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DA building cases vs rice smugglers, hoarders, says Alcala
MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala warned illegal rice smugglers on Monday they would face charges for mobilizing people to line up at government rice outlets and create an artificial rice shortage.
Alcala told reporters in the Senate that the Department of Agriculture would file charges of economic sabotage against the “misguided souls’’ upon the gathering of sufficient evidence against them.
Alcala said there was a “concerted effort’’ possibly by rice smugglers, hurt by the government tight control on the importation of rice, to create an artificial rice shortage in the capital.
Proof of this was the circulation of text messages about the free distribution of rice at the National Food Authority outlets in Quezon City and Manila that drew hordes of people to these outlets, Alcala said.
In another instance, residents of Caloocan City were paid money just to line up at the NFA outlets, he said.
“We can no longer shrug this off. We will run after them. I’m not sure if this constitutes economic sabotage,’’ Alcala said. He said the DA’s legal team was gathering sufficient evidence to indict the culprits.
Alcala did not rule out rice smugglers were involved in the scheme, claiming they were the ones hurt by the NFA’s tighter screening on the importation of rice. He maintained that there was no rice shortage in the capital.
“In all our 28 warehouses operated by the NFA in Metro Manila, we assure you there is no rice shortage,’’ he said.
At the Senate hearing on the DA’s P80-billion 2014 budget, NFA Administrator Orlan Calayag said the government’s buffer stock, as of Monday, was at 638,000 metric tons of rice, equivalent to 42 days of buffer stock, for the entire country.
If the private sector’s inventory is included, the buffer stock stands at 1.7 million metric tons, or 51 days, according to Calayag.
“We don’t see any shortage in terms of production,’’ he told the Senate finance committee in response to questions by committee chair, Sen. Francis Escudero.
On the sudden increase of rice prices, Calayag explained that some rice traders saw a “small window’’ to hike the prices ahead of the harvest of palay.
“After harvest, prices will be lower so they sell their inventory of rice at a higher price,’’ he said. NFA has deployed a team of watchers to public markets “to see to it there’s no switching of NFA rice.’’
He said over 200 cases have been filed against rice traders for resorting to such practices.
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Bitcoin Drugs Market
A community dedicated to Bitcoin, the currency of the Internet. Cannazon Market is a darknet marketplace that sells all sorts of drugs based on cannabis. The cryptocurrencyis a bad long-term investment, but that doesn't and allows for illegal voluntary transactions such as drugs, bribes. By J Buxton Cited by 111 According to an interview with Dread Pirate. Roberts, Silk Road emerged from an original idea to combine Bitcoin and Tor to create an anonymous bitcoin drugs market First. I understand a 10 bitcoin fee is low right now but I wasn't expecting it to be as high as it was..." "Uncut Amphetamine Sulfate Powder". When the website becomes an unregulated marketplace for illegal drugs, The identity of Bitcoin's creator, known only as "Satoshi Nakamoto," has long. Foxton, Willard (1 May 2013). "The online drug marketplace Silk Road is collapsing did hackers, government or Bitcoin kill it?". The Telegraph. Archived.
Was shocked when roughly 1 billion in bitcoin was emptied from a digital wallet connected to dark web drug marketplace the Silk Road. Selling illicit drugs, or more than 55 if single-vendor markets are included. Cryptocurrencies, the most famous of which is Bitcoin. By J Martin 2014 Cited by 294 The illicit drugs monopoly market link website, Silk Road, presents an ideal case study for Dorn, N, Murji, K, South, N (1992) Traffick: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement. Criminal use of digital currencies to purchase drugs on so-called darknet including for drugs, conducted in bitcoin reach 76 billion. Road opens for business The Silk Road, an illicit drugs marketplace is established, using Bitcoin as an untraceable way to buy and sell drugs online. The Silk Road, an alleged billion dollar black market website that allowed users to buy guns and drugs using digital currency was raided by.
The actual criminal market value of e-currencies is hard to estimate bitcoin drugs market accurately bitcoin criminal, Ross Ulbricht, who used the currency for illegal drugs. Crime and Online Anonymous Markets 69 THE BITCOIN NETWORK Cryptocurrencies, Most existing studies include (or even focus on) drugs and physical goods. A man has been sentenced in San Diego, California, for conspiring to sell opioids and other drugs over dark web markets for cryptocurrencies. 4 days ago Currency crisis forces Turks to search for drugs that have vanished from the market. Published. 2 weeks ago. on. December 20, 2021. Silk Road was a digital black market platform that was popular for hosting money laundering activities and illegal drug transactions using Bitcoin. Since the bull market of 2017, the use of Bitcoin for illegal purposes as a percentage of its total use has dwindled. Chainalysis has found that.
Drug market Jul 12, 2018 A new scam has begun targeting porn viewers in an attempt to blackmail victims and extort 1,900 and they only take bitcoin. Cybercrime in the drug market is growing and deserves special attention. The more monopoly market darknet advanced marketplaces offer payment methods, the Bitcoin for instance. The cryptocurrency is emerging as a new front in Latin America's for control of vast criminal markets for sex, drugs, guns and people. Russian national Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators of BTC-e, was arrested in AlphaBay Market became one of the most popular Tor-hidden drug market. 6 days ago With an increasing number of investors in crypto markets, there has been a significant rise in crypto scams and thefts. Crypto scam rug pull. Wall Street Market and Valhalla, two of the largest drug markets. see the identities processing cryptocurrency transfers to identify both the sender.
By S Foley 2019 Cited by 543 Abstract. Cryptocurrencies are among the largest monopoly link unregulated markets in the world. We find that approximately one-quarter of bitcoin users. A Silk Road trader pleaded guilty to laundering over 19 million worth of profits with Bitcoin after using the notorious marketplace to sell. 8 days ago The rise of cryptocurrency is usually a story of pizzas bought with bitcoins now worth over a billion dollars, kingpins of darknet drugs markets. 29 minutes ago Online black market Silk Road was one of several marketplaces that used Bitcoin for money laundering, illegal drug transactions and other. Russian national Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators of BTC-e, was arrested in AlphaBay Market became one of the most popular Tor-hidden drug market. By R Broadhurst 2021 Cited by 7 purchasing drugs in crypto-drug markets stopped using these markets because of drug law enforcement action putting into question the efficacy.
There is some uncertainty about how many of the cards are actually still active and available for cybercriminals to use. Gammagoblin - Pushing Taboo since January Vendor of psychedelic substances exclusively via their shop since Silk Road v1. Visit our store to purchase from our selection of baked goodies. Rachel Kranz is a novelist, nonfiction writer, and playwright who lives in New York City. Torrez is the only darknet market in the industry which offers a wallet-less mode, as well as centralized-wallet. The job of fishermen is to monitor the Relay Chain and other parts of the protocol to pinpoint and report unwanted behavior to validator nodes. Researchers noticed a trend when they compared dark market revenues to the number of transactions. We do not have sufficient data to attempt equation ( 14), because buyer's personal values cannot be directly observed. After reading the rules, you must pay the vendor bond (explained in rule 4) in BTC, LTC, or XMR. A total of 869 ill people have been reported from 47 states, including 116 people who have been hospitalized. Other similar review groups existed for ecstasy and the hallucinogen DMT, part of a self-regulating community amid the anarchy of the digital black markets. As gratifying as that is, the reality is also that the means and methods involved in finding and capturing these dark web markets are themselves on the dark side, which raises some ethical questions.
Another user wrote on DeepDotWeb: "Wall street had so many rare strains of cannabis monopoly darknet market i couldnt find on cgmc or cannazon [other darknet markets]. Mark, a software developer, had ordered the 100 micrograms of acid through a listing on the online marketplace Silk Road. What is the dark web, deep web, and surface web? Tor is doing cutting-edge work in the anonymity space, and Tor metrics are already proven to provide critical information for research and development.

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Chinese technology shares jumped despite washingtons threat to ban applications including tiktok, as dealers rather dedicated to purchasing up names might take advantage of a decoupling of worlds two biggest economies.
Shenzhens tech-focused chinext index rose 2.6 percent on monday as the celebrity 50 index of start-ups noted on shanghais celebrity board soared 7.3 percent. those indices gains had been really above the 1.6 per cent rise the broader csi 300 of large-cap shares listed in both locations.
The bullish hue in chinas areas came even while mike pompeo, us secretary of state, warned on sunday that president donald trump would take action within the impending times against chinese apps. those include bytedances tiktok and tencents wechat, that your united states claims tend to be feeding information directly to the chinese communist party, their national protection device.
Us pc software group microsoft is within talks to purchase the american functions of tiktok, despite mr trumps reservations.
Brokers stated chinese traders were lining-up bets on neighborhood companies that they believe would enjoy higher assistance from beijing in the event that us and asia proceeded down a course of financial decoupling.
Expectations of useful guidelines alongside forms of formal backing in response to us stress was a go in the supply for chinese tech shares, stated louis tse, handling director of vc brokerage in hong kong.
Strategists included these hopes was indeed fuelled by chinese president xi jinpings recent announcement of a brand new plan drive known as twin blood circulation. the policy centers around making domestic consumption chinas economic growth engine in addition to securing offer stores in important sectors such as technology.
Markets understand opportunity of the domestic market and thats really why they believe while china-us tensions will continue to be in the long term...the chinese economic climate can still manage, said ken cheung, a strategist with mizuho bank.
Mr xis plan drive is partially to counter vulnerabilities inside export sector because of tariffs imposed on chinese products because of the trump administration.
Analysts highlight that efforts to reorient the chinese economic climate around domestic consumption are also likely to end up in lower need for imported goods. you need to contract imports if you are planning to see lower exports and still wish to keep a trade excess, stated michael each, worldwide strategist at rabobank.
The star 50 index tracking shanghais tech-oriented celebrity board, which launched last year, has actually added significantly more than 60 percent in 2020 so far. among its top gainers on monday had been raytron and beijing piesat, producers of electronic circuits and satellite imaging software, correspondingly. both closed a single day up more than 15 per cent.
The assumption here's that theres going to be dislocation into the technology area of the supply chain, said a manager at one shanghai-based agent, which added that chinese condition medias using double blood circulation had acquired visibly within the last week.
Local organizations, he stated, have capital and the products have demand since the policy is obviously to restrict reliance upon foreign organizations.


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For now only Europe Federal government curtails summer holiday plans
Berlin/Brussels · Allgaü in southern Germany: no problem. Algarve in Portugal: also possible. Antalya in Turkey: not yet. That's the German government's recommendation to German summer vacationers. But this can still change.
Yes to vacations outside of Germany, but only within certain borders and at your own risk: With this message, the German government is sending its citizens on their summer vacations during the corona pandemic.
Germany will lift its worldwide travel warning for 28 European countries this Monday, and three more countries are expected to be added. But Germany will extend its travel warning for more than 160 other countries until August 31. This was decided by the German Cabinet on Wednesday.
But following discussions with the twelve countries that are most popular holiday destinations for Germans, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made it clear on Thursday that there could still be exceptions - for example popular holiday destinations such as Turkey, which has already resumed air travel to Germany. Talks are now being held on this. "We'll review this week by week.“
Maas also stressed that the travel warnings and travel advice issued by the federal government were only a recommendation and not a regulation. "The responsibility for a trip, that's up to each person. A travel warning is not a travel ban.” No matter where you go, "Enjoy your summer vacation, but do so with caution and enjoy it responsibly.”
Maas had issued travel warnings for around 200 countries on March 17 - allowing for free cancellation of trips. Travel warnings will be lifted for Germany's 26 partner countries in the European Union, the United Kingdom, which has just left the EU, and the four countries of the border-free Schengen area that are not members of the EU: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For 28 countries, the travel warning is lifted from June 15, but it will come later for Spain and Norway where there are still restrictions on entry.
Sweden is also likely to experience a delay. The German Foreign Office points out on its website that the EU country does not currently meet the so-called pandemic criteria for lifting the warning. "If a country exceeds the number of newly infected persons in relation to the population of less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants cumulatively in the last 7 days, the travel warning will remain in effect or be issued again. This currently applies to Sweden," it says. Sweden had adopted much more liberal measures in managing the corona pandemic than the rest of Europe.
For countries where the travel warning is lifted, the government plans to provide detailed travel information on the country-specific risks. This can also mean that (non-essential) tourist travel is not recommended. In the case of Great Britain, for example, this will be the case as long as there is still a 14-day quarantine obligation for all those entering the country.
The German government says the travel warning still applies to more than 160 countries because travel restrictions and quarantine regulations could be reintroduced in countries outside the EU "without any prior notice and with immediate effect". It was because of such sudden measures that tens of thousands of German tourists were stranded abroad in March. 240,000 were brought back to Germany in efforts that took one week, something the government wants to avoid in the future.
The travel association DRV described the decision as not "proportionate" because it lumped together some 160 countries. "The pandemic is subsiding in many countries around the world," said DRV President Norbert Fiebig. He called for differentiated travel advice as soon as possible. At the same time, he pointed out that in the event of a crisis, tour operators were bringing back tourists who booked holiday packages.
Maas showed understanding for the companies, but defended his decision: "I know from many conversations how hard the pandemic has hit the travel industry, but the fact remains: for us, the top priority is the safety of travelers.”
Turkish hoteliers reacted disappointed. Turkey should be "among the first countries" for which the travel warning is lifted, said Erkan Yagci, head of the Mediterranean Hotelier and Tourist Association (Aktob). His country had done "pioneering work" and taken numerous precautions against the spread of the coronavirus.
Turkey is eagerly awaiting the German tourists who are so important for the tourism industry. The semi-state airline Turkish Airlines (THY) resumed its international flights on Thursday after a break of more than two months. The first flights from Istanbul Airport started out with the destinations of London and Düsseldorf. The flight schedule of the subsidiary Anadolu Jet included connections from Ankara and Istanbul to Berlin and Frankfurt.
Egypt also plans to resume air traffic to main holiday destinations on the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea such as Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh on July 1. After Turkey, Egypt is the second most popular holiday destination for Germans outside the EU.
A recommendation by the EU Commission on Thursday could encourage a lifting of the travel warning for holiday destinations outside Europe. The ban on entry into the European Union, which was introduced during the corona crisis - i.e. in the opposite direction to travel - is to be extended until July 1. After that, however, it is to be gradually lifted. For this purpose, the EU states are now expected to jointly draw up a list of countries that are eligible for this. EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson said that lifting the entry ban would be possible for all countries "which are in a similar or better situation compared to the EU”.
Looking at those criteria, countries such as the USA or Russia, where the situation is currently significantly worse than in the EU, are unlikely to be on the list for the time being. But the EU Commission believes that travelers from the Balkans could soon return to the EU.
The EU Commission's proposal is important for German vacationers going abroad because the German government only wants to lift the travel warning for countries where the entry ban has already been lifted. From July 1, there could be some swift changes - if the EU states can agree on a common list.
(Orig. text: Michael Fischer, Michel Winde und Friederike Marx, dpa; Translation: Carol Kloeppel)


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In some Russian regions, wholesale pork prices have dropped to less than those for poultry meat, according to the president of the Russian consulting agency Agrifood Strategies, Albert Davleyev.
For example, he calculated, in May this year, pork prices dropped to 90 roubles ($ 1.10) per kg. Both pork and poultry prices have been seen steadily decreasing in Russia during the past few years, Davleyev told Pig Progress.
Davleyev said, “The growing penetration of pork in modern retail – supermarket chains, discounters, convenience, and grocery stores – allowed [producers] to increase the share of fresh, chilled pork in the product mix reducing additional costs related to production and handling frozen pork. The pressure put on the meat case forced suppliers of chicken meat also bring their prices down, causing the overall reduction of consumer prices for meat, including pork.”
Low margins on pig production
The pig farmers’ profitability dwindles as the prices fall, and this process is continuing. Davleyev said, “As a result, margins of pork producers went down from 30-35% a few years ago to 5-10% and are still declining under the pressure of increasing competition from big vertical integrators which have own land, feed processing, nucleus, grow-out farms, slaughter, processing, storage, and distribution facilities. Some of their production costs are compensated by rapidly increasing exports, which provide good proceeds in hard currency for cheap swine by-products and offal.”
He added, “However, such a process cannot last forever, and soon the further price decrease will inevitably have to stop when business profitability reaches 3-5%. And pork will never be able to compete with poultry meat pricewise, just because of the Feed Conversion Ratio which is 1.7-1.8 in broilers and 2.2.-2.7 in swine.”
Continuous outbreaks of ASF
Davleyev said that amid the price reduction, there is also a drastic reduction of the backyard farming sector, which has been severely hit by continuous outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF). On top of that, there are forced restrictions with regard to the swine herd in small and backyard farms by federal and regional veterinary authorities.
Backyard farms historically had the highest production costs in all segments of the Russian pig industry.
Speaking earlier this year, Yuri Kovalev, chairman of the Russian Union of Pork Producers (RUPP), however, claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic could cause a recovery of backyard farming. He said that some Russian regions have begun giving piglets to people free of charge to mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19 and the nationwide lockdown introduced to slow down the spread of the virus on the
PigProgress | Vladislav Vorotnikov | November 02
Image Source – Canva.com


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Facebook will offer anonymous log-ins for apps
by Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle
The social media giant that pioneered the concept of sharing too much now wants to protect your anonymity.
Facebook is testing a way for users to sign in to a mobile app without divulging their identity, a feature that could appeal to members worried about privacy. The Menlo Park company also unveiled an expanded mobile advertising platform at its F8 developers conference in San Francisco.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg devoted most of his keynote speech to the ways Facebook is helping mobile app developers make money. But the Anonymous Login feature signaled a sea change for a company that built a global network of 1.28 billion monthly active members by requiring them to use real names and prodding them to share as much of their lives as possible.
Zuckerberg said the feature lets Facebook members log in to new apps anonymously until they feel comfortable trusting the app makers with their personal data. Facebook will still transmit some form of unique identification to the app.
“This is going to let you try apps without fear,” he said. “And if you want, you can always sign in with your real identity.”
Facebook has created a log-in control system that gives users the ability to pick and chose from a list of personal information they want to share or keep private, such as e-mail and song lists. Last year, Facebook members used their log-ins to sign in to apps more than 10 billion times.
“People want more control over how they share their information, especially over apps,” Zuckerberg said.
The company is testing Anonymous Login with a few developers and plans to offer it to a wider group in a few months. Much of the feature is still unclear, including whether a user can constantly switch from public to anonymous as they can with Google’s Incognito browsing tab, said analyst Brian Blau of Gartner Research.
“We’ll have to wait and see what it turns into, but essentially it’s going to mean users can log in to apps and not have to reveal their identity,” said Blau, who was in the audience of about 2,500 people. “That’s pretty interesting, because it’s the first time they’ve really done anything with anonymity.”
At the same time, the new Facebook Audience Network for mobile app advertisers still depends on Facebook mining specific information about its users to send them more relevant – and supposedly less intrusive – ads.
Much of the company’s revenue and profit depends on the growth of mobile advertising. For the quarter that ended March 31, Facebook generated profit of $642 million, up 193 percent from the first quarter last year. Revenue was $2.5 billion, up 72 percent from the year before. The majority of revenue came from an 82 percent increase in ad sales, which totaled $2.27 billion, Facebook’s strongest quarterly performance in nearly three years.
The Facebook Audience Network extends advertising campaigns beyond just the social network to encompass outside mobile apps.
For example, Target has been looking for a way to find customers who used the retail chain’s mobile app and wanted to see the movie “Frozen.” Through a test with the Audience Network, Target found those customers through apps from the Huffington Post and others.
Blau said the Audience Network is a “significant” addition to Facebook’s mobile ad offerings, which already generate about 60 percent of the company’s revenue. Facebook shares rose nearly 3 percent, or $1.63, to close Wednesday at $59.78.
“It’s going to mean that they’re going to compete head-to-head against Google in the mobile ad space, and because of Facebook’s reach and targeting capabilities, I think they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with,” he said. “It’s a true mobile ad network outside of Facebook’s properties. They haven’t done that before at the scale they’re doing now.”
Facebook also announced App Links, a way for app developers to create links within their own products that take users to similar or even competing apps and websites.
In the Innovation Lab area, developers could see how apps perform under less-than-ideal wireless conditions, such as developing countries like Indonesia and Kenya. The lab was a demonstration of a facility that Facebook, mobile-device maker Ericsson and several corporate partners plan to open this summer at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters as part of Internet.org, an organization that wants to bring Internet access to unconnected parts of the world.
Zuckerberg promised developers that Facebook will give them a more stable mobile platform for their apps. He also spoke in general philosophical terms about what he expects Facebook to do over the next decade. Zuckerberg suggested that the company he started in a Harvard University dorm room might branch away from its hacker mentality of “moving fast and breaking things.”
“To reach the next level and to fully achieve this mission of connecting everyone in the world, my goal for our culture over the next 10 years is to build a culture of loving the people that we serve that is as strong, if not stronger, than our culture of hacking at Facebook,” he said. “We want to make sure that we put people first in all of the different experiences that we offer.”
This was the first F8 event since 2011, but Zuckerberg said Facebook plans yearly conferences. The next one will be in March at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.


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The annual Tech Nation Report today reveals key stats on the UK’s booming tech industry. The Tech Nation report’s headline findings include:
- London generated record investment among European cities at £6.8bn in 2019, up 67% from 2018 at £4bn, and comprising 16% of all European VC tech investment in 2019
- London VC investment is followed by European cities Berlin (£3.5bn), and Paris (£2.4bn)
- £5bn invested in emerging tech (2015-2019)
- £3bn AI investment (2015-2019)
- £53,296 digital tech salary (median)
London leads the UK in unicorn creation at 43 digital tech unicorns in 2019 with 58 high-value tech scaleups in the pipeline, the $1bn tech companies of tomorrow.
Tech Nation’s Future Fifty 8.0 Programme
20 London late-stage companies joined Tech Nation’s Future Fifty 8.0 cohort announced including Elvie, Beamery, Babylon and Elder Fintech dominates the London Future Fifty 8.0 cohort with 5 fintechs joining, followed by Software as a Service (SaaS) (4) and Healthtech (3).
Eoin Marsh, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager, London, Tech Nation commented: “It’s no surprise to see that London is the tech unicorn champion of Europe with 43 digital unicorns and 58 high-value tech scaleups. I’m also delighted to see many London-based tech companies entering our Future Fifty 8.0 growth programme, including Beamery Elvie and Elder. London’s going from strength to strength with companies like these at the forefront of the tech revolution.”
Iggy Bassi, Founder and CEO, Cervest, commented: “The Tech Nation report findings reflect our own healthy performance over the past year. We doubled our team of world leading scientists, engineers and developers to 30, accelerating our AI and Machine Learning expertise and brand awareness among target customers across UK and Europe. This all serves to reinforce London’s reputation as a global technology hub for ambitious startups and scaleups.”
“Cervest has also been able to engage with the UK Government to develop the policy drivers critical to our service. Having secured £3.7m in pre-series funding in 2019, Cervest is now working on next round funding and US entry, has secured a place on the Google for Startups accelerator and struck up a strategic partnership with the Turing Institute.”
Dr Lewis Z. Liu, Co-founder & CEO, Eigen Technologies, commented: “There is real momentum right now in the European tech sector. From a global perspective I believe European tech as a whole has come of age in the last couple of quarters. We’ve seen the likes of Lakestar, Atomico, Balderton, and Northzone raise big funds, showing greater ambition than ever before. European tech, with London leading the way, is now starting to compete with the likes of Silicon Valley and Shenzhen. Organisations like Tech Nation do brilliant work in supporting this drive and ambition, so we are truly honoured to have been selected to be in the latest Future Fifty cohort”


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Oceanside Considering Medical Marijuana Regulations
The sale of recreational marijuana was approved by voters last year and will go into effect next January unless local jurisdictions have taken steps. Cities around San Diego County are doing just that, but Oceanside has large agricultural areas where farmers are interested in the future potential of the crop. City Council is tackling the dilemma with an ad hoc committee that met this week to talk about the possibility of growing and dispensing medicinal marijuana in the city. We have the deputy mayor of Oceanside with us. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. We also have the executive of the San Diego Farm Bureau. Starting with you mayor, your city Council has voted to ban growing and selling marijuana, even though it does allow delivery of medicinal marijuana. What is the purpose of this committee? Are you preparing specific legislation? Yes. We are currently preparing regulation to allow the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana in the city of Oceanside. The difference in medical and recreational marijuana is that our goal as this ad hoc committee is to facilitate medical marijuana. The other will require some other regulations, but we're not expecting that to be that complicated. You are starting with medicinal and it may translate into recreational? That is possible. How much interest have you heard from farmers in Oceanside? It is not just Oceanside, across the county. We have been approached by a number members -- of members. We recognize the very first step is getting local jurisdictions to give the okay. It is allowed by the state, the state recognizes it as an agricultural crop. The county has already made it difficult for anyone to grow in the unincorporated areas. Are they looking to the cities to be a better back? When you say difficult, it is actually impossible. Commercial cultivation has been banned in the unincorporated county. Now the cities are going one by one and taking a look. We have most interest in the cities where there is current agricultural taking place. Cities like Oceanside. Does the Farm Bureau and doors just medicinal marijuana farming or do you advocate for growing marijuana for recreational purposes? We understand the cities limitation and we are happy to work with them. The Farm Bureau's position, if a crop is recognized as a legal agricultural crop in the state of California by virtue of the voter or state legislation, we think farmers in San Diego County should be allowed to grow that legal crop. Deputy mayor, your city manager is prepared to report the businesses will generate more than several billion dollars by 2020. Are the farmers and Oceanside looking for ways to be more economical? Can you talk to us about why you think that is important? Oceanside have a large agricultural area. We have already gotten farmers out there doing all kinds of production, houseplants, avocados, tomatoes, organic crops like lettuce. The farmers want the choice to be able to grow cannabis so that they could produce it into product later. The idea of having a choice is what the farmers want. They don't necessarily want to be involved in the sale, but they are farmers and they need to make the choice of their own and not some outside governmental agency. One of the current concerns about marijuana cultivation? We need to know what we can do with banking. Banking is the biggest issue because the federal government controls it. As long as marijuana is considered a dangerous drug we have no idea how they will respond. Currently, there are millions of dollars in business going on over the state. It is all-cash. We want to get around that. We want to regulate so that we eliminate the underground or black market economy. This is dangerous for the quality of medication and hazardous to people handling products and having to take all-cash to do it. Presumably farmers are talking about this issue. Banking is a big issue. I think it needs to be pointed out that a working group has been created to try to find a California only solution to the banking issue, prior to the January 2018 date when commercial production can start taking place. The state recognizes that. It has been a long-running problem, but we are not convinced banking is the stumbling block. We think it can be overcome. The growers will have to find out how to deal with it. Deputy Mayor Larry, what is the time hawk on that ad hoc committee? Where will you be coming back? October is our bring it back to Council month. We have five more hearings scheduled between now and then. As of this week, the city attorney has started to work on regulations around growing and retail sales within the city of Oceanside. That is a huge step that we did not have one week ago. Because that ad hoc committee is in place and is an official city of Oceanside committee, the city staff will take direction from the committee. The committee is composed of myself, Jerry Kern, and our city treasurer, +2 residents. I would like to thank you both for joining us. You are welcome.
An Oceanside committee tasked with coming up with new medical marijuana regulations met Monday, the first of seven planned hearings.
The sale of recreational marijuana was approved by California voters last year, and will go into effect in January 2018 unless local cities decide to ban it. That is exactly what Oceanside did in April, extending its ban on medical marijuana businesses and blocking stores from selling recreational pot. But just a few weeks later, the city launched the medical marijuana committee to recommend new rules that could allow its sale and cultivation. The committee is chaired by Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery.
The committee's first hearing focused on cultivation. Future meetings will hear from experts on banking, testing and distribution.
“A lot of the discussion was on water use,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, who presented at the meeting. “(Marijuana) has a reputation of using a lot of water, but the conclusion is that commercial growers will use closed systems to reduce that threat.”
Larson and Lowery joined KPBS Midday Edition on Thursday with more on how much marijuana farmers would want to grow and how Oceanside might regulate it.


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MacPaw, the developer of Setapp and CleanMyMac, has announced that it is shortly to open a museum of Apple hardware, both at its Kiev office and online.
Ukranian developer MacPaw previously acquired a 40-piece collection of antique Apple hardware in 2017. Now that original collection from New York’s Tekserve has been added to from private collections, and a new Apple Museum is to open shortly.
“When we acquired our first Mac collection, we couldn’t make it accessible to the public, while the requests for the office exhibition tours were increasing all the time,” said said Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO and founder of MacPaw, in a blog post. “We were working hard to make this idea come true and now we are ready to announce that the museum will be open publicly soon.”
The Apple Museum’s collection consists of 323 Apple products, including a Macintosh 128K signed by Steve Wozniak. There’s also a Mac Portable, complete with signatures of its whole development team.
Announced on International Museum Day, May 18, the Apple Museum will be situated in a new MacPaw Space initiative in Kyiv, Ukraine. It’s ultimately going to be a place for meetings and workshops, as well as for the exhibition of iconic Apple products.
“Some of them are just like art pieces,” continued Kosovan, “and we’re very glad to have this opportunity to share these iconic items with other fans.”
MacPaw has not yet released a launch date for the physical MacPaw Space and Apple Museum, nor the online version. However, the company promises that the online version will be more than a reproduction of the physical museum and tour.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, “Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider,” and you’ll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for “AppleInsider Daily” instead and you’ll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you’re interested in Apple-centric home automation, say “Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider,” and you’ll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.


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May 10, 2017
India's cotton area seen rising 15 pct to 3-yr high as prices rally
May 10, 2017
Cotton planting in India, the world's biggest producer of the fibre, is likely to rise by 15 percent in the 2017/18 marketing season to a three-year high as farmers switch away from other crops, likely boosting cotton production and exports.
Higher output in India could kill a rally that pushed global cotton prices to their highest in three years this month.
"This year farmers received higher prices, so they are going to raise the area under cotton. We are expecting around a 15 percent increase," said Mekala Chockalingam, chairman of the state-run Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), the biggest cotton buyer in the country.
Domestic cotton prices rose 19 percent from a year ago to 41,300 rupees ($639) per 356 kg candy, following the rally in overseas prices.
A candy is a traditional measure of mass in India.
A 15 percent rise in crop area would lift India's cotton planting to around 12.08 million hectares (29.9 million acres) in the marketing year starting on Oct. 1, highest since the 2014/15 year.
That compares to 10.5 million hectares in the current marketing year, the lowest in seven years.
"We have lost area in the last few years. We will recover that lost area as long as the monsoon is normal," said Nayan Mirani, president of Cotton Association of India.
Most Indian farmers start planting cotton - a crop that requires lots of moisture - with the onset of monsoon rains in June, although some with irrigated fields start as early as May.
India looks likely to receive above average monsoon rainfall as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased, the chief of India's weather office said on Tuesday.
Oilseeds and pulses compete with cotton in key producing areas like the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Prices of oilseeds and pulses plunged as much as 60 percent due to bumper production this year, which will force many of them to switch to cotton, said Chirag Patel, chief executive officer at Jaydeep Cotton Fibers Pvt Ltd, a leading exporter.
India, which competes with Brazil, the United States and African countries in the world market, is estimated to have produced 35.1 million bales in 2016/17, up 3.8 percent from the previous year, according to the state-run Cotton Advisory Board.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam are key buyers of Indian cotton.
However, in the last few months Indian textile mills have been aggressively importing cotton due to an appreciation in the rupee. The country is likely to import a record 3 million bales in the current year.
(1 Indian bale = 170 kg)
(1 hectare = 2.47 acres)
($1 = 64.6300 Indian rupees)
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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Under Armour Plans Retail Store Expansions
Under Armour is looking to replace the void Sports Authority created when it filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to close all stores. The first of two expansion plans: taking over the iconic FAO Schwarz location in New York on Fifth Avenue. Officials say this can happen as soon as early 2018. Second, Kohl’s will begin selling Under Armour products in 600 stores in early 2017. Under Armour execs see this as an opportunity to grow the company’s women’s division and keep its high-end label reputation. Under Armour will join the likes of Nike and Adidas on Kohl’s racks.
Total Retail’s Take: Under Armour partners with major retailers like Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods, so it surprises me that its products weren't already sold at Kohl’s. This is definitely a good way to make up some of the sales lost after Sports Authority tanked. Active wear is having its moment right now. Taking over the iconic FAO Schwarz building will put Under Armour front and center in a huge shopping district.


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Gamigo Group has revealed that it has planted over 110,000 trees as part of its continued partnership with Eden Reforestation Project.
In September 2021 the firm announced that its partnership with Eden Reforestation Project would be in place permanently and allows players to support the campaign through the Gamigo charity website.
Through the charity website users can purchase packages from a range of the company’s games, including Rift, Trove, Desert Operations, and more. The packages provide players with in-game rewards and the proceeds are put towards the tree planting initiative.
Between September and December 2021, the funds were raised from the Gamingo community to plant the 110,000 trees. Gamigo has stated that it also engages in other sustainability initiatives, including carbon neutrality across its whole group.
Other mobile game firms to announce environmental initiatives include Pixel Federation, which joined the Playing for the Planet Alliance, and Rovio, which partnered with Popeye and SeaCleaners to remove plastic from the planet’s oceans.
Last month, Gamigo announced that it had launched a new department to increase its activity within the games publishing sector and as an opportunity to enter new international markets.


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Record-high inflation, the war in Ukraine, and fears of a looming recession are all slowing deal activity. Technology firms have been hit particularly hard after attaining record levels in 2021.
Deutsche Bank is developing its own BNPL (buy now, pay later) solution for invoice and instalment purchases in a collaboration with Vienna-based fintech Credi2.
The agency’s remit excludes North America, where Havas Media Group won the retained account last December.
Elements of the campaign include contributions from a cast of influencers from varied walks of life, united around the powerful idea of making connections
Feeling the squeeze from dwindling retail investor activity, digital brokers are branching out to keep customers engaged.
New tech applications like open finance and blockchain will grab a wider pool of global investors, including hedge funds.
Fintech startups attracted a record number of users and funds in 2021, marking a turning point for fintech.
Advertising has a potential to play a significant role in combating climate change and can be used to educate customers about products and services with a low carbon footprint.
Facebook’s rebranding as a metaverse innovator opens up opportunities for firms looking to embed fintech solutions into this next iteration of the digital realm.
The percentage of US consumers using technology to manage their finances jumped from 58% last year to 88% this year, per a Plaid survey. The online survey was conducted from July 6-20, 2021 among 2,000 US adults.
Afterpay, a company involved in "Buy Now, Pay Later" payments, has announced the debut of Afterpay Ads, a new suite of advertising products to help brands reach, acquire and activate high intent, loyal shoppers across the Afterpay ecosystem.
Fintechs raised $30.79 billion across 657 deals, a staggering 30% rise on the first quarter. The total funding for 2021 already exceeds all funding raised during the entirety of 2020, according to CB Insights.
The program will help promote awareness of the urgent need to preserve the habitats of these and more than 2,000 other Critically Endangered Wildlife species.
Proximity mobile payment user base in the US will surpass 100 million this year. This is according to new data from eMarketer.
In November, the Chinese government urged tech companies to cater to the elderly, and China’s digital giants are now tapping into the so-called silver market.
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) has appointed Edelman’s fintech and crypto expert, Martyna Borys CMPRCA, as the Chair of its new Financial Services & Fintech Group.
William Mills Agency, the largest independent public relations and marketing firm specializing in the financial industry, has been selected by Sensibill for public relations services.
Arcesium LLC, a global financial technology and professional services firm has expanded its footprint into Europe, opening a new office in London.


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A total of 17 British Airways-owned paintings, prints and works on paper will go under the hammer later this month.
BA has built up an impressive collection of artwork over the years, much of which has gone on display in its business and first class lounges, but the Covid-19 pandemic has led the airline to seek to raise funds from the sale of a sizeable chunk of the portfolio.
Sotheby’s will hold an online auction between July 20 and July 30, and an evening sale in London on July 28, during which Cool Edge by Bridget Riley (pictured above left) is estimated to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2 million.
According to the auctioneer the painting belongs to the “Egyptian Series” which was celebrated in Riley’s Hayward Gallery retrospective exhibition earlier this year.
“A trip to Egypt in 1979 led to a fascination with the dynamic use of colour in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings, and Cool Edge bears all the hallmark hues of her celebrated ‘Egyptian palette’ – violet, aquamarine, coral and yellow,” said Sotheby’s.
Seven further Riley prints will be offered for sale during the online auction, including five from her 1971 “Elongated Triangles” series.
Other works which will go on sale from The British Airways Collection include paintings by Terry Frost (Sunglow, pictured above right), Patrick Heron (Scarlet and Bordeaux in Colbalt, pictured below right) and George Shaw (Scenes from the Passion, Ash, pictured below left), as well as rare prints by Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn and Julian Opie, and a series of ten etchings drawn by Peter Doig from the ground-level perspective of a grasshopper, which make up the Grasshopper Portfolio.
More details on the works can be seen on the Sotheby’s website at sothebys.com.
Commenting on the news Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ director of brand and customer experience, said:
“We are fortunate to have been able to showcase a wealth of artists and creativity through our artwork collection, many of which have been a special part of the design of our lounges worldwide.
“During this unprecedented time we have made the decision to work with Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading and most trusted auction houses, to sell a number of pieces by artists including Bridget Riley and Damien Hirst. We look forward to them finding new homes with this sale.”


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In overlooking its e-commerce innovation, LK Bennett has failed to keep up with consumer demands, prompting a decline in sales.
LK Bennett enters administration
The high-end fashion chain entered administration on 7 March 2019, threatening 500 jobs across the UK. The chain reported an operating loss of nearly £6 million in the year to the end of July 2017, the most recent results available for the firm.
Data published by MarketLine found that the UK apparel market grew by only 1.7% in 2017 and 0.9% the year before, signalling intense rivalry between leading companies.
Forecasts predict growth to continue to be slow, meaning LK Bennett is unlikely to be helped by market conditions.
In this context, given the current prolonged UK retail spending downturn, the average pricing of LK Bennett shoes at £175 ($232) and dresses at £225 ($299) are arguably pitched beyond the reach of most shoppers.
Consumers today expect digitally-relevant and engaged brands where being constantly on-trend on social media is the norm. Here, LK Bennett has underperformed. The company has not been able to compete with younger, more-affordable and digitally-savvier brands.
For example, ASOS has invested heavily in its online offering to improve its interactivity, which includes a ‘style match’ app that allows users to search the ASOS database of roughly 85,000 products by uploading a reference photo to the app.
LK Bennett: competition on the high street
Fast fashion and disposable clothing have taken the fashion world by storm, changing consumer shopping habits. Consumers now expect new trends to enter stores or be available online quickly.
Retailers are therefore running at an accelerated pace as they try to reduce the time taken for a garment to go from design to customer. This is another key area in which LK Bennett has been unable to keep up with its competitors.
ASOS requires between two and eight weeks to take a product from concept to sale, beating the formerly speedy five-week turnaround by Zara and far outpacing LK Bennett.
LK Bennett: an over-saturated market
LK Bennett’s aim of becoming an affordable luxury brand has come unstuck in recent times with the rise of cheaper retail chains stocking high and selling low. Coupled with the increasingly squeezed middle classes, the concept of ‘affordable luxury’ is perhaps a thing of the past.
Many of its ranges do not provide a real point of difference from lower-priced competitors, such as Phase Eight, Hobbs or Reiss. In recent times, the retailer has become more reliant on volume sales and less about innovative designs, thereby undermining its brand identity.
LK Bennett: clear market position
LK Bennett has failed to fully establish its position in an increasingly fragmented market. Consumers who want to spend a considerable amount of money on a pair of shoes are more likely to aim for a recognized high-fashion shoe brand, such as Jimmy Choo and Alexander McQueen.
The LK Bennett brand falls somewhere between the middle to high range segment of the market, but the company has been unable to fully frame its identity.


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Why read comic books in 2D? A new 3D comic books app has now come to Magic Leap's augmented reality app store, Magic Leap World, and it comes with a few neat tricks.
App developer Madefire already has a comic books app out on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), but the move to AR adds a new level of immersion, where you see 3D images appear and move around in the air in front of you.
But you can do a lot more than just read those moving 3D comics. Madefire has also released an in-app creation tool, meaning users can upload and manipulate their own images for 3D effects and shifting camera angles - and even publish their creations to the platform once they're done.
- What is augmented reality? Read our full run-down of AR tech
- Magic Leap One release date, price and features
- Apple AR glasses: read the latest rumors on Apple's AR bid
That last feature is more likely to appeal to budding digital artists than casual users, but it showcases a widening potential for user-created AR content in the future.
The Madefire app is free to download from Magic Leap World, and features motion comics for a variety of DC, Marvel, and Archie comics - even series based on Overwatch - as well as more indie titles. You can see an overview of the app in the video below.
Look before you leap
Since the first iteration of the Magic Leap One launched in late 2018, we've watched closely to see whether the much-hyped AR headset can deliver on its promises. But its potential, as ever, rests on the strength of the software experiences available to use through the hardware.
We went hands on with the Magic Leap One shortly after its release to play a demo of Angry Birds: First Person Slingshot, an AR version of the popular mobile gaming franchise.
Magic Leap is slowly building an arsenal of engaging apps, but you can check out our early impressions with the headset at the link below.
- See what we thought in our early Magic Leap One review


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Study: Preschool apps manipulate kids to watch ads and make purchases
You’re OK with letting your small child play with various smartphone apps, assuming they are educational.
But pediatric researchers and the authors of a study released Tuesday say just the opposite. Too many of the apps aimed at preschoolers manipulate the youngsters to watch ads or make in-app purchases, resulting in potentially harmful behavior, according to the study from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Armed with the study, a coalition of consumer and public safety advocates sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the government agency to investigate the preschool app market and end what they say are deceptive practices. The effort is being led by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, with more than a dozen other consumer and public health advocacy organizations signing on.
Researchers analyzed 135 popular free and paid apps, the majority of which were downloaded more than 10 million times each and some upwards of 50 million times. The study found 95 percent of such apps included at least one type of advertising, some of which are embedded in games or activities.
The advocates point to several examples: In Disney’s “Olaf Adventures," a glowing cake invites children to tap it and if they do, a pop-up asks them to “protect Anna’s cake” by paying $3.99.
In Espace Publishing’s “Kids Animal Jigsaw Puzzle,” pop-up video ads took up about as much time as gameplay,” the study reports.
"With young children now using mobile devices on an average of one hour a day, it’s important to understand how this type of commercial exposure may impact children’s health and wellbeing," said Jenny Radesky, a development behavior expert, pediatrician and a senior author of the report.
"Our findings show that the early childhood app market is a wild west, with a lot of apps appearing more focused on making money than the child’s play experience," she said. "This has important implications for advertising regulation, the ethics of child apps design, as well as how parents discern which children’s apps are worth downloading.”
The study also noted young children “lack a meta-awareness about advertising and are unable to critically reflect upon their reactions to it." Therefore, children under 6 years old may be especially susceptible to collecting tokens or other game play items. And kids may also have even less understanding of online advertising than TV ads.
Moreover, in 35 percent of the apps reviewed in the study – including 54 percent of the free apps – advertising videos suddenly interrupted play or appeared where one level of a game ended and before another level began. Some apps also contained buttons that contained what the researchers say were misleading symbols – a dollar sign or teddy bear, for example. If a kid clicked on those buttons, they would see videos for other toys or food.
Advocates called out other examples: In “My Talking Tom” by Outfit7, a present is said to drop from the ceiling into the background. A child who researchers say "reasonably assumes that the present is part of a game will instead be prompted to 'watch videos and win.’"
In “Builder Game” by Bubado, thought bubbles regularly appeared next to characters to indicate what the player should do next. In many cases, these were games that could only be unlocked by making an in-app purchase or watching an ad, the study found.
Still another app targeted by advocates is “Sight Words” by EDUBUZZKIDS, which apparently prompts kids to click on ads by guiding them to a banner with cartoon hands.
Advocates said it is unfair to have a character in a game pressure a young child into making an in-app purchase. For example, in Bubadu’s “Doctor Kids,” a character cries if you click away from the in-app purchase store.
The letter sent to the FTC says it is deceptive to market as “free” apps that require additional purchases in order to play and that it is equally misleading to market games constantly interrupted by ads as “educational.”
Parents, have you come across such deceptive practices in the apps your kids use? Please share your experiences.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.org; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter.


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September 15, 2015, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: H.E. Dr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President, The United Republic of Tanzania, announced the launch of Tanzania Tourism’s new brand campaign, Tanzania, The Soul of Africa. This 30-second TV campaign will be launched globally on CNN America as well as BBC International, beginning this October and will run for six months. The announcement was made at the Kilimanjaro Hyatt Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
At the same time, President Kikwete also announced a new online Destination Tanzania portal and APP (now available on Play Store), developed by the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB), which will support Tanzanian tourism firms, increase visibility and access to international tourism markets, increase company sales and profitability, as well as contribute to the national economy of Tanzania and alleviation of poverty. President Kikwete urged Tanzanian tour operators to make use of the portal and APP, declaring that these tools would become unique platforms to attract international and regional tourism to Tanzania and play a significant role in developing and promoting Tanzania’s tourism industry.
President Kikwete commended the Tanzania Tourist Board and tourism stakeholders for this major campaign initiative, which will continue to position Tanzania as one of Africa’s leading tourist destinations. “I am very impressed by the Tanzania Tourist Board’s initiative. We need to apply these new approaches in order to compete effectively with other destinations around the world,” said President Kikwete. His Excellency further pointed out that the tourism industry accounts for about 17.2% of Tanzania’s GDP and nearly 25% of the total export earnings. The President also emphasized the enormous economic importance of tourism, especially as an “engine of employment”, which directly supports an estimated number of 250,000 jobs. The tourism industry is one of the largest employers in Tanzania and the primary foreign exchange contributor to the economy.
The new Tanzania Tourist Board portal is: http://tanzaniatourism.com/
Tanzania, the largest country in East Africa, is focused on wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, with approximately 28% of the land protected by the Government, the largest percentage of any country in the world.
Tanzania was named by The New York Times as one of the “52 Places to Go In 2015” and “Best Places To Travel In 2015” by Travel + Leisure. It boasts 16 National Parks, 31 game reserves, 50 Game Controlled Areas, one special Conservation Area (the Ngorongoro) and three Marine Parks. It is home to the tallest mountain in Africa, the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, the “Great Animal Migration”, the world-acclaimed Ngorongoro Crater, often referred to as the “Eden of Africa” and the “8th Wonder of the World, Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind, the Selous, the world’s largest game reserve, Ruaha (now the second-largest National Park in Africa, which is also featured on Afar Magazine’s “2015 Where to Go” list), the spice islands of Zanzibar and seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Most importantly for visitors, the Tanzanian people, with a rich history and diverse blend of cultures, are warm and friendly. Tanzania, an oasis of peace and stability, with a democratically elected and stable government, will celebrate its 54th Anniversary of Independence on December 9th, 2015. For more information on Tanzania, visithttp://www.tanzania.go.tz/
TTB USA Editorial contact:
Karen Hoffman/Lindsay Cortiana
The Bradford Group


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The Xbox 360 Wire is known as a brand new webpage launched by Microsoft, trying to provide fans with the latest news and updates around the newest online games, consoles, and services. It will also consist of occasional weblogs written by Microsoft executives.
Among their many other features, the company has announced its intend to become the world's first carbon-aware gaming program. This feature will allow avid gamers to cut back individual power use, which is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
The feature uses community carbon intensity data to schedule updates and game installs, and will potentially save users cash. Additionally , Xbox 360 consoles will be optimized to work with renewable energy, and definitely will attempt to program updates at times of lower-carbon electricity.
A further well known new characteristic is the Xbox 360 system Game Pass, a subscription program that provides users use of a variety of games. The program is very important to developers and gamers alike. A lot of the titles as part of the program are day-one lets out.
During a press event in New York last month, Microsoft says it https://www.uggbootsshoes.com/ is implementing a series of news to cut upon the amount of strength consumed by simply its Xbox 360 consoles. These features will probably be rolled out to testers, and should be available into a wider readership in the near future.
The biggest impact on this new characteristic is that it will probably reduce the Xbox's carbon footprint. This is a good point, as Ms has made that clear the gaming industry is among the top customers of carbon.


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BMW stole a march on some more ballyhooed electric-car programs by releasing an electric version of its Mini at the end of 2008. Where most of its competitors are engineering electric cars from scratch, the German automaker was able to adapt an existing electric drive system from California’s AC Propulsion to fit the Mini’s chassis. Five hundred of the cars are available for lease for a year, during which BMW will collect data about their use in preparation for a larger rollout.
Courtesy of BMW
Product: Mini E
Cost: $850 a month for a one-year lease, insurance included
Other products in this section:
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it
The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.
Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives
The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.


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Go First Airlines: GoFirst Airlines announced on Saturday that GoFirst Airlines would be canceling its flights till May 30. Passengers who had booked tickets in this regard will be given refund. The airline company cited operational issues. With this, the company has decided to cancel its flight. It has been said on behalf of the company that the refund will be done soon according to the payment mode. The company said that after the cancellation of the flights, the travel plans of the passengers are affected.
GoFirst flight canceled till May 30
The company said that we are committed to provide all possible assistance to the passengers from our side. Once again we will start the booking process very soon. The DGCA had asked crisis-hit domestic airline GoFirst to submit a detailed blueprint of its plan to resume operations. The regulator asked the airlines to submit a revival plan within 30 days to start operations within the next 30 days.
Flight is closed from May 3
Significantly, due to the deteriorating financial condition of Go First Air, flights have been canceled from May 3, 2023 itself. Sharing the information, GoFirst said that no date has been set yet to start flight operations. Last week, the company had canceled flights till May 26. In such a situation, speculations were being made that the company would start its flights from May 27. But once again till May 30, the company has canceled its flights, instead of which refund will be given to the passengers.


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Marijuana Banking has grown quickly. Here’s a look at Who’s Who
Power brokers - I spoke to half a dozen investment bankers about how their firms work in the cannabis space in terms of what they’re able to advise on — and what they’re not — and what trends they’re seeing in deal-making.
Let’s break it down bank by bank.
New York-based Cowen’s first cannabis-related transaction was the 2013 initial public offering of GW Pharmaceuticals on the Nasdaq. The firm in 2014 hired research analyst Vivien Azer, who co-founded the cannabis practice alongside banking Managing Director Gavin O’Reilly, a 19-year Cowen veteran.
Sitting within the bank’s consumer and retail investment banking coverage, Cowen doesn’t work with US-based THC businesses to raise growth capital — but it has advised on most other types of transactions within state and federal legal confines, O’Reilly said. “We had the benefit of a huge head start to understand the landscape and how to choose the right companies and the right transactions to work on.”
On top of research, Cowen also has a Washington-based policy group that keeps tabs on federal laws as well as a separate analyst who studies state rules.
O’Reilly sees increasing consolidation in the industry as well as tobacco and alcohol players making more investments in the space. Technology that services cannabis companies is also interesting to watch. “It’s been hampered by a lack of capital access, but the industry’s been creative in structuring transactions where sellers take earn-outs and seller notes and obviously stocks,” O’Reilly said.
The Los Angeles-based boutique investment bank established a cannabis practice in late 2019 led by Senior Vice President Sam Scanlan, a father of two and an avid golfer. The bank has two dedicated bankers as well as reinforcement from its consumer, food and retail banking, capital markets and financial valuation advisory operations. Houlihan Lokey draws on experience in its bread-and-butter middle-market advisory business.
“There are a lot of the same attributes in terms of leaner management teams, organization and needing a lot more than just a banker,” Scanlan said. On top of deal advisory, the bank provides tax and accounting services, as well as due diligence and valuation consulting for clients that may not have in-house resources, he added.
Scanlan sees plenty of consolidation and is working on bringing in traditional, noncannabis investors. “Our belief is that a lot of those pockets of capital are the ones that are going to cross over and help fill the supply and demand gap on the capital side.”
On top of being the only female banker I profiled in this space, Jefferies Managing Director Ariella Tolkin also uniquely sits within the bank’s health-care practice instead of consumer.
Based in Miami, Tolkin covers cannabis companies globally, including those in Germany and Australia. “Unlike other banks, Jefferies is a truly global bank, so I have resources in many countries,” she said. In the US, the bank doesn’t provide any advisory or capital-markets services to directly plant-touching businesses, she said.
She expects to see a lot of stock-for-stock M&A activity for consolidation in the next six to 18 months, followed by a wave of capital inflow from sector specialists such as mortgage investors that could look at cannabis mortgage REIT assets.
Started in 2018, Moelis’s cannabis business is led by Managing Director Grant Kassel. He spoke to me in August about his practice, which includes 15 bankers across all levels.
Kassel and the bank estimate that cannabis will be a $100 billion market annually. He sees the larger investment banks eventually moving into the space, but thinks it will take time.
The collaboration between the bank’s M&A and restructuring experts are part of what differentiates Moelis from other practices, he says. “We’re the leader in restructuring advisory in the cannabis sector, which is extra complicated given the lack of federal bankruptcy,” he said.
“From a growth vertical perspective, we’re spending a lot of time from a branded cannabis perspective because we think a consumer packaged goods-style coverage of this sector is where the industry will eventually go,” he added. The bank is also expanding internationally, with Europe being the first stop.
Partner James Wappler and Executive Director Chris Boffi lead the cannabis advisory business at boutique investment firm Perella Weinberg, which in 2018 began advising in the Canadian market.
“We provide strategic advice on mergers, acquisitions, capital structure initiatives, restructuring situations and liability management,” Wappler said.
“We’re a strategic advisory firm, so we’re not a ‘bank’ in a traditional sense,” he added. “We don’t provide loans or capital directly into companies. We advise on those initiatives.”
Buyers’ objective in M&A has changed recently to creating cash flow and improving profitability, versus the prior goal of establishing bigger footprints, Wappler said.
With a background in regulated consumer products including alcohol and tobacco, Wappler also envisions the sector becoming more mainstream and relevant to consumer companies in the longer run.
Want to follow more of Crystal’s content? Subscribe to the daily Bloomberg Deals newsletter here.
Number of the week
- 29%The percent of cannabis consumers who seek out cannabis with the goal of “relax and refresh” — by far the most common reason, ahead of stress relief, improved sleep, or easing pain, according to a recent report from New Frontier Data.
Quote of the week
What you need to know
- A health ministry panel in Japan, said the country — which has strict laws against the use of marijuana — should consider approving the import, manufacture and use of medicines derived from cannabis.
- Canopy Growth’s stock climbed after the Canadian cannabis producer said it’s reducing its retail business with deals to divest its Tweed and Tokyo Smoke stories.
- An appeals court affirmed a bong maker’s win in a suit alleging it violated California’s Proposition 65 by failing to warn consumers that its products expose them to marijuana smoke that could cause cancer or reproductive harm.
- Irwin Naturals agreed to buy Keta Media, doing business as Ketamine Media, a platform for clinics offering ketamine-assisted therapy.
- Rutgers Law School plans to launch a six-month certificate in cannabis law and business in January, the New Jersey school said.
- Dutchie, a cannabis industry payment services provider backed by high-powered investors, has hired John Kelleher as its general counsel. Kelleher comes to Dutchie after more than a decade as legal chief for HubSpot, a sales software company he joined in 2012.
- Cannabis initiatives on state ballots this year include recreational legalization in Missouri along with bills in Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Maryland, Bloomberg Government writes.
- Atai Life Sciences announced the start of its phase-1 trial for its MDMA derivative.


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Original Angry Birds take flight again in 15 brand new levels
Almost five years after the original Angry Birds game made its debut, Rovio is keeping things fresh with a new update that adds 15 brand new levels. All are based on fan-favorite episodes, and they’re available now on both Android and iOS.
It’s quite incredible that Rovio is still showing its original Angry Birds game some love after all this time — especially when you consider that there are now a long list of newer titles in the series. But it is the best-selling smartphone game of all time, and millions all over the world continue to play it.
You can now play over 500 levels in Angry Birds, and if you’ve already completed them all, you’ll be pleased to know there are more to enjoy in the new Flock Favorites bonus pack. The update comes more than a year after Rovio asked Angry Birds players what their favorite levels were on Facebook.
Based on the responses it received, the Finnish firm designed 15 news levels like Short Fuse, Red’s Mighty Features, Surf and Turf, and many more. The update also makes turns Super Seeds into Power Potions, so you can transform any bird into a pig-popping giant.
Check out the release trailer below.
You can download the latest Angry Birds update now on Android and iOS by following the links below.


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Associated Press//July 29, 2011
//July 29, 2011
FULTON — Pump and valve maker Colfax Corp. said Friday that its second-quarter profit increased five-fold on easy comparisons to last year’s second quarter, which was weighed down by restructuring charges and litigation expenses.
The adjusted results beat Wall Street predictions. Colfax also boosted its profit guidance for the full year. In midday trading, company shares surged $3.31, or 14 percent, to $27.38, after hitting a new 52-week high of $27.81 earlier in the day.
Colfax posted a profit of $10.4 million, or 23 cents per share, up from $2.1 million, or 5 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Excluding restructuring charges, expenses related to the company’s asbestos liabilities and litigation and tax adjustments, Colfax posted an adjusted profit of $14.1 million, or 32 cents per share, up from an adjusted $7.7 million, or 18 cents per share, last year. Analysts, on average, expected 26 cents per share, according to FactSet.
Revenue rose 52 percent to $186.7 million from $123 million. Analysts expected $155.1 million. Colfax credited strong order growth in its oil and gas, general industrial and commercial marine markets.
Colfax said it now expects to post an adjusted profit for 2011 of $1.20 to $1.26 per share, up from its previous prediction of $1.12 to $1.22. Analysts had expected $1.21 per share.
The company also said it now expects organic sales growth for the year of 9 percent to 11 percent, up from its prior guidance of 6 percent to 8 percent.o


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In 2019, one in every 150 digital ad impressions was dangerous or disruptive to the viewer, according to Confiant’s just-released Demand Quality Report for the fourth quarter and full-year 2019.
While that’s not something to cheer about, it compares favorably with 2018, when one in every 60 impressions was found to be either malicious or an in-banner video ad (IBV) served without the publisher’s (and sometimes the advertiser’s) consent, or of low quality.
The real-time ad-quality verification vendor tracks the quality of programmatic advertising on an ongoing basis. The 2019 report analyzes a normalized sample of more than 355 billion programmatic advertising impressions from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2019.
Malicious ads accounted for 29 billion, or 0.24%, of impressions last year — down from a high of 0.54% in fourth-quarter 2018. (Confiant launched these reports in October 2018.)
IBVs accounted for 27.4 billion -- or 0.23% -- of impressions, versus a high of 1.4% in second-quarter 2018.
Low-quality impressions totaled 27.5 billion, or 0.23% of overall impressions analyzed.
The trends vary somewhat from quarter to quarter, of course. In general, malvertising tends to be highest early in the year, then decline in mid-year, rising again somewhat at year-end. Last year’s activity was consistent with that pattern.
IBVs, while moving up and down somewhat by period, have “fallen precipitously” over the past eight quarters due to industry initiatives such as ads.txt, notes Confiant. “This, combined with moves by the major browsers and SSPs to disable autoplay video ads, has made IBV an endangered species.”
Increased vigilance on the part of the SSPs when it comes to ad quality issues given the highly competitive, and increasingly commoditized, nature of the space.
Malicious ad control has also benefited from industry initiatives like TAG's Certified Against Malware program -- which have increased general awareness around the threat of malware and galvanized efforts to combat it -- and better coordination between publishers and platforms, which narrows the brief window of time that malvertisers have before their exploits are detected and removed, Confiant reports.
However, the battle is obviously never-ending.
Another just-released report — this one from 404 Bot Network — highlights the flaws in ads.txt, and points out that the system is in some respects just making fraudsters up their game when it comes to ad spoofing and other scams.
And Confiant’s report notes that not only did issues across all categories rise significantly from the third quarter to the fourth quarter last year, but that the emergence of a particular fraud scheme called FizzCore — whose activity appears to have peaked in early December — marks “a new line of attack beyond redirects: the use of clickbait to drive users to scam pages.”
Other Confiant findings:
*A few SSPs continue to account for most of the problems. For instance, in Q4 2019, the worst-performing top SSP was 33 times as likely to deliver a malicious ad as the best. More than 60% of malicious impressions came from just three SSPs and more than 50% of serious quality issues came from just two.
*Problems vary by browser. Safari for iOS had the highest rate of malicious ads among top browsers in 2019, by a large margin. The next-highest levels were found with iOS Safari WebView, Android Facebook and Android Chrome. IBVs were most common on Windows Chrome, Windows Edge and Mac OS X Safari. Low-quality issues were also most common on Windows Chrome, followed by Mac OS X Safari and Android Chrome.


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With 2018 just around the corner, prospective travellers are no doubt busy planning new adventures for the year ahead. And while Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel campaign has already selected a group of countries, cities and regions for their dynamic and unique appeal, there is no doubt that some locations will always draw the big crowds due to their history, fame, beauty and cultural significance. With that in mind, Instagram has revealed the most documented sites from 2017, sharing a list of locations from around the world.
The results offer an interesting look at what has proved popular this year. And while the social media giant boasts a global community of 800 million, the top ten list was dominated mostly by the United States, with New York City alone scooping three of the top spots.
1. Disneyland, Anaheim, USA
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Living 💁🏽🧡 #disneyland . . https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/amp/2017/12/04/instagram-most-popular-locations-2017/ ☝🏽@jamesgabrielmartin ☝🏽 . . . . #losangeles #disneylandanaheim #nevergrowup #moana #mulan #familyfun #solorider #disney #disneyfan #dayoff #smallbusiness #travel #happyholidays #starttheadventure
Home to Disneyland Park, Walt Disney’s original theme park opened in 1955, Anaheim in southern California took the top place for most Instagrammed locations in 2017. Divided into eight different themed lands, including the famous Main Street, U.S.A and Critter Country, the attraction proved as popular as ever this year.
2. Times Square, New York City, USA
A post shared by DORIS☮∞☆ BLOGGER (@dorisblancpin) on Nov 30, 2017 at 12:41am PST
A must stop spot for any visitor to New York City, scrolling through the Times Square geotag on Instagram offers a constant stream of results from people wishing to document their time there. “Photographing Times Square was a very special moment for me. It’s my first time here and it was my biggest dream! I am here to celebrate my 40th honeymoon with my husband, that makes it a magic moment,” fashion blogger and avid Instagram user Doris Blanc Pin told Lonely Planet Travel News.
3. Central Park, New York City, USA
As one of the most famous green spaces in the world, the gigantic Central Park spreads across 843 acres and features elm-lined walkways and European-style gardens as well as an outdoor theatre, all of which proved to be incredibly Instagram-worthy in 2017.
4. Tour Eiffel, Paris, France
A post shared by Olivier Wong • Paris & Travel (@wonguy974) on Dec 2, 2017 at 12:33am PST
It’s estimated that over 300 million people have visited the iconic Eiffel tower since 1889, and it is perhaps the most easily recognised tourist attractions around the world.
5. Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo, Japan
Opened in 1983 as the first Disney theme park outside of the United States, the ever popular Tokyo Disneyland recently announced plans for expansion estimated to cost over $2 billion.
6. Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Orlando, USA
A post shared by ? Sarah || Belle’s Moments (@sarahs.wonderland) on Nov 30, 2017 at 5:30am PST
Of all the locations at the unfenced, 40-square-mile Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, Cinderella’s Castle as Disney’s Magic Kingdom is perhaps the most iconic, drawing endless crowds all year round.
7. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
A post shared by Marina (@marinasmirnowa) on Nov 30, 2017 at 4:19am PST
The world’s most visited museum, Musée du Louvre not only offers a stunning collection of over 35,000 pieces of work from iconic artists such as da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandt, it is also an iconic spot for budding photographers, with the 21-metre-high Grande Pyramide designed by Chinese-born American architect IM Pe proving especially popular.
8. Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, USA
A post shared by Jasper Léonard (@jasper.leonard) on Nov 30, 2017 at 2:58am PST
“The Brooklyn Bridge is a great subject to photograph, the massive stone pillars give a fantastic contrast with the fine steel cables. These cables look best when seen from the sidewalk at the centre of the bridge, giving them a delightful symmetric feature,” tilt-shift photographer Jasper Léonard told Lonely Planet Travel News.
9. Disney California Adventure Park, Anaheim, USA
Taking three spots in total on a list that spans the entire world, it’s clear that Disney has serious pulling power, with the Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim proving to be the ninth most Instagrammed location of 2017.
10. Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, USA
A post shared by Matt Piva (@mattpiva) on Nov 29, 2017 at 6:22pm PST
With its vast collection of casinos, high-end restaurants, hotels and entertainment facilities, not to mention its iconic and dizzying neon lights, it’s no wonder that the Las Vegas strip in Nevada managed to take a place in the top ten most instagrammed locations of 2017.
Source Article from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2017/12/04/instagram-most-popular-locations-2017/
The most Instagrammed locations of 2017 have been revealed
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text: OnePlus has been putting a lot of effort in improving its camera experience of its flagship phones. The previous OnePlus flagships showed marked improvements over their predecessors, but still didn't gave the other flagships much of a competition. We pit the OnePlus 6's new 16-megapixel sensor against the Huawei P20 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S9+, two phones that have already proven to have excellent cameras and at the same time, cost a lot more than the OnePlus 6 too. Can it compete against these flagships or even do a better job? We find out in our in-depth comparison.


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Google has launched its AI Test Kitchen app for experimenting with the LaMDA 2 conversational AI model announced at Google..
Google’s experiments with household robots and conversational AI have collided to produce a new language model called PaLM-SayCan for parent..
Google has introduced a web version of its popular Read Along educational app for teaching children to read. The website..
Google has officially released the Look and Talk feature for the Nest Hub Max smart displays that awakens Google Assistant..


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The Fed noted that the labor market has had “robust growth” in recent months and that the unemployment rate has decreased “substantially.” However, he warned that inflation remains high.
“(High inflation) reflects pandemic-related supply and demand imbalances, higher energy prices and broader pressures,” the statement read.
The inflation target of the Federal Reserve is 2% average. In April, the price index stood at 8.5%, a level not seen in 40 years.
Additionally, the central bank’s sustained invasion of Ukraine is creating additional upward pressure on inflation.
The central bank also warned that COVID-19-related lockdowns in China could increase disruptions to supply chains.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said a rate hike of up to three-quarters of a percentage point is not something officials are “actively considering.”
“It’s very unpleasant,” he added of the impact of inflation on households, which is triple the Fed’s 2% target.
“If you’re a person with a normal financial situation, you probably don’t have that much extra money to spend and this immediately affects your spending on food, gasoline, energy and other things. So we understand the discomfort that comes with it,” he added. the central banker.
At a news conference, Powell said he and his colleagues were determined to restore price stability, but doing so would mean higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and car loans.
“So it’s not going to be pretty either, but in the end, everyone is better off … with stable prices,” he added.
Still, the Fed said the economy is still doing well, and Powell said it is well positioned to withstand upcoming rate hikes, which are likely to be of a magnitude closer to the one announced on Wednesday.


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U.S. exports of goods and services plunged in March by a record and imports declined by the most in 11 years as the coronavirus pandemic stymied trade and travel.
The overall gap in goods and services trade widened to $44.4 billion from a revised $39.8 billion in February, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg had called for a widening to $44.2 billion.
Exports dropped from the prior month by a record 9.6% to $187.7 billion, while imports fell 6.2% to $232.2 billion.
Foreign trade was already diminishing heading into the pandemic, and now, faced with supply chain disruptions, a previously incomprehensible surge in unemployment and a drop off in demand, the world’s largest economy has pulled back more dramatically. A look at the details offers a more nuanced picture of how Covid-19 is decimating trade.
Declines in international travel and tourism made up a large portion of the decreases in exports and imports, representing almost the entire drop in all services trade. Travel exports declined 45% from February, while imports slumped 64%. Travel and transport exports dropped $10.2 billion, while imports fell $10.6 billion.
The value of U.S. merchandise exports declined to $128.1 billion, the lowest since May 2017, reflecting decreases in oil and petroleum products, motor vehicles and civilian aircraft. Goods imports fell to $193.7 billion, also the lowest in nearly three years, on fewer inbound shipments of motor vehicles and consumer goods.
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KENYA – Global fast food franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has opened Kenya’s first drive-through outlet on Mombasa Road.
The outlet located at a Total petrol station will see customers order, pay and pick up their food while still in their cars. The franchise is promising customers a service time of between two and five minutes from the point of making an order to the point of exit.
“Kenya is catching up with the rest of the world. People have less time and they want to eat. You want something quickly and you do not want to park, especially on Mombasa Road where there is high traffic.
They just want to come through, get something to eat and drive right out,” said Justin Melvin, general manager of KFC’s local franchise holder Kuku Foods Kenya, in an interview.
The store which is a joint venture between Total and KFC cost $1 million investment (Sh90 million) to set up.
It is KFC’s fifth fast food outlet in the country. “The building was done by Total, we have done the fit out,” said Mr Melvin.
The opening comes shortly after entry of Cold Stone Creamery and Domino’s Pizza in Kenya looking in to cash in on the growing number of middle income consumers.
This is one of the two KFC branches that was scheduled to be opened this year. The second is set to serve its first clients in a fortnight on Limuru Road.
The ‘Drive Thru’ model has been successful for KFC in other African countries including Egypt and South Africa.
Ocean Basket, Cold Stone, Domino’s, Naked Pizza, Spurs in addition to KFC are other major foreign chains with outlets in Nairobi.
Analysts and property developers also say that a combination of the growth in the mall culture and ongoing developments in roads and other infrastructure are other incentives for global retailers to enter the Kenyan market.
The country has been witnessing rising purchasing power among the middle class, with retailers and shopping centre developers investing in expansion plans.
Kuku Foods plans to open an additional 10 KFC stores in the next two years.
Frontier Strategy Group, a US data vendor that tracks emerging markets, mid this year ranked Kenya as the second most preferred destination in Africa for multinational corporations seeking to set up shop.


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National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland has written to the UK and Scottish ministers with responsibility for agriculture as Scotland’s farmers, crofters and growers continue to play an essential role in feeding the nation through the Covid-19 virus.
The letter from NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick followed both the Scottish and UK Governments issuing messages of support to the agriculture, food and drink sectors before the weekend.
McCornick’s letter highlighted the importance of Governments and industry working as one to ensure an adequate supply of food and beverages on supermarket and shop shelves, and the role of retailers in giving primary producers the confidence to continue producing during volatile times.
Thanking both ministers for the support and engagement of their departments and officials through the COVID-19 crisis, McCornick wrote: “Over generations, we as primary producers have demonstrated that agriculture is uniquely placed to overcome adversity, volatility and crisis, whether man-made or in animal or human health. The national effort to overcome the worst impacts of the COVID-19 virus is no different.”
“I have been impressed with the innovation of the supply chain to rebalance lost markets in export and food service with the unprecedented demand in the retail sector.”
Calling for the support of both governments to ensure farmers, crofters and growers can continue to produce with confidence, McCornick continued: “I have been impressed with the innovation of the supply chain to rebalance lost markets in export and food service with the unprecedented demand in the retail sector. However, in sectors where the loss of these markets has presented a particular challenge, we believe more could be done by retailers to meet the realignment of distribution that the market needs in this crisis.
“It is more important than ever that guaranteed contracts, payment on delivery and price transparency are instilled in dealings between retailers and their suppliers to ensure fairness through the whole supply chain and back to the primary producer, so we can all meet the challenges and responsibilities presented COVID-19.”
Mr McCornick added: “These are unprecedented times, with all sectors of the economy having to adapt to a radically altered operating environment.
“Our industry is playing a vital role in keeping the nation fed and watered through this crisis and in recent weeks, NFU Scotland has been in daily correspondence with both of our governments, as well as organisations representing the whole of the food and drink industry, to ensure that the supply chain continues to function effectively.
“Fairness, transparency and trust throughout the supply chain are not new issues to NFU Scotland: much work has been done on this before the impact of the COVID-19 virus, and their importance has fresh focus as our sector plays its part in the wider societal effort to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19.
“If we can get this right, and with the continued support of both governments, then our industry is well placed to meet these challenges. This is what my letter to our ministers has clearly set out.”


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On Wednesday, car manufacturer Stellantis announced their full-year results, revealing that their net profit had risen 26 percent to a record-breaking $17.9 billion. In a Feb. 22 release, the company attributed their financial performance to their ability to pass on higher manufacturing costs to customers, as inflation in 2022 hit multi-decade highs. Stellantis also announced a $4.47 billion dividend payout, subject to shareholder approval.
Net revenues for Stellantis, the manufacturer of such brands as Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, rose 18 percent to $190.8 billion due to “strong net pricing, favorable vehicle mix, and positive FX translation effects”, referring to a combination of exchange rate fluctuations and hedging strategies. All of the company’s regions grew and posted record profits, with the “Third Engine” region—which includes Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South America—seeing a 34 percent increase in net revenues.
With 23 BEVs on the European market, Stellantis sold 288,000 such vehicles in Europe, and hopes to double that number by 2024. Globally, Stellantis saw a 41 percent increase in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales and expects to sell 5 million BEVs by 2030. To that end, the company has two gigafactories in the works in North America, and will be rolling out an electric pickup truck in 2023.
The company has been able to manage better than many carmakers to adapt to supply chain disruptions, maintaining the most abundant vehicle inventory in the U.S. auto industry for the past year. However, Stellantis still posted a decline in U.S. sales in the fourth quarter, while also cutting incentives, and their average transaction price rose to over $55,000. Jeep is Stellantis’ highest-volume brand in North America, with the Jeep Wrangler 4xe the top-selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in both the United States and Canada.


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Under its ESOP buyback programme, all eligible employees were able to sell up to 25 percent of their vested shares during the buyback, the statement said
B2B commerce unicorn Moglix on Monday said it has completed an ESOP buyback programme worth USD 3 million, wherein employees sold up to 25 percent of their shares.
The company has also expanded its ESOP pool to USD 10 million that will include more than 300 employees under the programme, a statement said. Moglix had recently raised USD 120 million in series E fundraise last month, entering the unicorn club (valuation of USD 1 billion). Under its ESOP buyback programme, all eligible employees were able to sell up to 25 percent of their vested shares during the buyback, the statement said.
“We believe ESOPs represent the ownership mindset and belief in the vision. Typically B2B and manufacturing are not seen as attractive sectors for talent. But through our ESOP programme and our work culture, we want to make it rewarding and meaningful to work in B2B,’ Moglix founder and CEO Rahul Garg said.
The company wants to enable long-term wealth creation for employees and recognize their contribution and commitment, he added. Founded in 2015, Moglix provides solutions to more than 5 lakh SMEs and 3,000 manufacturing plants across India, Singapore, the UK, and UAE.
It has a supply chain network of over 16,000 suppliers and more than 35 warehouses and logistics infrastructure. The company, which also offers end-to-end supply chain operations from sourcing to financing, has a team of about 1,000 employees.
Source: Business World