#platform trading in united kingdom

[apextradefunding]

Top Stock Trading Platforms for New Investors in 2025

Investing in the stock market has become an exciting and accessible way to build wealth, especially for new investors. With the rise of stock trading platforms in United Kingdom, beginners now have access to advanced tools, educational resources, and commission-free trading options. However, choosing the right platform is crucial to ensure a smooth and profitable trading experience. In 2025, several best trading apps for beginners in United Kingdom cater to new investors, but Apex Trader Funding stands out as one of the most beginner-friendly options.

Stock trading requires a strategic approach, and new investors must start with a trading website in United Kingdom that simplifies trading, offers learning resources, and ensures low costs. Whether you are looking to make your first stock purchase or develop long-term investment strategies, Apex Trader Funding provides an ideal trading environment. With its easy-to-use interface, real-time market insights, and risk-free demo trading, this platform is perfect for those new to investing.

Why Choosing the Right Trading Platform Matters

For a beginner, selecting the right trading platform is just as important as choosing the right stocks. A good platform provides a smooth user experience, making it easier for new investors to understand market trends, execute trades, and manage their portfolios. The wrong platform, on the other hand, can make trading complicated, leading to potential losses and frustration.

A beginner-friendly platform should include key features like educational resources, low fees, risk-free trading options, and strong security measures. Additionally, access to real-time stock data and analytical tools helps investors make informed decisions. Choosing the right platform ensures that new traders avoid common mistakes, minimize risks, and maximize their profits.

Apex Trader Funding: A Top Choice for New Investors

1.User-Friendly Interface and Trading Tools

Many new investors find traditional stock trading platforms overwhelming due to their complex layouts and advanced tools. Apex Trader Funding eliminates this issue by offering a simple, intuitive, and customizable best trading platform. Its well-designed interface ensures that even first-time users can navigate the best online trading platforms effortlessly.

The platform also provides a range of tools that help new investors analyze stocks, track trends, and execute trades seamlessly. Features such as one-click trading, automated trade execution, and real-time alerts make it easier for beginners to take control of their investments on a trading website.

2.Low Fees and Zero-Commission Trading

One of the biggest concerns for new investors is the cost of trading. High brokerage fees and commissions can quickly eat into profits, making it difficult for beginners to succeed. This online trading platform addresses the issue by offering zero-commission stock trading, allowing traders to keep more of their earnings.

Additionally, the platform maintains a transparent pricing structure with no hidden charges. There are also low account minimums, making it accessible for individuals who want to start investing with a small amount of capital. As one of the best trading apps, it ensures affordability for all traders.

3.Comprehensive Educational Resources

Best trading websites are not just about buying and selling stocks; they require knowledge and strategic planning. Apex Trader Funding provides an extensive collection of educational resources tailored for beginners, making it one of the best trading platforms available.

The platform offers step-by-step video tutorials, live webinars with experts, in-depth market analysis reports, and interactive Q&A sessions. It also features a community forum where new traders can connect with experienced investors, ask questions, and share insights, making it a great choice for those looking into prop trading companies.

4.Demo Accounts for Risk-Free Trading

Many new traders hesitate to invest in futures trading due to fear of losing money. This funded trader platform provides a risk-free demo account that allows beginners to practice trading without using real money.

With the demo account, users can explore different trading prop firms, test their investment skills, and learn how the market works without financial risk. This feature is incredibly beneficial for beginners who want to gain confidence before transitioning to real trading on a platform trading service.

5.Real-Time Market Data and Advanced Analytics

To make profitable trading decisions, investors need access to real-time market data and analytical tools. This best trading app for beginners provides live price tracking, market news updates, and AI-powered trade recommendations to help traders stay ahead of market trends.

The platform also offers custom alerts, stock screening tools, and detailed performance reports, ensuring that users have all the information they need to make informed trades. This makes it a reliable choice for those in the prop trading industry.

6.Robust Security and Regulatory Compliance

Security is a major concern for online traders, especially beginners who may not be familiar with cybersecurity threats. The platform ensures that it is fully secure and compliant with industry regulations, making it one of the best prop trading firms.

It implements two-factor authentication, advanced encryption protocols, and fraud detection systems to protect user accounts from unauthorized access. Additionally, it follows strict compliance guidelines, ensuring that users trade in a safe and regulated environment while participating in a funded trader program.

Rithmic Trader Funding: A Smart Choice for New Investors

For new investors looking to enter the stock market with minimal risk, a funded trader program offers a great opportunity to trade without using personal capital. Platforms like Rithmic the funded trader provide access to advanced trading tools and real-time market data, helping traders make informed decisions. With a Rithmic trader funding model, traders can gain financial backing to trade large positions. The Rithmic trading platform ensures seamless execution with low latency, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced traders. Many Rithmic funding prop firms offer evaluation programs, allowing traders to prove their skills and access capital for trading success.

Why Apex Trader Funding is a Top Choice for New Investors 

Compared to other trading platforms, this one offers a superior experience for beginners. Its user-friendly design, zero-commission trading, educational resources, and security features make it an excellent choice for first-time investors.

With real-time analytics, demo accounts, and a supportive learning environment, this platform allows new traders to start with confidence and gradually build their investment portfolios.

Conclusion: 

As stock trading continues to grow in popularity, selecting the right platform is essential for success. Apex Trader Funding offers everything a new investor needs, including an intuitive interface, commission-free trading, risk-free demo accounts, and in-depth educational resources.

With its commitment to affordability, security, and beginner-friendly features, this platform remains one of the best trading websites in United Kingdom. Whether you’re looking for an online trading platform in United Kingdom or searching for the best prop trading firms in United Kingdom, this platform provides all the essential tools and resources.

If you are ready to take the first step in your stock trading journey, Apex Trader Funding is an excellent option to help you succeed in platform trading in United Kingdom.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sara Boboltz at HuffPost:

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he wants Mark Burnett, the British television producer who created “The Apprentice,” to serve as special envoy to the United Kingdom in his second term. “With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role,” Trump said of his longtime friend in a statement shared on his Truth Social platform. “Mark will work to enhance diplomatic relations, focusing on areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment opportunities, and cultural exchanges,” Trump wrote. “The Apprentice,” of course, was the NBC reality show that launched Trump’s name and brand from the New York regional tabloid scene to national and international fame when its first season debuted in 2004. Burnett is credited with burnishing the flaws in Trump’s public image by downplaying his various failed business ventures and playing up his real estate holdings, so the network could present him as an icon of American capitalist achievement.

At the time, Burnett had already been instrumental to the launch of the “Survivor” franchise in 2000. He went on to create the hit entrepreneurial show “Shark Tank” — which formerly starred billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, one of Trump’s most high-profile detractors — and produced other hits like “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”

Donald Trump taps Apprentice creator Mark Burnett for the special envoy to the UK post.

[housekonig]

Regional Resurgence: Education and Economic Growth at the Forefront of State of the Region Dinner Talks

The R4 Conference's traditional State of the Region dinner served as a platform for shared vision for economic growth and regional stability for member-nations. Elected officials from each member-nation delivered keynotes, sharing their national commitments and plans for fast-speed rail systems, increased intra-regional trade, and enhanced opportunities in education - all of which are set to turn the tides for the region's future.

The R4's governing body laid out plans for a speed rail network connecting the countries, designed to increase trade and commerce, while minimizing transit times and ecological footprint. Officials also highlighted measures to boost educational exchanges and university opportunities within the region, hoping to foster the intellectual potential of the region.Other topics covered include internet access, climate change, and shared other shared goals and initiatives.

The State of the Region dinner yet again showed that cooperative efforts amongst the R4 member-nations plays a fundamental role in building a more prosperous and well-connected region.

The conference continues with a museum visit, wreath placement, and will end with a state dinner hosted by Her Majesty and other senior members of the royal family.

The Kingdom of Vernick (@housekonig)

United States of Simerica (NPC Nation Version)

The Kingdom of SimDonia (@bridgeportbritt_

The Empire of Pierreland (@officalroyalsofpierreland)

The Trentallia Union (@trentonsimblr)

The Kingdom of Uspana (@nexility-sims)

The Ionian Union (@funkyllama)

Empire of Francesim (@empiredesimparte)

The Kingdom of Illyria (@the-lancasters)

[thenightfolknetwork]

okay, I'm a nurse and we see strange things okay?

well, night shift and this woman arrives in labor with her husband, goes to the delivery room and three hours later we have this beautiful baby boy. screaming at the top of his lungs, flushed and healthy, weighing 3 kilos. The mother was a little groggy so we left him in the nursery for a moment, and when I handed the little thing to her, she freaked out saying that wasn't her baby!

After a long inspection we found that he was indeed made of twigs. She said she wanted hers back, but our hospital doesn't take responsibility for changelings and honestly, being a changeling myself (not the stick type, I'm the sick fairy baby type, my parents thought I was autistic for years before realizing I just had regular fair folk behavior) I found her attitude extremely frustrating.

Damn! she came to have a baby and she's leaving with a baby! Some could say it's even the same baby, I didn't see any difference. and it's not like they've known each other that long, hmm? the woman said she will not take the boy home. her husband got into a fight with the security guard. what do I do? Will they sue me???

Fortunately, reader, I don't think you're at any risk of legal action. At least, not you, directly. The parents might choose to take legal action against the hospital at which you work, but even then, their case is fairly thin.

There is some difficulty in explaining the details of the legal situation here. This is mainly because it relates to certain treaties and allegiances held between the British government and various other nations, commonwealths and domains, about which it can be very difficult to speak clearly.

And I mean that quite literally. Even as I write this, I can feel a sense of resistance from the very keys of my computer.

Not to trade in stereotypes, but members of those communities which practice infant substitution have historically tended to take up careers in law and politics, and often with great success. As such, they enjoy some of the most robust legal protections of any liminal group in the United Kingdom.

Infant substitution is an important cultural practice for these groups, and is fiercely protected. In short, I don't think you have much to worry about on the legal front.

Emotionally, I understand how seeing these parents reactions to their new child could be upsetting, especially given your own personal background. Unfortunately, many sapios still cling onto very outdated ideas around parenthood and family, and struggle to see a changeling child as their own.

I'm afraid there's not much you can do for this particular family. Instead, you might concentrate your efforts on broader liminal outreach work – volunteering at a cross-community event, for example, or donating to your favourite creature charity.

There is a chance these parents will come around, and accept the child as their own. If not, I am rather inclined to think he is better off without them. With any luck, he will find his way to a family who can accept him for the precious gift he is.

[For more creaturely advice, check out Monstrous Agonies on your podcast platform of choice, or visit monstrousproductions.org for more info]

[mariacallous]

“We’re giving away pure gold,” Yuri Kostenko declared in 1994, “and getting back ore.”

In the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the West was cobbling together the scaffolding for a new global security architecture. And Kostenko, then a Ukrainian legislator, was one of the negotiators trying to figure out how to trade the “gold” of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers for long-term security.

Kostenko proposed “security guarantees,” signed by the United Kingdom and the United States, which would commit Ukraine’s allies to the country’s defense.

But Kostenko was eventually removed from the negotiating team. His successors received no guarantees in the final deal, dubbed the Budapest Memorandum—only vague “assurances.” It was on that deal that Europe’s promises of protection to Ukraine were built. And it is that system that “has burst like a soap bubble,” as Kostenko wrote last year.

Today, talk of security guarantees is back in vogue. U.S. President Donald Trump promised to resolve the conflict “on day one” of his term. (The promise was subsequently revised down to the first “100 days” of the administration, which began on Jan. 20.)

Ukraine’s Western allies are already tripping over themselves to promise protection for Kyiv against further Russian aggression. And just like three decades ago, they are playing fast and loose with what’s on offer.

Ukrainians are as skeptical today as Kostenko was in 1994.

There are two types of security guarantees that NATO countries could offer Ukraine in the context of a peace deal with Russia, one senior Western official told Foreign Policy while speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The first kind would see NATO members committing to sending substantial economic and military aid to Kyiv for years after a cease-fire deal. Eventually, under this guarantee, Ukraine might be allowed to join the trans-Atlantic alliance.

The second type of guarantee would extend NATO’s Article 5 protections over Ukraine immediately, effectively extending the West’s nuclear umbrella over the country and committing the rest of Europe, the United States, and Canada to defending Ukraine. This would deter Russia from invading, these nations hope, but it would also commit NATO to the conflict with Moscow if it did.

The second option, the official agreed, was unlikely to be endorsed by either NATO or Russia. The first, they accepted, was basically just an extension of the status quo.

This is the problem that has faced Kyiv for more than a decade: Real security guarantees are difficult, while meaningless promises are easy.

When Russia and Ukraine first met at the negotiating table in 2014, after Russian special forces crossed the border to aid separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, it was France, Germany, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that promised to help keep the peace. A cease-fire deal, the first Minsk Agreement, committed the OSCE to monitoring violations of the truce. The agreement defined, however, little in the way of consequences for breaking the deal.

Unsurprisingly, the agreement was thoroughly ignored by the separatist groups, as the OSCE bemoaned often, and the Minsk II agreements in February 2015 did not fare much better.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, elected on a platform of bringing peace to Ukraine, met with his Russian counterpart in 2019, he opened their meeting with a quote from Leo Tolstoy: “The path on paper looked so smooth, we all forgot about the pitfalls.”

Those meetings didn’t even produce a path on paper. Both sides wouldn’t properly negotiate again until the days and weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. These negotiations occurred first in Belarus and then in Turkey.

Even as Russian troops advanced on, and then retreated from, Kyiv, negotiators were meeting to hammer out a peace treaty. The two sides, surprisingly, came close to agreement on many fronts.

The talks produced the so-called Istanbul Communiqué, draft copies of which were obtained by the New York Times. The deal, drafted from February to April 2022 and not published until 2024, envisioned an unaligned Ukraine—forbidden from joining NATO, free of foreign military bases, and with a considerably reduced military.

In exchange, other powers were to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, committing themselves to act should Ukraine face reinvasion from Russia. Both sides agreed that this list of possible guarantors should include Great Britain, China, the United States, France, and Russia itself—the draft obtained by the Times indicates that Moscow also wanted Belarus added to this list, while Kyiv wanted Turkey.

But the negotiations never produced a deal. The war raged on. And as the conflict crawls toward its third year, many armchair generals have returned to those early negotiations as evidence that a deal was possible—but spurned by Ukraine and its allies.

In recent months, writers in left-leaning publications have claimed that “global powers are actively dashing the chances of a diplomatic resolution to Russia’s war” and that this draft treaty was never signed because “the West isn’t ready for the war to end.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov himself claimed in December 2024, in a chummy interview with American broadcaster Tucker Carlson, that the Istanbul Communiqué was “rejected by Boris Johnson,” who was the U.K. prime minister at the time.

Sergey Radchenko is tired of these arguments.

Radchenko, the Wilson E. Schmidt distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs earlier this year that investigated “the talks that could have ended the war in Ukraine.”

“The main problem,” Radchenko told Foreign Policy, “is that people read the title and then do not try and understand what the article is about.”

First off, he said, the British prime minister did not scuttle the deal.

“This never happened,” Radchenko said. Nor, though both sides seemed to be negotiating in good faith, was it true that “peace was anywhere around the corner,” he continued.

One of the biggest problems came from Washington, not Moscow. In exchange for Ukraine’s neutrality and its commitment to never join NATO, Kyiv expected firm commitments from the West to rush to its defense, should Russia reconstitute its forces and invade once more.

“This was not raised previously with the Americans,” Radchenko said. “When the Ukrainians raised this, the Americans said: ‘Wait, that’s not in our interest.’”

It’s also not clear just how serious Russian President Vladimir Putin was about the talks. Under the framework being negotiated in Istanbul, the guarantors would only come to Kyiv’s defense in the event of an attack “on the basis of a decision agreed upon by all guarantor states.” In other words, Russia would have a veto over any decision pertaining to the collective defense of Ukraine.

Despite these issues, negotiations continued, even after evidence of war crimes and atrocities believed to be committed by Russia emerged from Bucha and elsewhere—evidence that was met with disinformation from Moscow.

“We believe that this is genocide. We believe that they must all be punished,” Zelensky told reporters in early April. “But we have to find opportunities to meet.”

By May, though, the peace talks had basically fallen apart. Russia, which had poured enormous human and economic capital into the war, would effectively increase its demands by asserting control over all of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts—which include huge swaths of territory that Russia did not manage to capture. Negotiations between both parties continued, but they turned mostly to the issue of prisoner swaps.

As the war raged on, Zelensky increasingly dismissed the idea that Putin would ever accept reasonable terms—even the ones that Moscow’s negotiators had proposed in the spring of 2022.

Radchenko pointed out that the skepticism is warranted.

“It goes into this question of what Putin wants,” he said. Is it merely control of Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region? Is it Ukraine’s nonaligned status? Rights for Russophones in Ukraine? Control over the government in Kyiv?

“It’s not always that we don’t know,” Radchenko said. “I think Putin himself does not know the answer to this. He’s playing it by ear.”

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg is likely to be tasked with laying the foundation for a peace deal in Ukraine.

As a co-chair of the pro-Trump Center for American Security within the America First Policy Institute, Kellogg has already laid out his vision for what a deal could look like.

In his proposal, published in April last year, Kellogg suggested that the United States should orchestrate an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine while continuing to arm Ukraine “to ensure Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again.” As talks continue, the retired lieutenant general imagines, NATO would close the door to Ukraine’s membership “in exchange for a comprehensive and verifiable peace deal with security guarantees.”

But nowhere does Kellogg explain what, exactly, those security guarantees would look like.

Other NATO countries have started using similar language. Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, insisted onstage at the Halifax International Security Forum in November that NATO’s core focus should be on preventing Russia from merely using a cease-fire to reconstitute its military power. She held up a series of bilateral security agreements, inked between Ukraine and its allies, as being an effective deterrent so that, in her words, “Putin cannot just leave, rearm, and reinvade.”

But when pressed by moderator Garry Kasparov to explain how these bilateral agreements would differ from the empty promises of the Budapest Memorandum, the Canadian minister insisted that Ukraine would “eventually” be a member of NATO and that in the interim, “it’s military aid, it’s financial aid.”

Finland’s foreign minister has echoed that sentiment, telling Reuters this month that NATO membership could come “further down the line and hopefully not in [the] too-distant future.”

Tobias Lindner, the German minister of state—responsible for trans-Atlantic relations—told Foreign Policy in a roundtable with journalists at the Halifax Forum that “there are various ideas for security guarantees—one of them is NATO membership. But it’s not the only one.”

But, he added, “what I know is that Ukraine will not accept something like Minsk III or Budapest 3.0.”

These promises did little to impress Hanna Hopko, a former Ukrainian legislator who sat next to Joly at the event.

“It’s great to have security agreements,” Hopko said, “those agreements mean this—” she held up a sheet of paper, as if to say: This paper can’t stop an invasion. “We do remember the Budapest Memorandum. Even if you have all the Ramstein Coalition security partners [sign] paper security agreements, it will never be security guarantees.”

As Radchenko points out, fudging the language—using the word “guarantee” when they really mean to invoke this nebulous concept of “assurance”—is disingenuous for Western leaders. “A general commitment to provide some military support for Ukraine, looking into the future—it’s certainly not comparable to anything solid, like Article 5.”

This all brings Ukraine back to square one. Any peace deal is almost certain to forbid Ukraine’s ascension to NATO for the indefinite future. And Trump has already closed the door to U.S. support for Ukraine’s ascension to NATO—saying that he could “understand” Russia’s concerns about the prospect.

Moscow, meanwhile, continues to insist that it wants to use a peace deal to seize more Ukrainian territory—land it currently holds, land that was recaptured by Ukraine, and land it has never held. Lavrov went even further in an interview given shortly before the new year, rejecting nearly every part of Kellogg’s peace plan.

It’s not clear whether the Trump administration has prepared itself for this intractable situation.

“I have two concerns,” Radchenko said. “I don’t think that the Trump administration has understood what the Russians are likely to demand and what their endgame is, and secondly I don’t think they have the strategic patience, necessarily.”

Foreign Policy also asked Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, who attended a bipartisan congressional delegation that attended the Halifax Security Forum in November, about a possible deal and about these security guarantees.

“Guess who broke [Budapest]?” Rounds answered. “It wasn’t one of the allies that we have. It was Russia, and very specifically Mr. Putin. That tells you the reasons why we are very suspect of any offers of a security agreements by Mr. Putin at this time.”

The congressional delegation in Halifax insisted that U.S. support for Ukraine, particularly in the Senate, remained steadfast.

On Wednesday, Trump posted a message to Truth Social proclaiming “I’m not looking to hurt Russia,” but insisting that “if we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”

Russian exports to the United States, thanks to sanctions imposed by the Biden administration, have fallen by more than 90 percent since the war began.

In December, Foreign Policy reached Kostenko by phone in his home in Kyiv.

“Ukraine has to be a member of NATO’s collective system of defense,” Kostenko said.

Kostenko’s line then crackled and dropped as he sat in the darkness of his home in Kyiv—a consequence of Russia’s relentless bombing of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The same issues that the former politician faced when he tried to secure these security guarantees in 1994 are still hanging over Ukraine today, he said. Back then, the risks were hypothetical. Today, they are very real.

The main difference, Kostenko said, is that the West has woken up to Russia’s taste for imperialism. When it negotiated with then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Kostenko said, “the Western world hoped that Russia would move to democracy and would be integrated into different structures—including NATO. And now? Everything has changed.”

[jordanianroyals]

Jordan comes alive with Royal wedding celebrations

Festivities are in full swing across the Kingdom in celebration of the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein, uniting Jordanians from all walks of life in this joyous occasion.

In celebration of the Royal wedding, an array of Jordanian and Arab artists and musicians entertained thousands of guests on May 29, at the Amman International Stadium in Al Hussein Sports City. The musical performances will continue on June 3, at Amman's Roman Theatre.

Gearing up for the special Royal occasion, streets have been adorned with posters of Crown Prince Hussein and royal emblems, with street lights draped in flags.

“All of us are seeing a community spirit sweeping across the Kingdom. It is truly an unconfined joy for all Jordanians,” said Noor Al Manaseer, 25. Other members of the public expressed their pride in standing beside Crown Prince Hussein and sharing in the Royal wedding joy as Jordanians.

Nearly every commercial centre, mall and private business is awash with decorations and posters of the Royal couple, offering various discounts and promotions in honour of the occasion. Similarly, street vendors experienced brisk trade in Jordanian flag decorations.

To ensure Jordanians are a part of the nationwide celebration, the government declared the Royal Wedding Day a public holiday for the Kingdom.

“We are planning on watching the wedding ceremony on a large screen. All the family will gather and dance to traditional Jordanian music,” Hala Al Qawasmi, 37, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

A similar excitement and joy was present in the household of Um Tahseen, 54. She handed out baklava and knafeh to her neighbours. “I am thrilled and excited; tomorrow the whole world will watch Jordan’s royal wedding,” she expressed.

As for Reem Kamel, she hopes to catch up with the wedding’s procession. “I would be really lucky if I get a glimpse of the Royal procession,” she told The Jordan Times.

Elsewhere in Amman, particularly in the neighbourhood of Abdoun, hundreds of Jordanians lined up along streets and rejoiced, waved and unfurled massive flags and chanted slogans in celebration of the royal wedding.

Other celebrations and parades took place in other governorates. Samah Al Khatatneh told The Jordan Times that vehicles flooded the streets of Karak in honour of the Crown Prince.

On social media platforms, the official logo of the occasion, which is the Arabic word for “we rejoice” and #CelebratingAlHussein topped the list of trending hashtags. “Congratulations have poured in for Al Hussein and Miss Rajwa Khalid Alseif.” Mohammad Quteishat, a Jordanian Instagram user, told The Jordan Times over the phone.

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 8: Dynasty Warriors 5 Spinoffs (Empires/Vol. 2/Mahjong/DS/Online)

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (真・三國無双4 Empires) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 USA: 28 March 2006 Europe: 23 June 2006

Now that Koei had established the Warriors game franchise, the spinoffs would continue being rolled out by the quarter as they continued refining old concepts and experimenting with new ones, even in the midst of a transition between console generations.

What spinoffs would be inspired by the peak of the classic Warriors games? Let's jump into the spinoffs for Dynasty Warriors 5.

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires

Where DW4E experimented with the hybrid simulation/hack-and-slash format, DW5E refined the format and put more control of the kingdom to the player.

Empire Mode now allows you to select from six scenarios to start off, one of them being the fictional scenario that assigns officers and kingdoms randomly. After selecting your kingdom, there are more settings that you can choose from; aside from the map switching and the difficulty, you can choose whether you want to carry over character experience earned throughout this game, a time limit of 200 turns (50 years), have edit officers appear in the playthrough, how you annex a kingdom (by occupying their capital directly or after isolating it), officer limits or officer deaths (enabling this will allow you to execute captured officers but officers will die of old age 90 years after their debut in historical scenarios).

In the Political/Strategy phase, you now have the option to pick your own policies in the form of strategy cards instead of consulting your officers for two policies. Having different officers in your kingdom will allow them to suggest different strategies, and if you pick an officer's set of policies with a policy you haven't used before, a new strategy card can be unlocked. Consulting an officer or picking a policy takes up an order/move; you start off with one and you can get up to five as you keep conquering territories and getting appointed to higher positions. Depending on your situation, it may be more advantageous for you to consult an officer as you can use two policies for the price of one.

Moving onto the Battle phase. When you invade or defend a territory, you can deploy a relief general and/or lieutenant who will appear as reinforcements during the battle. Before you begin the battle, you can also employ tactics obtained during the Strategy phase whereas in the last game, tactics selected through consultation are valid for that turn's Battle phase only. Some tactics are implemented for the entire battle (like time limits or reinforcement speeds) while other tactics are activated in the Pause menu after being equipped (like launching fire attacks or rallying your troops).

As you increase your weaponsmithing skills, you can unlock stronger weapons for your characters. After each battle, you can upgrade your player officer's weapon with attributes gained during it. Fourth weapons are initially unlocked by reaching tech level 4 (for a character's weapon class) and obtaining 500 KOs in battle. In subsequent playthroughs, you only need to reach tech level 4 to unlock it if you decide to carry over player experience.

Items are no longer restocked after a certain amount of turns, but they need to be manufactured by spending money. There are three new items exclusive to this game and there are four items that are exclusively obtained through trading; after capturing Xiliang, Jiaozhi, Nanman and Beiping, you can spam the trade commands and you can get an exclusive item from there.

During battle, you can order your officers to attack or defend a base or officer through the Unit Info menu. You can also use the d-pad to order all your officers to attack (up), defend (down), gather (left) or do whatever they like (right).

Each scenario will have its own event battles. Aside from the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Hulao Gate and Chibi, there are two new event battles set in Guandu and Yiling. The Battle of Yiling is triggered as a second event battle in the Flames Over Chibi scenario, while the Divided Land scenario does not have any event battles.

Free Mode is also included in this game and in this mode, you can play any invasion/defence scenario or event battle with any ally and enemy lineup you choose, even though you are still limited to the limited general/lieutenant lineup. I think it's an essential mode for Empires games because this mode truly allows you to embrace the sandbox nature of the game outside of the randomised kingdom lineups of Empire Mode.

When you boot the game for the first time with DW5/XL data on your memory card, you can unlock some bonuses from the start. Playable characters are unlocked in Free Mode, the first 96 posters in the gallery are unlocked (2 for each playable character), you have all the basic items at level 10, all outfits in Edit Mode and your settings from the vanilla game. In addition, your custom characters in XL can also be ported over to Empires when you create a new save. This functionality is part of the reason why I would have liked to see Edit Mode continue in future games so that I don't have to waste time creating a bunch of characters in Empires when I already have some I can import from the vanilla game.

This game also has an Xbox 360 port which once again, supports 720p and 5.1ch Dolby Digital sound. Unlike 5 Special, 5 Empires is the first Xbox 360 port to be available in the West. Additionally, background music from older games is also available and you can select a game's playlist to prioritise in battle. The encyclopedia from the vanilla game is included in Empires as well.

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires improves on 4 Empires and makes it the definitive Empires experience for its time. Samurai Warriors would begin an Empires spinoff of its own by using this game as a base. If you played both this game and Samurai Warriors 2 Empires, you will definitely see how the latter game was influenced by the former.

Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2

Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 (真・三國無双 2nd Evolution) Platforms: PlayStation Portable Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 USA: 24 October 2006 Europe: 17 November 2006

Like how 5 Empires was an improvement on the last Empires game, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 was an improvement on the first PSP game. This game finally gets a moniker to differentiate it from the other games, though it's very easy to mistake this game as Dynasty Warriors 2 when it's actually Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 or 2nd Evolution. As is obvious, character designs and movesets are taken from Dynasty Warriors 5.

Once again, Musou Mode is defined by kingdom, but there is a bit of a twist. Each kingdom's Musou Mode is divided into four paths, the first three being five stages long and the final path being four stages long. The first stage of the second path is unlocked after clearing a Musou Mode once, while the first stage of the final path is unlocked after clearing the final stage of the third path (with 100% completion in Wei's story). Most stages have two victory conditions you can choose to clear the battle. For example, for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, you can defeat Zhang Jiao or occupy all five altars to win the battle. Achieving the former condition will take you on one path and achieving the latter condition will take you on another. Thanks to this, you don't have to pursue Lu Bu at Sishui Gate or Hulao Gate.

Free Mode allows you to play a pseudo-Musou Mode of up to 8 stages, with all the battles divided into 8 eras. It is also in this mode where you can play stages for the Other characters, with each faction (including Zuo Ci) receiving two stages each. Because of the way the Other stages are grouped in the eras however, you can only play 6 of them in succession and not 8. Those stages are unlocked by achieving 100% completion in stages against the Other factions to unlock the first stage, then achieve 100% in that unlocked stage to unlock the second stage. Zuo Ci is unlocked by achieving 100% in eight Other stages. Only Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties are offered with no Chaos option available.

Open fields are either allied or enemy territory and not the reappearing patrol battles they were in the last game. This means that if a unit goes onto an open field that belongs to the other side, they start with one less bar.

Areas are not liberated until both the enemy morale runs out and all enemy unit leaders are defeated. Some people may see it as a drain if they find it hard to defeat unit leaders, but as someone who likes playing on Easy and defeating all officers on the battlefield, it's a plus.

Attack and defence bases are introduced as additional area types. They have a base morale of 2, but they also raise the morale of neighbouring areas belonging to that base's side. I've seen areas that are linked to three bases, but never four if I remember correctly.

Villages and treasure troves are new area types as well. In a village, you will have 60 seconds to complete a mission and liberate it, which involves killing bandits or protecting villagers. When you clear the mission, you can obtain some supplies and recover your health, Musou and Rage. Treasure troves are hidden in battlefields and there will be a high-level guest officer guarding it. Defeating that guest officer quickly will add them to your list of officers, which is easier than just leaving it to chance like in the last game. Completing the village and treasure trove missions (along with satisfying both victory conditions) are the key to gaining 100% on a stage.

Mountains and rivers are also included in this game, but this time, there are also steep mountains and deep rivers that cannot be crossed at all unless you have a Ranger or Ferryman among your officers or a mount with the Climber or Swimmer ability.

The bow function from the previous game is removed as the R button now serves to activate Musou Rage when the bar is full. Levels no longer determine what attacks you can perform as it is now determined by your weapon.

Yes, like in the main game, you can now have up to 8 weapons and mounts to equip into battle. There are no fourth weapons in this game, but you can work towards obtaining a strong third weapon. Elements are also determined by the weapon and weapons can have up to 5 attributes and support for Evolution Attacks. Mounts, namely horses and elephants, can be obtained during battle and some of them also come with an ability as well depending on their reputation. Mounts are developed as you continue to use them. There are also four special horses that can be obtained in the game as well. Most mounts except for the special ones will rear up when attempting to trample enemies other than soldiers or maybe even base captains (depending on the background of the mount), but all horses will rear up when attempting to trample the enemy commander.

Moving onto officers now and the system has received a few tweaks. Not all officers will have activatable skills, but officers can have up to three abilities. At the end of each battle, you are given growth points to distribute to officers, which will raise their rank, stat buffs and unlock skills. Characters' control values will also develop with their other stats, so you will be able to equip up to two playable and/or guest officers per battle.

Guest officers are unlocked in treasure trove missions, with officers coming from Samurai Warriors 2, Water Margin, the early Han period (characters like Liu Bang and Xiang Yu also being featured in an old Koei game for the SNES, namely Rise of the Phoenix 項劉記) and others such as Jiang Taigong (aka Taigong Wang), Genghis Khan, Yu Ji and Hua Tuo. Li Shi Shi and Cai Wenji have been removed in this game. There are a total of 300 officers to be collected.

Exclusive to this game are officer combinations, which will give you additional stat boosts. The combinations range from familial bonds to frenemies to mentors and students and so forth. For combinations between two player characters or a player character and a generic officer, playing as one of the characters can take them out of the equation so it will only cost you whatever points the other officer costs. You will definitely need to do this for the combinations of Garden Oath, Illusionist Trio and Strategist Legacy because they involve three player characters and you will not be able to accommodate all three of them within your control point limit.

This game also features a multiplayer (VS) mode for up to 4 players using the PSP's ad-hoc connection capabilities. Game modes include Battle Royal(e), Bombs Away, Sudden Death and Time Attack. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get it working on PPSSPP between my computer and phone (I used to be able to do it before for something else) and nobody has cared enough to post gameplay footage of that mode, however the trailer for this game does have some footage and tutorials for each game are included as well. If there was an option to play against the computer then I might have given this mode a chance. Ad-hoc connections are also used to open rooms to trade officers between players instead of swapping Memory Sticks like it was in the previous game.

As stated at the start, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 is more icing on the cake that was the first PSP game. It's another perfect port of the main game cut down for a portable console while also being modestly sized for Memory Sticks. You can fit both of the Dynasty Warriors PSP games or the first game and Samurai Warriors State of War onto a 512 MB card or all three games onto a 1 GB card.

Of course, the argument still remains that cut-down spinoffs like this are wasteful when Koei could have ported whole games to the PSP since other publishers have managed to do so with their games even at the console's launch. You can rest assured that future Warriors games for the PSP would do just that.

Dynasty Warriors Mahjong (Jan Sangoku Musou)

Dynasty Warriors Mahjong (雀・三國無双) Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 (PS2)/28 September 2006 (PSP/DS)

If there are two things in this world I'll never understand (how to play), it's cricket and mahjong. At least with International Cricket Captain you can just press a few buttons and the game plays itself even if you can't comprehend how a team can win by X amount of runs or Y amount of wickets. As for mahjong, it's really something that people in Asia and first generation-migrants (including older generations) are more familiar with. How could a second-generation migrant like me even know how to play mahjong?

Okay, I did get shown how to play mahjong once, but that was many years ago, and even then, mahjong is different in different places. My family plays the Hong Kong variant of mahjong. Dad likes watching a mahjong competition show from Taiwan that has their own variant of mahjong. And of course, this game uses the Japanese variant of mahjong, also known as RICH! RICH! RICH! mahjong.

This game actually uses the engine from Koei's mahjong game series Mahjong Taikai (麻雀大会), originally released in 1987 for the NEC PC-9800, which lasted longer than the Tandy TRS-80 and its successors (up to 2003 as opposed to 1993) and could run up to Windows 2000 (as opposed to Windows 3.x on the Tandy 1000 and Tandy 3000). Hah! Eat that, Alec and Shanna!

("Okay, my lord!" they replied.)

When you start a new game you're guided to name and create an avatar for your save. There are three play modes, namely Musou Play (無双闘牌), Tournament (雀帝位戦) and Free Play (自由対局). The Data Base shows nothing but your play stats for all characters. Rules for the Open Field rules can be set in the settings. Character descriptions can be seen by waiting on the title screen.

In Musou Play, you go through a sort-of-Musou Mode for Wei, Wu and Shu with six stages each against different characters. Once you've cleared all three Musou Plays once, you unlock the Musou Musou Mode where you play 15 stages against different combos of characters from across the Three Kingdoms. Different stages have different clear conditions.

The Tournament mode has you play in a tournament starting with 32 players, with the top two players from each game advancing to the next round. Different rules apply between tournaments which will loop back after playing eight of them. And finally, Free Play lets you choose which characters to play against along with the rules to play with.

This is as much as I can say about this game because like other Warriors games, the gameplay is the same no matter how you play it. As I said at the start of this section, I'm not familiar with mahjong so this isn't a game I'm going to invest a lot of time in. This game is the first unique Warriors game/spinoff to not be localised for the West, which is fair in this case but not for others (such as 5 Special). The original PS2 release was also the same day that Vol. 2 was released in Japan. I'd complain about it, but then you have to wonder how much effort was needed to make a Warriors mahjong game using the engine from a mahjong game you've already made.

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle (真・三國無双DS ファイターズバトル) Platforms: Nintendo DS Release dates: Japan: 5 April 2007 USA: 24 July 2007 Europe: 31 August 2007

(The Koei Tecmo Wiki got the Western dates wrong and I almost fell for it had I not checked Wikipedia and other sources to confirm them.)

The first Dynasty Warriors PSP game takes up 150 MB on a UMD that can hold up to 900 MB or 1.8 MB of data depending on whether it's a single or dual layer disc. Nintendo DS Game Cards can be up to 512 MB in size. With this game using 128 MB cards, could it have been possible to port the PSP game's functionality to the DS? Well, no. The PSP uses the 64-bit MIPS R4000 chip that can run at up to 333 MHz with a 166 MHz proprietary Media Engine GPU, while the Nintendo DS uses 32-bit ARM processors.

A beta build of Dynasty Warriors DS was created as a sequel to Dynasty Warriors Advance for the GBA (which was also compatible with the original DS and DS Lite), featuring the ability gauge from that game. And somehow, despite that, we get this.

There is only one mode in this game, unless you care about multiplayer gameplay and even then I'm pretty sure it's the same mode because I'm using DeSmuME which doesn't support Wi-Fi. Multiplayer mode supports up to three players.

You pick from three unnamed characters based on three of the Four Gods, namely Phoenix (Red), Dragon (Blue) and Chimera (Yellow) with no Tiger character (who would be white). The computer will randomly select one of the other two to be your opponent. You're then brought to a map of China where you have 11 battlefields to conquer, namely Wancheng (Castle), Hulao, Xuchang, Hefei, Jianye, Chibi, Shu, Xiliang, Huabei, Chengdu and Nanman. Once you've conquered all 11, you'll fight a final secret battle at the Great Wall.

Before each battle you will need to assemble a Battle Deck of officers who will be featured in the battle. Your opponent will do the same as well. You will have a main officer and up to 6 subofficers. Cards are obtained as you play the game. There are red cards that enhance your stats, blue cards that add effects to your Obstacle Wheel, and rare golden cards that do both. The rare cards are unlocked through special conditions, including some that involve having the Dynasty Warriors Advance Game Pak inserted, which is detrimental for DSi players. Out of the cast from DW5, only 28 characters have unique designs on their cards. 8 more playable characters are also available as generic officers and the rest of the cards are made up of generic officers. There are a total of 120 cards representing 51 officers to be unlocked, with the blue and red cards able to be levelled up with repeated use.

During battle, your objective is to occupy all enemy bases before taking the main camp, but your opponent can take your main camp before all your bases fall (I think) because the gates to your camp are left open. Like with Advance, you have to defeat a certain number of enemies in an area before you can move on or defeat the base defender officer and occupy it. There are also armories and depots that start off neutral but can be occupied in a similar way to bases. Every time you encounter your opponent, you're brought to a battlefield to duel, and the character who loses will respawn somewhere else.

In battle, you're limited to 4 attacks like it was in Advance. Musou Attacks are now performed by pressing X, while the R button changes the bottom screen between the map and the enemy's information screen. Yes, this game doesn't use any touch controls, but it sure makes good damn use of a second screen. For every five coins you collect (stacking to a maximum of nine), you can obtain an effect from the Obstacle Wheel which you can use to affect enemies in your area by pressing Y.

Yeah, look, you could remake the game with another IP and it'd be something, but this really just feels like a Dynasty Warriors game in name only. It didn't live up to the hype that was teased during E3 2004 or 2005. Aside from the voices for the three new characters, I'm pretty sure the few voices for everyone else is taken from DW5. I played this game for a bit many years ago and only revisited it recently for this retrospective. It's only enjoyable if you make it enjoyable, otherwise there's nothing much to it.

Koei Tecmo experimented with the DS as a platform and its limits can't really accommodate the requirements of their IP. This game and Mahjong are some examples of wasteful spinoffs whose resources could have been better used in ports of the mainline games. I hesitate to call this game a disgrace primarily because of its experimental status, but also because we haven't even breached the line of disgrace yet.

Dynasty Warriors Online

Dynasty Warriors Online (真・三國無双Online) Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita Service launch: Japan: June 2006 (Windows), February 2010 (PS3), September 2014 (PS4), November 2015 (Vita) Taiwan: March 2008 China: April 2008 USA/Europe: August 2010 Service shutdown: Japan: February 2022 (Windows/PS4), May 2019 (PS3), March 2017 (Vita) Taiwan: May 2016 China: December 2020 USA/Europe: January 2014

This is going to be a doozy to write about.

For a time, Koei Tecmo operated an MMORPG known as Dynasty Warriors Online. It was first launched as Shin Sangoku Musou BB (broadband) in 2006, originally limited to Yahoo and SoftBank before being open to other providers in May 2007. The game's logo style would be adapted for use in the DS game before becoming its current Online incarnation from November of that year.

Become a True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms with Optus! When you sign up for Optus Broadband, you'll get exclusive access to our new game offered in partnership with Koei, Dynasty Warriors Online. You'll also get talking animals, a scary shiver-inducing italic logo and a guaranteed data breach for all our loyal customers. Call now or visit your local Optus shop today! "Yeah yeah yeah... Just say the word, just say the word!" Yeah.

While the game was available to download for free, Koei did sell starter packs for BB and Online. The game went through four major expansions, with the last one being Online Z released in July 2013, which implemented weapon switching from 7 and 8. The game was also available (digitally, I presume) for the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, but each expansion pack was sold as a disc as well. I honestly have to wonder how the discs work if it's an online game - I presume it installs or runs the files from the disc while also downloading and installing the latest data from the servers. I can honestly imagine what would happen if players didn't buy the latest expansion and the data wasn't automatically downloaded - "Oh, you don't have the version where we implemented weapons from DW8? Nup, you can't play the game until you buy that version!"

Once you create your account you create your character and choose a faction to join. As with other MMOs you can explore the world, interact with other players, buy and sell weapons, upgrade your equipment and so forth. There are many types of weapons available; initially, only DW5's weapons were implemented along with some weapons exclusive to Online. As the years went on, weapons from 7, 8 and even 9 were implemented, along with Da Ji, Fu Xi, Nuwa and Ranmaru Mori's weapons from Warriors Orochi 2 and Samurai Warriors 3.

The C1s and C6s of movesets can be changed, amazingly enough, with 4 types of C1s and 6 types of C6s. Each weapon also supports Evolution Attacks, even those that came from games other than DW5. You should also see the names of the weapons given in this game, particularly to the weapon movesets from later games as they had to differentiate them from DW5's movesets. Later games could have really learnt something from Online's weapon systems. You can check out the list here.

There were many game modes you could play and different campaigns you could participate in based on different battles and eras. Apparently bots could fill in spaces when games don't have enough players. If this game could allow you to start a LAN session, join a community server or play solo with and against bots, it could have been like Counter Strike, but alas we'll never know.

Sadly though, this is a game I won't be able to review that seriously because I've never played it and I can't anyway because the services have been shutdown. Although the game was free-to-play with microtransactions, I can only imagine how much the experience would be panned by gamers if it still managed to continue in the West past 2014. But hey, I managed to get a piece of content out of it, which is cool.

Can you believe it nearly took me 20 years to play (almost) all the spinoffs of Dynasty Warriors 5? This may be the end of the classic era of Dynasty Warriors, but we haven't finished covering the classic era of Warriors games yet. We head back to Japan next time for Samurai Warriors 2.

[hi-ma-ni]

BPO Companies: How to Choose the Best BPO Company in India?

Today, business process outsourcing has become a growing trend. With so much data and consumers to manage, corporate confidence in Best BPO Company has grown over the years. India's IT and BPO services sector has grown rapidly since its inception in the mid-1990s and today has a turnover of US$37.6 billion. The Indian BPO market has grown due to economies of scale, reduced business risk, cost advantages, improved utilization, and superior experience. Among competitors such as Australia, China, the Philippines, and Ireland, India is now the world's leading hub for the consumption of BPO services. India's immense popularity as a global outsourcing destination is due to the country's low labor costs and a large pool of skilled and skilled workers gave an opportunity to companies like Ascent BPO to provide better services at reasonable prices.

But since many organizations in India offer quality data entry services, companies only need to choose the best ones after they have done their homework. Look on our website to learn how to choose the Best BPO Company like us.

What is business process deploying or outsourcing (BPO)?

Before we get started, we want to give our audience an overview of what a BPO is. Business process outsourcing companies provide services that allow companies to focus on their core business. Let us consider this problem in detail. You may not have the time or resources for a separate organization that you can trust to handle other aspects of your business. These other aspects can be anything from call center operations, marketing, SEO, finance to human resource activities. The sky is the limit. Now that business process outsourcing has sparked some interest, let's explain what to look for in the Best BPO company.

Some Best BPO company are given below:

Tata Consulting Services:

Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is the second-best outsourcing firm in India. TCS is an organization based in Mumbai in Bangalore. TCS provides trading services, platform solutions, analytics, information services, and more. TCS has more than 400,000 employees in India and thousands of employees in other parts of the world. Tata Advisory Services will generate revenue of approximately $23 billion in 2020.

Wipro:

Wipro is a leading multinational company providing IT services, consulting, and business operations. They serve their clients by applying their expertise in cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics, and emerging technologies.

Ascent BPO

Ascent BPO manages multiple streams such as data entry services, data entry projects, data entry processing, web research, financial accounting, and call center services. Get the best outsourcing service at the lowest possible price here. Wide access to major Indian metropolitan areas such as Delhi and Mumbai, as well as other major cities in India such as Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata.

First source solution:

Firstsource Solution is a leading provider of customized Business Process Management (BPM) services to the banking and financial, customer service, telecom, media, and health industries. It is headquartered in Mumbai, and also has operations in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Philippines. In addition, Firstsource Solutions recently won Gold and Silver Awards at the UK Complaint Management Awards 2020.

UrbanTimer:

UrbanTimer is a VA company based in Kolkata. Believing that your experience will be "the best in your business," the company offers administrative support, customer service, content creation, graphic design, project management, QuickBooks services, startups, and more.

Professional BPO Qualifications: What To Look For?

Companies considering working with a BPO company should know what to look for in potential partners. If you're wondering how to find the most qualified BPO company like Ascent BPO, a few key qualifications are good indicators that you're doing business with experienced professionals:

1.    Proven experience:

Your business processes should not be executed by ordinary people. One of the most important qualifications for Best BPO company is proven experience in the industry. Excellent customer testimonials show that your business has been treated similarly.

2.    Specialized Services:

We offer a variety of functions and processes, and specialized services demonstrate expertise. If you're wondering how to find the most qualified BPO company, it's a good sign to find a company that specializes in a field similar to yours.

3.    Reliability and Security:

Because Ascent BPO handles confidential and proprietary company information, you want to ensure that your BPO company's data security measures are in place. If you can tell that a BPO company values ??reliability and security, you know your data is safe.

4.    Focus on Metrics:

Being data-driven is one of the most important skills a BPO company should look for. A metrics-driven BPO company tests and shows clients how it is performing.

5.    Transparency:

Transparency is an important factor if you want to know how to find the most qualified BPO company. If a BPO company doesn't seem honest or transparent, you won't be satisfied with their work.

You should browse through the above-given details about BPO companies to find the most qualified BPO company. These elements will help you determine which BPO company is the best fit for your business.

Resource:https://www.ascentbpo.com/bpo-companies

Useful Links:

[thefisherqueen]

"The United States and the United Kingdom bombed several targets in Yemen with aircraft and ships. According to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, these were precision attacks aimed at disabling, among other things, launch platforms and missile installations that the Houthis use to attack ships in the Red Sea.

Bruins Slot and Ollongren said the Dutch military support consists of “the deployment of one staff officer.” There is also political support. The Ministers called it a “short-term and limited operation.” If the U.S. asks for more support from the Netherlands, the government will consider the request, Bruins Slot and Ollongren wrote.

They also said that the intended and expected effect of the American-British operation is “de-escalation in the Red Sea, as it weakens the military capabilities of the Houthis and discourages further attacks.” They also expect the operation to reduce the risk of a “regional escalation.”

“At the same time, we must consider the scenario that the attacks continue, the conflict in the region further escalates, and that there are consequences for the Dutch position and interests in the region. The U.S. may then propose follow-up actions. The Netherlands will, as stated, reconsider its current involvement in this,” the Ministers wrote.

They decided to comply with the American-British request for support in connection with the Dutch presence and interest in the region. Parliament was not informed in advance “given the confidentiality of this operation,” Bruins Slot and Ollongren wrote. According to them, the Houthis have been called on several times to stop their armed attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

“As a traditionally seafaring country, the Netherlands attaches great importance to the right of free passage and supports this targeted operation,” outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte wrote on X. He said the Houthis’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea are “a clear violation of international law and pose a threat to maritime personnel and trade flows.”

I have SO MANY things to say about it, but mainly: 1) The Dutch government is actively supporting Israel in their genocidal acts, you do not have a right to even speak the words 'international law', prime minister 2) Bombing is supposed to cause de-escalation??? How in the fucking world?? 3) They are actually straight up SAYING that this bombing of Yemen is to protect Dutch position and interests in the region. That's not even war propaganda anymore, it's not even attempting anymore to hide that economic and political interests are much more important than peace and middle eatern people's lives

[grabdear01]

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[david-drews]

Exploring BitiCodesPro: Trading, Risks, and Regulations

In the world of trading, the allure of substantial profits often goes hand in hand with the risk of substantial losses. Approximately 70% of traders find themselves on the losing side of the equation, underscoring the need for a cautious and informed approach to trading.

One term that may catch your attention in this landscape is "BitiCodesPro." However, it's essential to understand that BitiCodesPro is primarily a marketing term and not representative of a specific company or service. The individuals featured in promotional videos associated with BitiCodesPro are often actors, reinforcing the importance of skepticism when evaluating such content.

Before you embark on any investment journey, it's crucial to meticulously review the Terms & Conditions and the Disclaimer page of the third-party investor platform you're considering. Additionally, it's imperative to familiarize yourself with your country's tax regulations concerning investment gains to ensure compliance with the law.

In the United States, trading options on commodities is subject to stringent regulations. Encouraging people to trade such options is only permissible when they are traded on a CFTC-registered exchange or possess legal exemptions. More Information: BitiCodesPro

The United Kingdom also imposes its set of trading regulations. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) policy PS20/10 specifically prohibits the sale, marketing, and distribution of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) for cryptocurrencies and restricts promotional materials related to these products for UK consumers.

When you share your personal information with trading platforms, it's vital to recognize that this information may be shared with third-party trading service providers in accordance with the platform's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. Your options for trading are diverse, including utilizing trading software, human brokers, or making your own trades.

[apextradefunding]

Unlock the potential of your brand new future with Apex Trader Funding. Take control and elevate your financial journey with our innovative solutions tailored to your success.

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Navigating the Trading Landscape with BitiCodesPro: Risks, Regulations, and Opportunities

Trading can be a highly profitable endeavor, but it's important to recognize that it also carries substantial risks. Statistics show that approximately 70% of traders end up losing money. This makes it crucial for anyone considering trading to approach the endeavor with caution and a well-informed perspective.

One term you may encounter in the world of trading is "Biticodes." It's essential to understand that this term is often used for marketing purposes and doesn't represent a specific company or service. Videos on websites promoting Biticodes often feature actors, emphasizing the importance of taking everything you see with a grain of salt.

Before you decide to invest, make sure to thoroughly read the Terms & Conditions and the Disclaimer page on the third-party investor platform you are considering. Additionally, be aware of your country's tax regulations related to investment gains to ensure compliance with the law.

In the United States, there are strict regulations concerning the trading of options on commodities. Encouraging individuals to trade such options is only legal if they are traded on a CFTC-registered exchange or have legal exemptions.

The United Kingdom has its own set of regulations, with the FCA's policy PS20/10 prohibiting the sale, marketing, and distribution of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) for cryptocurrencies and restricting promotional materials related to these products for UK consumers.

[onenettvchannel]

BALITANG HANEP: Chef Tiktoker 'Cooking with Fred' brings cartoon recipes to life by mirroring skills with Glitch Techs' Hi-5 to make a Muchacho Taco [#RadyoBanderaEXCLUSIVE]

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- In the coruscating culinary scene of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada… A talented chef and TikToker is known as 'Cooking with Fred' is gaining recognition for his exceptional and imaginative cooking skills. The self-proclaimed "cartoon foodie" has become a sensation by recreating most loved dishes from famous kid's shows and TV shows, such as Glitch Techs.

One resident chef lives in Vancouver, the aforesaid country with 4 decades of experience in the culinary industry, captured the hearts of viewers with his creativity and passion for cooking. As a devoted fan of Glitch Techs, an animated Nickelodeon series streaming on Netflix, Fred decided to recreate one of the iconic dishes featured in an episode called 'Age of Hinobi', which released in late-February 2020.

(VIDEO COURTESY: CookingwlthFred via TikTok VIDEO)

His viral video on TikTok (owned by Bytedance Limited) to showcase their skills by mirroring fictional cartoon character (Hector "Hi-5" Nieves), a part-time family-owned chef at a Tex-Mex (Texas and Mexico) food truck. Aside on that, he is currently a gamer employee of Hinobi Technology in Bailley City, Texas, United States of America (U.S.A.). Hector is also a Stringer Correspondent of Nickelodeon News in his same but close resident of Bailley City, per our news organization affiliate of OneNETnews. Fred meticulously followed the steps depicted in a streaming episode premiere on Season 1. He shared the entire process in a TikTok video, garnering attention from food enthusiasts and Glitch Techs' fans alike.

(FILE PHOTO COURTESY for REPRESENTATION: Taco Bueno)

The Muchacho Taco is a mouthwatering fusion of Mexican flavors. Featuring a soft tortilla wrapped around seasoned ground beef, smothered in melted cheese, tangy salsa and a dollop of sour cream or anything for sauce condiments that has become a beloved staple for Hinobian streaming fans of the show. The dish has gained recognition beyond a fictional realm.

(SCREENGRAB COURTESY: cookingwlthfred via Tiktok VIDEO)

The connection between 'Cooking With Fred' and 'Glitch Techs' offers an exciting avenue for fans to continue engaging with its televised streaming series. Fred's talent for recreating the show's iconic dishes allows viewers to experience the magic of their favorite cartoon in the real world, including Texas state in America and British Columbia in Canada. The possibilities for future collaborations between Fred and Glitch Techs' enthusiasts could lead to exciting culinary adventures.

(FILE MAGAZINE PHOTO COURTESY: LegitEricRobles via X Network / Glitch Techs Manual)

Regardless of the cancellation of 'Glitch Techs' after its 3rd Season by Nickelodeon Animation Studio (NAS), a leaked episode script caused some potential legal concerns to the public, leading to be privately shelved from a streaming platform. Fans remain hopeful for a revival, speculating that a potential Season 3 may find a new home on a different streaming platform or syndicated TV network such as Nickelodeon Asia, ABS-CBN Entertainment and iWantTFC. The problem is, they may have a possible trade secret obtained by Fred, or just for references that do not need to mirror cooking steps with a style of MasterChef like Gordon James Ramsay in Scotland, United Kingdom.

We reached out to Mr. Fred for the ongoing statement and response to OneNETnews, but was not available to respond for a comment via E-Mail correspondent. Looking forward, Hinobian fans between both 'Cooking with Fred' and 'Glitch Techs' eagerly anticipate the potential in future seasons. Fred is potentially soon to collaborate as a guest actor individual if approved for a big break in later episodes of Season 3, awaiting the officials between NAS and Paramount Global, following after a clearance of the writer's strike in Hollywood to reach a fair deal or to scrap the said streaming TV show forever. His culinary abilities could carry an additional aspect to the gaming experience, blending the worlds of cooking and gaming in perfect harmony.

In a world where creativity knows no bounds, 'Cooking With Fred' and 'Glitch Techs' exhibit the power of imagination, overcoming any barrier between fiction and reality, one delicious Taco dish at a time.

This lifestyle news report in Balitang Hanep is brought to you by the Texas Culinary Institute (TCI).

FILE PHOTO COURTESY for REPRESENTATION: cookingwfred.com and Judacris / dm29 via X Network BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.tiktok.com/@cookingwlthfred/video/7267945621808614662 [Referenced TikTok Video via Cooking with Fred] *https://cookingwfred.com/about/ [Referenced Biography via Cooking with Fred website] *https://netflix.com/title/80221337 *https://glitchtechs.fandom.com/wiki/Age_of_Hinobi *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_truck *https://www.tacobueno.com/the-muchaco/ and *https://www.txculinary.com/about-us [Referenced Biography via Texas Culinary Institute]

-- OneNETnews Team

[squideo]

Advert Alchemy: Thinkbox’s Trick

In this series, Squideo has examined the best ways to turn advertising content into gold. Now that we’ve broken down the eight key ingredients, it’s time to dive deep into some examples of stellar advertising. This week, the advert in question was picked by Squideo’s Video Producer, Lesley Ovington.

When asked why this Thinkbox advert had become her favourite, Lesley said: “I love the entire series with Harvey because it’s so funny. I also had a Jack Russell Terrier growing up, and these adverts always reminded me of him. The entire series is great but the first one, Every Home Needs a Harvey, remains the best.”

101 Thinkbox

Thinkbox is unlike other companies analysed in this series, as it’s a marketing body for commercial television in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, Thinkbox has existed to manage the advertising for British TV channels and help businesses marketing on these networks meet their marketing objectives.

It’s shareholders are four major UK television networks: Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and UKTV. As the trade body for these hugely popular networks, Thinkbox has needed to think outside the box when enticing businesses to advertise. All of these channels have hugely successful shows linked to them, and the advertising produced by Thinkbox had to match the creative energy of its shareholders.

Raining Cats and Thinkbox

Made with Red Brick Road, the advertising agency behind the iconic ‘Every Little Helps’ Tesco slogan, Thinkbox aired its Every Home Needs a Harvey advert in 2010 – five years after the trade body was created and was still relatively unknown to the general public. Every Home Needs a Harvey was only their second television advert ever; the first also made by Red Brick Road. According to the agency, the brief from Thinkbox was to educate media planners and marketing directors about the power of TV advertising.

“‘Harvey’ was born – a resourceful, talented dog, who uses TV to tell stories and to persuade. His first TV outing, created by us in 2010, was voted Ad of the Year by ITV1 viewers. TV ad revenues reached a record £5bn in 2014, continuing 5 years of successive growth.”

Television has seen a lot of competition in recent years as an advertising destination, especially as more viewers move away from television to advert-free streaming platforms. Comparatively cheaper adverts can also be run on social media, with algorithms used to ensure it ends up in front of the ideal demographic for your product. As Red Brick Road proves, however, revenue can still be generated from television adverts. Businesses invested £1.2 billion GBP in television advertising in 2021, a 42% increase in spending compared to 2020. With the cost-of-living crisis forcing consumers to unsubscribe from costly streaming services, this revenue may grow further as viewers return to public networks like Channel 4 and ITV.

Thinkbox & Me

ITV1 viewers named Every Home Needs a Harvey Ad of the Year in 2010, and Red Brick Road went on to produce two additional Harvey adverts for Thinkbox between 2010 and 2014. The advert was clearly popular when it aired, but that was thirteen years ago. What was it about this advert that stuck in the memories of so many people?

Super Sell

Show don’t tell. That’s what Thinkbox accomplished by running Every Home Needs a Harvey. What better way to demonstrate the power of advertising than to create an advert about advertising. In the advert, Harvey presents a video to his potential adopters which sells the idea of choosing him amongst the line up of rescue dogs. The other dogs look cute, but the video shows everything else Harvey can offer.

To marketers watching the advert, it also showed what television marketing still had to offer. Times have changed, and mass public adverts are no longer constrained to intermission breaks, newspapers and billboards. As we explored in Advert Alchemy: The Location, modern marketers have an overwhelming choice of advertising destinations from social media to video games to eggs (that’s not a typo, CBS put adverts on eggs in 2006, go read the blog if you haven’t already). But television adverts haven’t been chased off the stage, advertisers just need to be more creative to attract attention away from phone screens.

Heavenly Harvey

The star of the advert, Harvey, was played by Sykes, a dog actor who appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Young Victoria and Doctor Who, as well as other notable films and television shows. In the year of his debut advert, he also acted in a John Smith’s Brewery advert alongside Peter Kay.

In the wake of the advert, Sykes’ Facebook page had 11,600 friends and he was getting offers to open pet shops around the country. Not bad for a rescue dog. He eventually retired in 2016 after going deaf, ending Thinkbox’s Harvey adverts in the process. Because who could follow such a good boy?

Monumental Music

Set to the 1974 song You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet by Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the audience – like Harvey’s potential adopters – are quickly hooked into watching the advert. Like Cadbury’s Gorilla advert, the choice of such a popular song cannot be underestimated in the success of this advert.

The song peaked at number 2 in the UK singles charts the year of its release, beaten to the top by a Christmas song (Lonely This Christmas, Mud), which surprised the band who had been reluctant to release the song. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet was introduced to a new generation in the mid-2000s thanks to one of Thinkbox’s shareholders: ITV. The network used the song for several years during its coverage of Formula One grand prix races, which reignited sales of this insanely catchy single thirty years after its release.

Content Worth Gold

What do you think? What made Thinkbox’s Every Home Needs a Harvey advert so successful? Watch the full advert below and let us know in the comments.

[mariacallous]

Planning is underway for the G-7 summit that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will host from June 13 to 15. As the 50th summit of the G-7, the club of the world’s leading democracies, there will be an impulse to celebrate.

Understandably so. The G-7—which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and, since 1981, the EU—today represents 54 percent of world GDP and over 55 percent of global defense spending. For decades, G-7 members have gained additional weight on the world stage by coordinating their national economic power in pursuit of shared foreign-policy priorities, such as protecting democratic societies and open markets.

But the importance of the coming summit exceeds its status as a landmark anniversary. The G-7’s future—and the future of global democratic cohesion in general—is now at stake.

Recent disparaging remarks about NATO by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have led many to question the credibility of America’s commitment to its allies. Part of Trump’s frustration with NATO comes from other NATO members’ historically low defense spending compared to the United States. Why should Americans spend more on Europe’s defense than Europeans are willing to?

However, the G-7 might prove even more vulnerable to the vagaries of a second Trump term. For Trump, coordinating U.S. foreign policy with others is a pointless constraint on U.S. freedom of action—unless, that is, it provides a tangible net economic return to America.

Herein lies the problem. The United States currently runs a trade deficit in goods with all of its G-7 partners except the United Kingdom. In 2023, these deficits amounted to $337 billion, more than the U.S. deficit with China ($279 billion). Trade deficits in goods are a foreign-policy red flag to Trump. That is why he treated Angela Merkel’s Germany as a greater rival than Vladimir Putin’s Russia and torpedoed the 2018 summit communiqué after G-7 leaders tried to push back against U.S. protectionism.

G-7 leaders could cross their fingers and hope there is a second term for incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden. But this is currently, at best, a 50-50 proposition. Instead, they should use the next three months to put in place a policy agenda that could withstand the buffeting of a second Trump presidency while also serving as a platform for a second Biden term.

The G-7’s achievements in Biden’s first term have been impressive. Since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the G-7 has implemented an unprecedented package of sanctions against Russia, ranging from freezing the roughly $300 billion of its central bank’s reserves held in their currencies to banning the provision of insurance to tankers carrying Russian oil if it’s sold above a cap of $60 per barrel. It can do this because over 93 percent of global reserves are held in G-7 currencies, and over 90 percent of the world’s oceangoing tonnage is covered by protection and indemnity insurance issued by companies based in the G-7.

Reflecting their common concerns over China’s rise and Beijing’s close alignment with Moscow, the G-7 has also engaged consistently over the past three years with close allies South Korea and Australia, in an effort to start “friendshoring” supply chains for the semiconductors and renewable energy inputs that will be central to their future economic growth.

All this important work could come to an end if a new Trump administration returned to punishing its closest allies for being free riders. But fixing G-7 members’ trade imbalances with the United States is impossible in the near term. That’s why the upcoming G-7 summit must prioritize preparing for the possible restoration of a hostile Trump presidency.

First, G-7 members need to send a clear signal to Moscow that their support for protecting the sovereignty of Ukraine has no time limit. The murderous conflict there is now shadowed by an intense contest to show which side can outlast the other politically and economically. With new U.S. support currently blocked in Congress, European countries plus the EU have already taken an important step to demonstrate their resolve, by committing a further 77 euros billion in future multiyear financial and military assistance to Kyiv, on top of the approximately 75 billion euros they have already allocated since the start of the war.

The summit should also decide how all G-7 members will start drawing on the profits earned from the frozen Russian reserves. The obstacle to date is that the bulk of these reserves are held by EU banks, and some governments and the European Central Bank are concerned that even the modest step of disbursing the earned interest (4.4 billion euros last year) lacks a firm legal foundation and could also undermine the euro’s credibility as a global reserve currency. Overcoming these reservations would underscore the G-7’s resolve; and a Trump presidency might think twice before reneging on an arrangement that would repay some of the U.S. costs of supporting Ukraine.

Second, G-7 members should invite South Korea and Australia formally into the group. If there is a second Biden term, their membership will strengthen the G-7’s collective resilience in high technology and renewable energy. If there is a second Trump presidency, these two democratic allies will be less isolated in the face of his mercantilist threats.

Third, G-7 members should allocate a first tranche of funding for the plan that the Biden administration, EU leaders, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and India announced last year to build a rail, energy, and data corridor from India through the Gulf and Israel to Europe. This belated but important project to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative will connect India’s and the Gulf states’ youthful, burgeoning economies with Europe’s wealthy but aging markets.

The war in Gaza has called the plan into question, but its benefits to Israel create an important additional incentive for a post-Netanyahu government to build a durable peace with the Palestinians. At the same time, it would support the Trump presidency’s main foreign-policy achievement: the 2020 Abraham Accords that normalized Israel’s relations with several Arab states.

The G-7 is an invaluable geo-economic coordinating body for what is shaping up to be a protracted new Cold War with China and Russia. Whether to cement the gains of the Biden presidency or lessen the global risks of a Trump presidency, the G-7’s 50th anniversary summit must live up to its billing.