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(CNN) – One Toronto bar owner says his business will escape the corona virus infection and provide much-needed cash incentives to loyal customers who have bought his entire beer stake.
Oprah Shiner opened her bar called Swan Dive five years ago in Procton Village, Toronto, Canada. After the Govt-19 restrictions forced the doors to close, Shiner decided to ask his community for help via Facebook.
“We were blowing up our savings and I don’t know if I can pay the rent by the end of this month,” Shiner told CNN. “So, I wrote on Facebook that people would come to buy the beer we had in our stock room … it worked. The post went viral.”
In two days, this post had over 20,000 views, and people from all over the community showed up to Swan Dive to show their support.
“People started coming out of the woodwork, some we hadn’t seen in years,” Shiner said.
Swan Dive carries 35 craft beers and usually holds two or three cases of each beer in the back stocks. Shiner was able to sell more than 90 cases, now down to two.
“Our community has completely saved us,” Shiner said.
He says the proceeds from the beer sale, along with a federal rental subsidy, will keep the business afloat until it reopens safely in March.
“Infuriatingly humble social media ninja. Devoted travel junkie. Student. Avid internet lover.”


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Chrysler Group and Nissan Motor Co. both posted double-digit sales surges in February, thanks to strong sales of light trucks. Chrysler posted an 11-percent surge in sales, marking 47 consecutive months of growth. Its Jeep and Ram units logged a 47-percent and a 28-percent rise in deliveries, respectively.
The carmaker’s light truck grew 27 percent in terms of sales, allowing it to offset a 15-percent drop in car sales. Volumes at the Chrysler brand and Fiat gained 1 percent and 5 percent respectively, but suffered an 11-percent drop at Dodge.
Nissan Motor Co., meanwhile, posted a 16-percent surge in US sales in February, with the Rogue crossover, Frontier pickup and Altima sedan causing the boost. The Nissan division saw a 17-percent rise in sales while Infiniti logged a 6-percent surge in deliveries last month. Overall, Nissan North America posted an 8-percent rise in car sales and a 31-percent surge in light truck volume.
The Japanese carmaker posted a 73-percent jump in Rogue sales, a 112-percent climb in Frontie deliveries, an 11-percent rise in Altima volumes. On the other hand, GM logged a 1-percent drop in overall volume in February to 222,104 vehicles, as its retail and fleet volumes fell 1 percent in the months. Buick was the only GM brand to grow in the month at 19 percent.
Sales dropped 3 percent at both Chevrolet and Cadillac brands, and 1 percent at GMC. At the end of February, GM roughly had an 87-day supply, no thanks to a stockpile of 805,769 cars and light trucks.
“Weather continued to impact the industry in February, but GM sales started to thaw during the Winter Olympic Games as our brand and marketing messages took hold,” Kurt McNeil, US vice president of GM’s sales operations, said in a statement.

domain: news


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Forrester’s Forum For Customer Experience Professionals, 2015
16-17 June 2015, New York City
Creative Virtual exhibited again at Forrester’s annual CX Forum. This year Forrester debuted new research that revealed the drivers of customer experience quality — the factors that truly matter to customers. This Forum aimed to educate attendees on how to improve the quality of their customer experience, while increasing customer loyalty.


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Payment service provider Square has reinforced its commitment to Bitcoin. Despite — or perhaps because of — the recent dent in the Bitcoin price, Square has bought BTC for the second time.
After it looked briefly in the Bitcoin market as if the bears were about to take over the reins, a fresh ration of bull food came across the Atlantic yesterday. The American FinTech Square has bought Bitcoin again. According to a press release on February 23, Square has invested more than three times as much US dollars this time as it did when it first bought Bitcoin in October 2020.
Square also announced today that it has acquired approximately 3,318 bitcoins for a total purchase price of $ 170 million. Combined with the previous purchase of $ 50 million worth of Bitcoin, that equates to approximately five percent of Square’s total cash and marketable securities as of December 31, 2020.
When the company announced in October 2020 that it had shifted some of its cash reserves into Bitcoin, BTC was trading between $ 10,000 and $ 11,000. FinTech bought 4,709 BTC at the time.
The fact that Square has now massively expanded its BTC position despite the fivefold increase in the Bitcoin rate should make some Bitcoin bulls click their tongues. After all, the average purchase price this time was $ 51,235 — apparently, Square believes that this is far from the end of the flagpole.
Even before Square even got into Bitcoin, FinTech made an important contribution to the adaptation with its Cash App. Cash app users have been able to buy and sell Bitcoin since the end of 2017. Square hardly makes any profit with this: According to its own information, the margin is deliberately kept low in order to promote the BTC adaptation. Revenue generated by the Bitcoin integration revenue increased since its introduction rapidly. With Square Crypto, the company also has a largely independent crypto department that develops and promotes Bitcoin-related open source projects. The goal: Bitcoin to become the world currency.
With the pioneer MicroStrategy, Square is one of the first companies to include Bitcoin on its balance sheet. With 8,027 BTC, FinTech ranks fourth among the exchange-traded companies with Bitcoin reserves. This can be seen from the numbers of the data aggregator Bitcoin Treasuries. After that, MicroStrategy, which has declared Bitcoin to be its primary cash reserve, still takes the top spot. In second place is Tesla, which catapulted the Bitcoin price to a record high at the beginning of February with its billion-dollar investment in digital gold.
- MicroStrategy: 71.079 BTC
- Tesla: 48.000 BTC
- Galaxy Digital Holdings: 16.402 BTC
- Square Inc: 8.027 BTC
- Marathon Patent Group: 4.813 BTC
P.S. You Can Support me For Free Through ALL of these Links and earn some Crypto/Money Yourself! https://allmylinks.com/zealdorn
Disclaimer: These lines are not a substitute for investment advice, investments in the crypto market are made at your own risk. Invest only as much as you are willing to lose. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.


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A nervous wait for Darlington's 2,500 Orange call centre workers was over today as the mobile phone giant revealed where a jobs axe will fall.
Nearly three months ago it announced it may shed about 1,800 jobs nationwide.
Today Orange said its contact centre at Peterlee, where 900 work, will close.
But most of the staff are being offered the opportunity to transfer to Darlington or its base at North Tyneside where 1,700 already work.
An Orange spokeswoman said: "We are guaranteeing that every member of frontline staff who wants to stay with us and wants to go to Darlington and North Tyneside - we will give them a job.
"It is not about losing the people; it is about streamlining the property and the cost savings associated with that.
"We fully appreciate that perhaps not everybody will want to or be able to relocate."
She added: "Our primary objective is to employ the people. But if someone doesn't feel they can, we will support them in every other way to find alternative employment."
The jobs of Darlington workers are not affected by today's announcement.
In May, Orange warned it planned to be "15% leaner" resulting in significant annual savings and a streamlined, more efficient organisation, and this could result in a potential loss of 1,800 jobs across all departments in the UK.
Mike Hughes, vice president of customer services, said today: "We plan to re-invest the savings made from the proposed site changes in to our key business areas to provide enough employment in the North-east for all our frontline staff."
The company, which is owned by France Telecom, also revealed plans to add a further 300 frontline staff to its customer service team in India to reduce customer call waiting times.
The new customer service representatives will support the existing 1,000-strong team who already work for the company in India, dealing with basic customer questions and account inquiries.


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A group of high tech companies have joined forces to Internet-enable non-PC devices, from vending machines to petrol pumps, and link them to other networks.
The Embed the Internet (ETI) consortium includes Emware, Sybase, SAP and a host of microcontroller manufacturers. Emware makes embedded device networking software that delivers Internet connectivity to virtually any devices including those with 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers such as vending machines.
Called Emit, the software is based on a distributed device networking architecture which has at its core a micro Web server that uses as little as 1Kbyte of memory.
The efforts of the ETI follow recent announcements from a range of companies offering solutions for accessing the Internet from non-PC devices. Oracle unit NCI announced Enavigator, an Internet connectivity platform for non-PC devices (Newswire, 6 October), while in July IBM unveiled details of how its Universal Client will help consumer devices connect to the Internet (Newswire, 3 July).
The ETI will build on this work by combining the expertise from hardware, networking, database companies to apply the technology to the manufacturing industry.
With £6.7m in initial funding, Mosa Meat could be the first company to offer lab-grown meat to the public
Manufacturing and finance jobs will be hit, but health and education can look forward to job creation, says PwC
US startups plan to modify existing jet engines, but are likely to fall foul of environmental legislation
The Brexit white paper "gets pretty close" to company desires, but there's still work to do


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Wide format service provider Macro Art started live printing this week with two more Durst machines as new customers come on board in continuing rapid expansion. Little more than four years after a management buyout, Macro Art’s turnover has shot up from £6million to £11million. Contract gains are being secured on the back of the new investments in Durst systems - now totalling four that have revolutionized its business.
Over the course of two days, more than 300 print service providers, influencers and trade press members are attending Agfa Graphics’ exclusive Red Carpet Event for a first look at the Jeti Tauro H3300 LED and its extreme capabilities.
Canon welcomed record visitor numbers to its largest ever stand at FESPA 2018, with 11,000 individual customers and prospects coming to see Canon’s range of advanced digital wide format production solutions, for applications from signage and graphics to interior décor and packaging.
Largest ever audience for four-day FESPA event, with over 20000 individual visitors
FESPA Global Print Expo 2018 (Messe Berlin, 15 to 18 May) reinforced its standing as the global landmark event for speciality printers, with visitors from a record 142 countries gravitating to the German capital for the four-day show.
VGL, the Reading-based screen and digital print company, has become the first company in the UK and Ireland to sign up for a specialised version of Durst’s next-generation platform, the P5 Series, which was announced globally earlier this year.
Durst, an inkjet pioneer and manufacturer of advanced digital printing and production technologies, unveiled the latest technology developments in large format print, service and software at the successful Durst Tech Days (May 18-19).
Ivan Tenchev from Bulgaria has been announced the winner of FESPA's World Wrap Masters Series at FESPA Global Print Expo 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Second and third prizes went to Casper Madsen and Jan Edelgaard, both from Denmark. All three winners received cash prizes.


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Toyota Kirloskar Motor today launched the ‘Toyota Connect India’ (TCI) app, a smartphone-based connected services app that aims to cater to customer mobility and ownership needs in a personalised manner. The app, available on Android and IOS platforms, is fully integrated and offers cloud-based connected services in sync with a dedicated and specialised call centre, dealer networks and service providers.
The Toyota Connect app enables facilitates an immersive navigation experience with 3D offline maps, lane guidance, speed limit display, enlarged junction and intersection views and real-time traffic updates which will guide users to congestion-free routes. It also features service reminders, online service appointments, live service status and convenient e-payment facility.
Speaking at the launch of the app, Akitoshi Takemura, senior vice-president, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “Customers will appreciate the purposeful services like assisted navigation, online service appointment with ePayment and GPS location-based roadside assistance designed to satiate the discerning Indian customer’s distinctive needs.”
“With the launch of Toyota Connect, we aim at ensuring a seamless, convenient and pleasing ownership experience for Toyota customers. Hence, the platform has been built with careful consideration and application of our global standards of customer privacy and data security,” said N Raja, director and senior VP (Sales and Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.


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- The transformations and ongoing complex innovations being created within the mobile health sphere today are making an impact on the medical sector as well as a myriad of other industries. The Internet of Things along with new consumer demands are driving the development of revolutionary digital services, according to a new report from Accenture called “The Era of Living Services.”
Essentially, living services are the outcome of the digitization taking place in society today as well as the “liquid” consumer demands. Living services will be more customized to each individual consumer and will also change over time according to the needs of patients, customers, and workers.
These tools learn about their consumers and bring each user the experience they seek. Through tailored processes, living services become more engaging and useful to the patient or customer. Instead of more fixed services offered for the overall population, this will change the type of supplies offered by many varying industries, according to a company press release.
“We call them ‘Living Services’ for three reasons,” Brian Whipple, Senior Managing Director of Accenture Interactive, said in a public statement. “They will change consumer experiences such as travel booking and shopping in real time around us. They will be driven by things that are very proximate to us such as wearables and nearables. And, at the human level, living services will affect our lives in a much deeper and more positive way than mobile and web services have. In effect, living services breathe life into what is rapidly becoming a vast network of connected machines and objects, enabling branded services to flow through and utilize this connected environment.”
Based on Whipple’s statements, it is likely that the healthcare sector’s push for interoperability between medical devices, EHR systems, health IT platforms, and mobile health products will be achieved as the living services era blossoms over time.
As digital devices and mobile platforms continue to impact society at large, living services will likely lead to more competition among both the public and business arenas. Many may need to redevelop their business structures to compete in a new ‘era of living services.’
Both data and analytics will play a large part in improving the consumer and patient experience, as more companies as well as healthcare providers begin looking at population health. Design processes for both mobile health products and digital devices will change, as developers begin incorporating voice functions and location-based applications.
“The emergence of living services is being driven not only by the digitization of everything but also by ‘liquid expectations,’” Mark Curtis, chief client officer at Fjord, Design and Innovation from Accenture Interactive, stated in the press release. “When consumers engage with a brand today, such as an airline or a bank, they compare their experience not only with other airlines or banks but also with any service company, such as ride-sharing providers. Take the seamless and largely invisible payment systems these providers offer. Now consumers want payment experiences like this in every industry, consciously or subconsciously. We call these expectations that bleed from one industry to another ‘liquid expectations.’ In effect, expectations will rise across every industry as innovation increases in any industry.”


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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal food safety regulators have set a safety level for the industrial chemical melamine in infant formula and are urging consumers to keep using U.S.-made formula.
Officials for the Food and Drug Administration said Friday that they've set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula so long as a related chemical isn't also present.
The new threshold now defines as safe the concentrations that the FDA has found in its testing so far.
The safety level is far below the amount of melamine added to infant formula in China that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Digital shipping register to launch in 2020
10 Jul 2019 - by Staff reporter
Plans are under way to establish the world’s first digital shipping register, according to the Danish Maritime Authority (DMA).
Charlotte Ahrendt Steen, DMA deputy director general and CPO, said digitising the registry would drive efficiency and lower cost for business.
The register will include extensive reports and processes that will be easy to access.
“It will reduce the administrative burden for those companies that have their ships registered under the Danish flag,” Steen added.
The Danish International Register of Shipping is expected to be in service by the end of 2020.


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The product will be marketed under the tagline "irresistibubble" and split into five segments. It contains just 189 calories.
The campaign will hit TV screens from January 24 for six weeks. The bar will also be supported by a Facebook page.
In addition, there will be outdoor advertising running from January 31 to February 14, which will include interactive touchscreen quizzes at bus stops.
Nestlé has also launched an Orange variant of its Aero block. The entire block range is available in pricemarked and non-pricemarked packs.
The company says sales of Aero blocks soared during 2010, up 70% year on year. "Aero blocks have been flying off the shelves, especially the £1 pricemarked packs," says trade communications manager Graham Walker.
rrp: Aero Caramel 56p; Aero Orange Block £1
tel: 01904 604604


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CEO Mary Barra commits General Motors to 'harassment-free' workplace
General Motors is committed to creating a sexual "harassment-free" workplace, CEO Mary Barra said Monday.
"It's unacceptable to not have a policy (against sexual harassment)," she said. Her year-end interview and press conference at an Automotive Press Association reception came less than a week after Time magazine named the "Silence Breakers" — women who have spoken up about sexual harassment — to be 2017's person of the year.
"We encourage our employees that if something is happening, that they raise it. There will be no retaliation," said Barra, who is the first woman to lead a major auto company
On other topics, Barra said during the event at the Gem Theater in downtown Detroit that she opposes the Trump administration's proposal to repeal the $7,500 federal tax credit for consumers who buy or lease all-electric vehicles. She also supports the "general direction" of tax legislation before Congress that would reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%.
"We're very supportive of tax reform, and generally the bills before Congress move in the right direction," Barra said. But tucked in the bill passed by the House of Representatives is the proposed repeal of the electric vehicle tax credit.
""Repealing that credit will have an impact because it changes the equation that determines whether people want an electric vehicle," she said.
Another provision in the tax bill would eliminate the deduction for interest paid on graduate school loans. Barra and other industry leaders support so-called STEM education, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math. To be ready to step into software, electrical engineering and product development jobs in the auto industry, most young people earn at least one master's degree.
Barra didn't address that provision specifically, but she did say that almost 40% of GM's salaried workers in the U.S. have been with the company less than five years.
The other topic consuming much of the nearly hour-long exchange was autonomous vehicle technology.
Barra and her leadership team have convinced analysts, suppliers and some journalists that GM is moving faster than many others in this rapidly emerging area. In early 2016, the largest U.S. automaker invested $500 million in the ride-hailing business Lyft and acquiring Cruise Automation, a San Francisco-based company focused on autonomous vehicle technology.
GM and Cruise are testing fleets of self-driving Chevrolet Bolts in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Ariz., and metro Detroit. Early in 2018 they will start testing autonomous Bolts in Manhattan.
Last month, Barra told investors that GM should make a profit on the next generation of electric vehicles, launching in 2021, because the batteries will cost nearly one-third less than the batteries in today's Bolt.
"We are committed to a future electric vehicle portfolio that is profitable," said Barra, speaking at the Barclays 2017 Global Automotive Conference in New York.
In October, GM product development chief Mark Reuss said the company intends to introduce 20 new electric vehicles by 2023.
Perhaps the most significant decision General Motors completed in 2017 was its decision to sell its Opel and Vauxhall businesses in Europe, where it had lost money for most of the 21st century.
While Wall Street saluted the move, it also means GM won't likely reclaim the crown it once coveted as the world's largest automaker.
"We have to be good stewards of our shareholders' capital," Barra said. "We want to grow, but if we're somewhere we just don't see a path to earning an adequate return we will change.
"We're not the company that plants a flag everywhere and tries to be everything to all people."
Contact Greg Gardner: (313) 222-8848 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow him on Twitter @GregGardner12


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Microsoft began offering on Wednesday an early version of NuPack, an open source package manager for its .Net software development platform.
A new software program lets mobile software developers create and run sophisticated tests to troubleshoot and refine enterprise smartphone applications.
Zoho's Creator application builder tool is gaining the ability to schedule automated tasks and to generate reports, the company announced Wednesday.
Intel is developing a tool that will make it easier for developers to port iPhone applications to Intel-based smartphones, tablets and other devices, a company executive said Tuesday.
Black Duck Software on Tuesday is announcing its acquisition of Ohloh.net, which features a free public directory of open source software.
Although the full application development story is still being ironed out for Research in Motion's newly announced PlayBook tablet, developers are anxious to get their hands on one and start building anyway.
Looking to provide the best shopping experience for mobile applications, Microsoft is engaging developers in a phased approach with its upcoming Windows Phone Marketplace relaunch.
Acknowledging Microsoft's current, non-contending status in the smartphone space, a Microsoft official Thursday stressed that the new Windows Phone 7 platform would get the company back into the race.
SugarCRM has repackaged its open-source, browser-based customer relationship management platform to make it easier for other vendors to put their own brand on products and services built with SugarCRM, the company announced Thursday. But it is also w...
Mobile application development tools vendor Rhomobile plans to unveil on Wednesday an extension to its software-as-a-service platform that will enable developers to build applications for Apple's iPhone via a Windows PC.
Seeking to distance itself even further from Microsoft, the CodePlex Foundation has officially changed its name to the Outercurve Foundation, the company announced Tuesday.
Look out, Apple. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is now in the tablet business.
While declining to discuss rumors of a planned pad computer, Research In Motion (RIM)  did roll out on Monday a Web-based application development platform for its BlackBerry smartphone, complementing the existing native development paradigm.
Writing applications for devices like tablets and smartphones could become more challenging as CPUs and hardware accelerators are added to mobile chips, experts agreed at a processor conference on Monday.
The European Commission has dropped two antitrust investigations concerning Apple's iPhone after the company reversed two policies that drew the regulator's scrutiny.
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GGG Evaluation Team
First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH574 allowed for great mobility without being obnoxiously heavy or clunky. Its twelve hours of battery life did not disappoint.
The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.
My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.


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The sale of a nearly 10,000-square-foot development site in Coney Island, Brooklyn, bordering the plot where the city plans to develop a 27-acre amusement destination is expected to close by the end of August. The deal would be the first transaction for a residential development site in the area in two years.
The site, located on Stillwell Avenue, between Mermaid and Neptune avenues, is in contract for $50 per buildable square foot, said Brian Hanson, first vice president of sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services, who is representing both the buyer and seller in the deal. Mr. Hanson declined to say exactly how much the site will sell for, but he noted that it is close to the $1.5 million asking price. The seller originally wanted $1.6 million for the site.
The buyer, a local developer who has done work in Coney Island as well as Park Slope, Brooklyn, plans to build apartments on the site, Mr. Hanson said. The seller had also intended to develop the 9,500-square-foot plot, which is made up of two lots, but was unable to follow through, he added.
The site is zoned for roughly 28,600 square feet of residential space, a project of up to 30-units. It has been on the market for four months. Currently, a fully-occupied four-family building sits on the site. Mr. Hanson noted that if the site was delivered vacant the seller could have earned $25,000 more on the deal.
The pending sale bodes well for other development site sales in the famed Coney Island district. In April, a vacant three-acre site that had been home to the popular Thunderbolt roller coaster was also put up for grabs. That 129,000-square-foot lot was put on the market by Horace Bullard, the owner of the Kansas Fried Chicken chain. The asking price is unknown, however the city bought 6.9 acres adjacent to the site from Brooklyn developer Joseph Sitt for $95.6 million last year.
Mr. Bullard’s site was rezoned last year as part of the city's efforts to revive the dormant amusement district. As a result, the buyer is limited to developing amusements, small retail and entertainment, although a hotel would be allowed on a portion of the site.


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Welcome to Hancock County Progressive Logistics!
14 Jun 2021
A new tenant is coming to Mount Comfort Logistic Center.
Progressive Logistics will lease Building II, neighbor to Amazon that began operations last fall (2020).
Doug Hayes, the president of Progressive Logistics stated in an article (“Ambrose Announces Growth Plans for Logistics Park” ) that the facility will allow them “to continue growing their customer base for best-in-class food grade storage and services.”
The location for Progressive Logistics is Mount Comfort Logistic Center, Hancock County, Indiana, developed by Ambrose. Ambrose is a great community partner to Hancock County!


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Scammers and fraudsters have turned to social media to ripoff consumers who frequent sporting and entertainment events, and they’re doing it better than ever. According to a recent report compiled by Get Safe Online and the London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, online ticket fraud in 2015 was 55 percent higher than it was in 2014.
According to Get Safe Online’s website, consumers in the UK lost $5.2 million in 2015 to online ticket fraud — 26 percent to sporting events. Consumers aged 20-29 made up for more than 25 percent of the victims.
Of course, ticket fraud is nothing new. Not only are there fraudsters on the street hawking counterfeit tickets, there are just as many online.
Back in the winter of 1993, a colleague and I planned to catch a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. The game was sold out — the Knicks were in the midst of a (rare) good season – but we figured we might be able to get a couple of cheap nosebleed seats from a scalper.
We found a slightly overzealous chap about a block from MSG offering a pair of tickets.
‘How much?’ I inquired.
‘Hundred for the deuce,’ he said, a little jittery and looking over his shoulder.
My colleague and I looked at each other. Back then, $100 was steep for balcony seats for a single game. We tried to negotiate. Our man wouldn’t have it, so we walked off.
He followed. ‘Come on bro! You’re not going to find better than this. $100 for both!’ We ignored him. Then he got angry, chastising us for not buying, walking in front of us, starting to get combative.
‘Step out of my way, please,’ I told him. And we walked off to a series of expletives.
My colleague and I opted to watch in a nearby pub, close to where our friend approached us. We ran into him again, only this time, he was facing a wall with his hands cuffed behind his back. The ‘tickets’ he was selling were counterfeit.
Online ticket fraudsters are just as aggressive.
With Euro 2016 less than three months away, as well as a summer full of concert festivals, it is peak season for online ticket fraudsters. Concerts and sporting events aren’t cheap, so consumers are always looking online for a better deal. Unfortunately, by doing so, the chances of being scammed increase significantly.
Here are five things consumers can do:
Instabill serves as the payment processor for many reputable ticket agents and resellers. Instabill guarantees a secure payment gateway, SSL certificates and fraud prevention tools for your website.
Chat with a live merchant account manager today by selecting the option below or simply calling us direct at 1-800-318-2713.


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Earlier this month, the 2013 Range Rover officially debuted with the announcement of a diesel hybrid variant coming later in the year. It’s now been confirmed that America won’t be seeing the diesel hybrid, at least not anytime soon.
Out in Europe however, interested customers will be able to purchase the 3.0-liter turbo-diesel V6 model that’s mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. On the European test cycle, the British automaker estimates a 45-mpg combined for the model, but remember that Europe uses Imperial gallons.
The reason why the model won’t be coming to America is due to the amount of work and investment Land Rover would have to put in to make the diesel hybrid ready to meet stricter US emissions standards. Americans will get to choose between a naturally aspirated or a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 motor mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The EPA hasn’t released its figures on the 2013 Range Rover yet, but it’s expected to see vast improvements in fuel efficiency thanks to the new transmission and aluminum body.
Those few that are interested in America in a diesel hybrid variant don’t have to give up all hope just yet. The new European standards are coming, and when they do, automakers will have to change their vehicles in order to meet them. When the new standards hit the Range Rover, it may become legal here in the States.
Either way, one thing is clear: the hybridization of vehicles is well on its way.
[Source: Automobile Mag]


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Lebanese Taverna will be closing March 10, after a decade at the corner of Arlington Road and Elm Street in Bethesda.
In a note that will be posted on the door of the family-owned restaurant Monday morning, the owners have written, “It’s been a wonderful 10 years on this corner and we are sad to say that we will be closing our doors and not renewing our lease.”
In an email to Bethesda Beat on Friday night, Grace Abi-Najm Shea, one of the owners, said her family was unable to reach an agreement on a new lease with Federal Realty Investment Trust, the Rockville company that owns Bethesda Row. “It’s really sad for us, but we just couldn’t come to an agreement with Federal,” she wrote.
Lebanese Taverna, which serves Mediterranean cuisine, is one of the largest restaurants in Bethesda, with seating for 150 people in its wood-paneled dining room and another 60 in a lounge.
The Abi-Najm family emigrated to Arlington, Virginia, from Lebanon in 1976 to escape that country’s civil war. Three years later family members bought a modest restaurant in the Westover neighborhood of Arlington—and renamed it Lebanese Taverna.
Today, the family operates five full-service restaurants (excluding the Bethesda location), four fast-casual cafes (including locations in Rockville Town Square, Congressional Plaza in Rockville and downtown Silver Spring), and a market in Arlington.
In Bethesda Magazine’s Best of Bethesda Readers Poll, Lebanese Taverna was voted the “Best Lebanese Restaurant” in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
In the note announcing the closing, the Abi-Najm family said, “Thank you for supporting us for so many years not just in Bethesda but all over Montgomery County. Please continue to visit us in Congressional and Rockville Town Square and even Tysons Galleria, just a few miles down the road in … Virginia. Yes, you can cross the bridge!”


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Apple to report second-quarter results April 23Apple said this week it will announce results from its second fiscal quarter of 2008 ended March on Wednesday, April 23rd.
The results will be made public following the close of the stock market, and Apple executives will field questions from analysts and members of media in a subsequent conference call at approximately 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Historically, Apple's second quarter has be its weakest of the year due to seasonal trends. The three-month period spanning January through March falls between the traditionally lucrative holiday shopping frenzy and the early back-to-school buying season.
On average, Wall Street analysts are expecting the Cupertino-based company to report per-share earnings of $1.05 on revenues of $6.92 billion, fueled by sales of approximately 10.8 million iPods, 1.95 million Macs, and 1.6 - 2.0 million iPhones.
During its fiscal first quarter conference call in January, Apple management guided conservatively towards per-share earnings of $0.94 on revenues of $6.8 billion.
In recent weeks, several analysts have increased their forecast for the March quarter beyond consensus and guidance figures, saying they expect the company to benefit from continued momentum in Mac sales and favorable commodity prices.
On Topic: Investor
- Apple buybacks to resume on Friday, gobbling up stock priced near the lowest of 2016
- Citing concerns in China, activist investor Carl Icahn no longer owns shares of Apple
- Apple R&D spending jumps to $2.5B in Q2, accounted for 5% of total revenue
- Wall Street remains optimistic about 'iPhone 7' & Apple's 2017 after Q2 declines
- Apple CEO Tim Cook optimistic on China despite 26% dip in revenue


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Lyft is a network transportation company that matches customers seeking car rides with drivers through its smartphone app platform. This process, which the company calls ride-sharing, allows potential riders to use the app to request a driver. Lyft promotes its service to users as a way to help reduce traffic and provide easy access to transportation. In this sense, the service is in direct competition with fellow ride-share company Uber.
Lyft’s current business model is centered upon passengers being matched with human drivers. According to Lyft Director of Product Taggart Matthiesen, the ride-sharing service will always include human drivers. Nevertheless, Lyft has been mobilizing its efforts in preparation for a world with more autonomous vehicles. Matthiesen insists that self-driving technology will bring additional services to the platform.
Lyft’s Push Toward Self-Driving Cars
While Lyft initially fell behind Uber in regard to autonomous cars, the company took advantage of a vulnerable time for its rival to regain ground. Uber encountered issues with accidents and traffic infractions, and it was the subject of a bitter intellectual property lawsuit with Waymo, an Alphabet/Google subsidiary, which was only settled in February 2018. During this time of tribulation for Uber, Lyft entered into various partnerships.
In September 2017, Lyft entered into a relationship with Drive.ai, a self-driving car startup that sprang from MIT, to deploy a pilot program with self-driving cars in the San Francisco area. The program will begin with about a dozen autonomous cars taken from Drive.ai’s own fleet of Lincoln MKZs and Audi A4s. All of these self-driving cars will have a human on board per California law.
Lyft Moves Toward Developing Its Own Software and Hardware
While late to the game of autonomous driving technology, Lyft finally jumped head first into the industry in July 2017. That month, Lyft announced that it had put together its own hardware and software division for autonomous car technology. Instead of building cars, Lyft intends to create the hardware and software that pilot autonomous cars. This technology will then be added to its open platform. In this flexible scheme, Lyft can partner with automakers and self-driving software companies alike.
In September 2017, Lyft and Ford announced a partnership in which Ford will use Lyft’s open platform for its own on-demand autonomous ride service. This will allow Ford’s vehicles to integrate into Lyft’s system and learn how to respond during a number of real-world scenarios. Lyft and Ford say they will collaborate to ascertain the infrastructure necessary for deployment of Fords as autonomous rides.
While the Ford announcement was big, Lyft really gained a seat at the table the month prior when it reported a $1 billion investment from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. This increased the valuation of Lyft from $7.5 billion to $11 billion. At the time, this created a potential to hit a raw nerve for Uber, which was still involved in the intellectual property lawsuit with Google. Lyft, long playing catch-up with Uber, now found itself growing while Uber was beset with scandals and safety concerns. Beginning in January of 2018, Lyft began launching in more cities across the country and had almost become as pervasive as Uber.
Toward the end of 2017, Lyft also entered into a relationship with NuTonomy in order to provide a self-driving car service to a limited area of Boston’s Seaport district, which has become a technology center. The autonomous cars will be provided by NuTonomy. Through the partnership, the companies hope to expose the general public to the new technology, giving people a sense of how it will impact their lives. The companies also hope to use the feedback from participants in the pilot program to improve their systems. Human drivers are on board these cars as well to oversee any potential problems with the autonomous technology.
In March 2018, Lyft announced a partnership with GoMentum Station, the largest secure autonomous vehicle testing facility in the U.S. The facility is a 5,000-acre former naval weapons station in Concord, California. Lyft stated that the partnership will help speed up the timeline in bringing self-driving cars to the public.
While Lyft has acknowledged for a while that it believes that autonomous cars are the future of transportation, it now appears to be reconciling its money and efforts with this view. Lyft now calls on its customers to “join the self-driving movement.” In fact, the following benefits of self-driving cars are touted on its website:
- A 90% decrease in accidents.
- Traffic reduction.
- Reduction in car ownership.
- More affordable transportation.
- Fewer parking lots and more space for green spaces and homes.


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How to implement the “3Rs” in the fight against plastic pollution
The circular plastic economy can generate economic gains that are both environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive, says Minister of the Environment
The World Bank has suggested a comprehensive three-phase plan to tackle the growing problem of plastic waste in Bangladesh.
The National Action Plan for the Sustainable Management of Plastics (PAN), which is aligned with the country’s 8th five-year plan, was based on the needs identified collectively by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the Ministry of the Environment, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
The plan was disclosed in a World Bank report titled “Towards a Multi-Sector Action Plan for Sustainable Plastic Management in Bangladesh, Unveiled Yesterday. The plan is divided into short (2022-2023), medium (2024-2026) and long-term (2027-2030) phases, all of which focus and develop the 3R method (reduce, reuse, recycle).
According to the report, Bangladesh produces an average of 9 kg of plastic waste per capita in urban areas. Dhaka alone produces 24 kg of plastic waste per capita, three times more than in 2005.
The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened plastic pollution as much of the single-use plastic used in masks, gloves and personal protective equipment (PPE) was dumped into water bodies and rivers, he added.
The short term will focus on drafting guidelines on plastic packaging, anti-waste regulations and formulating an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) pilot project, including industry co-funding on collection plastic waste.
Read also – Ban on single-use plastic: the DoE is moving steadily forward
In the medium term, the government has been advised to offer tax breaks and grants for research and development initiatives on alternatives to plastics, as well as additional fees for plastic products that have viable alternatives.
The World Bank has also stressed the importance of recognizing producers who adopt environmentally friendly business practices by providing them with environmental certification and labeling plastic products to clearly indicate the differences in quality, longevity and methods of production. appropriate disposal.
According to a High Court directive, the DoE was supposed to implement a ban on single-use plastics from 2021. As the ban has yet to be implemented, the World Bank has suggested full implementation of the ban. the ban on single-use plastics by 2026.
The long-term phase includes an ambitious goal of making all packaging materials reusable, recyclable or compostable. In addition, he calls for the introduction of 3Rs into the national program, as well as a refund system for customers who return plastics.
The PAN sets a target of recycling 50% of plastics by 2025, reducing targeted single-use plastics by 90% by 2026 and reducing plastic waste production by 30% by 2030 compared to to the 2020-2021 reference.
Read also – The export of plastic products increases by 30%
Addressing the launch event, World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh Dandan Chen said, “With rapid growth and urbanization, Bangladesh has been facing a sharp increase in use of plastic and pollution. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem of poorly managed plastic waste.
“Going forward, the sustainable management of plastic, from product design to reducing plastic use to recycling, will be key to ensuring green growth for the country. We welcome the government’s commitment to implement a national action plan to combat plastic pollution, “he added.
Speaking as the guest of honor, the Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Md Shahab Uddin, said: “By strengthening the 3R approach, a circular plastic economy can contribute to the promoting a green growth path in Bangladesh, delivering economic gains that are both environmentally sustainable. , and socially inclusive.
Bangladesh was the first country in the world to ban plastic shopping bags, but the ban was never effectively enforced. The jute packaging law of 2010 for six essential items (paddy, rice, wheat, maize, fertilizer, sugar) promoted an alternative to plastic packaging, but encountered problems: the contents of jute packaging can spoil when the packaging begins to deteriorate.
In 2020, the High Court ordered relevant authorities to ban single-use plastics in coastal areas, hotels and motels across the country.


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As more countries mobilize their crisis workers, hotel groups can at least rely on small levels of business — the tricky part will be figuring out which properties stay open, and who exactly checks in.
With the world adjusting to new lockdown measures, many hotels are understandably closing.
Some will play their part in the recovery efforts though, from proposed plans to transform into emergency safe spaces to protect rough sleepers from coronavirus, to re-purposing beds for medical use. However, the hospitality sector shouldn’t rule out a surge in demand from one type of customer — the crisis worker.
In the UK, the government has ruled crisis workers (including key workers such as police, doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers and cleaners) and other workers on the frontline (such as supermarket and delivery staff critical to keeping supply chains functioning) as exempt from the latest travel restrictions.
They are deemed as essential in helping the country work through the coronavirus crisis, and as a result one UK-based corporate travel agency is urging hotels to keep the lines of communication open before shutting down.
“We’ve got people who are still making bookings at the moment, and they are doing a lot of planning and block booking. Yesterday (Wednesday) we sourced 13,360 hotel nights for customers in this period,” said Jill Palmer, CEO of Click Travel.
Click Travel has many public sector clients, including the UK’s National Health Service and police force, which are now requesting block bookings of over six or eight weeks. But there are fears corporate travel agencies across the country will soon have nowhere to put them.
Palmer said her agency is actively contacting hotel chains to tell them customers are booking now, and want to book in the future, and is requesting those chains keep Click Travel posted on any closures.
“If every Travelodge and Premier Inn is closed, I don’t know where these key workers are going to stay. There has to be some give and take. I know some hotels are staying open for key workers, and doing what they can to support them, but it does present a challenge for us.”
Meanwhile, in the UK there remains confusion over exactly who can be classified as a crisis worker, which Palmer worries may hinder bookings.
“Hotels are defining key workers differently, depending on the hotel chain, and differently compared to the government definition. That involves more manual work than usual, which we’re happy to do, and we’ve got the people there to do it. But bookings might take longer,” warned Palmer.
Photo credit: Crisis workers, including those in the construction sector, still need to travel. Alberto Pezzali / Associated Press


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Apple has just refreshed its 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup by introducing the Magic Keyboard, double storage capacity, and a faster RAM. The company unveiled the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro on May 4, 2020, sooner than anyone expected. The new 13” MacBook Pro 2020 features powerful quad-core processors, stunning 13-inch Retina Display with a sharp 2560×1600 resolution & 500nits of brightness, macOS Catalina, immersive stereo speakers, and delivers an amazing typing experience.
The lineup includes multiple variants and the higher-end models are powered by the 10th-generation quad-core Intel Core processors with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 4.1GHz and integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics that claim to deliver up to 80% faster performance than the previous generations. Also, these higher versions are capable of upgrading up to 32GB RAM as well.
The highlight of this latest 13-inch MacBook Pro 2020 is the Magic Keyboard that uses the better scissor-switch mechanism for a comfortable typing experience. Apple had been using the Butterfly Keyboard ever since 2015, but the company has now swapped it out completely, starting with the 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch, then with the MacBook Air released in March this year, and finally with this latest MacBook Pro 2020. Now, Apple doesn’t sell any new laptop with the butterfly keyboard mechanism. On the other hand, the Magic Keyboard is faster and more comfortable, thanks to the 1mm key travel. The layout features an inverted-T-arrangement for the arrow keys that makes them easier to find, while you’re working on spreadsheets or playing games. It also has the Touch Bar, Touch ID, and a physical escape key
Price and Availability
The latest 13-inch MacBook Pro 2020 starts at $1,299 and the education customers can get this variant at $1,199. This base model includes the Intel 8th-gen Core i5 processor, 256GB of internal storage, and 8GB RAM. The most powerful variant packs the faster Intel 10th-gen quad-core processor, 1TB storage, and 16GB RAM. You can upgrade the memory up to 32GB at an extra $400 and go all the way up to 4TB storage by adding another $1000.
Here’s the list of all the variants along with specs and price
All the variants offer 13-inch Retina Display and weigh around 3.1 pounds. The high-end variants (starting from $1,799) have packed with the Intel Iris Plus graphics to support the Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.
|$1,299||1.4-GHz Intel 8th gen||8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3||256GB SSD|
|$1,499||1.4-GHz Intel 8th gen||8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3||512GB SSD|
|$1,799||2GHz Intel 10th gen||16GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X||512GB SSD|
|$1,999||2GHz Intel 10th gen||16GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X||1TB SSD|
The MacBook Pro 2020 is already up for the orders on Apple’s website and the Apple store app, starting from the day of its launch. It will be available at select Apple stores and Apple authorized resellers later this week. The first shipments have been scheduled to start from May 7, 2020.


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BTS online concert and other K-pop events to keep you entertained at home
K-pop groups BTS, SuperM and more are streaming online events in light of COVID-19.
Many K-pop concerts, tours and events have been cancelled due to the global COVID-19 situation, leaving many fans feeling disappointed.
K-pop supergroup BTS had to reschedule their South Korean and North American concert dates for their Map Of The Soul tours, while many other K-pop artists had their fan meeting events cancelled.
Lucky for us, BTS announced on Apr 9 that they will be streaming a marathon of their past concerts online – for free!
Besides BTS’ highly anticipated livestream happening this weekend, here are three other K-pop online events you can enjoy at home.
1. BTS' Bang Bang Con Livestream
South Korean boy band BTS announced on Twitter that they will be livestreaming their past concerts, allowing fans to relive their concert experiences at home.
Titled Bang Bang Con, fans can connect their light sticks to the livestream, as though they are watching a “real” concert at home!
To top it all off, Bang Bang Con is free! You can stream it on BTS’s official YouTube Channel, BANGTAN TV, or Weverse if you want to sync your light stick with the concerts.
2. MCND's Global Meet and Call
Rookie group MCND from TOP Media has made a comeback with a new song, ‘Spring’.
As with most K-pop groups’ comebacks, they will be organising an online fansign to promote their new song.
Happening on Apr 27, the online fansign is also open to international fans, unlike most fansign events that are usually more accessible to Korean fans.
Although fans will have to buy the group’s Ice Age album to stand a chance to win a fansign slot, this fansign will be a special opportunity for international fans to interact with the members.
Check out this tweet for more details.
3. SuperM's digital concert, Beyond The Future
SM Entertainment has collaborated with Naver, Korea’s biggest search engine, to develop a new platform for digital concerts on V Live, a live-streaming app commonly used by K-pop artists.
The entertainment agency’s newest boy group, SuperM, will have the honour of being the first performers on the new platform, ‘Beyond LIVE’.
It is expected that the new platform will feature real-time comments and also digital light sticks, so get ready to relive a concert experience with SuperM!
More details here.
4. Online fansign for Gugudan's Sejeong
Gugudan member Sejeong has been organising online fansigns to promote her first solo album, Plant.
Her upcoming online fansign on Apr 17 will be the last event for her album promotions.
50 lucky fans will be able to join the fansign, and international fans can stand a chance to participate if they buy her album through YES24. Check out Gugudan’s official tweet if you would like to participate!
To all K-pop fans who have been looking forward to seeing their idols, hang in there and attend these online events instead while staying safe at home!


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Fintech startup Nearby Technologies has tied up with Yes Bank to provide Aadhaar- enabled cardless and pinless ATM service by which customers can deposit or withdraw money at retailers’ place.
Using the PayNEARBY mobile application on a smart phone, a retailer can become an Aadhaar ATM/Aadhaar Bank branch for cash withdrawals and deposits by a customer, Yes Bank said in a release.
Yes Bank and Nearby worked closely with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch this service.
PayNEARBY’s Aadhaar ATM will be available through Yes Bank and the business correspondent agent network comprising 40,000 touch points.
By using the Aadhaar number and finger print, a customer can do cash withdrawal or any other transactions from these locations.


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Supermarket retailers have been given a reminder of the ongoing price war as new figures indicate sales dropping below £100 billion for the first time since 2010.
According to a new study from The Share Centre‘s Profit Watch UK, sales among the major grocers fell by 3.1 per cent to £99 billion during the second quarter.
The Share Centre also added that £89.7 billion was written down in the last quarter, the lowest since 2008.
With discount grocers Aldi and Lidl – plus online grocers Ocado and AmazonFresh – rapidly increasing their market share, the Big 4 have been left no choice but to slash prices in an attempt to halt their declining sales and footfall.
The Share Centre‘s investment research analyst Helal Miah said intense price war created a tough year for UK supermarkets, especially Tesco, Sainsbury‘s, Morrisons and Asda.
However, it has had repercussions, with the data indicating that the intense price war is chipping away at the grocers‘ revenues.


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Yesterday, we spent a little time looking back at 2010, so it's only fair that we now turn 180 degrees and look at what the future holds for America's automakers. Thankfully, the folks at KPMG LLP are one step ahead of us: they've already distributed their annual questionnaire about tomorrow's auto markets to 200 industry insiders. If you're a Detroit fan, you'll want to read what they had to say.
Of America's Big Three, Chrysler has had the toughest time recovering from the recent recession. The company lacks the resources of its bailout buddy, GM, and it emerged from bankruptcy with very few new models in the works. Under Sergio Marchionne's leadership, however, Chrysler has begun to bounce back, and a number of KPMG's respondents see the automaker gaining global market share over the next five years. In fact, 24% of them predict that will happen -- a significant improvement over the mere 7.5% who thought so last year. Maybe their opinions changed when they saw Chrysler creep from 8.9% to 9.4% of global market share in 2010.
General Motors fared next-best in KPMG's survey, with 40% of respondents predicting an increase in GM's global share. That's much, much better than last year's 13% -- and it's somewhat surprising, too, given GM's slip from 19.8% of global sales in 2009 to 19.1% in 2010.
KPMG's respondents saved their best predictions for Ford: in all, 43% of the auto industry execs surveyed foresee Ford gaining global market share over the next five years, up from 29% in 2010. Not surprisingly, Ford also had the strongest growth of the three last year, surging from 15.5% of global sales in 2009 to 16.7% in 2010.
An unofficial office poll shows that our own predictions are mostly in line with those of KPMG's bigwigs. Ford's leadership seems particularly strong at the moment, so we fully expect to see gains there. Chrysler's share will improve, but the company will be outpaced by Ford and GM until Marchionne firms up and implements his strategy for the brand outside the U.S.
Where we differ a bit from KPMG's respondents is on GM -- frankly, we're a little more bullish on the company's future. Not only has GM begun to recover from its bankruptcy-related image problems, but it's also rolling out some great technology that should draw younger buyers to its family of brands. And let's not forget China, where GM is a big player in a big, growing market. Perhaps best of all, GM's marketing team is ramping up some aggressive social media campaigns. All good signs.
If you're a real fan of the Big Three, stay tuned for our full, on-the-spot coverage of the upcoming 2011 Detroit Auto Show.


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- Total sales down 1.2 per cent due to weaker market
- Full year profits still in line
- Online, refreshed stores and Europe provide upside
Like-for-like sales slipped 2.4 per cent during the festive period for Tesco in what has proved to be a challenging time for all the large UK grocers.
The group was expected to report falling LFL sales of between 1.0% and 2.0%.
Providing encouragement, convenience stores enjoyed like-for-like growth, recently refreshed megastores have 'significantly outperformed', online orders have increased and overseas performance has improved.
Looking forward, the company said that it still expected to report full year (FY) profits within the range of current market expectations, which it sees as being in between £3.16bn to £3.42bn.
Chief Executive Philip Clarke said further weakness in the UK grocery market, which saw Sainsbury's on Wednesday reveal marginal growth and Morrisons deliver a decline on Thursday, had weighed equally on its shoulders despite its investment.
Group sales in the six weeks to January 4th declined by 1.2% including petrol or 0.6% excluding petrol.
Broker Panmure Gordon said it would define the update as "OK", with UK LFL sales in line with expectations, Asia at the bottom end of expectations, and Europe better than expected.
Clarke added: "Our ongoing work to Build a Better Tesco in the UK is also driving continued improvements for customers, although the effects are being masked in the short term by the strategic changes we have made to improve the long-term sustainability of our business - the transformation of our general merchandise business and the significant reduction in our new store opening programme."
The Build a Better Tesco plan, which includes store refurbishments, improved ranges and prices, more store staff and a better online offer, saw its own-brand offer outperforming branded products and recently refreshed large stores continue to significantly outperform.
Tesco emphasised that increasing numbers of customers shopped across more than one channel this Christmas, with online sales up 14% to £450m in the period, with general merchandise stronger than grocery thanks to a strong clothing performance.
The Tesco Express convenience store business enjoyed positive like-for-like sales growth.
Total international sales were down 0.7% at constant exchange rates, a 2.2% decline at actual rates and including petrol, as foreign exchange
rates impacted both of its regions negatively.
While Asia saw slightly weaker like-for-like sales performance than the third quarter, every European market delivered better like-for-like sales than the third quarter, with growth in Poland and Hungary.
"Tesco maintains it sees its FY trading profit within a still fairly wide range of expectations, and although we are slightly below consensus we think it is prudent to trim our 2014 forecast by a further 1% today, although leave our 2015 forecast unchanged," said Panmure analyst Graham Jones Tesco, mainly due to Asian weakness.
Clive Black of Shore Capital also cut his forecasts, which he said was for the following reasons: "We need more confidence in the robustness of Tesco's forecasts. We need to see stronger evidence of recovery in the UK. Without the above we cannot see the promise of strong free cash flow generation, as anticipated and aspired, emerging."


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Number of the day
That’s the increase of new-home sales in March, the third straight monthly gain, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The market appears to be cautiously recovering from a mortgage rate increase last year that caused home buying to slump. New homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000 in March, up from 662,000 in February. For the first three months of 2019, new-home sales were 1.7% higher than the same period a year ago. March’s sales pace was the strongest since November 2017. New-home sales began to rebound after the average 30-year mortgage rate fell from its recent peak of nearly 5% in November.
Waymo, Google’s self-driving car spin-off, will reopen an axle plant in Detroit to convert conventional vehicles, mostly Chrysler Pacifica minivans, so they can drive autonomously. It will spend about $13.6 million and create up to 400 jobs at the site. The company will get an incentive grant from the state of Michigan worth up to $8 million.
Other numbers of the day
2,934 and 8,120
Those are the closing levels of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite Tuesday. The two indexes reached records, recovering from the steep declines they experienced in the final months of 2018. The previous high for the S&P was on Sept. 20, and the Nasdaq eclipsed its Aug. 29 level. Technology companies helped fuel the gains, and analysts credited better-than-expected earnings reports from companies including Lockheed Martin, Coca Cola and San Francisco’s Twitter. The Federal Reserve’s statements that it probably will not raise interest rates again this year also help propel the gains, as did general optimism that China trade conflicts will be resolved. The Dow Jones industrial average hit 26,656, closing in on its Oct. 3 record of 26,828.
Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. For more items and links, subscribe to the Tech Chronicle newsletter at www.sfchronicle.com/newsletters/tech-chronicle.


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Share of Hungarians in online education doubles during pandemic
Photo by fizkes / Shutterstock.com
The share of Hungarians who have taken online courses or used online learning materials has more than doubled during the pandemic, state news wire MTI reports, citing data compiled by Eurostat.
The share of Hungarians between the ages of 16 and 74 who took an online course or used online learning materials in the three months prior to a survey rose from 9% in 2019 to 20% in 2020. In 2021, the ratio reached 23%, still a little under the 27% average for the European Union as a whole.
The share of Czechs who availed of online learning last year stood at 22%. The ratio was 19% for Poland and 30% in Slovakia.
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Samsung‘s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra has appeared in a fresh set of seemingly accurate renders. They are reportedly obtained from the company’s official press materials. The images show the phone from various angles in all of its rumored colorways.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra shows up in new renders
Shared by the Dutch publication NieuweMobiel, the newly-leaked renders show the Galaxy S23 Ultra in four different colors. Earlier leaks have suggested that Samsung will brand these colorways as Botanic Green, Cotton Flower, Misty Lilac, and Phantom Black. As expected, the company will color-match the S Pen that comes built-in with this phone. The stylus accessory, which slots in at the bottom of the phone when not needed, gets the same color as the handset.
As for the design, there’s not much mystery left now. The Galaxy S23 Ultra continues to carry the boxy design language of Samsung’s now-discontinued Note phones. We have already seen the phone in leaked renders multiple times in the past. But the latest set appears to be more accurate than the one we saw last week. As revealed by leakers, the new phone will have slightly bigger camera circles compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The power and volume keys also sit a little low on the upcoming model.
The latest Galaxy S23 Ultra leak also shows the front of the phone. Many fans may be disappointed to see that the new Samsung flagship still doesn’t get symmetric bezels. The chin is marginally thicker than the rest of the display borders. The punch-hole selfie camera appears to have shrunk a little, though. Or maybe the wallpaper is making it look smaller. Everything else is standard Samsung stuff. There isn’t any notable design overhaul of the Ultra model this year.
Speaking of the wallpaper, it appears to be depicting a heavenly body. Maybe Samsung is hinting at the improved low-light and astrophotography here. As usual, each color variant of the phone gets the same default wallpaper, but in four colors. These are all part of the marketing game, you know. Companies try to make the renders as appealing as possible.
The Galaxy S23 series will debut in less than three weeks
Samsung has already confirmed that it will unveil the Galaxy S23 series on February 1, 2023. The Ultra model will be accompanied by a vanilla Galaxy S23 and a Galaxy S23+. The Korean firm will also debut its Galaxy Book 3 series Windows laptops during the same event. You can already reserve these Galaxy devices if you’re planning to buy them. Stay tuned for the official launch in about three weeks.


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CHICAGO (CBS) — Coronavirus cases are spiking dramatically in Illinois, with a record 6,363 cases being reported in just one day Thursday – well beyond what we have ever seen.CDC To Provide New Mask Guidelines For Fully Vaccinated Americans
But does the science show that restaurants are really super-spreaders for the virus?
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported, contact tracers said that at least right now, their data are not specific enough when it comes to restaurant spread.
And one scientist said the key to saving indoor dining could be as simple as proper ventilation.
Hickey stopped by the Dearborn Restaurant, 145 N. Dearborn St., which was seating some of their final indoor customers on Thursday. Soon, walk-ins will have to stop – there and at each and every other restaurant in the city.
Soon, walk-ins will have to stop.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said contact tracers have found – in descending order – workplaces, schools, and bars and restaurants are the top three areas of possible exposure for known cases.
“What we have seen is outbreaks within employees,” said Dr. Anu Hazra, who oversees contract tracing with Howard Brown Health.
But Hazra, who is also an infectious disease physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center, said the data are much more conclusive when it comes to household spread.
“Aside form like a major super-spreader event, it’s really difficult to pinpoint, well this came from this one restaurant or what,” he said.
What is the science behind indoor dining transmission? How many people are getting infected if masks and social distancing measures are in place?
We took that question to atmospheric chemist Jose-Luis Jimenez, a professor of chemistry and environmental studies who led a team of scientists from the University of Colorado to produce the COVID Airborne Transmission Estimator.READ MORE: Woman Dead After Dragging Officer With Car Before Crashing Into Business In Dolton; Shots Fired By Police
“Some restaurants have more ventilation, some restaurants have less ventilation,” Jimenez said.
He said from an airborne transmission perspective, closing indoor dining will help, but he said restaurants also shouldn’t be singled out apart from other indoor interactions found in stores or gyms, for example.
Jimenez said tiny carbon dioxide detectors that can be found on Amazon for less than $200 could be a game changer for the future of indoor eateries. They tell you how much exhaled air is present.
A reading in the 600-700 range would mean you’re inhaling less air that’s exhaled by other people – a key part of airborne COVID-19 spread.
“That’s how we could decide what to close and how to close more intelligently,” Jimenez said.
Professor Jimenez says that lower carbon dioxide readings can be achieved in indoor spaces with proper ventilation and filtration systems.
Meanwhile, why don’t we have data on how many restaurant employees and customers have been infected since they reopened in Illinois in June.
It turns out those data are actually at the center of a Freedom of Information Act battle right now. The Fulton Market Association requested that information from the city, but the city did not meet the deadline to respond.
So that Illinois Attorney General’s office got involved and is giving the city a seven-day deadline to provide data that were requested.
Also From CBS Chicago:
- Already Fined For Rusty Flagpole She Couldn’t Fix, South Holland Woman Hit With $300 Fine For Dead Bush
- DuPage County Launches Investigation After Sheriff’s Staff Seen Dining Inside Restaurant
- Morton Grove Mayor Questions JB Pritzker’s Order To Ban Indoor Dining
MORE NEWS: Many Who Filed Federal Tax Returns On Time Or Early Still Don't Have Refunds -- What's The Holdup?


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- Coinbase intends to offer $1 billion of Convertible Senior Notes due 2030 in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers, subject to market conditions and other factors.
- These notes will be senior, unsecured obligations, with interest payable semi-annually in outstanding payments and maturing on April 1, 2030. They will be convertible into cash, shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock, or a combination thereof at Coinbase’s discretion.
- The company intends to utilize the net proceeds from the offering for various purposes, including repaying existing debts, general corporate purposes, paying the cost of capped call transactions, and potentially making investments or acquisitions.
American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced plans to raise $1 billion through a convertible note offering, allowing investors to provide capital to Coinbase with the potential to convert their notes into company stock.
Funds Targeted For Debt Repayment And General Corporate Needs
Coinbase intends to use the proceeds from this offering to manage its existing debt. The company aims to repay or repurchase its outstanding convertible senior notes due in 2026, 2028, and 2031.
The raised capital will also be allocated for general corporate purposes, including working capital, expenditures, and capped call transactions associated with the offering.
Convertible Notes Offer Flexibility For Both Coinbase And Investors
The convertible notes function as loans. They accrue interest semi-annually and have a maturity date of April 1, 2030. However, before that date arrives, holders of the notes can convert them into cash, shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock, or a combination of both at Coinbase’s discretion. This will also allow investors to benefit from potential stock price appreciation while offering Coinbase a financing option that doesn’t immediately dilute its current stock value.
Coinbase Imitates MicroStrategy
Coinbase’s convertible note offering follows a similar plan to that of other cryptocurrency companies, such as MicroStrategy. Issuing convertible notes is a common tactic for businesses seeking capital, and it is not uncommon for companies in similar industries to use the same approach.
Coinbase can raise capital without potentially suppressing its current stock price through a traditional equity offering by opting for debt that converts to stock under certain conditions.
Impact On Coinbase And The Crypto Market
The success of this convertible note offering will depend on investor sentiment towards Coinbase and the broader cryptocurrency market. If Coinbase’s stock price performs well, investors may be incentivized to convert their notes into stock, providing the publicly traded company with a longer-term capital injection.


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Techwear is the next step in our integration of technology into our daily lives. Now, two of the latest breakthroughs in wearable tech bring that aim ever closer.
Tomorrow’s electronics are poised to dispose of current rigid parts based on silicon to become soft, bendable and stretchable to serve a wide array of products.
OLED displays are only the start for what flexible electronics promises: roll-up photovoltaic cells, flexible screens, smart sensors, interactive packages, light-sensitive curtains…the list is almost endless.
It all started back in the 1970s with the work of three scientists, Alan MacDiarmid, Alan Heeger, and Hideki Shirakawa, on conductive polymers, and for which they won the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Polymers, easily manipulated, offer an alternative to the use of minerals and allow devices to contain more components on a small footprint and to have new features, all at low cost.
Since the potential of conductive polymers was first shown, then recognized by the Nobel Prize, electronics is still dominated by silicon and other mineral components.
However, scientists and engineers are slowly setting the stage for flexible electronics, a breakthrough at a time.
Today, we cover two scientific steps made toward flexible and stretchable electronics.
Stretchable Device With Smartphone-Like Multifunctionality
A team at the University of California San Diego has developed a pliable and stretchable smart electronic bandage.
The size of a dollar coin, the new wireless wearable can serve as a biomedical device to monitor body signals, such as heart and brain activity, temperature, respiration, eye movement, and it can also monitor a robotic arm.
“Our vision is to make 3D stretchable electronics that are as multifunctional and high-performing as today’s rigid electronics,” said UC San Diego’s professor and senior author Sheng Xu.
The proof-of-concept smart bandage still has room for tiny rigid parts like sensors, an antenna, or an accelerometer, but the structure is mostly flexible so it adheres to different parts of the stretchable and nonplanar skin.
According to researchers, their smart bandage retains all stretchability and flexibility, as well as performance, for over six months.
Now, they’re looking for industrial partners with whom they can “optimize and refine this technology”, and run clinical tests.
Printing Silicon Nanowires Into Flexible Electronics
Engineers at the BEST group (Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies) at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, didn’t create a new flexible device, but a whole new manufacturing method for flexible electronics.
Last year, the same BEST team, led by Professor Ravinder Dahiya, were also behind a solar-powered flexible e-skin for prosthetics.
This time, however, Dahiya and his team developed a printing technique that allows “to affordably ‘print’ high-mobility semiconductor nanowires onto flexible surfaces to develop high-performance ultra-thin electronic layers.”
The team used silicon and zinc oxide to build semiconducting nanowires which they then printed on flexible substrates, using a printer they developed themselves. They found that silicon nanowires are best because they align in straight lines, sparing electrons from navigating twists and turns, thus losing precious time.
“We’ve created a contact-printing system which allows us to reliably create flexible electronics with a high degree of reproducibility, which is a really exciting step towards creating all kinds of bendable, flexible, twistable new devices,” Professor Dahiya said.
The research group has already got the funding necessary for them to scale up the technique and adjust it to industrial needs.


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Independent makers and shop-local proponents, take note!
The evening will also feature a pop-up shop.
The week-long trunk show also includes her bridal lines.
The collection is available now.
The new location is just a stone’s throw from its current perch.
A big deal for any local designer.
The local designer and former news anchor started in handbags but expanded to clothing in recent years.
Explore the world of Milwaukee-made and Milwaukee-centric shopping.
And the Mayfair Mall department store is kicking it off with a fashionable fiesta.


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Editing The Good End 2021 Reported 31 thousand 731 million pesos in Online sales, to which they contributed 16.5 percent of Good End 2021’s total income, according to the Mexican Sales Association Connected (AMVO).
“Because this is the second edition in the midst of the pandemic, the digital channel has continued to solidify, and this year nearly three in ten buyers have purchased a product or service for the first time at El Buen Fin and from this sector, 40 percent have used the channel. digital for the first time.
El Buen Fin has attracted 55 percent of Internet users Mexicans who claimed to have bought something during the campaign.
Also, 70 percent of all consumers who participated in the campaign said they had purchased something that combined physical and online stores. Overall, only 33 percent of consumers bought Internet.
Online purchases recorded 30.5 million transactions, of which 65 percent were billed with a credit card and 35 percent were at a discount. The average ticket purchase in e-commerce was 914.14 pesos.
According to AMVO, only 29 percent of shoppers have had trouble purchasing.
“Reader. Organizer. Infuriatingly humble twitter expert. Certified communicator.”


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It’s always good to try and find the positive aspects of a bad situation, but the USPS may be stretching it just a bit. This week it told employees that the decline in mail volumes is a good thing, because it makes individual pieces of direct mail more valuable:
Electronic communication has resulted in less traditional mail arriving in customers’ mailboxes. But that could be good news for direct mail marketers, according to an expert.
It may seem counterintuitive, until a mailbox is viewed as an advertising vehicle, said Caribou Honig, founding partner of Richmond, VA, QED Investors, a marketing firm in a recent interview.
“In most media [the cost per impression] plummets as impressions or ratings points, or circulation numbers drop,” Honig said. “But the value of a direct mail piece actually rises as total volume goes down. As total volume of mail declines, marketers who stick with it gain ‘share of mailbox’ and higher response rates as a result.”


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During an earnings call with analysts Dell answered questions about its tablet strategy, specifically how it impacts business customers.
“We also are starting to see a lot of receptivity to the way we've approached the tablet market from a commercial perspective,” said Stephen Felice, Dell’s President and Chief Commercial Officer.
“I've been meeting with lots of customers who continue to say that they're needing to prioritize security and manageability as they try to roll out tablets in their environment,” Felice added, according to a transcript of the call on the site Seeking Alpha.
He said Dell hopes to make inroads with these customers with such products as the Latitude 10 that has security features built-in and a smart card feature as well as a replaceable battery.
The Latitude 10 is an Intel Atom-based Windows 8 tablet with 64GB priced starting at $649. It goes on sale starting December 12.
“These are things that are resonating well on the commercial side,” he said. “So that — those opportunities are going to broaden that commercial business for us, and that should help us get back to growth.”
Responding to a question about price competition, Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden indicated the company was unlikely to compete at the low end.
“Well, our focus on tablets has primarily been in the commercial side. And the feature set that is required there matches up with a richer configuration, and we do think that there's a profit stream there,” said Gladden.
“It also has a life cycle of profitability attached to it in terms of services agreements and other add-ons that we think is attractive to us.”
What tablets are CIOs complaining about?
In an apparent dig at Apple’s iPad and perhaps Android devices as well, Gladden said Dell hear’s a lot of complaints from CIOs who are having to deal with the added cost and complexity of not having a standards-based product as a tablet.
“And so we're pretty encouraged by the reaction to the Latitude 10,” he said, “and we do see this as a profitable product in the commercial space.
Dell executive Neil Hand is one of the keynoters at the upcoming TabletBiz conference and expo in New York on November 27.


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Tag: kids wish list
Late last month, Nintendo acknowledged that Apple is it’s biggest threat and they were not wrong because thousands of kids will be putting iPads and iPods over Nintendo’s popular systems or other companies also this Christmas
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Culturapedia relaunches mailout.co with improved paywalls
With the support of Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, Blackburn based cultural project management company, Culturapedia, has revamped and relaunched mailout.co.mailout.co is the national online resource for professionals working in community and participatory arts. mailout started as a bi-monthly magazine in February 1987 and went fully digital in January 2011.
Culturapedia, an independent project management company based in Blackburn, is contracted to deliver mailout.co by The Mailout Trust.Putting mailout online was a great success and significantly increased the number of users and people who know about mailout. Small news items, events and opportunities were made free on the website and a digital magazine, with longer articles, opinion and industry resources, was published every two months to subscribers. The subscription process proved to be a weakness.
Culturapedia were using a third party hosting and subscription service for paid content which was clumsy and users didn’t like it. The system couldn’t handle corporate subscriptions and in particular those from University libraries. A surprising amount of companies and organisations who wanted access also required a process that would accommodate order numbers, invoices and cheque payments. Our third party system would only accept credit and debit cards and was taking twenty five percent of all income received.Paid online content is a challenging nut to crack but mailout.co is targeted at a specific industry, now more than ever, in need of information and support. Working with Blackburn based Source Creative and Regenerate Pennine Lancashire the team devised a new system that would bring subscriptions in house and significantly improve the offer to users. mailout.co has abandoned the idea of a ‘magazine’ in favour of longer, more considered, articles being published online on a regular basis (a minimum of six per month) and are available to ‘professional subscribers. Some of the news items and events listings are still free but others, including job opportunities and funding news are only available to ‘everyday’ subscribers.
The new site is working well and users seem to like it. It is still early days but Culturapedia are pleased with the results today. They feel that, with the help of Regenerate Pennine Lancashire and the hard work of the team at Source Creative, they had designed an information commerce system that works for a professional clientele.
They are busy marketing and promoting the revamped site. Social media, especially Twitter, continues to drive most of the traffic and the team have been working hard at building genuine followers. Sector and industry memories are short. People come and go and it is easy for knowledge to go with them. The new site and active marketing activity has ensured that mailout.co will continue to be one of the countries busiest and most read arts based website in the UK.


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Huawei, the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer has beaten Xiaomi to secure the top position among the Chinese smartphone makers. Huawei beats Xiaomi, in terms of both shipments and revenue, as per statistics from Sino 2017, Jan-Sep.
Commenting on this great occasion, P. Sanjeev, Vice President Sales, Huawei said, “We are encouraged by the Global success and we are certain to replicate this locally with the exciting gamut of products we have lined up for our consumers, starting with the 7X which has been making waves since its announcement earlier this month.”
Huawei has spent US $10 billion in R&D in the year 2016, accounting for 14.6% of Huawei’s total revenue. Huawei was recently ranked as 8th in terms of R&D spends globally and as the leader in the Telecom Sector.
Both globally and In India, Huawei has introduced a bunch of flagships and mid-range phones, which are customized according to different kinds of users- From the feature-rich Honor 8 Pro to the upcoming Honor 7X, Huawei is also pushing great products to its subsidiary brand Honor, which saw huge success in India with over 98.8% year on year shipment value. The all-new Honor 7X to be launched very soon, for which registrations have already started.
The new Huawei Honor 7X will sport a big 5.93-inch full HD display, with minimum bezels at the top and bottom. It will be powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 659 octa-core processor, clocked at 1.7GHz, coupled with 4GB of RAM. In terms of camera, it will sport a 16MP rear camera sensor and a 2MP depth sensor to provide the bokeh effect and there is also an 8MP front-facing camera. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. The Honor 7X runs Android 7.0 Nougat and packs a 3340mAh non-removable battery. Connectivity options will include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, USB OTG, 3G and 4G VoLTE.


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Japanese blog meister Yukan Fuji blog has recently managed to get an internview with Nintendo supremo Satoru Iwata. Iwata is cautious when discuusing the success of the Wii;
“there will definitely come a time where it will stop selling. Even the DS hit a rough spell after selling 1.5 million units a month after launch. The flame was really lit a year after launch, after Nintendogs and Brain Age became big hits. With the Wii, we have to make good software just as we did with the DS.”
Fair enough, but it hasn’t half recovered since! On the subject of the current DS shortages in Japan, Iwata referred to a press comment from a while back that “In Japan every week is Christmas”. But he made the point that they were trying to solve the lack of units on Japanese shelves,
“We’re making and shipping 700,000 units per month domestically, but even then we’re unable to clear up the shortages.”
Needless to say that the Wii has a lot to live up to. Iwata insists that Nintendo are uyp to the challenge,
“So long as we continue the fight against the lack of interest in games from the general consumer, Nintendo will always be the challenger. For example, one challenge is in developing software that keeps people from saying they’re no longer interested in swinging the Wiimote.”
Sound promising, but let’s hope that they remember that they have a market outside of Japan this time around.


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29 May 2019 Basingstoke named as top tech town
Basingstoke is proving once more that it’s punching above its weight when it comes to the digital sector, being named as among the top UK locations for investment in growing technology companies
The town has been named as the fourth best place for such investment, behind only London, Cambridge and Abingdon, with total deals worth £425 million between 2015 and 2018.
The league table was published as part a report by Tech Nation, the UK network for technology entrepreneurs.
It is based on the number of scale-up companies in each area and the value of investments made into these companies.
Scale-up companies are those which have at least 10 employees and which are growing, with employment or revenue growth of at least 20% for two years.
The Tech Nation report also identifies Basingstoke as level with Prague, Strasbourg and San Jose when it comes to cyber investment.
It follows on from the 2018 Tech Nation report that ranked the town as fourth for digital tech density, fifth for digital tech productivity and seventh for digital tech turnover in the UK.
Cabinet Member for Borough Development and Improvement at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Cllr Rebecca Bean said: “This report proves yet again that Basingstoke is thriving when it comes to the digital sector.
“We’re in the top five UK locations for scale up tech investment, outperforming towns and cities many times our size across the globe.
“We have a vibrant and growing tech community, including our incubation hub for high-tech start-ups delivered through the SETsquared Partnership, which is truly something the town can be proud of. This is a great place to build and grow a tech company.”


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'Pokemon Go' release in India might be delayed; AR-game launch in Taiwan, China, Korea and other regions to be held back
'Pokemon Go' Android and iOS update riddled with bug; AR-game players complain of trainer account wipe-out
Lenovo K5 Note launch live streaming in India: When and where to watch the unveiling of the premium budget smartphone?
- WhatsApp update: How to get dark mode before official release
- Google Pixel 4: What makes this flagship worth the wait?
- Jio GigaFiber plans, price in India leaked: Reiterates affordable broadband offering
- PUBG Mobile's ultimate trick to win 4v4 Team Deathmatch [Watch]
- Twitter's Jack Dorsey gets a super cool personalized immigration stamp in Dubai


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CPI inflation slowed down to 2.7% y/y in March from 3.5% y/y in February as largely expected following the release of preliminary HICP inflation data more than a week ago which showed that HICP inflation slowed down to 2.5% y/y in March. The deceleration was largely driven by the wearing off of the impact of higher excise duties which were introduced in March 2017 with alcohol and tobacco prices easing their growth to 3.4% y/y from 11.3% y/y in February. Apart from that, prices of fuels had the largest contribution to price growth in March followed by restaurant prices and milk, cheese and eggs. On the opposite side, pharmaceutical products continue to have a negative contribution to price growth. On monthly basis, consumer prices rose by 0.4% m/m following 0.2% m/m decline in February.
All in all, consumer inflation will likely remain below the 3% y/y growth mark in the coming months as a result of lack of new excise duty hikes although growth will still be boosted by higher labor costs. On the other hand, the appreciation of the EUR in recent months will make imports cheaper which will keep consumer price growth close to the current level of growth. We expect lower inflation to stimulate private consumption although the poor labor market conditions are limiting the upside potential, in our view.


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China Commodity Marketplace
GTA (Ganzhou Tungsten Association) published its forecast prices for tungsten products in September 2019. The forecast price for wolframite concentrate (55% WO3) is RMB 73,000/standard t, up 4,500/t on-month, and that for APT is up by RMB 4,500/t on-month to RMB 113,000/t. Prices for tungsten powders (medium grain) lowered by RMB 2/kg on-month to RMB 180/kg.
Jiangxi Zhangyuan Tungsten published its procurement prices for long-term contracts during the first two weeks of September. The procurement price for wolframite (WO3≥55%) was RMB 73,000/standard t, scheelite (WO3≥55%) was at RMB 71,500/standard t, both increasing by RMB 4,500/t from the last two weeks of August. Zhangyuan’s APT procurement price (payment by cash) increased by RMB 4,500/t from the last two weeks of August to the present level of RMB 113,000/t.
According to current market conditions, industry producers have stronger confidence in propping prices and quotations for each product are showing an upward trend. This week, the upward trend of the tungsten concentrate market began to be highlighted, and offers from miners were intentionally raised. The tungsten concentrate price is expected to break through the barrier of RMB 75,000/standard t. Downstream smelters reported that the difficulty in purchasing tungsten concentrates has increased. Due to higher offers, the actual transaction price has risen. At the same time, the performance of the APT market is slightly firmer, and producers are expecting strong price increases. According to an industry source, mainstream APT quotations have been increasing to more than RMB 115,000/t, with some quotations rising to the level of RMB 116,000/t. Although the tungsten powder market was relatively stable this week, with a trend of rising costs, powder prices are expected to increase moderately next week.