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A worldwide scarcity of semiconductors is affecting everything from smartphones to vehicles, and Intel Corp. said on Friday that it will spend up to $100 billion to develop what may be the world’s biggest chip-making facility in Ohio.
Chip-making primacy has been lost in recent years, and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is working to regain it, as well as reducing America’s dependence on Asian manufacturing centres, which have a stranglehold on the global market.
3,000 jobs will be created by a $20 billion investment on a 1,000-acre site in New Albany, the biggest in Ohio’s history, Gelsinger said. The entire investment in Ohio might reach $100 billion if there are eight total fabrication sites, he told Reuters.
He predicted it may grow to be “the world’s biggest semiconductor production site,” earning the moniker “the silicon heartland.”
This supply crisis will not be alleviated despite Intel’s intentions to build additional plants, since these complexes take years to construct.
Chip shortages, Gelsinger said again on Friday, might last until 2023.
A $52 billion subsidy fund is sought by the Biden administration in order to significantly enhance American chip manufacture. Read more
Pelosi said on Friday that Congress will submit a measure on competitiveness to support semiconductor investment and supply chains. Inclusion of the $52 billion in financing is a given.
While speaking with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Friday at the White House, US President Joe Biden lauded Intel’s contribution and reiterated the need for Congress to step in to act.
According to Vice President Joe Biden, “China is trying all it can to take over the global market so that they can attempt to outcompete the rest of us.
“Far too reliant on circumstances and nations halfway across the globe,” Gina Raimondo, the U.S. Commerce Secretary, said at the event.
With no government financing, Gelsinger said “The Ohio site is still going to be launched. It won’t happen as rapidly, and it won’t get as large as soon.”
FAMINE AND FEAST OF THE CHIP
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) overtook Intel as the world’s leading semiconductor vendor in 2021, with a growth rate of only 0.5 percent, the lowest in the top 25, according to Gartner.
Intel began construction on two Arizona plants in September as part of its recovery strategy to become a major chip maker for external clients. There will be six Intel facilities in Chandler, Arizona, thanks to the new $20 billion plants.
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A new large production facility in Europe, according to Gelsinger, will be announced in the coming months, according to Reuters.
Intel isn’t the only company increasing its investments. Also announcing large-scale investment intentions in the United States are Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. As a result, doubts are being raised concerning a chip oversupply in the future.
As Gelsinger said, “we still have years in front of us before we even get a semblance of supply-demand equilibrium”. Inquire about the parts of your life that aren’t becoming digital.
“Yes, the semiconductor business is developing, and maybe the metaverse will address the problem of global semiconductor shortages. However, a huge bubble is about to pop “Gartner analyst Alan Priestley echoed same sentiments.
Suppliers and partners are likely to follow Intel’s investment in Ohio, which is located in the state’s capital. There is interest in setting up shop in the area from the likes of Air Products, Applied Materials, LAM Research and Ultra Clean Technology.
First production is planned to begin late in 2022, with the first two facilities projected to be operational by 2025.


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Many small -scale farmers especially women have for so long not felt the impact of the East African Community (EAC) integration that brings together six countries on their livelihood.
The problem has been blamed on the poor information flow related to availability markets for agricultural produce and the economic opportunities the EAC integration offers to the smallholder farmers in the community.
It’s against the above background that small-scale farmers from Uganda and Kenya with support from Development partners have launched an Integrated Information Communication Technology project that will help farmers to address the challenge of information flow related to agricultural products and the economic potential of the integration among the EAC Countries, majorly Uganda and Kenya.
Launched in Kampala on Wednesday, the project code named Kilimo Mart Application, an ICT application will aid farmers to share information using Information Communication technology gadgets such as Mobile phones.
Through using the application, farmers will be in position to access information related to markets for agricultural products.
According to Andrew Adem, the Programs Manager at the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF) Uganda, if the application is well embraced by the sector stakeholders it will open many Agro-business opportunities to the small farmers in the East African region.
“ESAFF Uganda in partnership with Kenya Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (KESSFF) and with support from Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA), GIZ and the EAC will be implementing the project that will boost trade opportunities for agricultural products and services through promoting small-scale farmers’ access to markets and information in East Africa. This will create market opportunities for small-scale farmers and consumers to utilize the current trade prospects and share agricultural information using ICT,” Adem said in statement.
He added that this project will play a very vital role in empowering small -scale farmers especially women hence improving household livelihood.
More about the marketing application
It’s believed that although the East African Community has population of about 146 million potential consumers of agricultural related products alongside those of the Common Market for the Eastern and Southern Africa which comprises of 20 countries with estimated population of about 460 million of which the majority are farmers in the two Economic region, farmers especially the smallholder ones particularly women, they are not feeling the Economic benefits of such Economic Integration on their livelihood.
Commenting on the project, Masudio Margaret, a small-scale farmer from Adjumani district said the Kilimo Mart Application, a 12-month project will provide an opportunity for small-scale farmers who cannot access market most especially after the collapse of cooperatives that used to help them in marketing.
She added that the EAC integration should present an opportunity to share market information and cross border trade.
Another farmer, Vicky Lokwiya observed that many smallholder farmers are not aware of the regional integration which keeps them away from tapping on the wider opportunities the integration offers to them.
“The EAC integration is supposed to offer market opportunities to small scale farmers in the region but in many cases small-scale farmers don’t feel the impact. For me I only hear about the EAC market and I feel that small scale farmers are left out thus we are not benefiting from the EAC integration as they are not getting market opportunities,” Lokwiya, a small scale farmer from Gulu district in Northern Uganda, said.

domain: news


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If we could turn “optimism” and “positive sentiments” into sales, 2017 could end up being a pretty good year for farm equipment dealers and manufacturers. We all know that it will take more than rosy outlooks and good feelings to improve our bottom lines; it’s nonetheless good to hear some upbeat news for a change.
And we’re hearing it from other countries beyond North America.
In its March release, CEMA, the European association representing the agricultural machinery industry in Europe, reported that its Business Climate Index rose to +22 in March. This is up from +7 in February and compares to –19 a year ago.
In the March issue of Ag Equipment Intelligence, VDMA, the German association for agricultural machinery, said it is seeing good signs for improving business prospects for the year ahead. While tractor sales we’re down by nearly 11% in 2016, with producer prices increasing for milk and dairy products, along with stronger order books for 2017, the VDMA spokesperson said there’s “no reason for euphoria, but certainly for cautious optimism.”
Last month the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers said U.S. sales of large farm machinery experienced a year-over-year growth of 13% following 36 months of consecutive declines.
USDA’s March crop report improved from February, with the outlook for cash receipts up 8% year-over-year in 2016-17.
The results of the latest Dealer Sentiments & Business Conditions Update survey show that a net 1% of dealers are currently more optimistic about their prospects. This is actually down from +11% last month, but up from –24% a year earlier.
Dealer commentary from the March survey is also revealing: “Our margins on used equipment have improved and we expect that trend to continue for the balance of the year” … “Our backlog is very strong. Farmers were placing orders even if we didn’t have what they wanted on the floor” … “The strength seen at the end of 2016 has persisted through February. Our tractor and planter sales were strong this month.”
On the other hand, some dealers’ remarks were more tempered: “The few new equipment purchases we have seen so far in 2017 have been made out of necessity, similar to 2016” … “The unseasonably warm weather in February led to increased traffic and quoting activity, but it hasn’t translated to sales.”
Now, to rephrase my opening comment: Can we turn “optimism” and “positive sentiments” into sales?


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This Is Why You Shouldn't Buy Apple AirPods This Year, Insider Says
You may want to wait if you're going to make this popular purchase.
For tech lovers, there is no bigger heartbreak than spending your money on an item just to find out that there's a newer version rolling out shortly thereafter. And that's exactly why, if you have your eyes on some new AirPods from Apple, you should hold off. As one insider told Bloomberg, Apple will reportedly be releasing updated AirPods next year. Read on to find out more about the new AirPods, and for other news from this tech giant you may have missed, find out which Two Things Your iPhone Will Never Come With Ever Again.
Apple is reportedly releasing two new AirPods next year.
Bloomberg reports that Apple is working on two new AirPod models slated for next year: third-generation entry-level AirPods and the second version of the AirPods Pro earbuds. According to Bloomberg's inside source, there has already been internal discussion at Apple about releasing the new entry-level AirPods during the first half of 2021. And for more news about another Apple product, check out There's One Big Problem With the New iPhone, Users Say.
The updated entry-level AirPods will be similar to the current AirPods Pro.
The updated entry-level AirPods will reportedly have a shorter stem, replaceable ear tips, and improved battery life—which is actually pretty similar to the current AirPods Pro. However, this updated version will still be separated from the higher-end models because it won't have key AirPods Pro features like noise-cancellation. And for more news from this tech company, find out The Beloved Product Apple Is No Longer Selling.
And the updated AirPods Pro are being made more compact.
As for the updated AirPods Pro, Bloomberg reports that Apple is looking to make them more compact by eliminating the stem. Instead, the current design in testing features a more rounded product, like other wireless earphone models from Samsung and Google. And for news about Apple and more, sign up for our daily newsletter.
However, this could impact key AirPods Pro features.
Since they are still in development, plans for the new models have not yet been finalized. But according to Bloomberg's inside source, Apple is finding it hard to integrate noise-cancellation, airless antennas, and microphones into a more compact AirPods Pro design. This "could result in a less ambitious design when the product is finalized," Bloomberg notes. And for other retail news that should be on your radar, Walmart Is Bringing Back the One Thing Customers Have Missed Most.


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Boom expected in retail health clinics
Accenture Research predicts the number of retail health clinics will rapidly increase over the next three years, growing 25 percent to 30 percent annually.
The expected growth rate will double the number of clinics to more than 2,800, Accenture reported.
Florida is one of the states that will experience the predicted clinic growth.
Currently, Florida has 53 MinuteClinics, including eight in Tampa Bay. Two more are planned in the area by the end of the year.
MinuteClinic is the retail health care division of CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and has 650 clinics in 25 states. Brent Burkhardt, MinuteClinic spokesman, said 150 more clinics are slated to open this year.
By 2017, CVS plans to have 1,500 MinuteClinics in its stores.
So far, Florida ranks second behind Texas in the number of MinuteClinics.
CVS expects the same growth drivers as Accenture – a surge of patients because of the Affordable Care Act, the capacity limits of other health care providers and the shortage of physicians, Burkhardt said.
“There will be a primary care physician shortage for the significant number of newly insured patients,” he said. “Clinics offer more accessibility and affordable health care.”
Half the patients who visit MinuteClinics do not have a primary care physician, and 85 percent have health care insurance, Burkhardt said.
The clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners and have a medical director, who is an independent physician unless a clinic has an affiliation with a local health system. None of the clinics in this area have an affiliation.
Jane Meinhardt's beats include health care, law firms and lawyers.
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Competition to supply free Wi-Fi in the U.K. is intensifying. Skype is the latest to join BT, O2, Virgin Media and others in providing long- or short-term uncharged wireless access. Skype’s service will be paid for by the businesses that offer the service.
The Microsoft-owned Internet telecom company has teamed up with Wi-Fi specialist, London-based Wicoms Wireless, which was acquired by New York private-equity firm Auster Capital Partners last year. Tech Week Europe explains how the service will work:


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Former Apple SVP of iOS Scott Forstall has been traveling, advising a few startups, and becoming more philanthropically involved, according to a report from The Information, relayed by Business Insider.
Amir Efrati at new technology site The Information is reporting that Forstall spent the year traveling to Italy and South Africa. He also advised a few startups, and became more philanthropically involved, focusing on education, poverty, and human rights. As for what's next, Efrati doesn't have any news, but he says VC firms like Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz have stayed in touch, but Apple employees think Forstall's next move will be starting his own company.
Forstall was forced out of Apple in October 2012. It's believed that he was fired due to failures with Siri and Maps; as well as his inability to get along with Jonathan Ive.
You can now download the new Limerain App and follow Limerain on the go. Also follow Limerain on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS to be notified of any updates.
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Exclusive – Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently
ISIS militant group raised the price of a loaf of bread recently up to 12.5 SP, registering an unprecedented price in Raqqa, the price of loaf of bread that was 4 SP before the control of the group on Raqqa, and then raised to 6.25 SP, where people buy certain weight of bread from the bakery, which has a list price of 300 SP and contain 24 loaf of bread.
Bread is the basic material of the foodstuff for the people of the province, the province’s consumption of flour nearly 520 tons of flour a day, the city consumes only about 270 tons of flour a day, the province contains 49 bakeries distributed over the entire province, but after the control of the group and the scarcity of flour, the flour consumption dropped to 120 tons per day, and the number of working bakeries dropped to 31 so far, and with a capacity less than the previous, the group has brought 2 bakeries from the countryside of Aleppo, but it hasn’t been processed and operated until the current period.
The reasons of the lack of flour is :
1. Public mills operates less productive card for technical reasons.
2. Private mills, which was dominated by the group in way or another, where its product of flour are being transported to Iraq.
Rural population were forcing to rely on handmade bread for the high price of bread, which has become outside their material ability, in addition to the cost of transportation from villages to towns or cities.
It is noteworthy that since the control of the group on the city, the price of loaf of bread has risen to approximately 8 SP, and then to 10 SP and later to 11 SP, the recent increase has come to overburden civilians, because this price is considered high compared to the limited income for many families that are already suffering from poverty.


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Friday 6th April 2018
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Ongoing trade ructions between China and the US could create some short-term opportunities for New Zealand exporters but will be outweighed by the longer-term damage to global trade, analysts say.
"It is a real concern that this tit-for-tat trade war seems to be escalating and the comments of the (US) President (Donald Trump) on measures to protect USA farmers and agricultural interests will be of concern to our agri-exporters," ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard told BusinessDesk.
Earlier today Trump reiterated China’s "illicit trade practices - ignored for years by Washington - have destroyed thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs," in a White House statement published by MarketWatch. Rather than "remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers," said Trump. As a result, he instructed the US Trade Representative to consider whether US$100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate.
In the same statement, Trump also instructed the Secretary of Agriculture "to use his broad authority to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests".
Rabobank analyst Blake Holgate said "short-term there is potentially some initial upside if NZ producers replace some of the US product in China," in particular for products like beef and wine.
China is New Zealand's largest export market according to the latest data from Statistics New Zealand while the United States is third, behind Australia.
Holgate added, however, the benefit will depend to what extent China lets US product flow in through Hong Kong, which is so far exempt from the tariffs. He also said any benefit could be partly offset if US product is redirected into other markets to compete with New Zealand exports and notes there will be other suppliers looking to take advantage of available opportunities.
"Longer term, the damage to an open global trading environment is likely to outweigh any short-term gains," he said.
Regarding exports to the US, Beard warned New Zealand could face additional hurdles as there may be "increased tariffs on agricultural imports from other countries to give local USA growers an advantage on the domestic market."
Moody's Investors Service said in a note the "rising uncertainty and political risk accompanying these tit-for-tat measures will likely have economic and financial impact beyond that which is transmitted through direct trade channels."
Any escalation will weigh on investor sentiment and lead to more financial market volatility. The result could be reduced business investment over the medium term and lower production efficiency, it said.
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Annual exports to China top $15 billion for first time
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Westpac says RBNZ capital proposals would add $6,000 p.a. to an Auckland mortgage
Cavalier says market conditions still challenging
Ryman hikes dividend as annual earnings grow on wider development margin
24th May 2019 Morning Report


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Whitbread Announces Acquisition Of Portfolio Of Three Independent Hotels In Germany
Blackrock Discloses 5.38% Stake In Whitbread vs Prior Stake Of 4.31%
Whitbread's 2.5 Bln Stg Return Of Capital Programme Complete
Whitbread PLC is a United Kingdom-based company, which owns and operates hotels and restaurants. The Company is organized into a single business segment, Premier Inn. Premier Inn provides services in relation to accommodation and food both in the United Kingdom and internationally. The Company's restaurant brands include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Cookhouse & Pub, Bar + Block, Premier Inn, hub and Thyme. The Company operates over 800 Premier Inn hotels and over 76,000 rooms across the United Kingdom. Its subsidiaries include Whitbread Group PLC, Premier Inn Hotels Limited, Premier Inn Kier Limited, Silk Street Hotels Limited, Elm Hotel Holdings Limited, Brickwoods Limited, Duttons Brewery Limited, and Silk Street Hotels Limited.
Porz Avenue, Houghton Hall Park
Adam Alexander Crozier
Non-Executive Chairman of the Board
Chief Executive, Executive Director
Group Finance Director, Executive Director
General Counsel and Company Secretary
Managing Director - Property and Premier Inn International
Price To Earnings (TTM)
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The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Monday:
Britain's Whitbread Plc <WTB.L> said on Monday it bought three independent hotels in Germany for an undisclosed sum, as the company expands in Europe as part of its focus on the hotel business following the sale of its Costa Coffee chain.
Activist investor Elliott Capital Advisors has trimmed its stake in Premier Inn owner Whitbread to below 5%, a filing http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190719:nRSS1308Ga on Friday showed.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread <WTB.L> said on Friday activist investor Elliott Capital Advisors [ECAL.UL] disclosed a stake of below 5% in the company.
* Business customers contribute significantly to revenue (Adds CEO, analyst comments, share movement)
Whitbread Plc said on Wednesday its first-quarter room revenue was hit by tough market competition and ongoing Brexit uncertainty, as the company tries to focus on its Premier Inn-brand after selling Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola Co last year.
Elliott Advisors has become increasingly frustrated with Whitbread Plc's strategy of owning Premier Inn hotels outright and wants the company to offload chunks of its 5.8 billion pound ($7.64 billion) property portfolio, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread Plc , which has sold off its Costa coffee chain, on Tuesday flagged lower demand for hotel rooms in Britain, hit by Brexit uncertainty and the effects of growing competition.
Britain's main index see-sawed in to the black with StanChart surging to a 9-month high after a buyback plan, while restaurant group Whitbread and miner Glencore lost ground after weak forecasts.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread Plc said on Tuesday it expects weak room revenue growth in the UK for the ongoing year due to weak market demand.
Whitbread will buy back an extra 2 billion pounds ($2.58 billion) of shares using proceeds from its Costa Coffee sale and aims to double the long-term network potential at its hotels business to more than 170,000 rooms in Britain and overseas.
Whitbread Plc will buy back an additional 2 billion pounds ($2.58 billion) of shares using proceeds from its sale of the Costa Coffee chain to Coca Cola Co , the owner of Premier Inns said on Wednesday.
* Expanding Premier Inn chain in UK and Germany (Adds details on German market, analysts comments, shares)
British hotel owner Whitbread Plc on Thursday reported a 2.4 percent increase in third-quarter sales and expects 2019 results to be in-line with expectations, driven by new room additions at its Premier Inn chain.
British restaurant and hotel owner Whitbread Plc <WTB.L> said on Friday it has received clearance from the European Union for sale of the Costa coffee chain to Coca-Cola Co <KO.N>.
Britain's Whitbread Plc <WTB.L> said on Thursday that Chinese authorities have approved the sale of its Costa coffee chain to Coca-Cola <KO.N>.
* Expects to open 4,000-4,500 Premier Inn rooms in UK, Germany
First half revenue at British restaurant and hotel owner Whitbread Plc rose 2.6 percent on the back of an influx of tourists to the UK and a rise in the overall capacity of the company's hotels.
* CREDIT SUISSE GROUP DISCLOSES 6.65 PERCENT STAKE IN WHITBREAD PLC - FILING Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
Britain's Whitbread Plc said on Monday that it was proposing to restructure management at its Premier Inn hotel chain in moves that would affect almost 800 employees.
Quote and financial data from Refinitiv. Fund performance data provided by Lipper. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes.


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The Federal Trade Commission recently released(pdf) their highly anticipated revisions to the Green Guides, the set of rules regulating how environmental benefits are marketed to consumers. Although it’s great that the Commission revised, updated, and strengthened their marketing recommendations for a host of products, their consumer perception study and resulting rules recommendations for carbon offsets was something of a let down.
Only 41% of the study’s respondents were successfully able to identify a carbon offset as “a way of reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” and, sadly, 35% were not sure what an offset was at all. Even worse, only 18% were able to define a carbon offset in their own words, versus 58% who did not know or didn’t respond to the question.
This is really too bad. TerraPass strives to educate our members about the offsets that we sell because we truly believe that it is important to avoid funding reductions that:
– aren’t measurable,
– may never take place (or take place too far off in the distant future),
– would have happened anyway, and
– don’t employ rigorous, independent standards and verification.
Those were among our recommendations to the FTC when we talked to them back in 2008, and it continues to be our message now. Even though the FTC couldn’t identify any pattern of confusion among respondents to their survey, the fact remains that offsets can be complex, and it is often difficult for people to wade through the vast amount of information out there to make an informed decision.
There are several glimmers of hope to be seen. For one thing, the Committee seems genuinely interested in understanding whether claims of carbon neutrality should be reviewed, and have asked for public comment on this topic. And on the rest of the revisions, the Committee seems very concerned with making sure that consumers are, at the very least, well informed.
Simply put, the new guidelines on offsets fall one step short of where they ought to be and do not require the same kind of rigor that is being asked of marketers for many other environmental claims. And for those of us who care about quality and transparency, it’s a bit disappointing.


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Pathmark Stores Inc. ptmk said Thursday it has appointed Kenneth Martindale to the new position of co-president and chief marketing and merchandising officer as of Jan.1. Martindale will join Frank Vitrano in the office of the president, Pathmark said, adding that Vitrano will continue as chief financial officer. Previously, Martindale was Intesource Inc.'s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said Pathmark, a Carteret, N.J.-based supermarket chain.
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Today is 'Bungie Day' according to, well... Bungie. So to mark the occasion it has released a new multiplayer map for Halo 3.
Titled Cold Storage, the new map is a shiny remake of Halo 1 favourite Chill Out - a small map great for one-on-one skirmishes and you can download it for free.
Browse around XBL today and you'll also find new gamer pics and a Bungie Day dashboard theme, too. And the Halo 3 Legendary map pack has dropped in price down to 600 MS points (just over £5).


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“The German economy got off to a very strong start to 2008. Growth is likely to be more subdued in the second and third quarters, however,” the Bundesbank said in its June monthly report.
But growth “will pick up at the end of this year or early 2009 against the backdrop of a then more favourable global economic setting and a slowing rate of inflation,” it said.
The German economy posted “strong, broad-based” growth in the first quarter, expanding at a quarterly rate of 1.5 percent or by a real 2.6 percent when adjusted for the number of working days, clearly exceeding the Bundesbank’s forecasts.
Despite some special factors skewing the figures, “there is some evidence that the German economy’s intrinsic momentum or resilience has, to date, been underestimated,” it said.
But the Frankfurt-based bank agreed with economists that this strong performance at the start of the year would not continue, saying it expected “more moderate” growth in the coming months.
It now expects calendar-adjusted growth for the year as a whole of 2.0 percent. Due to the strong first quarter growth this represents a 0.4 percentage point increase from its last forecast in December.
Evidence this week added to signs that the first quarter growth rate was something of a one-off, with data on Friday showing that industrial production fell 0.8 percent in April.
“The fall comes after an equally sharp 0.8 percent drop in March … and suggests that industrial output is very unlikely to match Q1’s *(first quarter) strong 2.3 percent rise in Q2,” said Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics.
And figures on Thursday from the economy ministry showed industrial orders fell for the fifth straight month in April, and at a faster pace than in March.
The chemical and automotive sectors showed the biggest fall in orders, but machine tools, a mainstay of the German economy, continued to post healthy results.
Strong price rises for food and energy are also making German consumers increasingly worried about how far their incomes would stretch, according to the recent survey by market research group GfK.
Official projections put inflation at 3.0 percent in May, with prices for heating oil rising as much as 13.3 percent just between April and May, and soaring by as much as 64.6 percent compared to May 2007.
But although the Buba said it was unlikely that inflation would fall below 3.0 percent in 2008, it said it could fall towards 2.0 percent in 2009, closer to the European Central Bank’s target rate of close to but below this level.
This, coupled with more favourable conditions outside Germany supporting demand for German exports, would help the economy pick up towards the end of 2008 or in early 2009, the Bundesbank said.
The Bundesbank cut its 2009 growth forecast by 0.6 percentage points to 1.4 percent.
The German government expects 1.7 percent growth in 2008 and 1.2 percent in 2009.


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The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has been hogging headlines for a while now, even though we’ve received no official word on its launch from Samsung itself. And the latest rumor involves Samsung putting in an innovative plastic screen on the device which could make it flexible and unbreakable.
Samsung’s taking on Apple in innovation and looks like there’s no stopping the Korean tech major. But there’s also a possibility that its rival LG could beat it at its own game by introducing the Optimus G2 with a similar technology screen.
The competition between LG and Samsung is all set to heat up on the heels of this rumor, especially after the launch of the respective Optimus G Pro and Galaxy S4 flagship devices. Of course, like we said above, at this stage, it’s all rumors and we don’t really know if it would be feasible for either of the companies to implement the unbreakable screen technology.
But in the case of Samsung, it could end up making a few units of the Galaxy Note 3 with this screen like in the case of the Exynos 5 powered Galaxy S4. However, a huge drawback we’re anticipating in such a device is the lack of full HD resolution. The LG Optimus G2 is expected to release sometime during Q3 of 2013, wonder if Samsung will bring out the Galaxy Note 3 before that.


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SEC fines CitiGroup $15 million for compliance failures
The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has fined CitiGroup $15 million for compliance and surveillance failures. The firm failed to enforce its policies and procedures to prevent and detect misconduct in securities transactions. This means that Citigroup did not review thousands of trades executed by several of its trading desks during a 10-year period.
UK government to review financial red tape
The UK government has launched a review to improve the effectiveness of rules designed to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing as part of the Cutting Red Tape scheme. According to the government, UK businesses finds the current guidance, rules and proof of identity requirements unnecessarily cumbersome and complicated. Inconsistency and confusion over how rules to stamp out money laundering are applied leads to a less effective regime, which disproportionately affects legitimate businesses. The call for evidence will run for 8 weeks until 23 October 2015 – more information is on the Cutting Red Tape website [insert URL].
HSBC IT glitch leaves hundreds of thousands unpaid
An IT glitch at HSBC bank has left hundreds of thousands of people unpaid as a result of problems with its business accounts. Approximately 275,000 payments have been affected, including payments to customers of other banks. The bank said in a statement that it is 'taking immediate steps to ensure the payments reach beneficiaries as quickly as possible' and that it is working 'with other banks to ensure that customers do not lose out as a result of today's problems'.
EU search abuse complaint rejected by Google
The EU objects to how Google displays shopping links in its search results however, Google refutes this saying it is as 'wrong as a matter of fact, law and economics'. Google says its shopping service benefits customers and businesses without unlawfully distorting the market. It appears as a box of images and links displayed at the top or right-hand side of other results.
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EASYJET soared back from Covid with booming bookings as Brits desperate to escape strikes and government austerity plot holidays abroad.
The budget airline lost more than £1 billion 2020 and 2021 as the pandemic raged and flights were mostly banned.
All airlines were hit, but easyjet was seen as especially vulnerable given its low prices and small margins.
It even faced a cheeky takeover bid from Wizz Air.
Today chief executive Johan Lundgren says easyJet will benefit from austere times.
He said: “easyJet does well in tough times. Legacy carriers will struggle in this high-cost environment. Consumers will protect their holidays but look for value and across its primary airport network, easyJet will be the beneficiary as customers vote with their wallets.”
Easyjet is still loss making, down £178 million in the year to September.
But revenue rose from £1.5 billion to £5.8 billion.
The airlines says it is seeing growth at Gatwick. Sales at the October half-term and for Christmas are “back to normal” and Easter bookings look strong.
Research by easyJet shows that 64% of consumers plan to fly abroad next year. They will prioritise a holiday over other expenditure, with sales at peak periods expected to be particularly strong.
Lundgren added: ““We just had a half-term in October that was strong, we see strong demand for Christmas, for new year, for the ski season where easyJet is the largest airline in Europe to the ski markets.”
The research shows that people will cut back on eating out, new clothes and new cars to afford a vacation.
There is gossip in the industry that easyJet might fall to a bigger rival. Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary has said WizzAir and Easyjet must merge to avoid a takeover.
Lundgren said: “There is a lot of nonsense speculation out there. I would ignore a lot of those rumours to be honest.”
Lundgren added: “easyJet goes into the 2023 financial year with one of the strongest balance sheets in European aviation.”
Easyjet shares are down 20% this year. They slipped 13p to 380p.
Staff shortage issues remain a problem. Airports and airlines have struggled to get enough staff to cope with returning demand leading to delays and travel chaos.
Higher energy prices are also a factor, though easyJet hedges about 75% of its fuel costs.
Matt Britzman, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said:
“Bottom line profits remain a little out of reach for easyJet, who’ve seen a wave of headwinds over the year from Omicron early on, to airport disruptions and flight cancellations more recently. Rather than head for the emergency exit, easyJet’s made the best of a bad year and full year results mask a positive fourth quarter, where on some profit measures easyJet posted record numbers. Demand looks to be resilient, despite obvious cost of living pressures.”
Neil Shah at Edison said: “easyJet shows that the airline industry has bounced back following two difficult years of travel restrictions. Despite easyJet’s stock hitting a 10-year low back in October, there are reasons for investors to look up. Demand for airline travel has slowly increased over the last year, with October’s trading update revealing a surge in demand for seats.”


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“Our mission is to champion healthier and more responsible food for all, which means as a chief food player, we need to have an active role in changing the food system … because we are at a turning-point [environmentally] and we need to make some changes” to be more sustainable, Caroline Sorlin, chief venture officer at Bel, told FoodNavigator-USA.
Part of this change is the company’s ongoing and aggressive efforts to reduce the impact of its dairy-based business through regenerative agriculture and other initiatives, but this is not enough, Sorlin said.
“We need to find other solutions. And so we are rebalancing our portfolio to be half alternative-dairy, which includes our existing plant-based products, including our plant-based BabyBel, Nurishh portfolio, and other products, which we think taste great, but which we think we can do better,” including around taste, nutrition and function, she explained.
Sorlin acknowledged this is a tall order given the challenges of recreating dairy cheese’s ability to melt and stretch when heated, complex flavor-profile and nutrient-density – all of which remain stubborn sticking points for players across the plant-based cheese category.
“We think we can do better, and doing better means exploring the world of the plant kingdom. But doing that, is a nightmare for people like us,” Sorlin admitted, laughing. “We realized we cannot do it by ourselves, but with help from artificial intelligence we thought we might find the right plants with the right proportions and in the right combination to mimic dairy cheese.”
Enter Climax Foods Inc. – a frontrunner in using artificial intelligence and machine learning to quickly and accurately scour the plant kingdom to find proteins, lipids, flavors, precursors and other elements to recreate animal products, including several high-end cheeses that “no one can tell apart from dairy in blind tastings,” according to Oliver Zahn, CEO and founder of Climax Foods, Inc.
He explained to FoodNavigator-USA that Climax Foods used cheese – “which checks a lot of the boxes of what constitutes a food product because it has a complex protein-lipid-carb maxtrix, is fermented and delivers a lot of functionalities people care about, like melt and stretch” – to train its Deep Plant Intelligence platform to recreate from scratch complex foods using plants much more quickly than people.
Bel’s scale, commitment to sustainability attracted Climax Foods
But as a small team, Climax Foods wasn’t able to take these learnings to the mass market – which is what Bel Foods brings to the partnership.
“Their R&D capabilities are very, very impressive, and they apply a lot of the very similar analytical methods that we use at Climax … and the idea that we could share instrumentation to collect much more data together… was very, very exciting,” Zahn said.
As was the appeal of Bel’s scale and dozens of factories around the globe to make products in large enough quantities and at a price point comparable to dairy so that more people could access them, added Zahn.
He also noted that he was attracted to Bel’s commitment to sustainability and its understanding – an acceptance – of the challenge that animals pose in the food system, based on a “brutal” lifecycle analysis the company undertook several years ago.
“The leadership team is doing as much as possible to convert to plant-based foods as long as they can be equally delicious, equally nutritious and equally affordable, because they want to feed humans good, healthy food, and at the same time do what is right for the planet,” he said.
‘We found … hidden functionalities and protein sources that are very widely available’
In the short time the two companies have worked together, they have already created promising prototypes for plant-based versions of Bel’s beloved BabyBel, which they hope to bring to market by the end of 2024 and which they believe offers better nutrition and taste experience than the existing plant-based version on the market.
“We were a bit surprised at how quickly some of these came together,” Zahn admitted, explaining one reason why so few plant-based cheeses on the market today have protein – a major draw for dairy cheese – is because the plant-based protein isolates available historically are “intrinsically gritty and have very strong flavors.”
“As soon as you had a little bit [of plant-based protein] it really ruins the flavor and texture. And so it is better to just have nutritionally vapid fat-starch matrix that doesn’t have these horrible flavors,” he explained.
But even with this trade off, many existing options don’t melt “like real cheese,” he added.
With the help of Climax Food’s AI platform, “what we found is there are hidden functionalities and protein sources that are very widely available that can be isolated in a very high yields, and when you make these switches for proteins, lipids and other modifications, all of a sudden you can really turn them into true animal product replacements,” he said.
As excited as the companies are about their discoveries and early prototypes, they are waiting to disclose the ingredients, which Sorlin notes are already GRAS, until they have finalized production at scale.
Co-branding is cornerstone in go-to-market strategy
When the new plant-based BabyBel goes to market, it will be co-branded with Climax Foods, as the partnership allows the companies to screen, optimize and commercialize the ingredients they find together.
The companies also plan to launch a full suite of plant-based cheeses from Bel’s iconic line-up in short succession because once it creates that ideal plant-based milk to use as a base, small changes to create different varieties should follow quickly, Zahn said.
The company anticipates fast consumer trial and adoption given Bel’s strong reputation, broad distribution and trusted place in many shoppers’ grocery carts.
The partnership is part of a larger strategy by Bel Group to leverage different technologies to create more environmentally-friendly and nutrient-dense food.
It follows another high-profile collaboration with Superbrewed Food announced last summer to develop cheese with a ‘postbioitc cultured protein’ made through biomass fermentation.


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Ford is betting big in China and has announced that it will launch 30 new models in the country. The automaker also plans to ramp production of vehicles within China specifically for that market. Some of those models will be existing vehicles like the 2019 Ford F-150.
The Ford Taurus may be dead in the U.S., but in China, the car is still going strong. The 2020 Ford Taurus has debuted with a facelift in China with sales set to begin later this year. The North America Taurus rode on the old D3 platform, but the Chinese version rolls on a stretched version of the Fusion CD4 architecture.
The facelift made the 2020 Ford Taurus look more modern and makes it longer and wider overall than the version it will replace. The grille of the car is hexagonal with chrome-plated elements, new headlights, and LED turn signals that act as daytime running lights. The rear of the car has LED taillights with a chrome trim.
Buyers of the 2020 Ford Taurus will have several wheel design options to go with the new style. While Ford did offer up several shots of the outside of the car, it hasn’t offered any images of the interior of the refreshed 2020 Ford Taurus. We also have no details on the engines that will be used in the range.
Speculation suggests that there will be various gas EcoBoost engines, possibly up to 245 horsepower. The new Taurus will be built in China under the Changan-Ford joint venture. The car will be on sale later this year, so details on the engines and interior should be coming. Ford has been working to make its cars more popular to Chinese buyers and its operation more successful in China and has done so in part by swapping foreign executives with local talent.


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The Indian auto major Tata Motors is still struggling to increase its monthly sales rates even when the Indian car market is again showing good signs of positive growth. In such a time Tata Motors is planning to launch a slew of new cars in the domestic market which includes the much awaited entirely new Zest and Bolt models. The Tata Zest is a highly awaited sedan from the Indian car maker, as this car is going to launch with an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) technology, which was recently introduced in India by Maruti Suzuki in its Celerio hatchback. The upcoming new Tata Zest is expected to launch in India this August.
Tata Motors first unveiled its much speculated Zest sedan in India at the 2014 Indian Auto Expo alongside Tata’s upcoming hatchback Bolt which will also launch around the same time as the Zest.
Tata Motors is currently facing fierce market competition in the domestic Indian market and is steadily losing its market shares to its major rivals. However, the launch of the new cars including the Zest and Bolt are expected to boost sales for Tata considerably.
Some of the primary features of the Tata Zest will include the following:
- First in class F-tronic diesel Automated Manual Transmission
- New Revotron 1.2 liter Turbocharged MPFi motor facilitating multiple drive modes, namely City mode, Eco mode and Sport mode.
- LED Daytime running lights
- LED tail lights
- Entirely Tata patent front grille
- Harman touchscreen multimedia system
- Voice recognition system and SMS readouts
The new Tata Zest will be available in 4 petrol and 3 diesel variants, and its price range is expected to be around Rs. 5.5 lakhs to Rs. 7.6 lakhs. The petrol Zest will get a 1.2 liter turbocharged Revotron mill generating 85 PS of max power and peak torque of 140 Nm. The diesel Zest will pack in a 1.3 liter Quadrajet mill delivering 90 PS of max power and 200Nm of peak torque. The Tata Zest’s rivals will include Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire, Hyundai Xcent and Honda Amaze.


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Today, crypto services company Blockchain.com, announced the launch of its new Visa debit card. With the Blockchain.com Visa card, users can spend any crypto in their Blockchain.com Wallet without fees while earning 1% back in crypto on all purchases. Key Features: Works like a debit card – Pay from crypto or cash balances anywhere Visa […]
The post Crypto services company Blockchain.com opens waitlist for new Visa debit card appeared first on CryptoNinjas.
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Voyager Innovations, a Philippine-based company behind the end-to-end money platform PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, announced today that it had raised US$120 million in funding, which has helped the company secure a unicorn status with valuations of US$1.4-billion.
The funding round was led by SIG Venture Capital and included new investors such as EDBI and First Pacific Company. The round was also participated by existing shareholders such as telco company PLDT, global investment firm KKR, Tencent, International Finance Corporation (IFC), IFC Emerging Asia, and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund.
According to the company, they will allocate the funds to launch Maya Bank services, including savings and credit products, through PayMaya, which has over 47-million registered users and is one of the most popular financial apps in the Philippines, along with Gcash and Coins. The company was also one of the six to secure Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) from the BSP in September 2021 and commenced pilot testing in March.
PayMaya has also rolled out a cryptocurrency feature in its mobile app, allowing users to buy and trade digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, making cryptocurrencies more accessible to the public.
Together with their cryptocurrency feature, the company also plans to introduce micro-investments and insurance products to PayMaya, including online remittances, bill payments, digital wallets, bank transfers, prepaid cards, and an e-commerce feature PayMaya Mall.
“Our strong record of execution and innovation is a testament to our world-class team’s hard work and talent. With this milestone, we are excited to leap forward and bring the best of PayMaya and Maya Bank to help unlock the digital economy for the underserved and unbanked Filipinos.” as said in a press statement by Orlando B. Vea, the CEO-Founder of Voyager and PayMaya.
The company claims to have enabled over 630,000 online and face-to-face touchpoints to accept digital payments from e-wallets and QR to any credit, debit, and prepaid card.


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MINNEAPOLIS, April 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Basketful, a Minneapolis technology firm simplifying grocery shopping, powers add to cart solutions that connect digital grocery content to carts for brands, publishers, and consumers. Powering this is their network of more than 50 US retailer integrations, visibility to 10,000+ stores, and knowledge of 150 million product and store combinations.
Basketful is announcing the expansion of their capabilities to the full basket with the launch of the Basketful Grocery List Mobile App -- the world's smartest grocery list. This consumer facing app allows US shoppers to create, share, and shop their grocery lists from their smartphone. With access to 50+ US retailers covering 95% of US households, consumers can shop their lists in-store or send their lists to their local retailer with pickup and delivery options.
66% of consumers still leverage paper or whiteboards for managing their households' weekly grocery needs. In addition, 87% of consumers shop multiple grocery stores over the course of a month. The Basketful Grocery List allows simpler shopping, the ability to manage lists across multiple stores, seamless list sharing, and the flexibility to shop their lists in-store or on-line with visibility to local inventory and pricing.
"Grocery shopping is a routine, yet cumbersome activity" says COO Jim Lesch, "and we believe providing shoppers with more convenience and personalization can dramatically simplify the experience". Basketful's unique understanding of the grocery network and store distribution removes the complexity from the grocery shopping experience, allowing consumers to more quickly turn food inspiration into reality. "Our mission is to simplify grocery shopping" says CEO Eugene Burd, "and allowing consumers to save time and money while making the experience as easy as possible".
Upgrade your Grocery List at Basketful.co!


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KFC, Apple targeted after South China Sea court verdict
The People's Daily calls for "rational patriotism"
Nationalist sentiment has swept China in the wake of last week’s international tribunal ruling over the South China Sea, with protests targeting KFC, Apple and Filipino fruit.
But the Chinese government has had enough, telling protestors through the the state-run People’s Daily newspaper Wednesday that they are being “irrational and disruptive.”
On July 12, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled overwhelmingly in favor of the Philippines, saying there was no legal basis for China’s claim to a large part of the South China Sea. China strongly rejected the decision.
In the week after the ruling, videos and pictures of nationalists boycotting U.S. food chains – the ultimate U.S. symbol in their eyes – have been posted on social media in several Chinese cities.
Chinese news portal Sohu.com reported that residents from an estimated 11 Chinese cities launched a boycott movement against KFC on Monday.
In Changsha in Hunan province, residents held up a banner outside a KFC restaurant that reads: “Get out of China, KFC and McDonald’s.”
On Tuesday, police in central China’s Henan province detained three people outside a KFC outlet over organizing a disruptive boycott.
Meanwhile, a campaign of smashing iPhones has taken off on social media, in protest against U.S. tech giant Apple.
Defiant rap and patriotic mango
Since the South China Sea ruling was handed down, a musical video compiling Chinese citizens rapping “South Sea arbitration, who cares?” has gained nearly 4.9 million views on social media platform Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
At one point the video, which was backed by the Chinese Communist Party Youth League, shows two young women in camouflage clothing repeat the lyrics while showing off daggers.
Anti-Philippines sentiment can even be felt on China’s largest online shopping web site Taobao, with sellers offering locally grown dried mango instead of fruit grown in the Philippines.
“We only sell domestic dried mangoes! …. Safeguard the South China Sea,” one seller wrote.
In recent days the government has begun to indicate protests should cease, similar to when when mass rallies across China following a similar territorial dispute with Japan in 2012 were strongly discouraged by the Chinese government.
South China Sea: Full coverage
State media has begun to criticize the protests as “irrational,” saying they could harm China’s reputation.
“Any action that promotes national development can rightfully be called patriotic. But so-called patriotism that willfully sacrifices public order will only bring damage to the nation and society,” a People’s Daily editorial said Wednesday.
“Pragmatic and effective patriotism only counts If we can all rationalize our actions, converting patriotic concept into action, contributing to the national development by fulfilling our own duties,” state news agency Xinhua commented.
Analysts say the ruling has sparked an outburst of nationalism among Chinese.
“It will further escalate nationalist sentiment in a big nation like China, which is might is right,” Wang Jiangyu, law professor with the National University of Singapore, said. “In fact, it has immediately forced many of China’s moderates to become hawks.”
But not all Chinese social media users are in favor of this type of behavior.
“I am Chinese; I think the boycotters are idiots and I am boycotting them,” Weibo user @Age_AVR commented.
Calls to Yum! China, the company that owns KFC, and Apple, went unanswered.
CNN’s Beijing intern Sean Zhong contributed to this report.


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(By Balachander) IWatt Inc., a California-based maker of power management integrated circuits (ICs), has filed to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering.
The filing with the U.S. federal regulators did not disclose how many shares the company plans to offer or the pricing terms.
The company's chips are used by companies including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE), Konka Group and Royal Philips Electronics.
IWatt, which plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol IWAT, is backed by Horizon Ventures, Vantage Point Capital Partners and Sigma Partners, among others.
IWatt has shipped more than one billion power management ICs since 2007, including more than 400 million ICs in 2011, according to the regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's revenue was $50.4 million in 2011, up from $18.6 million in 2009.
The company - founded in 1999 - said sales to Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) and Foxlink, the original design manufacturers that incorporate its chips into products for Apple, in aggregate represented 18 percent of its total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2011.
IWatt said it increased the number of total customers and the volume of sales generated from a limited number of customers during fiscal year 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The company expects that trend to continue as the markets for its products develop.
"We believe our current cash, along with net cash provided by operating activities, will be sufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements for at least the next 12 months," IWatt said. "Our liquidity may be negatively impacted as a result of a decline in sales of our products due to a decline in our end markets, decrease in sales of our customers' products in the market, or adoption of competitors' products."
Deutsche Bank Securities and Barclays are the joint bookrunners to the offerings.


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Cheap international calls from your mobile will soon on offer from mobile giant O2 following the launch of its latest add-on, ‘International Favourites’.
O2 has designed International Favourites to target the UK’s £1.4 billion international calling market. Costing from £10 per month, O2 claims that when it launches the new add-on at the end of October, International Favourites will be ‘one of the best deals on offer for the six million people that regularly call abroad’.
O2’s new offer is aimed at people calling abroad from the UK rather than people who want to take their mobile phone on holiday.
International Favourites costs
O2’s International Favourites will be available as an add-on for O2 pay-as-you-go or pay-monthly customers for a fixed monthly fee on top of existing pacakge costs. The add-on has a one-month rolling contract.
- £10 a month gets you 3,000 minutes (50 hours) to three nominated international landline numbers
- £20 a month gets you 3,000 minutes (50 hours) to three nominated international landline numbers plus 200 minutes to five nominated international mobile numbers
You can change your nominated phone numbers on a monthly basis if you wish.
‘Call me’ number
Both options also provide a ‘Call me’ phone number. ‘Call me’ gives ‘International Favourites’ customers a local phone number in one of 42 countries that can be given to unlimited friends and family members in that country.
When contacts in that country call the local number, from either a landline or a mobile, it will connect to the O2 customer’s UK mobile but will cost the caller no more than their standard local rate.
Cheap overseas calling alternatives
O2 says existing rivals to its new deal include:
- Sim-only mobile providers, such as Lebara and Lycamobile – which specialise in cheap overseas calls
- International phone cards
- Skype and other Voip providers, which offer cheaper overseas calls via your computer
However, O2 described the international phone card market as ‘kind of grubby’, and filled with lots of hidden and costly catches. It added that unlike Sim-only providers and Skype, O2’s new deal is aimed at people who don’t want to have to put a new Sim in their phone to make international calls, and who don’t want to be tied to their PC or landline to be able to make or receive calls.
Which? mobile expert Ceri Stanaway says: ‘At first impression, £10 per month seems like a hefty fee to call just three landline international numbers.
‘However, if you make lots of international calls from your mobile, using International Favourites may work out cheaper than sticking to your mobile’s standard overseas rate. If you have lots of friends and family based overseas and value the flexibility of making and receiving overseas calls wherever you – and your mobile – happen to be, O2’s new ‘International Favourites’ is worth considering.’
O2’s International Favourites add-on was developed following its purchase of mobile Voip company Jajah earlier in 2010 – relevant calls are carried over this mobile Voip network.
O2 told Which? that this is the first step in its new plan to become market leader in the international calling market, and that it will be investigating other propositions – such as pay-as-you-go international calling plans – in the future.
If O2’s new add-on tempts you to switch, check first how O2 fared in the Which? reviews of the best mobile networks, plus more at Which? Mobile.
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The Junior League of Columbus' 54th annual Attic Sale is Sept. 20 in the Columbus Civic Center. Doors open at 8 a.m., but some people get there as early as 5 a.m. Admission is $1.
This bargain hunter's paradise is a tradition for many families.
There are clothes for men, women, children and babies, furniture, electronic equipment, toys, books, appliances, household goods and other items.
If you want to beat the Saturday morning crowd, check out the Door Busters Sale at 5-7 p.m. Sept. 19. Admission is $10 and all sale prices are doubled. But you can still get good deals.
The Attic Sale is the Junior League's biggest fund-raiser of the year. The proceeds from this year's sale go to more than 25 local agencies. Members volunteer more than 7,500 hours of their time each year.
Sponsors this year are St. Francis Hospital, Aflac, Burger King and Livingston Allied.
The Junior League of Columbus' membership is 750 women who are dedicated to promoting volunteerism and improving the community.
Call Mara Kelly at 706-984-5013.


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Doing well, doing good: Companies help communities harmed by war on drugs
The legal cannabis industry isn’t merely budding. It’s. Blowing. Up. By some estimates, it’ll be worth $50 billion by 2026. But as big as its potential is, it’s got an even bigger problem: It’s mostly white men that the industry is making very, very wealthy.
All the while there are still an estimated 40,000 people locked up for marijuana offenses, a disproportionate number of whom are Black and Latino. And the harm doesn’t stop there. While sales of the plant are raking in a lot of green, the resource-heavy process of cultivating it, packaging it and selling it is not. Thankfully, there are more and more companies popping up that are rooted in ethical and equitable practices of cultivation and distribution — and making sure the communities most harmed by the war on drugs will have an opportunity to benefit from legalization. And consumers can help propel the industry in the right direction by supporting the companies doing it right.
KindColorado started in 2015 as a consulting agency for the cannabis sector, but founders Kelly Perez and Courtney Mathis didn’t want to just encourage cannabis companies to adopt ethical practices. They also wanted to set a standard for social responsibility that could be recognized by consumers who care. This idea turned into Cannabis Doing Good, an organization they co-founded three years ago. Cannabis Doing Good aims to organize the industry around equitable, sustainable and community-centric best business practices while providing pathways for consumers to support companies that use them.
To that end, they are launching the Cannabis Doing Good standard — a certification and labeling system that they say will make it easy to identify purpose-driven cannabis brands.
“There’s a deep, deep desire for a purpose-driven community to exist and for them to be given a platform to interact with and support one another,” says Mathis. “And that’s really what we hope Cannabis Doing Good will achieve.”
The Cannabis Doing Good standard, which they plan to officially launch in May, recognizes companies making an impact in three areas: community engagement, sustainability and equity.
With over 15 years of experience in nonprofit consulting, Mathis is clear on the issues that the growth of the cannabis industry presents and on the solutions.
“This industry is built on the backs of Black and brown people. We understand that whole communities should benefit from this cultural sea change, but that it isn’t going to equitably benefit folks unless we set it up that way. Consumers and patients have a lot of power in their dollar. Supporting brands that align with their values is how they’ll influence the market and create an industry that’s founded on values, people and planet.”
Here are six cannabis brands that Perez and Mathis recommend for their exceptional practices around equity, community and sustainability.
Fewer than 5% of cannabis companies in the U.S. are Black owned. To lower barriers for licensing for those hit hardest by the war on drugs, the city of San Francisco developed a Cannabis Equity Program. Among the first few companies to come from the program is SF Roots.
“One issue for me was my criminal record,” says founder and CEO Morris Kelly. “I was fighting a trafficking case. One of the hardest things for me was having to put my trust in a system that has never really been for me before. And now we’re heavily involved in the community, mentoring, advising and supporting other equity applicants that are trying to come in alongside us.”
Kelly has built a popular line of flower, pre-rolls, tinctures and apparel, available at over 28 retailers throughout the state. He encourages cannabis consumers to be conscious of which brands they buy.
“Your purchasing dollar goes a long way. When you support a company like SF Roots or another social equity company, you’re supporting the community instead of a corporation with an endless burn rate (burning quickly through investment money). I think that’s important to point out. A lot of companies love to wave a big fancy banner, but they’re more focused on extracting capital, as opposed to creating generational wealth and communities.’’
Shop SF Roots: sfroots.com
Osanyin founders Esailama Artry-Diouf and Shiree Dyson believe in collective healing and empowerment through cannabis and the arts. Osanyin offers an extensive variety of brands as well as a line of cannabis flowers and pre-rolls they cultivate on-site in Oakland. As an African Diasporic, artist- and women-owned company, Osanyin has become a lifestyle brand that is as conscious as it is cool.
“Black people have operated in this industry globally for a long time and have been judged, oppressed and marginalized within the industry,” says Artry-Diouf. “Some of our employees have been incarcerated because they’ve participated within this industry. So part of our movement has been how can we shift the narrative about what we call the legacy market, a.k.a. illegal, offer mentorship and commit to a regulated market?”
One answer they came up with was stocking only other equity brands. “We only do business with people who are like-minded in this movement,” says Dyson. Osanyin also develops and implements its own seeds and strains.
“We put our money where our mouth is in terms of not only building a business that is for and by us, but we reinvest within the communities in which we come from and that we represent.” says Dyson.
Shop Osanyin: osanyinllc.com
The People’s Dispensary
After being sick for three years, seeing 22 doctors in two states and having no real diagnosis, Christine De La Rosa survived a life-threatening pulmonary embolism back in 2010, and was finally diagnosed with lupus. For years, she was prescribed more than 10 pills a day, including opioids. Then one day a friend, chef Charleen Caabay, gave her homemade edibles to try.
“I took it that night, and I had the best sleep I’d had probably in the last two or three years because my pain was just so intense. When I woke up, I had actually had restful sleep. So that was my first foray into using cannabis as medicine. And I started to really be thoughtful about it,” says De La Rosa. But when De La Rosa and Caabay looked at the cannabis industry, they didn’t see anyone who looked like themselves: people of color, women, queer, disabled, veterans, formerly incarcerated, and living with chronic illness.
Together, along with a collective of community co-founders and supporters, they started the People’s Dispensary, a cannabis delivery service in Oakland, and plan to add their own line of products over the next few months.
“The cannabis industry is one of the only industries I can think of in the 20th century that was actually built by Black and brown people — as owners and operators, not only as laborers — in the informal market, and has been stolen in the formal market by white corporations,” says De La Rosa. “If you’re someone who supports BIPOC, women, LGBTQ+ people, and you support cannabis, then you should demand that there’ll be equal representation in the industry.”
Shop the People’s Dispensary: thepeoplesdispensary.com
Dogwood Botanicals is a woman-owned business in the Bay Area by way of east Tennessee. Its founders, Katie Pilgrim and Jamie Boling, have a combined 20 years of experience in the cannabis industry, but teamed up to bring hemp products to people across the country. Their offerings include a Calendula Rose CBD cream and flavorless CBD drops. The two friends-turned-business partners are working to demystify CBD and promote its wellness benefits.
“I think that CBD has been a really great entry point for so many folks who maybe never had access to cannabis, never even tried it and were afraid to, and now are able to try a couple drops of something like our flavorless CBD drops and find that they’re taking care of their system in a way that they hadn’t before,” says Boling.
With a heavy focus on ethical practices, the Dogwood Botanicals product line uses hemp that is grown and manufactured on an organic family farm in Colorado. All shipping materials and paper products used are biodegradable and sourced from 100% recycled materials. They also donate 1%+ of all sales to grassroots organizations working toward cannabis equity, like the Cannabis Impact Fund.
Shop Dogwood Botanicals: dogwoodbotanicals.com
Terrapin Care Station
Terrapin Care Station is proof that big doesn’t have to mean bad. The sizable corporation cultivates and provides both medical and retail cannabis products and boasts competitive prices and high quality. They offer an extensive variety, including flower, vape, topicals, tinctures, edibles and more. What really sets them apart, though, is not what they sell or do, but how. Based in Boulder, Colo., the company has always placed a strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility, and is hailed as a leader in doing so.
“It’s very important to us to be actively engaged in our communities and be responsible community members making a positive impact,” says communications director Peter Marcus. “Our corporate social responsibility program is called Terrapin for the People, where we focus on five pillars that have direct or incidental connections to cannabis: arts and culture, veterans issues, political advocacy, justice initiatives and human needs.”
Terrapin is also focused on keeping their operations as eco-friendly as possible. While they are growing, they are still independently owned by founder Chris Woods, who prioritizes sustainability.
Shop Terrapin Care Station: terrapincarestation.com
Founded by David Bronner, grandson of the iconic Dr. Bronner, whose organic All-One soap you may be familiar with, Brother David’s is leading the way for a more sustainable and equitable future for cannabis. It’s the first in the industry to donate 100% of profits to charity. It’s also the first to receive Sun & Earth certification, which means that the cannabis is grown under the sun, in the soil and chemical-free, by fairly paid farmers.
“We’re focused on giving away all of our profits. But it’s specific to the cannabis industry. All the profits support small-scale family farms, cannabis farms, that are farming regeneratively and organically. But then as the income streams grow, we’ll tackle larger issues around criminal justice and drug policy reform.”
The Bronners have already donated over $60 million to activist causes, including over $5 million to fight prohibition of cannabis on the state and federal level. Their line of goods can be purchased in 1/8-ounce jars, 1 gram jars and pre-rolled joints.
Shop Brother David’s: brotherdavids.com
This story was produced in partnership with Represent Collaborative (Rep Co), a San Francisco media initiative focused on racial and social justice. Rep Co works collaboratively with subjects to produce stories about Black and brown communities. Learn more at www.representcollaborative.com.


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Amazon took the wraps off a new batch of Alexa-powered products in a Wednesday event that seemed like a non-stop firehose of hardware. Among the products unveiled at the Seattle HQ: a high-end , the new , an and a three-in-one . The online retail giant also debuted earphones and the connected eyewear, both part of its Day 1 Editions program for experimental products. The company also introduced a host of new functions and features that allow users to better control their privacy.
The new products and features fell broadly on two themes, mobility and privacy. The earbuds and glass frames, as well as products for autos and a connected ring (as in jewelry) point to Amazon’s desire to break its Alexa smart assistant out of our living rooms and into our broader lives. The vision appears to be making Alexa a service we take with us where ever we go.
Similarly, Amazon appears to be hearing our concerns about privacy, an issue that jumped to the fore after news broke that the companylived on even after we asked for them to be erased. The company added a voice command that lets you and said it will let people delete Alexa voice recordings on a rolling 3-month or 8-month basis. It also touted a and a new feature for its Ring video doorbells called that pauses audio and video recording when the owner is home.
Amazon also dropped the price on its Sidewalk, which extends connectivity outside the house.and introduced
All of the above might sound like a lot. But we were on the ground in Seattle and can tell you there was a lot more. Here are the highlights.
Last year, the company announced a dozen new devices, from theto the , the and the . Since then, Amazon released a new smart display — the . It’s also come under fire for hiring people . The company also acquired the video doorbell company Ring, for its work with police departments across the country, and .
Wearables and Day 1 Editions
Echo Buds are real, too, and include Bose noise reduction. They join the Echo Frames smart glasses as part of a new Day 1 Editions program for experimental Alexa implementations. The Echo Loop is a Day 1 Edition smart ring.
Echo and Alexa
They opened with new Alexa commands, the ability to mimic celebrities and privacy updates for Ring (home mode) and Alexa (such as automatic deletion of data). Plus, a bunch of new Echos, of course, highlighted by a high-end model that supports Dolby Atmos streaming from 4K Fire TVs and pairing. And kid-friendly features and models, such as the Echo Glow.
Frustrated by smart-home setup? Now Amazon has a frustration-free Certified for Humans program to make smart lights, plugs and appliances totally foolproof. Also, it rolled out the first product from the Eero acquisition, the… Eero, as well as Alexa’s ability to manage Wi-Fi. The Echo Flex spreads access points inconspicuously throughout your home, with a plug-in motion sensor or night light. Ring gets plug-ins and a Stick-up Cam, including its first indoor-only camera at a new low price of $59.
And how do you follow up the Amazon Microwave? With the Amazon Smart Oven, bundled with an Echo Dot. Amazon also extends the reach of your control via Amazon Sidewalk.


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In confirming news previously leaked by a GameStop flyer detailing their Black Friday deals, Nintendo of America have today announced that they are to release two limited edition Nintendo 3DS bundles on November 24th.
You’ll be able to choose between either a Flame Red Nintendo 3DS system bundled with Super Mario 3D Land, or a special 25th anniversary Cosmo Black Nintendo 3DS marked with the Hyrule emblem and gold embellishments with a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D game thrown in.
These will be available at a recommended retail price of $199.99, and are already part of GameStop’s Black Friday deals in which such a price is discounted if you trade in your old Nintendo DS handheld against it.
Nintendo exit Brazilian market due to “unsustainable” distribution model
Nintendo of America have confirmed that they will no longer distribute their products in Brazil, indicating “challenges in…


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KDDI chooses 3G Femtocell from Hitachi and Airvana
February 2, 2018
Airvana, Inc. (NASDAQ: AIRV), today announced that it has been selected to provide KDDI with its 3G CDMA femtocells and Femtocell Service Manager, as part of a comprehensive solution being delivered by Hitachi.
Femtocells are home-based cellular access points
Mobile accessories market worth $40 billion and growing
February 25, 2016
The market for mobile phone accessories is to grow steadily in the next five years, generating over US$80 billion in revenues in 2012, according to ABI.
The market for mobile phone accessories will be worth over US$40 billion in revenues


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Superdry said that the old clothes left over by its former management team are to blame as it was forced to downgrade profits after a poor Christmas showing.
Revenue dropped sharply, by nearly 16% over the 10 weeks to January 4, the retailer said while store sales were particularly hard hit, falling 18.5%.
Despite a strong Black Friday, the period has been tough, Superdry said.
It comes as the business tries to charter a new course after a boardroom battle which saw the former management team replaced.
A key element of this is to focus on and return to full price sales and reduce promotional activity.Julian Dunkerton, chief executive
“Everyone at Superdry continues to work intensively to deliver the turnaround of the business,” said chief executive Julian Dunkerton, the company’s founder who returned in April last year.
“While we have always said it will take time, we continue to make progress in implementing our strategy.”
But having to fight discounts from rivals, the company floundered over the crucial Christmas period. It now expects underlying profit before tax to be between £0 and £10 million.
The business said it was “encouraged” by customer reaction to the clothes ranges the new management team has brought out since stepping up. However, this was not enough to offset the drag of old stock, which it is trying to sell off.
Meanwhile, there were shortages of some of the better-selling ranges.
The full impact of the new lines will be seen when Superdry launches its autumn/winter 2020 range, the company said.
“A key element of this is to focus on and return to full price sales and reduce promotional activity, and we halved the proportion of discounted sales over our peak trading period, benefiting both our margins and the Superdry brand,” Mr Dunkerton said.
“However this adversely affected our sales during the peak trading period given the level of promotional activity in the market.”
Online revenue fell 9.3% while wholesale dipped 16.9% in the 10-week period. The business is expected to present results for the full year in July.


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Self-checkout POS terminals in 23 Northern California Lucky Supermarkets stores were tampered with to allow thieves to collect card and PIN number data and steal thousands of dollars from Lucky customers. Save Mart Supermarkets, which owns and operates the Lucky supermarket chain, said that as of Dec. 7, 2011, more than 500 customers had reported fraudulent activity in their accounts as a result of the skimming operation.
According to published reports, a criminally altered terminal was discovered in a Lucky store in Mountain View, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2011. It was reportedly Nov. 11, 2011, before the company started looking for evidence of tampering in other stores.
On Nov. 14, 2011, POS terminal manufacturer VeriFone Inc. was notified and asked to examine a Lucky terminal for signs of tampering. Three days later VeriFone confirmed a problem with the terminal. Lucky then sent technicians to all its 233 Northern California stores to look for other tampered terminals.
By Nov. 22, the chain had found one tampered self-serve checkout terminal in each of 20 stores. The next day, Lucky issued a consumer breach notice to each of the 20 stores affected, stating it had found tampered terminals in those stores.
By Dec. 5, the supermarket chain had disclosed to consumers the number of compromised stores had risen to 23. Local news sources said the devices may have been installed in the Lucky stores as early as Oct. 1.
One store included in the Dec. 5 consumer alert was a Lucky store in Petaluma, Calif. Petaluma police said they received at least 140 reports of ATM thefts related to the Lucky breach. Petaluma Police Lt. Tim Lyons told The Green Sheet the POS terminals where the thefts occurred apparently contained unauthorized circuit boards inserted to collect card and PIN information.
Lyons also heard that a Bluetooth device may have been used to transmit the card and PIN information to a criminal collecting the information nearby. He said that as a result, some bank accounts were hit from ATMs many miles away before customers even left the Lucky parking lot.
Lyons indicated the lowest amount reportedly stolen in the Petaluma breach was $200. The highest amount was $3,000 - six unauthorized withdrawals of $500 in a single day. In some cases, the thieves were able to use the information collected to drain savings in addition to checking accounts, Lyons said.
Expressing concern over delays in notifying the public, one Petaluma customer told The Green Sheet that even though he wasn't robbed, he was upset with Lucky Supermarkets because he used the self-checkout four times between Nov. 17 and Dec. 5, 2011 - something he would not have done had the chain alerted him earlier about problems with the self-serve checkout terminals.
The investigation is being conducted by the San Francisco Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force. Secret Service Agent Andy Adelmann said the Secret Service has been working with Save Mart since at least the beginning of December but, as of Dec. 12, had not completed its forensic examination of the terminals, so he was unable to confirm how information was stolen or transmitted.
He did confirm there have been cases locally of organized criminals running operations similar to the one discovered by Lucky.
Save Mart Supermarkets Chief Financial Officer Stephen Ackerman told customers, "At this time, we strongly recommend that anyone who used our self-checkout terminals in the affected stores during the months of October and November consider closing their bank account and opening a new one."
VeriFone does not comment publicly on security-related situations under investigation, but VeriFone Media Relations spokesman Pete Bartolik said, "Public reports of breaches have not involved more recent generations of VeriFone products.
"The PCI Council proactively urges all merchants and acquirers to continually monitor installed payment devices and to replace older payment systems that no longer meet their published security standards."
Andrew Brandt, Director of Threat Research for Solera Networks Research Labs, said, "For Lucky to recommend that people close their bank account is outrageously excessive. What people who used a bank debit card (not a credit card) to pay at a Lucky store need to do is call their bank, warn the bank that their ATM card may have been skimmed and ask the bank to issue them a new ATM card with different numbers.
"It also would be good to ask that the maximum daily ATM withdrawal limit be reduced to the lowest possible amount - $100 or less - to reduce the losses." Brandt said "gangs of card skimmers" have been "pulling these kinds of scams" around the United States for at least the past two to three years. In Europe, where chip and PIN technology makes this kind of scam more difficult, the devices are typically altered at the factory to collect and transmit personal information - "a far more difficult-to-detect problem," Brandt said.
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)—India’s central bank announced the launch date for the first pilot of the country’s retail Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC]. With the launch in effect, the Digital Rupee will be in the form of a digital token representing legal tender, the RBI said on Tuesday.
Marking the date, the latest press release stated, “The Reserve Bank announces the launch of the first pilot for retail digital Rupee (ex-R) on December 01, 2022.“
According to the reports, the Digital Rupee will be distributed via intermediaries, i.e., banks. Users will be able to transact with the “e₹-R” directly by a digital wallet offered by the participating banks. It can be stored on mobile phones as well as other devices. Transactions can be of two types- Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M). In fact, payments concerning to the latter category can be made using QR codes displayed at merchant locations.
Highlighting what to expect from the forthcoming pilot launch, The RBI’s statement said,
“The pilot will test the robustness of the entire process of digital rupee creation, distribution, and retail usage in real-time. Different features and applications of the ex-R token and architecture will be tested in future pilots, based on the learnings from this pilot.”
Where do other countries stand?
Apart from India, a number of other nations around the world have been making significant progress on the CBDC trial-and-testing front. The Bank of Japan, for example, is aiming to launch its Digital Yen CBDC pilot in early next year. Right now, the central bank’s plan is to test with the digital pilot for two years and then discuss and decide whether to take the plan forward with the issuance in 2026. However, the participanting banks have not yet been revealed.
Similarly, on the other hand, Singapore has partnered with French and Swiss Central banks for its CBDC Project. According to recent reports, the MAS has landed on its journey to explore the possibility of CBDC for cross-border transactions. The country’s national bank went on to name the project as Ubin+.


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Cheese fanatics — today is your day.
The sandwich pros have just released a limited-edition bread that has taken cheese dreams to whole new level.
For the first time in Australia, the fast-food chain is offering customers the Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread which it describes as the “bad boy” of its Subway menu.
For more stories like this, visit news.com.au
Subway's new Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread has three layers of mozarella cheese. Source: Supplied.
“Customers can also enjoy hot, grilled paninis, flavour-packed wraps and crispy salads,” Ms Brennan said.
“We’re continuing to innovate our food, with new menu options designed especially for the Aussie lifestyle.”
The Ultimate Cheesy Garlic bread range is being launched with new menu options. including the Ultimate Meatball Sub... Source: Supplied.
When and where?
The Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread range is available from July 1 in all Subway restaurants across Australia and is available for delivery with Uber Eats.
Having just hit stores nationally, it’s only a matter of time until Aussies reveal what they really think of the new menu item and share their verdict.
...and the Ultimate Pizza Sub. Source: Supplied.
Subway Australia is launching three signature flavours in the Ultimate range: The Ultimate Toastie, The Ultimate Meatball Sub, the Ultimate Pizza Sub.
The Ultimate Toastie is a take on the traditional garlic bread, which has zesty spice seasoning and melted mozzarella.
Just like any sub, the Ultimate subs can be made any way you like it.


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Toyota HQ had a plan – to preview the road-going Supra at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon with its race car counterpart in concept form. However, Toyota Mexico’s faux pas kind of ruined the plan by accidentally tweeting a video of the A90 in all of its glory days before its proper reveal at the Detroit Auto Show. That being said, it doesn’t mean we should just simply ignore the GR Supra Super GT especially since it’s more than just a preview of the fifth-generation Supra.
As our sister site Autosport.com reports, the concept currently on display at TAS will morph into a race car for the 2020 season and will take part in the Super GT class, which will adopt the Class One regulations co-created with DTM. By bringing back the Supra on the race track, Toyota will replace Lexus in the series, so 2019 will be the last year when we’ll see the LC fighting in the series.
It’s worth mentioning this is not the first race car concept to be revealed by Toyota based on the upcoming Supra. Nearly a year ago at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, the GR Supra Racing concept was introduced to signal the automaker’s intentions of developing a track-ready version through its Toyota Gazoo Racing division.
In regards to the road-going Supra, we’ve been waiting for it since January 2014 when Toyota introduced the FT-1 concept at the Detroit Auto Show. Five years and a dozen of teasers later, its production-ready equivalent will premiere on Monday, January 14. A hotter GRMN derivative has already been confirmed and is going to be launched later in the A90’s life cycle.
As a final note, the Supra GRMN won’t be the flagship model of Toyota’s go-faster Gazoo Racing division as that role has been reserved to the GR Super Sport hypercar. Yes, Toyota is making a hypercar with nearly 1,000 bhp.


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The French publisher Ubisoft has announced its line-up for the upcoming Gamescom 2019 in Cologne. No big surprises can be read from it, but Ubisoft is represented with several top titles at one of the largest video game fair in the world. Highlights include Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Trials Rising.
The publisher Ubisoft is setting the mood for Gamescom 2019 with a trailer, which will take place from August 20 to 24 in the Cologne exhibition center. Ubisoft will be represented with numerous games including Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Roller Champions, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Watch Dogs: Legion, Just Dance 2020, Trials Rising and Brawlhalla.
In addition, Ubisoft will be part of the new opening show Gamescom: Opening Night Live and Rainbow Six Siege fans will also get their money's worth with the German National Finals.
Ubisoft at Gamescom: big names - no surprises
Even if there are hardly any surprises with Ubisoft's games line-up, the French publisher has a "musical gift" for all fans who visit Gamescom on Friday or Saturday: For all guests who are open on Fridays and Saturdays Gamescom are on the road, there will be a little preview of the Assassin's Creed Symphony concert in Dusseldorf (October 4th) and Zurich (November 30th). Ubisoft offers three appointments a day on the Ubisoft stage in Hall 6.1, Stand B020.
Gamers will have many opportunities to pass the time at the Ubisofts game stations in Hall 6.1 (B020). Highlights include the hands-on demos for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Roller Champions. There will also be a live demo of Watch Dogs: Legion. There is new content on other games on stage, including Just Dance 2020, Trials Rising, Brawlhalla and more. It remains to be seen whether there will be any unannounced surprises.
Gamescom is a festival of games and gamers that Ubisoft is always happy to attend. This year, players will have the opportunity to interact with our teams and get their first glimpse into the future of technologies like cloud gaming and the impact it will have on our industry. It's an exciting moment, not just for us as developers, but also for the players to learn more about the experiences we're developing.
Alain Corre, Ubisoft EMEA Executive Director
The Rainbow Six Siege German National Finals will take place during the fair, in the Dock-One event room at Hafenstrasse 1 on August 22nd and 23rd. Ubisoft is not only bringing games and music to Cologne, the publisher also has plenty of merchandise in its luggage. In Hall 5.2 (A010) the Ubisoft merchandise stand offers, among other things, exclusive fan articles.
We publish the latest news from the areas of board and card games, literature and film, toys, video games and events. Send us an email with your press release.


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Xiaomi rejects eScan report that alleged security flaws in MIUI system apps
Xiaomi says the security vulnerability pointed out by eScan is “theoretical.” So, are the Xiaomi smartphones safe enough? Here’s what the two sides have to say.
In its report, eScan had alleged that Xiaomi's MI-Mover app, which helps you move your apps and data from an old device to a Mi Phone, "overrides the application sandbox of the Android OS."
"Any device-administrator app can be uninstalled without revoking its device-admin rights. Unlike other smartphones, Xiaomi with MI-Mover can be cloned in few minutes without needing to root the device. MIUI devices rather than deleting, hides the Work-Profile Admin app," said the report, while adding it's not "easy to delete the Work-Profile," the report claimed.
It added that the inability to differentiate workspace profile from personal profile poses a "serious challenge from the security point of view in Enterprise Mobility Management." You can read eScan's full report here.
"Any perpetrator who gains physical access to an unlocked phone, is capable of malicious activity and an unlocked phone is greatly at risk of user data being stolen. This is why, we at Xiaomi encourage our users to be more aware of guarding their private data using PIN, Pattern locks, or the onboard fingerprint sensor available on most of our smartphones. In fact, prompting users to enable fingerprint lock is a standard step when setting up a Xiaomi smartphone for first use," the report continued.
"Mi Mover is designed to be a convenient tool for our users to move their data from an old smartphone to a new phone. In order for Mi Mover to initiate this process, a password is required. More importantly, in order to use Mi Mover, the smartphone has to be unlocked. Thus, there are two layers of protection for the user - phone lock and a Mi Mover password that are necessary," it added.
"Further, as per the Escan report, "As part of exploiting the issue you describe, someone needs to take control of a user's mobile phone and get that phone in an unlocked state. This is a very high barrier to entry and seems unlikely to happen commonly, making this more of a theoretical attack. The protection, in this case, is to not allow someone to steal and unlock your phone," Xiaomi's report concluded.