans to retaliate with tariffs on approximately $109 billion worth of U.S. goods, if no deal materializes and the U.S. ratchets up its duties. More problematic at this point: Trump's penchant for adding his own last-minute spin to the trade agreements his negotiators have spent months hashing out, sometimes to the point where he has sent countries back to the negotiating table. With each of the preliminary deals the administration has reached this summer, Trump has held a final call with the country's leader, using the opportunity to demand additional concessions or alter key terms in his government's favor. That may not work with von der Leyen, who acts on behalf of the bloc's members and doesn't have the discretion to accept last-minute changes. 'I might anticipate that there would be some latitude from the Commission,' said Daniel Mullaney, a former assistant U.S. trade representative who negotiated with Europe. 'But yeah, if something comes in at the last minute which is outside of the realm of what was consulted on with the member states, it could be challenging.' The EU is currently rallying around a deal that would apply a 15 percent tariff on goods from its member states — higher than the current 10 percent rate that Trump imposed on all countries in early April but half the 30 percent rate the president threatened in a July 12 letter. According to four diplomats, who were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential negotiations, the deal would largely mirror an accord the U.S. clinched with Japan earlier this week. Cars and car parts would also see their tariff reduced from the 25 percent duty Trump set on all auto imports in May to 15 percent. Other sectors that got hit by U.S. tariffs, like steel and aluminum, are still under discussion. According to one EU official, the 50 percent tariff Trump has imposed on steel and aluminum remains a key sticking point, as well as other sector-specific tariffs the White House is threatening on industries like pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and aerospace. 'There is total uncertainty on that, what we can get on that,' said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations. Trump on Friday played down the chances of lowering his steel tariffs, telling reporters he did not have much wiggle room to provide more generous terms because 'if I do it for one, I have to do it for all.' The EU has already been close to a deal once before but has been confounded by what they see as Trump's unpredictable behavior. Members said that they had an agreement waiting for Trump's approval earlier this month but that the president rejected it because it was too bureaucratic, according to two EU officials who were briefed on the discussions, granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. One official said Trump "smacked it down for the lack of enough 'wins.'' A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said no agreement was reached earlier this month; instead, the EU had sent an offer, and the administration did not find it suitable. The official agreed that any final deal with the EU will be decided by Trump. "He's ultimately the one who makes the deal," the official said. Other world leaders have confronted similar problems — and concluded that the only way to address the issue is to hold one-on-one meetings with Trump, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is doing this weekend in Scotland. While Starmer and Trump reached a preliminary trade deal in May to lower some U.S. duties on British goods, they have yet to come to hash out the terms for a promised 'alternative arrangement' for steel and aluminum tariffs, a top priority for the British government. The golfing visit is "an opportunity for the PM to build personal rapport with Trump,' said one U.K. government adviser, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the visit. 'They have a good relationship, but this is where Starmer will need to shine in an informal setting." Trump has recently insisted that any trade deal will require other countries to open their markets. The president has claimed that Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam will drop all tariffs on U.S. goods as part of their trade agreements. Officials from those countries, however, have either not substantiated or have publicly challenged those claims. On Tuesday, he announced a deal with Japan in which the country has pledged to lower tariff barriers on U.S.-made cars and import more agricultural goods, like rice. Trump told reporters Friday morning that while he wasn't overly confident about reaching a deal with the EU, he was still more optimistic than he had been about coming to terms with Japan in the days before that agreement was finalized. 'I would have said we have a 25 percent chance with Japan. And they kept coming back, and we made a deal,' he said. Dan Bloom and Andrew McDonald contributed to this story from London. Koen Verhelst contributed from Brussels. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Official: Deportivo Alavés star seals €16m Ligue 1 switch
La Liga outfit Deportivo Alavés have this weekend secured for themselves a significant cash injection. This comes after attacker Joaquín Panichelli's long-rumoured departure from the club was finally made official. Panichelli, for his part, spent this past season out on loan away from Alavés. Not yet considered ready to be a regular contributor at Mendizorroza, the Argentine made the move to Spain's 2nd tier, with CD Mirandés. And to say that Panichelli went on to enjoy a productive stint on the books of Mirandés would be putting it lightly… All told, across 44 appearances in La Liga 2, the 22-year-old racked up a head-turning 29 direct goal contributions. Such exploits did not go unnoticed across the continent, with Ligue 1 outfit Strasbourg, for one, having recently opened talks with their Alavés counterparts in an effort to beat out the stiff competition for Panichelli's signature. And as alluded to above, this weekend, such negotiations have officially borne fruit. As per a statement across Alavés' website and social media platforms on Sunday: 'Deportivo Alavés and RC Strasbourg Alsace have reached an agreement for the transfer of striker Joaquín Panichelli to the French club.' According to transfer insider , Panichelli's move to France has come at a cost of around €16.5 million. Conor Laird – GSFN
