text:
Tenn. Revenue Collections Up in March
Tennessee revenue collections continued to exceed budgeted expectations in March. Finance and Administration Commissioner Mark Emkes reported today that overall March revenues were $936.1 million, which is $33.1 million more than the state budgeted. Total tax collections in March were 2.2% above the previous year.
“March collections continued to reflect strong corporate profits from last year, but also reflect very modest retail activity for the month of February, when spending occurred,” Emkes said. “We believe the slowdown in retail spending reflects the two percent increase in the federal payroll tax in January and temporary erosion in consumer confidence, most likely brought about by the federal budget sequestration process.
“While year-to-date corporate tax collections remain very encouraging, we must remember that about a fourth of them typically – but not always - occur in the month of April. Due to the volatility of our corporate tax collections, we will be extremely diligent in monitoring our spending patterns for the remainder of this year, maintaining a balanced budget and financially posturing ourselves for the future.”
On an accrual basis, March is the eighth month in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
The general fund was over collected by $35.4 million and the four other funds were under collected by $2.3 million.
Sales tax collections were $2.8 million less than the estimate for March. The March growth rate was positive 0.11%. For eight months revenues are under collected by $33.1 million. The year-to-date growth rate for eight months was positive 1.77%.
Franchise and excise taxes combined were $42.7 million above the budgeted estimate of $168.8 million. For eight months revenues are over collected by $156.5 million. The year-to-date growth rate for eight months was positive 9.12%.
Gasoline and motor fuel collections for March increased by 0.75% and were $0.2 million above the budgeted estimate. For eight months revenues are under collected by $15.2 million.
Tobacco taxes collections were $5.9 million under the budgeted estimate of $24.7 million. For eight months revenues are under collected in the amount of $10.7 million.
Inheritance and estate taxes were over collected by $2.2 million for the month. Year to date collections for eight months are $12.8 million more than the budgeted estimate.
Privilege tax collections were $2.2 million more than the March estimate, and on a year to date basis, August through March, collections are $17.8 million above the estimate.
All other taxes were under collected by a net of $5.5 million.
Year-to-date collections for eight months were $127.1 million more than the budgeted estimate. The general fund was over collected by $141.6 million and the four other funds were under collected by $14.5 million.
The budgeted revenue estimates for 2012-2013 are based on the State Funding Board’s consensus recommendation of December 19th, 2011 and adopted by the second session of the 107th General Assembly in April 2012. They are available on the state’s website at http://www.tn.gov/finance/bud/budget.html.
More Business News
Last Update on January 30, 2015 18:13 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of 2014 as a big burst in consumer spending was offset by weakness in other areas.
The Commerce Department says the overall economy grew at a 2.6 percent rate in the October-December period, down from sizzling gains of 4.6 percent in the second quarter and 5 percent in the third quarter.
Consumers did their part in the fourth quarter, pushing up spending by fastest rate in nearly nine years. But businesses investment, trade and government spending weakened.
For the year, the economy grew at a moderate rate of 2.4 percent. But economists believe 2015 could be a breakout year for growth, with consumer spending boosted by strong employment gains and falling gas prices. Many expect growth above 3 percent this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wages and benefits rose at the fastest pace in six years last year, a sign strong job gains could be forcing companies to pay a bit more for workers.
The Labor Department says the employment cost index, which measures pay and benefits, rose 2.2 percent in 2014, up from 2 percent the previous year. That's the biggest gain since 2008. It's also ahead of inflation, which rose 1.3 percent.
Yet the increase is still sluggish by historical standards. In a healthy economy, the index usually rises at about a 3.5 percent pace.
The Federal Reserve is closing watching wages as it considers when to raise the short-term interest rate it controls. Fed Chair Janet Yellen considers rising wages a key sign that the job market is nearing full health.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. consumers are more confident than they've been since January 2004.
The University of Michigan says that its index of consumer sentiment rose to 98.1 in January from 93.6 last month.
Consumers say the prospects for the U.S. economy are the strongest in a decade, and half of consumers expect the expansion to keep going another five years.
The Michigan survey was the latest evidence that strong job growth and tumbling oil prices have lifted consumers' spirits. The Conference Board on Tuesday reported that its consumer confidence index climbed to the highest level since August 2007. And the Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending rose from October through December at the fastest pace in nearly nine years.
DALLAS (AP) -- Pilots at American Airlines and US Airways have approved a single labor contract. That's a step toward combining workforces at the two carriers, which merged in December 2013.
The multiyear deal gives pilots a 23 percent pay raise retroactive to Dec. 2.
The pilots' union said Friday that the contract was approved 66 percent to 34 percent, with 95 percent of eligible pilots casting a vote.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A jury of six men and six women is continuing deliberations in a case alleging a 1996 Toyota Camry had a design defect that caused a fatal crash.
Jurors received the case late Wednesday afternoon and deliberated all day Thursday without reaching a verdict. They returned to a federal courthouse in Minneapolis on Friday to keep working.
The jurors must decide whether Toyota's design of the 1996 Camry had a defect that was unreasonably dangerous. If they find there was a defect, they must decide if it directly caused injuries to those hurt or killed when Koua Fong Lee crashed into another car in 2006.
Lee spent 2 1/2 years in prison before being released after reports suggested some Toyota cars had sudden acceleration problems.
BERLIN (AP) -- German automaker BMW says it has fixed a security flaw that made 2.2 million of its vehicles vulnerable to break-ins.
The company says the problem affected BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce models equipped with its ConnectedDrive technology, which allows drivers to access certain car functions with a smartphone.
German automobile club ADAC, which discovered the flaw last summer, says hackers could have used a fake cellphone base station to intercept network traffic from the car and lower the windows or open the doors. There are no reports such a break-in ever took place.
BMW spokeswoman Silke Brigl said Friday that hackers wouldn't have been able to start or stop the engine.
Brigl said the problem has been fixed with an automatic update and customers don't need to take any action.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court says many advertising claims for POM Wonderful juice were deceptive in asserting that it curbs the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction and is clinically proven to work.
In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholds the conclusion that many of POM's ads made misleading or false claims. The conclusion was reached by the Federal Trade Commission.
The ads appeared in national publications, on Internet sites, bus stops, billboards, newsletters and on tags attached to the products.
POM Wonderful LLC produces a number of pomegranate-based products.
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia deputy sports minister Yuri Nagornykh says his country's economic crisis is forcing athletes to scale back their training plans for next year's Olympics in Brazil.
Training camps abroad can be crucial in acclimatizing athletes for Rio de Janeiro's tropical conditions, but they are rapidly becoming unaffordable after the ruble lost almost half of its value against the U.S. dollar in the last 12 months.
Nagornykh tells Russian agency R-Sport that, with the ruble's value low and the Sports Ministry's budget facing cuts, athletes should stay in Russia rather than train abroad "in order to spend less of the currency reserves."
Officials will select priority sports and athletes for scarce funding, Nagornykh said.
The measures affect athletes for the Rio Olympics, and the 2018 Winter Olympics, he added.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio State University is cashing in after the Buckeyes' national championship victory.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the university expects a $3 million increase this year in royalties from licensed merchandise sales as fans continue to buy national championship gear and keepsakes.
Retailers say the team's special story has helped boost sales. The Buckeyes, who defied naysayers in their 42-20 victory over the University of Oregon, earned the final playoff spot after losing two starting quarterbacks to injuries.
Licensing officials also attribute increased sales to the fact Ohio State hadn't won a championship since 2002.
More than half of each dollar that comes into the school's licensing office goes to academic affairs. The athletics department, alumni association and student life program also receive portions of the revenue.
The Good LifeCelebrating the events, adventures and activities that represent "The Good Life" in the NewsChannel 9 viewing area.
SideroadsTake a ride with Brian Smith to explore the unique people and places to be found along the Sideroads of the NewsChannel 9 viewing area.
Coats For KidsHelp us keep a child in need warm this winter.
Road TrippinCome Road Trippin' with us and see all the great sites in your area!
Closings and DelaysThese are the latest School and Business Closings reported to NewsChannel 9. If you see errors or need to add a school or business, call 423-757-7320.
This N ThatLearn about the latest in community affairs and great events with Brian Smith on This 'N That.
Educator of the WeekNominate now for Educator Of The Week!
Deaf & Hard of HearingInformation provided to NewsChannel 9 by members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.
Sponsored EventsCheck Back Often for NewsChannel9 Sponsored Events!


text:
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Puma AG PUM, -2.78% said that the fund manager Mayfair has bought 16.9% of the company, with 9.8% of that buy still awaiting regulatory approval from antitrust authorities. The shares were bought on May 2, Puma said. Puma said it welcomed the investment from Mayfair, which manages money for the Herz family. The Herz family founded the German coffee and clothing retailer Tchibo.
Puma says Tchibo founders bought 17% stake

domain: news


text:
The wait is over. Bentonville Brewing Co. is finally home and open for business.
Members of Bentonville Brewing Co. gathered atop a red clay building pad to celebrate the beer maker’s move from Rogers back to its namesake town.
Bentonville Brewing Co. has reached several important milestones over the last few months, and has earned a fair amount of street cred in the process.
For the foreseeable future Bentonville Brewing Company will focus on taproom sales and a handful of draft accounts.


text:
The upstate New Hampshire region offers many organic and farm-to-table restaurants. Locals can enjoy their
meals at these restaurants knowing they're helping the local economy, and visitors can use this as an
opportunity to enjoy local foods unique to the region and season.
The NH Farm to Restaurant Connection
works to link together small-scale farms and restaurants in
NH. Through features on its website such as "Meet Your Farmer", the organization also helps create a
connection between farmers and residents of the state. Charlie Burke, president of the NH Farm to
Restaurant Connection, sees many benefits in sourcing locally, for both the consumers and sellers.
Local farms create safer and fresher food, since the food is "bred for flavor, not shelf life,"
Burke said. "Local food is safer, because local farmers feed their family the same food they sell."
One health advantage of local farming is that small-scale farms produce their food on a manageable
scale. This means contamination is easily controlled, versus large-scale production factory farms
where contamination of one product could lead to widespread food poisoning. Another health benefit
is smaller farms tend to use less chemicals, relying instead on practices such as crop rotation
to keep out pests and avoid depleting soil of its nutrients, according to Burke.
Buying from local farms can also have great benefits on local economies. Buying locally helps keep
your money in your state, contributing to the economy by supporting both farmers and the tourism
industry, according to Burke. "[Buying locally] helps preserve the rural environment and local
spaces we love so much, which bring the tourists," Burke said.
Some people are fearful of how getting involved with the farm-to-table movement will impact their
business. Corrine Rober, owner of the Margarita Grill
, said the increase the Margarita
Grill has seen in business since switching is a good indication of how a business could benefit,
since the restaurant has been around for 29 years.
According to Burke, earlier this year Margarita Grill
became the third restaurant in NH
to become "certified local" by his organization. According to Rober, her business has improved in
the one-year process of switching over the restaurant to become certified. Rober said her business
saw a "38 percent increase in volume of business in May, and a 50 percent increase in June."
Even in July, which is a very busy month already, Margarita Grill
had a 20 percent increase, according to Rober.
Rober said switching to have the restaurant use local ingredients was the "right thing to do to
support the community." Margarita Grill purchases ingredients from local farms such as Pork Hill Farm
and Sherman Farm
in East Conway
Rober is not alone in her philosophy. Many NH restaurants are recognizing the value and importance in
sourcing their ingredients locally. Executive Chef Adam Parker, who artfully constructs tantalizing dishes
at the Mountain View Grand Hotel
, is continually updating his menu
to reflect seasonal
options. Having worked in restaurants all over the United States, Chef Parker revels in "Chef-to-table side"
style dinners where he accommodates the tastes and needs of his patrons individually. This allows for
guests to enjoy fresh and local products seasoned and prepared to their liking. He also has extensive
experience creating meals that cater to vegans, vegetarians, diabetics and those with celiac disease.
Another farm to table restaurant that has recently been certified is The Sugar Hill Inn
. Located in,
you guessed it, Sugar Hill
, this fine dining destination cuts herbs fresh from their garden for
every meal. Sample some local, fine aged cheddar from Harman's Cheese & Country Store
with a touch of rich, NH maple syrup sourced straight from the sap of Sugar Hill trees. They
offer a decadent four-course "prix fixe" dinner menu that provides a culinary survey of tasty,
seasonal offerings statewide.
Last, but certainly not least, is the Wentworth
restaurant in Jackson Village
. Chef Neal Myers
and Sous Chef Brad Frederick can be found every Saturday and Sunday morning rummaging about
the Jackson Farmers Market
and the North Conway Farmers Market
local produce, dairy and meat. We have been told that when visiting the Wentworth, you might
just bump heads with "Bill the Mushroom Man," who has been scouring the NH forests to
provide the restaurant with wild mushrooms for over twenty years! They are partnered with
over twenty local farms and are deeply dedicated to the mission of strengthening NH's state
economy and health by increasing the demand and awareness of local, sustainable food.
UpStateNH Farm To Table Restaurants List:
► Dartmouth - Lake Sunapee Region
► White Mountains Region


text:
Forbes wants to be a tech company, and hackers are treating it like one.
On Saturday, Forbes confirmed that the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) had compromised its content management system, nabbing the login details for over a million Forbes users — including reporters, editors and network contributors.
“The email address for anyone registered with Forbes.com has been exposed. Please be wary of emails that purport to come from Forbes, as the list of email addresses may be used in phishing attacks,” Forbes wrote in a notice posted to its homepage.
After making off with the data, the SEA then released it online, exposing usernames and encrypted passwords to the entire Web.
While hacks like this one are common these days — the SEA also recently took down The New York Times — the latest hack at Forbes raises some big questions about whether Forbes can actually follow through on its ambition to not only build out its contributor platform but also license its underlying CMS to other companies.
The hack also exposed one of the biggest issues with how Forbes is approaching its platform technology. Like many publisher sites today, Forbes built its CMS on top of WordPress. While this gives Forbes a lot of customization options, it also exposes the site to countless security holes, especially from third-party plugins and themes.
Forbes did not comment to Digiday about the hack. But Forbes chief product officer Lewis DVorkin wrote in a post on Tuesday that the attack was one of the “challenges and risks associated with a platform that supports a distributed workforce using a distributed set of tools in a social news environment.”
In other words, Forbes has realized what many tech companies intuitively understand from the start: The more users and third-party features you plug into your system, the more vulnerabilities you expose yourself to.
What’s especially bad for Forbes is that the hack also disrupted the ability for contributors to post autonomously. Instead, contributors who want to get posts up on the site first have to email them to the Forbes editors in charge of publishing. (“Our loyal contributors eagerly participated in the make-shift process,” Dvorkin wrote.)
Considering that Forbes’s business model is centered around posting as many articles as possible and selling ads off of them, a lower number of posts is clearly bad news.
All of this is actually worse if you believe security researcher Graham Cluley, who said that the attack that hit Forbes wasn’t particularly sophisticated.
“There’s no doubt that if Forbes had had tougher security in place (for instance, two-factor authentication), they could have helped prevent the hackers from gaining access to their systems and stealing the user information,” he said by email.
Cluley went on: “There have been so many media organisations hacked by the SEA in recent months that there really is no excuse for such firms not to have better trained their staff to be on the lookout for the kinds of social engineering and phishing attacks that the SEA typically employ.”
The Washington Post invests in climate coverage as its team expands to over 30 journalists
The Post's climate team continues to expand as the publisher makes big bets on the beat drawing younger audiences.
Inside one media company’s strategy to monetize the Fifa World Cup
Soccer media business Footballco has spent most of 2022 trying to make hay while the sun is shining.
Publishers continue to evaluate cost-cutting in Q4, with economic and budgetary pressures mounting
The wave of cost-cutting measures in Q3 is still flowing into Q4, with publishers under pressure to keep expenses down at a time of continuing economic uncertainty and budget planning.
SponsoredHow brands are measuring incremental performance on CTV
Connected TV is unique among other advertising channels because it combines linear television’s storytelling capabilities with digital marketing’s targeting and measurement. As more marketers leverage CTV advertisements to reach relevant and engaged audiences, they also want to understand the real value they are generating with their investment. Incrementality reporting and measurement allow advertisers to measure […]
Member ExclusiveMedia Briefing: Publishers’ Q3 earnings reports show promise, but not without sacrifice
Publishers' third quarter earning reports are in.
A new entrant in the data-driven linear TV measurement space aims to fill a gap left by Microsoft’s Xandr
As Xandr shuts down its Clypd platform, datafuelX's M3 SaaS product aims to solve some of the multi-currency, multi-platform problems with investing in convergent TV today.


text:
The company says the application, which allows users to share their location with others, will no longer be accessible starting next month.
This free font integrates regionally appropriate Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language promises to be a boon to designers and developers.
The dominant mobile player says it plans to integrate Wilocity's technology into some of its mobile offerings starting next year.
First came clues from the FCC and Nvidia itself. Now a device certification organization has let slip the mention of a "Shield Tablet."
The Camp Chef Italia Artisan Pizza Oven is a portable pizza oven that takes the pizza party where you want it to go.
Think handsets have hit an innovative plateau? With a little imagination (and some wishful thinking), CNET explores what smartphones might look like in the not-so-distant future.
Learn to take better photos instantly with our guide to the finer aspects of exposure.
A 3D-printed prototype wearable designed for astronauts takes its inspiration directly from the screens of the Fallout series.
May 6 marks the peak of Eta Aquarids, a brilliantly fast meteor shower that will trail the night sky.
The Dell Latitude 10 offers excellent battery life, and costs less than many other Windows 8 tablets.


text:
A major breakthrough in solar technology could produce energy that is cheaper than fossil fuels for the first time. One company has licensed a new system that it claims will create solar power that is 95 per cent cheaper than existing systems – with a single battery able to power 11 homes. A UK-Swedish company known as United Sun Systems has designed the new battery that converts heat from the sun into electricity, which unlike light from the sun, can be stored.
Developers say the solar-powered battery can store thermal energy for 100 years without any waste. The technology is based on a concentrated solar thermal power dish that has a battery at the back made of a patented metal alloy and hydrogen.


text:
Gartner estimates that there will be 50 billion IoT devices connected by 2020. But consumers have yet to fully embrace the idea of a smart home, according to a new study from PwC.
Bloomberg reported last week that Evercore estimates 500,000 Google Home units shipped in 2016. The firm also estimated shipments of..
Last week, we wrote about how Amazon Alexa dominated this year’s CES without even having an official presence at the show. TechHive also took notice and compiled a list of the top 14 products that featured Amazon Alexa integration.


text:
British accessories label Anchor and Crew has come out with a new Custom concept range for the summer.
The range features customisable bracelets which can be altered on a day to day basis. It claims to be an “industry first” as the concept allows the quick change of any bracelet material or colour to be as multi-layered or minimalist as they like.
The unisex / men’s accessories brand will be exhibiting at Pure London for the first time from 23-25 July are also featuring at the International Jewellery Show from 3-5 September.
Chris Warner, director of Anchor and Crew said: “Growth has been strong, but of course, planned.
“Being selectively promoted to the curated ‘Designer Brands’ section of the illustrious International Jewellery Show to be featured alongside Astley Clarke, Dower & Hall, Fei Liu and various others is reflective of the future that lies ahead of the unisex / men’s brand.”


text:
Whether or not to allow retail marijuana establishments in Cañon City will be decided by the voters in November's election.
The Cañon City Council on Monday, by majority vote, approved first reading of an ordinance that will extend the city's moratorium prohibiting retail marijuana establishments to Feb. 1, 2015, calling a special municipal election and submitting a ballot measure as to whether retail marijuana establishments will be permitted in the city.
The council heard from nearly 40 people who spoke in favor and against an issue that has divided the community and the council.
Councilman Dennis Wied was the lone member to vote against sending the issue to voters, and Councilman Colby Katchmar was not in attendance.
"I have supported the sale of retail marijuana from the very beginning," Wied said. "I have never been shy about it, I've been very straight forward. I walked with a group on Main Street (in support of retail pot), and I am proud of that."
He said it is the council's responsibility to retain control over what happens in the community.
"All we are going to do is encourage people to get in their cars and drive to Pueblo or to Salida and make their purchases there."
Ashley Smith and her children, Kyle and Jamison, each spoke out against the sale of retail marijuana in Cañon City.
Jamison, 16, said since childhood, he has been taught by law enforcement and government officials that "smoking kills" and "drugs are bad for you."
"They also said it was especially necessary to avoid gateway drugs, such as alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and marijuana," he said. "Our community has had a change in perspective. Now our community says, 'smoking kills, but marijuana is OK. To me, this does not seem right.'"
Kyle, 11, said he also was taught in school and in Boy Scouts to avoid drugs.
"We are told to say no, but the options for drugs keep on coming," he said
Ashley said studies show a negative impact on communities and families by marijuana use.
"I want to keep our town safe," she said. "We need to keep our town drug free and safe."
Brett Provost, a business and property owner, said the worst problem the city will have with marijuana is "someone might eat too many candy bars or Cheetos."
"They are not going to rob your house, they are not going to steal from you, they are not going to hurt you," he said. "We don't want to hurt you, we don't want to rob your house and we don't want to take your things; we don't like liars and thieves, we're normal people just like you."
He said he simply wants a safe place to go to buy marijuana and not have to buy it from a backyard grower.
"By not allowing this business, you are creating a demand for the black market," he said. "People of Colorado have voted on it, it is legal, why should we vote on it again?"
The cost to the city to send a question to the November ballot is about $10,000.
For full coverage of Monday's meeting, visit canoncitydailyrecord.com.


text:
Nobody was prepared in the slightest for everything that occurred in 2020, and that includes digital marketing agencies. When initial shutdowns began worldwide, agencies all over the world decreased significantly in revenues.
While 2021 still holds some economic uncertainty, leaders in the digital marketing realm have indicated that their agencies have been remarkably standing strong, according to CallRail’s fall survey of 167 global marketing leaders who use its services. The findings show that most agencies will finish 2020 with higher annual revenues than in 2019.
2021 financial outlook
In the CallRail’s survey, 88% of agencies indicated they are satisfied to extremely satisfied with their agency’s financial health in 2020. Only 3% were extremely unsatisfied. Most agencies also anticipate exceeding their 2019 revenue by the end of 2020, which are in line with the rest of the findings.
As most business shifted from offline to online at a rapid rate, it makes sense that a majority of agencies are succeeding this year financially. The vice president of Avalaunch Media, Kyle Shurtz, shares how his business experienced an increase in financial success, “Because we focus strictly on online advertising, we had more business come through as people shifted from offline to online. We anticipate 2021 to be much more of the same. Our goal is to grow by about 20% year-over-year.”
The value of digital marketing agencies
The key value that digital marketing agencies bring to the table for clients is their strategic value. Being seen as a strategic partner is one of the primary ways agencies can increase their value to clients. Most agencies felt as though they were doing quite well in this area. According to 67% of agencies, the primary reason that clients choose their agency is because they’ve established themselves as strong strategic partners.
The longevity most agencies have with clients is another indicator that clients believed agencies are delivering enough value to continue to use their services. Long-term relationships of two years or more were common for 69% of agencies. Only 4% said the client relationship lasted less than one year.
What this means for 2021
Uncertainty of course remains, but the future looks very bright for digital marketing agencies in 2021. And there seems to be agreement among agencies that even if more lockdowns occur, it likely won’t be a repeat of spring. As agencies look ahead to 2021, there’s every reason to believe they will continue to realize increase revenue, growth in business, and overall strong financial health.
More from Onimod Global
Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing lead generation and sales revenue for your company through digital channels? Reach out to us here!
Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.


text:
Tesla shares were reduced by almost 1% today, though in the quarter that is second Tesla should continue to crank up Model Y production in China while rivals step up production and release brand new models.
The following Tesla that is big development comes because of the Berlin and Austin flowers later this year. The Berlin plant shall introduce the Model Y to Europe as well as cheaper Model 3 there, but could come at the cost of Fremont Model 3 manufacturing. The Austin plant is due to really make the Model Y, Cybertruck and Semi, though the latter two might not be stated in amount until 2022, waiting for battery improvements.
The Biden infrastructure plan calls for expanded EV credits and a expansion that is big of stations. Tesla, that has struck the cap on federal tax credits, could be a winner that is big that. But it could be months for such credits to be authorized and get into impact.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s China rivals Nio (NIO) and(XPEV that is xpeng reported strong March deliveries on Thursday. Li automobile (LI) on reported March deliveries of 4,900 cars, up 239%, with Q1 deliveries up 333% to 12,579 friday.
Nio stock rose 1.7percent on while Xpeng advanced 1.2% and Li Auto 1%, all closing near session lows.
Dow Jones futures popped 0.5% vs. reasonable value on Friday, off their highs being initial the jobs report. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures 0.2%.
Monday that suggests that the Dow and S&P 500 would open at record highs. The Nasdaq would move just a little further above its line that is 50-day but below short-term March peaks, Meta News reports.
Dow Jones futures trading halted at 9:15 a.m. ET about it will reopen at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose a basis that is few to 1.71%. Relationship markets shut at 12 noon on Friday. Tesla shares were reduced by almost 1% today.
Understand that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t invariably result in real trading in the next stock market session that is regular.


text:
Ford Demands Swift Action as European Sales Slow
The bad news is that while its overall figures are up for the year, November has brought only a 1 percent increase. What’s more, Ford saw 4,4 percent less demand in the traditional 19 European markets. Sales were still booming in emerging markets like Russia and Turkey.
“We’re pleased that we continue to see strong demand for new products like the Focus and C-MAX, and have been able to take advantage of growth opportunities in Germany and key Eastern European markets”, said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Services, Ford of Europe.
“But the overall market in Europe remains challenging as consumer confidence has been dampened by the economic turmoil in the region. We urge decision makers to move quickly and decisively, even if the actions are painful in the short term, to begin reducing volatility in the markets and rebuilding consumer and market confidence,” the Ford execs warns.
The European market is struggling so badly in Europe that they will temporarily cut some 4,000 workers next year, all of them at their plant in Valencia, Spain. The workers there will take leave of absence from work 39 days over the course of the year.


text:
Summa Linguae has acquired Nordic language service provider Kommunicera, headquartered in Gothenburg in southwestern Sweden. Summa Linguae paid a total consideration of SEK 17.5m (USD 1.95m), which amounts to five times EBITDA but less than half times revenue. The deal was closed on November 20, 2018 and was financed with Summa Linguae’s own funds and new debt.
Kommunicera generated 2017 revenues of SEK 42.5m (USD 4.68m) in 2017, which is not far off Summa Linguae’s own 2017 sales of USD 5m. The company is now forecasting around USD 12m in revenues and EBITDA of USD 1.2m for 2018, adjusted for one-off M&A costs.
The figures are consolidated to include pro-forma revenues for Kommunicera (2018) and Mayflower (2017 and 2018), an Indian LSP that Summa Linguae took a 100% stake in last September 2017 following an initial 25% share swap.
To find out more about the acquisition, Slator spoke to Summa Linguae CEO Krzysztof Zdanowski, who described the two companies as “almost identical” in terms of their customer base, service offering and approach to technology. Yet the two had “virtually no” customers overlap, Zdanowski said.
Poland-headquartered Summa Linguae is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and has a client base in government, e-commerce, retail, and also works across the e-learning / multimedia and IT verticals, while Kommunicera is primarily focused on e-commerce and retail customers. Summa Linguae also has a staffing unit that brings in USD 2m annually, Zdanowski said. In addition, both companies work with direct customers who have a typical annual localization spend of between USD 400,000 and USD 1m, and neither company derives much income subcontracting from other language service providers.
Expanding into the Nordics
Sweden-headquartered Kommunicera’s stronghold in the Nordics was of particular appeal for its new owner since Summa Linguae wanted to expand into the region, Zdanowski said.
“Scandinavia is a very important geography in our industry,” Zdanowski emphasized, an opinion almost certainly shared by Benjamin du Fraysseix, CEO of Technicis, who also entered the Nordic region recently through the company’s October 2018 acquisition of Finland-based AAC Global.
Following its acquisition of Kommunicera, Summa Linguae will have 140 employees located across seven offices in India, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, Zdanowski said. Kommunicera co-owners Maare Tomson Ollin and Johan Laestadius, who was also its founder and CEO, will both be “retiring after a short transition period,” Zdanowski confirmed. Summa Linguae has also brought in a new MD for the Nordics in the form of Lea Backhurst, former Head of LanguageWire’s Sweden Office.
Zdanowski said that Kommunicera and Summa Linguae will be brought together under one brand, and the new company will be renamed “Summa Linguae Technologies”, a nod towards the increasing role tech plays in the language industry.
Business Integration and NMT
Summa Linguae will soon begin the work of integrating technologies. The company will keep working with all of the current translation productivity (CAT) tools used by Summa Linguae (XTM and Trados) and Kommunicera (MemoQ), but the decision of whether to keep Kommunicera’s proprietary translation management system (TMS) or move to Plunet, which Summa Linguae currently uses, still needs to be finalized.
The company will also keep developing its customized API integrations, which Zdanowski says are “mainly tailored for the e-commerce and retail industries” and are designed to bring neural machine translation (NMT) and other complex solutions to “automated multilingual help desks, ticketing systems and live chat tools.”
Zdanowski is a strong proponent of NMT and says that the company’s business model is already focused on “MT and its continuous development.” As such, Summa Linguae views the new customizable NMT solutions, such as those of Google and Microsoft, as an opportunity rather than a threat. “We see the rapid development of MT as extremely exciting,” Zdanowski said, since “we build our MT products mostly around off-shelf solutions, including Google’s engines.”
“We build our MT products mostly around off-shelf solutions, including Google’s engines.”
Although Zdanowski thinks that “NMT systems are much more fluent than SMT systems”, he also predicts that “many LSPs will still stick to SMT for a while because NMT engines need to be retrained with customer data, as long as that hasn’t happened, the trained SMT still performs better than the untrained NMT.”
Zdanowski also identifies another big challenge that still needs to be overcome in order for NMT to become more successful and less risky in a real-life production environment. The same thing that makes NMT so good, its level of fluency, can also be its greatest weakness, and translators “may not spot all that needs to be fixed, because they are misled by natural fluency,” Zdanowski warned.
The same thing that makes NMT so good, its level of fluency, can also be its greatest weakness, and translators “may not spot all that needs to be fixed, because they are misled by natural fluency.”
Whereas current tools “basically import MT output and let the translators do their thing without any assistance,” what is actually needed, Zdanowski suggests, is “quality control tools that are much smarter” and can “point to where there might be a problem.” One way of doing this would be to “use substring lookup in TMs to find probable issues in the MT output,” Zdanowski added.
Betting on Blockchain
Along with its interest in NMT, Summa Linguae is also betting on Blockchain, the technology powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Zdanowski told Slator that Summa Linguae has provided USD 1m in seed funding to Exfluency, which is attempting to launch an ICO.
According to Zdanowski, “Exfluency is waiting for [Swiss regulatory] approval of their token classification and as soon as ready will commence its ICO – private placement is planned for January-March 2019, then the crowd-sale ICO should begin, but due to the highly unregulated and changing (crypto)environment this can again change.”
On the state of the minimum viable product, Zdanowski said that “the first version should be out by January 2019, but it will rather be a show-case prototype than a fully functional platform.”
Looking ahead, “Summa Linguae Technology will continue to base its value proposition on technology, mainly blockchain, AI and NLP,” Zdanowski said. With funds committed already, Blockchain, as well as NMT, will continue to play a big part in Summa Linguae’s strategy moving forward. As will future geographic expansion by the sounds of it, and Zdanowski says that Summa Linguae “is also actively looking to acquire or merge with a US/Canada based LSP, ideally in the size of USD 7-10m in revenue.”
“Summa Linguae Technology will continue to base its value proposition on technology, mainly blockchain, AI and NLP.”
On this latest Kommunicera deal, Summa Linguae was represented by Nordia Law (in the Nordics) and CK Legal (in Poland), and Enterium provided M&A and Financial services. The companies were introduced by Anne-Marie Colliander Lind (Inkrea.SE Consulting), who also acted as the M&A broker for Kommunicera.


text:
Spain: NAGRA enables record adoption of Yomvi
April 21, 2015
NAGRA, a Kudelski Group digital TV business and provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, has announced that its MediaLive multiscreen solution enabled record adoption of Canal+ Spain’s OTT platform, “Yomvi de Canal+,” during the live streaming, on March 22nd, 2015, of a major football match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Marking a major milestone for Yomvi, the live programme was viewed on more than 376,000 devices, representing a 29 percent increase in device reach over the same period last year, and was watched by an estimated half a million people.
Moreover, NAGRA MediaLive continues to enable steady growth and further device reach for the OTT service with the addition of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game consoles to the operator’s supported device line-up.
“Yomvi is gaining more and more traction with viewers and is available on more devices than ever before – we’re very pleased to see how quickly the service is being accepted and used by consumers,” said Adolfo Remacha, Chief Technology Officer, Canal+ Spain. “We believe OTT is and will continue to be a key driver for growth over the next few years and we will continue, in parallel, to invest in our platform with the ultimate goal of providing the best viewing experience to consumers thanks to solutions like NAGRA MediaLive.”
Powered by MediaLive, Yomvi is a scalable pay-TV multiscreen platform, supporting the growth of live and on-demand content streaming to multiple devices for Canal+ Spain. Yomvi is also available on computers, iOS and Android devices, the Xbox 360 game console, and Samsung and LG smart TV sets.


text:
BlackBerry Ltd’s Toronto-listed shares surged 8.5 per cent on Tuesday as investors raised expectations that the technology company’s cyber security and automotive software will post strong growth, an analyst said.
This month’s global “ransomware” attack, dubbed WannaCry, has raised awareness of BlackBerry’s security software business, while prospects for sales of the company’s automotive software are on the up, said Nicholas McQuire, an enterprise research analyst at CC Insight.
The stock rose 9.1 per cent in U.S. trading on Monday, a market holiday in Canada, after Ford Motor Co said late on Friday that it would start using an “over the air” system to update software on its Sync 3 interactive touchscreen system, which runs on QNX software from BlackBerry.
BlackBerry shares rose $1.21 cents to $15.24 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They dipped 0.3 per cent to US$11.29 in U.S. Nasdaq trading, following Monday’s rally.
A BlackBerry representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2017


text:
Google’s new Nest Hub Max arrives on September 9, folks. That date has now been confirmed by the Google Store, which says to expect their biggest Nest Hub in Australia, United Kingdom, and the US on that date.
To recap, the Nest Hub Max costs $229 and features a 10-inch HD display with built-in Nest Cam, 3″ woofer with stereo speakers, and Google Assistant, like other Google Home products. It’ll do video calls, act as a security camera of sorts, play media (has Chromecast built-in too), and recognize your face to show the information that’s relevant to you. It’s a smart display, just with a big display.
If you’ve been waiting to buy a smart display, mark 9/9/19 on your calendar.
- Here are the Next 20 Verizon 5G Cities (Updated)
- Google Assistant’s “Tell Me a Story” Feature Comes to Phones
- Verizon CEO: Galaxy Note 10 Will Have 5G
- OnePlus 7 Event Tickets Now Available for Purchase
- DEAL: Pixel 3 and 3 XL Down $200 on Google Store, Starting at $599


text:
Tesla’s new electric pickup truck has secured almost 200,000 orders within three days of its launch.
Tesla unveiled its maiden electric truck, also known as Cybertruck, at an event in Los Angeles, California last week.
It is to be noted that Tesla chief Elon Musk, who has been regularly tweeting about the Cybertruck’s features since its launch late, has also been updating his followers with the number of orders the company has received.
In a tweet, Musk said the company had received 146,000 orders for Cybertruck.
However, on Sunday, he tweeted again saying “200K” – an apparent reference to the number of orders.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2019
The introductory price for the Cybertruck has been set at $39,000. The Cybertruck will hit the roads by late 2021.
Cybertruck seats six adults. The body of Cybertruck is made of ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel.
The payload has a 3,500-pound capacity, with 100 cubic feet of storage space.
A 17-inch touchscreen sits in the center of the dashboard. The truck also has an onboard air compressor and onboard outlets.
However, the company’s website shows that an immediate payment of $100 is required to reserve an order for the Cybertruck.


text:
Adulting can be a frightening concept, especially when it comes to balancing finances independently. While it might seem like another responsibility to worry about, being a credit card holder offers rewards for both purchasing necessities and weekend splurges.
About 56 percent of college students are credit card holders and for students ages 18 to 24, establishing credit is the No. 1 reason for opening a credit card account, according to the 2016 Sallie Mae report.
“My dad’s advice was to open a credit card and to start building a credit score and within a couple years, hopefully, I can buy myself a new house (or) a new car,” said 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton student Yesenia Higareda.
A credit score doesn’t necessarily help or prevent a person from buying or renting a property, but it does affect the interest rates lenders may charge on a loan used to pay for it.
According to the 2016 Sallie Mae report, a majority of students manage their credit cards responsibly. About 77 percent pay bills on time and 60 percent report never exceeding their immediate funds.
Still, students often worry about missing payments.
“I’d say it’s a general concern for people … Or if they add on a recurring payment that happens every month or every year and they forget about that, I think that can be scary if you set that up and don’t remember,” said business management major Darren Benton.
Some cards won’t charge a late fee for the first missed payment but in most cases, a missing or late payment will cost the cardholder.
“I have to remember to pay it every month or I’ll get charged interest,” said 21-year-old CSUF fourth year Petra Palomera. “If I have like $400 left to pay and I can only pay $300, they’ll charge me $6 or $7 for that month.”
Ease of access is another reason students use credit cards over cash or debit cards.
Benton said credit cards are more flexible. It gives him the opportunity to purchase items even when he doesn’t have the money readily available and he can pay it back when he does.
Many credit cards are also eligible for a cash-back reward system, with percentages varying between card types and banks.
“You get three percent cash back for gas, one percent cash back for food … Also (the credit card) have features like if you spend a certain amount at a certain restaurant or a store, you get like 10 percent cash back,” Palomera said.
Using a credit card also protects a person’s money. Stolen cash is irreplaceable, but a credit card can be reported lost or stolen and the holder will not be responsible for paying fraudulent charges. This often includes when a charge is made but the product is never delivered.
Many banks offer credit cards specifically for students.
Discover offers students five percent cash back on purchases for categories that change every few months (such as on restaurants) and one percent on all other purchases. It also rewards students $20 for each school year if they have at least a 3.0 GPA. At the end of the first year of owning the card, it pays additional cash-back matching the total amount earned for the entire year.
Through Discover Deals, customers can find special discounts and coupons, while earning extra cash back by shopping certain online stores through the Discover website. Discover also has purchase and price protection that includes extended warranties on qualifying items and refunds for the difference in price of an item already purchased at a higher cost.
The Bank of America student card pays three percent cash back on gas, two percent for grocery store purchases and one percent cash back everywhere else. It also rewards a 10 percent customer bonus for transferring cash back earnings into a Bank of America checking or savings account.
With a Wells Fargo student card, cardholders can earn three percent cash back for each dollar spent on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases for the first six months and one percent for each dollar spent on all other purchases. Like Discover, Wells Fargo offers additional opportunities for earning cash back when purchases are made through their “Earn More Mall,” which provides special links to online stores.
Chase does not offer a student-specific card but its Freedom card offers a $150 bonus after spending $500 within the first three months of opening the card account. Cardholders can earn five percent cash back for purchases in rotating categories and one percent on all others.
Due to the Fair Credit Billing Act, all purchases made with a credit card are protected from charges if a product is received damaged or defective.
Many student cards do not charge an annual fee to open a credit card with them.
Although the pressure of adding an extra monthly bill can seem petrifying, many card providers make it uncomplicated. The transition into full blown adulthood is eased a bit with opportunities to earn while spending.


text:
As part of its collaboration with crypto-investment firm Galaxy Digital, TIME Magazine is set to feature Ethereum (ETH) on its balance sheet. This collaboration will allow the popular media publication to educate its readers about the metaverse through a newsletter dubbed “Into the Metaverse.”
TIME Magazine Becomes First Media Organization To Add ETH To Balance Sheet
According to a press release by the company, the media publication maintained its focus on crypto and Web3, carrying out all the transactions in ETH, thereby becoming the first major media organization to do so.
Even as TIME is set to hold ETH on its balance sheet for the first time, the payment did not just come to be. This payment comes after TIME started accepting crypto payments for its digital subscriptions back in April 2021 as the brand continues to establish its foothold in the cryptocurrency industry.
Meanwhile, TIME Magazine is set to also launch a TIME 100 Companies list for metaverse, along with the newsletter. The list will include all companies whose works are helping the blockchain and crypto-space to become more accessible, and then the companies that provide solutions towards the improvement of the metaverse sector.
Ether is not the only crypto feature on TIME’s balance sheet though. The cryptocurrency will be joining Bitcoin — which was paid for a top deal with another investment management firm, Grayscale, back in April.
Growing Interests In Digital Assets
Recall that back in March, TIME released a set of three TIME covers as non-fungible tokens NFTs at an auction, including the very first cover ever designed.
Although, TIME magazine’s Ethereum holdings has never been tried before in the world of media, many institutional investors are currently eyeing the network as a potentially viable investment asset. As of this moment, Ether now features on the balance sheets of investment firm Galaxy Digital, Hive blockchain, and crypto-exchange Coinbase.
And seeing as most of these are arguably some of the biggest companies operating in the crypto-space, then the importance of the foray of TIME magazine into ETH cannot be overemphasized.
- Breaking: Valkyrie Planning To List Bitcoin Mining ETF On NASDAQ
- Just-In: OpenSea Reportedly Planning to Integrate Solana And Phantom Wallet
- Can Bitcoin’s Price Hit $1 Million? Ark Invest Is Confident It Can Happen In 2030
- DappRadar: Strong Possibility of DeFi Shakeout In 2022 Amid Crypto User Exodus
- YouTube’s Head of Gaming Joins Polygon Studios, CEO Praises NFT and Crypto
- Bitcoin And Ethereum Sell Off Nearing An End- CNBC Host Jim Cramer
- Crypto News: Thailand To Regulate Cryptocurrencies As Means of Payment
- YouTube’s CEO Hints That NFTs Might Be Coming To The Video Sharing App
- Will McDonald’s Accept Dogecoin Following Elon Musk’s Challenge?
- Bitcoin’s Positive Correlation With The Stock Market Index Records A Mild Increase
- Solana Creeps Higher, Looks To Revisit January Highs AT $177.0
- Ethereum Price Analysis: Fibonacci Retracement level 0.618 Triggers Recovery Rally In ETH Coin
- BTC Price Analysis: Death Crossover Brings Nightmares On Satoshi Street; Is This A Buying Opportunity?
- Bitcoin Death Cross Haunting Investors, Will BTC Make or Break?
- DOGE Price Analysis: Highly Influential Bearish Trendline Undermines Bullish Attempts; Buy, Sell Or Hold?
- Terra Price Analysis: Will LUNA Price Bounce Back at 0.382 Fibonacci Retracement?
- SAND Price Analysis: Sandbox Price Losses 50% Retracement Level, Good Time to Buy?
- LINK Price Analysis: Chainlink price reclaims 200-day EMA, Emerging trendline Suggests More Upward Price Movement
- Harmony Price Analysis: Rising Parallel Pattern Could Lead 30% Growth In $ONE Price
- Ripple Price Analysis: XRP Bears Struggle To Breach $0.7 Support Zone, Is A Reversal Next Move?


text:
The silver lining in the dark cloud of insurgency, conflict and militarisation in Kashmir lies in its beauty, says veteran designer Rohit Bal who paid a fitting tribute to his birthplace with a fashion show, where he let a group of Kashmiri women take the spotlight.
Born in Kashmir himself, Bal has, over the years, ensured he remains connected to his roots and spread its beauty around the world with his internationally popular creations.
It's a paradox -- that while a lot of filmmakers capture the violence in the state nowadays, Bal's creative interpretation of Kashmir has always revolved around the elements that make Kashmir the nature's paradise it is.
"It's a simple explanation. I come from Kashmir. I am a Kashmiri, I know what's happening in the state. I grew up in a free Kashmir and unfortunately now it's a warzone.
"But what I am trying to do here is to let people know that no matter how troubled the times might be there, there is still beauty and that beauty can never be taken away from Kashmir. No matter what you do there, no matter how hard anyone tries, the beauty of Kashmir will, Inshallah, always be there because it can never be taken away," Bal told IANS in an interview.
He says the beauty is akin to "a silver lining in a black cloud, a ray of hope, and a light in the thunderstorm".
"I want people to know that Kashmir may be wartorn, but the beauty of Kashmir will always be a part of a Kashmiri's life... By showing this beauty, I want people to understand that there's always a ray of hope," said the desiger, who showcased a line called 'Guldastah' at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2019 here on Wednesday.
For the show, the ramp was strewn with dry Chinar leaves, and shikaras laden with colourful flowers added a touch of Kashmir. A playlist of Kashmiri songs, which were followed by lilting Bollywood melodies, gave the dreamy show a perfect backdrop.
But the showstoppers -- about eight women from Kashmir who were trained by the Usha Silai team and then worked on Bal's collection in the freezing winter -- won the audience's heart.
In an emotional gesture, Bal let them take the centrestage, the spotlight and the joy of a standing ovation whole-heartedly.
This initiative, he said, is a step ahead for him.
"Nothing can give me more satisfaction than doing this. In fact, after doing this, I am feeling I am going to do so much more and I am confident about giving back to these people.
"I want to try to make them earn much more than they do. I am going to make sure my association with Usha Silai is a long one so I can reach out to more people as possible," Bal told IANS.
He is proud of the "incredible talent" in what he calls "my Valley".
The designer says he goes to Kashmir often.
"I just don't go there in winter... I am not a winter person. But it's just an hour away from Delhi, and anytime I find myself some free time, like a long weekend and I feel I want to feel lighter, I head there.
"Sometimes I go for a few days, sometimes I go for a longer time. It rejuvenates me. But it also makes me very sad... I won't say it's all happiness. It is depressing, but like I said, the beauty... In the calamity, the beauty is there to soothe your mind."
(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at email@example.com. The writer is in Mumbai on an invitation by LFW organisers)
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content


text:
Electroneum is launching a freelance platform.
Electroneum is on a continuous roll. Richard Ells, the company’s CEO, has announced they are opening a freelance platform with a focus on developing countries.
Ells highlighted a new digital product, which the world will be able to test soon. He says “We are creating a new ‘task’ economy called AnyTasks.com for people in the developing world.”
He primarily aims to engage the unbanked community and allow it to access the digital world. Ells says “the smartphone ubiquity is becoming the norm even in the developing world.”
Hence it’s time to attract mobile users as they will only benefit from the result. Why? Because the unbanked users will be able to make payments in ETN with a zero fee.
The new resource will resemble online services like Fiverr. There is an exception: digital payments will not entail fees.
The e-learning platform will commence at the beginning of 2020. However, Electroneum is inviting BETA testers to submit their applications until the end of October. Particularly, Ells is inviting companies and individuals to participate and buy some digital skills through the new service.
Will Electroneum achieve their goals?
So far, the company has been progressing. It is on the road to creating a strong worldwide community. Its primary task is to teach simple people to use digital money for everyday needs. Recently, Electroneum has granted direct access to Brazilian cellphone users, circa 140 million people. Besides, the company implemented a top-up feature in its app in Turkey, appealing to 18 million of potential audience. Currently, Electroneum has 3.3 million registered users.
So, things are moving fast. Though some users are still skeptical about ETN’s low price. But with this approach, Electroneum is definitely making all the right moves in all the right places, so to speak.
Let us know what you think about the project.


text: Indonesia’s largest telecoms company by subscribers and revenues, Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), said its full-year 2008 unaudited profit fell nearly 20% – the worst drop in three years – largely the result of significant losses suffered on the foreign exchange markets. The operator’s net income fell to IDR10.3 trillion (USD957.9 million) from IDR12.86 trillion in 2007. In a statement, Sofyan Djalil, the state’s enterprises minister, declined to provide information on revenues for the year. Telkom’s unaudited results are in line with results posted by competitors such as Indosat, the country’s second largest telco, which saw its profit drop to IDR1.87 trillion in 2008 from IDR2.04 trillion in 2007. Meanwhile, third-placed Excelcomindo posted an IDR15 billion loss in 2008, reversing an IDR250 billion profit in 2007.


text:
It looks like we’ll have to wait just a bit longer before we get our hands on Battlefield 2042. EA and DICE have officially announced that the upcoming title has been officially delayed until November 19, 2021. This pushes it back from the original date, October 22, which makes the delay a total of 4 weeks, slightly under a month. Considering the apparent magnitude of recourses and people working on this project, the 4-week delay is essentially next to nothing, especially when compared to other titles that have taken much, much longer to complete.
An update from the Battlefield team pic.twitter.com/K53VNM2tTz
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) September 15, 2021
As you can see in the statement from the tweet above, the developer states that the delay is due to the issues of creating a massive title during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a title has been pushed back due to the worldwide effects of the pandemic which was seen throughout all of 2020 and most of 2021. Thankfully, and as we already mentioned, this delay is only 4 weeks apart from the original release date. In similar situations, some titles have had their launches delayed for several months, or worse yet, lose their release date altogether.
In the same statement, the developer also mentioned that the forthcoming Open Beta will see some more details later this month. This is a great sign, as those who wish to partake in this Open Beta will have an excellent chance to see what DICE and company have in store for Battlefield 2042, well before the new launch date. The apparent scope and size of the development team have been well documented since the title was revealed, and has also been getting some support from other EA studios to assist them with the development and post-launch content.
Battlefield 2042 will officially launch this year on November 19 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.


text:
Lockheed Martin Boosts 2020 Guidance
Lockheed Martin forecast another year of record sales following booming demand in the U.S. and overseas for its combat jets, missiles and classified satellites.
United Technologies Reports Higher Profit, Sales
The industrial conglomerate posted higher-than-expected sales and adjusted earnings in the latest quarter, but warned that halted production of the Boeing Co. 737 MAX could hurt results in its Collins Aerospace business.
BorgWarner to Buy Delphi Technologies in $3.3 Billion Deal
In a deal that will combine two major auto-parts makers, BorgWarner is buying Delphi Technologies in an all-stock transaction that values Delphi at about $3.3 billion.
McDonald's Looks to Step Up Chicken Offerings at Breakfast
McDonald's will pilot breakfast chicken sandwiches, a move that comes as the fast-food chain faces intense competition at the start of the day and looks to upgrade offerings for a key protein.
Pfizer Sales Fall on Loss of Drug Exclusivity
The drugmaker reported lower quarterly sales as it lost U.S. market exclusivity for its blockbuster pain drug Lyrica in 2019
3M to Cut 1,500 Jobs, Posts Lower Profit
The manufacturing conglomerate, which reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit, said it would eliminate 1,500 jobs as part of a broad restructuring effort.
Harley-Davidson Reports Weaker Motorcycle Sales In U.S.
The motorcycle maker's retail-level sales fell in the fourth quarter amid lower demand in the U.S., but earnings increased.
U.K. Allows Huawei to Build Parts of 5G Network
Huawei was given the green light to build part of Britain's next-generation 5G cellular network, with the U.K. government dismissing calls from the U.S. to boycott the Chinese telecom-equipment vendor over security fears.
Airbus Reaches Deal to End Long-Running Global Corruption Probe
The European plane maker has reached a preliminary agreement with fraud agencies in the U.S., U.K. and France over their probe into bribery and corruption, lifting a reputational and legal cloud that has hung over the company for years.
Xerox Reports Rise in Net Income, Lower Sales
The copier maker reported fourth-quarter earnings of $818 million, or $3.61 a share, compared with $137 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago. Xerox is pursuing HP with a $33 billion unsolicited takeover offer.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2020 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.


text:
UK companies invited to showcase excellence in manufacturing via the first UK Industrial Excellence Award competition, backed by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School
A prestigious award previously won by companies like BMW, Siemens and Airbus is now open to UK firms who want to be recognised for their excellence in manufacturing and service processing.
The Industrial Excellence Awards (IEA) have benchmarked European manufacturing competitiveness since 1995, with previous winners including some of the most stellar names in European manufacturing.
Now the awards have found a UK partner in Cambridge Judge Business School and have arrived on these shores to seek out the ‘best of British’ industry.
The UK IEAs are championed by Cambridge Judge Dean, Christoph Loch, who was closely involved with them during his time as Professor of Technology Management at French business school, INSEAD (Sep 2006-Aug 2009). Professor Loch said:
We are delighted to be welcoming the Industrial Excellence Awards to the UK. They have become the pinnacle of manufacturing and service excellence in Europe, but until now, UK companies have not had the chance to show off their expertise by competing for an IEA. UK manufacturing is among the best in the world and I am looking forward to learning more about the high calibre contestants from around the UK who will compete for the first UK IEAs.
The awards are open to exemplary factories and administrative service centres that have succeeded in creating value, growth and jobs in the UK through excellence in management, total productivity, innovation in products, services and processes, as well as supply chain partnerships.
Entrants also need to be able to demonstrate the consistent implementation of their corporate strategy in all processes and with the involvement of all employees.
Site visits will give judges the chance to see processes in action and speak to employees. All participating plants and business units will receive qualitative benchmarking feedback on their business model. The UK winner, along with the other national winners, will then go on to compete for the top European prize.
Open for entries now, the UK IEA’s 2014 timeline is:
31 April | The submission deadline for applications
May | Finalists are selected and notified
May-June | Site visits to the finalists conducted by an international team of academics from the partner universities
Early July | The announcement and award of the UK champions, along with the other national champions. Benchmarking feedback provided to all entrants.
September/October | European conference and award ceremony. During the annual European Industrial Excellence Awards conference, hosted by German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, the national champions each provide a 30-minute presentation to tell their own story of industrial excellence and receive their award as national IEA champion. The overall European champion is announced.
The UK lead on the IEAs is Dr Jane Davies, University Lecturer in Operations Management at Cambridge Judge Business School. Dr Davies researches and teaches on operations strategy and the value of operational excellence. She said:
The IEAs for the first time offer UK companies the opportunity to be recognised for the effort and ingenuity that they demonstrate in their manufacturing and service processes every day. We have many superb, world-class businesses achieving excellence in their strategy, processes and people and these awards will offer the perfect platform to showcase this. Entrants have the chance to compete for the UK and European titles, with all competitors receiving high quality feedback from very experienced academics. I urge UK companies to apply and showcase their world class capabilities.


text:
Maybe It Doesn't Cost a Lot to Eat Healthier After All!
I’m sure a lot of you will have heard somebody complain that ‘healthy food is too expensive’ and this is the mantra they stick with as they load their shopping basket up with junk food such as ready meals. Some say they would happily eat more fruit and vegetables if the prices weren’t ‘so expensive’. However, is this mind-set true? Or, are they just incorrect assumptions by those who simply choose convenience over their health? According to a new report, and on the contrary to popular belief, healthy and nutritious food is on the whole, actually cheaper than junk food. A report released by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) looked at data extracted from two leading supermarkets (Tesco and Asda) for price comparisons of 78 common food and drink products, and discovered that the healthier options are generally cheaper than less healthy alternatives. When compared by edible weight, the cheapest ready meals, pizzas, burgers and breakfast cereals cost over £2 per kilogram, but typical fruit and vegetables cost less than that amount, the study found. This method was used as opposed to the ‘flawed’ cost-per-calorie methodology. The IEA reported that the £1 cost of a cheeseburger could get you a kilo of sweet potatoes, two kilos of carrots, two and a half kilos of pasta, 10 apples or seven bananas, adding that the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day could cost as little as 30p. ‘Ultimately price is not the main driver of unhealthy food consumption’, the reported stated, which would seem to suggest that consumers were willing to fork out more for taste and convenience. The IEA added the ‘popular belief’ of obesity and poor nutrition being primarily driven by economic deprivation was ‘untenable’, and that the use of taxes and subsidies to incentivise better nutrition was not likely to be a success. The report highlighted the following:
- Obesity has increased rapidly at a time when incomes have risen and food prices have fallen.
- Obesity rates are higher in rich countries than in poor countries.
- People fail to buy more fruit and vegetables when they become richer.
- There is a high rate of obesity among people on middle and high incomes.
- The correlation between deprivation and obesity is only seen among women.
- Obesity rates among men are highest among middle income earners.


text:
- POSTED: 14 Aug 2014 17:40
- UPDATED: 14 Aug 2014 17:41
Eurozone inflation has "more or less" reached a trough and will start moving higher again in the next few years, a survey by the European Central Bank forecast on Thursday (Aug 14).
FRANKFURT: Eurozone inflation has "more or less" reached a trough and will start moving higher again in the next few years, a survey by the European Central Bank forecast on Thursday (Aug 14). There is widespread concern that the single currency area could be on the brink of deflation, but the ECB's regular quarterly survey of professional forecasters suggested such fears are unwarranted.
Inflation in the 18-country eurozone slowed to a meagre 0.4 per cent in July, the lowest level since late 2009 and way off the ECB's target of just under 2.0 per cent.
Declining inflation is a concern because it carries the risk of outright falling prices, known as deflation, which deters consumers from spending in the belief they can wait and buy more cheaply later. If that happens, demand suffers and companies put off investment, hurting employment and so setting off a vicious circle which can drag down the whole economy.
But its latest survey, the ECB found that "a number of respondents argued that the trough of inflation has more or less been reached". The forecasters expect inflation "to be on an upward sloping path over the next few years as a result of the recovery in real economic activity and an unwinding of the downward impact of previous oil, food and exchange rate developments," the ECB wrote.
"In addition, stable inflation expectations and wage growth, although moderate, are considered to provide a floor to inflation." In concrete terms, the forecasters predicted that area-wide inflation will reach an annual average 0.7 per cent this year and then pick up to 1.2 per cent in 2015 and 1.5 per cent in 2016, the ECB said.
The new forecasts mark a downward revision from previous predictions. At the time of its last SPF survey in May, forecasters had been pencilling in inflation of 0.9 per cent for this year and 1.3 per cent next year.
Over the longer term, the rate of inflation could reach 1.9 per cent, the survey found. The SPF survey usually provides an indication of where the ECB's own forecasts - scheduled for release in September - are headed.
Turning to the growth outlook, the SPF survey predicted that area-wide gross domestic product (GDP) would return to growth of 1.0 per cent in 2014 and 1.5 per cent in 2015 after contracting last year. Momentum would pick up to growth of 1.7 per cent in 2016 and 1.8 per cent in the longer term, the ECB survey found.
The new prognoses largely confirm previous forecasts and "imply a gradual strengthening of economic activity in the years ahead," the ECB wrote. Second-quarter GDP data suggest, however, that recovery in the single currency area may have stalled in the period from April to June.


text:
Toys for Bob, the developers responsible for Crash 4: It’s About Time, has revealed that they’re development efforts are now focused on a different franchise.
In a post made to Twitter by the developer on Apr. 29, it was revealed that the studio is now supporting development for Call of Duty: Warzone’s third season of content.
The full scope of the development support they’ll provide is currently unknown. Likewise, it is unknown how this will affect the development of future the Crash Bandicoot series, though no sequel to Crash 4 is known to be or have been in development.
The news comes a few months after the release of Crash Bandicoot 4, a direct sequel to the third game in the series and the first proper sequel to release on the eighth generation of consoles. It was released on a wide swath of platforms as well, including every eighth generation console, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and PC.
The game received generally positive reviews from critics and fans alike, and it boasted promising sales figures in its first few weeks on the market.
The move also mirrors changes made with the focus of other studios owned by Activision Blizzard. Vicarious Visions, the developers behind the recent Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 1+2 remake, recently refocused their development resources toward the Diablo 2 Remake after collaborating with Blizzard’s core developers on the project for some time.
For more on all things Toys for Bob and the projects they’ve worked on, consider checking out our full review of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which they also developed and which also garnered acclaim across the board.


text:
Eight months ago, the state’s sales exceeded $2 billion. During the 4/20 holiday this year, the total profit was $5,986,186 in a single day.
Adult-use marijuana sales in Massachusetts have officially surpassed $3 billion, according to the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
According to the agency, the market has reached $3,001,846,490 in sales of recreational cannabis since its legalization in December 2016. There are reported 216 cannabis retailers and 11 delivery businesses.
The Cannabis Control Commission has shown steady growth in marijuana sales, highlighting that eight months ago the state’s sales exceeded $2 billion. During the 4/20 holiday this year, the total profit was $5,986,186 in one day.
These skyrocketing sales in the cannabis market go along with general success in sales in different states. It is important to take into consideration that states with legal marijuana have collectively generated more than $3.7 billion in tax revenue, in comparison with last year.
In Arizona and Michigan, legal cannabis sales earned nearly $200 million in profit. On the other hand, Illinois is recovering from a fall in sales at the beginning of the year by reaching $132 million throughout April. Colorado has shown a downward in sales in comparison to last year.
“I’m proud our staff continues to work diligently to ensure applicants move through our licensing process efficiently,” said the director of the Cannabis Control Commission, Shawn Collins. “Marijuana establishments operate within a safe, accessible, and effective regulated market, and our work to ensure equity in the industry and the agency remains front and center.”


text:
Reebok unveils Spring/Summer collection
Dubai, January 8, 2014
Leading athletic brand Reebok has unveiled its Spring/Summer 2014 collection with a series of bold imagery.
Shot by internationally renowned sports and fashion photographer and director, Carlos Serrao, the lookbook images are an exciting direction for Reebok as the concept focuses on the relationship between the movement of the body and the Reebok footwear and apparel - each shot highlights this relationship in detail.
The imagery has used Reebok’s athletes to bring the products to life, they are shot as they each move through their respective fitness disciplines.
Yan Martin, VP of Global Brand Marketing, said: “We understand that the human body was made to move, and we believe that people need to continuously be challenged to fulfill their potential. We’re committed to enabling people to move the way their body was meant to – helping them get the most out of life.
“Fitness in Motion amazingly captures the potential of human movement and is the perfect way to showcase our bold Spring/Summer 2014 collection.”
The collection will be available in Reebok stores and leading sports stores across the Middle East region starting February. - TradeArabia News Service


text:
For all its political and historical significance, my inauguration highlight was something else entirely.
Michelle Obama’s exquisite burgundy ensemble accessorised expertly with a statement belt and leather gloves stole the show completely.
I’ve always been captivated by the style choices of the world’s most powerful women and the subtle artistry in selecting clothes for high pressured and historic moments.
There’s so much at stake; one wrong move could offend millions but get it right and your clothes could serve as a perfect extension of your political message.
Yet, so often I’ve found myself chastised by others for an ‘anti-feminist’ fixation on fashion. I’ve been told that to place such significance on the styling of women in power is to confine them to the very stereotypes they wish to escape. An old-fashioned approach that judges women based on appearance instead of substance.
This viewpoint is of course nothing new and it maintains that it’s sexist to pay any attention to what women in power wear.
Nobody is denying that these women amount to more than their fashion choices, but that shouldn’t mean we ignore the significance of their clothing. While some assert that we should relegate fashion coverage in the name of focusing on politics, it seems evident to me that the fashion is the politics.
Nowhere is this more evident than at the inauguration earlier this week.
From the Biden granddaughters to Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Dr Jill Biden and even Lady Gaga, the ceremony was awash with fashion forward monochrome magic, each ensemble seemingly more striking than the last.
But for some, there were strong statements to be made.
Both Vice President Harris and former First Lady Michelle Obama chose Black designers to dress them – a coincidence? Hardly. The VP’s stepdaughter Ella Emhoff also chose a nod to her cultural heritage enlisting Jewish designer Batsheva to craft her outfit for the occasion.
Choosing to platform artists from minority backgrounds in this way is a powerful declaration of pride in a part of their identity that is so often marginalised, giving countless others like them the confidence to be proud too.
‘It also offers an invaluable stamp of legitimacy’ says Annabelle Baiyewu whose sustainable African brand WAA fashion, was recently worn by a notable journalist during an interview with Vogue Editor-In-Chief Edward Enninful. ‘When someone like that wears your designs, people recognise you as a ‘real’ business’ she added.
Recognising the effect fashion choices can have is to understand the variety of ways one can express themselves politically, and the subtle intelligence that goes into making these decisions.
In dismissing fashion as trivial we minimise the immense skill, symbolism, and economic impact of the fashion industry, while also ignoring the conscious decisions made by each woman to showcase her politics and draw attention to important issues.
In a similar way, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s gold hoops and red lip at her swearing in ceremony were a defiant stand against harmful stereotypes of Latina women, which she acknowledged by stating ‘Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a congresswoman.’
Wearing items consistently used to discredit and demean people of colour in a building and during a ceremony that is the embodiment of the American establishment could not be more political in its nature.
Her actions resulted in an immediate and extensive pay-off for Latina women around the world in a way that perhaps not even her policies are capable of.
From the Bronx to North London, Latina women were emboldened to carry their culture with pride. Clothing possesses a unique ability to change the narrative instantaneously and for women in power, harnessing that can often be just as important as the work they do.
Political power dressing, when done correctly, can have wide reaching and a sometimes life-changing impact.
For example, The Duchess of Sussex notoriously uses ‘The Meghan Effect’ to platform causes important to her.
Outland, a brand that supports victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia, reported more than a 2000% increase in global sales after she wore jeans designed by them at a royal engagement.
The politics of fashion should never be underestimated, nor should the ability of powerful women to use it to their advantage.
With a simple ring, inauguration laureate Amanda Gorman invoked a powerful reminder of America’s ongoing racial struggle. The caged bird ring, gifted to her by Oprah, paid homage to Maya Angelou – an icon of the civil rights movement.
In referencing Angelou, Gorman sent an important message that her presence, as a young Black woman, was only made possible by those who fought before her. This is yet another example of fashion’s deeper significance and its power to emote where words fail.
Far from distracting from a woman’s actions, her clothes are so often a crucial part of them providing globally recognised cultural symbols in a way that little else can.
So no, coverage of what a female politician wears isn’t automatically sexist and blindly branding it so is lazy.
Taking an interest in powerful women’s clothing doesn’t make you shallow or less of a feminist, in fact it’s very likely they could be using it to tell you something.
Tiwa Adebayo writes about race, fashion and sport and you can follow her on Instagram here.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing email@example.com.
Share your views in the comments below.
Sign Up for News Updates
Get your need-to-know latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
Not convinced? Find out more »


text:
Today Infinity Ward blew the curtain off the multiplayer mode for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the reboot heading to consoles and the PC this fall. They showed off the mode in a livestream captured on Twitch this morning (might as well watch it — it’s not like you’re gonna watch Ninja). But they revealed more than that….they told us when the mode will first become playable outside the studio.
The beta sessions are on their way! The first one will be a Playstation 4 exclusive, running from September 12 through September 16. The first two days will be reserved for those with preorders, while the final three will be open to all.
The second beta test is meant to demo the crossplay, and will be functional across Playstation 4, XBox One and the PC. It begins September 19, and once again, the first two days are just for people who already gave Activision money (wonder why that is). The open crossplay beta begins September 21, and the whole thing wraps up September 23.
“Our goal with Modern Warfare is to bring all gamers together from day one to play together,” said Patrick Kelly, creative director and co-studio head at Infinity Ward, in a press release. “We’re doing away with the season pass; we’re delivering a mix of free maps, a ton of content following launch, and we’re developing the game for crossplay. We’re live-testing now, and fans will get to try for themselves next month in the Beta. This is a new day for Call of Duty multiplayer, and today is just the start — we have many more exciting reveals coming for fans that we can’t wait to share.”
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, multiplayer and all, premieres on consoles and PC October 25.


text:
Respawn's Titanfall was one of the highlights of Xbox One's early life, ultimately reaching 8 million unique players by the end of 2014. The game likely would have fared even better on multiple consoles, and indeed Respawn has already confirmed that the game's sequel will be multiplatform. In the meantime, publisher EA is aiming to expand Titanfall's appeal across the globe, announcing a partnership tonight with free-to-play specialist Nexon to bring an online PC version to Asia.
"With its pilot vs. titan gameplay, among other innovations, Titanfall is a uniquely intense game experience. We look forward to working with the talented teams at Respawn and EA and leveraging Nexon's free-to-play expertise to deliver a new and engaging online game based on Titanfall to the Asian market," said Owen Mahoney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexon.
This newest deal with EA is the third such publishing arrangement, building on the previous successful collaboration that brought FIFA Online 3 (currently the top online sports game in Korea) to Asia. It wasn't made immediately clear which territories are included in the deal or who is leading the redesign of Titanfall as it is adapted to free-to-play, but GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Nexon to inquire.
Update: In terms of development a spokesperson told us, "Nexon GT, one of our subsidiaries, is in charge of development but will be collaborating with Respawn Entertainment." The rep also clarified that Asia means Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).


text:
April 12th 2021 should feel like any other day, yet there is a sense of hope in the air. As you walk through London, safely distanced outdoor seating has been laid out, beautifully decorated with fairy lights and bunting. Shop doorways are covered in balloon arches, “welcome back” and “we are open” notices are on full display. For those walking to the office this morning, it was clear to see that retailers and the hospitality industry are looking forward to welcoming back customers from today.
However, we might find that the local haunt, coffee quick-stop or lunchtime shopping spree looks very different from times before. It is important we recognise the deep impact Covid-19 restrictions have had on our high-street. An article on the BBC website this morning highlighted that if you walk down Oxford Street, 28 out of 212 shops (which is just over 13%) are now either boarded up or the occupants of the building have left for good. The most noticeable casualty for the famous stretch of road is Topshop which many would view along with Selfridges as being at the heart of the street.
The transition of many retail companies to the digital e-commerce space has kept retail stores and businesses alive, with the closure of physical stores being a symptom of the mass cost-cutting needed to survive. This, combined with the very real impact of Covid shutting many businesses down has lead to a high-street littered with boarded windows, closed signs and empty stores. The question here is, will the high-street ever be the same again and how can we save it?
A study carried out by McKinsey and Partners details that the UK is the most optimistic about economic recovery compared to the rest of Europe, with 47% of consumers willing to ‘reward’ themselves this year. Yet with one in every two stipulating they will continue to carry on their online habits, could this mean the high-street will continue to suffer? We believe it is too early to tell. As businesses flexibly come back into the office and pubs, gyms, and restaurants open (albeit outside) there might be an increase in opportunistic and impulse buying- a lunchtime pick-me-up. A digital and physical blend of shopping experience might take precedent with flagship stores remaining for an ‘extra-special’ shopping experience, following the likes of H&M and Boots. It will be interesting to see the impact of the next easing of restrictions on the 17th May when the outside is welcomed in.
One other factor involved in the fate of our high-streets is the safety factor. Whilst we are led by government guidelines, confidence and trust need to be built up once again. According to the Retail Gazette, following the vaccination roll-out consumer confidence in economic recovery has leapt up an unprecedented amount, but there is still a sense of caution when leaving the house. Retailers might want to look at the way in which they present their re-opening to the public, is an emphasis on safety more important than the price or product a business sells? As Selfridges put it…”let’s change the way we shop!”
One potential opportunity that has arisen from the virus is the increased potential of M&A activity. We saw the acquisition of Topshop by ASOS and Debenhams by Boohoo- could this mean more collaborations are on the way? The steady rise in the need for technology lawyers with experience in privacy, SaaS and AdTech experience within the retail sphere highlights the increase in technological activity and e-commerce movement.
On top of this, the continued lessening of property has demanded a need for interim lawyers to working across the sale and disposal of commercial property- combined with the re-negotiation of existing property contracts.
One thing is for certain, there is an overwhelming sense of recovery and hope in the air today. Whilst we might be a long way off, and the certainty of our high-street is not stable, for the first time in a long time the retail space does appear to be healing.
Read the article and comment on LinkedIn


text:
The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market once again defied the COVID-19 pandemic and grew 20% in revenue terms to $5.8 billion in quarter two (Q2) of 2020, according to Strategy Analytics’ Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service report.
The research group says that Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Apple, MediaTek, and Samsung LSI captured the top-five revenue share spots in the global smartphone applications processor (AP) market in the quarter. Qualcomm maintained its lead of the smartphone AP market with a 32% revenue share, followed by HiSilicon with 22% and Apple with 19%.
Strategy Analytics estimates that smartphone AP shipments declined 16 percent year-on-year in Q2 2020, driven by COVID-19-led weakness. However, increased mix of higher-priced 5G APs more than offset this weakness and helped the AP market to register 20 percent year-on-year revenue growth.
Smartphone APs with on-device artificial intelligence (AI) registered strong growth even as the total market declined and accounted for 70 percent of total smartphone APs shipped in Q2 2020, up from 48 percent in Q2 2019. Top-selling smartphone AI APs include Apple A13 Bionic, Qualcomm Snapdragon 765/G and HiSilicon Kirin 990.
Stand-alone AP shipments grew 36 percent as vendors such as Qualcomm and Samsung used stand-alone AP approach to address the flagship 5G market in 2020.


text:
China Times: Specter of price McCarthyism overshadowing Taiwan
A nationwide campaign against whoever hikes consumer prices is being carried out in Taiwan. Almost all government agencies and sectors of society are hounding shop owners who dare to raise the prices of their products and services.
Access to articles dating back more than six months is not available free of charge. You can gain access by becoming a paid Focus Taiwan member.
※This website's content, including but not limited to text, images and video, cannot be reproduced, retransmitted or publicly broadcast without the authorization of CNA.


text:
The boss of Levi should know a thing or two about jeans - and he's revealed that you should never wash them.
Levi's CEO Chip Bergh is insistent that people should never machine wash their jeans to prevent wearing down the material - reports the Manchester Evening News.
He first made headlines back in 2014, when he admitted he'd never washed his ten-year-old jeans.
And now he's reaffirmed his advice while speaking to America's CNN.
He said: "If you talk to real denim aficionados , they will all agree you should never put your jeans in the wash.
"I spot clean my jeans when they need to be washed. Worst case, I hand wash my jeans. And I do it myself. I mean I love my jeans, and I take good care of them."
But understandably lots of us are worried about dirt and germs, but Kelly Love, co-founder and CEO of Branch Basics, a brand that makes non-toxic cleaning products, says it won't do people any harm.
She said: "Of course it depends on where you’re wearing your jeans and what’s getting on them, but normal wear is not going to pose a health threat and doesn’t warrant fear of grossness.
"At least not from the microbes picked up from your skin and being out and about town."
And she said letting jeans soak up the sun can be a good method for getting them clean.
She continued: “Sunning outside in the hot sun for several days - ideally until there is no odour - is actually better than washing for breaking down the volatile organic compounds.
“Sunning is also better for the environment, conserves water and energy, and, in fact, a good practice for all clothes because it reduces the number of washings required to remove chemical residues.”
Other advice is to put jeans in a freezer is apparently not just an old wive's tale either.
Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of The Germ Files, says it gets rid of microbes but takes more than one round of freezing and thawing.
“It will work, but you need water and it has to be below -18 degrees celsius," he told Well and Good .
"If you do that, then there’s a good chance you’re going to kill off 90 per cent of the bugs, which means about 10 percent are going to survive."


text:
Ranveer Singh Surpasses Virat Kohli As The Most Valued Celebrity
Virat Kohli became the first cricketer to reach 50 million followers on social media and one of the most followed athletes in the world especially on social media with more than 310 million followers and a net worth of around $127 million.
Well, the reports now have been circulating claiming that Ranveer Singh emerged as the most valued celebrity of 2022 with a brand value of $181.7 million, ending cricketer Virat Kohli’s reign of five years in the top spot.
According to the reports, Virat Kohli has secured the second rank with a brand value of $176.9 million and Akshay Kumar held steady in third position with a brand value of $153.6 million.
In the league, Alia Bhatt retained the fourth spot and the title of the most valued female celebrity with a valuation of $102.9 million. Deepika Padukone rejoined the league of the top five most valued celebs, with a brand valuation of $82.9 million.
Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan were also among the top ten most valued celebs. The overall brand value of the top 25 celebrities in 2022 is estimated at $1.6 billion, jumping by 29.1 per cent over that in 2021.
With South Indian movies garnering a pan-India viewership, for the first time South Indian star and Pushpa fame Allu Arjun has a brand value of $31.4 million and Rashmika Mandanna ($25.3 million), marked their entry among India’s top 25 most valued celebrities.
In sports, Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra debuted at No. 23 ranking, along with Commonwealth gold medalist PV Sindhu (each valued at $26.5 million). Sachin Tendulkar ($73.6 million) entered the top-10 club in the eighth spot, while MS Dhoni ($80.3 million) was ranked in the sixth position.
Isn’t this amazing? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below:


text:
Ruffian Games Rebranded To Rockstar Dundee
Rockstar Games has put its own weight into purchasing a studio. While not as massive as Microsoft and Zenimax, this move is almost assuredly to create more content for Grand Theft Auto Online. As revealed in the Companies House listing, earlier this week, Ruffian Games put forward a request to be rebranded to Rockstar Dundee.
Ruffian Games is far from a stranger to Rockstar. Just last year, the studio announced it was hiring engineers for an undisclosed game in the works for the GTA developer.
Some hope that Ruffian will be used as a means to go down different avenues, such as remasters and revivals of classics like Red Dead Redemption or Bully. It's more likely, though, to be used as a way to ramp up production as the next-gen fastly approaches next month.
Before the purchase, the studio has most recently worked on The Master Chief Collection for Microsoft back in 2014 and Crackdown 3 just last year.
What do you think? What do you want to see Rockstar Dundee make? Tell us below!