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With the launch of Windows 11 and the presence of Windows 10 means, Microsoft is shutting down another of its older version, this time Windows 8.1.
Microsoft has decided that from January 2023 Windows 8.1 will lose support for updates and features. The company will be sending alerts to users from next month who are still using the version. “Support for Windows 8 ended on January 12, 2016, and support for Windows 8.1 will end on January 10, 2023,” the company said in an update.
“Microsoft 365 Apps is no longer supported on Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 after they have reached their end of support dates. To avoid performance and reliability issues, we recommend that you move to a newer version of Windows,” the company added.
Basically, Microsoft will not offer extended security update (ESU) programme for Windows 8.1. “After that date, if you’re running Microsoft 365, you’ll no longer receive updates for the Office apps; this includes the feature, security, and other quality updates,” said the company, and advised users to upgrade to a supported operating system.
Most Windows 8.1 or Windows 8 devices will not meet the hardware requirements for upgrading to Windows 11. “As an alternative, compatible Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs can be upgraded to Windows 10 by purchasing and installing a full version of the software,” said the company.
Obviously, Microsoft now suggests that people on Windows 8 or the 8.1 version should upgrade to new systems that come with the Windows 11 version out of the box. The company also confirmed that Windows 10 will get supported until October 14, 2025, which means your next PC purchase should ideally have Windows 11 unless you are comfortable buying another PC in the next three years’ time.
Few days back, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer web browser, and replacing it with the Microsoft Edge browser on most of the Windows systems running across the globe. The new Edge browser is based on the Chromium engine and offers support for latest firmware and plugins.


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Just when you thought you had seen it all with smartphones, Innjo one of the biggest smartphone brands in the world launched their latest gadget the “Innjo i1s” on Jumia.
The Nigerian market is the biggest market in Africa with 125million mobile phone user and a good proportion of the Market 30% using smartphones. In the past year, we have seen major players step up to the big brands. Tecno and Solo have mapped out the market well with new innovations on latest gadgets.
Innjoo is one of the newest smartphone players joining the smartphone market offering Nigerian’s top-notch gadgets at the most affordable price. The Innjoo i1s is the latest from Innjo being unveiled in Nigeria it is powered by Android Operating system with some of the latest gadget function in high definition. The Innjo i1s is the Internet DNA smartphone working with Android 4.4 Kit Kat OS, a sleek design, 5megapixel camera and fast Internet speed with increased inbuilt storage space of 8gb to accommodate all the phone usage.
“It is all about Innovation and giving Nigerians the best value for their money with gadgets. This what Jumia aims to do with the partnership with Innjoo bringing the Middle East smartphone brand to Nigeria” stated Jeremy Doutte Managing Director Jumia Nigeria
The New Innjoo i1s is available in Nigeria and exclusive to Jumia.com.ng. Customers can get this great smartphone at the best price in Nigeria with Free Data plan for browsing with MTN and delivery anywhere in Nigeria.
Click here to buy the revolutionary smartphone
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Haruhiko Tanahashi, the engineer who masterminded the LFA, has hinted that a new Lexus halo model could already be in development.
“I have the expectation that car will be launched,” Tanahashi told Autocar. “I personally hope the LF-LC will be built. I think most of Lexus’s concept cars have been turned into production cars.”
Tanahashi said a new range-topper sitting above the upcoming RC coupé but at a lower price point than the now-defunct LFA made sense.
Lexus’s international boss, Mark Templin, also confirmed that a halo sports car would reappear, although a slew of more mainstream F-badged models will come sooner.
“We want a whole level of real F products with a car like the LFA being at the top of it,” Templin confirmed. “It doesn’t mean we have something on the drawing board.”
The roll-out of new F models is expected to begin with a 5.0-litre V8 RC F at the Detroit motor show next month. A GS F has also been spied testing, while a second-generation IS F has been mooted.
Templin said the F brand would establish a different character from Mercedes-AMG and the like, with “performance hybrids” potentially playing a role.


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Some Groupon deals may be too good to be true -- unless you are the business owner on the other end. So goes the story of a small London bakery, which saw a year of hard-earned profits eaten up by a Groupon cupcake deal the bakery offered.
The owner of the small London bakery -- Need a Cake bakery in Reading, Berkshire -- had to make 102,000 cupcakes in a money-losing proposition after a Groupon deal she did became wildly popular. The owner, Rachel Brown, offered a 75 percent discount on the Groupon deal for 12 custom cupcakes that typically sell for $40.
The Groupon did the bakery offered was for $10 -- a hefty discount.
More than 8,500 people took the Groupon deal for cupcakes from the bakery, and the business' small staff was barely able to keep up with demand, much less turn out 102,000 cupcakes at a profit. The small London bakery owner said she lost more than $3 per batch of cupcakes and had to hire extra help to meet order demand. The cost of her Groupon deal was $19.500, enough to wipe out a year's worth of profits for the business.
It's been an absolutely nightmare, Brown told the BBC. Without doubt, the worst ever business decision I have made. We had thousands of orders pouring in that really we hadn't expected to have. A much larger company would have difficulty coping.
The bakery owner told The Telegraph that cupcake quality suffered from the unusually high order demand. Groupon, the Chicago-based daily deal Internet company, recently had a successful IPO but many have questioned its business model. Brown said she wanted to attract new customers, but the deal ended up being more than she and her small staff could reasonably manage.
We take pride in making cakes of exceptional quality but I had to bring in agency staff on top of my usual staff who had nowhere near the same skills. I was very worried about standards dropping and hated the thought of letting anybody down, Brown told the Telegraph. We are still working to make up the lost money.
A Groupon spokesperson told The Telegraph that there was no limit to how many coupons that could be purchased.
We approach each business with a tailored, individual approach based on the prior history of similar deals, said Heather Dickinson, director of International Communications told the newspaper.


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PUPILS of Minehead First and St Michael’s First schools will take on star status next week when they perform the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially launch the £400,000 new look Co-op food store in The Parade, Minehead.
The children will receive £100 for each school from store manager Mark Jones as a ‘thank you’ after the opening on Thursday, October 16.
Mr Jones said: “As a community retailer, it is appropriate that we involve the community in our special events and we are delighted children from our local schools can play a central role in the relaunch of our store.”
The store will feature The Co-operative Group’s new identity, ‘The co-operative’, which aims to highlight improved service standards across its 4,500 outlets in the UK, including its travel, pharmacy, funerals, and bank branches, as well as its commitment to supporting local communities and ethical trading policies.
The refit has transformed the community store with modern décor, new fittings, and eco-friendly refrigeration, plus a more shopper-friendly layout.
It will offer a comprehensive choice, with an emphasis on fresh foods.
There will also be a wider selection of chilled beers and wines, while the Post Office, cash machine, lottery, and PayPoint services will be retained.
As the leading supermarket supporter of Fairtrade foods, The co-operative’s popular Fairtrade products will feature and the store will carry the retailer’s own health and beauty range with products that are not tested on animals.
In addition, shoppers will benefit from The co-operative’s policy on honest labelling, which gives the full facts about its food and drink products.
While all The Co-operative’s free plastic bags are fully degradable, customers will be encouraged to use a greener alternative such as The Co-operative Fairtrade cotton Bag for Life, which costs 99p or the plastic Bag for Life, priced at 10p, which the store will replace for free and then recycle.
The Co-operative Group also gives its customer members a share of its profits in cash.
Members can choose to keep the twice-yearly payouts or donate all or part of them to local worthy causes.
Mr Jones said: “We provide a much valued service and I am confident the new look store will better meet the daily food shopping needs of the local community.
“The transformed store will be a real asset. In addition, in the best traditions of The co-operative, it will make its contribution to community life.”


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Marrying the craft of culture, marketing and technology serves as a true north for progress for brand execs attending Possible
As part of its plan to differentiate itself from larger and more established conferences such as CES and Cannes Lions, the newly launched Possible conference held in Miami Beach this week focused on the importance that culture holds in the digital media and marketing ecosystem. And indeed it was something speakers and attendees had top of mind.
Steve Stoute, CEO and Founder of UnitedMasters, a music software and services platform, and creative agency Translation, and a longtime music and marketing executive and industry thought leader, sat down with Digiday in our joint video studio with Possible right off the main stage at the Fontainebleau Hotel to discuss the importance of culture, diversity, equity and inclusion, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the media, influencer and talent economy — as well as his hopes for Gen Z as a broad engine of progress.
“It’s important that we are in lockstep with technology and culture, or we will get passed by all the time,” said Stoute, adding “[Marketers] need to stop thinking that they can put people in segmented boxes in order to target them. That idea is old.”
As for progress on the DE&I front, Stoute does not see the success of Black culture, as evidenced by the 50-year anniversary of hip-hop, translating to the success of Black representation in the c-suite or boardroom.
“In fact 75% of consumers of hip-hop are not Black. The penetration is deep. And not only is it the music, it’s everything that comes with the music: the style, the clothes, ebonics, the entire thing. They all come with the connection to that art form,” said Stoute. “The DEI inclusion part of it is CEOs hiring, forcing and enforcing diversity and inclusion in their company. The fact that these companies are hiring DEI officers to police that — I’m not sure that’s the best solution or if it’s just checking a box. If your c-suite doesn’t look like your customers, you have a problem. And if you have a diversity problem at the top, you have a youth problem.”
From a large consumer brand perspective, Molly Peck, CMO of Global Buick and GMC, agreed that culture combined with the rapid advance of technology and associated changing consumer patterns will have an impact on automotive marketing and brand marketing in general.
“When we look at our marketing and creative plans, we really boil it down to to three things: it’s our customer, our brand, and it’s culture,” said Peck. “And it’s where those three intersect [that] really serves as the foundation of our media and marketing plans.”
Peck said that her immediate focus is on the consumer and technology and how they are both converging on the propositions of being a marketer of cars — and being in the market for a car.
“The way we reach consumers is vastly different from the way we reached them 10 years ago,” said Peck. “What is happening from a marketer’s standpoint is that we are able [tapping into linear, CTV and addressable media] to serve the right message, to the right consumer at the right time. And what that does for the consumer is that advertising change from being intrusive to something that’s informative.”
And on Tuesday afternoon, Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeart Media, discussed his perspective on culture and how more audio media, including radio, streaming and podcasting, can remain relevant and competitive as audiences shift in demographic makeup and media consumption patterns.
“Audio is at the center of culture. It turns out that radio is the last of the mass market media. Everybody gets in the car and listens to the radio,” said Pittman. “You have streaming music, which is my music collection, you have radio which is my friend, you have influencer marketing. Radio influencers are the original influencers and they do it at scale. It’s the great unifier.”
Pittman also shared his thoughts on the impact generative AI will have on the media industry and his thoughts on how the economy will unfold in the second half on the year.
For Pittman, AI will have two important near-term impacts: on the consumer and the operations of those trying to reach them.
“Operationally it is going to replace a lot of human action, making it better and faster and will certainly have a big impact on costs for companies,” said Pittman, who added that for the past 20 to 30 years technology has change how we work so that more and more of our effort is focused on creating products. “AI is the next step for operational work,” he said. As for the consumer? “I don’t think it’s going to replace the creative artist,” he added.
Looking ahead to the economic picture for the second half of the year after an uncertain first half of 2023, Pittman said he feels the economy has hit the roughest patch and will be looking for a recovery when the state of interest rates stabilizes and the war in Ukraine ends.
“That uncertainty of a macro thing hanging over people is bad for the economy,” he said.
More in Marketing
The outlook for the rest of the year is a tale of two realities.
Here’s a look into how four leading esports orgs are positioning themselves for long-term stability and sustainability, independent of the whims of brand marketers.


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The severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry is not a secret. Many however wonder what changes the situation will bring, what are the tourism trends for the post-COVID-19 era.
The prohibitions on international travel and the feeling of insecurity associated with flights and airports will make tourism gear towards the domestic market. Unknown national locations will probably increase exposure to more people, and less frequently visited tourist destinations may benefit from the demand for less crowded places.
Travel privacy will be much more important from now on. The fear of proximity between people and the need to avoid crowded spaces will play an important role. Museums, festivals, shows, bars and nightclubs will predictably be affected by this new reality.
If tourists opt for destinations in nature, this will not be surprising, as this form of tourism will allow them to put together social distancing and discovery and contact with nature, which in recent weeks many travelers have been unable to benefit from.
The concept of micro-holidays will probably also be more common. Taking into account the impossibility to make long-distance trips, which usually have a longer duration, the typical big annual trip will be replaced by small ones, closer to home, throughout the year.
The concept of a road trip will become more common, as it conciliates the four trends already mentioned above. Whether by car, motorcycle, motorhome, or other means, discovering the country with total autonomy and flexibility may be a growing option after the restrictions are lifted.


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CHAMPION OF THE DAY
Rifai Nuts sold to
owner of CMA CGM
Enterprise valued at $50 million
Rifai Nuts (Al Rifai Roastery SAL) closed a deal last week with Merit Invest to sell it its entire equity. Merit is part of the conglomerate that is the major shareholder of international shipping giant CMA CGM, which was founded by the late Jacques Saadé and currently headed by his son Rodolphe.
The deal was closed at $50 million before deduction of company debt.
The business, initially established in 1948, is owned by a Cayman holding company which has the Rifai family (Mohamed Rifai) as majority shareholder (70 percent) and Qatari investors (30 percent).
The company’s sales turnover was $30 million to $35 million in the past two years, down from $48 million at its peak before the crisis. The company will be managed by Merit’s team. It will retain its current 270 employees.
The new owners will work at expanding the company’s international footprint – especially in airports, and will expand its partnerships in Europe.
In addition to assorted nuts, Rifai sells dried fruits, coffee, confectionery, and related products.
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|Bid||0.0000 x 0|
|Ask||0.0000 x 0|
|Day's Range||0.1100 - 0.1100|
|52 Week Range||0.0600 - 0.2400|
|Beta (5Y Monthly)||0.01|
|PE Ratio (TTM)||N/A|
|Earnings Date||May 15, 2020|
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Mikros Systems Corporation (OTCQB: MKRS), an advanced technology company specializing in electronics technology for advanced maintenance in military, industrial and commercial applications, announced today that it has opened a new facility in Ventura, California.
Taking the occasional loss comes part and parcel with investing on the stock market. Anyone who held Emeco Holdings...
Ian Testrow has been the CEO of Emeco Holdings Limited (ASX:EHL) since 2015. First, this article will compare CEO...


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McDonald’s has come under fire in China after one of its locations there posted a sign on the door stating that black people are not allowed to enter.
The restaurant in question is situated in the southern city of Guangzhou, where tensions have been on the rise between police and Africans since a COVID-19 cluster was announced in a migrant neighborhood there.
The sign stated: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. Please understand the inconvenience caused.”
Photos of the sign were shared online and quickly went viral, sparking outrage around the world.
It has since been removed and the restaurant was shut down temporarily, according to a McDonald’s representative, who categorized the sign as an “unauthorized communication to our guests.” The company has stated that the sign does not represent their “inclusive values” and that the branch’s staff is being placed in values training.
Guangzhou has the biggest population of African migrants in the entire Asian continent and is considered a hub for African traders who are buying and selling goods, but it’s hard to say precisely how large the population is as many of the Africans working there go back and forth on short-term business visas. Roughly 320,000 Africans entered or left the country through Guangzhou in 2017.
So far, 111 African nationals in the city have tested positive for coronavirus, and black people living there have been subjected to mandatory testing and quarantines – even if they haven’t traveled to other places. Health workers are said to be going door to door testing Africans for the virus regardless of whether or not they have had any symptoms or contact with confirmed cases.
There have also been reports of discrimination not only at restaurants but also hotels and other public places. Some Africans have been evicted from their homes by their landlords, and videos online have shown Africans there sleeping on the street, outside police stations, and under bridges.
The problem is causing diplomatic rows, with envoys and ambassadors from more than a dozen African countries meeting with China’s assistant foreign minister, Chen Xiaodong, to try to reach a solution. Xiaodong claimed at the meeting that the government of Guangdong is trying to improve the situation and act in a non-discriminatory way.
The U.S. Consulate General there has advised Americans to avoid the area entirely on account of the targeted crackdown. The U.S. has accused Chinese authorities of displaying xenophobia toward people from Africa, while Beijing has accused America of using the spat for political gain to cause tensions between Africa and China.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, has entered into damage control mode as they try to save their reputation and turn around their fortunes in the wake of coronavirus.
Last week, the company reported that sales at its restaurants that had been open for at least one year had dropped by more than 22 percent in March thanks to coronavirus, with a 35 percent drop in the company’s internationally operated markets.
Although 75 percent of their restaurants around the world are currently operating, all restaurants are fully closed in France, Italy, Spain and the UK. Open locations elsewhere are shifting their focus to drive-through, takeout and delivery.
Meanwhile, a localized outbreak involving at least a dozen people has been linked to two McDonald’s locations in Kona, Hawaii. Those who tested positive have been a mix of employees and their family members. Workers at other McDonald’ locations in Illinois, Connecticut and California have also tested positive for the virus.
Sources for this article include:


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The Historic Sports Car Club will celebrate 50 years of the Ford Escort with two special one-model races at Brands Hatch on Sunday 23rd September. The double-header races on the Indy circuit will be open to a range of race-prepared examples of the famous race and rally car and it is hoped to have one or two special saloon Escorts on the grid.
Meanwhile one of the most famous race Escorts of all will be on hand as Henry Mann from Alan Mann Racing will bring ‘XOO 349F’, the ex-Frank Gardner Mk1 racer. Gardner used the 1600cc twin-cam Escort to win the 1968 British Saloon Car Championship and clinched the title at Brands Hatch in September. Although not able to race, the iconic red and gold car will run some demonstration laps during the day.
The Escort’s competition debut came in a rallycross meeting at Croft in February 1968 and its rally debut was a month later on the San Remo Rally in Italy. It went on to become one of the most successful and enduring competition cars of all time.
Grahame White, Chief Executive Officer of the HSCC, said: “We thought it was very appropriate to mark 50 years of a car that has had such an impact on the sport. We also hope to attract some former Ford Escort racers to come and join in the celebrations.”
Anyone interested in taking part in the pair of races should contact the HSCC Club office on firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Cautious shoppers, heavy discounting and a decision to shun Black Friday triggered a fall in sales at Morrisons, bosses have said.
David Potts warned that trading had been "unusually challenging" as the chain post a 1.7pc fall in sales for the 22 weeks to Jan 5.
Separately, the retailer emerged as the worst-performing supermarket for the 12 weeks to Dec 29, a crucial period for the nation's grocers, research firm Kantar said. Sales were 2.9pc lower than a year earlier
Asked if the disappointing results cast a shadow over Morrisons' turnaround, Mr Potts said: "To an extent these recovery stories don't work in a straight line.
"I'm looking forward to 2020. We have a strong plan ahead of us around price, service and the areas we trade well in."
Mr Potts has been credited with leading a recovery at Morrisons, the smallest of the big four supermarkets, since arriving five years ago.
He said that the grocer had endured “an extended period of subdued consumer [spending] while Brexit rumbles on”.
Although Black Friday does not typically include groceries, Morrisons used to run its own deals during the discount bonanza period. This year it chose not to be involved, Mr Potts said, a move that knocked sales before Christmas.
He said: "That's one of the things for us to reflect on, because we probably rely on that a bit more than we had assumed."
Mr Potts noted that all of the supermarkets had been tempted into bigger promotional offers over Christmas, responding to consumers reining in spending in the face of political and economic uncertainty.
Despite this, Morrisons still expects to make £413m in profits for the full year having kept a lid on costs. This helped lift Morrisons shares 2pc to 196.4p.
Discounter Lidl topped Kantar's rankings with sales up 10.3pc during the last three months of 2019, while the big four of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons all saw sales drop compared to 2018.
The update comes a day after Aldi reported sales growth of 7.9pc for the four weeks to Christmas Eve, topping £1bn for the first time.
Wholesale growth at Morrisons - which sells its own products to the likes of Amazon and McColl's - was flat, dragged down by a weaker performance at the convenience store chain.
The FTSE 100 supermarket, which owns the majority of its stores rather than renting space, closed four shops during the period and opened four new sites. It also offloaded its Camden store in north London to Berkeley for a total of £120m.
The builder will construct a new Morrisons supermarket and convenience store on the site, which the grocer will rent back. The resto f the plot will be used for housing.
Rivals Sainsbury's and Tesco are set to give updates to the City on their festive performance later this week.
Sales fell 0.7pc at Sainsbury's and 1.5pc at Tesco for the three months to Dec 29 compared to the same period in 2018, Kantar said.
It also found that shoppers spent a record £29.3bn in 2019 during the festive period – 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous year.


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The next version of world’s cheapest tablet PC Aakash 4 will start in January and the price of the devices are expected to further come down by Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 ($17-$26) in a year, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said.
“Aakash 4 now has been tendered for manufacturing. From January 2014, Aakash 4 which is like any other modern tablets in the country, is going to be manufactured by several players. (As many as) 18 people have actually participated in the tender,”
he cost of that (Aakash tablet) at the moment we say is Rs 2,500($52) but it’s going to come down to Rs 1,500. Aakash 4 will have 7 inch capacitive touch screen which will be also scratch resistant.The tablet will support wifi, 2G, 3G and 4G connectivity, come with 4GB of internal storage, external memory card slot with storage capacity of up to 32 GB, Bluetooth and front camera.
While the original concept and design was conceived by Datawind, it now appears that the Indian government has taken over the Aakash series and is pursuing further development on its own accord. Previous iterations faced delays and shortages, and as such, the Indian government wants to get the program back on track in order to provide the Aakash tablet to students across India.


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India has an opportunity to become a net exporter of payment technology, software and hardware even as the country is expected to reach 500 million payment consumers and 100 million merchants, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a letter to shareholders in its Annual Report.
“True economic GDP growth benefit of reaching the last person in the financial system will be our success. We have set our mission to enable 500 million Indians to get benefits
of mainstream economic growth. This begins by enabling them with mobile payments and helping extend various other financial services like loan, insurance etc. to them,” Sharma said in the letter.
Paytm has seen its lending platform business take off helping the company reduce its losses before its earlier committed timeline of EBITDA positivity before ESOP. It has seen around Rs 15,000 crore worth of loans disbursed through its platform.
The Noida-based mobile payments firm has also seen its merchant subscription reach eight million through various payment-facilitating devices such as PoS devices and soundboxes. The soundbox announces successful UPI payments based on QR codes and has been a runaway success and has now been followed by its competitors.
Sharma also said that Paytm is investing in building Artificial General Intelligence software stack. He added that the AI system will help various financial institutes in capturing possible risks and frauds, while also protecting them from new kinds of risks due to advancement in AI.
“With a disciplined and result-oriented approach in all our selected investment areas, we are sure we will be able to capitalize and build strong differentiators in the market and in turn a business that scales efficiently without linearly adding to costs,” Sharma said.
Paytm had reported close to $1 billion (almost Rs 8,000 crore) in revenue during the last financial year. Moneycontrol


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Instacart to cut 1,900 jobs, including its only unionized workers
Instacart Inc. is cutting about 1,900 employees’ jobs, including 10 workers who recently formed a union, as the company seeks to boost its ranks of contract workers.
The grocery delivery company already classifies most of its workers as independent contractors, whose numbers have ballooned to more than 500,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic. But starting in 2015, the company hired a small subset of workers as employees, who under U.S. law are entitled to protections such as a minimum wage and can be subject to more direction and training by their bosses.
“What we found is that our shoppers require training and supervision, which is how you improve the quality of the picking,” Instacart Chief Executive Apoorva Mehta said at the time. “You can’t do that when they are independent contractors.”
The coronavirus crisis has been great for Instacart. For its workers, it’s a different story
Demand for Instacart’s grocery deliveries has put new strains on the company’s shoppers, who say they have little to show for risking their health.
Now, Instacart is moving in the other direction, eliminating 1,877 employees’ positions, including those of 10 workers in Illinois who last year became the first in the country to vote to unionize at the company. The company said it’s doing this as part of a shift toward new models, such as providing its technology to retailers to have their own workers prepare customers’ orders.
“We know this is an incredibly challenging time for many as we move through the COVID-19 crisis, and we’re doing everything we can to support in-store shoppers through this transition,” the company said in an emailed statement.
Instacart said it’s providing severance packages and seeking to place affected workers in open positions within the company or working directly for retailers. Instacart said it will still have thousands of shoppers classified as employees after making the change but declined to provide more specifics.
The United Food & Commercial Workers union, which represents the Illinois workers, condemned the move, saying it eliminates about a fifth or more of Instacart’s U.S. frontline employee positions. “Instacart firing the only unionized workers at the company and destroying the jobs of nearly 2,000 dedicated frontline workers in the middle of this public health crisis is simply wrong,” Marc Perrone, the union’s president, wrote in an emailed statement.
Unfair ratings cost some Instacart shoppers hundreds a week. Here’s what’s happening
Instacart shoppers with higher ratings get first pick of orders. Those with lower ratings earn less, even when the ratings aren’t fair, shoppers say.
San Francisco-based Instacart and other gig companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. last year bankrolled a successful $200-million campaign to pass a California ballot measure, Proposition 22, exempting them from a state law that classifies workers as employees if they do work in the “usual course” of their bosses’ business. Emboldened by that victory, the companies are pushing for similar changes elsewhere that would make it easier to claim that their workers are contractors.
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The FDA’s New Weapon
Legislative loopholes empower the agency to recall supplements in 2014.
Happy New Year! This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which protects your right to take safe, natural nutritional supplements. It has been a stormy 20 years, with DSHEA weathering an endless barrage of attacks from the enemies of health freedom. But DSHEA remains strong, thanks to natural health advocates such as you.
Life after 20 for DSHEA isn’t getting any easier, though. In fact, DSHEA might face more brutal attacks than ever in 2014.
Last year concluded with the Food and Drug Administration flexing new authority over the nutritional supplement industry. This power was granted by The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FDA even made a point of publicizing its use of this “new enforcement tool.” While the FDA’s new authority was used in this instance to recall a questionable supplement, the act may open the door for FDA to recall safe, time-tested supplements as well.
It begs the question: Does the FDA’s sword-rattling at the end of 2013 foreshadow more use of their newfound authority over supplements in 2014?
FSMA May SpellDoom for DSHEA
FSMA bestowed greater control over nutritional supplements on the FDA. Perhaps most significantly, it gave the agency the power to order a mandatory recall on supplements under certain circumstances. In terms of a bad batch of supplements, this power of recall may be justifiably wielded. But in the uncertain arena of New Dietary Ingredients (NDI), this power may be abused—empowering FDA to obliterate even safe, effective supplements. This is just one loophole by which the FDA’s NDI guidelines may undermine and ultimately destroy DSHEA—and with it, the public’s right to take healthful nutritional supplements.
NDI draft guidance says nutritional supplement ingredients are “new” if they were introduced after DSHEA. If the ingredient has been isolated from a food and used on its own for over 20 years, then it is exempt. But here’s the gray area: If the ingredient has been consumed in food for hundreds of years, but has never been supplied as an isolated compound, then it will be considered “new” and subject to NDI. With FSMA giving new powers to the FDA, it means any supplements containing that new ingredient may undergo a mandatory recall if the ingredient has not passed New Dietary Ingredient Notification procedures.
The popular nutritional supplement krill oil exemplifies how DSHEA might be undermined. Krill supplies the omega-3 fatty acids that have been in use for well over 20 years, so they are exempt ingredients. However, krill also supplies astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant that, despite being consumed in the “food” krill for decades, has only recently been isolated as a supplement ingredient. Because astaxanthin is therefore a “new dietary ingredient,” it appears the FDA, under the FSMA, could recall krill oil products from the market.
Would the FDA make such a dramatic power grab? 2014 may be the year that we find out.
Celebrate and Protect DSHEA
Want to keep the dietary supplements you need on health food store shelves? Then take action throughout 2014 to ensure the FDA doesn’t abuse its newfound power.
Call or fax your elected officials. Remind them that Congress approved of DSHEA 20 years ago—and that this landmark legislation has been working perfectly ever since. Encourage your elected officials to remain aware of legislation and bill riders that appear designed to weaken DSHEA. Remind them that any revised NDI Draft Guidance must be in accordance with the rules established under DSHEA.
For the sake of everyone’s health freedom, it has never been more important for all of us to celebrate and protect DSHEA. Visit NHA2014.com for more information.
*This editorial is a public service announcement sponsored by the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA).


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Thanksgiving Day 2016: Here’s a number of pieces we’ve published to fill you in on today’s store closing, shopping deals, and some other Thanksgiving odds and ends.
Happy Turkey day!
80% of Americans Plan to Shop on Thanksgiving Day: As an increasing number of retailers are now offering Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving, many Americans are taking advantage. This year, most holiday deal seekers plan to begin shopping either before or on Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving Hours for 50 Retailers: The majority of stores will not be open on Thanksgiving Day. However, a surprising share of the country’s largest shopping malls will be open for business.
11 Stores Open on Thanksgiving: 24/7 Wall St. compiled a list of the 11 largest retailers that will open their doors to deal seekers on Thanksgiving. Some of the biggest names in retail, including Macy’s and Target are among them.
9 Stores Closed on Thanksgiving: Many major retailers rely heavily on holiday sales to meet annual sales goals. Still, some stores will observe the Thanksgiving holiday by remaining closed.
9 Other Countries That Celebrate Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is not as uniquely American as many think. These 9 other countries all have traditions that closely resemble American Thanksgiving.


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The attacks come after state and local ransomware attacks in New York, Louisiana, Maryland and Florida resulted in the loss of significant sums.Technologyread more
Twitter and Facebook have suspended accounts believed to be tied to a state-backed disinformation campaign originating from inside China.Technologyread more
United States Steel Corp will temporarily lay off hundreds of workers at its Great Lakes facility in Michigan in coming weeks, according to a filing the steelmaker made with...US Marketsread more
Beijing will lower borrowing costs for companies, but that may not boost the economy as much as some hope.China Economyread more
Stocks are bouncing higher but could be trapped in a range longer term, until there's a resolution of the trade wars.Market Insiderread more
Stocks in Asia edged higher Tuesday morning as investors await the release of minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's July meeting. The People's Bank of China is also set...Asia Marketsread more
Powell will have the opportunity if not to walk back the "midcycle" assessment then to at least provide some further explanation about what it means.Economyread more
The report comes as Trump in recent days has lashed out over media reports about growing recession fears.Politicsread more
Apple has spent more than $6 billion on original TV shows and movies for its forthcoming Apple TV+ service, according to a Financial Times report on Monday.Technologyread more
The Business Roundtable, led by Jamie Dimon, gives a new definition of the "purpose of a corporation."Marketsread more
"These days, the consumer is addicted to convenience ... If it doesn't have a great digital presence or incredible bargains, take a pass," Jim Cramer says.Mad Money with Jim Cramerread more
Yelp, the review site for restaurants and local businesses, has hired Evercore to help defend the company against an activist investor, who recently called for a board shake-up and potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter.
Hedge fund manager SQN, which owns 4 percent of Yelp shares, released a presentation on Jan. 16, about the company's "significant underperformance," and said that based on its own research "an immediate sale to a private equity firm could yield a $47 to $50 stock price." The shares are currently trading at $37.59.
Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and the board have now tapped Evercore to work with the company and explore the market, but the bank hasn't started running a sales process, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential. At the current market valuation of over $3 billion, there are few, if any, "credible buyers," one of the people said.
Representatives from Yelp and Evercore declined to comment.
SQN's report suggests that the company is worth $4 billion or more. But SQN, a technology-focused hedge fund with more than $1.1 billion in assets, is a virtual unknown in the world of activist investing, where Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman and Daniel Loeb are among the most recognizable and influential players. Yelp is SQN's first activist investment.
Yelp has struggled to fend off competition from Google, which is both the largest search engine and a rival in the reviews market. Google reviews and Instagram photos of food and restaurants have given consumers new ways to find recommendations for restaurants.
Yelp has also lagged behind other companies that offer tools and technology to measure the effectiveness of ad spend, and has failed to keep up with Google's local discovery features, SQN claimed in its investor presentation.
Shares of Yelp have plunged by more than half over the past five years and are down 15 percent in the past 12 months. SQN said that Yelp has underperformed the Russell 2000 Technology Index by 117 percent and its own peer group by about 74 percent over the last half-decade.
Yelp has been on the M&A market in the past. The company hired Goldman Sachs to run a sales process in 2015. That effort ended when Stoppelman decided not to move forward despite having several interested buyers, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
The Evercore-led process could end up with the company looking for a buyer, especially if Yelp shares were to fall, sources told CNBC. Yelp hasn't made any decisions about selling this time around, the people said.
SQN said in an email to CNBC that it knows of "multiple buyers" that would be interested in buying Yelp.
Here's the firm's full statement.
As we made clear in our detailed presentation released in January, SQN believes there are multiple pathways to significant value creation at Yelp, including through the company remaining public and implementing our recommendations, or through a sale of the company to a large universe of private or strategic buyers. We are unclear on how anyone could credibly state that potential buyers don't exist without having run a fulsome strategic process. As we've previously stated, we know of multiple buyers who would be interested, and we believe these potential acquirers would be eager to participate in such a process.
With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and CNBC World, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information 410 million homes worldwide, including more than 90 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.
CNBC Digital delivers more than 52 million multi-platform unique visitors each month. CNBC.com provides real-time financial market news and information to CNBC's investor audience. CNBC Make It is a digital destination focused on making you smarter about how you earn, save and spend your money by zeroing in on careers, leadership, entrepreneurship and personal finance.
CNBC has a vast portfolio of digital products, offering CNBC content to a variety of platforms such as: CNBC.com; CNBC PRO, a premium service that provides in-depth access to Wall Street; a suite of CNBC mobile apps for iOS and Android devices; Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri voice interfaces; and streaming services including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Samsung Smart TVs. To learn more, visit https://www.cnbc.com/digital-products/.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBCUniversal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/programming/cnbc. For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit http://www.NBCUniversal.com.


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With economic sanctions being levied against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, we can expect some economic fallout to hit ASEAN economies in the weeks and months to come. There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to things like this, but we do have some clues as to what that impact might look like.
Countries in the region have various levels and types of exposure to the Russian economy, but broadly speaking we can expect higher food and energy prices, and some manufacturing supply chain shocks that will impact countries across the region in different ways. Another tricky question is what to do about numerous joint ventures between Russian energy giants and major state-owned companies in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
First let’s look at energy prices. Russia is a major energy exporter but ASEAN’s direct exposure in this regard is fairly limited. Based on trade data from the Atlas of Economic Complexity (which is where all data for this article is sourced), Singapore imported $38.8 billion of refined petroleum oil in 2019, but only 5.7 percent of it came from Russia. Thailand is in a similar situation, importing $16.6 billion worth of crude in 2019, but only 3.3 percent of it from Russia.
Vietnam, which secured 15 percent of its coal imports from Russia, may be more exposed, although presumably Australia and Indonesia can step up exports to fill the shortfall. Either way, energy prices have already been under upward price pressure for months and this invasion is merely going to drive them even higher across the board, whether countries import their oil directly from Russia or not.
Across the Asia-Pacific
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We should also expect to see higher food prices, which were likewise being pushed up around the globe by inflationary pressure before the invasion. And here ASEAN countries have more direct exposure. In 2019 Indonesia imported $2.05 billion worth of wheat, more than a quarter of it from Russia and Ukraine. The Philippines imported $1.45 billion worth of wheat, nearly 16 percent of which came from Russia and Ukraine. Many countries in the region are in similar positions, though on smaller scales.
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While there are often specific state agencies tasked with stockpiling staple goods such as wheat to buffer against supply shocks like this, it’s anyone’s guess how long they can tamp down the price pressure and at what cost to public finances. Another issue is that Russia and Belarus supply Indonesia with nearly half of its potassic fertilizer. With those imports choked off it could very well show up in higher food prices.
Manufacturing is also likely to take a hit. Russia and Ukraine are major providers of semi-finished iron and steel, an important input in the manufacture of cars, machinery and electronics. In 2019, Thailand sourced 21.4 percent of its semifinished steel from Russia and Ukraine, Indonesia 25 percent, and the Philippines almost half. Perhaps in some places domestic production can increase to pick up the slack, or producers like Japan can increase output. But scrambling supply chains like this will probably have some adverse effect on manufacturing.
Having said that, supply chains are supposed to be resilient. With Russian exports frozen out of markets, other producers will increase output, although there will be higher prices in the short-term as markets adjust. In a lot of ASEAN countries, price pressures on staple goods can, at least in theory, be moderated to some extent through state interventions, subsidies, and other mechanisms. An altogether different, and perhaps more politically fraught question, is what state-owned companies that have invested billions of dollars in joint ventures with Russian energy companies are going to do.
There is mounting pressure to exit business partnerships with Russian companies. Shell announced last week it would pull out of a project with Russia’s Gazprom, even at the cost of taking a $3 billion write-down. But companies in ASEAN may not be so eager to take the write-downs. Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company, Petronas, along with Gazprom and South Korean and Turkish partners, owns a 15 percent stake in Iraq’s Badra oil field. Petronas has already said they won’t be pulling out of the joint venture at this time.
Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between Russia’s Zarubezhneft and Vietnam’s state-owned Vietpetro, is one of the largest energy companies in Vietnam, a country with long-standing economic ties to Russia. In Indonesia, state oil and gas company Pertamina is developing a major domestic refinery in which Russia’s Rosneft owns a 45 percent stake. The project has an estimated value of $13.8 billion and will give a crucial boost to domestic refinery capacity when completed.
In short, most countries in the region don’t have too much direct exposure to Russian energy, but many are likely to experience supply shocks on key manufacturing and agriculture imports, while the war drives up prices more generally across the board. Others are tied up in joint ventures with Russian companies that would be difficult, if not impossible, to pull out of. Not that expectations were high to begin with, but this may shed some light on why ASEAN has been rather restrained in its position on the Russian invasion. Any way you look at it, the picture is a messy one and we can only hope it will be over as soon as possible.


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Expo Line Rolls Into Santa Monica!- Santa Monica RealEstate
It is an exciting time for the Expo Line’s second phase—the one that will go from Culver City to downtown Santa Monica. We’ve been watching trains move along the west side mainly for tests to make sure everything’s working solidly, but this is the first time we’ve seen them entering Santa Monica. This image, posted on the Facebook page of the Expo enthusiasts at Hello Expo, shows an Expo car being towed over Centinela Avenue, into official Santa Monica territory. Though this might not seem like much, it is the first time an electric passenger train has been on this right of way in over 60 years and in the not-so-distant future, it will start happening multiple times a day as this extension of the Expo Line should be opening up sometime in the first half of next year.


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Batch Brewing Co launched its equity crowdfunding campaign with Equitise raising up to AU$1.5 million. With two breweries in Sydney plus distribution in venues and bottle shops, the company reached AU$1.1 million in funding from beer enthusiasts and keen investors.
The drivers Batch Brewing crowdfunding campaign
The brewery emphasises community focus and delivers limited release beers weekly, each with its own unique combination of flavours. These exciting beers complement the award winning line up of sessionable core brands that together have earned it a fan base of over 30,000.
Batch generated AU$3.3 million in revenue over FY2020 selling over 345,000 litres of beer.
In addition to the two venues, the beer is sold online through Batch’s e-commerce store, in a mix of independent and chain bottle shops, including Woolworths and Coles-owned stores, and is on tap in hundreds of venues across the country.
Having hit capacity the company is raising capital to scale nationally. The first phase will be rolled out in NSW expanding to new cities. Longer-term plans include building an additional large scale brewery, or multiple medium scales breweries, as well as new venues interstate.
Co-Founder Andrew Fineran says, ‘‘We are blown away by the engagement with the offer so far having raised over $1.1 million. Community is at the heart of everything we do here at Batch Brewing, so when it came to raising capital to scale, we knew we wanted to invite that community to join us as co-owners.’’
The offer attracted a massive 2,000 expressions of interest before launching and surpassed its minimum funding of $500k within hours. Members of the public can now get on board from just $250, not only owning equity in the business but also accessing exclusive rewards


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Norway’s car dealers suffered another dramatic fall in new car sales last month. They were down 29.4 percent in September compared to the same month last year, and prospects for the months ahead are poor.
Only 10,342 new cars were registered in Norway last month, with the decline linked to higher interest rates, rising car costs and household budget tightening in general. Fuel prices also remain high, at around NOK 25 per liter (roughly USD 10 per gallon).
“There are few signs that car sales and registrations will climb during the last few months of the year,” Øyvind Solberg Thorsen of traffic organization OFV told news bureau NTB.
Electric cars continue to account for the majority of car sales in Norway. Fully 87 percent of all new cars regiestered in September were electric cars, even though they’re losing many of the tax incentives that sparked their popularity over the past decade.


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Amazon’s Prime Day, its one-day summer sale, drove the fourth busiest online shopping day with regard to web traffic last year, according to Internet Retailer citing a report from SimilarWeb. Shoppers conducted research across retailers to compare products against Amazon, which helped the top 25 online retailers bring in a total of 179 million site visits.
Walmart, which ran its own promotion on Prime Day, saw an increase of 62% in web traffic compared to the day before the sale, notes the SimilarWeb report.
Meanwhile, Macy’s recorded an increase of 58% in web traffic compared to the day before, even without hosting any sale itself.
Notably, both Walmart and Macy’s experienced greater spikes in web traffic than Amazon, which saw an increase of 45% in web traffic during its inaugural Prime Day.
Major online retailers should expect a similar increase in web traffic during this year’s Prime Day. This is because consumers will be looking to these retailers for comparable deals, particularly as Amazon’s one-day sale becomes a more well-known annual event. It’s also likely that more of Amazon’s competitors will hold similar promotions in the future, given Prime Day’s success.
Last year, Amazon’s Prime Day generated more sales than Black Friday. Amazon’s merchants have been preparing for an equally successful Prime Day this year on July 12 — both in terms of web traffic and sales — although no forecasts have been officially projected.
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The much-awaited Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone’s promo video, as well as marketing images, have surfaced online. The South Korean tech giant’s impending flagship S22 series smartphones have been floating around the rumor mill for quite some time now. Moreover, the lineup has been subject to all sorts of leaks in the past. Despite the lack of an official confirmation, the rumor mill continues to churn out speculations surrounding the Galaxy S22 series launch, specs, and design.
Now, South Korean leaker Dohyun Kim has created more hype around the upcoming series’ imminent launch by posting the Samsung Galaxy S22 promo video and marketing images (now taken down) to his Twitter account. So, let’s check out what the recently surfaced leaks reveal about Samsung’s next flagship series ahead of its official launch.
PREVIOUSLY TIPPED DETAILS
First off, Dohyun Kim corroborates past leaks that predicted the Galaxy S22 series will have three models. These include Galaxy S22, which sports a 6.1-inches display and is known internally as R0. Likewise, the series will feature the Galaxy S22 Plus (codenamed G0) with a 6.6-inches display. Lastly, the S22 series will have the highest-end S22 Ultra, which sports a 6.8-inches display and has codename B0. Moreover, the most notable difference between the standard and the Plus models are the battery capacity and screen size.
The standard Galaxy S22 model will come with a 3,700mAh battery, while the Plus model will pack a 4,500mAh cell. Furthermore, these models will either pack the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the 4nm Samsung Exynos 2200 under the hood, based on the region of launch. In other words, the reduced battery capacity isn’t likely to affect the battery life since the models have more power-efficient processors. Moreover, the Galaxy S22 Ultra could come with these chipsets as well. Regrettably, the S22 and S22 Plus could ship with only the 8GB RAM option. However, it will offer 128GB and 256GB of storage options.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S22 PROMO VIDEO & MARKETING IMAGES
The Galaxy S22 Ultra will reportedly come with a slot to house the S Pen for a Galaxy Note-like experience. Furthermore, the handset could house a 40MP front shooter, while its rear-mounted camera setup will be the same as the S21 Ultra’s rear camera array. Also, earlier reports suggest that the S22 Ultra will come with three new sensors and support impressive AI tricks to deliver an unparalleled photography experience. Further, the handset will probably use a 5,000mAh battery and offer 8GB and 12GB of RAM with 512GB, 256GB, and 128GB of storage capacity.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 series marketing images confirm past leaks. Earlier speculations suggest the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus will adopt a flat design. Also, it reiterates earlier reports that claimed the S22 Ultra will have a boxy Note-like outward appearance. Furthermore, it confirms the absence of a camera bump. Furthermore, the phones are tipped to carry an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. They will probably come in a sturdy aluminum body. In addition to that, Dohyun Kim has shared a Samsung Galaxy S22 series promo video. This video sheds some light on the color options.
According to the promo video, the S22 Ultra will be available in Green, Burgundy, White, and Phantom Black color options. Likewise, the other two variants will be up for grabs in equally-appealing color options. These include Green, Pink Gold, White, and Phantom Black. Reputed leaker @GaryeonHan claims that the pre-orders will kick off on February 14 and the series’ sale will start from February 25. Earlier this month, a report indicated that the Galaxy Tab S8 Series could go official alongside the Galaxy S22 series smartphones at the same launch event.


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Regular readers will recall that Autonavi (NASDAQ:AMAP) makes the most popular mobile maps apps in China – way ahead of the rather lost Google Maps. Today Autonavi has announced that its maps apps have surpassed 100 million users. That’s just in China. The maps are available for three smartphone platforms: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
Autonavi CEO Congwu Cheng said of today’s milestone: “The popularity of our map app also reflects the remarkable extent to which location-based solutions have become part of the daily life of China’s mobile internet users.” The mobile maps also give real-time traffic data, 3D views, social integration with Sina Weibo, navigation, and estimated arrival times.
The Autonavi mobile apps have 25.9 percent market share in this sector (see the graph below), ahead of search engine Baidu whose Baidu Maps are at 19.1 percent. Google is down to sixth place in 2012 Q3.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tapped Autonavi as its partner for maps of mainland China, meaning that the craptacular Apple Maps avoided much of the global censure in China thanks to Autonavi’s data. Qihoo is also paying for Autonavi’s geographic know-how in its new maps website.
Today’s milestone means that Autonavi joins the ranks of only five other Chinese companies with mobile apps that have topped 100 million users. Those others are Tencent, Alibaba, Qihoo, Sina, and UCWeb. Some of those likely have several apps that have passed that huge figure.


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Turkish Sultana & Raisin Update
Relating to the recent news and dramatic market changes, we would like to give you brief market information about Turkish Sultana Raisins.
Nowadays, raw material as well as the export market of Turkish Sultana Raisins having active days. Firstly, on 19th Jan 2016, EU Commission has published a Regulation (EU 2016/60). Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards maximum residue levels for chlorpyrifos stating that according to EU commission, Raisins MRL content lowered 0,5 ppm to 0,01 ppm starts from 10 August 2016. This news made a shock affect in the market in first weeks of February. Mentioned Chlorpyrifos ingredient exist in various legal pesticides in the market and widely used in all over the Turkish vineyards. Mainly against the diseases on bunches, pesticides that have active element of chlorpyrifos are used from the start of August when bunches appear. So the first step from the government should be the recall the all type of pesticides that has the ingredient from the market and ban the usage of the such pesticides in vineyards and finally of course to control the sustainability.
Turkish raisins crop 90% is exported to EU countries. As a result of planned 10th August is very soon for agricultural industry, it appeared to be a very big risk that current remaining crop cannot be exported to EU that has widely occurrence of chlorpyrifos. This shock affect pulled the bourse prices down to TL4,10 levels in just 3 weeks from TL4,80 previous levels.
Panicked raw material handlers try to sell out their stocks in order to clean current crop raw materials that made a huge supply in raw material market. Also export offer prices come to USD.1650-1700pmtons Fob İzmir levels due to the big supply. Accordingly weekly export volumes, we can see also the shipments reached almost 5000mtons of sultana raisins per week that is even higher than last year with a much bigger crop size.
Around 10 years ago, one of the active substances from a widely used pesticide was also forbidden from the EU in a very short duration. At that time, meetings with the EU community and Turkish government resulted that legislation has postponed 1 year more for Turkish Raisins product item only in order to protect the crop, production and trade business. Many exporters this year is also expecting such conclusion from already started meetings with EU commission. If another a year postpone is gained, growers and government may have enough time to recall and clean the prohibited pesticides as well as the market can get to normal price levels. Otherwise, not only this year but also 2016 crop prices will be affected by this regulations change that Turkey is historically start new seasons with carry-over stock.
Moreover, still too high temperatures goes on the production areas which we mentioned before is a big risk of early born. Today, we can see the vineyards already awake. February was averagely 5-10C above the seasonal temperatures. These days, we see 25-28 C in Manisa production areas that may provoke even faster growing of the plants. Eventually, we may see a high risk of damage if frost condition end March or beg. April 2016. Resulting the vineyards are growing very early this season, cold related incidents may damage in big percentages of the 2016 new crop. Together with the pesticide issues, raw material prices may hit very high level in the beginning of the new crop. That’s the reason nowadays many European buyers do as much as contract from the record low prices this year.
Source: Dorain Trade


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Valve has released an update for the game Half-Life in celebration of its 25th anniversary (not counting the three-year delay). The update includes the following new additions:
Half-Life Uplink, previously released as an Xbox exclusive for CD-Special bonus material or hardware bonuses, is a story mode created after the completion of the game. It is now available for general play.
New multiplayer maps including Contamination, Pool Party, Disposal, and Rocket Frenzy have been added.
Multiplayer maps from the special CD version, Half-Life: Further Data, released in 1999, have been brought back for play. These maps include Double Cross, Rust Mill, and Xen DM.
Engine graphics have been improved and now support widescreen monitors. Bugs related to lighting have been fixed, and software rendering is now supported on Linux.
A new and improved UI has been implemented to accommodate larger, high-resolution screens. The game was originally designed for CRT monitors with a resolution of 640×480.
Controller support has been added from the start, eliminating the need for additional configuration.
Steam Networking has been enhanced, making it easier for friends to join and play together.
Full support for playing on the Steam Deck has been implemented. The team has worked diligently to ensure the game is playable on the Steam Deck.
In addition to these updates, Half-Life is currently available for free on Steam. Normally priced at 189 baht, players can now claim their free copy on Steam.
TLDR: Valve celebrates Half-Life’s 25th anniversary with an update that includes new content, improved graphics, enhanced UI, controller support, better networking, and full compatibility with the Steam Deck. The game is also available for free on Steam.


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Nintendo’s quarterly profit rises on hit Switch games
TOKYO — Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises, is reporting a 25 percent jump in its fiscal third quarter profit, boosted by the popularity of games for its Switch console.
Nintendo Co. reported on Thursday that its October-December profit was 104.2 billion yen ($956 million), up from 83.7 billion yen a year earlier.
Quarterly sales totaled 608.4 billion yen ($5.6 billion), up 26 percent.
Among the hit software for Switch was “Super Mario Bros. Ultimate,” whose sales have totaled 12 million units since it went on sale in December.
The popularity of such games helped drive Switch machine sales during the holiday shopping season, the company said.
The Switch is a hybrid game machine that works both as a console and a tablet. /ee
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The new campaign featuring Jagger debuted Sept. 14 with a television commercial and a host of online, print and social media ads.
Xyrena is honoring the late singer Aaliyah with a new black-hued scent created in collaboration with her mother and brother.
The use of tools and accessories outside of the standard toothbrush can be very helpful to consumers to maintain oral health.
Everyone brushes their teeth. If retailers want a recession-proof product to sell, the toothbrush would seem to be it.
Tooth sensitivity is a major concern among consumers.
The in-store service helps customers choose the right shade of foundation, lipstick and concealer.
George Mrkonic has over 30 years of retail industry experience and has been at Paperchase since 1999, where he became non-executive chairman in 2005.
The vast majority of millennials indicate they would be more loyal to retailers offering the benefits they want most and they’re more likely to pay more for the experiences they value.
In the next few days, Prime Now will also add deliveries from some of LA’s local stores.
According to a new Happiest Minds survey, 38% of retailers enable their customers to engage with their brands across stores, kiosks, the web, mobile, social and call center.


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DUBLIN: Companies are ignoring serious security issues in their rush to release next-generation wearable devices, according to Symantec. Symantec security strategist Sian John (pictured left) said businesses...
Facebook posts record profits but braces for Federal Trade Commission fine that could total $5bn
Astronomers have focused on M-dwarfs as the likeliest star systems to find life-supporting planets
Asteroid impact simulation comes ahead of a live test planned for 2022
US Congress quizzes Google on location tracking database of hundreds of millions of smartphone users
Google's tracking database contains consumer information dating back to 2009


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The new map features a wide expanse of desert, which varies from densely packed buildings to wide-open areas.
New weapons (R45 revolver, Win94 lever-action rifle, sawed-off shotgun) will complement the vehicles made specifically for the terrain of Miramar — a six-seat van and an off-road pickup truck. PUBG Corp. also released two DLC outfit packs, the Golden Tracksuit and the Instructor Set, for $4.99 each.
Joonhyuk Choi of the PUBG DEV team gave further details about improvements players can expect in a post published on Xbox Wire on Thursday.
“In addition to Miramar and its new weapons and vehicles, the development team continues to improve optimization and stability throughout the entire PUBG Xbox Game Preview experience,” Choi wrote. “Players will continue to see regular updates that improve terrain and building interior load times upon landing, as well as reduced instances of crashing and instability across the entire game.”
Since “PUBG’s” release last year, the title has become one of the most popular online games to play and watch in recent memory. “PUBG” is the second most-streamed title on Twitch, behind only “Fortnite.” It’s also the third most-watched game on the popular streaming service behind “Fortnite” and “League of Legends.”
In their Spring Road Map for “PUBG,” developers noted their disappointment with the Xbox One version, posted on the official website’s forum.
“To put it bluntly, we are simply not satisfied with the game’s current console performance, and especially so during tense moments of onscreen action,” the post reads. “Until we are completely satisfied in the quality and reliability of the experience, efforts to optimize performance will be an ongoing hi-priority issue.”
Thursday’s update is one of the largest since the developer posted its spring road map on March 9. Specifically, this update should address the world-loading issues by simultaneously rendering buildings and interiors, and fixing instability issues which led players’ games to crash.


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Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport has purchased and put into operation an R&S ARDRONIS counter drone system from Rohde & Schwarz. Early warnings about drones are key to countering threats, and R&S ARDRONIS is designed to detect drones even before they take off.
According to a Rohde & Schwarz press release, R&S ARDRONIS reports when a drone’s remote control has been switched on and classifies the device type. The sensor system captures the uplink, so it can track down the drone pilot while their aerial device is still on the ground. With this information, security personnel can find the drone pilot and/or initiate electronic countermeasures. The uplink signal can also be disrupted, causing the operator to lose control of the drone. It will then switch to failsafe mode, try to land or fly back to where it came from. Depending on the type and number of drones, a smart follower jamming mode or a smart wideband sweep jamming mode is used to neutralize the threat in an optimal way.
“Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is well equipped to combat unauthorized drone activity thanks to our new drone detection and countering solution from Rohde & Schwarz,” explains Zoran Skoko, Security Director of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. “We are confident that we are taking sufficient precautions and can prevent drones from disrupting our air traffic.”
(Image: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport invests in air traffic security technology from Rohde & Schwarz)
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The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has announced that it is aiming to attract more Russian visitors this year as an increasing number of tourists from the country continue to flock to the emirate to experience first-hand its world-renowned hospitality and unique cultural heritage.
According to the 2018 figures released by SCTDA, Russian visitors, ranked second on the list of overnight guests in Sharjah at 328,000. The number of guests from Russia, the Commonwealth, and the Baltics region also posted a 41% growth last year compared to the previous year. Moreover, the market share of Russian visitors went up to 23 % during the same period.
In light of this trend, SCTDA and Air Arabia will organize a B2B event on September 11, 2019 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow to showcase Sharjah's growing reputation as a premiere tourist destination, allowing for the opportunity to forge new partnerships with key Russian tourism industry stakeholders thereby further broadening market access to the transcontinental nation. The event represents the SCTDA's continuing efforts to make sure that the emirate is widely promoted across tourism and travel related events in Russia.
The event, which is entitled, 'Sharjah - Unforgettable leisure on two coastlines!' will throw the spotlight on the emirate's latest tourism offerings, including leisure-related activities that promise to provide tourists and visitors of all ages with an exciting blend of fun and relaxing adventures and experiences, further consolidating the emirate’s positioning as the region’s preferred family-oriented tourist destination.
To promote Sharjah as a year-round family vacation destination, SCTDA has adopted an integrated strategy to highlight the emirate’s diverse tourist attractions, family leisure and tourism activities, and world-class facilities. Part of this strategy is to offer significant special packages and innovative solutions, including those along the lines of sustainable tourism, in collaboration with its partners. In addition, it holds regular workshops focusing on sustainable hospitality, environmental responsibilities, and Sharjah’s many cultural and unique tourism experiences throughout the year.
This year, SCTDA’s campaigns are focused on eco-tourism products, outdoor activities, and branded hotels to firmly establish Sharjah’s status as an ideal global family-friendly destination. All these initiatives are in response to the directives of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to position Sharjah as the ideal global tourist destination.
H.E. Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Chairman of SCTDA, said: “With the influx of Russian tourists visiting the emirate, we at SCTDA are working hard to sustain this trend. We will collaborate with our partners in the country to establish an even stronger presence and draw more international travelers to our shores. Expanding our presence in Russia through our partnerships with key local tourism and travel players is of extreme significance to us. As such, we are going to constantly design and develop strategic initiatives to build new strategic connections and deliver on our promise to provide the best travel experience to our visitors.”
On the upcoming B2B event, Al Midfa said: “We are confident that our interaction with industry leaders and key stakeholders during the meeting will lead to positive outcomes. Additionally, the forum will serve as an opportunity for us to look for effective ways to expand our access to Russia and key European markets. As we also promote the new adventures that await all tourists in the emirate, we are confident that these endeavors in Moscow will help us achieve our target of 10 million tourists by 2021.”
Around 100 representatives from tour operators and travel agencies are expected to attend the B2B event that will feature a workshop, presentations by SCTDA and Air Arabia officials, and a networking event.


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1 min read.Updated: 30 Jun 2021, 12:08 PM ISTLivemint
Apollo Tyres reported a 270.5% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to Rs289 crore for the fourth quarter of FY21, as vehicle production revived
NEW DELHI: Apollo Tyres Ltd, the country’s largest tyre manufacturer, plans to double its revenue to $5 billion in the next five years by 2026 and improve operating profit margin to more than 15% on the back of growth in revenues and cost cutting strategies adopted by the company.
In a presentation of investors, the company's management also said it is targeting generating a pre-tax return on capital employed (ROCE) of 12-15% and maintain debt to EBITDA ratio of two times of the operating profit.
“In Europe, ATL (Apollo Tyres) aims to grow faster than the industry on the back of building upon TBR introduction (2% market share), entry into new geographies within Europe, targeting all-season tyres and on-boarding German OEMs in PCR. Additionally, product mix improvement remains a focus area, to be achieved via increasing share of ultra-high performance i.e., UHP tyres in sales mix from present 36% to 40%," said analysts of ICICI Securities in a note.
They said the company has begun seeding the large US market and would be serving it via facilities in India and Hungary. Share of exports in India revenues is set to increase to 20% compared to the present 10% in the next five years. Apollo would soon be launching EV tyres (value add in terms of low rolling resistance and less noise incidence) under Vredestein brand for Europe and US (to be manufactured in India).
Apollo Tyres reported a 270.5% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to Rs289 crore for the fourth quarter of FY21, as vehicle production returned to pre-covid level in India and foreign markets.
Revenue from operations during the quarter improved 39% year-on-year to Rs5,026 crore. Operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), also jumped 69% y-o-y to Rs815 crore due to an overall improvement in sales and cost cutting measures taken by the company.
“On the margin front, ATL said that Europe margins achieved in H2FY21 (15%) are sustainable, with Dutch plant specialisation holding the key to future performance. The company seeks to reduce raw material consumption by 5-7% on like-to-like basis over the next five years, with production ramp up set to deliver operating leverage benefits across geographies, going forward," added analysts of ICICI Securities.


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Samsung Announces New Slate of Devices at Galaxy UNPACKED 2019 Event
Samsung Electronics unveiled the latest version of their flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10 at their Galaxy UNPACKED event in San Francisco on February 20, 2019. With four unique devices, the Galaxy S10 line is engineered to deliver a next-generation experience with groundbreaking innovations in display, camera, and performance. Photo by Samsung Electronics/UPI
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On Sunday, the yellow gold was trading for Rs 92,100 per tola in the Indian market. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the price of standard gold on Monday is Rs 91,500 per tola, down from the previous day’s price of Rs 91,600 per tola of standard gold.
According to the Federation, the price of silver has increased by Rs 10 per tola, bringing the total price of silver to Rs 1,220 per tola. On Sunday, silver was trading at Rs 1,210 per tola in the Indian market. According to the Federation, the price of gold and silver in Nepal should be fixed in accordance with the transaction price of the worldwide market.
Similarly, on the international market, gold is currently trading at USD 1792 per ounce, according to the latest data.


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New holiday resort to become 'Cornwall's Center Parcs' with activity centre, spa & hundreds of lodges and glamping pods
A HOLIDAY resort dubbed "Cornwall's Center Parcs' has plans to open a new attraction with activity centres, wellness facilities and accomodation.
St Mellion Estate, near Saltash, is currently a luxury golf course, but will be transformed into the family resort.
Earlier this year, plans revealed a wedding venue, kids’ club with outdoor play and golf area and tennis court facilities.
Recent permission has requested by Cornwall Council for hundreds of holiday lodges, ranging in sizes, as well as glamping pods.
The 230 lodges would be either two-bedroom or four-bedroom, and made from sustainable wood.
Visitors will also be able to visit the sports and activity centre, or parents can slip off to the spa facilities.
The current lake would also be transformed to allow water activities such as canoeing, bubble zorbing and fishing, with a new beach area planned as well.
The new resort hopes to focus on sustainability and wellness, similar to Center Parcs and the nearby Eden Project with artisan bakers and farm shop also on-site.
Jason Mills, CEO of Crown Golf Property, said: "We are delighted that St Mellion Parish Council continues to support the St Mellion Estate. The unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on all hospitality businesses underlines the need to evolve and adapt."
If the project is accepted, building the resort will start next year.
Other exciting UK plans include The Elysium Waterpark in Bournemouth which will stretch 75 acres across Poole and the New Forest.
A huge new indoor water park and spa is also coming to Manchester, with water slides, pools, wellness areas and even swim up bars.
A new water park with a surf pool, spa and 250m beach is to open in Southport in Lancashire.
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Between the first customer videos and the $2,000 price increase, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta has seen a lot of headlines in the past week. Now we are learning that the feature will receive software updates “every 5 to 10 days” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Just last week, Tesla pushed its Full Self-Driving Beta to a select few early access owners. New videos posted by these few individuals have shown just how much the California-based automaker’s semi-autonomous software has improved since past versions. However, they have also shown where there are still bugs that need to be fixed and Tesla CEO has confirmed improvements will be made via software updates on almost a weekly basis.
The frequent updates show the commitment Tesla has to constantly and consistently improving its FSD software. As the capabilities become more complex, the price of the FSD Suite will increase like it did just last week. The company encourages owners to take advantage of lower price points as they will not need to pay the difference when more updates are pushed and the FSD inevitably is hit with a higher price tag.
Tesla’s goal is to increase the confidence in the semi-autonomous software and push it to more owners by the end of the year. The current price tag for potential Tesla owners is currently $10,000, but as mentioned before, that number will inevitably increase.


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Unfortunately for the staff at Myspace the New Year might not bring great news for them, with rumors of huge layoffs taking the shine of New Year’s Eve celebrations for a social networking pioneer MySpace.
MySpace currently employs around 1,100 employees and may soon find itself having to dismiss half of its workforce, according to a report due to falling revenue and traffic.
Thankfully no decision has been made by MySpace at the moment but a majority of employees have reportedly been given this past week off in an effort to save money. News Corp the owners of MySpace are currently is taking “drastic cost-cutting measures” due to the tumbling traffic and revenue over the last year.
In an attempt to regain users Myspace recently started user account integration with former competitor Facebook and launched a MySpace website redesign as an entertainment hub about six weeks ago. But neither is expected to help the recovery according to many inside and outside the company.
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By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
Traders at a famous London market say they’re being forced to go cashless and fear they’ll have to close their stalls.
Portobello Road traders claimed customers will miss out on the “authentic” market experience if stalls continue to go cashless.
JP McCormack, 41, runs the Portobello Vegan Market and fears people are losing the “elemental freedom” cash offers.
He said: “Cash is important, especially for the likes of markets. It has always been cash and very rarely were card payments common.
“Cash is part of the experience of coming to a market. It’s authentic and lets you interact with people. There are a lot of people from different generations that use cash and people who prefer to use cash probably won’t come down.”
JP, who manages 20 traders, claimed a lot of people aren’t ready to go cashless. He said: “It’s a big problem for smaller businesses, especially for people who maybe don’t have a good credit score.”
Dee Mackenzi has managed an acrylics and abstract art stall on Portbello Road for the past six months. She takes cash and card but worries going cashless could scare tourists, elderly people and the homeless away.
She said: “I think it would make a huge difference to your daily takings a lot of that custom will be from tourists or there are a lot of local people who shop and literally live on the road to you know, they tell you they’re local so they will support you.
“I would perhaps have to re-evaluate my place here if I didn’t have that. Because there are so many ramifications if somebody can’t pay by cash.”
She said it was “suicidal” to push this demographic away, who she claims aren’t able to keep up with technological changes.
But bar owner Dermot Cadogan disagrees. He said taking Acklam Village to the cashless world has boosted his profits by 38 per cent in six months.
He still accepts cash but said he “hardly” takes it these days because he claims customers prefer to pay with their cards.
Dermot accepts card machine providers “have you by the short and curlies” when it comes to charging fees, but feels the pain is worth the gain.
HM Treasury said the Government has legislated to protect access to cash through the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2023, which gives the Financial Conduct Authority the power to ensure there is a “reasonable provision” of cash withdrawal and deposit “facilities” for the public and businesses.
It said the government’s Cash Access Police Statement has set out plans to ensure people and businesses in urban areas are no further then a mile away from an ATM, and three miles for rural areas.
The Treasury also said LINK, which runs the UK’s largest ATM network, has committed to protecting the spread of free-to-use ATMs.
The department added that non-cash transactions now account for 86 per cent of UK payments and expect the use of cash to reduce over the next decade.
A Government spokesperson said: “While it is the choice of businesses to determine the methods of payment they accept, for many, cash still has an important and continuing role to play as a means of paying for goods and services.
“The Government has legislated to protect access to cash withdrawal and deposit facilities for people and businesses. This will support businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they have reasonable access to facilities to deposit their cash.”
Kensington and Chelsea council was approached for comment and said it would not be issuing a statement at this time.
Pictured top: Dee Mackenzie has been trading at Portobello Road for six months and is worried going cashless will drive some customers away (Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga)
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We’ve seen how technology can bring packaging to the next level for some time now. Coors Light Cold Activated Bottles, for example, have been revealing their blue mountains when cold enough since 2007. That technology brought the brand a good amount of attention—and growth. In fact, since then the brand has seen rising sales, overtaking Budweiser as America’s second largest beer brand last year.
But just a few years from now such technology will look kind of quaint when compared with the potential revolution in packaging interactivity about to occur. A can promotion during the holidays, for instance, could use Christmas decorations that suddenly light up. Or sweepstakes or other contests could reveal themselves only after the liquid in the container is consumed.
Each of these capabilities is either currently being rolled out onto the market, or will be in the coming months, according to the Colorado Springs-based Chromatic Technologies, Inc. (CTI), a custom, special-effects inks and coatings manufacturer which provided the technology for the successful Coors Light Cold Activated packaging. Explains Patrick Edson, Chief Marketing Officer for CTI, and a former senior executive at Coors, “Our focus today is improving lives through chemistry that alerts, protects and surprises. And that really changes the way we look at beverages and what we can do in terms of activating social media, what we can do to drive promotional behavior, what we can do that can become a sustaining part of a brand’s business.”
The examples mentioned above would utilize what CTI calls Reveal Inks technology. The technology is made possible through the use of two inks at work at the same time. After consumption, one ink turns off, no longer blocking the other ink and allowing it to reveal its message. “Just think about everything that can now be done in beverages, where the brand can now control when the information or a message is released to the consumer,” Edson says. “That’s a really big breakthrough just in terms of how people think about what they deliver on package.” CTI sees such Reveal Inks capability potentially running the gamut from sports trivia to revealing QR Codes.
The Christmas decoration example uses sunlight-activated inks that also open up a range of additional possibilities for promotions. “We actually call it the ‘wow’ cans,” says Edson. “It’s gotten a huge response from consumers. The instant theater it creates with a consumer is really dramatic. Any beverage that wants to target an outdoor usage occasion for its consumers now has a great way to encourage consumers to use their product outdoors and gives them a reason to interact with it and communicate something to them.” And, the company is working on “hybrid inks,” which do one thing based on temperature and another when they are taken outside into the sunlight.
Another recent example of a brand using CTI’s inks for an interactive promotion was Coke’s Fanta in Australia. Specially marked bottles of Fanta revealed an invitation to customers through temperature changes on the label wherein consumers were invited to join in an interactive campaign offering valuable prizes. The labels contained thermochromic ink which revealed a challenge to consumers to perform a “Funstigator” task such as “High-five someone wearing orange,” “Pretend you’re a ninja” or “Do the robot.” The core activity of the summer campaign was a Fanta Funstigator gaming application available on the Fanta Australia Facebook page and as a smartphone app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Users could take on Funstigator challenges as well as send them to their mates, scan characters from packs, all the while earning points and competing for a range of prizes.
However, these cutting edge inks are just one of the interactive technologies for beverage packaging available today. Another company, Instant Win Innovations, offers cans that can talk, shake or emit flashing lights. One of the company’s newest offerings is the LED Photo Can. When the winning can is opened a light activated flashing LED module backlights an image, message or logo inside the can to signify it is a winner. Marketers can also add a sound module to play music, or have a sports or pop star congratulate the winner.
Instant Win also recently debuted the Talking Cap for plastic and aluminum bottles. Just like its Talking Can device, the patented undetectable Talking Cap activates when the winning bottle is opened. Twist the cap off and a bright LED light flashes in the bottle opening while a custom audio message plays for 10-40 seconds. Designed to hide in the bottle underneath the cap, the food-grade safe Talking Cap device can be easily removed so the beverage can be consumed while the winner celebrates his or her good fortune in real time with the beverage in hand.
And lastly, packaging graphics have improved dramatically, allowing imagery to be so photorealistic it seems to jump off the cans. Ball Corp., for example, now offers Eyeris technology, which enables photo-quality can graphics with very fine detail. And, the company’s Dynamark Variable Printing Technology, unveiled earlier this year, allows for up to 24 design variations with alternating icons, images and/or messages in a single production run. Ball says Dynamark addresses the megatrend of individualization; allows the creation and execution of unique promotions; enables late-stage differentiation, e.g. for latest updates from a brand’s online community (Facebook, Twitter), and also furthers mass customization in can production at a reasonable cost.


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CHICAGO Ulta is showing consumers how to go from fresh-faced to fabulous in a new national advertising campaign.
Beginning the first week of February, the advertisement will appear in the March issues of "Vanity Fair," "InStyle" and "Allure," and will feature a "before" photo of a model without makeup, then present an "after" photo of the model with a new look. Additionally, the retailer will continue to roll out new "looks" in the April and May issues of various national long-lead publications. Each new "look" will be paired with a corresponding "how-to" video on Ulta.com. All videos will also be featured on Ulta's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ULTA?v=app_7146470109).
The advertisements also will feature a coupon offering $5 off any purchase of $10 or more, redeemable both in store and online at Ulta.com.
"By featuring our model au naturel Ulta had the opportunity to demonstrate simple steps to achieve the most updated looks. Our intention with this advertising campaign is to continue to identify fresh, new and exciting ways to educate and entertain women," stated Lyn Kirby, president and CEO.


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Kakao reportedly acquiesced to pressure from Google to remove an external payment link in the Android version of its messaging app, ending a standoff sparked by the search giant’s refusal to approve the latest version of the service.
Yonhap News Agency reported Kakao agreed to Google’s demands despite concerns the US company’s billing policy breaches new rules and an ongoing probe by South Korea’s telecoms regulator.
Kakao and Google were reportedly at loggerheads since the company rejected the latest version of the KakaoTalk messaging app due to the external payment option.
In April, Google announced changes to its payment policy requiring developers selling digital goods and services to use its billing system and remove external payment links.
The move was an about-face for Google after it introduced a policy in the nation in 2021 allowing developers to provide third-party options.
Months earlier, South Korea’s National Assembly passed legislation preventing app store providers from requiring developers to use their payment channels for purchases.
Yonhap News Agency reported the Korea Communications Commission held talks with Kakao and Google last week and examined the latest payment policy after provisionally concluding it violated the nation’s laws.