Richard Lutz wanders though another lockdown week.

Meticulous restoration means that Rex House has never looked better, reports Marsya Lennox.....

We may be fighting a deadly enemy now, but Kate Spohrer argues that worse is on the way.

Richard Lutz reports on life in lockdown.

Jessica Harris rambles through a quiet but distinctly alive Birmingham.

Top-end property specialists launch in West Midlands and Warwickshire.

Funding will aid community work during pandemic.

India, the world’s largest diamond polishing hub that employs over one million people, is likely to see a staggering 50% job loss. Diamond merchants are struggling to manage their inventories or pay salaries to their craftsmen. Knock-on effects are being felt by one million more workers employed in the gems and jewellery industry.

Companies need to come up with strategies to keep the lights on, both by keeping control on the cash burn as well as generating revenue in these difficult times.

Allowing shopkeepers to provide cash is expected to reduce the burden on the banking system amid the lockdown. Depositors do not need to queue up at bank branches or ATMs for withdrawal if their neighbourhood merchant provides cash.

According to staffing company Genius Consultants '9th Hiring, Attrition and Compensation Trend 2020-21', around 81 per cent of the respondents have shown interest to carry on with existing manpower and retaining them.

The survey which covered over 1,300 HR professionals across sectors, aimed to understand the impact of the lockdown on the country’s employment scenario. More than 72% hiring managers said companies are devising new job roles that will be limited to remote working only.

The economy has been severely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the government and policymakers are looking for segments that are in the best position to help revive the economic activity the quickest.

Magix has announced the release of VEGAS Movie Studio 17, the latest version of the video editing solution for both beginners and more advanced users. The update comes with powerful effects and transitions management, smoother video preview, unified color grading workflow, optical-flow slow motion, and warp flow transition. If you strive to make astonishing videos, […]

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COVID-19 has deeply impacted the livelihoods of countless musicians all over the world, causing them to cancel performances and lose other sources of income. To help offset this hardship, Polyverse Music has created a platform for supporting and raising financial aid for performing artists. Polyverse.TV is a livestream-powered fundraising initiative to support independent artists impacted […]

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Industrial Strength Samples has launched Pharmaceutical Movie Clips sample pack featuring a collection of vocal samples. The content provided has been sorted thru and does not contain any offensive samples that are directed to any one or any one group of people. It’s comical and pretty hardcore at the same time. Pharmaceutical Movie Clips offers […]

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Heavyocity has announced the release of #StayHome, a collection of homemade loops to benefit those impacted by COVID-19. The pack includes over 80 melodic and percussive loops, recorded and processed at the homes and home studios of Heavyocity’s employees. We hope this message finds you safe during this unprecedented time. Heavyocity is headquartered right in […]

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Noiiz has announced availability of Project-Unity, a sample pack featuring 5,604 loops and samples made by 96 different creators. This HUGE sample pack has been created by the generosity of our creators, partners and community and 100% of proceeds go directly to charity. It’s one of the most inspiring packs we have ever produced. We’ve […]

The post Noiiz launches Project-Unity 10GB sample pack in support of COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund appeared first on rekkerd.org.

The global spread of COVID-19 since January 2020 is resulting in a slowdown in economic activity across the world. The impact on India has been limited so far, however, increasing spread of the pandemic in the country over the last few days and the preventive measures being taken by the central and various state governments have severely restricted business activities.

Sources across cinema chains have confirmed to ET that they had individually written to the landlords and mall owners seeking waiver of rent under the ‘force majeure’ clause of their contracts. The clause excuses companies from meeting some obligations in case of certain unusual circumstances.

LG, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi are also rolling out hyperlocal sales platforms that will connect their offline stores to consumers searching products online so that the outlet nearest to the consumer can deliver the order, industry executives said.

PepsiCo India had volunteered to support the scale up of India's COVID-19 testing capacity through support provided to FIND.

‘We have exited April at 70-80% of our run rate, which we were doing last year.’

I believe in movie theaters. The first time I went to a movie theater, I was about 6 years old. My parents took my brothers and me to the Rowland Theater in Philipsburg to see the original Disney version of 101 Dalmatians – it was around 1969. I remember sitting in the balcony. I remember a night scene where a car was barreling down a road with a network of dogs barking. I was scared and I was fascinated, and, doggone it, I couldn’t see the whole screen. There was a bar that ran across the front of the section, and it cut through the middle of the screen blocking my view. I had to keep scooching down in my seat, trying not to spill my popcorn. Cruella DeVil terrified me, and yet I wanted to see everything. I grew up going to matinees at the theater, as did almost everyone in my generation who grew up around Philipsburg. We all have memories of the 102-year-old movie palace that still draws people to our beloved town. This theater ties us together. The years have flown by since that

Outpatient dialysis facilities have also reported challenges, including separating COVID-19 positive and negative patients and protecting their own workers.

With this partnership, MTR products such as masalas, spices, Ready-To-Eat meals and breakfast mixes will be accessible through MTR stores and kirana tabs on Swiggy.

“While during the early days of lockdown basic essentials got sold, with time some discretionary sales are coming back,” said Devendra Chawla, MD at Nature’s Basket and Spencer’s Retail that saw 30-60% growth in sales for cold cuts, exotic vegetables, assorted breads and cakes, cookies, international sauces, organic range of staples in last ten days.

“There is absolutely no income coming our way due to the Covid-induced lockdown for over a month. As a result, most companies are facing the problem of paying the employee salaries in full for the month of April,” said National Restaurant Association of India president Anurag Katriar.

The staff delivering the meals wear protective gear like masks and gloves to ensure safety. Since Covid – 19 outbreak, Burger King says that it has further strengthened its restaurant procedures around food safety, cleanliness and hygiene and increased its sanitization frequency in all restaurants across the country.

How to keep customers’ cravings alive has become a challenge for restaurants.

CoreCivic runs the facility that houses inmates for the U.S. Marshals Service, city of Mesa, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Arizona Cardinals are joining the statewide COVID-19 testing blitz for the next two Saturdays. Testing will be at State Farm Stadium.

An individual who had been staying at Arizona's largest homeless shelter tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

Arizona's daily death toll increased this week. Lagging death data and previously overlooked COVID-19 deaths are at least partially the reason.

At least 37 sites in nine of Arizona's 15 counties were available for testing of people who have symptoms or who believe they have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Two counties in Eastern North Carolina are reporting COVID-19 related deaths. Craven County Health officials say an individual who tested positive for coronavirus a week ago died at CarolinaEast Medical Center on Thursday. Another person in Carteret County died from complications associated with COVID-19 today. The individual was in their late 60’s and had several underlying health conditions. There are 22 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Carteret County and 32 positive cases in Craven County.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper responded to President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the economy by stressing that the state needs the federal government’s help supplying medical professionals to ramp up COVID-19 testing. The state government also said Friday that it was tripling the staff handling unemployment claims as the state faces a crush of hundreds of thousands requests. Trump told governors Thursday that restrictions could be eased to allow businesses to reopen in the coming weeks in areas that have extensive testing and a decline in cases. Hours later, Cooper, a Democrat, said states need more supplies from the federal government to expand testing enough to reopen their economies.

A COVID-19 outbreak at a North Carolina state prison has spread to approximately 150 inmates. The Wayne County Health Department said in a news release Friday that 149 inmates had tested positive for the virus at the state's Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro. State prison officials had announced about 80 of the cases the previous night. The county health officials said that the number of positive results was expected to rise as the prison completes testing on all of its 700 inmates. Newly positive inmates are being put into isolation, and the state is sending additional medical and security staff to the facility.

Three Eastern North Carolina counties are reporting COVID-19 related deaths today. Health officials in Lenoir County say an individual over the age of 65 with underlying medical conditions died. It is the first fatality in Lenoir County due to coronavirus. The Craven County Health Department announced another person died from COVID-19 complications. Craven County now has a total of four coronavirus deaths. The Jones County Health Department said in a news release that their second coronavirus death is an individual in their 90's with underlying medical conditions.

Through a program called “Feed the Soul,” hospital workers across North Carolina are receiving deliveries of nutritious meals as they respond to growing needs to treat COVID-19 patients. The program also supports local restaurants seeing a slowdown in business. The meal deliveries are made possible by contributions made to an emergency response fund created by the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation ( NCHF ), a nonprofit charitable organization. To date, the program has delivered more than 10,000 meals to staff at 13 hospitals in Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The program is now expanding to Greenville and Wilmington in eastern North Carolina. North Carolina has more than 200,000 hospital workers, many of whom are appreciating the delicious and nutritious meals prepared by local restaurants. “While most of us are staying home to eat meals due to social distancing, hospital employees are working around-the-clock to care for growing numbers of coronavirus

North Carolina Gov Roy Cooper has signed legislation pumping $1.6 billion into schools, hospitals, local governments and researchers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Cooper signed the two bills during a conference call on Monday. They represent a compromise between measures approved separately in the Senate and House last week, with input from the governor and legislative Democrats seeking items in Cooper's own $1.4 billion request. The $1.6 billion is less than half of North Carolina's share received from the $2 trillion coronavirus relief law that Congress approved last month.

“I never thought I would have to ask for food.” The young mother said as a box was placed in her car. In the last three weeks over 500,000 Illinois residents have filed for unemployment. We have never seen such a sudden, dramatic increase in the need for food in our region. There are now growing lines at area food pantries. Numbers of those seeking help has tripled. For 70% of them this is their first visit to a food pantry. This is occurring when food banks are receiving fewer donations from their sources. The food banks are dependent upon the donations from large food chains. Usually food whose shelf life has nearly expired, or produce that is about to go bad. Because nervous buyers have cleared out so many store shelves there is less leftover to donate. When you live at the bottom of the food chain and depend on leftovers, it is extra frightening when there is little left behind. We need to use this crisis to question our present food system built on dependence. We need to ask how

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred efforts to control the spread of the virus through development of innovative digital contact tracing tools. In Singapore, Israel and India there is already an app for that. In Europe there’s debate between two competing frameworks, which have names that sound like Star Wars’ droids: PEPP-PT and DT-3T. And in the US, Apple and Google recently announced collaboration on a contact tracing feature that will eventually be integrated with updates to the mobile device operating system. Although providing promising solutions, these technologies are not without problems. First, the privacy protections for such systems need to be carefully scrutinized. The US currently does not have a general data protection law, like the EU's GDPR, that would permit government oversight and review of these contact tracing solutions. Second, contact tracing only works when a significant number of users opt-in and agree to use the technology. But there is no guarantee that

Assam finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “We had an informal discussion with these states and we may increase the tax on liquor. Tomorrow we are having a cabinet meeting in Assam and a decision in this regard will be taken.”

The High Court passed the interim order on Friday as a result of the blatant violation of the conditions that the court had prescribed under which liquor shops could function. These conditions included adhering to social distancing norms while also deploying additional staff to manage the crowd.

The donation will impact a number of countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific, including India.

Due to an 'abundance of caution' as the coronavirus threat loomed, Apple closed all retail stores, corporate offices and contact centres in Mainland China. Last week, Apple warned that coronavirus outbreak will affect its business in the January-March quarter as worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained

The industry body represents 1.50 lakh mobile retailers who may be unable to pay their monthly instalments and interest towards credit cards, vehicle loan, home loan and business loans taken by them. A similar letter highlighting the concerns of the mobile retailers was also sent to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).

Industry bodies Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) and India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) have written to the government seeking concessions in the delivery of smartphones among other electronics devices and removal of restrictions on the movement of components for inland and export purposes.

Rovio’s India head also said that the company wants to have its own retail store where it can sell Angry Birds merchandise such as shirts and stuffed toys.