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It’s official: Greece is the must-visit spot of summer 2021. Every celebrity and their mother — literally — made a voyage to the Mediterranean country in the past few weeks alone in glam fashion.
Tiffany Trump notably joined her fiancé Michael Boulos on a trip to the Temple of Poseidon outside of Athens earlier this month. The former first daughter prepped for the warm weather in a flowing blue dress complete with a halter neckline and cinched waist; she matched the number to a wide-brim Dior hat and tan boat-style loafers with a contrasting white outsole.
Kate Hudson also traveled across Greece as she filmed the sequel to “Knives Out,” stopping by a picturesque location between takes this summer. Soaking in the sun abroad in July, Hudson modeled a blue bustier-style bikini layered under a flowing white skirt as a coverup.
The ensemble also included a protective wide-brim hat and chunky-sole sneakers; while flip-flops may have been a more expected footwear choice for the theme of the look, the sneakers are a smart move to support the actress’ feet on the cobblestone walkways.
Bringing the big-toe sandal trend to Greece this summer was none other than Olivia Culpo.
Big-toe silhouettes became a celebrity-endorsed style in the summer of 2019 and have since continued to appear on the likes of Katy Perry, Lori Harvey and Katie Holmes amongst others. The style offers a laid-back appeal with the stability and familiarity of the 1990s, a common theme amongst “it” girl trends this season.
Culpo’s pair, in particular, bears resemblance to new designs from model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s collaboration with Gia Couture Firenze. Together, the model and Italian brand created a chic capsule of mules and sandals including Toe Ring Mules that retail for $740 online.
Another major trend that made its way to the island of Mykonos was cutout silhouettes. Izabel Goulart tackled the trend in the boldest way thanks to her neon yellow peek-a-boo catsuit from Poster Girl.
The Brazillian native opted for sunshine-shaded sneakers with contrasting pink panels. The Nike Air Force 1 Shadow in the Barely Rose/Speed Yellow colorway was released in March and features doubled-up accents from the mudguards to the eye stays and the signature Swoosh.
Though they originally retailed for $110, the sneakers now are going for anywhere from $128 to $180 on resale sites like StockX.
Joining the endless group of stars in Greece this summer was also Demi Moore and her daughter Rumer Willis. The mother-daughter duo explored the waters of the island in coordinating red swimwear and shades for July 4.


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“Everybody in this room knows that labor is a big issue for us,” said Keith Striegler, grower outreach specialist at E. & J. Gallo Winery, addressing a crowd of wine grape industry insiders at a conference in Sacramento.
Striegler said Gallo is investigating mechanization in response to that issue, and trying to improve quality in doing so.
“The reality is it’s not going to get any better, it’s going to be a continued problem we’re going to face,” he said. “Consequently there are also changes in how vineyards look.”
That doesn’t happen overnight, Striegler said. To make a change in the wine industry, he said, you start in the vineyard, then go to the winery, and you have to have buy-in from winemakers.
“We’re not just talking about mechanical harvesting, we’re talking about pruning, shoot-thinning,” Striegler said. “It cuts across everything that we’re doing.”
The chart above from an earlier presentation by Striegler shows the cost of manual labor dominates grapegrower balance sheets.
“There’s a tremendous impetus to us to mechanize as much as we can,” he said. “But we have to have buy-in from winemakers and consumers to make it all work.”
It’s not just for large vineyard operations, he said.
Cooperatives of growers can buy the machine, he said.
“There’s a lot of ways for a small grower to get into the game,” he told growers.
Striegler said box pruning is easier done by setting up a new plot than it is by retrofitting a vineyard.
The bottom line? Striegler said the issue is an existential one for the industry.
“At some point, we’re not going to be able to go over the number of acres that everybody has without mechanization,” he said. “At some point, it will be a question of if you can farm or not.”

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1 h ago•4 min read•Bitcoin
In conversation with CriptoNoticias, the founders of Ledn and Tropycus, two companies that offer loans with bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins, shared their views on the bankruptcies that occurred in the industry, led by their competitors Celsius and Voyager.
“As macroeconomic and geopolitical hurdles persist in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, a series of liquidations and bankruptcies have highlighted that not all digital asset lenders are created equal,” said Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, the co-founder and CSO of Ledn, who last month revealed to CriptoNoticias his history with Bitcoin until he created his company.
estimates that, instead of waiting for regulators enter the space, money lenders bitcoin y stablecoins need to engage in self-regulation. Just to set the industry standard and ensure they’re delivering the best, he explains.
From this perspective, he alleges that Ledn is subjected to a proof of reserves with a certified public accountant over a year ago. And he comments that the company publishes these reports every 6 months, which allows customers to verify their assets.
While I cannot comment on direct client interactions with companies involved in bankruptcy proceedings, we hope that these events will prompt clients to do their due diligence to understand how different companies generate returns and the risk implications of different activities.Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder and CSO of Ledn.
Why are there cryptocurrency lending companies that have gone bankrupt?
It is no coincidence that different industry companiesas Celsius and Voyager, have gone bust in the bear market of cryptocurrencies. The co-founder of Tropykus, Mauricio Tovar Gutiérrez, stated that, according to what has been known through the news with differences in each case, there are some common aspects.
“The main one is that these platforms, in order to offer the returns they offer, must take that money to other places and try to have higher returns or lend them to third parties,” he explained.
Indicates that some of them were exposed to services that crashed like Anchor and UST on Terra. While he sees that others lent money to 3AC, which went into bankruptcy and liquidation for, in turn, exposing itself to Terra, stETH and WBTC.
Given the rumors of insolvency, he also explains that many users decided to withdraw their cryptocurrencies, which increased the problem of available liquidity on those platforms. He summarizes that, in general, it has been a contagion effect that has undoubtedly been accelerated by the fall in the prices of the cryptocurrency market.
In his case, he affirms that they made some decisions to be more efficient in expenses and lengthen the runway. He also mentions that, from the point of view of protocol resources, they do not have a way to take that money elsewhere like the CeFi platforms. He highlights that who controls savings and loans is each user with his private key. That is, they could not freeze your funds.
In that sense, by design, it contrasts that they cannot be exposed to the risks to which the aforementioned CeFI loan companies were subjected. As is the case with Celsius, one of the companies that went bankrupt and confiscated the bitcoins and cryptocurrencies of its users.
Lenders Offer Mixed Yields on Cryptocurrencies in Bear Market
Regarding his vision of the market, the head of Tropykus maintains that “it is a good time to build and prepare for the next bullish cycle.” He deepens that we are now in a bear market, along with falling stocks due to turbulent macro environment of inflation, the pandemic and the Russian invasion.
From Ledn, Di Bartolomeo mentioned that macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds have resulted in ongoing turbulence and uncertainty in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
In this scenario, he clarified that the models used to generate interest by credit companies vary widely. And he notices that the current recession also shows that not all returns are created equal in the cryptocurrency industry. Likewise, it considers that this does not change its commercial fundamentals to continue growing and providing services in the coming years.


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By Tony Parra
Owners of a new downtown business want to bring a uniqueness to Portales in the form of gifts and collectibles.
Tressie Stroud is the owner of the new business,
NoWhereElse, which will be located at 214 S. Main Street next to Herb’s Barber Shop. The NoWhereElse store will have unique gifts such as collectibles, biker leather-jackets, vests, chaps, along with housewares and silver-finish animal abstract figurines, to name a few.
“We wanted to open a unique gift store that had gifts you couldn’t find anywhere else in Portales,” Stroud said, hence the name NoWhereElse. “We will have a little bit of everything. We want to have a nice, clean store which offers a variety of unique gifts.”
Stroud and her daughter, Donna Hayman, will be operating the store. Stroud and Hayman said they are hoping to have the NoWhereElse store open by Nov. 1. Stroud is looking at having the store open from 8 a.m. to either 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday and possibly from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Stroud said with The Territorial Restaurant opening up, where The Roosevelt Restaurant used to be located, it will increase traffic to the area. NoWhereElse is located behind The Territorial Restaurant.
Stroud said she is hopeful to incorporate art works from local artists with art works from national suppliers.
The store was redecorated on the outside with new stucco and on the inside with new walls, ceiling and a floor. Stroud said she hired Stretch Marx of Portales to paint the new floors which have black tiles with glitter-covered copper leaves on the tiles.
Stroud and Hayman grew up in Portales through the family farming business where they grew hay, milo, corn, peanuts and alfafa. Hayman helped her mother with the bookkeeping of the farm business.
“I’ve really worked with her for quiet a while,” Hayman said. “I’m excited (about the opening). It’s more exciting as the date gets closer.”
Hayman will be working at the store while attending Eastern New Mexico University. Stroud said she thought of the concept three years ago and a major push to open a new business in Portales was being able to be her own boss.
“I wanted to do something on my own,” Stroud said. “I wanted to be my own business. This was also a nice way of being able to spend more time with my family. Donna gets to be here with me.”
Stroud said her and her daughter work together on ideas for the store.
Stroud shares the building with Andy Parks, who owns the Parks Plumbing business. Stroud said Parks has been in plumbing for 19 years. Stroud and Hayman answer calls for his plumbing business, also.


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General Motors Corp., the world's largest auto maker, yesterday took a giant step toward becoming one of the world's biggest computer services companies by agreeing to acquire all of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems Corp. in a $2.5 billion transaction.
The proposed buyout, subject to approval by the boards of both companies and by EDS shareholders, is a key move in GM's long-range strategy to derive at least 10 percent of its annual worldwide revenue from nonautomotive sources. Only about 3.5 percent of GM's worldwide 1983 sales of $74.6 billion came from outside the auto industry.
"EDS's expertise in many of its current lines of business . . . will have an immediate positive impact on the efficiency of selected GM activities," said GM Chairman Roger B. Smith. GM could now become "the largest and most technologically advanced computer services company in the world," he asserted.
GM and the 22-year-old EDS have been in intense negotiations for about a month. EDS offers both business and government agencies a comprehensive array of data processing services, including payroll and health claims processing.
Perot is an ex-IBM salesman who launched EDS after he discovered that many of his IBM customers didn't want the problems that went along with having a data processing department. His innovation was to manage the computer facilities for them.
Perot, a slight, close-cropped Texan, made a monumental impact on Wall Street with the sudden success of EDS in the late 1960s. And when its stock plummeted in 1970, his paper stock market loss was $450 million. (He remained a billionaire.) Flamboyant and unabashedly patriotic, Perot gained international fame by engineering a daring and successful 1979 commando rescue of two EDS employes from a Tehran jail.
Perot said the merger "will result in an extremely effective worldwide voice and data communications network, which will reduce costs and provide outstanding additional business opportunities in the high-technology industry."
Under the proposed agreement, Perot would continue serving as chairman of EDS and would report directly to Smith. The computer company would operate as an independent subsidiary of GM and would keep its Dallas headquarters.
EDS sources said Perot also will be offered a seat on GM's 25-member board of directors. GM officials said such an offer would have to come from the directors themselves, who are scheduled to meet next week.
EDS--which has an international payroll of 14,000 people, about 3,000 of them in the Washington area--grossed $651.5 million last year. Perot has forecast it will be a billion-dollar company by 1986.
"EDS is one of the best companies in the [computer services] group," said Ulric Weil, a principal at Morgan Stanley who researches the computer industry. "It has a nice niche in the medical-claims market." Almost half of EDS's revenue comes from its health- and insurance-related claims processing.
"Computer services companies can be interesting acquisitions for manufacturing companies with dispersed operations," Weil said. "A good computer services company can be a shortcut to improving a big company's internal data processing," as well as a means to diversify.
Weil said that McDonnell Douglas, the giant aviation company, recently acquired Tymshare, a California-based computer services company, as part of its diversification effort.
General Electric, Control Data Corp. and ADP Inc. of New Jersey are three of the other major players in the computer-services industry. Analysts estimate that the multibillion-dollar industry is growing at a 16 percent to 18 percent annual rate. EDS's growth rate has consistently exceeded 20 percent and the company has been moving aggressively to get defense contracts.
"The GM of the future will be a corporation . . . that goes after more defense business," Smith said in a 1983 address to The Newcomen Society of the United States, a corporate-history research group.
Smith said yesterday that GM will "apply EDS's systems and processing techniques throughout GM and thereby effect some very fundamental advances" in how the auto maker handles all phases of car orders--including the scheduling of car "build-dates," the kinds of accessories ordered for a particular model, and the invoicing and shipping of cars.
EDS also will handle the marketing of manufacturing systems--such as computer-aided manufacturing and computer-aided design operations--developed by GM, Smith said.
GM also recently paid $3 million to acquire an 11 percent share of Teknowledge Inc.--a California-based company that specializes in developing artificial intelligence systems designed to help computers "think" like humans.
GM, which has about $9 billion in cash and marketable securities, would buy EDS by paying $44 in cash for each of EDS's 58 million outstanding shares of common stock, or by paying $35.20 per share in cash plus two-tenths of a share of a new class of GM common stock called Class E common. If all were exchanged for GM's straight cash offer, the merger would cost the auto maker approximately $2.5 billion. Perot's family owns about 50 percent of the outstanding shares.
GM's Class E common would have one-half vote per share, one-half of the liquidation rights of GM common stock and would be publicly traded in an over-the-counter market or listed on a national securities exchange, GM officials said.
The officials said GM intends to issue up to 13.6 million shares of Class E common in the proposed merger. Up to four times that number of shares of Class E common would be issued about one year after the merger is approved, the officials said in a statement.


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With the posting of the new Avengers trailer this past week; the battle for video views between Facebook and YouTube is in full swing. Marvel actually released the new trailer on Facebook and YouTube simultaneously. This provided a real-time look at how both sites attracted views within the first few hours.
In the first day, the Avengers trailer had been viewed more than 12 million times on Facebook and YouTube combined. Breaking it down, the YouTube trailer had 5,021,494 views with 145,503 likes, 17,800 comments and the Trailer posted on Facebook had 6,978,506 views with 176,137 likes, 126,632 shares and 11,988 comments. An interesting comparison, isn’t it? You can be sure this battle for eyeballs will continue to intensify
In addition, and as a testament to Facebook’s growing influence in the online video space, Marvel’s college football championship game commercial directed users to its Facebook page, rather than to its YouTube channel.
“It’s very easy on Facebook to virally spread an ad, users click one button and share, whereas on YouTube it’s a little more clunky and not as easy as one click,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer analyst. “So, a lot of marketers are considering the power of Facebook to share video quickly and easily.”
Up until now, YouTube used to be the place brands would share video, but now Facebook presents an inviting option. After developing autoplay video and serving up more videos to users’ News Feeds, Facebook users now view 3 billion video clips a day, up from 1 billion less than six months ago, according to multiple sources.
“It’s a smart move to go to Facebook and put the trailer there because it’s in the stream of conversation about the game—so it’s very naturally woven in,” said Dave Marsey, evp/md at DigitasLBi San Francisco. But it’s not quite as cut and dried as you might think. “Facebook is a challenge, but marketers and agencies are very used to using YouTube as a library of content to point people to videos,” Williamson said. “They don’t want to create baby YouTubes on every social site.” It will be interesting to watch what happens with brands and video in the coming months.
At the North American International Auto Show, Verizon announced Verizon Vehicle, focused on bringing connected features to any car on the road. The newly announced subscription service will include a device that plugs into a car’s OBD-II port to scan for any potential issues, track the vehicle’s location via GPS and interact with the driver via the Verizon Vehicle app or a Bluetooth.
Other features include the ability to talk to a support rep or request a tow truck by voice or the ability to communicate with a mechanic and even get a service quote, all without ever getting out of the car.
According to Verizon’s Erik Goldman, it’s expected to launch nationally in the second quarter of this year. While the hardware itself will be free, there will be a $15 per month service fee. The Internet of Things just continues to evolve.
Recently concluding the beta testing phase, Firefox is set to launch the simpler version of its “Hello” video chat feature. The latest release of the Firefox browser comes bundled with the updated WebRTC function, which was first released as part of its experimental beta browser in December.
Hello is an in-browser video chat feature that Firefox launched last year, but since it supports WebRTC, it’ll work even if the person you’re chatting with is using Opera or Chrome. Interesting concept, isn’t it? I am a long time Chrome user, so it’s not enough to entice me away from my browers of choice, but if you’re a Firefox fan, it would definitely be cool to check out.
In addition to Hello chat, the latest Firefox upgrades also makes it easy way to share links via email and social media.
According to a report from Re/code, Twitter is planning on rolling out its own native video product some time in the next few weeks.
According to the Re/Code report, the new video feature will be limited to around 20 seconds, which is longer than Instagram’s video limit of 15 seconds and much longer than Vine’s 6 second limit. Currently, the only way to have a video play in-line within your tweets is to use Twitter’s Vine service.
This new feature is different from Vine, but it apparently has some similarities. With the native video tool, you can upload video from your phone’s camera roll, or shoot and edit video directly through the Twitter app, according to sources who have seen and used the feature.
Once upon a time, Twitter and Google played nicely together. Then they quit getting along, so tweets no longer were visible and/or had any impact on search results. That’s changed recently. I believe that in its quest to remain relevant, to grow, as well as to satisfy investors, the recent move by Twitter to renew a focus on SEO is part of its plan to get back in the traffic game and to try and stay relevant.
The move means that search engines can more easily access pages where Twitter compiles tweets and information relating to particular hashtags, which is one way that people search for news and information. The result is that “logged-out” users of the search engines will see more than 50,000 of the more popular hashtag pages appearing in their search results. Clicking through from these will take the user to a landing page with tweets all about the hashtag such as this one for #socialmediamarketing.
The main purpose of this landing page is probably to demonstrate to non Twitter users what they might be missing and encourage them to sign up for the service, signifying continued growth to investors and analysts. That makes sense, because Twitter has struggled with growth issues and keeping investors happy. It also makes sense that Twitter will no doubt be exploring other ways to monetize these pages following the upgrade to the search capabilities.
Beyond that focus, I think that Twitter information appearing in search results once again does and will have an impact on SEO results. Social sharing will likely play a greater role in search results and it will be important for businesses to have a legitimate presence in the social space in order to reap any SEO benefit. We are seeing this change have a bit of an impact in these early days on results, both for ourselves and our clients, and this is definitely something to watch moving forward.
Facebook has begun to roll out Facebook for Work; a new platform that lets companies create their own social network inside a very familiar framework. According to TechCrunch, it’s a closed beta for now. There’s even an app in the app store, but you can’t use it unless you’re part of the beta program.
The hope is that by having employees connect through Facebook, they will want to participate in group discussions and communicate with each other on a regular basis. Both are seen as good for morale and, may make employees more productive. It may also encourage employees to deal with work issues even when they’re not at work.
I’ve seen a lot written about this and you can call me a skeptic, but I can’t imagine employees wanting to chat about business through Facebook. For many, Facebook is personal and a place to go to get a respite from work, not a place you want to connect your personal life and your business life. Unless of course you’re a marketer, and every one knows we’re crazy. I am extremely curious about this and can’t wait to see how it plays out. I would love to know what you think about this and whether you think my skepticism is warranted.
Most smartphones already receive AMBER alerts when a child is reported missing in your area. While most smartphones are configured to do this right out of the box, Facebook is partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on a way to help.
Facebook’s system can send just about anything that’ll help get the missing child home, including pictures of the child, images of any involved vehicles, and specific details about the situation. Unlike the built-in system, Facebook’s alerts won’t show up on the lock screen, but seeing those alerts in the stream might just help save some kids. What do you think?


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HMD Global added two new budget Nokia-branded phones, the Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 2.4, to its portfolio earlier in September. And now, the Finnish giant is ready to bring the devices to India. It has started teasing the India launch date of the Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 2.4 on social media.
The official Nokia Mobile India account tweeted a short video teaser showing off the silhouette of the two aforesaid smartphones. The caption read: “The countdown has begun. Only 10 days to go for the big reveal. Stay tuned.” This means the Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 2.4 India launch has been set for 26th November.
— Nokia Mobile India (@NokiamobileIN) November 16, 2020
Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 2.4 Specifications
Nokia 3.4 will arrive as a successor to the Nokia 3.2, offering you a modern design. A 6.39-inch HD+ LCD display with an 8MP punch-hole selfie camera on the front and a circular triple camera module on the rear. It includes a 13MP primary camera, a 5MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2MP depth sensor on the rear. The LED flash is baked into the circular module for symmetry.
Nokia 3.4 is powered by the Snapdragon 460 chipset, coupled with 3GB RAM, 64GB built-in storage, and a 4,000mAh battery with 10W charging support via the USB Type-C port at the bottom. Nokia 2.4, on the other hand, is powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 chipset. You will find only 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a bigger 4,500mAh battery pack onboard.
Nokia 2.4 features a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD panel with a waterdrop notch that sports a 5MP selfie sensor on the front. You have a vertical dual-camera module with a 13MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor on the rear. Both of the smartphones run Android 10 out-of-the-box and a polycarbonate build.
And well, if you have been expecting to see the Nokia 8.3 5G make its way to India, it seems like the company is not interested to bring this smartphone to the country just yet. We can expect these budget devices to be priced starting at under Rs. 10,000 in India.


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Wal-Mart Launches Earth Month Campaign
Bentonville, Ark. Wal-Mart is launching a major environmental sustainability campaign to celebrate April as Earth Month.
More than 50 products, from milk to light bulbs, spanning various aspects of sustainability, including energy conservation, waste reduction and organics, will be featured on store shelves during the month of April. In addition, Walmart.com will offer more than 500 eco-friendly items.
In addition, Wal-Mart is introducing a national advertising campaign that includes print, television, radio and online ads, as well as a 16-page insert in several popular consumer magazines, to highlight its environmental efforts. The television spots focus on various areas of sustainability in a story-telling style.
In Wal-Mart stores, shoppers will find signs sharing information about the environmental benefits and impact of sustainable products, and highlighting small, affordable changes.
Also as a part of Earth Month 2008, Wal-Mart will be giving away a million custom-made reusable shopping bags on Saturday, April 19.
Syntax names interim cfo
TEMPE, Ariz. Syntax-Brillian, a leading manufacturer and marketer of LCD HDTVs, digital cameras, and consumer electronics products, has announced that Bradley Lines has been appointed to the position of interim cfo effective March 24. Lines has been serving as the firm’s senior vp of finance and corporate treasurer. He will replace Jack Hodgson, who has resigned as evp, cfo and director to pursue other opportunities.
Mr. Lines joined Syntax-Brillian in May 2007 and becoming senior vp of finance and corporate treasurer in November 2007. He will report directly to James Li, president and ceo, and will direct and oversee Syntax-Brillian’s worldwide financial management and accounting activities.
“Brad’s deep understanding of Syntax-Brillian and his global perspective make him the perfect choice for cfo and a major asset for all Syntax shareholders,” said Li. “We thank Jack for his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Curren to head ACCO’s Day-Timer business
LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. ACCO Brands has named Martha Curren vp and general manager of its Day-Timer brand business for the U.S., Canadian and international marketplace.
Curren served as president of Goebel of North America from 2005 to 2008. Prior to that she served as president of Lenox Collections since 1998.
“I am very pleased to be leading a team of caring and knowledgeable professionals at Day-Timers. I look forward to developing a collaborative environment that will build upon the traditional level of quality and service our customers expect while we move forward with creating innovative new products to appeal to ever changing customer needs. Continuing to build value added relationships with current consumers and trade customers is a high priority,” said Curren.


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Former Department of Economic Affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has said that the new Rs 2,000 notes that were introduced after the announcement of demonetisation on November 8 2016 have primarily been used for hoarding and could be declared illegal tender. He added that withdrawing the Rs 2,000 notes from circulation would not cause any disruption. Garg spoke about the Rs 2,000 note on the third anniversary of demonetisation on Friday.
"It can be demonetised, without causing any disruption. A simple method, depositing these notes in the bank accounts (no counter replacement), can be used to manage the process," he said.
"Cash is still quite high in the system. There is also stocking of Rs 2,000 notes in evidence. The expansion of digital payments is taking place all over the world. It is happening in India as well. The pace is much slower," said Garg in a note. The former economic affairs secretary took VRS after he was abruptly shifted out of the finance ministry.
Garg said that the Rs 2,000 notes account for one-third of currency notes in circulation in terms of value. "A good chunk of Rs 2,000 notes are actually not in circulation, having been hoarded. Rs 2,000 note, therefore, is not presently working as a currency of transaction," he said.
He added that cash is past its prime and very convenient digital modes of payments are replacing cash at a fast pace. However, he pointed out, "India has still a long way to go with more than 85 per cent payment transactions in the country still taking place in cash. The pace has to be accelerated."
Making large cash-based transactions costlier and subject to some tax/charge, making digital modes of payments conveniently available at all times and stopping cash handling in the government completely will help transition our country to less cash and to no cash economy, he said. "China has done it. More than 87 per cent transactions now take place in the non-cash mode as compared to 12 per cent in India," he added.
Implicit subsidies for cash transaction (no charge while depositing cash in banks, not providing notes of less than Rs 10 for transactions) need to be gradually eliminated and fin-tech infrastructure, using the LED model, need to be made universal and cost-free, he added.
Three years ago, on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement of banning the use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in an attempt to curb black money, promote digital payments and make India a less-cash economy.
Copyright©2021 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today


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In the upcoming 2008 Malaysia Budget, the government may implement the goods and services tax (GST) and single-tier corporate tax. Deloitte KassimChan Tax Services Sdn Bhd technical director K Sandra Segaran said the GST was likely to be accompanied by further reductions in both corporate and personal income tax rates as has happened in countries such as Singapore.
The government could also suggest the possibility of lowering personal income tax, as the current rate of 28% for those in the top income bracket was still high. A company with paid-up capital of less than RM2.5 million would enjoy a differential tax rate of 20% on the first RM500,000 that it earned. As comparison, an individual earning RM500,000 has to pay close to RM125,000 while such a company would only pay RM100,000. Not a fair system in the tax-payment, isn’t it?
Overall, the tax experts are expecting a “friendly” budget, possibly without any increase in “sin taxes”, considering that the general election may be called soon. Nevertheless FinanceTwitter believe most readers and people would be interested in the whole concept of GST.
GST was introduced in several countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and the nearest is the Singapore. GST in Singapore started back in 1994 at a flat rate of 3% and subsequently raised to 4% in 2003, 5% in 2004 and 7% in July 2007.
GST is a system whereby you’re being taxed everytime you spend. So it is suppose to relieve you from paying more if you’re a careful spender. Government would argue that the system is actually a good way to encourages savings and investment instead of consumption. So far so good, but it’s only good on paper and work if you’ve the luxury of extra dollars to save. What if your monthly budget actually meets the deficit and you basically have not a single penny to save, not a surprise fact for lower or even medium income earners in Malaysia considering the high inflation nowadays?
The government would love to see GST goes through because it solves the problem of tax evasion. But the real objective of the government is to increase the income to the government’s coffer as it’s a broad-based system. Regardless whether you’re in the lower, medium of higher income bracket, you’ll pay to the government indirectly everytime you spend, even on a can of Coca-Cola. Singapore did it because its’ income from the normal income-tax is expected to decline with the ageing population.
FinanceTwitter couldn’t write more before the government announce the “scope of the coverage” which will be covered within the GST framework. Basically with the GST, the government can announce any items which will be “GSTed” anytime it desires. But with the coming general election, the scope of coverage could be small in order not to upset the voters. If the GST indeed materialized, the government is expected to announce an increment to the size of the scope gradually “after the general election”, taking the cue from the Singapore government.
Already burdened with multiple taxes, high inflation, tolls, low buying power, increase in living expenses etc, it would be very interesting indeed to know how the government plans to implement the GST without getting people to put up banners in objection. But then the GST could be put up only next year, 2008, after the general election.
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KIDOZ Ltd., the portfolio company of Chernovetskyi Investment Group, became a certified advertising network on Google Play
In June, Google announced a new Building a Safer Google Play for Kids policy aimed at app developers whose target audience are children under the age of 13. The initiative requires the developers to use only certified advertising networks. KIDOZ became one of the first platforms for the content for children to claim this status.
The certification means that the KIDOZ products are in full compliance with Google’s requirements as to the security of the advertising content and the use of personal data. All the advertising via the company’s apps comes from trusted sources and the applications do not collect and use confidential information.
KIDOZ supports Google’s campaign to protect children from inappropriate content and encourages developers to use new advertising techniques. KIDOZ advocates for the creation of the safe space on the Internet that would allow content developers to integrate secure and informative advertising into the quality content.
CIG is an investor of KIDOZ since 2015. It supports its portfolio company’s efforts to create children-friendly Internet space.
KIDOZ platform covers more than 50 million users — children and their parents – globally. KIDOZ OS is the official software product for more than 40 leading OEM, mobile operators and children’s brands, including Lenovo, PBS Kids, Sprout TV and Acer. The software is pre-installed on millions of devices providing children with safe content and their parents with security monitoring functions.
KIDOZ Network is a full-fledged AdTech platform that helps hundreds of developers to monetize their applications in compliance with COPPA (U.S. Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and GDPR (E.U. General Data Protection Regulation) and allows the best children’s brands, like Hasbro, Nintendo, LEGO, Disney, Viacom, Crayola, to distribute their content.


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Retail inflation, which eased in August, is expected to decline sharply in September driven by corrections in vegetable prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday.
In August, consumer price index (CPI) inflation eased to 6.83 per cent from a 15-month high of 7.44 per cent in July 2023. This moderation was on account of reversal in the prices of vegetables.
“Hearteningly, the correction is not complete, and more is expected to drive down retail inflation in its September reading. Furthermore, there are early indication of corrections in a broad range of vegetable prices going beyond the TOP (tomatoes, onions and potatoes) group,” the RBI said in the State of the Economy article, released in its monthly bulletin for September.
The article is authored by RBI Deputy Governor Michael Patra and other central bank officials. The RBI, however, said the views in the article are those of the authors and not of the institution.
Core inflation remained steady at 4.9 per cent in August. An important development for the conduct of monetary policy is the stabilizing of core inflation, which also reflects a broad-based easing of price pressures across its constituents, both goods and services, the article said.
According to the authors, a new risk to global financial stability stems from the commodity markets as crude prices ruling above $90 per barrel challenge 10-month highs due to Saudi Arabia and Russia extending voluntary production cuts to the end of 2023.
The strength of the US dollar on safe haven demand is also making crude prices higher. Global inflation is once again under siege as deep deficits in global oil balances become persistent unless global demand is hit by a sharp economic downturn, they said.
The article said the Indian economy remains an outlier amidst darkening global prospects. Supply chain pressures in the country remain below historical average levels despite a pick-up since May 2023.
It said the real GDP growth for the first quarter of 2023-24 at 7.8 per cent was the same as projected in the August edition of the State of the Economy article. The growth was led by domestic drivers – private consumption and fixed investment – which offset the negative spill from net exports.
“In the second quarter, available indicators point to a (GDP) gain in quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) momentum on the back of domestic demand,” the authors said, adding that the economic activity index (EAI) nowcasts GDP growth for Q2 FY 2023- 24 at 6.6 per cent.
As Jawan inches closer to another major milestone, Shah Rukh Khan to be the only Indian star to have two Rs 1,000-crore grossers in one year
Farida Jalal recalls the time when Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bachchan were dating: ‘They would pick me up at night, we would go for long drives’
Clothing and lifestyle retailers and shopping malls are experiencing a sharp recovery in sales across price points in the past few weeks, which has raised hopes of a pick-up in demand through the rest of the festival season that began with Raksha Bandhan and Onam, and cheers for discretionary retail spending, the article said.
The next segments to attract festival spend are electronics and autos, it said. There are also indications that rural demand for fast-moving consumer goods has swung back into positive territory after being under pressure for over a year.
Looking ahead, India’s consumer market is expected to become the world’s third largest by 2027, with household per capita spending outpacing all other developing economies in Asia, the article said.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
First published on: 19-09-2023 at 04:55 IST
Credit: Source link


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- Biz Tools
A rumour has been floating around for some time that Australia's Bakers Delight franchise is in financial trouble. That its business model does not work; too many of its franchisees were going broke.
A few weeks ago other rumours emerged. This time the quiet talk was that Bakers Delight was being bought by Coles Supermarkets – that Bakers Delight bakeries were to be opened inside Coles supermarkets.
Coles is owned by Wesfarmers, one of the largest public companies in Australia. Bakers Delight has a well recognised brand, that is true, but it is a brand that has been dogged by bad media, allegations of misconduct, an ACCC investigation, and litigation. One wonders why Wesfarmers would deal with a company with such a poor reputation and damaged brand.
By Tuesday this week the rumours were gaining momentum. Information came in quickly from two different States; from sources independent of each other. High level negotiations had been held in Melbourne last week regarding the sale of Bakers Delight and in attendance was a major overseas Wesfarmers shareholder who had flown in for the occasion.
This not so ‘well guarded secret’ seems to be the topic of much discussion around the country, with the main points all being:
Not all Coles supermarkets have their own in-store bakeries. It has been suggested that if the buyout goes ahead, those that do, approximately 70%, will be re-branded as Bakers Delight, and those without will be supplied with product from the larger in-store bakeries, in a hub-type system.
Bakers Delight is already dealing with declining sales, a continual fall in market share, franchisees going broke and abandoning their bakeries, and themselves suffering multi-million dollar losses when they failed in their attempt to move into the US.
This latest development for Bakers Delight can only be in response to their ongoing difficulties in selling franchises after years of damaging media exposure regarding their treatment of franchisees, complaints to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the three government franchising inquiries, and current litigation with franchisees.
The latest scuttle-butt suggests that the franchisors of Bakers Delight, Roger and Lesley Gillespie, have sold the New Zealand division of the company. The franchise has always struggled there and it seems that they have finally decided to sell it off whilst it is still worth something.
In an obvious effort to offload as many stores as possible, Bakers Delight have also been selling their Australian company owned stores at bargain basement prices; some reportedly as low as $50k. Considering that a new franchise sells for around $500k, this type of behaviour reeks of company directors desperately making a last-minute dash for cash on their way out. It also devalues the brand and their current franchisees investment.
There is also talk that the Gillespie’s are moving to Canada. Whilst Canada has not been the raging success that Roger and Lesley Gillespie hyped it up to be, the company trades under the name of COBS Bread over there. Gillespie’s children are currently running the business. Cut and run? Will we see COBS Bread make an entry into Australia in a few years?
The concept of placing a franchise brand inside a supermarket is not new. The franchise Lenards’ appeared inside IGA supermarkets a few years ago. This concept is also currently being trialled by two IGA supermarkets in QLD who now have the other Australian bakery franchise ‘Brumbys’ inside their stores.
So what does this mean for the franchisees?
There is no good news for current franchisees if the rumour about Bakers Delight being introduced inside Coles supermarkets is true. Already there are an increasing number of franchises for sale, and no buyers. The price for many of these stores is well below what the price would have been just a few years ago. Current franchisees cannot get out of the system that is sending many of them broke.
A major problem for any franchisee when their franchisor sells is that they will not know the mind of their new ‘owner’. The purchaser may want to build on the success of the franchise system and this should be good news for the franchisees. They will of course be expected to pick up all the associated costs of re-branding. But they still have their business.
The purchaser may, however, just want to buy the brand – to either absorb into their own business, with no franchisees, or just to remove it from the market.
When a franchise system is absorbed by a ‘major’ company that does not franchise, they must be prepared for substantial loss. It is only now that these franchisees will understand how few protections are afforded them by the contracts they signed.
In the case of Wesfarmers, who do not franchise, the franchisees should be looking at how to minimise their losses.
An easy option for Bakers Delight is to terminate the franchise agreements. They have, over the last few years, perfected ‘contract termination’ – breach, terminate. There is sure to be an increase in franchisees receiving breach notices, quickly followed by termination of contract notices. In fact, it has been suggested that three such notices have been handed out in WA just this week. Expect more.
Another option is for Bakers Delight to simply terminate the lease on the store site. They hold the Head Lease and the franchisee signs a Licence Agreement. When the franchisee checks their Licence Agreement they will realise that it is only for 5 months, rolling into a month-by-month agreement. If the Lease is terminated, then effectively so is the Franchise Agreement. The franchisee will be held responsible for any loss on the term of the lease.
Once the franchise agreement has been terminated, the bank will call in the loan. No franchise agreement, no business, no security, no loan. In most cases the bank will know about it before you will. They will move to recover their ‘security’ – usually the franchisee’s home, before you even realise you have no business.
The easiest solution for Wesfarmers and Bakers Delight will be ‘passive terminations’ – that is, a non-renewal of the franchise agreement.
It has been suggested by a Coles bakery manager this week that Coles will be making a ‘massive’ announcement sometime in the next week. It appears that we will not have to wait much longer before finding out if there is any truth to all of this speculation.
Footnote:Wesfarmers started in 1914 as a West Australian farmer’s co-operative, listing on the stock market in 1985. It is now one of Australia’s largest public companies.
In November 2007 Wesfarmers purchased the Coles supermarket group for A$22 Billion, making it the largest successful take-over in Australian corporate history.
Since becoming a public company in 1985, Wesfarmers have enacted an aggressive acquisition strategy. They now have portfolio packed with leading brands in the retail, industrial and insurance sectors.
Most of their Australian and New Zealand specialty businesses are believed to hold a leading market position in their categories.


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Fiat Chrysler Says Don't Use Cruise, Recalls 4.8 Million Vehicles
On Friday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a 4.8 million vehicle recall and warned owners of affected vehicles not to activate cruise control, for fears that the system will not deactivate once engaged. The alert was picked up by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which advises vehicle owners to heed FCA’s warning.
The NHTSA asks that potentially affected owners either input their VIN on the Administration’s website to check for standing recalls or check the following FCA-provided list of vehicles and respective model years against their own vehicle:
- Chrysler 200 (2015-2017)
- Chrysler 300 (2014-2018)
- Chrysler Pacifica (2017-2018)
- Dodge Challenger (2015-2018)
- Dodge Charger (2014-2018)
- Dodge Durango (2014-2018)
- Dodge Journey (2014-2018)
- Jeep Cherokee (2014-2018)
- Jeep Grand Cherokee (2014-2018)
- Jeep Wrangler (2018)
- Ram 1500 (2014-2019)
- Ram 2500 (2014-2018)
- Ram 3500 Pickup (2014-2018)
- Ram 3500 Cab Chassis Less Than 10,000lb (2016-2018)
- Ram 3500 Cab Chassis (2014-2018)
- Ram 4500 Cab Chassis (2014-2018)
- Ram 5500 Cab Chassis (2014-2018)
The Drive contacted FCA for information on whether the Dodge Grand Caravan, closely related to the recalled Chrysler Pacifica, is also affected by the recall, and we will update when a response has returned.
A company statement says the car may lock itself in cruise control when the system opens the throttle further, such as when vehicle speed must be maintained while climbing a hill, and the system may short-circuit. If a driver finds cruise control will not disengage itself, the NHTSA advises drivers to aggressively apply the vehicle’s brakes or shift into neutral, and when the vehicle rolls to a halt, place it into park.
One crash as a result of the fault, with no injuries, has been reported.
FCA advises owners to bring their vehicles into dealerships for service to correct the issue, which it says can be addressed with a software update.
Source: Read Full Article


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It is not "the US" that imports Japanese or Chinese electrical appliances, but an individual from the US, or a group of Americans. They import these appliances because they believe that a profit can be made. And governments ought not interfere in these transactions.
MMT basically holds that governments have control of unlimited amounts of real wealth — thanks to money-printing power. But if this were really true, countries like the USSR and North Korea could simply create money until they became wealthy nations.
Social media giants enjoy a cocktail of government contracts, government favoritism, and government-granted monopoly power. As a result, it will be difficult for new startups to offer much competition.


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Remember when we thought Krispy Kreme's pumpkin spice glazed doughnut was only going to be around for one day? Well, surprise! Krispy Kreme is bringing it back again for October, but only on a few select days! You can get the Pumpkin Spice Original Glazed after 6 p.m. on Oct. 6, 13, and 20 — in a promotion Krispy Kreme is calling Friday Night Spice — and also all day on National Pumpkin Day, Oct. 26.
The pumpkin treats will be available at Krispy Kreme shops in the US and Canada while supplies last. The seasonal doughnut is Krispy Kreme's popular glazed option with a hint of cinnamon and pumpkin spice thrown into the mix. Sounds pretty delicious to us!


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McAteer will be bringing 15 years of experience with Grant Thornton Ireland to support EasyGo, which has also appointed former Microsoft sales lead David Fitzgerald as its CRO.
Electric vehicle (EV) charging network provider EasyGo has appointed Michael McAteer to its executive committee.
McAteer has been with Grant Thornton Ireland for more than 15 years and was the managing partner for Ireland since 2018. Before this, McAteer lead the firm’s advisory services practice and he is currently a partner advisory for the organisation.
He has decades of experience in previous roles, including as an accountant at Farell Grant Sparks, a project manager with Westpac Banking Corporation and the owner of Foster McAteer, a corporate recovery specialist that merged with Grant Thornton.
Speaking on his appointment to EasyGo’s committee, McAteer said the company is playing a “pivotal role in delivering a decarbonised transportation future in Ireland”.
“With a focus on sustainability and innovation, EasyGo is well-poised to lead the charge in the EV sector by enhancing infrastructure, network reach and charging options,” he said. “I look forward to contributing to the company’s continued success.”
In addition to McAteer, EasyGo said David Fitzgerald will join the company as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Fitzgerald has more than two decades of experience in managing high-performing sales platforms for market leaders such as Microsoft and Siemens.
EasyGo said his role will be to lead the sales and marketing function for all of the company’s B2B and B2C products and services.
The new appointments follow a boost for EasyGo last October, after its parent company – Erapid – secured €30m from Aviva Investors to grow its team by 60 and install thousands of EV chargers across Ireland.
Earlier in 2023, Erapid announced a €1m investment to install 24 EV charging units in 21 locations across Mayo, supported by Mayo County Council. The company has also partnered with Eir to install hundreds of charging points nationwide.
EasyGo said its EV charging network provides access to more than 4,000 charging points in 1,500 locations across the island of Ireland.
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ACE USA, the retail operating division of the ACE Group of Companies, has expanded the capabilities of its products and services for its web-based underwriting facility that offers brokers a platform to access Contractors Pollution Liability Coverage.
This web-based underwriting facility now extends to commercial contractors the option and convenience of procuring contractors’ pollution coverage on admitted paper in more than 24 states to date.
This expanded product offering is available to its commercial contracting clients with coverage for environmental and non-environmental classes of business, including general and trade contractors.
ACE claimed that the eCPL (Contractors Pollution Liability) website offers underwriting advantages which are designed for clients generating $50 million or less in annual revenue; expanded optional coverage to address mold liability with available limits offered up to $1 million per claim for mold liability; and increased overall policy limit capacity from $1 million per claim/aggregate up to $5 million.
William Hazelton, senior vice president of ACE Environmental Risk, said: ACE takes every opportunity to enhance and broaden its products and services on an ongoing basis. Recognizing that ACE’s network of brokers need more flexibility and convenience to access coverage for their contracting clients, the end result of the admitted coverage option is that it translates into better management of environmental risks.


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Stella Artois announced a voluntary recall of select packages containing 11.2-ounce (330-ml) bottles of Stella Artois beer that may contain particles of glass. This recall applies to Stella Artois 6-packs, 12-packs, 18-packs, 24-packs, individual Stella Artois bottles in “Best of Belgium” multi-packs in the U.S. and Canada, and Stella Artois Légère 6-packs and 12-packs in the U.S.
Although it is believed that the number of potentially-affected bottles is less than 1% of Stella Artois glass bottles sold in North America annually, and affected bottles will be far less than this, the Stella Artois team made the decision to voluntarily recall certain packages potentially containing the 11.2-ounce (330-ml) bottles as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of its consumers.
Any consumers who currently have potentially-affected Stella Artois beer within the scope of this recall will be eligible for reimbursement. Consumers are advised not to consume or allow others to consume the potentially-affected product.
If you believe you have Stella Artois products impacted by this recall, please go to the following Stella Artois webpage


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Facebook wants to prove that it can offer up more compelling video game experiences than the likes of Farmville and Candy Crush Saga. The site’s campaign to win over gamers began in earnest with the acquisition of Oculus in 2014, but Thursday it took another step forward with the announcement of a new gaming platform.
This new venture will get underway with an extension of the relationship between Facebook and Unity Technologies, the company responsible for the Unity cross-platform game engine.
Facebook wants to make it easier for Unity developers to publish their games to the social media service. To that end, the the engine will soon be adding an option to export directly to Facebook, streamlining the process significantly to help content creators reach the millions of users that visit the site on a daily basis.
A select group of developers will be given access to a closed alpha build of this functionality Thursday, with more being added to the program on an ongoing basis, according to a report from Engadget. Anyone looking to be included in this test period can register using this form.
Lots of big-name titles use Unity, so making it easy to publish games to Facebook using the engine certainly makes sense in terms of starting up a gaming platform. Theoretically, games as diverse as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Firewatch, Superhot, and Monument Valley could all be ported with a minimal amount of effort from their developers.
Ever since Facebook acquired Oculus, there have been questions about the company’s gaming strategy. Today’s developments give some insight into its approach: work with developers to make sure publishing games to Facebook is straightforward, then set about building up a platform that can be used to sell VR content.


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Two former executives of Lucent Polymers Inc. have been arrested and charged with fraud in relation to the sale of the company to Citadel Plastics Holding Inc. and later to A. Schulman Inc.
Former Lucent CEO Kevin Kuhnash and former Chief Operating Officer Jason Jimerson were arrested Feb. 12, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Indianapolis. They were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
An indictment alleges that they committed fraud when they orchestrated the sale of Evansville, Ind.-based Lucent but concealed critical defects in Lucent's business, including fraud that Lucent was committing on its customers.
West Chicago, Ill.-based Citadel bought Lucent in December 2013. Then, A. Schulman purchased Citadel in early 2015.
According to the SEC complaint, Kuhnash received $1.39 million through the two deals and Jimerson received $648,946.
“Like a modern-day Rumpelstiltskin, Lucent claimed that it could transform garbage to gold. Lucent promised customers that — unlike its competitors — it could process less expensive, recycled and scrap material and turn it into high-quality bulk plastics that met stringent standards on critical features like flame resistance and tensile strength,” SEC said in the complaint.
“Unfortunately, Lucent's business model was a fraud and defendants Kuhnash and Jimerson knew it,” the complaint said.
Lucent's compounds routinely flunked its own internal performance tests, but the company sent customers fake test results, according to the complaint.
Fairlawn, Ohio-based Schulman filed suit against Citadel in June 2016, charging that it had discovered evidence of the falsified
product information. Schulman now is part of global plastics giant LyondellBasell Industries.
“Corporate officials who put deviousness over good faith degrade the integrity of our markets and impugn the reputation of American industry,” U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said in a news release announcing the arrests. “This office will continue to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of corrupt corporate executives who enrich themselves through fraud and deception.”
The indictment alleged that a key aspect of Lucent's business was its claim to be able to design and manufacture custom plastics products that met customers' exact specifications at very low prices. Lucent's customers included companies that made cars, automotive air bags, electrical boxes, ceiling fans, kitchen appliances and heating and air conditioning units. Their specifications often included flame resistance, color, strength and durability, and certification by Underwriters Laboratories.
Prosecutors allege that Lucent's internal testing showed that its low-cost products often did not meet its customers' specifications or UL standards. Nevertheless, Lucent employees allegedly created and submitted false records stating that the internal testing confirmed that the products were within spec, the attorney said. When customers complained, Lucent employees allegedly continued to conceal that they had altered the test results.
The indictment alleged that in 2013, Kuhnash and Jimerson were involved in trying to sell Lucent's business. According to the indictment, in September 2013 or earlier, Kuhnash and Jimerson were allegedly told that Lucent was routinely deceiving its customers regarding its products.
The indictment referenced an email that both Kuhnash and Jimerson received from Lucent's technical director, expressing concern about ethical issues including changes to UL formulas, data manipulation and customer complaints.
The indictment further alleged that, in discussing the email among themselves, Kuhnash and Jimerson said they would not let anyone see or have knowledge of the employee's email.
The indictment alleged that neither Kuhnash nor Jimerson took meaningful steps to stop Lucent's alleged fraud, nor did they disclose the existence of the fraud to Citadel.
Citadel acquired Lucent shortly after that, and Kuhnash and Jimerson allegedly received significant compensation for their Lucent stock, including stock in Citadel.
Although the indictment does not specifically name Schulman, it said when Schulman acquired Citadel in 2015, the two profited a second time. Both men allegedly owned significant stock in what was then Citadel, and as a result of the second acquisition, both allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The indictment alleges that Lucent's fraud on its customers was discovered by Schulman a few months after acquiring Lucent's business. On the day that Schulman disclosed the existence of Lucent's fraud to investors, its stock price dropped 25 percent.
Finally, the indictment alleges that Jimerson obstructed justice and made false statements to the FBI by stating he was not aware of Lucent's fraud on its customers and did not receive the employee's email.
The defendants face possible sentences of five to 20 years for each count. The case is being jointly investigated by the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“These Lucent executives filled their pockets through fraud and numerous acts of deceit,” IRS Special Agent in Charge Gabriel Grchan said in the release. “As in this case and countless others, our agents will find corruption and bring it to justice.”
Kuhnash served as CEO and president of Lucent from 2008-2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. He held executive roles at plastics-related firms both before and after his time at Lucent.
In an email to Plastics News, attorney Kevin Tierney said that he and Kuhnash “recently received the indictment and are still reviewing it. … It would be premature to make a comment at this time.”
Jimerson was chief operating officer at Lucent from 2012-2013 and later a vice president at Citadel from 2013-2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. His attorney could not be reached for comment.


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Tech giant Microsoft is hiring 100 engineers to work on its Indian operations.
The move comes amid a series of controversies surrounding the tech giant in India.
Microsoft has faced several controversies in the past, including a recent hack that affected hundreds of millions of customer accounts and a security breach that affected millions of people’s personal information.
Microsoft has also faced a number of accusations from Indian government officials over alleged corruption.
The government has accused the company of selling the Indian government’s state-owned companies to private companies, and has also accused the tech company of using government data for personal gain.
Microsoft’s hiring of the engineers is part of a larger plan to bring in foreign talent, according to the company.
In May, Microsoft announced it was hiring about 10,000 people to work at its India operations, as part of its plans to expand its presence in the country.


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Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | July 20
Even as the COVID-19 crisis deepens in the state, thousands of daily wage earners continue in their struggle to make ends meet.
An estimated number of over 20,000 people in the daily wage and unorganized sector have been robbed of their livelihoods under the impact of the lockdown. Although a study has not been conducted in this regard, Neichute Doulo, CEO of Entrepreneurs Associates (EA) revealed that with the construction industry being affected and many people losing their jobs especially those in petty trades, small retail outlets, restaurants and hotels, the number could range between 20,000 to 30,000 people.
In an exclusive interview with The Morung Express, he said out of the hoteliers EA interviewed in four districts including Kohima, Dimapur, Phek and Mokokchung during this period, 75% of their staff have been laid off. Further citing the instance of street vendors, he said, “It is very sad to know they don’t have the capital to start business again because most of them have entirely exhausted their savings during the lockdown.”
This is the same case with petty traders and retailers, who have difficulty paying their house rents among other things, he said. He also highlighted that 90% of taxi drivers in Dimapur, Kohima, Mokokchung, Wokha and Phek do not own cars but are simply drivers. Towards this end, he asserted that during this lockdown, street vending, petty trades, taxi drivers, and restaurants are very hard hit. This group of people, he noted, were really affected and suffered a lot but is not visible to the society.
In Nagaland, he went on to state that because of high incidence of government employment, about 1.4 lakh of those employed under the state establishments are continuing to get their salary whether they go to office or not. Whereas many in the private sectors including schools and colleges and especially small retail outlets, have not been receiving their salaries.
“This didn’t get the attention of the government or the society because the bulk of the government employees are not affected and nobody felt the pinch,” Doulo opined. While we have seen the number of Nagas returning from other cities and understand their plight, another problem, he said, was that “nobody is talking about Nagas here in Nagaland whose jobs were laid off.”
Nagaland can become not just self-sufficient but ‘surplus economy’
While the lockdown has posed extraordinary challenges for the daily wage earners and unorganized sector, there is still huge potential to revive the state’s economy through farming. Entrepreneurs Associates observed this while providing relief material to farmers, street vendors, stranded students, the elderly, and people with disabilities during lockdown. The EA also extensively helped farmers in selling their produce as their access to cash income was hampered.
“Our farmers are willing to produce provided there is assured market,” Neichute Doulo put across. “For people like us, who are in the forefront of developing entrepreneurship, if we can inspire entrepreneurs to take up these agri businesses and create an assured the market, our farmers can produce more than what they are producing now,” he added.
All the vegetables that EA helped sell these last couple of months were commonly thought to be coming from Assam and other places, which Doulo affirmed is not true. One good thing that lockdown has taught us, he said is, “Nagas tend to look down on ourselves. I have heard many times from policy makers that we can’t survive because we can’t produce, but that is not true.”
Nagaland, he maintained, is doing well and it can do better to become not just a self-sufficient but also a surplus economy. But for this, he expressed the need to have a good system of aggregating the agriculture system while pointing out that, “we don’t have ware housing, cold storage, transportation facilities—these are available only in paper.” If we can put these very basic infrastructures which are not very expensive or difficult to put in place, then our agricultural produce can be increased, he emphasized.
COVID-19 crisis can unleash the entrepreneurial spirit
As a COVID-19 response, Entrepreneurs Associates is in the process of mobilizing at least 1000 farmers to cultivate vegetables like tomatoes and onions in Kohima and Tuensang as a means for them to earn extra income. Next year, Neichute Doulo informed that the target is to enable 5000 farmers to cultivate Raja Chili while also looking at increasing cucumber production.
The pioneer organisation for entrepreneurship is further raising few interest loans for farmers and already committed about Rs 50 lakh for distribution without interest. This could impact at least 500-600 farmers. Stating that they want to scale this up in Nagaland, Doulo impressed upon that Nagas who have surplus money should help farmers by giving them loan without interest wherein they can pay back after 8-12 months. “This could be our social investment for our own Nagas,” he stated while pointing out that it will go straight to individual farmers’ accounts and not EA’s.
Likewise, he said, we should reach out to petty traders where people who have money can loan them to rebuild their lives and get back their capital in about a year. “We need to encourage and support our farmers, our state and create a more loving and caring society. The COVID-19 lockdown must bring out the humane side of us, where we care, build and nurture each other and our economy. I hope the COVID-19 crisis unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit in the Nagas,” he put across.


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ST. ALBANS, U.K. — The board of directors of Premier Foods P.L.C. has rejected an approach by Sparks, Md.-based McCormick & Co., Inc., saying the latter’s offer of 60 pence per share “significantly undervalues the company and its prospects.” The offer of 60 pence per share was made on March 14, a little more than a month after Premier rejected a McCormick offer of 52 pence per share.
|David Beever, chairman of Premier|
“McCormick’s proposal represents an attempt to capture the upside value embedded in Premier’s business that rightfully belongs to Premier’s shareholders,” said David Beever, chairman of Premier, whose product portfolio includes sweet goods, cooking sauces, flavors and seasonings, and soups. “The proposal fails to recognize the value of Premier’s performance to date and prospects for the future, including the strategic plans we have to accelerate growth.
“McCormick’s proposal significantly undervalues the business, and the board has unanimously decided to reject it.”
With approximately 826,450,000 shares outstanding, McCormick’s latest offer of 60 pence per share valued Premier Foods at about £496 million ($704 million). Premier’s share price on March 22 closed at 31.50 pence on the London Stock Exchange, but by mid-morning on March 23 was trading as high as 51.75 pence.
Premier said that while the price per share indicated in McCormick’s proposal is significantly above the current share price, due to Premier’s specific capital structure, the board considered that shareholders should evaluate the premium implicit in McCormick’s proposal with reference to Premier’s enterprise value (which includes allowances for financial debt and ongoing pension obligations). On this basis, Premier said the offer represents “an insufficient premium” that does not fairly reflect the benefit to McCormick of gaining control of Premier.
Premier’s board also said it does not believe that the multiple of enterprise value to EBITDA implied in McCormick’s proposal fairly reflects Premier’s growth prospects. The board considers that the net present value of the future cash flows expected to arise from Premier’s growth plans would imply a price per share significantly above the indicative price.
Under British takeover rules, McCormick now has until April 20 to announce a firm intention to make an offer for Premier or announce that it does not intend to make an offer.
Last fall, Alan Wilson, chairman and chief executive officer of McCormick, said the acquisitions the company was making and was continuing to target are those leading companies in markets where McCormick has either a small presence or no presence. The company broadened its global footprint early in 2015 with the purchase of Drogheria & Alimentari, a privately held spices and seasonings company based in Italy, for approximately €85 million.
Strategy delivering results
Under the leadership of c.e.o. Gavin Darby, Premier believes it has established a foundation for significant growth and shareholder value creation as an independent company. The company said it has a strong and valuable portfolio of market leading brands, extensive distribution across key retail channels, a well-invested manufacturing base and strong operational cash flows.
Since 2014, Premier has more than doubled its rate of new product innovation, launching a range of new products, packaging formats and line extensions to meet changing consumer trends.
The company said it expects to increase significantly its investment in consumer marketing from approximately £25 million in the 2013-14 financial year to approximately £36 million in the 2015-16 financial year. The investments behind some of the company’s biggest brands, including Mr. Kipling, Cadbury cakes, Oxo and Bisto, delivered gains in volume, value, market share and household penetration in 2015. Additionally, the company said it is driving growth in channels beyond supermarkets, including discounters, on-line and international.
Premier also believes it has put forth strategic initiatives to accelerate growth across its three business units: Grocery, Sweet Treats and International. The initiatives are expected to incur initial upfront investment of £2 million to £4 million in the full year 2016-17 and will leverage the company’s existing platforms, infrastructure and brand presence to expand further into new formats, channels and markets.
For example, Premier said within its Sweet Treats business unit it plans to build on the successful trial of its Cake-To-Go range of Mr. Kipling twin pack slices and Cadbury mini roll twin pack by accelerating growth of brands in broader convenience channels. Meanwhile, in International, Premier plans to step-change the size of its international business by focusing on accelerating the expansion of its cake brands in the United States and other geographies using the company’s differentiated offering, unique formats and packaging.
Partnering with Nissin Foods
After several years of discussing potential strategic opportunities, Premier said it has agreed to enter into a co-operation agreement with Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd., Tokyo. The partnership has the potential for “significant long-term value creation for both organizations,” Premier said.
Pointing to ways the two companies may benefit from the partnership, Premier said it will gain access to Nissin’s innovative products and formats to distribute in the U.K. market under both company’s brands, as well as enable Premier to benefit from Nissin’s international scale to accelerate the distribution of Premier’s products in key international markets. Additionally, gaining access to Nissin’s significant intellectual property, innovation and technical know-how is expected to lead to the development of new products.
Nissin has annual revenues of approximately $3.8 billion and operating profit of around $216 million. The company operates in 19 different countries, spanning Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and is a global leader in instant noodles, holding the No. 1 or No. 2 positions in key markets, including Japan, the United States and Brazil. Nissin also has a growing presence in chilled and frozen foods, cereal-based confectionery and yogurt beverages in Japan. The company’s presence in Europe includes Hungary, Germany and Spain, with brands such as Cup Noodles, Soba and Top Ramen.
|Gavin Darby, c.e.o. of Premier Foods|


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After months of speculation, YouTube has finally confirmed the existence of its subscription service for music, but unfortunately, not everyone is on board. As Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content and business operations, has explained to the Financial Times, many independent record labels that did not agree to the new licensing terms will begin to see their videos blocked “in a matter of days” as the popular video site makes room for those who signed on the dotted line.
Although 95% of the music industry’s record labels have reported agreed to the new terms, many well-known bands will see their content erased from YouTube as they attempt to fight Google on the matter. The fact that Google would rather shut down the hesitant labels than try to reassess the terms of the contract should be a clear sign that the company is serious about launching this service as soon as possible, regardless of the consequences.
“While we wish that we had a 100 per cent success rate, we understand that is not likely an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility to our users and the industry to launch the enhanced music experience,” said Kyncl.
The upcoming subscription service will allow YouTube users to listen to music and watch music videos without ads on both PCs and mobile devices. An offline listening feature will be included in the service as well. There’s no release date yet, but internal testing is expected to start in the coming days.


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- READ MORE: E3 2021 brought back game demos for good – here are some of the best you can play right now
The changelog attached to the update states that it has “Removed 3rd-party DRM – Denuvo Anti-Tamper” from Nier: Automata earlier this morning.
Denuvo Anti-Tamper is a controversial topic for PC gamers. Denuvo is designed to delay games being cracked and pirated, however the software reportedly comes with various drawbacks for gamers who have paid for legitimate copies of the game.
These downsides include requiring players to have a stable internet connection to play Denuvo-utilizing games, even in entirely single-player games like Nier: Automata where an internet connection would otherwise be unnecessary.
Players also report that Denuvo Anti-Tamper causes games to run worse on PC. When investigated by Extreme Tech, reporter Joel Hruska claimed that Denuvo “really does cripple PC gaming performance.”
The decision to remove Denuvo Anti-Tamper from Nier: Automata follows a string of similar decisions from other studios.
Earlier in the month, Denuvo was patched out of Monster Hunter: World. Less than a week later, Mass Effect Legendary Edition also received an update that removed Denuvo from game files – which reduced the overall game size by around 1GB.
Elmar Fischer, sales director at Denuvo, has previously stated that keeping games from being cracked forever – even with Denuvo Anti-Tamper – “just doesn’t happen in the games industry.”
In other news, a cosmetic skin in Rainbow Six Siege is reportedly making players incredibly hard to see – though developers at Ubisoft are already planning to address cosmetic visibility issues in their 5v5 shooter.


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Pepsi bottles introduced Tuesday are not traditional, oil-based plastic. Instead, the Pepsi bottles are made from 100 percent plant material and will be tested next year.
SunChips bag was biodegradable but way too loud when opened. Frito-Lay has redesigned the SunChips bag to be quieter.
MasterCard website down for hours Wednesday. Anonymous Internet group called Operation Payback claims responsibility in support of WikiLeaks.
PepsiCo now has access to the healthier drinks consumers are increasingly clamoring for, as Wimm-Bill-Dann produces dairy and juice products including Chudo, J7 and Lubimy Sad.
Cola wars have returned between soft drink behemoths Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, but this time with fewer calories.


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March 28, 2019 by Screenmag
Chicago-based animation studio Calabash continues it’s long-standing relationship with General Mills’ famed iconic characters, including Lucky the Leprechaun in the latest ad “Unicorn Trap,” which ties into a new cereal box featuring a cut-out game where kids can construct their “own” leprechaun trap using Lucky Charms cereal as bait.
Leprechaun traps using Lucky Charms cereal as bait is actually something that came to the attention of General Mills via social media videos.
“The first thing we really had to do was to make sketches of the kids in the spot with unicorn heads on, and the likely way that they would fit into the windows of that unicorn stable trap, and how Lucky was going to interact with them,” says Wayne Brejcha, creative director, Calabash, the production studio behind the recent spots featuring Lucky and our Magical Unicorns.
“We very carefully plan our storyboards and our layouts and then we don’t deviate – or at least try not to deviate – too far from that through the production,” adds Sean Henry, executive producer, Calabash. “It’s just vitally important that we plan the camera angles exactly and know how these things will fit together.”
Jessica TeBrake, Assistant Marketing Communications Manager for Lucky Charms told Taste of General Mills blog, “As we looked at what our fans were doing around the St. Patrick’s Day holiday on social media, we saw that families were making leprechaun traps and they were using Lucky Charms cereal and marshmallows as leprechaun bait.”


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Amazon’s Domination of Retail
Amazon has gone a long way since its launch in 1995. With AmazonFresh, their food delivery service, AmazonDash, their commodity items replenishment service and Echo, the voice-recognition speaker that helps answer all your questions, Amazon has pushed the boundaries of retail. But lately, it’s been outgrowing retail and diversifying its offerings. Here’s a peak at how Amazon is redefining the landscape.
Amazon is the market’s biggest seller of apparel, after Walmart. But instead of resting on its laurels, it has decided to redefine what it means to be an eCommerce firm and redirected a portion of its profit towards finding the next rising stars. In order to do so, it has invested in several rising trends. As an early market entrant, it is establishing itself as a leader, and perhaps threat, to the retail industry.
Here are some of the Retail Trends Amazon has spotted and pursued.
Amazon pursues Streaming
Amazon has joined the Streaming Bandwagon, along with Apple, Netflix, Roku, Hulu but also with Spotify and Apple Music on the music front. Shifting away from a traditional entertainment delivery model, streaming introduced the same immediate gratification principles of online buying, applied to online content viewing. Netflix is known for having differentiated itself by moving from content distributor to content generator, with original series such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. The less well-known fact is that Amazon entered the market of original series around the same time as Netflix, in 2013. While expensive to produce, original series act as a lock-down of the customer, adding a “cost” for users to switch to competitors. With this strategy, Amazon may have an added competitive advantage: data intelligence. With its wide offering, Amazon could cross the information with other consumer habits in retail, reading, music and movies to uncover general trends and improve personalization.
Amazon experiments with IoT
Back in 2014, I had covered the emergence of IoT through this article and this one, and while it was not yet a ripe market for investment at the time, Amazon has seized the right timing with exactitude — marking it as a rival to the IoT’s biggest names such as Apple and Google. Its experiments span wider than the search engines, however; not only does Amazon have Alexa to jot down your grocery list (and purchase it from Amazon), but it also integrates the complete chain by delivering it to your door with AmazonFresh. Similarly, AmazonDash allows you to replenish your low-stock items from the click of a button. Amazon is also bringing IoT in the physical retail stores with services such as Amazon Go!, a new way to accelerate payment in stores.
Amazon invests in Consumer Data
It is no secret that consumer data is the new playground when it comes to online business. After the giant Google seized the advertising market, other players have followed suite. Think of Facebook’s and YouTube’s (in reality an extension of Google) Ad program. Amazon Marketing Services is now the new kid on the block. Although it has been introduced about a year ago, it is now catching up to Google, with a service that can rival in features. This is a service that has not yet matured and which we should follow closely in the upcoming months, to see the points of differentiation and added-value that will emerge.
Amazon becomes an End-to-End, Cross-Platform Player
Three years ago, I also wrote this article on the emerging phenomenon of Showrooming. While everyone has been watching the brick-and-mortar retailers tuning into the digital transformation, Amazon surprised everyone by extending its online services to brick-and-mortal channels, with pop-up stores. These pop-up stores allow users to walk into an Amazon store, test devices and buy them. The products sold are used to generate even more trafic to the site, as Echo, Kindle and FireTV are well linked to the Amazon eCommerce site. With Amazon Go, Amazon is also attacking the grocery market.
Amazon has also gone against the grain with its decision to own the End-to-End shopping experience. In this article, I spoke about the new platform economy which is now trending, focusing on building Ecosystems. Although it started as a big player in the platform model, Amazon took things one step further by acquiring a fleet of planes, which reduces its reliance on FedEx and other courrier services. While the CEO of FedEx shrugged off the competition, this is, in reality, nothing to shrug at.
From influencing you pre-purchase to capturing your order and delivering it to your door, Amazon has in essence covered every inch of the customer journey.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on April 17, 2017.


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Intel Core i9-12900K Alder Lake CPUs Being Sold & Shipped To Customers Weeks Before Launch For $610 US Intel Core i9-12900K Spotted in the Wild With Flashy Retail Packaging Tom's Hardware Some retailers are already selling Intel Alder Lake processors, at a cheap price Digital Trends Intel Core i9-12900K Overclocked To 5.3 GHz Across All Cores With 1.44V Voltage, Hits Insane 400W Power Consumption In AIDA64 Stress Test Wccftech Retail Core i9-12900K & i5-12600K Pictured: Clocks, TDP, S-Specs Tom's Hardware
Omicron possibly more infectious because it shares genetic code with common cold coronavirus, study says - The Washington Post
Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus Yahoo News Did Omicron evolve in a RODENT? Scientist sasy sheer number of mu...
隔夜外盘：美股三大指数小幅收跌大型科技股普涨_ 东方财富网 东方财富网 美股盘前：道指期货涨0.2% 多家公司发布了财报 新浪网 美股开盘涨跌不一热门中概股集体大涨 多维新闻网 纳斯达克和标普500指数再创新高 华尔街日报中文网 收盘：聚焦财报与刺激计...
Broward and Miami-Dade added to Publix vaccine sign-ups Sun Sentinel DC firefighters receive COVID-19 vaccine WUSA9 Most COVID-19 su...
Study says Covid-19 may have arrived in US in December -- earlier than thought CNN https://ift.tt/2Ru684E


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They told us that 56kbps was going to be enough for all our web surfing needs, but now UK cable company ntl is about to start trialling a new broadband connection that will promise 100Mb, 200 times faster than the current average broadband speed and a whopping 2000 times faster than dial-up.
Not content with buying Telewest and currently bidding for Virgin Mobile, the cable company ntl has announced plans to launch a 100Mb broadband service in the UK.
The company will be launching a trial in Ashford, Kent in March.
ntl hopes that the super fast connection will be the answer to everyone's web surfing needs and be used for applications like watching live HD television streamed directly to your computer, audio applications, online gaming and security.
To make all this possible, the cable company is teaming up with a number of partners on both software and hardware sides. One of the partnerships will be with BitTorrent, to enable the content to whiz around the network without the fear of bottlenecks or clogged resources.


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Last Thursday we met with members of the Cathedral Village Arts Festival planning committee to coordinate things for the program guide that we produce for the festival each year.
The 2014 Cathedral Village Arts Festival runs May 19-24. The theme this year is “Fabric of Life”. Before all that happens, though, the CVAF committee is hosting a fundraiser showcasing Cathedral area restaurants and other food and drink-related businesses.
Taste of Cathedral will go on Saturday at the Italian Club starting at 6 p.m. Admission is $20, with taste tickets to sample the different food and drink items available for $1 each.
As you can see from the adjacent poster, in addition to the refreshments, there will also be a silent auction and live music courtesy of Lost Souls. For more information visit the CVAF website.


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Neal Carter was recently at a party in which cut-up apples were served. The problem? The apples sat out for too long and turned brown.
The orchardist and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc. has proposed a solution to this dilemma.
The Summerland-based company has filed an application with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that could see the introduction of genetically modified apples that don't turn brown.
It will be months, if not years, before a decision on the so-called Arctic Apples is made. However, the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association is already voicing its concern that the genetically modified apples will hurt the market.
"These will drive the prices of other apples down," Kirpal Boparai, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association, said in an interview Wednesday. Mr. Boparai also questioned the quality of arctic apples, and said consumers could be confused about what type of apple they're purchasing.
Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich South and the New Democratic Party's agriculture critic, has started a petition against Arctic Apples that has picked up 2,000 signatures.
In addition to market concerns, Ms. Popham said there's also fear about what effect Arctic Apples will have on the organic status of nearby orchards.
"The certified organic growers could potentially lose their organic status, because of the ability for pollen to be transferred from genetically modified apple trees to certified organic apple trees," she said. "That's one of the strong points around certified organic production, is that there are no genetically modified organisms."
Mr. Carter, however, disputed those points. He said apple pollen is sticky and doesn't blow around in the wind, reducing the likelihood it would spread to other orchards.
Mr. Carter also stood by the quality of Arctic Apples.
"We haven't changed anything in the apple. All we've done is turn off a single enzyme. That makes it so the apple doesn't get enzymatic browning," he said.
Mr. Carter said the apple maintains its flavour and nutrients.
When asked why the Arctic Apples have been met with such opposition, Mr. Carter pointed to change.
"A lot of it is the fear of change, the fact that they don't know what it's going to do to the industry," he said.
Mr. Carter said the apple business hasn't been profitable for years. That's what prompted him to look for other solutions.
Okanagan Specialty Fruits filed its application with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in December. Last month, the agency posted a notice of submission about the arctic apples on its website.
An agency spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Don McRae, MLA for the Comox Valley and B.C.'s Minister of Agriculture, noted that a decision on Arctic Apples is a federal matter. However, he said he has been in contact with the food inspection agency about the growers' concerns.
Mr. McRae said the province only recently started gathering information about the genetically modified apples and it's too early to say whether it supports them.
The province also announced Wednesday it is providing apple and other tree fruit growers with $2-million to help replant low-value orchards that have high-demand varieties.


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Men’s magazine Playboy, perhaps the epitome of testosterone-driven tastemaking, has released its pick of the greatest cars of all time.
BMW will sell 1.76 million vehicles in 2015, compared to 1.68 million for Mercedes-Benz and 1.63 million for Audi.
The exclusive Enzo, one of only 399 in the world, was impounded by officers last year after it was abandoned in a car park and covered in dust in Dubai.
Wealthy Iranians are fuelling an unprecedented luxury car boom despite sanctions hurting their economy, paying up to $360,000 for high-end autos
Jaguar has launched a new ultra-luxurious version of its XJ flagship sedan at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show.
Lamborghini has unveiled its Urus SUV concept which appears to confirm it intends to follow rival Maserati into the SUV market.
Maybach, the ultra luxury car brand from Germany, has recently announced a heavy discount of $100,000 on the price of Maybach’s entire product range.
An international panel of automotive journalists has voted the Porsche 911 the 2012 World Performance Car in New York.
Struggling brand Lincoln is set to burst back onto the luxury automaker scene this week at the New York International Auto Show (April 6-15).
A bus company in China is teaching its drivers how to spot luxury cars and how much they cost, and advising them to specifically avoid crashing into them.
The wealthiest square in Paris was evacuated last Thursday after a huge fire broke out underneath the French capital’s Ritz hotel. Dozens of people were treated for smoke inhalation and at least 15 luxury cars were destroyed in the blaze in a five-storey underground car park in Place Vendome. France’s Ministry of Justice was among … Continued
Bentley has just released a new exploratory short film “In Search of Snow” featuring world-renowned big-mountain skier and modern day Bentley Boy, Chris Davenport. The film premiered during Aspen Fashion Week and depicts the hometown extreme athlete’s sense of journey, adventure and discovery through Colorado’s famed scenic and winding San Juan Skyway in a Bentley … Continued
Fisker is facing yet more embarrassing publicity surrounding its Karma plug-in hybrid, after a test model broke down while being tested by Consumer Reports. The consumer publication released a YouTube video this week purporting to show that the Karma, which sells for over $100,000, had broken down in its driveway. In the video, Consumer Reports’ … Continued
British manufacturer of super-luxury motor cars Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has unveiled the Phantom Series II at 2012 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. The series II comprises Phantom Saloon, Phantom Drophead Coupe and Phantom Coupe featuring enhanced design, drivetrain and technology. The Phantom II features “significant improvements in design, drive-train and technology,” Rolls-Royce says.
Jaguar released official photos of the Jaguar XF Sportbrake ahead of the car’s debut at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show.
Bentley has announced plans to offer a new executive interior package on the Mulsanne. The package offers two different specifications: Theater and iPad. The theater option includes a roof-mounted 15.6-inch LED display or two headrest-mounted 8-inch screens. There’s also a trunk-mounted Apple computer that has dual USB ports in the center console. An iPod touch … Continued
Ferrari has unveiled the fastest road-car it has ever produced, ahead of the vehicle’s debut at the Geneva Motor Show (March 8-18) The F12 Berlinetta can streak from 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds and continue up to 200km/h in just 8.5 seconds, thanks to a host of powertrain and design changes.
Bugatti is set to unveil the most powerful roadster of all time at the 82nd International Geneva Motor Show at the beginning of March. With an increase in power up to 1,200 HP, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse has entered a new dimension of open-top driving. Optically aligned to the Bugatti Veyron Super … Continued
Maserati will lift the covers on its new GranTurismo Sport at the Geneva Motor Show next month. The new car replaces the GranTurismo S. The new GranTurismo Sport will see a further improvement in performances thank to its new 4,7 liters V8 engine now capable to deliver 460 Hp. On the outside there’s a new front … Continued
Ferrari has confirmed the revised 2012 California convertible will get more power, a lower body weight and a new optional handling package. The model will be about 30kg lighter and will deliver an additional 30 HP. Both the exterior and interior will also be improved. The changes in weight and power have cut the car’s zero-to-62 … Continued


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Treyarch Studios has revealed when PS4 owners can take part in the multiplayer beta for Call of Duty:Black Ops 3. According to a tweet sent out today, the Beta will begin on August 19th.
If you want in on the Beta, you can pre-order the game at any participating retailer for guaranteed access. The Xbox One and PC Betas will launch at a later date due to Activision’s new partnership with Sony, so stay tuned for more info on that.
We're excited to announce that the #BlackOps3 Multiplayer Beta will begin on 8/19 starting on PS4. More information coming soon!
— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) July 8, 2015
The full game launches on November 6, 2015 for PS3, PS4, Xbox One and PC.