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"Because of higher prices, people are buying smaller amounts of groceries overall and may have become more careful not to waste food." "Despite all of that, (there are) 8% to 12% missing items on shelves," he said. "This has created a major, major issue around out-of-stock" in most of the 16 Middle Eastern countries where the company operates, he said. Laurent Thoumine, Accenture's Europe lead for retail, said supermarkets in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have had the worst stock issues. Products that are scarce in some stores include ketchup, pasta, chocolate, tea, potato chips, toothpaste and pet food, according to Nielsen IQ's Data Impact.

☆ EU plans to boost ammunition production to aid Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, May 2 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive wants to set aside more than 500 million euros ($550 million) to increase ammunition production to help Ukraine and replenish the stocks of EU member countries. Under a plan to be presented by the European Commission on Wednesday, the EU would give subsidies to European arms firms for investments that increase production of ammunition and missiles. The latest element of the ammunition drive aims to give arms firms incentives to increase their production. It would set aside 500 million euros from the EU budget to part-finance projects that increase capacity. Breton said the EU had a substantial industrial base for the production of ammunition but "it does not have the scale today to meet the security needs of Ukraine and our Member States".

China’s party-state, long steeped in secrecy, is creating a black box around information on the world’s second-largest economy, alarming global businesses and investors. Prodded by President Xi Jinping ’s emphasis on national security, authorities in recent months have restricted or outright cut off overseas access to various databases involving corporate-registration information, patents, procurement documents, academic journals and official statistical yearbooks.

"Japan may not need LNG for 20 years ... but other Asian countries need to replace coal with something and LNG will play an important role," he said, adding that JERA could supply fuel to those countries likely to need it. "We don't view LNG demand just for Japan, but for Asia as well," he said. Last December, JERA signed a key deal with Oman LNG to buy up to 12 cargoes, or about 800,000 tonnes a year for a decade, beginning from 2025. Asian spot LNG prices held at 22-month lows in April as demand stayed weak in the key north Asian markets of China, Japan and South Korea. Apart from its integrated gas-to-power business, which covers fossil fuel procurement through power generation, JERA is expanding use of renewable power to decarbonise.

☆ Head of Wagner mercenary group threatens to withdraw from Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Josh Pennington | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The head of the Russian private military company Wagner has threatened to withdraw his mercenaries from the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut if they don’t receive more munitions to continue the fight. The pointed warnings for Russian defense officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, come as Bakhmut remains heavily contested. “I am appealing to Sergei Shoigu with a request to issue ammunition immediately. The mercenary leader has a track record of misleading statements and did not provide evidence for his statements. Prigozhin, whose forces have played a key role in Russian assaults on Ukrainian territory including Bakhmut, has often clashed with Putin’s generals and other defense officials in Moscow.

☆ New bodies aim to boost Ukraine defence ministry's efficiency, transparency
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, April 28 (Reuters) - Two new advisory bodies will help make Ukraine's defence ministry more efficient and transparent, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday. The Office for the Support of Changes and the Public Anti-Corruption Council were set up earlier this month following allegations that the ministry bought food for troops at inflated prices. "Today is a time for reform, even during this war," Reznikov told an online briefing. The Public Anti-Corruption Council contained people who were publicly elected by thousands of voters, he said. Reznikov said in February that hundreds of officials at the defence ministry or in the armed forces had been disciplined last year after internal audits, and that he had "zero tolerance" for corruption.

Cloetta AB, (CLOEb.ST) a Swedish confectioner which makes Lakerol lozenges that use gum arabic, has "ample" stock of the ingredient, a spokesperson said in an email. Global production of gum arabic is about 120,000 tonnes a year, worth $1.1 billion, according to estimates cited by Kerry Group. "Both buyers and sellers are clueless on when things will normalise.”Alwaleed Ali, who owns AGP Innovations Co Ltd, a gum arabic exporting business, said his customers are looking for alternative countries to source gum arabic. It accounts for the livelihoods of thousands of people and the more expensive variety can cost about $3,000 a tonne, according to Gum Sudan. There is a poorer quality, cheaper gum from outside of Sudan, but the preferred ingredient is only found in acacia trees in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, Alnoor said.

☆ US Special Operations Command's workhorse helicopter is getting upgrades to replace parts that are nearly 50 years old
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

US special operators rely on their variant, the MH-47, for missions at night and behind enemy lines. As such, the US special-operations community's workhorse helicopter is getting upgrades to replace parts that are nearly 50 years old. US Army Special Operations Command has used Chinooks for several decades. Early versions had modifications for special operations. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, nicknamed "the Night Stalkers," is the cream of the crop when it comes to US military aviation.

☆ Consultancies are coming off a pandemic boom. Are they still worth hiring?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Management consultancies helped design vaccination programs during the pandemic and are currently providing advice on how to rescue one of the world’s biggest banks. The $230 billion management consulting industry is a broad church: it includes companies offering everything from project management expertise to designing new organizational structures. Many big firms — think EY and KPMG — also conduct audits and advise on their clients’ tax issues, though these services are generally seen as distinct from their consulting work. In The Big Con, published in February, prize-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato and her co-author Rosie Collington argue that management consultancies “infantilize” governments by keeping them dependent on their services. Nearly 80% of firms surveyed globally have told the think-tank that consultants’ work is either of high or very high quality, she noted.

☆ The US spent $877 billion on military in 2022, a new report says — more than 10 times federal education spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Peter Gelling | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US spent $877 billion in 2022, which accounts for almost 40 percent of all spending. By comparison, the US federal government allocated just $76.4 billion for education in 2022. "In 2022 the USA allocated $295 billion to military operations and maintenance, $264 billion to procurement and research and development, and $167 billion to military personnel," the report says. Total global military spending reached an all-time high in 2022, the report found. The report found that, in real terms, European military spending had returned to levels not seen since the Cold War.

☆ SpaceX wins approval to add fifth U.S. rocket launch site
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Space Force said on Monday that Elon Musk's SpaceX was granted approval to lease a second rocket launch complex at a military base in California, setting the space company up for its fifth launch site in the United States. Under the lease, SpaceX will launch its workhorse Falcon rockets from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military launch site north of Los Angeles where the space company operates another launchpad. A Monday night Space Force statement said a letter of support for the decision was signed on Friday by Space Launch Delta 30 commander Col. The new launch site, vacated last year by the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, gives SpaceX more room to handle an increasingly busy launch schedule for commercial, government and internal satellite launches. SpaceX's grant of Space Launch Complex-6 comes as rocket companies prepare to compete for the Pentagon's Phase 3 National Security Space Launch program, a watershed military launch procurement effort expected to begin in the next year or so.

[1/2] A Vietnamese officer tries a weapon at the stalls of Czech security firms, including Colt, at the Vietnam International Defence Expo 2022 in Hanoi, Vietnam, December 8, 2022. REUTERS/Khanh VuHANOI, April 24 (Reuters) - Vietnam is in talks with the Czech Republic for military supplies, including aircraft, radars, upgrades of armoured vehicles and firearms, a Czech government source told Reuters, as Hanoi aims at diversifying its mostly Russian arsenal. Hanoi ordered a dozen L-39NG light-combat aircraft in 2021 from Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody, with delivery to begin this year. Of the 15 companies that composed the Czech business delegation, four were security firms. The Vietnam foreign ministry and the Czech embassy in Hanoi had no immediate comment.

☆ EU ministers braced for Ukrainian frustration over ammunition plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Andrew Gray | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

loading"The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating," Kuleba said on Thursday. Kuleba can make his case directly when he discusses the state of the war and Ukraine's needs by video link to a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers, taking place in Luxembourg. EU officials pushed back against Kuleba's criticism by stressing that this fast track is up and running so ammunition is already flowing to Kyiv. But the second track, worth another 1 billion euros to fund joint procurement, has yet to be finalised. EU officials and diplomats said they expected an agreement that would satisfy all sides in the coming days.

☆ Space Force chief says U.S. is facing a 'new era' of threats beyond Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Morgan Brennan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Chance Saltzman took the stage for his keynote at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this week, his message was simple: The U.S. is in a new era of space activity. "The threats that we face to our on-orbit capabilities from our strategic competitors has grown substantially," Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force's second-ever chief of space operations, said in a CNBC interview after the speech. Case in point: the Space Force's recently announced procurement strategy for more launch services. With business to be awarded next year, the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 is estimated to run into the billions of dollars and is expected to draw bids from the likes of Rocket Lab , Relativity Space and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, among others. While still just a fraction of the country's overall defense budget, the Space Force's $30 billion request for fiscal 2024 represents a 15% increase from this year's enacted levels.

☆ Chatbots Are Stepping Toward Supply Chains
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Logistics experts say chatbots could be used to tell companies in simple language how to plan their inventories. Photo: ANP/Zuma PressLogistics experts are trying to find out whether the latest development in artificial intelligence, a chatbot that has triggered a global race to refine the technology for work tasks, can tell them how to fix their supply chains. Big software providers including Blue Yonder Group Inc., SAP SE and Manhattan Associates Inc. have research programs under way looking at how the tech known as generative AI can improve forecasting, procurement, inventory management and even the nuts and bolts of shipping decisions.

April 19 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden had the power to require employees of federal contractors to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday, throwing out a judge's ruling that had blocked the mandate in Arizona. The court reversed a federal judge in Phoenix who blocked the mandate in Arizona last year. The office of Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes, a Democrat who took office in January, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Supreme Court last year blocked Biden's separate mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees require workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines or undergo regular testing. Last month, a New Orleans-based federal appeals court ruled that federal agencies could not enforce a requirement that government employees receive vaccines.

[1/4] A view of a computer-rendered image of Climeworks' Mammoth direct air capture plant is seen in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters, June 28, 2022. Leading the charge, the U.S. government has offered $3.5 billion in grants to build the factories that will capture and permanently store the gas - the largest such effort globally to help halt climate change through Direct Air Capture (DAC) and expanded a tax credit to $180/tonne to bolster the burgeoning technology. The sums involved dwarf funding available in other regions, such as Britain which has pledged up to 100 million pounds ($124 million) for DAC research and development. That compares with $12 billion in federal spending to drive demand for personal and commercial electric vehicles, Boston Consulting Group estimated. Occidental Petroleum has said it is well positioned for federal grants for what could be the biggest Direct Air Capture plants in the world.

☆ Swiss government awards $9.7 mln contract related to Credit Suisse - UBS merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Oliver Hirt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of Credit Suisse is pictured in front of the Swiss Parliament Building, in Bern, Switzerland, March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoZURICH, April 17 (Reuters) - The Swiss government has awarded an advisory mandate worth up to 8.7 million Swiss francs ($9.70 million) to Alvarez & Marsal Switzerland, linked to the rescue of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), according to state procurement platform Simap.ch on Monday. Swiss authorities last month engineered a takeover of struggling Credit Suisse by rival UBS (UBSG.S) that included over 200 billion francs in financial guarantees. The Ministry of Finance will pay up to CHF 10.3 million for this service. ($1 = 0.8965 Swiss francs)Writing by Noele Illien; Editing by Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Qaem-5 precision-guided munition, documented by Conflict Armament Research in Ukraine. Shahed-131 UAV documented by Conflict Armament Research in Ukraine. Circuit boards of four different items of Russian military equipment found in Ukraine by Conflict Armament Research investigators. Electronic components documented by Conflict Armament Research investigators in Ukraine. Source: Conflict Armament Research

Imbalance had long riled Nissan executives who complained Renault did not pay its fair share of costs for innovation and development. In a joint statement to Reuters, Nissan and Renault said they were working toward final partnership terms that would make them more competitive. Nissan will invest and provide technology for the venture but will limit its operational involvement, one of the people told Reuters. In rebalancing talks, Nissan has pushed for protection of its technology to limit any downside from continued partnership, people involved have said. Among technology Nissan wants to protect is its work on solid-state lithium-ion battery making and its e-Power electric hybrid powertrain, the people said.

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Photoshop maker Adobe Inc (ADBE.O) has agreed to pay $3 million to settle U.S. kickback allegations involving federal software sales, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday. The settlement resolves allegations that Adobe made improper payments under its Solution Partner program to companies that had a contractual or other relationship with the government that allowed them to influence federal purchases of Adobe software, the Justice Department said. Between January 2011 and December 2020, Adobe allegedly paid the companies a percentage of the purchase price of the software, according to the Justice Department. The United States contends that these payments constituted prohibited kickbacks that resulted in Adobe causing false claims for payment to be submitted to federal agencies. "We will continue to use all appropriate tools to safeguard the integrity of the federal procurement process," Boynton said.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says his letter to shareholders follows one of the toughest economic years in recent memory. Read it in full.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +38 min

Further, as machine learning adoption has continued to accelerate, customers have yearned for lower-cost GPUs (the chips most commonly used for machine learning). While some areas of the economy have struggled over the past few years, Amazon Business has thrived. Some people have never heard of Amazon Business, but, our business customers love it. For years, Amazon customers had asked us when we'd offer them an online pharmacy as their frustrations mounted with current providers. More recently, a newer form of machine learning, called Generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's confident he can get costs under control in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +38 min

[1/5] Javier Ramiro, Co-Chief Scientific Officer of Spanish indoor hops farming start-up Ekonoke controls the plantation of hops in Alcobendas, Spain, March 23, 2023. "We're on a mission to save the world's beer," Ines Sagrario, chief executive and co-founder of Ekonoke, told Reuters. Strict hygiene measures such as protective clothing for staff ensure the space remains pest-free, taking the pesticides on which traditional farming often depends out of the equation. The most obvious challenge indoor farming faces, he said, is its high energy cost. "Demand from breweries is quite inelastic; you can't make beer without hops and they don't want to produce less," Sagrario said.

☆ Read the Court Decision Ordering the F.D.A. to Keep Mifepristone Available
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Plaintiffs contend that mifepristone no longer requires a REMS program 8 with ETASU. Plaintiffs assert that (1) 2 3 4 5 Case 1:23-cv-03026-TOR 7 ECF No. Defendants do not address whether mifepristone qualifies 16 for ETASU, asserting it need only determine whether modifications are appropriate 17 under 21 U.S.C. See ECF Nos. 51 at 25; 78 at 22.

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