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Woodies gets 7th court extension
Woodward & Lothrop Inc. said it received bankruptcy court approval to extend to Sept. 19 from July 21 its exclusive right to file a bankruptcy reorganization plan.
The Washington-based department store chain, which owns 29 Woodward & Lothrop and John Wanamaker department stores, said the court also extended its right to solicit acceptances for the plan until Nov. 20 from Sept. 19.
Woodward & Lothrop sought its seventh extension of its exclusive filing period because of the recent agreement to sell 24 Woodward & Lothrop stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia to a four-member group led by Federated Department Stores Inc.
Cosmetic Center sales rise 9%
Cosmetic Center Inc.'s sales rose 9 percent in June to $9.3 million from $8.5 million in the same month in 1994.
The Savage, Md.-based distributor of cosmetic supplies opened its 71st store on June 30. The store is the 10th opened in fiscal 1995, with an additional four stores set to open by Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year.
Oil firms sued for back royalties
Texas regulators filed suit yesterday seeking tens of millions of dollars in back royalties from eight major U.S. oil companies.
The suit claims the companies -- Amoco Production Co., Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Exxon Corp, Marathon Oil Co., Mobil Oil Corp., Phillips Petroleum Co., Shell Western E&P; Inc., and Texaco Exploration and Production -- underpaid royalties on oil pulled from state-leased land by basing royalty payments on posted prices set by the companies instead of futures prices set by the market.
Ford to build Jaguar in Britain
Ford Motor Co. said it will spend $636 million to produce its new Jaguar X200 sports sedan in Britain, reflecting newfound optimism about the luxury car unit.
Ford said it would build the sedan in Britain after the British government promised to contribute to the project. Ford, which bought Jaguar in 1989, had threatened to move the unit to Detroit in order to reduce production costs.
Boeing to take $600 million charge
Boeing Co. said it will take a $600 million pretax charge against second-quarter earnings to pay for early retirement packages.
About 9,500 employees -- 8 percent of Boeing's work force -- took the offer announced in March. The charge will reduce second-quarter net income by $500 million, the Seattle company said.


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- BlackBerry's deal to buy voice crypto company Secusmart blessed by German government
- YubiKeys by Yubico provide two-factor authentication by USB
- Syrian Electronic Army hits numerous media sites with DNS redirection attack
- 5 ways PCI is becoming more security-conscious next year
- Weather.com fixes web application vulnerabilities
email scams - News, Features, and Slideshows
Telstra has warned customers to delete a phishing email that claims they need to update their billing information following the introduction of 4G services on the 700MHz spectrum.
Australia Post has warned customers not to open a scam email that claims a courier could not deliver a parcel to their address.
Qantas has warned customers to be wary of a fake e-ticket itinerary and receipt email currently circulating.
Cricket fans in Australia are being warned not to reply to an email which claims they have won money in the 2013 Ashes series.
A BigPond email scam has been flagged after a security professional received an email addressed to 'Dear BigPond User' which contained malicious links.
- How AMEX is using data and creative to tap into customer contexts
- Mobile Mentor and iProximity join forces on beacon technology
- 5 lessons in brand culture from Gelato Messina
- New board builds AANA's brand marketing expertise
- 10 mind-blowing Oculus Rift experiments that reveal VR's practical potential

domain: news


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With a new iPhone coming out what feels like every three seconds, chances are if you own an iPhone, it’s old.
But while you may think your iPhone SE is worthless, you may actually be sitting on a lot more money than you’d expect.
New figures revealed by giffgaff Marketplace have shown that iPhones hold their price better than you may have thought – and far better than their Android rivals.
According to the network’s resale service, your iPhone 6S – a device that’s now over a year old (which, let’s be honest, is ancient when it comes to Apple devices) – will earn you as much as £235.
The iPhone 6, a phone that launched all the way back in 2014, can still bag you £180 – a decrease in value of less than a third per year. Not exactly a gold mine, but still a decent chunk of cash for a phone nearly two and a half years old.
Even the iPhone SE is holding its price pretty well. The 64BG iPhone SE will earn you £210 at present if sold through giffgaff Marketplace – that’s only fractionally less than half of its current £429 price.
If you’re sat on an old Android phone, however, things aren’t quite so positive. Even the leading Samsung Galaxy S7 has lost its value surprisingly quick.
Right now, the phone is on sale for £569 on Samsung’s website, but the Android has already lost £349 of its value.
Have a Sony Xperia? For a phone that went for a whopping £629 at launch, it’ll now only get you around £169.
Sure, it’s bad news for Android users but if you’ve got an old iPhone, you may just be raking it in.


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North America’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has become a principal member of card processor Visa’s network. The membership, which was actually granted in December but revealed only today, enables Coinbase to become an “issuing authority”, similar to banks, and issue credit cards on Visa’s network. This means that the exchange can work directly for crypto adoption on both sides of the aisle, soliciting merchants and cardholders alike, for crypto credit cards.
Principal members can also sponsor other financial institutions for membership in the network; Coinbase could pave the way for other crypto payment services firms, such as BitPay, to join Visa. Such payment firms could introduce co-branded crypto credit cards in the market and ameliorate part of the volatility risk associated with crypto conversion. Other companies that have issued crypto debit and credit cards include Nexo and Bitpay.
How Will Principal Membership Affect Coinbase’s Existing Debit Card?
The San Francisco-based exchange first dipped its toes in the card services market in April last year by partnering with the PaySafe Group to launch a crypto debit card in the U.K. The card’s operational geography was later expanded to include 29 more countries in Europe and 10 coins.
As part of the arrangement, Coinbase was required to pay fees to PaySafe, the issuing authority, to process transactions. Despite the fact that its fees included a conversion fee from crypto to fiat, the card was not an expensive deal for merchants in Europe. Transaction fees ranged from 2.49% in the U.K. to 2.69% in the remaining parts.
But providing those inexpensive fees, probably, ate into the exchange’s revenue stream in a year during which the price of Bitcoin mostly declined. Becoming a principal member nixes the PaySafe fee and allows Coinbase to set its own rates, meaning they could structure the fee in a way suited to their accounting and revenue streams.
A Long Road Ahead
In an interview with Forbes, Zeeshan Feroz, CEO of Coinbase U.K., touted the instant liquidity of crypto available to customers through the card. But that liquidity is also available to customers that are part of other crypto credit services. The availability of a programming interface to Visa Direct, a system that ensures direct payment to merchants for a percentage fee of the total amount is also a benefit. Typically, credit card processors settle amounts using the Fed’s wire system that has a lag period, extending anywhere between three days to a week, for settlement.
But those benefits are contingent upon retail adoption. The crypto revolution is seemingly powered by retail demand. But there is little data or anecdotal evidence to prove usage. Feroz from Coinbase told CNBC last June that their card had seen “extremely strong take-up” and that sales “blew past” the 1,000 initial free cards offered. But those words don’t prove anything. Other card issuers have proclaimed similar anodyne announcements. There might be a journey ahead for Coinbase.


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London-based legaltech startup Juro has grabbed $23 million in Series B funding for its browser-based contract automation platform. In total the startup has raised $31.5M since being founded back in
Even in the era of the virtual event, it tends to take me a few days to recover from the whirlwind of CES. Frontloading the year’s big hardware news is a bit less than ideal, but perhaps the changin
UBITS, a B2B online learning platform for upskilling employees in Latin America, has raised $25 million in funding led by Riverwood Capital. Julián Melo and Marta Forero founded UBITS in Bogota, Colo
Venmo is introducing a new gift-wrapping feature to give users a new way to gift money to friends and family. The new feature is starting to roll out today and gives users access to eight animated gif
Retailers often build their own “orchestration” platforms for payment processing and routing, but these can be complex to maintain. Spreedly and modo play in this space, and, last year, new startu
Instacart is introducing a new “Ready Meals” hub to make it easier for users to discover and order ready-made meals from grocery stores on its app. The on-demand grocery delivery platform
The way that recent generations of consumers treat(!) their dogs is vastly different than those who have come before. It’s gotten to the point that it’s memeable. View this post on Instagr
As competition amid digital banks heats up, U.S. fintech Current is rolling out a new product designed to make its banking service more appealing. The company announced this morning it’s launchi
A New York bill that would ban state law enforcement from obtaining residents’ private user data from tech giants through the use of controversial search warrants will get another chance, two ye
Meet Stoïk, a new French startup that wants to protect small and medium companies against cybersecurity incidents. The company offers an insurance product as well as a service that monitors your atta
Companies use invoices to pay for many of their major costs, ranging from materials to contract work. Most still rely on solutions built on top of bank transfers or credit cards to complete cross-bord
Serve Robotics, an Uber spinout that builds sidewalk delivery robots, is deploying its next generation of robots that are capable of completing some commercial deliveries without a human in the loop,
As cloud infrastructure projects grow increasingly complex, there’s been a trend in the industry to launch pre-packaged solutions for specific verticals. Today, the well-funded data analytics fi
As we’ve learned in the last few years, ‘human error’-led cyber security breaches are the ones companies often find it hardest to guard against. Surveys suggest some 85% of attacks can be traced
Starting an e-commerce business is large marketplaces can be an easy process, but what the team at Swell began to notice was that the model could only take a business so far.
When the consumer opens an account and hits savings milestones for products they want to buy from their favorite brands, they can receive cash contributions from the brands.
Merchants can add “return assurance” to an order, if it is returned in the next 30 days, Seel, instead of the merchant, will pay for the refund.
Over the past two years, since the pandemic hit, there has been a sharp rise in financial crime compliance costs, nearing $50 billion in 2021, up 58% compared to 2019, in the U.S. and Canada. Shiel
Financial institutions continue to search for ways to pile into the crypto market, and decentralized finance (DeFi) products are one mechanism that could help them capture share. Investors in DeFi pro
Tencent has invested in Easy Transfer, a startup that aims to make tuition payments less stressful for hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese students. Tencent declined to comment for the story, bu


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A Belarusian parliamentary delegation headed by Valery Voronetsky, Chairman of the Standing Committee on International Affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, met with Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Volkan Bozkir in Ankara, the press service of the House of Representatives…Details
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Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said that the trade turnover between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova could reach $1 billion in the near future. In a post on his Facebook page, he wrote: “We have great opportunities in the economic cooperation. In 2017 the trade turnover between Ukraine and Moldova rose to…Details
The trade turnover between Ukraine and the Republic of Lithuania exceeded $1 billion in 2017, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman wrote on Twitter. “We are greeting the Prime Minister of Lithuania in the House of Government. Saulius Skvernelis is on a visit to Ukraine. We are talking about political and economic cooperation. Our mutual trade exceeds…Details
Tallinna Linnatranspordi AS (TLT) board chairman Enno Tamm is to step down as soon as a new CEO for Tallinn’s transport company has been found. Tallinn Mayor Taavi Aas (Center), who conducted a meeting of the supervisory board of TLT for the last time, said that Tamm had submitted a letter of resignation, which would…Details
Freight volume handled at the Port of Klaipeda in January-March grew by 4.7% YoY, to 10.79 million tons, the Port Authority statistics said. Transshipment of liquid bulk cargo grew by 2.2%, to 852,000 tons, dry bulk cargo fell by 4.1%, to 1.48 million tons, while general cargo grew by 12.1%, to 1.2 million tons. In…Details
Georgia’s three international airports served 839,612 passengers in the first three months of 2018, up by 36% YoY. The number of passengers who took regular or charter flights in Georgia increased in all three main airports of the country: Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli International Airport, Batumi International Airport and Kutaisi David Aghmashenebeli International Airport. More specifically,…Details
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport served 155.7 thousand passengers in March, up by 55.6% YoY (99.4 thousand), the airport’s press service reports. The number of passengers served on international flights totaled 149.4 thousand (92.8 thousand in 2017), and domestic flights – 6.3 thousand (6.6 thousand). The number of flights in March included 1,975 both arrivals…Details


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All new 2019 Yamaha FZ FI / V3, has been spied testing several times on the highway and now street fighter has been spied at the warehouse. Yamaha Motor India is going to launch a new bike on 21st Jan 2019. we are expecting the 2019 Yamaha FZ S with ABS.
The 2019 Yamaha FZ V3 gets a similar front look from FZ25, with new tank cowl and raised handlebar position. The 2019 Yamaha FZ V3 also gets features a new headlamp design with integrated DRL, Tyre hugger, a new front fender, air-vents/ fuel tank cowl, and New Exhaust design and underbelly/engine cowl. FZ V3 equipped with Dual Disc Brakes. But expected to get at least single-channel ABS.
Current gen FZ is powered by 149cc, air-cooled fuel-injected engine, which produces 13.2 PS of power, and 12.8 Nm of torque. The Yamaha FZ V3 test mule will remain the same in terms of engine output with cosmetic changes. The 2019 Yamaha FZ V3 one can be expensive by about Rs 5000, and cost about Rs 87,000 ( ex-showroom).
Picture source: Rushlane


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PlayStation 4 Sell-Through Numbers Surpass One Million In 24 Hours
Posted on Monday, November 18 @ 08:21:49 PST by Alex_Osborn
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has announced that PlayStation 4 sold over a whopping one million units to consumers in its first day.
The Sony exec posted the following message on Twitter: "PS4 has sold through over 1 million units within 24 hours of the launch in North America!" Following that up, Sony VP of publisher and developer relations, Adam Boyes, posted: "Thanks to all of you gamers in getting us to 1,000,000 sales of PS4 in our first 24 hours!"
Xbox One launches this Friday, November 22nd. Will it reach a similar milestone in a mere 24 hours? We'll just have to wait and see!
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An outage at an Amazon Web Services has caused service disruptions across the Internet at popular sites, such as Reddit, Quora and Hootsuite, that rely on AWS for their hosting services.
According to the AWS Status Health Dashboard, an Amazon data center in Northern Virginia took a hit around 1:41 a.m. PDT on April 21, disrupting the company’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) service.
At 1:41 a.m., Amazon’s status dashboard said, “We are currently investigating latency and error rates with EBS volumes and connectivity issues reaching EC2 instances in the US-EAST-1 region.” That hit led to further service disruptions at popular sites, including Foursquare, Reddit, Quora and Hootsuite.
Affected companies began issuing comments to inform users of their status.
A note on Quora’s site said: “We’re currently having an unexpected outage, and are working to get the site back up as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.”
Reddit said: “Reddit is in -emergency read-only mode’ right now because Amazon is experiencing a degradation. They are working on it, but we are still waiting for them to get to our volumes. You won’t be able to log in. We’re sorry and will fix the site as soon as we can.”
And Hootsuite said: “We are having troubles. Oh no! It seems much of the Internet is struggling today due to widespread outage problems. We’re working diligently with our upstream providers to resolve the conundrums so we can be back online as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”
Although Amazon’s health dashboard continued to report gradual improvements in the health of the system, a status update as late as 11:09 a.m. PDT said: “A number of people have asked us for an ETA on when we’ll be fully recovered. We deeply understand why this is important and promise to share this information as soon as we have an estimate that we believe is close to accurate. Our high-level ballpark right now is that the ETA is a few hours. We can assure you that all-hands are on deck to recover as quickly as possible. We will update the community as we have more information.”
Meanwhile, in an April 21 blog post, Andy Singleton, president of Assembla, a software development tools and services provider that uses Amazon EC2, said, “Some Assembla Subversion repositories are currently inaccessible. This is because of problems in the EC2 storage architecture that we use. The same problem is affecting services like Reddit and Quora. Those services are completely down. At Assembla, the majority of our services are working normally. However, the svn outage is very difficult for the people who can’t code…”
Singleton further explains, “We made the decision to leave Amazon EC2 a few weeks ago because of this storage problem. We are currently setting up dedicated servers with hard-wired storage.”
However, Singleton also said:
“We use Amazon EC2, and we recommend it because their truly on-demand server resources make it possible to rapidly try things, fix things and innovate. Innovation speed is important. We recommend Amazon because they have done the most to deliver -on demand.'”


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Retailers refuse to stock Bully
Bully, the game which US attorney Jack Thompson attempted to have banned in Florida last week (and then got rather angry when the Judge ruled that the game wasn't a threat to public order), won't be sold at several major retail chains in the UK. Bully - Canis Canem Edit (Dog Eat dog) in Blighty - will not be stocked in PC World, Currys or Dixons.
The stores are all owned by retail group DSG International, and it sounds like the controversial Rockstar game doesn't quite suite the company's clientele. "We have no plans to stock Canis Canem Edit," read a statement from Currys. "We're fully aware people will be able to buy this game elsewhere, but we feel this game is not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image."
"We have a good relationship with the game's producers Rockstar, and look forward to working with them going forward," the statement released today assures us. Parents groups have been concerned over the child-on-child violence which it is believed is depicted in the new title, and the subject matter of the game has even been raised in parliament. Despite Bully being withdrawn from sale, then, the retail chain seem happy to sell other 18-certificated titles, and are also taking pre-orders for Vice City Stories on the PSP. More as we get it.
- New Assassin's Creed: Unity patch is a bit on the large side
- Wonder what Zombie mode looks like for Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare? Here's a trailer
- Xbox 360 Titanfall players getting a massive update next week
- Ubisoft pulls the Assassin's Creed: Unity Season Pass, offering free DLC and games to apologize for the problems with the game
- Dark Souls migration over to Steam delayed into next month now
- Sony to give partial refunds to PS Vita early adopters over misleading launch advertising
- And here's the goodies that Games With Gold will get you in December
- Nival announces beta access and a massive gun for pre-ordering Blitzkrieg 3
- Evolve developers promise that all map DLC will be free


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The current environment may still remain inflationary, but they will have a salutary effect on the prices of certain goods
The Union government’s decision to lower central excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 per litre and Rs 10 per litre, respectively, may have been motivated by political considerations but will cool inflation somewhat, leaving households and RBI breathing easier. The revenue loss of an estimated Rs 45,000 crore in the rest of FY22 seems to have been weighed against the potential gains at the hustings; some key states, including Uttar Pradesh, are going to the polls early next year.
Indeed, the government has spoken of how the reduction in excise on diesel would be a boost for farmers in the upcoming rabi season. The cuts are overdue given the government earned a whopping Rs 3.35 lakh crore from excise duties in FY21. The pickings in the current year, ahead of the cuts, were estimated at over Rs 4 lakh crore. Since the state-level ad valorem taxes are levied on a price inclusive of the central levies, this allows for even higher reductions in the retail prices. In addition, several states have cut the value-added tax by anywhere between Rs 2 and Rs 7 per litre so that pump prices there would come down further.
Economists estimate the tax cuts should bring down headline CPI inflation by 0.14 pp due to direct effects and up to 0.3 pp if indirect effects are included. Petrol has a 2.2% weigh in the CPI basket while diesel has a much smaller weight of 0.15%.
However, the current environment is expected to remain an inflationary one thanks to the severe shortage of key inputs, like chips and energy, and high international prices of crude oil. Nonetheless, the cuts on central duties that leave them at Rs 27.9/litre and Rs 21.8/litre on petrol and diesel, respectively, will help. The bigger cut on diesel makes sense because consumption levels are three times that of petrol and particularly because it would likely bring down road transportation costs. Lowering the cost of logistics does have a salutary effect on the prices of a range of goods, but is not expected to lift consumption meaningfully. Private consumption expenditure was weak well before the pandemic, growing at just 2% y-o-y in Q4FY20 and at 6.4% and 6.5% in Q3 and Q2, respectively. However, since then, the recovery in the economy has been fairly swift and consumption has clearly gotten a boost.
This is reflected in the strong tax collections—direct and indirect—that have given the Centre confidence to cut central excise duties. The Centre’s gross tax collections were up 64% year-on-year in H1FY, well above the 9.5% required run rate to hit the annual target of Rs 22.17 lakh crore. More importantly, net tax receipts jumped 101% y-o-y; at Rs 9.2 lakh crore, that is nearly 60% of the sum pencilled into the budget estimates.
At the same time, expenditure has been contained at 35% of the target in H1FY22.The revenue loss, of about 0.2% of the GDP, could see the fiscal deficit at around 6.5-6.6% against the targeted 6.8%. However, the government is unlikely to increase its borrowing and will likely stick to the planned Rs 5.03 lakh crore for H2FY22. This would help RBI as much as the tax cuts and the impact on inflation. Given the broad inflationary pressures and the imminent tapering by the US Fed, the central bank will have little choice but to continue normalising policy; it has started by draining excess liquidity but could soon hike the reverse repo rate.


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Apple’s acquisition of Shazam has caught the attention of the European Commission, and not in a good way, with an in-depth investigation being opened over whether it harmfully impacts user choice. The proposed deal had been announced back in December last year, though without confirmation of just how much it would cost the Cupertino firm.
However, Shazam had been valued at around $1bn in its last major funding round, suggesting it was no small move by Apple. The company uses audio fingerprinting to identify music playing after listening to a small sample. The same technology can also be used to identify movies, TV shows, and commercials. Shazam has also been experimenting with augmented reality (AR).
According to the European Commission, however, it needs to assess the proposed deal before it goes through. In particular, to check whether it would contravene EU Merger Regulation, given Shazam is “the leading music recognition app for mobile devices in the European Economic Area (EEA) and worldwide.” Shazam is based in the UK.
“The way people listen to music has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more Europeans using music streaming services,” Margrethe Vestager, the commissioner in charge of competition policy, said of the investigation. “Our investigation aims to ensure that music fans will continue to enjoy attractive music streaming offers and won’t face less choice as a result of this proposed merger.”
Several countries called for an assessment under the EU Merger Regulation, including Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. What’s interesting is that Shazam doesn’t have a streaming service of its own: the concern is not that an acquisition would reduce the number of streaming options. Instead, it’s around how Shazam acts as a gatekeeper.
Currently, after Shazam identifies a song, it offers links to different services to play it. Right now that includes Apple Music, Spotify, and others; however, the concern is that Apple could one day choose to discontinue referrals to its rivals.
That’s only the minor concern, however, with the Commission saying that it doesn’t, currently, see Shazam “as a key entry point” for streaming services. The bigger fear is that “following the takeover of Shazam, Apple would obtain access to commercially sensitive data about customers of its competitors for the provision of music streaming services in the EEA.” With such data, the Commission suggests, Apple could “directly target” those competitors’ customers, promoting Apple Music instead.
The Commission has 90 working days, taking it up to September 4, 2018, to take a decision.


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NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2019/06/17 - New H4 Thermal camera will enable users to see more detail from greater distances even in complete darkness - Avigilon.com. TSX: AVO NYSE: MSI
Avigilon Corporation (“Avigilon”), a Motorola Solutions company, today announced that it will preview its upcoming high-resolution H4 Thermal camera at the International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC 2019).
The new Avigilon H4 Thermal camera models will combine patented Avigilon technology with heat-sensing capabilities to improve perimeter security in areas with poor visibility, difficult lighting conditions and absolute darkness. The high-resolution H4 Thermal camera will enable users to see more accurately from longer distances, empowering customers with the information they need and helping ensure important details do not go unnoticed.
“We are introducing the high-resolution H4 Thermal camera to bring our customers longer-range detection in locations where environmental factors and lighting conditions are challenging,” said Sergio Parise, senior vice president, Product Development at Avigilon. “With the ability to recognize threats with greater accuracy at longer distances under these conditions, this camera will provide an excellent video security solution for sites requiring perimeter protection.”
The H4 Thermal camera is expected to launch globally in the third quarter of this year. For more information on product availability, please contact sales or come see the product demonstration at IFSEC 2019, ExCeL, stand IF1810 in London, United Kingdom, from June 18 to 20, 2019.
Avigilon (avigilon.com), a Motorola Solutions company, designs, develops and manufactures solutions in video analytics, cloud, security cameras, video management software and hardware, and access control. Avigilon is an industry leader and, together with Motorola Solutions, provides integrated solutions for video security, access control and critical communications.
© 2019 Avigilon Corporation. All rights reserved. AVIGILON and the AVIGILON logo are trademarks of Avigilon Corporation. Other names or logos mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.


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An insatiable demand for rhino horn has driven a poaching crisis that has seen at least 7,100 rhinos slaughtered in Africa over the past decade. China has historically been a significant consumer of rhinoceros horn and is the primary destination for poached rhino horn today. Since 2006 1.42 metric tons of seized rhino horn have been linked to China, including Hong Kong, though this likely represents only a fraction of the total amount of rhino horn entering the country.
Given China’s outsized role in global rhino horn trafficking, it has an equally large responsibility to take proactive action to prevent poaching and illegal trade. China has shown that it can take the necessary steps to curb illegal trade in endangered wildlife when there is sufficient political will, such as with rhino horn in the 1990s and its newly implemented domestic ban on trade in elephant ivory.
The efforts of China and other CITES Parties to combat rhino poaching and illegal trade will be discussed at the 70th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee held in Sochi, Russian Federation, from October 1-5.


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Source: Sup China (9/25/17)
Yet another round of internet censorship
Reuters reports that three of China’s largest tech firms have been fined for not censoring enough sensitive content. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) did not disclose the amount of the fines given to Tencent, Baidu, and Weibo except that they would receive the “maximum penalty” for hosting banned content, including fake news and pornography, as well as content that “incites ethnic tension” and “threatens social order.”Reuters notes that the maximum penalty for any individual in charge of a platform in violation of the rules cited by CAC is 100,000 yuan ($15,110) each.
The fines — largely symbolic, as such sums of money are pocket change for these large corporations — are one result of new cybersecurity regulations that went into effect in May this year. Listen to a Sinica Podcast with Adam Segal for more on China’s tightening grip on cyberspace.
Meanwhile, in other corners of the Chinese internet:
- The New York Times reports (paywall) that WhatsApp has finally been completely blocked in China, after years of intermittent access. It was the “last of Facebook products to still be available in mainland China,” and its demise is a setback for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has gone to great lengths to try to crack the Chinese market. Technical specialists told the Times that because of WhatsApp’s encryption methods, the censorship may indicate that China’s cyberspace authorities “may have developed specialized software to interfere with such messages.”
- The Times also describes (paywall) a series of crackdowns on the freedom of speech online in China, including a directive earlier this summer issued by the China Netcasting Services Association banning 68 categories of content.
- Last week, the People’s Daily criticized (in Chinese) AI-driven news aggregator Toutiao by name, specifically warning of the danger of “information cocoons” (信息茧房 xìnxī jiǎn fáng) — echo chambers — that consumers of overly personalized newsfeeds might get trapped in.
- Lawfare summarizes and analyzes recent Chinese government moves intended to end anonymity online in an article titled “Shrinking anonymity in Chinese cyberspace.”


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Slough Borough Council has completed the purchase of the company which owns Nova House, in the town centre.
The council announced its intention to purchase the company – Ground Rents Estates 5 (GRE5) – which owns the freehold of the town centre block, last year after concerns were raised about the fire safety of the building in the wake of the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in London.
Since the announcement the council has been undertaking due diligence on the purchase with the acquisition now complete.
Councillor Mohammed Nazir, lead member for corporate finance and housing, said: “We promised we would work for the residents of Nova House and do everything we could to ensure their safety in the short and longer terms.
“We are delighted to have now completed the purchase of GRE5 and appointed excellent directors to the board who can drive forward the improvements so desperately needed, liaise with the leaseholders and, most of all, protect the safety of the residents.
“There is a lot of work still to be done and we, as owners of GRE5 and as the council, will be keeping a close interest in how the work needed to the building proceeds.”
The council has arranged new branding for the company following the purchase.


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Google announced Tuesday that it will warn users when they may want to be careful about revealing sensitive information over email with a pair of new security features.
Intel's Itanium processor lineup has an uncertain future, but Hewlett Packard Enterprise is committed to an upcoming chip code-named Kittson.
A Java-based Trojan known as Adwind and AlienSpy has been rebranded as JSocket and is being sold as a service to all types of attackers, from opportunistic cybercriminals to cyberespionage groups.
If you're looking at buying servers from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, don't let a new naming convention throw you off balance.
Amazon Web Services is handing PC and console game developers new tools to encourage them to use its cloud services for their back-end server infrastructure.
President Barack Obama is proposing a sharp increase in the fiscal 2017 budget on cybersecurity spending, which is aimed at improving dated government software and promoting better Internet security for consumers.
The French data protection authority has ordered Facebook to stop some transfers of personal data of its users to the U.S. and to change the way it handles the data of users and non-users visiting its website.
Cisco warned on Monday of serious flaws it found in an Internet-connected thermostat control, which it said are typical among products of vendors who aren't well-versed in network security.
Telstra is working to repair a national network outage impacting mobile voice and data.
People testing out the public beta of Microsoft's Azure Stack private cloud system have some new platform services and DevOps tools to play with less than two weeks after it initially launched.
Amaysim is the leader in telco customer service, according to the release of the latest Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and Communications Alliance quarterly, Complaints in Context report.
The increasingly busy enterprise collaboration space got a new entry Monday with Prysm's new platform designed to support dispersed, multidevice workplaces.
If company CEOs can be replaced by computers, why not the president of the United States?
An AT&T regulatory filing last week shed light on a lesser-known aspect of the emerging 5G wireless standard that could be a boon to some consumers: Home broadband.
Researchers from security vendor Kaspersky Lab have identified three cybercrime groups that compromise and steal money from financial institutions using sophisticated techniques and custom malware.
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Honda renewing its entire SUV lineup this year
HR-V to be revealed April 4
The next step in Honda‘s renewal of its lineup is an all-new HR-V. Today the automaker teased one of its taillights and announced that we’ll get to see the rest of it on April 4th.
Honda has called this year the “Year of the Honda SUV.” It plans to reveal not just a new Honda HR-V subcompact crossover this year, but also a new CR-V and a new Pilot. Plus a new Accord, though that’s not an SUV. With the Civic all-new just last year, that’s almost everything Honda has to offer in about 12 months time.
With a lineup so fresh, what can we expect from the new Honda HR-V?
We’re not actually sure. The HR-V sold in the rest of the world (called the Vezel) was all-new last year while we continue to get the old model. But Honda has said that the HR-V for North America would be different from that vehicle. More tailored to North American needs, which we assume means more interior space and probably more horsepower.
The taillight Honda teased looks very much like the design used in the new Civic, and we expect the smooth design to be used in the CR-V as well. It also shows a fender with a bit more bulge than other Hondas (and the Vezel), a look we had expected thanks to some sketches Honda revealed earlier this year.
For the full details, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks. With the debut set for April 4th, we expect the 2023 HR-V to go on sale just after the halfway point of the year.


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iPad demand off the charts, and rising, surveys claim
[20-05-2010] - ComputerWorld.com
As Google lays the smack down against Apple at day two of its I/O conference, a series of positive reports show us Apple's runaway success with the iPad.
Apple is currently selling more iPads than Macs every day, recent analysis states -- and is rapidly approaching the same le [...]
iPad Camera Connection Kit has hidden USB capabilities
[26-04-2010] - arstechnica.com
The iPad Camera Connection Kit is not only a collection of two dock connector dongles designed to help you get photos onto an iPad from nearly any digital camera. It turns out the kit can also help you connect other USB devices to an iPad, making it that much more useful to those [...]
iPad will be a blind-friendly e-book reader
[17-03-2010] - geekwithlaptop.com
As an e-book reader, the iPad won’t have to deal with one of the headaches that has haunted Amazon’s Kindle.
As reported by Wired, when Apple began taking pre-orders for the much-anticipated device on Friday the company offered some details on how its e-books will work. Not on [...]
Why the iPad Will be the E-books Battle Arena
[14-03-2010] - PCWorld.com
Barnes & Noble says it will launch an iPad version of its eReader app, in anticipation of the release of Apple's device on April 3. The app will compete with Apple's own iBook store for e-books, and Amazon could jump on board any time now.
E-books on the iPad have been the sub [...]
AP to Sell News On iPad With Subscription Service
[03-03-2010] - cooltechzone.com
The Associated Press (AP) is interested in selling news on the Apple iPad through a subscription service as the device heads for sale. The AP is interested in charging for its content through a subscription fee over advertising that a lot of Web news content relies on, reports Th [...]
Networks Wary of Apple’s Push to Cut Show Prices
[27-02-2010] - NYTimes.com
If Apple cut the price of each TV episode in half — to 99 cents, from $1.99 — would sales on iTunes increase enough to offset the price drop?
Much of the TV content on iTunes is $1.99, be it the newest “Lost” or an old sitcom. CBS says it will discount some shows.
What the Apple iPad really is
[08-02-2010] - infoworld.com
Enough ranting: The iPad isn't what I thought it would be, either. Focus on what it's truly designed for and you may like it
As with the launch of every new Apple product, detractors and enthusiasts have dug in, with one side proclaiming the iPad an instant failure and the oth [...]
The Cost of a $499 iPad: $290 (according to NYTimes)
[06-02-2010] - NYTimes.com
If a 43 percent profit margin sounds about right to you, then Apple Computer has priced its new iPad tablet fairly.
According to a report in Computerworld, the total cost to Apple to market the basic-configuration $499 iPad is just about $290 to pay for material, manufacturing [...]
Exclusive! One of the very first hands-on tests! FOX News hands-on with Apple iPad: Glorious color screen, priced to move
[02-02-2010] - macdailynews.com
"The iPad is an ambitious product that's hard to sum up in a few words, or to assess at all until it's actually available for sale, which won't be for weeks," Harry McCracken reports for FOXNews.com. "Herewith, some early answers to major questions about the device, based on what [...]
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[01-02-2010] - www.tiPhones.com
Too much information on iPad and still confused?
Login our iPad discussion group on Facebook by clicking here
You're welcome, and your opinions too! [...]
The wait is over: iPad from Apple!
[27-01-2010] - www.iPodPalace.com
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Stay tuned! [...]


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Asma Khan will not reopen her Soho restaurant Darjeeling Express once lockdown has been lifted on the 4 July but says she has plans to relaunch it in a larger venue that will become an incubator for female talent.
Keeping on top of cash flow will be critical as restaurants start to re-open for eat-in. With this in mind Donna Torres - director of small business and commercial operations at accountancy software provider Xero shares seven tips.
Soho House founder Nick Jones is one of a number of high-profile operators to back the Soho Summer Street Festival campaign, which is hoping to temporarily pedestrianise the area to allow hospitality businesses to set-up al fresco drinking and dining...
Amazon’s investment in Deliveroo should be provisionally cleared because it is not expected to damage competition in either restaurant delivery or online convenience grocery delivery, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found.


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Reports of the death of the physical store have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, a recent study found that more than half of shoppers expect more from a store’s look and design than they did five years ago.
Precisely how the physical retail store will survive and thrive in future is the subject of Future Stores 2016 – a major gathering of in-store experience innovators from some of Europe’s most progressive retailers.
Despite e-commerce hogging the spotlight in recent years, the art of the retail store is enjoying something of a renaissance. In fact, for those who are able to do it well, enticing, thoughtfully designed stores have become a powerful brand differentiator.
Despite the wealth of digital devices at the fingertips of today’s modern shopper, there remains an enduring desire for faultlessly finished bricks-and-mortar stores – places for shoppers to enjoy truly memorable, multi-sensory shopping experiences which are impossible to replicate online.
As a result we now see online-only retailers moving into the physical retail space. Etsy opening a test concession in Selfridges, and talk of Amazon opening a physical store are excellent examples of this.
However, there is no doubt that the consolidation of the high street is not yet over. Retailers are looking to discover the paradigm which will dominate high street retail for years to come.
At Future Stores 2016, we’re drawing insights from top retailers on how they are innovating in technology, driving footfall, harnessing the power of in-store data, and revolutionising the way we pay.
In-store payments innovation
Payments are a big issue for in-store innovators in 2016, and there is an entire day dedicated to it Future Stores 2016.
There has been a proliferation of payment methods over recent years – the sheer volume makes it very difficult for retailers to decide which to invest in. On top of this, many retailers are struggling with legacy systems which are hampering their ability to foster meaningful innovation in regards to in-store payments.
Dive into the discussion with leading retailers and hand-picked payments experts to discover the solution which best suits your business.
Achieving customer centricity
From the shopping mall to the independent outlet, the customer relationship is evolving. The question on everyone’s lips is how to make their store feel as if it revolves around the individual customer, matching their expectations and fulfilling their desires.
Meet Michael Durbridge, director of omni-channel at B&Q, at Future Stores 2016 as he dives into how data analytics can help to meet the needs of your customers as they walk around your store. Alternatively, hear the director of digital and flagship stores at Adidas, Worth Darling, talk about what they learned while implementing the ‘endless aisle’ and how it can benefit your store.
Balancing human vs. technological interactions
Although the successful retail store of the future will undoubtedly contain its fair share of technology, how can retailers make sure that the technology is adding value to the customer journey, and is not distracting from it.
Join Chloe Kerner, multi channel manager at Debenhams, as she shows how to balance technology and human interaction in-store without alienating your customer.
Book your place at Future Stores using your retail week code RetailTIMES20 today, for 20% off.


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Battery Ventures, a multi-stage investment firm focused on technology and innovation worldwide, recently announced in a press release that it has invested $20 million in Avalara, a provider of sales tax automation services in the cloud.
As the result of the investment, Battery Ventures Partner, Chelsea Stoner, has joined the Avalara Board of Directors. Avalara was initially funded by angel investors including The Benaroya Company and Pioneer Venture Partners, and has received additional funding from Sageview Capital.
"Avalara exemplifies what we look for in companies as investors: a practical solution to a pressing problem," said Chelsea Stoner, Battery Ventures Partner. "The increasing complexity of sales and use tax regulation has amplified the need for Avalara's SaaS (News - Alert)-based offering, as it's truly a pain point businesses can't afford to ignore. Avalara's technology and integration capabilities, along with their impressive customer base, have powered them into the leadership position in this billion dollar market. We believe Avalara has massive potential and we look forward to working with the team to achieve it."
Avalara offers integrations with more financial, e-commerce, point-of-sales and mobile applications than any other transactional-tax solution on the market. The company’s tax decision engine processes more that 1.7 million tax calculations every day. Avalara files more than 500,000 tax returns every year for more than 25,000 licensed users throughout the U.S., Canada and abroad.
"Avalara has grown significantly over the past few years and we think the market for our SaaS solution will soon mirror that of payroll automation," said Avalara founder and CEO Scott McFarlane. "While we were not actively looking for funding, we are confident Battery's investment will help Avalara quickly tap the huge opportunity we see ahead of us. Their impressive record and solid understanding of the SaaS business model make them the right partner to help build the next phase of our business and create a world-class company."
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.
Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli


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On Thursday, several commercial establishments in Coimbatore Corporation limits started receiving notices from the civic body saying the workers should be tested for COVID-19 within 24 hours after receiving the communication.
This is practically not possible, say business owners across sectors. “No other city or State in the country has such a rule. So, why in Coimbatore ?,” asked one of them.
The huge cost involved in testing the workers, problems in sending the workers and staff to laboratories, and lack of standard norms to be followed if workers test positive are some of the concerns among them. Some of the association heads plan to meet the District Collector on Friday.
There are several practical challenges in testing all the workers, according to J. Ganesh Kumar, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry, Coimbatore. The government should conduct camps in different localities. Otherwise, it will be difficult to mobilise the workers and send them to the laboratories for testing. If 500 to 1,000 people are working at an industry, how many should be tested ? There should be clarity in the order and the government should conduct testing camps at least two or three days a week at a particular locality, he said.
The migrant workers are just returning to work. They will feel uncomfortable and will develop fear if they are tested every 10 days. The workers will not come to Coimbatore and the economy of the district will collapse, say textile mill owners.
In the construction sector, workers who stay at the site take precautionary measures. Nearly 50 % of the workers come as daily workers and live across the city. It is not possible to test them as they will move from one work site to another depending on the job available, says Panneerselvam, head of Builders’ Association of India, Coimbatore chapter.
B. Muthuvenkatraman, president of Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association, says if the workers in a jewellery shop are tested and they report negative for COVID-19, the next day they will be at the shop meeting customers. “How do we protect them ?” he asks. The jewellery manufacturers suggest that the district administration can instead go in for one week to two weeks complete lockdown, he says.
“We are already operating just 50 % of the capacity. The MSMEs will not be able to test all the workers and that too every 10 days because of the costs involved,” says Coimbatore District Small Industries Association president R. Ramamurthy.
“A micro unit that employs 10 workers will have to shell out at least ₹10,000 for testing the workers once a month. When business is down and there is no support from the government, this is an additional financial burden to the micro units,” says J. James, president of Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Tiny Enterprises.
Small traders, who employ three to five workers, will just shut down their business. These workers do not stay at the accommodations arranged by the employer. They come to work every day. So there is no point in testing these workers regularly, according to C. Balasubramaniam, vice-president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore.
Some of the association heads say the officials should discuss with the trade and industry and take their suggestions before announcing such measures. So far, trade and industry have kept their premises largely safe. Making testing mandatory, giving just 24 hours time, threatening action, and shutting down the industry or shop only create fear among the workers and the employers, they say. There is no standard norm on how long a shop or industry will be closed if there are just one or two positive cases and whether the rest of the workers will be quarantined. The officials should explain these to the trade and industry, they add.
Source: Read Full Article


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April 27, 2020
As the number of cases and deaths related to the novel coronavirus rise, so too do the number of lawsuits filed related to the virus. Claims for breach of contract based on consumer protection laws are already underway against sports/health clubs, as are cases against Walmart, cruise lines and nursing homes for negligence and/or wrongful death. We can expect lawsuits against residential property owners and managers, restaurant owners and operators, grocery store chains, and potentially even against delivery service providers. Below is a brief summary of recently filed COVID-19 lawsuits and some commentary about how to minimize exposure to future litigation.
Service Disruption Claims Against Sports Clubs
Several health club chains are already in litigation over COVID-19 related consumer protection and breach of contract claims. Plaintiffs claim that these sports clubs improperly continued to withdraw monthly dues (or portions thereof) despite the fact that the clubs are closed. It is likely that similar claims will arise nationwide.
Several defenses to these claims derive from the language contained in the membership agreements of the plaintiffs. Many agreements contain class action waivers, and most contain a requirement to arbitrate any dispute. These waivers and provisions may be used to defeat these claims on early motion practice, and plaintiffs would then be forced to individually pursue their claims either in court or before an arbitrator. Courts across the country generally favor the enforcement of these contractual provisions if voluntarily entered into by both parties. In addition to these provisions, sports clubs also have the ability to assert defenses ordinarily available to all other contract claims, based on acts of god, force majeure, and/or impracticability. The availability of these defenses is contingent on the language of each agreement as well as the other circumstances presented, including whether the sports clubs have any discretion as to whether to close their doors.
Another set of defenses to these claims stems from the timing of the claim and the response by the sports clubs. These claims may be subject to dismissal for ripeness if they are made against the sports clubs before the fees become due. The claims also may be dismissed if they are moot, or if the sports clubs take certain actions to render them moot. For example, if the sports club elects to remit a pro-rata refund of fees or a credit for future months, the claims made against it may become moot.
Finally, defenses may arise depending on how the claim is framed by plaintiffs. Any claim for a violation of a consumer fraud act, an unfair trade practice, bad faith, or the like must be plead with specificity. Without the required specificity and factual basis, the claim will be subject to dismissal. If a class action is filed by a plaintiff in one state, and seeks to represent the interests of class members across different states, it is possible that the claim can be narrowed based on standing principles. The language used by the plaintiffs in their complaints is critical.
In sum, the defense of cases such as these against sports clubs, and others targeted as a result of COVID-19, depends on the situation presented. The law will often differ from state to state, and also depends on whether the claims are brought under certain federal or state laws, so a case-by-case analysis is required. Therefore, it is especially important to evaluate defense options at the very outset of the litigation.
Class Action Claims – Cruise Ship Companies
Although class action lawsuits involving cruise lines are rare due to waiver language, on April 7, 2020, one class action lawsuit was filed against Costa Cruise Lines Inc. (“Costa”). In that lawsuit, plaintiff Paul Turner alleges that Costa negligently allowed more than 2,000 passengers on a transatlantic voyage, placing them at risk of catching the coronavirus. The suit makes the claim that despite knowing before departure that a passenger from the most recent cruise tested positive for the virus and died, Costa still set sail. Mr. Turner alleges, among other things, that the cruise line allowed new customers to board the ship without adequate sanitation measures. Plaintiff alleges that Costa told passengers that its vessel was not impacted by the coronavirus, and that they would not be reimbursed if they canceled their voyage.
In general, claims against cruise lines are often difficult due to restrictive terms of service contained in each passenger’s paperwork and due to maritime law. Despite this, we can expect to see more filings considering the number of cruise line passengers nationwide (and worldwide) that contracted the virus.
Potential Negligence Claims - Property Owners/Managers
Residential property owners should be wary of potential lawsuits from tenants, guests and invitees claiming exposure to the virus at their properties. These individuals might claim that the building was unclean or allowed exposure to other tenants with COVID-19, leading to coronavirus transmission. Negligence claims could involve whether the owner or manager took appropriate and reasonable steps to minimize the risk of virus transmission to a given individual.
For instance, as of April 20, 2020, seven states— Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—made masks mandatory for employees of essential businesses (those that are now open but we would assume these requirements will continue as other businesses open). Although there are certain variations, states like Pennsylvania require businesses to provide masks to their employees. It is likely that additional states will implement mask requirements or other similar mandates.
Property owners and similarly situated entities should engage in an internal review of their precautionary measures and procedures. Based on the given facts many questions loom. For example, did the owner/manager take reasonable steps to restrict access to places where tenants may come into close contact with each other, such as playgrounds, laundry rooms, elevators, mailboxes or other commonly shared areas? Do all of the owner/manager’s employees wear masks and/or gloves while working? Is there a procedure in place that requires a virus stricken tenant to notify the owner/manager so that appropriate steps can be put in place to reasonably ensure the safety of all other tenants? Does he need to provide notice to others without violating privacy laws? If an owner/manager is aware that a tenant tested positive for COVID-19, what obligation does that owner/manager then have to that tenant? May the owner mandate isolation of a tenant? What are the owner/manager’s obligations to the other tenants at the property under these circumstances? Should the owner/manager advise only the tenants of the building where the infected tenant resides, or beyond? What information is the owner/manager able to disclose to other tenants, and how should communication be done? These are all critical questions that need to be considered and assessed based on the facts at issue in a given instance.
In most jurisdictions, a business owner has a duty to take reasonable measures to limit a customer’s exposure to dangerous conditions. A business must take reasonable care to provide a safe environment for its customers. The duty of care generally requires a business owner to assess whether a dangerous condition exists at the business and to take reasonable efforts to eliminate that danger, and/or warn others of its existence. In other words, the business owner must maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and safely operate the business.
Potential Negligence Claims -- Commercial Stores and Delivery Services
Grocery stores and other “essential” businesses remain open to the public and many have already implemented requirements that employees wear masks, keep social distance measures and have their temperature checked before starting shifts. Most stores have signs posted at the entrance to remind customers to follow social distancing and to stay six feet apart inside the store. Many stores installed Plexiglas at check-out lines to prevent direct contact/breathing between the customer and store employee. Stores also placed lines of tape near the check-out stands, six feet apart, to visually remind customers to stay 6 feet apart. In California, some business are posting signs that require customers to wear a mask or else they are not allowed to enter the store. Most employees in essential businesses are already wearing masks and gloves. Many of these types of “essential” businesses clean shopping carts and other areas of constant customer contact. To be safe, health experts recommend that a customer not be allowed to use a cart returned by a prior customer until it has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
Unfortunately, despite the above safety measures, they may not be enough. An article posted on CNN Business on April 19, 2020 references the fact that dozens of grocery store workers have died from COVID-19 despite the use of some of the safety measures intended to keep them safe; temperature checks and capacity restrictions. The CNN article points out that workplace experts, union leaders, and small grocery store owners believe the time has come to completely ban customers from the stores because it has become too dangerous to let customers browse aisles, regularly coming in close range with workers. The same experts feel that the time has come for large chain grocery stores to “go dark” to the public and convert to curbside pickup only, or home delivery mode. This might sound extreme. Nevertheless, businesses should be prepared to defend claims from plaintiffs that will pursue these extreme theories to obtain a favorable result.
One store owner in Pennsylvania went so far as to discard $35,000 worth of food after a customer coughed on fresh produce, a seemingly extraordinary precaution that the owner believed to be a reasonable measure that would minimize the rest of his customers’ risk of contracting COVID-19. The owner decided that the loss of inventory was less of a concern than the potential harm to the store’s customers. These are the judgment calls businesses need to make, based on guidance from our governmental officials, in a world fraught with inconsistent messaging at this time. Against that backdrop, these claims will be defended.
Restaurants and stores not limited to providing take out and/or delivery orders remain exposed to future claims if a customer comes down with the virus. Other claims could involve issues related to how food is distributed. To the extent that cardboard and plastic surfaces can retain the coronavirus, businesses need to determine if they should disinfect those surfaces prior to placement on a delivery truck. Businesses need to decide if those products should be disinfected again before being left at a homeowner’s front door, and if so, how? Need a business clean the entire exterior of all boxes being delivered? What guarantee would this even provide? Should all drivers at least wear masks and gloves during the delivery process? These are judgment calls these companies need to make based on the best information available to them.
Recently, Walmart was sued over a COVID-19 related death of a store employee. The plaintiffs filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the Walmart Superstore at issue failed to take steps to protect its employees. More specifically, the plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that the Walmart Superstore in Evergreen Park, Illinois, failed to warn the decedent and other employees that co-workers had COVID-19 symptoms. Wando Evans, 51, died March 25, 2020. A second store employee, Phillip Thomas, 48, died from COVID-19 complications four days later.
The Evans complaint alleges that Walmart failed to close the store even though it knew or should have known that employees and others at the store had COVID-19 symptoms. The complaint further alleges that Walmart failed to prevent employees with COVID-19 symptoms from working at the store. Also, plaintiffs allege that Walmart hired people over the phone or by other remote means without evaluating whether the prospective employees had symptoms of the virus. Finally, the Evans complaint alleges that Walmart failed to clean and sterilize the store, failed to provide employees with personal protective equipment, and failed to promote and enforce social distancing.
Walmart released a statement advising that neither of the employees had been at the store for more than a week and that it had taken action to reinforce cleaning and sanitizing measures, including deep cleaning of key areas. The statement also advised that Walmart passed a third-party safety and environmental compliance assessment, as well as a health department inspection. As an extra precaution, Walmart brought in an outside company to further clean and sanitize all high-touch surfaces in the store, which included the decontamination of front entrances, carts, registers and bathrooms, as well as food areas, including the produce and meat sections. The statement also advised that Walmart then took steps across the country to protect associates and customers, including implementing additional cleaning measures, installing sneeze guards at registers, placing social distancing decals on the floors and limiting the number of customers in a store at a given time. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges that these preventative measures were taken only after the deaths.
The timing of any precautionary measures implemented in any given case will be critical evidence. Deciding which actions to take, and when, is no simple task in this constantly changing environment. Businesses need to implement reasonable measures, based on what is known at the time, to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus. Plaintiff firms will latch onto any action or inaction when formulating their claims. To be clear, this is a very uncertain time with information evolving by the day, if not the hour. Businesses need to make reasonable efforts to remain informed, take reasonable precautions and provide reasonable notice under the given circumstances. The more effort they make toward providing for the safety of those potentially exposed, the stronger the defenses will be.
Potential Negligence Claims – Nursing Homes and Elderly Care Facilities
Negligence claims against nursing home facilities alleging inadequate infection control, lack of personal protective equipment, inadequate staffing, insufficient warnings, or the like are nothing new. In fact, these types of claims persisted prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, and likely will continue after the virus is controlled. These claims are ripe for the filing based on the remarkably contagious nature of this virus and potentially deadly effect of COVID-19. One thing all news outlets agree upon is that elderly nursing home populations have more difficulty with COVID-19.
Early statistics show that COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes and elderly care facilities represent a high percentage of all deaths, meaning that the exposure to these types of claims is high. In a widely publicized example, a nursing home in New Jersey recently made national news when it was discovered that it was housing 17 deceased bodies in the facility. The nursing home is reportedly understaffed, namely because 41 of its staff are infected with COVID-19.
Claims against these facilities can and will be made by the patients themselves, the patients’ families, workers at the facility, delivery personnel, contractors, and others. Indeed, a wrongful death claim was already filed in Washington against a nursing home, Life Care Center. In that case, the daughter of a deceased resident claims that her mother died of COVID-19 because the nursing home lacked “a clear plan of action leading to a systemic failure.” Particularly, the nursing home is alleged to have permitted residents and visitors to have a Mardi Gras party, failed to quarantine residents, and delayed reporting of positive cases for 17 days.
To avoid or curtail these impending claims, nursing homes should consider taking all practical measures geared toward the safety of the individuals in their facilities. The recommendations made by the government and related agencies should serve as guidance and a failure to comport with them will be relied upon by plaintiffs. Again, with conflicting messaging, this is no simple process. For example, states like Connecticut are imposing their own safety requirements on nursing homes to segregate COVID-19 residents on separate floors. These facilities should be reasonably forthcoming with facts they learn regarding COVID-19, but should proceed cautiously due to privacy laws. Spending the time to keep abreast of the moving target of available information, and documenting concentrated efforts geared toward the safety of all involved, should help defend these claims. None of this is simple in the face of this pandemic, and the many complications we hear about daily in the news. Health care workers are no doubt among the heroes of the day. However, their employers and these facilities will still be the targets of litigation. In the face of a negligence claim, making informed decisions based on state of the art information will be valuable evidence to rely upon for the proposition that the facility was doing its best to protect its patients and the population at large, under these extreme circumstances.
The legal-framework for claims against sports clubs, property owners, stores, delivery service providers, nursing homes and cruise ships generally remains the same. However, the circumstances presented by COVID-19 related claims are novel, during these unprecedented times. Businesses should rely on the language of their agreements and traditional legal principles to defeat claims for breach of contract, breach of consumer laws, and class actions. The question at the heart of many negligence based COVID-19 lawsuits is likely to revolve around whether these entities took reasonable measures, based on then existing state of the art knowledge, to do their best prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Plaintiffs may have difficulty proving a causal connection between alleged exposure and a given plaintiff’s illness (whether a defendant’s failure to take precautions actually caused the infection in that person). However, the better the facts are to defeat the negligence claim, the more likely the jury will care about the lack of causation defense. Rest assured, the converse is equally true.
Visit our COVID-19 Hub for ongoing updates.
 For just two examples, see, Barnett v. Fitness International, LLC, No. 0:20-cv-60658 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 30, 2020); Labib v. 24 Hour Fitness USA, No. 3:20-cv-02134 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 27, 2020).
 See Marmet Health Care Center, Inc. v. Brown, 565 U.S. 530, 532-33 (2012) (holding that there is a strong public policy in favor of enforcing arbitration agreements); Whalen v. Lord & Moses, LLC, Case No. 09-CV-0192-JBC, 2009 WL 3766327, at *1 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 10, 2009) (federal and state law favors enforcing arbitration agreements).
 Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S.Ct. 1540, 1546-48 (2016) (applying standing principles to class action lawsuit).
 Turner et. al. v. Costa Crociere S.P.A. et al. United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case No. 1:20-cv-21481.
 Toney Evans, Special Administrator of the Estate of Wando Evans v. Walmart Inc. et al., Circuit Court of Cook County. Case Number 2020L003938.


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Lincoln NE (SN) – With five more COVID-19 cases confirmed in Lancaster county this afternoon, and even Nebraska’s pro-death Governor urging for early testing, one fact remains true: You don’t have to wear a mask, you pussy. You’re being a baby. You’re blowing this out of proportion. It is a liberal hoax.
Retired mechanic Kirby Walton knows this, he knows everything is going to be okay for Lincoln because he knows everything about Caronavirus.
“I was picking up some BBQ sauce and a pack of smokes at Walmart earlier this week,” he told reporters. “I just couldn’t believe how many stupid maniacs were wearing gloves and masks. Idiots.”
Walton’s errands reportedly continued to frustrate him.
“I headed over to the MickeyD’s to get some chicken nuggets and BBQ sauce and the doors were fucking locked!” he shouted. “I hate drive-thrus. They always fuck up your order. I like some good human interaction. Stupid overreactors, this is all a conspiracy to promote Tom Hanks’ new movie.”
When asked if he made sure to wash his hands when he arrived home, he made fun of our staff and told us he found an article that proves that it’s actually bad for your immune system to be constantly deprived of “good” germs.


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LONDON, UK – The UK hotel and B&B industry is now one of the best-rated in the world having previously lagged behind other major international rivals, an in-depth analysis of a decade’s worth of TripAdvisor review ratings has revealed.
The study, conducted by TripAdvisor, analysed millions of traveller ratings given to hotel and B&B properties on TripAdvisor over the last ten years in 15 major tourism markets around the world.
The study found that in 2015 UK hotels and B&Bs enjoyed an average review rating of 4.16 out of 5, placing them second out of the 15 major tourism markets analysed and above the overall global average of 4.12. Only Italian accommodations scored higher in 2015 with an average of 4.20.
The UK hospitality industry’s strong performance last year was the culmination of a decade-long improvement in average review ratings given to UK properties on TripAdvisor, a trend that outpaced other rival tourism markets around the globe.
In 2005, the average review rating for UK hotels and B&B’s was just 3.57 – the lowest of the 15 markets analysed. However, in the ten years that followed, the UK’s average rating rose above other competitor markets, including Spain, France, United States and Thailand.
Average Accommodation Review Ratings on TripAdvisor - 2005 vs 20151
The study also found that smaller, independent accommodations in the UK were providing the biggest boost to the UK’s overall average rating – with B&Bs scoring an average review rating of 4.48 (out of 5) compared to 4.04 for hotels in 2015.
Even within the hotel sector, smaller properties were shown to have a ratings advantage over larger properties, with UK hotels that accommodate less than 25 rooms scoring an average of 4.40 (out of 5) in 2015 compared to those with 26-100 rooms, where the average is 3.97.
“These figures are excellent news, and show that the UK has moved in 10 years from the lowest-rated country to the second highest, driven by the success of independent accommodation. The innovation and quality of small owner-managed properties have raised standards across Britain's tourism accommodation sector over the decade,” commented David Weston, Chief Executive of the Bed & Breakfast Association, “Guests clearly love the individuality, character, home-cooked breakfasts and personal service that they get in British B&Bs, which is why – in millions of reviews on TripAdvisor - they consistently score higher ratings than hotels.”
Ufi Ibrahim, CEO of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) welcomed the report, saying: “We are very proud to see the results of the TripAdvisor study and proud too of the standards of service our industry delivers so consistently. UK Hotels and B&Bs can take great satisfaction from seeing their efforts reflected in this report. Our members welcome visitors from both here in the UK and from across the world and all seek to offer great service and enjoyable guest experiences.”
Additional findings from the Review Ratings study:
- Business travellers are the most discerning, awarding the lowest average review rating to accommodations compared to other types of global travellers
- Couples are the most satisfied, giving hotels and B&Bs the highest average review rating amongst all types of travellers
- The most positive reviewers of UK properties, by nationality, are Americans – awarding an average review rating of 4.21 out of 5
- Globally, UK reviewers are among the most positive in the world – in 2015, the average review rating given by a UK traveller was 4.19 (out of 5), making them the second most positive reviewers out of the 15 markets analysed
The study’s findings were further supported by a recent statistical analysis of international and domestic travel2, conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of TripAdvisor, which found that consumer reviews had spurred quality improvements within the accommodation sector and generated £2 billion3 in visitor spending in the UK in 2014 alone.
“We found evidence of a virtuous cycle by which increased travel leads to increased reviews shared on TripAdvisor. Those reviews then help other travellers planning trips and also provides businesses with valuable feedback to improve service and in turn attract more customers, which ultimately has the effect of raising standards across the UK hotel industry,” said Adam Sacks, President of Tourism Economics (Oxford Economics).
The Oxford Economics report – entitled The Global Economic Contribution of TripAdvisor – also concluded that independent properties in the UK received a disproportionate benefit from the additional visitor spending generated by TripAdvisor, because TripAdvisor content gives travellers the confidence to choose a property based on reviews, ratings and photos from other travellers, rather than more traditional decision-making factors such as brand recognition or previous experience. This trend particularly benefits non-branded businesses, enabling small and independent businesses to compete on more of an equal footing with larger, more internationally recognizable brands.


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Engineers are the backbone of the world. The new invention means a new technology been emerged. The greater thinking and finer approach makes an engineer different and standalone in the field. Engineers have now also come up with the invention of a new technology by firm planning and decisions. A new technology is to develop a wireless charger that will be compatible with different consumer electronics from different brands.
A dual frequency wireless charging platform has been developed by the team from University of California-San Diego that can charge smartphones, smart watches, laptops and tablets at the same time, regardless of which wireless standard, or frequency, each device supports. Patrick Mercier, professor at UC San Diego who led the study, explained, "To our knowledge, this is the only multi-standard wireless power transmitter that's been shown to operate simultaneously at two different frequencies with high efficiency".
There are three wireless standards in the market. Wireless charger needs to be either the Qi, Powermat or Rezence standard supportive. Pestering the current incompatibility of the wireless charger, the new Universal wireless charger cum single charging device supports multiple standards. It needs to operate across these very different frequencies as, Qi and Powermat operate at around 200 kHz while Rezence operates at 6.78 MHz.
"To help avoid such a situation, we developed a wireless technology that is universal and supports all of these standards so it won't matter which standard your device supports", Mercier added. Clearing the words, to address the problem, Mercier and his team built a charging platform capable of simultaneously operating across the frequencies supported by all three wireless power standards. The paper too was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, with the notable note carrying the information that, the researchers have filed the patents and are looking for commercial partners to help bring the universal wireless charger into the market.


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General Motors’ Maven car-sharing launches in New York
Latest News »
- MFIs, SFBs will need Rs11,000 cr funding in FY18 to mitigate demonetization impact: ICRA
- Around 100 brokers under lens for helping shell companies
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- Nurturing growth
- Vishal Sikka, as Infosys executive vice-chairman, won’t play active role
Detroit (Michigan): General Motors (GM) is launching its Maven car-sharing service in New York City.
The service lets members rent GM vehicles for up to 28 days at a time.
Maven will park 80 vehicles around Manhattan. Using Maven’s smartphone app, members can reserve a time and unlock and start the car when they arrive.
Prices vary by vehicle, but it will cost about $100 to use a Chevrolet Cruze for a full day. Maven takes care of the insurance and fuel costs.
Maven started a year ago with a small fleet of cars in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The service now has 35,000 members and more than 530 cars on the road in 13 US cities and Kitchener, Ontario.
Until now, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC have been Maven’s biggest markets.


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For much of the last 100 years, Australia and South Korea have had a positive working relationship incorporating everything from education and tourism to business.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, South Korea is one of Australia’s largest export partners – making them a valuable part of the national economy. This connection developed into Korea – Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), launched in 2015 and thus far has brought great benefits to enterprises in both countries.
This month, the third round of tariff cuts comes into force with Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce indicating that those in the Australian agricultural sector are set for significant windfalls.
“The third round of tariff cuts will be particularly beneficial to a number of Australian agricultural exports to Korea and will allow producers and exporters to continue to build their commercial relationships in Korea,” he explained in a January 1 media statement.
The success of the KAFTA to date
South Korea, like many Asian countries, face a growing middle-class population – putting significant pressure on food resources. As such, demand for quality products from Australia become key commodities. In fact, over the 12 months, since the KAFTA came into force, a number of sectors have witnessed extraordinary progress. Mr Joyce noted two examples.
“Brussels sprouts and fresh cherries which have both increased by nearly 5000 per cent, albeit from a low base. The elimination of the 24 per cent tariff on cherries has resulted in exports worth $3.5 million in 2014-15,” he said.
“Fresh navel oranges have also seen strong growth, with exports increasing almost 700 per cent to $486,000 in 2014-15, as well as almonds which are up over 400 per cent to $0.5 million.”
Most recent tariff cuts
Of course, food manufacturing business leaders will be interested in the latest tariff cuts which come into force this month on exports to South Korea. This includes fresh, chilled and frozen beef (34.6 per cent down to 32 per cent), almonds (6.4 per cent to 5.6 per cent), macadamia nuts (18 per cent to 12 per cent) and table grapes (also 18 per cent to 12 per cent).
Mr Joyce is confident that these tariff cuts won’t be the last.
“We’ve got a strong track record of delivering better access to overseas markets for Australian exporters with our recently signed FTAs and trade partnerships across Asia and the Pacific, and we’re now working on similar agreements with India and the EU,” he summarised.
Plastic pallets key for KAFTA
While tariff cuts are one of the reasons why exports will rise, this can’t be at the expense of quality. If Australian businesses are using sub-standard wooden pallets or similar, this can decrease produce standards and impact the value of the deal.


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It’s official! MSC Cruises Restarts cruising.
MSC Cruises will return to service in the Mediterranean this summer with MSC Grandiosa and MSC Magnifica resuming on August 16 and 29, 2020 respectively. For this initial phase of the restart of operations, the two MSC Cruises’ ships operating in the Mediterranean for the current summer season will initially only welcome guests who are residents in Schengen countries.
Gianni Onorato, MSC Cruises’ CEO commented, “We are very pleased to be able to start welcoming back guests for full-experience cruise vacations this summer on board two of our most popular ships — including our flagship MSC Grandiosa — and in the Mediterranean, the very region where our Company’s roots are and we have long been market leaders.”
While MSC Cruises Restarts with two ships, they have today cancelled all other cruises in the Mediterranean from August 16 through to and including October 31, 2020. In addition, MSC Cruises announced the cancellation of all U.S. cruise departures through to and including October 31, 2020, in line with the announcement that CLIA members will voluntarily extend the suspension of cruise operations to this date.
CLIA stated that “This proactive action further demonstrates the cruise industry’s commitment to public health and willingness to voluntarily suspend operations in the interest of public health and safety, as has occurred twice prior.” MSC Cruises will only restart operations in the U.S. when the time is right, following approval by the CDC and other relevant authorities across the region in observance of their requirements and guidelines.
What about cruises in the United States?
MSC Cruises will only restart operations in the U.S. when the time is right, following approval by the CDC and other relevant authorities across the region in observance of their requirements and guidelines.
This announcement comes on the heels of MSC Cruises’ reveal of its new health comprehensive health and safety protocol that has been approved the relevant national authorities from the countries that these ships will call at.
- The company has worked to encompass every aspect of the guest’s journey from the moment of booking, embarkation and life on board through to disembarkation and the return home.
- It includes universal health screening (including all guests being swab tested for COVID-19 upon arrival at the port prior to joining the ship), enhanced sanitation and cleaning measures, social distancing, enhanced medical facilities, ongoing health monitoring, a contingency response plan and more.
What will cruising look like with MSC?
We break down the details of the MSC Cruises Restarts, which includes:
- Big changes to shore excursions.
- Daily temperature checks.
- Universal screening at check in.
More MSC Content
- MSC Meraviglia Review Podcast.
- 10 Things to Know about MSC’s Ocean Cay Marine Reserve.
- MSC Meraviglia Yacht Club Menus.
- MSC Meraviglia Ship Tour.
- 10 Reasons the MSC Yacht Club is Worth the Splurge.
- What’s an MSC Yacht Club Stateroom Like?
We’d love to hear from you
Have you cruised with MSC? What do you think of the MSC Cruises Restarts? Do you think these measures will extend to the United States? Please feel free to direct message us on Instagram or Facebook with your thoughts, and until next time, we’ll see you on the high seas!
About MSC Cruises
MSC Cruises is the fastest growing cruise brand in the world. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, MSC Cruises is part of the Cruises Division of MSC Group, the privately-held Swiss-based leading shipping and logistics conglomerate.
MSC Cruises’ fleet of 17 modern and innovative ships is one of the most environmentally-advanced in the industry. The Company is committed to environmental stewardship and works to minimize and continuously reduce the environmental impact of its fleet both while at sea and ashore, as well as invest in the accelerated development of next-generation marine and environmental technologies. With a long-term goal to achieve zero emissions, MSC Cruises in 2020 became the first major global cruise line to offset 100 percent of its ships’ carbon emissions that cannot be abated through existing environmental technology (learn more about MSC Cruises’ environmental stewardship practices at https://www.msccruises.com/sustainability.)


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Following a shockingly good State of Play and an underwhelming Summer Game Fest Kickoff, it was Microsoft’s turn to enter the spotlight and highlight the games coming to Xbox platforms and services. Namely, we saw Starfield in action even though it was delayed until 2023, and we got a better idea of what games are coming to Xbox Game Pass over the next 12 months.
- Redfall gameplay shows what Arkane’s vampire shooter is all about
- Forza Motorsport will actually release in spring 2023
- Grand strategy game Ara: History Untold announced by Xbox Game Studios
- Minecraft enters the strategy genre with Minecraft Legends
- As Dusk Falls and Pentiment flesh out Microsoft’s 2022 lineup
- Hideo Kojima reveals Xbox Game Studios partnership
- Starfield gameplay reveal shows what Bethesda’s next RPG is really like
- Everything else:
This was a significant showcase for Microsoft, which needed to confirm what it had in store for this year and what new games are on the horizon. While there were plenty of exciting new gameplay trailers and game announcements, nothing quite blew us away. Still, the presentation painted an extremely clear picture of what Xbox players can expect between now and June 2023. This is everything that was announced at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022.
The show opened with our first look at gameplay for Redfall, an upcoming cooperative shooter about vampires from Arkane Austin. It initially leans quite hard into the horror aspects of the game before transitioning into showing bombastic shooting action, each character’s abilities, and more. Redfall will be released in 2023.
We finally got another look at Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport for Xbox Series X, with a focus on its gameplay, lighting, and dynamic time of day system, and more. While many assumed that the beautiful racing game would launch later this year, it’s actually not coming out until spring 2023.
Oxide Games and Xbox Game Studios Publishing revealed a brand-new historical turn-based grand strategy game called Ara: History Untold. It was one of the few trailers without any gameplay, but it teases a game that will encompass centuries of history and lots of cultures. It doesn’t have a release date, but we know it’s coming to PC and Game Pass, and players can sign up for the history program.
Minecraft showed up during the Xbox show, but it wasn’t with a simple update. Instead, a bran- new action strategy game called Minecraft Legends was announced. We even saw a bit of gameplay after the cinematic trailer, and it definitely looks very unique when compared to anything done with Minecraft before. Minecraft Legends will be released for PC,
We got another look at As Dusk Falls, a narrative-focused game with a motion comic-like art style. The new trailer gave us a better look at the story and confirmed a July 19 release date. We also learned that a new narrative RPG from Obsidian Entertainment called Pentiment launches later this year. These games help flesh out Microsoft’s paltry 2022 lineup in the wake of Starfield’s delay.
During a segment focused on Japanese games, Hideo Kojima stopped by the showcase to confirm Kojima Productions’ rumored partnership with Xbox Game Studios. He didn’t actually show his game, which is rumored to be called Overdose, but this is a disruptive announcement for players who associate Kojima with PlayStation because of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding.
As expected, we got an extended look at Starfield’s gameplay in action during the showcase. We see a player explore the moon of Kreet in the year 2330 in first-person. They scan and encounter the local fauna, wildlife, and minerals before fighting some pirates, with shooting gameplay much more intense than anything Bethesda Game Studios has done before. They then go to the city of New Atlantis and see some of the game’s conversations in action. Todd Howard then showed us an early look at the game’s immensely detailed character customization, skill system, ship and crew customization, flying, and vast galaxy. Starfield will be released in 2023.
- Hollow Knight: Silksong got a new trailer and is coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one.
- Squanch Games’ Justin Roiland revealed his new game, High On Life, which releases in October 2022 and will be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
- Riot Games is bringing League of Legends, Wild Rift, Valorant, Legends of Runetrra, and Teamfight Tactics bonuses to Xbox Game Pass members on PC.
- A Plague Tale: Requiem got a gameplay trailer and will launch on day one with Xbox Game Pass.
- Microsoft Flight Simulator is getting helicopters and other new aircraft in November 2022 to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Halo Infinite’s Pelican was added to the game today.
- Overwatch 2’s multiplayer early access launches on October 4, 2022, and will be free-to-play. A new hero was also teased.
- The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle got a new trailer.
- Fallout 76: The Pitt got a new trailer and September 2022 release window.
- Forza Horizon 5 will get Hot Wheels-themed DLC on July 19.
- Ark 2 got a new trailer starring Vin Diesel and a 2023 release window.
- Scorn got a new trailer confirming an October 21 release date. It will be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
- Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn got a gameplay trailer and early 2023 release window. It will launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.
- Lightyear: Frontier got a new trailer and spring 2023 release window. It launches day one with Xbox Game Pass.
- Cat-themed roguelike action game Gunfire Reborn got an October 2022 release window. It launches day one with Xbox Game Pass.
- The Last Case of Benedict Fox was revealed as a day one Xbox Game Pass title that will release in spring 2023.
- Naraka Bladepoint comes to Xbox consoles and Game Pass on June 23.
- Grounded gets its 1.0 launch in September 2022.
- Ereban: Shadow Legacy was announced and will come to Xbox Game Pass in 2023.
- Diablo IV got a new trailer revealing the Necromancer class. Also, PC and Xbox crossplay was confirmed, PvP and endgame content was teased, and a 2023 release was confirmed.
- Sea of Thieves is getting a new update that lets players customize their cabin, name their ships, and more on July 21.
- The developers of Echo Generation revealed a new fantasy game called Ravenlok, which launches on Xbox Game Pass in 2023.
- One of the creators of Limbo announced Cocoon, which comes to Xbox Game Pass in 2023.
- Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo teased a new IP, Wo Long: Fallen Destiny, which will release in early 2023 on Xbox Game Pass.
- Persona 3, 4, and 5 are coming to Game Pass. Persona 5 will be added on October 21, while Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden are coming after that.
- One of the year’s biggest sleeper hits is now on Xbox Game Pass
- For Microsoft, indies aren’t Game Pass extras. They’re the future of Xbox
- Check out this fantastic horror game before it leaves Xbox Game Pass next week
- A field-of-view slider headlines Starfield’s latest update
- Xbox’s 2023 games feel like the Series X launch lineup we never got