VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The Toronto Real Estate Board released sales statistics that show an increase of 23% year-over-year on home prices in November. The Toronto region has experienced strong price gain, and TREB has urged the government to launch initiatives focused on alleviating the lack of supply.

The recent earthquake that hit New Zealand badly affected the country's prime regions, resulting to the loss of millions of liters of wine and damages to storage vats. The wine industry will be facing a challenging year but the government had stepped in to assist the affected wineries.

The University of Texas at San Antonio receives $5.29 funding from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to support its research on brain health. UTSA has been one of the leading institutions in brain health research, with its projects aiming to develop treatment to degenerative diseases.

The European Union revealed its plan to invest EUR 5 billion for a common defense fund. The funding will strengthen the continent’s military capabilities and let the governments invest on military research.

The Parliament passed the new VET Student Loans program with the aim to overhaul the vocational education sector which faced scandals over the past years. The new scheme is a replacement to the troubled VET FEE-HELP scheme.

With Samsung’s next flagship smartphone predicted to be launched early next year, rumors have been spreading about the phone’s powerful features in comparison to past flagship devices. Believed to have an autofocus feature on the front camera, Galaxy S8 may be the ultimate selfie cam of the year. Leaked information also suggest bigger storage, and more impressive display and software.

The Caixin/Markit PMI revealed a slight drop on China's manufacturing sector for November, with a 50.9 index compared to October's 51.2.

Independent presidential candidate Roque De La Fuente requested and paid for the ballot recounts of five counties in Nevada. He said in a statement that his sole interest is to create awareness on the election system.

Canadian rock band Rush donates $40,000 to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Research at Sunnybrook Hospital. The fund will be used by Sunnybrook to investigate on potential treatment for brain cancer.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a directive to transfer $27 billion to the Public Investments Fund. The allocation to the sovereign wealth fund aims to diversify investments and lessen the country’s dependence on oil revenues.

Android devices running on operation systems below version 6.0 have been the target of the biggest attack on Google accounts. The Gooligan hackers access Google accounts of users to download apps in their fraudulent advertising scheme.

Fatalities in the Colombia plane crash on Monday has risen to 75. The British charter plane was en route to Medellin when it crashed in La Union.

Volkswagen, its Audi and Porsche luxury brands, BMW, Daimler, and Ford’s European division have joined forces to build more electric car charging sites across Europe. The joint venture wants to create 400 charging sites next year in order to boost the demand on electric vehicles.

ALS ONE has been granted $4 million to fund researches on the development of ALS treatment. The organization, which was founded early this year by Kevin Gosnell, works in collaboration with four other institutional leaders in ALS treatment.

Prime Minister Narenda Modi had scrapped off the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, hurting different sectors of the economy. The move resulted to decreased sales and slowed operations on sectors like automobiles, tourism, banking and e-commerce.