The processes that have been taken in Ukraine lately seem very curious. The Parliament of Ukraine, the Rada, is calling on Donald Trump to help end the war in order to hold parliamentary elections. In a nutshell, Ukrainian MPs beg him to intervene in Ukraine's internal affairs. "We will work with the Administration, with the elected Congress, the Senate… I don't think that the composition of the Parliament will change 100% there. Unfortunately, we at the Verkhovna Rada cannot change like that. But we would very much like, starting with Donald Trump, the elected president, and ending with Congress, the Senate, for them to do their utmost to enable us to be re-elected. This is our request, as deputies, to them…" Vice Speaker Kornienko said.

On November 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi. The head of state announced a war for a new world order, spoke about guarantees of the West not to use nuclear weapons, and warned of difficult years to come. According to the Russian leader, the old world order is going down in history and the moment of truth was coming. "A serious, irreconcilable struggle is unfolding for the formation of a new [world order]. It is irreconcilable because this is not even a fight for power or geopolitical influence. This is a clash of the very principles on which relations between countries and peoples will be built at the next historical stage," Putin said.

The West has been cutting its funding for Ukraine. Next year loans remain doubtful. European heavyweights have announced a reduction in funding for Ukraine. France, which promised 3 billion euros in aid to Ukraine this year, has cut it by 1 billion, or by one-third. This is due to budget problems — budget deficit for 2024 may amount to about six percent of France's GDP, which is unacceptable according to EU rules. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu clarified in an interview with Politico that he did not plan to request additional funds for Kyiv from parliament until the end of this year.

The October 18 blackout paralyzed Cuba completely. The Cuban government tries to shrug the problem off by making references to the economic blockade, although the leadership of the island of freedom with no electricity should rather look at its own effectiveness. Total blackout in Cuba: three days without electricity and water Blackout, or apagon in Spanish, is a long-standing problem in Cuba that the island nation has been living with since the 1970s. Yet, this is the first time when the country experienced such a large-scale accident. On Friday, October 18, the Cuban electrical system was completely shut down as a result of an emergency at its main thermal power plant Antonio Guteras in Matanzas. This thermal power plant has not been modernized since 1988. The Cubans had to live without electricity and water for three days. All institutions and industries stopped and thus put the country's security in jeopardy.

Robert Fico became the first NATO leader to have given an interview to Russian media after the start of the special military operation and he made some very bold statements in it. The West fails to bring Russia to its knees Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico gave an interview to Russian journalist Olga Skabeeva on the state-run Rossiya-1 TV channel. He started his interview with a Slovak proverb that says that "no one on their knees can be considered defeated — perhaps they are just tying their shoelaces."

Olaf Scholz's nerves gave out after Trump's victory. By saving Ukraine, the German Chancellor has ruined the ruling coalition of Germany and will now build it with the CDU, putting Germany's problems aside. Scholz ruins ruling coalition by saving Zelensky Germany's ruling coalition fell apart on Wednesday, November 6, after which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who represented the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the "traffic light" coalition. Three other FDP ministers resigned soon afterwards. Scholz plans to hold early elections in March, and his government will operate in a minority until then. The leader of the opposition CDU party, Friedrich Merz, demands that elections be scheduled for January.

Notorious pop MMA fighter Nabi Nabiev faces seven years in prison for assaulting another pop fighter, Arkady Osipyan. Law enforcement officers detained Nabi Nabiev at a Moscow airport as he was returning from filming a sports reality show. Law-enforcers told Nabiev that Osipyan filed a statement against him after the fight. Nabiev was charged with hooliganism and placed under house arrest. Nabiev's upcoming fights have been canceled. In April 2024, Nabi Nabiev was expelled from Hardcore Fighting after he started a mass brawl at one of the shows. Then the promotion terminated the contract with Nabi and kicked him out for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Nabiev thus ended up in the reality show of another promotion in Thailand.

In Kazan, employees of several companies were asked not to use their old cars during the days of the BRICS summit. People were also asked to minimize the use of personal cars, since "their old, rusty and excessively loud cars will tarnish the look of the city," 116.ru reports. According to an unnamed employee of one of the companies, the management suggested that employees should use public transport and leave their personal cars in garages or at least park them further away. In addition, students of one of Kazan technical schools were advised not to drive their "rattlers with loud music on not to disgrace the city."

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented a rare copy of the Koran to a new mosque in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, the Grozny State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company said on Telegram. The head of state visited Chechnya on August 20. According to the channel, the Koran book presented by Putin is decorated with a gold ornament and inlaid with precious stones. The Mufti of the republic, Salah Mezhiyev, thanked the Russian leader on behalf of the people of Chechnya.

The United States is building up its armed forces along all of Russia's borders, including on Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his speech at the Ocean-2024 command and staff exercises, TASS reports. "Under the pretext of countering the allegedly existing Russian threat and containing the People's Republic of China, the United States and its satellites are building up their military presence near Russia's western borders — in the Arctic and in the Asia-Pacific region," Putin said. The USA is thus provoking a new arms race, the Russian president said. According to him, Washington's strategy is preventing the conflict in Ukraine from ending.

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RetailTechnologyReview.com spoke with Adrian Lawson, managing director of independent software vendor (ISV) Waizu, about how the company’s solutions are geared to helping organisations avoid the costly loss or misplacement of their mobile devices, thereby keeping their assets active and accountable and their workers fully productive.

By George Freeman, freelance writer.

In our fast-paced world, electronic devices have become integral to our daily lives. From smartphones and tablets to laptops and smartwatches, these gadgets keep us connected, entertained, and productive. However, the wear and tear of regular use can take a toll on our beloved devices.

By Josh Harvey, freelance writer.

In the last 15 years or so, since the first iPhone debuted all the way back in 2007, it’s not hyperbolic to suggest that smartphones have changed the very fabric of our society. The average teenager probably spends more time on their phone than off it and we all rely on them for business and pleasure, par-ticularly during those long and stressful commutes.

While retailers understand the need to move towards increased first-party data collection and personalised shopper engagement, many remain concerned about building privacy-centric experiences that meet consumers’ growing demands for the responsible use of their data, the latest research from Wunderkind, the AI-driven performance marketing solution, warns.

By Lloyd Mallon, freelance writer.

Designer products are the fine line between luxury and looking glamorous. Due to their price it’s important to make sure what you’re buying is authentic and not a counterfeit. 

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (Toshiba) has introduced its next-generation S300 Pro Surveillance Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) targeting the latest requirements in the surveillance storage market.

As AI regulations in the US have evolved to be more supportive of commercial use, retailers and malls are increasingly adopting technologies that were once the domain of law enforcement and federal agencies. This shift is driven by the need for enhanced security and operational efficiency, with many turning to advanced video analytics and facial intelligence.

Red Canary, the managed detection and response (MDR) provider, has released a new report, Security Operations Trends Report, providing insight into critical challenges facing modern cybersecurity teams. Partnering with independent research company Coleman Parkes, Red Canary surveyed 700 security leaders from the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Nordics. 

Forter, the Trust Platform for digital commerce, has released findings from its 2024 Consumer Trust Premium Report, which explores the evolving relationship between consumer shopping habits and brand trust, based on 2,000 survey respondents in the US and UK.

Descartes Systems Group has released findings from its 2024 Home Delivery Sustainability Report: The Environmentally Conscious Consumer Under Pressure survey, which examined online consumer sentiment of retailers’ sustainability practices around their delivery operations.

A silent crisis of ‘serial returns’ is eroding retail profit margins as uncovered in the Annual Returns Benchmark Report 2024* conducted by returns specialist ZigZag, in partnership with Retail Economics, accounting for 1 in 10 (11% of) online shoppers that make returns, are generating a quarter (24%) of all online non-food returns.

Sinch, the company developing the way the world communicates through its Customer Communications Cloud, has released its predictions for the 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BF/CM) shopping season.

While discounts and sales events have long been associated with holiday shopping, new data from e-commerce provider Visualsoft reveals that consumers are motivated by more than just deep discounts when it comes to their seasonal and gifting purchases.

Ilgar Hajiyev, a developer of Accord Smart residential complex, accused of numerous crimes, including real estate scam, is facing another criminal case in Russia. Defrauded homebuyers are collecting signatures for a petition in their defense. These people, who paid their money for apartments in the Moscow region, Odintsovo сity district, but never received keys to their new homes, demand Hajiyev should be delivered to Russia to stand trial for fraud. Only 4 apartment buildings out of 12 that should have been commissioned in 2020 are built - with many violations. "Numerous violations were committed during the construction: façades are falling off, walls and decoration of public areas are crumbling, cardboard doors are already broken," the petition reads. The billion worth scam Hajiyev fled overseas with investors' money in January 2019. It was not only clients, but also business partners, whom Hajiyev scammed, including creditors of SDI Group. Apart from Accord Smart housing complex, subsidiaries of SDI Group were also developers of the Pirogovskaya Riviera residential complex in Mytishchi, the Moscow Region. The complex is being finished by another developer. Hajiyev started building the Pirogovskaya Riviera complex together with businessman Isai Zakharyaev, who later left the project, but never received money for his share. The head of SDI Group owes more than one billion rubles to the former partner. Another one billion Hajiyev siphoned off from the project developer Comfort Invest.

The US will expand sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. The sanctions will now affect companies that provide services or funding to install equipment on board the vessels that take part in the project. Such a move may permanently halt the construction of the pipeline. The news to expand the sanctions was reported on the website of the US Department of State. Similar restrictions are to be imposed on the participants of the Turkish Stream and other similar projects.The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline provides for the construction of two sections of the gas pipeline system with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the coast of Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Originally, the construction of the pipeline system was supposed to be completed in 2019. However, the work on the project was suspended after US Congress passed a package of sanctions against the participants of the project. The USA remains opposed to the project, claiming that it makes Europe overly dependent on Russian natural gas and increases political pressure on Ukraine, which transits natural gas further to Europe. Kiev and several countries of the European Union share the same position. "Russia uses its energy export pipelines to create national and regional dependencies on Russian energy supplies, leveraging these dependencies to expand its political, economic, and military influence, weaken European security, and undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. These pipelines also reduce European energy diversification, and hence weaken European energy security," the US State Department said in a statement. Russia, Germany, Austria and a number of other countries, whose companies are involved in the construction, insist that this is nothing but a business project.In late 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on Nord Stream-2, having demanded the companies involved in the construction should immediately stop their works on the project. Allseas, a Swiss company, pulled out of the project almost at once.Representatives of Russia's natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, stated that they would be able to complete the construction of Nord Stream-2 independently. For the time being, one needs to finish the construction of the section that is 100 kilometres long. On October 17, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview with RND that the project would be completed.

By Gareth Hunt, freelance writer.

One of the world's most important currencies is information. That information could be about anybody and anything and may be used in a million different ways. With this much personal information people put on the internet, it becomes effortless for cyber criminals to get that information and perpetrate identity thefts.

By Umar Butt, CEO of UK and Europe at Aramex.

The pre-loved market is taking the fashion industry by storm. Reminiscent of the continued popularity of charity shops, thrift stores or vintage boutiques, the appetite for second hand clothes has been a constant for centuries, however in recent years a paradigm shift has moved this growing market into the mainstream.

Russian-Indian joint enterprise Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited intends to completely localise the production of AK-203 assault rifles in India, TASS reports with reference to Russia's defence export giant Rosoboronexport. "The production plans of the joint venture include plans for the 100-percent localisation of the production of AK-203 assault rifles in India," the company noted. "In addition, the joint venture may increase production and upgrade to produce prospective models on the platform of the Kalashnikov assault rifle,” Rosoboronexport said. In October, the company promised that the Russian-Indian plant for the production of AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles (7.62 by 39 mm caliber) in the Indian city of Corva would be ready to begin the production of weapons before the end of 2022.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International considers selling the Russian division or withdrawing it from the structure of the group. Raiffeisen's "daughter" will continue running "certain banking activities" in Russia to maintain license. At the moment, the bank can not get rid of all of its business in Russia, but is striving for this to happen, RBI CEO Johann Strobl said. The RBI Group in Russia is represented by Raiffeisenbank, as well as leasing, insurance and management companies. The company's subdivisions employ over 9,000 people.

Gold prices rose to a record high on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on April 1, RBC reports with reference to data from the trading platform. June contracts for the supply of gold rose in price by 2.14 percent, to $2,286 per ounce. The price neared the level of $2,300 and reached a new all-time high. Gold is rising in price amid expectations for the US Federal Reserve to cut the rate in June, Warren Patterson, head of commodity strategy at ING Groep NV said.

Belarus suddenly banned the sale of Russian-made tea. According to the Ministry of Health of Belarus, the reason for this decision was a violation of requirements for microbiological indicators of product safety. Sanitary services of Belarus found traces of fungus in several types of tea produced by Orimi LLC, a Russian legal entity. Belarus banned all brands of tea produced by this company, their import into Belarus was restricted as well. The list of prohibited products includes such tea brands as: Greenfield, TESS, Princess Nuri, Princess Java, as well as some types of Jardin and Jockey coffee. Orimi LLC is taking necessary measures to prove the stability of production processes and effectiveness of the safety control system, the Belarusian Ministry of Health added. Restrictions on the sale of products may be lifted as soon as the company meets all relevant requirements of the Health Ministry of Belarus.

Nornickel's plans to move copper plant production to China have raised questions both in the government and among experts. In April, Nornickel (Norilsk Nickel) announced plans to "create a joint venture with international partners and transfer part of the copper plant's capacities from Norilsk to China." The copper plant will continue to operate "modern copper concentrate preparation facilities and industrial 3D printers." "We are transferring our environmental problems, settlement problems, problems of market access and customization of our goods for the consumer market to where they can be solved most effectively — to China," Vladimir Potanin, co-owner of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel said in an interview with Interfax.

Omni-ID, the developer of passive industrial radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, used by major global organisations for monitoring the location and identity of assets, has appointed Amir Mobayen as Chief Revenue Officer.

Despite increasing concerns surrounding food waste, more than 89 million tonnes of food are thrown away every year in Europe. The grocery retail sector contributes some 5% to the total amount, often due to expired fresh produce, equating to more than 4.45 million tonnes.

RFID technology does not just exist since yesterday, but especially now, it has a major impact on the profits and losses of companies, for example in retail and logistics. RFID tags that are attached to goods can be read with mobile computers in such a way that real-time results for transactions, stock levels or the order history of customers are displayed.

The use of RFID offers a whole range of advantages, two of which clearly stand out: precision and speed. DENSO explains what this means for the retail sector.

Supply chain hardware, software and services company Renovotec is launching a ‘fast improvement manufacturing programme’ designed to deploy those technologies that have the greatest impact on supply chain manufacturing.

Competition between vendors to provide POS software remains fierce, with more than 125 suppliers working with major retail and hospitality chains, according to Global POS Software 2023, the latest study from strategic research and consulting firm RBR Data Services, a division of Datos Insights.