How to succeed at buy to let.

Media and creative professionals from across the West Midlands helped put Birmingham on the map as the new Carnival Capital last week, at a special event organised by the Birmingham Publicity Association (BPA).

Terry Wills. Not a Happy Baggie.

Richard Lutz lurches towards a Christmas with tiers.

Sir David Attenborough is urging the public to take part in the world’s largest butterfly count to assess if species are recovering after their worst year on record.

Grant aid for groups to help struggling species.

B:Festive this Christmas and New Year at Town Hall and Symphony Hall.

The stars of Ghost - the Musical talk about their production.

Jessica Harris is enchanted by a family attraction at the Midland Arts Centre.

Debut solo tour comes to Birmingham.

Amazon's delivery glasses, the people warned, could be shelved or delayed indefinitely if they do not work as envisioned, or for financial or other reasons. The sources said they may take years to perfect. "We are continuously innovating to create an even safer and better delivery experience for drivers," an Amazon spokesperson said, when asked about the driver eyeglasses. "We otherwise don't comment on our product roadmap."

India's food safety regulator directed e-commerce and quick commerce companies to follow shelf life guidelines for packaged food deliveries. The regulator emphasized a minimum remaining shelf life of 30% or 45 days upon delivery. This action follows complaints about companies not disclosing expiry dates. The regulator stressed the importance of clear expiry dates and adherence to labeling regulations.

The fund will back startups in the early stage and pick stakes in pre-IPO companies through secondary transactions. It will focus on sectors such as climate and sustainability, fintech and consumer businesses.

Britannia Industries' revenue from operations increased by 5.29 per cent to Rs 4,667.57 crore in Q2 FY25, up from Rs 4,432.88 crore during the second quarter of the financial year 2023-24. On the company's quarterly performance, Varun Berry, vice chairman and managing director, said, “A ~8% volume growth with a sequential increase in revenue and operating profits are satisfactory results in the face of severe commodity inflation leading to a tepid consumer demand scenario in most FMCG categories."

Godrej Industries is set to acquire the food additives and emulsifier business of Savannah Surfactants Limited for Rs 76 crore. The deal will see Godrej Industries expand its product offerings to the Food & Beverages segment. Savannah Surfactants Ltd has a manufacturing capacity of 5,200 tonnes per annum of finished products.

“We will first want to focus on growth in terms of top line and margins will take care of themselves. With a lot of operating efficiencies coming in, margin should take care of itself but we follow our mantra of “nothing at the cost of market and nothing at the cost of margin. So we will balance both together.”

Bharat Puri, MD of Pidilite Industries, discusses the company's revenue growth driven by volume growth and reduction in prices due to normalized raw material prices. Puri expects double-digit volume growth going forward and highlights the company's focus on investing in rural markets, which have shown no decline or softness. Pidilite Industries has added 30,000 new retail points to its rural network and sees rural markets as a driver of growth. Puri also mentions the improvement in international business and sustainable EBITDA margins at the higher range of 20-24%.

“With this expansion, we are excited to connect with even more individuals and families, offering them a curated selection of products that inspire creativity and enrich everyday life," said Divyanshu Solanki, founder and CEO of the company.

India's Pidilite Industries , which makes Fevicol adhesives and Dr. Fixit waterproofing products, posted a 6.2% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, driven by lower input costs.

​​Santosh Raveshia, Managing Director, DOMS Industries Limited said, "As we conclude FY24, we are pleased to report on a period marked by significant achievements and strategic initiatives that have reinforced our strong position in the stationery and art materials market. We continued seeing positive business traction resulting in robust sales growth coupled with further elevation of margins, reflecting upon the strength of the ‘DOMS’ Brand to connect with its consumers."

DOMS Industries Limited reported strong Q1 FY25 results, with a notable 17.3% increase in revenue and 49.5% growth in profit after tax compared to Q1 FY24. The firm saw improved EBITDA and margin performance. The company also announced plans to acquire a majority stake in Unilcan Healthcare to expand its market.

DOMS Industries Limited witnessed a 42.8% surge in consolidated profit after tax, reaching Rs 53.7 crore in Q2 FY25. This growth was fueled by a 19.7% rise in revenue, driven by strong sales in writing instruments, adhesives, and kits. The acquisition of a 51.8% stake in Uniclan Healthcare further bolstered the company's performance.

Safari Industries India reported a 25.40% YoY decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 29.66 crore in Q2 FY25, despite a 23.72% YoY increase in revenue to Rs 457.79 crore. The luggage maker's profit before tax also fell by 27.07% YoY to Rs 37.84 crore, primarily due to a significant rise in total expenses, including a 53.

Baby food startup Bebe Burp shared that it will utilise 60 per cent of the fund for growth, 20 per cent for operations, 10 per cent for product development, and the remaining for team building for a coherent production.

Pacific Crest is seeking energetic and creative individuals to work as photographer and videographer interns for this coming season. If you are no longer eligible to march, this is a […]

In summer 2021, iOS 14.5 introduced a major change to Apple Podcasts with implications many podcasters may still not realize. With that update, your audience on Apple Podcasts is no longer getting your podcast directly from your RSS feed, but from a proxy. And that has some potentially bad implications!

The post How Proxies and iOS 14.5 Affect Your Podcast first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

The right category can help your podcast get discovered and featured. But which categories are best for your podcast when there are so many?

The post How to Choose the Right Podcast Categories first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

Russ Collins is on a tour of Broadway this week, so, Marquee Arts cinema program director Nick Alderink steps in on Cinema Chat this week. He joined WEMU's David Fair to cover the latest film openings and special screenings in the area.

...in the Shadow of the Berlin Wall. [BBC] "Named 'Operation Trap', the Stasi's attempted to crush a group fighting for a cleaner environment – and for the right to speak out. The secret police's tactics ranged from interrogations and jail to bizarre mind games. In one incident, informants who managed to infiltrate the environmental movement covertly took coffee from a shared pantry without putting money into the coffee kitty. That plan did not work out. On the contrary: Operation Trap became one of the very rare cases in history in which the Stasi was forced to back down."

On this Special Edition of Political Rewind, it’s a look at the biggest political stories of 2019. A new governor put his unique stamp on Georgia, an unexpected resignation put the state front and center in the race for Senate, and two Georgia members of Congress announced their departures.

When protests erupted in Minnesota following the death of George Floyd — the black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes — many of the law enforcement agencies from the Twin Cities metropolitan area that responded were recent beneficiaries of free excess military materiel from a Pentagon program originally meant to support counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism operations. At least 10 police departments in the Minneapolis and St. Paul suburbs have obtained either all or nearly all of their Department of Defense military-grade equipment — ranging from $13.56 cartridge magazines to hulking personnel carriers with original price tags surpassing $700,000 — during the first three and a half years of the Trump administration. That haul was part of more than $1 billion worth of military equipment transferred to police and sheriff departments since 2016 under what is commonly known as the 1033 program, named for the section of a 1997

While the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Sandra Bland galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have forced America to reckon with centuries of racial injustice and police brutality in unprecedented ways. Not only have protests demanding change been widespread, but major corporations — which, until now, have been largely silent and hesitant to embrace Black Lives Matter — are pledging to fight racial injustice and declaring their support of the nearly seven-year-old movement.

For generations, “The Talk” has been a mainstay in African American families. At some point, Black children all get warnings from elders about how to avoid – and survive – police encounters. It’s a rite that cuts across region, socioeconomic status and profession – even for members of law enforcement.

As Zuleika Yusuf Daffala walks across Kibera, one of the big informal settlements in Kenya's capital, she greets dozens of kids on the streets. Some are jumping rope, others chasing each other through the alley and another group is trying to make a tiny cooking pan out of an aluminum can. Daffala, a 37-year-old community activist, broke the news this week to many of the neighborhood kids that the Kenyan government had decided that the country's more than 12 million grade school students would not be going back to classrooms until January 2021. Not only that, but the government considers the 2020 school year "lost," so all kids will remain in the same grade for another year. "They are still not believing it," she says. "When you go to school, you have a target. So they have their plans already. They are not taking it easy." She says her son, a junior in high school, is resigned. Like most Kenyans, he doesn't have a tablet or a laptop, so he's trying to keep up with whatever books he can

One week ago, the Trump administration announced it would ban international students from attending U.S. colleges in the fall if they only take online classes. Now hundreds of colleges and universities, dozens of cities, and some of the country's biggest tech companies are pushing back. In several court filings Friday and Monday, the groups stand with the international students. They argue providing remote education is crucial given how contagious COVID-19 is — and they say they crafted policies for the fall by depending on earlier assurances from the federal government that international students would be able to attend class remotely "for the duration of the emergency" while still retaining their F-1 or M-1 visa status. They're supporting an initial legal challenge by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first to sue the administration over its new policy. Existing law had prohibited international students from taking all their courses online, but the

Pop-Up Music is seeking songs/instrumentals recorded in the 80's or with a retro 80's vibe. All genres welcome - New Wave, New Romantic, instrumental Hip Hop, Pop, Rock, Power Ballads, TV Themes, Synth pop and so on.

This opportunity is for an exclusive contract with a term - all submissions must be 100% owned by the writer/writers. No samples please.

Thanks the Pop-Up Music Team!

We are seeking epic Dream Pop songs and instrumentals. Think big/airy/dreamy songs that also have a driving pulse and a commercial appeal - for pitching to Ads, Movies, and Film & TV.

We need fully completed and mixed songs, no demos please.
All songs must be written and owned 100% by the submitter.

Pop-Up Music is a PRS registered music library and publisher located in London. We pride ourselves in providing undiscovered music and bespoke music for advertising, film, TV, gaming and corporate.

Many thanks,
Pop-Up Music Team

Deal Type: Catalog Inclusion
Decision Maker: I'm the final decision maker
Deal Structure: Non-Exclusive
Compensation: Negotiable based on final placement
Song Quality: Fully mastered, Broadcast ready

My new partner loves reptiles, insects, amphibians (birds too...no hard limits) and this discovery has sent me on a journey of exploration. Similar to the Narcisse Snake Dens or the Montreal Insectarium, where in the world is a guaranteed cool critter experience? North America would be most accessible right now, but years ago I went to Costa Rica and saw so many amazing critters, I would love to look ahead to future travel to places like that. Open to museums, dedicated bug tours, unique migrations, enthusiastic naturalists, etc. We are not likely to spare the resources for a full-on African safari, Okavango boat tour or Amazonian adventure, but share what you know. Also down with your favorite wow-factor videos of such things.

The Gospel writer uses a technique that is called “Sandwich Stories.” This narrative pattern appears at least six times in Mark. In each case some important aspect of the nature of Jesus and His role as Messiah, or the nature of discipleship, is the focus. This week, we will read some accounts about Jesus and see what we can learn from them.

In this week’s lesson, when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, He has a series of six controversies with the religious leaders. The religious leaders come to confront, confound, and defeat Jesus, but they never succeed. Part of this week’s lesson will include analyzing just what it is that brings people into opposition to God and consideration of what Christians can do to break through prejudice and speak to the hearts of those resisting the Spirit’s call.

This week’s lesson looks at some of those who witnessed and testified about Jesus. In each of these incidents, some aspects of who Jesus really is are revealed, and together they create a deeper vision of Jesus, the Messiah.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing is downright buzzy, and not always in a good way. Contact tracing is the public health practice of informing people when they've been exposed to a contagious disease. As it has become more widely employed across the U.S., it has also become mired in modern political polarization and conspiracy theories. Misinformation abounds, from tales that people who talk to contact tracers will be sent to nonexistent "FEMA camps" — a rumor so prevalent that health officials in Washington state had to put out a statement in May debunking it — to elaborate theories that the efforts are somehow part of a plot by global elites , such as the Clinton Foundation, Bill Gates or George Soros. At the very least, such misinformation could hinder efforts to contain the coronavirus, and at worst it has sparked threats against tracers, say some observers, including the Institute for Strategic Dialogue , a London-based organization that studies polarization.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit AILSA CHANG, HOST: The United Kingdom is banning Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, from developing Britain's 5G network. The U.S. welcomes this decision. It's just the latest move in a global struggle between the U.S. and China over technology, business and political power. As NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, it's also a sign of how China's increasingly assertive diplomacy has backfired. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: The British government will forbid companies here from buying Huawei equipment for 5G beginning next year and require the removal of all Huawei equipment by 2027. The government says the decision was triggered by U.S. sanctions on Huawei suppliers that could make the company's equipment easier for China to use for spying. Oliver Dowden is the U.K.'s digital secretary. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) OLIVER DOWDEN: The security and resilience of our telecoms networks is of paramount importance. We have never and will never compromise that

As a child, Welsh actor Matthew Rhys fell in love with old American noir films — so much so that he'd sometimes channel iconic movie stars. "There were moments when I was pulling the last drag on my cigarette and then ... trying to casually throw a one liner," Rhys says. "[Humphrey Bogart] was in my head a lot vocally." Rhys plays the title role in the new HBO series, Perry Mason. His version of the iconic criminal defense attorney is younger and more hardboiled than the one Raymond Burr played in the popular TV show from the '50s and '60s. The new series focuses on Mason as a divorced private investigator in the early 1930s in Los Angeles — before he became a lawyer. "He's a man who kind of lives on whiskey and cigarettes," Rhys says of his version of Mason. "I was getting to fulfill a number of romantic notions in my inner child." Rhys lost weight for the role. He says it wasn't a significant amount — just enough to thin out his face: "It was one of the things I remember seeing a lot

Here, in my neighborhood, life is a mix of re-revised rules for living and reality checks. Every day the local authorities publish new data on the where of illness. Daily a new national atrocity snaps a klieg light on us. Reading these days is a necessary escape from, and immersion into, reckoning. And so it is with Asako Serizawa's stunning and visceral debut, The Inheritors . Every page speaks to our current zeitgeist. Each character in these stories is occupied and occupier, trapped in a moral and existential crisis that's unnerving because it's evergreen, because the nature of human tragedy is our own making and the lessons we keep learning never seem to take. The book is a labyrinth of collected stories which follow a Japanese family's history over 150 years, beginning in 1868 and emerging into a future set in the 2030's, and connecting one family's multi-generational experiences living in a colonial and post-colonial world — in Japan, China, and the United States. The inheritors

Copyright 2020 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC . MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: As cities across the country consider diverting police department dollars into social programs, some are looking at summer jobs for low-income youth. Through these summer youth employment programs, young people can make some money, learn new skills and stay productive. From member station KUNC in northern Colorado, Leigh Paterson reports. LEIGH PATERSON, BYLINE: Last month, New York slashed police spending but did fund its massive summer youth employment program. Cincinnati shifted a million dollars out of its police budget to expand youth employment. Los Angeles did something similar to its $1.8 billion police budget. Here's LA city council member Curren Price. CURREN PRICE: Well, my motion shifted $150 million from the police department budget. PATERSON: Ten million of that will go to the city's summer youth employment program. He said this reallocation is a direct response to recent protests against police violence.

There are over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the coming of Jesus. This message is about the ones that specifically deal with His coming as a child.

So I bought a pack of "Twist of Fate" Twisties here in Melbourne AU - and the packaging tells you to "open the Meta Filter".

(the Meta Filter in question is an Instagram fortune-telling filter. The link is to my photo of the package.)

For those able to do so, donating or fundraising for charities seems like a good idea, especially with the holidays coming up. For USAmericans, this has the dual function of denying your tax $$ to the incoming government and helping the people that government wishes to harm. I thought it might be nice to crowdsource a thread of charities which do useful work for the communities under threat. Below are a few to start us off:

RAICES - Texas-based group helping immigrants and refugees United We Dream - working for immigrant youth Trans Lifeline - phone hotline, microgrants and legal help for trans folk The Trevor Project - helping LGBTQ+ youth NAACP legal defense fund - among other things, very useful for arrested racial justice protesters Southern Poverty Law Center - social, racial and economic justice National Network of Abortion Funds A couple of election integrity charities, since that will be crucial in the near future: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - civil rights, election integrity, voting rights VoteRiders - Election integrity, voting rights But that's just a few! Please post the orgs you know of doing good and useful work.