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Cadbury has upped its promotional spend a whopping 102% since last month as the festive push gets well and truly underway. James Ball reports
The Christmas season seems to start earlier every year. But some brands have been quicker than others to capitalise on the fact that their products were on shelf before Hallowe'en was over.
Of those who have got their festive promotional campaigns well and truly under way over the past month, Cadbury stands head and shoulders above the rest. It has ramped up the number of its featured space deals by a massive 102% since last month taking its total to more than twice that of nearest rival Nestlé [Assosia 4w/e 20 November].
The uplift is more remarkable still given that the confectionery giant had already stepped on the promotional gas ahead of Hallowe'en, said Assosia MD Kay Staniland.
Nestlé, the second-largest promoter this month, was also pushing its Christmas ranges, but increased its deals just 3.1% month-on-month, while Mars jumped from ninth place to fifth as it upped its deals 50% to 117.
Despite this concerted push in confectionery, the beer, wines and spirits category retained the promotional top spot, as once again supermarkets upped their drinks deals in a bid to secure bumper Christmas sales.
Drinks deals made up 26.1% of all featured promotions this month perhaps not surprisingly, as AB InBev UK president Stuart MacFarlane this week told The Grocer two thirds of beer category sales were made on promotion.
Confectionery and impulse lagged just behind with 25.1% of deals, meaning that between them the top two promoting categories made up more than half of all supermarket featured space deals news not likely to be welcomed by healthy-eating campaigners, especially as fresh produce and fresh meat offers collectively made up fewer than 1% of all this month's featured space deals.
In most categories, there has been a slight fall in promotional activity this month as retailers prepare to refocus their featured space on Christmas. Four of the top 10 promoters cut deals month-on-month, and the total number of deals has fallen slightly since October though it was more than 20% up year-on-year.
Supermarkets appear braced for a budget Christmas, as money-off deals return to a level of dominance not seen since the early days of the price war. Money-off deals made up 42% of all promotions, up from 29% last month. Half-price deals fell from 17% of the total to just 13%, while bogofs dropped to under 9% of all deals.


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Kohl’s is upping its omnichannel game.
The department store chain on Monday said that it had partnered with Silicon Valley start-up Deliv to expand same-day delivery to customers in six more markets starting this fall, including Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Northern New Jersey and Brooklyn/Queens. It has been piloting the program in San Francisco, the Bay Area and Chicago.
“Fulfilling shipments from local stores is core to omnichannel and the future of retail. We’re excited to partner with Kohl’s as a part of their broader omnichannel strategy,” Daphne Carmeli, founder and CEO of Deliv, said in a statement.
So, how does it work? Customers in the participating markets can place orders on Kohls.com or via the retailer’s mobile app, select the same-day delivery option and the item will be delivered later that day.
It’s all part of Kohl’s efforts to deliver a seamless experience by turning its physical locations into fulfillment centers. Late last month, the retailer announced several new digital tools, including an omnichannel shopping bag (one virtual cart accessible across all devices when customers log into their Kohl’s account) and the option to pick up online orders in-store.
“With each evolution, we aim to elevate our offerings for an easy, inspiring shopping experience,” said Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s chairman, chief executive officer and president.
Deliv, which crowdsources its drivers for last-mile distribution, also handles same-day delivery for Macy’s, which recently expanded the service from eight markets to 17, including Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas. The reason: “We learned that our customers appreciate the additional option of having their purchase brought to their home or office in a matter of hours,” said RB Harrison, chief omnichannel officer at Macy’s Inc.
With 1,164 stores in 49 states, Kohl’s is now hoping it can get leg up on the competition (namely, Amazon) by turning some of its brick-and-mortar locations into local distribution hubs—and it needs all the help it can get.
The retailer reported almost no growth in same-store sales in the most recent quarter, posting a 44 percent slump in net income from $232 million to $130 million.

domain: news


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“This age is so cool,” the season 22 Bachelor, 38, told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, May 18, while promoting his wife’s upcoming clothing line. “She’s learning something new every day, and she’s starting to pick up on little things and say words here and there. She’s so close to walking on her own, and every day is something fun and new and exciting.”
The race car driver added, “I feel like this year has flown by. On one hand, it feels like it’s been a long time, but the next, it’s gone by like that.”
The Netherlands native went on to tell Us that the 11-month-old repeats “everything” her parents say.
Burnham, 28, chimed in, “She still hasn’t said mama, which is disappointing, but she says, dada, she says turtle. She tries to say birdie. … I swear, she’s going to be two before she says mama.”
The Virginia native gave birth to their baby girl on May 29, 2019 and gets “emotional” think about how fast her first year has flown by. “I just sit back and watch her a lot,” Burnham said. “I’m trying to take in all the moments. It’s really sweet.”
When it comes to celebrating Alessi’s birthday, the Bachelor Nation members are planning on “a really cute set-up in the backyard with balloons, a ‘Happy Birthday, Alessi’ sign and a little chair for her to have a cake smash.”
The fashion designer added of the upcoming festivities: “We’ll probably swim and have her grandparents over, maybe some of our friends.”
The Bachelorette alum has already purchased a present for his daughter. “I got her a remote control Range Rover that I can steer,” Luyendyk Jr. revealed. “She sits in it, and I can steer it for her.”
Later this summer, the couple will be celebrating the launch of Burnham’s clothing line. “It’s based around the girl on the go, travel-inspired stuff that you can wear whether you’re traveling, going to work, school, brunch, that kind of stuff,” she told Us of the pieces, out in August.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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Dallas, TX – December 4, 2012 -- Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), a publicly traded solar energy holding company executing a unique roll-up strategy to create the world's first distributed solar utility, today announced the release of "Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Organic Food Supply." Authored by James W. Keyes, chairman, Key Development LLC, R. Michael Martin, executive vice president, Business Development, PSI, and Brett T. Gage, research assistant, the paper examines how alternative energy resources, such as photovoltaic (PV) solar, can enhance organic and local food production.
"In recent years, solar has become increasingly cost effective," says Keyes, advisor to Principal Solar. "Organic certification requires that foods be produced without genetic modification, synthetic hormones, unsustainable practices, or use of certain substances."
He adds that, of the various renewable energy alternatives available to fuel organic agriculture, PV solar systems are the most economical on the farm.
About Principal Solar
Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), is a publicly traded solar energy holding company executing a unique roll-up strategy to create the world's first distributed solar utility. PSI concentrates its resources on the acquisition, finance, development and management of solar power companies. The Principal Solar Institute, an educational organization created by Principal Solar, Inc., is dedicated to spreading solar knowledge to the critical stakeholders in the ongoing energy debate. Visit www.PrincipalSolar.com.


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by Meg Walburn Viviano
Chesapeake Bay Magazine
September 19, 2017
Just off the dock of a beautiful Severn River home, a sizable oyster reef is taking shape. Thousands of oysters are thriving in a growing habitat made of recycled shells and concrete reef balls. The reef has grown so high that you can see the oysters from the water’s surface. Fish jump steadily out of the water nearby, showing off the rich habitat the reef is providing to other river life.
This successful piece of conservation is not the work of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Oyster Recovery Partnership, or any other group of expert environmentalists. No, the reef has been built entirely by one man—a Severna Park businessman who decided that growing oysters and cleaning the Severn would be a cool thing to do.
Rick Levin has lived on the same Severn River cove for decades, but it was just in the past two years that he became interested in oysters. Levin’s wife, Chris, tells me they attended a charity gala at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and witnessed a demonstration of oysters cleaning a murky tank, using their natural filters to make the tank crystal clear in just a few hours.
Levin thought to himself, ” ‘If oysters can do that, what could they do in my backyard, if I had a whole bunch of them?’ “
Starting from scratch, Levin began with online research. He consulted oyster farmers, and eventually connected with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point lab, where the Oyster Hatchery produces larvae for use in research and restoration. Levin discovered that the Horn Point lab would sell him oyster “seed,” or larvae, so he could grow his own oysters right from the beginning.
Levin’s dockside system of upwellers is impressive, but he insists almost all of the materials he uses can be found at places like Home Depot. He grows the larvae into baby oysters, or spat, in plastic tanks called “setting tanks.” Some attach to concrete reef balls, which become a sort of oyster motel, and will later be dropped on the reef. The rest of the spat graduate from the setting tanks to “silos” with screens at the bottom, which have water constantly circulating through them.
Other spat are attached to old, empty oyster shells where they can grow into juvenile oysters. I asked Levin where he gets the recycled shells: he says the folks at Arundel Seafood in Pasadena save them for him, and he shuttles the shells back home in his BMW. The smell in the car, says his wife, leaves something to be desired.
After a few months of growing in the tanks on the dock, Levin takes his baby oysters over to the reef in his dinghy and releases them into “the wild.” Then he starts all over again.
What makes Levin’s undertaking even more interesting is his background. He started his career with a chain of hip-hop-inspired clothing stores, Downtown Locker Room. You may have seen them in various malls as DTLR. He was a name in the Baltimore hip-hop scene, and even promoted boxer Hasim Rahman, who went on to become a two-time world champion.
Now, Levin owns Pasadena Boatworks, a marine center that sells Bulls Bay, among other boats. When I asked him how he went from hip-hop retail to boat sales to oyster farming, I couldn’t quite get a straight answer.
“I have a wide range of interests,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye.
However his path brought him to oyster growing, Levin’s passion is clear. “I just don’t know of another food that does so much good for the environment,” he says.
Wife Chris estimates Rick spends between four and five hours a day on the project. And in the spring, Levin hopes to add a fourth upweller to his system, producing even more oysters for the reef. Ultimately, he’d like to build the biggest single-producer reef on the Bay.
“I want boats to have to navigate around it!” he says, laughing.
He also wants to show other waterfront homeowners that if he can do it, so can they.


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This week we had some excitement surrounding the Transformer Prime receiving an update, Motorola DROID Bionic 2 name spotting, and more info on Google’s upcoming service, Drive. If you happened to miss any of the happenings, we have highlighted them down below:
- Asus Transformer Prime has officially received its update to build number 22.214.171.124.
- Google Drive to launch the week of April 16 and give users 5GB to play with?
- The DROID RAZR, RAZR MAXX, and Rezound to receive Ice Cream Sandwich next week?
- We published our full Transformer Prime review…finally.
- Download: XOOM WiFi update 4.0.4 Build IMM76.
- According to reports, Asus and Google will launch and sell their very own “Google-branded” tablet.
- DROID Bionic 2 spotted in Verizon and Asurion form?
- TurboTax offering free filings this weekend only for Android tablet owners.
- Turn your DROID RAZR into a RAZR MAXX for just $110!
- We had a Show Off Your Homescreens Day!
Have a great weekend, everyone!


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Transactions via online payment platforms and credit and debit cards have touched pre-COVID-19 levels in June after nearly 60 percent slump in April due to the coronavirus-led lockdown. The trajectory can largely be credited to opening up of e-commerce for non-essential goods and increased number of e-payments for utility, mobile and grocery bills.
Overall, sectors like aviation, fashion and apparel, movies and dining continued to lag, while over-the-top (OTT) entertainment services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., and education platforms led the recovery. In Tier II and III towns and cities, pharmaceuticals and consumer electronics have pushed revival.
Transactions via the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI)-run United Payment Interface (UPI) platform, mobile wallets and bank cards saw sharp V-shape recovery in June, The Economic Times reported.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that till June 28, UPI saw 1.42 billion transactions worth Rs 2.31 lakh crore – the highest single-month volume ever recorded by the platform. It is also the steepest month-on-month increase from April’s 990 million transactions worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
The coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdown “accelerated the shift to digital” Ambarish Kenghe, senior director, product, Google Pay – India’s leading UPI platform, told the paper. Google Pay said online recharges and bill payments jumped 180 percent following the lockdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.
There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.
Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
PhonePe, which Walmart now controls through its acquisition of Flipkart, also found transaction volumes comparable to pre-COVID-19 levels. “This is driven both by the fact that offline and online merchants across most parts of the country have now opened up,” Karthik Raghupathy, vice president, strategy and business development at PhonePe said.
Besides UPI and mobile wallets, Card swipes – for both private lenders and public sector banks (PSBs), particularly for online payments, have also surged, the report added.
Card-based transactions have jumped 70-80 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels, data from lenders SBI Cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and RBL Bank showed. The surge from May to June has been significantly more in credit cards compared to debit cards, it added.


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Android 2.2 Froyo can stop holding their breath. According to the networks, it's finally here, after of .users on T-Mobile and 3 who've been waiting for an update to
The update was announced on the T-Mobile forums yesterday, after a 1 December launch led to some teething problems. T-Mobile told us that some users weren't seeing the update on their phones, but, as of 24 hours ago, the update should now be available to everyone.
3 announced on Twitter that its customers with a Galaxy S would get the update on 6 December.
The update came to phones that aren't locked to a network, but people with network contracts have to wait while the operators test the software and add their own features. For example, the T-Mobile update was delayed because it had to be tweaked to and that of its new partner, Orange.
To get Froyo, you must connect your phone to your computer and use the Samsung Kies syncing software to update it. Usually, Android updates are downloaded automatically by the phone, directly from the network. But Samsung prefers to tie its phones to its quirky Kies software.
We can tell you from bitter experience that the updating process can be as flaky as fish pie, with Kies struggling to detect the phone on occasion. But keep trying -- unplug the USB cable and try another USB port, and don't forget the benefits of a restart. After all, the update is well worth it.
You'll enjoy all the benefits of Froyo, such as support for Flash in the browser. But plenty of bugs and annoyances specific to the Galaxy S have also been fixed. For example, you can now turn off the jingle that announces when a call has been connected. Also, a new cursor makes editing text a hundred times easier.
Is the pleasure of an update worth the pain of waiting for it to drop? Let us know about your update adventures in the comments section below.


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From October 1, 2022, the new minimum wage of 12 euros will take effect, after the German government had already increased it to 10.45 euros in July. The hotel and catering industry will also be affected.
According to the IFO Institute, the industry is expecting a loss of profit, which will also be triggered by a drop in demand, as the increased costs have to be passed on. To compensate for this, companies want to make fewer special payments to their employees or reduce working hours, which in turn could have a negative impact on guests.
In the hotel industry, significantly fewer establishments are affected by the increase than in the catering industry, where around 78% of employees can look forward to a pay rise.
DIANIUM COMMERCIAL, your specialist for the marketing of selected hotel properties, can also be your consultant on these topics.


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Products would take hundreds of years to downgrade.
LONDON: Floating on the murky waters of the River Thames in London, activist paddle-boarders are trying to rid the waterway of a plague of plastic waste and draw attention to the problem. As the sun rises on the Thames behind historic Kew Bridge in the west of the British capital, quacking ducks and gliding swans conjured a serene landscape. But on closer inspection all manner of plastic objects have washed up ashore, including plastic bags hanging from trees.
It is this kind of regularly sullied scene that inspired several members of paddle-board association Active360 to launch cleaning sessions of the river and canals that run through London. The founders-Paul Hyman, Louise Nolan and James Roorda-took to the water this week to inspect an island for detritus. Within half an hour, they had discovered enough discarded waste to fill a large bucket. The haul includes plastic bottles, ropes, sheeting, cups "and the most unpleasant plastic bags: dog poop bags which seem to get everywhere now," Nolan said. Many of these products would take hundreds of years to downgrade.
'1,000 Royal Albert Halls'
Nolan noted their haul was relatively modest and-depending on the tides it can be three or four times larger. For her, this small gesture for the environment is "really gratifying", but Hyman, the founder of the association, struggles with its limitations. "Cleaning it up, the danger is that we're just hiding the problem," he said. "It's upstream measures that need to happen. There's no point just cleaning up after people, you need to stop it happening in the first place."
The association tries to raise awareness about its efforts on social networks and at a festival held in spring. Their latest battle: attempting to convince coffee shops in the capital to abandon disposable cups, many of which fall into the river. Their anti-plastics campaign is slowly starting to gather momentum, aided in part by the government of Prime Minister Theresa May, who last week announced a plan to fight "one of the great environmental scourges of our time." "In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls," she said, referring to the famous London concert hall with more than 5,000 seats.
'Change in the air'
May's environmental action plan includes extending a small charge for plastic carrier bags-currently enforced at supermarkets-to all retailers in England, as well as urging them to introduce plastic-free aisles. The government will also call for evidence on changes to the tax system or charges on single-use plastic items, such as takeaway containers. However environmental advocates have criticized the proposals as too modest, in particular the pledge to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste only by the end of 2042.
The European Union wants to phase out single-use plastics, aiming to make all packaging reusable or recyclable by 2030. Corporations also appear to be responding to the growing climate of concern around plastics. On Tuesday, budget supermarket chain Iceland, which specializes in frozen food, announced it would remove all plastic packaging from its own branded product lines within five years. Coffee and convenience goods chains like Starbucks, Pret a Manger and Costa Coffee also increasingly compete in "green" proposals, offering discounts to customers who bring their own mugs and charging more for their disposable cups.
"This year there is definitely a change in the air," said Hyman, though he remains unconvinced by May's plans. "What the government announced last week was interesting but it wasn't very tangible," he said. As he plays his part in the evolving anti-plastics revolution, Hyman urged others "to think about their own lives and the plastic they use, and to think about what they don't really need to use. "Just carrying a reusable coffee cup around with you is a really good example." - AFP


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16 July 2007 – European homes and business have continued to use more electricity in recent years, despite efforts to reduce energy consumption, according to a European Union (EU) report.
Household electricity use rose by 10.8 per cent between 1999 to 2004 in line with the growth in the EU’s economy, said the report from the EU’s Joint Research Centre. Industrial consumption increased by 9.5 per cent and electricity use in the service sector by 15 per cent, the report said.
It blamed the increase in household consumption on more sales of household electronic products from dishwashers and air conditioning units to televisions and computers.
However, the report said that new, low-energy technology in areas such as light bulbs and standby functions on computers could help get the EU on target to cut energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020.
It also foresees changes in consumer behaviour as a result of increased awareness of environmental problems blamed on energy use.


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RBHs is a unique concept of private-public-Panchayat partnerships initiated by the ministry of Panchayati Raj and CII. It aims to broad-base economic growth in rural India by establishing direct links between locally available resources and production of goods of international standards.
Speaking at a national conference on RBHs, organised by the CII on Wednesday, Ramesh said the government had launched three initiatives to develop RBHs, that link up with existing government schemes.
This includes linking Swarna Jayanti Sampoorna Yojna and womens self-help groups, allocating Rs 3,750 crore to the ministry of Panchayati Raj for the development of 280 districts through the Backward Region Plant Fund and developing markets for handicrafts and leather products, through India Brand Equity Fund.
As many as 50 MoUs had been signed by companies to set up RBHs, said Panchayati raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar at the conference. Of these, 27 are in Karnataka, 11 in Uttranchal, 13 in Tamil Nadu, 3 in Haryana and 1 in UP. Another 72 firms have also expressed interest. in setting up RBHs.


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52 Week Range
As of on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ∙ Minimum 15 minute delay
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Line Corp Considering Entering Cryptocurrency Business In Japan, Nothing Officially Decided
Line Is Close To Having Cryptocurrency Exchange License Issued In Japan - Bloomberg
Naver Says Its Two Units, Line Corp And Line Pay Corp, To Spend As Much As 30 Billion Yen In Japan
LINE Corporation is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the operation of LINE business portal business. Its LINE business portal segment includes communication and content service and advertising service. Communication and content service provides communication, contents and other services, such as LINE Pay, LINE FRIENDS and LINE Mobile. Advertising service provides LINE advertising and portal advertising services.
23F, JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower
Hae Jin Lee
Chairman of the Board
President, Chief Executive Officer, Representative Director
In Joon Hwang
Chief Financial Officer, Director
Yik Bin Park
Chief Technology Officer, Senior Executive Officer
Executive Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Manager of Legal Affairs Office, Manager of Compliance & Risk Management Office
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Chainalysis, a start-up specializing in countering money laundering and fraud in the digital currency space, has forged a partnership with BITBOX, a cryptocurrency exchange launched in July 2018, a top official of the U.S. company said on Thursday.
Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd said on Friday it was developing a smartphone game with messaging app operator Line Corp, as it continues to branch out into mobile gaming and diversify its revenue streams.
Japan's Line Corp said on Friday it will develop Dr. Mario World game with Nintendo Co Ltd .
Thailand fourth-largest lender Kasikornbank Pcl (KBank) said on Wednesday it formed a joint venture with Japanese mobile chat app operator Line Corp to tap into its network of users to grow personal loans.
Japan's Nikkei rose on Wednesday morning to more than a two-week high, with Line Corp extending gains on its partnership deal with Mizuho Bank and Tencent and shippers rallying on higher freight charges.
Japanese chat app operator Line Corp <3938.T> will set up a bank with Mizuho Financial Group Inc <8411.T> and also partner China's Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK> to offer mobile payment services - plans which saw its stock rise 13 percent on Tuesday.
Japanese mobile chat app operator Line Corp will tie up with Mizuho Financial Group Inc to establish a bank, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Tuesday, declining to be identified because the plan is not yet public.
Tencent Holdings Ltd and Japanese chat app operator Line Corp will tie up to offer mobile payment services for small Japanese retailers aiming to attract business from Chinese tourists, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.
Japan's Line Corp is raising around 148.1 billion yen ($1.33 billion) through convertible bonds to fund the popular chat app operator's aggressive expansion in the financial services business.
Japan's Line Corp said on Tuesday it would raise about 148.1 billion yen ($1.33 billion) by issuing convertible bonds maturing in 2023 and 2025 to invest in future technologies.
Japan's Line Corp said on Friday it will launch a cryptocurrency in September, as the company tries to build up a wide range of businesses using its popular messaging app as a platform.
Nomura Holdings Inc <8604.T> has agreed to set up an internet-focused securities brokerage with messaging app operator Line Corp <3938.T>, part of a push to leverage the app's wide user base to recruit a younger generation of clients.
* Says it and LINE Corp have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a business alliance primarily aimed at providing securities services
* Says its unit signed a business and capital alliance with SoftBank Group Corp, on March 20
* LINE MOBILE CORP SAYS EXECUTED MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH SOFTBANK CORP IN ORDER TO PROCEED WITH DISCUSSIONS PERTAINING TO A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
Japan's Line Corp said on Wednesday that it had entered an agreement with SoftBank Group Corp to give the telecoms and technology firm a majority stake in Line's mobile unit.
* Says Tokyo-based unit, which is mobile virtual network operator, plans to form business and capital alliance with SoftBank Group Corp
Line Corp said on Wednesday that it had entered an agreement with SoftBank Group Corp to give the telecoms and technology firm a majority stake in Line's mobile unit.
Japan's Line Corp plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange, a move that comes as regulators investigate such exchanges in the country after hackers stole $530 million in digital money from Coincheck in one of the world's biggest cyberheists.
* Says it will acquire 100 percent stake in FIVE Inc., which is engaged in development and operation of video content distribution platform for smart phone, with undisclosed price, in Mid-December
Quote and financial data from Refinitiv. Fund performance data provided by Lipper. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes.


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200,000 bacon and cheese turnovers, 150,000 sausage rolls, 120,000 packs of cookies, 60,000 packs of jam doughnuts, 50,000 butter croissants, and 60,000 bacon baps, all expected to be sold in the three weeks before Christmas.
Data indicates 200,000 energy drinks, 500,000 bags of crisps, and 1 million confectionery items will be sold in the week before Christmas – keeping customers fuelled on the long journey home in more ways than one.
bp’s speciality drinks are experiencing a surge with bp’s Caramel Fudge Latte soaring from 1,600 cups sold per week last year to 6,500 cups per week this year.
Whether hoping for a windfall before Christmas, or perhaps picking up a last-minute present for a distant relative, shoppers are estimated to purchase over 250,000 lottery tickets and scratch cards from bp retail stores this week. More welcome gifts include the M&S Snowy Christmas shortbread tin, giant 4.5kg Toblerones and ‘mini’ favourites such as the Lindt Teddy, Maltesers Mini Reindeers and Cadbury Puds.
Christmas plants and flower bouquets will hit stores on 21 December – with over 70,000 expected to fly off the shelves.
Ensuring even the most last-minute Christmas dinner is a renowned success, bp’s M&S Food stores have all the essentials for every feast – from turkey joints and pigs in blankets to brussels sprouts and Christmas puddings.
“Driving home for Christmas is a UK tradition, adding to the anticipation of a well-earned break. We’re focused on giving our customers a convenient shopping experience, so whether you’re stopping off to buy last-minute presents, refuelling with a caffeine kick, stocking up on hot food and snacks for the car, or grabbing forgotten items for Christmas dinner, we’ve got something for everyone.”
BPme Rewards loyalty customers benefit from instant savings on a range of products sold in bp stores, including M&S Food and Wild Bean Cafe. BPme Rewards Price discounts will be automatically applied at the till on selected products, when customers scan their BPme Rewards card or app at around 300 bp company-owned retail sites across the UK. Current offers include 15 percent saving on selected 70cl bottles of spirits, a four for three promotion on M&S party food and buy three bottles save 25% on M&S wine and prosecco.
bp press office London, email@example.com, +44 7831 095541, +44 7919 217511
bp’s purpose is to reimagine energy for people and our planet. It has set out an ambition to be a net zero company by 2050, or sooner and help the world get to net zero, and a strategy for delivering on that ambition. For more information visit bp.com.


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Only 6% of people trust traditional advertising, while over three-quarters prefer looking at user-generated images (UGC), highlighting the growing importance of branded social feeds, according to new research.
The global report from Olapic, called ‘Consumer Trust: Keeping It Real’, surveyed more than 4,500 active social media users between ages 16 and 49 in the US and Europe.
It finds that photos featuring ‘real people’ are trusted seven times more than traditional advertising.
The study also shows that trust has a significant impact on click-through rates and sales. In fact, over half (56 percent) of respondents say they are more likely to click on an ad that features a user-generated photo and same amount are more inclined to buy the product after seeing this kind of ad.
“These figures send a strong message to brands about how they should engage with consumers”, says José de Cabo, co-founder of Olapic. “Social media brings streams of authentic images to consumers’ fingertips, transforming how they see products and interact with brands. Today’s low levels of trust in traditional advertising suggest that consumers are seeking a more honest dialogue with brands and marketers. In order for brands to increase engagement and sales, they’ll need to adapt to this changing landscape and communicate with consumers in the authentic visual language they crave.”
Top brands have begun to take note, using branded hashtags to increase visibility and engagement. NYX’s #NYXCosmetics campaign, for instance, showed that customers who interact with UGC have a 93 percent higher average order value (AOV) and convert to customers at a rate 320 percent higher than those who do not. Similarly, up-market clothing store AllSaints encouraged consumers to upload photos of themselves wearing the brand’s clothing with the hashtag #ItsUpToYou. Not only did this campaign make it easier for shoppers to browse through user-generated content; it also increased conversions by 50 percent within the first week.
The report’s findings also show that in the UK in particular, user-generated photos play an instrumental role across the customer journey. 35 percent of surveyed Brits are interested in looking at social media photos while ‘pre-shopping’—when consumers begin browsing products—and another quarter (24 percent) turn to user-generated content while shopping online or in-store.
British respondents also showed a particular fondness for brand engagement on social media as almost half (48 percent) have uploaded photos featuring a brand’s hashtag. This trend is even stronger among the younger generation, with 57 percent of British millennial respondents reporting the same. And the motivation for such social media activism is clear: 86 percent of British millennial respondents who have posted photos with a brand’s hashtag say they did it simply because they enjoyed the product.
The British appetite for authenticity has an important impact on the bottom line, as Brits we surveyed are twice as likely to buy a product endorsed by real people over models or celebrities. Although all verticals are affected by these trends, the fashion industry is particularly susceptible; in an age marked by heightened consumer backlash against Photoshopped models, 38 percent of Brits told us they seek ads that feature real people before making a purchase in fashion.
About the research
The research was carried out by market research specialists Censuswide across the UK, US, France, Spain, Germany and Sweden. An online survey of 15 questions was completed by a total of 4,578 active social media users (individuals who use social media at least once a week) between the ages of 16 and 49. The report explores how the use of social media and the consumption of consumer-generated images impact consumers’ trust in brands. In the UK, the survey polled 1,000 respondents.


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Southern California based fashion boutique IMpresario Fashion.
If you’re looking for an after hours fashion delivery service within 2 hours from San Diego up to Los Angeles, CA.
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More info on Impresario Fashion
Impresario Fashion - BingNews Search results
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Restaurant operators could be found in violation of New Jersey’s Equal Pay Act without deliberately acting in a discriminatory fashion.
That was one of the takeaways from the Legislative Update panel at NJBIZ’s April 24 FoodBizNJ event in Somerset.
“[Breaking this law] does not require an intention to treat people in a discriminatory way,” said the panel’s moderator, Gary S. Young, partner at Scarinci Hollenbeck. “What you all need to do is take a look at your pay policies, your job descriptions, your handbooks, because it’s going to have implications for each and every one of them.”
The Equal Pay Act, intended to strengthen protections against discrimination, is one of a few items that have recently come down the legislative pipeline spelling out new rules for restaurant owners.
Young, who is general counsel to the NJRHA, said employers should review pay structures and handbooks to ensure they’re complying with the Equal Pay Act, which takes effect July 1.
One significant change under the law: Employees who feel they’ve been discriminated against can go back six years for damages.
“It’s a watershed change,” Young said. “I urge you all to take a proper look to make sure you’re doing everything you can [to address] wage disparities. I can say to you that a failure in this area could result in a failure of the business altogether.”
Another new law affecting the restaurants is the Paid Sick Leave Act, which mandates one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked up to a total of five days. It applies to all businesses with one or more employees. The law started as a municipal ordinance in Jersey City and then New Brunswick.
“When the New Brunswick ordinance came up, the mayor reached out to me saying, ‘What do we need to do to make it work?’” Halvorsen recalled. “So we talked about it and we got what we needed [in the bill] — blackout dates, strong notification of time needed, how the time is taken, rate of pay. Things that just allow businesses to maintain.”
Halvorsen said when Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-37th District, approached her seeking support for a statewide Paid Sick Leave Act, she told her that as long as the concerns of the restaurant industry were taken into account, she would support the bill.
“It’s the right thing to do, and that’s what you call compromise which, unfortunately, you don’t see too much,” said Halvorsen.
Young surmised that the state bill was a good thing to avoid complications for business owners.
“What if you’re an operator and you operate in 10 different locations, three of which have the [paid sick leave] ordinance and seven don’t? It becomes a nightmare for businesses to try to comply,” he said.
Beyond politics, other panels discussed the ins and outs of successful franchising and food and beverage trends to consider.
The trifecta for success in the franchise space is a keen knowledge of three things: your brand, finances, and the limitations or your location. That’s according to Marce Zuchovicki, business coach and founder at virtual bookkeeping service Jalima & Associates.
Brand knowledge and understanding is important for both franchisees and franchisors — the former, to decide what business is right for someone to franchise, and the latter, to impart your brand authentically on any franchisee.
John Helm, a franchisee with 15 Jersey Mike’s sub shop locations throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, provided some suggestions for what to consider before buying a franchise.
“Does the brand align with your values?” he asked. “Does it align with your beliefs? What are the people like at the top? I know the first thing that brought me to Jersey Mike’s, it wasn’t the people — I took a bite of the No. 9 [sandwich] and it was unbelievable — but when I met them, I was instantly attracted to who they were as people, their passion about their brand.”
From a franchisor’s perspective, knowing your brand also includes knowing who you want to trust with your business model.
“[With the Franchise Disclosure Document] you’re laying out your business model; you’re describing your footprints,” said panel moderator Beth Stearns, who chairs the retail and restaurant law practice group at McNelly & Goldstein. “You’re showing financial information and talking about the brand. You’re also putting a lot of information to your franchisees that are very helpful for them to make their decisions.”
Zuchovicki suggested franchisors keep track of their own finances, rather than relying on CPAs to run their books.
“If you’re a franchisor and you have to record your sales report, you know exactly what your return on investment is, what is the cost of goods sold, what the expenses are,” she said. “When you allow someone else to manage your finances, you really don’t know how much you have.”
Zuchovicki said this contributes to a perception by the business owners that there isn’t access to capital when they’re looking to grow.
“Access to capital is always available,” she said. “We live in a capitalist society. People are always wanting to invest or lend. But the reason people don’t [think they] have access to capital is because they’re not organized correctly, because people use their CPAs to manage their books rather than them having access to exactly what they’re doing and how they’re spending.”
In terms of location, a knowledge of traffic metrics — cars driving by, or foot traffic — will help guide location selection and sales goals thereafter.
“It’s a partnership between the franchisor and the franchisee,” explained Stearns. “It’s not only where you’re going to be in the shopping center, it’s whether you can enter a nontraditional location like airports, strip centers and universities. Can you make it in one of those locations?”
Attracting millennials is far from a new goal, but it’s a premier driving force in today’s food trends.
Sourcing locally and making a visually appealing end product to providing creature comforts and appeal to millennials was advice repeated often during a panel on beverage trends.
“We all need to offer more, an experience to everyone,” said Jeanne Cretella, president at Landmark Hospitality. “A lot of our millennials are living in apartments that are [tiny]. So they come into a restaurant and they look at it as an extension of their home.”
James Priest, founder at The Referend Bier Blendery, spoke about how to represent the care and time that goes into a product.
“Every time you’re spending $18 per pound for local blood oranges instead of whatever the normal price is [for nonlocal], when you’re making those fundamentally more expensive value judgements because you care about supporting local or having whole unfrozen fruit in season, those are important things [to represent],” said Priest.
Priest’s Blendery is one of only three beer producers in the country that relies exclusively on wild fermentation. Whereas other beer might take two weeks to brew and get out the door, his takes an average of 10 and a half to 12 months.
“A lot of our costs are because of the time of rented space and utilities. It’s a question of being able to adequately convey the lengths that you’re going through with your product,” Priest said.
Other panelists discussed the need to produce a visually compelling end product in a time when many people, not just millennials, are constantly snapping photos on their phones to share with friends.
“It’s not just throwing up a picture on Instagram, it’s taking the moment to assess. How do I want this to be visually pleasing? Sometimes it’s not, it’s just flat. I’ve started reading photography books to start to create my palate of my brand,” said Juice Basin founder Regine Flimlin.
The panel also addressed the food delivery service trend and how it isn’t necessarily sustainable for small a la carte restaurants to pay for a delivery service when their profit margins are already low.
Said restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach: “The wonderful thing about trends is that the more they continue to grow momentum, the more affordable they are to the consumer, the wholesaler and the retailer. Eventually the trend might come into a place where its affordable where a company might understand how limited our resources are as an a la carte restaurant.”


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By: Ashok Dixit
Jakarta, Nov. 2 (ANI): Asserting that the trade and investment between India and Indonesia had remained modest despite the large size and rapid growth of both economies, Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Monday called for synergised efforts in the areas of economy and business to correct the imbalance of trade.
“Despite the large size and rapid growth of our economies, the trade and investment between India and Indonesia remains modest. There is a need to synergise our efforts in the areas of economy and business to correct the sectoral and directional imbalance of our trade and to further diversify it,” Vice-President Ansari said in his address here.
“The vast consumer market, youthful and skilled human resources and expertise in the field of Information Technology of India coupled with Indonesia’s natural resources, youthful population and strategic location would provide a platform for enhanced economic engagement,” he added.
The Vice-President further said that there is a considerable potential for expanding trade in the areas of automotive components, automobiles, engineering products, IT, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and healthcare sectors between both countries.
“Given their strategic significance, infrastructure development and energy, both traditional and renewable, are key areas for enhancing our cooperation,” he added.
Stressing on the need to encourage private sectors in both countries to make mutual investments in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, Vice-President Ansari said that both governments are willing to provide a predictable and comprehensive legal and taxation frame-work for the same.
The Vice-President will depart for Bali on Tuesday.
Vice President Ansari arrived here for his five-day two-nation official visit to Indonesia and Brunei on Sunday
Indonesia is the first stopover for the Vice President, who is there at the invitation of his Indonesian counterpart Jusuf Kalla. (ANI)


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Wet wipes have been identified as one of the most commonly found items of rubbish on beaches, prompting an information campaign on proper disposal.
They are also responsible for blocking thousands of Irish sewers a year.
The European Commission identified wet wipes as one of the 10 single-use plastic items most frequently found on European coastal beaches.
It has put forward proposals for labels on packaging to make consumers aware of what improper disposal can do to the environment.
The commission also proposed a scheme that would see wet wipes producers contribute financially to the costs of fighting littering and awareness raising measures.
Irish MEP Deirdre Clune welcomed the proposals and said even flushable wipes damaged the environment.
"A major investigation in the UK has found that wet wipes being sold as 'flushable' are causing extreme damage to the environment," she said.
"Many of these products under investigation are also on sale in Ireland and across all member states."
A 2018 Coastwatch Survey identified a rise in the number of the wipes on beaches in Ireland.
While there are no Government plans to ban the plastic tissues, it will closely follow EU proposals.
"Our focus for wet wipes is to work with manufacturers and water companies to develop a product that does not contain plastic and can be safely flushed," a spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said.
For the first nine months of last year, Irish Water estimates that it removed almost 4,700 blockages caused by unflushable items, such as wet wipes, from the sewerage network.


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Academy recently welcomed students from Aquinas College and St Pius X Primary School, Catholic Education and Archdiocese Melbourne, ACRATH and Fairtrade Australia and NZ for the launch of ‘Make your school slavery-free’ resource kit.
The day began in Academy’s Ursula Frayne Chapel where Archbishop Peter A Comensoli led the liturgy. Later, gathering in the College’s library, Sr Louise Cleary CSB gave a stirring speech about the human impact of global trade.
‘People are being sold and traded, not just the coffee beans or the cocoa beans or the tea leaves. Seventy percent of cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast and largely comes from the enslaved trafficked labour of children who are sold in markets in West Africa. We really need to take action,’ she said.
Archbishop Comensoli then formally launched the resource kit which will help schools transition to a slavery-free environment. It encourages the school community to become more informed consumers, by examining where products come from and how those products arrive here.
Academy has sourced and used Fair Trade products – including tea, coffee and cups – for some time now, and with the ‘Make your school slavery-free’ resource kit now available, we look forward to our community making positive changes on a personal level.


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The research, which was conducted in January 2012 by Vanson Bourne, explores messaging usage patterns – analysing device type, subscription type, messaging services, usage patterns and user experience – using a representative sample of 1000 consumers aged 18 years and upwards.
Seizing the Opportunity in Mobile Messaging, which is available to download via Acision’s website by clicking here, examines today’s messaging realities taking a deep dive into the research results and comparing these with predictions and data from mobile industry analysts on messaging usage and operator revenues. It also provides a theoretical framework on messaging in the Smartphone era, including a high level view of what services consumers are demanding, what drives the uptake of different messaging services and defining recommendations and opportunities for operators as they evolve their messaging strategy.
“Our motivation for undertaking this research was to understand the usage of SMS messaging versus SMS alternatives such as iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook, particularly in light of recent news on the pressures these alternative services are having on operator SMS traffic and revenues. Acision also wanted to assess and understand the consumer drivers behind alternative messaging services,” said Steven van Zanen, SVP Strategy and Marketing at Acision. “ After a detailed analyses of the US research results we have created this report to provide insight into actual usage and messaging trends and provide operators with guidance on how to deal with messaging in a Smartphone dominated world, outlining how they can secure messaging revenues now and into the future and successfully compete and co-exist with alternative services.”
Key findings from the report show that while OTT messaging is growing in popularity, the ‘death of SMS’ has been highly exaggerated. Acision’s research found that SMS is still the most prevalent messaging service in the US today when compared to other messaging services. 91% of users that owned a Smartphone reported using SMS despite having the ability to access different OTT messaging services on their device. In fact, the five most popular OTT services used by Smartphone owners included Facebook (37%), Skype (17%), Twitter (17%), Apple iMessage (11%) and Blackberry Messenger (10%) – predominantly social media networks. This demonstrates that while OTT messaging services drive up messaging traffic they cannot be credited as a substitute for text.
Other insights in the research included:
• Two thirds of US Smartphone owners (65%) state they need SMS, of which 45% would be lost without it
62% of US Smartphone users have unlimited SMS bundles, concluding that the right price is a main factor influencing popularity of SMS vs OTT services;
• Over half of Smartphone owners surveyed stated they also use SMS alternatives (55%), showing consumers use multiple messaging channels simultaneously;
• Smartphone owners cited the main reasons for using SMS were core service capabilities: speed of delivery (47%), reach (43%) and reliability (38%);
• On the other hand, the top 3 reasons to use OTT messaging services are enhanced service features: content sharing (28%), speed (27%) and works across devices (25%);
• Over half of US Smartphone users (52%) said they would use an operator OTT-type service, especially consumers aged between 18-34 show high interest (60%).
A number of respondents stated that they would be likely to use SMS based personalised services if they were offer by operators including: message delivery notifications (36%), black/white listing (33%), message search (29%), and group messaging (32%).
“Our research proves there is still a high consumer dependency on SMS, not just because of the considerable amount of users without Smartphones or mobile internet connections. With this in mind, we believe there are opportunities for operators to continue to exploit what’s in their backyard by enriching traditional messaging services with value add and personalised messaging services which unlock and protect the full potential of these messaging channels. In addition, operators are now looking to launch new messaging services over IP and LTE networks, with their own Over-The-Top, rich communication and enhanced SMS services. Acision provides operators with an evolutionary path to enrich the core SMS service and generate revenues from P2P, A2P and A2A messaging, while introducing innovative new messaging services and consumer applications which can be monetized and create the new user experience,” concluded van Zanen.
Based on the research results, combined with market analysis and Acision’s own expertise in the mobile messaging market globally, the following conclusions and recommendations have been defined in the report:
• Critical mass of Smartphone penetration is the key pre-requisite for OTT adoption;
• Price is one of the key consumer requirements that determines choice of messaging channel;
• Core service performance is the most important driver to use a messaging service and is a key driver to use SMS instead of the OTT apps;
• Enhanced messaging features are what consumers want;
• SMS and OTT apps co-exist as consumers use multiple messaging channels depending on the type of message they want sent and to which audience;
• Enriched messaging features are the next competitive battleground where operators can really make a difference.
Recommendations for operators:
• Eliminate the cost incentive for Smartphone owners to use alternative messaging services;
• Enrich the SMS service by introducing notifications and personalised messaging services;
• Utilise the full potential of MMS as it allows for content sharing;
• Launch an enriched messaging service, like RCS and/or OTT type of service;
• Secure native SMS in LTE;
• Focus on utilising the full potential of enterprise messaging such as Machine to Machine (M2M) and Application to Person (A2P) messaging.
Acision’s report, Seizing the Opportunity in Mobile Messaging, will also be made available at Global Messaging World Congress this week, where Acision will be present as the Messaging Industry Sponsor, and Steven van Zanen will be speaking on 'The Power of Seamless, Relevant Messaging Services’. To meet Acision at the event or speak to an expert about their mobile messaging solutions, please email events[.]acision.com or contact Nicola Brown on +44 (0)1189 9308620.
Acision (acision.com) will also be present at CommunicAsia 2012 (Singapore 19-21st June) and Mobile Asia Expo (20th – 21st June).


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Intel showed the first samples of a new memory technology to boost the performance of large server systems at its Developer Forum in San Francisco earlier this month. The new FB-Dimms (fully buffered dual...
No-so-Faster Payments borkage hits Lloyds Banking Group
Apple to appeal order pay $440m over FaceTime patent infringement
Technology and staff to shift to Google following deal
Four terabyte data dump also being sold by online seller behind Collection #1


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Nordstrom launches its anniversary sale featuring Charlotte Tilbury deals
Nordstrom has launched its huge anniversary sale – and it includes discounts on Charlotte Tilbury.
The 2023 edition of the Nordstrom anniversary sale is live with deals on luxury skincare and beauty brands.
It’s running until 6 August for all customers – not just Nordstrom cardholders – and is available to shop at nordstrom.com.
This article contains affiliate links, PinkNews may earn revenue if you click through and purchase products through the links.
The latest sale includes some big discounts on Charlotte Tilbury products, from fan favourites to viral TikTok buys.
You may like to watch
The kit includes the Lip Cheat Lip Liner, Mattre Revolution Lipstick and Lip Jewel all in the Pillow Talk shade, of course.
Another discount is the Airbrush Flawless Makeup Setting Spray Duo, which is down from $76 to $58 in the sale.
There’s also a deal on a Charlotte Tilbury eye product, with the Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes! Mascara Duo down from $58 to $40.
You can also get two sets in the sale with the Magic Eye Rescue Forever Set priced at $83 instead of $124.
Finishing up the Charlotte Tilbury discounts is the Magic Cream Forever Set which is down from $280 to $196.
Plus, the deals aren’t just available in the US, you can select your preferred currency on the website and access the Nordstrom sale across the globe.
To shop Charlotte Tilbury deals and more in the Nordstrom anniversary sale head to nordstrom.com.
Charlotte Tilbury teams up with Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
Earlier this year Rodriguez was announced as the new face of the brand’s Pillow Talk range.
The award-winning actress said: “I have been the biggest fan of Charlotte for a very long time, so joining the Charlotte Tilbury family as her newest skincare and makeup muse is really an honor, seven-year-old me would be pinching myself.”
It followed Tilbury and Rodriguez creating “countless amazing beauty looks for the red carpet”.
And it sees her make history as she joins icons including Kate Moss and Twiggy in Pillow Talk campaigns.


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Samsung Galaxy S II Plus with Jelly Bean announced, release date unknown
Samsung today officially announced Galaxy S II Plus, a new variant of Galaxy S II smartphone. Samsung Galaxy S II Plus features Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) layered with TouchWiz Nature user interface.
To enable easy multi-tasking and smooth screen transitions, Samsung Galaxy S II Plus is powered by a Broadcom chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM.
Samsung Galaxy S II Plus also features 8GB of built in storage, a microSD card slot, bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 and WiFi. For a great viewing experience, Galaxy S II Plus has 4.3” WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display.
According to Samsung’s press release, Galaxy S II Plus’ nature-inspired user-interface comes with features like Direct Call, Smart Stay and Smart Alert to make the phone user-friendly.
With Direct Call, user can automatically dial a call by taking the device to the ear and Smart Alert can tell users about missed events or status updates just by picking up the phone.
In terms of camera, Samsung Galaxy S II Plus boasts a 8 megapixel camera, which features a zero-lag shutter speed that captures moving objects easily without delay. Samsung Galaxy S II Plus also has 2 megapixel camera in front.
For easy and simultaneous sharing of the pictures, ‘Buddy photo share’ function has been provided. Additional features like Group Facetag and Face Zoom have also been given for a complete photographic experience.
Galaxy S4 news and rumours: Samsung to release phone without home button?
Samsung Galaxy S4 release rumours suggest that the successor of Galaxy S3 might be out in May with a major change, the smartphone would be without the home button as pictured in the leaked images. The images of the new offering from the South Korean manufacturer were sent to SamMobile.
Rumours about Galaxy S4 have been around since the last year, but there is still no official announcement about the smartphone. The Lebanon Facebook page of Samsung announced that Galaxy S4 would be release in May 2013 leading to many speculations. The post was then removed.
The leaked images show a slightly thinner bezel than its predecessor hinting towards a bigger screen. Rumours about the specifications of the smartphone include a quad-core 2GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a SuperAMOLED display with 1080p resolution. Galaxy S4 is speculated to be operated on Android 4.2.1.
Galaxy S4 is rumoured to house a 13-megapixel camera with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Samsung had earlier stated that the firm would not be unveiling its next smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February. The South Korean manufacturer was also rumoured to unveil Galaxy S4 at CES 2013, but that possibility was also turned down by the company.
With numerous speculations about Galaxy S4 release going around and the information published on Lebanon’s Facebook page of Samsung, the rumours might turn out to be true or could just be baseless details. What do you think about the lack of home button on S4?


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Egypt – Tanmeyah for Microfinance Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EFG Hermes Holding and Egypt’s leading provider of microfinance solutions, has announced that it has successfully acquired Fatura Netherlands BV (Fatura).
Fatura is a fast-growing tech-driven Business-to-Business (B2B) platform with a regional footprint of 22 governorates in Egypt. Fatura is backed by prominent shareholders in the field with EFG EV Fintech being one of the primary investors since 2020.
The platform brings together retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers in one place. Fatura offers its users a multitude of innovative services, ranging from a marketplace with live product viewing and price transparency to B2B buy now pay later services and marketing support services.
Commenting on the deal, Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania A Al-Mashat, said: “Tanmeyah’s acquisition of Fatura, backed by Egypt Ventures, and its accelerator EFG EV Fintech, which is a partnership with EFG Hermes Holding, comes in line with Egypt government’s efforts to increase the involvement of, and to empower, the private sector, as a major driver of comprehensive and sustainable economic growth.”
Al Mashat said: “Egypt Ventures, the first venture capital company in Egypt with a government contribution, has succeeded in maximizing the return on investment in many pioneering emerging companies in their fields. This exit is a confirmation that the investment in Fatura has paid off and enabled the company to move forward in developing the volume of its business.”
“Moreoever, Egypt Ventures, and its two business accelerators, have invested in more than 175 companies since 2017, and the coming period will witness more success stories in supporting start-ups and exits that enhance the participation of the private sector in economic development,” she added.
On the acquisition, EFG Hermes Holding CEO Karim Awad said: “It marks a major milestone for Tanmeyah, which has grown to become a key player under our non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) platform. Tanmeyah turned to this strategic acquisition to bolster its digital transformation and enrich its product and service offerings to become more holistic and support Egypt’s microfinance space.”
“I am proud that all our NBFI brands continue to fuel the drive for digital transformation in Egypt as we continue building synergies by means of effective cross-selling, which helps diversify the offerings across our product and service portfolio, further supporting financial inclusion,” he stated.
“We’ve always seen potential in Fatura, and we are firm believers in its ability to innovate in the B2B digital space, which is why our very own EFG EV Fintech made the decision to become one of the early investors in the company years ago,” he added.
Tanmeyah CEO Hossam AlNaggar said: “We are extremely proud of this transaction. Fatura is a key addition to Tanmeyah’s portfolio, as it offers the company a faster route to digitally transform and develop.”
“Our new consolidated product and service offerings confirm our focus on supporting the Egyptian economy from the ground up as they will aid microenterprises in ordering inventory from wholesalers through a one-of-a-kind digital marketplace,” he added.
“We see a huge financing gap in the B2B segment and, by joining forces, we will be able to power digital lending and cover more sectors in Egypt. Microfinance continues to play a key role in helping low-income households to access opportunities, stabilize their income flows, and cope with inflationary pressure,” he added.
By the end of 1Q22, Tanmeyah’s total number of clients had grown to reach a record high of 391,000 and its portfolio reached EGP3.9 billion — its highest level since inception.
Fatura CEO Hossam Ali said: “I feel incredibly proud of what we have achieved at Fatura and I am super excited about the upcoming chapter in our story. In just 2 years, and backed by a solid team of 500 believers, we have built a solid startup that has grown exponentially across the whole nation and impacted over 60,000 merchants.”
“We are honoured to be setting the benchmark in the Egyptian startup ecosystem for M&A between digital disruptors and industry leaders, and firmly believe that this milestone will ignite a wave of more successful examples,” observed Ali.
“Together with Tanmeyah, we aim to fundamentally change how B2B works in Egypt, radically facilitating the way trade, financing and payments are done. Through this acquisition, Fatura will strongly benefit from Tanmeyah’s broad client base and solid financial position to unlock more opportunities,” he added.
Copyright 2022 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).


text: Today the largest rough diamond to be discovered in a century goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s. At 1,109 carats, the uncut “Lesedi La Rona”, mined in Botswana, may well exceed the auctioneer’s $70m guide price. That can only enhance the image of an industry that is struggling to sell to the “millennial” generation. Young consumers increasingly shun the taint of conflict and exploitation, and middlemen have been hit as banks balk at gemstones’ untraceability. Laboratory-made gem diamonds, grown using a technique called chemical vapour deposition, are emerging as rivals; these near-perfect crystals bear none of the messy ethical implications of the mined stones. That irks Lucara and other listed diamond miners, who say they play by the rules and conscientiously support development in countries like Botswana. Breathtaking finds like Lesedi La Rona help them make their case. But the industry’s reputation still needs a polish.


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TU Eindhoven presents solar off-road car
Weighing 1,200 kilograms, the road-legal solar car reaches a top speed of 145 kph and is said to travel 630 kilometres on a sunny day. The Stella Terra has already undergone extensive testing in the Netherlands. In October, the team will set off for Morocco, where the solar car is expected to cover almost a thousand kilometres through various landscapes and end the journey in the Sahara Desert.
“Stella Terra must withstand the harsh conditions of off-roading while remaining efficient and light enough to be powered by the sun. That is why we had to design almost everything for Stella Terra ourselves, from the suspension to the inverters for the solar panels,” said Wisse Bos, team manager of Solar Team Eindhoven, adding: “With Stella Terra, we want to demonstrate that the transition to a sustainable future offers reasons for optimism and encourages individuals and companies to accelerate the energy transition.”


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Fri, May 27, 2022
light rain with thunder
Before going to press
7 days news
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Before Going to Press
May 26, 20:00
NEWS TAGGED LCD TV
Thursday 5 May 2022
LG Display reportedly to cut at least 10% LCD TV panel output
LG Display (LGD) has decided to decrease LCD TV panel output by at least 10% and stop new investment in such production beginning the second half of 2022, according to the Korea...
Tuesday 22 February 2022
AUO optimistic about LTPS automotive displays in EV market
The penetration rate of low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) automotive displays has exponentially increased in recent years, thanks to the growth of smart cockpits and advancements...
Monday 21 February 2022
TV sales in China hit 12-year low in 2021, says AVC
There were 38.35 million TVs sold in the China market in 2021, decreasing 13.8% on year, the lowest annual level since 2010, according to China-based All View Cloud (AVC).
Friday 18 February 2022
Opportunities for microLEDs grow as companies go green
Today's displays are different from those of the past. Decades ago, the most commonly used display was probably the home television, but nowadays displays are everywhere, from smartphones...
Wednesday 16 February 2022
Taiwan large-size LCD panels – 4Q 2021
Taiwan's large-size LCD panel shipments arrived at 72.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2021, down 1.7% sequentially and 3% on year.
Wednesday 16 February 2022
Taiwan LCD TVs – 4Q 2021
The fourth quarter of 2021 was the traditional peak season for the TV market and brand vendors' promotion campaigns launched for the year-end holidays in Europe and North America...
Thursday 20 January 2022
TV-use LCD panel prices may hit bottom at end of 1Q22
Prices for TV-use LCD panels are likely to reach a low point at the end of the first quarter of 2022 and will begin to stabilize in the second quarter.
Friday 14 January 2022
Competition heating up in high-end TV market
South Korea's Samsung Display began volume production of its QD OLED (quantum dot organic light-emitting diode) panels in November 2021 as it officially entered the large-sized OLED...
Wednesday 1 December 2021
Arlitech positive about panel-use inductor shipments in 1H22
Taiwan-based inductor maker Arlitech Electronic maintains a positive outlook for its shipments for LCD display applications in the first half of 2022, when brand vendors of TV and...
Monday 29 November 2021
Will China power shortage help LCD prices?
The power crisis in China has reduced the output of LCD panels used for TVs. With the panel price expected to return to normal, South Korean companies such as Samsung Display (SDC)...
Monday 8 November 2021
Taiwan LCD TVs - 3Q 2021
Taiwan's LCD TV shipments increased only 2.9% sequentially to come to 7.37 million units in the third quarter of 2021.
Wednesday 6 October 2021
TV vendors lower 2021 sales goals
TV vendors have lowered their sales goals in 2021 amid shrinking demand, according to industry sources.
Tuesday 14 September 2021
Taiwan makers increasingly immune to sharp TV panel price falls, says AUO chair
Chances are slim for LCD TV panel prices to plunge to the cash cost level and Taiwan panel makers are now much more immune to the ongoing round of price falls amid changing industrial...
Friday 3 September 2021
India may consider technology transfer to develop local TV supply chains
In view of the high growth in demand for TVs in India, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) recommends that the India government set up local TV supply chains. As it...
Thursday 2 September 2021
TV panel pricing may keep falling till year-end 2021
LCD TV panel prices have been falling at a rapid pace since August, and may continue dropping until year-end 2021, as demand for TVs in developed countries has been declining and...
Monday 2 September 2013
Touch Taiwan 2013: Innolux 42-inch Ultra HD TV panel
Visitors to Touch Taiwan 2013 got one of the first views to the latest line of Innolux' products - the 42-inch Ultra HD TV panel. The panel size is expected to be used in LCD TVs as of the second half of 2013 along with the company's other Ultra HD TV panel technology such as 39-and 50-inch units. Innolux is expected to hold the top spot in Ultra HD TV panel shipments in 2013, with most of the shipments going to customers in China.
May 27, 10:24
Empower manufacturing with AI: Into new era of smart manufacturing with collective wisdom
Tuesday 24 May 2022
MSI unveils new lineup at Computex 2022 Online
Thursday 19 May 2022
STAr Technologies unveils one-touch memory test probe card
Thursday 19 May 2022
Computex Focus: DataVan to showcase new retail solutions for new normal
Renesas to reopen Kofu factory as 300mm wafer fab dedicated for power semiconductors
IC design houses bracing for cutback in orders from China handset brands
TSMC to move CoWoS-L technology to commercial production in 2 years
Intel makes key investments to advance datacenter sustainability
Concerns rising over potential foundry overcapacity in 2024
Apple car team reportedly in talks with Korean and Japanese suppliers
AMD, MediaTek reportedly in talks to form JV
TSMC to raise quotes for advanced, mature process technologies by 10-20%
BYD Semiconductor takes major stake in Energen
Is GF a good buy for Intel?
EV penetration to rise to 30% in 2025, says DIGITIMES Research
Non-foundry IC segments gaining weight in HPC era, says DIGITIMES Research
DIGITIMES Research worldwide notebook shipment update – February 2022
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The company, VR Entertainment World, is releasing its groundbreaking product – MoCo, a platform that combines the best of today’s world in a way – blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, as well as data and video compression.
The team building Moco announced today, as reported by PRWeb that they have essentially launched the first “3D/AR/VR/MR platform that combines artificial intelligence, tokenized marketplaces and payments, and state-of-the-art video compression”.
Behind the innovative product, stands a revolutionary idea – the way we communicate has changed how we perceive the world and how we can communicate our thoughts. While there are millions of ICOs and blockchain projects out there, none of them is currently combining all three technologies – VR, AI and blockchain. The MoCo team is creating a 3D virtual reality that mimics communication and dialogues in the real world. What users will be able to do is create a 3D virtual avatar, already existent on the MoCo platform and then infuse your gestures and “personality” in a sense to the avatar.
The technology that will allow for this “personality infusion” is the real-time 4K 360 degrees VR data that is empowered by AI-compressed information. The added value to that is the ability of the MoCo product to compress huge amount of data (for example, 2 GB video into a 22MB one with more or less same high quality). The speed and quality of the data compression is what makes MoCo a truly unique platform.
This is where the AI / VR part plays its role. What about the blockchain part? The MoCo platform will be based on the MoCo Token for users to pay for different types of subscriptions, products like chats, videos and all things related to the possibilities offered by the VR platform. With around 8 billion tokens, MoCo is already available for pre-sale, which began on June 20thand will end on July 19th.


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Omantel Innovation Labs to push innovation in Omani tech startups
Muscat, July 07, 2021 - Omantel, the leading telecommunications company in Oman and a key role-player in MENA, is excited to announce the launch of the Omantel Innovation Labs, which will contribute to Oman’s Vision 2040 and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in new and emerging technologies. Under this new initiative, Omantel will leverage its expertise, partnerships, reach, and access to technology to build a tech-based startup ecosystem.
The key focus of Omantel Innovation Labs is to cultivate entrepreneurial skills among the youth and accelerate the growth of relevant Oman-based technology startups across five technological verticals: 5G, Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, Customer Experience Technology, and Big Data.
Located in a 1100m2 facility at Omantel headquarters in Muscat, the Innovation Labs will organize, participate in, and host multiple activities to support the Company’s internal innovation agenda by providing systematic spaces, approaches, events and activities that can accelerate product conceptualization, prototyping, testing and deployment of solutions to Oman and Omantel-centric challenges.
“We want to support and tap into new ideas and technologies, stay ahead of the curve and drive local innovation. For this, we need to optimally deploy our resources and create an environment wherein caliber and opportunities match national digital transformation goals. Omantel Innovations Labs have been conceptualised and designed to fit perfectly into this ecosystem and aim to put the company at the heart of Oman’s emerging culture of entrepreneurial growth, knowledge sharing, collaboration and economic development through digitization,” said Talal Said Al Mamari, Chief Executive Officer of Omantel.
Omantel has been showcasing innovation possibilities with frontier technologies through numerous recent projects that add efficiency to operations and excitement to everyday activities. Omantel has piloted two major 5G projects in Oman’s transport and logistics sector that offer showcase the use of 5G infrastructure beyond network speed and efficiency but also bring more accountability and streamlining to port operations.
Omantel is enabling the Middle East’s first Artificial Intelligence and IoT-powered store. Soon, shopping at the Ahlain Store in Oman Oil’s filling station at Omantel’s headquarters in Madinat al Irfan will be a queue-free, cashless, grab and go experience. Omantel has also successfully conducted a 5G test using the mmWave, paving the way for enhanced user experience especially in crowded spaces such as during festivals and events. The trial has demonstrated Omantel’s ability to deliver multi-gigabit speeds with eight cell carrier aggregation functionalities and used a carrier bandwidth of 800MHz at 26GHz.
Keeping such developments in mind, the aim of the Innovation Labs is to build a platform that can generate use cases for prioritized technologies and facilitate an ecosystem that complements Omantel’s differentiating activities.
Registrations open for Omantel Accelerator
An off-shoot of this initiative is the Omantel Accelerator program, designed in collaboration with the UK Oman Digital Hub. It will be delivered in partnership with Oman-based regional accelerator OTF (Oman Technology Fund) and the global venture accelerator and ecosystem developer; Brinc.
The six-month program intends to de-risk innovative startups across multiple stages of their lifecycle. Startups will be guided through the myriad challenges in the highly competitive tech industry through mentorship, networking, and fundraising support.
Mohammed Al Rasbi, the managing director at OTF Accelerator, has expressed his enthusiasm for the project. "We are very excited about this partnership with Omantel. After accelerating over 100 companies in Oman, the Middle East, and North Arica, we have found that corporate partnerships are vital in increasing the growth rate of our portfolio companies".
Al Rasbi stressed the importance of having a carefully curated cohort of companies for the Omantel acceleration program. "OTF Accelerator will be assisting Omantel in selecting Oman's next top startups. We believe that having great founders is at the core of having a successful start-up. With our wide regional selection expertise, we are now eager to see that Oman's best entrepreneurial minds will be part of Omantel's Innovation Labs, and Omantel Accelerator specifically".
“The global pandemic has underscored the value of innovation, technology and connectivity to business continuity and economic growth, making collaboration a core requirement to accelerating their pace,” said Yasin Aboudaoud, Managing Partner and CDO at Brinc. “Wherever we go, there are tech game-changers that require guidance to support their journeys, de-risk their ventures and ensure that they continue to play an active role in solving local, regional and global challenges. Whether students, employees, or early-stage startups, we ensure that they acquire the necessary tools to succeed. We are thrilled to collaborate with Omantel to transform the region into one of the leading tech telecommunication startup hubs.”
The program is tailored to meet the needs of each participating startup to ensure that they commercialize, multiply, and scale effectively while providing the technical feasibility, market desirability, and financial viability of their products and operations.
The startup companies joining the program will be eligible for perks worth over USD 250,000 in cloud computing, legal services, accounting and other areas and the potential to gain up to USD 50,000 in investment from OTF. The program will also provide the startups with free desk space at the Omantel Innovation Labs, and to access to a network of over 100,000 investors, corporates and mentors.
To be considered for this opportunity, startups should demonstrate that they are developing proprietary technology that directly corresponds to or is dependent on one or more of the five program focus areas, that they are post MVP stage and are ready to scale. Earlier stage companies and technology startups in other industry verticals will be considered. For more information on the Omantel Innovation Labs and to apply online, please visit: https://www.omantel.om/Innovation
- Ends -
Omantel is Oman’s leading telecommunications services provider with a mission to provide people, organizations, and businesses with unparalleled communication solutions, promoting efficiency gains and global scalability. Omantel strives to reshape ways of doing business while delivering a world of information and entertainment right to its consumers' fingertips. At the core of Omantel's technological innovation and creative environment is its intrapreneurial culture that enables employees to push the limits of what's possible. Omantel’s commitment to enriching the social and economic fabric of the Sultanate goes beyond its daily operations. With extensive expertise, global partnerships, and cutting-edge technology, Omantel is committed to promoting digital inclusion, entrepreneurship, and pushing the global innovation frontier.
Oman Technology Fund aims to put Oman firmly on the map of knowledge leaders in the Middle East. The fund focuses on supporting the Middle East and North Africa’s most promising startups, while also encouraging startups to launch their operations in Oman to enhance the country’s knowledge-based economy, and to develop the ICT sector in general.
OTF operations focus on curating innovative commercial ideas in the technology sector amongst entrepreneurs who have high-potential technological business concepts, within a geographic area covering Oman, the Middle East, and North Africa. The fund supports the ecosystem through initiatives that includes investment, guidance and cooperation.
OTF has three investment sub-funds. Early-stage investments are made through the “OTF Techween” fund. Pre-seed investments in more established start-ups are made through the “OTF Wadi” fund, whilst pre-series A funding is undertaken under the “OTF Jasoor” fund. Through making investments and providing extensive support to regional startups, OTF aims to position Oman as the preferred destination for national and international entrepreneurs.
Brinc is a different breed of venture capital and accelerator platform. Core to their business is the belief that some of the world’s biggest challenges can be solved by entrepreneurs, who they like to call GAME CHANGERS. Brinc believes that deep technology-focused startups can fundamentally change how we move, what we eat, how we feel and where we live for the better if they are given the right backing. That’s what Brinc believes they are here for. To support and mentor founders and their teams from across the world and provide investment to help them grow. Brinc currently operates eighteen multi-disciplinary accelerator programs across eight countries and has made 180+ investments. Learn more at www.Brinc.io


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PHARR, RGV – Ken Roberts, president and chief executive officer of WorldCity Incorporated, published Pharr’s Trade Numbers 2016 in English and Spanish. He presented his findings to a group of brokers at the Tierra Del Sol Golf Course in Pharr.
Roberts founded WorldCity Inc. in 1998. The organization has annual Trade Numbers publications depicting trade data for certain areas. WorldCity Inc. gathered statistics for major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Laredo.
“This allows the community to better understand its interaction with the global economy from an import-export point of view and it really leads to fascinating stories,” Roberts said.
Pharr reached out to Roberts to request a publication for their city. Roberts said Pharr’s trade was up slightly this year for the first seven months of the year. When compared to the other 475 airports, seaports and border crossings during the same time period, trade is normally down.
“When I saw Pharr’s [trade] was up, I assumed quickly that it was going to be Mexico,” Roberts said. “More than 90 to 95 percent of Pharr’s trade is with Mexico. But when I looked at Pharr’s trade with Mexico, it was down. I later found this enormous increase with China–a surge of computers, TVs and computer monitors [as well as] video game consoles.”
Pharr first showed interest in a trade numbers study when current city manager of Pharr, Juan Guerra, was the bridge director in 2013. The city brought Roberts down as a guest speaker and it wasn’t until that time the city got a good understanding of their import-export statistics. Luis Bazan, current bridge director of Pharr International Bridge, commissioned the second trade number study.
“We wanted to take it to the masses,” Bazan said. “We wanted to make sure that it was dual language. … It’s a great sales tool for clients [and] for customers. They can take this to potential new customers over there and talk to them about the importance of this bridge.”
Pharr Trade Numbers shows data from 2015. The city ranked number 30 out of an estimated 475 airports, seaports and border crossings. Pharr also ranked first in two of its top import categories such as avocados as well as raspberries and strawberries.
The publication depicts the city’s top three trade partners are Mexico at $29.19 billion, China is ranked second at $363.37 million and Japan at $142.59 million.
Pharr Trade Numbers also shows the highest rankings for exports. Number one is petroleum gas and other gases at $1.16 billion, TVs and computer monitors at $401.15 million and motor vehicle parts at $391.5 million.
Bazan said the city made significant progress within the last three or four years. Pharr invested their marketing dollars towards trips and meeting with future customers who may utilize the Pharr International Bridge.
“It’s been putting us on the map and this essentially gets us one step closer to realizing that goal of having the … global trade realize we’re a force to be reckoned with,” Bazan said. “We’re a big port of entry. We’re growing. We’re investing about $15-$20 million in the next 15 to 20 years in infrastructure. This is all northbound infrastructure. We’re also already working on potential projects for south bound as well.”
WorldCity Inc. also creates TradeNumbers publications for countries such as China, Korea and Costa Rica. Roberts said the company may publish one on Mexico next year.
“The timing is very good because I think it’d be helpful for people to understand the relationship between Mexico and the United States from a trade perspective,” Roberts said. “We’re so codependent on each other. Mexico is ranked third as a trade partner in the United States which is vastly critical to the U.S. economy.”


text: While Memorial Day is more often known as the unofficial start of summer, it should be an important time to honor those who have fought and died while serving our country in the armed forces. We owe these men and women a huge debt of gratitude for helping to keep our country safe and secure. I am proud to work for the U.S. ethanol industry, in which veterans comprise nearly one-quarter of our workforce—more than double the energy industry average and four times the national average. Additionally, the use of domestically produced ethanol is helping to beef up our country’s energy security by displacing the need for more than 500 million barrels of imported crude oil every year. Aside from those tremendous benefits, ethanol also helps to lower gasoline prices and the savings could be even greater with higher ethanol blends. More than 37 million Americans are expected to travel by car this holiday weekend. Drivers are expected to pay nearly $3 per gallon on average, the highest gasoline prices in four years. However, according to a recent Renewable Fuels Association analysis, ethanol is already helping to offset higher prices, and 10% ethanol blends alone will save consumers at least $39 billion this year. The savings would be even greater if consumers across the country could use E15 (15% ethanol, 85% gasoline) this summer and throughout the year. E15 is approved for all 2001 and later model year vehicles, equivalent to 90% of all cars on the road today. Unfortunately, a nonsensical barrier prevents E15 from being sold from June 1-Sept. 15 in conventional gasoline markets, which comprise more than two-thirds of the nation. The de facto prohibition on summertime E15 sales in conventional gasoline areas is the result of an outdated and arbitrary Environmental Protection Agency regulation. The Renewable Fuels Association has been leading the charge and working with EPA and the administration to get this resolved, allowing consumers to take greater advantage of ethanol’s high-octane, low-cost benefits. So how much savings is associated with E15? Quite a lot. According to the RFA analysis, consumers who are blocked from accessing E15 are spending at least an extra 7 cents per gallon on gasoline, translating into $6 billion, or approximately $80 per household on a national basis. That really adds up, especially when gasoline prices are already at four-year highs. The consumer savings would be even greater if E15 were used nationwide in approved vehicles in place of E10, the analysis found. Specifically, the savings would be at least 34 cents per gallon compared to ethanol-free gasoline, or 17%, for E15 consumers. Using E15 in approved vehicles would help consumers across the country save approximately $45 billion on gasoline, or $386 per household. President Trump recently committed that his administration will approve year-round access of E15, calling the restriction “unnecessary and ridiculous.” RFA looks forward to working with EPA to make sure all consumers have year-round access to E15 and can take advantage of even greater cost savings. Perhaps next Memorial Day, instead of yet another barrage of news stories about high gasoline prices, the Fourth Estate will remember what this holiday is all about, honoring those who sacrificed to protect our country. The U.S. ethanol industry is proud to help make this country safer and more energy secure.