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Anger as man with guide dog told to leave Marks & Spencer shop
A senior executive at the charity Guide Dogs said he felt “publicly humiliated” when he and his guide dog, Faldo, were illegally told to leave a Marks & Spencer shop in west London.
Dave Kent, 62, a corporate engagement executive at the charity who has been totally blind since he was 18, said he was “curtly” asked to take his golden retriever out of the Mortlake department store three times by a security guard last Friday.
He said the incident felt like a “kick in the nuts” and that it highlighted a continuing problem of blind and partially sighted people being refused entry or ejected from shops because of their guide dogs.
A Guide Dogs survey found that three-quarters of guide dog owners have experienced been illegally turned away from public buildings.
M&S apologised to Kent and accepted that its security team was wrong to ask him to leave. Kent has written to the chief executive of M&S, Steve Rowe, urging the company to inform its security team of their legal duty to allow free access to guide dogs and their owners.
Kent was shopping with a friend for shorts and other summer clothing when they were stopped on the way to the checkout and asked to leave. Faldo had clearly been wearing his guide-dog branded harness at the time, Kent said.
When Kent stood his ground, the security guard twice more insisted that they should take the dog out of the store. When he asked to see the store’s manager he received an apology and the offer of a complimentary drink.
Recounting the incident, Kent said: “A cup of tea. I just thought don’t patronise me.” He left the store without buying his holiday shorts.
He said: “Every time this happens, it’s a kick in the nuts. All I want to do is go to Marks & Spencers and do what any seeing person would do in the course of their day. And I want to do it unhindered. I am sickened by these security guards.
Watch: Charity launches project to identify what makes a good guide dog
“M&S know very well their obligations under the equality duty. But the problem arises with guide dogs with these third party security companies they employ. They’re probably on a low wage, but they’re idiots and they’re not taught.”
In his letter to Rowe, Kent wrote: “Whilst the response from the manager was polite and measured, this incident left me feeling utterly wretched. To be publicly humiliated in this fashion in sight of other shoppers and members of staff, left my dignity in tatters.
He added: “Guide dogs are provided to visually impaired people to support them with freedom and independence. And to be challenged in this way, when all I wanted to do was to go about my lawful business unmolested, like any other citizen, is absolutely unacceptable.”
He added: “It is imperative that you instruct the people you employ as your security personnel to be fully cognisant of your corporate responsibilities regarding the admittance of guide dogs and other assistance dogs, in the vain hope that this vile situation should not happen again.”
Chris Theobald, public affairs and campaigns manager at Guide Dogs said: “It is completely unacceptable and illegal for a business or service to refuse entry to a customer with a guide dog, yet, sadly, it happens all too often. Our research shows that three-quarters of guide dog owners have been illegally turned away, and this discrimination is leaving people with sight loss left out of life.”
Last week, one of Kent’s best friends, the BBC reporter Sean Dilley was told he was not allowed to take his guide dog, Sammy, into two London Tesco stores. Kent is working on a “reparatory” project with Tesco.
He said: “The problem is with the law, unless it really bites, it’s a bit toothless.”
A spokesperson for M&S said: “What happened is unacceptable and we sincerely apologise to Mr Kent. Our stores should be accessible for everyone and we welcome assistance dogs. We have worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to develop online assistance dog awareness training, which all of our colleagues complete.”
They added: “We are picking up with our security providers to ensure guards across stores are fully aware of our approach and are contacting Mr Kent to apologise directly.”


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According to the company, the ACCA-qualified accountant was chosen for his significant expertise in advising clients on acquisitions, disposals and fund raising. The apointment takes effect as of 30 June.
Chairman David Winterbottom, said Goody would bring breadth and depth of experience to the company, both in retail and wider industry. ‘He will be an important member of our management team responsible for driving forward the company’s future performance,’ he said.
Goody has been interim finance director since 9 March 2001 when Anthony Potter resigned following an overstatement in the valuation of stock, which KPMG was brought in to investigate.
The company discovered the discrepancy when a new management control system was commissioned for the internal year-end review. As a result, TJ Hughes incurred an additional charge about £3m against its annual results to January 2001.
The second largest improvement in ‘significant’ levels of financial distress since the EU Referendum was in professional services, found research from Begbies Traynor
Just one half of UK practices have implemented a pricing structure around auto enrolment implementation and advice - with many suffering increased costs
Deloitte's north-west Europe foray; BDO, Smith & Williamson investment paths; Shelley Stock Hutter; and Wilkins Kennedy discussed by editor Kevin Reed on our Friday Afternoon Live broadcast
Accountants should alter their perspective on auto-enrolment to maximise business opportunities, according to Eric Clapton.

domain: news


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Cemengal commissions Plug&Grind in Guatemala
Published by Rebecca Bowden,
Cemengal has commissioned a new Plug&Grind Classic for Cemento Regional in Guatemala.
The portable grinding station has a production capacity of over 12 tph and will supply cement to the South and Central regions of Guatemala, including the capital city, which is the largest city in Central America.
Roberto Díaz Durán (President & CEO Cemento Regional), Antonio González Gallego (President & CEO Cemengal) and Moisés Rodríguez Núñez (Sales & Marketing Manager Cemengal) visited to witness the first cement production from the new modular station.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/25102016/cemengal-commissions-pluggrind-in-guatemala/
You might also like
Opportunities & Challenges For UK Cement
Dr Diana Casey, Mineral Products Association, gives an overview on the current state of the British cement industry and what benefits and hurdles lie ahead for operators in the UK.


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Gold Bullion will continue to be the subject of buyer interest, regardless of market fluctuations.
That is the opinion of Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader at US-based Integrated Brokerage Services, who believes that the precious metal will be subject to some selling, but that ultimately, investors will always be interested.
He told the Reuters: "Gold will tend to maintain its value now. It will periodically sell off as other markets drop, but you will see money coming back into gold later."
Meanwhile the Korea Times reveals that an unnamed commodities expert has suggested that Gold Bullion demand has increased faster than other precious metal markets.
The economist said: "Recently, investment-related gold demand has been growing faster than that for jewelry or industry."
The news provider suggests that this has been in part down to the recent financial difficulties experienced in Europe.
How best to Buy Gold today? "If there's an easier route to buying investment gold, I have not found it," says one BullionVault customer. Find out for yourself and start Investing in Gold here...


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Popular fragrance brand Jo Malone has announced it is recalling the matches provided with its candles.
The recall was announced in a statement on the company’s website today, after it was decided the matches may have insufficient strength and break when struck.
Purchases made as far back as 2014 are believe to be among those affected.
The product comes in a black box, the same colour as the matches themselves.
Affected matches can be identified by checking the box - it will have numbers printed BEFORE the letters SAF.
The message on the Jo Malone website says: “Out of an abundance of caution, and because of our commitment to quality and safety, we are voluntarily recalling the affected matches.
“Affected matches should no longer be used and we kindly ask that they are immediately discarded in a safe manner.”
Customers can fill in their details on the Jo Malone website where a replacement pack will be sent once they become available.


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MUCH has been made of cider’s transition from quintessential summer drink to a product enjoyed across the seasons. But despite the category’s new year-round appeal, established in light of Magners’ early success and the impact of fruit flavoured ciders, it seems a little warmth still goes a long way.
Kopparberg, the Swedish cider range distributed by COS Brands, enjoys as much perennial appeal as any contemporary brand, though for managing director Davin Nugent summer is still hugely important.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s still vital,” he said. “It’s vital for any alcohol business.
“[In the past] cider was massively focused on summer, but at Kopparberg we’ve been fortunate as we’ve benefited from very strong sales over the course of the 12-month period.
“We do of course have spikes in summer, but not to such a degree that makes it a lopsided year.
“I think that’s to do with our taste profile because we don’t offer a traditional dry tasting cider.
“It is sweeter and attracts a wider audience, so we don’t fall into the issues that perhaps more traditional British or Irish cider brands would face.”
Rival brand Rekorderlig, which is also produced in Sweden, offered a similar perspective.
While Nicol Mason, senior brand manager at distributor Chilli Marketing, acknowledged “warmer weather brings greater cider sales”, she said the opportunity is limited in the UK as the temperature is not uniformly hot over the summer.
And she told SLTN the visibility of cider brands throughout the course of the year – Rekorderlig, for example, has a winter variant (apple, cinnamon and vanilla) – hints that summer is no longer the be all and end all.
“Although in previous years activity and noise around cider was most prevalent in the summer months, it has become obvious that brands are extending activity into the colder months,” Nicol said.
“Innovation within flavoured cider has been a major catalyst of this year-round growth and we don’t see this stopping.
“Rekorderlig has pioneered more exciting premium serves in order to create more of a cocktail look and feel, such as fresh mint and lime in the strawberry-lime variant.
“This is most common within smaller independent operators as they strive to offer a point of difference.”
Summer may no longer be everything to cider, but the season is still expected to see a host of limited edition variants arrive on the market.
One such product is Bulmers Vintage Reserve, which will be available to UK bars for the first time. It joins a portfolio that includes Bulmers No.17, an apple cider with crushed red berries and a shot of lime which debuted last year.
For brand owner Heineken such innovation is crucial to maintaining the category’s growth.
“Modern ciders are enjoying 8% MAT (moving annual total) growth which is being driven by 104% growth in flavoured cider and Bulmers limited edition and permanent variants make a leading contribution to this success,” said Sanjay Patel, brand director-ciders at Heineken.
“Genuine product innovation like Vintage Reserve and Bulmers No. 17 are the lifeblood of the category – they fuel consumers’ interest and attract new and lapsed drinkers to cider.”
But producers looking to innovate should proceed with caution, according to both Mason at Rekorderlig and Nugent at COS Brands.
Mason said “innovation for innovation’s sake is not worthwhile” while Nugent warned that the category has to “learn the mistakes of categories past” and not flood the market with too many products.
“I think there’s going to be a plethora of fruit launches this summer,” Nugent said.
“Off the top of my head I can think of six so it’s going to be a very busy marketplace.
“We’re very conscious of not wanting to put too much pressure on the publican to offer too many variants, because they simply don’t have space.
“Yet there is a massive consumer demand for fruit cider and new fruit ciders, which allows us to bring out a seasonal offering every year (raspberry and mint) while still taking just one fridge space.”
That logic underpinned the launch by Kopparberg to launch its new Naked Apple variant, arguing that it brings something new to a sub-category said to have seen little innovation lately.


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Another early season gift for the cable industry was this week’s announcement that the much-maligned Microsoft TV has new life in the Old World.
BT (that’s British Telecom to the non-telco types out there) launched its new TV and entertainment service, BT Vision, using the Microsoft TV IPTV edition software platform and an advanced Philips set-top box. The service, which blends over-the-air digital signals with more traditional pay TV programming delivered via IP, is available across the United Kingdom.
Despite what the nabobs of negativity might have you believe, Microsoft TV is doing the job in fine fettle, as the English might say – if they were to use terms like "fine fettle."
"The system today is working flawlessly," said Adam Liversage, a BT spokesman. "We did have some low level internal trials to iron out the glitches, so I wouldn’t say there haven’t been glitches which we’ve identified and rectified along the way, but we’ve done a full commercial consumer launch today, and the product works."
That’s good news for Microsoft, which has been under fire for delays with such rollouts as AT&T‘s U-Verse service in the United States. BT joins other European customers that include T-Online France, T-Online Germany, Swisscom and T-Online Hungary in rolling out the service.
While the service is called IPTV, it has less to do with IP and the Internet and more to do with TV, said Elena Branet, senior marketing manager of Microsoft TV-EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
"IPTV is a competitive TV service delivered by a broadband provider over a managed IP network that provides full quality of service for the television service through the broadband connection," she lectured. More devices to come The initial set-top boxes used to deliver that content are "based on a system-on-chip (SoC) that’s IPTV capable," Branet said. It won’t be long, therefore, until those same SoCs are in the drawers of other devices like computers, PDAs and DVDs.
"All in good time," advised Liversage. "The long-term vision for our BT Vision product is delivering the content you like on any device anywhere in the UK. But you have to take one step at a time, and the step we’ve taken is to launch the TV service."
One small step for BT, one giant step for Microsoft and one more worry for the cable industry.
"This is absolutely our customers getting off the ground," Branet confirmed. – Jim Barthold


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The mockery on social media was not unfounded, in a week where it was already constantly about food and supermarket shelves. An apple is a fruit and a cucumber is a vegetable. Anyone with a bit of common sense knows that. So why do State Secretaries Maarten van Ooijen (Health, Christian Union) and Marnix van Rij (Tax, CDA) need an external agency to decide what is fruit and what is green?
This classification is necessary because the government in the coalition agreement agreed to investigate how the VAT on fruit and vegetables can be reduced from 9 to 0 percent. That would determine which products qualify for this summer.
The VAT reduction is part of a series of measures to encourage Dutch people to eat healthier by gentle coercion. The government will also raise the tax on alcoholic beverages, investigate whether a meat tax can be levied and look at, among other things, a sugar tax on soft drinks. All in the long run, but ultimately intended to promote healthier and more sustainable food and to keep the daily meal affordable.
Health promotion in particular is a difficult ambition. The Cabinet wants to reduce the number of overweight Dutch – now half of adults – to the level from the 1990s: 38 percent. The adult Dutchman does not come close to the daily recommended amount of 250 grams of vegetables and two pieces of fruit. On average, Dutch people eat 131 grams of vegetables and 119 grams of fruit.
Also read this second comment: More fruits and vegetables are a good idea for everyone
The time for Danny de Munks ‘feel your apple, eat an apple’ is no more. As soon as you hit the streets, there are all kinds of sweet, salty and fatty temptations, often cheaper and easier to get than the apple. Van Ooijen said that he will also investigate in the spring whether the municipalities can counteract the increase in fast food stores.
They are all ‘in’ studies. Which you would think is for some vegetables and some fruits should be the easiest. It turns out to be “a puzzle”, Van Ooijen wrote to Parliament. It will be 2024 before he has an answer. The “pot of pasta sauce” that Prime Minister Rutte (VVD) mentioned in the Senate in February as an example of something that could or could not be a vegetable has been expanded to almost a supermarket full. In addition to the pasta sauce, the shelves now contain apple puree, pre-cut lettuce, peeled potatoes and frozen peas. And is the vegetable chip a vegetable, but not the paprika chip?
The minefield in which Van Ooijen and Van Rij are located is clear from the letter to Parliament. The definition of fruit and vegetables that is “legally most appropriate” is not the definition that is “most practical in practice”. Ingredients should be specified so that the bag of salad in question falls under it, but not if salt has been added.
A VAT reduction is a sympathetic means of enticing consumers to eat healthier. A fine-grained classification system is needed for this. But it does not have to be the only carrot that the Secretary of State sticks to.
Also read this column by Christiaan Weijts: Is it vegetables? Is it fruit?
Correction (11 July 2022): An earlier version of this paragraph indicated non-alcoholic beverages where alcoholic beverages should be mentioned.
A version of this article was also published in the newspaper on July 11, 2022


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Manchester's popular street food fair GRUB is returning to its original home for a new series of supper clubs.
Now based at Mayfield Depot every weekend, the event started out as a monthly pop-up in the yard of Green Quarter brewery Runaway.
Now the team behind it are returning to curate a new monthly dining experience at the brewery's recently-opened on-site taproom .
Runaway for Supper will see some of GRUB's regular traders cooking up a four-course sit-down meal, with beers chosen to complement each dish by Runaway's head brewer Mark Welsby.
He said: “Brewing flavoursome beer has much in common with preparing tasty food, so it’s great to be collaborating with some of Manchester’s most innovative cooks again.
"Our beers are often influenced by the food we eat, so what better way to learn more about our craft, than to invite people to the brewery to share a beer or two with supper?”
Kicking off the series are Wholesome Junkies, who will be serving up their trademark vegan comfort food at the first event on Thursday September 21.
Following them over the coming months will be Wallace & Sons with their Taiwanese bao and other Asian-inspired dishes (October 19); oyster and sea food specialists Holy Crab (November 16); and award-winning Latin American cuisine from Yakumama (December 14).
GRUB director Jules Bailey said: “This is where Grub Food Fair was born so we’re delighted to be curating the food lineup for the Runaway for Supper events.
"Obviously we love street food but we’re also super keen on supper clubs as they’re a much more exciting and intimate dining experience than going to a regular restaurant.”
The brewery bar will open from 6.30pm at each event before guests sit down to dinner at 7.30pm, and will remain open until 11pm.
Tickets cost £37.76 including all food and a third of beer with each course. Visit Eventbrite to book .
Runaway Brewery's taproom, on Dantzic Street, is open every Saturday, from noon to 8pm.
GRUB is open at Mayfield Depot on Baring Street, opposite Piccadilly Station, every Friday and Saturday from noon to 10pm. It also hosts a vegan event every Sunday from noon to 8pm.


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The iPhone 12 series was made official earlier this week with four new models and 5G support as a major highlight, in addition to small improvements in hardware, cameras and design. Apple has not yet confirmed prices for Brazil, but it is certain that the devices will be sold here, and one of them is already approved by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
The A2407 model, referring to the iPhone 12 Pro that will be sold here, already has the published documentation, while the other three, iPhone 12 mini (A2399), iPhone 12 (A2403) and iPhone 12 Pro Max (A2411) are in the database. data, but without certificates, for now.
Checking the Apple website, we can verify that it is really the iPhone 11 Pro, which has a 6.1-inch screen, three cameras and a LiDAR sensor on the back and support for the 5G, including the DSS used by Claro to offer speed close to fifth generation of mobile networks. In Anatel’s documentation, we saw that the device is compatible with all 4G networks in the country.
Also in the certificate of the iPhone 12 Pro at the Brazilian agency, it is possible to verify that the device will be manufactured locally, at the Foxconn factory in Jundiaí, and is compatible with the model A2479 battery, already approved and with a nominal capacity of 2,815 mAh. The same model must be used on the iPhone 12, as the component documentation indicates compatibility with the model A2403.
That is, not only the iPhone 12 has less charge than its predecessor, but the Pro version also has less charge than the Pro model of the previous generation. The iPhone 11 has 3,110 mAh battery and the iPhone 11 Pro has 3,046 mAh, in addition to bringing a smaller screen. It remains to be seen whether the 5 nm A14 Bionic chip can compensate for this reduction to deliver good usage time.
Finally, two more Apple batteries were certified by Anatel: the model A2471, which has a nominal capacity of 2,227 mAh and is compatible with the iPhone 12 Mini, and the model A2466, compatible with the iPhone 12 Pro Max and whose capacity was not informed in the documentation.
In short, the charges would be as follows:
- iPhone 12 Mini: 2.227 mAh
- iPhone 12: 2.815 mAh
- iPhone 12 Pro: 2.815 mAh
- iPhone 12 Pro Max: unknown
So, what did you think of the charging capacities of the new Apple phones? Tell us in the comments. And take a look at our video explaining all the models of the iPhone 12 series below:
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The founder and CEO of the Rapha cycling brand, Simon Mottram, says the company's "direct to consumer business model" is helping to pedal growing sales and improving profitability.
In the year to 31 January 2016 the brand's following has continued to grow internationally and digitally, helping total sales jump by 25.6% to £48.8 million and EBITDA increase by 79% to £3.5 million. Profit before tax was up by 145% to £1.1 million for the 12-month period.
US/Canada sales grew 28%, while Asia Pacific sales leapt 29% and Europe sales increased by 23%. Online sales now represent 72% of total sales with strong growth reported in all regions supported by the company's SAP Hybris eCommerce platform.
Last year also saw the roll out of the organisation's retail and café Clubhouse concept. A further three physical Clubhouses were opened in Amsterdam, Kilver Court and London Spitalfields during the period, while in the months since year-end cyclists in Seoul, Copenhagen and Chicago have seen the concept appear in their cities.
"At the heart of our business is the global Rapha Cycling Club (RCC), with local chapters created at each Clubhouse around the world," explained Mottram.
"We have seen exceptional growth to date, with thousands of club members now cycling and socialising together, connecting with the sport through Rapha. This membership model is profitable and extremely successful for us, contributing to our growth and providing a strong community platform for the future of the brand and business."
RCC launched back in December 2014 and there are now over 7,600 paying members. Meanwhile, the Rapha board says strong growth and positive trading has continued in 2016 to date, with sales currently up 30% and apparently unaffected by the UK's decision to leave the UK earlier this summer.
Mottram added: "Through our aspirational brand and unique business model we will continue to focus on developing international markets as we pursue our growth plans.
"We will continue our investment in infrastructure in the next 12 months, including launching five new Clubhouses in the US alone, and will continue to focus on delivering the best products and an unrivalled customer experience."
Click below for more information:


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Call for Postal Reform
CHICAGO—John Campanelli, president of R.R. Donnelley Logistics, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform recently that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) must leverage its core competency in "last-mile" delivery and focus on becoming the gateway into the home and office.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons is among the commercial printers that is pushing for legislative reforms, which would "define a more tightly focused mission" for the USPS that sustains affordable, universal delivery by cutting costs and providing businesses better incentives for more efficient use of the system.
Campanelli testified that further rate increases—on top of the two implemented in less than a year—would undermine the long-term success of the USPS through a short-term attempt to boost revenues.
"The imposition of a sequence of serial rate increases that are several times the rate of inflation, at a time when every business in the country is going through a severe belt-tightening exercise, has the potential to do far more harm than good to the USPS' bottom line," he argues.
Among some of the changes Campanelli suggested:
* Offering discounts for worksharing, such as when mailers use more efficient containers or insert mail deeper into the system, that better reflect the cost savings generated.
* Re-examining rules governing sortation, containerization and acceptance scheduling to allow multiple classes of mail to be combined to achieve densities that are a precondition to drop-ship and presort discounts.
He noted that one measure proposed by the USPS—eliminating Saturday service—would work against its strength as the only delivery entity to provide regular Saturday delivery.


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American design house Tommy Hilfiger, which is owned by PVH Corp., will close London Fashion Week with the fall 2017 TOMMYNOW experiential runway event on Tuesday, September 19. Building on the success of “Tommy Pier” in New York City for fall 2016, and spring 2017 “TOMMYLAND” in Los Angeles, the London show reflects Tommy Hilfiger’s continued commitment to bringing TOMMYNOW to new cities and audiences around the world.
The fall 2017 TOMMYNOW fashion show will include men’s looks from Hilfiger Edition, marking the first time since 2010 that the brand’s men’s and women’s collections have shared the runway. Hilfiger Edition pays homage to Tommy Hilfiger’s storied menswear heritage, with time-honored classics reimagined to form the building blocks of an essential menswear wardrobe. The show will also feature Hilfiger Collection, the brand’s most premium womenswear designs, and the fall 2017 TommyXGigi collection, the third collaboration with supermodel and global brand ambassador Gigi Hadid.
Following the sell-out success of the first two TOMMYNOW shows, the fall 2017 event will build on the brand’s signature “See Now, Buy Now” format. All men’s and women’s runway looks will be available across an ecosystem of immediately shoppable channels in more than 70 countries, including Tommy Hilfiger stores and tommy.com, select wholesale partners, social media, shoppable live stream, the innovative 3-D image recognition SNAP:SHOP app, and the A.I. powered TMY.GRL conversational commerce bot for Facebook Messenger.
“My vision for TOMMYNOW was to create a global platform that could bring our shows to audiences around the globe like a rock-and-roll world tour,” said Hilfiger. “It’s about celebrating the connection between fashion and pop culture with experiences, performances and inspiring interactions that are designed around our consumers. We look forward to celebrating the rebellious spirit and star studded glamour of rock-and-roll in London for fall 2017.”


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Creativity is the fuel for innovation making it an essential ingredient for business growth. Listen as 360 editor Chris Congdon talks to Ralf Groene, general manager for Device Design for Microsoft, and James Ludwig, vice president of Global Design at Steelcase about the collaboration between the two organizations.Listen to podcast
Health + Education
Steelcase celebrates its global sustainability performance with the release of its 2017 Corporate Sustainability Report. This year, the company made continued progress on its environmental 2020 goals, set a record for employee volunteerism and received recognition for its leadership and innovation in circular economy principles.
Steelcase partnered with Gerald R. Ford International Airport to design new business centers and work-life lounges for travelers. These new spaces are part of a larger $45 million renovation project, known as the Gateway Transformation project, that the Grand Rapids airport has been implementing throughout the year.
Steelcase has again been recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The recognition came after Steelcase earned a perfect score of 100 percent on the annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). Steelcase joins the ranks of 609 major U.S. businesses which also earned top marks on the 2018 report.
Steelcase today announced the opening of its newest Learning + Innovation Center (LINC), capping a multi-year effort to bring together employees and propel global growth.
Steelcase introduces Workplace Advisor and Personal Assistant, built on the Microsoft Azure IoT platform, helping organizations harness big data to create better workplaces for people.
Steelcase announces a new relationship with Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, a leading home and hospitality furnishings brand known for its focus on comfort and timeless designs. Steelcase will offer a collection of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams products throughout the U.S. and Canada, with availability expected in November 2017.
Steelcase announces a relationship with FLOS, a renowned Italian lighting group with a collection of finely crafted decorative lighting including pendants, sconces, table & floor lamps. Steelcase will offer a collection of FLOS lighting throughout the U.S. and Canada, with availability expected in November 2017. FLOS lighting supplements an already extensive Steelcase portfolio, offering greater choice and consolidated distribution by the largest dealer network in the industry.
Steelcase was recognized today as one of the most community-minded companies in the nation as a part of the Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light. Steelcase also earned the honor in 2016.
Jenny Niemann, president and CEO of Forward Space, an independent Steelcase dealership in Chicago, has been nominated for a seat on the Steelcase Inc. Board of Directors. Niemann previously worked at Steelcase in the areas of marketing, operations and channel development leadership.
Todd Kelsey, president and CEO of Plexus Corp, is joining Steelcase’s Board of Directors. Plexus provides design and development, manufacturing and aftermarket services to four key market sectors. Kelsey’s expertise in technology-driven business initiatives make him an exceptional addition to the Steelcase board.
Steelcase and Microsoft Corp. have joined forces to explore the future of work, developing a range of technology-enabled spaces designed to help organizations foster creative thinking and better collaboration.


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Official: 11 convenience stores raided for EBT fraud
Store owners used fraudulently-purchased EBT cards to buy in bulk and stock stores, DA says
Eleven convenience stores were seized Wednesday morning in connection with EBT fraud cases, according to a Jefferson County official.
District Attorney Brandon Falls said that 257 arrest warrants were issued for 20 defendants in the case. Seventeen of the people were arrested:
- Jowher Almnasoob, 53
- Abdulrahman Alqublani, 48
- Ismail Hassan Elnaham, 28
- Saleh Yahya Rowaid, 42
- Ramzi Jowher Ali Almansoob, 30
- Mujahed Jowher Ali Almansoob, 23
- Bashir Abosaleh Mohamed, 34
- Fouad Zamzami, 47
- Muneer Zindani, 30
- Sufyan Saleh, 33
- Mansoor Almansoob, 34
- Audrey Morris, 47
- Jerry Brown, 49
- Keith Lee Lucas, 27
- Travis Wayne Holmes, 62
- Murad Nooruddin, 38
- Mable Olympia Kirksey, 39
Their charges vary, and include public assistance fraud, fraudulent use of a credit card and theft of property, Falls said.
Falls said in a statement that the defendants bought EBT cards from those who were issued the benefits, and used them to purchase bulk products at Sam's Club to stock their stores.
"They're turning around and raising those prices and selling them for inflated prices at stores in areas where, quite frankly, folks don't have the ability to get to a grocery store," said Falls.
Authorities also said some of the money made illegally was wired overseas.
"These same persons were sending cash to the country of Yemen," said Falls. "That's about everything I know about that."
Multiple agencies assisted in the investigation, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, Walmart Global Investigations, The U.S. Marshal's Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Alabama Department of Human Resources, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service and police departments from Gardendale, Hoover, Pelham and Birmingham.Locations raided in EBT fraud investigation


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Economists ought to read more science fiction. ... [第一段给出观点] One reason economists should read more science fiction is that sci-fi opens the mind to other ways the world could be.... Another reason economists should read more science fiction is that imagining the future is what all of us do daily in less fanciful analyses of possible costs and benefits. ... [中间段落就观点分两点展开]
这几个句子的句式结构都是一样的，就是第一段的ought to 后面用了should，别的都是一致的，所以强调一个小建议：类似的内容用一样的结构展开就好，不用“变”太多。
#结构2： 段落之间的总分结构 这个结构是Economist 用的比较多的。
The endurance of this global dollar-based system, in spite of the resentments it arouses, is testament to America’s staying power..... Nonetheless, even as the greenback soars, two technological developments bear close attention. First, new state-run digital currency and payments systems are, at last, gaining traction. ... Second, if you look beyond the scams and bubbles in cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance technologies continue to improve. ...
.... Proponents argue that though they’re more expensive to purchase, electric cars are cheaper to drive. But a new report from a U.S. Energy Department laboratory found that even in 2025 the agency’s default electric car’s total lifetime cost will be 9% higher than a gasoline car’s, and the study relied on the very generous assumption that electric cars are driven as much as regular ones. In reality, electric cars are driven less than half as much, which means they’re much costlier per mile. [先用 proponents 引入一个让步观点，然后用 But 转折引入自己的态度]


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Printers can be remotely controlled by computer criminals over the Internet, with the potential to steal personal information, attack otherwise secure networks and even cause physical damage, the researchers argue in a vulnerability warning first reports MSNBC.
The flaw involves firmware that runs so-called “embedded systems” such as computer printers, which increasingly are packed with functions that make them operate more like full-fledged computers. They also are commonly connected to the Internet.
This time-lapsed image of a screen on an HP LaserJet shows the impact of a rogue print job used to reprogram the device.
Researchers Salvatore Stolfo and Ang Cui at Columbia University, discovered the security flaw say there’s no easy fix for the flaw they’ve identified in some Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer lines – and perhaps on other firms’ printers, too – and there’s no way to tell if hackers have already exploited it.
Columbia researcher Ang Cui explains how he was able to infect an HP printer with malicious code.
The problem comes from the embedded systems inside the printers, which are basically small computers that are even connected to the internet. Even though today’s printers are full-fledged devices connected to the internet, not much thought goes into making them secure.
By hacking into the computer and overloading it with instructions that heat up the fuser – a part of the printer that helps dry the ink – the researchers made the paper in the printer blacken and smoke. In another demo, a thermal switch shut down the printer, causing it to burst into flames.
Before beginning a print job, HP’s printers check for firmware updates and download them if they’re available. The only problem is that they don’t discriminate if the update is coming from Palo Alto or an Eastern European hacker’s den. The only way that hackers can take over printers that aren’t connected to the internet is to trick the user into trying to print a document containing a virus. The real threat comes from printers with internet connectivity, something that’s becoming more and more common in today’s mobile world.
Rewriting the printer’s firmware takes only about 30 seconds, and a virus would be virtually impossible to detect once installed. Only pulling the computer chips out of the printer and testing them would reveal an attack, Cui said. No modern antivirus software has the ability to scan, let alone fix, the software which runs on embedded chips in a printer.
“First of all, how the hell doesn’t HP have a signature or certificate indicating that new firmware is real firmware from HP?” said Mikko Hypponen, head of research at security firm F-Secure, when told of the flaw. “Printers have been a weak spot for many corporate networks. Many people don’t realize that a printer is just another computer on a network with exactly the same problems and, if compromised, the same impact.”
Keith Moore, chief technologist for HP’s printer division, said the firm “takes this very seriously,” but his initial research suggests the likelihood that the vulnerability can be exploited in the real world is low in most cases. Moore also said that the impact of any potential vulnerability is limited because most home users have InkJet printers – not LaserJet printers – and they do not permit remote firmware upgrade, he said.
Full HP statement on the printer security:
Update Dec. 23, 2011: HP issued a firmware update to mitigate the above issue.
“No customer has reported unauthorized access to HP. HP reiterates its recommendation to follow best practices for securing devices by placing printers behind a firewall and, where possible, disabling remote firmware upload on exposed printers,” HP said in a blog post announcing the firmware update.
The firmware update can be found at www.hp.com/support and selecting Drivers.
Additional printer security information is available at www.hp.com/go/secureprinting.


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- Asia markets were mixed in early trade on Thursday amid rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
- China said on Wednesday that it will impose a 25 percent charge on $16 billion worth of American goods.
- That announcement followed after the U.S. Trade Representative’s office released a finalized list of $16 billion worth in Chinese goods that will be hit with tariffs, taking effect on Aug. 23.
Asia traded mixed on Thursday morning after the U.S. market was mostly little changed overnight following the unveiling of new Chinese tariffs on American goods.
In Australia, the ASX 200 was up 0.15 percent in early trade. But the energy subindex was down 0.83 percent following overnight drop in oil prices. Shares of Santos fell 1.06 percent, Oil Search was down 0.99 percent and Woodside Petroleum lost 0.68 percent.
Global benchmark Brent declined 3.17 percent on Wednesday to $72.28 a barrel while U.S. crude fell 3.22 percent to $66.94.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.54 percent and the Topix index was down 0.55 percent. Major automakers declined with shares of Toyota down 0.48 percent, Nissan off by 0.71 percent and Honda lower by 0.93 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.14 percent.
“There was a lack of data overnight with the market focusing on trade tension between the U.S. and China,” David Plank from ANZ Research said in a morning note.
Beijing said on Wednesday that it will retaliate against the latest round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced a 25 percent tariff on $16 billion worth of American goods. The 333 goods being targeted by China include vehicles such as large passenger cars and motorcycles.
The announcement came after the U.S. Trade Representative’s office released a finalized list of $16 billion worth of Chinese goods that will be hit with tariffs, taking effect on Aug. 23. The latest U.S. list brings the total amount of Chinese goods facing a 25 percent tariff to $50 billion.
Analysts said that reaction to the news has been “fairly muted” apart from the drop in oil prices.
“The move lower in [oil] prices appears to have been driven after China announced that it will levy 25 percent tariffs on U.S. gasoline, diesel and other goods in response to the $16 (billion) tariffs announced by the U.S. yesterday,” Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign-exchange strategist at the National Bank of Australia, wrote in a morning note.
Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, traded at 95.086 at 8:17 a.m. HK/SIN.
Among other currency pairs, the Japanese yen traded at 110.78 to the dollar, strengthening from levels above 111.6 in the previous week. The Australian dollar traded at $0.7427 and the euro fetched $1.1607.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: Read Full Article


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Which? has found social media ads for fake Facebook competitions collecting thousands of interactions from users. The fake ‘Alton Towers Breaks’ and ‘Center Parcs Resorts’ pages claim to offer the chance to win getaways worth more than £2,000.
Scam alert: fraudsters impersonating the EuroMillions winners are promising a chunk of the £115m jackpot
Fraudsters are impersonating EuroMillions winners Frances and Patrick Connolly are promising a chunk of the £115m jackpot in return for YouTube subscribers.
More than 15,000 lost £11 million to online shopping scams last Christmas - find out how to avoid the fraudsters, fake reviews and counterfeit products.
Morrisons and Sainsbury’s are the latest big-name retailers scammers are using to trick people into parting with their personal details via Whatsapp. Find out how you can avoid being a victim of a Whatsapp scam.
A new scam on Whatsapp pretending to be from Costa Coffee is luring people into parting with personal details. Which? explains how the scam works.
Romance scams, fake World Cup tickets, bogus Brexit investments and even Prince Harry’s wedding are tipped to be some of the methods fraudsters will use this year. High street bank...
The FCA has issued a warning about scammers taking to the likes of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to sell false investment deals
Facebook has been urged to crack down on scam adverts after it took money from con artists promoting scams in its news feeds, just weeks before it is due to...


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Stein Mart Inc. announced Wednesday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and may close all of its stores amid a retail decline fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The combined effects of a challenging retail environment coupled with the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have caused significant financial distress on our business,” company CEO and CFO Hunt Hawkins said in a statement.
The company said it has launched a “liquidation process” and expects to close “a significant portion, if not all, of its brick-and-mortar stores.”
“The Company has determined that the best strategy to maximize value will be a liquidation of its assets pursuant to an organized going out of business sale,” Hawkins said. “The Company lacks sufficient liquidity to continue operating in the ordinary course of business.”
The 112-year-old company, which operates 281 stores across 30 states, said it is considering strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of its e-commerce operations and related intellectual property.
As the pandemic continues to upset the U.S. economy, the department-store chain has become the latest retailer to fall victim to a tumultuous retail environment.
Several other major retailers have filed Chapter 11 this year, including Tuesday Morning, JCPenney, Sur La Table, Muji, Pier 1 Imports and Men’s Wearhouse owner Tailored Brands Inc.


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Even as Microsoft Corp. rolled out its latest desktop applications suite, all indications were that Office XP was going to be the last of its kind.
Thats mainly because the Redmond, Wash., companys future will rely increasingly on its .Net platform and its subscription-based services model.
This was evidenced last week during the Office XP launch here when company Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates actively touted the SharePoint Team Services and smart tags found in the XP product, both of which officials said are basic Web services and .Net features.
Lisa Gurry, an Office product manager, said that the full .Net platform is still a ways away and will play out over the next two to five years. But a Web and subscription offering will form part of the next version of Office, Gurry said.
Microsoft announced late last year that it would offer Office XP on a subscription basis. The first fruits of that initiative are being deployed on a country-by-country basis and are currently only active in Australia and New Zealand, Gurry said. She declined to comment on when the subscription offering will be available in the United States.
Pricing for the Australian subscription offering is as follows: Windows Professional Edition costs users A$359 (Australian dollars) a year over three years, compared with A$1,029 for a one-time upgrade and A$1,288 for a full installation, Gurry said.
If users decline to pay the subscription when it is due, they will be able to open files they already have created but not new ones, she said.
Microsoft President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Belluzzo said plans for the next version of Office, believed to be its Office.Net offering, are still being defined.
Other signs of changes afoot for Office can be found in the move to bring the 400-odd-member NetDocs team under the Office umbrella earlier this year. NetDocs developers were creating an integrated productivity application as part of the .Net initiative.
Dwight Davis, an analyst at Summit Strategies Inc., in Seattle, said he believes the next version of Office will be Office.Net and will be loosely based on NetDocs.
“By the time the next version of Office appears, who knows what will be NetDocs technology and what will be new,” Davis said. Nevertheless, as software functionality is increasingly delivered as a service, the subscription model will be applied more often.
“While many people still believe in the benefits of buying a perpetual license, the reality is that these also have an average turnover time of a few years. As such, the subscription model could well appeal to a large user base if priced attractively,” Davis said.
Despite lukewarm reaction from IT managers about upgrading to Office XP, Microsoft officials said they are confident about the softwares success.
Microsofts Gurry said while it was “too early to speculate what sales numbers could be, we expect these to be strong. More than 500,000 people took part in our preview program, and 130,000 people have signed up to attend our U.S. launch events. To put these numbers in perspective, this compares with the 45,000 people who attended the launch of Windows 95, one of our most significant launches ever.”


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Ben Chan celebrates Bench’s 30 years with iconic endorser
Richard Gomez is inseparable with the Bench brand.
As such, it could not be more apt for Ben Chan to celebrate 30 years of Bench with one of the retail brand’s earliest endorsers. The compilation of memorabilia capturing three decades of Bench was displayed at the Art Fair Philippines 2017, at The Link Carpark Ayala Center.
Happy 30th anniversary, @benchtm and @bcbench!


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Dealers are increasingly frustrated they cannot match aggressive deals being made available by T-Mobile direct
T-Mobile’s direct sales team has angered the dealer community for its aggressive offers in the market.
Ahead of sign-off of its joint venture with Orange, dealers of all networks claimed T-Mobile had become aggressive in its pursuit of new customers, and was contacting potential customers and undercutting dealers’ best offers. They claimed they could not match T-Mobile’s direct sales team without making a loss.
Dealers claim T-Mobile has become even more aggressive in recent months.
One dealer, connecting predominantly Vodafone, said he was close to completing a deal with a household brand for Vodafone before T-Mobile swooped to undercut his offer by £500 per month.
Another said last week he had just negotiated with a customer he had served for a number of years renewal of 30 numbers on Vodafone only for T-Mobile to offer, instead, free line rental, free BlackBerry handsets and free international calls for the first two years of a three-year deal.
Another remarked: “What T-Mobile is offering is ludicrous. Its offers cannot be financially viable. No independent dealer can match these deals without making a loss. Most customers heads are turned by the price ultimately, not the quality of service.”
A leading Vodafone connector said: “It’s a problem we have faced for a while now. It seems T-Mobile will do anything to get a customer, regardless of whether it actually makes any money. And who would want that business on revenue share? It takes the value out of the market.”
An Everything Everywhere spokesperson said: “All tariffs are listed in T-Mobile tariff guide. T-Mobile remains fully committed to the principle of transparency in all our business deals.”


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PwC gamifies cybersecurity with digital card game for senior execs
The game has already been used by some of the UK’s biggest businesses, claims PwC
Professional services firm PwC has launched a cyber security simulation exercise for senior executives that aims to gamify the concept of dealing with a cyber attack.
Dubbed Game of Threats, the game pits attackers against defenders in a digital card game, which it says is designed to simulate the experience that leadership teams could realistically face in the midst of a cyber-attack.
The Big Four' consultancy firm said that it developed the game based on experience of real-life cyber attacks clients had faced. The game is designed to be a non-technical introduction to cybersecurity, and sees each team interact with a tablet controller and choose from a number of attack or response cards to play.
PwC claims that through 12 rounds, players would face "similar pressures to a real cyber attack" although IT Pro doesn't think that this digital card game would quite have the same impact on an employee as a cyber attack that could cost a firm millions of pounds and its reputation - albeit it does sound slightly more sophisticated than Top Trumps.
Game of Threats aims to give senior executives the chance to familiarise themselves with cyber terminology, while seeing how their moves would impact constraints on time, resources and information. It is run as part of a workshop and education session with PwC's cybersecurity team.
Christian Arndt, cybersecurity director at PwC, said the workshop allows participants to "develop a better knowledge of the threat actors, tools and techniques which could threaten their systems and data".
"We then help players consider how best to prevent, detect and defend against such threats," he added.
Arndt claimed that PwC has taken some of the UK's largest businesses through the game already, tailoring it to best reflect their individual situation and risk profile.
The technique met with approval from IT security firm PhishMe, whose CEO, Rohyt Belani, told IT Pro that practicing incident response processes "is an excellent way to drive diligence and nimbleness" in an organisation.
Belani added that such training should not be restricted to senior executives, however.
"Since phishing is the number one attack method leading to data breaches and phishing emails target employees, it is critical for businesses to rethink the way all employees are involved to prevent cyber-attacks at the beginning of the cyber-attack not only on response methods," he added.
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If you bought Amazon (Amazon Stock Quote, Chart, News NASDAQ:AMZN) sometime over the last year and a half -and held on during the more turbulent stretches- then give yourself a pat on the back.
So says portfolio manager David Fingold, who thinks the e-commerce king is now firing on all cylinders.
“We like it. This is a company that has just reasserted itself and that’s after approximately 18 months of underperformance. And that’s what we like — we like to find long-term outperformers who went sideways for a while and their valuation compresses, business is still good and the stock starts working again,” said Fingold, vice president and senior portfolio manager at Dynamic Funds, who spoke to BNN Bloomberg on Tuesday.
“I would say that on a valuation basis you could have bought this stock for most of the last 18 months. I think it became statistically inexpensive at the end of December 2018,” he said.
Amazon is once again the talk of the town after a killer quarter delivered last week which sent the stock above the $2,000 per share mark and pushed the company into the trillion-dollar club in terms of market capitalization.
Amazon’s fourth quarter hit $87.44 billion in revenue, a 21 per cent increase over the previous Q4 and above analysts’ estimates averaging $86.02 billion. But the bigger deal was the $6.47 per share in earnings compared to the Street’s expectation of $4.03 per share, with the company’s net income growing eight per cent year-over-year to $3.27-billion, compared to the previous quarter where net income dropped a full 26 per cent.
The company made a gamble last year by launching one-day shipping, undercutting the competition but negatively impacting its profits along the way. But the move appears to have been successful, as the quarterly numbers bear it out.
“The issue was that there was some margin compression because they had called out in the prior two quarters that more of their competitors had been giving away free shipping. They started a bundle of free shipping and they started to really push the amount of one-day shipping they were doing. That temporarily increased margins because it increased the operating expenditure,” Fingold said.
“But the revenues have continued to expand and now they’re getting operational leverage against it and you’re seeing margin expansion,” he said. “The other thing is that you have a shift over time to the 3P business, the one where they provide payments and logistics to other merchants and that’s a very high margin and high return on invested capital business. And then you’ve got Amazon Web Services which is again a high margin, high return on invested capital [business] and the best-in-class cloud hosting business for large enterprise.”
On the strong quarter, CEO Jeff Bezos said in a press release, “Prime membership continues to get better for customers year after year. And customers are responding —more people joined Prime this quarter than ever before, and we now have over 150 million paid Prime members around the world.”
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A new Myer strategy has been unveiled today on the back of the department store’s FY15 results, promising Myer will ‘find wonderful’ after an ordinary year.
A new Myer strategy has been publicly announced today as the department store paints its vision for a positive future following a year where net profit after tax dropped 21.3% to $77.5 million. Sales grew marginally (1.7%) for the year to $3,195.6 million, but the cost of doing business rose faster at 3.3% to $1,067.2 million.
“Myer’s FY2015 result supports the case for our comprehensive change agenda,” said Myer CEO Richard Umbers, who took the reins in March this year. “The decisions we have taken to deliver New Myer will lead to changes to both our store network and operations, resulting in a more productive and efficient footprint.”
The new Myer strategy sets out a five-year plan to invest more than $600 million in improving productivity, re-energising the range, improving the in-store experience, and delivering market-leading omnichannel capability.
“The New Myer strategy is built on providing a more focused and relevant merchandise offer to serve a more valuable customer and a better shopping experience for everyone who comes to our stores,” said Umbers.
Key elements of the strategic review include:
$150 million investment in an enhanced customer-led offer
$150 million in delivering ‘wonderful’ through improving customer experiences, upgrading stores, more digital hubs and Wi-Fi, and bringing in more dwell spaces (cafés, restaurants, etc.) in priority stores
$100 million to be spent on the omnichannel experience, increasing click and collect as a proportion of sales and reducing fulfilment costs by 35%
$200 million to be invested in productivity across the Myer store network
The optimism about the future draws upon the performance of the department store category globally, with truly omnichannel retailers like Nordstrom (US) and John Lewis (UK) well outperforming the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the Australia counterpart.
The online business was a shining light for Myer in FY15, with sales growing 80% in the past year coupled with improved profitability. The use of iPads in-store contributed $20 million in sales in the first 11 months, while click and collect has grown at 183%, albeit off a low base since it was introduced.


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Kawasaki recently unveiled the 2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R, an updated version of their existing flagship sportsbike which goes by the same name. Unveiled in Barcelona, Spain, this track scorcher gets some interesting updates since the first time it was launched, i.e., 2011.
What Kawasaki has done is they’ve made a mad bike which was almost flawless and have made it even better. The Japanese manufacturer went on to explain that the credit for the big list of updates goes to the company’s recent track success and most of these updates have been picked up from the same. Jonathan Rea helped Kawasaki WSB (World Superbike) team to win their second world title.
Although the bikes looks more or less the same from the outside, there are a very few components that have been left untouched all thanks to their R&D with further inputs from the factory WSB team along with the help of former world champion Tom Sykes focal involvement in developing the Kwacker.
The list of changes includes changes made to the chassis, suspension, fairing, electronics, brakes and exhaust system. The electronic rider aids introduced in the 2016 model are Kawasaki Launch Control (KLCS), Kawasaki Intelligent Braking (KIBS), Kawasaki Sport Traction Control (S-KTRC), Kawasaki Quick Shifter (KQS), Kawasaki Engine Brake Control (KEBC). Apart from these goodies, the 2016 ZX-10R is also equipped with Bosch Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), a system which helps the bike to know what it’s doing while on the road.
At the same time, this new model has gotten heavier by almost five kilograms, wider by an inch and taller by a small nudge. The Kwacker ditches the fashionable petal discs and sports conventional round discs with better perforation for enhanced cooling. The new front suspension has been jointly developed by the WSB team and Showa, with their Balance Free Front Fork making its mass-production debut with this motorcycle. Essentially what this will do is it will provide the rider with a better front-end feel, a comfortable ride and enhanced braking stability.
Whereas the 2011 ZX-10R is already on sale on India, there is no official news as to when the 207bhp, 84 ft lb torque EURO 4 compliant road and track ready superbike will be on sale in India and how much it would cost.


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Within the information of the world's hottest funds, Klook has closed a Collection E funding spherical led by Aspex Administration, whereas Gojek goals to develop its ridesharing and on-line funds enterprise. Moreover, synthetic intelligence (AI) firm Ariel AI has been acquired by Snap.
Pandemic Aside, Klook, the Journey Platform Supported by SoftBank, Raises $ 200 Million
Hong Kong journey and leisure reserving agency Klook closed $ 200 million Collection E funding spherical led by Aspex Administration, with participation from Boyu Capital, Matrix Companions China, SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund and Sequoia Capital China. Klook's Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) options gas tens of millions of bookings for over 2,500 retailers around the globe.
Indonesian FinTech Gojek Seeks to Turn into a International Participant
Gojek, Indonesia, is trying to increase its ridesharing and digital funds enterprise in Southeast Asia and past. “One among our most important targets for 2021 is actually to increase our footprint exterior of Indonesia,” Gojek co-CEO Kevin Aluwi stated in a printed interview. Gojek, which was established in 2010, began out as a ridesharing enterprise, however has since advanced into meals supply and digital funds.
Snap buys UK start-up Ariel AI, push into AR signage
Ariel AI was purchased by Snap. Ariel AI had centered on a form of AI often known as laptop imaginative and prescient, which is exploited to create augmented actuality (AR) performance. Ariel AI had raised $ 1.1 million in investments previous to the Snap deal, in keeping with a printed report citing Crunchbase. Ariel AI was began within the UK by former Google researchers and former Facebooks.
French President Macron warns large tech to align with EU guidelines
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Large Tech gamers, warning them that they need to abide by European Union (EU) guidelines. The bloc needs the tech sector to comply with laws to average digital content material and maintain the market energy of huge tech gamers beneath management.
Learn extra worldwide information:
NEW PYMNTS DATA: BUY NOW, PAY LATER CONSUMER STUDY
About: Purchase Now, Pay Later: Millennials And The Shifting Dynamics Of On-line Credit score, a collaboration between PYMNTS and PayPal, examines the demand for brand spanking new versatile credit score choices in addition to how shoppers, particularly Millennials, pay in line. The examine relies on two surveys, totaling practically 15,000 U.S. shoppers.
acquisitions, Ariel AI, synthetic intelligence, Large Tech, Digital funds, European Union, financing, Gojek, worldwide, Investments, Klook, Information, Ridesharing, Snap


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Aldi to remove 4.5 million plastic straws annually with move to recyclable paper
This is as part of a crackdown on single-use plastics.
Supermarket chain Aldi is introducing new, fully recyclable paper straws across its own-label kids smoothies and orange and apple juice cartons, becoming the first supermarket in Ireland to do so.
The move will see more than 4.5 million single-use plastic straws removed from Aldi’s 145 Irish stores each year, equating to a saving of three tonnes of non-recyclable plastic.
It supports the Government’s plan to fully remove all plastic straws from circulation in Ireland by July 2021 under its Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy.
Aldi has begun rolling out the new sustainable paper straws across the smoothie and juice products, with the aim of having all plastic straws completely removed from its supermarkets by the end of June this year.
The retailer has been working with Donegal-based supplier Mulrines over the past two years to introduce the new straws.
The initiative is part of the supermarket chain's long-term plastic reduction programme that is working to ensure 100% of Aldi’s own-label packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2022.
This is before reducing plastic packaging on Aldi products by 50% by 2025.
Since their plastic reduction strategy was introduced, the retailer has removed more than 2,000 tonnes of virgin plastic from its Irish stores and has replaced almost 930 tonnes of non-recyclable material with recyclable alternatives.
Aldi Group Buying Director John Curtin said in a statement: “We understand our customers are always looking for new ways to shop sustainably with us and we’re proud to be the first supermarket to fully remove plastic straws from our own-label products.”


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More outcomes expected from US, China trade talks
Chinese vice premier to hold new round of consultations from Thursday to Friday
Chinese vice premier to hold new round of consultations from Thursday to Friday. PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIJING: China Vice Premier Liu He will hold a new round of high-level China-US economic and trade consultations with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Beijing from Thursday to Friday.
Analysts said the two sides are likely to propose weightier measures to address economic and trade differences and to broaden overall cooperation.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, based on recent talks in Washington, China and the US will engage in further discussions on issues of common concern. The US delegation arrives in Beijing on Monday.
China and the US have been embroiled in trade frictions for several months. The two sides are now in the midst of a 90-day tariff truce, which began on December 1, when President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
Pakistan, China ‘completely unanimous over CPEC: FM Qureshi
Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, said, “In the next stage, the two sides will still be subject to various global pressures. However, I believe that the two sides will be able to propose more weighty measures to solve differences in their further consultations,” Wei said.
Zhou Mi, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said companies in the two countries definitely do not want to end their cooperation. Calling for a stable environment, Zhou said more and more achievements may be made through cooperation at different levels.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic ties. In 2018, trade volume between China and the US exceeded $630 billion, and two-way investment surpassed $240 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
This article originally appeared in the China Economic Net


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Latest dealer Stories
URBANDALE, Iowa, Dec.
SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On 17th December 2014, Huntkey hosted a product release conference at hotel DEDEMAN, Uzbekistan.
SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntkey Enterprise Group makes inroads into market in Bangladesh.
New Boat Manufacturer Holds Dealer Meeting At Its NC Facility LELAND, N.C., Dec.
DealerRater's consumer-written dealership reviews to be integrated into AutoTrader.com dealer profile pages ATLANTA and WALTHAM, Mass., Dec.
Industry trendsetter rolls out promotional materials for dealer partners nationwide NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., Dec.
SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntkey Entreprise Group, a professional PIO and PC cases provider, will hold its new product launch meeting in Uzbekistan on 15(th) December 2014.
Consumers can compare and shop new and used vehicles through thousands of dealerships nationwide CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec.
WheelsTV has unveiled the first ever full-motion HD video integration for use within auto dealers’ website Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP’s) and Search Result Pages (SRP’s).
ADS Security (ADS), a regional electronic security company based in Nashville, Tenn., was named today as the 2014 Dealer of the Year by SDM magazine.
- a meat pie that is usually eaten at Christmas in Quebec


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Cendant has written down a massive US$425 million on its ebookers business, according to the 2005 annual results.
Just recently, Cendant forecast an "impairment" (writedown) charge for ebookers, a European travel e-business, of “between US$200 million to US$300 million”.
Meanwhile, product pricing has also emerged as a significant issue for Cendant with its GDS and car hire business recording higher transaction volumes but lower revenue.
Revenue from GDS and supplier services (Galileo) fell two per cent during 2005 – contrasting with a six per cent increase in global GDS segment volume “offset by decreased subscriber fee income.”
Once again volumes were way up for Avis and Budget – 18 per cent – but pre-tax earnings slumped 10 per cent because of increased vehicle costs and fleet expansion to support demand.
To arrest this trend, Cendant has “initiated domestic price increases to mitigate the impact of higher fleet cost and has achieved modest year-on-year increases in pricing thus far in 2006.”
In other news, the company will persist with its plan to separate Cendant into four independent, publicly traded, pure play companies later this year.
President Ronald Nelson said: “We remain on track to complete the spin-offs of Real Estate Services and Hospitality in the second and third quarters of 2006, respectively, and the separation of Travel Distribution from Vehicle Services in October.”


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Tag - Velocomp
Velocomp has launched a new motorcycle mounting system for the iPhone, the iBike Moto. The mount is made of machined aluminium by motorcycle specialist Techmount, attachable to the handlebars and capable of swiveling 360 degrees. A water- and shock-resistant case covers the iPhone, closed by a Click-Latch mechanism. The included iBike Moto App acts as a digital dashboard and fuel gauge, as well as the mapping system. The iBike Moto is on sale for $80.
Velocomp has just released its latest product, the iBikeDash. The cycling computer requires an iPhone or iPod touch, as it's largely an app (free, App Store) but also includes a Phone Booth housing for the Apple device that keeps it out of the worst the environment has to offer. It's also shockproof and is bundled with an ANT+ speed sensor with optional sensors for cadence and heart rate.


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The Daily Dish: October 27, 2015
Welcome to The Daily Meal’s Daily Dish, where we highlight what’s hot and trending in the world of all things food and drink.
Today’s first course?
They say “Butter makes everything better,” but buttered sushi? One Osaka-based Japanese restaurant decided butter could improve sushi, and it turns out they’re right. The Jinen restaurant chain reportedly started topping grilled freshwater eel sushi with butter pats held in place by seaweed strips, and the dish has been a hit.The heat from the eel makes the butter creamy, and fans are chiming in with that timeworn melt-in-your-mouth cliché. It shouldn’t be long before you see butter sushi at your local sushi spot.
What do you get when you cross a unicorn with a New York bagel? Clearly the Rainbow Bagel created by the Bagel Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This psychedelic creation looks like Lisa Frank got into a vat of boiling bagels, but it isn’t a spoof. The Rainbow Bagel is stuffed with cotton candy, cake-flavored cream cheese, and sprinkles. We’re scared to know what they look like toasted.
Dracula may come to suck your blood on Halloween, or maybe he’ll opt for Starbucks’ new Frappuccino instead. Starbucks unveiled a Frappula Frappuccino inspired by Dracula! It’s made with white chocolate sauce, milk, and ice with a layer of mocha sauce and whipped cream at the bottom; raspberry syrup coating the inside of the cup; and whipped cream on top. It will be available from October 28 to 31. Last year, Starbucks honored Frankenstein with a green tea and peppermint syrup Franken Frappuccino.
And that’s today's Daily Dish. Thanks for watching. Stop by tomorrow for another helping.


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September 17, 2012 11:43
MTS aims to double share of mobile Internet users among its customers by 2014
MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax) - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (RTS: MTSS), one of Russia's leading mobile service providers, plans to double the share of mobile Internet users among its subscribers by 2014, company spokesperson Valeria Kuzmenko told Interfax.
About 37% of MTS' customers used mobile data services as of the end of the second quarter, she said. MTS has a subscriber base of 69.6 million in Russia.
Data services generated 7.8 billion rubles of the company's revenues from its mobile business in Russia in the second quarter, up by 35%. Revenues from mobile data services are growing across the whole market. Rival operator Megafon (RTS: MEGF) reported that is revenues from data services grew 27.5% to 7.9 billion rubles in the second quarter, while Vimpelcom increased quarterly mobile data revenues by 35% to 5.6 billion rubles.
Internet access is the main driver of growth in the mobile business, Vimpelcom spokesperson Anna Aibasheva said. She said the company is interested in both growing the number of subscribers using mobile Internet services, and increasing revenues from this segment of its business. She did not specify Vimpelcom's forecast for growth of the share of mobile Internet users.
Russia's 'big three' operators are encouraging Internet use with price offers and promotions, and are working on increasing the proportion of smart phones used by their customers. Megafon expects explosive growth of smart phone penetration in Russia, the company's deputy chief executive, Mikhail Dubin said recently. Smart phone penetration in Russia is currently about 20%, while in developed markets the figure is already approaching 50%, he said.
Among MTS subscribers, smart phone penetration is also at about 20%, the company said recently. Smart phones accounted for 27% of the mobile phones sold in Russia in the second quarter, up from 18% a year earlier, MTS estimates.
Russia had the largest Internet audience in Russia at the beginning of 2012, totalling 70 million people, according to the Communications Ministry, and it is continuing to grow. A survey conducting by the VTsIOM public opinion research center on March 31-April 1 showed that 58% of Russians use the Internet, up from 53% a year earlier; 38% (46 million) of users use the Internet daily, 13% use it at least once a week, 5% at least once a month and 2% at least once every six months.
(Our editorial staff can be reached at email@example.com)
August 29, 2015
Tajik Justice Ministry gave ten days to shut down Islamic Renaissance Party
Ulyanovsk region authorities confirm death of four people in remand center fire (Part 2)
Ulyanovsk region authorities confirm death of four people in remand center fire
Truce generally observed in Donbas on Saturday - Kyiv
Lukashenko urges Belarusians to wear domestically sewn trousers instead of ripped Gucci jeans
Wreck of German WWII sub U-362 found on bottom of Kara Sea
Mercenary inquiry opened against Stavropol neo-pagan group leader fighting for Kyiv
Russia's track and field athletics will have to build everything anew and prove it is possible to win without doping - Mutko
Putin expresses concern to Merkel and Hollande over Ukraine army's shelling of Donbas towns and villages - Kremlin (Part 2)
Almost all soldiers killed in 2014 'Ilovaisk pocket' identified - Ukraine's Defense Ministry
Putin expresses concern to Merkel and Hollande over Ukraine army's shelling of Donbas towns and villages - Kremlin
PUTIN, MERKEL AND HOLLANDE EXCHANGED OPINIONS ON ISSUES CONCERNING LOCAL ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE'S REGIONS - KREMLIN
PUTIN TELLS MERKEL AND HOLLANDE IT IS NECESSARY TO PROMOTE KYIV'S DIRECT DIALOGUE WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF DONETSK AND LUHANSK AND LIFT FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC BLOCKADE OF DONBAS - KREMLIN


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- Some of the new age stocks will become 100 baggers & some turn duds: Ajay Bagga
- Volkswagen powers up the grid to take on Tesla
- Elon Musk exercises more options, sells Tesla shares worth $973 million
- Grey market expects flat Paytm listing; Trifecta gets $101M for 3rd fund
- Tesla's Elon Musk exercises more options, sells $973 million for taxes
With the introduction of Slavia, the Czech car maker has set a target to seize leadership in mid-size sedan segment from Honda City and also eye number one position in the overall sedan market above Rs 10 lakh in the country.
Slavia is the third car under the group’s MQB A0 platform which has been introduced in the country as part of its Rs 8,000-crore India 2.0 plan.
With the launch of the two sedans (Slavia and VW version of MQB A0 sedan), the company expects to get back to manufacturing at full capacity at its plant at Chakan near Pune during the next fiscal year, said Gurpratap Boparai, MD of Skoda Auto Volkswagen India.
Boparai says the premium mid-size sedan offers tremendous potential for growth in the future and it is a "territory" which the company has "made its own" due to strong market share in the Octavia and Superb segment.
“We are confident that the ŠKODA Slavia will continue the benchmarks set by the Octavia and Superb and will help us to further strengthen our dominance in the segment,” he added .
Skoda Auto believes while the share of sedan in the overall market may fall - but the absolute volume of sedan in the overall market is still expected to grow by more than double in the coming decade to over 2.5 lakh units per annum by 2031. And the segment is expected to grow faster than the other segments due to its low base currently.
Slavia is the widest car in the segment and offers boot space of over 500 litres which is more than a mid-size SUV. The vehicle is likely to be launched by March of 2022 and the company intends to sell about 3000 to 4000 units a month, according to people in the know.
To sustain the excitement in the Indian market, the company has chalked out plans to introduce a smaller SUV in the future, which will ensure sustained growth in volumes in the coming two to three years and help Skoda attain the vision of being the largest European brand in India.
Skoda is eyeing sales of about 30,000 units of Slavia a year, in a market, where about 72,000 cars were sold led by Honda City and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.
The sedan segment has been in a slumber over the past few years with automakers focussing on SUVs. Just in FY19, the mid-size sedan segment had recorded sales of about 156,000 units. But a lack of new launches and consumer preference for SUVs meant that sales more than halved in just two years even as SUV sales continued to grow.
“The industry has forced people to look at SUVs. With Slavia, we will bring more impetus back to sedans. We want to be segment leader in sedans above Rs 10 lakh,” Zac Hollis, Brand Director, Skoda Auto India told ET.
The new models replace the Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Vento in India. The outgoing models sold about 8,300 and 2,300 units, respectively, in FY21.
The semiconductor crisis was the biggest supply chain challenge and the shortage has affected the company’s ability to meet market demand, just like the rest of the industry, Boparai said. He expects the shortage to ease slightly by the first quarter of next year, but normalcy was still some time away, he said.
- Front Page
- Pure Politics
- Centre Agrees to Convert Vi Interest on Dues into Equity
The government has agreed to convert Vodafone Idea’s accrued interest worth over ₹16,000 crore on deferred adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues into equity at ₹10 a share.D-St Indices Jump; Some Adani Stocks End in Green
“This week was very tough for the Indian markets with so many events but the markets appear to have started absorbing a lot of bad news, especially surrounding the Adani Group,” said B Gopkumar, MD and CEO of Axis Securities.Adani Group may Shelve Plans to Raise $500 m via Overseas Bonds
The Adani Group is likely to shelve its plans to raise close to $500 million via international bonds and will explore other refinancing options, including partially paying the outstanding from internal accruals, to refinance the first tranche of the $4.5 billion debt taken from a clutch of global banks to acquire ACC and Ambuja Cements last year, said two people directly aware of the matter.
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BROOKINGS, S.D. – Over the next two months, the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension Community Vitality team will be bringing South Dakotans together virtually for a community book read. After two widely popular book discussion series with much discussion and debate, the organization will be offering a third statewide book read beginning Nov. 23.
“The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life—and Saved an American Farm,” by Sarah Frey, will be the focus of the November/December book read. The youngest of 21 children, Frey grew up on a struggling farm in southern Illinois. At 15, she started her own fresh produce delivery business out of an old pickup truck. Two years later she took over the family farm and started doing business with the largest grocery retailers in the country.
Frey’s story is one of never giving up, negotiating with some of the biggest businesses in the nation and building a company that serves consumers with fresh, healthy products. Today Frey Farms is the nation’s leading producer of pumpkins, earning Frey the nickname “America’s Pumpkin Queen.”
“This book represents issues that impact every South Dakotan; issues of food and the livelihoods of farmers in the community,” says Leigh Neys, SDSU Extension Community Vitality Field Specialist. “South Dakotans will connect virtually to discuss the book and think about the lessons learned that can be applied in our own communities.”
The book read will be held Tuesday evenings on Nov. 23 and 30 and Dec. 7. The facilitated discussions will be held over Zoom, which is readily available and free to individuals with internet capabilities. The timeframe will be 7:30 p.m. CDT (6:30 p.m. MT), with an hour of interaction. Interested parties should register by Nov. 15 to receive the link to join the discussion.
There is no registration fee; participants only need to purchase the book in advance of the start date. There will be a cap to the number of participants, with a plan to offer another book read in the winter.
To register, visit the SDSU Extension Community Book Read event page (extension.sdstate.edu/event/
— SDSU Extension


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5 things Washington can do to boost startups
(Page 3 of 3)
4. Expand tax incentives for startups.
Startups, like other businesses, would benefit from simplification of the tax system, because the complexities of the current tax code cost businesses too much time and money. But until the elusive goal of tax reform is achieved, Congress could consider more robust tax breaks for startups and their investors.
Given a so-so economy, “the incentives for startup entrepreneurs need to be far more dramatic,” Kerrigan said.
She suggests cutting income taxes in half for startups during their first three years, and expanding the capital gains tax exclusion for investments in small business startups to all startups, not just C corporations.
Even less dramatic tax breaks would be helpful. The National Federation of Independent Business, for example, is pushing legislation to allow startups to deduct up to $20,000 of their business expenses during their first year, up from the current startup deduction limit of $5,000.
5. Boost confidence by showing Washington is up to the nation’s challenges.
Entrepreneurs, by nature, are optimistic -- otherwise they wouldn’t take the risk of starting their own businesses. But the inability of policy makers in Washington, D.C. to solve the nation’s most pressing problems has got to be taking a toll on business confidence.
It’s an election year, so don’t expect miracles, but if Congress could agree on more bipartisan measures such as the JOBS Act, that just might encourage more would-be entrepreneurs to take the plunge and start their own businesses. For example, some of the ideas here already are included in a bipartisan bill known as The Startup Act. Congress would send a powerful signal to entrepreneurs if it would take up that bill, debate it thoroughly, modify it if necessary, and then pass it.
Congress’ current course -- pointing partisan fingers at each other and waiting for the results of the November election -- won’t inspire anyone to start a business.
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text: Konami‘s support for the Nintendo Switch is far from over. According to the company’s official E3 2018 exhibitor section, there are 2 untitled Nintendo Switch games that will be at the expo. One is an Action/Adventure title, and the other is a compilation. There is nothing else on the site mentioned. We will just have to wait for E3 to find out what the games are.


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If you dropped in from Mars today you could be forgiven for thinking all’s well for the U.K.’s non-food retailers.
Consumers, brushing themselves down after exiting the worst recession in 60 years, have seemingly turned to retail therapy to bring cheer to their daily grind, and are back out flashing the cash on non-essential, big(ger)-ticket items.
Or so the headline industry data, at first glance, would have you believe.
[More over the jump.]
UK retailer Next kicked off the annual round of Christmas trading statements this morning with Next’s retail stores reporting a better-than-expected sales increase of 4.6% and its Directory business surging ahead by 6.8%.
The clothing retailer said sales in the run up to Christmas were “markedly stronger in the final two weeks as the weather turned colder.”
We believe that two factors contributed to sales finishing ahead of our November guidance. Firstly, the consumer environment was more stable than expected, with only modest falls in employment, low inflation and continuing low interest rates. Secondly, we believe our ranges improved across the board as we continued our efforts to more aggressively back new products and trends.
Group like-for-like sales – the crucial industry measure which excludes contributions from newly opened stores – increased by 3.2%, though excluding Directory the rise was a more modest 1.6%. [Read the statement.]
[For full report read on over the jump.]
There are reasons to be cheerful, such as Christmas Day falling on a Friday, which will have been good for late trading. But the snow will have stretched logistics teams to the limit, particularly for internet-based operators.
Shore Capital analysts expect most of the food retailers to be reporting satisfactory, “if not stellar”, trading performances. The broker reckons Wal-Mart-owned Asda will report a “solid” Christmas, with the same expected from Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
As far as the UK supermarkets go, Shore analysts forecast that Morrisons will top the charts from a like-for-like sales basis – which strips out sales from newly opened stores. “This reflects its strong momentum entering into the festive period, and we also felt that Morrison was in very good shape post Christmas in terms of store standards and availability,” the broker says.
This week, all eyes will be on M&S, which posts its trading statement on Thursday. Sales over the last 13 weeks are expected to rise by a modest 1.2%, according to analysts. Then Sainsbury’s reports on Friday, alongside many of the US’s top retailers – key for measuring the recovery of the US economy.
Shore analysts go on to note that, while the weather will have put a strain on retailers, it is unlikely to have caused major cost over-runs or store shortages. “However, we are alive to the possibility of disruption costs, so we keep that in our minds ahead of the statements. It is not unreasonable to suspect that the weather disruption assisted local and independent stores, which may have given a shot in the arm to Booker’s trading,” they say.
It looks like Christmas is coming early for the retail sector, judging by the British Retail Consortium’s October sales figures, which showed sales surged on the high street for the second month in a row.
So big retail stocks, such as Marks & Spencer and Next are likely to have a good run today. Food retailer Sainsbury’s may also tick up a few points today ahead of expected strong results, due out tomorrow.
Mobile giant Vodafone has posted better than expected results with group revenue up 9.3% to £21.8 billion [read the statement].The group confirmed full year guidance in the range of £11 billion to £11.8 billion, “despite the uncertainties of current economic trends”.
Chief executive Vittorio Colao was understandably upbeat. “The £1 billion cost reduction programme is expected to be delivered a year ahead of plan and we have extended this to a further £1 billion of cost savings by 2012. At the same time, we have maintained our capital investment at £2.6 billion in the first half, delivering further improvements in network quality and performance for our customers,” he said.
Traders reckon the shares will open 1% up on yesterday’s 137.95p closing price.
Barclays’ shares, on the other hand, are likely to be marked down by around 2% at the open due to the bank’s over-reliance on its investment banking arm Barclays Capital. The bank reported a 19% fall in profits to £4.5 billion for the nine months to the end of September, with much of the growth in sales coming from BarCap.[Read the statement.] Perhaps this accounts for the shock departure of Frits Seegers, the former head of retail and commercial banking – a division in need of a kick. As reported in a previous post on The Source, chief executive John Varley could barely muster a kind word to say about him.
As predicted yesterday on The Source, Imperial Tobacco has posted strong results, with adjusted pre-tax profits up 39% to £2.2 billion. [Read the statement.] The share are expected to start the day around 1% higher.
Meanwhile, Yell has announced a deeply discounted £660 million rights issue alongside its half-year results which showed an expected big fall in profits. [Read the statement.] The shares, which closed at 48p yesterday, are almost certain to take a bit of a battering today.
The housebuilders may well get a boost from a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors which says the proportion of agents reporting rising house prices in England and Wales had hit the highest levels in almost 3 years.
RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: “Although the supply of property is beginning to pick up, it is still insufficient to keep pace with the increase in demand which points to further prices gains in the near term.” Other stocks to watch include Cadbury in light of yesterday’s bid from Kraft. And the miners are expected to do well today with spot gold up $1.20 to $1,102.60 per troy ounce.
Concluding, Ben Potter, analyst with IG Markets, said: “We’ve seen a marked rise in investor confidence which is translating into share price gains across the board, especially among the materials and financial stocks.The equity rally still seems to have legs and with the recent highs of 5,299 on the FTSE now well within sight again, November is certainly continuing to confound the pessimists.”


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Giddy-up Swings ‘n Things, a company that sells old tires, refashioned into items such as swings and bird-themed planters, has left black marks on some consumers’ wallets.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Central, Coastal, Southwest Texas and the Permian Basin has found that the Buda, Texas-based company has a pattern of disputes alleging delivery issues. The company sells products from websites www.shop.recycledcreations.com, http://shop.giddyupswings.com and http://www.ponyswings.com.
Consumers allege that when they place orders with Giddy-up Swings ‘n Things, they are charged right away and receive order confirmations, but their merchandise never arrives, or turns up well past the delivery due date. Consumers also complain the company does not respond to emails and phone calls.
As of Feb. 18, 2014, BBB has received 13 complaints about Giddy-up Swings ‘n Things. The company has failed to respond to eight complaints. Consumers whose complaints were resolved informed BBB that they finally received their order, but well past the expected delivery date.
Jacki Montgomery of Fort Worth said she ordered a $54 bird-shaped planter from the company. Her PayPal account was debited, but she never received her order.
“I ordered in May 2012. I never heard back from the company. I tried to contact them several times. A friend of mine even tried to contact them. I have never gotten my money back.”
Sandra Hardell of San Antonio said she ordered four planters, which were not shipped after a long delay, although her credit card was charged immediately. She said she finally received two of the four planters, but never got the rest and had the charges reversed by her credit card company.
“I ordered four planters. They only shipped two,” Hardell said. “I contacted them multiple times, maybe 20 or 30 by phone and email. I was able to speak to the owner one time, who told me my order was boxed and about to be shipped. About a month after that, two planters showed up. The other two never showed up. I finally gave up and the credit card company reversed the charges.”
BBB offers the following advice for online shopping:


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Social Disruptor, Miki Agrawal, has taken on the challenge of changing American culture. Her latest project, TUSHY, takes aim at an environmental issue in American bathrooms; toilet paper. TUSHY is an affordable, add-on bidet that anyone can attach to their existing toilet.
Toilet paper production in America kills 15 million trees per year. In addition, sanitation facilities struggle to process all that paper in their sewage plants. Miki Agrawal found, not only is the paper economically unsound, but it is unhealthy. It does a poor job in cleaning, contributes to health issues like UTIs and a host of anal ailments. TUSHY accomplishes the same job more effectively and in a more healthy manner while using only a cup or two of water. TUSHY sells for under $100. The savings realized by reduced paper purchases can pay for the unit in a few months.
Of course, Miki Agrawal faced resistance from skeptics who never wanted anything to change. Critics complained that they didn’t want toilet bowl water spraying on them. The truth is, the water is diverted from the water line coming from the wall. It is the same water used to wash your face or brush your teeth.
Though Americans were slow on the uptake, the toilet paper shortage suffered during the early months of the Covid Pandemic created many converts. When toilet paper was not available, nearly a million consumers reluctantly became believers. People began to realize that bidets are effective and economically sound. Those customers are now spreading the word.
TUSHY is not Miki Agrawal’s first foray into cultural change. Her first attempt at revolution was WILD, a farm-to-table, gluten-free pizza place in New Your City. Next was THINX, which produces reusable menstrual underwear. These revolutionary businesses are now valued at over $200 Million.
Original source to learn more: https://www.topionetworks.com/people/miki-agrawal-60e4f942105eb508b15b1d3b


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FORTUNE — The first thing you learned when you sat down with Steve Jobs was that the interview was off the record. And it stayed off the record. No matter how innocuous the quote, no matter how much time had passed, Apple (AAPL) public relations wouldn’t let you use it.
So it doesn’t surprise me to learn from a story Monday in the Hollywood Reporter that Jobs insisted that the room be cleared before he gave a deposition in a 2010 case about the terms of Apple’s deal with Emminem’s music publisher. Or that the courtroom was cleared before that deposition was read to the jury. Or that the judge ordered the transcript sealed.
Now the estate of Rick James and other plaintiffs are trying to use that depostion in a separate lawsuit. It may well be, as Apple claims, that the depositions Jobs and Apple VP Eddy Cue gave two years ago are “highly confidential” and contain “proprietary trade secrets” about Apple’s relationships with the music labels.
But it almost doesn’t matter. Apple’s lawyers are going to fight their release for as long as it takes.