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Critics angered at the store for caving to “homophobic extremists”
Target, one of the nation’s largest retail stores, has decided to pull some of its Pride 2023 Collection from its shelves. The store claims the decision was made for employee safety.
For over a decade, Target has embraced the LGBTQ Pride month of June by rolling out a large collection of queer-themed items. Some notable merchandise includes rainbow-patterned clothing for all ages, embroidered with LGBTQ slang and culture; books covering topics such as pronouns, same-sex relationships, and LGBTQ history; and general party supplies for celebrating Pride month.
However, this year, on May 24, Target released a statement saying it would be removing certain Pride-themed items from their stores that have caused customer backlash.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work. Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior,” Target said in a statement. “Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”
Reuters reported that, while a number of Target’s Pride Collection items are up for reconsideration, the only current Pride products that are being removed come from the LGBTQ brand Abprallen. The brand has underlying controversy due to its ties to the London-based, transgender designer Erik Carnell, who’s been known to use pentagrams and other symbols related to Satanism in his designs.
On Instagram, Carnell shared his opinion on The Satanic Temple and the LGBTQ community.
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about The Satanic Temple, and to a lesser extent, The Church of Satan, how they’re so frequently misunderstood and demonised (pun not intended) and how LGBT+ people are so often referred to as being a product of Satan or going against God’s will,” Carnell wrote. “Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan, he is merely used as a symbol of passion, pride, and liberty. He means to you what you need him to mean. So for me, Satan is hope, compassion, equality, and love. So, naturally, Satan respects pronouns. He loves all LGBT+ people.”
Target previously sold three Abprallen Pride Collection items: a $18 “too queer for here” tote bag, a $25 slogan sweater with the words “cure transphobia not trans people” and a “we belong everywhere” fanny pack. None of these items are currently listed for sale on the Target website.
Target is also reconsidering some of its Pride swimsuit line. While no bathing suits have yet to be removed, the company is reviewing some attire meant for the transgender and non-binary community, such as a “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuit.
In some stores, mainly in rural, Southern states, a Target Cooperation spokesperson confirmed the company was moving its Pride Collection to the back of the store after employees received backlash. Known occurrences of this happening are in Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia.
The Los Angeles Blade reported that, in Georgia, customers were destroying Pride Collection displays and verbally attacking employees with harsh words.
Organizations across the country are speaking out against the removal and relocation of Target’s Pride 2023 collection. Many are appalled that the company is giving in to the heightened homophobic atmosphere of the country.
“It is beyond disappointing that Target is caving to violent political extremists and betraying its commitment to the LGBTQ+ community by removing and relocating items in its Pride Collection from some of its stores,” Dr. David J. Johns, executive director, of the National Black Justice Coalition, the nation’s leading Black LGBTQ+ civil rights organization said in a statement. “It’s giving pride pimping, which is beyond problematic.”
He continued, “Let’s be clear: removing items from its Pride Collection, or hiding them in the back of the store, is tantamount to insisting we all go back in the closet. At a time when LGBTQ+ rights and people are under attack, at a time when extremist political forces want to exterminate us, pushing our diverse history, experiences, and ways of being into the shadows, we need everyone to speak out for us including major corporations like Target and Budweiser. You can’t only support human rights where you are ‘safe’ from confrontation. Shame on Target.”
A joint statement from The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) calls for Target to stand its ground and fight for its support of the LGBTQ community.
“Doubling down on your values is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business,” NCLR said. “Research shows that if a brand publicly supports and demonstrates a commitment to expanding and protecting LGBTQ+ rights, Americans are 2x more likely to buy or use the brand. Americans ages 18-34 are 5.5x more likely to want to work at a company if it publicly supports and demonstrates a commitment to expanding and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.”
They continued, “Target, and all businesses, can leverage the support of LGBTQ+ organizations to navigate this hate, so that together, we can let extremists know unequivocally that, just as with every other failed anti-LGBTQ+ campaign of the past, fear will not win.”


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Forty-seven years ago today, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Smoking Act. It required the placement of Surgeon General’s warnings on tobacco products, and banned cigarette advertising on television and radio. Those of a certain age still remember the jingles, however.
And now….The Mash!
We begin in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where the newly-opened Moby Dick Brewing Company pays homage to the city’s whaling industry and especially, the Herman Melville classic.
In Indianapolis, a beer bar called Kingmakers offers a selection of 500 board games to play with friends. Kingmakers’ “board game sommeliers” double as servers and game instructors.
Michigan’s brewery count is approaching 300–which is a lot of competition for shelf space. Representatives of two of the state’s grocery chains explain how they decide what to carry.
Your next layover could be an opportunity to introduce yourself to some new beer. CraftBeer.com has compiled a list of nine American airports that pour beer from local craft breweries.
Growler USA is coming to your home state. The Denver-based beer bar chain has 40 franchised locations under development, and expects to sell another 200 franchises nationwide in 2018.
Can you name the ten oldest beers in America? All ten date back to the 19th century—1829 in the case of Yuengling Lager, the country’s oldest—and managed to survive Prohibition.
Finally, Stone Brewing Company earned rave reviews for its Full Circle Pale Ale. What makes this beer unusual is that it was made with recycled and purified wastewater that had previously been used in taps, toilets and showers.
On this day in 1791, Vermont was admitted to the Union as the 14th U.S. state. It is only one of three states that had previously been an independent republic; the others are California (very briefly, and unrecognized) and Texas (1836-45).
And now…The Mash!
We begin in Chicago, where the Field Museum has teamed up with Off-Color Brewing to re-create a purple-corn beer brewed by Peruvian women a thousand years ago during the Wari Empire.
In Europe, drought conditions resulted in last year’s hop harvest being one of the worst in decades. The resulting scarcity drove up prices, which hit small breweries especially hard.
Franchised beer bars may be coming to your town. Growler USA has two locations in Oregon and North Carolina each with more than 80 taps, and plans to open ten more this year.
“Endless Slogans”, an ad for Toronto-brewed Boneshaker Unfiltered IPA, pokes fun at beer ads by mocking every ad cliche from sexual innuendos to bad puns.
A German environmental group has alleged that the country’s most popular beers violate the Reinheitsgebot because they contain trace amounts of glyphosate, an ingredient used in herbicides.
Celeste Beatty is one of the few African-American women to own a brewery. Her Harlem Brewing Company’s beers will soon go on sale at 39 Wal-Mart stores in New York State.
Finally, Anheuser-Busch InBev finds itself in “investor purgatory” after reporting disappointing earnings last week. A-B InBev’s sales are–pardon the pun–flat, and currency volatility has upped the cost of sales.

domain: news


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Chandigarh, July 11 (IANS) Haryana has topped the states in per capita revenue collection under GST and has become fourth highest generator of e-way bills in the country, said Haryana Finance Minister Abhimanyu on Wednesday. The state, he said, has also widened the tax base by 82.22 per cent, logging 19 per cent hike in revenue collections.
“The compliance percentage in the state is 5-7 per cent higher than the national average. The revenue collection under commercial taxes has registered a double-digit growth,” the minister said.
Spelling out the achievements made by the state post-GST, he said one of the most important achievements was widening the tax base by 82.22 per cent.
“While the number of tax assessees under VAT, Central Excise and Service Tax in Haryana was 2.25 lakh before the introduction of GST, the number of dealers today is about 4.10 lakh. This is in spite of the fact that the threshold limit for mandatory registration of tax assesses has been raised from Rs 5 lakh in Haryana to Rs 20 lakh under GST,” he pointed out.
Abhimanyu said GST collected during 2017-18 (for nine months) averaged Rs 1,505.93 crore which increased to Rs 1,804.96 crore during the first three months of 2018-19, implying year-on-year growth of 19.85 per cent.
He said the introduction of ‘One Nation One Tax’ GST in Haryana has been very smooth. The state occupying only 1.4 per cent of the geographical area of the country has collected the fifth highest gross GST in the country, he said.
“Haryana’s per capita revenue collection under GST is the highest in the country at Rs.1876,” he pointed out.
He said that around 1.12 crore e-way bills were generated in Haryana between April 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018, catapulting the state to the status of 4th highest generator of e-way bills in the country.
“The figures of revenue collection under the GST, CST, SGST, including other taxes subsumed later under the GST, are Rs 21,546.98 crore in 2015-16, Rs. 24,301.61 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 29,941.43 crore in 2017-18,” he said.
“GST being consumption-based tax, the state suffered a loss of about Rs 5,000 crore on this account. Many of the consumer goods were taxable at the rate of 13.125 per cent under VAT. Most of these items have been placed in the tax slab of 18 per cent wherein the state’s share is nine per cent. Therefore, it accounts for some loss of revenue to the state,” he admitted.–IANS


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iGaming Business – Two thirds of the British public are concerned about the amount of advertising for online gambling, according to new research by digital marketing firm IgnitionOne and polling organisation ComRes.
The ‘Betting on Digital’ report polled over 2,000 people, 604 of which are active or previous online gamblers, and conducted interviews with 11 senior marketers in the sector.
The majority of marketers interviewed in the report placed great emphasis on the need to target the right audience, while the perceived success of this among the public is limited, with just 21% stating that advertising for online gaming targets the right audience.
The report also found that the public still identifies television as a valuable medium in advertising as it drives strong brand awareness and web traffic, but marketers feel television is competitive and expensive, while it is more difficult to measure online traffic originating from the medium.
In terms of other factors that drive people when gambling online, the public cited easy user experience (73%), quality of the game (69%) and regular discounts (65%) as key points.
In addition to advertising influence and usability, corporate responsibility also rated highly with the British public.
Almost half of the public would be likely to bet on a website if they knew the brand was contributing financially to the research, education and treatment of problem gambling, while 61% think this would help increase public awareness of problem gambling.


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Juan BuisDigital Culture Reporter
Juan Buis is TNW's Digital Culture Reporter, and you should click here. Juan Buis is TNW's Digital Culture Reporter, and you should click here.
Instagram is a great way for brands to get exposure and grow their following. But converting followers into paying customers has always been hard, as the only place links are clickable is in the profile’s bio.
But it’s soon changing this approach with the introduction of shoppable product tags. Brands will be able to tag any items in their pictures, which take the user to a seperate product page with more information and a ‘shop now’ link that goes straight to the seller’s storefront.
By using tools like Like2Buy, shops have already been experimenting with converting their followers by creating a page that mimics the brand’s profile, but replaces the photos for links to its webshop. For example, clothing store Nordstrom has a link to this page in its bio.
It’s nice to see Instagram recognizing the need for brands to be able to sell their products aside from just building a social media presence. By offering them a native solution instead of relying on third-party services, everyone’s happy — customers will have a better experience and retailers will sell more.
The company is currently working with 20 retail partners including Kate Spade and Warby Parker to test the new features, which for now are available to a select group of users in the US, with plans to expand soon.
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A meme with three photos of a severely manhandled little boy with a padlocked chain on his legs and hands has been in circulation on Facebook
The text reads: “ Small boy lost his mother from the day of birth, this is what he has been passing through in the hand of her stepmother, continue sharing this post till the world see this wickedness”
The disturbing gory pictures have sparked anger from Facebook users.
Premium Reporters are still making effort to track the little boy and have announced offer of #100,000 to any Nigerian with useful information.
Premium Reporters can be reached on email@example.com


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By Ramona Costea-Oracle on May 12, 2016
- Verified Person and Oracle Talent Acquisition Cloud Now Available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace
On June 23, 2014, Oracle announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire MICROS Systems, Inc., a provider of integrated software and hardware solutions to the Hospitality and Retail industries. The proposed transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2014. Until the transaction closes, Oracle and MICROS will continue to operate independently and it is business as usual. Learn More.
On June 20, 2014 Oracle announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire LiveLOOK to strengthen Oracle Service Cloud with leading co-browse functionality to improve customer experiences through connected real-time engagements. The proposed transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual. Learn More.
On October 17, 2013, Oracle announced that it acquired Compendium, a cloud-based content marketing provider. Compendium helps companies plan, produce and deliver engaging content across multiple channels throughout their customers’ lifecycle. This transaction has closed. Learn more about partner opportunities through Oracle’s acquisition of Compendium.


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Inexpensive Gigabit Ethernet switches and network interface cards are flooding the market as vendors race to put 1000Base-T products in their portfolio.
Copper-based Gigabit Ethernet began shipping en masse last year. Since then, prices have dropped steadily as vendors -- even market newbies such as Dell Computer -- have raced to put 1000Base-T products in their portfolio.
Several equipment makers have announced wares that offer low prices for Gigabit Ethernet connections along with additional management and switching functions.
Companies are increasingly using Gigabit to upgrade their LAN and this has helped keep the market strong, according to analysts. Cahners In-Stat Group reports 1000Base-T component sales grew 25 per cent quarter-on-quarter in 2001 while the overall Ethernet LAN switch market averaged around 3 per cent growth per quarter. Market leaders in terms of 1000Base-T switch shipments were Cisco with 47 per cent, followed by 3Com with 17 per cent and Hewlett-Packard with 11 per cent of the market.
"No one wants to replace [cabling] because it is so expensive," said Lauri Vickers, a Cahners In-Stat analyst. "Companies that may have had bottlenecks in the wiring closet but didn't have the budget to run in-wall fibre cabling are looking at copper Gigabit to solve those problems." Besides savings on cabling costs, Vickers said, the 1000Base-T equipment itself averages around one-third the cost per port of single-mode, fibre-optic cable.
The price of Gigabit Ethernet products the past few years has fallen dramatically. Research from IDC shows that the average price for a fixed-configured Gigabit Ethernet switch port has dropped from about $US800 per port when the technology was introduced in 1998, to $219 per connection this year. Likewise, Gigabit NICs have also come down in price from an average of $500 in 1999, to the $200 range today (roughly three times the price of 10/100Mbps Ethernet cards).
While inexpensive Gigabit NICs might seem to signal an imminent explosion of 1Gbps desktops, Vickers has more reserved predictions.
"[Vendors] are pushing Gigabit to the desktop, but we are still a ways away from that," Vickers said. "The economic slowdown has pushed off a lot of desktop purchases [in companies], and there still isn't a real killer app for it."


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The price of alcoholic beverages in bars, lounges, clubs, discotheques, and cafes in Maharashtra is set to rise slightly. The state government has raised the Value Added Tax (VAT) for permit room liquor service by 5 percent, bringing the total VAT to 10 percent. This change was announced through a Government Resolution (GR) issued on Friday. Notably, there will be no increase in VAT for liquor services offered by star hotels, as they already operate at a higher VAT rate of 20 percent.
Hoteliers have expressed concerns over the recent government decision to raise excise license fees, which has already placed an additional burden, ultimately leading to higher liquor prices for consumers. They argue that in a landscape where states are striving to attract more revenue and tourists, such a move will disrupt their existing policies. It’s worth noting that this increase will not impact liquor sales over the counter at wine shops.
“The increase is quite surprising as the same in the backdrop of the increase in the yearly excise fees will mean that prices in restaurants, bars will go up. We are in the age where states are competing with each realising the power of tourism in driving economies resulting in reduction of excise duties. Goa, Chandigarh and Haryana are few such examples,” said Pradeep Shetty, president of hotels and restaurants of western india (HRAWI) which has thousands of high end restaurants and hotels as its members.
Sukesh shetty, president of AHAR, an association of over 15000 premium hotels, bars and restaurants across MMR, said “The hike is not fair on restaurants as there is a clear discrimination on wineshop sales and on-the-premise-consumption. This will definitely affect the sales in our industry thereby directly affecting the employment, compared to retail sales. Restaurant industry employs 6 to 8 times more people per outlet than the retail industry.”
According to insiders from the industry, the increase in VAT on liquor consumed within bars is expected to prompt customers to seek more affordable alternatives, such as off-site consumption in places like building terraces, parks, beaches, parked vehicles, or street corners. This shift could potentially pose law and order challenges for the state administration. It’s worth noting that the state has recently proposed allowing permit rooms to maintain stock for retail sales of liquor bottles or over-the-counter sales, a move seen as advantageous for bars, according to industry sources.


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Senior vice president of marketing solutions named at comScore
Aaron Fetters has joined Reston- based comScore, a media measurement and analytics company, as senior vice president of marketing solutions.
Based in Chicago, Fetters will lead the company's work with its consumer packaged goods and automotive clients.
Fetters has nearly 20 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, holding positions at Kellogg Co. and Procter and Gamble.
Most recently he served as director of the Insights and Analytics Solutions Center at the Kellogg.


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Pesticides on produce: Some factors to consider when choosing your fruits and veggies
Updated April 3, 2024 at 2:16 PM ET
Take a stroll through the produce section at your local grocery store, and you'll likely have to decide whether to buy organic or conventional fruits and vegetables.
There's a bounty of factual information about the differences between organic and non-organic produce, in addition to many common public perceptions — and misperceptions — about which fruits and vegetables are safe and healthy. It can be confusing.
Last week, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group released its annual "dirty dozen" list of the produce items containing the most pesticides, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. Strawberries and spinach topped the list.
EWG senior toxicologist Alexis Temkin says the guide is meant to be a resource for consumers interested in lowering their exposure to pesticides, which she says have been linked to health concerns.
"It's one way to provide information about some of the potential reasons why we think people might want to be concerned about pesticides in their fruit and vegetables," Temkin told NPR.
"It was never meant to dissuade consumption or advise avoiding any of these 'dirty dozen' items. It's really about how to choose fruits and vegetables effectively to reduce pesticide exposure while still eating a lot of fruits and vegetables."
While the EWG says they don't want to dissuade people from eating produce, Marvin Pritts, a professor of horticulture at Cornell University, feels that it can have that effect. Pritts says the scientific consensus is that pesticide residue at government-regulated levels is safe for consumption, and that eating conventional fruits and veggies is far healthier than skipping produce at your next meal.
"It can deter you from eating things that are good for you," Pritts said. "Most scientists and people who study this don't think [pesticide residue] levels come anywhere close to causing harmful toxicological effects on people."
Organic vs. conventional produce, explained
The EWG highlighted the presence of pesticides, including fungicides, in 75% of the conventional produce that was tested. Ninety-five percent of 'dirty dozen' fruits and vegetables tested contained pesticide residue.
The group said some research has indicated that fungicides — which are among the most commonly used pesticides — could disrupt human hormonal systems, but that more research was necessary.
Still, Pritts believes the focus on pesticides is misguided, noting that the Environmental Protection Agency sets "tolerances" for the amount of pesticides that can safely remain on produce sold in the U.S.
The EWG's position is that just because a pesticide or tolerance is legal, that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe. Temkin points to the EPA's ongoing effort to limit the use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, which has been in use but has been linked in some studies to harmful effects on children's brains if pregnant women are exposed.
The EWG argues that the EPA in its pesticide registration process should give more weight to independent safety studies and how individual pesticides interact with others, and also noted that researchers in 2019 found that the U.S. permitted dozens of pesticides that were banned or being phased out in the European Union, China and Brazil.
Pritts said experts recommend that growers cycle through various pesticides to prevent insects or diseases from developing a resistance to a single one, which could explain why some fruits and vegetables were recorded having more pesticides than others. The EWG analysisconsiders a number of measures, including the percent of samples with detectable pesticides, the number of pesticides found and the average amount of pesticides.
Buying organic also doesn't necessarily mean avoiding pesticides, since organic growers can use pesticides derived from natural substances.
Consumers may even bear some of the blame for the use of pesticides, Pritts said. One example, he noted, is that growers have had to use pesticides on their apples to keep them free of spots and blemishes, because otherwise shoppers wouldn't buy them.
So what can I do?
Pritts said none of that is meant to dissuade people from buying organic produce, as long as they can afford it and recognize that scientists haven't found any major nutritional benefits.
The EWG also encourages people to get more produce on their plate regardless of how it's grown, but says organic diets can reduce synthetic pesticide exposure. The group also disseminates a list of fruit and vegetables with the lowest number of pesticides, including avocados, sweet corn and pineapple.
"One serving of blueberries that's not organic is not necessarily what we're talking about with some of these health concerns," Temkin said. "It's about chronic low-dose exposures over a lifetime and then also during particularly sensitive windows" such as childhood.
If you buy conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, washing them can help remove dirt and bugs, but it won't remove pesticide residue, Pritts said. "The residues are inside the cells and they're there to stay."
Pritts noted that people who get ill from food are often sickened by bacteria — not pesticides. He recommends washing your produce before you eat it rather than when you put it in the fridge, since moisture on fruit and vegetables can help bacteria and fungus grow.
In his own life, Pritts is part of an organic CSA (community-supported agriculture) programwhere he lives. He likes that the farmer uses natural harvesting methods, but says that's not why he signed up.
"I belong to that not because he's organic, but because he's local," he said. "I think that the best thing you can do for the environment is to grow your food close to where you live."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Tesla said on Tuesday it would invest more than US$3.6 billion to expand its Nevada Gigafactory complex with two new factories, one to mass produce its long-delayed Semi electric truck and the other to make its new 4680 battery cell.
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(Reuters) - Electronic connector maker TE Connectivity Ltd (TEL.N) said it will sell its non-core touch screen and TE professional services businesses for $403.5 million.
The company, formerly known as Tyco Electronics, will sell the touch screen business to private equity firm Gores Group for $380 million and the professional services unit to KGP Logistics for $23.5 million.
TE Connectivity cut its second-quarter outlook as it expects to record a $20 million loss from the two transactions.
“They (the deals) do not move the needle much in terms of changing the longer-term story,” Macquarie analyst Mike Wood told Reuters.
The businesses being sold had a combined revenue of $534 million in fiscal 2011. TE Connectivity had $14.34 billion revenue in 2011.
Both the units were low-margin businesses for the company, Wood said, adding that the company told him it expects the deal to reduce full-year earnings by 11 cents a share.
The touch business is a supplier of touch screens and computers under the Elo TouchSystems brand, while the professional services division provides engineering and installation services to communication service providers.
TE Connectivity will classify the two businesses as discontinued operations from the second quarter, results of which are expected on April 25.
It expects second-quarter adjusted earnings of 62-66 cents a share, down from its earlier forecast of 64-68 cents a share.
TE Connectivity expects revenue of $3.15-$3.25 billion for the quarter, below its earlier outlook of $3.3-$3.4 billion.
Analysts expected profit of 66 cents a share and revenue of $3.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Last week, the company — which was spun off from Tyco International TYC.N in 2007 — completed the $2.03 billion acquisition of Deutsch Group SAS which would boost its presence in the defense and industrial transportation sectors.
TE Connectivity shares, which have risen 10 percent so far this year, were trading up slightly at $34.88 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Joyjeet Das


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Taiwanese automaker unveils first EV people carrier
Friday 09 July 2010
Luxgen, the Taiwanese automaker that began selling outside of Taiwan only earlier this year, has unveiled what it says is the world's first 7-passenger electric vehicle.
Luxgen says that its Luxgen7 MPV EV offers a range of over 300km on a single charge if a fixed cruising speed of 40km/h is maintained, pushing its performance past that of many other EVs and closing the "utility gap between an EV and a fossil fuel powered counterpart."
In peak performance mode, the Luxgen7 MPV EV's 240hp engine is capable of 0 to 100 km/h in 8.6 seconds and can reach a maximum speed of 145 km/h, albeit with a shorter range.
The Taiwanese firm, which prides itself on integrating sophisticated electronics into its vehicles, says that the lithium-ion battery pack is capable of discharging back into the power grid to balance utilisation, as well as offering a regenerative braking system and an energy conversion rate of up to 80 percent.
Like other vehicles in the Luxgen range, it will offer gadgetry such as an on-board computer system that controls in-car entertainment and a visual assistance system including night vision and 360 degree surveillance cameras.
The EVs set to hit the road later this year, such as the Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi iMiEV, are all small city cars, so Luxgen's foray into electric people carriers is a bold step.
Earlier this year, the firm announced that Oman would be the first market outside of Taiwan for its vehicles, as it struggled to gain a foothold in a competitive market dominated by export giants such as Nissan and Toyota.
In the EV market, it will face equally stiff competition from Chinese EV maker, BYD, which has already announced plans for showrooms in the US and Europe.
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Emily Sheahan’s high-end vintage store, The Commons Studio and Exchange, will have its final day of face-to-face trade next month as it goes online-only.
Quash cabin fever with a partly subsidised staycation in the Adelaide CBD and across the state as of next month.
Cherry Darlings Bakehouse has purchased Rundle Street institution Vego and Loven It and will relaunch as Vego’s, reviving the venue’s burger menu and adding some Cherry Darlings sweet and savoury treats.
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute has weathered a closure by pandemic and funding cuts already this year, but, in spite of the challenges, the organisation is excited to reopen next month.
South Australia will roll out the red carpet for 22 world premieres and 27 Australian premieres, spanning slick international feature films to grungy local documentaries, as part of this year’s Adelaide Film Festival.
Owner of Adelaide’s oldest camera kiosk, Paul Bulley believes there’s a reason his shop is developing a kilometre of analogue film every month – young people are going anti-digital.


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Woolworths ready for interrogation at AGM thanks to Aldi
SLOWING sales growth and the rise of competitor Aldi will have shareholders posing tough questions at Woolworths' annual general meeting in Brisbane on Thursday.
Woolworths is still the biggest of the supermarket retailers, with 39 per cent of the market share.
But Coles is not far behind with 33.5 per cent, and German discount chain Aldi is now reaching 10 per cent, which is expected to grow.
"When you get Aldi coming into a market, we've seen a thing called the Aldi effect where prices come down in the area where this store starts to appear," Choice consumer group's Tom Godfrey said.
"And that's great news for consumers. But it's also a rallying call to Woolworths and Coles.
Read more at ABC News online.


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A Trump-era rule sought to impose a "most favored nation" status on the prescription drug industry. It mandated that drug companies could not charge American citizens more than what's charged in other countries for the same medicine. Currently, Americans "subsidize" the rest of the world's drugs by paying far more for many prescriptions than what foreigners pay in other countries. Some drugs that cost hundreds of dollars here are sold for pennies elsewhere. The Trump rule was never enacted.
The following is a relevant excerpt from Reuters.
Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.L), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY.N), AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.L) and Sanofi SA (SASY.PA) plan to raise prices in the United States on more than 350 unique drugs in early January, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
The increases are expected to come as the pharmaceutical industry prepares for the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allows the government's Medicare health program to negotiate prices directly for some drugs starting in 2026.
The industry is also contending with inflation and supply chain constraints that have led to higher manufacturing costs.
The increases are on list prices, which do not include rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts.
In 2022, drugmakers raised prices on more than 1,400 drugs according to data published by 46brooklyn, a drug pricing non-profit that is related to 3 Axis.
That is the most increases since 2015.
Drugmakers largely have kept increases at 10% or below - an industry practice followed by many big drugmakers since they came under fire for too many price hikes in the middle of the last decade.
To date, Pfizer announced the most increases, with prices rising on 89 unique drug brands, and an additional increase on 10 drug brands at its Hospira arm.
That was followed by GSK, with planned increases so far on 26 unique drugs, including nearly a 7% increase on its popular shingles vaccine Shingrix.
Increases for Pfizer include a 6% rise on the cost of Xeljanz, a treatment for autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, and 7.9% increases on cancer drugs Ibrance and Xalkori.
A Pfizer spokesperson said in an email that the company's average list prices for drugs and vaccines in 2023 are well below overall inflation at approximately 3.6%, noting that the increases are needed to support investments in drug discovery. (Continued...)
Read more here.
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The holidays bring a lot of things and in the world of gaming, the holidays come with surprise bonuses such as what came with the latest news on Grand Theft Auto, otherwise known as GTA 5.
Since Grant Theft Auto's first release, the game has been one of the game company's most consistently controversial games.
Most of the controversy has been in the game's subject matter such as what many view as a game that degrades women, glorifies violence and encourages people to steal cars for profit.
Some of the company's other controversial games over the years have been Bully and Manhunt, and yet at the same time the controversy has made GTA one of the game industry's best selling games and popular titles of all time.
This is likely the reason why the latest online expansion has been highly anticipated and does a lot to push the envelope of innovation with the newly added features which come with the upgrades.
Aside from being one of the most torrented downloads next to Photoshop and Microsoft Office, as stated in an article by Tech Times, one of the latest pieces of information that's been mined for everything it's worth, is the "leak" from a YouTube account referred to as MrBossFTW, as described by Yahoo News.
In the piece, they refer to an accidental slip up on the part of Rockstar Games via it's social club page rather than the DLC page, where they posted the terms and conditions of the Festive Surprise Snapmatic photo contest, which the article points out they've done before during the holidays prior to a DLC release.
This wknd: Double GTA$ & RP in Adversary Modes Snapmatic Contest & Gear Giveaway https://t.co/SMFtPbLpYx #GTAOnline pic.twitter.com/rpdCQ687p5DLC stands for downloadable content.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) December 19, 2015
The article goes further into details about other released spoilers.
International Business Times has gone further with the leak to suggest that the same YouTube source has too, suggested a Liberty City expansion for single player GTA 5, to refocus those efforts away from the constantly popular online mode.
The article goes even further to suggest that GTA 5 will be using the same map as GTA 4 with some updates, where they're importing the same map, adding to it, with references to engines used with other Rockstar games' games.
iDigitalTimes was even more thorough just five days ago when they showed some of the new add-ons for the game, perhaps from the animation program of Autodesk's Maya.
But one of the add-ins to the game, which already has a lot of GTA 5 fans talking, is the chance to purchase new weapons and be able to use other gamers online as bodyguards, as long as the player has a minimum of $1m dollars in the Maze bank account in the game, as reported by Express News.
Get 2X GTA$ + RP boosts during the GTA Online: Executives and Other Criminals Event Weekend. https://t.co/lejtKe1tgC pic.twitter.com/kpphOPxJNqThe GTA 5 in-game event offer only lasted from December 15 - 20.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) December 17, 2015
One source out of Chicago referred to as Sacred Heart, has tried to clear through some of the confusion over what GTA 5 is actually offering, such as the possibility that the map will be open-ended, given the already mentioned details and limited online sessions.
To be clear, this is referring to the latest updates for GTA 5 online, as the original GTA 5 had already been released in 2013.
As mentioned in the video, GTA 5 online appears to have brought back the double-clutch which many fans are happy about and International Business Times provides even more details on how a game player is able to take advantage of it.


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We’ve all been there (well, OK, most of us ill-prepared people have been there). A bottle of wine and no corkscrew? Now you never have to worry again.
"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?"
LISTEN: This week's top country tracks, according to the latest Billboard chart.
The results marked the first time in 11 years that Barbie hasn't held the No. 1 spot in the annual toy survey.
Before you wait in line for doorbuster deals, check out these Black Friday facts.


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A recent survey by FENSA over 6,000 glazing installers conducted at the end of 2020 found that since the first lockdown in May, 74.6% of installers said that work levels have been good or very good since returning to work. This rose to 81.7% when questioned about demand from homeowners throughout the second half of the year.
Encouragingly, demand seemed to bounce back quite quickly in the sector. However, the market was not all rosy with many glazing installers experiencing issues and delays in the supply chain (over 94%).
Looking ahead, glazing installers were also buoyant about the future with nearly 67% of respondents feeling cautiously optimistic that demand levels would continue.
Despite the Green Homes Grant Scheme, designed to help fund energy-efficient measures, only including double glazing as only a secondary measure, demand for double glazing appears to be remaining strong with more and more homeowners looking to invest in home improvements.
Chris Beedel, FENSA Director of Membership, commented, “The industry is incredibly busy and FENSA Approved Installers are winning a huge amount of work…we remain cautiously optimistic.”
In another survey by Pilkington, natural light was one of the most sought-after features by homeowners, with 54% citing double-glazed windows in their dream home, with 17% wanting bi-folding doors, and 14% wanting skylight windows.
Managing Director, GGF Commercial Group, Anda Gregory, also commented on the glazing sector’s resilience, “Installers have been severely tested. From having their businesses closed almost overnight, followed by welcome but unexpected strong demand, they have risen to the occasion.”


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CHICAGO – Many Americans allowed themselves to fantasize about large-screen TVs, European vacations and other luxuries when they learned of the federal rebates they’d be getting this spring and early summer.
Or maybe – shh, don’t tell the president – they’d pay off a credit card or set the rebate aside for a big purchase in the future, notwithstanding Washington’s intentions that they pump it immediately into the flagging economy.
“It’s not often you get a windfall like that that you can just stash away for something you need later,” said Sara Jackson, 29, a graphic designer in Chattanooga, Tenn.
But reality has interfered, in the form of ever-climbing food bills and $4-a-gallon gasoline. Day-to-day living costs have sopped up the checks for many other early recipients and spoiled their rebate fantasies. Government figures released Friday showed consumer spending inched up just 0.2 percent in April, despite widespread anticipation of the stimulus payments sent out starting late in the month.
Based on a small but broadly diverse group of consumers who tracked their rebate spending in detail for the Associated Press, there was no mass rush to the malls for shopping sprees after the payments started showing up in bank accounts in significant numbers in May. The greater economic ramifications may not be seen for months.
Vanessa Church, a 49-year-old Chicagoan with six children, was grateful for the rebate but found there wasn’t much left over after big payments for utilities and other basic needs were taken care of. “Things are getting tighter and tighter,” she said, adding jokingly: “I’m thinking they should do this twice a year.”
Brandi Dobbins, 26, and her fiance each got their $600 checks just before their May wedding on the coast of Maine. The combined amount was spent almost instantly when their caterer called and, after asking ‘Are you sitting down?’, informed her that due to food inflation their bill for the wedding was jumping from $46.50 per guest to $59 – virtually the entire $1,200.
Derek Houck, an actor in North Hollywood, planned to allow himself an indulgence or two with whatever was left of his rebate after he’d taken care of necessities. It turned out to be more modest than he’d thought. When his personal finance software program showed him he had a whopping 50 cents left from the $600, he still celebrated by shelling out $49.95 for a new Wii game.
All told, 131 million households are to receive a total of $110 billion by the time the last payments are doled out in mid-July. What people do with them will help shape the direction of the sputtering economy.
The rebate was designed to give a shot of adrenaline to the economy by inducing people to buy items they didn’t otherwise have the cash for.
Most individual taxpayers are getting checks of up to $600, while couples receive $1,200 plus $300 for each eligible child under 17. People earning too little to pay taxes but at least $3,000, including seniors whose only income is from Social Security, get $300 if single or $600 if a couple. And there are no payments for the wealthy: The amount starts to phase out for those with incomes over $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.
Based on economists’ preliminary assessments, and echoed by the AP sample group of more than two dozen people, Americans are not hesitating to spend the money – but more for essentials than was anticipated. It’s easy to understand why: Gas prices are up more than 30 percent since the rebate check amounts were first announced and food prices are projected to increase 5 percent or more in 2008.
Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, thinks at least half the rebate money may go toward energy costs alone.
“It’s not going to give you the bang for the buck as originally envisioned,” he said.
Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial in Chicago, also estimates that consumers will spend more than half of the rebates – but much of it on the higher cost of living, citing evidence of a “very stressed consumer.”
That would be dramatically higher than what they signaled in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in February, when only 19 percent of respondents said they would spend their rebates. Some 45 percent said they planned to pay off bills, 32 percent said they would save it or invest it, and 4 percent said they would donate it to charity. Consumers in the past have tended to spend significantly more than they told pollsters they thought they would.
Millions of Americans can testify to the psychological impact of a fat check, whether or not they agreed with the idea.
“Honestly, I think it’s kind of silly that the government is paying us money when it’s having such a hard time paying its own bills,” Jackson said. “But shoot, who’s going to turn down money when they give it to you?”


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Westport in County Mayo is aiming to become Ireland's first plastic straw-free town in an effort to help support the community's natural environment.
The tourist hotspot revealed its plans to eradicate plastic straws at a meeting of the Supervalu TidyTowns committee earlier this week.
Today's top videos
From June 1st 2018, several businesses in the town have pledged to only use biodegradable straws.
All vintners in the town have pledged to use biodegradable straws, with the TidyTowns committee hopeful that other supermarkets, coffee shops and takeaways in the town will follow suit.
Since China banned the practice of receiving 95% of Irish exports on plastic waste, the country has been looking for ways to cut down on plastic use, with plastic straws being a good place to start.
TidyTowns Committee member Rhona Chambers spoke about the proposed change, and how it will help preserve the wildlife and nature in Westport.
She said: 'The SuperValu TidyTowns competition is all about businesses and communities working together to make a difference and we hope that by eliminating plastic straws we can make a difference to Westport.'
'Westport's population is set to grow from 5,000 to 25,000 during the busy tourist season, the involvement of other businesses is crucial to ensure the Mayo town is free of plastic.'
The West Coast town has won the national TidyTowns award three times in the past, and has already established a sustainability initiative with the local Supervalu to allow customers to leave plastic packaging in-store after they finish shopping.
The idea to totally eliminate the use of plastic straws in the town was first put forward by transition years students on the junior TidyTowns committee.


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Pepsi (PEP) to Acquire Fermented Probiotic Beverage Maker KeVita
- Donald Trump Sworn in as 45th U.S. President
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PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire KeVita, a leading North American creator of fermented probiotic and kombucha beverages. The transaction will expand PepsiCo's health and wellness offerings in the premium chilled beverage space.
"I am pleased to welcome KeVita into the PepsiCo family. Under the leadership of CEO Bill Moses, KeVita has become an innovative, high–growth brand that is transforming the functional beverage space," said Chris Lansing, general manager and vice president, PepsiCo Premium Nutrition. "This announcement is further evidence of PepsiCo's focus on delivering Performance with Purpose by continuing to evolve our health and wellness offerings to meet consumers' changing needs."
KeVita is a leader in fermented probiotic and kombucha beverages with three product lines and live probiotics in every bottle. With over two dozen flavors of Sparkling Probiotic Drink, Master Brew Kombucha and Apple Cider Vinegar Tonic, all KeVita drinks are certified organic, non-GMO, gluten-free and vegan. KeVita has a loyal and rapidly growing consumer base in the fast growing functional beverage space.
"Joining the PepsiCo family will give us an opportunity to extend KeVita's trend-forward beverages to a broader audience, while staying committed to our core values," said Bill Moses, CEO and co-founder of KeVita. "We're looking forward to more consumers experiencing the KeVita brand and to leveraging PepsiCo's marketing and distribution capabilities."
Upon closing, which is subject to regulatory approval, KeVita will continue to operate independently with its production and bottling facilities located in Oxnard, California.
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Latest Government Findings Show that the U.S. Trade Deficit May Increase More Under the Korea FTA Than Was Previously Thought
As the New York Times reported in December, the government’s official projections show that the Korea FTA will increase the U.S. trade deficit. “The study was conducted in 2007 by the United States International Trade Commission, an independent agency that analyzed the effect of imports on the American economy, after the Bush administration negotiated the original agreement with South Korea.”
(In fact, the original study – released in September 2007 – found that the U.S. global and bilateral trade balance would improve with the Korea FTA. However, the USITC found an error in the intervening years, and released a corrected version in March 2010 that found a worsening of the U.S. global trade balance.)
But the December 2010 supplemental deal negotiated by the Obama administration – which lengthened the tariff phase-out period for certain autos and trucks but did not change the fact that the tariffs are ultimately eliminated – does not alter these findings. That is because the USITC model looks at the change in trade flows when the agreement is fully implemented and tariffs are fully phased out. Given that the supplemental agreement did not alter ultimate tariff elimination, but only altered timelines for cuts, it did not alter the USITC findings of an increased U.S. trade deficit.
Enter new unofficial USITC Numbers…
Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) office released numbers today that it describes as coming from USITC staff economists – but not from the USITC itself. (More on this below.) While the numbers at first glance appear to paint a rosier picture, a closer look reveals that – like the March 2010 numbers – the U.S. trade deficit is projected to worsen.
In two new projections, the Korea FTA may lead to a larger increase in the U.S. trade deficit than under the 2007 official USITC study. Whereas the old numbers showed an increase in the U.S. trade deficit of $308 million to $416 million, the new numbers show an increase in the U.S. trade deficit of $297 million to $486 million. In other words, two scenarios are possible – and both show the FTA leading to an increase in the U.S. trade deficit. Under one of the scenarios, the trade deficit is actually $70 million higher than under the USITC’s previous estimates.
The original USITC study of the Korea agreement – as well as the new numbers – indicate that jobs may be lost in many high-wage industries, including auto manufacturing and electronics manufacturing. The average hourly earnings of workers in the electronic equipment manufacturing industry, projected to lose a significant number of jobs, were $30.38 in 2008. This was 40.5 percent greater than the average hourly earnings of all workers employed in the private sector.
The report Sen. Wyden requested from the USITC staff predicts large rises in the trade deficit in several sectors, totaling up to $2.1 billion for motor vehicles and parts, other transportation equipment, electronic equipment, metal products, textiles, apparel and iron-containing metals. Table 1 displays the predicted trade balance changes in these sectors, which do not differ greatly from the predictions in the official USITC reports on the Korea FTA.
The original USITC study developed ranges for the statistically likely FTA effects, or “low” and “high” estimates. The new numbers, however, reflect instead the scenarios of fixed wages or fixed labor supply, as we discuss below. Several sectors actually fare worse under the new projections than under the old USITC numbers. For instance, the motor vehicles sector was projected to experience a deficit of $531 million to $708 million under the original USITC study. Under the new numbers, the car sector sees an increased deficit of at least $548 million – at least $17 million higher than the low estimate. Or take the electronics sector. Under the old USITC numbers, the sector was projected to experience a deficit of $762 million to $790 million. Under the new numbers, the sector is projected to experience a deficit of $782 million to $812 million. This is an increase in the projection of losses of around $20 million.
Why These Numbers Look Different Than Those Presented in the Top Line of Wyden’s Memo
The first few pages of the Wyden memo paint a different picture than that above, stating that the new projections show the FTA increasing U.S. exports of goods to Korea by $11 billion, and increasing U.S. imports from Korea by about $7 billion – leading to an improvement in trade balance. Given that the fundamental question is what the Korea FTA would mean for America’s trade balance and thus jobs, it is worth understanding the seemingly conflicting data in the report.
At first glance the Wyden memo seems to suggest that the U.S. trade balance in goods (also known as merchandise) will improve by about $5.6 billion because this is the projected change in the bilateral trade balance with Korea. (These results can be derived from the bilateral trade flow numbers in Tables 2.A and 2.B)
However, due to the way that bilateral trade pacts affect global trade flows, the Korea FTA’s results for overall U.S. trade balance in goods are dramatically different from the change in the bilateral balance with Korea.
To get the global numbers, one needs to look at Tables 3.A and 3.B. Subtracting the import figures from the exports figures reveal that the Wyden memo predicts the total U.S. trade deficit in goods will increase by between $297 million to $496 million under the FTA. This finding in sum is that the effect of trade diversion on U.S. exports is greater than the effect on U.S. imports, so the U.S. trade balance with the world (including Korea) will worsen after the FTA goes into effect, but the balance with Korea alone improves. The bottom-line USITC finding of an increased U.S. trade deficit contradicts Obama’s stated purpose for passing the FTA – to promote his goal of doubling exports to create two million jobs.
Unorthodox Assumptions Guide Latest Findings on Korea FTA
As Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has written, basic macroeconomic principles suggest than an increase in the trade deficit will lead to a loss of jobs: “If you want a trade policy that helps employment, it has to be a policy that induces other countries to run bigger deficits or smaller surpluses. A countervailing duty on Chinese exports would be job-creating; a deal with South Korea, not.”
However, the latest USITC finding projects that – under one scenario – an increase in the trade deficit will be associated with a gain of 280,000 jobs. This seemingly implausible outcome is a function of the underlying assumptions of the USITC economists’ modeling. Under the USITC’s standard modeling, they hold the supply of labor fixed, but allow wages to vary.
(This is the long-standing standard practice in the economics profession. “Protection and Real Wages,” the 1941 seminal work by Wolfgang Stolper and Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson, used a fixed labor assumption, which the authors characterize as “the conventional method of comparative statics.” The two free traders’ study, incidentally, found that trade liberalization would be likely to lower the wages of U.S. workers. )
The latest report goes against the USITC best practices by inverting these assumptions: wages are held fixed, but jobs are allowed to vary. Senator Wyden’s office explains this methodological decision thusly: “The U.S. economy has changed significantly since 2007 [the date of the original study]. Since then, the U.S. suffered a severe financial crisis and one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression. The current unemployment rate – which hovers around 10 percent – contributes to the souring of the national mood toward trade. … For these reasons, we requested that ITC staff with economic modeling skills provide quantitative technical assistance examining the agreement based on current data and economic conditions. The ITC staff then conveyed these quantitative results to the staff of the Senate Committee on Finance’s Subcommittee on Trade. We (the staff of the subcommittee) find that these results show that, in an economy with substantial unemployment and underused capital, the agreement has the potential to create about 280,000 American jobs, but that job growth would be uneven among states and across industry sectors, with some sectors losing out while others benefit.”
Okay, fair enough. But keep in mind that the ITC study projects what the employment impact will be in the long-term. Do he ITC economists believe that we’ll continue to have 10 percent unemployment 20 years from now? If so, that definitely is much more newsworthy than whatever the president plans to say in the State of the Union tonight.
This deviation from organizational practice may be one of the reasons that the USITC is going out of its way to distance itself from the findings, inserting a footnote into their new study that states: “Material presented in Sections II and III was prepared by staff of the Office of Economics of the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC or Commission) in response to requests by staff from the Senate Finance Trade Subcommittee, and does not reflect the views of the Commission or Commissioners. The technical assistance is not an official Commission document and if referenced, it should be referenced “work of the staff of the USITC: not a Commission-approved document.””
Modified USITC Analysis Replicates Flaws of Corporate Studies
Table 11 of the Wyden memo breaks down the jobs impact of the “fixed wage” scenario. A close look reveals that 223,000 (81 percent) of the projected 280,000 job gains come from the services sector. This replicates a serious problem from a pro-FTA corporate study.
In a May 2010 study, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce utilized a CGE model to project job gains. Their model is deficient in the way that it deals with the service sector. The study finds that the vast majority of employment gains from FTAs is in the services sector. Of the 5.4 million jobs gained from FTAs, according to the Chamber, 4.8 million, or 88 percent, are in the service sector. This is despite the fact that reliable quantification of the impacts of FTA service provisions (since there are no services tariffs) and of services trade are widely recognized as inadequate. The model shows only 379,000 manufacturing jobs gained from FTAs, so it claims that FTAs support 12 times as many services jobs as manufacturing jobs. Yet, the Chamber finds that FTAs boost U.S. services exports by only $20 billion. Although there are some cross-linkages between the production of goods and the provision of services, only $4,200 in annual services exports was created by the implementation of the FTAs for every services job created by FTAs, according to the Chamber.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, by contrast, has found that only 2.8 million jobs are supported by total U.S. services exports to all countries, and that each of those jobs are supported by $203,000 in annual services exports. In other words, the Chamber’s estimate of the number of jobs created by the implementation of FTAs alone is 73 percent greater than the Department of Commerce’s estimate of total services jobs supported by all U.S. services exports. These huge discrepancies between the Chamber’s estimate of the employment effects of services trade and the Department of Commerce’s estimate raises serious questions about the validity of the Chamber’s analysis.
The Chamber’s large estimate of the impact of FTAs on services employment is partially based on the notion that FTAs substantially reduce the cost of providing services internationally, thereby promoting greater trade in services and creating U.S. jobs. However, an analysis of services exports to FTA and non-FTA partners casts doubt on this thesis. The U.S. government only releases data for U.S. services trade with 34 countries (generally the most important U.S. services trade partners), but the available data can be used to infer broad trends in the growth of exports to FTA and non-FTA partners.
Over 1998-2008, U.S. services exports to the FTA partners for which there are data (Canada, Australia, Chile, Israel, Mexico, and Singapore) grew at an average annual rate of only 5.5 percent, while U.S. services exports to non-FTA partners as a whole grew at an average annual rate of 5.7 percent. The “FTA export growth penalty” for services holds true starting in the NAFTA era as well: between 1993 and 2008, U.S. services exports to FTA partners as a whole grew at an average annual rate of only 3.2 percent, while U.S. services exports to non-FTA partners as a whole grew at an average annual rate of 4.0 percent. Given that U.S. services exports to non-FTA partners are growing faster than U.S. services exports to FTA partners, it is hard to understand how the Chamber found such a large positive effect of FTA implementation on U.S. services trade and employment.
In other words, the projection of service sector job gains in the Wyden memo is based on flawed modeling, and leads to the implausible result that 81 percent of the jobs gains from the Korea FTA would come in the services sector even though the model does not account for changes in services trade barriers.
Arguments Against General Equilibrium Modeling in Examining Trade Policy
There are several reasons to seriously question the methodological basis of the latest numbers from ITC staff economists.
First, few policymakers would be comfortable with either assumption of economic modelers (i.e. holding either wages or jobs fixed), whose predictions have a poor past record. Indeed, past USITC projections have been overly optimistic. For example, a 1999 USITC study using roughly the same model estimated that China’s WTO accession tariff offer would increase the U.S. trade deficit with China by only $1 billion dollars. In reality, the trade deficit with China skyrocketed by $167 billion between 2001 and 2008. Although China’s WTO accession alone (and the favorable trade treatment that came with it) likely did not cause the entirety of the huge rise in the deficit with China, it almost certainly contributed more than the ITC’s projected $1 billion dollars.
Second, and because of this track record, many analysts are turning to empirically based methods that have a firmer grounding in reality. For instance, a study by the Economic Policy Institute examined the U.S. historical experience with major changes in bilateral trade policy – namely changes in trade flows with Mexico and China after NAFTA implementation and Chinese World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, respectively. It used this as a basis to determine the likely impact of the Korea FTA on trade flows and jobs. EPI found that implementation of the Korea FTA would boost the U.S. trade deficit with Korea by $13.9 billion over the next seven years. This rise in the trade deficit, in turn, would cost the U.S. economy about 159,000 net jobs. This is equivalent to losing 90 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Detroit.
Public Citizen conducted a similar exercise in our report “Lies, Damn Lies and Export Statistics: How Corporate Lobbyists Distort Record of Flawed Trade Deals,” available at: http://bit.ly/bx3JJn. Examining the relative export growth record to the broader set of America’s 17 FTA partners, we found that American exports to FTA countries have on the whole grown at less than half the pace of U.S. exports to countries with which we do not have such pacts. If the difference between the FTA and non-FTA export growth rates for goods for each year were to be put in dollar terms, the total U.S. FTA export “penalty” would be $72 billion over the past decade.
True, these studies examine a relatively small sample. But the very fact that they don’t engage in questionable modeling assumptions may put them on firmer footing than the numbers produced by USITC staff economists.
Indeed, this empirically based work echoes the findings of trade negotiators. The Korea pact’s chief negotiator, Ambassador Karan Bhatia, offered a frank assessment while he served as President George W. Bush’s deputy U.S. trade representative. In an October 2006 speech to a Korean audience, Bhatia said that it was a “myth” that “the U.S. will get the bulk of the benefits of the FTA.” He went on to say, “If history is any judge, it may well not turn out to be true that the U.S. will get the bulk of the benefits, if measured by increased exports.” He added that, in the instance of Mexico and other countries, “the history of our FTAs is that bilateral trade surpluses of our trading partners go up,” meaning that the U.S. trade deficit with those countries increased.


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The checkout line at CVS is about to move a lot more quickly.
The popular drugstore announced Thursday it's now accepting Apple Pay at all U.S. locations. The payment system will work at both the pharmacy and regular checkout lines.
CVS had long refrained from adopting Apple Pay since it launched in 2015, but now it seems that three years later, enough has changed to sway the company in the other direction. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in July during a quarterly earnings call that CVS would join its long list of merchants who use Apple Pay.
For years, CVS was a supporter of a major competitor to Apple Pay called Current C, which was created by companies that include Target and Walmart. But the competing platform was riddled with issues from the start, and its reliance on QR codes made it more cumbersome than Apple's "tap-to-pay" NFC technology. In 2017, JP Morgan bought Current C, effectively killing the platform.
CVS also avoided Apple Pay by encouraging customers to use its own app that included an in-app payment option called CVS Pay. Much like Current C, its own payment method used a QR code generated on a customer's smartphone.
I briefly used Apple Pay at CVS today, and I'm happy to report that it worked flawlessly. I noticed the graphics on the payment processor were updated to include the new payment option, and employees at the story I visited in New Jersey were surprised to see me using it. I told them what I tell everyone: It's actually super easy to use and my preferred payment method when available.
CVS will join BestBuy, Duane Reade, Kohls, and Staples as some of the large U.S. retailers who accept the payment method. Considering that one of CVS's biggest rivals -- Walgreens -- has used Apple Pay for a while, it seems like a smart move for CVS to enable it.
Though Apple Pay may finally make it easier and quicker to check out, it's a shame it won't do anything for those super-long receipts.


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Milan Ilic Photographer/Shutterstock
This week, Apple announced the next version of the Mac operating system, macOS Mojave, will feature a system-wide “dark mode” for the first time.
Developers and Apple fans love the new dark mode, but what really needs a true system-wide dark mode is iOS.
This week, Apple finally gave Mac developers and customers something they’ve been wanting for ages: a true “dark mode” for the Mac operating system, macOS.
MacOS Mojave, coming later this year, will include a true dark mode for the first time.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
The 5 most important changes and additions coming to the iPhone in the next major update, iOS 12A top Apple executive unwittingly provided a perfect explanation for why the iPad is a bad computer replacement21 game-changing announcements Apple made at its biggest conference of the year
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SIM cards agents arrested
Police and the Communication Commission of Kenya moved to curb the sale of unregistered SIM cards.
Four mobile phone agents were arraigned in court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to selling the cards contrary to the law. They were each fined Sh50,000 by Principal Magistrate Peter Ndwiga.
“On their plea of guilt, the accused are hereby fined Sh50,000 each or serve a six months jail term,” said the magistrate.
Police and CCK have linked unregistered SIM cards to the difficulty security organs face in their bid to arrest criminals in Nairobi and other parts of the country.
Last month’s attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, where 67 people were killed, was allegedly coordinated using unregistered SIM cards. Police said this complicated efforts to arrest the suspects.
CCK has threatened to take legal action against mobile phone company Chief Executive Officers (CEOs ) for allowing people with unregistered SIM cards to make calls and send messages using their companies’ networks.
The CEOs targeted by CCK are Bob Collymore (Safaricom), Mickael Ghossein (Orange Telkom), Shivan Bhargava (Airtel) and Madhur Taneja (yuMobile Country Manager).
Two other agents Thomas Kanini and Paul Gitau denied the charges, insisting they sell SIM cards only after ensuring they are registered. They were each released on a Sh20, 000 cash bail.
Their case will be mentioned on October 23, 2013.
The ongoing crackdown on unlicensed cards is likely to cause panic, resulting in a cut back on sales which could affect mobile phone business.
CCK wants the mobile phone companies to come up with a module to register all the lines before they are released into the market.
Accessibility of the cards has been made easy by vendors for purchase by the public from between Sh20 to Sh100, depending on the company.


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Black Friday 2016 has arrived, and as shoppers clog the malls and department stores to kick off the holiday shopping season, there are also questions about what’s open and closed and whether banks or post offices are open.
The day after Thanksgiving is something of an unofficial American holiday, with many employers chalking it up as a day off, and many people head to the stores to take advantage of the biggest sales of the year. But there is also a lot of confusion about what stores might be open and closed, so anyone planning a series of errands might be left in the dark.
Help has now arrived. Below is a list of everything that’s open and closed on Black Friday 2016, along with a guide of when stores are opening for their Black Friday sales.
What’s open on Black Friday 2016
Unlike Thanksgiving, Black Friday is not a federal holiday. That means government offices are open, the U.S. Postal Service is accepting and delivering mail, and the Department of Motor Vehicles is open as well. Most local government offices will also be open (there may be some exceptions, especially in the smallest municipalities).
Nearly all stores will be open on Black Friday 2016 as well, as it is one of the most important days for retailers. The same goes for restaurants and movie theaters, which grab a huge share of spillover traffic from shoppers looking for a break.
And all the banks that are closed on Thanksgiving will be re-opening on Black Friday, so anyone who had to put off making a deposit or transferring funds will be able to take care of it on Friday.
Whats closed on Black Friday 2016
While Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year both for retailers and shoppers, not every store is staying open. A few have made the decision to close for the Thanksgiving weekend, giving their employees a chance to spend a few days with their families.
One of the stores closed on Black Friday is the outdoor outfitter REI, which is joining the #OptOutside campaign. This aims to get people to enjoy the great outdoors on what is traditionally a day for squeezing inside a shopping mall and spending some money on Christmas gifts.
REI is actually helping customers take part as well, Travel and Leisure noted.
“Customers who show up at REI’s Boston location will be shuttled free to Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire; those in Denver can get to Golden Gate Canyon State Park; San Francisco locals can hitch a ride to Pierce Point Ranch & Tule Elk Preserve; Seattle customers will get a ride to Olympic National Park and D.C. customers will go to Great Falls Overlook.”
As the U.S. Department of the Interior noted, there are plenty of great public lands to explore on Black Friday 2016 instead of staying cooped up inside the house. And even though some stores will be closed on Black Friday 2016, a huge number of state and national parks will have free admission to entice people to enjoy the outside.
While REI is one of the few stores that will actually be closed on Black Friday, a number of others have cut back or done away entirely with Thanksgiving shopping hours. SILive.com compiled a list of 52 stores that chopped their Black Friday shopping hours that actually happened to fall on Thanksgiving. They include Hobby Lobby, IKEA, Home Depot, and COSTCO.
Those planning other trips to locally-owned stores on Black Friday and aren’t sure if they will be open or closed would be best served by calling ahead to check.
[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]


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Although it was hard to believe first, it’s looking increasingly likely that Apple’s forthcoming foray into the mid-range market, the iPhone 5C, will come in that cheap, colorful plastic casing we’ve seen leaking out of China time and time again over the past few weeks.
More proof for the pudding? We’ve seen the physical casing of the iPhone 5C before, but it never had any guts. Now, we’re starting to see other parts, and they match. Case in point? Volume buttons, in red, green, yellow and blue.
With so much interest in Apple’s unreleased iOS devices, the Cupertino has had a difficult time trying to prevent leaks of late. We saw numerous components for recent iPads, the iPhone 5, and the iPad mini ahead of their official unveilings, and now we’re beginning to see parts believed to be from Apple’s next generation of devices.
The vibration motor and switches pictured above are reportedly destined for Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, which could launch sometime this year.


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African leaders, high level-government officials, captains of industries and private sector executives are in agreement that the continent can attain socioeconomic structural transformation through intra-African trade.
They say they are set to pave the way for the full implementation of the continental free trade area in the continent.
Four years ago at the 18th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, delegates adopted the decision to establish a continental free trade area by 2017.
Obviously moving towards the achievement of this truly laudable goal, the AU’s Trade and Industry department put together a 2-day trade facilitation forum to clear up grey areas of the policy.
After two days of serious deliberations on trade barriers, trade policies, facilitation and financing, business professionals agreed that creating a single continental market for goods and services was key.
Achieving it with free movement of businesses and persons will pave way for rapid development in the continent.
The continental free trade area will bring together 54 African countries with a combined population of a billion people and combined gross domestic product of more than 3.4 trillion dollars.


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COLUMBUS – The Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19 announced a team of Ohio manufacturers will make 750,000 to 1 million face shields in the next five weeks to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These face shields will make a difference as we fight this invisible enemy,” Gov. Mike DeWine said. “The Ohio Manufacturing Alliance sent out a call for help producing (personal protective equipment), and more than 1,500 manufacturing companies responded. This reinforces what we know about Ohio companies; they are generous and will answer the call when needed. Together, we are going to protect our protectors and strengthen our manufacturing sector.”
Face shields are a priority to protect frontline workers from COVID-19 infection, and many companies are interested in making them. The face shields will be added to the Ohio Department of Health stockpile.
“Ohio historically has a deep industrial base and is a manufacturing powerhouse,” Eric Burkland, president of The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, said. “Because of embedded know-how, Ohio manufacturers are able to pivot to retool and repurpose their operations to help meet the immediate need for personal protective equipment and other products needed in the fight against COVID-19. The innovation and responsiveness of our manufacturers – and their supply chains – are bearing fruit immediately and will be critical to the recovery of the state.”
In partnership with the alliance, JobsOhio is connecting and aligning resources through its network partners to help companies accelerate their ability to produce personal protective equipment while leveraging its business relationships in order to move this overall effort forward more efficiently and effectively.
Hundreds of thousands of high-quality, durable, reusable face shields will be shipped from Hudson-based Little Tikes – a manufacturer that normally produces plastic toys. That final assembly culminates an entire supply chain of 19 manufacturers, three hospitals and multiple additional partners pulled together by the alliance in a matter of days to make the protective equipment.
“Pulling together a complex supply chain often takes nine months to a year or longer, but through the commitment of these Ohio manufacturers, we have done it in about a week,” said Ethan Karp, president and CEO of Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network. “The project highlights the potential for Ohio manufacturers to pull together quickly to make a difference in battling COVID-19.”
The team effort includes companies from around Ohio with expertise in die-cutting, injection molding, tool production and assembly, along with a plastic supplier. Final assembly will be performed at the Little Tikes manufacturing plants.
To date, more than 1,500 manufacturers have contacted the alliance looking to help in some capacity.


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RE: RE: US Hits Debt Ceiling, Can a Default Disturb Global Economies? [EN/FR]
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This post is published via LeoFinance.
4 months ago
Jan 26 2023 12:17 am- 1 minutes read
Well said @metzli, US has already seen how fragile is its economy, but how they keep it intact by controlling world's economy using various tactics, we all know about it.
If the default happens this time, many nations will shun the USD and move to new currencies, like Turkiye is paying in ruble to buy goods from Russia. World is changing.
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Over 21,000 scam sellers were detected in the last 12 months. Those sellers on Amazon.com collectively received close to one million negative reviews. Since not all customers leave a seller review - even if the experience was bad - the number of orders affected by this issue is undoubtedly even larger. Amazon has so far not taken any action, which is arguably disappointing.
We found that out of the Top 100,000 Amazon.com sellers, just 283 have committed to the program. Meaning for majority of the products they offer Prime shipping, and the shipping is not done by FBA. Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) launched in 2015 allows marketplace sellers to offer Prime two-day shipping without using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
The estimated nearly $2 billion in unpaid 2016 state sales tax from FBA sellers was calculated through a study based on thousands of products being checked to determine for a given SKU by a given FBA seller, shipping to a specific state, whether or not that seller would charge sales tax to the customer.
CB Insights wrote "When it comes to most industries, the question isnâ€™t whether Amazon will enter or not; itâ€™s how the internet giant will enter, and how big the impact will be." This is exciting for everyone benefitting from Amazon's success - sellers, vendors, and even customers. But for everyone else the challenge is how to grow given.. Amazon.
Walmart reported 2017 Q2 results today. As many brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to grow, or to even avoid bankruptcy, Walmart posted same-store sales growth for the 12th consecutive quarter. However this is only the third quarter Walmart reported US e-commerce growth. Since there is no history to compare these numbers against we have no idea how to take them.
Many are still haven't heard of SoftBank. Their investment arm has recently become the largest e-commerce investor worldwide - their most recent tech fund called "Vision Fund" has $100 billion under management. Jeff Bezos has famously said "Your margin is my opportunity", which is only true because of the capital available. SoftBank will challenge this.
For the first time since 2016 Q1, and only for the second time ever, Etsy has reported a profit in the second quarter. The marketplace for handmade, vintage, and supplies is cutting costs and reorganizing its priorities.
MercadoLibre second-quarter financial report numbers were mixed - net income was down causing a drop in stock price, but other key metrics are all continuing to grow. Mobile share of GMV has grown to 43 percent, and the launch of MercadoCrĂ©dito financing for sellers are the highlights.
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