title
stringlengths 4
205
| summary
stringlengths 102
4.94k
| url
stringlengths 41
634
| date
stringlengths 19
26
⌀ | article_content
stringlengths 10
100k
⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Esso launches mobile payments app, quickening refueling process | Esso has launched a mobile payments app that allows UK drivers to pay for petrol from their vehicle. After refuelling, the cloud-based app will notify users of the amount paid and issue an e-receipt. In addition, users that have registered their Tesco Clubcard will also accrue points when they fill up. The app, which also has a Fuel Finder pump-locating function, is available in 70 petrol stations and a wider roll-out across the UK continues.
| http://www.retail-systems.com/rs/Esso_Mobile_Payments_App_Launch.php | null | Esso has launched a new mobile app that allows customers to securely pay for their fuel at the petrol station.
Customers can simply drive up to an Esso fuel pump, open the app from the comfort of their car, select the pump number and authorise the payment (up to a maximum limit) before filling-up. When the customer replaces the nozzle back on the pump, the app confirms the amount paid and automatically emails them a digital receipt.
The system uses cloud-based technology which helps to ensure each transaction is quick and secure to enable customers to authorise payment.
Customers who register their Tesco Clubcard on the app will be automatically credited with Clubcard points for their purchase (at participating sites).
The new app is currently available at 70 service stations, while the firm is continuing to expand the app’s availability to more Esso-branded service station locations across the UK. Using the Fuel Finder function within the app, customers can identify those nearby Esso sites enabled for mobile payment and even get driving directions to the sites.
Christopher Smith, mobile payment and loyalty manager for Esso, said: “Esso is committed to providing our customers with the best possible experience at our stations, and the app has been designed to save time as you don’t need to queue to pay, yet you can still accumulate Clubcard points. This combination of functions distinguishes the Esso App as the next generation of customer payment at Esso-branded service stations.”
Share Story:
|
GlidePath buys up 149 MW of wind with plans to pair with storage
| GlidePath Power Solutions has acquired 149 MW of wind capacity in north Texas, with plans to pair the energy with battery storage. The company purchased eight distributed wind sites from Exelon Generation and now aims to use the facilities as a base for developing financially viable storage technology.
| https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/glidepath-took-on-storage-in-texas-now-it-wants-to-add-it-to-wind#gs.ybqt0t | null | Batteries paired with solar plants have gained momentum in sunny locales, but a market for shifting wind generation using battery storage has so far failed to materialize.
Developer GlidePath Power Solutions, however, sees a path forward for wind-plus-storage in one of the country's most competitive power markets, announcing the acquisition of 149 megawatts of north Texas wind capacity with the intent to pair it with batteries.
GlidePath, with the financial backing of low-carbon investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, aims to use the eight distributed wind sites it bought from Exelon Generation as a base for developing storage and proving that batteries and wind can make money together.
Storage development will commence now that the acquisition has closed, Chief Operating Officer Chris McKissack said in an email Tuesday. The projects, north of Amarillo, will participate in the Southwest Power Pool wholesale market.
“SPP includes some of the most robust wind resources in the country, but development has stagnated due to uncertainty and unsustainably low prices,” McKissack explained. “Energy storage provides additional flexibility that we believe adds significant value to the market, as well as to local and regional ratepayers.”
GlidePath believes it can match each wind farm with up to an equivalent megawatt capacity of energy storage, with the megawatt-hour capacity to be refined as the first projects come online, he noted.
Such capacity would allow GlidePath to divert its wind production into the batteries when an abundance of wind generation triggers negative pricing, rather than pay to bring it to market. Then, it could release that energy when prices have climbed, turning a potential loss into a profit via arbitrage.
Executing that procedure, though, requires a sophisticated view of wholesale market movements, said Daniel Finn-Foley, head of energy storage research at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.
“GlidePath is not the only one looking at these markets — SPP’s interconnection queue is full of projects,” said Finn-Foley, who tracks the emergence of hybrid storage plants. “If they’re the first movers in this market, that’s fantastic, but it all depends on how they’re modeling out their revenue.”
That modeling will need to capture, among other things, which nodes offer the best profits for storage and how revenues will change as new resources enter the grid.
Early mover
Then again, GlidePath has already demonstrated a willingness to take on merchant risk with energy storage, first in PJM territory back in 2014 and most recently with a pioneering 10-megawatt plant in Texas. Storage developers have largely steered clear of the highly competitive ERCOT market.
Storage financiers typically demand solid, contracted revenue streams. That would rule out the sorts of projects that GlidePath is looking at in north Texas. Having a well-capitalized infrastructure fund as a corporate parent liberates GlidePath from the industry’s conventional constraints.
“GlidePath continues to pride ourselves on being an early mover in the storage space across multiple markets,” McKissack said. “We take a long view of the market, and our overarching thesis is that this is the right time for storage.”
A long view may be the only way to make wind-plus-storage make sense right now. Whereas solar-plus-storage benefits from the federal investment tax credit, wind plants prefer taking the federal Production Tax Credit, and storage has not been able to monetize that. That means the benefits of co-locating storage have to come from operations alone.
Finn-Foley predicts that Massachusetts will be the first major wind-plus-storage market, because the state has enacted a Clean Peak Standard to require a growing portion of peak hour electricity come from clean sources.
That regulatory change creates a driver for wind (and solar) plants to add storage and become more dispatchable. Elsewhere, wholesale markets could drive development if the arbitrage spreads become lucrative enough.
Transmission congestion offers another incentive, because project owners can use storage to make better use of their interconnection during times when the wind is not blowing.
--
Now in its fifth year, the Energy Storage Summit will bring together utilities, financiers, regulators, technology innovators, and storage practitioners for two full days of data-intensive presentations, analyst-led panel sessions with industry leaders, and extensive, high-level networking. |
Snapchat plans to double the amount of video shows it releases | Snapchat plans to double the number of shows it releases through Snapchat video this year, according to Digiday UK. The move could allow Snap to offer more professional content, and follows a redesign of the platform that separated user posts from media and celebrity content. It also plans to widen the number of sources for its shows. Until now, the programmes have come from larger media operators and mainline TV companies, but smaller producers are now expected to become involved. The shows are funded by their own producers and ad revenue is shared with Snapchat.
| https://digiday.com/media/snapchat-is-enlisting-more-publishers-to-make-video-shows/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=180222 | null | I want my Snap TV?
Snapchat plans to double the amount of Snapchat video shows it releases this year to roughly 80 shows, including what could be its first serialized, scripted shows. In doing so, the company has also widened its sources for shows to include digital and legacy publishers, in addition to existing TV network partners.
Group Nine Media and Condé Nast Entertainment each have at least one show that Snapchat recently ordered, according to sources. Last week, Uproxx announced a new Snapchat show it’s co-producing with entertainment studio STXdigital called “Brawler,” which will premiere on March 16. Other shows have come out in the past year from publishers, including Barstool Sports (a college-culture show called “Fifth Year”), Billboard (a music series called “Artist Pass”) and Vice Media (dating show “Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson”).
A Snapchat source, speaking on background, stressed that in the case of publishers such as Group Nine Media and Condé Nast, both of which have multiple Snapchat Discover channels, they’re not abandoning their magazine-style Discover editions for video shows. Instead, the shows are part of an effort by Snap to offer more professionally produced content on Discover. This comes after a Snapchat redesign that separated user posts from media and celebrity content within the app.
“We’re excited to make shows for Snapchat,” said Ben Lerer, CEO of Group Nine Media. “We continue to see great growth with audience and engagement on our Snapchat Discover channels for NowThis and TheDodo, and we saw great results producing the ‘Shark Week’ show [for Snapchat and Discovery] last year. This is another way for us to lean in and create more programming for the platform.”
Since launching its shows initiative in 2016, Snapchat has gotten most of them from TV networks and other major media companies, while steering digital publishers toward making magazine-style story editions for Discover. That’s not to say Snap has avoided working with publishers on shows, but a majority of the 40 Snapchat shows that have aired so far have come from companies such as NBCUniversal, A+E Networks and ESPN. More than a few have come from sports leagues, too. That net will widen this year.
“We’re in discussions with them on a number of projects that are at various stages in the [development] process,” said Benjamin Blank, CEO of Uproxx. “It really is a matter of whether something we want to do from a creative standpoint matches up with what they’re looking for.”
Snap’s work with publishers on shows comes as the company is looking to curry favor with publishers reeling from the aftermath of Facebook’s news-feed changes.
One area of concern for publishers and other digital media producers is that Snapchat, unlike Facebook Watch, isn’t subsidizing the production of shows. Producers are asked to fund the show, after which Snap will evenly split ad revenue made from the program.
That arrangement has been fine for some TV networks, which can treat the platform as a marketing vehicle to find younger viewers for their existing media properties. And for some networks, it’s been working. E!’s thrice-weekly show “The Rundown” reached 30 million unique viewers in January; NBC News’s twice-daily news show “Stay Tuned” reached 28 million viewers; and ESPN’s “SportsCenter” reached 17.5 million viewers in January.
Other TV networks, such as CNN, which pulled the plug on its daily news show “The Update” in December, weren’t getting enough revenue from Snapchat shows to justify making more episodes.
The ability to make money off of Snapchat shows is an even bigger deal for publishers, many of which don’t have the resources of an NBCUniversal or ESPN to invest in social video shows without some type of guaranteed revenue coming back.
“The fact that they don’t pay for [shows], you end up having to figure out if and when to prioritize working with them,” said one Discover publishing partner that’s pitching shows to Snap.
But the allure of doing a show for Snapchat, which continues to reach a younger demographic than most other social platforms, remains strong. That pull is why publishers such as Group Nine Media and Hearst Magazines Digital Media have recently launched new divisions dedicated to creating video shows for distributed platforms.
The opportunity to get new viewers is a big reason Barstool is doing more episodes of “Fifth Year,” said Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports. On most platforms, Barstool’s audience is 70-80 percent men; on Snapchat, “Fifth Year” viewers were evenly split between men and women, she said.
“Snapchat brought us new eyeballs and an incredible audience,” Nardini said. “We were on 24 college campuses last fall, and at every single one, we had college kids taking photos of our personalities and posting it to Snapchat. It made it clear that we were on a platform that college kids, a big part of our audience, were already using.”
It also helps that the first season of “Fifth Year,” which consisted of 13 episodes and averaged 3 million viewers per episode, according to Snap, was profitable for Barstool. Snap brought in a series sponsorship with Wendy’s, a new advertiser for the publisher.
Similarly, Uproxx’s “Brawler” has landed an advertising sponsor, with the potential of a few additional sponsors also signing on, Blank said. He wouldn’t name the advertiser, saying Snap is taking the lead on ad sales for the show.
While the downside for producers is that Snap isn’t paying for shows, producers retain ownership over the programs, which could help improve the economics of these deals. For instance, as part of Uproxx’s agreement with its production partner STXdigital, the companies will look to expand “Brawler” beyond Snap, whether that’s licensing the program to other platforms at a later date or using the show format to develop a different version for a different buyer down the road.
“We’re not a production company that has a couple of phones and farms out the production to other companies,” said Blank. “We do the physical production in-house, which ensures future opportunities for us for our properties. It’s the second and third windows where these things get interesting.” |
Banco de Chile | Developments regarding the controversial $10.4mn loan made by Banco de Chile to the son of Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, which is being investigated by the Chilean regulator, have reached mainstream press. The president’s son, Sebastian Davalos, is accused of obtaining the loan from the bank using his political connections, and then using the loan to buy property which was sold shortly later for a $4.8mn profit. There are now questions as to whether the president herself had an involvement with the transaction.Relevance: Investigation update | http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/08/chilean-president-michelle-bachelet-corruption-charges-sebastian-davalos | null | Amid a series of political corruption scandals which have upended the Chilean political establishment and delivered a critical blow to her popularity, President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday dismissed rumours that she is considering resigning.
“I haven’t resigned and am not even sure what the process would be,” a bemused Bachelet told reporters. Bachelet insisted that “corruption in Chile is not widespread” despite stating that an investigation into powerful businessmen and her “family member” were under way.
The president’s comments came as Bachelet’s son Sebastian Davalos was to be questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday about his role in a controversial and possibly illegal real estate transaction. Davalos and his wife, Natalia Compagnon, stand accused of using their political connections to obtain a $10m bank loan which they allegedly used to flip a property in order to earn millions of dollars in a matter of weeks.
Last month, Chilean prosecutors seized computers, cellphone records and $4m as they continued to investigate the business dealings of both the president’s son and her daughter-in-law. While Compagnon testified on Wednesday, Davalos cancelled his appearance on the advice of his lawyers, fueling speculation that he has something to hide.
The Davalos case is focused on a proposed change to municipal zoning that would have sent real estate prices soaring. But the suspicion that a Bachelet family member was involved in illicit business has come to symbolize a widespread malaise in the Chilean body politic.
In February, Davalos was forced to leave his government job directing the president’s sociocultural agenda. While Bachelet denies any knowledge or involvement in the real estate transaction, a majority of Chileans don’t believe her.
Public opinion polls in March showed the president’s approval ratings fell to 31%, down drastically from the 84% with which she finished her first term in 2010. Over the past year the percentage of Chileans expressing disapproval with Bachelet’s leadership jumped from 20% to 61%.
Long a champion of Chile’s poor, Bachelet is now battling to maintain her ambitious social reform agenda amid massive public criticism.
“There is an important crisis of confidence,” the president said, “But it is a tremendous opportunity to fill the legal loopholes so this doesn’t happen again.”
Over the past 12 months, Bachelet has had multiple legislative victories, including an increase in corporate tax rate to finance free or heavily discounted higher education for tens of thousands of students. The president, a pediatrician, is also pushing to build thousands of free day care centers throughout Chile.
The collapse in public support for Bachelet has been trumped by an even more spectacular fall by Chile’s rightwing UDI party – the nation’s largest – with an approval rating that fell to 11% in recent months.
But Bachelet’s government crisis has been accompanied by wider public discontent centered on high-profile financial scandals, in which powerful businessmen have been caught laundering money or donating to political candidates.
Soquimich, a billion-dollar Chilean mining company run by Julio Ponce Lerou, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s former son-in-law, is facing multiple criminal charges after tax authorities found the company used fake invoices to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians across the political spectrum. Soquimich is now facing intense scrutiny from Chilean prosecutors and several dozen US law firms are preparing to file lawsuits against the publicly traded company.
The amount of money in the Soquimich political campaign cases is thought to be less than a million dollars, minuscule when compared to corruption scandals in Argentina and Brazil where hundreds of millions of dollars in government funds are alleged to have been siphoned off by corrupt officials.
“We can’t shut our eyes, corruption has arrived,” said Ramiro Mendoza, the Chilean comptroller general on Tuesday while stressing, “We have institutional measures to prevent the growth of this scourge.” |
Ola Money can now pay for select gas and electricity bills
| Digital wallet Ola Money can now be used to pay for utility bills such as gas and electricity at BESCOM in Bangalore; BSES Yamuna & Rajdhani and Noida Power, Indraprastha Gas in Delhi; MAHAVITARAN in Maharashtra; Rajasthan Vidhyut Vitran Nigam; and Mahanagar Gas and Reliance Energy in Mumbai. Ola Money has said that it saw a 1,500% increase in recharge after the Indian government devalued Rs 1000 notes.
| http://www.medianama.com/2016/11/223-ola-money-utility-bills/ | null | Ola’s digital wallet Ola Money can now be used to pay for utility bills like gas and electricity. It will be accepted at: - BESCOM in Bangalore - BSES Yamuna & Rajdhani and Noida Power, Indraprastha Gas in Delhi - MAHAVITARAN in Maharashtra - Mahanagar Gas and Reliance Energy in Mumbai and - Rajasthan Vidhyut Vitran Nigam Ltd Note that last week, the RBI increased the monthly limit for adding money to digital wallets from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 till 30 December 2016. Ola Money claims to be one of the top mobile wallets in the country by average wallet size but does not mention the average ticket size. It also claims to have “millions of customers” but does not provide absolute numbers. Earlier this month, Ola said that Ola Money, saw a 1500% increase in recharge on 8 November following the devaluation of Rs 1000 notes by the Indian government. For smaller towns and cities, which usually rely on cash payments, Ola Money’s growth was 30x. Ola Money began as a closed system payment instrument in 2014. Ola tied up with ZipCash in August 2015 to offer the wallet service to other companies as well. In the same month, Ola Money was made a payment mode for Oyo Rooms, Lenskart and Saavn among others across India. Three months following this, Ola launched a separate Android app for Ola Money, which could do mobile recharges, money transfers and be used on other platforms. This year, Ola Money partnered with…
Please subscribe login to read the full story. |
Test - Inspiration: Virat Kohli sets the ball rolling in cracking 1st episode | India cricket team captain Virat Kohli will set the ball rolling at 'India Today Inspiration' -- a series of conversations with some of India's biggest sporting legends.In the 1st episode which will be aired on November 30 at 6 pm IST will have Virat Kohli having candid chat with India Today Consulting Editor, Sports, Boria Majumdar.The 1st episode of India Today Inspiration featuring Virat Kohli will be telecasted at 6 pm on Saturday, November 30 on India Today TV. | https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cricket/story/india-today-inspiration-virat-kohli-1st-episode-november-30-life-career-1623221-2019-11-28 | null | By India Today Web Desk: India cricket team captain Virat Kohli will set the ball rolling at 'India Today Inspiration' -- a series of conversations with some of India's biggest sporting legends.
What it takes to be a champion? How do these champions deal with failures? How did they make it to the top? What do they do when they are not on the field? How do they unwind? The superstars of Indian sports are going to be giving a sneak peek of their success mantra in the upcoming episodes of India Today's brand new series, Inspiration.
advertisement
In the 1st episode which will be aired on November 30 at 6 pm IST will have Virat Kohli having candid chat with India Today Consulting Editor, Sports, Boria Majumdar.
If the teasers that are going viral on social media are anything to by, the opening episode featuring Virat Kohli is going to be a firecracker.
From his ability to deal with failures to being thankful for the shampoo commercial with Bollywood actor and wife Anushka Sharma, Kohli has opened up about some of the most important aspects of his life and cricketing career.
Here's a sneak peek of the guest list on India Today Inspiration: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, India head coach Ravi Shastri, tennis star Sania Mirza, batting great Sachin Tendulkar, chess superstar Vishwanathan Anand and India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane.
'I hate losing'
Speaking about his unquenchable thirst to excel and contribute to the team's success, Virat Kohli said: "I hate losing. I don't want to walk out and say I could have done this. When I step out on the field, it's a privilege. When I walk out, I want to have zero energy. We want to leave behind a legacy that future cricketers will say we want to play like that."
I hate losing, says @imVkohli. Get to know more about the Captain of Indian cricket team in #IndiaTodayInspiration on November 30, 6:00 pm.
(@BoriaMajumdar) #Promo pic.twitter.com/HRwO2wqCSn India Today (@IndiaToday) November 27, 2019
How did he meet Anushka Sharma? What did he like the most about the Bollywood actor during the initial days of their relationship? The answers are all going to be out on November 30 on India Today.
"The thing that fascinated me the most was how relaxed and chilled out for what she already was at the stage. She was welcoming and comforting. These are things that helped us become really friendly," Virat Kohli told India Today.
"We started cracking jokes. I was the one who was fooling around all the time. Some of the jokes were really silly but that's how I am. I love having a good time and having a laugh. I am really glad that shampoo commercial happened."
advertisement
The World Cup 2019 semi-final exit was one of the most heartbreaking moments in what has been an interesting phase of Indian cricket under Virat Kohli. What was going through during the tense final against New Zealand?
"Do I get affected by failures. Yes, I do. Everyone does. At the end of the day, I know my team would need me. I had the feeling so strong in my heart that I am going to come not out and make India go through that tough phase [in the semi-final]. But then again, maybe that was I my ego talking because how can you predict something like that? You can only have a strong feeling or maybe it was a strong desire to do something like that."
Excited? Mark your calendar for India Today Inspiration!
The 1st episode of India Today Inspiration featuring Virat Kohli will be telecasted at 6 pm on Saturday, November 30 on India Today TV. You can catch it again on December 1 at 2 pm and 10 pm. You can also watch the episode online at https://www.indiatoday.in/livetv.
Also Read | Really glad that shampoo commercial with Anushka Sharma happened: Virat Kohli |
Esure GoCompare demerger chosen as Insider deal of the month
| The demerger of price comparison site Gocompare.com from insurance providers esure Group has been selected as Insider’s November Deal of the Month. Insurers esure took over Gocompare, which was founded in 2006, in March 2015 with a £95m acquisition of a 50% stake in the business. After a strategic review, Gocompare will now trade separately on the London Stock Exchange as Gocompare.com Group. Insider news editor David Casey said that both companies would be able to focus on their individual strategies as a result of the move.
| http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/wales/gocompare-demerger-named-deal-of-the-month | null | Wales Deals Stephen Farrell
The demerger of Newport-headquartered price comparison website Gocompare.com from the esure Group has been named as Insider's November Deal of the Month.
Gocompare was founded by Hayley Parsons in 2006. Insurance group esure completed its takeover of Gocompare in March 2015, acquiring the remaining 50 per cent stake in the business in a £95m deal.
Following a strategic review of operations conducted earlier this year, the decision was made to demerge Gocompare from the group.
It has now begun trading separately on the main market of the London Stock Exchange as Gocompare.com Group plc.
Insider news editor David Casey said: "Both businesses will benefit from being able to focus on their distinct strategies, with Gocompare.com as a leading UK price and product comparison website and esure Group as a leading UK provider of motor and home insurance."
Gocompare generated a pre-tax profit of £23.3m on revenue of £119m in its results for the year ended 31 December 2015. |
Asilomar Bio to commercialise its crop chemicals after $12m raise | San Fransisco-based producer of chemical crop inputs, Asilomar Bio has raised $12.25m in a Series B Round which will bring to market its first chemical yield enhancement product. Asilomar will reportedly bring its first compound to market by 2020 in the form of a foliar spray through a licensing agreement with Koch Biological Solutions. The compound's use spreads beyond drought conditions, as Asilomar’s chemical input can foster ideal rainfall-level crop yields from an average year of rainfall in major row-crop growing climates, say Asilomar's founders.The round was led by Syngenta Ventures, which will also be joining Asiloma's board. | https://agfundernews.com/asilomar-bio-raises-12m-series-b-chemical-yield-enhancer.html | null | Asilomar Bio, a San Francisco-based maker of chemical crop inputs has raised a $12.25 million Series B Round to bring it’s first chemical yield enhancement product to market.
This announcement comes on the heels of a licensing agreement with Koch Biological Solutions, which has secured global rights to commercialize and market products that contain Asilomar Bio’s technology, which encourages enhanced water efficiency, announced last week.
The round was led by Syngenta Ventures, with participation from ag retailer Wilbur Ellis’s Cavallo Ventures, biotech VC Mission Bay Capital and follow-on investors from the company’s $3 million Series A in 2015 Cultivian Sandbox, and Fall Line Capital.
Asilomar’s technology has applications for a range of crops, including all major row crops and plantation forestry. The patent-pending technology affects crop yield through control of water usage.
“The chemistry increases the abundance of cellular water channels and allows the plant to pull water out of the soil more efficiently – accessing more water when the soil is dry and using it more efficiently when it has plentiful water,” explained cofounder and CTO Travis Bayer.
The product is currently not only meant for drought conditions. Asilomar’s chemical input can make yields from an average year of rainfall in major row-crop growing climates as high as if rainfall was ideal, said the founders.
“One thing that we realized is that virtually every field out there does see some stress even in a good year. That really cuts into yield. The corn and soy growers who win the national yield competitions say to hit those record-high yields, your field has to never see a day of stress. Even a few days or a week of stress can hit your yield,” said Bayer.
Ron Meeusen of Cultivian, who sits on the board at Asilomar, told AgFunderNews that Asilomar demonstrated a remarkable understanding of the function of their first chemical two years ago when the agtech VC first invested.
“I’d be so bold as to say that most companies out there have microbes or extracts or materials that they believe show an effect in the field and they’re not really sure how it works. These guys have solid science right down to the plant physiology level and down to the biochemical and molecular level,” said Meeusen, who added that he initially invested when the company had just one compound and a few trials. Asilomar now has three seasons growing hundreds of field trials in both hemispheres and several more products in the pipeline today, according to Meeusen.
Asilomar will use the new funds to expand its team and get its first compound to market —as a foliar spray through the Koch partnership. The team is also working on a seed treatment for both row crops and specialty crops like fruits and vegetables with the same compound. The spray is likely to go to market in 2019 or 2020, says Bayer, pending EPA approcal, and the team has at least six compounds in line behind that.
“Yield enhancement and abiotic stress management are tough areas for companies to be differentiated. Asilomar’s technology excites me because they have very good physiological data on the mode of action of their pipeline products, and the class of natural products that they are working with should provide more consistent results than alternatives,” said Gabriel Wilmoth of Syngenta Ventures. Derek Norman of Syngenta Ventures will join Asilomar’s board.
Before raising venture capital, Asilomar received $1.5 million in grant funding from the Gates Foundation, the USDA, and the National Science Foundation.
Other companies using chemistry to enhance yields include Crop Enhancement, a startup using what it dubs “sustainable chemistry” to combat crop pests and increase crop yields in the tropics, which raised $8.5 million in 2016. Also in this category of agriculture biotechnology is Plant Impact, which makes crop enhancement inputs using synthetic chemistry and raised $5.1 million in equity financing on the London Stock Exchange in August. The company initially listed in 2006. |
Visa hosts Dubai digital payments hackathon | Visa partnered with Dubai Internet City to host a two-day Digital Payments Hackathon in Dubai during the 2016 United Arab Emirates Innovation Week. Teams of developers, app designers and entrepreneurs were judged on five criteria: execution, impact, creativity, design and their usage of Visa application program interface for applications in transport to recreation | https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/67309/visa-hosts-dubai-digital-payments-hackathon?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=finextrafeed | null | Source: Visa
Visa (NYSE:V), a global payments technology company, hosted a two day ‘Digital Payments Hackathon’ in partnership with Dubai Internet City during the 2016 UAE Innovation Week.
Developers, app designers and entrepreneurs competed in a rigorous challenge, at in5 innovation centre for technology, in Dubai Knowledge Park, to determine the next big idea in digital payments solutions that further Dubai’s goal to be a truly Smart City.
From transportation to recreation, the theme of innovation was diverse but the end goal was to solve a consumer facing problem using a Visa Application Programming Interface (API) via the Visa Developer Platform. Under the guidance of the Smart City vision, participants were given 24 hours between 25 and 26 November 2016 to use their technology expertise and code a fully secure app that were then presented and tested in front of the panel of judges compromising of Visa executives, payments industry experts and technology entrepreneurs.
Karl Tlais, Senior Director, Innovation & Strategic Partnerships CEMEA, Visa, one of the judges at the challenge, said: “The Visa Digital Payments Hackathon gives us an excellent opportunity to test the creativity and leverage the potential of the entrepreneurial spirit in Dubai. By working closely with the tech savvy community, we hope to find an ingenious idea that could be transformed into a real life solution for Dubai’s residents. Hosting it as part of the UAE Innovation Week was a strategically important decision for us as we support the country’s vision to build an ecosystem of innovative thinkers and developers.”
Ammar Malik, Executive Director, Dubai Internet City, said: “As Dubai journeys on its transformation into one of the smartest and most innovative cities in the world, it is inspiring to see our business partners contribute to this vision through innovative and progressive ideas. Over the last two decades, Dubai Internet City has become home to global businesses like Visa, as well as local entrepreneurs whose ideas have far reaching impact. The Visa Innovation Centre in Dubai Internet City and the Visa Development Platform together are reimagining the future of payment technologies and creating opportunities for innovators in Dubai and the region. Together with Visa, our Hackathon for the 2016 UAE Innovation Week brought together world-class innovators for whom we will continue to enable opportunities to scale growth.”
Teams were judged on five criteria: execution, impact, creativity, design and Visa API usage with four winning ideas selected. Additionally, any team that used the Mobile Connect API, an open platform for budding app developers, has the chance to win a trip to the Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona in February 2017.
The Visa Digital Payments Hackathon is aligned to Visa’s ongoing efforts in driving innovation in the digital payments sector in the UAE and was organized by Angelhack, the world’s largest and most diverse global hacker community in partnership with Decode Dubai by in5, TECOM Group’s integrated innovation platform, and GSMA, an organization that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. |
For patients, the public and professional users: a guide to COVID-19 tests and testing kits | Tests will only be as reliable as the manufacturer claims if used in the way intended by the manufacturer. No COVID-19 self-test kits have received a CE mark and therefore there are no test kits in the UK. It is currently illegal to test kits for use by members of the public. | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-tests-and-testing-kits-for-coronavirus-covid-19-work/for-patients-the-public-and-professional-users-a-guide-to-covid-19-tests-and-testing-kits | null | Types of test
Virus test
These tests, sometimes called swab or antigen tests, check to see if you are currently infected with the virus.
The swab sample is taken from your nose and throat.
Alternatively, a saliva sample might be used.
This sample is then tested to see if you have the virus.
Lateral flow antigen test or rapid antigen test
Lateral flow antigen tests are rapid turnaround virus tests that can process COVID-19 samples on site, without the need for laboratory equipment. Most produces easy-to-understand results in under half an hour. Because of this, they can be performed in a laboratory or a point of care setting.
Public Health England (PHE) and the University of Oxford have recently carried out extensive clinical evaluation studies on lateral flow tests.
In the UK, the MHRA has granted NHS Test & Trace an exceptional use authorisation to use certain lateral flow devices as self-tests to show infection in people who don’t have symptoms. For more information, please see the section about self-testing.
Antibody tests
These tests check for antibodies to see if you have had an infection with the virus in the past. This test requires a blood sample.
This sample is then tested to see if you have had the virus in the past.
Antibody tests are currently only offered to NHS and care staff, as well as some hospital patients and care home residents. They can also be bought privately, but it’s important to be aware of their limitations.
These tests are not used for diagnosis but rather to give us a better understanding of the prevalence of the virus in different places.
Sample collection kits
A sample collection kit is the name given to the different parts of a COVID-19 test that help obtain a sample. This kit must have a valid CE, CE UKNI or UKCA mark to show that the manufacturer has met the minimum safety and performance requirements for the product.
The sample you have to provide, and whether or not you can collect that sample yourself, will depend on what type of test you have.
Please note that not all sample types have been proven to be effective in COVID-19 testing.
Virus test samples
This type of test usually involves collecting a swab sample from the nose, the mouth, and/or throat. A swab is a small piece of soft, absorbent material on a plastic stick.
Some virus tests use saliva samples, collected into a small container, to check for the virus, but this type of sampling is not done routinely in the UK.
You may collect swab and saliva samples at home yourself (this can also be referred to as ‘self-sampling’), or you can get a healthcare professional to do it. The sample is then sent to a laboratory to check for genetic material from the virus.
Swab self-sampling kits are rolled out by the government. For more information, please read the NHS Coronavirus testing page.
If you are using a virus self-test, for example a lateral flow antigen self-test, you would not send the sample to a laboratory because the test can generate the results for you. For more information, please see the section about self-testing.
Antibody test samples
This type of test uses a blood sample, which can be collected in several ways.
Some antibody test kits require a venous, from the vein, blood sample, which can only be collected by a healthcare professional or a qualified person.
Other antibody test kits use a small amount of blood. This type of sample is taken from a capillary via a finger prick blood sample. In certain cases, you may be required to then put this sample on special paper to dry – this is known as a dried blood spot (DBS). When only a small amount of blood is needed, you may collect the blood sample at home yourself, or you can get a healthcare professional to do it.
Both capillary and venous blood samples are sent to a laboratory to check for antibodies.
Concerns about the use of sample collection kits
Anyone using a sample collection kit to test for COVID-19 must read the instruction leaflet carefully. It is very important that you have a clear understanding of the process because if the sample is not collected properly, the result may not be accurate.
If you have any concerns with the sample collection kit or any of its parts, please contact the kit provider for advice. If there are any components missing, the provider should be able to send you a replacement to ensure you are able to use the kit safely.
If something in the kit is difficult to use or breaks when you use it, please report the problem immediately on our Coronavirus Yellow Card website.
If you are unsure what a test result means, or what you should or should not do once you have received your test result, speak to your doctor or a healthcare professional.
Self-testing
A self-test kit is one in which you take a sample, test it yourself, and then read and interpret the results yourself as well. This is different from self-sampling. In that case, you take a sample at home and then you send it to a laboratory for testing.
Lateral flow antigen self-tests
In the UK, the MHRA has granted NHS Test & Trace an exceptional use authorisation to use certain lateral flow devices as self-tests to detect infection in people who do not have any COVID-19 symptoms and who may not otherwise have been tested.
This means that the tests can be used by anyone without previous experience of testing, in their own home or another community setting such as a place of work.
If you get a positive result from these self-tests, it is extremely likely that you are currently infected with COVID-19 and you risk infecting others. It is very important that you follow the information in the instructions leaflet that came with the kit. You must report your result to the NHS using one of the methods detailed in the instructions for use. When you report your result, you will be told what to do next.
If you get a negative result from these self-tests, it may mean that you are infectious, but the test has not been able to detect it. If you test negative, you must continue to follow national and local rules and guidelines including regular handwashing, social distancing and wearing face coverings, where required.
These tests can only be distributed by the NHS Test and Trace programme, from a government authorised process. To make sure that you perform the test correctly and get an accurate result, you must read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for use that came with the testing kit. You should only take the self-test if you are sure that you understand the instructions. If you don’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions, the test might not work properly, and the results will not be valid.
Concerns about the use of ethylene oxide in sterilising test swabs
The MHRA is aware of concerns about the safety of using ethylene oxide (EO) to sterilise the swabs used in coronavirus testing kits (including lateral flow tests).
Ethylene oxide is a gas that is commonly used to sterilise many different types of medical devices, including swabs used in test kits.
The sterilisation process consists of a number of highly controlled and monitored stages, including removing ethylene oxide after treating the swabs. The amount of residual EO that is allowed has been set (by the international standard ISO 10993-7:2008) according to contact time of the medical device with the person. Contact time is divided into 3 categories: limited, prolonged, and permanent duration.
The swabs used in lateral flow test kits fall under the category of limited contact time. These limits are not further divided by body weight and therefore the limits set are also applicable for children.
These allowable limits were selected to ensure that any residual levels present on the medical device after sterilisation pose minimal risk.
The average time of contact for a single test (around 20 seconds) and the current testing regime (twice a week), means that each person is exposed to any residue on the swab for around 40 seconds per week. Calculating from the allowed residues, a person would need to be tested twice a week for over 40 years for the total contact time to be in a higher contact category. Therefore, the manufacturer’s original calculations that these swabs are in the ‘limited’ contact category are still valid for the current testing regime.
In the highly unlikely event that a swab does contain a residual amount above the allowable limit, the risk to the user is still considered to be very low.
As part of the sterilisation process the manufacturer must confirm, and document, that the residual EO level on a medical device is below the specified allowable limit before the device is packaged ready for use. The whole process is overseen by an independent third-party organisations before a CE/CE UKNI/UKCA mark can be placed on the medical device. The identifying number of the third party can be found next to the CE/UKCA mark symbol on the packaging of the swab.
Limitations of COVID-19 tests
There isn’t a test that is 100% reliable, even those who meet regulatory standards for performance and safety. The results are also only valid for that specific sample at that point in time.
If you are unsure what a test result means, or what you should or should not do when you received your test result, you should first contact the test provider and if you remain unsure then speak to your GP or a healthcare professional.
It’s important to understand the limitations of COVID-19 tests, because an incorrect or misinterpreted result can lead to a false sense of reassurance. For example, if you are infected with the virus but the test you use shows a false negative result (it says you do not have the virus even though you do), you may unknowingly spread the virus to other people or not seek the treatment you may need.
Antibody testing has limitations because there is still a lot that we don’t know about immunity to COVID-19. For example, we don’t yet know if:
antibodies protect you from getting COVID-19 in the future
antibodies stop you from passing the virus on to others
having a negative antibody test means you have never been infected
You can find the reliability, sometimes referred to as sensitivity, of the test on the label or in the instructions of the testing kit.
COVID-19 testing services
Virus tests are available from the NHS Test and Trace programme. Some UK employers, occupational health and other private healthcare providers also may offer tests.
More information on private testing and private providers is also available if you click on the links. For private testing, click here. For private providers, click here.
Antibody tests are currently only offered to NHS and care staff, as well as some hospital patients and care home residents. These can also be bought privately. It’s important to know that the General Pharmaceutical Council have advised pharmacies not to offer rapid antibody testing.
Testing for international travel
Those who want to travel abroad or return to the UK from abroad are no longer required to take a coronavirus test.
Click here for information about ‘fit-to-fly’ tests and Test to Release.
PCR tests and/or lateral flow antigen self-tests may be offered by testing providers for this purpose.
The MHRA is aware that non-compliant lateral flow antigen tests might be offered by some of the providers. If a lateral flow antigen test is marketed for self-testing, but does not have a 4-digit identifier number next to the CE, CE UKNI or UKCA mark symbol on the packaging, it is not compliant with the regulations required for self-testing. It may be a test manufactured for professional use only.
The MHRA has issued guidance explaining that professional use tests should not be used by members of the public even if they are supervised via a video link.
Before buying a self-test, everyone should consider the information about the test offered by the testing service provider:
Is there a CE, CE UKNI or UKCA mark and a 4-digit identifier number for the Approved Body on the packaging?
Are the instructions provided on how to take the test clear?
Ask for further information about the test from the provider if you are unsure.
If you suspect a professional use test is being sold or has been sold to you for self-testing, you can report this via the Coronavirus Yellow card reporting site – click here to read the section about reporting it below.
How COVID-19 testing is regulated
Sample collection kits and the COVID-19 tests are medical devices. For a medical device to be safe to use, it must have a valid CE, CE UKNI or UKCA mark. These marks are a declaration by the manufacturer that the test meets the required standards of safety and performance.
These regulatory requirements aim to ensure that the products do not compromise the safety of patients and users and are designed and manufactured to achieve the performance specified by the manufacturer for the stated purpose.
CE, CE UKNI and UKCA marks are not issued by the MHRA. They are placed on the product by the manufacturer. Before the product can sold in the UK the manufacturer or their UK Responsible Person (UKRP) must register it with the MHRA. Click here to read about registering a medical product on the market.
An Approved or Notified Body have to approve self-tests so they can receive the CE/CE UKNI/UKCA marking, or the MHRA must grant an Exceptional Use Authorisation. This is indicated by a CE, CE UKNI or UKCA mark and a 4-digit identifier number next to the CE mark symbol on the packaging. Click here for a list of tests which have been granted an Exceptional Use Authorisation.
There are a number of lateral flow antigen self-tests which have now received CE certification from an EU notified body.
The MHRA administers and enforces the law on medical devices in the UK and has a range of investigatory and enforcement powers to ensure the safety and performance of medical devices in the UK.
For more information, please click here to read our guidance on how In Vitro medical devices such as these are regulated.
Reporting problems with COVID-19 tests using the Yellow Card scheme
If you have any problems with COVID-19 testing products, you should report them as soon as you can. This can help us to identify any potential issues with the kits. Details on what and how to report are outlined below.
Patients - what to report
Examples of problems to report include, but are not limited to:
taking more than one test and getting different results
the test being invalid (for example, the control line did not appear)
finding the instructions for use or the labelling difficult to understand
the kit (or part of it) breaking
the buffer liquid leaking
not being able to take a sample for any reason
having difficulty using the software app (for example, you cannot report the result)
getting injured during the self-testing process (example of injuries include allergic reactions, cuts and bruises)
if you have concerns that a professional use test has been sold as a self-test
Professional users - what to report
Examples of problems to report include, but are not limited to:
false positive or negative results
the test being invalid (for example, the control line did not appear)
inadequate quality control or calibration
being unable to get a reading
failing to obtain a sample (for example, problems during swabbing or collecting a fingerprick blood sample)
any component not performing as intended
inadequate, confusing or misleading labelling
incorrect packaging
contamination issues
the kit (or part of it) breaking
the buffer liquid leaking
having difficulty using the software app or any concerns over its safety
How to report
If you have any problems while using a COVID-19 testing product (test or sample collection kit) please report via it the Coronavirus Yellow Card website.
You can also contact the kit provider for advice or to replace any missing components.
When reporting via Yellow Card, please include the following information, if applicable, on each individual adverse incident report.
Information related to your device (usually can usually be found in the product packaging)
Type of device (PCR test, antibody test, antigen test or sampling collection device)
name of manufacturer
name of device
product code (this can be a serial number, lot number and/or barcode)
brand
Information regarding the incident
Description of failure/problem
Symptoms of patient, including any resultant injury
Patient and/or carer’s immediate actions (for example, any immediate treatment)
Healthcare worker’s immediate actions (for example, any immediate treatment)
Date of incident
Name of place of purchase (for example healthcare facility, manufacturer or government)
Any other relevant information
There’s a different way to report a problem with a medical device if you’re in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
For more information on COVID-19 software and apps, see our advice for members of the public and professional users: software and apps used in COVID-19 pandemic. |
Munich targets offshore wind to meet self-sufficiency goal
| Munich is planning to have its entire electricity consumption powered by renewable energy from its own systems by 2025. The German city's public utility, Stadtwerke München (SWM) will focus on offshore wind farms in the most favourable locations and feed the electricity they generate into the supraregional high-voltage grid, meaning there is no need to generate the electricity close to where it will be used. Germany plans to build 6.5 GW of offshore wind farm capacity by 2020 and a further 8.5 GW by 2030.
| https://www.evwind.es/2020/03/18/an-offshore-wind-farm-changes-munichs-energy-mix/74086 | null | By 2025, Munich plans to be the first metropolis in the world to be entirely self-sufficient in renewable energy – thanks to the power of offshore wind energy.
One of the most important economic centers in Germany has taken a leap into the future with what could be a tremendously important benchmark for energy use in Europe.
Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany, has 800,000 households as well as industrial firms, streetcars, and subways that together consume 7.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year. And the city has set an ambitious climate and environmental protection target: By 2025 it wants to be the first city in the world to cover its entire electricity needs by using renewable power – from its own systems.
Stadtwerke München (SWM), Munich’s public utility and Germany’s largest municipal energy provider, is adopting an entirely new approach as part of its renewable energy expansion campaign. The company started with activities in Munich and the surrounding areas – but it soon became clear that it needed to expand the project to a broader, European level.
An offshore wind farm emerged as the clear solution to the company’s goals because it is an area where significant progress can be made with individual projects. SWM’s systems are taking shape where the best use can be made of renewable power on a large scale – as there is no need to generate electricity in the immediate vicinity of where it will be consumed. Instead, it simply needs to be fed into the supraregional high-voltage grid.
One example of how this is being applied is the DanTysk wind farm installation, 70 kilometers west of the island of Sylt, where a total of 80 3.6-megawatt (MW) wind turbines generate 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. The systems were installed in 2014 and the offshore wind farm sent its first power to shore in December of the same year.
The DanTysk wind farm, operated as a joint venture between Vattenfall and SWM, is one of the largest German offshore wind installations in the North Sea. Vattenfall is one of Europe’s leading energy companies and, like SWM, the company is convinced that offshore wind farms are important to provide green energy for the future.
Gunnar Groebler, head of the Renewables Business Unit at Vattenfall, says the organization believes in reshaping the energy landscape in favor of green energy: “Offshore wind power is one of the cornerstones of the transition to a new energy mix, especially in Northern Europe.”
When the organization enters into major projects, especially those involving unfamiliar technology, Vattenfall chooses experienced partners, which makes a substantial difference to the project’s outcome.
SWM believes likewise and therefore actively fosters relationships with business partners. It aims to achieve “win-win situations” for customers, suppliers, and partners. When approaching the development of DanTysk, all partners agreed that working together for sustainable rather than short-term results was key.
Even the name of the DanTysk wind farm project reveals its partner-based, international nature: DanTysk is a compound of “Danmark” and “Tyskland”, the Danish words for “Denmark” and “Germany”.
Strong demand for offshore wind energy – even miles away from the coast
Offshore wind power plants: powerful and proven Looking for an experienced partner
A versatile supplier was needed for the DanTysk wind farm to be a success: a supplier capable of mastering complex offshore construction projects that also offered a wind turbine and maintenance solution to satisfy all operational and service requirements.
In choosing a suitable partner to supply turbines, the determining criterion was not just the quality of the technology itself, but also experience, performance ability, and reliability. That’s why the consortium opted for Siemens Gamesa’s SWT-3.6-120 wind turbines.
In the offshore wind industry, the company has earned a reputation for having the most reliable technology – with a total installed capacity of over 11 GW by the end of 2017 and experience since 1991 on which the industry has been able to depend. In addition, Siemens Gamesa provides a five-year service contract covering all maintenance and installation work.
Renewable power for 400,000 households
The energy generated by DanTysk is fed into the grid in Büttel, in Schleswig-Holstein, over 800 km from Munich. Even so, electricity customers in Munich still enjoy the benefit of sustainably generated electricity.
“The electricity that consumers draw from the socket in Germany reflects the mix of power that exists in the country today. It includes both conventional and renewable energy. The more renewable energy fed into the power network, the more there is to reach the consumers, and the less conventional energy is both fed in and consumed,” explains Vattenfall’s Groebler.
This also means that SWM can substantially decrease the amount of conventional electricity it feeds into the grid. “Our share, just under half of the electricity that is generated, is enough to supply about 250,000 households in Munich,” explains Bieberbach. Overall, DanTysk can generate enough green energy for up to 400,000 households in Germany. An offshore wind farm is under construction
0108
Infobox Offshore wind farms are a key economic driver
By 2050, the proportion of electricity generated from renewables in Germany is expected to rise from its current level of 23 percent to 80 percent. Offshore wind has a major part to play in this. Because the wind on the open sea is comparatively strong and constant, wind power plants constructed there are able to compete with the capacities of conventional power stations. This is why 6.5 GW of offshore wind farm capacity is planned to be built in German waters by 2020, to be followed by an additional 8.5 GW by 2030.
Germany’s economy also benefits from this development: More than €3 billion was invested in 2017 alone in production facilities and infrastructure for offshore wind, and over 27,000 people work in the sector (BMWi 2018). Offshore wind power thus provides key economic stimuli as well as making an important contribution to the success of the German energy transition. |
WAE is developing EV from advanced light-weight composites
| Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) has developed a new method of creating composite parts that cost the same as carbon-fibre made in traditional layering techniques, but are 50% lighter. The firm said the materials were cured and pressed at a particular temperature using a resin system, while the process allowed a part's strength to be varied, saving costs where higher-grade fibres weren't needed. WAE said the technology had applications in the auto, aviation and air-taxi industries.
| https://newatlas.com/automotive/williams-advanced-engineering-low-cost-lightweight-composites/ | null | What was once the offshoot of a Formula One team is now forging quite a separate path for itself. Williams Advanced Engineering is channeling its Formula E experience to focus quite heavily on two pillars: lightweighting and electrification, in the automotive industry and wherever else they're required.
Having split from the F1 team in November, WAE is now owned by EMK Capital, a move that has given WAE significant resources to invest in its own technology development, alongside the hired gun work it's doing for clients. One key play is the Hyperbat joint venture with Unipart, which takes WAE's high-performance EV battery manufacturing capabilities up an order of magnitude. Another is Multi-Chem, an initiative that pairs high-energy-density cells with high-power-density cells to create EV battery packs with long ranges but also high-burst power capabilities.
But as much as high-performance batteries will be a growing business in the coming years, the most exciting news is around a new manufacturing process WAE is working on that would allow the creation of super-lightweight composite parts in a quick and easy pressing process. Where typically carbon or composite parts are created in a labor-intensive wrapping process, sheet by sheet, this would allow parts of equivalent strength and weight to be produced much faster and cheaper. We're talking half the weight of aluminum alloy, for the same price.
That could prove revolutionary. There is not an automaker on the planet that wouldn't want to reduce part weight by 50 percent, essentially for free. And that's not to mention the aviation industry, particularly in the emerging eVTOL air taxi field, where every ounce of weight directly correlates to energy expenditure in a hover.
We caught up with WAE Managing Director Craig Wilson for an interview. Below is an edited transcript of our call.
New Atlas: What will these new business groups you're spinning out look like?
Wilson: Well, the battery joint venture is one that's already up and running, aimed solely at producing batteries at volume. We produce batteries today, but we're only talking in the hundreds. Hyperbat will be in the thousands.
We've got three or four others that I can't tell you much about. I can touch on two. One is a more advanced BMS (battery management system) that we believe is scalable beyond just our own systems. Very advanced capability.
We're also developing some lightweight press composites. Processing of composite materials through pressing, so not the traditional pre-preg hand layup and autoclave processes, but pressing of materials. We've already validated cycle times of around 90 seconds.
This is materials that are cured and pressed in the tool at a certain temperature. We've developed a resin system with a large resin system supplier. We've found on a number of parts that we've benchmarked that to achieve roughly 50-percent weight reduction compared to, say, an aluminum alloy, at equivalent cost.
So a lot quicker than laying carbon wraps and whatnot?
Absolutely. It's a processing innovation. And new materials have been developed to enable that processing. But the IP is really in the processing.
That's interesting. How does its strength compare to traditional carbon fiber stuff?
Very well. You can tune the fiber content that you need in the process. We've got very good modeling capabilities now with carbon fiber; that's come out of Formula One.
We can put the stronger, long-strand fibers, or the higher-grade fibers, into the areas of a part where we need it. Normally when you're producing a part, the material quality is the same throughout the part. But we can place the highest quality fibers exactly where we need them in a part, and have the less expensive fibers elsewhere, where the strength requirements aren't as great. You've got a great ability to tune the strength of sections within a part.
So you save money on materials as well as on the speed of the process?
Yeah. The cost target we had was to be equivalent to today's high-volume processes, like castings, forgings, pressings. So it's equivalent pricing but with up to 50-percent reduced mass.
That would be huge for you guys.
And a lot of our projects are starting to look for volume. The Hyperbat project, the BMS systems, the composite manufacturing stuff, they're all high-volume plays.
WAE's Hyperbat factory is developing and manufacturing high-power, lightweight electric powertrains. The first customer: Aston Martin Williams Advanced Engineering
What kind of clients is Hyperbat working with?
Aston Martin, Lotus, one other large project we'll talk about in a couple of months, and there's three or four others that we're doing engineering work for confidentially. We've got half a dozen, but four of those are really quite big projects. We're also involved in some future mobility programs; autonomous vehicles, things that may even fly.
eVTOL air taxis?
Yeah.
That's a very interesting space at the moment.
Yeah. So three of the six projects we're currently engaged with are not traditional automotive, they're more future mobility services.
Those future mobility things, they're not going to be targeting high performance, are they? It'll be cheap and affordable operation?
Well, for the eVTOLs I would start by saying very safe operation. Safety is of paramount importance. But they also need high performance by weight reduction. Something that flies, every gram on your powertrain is another gram you can't carry in payload.
On a mobility service, it's not dissimilar. It's not high performance, maybe, but it's got a lot of functional requirements in safety, redundancy, longevity, that sort of thing.
For us, they all represent great engineering challenges and the opportunity to continue pushing the boundaries. Finding technological solutions to problems. That's our DNA. Technical solutions for engineering problems. And in the process, learn, and that trickles through into everything else we're doing.
So what else are you guys working away on at the moment?
Well, we're doing the world's first hybrid hydrogen powertrain for a large mining vehicle. Like many industries, mining is starting to clean up its act. On a certain duty cycle at the right kind of mine, this thing can regen its way all the way down the mine, then use that power to get itself back up. The hydrogen part is really just there as a range extender; at the end of the day it uses very little fuel. That's pretty cool. It's a big one, a three- or four-hundred-tonne truck.
A step toward carbon-neutral mining: this giant mining truck will use a 1,000-kWh battery and a hydrogen fuel cell Anglo American
That's an interesting one. We're also doing some work looking at hybrid marine powertrains. Marine again is starting to come under pressure, particularly in certain harbor situations, to clean up its pollution. So we're doing a hybrid marine powertrain to help with that.
Are we talking big marine here?
No, this one's small marine. 40-foot (12-m) boats. But in that sector, the owners are starting to become pretty sensitive about the look of what they're doing.
They're conscious they'll be the first up against the wall, those yacht owners!
Yes, yes. But a large cross-section of areas. Marine, aviation, a couple of defense projects; I can't talk about those, but they're related to electrification.
And then there's the EIS fund we created a couple of years ago with Foresight. We're the technical partner in that and that's around investing in promising startup businesses, ones that need some technical support as well as money. People that have great ideas, but need some help with company management, finance and maybe engineering.
That's going well, it's raised nearly 50 million pounds (US$61 million). We've deployed around 20 million of that in 19 different companies. Really quite exciting to watch, particularly in a time like now with coronavirus when it's even harder for small companies to get access to money.
Any standouts you'd like to highlight?
There's one company, Open Bionics, that's making a lower-cost artificial limb that has sufficient capability for kids to live a more normal life, but at a cost where it can be replaced as the child grows. Unless you're very wealthy, that's normally a big restriction, kids growing out of them.
12-yr old Logan demonstrates his new Open Bionics prosthetic hand, styled after art from Star Wars, and complete with LED lighting effects
The other really cool thing about those is that you can change the surface of them to have a superhero arm, or whatever. So maybe in some cases, instead of feeling disadvantaged, some kids can feel like they've got an advantage, because they've got a really cool hero arm. That one stands out for me.
Thanks to Craig Wilson and the team at WAE for their time. |
IWG WeWork appoints Joele Frank
| WeWork has hired PR agency Joele Frank to replace former agency Edelman as it struggles to recover from problems that brought it close to collapsing. Edelman had been hired by former CEO Adam Neumann, who left the job after the co-working company reported a $1.25bn loss and abandoned plans for an IPO. Joele Frank will work with a board committee created by WeWork to study financing, including SoftBank’s $5bn rescue package which gave the Japanese company control of WeWork.
| https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/beleaguered-wework-calls-in-joele-frank | null | NEW YORK — Beleaguered office-sharing company WeWork has switched up its PR agency relationships as it tries to recover from huge financial losses that have brought it to the brink of collapse.
Edelman, which was hired earlier this year to support WeWork founder and then-CEO Adam Neumann, confirmed that the agency is no longer working with the company. The controversial Neumann left the post in September after the company reported a $1.25bn third quarter loss tied to its rapid expansion ahead of its failed IPO.
Meanwhile, The We Company, which owns WeWork, has hired Joele Frank to work with the special board committee it created in October to study financing, including the $5bn rescue package that gave Japanese tech giant SoftBank control of the company.
WeWork has also brought in Sard Verbinnen, which represents SoftBank. The company has an existing relationship in place with Gladstone Place Partners, which represented We on the IPO, according to the Financial Times.
Neither Joele Frank, Sard Verbinnen nor WeWork returned requests for comment.
The changes in WeWork’s PR agency partners comes on the heels of in-house shifts as well. In September, CCO Jennifer Skyler left the company after four years to join American Express.
Skyler, who was WeWork’s first communications hire, was part of an expansion of the company’s in-house and agency teams that occurred in conjunction with the growth of the larger company. Over the last three or so years, WeWork made numerous corporate comms hires as it expanded globally. |
Apple fears Australian banks will price it out of the market | Apple filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that accuses the country's five biggest banks of pricing Apple Pay transactions above transactions made using their digital wallets to dissuade cardholders from the service. Previously, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, National Australia Bank, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank sought permission to boycott activities with Apple ahead Apple Pay's Australian launch. However, in December the Commission issued a provisional ruling that warned the banks against reducing or distorting competition in a number of markets by stymying the expansion of Apple Pay in Australia. | https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/30091/apple-fears-australian-banks-will-price-it-out-of-the-market?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=finextrafeed | null | Apple has accused some of Australia's largest banks of wanting to price its mobile payment service out of the market and at the same time condition consumers to accept a fee-based model for tap-and-pay transactions for their own mobile wallets.
In its latest submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Apple once again raises the spectre of diminished competition in the country's nascent mobile wallet market.
"It may well be that the applicant banks have taken the view that customers may be more willing to pay fees to use Apple Pay," the statement reads, "and on that basis see an opportunity to introduce and condition the market to transaction fees for the use of Apple Pay, with the longer-term view to setting a precedent for charging for mobile payments on other digital wallets, in the future, including the banks' own proprietary wallets."
It is the latest salvo in a bitter dispute between Apple and five of the country's biggest banks - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, National Australia Bank, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank - who were seeking permission from the competition watchdog to engage in collective negotiation and boycott activities with Apple in relation to the roll out of Apple Pay in Australia.
In December, the Commission issued its provisional ruling, coming down in support of Apple and expressing concerns that a ruling in favour of the banks could reduce or distort competition in a number of markets.
The banking consortium controls 70% of the Australian card market, giving the banks "the means, motive and opportunity to disadvantage Apple Pay by pricing Apple Pay transactions above transactions made using their own proprietary issuer digitial wallets to dissuade cardholders from using Apple Pay," states Apple, adding: "Any rational economic player would be expected to take advantage off that opportunity." |
Orsted sells Danish residential, distribution, city lights arms
| Denmark's Orsted has completed the sale of its City Light, Radius and residential customer businesses to SEAS-NVE for DKK21.3bn ($3.4bn). Orsted said it was "no longer the right owner" for the divisions, as it was focusing on global renewable energy production. The two firms agreed the deal in September 2019.
| https://renewablesnow.com/news/rsted-finalises-sale-of-radius-other-ops-in-denmark-711671/ | null | Danish offshore wind major Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) today announced it has wrapped up the sale of its power distribution, residential customer and City Light businesses to SEAS-NVE.
Ørsted has divested the Radius business, which distributes electricity to roughly 1 million homes and businesses, along with its residential customer operations and City Light for DKK 21.3 billion (USD 3.4bn/EUR 2.86bn), excluding cash and debt. The transaction involves the transfer of about 750 employees to the new owner.
The deal was inked in September 2019.
“At Ørsted, we’re committed to a global build-out of our renewable energy production, and our Danish customer activities wouldn’t get the attention they deserve in the future. We’re therefore no longer the right owner,” commented Henrik Poulsen, CEO and president of Ørsted.
The seller noted that its board of directors will now be joined by Daniel Tas Sandermann and Ole Henriksen. They are replacing Hanne Steen Andersen and Poul Dreyer, who in turn will become part of SEAS-NVE.
(DKK 1.0 = USD 0.160/EUR 0.134)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free! |
AIG Introduces Family CyberEdge: Commercial Quality Cyber Coverage Tailored for High Net Worth Clients | Family CyberEdge provides coverage to customers who fall victim to threats including cyber extortion and cyberbullying. The insurance, subject to applicable terms and conditions, covers expenses related to data restoration and crisis and reputation management. Clients receive a wide range of supplemental risk mitigation services, including a holistic assessment of devices, home networks, wireless access points and secure online accounts. | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170403005489/en/AIG-Introduces-Family-CyberEdge-Commercial-Quality-Cyber | null | NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) today announced that its Personal Insurance business is bringing the cyber protection and risk mitigation principles found in its CyberEdge Commercial Insurance to policyholders of AIG Private Client Group, which serves high net worth individuals and families.
Family CyberEdge provides coverage to customers who fall victim to threats including cyber extortion and cyberbullying. The insurance, subject to applicable terms and conditions, covers expenses related to data restoration and crisis and reputation management, among other solutions.
In addition, AIG is collaborating closely with the Private Client Services team of its strategic partner K2 Intelligence – an investigative, compliance and cyber defense services firm – to provide AIG Private Client Group policyholders with information that will enable them to manage their cyber risks more proactively.
“Family CyberEdge reinforces AIG as an industry leader by offering our high net worth clients the type of cyber coverage employed by large companies to protect against cyber attacks. With this new option, AIG continues to provide our high net worth clients with high quality, world-class insurance coverage,” said Gaurav D. Garg, President and CEO of the Personal Insurance business. “CyberEdge is a product that AIG, with its scale and resources, is uniquely capable of providing to individuals to thwart the growing threat of cyber risk.”
Clients receive a wide range of supplemental risk mitigation services, including a holistic assessment of devices, home networks, wireless access points and secure online accounts; training services for family members; online monitoring that assesses and tracks the availability of personal information; and a set of cyber assistance tools and resources including assistance from experienced fraud experts, provided by the identity and data defense specialist, CyberScout.
“The prevalence of smart applications and other technology has created exposure and risks that today’s households are not very well prepared to manage,” said Tracie Grella, Global Head of Cyber Risk Insurance at AIG. “As cyber threats become increasingly more sophisticated and intrusive, it is important for homeowners to have access to services and protection that help enhance cyber security, and that can react when that security fails.”
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading global insurance organization. Founded in 1919, today AIG member companies provide a wide range of property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement products, and other financial services to customers in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. These diverse offerings include products and services that help businesses and individuals protect their assets, manage risks and provide for retirement security. AIG’s core businesses include Commercial Insurance and Consumer Insurance, as well as Other Operations. Commercial Insurance comprises two modules – Liability and Financial Lines, and Property and Special Risks. Consumer Insurance comprises four modules – Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance and Personal Insurance. AIG common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Additional information about AIG can be found at www.aig.com and www.aig.com/strategyupdate | YouTube: www.youtube.com/aig | Twitter: @AIGinsurance | LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/aig. These references with additional information about AIG have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release.
AIG is the marketing name for the worldwide property-casualty, life and retirement, and general insurance operations of American International Group, Inc. For additional information, please visit our website at www.aig.com. All products and services are written or provided by subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. Products or services may not be available in all countries, and coverage is subject to actual policy language. Non-insurance products and services may be provided by independent third parties. Certain property-casualty coverages may be provided by a surplus lines insurer. Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds, and insureds are therefore not protected by such funds. |
From Bad to Worse in Yemen | More than 100 cases reported in ten of Yemen's 21 governorates. Fighting also on the rise after a lull in late 2019. UN and other international partners need to keep their eyes trained on peacemaking efforts.UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a nationwide ceasefire on 25 March to allow for a coordinated COVID-19 response. The government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Huthis and several other Yemeni combatant groups made supportive public statements, and UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths subsequently announced an initiative that included a nationwide ceasefire, economic and humanitarian confidence-building measures, and revived UN-sponsored peace talks. Saudi Arabia has announced, and extended, what it calls a unilateral ceasefire in support of the UN initiative. But in practice Riyadh has continued to back the government’s military campaign and launch airstrikes against the Huthis. The Huthis have labelled the Saudi ceasefire announcement a media ploy and have likewise continued their war effort unabated.the central bank may have less than a month’s worth of hard currency needed to underwrite imports. Dollar income from oil exports is also falling on the back of a sharp decline in global oil prices. The Yemeni riyal dropped by about 9 per cent in value, raising living costs for already impoverished Yemenis. | https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/bad-worse-yemen | null | This commentary is part of our Watch List 2020 - Spring Edition. Things have been terrible in Yemen for the past five years, but they could still get worse. If COVID-19, escalating fighting and an accelerating economic crisis are not contained, the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster will grow just as local and international actors’ capacity to mitigate its worst effects contracts. Local authorities reported the first case of the novel coronavirus in April 2020. The virus has since spread, with more than 100 cases reported in ten of Yemen’s 21 governorates. It now threatens to overwhelm a health care system already collapsing under the weight of war damage and a lack of funds, while humanitarian aid dries up. Fighting is also on the rise after a lull in late 2019, while national and subnational mediation efforts led by the UN and regional actors, particularly Saudi Arabia, are largely frozen because of the stubbornness of the conflict parties and a surfeit of interdependent but uncoordinated diplomatic initiatives. The economic crisis is also worsening as hard currency supplies run critically low and the cost of imports continues to outstrip Yemen’s declining oil income. The UN and other international partners need to keep their eyes trained on peacemaking efforts even as they help blunt the pandemic’s impact on this embattled country. The EU and its member states should: Make Yemen a priority of the EU’s global response to COVID-19, including in funds the EU, its member states and agencies have pooled under the Team Europe program, and increase overall humanitarian aid to the country.
Advocate and express willingness for the EU’s diplomatic service to participate in a UN-led international contact group to help coordinate mediation tracks under a UN umbrella and to more effectively deploy diplomatic efforts in support of a ceasefire and the peace process.
Call for a broadening of UN-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and a restart of a more inclusive peace process, encompassing Yemeni actors beyond the Huthis and the internationally recognised government, particularly the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which has declared “self-administration” in formerly independent provinces in the south of Yemen. Encourage the STC to table its demands for autonomy/independence for the south during national political talks, and to reverse its self-administration declaration while UN-led mediation is ongoing.
Step up direct diplomacy with the Huthis in Sanaa and the STC in Aden, possibly by establishing a permanent delegation in both locations.
Reinvigorate efforts to lay the technical groundwork for Sanaa International Airport to reopen for commercial flights.
A Perfect Storm
The spread of COVID-19 to Yemen threatens to ravage what is already one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, has warned that “nowhere else on earth will COVID-19 spread faster, more widely, with deadlier consequences”. So far, numbers appear modest: as of mid-May 2020, of the 134 people diagnosed with the illness, 21 are reported to have died. But both the number of cases and the death toll are likely far higher. The World Health Organization believes that the coronavirus is “actively circulating” throughout Yemen. It says the country’s fragile health system faces “catastrophic shortages” of test kits and other key supplies. Yemen has access to about 6,700 tests but it needs around 9.3 million. Making matters worse, even before the outbreak, UN humanitarian programming faced huge funding shortfalls. Of the $3.4 billion the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it needs to run humanitarian operations in 2020, less than 15 per cent had been funded by international donors by mid-May. OCHA has said it will have to shutter up to three quarters of humanitarian operations in Yemen absent a large cash injection.
The spread of COVID-19 to Yemen threatens to ravage what is already one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The UN had initially hoped to turn the pandemic’s threat into a conflict resolution opportunity. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a nationwide ceasefire on 25 March to allow for a coordinated COVID-19 response. The government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Huthis and several other Yemeni combatant groups made supportive public statements, and UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths subsequently announced an initiative that included a nationwide ceasefire, economic and humanitarian confidence-building measures, and revived UN-sponsored peace talks. But thus far the warring parties appear to calculate that the virus poses less of a danger to their positions than would political compromise. Fighting has continued, and both the government and the Huthis have yet to take part in a crisis meeting to discuss Griffiths’ proposal. Saudi Arabia has announced, and extended, what it calls a unilateral ceasefire in support of the UN initiative. But in practice Riyadh has continued to back the government’s military campaign and launch airstrikes against the Huthis. The Huthis have labelled the Saudi ceasefire announcement a media ploy and have likewise continued their war effort unabated. Trend lines point to more, not less, fighting. Armed conflict and political feuding escalated over the first four months of 2020 after a respite in 2019 due to Saudi-Huthi de-escalation talks. The Huthis made major territorial gains in al-Jawf governorate during intense battles between January and March and are threatening an offensive on Marib city and governorate, the government’s last stronghold in the north. Combat has also intensified on almost all of Yemen’s other major fronts, most recently in Huthi-held parts of al-Bayda governorate. Collapsing truces elsewhere could trigger additional violence. The government has temporarily withdrawn from the UN-led ceasefire monitoring mission in Hodeida, on the country’s Red Sea coast, and threatened to overturn the UN-brokered truce there. On 25 April, the STC, which pushed forces loyal to Hadi out of Aden in August 2019, broke the terms of the Saudi-brokered Riyadh Agreement by announcing “self-administration” in the territories of the formerly independent state of South Yemen. Since then, the STC has begun to take over state institutions in Aden and attempted to seize control of Hadibo, the capital of Soqotra island in the Arabian Sea, which is still secured by government forces. On 11 May, the government responded by initiating an offensive in the southern Abyan governorate aimed at pushing STC forces out of the provincial capital, Zinjibar. The fighting there is ongoing. The economic crisis is also set to worsen. The STC’s self-administration announcement opened a new front in the struggle for control of Yemen’s financial institutions. The group seized physical control of the headquarters of the government-run central bank in Aden, which the government had moved there from Sanaa in September 2016. The secessionists have threatened to start running the bank themselves, a move that would likely lead the government to freeze its access to the international financial system. Until now, Saudi forces located inside the bank have deterred the STC from making good on their threat. As a workaround, on 29 April, the STC reportedly began to divert Aden port revenues, which normally would go to the central bank, to an account it controls at the local al-Ahli bank. Making matters worse, the central bank may have less than a month’s worth of hard currency needed to underwrite imports. Dollar income from oil exports is also falling on the back of a sharp decline in global oil prices. The Yemeni riyal dropped by about 9 per cent in value after the STC’s self-administration declaration and has since depreciated further, raising living costs for already impoverished Yemenis. Saudi Arabia is unlikely to top up the central bank’s dollar accounts, as it has done in the past, if the bank is not under government control. Meanwhile, a worsening humanitarian and economic situation will disproportionately affect Yemen’s women and girls, who bear the brunt of unpaid care work, are the first to feel the effects of the loss of household income, and also are more likely to suffer from domestic violence during periods of social strain. Lockdown measures may also lead to the reimposition of gender barriers that have lowered in some parts of the country over the course of the war.
A Way Out
Preventing further territorial fragmentation, fighting and human suffering will require a shift in key combatants’ calculations. No side seems ready to make the compromises necessary to get the UN’s ceasefire proposal off the ground. Riyadh believes that its ceasefire announcement should be sufficient to bring the Huthis to the table, but the de facto authorities in Sanaa argue that a truce must include lifting Saudi-imposed restrictions on their territory’s land, sea and air borders. The UN ceasefire initiative includes confidence-building measures that would ease – although not end – some of these restrictions. But negotiations have been difficult, and it is not clear that the Huthis, the Yemeni government and the Saudis will be able to reach a mutually acceptable compromise. Another obstacle is the surplus of disparate and disjointed diplomatic efforts to end the war. By April 2020, mediation tracks included: the UN’s ceasefire/confidence-
building/peace talks plan; Saudi-Huthi talks focused on border security and the rebels’ relationship with Iran; Saudi-overseen efforts to implement the Riyadh Agreement; and the UN’s stalled attempts to get the Huthis and the government to carry out the Hodeida Agreement. The tracks are somewhat interdependent – conflict parties have at times made progress on one agreement conditional on moving forward with others – but there is no mechanism to prevent setbacks in one track from disrupting others. Coordinating mediation and diplomatic efforts under a single UN-led process would improve chances of a COVID-19 ceasefire and a return to the political process. To this end, Crisis Group has recommended the formation of a UN-chaired international contact group made up of the permanent five members of the UN Security Council, the EU and Gulf Cooperation Council member states. EU member states Germany and Sweden, as well as the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS), have signalled support for the initiative. This group could help identify the minimum level of implementation of the Riyadh and Hodeida agreements required to support nationwide talks. It could also establish a division of labour for supporting UN-led negotiations. Riyadh may resist such an initiative on the grounds that it could impinge on the kingdom’s efforts to leave the war behind. But it is increasingly clear that the Saudis, while the most important external actor, cannot single-handedly cajole the Yemeni parties to end the conflict. In addition to support for efforts to weave the different diplomatic tracks into a single UN-led effort, UN Envoy Griffiths also needs assistance in addressing a shortcoming of current negotiations, namely that they are limited to the Huthis and the government. The UN and its partners will need to broaden talks to include other major parties to the conflict.
A Role for the EU and its Member States
The EEAS and EU member states are well placed to assist in the coordination and revitalisation of an international diplomatic approach. First, they can advocate for the formation of the new contact group, and secondly, the EEAS can act as the EU’s representative at the group. The EU and member states can also play a critical role in advocating for a more inclusive UN process, which is increasingly important given Yemen’s deepening fragmentation. The UN’s current mediation plan is built around brokering a political settlement between the Huthis and the Hadi government, with Saudi input. This plan is increasingly unlikely to produce a sustainable peace, as it leaves out armed factions with the ability to upend any settlement as well as a range of political parties, civil society actors, women’s groups and youth whose buy-in and support will be important in sustaining any pact. The EEAS and EU member states should encourage greater inclusion in UN-backed ceasefire and settlement talks. As the main funders of Track II initiatives, which have included informal dialogues on everything from post-conflict security arrangements to the role of women and youth in Yemen’s future politics, they are also well positioned to ensure that ideas for these efforts are incorporated into any potential settlement. Those ideas are almost certain to include calls for a more representative UN-led peace process, the devolution of governance to local authorities during a transition period, and guarantees of women’s participation in UN-led negotiations and any future government.
Yemen will remain a global hotspot for humanitarian needs for the foreseeable future with 24 million war-affected Yemenis requiring assistance, 250,000 of whom are on the brink of starvation. |
Alipay says mobile payments commanded 82% of online payments in 2017 | The numbers of payments made in China using mobile wallet Alipay hit an all-time high of 82% in 2017, according to data from the company. It revealed it had 520 million users in China last year, while the mobile wallet was the preferred payment method for 92% of residents in the northern province of Shanxi and south-western province of Guizhou. Alipay also said the increased use of mobile wallets was down to widespread adoption of quick response codes, used by 40 million small retailers across the country. | http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/business/12/20180103/73308.html | null | Photo shows an Alipay logo and its QR code. [Photo: www.vcg.com]
New data from Alipay show 82% of the transactions on its platform in 2017 were made through mobile devices, mostly smart phones. This ratio is said to be an all-time high.
There were 520 million Alipay users in China, or around 37 percent of the country's population, in 2017. Alibaba's payment unit provides services which allow payments both through computers and through mobile devices.
Across the country, Alipay users in northern province of Shanxi and southwestern province of Guizhou appear to be the most dependent on mobile devices, with mobile payments accounting for 92% of their transactions over the past year.
Over 90% of the transactions made by users in more than 10 different provincial regions were conducted through mobile devices.
Mobile payments, which usually begin by scanning a quick response code, have rapidly become popular in China through the past few years.
The rise of mobile payments has been partly backed by easier access to quick response, or QR codes. More than 40 million small retailers across China, according to Alipay, established their own quick response codes in 2017.
Most of the codes used in the country, however, are not domestically developed. It's estimated Japanese codes accounted for 65% of the market share in China.
The growth of mobile payments has also partly come from an advance in mobile internet technology.
3G is lowest-level technology to be capable of supporting mobile payments. However, data compiled by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show 4G users account for 70% of China's cell phone users, up from 55% as of the end of 2016.
Photo shows Alipay presenting a QR code on a smart phone screen.[Photo: www.vcg.com]
Apart from private business, mobile payment is also making inroads into public services in China.
Bus and subway networks in more than 30 Chinese cities began allowing passengers to pay fares via Alipay through 2017. Alipay says over 200 million people have used its platform to pay for things like electricity, gas and water through 2017.
Mobile payment is dramatically cutting down the use of physical cash in China.
Alibaba has reported that the number of searches for wallets on its online shopping platforms has seen a decline for the first time in 2017.
In March, 2017, two men only ended up netting around 2,000 yuan, or just over 300 U.S. dollars, in cash after robbing three convenience stores in Hangzhou, Alibaba's base center.
Data from iResearch, a Shanghai-based market research firm, and Forrester, a Nasdaq-listed market research firm, suggest the size of China of mobile payment market was 90 times larger than that of the US in 2016. |
USTA study points to security and privacy risks of e-scooter use
| Research has found that e-scooters are vulnerable to a range of privacy and security risks, including eavesdropping on users, denial-of-service attacks and data leaks. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio (USTA), also found that the devices are susceptible to spoof GPS systems, which can direct riders to unintended locations, and man-in-the-middle attacks, whereby attackers can modify commands or shutdown data communication between an e-scooter and its rider's smartphone.
| https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/01/20200128-usta.html | null | Researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio have published a review of the security and privacy risks posed by e-scooters and their related software services and applications.
We were already investigating the risks posed by these micromobility vehicles to pedestrians’ safety. During that study, we also realized that besides significant safety concerns, this new transportation paradigm brings forth new cybersecurity and privacy risks as well. —Murtuza Jadliwala, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, who led this study
According to the review, which will appear in the proceedings of the 2nd ACM Workshop on Automotive and Aerial Vehicle Security (AutoSec 2020), hackers can cause a series of attacks, including eavesdropping on users and even spoof GPS systems to direct riders to unintended locations. Vendors of e-scooters can suffer denial-of-service attacks and data leaks.
E-scooter ecosystem and attack points. Vinayaga-Sureshkanth et al.
Micromobility vehicles are gaining popularity due to their portable nature, and their ability to serve short distance urban commutes better than traditional modes of transportation. Most of these vehicles, offered by various micromobility service providers around the world, are shareable and can be rented (by-the-minute) by riders, thus eliminating the need of owning and maintaining a personal vehicle. However, the existing micromobility ecosystem comprising of vehicles, service providers, and their users, can be exploited as an attack surface by malicious entities—to compromise its security, safety and privacy. —Vinayaga-Sureshkanth et al.
Those who sign up to use e-scooters also offer up a great deal of personal and sensitive data beyond just billing information. According to the study, providers automatically collect other analytics, such as location and individual vehicle information. This data can be pieced together to generate an individual profile that can even include a rider’s preferred route, personal interests, and home and work locations.
Potential attacks identified include:
Physical damage, including the theft of brake wires and batteries, or theft of the scooter. An attacker can target the e-scooter battery, circumvent native security mechanisms by draining it, the install malicious modules, and remove or replace key components, before placing it back in service. This could allow the remote control of the e-scooter or the covert gathering of data.
Eavesdropping. Some e-scooter models communicate with the rider’s smartphone over a Bluetooth Low Energy channel. Someone with malicious intent could eavesdrop on these wireless channels and listen to data exchanges between the scooter and riders’ smartphone app by means of easily and cheaply accessible hardware and software tools such as Ubertooth and WireShark.
Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) and Replay Attacks. With sufficient knowledge obtained from the eavesdropping attack, an attacker can modify commands or drop data communication between a rider smartphone and an e-scooter. BLE vulnerabilities have allowed researchers to perform MITM attacks on the Xiaomi M365 e-scooter.
Denial-of-Service. This type of attack has the ability to disrupt any service such as locking and unlocking the e-scooter, etc. (often rendering them inaccessible) and can be targeted towards the e-scooter exhausting its resources, or towards the service providers affecting their quality of service.
Spoofing. Micromobility applications track the location of the e-scooter using the inbuilt GNSS module on board the e-scooter or using the rider’s smartphone or both. An attacker can target either option. In the first approach, the rider can install any location-spoofing applications (available on the Internet) on the smartphone to fake their location. After installation, the rider can easily trick the micromobility application and the service provider. In the second approach, the attacker can manipulate or replay GPS signal using SDR hardware (HackRF, USRP, BladeRF, etc.) which can produce and broadcast forged GPS signals to the victim receiver. It is also possible for an attacker to capture a GPS signal from a different location and rebroadcast it to the victim receiver (replay attack). The latter approaches can trick both the GNSS modules on the smartphone (solely reliant on GPS for location) and the e-scooter.
Fuzzing. This attack gives the attacker the ability to gauge how each service provider ecosystem handles the e-scooters from the responses, from the API and other control systems, obtained after testing with request or command variants with the intent to identify bugs or vulnerabilities (not found through passive eavesdropping).
User Data Sharing and Inference. User data in this micromobility platform can range from any smartphone-related activity to a history of locations the rider has visited for any period of time.
This study was produced in UTSA’s Security, Privacy, Trust and Ethics in Computing Lab, which was also behind the recent publication on how smart bulbs can be hacked. The lab is dedicated to examining privacy and security issues in ubiquitous devices.
Resources |
Australian MPs to debate expediting message encryption laws
| The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police were due to attend a meeting of the Parliament's intelligence and security committee on 26 November, to determine whether new laws that force technology companies to help the agencies access encrypted messages needs to be fast-tracked. Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition said the Labor party would take the time needed to get the laws passed correctly, first time. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has demanded the laws are passed before Christmas.
| https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/terrorism-encryption-laws-face-political-showdown-in-final-sitting-of-parliament-20181123-p50hwe.html | null | Australia’s spy and police agencies are set to enter a politically charged debate over whether far-reaching laws to help authorities access encrypted messages of terrorism and criminal suspects need to be rushed through before Christmas.
ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and other organisations have been called back to Parliament’s intelligence and security committee on Monday, in part to give a view on whether the laws’ passage need to be accelerated.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Friday said Labor would take the time needed to get the laws right after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton wrote to the intelligence committee asking it to “accelerate” its work. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also said he “would insist” on the laws being passed in the 2018’s final parliamentary sitting fortnight.
The legislation will compel technology companies to help authorities access the content of communications sent by suspects in terrorism and serious criminal case. Police and spy agencies have warned they are increasingly blind to messages on platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, which use end-to-end encryption. |
England players left shocked by decision to axe Sterling from squad | As revealed by Sportsmail on Monday evening, it is understood that Sterling attempted to grab Gomez by the neck following his arrival in the players' canteen at St George's Park on Monday.The City winger is understood to have reacted aggressively after being greeted warmly by Gomez in the players' canteen at St George's Park in front of the rest of the squad, with the Liverpool defender stunned by Sterling's outburst.The incident was particularly surprising to the other Liverpool players present as Sterling and Gomez had made the peace following the game at Anfield with an embrace following the final whistle. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7676159/England-players-left-shocked-decision-axe-Raheem-Sterling-squad.html | null | England have been left shocked at the decision to axe Raheem Sterling from the squad to face Montenegro following his bust-up with Joe Gomez.
Sportsmail understands members of the squad feel there has been an over reaction to the incident between Sterling and Gomez at St George's Park that was first revealed by this website.
England boss Gareth Southgate took the unprecedented step of issuing a public statement after the incident.
Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez were involved in a bust-up once again during England training
The England team-mates clashed late on during Liverpool's victory over Manchester City
Sterling and Gomez confronted each other as tensions boiled over at Anfield on Sunday
Sources also indicate that there's a feeling within the camp that the matter should have remained in-house after the pair put the issue behind them after Sterling apologised.
Indeed, Sportsmail understands Liverpool played a key role in brokering peace between the team-mates. Reds skipper Jordan Henderson - who will meet up later with the squad as he is suspended for the game against Montenegro - is believed to have spoken to the duo by phone.
Henderson has also volunteered to go to St George's Park on Tuesday to see his Liverpool team-mate - who was left with a scratch under his right eye after the incident - and also Sterling.
Sterling left St George's Park with Southgate's permission to cool off following the incident and was then allowed to return to the camp.
Gomez was left with a scratch under his right eye after the bust-up with Sterling
The Liverpool defender trained alongside his England team-mates on Tuesday morning
Sterling (c) seemed in a relaxed mood during Tuesday's training session despite the clash
Sportsmail broke the news of the latest Sterling-Gomez bust-up online on Monday night
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, seen here challenging Sterling in Sunday's game, has stepped in as a peace broker between the feuding England team-mates
Raheem Sterling posted this statement on Instagram to clarify the situation
Poll Will England win Euro 2020? Yes No Will England win Euro 2020? Yes 16410 votes
No 10027 votes Now share your opinion
The FA have since shelved Tuesday's planned player press conferences with Southgate due to speak to the media at 3pm instead.
The flare-up had been brewing since Sunday's title showdown at Anfield when Sterling and Gomez had a row at the end of the game but they made friends and hugged before leaving the pitch.
But despite the spat being dealt with, Southgate still insisted on axing Sterling from his plans for Thursday's game - something that has left some players surprised given the players have buried the hatchet.
Players feel such flashpoints happen at club level on a regular basis and that it should have been kept in-house and there is a concern Sterling has been exposed unnecessarily.
As revealed by Sportsmail on Monday evening, it is understood that Sterling attempted to grab Gomez by the neck following his arrival in the players' canteen at St George's Park on Monday.
Sterling had clashed with Gomez towards the end of the dramatic top-of-the-table clash at Anfield which left City nine points behind leaders Liverpool, and the bad blood spilled over on Monday.
Gomez chats with England manager Gareth Southgate on Monday at the St George's Park base
Gomez arrives at St George's Park on Monday following Liverpool's win over their title rivals
England can secure their place at Euro 2020 if they draw with Montenegro on Thursday night
England's Euro 2020 qualifying scores March 22 Czech Republic (H) 5-0 March 25 Montenegro (A) 5-1 September 7 Bulgaria (H) 4-0 September 10 Kosovo (H) 5-3 October 11 Czech Republic (A) 1-2 October 14 Bulgaria (A) 6-0 November 14 Montenegro (H) November 17 Kosovo (A) Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/sport/football/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->
The City winger is understood to have reacted aggressively after being greeted warmly by Gomez in the players' canteen at St George's Park in front of the rest of the squad, with the Liverpool defender stunned by Sterling's outburst.
Sterling was sat down in the canteen when Gomez arrived and leant over from behind to shake his hand, leading to him making an attempt to grab his team-mate by the neck.
The rest of the England players initially thought Sterling was joking, but it soon became clear that he had lost control and the pair were separated.
The incident was particularly surprising to the other Liverpool players present as Sterling and Gomez had made the peace following the game at Anfield with an embrace following the final whistle.
The cause of Sterling's eruption was unclear, although England sources were speculating on Monday night that he may have reacted badly to being widely lampooned on social media for coming off second-best physically in the initial confrontation with Gomez.
England's preparations for their matches against Montenegro and Kosovo have been disrupted
Southgate is ready to give James Maddison his England debut during the international break
The heated exchange plunged the FA into crisis talks on Monday night, with manager Gareth Southgate giving serious consideration as to whether Sterling should be sent home before opting to drop him for one game.
The 24-year-old is England's most creative player and has been spoken of as a future captain because of the leadership skills he has developed over the past few seasons, a notion encouraged by Southgate.
'We have taken the decision to not consider Raheem for the match against Montenegro on Thursday,' Southgate said in a statement released by the FA. 'One of the great challenges and strengths for us is that we've been able to separate club rivalries from the national team. Unfortunately the emotions of yesterday's game were still raw.
'My feeling is that the right thing for the team is the action we have taken. Now that the decision has been made with the agreement of the entire squad, it's important that we support the players and focus on Thursday night.'
Sterling is understood to have apologised to Gomez and the squad after the altercation. Gomez and the squad accepted his apology.
Sterling then took to Instagram in the early hours of Tuesday morning to tell his side of the story. 'We are in a sport where emotions run high and I am man enough to admit when emotions got the better of me,' he posted. 'Both Joe and I have had words and figured things out and moved on.' |
In the future, your phone could test you for coronavirus – here’s how | Mobile devices can be turned into tools to rapidly identify a variety of disease-causing agents, including bacteria, toxins and viruses. Most smartphone-based tests are only in the proof-of-concept stage. They still need to go through several rounds of testing with patients to prove that they work. | https://theconversation.com/in-the-future-your-phone-could-test-you-for-coronavirus-heres-how-139941 | null | It may seem far-fetched, but it’s possible to use your smartphone to detect diseases. Mobile devices can be turned into tools to rapidly identify a variety of disease-causing agents, including bacteria, toxins and viruses.
Smartphone-based tests have been developed for detecting HIV, malaria, TB and various food contaminants. Work is now also underway to use smartphones to detect COVID-19 – though there are various questions about the practicality and usefulness of using technology in this manner.
We’ve been involved in developing ways of using smartphones to monitor food contamination as part of the EU project FoodSmartphone. Here, we weigh up the potential of using this exciting technology to fight the virus.
How does it work?
A common way of testing with smartphones is to use them alongside specially made labels, which are designed to react to the presence of a specific substance, such as a particular virus or bacteria.
To test something, such as fluid from a throat swab or blood sample, you add it to a label that’s sensitive to what you’re looking for. If the sought-after substance is there, there’s a reaction. This reaction generates a light, colour or electrical signal, which the phone then detects and interprets via its camera or light sensors or through an electrochemical add-on device. Results can be displayed on an app on the phone and immediately communicated to the relevant authorities.
For COVID-19, existing labels could be adapted so that they could react to new materials, such as SARS-CoV-2 genetic material or human antibodies against the virus. This sort of piggybacking on existing technology is already being suggested.
But having such a test publicly available for coronavirus may be some time away. Most smartphone-based tests are currently only in the proof-of-concept stage. They still need to go through several rounds of testing with patients to prove that they work. This can take years.
For example, the mChip dongle – a smartphone-based test for detecting HIV and syphilis – has been around since 2015. However, the second phase of trials testing the at-home use of this device was only completed in April 2020. The results are pending – and even if they’re good, there’s still another phase of trials to go.
Yet, the immense pressure to get the pandemic under control may greatly speed up the development of a COVID-19 test. Vaccine development for infectious diseases generally takes more than a decade, but it’s been suggested that delivering a COVID-19 vaccine is possible within 12 to 18 months. Perhaps similar speedy development of smartphone-based testing is achievable.
What would we use these tests for?
For COVID-19, smartphone based-devices could be used in several ways.
Firstly, they could be used to detect viral genetic material from the respiratory tract – present for the first 2-3 weeks of infection – to test for whether someone has the virus currently.
Secondly, they could be used to detect antibodies developed against the virus in the blood, which shows if someone has had the virus in the past. Information from these tests may give us better information about asymptomatic cases and immunity.
EPA-EFE
Finally, we might use them for testing what’s on surfaces, such as food packaging.
This may work best using slightly different tests – genetic amplification tests – which would increase the strength of the signal created by any reaction and are generally more sensitive. This is due to there being lower virus concentrations and lots of other substances on surfaces.
Will the benefits outweigh any potential harm?
Smartphone-based diagnosis of COVID-19 could improve self-isolation measures, data collection and the tracking of infection “hot spots”. Moreover, we know the public is interested in using smartphone-based technologies for tracking and diagnosing other conditions – so it’s likely there would be uptake. At-home testing could free up resources and stop COVID-19 from lowering hospital access, which can increase mortality from other conditions.
But if popular, the huge number of tests that could potentially be performed means that the method would need to be highly accurate. These tests would also need to be clear and easy to use, to avoid them being performed incorrectly. If smartphone testing fails on either of these two fronts, then it could result in many, many people being falsely diagnosed or cleared. The consequences could range from lost income (from false positives) to the endangerment of others (from false negatives).
These risks are well known, though, and are shared with other self-testing methods. Potential solutions, such as multiple simultaneous tests to confirm findings, are already being discussed.
An additional question is whether it’s actually relevant to do surface testing. A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine and a recent preprint both argue that COVID-19 can survive on different surfaces for up to seven days. However, there are no studies showing that the virus remains infectious for that period. Widespread surface testing could cause unwarranted fear by detecting virus particles that pose a very low risk of infection.
Smartphone-based biosensors may prove extremely helpful for tracking and controlling COVID-19’s spread. However, a tool with such potential for widespread use must be of an extremely high quality in terms of performance. Additionally, its full capabilities and inevitable shortcomings must be openly communicated to the public to minimise confusion. This could be achieved by clearly conveying the test’s limitations in the smartphone app.
A botched implementation of the technology would lead to a further loss in public trust for scientists. Given some of the high-profile scandals already emerging during the COVID-19 era, this is not something we can afford. |
The impact of robo-platforms on wealth management | The use of robo-advisers in the wealth management sector is more a case of collaboration with human workers than competition with them, according to a report by Finextra in association with EPAM. It reveals that using robots to analyse that huge amounts of data involved in servicing clients, can help asset managers streamline their workload and deal with customers more efficiently. However, the paper warns industry insiders to keep an eye on the future, as the relatively simple algorithms of today are upgraded by increasingly sophisticated models. | https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29408/new-finextra-paper-explores-impact-of-robo-on-wealth-management?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=finextrafeed | null | A new research paper, produced by Finextra in association with EPAM, explores the rise of robo and asks how it will further reshape the advisory business and wealth management in the future.
On the face of it, the fintech story resonates very strongly in the wealth management business. Established players face revenue and cost challenges and are being squeezed by regulatory pressure on one side and increasingly demanding customers on the other. They have also fallen behind in the technology stakes, just at a time when the coming generation of investors is more tech-savvy than ever.Into the breach have come the robo advisors - leveraging digital, providing ease of access and transparency, running a low cost operating model and attracting some $50 billion in assets under management by 2015, according to analyst Aite Group.But as the paper - which is based on interviews with a wide range of traditional wealth managers and robo advisors - finds, the story in reality is more complex. In step with the fintech narrative across the financial industry as a whole, the trend is more towards collaboration than competition, and rather than the newcomers eating the lunch of the incumbents, a model of traditional advisory powered by digital capabilities is already emerging.As Panos Archondakis, senior director, Wealth Management, EPAM, says: “Advisors typically have too many clients to service properly. They cannot possibly process all the information required, such as data, market news, research and product recommendations, in order to give the same level of advisory service to each customer on their books. Banks can leverage digital capabilities to process that flow of information and identify leads, opportunities, and recommendations that then can be provided to the advisor in a summarised form. And by addressing some of the operational and administrative workload the advisor has to get through just to have a client meeting, the automation of these processes will allow them to get in front of more clients with more relevant topics for discussion.”The impact of digital certainly needs to be taken seriously, the report finds. While there is hype around robo, it is leveraging the changed buying habits of many people - comparison shopping, self-service, omni-channel, 24x7 - and the imminent shift of wealth to a next generation which certainly favours P2P, groupthink and social prods is a demographic fact. In addition, whatever the limitations of algorithms today, it would be unwise to underestimate just how much they will be able to do in the future.In this context, the paper explores the different ways in which robo will continue to impact the wealth management industry going forward, and seeks to determine the future of advisory in light of the evolution of technology and its continued adoption by new and established players.Download the paper here |
NTPC to assume control of long-term access and connectivity
| National Thermal Power (NTPC) has been designated as the agency responsible for connectivity and long-term access to India's interstate transmission system (ISTS) network by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission said developers interested in renewable generation projects with a minimum capacity of 50 MW could apply for ISTS connectivity. NTPC has 875 MW of large-scale solar capacity, 2.1 GW under development and recently requested bids for 1.2 GW of ISTS-connected solar projects.
| https://mercomindia.com/ntpc-implementing-agency-long-term-access-ists-network/ | null | The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has designated National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) as the renewable energy implementing agency to facilitate the application of connectivity and long-term access (LTA) in the interstate transmission system network.
According to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), a renewable energy implementing agency is a company or an entity designated by the central or state government to act as an intermediary procurer to select and buy power from renewable energy generating stations and sell it to one or more distribution licensees. The agency can act as a facilitator for those projects which are based on standalone storage sources of installed capacity of 50 MW or above.
Earlier, the CERC released procedural regulations for granting ISTS connectivity to renewable energy projects. It was stated that the connectivity application would be processed in two stages. Those developers who were interested in setting-up renewable generation projects and had a minimum capacity of 50 MW were asked to apply for connectivity.
Previously, the central body also issued regulations to lay down the broad principles, procedures, and processes to be followed for the planning and development of the ISTS network for the smooth flow of electricity from generating stations to the load centers. These regulations were expected to help in the timely development of ISTS in India. ISTS is of utmost importance for the growth of solar and wind as all areas do not have the same solar potential or land availability. ISTS is required to realize the potential of solar-rich states. |
IWG Schneider Elec expands partnership with Christie Spaces
| Schneider Electric has announced an expansion of its partnership with Christie Spaces which will see the company offer advanced IT solutions to customers at its new conference facility in Brisbane. The deal will allow those at the 1,850 sq m location access to Schneider's high-tech Edge computing technology, which offers faster and more secure business operations by processing data closer to the location in which it is generated and captured. Schneider Electric has already installed the technology at the workspace provider's existing locations in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
| https://www.apc.com/au/en/who-we-are/press/2018/christie-spaces-partners-with-schneider-electric.jsp | null | Christie Spaces partners with Schneider Electric to revolutionise shared workspaces across Australia Schneider Electric , the global specialist in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has expanded its partnership with Christie Spaces, Australia’s largest family owned workspace provider, to provide a highly attractive IT advantage for customers of their new $4.5 million 1850sqm conference space in Brisbane.Christie Spaces is the first workspace in Australia to offer customers data centre rack space on-site for rent, harnessing Schneider Electric’s world class edge computing technology. Edge computing involves processing data closer to where it is generated and captured, to dramatically improve the speed, capacity and security of data-intensive and mission-critical business operations.Since work began on the new conference centre, Christie Spaces has extended its edge computing capabilities across all their locations in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.Christie Spaces client, Data Revolution Technologies (DRT), a Brisbane-based innovations and software company specialising in research, evaluation and innovative product design, is one of the first customers to take advantage of the new edge computing offer.Benjamin Banks, Director of DRT, said: “Working in research and innovation, the sheer size and speed of data collected in our business process can strain even the most secure network infrastructure. Working with Christie Spaces to use their new edge computing capabilities supplied by Schneider Electric has given us faster, more reliable internet, with no competition for bandwidth. This is supporting the creation of innovative products, for example our current project, Touch Wallet – an all in one cryptocurrency wallet that allows real world payments via smart phone, without troublesome internet delays.”Joe Craparotta, Vice President for IT Division and Strategic Segments at Schneider Electric, said: “More Australian businesses, like those involved in creative production, fintech, research or software development, need to access quickly large data loads, while ensuring security and cost effective solutions. Edge computing is becoming their business necessity. Working in partnership with Christie Spaces, we identified a strong business need to implement an edge computing strategy for the co-workspace, starting with the installation of a turn-key 6 rack data centre on the ground floor of the Christies development in Brisbane.”Dirk Krueger, Account Director of Strategic Cloud and Colocation providers at Schneider Electric, said: “We are delighted that Christie Spaces can now reduce operating costs and maximise both physical and IT security by circumventing the need to rent colocation spaces outside their premises. These benefits are then passed onto their clients, who can now leverage revolutionary co-working technology that will allow them to scale efficiently and access high speeds.”Fusun Batey, National Brand Manager at Christie Spaces, said: “Christie’s new state-of-the-art facilities address the increasingly sophisticated needs of the modern business with reliable, fast and secure internet access. Working with APC by Schneider Electric to implement our new edge computing capabilities has helped us cement our status as the authority in co-work and conferencing in Australia by allowing our members to discontinue their telco contracts and experience uncontended bandwidth.”“Christie Spaces members will be among the first shared workspace tenants in Australia to leverage this high-end IT infrastructure on demand and reduce their risk profile, especially in data reliant industries. We now provide data centres on-site, allowing clients to discontinue telco contracts and experience uncontended bandwidth. We have attracted many new markets with more sophisticated data needs, such as app developers, video production, animation, design, data analytics and beyond.”Schneider Electric has already installed APC UPS and cooling solutions at Christie Spaces, as well as their APC racks and power distribution units.Christie Spaces is currently offering various plans ranging from 40 to 400 Mbps, which can include private wireless.For more information on the new facilities at Christie Spaces, visit the website or contact Fusun at [email protected] |
Tesla shares soar after reporting big beat on second-quarter deliveries | Tesla delivered about 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter, handily beating Wall Street expectations. The electric car maker's sales withstood the economic downturn better than most competitors. Analysts expected Tesla to deliver about 72,000 vehicles during the last three months. | https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/tesla-tsla-q2-2020-vehicle-delivery-and-production-numbers.html | null | Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales numbers reported by Tesla, and the electric car maker's numbers held up significantly better than its competitors. Tesla's deliveries fell by just 4.8% from the same quarter last year even as auto sales the world over, and especially in the U.S., slumped during the quarter after Covid-19 outbreaks led to health restrictions on households, travel and businesses, mass layoffs and wage cuts.
Shares of Tesla zoomed nearly 9% to $1,219.02 in Thursday's premarket, a day after closing 3.7% higher to $1,119.63.
Analysts expected Tesla to deliver about 72,000 vehicles during the last three months, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by FactSet. A broader set of analyst estimates, compiled by Bloomberg, set higher expectations — 83,000 vehicle deliveries in the second quarter.
Tesla shares soared in premarket trading Thursday after the automaker said it delivered about 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter, handily beating Wall Street expectations as the electric car maker's sales withstood the economic downturn better than most competitors.
General Motors , Toyota Motor , Fiat Chrysler and Ford all saw their second-quarter sales plunge by more than 30% as the coronavirus caused consumers to stay at home and dealerships and factories to shutter.
Tesla said it produced 82,272 vehicles in the three months ended June 30 including 75,496 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and only 6,326 of its older, higher priced Model S and Model X vehicles. The company did not say how many electric cars it made at its new Shanghai plant versus its US factory in Fremont, California.
It did not break out deliveries by geography, or by model either.
Instead, Tesla reported combined deliveries of 80,050 Model 3 sedans and Model Y cross-over SUVs, and combined deliveries of 10,600 of the older and more expensive Model S and X vehicles.
The production and delivery data comes a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent out an e-mail congratulating his tens of thousands of employees on their "amazing" execution "in such difficult times."
In the first quarter, Tesla said it made more vehicles than it sold with 102,672 units produced, and 88,400 delivered. During the second quarter of 2019, Tesla said it made 87,048 vehicles including 72,531 Model 3s, and delivered 95,200, including 77,550 Model 3s.
During the second quarter, Tesla had to close its main U.S. car plant in Fremont, California, for several weeks due to orders from local health officials enforcing coronavirus shutdowns. It slashed pay for salaried workers and delayed giving raises, promotions and bonuses to employees until after a performance review that should be completed by the end of July.
Musk clashed with local health authorities over the restrictions. He also downplayed the severity and prevalence of Covid-19 in the U.S., even though he delayed the company's Battery Day and shareholder meeting until September, citing safety for crowds in the face of the coronavirus.
In the U.S., Tesla also faced two new federal safety probes, one over touchscreen failures in its vehicles, and another regarding a battery cooling system that may pose a fire risk in its older Model S vehicles.
In order to stoke demand for the company's electric vehicles, Tesla cut vehicle prices during the second quarter in North America and China.
Its Shanghai car plant came back online quickly after a coronavirus-related shutdown, however. Sales in China began to recover with the company selling 11,095 made-in-Shanghai Model 3s there in May, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.
On Wednesday, ahead of its deliveries report, Tesla's valuation edged higher than Toyota's. The American automaker's sales are a small fraction of its Japanese competitor, however. In 2019, Tesla reported deliveries of 367,500 vehicles globally, while Toyota reported sales that were 29 times higher at 10.7 million units.
Tesla had been expected to meet or beat street expectations for quarterly deliveries because Musk has been sending out "Everybody" e-mails to Tesla employees, which signal how the company is doing, and typically leak to press.
He sent one such e-mail on Wednesday around 11 a.m. PT to Tesla employees with the subject line "Congratulations Tesla Team!." The e-mail said, in its entirety: "Just amazing how well you executed, especially in such difficult times. I am so proud to work with you!" |
Piggy the Bank connects shoppers with lenders for big ticket items
| Toronto-based fintech start-up Piggy the Bank has launched an app for customers to buy big ticket purchases and be connected with businesses ready to extend deals. It creates a real-time innovative marketplace for buyers and sellers, with over 80,000 items available, and offers goal planning tools, bridging the "blank gap between one's savings and future purchase." | http://markets.financialcontent.com/stocks/news/read?GUID=32626768 | null | New innovative fintech app Piggy the Bank has just launched to make big-ticket shopping, easier, cheaper and debt-free by breaking down big purchases into smaller manageable payments and then connecting users with businesses prepared to offer the best possible deals.
Toronto, Canada, August 8th 2016: With the credit card debts running high today and the woes of living paycheck to paycheck, shopping big-ticket items can get really taxing for many. No wonder, average consumers always end up feeling guilty whenever they purchase the latest smartphone model. But not anymore- new innovative app Piggy the Bank has just been launched to make big-ticket shopping, easier, cheaper and debt-free.
Developed by a Toronto-based fintech startup, Piggy the Bank, the app works to break down big purchases into some smaller weekly payments. It helps the shopper to buy high-end items such as plush furniture, appliances or edgy tech models without the interest payments or personal fees that are evident to come from credit cards and bank accounts.
“Why should you have to feel guilty unnecessarily for spending money you don’t have when you can actually enjoy spending money that you have saved up?” It’s this very question that drove the evolution of Piggy the Bank which aims to make saving for major purchases easier – by connecting shoppers with businesses who are ready to extend best deals to them.
“We all have this right to live the life we want and credit cards are no doubt a handy help here. Yes, you have instant benefits but it’s the sky-high rate of card interest & fees that spoil the sport. We need to find a compatible means to plan & save- which will also help us to bypass the quicksand of personal debt”, stated Andy Garcia, co-founder and Creative Lead of Piggy the Bank.
The app creates a real-time innovative marketplace for buyers & sellers. The buyers plan purchases by scheduling savings goals meant for particular items. Piggy the Bank then connects the buyers to sellers offering over 80,000+ items in real-time, including branded electronics, appliances, and furniture. The app also assures rewards & cashback.
“Banks are excellent when you want to save for your dream house yet they aren’t exactly geared towards multi smaller accounts”, remarked Ryan Silver, co-founder and Technical Lead of Piggy the Bank.
“The existing finance apps help in saving & goal planning steps but that’s where they just stop. Piggy the Bank helps you with goal planning but also bridges the blank gap between one’s savings & future purchases. When one starts savings towards his or her goal, we will match him/her with compatible retailers extending his/her desired items. It leads to the ultimate shopper’s market and is aimed to reimagine shopping, the smarter way. ”
The app also presents an amazing business opportunity for the local and large-scale retailers through its extensive database – bustling with insights about shopping habits & future spending goals of their target audience.
“Our goal is to help people plan and save their hard earned money for all of their life’s milestones and help businesses reach and engage with consumers through our new digital marketplace.”
To get started with Piggy the Bank, visit http://www.piggythebank.com
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/1qYlnX124Hk
Media Contact
Company Name: Piggy The Bank
Contact Person: Andy Garcia
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 416 902 0061 / +1 416 749 3895
Address:952 Queen St W. Suite 200 Toronto, ON, CANADA M4V 21S
City: Toronto
State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Website: http://www.piggythebank.com |
Daimler to integrate new payment platform following acquisition
| Daimler Mobility Services will enable its customers to use Mercedes Pay mobile payments platform, which will become part of Daimler Mobility Services, to pay for its Car2Go car-sharing and mytaxi booking services using their smartphone. Daimler expects the payments service to be launched following its acquisition of mobile payments solution provider PayCash Europe.
| https://www.nfcworld.com/2017/01/18/349550/mercedes-pay-launched-offer-mobile-payments-daimler-mobility-services/ | null | Customers of Daimler’s mobility services will soon be able to use a dedicated Mercedes Pay mobile payments platform, allowing them to “easily and securely pay for mobility offerings and services using their smartphones”, the German automotive giant has announced.
Mercedes Pay will become part of Daimler Mobility Services, which includes the Car2Go car-sharing service and the mytaxi taxi-booking app, and will allow customers to provide their payment details once to be able to use the range of services.
The service is to be launched following the acquisition of PayCash Europe, a mobile payments solutions provider, by Daimler Financial Services AG — Daimler AG’s global financial services provider.
The company says it plans to use the new payment system to facilitate the existing mobility services and “other financing transactions in the future”.
“Mercedes Pay is a fundamental component of our mobility and digitization strategy. Daimler’s new payment system underscores our ambition, as a leading provider of digital mobility services, to make the products and services we offer even more appealing,” adds Bodo Uebber from Daimler AG.
Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions |
Latest surge pushes bitcoin price above $750 barrier, still attributed to ballooning demand from China and the upcoming halving event for the cryptocurrency | Bitcoin's price hit a peak of $750.37 recently, the first time it has broken the £750 since 2014. Insiders are still pointing to economic worries in China leading to a surge in demand for the cryptocurrency, as well as the looming "halving", where supply of bitcoin is reduced by 50%. Analysts have warned that the currency is "still volatile" and despite it set to be the sixth biggest international reserve currency by 2030, some say the technology behind it, blockchain, is the more interesting market. | http://www.cityam.com/243483/bitcoin-price-breaks- | null | Latest surge pushes bitcoin price above $750 barrier
In another bitcoin price rally the cryptocurrency smashed through the $750 (£530) mark during trading today to reach a 2016 high, after falling below $700 on Tuesday.
By mid-afternoon (GMT), bitcoin was still trading up 5.8 per cent at more than $736, after hitting a peak of $750.37 at around 11.30am, according to the Bitstamp index. It was the first time bitcoin has edged above $750 since early 2014.
Less than a week ago bitcoin was trading below $600, before spiking to $650 on Sunday. It has spiked more than 20 per cent in two weeks.
The most recent rally has been attributed to an explosion of demand in China, particularly due to worries of a depreciating yuan and warnings on the country's corporate debt levels, as well as a reduction in the amount of bitcoins produced by mining, known as the "halvening" or halving.
Read more: Treasury planning crackdown on bitcoin anonymity
"This is just a continuation of all factors from general macro economic worries led by China and the block reward halving where the rate of supply of bitcoin reduces by 50 per cent. A perfect storm for bitcoin," Charles Hayter, founder of CryptoCompare, said.
"The block reward halving is a predetermined decrease in the supply of bitcoin that occurs roughly every four years. This has a fundamental effect on the inner workings of the bitcoin ecosystem where miners' profitability can be dramatically affected by price changes, network hashing changes and the reduction in the block reward."
However, analysts have also warned that the currency is still volatile and that the underlying technology that underpins bitcoin, blockchain, holds more growth potential than bitcoin itself.
Andrew Wingfield, FIG Head at King & Wood Mallesons said: "While there will no doubt be speculation as to what is driving the price of bitcoin such as the rising volatility, falling bond yields and the looming possibility of a 'Brexit' and so on, people need to appreciate that bitcoin is a volatile currency.
Read more: New research argues bitcoin is undervalued by $200
"A couple of hundred people in a chat room could move the price of bitcoin. Bitcoin cannot yet be used in a globally meaningful way.
"It is blockchain, the underlying technology behind bitcoin, that has the real growth potential i.e. the highway (blockchain) is more important than the traffic (bitcoin)," Wingfield added.
"Subject to agreeing a consensus on identity management, blockchain can be a highly disruptive real time auditing platform. The application of blockchain could be like moving from posting a letter to sending an e-mail."
Blockchain works as a decentralised, secure public ledger of transactions shared by a network of users.
In a study released earlier this week, the Smith & Williamson Enterprise Index found more than six in 10 business leaders did not believe bitcoin will become a "widely accepted method of payment" in future.
However, it is projected to become the sixth largest global reserve currency by 2030 and was the world's best-performing currency in 2015. |
Shanghai-based AI company Yitu raises $100m in fresh funding
| Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company Yitu Technology has raised another $100m to help expand its reach. Yitu's products include the Dragonfly Eye Intelligent Security System, which is based on machine vision technology, and Smart Healthcare, which can be used in disease diagnosis, screening and treatment. Its City Data Hub uses AI to optimise urban transport management. The funding, which came from one asset management firm, is a follow-on investment on top of the $200m series C+ round Yitu announced in June.
| https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2018/07/16/chinese-ai-firm-yitu-technology-secures-100m-from-ciit-asset-management | null | One month after Yitu Technology scored US$200 million, the Chinese artificial intelligence firm secured another US$100 million from China Industrial Asset Management Ltd. |
US mobile payments to triple by 2021: report | The volume of US mobile payments is predicted to reach $112bn in 2016, with growth of 20% forecast each year until 2021 where it will hit $282bn, states a report from Forrester's Mobile Payments Forecast. Brendan Miller, analyst at Forrester and report author, said: "Those merchants who seamlessly embed the payment in the mobile moment itself will win with mobile payments". | http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-payments-volume-in-us-will-triple-by-2021-report | null | Mobile payments volume in the US is expected to total $112 billion in 2016 and grow at 20 percent compound annual growth rate until it reaches $282 billion by 2021, according to a report from Forrester.
The report, Forrester’s Mobile Payments Forecast, looked at the volume of mobile payments being made in the US and where they are coming from, analyzing the causes and potential future of the industry. The results should reassure brands and retailers that have felt uneasy about the growth of mobile payments in recent months.
“Merchants who simply attempt to convert mobile moments into mobile payments moments will fail to reach the minimally viable customer experience for lasting adoption and use,” said Brendan Miller, analyst at Forrester and primary author of the report. “Conversely, those merchants who seamlessly embed the payment in the mobile moment itself will win with mobile payments.”
Mobile payment growth
When mobile payments first arrived on the scene in a big way with the arrival of Apple Pay, many thought for sure that this was the future of retail.
While other mobile payment services had technically existed before – PayPal being one example – Apple Pay was the first time many mainstream consumers had heard of the idea.
But since then, forecasts for mobile payments use have been iffy. Would this new technology really revolutionize retail or was it only a fad?
For a while, it seemed the definitive answer was “maybe.” Mobile payment is certainly popular but it did not sweep across the retail world the way many had hoped.
But a new report from Forrester has taken a closer look and found that mobile payment transactions are growing at a healthy rate and that the service remains quite popular for many consumers and is only increasing in popularity.
Forrester predicts that the current volume of mobile payments will triple by 2021, growing at a 20 percent annual compound growth rate each year.
Venmo is one of the most popular mobile payment solutions and makes up almost a quarter of current mobile payment transactions, while others such as Google Wallet and Square are also quite popular.
Forrester attributes this growth to an increase in merchant-integrated mobile payments and merchants partnering with third party payment apps such as PayPal and Samsung Pay.
“Combining speed and ease of use, NFC is on track to become a leading in-store mobile payment technology in the next several years,” Mr. Miller said. “US merchants are still busy installing new point-of-sale terminals to accept EMV chip cards and are simultaneously adding NFC acceptance capabilities, creating new scale for the mobile technology.
“Fifty percent of enterprise retailers surveyed have already implemented or plan to implement NFC by the end of 2016, and an additional 22% plan to implement it in 2017,” he said. “However, device implementation and presence do not automatically translate to consumer use and adoption.”
A smooth integration
What is important to remember when designing or integrating a mobile payment system is that consumers can already make purchases fairly easily just by using a regular debit or credit card.
Taking out a smartphone and scanning that to make a payment is not, by itself, fundamentally any easier than doing the same thing with a wallet.
So retailer have to make their mobile payment systems offer something to customer that they cannot get by using traditional purchasing patterns.
Companies that make strong use of mobile loyalty programs, where customers can upload their credit card data to an app and use that to both make purchases and earn rewards, have seen a lot of success.
For example, Starbucks recently revealed that 27 percent of all transactions last quarter came from mobile (see story).
Retailers have to be able to integrate payments in a smart and useful way into the natural retail process if they want to make the most of the current and future climate of mobile pay.
“The mobile payments experience of the future will let consumers check out seamlessly while providing additional benefits that they could not get by using their credit or debit card,” Mr. Miller said. |
British soldier says UK has Yemeni 'blood on its hands' over Saudi arms sales | Speaking about the motivations behind his protest, Batati told MEE that he made his decision based on the "lack of consideration" the UK government shows "towards the people of Yemen".Coalition air strikes have been responsible for about two-thirds of the estimated 11,700 civilian deaths in the conflict, according to data collated by the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. In July, the UK government resumed licensing new arms sales to Saudi Arabia, claiming there was "not a clear risk" of British weapons being used for war crimes. The UK government also confirmed in July that the Ministry of Defence had recorded more than 500 incidents of potential violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen.Data collated by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade indicate that the UK has licensed £6.3bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in the first four years of Riyadh's military intervention in Yemen. | https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-soldier-ahmed-batati-protest-saudi-arabia-arms-sales-yemen | null | A British soldier was arrested by the Royal Military Police on Tuesday for publicly protesting against the United Kingdom's arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed al-Batati, a 21-year-old lance corporal from Sheffield, condemned the British government and said it had "blood on its hands" for its continued support of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.
Images posted online showed Batati, who was born in Yemen, standing in Whitehall in his military uniform with a placard that said he "refused" to continue serving in the UK military until it ended all arms sales to Riyadh.
Insignia on his uniform also indicated that Batati belonged to the 14 Signal Regiment (Electronic Warfare), which provides intelligence to the UK army's land forces, according to its website.
Footage posted by the group Stand for Justice, which Batati helped set up, shows him being arrested and escorted away by three officers from the Royal Military Police.
Stay informed with MEE's newsletters Sign up to get the latest alerts, insights and analysis, starting with Turkey Unpacked
Batati reportedly stood outside for nine-and-a-half hours, blowing his whistle every 10 minutes to symbolically mark how often a child dies in Yemen.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CER91OZpD8l/
Speaking to Middle East Eye, Batati confirmed that he had been released from the station and passed back to his unit.
"I don't know myself yet what the army intends to do, but I've been released from the station and passed on to my unit," Batati said.
Joe Glenton, a British army veteran who was sent to prison for refusing to continue his military service in Afghanistan, said Batati may be facing jail time for his protest.
"Its very hard to say at this stage what could happen to this young man, but he has broken some big rules by protesting in uniform," Glenton told MEE.
"Theoretically, the military is meant to be apolitical and there are certain things you cannot do in uniform that connect your politics to the military, like protesting or canvassing for a political party."
Speaking about the motivations behind his protest, Batati told MEE that he made his decision based on the "lack of consideration" the UK government shows "towards the people of Yemen".
"We are soldiers that serve the government, so why should I continue my service to a government that continues to prioritise money over the victims of Yemen," said Batati.
"My message is clear: I refuse to serve them until they make the right decisions to end the unlawful arms trade with Saudi Arabia. I'm a man of sense, so I don't expect or think that the government will do the right thing."
He added: "Going into this, I didn't have any expectations. Even if this video didn't go viral, at least I can say I did the right thing and did my part."
The video posted before his protest shows Batati discussing the motivations, saying that he "could have easily fell victim to one of those air strikes or died of hunger" if his family had stayed in Yemen.
"I joined the army in 2017 and took an oath to protect and serve the country, not to be part of a corrupt government that continues to arm and support terrorism," Batati says in the video.
"I'd rather sleep peacefully in a cell than stay silent for a paycheck."
Continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia
For the last five years, Saudi Arabia has led an international military coalition against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Coalition air strikes have been responsible for about two-thirds of the estimated 11,700 civilian deaths in the conflict, according to data collated by the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
In July, the UK government resumed licensing new arms sales to Saudi Arabia, claiming there was "not a clear risk" of British weapons being used for war crimes.
The UK government also confirmed in July that the Ministry of Defence had recorded more than 500 incidents of potential violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen.
Last year, the UK government suspended arms sales to Saudi Arabia after a British court ruled that it needed to assess whether the Saudi government violated international law during its military campaign in Yemen.
Still, the ban was lifted after the UK government found no "pattern" of Saudi air strikes that breached international law.
Riyadh remains the biggest customer of British weapons and has purchased Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets as well as precision-guided bombs.
Data collated by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade indicate that the UK has licensed £6.3bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in the first four years of Riyadh's military intervention in Yemen. |
Xiaomi releases budget electric moped
| Chinese tech firm Xiaomi has launched two small electric mopeds via its Youpin crowdfunding platform. Built by domestic firm 70mai, the 52 kg A1 and A1 Pro models have a 60 km and 70 km range, thanks to their removable 768 Wh and 960 Wh batteries, respectively. The mopeds' top speed is 25 km/h and the A1 starts at CNY2,999 ($424), rising to CNY3,699 post-launch.
| https://electrek.co/2020/03/27/xiaomi-launches-a-new-420-electric-moped/ | null | If you thought Xiaomi was all about cell phones and tablets, then think again. The company has promoted a number of budget-minded electric bicycles and even electric mopeds. And now Xiaomi is back with another e-moped in the form of the A1 and A1 Pro models.
Xiaomi launches A1 and A1 Pro electric mopeds
Xiaomi has historically used its own in-house crowdfunding platform Youpin to launch its electric bicycles and e-mopeds while raising huge sums of cash in the process.
The launches help Xiaomi quickly spread the word and have been responsible for blasting some awesome little e-things to best-seller status.
Now Xiaomi is doing it again with the launch of the A1 and A1 Pro electric mopeds, manufactured by a Chinese company known as 70mai.
The A1 and A1 Pro are rather small electric mopeds. That’s par for the course with Xiaomi’s past electric bike and e-moped launches. They seem to fit the female models just fine, while the male model appears to be a bit large for the bike, as seen in the photo below. But hey, maybe knee-steering is a feature, not a bug!
Yes, they have pedals. But they don’t look fun to pedal…
The small size keeps the electric mopeds lightweight at just 52 kg (115 lb). The 16-inch wheels support a hub motor in the rear. Xiaomi hasn’t listed the power rating, but based on the size of the motor, it is likely to fall in the 750W neighborhood.
The mopeds use a 48V electrical system, and the A1 Pro’s 70 km (43 mi) range is slightly higher than the A1’s 60 km (37 mi) range. That’s thanks to the 960Wh battery on the A1 Pro compared to the 768Wh battery on the A1. The batteries are removable and can be charged separately from the moped.
Both models get full suspension and hydraulic disc brakes up front, while the rear wheel is sporting what appears to be a drum brake.
They both also get color screen displays, though the A1 Pro comes with a touchscreen. If you don’t want to take your hands off the bars to control the screen, you can also use the bike’s voice control feature.
There’s even built-in GPS directions that are visible on the screen, which is a pretty nice feature an e-moped at this price. Speaking of the price, it starts at around $420 in China. More on that in a moment, though anyway you slice it, it’s pretty amazing that in China you can get an electric moped for cheaper than a gas moped in the US.
At first I wondered how well voice control could work on an open-air vehicle like this. But considering that the top speed is 25 km/h (15.5 mph), which is the state mandated e-bike speed limit in China, there shouldn’t be too much wind noise to drown out your voice.
Another cool feature hidden in the mopeds is a 1080p camera with a wide angle 130-degree lens to capture ride videos. The A1 Pro has built in memory, but you’ll have to provide your own on the A1.
The A1 starts at RMB2,999 ($424), though that promotional price will only last for the launch, after which the price is expected to increase to RMB3,699 ($523).
The A1 Pro is a bit pricer at RMB3,999 ($566), which will eventually increase to RMB4,699 ($655).
While the bikes aren’t available outside of China yet, that might change sooner than you’d expect. Other e-bikes launched on Xiaomi’s crowdfunding platform have spread quickly to US-based platforms after their initial Chinese launch. So you could be scooting around on your own A1 Pro electric moped before you know it!
A top speed of 15 mph might not sound like much to you for American cities. But for those that stick to bicycle lanes in densely populated cities, this might not be a bad way to get a comfortable, full featured e-ride to work. |
Apple has one big advantage over Paypal in the mobile payments war | A new survey by the National Retail Federation demonstrates that 75% of retailers said they would consider accepting payments made via Apply Pay by the end of 2017, compared to 60% for Paypal. Despite this however, PayPal still has 3 times as many users as Apple Pay, according to Park Associates. Additionally, only 17% of the retailers surveyed claimed e-payments to be a top priority for next year. | http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-has-one-big-advantage-over-paypal-in-the-mobile-payments-war-2016-8?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=referral&IR=T | null | Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Service, introduces Apple Pay. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
While pundits have been promising for years that we’ll soon be able to leave our wallets at home and pay for everything via our cell phones, mass adoption of mobile, digital payment systems hasn’t yet taken hold.
But the numbers are improving every year, and a new reportfrom Park Associates finds that more than 25 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use payment apps at least once a month.
One of the biggest obstacles to more widespread adoption is that the market has been so fragmented that neither consumers nor retailers have been willing to commit to a single provider. However, it seems that leaders finally may be starting to emerge.
More than three-quarters of retailers said last in a new National Retail Federation survey that they would start accepting Apple Pay by the end of next year, and nearly 60 percent said that they’d accept PayPal.
While Apple may be winning the hearts and minds of retailers, PayPal is the most popular mobile payment app among consumers. More than three times as many consumers use PayPal as use Apple, according Park Associates.
It has gotten easier this year for retailers to start accepting mobile payments, since the terminals required to accept the new credit card chips generally can also take payment via near-field communication, the technology used by most mobile payment systems.
Among the retailers surveyed by the NRF, 72 percent said that they would have the capability of accepting near-field communication payments next year, but just over two-thirds said they’d only accept one or very few types.
Still, just 17 percent said that accepting e-payments was a top priority in 2017, and consumers have not yet demanded that they do so. As security becomes a greater priority, however, both consumers and merchants may take another look at the cards.
Near-field communication technology is far more secure than traditional credit cards, and it’s quicker and easier than EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) cards. |
Bank of China picks tech from smartTrade for its electronic forex platform
| The Hong Kong unit of Bank of China has picked technology from smartTrade for its electronic foreign exchange platform; the firm was chosen due to its solid reputation in the industry, in particular the banking community. Chinese banks have been gradually expanding into the electronic foreign exchange space with their increasing balance sheets and growing client needs.
| http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160111005028/en/Bank-China-Hong-Kong-Selects-smartTrade-Implement | null | HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--smartTrade Technologies, a global leader in multi asset, end-to-end trading solutions for Tier1, Tier2, regional Banks, Brokers and Asset Managers, has been selected by Bank of China (Hong Kong), a leading regional bank in Hong Kong, to deliver a cutting edge low latency e-FX platform.
Over recent years, as its e-FX business has grown significantly, Bank of China (Hong Kong) has been searching for a more scalable next generation e-FX system, capable of supporting a larger client base and handling increasing trading volumes. After a thorough review process, Bank of China (Hong Kong) decided to choose smartTrade for its reputation among the banking community, its e-FX platform aggregation capabilities, its sophisticated customizable client pricing distribution system and its powerful user interface.
“It is a recognition of the quality of the product’s design and performance that Bank of China (Hong Kong) has chosen our platform. We are very excited to support Bank of China (Hong Kong)’s e-FX growth with our proven platform, LiquidityFX, which will allow them to enhance their execution and risk management efficiency. By taking advantage of our robust and low latency platform, we will meet their needs in terms of flexibility, scalability, and performance. We see a perfect match between a large visionary institution like Bank of China (Hong Kong) and a focused technology company.” said David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies.
Michael Ng, Head of EFX trading at Bank of China (Hong Kong), said “Electronic trading is growing rapidly in currency markets. Hence, we would like to develop a new platform to better serve our growing corporate and institutional clients.”
About smartTrade Technologies
Founded in 1999, smartTrade is a global leader in sophisticated cross-asset Liquidity Management Systems, supporting Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Equities and Commodities. smartTrade works with a variety of clients ranging from tier 1 banks to broker-dealers, buy-side, regional and private banks, as well as retail institutions who leverage smartTrade’s technology across their global electronic trading platforms. smartTrade’s agile multi-asset end-to-end trading solutions are based on a number of modular components which can be used either standalone or combined to provide Connectivity, Aggregation, Smart-Order Routing, Matching/Internalisation and Distribution.
smartTrade also offers end-to-end trading solutions for Foreign Exchange and Fixed Income. These solutions, LiquidityFX and smart-FI, are available as software only or fully managed/hosted, taking advantage of smartTrade’s private cloud. For more information, visit www.smart-trade.net. |
UK's pension schemes allowed to dump shares in fossil fuel firms
| The UK government will allow pension fund trustees to switch investments from fossil fuels into green alternatives if they believe fossil fuel shares could become stranded assets in the future. The directive from Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey, has been welcomed by climate change campaigners ShareAction. UK and European insurers including Allianz, Aviva, Axa, Legal & General, Swiss Re and Zurich have already started to sell stakes in coal companies and refused to insure their operations, according to Unfriend Coal Network, while Rockefeller Family Fund has started divesting from fossil fuel holdings. | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/18/uk-pension-funds-get-green-light-to-dump-fossil-fuel-investments | null | Managers of the £1.5tn invested in Britain’sworkplace pension schemes are to be given new powers to dump shares in oil, gas and coal companies in favour of long-term investment in green and “social impact” opportunities.
Government proposals published on Monday are designed to give pension fund trustees more confidence to divest from environmentally damaging fossil fuels and put their cash in green alternatives if it meets their members’ wishes. Until now many pension trustees have been hamstrung by fiduciary duties that they feel requires them to seek the best returns irrespective of the threat of climate change.
The new rules, though couched in opaque legalese, are a coded go-ahead for pension funds to sell shares in fossil fuel companies if they believe that they could turn into “stranded assets”. The term refers to companies’ coal, oil and gas deposits that may not ever be monetised as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy.
In the paper published on Monday, Clarifying and Strengthening Trustees’ Investment Duties, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: “Our proposed regulations are intended to reassure trustees that they can (and indeed should) take account of financially material risks, whether these stem from investee firms’ traditional financial reporting, or from broader risks covered in non-financial reporting or elsewhere.”
Environmental campaigners reckon that investments amounting to trillions of dollars in fossil fuels – coal mines, oil wells, power stations, conventional vehicles – will lose their value when the world moves decisively to a low-carbon economy.
They believe that fossil fuel reserves and production facilities will become stranded assets, having absorbed capital but are unable to be used to make a profit. This carbon bubble has been estimated at between $1tn (£753m) and $4tn, a large chunk of the global economy’s balance sheet.
But the DWP warned that the new rules do not give carte blanche for activist groups to bully pension funds into selling out of fossil fuels. “These proposals are not intended to give any support to activist groups for boycotts or divestment from certain assets,” the DWP paper said. “Trustees have primacy in investment decisions and, whilst they should not necessarily rule out the ability to take account of members’ views, they are never obliged to, and the prime focus is to deliver a return to members.”
Unison, the public sector union, launched a campaign in January to encourage local government pension funds – which have invested £16bn in the fossil fuel industry – to divest from carbon.
The new rules, subject to a consultation period, have been brought forward by secretary of state for work and pensions, Esther McVey.
“As we see the younger generation care more about where their money is going, they are also increasingly questioning that their pensions are invested in a way that aligns with their values,” she said. “This money can now be used to build a more sustainable, fairer and equal society for future generations.”
Climate change campaigners said they were delighted at the proposals. Bethan Livesey, head of policy at ShareAction, said: “ShareAction has been pushing for changes to these regulations for years.
“For too long, many pension schemes have disclosed little more than vague, high-level statements on their approach to ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] factors, and it is unclear what, if anything, is being done behind the scenes.
“Pension schemes seem to fall into three camps: those who understand the financial value of taking ESG factors seriously and do so, those who say they understand but do very little and those who have no clue. These changes to the regulations should at the very least enlighten the third group.”
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
A growing number of UK and European insurance companies have started selling holdings in coal companies and refusing to insure their operations. More than £15bn has been divested by insurers including Allianz, Aviva, Axa, Legal & General, Swiss Re and Zurich in the past two years, according to Unfriend Coal Network, a global coalition of NGOs and campaigners including 350.org and Greenpeace.
Last week Legal & General said it would exclude China Construction Bank, Russia’s Rosneft, the Japanese carmaker Subaru and five other companies that have failed to act on climate change from its Future World Fund.
The Rockefeller Family Fund, a charitable fund of the Rockefeller family, which made its fortune from Standard Oil, has started divesting from fossil fuel holdings.
However, Cambridge University has just ruled out divesting from oil and gas in its £6.3bn endowment fund – despite public pressure from hundreds of academics and a hunger strike by three undergraduates. Cambridge said it had no direct investment in fossil fuel companies and wanted to avoid any direct investment in coal and tar sands, while keeping indirect investment to a minimum. |
Uber's Jump service is affecting the number of car rides
| The popularity of Jump, Uber's bike sharing service, is affecting the number of car journeys taken by its customers in San Francisco. Having initially reported on the trend in July, the company has revealed the impact has since remained consistent, with the shift particularly pronounced during peak periods. Overall, more than 63,000 customers have taken more than 625,000 trips via Jump since it launched in the city last year.
| https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/08/uber-jump-bikes-lead-to-fewer-car-rides/ | null | If you suspected that Uber's Jump bike sharing would be popular enough to cut into its mainstream car service, you suspected correctly. Jump has revealed that more than 63,000 customers in San Francisco have taken over 625,000 trips since a launch in the city in 2018, and that this popularity is affecting car rides in the area. While an initial study in July showed that bikes were starting to replace cars, Jump noted that the trend had "remained consistent" since then -- the more people relied on pedal power, the larger the decrease in car trips. That was particularly true for peak periods.
While the ride numbers might not sound massive given San Francisco's population, it noted that it had 250 bikes for the first nine months. TechCrunch noted that eight to ten people were using a given Jump bike per day as of October. For context, Ford had 1,200 docked GoBikes that typically saw just one to two rides per day.
It's not hard to see why bikes might be appealing, at least in San Francisco. Traffic congestion is a problem in the city, and a study suggests that ridesharing might make conditions worse. Uber customers might simply decide that hopping on a bike is faster than spending ages in gridlock. And of course, San Francisco is a haven for tech-savvy travelers. It might be another story in cities with lighter traffic, or where requesting a bike through an app is relatively uncommon.
It won't be surprising if the trend is consistent with other cities and services, though. And Uber won't exactly mind. The company is increasingly interested in mixed-mode transportation that includes bikes, scooters and mass transit, and whatever business it loses in cars it might gain elsewhere. |
Airbnb-style letting insurance launched
| Guardhog has launched Host Cover Pro a new insurance for short-term rentals. Coverage is related to specific guests, where there is no need to have existing insurance, safeguarding home owners. Starting at 78p per night, the policy covers accidental and malicious damage, theft, public and homeowner liability. The policy also covers loss of income, excessive use of utilities, replacement keys and locks, infestations, legal expenses and identity theft.
| https://insurance-edge.net/2018/08/01/guardhog-launches-airbnb-insurance-cover-get-your-property-covered/ | null | More people in the UK are generating extra income from renting out their homes during summer holidays, when major sports events are happening, or renting their driveway to commuters. But are you insured properly? It’s worth checking and if not, there is a brand new specialist company who can help. Guardhog, the sharing economy insurtech innovators, have today launched Host Cover Pro, their exciting new product for ‘pro’ Airbnb hosts and serviced apartment owners.
An industry first, the new product reflects the rapidly growing landscape of homestays (short-term rentals) as more landlords utilise Airbnb to maximise their properties yield. Assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) require numerous checks to be performed on tenants that don’t – and can’t – happen with paying guests. In response, Guardhog have created the first ‘usage-based’ insurance solution for those who are renting out properties on sites like Airbnb the majority of the time, or in between lets.
Host Cover Pro is a primary product so there is no need to have existing insurance. It covers damage directly relating to the guest, namely accidental damage; malicious damage; theft by the guest; public liability – in case the guest has an accident or suffers an injury; and home-share liability – in case the guest damages a neighbouring property. And unbelievably, the price starts at 78p night. It comes with these ‘bells and whistles’ too:
Loss of income
Excessive use of utilities
Replacement keys and locks
Bug & Bear cover (infestation)
Legal expenses
Identity theft
Property of sharers
Humphrey Bowles, co-founder and ‘Top Hog’ at Guardhog, commented,
“Home-sharing platforms have put in place many checks and balances to help the growing number of people participating on their platform, ‘share’ safely. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that they all recommend hosts have their own insurance in place.”
Talking to Hosts at Airbnb HQ in London he told them “We designed Host Cover as an usage-based, pay per stay, home-sharing insurance policy. But as the industry grew, we recognised a need for those who are ‘pro’ Airbnb-ers – in other words, a primary product so there is no need to have existing insurance in place. That’s how Host Cover Pro came about. It’s innovative – and it’s exciting – we feel it reflects the changing times and addresses a genuine need out there.”
A key part of the new product is that it allows hosts to sync their homesharing accounts with the platform. Guardhog are then able to automatically cover bookings without hosts worrying about remembering to put insurance in place, or keeping track of the number of days they’ve hosted. |
Chevron to power Permian activity with 12-year wind PPA
| Chevron has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with a new West Texas-based wind farm to power its Permian Basin activities. Chevron's electricity load in the region stands at 65 MW and the oil major is seeking additional renewable solutions for Permian and other assets, to meet an anticipated increase in demand. Chevron is also set to buy renewable energy credits from Texas.
| https://renewablesnow.com/news/chevron-to-get-wind-power-for-permian-operations-666287/ | null | US oil major Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for electricity from a new wind park in West Texas for its operations in the Permian.
This will lower the carbon intensity of its activities.
Subscribe for Renewables Now's Corporate PPA Newsletter here for free!
On announcing the deal earlier this month, the company said its current West Texas Permian electricity load stands at around 65 MW. It will be exploring additional renewable energy solutions in the Permian as its power demand is expected to grow. The company is also interested in options to source renewable power for other business assets globally.
In addition to the PPA, Chevron will also buy renewable energy credits (RECs) in Texas to meet state requirements.
“We have long been committed to understanding and evaluating renewable energy sources which are scalable and align with our business assets. This PPA demonstrates that commitment,” said Chevron Pipeline & Power president Allen Satterwhite. |
Huber+Suhner launches Direct Current high-power charging system
| Electrical and optical connectivity company Huber+Suhner has launched its RADOX HPC200 high-power DC charging system for EVs which is designed to allow fast charging station operators to source all their charging cables from one place. The system, for a range of locations, also allows the operators to upgrade the charging systems cost-effectively and easily. The launch follows Huber+Suhner’s unveiling of its cooled charging cable system, HPC500, earlier this year.
| https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/07/20200710-huber.html | null | HUBER+SUHNER, a leading worldwide supplier of electrical and optical connectivity solutions, has launched its new Direct Current (DC) high-power charging system RADOX HPC200, completing the company’s RADOX HPC portfolio.
RADOX HPC200 is designed to provide uncooled charging for electric vehicles rated at 200 A and peak charging up to 300 A. Initially, the RADOX HPC200 is available with the CCS2 interface.
With this latest addition, the RADOX HPC portfolio enables operators of DC fast-charging stations, ranging from 50kW to 500kW, to procure all charging cables from a single source.
This future-proofs their infrastructure by ensuring any upgrades to more advanced charging systems can be done simply and cost-effectively, eliminating challenges around different designs and installations.
The RADOX HPC200 is ideal for use in cities, highways, hotels, shopping malls and fleet charging stations.
With our now completed high-power charging portfolio, we can meet all charging needs, providing flexibility and functionality with a one-stop shop for operators. Manufacturers worldwide are gearing up for the EV takeover and need a system which guarantees that existing and future requirements will be met. Offering a high return on investment alongside high-quality performance and low service and installation costs, our RADOX HPC solutions are key for the ever-increasing demands of the EV infrastructure trade. —Max Göldi, Market Manager Industry at HUBER+SUHNER
The HPC200 has the same features as the recently released HPC500, with the ergonomic design ensuring an easy handling experience for end-users due to the lightweight connector, improved cable flexibility and sleek form factor. The system is future-proof as a result of its IP67 protection rating for safety beyond standards, replaceable contacts for extended service life, and the option of a ready-to-use metering system in preparation for future demands.
The launch of the HPC200 comes few weeks after HUBER+SUHNER launched its HPC500, the world’s first cooled charging cable system that allows continuous charging at 500 A, even in high-temperature environments. |
Serbia aims to boost solar with feed-in premiums and auctions | Serbia is to introduce feed-in premiums and auction processes to boost its solar output when its existing feed-in tariff scheme expires at the end of the year. Milos Banjac, assistant to the Serbian minister of mining and energy, said the existing scheme was outdated but failed to give further details of the new incentive programmes. He added that Serbia would continued to rely on coal as its main energy source, as renewables would not cover all its power needs. | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/05/24/serbia-to-switch-from-fit-to-feed-in-premiums-and-auctions/ | null | Addressing a conference on energy efficiency in Belgrade, Milos Banjac, assistant to Serbia's Minister of Mining and Energy, has announced the feed-in tariff scheme introduced in 2009 will expire by the year’s end and be replaced by feed-in premiums and competitive tendering procedures, heralding Serbia’s transition to new renewable energy support mechanisms.
The current FIT program applies to solar, with rates ranging from €0.124 ($0.15) to €0.146/kWh for rooftop arrays depending on system size, and €0.09/kWh for ground-mounted installations, all under a 12-year PPA. The quota assigned to PV is low – a mere 10 MW by 2020.
Describing the FIT scheme as outdated, Banjac failed to provide further detail on the new incentive models for renewable energy.
“Renewables are still more expensive than the conventional energy sources. Even if Serbia would manage to unlock 100% of its renewable energy potential, that would not cover all of its energy needs,” said Mr Banjac, adding the country would continue to rely on coal as its primary energy source.
To emphasise the point, the Serbian government plans to introduce as much as 700 MW of new coal-fired power capacity by 2025 – 350 MW of it by 2020 – on top of its current thermal generation fleet, with many plants over 25 years old.
Stressing the ministry’s immediate priority will be to establish an energy efficiency fund with an annual budget of €30-40 million – up from the €1.2 million currently allocated for the purpose – Banjac underlined Serbia had managed to harmonize its legislature with EU law – although a different opinion was heard last year from the Energy Community, a body working to extend the EU internal energy market to South East Europe, with complaints fundamental changes would need to be made to the Balkan nation's Energy Law.
The latest announcement however, seems at least partially aligned with suggestions made by the Energy Community aimed at bringing Serbia closer to EU standards in terms of renewable energy development, such as launching a competitive tendering procedure, introducing contract for differences for successful bidders, abandoning the status of temporary privileged power producer, new incentive measures in the form of a premium, introducing balancing responsibility for privileged producers, and establishing a renewable energy operator.
Renewable energy auctions are an emerging trend in the region. A few weeks ago, Montenegro announced its first tender for large-scale solar, exceeding 200 MW. Last year Kosovo, Serbia’s ethnic Albanian majority southern province whose 2008 declaration of independence has been recognized by most UN nations, announced it would introduce an auction scheme.
To support the launch of auction mechanisms for large-scale renewable energy projects in southeastern Europe, the Energy Community Secretariat and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently released guidelines for transparent, open and predictable renewable energy actions.
While there is still no official consultation on the new subsidy model in Serbia, Aleksandar Macura of the RES Foundation, a Belgrade-based NGO dedicated to facilitating the development of renewable energy, says not even an unofficial debate on the topic is expected any time soon.
Popular content
“Renewable energy policy in Serbia emerged pretty much in response to the need to comply with the requirements of the Energy Community Treaty and without broader, transparent public consultations,“ Mr Macura tells pv magazine.
Hindrances to solar
Serbia's current, uneven FIT scheme allocates a quota of just 10 MW for PV while giving wind 500 MW.
Last month, Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic announced 250 MW of new renewable energy capacity will be deployed this year – including 247 MW of wind capacity – with it unclear why solar is being sidelined, given the nation's high irradiation and PV's falling costs.
“It is difficult to guess the reasoning behind the preference, but what is worth mentioning is that the policy we implement today was designed some 10 years ago, which is ancient history for today’s renewables,” says Mr Macura.
Commenting on the main hindrances to PV uptake in Serbia, Mr Macura says a relatively low end-user price and the lack of a level playing field for different energy sources are problematic, and the country risk premium is still relatively high.
“In addition, there are abundant regulatory obstacles to the increased deployment of small scale solar,” added Mr Macura. “The removal of these regulatory obstacles – simplified construction and connection procedures, net billing – seems to be the first move that does not require additional resources.”
According to the Serbian government’s energy strategy, cumulative PV capacity is expected to increase to 10 MW in 2020, 100 MW in 2025, and 200 MW in 2030, but for now the question mark remains over how this will happen.
“The program that should operationalize the strategy in the period up to 2023 does not mention solar much, apart from one 10 MW project developed by the state electric utility. However, the government is interested to take a closer look at the current regulatory obstacles and possibilities [with the aim of] their removal,“ says Mr Macura, noting there is still no precise information on Serbia’s renewable energy policy beyond 2020. |
Allianz joins automakers investing in autonomous vehicle tech firm | Allianz Ventures the strategic investment arm of the insurer has partnered with Toyota’s Research Institute, BMW’s venture capital subsidiary investing in start-up Nauto which analyses driver data in autonomous vehicles. Nauto has created a $400 device with cameras and sensors equipped to analyse driver behavior which will be integrated in test cars built by Toyota and BMW. The deal will enable Nauto to grow its artificial intelligence-powered network and accelerate deployment. The device may also enable Allianz to assess driver behaviour and bill for real-time insurance, rather than insuring the driver in the traditional fashion.
| http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/10/a-company-called-nauto-has-partnered-with-toyota-bmw-to-log-driver-habits/ | null | A Silicon Valley company called Nauto announced a partnership with Toyota’s Research Institute, BMWi Ventures (a venture capital company founded by BMW), and insurance company Allianz Ventures to bring driver analysis to autonomous vehicles.
Nauto currently produces a $400 aftermarket camera- and sensor-equipped device that attaches to a car’s windshield to analyze driver behavior. According to Reuters, the device is part-dash cam—snapping footage and tagging “events” like accidents—and part-driver monitor—detecting possible driver distraction in the car like drinking or texting. Nauto then collects and anonymizes this information to draw conclusions about driver habits, intersections, and congestion in certain areas.
The company, which was founded just last year, has so far geared its product toward managers of commercial and passenger fleets who want more information about their drivers and the routes they take.
But the partnership with Allianz Ventures is particularly interesting because better and cheaper tech, as well as autonomy in vehicles, both have the potential to change the insurance industry. As dash cams and driver monitoring systems like Nauto’s become less expensive, insurance companies can use that footage to assess driver behavior and tailor their rates accordingly. But with the advent of the fully self-driving car, who pays for insurance becomes a different question.
Advertisement
According to Forbes, Google, Mercedes, and Volvo are self-insuring their autonomous vehicles—their software is driving the car, after all. That same Forbes article suggests that insurance companies could cope with the loss of business from much safer, computer-driven vehicles by offering real-time insurance, sensing whether a driver is trying to operate a self-driving vehicle while intoxicated and raising their insurance rate for that ride only, for example.
That’s in the future though. Currently Nauto’s system will be integrated in test cars built by Toyota and BMW to “help develop their autonomous vehicle strategies,” Reuters says. It’s unclear what the terms of the deal involve, and Reuters says that another, unnamed automaker has also invested in Nauto.
But eventually Nauto wants its system built natively into new cars. In a press release, the company said its agreements with BMWi Ventures, Toyota Research Institute, and Allianz Ventures “enable Nauto to significantly grow its artificial intelligence-powered deep learning network and accelerate deployment into shared vehicle fleets and eventually migrate from retrofit device into new production vehicles.”
Listing image by Nauto |
Somalia: Government suicide bomb kills at least six
| A suicide bomb attack on a government building has badly wounded the mayor of the Somali capital of Mogadishu and killed at least six others, according to the country's information minister. Five others were also wounded. Terror group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was targeting United Nations members in a statement. The attack follows another for which Al-Shabaab also claimed responsibility, in which a bomb went off near Mogadishu's international airport and killed 17 people a few days ago.
| https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/24/africa/somalia-mogadishu-suicide-bomb/index.html | null | CNN —
The mayor of the Somali capital of Mogadishu was wounded and at least six others killed in a suicide bomb attack Wednesday on a government building, the country’s information minister said.
The mayor, Abdirahman Omar Osman, was badly wounded in the blast, Somalia’s Minister of Information Mohamed Abdi Hayir told reporters. Among those killed were two district commissioners and three regional-level directors, he said. In addition to the mayor, five others also were wounded, Hayir said.
Terror group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it targeted United Nations officials who were visiting the government building. CNN has not been able to independently confirm these claims.
Hours before the blast, James Swan, the UN special representative for Somalia and an American diplomat, met with the mayor and his district commissioners in the building but left after his meeting, police and the UN confirmed.
“I deplore this heinous attack which not only demonstrates a violent disregard for the sanctity of human life, but also targets Somalis working to improve the lives of their fellow Somalis in the Mogadishu-Banadir region,” Swan said in a statement.
People carry a wounded person on a stretcher after a suicide attack in Mogadishu on Wednesday. Xinhua/Cal Sport Media/ZUMAPRESS
“The United Nations stands with the people and government of Somalia in their rejection of such terrorist acts, and our thoughts are with the victims of this attack.”
Wednesday’s attack follows another a few days earlier when a bomb went off near Mogadishu’s international airport, killing 17 people. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for that attack. |
Apple Watch Hermès on sale Friday marking Apple's first foray into luxury | Apple Watch Hermès goes on sale on Friday online with three styles and five colours, which you can combine to get ten different looks; prices range from $1,100 to $1,500. Reports suggest that Apple and Hermès began collaborating on this luxury watch collection even prior to the Apple Watch being announced, and it is interesting to note that the Apple Watch Hermès collection is the first time Apple has included so much branding of another company in one of its own products.
| http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/20/10799086/hermes-apple-watch-collection-available-online | null | If you wanted to get your hands on the Hermès Apple Watch since it was released in October, you'd have to be near a select group of Apple Stores, Hermès boutiques, or high-end department stores like Maxfield. But beginning this Friday, the collection will be available to purchase on Hermès and Apple's websites, as first reported by Fashionista , and independently confirmed to The Verge by sources close to Apple.
Apple's partnership with Hermès was the first major partnership Apple has entered with one of its main products in years as it attempts to ingratiate the Apple Watch with the fashion world. Whether it has worked or not is still up in the air, as Apple has not released any sales numbers for the Apple Watch. The Hermès Apple Watch collection ranges from $1,100 up to $1,500, and is available with three bands; the Single Tour, Double Tour, and Cuff. |
EU Parliament approves biometric database on 350 million people
| The European Parliament has given the go-ahead to the creation of a Common Identity Repository (CIR) biometric database. The resource combines border control, migration and law enforcement systems into one searchable database containing the personal identification and biometric data of more than 350 million individuals. The CIR will simplify the duties of EU border and law enforcement officers. Privacy advocates have criticised the move for creating a centralised EU state database.
| https://www.zdnet.com/article/eu-votes-to-create-gigantic-biometrics-database/ | null | The European Parliament voted last week to interconnect a series of border-control, migration, and law enforcement systems into a gigantic, biometrics-tracking, searchable database of EU and non-EU citizens.
This new database will be known as the Common Identity Repository (CIR) and is set to unify records on over 350 million people.
Per its design, CIR will aggregate both identity records (names, dates of birth, passport numbers, and other identification details) and biometrics (fingerprints and facial scans), and make its data available to all border and law enforcement authorities.
Its primary role will be to simplify the jobs of EU border and law enforcement officers who will be able to search a unified system much faster, rather than search through separate databases individually.
"The systems covered by the new rules would include the Schengen Information System, Eurodac, the Visa Information System (VIS) and three new systems: the European Criminal Records System for Third Country Nationals (ECRIS-TCN), the Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS)," EU officials said last week.
CIR passed through the European Parliament last Monday, April 15, in two separate votes. The CIR rules for borders and visa checks were adopted by 511 to 123, and nine abstentions, while the CIR legislation for police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration was approved 510 to 130, and nine abstentions.
The European Parliament and the European Council promised "proper safeguards" to protect people's right to privacy and regulate officers' access to data.
EU to run one of the world's biggest biometrics databases
Ever since plans to create this shared biometrics database have been made public last year, privacy advocates have criticized the EU, calling CIR's creation as the "point of no return" in creating "a Big Brother centralised EU state database."
Once up and running, CIR will become one of the biggest people-tracking databases in the world, right behind the systems used by the Chinese government and India's Aadhar system.
In the US, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations run similar biometrics databases.
The database's existence can be easily justified by the necessity to give law enforcement better tools for tracking migrants and criminals; however, there's always the fear that the system will slowly be expanded to include and track people that are not the subject of any criminal investigations, such as tourist traveling across the EU space.
Top tips to keep safe around your voice assistant
Related government coverage:
|
UK port to install smart hybrid li-ion, lead-acid battery
| Portsmouth International Port (PIP) is set to place an order for a smart, lithium-ion and lead acid hybrid battery for the Innovate UK co-funded Port Energy Systems Optimisation (PESO) project. The battery's lithium-ion cells offer short bursts of energy when required, while the lead-acid component provides longer discharges. PIP said the PESO scheme aimed to ensure demand from an increasingly electrified shipping fleet could be met without performing costly infrastructure upgrades.
| https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/dual_chemistry_battery_technology_to_be_developed_for_portsmouth_internatio | null | Portsmouth International Port (PIP) has announced it will pilot a new smart energy system that includes a novel energy storage solution.
It will include the design and construction of a dual chemistry battery technology project, specifically designed to meet port requirements. This will work together with advanced management software, which can help to optimise onsite energy use to reduce emissions and improve air quality.
The Port Energy Systems Optimisation (PESO) project is co-funded by Innovate UK, and brings together a consortium of Swanbarton - which is developing the energy management software - the Energy Systems Catapult and Marine South England, who will lead the project.
Talking to Solar Power Portal, Anthony Price, managing director at Swanbarton, explained that the battery will be a lithium-ion and lead acid hybrid, and that PIP will place a contract for purchasing it soon.
“The battery exploits the two technologies’ voltage/charge curves in such a way that brief, shallow discharges are met from the durable and responsive lithium-ion cells, but longer and deeper discharges are met from the economical and environmentally friendly lead acid. So it will be a very cost effective solution.
“We are pleased to be working with Marine South East on this project, we are also working with them on other projects in the maritime sector. These are good examples of how innovation in energy systems cuts across applications, bringing benefits to transport infrastructure, renewables and local communities. We hope to deploy further installations of our management software in more projects soon.”
The project is particularly prescient given the growing power demands at ports as ships use more onshore power and adopt electric propulsion systems. Therefore it will be necessary to develop systems capable of providing more power without having to resort to expensive grid upgrades.
Jonathan Williams, CEO of Marine South East, added: “Cleaning up maritime emissions is now an urgent priority for the maritime sector and the PESO project will be a critical stepping-stone to achieve this… This will pave the way for decarbonisation and other emissions reduction across the port estate.”
The Energy Systems Catapult will assess future energy requirements around ports as part of the PESO project, helping it to evaluate the long term impact of energy systems the transformation to greater electrification may have. |
Local taxi companies in UK partner to take on Uber | Taxi dispatch software provider Autocab has developed an app to rival Uber as it seeks to unite the entire UK taxi industry, against the troubled US ride-hailing firm. Autocab's app integrates seamlessly with Ghost, its booking and dispatch system and can be used as a white label system by other firms, while its use of the recently launched iGo network could offer the app a countrywide presence and squeeze out Uber. | https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/19/uber-taxi-autocab-ghost-igo-everywhere-network/ | null | My adopted city is pretty forward-looking, but it was still a surprise when local taxi operations, as one, began offering their own Uber-style apps. It's a phenomenon that's occurring across the UK, with smaller outfits suddenly adopting app- and cloud-based booking systems. But the company that's pushing the change isn't doing so just to make it easier for folks in far-flung cities to book a ride home. Instead, it's the first step in a plan to unite the taxi industry in building a credible, singular rival to Uber.
Autocab is a British company that has produced specialist equipment for the taxi industry since 1991. It began with the crude radios that connected drivers to their dispatch office and grew from there. It now provides technology to more than 1,500 fleets across the globe, including 60 percent of the UK market.
In response to the looming threat of Uber, Lyft and the rest, Autocab began developing a passenger app. Seamlessly integrating with Autocab's booking and dispatching system, Ghost, it essentially does the same job as Uber, connecting paying customers with nearby cars from a specific business. Companies simply buy into the system, skin the app with their own identity and branding, and hey, presto. But beneath the surface, all of these companies are using the same cloud-based platform to run their business.
That is what makes the iGo Everywhere network such an exciting prospect, since it can connect every company using Autocab's systems. Let's imagine that your local cab company is based in Nottingham and you use its app during your day-to-day life. If you traveled to another major town or city in the UK, that app would be useless, giving you an incentive to download a competitor's product. That's a lose-lose situation both for the business that's local to you and the one in the city you're traveling to.
But if both firms have signed up to iGo, then you'll be able to book a ride from inside the same app that you use in Nottingham. You won't have a reason to stray to a different platform, and it creates a virtuous cycle of back-scratching for these otherwise small businesses. You get the same ease of use, and your local taxi company gets a tiny commission for the referral.
Recruitment advert used by Autocab in the UK trade press
Right now, the iGo Everywhere network is in its infancy, having launched on July 18th, and Autocab is still reaching out to cab firms, encouraging them to sign up. But if it is successful, then it could quickly extend its reach to every part of the UK, and potentially beyond. It could prove problematic for Uber, which still has to expend enormous amounts of time and resources entering new locations.
That's important, because iGo can operate anywhere Autocab has contracts, which is a lot of the UK. For sure, there are other taxi apps, like Gett and Kabbee, as well as apps that serve specific providers, like the transport giant Addison Lee. But those platforms are mostly London-centric, and Uber's reach only covers the major cities. iGo Everywhere's reach is about aggregating all the smaller players nationwide.
When a business fails, there is often talk about its lack of a moat, a unique business method that others can't easily copy. Ridesharing's moat is, or was, the ability to schedule trips in the cloud that didn't require the cost of a human dispatcher answering the telephone. The idea was that saving could then be passed on to the consumer, making it cheaper and faster than a taxi company. That, coupled with Uber's ability to raise vast sums of capital that it could use to put the local players out of business.
But Uber's troubles and the glacial pace of its rollout beyond the UK's most dense metropolitan areas have given its enemies a window -- one that companies like Autocab and its partners are, potentially, well-placed to take advantage of. |
IWG GoFloaters launches restaurant, café co-working model in India
| The on-demand workspace platform GoFloaters has partnered with cafes and restaurants to develop a shared economy co-working model. The start-up, which approaches co-working as a service industry rather than a real estate enterprise, works with partners to expand their presence through strategic expertise and the use of its brand without owning or operating any of the spaces in question. GoFloaters currently oversees a community of more than 2,000 users across the four Indian cities in which it operates, and aims to raise funds by 2020.
| http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/GoFloaters-is-Changing-the-Game-of-Co-working-Spaces/06-11-2019-178572/ | null | GoFloaters have partnered with the finest of cafes, restaurants, shared offices, meeting and event spaces across the city and can sustainably provide spaces on-demand
GoFloaters is a first of its kind on-demand work and meeting space startup in India that helps hundreds of early-stage start-ups, freelancers, SMB's, Independent professionals, solopreneurs, digital nomads, remote workers, media professionals, YouTubers, mompreneurs, sales and enterprise teams to find affordable plug-and-play work, meeting & event spaces across Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad.
GoFloaters with its disruptive innovation, solves the basic problem faced by people to get affordable, flexible spaces to work, meet, conduct an event closer to their preferred location and not struggle along with the traffic and strain. Users can find spaces on the GoFloaters app – Android & iOS. Once the user chooses the space on the app, the business owner confirms its availability after which the user can make a payment for space and go use it. Their workspaces are extremely affordable for the new-age workforce which wants to make smarter and flexible choices.
It all began in late-2017 when Shyam Sundar Nagarajan, Founder of GoFloaters, was looking for spaces to hold his business meetings without having to shell out Rs. 400 to 500 over food or beverage to occupy a seat in the café. That's when he realized the importance of such meetings & workspaces without any obligation of ordering food or paying for any amenities. Within a few months of starting up, Srivatsan Padmanabhan joined GoFloaters as a co-founder to get the ball rolling. And this gave birth to the ‘Space Brand' GoFloaters. GoFloaters has partnered with the finest of cafes, shared offices, meeting and event spaces for coworking & networking. A great degree of attention is given to the women workforce.
“By helping cafes and restaurants to monetize space and time as against just the food and by making use of underutilized spaces and making it available for others to use on a shared economy model, we are creating a positive impact at two different levels – for the workforce and for the space owners. We are an ‘asset-light model'; that is, we don't own or operate any of the spaces. We channelize this through our partners who own/lease and manage the space while we extend & spread their presence with strategic expertise, business model, technology platform and our brand to reach a wider audience. The next 10 years are going to be game-changers for the global coworking market. Companies have begun to see coworking as a service than pure real estate – buying, selling, rentals or leasing or tech industry. The market for on-demand workspaces is going to grow exponentially with the exponential growth of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and freelancers." says Shyam Sundar Nagarajan, Founder of GoFloaters
The GoFloaters community of users is 2000+ across the 4 cities that they operate in. This number is growing at a rapid rate. Their spaces provide a relaxed, conducive productive environment at the most economical rates. They have start-ups grown in their spaces, entrepreneurs who use it for regular meetings, artists who organize workshops & training, medical practitioners who use their spaces for consulting, students who use it for group study and the list goes on.
“We are constantly on the lookout to provide more value to our members. We are well on our way to build a very strong ecosystem of partners. Some of the partnerships we have closed in the recent past include Google, Amazon AWS, Uber, Udemy, RazorPay, and HubSpot. We would continue to have a sharp focus on community events & knowledge sharing initiatives that cut across various segments of our community members," adds Shyam Sundar Nagarajan, Founder of GoFloaters.
Currently bootstrapped, they are looking to accelerate their growth and penetrate other markets across India including tier 2 cities. While they are talking to some investors, they will be looking to raise funds by 2020. They are working very closely with their space partners on newer ways to open up their spaces and create more opportunities for monetization.
GoFloaters is creating a lucrative model for the existing ecosystem with simple monetization systems and processes. As the numbers grow, GoFloaters will continue to strengthen its position with its model of affordable on-demand workspaces.
|
Shares of US chemical companies drop amid Senate aid debate
| Shares in US chemical companies have declined because of the fall in oil prices caused by coronavirus and a price war between Russia and OPEC. US chemical firms rely on ethane and other natural gas liquids as feedstock but they lose out when oil prices fall in relation to gas. Meanwhile, chemical prices and stocks in Europe fell as Naphtha prices were impacted by crude oil losses.
| https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/03/23/10485673/us-chem-shares-fall-as-senate-debates-aid-package | null | HOUSTON (ICIS)–Shares of US-listed chemical companies continued to fall on Monday as the nation’s upper legislative chamber continued to negotiate a $2trn aid bill intended to offset the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19).
The table below shows the major indices followed by ICIS.
23-Mar Change % Dow Jones Industrial Average 18,591.93 -582.05 -3.04 S&P 500 2,237.40 -67.52 -2.93 Dow Jones US Chemicals Index 395.17 -21.88 -5.25 S&P 500 Chemicals Industry Index 401.88 -21.13 -5.00
While lawmakers debated the aid bill, the coronavirus continues spread rapidly in the US and the rest of the world.
The following shows the spread in the US.
US 20-Mar 23-Mar Cases 15,219 33,404 Death 201 400 States 50 50
Source: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The following shows global cases.
World 23-Mar Change from Sunday Cases 332,930 40,788 Death 14,510 1,727
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
The coronavirus has already caused Cooper Tires and Michelin to suspend some of their North America tyre operations. Tyres are made with styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and carbon black.
DCP Midstream was the latest midstream company to cut capital expenditures.
Other companies, such as Ingevity and Braskem, said that their plants are running normally.
For the oil industry, it is contending with a decline in demand caused by the coronavirus and a price war between OPEC and Russia.
Oil prices rose slightly, as shown in the following table.
Settle Change Brent $27.03 + 5 cents WTI $23.36 + 73 cents
Despite the rise, both benchmarks are down sharply from 6 March, when Russia and OPEC failed to reach a production-cut agreement.
US chemical producers are vulnerable to low oil prices because they rely overwhelmingly on ethane and other natural gas liquids (NGLs) as feedstocks.
As a result, US producers lose their cost advantage when oil prices fall in relation to gas. By contrast, much of the world stands to benefit, because they rely on oil-based naphtha.
The following shows the US-listed chemical shares followed by ICIS.
$ Current Price $ Change % Change AdvanSix 11.72 -1.16 -9.01 Axalta Coating Systems 13.67 -1.12 -7.57 Braskem 3.86 -0.83 -17.70 Celanese 62.20 -2.53 -3.91 Dow 26.58 -0.86 -3.13 DuPont 28.46 -3.01 -9.56 Eastman 38.39 -2.42 -5.93 HB Fuller 25.28 -2.93 -10.39 Huntsman 12.87 -0.13 -1.00 Ingevity 28.72 0.56 1.99 Kraton 4.66 -1.39 -22.98 Kronos Worldwide 7.71 -0.49 -5.98 LyondellBasell 40.49 -1.51 -3.60 Methanex 9.57 -0.38 -3.82 NewMarket 342.82 -29.31 -7.88 Olin 9.92 -1.82 -15.50 PolyOne 15.22 0.65 4.46 PPG 72.50 -7.22 -9.06 RPM International 46.81 -2.63 -5.32 Sherwin-Williams 396.70 -16.00 -3.88 Stepan 79.81 4.80 6.40 Chemours 8.21 -0.92 -10.08 Trinseo 17.77 -0.17 -0.95 Tronox 4.66 -0.20 -4.12 Univar 8.80 -0.09 -1.01 Venator Materials 1.79 -0.08 -4.28 Westlake Chemical 32.01 -1.79 -5.30
In Europe, chemicals prices and stocks opened the week with losses. Naphtha prices took a big hit from crude’s continued losses.
UK prime minister late on Monday announced a three-week stay-at-home order, saying people can only leave their homes for basic necessities, one form of exercise, any medical need to provide care or help a vulnerable person, and travel to and from work only if absolutely necessary and if the work cannot be done from home.
To ensure compliance, the county will stop public gatherings of more than two people and close all shops selling nonessentials goods, including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms.
The police will have the powers to enforce the rules, including issuing fines and dispersing gatherings.
Visit the ICIS Coronavirus topic page for analysis of the impact on chemical markets and links to latest news.
Thumbnail image by CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock
(recasts with updates on UK lockdown) |
UK litigation finance firms see assets rise to £1.9bn | UK litigation finance firms increased assets to £1.9bn ($2.4bn) during 2019, up 46% from 2018's figures. Litigation finance firms pay the costs of legal claims in exchange for a share of awarded damages in the event a case is successful. Private equity, hedge funds and family offices are among those starting to invest more heavily in the asset class. | https://www.cityam.com/uk-litigation-funders-boost-assets-to-1-9bn/ | null | UK litigation funders boost assets to £1.9bn
UK litigation funders increased assets to £1.9bn in 2019, an increase of 46 per cent on the previous year.
Analysis of the balance sheets of the UK’s top 15 litigation funders by law firm RPC found a jump in asset value from £1.3bn in 2017-18 to £1.9bn last year.
Assets held by litigation funders have increased 400 per cent over five years from £378m in 2014-15.
Litigation funders pay the costs of legal claims in exchange for a share of any damages awarded.
Growth in litigation funding comes as private equity, hedge funds and family offices have invested more heavily in the asset class.
A key attraction is that returns from litigation funding are uncorrelated with mainstream assets, such as equities or bonds, which helps to diversify portfolios.
Geraldine Elliott, partner at RPC, said: “There is growing recognition amongst businesses of the benefits of partnering with a litigation funder. Funding deals allow claimants to pursue a claim with limited financial downside.
“But the growing amount of capital litigation funders now have to deploy means they are running out of more obvious cases to fund.
“As a result, they are interested in kick starting cases from scratch.
“This can involve funders looking for a potential group action that they get off the ground, using heavy publicising of that case in order to gather more claimants.”
Last year London litigation funder Augusta Ventures set up a team to focus on consumer class actions.
Litigation funders are also focusing heavily on follow on damages claims after companies have breached competition law or data protection rules.
Elliott said: “Litigation funders have plenty of new firepower, but many suffer the same problem – not enough cases to finance.
“In order to satisfy that demand for cases, litigation funders and law firms are now looking at areas where large financial damages can be shown to have been caused by the wrongful actions of deep-pocketed corporates – such as price fixing by a cartel.
“For corporates who might face these claims, this is an innovation they need to bear in mind.” |
Vans hires global executive creative director to boost social media | US clothing brand Vans has appointed Erwin Federizo as its first global executive creative director. Reporting to vp of global creative Jamie Reilly, Federizo said he will strengthen Vans' voice on social media and wants to increase the company's following. Federizo admitted he has not yet formalised his plans for China, where livestreamed videos on WeChat brings in the most consumer engagement, but said he wants to develop a retail strategy that includes immersive experiences in Vans' stores. | https://digiday.com/marketing/inside-vans-social-media-strategy/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=180216 | null | Vans hired its first global executive creative director, Erwin Federizo, in January. The former agency executive is focused on improving Vans’ consistency on social media.
The streetwear brand is on a high, swept up in a flurry of celebrity endorsements, street-style sightings and high-end collaborators, but it’s trying to stay grounded. Federizo, for example, believes the brand’s “social voice needs to strengthen” if it is to venture into emerging markets.
A Brandwatch analysis of conversations across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that used one or more of Vans’ handles — @vans_66, @vansskate @vanssurf, @vansbmx66, @vanssnow or @vansgirls — between Feb. 15, 2017 and Feb. 15, 2018 revealed that 74 percent of the mentions came from the U.S. The U.K. was the next biggest market, with 3 percent of shares in the period. Both Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is banned in China, but each of the other three emerging markets Brandwatch tracked — Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia — accounted for 1 percent of shares each.
Federizo said finding ways to grow Vans’ following in emerging markets is at the top of his to-do list.
Asia, specifically China, is the growth opportunity for Vans: Sales across its Asia-Pacfic region rose 23 percent year over year in its most recent quarter versus an 43 percent jump in EMEA over the same period. In a market like China, where members of the younger generation are more eager to portray themselves as global citizens, Vans understands its focus on subcultures over the mainstream could be an advantage.
WeChat is Vans’ biggest social network in China and has become a staple in Vans’ marketing for most of the decade Vans has been there. Vans has had great success with publishing content on the app, said Nick Street, vp of global integrated marketing for Vans, whose team has turned photos and editorial features from events in China into magazines within the app. The brand has also bought WeChat Moments ads, which appear in a user’s feed in the app, and experimented with QR codes in the app. Street, who spent three years as Vans’ marketing boss in China, said “it’s a little easier” to gain reach there than in the U.S. and Europe.
Vans sees higher engagement on its livestreamed videos on WeChat versus those posted to other other social networks in other markets, said Street, who was unable to disclose figures by the time this story was published. He did, however, share that around 70 percent of Vans’ content on WeChat comes from its global team and therefore isn’t as localized as the output coming directly from the brand’s marketers there. Maintaining global consistency in a market like China, which has vast cultural differences from Western markets, is key to getting across the core of the brand, said Street, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of local relevancy.
The important thing the global marketing team at Vans must remember, he said, is to keep the curated content linked to the overall themes and identity of the brand. “We’re actually hearing from more followers [in China], asking that they hear more from our local creators and fellow fans in WeChat,” he said.
Less than two months into the role, Federizo described his plans beyond cracking China as “conceptual” rather than concrete. He reports to Jamie Reilly, vp of global creative at Vans, but will oversee the brand’s creative directors, who act as the day-to-day managers in a multidisciplinary team of around 30 in-house creatives. Vans has always worked this way, preferring to come up with its own creative ideas and work with agencies on a project-by-project basis.
Eventually, Federizo wants to make the brand’s products and marketing more customizable, while also developing a retail strategy that pushes stores beyond their product-focused role. The stores have become the face of Vans for many of its customers, said Federizo, who plans to bring immersive experiences around music, art, street culture and sports into those environments. |
*** Quorn partners with Netmums to help families become more sustainable | 90% of parents say environment is a key consideration in everyday life. 75% wish brands and retailers would make it easier to purchase sustainability and ethically. Netmums and Quorn partnership includes an “Our Family Footprint campaign. 100 families from across the UK will form a Step in the Right Direction Squad. | https://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/frozen/quorn-partners-netmums-help-families-become-sustainable-20-04-2020/ | null | It comes following research from Netmums which revealed that 90% of parents said the environment is a key consideration in everyday life and 75% of parents said they wish brands and retailers would make it easier to purchase sustainability and ethically.
The partnership includes an “Our Family Footprint” campaign, which will see Netmums recruit 100 families from across the UK to form a “Step in the Right Direction Squad”, who will receive Quorn products throughout the nine-month campaign and “will be inspired with recipe ideas and Netmums content on the simple steps they can take to reduce their family’s carbon footprint”.
Parents will be encouraged to share recipe ideas, trial new product launches, and share their experiences across the Netmums forum and social platform, and will be extra Quorn products as the campaign continues.
The families will then be invited to an event in September to celebrate the campaign, which will see new Quorn products trialed live on stage and launched with a Netmums Recommended logo.
New Quorn product launches throughout the year will be promoted with co-branded display, including quotes from the live product trials at the launch event. |
Researchers develop new composite membrane for direct ethanol fuel cells | Researchers from IPEN in Brazil, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) in Germany, and INRA in Canada have developed a novel composite membrane for direct ethanol fuel cells.A team led by Dr. Bruno Matos from the Brazilian research institute IPEN is therefore investigating novel composite membranes for direct ethanol fuel cells.Matos and his team used a melt-extrusion process to produce the composite membranes of Nafion and titanate nanotubes functionalized with sulfonic acid groups for testing in a direct ethanol fuel cell. | https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/05/20200505-defc.html | null | Researchers from IPEN in Brazil, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) in Germany, and INRA in Canada have developed a novel composite membrane for direct ethanol fuel cells. A paper on their work is published in the Journal of Membrane Science.
Ethanol has five times higher volumetric energy density (6.7 kWh/L) than hydrogen (1.3 kWh/L) and can be used safely in fuel cells for power generation. Nissan, for one, is investigating the potential for ethanol-fueled solid-oxide fuel cells. (Earlier post.)
In Brazil in particular there is great interest in better fuel cells for ethanol as all the country distributes low-cost ethanol produced from sugar cane. Theoretically, the efficiency of an ethanol fuel cell should be 96%, but in practice at the highest power density it is only 30%, due to a variety of reasons.
A team led by Dr. Bruno Matos from the Brazilian research institute IPEN is therefore investigating novel composite membranes for direct ethanol fuel cells. A promising solution is tailoring new polymer-based composite electrolyte materials to replace the state-of-the-art polymer electrolyte such as Nafion.
Matos and his team used a melt-extrusion process to produce the composite membranes of Nafion and titanate nanotubes functionalized with sulfonic acid groups for testing in a direct ethanol fuel cell.
The membrane consists of Nafion with embedded titanate nanotubes. Credit: B.Matos/IPEN
At the BESSY II ring at HZB, they were able to observe in detail how the nanoparticles in the Nafion matrix are distributed and how they contribute to increase proton conductivity.
Matos’ team has now thoroughly analysed four different compositions of Nafion composite membranes at the infrared beamline IRIS at BESSY II. Small-angle X-ray scattering measurements confirmed that the titanium particles were synergistically interacting with the ionomer matrix of Nafion.
Using infrared spectroscopy, they observed that chemical bridges were formed between the sulfonic acid groups of the functionalized nanoparticles. In addition, by following the proton motion along the ionic clusters, they found increased proton conductivity in the composite membrane, even at high concentrations of nanoparticles.
“This was a real surprise that we didn’t expect,” Dr. Ljiljana Puskar, HZB-scientist at the IRIS-Beamline said. The reduction of the conductivity with the increment of the nanoparticles is one of the main hurdles delaying the development of high-performance composite materials. The higher proton conductivity could allow better charge carrier mobility and thus increase the efficiency of the direct ethanol fuel cell.
Resources |
IWG Asian co-working flagged as key investment opportunity
| Co-working in the Asia market has been tipped as a major investment opportunity by a panel of experts at the ULI China Mainland Winter Meeting in Shanghai. While Melbourne, Australia was picked as the best overall market for development, the advent of large, flexible work space providers like WeWork represents a bevy of real estate opportunities in Asian cities. Its aggressive expansion has seen it become a major player in Tokyo and Hong Kong, bringing its valuation to $45bn, more than the combined market capitalisation of the largest real estate developers in Japan, Mitsubishi Estate and Mitsui Fudosan.
| https://urbanland.uli.org/economy-markets-trends/hospitality-and-coworking-seen-as-bright-spots-for-investors-in-asia/ | null | Japan’s hospitality sector, coworking across Asia’s cities, and core assets in Australia were picked as positive investment stories for the Asia Pacific region by a wide-ranging panel of experts at the ULI China Mainland Winter Meeting in Shanghai.
The panel followed the China launch of the Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific 2019 report, jointly released by ULI and PwC, which distilled the views of hundreds of professionals in the region on the outlook for this year. Respondents picked Melbourne, Australia, as the best overall market for development and investment.
The discussion panel, moderated by Betty Wong, head of the Colliers China capital markets team, included Ko Iwahori, deputy general manager at Mitsubishi Estate Investment Management. He identified hospitality assets in Japan as his favorite sector and country investment combination in the region. “Inbound tourism is one of the few bright spots of the Japanese economy,” he said.
Visitor numbers to Japan have been growing rapidly since 2013, when the government of Shinzo Abe eased visa regulations for Asian nations and also began to weaken the Japanese currency. Visitor numbers grew to 28.7 million in 2017 and are expected to hit 30 million this year, making Japan one of the most-visited countries in Asia.
“If you look at an area like [Hokkaido ski resort] Niseko, it was quiet until it was discovered by the Australians, and now we Japanese can’t afford to go there!” Iwahori said. “All over Japan there are untapped markets where there is a beautiful natural landscape, hot springs, and good food, good local produce.”
The rise of coworking in Asia, particularly the rapid expansion of global leader WeWork, was also discussed. “We hear more and more about the importance of live, work, play, and learn in all real estate sectors, which we have seen change in the light of the shared economy,” said Wong.
Hei Ming Cheng, founder and chairman of KaiLong Group, a Chinese real estate investment management company that has invested in Greater China and overseas, said his company was the first to lease a whole building to WeWork—the Konnect, a 108,000-square-foot (10,000 sq m) office building in Shanghai.
“There has been a lot of progression in their business model,” he said. “For example, they are increasingly working with larger companies to deliver workspace solutions.” He noted that Asia-focused U.K. bank Standard Chartered has partnered with WeWork in Hong Kong to create a new innovation space in the bank’s headquarters building, which will host its new technology venture-capital business.
WeWork is also a major force in the office market in Tokyo, with 40 locations in the Japanese capital, Iwahori said. In Tokyo, WeWork is closely entwined with shareholder Softbank, which is also a major tenant, occupying 40 percent of WeWork’s Tokyo space, he said. WeWork Japan is a 50/50 joint venture between WeWork and Softbank, he said.
As an illustration of the rapid growth of coworking, Iwahori said, Mitsubishi Estate and Mitsui Fudosan are the largest real estate developers in Japan, but their combined market capitalisation is only the same as WeWork’s valuation of $45 billion.
Peggy Jin of China developer and asset manager Powerlong Real Estate Holdings, said the sharing economy has wider implications for real estate than coworking. “It is not just about sharing the location, but sharing the information and also sharing maybe basically everything that you have,” she said. “[Millennials] are adapted to sharing and don’t even use a computer most of the time, just a phone or a tablet.”
Jin also spoke about how the rise of the Chinese middle class is crucial to her company’s outlook because that group will drive retail spending and demand for residential property. “The Chinese middle class is now one-third of the population, which is why we are optimistic about malls,” she said. Her firm remains conservative regarding the residential market, she added.
Iwahori noted the continued appeal of Australia: in addition to Melbourne topping the investment and development tables, Sydney occupies third place in both categories. Australia’s economy and demographics are strong, he said, with a small budget deficit, years without recession, and population growth—all unusual in a developed economy.
“The market is highly competitive,” he said, because of the presence of many experienced and well-capitalized local players. Australia offers opportunities in the commercial and retail sectors, he said, though the multifamily residential sector is not a major part of the market. For core investors in the Asia Pacific region, Australia and Japan are the most targeted markets, and, as a consequence, a number of core investors have acquired assets in Sydney, Melbourne, and Tokyo. |
Shannon, Obton JV submits 105 MW for Ireland solar auction
| Dublin’s Shannon Energy and Danish solar developer Obton have submitted 105 MW of projects for qualification in Ireland's first Renewable Electricity Support Scheme solar auction in July. The application, submitted under the Shannon Energy powered by Obton joint venture (JV), comprises projects across eight counties, representing an investment of more than €60m ($66m). The projects are part of a wider €300m plan by the JV to install more than 500 MW of capacity over five years.
| https://renewablesnow.com/news/shannon-energy-obton-seek-to-qualify-105-mw-for-irish-solar-auction-697088/ | null | A joint venture between Danish solar developer Obton and its Dublin-based partner Shannon Energy has submitted 11 projects totalling 105 MW for qualification in the upcoming Irish solar auction.
Shannon Energy powered by Obton, as the JV is referred to, seeks to participate in the first round of the Irish government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) for which qualification commenced on March 9 and ends today. The auction itself will be held in late July.
The projects submitted by the Danish-Irish JV are located in eight counties throughout Ireland and represent a total investment of over EUR 60 million (USD 65.2m). They are part of a larger pipeline of more than 500 MW that the JV hopes to execute at a total cost of EUR 300 million over the next five years.
The initial 105-MW portfolio is expected to create over 200 jobs during the construction process and add enough power generation capacity to supply up to 20,000 homes.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.087)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free! |
TalkTalk Gigaclear’s broadband rollout in the West Country halted
| The Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project has announced that it is postponing Gigaclear’s planned rollout of superfast broadband to some of the UK's most rural areas. In a joint statement, CDS and Gigaclear stated the provider has failed to "demonstrate a credible approach" for every aspect of their plan, which has suffered multiple setbacks caused by poor decision making, a lack of planning and poor operational capacity. CDS said it would delay any further collaboration until Gigaclear presented a viable new rollout plan that resolves the existing issues.
| https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/11/no-solution-yet-for-gigaclears-fttp-rollout-in-devon-and-somerset.html | null | Saturday, Nov 10th, 2018 (11:31 am) - Score 3,837
The Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project and UK ISP Gigaclear have issued a new joint statement, which states that the provider has yet to “demonstrate a credible approach” for each area in their revised roll-out plan. As a result their state aid supported deployment of 1Gbps FTTP broadband remains on hold.
At present the CDS project is working with Openreach (BT), Gigaclear and wireless ISP Airband to extend the reach of “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connectivity the two rural counties and overall they aimed to cover 96% of premises by 2020 (currently around 86%). A mix of FTTC, FTTP “full fibre” and wireless based broadband technologies are being used (see here and here).
Unfortunately it was last month revealed (here) that Gigaclear’s part of this project (i.e. a roll-out of “full fibre” to cover nearly 50,000 premises) had fallen “significantly behind schedule” (around 2 years by the looks of it) due to “fundamental issues … including management of subcontractors, build methodology and capacity within the team.” In response the ISP promised to produce a new roll-out plan and to resolve the problems.
Reasons for the Delays (CDS)
There are five main reasons for Gigaclear’s delayed roll-out in the CDS programme, exposed by the collapse of Carillion telent: • Poor operational capacity and decision-making within Gigaclear.
• Lack of contractor capacity
• Slow deployment by contractors.
• Lack of detailed planning.
• Failure to redesign the build methodology.
One month has now passed and the CDS team recently received a copy of the provider’s new plan, but they are far from satisfied. According to the latest statement from CDS, Gigaclear has “not yet provided enough detail and clarity for each Lot area to demonstrate a credible approach” and they are thus continuing to “withhold payment” (i.e. the ISP remains on notice of default while more work is undertaken to fully develop a final plan).
We’ve posted a summary of the latest statement below, which focuses upon on what has happened since the announcement of a significant delay and what needs to happen next in order for the project to continue.
CDS & Gigaclear Statement (Extract) On October 31st Gigaclear presented CDS officers and BDUK with a broad plan on how the company can address its shortcomings and provide a firm completion date for 100% coverage against its contract. Gigaclear advanced the view that progress is being made in addressing the need for improved capacity and resources. The company proposed a new build methodology that it believes will provide a robust plan whilst reducing traffic disruption to Devon and Somerset communities. In broad terms, and based on the above, Gigaclear has proposed the following: • A commitment to continuing its investment of £127.8 million in the CDS region. This comprises £60.5 million in the CDS contracts and £67.3 million in the company’s commercial build. NB The total public subsidy is £31 million of which only £537,200 has been paid to Gigaclear to date. • It will continue to provide full fibre-to-the-premise technology. • There will be no reduction in the broadband speed made available to homes and businesses. Gigaclear is contracted to deliver superfast broadband of at least 30mbps download. The company says its service can deliver symmetrical ultrafast speeds up to 900mbps. • It will continue to deliver the full coverage agreed in the contracts with CDS. That is 47,810 homes and businesses across the region. • There will be no reduction in the company’s commercially-funded network. That is around 43,000 homes and businesses in the region. • The proposed build methodology is based on “a spine and spurs” approach that will reduce disruption to communities and deliver superfast broadband access to between 40% and 50% of the CDS contracted premises by June 2020 with the remaining coverage completed by June 2022. However, the company has not yet provided enough detail and clarity for each Lot area to demonstrate a credible approach is in place. Whilst coverage and a full fibre solution remain firm commitments, the proposal indicates significant delays will be felt across the CDS region. CDS therefore continues to withhold payment to Gigaclear and the company remains on notice of default while more work is undertaken to fully develop a final set of plans. Gigaclear and CDS are maintaining a dialogue and are committed to work as quickly as possible to get the best outcome for residents and businesses. A key issue to address will be whether the Government and other partners are willing to extend the time in which their funding can be used to subsidise the current contracts with Gigaclear. Currently, Government funding must be spent by March 2020. If the deadline cannot be extended it is unlikely the current contracts with Gigaclear will continue. CDS is continuing to explore with BDUK the potential for finding a solution to this issue. Similar discussions may also be required with the Heart of the South West LEP, which is being kept informed of developments, and other funders. In the meantime, CDS and Gigaclear will continue to meet in an effort to make progress on the required level of detail and clarity for each Lot area. When this work is completed CDS and BDUK will need to consider the remedial plans in detail.
Separately CDS said they were also working with Openreach (BT) to extend superfast broadband coverage to those areas not included within current publicly-subsidised or commercially-funded roll-out plans. “This extension of broadband coverage will be financed by a £4.7m investment, the first of a series of repayments from BT [phase 1 clawback / gainshare],” said the CDS team.
Apparently the plan for Openreach’s extension will be announced sometime in the New Year and options are also being considered to increase the level of funding, which could support an even larger extension. Meanwhile Gigaclear said they would focus on “making good its current commitments to CDS before bidding for further new BDUK contract areas, though the company and its backers reserve the right to do so” (this might rule them out of the Scotland R100 contract). |
3D printed spinal implant could improve patients' functions | Researchers from University Minnesota have developed a 3D-printed silicone guide with neuronal stem cells printed on top, which could be used at spinal cord injury sites to help restore some function to paralysed patients. The implant could reduce pain and help some patients regain functions such as control of muscles, bowel and bladder. There are currently no good treatments for patient with long-term spinal cord injuries, said Ann Parr, co-lead of the research team. Although a complete cure for paralysis from spinal cord injury would be unlikely, improvements in functions would greatly improve patients' lives, Parr said. | https://www.theengineer.co.uk/3d-printed-implant-spinal-cord-injury/ | null | A silicone guide seeded with stem cells could be implanted at a spinal cord injury site to help restore some function to paralysed patients
3D bio-printing – fabricating a scaffold onto which living cells can grow – has undergone significant advances in recent years, going from a technique to create structures whose function derives only from their shape, such as ears, to bones and even parts of organs. Researchers from the University Minnesota have now developed a 3D-printed implant which, they believe, may be able to restore some function to patients with long-term spinal-cord injuries.
Neuronal sten cells, engineered from any cell in the recipient's body, would be printed directly onto the silicone implant from the samne equipment which printed it
The team, led by Michael McAlpine, a mechanical engineer, and Ann Parr, from the Department of neurosurgery and Stem Cell Institute, describes in the journal Advanced Functional Materials how they 3D printed a guide made of silicone and then printed neuronal stem cells directly on top of it. The concept is that this guide would be implanted into the injured area of the spinal cord to serve as a bridge between living nerve cells above and below the area of injury. This may alleviate pain and help patients regain some functions such as control of muscles, bowel and bladder.
"This is the first time anyone has been able to directly 3D print neuronal stem cells derived from adult human cells on a 3D-printed guide and have the cells differentiate into active nerve cells in the lab," McAlpine said.
Previous animal research has used electronic devices to transmit signals across the damaged area of a spinal cord, but this technique would avoid having to implant electronics and depend upon batteries.
The research involved using a number of new techniques, including bio engineering developed at Minnesota. The stem cells are derived from any kind of cell from an adult, such as a skin cell or a blood cell. The medical researchers on the team reprogrammed the cells to turn them into neuronal stem cells. Meanwhile, the mechanical engineers developed a printer that can print both the guide and the living cells. The guide is multifunctional: it both provides a structure onto which the cells can be printed, and keeps them alive while allowing them to change into neurons.
"3D printing such delicate cells was very difficult," McAlpine said. "The hard part is keeping the cells happy and alive. We tested several different recipes in the printing process. The fact that we were able to keep about 75 percent of the cells alive during the 3D-printing process and then have them turn into healthy neurons is pretty amazing."
In laboratory tests, the cells extended fibres through 150µm wide channels incorporated into the guide structure, and monitoring calcium ion levels in these fibres confirmed that the cells were functional. "This is a very exciting first step in developing a treatment to help people with spinal cord injuries," said Parr. "Currently, there aren't any good, precise treatments for those with long-term spinal cord injuries." The research was result of advances in bio engineering and 3D printing occurring at the same time, she added.
Parr cautioned that this research would be unlikely to present a complete cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury. "We've found that relaying any signals across the injury could improve functions for the patients," she said. "There's a perception that people with spinal cord injuries will only be happy if they can walk again. In reality, most want simple things like bladder control or to be able to stop uncontrollable movements of their legs. These simple improvements in function could greatly improve their lives."
CLICK FOR NEWS |
Finland doubles plugin vehicle market share to 16%
| Plugin vehicles now account for 16% of Finland's automotive market share, up from 8% in 2019 and 5% in 2018, according to data from EV Volumes. While the figures make Finland the fourth-best country in the world for plugin vehicles by market share, 80% of the plugin models sold in 2020 have been hybrids, rather than fully-electric, meaning they are running on fuel for undefined periods. The prominence of hybrids is due to the dominant position of Volvo in the country, as well as the ubiquity of SUVs, of which few are fully-electric.
| https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/01/finland-achieves-16-plugin-vehicle-market-share/ | null | Finland is the 4th best country in the world in terms of plugin vehicle market share this year. It is at 16% market share, double its 8% market share in 2019 and more than triple its 5% market share in 2018, according to our friends at EV Volumes.
The caveat, though, is that this market — like neighboring Sweden — is dominated by plugin hybrids (rather than fully electric vehicles). And you never know how much plug-in hybrid drivers are driving on electricity rather than gas/petrol or diesel. So far in 2020, plugin hybrids account for 80% of Finland’s plugin vehicle sales, which is an even bigger advantage for plugin hybrids than in Sweden, where they account for 72% of plugin sales.
In fact, there is only one vehicle among the top 10 best selling plugin vehicles in the country that is fully electric, the #6 Tesla Model 3.
Like in Sweden, Volvo is a very popular brand, and Volvo has been fully focused on plugin hybrids for years. That is changing and the Volvo XC40 Recharge is coming soon. Volvo plans a big shift that will see 50% of its sales coming from fully electric vehicles in 2025. As Volvo becomes more electrified, I presume Finland will. Volvo accounts for 22% of Finland’s plugin vehicle sales this year, far ahead of #2 BMW, which is at 14%, or #3 Mercedes-Benz, which is at 12%, both of which have also been heavily focused on the plugin hybrid options for electrification.
Aside from this brand matter, SUVs are dominant in the plugin market in Finland, and, again, there have been slim pickings when it comes to fully electric SUVs, but that is changing. The Tesla Model Y will soon hit the market, as will the Volkswagen ID.4, variations of the ID.4 from other brands under the Volkswagen Group umbrella, the BMW iX3, and the aforementioned Volvo XC40 Recharge. So, I do expect the fully electric portion of this market to gain ground in the coming couple of years.
Will Finland keep gaining ground in terms of plugin vehicles market share in 2020? How about 2021? We’ll see. If it follows the adoption trend set by Norway, Iceland, and Sweden, it should.
Related Stories:
Sign up for Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast: I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ... Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps —— grow. So ... |
Nissan Ariya to use CCS in Europe and USA in a blow to CHAdeMO
| Nissan has opted for the Combined Charging System (CCS) in Europe and the US for its Ariya electric SUV, instead of the CHAdeMO fast charging standard. CHAdeMO was developed by Nissan in collaboration with Subaru, Mitsubishi and the Tokyo Electric Power Company. However, EV manufacturers have increasingly switched to CCS, which now has more US charging points than CHAdeMO, with CCS charging stations offering multiple charging plugs. While US CHAdeMO stations are limited to 50 kW, CCS can offer up to 350 kW. The Ariya supports up to 130 kW fast charging. "We are just following the customer," Nissan said.
| https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/nissan-ariya-electric-suv-adopts-ccs-fast-charging/ | null | The upcoming Nissan Ariya electric SUV is a major step in forward the the automaker's Nissan Next vision -- a rebirth of the brand with a streamlined new generation of vehicles -- but it could also be the death knell of the CHAdeMO DC fast-charging standard in the US and Europe. Nissan's instead adopted the competing Combined Charging System that's standard for these markets.
The CHAdeMO protocol was developed and promoted by the eponymous CHAdeMO Association, formed in 2010 by Nissan, Mitsubishi , Subaru (nee Fuji Heavy Industries) and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The standard's complex 10-pin connector and high-voltage, high-current stations enable rapid charging for compatible electric vehicles, adding up to 75 miles in around 25 minutes for early revisions. Over time, the protocol has grown to include even faster theoretical speeds, vehicle data connectivity and bi-directional flow enabling vehicle-to-grid charging.
The CHAdeMO name is derived from the Japanese phrase "O cha demo ikaga desuka" ("How about a cup of tea while charging?") hinting at the time it takes to charge a car. James Martin/CNET
Nissan's fully electric Leaf was one of the first EVs to make use of the CHAdeMO standard in the US when the connector appeared next to the universal J1772 charging port on the SL trim level in 2010. In 2011, it was joined by a CHAdeMO-compatible version of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV with full-electric versions of Honda's Fit and Kia's Soul also playing host to the funky plug over the years.
Today, the only new CHAdeMO-compatible vehicles available to US buyers are the second-generation Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi's Outlander PHEV. Automakers Hyundai, Kia and Honda have all moved their fast-charging plug-ins sold in North America and Europe to the CCS standard.
Despite arriving a year later, there are nearly as many CCS stations in North America (3,174) as there are CHAdeMO (3,307) according to the US Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center, but since many of these stations include multiple CCS plugs (versus just one CHAdeMO), the newer protocol technically enjoys more actual outlets (6,130 vs. 5,059). That's not a huge difference, but CCS has another advantage here: Charging at those stations is often much faster.
There's only so much room to cram batteries into a vehicle's platform, even in this spacious new class of EV crossovers . So Nissan is one of many automakers (including Audi with its 150 kW charging E-Tron) that see shorter, ultra-fast charging sessions as a good way to combat range anxiety while we wait for a breakthrough in cheap energy density. But to get charging times down, power (wattage) has to go up.
Most CHAdeMO stations in the US are limited to just 50 kilowatts. Electrify America's fastest CCS chargers can reach up to 350 kW. Now, in fairness, most CCS stations don't max out the full 350-kW potential either. Nissan and EVgo have recently committed to building 200 CHAdeMO 100-kW stations, but with the new Ariya supporting up to 130-kW fast charging, CCS appears to be the only way the electric SUV could charge at full speed at an American station today.
"We are just following the customer," said Nissan Senior VP Ivan Espinosa. "This is what we do. And if the customer is expecting this because it's more popular, and easy to access the infrastructure under CCS, we will do that. This is what we've decided to do in the case of the Ariya for the US."
As to whether a hypothetical next-generation Leaf would also convert to CCS, the automaker made no comment.
The CHAdeMO 2.0 protocol technically has headroom for up to 400-kW charging, but such stations are extremely rare. Roadshow staff
CHAdeMO has enjoyed success in parts of the world like Japan, where it has a more widespread charging network, more vehicles that support the standard (even Tesla vehicles sold in Japan charge with a CHAdeMO adapter), and deeper integration with infrastructure, including a developing vehicle-to-grid ecosystem that enables neat tricks like powering a home during an outage or equalizing grid spikes and dips with connected cars' batteries.
"We will keep using CHAdeMO in other parts of the world," states Espinosa, clarifying that Ariya SUVs sold in Japan will use and take full advantage of the charging standard that the brand has supported for a decade now.
Nissan hasn't stated whether there will be different charge times for US and European CCS-equipped Ariyas versus Japanese models with CHAdeMO. In fact, the automaker hasn't even nailed down exact range or charging times; those details will come closer to the EV's launch. You can check out our full first look at the new Nissan Ariya electric SUV for an updated rundown of everything that we do know. |
Russian-built nuclear energy plant to open in Jordan by s first nuclear plant by 2025
| The head of Jordan Nuclear Power Company, Ahmad Hisayat, said on Saturday that the country's first nuclear power plant is expected to be operational between during 2024 and -2025. According to Jordan's official news agency Petra, Hisayat stated said in a press statement that the company and the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission are cooperating with a consultative company to prepare site and environmental impact studies for the construction of two reactors with a total capacity of 2,000MW at a total cost of $9.87b. The reactors , which are expected to be built in the Qusayr Amra region, east of Amman, by . Russia's Rosatom, is to build the plant under an intergovernmental agreement signed last year.
| http://meconstructionnews.com/story/5638/jordans-10bn-nuclear-plant-to-be-operational-by-2025 | null | Sustainability Abu Dhabi EAD and ADNOC collaborate on recycling campaign |
Topshop loses top man Paul Price in 'amicable' departure | Sir Philip Green, who heads the Arcadia Group fashion empire that includes the two high street brands, has said the departure of Paul Price is "completely amicable" and is nothing to do with their performance.In a statement, Arcadia said: "After two years as Topshop Topman CEO, Paul Price has made the decision to re-locate back to the USA and will be leaving the business at the end of December 2019."It is understood that Arcadia chief executive Ian Grabiner will lead operations across the two brands following Mr Price's departure. | https://news.sky.com/story/amp/topshop-loses-top-man-paul-price-in-amicable-departure-11883071 | null | Topshop loses top man Paul Price in 'amicable' departure The announcement follows a turbulent period for the parent group, which has undergone a major overhaul to stave off collapse.
Image: Paul Price, who joined Topshop two years ago, is said to be moving back to America
The boss of troubled Topshop and Topman is to leave his post at the end of the year for "personal reasons", it has been announced.
Sir Philip Green, who heads the Arcadia Group fashion empire that includes the two high street brands, has said the departure of Paul Price is "completely amicable" and is nothing to do with their performance.
Mr Price, who joined Topshop in September 2017 after a decade working at luxury fashion house Burberry, is said to be moving back to America.
Image: Sir Philip Green (centre) says Mr Price (end right) is leaving the business for 'private, personal reasons'
The announcement follows a turbulent period for Arcadia, that has undergone a major overhaul to stave off collapse, including store closures and job losses.
Last month, Arcadia announced the appointment of hotel veteran Andrew Coppel as chairman to help tackle the retail group's turnaround ahead of the critical Christmas trading period.
Sir Philip said: "He is leaving but hasn't left yet. Apart from that, it is business as usual.
"He is leaving for private, personal reasons to return to America - it is all completely amicable."
In a statement, Arcadia said: "After two years as Topshop Topman CEO, Paul Price has made the decision to re-locate back to the USA and will be leaving the business at the end of December 2019."
It is understood that Arcadia chief executive Ian Grabiner will lead operations across the two brands following Mr Price's departure. |
Jefferies quarterly profit boosted by trading revenue | Investment bank Jefferies Group LLC has reported net earnings of $41.7m in the third quarter of 2016, a $2.06m rise on 2015, due to an increase in trading revenue. The bank’s overall trading revenue increased by 86% to $343.64m, with the bank’s fixed-income trading revenue standing at $195.34m, an improvement from 2015’s loss of $18.15m. However, the bank’s investment business fell to $294.93m, a 24.3% drop in a continuing trend for 2016 due to a lack of IPOs and deals. | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3798258/Jefferies-quarterly-profit-boosted-trading-revenue.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 | null | Jefferies quarterly profit boosted by trading revenue
Sept 20 (Reuters) - Investment bank Jefferies Group LLC reported a jump in quarterly profit, driven by strong revenue in its fixed income trading business.
Net earnings attributable to Jefferies rose to $41.17 million in the third quarter ended Aug. 31, from $2.06 million a year earlier.
Fixed-income trading revenue was $195.34 million, compared with a loss of $18.15 million a year earlier.
"Aside from a volatile two week period following the unexpected outcome of the UK 'Brexit' referendum in June, fixed income and equity secondary market conditions remained reasonably steady for much of the third quarter," Chief Executive Officer Rich Handler said in a statement.
Overall trading revenue rose about 86 percent to $343.64 million.
However, revenue from Jefferies' investment banking business fell 24.3 percent to $294.93 million - down for the third straight quarter - hurt by fewer IPOs and deals.
There were 55 IPOs in the United States this year as of Sept. 15, down 64 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data.
M&A activity in the United States totaled $1,084.4 billion this year as of Sept. 15, down 29 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. |
TalkTalk TalkTalk to focus on full fibre, reshuffles leadership team
| TalkTalk has made changes to its senior leadership team, as it aims to grow its fibre services. Ruth Kennedy, currently director for carrier and system integrators (SI), will head a new team covering business development across all units. Indirect MD Richard Thompson's role will expand to take in carrier and SI, as well as the marketing and partner sales teams.
| http://www.channelinfo.net/talktalk-business-changes-leadership-structure-to-focus-on-full-fibre | null | Ruth Kennedy, currently Director for Carrier and SI's, will move to a brand-new role reporting directly into the CEO to lead and build a new team looking especially at Business Development across all business units. Ruth will lead a strategic team that will focus on creating long-term value by utilising TalkTalk assets, customers and relationships to identify new revenue streams, or expanding existing ones, bringing incremental value to TalkTalk and its Partners.
Richard Thompson, Managing Director of Indirect, will now expand his current role as the Director of Partners to take on Carrier and SI alongside the Marketing and Partner Sales teams, with a view on encompassing all our indirect channels to market.
Tristia Harrison, Chief Executive of TalkTalk said, "TalkTalk Business is an ambitious company with a DNA grounded in disrupting the market. As part of our commitment to maximise our national, scale Fibre First Network, we want to create a new team who will work across the business to explore all of the opportunities that a Fibre future will bring. We are delighted that Ruth and Richard will continue to play a significant role within the leadership team. Their breadth of experience makes them ideally placed to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our customers and partners as we focus on a full-fibre future."
Jonathan Kini, Managing Director of TalkTalk Business added, "I'm thrilled that Ruth and Richard are both taking on new responsibilities at an incredibly exciting time for TalkTalk Business. We will remain focused on a full-fibre future and continue to keep our Partners and customers at the heart of every decision that we make." |
Deutsche Bank does not plan on being a Brexit first mover, says regulatory chief Sylvie Matherat, while chief executive John Cryan says London will put up a fight | Deutsche bank has no plans to be the amongst the initial wave of financial firms to move operations from London to Europe because of the potential impact of Brexit, according to the bank’s regulatory chief Sylvie Matherat. The bank will see how the situation plays out for other financial institutions, and although chief executive John Cryan has said that London will remain “an important financial capital”, Germany would be their destination if moving became necessary. Several banks, including HSBC and UBS, have said they will have to move up to 1,000 job roles from London. | http://www.cityam.com/258303/deutsche-bank-does-not-plan-being-brexit-first-mover-says | null | Deutsche Bank’s management board has promised it won’t be the first to leave London after Brexit
Deutsche Bank does not plan to be among the first tranche of financial firms shifting jobs out of London because of Brexit woes.
Speaking at the bank's annual results press conference today, Sylvie Matherat, the German giant's regulatory chief, said: "We will not be a first mover".
Instead, Matherat said the bank would be keeping a careful eye on what moves others in the industry made and would "follow if necessary".
Read more: The City's importance to Europe helps the PM
Chief executive John Cryan added: "I'm sure London will fight back and remain an important financial capital."
However, Cryan also stressed there was still uncertainty surrounding what the UK outside the EU would look like. "We actually don't know what Brexit is," he said, before adding that, if the bank did have to move staff out of the UK, Germany was the obvious destination for them to choose.
The words come less than a month after a string of big bank bosses warned they would move staff out of the UK because of Brexit. Both HSBC's chief executive Stuart Gulliver and UBS investment chief Andrea Orcel warned they would have to move up to 1,000 jobs out of London.
Read more: MPs just voted overwhelmingly to back an Article 50 Bill
Meanwhile, JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said his bank might have to shift more jobs overseas than he had initially thought.
And German newspaper Handelsblatt has previously reported Goldman Sachs was mulling halving its London workforce in light of Brexit, although the bank has since said no final decision has been made.
Even before the UK decided to leave the EU last June, many in the financial industry warned Brexit could spell the end of many rights enjoyed by the sector, including passporting – a complex set of rights which allows firms in the UK to do business elsewhere in the EEA and vice versa.
Read more: Even top EU officials believe it will lose out in bad deal for City
However, unlike many of the other banks currently weighing up their post-Brexit options, Deutsche Bank is currently using inbound passporting to do business from the EEA into the UK.
According to figures released by the Financial Conduct Authority last September, 8,008 of the 13,484 firms using passporting it accounted for use inbound passporting.
Deutsche Bank had a tricky 2016, weighed down by ongoing restructuring efforts, litigation costs and a low interest rate environment. The bank today announced net losses for 2016 of €1.4bn (£1.2bn), its second year in a row in the red, and net losses for its fourth quarter of €1.9bn. |
Amsterdam to embrace 'doughnut' model to mend post-coronavirus economy | Amsterdam has adopted British economist Kate Raworth's doughnut model as a long-term vision for the city . The model will be formally embraced by the municipality of Amsterdam on Wednesday. It will be the first city in the world to make such a commitment. The central premise is simple: the goal of economic activity should be about meeting the core needs of all. | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy | null | A doughnut cooked up in Oxford will guide Amsterdam out of the economic mess left by the coronavirus pandemic.
While straining to keep citizens safe in the Dutch capital, municipality officials and the British economist Kate Raworth from Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute have also been plotting how the city will rebuild in a post-Covid-19 world.
The conclusion? Out with the global attachment to economic growth and laws of supply and demand, and in with the so-called doughnut model devised by Raworth as a guide to what it means for countries, cities and people to thrive in balance with the planet.
Raworth’s 2017 bestselling book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, has graced the bedside table of people ranging from the former Brexit secretary David Davis to the Guardian columnist George Monbiot, who described it as a “breakthrough alternative to growth economics”.
The inner ring of her donut sets out the minimum we need to lead a good life, derived from the UN’s sustainable development goals and agreed by world leaders of every political stripe. It ranges from food and clean water to a certain level of housing, sanitation, energy, education, healthcare, gender equality, income and political voice. Anyone not attaining such minimum standards is living in the doughnut’s hole.
The outer ring of the doughnut, where the sprinkles go, represents the ecological ceiling drawn up by earth-system scientists. It highlights the boundaries across which human kind should not go to avoid damaging the climate, soils, oceans, the ozone layer, freshwater and abundant biodiversity.
Between the two rings is the good stuff: the dough, where everyone’s needs and that of the planet are being met.
On Wednesday, the model will be formally embraced by the municipality of Amsterdam as the starting point for public policy decisions, the first city in the world to make such a commitment.
“I think it can help us overcome the effects of the crisis”, said Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, Marieke van Doorninck, who joined Raworth in an interview with the Guardian via Skype before the launch. “It might look strange that we are talking about the period after that but as a government we have to … It is to help us to not fall back on easy mechanisms.”
“When suddenly we have to care about climate, health, and jobs and housing and care and communities, is there a framework around that can help us with all of that?” Raworth says. “Yes there is, and it is ready to go.”
The central premise is simple: the goal of economic activity should be about meeting the core needs of all but within the means of the planet. The “doughnut” is a device to show what this means in practice.
Marieke van Doorninck, deputy mayor of Amsterdam. Photograph: Judith Jockel/The Guardian
Raworth scaled down the model to provide Amsterdam with a “city portrait” showing where basic needs are not being met and “planetary boundaries” overshot. It displays how the issues are interlinked.
“It is not just a hippy way at looking at the world,” says Van Doorninck, citing the housing crisis as an example.
Residents’ housing needs are increasingly not being satisfied, with almost 20% of city tenants unable to cover their basic needs after paying their rent, and just 12% of approximately 60,000 online applicants for social housing being successful.
One solution might be to build more homes but Amsterdam’s doughnut highlights that the area’s carbon dioxide emissions are 31% above 1990 levels. Imports of building materials, food and consumer products from outside the city boundaries contribute 62% of those total emissions.
Van Doorninck says the city plans to regulate to ensure builders use materials that are as often possible recycled and bio based, such as wood. But the doughnut approach also encourages policymakers to lift their eyes to the horizon.
“The fact that houses are too expensive is not only to do with too few being built. There is a lot of capital flowing around the world trying to find an investment, and right now real estate is seen as the best way to invest, so that drives up prices,” she says.
“The doughnut does not bring us the answers but a way of looking at it, so that we don’t keep on going on in the same structures as we used to.”
The Amsterdam city portrait was created by Doughnut Economics Action Lab, in collaboration with Biomimicry 3.8, Circle Economy, and C40. Photograph: Doughnut Economics Action Lab
The port of Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour exploitation,” she says.
Raworth adds: “Who would expect in a portrait of the city of Amsterdam that you would include labour rights in west Africa? And that is the value of the tool.”
Both recognise the need for national government and supranational authorities to get on board. Raworth’s last meeting just before the lockdown in Belgium was with the European commission in Brussels, where she says great interest was expressed.
“The world is experiencing a series of shocks and surprise impacts which are enabling us to shift away from the idea of growth to ‘thriving’, Raworth says. “Thriving means our wellbeing lies in balance. We know it so well in the level of our body. This is the moment we are going to connect bodily health to planetary health.” |
Apple's Irish tax bill could exceed $20bn if it fails to overturn ruling
| Apple's tax bill in Ireland could be more than $20bn if it is unable to overturn a European Commission ruling, an economist has said. As we noted yesterday, the European Commission ruled that Ireland must recover up to €13bn, plus significant interest, in "illegal tax benefits" from the company. Apple's effective tax rate in the country was 0.005% in 2014. Economist Seamus Coffey told CNBC that the final payment, taking interest penalties into account, could amount to 10% of Ireland's national income. Apple and the Irish government say they will appeal the decision.
| http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/30/apples-tax-bill-in-ireland-could-be-20-billion-dollars-if-it-fails-to-overturn-an-european-commission-ruling.html | null | "In Ireland, you don't have substantial Apple profits being generated," said Coffey. "They handle the logistics, administration and the back office stuff. The research and development, manufacturing and key management decisions aren't taking place [in the country]."
But Apple's operations in Ireland, where about 6,000 people are employed , do little to contribute to the bulk of the company's profits outside the Americas.
Independent economist Seamus Coffey told CNBC's " Squawk Box " that the final payment once interest penalties are taken into account, if ever paid, could amount to as much as 10 percent of Ireland's national income. "The European Commission wanted to make a splash," he said.
Due to an unusual global tax structure, the iPhone maker's effective tax rate in Ireland was a mere 0.005 percent in 2014 .
On Tuesday, the European Commission, which is the legislative arm of the European Union , ruled that Ireland must recover up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion), as well as a sizable interest, in "illegal tax benefits" from the tech giant.
Apple 's Irish tax bill could top $20 billion if it does not succeed in overturning an European Commission ruling, one expert warned on Wednesday.
The European Commission's ruling was widely criticized on both sides of the pond, but this was not the first instance of authorities looking into Apple's unusual global tax structure.
Three years ago, a U.S. senate investigation found Apple had used offshore entities to transfer assets and profits in order to minimize corporate tax liabilities stateside, including the creation of two subsidiaries in Ireland - Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe.
It was these Senate findings that likely gave the European Union the idea to open its investigations into the elaborate tax structures used by many multinationals that contribute to their extraordinary success, according to Daniel Shaviro, a professor of taxation at the New York University's law school.
Shaviro told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that while a large part of Apple's success came from engineers in the West Coast developing new products, much of its profits tended to show up in places where there weren't that many people working for the company.
While experts have known about these practices among large companies, Shaviro said "the public's been increasingly catching on across the world, so I'm not shocked that it's starting to have repercussions."
Coffey said though this ruling is unlikely to have an impact on businesses that are currently invested in Ireland, it would likely make multinationals moving into the country think twice about the kind of pressures they might face.
But for the Irish government, there would be "massive reputational damage."
"[They] have long said there's no special deals available in Ireland, but here and now, you have the European Commission saying a special deal of up to $14.5 billion [in tax breaks] was available."
Apple and the Irish government have said that they will appeal the decision.
— Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook. |
Climate change could cost India 2.8% of GPD: World Bank | Rising annual temperatures of 1-2% could also reduce the living standards of nearly half of the country’s population by 2050, according to new research by the bank. The study claims that almost half of South Asia’s overall population, including India, is now vulnerable to climate change-related reductions in quality of life, with global warming expected to result in falling agricultural yields, lower labour productivity and increased health problems.
| https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28723 | null | Abstract
South Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change. Average temperatures have been rising throughout the region, and rainfall has become more erratic. These changes are projected to continue accruing over the coming decades. South Asia’s Hotspots: The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards is the first book of its kind to provide granular spatial analysis of the long-term impacts of changes in average temperature and precipitation on one of the world’s poorest regions. South Asia’s Hotspots finds that higher temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns will reduce living standards in communities across South Asia—locations that the book terms “hotspots.” More than 800 million people in South Asia currently live in communities that are projected to become hotspots under a carbon-intensive climate scenario. Global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the severity of hotspots. Diverse and robust development is the best overall prescription to help people in hotspots. The book also suggests actions tailored to each country in the region—such as increasing employment in nonagricultural sectors, improving educational attainment, and expanding access to electricity— that would offset the declines in living standards associated with hotspots. South Asia’s Hotspots complements previous studies detailing the impacts of sea-level rise and extreme events on the people of South Asia. Together, these bodies of work create a sound analytical basis for investing in targeted policies and actions to build climate resilience throughout the region. |
IBM raises doubts over Google's quantum supremacy claim
| IBM has said Google’s claim of reaching the threshold of quantum computing was flawed and that it had rigged the race to the computing milestone, saying in a blog post that the threshold had not been met. Both companies, along with firms including Intel and Microsoft, have large teams working on quantum computing, and Google has long claimed to be close to achieving it, although IBM appeared to change the requirements for reaching the threshold in 2017. Meanwhile, Alibaba questioned Google’s claims about its supercomputing program. Google is expected to publish a formal version of its leaked claim.
| https://www.wired.com/story/ibm-googles-quantum-leap-quantum-flop/ | null | Technical quarrels between quantum computing experts rarely escape the field’s rarified community. Late Monday, though, IBM’s quantum team picked a highly public fight with Google.
In a technical paper and blog post, IBM took aim at potentially history-making scientific results accidentally leaked from a collaboration between Google and NASA last month. That draft paper claimed Google had reached a milestone dubbed “quantum supremacy”—a kind of drag race in which a quantum computer proves able to do something a conventional computer can’t.
Monday, Big Blue’s quantum PhDs said Google’s claim of quantum supremacy was flawed. IBM said Google had essentially rigged the race by not tapping the full power of modern supercomputers. “This threshold has not been met,” IBM’s blog post says. Google declined to comment.
It will take time for the quantum research community to dig through IBM’s claim and any responses from Google. For now, Jonathan Dowling, a professor at Louisiana State University, says IBM appears to have some merit. “Google picked a problem they thought to be really hard on a classical machine, but IBM now has demonstrated that the problem is not as hard as Google thought it was,” he says.
Whoever is proved right in the end, claims of quantum supremacy are largely academic for now. The problem crunched to show supremacy doesn’t need to have immediate practical applications. It's a milestone suggestive of the field’s long-term dream: That quantum computers will unlock new power and profits by enabling progress in tricky areas such as battery chemistry or health care. IBM has promoted its own quantum research program differently, highlighting partnerships with quantum-curious companies playing with its prototype hardware, such as JP Morgan, which this summer claimed to have figured out how to run financial risk calculations on IBM quantum hardware.
The IBM-Google quantretemps illustrates the paradoxical state of quantum computing. There has been a burst of progress in recent years, leading companies such as IBM, Google, Intel, and Microsoft to build large research teams. Google has claimed for years to be close to demonstrating quantum supremacy, a useful talking point as it competed with rivals to hire top experts and line up putative customers. Yet while quantum computers appear closer than ever, they remain far from practical use, and just how far isn’t easily determined.
The draft Google paper that appeared online last month described posing a statistical math problem to both the company’s prototype quantum processor, Sycamore, and the world’s fastest supercomputer, Summit, at Oak Ridge National Lab. The paper used the results to estimate that a top supercomputer would need approximately 10,000 years to match what Sycamore did in 200 seconds.
LEARN MORE The WIRED Guide to Quantum Computing
IBM, which developed Summit, says the supercomputer could have done that work in 2 ½ days, not millennia—and potentially even faster, given more time to finesse its implementation. That would still be slower than the time posted by Google’s Sycamore quantum chip, but the concept of quantum supremacy as originally conceived by Caltech professor John Preskill required the quantum challenger to do something that a classical computer could not do at all.
This is not the first time that Google’s rivals have questioned its quantum supremacy plans. In 2017, after the company said it was closing in on the milestone, IBM researchers published results that appeared to move the goalposts. Early in 2018, Google unveiled a new quantum chip called Bristlecone said to be ready to demonstrate supremacy. Soon, researchers from Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba, which has its own quantum computing program, released analysis claiming that the device could not do what Google said. |
Hong Kong surgery robot impresses with tube technique | The University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University have developed the world's first robot that performs abdominal surgery without cutting into the patient's body by placing small robotic parts through a natural orifice and assembling the parts internally. The technology has successfully performed surgery on pigs but surgery on human patients is not expected unitl 2018. | http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1919679/new-robotic-surgery-tool-more-precise-less | null | The new design features joints similar to those in crab legs. Photo: K. Y. Cheng |
VTT tests bio and plastic waste for shipping fuel, peaking power
| Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre is part of a three-year Business Finland BioFlex project, which aims to explore the viability of biofuels produced using biomass and waste plastics for large diesel engines on ships and in power plants. The project will compare the different fuel production methods to identify suitable, cost-effective alternative biofuels that can blend with fossil oils, reduce emissions, and keep well in storage.
| http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/2516975/vtt-to-assess-bio-and-waste-oils-suitable-for-power-plants-ships | null | By VTT | April 07, 2020
ADVERTISEMENT
In a three-year Business Finland BioFlex project, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. and partners are exploring how suitable fuel oils made from biomass and waste plastics are for power plants and ship diesel engines. The aim is to determine the most ecologically and economically sustainable way to replace fossil fuels.
The increase in wind and solar power requires load-following capacity to flexibly compensate for gaps in electricity production on windless and cloudy days. Power plants that use fuels will continue to be part of energy systems, but there are differences in their flexibility. Conventional coal- or biomass-fired steam boilers are not capable of load changes that are as fast as those of natural gas-fired gas turbine power plants or the most flexible power plants of them all: internal combustion engine power plants.
Internal combustion engine power plants use natural gas or heavy fuel oil in diesel engines. In order for large diesel engines to be environmentally sustainable both on land and at sea, it is necessary to find bio and waste-based alternatives to fossil fuels. These will be identified and evaluated in the BioFlex project coordinated by VTT.
“Our goal is to find the most ecologically and economically sustainable way to replace fossil heavy fuel oil in ship and power plant diesel engines,” said Anja Oasmaa, VTT senior principal scientist. “We compare different methods of industrially producing fuel oils from, for example, waste plastics or biomass, such as harvest residues from forestry and agriculture. We are also conducting experiments to examine the suitability of the oils for applications.”
In addition to seeking a sustainable solution for the production of load-following capacity, the BioFlex project also aims to support the objective of the International Maritime Organization to halve greenhouse gas emissions from marine traffic by 2050.
In theory, bio or waste-based fuel oil could be identical to fossil fuel oil in chemical composition. In practice, however, the objective is a similar oil that does not require significant modifications to diesel engines when used. It is also essential that the oil keeps well in storage, mixes with fossil oils and keeps sulfur, nitrogen and particulate emissions low.
“The use of bio-oils is still limited, mainly for cost and availability reasons, and I expect the project to address these factors,” said Ilkka Rytkölä, chief technology officer of Auramarine, a supplier of fuel injection systems. “It is very important that the subject is researched together to identify all potential challenges throughout the manufacturing, distribution and consumption chain. Every effort must be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bio-oils will play a significant role in this battle going forward.”
The BioFlex project has a budget of 1.6 million euros and, along with Business Finland and VTT, is co-financed by fuel oil producers, users and equipment manufacturers. The companies involved include Auramarine, Fortum, Neste, Pohjanmaan Hyötyjätekuljetus, Polartek, St1, Valmet and Wärtsilä.
VTT brings to the project its expertise in sustainable development, analytics, diesel engine emission measurement, and thermal conversion methods used in the liquefaction of biomass and waste plastics. These include pyrolysis and HTL, or hydrothermal liquefaction, among others. The aim is also to utilize the expert networks of the International Energy Agency. |
Roche to entirely acquire Foundation for genomic profiling focus | Pharmaceuticals company Roche is to buy the remaining stake in Foundation Medicine (FMI) for $2.4bn, paying $137 per share, which values FMI at $5.3bn. Both companies said the deal will close in H2 2018. FMI provides comprehensive genomic profiling that identifies molecular changes in a patient's cancer, which is then matched with treatments such as targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials. | https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/roche-agrees-to-pay-2-point-4-billion-to-buy-the-rest-of-foundation-medicine.html | null | Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG has agreed to pay $137 per share to buy the rest of Foundation Medicine (FMI), a $2.4 billion transaction that values the U.S. genomic profiling group
at $5.3 billion, the partners said on Tuesday.
The deal, backed by the boards of both companies, is set to close in the second half of this year, they said in a statement.
The offer price represented a premium of 29 percent to FMI's closing price on Monday. FMI closed at $106.45, up 4.4 percent.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, FMI is a molecular information company specialized in cancer care. It offers comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assays to identify molecular alterations in a patient's cancer and match them with targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials.
"This is important to our personalized healthcare strategy as we believe molecular insights and the broad availability of high quality comprehensive genomic profiling are key enablers for the development of, and access to, new cancer treatments," Roche pharmaceuticals head Daniel O'Day said.
"We will preserve FMI's autonomy while supporting them in accelerating their progress."
Citi is acting as financial advisers to Roche and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is legal counsel to Roche. Goldman Sachs & Co is financial adviser to the FMI Special Committee and Goodwin Procter LLP is legal counsel. |
Amazon to charter its own planes | Amazon has signed a five to seven year lease with Ohio-based Air Transport Services Group for 20 Boeing 767 freighter aircraft, indicating the online retailer's ambitions to operate its own air cargo network and build a comprehensive factory-to-doorstep delivery system for its US customers. Calling it a "critical capacity expansion to support the growth of Prime in the US," the planes will transport customer packages from fulfillment centres to "sortation centres," improving reliability and reducing the cost of shipping which last year totalled $1.8bn. | http://www.wired.com/2016/03/amazon-going-use-planes-move-merchandise/ | null | Amazon is now airborne.
The world’s largest online retailer says it's going to operate its own air cargo network in the US, a move that points to its larger ambitions to build out a comprehensive factory-to-doorstep delivery system to serve its customers. Amazon signed a five- to seven-year lease with Ohio-based Air Transport Services Group for twenty Boeing 767 freighter aircraft, the company says.
The move is the latest in Amazon's ongoing effort to reduce its dependence on other shippers in favor of building its own sprawling logistical infrastructure.
The move is the latest in Amazon's ongoing effort to reduce its dependence on other shippers in favor of building out its own sprawling logistical infrastructure. The company sees this streamlining as especially beneficial to its growing ranks of Prime members, folks who sign up for Amazon’s $99-a-year subscription service to get fast, free shipping and other benefits, like unlimited video streaming. Current analyst estimates put the number of Prime members at 40 million to 60 million worldwide, according toThe Wall Street Journal. In its last quarterly earnings report, meanwhile, Amazon revealed that paid Prime membership had increased 51 percent worldwide and 47 percent in the US in 2015.
“These planes provide critical capacity expansion to support the growth of Prime in the US,” says Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman. "At our scale, supporting growth requires adding some of our own logistics capabilities."
More Efficient Than Ever
Over the years, Amazon has poured resources into building a highly coordinated system of fulfillment centers across the US and around the world. It's strategically placed many of these warehouses closer to urban areas for even faster doorstep delivery. To get its goods to customers, Amazon relies on hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers and couriers—as well as, increasingly, robots. It also has its own trucks and an experimental drone delivery program. An Amazon subsidiary, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing to operate its own ships between China and the US.
'At our scale, supporting growth requires adding some of our own logistics capabilities.' Amazon
The new planes will be used to transport customer packages from fulfillment centers closer to customers for delivery, Cheeseman says. This will include getting packages to Amazon's "sortation centers," where they're sorted out into groups by more specific zipcodes and handed off to Amazon's last-mile couriers, who bring those packages to customer doorsteps. If Amazon can do more of the sorting on its own, it can save on shipping costs. "This network helps us serve customers and we are optimistic about the efficiencies it will offer," Cheeseman says.
Some have suggested that the grand plan may be for Amazon to turn this vast delivery network into a business of its own, providing logistical services to suppliers of goods from China to India to the US, using trucks, planes, or ships. (Amazon declined to offer more details about its plans.)
DIY Delivery
Steve Gaut, vice president of public relations at UPS, says his company will continue to work with Amazon and other retailers to support their global logistics needs and expressed confidence in the reach of its delivery network. “UPS has unrivaled scope, scale, innovation and delivery density, combined with an extensive transportation network that serves more than 220 countries and territories,” Gaut says. “For these reasons, UPS provides strong customer value that is difficult for any company to replicate.”
But there’s one obvious rationale for Amazon going it alone when it comes to shipping operations: to simultaneously reduce shipping costs and improve reliability. As Amazon’s last earnings report revealed, its shipping costs grew 37 percent to $1.8 billion last year—making it one of Amazon’s biggest and fastest-growing expenses. At the same time, Amazon has sometimes struggled to deliver packages on time during surges in sales, especially around the holidays.
And though Amazon has denied in the past it would replace its shipping partners with its own delivery network, the company has admitted that it’s outgrown these partners in certain ways. “We’ve needed to add more of our own logistics to supplement our existing partners,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said while discussing the company’s latest earnings report with investors in January.
"Those carriers are just no longer able to handle all of our capacity that we need at peak. We have had to add some resources on our own." |
Feeding 9 Billion | We can no longer afford to increase food production through agricultural expansion. Trading tropical forest for farmland is one of the most destructive things we do to the environment. Using high-tech, precision farming systems, as well as approaches borrowed from organic farming, we could boost yields in these places. | https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/ | null | Starting in the 1960s, the green revolution increased yields in Asia and Latin America using better crop varieties and more fertilizer, irrigation, and machines—but with major environmental costs. The world can now turn its attention to increasing yields on less productive farmlands—especially in Africa, Latin America, and eastern Europe—where there are “yield gaps” between current production levels and those possible with improved farming practices. Using high-tech, precision farming systems, as well as approaches borrowed from organic farming, we could boost yields in these places several times over.
For most of history, whenever we’ve needed to produce more food, we’ve simply cut down forests or plowed grasslands to make more farms. We’ve already cleared an area roughly the size of South America to grow crops. To raise livestock, we’ve taken over even more land, an area roughly the size of Africa. Agriculture’s footprint has caused the loss of whole ecosystems around the globe, including the prairies of North America and the Atlantic forest of Brazil, and tropical forests continue to be cleared at alarming rates. But we can no longer afford to increase food production through agricultural expansion. Trading tropical forest for farmland is one of the most destructive things we do to the environment, and it is rarely done to benefit the 850 million people in the world who are still hungry. Most of the land cleared for agriculture in the tropics does not contribute much to the world’s food security but is instead used to produce cattle, soybeans for livestock, timber, and palm oil. Avoiding further deforestation must be a top priority.
Nearly all new food production in the next 25 years will have to come from existing agricultural land.
Step Three: Use Resources More Efficiently
We already have ways to achieve high yields while also dramatically reducing the environmental impacts of conventional farming. The green revolution relied on the intensive—and unsustainable—use of water and fossil-fuel-based chemicals. But commercial farming has started to make huge strides, finding innovative ways to better target the application of fertilizers and pesticides by using computerized tractors equipped with advanced sensors and GPS. Many growers apply customized blends of fertilizer tailored to their exact soil conditions, which helps minimize the runoff of chemicals into nearby waterways.
Organic farming can also greatly reduce the use of water and chemicals—by incorporating cover crops, mulches, and compost to improve soil quality, conserve water, and build up nutrients. Many farmers have also gotten smarter about water, replacing inefficient irrigation systems with more precise methods, like subsurface drip irrigation. Advances in both conventional and organic farming can give us more “crop per drop” from our water and nutrients.
Step Four: Shift Diets
It would be far easier to feed nine billion people by 2050 if more of the crops we grew ended up in human stomachs. Today only 55 percent of the world’s crop calories feed people directly; the rest are fed to livestock (about 36 percent) or turned into biofuels and industrial products (roughly 9 percent). Though many of us consume meat, dairy, and eggs from animals raised on feedlots, only a fraction of the calories in feed given to livestock make their way into the meat and milk that we consume. For every 100 calories of grain we feed animals, we get only about 40 new calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 of chicken, 10 of pork, or 3 of beef. Finding more efficient ways to grow meat and shifting to less meat-intensive diets—even just switching from grain-fed beef to meats like chicken, pork, or pasture-raised beef—could free up substantial amounts of food across the world. Because people in developing countries are unlikely to eat less meat in the near future, given their newfound prosperity, we can first focus on countries that already have meat-rich diets. Curtailing the use of food crops for biofuels could also go a long way toward enhancing food availability.
A World Demanding More
By 2050 the world’s population will likely increase by more than 35 percent.
To feed that population, crop production will need to double.
Why? Production will have to far outpace population growth as the developing world grows prosperous enough to eat more meat.
Step Five: Reduce Waste
An estimated 25 percent of the world’s food calories and up to 50 percent of total food weight are lost or wasted before they can be consumed. In rich countries most of that waste occurs in homes, restaurants, or supermarkets. In poor countries food is often lost between the farmer and the market, due to unreliable storage and transportation. Consumers in the developed world could reduce waste by taking such simple steps as serving smaller portions, eating leftovers, and encouraging cafeterias, restaurants, and supermarkets to develop waste-reducing measures. Of all of the options for boosting food availability, tackling waste would be one of the most effective.
Taken together, these five steps could more than double the world’s food supplies and dramatically cut the environmental impact of agriculture worldwide. But it won’t be easy. These solutions require a big shift in thinking. For most of our history we have been blinded by the overzealous imperative of more, more, more in agriculture—clearing more land, growing more crops, using more resources. We need to find a balance between producing more food and sustaining the planet for future generations.
This is a pivotal moment when we face unprecedented challenges to food security and the preservation of our global environment. The good news is that we already know what we have to do; we just need to figure out how to do it. Addressing our global food challenges demands that all of us become more thoughtful about the food we put on our plates. We need to make connections between our food and the farmers who grow it, and between our food and the land, watersheds, and climate that sustain us. As we steer our grocery carts down the aisles of our supermarkets, the choices we make will help decide the future.
Jonathan Foley directs the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. Jim Richardson’s portraits of farmers are the latest in his body of work documenting agriculture. George Steinmetz’s big-picture approach reveals the landscapes of industrial food.
The magazine thanks The Rockefeller Foundation and members of the National Geographic Society for their generous support of this series of articles.
All maps and graphics: Virginia W. Mason and Jason Treat, NGM Staff. A World Demanding More, source: David Tilman, University of Minnesota. Agriculture's Footprint, source: Roger LeB. Hooke, University of Maine. Maps, source: Global Landscapes Initiative, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota. |
Australia prepares for ‘Day Zero’ – the day the water runs out - FRANCE 24 | While Australia has long been buffeted by bushfires, drought and floods, it’s the additional impact of global climate change that is making water scarcity, there and elsewhere in the world, a reality.South Africa narrowly averted its Day Zero last year after prolonged low rainfall and a particularly brutal drought gripped the city of Cape Town: The city’s water supply was close to being shut off as its freshwater reservoir hovered just above 13.5 percent of full capacity.Scientists from the Grantham Institute at the Imperial College in London and the University of Cape Town, who co-authored a paper on Cape Town’s Day Zero, say that climate change will make water shortages more common in cities around the world. | https://amp.france24.com/en/20190919-australia-day-zero-drought-water-climate-change-greta-thunberg-paris-accord-extinction-rebe | null | Day Zero is pending in at least a dozen Australian country towns stretching from the northern state of Queensland – known for its sprawling banana plantations and tropical heatwaves – to the state of New South Wales, whose capital Sydney is the country’s most populous city.
Successive droughts and the extra water needed to fight intense bushfires have caused an unprecedented shortage, with these regions now facing the prospect of the taps running out within a matter of months.
Day Zero, as it’s called, would mark the start of water rationing and the day residential taps are turned off – literally – with large numbers of households and businesses having to go to local collection sites to fetch water.
Water security remains almost non-existent for many rural communities, with 10 towns at risk of running dry in six months if it doesn’t rain and if water infrastructure isn’t improved. The wider consequences have meant that many shops are on the brink of shutting and the desperation has even led to water theft. Temperatures are 10°C above average and 130 bushfires continue to burn in New South Wales and Queensland, which this year is suffering its worst start to the bushfire season on record.
Australian governments have for years stalled on climate action reform– despite pressure from voters to make it a policy priority– because the country’s economic growth is so tightly tethered to coal-mining exports. That inertia was underscored this week when David Littleproud, the minister responsible for drought and natural disaster, was asked whether he thought human-induced global warming was making bushfires more intense. “Whether it’s manmade or not is irrelevant,” Littleproud told the ABC Radio National programme:
Despite flip-flopping days later, the minister’s comments reflect what has been a widening global divide between voters and governments on climate change.
While Australia has long been buffeted by bushfires, drought and floods, it’s the additional impact of global climate change that is making water scarcity, there and elsewhere in the world, a reality.
Nor any drop to drink
Australia isn’t the first country to face the prospect of a Day Zero. Brazil’s Sao Paulo teetered on the brink in 2015 as did India’s sixth-largest city, Chennai, in mid-2018.South Africa narrowly averted its Day Zero last year after prolonged low rainfall and a particularly brutal drought gripped the city of Cape Town: The city’s water supply was close to being shut off as its freshwater reservoir hovered just above 13.5 percent of full capacity. Had Day Zero been triggered, it would have been the first instance of a major city in modern times running out of water.
Australia’s looming Day Zero is highlighting the necessity for long-term strategies for water management and for improved cooperation at a global level.
Local councils are rushing to take emergency measures, including increasing water storage capacities and considering building more desalination plants. But some locals note that water storage has been under discussion for decades, with limited results.
Scientists from the Grantham Institute at the Imperial College in London and the University of Cape Town, who co-authored a paper on Cape Town’s Day Zero, say that climate change will make water shortages more common in cities around the world.
“Changing shifts in rain patterns are a major cause of water shortages and, as the climate changes, droughts and heatwaves will be more likely,” explains Robbie Parks, research postgraduate and co-author of the paper.
“Water is treated as an infinite resource, but it only takes two or three dry seasons to trigger a catastrophic drought – Cape Town is a prime example of that – so there needs to be a huge change in how water is managed.”
Too hot to handle
It’s a troubling assessment, given the extreme heat that this year caused devastating bushfires in Spain, Greece and the USA – countries not typically hit by seasonal fires. Heatwaves also set the mercury soaring to record levels in the Netherlands and France, with the latter country’s health ministry releasing statistics this month showing a 1,500 increase in the number of deaths caused by severe heat compared to previous years.
And more heat will mean an increased demand for water, with threats to water security predicted as one of the most worrying effects of climate change.
Becoming better prepared was behind the cautionary message from the World Resources Institute (WRI) in August, when the US-based think tank released its report saying a quarter of the world’s people face “extreme high water stress”.
"We're currently facing a global water crisis," Betsy Otto, director of WRI's global water programme, told Reuters at the time.
“We're likely to see more of these kinds of 'Day Zeros' in the future."
While global action on climate change suffered a significant setback after the 2017 US withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord, there is a new energy at the grassroots that gives some reason to hope that change can happen at a more rapid pace. Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg – along with groups like Extinction Rebellion – are piling the pressure on governments, taking their message from the streets to international summits, with organisers of several groups maintaining momentum by planning a climate strike in cities around the world on Friday ahead of a UN meeting on the issue in New York on Monday.
What remains unanswered, though, is whether policy changes taken now will be enough to arrest or possibly reverse the damage already wrought. If not, more cities will likely be facing their own Day Zero in the not-too-distant future. |
APAC companies failing on board gender diversity
| Gender diversity on corporate boards in the Asia-Pacific region is growing at an even slower rate than in Western countries, according to data from MSCI. Globally, the proportion of directorships held by women barely increased from 17.3% in 2017 to 17.9% in 2018. As of October 2018, the 21.3% of all 2,694 MSCI ACWI Index firms that had all-male boards were largely found in Asian economies. South Korea has the highest percentage of firms with no women on boards, while Japan has the largest number of such companies. However, India and Malaysia have seen notable progress in combating such inequality.
| http://www.brinknews.com/asia/dismal-representation-of-women-on-apac-company-boards/?utm_source=BRINK+Subscribers&utm_campaign=3e2b28bad1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_12_06_51&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c3639d7c98-3e2b28bad1-110442653 | null | Photo: Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images
This is the fourth article in a special series on women in the workforce.
Globally, women held only 17.9 percent of all directorships across corporate boards in 2018. According to a recent MSCI report, this was an increase from 17.3 percent in 2017—a meager increment, given that earlier projections suggested that the share of women in director roles would increase to 19.4 percent by 2018.
As of October 2018, 21.3 percent of the 2,694 MSCI ACWI Index companies still featured all-male boards—largely in Asian economies—and almost all had majority male boards. Notably, only 11 companies had boards that featured a female majority—up from seven in 2017; another 32 divided equally between men and women.
“Among Developed Market MSCI World Index companies, women held 21.6 percent of all directorships (up from 20.4 percent), with women at U.S. companies holding 23.4 percent of directorships (up from 21.7 percent). Women held 11.2 percent of board seats at MSCI Emerging Markets Index companies (up from 10.2 percent),” the report highlights. Although incremental gains have been made on a year-over-year basis, the process has been particularly slow.
Gender Representation on Boards Globally
Although growth in the share of women on corporate boards has been slow, it continues to grow at a slower rate in Asia. The majority of companies whose boards had at least three female directors are primarily based in developed Western markets. In China’s case, the inclusion of companies in the China A-shares universe has led to a significant increase in the absolute numbers of women directorships—more so in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
Female representation at the CEO level has also proven to be slow, and there was a slight decline registered in 2018. “Of the 99 firms with a female CEO, 26 were American, with China (17), the UK (8) and Australia (6) accounting for much of the rest,” the report says. There were notable gains in total directorships held by women in several Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and China. However, there has been better progress in CFO positions with substantial progress seen in Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and China.
Exhibit 1: Global Trends in Women on Boards, 2017-2018
Malaysia and India Register Stronger Female Representation In the case of developed markets, the proportion of companies with at least one female director registered noteworthy increases over the past year—from 59.6 percent in 2017 to 64 percent in 2018. This increase was particularly on account of Malaysia, which recorded an increase from 87.5 percent to 95.7 percent. A government mandate introduced earlier was instrumental in Malaysia’s strong push for increasing women’s representation on corporate boards. Likewise, India has reached the point where all MSCI ACWI Index companies have at least one female director. Both Malaysia and India see greater female representation on boards than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index total of 11.2 percent, with 21.9 percent for Malaysia and 14 percent in the case of India. Another MSCI Emerging Markets Index country in Asia that has made progress is Thailand (up to 87.9 percent of companies with at least one female director). Asia Lags in Board Diversity Japan has the most companies with all-male boards, while South Korea has the highest percentage of companies with all-male boards. That said, there has been an evident decline in all-male boards in Japan—down to 45 percent in 2018 from 56.1 percent in 2016. South Korea, on the other hand, continues to perform abysmally in this regard, with the highest share of companies globally with no women on boards. And over the past two years, there have been no perceptible changes, either. In 2016, 84.1 percent of companies had no female representation on their boards, and the share stood at 83.5 percent two years later. Apart from Japan and South Korea, other Asian countries with a high prevalence of all-male boards include Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. Together, these five economies were home to more than two-thirds of companies with all-male boards globally. On the flip side, the opposite was true in Europe, where several countries no longer had any MSCI ACWI Index companies with completely male boards. Exhibit 2: Geographic Distribution of Companies with All-Male Boards
Women Representation in Terms of Sector In terms of women representation on corporate boards by sector, the financials sector had the highest proportion of companies with at least three women directors globally, at 41.4 percent. It overtook the utilities sector, which recorded a decline and fell to 36.6 percent. The financials sector was followed closely by the health care and telecommunications sectors at 37.9 percent and 37 percent of companies, respectively. Exhibit 3: Sector Distribution of Companies with 3+ Women on Their Boards
Inching Forward
The trend in increased women boardroom representation has continued since 2015, albeit very slowly, with small YOY gains, reflecting slow growth in gender diversity at the board level globally. While a few Asian countries have made more substantial progress in this regard, Asian boards are among the least inclusive globally, with the developed economies of South Korea and Japan performing most poorly. In the region, Australia and New Zealand fare better than other economies, with close to 30 percent of female directorships; while India and Malaysia have taken notable steps in addressing the disparity. Progress in increasing the share of women on company boards is taking much longer than anticipated, with the report noting that it will be at least another decade before women occupy just 30 percent of seats on MSCI ACWI Index company boards. |
Yemen's UNESCO-listed Old Sanaa houses collapse in heavy rains | The houses in Yemen's UNESCO-listed Old City of Sanaa are collapsing due to heavy rains, as months of floods and storms assail a country already reeling from war, food shortages, and disease. This year's exceptionally heavy rains, which began mid-April, have added to what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. In addition, and on top of the new coronavirus that is believed to be spreading largely undetected, heavy rains spread diseases like cholera, dengue fever and malaria. | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/yemen-unesco-listed-sanaa-houses-collapse-heavy-rains-200810081839188.html | null | The distinctive brown and white mud-brick houses have long been under threat from conflict and neglect.
The houses in Yemen’s UNESCO-listed Old City of Sanaa are collapsing due to heavy rains, as months of floods and storms assail a country already reeling from war, food shortages, and disease.
The distinctive brown and white mud-brick houses of Sanaa’s historic neighbourhoods, which date from before the 11th century, have long been under threat from conflict and neglect.
Muhammad Ali al-Talhi’s house partially collapsed on Friday as heavy rain battered Sanaa, leaving the family, including six women and six children, homeless.
“Everything we had is buried,” he said surrounded by ancient debris and mud, appealing for help to find shelter.
Aqeel Saleh Nassar, deputy head of the Historic Cities Preservation Authority, said people were not maintaining these old buildings as they had done in the past, leading to cracks and structural weakening.
Approximately 5,000 of the towering buildings in the old city have leaky roofs, and 107 have partially collapsed roofs, he said.
This year’s exceptionally heavy rains, which began mid-April, have added to what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Five years of war have killed more than 100,000 people, left 80 percent of the population reliant on aid and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
In addition, and on top of the new coronavirus that is believed to be spreading largely undetected, heavy rains spread diseases like cholera, dengue fever and malaria.
The Iran-aligned Houthi authorities who have controlled Sanaa since overthrowing the internationally recognised Saudi-backed Yemeni government in late 2014, appealed this week to UNESCO to save the city’s heritage.
They said some 111 houses had partly or completely collapsed in recent weeks.
Sanaa resident Adel San’ani on Saturday told Reuters news agency he saw five severely damaged houses over a two-day period.
“The families have no shelter. A local bank launched a campaign to distribute plastic sheeting to act as roofs,” he said. |
IWG NREI readers split on WeWork surviving downturn
| Co-working giant WeWork could face challenges in the event of a downturn, according to a survey of National Real Estate Investor (NREI) readers. The majority (39.4%) of respondents thought demand for co-working space in the US would continue to grow in the next year, but 39.6% thought WeWork could face substantial challenges in a downturn. Respondents cited the ease of copying WeWork's business model and the difference between its own long-term leases with landlords and its short-term subleases with clients among potential risks. However, a WeWork spokesperson said they expect more businesses to turn to flexible space during a downturn.
| https://www.nreionline.com/office/wework-here-stay-and-will-it-turn-profitable-nrei-readers-weigh-their-prognosis | null | NREI readers think the co-working trend will expand over the next 12 months, bolstering the long-term viability of sector leader WeWork, according to the results of a recent online poll we administered. But many survey respondents also say they expect the co-working space provider to experience significant challenges in the event of a downturn and don’t foresee the company becoming profitable any time soon. WeWork has been on a tear lately, expanding both its fleet of locations and its service offerings. The firm’s flurry of activity, however, has not set well with some market observers when viewed in the context of its financials, with ratings agency Moody’s discontinuing its coverage of the firm in August, saying it did not have enough information to judge its credit-worthiness. To gauge the views on the company’s business model and expansion pace in the wider commercial real estate industry, NREI asked its readers to weigh in on their forecast for co-working space demand in the U.S. over the next year and WeWork’s positioning in the market.
A majority of NREI survey respondents expect continued growth in the demand for co-working space in the U.S., with 39.4 percent saying it will increase slightly over the next 12 months and 22.5 percent saying it will increase significantly.
A majority of the 571 respondents that don’t currently have WeWork in their buildings—59.8 percent—also indicated they would consider leasing space to the company as a tenant. At the moment, only 6.5 percent of survey respondents have WeWork as a tenant in their buildings. Of those, comprising only 54 responses, a majority would rate the company at a 4 or above on a 1 to 10 scale indicating 10 as the most favorable view of a tenant.
“They will pay above-market rent to get the space they want, which is great for landlords,” wrote one reader, adding, however, that WeWork can “bring a lot of in-and-out traffic to the building that can be disruptive to other tenants.” Several others noted that the relationship between traditional landlords and WeWork is still in the testing stage.
Respondents were somewhat positive on the viability of WeWork’s core business model, rating the company with an average of 6.18 on a scale of 1 to 10.
In open-ended comments, respondents mentioned the high level of competition in the co-working sector and lack of a strong balance sheet as some of the major reasons they question WeWork’s ability to survive in the long-term. “There are little to no barriers to entry for competitors; WeWork does not have a ‘moat,’” one reader wrote. “The model is easily copied by others. WeWork is only surviving for two reasons: they are able to continually raise equity from gullible investors and they are living off 12 months free rent in new leases.”
Multiple respondents noted the mismatch between WeWork’s liabilities in signing long-term leases when compared to the short-term nature of their “subleases,” indicating that the company would need strong financials to deal in the event of a significant drop in demand for office space. The specter of “Regus”—a global workplace provider that launched in the late 1980s, expanded rapidly and was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003 after the dot.com bubble burst—came up again and again.
“I see the need for the space and what they offer,” a reader wrote. “The worry is that when there is a downturn, anything that is classified as ‘not required’ would be cut. An office space is not required for much of what I do. I can use the many free access locations where so many of the clients do not mind meeting.”
“Overall good business idea, but under-capitalized and, I would think, vulnerable,” echoed another respondent.
A plurality of respondents (39.6 percent) also felt WeWork’s viability will be challenged in the event of a downturn in the U.S. office sector, with another 12.3 percent indicating it will not survive a downturn. A significant portion of respondents (32.9 percent) think WeWork will face business challenges in the event of a downturn, but will be able to survive. Only 8.1 percent said the company would face no challenges at all and only 12.3 percent felt it would not survive a downturn. The remaining 7.0 percent said they were not sure about its chances.
A spokesperson for WeWork noted that the company expects significant growth in demand for co-working space, partly driven by changes in lease accounting rules, as well as by changes in the way companies run businesses. “We expect more companies to turn towards flexible spaces, and away from long-term leases, in the event of a downturn,” he wrote in an email. “Furthermore, our business has evolved considerably since we were founded in 2010. At the time, we primarily served start-ups and freelancers. Today, over 30 percent of our members come from the enterprise segment (companies with over 1,000 employees), which are much more resilient to an economic downturn. We have also established Powered by We, which allows us to serve companies in their own locations, without WeWork having to commit to a lease. Furthermore, we are increasingly entering into management agreements with landlords, which sees us share the upside with them while reducing our risks. All of this should help mitigate any risks our business would face in the event of a downturn.”
WeWork’s pace of new locations openings appeared to be among the core concerns cited by many respondents. A majority of respondents (59.3 percent) indicated they believe WeWork is expanding too quickly. Only 4.1 percent felt the company is not expanding enough, while 16.4 percent said it is opening new locations at just the right pace. Another 20.2 percent said they were uncertain about the pace of expansion.
When asked about WeWork’s foray into new business lines, including real estate services, 44.8 percent of respondents said the company was drifting too far away from its core business, while 38.5 percent felt the moves made sense. The remaining 16.7 percent said they were not sure about these strategies.
In the open-ended comments section, many readers expressed understanding of WeWork’s need to diversify, but were surprised the company would try to enter a space as competitive as office brokerage.
According to one respondent, “It makes sense to use their name to enter new, more stable businesses to offset risk in their primary business.” “Smart to diversify their revenue base,” wrote another.
For other respondents, however, “It does not seem sensible to try to compete in the mature market of real estate services.” “I don't know what their competitive advantage would be” and “The foray into brokerage was most probably a mistake. It creates a competitor from what could have been a symbiotic relationship with brokers.”
Another lingering question surrounding WeWork has been its profitability—or so far, lack thereof. According to ratings agency Fitch, at year-end 2017, WeWork had $18.2 billion in lease obligations. In 2017, its losses totaled $933 million, while its revenue came to $866 million.
Moody’s, before discontinuing its coverage, gave WeWork’s $702 million in unsecured debt a B3 rating—six notches into the junk tier. According to Fitch Ratings, which currently rates WeWork at “BB,” while WeWork has yet to turn a profit, the company “does have sufficient financial flexibility to substantially reduce growth capex and operating expenses,” in the event of a downturn.
S&P Global has given WeWork a “B” corporate credit rating, with a stable outlook. In an April 2018 note, the company’s researchers wrote that they view WeWork as having “adequate liquidity,” with its sources of liquidity totaling at least 1.2x its uses during the period between April 2018 and April 2019. The researchers also noted that to absorb a black swan event, “WeWork would require some refinancing given its growth investment plans.”
In view of its current financial situation, only 12.1 percent of respondents said WeWork has a significant chance of becoming profitable in the next 24 months, with another 24.8 percent saying the company has a slight chance of becoming profitable during that timeline. A plurality of respondents (35.4 percent) said WeWork is unlikely to become profitable in the next 24 months, with another 9.3 percent saying it will not become profitable. Another 18.4 percent were unsure about how the issue would play out.
“They must be careful about overpaying for [their] spaces, especially as they expand in global capitals,” wrote one respondent. “If they can control that, they have a great chance of becoming profitable in the medium term.” According to another, “The valuation is probably way too high. But there is a viable business there.”
However, NREI readers also voiced substantial notes of caution in their open-ended responses. “The fact that they justify their valuation on ‘culture’ is, in essence, the same thing as putting all of your eggs in the ‘goodwill’ basket,” one wrote. “It will never have staying power. Amazon was backed by something tangible—goods and services moving through the marketplace. WeWork is backed by a here today gone tomorrow workplace trend. When it leaves, they have no substantive assets or intermediary function in the marketplace.” Another noted that WeWork executives “think they are creating relationships with smaller users that may turn [into] larger users needing their own space. Been there, done that. Maybe it will be different this time, but the CRE tenant rep business will ferociously compete.”
“All depends on how well/poorly they are managing their current balance sheet, cash flow and pace of growth,” wrote a third reader. “And whether their capital sources will stick with them through profitability.”
That being said, at least one respondent noted that WeWork is now in a “too big to fail” category. “Despite overarching concerns about where we are in the cycle and how that might affect WeWork, I think the company has done well to structure its lease obligations in a manner that would provide them with plenty of flexibility in the case of a downturn,” this reader wrote. “Moreover, the rate of expansion to date has essentially positioned the company in the ‘too big to fail’ category of tenants. If a downturn does happen and WeWork occupancy rates decline, landlords will be forced to renegotiate lease terms and provide major concessions or face a tsunami of vacant space that would effectively reset rental rates in those markets altogether.”
According to the WeWork spokesperson, the company is “in a stronger financial position than we have ever been, with approximately $4 billion of pro forma cash and cash commitments at the end of H2’18. Our management team is driven by the objective of building a sustainable business that is successful over the long-term. To that end, and in response to the tremendous global demand we are seeing, we are making substantial investments in our business and its continued growth. It’s almost important to note that our core business, excluding growth investments, is performing well, with accelerating profitability and margin improvements.”
NREI administered the survey between Sept. 19 and Sept. 27. It received a total of 834 responses. |
QPR to play West Brom in Round Two of EFL FM Cup | QPR have been drawn against West Bromwich Albion in the second round of the EFL Football Manager Cup. They thrashed Coventry City in round one and the R’s boss is expecting a tough match against them.He quipped: “We were good without being great against Peterborough - we know we will have to improve when we face West Brom, surely one of the favourites for the competition. This is super cool. | https://www.qpr.co.uk/news/club-news/qpr-to-play-west-brom-in-round-two-of-efl-fm-cup/ | null | QPR have been drawn against West Bromwich Albion in the second round of the EFL Football Manager Cup.
Rangers’ FM gaffer Rob Roberts-Facey will be hoping to guide the R’s into round three having beaten League One Peterborough United in the opening round last week.
West Brom are managed by their first-team midfielder Romaine Sawyers. They thrashed Coventry City in round one and the R’s boss is expecting a tough match against them.
He quipped: “We were good without being great against Peterborough - we know we will have to improve when we face West Brom, surely one of the favourites for the competition.
“We know how much the fans are desperate for a cup run and I’ll be speaking to the lads ahead of the tie. We’ll work on a few things in training to try and spring a few surprises, which will hopefully unsettle Romaine’s side.”
The match is set to be contested in the next few days and highlights will be available to watch on www.qpr.co.uk once it has been completed. |
Exchange Bats Europe expands European index coverage
| Bats Europe has expanded its index business to include 10 new European indices, including Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Portugal and Sweden, and said they offer real-time, low-cost and high-quality alternatives. "We have unique insights into the needs and challenges of investors across the continent, many of whom have become increasingly frustrated by the rising costs of index data," said Mark Hemsley, president of Bats Europe parent company, Europe for CBOE. | http://www.thetradenews.com/Technology/Bats-boosts-index-business-with-European-additions/ | null | Bats Europe has bolstered its index business with the addition of 10 new European indices, bringing the total number of markets now covered to 15.
The new indices cover the largest companies listed in each of the markets, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Bats said the indices are real-time, low-cost and high-quality alternatives to those provided by incumbent providers across European markets.
The index business at Bats Europe was launched in June 2016 and it now offers 39 indices calculated in both price and net total return across 15 markets.
Mark Hemsley, president of Europe for CBOE - which owns Bats Global Markets - explained investors have recently become frustrated with high-cost indices.
“As the largest pan-European stock exchange, we have unique insights into the needs and challenges of investors across the continent, many of whom have become increasingly frustrated by the rising costs of index data,” he said. |
India not ready for oncoming digital economy
| India's Prime Minister and Finance Minister have announced a digital currency drive stoked by the non-availability of cash after a demonetisation exercise aiming to uncover black money currently in circulation rather than by demand, claimed Deccan Herald. The India-based publication listed an underdeveloped banking sector, poor digital infrastructure and low digital literacy as reasons for the country's unpreparedness for digital currency, adding, "it will take a long time for the infrastructure to be built, skills to be imparted and mindsets to be changed".
| http://www.deccanherald.com/content/587310/india-unprepared-cashless-age.html | null | The government has opportunistically changed the theme of demonetisation from elimination of black money to creation of a cashless society. It was probably forced to shift the objective because the exercise may not lead to unearthing of all the
black money, as it was originally claimed, but to the laundering of most of it. That will leave the government with little justification for the hugely disruptive exercise. So, both the prime minister and the finance minister are now talking of a push to digital currency, which is another impractical idea being forced on an unprepared society. The consequences of going in for a cashless dispensation by Caesarian section will not be good for the society and the economy. The government has announced some incentives for moving to the age of electronic transactions. The non-availability of cash has also introduced elements of inevitability and even coercion into the programme.
Between 90–95% of the financial transactions in the country are in the form of cash. Moving to a digital economy is almost impossible for most people in the foreseeable future. The challenges and difficulties are many. The banking sector is still underdeveloped. The digital infrastructure is very poor. Internet connectivity is bad, payment interface is inadequate and digital literacy is very low. With internet penetration at 30% and smartphone penetration at 17%, the cashless option will be available to only a small minority. Most small establishments and many bigger ones do not have Point of Sale terminals. Incentives will not make much difference to the charges on merchants. Internet and power failures are common. Cyber security is a major concern and there are many legal and practical problems and regulatory issues connected to it. All these problems will be magnified many times in small towns and
villages. When illiteracy is so high, the talk of teaching people the basics of digital deals on mobile phones is foolish and unrealistic. The situation gets more complicated with a large number of people on the move, with no identity indicators and numbers.
The digital push was, in any case, possible without demonetisation. It will take a long time for the infrastructure to be built, skills to be imparted and mindsets to be changed. The rising pitch about the cashless economy may be a sign that the actual cash will come much later than promised. The trauma and inconveniences of the cash drought are going to continue, and most people will not able to use the digital tools. It is a cruel idea being sold to the people: If you don’t have the bread of currency, eat the cashless cake.
|
Sable Chemicals to build up to 150 MW solar in Zimbabwe
| Masawara Group-owned Sable Chemicals Industries is conducting a feasibility study for an up-to 150 MW solar park to supply electricity for its ammonium nitrate manufacturing facility in Zimbabwe. Sable Chemicals said the proposed solar farm would also supply around 10 MW of electricity to the national grid.
| https://renewablesnow.com/news/zimbabwes-sable-chemicals-plans-up-to-150-mw-solar-park-report-684842/ | null | Zimbabwean ammonium nitrate producer Sable Chemicals Industries Ltd is seeking a licence to build a 50-MW solar park that could be later expanded to more than 150 MW, The Zimbabwean Daily reports.
Citing Culvin Chipfumbu, technical director at Sable Chemicals’ subsidiary Tatanga Energy Pvt Ltd, the newspaper said that the photovoltaic (PV) plant will be installed to supply the company’s chemicals plant. A feasibility study on the project is ongoing.
The proposed solar farm will be located at the company’s site outside Kwekwe, in the central part of the country, and will mainly generate power for its ammonium nitrate manufacturing facility. Part of its output, of around 10 MW of the total capacity, will be fed into the national grid.
Sable Chemicals, part of the Masawara Group of companies, will build the power plant in stages. The company has already found development partners to finance the scheme, the company official said without providing names.
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free! |
Australia's big banks suffer credit downgrades | Moody's credit rating agency has warned Australia's large banks that they may have their high ratings downgraded as prolonged low interest rates in the country continue to put pressure on the banks' credit profiles. The report also suggested that low wages and high housing prices throughout Australia are raising the tail risks for banks with an increase in household debt and overall credit-to-GDP ratios. Last week, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank had their ratings downgraded by Standard & Poor's to AA- with a negative outlook.
| http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/moodys-warns-of-bank-risks-from-low-rates-low-wages-and-high-house-prices-20160714-gq5o3b | null | Australia's banks are in the firing line of credit rating agency Moody's a week after rival agency Standard & Poor's revised the outlook of the major lenders to negative.
A weak operating environment and the impact of persistently low interest rates on profit margins will "put pressure on the credit profiles of the major banks, particularly in the context of their very high ratings," Moody's senior analyst Frank Mirenzi said in a downbeat report published by the agency on Thursday.
The report said that the banks will be challenged to preserve their net interest margins in a period of prolonged low interest rates, particularly if the Reserve Bank lowers the cash rate from its current rate of 1.75 per cent.
There are several ways to work out whether the banks are cheap or expensive. James Davies
This was partly because new regulation would increase competition for retail deposits, driving up funding costs at a time when competition for home loans is set to intensify.
"The need to meet the requirements of the Net Stable Funding Ratio is likely to increase price competition for retail deposits. If, at the same time, tighter housing loan underwriting criteria increase price competition for lower-risk loans, then bank margins may be squeezed and become increasingly sensitive to volatility in wholesale market funding costs," the report said. |
UK opens latest offshore wind leasing round offering 7 GW
| The UK's Crown Estate has opened a fresh round of leasing for the rights to develop 7 GW of offshore wind. The first stage of the Round 4 leasing process began with the issuance of a pre-qualification questionnaire on the organisation's eTendering Portal, which will be followed by invitations to tender between February and June 2020. Plan-Level Habitats Regulations assessments will then take place between autumn 2020 and summer 2021, with successful bidders being agreed in autumn 2021.
| https://renews.biz/55816/uk-opens-offshore-wind-round-4/ | null | Issuance of pre-qualification questionnaire kicks off competition for the rights to develop 7GW of new capacity
The Crown Estate has officially opened the Round 4 offshore wind leasing competition for the rights to develop 7GW of new capacity off England and Wales with the issuance of the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ).
PQQ is the first stage of the Round 4 leasing process and is designed to assess bidders’ capability to deliver an offshore wind project, based on a set of financial, legal and technical criteria.
Bidders must satisfy the criteria in order to qualify for the next stage, The Crown Estate said.
The questionnaire is available via The Crown Estate’s eTendering Portal with the deadline for submissions on 29 November 2019.
PQQ runs until January 2020 and will be followed by stage one of an invitation to tender between February and June 2020. The second stage will be in September of that year.
Plan-Level Habitats Regulations assessments will run from autumn 2020 to summer 2021, with agreement for lease with successful bidders in autumn 2021.
The Crown Estate said that the timings are indicative and the dates will be confirmed at the start of each stage.
The Crown Estate business development manager Jonny Boston said: “We are delighted to be issuing the pre-qualification questionnaire for leasing Round 4.
“After over 18 months of preparation, the formal tender process is now officially open, marking a significant moment for the UK offshore wind market.
“Now the process begins in earnest to identify the next generation of offshore wind developments that will support the UK’s clean energy future out to 2030 and beyond.” |
Xiaomi announces its own mobile payments service Mi Pay | Xiaomi has officially announced the release of its own mobile payments solution, Mi Pay. Like Apple Pay, Mi Pay is a Near Field Communication-based mobile payment system. Banks including China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank and Minsheng Bank already support the technology, with Beijing Bank and Guangdong Development Bank among others to officially approve usage of the app next month. | http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_announces_its_own_mobile_payments_service_mi_pay-blog-19989.php | null | A few months after confirming that they will be hopping on the mobile payments bandwagon, Xiaomi has officially announced Mi Pay. The announcement was made by the Chinese company's CEO Lei Jun.
In-line with rumors, Mi Pay is a Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile payments solution, just like Apple Pay. Xiaomi's Mi 5 smartphone currently supports NFC, so it should get the service soon.
As for banks that support the service, the list currently includes China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, Minsheng Bank, Ping An Bank, and Industrial Bank. Other banks - including Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank, China Everbright Bank, Beijing Bank, and Guangdong Development Bank - will be added to the list next month.
Via |
Google bans family cafe for "offensive content” for posting photo of British dish, faggots and peas | Google told the owner of an award-winning UK cafe called “Fanny's Rest Stop” that she was promoting “inappropriate and offensive content” after she was trying to advertise her business by promoting a meal of faggots and peas on the platform.“I posted an advert on the website for Fanny's faggots with peas and onion gravy, a pretty traditional meal and one of my favorites, on the 27th.”“We thought it might be for the word ‘faggots' – which we felt was a bit ironic, as the café anyway is called Fanny’s.” | https://reclaimthenet.org/google-bans-fannys-cafe-faggots-peas/ | null | Google told the owner of an award-winning UK cafe called “Fanny’s Rest Stop” that she was promoting “inappropriate and offensive content” after she was trying to advertise her business by promoting a meal of faggots and peas on the platform.
Jo Evans-Pring, 63, turned to her friend Chris Barnbrook for help setting up her online presence, to promote her business. The advertising was going well for her – until Google began to reject her advert.
“I’m a complete technophobe so I asked Chris to take care of posting stuff on the internet for me.
“We set up a website and a Facebook page to attract the locals to the café.
“Fanny’s has been doing really well because of the internet campaign. We’ve noticed a big change in the past couple of weeks.
“People have been coming from a little further afield because we’re paying for adverts when they google for places to eat.
“I posted an advert on the website for Fanny’s faggots with peas and onion gravy, a pretty traditional meal and one of my favorites, on the 27th.”
But then Evans-Pring received an email from Google the day after a new advert went live, telling her that her advert had been removed.
“Recently, a post was removed from your Business Profile,” the email said. “To help ensure your posts create a positive experience for users, please review our content policy.”
“Me and Chris had a look, and realized they’d moved the faggots one – and we couldn’t think it was for any reason other than it having the word ‘faggots’ in it,” said Evans-Pring.
Faggots is a traditional British dish and has long been popular in the Midlands of England as well as the Mid and South Wales. It’s made from minced off-cuts and offal and is often served with gravy and peas.
But the word “faggot” was likely misunderstood by Google’s algorithms and Google probably thinks that it’s referring to the pejorative.
Google’s content policy says:
“Published content cannot promote hatred or incited violence against individuals or groups based on ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or gender identity. Content cannot be used to harass or bully individuals, including direct physical threats or exposing private information that could be used to carry out implied threats.”
Evans-Pring said that she was “absolutely startled by what’s happened” and claims “the world’s gone totally mad if people are getting worked up over that”.
She added, “People need to spend their time dealing with real problems, not things like whether or not the word faggots when selling that meal is hateful.
“After going over their content policy, the only thing I could see was that it might have been thought of as obscene, profane, or offensive.
“We thought it might be for the word ‘faggots’ – which we felt was a bit ironic, as the café anyway is called Fanny’s.”
The term “fanny” is British slang for referring to female genitals.
“We were more amused by this more than anything else, but we’re finding it a little concerning now for what this means for businesses if words are policed.”
Ms Evans-Pring said that she found the situation funny, initially but then become infuriated by the decision, saying: “We were totally sidelined by it, to be honest.
“At first, we found it kind of funny. But ultimately we’re both furious by the decision.
“I don’t really associate the word ‘faggots’ with anything offensive, and yet someone has made a decision that’s affecting my livelihood.
“Thinking of all the nasty stuff that’s on the internet, why are they wasting their time with Fanny’s Rest Stop Café?
“We’re just asking – what’s the world coming to?” |
Former Obama aide says global warming is a greater risk to U.S than the budget crisis | As world leaders and President Obama prepared to address the challenge of global warming in Paris, a former aide declared that the potential catastrophic fallout of climate change is a greater financial danger to the future of the U.S. than the current budget crisis. The solution, he said, is a carbon tax, as a voluntary reduction of emissions is less likely to achieve the needed results. Both Obama and French President Hollande spoke of the correlation between climate change and peace, referring to the terrorist attack Paris endured earlier in the month.
| http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/01/climate-change-is-greater-risk-than-budget-crisis-ex-obama-aide.html | null | The potential fallout decades from now from climate change poses a greater financial risk to the United States than underfunded entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, former Obama administration budget director Peter Orszag said Tuesday.
"The risk of catastrophic climate change ... [is] the 10 percent or 20 percent chance that we will have no idea what will happen, and we're taking a massive risk," Orszag told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He spoke before President Barack Obama made his latest pitch to tackle global warming at a summit meeting in Paris.
Read More Obama: Climate change is an economic imperative
After decades of struggling negotiations and the failure to come to an understanding at a summit in Copenhagen six years ago, some form of agreement — likely to be the strongest global climate pact yet — appears all but assured by mid-December.
"It's very simple: We need to tax carbon," said Orszag, currently vice chairman of corporate and investment banking at Citigroup. "You can't expect people to do it completely voluntarily."
Addressing a question about when coastal real estate or insurance premiums on those properties might reflect the risks of climate change, he said, "Financial markets are not very good at pricing risks that are two, three, four or five decades out."
Obama opened the climate summit Monday, contrasting the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks by the Islamic State terrorist group in Paris with efforts to combat climate change. "What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it?"
French President Francois Hollande took it a step further, saying, "What is at stake with this climate conference is peace."
"The fight against terrorism and the fight against climate change are two major global challenges we must face," Hollande added. |
IWG UK office space changing as flexible sector grows
| The UK flexible office space industry is evolving and modernising with the changing needs of its customers, according to an annual report by Savills. It noted market growth in the north of England and Midlands, amid a tech boom, as well as a trend for businesses seeking flexible space to demand additional services and features. Savills said proximity to local amenities were key to encouraging "innovation and creativity".
| https://www.buyassociation.co.uk/2020/01/22/uk-office-space-is-modernising-with-rise-in-flexible-office-take-up/ | null | Birmingham, London and Manchester led the UK with the highest percentage of flexible office take up, showing the sector is fit for the future.
The European Office Outlook 2020 report by Savills revealed Birmingham boasted the most flexible office space take up as a percentage of the city’s total in 2019 to Q3 with 34%. London City followed with 26%, and Manchester is fifth out of European cities with 20%.
As the office sector is changing and modernising, the UK is adapting to these changes and evolving. Across European cities, especially in tech cities, there is an increasing demand for flexible office space.
The report by Savills stated: “Flexible offices will continue to grow as ‘space-as-a-service’ becomes more mainstream across European markets and we expect to exceed 13% of total office demand in 2020. Those cities with higher tech occupier bases should see the strongest increases in flex space demand as startups seeks space on a per-desk basis.”
Modern workspaces
Flexible co-working spaces are becoming an important part of the modern office sector. These types of offices typically include amenities such as break-out areas and free bars. Boasting a unique collaborative community, co-working spaces often attract freelancers and businesses in a wide range of sectors under the same roof.
Many might assume flexible offices are mainly used by startups and small businesses, but large corporates, such as HSBC, Apple and Facebook are using these types of offices too. This is leading to flexible office providers increasing the size of the developments to accommodate larger desk number requirements.
UK tech cities and regions
As the top tech cities in the UK, London and Manchester are expected to see an increase in flexible co-working spaces as many tech businesses are demanding more than only office space. Many are looking for features and local amenities to help foster innovation and creativity, in addition to improve the working lifestyle of employees.
Flexible office space is likely to become even more popular as the dynamics of the modern workplace continue to adapt and change. As the north of England and the Midlands are home to budding tech scenes, more businesses are likely to move and open their doors in these regions. And many are likely to be interested in flexible workspace, showing there is more room for growth in this sector.
It’s not just the way people work that is changing, but the way people live. Read this article to find out more about why property investment is still a wise option in today’s market. |
The rising of renewable power in the US
| 63% of new energy capacity added to the US power grid in 2016 was renewable — a total of 24 GW. This is the third year running that over half of new energy capacity came from renewable sources. Renewable power capacity peaked in March when heavy rain and meltwater contributed to high amounts of hydroelectric power, and strong winds caused wind power generation to peak. As of October 2016, the US had a total of 12.6 GW small-scale solar panels installed, of which 56% were based in households. Monthly generation from these peaked in July at 2.1b kWh.
| http://www.brinknews.com/for-new-power-gains-in-u-s-renewable-energy-is-king/ | null | Photo: David McNew/AFP/Getty Images
According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 24 gigawatts (GW) of new electricity generation capacity were added to the United States power grid in 2016. If you haven’t been keeping a close eye on U.S. energy infrastructure, the source of more than half (63 percent) of this new energy capacity might surprise you: It’s renewable energy.
That’s the third year running that more than half of new energy additions stemmed from renewable sources, particularly in the wind and solar sectors.
Renewable power capacity peaked in March when heavy rains and melting snow contributed to high amounts of hydroelectric power. In addition, strong winds peaked wind power generation as well.
The West ranks first in renewable energy generation and accounted for most of the hydro (63 percent) and solar (77 percent) power produced in the U.S. last year. Wind generation is more evenly spread across the country, with 37 percent coming from the Midwest, 35 percent from the South and 24 percent from the West; the remaining 4 percent comes from the Northeast.
As of October 2016, the U.S. had a total of 12.6 GW of small-scale solar (one megawatt or less) installed. Households accounted for 56 percent of that capacity, 36 percent came from the commercial sector and industry fills in the remaining 8 percent. Monthly generation from small-scale solar peaked in July at 2.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), the EIA said.
“The distinction between capacity and generation shares is important to recognize,” the EIA said. “Because non-dispatchable technologies such as wind and solar facilities generate power only to the extent those respective resources are available, their capacity factors are typically lower than those of other resources.”
The EIA listed other renewable electricity highlights for 2016 as:
The production tax credit (PTC) for wind and the solar investment tax credit (ITC) were extended at the end of 2015 . The tax credits include an eventual decline in value for both technologies, with the PTC for wind expiring in 2020 and the ITC for large-scale solar declining from 30 percent to a permanent 10 percent and expiring for residential projects in 2022.
New York, Oregon and the District of Columbia extended and expanded their mandates for renewable electric generation to reach 50 percent of each state’s total electricity generation by 2030, 2032 and 2040, respectively.
Hydroelectric generation increased as drought conditions that affected hydroelectric generation on the West Coast in 2014 and 2015 diminished. |
BofA: Cash hoarding by investors is 'consistent with recession' | As the upcoming British referendum causes uncertainty throughout the market, fund managers' cash portfolios have reached their highest level since 2001 at 5.7% cash. While stock market prices remain positive, Merrill Lynch noted the portfolios as 'consistent with recession' as allocations to equities hit a four year low. Despite this, the bank has noted the high cash levels may work to set up positive buying opportunities if Britain vote to stay in the EU and market worries begin to dissipate. | http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/14/investor-cash-levels-are-consistent-with-recession-bofa.html | null | Fund managers' cash levels are at their highest in nearly 15 years amid worries over a British exit from the European Union and the possibility that global monetary policy is failing.
Portfolios are at 5.7 percent cash, the highest level since November 2001 and "consistent with recession," according to the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch global fund manager survey. Allocation to equities hit a four-year low, though commodity allocation reached a 12-month high.
UPDATE: A look at where cash levels have been historically:
Cash over time
Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch
The rise in fear comes even though stock market prices continue to hold positive, and estimates are that the string of declines in corporate profits will end in the third quarter. The CBOE Volatility Index , a popular market fear gauge, is around its highest levels since early February.
Brexit was considered the biggest "tail" risk — an improbable but damaging event — for the market, followed by what BofAML terms "quantitative failure," or the misfiring of central bank policies, with China currency devaluation third. Fears over the unsettled U.S. political situation actually edged lower in June.
The good news: BofAML believes the high levels of cash actually could set up a buying opportunity once fears of the British exit from the EU, or Brexit, dissipate. Despite being a catalyst for market worry, two-thirds of the 174 global survey respondents believe the U.K. ultimately will decide to stay.
"While corporate bond and U.S. stock prices are at record highs, investors have a mountain of cash which means negative summer events could thus quickly become tradable buying opportunities," said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist. (The is actually about 2.5 percent off its all-time high.)
The contradictions don't end with Brexit: Global growth expectations are at a six-month high, while inflation expectations were at 11-month highs.
Regarding the United States, two-thirds of investors believe the Federal Reserve's tone generally will be "hawkish," though they doubt the central bank will approve a rate hike in June. Markets agree, with traders assigning just a 2 percent likelihood that the Federal Open Market Committee will approve a move at this week's meeting. The FOMC last hiked its rate target in December, the first such move in more than nine years.
Managers identified the path of the U.S. dollar as the most influential driver of stock prices.
Respondents also continue to clamor for companies to put cash to work for purposes other than just returning it to shareholders. Some 51 percent want to see increased capital expenditures (from 46 percent last month), while just 24 percent want it used for buybacks and dividends (up from 21 percent) and 19 percent would like to see balance sheets firmed up (down from 24 percent in May). |
Issues of scaling still plague vertical farming growth
| San Francisco-based indoor farming start-up Plenty is developing three vertical farms thanks to $200m funding it won from the SoftBank Vision Fund last year, but the vertical farming industry still faces economies of scale that are currently against it. Some food industry commentators say such farms are agriculture’s future although others say high-tech greenhouses are cheaper and more carbon-friendly. The indoor hydroponic farms are more expensive to set up, with the increased costs passed on to shoppers, and use larger quantities of electricity. Also, there is no data about whether consumers would willingly switch from field-grown to indoor-grown produce.
| https://www.eater.com/2018/7/3/17531192/vertical-farming-agriculture-hydroponic-greens | null | This story was originally published on Civil Eats.
By now, the images of shelves full of perfect greens in hulking warehouses, stacked floor to ceiling in sterile environs and illuminated by high-powered LED lights, have become familiar. Food futurists and industry leaders say these high-tech vertical farming operations are the future of agriculture — able to operate anywhere, virtually invincible against pests, pathogens, and poor weather, and producing local, fresh, high-quality, lower-carbon food year-round.
That future seemed one step closer to reality last year when San Francisco-based indoor farming startup Plenty, which grows a variety of salad and leafy greens hydroponically (without soil) and uses artificial lighting in facilities in three locations, announced that it had raised a whopping $200 million in funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund, whose investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Flush with cash, Plenty quickly opened a 100,000-square-foot indoor farm outside Seattle that promised to produce 4.5 million pounds of greens annually—and testing some varieties not yet grown for the masses at scale, such as strawberries and tomatoes, at its research and development farm in Wyoming. To Plenty’s leadership and many observers, the cash influx signaled the economic promise of growing food indoors without sunlight and with less soil and water than field farming.
“My reaction [to the $200 million round] was both that of validation, excitement,” said Matt Barnard, Plenty’s co-founder and CEO, over a manner of farming he says yields 350 times the produce per acre on one percent of the water used by dirt farming. “Now we must move with speed and efficiency if we’re to accomplish our mission of bringing people worldwide an experience that’s healthier for them and the planet.”
Not everyone is in agreement.
“My first thought was, ‘we could build a lot of greenhouses for $200 million,’” recalls Neil Mattson, a professor of plant science at Cornell and one of the country’s leading academic voices on indoor agriculture, who’s found that high-tech greenhouses that harness sunlight are more cost- and carbon-friendly than vertical farms that use artificial light.
Most vertical farmers are only hoping to claim a percentage of the conventional produce market, not replace it. To these founders and their investors, the market for lettuce and greens, especially — grown primarily in California and Arizona and shipped worldwide — is ripe for disruption. E. coli outbreaks like the one that hit Arizona-grown romaine lettuce earlier this year, killing a handful of people and sickening hundreds, only further their case.
But behind futurists’ fervent predictions about indoor agriculture, claims about product quality, and sexy technology lies a reality known by industry insiders but too often missing from media coverage: The future success of this nascent industry is still very much an open question.
The astronomical capital costs associated with starting a large hydroponic farm (compared to field and greenhouse farming), its reliance on investor capital and yet-to-be-developed technology, and challenges around energy efficiency and environmental impact make vertical farming anything but a sure bet. And even if vertical farms do scale, there’s no clear sense of whether brand-loyal consumers, en masse, will make the switch from field-grown produce to foods grown indoors.
Tricky Economics
Walking into any supermarket will reveal a small mountain of salad greens, carrying a price tag of between $9 and $12 per pound. They may be locally grown or organic, which will add $0.50 or $1 to the price tag. Meanwhile, a 4.5-ounce carton of Massachusetts-based FreshBox Farms’ spring mix—grown in the company’s hydroponic farm in Massachusetts—costs $3.99 for a 4-ounce box, or $15.96 per pound. Or kale: the conventional variety will run you $1.33 per pound at Walmart; organic kale costs around $4.99 per pound at Whole Foods; and vertically farmed kale grown at Newark, New Jersey-based AeroFarms will cost you a whopping $14.18 per pound.
That dramatic price gap is due to the millions of dollars currently needed to build one large indoor vertical farm — and that price is not going to drop until the industry scales up. Agritecture Consulting, whose clients include current and prospective indoor farms, estimates that a 30,000-square-foot vertical farm growing leafy greens and herbs in the tri-state area around New York City requires nearly $4 million in startup capital—not including labor.
They should know: In 2016, Agritecture built farm.one in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, which supplies hydroponic greens and edible flowers to a number of the city’s top restaurants. Chefs have been quick to catch onto the value of consistent, year-round, locally grown produce.
In 2016, AeroFarms, now considered an industry leader, spent $30 million on its flagship aeroponic farm in Newark. The majority of these costs lie in the equipment needed to grow greens without soil or sunlight—heating and cooling systems, ventilation, shading, environmental controls, and lights.
All of these costs add up to a hefty electricity bill: According to models compiled for Civil Eats by Agritecture, a 30,000-square-foot vertical farm in metro New York City should budget upwards of $216,000 annually for lighting and power, and another $120,000 on HVAC systems; costs will vary region to region depending on what each state charges for electricity.
Energy and equipment costs are, by far, the largest drivers of expenses that can bring the price of operating a vertical farm close to $27 per square foot. By contrast, Agritecture’s models show that the cost to run a 100,000-square-foot smart greenhouse is roughly a third as expensive, thanks to the use of natural sunlight and more advanced automation.
Vertical farms’ energy usage carries a significant carbon footprint. While vertical farm companies promise more-sustainable produce by growing it closer to consumers and using renewable energy to power their operations, the industry still has a long row to hoe.
Industry leaders acknowledge the energy challenges in the short term, yet tout continually improving lighting technology that has brought down costs. But Mattson, whose Cornell team studies the way plants respond to different lighting, predicts a plateau coming for improvements to LED technology.
“The best LEDs are 40 percent more energy efficient than in 2014,” Mattson says. “There continue to be improvements; however, those improvements will start to slow down over time. There’s only a finite amount of light you can generate at a given wavelength, and in 2022, I’m not expecting new lights to be 40 percent more efficient than the current lights now.”
FreshBox Farms began shipping greens from its 40,000-square-foot hydroponic facility in Millis, Massachusetts, in 2015. The warehouse farm, located 30 miles outside of Boston, runs on a combination of renewable energy and non-renewables, and CFO Dave Vosburg admits his company is “not doing any better” than field-grown greens when it comes to carbon usage.
When it eventually expands outside of Massachusetts, Vosberg says that by introducing a cogeneration system—technology that recycles otherwise wasted heat into new energy—FreshBox Farms will eventually keep costs and carbon emissions down in expensive markets like Connecticut, where commercial users pay an average of more than 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. But Vosburg says the company’s priority is to use contextually appropriate renewable energy sources to power the farms, such as wind energy in the Midwest, hydro in the Northwest, and solar in the Southwest.
“Yes, it sounds crazy to take the sun and turn it into electricity and turn that electricity back into light. It sounds ridiculous, but that’s what we’ll be doing,” Vosburg says. “It’ll be really efficient and clean and create a better product, and it won’t have the same carbon impact that we’re having today.”
And energy isn’t even a vertical farm’s top ongoing expense. The companies Civil Eats spoke to say labor is actually their largest budget item. Vertical farms typically pay workers higher, more metropolitan pay rates than both dirt farms—many of which rely heavily on migrant labor—and the more automated smart greenhouses. The fast-food chain Wendy’s announced in June that it plans to source vine-ripened tomatoes exclusively from greenhouse farms by early 2019.
Moreover, no matter how automated the indoor growing system is, vertical farmers are discovering the constant need for a human eye—or several—on the process. In fact, some estimate that if indoor agriculture continues to grow at the pace it has in recent years, vertical farms will have to hire 100,000 workers over the next decade.
That continued growth is not a given, however. Because of the high cost to launch, operate, and scale up a vertical farming operation, the industry is highly leveraged, with each new farm requiring tens of millions of dollars in investor capital before it can grow a single plant. Between 2016 and 2017, investments in vertical farming skyrocketed 653 percent, from $36 million to $271 million. The lion’s share of that investment went to Plenty, but Newark-based AeroFarms has raised $80 million in recent years and New Jersey’s Bowery Farming added another $27 million.
Just last week, Manhattan-based BrightFarms announced it had raised $55 million. Shoppers can now find produce grown indoors by more than 23 large vertical farms in more than 20 supermarket chains in nearly every major metropolitan area in the country, according to Agritecture.
While industry leaders say scaling offers the best hope for profitability in this business, many vertical farms have encountered problems when they began planning to add additional production facilities. Before Atlanta-based PodPonics closed its doors in 2016, executives from the five-year-old hydroponic farm startup met with executives from supermarket chain Kroger.
Kroger indicated that it was ready to purchase 25 million pounds of produce from PodPonics annually if it would build the facilities to support that kind of production, founder Matt Liotta told a crowd at the 2017 Aglanta Conference. According to Liotta, who said PodPonics had lowered the cost to produce a pound of lettuce to $1.36, Whole Foods and Fresh Market also expressed interest in bringing PodPonics greens into their stores nationally.
“This was our wildest dream,” Liotta said. “Then we realized how much capital that was going to require, how many people we were going to have to hire. Every retailer told us the same thing: ‘We will buy it if you will build it.’ We realized we were incapable of building everything that they wanted.”
Unproven Demand for Food Grown Indoors
In early 2016, researchers from the University of Illinois-Urbana set out to determine whether consumers would spring for produce grown indoors. They asked a panel of 117 participants a series of questions about their perceptions of and willingness to pay for lettuce grown in fields, greenhouses, and in vertical farms. While vertical farming ranked fairly high in terms of produce quality and safety, the tech-heavy production method was rated less “natural” than both field farming and greenhouse and ranked last in participants’ willingness to purchase it.
For the vertical agriculture industry to eat into the profits of field-grown products—a roughly $140 billion industry—Agritecture Consulting founder and managing director Henry Gordon-Smith says it will first need to prove consumers are demanding produce grown indoors. He points out that because of a lack of demand, many vertical farming operations are not yet at full production year-round—despite touting the 12-month growing season as a main benefit of the industry.
His sense is that indoor farms that have achieved the sales to produce continually—such as Gotham Greens has with its New York City greenhouses, for example—have a customer base that’s responding to strong “local” branding rather than the technology behind the food. That may include vertical farms selling their produce using the USDA Certified Organic label, which the National Organic Board reaffirmed in January, much to the dismay of many organic dirt farmers.
“I think the automation and economics are all improving,” Gordon-Smith says, adding that the question of “whether consumers are going to pay more or whether the products coming out of vertical farms are going to align with their values” is still an open question.
But while many of the East Coast vertical farms built their business models around replacing greens being shipped cross-country from California and Arizona, Matt Barnard of Plenty hopes to add to the global population consuming fresh produce. A 2015 report found that where USDA guidelines suggest each of us in the U.S. should eat up to three cups of vegetables daily, current U.S. production is only providing enough for 1.7 cups per person. Barnard extends that supply gap to the rest of the world, especially the Middle East and Asia, where a lack of water and high pollution have hampered agriculture.
“We believe the industry will be five times larger when there is supply to meet the demand,” Barnard says. “With the field unable to deliver consistent supply, new forms of agricultural capacity like Plenty must be added to the global food system.”
But as vertical farming companies like Plenty go city by city attempting to dominate local markets, it may be that small farmers get hurt the most. Barnard drew the ire of Washington State dirt farmers last year when he told GeekWire that Plenty expanded to Seattle, in part, because it was the West Coast’s “best example of a large community of people who really don’t have much access to any fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally.”
Not so, according to Sofia Gidlund, Farm Programs Manager at Tilth Alliance, which advocates for and supports local agriculture systems in Greater Seattle.
“We work with many hardworking local farmers who supply Seattle with high-quality, delicious, and nutritious food while caring deeply for our land. These farmers use sustainable farming practices, nurse the soil, create beautiful open green space and provide wildlife habitat,” says Gidlund, who adds that she does not speak for all area farmers on the issue of vertical farming. “Many consumers in Seattle choose to support local farmers, both urban or rural, because of this deep connection to the land. Providing that support is a point of pride for many Seattleites.”
Actual Data Is Coming
Peer-reviewed research into the business of vertical farming has been sparse, partly because the industry is so new. That’s set to change, however, when Mattson and a team of researchers at Cornell University finish a comprehensive study into the viability of this approach.
A three-year, $2.4 million research grant, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and kicked off in January, will compare the vertical farming industry to field agriculture in a slew of categories, including energy, carbon, and water footprints, profitability, workforce development, and scalability. The study will include one of the first nutritional analyses of food grown indoors, as well as comparing the price-per-pound to deliver strawberries, lettuce, and tomatoes grown vertically and outdoors to five U.S. metropolitan areas: New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
A 2016 study conducted by a few of Mattson’s colleagues at Cornell found that the energy consumption and carbon footprint associated with a vertical farm (the study calls it a “plant factory”) is significantly higher than that of a greenhouse. Vertical farming leaders counter that they use significantly less water than field farms, are more space-efficient, and do not produce emissions from trucking produce across the country. Mattson says these factors were not considered in Cornell’s previous research but will be included in the current grant.
“[Vertical farming] is not a fad,” says Mattson, who wants to use data to help the industry become more sustainable over time. “I’m not sure to what degree it’s going to scale up, but this is happening. So we need to understand the economic and environmental implications— both the good and the bad.”
• Fish Fraud Is Real. What Else Should We Eat? [Civil Eats]
• 3 Reasons to Be Concerned about the USDA’s Proposed GMO Labeling Rules [Civil Eats] |
The Death of Cash | Business Insider Intelligence | Two related trends: the slow death of cash and the fast rise of digital payments, are transforming how consumers, businesses, governments, and even criminals move money.In The Death of Cash slide deck, Business Insider Intelligence projects what the payments ecosystem will look like through 2024 by examining the driving forces powering digital payment proliferation. The Annual global non-cash transactions are expected to pass the 1 trillion milestone by 2024. This major transformation is being propelled by several factors, including increased usage of digital wallets, more small vendors adapting to accept credit cards, and the explosive growth of mobile commerce. | https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/the-death-of-cash?r=US&IR=T | null | Both globally and in the US, the payments ecosystem is evolving.
Two related trends: the slow death of cash and the fast rise of digital payments, are transforming how consumers, businesses, governments, and even criminals move money.
Annual global non-cash transactions are expected to pass the 1 trillion milestone by 2024. This major transformation is being propelled by several factors, including increased usage of digital wallets, more small vendors adapting to accept credit cards, and the explosive growth of mobile commerce.
In The Death of Cash slide deck, Insider Intelligence projects what the payments ecosystem will look like through 2024 by examining the driving forces powering digital payment proliferation.
Simply enter your information to get a copy of this exclusive PDF and to start receiving the eMarketer Retail newsletter, which covers today's most important trends in the world of commerce. |
Glaxo fined £37.6m for 2001-2004 antidepressant 'illegal behaviour' over Seroxat deals
| GlaxoSmithKline has been fined £37.6m by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) for anti-competitive behaviour in relation to its antidepressant Seroxat. The CMA said the pharmaceutical firm had paid generic drug makers over £50m between 2001 and 2004 in return for them delaying the launch of cheaper versions of the drug. GSK said it did not accept the CMA’s ruling and that its actions had saved the NHS money. The group is considering an appeal. The generic drug makers involved, Generics UK (GUK) and Alpharma, were also fined, bringing the total penalties imposed to £45m. GUK’s former parent Merck was fined £5.8m and further penalties of £1.5m were imposed on Alpharma and its parent Actavis. In the UK, 4.2m prescriptions were issued for Seroxat in 2000 and sales exceeded £90m in 2001.
| http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/12/glaxosmithkline-fined-anti-competitive-behaviour-seroxat | null | GlaxoSmithKline has been fined £37.6m by Britain’s competition authority for “illegal behaviour” in relation to its antidepressant Seroxat that resulted in higher costs for the NHS.
The Competition & Markets Authority said the pharmaceutical firm had paid generic drugmakers more than £50m between 2001 and 2004 in return for them delaying the launch of cheaper versions of the blockbuster paroxetine drug, branded Seroxat, which sold more than £90m in 2001.
Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s executive director for enforcement, said: “[Friday’s] decision sends out a strong message that we will tackle illegal behaviour that is designed to stifle competition at the expense of customers – in this case, the NHS and, ultimately, taxpayers.”
GSK said it did not accept the CMA’s ruling and argued that its actions had saved the NHS money. The group is considering an appeal.
The generic drugmakers involved, Generics UK Limited (GUK) and Alpharma, were also fined, bringing the total penalties imposed to £45m. GUK’s former parent Merck was fined £5.8m and further penalties of £1.5m were imposed on Alpharma and its parent Actavis.
The CMA said that the “pay-for-delay” agreements “potentially deprived the NHS of the significant price falls that generally result from generic competition”. In this case, when generic copies came on to the market at the end of 2003, average paroxetineprices dropped by more than 70% in two years.
The competition body found that GSK’s agreements with GUK and Alpharma broke the law on anti-competitive deals.
However, GSK said: “GSK and the generics companies entered into these agreements at the time in order to settle costly, complex and uncertain patent disputes. The agreements allowed the generics companies to enter the market early with a paroxetine product and ultimately enabled a saving of over £15m to the NHS.”
GSK initially challenged the generic firms, claiming that their products would infringe its patents on Seroxat, which expired in 2003, and brought litigation proceedings against GUK and Alpharma. But before litigation went to trial GSK struck deals with the firms, thereby avoiding a lengthy court battle.
Grenfell said: “This investigation shows our determination to take enforcement action against illegal anti-competitive practices in sectors big and small. Cracking down on these practices is essential to protect consumers, to encourage legitimate business activity that such practices stifle, and to stimulate innovation and growth.”
Dr Farasat Bokhari, a senior lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of East Anglia, said: “While pay-to-delay deals have been investigated in the US for some time now, the CMA’s decision is the first of its kind in the UK, and is likely to have a sobering effect on pharmaceutical companies that try to extend their monopoly in the UK via such deals. It sends a clear message that these business practices will not go unchecked by the competition authorities.” |
Covid-19 may result in multinationals producing more in places like Taiwan | Countries like Taiwan and Vietnam are expected to benefit from Covid-19 as multinationals to shift their production bases from China to mitigate the effect of supply chain disruption, according to DBS. In the short term, countries that supply China are vulnerable to disruption of the supply chain, particularly the textile and electronics sectors, which would hit Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam hardest, but from a long-term perspective the crisis may cause multinational companies to reconsider China’s public governance and crisis management capabilities and reshuffle their supply chain. China accounts for 30-40% of total exports of textiles and footwear products and 20% of global exports of machinery and electrical equipment. | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2020/02/10/2003730669 | null | Virus may push production to Taiwan
LONG-TERM POTENTIAL: Although disruption in supply chains would hit Taiwan, growing doubt about China’s governance could chase manufacturing to the nation
By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter
The 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is expected to drive more multinational companies to shift their production bases from China in a bid to mitigate the effects of supply chain disruption, benefiting nations like Taiwan and Vietnam, DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) said on Thursday.
The outbreak is creating uncertainty for companies in the Chinese market and weakening their confidence in the Chinese government, ranging from governance, healthcare infrastructure, mass communication, environmental protection and other related issues, the bank said.
Taiwan has benefited from the US-China trade dispute and obtained pledges of domestic investment worth NT$716 billion (US$23.76 billion) from 170 companies as of last week since a government program was launched at the beginning of last year, while foreign direct investments approved by the government last year hit the fourth-highest level on record, totaling US$11.2 billion, the latest Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
However, disruption to manufacturing in China due to the coronavirus has raised concerns over the negative spillover effects on economies involved in the regional supply chain, including Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam and India.
Singapore-based DBS economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said that the global textile and electronics sectors would be most vulnerable to disruption in the Chinese supply chain in the short term.
“Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam would be hit the hardest, either in the form of a delay of downstream production or a shortage of upstream raw materials supply,” Ma said in a report.
However, from a long-term perspective, multinational companies might begin to doubt China’s growth sustainability and move to reshuffle their supply chain, if the Chinese public governance and crisis management capabilities fail the test this time, Ma said.
Still, the risk of supply chain disruption cannot be underestimated, as China imports most intermediate goods from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, and ships its intermediate products mainly to Japan and South Korea, followed by India and Vietnam, DBS said.
Moreover, the market is concerned about industrial supply and demand disruptions caused by the coronavirus, if component suppliers in China are forced to suspend production for a longer period, while decline in consumer confidence might affect replacement demand, it said.
The bank’s research indicates that China accounts for 30-40 percent of total exports of textiles and footwear products, as well as 20 percent of global exports of machinery and electrical equipment.
In the electronics supply chain, China also plays a significant role, as, for instance, about half of Apple Inc’s 800 global production bases are in China, ranging from speakers, batteries and flat panels to semiconductor packaging and testing, DBS said.
“Taiwan and South Korea rely the most on China for their exports of intermediate products — more than 40 percent of the related exports are destined for the Chinese market,” Ma said. “Vietnam stands out in terms of dependence on China for the supply of intermediate goods — more than 30 percent are sourced from China.” |
Global warming may bring back cold war toxic waste
| Following on from our news this week that global thawing is becoming an alarming threat, a new report says huge amounts of buried diesel fuel, sewage and radioactive toxins that were buried in Camp Century in Greenland by the US, and sanctioned by Denmark, is literally coming back to haunt us as global warming is now unearthing this Cold War waste. The study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters says that at the current climate model pace, the site will be melted within 75 years or earlier, but who will be responsible for the clean up? "It's a new breed of political challenge we have to think about," says climate and glacier scientist William Colgan.
| http://www.popsci.com/forgotten-cold-war-waste-will-remerge-with-global-warming?dom=rss-default | null | In 1951, the United States government made a pact with the Danish government to begin building camps and testing sites throughout Greenland to protect themselves from arctic Soviet attacks.
Camp Century, built 125 miles inland from Greenland’s shores, was built within the ice, housing up to 200 soldiers, testing construction in the arctic, drilling some of the first ice cores and even testing secret nuclear missiles.
But in 1967, Camp Century, and other camps, were decommissioned and closed. All but the nuclear reactor cores were left, to live forever, forgotten beneath the ice. Or so they thought.
A new study published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters says that we shouldn’t forget about the stuff, some of it toxic and radioactive, because Greenland is melting. The scientists, from York University in Toronto, estimate with a business-as-usual climate model, the site will be melting in the next 75 years. Outside experts say it could be even sooner than that.
By completing an inventory of the site, the scientists estimate that there are 53,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 63,000 gallons of waste water and sewage, and unknown amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls and radioactive coolant. While the site is currently under more than 100 feet of snowfall, fallen since the 1960s, the pollutants will not stay hidden forever.
With the pollutions’ reemergence, the study authors believe this could bring up questions of who is accountable for cleaning up the site. The United States built the site, with the Danish government on a Danish territory, which is now under self-rule.
“It’s a new breed of political challenge we have to think about,” lead author and climate and glacier scientist William Colgan said in a press release.
Whatever the option for cleanup may be, the scientists recognize that it won’t be happening any time soon. The site is under 100 feet of snow. But as the snow starts to melt, a solution must be drawn up, before the toxins rear their ugly heads. |
Israel uncovers string of planned cyberattacks | Authorities in Israel have detected cyberattack plots against 120 public and private targets in the country, according to a statement by the National Authority for Cyber Defence. The hackers had planned to use a malicious email to attack private individuals, as well as government departments and public institutions. The would-be assailants were pretending to represent a "legitimate organisation" using a fabricated security certificate, the statement said. | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4448260/Israel-says-uncovered-planned-mass-cyber-attacks.html | null | Israel is a global player in the cyber-security industry with about 400 specialist companies
Israeli authorities said on Wednesday that they had detected planned cyber attacks against 120 public and private targets in the Jewish state but did not specify the intended victims.
A statement from Israel's National Authority for Cyber Defence said that "in recent days" it had uncovered plans for a mass e-mail attack by what it described as an assailant masquerading as a "legitimate organisation" using a bogus security certificate.
It did not say what countermeasures it had taken but said the attacks threatened "government ministries, public institutions and private individuals".
Haaretz newspaper said that the attackers "tried to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Word."
In November two main Israeli TV newscasts were taken over by hackers who beamed an Islamist message threatening divine fire against the Jewish state.
Hackers ostensibly supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad posted messages on an Israeli army Twitter account during the 2014 Gaza war and in 2012 hackers disrupted the websites of the Tel Aviv stock exchange and national airline El Al.
Israel is a global player in the cyber-security industry, with about 400 specialist companies.
Its success is partly due to graduates of elite army units who take their electronic warfare skills with them into civilian life at the end of their military service.
jlr/hj/scw/jod/dr |
ESC: Smartphone Makes a Smart Afib Diagnosis | Smartphone apps were found to be more than 90% accurate at diagnosing atrial fibrillation, according to a study. One app, which used recordings from the smartphone placed directly on a subject's chest, had 98.5% sensitivity and 95.2% specificity. The study featured 16 chronic atrial fibrillation patients and 20 healthy volunteers, whose data was captured by accelerometers and gyroscopes, and uploaded to a machine learning algorithm. The apps tested were for both Apple and Android systems, and worked as well for men as women. | http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ESC/59904 | null | This article is a collaboration between MedPage Today and:
ROME -- The accelerometers and gyroscopes in a smartphone can do more for mobile health monitoring than measuring exercise or sleep, found researchers in an early study showing accuracy for diagnosing atrial fibrillation.
A smartphone app using recordings from the phone, placed directly on the chest with no hardware or add-on device, had 98.5% sensitivity and 95.2% specificity for the arrhythmia, Tero Koivisto, MD, of the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues reported here at the European Society of Cardiology meeting.
The out-of-bag classification error in Random Forests, a measure of prediction error for machine learning models like the one used for the app's algorithm, was 4.95%.
The study included 16 patients with chronic atrial fibrillation from the Turku Heart Center and 20 recordings from healthy volunteers to validate the performance of the algorithm used by the app.
For its use, the patient lies down and places the smartphone on their chest. The data captured by the accelerometer and gyroscope of the phone is automatically processed and filtered by the app, then uploaded to a desktop (or, in the future, the cloud) where a machine learning algorithm determines presence of atrial fibrillation.
The strategy is device agnostic, able to be used on Apple or Android devices. The pilot study included both men and women, and Koivisto suggested gender shouldn't make a difference in performance.
Koivisto suggested screening with the app would be particularly helpful for older adults and those with prior stroke as well as in resource-limited settings. However, it cannot distinguish atrial fibrillation from other arrhythmias at this time, and people would need to have the screening diagnosis confirmed by an ECG in the office.
Dan Atar, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo, commented that the atrial fibrillation guidelines released by the ESC at the conference emphasize the need to search for silent atrial fibrillation. "And here we have an excellent opportunity to increase this search function. I think it's a very valuable approach."
Gerhard Hindricks, MD, PhD, of Germany's Leipzig University Heart Center, who co-chaired a press conference at which the findings were discussed, called the strategy a "very smart application without any significant add-ons, which for the economical balance and the implementation of the workflow it's really beautiful."
Click here for MedPage Today's ESC 2016 video page, which includes comments from authors of the Hot Lines trials, and leading cardiologists from around the world providing daily commentary.
"What's the crux with all these detectors of atrial fibrillation is sensitivity and specificity," he cautioned. "You have to find what you look for."
Some prior devices or strategies for smartphone detection have a high incidence of false-positive results, "which completely undermines the trust in the technology," or missed cases, he noted, calling for further validation.
The Reveal implantable cardiac monitor showed sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 85.4% for atrial fibrillation detection compared with ECG in the XPECT trial.
In another study, the sensitivity and specificity, respectively, of the Cardiio Rhythm smartphone application was 92.9% and 97.8% and for the AliveCor heart monitor was 71.4% and 99.4%.
Addressing Koivisto, Hindricks concluded "How specific is your technology or your application of an existing technology for the detection of atrial fibrillation really deserves further in-depth and ECG-in-parallel controlled studies to explore that."
Disclosures The study was funded by the Finnish funding agency for innovation (Tekes), Academy of Finland. Koivisto disclosed no relationships with industry. Primary Source European Society of Cardiology Source Reference: Koivisto T, et al "Detecting atrial fibrillation via existing smartphones without any add-ons" ESC 2016; FP 4237.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |
Nike believes in Chinese-dominated football future
| Nike's most recent advertisement which debuted on social media in China last week hit 170 million views only a few days after launching. Nike have a strong belief that football will be highly dominated by Chinese players in future, as the countries footballing influence grows week on week. The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, is a massive football fan and advocate of developing Chinese footballing communities as well as the countries global presence in football. An example of this development is Chinese companies accounting for over a third of advertising costs from the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
| https://brandinginasia.com/nike-china-soccer/ | null | Even though China wasn’t in the World Cup this year, it saw the biggest boost in ad spend during the event.
And while their time in the spotlight has yet to come, the country is looking to the future with optimism — and Nike is optimistically looking to the Chinese future even more so.
In their latest spot for China, “Dare to Become,” which was created by Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, we see a future where the greatest soccer player, long after Cristiano Ronaldo retires, is now Chinese.
It’s a world where Manchester City fills their roster with Chinese players, and all of England cries after being drawn in a group with China. It’s quite the ambitious view of the future, “but one a younger generation of Chinese players believe in and are working to create,” said the brand in a release.
Check out the spot:
The film reached 170 million views in only a few days after launching on Chinese social media sites, a sign that it clearly struck a chord. |
Regulation and fees may add $1tn to US ETF AUM by end 2018: PwC | Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are attracting billions of dollars of investment, as investors opt for them over mutual funds. US ETF assets could reach $3.6tn by the end of next year, predicts Nigel Brashaw, a partner at PwC, up 46% on current assets of $2.4tn. For comparative purposes, assets in US mutual funds are stated at around $12.53tn. It is suggested the adoption of ETFs could be accelerated by the US Labor Department's "fiduciary rule" coming into play in April, which states advisers and brokers must not recommend investment that "may not be the cheapest or best option" for clients.
| http://www.marketwatch.com/story/etfs-could-see-1-trillion-in-inflows-over-the-coming-year-2017-01-31?siteid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20marketwatch%2Fmutualfunds%20(MarketWatch.com%20-%20Mutual%20Funds)&mod=mutualfunds | null | The move to ETFs is nowhere near over.
Exchange-traded funds have long been one of the hottest items on Wall Street, with investors pouring billions of dollars into them in recent years, favoring them over mutual funds in what is amounting to a massive industry upheaval. What’s more, the shift may only be gaining steam.
Nigel Brashaw, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, estimated that U.S. ETF assets could hit $3.6 trillion by the end of 2018. That would mean inflows of about $1.1 trillion, representing growth of 46% from current U.S. assets of $2.465 trillion. (About $3.4 trillion were held in global ETF assets at the end of last year, according to data from ETFGI, an ETF research firm.
Over the course of 2016, about $291.5 billion flowed into U.S. ETFs, while $128 billion was withdrawn from mutual funds. Despite that, mutual funds continue to have a sizable lead in assets, with $12.53 trillion.
The acceleration in ETF adoption coincides with the Labor Department’s “fiduciary rule,” which requires that the financial advisers and brokers who handle individual retirement and 401(k) accounts must act in the best interest of their clients, rather than recommending investments that may not be the cheapest or best options. Many expect that the primary attributes of ETFs—their typically lower costs, greater tax efficiency, and bias toward passive investing—will lead to their being favored.
“The DOL rule is like throwing gas on the fire with respect to asset flows,” said Todd Westby, who helped launch the iShares suite of ETFs in 2000 and is currently the chief executive officer of T Hayes Consulting.
According to a recent survey by Cerulli Associates, 45% of U.S. financial advisers expect to increase their ETF use as a result of the new regulation, which is scheduled to take effect in April.
Read:The fiduciary rule is coming—here’s how investors can prepare
While President Donald Trump has expressed interest in delaying the implementation of the rule, or even nixing it entirely, this isn’t expected to change the major trends in the industry. Brashaw’s $1 trillion estimate assumes the rule won’t be implemented. If it is, he said, that target would be reached by early 2018 rather than later in the year.
“The rule is good for ETFs, but if it isn’t implemented, that will only delay their adoption,” he said. “The trend won’t trail off.”
Despite the growth, the inflows won’t be evenly spread across the industry; Brashaw estimated that as much as 90% of the $1 trillion would go to the “Big Three,” referring to Vanguard, BlackRock (which operates iShares), and State Street, whose SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, +0.45% is not only the first ETF ever launched, in 1993, but also the most widely traded and the largest, with about $222 billion in assets. As of the end of 2016, those three firms accounted for about 70% of the market share, according to ETFGI.
Furthermore, inflows will likely be concentrated within those firms’ biggest and most popular funds. According to data from Morningstar, a full 27.45% of total ETF assets are housed in the top 10 largest funds—there are more than 4,800 funds world-wide—while 15.4% of ETFs have less than $5 million in assets. This has led to the number of fund closures rising, as firms find it unprofitable to maintain small or thinly traded ETFs. |
Revealed: The life threatening bacteria on your cash | The study conducted with the help of London Metropolitan University in 2018 took samples from 36 British coins, paper and polymer bank notes. 19 different types of bacteria were discovered including MRSA and Listeria. | https://www.money.co.uk/guides/revealed-the-life-threatening-bacteria-on-your-cash.htm | null | Some of the most common bacteria were:
Bacteria found in faeces: This can cause urinary tract infections and septicemia. Bacteria which can cause thrush, nappy rash and diarrhoea was also found.
Listeria: Found on the 20p, 50p and £1, as well as the £5, £10 and £20 notes. The bacteria can lead to infection which is usually caught by eating contaminated food. The infection can cause food poisoning and even miscarriage. There have been 47 cases of Listeria reported as of June 2018 and 9 deaths.
Enterococcus faecium: Found on the 2p, 5p and 10p coins as well as the £10 note. It is also present on the World Health Organisation's list of antibiotic resistant bacteria. It can cause infections of the abdomen, skin, urinary tract and blood. People with lowered immune systems are particularly susceptible to this infection.
Staphyloccus Aureus (MRSA): The 2p, 5p, 10p, £1 and £2 coins, and the £10, £20 and £50 notes were all found to have Staphyloccus Aureus (MRSA). This antibiotic resistant bacteria is listed as one of the greatest threats to life by the WHO. It can cause boils, impetigo, food poisoning, cellulitis and toxic shock syndrome.
People who have compromised immune systems could be most at risk from handling dirty money - if you're visiting people in hospital who might be vulnerable to infection, you could unknowingly transfer bacteria off your cash which is resistant to antibiotics.
One of the most shocking discoveries was finding so many microorganisms thriving on metal, an element you wouldn't normally expect to see germs surviving on. The bugs have adapted to their environment, resulting in coins becoming a breeding ground for harmful bacteria.
It's shocking to see that two of the world's most dangerous bacteria were on the money we tested.
Despite thinking that newer polymer notes would be cleaner, we were appalled to find out even they were growing some life threatening bugs. Our research supports the continued move towards a cashless society and might be the end of the line for our dirty money. I suspect people may think twice before choosing to pay with cash knowing they could be handed back change laced with superbugs.
We'd recommend and remind people to wash their hands thoroughly after handling money to help prevent spreading harmful bacteria.
Source: Salman Haqqi, Personal Finance Expert at money.co.uk |
Trelleborg creates Standardized Buoyancy Module solution | Swedish global engineering firm Trelleborg has developed a Standardised Buoyancy Module system that can be delivered in around half the time of traditional models, reducing lead times for customers. The off-the-shelf system features a series of segments which mechanically lock around the clamp to securely attach the assembly to the riser, and can be adjusted to accommodate depths from surface to 2500m. | https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/31052017/trelleborg-develops-standardized-buoyancy-module-system/ | null | Trelleborg’s offshore operation recently developed a new Standardized Buoyancy Module system to reduce lead times for customers. The ‘off the shelf’ solution offers a viable alternative to custom options for some projects.
The Standardized Buoyancy Module is made up of small elements that stack together to increase the overall uplift of the complete distributed buoyancy module. The buoyancy segments are designed to mechanically lock around the clamp to securely attach the assembly to the desired location on the riser.
Jonathan Fox, Senior Product Development Engineer with Trelleborg’s offshore operation, states: “We recognised a requirement to deliver buoyancy products in less time for projects with short lead times. Through our customised innovation process, we were able to qualify and standardize a buoyancy module for subsea or surface applications that can be delivered in around half the time of a typical buoyancy module. In addition, we were able to ease handling of the buoyancy modules by incorporating synthetic rubber feet to the bottom of the finished assembly to prevent handling damage and reduce assembly time.
“Because the product consists of known volumes and up thrusts, we are putting the upfront engineering into the hands of our customers, reducing the time needed to achieve an approved product design.”
The Standardized Buoyancy Module system can be adjusted to operate in seawater depths from surface to 2500 m by adding or removing elements based on customer specifications. The new ‘off the shelf’ option reduces lead times and costs for customers looking for quality buoyancy with a quick delivery. For complex projects with undetermined volumes and up thrusts, custom engineered buoyancy modules are recommended to ensure performance. |