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THE final daily edition of the Scunthorpe Telegraph is published today.
From next week, your Telegraph is to become a weekly newspaper, heralding the dawn of a new and exciting era.
Since 1937, the Telegraph has provided unrivalled coverage of news in North Lincolnshire and campaigned tirelessly on behalf of readers and the area.
Our place at the heart of the community will be cemented as the switch to a weekly publication will enable us to provide more valued content, more in-depth stories and allow us to satisfy the changing requirements of readers and advertisers.
And in our first edition next Thursday, there will be a chance to win free petrol and an iPad 2. We will also reveal the 200 community groups who have won a share of the £20,000 cash jackpot being given out in our Cash For Your Community campaign.
In future weeks, there will be savings on your food bills and special money-off vouchers.
Of course, your Telegraph will remain the must-have medium for news, sport and information.
And we will continue to deliver jobs, property, motors and classified advertising for customers.
The reason for the move has been well documented in recent weeks.
Since its inception 74 years ago, the Telegraph has evolved to meet the needs of a population that has busier lifestyles and less time to read a local newspaper.
And in the face of declining circulation and advertising revenues, the best way of securing a sustainable future is to become a weekly title.
Next week’s publication will include our monthly Business Telegraph supplement and is expected to total more than 170 pages.
Editor Mel Cook said: “The editorial and advertising teams have been working hard to produce a bumper first edition. The new paper will be crammed with news, sport and features and we welcome a host of advertisers, old and new.
“We are looking forward to seeing the first edition on the news stands next week and would welcome your views.”
Managing director Mark Price said: “This is the dawn of a new era and will create a sustainable business that ensures our commitment to the community, our readers and advertisers.
“We expect the copy sale of the first edition to be significantly improved as there has been considerable demand for the new Telegraph.
“I would like to thank all of our staff, retailers and suppliers who have helped us set up the first edition.”
Read more about the Telegraph's history:


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President Trump wants aggressive action against alleged China IP theft
China will soon face stiff tariffs and investment restrictions following allegations of intellectual property (IP) theft, President Donald Trump told Cabinet secretaries and top advisers during a meeting at the White House last week, according to Politico.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has presented President Trump with a package of tariffs that would target the equivalent of $30 billion a year in Chinese imports, Politico reported. In response, Trump urged Lighthizer to aim for an even bigger number — and he instructed administration officials to be ready for a formal announcement in the coming weeks.
The administration is reportedly considering tariffs on more than 100 Chinese products ranging from electronics and telecommunications equipment to furniture and toys.
U.S. agriculture stakeholders are bracing for possible retaliation against U.S. farm products.
China said Sunday that it would not initiate a trade war with the U.S., but vowed to defend its national interests in the face of growing American protectionism. "There are no winners in a trade war, and it would bring disaster to our two countries as well as the rest of the world," Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said at a briefing on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session. "China does not wish to fight a trade war, nor will China initiate a trade war, but we can handle any challenge and will resolutely defend the interests of our country and our people," he said.

domain: news


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UBM, the parent company which agreed to sell PR Newswire to Cision last month for $841M, said that federal regulators have asked for information about "certain PRN products."
UBM said the sale is now expected to close after the first quarter after initially planning for a close before the end of Q1.
The company said the US Department of Justice requested "additional information and documentary material ... relating to certain PRN products which account for a very small portion of PRN's global revenues."
UBM and Cision are both cooperating fully with the DOJ requests, said a statement.
"Both parties remain confident that completion will be achived," they said.


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OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed two lawsuits on Thursday as part of a nationwide sweep targeting charities claiming to benefit veterans.
Ferguson filed two lawsuits: one against Spanaway-based Fallen Hero Bracelets and a second against Florida nonprofit Healing Heroes Network.
Both are part of a coordinated effort by the Federal Trade Commission and National Association of State Charities Officials.
Ferguson alleges that Fallen Hero Bracelets and its director, Michael Friedmann, misled customers into believing their purchases were benefiting veterans associations. The group did not provide any funds to those organizations, Ferguson said.
“These organizations used the promise of improving veterans’ lives to mislead donors,” Ferguson said. “Their illegal actions are not only disrespectful to donors, but also to the veterans they claim to help.”
The attorney general's office gave this account of the nonprofit:
"Fallen Hero Bracelets sells bracelets engraved with names of soldiers killed in action, along with hats, pins, badges, coins and pens. Its website claims that the proceeds from these purchases will be used to help veterans, including providing scholarships to children of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, giving trained service dogs to soldiers suffering from severe PTSD and helping families dealing with separation and divorce. The website lists 40 organizations that it says benefit from sales.
The website claims that Fallen Hero Bracelets has made over 1.2 million sales worldwide.
Friedmann also uses websites for his other nonprofit, The Benjamin Foundation, also doing business as The Roberts Ridge Foundation, to make the same claims.
However, Fallen Hero Bracelets allegedly has not provided any scholarships, trained service dogs or assistance to families, nor has it given any money to any of its 40 claimed beneficiaries.
In addition to not providing any money to charity, Friedmann has been known to sue customers who complain about slow delivery. For example, a consumer in Washington bought a $40 t-shirt on Friedmann’s website. When she did not receive her purchase for more than 60 days, she complained to her credit union. Her credit union then sent a chargeback notice to Friedmann.
Friedmann eventually sent the shirt. The consumer returned it, wanting her money back. Next, Friedmann reported the customer to four different collection agencies, which promptly dropped the collection efforts after the consumer showed proof of the return. He then sued the consumer for $1,182.50 and the credit union for $5,000 in small claims court.
The Attorney General’s Office received 11 complaints concerning Fallen Hero Bracelets, almost all of which referenced the same conduct by Friedmann: delivery delays, being unable to contact Friedmann regarding order status and harassment as a result of consumers complaining or returning items.
In correspondence with customers, Friedmann calls himself the “chief legal officer” of his nonprofit. He is not and never has been an attorney.
Friedmann uses an emblem similar to that used by the well-known Better Business Bureau, claiming that Fallen Hero Bracelets is accredited and has an A+ rating from the Business Bureau of America. The Business Bureau of America does not appear to exist. Fallen Hero Bracelets is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has an F rating.
Ferguson’s lawsuit, filed in Pierce County Superior Court, alleges Friedmann violated the Consumer Protection Act and Charitable Solicitations Act by failing to benefit veterans as claimed by the Fallen Hero Bracelets website and by retaliating against and suing aggrieved consumers. Ferguson asks the court to require Fallen Hero Bracelets to end its deceptive conduct, provide restitution to affected consumers, impose penalties of up to $2,000 per violation and pay attorney costs and fees."
The FTC says to look for three things to make sure a charity is legitimate:


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iWedia and Synaptics team up for rapid Android 11 deployments
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, May 19, 2021 / PRNewswire / – iWedia, a leading provider of software components and solutions for TV devices to world-class service operators and consumer electronics manufacturers, today announced the full integration of Android 11 on the latest Synaptics VS640 SoC.
The bundle combines best-in-class hardware and software. This includes a high-performance, low-power, and cost-effective benchmark platform for Google and Netflix from Synaptics, as well as world-class software components and unmatched integration services from iWedia. The platform enables rapid deployments, even for very complex hybrid operator projects.
Android version 11 includes recent features like Tuner HAL and MediaCAS V2. iWedia takes the opportunity to enable Widevine CAS support and hybrid DVB / IPTV / OTT use cases through its comprehensive product portfolio like ABR media player, IPTV and Broadcast stacks, in addition to its Operator Tier Launcher and Targeted solution Ad.
Based on Synaptics’ popular VideoSmart â¢ platform, the VS640 features a quad-core media processor with dedicated dual-core audio DSP, integrated processor, GPU and NPU specially designed with AI to enhance user experience. The platform also offers the next-generation AV1 video decoding format – a requirement for future YouTube and Netflix content.
“This early and successful integration of Android 11 strengthens our long-standing relationship with iWedia,” said Siddarth Chandrasekar, Marketing Director at Synaptics. âAs an AI-enabled platform, the VS640 opens up new possibilities for operators to innovate with new features and generate new monetization streams.â
Sunghoon Kim, Vice President of Sales at iWedia, said, âService providers can leverage our co-integration to launch highly personalized set-top boxes or IP streaming devices in record time. effective solutions, while guaranteeing a controlled time to market. “
iWedia SA provides world-class software solutions for connected TV devices. We are pioneers in AndroidTV and support our customers with software architecture and design expertise, field proven products and cost effective engineering services. We are proud to serve leading telecommunications operators, pay TV operators and Tier 1 automotive OEMs with our multimedia solutions.
iWedia provides efficient and scalable software integration services delivered by an experienced team used to enable rapid deployments of high volume consumer electronics devices. iWedia is headquartered at Switzerland with development laboratories Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia, and sales and support offices in Brazil, France, Germany, India, Singapore and South Korea.
For more information, please visit www.iwedia.com and contact:
David C. Paul,
For any additional press requests, contact:
Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA) is changing the way humans interact with connected devices and data, creating exceptional experiences throughout the home, at work, in the car, and on the go. Synaptics is the partner of choice for the world’s most innovative intelligent system vendors who integrate multiple experiential technologies into platforms that make our digital lives more productive, insightful, secure and enjoyable. These customers combine Synaptics’ differentiated touch, display and biometric technologies with a new generation of advanced connectivity and AI-enhanced video, vision, audio, voice and security processing.
For more information, please visit www.synaptics.com and contact:


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The boom in information technology has led to a transformation which has been increasing in recent years due to the widespread adoption of Internet and mobile devices. Individuals and companies are all are imbued with ‘digital life’, which now defines the way we act, buy, work… the way we live. This reality has also marked a before and after in another sector: that of information security which is becoming more complex every day.
According to IDC, companies are becoming increasingly aware of the risks in the market – from an infection caused by one of the many existing malwares, now spread to any platform and device, to a persistent advanced threat – and almost 50 percent of the companies in Europe (45 percent to be exact) increased their security budgets in 2014. In fact, Spain is the third country in Europe where more companies have increased their investment in this area, just behind the United Kingdom and Germany. Moreover, according to Gartner, another major IT consultant, the fear of suffering targeted cyber-attacks is what is encouraging 40 percent of the largest companies to make far-reaching plans for 2018 to defend themselves against these risks. Plans which they currently lack and which go far beyond preventive controls such as firewalls, traditional antivirus and vulnerability management, and which follow a more global and integrated control of all security areas.
In this context, the way of buying and selling security has also changed radically. According to independent analysts in the ICT sector, companies no longer sell only security, which is just the necessary lever to sell anything related to technology: cloud, big data, Internet of Things, mobility… Let’s say security has become a ‘building block’ for almost every aspect. In fact, these macrotrends carry the most sophisticated formulas for information security. For example, big data and analytics allow behaviors to be modeled in order to prevent attacks.
More sophisticated and intelligent solutions offered as a service
In general, the market trend is to offer as a service the most sophisticated and intelligent security solutions. Advanced security services, managed and based on the cloud system, are on the rise. As it is no longer possible to put up walls as in the past, we now have to protect companies from below, from the processor itself to the highest levels. In this new approach security must be seen as a more global concept which includes more aspects from communications to storage, passing through many more elements. The key to this more complex world is, on the one hand, that security is immersed in a complete cloud solution, and on the other, that it includes different capacities in order to provide a more comprehensive service.
The price of being safe
With this more complex scenario with “the ‘baddies’ becoming increasingly ‘badder’ and smarter”, with the proliferation of more sophisticated attacks with different formats making them more difficult to stop, will companies have to invest more money to be safe? The answer is ‘no’. In fact prices have dropped in recent years, especially since the boom of the cloud based system. What happens is that now companies have to protect themselves against more threats. There is a new range of risks and this is why investments in security are becoming increasingly higher.
Obviously, the investment made by large corporations is still higher than that made by the smaller companies. But at least, it seems that they are all starting to be aware that an attack can cost them a lot of money and can damage their image. How they deal with it is another matter, but the awareness is there, and also at the highest level within the companies. Moreover, news about security is one of the few subjects in the IT world which makes the headlines in newspapers around the world. Still, as we said, SMB’s are the most vulnerable. Unfortunately they are generally the least prepared and the main victims of many attacks.
With the Internet of Things the risks can be limitless
Another major risk looming on the horizon in this new digital scenario derives from the so-called ‘Internet of Things’. Given the growing proliferation of all kinds of sensors and gadgets such as the popular wearables, devices which we will all wear in the near future like watches or smart glasses (many people already do this), and the unstoppable advance of the smartphone, the risks will constantly increase. The Internet of Things means bringing the digital into the physical world, and this will lead to endless security risks. Undoubtedly, with this trend there are many challenges ahead to overcome, not only with regard to safety, but also privacy, complying with the regulations, etc. Therefore, the Internet of Things makes the current situation even more complex, opening up at the same time interesting business opportunities which we should all exploit to the full.


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This peer-to-peer networking session will cover best practices for working with young facility professionals
Learn the best practices for hybrid workplaces and remote workforces in our two education sessions.
Although the Trump Administration proposed eliminating WaterSense, the EPA program has received backing in both the House and Senate.
WaterSense is a public-private partnership that encourages the voluntary use of water-efficient plumbing products, services, and practices by consumers and businesses. Since starting in 2006, the program has saved them more than 2.1 trillion gallons of water and $46.3 billion in water and energy bills, according to EPA.
The latest Congressional action in support of WaterSense came with the introduction of the bipartisan Water Efficiency Improvement Act of 2017, introduced by Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio). According to Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI), the proposed legislation would formally authorize the WaterSense program. Authorization of WaterSense will enable Congress to later assign funds to maintain the program.
Earlier, the U.S. House of Representatives' Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees funding for EPA, rejected the proposed elimination of WaterSense, reports the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE).
Two other bills also provide congressional authorization for WaterSense:
S. 1137, the Clean Safe Reliable Water Infrastructure Act, introduced by Senators Cardin, Inhofe, Boozman, and Duckworth.
H.R. 3248, the Water Advanced Technologies for Efficient Resource Use Act of 2017, introduced in the House by Congressman Matthew Cartwright (D-PA), with 23 co-sponsors.
In a statement, PMI said: “The WaterSense label gives consumers a simple way to identify water-efficient plumbing products. WaterSense products are certified as meeting high performance standards while being at least 20 percent more water-efficient than other products meeting federal standards. The program has grown to include more than 21,000 WaterSense products for bathrooms (toilets, showerheads, faucets and urinals), commercial kitchens, and irrigation systems, according to the WaterSense program.”
An AWE statement said: “A true public-private partnership, the WaterSense® program has saved American taxpayers more than $32 billion (2015 dollars) on their water and energy bills in the last ten years. It has saved 1.5 trillion gallons of water to date, providing greater water security given that 40 out of 50 states are anticipating water shortages in the years to come, according to a 2013 Government Accountability Report. It also helps consumers manage their water costs and can help American families reduce their water bills by up to $350 per year.”
Both PMI and AWE have lobbied Congress to support the WaterSense program.
This Quick Read was submitted by Edward Sullivan, editor of Building Operating Management magazine, email@example.com. Click here to read about how facility managers can use WaterSense standards and labeled products to reduce water use on Facilitiesnet.com.


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NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple Inc. founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, said Monday that a hormone imbalance is to blame for the weight loss that has prompted worries about his health.
Jobs, 53, said in a public letter that his thinness had been a mystery even to him and his doctors until a few weeks ago, when "sophisticated blood tests" confirmed that he has "a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."
Jobs said he will undergo a "relatively simple" treatment and will remain in charge of Apple.
Speculation about his health percolated in 2008 as Jobs appeared gaunt. Those worries intensified after Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said in December that Jobs would not be making his annual keynote address Tuesday at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.
Officially Apple said Jobs would not take the stage because this year will mark the company's last appearance at the show, which is run by a separate company, the IDG technology media group. Rather than have its CEO speak even as it prepared to wind down its participation in Macworld, Apple said Phil Schiller, an Apple marketing executive, would give the company's presentation.
While some analysts expected Macworld to help Apple show it could execute its long-term strategy without Jobs as its public face, others have questioned the company's viability without Jobs, who has emphasized the design principles that made standouts out of Apple's Mac computers, iPods and iPhones.
Investors appeared happy to have some clarity on his health. Apple's shares rose $3.23, 3.6 percent, to $93.98 in morning trading.
But Monday's announcement isn't likely to end the speculation, unless Apple offers more details on Jobs' condition, AmTech Research analyst Brian Marshall said. Marshall expects Jobs to step down from the CEO post sometime this year, most likely remaining an adviser to the company.
In his letter Monday, Jobs said, "I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO."
Jobs offered few details on his diagnosis, however. It was not clear whether the hormone problem resulted from his treatment for cancer or arose in another way.
"The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment," he said. "Just like I didn't lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this spring to regain it."
Jobs added that "now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this."
The company's board released a statement separately, saying, "Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its board."
Jobs announced in 2004 that he had undergone successful surgery to treat a form of pancreatic cancer -- an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. The cancer is extremely rare and easily cured if diagnosed early. Jobs did not have a deadlier and more common form of pancreatic cancer, called adenocarcinoma.


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Left-hand drive supercars to be legal in Oz by 2019 – cheers Mr Turnbull
Buried in a Turnbull government announcement yesterday was a gem that's set to greenlight the import of left-hand-drive hypercars into Australia, by 2019, for driving on public roads.
The press release by the minister for urban infrastructure, Paul Fletcher MP, detailed a revised bill set to be submitted to parliament by the end of the year.
The bill follows a review of the Motor Vehicle Standards Act conducted from 2013 to 2015 and an announcement in February 2016, regarding proposed changes to the Act that would make importation of new vehicles from the United Kingdom and Japan legal.
Since then, the government has ditched the original proposed changes and undertaken further consultation with the industry and drafted this new bill to "modernise and strengthen the laws governing road vehicles when first supplied to the Australian market."
What that means, in simple terms, is that the government wants to simplify the regulatory process of bringing a car to Australia.
That includes the process behind recalls, harmonisation with international standards, implementation of theft deterrent devices and the ability to import irregular vehicles.
The bill includes changes to the definition of a specialist and enthusiast vehicle. Previously, the vehicle would need to meet two of four criteria to be approved. Under this new bill, that will change to a requirement to meet just one of the following six criteria.
Performance: a new graduated threshold formula measured from 110 kilowatts per Tonne (kW/T) in 1992, increasing by 1 kW/T each year after.
Environmental Performance: an objective vehicle technology based on an alternate power source to internal combustion or a micro-car subcategory for low power (low emissions) vehicles.
Mobility: originally manufactured or fitted from the factory with substantive specialist mobility features to assist people with disabilities.
Rarity: total worldwide production of the vehicle ‘Make’ is less than 3000 units per year; or total worldwide production of the vehicle ‘Model’ is less than 1000 units per year; or total worldwide production of the vehicle ‘Variant’ is less than 100 vehicles per year. Left-hand drive vehicles imported under the rarity criterion will not require conversion to right-hand drive but will need state or territory agreement for use on their roads.
Left-hand drive: originally manufactured as a left-hand drive vehicle and not available as an originally manufactured right hand drive vehicle in another world market. These vehicles will require conversion to right hand drive for safety reasons.
Campervans and Motorhomes: originally manufactured as a campervan or motorhome.
This means that from 2019 we could see left-hand-drive cars like the Bugatti Chiron, McLaren P1, Ferrari LaFerrari and Lamborghini Centenario cruising our roads with legal road registration.
According to Fletcher, the changes proposed in February were not as cost-effective as expected, for consumers, and these new proposed changes will open the door to enthusiast vehicles.
"Weighing these issues up against the modest benefits of the personal import arrangements – including price reductions estimated to be less than 2 per cent across the market – the Government has concluded that the benefits do not justify the cost and complexity of this particular change."
"The reforms will provide increased consumer choice including by streamlining and improving the existing pathways for importing specialist and enthusiast vehicles."
Tell us your thoughts
What do you think about this proposed bill? Will it get through? And, are you excited to see hypercars on the road?


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Expect to pay more for lots of stuff if Donald Trump dissolves NAFTA
U.S. President Donald Trump just might pull the plug on the North American Free Trade Agreement, leaving the entire continent’s state of trade in flux – while possibly driving up costs for Canadian consumers on a slew of goods from cars to groceries.
“Trade is so intertwined between the three countries, there will be higher costs on a wide range of goods,” said Milos Barutciski, who co-heads international trade and investment at Toronto’s Bennett Jones LLP.
WATCH: Trudeau meets Trump in D.C. hoping to save NAFTA
“There is so much integration, that if you take away the lubricant that made the smoothness possible, consumers will feel the effects.”
Trump has said he might consider a bilateral pact with Canada in lieu of NAFTA.
Considering Canada and the U.S. have been operating under a trade agreement including Mexico for nearly a quarter century, however, many of the goods crossing between Canada and the U.S. include parts from Mexico.
The fact that goods can travel duty-free between the U.S. and Mexico during the manufacturing process helps keep the costs of many goods down, Barutciski explained. In other words, Canadian consumers benefit from U.S.-Mexico trade, even if Canada’s direct trading relationship with Mexico doesn’t boast a high dollar figure.
Take away the trade advantages between the U.S. and Mexico, however, and consumers will feel it in their wallets.
Will Trump really tear up NAFTA?
While Trump has said a number of times that he stands ready to terminate the longstanding trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, recent negotiating tactics are grabbing attention.
“I’ve been opposed to NAFTA a long time in terms of the fairness of NAFTA. I said we’ll renegotiate it,” he said this week from the Oval Office with visiting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sitting alongside him.
WATCH: Donald Trump calls NAFTA horrendous, one-sided
“We’re negotiating … And we’ll see what happens. It’s possible we won’t be able to make a deal and it’s possible that we will.”
A number of observers, including the former World Bank president, a Canadian international trade specialist involved in the original NAFTA negotiations, the head of Canadian union Unifor and a U.S. international trade lawyer have little good to say about Trump’s proposals.
Offers on the table, such as the Buy American one that would limit access for Canada and Mexico to American procurement projects while seeking greater access for American firms to Mexican and Canadian government projects, has been called “poison pills” and “ridiculous.”
The overall sense is there’s a very real possibility of losing NAFTA.
In the words of Robert Zoellick, the former World Bank president who was also a U.S. Trade Representative under George W. Bush, there’s a “serious risk” Trump’s tactics will end the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The bilateral fallback
In the event negotiations fall apart and fail to achieve what Trump is looking for, the president said he’s open to the idea of a two-way trade pact between Canada and the U.S., leaving Mexico out of the picture.
The U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner.
On the flip side, Canada represents the largest goods export market for the U.S., according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
In short, trade between the two countries is vital to both economies.
“I think Justin [Trudeau] understands this. If we can’t make a deal, it’ll be terminated, and that’ll be fine,” Trump said as Trudeau looked on during a brief media appearance at the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon.
“[Canada is] going to do well and we’re going to do well.”
There are so many balls in the air – in a forum experts are calling uncharted waters, led by a president often considered unpredictable – it’s near impossible to game out what a NAFTA-free North America might look like.
WATCH: Trudeau tries to explain what ‘clarity’ he got from Trump on NAFTA
“We have to wait and see how Canada and Mexico will react, how the president reacts, what Congress does,” said Barry Campbell, a government-relations adviser, trade counsel and former Liberal MP.
Trudeau, meanwhile, avoided speculating on a bilateral deal.
“I continue to believe in NAFTA. I continue to believe that as a continent, working together in complementary ways is better for our citizens, better for economic growth and allows us to compete on stronger footing with the global economy,” he said, admitting the circumstances of the negotiations have been, at times, “challenging.”
The old deal between Canada and the U.S.
Before NAFTA was negotiated, signed and enacted, the U.S. and Canada regulated trade based on an agreement exclusive to the two countries.
Despite NAFTA, that bilateral agreement was never terminated; it’s been on the back burner, available should the trilateral agreement that also includes Mexico ever break down.
In practice, any changes from the current trilateral agreement to the 1980s bilateral agreement would be negligible in terms of duties imposed on goods crossing the Canada-U.S. border, said Barutciski.
WATCH: Trump welcomes ‘friend’ Trudeau to WH for ‘constructive talks’
But Canadian consumers will lose whatever benefits gained via U.S.-Mexico trade which, as he explained, could drive up the costs of goods for consumers.
On top of that, the Reagan-era bilateral agreement has been idling for almost 25 years; many of its provisions aren’t exactly current.
“I think if we looked at the [bilateral agreement] today, we’d probably find it pretty out of date,” Campbell said.
“If there was goodwill on the part of the U.S. to update the agreement, it’s possible it could work.”
Though it throws another layer of uncertainty over the entire thing, it is worth mentioning Trump could also decide to tear up the old bilateral agreement (though perhaps not easily or without a horde of legal battles).
In that case, WTO regulations would govern trade between Canada and the U.S. and that, according to Barutciski, would be devastating to both economies.
“A withdrawal from NAFTA would have a net negative impact on both countries. But it wouldn’t be devastating,” he said.
“Withdrawing from both would be an unmitigated disaster.”
– With files from The Canadian Press
© 2017 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.


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Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, has announced plans to spend 30 billion baht (US$991 million) over a five-year period, to lift its cement production capacity from the current 1 million tpa to 6 million tpa in the ASEAN markets outside of Thailand.
The company’s president Pramote Techasupatkul, recently said the company had researched the possibility of cement production in Vietnam in addition to building a new factory in Indonesia and a second unit of at its Kampot plant in Cambodia. The group has similarly considered opportunities in Burma's Dawei district and is eager to invest in a cement plant once the military government permits more foreign investors.
"Within five years, we are going to have 6 million tpa of production capacity in neighbouring countries. At present, we have only 1 million tpa at the Kampot plant," Techasupatkul noted.
The southern region of Vietnam is the company’s target, as this is where the cement demand is high, while raw materials are plentiful in the northern and central parts of the country. Techasupatkul commented that the company is “also looking at merger and acquisition opportunities in Vietnam, in addition to investing in a Greenfield plant.”
A third of the total planned budget has been set aside to build a 2 million tpa capacity cement plant on the Indonesian island of Java. "Of course, we have a concern about earthquakes and tsunamis on the Indonesian island so we will cautiously study the potential locations over the next six months in order to avoid any risky areas," Techasupatkul added.
SCG has an overall cement output of 23 million tpa in Thailand, and expects 80 – 85% to be utilised this year, including 7 million t of exports. The domestic sales are anticipated to rise by 5% from 12 million t in 2010, generating nearly 50 billion baht in revenue.
SCG has announced that 30% of the five-year investment plan will be spent to expand the capacity of ready-mixed mortar cement in Thailand by 40% to 3 million t.
Additionally, there are plans for Siam Fiber Cement Co, a subsidiary of SCG Building Materials to construct its fifth plant in Nong Khae, Thailand, as the demand for environmentally friendly fibre cement continues to grow. "We are confident that the market will continue to expand significantly and our focus remains on innovative products that are good for preserving the environment," the managing director, Panthep Supachaiyakit said, adding that sales were expected to expand by 8 – 10% this year. The new plant is expected to be operational in early 2013.
Siam Cement shares (SCC) closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 353 baht, the highest close since at least 1990.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/asia-pacific-rim/25032011/siam_cement_group_announces_investment_plans_in_asean_cement_markets/


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Electric vehicle sales reach new heights in New Zealand
Search Driven for Tesla for sale
Compared to the rest of the world, New Zealand's uptake on electric vehicles has been relatively slow, but new figures suggest that things are changing.
New figures from the Motor Industry Association show that a total of 605 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in New Zealand during the month of September. The arrival of the new Tesla Model 3 affected these figures greatly, selling 329 units — making it the third most popular in the passenger/SUV segment.
Speaking on our country's uptake of EVs, MIA chief executive David Crawford mentioned that we have reached a turning point in terms of consumer behaviour around the new technology.
"As the range of models increases there's more consumer interest in purchasing the electric vehicles ... these are longer range electric vehicles and that seems to be what consumers are interested in."
While electric vehicles may be more expensive upfront when compared to their petrol and diesel equivalents, such as the Tesla Model 3 with its $75,000 price tag. Lower running costs and a growing network of charging stations seem to be contributing to this uptake.
"Their environmental credentials are very strong and the increasing awareness of climate change and the need to lessen our carbon footprint, this is something practical that individuals can do and they (consumers) seem prepared to pay up front to do that," Mr Crawford said.
EV sales are expected to keep growing steadily, and the government's proposed fee-bate scheme will only add to this.
While overall new car sales have taken a four per cent hit year on year, September sales were up on the previous month, presumably thanks to this EV boost.
Click here to view all Teslas on Driven


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Inflation has hit the country. Prices of everything from petrol, diesel, gas, vegetables have skyrocketed. Even in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, fuel prices have skyrocketed. At the same time, gas prices have risen sharply. Recently, the price of gas has been increased by Rs. CNG prices were hiked by Rs 2 per kg in Delhi and surrounding cities on Saturday amid rising inflation in the country. The new prices will apply from 6 a.m. Sunday. At the same time, after a Rs 2 increase in CNG, the price of CNG in Delhi is Rs 73.61 per kg, Rs 76.17 in Noida and Ghaziabad, Rs 81.94 in Gurugram, Rs 83.88 in Ajmer and Pali, and Rs 80.84 in Meerut, Shamli and Muzaffarnagar. And Kanpur and Fatehpur have gone up to Rs 85.40.
Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) has hiked the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi by Rs 2 per kg to Rs 73.61 per kg.
The new price will come into effect from tomorrow, May 15 pic.twitter.com/yIdAl4jXY3
– ANI (ANI) May 14, 2022
Petrol-diesel and CNG-PNG prices have been rising steadily in the country for the past few days. Which has created a crisis against the common people. CNG and PNG prices were hiked in Mumbai a day ago. In Mumbai, Mahanagar Gas Ltd on Wednesday hiked CNG by Rs 5 per kg and PNG by Rs 4.50 per cubic meter, followed by CNG at Rs 72 and PNG at Rs 45.50 in Mumbai.


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A series of horrific industrial accidents in Bangladesh has revived the debate over labor rights, workplace safety, and the ethical responsibilities of multinational corporations in policing their own supply chains. These incidents have been centered on the textile and ready-made garment (RMG) industry, which raises difficult questions about the tradeoff between economic development and the dignity of individual workers. To groups like the International Labor Organization (ILO), however, this is a false choice, and labor advocates argue that securing safe working conditions and adequate pay is a key part of sustainable economic growth.
The textile industry is the driving force of Bangladeshi industrialization, and is central to the economy of the desperately poor nation. Exporting some $19 billion a year and representing the world’s second largest apparel sector (after China), the industry draws many of its millions of workers from the subsistence farming of the countryside to the hastily assembled factories on the outskirts of the teeming capital, Dhaka. Since 1974, with the adoption of the global Multi Fiber Arrangement, Bangladesh has been granted preferential access to EU and US markets, sparking the rapid expansion of the RMG sector.
Despite the benefits of the industry, the human costs are high. While the West seems, by this point, largely resigned to the low wages earned by those who stitch and sew its designer clothes, the recent spate of deadly events have been too gruesome to ignore. In November of 2012, the Tazreen Fashion Factory caught fire, killing 117 in the deadliest factory fire in the nation’s history. Then, on April 24, 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Dhaka collapsed, killing 1,127 workers in the world’s deadliest garment factory accident to date. The building had housed apparel companies that manufactured for a number of major international brands, including Benneton and Wal-Mart.
The outcry over the Rana Plaza disaster came swiftly, especially after it came to light that cracks had appeared in the building’s foundations the day before but the workers had been ordered back to work regardless. A government report released on May 22nd concluded that the complex had been “constructed with substandard materials and in blatant disregard for building codes” and suggested that the building’s owner had bribed local officials to overlook these fatal deficiencies. By that time, the EU had already threatened punitive action, including the restriction of Bangladesh’s preferential access to its markets, until the country improved its safety standards.
This is just the most recent eruption of a longstanding debate over whether sweatshop conditions and low labor standards are an inevitable stage of industrial development, and, if not, how much developed countries can do to prevent them. Some argue that punitive actions will scare away risk-averse international capital, and hurt millions of workers for whom a dangerous job is better than no job. Most recently, Bangladesh’s Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed expressed this view after the Rana tragedy, arguing that “if the EU or any other buyers impose any harsh trade conditions on Bangladesh it will hurt the country’s economy…millions of workers will lose their jobs.”
Fortunately, there is evidence that this is a false choice. International efforts have shown that there is a third way of cooperative, collaborative enforcement that brings all of the stakeholders together to achieve better labor standards – without the disruptions and job losses of economic sanctions. In fact, is becoming increasingly clear that ignoring labor and safety standards will only backfire for businesses, as social media and socially conscious consumers raise the public pressure on companies to follow ethical practices.
The case of Cambodia, another country dependent on its garment industry, offers an instructive comparison. There, the ILO brought together the Cambodian government, the country’s labor unions, and the private sector Garment Manufacturers Association to create a system for monitoring the sector’s labor standards in exchange for tariff-free access to the US market. It’s a program modeled on the structure of the ILO itself, which is an organization equally divided between labor groups, governments, and business. As a result, while not perfect, the Cambodian garment sector has been largely free of the kind of disasters and abuses that have plagued Bangladesh.
One of the lessons from Cambodia is that private sector engagement is crucial, and in Bangladesh many companies have recognized that the status quo cannot continue. Dozens of European companies – including the world’s two biggest fashion retailers, Inditex and Hennes & Mauritz, as well as Swedish company H&M, which is the largest buyer of apparel from Bangladesh – have signed onto the Accord on Factory and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a pact between business, government and labor to improve safety standards. Unfortunately, most major US companies have largely rejected the Accord, arguing that it would be too expensive and open them up to burdensome litigation. Among these retailers are Wal-Mart and Gap – huge operations whose market share would be of immense value in convincing the Bangladeshi government and local business to attack the problem energetically.
American companies should take to heart the lessons that their European counterparts have already learned: that their long-term economic sustainability, as well as their reputations among their customers, depends on decent and safe working conditions for the workers at the base of their supply chains. Signing onto the accord would be a good first step towards moving away from an ad hoc approach – simply responding to each disaster after the fact while leaving the underlying dynamics in place – and towards a coordinated global response.


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NEW YORK — In a bold move to differentiate its value-priced color cosmetics brand, Del Laboratories is embarking on a comparison advertising campaign, pitting N.Y.C. New York Color against department store lines, such as Chanel.
The marketing effort ties into Del Laboratories’ strategy of narrowing its focus to two core brands, namely N.Y.C. and Sally Hansen, while phasing out fringe businesses, such as Naturistics.
It also is aimed at keeping N.Y.C. out of the discard pile as mass market retailers trim beauty lines to make room for megalaunches, such as Vital Radiance by Revlon and L’Oréal Paris’ HIP.
To clear space for these spring introductions, many chains are cutting down to one value line from two or three, raising the stakes in the race between Wet ‘n’ Wild, N.Y.C. and a handful of other budget beauty brands.
N.Y.C. will break its bold advertising campaign in April beauty books. The first print ad features N.Y.C. Nail Glossies, high-shine nail polish infused with vitamins, along with a similar shade of Chanel nail lacquer in the background. The tag line is, “You’re smart and beautiful. Why pay more?” A bottle of Nail Glossies retails for $1.99; Chanel’s nail lacquer is $18.
“We’re going for shock and awe to get people to stop at the page,” explained Christine Keihm, senior director of marketing for the brand.
Mass marketers always have hoped consumers would see the similarities between prestige and mass items, and opt for value. In the past few years, that advertising tactic has become more blatant. Procter & Gamble, for instance, compared Olay Regenerist to department store skin care brands in its TV spots. Mass packaging often has mimicked that of premium lines, particularly MAC’s in recent cosmetics launches. And years ago, Parfums de Coeur went head-to-head with Giorgio with its slogan, “If you like Giorgio, you’ll love Primo!”
N.Y.C.’s advertisements are vivid comparisons of mass and prestige color cosmetics, and should help N.Y.C. expand its door count at a pivotal time for mass cosmetics.
With category growth stalled at about 3 percent, retailers are looking to go with brands that can build incremental sales volume.
“With N.Y.C.’s pricing, women can afford to buy more than one item,” said Harvey Alstodt, president of Del Cosmetics. “It brings back impulse purchases.”
According to ACNielsen year-to-date data for the period ended Jan. 28, N.Y.C. sales are up 19.3 percent. But several major chains have edited N.Y.C. from the mix, and the company is bent on halting any further attrition.
Introduced in 1999, N.Y.C. bowed at a crucial moment in the value segment of color, when two existing dollar lines — Artmatic and Wet ‘n’ Wild — were merged under one ownership. Del Laboratories saw an opening for a new player in the segment, and N.Y.C. rolled onto the market with vibrant packaging and a fresh approach to budget brands.
The line has remained untouched since its launch and was in need of a fresh push, especially as many retailers look to narrow the assortment. New graphite packaging has replaced N.Y.C.’s original silver compact.
The marketing campaign, which is estimated to cost more than $11 million, is expected to help secure space for N.Y.C. in at least 7,000 additional doors by the end of next year. The line is currently sold in 13,000 doors.
While it polishes up its brands, the company has worked to correct shipping issues that strained relations with retailers in the past.
“Our shipping has dramatically improved,” said Alstodt. “We’ve had a consulting team on board for six months; they will remain for a year addressing supply chain and logistics issues so all company shipping issues will be far behind us.”
In addition to Nail Glossies, N.Y.C. will feature other items in subsequent “dare to compare” ads. The N.Y.C. Ultra-Moist Lipstick will be juxtaposed with MAC, and Clinique and Benefit Cosmetics also will come under the steal-or-splurge-style advertising.
The dare-to-compare pitch doesn’t stop at print advertising. In-store displays also will hammer the point home. In May, N.Y.C. will embark on a five-city tour in a Dare to Compare bus, steered by makeup artist Doug Atkinson, best known for his role on the Canadian TV show “Diva on a Dime.” Women will be plucked off the streets to get an N.Y.C. makeover. N.Y.C. staffers manning the van will park near stores and hand out coupons. The integrated marketing effort will include an overhauled Web site, as well as cause-marketing promotion tied to prom season 2007. The company has partnered with Becca’s Closet, a charity that provides underprivileged girls with prom dresses. “That ties into our theme, Beautiful and Smart,” said Keihm.
Del’s plans for both N.Y.C. and Sally Hansen include an international push. For example, N.Y.C. is getting interest in the U.K. and Brazil, where Alstodt said the brand is perceived as high quality and on par with department store brands in America. Sally Hansen is making inroads in Germany and other parts of Europe.
Craig Fuller may step down from his post as president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. He offered his resignation after NACDS chairman Anthony Civello informed Fuller that the association’s executive committee was considering a change in leadership, said an NACDS spokeswoman. Fuller joined NACDS six years ago, touted as a powerful lobbyist with close ties to Washington heavyweights. In the mid-Eighties, Fuller served in the Reagan administration, as assistant to the president for cabinet affairs.


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Cornell associate professor Emin Gün Sirer was demonstrating IC3's Teechain at Consensus 2017.
R3's lead designer Mike Hearn was giving a talk about the Corda DLT platform at Consensus 2017.
ICO best practice panel was taking place at William Mougayar's Token Summit at NYU.
Kin will be created as an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.
Top investors include SBI Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Intel & Temasek.
Founding corporate members include IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CME Group, Foxconn, Mastercard, New York Life, Prudential, and Transamerica.
JP Morgan's Quorum is the first distributed ledger platform to feature the zero-knowledge security layer (ZSL).
Partnership between Citi and Nasdaq is using Chain's blockchain infrastructure platform.
And many more companies are continuing to get onboard.
VeChain becomes a portfolio company of PwC's incubation program to accelerate blockchain adoption in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
Gem is demonstrating the health claims blockchain on Monday 22 at Consensus 2017.
Gibraltar has published proposals for a regulatory framework for DLT to protect the jurisdiction.
John Olesky, a managing director for loan platforms at IHS Markit, details DLT journey so far.
Combined market capitalisation of all public cryptocurrencies has surged nearly 80% over the last month.
Baker & McKenzie expert says industry's adoption of Blockchain adds value into supply chain.
Lightyear.io is co-founded by McCaleb and ex-Palantir executive Brit Yonge.
Blockchain-based Trade Information Warehouse platform will run in parallel to the existing solution starting early 2018.
First pilot by social tech platform Alice helps 15 people sleeping rough in London.
Maecenas is using blockchain technology to create a secondary market in fine art for owners and investors.
Hyperledger Composer has been accepted into incubation by the group's technical steering committee.
The global law firm has released its second chapter on DLT technology, focused on the insurance industry.
The Parity Bitcoin technology stack offers a new implementation of the Bitcoin protocol written in Rust.
UCL's Professor Philip Treleaven wants to break new ground in UK 'regtech'.
New joiners include: BBVA, SEB, YES BANK and Star One Credit Union.
Token Summit on May 25 is organised by renowned blockchain author, investor, and entrepreneur William Mougayar,
NTT DATA Corp involved in forming international consortium with shipping companies, freight forwarders, banks and insurers.


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Fraud prevention experts estimate that cybercriminals commit about 80 percent more online fraud during the holiday season than the rest of the year. That’s why it is the perfect time for Abine to roll out DoNotTrackMe 3.0, a browser extension that stops online trackers from finding your contact and credit card info.
DoNotTrackMe’s core features remain the same in its new version, protecting users from over 600 online trackers from advertisers, social media sites and beyond. With recent data scandals like Facebook’s involvement in the NSA, the need to secure your online data has never been more apparent. DoNotTrackMe stays up to date with tracker technology, ensuring that your email, phone number and credit card information remain secure.
Abine is also offering unlimited Masked Cards through December 26. Masked Cards are a DoNotTrackMe product that allows you to make purchases on the web without having to give away your real credit card number. The product creates unique, disposable credit card numbers for every purchase you make, functioning much like a prepaid gift card. This helps keep your information safe from hackers and untrustworthy companies, and it ensures you won’t get tagged with unwanted recurring charges every month. Though cybercrime might peak around the holidays, it’s never a bad time to protect yourself (and your finances) from prying eyes online.
Click here to access the DoNotTrackMe Web application. Once you complete the registration process, you’ll have access to the extension in your privacy dashboard.


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De la Rosa, which, since 1942 has made iconic Mexican brand De la Rosa peanut marzipan, was showing its most recent product, Coffeebreak, a premium range of candy that it launched in November.
“This is the first product from De la Rosa made with real coffee so it’s a more natural product,” said distribution manager Diego Jiménez. “Our other candies are flavored so this is more premium than our other hard candies.”
It has a recommended retail price of MXN$75 for a sharing bag.
The company exports to the US, Canada, Central America and Colombia, Bolivia and Chile in South America although Mexico is its biggest market, said Jiménez.


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Chevrolet recently pulled the wraps off a Camaro that is better than the two previous track-ready Camaros. The Camaro Z/28 now joins the Camaro SS 1LE, Camaro ZL1 and the Camaro NHRA race-ready chassis in a crowded room of track-inspired/ready/built Camaros.
The Z/28 will feature a host of parts from the GM Performance bin of Corvette components. An LS7 engine, uber-expensive brakes from the Z07 Carbon packaged Z06, R-compound sticky tires, and more.
To ensure everyone knew just how serious GM was about the track capability of their now 300lb lighter Camaro, they [Read more...]


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Domino's Pizza Enterprises has brought in more than $1 million in mobile sales, just one week after the official launch of its mobile ordering site.
The company has claimed that within two to three years, digital sales will jump from 40% to 60% of the company's overall Australian sales. Mobile sales will be 50% of digital sales in this period, meaning that mobile will be 30% of the company's overall Australian sales.
The company already had an iPhone app, but now has capabilities across all mobile platforms.
Domino's chief executive Don Meij told AdNews: "To bring in $1 million in a week has exceeded all expectations.
"But this isn't something that has just happened. we have driven our digital strategy very hard. Our digital share is much higher than other markets like the US which have a higher rate of internet transactions than Australia."
Domino's recently appointed BMF as its advertising agency, replacing incumbent The Campaign Palace. Media buying for the company is handled by Mitchell & Partners.
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Ted Baker has announced an increase of almost 25% in its first quarter revenues which have been enhanced by strong demand both at home and internationally, online growth and successful new stores.
The fashion brand‘s CEO Ray Kelvin said that the company is largely pleased with its spring/summer collections results. The company‘s revenue increase was achieved in spite of its trading at the more expensive end of the British high street, in addition to competition among cost conscious consumers.
Store sales for the 18 weeks to 6 June grew by 18.9% as Ted Baker capitalised on increased demand by opening more store space. These include new stores in Hong Kong, London and a number of concessions across Europe, Asia and North America. Ecommerce sales were also up by circa 47%.
Further, first quarter wholesale sales rose by 41.2% as a result of strong demand in Britain and North America, while it anticipated full year growth of around 18%.
Having grown from being a single shirt specialist in Glasgow, the tailored yet quirky brand now trades from 414 stores and concessions worldwide, the majority in the UK and mainland Europe. The fashion retailer has recently expanded with stores across the Middle East including Azerbaijan, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia as well as in Thailand and Taiwan.
“We are pleased with the performance of our spring/summer collections both in the UK and internationally, which is testament to our skilled and passionate team” Kelvin commented on Ted Bakers success.
Analysts Liberium said the start of the year for the retailer had been “exceptionally strong”.
Shares in the company ended on Thursday at 2,815p, up 45% from last year which valued the business at £1.24bn.


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Google will back Apple in its court battle with the FBI over the security of its iPhone.
Google To Back Apple In Court Against FBI
Last week, a court ordered Apple to help the FBI hack into a locked iPhone used by Syed Farook, who together with his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.
Apple opposes the order, arguing such a move would violate its free speech rights and override the will of Congress.
Google now plans to file a “friend of the court” brief on Apple’s behalf within the next week, a person familiar with the situation said.
Like Apple, it fears creating a precedent that authorities could use to read messages, photos and other sensitive information stored on phones.
Apple meanwhile has filed its formal objection in the case.
In its filing, Apple said: “The government’s request here creates an unprecedented burden on Apple and violates Apple’s First Amendment rights against compelled speech.”
Apple also contended that the court was over-stepping its jurisdiction, noting that Congress had rejected legislation that would have required companies to do the things the government is asking Apple to do in this case.
“No court has ever authorised what the government now seeks, no law supports such unlimited and sweeping use of the judicial process, and the Constitution forbids it,” Apple said.
The government argues that the All Writs Act, a broad 1789 law which enables judges to require actions necessary to enforce their own orders, compels Apple to comply with its request.
He said: “This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case.”
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The aim of the Annual China Trade Week (CTW) exhibitions across Africa is to catalyze closer Sino-African trade and industrial relations, said Wang Hailin, chairman and founder of the MIE Group, organizers of the events. The platform will ease th
The Minister for Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, has appealed to China not to be a mere trading partner but to also support Ghana’s efforts to become a manufacturing hub in West Africa. He said while Ghana appreciated and looked …
The China Trade Week, an annual event which seeks to boost trade relations between Ghana and China yesterday opened in Accra. The three-day event is being attended by hundreds of investors and expected to be attended by 6,000 visitors. Alongsi
ACCRA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The aim of the Annual China Trade Week (CTW) exhibitions across Africa is to catalyze closer Sino-African trade and industrial relations, said Wang Hailin, chairman and founder of the MIE Group, organizers of the events.
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) is collaborating with the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry – representing government and the private sector respectively, to persuade Chinese companies to set up production and manufacturing
ACCRA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Ghana is set to benefit from increased Chinese investment, as some companies attending the 2019 China Trade Week (CTW) believe in great prospects for investment in the Ghanaian market. Companies in renewable energy, mec
Minister for Business Development, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has called on Chinese investors to partner Ghanaian businesses to make the country a manufacturing hub in West Africa.
Addressing investors at the 3rd edition of the Ch
Business Development Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has hinted that the Akufo-Addo-led government will from next week train about 12,000 young people for start-ups and businesses to improve the microeconomic stability of the country. Exp
The 3rd edition of the China Trade Week Ghana has opened as exhibitors from China and across the globe are showcasing their products at the Accra International Conference Centre. The exhibition which begins Wednesday 19th June and ends Friday Ju


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MONTREAL — Marketing healthy fruits and vegetables to Canadian consumers would be easier if the federal government adopted a standard nutrient list and relaxed rules on health claims, according to session panelists at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association’s annual conference.
“Our challenge is getting the health message about fruit and vegetables out there, but there are so many rules restricting what we can and can’t say, it’s hard,” said moderator Larry McIntosh, president and CEO of Peak of the Market, a vegetable distributor in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the April 14 session.
McIntosh said his company was forced to cancel a radio spot last summer touting the health benefits of a medium potato with its high vitamin C content, iron and more potassium than a banana. The reason: you can’t attach a nutrition label, required by law, to a radio ad.
Mike Furi, produce manager for The Grocery People in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said the lack of a central source of approved nutritional data in Canada and the prohibitive cost to companies of conducting their own nutrition analysis makes it impossible to make and/or defend any kind of health claim on fresh produce.
At the urging of CPMA, Furi said Ottawa may soon adopt the existing U.S. nutritional facts table for the top 20 fruits and top 20 vegetables.
“We think the Canadian government is going to accept this information in the next six months to a year so we can start to promote the health benefits of fruits and vegetables,” said Furi, who is on several CPMA committees.
In the meantime, he urged CPMA members to get behind programs already in place, such as the CPMA’s Mix It Up, and provincial initiatives such as Quebec’s “I love 5 to 10 a day.”
Incoming CPMA president Ron Lemaire reminded U.S. participants that along with bilingual packaging, food products entering Canada must include a nutrient facts table that meets Canadian regulations.
Carl Svangtun, executive vice president of Sun Rich Fresh Foods Inc., a fresh-cut processor in Richmond British Columbia, said fresh fruits and vegetables won’t sell just because they’re healthy; they also need to look and taste great. He advised giving consumers plenty of information and recipes that incorporate fresh produce with other foods.
He also said the industry should support community groups and events as a way to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption.
“Isn’t it ironic,” he said, “that 99.9% of people agree that fruits and vegetables are good for you, but it’s so hard to tell people about it.”
Another option, once nutritional data is established, is to join the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation’s non-profit Heart Check program, developed in 1999 after consultation with Ottawa. The program’s red check mark, paid for by food companies, now appears on more than 2,000 Canadian food products that meet its nutritional guidelines. It’s also appearing on more restaurant menus.
Toronto consulting dietician Carol Dombrow said 85% of Canadians say they are aware of Health Check and feel good buying products that sport the symbol.
“We’re trying to make it simple to make healthy food choices,” Dombrow said, adding that some retailers are beginning to look for the Health Check symbol when listing new products.


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Scooter and e-bike start-up Lime is planning to bring its on-demand bicycles to the UK in a move that could trigger the next battle of San Francisco's scooter wars.
Lime, a $3bn start-up that is challenging Uber and Bird for dominance in the growing e-scooter market, is planning to launch a UK base in Milton Keynes, hiring an operations manager and up to 20 staff.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that the business is only planning to launch its bicycle-sharing service in the UK, rather than its electric scooter service.
A Lime spokesman said "we can neither confirm nor deny whether Lime will soon be launching e-bikes in the innovative city of Milton Keynes."
Lime, Bird and Uber’s Jump all allow commuters to unlock electric, on-demand scooters. These are paid for through a smartphone app and can be left anywhere for another user to pick up. The electric and pedal-powered bicycles operate in a similar way.
Lime has emerged as the main challenger to Bird, a rival founded by former Uber executives. Bird has hired a small team of UK managers and marketers, including former Uber staffers.
A UK launch for electric scooters presents a difficult challenge, however. British laws specifically ban “mechanically propelled vehicles”, which include electric scooters.
The UK's Department for Transport is currently consulting on the future of transportation in the UK. On-demand scooters are expected to be under consideration.
Despite only being founded in January 2017, Lime is reportedly raising hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation of $3.3bn, showing the bullish investor sentiment behind Silicon Valley’s fast-growing scooter start-ups. It has already secured funding from Google’s venture capital arm, Uber and investment firm Fidelity.
The scooter companies have earned a reputation for expansion and a gung-ho attitude to regulation. In the US they have run into disputes with city councils. Lime’s job listings explicitly call for the Milton Keynes city manager to come with an attitude of “pure hustle”.
A source close to the scooter companies said a Milton Keynes launch would make sense as the city's roads have been a test bed for other tech projects like self-driving pods.
By launching in Milton Keynes, Lime could pilot its service in the UK outside of London, which has already seen councils and regulators clash with Chinese cycle hire start-ups that filled pavements with dockless push-bikes last year.
Lime has already launched its e-bikes in Berlin and its scooter service in Paris, Madrid and Prague, while Bird has released its own scooter service in Paris in July.


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Spin Master has unveiled the world’s largest Liver Bird, which has been crafted from Meccano pieces for display at Liverpool Shopping Park as the first retailers, including a Smyths Toys Superstore at the new complex open their doors.
Standing proud at 11 metres tall, the Liver Bird sculpture has been created in a nod to the area’s history as home of Liverpool-born toy-maker Frank Hornby and the first Meccano factory.
A joint commission by The Derwent Group, Liverpool City Council and Spin Master, the sculpture has been designed by internationally-renowned artist Emma Rodgers.
An undertaking of massive proportion, the new Liver Bird took more than a year to design, seven tonnes of steel and over 1000 hours of metalworking. The Liver Bird is expected to be a popular landmark for the local community.
“We are absolutely thrilled to play such a monumental and fitting role in this fantastic new retail venture,” commented Jo Thompson, PR and office manager at Spin Master UK.


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Food is one of our biggest household expenses.
Many people don't know how much they spend on food, Koh says. But if we're not careful, this outlay can "easily go overboard".
To get a sense of how your food spending compares to other peoples', this annual report on NZ food costs by Otago University is a good starting point, Koh says.
Feelings of choice and comfort are tied in with our individual food expenditure but making sacrifices can offer deeper satisfaction, she says.
"[Food] is an area of your budget where you can make huge savings but also do a favour for yourself healthwise and do a favour for the planet in the sense that you're cutting down on wastage.
"As we go into this next economic cycle where we've got this high inflation, we've got high-interest rates which are going to affect our mortgage payments and our rent, it's the one area that deserves a lot of attention."
Someone who could find a way to spend $125 less on food per week would save well over $6,000 if they kept that up for a year, Koh says. After a decade, that could become over $60,000.
"By simply changing some habits you can actually save a lot of money."
To begin your own investigation, Koh recommends first jotting down a list of everything you spend on food in a week, then looking at where you can cut back.
"Even set yourself a [weekly] limit and say 'my grocery budget is going to be xX-amount per week and once I've exceeded that I'm gonna have to think outside the square in terms of what I put on the table."
Liz Koh's tips for shrinking your food spend:
- Cut down your supermarket visits (and the number of opportunities to "impulse buy" things you don't need)
- Plan meals and make sure you have the ingredients on hand
- Cook in bulk
- Stop buying lunch
- Watch your coffee and cafe snacks


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As it reported like-for-like sales growth of 13.3% in its first quarter, Reckitt Benckiser underlined the challenges the business faces in terms of demand planning and understanding whether the buying habits it has seen will continue in the short term.
Unclear whether buying will be maintained in rest of 2020
Although the company was able to report strong sales growth across most geographies, especially in March and April, Reckitt Benckiser did note it was unclear about what ‘the split between defensive buying and higher levels of underlying consumption’ actually was. Although it believed key brands would ultimately benefit, it was expecting an ‘unwinding of ‘pantry load’ as [it] works [its] way through the crisis’.
The company highlighted this was especially likely in its over the counter / heath relief product area, where it said there have been ‘likely significant pantry-loading activity [which] makes it difficult to fully assess changes in underlying consumption caused by COVID-19’.
Demand and supply planning become difficult when demand patterns change. In the case of the present pandemic it is clear there is not a sufficiently comparable historical event that can be used to get a sense for customer demand. The company went on to underline this point, noting ‘a lack of clarity makes full year assessment challenging as material de-stocking could reduce sales should COVID-19 effects pass’.
Ecommerce boosted by shoppers’ shift to stay at home
Reckitt Benckiser said revenues generated in the ecommerce channel rose by more than 50% during the quarter, especially in March, as shoppers stayed at home and shifted more of their spending online. It said the growth was broad based, ‘with growth across all major platforms and market places’.
However, it did call out the strong growth it had seen in Greater China and North America. As part of the announcement the company also highlighted how ‘technology and ecommerce are changing the way consumers know both what and how to buy, and where to look for information and advice’. This will likely boost visibility for well-known and regarded brands, which has become a point highlighted by other manufacturers following the pandemic.
Long term strategy and trends remain intact
Despite the size and impact of the challenges provided by the pandemic, Reckitt Benckiser was keen to stress the importance of remaining focused on the long-term trends driving its strategy, which are likely to remain afterwards. It noted it how it remained convinced that ‘urbanisation and global warming [will] continue to drive hygiene as the foundation of health, [which will be affected by] pressures on state-funded healthcare [and result in] growing demand for self-care’. Given this, the company remained focused on implementing its long-term strategy for growth, saying ‘while there may be changes to the pace and sequence of some of our investments… our destination is clear’.
Looking for more insight?
- Get the latest insights on Coronavirus (COVID-19) to help your business understand what the food and grocery industry is doing around the world to address the evolving pandemic.
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Go Local! Tauranga accommodation providers get post-Covid future-ready
Business confidence among Tauranga accommodation providers is proving strong as they invest in their facilities and prepare for market recovery.
Accommodation providers are choosing the post-Covid-19 period to enhance their businesses by carrying out important building work, renovations and improvements.
Tourism Bay of Plenty product manager Brad Rowe said now was a great time for businesses to get "future-ready".
"It's really positive to see this confidence in the market," he said.
"Covid-19 has been tough for providers throughout New Zealand and it has impacted us hard, but the Coastal Bay of Plenty has a strong domestic visitor market.
"We're working hard to keep enticing Kiwis to holiday here while also future-proofing and developing our tourism industry."
Rowe said many providers were taking a 30-year viewpoint and could see the value in investing now for the future.
Harbourside City Backpackers is carrying out extensive earthquake strengthening and renovations.
It is expected to re-open in mid-October and will be re-branded as Wanderlust NZ.
Owner Sarah Meadows said the business relied heavily on the international market, but once renovations were complete, their accommodation offering would be more appealing to the domestic market.
"We are adding 42 beds to the market, bringing our total beds to 114, as well as a special group area for up to 30 guests with stunning views to the harbour," she said.
"Until the borders re-open and we see more international visitors, we have to do things a bit differently and the renovations are timed well to grow our New Zealand customer base."
Meadows believed the renovations will help to bring more vibrancy and life to downtown Tauranga.
Owner of 850 Cameron Hotel, Tony Bullot, said he made the strategic decision to compete at the top end of the market and has refurbished the hotel's rooms to go beyond customers' expectations.
This has included soft refurbishments such as installing top-end TVs and phone-charging docks.
"The tourism industry was hammered during lockdown, but I believe that recovery is only based on confidence, and we feel positive about the future," he said.
Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park is also adding more self-contained units to add capacity, and Hotel Armitage is upgrading its rooms and conference centre.
Hotel Armitage general manager Nicolas Caffardo said they were committed to investing in the Tauranga economy.
"While conferencing numbers are down, it's an ideal time to be doing renovations. Once complete, the new conference facility will give us a greater opportunity to market our business," he said.
Launched in March, Tourism Bay of Plenty's destination management plan Te Hā Tāpoi | The Love of Tourism aims to increase domestic visitor numbers and ultimately generate income for our retail and hospitality sectors, as well as keep the local tourism industry in jobs.
Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said confidence was surprisingly high at the moment given the circumstances.
"Most businesses we talk to are wary of what the future might bring, but happy with how things are going right now.
"Retail spend will be one of the key drivers of that confidence."
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said he had heard people were investing in their business to help them adapt post-Covid-19.
Cowley said most people were pleasantly surprised with the consumer spending levels since lockdown.
"After several weeks of supressed spending during lockdown, consumer spending has sprung back to near-normal levels.
"I hear golf memberships and equipment sales are sky-high."
But, of course, there were certain sectors facing challenging times, including travel and marketing agencies.
"Travel agencies are quickly adapting by building domestic packages."
Cowley said the region will rebound in time.
"We have a thriving primary sector. Our long-term population growth will likely remain constant.
"Our community has an excellent history of rebounding after the GFC, Rena grounding, and the PSA kiwifruit outbreak."


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Unix, Linux, DevOps , Cloud computing and BigData Knowledge-Base
Starting today, AWS AppSync is available in five new regions: EU (Paris and Stockholm), Canada (Central), South America (Sao Paulo) and US (N. California).
Continue Reading — AWS AppSync Now Available in EU (Paris and Stockholm), Canada (Central), South America (Sao Paulo) and US (N....
Amazon Comprehend Medical, is a HIPAA-eligible machine learning service that allows developers to process unstructured medical text and identify information such as patient diagnosis, treatments, dosages, symptoms and signs, and more. One of the more p…
Continue Reading — Amazon Comprehend Medical adds relationship extraction...
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Continue Reading — IBM Cloud Pak for Integration in 2 minutes
You can now launch Apache ActiveMQ 5.15.12 brokers on Amazon MQ. This patch update to ActiveMQ contains several fixes and improvements compared to the previously supported version, ActiveMQ 5.15.10.
Continue Reading — Amazon MQ now supports ActiveMQ Version 5.15.12
It’s time to talk about Chef Infra upgrades! Last time around, we covered why it’s important to run on the latest client, and reviewed some of the improvements that have been made in the last few years of releases. Today we’re going to dive into some...


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A new artist rendering of what the iPhone 6C might look like suggests a very shiny back cover
Speculations that this year will bring the iPhone 6C are starting to heat up, and now we have a new artist rendering of what the low-end iPhone could look like if Apple chooses to refresh it. The company hasn’t updated its cheapest handset since launching the iPhone 5C in 2013 because it released the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in 2014.
What will the iPhone 6C look like?
So will Apple refresh its low-end iPhone this year? It really depends on how successful sales of the iPhone 5C were. Of course Apple doesn’t say how many of each model it sells, so it’s unclear just how well the company did with the plastic-backed iPhone 5C.
Q2 2022 hedge fund letters database is now up. See what stocks top hedge funds are selling, what they are buying, what positions they are hiring for, what their investment process is, their returns and much more! This page is updated frequently, VERY FREQUENTLY, daily, or sometimes multiple times a day. As we get new Read More
At any rate, artists are now starting to imagine what the iPhone 6C might look like if Apple chooses to update it this year. The new concept for the low-end iPhone was spotted at 3D Future. Reports suggests that Apple did very well with sales of the iPhone 5C.
A shiny iPhone 6C
The iPhone 6C concept shows a shinier and more vibrant color. It includes a bit of color around the Home button, and the artist said the concept features the Touch ID sensor Apple included in the iPhone 5S and newer. It seems a little unlikely that the Touch ID would make it into the cheaper iPhone this soon, but hey, anything’s possible I suppose. Just consider how many generations it took for the Retina display to make it into the less expensive iPad Mini, so maybe the artist is right.
Reid points out that 3D Future’s renderings of the potential iPhone 6C look a little bit like Nokia’s and Microsoft’s Lumia, and I certainly see the resemblance as well.
So will Apple really refresh the cheap iPhone and release an iPhone 6C this year? Remember, the iPhone 5C was little more than an iPhone 5 with a plastic back. We could argue all day on whether or not Apple needed to even bother with the iPhone 5C and then carry that debate forward to the iPhone 6C. But let’s not. Of course there is the possibility that Apple will launch that rumored 4-inch iPhone 6 under the iPhone 6C name.


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The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap between those who benefit from the Internet and those who don’t, according to “New Internet Users in a COVID-19 World,” a study released by Google’s Next Billion Users initiative team on November 5.
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation, with many essential sectors such as healthcare, education, commerce, and government moving their services online. While helpful to those with Internet access, the online migration negatively affects New Internet Users (NIU), a demographic of roughly one billion people who only started using the Internet from 2013 to 2017. Almost half of these people come from developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, including the Philippines.
Many NIUs suffered from job loss or reduced income during the pandemic. With inflating prices of essential goods and less money to work with, they have had to sacrifice secondary basic needs, one of which is data. In Mexico, for instance, only two out of nine participants had consistent Internet access. In Brazil, a majority of the users could only afford data with the help of government aid.
This is problematic for NIUs considering the digital migration of essential sectors. Students need Internet access for remote learning. Poor access to telemedicine is further compounded by low awareness and discovery of online tools and platforms. Government employees may be operating purely online, which is a hurdle for NIUs who are used to calling telephone hotlines or visiting local government offices. Those who do not have Internet access may be intimidated by services such as financial aid applications due to low digital literacy.
This digital gap also affects emotional well-being. Smaller quantities of data lead to minimizing or removing of online entertainment. This could also mean less communication with traditionally in-person support systems, such as churches and neighbors, who can now only be contacted through digital means.
The rampant spread of fake news, scams, and misinformation online often leads to distrust of vital institutions such as governments and hospitals. There is also the stress of coping with the economic and digital changes brought by COVID-19, giving NIUs less room to think about and plan for the future.
In order to address these challenges, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations must work together. “As technology plays a bigger role in our lives and digital economies grow, we can and should make the internet better and more inclusive in the post-COVID world, for the billions online today, the next billion to come, and beyond,” said Caesar Sengupta, Google’s vice president for payments and the Next Billion Users Initiative, in a press statement.
The study was conducted among 200 new Internet users from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria. Of this number, 70 were frequently contacted as they learned to use their first smartphones. — Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo


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The Finance Ministry indicated that the revised Direct Taxes Code draft may stick to denying tax sops to special economic zones (SEZs), even as Commerce Minister Anand Sharma assured that the interests of investors will be protected.
Stating that profit-linked incentives were “distortionary”, the ministry said SEZs had failed to boost the manufacturing sector–as was expected from them.
“The Commerce Ministry should first give its appraisal on what is the current state of SEZs, before demanding continuation of income tax benefits,” a senior finance ministry official said.
According to the official, the ministry feels that SEZs have concentrated only on a few specific sectors, and not helped turn India into a major manufacturing hub.
“SEZs were meant to be export processing units, while they have turned into export zones for only IT and processed diamonds …


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First, and most importantly, I want to say a genuine, heartfelt thank you to all of our clients, partners, suppliers, and supporters for anything and everything you’ve done to help Alpha in 2020. Your support (and a lot of hard work from our team) has meant that despite everything, Alpha is leaving 2020 in a stronger position than when we started. Given what this year has thrown at all of us, I think that’s worth celebrating.
If you’re anything like me (and the rest of Australia) your news consumption has skyrocketed this year, so instead of looking backwards at what has happened, I thought I’d share some of the key ‘Watch Outs’ that we’ve got our eyes on in 2021:
Increasing scrutiny on the power and impact of the tech giants
Around the world, pressure is starting to mount for the tech giants (Google and Facebook in particular). Regulators are questioning the power and influence of these companies, with the ACCC in Australia recommending new Media Bargaining laws and Chairman Rod Sims being pretty clear about his support for greater regulation in other jurisdictions.
What this will mean:
Whilst the regulatory impact from some of these really big suits (ie the antitrust ones) is likely to not be felt for many years, they could still be quite impactful in the short term as the tech companies duck and weave and try to find ways to appease (or avoid) regulators.
Because we really don’t know what will happen, our advice to clients is simply to ensure you have a diverse media mix, and so aren’t overly exposed to changes in one channel. In addition to managing risk, the Journal of Advertising Research showed back in 2015 that a diverse media mix drives better outcomes for advertisers.
Almost every week we feature an article about upcoming privacy changes in our weekly round up, and with good reason.
Despite Google’s deadline for our ‘cookieless future’ being pushed out to 2022 (and potentially beyond), marketers are coming to terms with the fact that how the ad-supported internet functions is going to fundamentally change.
Other significant changes are coming in 2021, with Apple pushing back their ‘Opt-in’ policy from September 2020 to an as-yet unreleased launch in 2021. These changes will mean the depreciation of the existing IDFA used to track users’ interactions with apps, instead moving to a new standard where users will have to opt-in to be tracked by apps. With estimations that less than 20% of users may choose to opt-in to tracking and significant pushback from Facebook, it’s likely that the impact on advertising platforms and advertisers will be significant.
Finally, new privacy legislation (that looks a lot like the GDPR and in some cases, is even more stringent) is likely on the cards. California was the latest jurisdiction to amend their existing privacy legislation with the intention of returning control of user data to users themselves. It’s pretty likely that Australia will follow suit in the coming years.
What this will mean:
First and foremost, businesses need to be aware of:
- What data they’re collecting
- What data they have
- How it’s being stored
- How it’s being used
- Who has access
Once you’re comfortable that everything you have and are doing is compliant with local and international laws (especially if you trade internationally) it’s time to start thinking about how you prepare for the major changes coming up.
First party data will become essential, so it’s worth talking to a martech specialist (we can point you in the right direction) to ensure you’re making the right calls as to business strategy and tech. You’ll be in a much better position to see upside from these changes if you start collecting and analysing your data sooner rather than later.
For most, 2020 has been a real grind. The total upheaval of everyday life and ongoing uncertainty has drained the resilience of all of us. Given the end of 2020 isn’t going to mean the end of COVID, we’re turning our mind to how we can support our team members through a protracted recovery.
Research from McKinsey shows that leaders of organisations appear to bounce back from the impact of such an event much faster than the broader organisation, including employees. And despite what leaders might think, unflinching optimism may actually be doing more harm than good.
What this will mean:
We’re by no means a perfect model, but a couple of things we’re working on coming into 2020 are focused around key call-outs from this article, including Optimism tempered with realism (2021 is likely to be a ‘smoother’ year, but it won’t be without its own bumps), and Connecting Purpose with responsibilities (Our Purpose is to Guide and Empower others to succeed and we’re working to make it part of everything we do)
Finally, and on a more positive note, signs look good for a strong 2021 (though it won’t be without its challenges).
Consumer spending over the past few weeks has been strong, and confidence has hit 10-year record highs, though it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that the recent outbreaks in NSW and the potential of a new, more virulent strain of COVID in the UK, will impact this.
Across a large number of our retail clients, we’re also seeing ecommerce revenue hit record highs this holiday season, as people do their Christmas shopping from home (though not all sectors have seen this upside).
Overall, we’re expecting a quiet start to 2021 following the holiday hangover, but strong results thereafter.
For Alpha Digital, 2020 has seen us add 13 new faces to our team, from Graduate all the way through to Commercial Director. We’ve brought on exciting new clients such as Supercheap Auto, Loungelovers and Vissla, and have been shortlisted for the SEMRUSH, B&T, and APAC Search Awards. We’ve launched new services, such as lifecycle marketing and strategy, and changed up our Leadership.
Finally, and it’s not something I usually like shouting about outside of the agency, but I’m also proud to say that this year we launched Alpha Empowers, an initiative where the team chooses an NFP that empowers their clients or beneficiaries to succeed. For every billable hour we complete, we donate an amount to our selected NFP. In 2020, we have (or will) donate to the Indigineous Literacy Foundation, and to the Australian Childhood Foundation; two causes I’m thrilled we’ve been able to support.
If you’ve made it this far – thanks for giving me so much of your day. And thank you again for your support in 2020.
If you have any questions or comments about anything in this email, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at email@example.com, or by calling the office in Brisbane.


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Carte Blanche has launched a programme of job swaps designed to ensure that all team members appreciate and understand the importance of every department and function within the company.
Th initiative saw a swap between independent sales executive, Paul field and customer service team leader, Laura Chinery, who each spent a week working in each other’s roles earlier this month.
A release from the firm reported that the exercise has ‘generated huge insights into the challenges faced by each department alongside the hard work and dedication evident across the business.’
Field, who manages the Lancashire and Cumbria area, said: "It has certainly opened my eyes to the passion felt in the office and the desire to keep on pushing to make the business grow stronger every day. This is the same goal and passion felt by the sales force."
Carte Blanche’s sales director, Martin Horner, said: "“We are dedicated to providing the very best service to our retailers and in order to do this, it’s important to invest in our own people to ensure they truly understand the genuine issues faced in the retail environment.
"By creating a programme of job swaps, we can pull together to ensure that retailers enjoy a seamless service, from the moment the Sales Executive visits them to the point when their products are delivered on time and exceeding their expectations."


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Sail Away: John Halls Sports Nautical Style for Simons
3 monthes ago - By The Fashionisto
John Halls is once again the man of the moment as he reconnects with Simons. A favorite model of the retailer, John stars in a new style guide, just in time for summer. Simons revisits the timeless nautical motif with its most recent fashions. Ready for yachting or a simple day at the beach, John...
Read more ...
Adidas Unveils Two New NMD Racer Models
3 monthes ago - By Hypebeast
Adidas looks to push its NMD Racer silhouette forward by unveiling two new colorway reworks in time for summer. Seen above in both black and white options, each model sports a comfy sock-like upper with a smooth suede patch resting at the heel, in addition to the distinctly-branded heel pull tab.
Sitting below, we see a full-length BOOST midsole with some key design accents unique to the contemporary Three Stripes runner. Very much in line with past models, the midsole bumper detail has been moved to the rear, while the racing-style traction design is placed towards the front portion of...
Read more ...
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Microsoft has confirmed on Twitter that Spartan will be a great platform for gaming inside a browser, with Gamepad, Pointer Lock, and improved WebGL standards currently being implemented.
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In a new interview, Microsoft Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch talks about some of the advances in IE11, including why the team finally decided to add WebGL support to the browser.
Microsoft will use WebGL to help create their upcoming Bing Maps 3D features, in addition to supporting the graphics API inside the Internet Explorer 11 web browser.
Microsoft is using its Vine marketing campaign for Internet Explorer to hint strongly that WebGL support may be finally coming to Internet Explorer 10 sometime in the near future.
An examination of the leaked Windows Blue build shows there is evidence that Microsoft could be putting in WebGL support for the operating system's Internet Explorer 11 web browser.
If you were counting on WebGL support in upcoming versions of Internet Explorer, you're out of luck for now. Microsoft made the decision to not support WebGL in its current form due to serious security...
The Google Code team today have launched a new Chrome Experiment known as the WebGL Globe. Through any WebGL enabled browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox 4, you can view geographic data on an...
More than 3 years on, Opera have released a public preview build of their browser, with a standards-based 3D canvas implementation using WebGL for Windows. In 2007 they had released a preview build showing an...