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Recreational pot shops were still waiting Sunday for a key element of a new state-mandated tracking system, five days after the shops opened their doors to sell recreational marijuana.
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Vodafone Qatar is harnessing a network of partners to support organisations in the Middle East with their internet of things strategies
Businesses need to change the way they think about cyber security from the board down to avoid getting caught in common traps and becoming vulnerable to attack, a report warns
Many of the country’s medium-sized and large organisations do not have a dedicated security budget or teams to respond to cyber threats
IT often seems a mostly US industry, but other nations contribute a lot too, says Dutch database design scientist Martin Kersten, who has received the Association for Computing Machinery’s Fellow Award
Stockholm’s CIO is relishing the challenge of trying to make the Swedish capital the smartest city in the world
PayPal’s EMEA director of analytics talks about making customers feel secure, using data analytics and problems with embracing big data
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine replaces ageing HP servers and MSA SAN with Scale Computing HC3 hyper-converged infrastructure, and saves £80,000 in replacement costs
Most UK decision makers believe GDPR is not relevant to them, but a fifth admit they do not know, a survey reveals
Some customers of credit referencing company are having problems accessing a service they pay for following an IT upgrade and large customer migration to a new system
Full deployment of a commercial 5G mobile network is still at least two years away, but new business models are already beginning to crystallise around the technology, and operators would be wise to start preparations soon, a new report claims
Consumer electronics giant confirms plans to start building a second, renewably-powered datacentre in Denmark during the fourth quarter of 2017
Google to distrust all WoSign CA certificates in Chrome starting in September, as the troubled certificate authority passed a key audit and is seeking a new CEO to help return trust.
The Cyber Security Experience will offer budding cyber sleuths a chance to chart their careers and test their skills in cyber war games
UK businesses are investing in IT to help them deal with changes that could be around the corner amid geo-political uncertainty
MASS wins seven-year contract to supply a digital forensics managed service to London’s Metropolitan Police Service
Despite the increasing number of data breaches and the looming GDPR compliance deadline, many companies are still relying on perimeter defences and are underinvesting in technologies to keep data safe, research has revealed
Twelve startups have been chosen for Wales’ first-ever national tech accelerator – a six-month programme run by Innovation Point
Three boss brands Ofcom’s spectrum auction proposals a ‘kick in the teeth’ but Ofcom says the operator is already in a much better competitive position
In the rush to skill-up through cyber security training, the IISP warns businesses may go down the wrong track, resulting in a false sense of security
Insurance firm partners with HomeServe to deploy its internet of things LeakBot technology and lower customer premiums
Matthew Taylor’s review on the ‘gig economy’ calls on government to invest in digital technology to support self-employed people
Zenko.io is a control layer that allows customers to manage data in on-site Scality ring object storage and multiple public clouds but falls short of full data portability for now
Microsoft Azure Stack, the company's hybrid cloud platform, could provide channel partner opportunities among customers who need an on-premises instance of the Azure public cloud.
Experts said the new Android Samba app from Google supported only unsafe SMBv1 despite susceptibility to WannaCry exploits and unclear demand from users.
Airbus is helping to drive the cyber security market for industrial control systems used throughout industry, including many providers of critical national infrastructure
Countries in the oil-reliant GCC region could diversify their economies by employing IoT technologies
Fast-growing cloud-based communications service provider expects to more than double its workforce within a year, and grow its business in the double-digit range
National network access business rebrands in preparation to be legally separated from BT Group
The Home Office is to be one of the first public sector organisations to access cloud services from Oracle’s UK cloud region
Retail payments made by debit cards exceeded the number made by cash for the first time last year
Global technology firms have joined forces to support an internet-wide campaign in favour of preserving net neutrality
Cyber security industry believes the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is hindering innovation and could encourage organisations to cover up security breaches, a poll has revealed
O2 enlists Cisco to help build out the multi-million pound public Wi-Fi network currently taking shape in London’s Square Mile
The UK has been ranked among the top 10 nations in terms of digital capabilities
National Audit Office slams severely delayed MoJ electronic tag project for series of failures, including being too ambitious, not delivering benefits and procurement shambles
Flash pioneer CTO says array controllers are built for a different era and must scale-out as clusters to provide the CPU power needed to allow NVMe to realise its potential
Each year Computer Weekly recognises several great women from the IT industry and their lifetime achievements in its Most Influential Women in UK IT Hall of Fame
Jules Okafor discusses the skills gap in the cybersecurity industry, how better IT diversity could help, and what is needed to bring in more women and minorities.
Westminster City Council has secured £2.8m to fund a local broadband connection voucher scheme to deliver gigabit speeds to businesses in the London borough
Actifio's copy data management platform finds favor with financial, government, healthcare and retail organizations. More than 2,200 customers use Virtual Data Pipeline.
Client-side security takes the forefront in Microsoft's July 2017 Patch Tuesday, which includes a fix for legacy Windows NTLM authentication processes.
The UK government has announced a second cyber accelerator programme aimed at helping UK startups take the lead in producing the next generation of cyber security systems
Who deserves the title of Most Influential Woman in UK Technology for 2017? Submit your vote here
A former Unit 8200 captain from the Israel Defense Forces shares what Singapore can learn from Israel’s approach to cyber security
Verizon has responded to reports of millions of customer records being exposed to the internet by saying no data was accessed by malicious third parties, but the incident raises thorny issues
Startup offers virtual NAS, storage software deployed on commodity servers or in the cloud to give single storage pool of file access the can scale to trillions
Blockchain has quickly established itself in financial services businesses, with companies in other industries likely to see a similar trend
Dell EMC’s Paul Henaghan is no stranger to industry consolidation, having worked for tech companies that were acquired by Oracle and Software AG. Here, the president of Dell EMC in South Asia and Korea shares what it is doing to streamline its salesforce, his views of the hyper-convergence space and the company’s strategy for tackling the APAC market
Cognizant has opened its latest digital development centre in London, where it will work with customers and partners on digital business challenges
National Audit Office is concerned that customs declaration service will not be ready in time for the UK’s departure from the EU because significant challenges remain
Telecoms regulator Ofcom is setting up a dedicated unit to keep a watchful eye on Openreach
Card giant offers small US businesses financial support to upgrade their payments technology if they agree to abandon cash
The UK information commissioner has published her first annual report since taking over the post in July 2016
Zurich Insurance has demonstrated confidence in CSC's merger with HPE through a contract extension
Internet search giant declares its UK datacentre region open for business, and promises users improved application performance
Bupa international health insurance customers have been urged to be vigilant in the wake of a data breach by a company employee
Encryption keys are not as random as most people think, which means encrypting data is often not as secure as it could be, according to security researchers
HMRC has pushed back the go-live date of its Making Tax Digital project following concerns the timetable was too risky
As Google and Mozilla prepare plans to reduce trust for Symantec's certificate authority, the antivirus vendor is reported to be seeking a buyer for its web certificate business.
WekaIO launched its scale-out file system, which is optimized for server-based flash storage and designed to tier data to cheaper object storage on premises and in public clouds.
This week, bloggers assess how Volta Networks is shifting to cloud-based routing, device identification, and IPv6 and VLAN interfaces.
Scality's new open source initiative is a multi-cloud management vision to help customers match specific workloads to the best cloud service. Zenko is based on Scality S3 Server.
Researchers found changes in malware behavior when Petya detected certain security products, but experts are unsure why these features might exist.
The Australian government remains undaunted in requiring tech firms to provide access to encrypted communications in law enforcement efforts
The NHS has been urged to invest wisely in cyber defences after the government announced plans to increase data security funding by millions of pounds in response to the Caldicott review
A survey of IT leaders worldwide reveals that not all organisations are planning to improve their cyber defences in the wake of the Petya attacks
UK minister for defence procurement has opened Lockheed Martin’s job-creating cyber security centre aimed at boosting UK cyber defence capability and skills
Addison Lee’s CDO is aiming to modernise the minicab’s firm estate and create a proactive data service for the business
Splunk continues to invest in the channel with a revised partner portal, which provides visibility into the deal registration process, educational materials and other new features.
News roundup: An AWS S3 bucket leak containing personal data of millions of Verizon customers was exposed to the public. Plus, DNC hack victims are suing the Trump campaign, and more.
Kaseya said its Powered Services offerings can help MSPs quickly expand their portfolios to include security and network management services; other news from the week.
Google will use machine learning and automated peer review scans to improve Android app privacy and limit app permissions overreach.
Microsoft's Azure Stack will likely be more successful in the hybrid cloud market than VMware Cloud on AWS, according to analysts. Both products are set to ship by September.

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TestFlight, Apple's testing system, allows app developers to submit unreleased and incomplete versions of an app to users, who can test it and provide feedback to developers on how it works.
Certo Software reports that phishers have recently uploaded third-party virtual keyboards to TestFlight that look and function exactly like the iPhone's virtual keyboard — except that it records every keystroke, monitors and records, thus logging a lot of user data, passwords and messages. Without the user becoming suspicious, he writes BGR.
According to the aforementioned report, all of this could lead to drastic changes in the use of TestFlight, as Apple may have to suspend the license to use the program for security reasons.
BGR points out that anyone can take individual steps to protect themselves from hackers. iPhone Settings In the list generalthen keyboard By clicking on the menu item, you can check which keyboards are installed on the phone. If among these we see something that we have not installed ourselves and/or of unknown origin, it may be advisable to delete it. this Editing button and then select the red minus button.


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Markets have undergone a profound transformation after decades of top-down corporate messaging. As you read this, the marketing world is changing, and with it the way business will be conducted for decades to come. This change is being demanded by the enlightened and empowered consumer – the so-called prosumer – who no longer responds to a media-propelled “brand essence.” Most current advertising still relies on obsessive proliferation of the brand through mass media that seek economies of scale – the more eyeballs, the better. But consumers want more than mass messages sent to eyeballs. They want respect, recognition and relevant communication, and they've indicated that the best way to give it to them is through experiences that are personally relevant, memorable, sensory, emotional and meaningful. Consumers have changed dramatically, and the brand world must change to meet their needs and desires, or lose them to those that recognize the unique influences shaping the evolving marketplace.
“Today, customers take product quality and a positive brand image as a given,” writes
The question isn't which industries will be transformed by the focus on customer experience, but only which will be first. Companies who do not recognize this change will perish. Those who see the necessity for change and embrace XM will be embraced in turn by the most empowered consumer base in the history of the world. At the IXMA, an international cadre of forward-thinkers is building and propagating the experiential marketing (XM) revolution.


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How do you save money at your favorite hotels?
It’s been a rough few weeks for hotels in Florida.
According to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the number of hotel workers hired last year fell from a high of 2,200 to 1,000.
But hotel owners are trying to hold on to workers who are already in their ranks.
“It’s an industry that’s going through a lot of growth,” said Mike Zavala, executive director of the Florida Association of Resorts and Tourism.
“The number of hotels that are hiring has increased in recent years, but that growth has not matched the number that are coming in.”
There are also a number of factors that are driving the downturn.
For one, there’s a decline in the number and quality of the tourism industry, which has fallen to its lowest level in decades.
The Florida Department Of Tourism estimates that the tourism trade lost about $3.5 billion last year.
That is about one-third of the total revenue the industry generated last year, according to the tourism agency.
In other words, hotels are losing money in spite of spending the most in the past year.
Other factors that have driven the decline include the collapse of a booming tourism industry in China, the collapse in tourism investment in California, and a weak economy in Florida that has been a drag on tourism.
Zavala said the state’s tourism industry has experienced a “slow but steady decline.”
“We’re seeing a very, very, slow recovery of that industry,” he said.
“We are a very different economy from the one we had in the late 2000s, when we had the great recession and we were able to rebuild that economy and it’s very much working.”
While the hotel industry has seen an economic rebound, Zavara said it’s not as strong as the industry might like.
He said the industry has had to invest in better management, training, and equipment to compete with the growth in other industries, like retail.
“It would have been nice to see the hotel owners have the ability to invest and be able to keep their employees on their payroll,” Zavalla said.
Many hotels have cut back on staff, though, leaving some workers in the workforce to make do.
One of the ways that the industry is coping with the downturn is by hiring a smaller number of workers, Zevala said.
Some hotels have reduced their staff from a maximum of 60 to 30.
Zavalia said the decrease in staffing could help keep costs down.
The hotel industry also is relying on its pool of talent, but the pool has also shrunk as more hotels have eliminated or moved staff away from pools.
That has contributed to a dip in occupancy numbers, Zavella said.
The industry is also in a transition.
In the past few years, many hotels have closed their poolrooms, but they’re slowly coming back online.
Zavela said hotels have been able to make up for the losses they’ve lost by expanding their pool facilities.
“If we had an expansion, you wouldn’t be able see that,” he explained.
It’s unclear if the industry will be able continue to recover.
Zava said he expects the industry to see a “sharp drop in revenue” this year, and that could lead to a decline this year.
“We may not see a lot more growth this year,” he warned.
“But we will be seeing more of a drop in the revenues.”
In fact, Zava’s forecast is a little more optimistic than many of his peers.
He’s predicting that hotels will take a hit this year because of the drop in vacationers.


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Fielded from March to May, the responses reflect CMOs’ optimism about business rebounding in the next year and a half, in addition to a desire to play things safe in 2021 by targeting existing markets.
The results of Mood Media’s survey show nearly half (49 percent) of consumers around the world are still nervous that in-store shopping will expose them to the virus, yet most have returned to non-essential stores.
This week in social media news: TikTok rival Likee garners 150 million MAUs in Q2, LinkedIn adds new features to its Sales Navigator platform, Snapchat partners with TikTok creators to launch body movement-tracking lenses.
This week in social media news, President Trump issues an executive order banning TikTok and WeChat in 45 days if they’re not sold by their parent companies.
Using its leftover avocado pits, Chipotle is launching a sustainable line of apparel and accessories made with organic cotton called Chipotle Goods, all profits from which will benefit organizations advancing sustainability in fashion and farming.
Predictive analytics, the use of real-world data and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes, has become a cornerstone of media planning.
In mid-2018, a whopping 61 million members of Gen Z entered the US workforce, making there five generations in the workforce at once.
New research shows adopting sustainability practices can boost a brand’s key metrics, as 77 percent of executives say sustainability initiatives have increased consumer loyalty.
We’re searching for the most pressing marketing insights this week.
The percentage of black hires in the US grew from 4.8 percent in 2018 to 5.5 percent in 2019, a paltry 0.7 percent increase.


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Online video services have cropped up just about every other week lately, but they seem to fade into obscurity just as quickly as they appear. However, a new video service spearheaded by media heavyweights News Corp and NBC promises a different formula.
As the Associated Press reports, the service—dubbed Hulu—has opened today as part of a limited beta test. Among Hulu's library are not only shows from News Corp and NBC, but also Sony, MGM, and other, smaller content providers. That adds up to 90 TV shows, including 24, Battlestar Galactica, Family Guy, Heroes, House, Journeyman, and The Office. All shows are available for free on an ad-supported basis, and users can reportedly share shows and embed clips on the Web.
According to the AP, Hulu is set to launch publicly early next year. Meanwhile, interested users can sign up for the test on hulu.com. The AP adds that, not long after the launch of the beta test, Hula shows will be made available on AOL, Comcast, MSN, and Yahoo.
|1. Ryszard - $603||2. Hdfisise - $600||3. Andrew Lauritzen - $502|
|4. Redocbew - $350||5. the - $306||6. SomeOtherGeek - $300|
|7. chasp_0 - $251||8. Ryu Connor - $250||9. mbutrovich - $250|
|10. YetAnotherGeek2 - $200|
|EVGA GTX 980 Ti VR Edition puts 5.25" drive bays to use||8|
|Windows 10 gets new Release Preview ring and detailed change logs||8|
|Asus releases a trio of colorful B150 boards for smaller PCs||16|
|Ash Wednesday Shortbread||30|
|Google to phase out Flash display ads in January of next year||14|
|Oculus will discount Oculus Ready PCs as part of a Rift bundle||25|
|Micron reports early successes in GDDR5X production||48|
|AOC U2879VF monitor brings 4K and FreeSync together||65|
|Amazon lets developers build games for free with Lumberyard||10|


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According to a series of news articles, the new iPhone 5 may come with a new connector that may cause problems with music playback systems in some cars.
Apple decided to get rid of the 30-pin connector, which many car manufacturers like Kia use. According to the reports, the standard analog connector that used the 30-pin to connect the iPhone or iPod to the car stereo will not be found at the iPhone 5. However, the company states that any cars using USB or Auxiliary should not have a problem.
For more details on this new iPhone feature, read the full article here:
Did the iPhone 5 Just Make Your Car Obsolete?


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Mobridge's small businesses are facing an unprecedented economic disruption due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. On April 15, 2020, the City of Mobridge opened up funding to allow for a quick and easy process for business owners to help ease the short-term financial burden.
The City, in collaboration with Mobridge Economic Development, have loans available in $2500 or $5000 increments and will be issued to Mobridge businesses at zero percent interest. Payments will be deferred through Dec. 31, 2020, and then amortized over four years. There will be no pre-payment penalty.
This program's loans will be available until funding of this program is exhausted.
2021 Ice Fishing Tournament Lottery Registration
Posted on 09-01-2020
Ice Fishing Update: Ice Tournament Important Dates
Posted on 08-21-2020
212 N Main St
Mobridge, SD 57601


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First cruise ship of season calls at Port Kingstowm
The first cruise ship of the season docked at the Cruise Ship Terminal in Kingstown yesterday, bringing thousands of passengers to Vincentian shores.
Passengers arriving on the cruise ship Azura were greeted by live music and local art and craft displays.
According to this year’s call list, more than 200 cruise calls will be made at various ports in St Vincent and the Grenadines between November 1 and March 31, 2019.
The majority of the cruise calls, 69, will be made at port Kingstown and 67 will be made at the port in Bequia.
Sixteen calls will be made to the port in Union Island, 32 will be made at Mayreau, 18 will be made at the Tobago Cays and three will be made at Canouan.
This year, seven ships will make calls to Vincentian ports for the first time ever.
A series of activities is also scheduled to take place in the month of November, which has been dubbed Tourism Month.
Jewelene Charles-Scott, the Tourism Education Officer said that these activities include a ‘Kids’ Wellness Day’, ‘Rural Tourism Outreach’ on the Leeward and Windward sides of St Vincent, ‘Dress like a Tourist Day’ and a ‘Faces of Tourism’, which will highlight different stakeholders in the industry and the benefits of being a part of the tourism industry.


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US-based Besana Lovati Inc. has been acquired by Umberto Fassi, president of Italian manufacturer of glass processing equipment Costruzioni Meccaniche Besana S.p.A.
Umberto Fassi, president of Costruzioni Meccaniche Besana S.p.A., the Italian manufacturer of glass processing equipment, has acquired a 100% stake in US-based Besana Lovati Inc. The company, which is located in Winston Salem, N.C, is known for representing high-quality machines and other equipment from companies such as Macotec, Quaranta, Besana, Rollmac, Cugher and Lovati.
In addition, Besana Lovati Inc. recently announced that Dio Guerra had been appointed to the position of national sales manager. Guerra, who has more than 28 years of experience in the glass fabricating industry, will be responsible for all sales activities in North America.
Hal Strait has also been named as a sales agent for Besana Lovati in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Strait has more than 30 years of experience in the glass industry in diverse positions in engineering, manufacturing and machine sales.


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Where the USD falls victim to the Triffin dilemma, the borderless, digital cryptocurrency bitcoin may hold promise to solve this international monetary flaw, and provide the backbone for a more interdependent global economy.
Cultures everywhere are being redesigned along digital guidelines, creating what we would call diginomic lifestyles. As the world reshapes and redesigns itself, it is rapidly and optimally adopting the technologies required to maximize convenience.
Something BIG is happening in the area of world economics. It is the search for a system which will drastically alter our standard and way of living – one which will put an end to our use of cash, checks and personal credit.


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TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING: HARDWARE
TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING: HARDWARE; UNISYS PLANS REVAMPING
Published: December 8, 2000
Executives of Unisys told analysts yesterday that they were considering shedding their federal computer services unit and cutting 2,000 jobs, or 5 percent of the company's work force, as it eliminates low-profit businesses that have generated $1 billion in revenue. The company, based in Blue Bell, Pa., said it expected fourth-quarter revenue to fall as it left the businesses. But earnings would be in line with consensus estimates, it said.


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Many or all of the companies featured provide compensation to LendEDU. These commissions are how we maintain our free service for consumers. Compensation, along with hours of in-depth editorial research, determines where & how companies appear on our site.
Car repairs can be unplanned and pricey, and today’s expensive new car prices and replacement parts costs are making them even pricier. While the old adage “Buyer Beware” still holds true for car buyers, the saying, “Buyer Be Ready” might be more relevant.
Rising Prices All Around
In 2017, motor vehicle repair prices were 61.07 percent higher as compared to 2000, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This comes as the average new car sticker price is more than $36,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. Factor in 86 percent of new car buyers taking out a loan to make the purchase and you have an expensive investment.
If these new cars endure damage from an accident, get ready to shell out more money for repairs. Why the greater expense these days? This comes from replacement costs for technology-based safety features such as blind-spot warning systems with sensors, camera-embedded bumpers, and airbags.
But it can be worse to own an older car with a lower value as insurance adjusters might consider a car’s damage as totaled — even with little car body damage. A totaled vehicle can be defined as repair costs plus scrap value either equals or exceeds a car’s pre-accident value, according to Insurance.com. In cases like this, insurance payouts might not fully cover the cost of a replacement — and your car loan won’t disappear on its own.
Keep Paying the Auto Loan
For vehicle owners with an outstanding car loan, there will be no loan forgiveness with a totaled car. Insurance.com noted if a car has been totaled and the amount due on the loan is greater than the car’s value, the insurance company will pay out the car’s actual cash value (defined as the market value prior to damage from the accident). But it won’t pay more than the car’s value when it is a total loss.
Say you’re carrying a $20,000 car loan on a car valued at $15,000 when an accident occurred, plus a $1,000 insurance deductible. Insurance might pay you $14,000 for the totaled car. However, the check will go to the car owner and lender to be signed and mailed to the finance company — or sometimes it goes straight to the bank. In the end, the lender will be waiting for the $6,000 loan balance from the car owner’s pocket.
Expanding Black Market for Car Parts
Amid high prices from technological components, critical car parts are also rising and spurring a jump in car thefts: a 4 percent-plus rise in 2017, according to recent data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. “Chop-shop rings” are breaking down parts from stolen cars and then selling them on the black market.
This is because the parts are usually worth more than the vehicle as a whole and are easier to unload, NICB Senior Vice President and COO Jim Schweitzer said in a recent press release. “That’s why we see so many thefts of key items like wheels and tires and tailgates…there’s always a market for them.”
Just how expensive are parts? A stolen 2016 Toyota Camry midsize sedan (recognized as 2016’s most-stolen new car), could carry an almost $11,000 average repair bill thanks to its expensive parts ($1,700 for a quarter panel, anyone?), according to the NICB.
It gets worse. For a 2016 GMC Sierra pickup truck, its total cost for replacement sits at $21,000.
What’s a consumer to do? For one, you can consider adding gap insurance to your car insurance policy. That might ensure you’re paid the difference between the actual cash value and the balance you owe on a lease or loan.
But the next time you get lured by a shiny new (or used) car, keep in mind the price tag at the start could turn into an even greater one as time goes on.
Author: Mike Brown


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NEW YORK -- Sears Holdings Corp. has released a list of 79 of the 100 to 120 stores it announced it would close in the wake of weak holiday sales.
Three of those stores are in Southern California.
Sears Holdings says additional store closings may lay ahead for poor performing stores.
"While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment," said D'Ambrosio.
The company will also cut its inventory in the stores that will remain open by $300 million as a cost-cutting measure.
The company estimates the closings will generate between $140 million to $170 million in cash as the inventory of the closed stores is sold off, and additional cash from the sale or sublease of the real estate.
Sears said it has set a target of another $100 million to $200 million in fixed cost cuts.


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Asia week ahead: Chinese holiday may reduce market volatility
Manufacturing data dominates
The usual end- and start-of-the-month activity releases dominate the calendar at the crossover from September to October and a typical focus around this time is on purchasing manager indices.
As we see from advance September PMI releases in developed countries, manufacturing has likely gained some more traction while services continued to suffer.
China’s PMIs are usually more market-moving than those in the rest of Asia. We expect a slightly higher manufacturing index but a lower services PMI than August readings, though both indices should stay comfortably in growth territory. Meanwhile, China’s industrial profits data for August due over the weekend will be another clue to manufacturing recovery.
Judging from upbeat August exports and industrial production (up 9.5% YoY and 5.6% YoY, respectively), profits growth remain strong. If so, firms should continue to expand production, in our view. But, as they gear up for the long National Day holiday (1-8 October), the local markets might overlook this data flow.
Korea’s export data for September – the first from the region, will be a leading indicator for the rest of Asia’s export recovery. The upturn of the semiconductor cycle bodes well for Asia’s electronics heavyweights, such as Korea, and the same goes for Malaysia, which reports August trade data next week.
Hong Kong’s retail sales and Indonesia’s CPI inflation will tell us more about the consumption recovery, as high unemployment continues to weigh on consumer spending.
Central bank policy non-events
The central banks of India and the Philippines will meet next week and announce their decisions on Thursday, 1 October.
We believe the Reserve Bank of India’s easing cycle has ended. With inflation running well above the 6% policy limit, the central bank has no scope to ease policy any further. The RBI paused after 115bp in rate cuts from March to May. This, together with rampant liquidity measures, has pushed the real interest rate to negative and flooded the system with liquidity. Yet, bank lending growth remains on a steady downward grind. As such, additional stimulus isn’t going to be of much use for the economy. Confidence has to return first.
Likewise for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, whose chief Benjamin Diokno sees the monetary accommodation provided so far, including a total of 175bp of policy rate cuts this year, as sufficient for the next two years.
Asia Economic Calendar


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Schnauser have released a trailer for their album Protein For Everyone, which is out now via Esoteric Antenna.
The Bristol outfit aimed to balance pop sensibilities with “inappropriate glockenspiel and fuzz bass” for the record, set in a world where people can sell parts of their body to food processing firms for “easy money.”
The five-minute preview follows a shorter clip launched last month.
Protein For Everyone tracklist
Grey or Blue
Protein for Everyone
The Reason They’re Alive


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2014 Corvette Stingray Will Start at $51,995
We already know that the 2014 Corvette Stingray C7 will ship with a 450hp 6.2L V8, seven-speed manual transmission, and a vastly superior interior than the C6. Now you tell me, isn’t that worth a
measly 300 credits extra $2,000?
General Motors announced today that the C7 will cost just under $52,000 when it is released later this year. That’s an increase of just $2,395 over the C6, and most everything has been reworked, most obviously the exterior and interior. The leather-wrapped cockpit shown at the Detroit Auto Show will add an extra $8,005 to the bottom line, however, and the sport bucket seats tack on an additional $2,495. It’s a small price to pay to overcome what has been one of the main disappointments of the outgoing C6. The convertible will cost an even $5,000 more than the coupe.
Read the full press release and the options list here.


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The dupe debate
Is ‘dupe’ just another word for ‘scam’?
hey do not have to be found at the end of a dark alleyway on New York City’s Canal Street or on virus-filled corners of the dark web. Gen Z’s quest for fashionable knockoffs is as easy to find as typing “dupes” into the search bar on TikTok.
“The shadowy business of counterfeits has taken over the globe to become a more than $500 billion industry,” The Fashion Law reported in 2019. Some designers have used collections to showcase dupes such as Gucci shirts with the brand name spelled incorrectly or sending out runway models wearing a fake designer shirt. It seems that rather than fight the counterfeiters, luxury designers have leaned into dupe culture.
Duping is not a new idea: it’s merely a new name for an old trend. Maybe it’s the Gen Z stubbornness of not wanting to admit that we are buying faux items, so we have to put it by another name. Maybe it is the denial that comes with buying something faux and not wanting to admit it. Or maybe Gen Z really thinks it is onto something new. No matter how one defines duping, it seems like it’s here to stay.
As a Gen Zer I am no stranger to TikTok, and duping has been infiltrating my feed for months. The popularity of duping videos on TikTok, usually in the format of a duper showing a designer or brand name item on the screen and then showing a picture of a comparable but cheaper alternative next to it, shows the evergreen nature of duping content.
Olivia Katz, a 25-year-old native New Yorker working in marketing, started her duping journey in middle school when YouTubers started to make dupes for makeup products, and people would review them online.
Over the past two years, TikTok has become the go-to source for her duping hobby because users there are more forthcoming about their recommendations, according to Katz.
“It’s easier to find things, and you don’t really have to do as much legwork on the back end of finding things yourself,” Katz said.
Users such as Maddie Evans, Heidi and Tara Snipes, and Kelly Strack have made names for themselves on social media by advising dupers on how to find the most realistic-looking but affordable dupe items.
Laura Galebe, who graduated from SU last year is a 22-year-old full-time influencer with 24k followers, has witnessed the communal aspect of finding dupes on her TikTok feed. She has found that DHgate has become synonymous with the word ‘dupes.’
Founded in 2004 as a business-to-business e-commerce company, DHgate has become the primary platform for dupe sellers to launch their stores and sell bags, accessories, and clothing that are not explicitly promoted as dupe items but have insignias and similar designs that resemble the real product.
“There are a bunch of people on TikTok who advocate for DHgate,” Galebe said. “What they say is that these products come from the same factories and manufacturers as designer brands, and a lot of the time, the real products and the dupes are actually identical.”
No content explicitly indicates that these dupe items come from the same manufacturers and factories as the real items outside of TikTok speculation and small blurbs on the DHgate sellers page, but the product review videos show striking similarities prove to be enough to entice buyers.
While duping is having a moment now, the truth is, it’s been occurring for years whether as a passing reference in Sex in the City or the marketplace of blankets set up on NYC’s Canal Street. And if anything, the duping business has grown to include sectors it didn’t already cover.
Patrick Penfield, a supply chain professor at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, has owned his antique business for 14 years, and the one thing he says you can expect a lot of is dupes.
“I think there’s more reproduction of all products now than there has been in the past, because there is more profit to be made,” Penfield said.
Penfield thinks there are more dupes than ever before because of consumers’ desire to have what he calls “legitimate reproductions.” Replicas exist because people want the prestige or nostalgia associated with a product at a more affordable cost.
The market for dupes follows this rhetoric. Consumers like Katz are just looking for the best bang for their buck.
“I feel like there’s certain things that I’m okay with sacrificing and buying the dupe version,” Katz said. “If I think that I’m just buying something for the brand name, but it’s the exact same material and hundreds of dollars cheaper, like a bag, then I’m fine to get a dupe, but if I am buying a bag for the quality and not just for the brand name, then I wouldn’t buy a dupe.”
So is duping really just an ethical name for scamming? It depends on who you ask.
Dupers who get a good bang for their buck, and get their fake Chanel bag mistaken for the real thing, then the dupe is doing just what it intended to do, but if you ask Penfield, who spends much of his career making money off the authenticity of items the response would be different.
“There’s just so many reproductions and knockoffs of things that sometimes get really difficult to determine what’s real and what’s not. ”


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NEW YORK: Richard Schrader, former New York City consumer affairs
commissioner and the campaign manager for Mark Green's unsuccessful
democratic bid for New York mayor, has joined the PR Consulting Group as
a senior consultant. He will specialize in public affairs, labor and
employment, and legal and litigation issues.


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To celebrate its 108th anniversary, Siam Commercial Bank this month introduces new uniforms designed by renowned designer Pichitra Boonyarataphan. It features the bank's corporate purple in both light and dark tones. The modern and comfortable designs feature a hint of ruffled collars and slimmer..
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Recently at Tokyo, Japan, Kasikornbank chairman of the board, Banthoon Lamsam, centre, Norihiko Fukuda, left, mayor of Kawasaki city, and
Takashi Noda, chairman of the Ota City Industrial Promotion Organization,
sign an MOU on provision of Thailand and ASEAN investment information,
Bank says govt could boost purchasing power for people by smarter policies
Some time over the next month the Constitutional Court will decide whether Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acted..
The Dairy Farming Promotion Organisation is prepared to put its fresh milk products on the shelves in Taiwan in June, before..
COACHING FOR PROMOTION DOING IT RIGHT AS A GENERAL MANAGER
Satellite expected to meet boost in demand for digital TV stations
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus recently urged Thailand to push forward with social business and also invited the country's young people to become social entrepreneurs.
The Dairy Farming Promotion Organisation is prepared to put its fresh milk products on the shelves in Taiwan in June, before expanding to Hong Kong.
Some time over the next month the Constitutional Court will decide whether Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acted unconstitutionally when she removed the National Security Council chief from his..
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COACHING FOR PROMOTION DOING IT RIGHT AS A GENERAL MANAGER
With the Bangkok Motor Show coming to a close, now is a good time to rethink the 2014 sales outlook for Thailand.
1Q14: Most solid as expected; 2014 NIM inched up
The US-Asean Business Council will organise its second annual CEO-level business mission to Vietnam and the Philippines in June, building on the success of last year's mission to Indonesia, Malaysia,..
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Choke na Ranong, manager of Bangkok Bank's credit-card division (right), launches a World Cup 2014 campaign that will give away..
Recently, Fujitsu Systems Business (Thailand) Ltd holds a seminar titled 'IT Trend & End Security Solution for FSI Business' at..
Chanitr Charnchainarong, centre, represents the Stock Exchange of Thailand in handing over the "SET Corner" to the Securities and..
Recently at KASIKORNBANK Headquarters, Chatchai Payuhanaveechai (second from left), Executive Vice President of KASIKORNBANK, and..
(From L-R) U Win Khant, Director General, Department of Transport (Ministry of Transportation), Captain Than Tun, Managing..
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Over 125 employees of Fujitsu Systems Business (Thailand) Ltd donate their blood to Thai Red Cross Society recently. This year..
Bangkok Bank Executive Vice President Panit Dunnvatanachit, 2nd from right, and Thai Tap Water Supply Managing Director Sompodh..
The management team of Nestlé led by Wayne England, Chairman & CEO Nestlé Indochina Region, together with (4th from left)..
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Kanit Sukonthaman, centre, president of Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand), along with the bank's executives,..
Provincial Electricity Authority recently agreed to extend the provident fund management contract with Krung Thai Asset..
Chularat Hospital executives led by chairman Kriengsak Plussind, 3 from left, and managing director Kumphol Plussind, 3rd from..
Jon Eddy Abdullah, 2nd from right, CEO of Total Access Communication, together with management, Chaiyod Chirabowornkul, 1st from..
Rakkiat Hongkanchanapong, far right, and Neville Li, 2nd from right, represent TE Connectivity in hosting TE Roadshow 2013, to..
Sanook.com has joined the 'Think Publishing 2013' event organised by Google. The business leadership event was held to..
Khunying Natthika Wattanavekin Angubolkul, the president of the Eastern Sugar & Cane Co, Ltd, welcomes former deputy industry..
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra chairs the Prime Minister Industry Award 2013 ceremony at the Santi Maitree Building in the..
Vanus Taepaisitphongse, 3rd from right, Chief Executive Officer of Betagro Group, signed a memorandum of understanding for..
TrueVisions partners with Home Pro to bring the latest HD innovation through 50 HD channels and 3D programs on TrueVisions at..
Dr Chawapol Jariyawiroj, Country Manager of VMware Thailand and Indochina,has announced the key findings from the IDC Server..
GE and Bangkok-based power plant developer Bangpa-In Cogeneration Ltd., a subsidiary of CK Power Plc., have announced the signing..
Pramut Sriwichian Country Manager (third from left) of Symantec Thailand Limited, joins Software Expo Asia 2013 on September26-28..
The Sustainable Energy Foundation, financed by PTT, has donated Bt500,000 to Khortan Khlong 27 School in Wang Noi, Ayutthaya. The..
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Well, today’s the day. Whether you’ve been waiting for the clock to hit midnight or you’ve been living under a rock, Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake is finally here. And since it’s now customary (and the fact that we can’t get enough of the game), Capcom has released the launch trailer for the highly anticipated remake of the 2005 classic.
You all know the story by now: Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Racoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors of the incident, has been recruited as an agent reporting directly to the president. With the experience of multiple missions on his back, Leon is sent to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the president of the United States. He tracks her to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the villagers…
Resident Evil 4 is out now on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series. Check out our review of the game if you haven’t already, and if you’re still undecided, check out the demo instead. And keep an eye out for the upcoming VR mode for Resident Evil 4 that’s headed to the PlayStation VR2 in the future.
The post ‘Resident Evil 4’ Remake Out Now on PC, Consoles [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.


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Editor’s Note: Each week, Bizwomen offers some insight on the women who are likely to make headlines over the next seven days. It's a list of women we will be watching, and we think you should be watching them, too.
Angela Ahrendts: The former Burberry CEO-turned-Apple senior vice president in charge of retail will be on our radar this week as Apple is expected to release its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday. The world’s most valuable publicly traded company has much to be excited about, with earnings expected to be up 14 percent from a year ago, according to Forbes. But we’ll be watching to see what the company’s retail plans are looking like. When Ahrendts was hired earlier this year, Apple announced an ambitious international expansion program, with plans to open 20 international Apple stores by the end of the year, according to 9to5Mac. Several have already opened — in Brazil, Turkey and Switzerland — so we’ll be watching to see what might be coming next.
Indra Nooyi: It's Pepsico's turn for earnings on Wednesday, putting CEO Indra Nooyi front and center. Carbonated beverage sales have been down of late, while the company’s snack business has been holding strong. That split will be particularly interesting this quarter, given the recent sparring between Nooyi and investor Nelson Peltz, who is pushing the company to separate its beverage and snack units. So far, Nooyi is pushing back, refusing to acquiesce to Peltz’s demands. Will the earnings give Peltz more fuel for his argument, or help Nooyi back up her desire to keep the business in tact?
Bianna Golodryga: The weekend anchor of “Good Morning America” is moving to Yahoo News to be a news and finance anchor alongside Katie Couric. "The move comes as Yahoo seeks to establish itself as a news organization, amid a spate of prominent hires like Ms. Couric and the former New York Times technology columnist David Pogue,” the New York Times wrote. The strategic hire is all part of Marissa Mayer’s push to turn the Internet giant into a media empire. We’ll see if the new gig proves to be a smart move for Golodryga, too.


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- Development & Aid
- Economy & Trade
- Human Rights
- Global Governance
- Civil Society
Monday, September 25, 2023
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Nov 20 2015 (IPS) - Aflatoxin contamination is a growing threat to trade, food and health security in sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farmers are challenged by food production and now climate change, researchers said.
Aflatoxins are toxic and cancer causing poisons produced by certain green mould fungus that naturally occurs in the soil. The poisons have become a serious contaminant of staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa including maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, groundnut and cashews.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), an international not for profit organisation based in Nigeria has led pioneering research in reducing mycotoxin contamination in Africa through rolling out innovative approaches.
Sub-Saharan Africa is annually losing more than 450 million dollars in trade revenue of major staples, particularly maize, and groundnuts as a result of contamination from aflatoxins, researchers told IPS. The health bill as a result of people unknowingly eating contaminated food runs into millions of dollars in a region with over burdened health facilities.
Africa is at risk of toxins which are linked to suppressed immunity, liver cancer in humans and stunting in children. UNICEF says 40 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted or have low height for their age which can be associated with impaired brain development.
Researchers say high temperatures and drought conditions favour the growth of fungus, while poor farming practises and food insecurity status of many people in sub-Saharan Africa increase their exposure to aflatoxin contamination. In addition high soil moisture content at harvest attributed to off-season rains as a result of climate variability increases contamination.
“Climate change is indeed predicted to have a profound effect on aflatoxin contamination of food and feed crops,” said Joao, adding that, “Consequently, any reduction in precipitation level or increment in temperature is expected to make aflatoxin problem more acute.”
In 2009, the IITA, the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), United States Department of Agriculture –Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and other partners developed an indigenous biological control technology, named AflaSafe to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in maize and groundnuts.
Aflasafe is a mixture of four non-aflatoxin producing strains of the green mould fungus (Aspergilllus flavus) of native origin. The formulated Aflasafe product is then broadcast in the field where it grows and prevents the toxin producing strains from colonizing, multiplying and contaminating crops.
Focused aflatoxin biocontrol research in Africa first started in Nigeria where Aflasafe is today a fully registered commercial product. Country specific products have been developed and introduced in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, The Gambia and Zambia.
In all the six countries where the bio control products have been tested since 2008 to date, IITA said farmers have consistently achieved up to 99 per cent reduction in aflatoxin contamination by using Aflasafe in maize and groundnut fields.
“The benefits attributed to using the Aflasafe bio control product for mitigating aflatoxin contamination far outweighs its cost,” said Juliet Akello, a plant pathologist and member of the IITA team in Zambia under Aflatoxin Biocontrol. “Exposure to aflatoxin through consumption of contaminated foods is a combination of unawareness, poverty and poor enforcement of standards by governments.”
Globally aflatoxins are a known threat that have been reduced thanks to investment in food safely controls. Smallholder farmers in Africa rely on a combination of traditional storage methods and use of pesticides to prevent weevils. However, these methods are not always pest proof leading to them losing a bulk of the stored crop by the time they need it most.
Other innovative approaches are being tried in Africa to curbing pre and post harvest losses in addition to eliminating aflatoxin contamination using Aflasafe.
In Zimbabwe, researchers at the University of Zimbabwe and Action Contre la Faim are working with communities in two districts to investigate whether improved storage can reduce aflatoxin contamination in local maize grain. The two-year research, supported by the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) programme, an initiative funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IRDC) and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, will also assess levels of exposure suffered by women and infants. The project has introduced a metal silos and thick plastic “super bags,” allowing maize to be stored in air-tight conditions.
Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are challenged by lack of drying equipment, with most maize and groundnut farmers keeping their crops in fields to dry out before harvest. Sometimes, they store it before it has dried properly, making it vulnerable to aflatoxin attack.
Exports of agricultural commodities particularly peanuts from Africa have declined by as much as 20 per cent over the past two decades. The commodities have been rejected after failing to meet the European Union’s market regulations on aflatoxin levels in foods for human consumption, a serious hurdle to international trade.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, only 15 African countries had regulatory limits for aflatoxins by 2013.
In Zambia, for example, nearly 100 per cent of the peanut butter brands sampled between 2012 and 2014 from supermarkets and local markets were found to contain unsafe levels of aflatoxins above 20ppb. Less than 30 per cent of milled groundnut flour collected from markets and homesteads had levels within the 4 ppb set by the EU as safe limits.
While in Kenya, considered the number one aflatoxin hotspot in East Africa, nearly 200 died due to acute aflatoxicosis after eating aflatoxin contaminated maize between 2004 and 2006. About 2 million maize bags were found unfit for human consumption due to high levels of aflatoxins in 2010.
IITA’s programme manager for Aflasafe in Malawi, Dr. Joseph Atehnkeng, said between 40 and 100 per cent of groundnut based-commodities in Malawi, were found to contain unsafe toxin levels.
Former net groundnut exporters; Mozambique, Senegal, The Gambia, Zambia and Malawi have lost lucrative markers in the EU, the United States and South Africa because of high aflatoxin levels in their commodities, says IITA scientist and plant pathologist, Dr. Joao Augusto.
Mozambique has since the late 70s, recorded a high prevalence of liver cancer in the southern part of the country which has been associated with consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food, especially groundnuts.
According to the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control (PACA), a regional project formed in 2009 to minimise and ultimately eradicate aflatoxins using proven and innovative strategies, there is a need for effective aflatoxin regulation policies and country-specific standards.
Researcher, Chapwa Kasoma from Zambia, warns that left unchecked, aflatoxin contamination could retard development in sub-Saharan Africa.
“If we want to overcome poverty in all its forms; combating not only the inadequacy of food but also addressing any forms of malnutrition we need to be worried,” Chapwa, also a field supervisor with Pioneer DuPont, told IPS. “Being potent carcinogens, aflatoxins are clearly a nutrition problem.”
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The store will initially launch on PC and Mac and will eventually also be available on Android and other "open platforms" in 2019. The Epic Games Store will have a universal revenue split of 88% for all developers with "no tiers or thresholds".
Google normally takes a 30% cut from the third-party developers' app revenues.
Epic Games, developers of titles such as Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and more recently, Fortnite, has announced that it's launching its own online game store where other developers can sell their games.
For PC Games, steam is one of the largest stores now available. Obviously, this will benefit all the developers that are now using Unreal Engine 4 in order to create their games and Epic shared the following image in order to give us an idea of what it will be charging. On top of that, if the title uses Epic's Unreal Engine, then Epic will cover 5% of the royalty for using the engine out of that 12%.
One thing that Epic will be adding is the ability to Support-A-Creator. Games that generate between $10 million and $50 million in revenue will only see 25% of that revenue taken by Valve.
Donald Trump says US-China relations make 'BIG leap forward'
The tweets come as the president said China would commit to removing heavy auto tariffs on USA made cars. Trump's tweet did not explain which tariffs would be reduced or removed, or when China would act.
Epic's Nick Chester would later tell fans that the big Game Awards announcement wasn't linked to Season 7.
The launch date and precise line-up of games is yet to be revealed, but Sweeney said that the Epic Games Store would "start small", but seek a competitive advantage by funding developers in return for exclusivity - similar to the business model adopted by games console companies. Better digital storefronts are desperately needed.
Steam is a massive platform and it's hard to imagine Epic will wipe it out completely, but they're making the right steps to counter Valve's goliath sales machine. Even the refund system is a step above what we're used to seeing on the digital plane, offering a 14-day return policy with no-questions-asked.
Creative will be a greatly expanded version of the existing Playground mode and allows you to build your own levels and create your own mini-games, in what sounds like nod to fellow child-friendly games such as Minecraft and Roblox. It's no secret the Play Store is absolutely stagnant when it comes to discovery, with the majority of releases taking a backseat to the many large developers conveniently provided all of the prominent real estate. Let us know in the comments! Do you think it'll be able to compete with Steam?


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When you buy a toaster, don’t you have the right to resell it? Apparently troubled record label EMI Music thinks differently. Earlier this year, EMI sued startup company ReDigi.com for what it claims is copyright infringement.
ReDigi is a website where you can sell your iTunes digital purchases after installing software that makes sure the tracks are deleted from your computer. EMI would say the toaster analogy is false, but the day before they heard of ReDigi they would probably have used it.
We have been told by the music industry that illegally downloading an album is the same as stealing a CD, but now they’re saying it’s nothing like a CD. They want to have their cake and eat it too. The wider entertainment industry, consumer rights groups and tech companies will be following this case very closely.
If EMI wins, it would set a dangerous precedent in what has been a sad decades long battle against consumers and innovations. In the late 1970s the VCR was the focus of the entertainment industries collective wrath. It was argued that being able to record things on TV was theft and that the government should mandate all VCRs be unable to record. Congress investigated the matter. Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” was even a witness in the case.
The VCR manufacturers won and were able to keep selling tape players. If someone had told me in the 1990s that something as ubiquitous as recording TV to watch later in the day was stealing, I would have thought they were completely insane. The same recording objections were brought up with cassette tapes and DVRs.
The entertainment industry has consistently been against future cash-cows. That kind of myopic thinking was the force behind the Stop Online Piracy Act, the bill that could have killed YouTube and Wikipedia earlier this year.
It would be easy to say the entertainment industry is Satan incarnate, but they are still just human beings worried about their livelihood. When something new is introduced, people will always worry about the negative impact on themselves. It is fair to be worried about piracy and lost profits, but companies like EMI need to be smarter.
Pirates will circumvent anti-piracy measures. It’s going to happen. If you want to increase revenue, you need to improve your services, not brutalize your customers or eliminate competing lawful services, as per SOPA.
It’s interesting to me that EMI was bought in September by Universal Music Group, in the midst of these proceedings. Could this be an act of desperation? With so many plots foiled and companies like Last.fm, Netflix and Spotify becoming ever more popular, are they afraid they’ll actually have to update their business model? This might be a turning point. In the push to approve SOPA, music and movie companies put a big emphasis on their contribution to the economy. According to them, everyone should be spending hundreds more dollars a year on entertainment and the loss of that money hurts America’s economy. Maybe they should accept that in this economy everyone isn’t going to buy a new album and Blu-ray Disc every week.
All attacking ReDigi does is create a hostile environment for start-ups and tech companies, which have led in innovation and job creation for two decades. EMI winning means that everyone else loses a little more freedom and the world takes a step in the wrong direction.
I'm 5'10 and 130 lbs yet all nearly all of their clothes ...
They mean "revenue enhancement zones" cause that's ...


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Filmmaker prize for Audience Award announced
There are even more prizes to be won with new sponsor Birmingham Film Hire. The Audience Award will be given to the team whose video gets the most likes on Facebook between 17 – 26 June, so prime your friends and family.
The winning film team will get their hands on a four-day weekend kit hire of the following:
Sony FS7 with 5x128gb XQD cards, XDCA Extension Unit with V-Lock Batteries, Zacuto Baseplate, Lightweight Libec Tripod, Samyang Prime lens kit (14, 24, 35, 50, 85, 135), Odyssey 7Q+ Recorder/Monitor with RAW license, Tungsten Lighting kit (2x1k Fresnels, 2x650k Fresnels).
That’s not all- Paul at Birmingham Film Hire is also offering the same kit for a free two day hire for two lucky teams to use during the competition, which will be raffled off at the launch event on Friday 2 June.
Follow us on Facebook, ready to promote your video to the world.


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President Donald Trump moved Thursday to hit China with stiff new sanctions in response to what officials regard as unfair trade practices, setting up a process that could result in $60 billion worth of penalties on a wide variety of products.
Trump signed a directive instructing the Department of Treasury and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to publish a list of proposed targets within 15 days. After a public comment period, those sanctions will take effect.
“We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on, which likewise is hundreds of billions of dollars on a yearly basis,” Trump said at the White House.
It comes after a seven-month review of China’s trade policies that place American companies at a competitive disadvantage and force the transfer of technology to Chinese businesses with which U.S. firms are required to partner in order to do business in the giant Asian country.
As he signed the directive, the president indicated that it was not a one-and-done action. “This is the first of many,” he said.
Everett Eissenstat, a member of the National Economic Council, told reporters that the review details how China forces companies to give up technology and to accept less favorable conditions for doing business there than Chinese businesses.
Chinese policy also targets America for investment as a means of gaining market share from American competitors and directs hacking to steal technology outright, he said.
“These findings are very well-documented,” he said. “I think you’ll find the report to be extremely solid and quite persuasive.”
Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, pointed out to reporters that Trump — like his predecessors — tried engagement with Chinese leaders. He met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida early in his presidency.
“The problem is, with the Chinese, talk is not cheap,” he said. “It has been very expensive to the American people.”
Unlike Trump’s predecessors, Navarro said, the current president has moved beyond talk. Navarro noted that the administration in December designated China a “strategic competitor” that engages in “economic aggression” against the United States.
“This was a seismic shift from the era dating back to [former President Richard] Nixon and [former Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger, where we had, as a government, viewed China in terms of economic engagement designed to bring China in as a nation that is more democratic and free and respecting market processes,” he said. “The problem we’ve seen … is that that has failed. That process has failed.”
“This is a dream come true. It’s a defeat of the globalists.”
Experts who long have favored more hawkish policies toward China cheered the decision.
“This is a dream come true,” said Michael Pillsbury, director of the Center on Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute. “It’s a defeat of the globalists.”
Pillsbury, author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower,” told LifeZette that Thursday’s announcement and earlier, more limited tariffs are “pinpricks” that are unlikely to succeed on their own.
“These are still not adequate to bring China to its knees,” he said.
What the sanctions could achieve, Pillsbury said, is to help reformist voices in the Chinese government gain the upper hand. People who warn of an inevitable trade war do not understand the nature of debate in Beijing, he said.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) welcomed Trump’s efforts to counter China’s theft of intellectual property and unfair trade practices. But NAM president and CEO Jay Timmons urged caution. He noted that tariffs risk increasing costs for American manufacturers and consumers, and could trigger a destructive trade war.
“The only way we’ll truly make lasting progress is through a strategic approach that uses both carrots and sticks to accelerate changes to Chinese policies, which should include efforts to forge a fair, binding and enforceable trade agreement with China that requires them to end these practices once and for all,” he said in a statement.
Navarro said China has benefited far more from trade than the United States has. In addition to running a $370 billion annual trade surplus in manufactured goods, he said, China has grown its economy from $1 trillion to $12 trillion since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 — an 800 percent increase.
He noted that the United States, meanwhile, has averaged 2 percent annual growth since 2000, after averaging 3.5 percent from 1947 to 2000. By one estimate, he said, every $1 billion in trade deficit costs 6,000 jobs. By that estimate, Chinese trade has destroyed 2 million jobs.
Senior administration officials declined to specify the products that might be targeted but said they would be skewed toward high-technology goods and other industries that the Chinese government itself has targeted for domination.
“If China dominates the industries of the future, it will be very difficult for the United States to have a future,” Navarro said.
Pillsbury acknowledge that a trade war could have collateral damage. But he argued that doing nothing would be far worse.
“I don’t see any other option,” he said. “The other option is appeasement.”


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YouTube has begun forcing users to disable ad blockers or try Premium, its paid subscription service. The move has been met with backlash from many users, who argue that it is unfair to force them to watch ads or pay for a service they do not want.
Online communities, like on Reddit, have been voicing this concern for quite some time and the platform has also circumvented Ublock origin.
It seems to have started some time this month: one says, “My channel blocker set it off of all things. This is getting ridiculous.”
Another one says, “I’m thinking honestly about just dropping YouTube from my daily entertainment.”
The video-sharing platform has been aggressively using a variety of methods to detect and circumvent ad blockers. In some cases, the company is even disabling video playback for users who are detected using an ad blocker.
The only solution? Well, YouTube recommeds paying $11.99/month for Premium to get ad-free viewing, and offline and background playback. But, is it worth it?
It’ll be a huge bet if YouTube wins this “war” against ad-blockers because there’s always a loophole to find. Even uBlock’s latest version (v. 1.52.0+) seems to be including a “fix” to workaround this issue.
Thoughts on this?


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(Adds Braemar Shipping Services, Wesizwe, MOL, Banco Sabadell; Updates AstraZeneca, London Stock Exchange)
May 20 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:
** AstraZeneca shareholder Schroders urged the company to restart takeover talks with Pfizer, adding its voice to criticism of the British drugmaker’s rejection of the U.S. firm’s 70 billion pound ($118 billion) bid.
** Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc said it will not make an all-cash bid for drugmaker Allergan Inc as many had expected last week when the company said it would improve its cash and stock offer for the Botox maker.
** Germany’s Commerzbank is finalizing the sale of Spanish property loans to U.S. investors for up to 3.9 billion euros ($5.4 billion), sources said, in what would be one of the biggest deals of its kind since Spain’s 2008 real estate crash.
** London Stock Exchange Group Plc has entered into exclusive talks to buy U.S.-based asset manager and stock index provider Russell Investments, in an estimated $3 billion deal that would allow the bourse operator to increase its U.S. presence.
** British aerospace and defense supplier Cobham is buying U.S. communications equipment maker Aeroflex Holding Corp for $920 million, continuing its quest for commercial customers as its main defense clients cut spending.
** Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates is betting its Penfolds brand and a cost-cutting new CEO will boost earnings and justify its decision to reject a $2.90 billion takeover offer from private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP. The world’s No. 2 winemaker said it had rejected KKR’s bid as too low, sending its share price above the bid value as investors rushed to get in ahead of any new offers from other parties.
** Private equity group BC Partners is considering selling French domestic cleaning products maker Spotless Group and is looking for a price tag of between 900 million euros ($1.23 billion) to 1 billion euros, Les Echos said.
** Italian cement maker Italcementi said it had set final price in a takeover bid for the shares in its French unit Ciments Francais that it does not yet own at 79.5 euros ($110) per share. The price is ‘ex dividend’ and is an increase from a preliminary takeover price of 78 euros announced on March 6, which included the dividend.
** French nuclear group Areva could be interested in a deal for Alstom’s wind turbines unit, its CEO said, while adding Areva was not directly involved in talks over the possible sale of Alstom’s energy business.
** British insurer RSA Insurance Group Plc said on Monday it had reached agreement to sell its majority-owned Canadian brokerage business - Noraxis Capital Corp - to U.S. insurance brokerage Arthur J. Gallagher & Co for C$500 million ($460 million).
** London-listed Central Asia Metals Plc (CAML) said it has acquired the remaining 40 percent of the Kounrad copper project in Kazakhstan and aims to boost copper cathode output by about 50 percent by 2016.
** China-focused private equity firm Hopu Investments Co Ltd. plans to acquire a minority share in Russia’s largest untapped copper deposit by the end of 2014, the operator of the project said. The project’s operator, Baikal Mining Co, and Hopu have also agreed to form an investment consortium comprising major Chinese players in the industrial sector and financial institutions for the project.
** A fund led by Andrea Bonomi further raised its stake in Club Mediterranee to above 10 percent, three days ahead of the closure deadline for a takeover offer for the French holiday firm that the Italian businessman opposes. Bonomi-led Strategic Holdings now holds 10.5 percent of Club Med’s capital, clouding prospects for a takeover offer launched a year ago by China’s Fosun International and French private equity firm Ardian.
** Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has received regulatory approval from the United Arab Emirates central bank for its purchase of Barclays’ retail operations in the country, its chief executive said. The largest sharia-compliant lender in the emirate agreed a 650 million dirham ($177 million) deal with the British bank last month.
** The Finnish government proposed a sell-off of Altia, a liquor maker fully owned by the state, as it seeks new revenue to finance spending and reduce the need for borrowing.
** Debt-burdened Spanish real estate group Realia said it agreed to sell its stake in French property vehicle SIIC de Paris at a loss to investment group Eurosic . Realia, controlled by Spanish builder FCC and Bankia , said it would sell its 59 percent stake in SIIC de Paris at 22 euros per share, valuing the French company at around 948 million euros ($1.3 billion).
** WWRD Holdings Ltd, owner of high-end crystal and china brands including Waterford, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton, is in the early stages of exploring a sale of the company, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
** Finnish investment and insurance group Sampo has increased its stake in small Finnish bank Aktia to 6 percent, in what it described as a financial investment. Sampo now holds about 6 percent of Aktia stock and 0.9 percent of its voting rights, it said.
** France’s controversial decree widening its control over takeovers in strategic industries is meant to help discussions over alliances and is not there to block deals, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg told lawmakers on Tuesday.
** Braemar Shipping Services will buy fellow British shipbroker ACM Shipping Group in the latest industry shake-up as players look to grow after years of freight market turmoil.
** South African platinum firm Wesizwe, which is building a mine backed by Chinese money, has its “ear to the ground” for a fire sale of assets that could result from a massive industry strike.
** Food and grain-handling companies ConAgra Foods Inc , Cargill Inc and CHS Inc have won U.S. antitrust approval to merge their North American flour mill operations after recently agreeing to sell four mills to a Japanese company.
** Hungarian oil and gas group MOL plans further acquisitions to boost its retail market share in central Europe, where an economic recovery is underway and motor fuel sales are rising, MOL’s downstream chief told Reuters.
** Spain’s Banco Sabadell said on Tuesday it had expanded an insurance joint venture with Zurich in a deal valued at an initial 214 million euros ($293 million), half of which the Swiss company would contribute in cash.
** The private equity owner of Pro Mach Inc is exploring a sale of the packaging equipment maker that could value it at close to $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest in a wave of such deals in the sector.
** Goldman Sachs has begun a formal process to sell the metals warehousing business it purchased four years ago, a spokesman said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
$1 = 0.6 British pounds $1 = 1.09 Canadian Dollars $1 = 0.73 Euros Compiled by Natalie Grover and Sampad Patnaik in Bangalore


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Ho, Aug. 30, GNA- The Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management Department of the Ho Polytechnic has been urged to establish a production unit, to popularise the six "convenient" food recipes developed by the Department.
Reverend Father (Dr) Lawrence Akli, Chaplain of the Polytechnic made the suggestion at a food fare organised by the department last Friday to introduce the recipes to the public. He said the development of the recipes was a major achievement given the fast changing tastes globally characterised by "exquisite culinary inventions".
The six food recipes packaged in powdered forms, are Dzenkple or Apapransa powder, Snail powder, Water Yam Flour, Grape Fruit Wine, Tropical Dried Fruits, Herbal Tea and Korkli Chunks. Mrs Judith Tampore, Head of the Department, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Ho that the recipes have been perfected over a three year period to have a shelf's life of six months at normal room temperature.
She said, having achieved this, the department will now launch a vigorous campaign to win the collaboration of food based industries such as Unilever Ghana Limited, Nestle Ghana Limited, Nkulenu Industries and Small Scales Food Manufacturing Companies to adopt the recipes for large scale production and for domestic and foreign markets.
Mrs Tampore said the recipes, were developed with an aim of reducing cooking time especially by working women "in this era when time and advancement are of prime importance".
She said the recipes were also in tune with the government's policy of encouraging consumption of locally made food items.


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Apple may be about to set free its iOS 11.3 update, featuring new additions including a battery health monitor that will tell you whether your battery's performance is waning, offering recommendations when it should be serviced or replaced.
The availability of the update is likely to be revealed this week, with experts predicting it will be announced after the company's education event taking place in Chicago today.
Apple will also allow users to switch off the power management feature it first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, which dynamically manages maximum performance, shutting down the phone or tablet if it all gets too much. Apple explained switching off power management could mean the device shuts down without warning, but it means performance levels will remain speedy until it shuts down due to memory shortage.
Other, perhaps less exciting, features due to be introduced in iOS 11.3 include new animojis, including a lion and Apple Music enhancements, such as removal of ads for paid-for subscribers.
iOS 11.3's new Health Records feature to collate information from multiple medical sources and the user's Apple Health account, so those with participating health providers (presumably private health companies rather than the NHS), will be able to see all of their medical data in one place. Of course, for such private information, it will be fully secured and encrypted and protected with a passcode.


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India to cross 300 million Internet users by Dec'14
19 November 2014
Internet users in India would rise 32 per cent over last year to touch 302 million by December 2014, as the net emerges as the main in the country. In October, there were 278 million internet users in India.
Currently, India has the third-largest internet user base in the world but it is estimated that by December 2014, India will overtake the US as the second largest internet user base in the world, according to a report 'Internet in India 2014', jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.
China currently leads with more than 600 million internet users, while the US currently has estimated 279 million internet users.
Internet in India took more than a decade to move from 10 million to 100 million and three years to double from 100 to 200 million. However, it took only a year to move to 300 million from 200 users.
According to the report, the number of internet users in urban India has grown by 29 per cent from October 2013 to reach 177 million in October 2014. It is expected to reach 190 million by December 2014 and 216 million by June 2015. Significantly, compared with last year, in rural India, Internet users have increased by 39 per cent to reach 101 million in October 2014.
It is expected to reach 112 million by December 2014 and 138 million by June 2015, the study said.
According to the report, there is a huge spurt in the number of people accessing internet on a daily basis in urban India. As of June 2014, 31.5 million (61 per cent) in 35 cities were using internet on a daily basis. The daily user base has gone up by 51 per cent from June 2013. About 96 per cent of the internet users are accessing it at least once a week. Out of these, 18 per cent access the net 4-6 times a week and 14 per cent access it 2-3 times a week.
In urban India, nearly 93 per cent of the respondents primary internet for search, followed by online communication and social networking. However, in rural India, entertainment is the primary reason for net usage, followed by communication and social networking.
The number of mobile internet users has also witnessed a steady rise, with 159 million mobile internet users in October, and is estimated to reach 173 million by the end of December. In October, there were 119 million users accessing the internet on mobile devices in urban India. Rural India is not that far behind in this regard with a base of 40 million mobile Internet users in October 2013.


text: HomeBitcoinCointelegraph commemorates Bitcoin hitting $50K with an exclusive NFT Cointelegraph commemorates Bitcoin hitting $50K with an exclusive NFT By Crypto News Pipe February 19, 2021 Bitcoin 0 Comments Celebrate this historic point in BTC’s history by treating yourself to one of our limited run of 50 NFT artworks. Source: Cointelegraph commemorates Bitcoin hitting K with an exclusive NFT Tags:Bitcoin Related Posts Bitcoin Firm as Archegos Fiasco Raises Conflagration Concerns; What’s Next? Grayscale survey connects COVID-19 pandemic to new Bitcoin purchases Maturity of the Crypto Derivatives Market Attracting More Institutional Investors About Author Crypto News Pipe Crypto News Pipe is a cryptocurrency news aggregator service. It presents a continuous flow of articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Add a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment:*Name:* Email Address:* Website: Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.


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Commons Urgent Question
The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House of Commons on Thursday 27 May.
“Our trade agreement with Australia is very likely to be the first from-scratch deal that we have struck outside the European Union. It is a major milestone for global Britain and a major prize secured for our newly independent trade policy. It is on course to slash tariffs on iconic UK exports, saving business potentially about £115 million a year.
The deal will be the most advanced that Australia has struck with any nation bar New Zealand, and will, we expect, be particularly forward-leaning in areas such as services, procurement and digital trade. It will be a great deal for the UK, and our farmers will continue to thrive. The agreement is a gateway into the massive CPTPP—Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership—free trade area in the Asia-Pacific, and opens doors for our farmers into some of the biggest economies of now and the future.
Our food is among the best in the world and incredibly competitive. We should be positive about, not fearful of, the opportunities that exist for our agriculture and our farmers. We give the EU preferential trading terms, which I do not recall those on the Opposition Benches objecting to. We should be unafraid of giving our Australian cousins something similar, taking the chance to deepen trading ties with one of our closest friends and allies.
Australian meat is of high quality and produced to high standards, and it arrives here in low volume. Meanwhile, Australia has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. The UK accounts for just 0.15% of Australian beef exports, and our analysis suggests that any increase in imports is more likely to displace food arriving from the EU. Any deal we strike will contain protections for our farmers, any liberalisation will be staged over time, and any agreement is likely to include safeguards to defend against import surges. Negotiators are now working to agree the outstanding elements with the aim of reaching agreement in principle in June.
This is not the end of the process. Later this year, Parliament will be given ample opportunity to scrutinise the agreement—we welcome scrutiny of the agreement—as well as any legislative changes that may be required before the agreement enters into force. Parliamentarians will also receive an independently scrutinised impact assessment. Mr Speaker, you will know that our scrutiny arrangements are among the most robust, and in line with other parliamentary democracies. Indeed, in some areas we go further still.
This will be a great deal for our United Kingdom. It will deliver big benefits for both countries and will help us build back better from the Covid pandemic. I commend it to the House.”
In the UQ Answer, the Government were adamant that:
“Any deal we strike will contain protections”
and said that
“any liberalisation will be staged over time, and any agreement is likely to include safeguards”.—[Official Report, Commons, 27/5/21; col. 549.]
Can the Minister now provide any details? Has any information been provided? We need to know the elements of any agreement now.
Is there any independent governance of trade deals and tariffs? Your Lordships have received any number of letters co-signed by the Minister and his counterpart in Defra; there was one dated 1 November on trade and standards. Does any parliamentarian have access to independent and expert advice when reviewing the impact of each trade deal on agriculture? Is there any impact assessment? Is there any trade and agriculture commission to provide any report? Why is there any disagreement in Cabinet? Why do the Secretary of State for Defra and the previous Secretary of State disagree? Does the Minister have any answers?
The noble Lord has made a number of points, but I will deal with the most significant. On the TAC, both the Agriculture Act and the Trade Act require the trade and agriculture commission to be in operation before the FTA is implemented. It is currently being established and expressions of interest to assemble the commission are out, so it will be able to report on the Australia free trade deal if it comes into effect. That report will be made available to the House. On safeguards, of course we recognise the need to reassure farmers and rural stakeholders that our market access proposals will not threaten sensitive sectors. The deal will include safeguards to defend the industry against import surges and the precise details of these are still being negotiated.
ONS data from two weeks ago showed that the UK lost £1 billion in goods exports in just one month in January to our nearest trading partner, Ireland. This is more than the entire £900 million gain the Government are forecasting over 15 years for their agreement with Australia. The Government’s own scoping document stated:
“A trade agreement with Australia could increase UK GDP in the long run by around 0.01% or 0.02%”.
The EU scoping exercise for its own agreement with Australia in 2018 suggested 0.01% to 0.02%. Can the Minister explain why the Government are failing to secure any increase on their agreement with Australia than the UK would have had before Brexit? Why has there been such a collapse in trade with our nearest neighbour and trading partner, Ireland?
With due respect, I do not think January can be taken as a representative month. I do not think any trends are yet fully established. As noble Lords know, there was some stopping beforehand and there was particular disruption as people got used to the new system. With regard to the Australia free trade agreement, we intend to secure reductions in tariffs on UK exports to Australia, which will save UK businesses millions of pounds. The deal will support over 15,300 business which already export goods to Australia, and I am sure the noble Lord would like to welcome this.
My Lords, will my noble friend accept congratulations on the fantastic work he has done on negotiating this trade deal together with Liz Truss, the Secretary of State, who seems indefatigable in her energy? Could he perhaps remind the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, of the enormous benefits this deal will bring to the Scotch whisky industry—not least in having tariff-free access to Australia, but also in opening the door to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will offer huge opportunities to Scotland’s biggest export industry?
I thank the noble Lord for his kind words, which I will certainly pass on to my colleague the Secretary of State. The noble Lord is completely right: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which this is a gateway to, will be of huge benefit to UK businesses big and small. This is something we should all welcome.
My Lords, following on somewhat from the question of the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, how will the Government include Northern Ireland in the Australian agreement if it is unlikely that the EU will accept Australian meat and phytosanitary standards?
As noble Lords know, the Northern Ireland protocol is still subject to discussion and refinement between the parties. Clearly, Northern Ireland stands to gain in many ways from a trade agreement with Australia; for example, machinery and manufactured goods account for around 90% of all goods exported from Northern Ireland to Australia and are used extensively in Australia’s mining, quarrying and recycling sectors. These exports will certainly benefit from reduced tariffs in this deal.
My Lords, as MP for Kilmarnock, the home of Johnnie Walker, I lobbied for the lifting of all tariffs on Scotch whisky, so I welcome an FTA with Australia that removes that 5% tariff—but not at the price of unfettered access on beef and lamb, which NFU Scotland says will devastate family farms and is wholly unacceptable to farmers and crofters. Bearing in mind what Brexit has done to the Scottish seafood industry, despite repeated government assurances, is Ministers’ rejection of what they say are farmers’ invalid fears based on an objective impact assessment, or is it just an alternative opinion?
My Lords, as a fellow whisky drinker, I share the noble Lord’s sentiments. Fears about a flood of cheap imports affecting our agricultural sector are, with due respect, overstated. Australia, of course, is a much smaller market than the EU so we expect low volumes with high standards. For example, we currently import 250,000 tonnes of beef each year, with 91% coming from the EU and 190,000 tonnes from Ireland alone. Less than 1% of Australian beef exports come to the UK market. Even if that figure was to increase, as we expect it will, it will still not dent these much larger figures from the European Union.
My Lords, I draw attention to my registered farming links. Is the Minister aware that the president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, Glyn Roberts, has written to the Prime Minister stating that if Welsh farmers were to employ the land and management practices commonplace in Australia they would face prosecution or even imprisonment? Michael Gove has previously stated that importing meat in such circumstances represented a red line that would not be crossed. Why have the Government betrayed that pledge?
My Lords, I am not familiar with the letter the noble Lord refers to, but I will make sure to study it after this Question. As I said earlier, we do not believe that this deal will mean a flood of cheap imports. We will use a range of tools to defend British farming. I want to emphasise the opportunities that this deal will give to British farmers in terms of their exports, whether they are large or small and whichever part of the United Kingdom they come from.
My Lords, we do not reduce tariffs on imported food as a favour to Australia, we do so as a favour to ourselves—which may incidentally happen to benefit some Australian exporters. Will my noble friend the Minister confirm that reducing the cost of food makes everybody better off, especially people on low incomes for whom the food bill is the highest proportion of the monthly budget? In doing so, this gives us more money to spend on other things and thereby stimulates the whole economy.
My Lords, as ever my noble friend encapsulates precisely the advantages of free trade agreements and I thank him for that.
My Lords, this trade agreement contains an ISDS mechanism, which provides private corporations with the right to bypass the laws and courts of both parties. During the passage of the Trade Bill, the Minister confirmed government support for reforms to the ISDS through the UN Commission on International Trade Law’s proposals for a multilateral investment court. Can he update us on progress?
My Lords, the precise details of the UK-Australia free trade agreement are a matter for ongoing negotiations. In respect of ISDS, the UK Government consider the inclusion of ISDS provisions in FTAs on a case-by-case basis and in light of the unique UK-Australia investment relationship. We are huge investors in each other’s markets and appropriate ISDS will benefit investors on both sides.
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that many noble Lords are absolutely thrilled at the announcement that this deal is about to be agreed? If we are to grant the European Union unfettered tariff- and quota-free access to the United Kingdom market, what possible objection could there be to allowing the same to Australia—an advanced, civilised country with high standards? There can be no objection at all. Does my noble friend agree that if the National Farmers’ Union continues to resist every change consequent on Brexit in such a curmudgeonly fashion, it will be losing and forfeiting opportunities for its own farmers and members to export throughout the world and, in this case, to Australia?
My Lords, my noble friend is completely right. We should all recognise that British beef and lamb are among the best in the world and the Australia-UK FTA will bring new export opportunities to British farmers. We should be proud that the UK produces high-quality premium produce that is globally sought after. A deal with Australia is a gateway to joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and there will be a growing demand for UK meat in these markets.
My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.