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Huerta said the Food Bank gets the food for the box program from Yuma but expects to soon take on the whole program locally by obtaining the food directly from a federal program called Second Harvest.
"We hope to put that in place as soon as possible," he said.
Orders for food boxes must be placed by the second Tuesday of each month by paying for the boxes at the Food Bank on Applestill Road, adjacent to the Sheriff's Office on Clark Road. The boxes are available for pickup the following Thursday. Food stamps can be used in place of cash.
Items found in a food box include cereal, macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, canned vegetables, peanut butter, juice, pinto beans, rice, pasta, snack bars, pork and beans, eggs, potatoes, margarine, milk, hot dogs, chicken and fish sticks.
The Food Bank had its origins about 10 years ago. Its founders include El Centro resident Richard Ryan, Brawley resident Shirley Augusta and former Valley resident Carl Bell.
Ryan said contrary to common belief, the Food Bank did not have its beginnings in his garage.
"We started out at the Imperial fairgrounds' small animal barn," he said. "We collected canned food and distributed it to nonprofits. It's always been very grassroots and close to the community."
Ryan said the idea came from the United Nations celebration of World Food Day and an associated conference when people realized there is abundant food to be found in agricultural areas, from which the local Food Bank gets much of its fresh produce.
"In the last couple of years it's really taken off," Ryan said, "so much so that it's now being shared with other areas and the state. We've made really good use of that."
Ryan, a San Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus public administration professor, said the Food Bank was created locally due to the need, because the county has the lowest per capita income in the state and the availability of ag products that do not go to market.
As more and more resources gravitate toward the Food Bank, it has become the recipient of grant moneys from the state and federal governments.
The Food Bank has become large enough in its 10 years that it has outgrown its first warehouse and is getting ready to celebrate the grand opening of its second warehouse May 10.
The new facility — adjacent to the old — is the pride of Marty Tracey, former Food Bank executive director and current economic development specialist for the city of El Centro.
Tracey said he recognized the need for more storage space and to be able to drive into the warehouse coolers to minimize the amount of manual labor associated with lifting large quantities of food. He said the volume of foodstuffs moving through the Food Bank increased from 7,200 pounds in 1996 to 1.15 million in 1999.
Tracey said money for the new warehouse was obtained from a number of different sources, including $281,000 from the Valley's three big cities, $100,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program and $51,948 from the state Food Bank infrastructure development fund.
Tracey especially credited El Centro City Manager Abdel Salem and Brawley City Manager Jerry Santillan for their foresight and support.
"The whole project ended up being over half a million dollars," Tracey said. "It was a big part of my life."
Meanwhile, Huerta said farmers can participate in the "donate, don't dump" program, whereby farming commodities are picked up by the Food Bank for free distribution. He said many farmers already participate, as do vegetable cooler companies.
Huerta said it is common for farmers who find the market for their produce to be so low that it is better to donate the crop to the Food Bank rather than sell at a loss or disc it under. He also said donations can be tax deductible while disposal is not.
Two of the many local agencies that get food from the Food Bank for subsequent distribution are Catholic Charities and Neighborhood House.
Catholic Charities director of operations Teri Llausas said her agency uses the Food Bank for about 10 years and uses it year-round.
"Our experience has been fabulous and awesome," she said.


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The Galaxy Ace line of phones has been fairly popular here in Australia where they are one of the dominant handsets in the pre-paid market. Samsung has just announced a new version of the Galaxy Ace, and instead of upping the number on the end, they’ve added a word – Style.
There’s not really anything to adding the word ‘Style’ as an affectation, Samsung has described the phone as a ‘Fun, expressive and easy-to-use smartphone designed for the social user’. It will have some style choices though, with colour at least. Samsung will make the Galaxy Ace Style available in two colours at launch – Cream White and Dark Gray.
The specs are nothing to write home about, but will certainly fit into the market they’re aiming at :
- 4.0″ WVGA (800×480) TFT Screen
- 1.2GHz Dual-Core CPU
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB on-board storage with microSD Card Slot
- 5MP Rear Camera with VGA Front-Facing camera
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.o, NFC
- Android 4.4(KitKat)
- 1,500mAh Battery
Samsung is including a new ‘intuitive touch-user interface’ they’re calling TouchWiz Essence. It’s built over Android 4.4, which seems to be the default OS version (Finally!) for new Samsung phones coming out now.
While we haven’t heard from Samsung Australia on exact time frames for launch here in Australia, Samsung global has advised that the Galaxy Ace Style will launch this month.

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One more year, the logistics operator Dachser (previously, Azkar) will be present at the CEVISAMA fair, a fashion show for the architecture, interior design and ceramics sector, which will be held in Valencia between February 5 and 9.
Excavations in the Olduvai gorge, in a site where Homo erectus lived 1.5 million years ago and invented a new technology.
Humans have influenced the environment since prehistoric times.
This Sunday, the National Association of Ham Cutters will make Florencio Sanchidrián, the World Ambassador of Iberian ham, a Honorary Member.
It is part of a maxilla that would have been between 177,000 and 194,000 years old, which would imply that the first migration out of that continent occurred about 60,000 years earlier than previously thought.
The preferential use of the right hand is an older practice than previously thought and is an ancestral characteristic of the first hominids.
Since January 1, 2018, Jochen Müller has occupied the position of Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Dachser's Air & Sea Logistics unit. With the retirement of Thomas Reuter, at the end of 2017 and after 39 years working for the company, Müller will assume his duties.
The University of Alcalá prepares its fourth archaeological excavation campaign at the Egyptian site of Deir el-Bahari, in Luxor.
Pepe Chuletón, the internet butcher, has burgers made with real certified beef, Wagyu and aged beef ribeye.
Saladier arrives in Madrid: a new concept of gastronomy through the five senses that the capital of Spain has chosen to be presented to the world.
The B2B purchasing center for construction and industry companies benefits from all the advantages offered by the logistics operator's European transport network.
Pepe Chuletón, the butcher of social networks, is a pioneer in Spain in international online sales. The Riojan butcher sends its products to various regions of the world in 24-48 hours.
The latest opinion survey on the impact of Covid-19 on purchasing and service centers focuses on the forecasts for 2020.
Swiss executive Robert Erni, 54, will replace Burkhard Eling as Dachser's CFO from 1 January 2021. The latter will take over as CEO of the multinational logistics company.
Dachser's heavy cargo logistics supports the growth of Peru's rail infrastructure. Dachser Peru has successfully delivered two locomotives to a major railway company in Peru.


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Little Lyla Copeland is embracing her new ‘bob’ after getting her hair cut for charity last weekend.
Lyla, a pupil at Waringstown Primary School, got 15 inches chopped off her hair to donate to Little Princess Trust - a charity that makes and supplies wigs for children who have lost their hair as a result of cancer and other illnesses. The eight year old got her hair cut by stylists in Craigavon’s Tesco store on Friday, and has so far managed to raise an incredible £625 for Little Princess Trust.
“It’s absolutely fantastic.” explained Belinda Copeland, Lyla’s mum.
“I couldn’t believe it - everyone was great to Lyla. She was delighted!”
The haircut had been in the pipeline for several weeks, after Lyla told her mum about the great plans she had for her hair. She was keen to help little girls and boys her age by giving to the charity.
Little Princess Trust provides real hair wigs, free of charge, to children across the UK and Ireland, and provides support to families through the duration of treatment.
“She just decided, herself, that this was something she wanted to do,” Belinda said.
Belinda got in touch with Hair & Beauty by Regis, a salon inside Craigavon’s Tesco store, and they were more than happy to help little Lyla fulfil her dream.
“The Regis team washed, cut and styled Lyla’s hair for free,” shared Belinda.
“Tesco staff came down - along with customers and some of Lyla’s friends - to watch, and then Tesco’s management told Lyla to go into the store and pick an outfit up to the value of £30! We couldn’t have asked for a better day - Lyla would like to thank the Tesco team and the Regis girls for making her day so special. She loves her new hair.”
Lyla’s ‘Just Giving’ page has raised over £400 so far, and is still open for donations at www.justgiving.com/belinda-copeland1


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The National Park Foundation wants coin collectors to buy more commemorative coins.
As the end of the year approaches, time is running out for the purchase of the 2016 gold, silver and copper-nickel coins celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
Surcharge income goes to the foundation.
The money will be used to build new trails, restore historic buildings and protect wildlife.
These are laudable goals.
But laudable goals alone do not inspire collectors to buy coins.
Take a look at the designs.
Here is the link.
Does the gold $5 with the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt appeal to you?
How about Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser on the silver dollar?
Perhaps it is the hiker theme on the clad half dollar that will appeal to you.
Low mintages might also look attractive.
But they won’t stay low if there is an end-of-the-year rush to make purchases.
Right now, the National Park Service $5 proof has outsold the Mark Twain $5, but it has taken a three-coin proof set to really make a difference.
Of the 17,157 park gold proofs sold so far, 12,901 are in the three-coin proof set.
Without such a set, the Mark Twain proof $5 sales total stands at 12,325.
However, it is the mintage of the uncirculated park $5 that looks truly low at 3,146 compared to 5,314 for Mark Twain.
The Mark Twain silver dollar proof is more popular than the National Park silver proof dollar. Twain sales stand at 71,757 proof dollars compared to 66,186 National Park proof dollars (including the proof set number).
Twain is also ahead for the uncirculated silver dollar, 24,345 compared to 18,205.
Since there are no Twain clad halves, the park coins win by default. So far, 47,259 clad proof halves have been sold and 16,689 clad uncirculated halves.
Current prices for the National Park Coins are $429.75 and $424.75 for the gold $5 proof and uncirculated coins respectively.
The silver dollar proof and uncirculated pieces are $50.95 and $49.95, respectively.
For clad half dollars the prices are $25.95 and $24.95 for the proof and the uncirculated, respectively.
If the three-coin proof set appeals to you, there are 2,099 of them left priced at $490.75.
Still on the fence? The final sales cut-off will come in December.
Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."
• Like this blog? Read more by subscribing to Numismatic News.


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The Tommy Hilfiger Group announced that it has named Avery Baker as chief marketing officer, a newly created position, effective immediately.
Sears announced it will offer extended shopping hours at its stores in 260 markets to give customers extra time to shop for those last-minute gifts.
Survey data from PriceGrabber, an Experian company, said that many consumers will continue to hit the stores through the final days leading up to Christmas.
QVC announced Monday that Beth Rubino has been promoted to executive VP human resources and workplace services, reporting to QVC president and CEO Mike George.
Macy’s said Monday it has brought back its “24-hour” stores for three all-nighters beginning Dec. 21.
The holiday season-to-date has garnered $24.6 billion in online sales, a 15% increase above corresponding days last year, ComScore reported.
Sears Holdings announced that it will help make customers' "green" go further this Green Monday (Dec. 12) at Sears.com and Kmart.com.
Illinois House leaders have agreed to pass tax breaks in order to keep Sears Holdings Corp. from abandoning its Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters in search of a new out-of-state home, according to Reuters.
A report released Thursday said that consumer confidence in the U.S. was little changed for a second week, holding at a level typically reached during past recessions.
Saks Fifth Avenue has taken its brand beyond fashion retail with the launch of its redesigned SaksPOV website.


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New Delhi: Despite being a small market, Israel has ended up the buzziest place in the latest worldwide automotive era tendencies. In a closing couple of weeks, Ford, Renault, Nissan installation their era research center inside the united states making it the brand new ‘Silicon Valley’ for automobile technology.
Back in 2008, General Motors became the first main worldwide automaker to installation their tech center in Herzliya. And because then the picture has to turn out to be colorful handiest with several OEMs following the identical path. Not most effective the carmakers, several aspect producers, have also moved their R&D headquarters to Israel- referred to as global’s capital of startups.
With the automobile global moving closer to self-riding vehicles, connected motors Israel is becoming the hub of innovation on those sectors.
Vehicle manufacturers like BMW and Hyundai and automobile aspect makers like Bosch and Lear have opened their R&D centers. Several global generation corporations along with Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Samsung too got here ahead and invested in Israeli agencies which might be immediately or not directly working in the automobile area, specifically on self-sufficient using or linked car era.
Indian agencies too were part of this improvement of new ‘Silicon Valley.’ Two years ago, Indian automobile lighting element manufacturer Lumax Group partnered with Israeli startup Ituran Location and Control Ltd. They tied as much as broaden and sale telematics services and products to Indian automotive enterprise.
On the alternative hand, several Israeli businesses invested in Indian startups as nicely. Crowdfunding fairness platform OurCrowd has invested in popular Indian vehicle-rental startup ZoomCar. Futuristic mobility company SkyTran has partnered with Reliance to release its bold transit pods in Mumbai. SkyTran believes India is an appropriate release pad for SkyTran’s transit pads.
Reasons at the back of Israel becoming automobile tech hotbed
Israel has the very best density of tech startups in the international for last extra than 1/2 a decade. The small country is the house of more than five,000 generation startups and 2nd to Silicon Valley on the subject of tech innovation. It has been even known as the ‘Startup Nation.’
One significant reason at the back of that is the Israeli authorities’ non-stop help to the era companies which have been relentlessly working on new improvements. The different purpose is the Israeli citizen’s publicity to advanced technologies via the military of the usa.
Israeli residents obligatorily serve in the military of the united states, and that is how they get publicity to advanced technologies and defense systems. This enjoys certainly enables the Israelis to put into effect and develop progressive technology throughout one-of-a-kind sectors inclusive of motors.
Many car technologies required in independent cars, which include lidar sensors, radars have their roots in army programs. This development in generation subject comes from the Israeli subculture and necessity as properly.
USD 6 billion invested in excessive-tech mobility startups
In final six years, around USD 6 billion has been invested in numerous excessive-tech mobility startups rooted in Israel. In those six years, the number of mobility startups within the united states has grown to 644 from just 87, making up extra than 10% of the country’s overall startups.
In genuine experience, Israel has emerged as the mobility hub wherein each person is going to brainstorm, check and expand. Exchange of studying with the worldwide businesses is improving the ‘Tech Nation’ even similarly.
Business experiments, specifically in digital formats like A/B trying out, have exploded i…


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Slowdown hits Whistler ahead of Olympics
WHISTLER, British Columbia ” Despite being a year from hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, Canada’s Whistler ski resort is experiencing the same drop in business that has hurt ski resorts elsewhere.
Part of it is the lack of snow so far, but officials and businesses in Whistler are also pointing to the global economic downturn. Most cities experience a boom ahead of the Olympics, but Whistler is showing it isn’t immune to the global recession.
Spending is down by about 10 percent for the season compared to last year, Tourism Whistler’s Casey Vanden Heuvel said. He added that the resort had prepared for a slowdown.
“It’s fairly predictable that in tight economic times discretionary spending is a form of spending people cut,” he said. “In terms of impact, we see that our average length of stay has been reduced.”
Vanden Heuvel also said overnight stays and conference bookings have declined.
Intrawest, the company that owns the ski resort, announced job cuts in November. It also owns several Colorado resorts and others in North America. It said the drop in business at its resorts is unlike anything it has experienced in recent years. The company refinanced a loan of more than $1 billion with its parent company in October, just hours before a deadline that could have seen Intrawest’s assets sold off.
Last Friday, the streets of the picturesque town 90 miles north of Vancouver were not packed. The Salomon Sports ski shop was almost empty and down the street at the Peak Performance ski clothing shop, staff were standing around with little to do.
“What I hear in Whistler is that business is quite low compared to other years,” clerk Melanie Von Stetten said.
Jim Douglas, manager of the tony Pan Pacific Whistler hotel, concurs that business is off by about 10 percent.
“A big core concentration of our business is U.S. business,” he said.
But Douglas said the lack of snow this season has more to do with the slowdown.
However, the local real estate market has also cooled with prices falling eight percent. Real estate agent Steve Legge blames the global slowdown for the decline, but said Whistler’s decline isn’t as precipitous as those in other markets.
“We’re good by comparison,” Legge said.
Conde Nast Traveller magazine picked Whistler as the best ski town in North America earlier this month, but the resort received negative attention last week when a gondola tower collapsed. Fifty-three people were trapped in unheated gondola cabins for several hours, and 12 were injured when their cabins hit the ground. The Excalibur Gondola has yet to fully reopen.
Last week’s collapse happened just days after officials unveiled Whistler’s new Peak 2 Peak Gondola, the longest and highest lift of its kind in the world. Officials hope it will entice new visitors. It was built by Doppelmayr Seilbahnen GmbH of Austria, which also built the Excalibur.
The gondola collapse raised concerns about the lifts for the 2010 Games, months after a massive rock slide closed the only direct highway connecting Whistler and Vancouver for five days last summer.
The winding, slow and sometimes dangerous Sea to Sky Highway has undergone a nearly $500 million upgrade to ensure it can handle all the traffic expected between Vancouver and Whistler during the Olympics. The planned upgrade of the highway was a major factor in the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award the Games to Vancouver and Whistler.
Officials say the road, venues, athletes’ village and snowmaking equipment will be ready for the Olympics.


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Zee Media Bureau
The Sensex reclaimed the psychological 28,000-mark by recovering over 150 points in early trade Monday on sustained buying by foreign funds and retail investors amid hopes that the GST Bill may be passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.
The 30-share index, which had lost 105.61 points in the previous session, last quoted 132.88 points or 0.48 percent higher to 27,969.38.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 31.65 points or 0.37 percent higher at 8,573.05.
Shares of Reliance Industries today rose by nearly 3 percent after the company reported a bigger-than-expected 18 per cent jump in June quarter profit. After a positive opening, shares of the company went up further by 2.61 percent to Rs 1,039 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company rose by 2.62 per cent to Rs 1,038.75.
Reliance Industries had on Friday reported a bigger-than- expected 18 percent jump in June quarter net profit on account of highest refining margin in eight years and robust petrochemical earnings.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.16 percent in early trade today, while Japan's markets are closed for a holiday. Shanghai Composite Index, however, fell 0.11 percent.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.05 percent higher in Friday's trade.


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In the past several years, traveling cybercriminals have toured around the world on the cheap, thanks to the fraudulent online transactions involving travel documents, airline and hotel loyalty accounts, and other travel-related services in the underground.
In 2012, we predicted that we would soon see an African underground market take root. Our recent joint research effort with the INTERPOL on the West African threat landscape may just be even greater proof of that.
Research on how the healthcare sector has evolved as a preferred target for cybercriminals, how stolen records are monetized, what types of data are stolen, and how much they're sold for in the underground.
While cybercriminals seem to be shying away from data theft to outright extortion as their main revenue source (cue in ransomware), stealing personal information and using or selling it for further cybercriminal acts is still a serious problem.
2015 laid the groundwork for what we can now consider the new status quo in cybersecurity. Will current security strategies hold against this existing paradigm or will organizations need to consider a change?


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March 12, 2020
The United Egg Producers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Fisheries Institute, National Pork Producers, and National Milk Producers Federation are currently working with Congress through the appropriations process, to address issues surrounding companies labeling plant-based products as eggs. This coalition has requested language be included in the F.Y. 2021 Agriculture Appropriations bill to ensure FDA initiates meaningful enforcement action against improperly labeled imitation food products.
Consumers rely on product labels to know the ingredients and health benefits of the foods they buy and have the right to expect that this information is truthful and not misleading.
Similarly, food producers should be held to the same federal labeling standards and regulatory oversight to maintain a fair, level playing field in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, a growing number of ultra-processed imitation product labels feature the word “plant-based” before other food-related words that consumers have always relied upon to identify animal-based or animal-derived food products (such as milk, beef, eggs, seafood, pork, etc.). These labeling practices have resulted in significant consumer confusion and violate the misbranding provisions laid out by Congress in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Below is the language UEP requested to be put in the F.Y. 2021 Agriculture Appropriations bill.
For video, photos and other resources, view Resources.


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For Summer 2017, Nike Sportswear has went into the vault to bring back some classics with a modern day twist. One of those is the Nike Air Zoom Mariah Flyknit and now they will modify the Duellist. Now known as the Nike Duel Racer, the original model launched back in 1988. Both the Nike Duellist and Air Mariah released around the same time while having a similar look.
While it appears that Nike Sportswear will release multiple colorways of the Nike Duel Racer, the first we have to preview comes dressed in a White, Black and Pure Platinum color combination. Constructed with mesh on the base, synthetic overlays, TPU heel counter and a sock like collar is also used.
Nike Duel Racer Release Date
The Nike Duel Racer is scheduled to release at select Nike Sportswear retailers on June 22nd, 2017. Once we have more information, we will make sure to update you. Below you can check out more images which will give you a better look.
Nike Duel Racer
June 22, 2017


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Mark Zuckerberg isn’t alone in thinking Boston is a great place for tech these days: Over the past year, three of Facebook’s earliest employees and one Facebook co-founder have taken on formal roles advising Boston-area startups.
Two of the early Facebook alumni are Steve King and P.J. Solomon, who co-founded Second & Fourth, a Newburyport firm that advises and invests in seed-stage startups, in February. Meanwhile, Facebook founding team member Andrew McCollum and inaugural sales hire Kevin Colleran have each joined the teams at well-known Boston-area venture capital firms.
The moves hold the promise of bringing even more momentum around consumer Web to Boston — where it’s become a much bigger focus in recent years — and come on the cusp of Facebook’s likely blockbuster IPO.
Colleran, who now lives in Boston, joined Cambridge’s General Catalyst Partners as a venture partner last week, while McCollum joined Boston’s Flybridge Capital Partners as an entrepreneur-in-residence last May.
For King and Solomon, who both left Facebook in 2006, their ties to the social networking pioneer are front-and-center in their new venture. Second & Fourth refers to their rank in the hiring of ad sales employees at the company then known as “Thefacebook” — King was second (after Colleran), and was employee No. 12 overall when he was hired in April 2005, he says.
Solomon came to the company a few months later as the fourth hire on the sales team at Facebook, which then had an office in Boston led by Tricia Black, Facebook’s first ad sales VP.
The early sales effort in Boston played a role in helping to turn the site into a legitimate business, according to King and Solomon. King recalls bringing in early advertisers such as Panasonic and Microsoft.
The fact that Facebook originally had a sales office in Boston isn’t well-known — the lore goes that Zuckerberg and others went straight from Harvard to Palo Alto, Calif., leaving Boston behind entirely.
But the first sales office took root in Boston after Black was hired from Boston-based media firm Y2M, which had been handling sales for the startup early on.
After a short time on Stuart Street in 2005, the Boston sales team took space in the office of Student Advantage, at 280 Summer St. in South Boston. The five-person team stayed there for about a year, before the office closed in mid-2006 as Facebook operations consolidated in California, King said.
Black, King and Solomon opted to leave Facebook and stay in Massachusetts when the office closed. The two who went with Facebook to California were Colleran and a then-intern with the company, Natalie Minor.
After Facebook, Solomon and King and continued working in tech in the Boston area — with Solomon most recently doing consulting and King working as VP of sales for Cambridge social media firm LocaModa.
Now, the pair is pooling its financial resources — they’re not looking to raise a fund — and ramping up their startup networking in the Boston and Cambridge area. The plan is to work with five to 10 entrepreneurs per year, and to start out with them the very earliest stage.
Second & Fourth is working with one startup so far — pre-launch travel site Localeye of Boston.
“We want to help entrepreneurs from pre-seed through an A round,” King said. “We just want offer our advice and direction, things we’ve learned in the past, failures and successes.”
As for leaving Facebook while it was still in its early days, neither Solomon nor King says they regret it. And both report having equity in the company.
McCollum, a Harvard classmate and friend of Zuckerberg’s who ultimately left Facebook in 2006, has been “incredibly helpful” at Flybridge, offering insights for the firm’s portfolio companies and around new opportunities the firm is considering, Flybridge General Partner Michael Greeley said.
As for Colleran, who stayed with Facebook until last July, he will be involved with assisting the firm’s early-stage seed investment startups in Boston and New York.


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Last year, the wildly unpopular Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) was defeated by activists. But that hasn’t deterred the Administration of President Barack Obama. His Department of Commerce is set to revive a provision of SOPA that would increase the penalties for streaming copyrighted work on video sharing websites.
The Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force is petitioning Congress to reconsider a section of SOPA that would heavily penalize people who upload copyright-protected content to streaming services.
In a recent report, titled “Copyright Policy, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy,” the task force explains that the only way for the government to protect copyright holders is to impose felony convictions for people caught streaming copyrighted songs, music and movies. The legislation advocated by the task force would also prohibit Internet users from uploading parodies and covers of certain copyrighted work.
Currently, it is a misdemeanor to upload copyrighted videos or songs to streaming sites like YouTube, but the law is loosely enforced.
The portion of SOPA to be revived, Section 201, would impose the “same range of penalties for criminal streaming of copyrighted works to the public as now exists for criminal reproduction and distribution.”
From the Internet Policy Task Force report:
In recent years a number of licensed online video streaming services have launched, and many cable television providers offer extensive on-demand catalogs to their subscribers. Other services have launched without licenses, using technology developed to transmit individual streams from individually-made copies, rather than broadcasting to the public from a single source copy. These services, which rely on recent case law in the context of a cable operator with underlying content licenses, pose a challenge to the traditional dividing lines between public and private performance, and raise a host of questions. If any consumer can stream the content she wants on-demand, is this act ‘public’ as defined by the Copyright Act if the technology is structured so that the stream comes from a copy made by a third party for each individual? Does it make a difference if the consumer already has legal access in another form to the content being streamed? Does it matter how the source copies are made, and by whom? Such interpretive tensions in the face of changing delivery models are the inevitable result of a system based on a bundle of specific rights, each drafted in the context of then-existing technologies…
…The lack of potential felony penalties for criminal acts of streaming disincentivizes prosecution and undermines deterrence.The administration and the Copyright Office have both called on Congress to amend the Copyright Act to ensure that illegal streaming to the public can be punished as a felony in the same manner as other types of criminal infringement.The Task Force now repeats that call.
Critics of the plan say that the push is an example of the overbearing influence of Hollywood in the halls of Washington.


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Bronze with 1’300 Vickers – Strictly Limited
On Thursday, 04.07.2019, the international press event took place in the new, trendy HYATT Andaz Munich. The limited edition PRIMUS Nautic Pilot Bronze was presented here for the first time and received a positive response from the guests.
Bronze, but different! The new PRIMUS Nautic Pilot Bronze from the watch manufacturer from the Black Forest comes with an extremely hard bronze-coated case instead of a copper-tin alloy and is limited to 300 pieces. The Bronze coating of the case of the new Flieger chronograph has 1’300 Vickers (HV) and is over five times harder than usual steel cases, which have around 220 HV. The case is highly resistant to external influences and scratches.
The PRIMUS Nautic Pilot Bronze is limited to 300 pieces and can be ordered now at all dealers and in our Online-Shop for 2950 Euro incl. VAT. Delivery starts in October.


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Steam gaming service is slated to launch Wednesday, though so far the digital distribution service has yet to go live on Steam’s website. We earlier posted a review of
Portal, one of the announced launch titles of the service. We anticipated having the review up just in time for Steam’s launch. As you can tell, things haven’t worked out that way. We have no word yet from Valve as to when the service will launch: it could be in five minutes, it could be in five hours.
Some people on our forums have asked how we can post a review of a game that has not officially been released. Game journalists traditionally get copies of games before they are released in order to get reviews of said games up on the day of their release. In a similar tradition, press members were given access to Steam’s private beta earlier this month and have been able to test Portal as it was updated, tweaked, and eventually made ready for launch. After playing with the game over the last week and watching bugs disappear, the game became launch ready and we felt confident that we could write an accurate review of the title.
When Steam does launch, we plan to continue our coverage by discussing the lineup of available games on the service and what Mac gamers can look forward to in the future. Steam’s launch is arguably the biggest story of the year so far for Mac gaming, so you’ll have to forgive us our excitement.


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This story is, Our editor will bring you the latest news and hottest products of CES 2021
LG may just glance at it brieflyAt the press conference, the mockery of smartphones with screens hinted at a comeback of mobile devices that want to shake up traditional metal and glass panels. Although there are some new foldable phones introduced in 2020-especially Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold 2, and the wider Motorola Razr version, few people are willing to spend as much as $2,000 in a phone. Global pandemic.
It is 2021, and there is little change. However, the hope is that the rapid spread of the COVID-19 vaccine-if it is significant at this point-may bring some normalcy to our lives, as well as a renewed appetite and appreciation for more creative and energetic mobile phones .
Because we face reality, all of us can use something to inspire us again.
On the first day of CES, LG did its best. This is the second short look, this time providing the name of the device, which is LG Rollable on the nose.Strangely, LG executives didn’t even mention it in the press conference-a glimpse of these phones can be seen on the quick promotional reels that start and end the event-but.
Stefan Strait, general manager of TCL marketing, said that TCL has demonstrated multiple foldable prototypes in the past two years and put forward more foldable concepts on Monday, and will finally release foldable phones to consumers this year. The most notable aspect is his target price of $1,000. This is in line with Samsung’s comments on affordable foldable products published last month.
These foldable and rollable phones are more than just heads for generating hum. These new experimental designs will help promote the appearance and working style of mobile devices in the coming years. Just as the iPhone caused the mobile phone to evolve from a flip and straight-board design to a smooth metal and glass plate, foldable devices may trigger changes in the way we interact with mobile phones. Lower prices mean that it is easier for people to use these phones.
Ronan Dunne, CEO of Verizon’s consumer business, said in an interview on Tuesday: “Form innovation is definitely a function.” He did not comment on LG Rollable, but said he was impressed by some innovative products.
But can that excitement match the initial burst of energy? Turn the time back two years to 2019, and the foldable hype is feverish. Samsung first previewed its Galaxy Fold, and then released Huawei’s MateX a few days later. Motorola ended the year with Razr this year. It is expected that by 2020, things will increase and more foldable items will appear.
We all know what will happen next.
But the early activities of CES indicate that we may make more breakthroughs this year.
The evolution of foldable
The display of LG Rollable phones can be traced back toThis is one of the highlights of the past few CES LG conferences. The use of flexible displays in large 65-inch TVs is impressive, but compressing this technology into handheld phones is another challenge.
IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said: “I can’t help being surprised by the technological innovations in it. “It fully illustrates the display technology and its resolution, which can be integrated into such a flexible size. “
The coolest new products of CES 2021: rollable phones, giant TVs, coronavirus killers
View all photos
Although LG has provided little information about the phone, revealing the name of the device indicates that it is ready to advance the product. Even with foldable phones, Rollable will mark another major change in design and show that the industry still has some new tricks.
LG is not the only one considering coils. TCL’s display business also demonstrated two rollable concepts. One is a smaller mobile phone whose screen can extend up to 6.7 inches in portrait mode, and the other is a 17-inch display that can be rolled from two like a treasure map. End unfolded.
TCL will launch a rollable phone soon. Strait said in an interview before the exhibition that the company is still working to perfect its prototype mechanism.
According to “ET News” report (according to Tom’s guide), Samsung also has its own rollable prototype, and Oppo showed off the rollable concept called “Oppo X 2021”.
Despite the pandemic, LG released the, A peculiar mobile phone, one screen is stacked on another screen, can be rotated to a horizontal position, essentially forming a T-shaped display screen. As unusual as it sounds, CNET editor Lynn La said that it actually helps in multitasking and video recording.
Even if it is not very successful, it will promote the development of the industry in different directions.
Make collapsible content more accessible
After years of teasing wild prototypes, TCL is finally ready to enter the foldable game. Strait said that although the company dismissed folding products at CES, the company plans to release one at a price of $1,000 this year.
Strait said in an interview before CES: “We are 100% confident that this will make us destructive.”
Therefore, Strait stated that the first foldable product will use more conventional designs instead of the more absurd concepts we have seen. This shows that we have seen similar designs for flip phones from Samsung and Motorola. Compared with large phones equipped with foldable screens (such as Galaxy Z Fold 2 or Huawei Mate X), such devices are cheaper.
Similarly, Samsung hinted that there will be more foldable products in 2021.
“Z Fold2 is hailed as a smartphone. It reimagines the possibilities of mobile technology. I am happy to say that this is just a hint as we continue to explore, develop and expand this ever-changing category space.” Samsung Mobile Communications President Roh in a blog post.
This is consistent with “ET News” reports that Samsung will launch four foldable products this year, including two of its Flip and Fold series.
The widespread nature of the upcoming foldable mobile phone shows that this will not only be a central display or plaything, but it is possible for all of us to understand the development direction of mobile phones in the next few years.


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Windows 8 has not able to create much stir in the market. Sales of Windows 8-powered personal computers have fell by 21 % in the last month as per the figure released on Thursday.
People in industry predicted that Windows 8 might revive slack PC sales, but a report by NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers, erased the hopes.
Microsoft has also announced its latest device Surface which has been brought in market to break apple monopoly in tablet market. It is offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from $899, pitching it somewhere between Apple’s latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop.
Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales have plummeted by 24 percent, while desktop sales have decreased by 9 percent compared with the same period last year, making an overall 21 percent dip, NPD Group said.


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Cyber Shadow, the effort from one-man studio Mechanical Head Studios, has a new trailer drenched in Ninja Gaiden panache.
On first glance, Cyber Shadow may bear similarities to last year’s The Messenger, but the title has been in development for roughly 10 years by its sole developer Aarne “MekaSkull” Hunziker. The trailer itself is filled with fast-paced, NES-era combat and art design:
Cyber Shadow is to be published by Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games. The publisher’s attraction to the project is easy to see given the stylistic overlaps between both games.
Described as the “quintessential Ninja Action game” by Yacht Club Games, Cyber Shadow‘s plot synopsis centres around the protagonist—Shadow—and their journey towards figuring out how the technological dystopia they inhabit began.
The title is set to release on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One. No release date has announced, but a USD$14.99 price has.


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South Carolina Ends Cease & Desist Orders Against Crypto Startups
South Carolina's securities regulator has ended cease-and-desist orders against two blockchain startups, public documents revealed Thursday.
The U.S. Senate will host a hearing on blockchain's energy use and whether the tech can be used to protect infrastructure next week.
Coinbase is advancing its push into developing a secure digital identity platform by acquiring San Francisco-based startup Distributed Systems.
Nvidia has seen a "substantial decline" in revenue from cryptocurrency miners, the company announced in its second quarter results Thursday.
Bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitmain is officially setting up shop in Rockdale, Texas, and expects to launch mining operations early next year.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will headline Ripple's Swell conference later this year, the cryptocurrency payments startup announced Tuesday.


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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has caused quite a stir with its recent decision. This isn’t just local chatter. Economic experts worldwide are trying to figure out Nigeria’s next move.
The Forex Mystery – Solved
Since June 2015, Nigeria’s trade environment had a looming question mark. A list of 41 items was put on hold, which later grew to 43. But now, CBN has flipped the switch, giving these items the green light. Let’s dive in.
Breaking Down the Forex Decision
- Why Now?
“It’s about growth, fairness, and opportunity,” says a member from CBN’s strategy team. And it makes sense. Nigeria now seems to be creating a more transparent environment for Forex dealings.“Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia. Maybe this is Nigeria stepping up, having learned from its past Forex decisions.
- Items Back in Play
The range is wide: from everyday items like rice and cement to high-end luxuries like private jets. Here are some highlights:
Foodstuffs: Rice, margarine, palm products, meat, poultry, tomato paste
Construction and Industry: Cement, cold rolled steel sheets, roofing sheets
Luxury Items: Private airplanes/jets, Indian incense
For a detailed look, check out the full list.
- What the World Thinks
This isn’t just a local shift. International trading partners are optimistic, seeing this as a sign of a maturing Nigerian economy. Wikipedia also offers a comprehensive overview of Nigeria’s Forex history.
- On-the-ground Impact:
Consider Mrs. Aisha, who runs a local tomato paste business. “Earlier, I only thought local. Now, I’m considering exports,” she shared. A sentiment that resonated with many at the Lagos Trade Forum.
- A United Forex Dream
The CBN isn’t just stopping at these items. They’re talking about a single Forex market. Curious about what that means? Read more on Wikipedia.
Conclusion: What’s Next for Forex in Nigeria?
It’s more than just 43 items. It’s about Nigeria’s vision for growth. But every change comes with its set of challenges. Can Nigeria navigate the ups and downs to create a transparent Forex market? Time will reveal the answer.
Stay updated on our Forex Section for the latest news.
Hope you enjoyed this read on MandyNews.com. Feel free to share or drop your thoughts below!
Share your story with us! Email MandyNews1@gmail.com


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A Ministry of Commerce spokesperson did not mention any U.S. actions specifically, but it's been a tense couple of weeks for the trade negotiations.World Politicsread more
U.S. stock index futures were lower Thursday morning, as market participants continue to monitor an intensifying trade war between the world's two largest economies.US Marketsread more
British Prime Minister Theresa May could announce her resignation in the next few days, according to U.K. media reports, as she faces increasing pressure from members of her...Europe Politicsread more
A federal judge in New York City on Wednesday said Deutsche Bank and Capital One can turn over financial documents related to President Donald Trump and his businesses in...Politicsread more
Chinese government-aligned experts are stressing that the U.S. will need to negotiate a trade agreement with Asia's largest economy.China Economyread more
With Tesla shares skidding, two experts weigh in on what could be next for the automaker and its volatile stock.Trading Nationread more
Under-the-radar hedge-fund managers beating the market are betting on big comeback stories General Electric and PG&E, as well as Biogen.Marketsread more
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, said Huawei's own operating system for smartphones and laptops could be ready for use in China by fall this year.Technologyread more
Best Buy beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly same-store sales on Thursday, as the consumer electronics retailer sold more wearables and tablets and signed up more people...Retailread more
Shares of L Brands, the owner of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, rose nearly 11% in aftermarket trading Wednesday after the company reported it beat revenue and...Retailread more
The global economy would be hit hard if President Donald Trump decides to impose steep tariffs on imported cars, Citi's Willem Buiter told CNBC on Thursday, with Germany...Autosread more
President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum on Thursday that would impose retaliatory tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports.
"This is the first of many" trade actions, Trump said as he signed the memo.
The new measures are designed to penalize China for trade practices that the Trump administration says involve stealing American companies' intellectual property. They will primarily target certain products in the technology sector where China holds an advantage over the U.S.
The new measures follow a so-called 301 investigation led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer into China's potentially unfair trade practices with the U.S.
Lighthizer's office will publish a list of targeted products in 15 days, and there will be a 30-day period for public comment, according to senior administration officials.
The U.S. Trade Representative's yet-to-be-released report covers 1,300 product lines, the administration officials said.
The bottom line, said Trump's trade director, Peter Navarro, on Thursday, is that the U.S. is "strategically defending itself against economic aggression." The president is standing up for American corporations, he added.
Lighthizer told lawmakers on Thursday, however, that China is likely to retaliate against the tariffs by targeting U.S. agricultural products that are reliant on the Chinese export market.
The Trump administration had previously signaled that the tariffs would apply to at least $30 billion in Chinese imports, multiple news outlets reported. Trump himself has pushed for $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods.
In the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday before Trump's announcement, Lighthizer outlined the Chinese products that will be subject to the new tariffs, including aeronautics, modern rail, new-energy vehicles and high-tech products.
Trump will consider further actions against China in two weeks, based on the effect of the first phase of the tariffs, CNBC reported Wednesday, citing sources. The president is reportedly concerned about the severity of the new measures' impact on American universities.
The Trump administration has regularly highlighted China's $375 billion surplus with the U.S. as evidence of an unfair trade relationship.
In an opening statement to the House Ways and Means Committee this week, Lighthizer said that long-term trade deficits "to some extent reflect market distortions" and they are "having a negative effect on U.S. workers and businesses."
The chairman of that committee, Texas Republican Kevin Brady, told CNBC on Thursday that the president should be cautious in his approach to new tariffs on Chinese goods.
"The challenge for every president is how to do it in a way that doesn't punish Americans for China's misbehavior," Brady said. "So, you've really got to narrow these and target these. It is a very discerning line to do that."
China's foreign ministry argued on Thursday that it should not be punished if it doesn't want to buy what the U.S. is selling.
Lighthizer also suggested that the U.S. may take action against the World Trade Organization for its alleged failures on promoting a fairer trade landscape. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Trump administration is weighing the possibility of a lawsuit against the WTO policies that cover Chinese trade.
A senior administration official told reporters earlier on Thursday that the tariffs would be pegged to about $50 billion in Chinese imports.
The new trade restrictions exacerbate fears of sparking a global trade war that were raised after Trump signed executive orders enacting broad tariffs on steel and aluminum on March 8.


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Burn CDs And You’ll Get Burned!
New Zealand music makers and the industry are getting tough on compact disc piracy.
In a campaign titled Burn and Get Burnt, the New Zealand music industry and local artists today announced they are combining to stamp out illegal CD duplication.
Musicians and record companies say piracy is rampant and could be costing the industry up to $95 million a year.
They also say piracy has a direct effect on the income of artists and in particular those who can least afford it, younger musicians starting out on their careers.
“We’re saying CD piracy is illegal and it’s rife in our own backyard,” said industry spokesperson Michael Glading, president of the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.
“We are drawing attention to the problem. And we are saying to those who are doing it, we will take action to exercise the law if you continue to steal from musicians.”
Musicians agree it is a big problem and something needs to be done. Local legend Dave Dobbyn says the latest technology has had a huge impact on the way we treat our music.
“If this practice continues – ripping off musician’s copyrighted work – I don’t know if the young artists will get the breaks in a few years’ time,” Dobbyn says.
“Investment in New Zealand music has been going through a growth phase and this has only been possible by the infrastructure in place to support it. If burning continues to gain momentum, young artists won’t have the opportunities we had.”
While musicians and the record companies admit it is hard to quantify the seriousness of the problem, international figures reflect the global position.
Terence O’Neill-Joyce from the Recording Industry Association says figures released by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries in London suggest one in every two CDs is a copy.
“Recorded music is a $190 million industry in New Zealand – that means there’s a pirated CD black market possibly as high as $95 million.
“The GST on that alone is nearly $10 million and the artist’s losses would also be millions of dollars.”
So who’s pirating CDs in New Zealand?
Just about everyone but with a predominance of teenagers and young adults, Michael Glading says.
“Because everyone’s doing it, there’s the perception it’s OK. We’re saying it’s not OK and it’s hurting those who can least afford it.
“Ask your kids what goes on at school or when they’re otherwise away from home. They’ll tell you about the very latest releases selling for $10 at school.
“And the market is growing so fast, prices are now dropping to $5 – or so my 12 year old tells me.
“Not only are the CDs being sold at schools, we understand kids are also using computer equipment at their schools to pirate music.”
Mr Glading says CD piracy knows no socio-economic boundaries.
“It’s simply too easy nowadays. Digital technology has come a long way – you can make exact copies without loss of quality and produce hundreds of CDs an hour
“A blank CD sells for around $2 and all you need is access to a $3,000 computer and you’re in business.
“Anecdotal evidence also tells us people aren’t even buying the CDs they’re copying. They shop for a CD, take it home, pirate it and then return it to the shop for a money-back guarantee or to swap for another.”
Mr O’Neill-Joyce backs the assertion.
“There is a kiosk in Auckland’s Newmarket where you put a legal CD in the left hand tray, the target blank CD in the right hand tray, deposit $5 and it duplicates the original CD for you,” Mr O’Neill-Joyce said.
“And it’s right across the road from a Sounds record shop!”
The Burn and Get Burnt campaign is supported by all New Zealand record companies and some of the country’s foremost musicians including Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn, Ché Fu, Stellar*, Fur Patrol and many more.
Advertising and PR activities are targeted at CD buyers through the media and where CDs are bought. A campaign logo has been developed and it will be used extensively in and on CD cases, on point of sale material and on music company advertising and vouchers.
The campaign is also sponsoring hip-hop singer/songwriter Ché Fu’s upcoming national tour and is sending a direct mail letter to school principals informing them of the problem.
Mr Glading says the immediate goal of the campaign is to raise the issue and educate consumers that copying music CDs is illegal.
“It is a three month programme in which we will inform people who pirate CDs about the consequences of their actions. After three months we plan to take action against those who persist in stealing from New Zealand musicians and record companies.
“You can rest assured. Burn and you’ll get burnt.”
Issued for the New Zealand Music Industry and Musicians by Pead PR
Michael Glading, Sony Music, Tel: 0-9-979 5328
Terence O’Neill-Joyce, RIANZ, Tel: 0-9-308 0510
Deborah Pead, Pead PR, Tel: 0-9-918 5550


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The Accell Group has today posted results for the period July through October, during which net sales continued the Covid-19 led boom, registering 38% up like-for-like against the year prior.
Equating to a 16% year-to-date net sales growth, despite the shutting down of production capacity earlier in the year, the group now expect to surpass forecasts for the year, in part thanks to continued demand. Accell suggested that some of the sales volume lost during any H1 lockdowns has quickly shunted into the following quarters.
Ton Anbeek, CEO of the Accell Group commented: “The continued strong growth in the past months is a very positive development which demonstrates more than ever that cycling is moving the world forward. In both bikes and parts & accessories we are also capturing more of the on-line opportunity and are making great digital progress through brand platform renewals and a group CRM roll out. In addition, we continue to take actions in order to mitigate the ongoing effects of the supply chain distortions. Following a recent strategy progress review and as things stand today, we remain confident that we are on track to reach our 2022 targets.”
A perceived change in political will to cater for bicycles in Europe was referenced in the statement, with a indirect nod seemingly given to having the European Commission’s Vice President Frans Timmermans on board as a champion for cycling as part of the referenced Green Deal.
The forward looking statement comes with a caveat. Despite news of a vaccine nobody really knows how virus will move from here, or whether further closures will be required. With that in mind, FY 2020 EBIT is expected to come in higher than last year’s tally.
Production remains impacted, according to the statement, with longer supplier lead times creating a few bottlenecks on the high consumer and dealer demand. In tandem, tighter measures exist to keep staff safe on assembly lines and in offices.
Helping the business along is the likelihood of a deferred tax asset valuation that, in line with new Dutch corporate income tax proposals, could lead to a one-of tax gain in the region of €10 to €20 million.
Accell’s share price has now recovered to its pre-pandemic levels and is now trading at €25.10.


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A vulnerability in the Android browser could permit an attacker to steal the user's local data, according to a report yesterday from security expert, Thomas Cannon.
Along with its audited financial statements indicating a revenue increase of 34 percent last year, Mozilla late last week also published a "State of Mozilla" report providing a glimpse at what the organization is planning for the future.
Although Firefox's usage share has been stalled for the last year, Mozilla's revenues were up 34% in 2009, largely on the back of money paid the organization by Google and other search engines.
Apple today patched 27 vulnerabilities in Safari for Mac OS X and Windows, 85 per cent of them critical bugs that could be exploited to hijack Macs or PCs.
Microsoft on Wednesday patched an enterprise security tool that had blocked some copies of Chrome from updating.
Microsoft's top executive for Internet Explorer (IE) today dismissed browser speed trials as "at best, not very useful, and at worst, misleading."
Does the world need yet another browser? It depends. If you're like me, and spend a lot of time on the Web, but not too much time with social networking sites, you don't. Firefox and Chrome and even IE (not to mention Safari or Opera) are more than e...
Do you still go to Twitter.com every time you want to tweet something? That, my friends, is one colossal waste of time (not to mention a hassle).
Speed is supposed to be a hallmark of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, but the head of a Web optimization firm says improvements are negligible on the most popular Websites.
The timing might sound suspicious to some observers, but Mozilla has just announced a social networking plugin for Firefox that offers some of the features found in the much-heralded RockMelt social browser, the limited-availability beta of which was...
With the release of Firefox 4 Beta 7, Mozilla returned to near the top spot in browser performance rankings.
Earlier this fall Google promised that hardware acceleration advances were going to make Chrome 7 as much as 60 times faster than its predecessor, and now the company is working on a new feature that could boost the browser's speed even more.
Mozilla is celebrating the sixth birthday of its Firefox browser today, and it's inviting users of the popular free and open source browser to help by sending in a postcard for display in Mozilla's Mountain View or Paris offices.
A security researcher is asserting that Apple has made a poor security decision by allowing its Safari browser to honor requests from third-party applications to perform actions such as making a phone call without warning a user.
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Daniel Alegre, who was appointed as the CEO of Yuga Labs on April 1, took off to Twitter to celebrate his ownership of a piece from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection issued by his company. At the time of writing, BAYC maintains its spot as the most valuable NFT collection with an estimated market cap of 500 ETH, or more than $900 million.
Alegre purchased his Ape #3575 for a hefty sum of 50 ETH (around $90,000) from the Blur NFT marketplace. His piece portrays a monkey in a black t-shirt wearing glasses and a sea captain’s hat. According to CoinMarketCap data, the floor price to buy a BAYC NFT is currently 43.9 ETH ($80,000).
“To my kids: meet a new member of the family. Proud to Ape into BAYC #3575,” Yuga Labs CEO tweeted to his 18k followers. Alegre also owns one piece from the BAYC spin-off collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club.
Launched in 2021, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs took the industry by storm, quickly becoming a status symbol among some crypto enthusiasts, mostly due to a string of high-profile endorsements from celebrities like NBA star Stephen Curry, rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and late night show host Jimmy Falon.
The company has launched two official BAYC spin-off collections, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), which feature different types of animal-themed NFTs with unique traits and characteristics. Yuga Labs is also home to other NFT collections unrelated to BAYC, namely CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Otherside.
Before joining Yuga Labs, Daniel Alegre served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard and spent over 16 years at Google where he was the company’s President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, President of Shopping, and Payments as well as President of Asia Pacific and Latin America.
“Since exploding onto the scene with Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2021, Yuga Labs has quickly made a name for itself through a powerful combination of storytelling and community-building. The company’s pipeline of products, partnerships, and IP represents a massive opportunity to define the metaverse in a way that empowers creators and provides users with true ownership of their identity and digital assets. I look forward to working with the passionate, creative team at Yuga to innovate, inspire, and shape the future of the internet together,” Alegre said in the official statement.


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See the new flavors of car radio that seek to keep streaming at bay.
You can make Spotify and Pandora your default music services. They're just the start.
This one's for people with regular-radio tastes.
The largest internet radio company in the US says it has enough cash to sustain itself during proceedings.
The streaming music service lines up a slew of tech integrations, including Facebook Messenger and Samsung voice assistant Bixby.
The online arm of the terrestrial radio giant formerly known as Clear Channel continues to sign up new users.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards' "Most Powerful Female Voice" title will go to the star with the most votes cast via a Google Home smart speaker.
After a monthlong test, the US terrestrial radio giant publicly launches two paid music subscriptions to take on Spotify and Apple Music.
The Rokid Pebble brings a few new tricks to CES to help it stand out as more than just an Amazon Echo copycat.
The terrestrial radio giant launches two music subscriptions: $5 to replay or skip songs and $10 to unlock all-you-can-eat tunes.
The Fabriq smart speaker has Amazon Alexa's voice-controlled intelligence built right in, and it only costs $50.
iHeartRadio, the digital arm of the biggest traditional radio company in the US, will launch two paid options in January, going up against Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora's revamped subscriptions.


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The catering market in the United States continues to grow. According to Technomic’s August 2019 Catering Usage and Preferences Report, the catering market is nearly $65 billion—an increase of more than 5% from the year before. More than a third of that revenue, over $25 billion, went to business catering, while the balance went toward social catering. And these numbers are only going to get bigger over time.
Taking their cue from restaurants, convenience and grocery stores are tapping into the growing demand for convenient, freshly prepared meals and catering. Take Wawa, for example. The Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain now offers food and beverages for private events through its new catering business. And Kroger, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, recently partnered with Cluster Truck to launch on-demand delivery of meals made at “ghost kitchens”—kitchens that prepare food solely for delivery and aren’t used for serving dine-in customers.
According to Frank Beard, convenience store and retail trends analyst for GasBuddy, "You have to differentiate yourself, and foodservice is kind of the way to do this. You see the industry transitioning into becoming more like restaurants. If you look at the in-store sales data from the past 10 years, the biggest change has been in foodservice."
These stores aren’t just blurring the lines between convenience stores and quick-service restaurants—they’re also changing the catering industry. So how can stores grow their bottom lines through off-premise channels?
The case for business catering
To build a catering operation, operators first need to understand the customer segments they want to reach. While they’re probably familiar with consumer delivery and social catering (think buckets of wings and platters of sliders), it's worth considering business catering, too, and what those clients prefer to order.
Business catering has grown by nearly 15% since 2017, according to Technomic, and is growing more quickly than both social catering and the broader restaurant industry. What’s more, social catering customers often order for one-time events. Business catering consumers are likely to place repeat orders. That's a better return on investment.
Changes in business fuel catering opportunities
Changes in how people work are fueling the business-catering market. The rise of the gig economy and more flexible work arrangements mean employers need incentives to keep talented team members, and they've learned that food is one way to do it. Studies show that productivity rises when workers eat at the office and don't leave for a long lunch break.
As such, more businesses are spending money on office catering. Employers see catering as an investment in employee retention rather than a rare perk. According to Technomic, 45% of businesses are ordering more catering than they were a year ago. And 50% say they place an order at least once a week, up from 41% in 2018.
Business catering is also important for HR and sales needs. Food is an expected fixture at training sessions, client meetings, pitch sessions and other corporate gatherings. Office meals keep a team engaged and add value to a presentation or pitch.
A split consumer market
If an operator is just entering the catering market, the good news is that the $25 billion industry is fragmented. The market segment is still evolving, and because the market isn’t dominated by any one brand, any business can find its niche.
The key is to stand out from the restaurants and grocery stores already playing in this space. Operators can do that by considering these four factors:
- Easy ordering.
- Accurate orders.
- Timely delivery.
- Quality food.
Convenience stores already have an advantage here. "Convenience stores … are really sitting on probably the largest untapped distribution network[JK1] in the country,” Beard says. “They occupy the best streets, the best corners in every town across the United States. They have proximity to customers and they have the ability to deliver."
If stores can outperform their competitors on these fronts, they can corner the local market. And if they already have the location advantage, why wouldn’t they want to join the catering space?
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Online, , Online,
October is Black History Month in the UK and Black Book is looking to celebrate this time with engaging events every Tuesday focused on the food and drinks world, including the likes of Melissa Thompson, Stephen Satterfield, Liam Barker, Jim Famurewa, Eden Hagos and Nina Oduro.
Every Tuesday throughout October, there will be a full day of workshops, masterclasses, cook-a-longs and discussions that explores the four pillars of Black Book: Equality, Visibility, Wealth Creation and Equity, in meaningful and dynamic ways. As well as a celebration this is also a time to support, nurture, and address topics that surround our community.
Following the popular eight week online series, ‘De-colonising the food industry’, which saw a global panel of thought leaders and activists explore the work required to change the systemic inequalities and erasure of Black and non-white voices in hospitality and food, Black Book’s second series of events celebrating Black History Month at The Tramshed Project will harness leading voices and talent from who just so happen to hail from the Black diaspora, to showcase the future of Black histories in food.
Kicking off the series, Week #1 focuses on Equality. Aleesha Hansel, a drinks writer, wine professional and communicator, will lead the first workshop who will share her tips on wine and navigating her career thus far. Followed by a masterclass with Ronke Lawal, founder of Ariatu PR, who takes the opportunity to further delve into the topic of PR & Nepotism (Week #4 of the ‘De-colonising the food industry’ talks). There will then be a cook-a-long with Joe Faulkner of The Krio Kanteen who demonstrates live how to cook classic Salone dishes introducing us to the tastes of Sierra Leone. And finally a ‘battle of the Afros’ with a discussion between Melissa Thompson and Zoe Adjonyoh who will discuss pre and post recent BLM events and how it has impacted Melissa’s career.


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Two fast sedans make supercars look like super chumps
Read This Article
Audi is preparing to bring the Allroad moniker back to the United States for the 2013 model year, and those interested can price one out now.
We're just a week away from the Paris Auto Show, and news of what will be on display as well as new details are still coming in.
Or just regular vampires, even.


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The American dream promises that each generation will have a better life than the one that came before it, but for the latest generation to reach adulthood, it now seems that this upward trajectory may no longer be guaranteed: A new report has found that millennials are the first generation to make fewer disgusting cottage cheese based meals than their parents.
Yikes. This is a seriously troubling sign.
The report, published last week by a team of sociologists at Stanford University, found that millennials are making 70 percent fewer meals that combine cottage cheese with ingredients like ranch dressing, cream of mushroom soup, or Jello packets than Baby Boomers did at their age, making them the first generation in modern history to have fewer opportunities to indulge in cottage cheese than their parents. Data shows that by age 40, the average Baby Boomer had experienced at least 65 separate cottage cheese recipes, ranging from simple breakfast dishes involving heaping scoops of cottage cheese with canned fruit to more elaborate holiday casseroles involving cottage cheese and ham, whereas Millennials are not only eating far fewer cottage cheese-based entrees, but also fewer sides where cottage cheese is inexplicably served with iceberg lettuce and pineapple rings.
“The statistical rule of thumb has always been that each new generation enjoys a greater wealth of cottage cheese dishes thanks to the sacrifices and labor of the generations prior, but for the first time since the Civil War, that trend is now moving downward due to a number of adverse factors,” explained the study’s lead researcher Sarah Yeo. “With an ever-decreasing number of church picnics to attend each summer, fewer 1950s cookbooks with names like “Simple Family Meals For The Dutiful Housewife” still in print, and fewer five-hour swaths of available free time to dedicate to crafting elaborate cottage cheese and Frito dishes with olives carefully arranged into a happy face on top, it’s just no longer realistic for young people to be able to expect to eat cottage cheese in some form two or three times a day like their parents.”
“Sadly, for many Millennials, the only way for them to enjoy desserts that are basically just cottage cheese and Cool Whip mixed in Keebler ready-made crusts is to simply move back in with their parents,” she continued.
Yeo added that, cottage cheese-wise, not only do Millennials have it much worse than their parents, but they’ve also been saddled with the near-impossible task of salvaging an environment destroyed by the single-use aluminum containers that previous generations relied on to bring dishes like cottage cheese and Velveeta soup and cottage cheese crusted chicken piccata to potlucks.
This is deeply concerning.
While Millennials often get a bad wrap as a spoiled generation, there’s certainly nothing entitled about being the first wave of Americans to ever be deprived of consistent access to generous portions of cottage cheese-based foods. It’s a devastating reality that for this generation, the childhood dream of sitting down at the end of a long day to enjoy a cottage cheese and Nilla Wafer parfait after cleaning up their Mexican cottage cheese lasagna dinner may never be realized.


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Reliance backed Fynd launches retail solution for shopkeepers to sell online with their own website and app
Fyndlaunched Uniket, a direct-to-retail solution.
- It established itself in 350 cities and over 6500 stores.
- Fynd will also help
shopkeeperslaunch their own e-commerce website and app with a selling capacity of over 50,000 styles and 50 brands.
With Uniket, Fynd will also help shopkeepers launch their own e-commerce website and app with a selling capacity of over 50,000 styles and 50 brands.
“Brick and mortar stores still significantly dominate sales globally. By partnering with Uniket, shopkeepers can further grow their business and drive a wave of modernization by embracing technology,” said Harsh Shah, Co-founder at Fynd.
Uniket aims to also work as a buying platform that will help shopkeepers with sourcing. According to Shah, the Uniket store app offers up to 45% margin on bulk orders and 15% commission on customer orders.
The product is already being used by 6,500 stores across 350 cities. In another six months, it wants to expand it reach multifold to 60,000 retailers.
“Through Fynd Store, we are already able to help organized
AdvertisementFynd was founded Farooq Adam, Harsh Shah, and Sreeraman MG in 2012 and was also backed by Google. In August 2019, Reliance bought an 87.6% stake in Fynd for ₹295 crores.
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San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors seems to think it knows. On Tuesday it voted overwhelmingly in favor of getting cell phone stores to warn customers about the hazards of radiation being emitted by their phones.
According to an LA Times report, the board voted in favor of the ordinance by a margin of ten to one. The latest ordinance needs the green light from San Francisco’s mayor, Edwin Lee, before becoming law.
If it does become law, cell phone sellers will have to post general warnings regarding radiation risks. They’ll also have to provide information on ways users can lower the amount of radiation to which they are exposed.
The LA Times also says that last year the same board voted in favor of a similar ordinance getting cell phone stores to give consumers information on each phone’s “specific absorption rate (SAR)” – basically, how much radiation is absorbed by the body.
That law was quashed in July last year after a wireless industry trade group argued in a suit against the city that such a rule would simply confuse consumers rather than help them when making a choice about which phone to use.
In May, the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency said that cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic.” Earlier this month, however, the results of a review by the Institute of Cancer Research said that despite the widespread use of cell phones, there had been no detectable jump in the number of tumors.
It could well be that the only risk connected to cell phones is that of a sore head as you constantly scratch it in confusion while trying to make sense of the multitude of conflicting reports.
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Exports duck despite laws
Laws, decrees, and funds galore, but, how to explain the lack of response at the bottom line?
Talk of the urgent need to encourage Egyptian exports, upgrade the quality of products, improve workforce skills and open up new markets never seems to cease. However, figures show that Egyptian exports during fiscal year 2001/2002, ending in June, have dropped slightly to approximately 6.5 billion compared to LE7.1 billion in 2000/2001, according to a recent report by the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
The current year has witnessed the issuing of a handful of laws and procedures aimed at promoting exports. The most important of these is perhaps the Export Promotion Law, issued in June, giving the minister of foreign trade full authority to take whatever measures deemed necessary to advance exports.
The prime minister has recently declared that all official bodies concerned with exports will come under the supervision of one authority, the General Authority for Supervising Exports and Imports.
Exporters welcomed the decision, anticipating an end to the conflict of interests that arose from having to deal with a number of different institutions.
An Export Promotion Fund was set up to increase exports, provide technical assistance to exporters, open up new markets and study the elimination of bureaucratic obstacles in collaboration with other concerned official bodies.
Another step in the right direction was the inauguration of the Regional Centre of Foreign Trade, established by a US/ Japanese grant, in addition to generous contributions from the private sector. The centre aims to build professional cadres and provide technical assistance to those in the export business.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Trade is studying the possibility of establishing a number of central laboratories throughout the country mandated with issuing accredited certificates to local agricultural products that meet international specifications.
In the end, however, promoting exports remains a process of deeds rather than words. Laws, alone, cannot be the tools of change. Discussions held by the People's Assembly during its pervious session made clear there has always been scant response to previous efforts exerted to promote Egyptian exports. The latest strategy for promoting exports, laid out by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, identifies no targets for Egyptian exports, a People's Assembly report said. The strategy also concentrates solely on the production sector, while completely ignoring the service sector, in which Egypt has many comparative advantages.
The report also underlined the necessity to study foreign market demand.
Exporters have made it clear that complete co-operation and flexibility between the various official bodies involved in the business of exports must become a reality, or the many policies taken towards encouraging exports will be of little impact.


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ATHENS — Greek authors and publishers in the country will be recognized at the BolognaBookPlus 2023 exhibition where industry and writers will be showcased, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports has said.
The event will take place from March 6-9 after being kicked off in 2020 by BCBF/BolognaFiere in collaboration with the Association of Italian Publishers (AIE) to reach a general publishing audience, The BookSeller also reported.
Greek Deputy Minister of Culture, Nicholas Yatromanolakis, said: “Presenting the vibrant Greek literary market as the first BolognaBookPlus Market of Honor in 2023 is a great opportunity to share with publishing professionals and the world the richness of Greek letters and the multitude of contemporary Greek literary works. voice, as well as a wider cultural program that will showcase both Greece’s rich cultural heritage and current scene.
“Having recently launched GreekLit, a translation fellowship program, we believe the timing is perfect. We look forward to working closely with BBPlus Guest Director Jacks Thomas and BCBF Director Elena Pasoli to provide an excellent cultural, business and networking experience.
Thomas described it as “an exciting time in the development of BolognaBookPlus”, saying: “I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to showcase the powerhouse that is the Greek book industry. Steeped in the illustrious – and obvious – long tradition of writing, culture and exporting to the world, it is timely and significant that, in the year the GreekLit translation grant was launched, Greece also carries its translation industry general edition on the world stage in Bologna 2023.”


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By the end of May, Apple released iOS 16.5. Just after that, the company seeded the first beta of iOS 16.6. As it seems this could be the latest major iOS 16 update, as the company is already testing iOS 17. That said, here’s what Apple still has on its sleeve about this operating system update, which is currently in beta.
First and foremost, there are no visible changes on iOS 16.6 beta so far. After a small iOS 16.5 update, Apple is most likely saving the biggest features for iOS 17.
One of the fewer changes was spotted by iOS developer Steve Moser. He shared on his Twitter that Apple has added references for Contact Key Verification with the first beta build of iOS 16.6. It used to show as a search result, although it was inactive, and later, Apple removed the references.
iMessage Contact Key Verification is a feature announced by the company at the end of 2022. While Apple has already rolled out Security Keys for Apple ID and Advanced Data Protection for iCloud during the iOS 16 cycle, the firm still had to release that other function.
For those unaware, iMessage Contact Key Verification lets users verify if they are communicating only with whom they intend. This is especially helpful for journalists, human rights activists, and government members.
Apple says that “conversations between users who have enabled iMessage Contact Key Verification receive automatic alerts if an exceptionally advanced adversary, such as a state-sponsored attacker, were ever to succeed breaching cloud servers and inserting their own device to eavesdrop on these encrypted communications. And for even higher security, iMessage Contact Key Verification users can compare a Contact Verification Code in person, on FaceTime, or through another secure call.”
As of now, it’s unclear if iOS 16.6 will bring this feature, but Apple has already started testing it. In addition, Steve Moser says Apple continues to work on Sports related features in the TV app, although he couldn’t disclose what’s new.
Apple is also beta testing iPadOS 16.6, watchOS 9.6, macOS 13.5, and tvOS 16.6. As of beta 4, Apple still doesn’t acknowledge release notes with the security fixes or improvements this update will bring.
BGR will let you know throughout this beta cycle what’s new – if there is.


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Samsung has revealed that it will soon start manufacturing the recently launched Galaxy S4 smartphone in India itself. The Android smartphone will be made at the company’s Noida factory, which already manufactures 35-40 million phones including Galaxy S III.
“We are planning to start manufacturing of S4 soon at our Noida facility,” Samsung Mobile and Digital Imaging Country Head Vineet Taneja told PTI. Samsung however did not reveal an exact time-frame.
The company currently imports Galaxy S4 units from South Korea.
To remind you, Samsung Galaxy S4 went on sale in India over the weekend and has been priced at INR 41,500. You can grab the phone at all major retailers as well as online for this price-tag.
Samsung is currently the smartphone market leader in the India and Galaxy S4 is further going to help the company in cementing the position.


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WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – It’s been more than two weeks since Ruben Acosta was shot when someone tried to rob his restaurant. While his family has since reopened the popular spot that bears his name, Ruben is still recovering.
Today, Delano businesses teamed up to help raise money for the family.
“As a lot of people know, Ruben owns Ruben’s Mexican Grill and he was shot in a robbery attempt about two and a half weeks ago,” said Kurt Schmidt, owner of Picasso’s. “I saw in the paper that Tanya’s Soup Kitchen and Aero Plains Brewing Company have done a couple of fundraisers and I thought, nothing better than to get some of the local businesses in the Delano community to do a fundraiser for him. So, we decided that we’re gonna run some food specials today.”
Picasso’s put out a special called the Taco Slice just for Ruben on Tuesday.
“One hundred percent of proceeds are going to go to Ruben’s, and I think we have a lot of product, so hopefully we don’t sell out,” added Schmidt. “Hopefully, we sell out, but hopefully, we don’t and we can feed as many people as you can today.”
The Monarch put out a special on their Reuben sandwich.
“Seemed to be a natural fit considering who we were raising money for and one hundred percent of our proceeds are going to Ruben as well,” said Jennifer Ray, owner of The Monarch.
“I’m really glad that Kurt called us and put together the time to arrange this,” added Ray. “Because he is our neighbor and I think it’s extra scary for us because we’re right up the street from him knowing that something like this happened in our neighborhood – we’re super excited to help out.”
Delano Barbeque Company and Aero Plains Brewing also added to the cause.


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AMSTERDAM – Spanish fast fashion giant Inditex, which owns Zara among other brands, has extended its framework agreement with IndustriALL Global Union. The pair have been working together for 15 years. They say the new protocol reinforces their “commitment to continue engaging in mature industrial relations safeguarding worker well-being.”
Oscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex, and Atle Høie, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary, signed a new protocol designed to further the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) first signed by the two organizations in 2007.
They claim the agreement has improved working conditions for three million people in supply chains over the past 15 years. However, they do not mention where they have plucked this figure from. Moreover, given garment worker wages remain pitiful at Inditex’s main sourcing hubs, one can only assume the pair are setting the bar extremely low on this issue.
The new protocol, they say, establishes mechanisms for cementing the role of local unions for a better understanding of what the workers making the clothes need.
Inditex and IndustriALL will formulate a work plan which will focus on “continued respect for the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the provision of training to worker representatives, the textile group’s suppliers and its supply chain factory workers.”
Said Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary: “Signing the GFA with Inditex was a breakthrough that has since lead the way for more responsible sourcing and proper industrial relations in the sector. It is fitting that we celebrate the first 15 years by signing a protocol that takes our relationship to a new level in terms of respect for fundamental trade union rights. The fact that we agree with Inditex to increase the role of our local and national unions and to firmly defend their right to organize and bargain collectively in the supply chains gives hope to many.”
Felix Peinado, director for the ILO in Spain, present at the signing ceremony, said: “In the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, ILO urges companies, in collaboration with their workers’ representatives, to enter into international framework agreements to commit to applying principles of decent work along their supply chains in all countries. Spanish unions Comisiones Obreras and UGT, together with Inditex, have been frontrunners in Spain with this agreement. I could not be prouder of this agreement or happier to celebrate its anniversary. The agreement is an example of how, with the combined commitment and hard work of companies and their workers’ representatives, it is possible to forge better working conditions around the world.”


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Genex Infosys buys G&R Technologies
Genex Infosys Ltd, the largest call centre operator in Bangladesh, has acquired Green and Red Technologies (G&R), the country's leading online advertising marketplace, to diversify and grow into a major ICT company.
The company has spent 'multi-million dollar' to buy G&R, a senior official of Genex told The Daily Star yesterday, without divulging the exact figure.
G&R has successfully served more than one billion ads on Bangla language websites since launching operations three years ago, and its ability is projected to grow bigger than Google's display network in Bangladesh this year.
It serves more than 20 million online banner ads per day across thousands of Bangla-language websites.
“We are very excited to bring G&R into the Genex business groups," said Adnan Imam, managing director of Genex.
The British-Bangladeshi entrepreneur said G&R's engineering team has built big data products and its business development team has built partnerships with many leading local and international brands.
"We see a lot of synergy between our companies and we will continue to invest in building our combined businesses,” he said in a statement.
Genex currently employs more than 1,200 people in Bangladesh to run its global BPO and IT operations. The company plans to invest more than $15 million in the next two years to expand business.
G&R will continue to operate as an independent brand within the Genex group and all existing employees will remain with the company, said Nash Islam, chief executive of G&R.


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Following a huge increase in customer numbers after the easing of lockdown restrictions, St Ann’s is putting out an urgent appeal during Volunteers’ Week for volunteers to support staff in our online sales team and shops across Greater Manchester.
We’re asking local people to consider donating just a few hours of their time each week to help shop staff raise vital funds to support local patients.
It’s fantastic that customers are embracing their new freedoms by coming to purchase new and pre-loved goods at our covid-safe shops. As a result of the fabulous increase in footfall, it’s vital we recruit more volunteers as soon as possible to support our team. There’s such a wide range of volunteering roles available, and we’re hoping there’s something that will appeal to everyone. Amanda Brooks, Head of St Ann's Trading Company
Amanda said: “We need help with everything from window displays and merchandising to serving customers, steaming clothes and organising books. We’re also looking for volunteers to help our furniture shop in Ardwick and are keen to hear from anyone who might be able to assist with weekend support in our new bridal boutique in Stockport.
“Our online sales team and staff at our distribution centre in Reddish are also looking for support from people who could help with photography, posting and packing, and sorting goods for our shops too.
“The role of a charity shop volunteer has really changed in recent years, and we see people of all ages who come to us and really benefit from, and enjoy, the experience.”
St Ann’s has to raise around £20,000 every day to keep the doors open, and we simply couldn’t do it without our army of loyal volunteers. We have people who support us for a variety of reasons, some are job seekers looking to build their CV, others are retired people who are looking for a new challenge, and we also work with students who are helping broaden their skillset too. Amanda Brooks
Amanda said: “We give full training and support, and we’d be keen to hear from anyone aged 16 and over who thinks they might be able to help out – even for a few hours a week. Every small contribution makes a huge difference to our patients.”
Anyone interested in supporting the hospice can call 0161 477 7839 from 10am to 2pm Monday to Friday, or pop into their local St Ann’s Hospice shop and ask for details.
Become a shop volunteer
Whether you're a job seeker looking to build your CV, are retired and looking for a new challenge, or are a student who wants to broaden their skillset too, you can help us make a difference.Fill in the application form online