BOGOTA, May 12 (Reuters) - Net profit at Colombia's state-controlled oil producer Ecopetrol tumbled 96 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year, largely due to the sharp drop in crude oil prices since the middle of last year.

The company posted a consolidated net profit of 160 billion Colombian pesos ($67.2 million) in the quarter, compared with 3.88 trillion pesos in the same period a year earlier.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, EBITDA or cash flow, fell 60 percent to 3.15 trillion pesos in the first quarter versus 7.86 trillion pesos in the same period of 2014.

The company's consolidated oil and gas production, which includes subsidiaries, rose 1 percent from the first quarter last year to 773,400 barrels per day equivalent. The non-consolidated figure for Ecopetrol alone was 722,000 barrels.

Ecopetrol said its latest results and comparative year-ago figures were prepared according to newly adopted NIIF international accounting standards, meaning figures reported for the first quarter of 2014 have now changed. ($1 = 2,382.5000 Colombian pesos)

(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Ken Wills)

Summary: BOGOTA, May 12- Net profit at Colombia's state-controlled oil producer Ecopetrol tumbled 96 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year, largely due to the sharp drop in crude oil prices since the middle of last year. The non-consolidated figure for Ecopetrol alone was 722,000 barrels. Ecopetrol said its latest results and comparative year-ago...


Elijah (in wheelchair) with Carolina Panther Cam Newton (to his right) and friends and neighbors

09/28/2015 AT 03:05 PM EDT

A stranger from down the street decorated their house; a star NFL quarterback sent an ice cream truck and hand delivered boxes of brownies, and more than a hundred kids dressed in costume and trick or treated a month before Halloween – all because their 10-year-old friend and neighbor may not make it to his favorite holiday.

"I had a great time," Elijah Aschbrenner said of the block party in his honor Friday night. "My street is my home. They are my family. I was so excited to see how many people came."

Sadly, doctors have told Elijah's mom he has four to six weeks left to live.

He was first diagnosed with

, a rare form of cancer, in May of last year.

Elijah endured thirty rounds of radiation and chemo, a ten hour surgery and rods in his back – and was pronounced cancer free last September. But in April – on Easter Sunday – his parents were devastated to learn there was a tumor in his right lung.

It only got worse and last week doctors said there was nothing left to do. Hospice was called in. Elijah was told he didn't have long to live.

"It's been a very emotional time," mom Becky Hughes, 40, tells PEOPLE.

"My heart is broken into a million pieces," she says. "We are taking it one day at a time and cherish the memories we are still making together.

This week their neighborhood in Concord, North Carolina helped make some of their best memories yet.

Elijah just wanted to spook people. So they brought in a well-known special effects makeup artist to turn him into a scary clown.

"He made me look just like a creepy clown," he tells PEOPLE. "It was so real and I loved it."

When the Carolina Panthers' star quarterback Cam Newton heard about the 10 year old, he called to chat, asked him what kind of food he likes and then surprised everyone by showing up at the party, hand delivering all of Elijah's favorites.

"It was the coolest thing ever that Cam surprised us," says Elijah.

"It was a night we'll never forget," mom echoes.

The makeup and the prosthetics were so good ,you couldn't see his smile, but mom says, "I know he was just beaming the whole time. He's pushed through and fought so hard, he gives us strength every day and I know he had the time of his life."

It's a memory she'll treasure forever.

"As a mom there is nothing greater than seeing all this," she says. "It was a magical night."

Elijah (in wheelchair) with Cam Newton and his mom, Becky (dressed as Wonder Woman)

Summary: Doctors told Elijah Aschbrenner, 10, he has four to six weeks to live


Aug 10 (Reuters) - With back-to-school supply promotions starting soon after school lets out, and not stopping till the yellow buses start rolling again, it can be challenging figuring out where the real deals are.

Reuters asked Tara Kuczykowski, a mother of five in Columbus, Ohio, and author of the popular DealSeekingMom.com blog (http://dealseekingmom.com), for her best tips on shuffling through these deals, figuring out when to buy online, or when spending more could make sense.

"The earlier you start, the more you're going to save," Kuczykowski says. "Buy a little bit here and there. Maybe you don't need as many as the limit, but if it's a deal, get it anyway. Stock up."

For instance, she notes that if you can get ten notebooks for a dollar now, it makes sense to buy as many as you can. You will always be able to use a notebook, and the extras could be donated to the school to benefit less privileged children.

FIGURING OUT THE REAL DEALS

"It really pays to look at all the ads in a given week and see who has the best prices," Kuczykowski says. "Take the ads with you. You can also check online. But get the Sunday newspaper ads."

Just sitting down for a few minutes and glancing at these will allow you to see what one store is charging for, say, pencils, compared to another. That could help you avoid paying more for a product at one store if you can get it cheaper elsewhere, she notes.

ITEMS TO FIND THE BEST PENNY DEALS FOR

"Index cards, ballpoint pens, and school glue," Kuczykowski says.

Office supply stores are the best place to find such deals, she says, and they may be priced better than online options, especially if bought in larger quantities.

"They're trying to draw the crowds in there. Buy the limit. For a penny or a few cents it makes sense," she says.

Look for big discounts as well on other items, she says, like Ziploc bags, hand sanitizer, garbage bags, paper towels, and office supplies that would be good for anyone to stock up on, including small businesses.

ON BACKPACKS AND THE OCCASIONAL SPLURGE

"It's usually better to spend a little more on a quality backpack that's going to last, than on a very inexpensive backpack advertised to get you in the store," Kuczykowski says.

A cheap backpack she bought for one of her kids fell apart in short order, after which Kuczykowski splurged four or five times that price for Lands End backpacks that lasted through all of elementary school.

"It's one of the times that quality wins out over price."

"Take advantage of the end-of-summer clearance sales. All the short sleeves, all the shorts," Kuczykowski says.

"It's easier to stretch those items than to buy the big fall wardrobe they're not even going to wear for a few months."

"Rubbermaid LunchBlox comes with an ice pack and containers that all snap together. The ice packs are durable. You can fill the little cups," she says.

The kits sell for about $15 but can be purchased at many retailers for $10 or less. They can be configured to fit a variety of different shaped lunch bags or boxes.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker and Bernadette Baum)

Summary: Aug 10- With back-to-school supply promotions starting soon after school lets out, and not stopping till the yellow buses start rolling again, it can be challenging figuring out where the real deals are. Reuters asked Tara Kuczykowski, a mother of five in Columbus, Ohio, and author of the popular DealSeekingMom.com blog, for her best tips on shuffling through...


As consumer trends have shifted, especially with regards to food and beverages, Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke said Thursday the company plans to win them back with a simple plan: Make the food healthier.

"The consumer has changed what he values, [and] health is the common denominator," Bulcke said in a CNBC "Squawk on the Street" interview.

On June 2, the company said it would remove artificial flavors from its products and lower their sodium content by the end of the year.

Read MoreNestle chairman: Time to turn off the water taps

It's part of a growing trend among food companies. Chipotle Mexican Grill announced on April 27 it would stop serving food with genetically engineered ingredients, while Subway Restaurants said in February it would remove azodicarbonamide, a chemical found in its bread (as well as yoga mats).

Bulcke added he believes this overall shift among consumers will give the company a better opportunity for reaching millennial customers. "Millennials [are] actually not a mystery. When you think of them, you think of natural [foods]."

Summary: As consumer trends have shifted, Nestle's Paul Bulcke said the company plans to win them back with a simple plan.


(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - On the London Metal Exchange (LME) benchmark nickel for three-month delivery is currently trading around $10,000 per tonne.

Which, as with all the other industrial metals traded on the LME, is the lowest it has been since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-2009.

But whereas the likes of copper and aluminium are still comfortably above the troughs recorded during the worst of the manufacturing meltdown that followed the financial meltdown, nickel is actually there.

Nickel hit a low of $9,100 during its "flash crash" of Aug. 12, within spitting distance of the low of $8,850 recorded in October 2009, the month after the fateful "Lehman Moment".

It's an extraordinary outcome for a metal which, unlike most of the rest of the LME complex, is experiencing both a structural tightening of supply and a growing number of price-related supply hits.

So is nickel the victim of irrational fear and panic, a collateral casualty of the financial volatility that has rippled out from collapsing Chinese stock markets?

Or are there good reasons for it treading the same ground as during the last period of global market disorder?

Graphic on long-term nickel price and stocks:

One key difference between now and then is the level of stocks, or at least visible stocks, hanging over the market.

When nickel recorded that historic low back in October 2008 LME nickel stocks stood at 57,000 tonnes.

By January 2010, following one of the most severe manufacturing collapses in living memory, they had risen to 166,000 tonnes.

Compare and contrast with the recent June peak of 465,564 tonnes of exchange-registered inventory. It should almost go without saying that this was an all-time high.

Unsurprisingly, such a huge overhang of metal was already pressuring prices ever lower even before the Shanghai stock market went into free fall.

Where did all the stocks come from?

Well, a lot of them came from China, flushed out of the shadow financing trade by the Qingdao port scandal and the resulting mass movement of metal to safe-haven storage.

Between June 2014, when the allegations of multiple pledging of metal in Qingdao first started making the headlines, and March this year China exported 100,000 tonnes of refined nickel. That was more than was notched up over the previous two years and sufficient to turn the country into a net exporter for the first time since at least 2002.

But rising inventory also reflected two other drivers more rooted in the nickel market's fundamentals.

The first was surging production. Refined nickel output grew at an average pace of close to 11 percent per year in the 2011-2013 period, according to the International Nickel Study Group (INSG).

And that's not including China's vast nickel pig iron (NPI) sector, which by definition doesn't produce refined metal but rather an intermediate product that can be fed directly into stainless steel furnaces.

It was with hindsight a classic case of commodity bad timing, a new generation of plants planned during the boom years of 2006-2007 finally making it into production, often after protracted overruns.

Such a supply surge was always going to be a test of whether demand could absorb all this extra metal.

Graphic on Chinese stainless steel production:

Cue the second bit of commodity market bad timing.

While the broader markets fret about slowing industrial activity in China, nickel arguably has experienced its own Chinese "hard landing".

China's output of stainless steel, the largest first-stage usage sector for nickel, fell by 1.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Which doesn't sound like a big deal at all, until you consider that prior to this year Chinese stainless steel production had been rising at a double-digit pace, 14 percent in 2014 and 18 percent in 2013.

This is only partly related to the broader Chinese slowdown story. An extra headwind for China's stainless producers has come from trade sanctions, particularly those implemented by the European Union.

Chinese stainless producers, like their carbon steel and aluminium counterparts, had been exporting their way out of domestic market weakness.

However, while carbon steel producers can switch alloying mixes and aluminium producers shift product mixes to navigate a growing list of trade sanctions, stainless mills seem to have hit a hard wall.

Exports of carbon steel have carried on booming despite a growing number of trade sanctions. Those of stainless steel have fallen by 21 percent so far this year, according to analysts at Jefferies.

"Due to the smaller size and more niche product qualities of stainless steel, we believe proof is mounting that protectionist policy can have a more substantive impact on stainless than carbon steel markets," they argue. ("European Steel, Export Your Problems Away", Aug. 24 2015)

DEMAND WOES TRUMP SUPPLY WOES...FOR NOW

So, record high stocks after a period of super-fast production growth, a "hard landing" in usage from the Chinese stainless sector and a broader global stainless destocking cycle and you get a plausible explanation as to why nickel is back traipsing over chart territory last seen in 2008-2009.

The demand shock may not be as severe as during the Global Financial Crisis but the other parts of the fundamental picture, particularly those huge stocks, are arguably more price-negative than they were then.

The irony is that nickel's supply-demand dynamics really are tightening.

The Indonesian nickel ban has been in place for 21 months now, stopping the flow of the nickel ore that feeds Chinese NPI producers. Stocks of ore, particularly the high-grade ore that other countries such as the Philippines can't replace, are fast running out.

Just about every Chinese NPI producer and a good many non-Chinese conventional producers have operating costs above current prices.

Jim Lennon, analyst at Macquarie Bank, told the Reuters Base Metals Forum last month he estimated 65-70 percent of nickel supply is currently losing money.

And the supply response is building. Australian miner Mincor said it will slash production over the second half of this year, while Mirabela Nickel said it has slowed activity at its Brazilian mine.

Small Canadian producer First Nickel, which was already winding down operations due to low prices, has just gone into administration.

Traders report a steady tightening in stainless scrap and ferronickel, both parts of the nickel market that exist beyond the light of exchange trading.

None of which is reflected in prices at their current distressed levels.

Right now demand woes and fear of more to come are the overriding theme for nickel and just about every other commodity.

But while the talk in other markets is all about cost curve support and potential price-related closures, nickel is already there.

Nickel supply has been tightening ever since Indonesia cut off nickel ore supplies to China back in January 2014 and the list of price-related closures is lengthening.

This market has a reputation for preempting broader metal market trends. Remember it hit its "supercycle" peak in 2007, four years before copper.

So if you're looking for a turning point in the current cycle of metallic doom and gloom, keep an eye on apparently bombed-out nickel.

Summary: LONDON, Sept 3- On the London Metal Exchange benchmark nickel for three-month delivery is currently trading around $10,000 per tonne. Nickel hit a low of $9,100 during its "flash crash" of Aug. 12, within spitting distance of the low of $8,850 recorded in October 2009, the month after the fateful "Lehman Moment". When nickel recorded that historic low back in October...


* Premier reiterates government vows on reform

* A currency war would only hurt China -Li

* Says devaluation not conducive to internationalising currency

DALIAN, China, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Prospects for China's economy are positive and there is no basis for continued devaluation of the yuan, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday, reiterating the government's vows to push ahead with reforms and support the economy.

China does not want to see a currency war and the yuan will retain its stability, Li told a meeting of company executives at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the northeastern port city of Dalian

"If a currency war does happen, it would only hurt China," Li added. "The continued devaluation of the yuan is definitely not conducive to the currency becoming internationalised. This is not our policy preference."

China last month devalued the yuan by nearly 2 percent in a move that stunned markets, raising concerns it could provoke capital flight, even as the country's economy stumbles.

China did not want the yuan devaluation to stimulate exports, Li reiterated, adding that there was no reason for further yuan weakness.

Asked about recent financial market volatility, Li said China needed to continue reforms in many areas to ensure its financial stability.

"Now we can say government measures have forced out the possibility of any systemic financial risks. The action was in no way meant to weaken the role of the market," he added.

A plunge of 40 percent in China's stock market since mid-June sent shockwaves across the world, fuelling worries among some investors that a hard landing lay ahead for the Chinese economy.

Li said recent government policies had gained traction and China would maintain basic policy direction but would prepare to make pre-emptive adjustments.

The creation of more than 7 million new urban jobs and an unemployment rate held at 5.1 percent in the first half of this year showed China's economy was on a "reasonable track", Li said.

"We won't be swayed by short term economic fluctuations in our big picture direction," said Li, pledging to push ahead with structural reforms while stepping up targeted regulatory measures.

China's economy grew 7 percent in the first half from a year earlier - in line with the government's target for 2015, but recent downbeat data has raised risks of missing the full-year target.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih, Writing by Xiaoyi Shao; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Summary: *A currency war would only hurt China- Li. China does not want to see a currency war and the yuan will retain its stability, Li told a meeting of company executives at the World Economic Forum in the northeastern port city of Dalian.  "If a currency war does happen, it would only hurt China," Li added.


11/10/2015 AT 11:30 AM EST

has proposed a boycott of

"I have one of the most successful Starbucks, in Trump Tower. Maybe we should boycott Starbucks? I don't know. Seriously, I don't care," the

said during a campaign speech in Springfield, Illinois, on Monday, reported

"That's the end of that lease, but who cares?"

After Starbucks rolled out the seasonal cups earlier this month, some customers took to social media to protest the new minimalistic design, which features only a plain red background, rather than reindeer, Christmas ornaments or other typical holiday imagery.

Some claimed that Starbucks has joined the alleged War on Christmas by opting for a more neutral beverage container.

"If I become president, we're all going to be saying Merry Christmas again," Trump added. "That I can tell you."

Summary: The presidential candidate brought up the debate over the coffee chain's new minimalistic holiday cups during a campaign speech


All the cajoling, campaigning, and between-two-ferning by the Obama team did help get the total number of enrollees in the ACA somewhere near the officially reported number of 8 million.

But I don't remember seeing anything in those "get covered" ads that talked about how you have to pay for this coverage, certainly nothing about when the first bills were due.

Read MorePresident Obama gets between two ferns with Zach Galifianakis

All the people who talk about how hard it is to remove a government entitlement program once it's enacted are right, but what sets the ACA apart is that, unlike Social Security and Medicare, it requires its "beneficiaries" to send the government a check as opposed to just receiving one in the mail. That's a very big difference and it's already proving to be a potential Achilles heel for the entire program. This is like a self-repealing entitlement program the Republicans don't even need to get the votes for.

So, the predictable result will be that millions of these last-second enrollees will effectively drop out of the system relatively soon. People who never had insurance before and never had to pay these kinds of premiums are not the best people to target with the kind of "hard sell" the administration engaged in during February and March. It reminds me of those marketing campaigns they used to run at colleges where they gave incoming freshmen free sweatshirts and airline tickets in return for signing up for credit cards. A lot of the big banks stopped doing those campaigns when so many of the gullible students ran up credit card bills they couldn't pay. (25 years ago, I was one of those gullible students!).

Summary: The number of nonpaying Obamacare enrollees is going to be huge, says Jake Novak.


01/06/2016 AT 09:00 PM EST

just proved she is a comedian of the people.

star, 45, nabbed the first trophy at Wednesday's People's Choice Awards, picking up the award for best comedic movie actress.

"This is so crazy to be up here," she said after accepting the award from

and Jack Black. "Every time you buy a ticket, every time you go to see a movie, every time you support it you allow me to live out a crazy dream."

I always feel like I should pinch myself because I can't believe that I can do it," she continued.

The actress also thanked her husband, Ben Falcone, who accompanied her to the event, as well as their two daughters.

The star of the upcoming

reboot also praised director Paul Feig while onstage.

"I hope I make 75 more movies with him," she said.

for best action movie actor and

for best dramatic TV actor.

Summary: "I always feel like I should pinch myself because I can't believe that I can do it," McCarthy said in her acceptance speech


Changes in income: If you know that your income will change this year to next, there are some planning opportunities.

If your income is set to decrease because of an event like retirement and you anticipate that your income in future years will be much less, use the higher income tax bracket this year as an opportunity to donate more to charity. If you're not quite ready to choose the charities, use a donor-advised fund that will allow you to take the large deduction this year at a higher tax bracket and direct the funds to your charities in the future.

(Read more: It's how you donate that counts)

If you started a business or have had little or no income but expect it to rise next year and into the future, consider using the temporary lower tax bracket to your advantage by converting an IRA to a Roth. You may pay little or no tax due to the low income, yet enjoy tax-free growth and avoid Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) later on.

Consider a Roth 401(k): Most companies don't announce the addition of a Roth 401(k) to their plan lineup with balloons and streamers, but if your employer added one, it may be an opportunity to save in a different way.

(Read more: Happy Holidays, get tax planning started)

According to outsourcing firm Aon Hewitt's 2013 Trends and Experience in Defined Contribution Plans survey, 50 percent of employer plans now allow Roth contributions, up from 11 percent in 2007, but only 9.6 percent of eligible employees elect to save in a Roth.

If you have the Roth option, you can contribute to both the traditional 401(k) and the Roth, or, if your plan allows conversions, you can convert to a Roth if you think your tax bracket will be higher in the future.

Set up auto rebalancing: I am a huge fan of this buy low/sell high strategy that automatically rebalances your account either quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

(Read more: Time to rebalance your portfolio)

With the stock market reaching new highs seemingly every day, U.S. stocks have far outperformed most asset classes, and your 401(k) is likely overweight U.S. stocks.This may be fine, but keep in mind that the risk may be higher than you originally intended.

Auto rebalancing sets up a discipline to keep risk in check. If you had this in place over the last seven years, your account would have been selling stocks leading up to the financial crisis, and buying them when they were cheaper during the downturn.

Offset gains with losses: You may have losses to utilize where you least expected it.That bond fund that has made you money because of reinvested dividends may in-fact have a tax loss.

How so? Simple: Because each and every reinvested dividend increased your tax basis.Take a closer look at these investments and their current basis and consider taking the loss to offset another gain in your portfolio.

(Read more: What you need to know about tax planning)

Conclusion: Always plan ahead for tax issues. When you are done, plan some more.

Summary: While the last few months of the year are all about holidays and family, it's also a great time for individuals to get their tax planning into place.


By PETER BART Grant Advertising,Inc., a $50 million agency with 40 offices around the world, has decided to go public on a novel stepby‐step basis.

Will C. Grant, chairman of the agency, said that each of the Grant agency's 32 foreign offices will sell between 45 and 47 per cent of their stocks to the public sometime during the next three years. Once this has been done, the parent company in the United States will then also go pubic.

“The parent company should be publicly owned by 1968,” Mr. Grant said in a telephone interview yesterday. “By that time I wouldn't be surprised if as many as 50 agencies in the United States were also publicly owned.” At present only two American agencies, Foote, Cone & Belding, Inc., and Papert Koening, Lois, Inc., have sold shares to the public.

The first step of Grant's program took place April 19 when Grant Advertising, Ltd., of South Africa, made a public offering of 190,000 of its 400,000 shares. The shares, which came out at $4 a share, promptly rose to about $4.50.

Grant's South African subsidiary has billings of about $5 million and reported net profits last year of $156,710.

Mr. Grant said there were several important reasons why his agency had decided to go public. Mounting nationalistic sentiment in many countries, he said, made it increasingly inconvenient for offices there to operate as wholly owned sub

Only last fall, Mr. Grant said, Canada passed a law that in effect imposed a tax penalty on Grant's Canadian subsidiary because it was completely American‐owned. In 1965, he added, not only would Grant's Canadian operation go public, but so would its offices in London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Grant's blueprint for selling stock to the public would set a precedent in many countries around the world. With the exception of Britain, the United States and, now, South Africa, no other nation in which Grant operates has ever had a publicly owned advertising agency.

Of Grant's estimated $50 million in billings, about $30 million are handled by overseas offices. *

The Remington Rand office systems division of the Sperry Rand Corporation is understood to have shifted its $500,000 advertising account, now handled by Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli, Inc. The new agency is expected to be Hazard Advertising, Inc.

Minute Maid Company, Orlando, Fla., a division of the CocaCola Company, Atlanta, to Dancer ‐ Fitzgerald ‐ Sample, Inc., New York, for the newly acquired Real Gold Company, Redlands, Calif. The $350,000 account was formerly at Adams & McMahan AdvertisInc., Los Angeles.

Lamm Brothers, Inc., Baltimore, maker of Gleneagles raincoats, to J. M. Mathes, Inc., New York.

Tarra Hall Clothiers, Inc., to Leonard Stein, Inc.

B.V.D. Company, Inc., to the Eisen Kanover & Workman

Advertising Corporation for the Flexles International division, a maker of lingerie.

People Perry L. Ruston elected executive vice president at Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

Craig F. Mitchell, former promotion manager for The Saturday Evening Post, named creative services manager of McCall's.

Philip P. M. O'Day appointed marketing administrator for the Pennzoil Company, Pittsburgh.

Addendum ¶Nightime spot advertising rates for WQXR, radio station of The New York Times, will be increased 2 per cent, starting May 1.

This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to archive_feedback@nytimes.com

Summary: To offer stock to pub by '68; 32 foreign offices to do so gradually, '64-68


Trump looking for first win in NH

Donald Trump is leading New Hampshire polls by double digits, but can he rally his supporters to get out and actually vote? Lawrence discusses with Rachel Maddow, John Heilemann, and Stuart Stevens. Steve Kornacki also explains New Hampshire voter dynamic

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

Summary: Hillary Clinton agrees with her husband that some of Bernie Sanders' supporters are using nasty language to target her backers.


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Summary: Nique Leili and Matt Leili were married for 13 years before she disappeared on July 8, 2011.


From a cramped office in East London, Tom Blomfield, a 30-year-old Brit, is preparing to take on the banking sector with a lender that employs a handful of people, charges no transaction fees and probably won’t make that many loans.

Mondo, a snazzy mobile checking-account app, will, however, be very cheap to run. Lumbering traditional banks should be worried, says Mr. Blomfield. “There is a massive change coming.”

Following the financial crash, lenders have broadly been able to repair their balance sheets. Globally, banking has never been more profitable. Total bank profits in 2014 hit $1 trillion, a record high bolstered mainly by growth in Chinese banks, according to global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. The banking sector is also near its 2012 peak, with roughly $135 trillion in assets.

But for established lenders, cracks have appeared in their business models. Margins are shrinking. Rock-bottom interest rates have pinched profits, new regulations have jacked up costs and a host of nimble competitors threaten to chip away at their businesses. Meanwhile, global economic growth looks muted and worries are increasing around China. “We are in an environment where nothing is good,” Andrea Orcel, president of UBS AG’s investment bank, said recently.

Big banks spent the past five years wading through regulatory reforms. Now a main battlefield for banks is how they can squeeze profit growth out of lower-cost operations and put their balance sheet to work. Return on equity, a key measure of profitability, crashed after the crisis as banks digested pools of bad loans and restructured their operations. Average pre-crisis returns of 14% have given way to the new normal of around 9% for big global banks.

Faced with investor pressure to increase returns, the response from most developed banks has been to slash headcount and refocus resources, eliminating whole swathes of activities that regulators deem risky. More than 100,000 jobs have been cut at U.S. and European banks since 2012.

HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe’s biggest bank by assets, has exited 15 countries and around 80 businesses since 2011. European investment banks including Barclays PLC and Deutsche Bank AG are beating a global retreat and shedding unprofitable clients. In the U.S., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has cut its balance sheet as regulators pressure lenders to become more manageable.

“We have seen banks reduce their proprietary trading, reduce their investment-banking operations and cut back on the activities that really give rise to heavy exposures,” said David Strachan, a Deloitte LLP partner and former financial regulator.

As banks fall back, others are gradually taking up the slack. The so-called shadow-banking sector has boosted its share of the world’s financial assets, according to a November Financial Stability Board report. Insurers are increasingly funding long-term loans for infrastructure projects. In some cases traditional bank lending is being bypassed almost completely. Since 2009 eurozone banks have cut lending to companies by €590 billion but financing via bond markets grew by €415 billion, says Morgan Stanley. Loans also make up a smaller portion of U.S. bank balance sheets since the crisis, data show.

A new breed of competitors are circling bank customers, offering cheaper and easier ways to get loans, make payments and transfer money. “There’s growing anxiety that digital disruptors will skim the cream and pinch banks’ profits whilst many banks struggle to move fast enough to re-engineer legacy systems,” said Huw Van Steenis, head of European bank research at Morgan Stanley.

Faced with the disruptive threat, some banks have entered into a tentative embrace with the tech companies that challenge them. For instance, J.P. Morgan will start using online lender On Deck Capital Inc. to help make loans to some of the bank’s roughly 4 million small-business customers. Others are just buying up the competition. Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA bought mobile banking app Simple.

The danger is still on the horizon. So far the new breed of fintech companies has been “remarkably undisruptive,” said Anshu Jain, Deutsche Bank’s former co-CEO. The sector is still small and most of the new players have shied away from taking risk onto their own balance sheets.

Worryingly for banks, the results from cost cutting have been mixed so far, says Carola Schuler, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service. Many banks appear to be standing still in their efforts to improve their ratios of cost to income. “Cost cutting may just offset shrinking margins here and there,” said Ms. Schuler. “High regulatory costs and [fines] also have the potential to offset some of the cost-cutting efforts that have been taken by banks.”

Based out of an office once occupied by a venerable London broker, Mondo is hoping it can ramp up pressure on banks. The startup hopes to get its U.K. banking license by the end of this year, says Mr. Blomfield. “We will see what happens.”

Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com and Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com

Summary: Davos 2016: Lenders have broadly been able to repair their balance sheets in the years since the financial crisis. But for established lenders, cracks have appeared in their business models. Margins are shrinking. Rock-bottom interest rates have pinched profits, new regulations have jacked up costs and a host of nimble competitors threaten to chip away at their businesses


02/26/2016 AT 04:35 PM EST

All in favor of a celebrity cycle of

Though the Bachelorette is usually cast from one of the eliminated contestants on the latest season of

, a starry leading lady would certainly make for a wild season – and host

has one idea for who might kick things off with a

Kaley Cuoco (inset: Chris Harrison)

Imeh Akpanudosen / Getty; Inset: Paul Archuleta / FilmMagic

"Kaley would be great," Harrison, 44, told reporters during a

press call Friday. "I would love that. She's an old friend of mine from the ABC days, and I think she likes to drink wine as much as I do!"

That being said, Harrison admitted thinking of a potential celebrity Bachelorette wasn't easy: "There's so many of them are getting hooked up now! It's hard to find a good single celebrity anymore."

Cuoco, meanwhile, would probably be thrilled at the opportunity – after all, she's a

The actress, 30, even has her own

"[If I saw him], I would

myself up there and go talk to him," Cuoco

during the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January. "I'm just a little overly obsessed with him. He's adorable!"

Sadly, it's probably safe to say Higgins is off-limits considering he's already

with not one, but two (!) women this season.

airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.

Summary: "She likes to drink wine as much as I do!" Chris Harrison jokes about The Big Bang Theory star


Russian President Vladimir Putin's aides, Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi's secret assets were revealed. (AFP file images)

Close aides of Russian President Vladimir Putin are among those whose assets feature in a vast exposé of tax havens, made by an international group of journalists who uncovered a massive leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm.

The leaked documents, known as the Panama Papers, allegedly detail the assets of about 140 political figures - including 12 current and former world leaders - as well as some celebrities and blacklisted companies, according to the probe by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The investigation yielded 11.5 million documents from around 214,000 offshore entities, the ICIJ said.

The leaked data, dated from 1975 to the end of last year, provides what the ICIJ described as a "never-before-seen view inside the offshore world."

READ MORE: Why the Panama Papers matters

Names featured in the leak included the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia, the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, and the children of the president of Azerbaijan.

Although Mr Putin's name is not mentioned in the documents, his close associates "secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies," according to the ICIJ.

The records show his friend and associate Sergey Roldugin is "a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates," the ICIJ wrote.

He "is listed as the owner of offshore companies that have obtained payments from other companies worth tens of millions of dollars."

"A company linked to the cellist also grabbed secret influence over Russia’s largest truck maker, another snagged a big slice of Russia’s TV advertising industry."

The evidence suggests Mr Roldugin has acted as a "front man for a network of Putin loyalists – and perhaps for Putin himself", the ICIJ wrote.

The Panama Papers also named celebrities including move star Jackie Chan, who has at least six companies managed through the Panama firm.

However, "there is no evidence that Chan used his companies for improper purposes", the ICIJ wrote, explaining that having an offshore company isn't necessarily illegal.

Football star Lionel Messi's secret holdings are also detailed, with the papers revealing he and his father owned a Panama company called Mega Stars Inc.

The revelations come as "his offshore dealings are currently the target of a tax evasion case in Spain," the ICIJ wrote.

The papers also reveal the holdings of 29 billionaires featured in Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s 500 richest people.

Economist Gabriel Zucman said the findings revealed ingrained corruption in the "offshore world".

"These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world," the University of California, Berkeley, economist said.

They also expose at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US government due to evidence of criminality, including "doing business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or rogue nations like North Korea and Iran," the ICIJ wrote.

US authorities believe one of the companies "supplied fuel for the aircraft that the Syrian government used to bomb and kill thousands of its own citizens".

The leaked documents came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries.

They were reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70 countries, according to the ICIJ.

The BBC reported Mossack Fonseca said it had operated "beyond reproach" for 40 years and had never been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

The original source of the leaked documents is unclear.

This is a developing news story. More detail will be added.

You can get breaking news alerts on your phone by downloading our app, 9NEWS Alerts, available on iPhone and Android.

Summary: Close aides of Russian president Vladimir Putin are among those whose assets feature in a vast exposé of tax havens, after an international group of journalists uncovered the massive leak of 11.5 million documents.


Vivendi SA and others will pay $275 million to settle shareholder litigation arising from its $8.2 billion sale of a stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. back to the videogame maker last year.

Under the terms of the litigation settlement, which was made public Wednesday afternoon, Activision Blizzard will also add two new directors to its board and change the terms of its voting rights. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will also recover their fees and costs, which are likely to run into the tens of millions of dollars.

“We are pleased to be able to put this matter to rest,” said the Activision board of directors, in a statement. They said that the deal with Vivendi “has contributed to the creation of over $3 billion of value for shareholders.”

A lawyer for the shareholders, Joel Friedlander of Friedlander & Gorris, P.A. in Wilmington, Del., said, “we achieved in litigation what Activision should have negotiated as part of the deal.”

“Vivendi is pleased that this matter was resolved,” said a spokesman for the French media and telecom conglomerate.

The deal still has to be approved by a Delaware judge, Chancellor Travis Laster, who last September put the Activision acquisition on hold pending a shareholder vote.

Vivendi purchased a controlling stake in Activision Inc. in 2008, creating a new company known as Activision Blizzard. Last year, in an attempt to reshape itself, Vivendi sold most of its stake back to the videogame maker.

In July 2013 Activision Blizzard shareholders filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming among other things that the deal should be put to a shareholder vote.

Last September, Vice Chancellor Laster agreed with the plaintiffs and put the deal on ice pending a shareholder vote, a decision that was reversed by the Delaware Supreme Court a month later, effectively allowing the deal to move forward. But the lawsuit, requesting financial damages, went on.

The newly settled case was filed as a so-called “derivative lawsuit,” a somewhat unorthodox legal maneuver in which shareholders typically sue board members and others on behalf of the company itself.

The bulk of the money paid by the insurance carriers and other defendants will go back to Activision Blizzard itself.

Some legal experts have criticized derivative suits as benefiting only the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Defenders say the suits, while not lucrative for shareholders themselves, often force companies to make important corporate governance changes.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision Blizzard, the maker of popular videogames “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” earlier this month reported a better-than-expected revenue increase of 78% in the third quarter.

Write to Ashby Jones at ashby.jones@wsj.com

Summary: Vivendi and others will pay $275 million to settle shareholder litigation arising from its $8.2 billion sale of a stake in Activision Blizzard back to the videogame maker last year.


The New England Council is sponsoring an event for members with Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus , a pioneer in the fields of social business and micro finance. Wednesday, 8 to 9:30 a.m., Bank of America, America Room, 100 Federal St., Boston. Free.

Mad*Pow and Health 2.0 have organized the Health Experience Refactored conference, in which companies will showcase their latest technologies devoted to improving patient satisfaction. The two-day event will feature live presentations, product tutorials, and a speech by Governor Charlie Baker. Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Westin Boston Waterfront, 425 Summer St., Boston. $399 to $2,149.

The Innovation and Design Building has organized a speaker series that will explore the intersection of design, technology, and innovation. A panel of design experts will discuss how technology has changed building and manufacturing. Wednesday, 6 to 9 p.m., Autodesk, 23 Drydock Ave., sixth floor, Boston. Free.

A law firm for technology companies, Gesmer Updegrove is sponsoring an event on the secrets to fund-raising success. Panelists include Ryan Moore, a general partner at Accomplice, and Maia Heymann, the senior managing director of Converge Venture Partners. Wednesday, 6 to 8 p.m., WeWork, South Station, 745 Atlantic Ave., Boston. Free.

Summary: A Nobel laureate, disrupting design, and more notable things to know.


As entertaining as it is to watch the US presidential election unfold, whoever wins will have a significant impact on the world beyond foreign policy. Global investors, in particular, are waiting anxiously to see what happens as the next president could ultimately dictate how well sectors, such as defence and healthcare, fare in the future.

Meanwhile, in Europe, talk of Brexit — whether Britain will exit the European Union — has already sent shivers through the markets, devaluing the pound.

Choose the right outcome and you could profit handsomely.

From growth policies in China to debt-ceiling debates in America, what happens in back-rooms and parliamentary floors in industrialised nations often affects investment portfolios directly.

People often think that stocks rise and fall purely on a company’s revenues and earnings. While that does play a big part in how markets move, people often underestimate the impact political decisions have on prices.

For astute investors, politics can present investment opportunities. Choose the right outcome and you could profit handsomely. But if you’re on the wrong side of history, you could be out of luck.

Uncertainty and the long-term game

In many cases, political-related market movements happen extremely quickly. Whenever Janet Yellen, America’s Federal Reserve chairperson speaks, markets react across the world, but you’d need to invest with Usain Bolt-like speed to take advantage of that kind of change.

Politics often creates a lot of uncertainty and that tends to move markets both up and down.

Instead, investors should concern themselves more with the long-term impact of a political outcome. For instance, no matter who becomes president, those interested in investing in the US should expect a weak post-election year if history is any indication. Since 1929, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index has climbed, on average, just 1.58% during a new leader’s first term, according to a paper written by Peter Lee, an analyst at UBS. Markets rise the most during the final year of a president’s first four-year term, according to financial information provider S&P Capital IQ.

Why the difference? Uncertainty. You can't be quite sure how a president will act in his or her first term, but it’s unlikely that an incumbent will do anything drastic when he or she is trying to win another election. It’s the same thing with economic data, interest rate moves and policy changes: politics often creates a lot of uncertainty and that tends to move markets both up and down.

“Uncertainty makes investors want to get a higher return for any perception of increased risk,” said Mark Haefele, the Zurich-based global chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management. “Anything that throws uncertainty into the fortunes of a company tends to have a negative impact on the market, at least until more facts come through.”

Investors who have an opinion on how a pressing political issue might resolve itself could make money investing in the sectors or markets that would benefit from a particular outcome.

At the moment, the June 23 Brexit referendum to decide whether Britain will remain a member of the European Union is causing consternation with investors. The FTSE 100, Britain’s stock market, is down 2.4% year-on-year, and while there are many reasons as to why it’s in the red, the uncertainty around what might happen if Britain leaves the EU is weighing on stocks, said Julian Jarmoszko, European equities analyst for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

If Brexit does occur, the pound will likely fall, he said, and that will give export-driven companies a boost. “If most of their inputs are from the UK, but they [sell] outside, then they’ll have pricing power,” he said. Industrial companies, IT development operations and goods and services businesses could all benefit.

On the flipside, a number of sectors could suffer. If the pound falls, domestic retailers and supermarkets could get hurt as the goods they’re buying from outside of Britain will now be more expensive. That cost would get passed onto consumers. It’s also possible that population growth will slow as it could become harder to move to the country due to less-open borders. That would result in fewer people spending money, which would impact companies across the board, Jarmoszko said.

Those, however, who think that Brexit won’t happen might be better off buying an exchange-traded fund that tracks the FTSE 100 as the British market as a whole will likely get a boost if the referendum comes back with a “No” vote, he said.

Those watching the US election also have a choice to make: Republican or Democrat and, more specifically, Trump, Cruz, Clinton or Sanders. In a conference call in early March, Jeffrey Gundlach, founder of Los Angeles-based Doubleline Capital, said that a Trump win would be a boon for the defence sector, but it would hurt industries involved in trade.

“Donald Trump… is talking a lot about tariffs and protectionism, which would not be helpful, clearly, for global trade,” he said. “But he said he's going to build up the military tremendously. So, I expect a lot of fiscal stimulus for the military if Donald Trump were to win.”

A Trump win would be a boon for the defense sector, but it would hurt industries involved in trade.

If Ted Cruz wins, the energy sector could get a boost. He’s said that, if elected, he would “approve pipelines across the country” and he’s criticised Barack Obama for not backing the Keystone XL pipeline.

Any Republican win would have a negative affect on the healthcare sector. Right now, the sector has gotten used to Obamacare and many companies are benefiting from increased coverage, said Haefele. If Cruz or Trump win and reform the system, as they’ve pledged to do, then the industry’s stocks could fall.

A Clinton win likely wouldn’t have as big of an impact on the market, said Haefele. He thinks investors are expecting her to win, which is why markets aren’t as volatile as one might expect them to be with all of the rhetoric being tossed around during the campaign. “Many people are betting on on Clinton,” he said. “They feel she’s a fairly well-known quantity and the status quo.”

One sector that could benefit from a Clinton victory is solar. She has said that she wants to install 500 million solar panels across the country by 2020, which would be good news for solar energy operations.

And if Sanders wins, the financial sector could be in trouble as he has said that he’d like to break up the banks. Some experts, though, think smaller financial institutions could benefit if the larger companies have less power.

There’s one other way to play the political game: gamble directly on an outcome. Websites such as Ireland-based sports betting site Paddy Power and London-based Ladbrokes allow UK citizens to put money on the US election, the Brexit referendum and other political events.

It’s similar to betting on sports, said Rory Scott, a spokesperson for Paddy Power. You choose a side and then win or lose. With Brexit, there are 4 to 11 odds that Britain stays within the EU, meaning that a $100 bet would net you $136.36. Odds of an exit are 15 to 8, so that $100 bet would turn into $287.50 if the vote comes back as a “Yes” to leaving.

When it comes to US politics, Clinton is currently favoured to win with 2 to 5 odds. Bet $100 and you’ll get a total of $140 back if she wins. At 13 to 2 odds, a Trump victory would turn that $100 bet in $750. If you really want to make a gamble, you can bet on a Mitt Romney presidency. He’s not running, but could still, theoretically, jump into the race in an open Republican convention. If that happens, at 200 to 1 odds, that $100 wager would become a whopping $20,100.

Scott said that this is mostly for fun — don’t bet your life savings on a Clinton or Trump victory. While stock picking comes with risks, too, equities won’t go to zero if your candidate of choice wins or loses. If your Paddy Power bet doesn’t go your way, you will be left with nothing.

For those who do want to try and take advantage of political-based market moves, Jarmoszko said to stick to high-quality companies, think about which outcomes will impact markets long-term and then hope for the best.

This story was produced under the BBC's guidelines for financial journalism. A full version of those guidelines can be found at bbc.co.uk/guidelines.

To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Summary: Betting on a Trump win? Or Brexit? Experts say there are clever ways to benefit from the swirling political storms around the world.


You probably weren’t invited and never will be, but welcome to Vogue powerhouse Anna Wintour’s fabulous 2015 Met Gala fund-raiser. It’s the prelude to a preview tour of Metropolitan Museum of Art costume curator Andrew Bolton’s blockbuster exhibition, “China: Through the Looking Glass.

In Andrew Rossi’s shallow but sometimes poignant and visually gorgeous documentary, “The First Monday in May,” you get to share the red carpet with Marion Cotillard, George Clooney, Justin Bieber, J-Law, J-Lo, ... a whole supermarket magazine rack of couture-clad stars who got to RSVP to this fashion-world extravaganza.

But is fashion art? Should it be shown in a museum and draw crowds of hundreds of thousands of visitors? Answer: Yes, according to almost everyone interviewed, mostly Met and Vogue personnel, who compete for the most hyperbolic praise. The only dissenting voices come from some of the designers themselves and a Chinese journalist during the show’s PR tour to Beijing, who asks Bolton and Wintour awkward questions about cultural appropriation and exploitation. What do they know? On with the show!

But putting on a production of this magnitude is not easy, especially when you only have a vague — or Vogue — notion of what it’s about. It’s not really a display of Orientalist clichés and stereotypes, it’s a commentary on them, or something like that. It’s a fantasy image, etc. Sitting in on a meeting as an advisor, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai (images from his 2000 masterpiece “In the Mood for Love” are part of the show) looks aghast when Bolton explains why they are including Mao and Buddha in the same gallery. It’s because they are two Chinese icons who are worshipped, you see. And kind of chubby,

Other documentaries — Frederick Wiseman’s “National Gallery” (2014) especially — have done a better job observing the politics, pressures, and pitfalls of putting on a major art museum exhibit. But Wintour steals the show with her ruthless selection and seating plan for the 500 celebrities and power brokers invited. “What has he done lately?” she says about one. “Nothing.” He’ll probably be sitting next to the restroom door.

Rossi (“Page One: Inside the New York Times”) ends with a stirring montage of the finished product. It’s worth the wait. Is it art? Without a doubt.

★★★ THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY

Directed and written by Andrew Rossi. Starring Anna Wintour. Andrew Bolton, Wong Kar-Wai. At Kendall Square. 91 minutes. Unrated (occasionally crass cultural tone-deafness, lots of fabulous celebrities in offensively overpriced couture.).

Summary: “The First Monday in May” makes pointed observations about the personalities and pressures involved in putting on a blockbuster art/fashion show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Kelly Ripa will be back Tuesday on 'Live' ... TMZ has learned ... this after her people jawboned it with Disney over the fate of her show and the tenure of her co-host.

Our ABC sources say Kelly's people made it clear she would come back if they could get assurance the show wasn't getting the ax. As we reported, ABC honchos are noodling whether to add a third hour of 'GMA,' which would displace 'Live.'

From what we can gather, the brass gave Kelly enough assurance to end her boycott. Based on what we know, even Disney doesn't know if they'll expand 'GMA.' A lot depends on morning show ratings and the performance of 'Live' over the next year.

Even if 'GMA' moves to 9 ... ABC could save 'Live' by moving it to 10 or 11 AM.

Our ABC sources say Kelly made it clear she'd be a happy camper if Michael Strahan leaves before his scheduled September departure. Our sources say both Kelly and Michael are extremely uncomfortable about sitting together under the circumstances, and they'd both like to stop the bleeding STAT.

As we reported, the 2 have not gotten along for 2 years ... various sources say they don't like each other.

We're told Kelly has a little more than a year left on her contract. Makes for good TV.

Summary: Kelly Ripa is willing to come back to her show, but only if ABC plays it straight with her on the future of the program ... sources connected with the…


The federal government and private companies should not be immune from liability for excessive use of force on people held in immigration detention, a parliamentary submission by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says.

The migration amendment (maintaining the good order of immigration detention facilities) bill would allow immigration officers – which may include private contractors – to use “reasonable force against any person” if the officer believed it was necessary to protect the life, health or safety of people in detention or to maintain the good order, peace or security of a detention centre.

Such powers potentially give staff with a low level of training a greater level of immunity than that granted to state and federal police forces.

The AHRC’s submission to an inquiry into the bill said it agreed individual employees should gain immunity from civil and criminal liability when exercised in good faith, but the bill should not limit the government’s liability.

“In the commission’s view, it is not appropriate for either immigration detention service providers or the commonwealth to be given an immunity if an authorised officer’s use of force is excessive,” it said.

“There does not appear to be any justification for providing a separate immunity to the commonwealth.

“The justification given by the government for providing an immunity to authorised officers is to remove any reluctance they may have to using reasonable force to the extent they are authorised to do so. There does not appear to be any justification for providing an immunity that extends beyond the authorised officers who are exercising the relevant power.”

Detention centre staff who exercise force on asylum seekers must rely on common law defences to use reasonable force. The immigration department said the bill was necessary to respond to “behaviour challenges in immigration detention” from a number of high-risk detainees.

“Employees in this work environment require greater protection at law,” it said.

The bill says that in some circumstances it may be permissible to use force amounting to grievous bodily harm – which can constitute serious disfigurement – if the officer “reasonably believes that doing the thing is necessary to protect the life of, or to prevent serious injury to, another person (including the authorised officer)”.

The immigration department suggested this change was necessary for a situation in which a detainee had taken a hostage.

“In this situation an authorised officer may need to use sufficient reasonable force that causes, or is likely to cause, grievous bodily harm to the detainee should a physical confrontation be necessary,” its submission said.

The Refugee Advice and Casework Services, a community legal centre, said in its submission the bill “severely limits access to the courts, making it unlikely that abuses of the powers created by the bill would be subject to any form of accountability”.

The bill proposes to render the federal government and private contractors immune from liability in the courts in instances where the use of force was exercised “in good faith”.

“Given the draconian nature of the powers being conferred on authorised officers, the limitation on judicial oversight threatens a lack of accountability in the event of serious abuses. An environment of impunity for such abuses should be regarded with considerable concern, especially given the vulnerability of those upon whom such abuses may be visited,” it said.

The bill would establish a complaint mechanism for asylum seekers, but gives the secretary of the immigration department discretion not to investigate a complaint.

The Refugee Council of Australia said it was concerned the complaints mechanism “may not result in investigations being conducted fairly and thoroughly or an appropriate remedy being provided in cases where complaints are upheld”.

The explanatory memorandum of the bill indicated officers who are authorised to exercise force may be required to possess only a certificate level II in security operations, which is a base level security training requirement.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said it was “concerning that the contemplated training contains no units in relation to, for example, understanding and applying human rights, or understanding and properly dealing with individuals from different cultures or vulnerable or at-risk individuals, including individuals with mental health issues”.

The Australian Psychological Association (APS) wrote that the bill posed serious dangers and risks.

“The proposed extension of powers (and lack of accountability associated with this measure) is concerning for the APS. Psychologists are well aware of the dangers of unfettered power from compelling evidence gathered in classic experiments by social psychologists such as Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo,” it said.

“The proposed measures would increase the risk of immigration detention facility (IDF) staff exhibiting exactly the kinds of behaviours predicted by such research: unquestioning compliance with unethical and dangerous directives, increasing inability to display empathy, and misuse of assigned power.”

The bill also drew a submission from a retired Victorian judge, Stephen Charles SC, on behalf of his daughter, Lucy Hamilton, and Linda Cusworth. It said the fact the bill permitted grievous bodily harm on asylum seekers was unacceptable and would cause similar abuses to that which occurred on Manus Island in the February 2014 unrest.

“Reza Barati was beaten to death with a rock, inside an Australian-funded immigration detention centre facility. Many others were injured that same night,” it said.

“This bill provides an open licence for further deaths and injuries to occur both onshore and offshore, at the hands of authorised officers. It will remove the power of the courts to impose penalties on those responsible.

“This approach would not be tolerated in our schools and our community residential units and for people who have a disability. We are appalled that it could be allowed in centres for those who have already been traumatised by violence and persecution.”

Summary: Human rights groups criticise bill which would give the commonwealth and private contractors immunity from liability where use of force was exercised ‘in good faith’


A mechanic from my local garage was driving my car to his premises when he skidded on ice and collided with another vehicle. There was considerable damage to both cars and the mechanic reported the incident to his insurers, LV. He was, in fact, put through to accident management company ClaimCare.

ClaimCare appointed another firm, The Car Repair Network, who told my mechanic to take my car to an appointed garage for inspection. The garage owner had received only vague details about the claim from the insurer so I called LV and discovered that, although it had a record of the incident, it had few details and no idea of who I was.

Three weeks after the accident, my car was finally booked in for repair and I was given a courtesy car. After five days of silence I called the garage which said LV should have informed me that the car was beyond economical repair. So I rang LV who said I could have the car back unrepaired and receive £3,298 and carry out my own repairs or I could have £4,550 and it would keep the car.

I was unhappy with the valuation and was promised a call back to discuss it but this never came. I eventually rang to chase it up and was told no one could discuss the case with me because I was not the policyholder.

I am now left without a car and have been given no further details of how to claim my insurance payout. GS Keighley, Yorkshire

This saga highlights the problems when multiple companies are involved in handling a claim. The idea is that delegation to third parties speeds up the process; in reality, if the companies don’t communicate with each other it leads to an impasse.

Because the mechanic was insured through a broker and the broker uses a management company to handle claims and that company appointed another firm to arrange the repair and courtesy car, you found yourself dangling at the end of a long, limp chain.

LV blames a delay in ClaimCare passing on the details of the accident, although the latter had previously read out to you the report it had submitted to LV a day after it happened. It admits, however, that when it did look at the information, it wrongly supposed you had been hit by a car insured by LV, which caused more delays. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to customer services to amend its records after you repeatedly contacted them.

Only after my intervention do you receive the £4,550 – a figure arrived at, according to LV, by factoring in the age and mileage of the vehicle and comparing three industry price guides.

“Having reviewed the case, we feel that it was not handled to our usual high standards and there were several occasions where we could have been more proactive in handling the claim,” says a spokesperson. “We have reviewed our processes to ensure this does not happen again and by way of apology we have offered [GS] £250 which he has accepted.”

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.

Summary: My mechanic crashed my car I am still waiting for his insurance company to settle the claim


Abby has been singing for as long as she can remember. Her father was always in a band and started pulling her onstage to sing with him at a young age, and her mother, while not musical herself, was always Abby's biggest fan. In 2014, Abby's mother was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and passed away a few months later. Since her mom's passing, Abby has actively pursued singing and recently joined a band that gigs all over town.

Summary: Meet Abby Celso on NBC.com.


Roger Smith’s heart was in his mouth. Across the table from him sat George Daniels, the best watchmaker in the world. Here they were in Daniels’ own workshop, on the Isle of Man. Smith was only 27. He’d flown over from his home in the north of England to show something to the great craftsman. Something he’d been working on for five and a half years. A handmade mechanical watch.

He waited anxiously as Daniels turned the device over gently in his hands, inspecting every surface and every detail with an authoritative eye. Daniels asked Smith to confirm who had made various bits of the watch. To every question, Smith’s reply came back, “I did.” There were only a few of these questions. And then, Daniels stood up. “Congratulations,” he said, with a smile, “you’re a watchmaker.”

That was how it all really began in earnest for Smith, who shortly afterwards became Daniels’ apprentice. Although Daniels passed away in 2011, Smith now produces his own line of luxury watches, still on the Isle of Man.

Smith and his team make just 10 watches a year

Despite the rise of electronic watches, demand for mechanical timepieces has remained among those who can afford them, with manufacturers ranging from Rolex to Patek Phillipe. What’s unusual about Smith and his small team is that they make just 10 watches a year. They’re very rare, very beautiful – and very expensive. What goes in to the making of intricate watches like these?

The RW Smith workshop, nestled in a hamlet on the Isle of Man, is actually a cottage – once Smith’s own house – converted into a kind of mini factory. The whole area is relaxed and rural. On one side of the building lies the Irish Sea, just visible across a field. To the other, Snaefell Mountain, gently reclining in the distance.

Quietly, in the midst of this idyllic landscape, the RW Smith watchmakers spend hours, days, weeks and months crafting the components for every watch. Cutting, drilling, weighing, polishing – all at a minuscule scale. Inside the workshop itself are just three rooms containing some vintage watchmaking machinery, a noisy milling device and a series of benches where the most delicate parts of the procedure can be painstakingly carried out under ample overhead light.

Smith has set everything up as precisely as one of his watches. He points to the milling machine. “It’s German,” he says, “It’s used extensively in Switzerland in the watch industry. And this gives us total independence from anyone. It enabled me to design a new British [watch] movement.”

A drawer in a large cabinet is pulled open. Tiny boxes labelled all the way up to 100 and beyond lie in neatly arranged rows – the individual components for one of Smith’s Series 2 watches. In another corner lies an older milling machine, originally bought by Daniels in the 1970s. It’s not needed anymore. But an even more ancient-looking device near it is. It’s used for engine-turning – a kind of geometric metallic patterning which is one of the signature features of an RW Smith watch design.

Smith points to one of his in-production dials to explain. “A dial like that will take about two to two-and-a-half weeks to make,” he says, commenting that it is designed to be serviceable or restorable in 100 or 200 years’ time – if not more. “The lettering and numerals are all hand cut and we fill those with ink so that they can all be refreshed when the time comes.”

There is a clean whiteness to the metal of the dial and Smith explains that this hue is achieved by heating the material, silver, under a flame to oxidise it gently. That’s the sort of detail few might realise goes into the production of a device like this.

“The finish has got to be completely flawless. There are no excuses, it’s either right or wrong, there’s no in-between,” he says.

One single watch, depending on its complexity, could take three years to make

The effort required to achieve this level of – to use Smith’s own word – perfection, is mind-boggling. One single watch, depending on its complexity, could take three years to make. And from start to finish Smith’s watchmakers are working to tolerances of within 3-4000th of a millimetre. Anything less could make the watch unreliable. And in the assembly of each one, it’s the final stages which are the most challenging. “It’s very, very demanding,” says Smith.

“Suddenly every single time you pick up the watch you’ve got to protect it with your fingers. You’ve got to think about picking up the screwdriver to un-do a screw, you don’t want to slip because if you slip you could spend a couple of days correcting the fault.”

During this process, the watchmaker can enter a near trance-like state, he admits. “You have to sharpen your wits. You have to just sit down and really concentrate,” says Smith.

As he explains, a watch is a relatively simple concept as a mechanical device. Energy stored in a coiled spring is gradually released by a mechanism called an “escapement”, essentially a series of gears. Ultimately these gears turn a final set of cogs which unwind and move the minute and hour hands. It’s a complicated business, though, because of the small size and the aforementioned tolerances involved. And also because of the longevity. Watch owners expect their watches to work flawlessly without servicing or interfering with them for many years. Imagine, says Smith, asking your car’s engine to be as reliable.

An RW Smith watch currently starts at £100,000, but some can cost more than £1m

Smith’s low rate of production means there is currently a three year waiting list for one of his Series 2’s. If you are prepared to wait, an RW Smith watch currently starts at £100,000 though he is also making several other watches, using a movement designed by George Daniels himself, which cost £174,000. For some clients that’s a drop in the ocean, though. Smith’s latest bespoke project for one customer will sport a completely unique design. “That will be probably over a million by the time it’s finished,” he says nonchalantly.

Despite being so remote, Smith’s workshop does get visited by his wealthy clients. “They all come at some point,” he says. “I think it’s only really when they come and visit that they fully understand what we’re trying to do here. When they see the kind of working, the finishing of components that go into a watch.”

It hasn’t always been easy. Smith says that there were times in the early days of his business when he was “on the breadline”. At one point, things were so dire that he even had to sell the special watch he made all those years ago to impress George Daniels.

It’s clear Smith has an uncompromising view about quality, and the importance of his craft. “I make no apology for being a purist. Ours is the purest of mechanical arts,” he wrote last year in an open letter online criticising the shortcuts of other British watchmakers. He argued they were misleading customers as to the origins of their watches’ components. Some, it had transpired, were selling Swiss-made movements in their watches while claiming them as wholly British designs.

What does Smith think of the Apple Watch? “Not a great deal really,” he quips. For Smith, a watch is mechanical, it has a soul, he says, and can be seen as a friend or companion. “It might sound a bit nutty, but, you know, it’s something that you can understand and really look at and study,” he explains.

“I don’t know if you can ever have that connection with an electronic thing that you have to keep charging every day and that only has a tiny amount of information in it.”

Could mechanical purists like Smith be a dying breed though? Not necessarily. Across the Atlantic, there are signs of another purist in the making. In Los Angeles, California, Cameron Weiss has been establishing his own watchmaking business. Although he currently uses Swiss movements, Weiss plans to launch an American design by the end of the year. “We’re about to be the first and only company with a US-made watch, a US made-movement in production,” he says.

Cameron’s story is not unlike Smith’s. As a boy, he too was fascinated with watches. In Cameron’s case, he learned the skills of his trade at Wostep, a Swiss watchmaking institute, before going on to work for Vacheron Constantin, which describes itself as the world’s oldest watch manufacturer.

Perhaps the ubiquity of electronics in our era has persuaded people to look again at the intricate and the mechanical

Weiss, like his colleagues in the industry, is obsessed with the details of watchmaking and describes processes such as heat-treating the metal on screws to turn them, in one case, a magical shade of light blue. Another example he points to is the care taken over polishing so that oils will not seep away from their parts during years of wear and tear. “The amount of focus that goes into each component is unreal,” he says. While Weiss works to a high standard, he targets consumers rather than wealthy collectors – a Weiss watch starts at $950.

Ultimately, Weiss hopes that he will inspire others to follow in his footsteps. “Really, the goal is to try and rebuild the American watchmaking industry,” he explains. He shares Smith’s hope, then, that others around him will strive for the same degree of quality. The same perfection.

Although many challenges still lie ahead in the US, Britain and elsewhere, Smith is positive about the future of watchmaking. “I think it’s on the up,” he says cheerfully. Perhaps the ubiquity of electronics in our era has persuaded people to look again at the intricate and the mechanical – the cogs and dials of a carefully assembled watch. Smith certainly thinks so. And it’s hard to argue with someone who has spent so many hours and invested so much of himself in these devices. Pretenders may come and go, but as the Isle of Man watchmaker says, “There’s nothing that can beat a really good mechanical watch.”

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Summary: Fetching hundreds of thousands of pounds, they’re the ultimate statement piece. Who are the people that make the world’s most intricately designed watches?


The way people are getting solar panels installed in their homes is going through a rapid change.

The Wall Street Journal reported that companies such as SolarCity scty are taking a hit as customers are turning from leasing their solar panels to purchasing them in one lump sum.

SolarCity, along with similar solar companies, supplied 56% of home solar panels last year. This year, they may do just 50% in 2016, the newspaper reported, citing figures from GTM Research.

The Journal reported that solar panel leases, which were 72% of sales in 2014, are now expected to drop to only 48% by 2017 as more consumers buy them instead.

Leasing the panels is profitable for the companies which typically have customers locked into a 20-year contract with increasing rates. Meanwhile, the cost of buying solar panels outright could cost about half as much. To help pay for it all at once, more companies are offering loans to consumers (something that was difficult to do in the past, according to the newspaper).

“We got a lot of feedback from customers who wanted simpler terms and fixed payments,” said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive in an interview with the Journal.

In a separate statement to Fortune, the company said, “SolarCity provided more solar loans than any other solar installer in 2015, and we expect that to do so again in 2016, as our loan is even better today than it was last year.”

Customers, it seems, are becoming more savvy about their options when it comes to getting solar panels installed in their homes. “The customer is more informed, and is exposed not only to SolarCity because their neighbor has it, but five other solar companies that are all active in the marketplace,” said Michael Morosi, an analyst at Avondale Partners, in an interview with the Journal.

Summary: More customers are opting for loans over leases.


Britain took a leap into the political unknown last night when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed the first full coalition government in Britain since 1945, with David Cameron serving as the country's 52nd prime minister and Nick Clegg becoming his deputy.

The ending of Gordon Brown's premiership and 13 years of Labour rule followed the collapse of last-ditch efforts to forge a progressive government of Labour and the Lib Dems, provoking bitter recriminations on both sides over how Clegg's party arrived at the decision to decide to prop up a Tory government on what will be a five year fixed term .

Cameron finally entered Downing Street after seeing the Queen at Buckingham Palace last night – concluding a remarkable five-day political tug of war.

On the steps of Downing Street, Cameron, Britain's youngest prime minister since 1812, said: "This is going to be hard and difficult work. A coalition will throw up all sorts of challenges. But I believe that together we can provide that strong and stable government that our country needs."

The deal with the Lib Dems, ensuring a 77-seat majority, was finally agreed after Clegg decided he could not create a stable coalition with Labour, partly due to a revolt inside the parliamentary Labour party at the concept of a deal, as well as its likely terms.

If the deal works, it will change the shape of the Conservative party – and if it fails, the Lib Dems could find themselves rubbed out as a progressive force.

The Lib Dems secured five cabinet posts and a commitment to 15 other ministerial jobs across Whitehall. On the Conservative side, George Osborne will be chancellor of the exchequer and William Hague foreign secretary.

Arriving in Downing Street at 8.40pm as prime minister, Cameron looked overawed as he admitted that his new government had "some deep and pressing problems – a huge deficit, deep social problems and a political system in need of reform". He said he and Clegg wanted "to put aside party differences and work hard for the national interest".

With echoes of the US president John Kennedy, he said he wanted to build a society in Britain "in which we do not just ask what are my entitlements, but what are my responsibilities, one where we don't ask just what am I just owed, but more what can I give".

Clegg admitted there may be glitches ahead, promising "we are going to form a new kind of government", adding "it represented the start of the new politics I have always believed in".

In the intense negotiations with the Lib Dems, the Tories agreed to drop their plans to raise the threshold for inheritance tax, but the Lib Dems accepted that spending cuts will start this year as part of an accelerated deficit reduction plan.

Civil liberties laws will be reviewed, including abolition of ID cards and a referendum will be held on the alternative vote electoral system in which Tories could oppose the change. The Tory annual immigration cap will be kept, and extra money for disadvantaged pupils has been agreed. The Tories have insisted that their plans to recognise marriage in the tax system remain, but the Lib Dems will be entitled to abstain on the issue.

Lib Dem MPs and the party's federal executive endorsed at midnight the detailed coalition deal, due to be published today, but after Cameron was installed in Downing Street.

Once the Lib Dem-Con deal was secured, Gordon Brown went to the Queen to tender his resignation.

In a graceful and moving statement, accompanied by his wife and two sons, John and Fraser, Brown told the nation he was leaving a job that was the most important after being a father and husband.

"Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good," he said. "I've been privileged to learn much about the very best in human nature, and a fair amount, too, about its frailties, including my own."

Later he told party workers he was resigning immediately as party leader, leaving Harriet Harman in charge.

He told his party: "We know more certainly than ever before that there is a strong progressive majority in Britain, I wish more than I can possibly say that I could mobilise that majority, but I could not – I have to accept and to assert personal responsibility the fault is mine, and I will carry that alone.

"One thing that will not change is that I am Labour and Labour I will always be."

Even before Brown announced he was resigning, the recriminations had started. The Lib Dems rounded on Labour negotiators, accusing them of not being serious in the talks, and preferring opposition as more attractive than the challenges of creating a coalition.

Lord Adonis, the cabinet member most supportive of a deal with the Lib Dems, launched a blistering attack on Clegg. "It is clear from their conduct in recent days that the Lib Dem leadership was dead set on a coalition with the Tories," he said. "They should have been straight about this fact rather than playing silly games with myself, Gordon Brown and others. Nick Clegg's deal with the Conservatives is a matter of choice not necessity."

Barack Obama was among the first of the world leaders to call Cameron after the Tory leader had entered Downing Street.

In a statement, Obama said he looked forward to meeting the new UK prime minister: "As I told the prime minister, the United States has no closer friend and ally than the United Kingdom, and I reiterated my deep and personal commitment to the special relationship between our two countries."

Summary: Tory–Lib Dem coalition takes power after Labour talks fail, leaving David Cameron to become PM after five days of negotiation


If you’ve ever thought it would be cool to join the military, the United States Air Force is sweetening the deal, offering a $15,000 per year bonus to people who sign up to be drone pilots for either five or nine years.

The plan is being implemented due to a shortage of drone pilots, according to The Wall Street Journal. The offer is available to existing Air Force Pilots, although the Journal also notes that 80 pilots graduating flight school this year will be automatically placed in the corps of drone pilots.

The United States has used drones for both airstrikes and surveillance throughout the world. The Obama administration’s use of drones in the “War on Terror” has garnered ferocious criticism from both sides of the political aisle, but if this program is any indication, the mechanization of war looks to be something that will expand, not recede.

One other change that could be made to expand the pool of drone pilots would be to allow enlisted airmen, rather than just officers, to pilot drones. As of now, that’s not happening.

Summary: You can up your salary by $15,000 by taking this job.


Photo: RICH PEDRONCELLI, Associated Press

In this file photo, a California Highway Patrol helicopter comes in for a landing at Auburn, Calif., Feb. 17, 1998. On Tuesday, a CHP helicopter was used to rescue a man who fell 40 feet down a cliff in Marin County.

In this file photo, a California Highway Patrol helicopter comes in for a landing at Auburn, Calif., Feb. 17, 1998. On Tuesday, a CHP helicopter was used to rescue a man who fell 40 feet down a cliff in Marin

Hiker who fell off Marin County cliff rescued by CHP helicopter

A stranded hiker was rescued by a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew after falling 40 feet down a cliff in Marin County and suffering major injuries Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

About 4:45 p.m., the CHP’s air unit was requested by the Marin County Fire Department to help search for the hiker, who had fallen down a cliff face near Tomales Point at the north end of Tomales Bay, said Officer James Andrews, a CHP spokesman.

The chopper rescue team spotted the hiker, a 22-year-old man, about 40 feet below the top of the cliff on some rocks. A paramedic was lowered from the helicopter and subsequently hoisted the hiker to safety, Andrews said.

The hiker was flown to nearby Dillon Beach, where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance and taken to a hospital with major injuries. Andrews said the man was expected to survive.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale

Summary: A stranded hiker  was rescued by a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew after falling 40 feet down a cliff in Marin County and suffering major injuries Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.  About 4:45 p.m., the CHP’s air unit was requested by the Marin County Fire Department to help search for the hiker, who had fallen down a cliff face near Tomales Point at the north end of Tomales Bay, said Officer James Andrews, a CHP spokesman.  The hiker was flown to nearby Dillon Beach, where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance and taken to a hospital with major injuries.


If you see a shoe billboard, will you buy a shoe? Advertisers around the country are starting to get some answers to that question.

Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, a massive billboard company controlled by iHeartMedia Inc. with thousands of displays across the country, is debuting a new kind of consumer tracking technology the company is calling “RADAR.” The system taps into mobile phone signals to track how well ads are doing their jobs, answering questions like who’s really buying a product, looking up a brand, or talking about it with friends after they see an ad.

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Andy Stevens, senior vice president for research and insights at Clear Channel Outdoor, told The New York Times the concept “does sound a bit creepy.”

But Clear Channel says the company can’t really see who you are and where you’re going. The system is designed to anonymously track traffic patterns about who’s passing ads and what they do next. Clear Channel’s partnering with AT&T, ad analytics company Placed, and PlaceIQ to analyze the data.

Toms recently tried out the new system in Orlando. The company learned how likely people were to talk about its shoes with their friends or look up the company online after they saw an outdoor ad. Clear Channel said people who saw the Toms ads were 44% more likely to buy a pair of shoes.

For more on advertising, watch:

The tracing comes as TVs and computers around the world are starting to watch consumers. The BBC recently conducted an experiment looking at how people’s faces respond to ads on their computer screens, while TVision tracked thousands of people watching Super Bowl 50 in Boston and declared a “most smiled at” ad (it featured Alec Baldwin). Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the company is also working on virtual reality technology that would more precisely trace where people are looking on-screen to deliver faster, higher-quality resolution virtual reality.

So here’s looking at you, consumer.

Summary: A new kind of billboard is tracking just how well ads are working


Looking for a roundup of the latest and most important news from the automotive world? You’ve found it in the Daily Drive-Thru. Check it out every weekday to see what you missed and what you need to know.

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The Daily Drive Thru once considered making a performance model, but we didn't think you could handle it.

In an effort to compete with the Nissan Juke Nismo, fellow Japanese carmaker Toyota is contemplating a performance version of its most talked about crossover concept, the C-HR. This idea, which was confirmed by the SUV’s lead engineer Hiro Koba during an interview with Autocar magazine, points to a trend of consumers’ increased desire for crossovers being coupled with a continued thirst to get fast and dirty behind the wheel.

For other examples, look at Jeep’s upcoming Trackhawk or even Mazda’s fun to drive CX-5. Koba said the performance C-HR hasn’t received final approval, but he’s pushing for it.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has added yet another title to his ever-expanding résumé: Ferrari CEO. Marchionne, who was already serving as Chairman of Ferrari, praised outgoing CEO Amedeo Felisa for his 26 years of service to the Italian brand:

“I have known Amedeo for more than a decade and I have had the opportunity to work with him closely for the last two years. He is beyond any doubt one of the best automotive engineers in the world. During the last 26 years, he has worked tirelessly to fuel and guide Ferrari’s technical development, producing an array of cars which have set the standard for both performance and styling.”

During an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Warren Buffett, the billionaire CEO of multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, said autonomous cars will be a huge problem for auto insurers as he expects accident rates to plummet, meaning “there will be a whole lot less auto insurance written.”

Buffett’s friend and fellow billionaire, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who knows a thing or two about technology, said he doesn’t expect autonomous car technology to make its way to the public at large for another 15 years, which is roughly consistent with what automakers are saying.

As you might have heard from following the news (or Donald Trump) Ford is expanding its manufacturing presence in Mexico. Well now it seems Ford is drawing ire from south of the U.S.-Mexico border, as well.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company was slapped with a $1.05 billion fine from Profepa, Mexico’s environmental protection administration for selling close to 4,690 vehicles without environmental certifications confirming that the vehicles meet emissions and noise-level regulations.

He didn’t deny it, he was a straight ridah, and you wouldn’t want to mess with him. Well, now you can get around like Tupac in his black 1996 Hummer H1, which he purchased just one month before he was murdered in Las Vegas, Nevada. The car was listed for sale just days before Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakurwas found dead in northern California.

RR Auctions, the auction house selling Pac’s Hummer estimates that the vehicle will sell for at least $100,000.

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Summary: Warren Buffett also warns insurers about the impact of autonomous cars, Tupac's Hummer is up for sale, and more in today's Daily Drive Thru.


Sony’s much-anticipated virtual reality headset will be released in the U.S. on Oct. 13.

Shawn Layden, chairman of Sony’s video game development studio SIE Worldwide, revealed the release date of the Sony PlayStation VR headset on Monday in Los Angeles during the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3.

“2016 is a seminal moment in virtual reality,” said Layden. “The time has finally come for everyone to enjoy virtual reality in their own homes.”

Sony kicked off its virtual reality news by showing a demo of a new installment of the popular Resident Evil action-horror video game franchise that will work on both Sony’s PlayStation 4 gaming console as well as the new virtual reality headset. Layden said the new Resident Evil 7 “will be playable from beginning to end on the PlayStation VR.”

In March, Sony said that its virtual reality headset would be available in October for $399. The VR headset requires a Sony PlayStation 4 gaming console (sold for roughly $350) to operate. Additional Sony VR controllers and a special camera required for the VR headset will cost consumers another $100.

Competing VR headsets like Facebook’s fb Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive retail for $599 and $799 respectively. Unlike Sony’s VR headset that requires a Sony PlayStation 4 gaming console, the Oculus Rift and the Vive require a powerful personal computer.

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Layden bragged that Sony has sold over 40 million PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, which he said have enough power to run virtual reality video games. Layden believes that with millions of people owning the PlayStation 4 console, Sony will have a better chance at popularizing virtual reality technology than its competitors.

Some of the new VR video games that will be released will include some of the biggest video game franchises as well as “new franchises,” he added. Among some of the VR video games that Sony executives said are in the works are new games based on Star Wars, Batman, and the Final Fantasy video game franchise.

Last week, Sony said that it is developing a more powerful version of its current PlayStation 4 video game console that will support 4K resolution and presumably VR video games that can be displayed in higher quality. Sony did not say when the new console would be released and how much it would cost, but it did say that video games developed for the new console would also work with the current PlayStation 4 model. Sony executives did not discuss the new console during the press event.

Microsoft msft also announced its virtual reality ambitions on Monday during E3. The technology giant said it will release a new gaming console, currently called Project Scorpio, during the 2017 holiday season that will be powerful enough for high-quality virtual reality video games and movies.

For more about Sony, watch:

Microsoft did not say how much the new gaming console would sell for or which VR headsets will be compatible with the device.

Summary: More than 50 VR games will be availble by the end of the year.