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FDA to introduce food traceability across the United States

The Food & Drug Administration in America have unveiled the New Era of Smarter Food Safety a plan which at its forefront is food traceability, the FDA claim with new technology they will be able to track foods origins within minutes anywhere along its supply chain. This will be invaluable when trying to quell foodborne illnesses that could manifest along the supply chain before they reach the consumer.

https://www.supermarketnews.com/food-safety/fda-unveils-tech-focused-blueprint-safer-us-food-supply-chain

The Food & Drug Administration today unveiled the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, a strategic blueprint to bolster protection of the nation’s food supply that builds on the nearly decade-old Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the New Era plan marks a new approach to food safety in terms of employing technology and other tools to establish a more digital, traceable food supply chain. The goal is to “bend the curve” of foodborne illness by enhancing traceability, improving predictive analytics, responding more rapidly to outbreaks, addressing new business models, reducing food contamination and developing stronger food safety cultures. Related: Hy-Vee, Jewel-Osco, Aldi bagged salads possibly contaminated with cyclospora “The blueprint outlines a path forward that builds on the work the FDA has already done through implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). As you know, FSMA has been a centerpiece of our work to help ensure food safety and prevent foodborne illnesses through the use of science and risk-based standards. The authority granted by FSMA enables a flexible framework that is adaptable to the changing food environment as science and technologies evolve,” Hahn said in a press conference on Monday. “The blueprint we release today represents the next stage in this process — a commitment we are making to the American people that we will work as fast and effectively as we can to help ensure that we have the safest food system in the world. And we’ll do this in part by incorporating the use of the most modern technologies that are already in use in society and the business sector,” he explained. “Some of this innovation is already creating a revolution in food production, supply and delivery.” Related: FMI counters U.S. PIRG report chiding supermarkets on food recalls Hahn said tech-enabled traceability will allow the FDA and food supply chain stakeholders to address a key challenge in recent years: recurring outbreaks of illnesses related to the consumption of certain foods. Greater use of technology will enable faster tracing of contaminated food to its source in minutes — “not days, weeks, or even longer,” he noted. “We want to explore ways to encourage companies to adopt tracing technologies and also to harmonize efforts to follow food from farm to table. We should strive to speak the same language by espousing similar data standards across government and industry for tracking and tracing a food product,” Hahn said. Supply issues during the coronavirus pandemic, he pointed out, showed that widespread tracing capability provides more supply chain visibility. “This, in turn, can help the FDA and the food industry anticipate the kind of imbalances in the marketplace that led to temporary shortages of certain commodities and created food waste when producers lost customers because restaurants, schools and other sites temporarily closed,” he said. “In addition, enhanced traceability, coupled with advanced analytical tools, could help us spot potential problems in advance and help us prevent or lessen their impact.” Core elements of the New Era plan include tech-enabled traceability, smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response, new business models and retail modernization, and fostering more responsible attitudes on food safety. In the area of smarter tools, the New Era blueprint aims to draw on the power of new data streams, including better-quality data, more meaningful analysis and actionable information, especially in prevention. “The plans embraced by the blueprint include strengthening our procedures and protocols for conducting the root cause analyses that can identify how a food became contaminated and inform our understanding of how to help prevent that from happening again,” according to Hahn. “The need for greater traceability and predictive analytics can be seen in our most recent efforts to improve the safety of romaine lettuce and other leafy greens, which have too often been implicated in outbreaks of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) infections. The repeat nature of these outbreaks illustrates the importance of achieving end-to-end traceability and of maximizing the effectiveness of root cause analyses.” A pilot now being conducted by the FDA, for instance, uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to sharpen the agency’s review of imported foods at ports of entry, helping to ensure they meet U.S. food safety standards. “A proof of concept application of AI and machine learning models to historical shipment data indicates that we can expect very promising results from this pilot,” Hahn said. “Imagine having a tool that expedites the clearance of legitimate, compliant shipments and improves by 300% our ability to know which shipping container to examine because that container is more likely to have violative products. It would save an immense amount of time and. potentially, lives.” The FDA, too, is looking at food safety in new business models for the production and delivery of food, particularly with groceries and meals increasingly being ordered online and delivered to consumers’ homes. “We must help ensure that as these foods travel to our front doors, they continue to be safe for consumers. That concept is important anytime, but COVID-19 has accelerated the need to establish best practices and an industry standard of care in this area,” said Hahn. “New business models include novel ways of producing foods and ingredients, such as cell-cultured food products, and we plan to take a close look at these. We intend to ensure that as food technology evolves, our oversight evolves along with it.” Food safety also needs to be modernized at restaurants and other retail food outlets, he continued, noting that these locations are among the more frequently cited sites associated with outbreaks of foodborne illness. “FDA research shows the importance of supporting practices in retail establishments known to reduce the risk of food contamination, such as proper hand washing and storing foods at the right temperature. We’re committed to exploring new approaches of food safety that go beyond traditional training and inspection,” Hahn said, adding that the FDA also will explore the use of new digital tools that support food safety practices. Finally, the blueprint aims to create a “food safety culture” on farms and in food facilities worldwide to engender a greater sense of responsibility for safeguarding the food supply chain. “We still believe that, to make dramatic reductions foodborne disease, we must do more to influence and change human behavior, as well as to address how employees think about food safety and how they demonstrate their commitment to this as part of their jobs,” Hahn said. “But a strong culture of food safety involves more than this. It’s also about keeping those food workers safe and about educating consumers, who are cooking more at home these days, on safe food handling practices. We’re not just encouraging the food industry to make changes; we’re looking within our ranks to see how we can approach these issues differently to better support and advance each of these priority areas.” Food industry groups voiced their support of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety plan after the FDA announced it Monday afternoon. “The New Era of Smarter Food Safety blueprint provides an innovative approach to food safety, one that recognizes and builds on the progress made in the past but looks toward the processes and tools that will be needed for the future,” Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of FMI-The Food Industry Association, said in a statement. “Within the food industry, we continue to witness how rapidly business models are changing. Any new frameworks should be broad in nature and be adaptable with evolving business practices. It’s critical that this new plan focuses on utcomes, leverages existing tools, increases communications with and among stakeholders, accounts for our variable resources and abilities, and provides uniformity that amplifies success. “On behalf of the retailers, wholesalers, product suppliers and other stakeholders within the FMI membership, I thank FDA for its leadership in designing a plan that creates a more digital, traceable and safer food system,” Sarasin added. “We look forward to working with the agency on the implementation of its Smarter Food Safety plan.” The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) cited the New Era plan’s efforts to step up technology use in safeguarding the U.S. food supply. “The frozen food industry is committed to advancing food safety, and we are appreciative of FDA’s pandemic response and commend FDA for proactively identifying ways to use new and emerging technologies to continue to provide Americans with the safest possible food supply,” stated AFFI President and CEO Alison Bodor. “The agency’s new plan builds on the many improvements seen through the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, and the frozen food industry is committed to continuing this comprehensive, risk-based approach to food safety. We look forward to continuing to work with FDA in its efforts to modernize food safety oversight.” The Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) noted that, in December, Executive Director Steven Mandernach provided written comment on the New Era strategu on behalf of organization and its members. “We are pleased that our input clearly helped inform the development of the blueprint,” Mandernach said. “The New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint leverages the existing relationships with domestic mutual reliance with state, local, tribal and territorial food safety agencies while also enhancing this relationship through information sharing, modernizing inspections, and adoption of root cause analysis. Further, FDA recognizes in this program the importance of modernizing food safety in restaurants and other retail food establishments that are the source for many of the illnesses.”

Semiconductor stocks fall most in a decade

Shares in semiconductor manufacturers Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and Texas Instruments fell amid disappointing quarterly reports, leading to the stocks' worst performance in 10 years. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF fell 6.7%, its biggest drop since November 2008, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 4.4%. The bear market has been fuelled by concern about the US-China trade dispute and concerns about the health of the Chinese economy. BIT LATE - SMH HAS MORE THAN RECOVERED THOSE LOSSES SINCE THIS STORY

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/chip-stocks-suffer-their-biggest-drop-in-nearly-10-years.html

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF, which trades under the ticker SMH , closed down 6.7 percent — the biggest downturn for the group since November 2008. Chipmaker Nvidia meanwhile posted its worst day since May 2011, down 9.8 percent for the day. Semiconductor stocks had their worst day in a decade Wednesday after a slew of disappointing earnings from leading chipmakers and a sell-off in the broader markets. It's been a tough week for semiconductor-related stocks. Shares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD , fell as much as 18 percent in extended trading Wednesday after the company reported third quarter revenue that missed Wall Street estimates. Also on Wednesday, Texas Instruments tumbled after disappointing quarterly earnings and lowered outlook. Major components of the SMH have been trading firmly in a bear market amid the U.S.-China trade war, and concerns around China's economic growth. The White House implemented 10 percent taxes on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports in September. Those tariffs are set to rise to 25 percent by January 1 and could affect products manufactured with semiconductors. "What concerns us is most of the companies in the index are trading at super-high valuations, you may see demand slowing, and the perception is such that with these trade and tariff wars, with everything going on in China and across the U.S., that people are concerned with how this settles out," Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak told CNBC's Trading Nation Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.4 percent to 7,108.40— entering correction territory — with its worst day since 2011 on Wednesday.

DNAnexus raises $58m for its cloud genomics platform

California-based DNAnexus has raised $58m in a round led by Foresite Capital and featuring participation from GV (formerly Google Ventures), and Microsoft. DNAnexus has developed a cloud-based platform enabling scientists from all fields to access and manage DNA sequencing information, and recently integrated Google Brain’s DeepVariant into the platform. DNAnexus CEO Richard Daly said the funds would be used to expand its presence in the clinical trials sector and help launch the company's translational medicine solutions.

https://medcitynews.com/2018/01/dnanexus/?rf=1

Mountain View, California-based DNAnexus has closed a $58 million financing round. The round was led by Foresite Capital. Strategic investment came from Microsoft. Additionally, TPG Biotech, WuXi NextCODE, GV (formerly Google Ventures), MidCap Financial and Claremont Creek Ventures participated. The startup’s cloud-based platform is designed for researchers in various industries, such as clinical diagnostics, biopharma, bioagricultural and government. Through it, scientists can manage, access and analyze sequencing data. Overall, the company offers a global network that enables organizations to improve their genomics programs. “DNAnexus is a true pioneer and trusted brand in cloud-based platforms for research and precision medicine,” Jim Tananbaum, founder and CEO of Foresite Capital, noted in a statement. “As the volume of biomedical information continues to increase, the DNAnexus platform and upcoming product releases catalyze collaboration, data sharing and machine learning on which the development of precision medicine depends.” In a news release, DNAnexus CEO Richard Daly said the $58 million will help the startup develop and launch its translational medicine solutions and expand its reach in the world of clinical trials. This isn’t the company’s first rodeo in the fundraising realm. In 2011, it secured $15 million in a round led by Google Ventures and TPG Biotech. Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, SoftTech VC and K9 Ventures also participated. In early 2014, it raised $15 million in a Series C round led by Claremont Creek Ventures, Google Ventures, TPG Biotech and First Round Capital. More recently — in May 2017 — San Diego-based Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine implemented DNAnexus’ platform to assist with its work on whole genome sequencing. It also teamed up with AstraZeneca on an initiative to analyze two million genomes. The pharma company launched the project and an in-house Centre for Genomics Research in April 2016. In December, the company integrated Google Brain’s DeepVariant tool onto its cloud platform. Photo: Abscent84, Getty Images

S4 Capital Creativity is outdated: Sorrell

S4 Capital owner Sir Martin Sorrell has told a Connect London event the ad industry was "not a craft, it’s a business". Sorrell, former boss of WPP, added the definition of creativity had moved beyond that of the 1980s and 1990s, and accused those who harked back to that era of having "rose-tinted spectacles". He said using data made creative more effective, rather than destroying it.

http://www.adnews.com.au/news/sorrell-suggests-definition-of-creativity-outdated/type/yafNews

Martin Sorrell Not one to miss an opportunity to take another shot at his ex-employer WPP, Martin Sorrell has suggested that creatives are living in the glory days of the past and the definition of creativity is out of date. Sorrell, who infamously departed WPP last year and now heads up S4 Capital, took a swipe at other networks’ traditional approach to creativity while speaking on stage with Michael Tomes at an Connect London event, hosted by Creativepool. “Our industry has always historically been described as a craft industry, but I’ve always regarded it as a business. Some people might disagree but it’s not a craft, it’s a business,” Sorrell said. “You’ve got people speaking at this conference who still look back on the rose-tinted Don Draper Mad Men era with some nostalgia and I think life has changed. The definition of content and creativity has changed." With its recent acquisitions, S4’s model encompasses data, digital content as well as programmatic, and media planning and buying. Notably missing from the network is a business with the same creative talent and legacy as an agency like Ogilvy or Y&R, now VMLY&R. Despite no obvious creative credentials, Sorrell said S4 Capital and Media Monks are just as concerned as anyone else in this industry about big ideas and creativity. “The issue is it’s a different kind of [creativity] from the creative pool that the definition of creativity has shifted dramatically from where it was in the eighties and nineties and yet there are people that rigidly insist on looking back with rose-tinted spectacles,” he said. He argued that data doesn’t destroy creative. Instead it makes it more effective. “You must bring together the mad men and women and the maths men and women,” he told the audience. “For anybody to say, whatever their creative credentials are, that it destroys creativity is nonsense.” In a separate interview this week, Sorrell said he is very concerned about the progress WPP makes being a significant shareholder. In the video below, Sorrell also discussed how he grew WPP to become the largest holding group in the world, the need for scale to succeed in advertising and the impact of products like Amazon Alexa. Watch it here: Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at [email protected] Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.

Brexit

http://www.finregalert.com/brexit-clouds-future-for-euribor-and-eonia-in-u-k/ Need to save as draft - pub tool function disabled. Please return to curator as is     

https://www.risk.net/derivatives/6300406/brexit-clouds-future-for-euribor-and-eonia-in-uk?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=RN.Daily.DU.A.M-F0600&utm_source=RN.DCM.Scheduled_Updates&im_amfcid=15123586&im_amfmdf=1f878e6de983dbba82889bc19f1dc737

The UK’s attempt to provide a smoothing two-year grace period for European benchmark rates will not help Euribor, or its sibling Eonia, if they are not registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) by the rapidly approaching Brexit date – a highly unlikely scenario. However, legislation pushing through the UK parliament could give the rates more time to get their footing in a post-Brexit market. Alternatively, a renewed push to reform Eonia may allow it, along with an

Tata Power and Jaguar Land Rover agree EV charging partnership

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Tata Power have agreed a deal for Tata to develop a charging infrastructure in the car maker’s 27 locations in 24 Indian cities, and at the homes and offices of its customers. The AC and DC chargers involved will have a capacity range between 7-50 kW, and JLR India said the move was part of developing the right ecosystem for the Indian launch of the Jaguar I-PACE EV later in 2020. Tata has already agreed to supply 300 EV charging stations for its sister company Tata Motors.

https://mercomindia.com/tata-power-ev-charging-jaguar-land-rover-india/

Jaguar Land Rover has entered into a partnership with Tata Power, which is India’s largest integrated power company, to provide end-to-end EV charging solutions. Tata Power will provide charging solutions to Jaguar Land Rover in India, and it will be spread across its retail network of 27 outlets in 24 cities and at customer’s’ residence and office. Tata Power will provide a range of AC and DC chargers, which will range from 7 kW to 50 kW capacity. Speaking on the partnership, Rohit Suri, President, and Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India, said, “The partnership with Tata Power will be a tremendous value addition for Jaguar Land Rover customers as it provides a one-stop solution to their charging needs and also provides easy accessibility to the wide network of public charging infrastructure being set up by Tata Power across India. This tie-up is one step forward in creating the right ecosystem enabling a simple and hassle-free charging experience for owners of our first electric vehicle, the Jaguar I-PACE, which makes debut in India later this year.”

AOL UK partners with O2 Weve to offer targeted campaigns

AOL UK has partnered with O2 Weve to offer advertisers hyper-targeted campaigns. The addition of first-party Weve data from 16 million O2 customers to AOL's own data should enable sharper targeting and help media owners focus on intent-based campaigns across titles including the Microsoft portfolio and The Huffington Post. The detailed data will help "anticipate what people might be interested in," according to Gavin Johnson, AOL's UK commercial director.  

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/02/08/aol-uk-strikes-o2-weve-alliance-use-mobile-subscriber-data-take-challenger-status

How does an online media player get closer to offering advertisers a more accurate view of consumer behavior that Facebook and Google boast? In the case of AOL, it strikes a deal with O2’s Weve to offer hyper-targeted campaigns it claims would be too niche on the “the behemoths of search and social”. The arrival of anonymised first-party mobile data from outside the media owner’s products is tipped to swell its stance on the post-cookie battleground where very few players have high quality, persistent ID data. And for those that do offer that sharper targeting, often “clients end up being pushed down the rabbit hole to smaller campaigns” or into walled gardens where it’s difficult for them to get the contextual insights needed to know if it’s money well spent. Having an additional layer of data (in this case Weve) from 16 million permissioned mobile consumers on top of AOL’s own as well from advertisers, could negate both of those shortcomings, the business claimed, all the while shifting its proposition to be more focused on intent-based campaigns across titles such as The Huffington Post, Engadget, Build, Makers and the Microsoft portfolio. This happens via Weve’s ad exchange Axonix, which probabilistically models the first-party data from the telecommunications outfit before pouring into AOL’s One platform to deliver what it calls “highly accurate demographic, behavioural, and location targeting”. Or as AOL’s commercial director for the UK Gavin Johnson explained: “A lot of critics of digital advertising have been on what someone has actioned on in the past, which is fine if a little 1.0. In terms of 2.0 we’re trying to anticipate what people might be interested in. We’re finding the more data that we put into our platform then the more we’re able to anticipate people’s potential desires a lot better.” However, rich data is only the starting point toward better performing campaigns; clients want reach and (increasingly) something they can verify, as seen by how many times words such as “accurate targeting” and “first-party data” appear in the launch release for the alliance. This arrives a week after the world’s biggest advertiser Procter & Gamble threatened to pull ad spend from media owners if they failed to offer a transparent way of reaching personalized audiences at scale. Johnson’s answers to both the transparency and reach questions are Nielsen and probabilistic respectively, with the former its seal of approval for those marketers concerned about targeting the right people at the right time, while the latter is all about scale. “Invariably, most of the deterministic players are either really small or really niche and for those that have the scale then they’re not particularly open,” he continued. “These walled gardens are battling concerns of marking their own homework, which is coming to the surface following P&G’s [top marketer] Marc Pritchard’s words….Our clients are demanding scale and the only way you can do that is through probabalisitc, Pritchard is demanding a consistency across all digital advertising to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules.” While he has a point, many media experts regard deterministic targeting, which allows advertisers to track users across devices through personal logged-in accounts, as the silver bullet to elevating a campaign's effectiveness by precision. And yet even those closest to this level of targeting (Facebook and Google) have their own issues to overcome if they are to consign cookie-based targeting to the history books. “What Facebook and Google have within their own construct is fabulous data and attribution, said Rob Norman, GroupM’s chief digital officer when asked about whether AOL’s alliance with Weve could help lift its challenger status to the next level. “But what they both lack significantly is context in many cases, and what is quite clear is that AOL, and Yahoo in combination represent a large industry block, and the enrichment of that block with [mobile] subscriber data – be it in the form of Verizon data in the US, or Weve in other markets – means they are in a better place than when they couldn’t… the general rule is that the more data-enriched, and the more context, attribution it has then you have a winning hand.” No wonder AOL’s Johnson was coy on whether his business would pursue similar deals with other telecommunications providers in the future. Theoretically, telcommunications data is just as robust as anything Facebook and Google can come up, a point Telefonica’s global director of advertising Dan Rosen stressed last year. “We’re talking to lots of people but aren’t in a position to talk about similar partnerships but when we believe a deal is mutually beneficial and it can offer something different to our business then we can talk, all the while privacy and safety are paramount to any deal our organisation would take,” added Johnson. On the privacy side, AOL has a team in the US working on how all parts of the business, including its alliance with Weve, will adhere to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which will introduce tougher measures on how people’s data is used to personalise advertising. Tobin Ireland, chief executive of telco data monetisation platform, Smartpipe, which provides advertisers with pseudonymised, deterministic data, commented: “The strategic alliance between AOL UK and Weve is an encouraging step in privacy compliant telco data monetisation. The partnership is further evidence of the value placed on mobile network operator (MNO) data by the ad ecosystem, which is a rich source of first-party information that advertisers can use to precisely reach consumers. “However, it will be interesting to see how the deal will be impacted by the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, being brought into force on 25th May 2018. Under the GDPR, all consumer data must be pseudonymised, to make users completely unidentifiable. So called Anonymous data, on the other hand, isn’t completely de-identified — often containing details like device IDs that can be linked to individuals. It also remains to be seen how AOL UK and Weve will achieve precise targeting by utilising probabilistic data, rather than deterministic data, and at what scale." Brand building budgets are where the business believes it can challenge its larger rivals, and the deal with Weve could help differentiate its advertising offering to the reams of marketers who are starting to question whether they have overinvested in digital. "Today’s announcement will help propel AOL to be a real contender against the duopoly of Facebook and Google – who both have access to scaled deterministic data,” said Said Nick Welch, vice president of sales and business development for Northern Europe at ADmantX, a smart data provider for brand planning and targeting. “To take their challenger status to the next level AOL needs to further enrich its first-party data by looking beyond demographic, behavioural, and location signals. Going a step-further and understanding user interests and intent in real time, and enabling it for advertisers, will create an even more compelling data offering to shape campaign strategies."

Telmate exposes data on millions of US prison inmates

Comparitech has said the GettingOut app of US prison phone service Telmate exposed details of both inmates and outside contacts. Security researcher Bob Diachenko has said 11 million inmate and contact records and 227 million message records were on an unsecured database. Inmate user data included names, offences, prison location, medication and relationships, and contact data included names, emails, phone numbers and driving licence details. Telmate parent company Global Tel Link (GTL) secured the database once it knew of the issue and the firm blamed vendor action for the breach.

https://www.engadget.com/telmate-millions-inmate-data-exposed-041456225.html

Telmate, a widely used prison phone service, left millions of inmates’ and their contacts’ data exposed online, according to Comparitech. The company is behind an app called GettingOut, which gives prisoners a way to make monitored voice/video calls and to send texts to their loved ones. Due to the nature of the service, the exposed data included identifiable information and personal correspondences. Comparitech security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered an unsecured database in early August containing 11 million records of inmates and their contacts, as well as 227 million message records. The prisoners’ records came with their full names, offense, religion, the facility they’re at, their relationship status, the medications they’re taking and even whether they identify as trans. Meanwhile, their contacts’ records included their names, their email, physical and even IP addresses, their phone numbers and their driver’s license ID details. Comparitech says Telmate owner Global Tel Link secured the database within just a few hours after being informed. In a statement GTL provided, the company blamed the incident on “the actions of one of [its] vendors” and clarified that “no medical data, passwords, or consumer payment information were affected.” But seeing as the collection didn’t even need a password for access, bad actors could’ve dowloaded it all, making the inmates and their contacts targets for fraud, identity theft and phishing schemes. Worse still, the information could subject prisoners’ contacts to harassment and discrimination. This security gaffe is far from the first controversy GTL and Telmate have been involved in. GTL and its subsidiary have long been accused of price gouging inmates and their families by charging them exorbitant call rates. The defense attorneys Prison Policy Initiative talked to even revealed that prison phone services have “shocking billing practices that cause the actual call charges to be far higher than the nominal published rates.”

Sell-side to increase fees as costs of MiFID II mount

Sell-side institutions could increase fees to buy-side traders as the costs of MiFID II compliance rise, forcing the sell-side to "shoulder a great deal of business," according to a report by financial consultancy GreySpark. The company suggested that both buy-side firms and sell-side banks must consider new strategies for implementing system and process efficiencies to offset the regulatory costs.

http://www.thetradenews.com/Regulation/Sell-side-to-up-fees-amid-rising-MiFID-II-compliance-costs/

Buy-side traders could face higher fees from sell-side institutions as the costs of complying with European regulation MiFID II puts pressures on profit margins. MiFID II’s trade and transaction reporting rules require banks to submit vast amounts of data to European regulators, which could also force the sell-side to “shoulder a great deal of business,” according to a recent report. Financial consultancy GreySpark authored the report, which explores the effects of MiFID II costs for the sell-side. The report explained that increased costs “will inevitably erode the profitably of financial markets trading businesses”, forcing banks to charge buy-side clients higher fees. Sell-side institutions will have to “confront a difficult choice: continue to compete with their peers for client market share, or reduce the amount of trading services they provide in an attempt to better serve their core client base.” Trade execution profits will be most impacted by the costs of implementing MiFID II regulation. GreySpark’s EU risk and regulations practice manager, Giles Broxis, suggested, “both buy-side firms and sell-side banks must now look at more strategic solutions to deliver system and process efficiencies to manage these regulatory costs.” Broxis added: “In a regulatory environment that remains uncertain, banks must now work out how to maximise the cost-savings benefits they can derive from the investments driven by regulatory compliance if they are to offset these challenges.”

Metro operator deploys cleaning robot to fight the coronavirus

Hong Kong’s MTR Corp has deployed an automated Vapourised Hydrogen Peroxide Robot to undertake deep cleaning and decontamination of its trains and stations. The robot was also dispatched to disinfect the back-of-house area at Mong Kok East station, including staff changing rooms, toilets and the mess room to protect against coronavirus.

https://www.railwaygazette.com/technology-data-and-business/metro-operator-deploys-cleaning-robot-to-fight-the-coronavirus/55995.article

CHINA: Hong Kong’s MTR Corp has deployed an automated Vapourised Hydrogen Peroxide Robot to undertake deep cleaning and decontamination of its trains and stations. The VHP Robot is the result of a joint project between MTR Corp and biotechnology company Avalon Biomedical. It automatically sprays hydrogen peroxide solution atomised to a specific concentration, ensuring disinfectants penetrate small gaps that are difficult to reach during normal cleaning work. Show Fullscreen The operator can set the robot to operate automatically by presetting the floor plan of the designated area, or can use a mobile device to control the robot from up to 20 m away. It takes about 4 h to clean an eight-car train in automatic mode. If there is a special cleaning situation, such as a passenger vomiting on a train, MTR staff can deploy the VHP Robot to perform deep cleaning with diluted bleach water. The robot was also dispatched to disinfect the back-of-house area at Mong Kok East station, including staff changing rooms, toilets and the mess room as well as the passenger lifts, after a staff member was diagnosed with Covid-19. The collaboration between MTR and Avalon also includes the introduction of a dedicated manufacturing facility which can produce surgical face masks capable of blocking PM 2·5 particles using nanofibre technology developed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The equipment has been delivered to MTR and setting up of a clean production room is underway. Production is expected to start in the second half of this year at the earliest, with manufacturing meeting the daily consumption rate of MTR staff. MTR and Avalon are also testing the use of nano-air filtration technology to further improve the air quality of stations. Show Fullscreen ‘We fully understand our passengers’ concerns about hygiene in their travelling environment, especially amid the current Covid-19 outbreak’, said MTR Corp Operations Director Dr Tony Lee on March 11. ‘While MTR has comprehensively strengthened cleaning and disinfection work in the railway network, we have also continued to actively explore feasible enhancements. We plan to deploy a total of 20 VHP robots for train cleaning in depots and hope this helps to ensure the comfort of passengers’ journeys by providing ever greater health protection for our colleagues and our customers alike.’

Aggressive decarbonisation targets could help hydrogen: Wood Mac

More than nine million hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles could be manufactured to help California, China, Japan and South Korea meet ambitious carbon reduction targets, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie. The hydrogen-powered vehicle market is small but rapidly expanding, adding 7,574 vehicles YoY in 2019 making a global total of about 17,000. In the short term, buses and lorries would be better suited to hydrogen fuel-cell technology because they would otherwise require heavy EV battery packs while their A-to-B routes would be suitable for the installation of a hydrogen refuelling station.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hydrogen-mobility-coming-soon-to-a-bus-or-truck-near-you

Hydrogen could have a significant impact on the transportation sector, even though sales of fuel-cell cars have been minuscule to date. More than 9 million hydrogen fuel-cell passenger vehicles could be built to support aggressive targets in markets such as California, China, Japan and South Korea, according to a new market report published by Wood Mackenzie. In the short term, however, hydrogen is more likely to be used for heavier vehicles such as buses and heavy-duty trucks, said report author Ben Gallagher, a subject-matter expert in carbon and emerging technology for Wood Mackenzie's Energy Transition Practice. As it stands, hydrogen fuel cells have barely registered an impact on the global automotive market. WoodMac estimates there were around 17,000 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on the road worldwide at the end of last year, nearly half of them in the U.S. Globally, that equates to less than 0.02 percent of the 947 million or so passenger cars that were in use around the world in 2015, based on estimates from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. “There’s probably that number of cars...on Fifth Avenue,” said Gallagher. “It’s a very, very small market.” Buses and trucks a better fit for hydrogen? Wood Mackenzie’s research shows the market is expanding rapidly from its small base, however, adding 7,574 units during the course of 2019, a 246 percent increase on the year before. Still, there's little chance of hydrogen fuel cells vying with electric vehicles for now. There are 5.3 million electric vehicles on the road worldwide, said Gallagher, with many countries offering strong incentives for the acquisition of battery-powered cars. For hydrogen to catch up will require tremendous policy support, particularly while there aren’t enough vehicles on the road to warrant massive fueling station build-out programs. The fact that such hydrogen fueling stations are being built at all — WoodMac estimates there are 410 public and private facilities worldwide, a number set to grow to 629 based on current announcements — does not seem to make sense to support a tiny number of car owners. But Gallagher said refueling station build-outs are also aimed at scaling up the fuel-cell manufacturing industry and providing local jobs. “And it’s a way to provide some additional stability and volumes for electrolyte vendors,” he noted. Further, while low sales volumes might not warrant public support for hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles, there are "other applications that might be a better use case in the near term,” said Gallagher. Buses and trucks would fall into this bracket, since they need heavy battery packs for electrification and tend to travel to and from a central base where it could be economically viable to build a hydrogen refueling station. In 2017, a report by Roland Berger for the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) Joint Undertaking highlighted transport in two out of five business cases for hydrogen. One involved heavy-duty transport including trains, buses and large trucks, where automotive manufacturers including Toyota and fuel-cell vehicle specialists Esoro and Nikola Motor Company are active. Among bus makers, Solaris, Van Hool and VDL are studying hydrogen-fueled products. A second use case researched by the FCH was light- and medium-duty transport applications, from cars and delivery vans to garbage trucks and construction equipment. Roland Berger’s report highlighted a fuel-cell delivery van pilot by parcel service UPS in Long Beach, California in 2017. It also noted that fuel-cell-based garbage truck pilots had been undertaken in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. Hydrogen: Possible hedge against oil and metal shortages? In countries such as the U.S., Gallagher said policymakers might want to support hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle adoption and refueling station build-out programs for national security reasons. “Depending on how reliant you might be on global oil imports, hydrogen could be a way to mitigate the impact of some sort of supply disruption,” he said. WoodMac is a "little bit skeptical" about the supply of lithium-ion and precious metals in the decades ahead, Gallagher added. "There’s not a significant amount of investment in mining for precious metals today. If there’s a supply issue, this becomes a reasonable alternative.” *** A recent Wood Mackenzie research insight looks at hydrogen mobility benchmarks and the current size of the global hydrogen mobility market, and tracks announced projects and deployments.

The iPhone12 leaks suggest plenty of new features, including significant battery life upgrade.

To accommodate for all the new features, Weinbach claims that the iPhone 12 Pro will boast a larger 4,400mAh battery – a significant step up from the 3,076mAh battery inside Apple's iPhone 11 Pro.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/iphone-12-pro-rumor-points-to-120hz-display-better-face-id-and-3x-camera-zoom

Update: Another iPhone 12 leak has shared even more information about the phone since this story was written. While there have a been a slew of leaks lately around the new iPhone 12, the latest one from well-known leaker Max Weinbach offers some new details that actually make a lot of sense. Sharing his information with the YouTube channel EverythingApplePro, Weinbach claims that Apple's iPhone 12 Pro will boast the same 'Pro Motion' display tech that featured in this year's new iPad Pro models. In practice, that would mean a new iPhone that would pack features that only would fire when needed, such as when browsing the web or playing games coded to use the smoother scrolling, giving a more buttery feeling under the finger. Given that this year's iPhone 12 models look set to be 5G capable, it would make a lot of sense that the combination of faster connectivity and a 120Hz display will significantly impact battery life. To accommodate for this, Weinbach claims that the iPhone 12 Pro will boast a larger 4,400mAh battery – a significant step up from the 3,969mAh battery inside Apple's iPhone 11 Pro Max. Get the best Apple iPhone 12 deals before anyone else! We'll send you pre-order details and the best Apple iPhone 12 deals as soon as they're available. Remind Me Send me details about other relevant products from Techradar and other Future brands. Send me details about other relevant products from third parties. No spam, we promise. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details without your permission. Face ID and camera upgrades Along with the display and battery claims above, Weinbach also suggests that Apple's upcoming handset will receive an improved Face ID sensor that will allow users to unlock their phone from a wider range of angles. Additionally, Weinbach says the iPhone 12 Pro's rear camera will receive upgrades of its own, reinforcing a previous rumor which claimed that the handset will receive a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanner for improved autofocus and enhanced augmented reality experiences - which we saw debut on the iPad Pro 2020. According to Weinbach, the iPhone 12 Pro will also feature Smart HDR functionality for improved low-light performance, as well as 3x optical zoom – an increase from the 2x zoom capability featured in the iPhone 11 range. This makes a lot of sense The tricky thing when poring through the iPhone rumors each year is deciding on their veracity – Apple has the scale and resource to do huge things in the phone world, but it's always about balancing the functionality while letting it maintain a desired profit margin. To that end, the upgrades are rarely things that no other brand has done, more a refinement of what's already there using tech that's (ideally) been used and proven elsewhere in its lines. The notion that the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max models – tipped to be 6.1– and 6.7-inch phones respectively – look set to get upgrades to the Face ID sensor, camera, screen and battery all fit into that model well. A better camera would allow Apple to sample some of the industry's headline features – like longer and more powerful zoom from the camera, in a bid to match up to Samsung and Huawei – as well as more meaningful updates like improvements to the portrait mode through better depth sensing. Rumors of a better HDR mode to allow for smoother and less-grainy night shots also make sense, but we would have been shocked if the new chipset from Apple didn't pack some improved image processing anyway, so that's likely always been on the roadmap. The 120Hz capabilities might not sound like much, but they're becoming more of a feature on high-end smartphones in the likes of the OnePlus 8 Pro, and using it on the right apps will help save battery for when it's needed. The smaller notch is something that's been mooted for months, but the key thing is that Apple is now rumored to improve the range of Face ID through hardware, which would make scanning quicker and taking away a pain point for its users – something not massive, but fits with the kind of upgrade path Apple takes. Of course, these leaks are far from certain – there are usually multiple versions of a new iPhone in prototype form that exist before the final model is seen, and in the current climate it's about being able to mass produce a phone at the speed needed to hit the expected September iPhone 2020 release date, although the iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says this is on track.

Redrow Open house event planned for Aylesbury development

UK housebuilder Redrow is holding an event to promote its new development near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The open house event will give potential buyers the opportunity to view four show homes, with tea served to visitors during the day. The Weston Grove project includes four- and five-bedroom houses, with prices starting from £543,950 ($760,000), and the largest type of house, the Sandringham, starting at £899,950. As well as the homes, Redrow is creating a village green and children's playground on the 30-acre site.

https://www.easier.com/137850-open-house-event-with-help-for-sellers-in-buckinghamshire.html

Open house event with help for sellers in Buckinghamshire With four homes available to view and help to sell your current property, buying a new home in Weston Turville, near Aylesbury, will be a piece of cake this weekend (February 24/ 25). Redrow is hosting an open house event, giving buyers the chance to view finished examples of two of its largest properties at Weston Grove – the Sandringham and Marlborough – in addition to the two professionally styled and fully furnished show homes. Experts will be on hand to guide visitors through the buying and selling process – including how Redrow’s Mastermove service could help customers sell their existing property quickly and simply, with help towards agent’s fees. And if that wasn’t enough, Redrow will also be serving afternoon tea ‘on the house’ from 11.30am to 3pm. Tonia Tyler, sales director for Redrow Homes (South Midlands), explains: “The advantages of buying a brand new home are often obvious – attractive designs, low maintenance and energy efficiency – and these factors have made Weston Grove a popular choice. “Two of the biggest issues for our customers are wanting to view a new home before committing to buy and having a house of their own to sell before they’re able to do so. We’re helping to break down both those barriers this weekend by giving buyers the chance to view two more finished homes and outlining how Mastermove can transform the process of selling your old property. “We will arrange valuations of the customer’s home, appoint an estate agent and take care of all the paperwork. We’ll monitor progress closely, liaise with the agent until the property is sold and, most importantly for our customers, pay towards the selling fees to save them money too.” Current availability at Weston Grove includes four and five-bedroom homes, with prices from £543,950. The Marlborough creates a first impression that lasts with beautiful bay windows and integral double garage. Priced from £699,950, it offers 1,906 sq ft of well-planned living space including open plan kitchen, dining and family room, separate lounge, a study or snug, utility and cloakroom. It also boasts five generously-sized bedrooms including an impressive master, and two en-suites as well as a luxurious family bathroom. Available from £899,950, the Sandringham is as stylish and spacious as it is practical. The open plan breakfast kitchen and family room is complemented by a separate lounge and dedicated dining room; while a study provides a quiet space for occasional home working, plus there’s a utility and cloakroom. Upstairs, all five bedrooms are doubles, with the master boasting an en-suite plus walk-in wardrobe. The second bedroom also benefits from an en-suite, leaving the family bathroom to serve the remaining three bedrooms. Surrounded by the beautiful Buckinghamshire countryside, the homes at Weston Grove will enjoy a village location only a couple of miles south east of Aylesbury and all of its amenities, yet just an hour from London by train. Redrow will be building on just a little over 11 acres of a 30 acre site and, along with new homes, will create a village green and children’s play area. To discover more, join Redrow for the open house weekend from 11.30am to 3pm this Saturday and Sunday (February 24/25). Alternatively see redrow.co.uk/westongrove.

Cooke Reels in Atlantic Canada Sales by Offering Seafood Boxes Online

AC Covert, a member of the Cooke family of companies, has debuted nine seafood box selections to be purchased online for home delivery across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The boxes feature Cooke’s True North Seafood products and other locally farmed and fished products from Atlantic Canadian companies.

https://www.frozenfoodsbiz.com/cooke-reels-in-atlantic-canada-customers-by-selling-seafood-boxes-online/

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada-based AC Covert, a member of the Cooke family of companies, has debuted nine seafood box selections to be purchased online for home delivery across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The new packaging and service is a pivoting move by the seafood distribution company to drum up sales. During normal times, prior to the Covid-19 health crisis, it sold large quantities directly to the restaurant, tourism and hospitality sectors as well to retail grocer stores and shops. The boxes feature Cooke’s True North Seafood products and other locally farmed and fished products from Atlantic Canadian companies. The most popular items thus far include the “Slammin’ Salmon” box offering 2 x 4 oz frozen Atlantic Salmon portions, 2 x 6 oz frozen trays of Wild Alaska Sockeye salmon, 2 x 4 oz packages of cold smoked Atlantic salmon; the “Fin-tastic Fresh” box offering 2 lbs of haddock fillets and 2 lbs of Atlantic salmon fillets; and the and a 16 oz package of candied Atlantic salmon. Among other offerings for home delivery are: “Single, Since You Can’t Mingle” – A large variety of frozen seafood options including wild caught Alaska sockeye salmon, cod, bay scallops, Atlantic salmon portions and bacon-wrapped sea scallops. “East Coast Comfort Fish” – Haddock fillets, scallops, Icelandic cod fillets and mussels to cook individually or use everything to make classic East Coast chowder. “Oyster Odyssey; Pearls Optional” – promoted as “48 of the best oysters the East Coast has to offer,” features are Village Bay, Chebooktook and Beausoleil oysters. “Smoke From the Water” – A variety pack of smoked mackerel fillets, herring fillets, cold smoked Atlantic salmon, hot smoked salmon portions and candied Atlantic salmon. “Get Hooked on this Party Pack” – A box jammed with 25-30 servings of appetizers including bacon-wrapped scallops, coconut shrimp, and Mediterranean and poquito sofrito salmon croquettes “So-Fish-Ticated Dining” – Packed with premium seafood to enjoy during at-home date nights, it includes bacon-wrapped scallops, coconut shrimp, halibut fillets and two lobsters. “Have Your Cake and Eat it Too” – This box comes with a recipe card and all the seafood required to make fish cakes including haddock bits, deep-sea red crab combo meat, and salmon and scallop pieces. The prepared boxes range in price from $55 to $125, and overnight Fedex delivery is offered to residents of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI at a flat rate of $9.99. Residents living in the Halifax or Dartmouth area can order by phone or online and then either pick up in-store at 390 Higney Avenue, Burnside Business Park, Dartmouth, or choose free local home delivery. “With the coronavirus travel restrictions we saw an opportunity to make it easier for people to buy seafood from our region,” said Joel Richardson, vice president of public relations for Cooke. “We have been working hard to supply grocery stores, because in the Maritimes, seafood is a huge part of our culture which brings comfort during challenging times. Our seafood boxes are an ideal care package to send to family or friends you haven’t seen for a while. As a local family company, it is important for us to conveniently provide people with the seafood they love so we can all support sea farmers and fishers.” AC Covert is also now offering customized boxes where customers can select from over a dozen frozen and fresh seafood products. For more details, visit www.accovert.com.

Cloud security start-up Dome9 gets SoftBank funding

Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank has initiated a $16.5m investment into Israeli cloud infrastructure security business Dome9 Security. Dome9 Security offers assessments of network security and protection against cyber attack. The company has raised $29m thus far, and will use the funding to expand further globally. SoftBank will become Dome9’s main distributor in Japan.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/19/softbank-leads-16-5-million-investment-into-cloud-infrastructure-security-startup-dome9/

Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here. Japanese telecom giant SoftBank is leading a $16.5 million “strategic” investment into Dome9 Security, an Israeli cloud infrastructure security company. Founded out of Tel Aviv in 2010, Dome9 targets enterprises with a SaaS (software as a service) platform that helps them assess their network security and detect potential misconfigurations, while simultaneously protecting against cyberattacks. The company recently moved its headquarters from Israel to Mountain View, California. A recent Gartner report suggested that the global public cloud services market is set to grow 18 percent in 2017 to reach a whopping $247 billion. More specifically, Gartner forecasts that the highest growth will come from cloud system infrastructure services, otherwise known as infrastructure as a service [IaaS]), which is touted to grow by 36.8 percent to $34.6 billion this year. And this is Dome9’s sweet spot — its stated goal is to make “bulletproof security a reality for every public IaaS cloud at any scale.” Event Transform 2023 Join us in San Francisco on July 11-12, where top executives will share how they have integrated and optimized AI investments for success and avoided common pitfalls. Register Now This latest cash injection takes the company’s total amount raised to $29 million, and Dome9 says that it will use its newfound wealth to boost its global growth. SoftBank’s involvement here is no accident — as part of the deal, SoftBank will become the “leading distributor” of Dome9’s security platform in Japan. “As enterprise adoption of the cloud continues to accelerate, there is a growing need for cloud-native solutions that simplify security operations and compliance,” said Masayuki Motoshima, director of cybersecurity business development at SoftBank. “Dome9’s strong traction in the enterprise market attests to the value the technology delivers, and led to our decision to invest.” Today’s news comes a year after SoftBank launched a joint venture in conjunction with Chinese tech titan Alibaba. “SB Cloud” combines the collective technologies from the two companies and is the precursor to a new data center that will provide public cloud computing services in Japan, powered by Alibaba Cloud.

With Better Targeting, Alcohol Brands Bet Big on Digital

Until recently, alcohol brands have steered clear of digital marketing and social media to ensure they do not break strict regulations by pitching to underage consumers. However, sophisticated age targeting, by sites such as Facebook and Twitter, allows brands to target only certain consumers, resulting in brands like Patrón and Pernod Ricard increasing their budgets by double-digit percentages this year. Brands are using viral videos to boost sales, and have noted success with  virtual reality and livestreaming platforms like Meerkat and Periscope, in addition to using location targeting too.

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/better-targeting-alcohol-brands-bet-big-digital-165357

For years, beer and spirits brands steered clear of digital marketing and social media because of challenges in making sure posts do not break strict regulations by pitching underage consumers. But with Facebook and Twitter offering more sophisticated age targeting, brands can now, more or less, rest assured they are hitting the 21-and-over set.

McColl to roll out Oracle POS solution

British retailer McColl will introduce Oracle MICROS Family Workstation and software, replacing its current point of sale (POS) devices. Nine years ago the company invested £8m in its current POS system, using MICROS tills and the TOREX software. Due to the company's growth, it looks to rebrand its almost 300 ex-Co-Op convenience stores from August 2017.

https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2017/02/01/major-retailer-to-roll-out-oracle-pos-solution/

Oracle has announced that McColl’s will replace its POS (Point of Sale) devices across its 1,375 stores. It will use Oracle MICROS Family Workstation 6 tills and Oracle software. The announcement comes 9 years after the company invested at least £8 million in its last POS project where it used MICROS tills and the TOREX POS software. Since then the company has expanded massively. The group now contains McColl’s convenience stores as well as Martin’s and RS McColl newsagents. In August 2017 it will complete the rebranding of 298 convenience stores it acquired from the Co-Op in December 2016. Retail has changed since McColls’s last project. At the time of that project, Computer Weekly reported that they installed HP RP5700 POS retail processor units with MultiQ touchscreens rather than the MICROS ones. Having expanded through acquisition tough it seems likely that McColl’s want a consistent experience for staff across the group. The initiative forms part of McColl’s drive to improve store standards and customer experience. Not just the tills McColl’s will replace its 2,700 till estate and purchase Oracle Retail XStore Point of Service. This Oracle solution has a number of advantages for McColl’s. The easy to learn interface provides a system that is quick to learn in an industry where staff turnover is rapid. It is interesting that McColl’s did not look to implement the Oracle Retail XBR Loss Prevention Cloud Service. This would have been a possible replacement for its aging Torex solution. Neil Hodge, Information Technology Director, McColl’s commented: “…we need fast and reliable store systems to support our customers and store colleagues. We chose Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service and the Oracle MICROS Family Workstation because it is an adaptable solution capable of supporting our growth as operational requirements change.” Selection process McColl’s carried out both a technical and user experience evaluation of POS tills. Hodge added “As a long time customer of MICROS using a Torex POS solution, we are delighted to be continuing our relationship with Oracle. The Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 performance impressed both the technical teams and the store colleagues alike. We are excited about the future and the capabilities available with Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service.” Conclusion This is a significant investment by McColl’s, the third largest convenience store owner in the country. They are also a diversified business running more Post Offices than the Post Office runs directly. In addition they also run the largest newspaper home delivery service in the country, delivering to 140,000 homes and businesses. This is a good win for the Oracle Retail business. Whether they can expand that footprint in the coming years will be interesting. McColl’s has not given a timescale for the completion of this project. One would expect the Co-Op stores that are rebranding at the moment to be the first to receive the new tills. Ray Carlin, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail commented “We are honored to welcome McColl’s into the Oracle Retail community and are committed to their success.” This in itself is an interesting statement. It infers that Carlin hopes to persuade McColl’s to adopt more Oracle software in the future. Carlin continued: “The Oracle MICROS Family Workstation 6 is engineered to work seamlessly with the Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service to ensure that we deliver superior POS performance and reliability for the busy retail convenience store environment.”

Bad news for Windows 10 as users shift to Ubuntu and macOS

April 2020 saw the operating system lose market share, while rivals saw a surge in users. The third most-used PC operating system is now Apple’s macOS 10.15 (also known as MacOS Catalina) It is now, according to NetMarketShare, the third-most used PC Operating System in the world, leapfrogging Windows 8.1, which used to occupy that spot.

https://www.techradar.com/news/bad-news-for-windows-10-as-users-shift-to-ubuntu-and-macos

While Windows 10 has been steadily gaining users, especially after Microsoft killed off Windows 7, April 2020 actually saw the operating system lose market share, while rivals Ubuntu and macOS saw a surge in users. This comes from NetMarketShare , a company that keeps track of what operating systems people on the internet are using. While it only records devices that are online and access certain sites, the sample size is large enough to give us a decent idea of the market share of each operating system, and it seems like it’s bad news for Microsoft. While many people expected Windows 10 to keep on growing, especially after Windows 7 entered its End of Life phase, and is no longer supported by Microsoft, it seems like the operating system’s market share dropped, from 57.34% in March to 56.08% in April. Less surprisingly, Windows 7’s market share dropped as well, from 26.23% to 25.59%. So, not a great month for Microsoft’s operating systems, but they are still the two most-used operating systems used on PCs – and by quite a margin. The third most-used PC operating system is now Apple’s macOS 10.15 (also known as macOS Catalina). This is the latest release from Apple for its Mac and MacBook devices, and it recorded a pretty decent leap to 4.15%, up from 3.41% the month before. Now, that’s still a long way off Windows 7’s user numbers, but that leap could begin to worry Microsoft if macOS continues to climb. It is now, according to NetMarketShare, the third-most used PC operating system in the world, leapfrogging Windows 8.1, which used to occupy that spot. Uncomfortably for Microsoft, another of its rivals, the Linux distribution Ubunutu, also recorded a big leap, from 0.27% in March to 1.89% in April. Combined with other distros, the open-source operating system Linux is now sitting at 2.86%. What happened? So, what was the cause of Windows 10’s dip? As Windows Latest points out , the drop in Windows 10 usage during April 2020 corresponds with the global lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With many businesses closing their offices, their employees have been working from home, and often using their own laptops and PCs instead. While businesses overwhelmingly use Windows 10 on their machines, it appears individuals are becoming more keen on macOS and Linux. So, is this terrible news for Microsoft? In a way, no. As we mentioned, Windows 10 is still by far the most-used OS on PCs, and this is only one month’s data. However, if numbers continue to drop, and its rivals continue to grow, then there could be cause for alarm. The suggestion that while businesses are fond of Windows, but their employees slightly less so, also won’t sit well with Microsoft.

World’s wealthy driving demand for risky loan-backed bonds

The financial managers of wealthy families, including those of the Pritzker clan and Paul Allen, are investing increasingly in bonds backed by risky loans. Collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), particularly the lucrative but risky equity portions that can offer returns of between 12% and 20%, have become more popular after the lifting of a rule designed to make them harder to buy. That's seen the market grow to $540bn this year, compared with $250bn 10 years ago. Critics have warned excessive spending on CLOs could be seen as reckless in the face of a looming economic downturn.

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20180905/FREE/180909976/popularity-of-collateralized-loan-obligations-widens-thanks-to%20?NLID=daily&NL_issueDate=20180907&utm_source=Daily-20180907&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=investmentnews&utm_visit=538880&itx[email]=ba0a2fbcb5c06e9d70fa49a37f0732adf3b7b6fa4e684ff040636338a7e2eaeb%40investmentnews

Some of the world’s wealthiest clans have been throwing their money into an esoteric piece of financial engineering that has Wall Street in its thrall. They’re called collateralized loan obligations, and they transform riskier company loans into bonds of varying risk and reward. Buyers have included affiliates of the Pritzker family, Bill and Melinda Gates, and the family office of Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp. with Gates. The Huizenga family behind the Waste Management Inc. empire as well as Iconiq Capital, which invests on behalf of wealthy clients including Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, have both had CLO exposure in their portfolios at some point. The Anschutz family, led by Los Angeles Lakers co-owner Philip Anschutz, is another player. The presence of the hyperrich in deals underscores the widening demand for CLOs, a three-letter acronym that’s inspired fear and fervor in the debt markets this year. Proponents point to CLOs’ potential for double-digit returns, resilience to rising interest rates, and low defaults through last decade’s financial crisis. Others such as KKR & Co.’s Jamie Weinstein, however, have raised questions about whether the frenetic pace of sales is spurring reckless behavior just as the prospect of an economic downturn looms over an increasingly leveraged corporate America. “It’s attractive from a total return perspective. It’s a robust structure,” said John Popp, global head and chief investment officer of Credit Suisse Asset Management’s Credit Investments Group. “You only have issues if you have a manager investing in a disproportionately high number of credits that default and have losses.” The participation in CLOs by investors mentioned in this story was revealed by people familiar with the investors’ finances who asked not to be identified because the information is private. In some cases tax filings also disclosed the investments. The families’ wealth managers either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment. CLOs are typically assembled by managers such as Blackstone Group’s GSO Capital Partners, the Carlyle Group and Ares Management, which buy loans that have been made to companies with a sub-investment-grade rating. The managers then package the loans into a structure that can be divided into interest-paying bonds and a chunk of equity. The income from the loan payments is paid to the bondholders in the order of their ranking within the structure, from the most senior and lowest-yielding to the most junior and highest-yielding. The equity is last in line, making it the riskiest but also the most potentially lucrative piece. It’s that last part, the equity chunk, that’s been of particular interest to family offices, say CLO managers and investors including Tricadia Capital Management and Investcorp Credit Management US. Returns on CLO equity can range from 12% to a remarkable 20%, standing out in credit markets where corporate bonds have delivered little or negative returns this year. Family offices “make an ideal investor in the less liquid part of the CLO because of their ability to hold the investments through maturity, as well as their ability to withstand volatility that public companies or insurance companies may have a hard time dealing with,” says Michael Barnes, co-chief investment officer at Tricadia. Their investment is helping fuel growth in the U.S. CLO market, which had some $540 billion in deals outstanding at midyear, up from about $250 billion in 2008. Demand accelerated because both the CLO bonds and underlying loans are “floating rate,” meaning they pay more yield as interest rates rise. Some banks lifted their sales forecasts to fresh highs after a rule that made CLOs more expensive to assemble was repealed this year. Known as the skin-in-the-game rule, it had been credited with helping the market expand. It required CLO managers to buy pieces of their own deals to dissuade them from selling bonds backed by shaky loans. Managers often borrowed money to finance their own position in the deal, and the effort to win that financing amounted to a global marketing exercise that educated investors, including family offices, on CLOs. “It’s been quite dramatic,” says Maureen D’Alleva, head of performing credit at Angelo Gordon & Co., referring to the pickup in CLO demand. “CLOs have seen an increase in the overall pool of investors from pension funds to family offices.” For some, the fast growth has recalled the subprime crisis, in which demand for high-yielding credit fueled the creation of debt structures stuffed with low-quality loans. Those in the industry say CLOs are different because the underlying loans to companies aren’t as vulnerable to rising interest rates as subprime home borrowers were a decade ago. Among the 1,500-plus U.S. CLOs rated by S&P?Global Ratings since 1994, only 36 tranches across 21 transactions had defaulted as of mid-2018. Of course, similar arguments were made before the subprime debt collapse about the historical resilience of mortgage debt. “Securitization is not alchemy,” Boaz Weinstein, chief investment officer and founder of hedge fund Saba Capital Management, says in an interview with Bloomberg Markets. “People think credit spreads are too low, yet they love CLOs. Hard to hate the pie and love the pieces. The equity tranche offers a double-digit yield, but a real pickup in defaults will bring losses.” For family offices, investments in CLOs are part of an increase in allocations to alternative investments as they diversify holdings, according to David Scott Sloan, co-chairman for global private wealth services at Holland & Knight. Pioneered by John D. Rockefeller, family offices have mushroomed in recent years as a growing number of wealthy families seek more active involvement in managing their fortunes. CLOs originated in the late 1980s, and family offices have been investing in them for more than a decade. The Pritzkers, the family behind the Hyatt hotel chain, were among the early investors in this space. Pritzker Foundation tax filings for 2015 and 2016 show it invested in the equity of a Hildene Capital Management CLO. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has invested in CLOs managed by BlueMountain Capital Management, BlackRock Inc., and others, 2015 and 2016 filings show. Representatives for Hildene, BlueMountain, and BlackRock declined to comment. “CLO equity has been a hot product,” says Sean Solis, a securitization attorney and partner in New York for Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. “High-net-worth investors through banks as well as family offices have shown up more and more in minority positions in CLO equity.” Family offices tend to come in for smaller chunks, worth from $5?million to $15 million, alongside bigger investors such as hedge funds, Mr. Solis says. CLO equity starts producing cash flow within six months of a deal closing and makes “an ideal investment for those who understand the risks and are willing to commit their capital for a long period,” says John Fraser, head of Investcorp Credit Management U.S., which manages assets including CLOs. Not everyone has overcome the trauma of the financial crisis, which featured the collapse of credit products with initials such as SIVs and CDOs. “There are still a lot of investors that shy away from CLOs,” Credit Suisse’s Mr. Popp says. “The acronym aversion is fading, but it’s still there.”

Russia may recognise cryptocurrencies as legal by 2018

Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev has suggested the country could recognise cryptocurrencies as early as next year, part of the country's central bank attempts alongside the government to develop rules against illegal transfers. Moiseev suggested monitoring digital currencies could be a way of clamping down on money laundering. "The state needs to know who at every moment of time stands on both sides of the financial chain," he said.

https://www.rt.com/business/384327-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-russia-moiseev/

Cryptocurrencies may be recognized in Russia by 2018, according to Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev. Moiseev says monitoring cryptocurrencies could be an instrumental tool against money laundering, and Bitcoin and other digital currencies could be recognized by next year as the central bank works with the government to develop rules against illegal transfers. “The state needs to know who at every moment of time stands on both sides of the financial chain,” Moiseev said in an interview, as cited Bloomberg. “If there’s a transaction, the people who facilitate it should understand from whom they bought and to whom they were selling, just like with bank operations.” National digital currency may be introduced in Russia https://t.co/1gkNjB54f0pic.twitter.com/j6cLfvaCwH — RT (@RT_com) May 29, 2016 Last year the idea of a national cryptocurrency had been considered by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, which would see the banning of all other virtual currencies in Russia. The idea had not been discussed by the Kremlin, however, according to Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov at the time. Russian officials had been opposing all virtual currencies, arguing their cross-border nature, transaction anonymity and lack of a supervisory body makes them the perfect vehicle for illegal transactions. In 2014, Moiseev suggested a ban on cryptocurrencies could be introduced because of their use to fund illegal activities such as money laundering, the buying of illicit goods, rendering illegal services or funding terrorism.

Travelers acquires major stake in Canadian insurtech

US insurer Travelers has acquired a 60% stake for $16m in Toronto based business insurance firm, Zensurance.  Zensurance’s solution allows companies to access insurance pricing packages, the firm has signed on over 2500 business with 40 insurers. Zensurance believe the additional expertise will enhance their access to US and European markets, make their pricing more accurate and insurance contracts more accessible; allowing Zensurance grow organically. Their digital service has been particularly popular with start ups.

https://betakit.com/us-insurance-giant-travelers-acquires-majority-stake-in-zensurance/

Toronto-based Zensurance has secured significant financing from American insurance giant Travelers, BetaKit has learned. Documents obtained by BetaKit revealed that through a wholly-owned subsidiary, The Travelers Companies Inc. has acquired a majority stake in the Canadian FinTech startup, now owning approximately 60 percent of the company’s issued and outstanding shares. Zensurance CEO Danish Yusuf and CTO Sultan Mehrabi will retain just over a third of ownership in the company. Sources familiar with the deal placed the acquisition price at roughly $16 million CAD. Since raising a $1 million seed in 2016, Zensurance, which helps businesses find and manage their insurance packages, has signed on over 2,500 businesses and currently works with over 40 insurers. Speaking with BetaKit, Yusuf and Mehrabi declined to confirm the financing amount, but did share insight into how the company would use the cash injection, as well as their motivations behind the decision to work with Travelers. “There’s no surprise when a large company comes and takes a stake, ultimately they want to own the rest of the company at some point. But that’s something we’ll deal with in the future.” – Danish Yusuf The pair indicated that working with the publicly-traded insurance giant is an opportunity to get more insight into the insurance industry and build up Zensurance’s technology stack. At the moment, Zensurance’s solution allows companies to access pricing on insurance packages when they’re available and pre-authorize payments; when they aren’t available, Zensurance has a built-in dashboard to check on the status of applications. Working with Travelers will give provide Zensurance expertise on accessing and evaluating European, Canadian, and American data to make its pricing more accurate and signing insurance contracts more accessible. “It’s not Travelers’ proprietary data that we would get access to, but just their expertise and experts that can help us look at the data that we have and maybe data that we can buy from outside,” said Yusuf. Zensurance is currently operating independently of Travelers, and the goal is to continue working with more insurance companies. The team is also working on getting the authority to bind insurance contracts in real-time through the platform, rather than relying on insurance companies to make that last step. “One of the big things for us is, like in most FinTechs, the backend is really, really messy and insurance companies move extremely slowly, so when we have the opportunity to work with an insurance company that would open the door for us, it’s quite exciting,” said Yusuf. “Particularly, Travelers is one of the largest insurance companies in the US and they have a global presence.” Travelers is the second largest writer of US commercial property insurance, and the third largest writer of US personal insurance through independent agents. The company, which also offers home and car insurance, surpassed $28 billion USD in revenue in 2017. While the company had the option to pursue more traditional routes of funding like VC, Zensurance’s co-founders said that working with Travelers would give them better access to expertise and continue building their platform. “You have to kind of look at where you are and how quickly you can get to where you want to be, and sometimes partnerships are helpful to get you there,” said Mehrabi. “People we’ve met throughout the process were absolutely fantastic…there’s sometimes this stigma in an entrepreneur’s mind about working with industry partners. I think if you just approach it with an open mind, you’ll be surprised.” In March 2017, Travelers acquired UK-based Simply Business, an online platform that also sells insurance to small businesses, for $664 million CAD. For Travelers, it was an opportunity to get more insight into a growing digital vertical for insurance. Yusuf said that this deal is similar in the sense that Travelers will get insight from Zensurance on what’s next in insurtech, and did not deny the possibility of a potential future acquisition. “That’s something we’ll have to deal with down the line in the future,” he said. “Now there’s no surprise when a large company comes and takes a stake, ultimately they want to own the rest of the company at some point. But that’s something we’ll deal with in the future.” While working out of the DMZ in Toronto, Zensurance signed on fellow companies in the office to kickstart its growth. While tech companies have been a strong area for Zensurance, Yusuf and Mehrabi admitted surprise at the company’s customer demographics thus far. While they expected millennials to be major users of the platform, the two say the majority of its users are not, and the company has found a lot of interest in rural areas where it’s difficult to access in-person services. Large international companies have also began using the platform, going beyond Zensurance’s founding mission to serve smaller businesses. However, startups have remained a key factor for Zensurance’s growth. While working out of the DMZ in Toronto, Zensurance signed on fellow companies in the office to kickstart its growth, and also leveraged fellow startups like Curexe and Humi to build its own business. With its recent funding round, Zensurance’s trend of the ecosystem giving back continues, as the financing has led to a successful liquidity event for The Upside Foundation (disclosure: BetaKit is also an Upside member). These proceeds will go to the SickKids Foundation through the Tech4SickKids initiative, which is constructing a state-of-the-art emergency suite at SickKids hospital. “Supporting Tech4SickKids is important to us because technology is in our blood–from leveraging innovative UX design practices, to using data analytics, we aim to revolutionize the insurance industry with our software,” Mehrabi said. “At the same time, we always want to ensure that we are doing something to support our communities as we build our company. When we heard about Upside Foundation and this opportunity to create that impact just by pledging a small portion of our equity, we knew we had to jump on it immediately.” The pair noted that most of the funding will go towards expanding the company’s tech and product team. “I think we expect to be 40 [people] by the end of the year,” Mehrabi said, though the stretch goal is 50 employees. With files from Douglas Soltys and Amira Zubairi.

Google Fiber could revolutionise students’ broadband access

Up to 5m US households with school-age children lack broadband in the home creating a "homework gap," and more than 75% of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access, according to the Consortium of School Networking. However, Google Fiber is tacking the gap in some cities like Kansas City, Sat Lake City and Austin with three programmes: ConnectHome provides free home internet services to low-income housing projects; Community Leaders Programme recruits college students to give free digital literacy training to small businesses and individual learners; and Create Your World (CYW) is a free interactive coding and Internet workshop.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/05/11/3-google-fiber-programs-that-could-help-ease-the-digital-divide/

Google’s affordable broadband service is already impacting some communities and schools The latest Digital Equity report from the Consortium of School Networking paints a picture of an educational environment where schools are at least on the right path to providing access to high-speed wi-fi within their walls (though there is still plenty of work to be done). An equally pressing problem is the fact that the number of pupils with fast connectivity dwindles as they move away from their K-12 hubs—and the divide deepens even further when issues like socioeconomic status, income, and race are taken into account. According to The Pew Research Center, 82.5 percent of American households with school-age children currently have broadband access at home. This is approximately 9 percentage points higher than the broadband adoption rates across all households, CoSN reports, but there are still 5 million households with school-age children which lack broadband in the home. “Students in these households experience what is being labeled the ‘homework gap,’” reported CoSN, pointing out that more than 75 percent of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access. As new pedagogies like blended and flipped learning gain in popularity in the K-12 space, the need for high-speed at home has grown exponentially. In some U.S. cities, Google Fiber, which provides an internet connection speed of up to one gigabit per second (1,000 Mbit/s), is attempting to reduce the size of the homework gap. Key cities where the service is currently available include Kansas City, Mo.; Salt Lake City; and Austin. “Google Fiber offers a wonderful data package to its home subscribers. I have it at my home in Lees Summit and it has met my every expectation,” said Thomas Brenneman, executive director of technology at Kansas City Public Schools, which has had access to Google Fiber since 2012 and is currently implementing Google Classroom and a Chromebook initiative in its high schools. “I am also pleased to see that Google is offering data drops to homes in the urban core. This will certainly help diminish the data divide that we face today.” Google’s strategy A spokesperson for Google provided background on—but would not speak on the record about—three programs that are impacting (or that could impact) the K-12 community: ConnectHome , the Community Leaders Program (CLP) , and the Create Your World (CYW) program. Next page: A rundown of 3 Google Fiber programs [image via ramseymohsen/flickr]

Google Fiber could revolutionise students’ broadband access

Up to 5m US households with school-age children lack broadband in the home creating a "homework gap," and more than 75% of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access, according to the Consortium of School Networking. However, Google Fiber is tacking the gap in some cities like Kansas City, Sat Lake City and Austin with three programmes: ConnectHome provides free home internet services to low-income housing projects; Community Leaders Programme recruits college students to give free digital literacy training to small businesses and individual learners; and Create Your World (CYW) is a free interactive coding and Internet workshop.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/is-google-fiber-a-broadband-game-changer-for-inner-city-rural-schools/419033/

Dive Brief: The Consortium of School Networking reports 5 million households with school-age children still don't have broadband access at home, and three new Google Fiber programs aim to change that. Currently, Google Fiber is available in Kansas City, MO; Salt Lake City; and Austin, offering data packages to home subscribers. Three new programs called ConnectHome, the Community Leaders Program (CLP) and the Create Your World (CYW) program may potentially help K-12 schools. ConnectHome would bring free internet access to public housing projects, CLP offers free digital literacy training to small businesses and individual learners and CYW is a free interactive workshop to engage young people in coding and the Internet. Dive Insight: Inner-city and rural schools particularly stand to gain from the new Google Fiber programs, especially if they can be used in conjunction with initiatives like the FCC's E-rate program. Subsidies from that program can help districts defray substantial costs associated with increasing internet connectivity and instating modern hardware in school buildings. Last year, E-rate funding requests totaled $3.9 billion, and this year they're estimated to be around $5.8 billion. The E-Rate program supports President Barack Obama's ConnectED initiative, which aims to provide high-speed Internet access to 99% of classrooms by 2018. Yet connectivity remains evasive for some school systems. Some cities and states have struggled with E-Rate fraud. For schools lacking fiber or broadband connections, satellite connections can also help. This option can help bring connectivity to disadvantaged rural areas, where setting up the infrastructure needed by large telecom providers may prove prohibitively expensive. According to the Consortium for School Networking's (CoSN) third annual "E-rate and Infrastructure" report, which surveyed 531 district and tech officials, 25% of respondents said that "none of their schools currently meets the FCC's short-term goal" for connectivity.

Regus Regus opens doors to fifth business centre in Leeds

Regus has responded to demand for flexible office space in Leeds by opening its fifth business centre in the UK city, where it aims to attract local small businesses, remote workers and start-ups. Regus has taken up the 17th and 18th floors of the iconic Pinnacle building, and will offer a range of offices and meeting rooms, as well as more than 150 workstations.

http://www.commercialnewsmedia.com/archives/68472

Global workspace provider Regus has opened the doors to its fifth business centre in Leeds in response to the increased demand for workspace on flexible terms from the city’s professionals. The centre occupies the 17th and 18th floors (948 sq m) of Pinnacle, one of the city’s most iconic buildings. It houses over 150 workstations and offers a range of flexible working options including co-working space, offices of varying sizes, Virtual Office services and meeting rooms. Regus expects the facility to be popular with a wide range of users including local small businesses, start-ups and remote workers as well as national firms opening satellite offices and global businesses establishing a footprint in the local area. Pinnacle benefits from a central location, and is close to numerous shops, restaurants and bars. It is located just six minutes’ walk from Leeds Central Station and half an hour’s drive from Leeds Bradford International Airport. To celebrate the opening, a launch party is being held at the centre on Wednesday November 29th. Guests will have the chance to network and view the new workspace over canapés and hot food from the renowned Ox Club restaurant and a range of specially selected cocktails and refreshments from the bartenders at The Alchemist. Talented Yorkshire singer and guitarist John Gatenby will be providing the entertainment. Richard Morris, UK CEO, Regus, comments: “We’re excited to be opening our latest Leeds workspace in response to strong demand for flexible workspace in the city. Sitting at the gateway between the city’s business and retail districts, Pinnacle is the perfect, strategic location to base a business in Leeds.”

China's Wanfeng Auto buys majority stake in Canada's Diamond Aircraft

Chinese manufacturer of automobile and aviation industry parts Wanfeng Auto Holding Group has bought 60% of the Canadian division of Diamond Aircraft, an aviation manufacturer. The investment will support a stronger focus on US and global markets, globally expanded production and improved sales and service, Diamond Canada has said. Under Wanfeng's control, Diamond Canada has acquired all rights to the DA62 and DA40 engine options from Diamond Austria and can review the future of the D-jet or a derivative.

http://www.flyingmag.com/chinese-company-buys-majority-stake-diamond-aircraft-canada

Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc., Canada surprised much of the industry when on December 13 it sold 60 percent of the company’s shares to Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, a diverse Chinese manufacturer of parts for both the automobile and the aviation industry. An English-language news outlet in China, CRJEnglish, said the deal was closed at Diamond’s London, Ontario factory. Diamond Canada said the investment would support globally expanded production, sales and service, with a stronger focus on the U.S. market. Wanfeng is reportedly interested in growing the aviation arm of the Asia-based company. Through this investment, Diamond Canada has acquired all rights to the DA62 and DA40 (both Lycoming and Austro engine options) from Diamond Austria. Diamond Canada also said the investment will allow the companies to review the future of the D-Jet, or a derivative. While the sale puts Diamond Aircraft Industries Canada solidly under Wanfeng’s control, Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH, as well as Austro Engine GmbH, remain under 100 percent control of Austria operations and independent of this transaction. Wanfeng also focuses on robotics and the financial industry.

Microsoft is helping to transform the fan experience

New technologies allow greater insights into the interactions sports fans have with teams and players. The fan experience is not just the video of the event – it’s the commentary, the stats, the inserts, the subtitling, the navigation and sharing options, the social viewing possibilities, the immersive experiences, and many more elements which together create an experience beyond simply watching the sport. Personalizer, an API service that is part of Cognitive Services, is used to create personalised experiences by helping client applications select content to show users. Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help gain audience insights and improve fan experiences through targeted recommendations. Real Madrid used Dynamics 365 to directly connect with its 450m global supporters.

https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/microsoft-is-helping-to-transform-the-fan-experience-111873

The pandemic, climate crises, geopolitical conflicts and other unprecedented events of the past few years are forcing governments around the world to reconsider how they approach everything from transport to building management. The concept of smart cities has been long talked about but has yet to come to full fruition. However, we now have several factors coming together to create the perfect storm for the public sector to make good progress to achieve it. There has never been such an exciting time in the industry. We’re experiencing an influx of investment through stimulus funding of around €782 billion ($901 billion). Available to European governments, this money must be spent on the public sector before 2027. Of this, 37 per cent must be spent on climate-related activity and 20 per cent on digital transformation. Such a significant investment has attracted the attention of the technology vendor community; they want to know what they can do in the public sector, and specifically within cities. There are some major challenges ahead, which I call ‘the five survival basics’: energy, water, food, homes and identity. Energy is the top one, and I don’t think that’s going to change very quickly. Water is second – water tables are dipping below retrievable levels. The UK’s water systems really highlight the lack of investment in infrastructure, for example, with Northeast London still using wooden pipes that were laid in the 18th century. Smart homes are also critically important, and it’s a major area of interest in which the public sector can really influence what is being developed. Local authorities are now creating the master plans for built infrastructure and are demanding innovations, such as smart lighting, 5G, digital twins and circular economy technologies for their citizens. Until now, technology companies have tried to sell holistic solutions directly to cities but not seen much traction because no one has the concomitant authority and budget to implement city-wide solutions that make a real difference. We are now seeing new ecosystems developing as these vendors have realised the value of taking a channel approach, where they work alongside architects, engineers, construction firms, commercial real estate companies and others to build an interconnected, data-enabled infrastructure for cities. As part of this, these stakeholders are being forced to consider how they provide technologies for the full life cycle of buildings. They no longer just design buildings, they must now design, build, maintain and demolish and recycle them. It’s in their best interests to make sure that these structures are both sustainable and cost-effective while they are in use, and once they have been demolished and recycled. That’s a big change for them and they need the technology – such as digital twins – that will allow them to make the best use of the facilities they have. Joe Dignan is European head of government insights at IDC This article was originally published in the Autumn 2022 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.

Germany adds 5.3 GW of onshore wind in 2017

Germany has a wind turbine capacity of 50,777 MW after adding 5,333 MW of onshore wind and decommissioning 467 MW of old turbines last year, according to a report by Deutsche WindGuard GmbH. In 2018, 3,500 MW of onshore wind turbines are forecast to be installed in the country, according to the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association and the German Wind Energy Association. Gross capacity additions for 2017 increased 15% on the previous year. From 2017, wind and solar projects of over 750 kW were required to compete in tenders, whereas wind was previously supported by tariffs.

https://renewablesnow.com/news/germany-installs-53-gw-of-onshore-wind-in-2017-599675/

Germany added 5,333 MW of new onshore wind last year and decommissioned 467 MW of old turbines, so the country’s cumulative capacity arrived at 50,777 MW. At the end of 2017, the country had 28,675 of operational onshore turbines, of which 1,792 were put on stream in the past 12 months, a report by Deutsche WindGuard GmbH shows. The average capacity of turbines installed in 2017 was 2.976 MW. Lower Saxony is the number-one wind state in Germany with a total capacity of 10,582 MW, followed by Schleswig-Holstein with 6,863 MW. The gross capacity additions for 2017 were up 15% over 2016. Net additions came at 4,866 MW. The newly commissioned wind farms in 2017 included 952 MW of re-powering projects. Deployment of wind in the country was previously supported by feed-in tariffs, but from the start of 2017 wind and solar projects bigger than 750 kW have to compete in tenders. Projects that secured approval under the old system by end-2016 have two years to be implemented, so 2017 and 2018 deployment figures include mainly transitional wind projects. According to a forecast by the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) and the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), Germany will see the installation of 3,500 MW of onshore wind turbines in 2018. Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!

South Korea fires warning shots at Russian jets

South Korea has fired warning shots at Russian military planes. Seoul said it scrambled fighter jets in response to a number of Russian military aircraft entering its airspace on the east coast on two occasions. The defence military said the incursions were the first ever by Russian jets.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190723000423

This marked the first time that a foreign military plane has violated Korea's territorial sky and South Korea fired warning shots in response. It was also the first time that Russian and Chinese aircraft entered KADIZ simultaneously.South Korea's foreign ministry summoned Maxim Volkov, the No. 2 diplomat at the Russian Embassy here, to lodge a formal complaint.It also called in Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Qiu Guohong to file a protest."(The ministry) called in the deputy chief of the Russian Embassy to lodge a stern protest and call for the prevention of a recurrence," Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu said.The Russian early warning plane first entered KADIZ at 09:01 and flew further into the airspace after 8 minutes."The Air Force instantly deployed multiple jets, including F-15Ks and F-16Ks, and sent warning messages to it in accordance with operation manuals. But the plane did not respond, so one of our aircraft fired some 10 rounds of flares and 80 warning shots," a JCS officer said.The Russian aircraft then left the airspace after three minutes, and finally flew out of KADIZ at around 9:15 a.m, he added.At around 9:33 a.m., however, it again encroached upon South Korean airspace. Following stronger military actions involving around 280 rounds of warning shots, the aircraft left the airspace four minutes later. It finally flew out of the air defense zone at 9:56 a.m.Before the airspace infringement took place, two Russian and two Chinese bombers violated KADIZ earlier in the day, according to the officers.At around 6:44 a.m., two Chinese H-6s flew into KADIZ from northwest of South Korea's Ieodo, a submerged rock south of the southern island of Jeju, and stayed for about 30 minutes.At 7:49 a.m., they re-entered the air defense zone from the south of the eastern island of Ulleung, and stayed there about 30 minutes before leaving the zone heading northward.The Chinese aircraft then joined two Russian TU-50s and flew southward together over the East Sea. The four entered KADIZ at around 8:40 a.m. for a 25-minute flight, according to the JCS officer.Later in the day, at around 13:11 p.m., the two Russian bombers again entered KADIZ and left the zone 27 minutes, he added.Taken all together, the Russian aircraft stayed in KADIZ for about 93 minutes, and the Chinese warplanes stayed there for 85 minutes."More analysis is needed for their joint flight, which is quite unusual, as well as their intentions and other details," the officer said, adding that military authorities have not received any responses from the countries regarding the incidents.A military official said that it appears that the Russian and Chinese aircraft have conducted joint military drills, which he said is unusual.The purpose of their joint flight and intentions behind the series of breaches were not immediately clear.Some speculate that Tuesday's air drills might be intended as a show of force against joint drills between the United States and South Korea scheduled for next month.The latest development coincided with US National Security Adviser John Bolton's arrival in Seoul for discussions with high-ranking officials here on issues expected to include the North's denuclearizationAn air defense identification zone is an area of the skies declared by a state for the early identification and location of foreign planes approaching its territorial airspace to prevent infiltration by foreign planes and accidental clashes. It is not defined in any international law or treaty.KADIZ violations by foreign aircraft have occurred intermittently. So far this year, Chineses military aircraft have entered the KADIZ 25 times and Russian airplanes 13 times, according to the JCS. (Yonhap)

2016 UK Budget fails to surprise on the upside for renewables 

Prior to the Budget yesterday, expectations were low among sustainability professionals and green groups., wanting clarity on climate levy control, action on air quality, improved energy efficiency support for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) and a reversal on Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) cancellation. The Chancellor, George Osbourne provided some positive news on carbon reporting regulations and £730m of , cContracts for dDifference (CfFD) auctions s, wto fund onshore wind and less-established technologies.new funding for energy storage and Energy Demand Management (EDM) technologies. Notably he accepted the National Infrastructure Commission's conclusion, that the future of the electricity system should be diversified,. aAllocating , GBP £50m to research and development for R&D in energy storage and demand managementresponse technology, effectively endorsing 9GW of interconnection with Europethe Continent. In addition, renewable energy subsides of £GBP750m will be made available, providing continuity in building offshore wind farms. However, there was no further investment for onshore wind, biomass and solar energy, raising concerns over support for low carbon transition. CfDs proposed to fund onshore wind? Is the £750 additional to the CfDs?

http://www.edie.net/news/11/Budget-2016-energy-environment-green-policy-George-Osborne-key-points/

Join our growing army of changemakers and get unlimited access to our premium content Delivering his eighth Budget announcement to a lively House of Commons this afternoon, Osborne provided some positive news on carbon reporting regulations and the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, and also confirmed new funding for energy storage and demand-side response technologies. But the Chancellor failed to answer a number of other key green policy questions. (Scroll down for full 2016 Budget document). Carbon Reduction Commitment In a packed Budget that “puts the next generation first”, Osborne confirmed that the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) will be abolished, with effect from the end of the 2018-19 compliance year. The official Budget document states that the CRC will be replaced, “in a revenue-neutral way”, with an increase in the Climate Change Levy (CCL) from 2019 – although this CCL rise does mean that renewable energy generators will now have to pay a higher tax, as the Chancellor controversially removed the CCL exemption for clean energy generation in last year’s Budget. Osborne said: “Many retailers have complained bitterly to me about the complexity of the Carbon Reduction Commitment – it’s not a commitment, it’s a tax. So I can tell the House, we’re not going to reform it. Instead, I’ve decided to abolish it altogether… the most energy-intensive industries remain completely protected and I’m extending the climate change agreements that help many others.” Contracts for Difference The Chancellor went on to confirm that £730m will be dedicated to the next wave of Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions for offshore wind and “other less-established technologies” – double the amount put into the first CfD auction. “The Energy Secretary and I are announcing £730m in further auctions to back renewable technologies and we’re now inviting bids to help develop the next generation of small modular reactors,” Osborne said. The official Budget document reads: “The government will auction Contracts for Difference of up to £730m this Parliament for up to 4GW of offshore wind and other less established renewables, with a first auction of £290m. Support for offshore wind will be capped initially at £105/MWh (in 2011-12 prices), falling to £85/MWh for projects commissioning by 2026.” Energy storage/demand-side response Following the newly-formed National Infrastructure Commission’s report into the UK’s future low-carbon energy system, the Budget document states that the government will allocate “at least £50m” for innovation in energy storage, demand-side response and other smart technologies over the next five years Osborne offered little positivity for the green economy from there on. In the same breath as announcing the scrapping of the CRC, the Chancellor agreed to provide yet more support for the UK’s fossil fuel industries in the form of tax cuts for oil and gas – the supplementary charge for oil and gas producers will fall from 20% to 10%. Nuclear energy The document states that the Government will launch the first stage of a competition to identify a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) to be built in the UK, and will publish an SMR delivery roadmap later this year. It will also allocate at least £30m of funding for R&D in advanced nuclear manufacturing. Osborne gave no mention of Hinkley power plant in today’s speech, and there is no mention of it in the full Budget document. Flood defence spending Budget 2016 announces an additional boost to spending on flood defence and resilience of over £700m by 2020-21. This is a welcome boost for Defra, given that this time last year we were reporting that the Department was struggling to fill a £600m black hole in its flood defence spending that was expected to be filled by businesses and local authorities. Air quality Osborne gave no mention of this critical issue in his speech, but the full Budget document does include new measures to support the transition to cleaner, zero and ultra-low emission vehicles Specifically, the Government says it will: Extend the 100% First Year Allowance (FYA) for businesses purchasing low-emission cars for a further three years, to April 2021. Reduce the main rate threshold for capital allowances for business cars to 110 grams/kilometre of CO2 and the FYA threshold to 50 grams/kilometre of CO2 from April 2018. Continue to base Company Car Tax on CO2 emissions of cars, and consult on reforming the lower CO2 bands for ultra-low emission vehicles to refocus incentives on the cleanest cars beyond 2020-21. High hopes dashed Going into the 2016 Budget, hopes were high but expectations were understandable low among sustainability professionals and green groups. Clarity over the Levy Control Framework, more ambitious action on air quality, better support for SMEs on energy efficiency and a U-turn on the controversial CCS cancellation were all on our wishlist, but none received a mention today. The most significant green policy announcement this week came a day before the budget, when Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom announced that the UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal. Ultimately, though, this was another Budget that failed to rise to the challenge set by the ambitious Paris Agreement, and Osborne just hasn’t quite delivered the Easter egg of green pledges we were all hoping for. View the full green business reaction here. Budget 2016 full document Luke Nicholls

Sotheby's at risk following huge first quarter loss

Art auctioneers Sotheby’s has reported a Q1 loss of $25.9m, but President and CEO Tad Smith said the company’s second quarter had several “high points”, including a 17% rise in Hong Kong sales. Sotheby’s has seen a 33% drop in commissions, reflecting the general market trend, but has also witnessed the departures of several key members of staff, as well as the controversial acquisition of Art Agency, Partners and the A. Alfred Taubman collection, which cost the company USD 509m.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/arts/design/sothebys-posts-first-quarter-loss-amid-tumult.html?_r=0

On Monday, as the spring auction season began in New York, Sotheby’s announced a $25.9 million loss for the first quarter of 2016, compared to income of $5.2 million the year before. The publicly held auction house said that the loss was unremarkable, having posted a first quarter loss for 22 out of the last 25 years. Still, Sotheby’s could have used some good news at a time when the art world is watching to see whether the tumultuous changes wrought by the company’s president and chief executive, Tad Smith, are paying off. Mr. Smith has invited this kind of scrutiny by spending up to $85 million for a boutique art advisory business in January even as he reduced staff by 80 people through buyouts, incurring an expense of $40 million. The reorganization included bringing in Amy Cappellazzo, a former Christie’s executive and co-founder of the acquired Art Agency, Partners, to lead a new fine art division, above several of Sotheby’s longtime specialists. This helped contribute to the departures of more than a dozen executives, resulting in a significant brain drain for the auction house, several art experts said.

Fast.ai students show Google's ML code can occasionally be beaten

Students from Fast.ai have created an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that beats Google's machine learning (ML) code. Fast.ai runs free ML courses online and its team built an algorithm that outperforms Google's, as measured with DAWNBench benchmark. Google previously topped rankings in the category for training on several machines, but Fast.ai was able to run something even faster, on nearly equivalent hardware.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611858/small-team-of-ai-coders-beats-googles-code/

Fast.ai consists of part-time students keen to try their hand at machine learning—and perhaps transition into a career in data science. It rents access to computers in Amazon’s cloud. But Fast.ai’s team built an algorithm that beats Google’s code, as measured using a benchmark called DAWNBench, from researchers at Stanford. This benchmark uses a common image classification task to track the speed of a deep-learning algorithm per dollar of compute power. Google’s researchers topped the previous rankings, in a category for training on several machines, using a custom-built collection its own chips designed specifically for machine learning. The Fast.ai team was able to produce something even faster, on roughly equivalent hardware. “State-of-the-art results are not the exclusive domain of big companies,” says Jeremy Howard, one of Fast.ai’s founders and a prominent AI entrepreneur. Howard and his cofounder, Rachel Thomas, created Fast.ai to make AI more accessible and less exclusive. Howard’s team was able to compete with the likes of Google by doing a lot of simple things, which are detailed in a blog post. These include making sure that the images fed to its training algorithm were cropped correctly: “These are the obvious, dumb things that many researchers wouldn’t even think to do,” Howard says. The code needed to run the learning algorithm on several machines was developed by a collaborator at the Pentagon’s new Defense Innovation Unit, created recently to help the military work with AI and machine learning. Matei Zaharia, a professor at Stanford University and one of the creators of DAWNBench, says the Fast.ai work is impressive, but notes that for many AI tasks large amounts of data and significant compute resources are still key. The Fast.ai algorithm was trained on the ImageNet database in 18 minutes using 16 Amazon Web Service instances, at a total compute cost of around $40. Howard claims this is about 40 percent better than Google’s effort, although he admits comparison is tricky because the hardware is different. Jack Clark, director of communications and policy at OpenAI, a nonprofit, says Fast.ai has produced valuable work in other areas such as language understanding. “Things like this benefit everyone because they increase the basic familiarity of people with AI technology,” Clark says.

TalkTalk BT claims better Wi-Fi coverage

UK internet service provider BT has claimed its routers provide better Wi-Fi coverage than rivals TalkTalk, EE, Virgin Media, Sky Broadband and Plusnet. Testing took place in BT's multi-storey test home, 800m from any other house, with four separate rooms over three floors. The results table showed BT's Smart Hubs 1 and 2 came out on top, although TalkTalk's hub was a close second. However, the analysis only examined data transfer performance over the 2.4 GHz band and did not include latency data or testing of 5 GHz.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/11/bt-publish-wifi-speedtests-for-new-smart-hub-2-router-vs-rival-isps.html

Wednesday, Nov 28th, 2018 (12:01 am) - Score 23,239 BT has complemented the launch of their new Smart Hub 2 router (here) by publishing an updated study of WiFi speedtests, which pitted their kit against routers from TalkTalk, EE, Virgin Media, Sky Broadband and Plusnet. Unsurprisingly the UK ISP claims to provid “better wi-fi coverage” than all of them. Apparently the testing, which only examined data transfer performance of the wireless local area network (latency etc. wasn’t considered), was based on the IEEE802.11T WLAN Test Methods. But BT’s claim of offering “better wi-fi coverage” is said to only reflect the 2.4GHz band (not 5GHz) “because this gives the best coverage.” The testing itself was conducted in BT’s special WiFi test house, which has several floors and is situated in a remote rural test facility some 800 metres from any other buildings. Room A is right next to the router, while room B was a little further away on the same level, room C was one floor up and room D was two floors up at the edge of coverage for 2.4GHz (see picture – top left). NOTE: The limits of 5GHz meant that only Room A and B were tested for that. The same setup and testing method (involving “hundreds of data points“) was adopted for each router using “normal customer activities.” Overall BT’s Smart Hub 2 and their original Smart Hub 1 broadly topped the results table, although TalkTalk’s new Wi-Fi Hub came pleasingly close. The testing also included EE’s Smart Hub (re-branded BT Smart Hub), Plusnet’s Hub One (re-branded and tweaked BT Home Hub 5A), Virgin Media’s SuperHub v3 + v2AC and Sky Broadband’s Sky Q Hub. The full report (PDF) also includes upload speeds, although to save space we’ve only published the download scores below. As usual we’d always recommend taking such results with a pinch of salt because they have not come from an independent source, although BT’s testing does seem to have been reasonably fair. One interesting observation, which was alluded to in the router specs, is that the new Smart Hub 2 does not appear to differ much from the Smart Hub 1 in terms of WiFi performance.

The biggest data breach fines, penalties and settlements so far

In the UK British Airways was hit with a record $230 million penalty, followed shortly by a $124 million fine for Marriott. In the US Equifax agreed to pay a minimum of $575 million for its 2017 breach. This comes after an active 2018. Uber's poor handling of its 2016 breach cost it close to $150 million.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3410278/the-biggest-data-breach-fines-penalties-and-settlements-so-far.html

Sizable fines assessed for data breaches since 2019 suggest that regulators are getting more serious about organizations that don’t properly protect consumer data. Marriott was hit with a $124 million fine, later reduced, while Equifax agreed to pay a minimum of $575 million for its 2017 breach. Now, the Equifax fine has been eclipsed by the $1.19 billion fine levied against the Chinese firm Didi Global for violating that nation's data protection laws, and by the $877 million fine against Amazon last year for running afoul of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Here are the biggest fines and penalties assessed for data breaches or non-compliance with security and privacy laws. 1. Didi Global: $1.19 billion Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global was fined 8.026 billion yuan ($1.19 billion) by the Cyberspace Administration of China after it decided that the company violated the nations’ network security law, data security law, and personal information protection law. In a statement, Didi Global said it accepted the cybersecurity regulators' decision, which came after a year-long investigation into the firm over its security practices and “suspected illegal activities.” 2. Amazon: $877 million In summer 2021, retail giant Amazon’s financial records revealed that officials in Luxembourg issued a €746 million ($877 million) for breaches of the GDPR. According to a blog post by cybersecurity vendor Tessian, the full reasons behind the fine haven’t yet been confirmed, but it is believed to involve cookie consent. Amazon is said to be appealing the fine, with a spokesperson stating, “There has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party.” 3. Equifax: (At least) $575 Million 2017 saw Equifax lose the personal and financial information of nearly 150 million people due to an unpatched Apache Struts framework in one of its databases. The company had failed to fix a critical vulnerability months after a patch had been issued and then failed to inform the public of the breach for weeks after it been discovered. In July 2019 the credit agency agreed to pay $575 million -- potentially rising to $700 million -- in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and all 50 U.S. states and territories over the company’s "failure to take reasonable steps to secure its network." $300 million of that will go to a fund providing affected consumers with credit monitoring services (another $125 million will be added if the initial payment is not enough to compensate consumers), $175 million will go to 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and $100 million will go to the CFPB. The settlement also requires the company to obtain third-party assessments of its information security program every two years. “Companies that profit from personal information have an extra responsibility to protect and secure that data,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “Equifax failed to take basic steps that may have prevented the breach that affected approximately 147 million consumers.” Equifax had already been fined £500,000 [~$625,000] in the UK for the 2017 breach, which was the maximum fine allowed under the pre-GDPR Data Protection Act 1998. In 2020, Equifax was made to pay further settlements relating to the breach: $7.75 million (plus $2 million in legal fees) to financial institutions in the US plus $18.2 million and $19.5 million to the states of Massachusetts and Indiana respectively. 4. Instagram: $403 million In September 2022, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) fined Instagram for violating children’s privacy under the terms of the GDPR. The long-running complaint concerned data belonging to minors, particularly phone numbers and email addresses, which was made more public when some young users upgraded their profiles to business accounts to access analytics tools such as profile visits. Instagram’s owner, Meta, said it planned to appeal against the decision. “This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago and we’ve since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private,” a Meta official told BBC News. “While we’ve engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, we disagree with how this fine was calculated and intend to appeal it.” Andy Burrows, child-safety-online policy head at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said, “This was a major breach that had significant safeguarding implications and the potential to cause real harm to children using Instagram. The ruling demonstrates how effective enforcement can protect children on social media and underlines how regulation is already making children safer online.” 5. T-Mobile: $350 million In July 2022, mobile communications giant T-Mobile announced the terms of a settlement for a consolidated class action lawsuit following a data breach that occurred in early 2021, impacting an estimated 77 million people. The incident centered around “unauthorized access” to T-Mobile’s systems after a portion of customer data was listed for sale on a known cybercriminal forum. In an SEC filing, it was revealed that T-Mobile would pay an aggregate of $350 million to fund claims submitted by class members, the legal fees of plaintiffs’ counsel, and the costs of administering the settlement. The company would also commit to an aggregate incremental spend of $150 million for data security and related technology in 2022 and 2023. “The company anticipates that, upon court approval, the settlement will provide a full release of all claims arising out of the cyberattack by class members, who do not opt out, against all defendants, including the company, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and its directors and officers,” the filing read. “The settlement contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the defendants. Class members consist of all individuals whose personal information was compromised in the breach, subject to certain exceptions set forth in the agreement. The company believes that terms of the proposed settlement are in line with other settlements of similar types of claims,” it added. 6. Meta (Facebook): $277 million In November 2022, the Ireland Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta $277 million (€265 million) for the compromise of 500 million users’ personal information. The DPC started its inquiry on April 14, 2021, following reports of a collated data set of Facebook personal data that had been made available on the internet. The scope of the inquiry concerned an examination and assessment of Facebook Search, Facebook Messenger Contact Importer and Instagram Contact Importer tools in relation to processing carried out by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited ("MPIL") during the period between May 25, 2018, and September 2019. “The material issues in this inquiry concerned questions of compliance with the GDPR obligation for Data Protection by Design and Default,” the DPC wrote. “The DPC examined the implementation of technical and organisational measures pursuant to Article 25 GDPR (which deals with this concept). There was a comprehensive inquiry process, including cooperation with all of the other data protection supervisory authorities within the EU. Those supervisory authorities agreed with the decision of the DPC.” The decision imposed a reprimand and an order requiring MPIL to bring its processing into compliance by taking a range of specified remedial actions within a particular timeframe. 7. WhatsApp: $255 million Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp was fined €225 million ($255 million) in August 2021 for a series of GDPR cross-border data protection infringements in Ireland. The fine followed a lengthy investigation and enforcement process which began in 2018 and involved the Data Protection Commission’s proposed decision and sanctions being rejected by its counterpart European data protection regulators, resulting in a referral to and ruling from the European Data Protection Board. Allegations focused on complaints from users and non-users of WhatsApp’s services, involving alleged breaches of transparency and data subject information obligations under articles 12, 13 and 14 of the GDPR. 8. Home Depot: ~$200 million In 2014 Home Depot was involved in one of the largest data breaches to date involving a point-of-sale (POS) system, leading to a number of fines and settlements being paid. Stolen credentials from a third party enabled attackers to enter Home Depot’s network, elevate privileges, and eventually compromise the POS system. More than 50 million credit card numbers and 53 million email addresses were stolen over a five-month period between April and September 2014. Home Depot has reportedly paid out at least $134.5 million to credit card companies and banks as a result of the breach. In addition, in 2016 Home Depot agreed to pay $19.5 million to customers that had been affected by the breach, which included the cost of credit monitoring services to breach victims. In 2017 the firm agreed to pay an additional $25 million to the financial institutions affected by the breach that could be claimed by victims and cover banks’ losses. Breaches can have a longtail of costs, especially when it comes to fines and settlements. In November 2020, the retailer paid a further $17.5 million settlement to 46 US states and Washington DC for the breach. The agreement also compels Home Depot to employ a highly qualified CISO, provide security training for key personnel, and ensure security controls and policies in areas like identity and access, monitoring, and incident response. 9. Capital One: $190 million In December 2021, Capital One agreed to pay $190 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed against it by U.S. customers over a 2019 data breach that affected 100 million people. This settlement comes more than a year after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined Capital One $80 million for the same breach (see below). A software engineer at AWS was behind the attack, which exposed information including bank account details. “While Capital One and AWS deny all liability, in the interest of avoiding the time, expense and uncertainty of continued litigation, plaintiffs and Capital One have executed a term sheet containing the essential terms of a class settlement that, if approved by this court, will fully resolve all claims brought by plaintiffs,” a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia read. In an emailed statement, Capital One said that key facts in the case had not changed since it announced the event in coordination with federal authorities more than two years ago, with the hacker arrested and the stolen data recovered before it could be disseminated or used for fraudulent purposes. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that will resolve the consumer class litigation in the U.S.,” the company added. 10. Uber: $148 million In 2016 ride-hailing app Uber had 600,000 driver and 57 million user accounts breached. Instead of reporting the incident, the company paid the perpetrator $100,000 to keep the hack under wraps. Those actions, however, cost the company dearly. The company was fined $148 million in 2018 — the biggest data-breach fine in history at the time — for violation of state data breach notification laws. 11. Morgan Stanley: $120 million (total) In January 2022, investment bank and financial services giant Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $60 million to settle a legal claim relating to its data security. The agreement, if approved by a federal judge in Manhattan, will resolve a class-action lawsuit was that filed against the company in July 2020 regarding two security breaches that compromised the personal data of approximately 15 million customers. According to claimants, Morgan Stanley failed to protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of current and former clients. It is alleged data center equipment decommissioned by the firm in 2016 and 2019 was not efficiently wiped clean and a software flaw meant that unencrypted, sensitive data was visible to whoever purchased the equipment. The proposed claim settlement comes more than a year after Morgan Stanley was handed a separate $60 million civil penalty by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in relation to the same incidents. The OCC stated that Morgan Stanley failed “to exercise proper oversight of the 2016 decommissioning of two Wealth Management business data centers located in the U.S. Among other things, the banks failed to effectively assess or address risks associated with decommissioning its hardware; failed to adequately assess the risk of subcontracting the decommissioning work, including exercising adequate due diligence in selecting a vendor and monitoring its performance; and failed to maintain appropriate inventory of customer data stored on the decommissioned hardware devices.” In 2019, the banks experienced similar vendor management control deficiencies in connection with decommissioning other network devices that also stored customer data, the OCC added. In a statement on the recent settlement agreement, Morgan Stanley said: “We have previously notified all potentially impacted clients regarding these matters, which occurred several years ago, and are pleased to be resolving this related litigation.” 12. Google Ireland: 102 million Google Ireland was hit by a €90 million ($102 million) fine by French data protection authority the CNIL on January 6, 2022. The fine related to how Google’s European arm implements cookie consent procedures on YouTube. “The CNIL has received many complaints about the way cookies can be refused on the websites google.fr and youtube.com,” it wrote. “In June 2021, the CNIL carried out an online investigation on these websites and found that, while they offer a button allowing immediate acceptance of cookies, the sites do not implement an equivalent solution (button or other) enabling the user to refuse the deposit of cookies equally easily. Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, against a single one to accept them.” The restricted committee considered that this process affected the freedom of consent of internet users and constituted an infringement of Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act. Editor's note: This article, originally published in July 2019, is frequently updated as new information on incident penalties becomes available.

Axpo issues $141.5m green bond to finance wind and solar

Swiss energy utility Axpo has put a CHF133m ($141.5m) green bond in place to raise money for solar and wind projects. The bond, which was issued through a digital capital market platform run by fintech start-up Loanboox, will have a coupon rate of 1.002% over a seven-year term.

https://renewablesnow.com/news/swiss-axpo-places-green-bond-to-bankroll-pv-wind-projects-706828/

Swiss utility and energy trader Axpo Holding AG said it has successfully placed a green bond in the amount of CHF 133 million (USD 141.5m/EUR 123.8m) on the local capital market. The issuance was placed via a digital capital market platform. The green notes bear a coupon of 1.002% and have a term of seven years. The company said it will use the proceeds to fund photovoltaic (PV) and wind power projects. (CHF 1.0 = USD 1.064/EUR 0.931) Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!

Axpo issues $141.5m green bond to finance wind and solar

Swiss energy utility Axpo has put a CHF133m ($141.5m) green bond in place to raise money for solar and wind projects. The bond, which was issued through a digital capital market platform run by fintech start-up Loanboox, will have a coupon rate of 1.002% over a seven-year term.

https://www.energate-messenger.ch/news/204030/axpo-platziert-green-bond

energate-messenger-Website wieder eingeschränkt online! Nach dem Ausfall unserer Services infolge eines Cyberangriffs auf unseren IT-Dienstleister (mehr Infos hier) ist die Seite www.energate-messenger.de nun wieder - mit eingeschränkter Funktionalität - erreichbar. Wir stellen Ihnen auf dieser Seite ab sofort wieder aktuelle Energienachrichten aus der energate-Redaktion zur Verfügung. Alle Meldungen sind derzeit ohne Login erreichbar, Zusatzfunktionalitäten wie Marktdaten, Termine, Archiv etc. sind momentan noch nicht verfügbar. Wir arbeiten daran, unser Angebot in den nächsten Tagen wieder nach und nach um weitere Services zu erweitern.

Exclusive: BTMU, Hitachi test new check processing system in Singapore- Nikkei Asian Review

Hitachi, working together with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, has completed a prototype online cheque payment system based on blockchain. Although demand for these systems is low in Japan, the partnership has identified growth opportunities in the wider Asian market: Singapore completing 60% of its payments via cheque. Thus, trials for the group’s payment system begun in the country today, with hopes to commercialise it in 2018 at the earliest.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/BTMU-Hitachi-test-new-check-processing-system-in-Singapore

TOKYO -- Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Hitachi are developing a system for processing electronic check payments based on the blockchain concept behind the bitcoin digital currency. The effort, taking place in Singapore, marks the first overseas venture by such leading names in Japanese banking or industry in the emerging field of financial technology. It is a field where Japan's banks have made a slow start.

Engie and Nareva plan 100 MWp Tunisian solar project

Just a note that the date on the source is 15/1/20 and the story was covered in 'Engie consortium awarded 120 MWp in Tunisia solar tender' France’s Engie and Morocco’s Nareva have established a consortium to develop a TND275m ($98m) 120 MWp solar power project in the Gafsa region of Tunisia. The companies competed with several other consortia to win the contract. Engie and Nareva, part of the Al Mada Group, will sell the electricity produced at the Gafsa plant to the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas. Technical details of the project have yet to be released. The development is one of several Tunisian schemes awarded to independent power companies.

https://www.afrik21.africa/en/tunisia-engie-and-nareva-plan-to-build-a-100-mwp-solar-power-plant-in-gafsa/

The construction of a photovoltaic solar power plant in the governorate of Gafsa is taking shape. A consortium has recently been appointed by the Tunisian authorities to carry out the project. It is composed of the French giant Engie and the company Nareva, a subsidiary of the Al Mada group, based in Casablanca in Morocco. Several other consortia had responded to the Tunisian government’s call for tenders in 2018. Among them are the French companies Voltalia, Akuo Energy and GreenYellow. Acciona, Fotowatio, Canadian Solar and Acwa Power also competed in the second round of the call for expressions of interest for the construction of the Gafsa solar photovoltaic plant. Very few technical details are available on this renewable energy project. The installation will occupy a 400-hectare plot of land. The authorities indicate that the plant will have a capacity of 120 MWp. The construction cost of the installation would be around 275 million Tunisian dinars (87.7 million euros). Engie and Nareva will sell the MWh of electricity to the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (Steg) at 79.95 Tunisian dinars (25.5 euros). “The Gafsa plant should supply more than 100,000 Tunisian households per year and help avoid 150,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year,” says Engie. This plant is part of a series of solar projects whose concessions have been awarded in recent months to independent power producers (IPPs). In Tataouine, the Norwegian company Scatec Solar will build a 200 MWp photovoltaic solar power plant. The same company has been selected by the authorities to build two solar power plants of 50 MWp each in Tozeur and Sidi Bouzid. The Chinese company TBEA Xinjiang New Energy and the Emirati company Amea Power have been selected for the construction of a 100 MWp solar power plant in the governorate of Kairouan. The Tunisian government’s stated objective is to diversify the country’s electricity mix by producing 30% of its electricity from renewable energy sources. Jean Marie Takouleu

What is GDPR? The summary guide to GDPR compliance in the UK

On May 25, 2018, long-planned data protection reforms started to be enforced. The mutually agreed General Data Protection Regulation has now been in place for around two years. This has been designed to harmonise the data protection laws within the member countries. Whilst furthering the protection of the rights of the individual.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018

GDPR doesn't say what good security practices look like, as it's different for every organisation. A bank will have to protect information in a more robust way than your local dentist may need to. However, broadly, proper access controls to information should be put in place, websites should be encrypted, and pseudonymisation is encouraged. "Your cybersecurity measures need to be appropriate to the size and use of your network and information systems," the ICO says. If a data breach occurs, data protection regulators will look at a company's information security setup when determining any fines that may be issued. Cathay Pacific Airways was fined £500,000, under pre-GDPR laws, for exposing 111,578 of its UK customers' personal information. It was said the airline had "basic security inadequacies" within its setup. [h3]Accountability /h3] Accountability is the only new principle under GDPR – it was added to ensure companies can prove they are working to comply with the other principles that form the regulation. At it simplest, accountability can mean documenting how personal data is handled and the steps taken to ensure only people who need to access some information are able to. Accountability can also include training staff in data protection measures and regularly evaluating and data handling processes. The "destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to" people's data has to be reported to a country's data protection regulator where it could have a detrimental impact on those who it is about. This can include, but isn't limited to, financial loss, confidentiality breaches, damage to reputation and more. In the UK, the ICO has to be informed of a data breach 72 hours after an organisation finds out about it. An organisation also needs to tell the people the breach impacts. For companies that have more than 250 employees, there's a need to have documentation of why people's information is being collected and processed, descriptions of the information that's held, how long it's being kept for and descriptions of technical security measures in place. GDPR's Article 30 lays out that most organisations need to keep records of their data processing, how data is shared and also stored. Additionally, organisations that have "regular and systematic monitoring" of individuals at a large scale or process a lot of sensitive personal data have to employ a data protection officer (DPO). For many organisations covered by GDPR, this may mean having to hire a new member of staff – although larger businesses and public authorities may already have people in this role. In this job, the person has to report to senior members of staff, monitor compliance with GDPR and be a point of contact for employees and customers. The accountability principle can also be crucial if an organisation is being investigated for potentially breaching one of GDPR's principles. Having an accurate record of all systems in place, how information is processed and the steps taken to mitigate errors will help an organisation to prove to regulators that it takes its GDPR obligations seriously. What are my GDPR rights? While GDPR arguably places he biggest tolls on data controllers and processors, the legislation is designed to help protect the rights of individuals. As such there are eight rights laid out by GDPR. These range from allowing people to have easier access to the data companies hold about them and for it to also be deleted in some scenarios. The full GDPR rights for individuals are: the right to be informed, the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, the right to object and also rights around automated decision making and profiling.

TalkTalk North Yorkshire begins work on full fibre network

North Yorkshire County Council-owned subsidiary NYnet has partnered with SCD Group to begin the delivery phase of a £15.1m ($19.4m) full fibre network for the county's public sector bodies. It is the latest alt-net to emerge in the UK, and was among the winners of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s local full fibre networks challenge fund. Selby and Easingwold are set to be the first towns to be connected, followed by Malton and Pickering in the coming weeks.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/10/north-yorkshire-uk-starts-build-of-15-1m-full-fibre-network.html

Tuesday, Oct 22nd, 2019 (6:00 pm) - Score 2,610 The North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has announced that they’ve started the build phase of their £15.1 million project to deploy a new Gigabit capable “full fibre” network, which will be used to help connect some 370 public sector sites (e.g. council buildings, hospitals etc.) across the county over the next 18 months. The funding was allocated to the council as part of their original bid in 2017/18 for a slice of the Government’s (DCMS) Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) challenge fund (here), which was supported by the local authority’s wholly-owned high-speed connectivity provider NYnet. The project proposes to deploy a new full fibre network across parts of multiple towns and communities including Harrogate and Knaresborough; Skipton; Northallerton; Ripon; Richmond; Leyburn; Scarborough; Whitby; Thirsk; Tadcaster; Pickering; Stokesley and Great Ayton; Settle; Selby; Easingwold; Malton and Pickering. The build itself, which is being undertaken by contractor SCD, has now begun in Selby and Easingwold, with Malton and Pickering expected to follow later this month. Don Mackenzie, NYCC Executive Member for Access, said: “Efficient digital connectivity is important in creating and maintaining successful local economies and communities, particularly in North Yorkshire’s rural areas. The benefits of this project to public sector organisations in North Yorkshire are significant. This further improvement to our digital infrastructure will help to deliver national strategies such as the NHS long-term plan and the Department for Education’s programme to boost technology in our schools. More widely, it will also provide gigabit opportunities to private sector businesses and local residents throughout the county.” Scott Walters, CEO of NYnet, said: “We are very excited to be entering the delivery phase of our new full fibre network, which we are delivering in partnership with SCD Group. This new network will improve speeds and user experience for many public sector bodies in North Yorkshire including schools, GP surgeries, hospitals and libraries.” Generally this approach is very reflective of the anchor tenancy model that has been seen in so many other UK cities. Further down the road this can sometimes enable other operators – like Cityfibre (Vodafone) – to more easily come in and build new Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) style broadband ISP networks for local residents and businesses (i.e. this part tends to require commercial investment). We should point out that some of the listed towns already have Gigabit-capable broadband networks or deployments taking place (e.g. TalkTalk’s FibreNation project in Harrogate).

Pinterest deploys AI to restrict harmful content

Pinterest has said its use of machine learning has resulted in reported self-harm content found on its platform dropping by 88%. The company has also removed more than 4,600 search terms related to self harm from its offering. Members who search for such keywords are made aware of online, confidential mental health resources. Using the technology has allowed Pinterest to remove harmful content from its platform three times faster than previously, the company said.

https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/10/pinterest-says-ai-reduced-reported-self-harm-content-by-88/

Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here. Today is World Mental Health Day, an opportunity for global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma that was first marked in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health. In recognition of the day, Pinterest this morning detailed ways it’s helping better serve users struggling with emotional well-being. Specifically, Pinterest says it’s using machine learning techniques to identify and hide content that displays, rationalizes, or encourages self-injury. (Pinterest, of course, has a robust AI toolset at its disposal — it recently revealed that Lens, its online/offline visual search tool that taps AI to identify things captured from Pins or by a smartphone and suggest related themes and products, can now recognize 2.5 billion home and fashion objects.) The company says it has achieved an 88% reduction in reports of self-harm content by users and that it’s now able to remove such content 3 times faster. Additionally, over 4,600 search terms and phrases related to self-harm have been removed from the platform, Pinterest says, and links to free and confidential support from expert resources are now more prominently displayed to members who search for those keywords. People showing signs of distress now see the resources directly in their boards (i.e., home screens), an approach Pinterest says was developed with guidance from outside emotional health experts at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Vibrant Emotional Health, and Samaritans. Image Credit: Pinterest Elsewhere, Pinterest this morning broadened the rollout of the emotional well-being interactive practices and exercises it introduced in the U.S. through its iOS app earlier this year. Previously, the activities appeared only when someone searched for something indicating sadness or depression, like “stress relief” or “sad quotes,” but now a search for the hashtag “#pinterestwellbeing” (without quotes) launches them straightaway. Event Transform 2023 Join us in San Francisco on July 11-12, where top executives will share how they have integrated and optimized AI investments for success and avoided common pitfalls. Register Now To coincide with the activities’ expanded availability, they’ve gained a fresh look, with new illustrations and animations to “make the experience even more inviting.” Lastly, for World Mental Health Day, Pinterest worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) to curate Pins meant to reduce the stigma of suicide and offer ways to support people who may be at risk. These are viewable from the WHO’s profile page. “Pinterest is where people go to find inspiration, but that isn’t easy when you’re feeling down or in despair. These resources and activities are here to both help people with how they’re feeling and improve the quality of the inspiration they find on Pinterest,” wrote head of products Omar Seyal in a blog post. “World Mental Health Day is an important time to bring awareness to the challenges surrounding mental health and support our most vulnerable friends, family members, and neighbors. But for us, this work is not just a 24-hour commitment. We believe a healthy life is an inspired life, and we’re working hard to build Pinterest in a responsible, compassionate way everyday.”

IWG Blended space emerging from co-working boom

The blended space – a combination of branded offices with access to flexible lease terms and operational services – is emerging as a growth market in the booming co-working sector. Blackstone and Knotel are among the early adopters, discovering occupiers want more than simple square footage: the quality of that space and accompanying services must cater for potential tenants' changeable needs.

https://www.savills.co.uk/blog/article/267506/commercial-property/polarisation-in-the-office-market-makes-way-for-blended-space.aspx

Historically we’ve seen a polarisation in the UK office market, with traditional offices offering a fixed-term lease and wider fit-out opportunities on one side, and serviced space, providing flexible terms and the ability to move into fully-kitted out office space within a week, on the other. Both options have pro and cons and lend themselves more readily to a particular type of business. Corporate firms tend to favour traditional office space, while start-ups and smaller firms appreciate the benefits of flexible, co-working space. This division has highlighted an opportunity for ‘blended space’ where occupiers don’t have to choose between traditional and serviced options, but can instead benefit from a combination of the two by taking the best bits of each. For example, a business may want to fully brand the space it occupies, which is typical of traditional space. However, it may also want to enjoy the operational side of serviced offices, which generally have very high (think five-star hotel) customer service and, from a real estate perspective, offer more flexible lease terms that can be adjusted with the ebb and flow of a company’s growth. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is not always the solution for some businesses, particularly in the current climate where political uncertainty is impacting decision making and the need for flexibility is vital. We’ve already seen some examples of this hybrid space emerging with the launch of Your Space at Chiswick Park by Blackstone, Knotel offering HQ managed solutions and occupiers such as SThree, which has taken part conventional/part flexible space in the same building in Amsterdam to accommodate their changing needs. In addition, landlords are recognising the need to diversify their offer in order to attract a broader client base, including co-working providers and growing numbers of occupiers who need more flexible terms. As the competition for tenant retention heats up, we may even start to see more differentiation of product within single buildings as landlords collaborate with co-working brands or create their own brands to offer a range of space solutions under one roof. It’s not always about the amount of space a landlord or provider holds but the quality of that space, the service on offer and whether it matches the changing needs of today’s occupiers. Whatever form this blended space takes, it’s clear that the focus and mind-set must be customer led, with user experience at the very heart of the space and service on offer. This is what will set landlords and providers apart. Further information Contact Savills Occupier Services

Time is right for meat alternative start-ups

CPT Capital investment director Costa Yiannoulis spoke at YFoods Food Tech Week in London. He commented on the growth of venture capital funds that had been set up just to invest in companies producing alternative meat products. Existing meat businesses are also looking to invest, as they face the dilemma of not being able to compete with them.

https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2019/05/22/Time-is-right-for-meat-alternative-start-ups

Speaking at the second day of YFoods’ Food Tech Week at the Oval Space in London, CPT Capital investment director Costa Yiannoulis commented on the growth of venture capital funds that had been set up just to invest in companies producing alternative meat products. “From the investment perspective, five-and-a-half/six years ago, when we started, there were a few NGOs ​[non-governmental organisations] – contrast that to now where you are seeing a lot of the big venture capital funds are coming all the way and investing in these companies, because there is a huge opportunity here,”​ said Yiannoulis. Venture funding ​ “In addition, you’re seeing dedicated alternative protein funds now being raised. I can think of 12 or 13 people across Europe and the US that are raising funds just to invest in this space.”​ Existing meat businesses are also looking to invest in these start-ups, as they face the dilemma of not being able to compete with them in the future. “Big companies are realising that they can’t do research and development​ [into meat alternatives] very well and actually some of these start ups are a lot more nimble and agile than them​,” Yiannoulis explained. “You see some of the big players setting up corporate venturing arms and hiring investors in so they can take a stake in these companies with a view to buying them further down the line, commercialising them and adding them to their product mix, because they are losing market share and can’t do anything about it.” ​ Proliferation​ Yiannoulis also commented on the proliferation of alternative protein businesses, noting that the sector had exploded since his work with CPT and now boasted more than 30 different ‘clean meat’ manufacturers alone. This included producers making alternatives to meat, fish and even foie gras. He added: “Given the growth in investor interest and start-ups in this space, the support network will grow. Now, every corner you turn there’s a new boot camp, accelerator or incubator to try and help innovative start-ups get their first capital through​.” Meanwhile, the non-alcoholic adult drinks market is also being driven by start-ups​​ that aren’t burdened by having to follow a pre-existing brand identity – like larger drinks businesses – and trying create non-alcoholic versions of their products. According to Johannes Le Roux, founder of The Duchess drinks brand, “disruption is going to come from completely new brands that are ‘born’ alcohol-free”.​

Microsoft run pilot tests using AI to cut its energy consumption

Microsoft is testing a pilot programme that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce energy consumption at a chiller plant by 15%. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in an average US office building takes up around 40% of the overall energy bill. Microsoft's machine learning system is not the first to impact energy consumption. Google's AI research company, DeepMind reduced its energy bill in data centres by 40%, after being able to predict incoming compute loads and the need for more or less cooling.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-deepmind-data-centres-efficiency

One of Google's data centres in Changhua, central Taiwan Getty Images / Sam Yeh / Staff Google has created artificial intelligence that's able to save the amount of electricity it uses to power its data centres. Using machine learning developed by the firm's AI research company, DeepMind, it was possible to reduce the energy used for cooling the centres by a staggering 40 per cent. By applying machine learning to its own centres, which power Google Search, Gmail, YouTube and all of Google's services, it was able to improve their efficiency. The algorithms and methods used could also be transferred to air conditioning systems in large manufacturing plants or, on an even larger scale, to reduce wastage in the energy grid. "What we've been trying to do is build a better predictive model that essentially uses less energy to power the cooling system by more accurately predicting when the incoming compute load is likely to land," Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind told WIRED. "Also in real time we're adjusting the parameters of the cooling system so that it more closely matches the demand from the compute processing."

'Sumerian', Amazon's tool for building AR and VR experiences

Amazon has launched a new online application for designing 3D models for use in augmented and virtual reality platforms. The software, Sumerian, has been unveiled in a limited preview mode, and can be used in conjunction with devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and the iPhone. Developers can create 3D experiences by putting together objects they have imported or chosen from a library of resources available on the app. A set of 3D characters can also be chosen as hosts to interact with users using natural language capabilities.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/27/amazon-launches-sumerian-a-browser-based-tool-for-building-ar-vr-experiences/

Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More Amazon is jumping onto the augmented and virtual reality bandwagon with the launch of Sumerian, a new application that’s supposed to make it easier for people to develop 3D experiences for a wide variety of platforms. The browser-based tool is available in limited preview today. At launch, Sumerian enables developers to put 3D models together in scenes for use in VR and AR applications. It includes an object library full of models that people can put to use, as well as support for importing assets from FBX and OBJ files. On top of this, developers get access to a set of “hosts” — 3D characters that they can customize to interact with an end user. These hosts integrate with Amazon Polly and Lex to provide natural language capabilities similar to those underpinning the Alexa virtual assistant. Sumerian is designed to be straightforward enough for developers who are new to building 3D experiences, while retaining the power needed to create engaging content. As more developers look to support AR and VR, and platform owners continue to expand what devices can do, Sumerian could help make AWS a key home for developing the applications of the future. Event Transform 2023 Join us in San Francisco on July 11-12, where top executives will share how they have integrated and optimized AI investments for success and avoided common pitfalls. Register Now Sumerian also dovetails well with AWS’s ongoing push to attract game developers to its cloud platform. The company already released its own Lumberyard game engine, which is supposed to provide a substrate for people who are building interactive experiences. Once users have built an experience in Sumerian, it can run on hardware such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and iPhone. Tara Walker, an AWS technical evangelist, said in a blog post that Sumerian will also support building AR scenes for Android devices that are compatible with ARCore in the near future. Another upcoming key feature is the ability to import data from Unity projects. That engine is widely used among AR and VR developers, and providing a bridge between Unity and Sumerian could help attract developers. This news comes as one of the first announcements out of AWS re:Invent, the cloud provider’s major conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Stay tuned for more news from the show throughout the week.

Challenges for Teekay Corp: overcapacity, offshore energy, Amazon

Challenges faced by shipping company Teekay have been identified by The Motley Fool. A global glut of newbuildings will affect the company. The glut of tanker capacity will hurt the company through Teekay Tankers, whose operations are consolidated onto Teekay's income statement. The second challenge is the rate of recovery in offshore energy following the 2014 collapse in crude oil prices - some of Teekay Offshore Partners' profits and losses flow through the parent company's accounts. Lastly, a threat from Amazon sees a "Global Supply Chain by Amazon" plan that seeks to expand with a shipping and logistics unit.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/3-biggest-challenges-facing-teekay-corporation

Things haven't been easy for the global shipping industry in recent years, although much of the blame lays with the industry itself. As a new report from Standard & Poor's Global Ratings stated rather bluntly, the shipping industry is "renowned for poor supply discipline." That's a nice way of noting that fleet managers have historically rushed to order new ships, called newbuildings, seemingly every time market fundamentals turn bullish. That practice has historically backfired by creating a glut of capacity -- and it's exactly what created the current environment of atrocious daily rates and deep losses. The good news is that better days might be around the corner at last. Newbuilding deliveries will fall in 2018 after a few years of steadily increasing, which should finally allow a long-awaited recovery to gain traction. While that could help to create momentum for shipping leader Teekay Corporation (NYSE: TK), there are still a few obstacles to contend with. Here are the three biggest challenges facing the company. 1. Global glut of shipping vessels While it's true that 2018 will see fewer newbuildings delivered, the industry will still be reeling from oversupply for at least a few more quarters, and probably years, thanks to an influx of deliveries in previous years. The trend has occurred in nearly all classes of ship. For instance, the global Suezmax fleet ended 2017 with 498 vessels, including 56 newbuildings that entered service during the year. That will fall to 33 new vessels delivered this year and just seven in 2019. The glut of tanker capacity will continue to sting Teekay Corporation through Teekay Tankers, one of two publicly traded companies whose operations are consolidated onto its income statement. The daughter company has continued to be held hostage by weak tanker rates, which has cut its share price in half in the past year alone. It does have the most room for improvement among the parent company's holdings, but investors shouldn't expect an overnight recovery. That said, not all newbuilding deliveries are accompanied by misery. Teekay LNG Partners LP figures to be a silver lining for Teekay Corporation in 2018 and beyond, which will certainly help shareholders cope with what may very well be a slow recovery for Teekay Tankers. Why? The global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has proved difficult to satiate. So although Teekay LNG welcomed three wholly owned carriers and three partially owned carriers into its fleet in the final quarter of 2017, they all immediately entered service in long-term charter contracts with global energy leaders. Plus, energy prices are one factor that determines the shipping rate for the new carriers, and given their recent rise, investors should see steady growth from the expanding fleet over time. 2. Pace of recovery in offshore energy The third company that contributes to Teekay Corporation's financial results is Teekay Offshore Partners LP, although its results are no longer consolidated. Instead, it contributes through the equity method, meaning only a portion of profits and losses flow through to the parent company's income statement. Unfortunately, profits have been difficult to come by in recent years, as the offshore energy industry suffered some of the worst fallout from the collapse in crude oil prices in 2014. And although there are signs that energy companies are once again exploring offshore opportunities, it could take years to repair the damage done by three years of steep underinvestment. Therefore, the pace of the recovery in offshore energy will remain a challenge for Teekay Corporation. But once again, there's a silver lining for investors. Teekay Offshore had a difficult 2017 as it reorganized its affairs and cleaned up its balance sheet, but it ended on a relative high note. In late 2017 and early 2018, several new vessels entered service or will soon enter service as part of important growth projects, namely in Canada and the bountiful offshore deposits in Brazil. As the new additions to the fleet ramp up operations this year, income and cash flow should stabilize, which promises to provide a shot in the arm for Teekay Corporation. 3. Business model disruption If you thought Amazon.com only walks around in the nightmares of retail companies, think again. The online retailer has made its ambitions in global shipping, mostly for the sake of efficiency in its core business, well known, although many in the shipping industry fear that will be accompanied by the company's trademarked approach: disruption. The plan, called the "Global Supply Chain by Amazon," outlines a path toward a shipping and logistics unit. While having Amazon move into any industry is a scary reality for any incumbent, that's especially true for the relatively poorly managed shipping industry. Whether disruption arrives in the form of drone ships, increased reliance on digital technologies, or teleportation machines isn't really the point. Cutting out the middleman, in this case cargo shipping fleet managers such as Teekay Corporation, is the future investors might want to prepare for. By now, you should know that there's a silver lining here, too. Teekay Corporation and its daughter companies appear to be turning a corner in 2018. And while it's easy to imagine how Amazon could steamroll historically inefficient shippers, it seems unlikely for it to wade into energy trade or offshore energy shuttles. So even in a worst case disruption scenario, the parent company can double down on those areas to survive. Shipping ain't easy While shipping leaders such as Teekay Corporation appear to be on the right path, they still face challenges in the year and years ahead. Its daughter companies are sorting through their own issues that will take time to work out. Meanwhile, Amazon has fired off warning shots at the entire industry, however distant the threat may be. Individual investors eyeing shipping stocks for value may be on to something, but it's important to remember that the long-awaited recovery won't occur overnight. 10 stocks we like better than TeekayWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Teekay wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of February 5, 2018 John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Maxx Chatsko has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

What future do airlines have? Three experts discuss

Where single airline brands have been created with cross border mergers – such as LATAM Airlines in South America – national aircraft registration and other restrictions remain in place, thereby reflecting multiple airlines in these respects. Yes, airlines have merged in domestic air markets like the US, and individual brands have disappeared as a result, but few major airlines have gone out of business because they failed.

https://theconversation.com/what-future-do-airlines-have-three-experts-discuss-135365

Airlines face an unprecedented international crisis in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that the global industry will lose US$252 billion in 2020. Many airlines are cutting up to 90% of their flight capacity. On March 1, more than two million people in the US were flying per day. A month on, fewer than 100,000 people are going through airport security daily. Some climate activists have welcomed the emptied skies, pointing to the dramatic fall in carbon emissions. But others worry that the bounce back and attempts to take back some of the losses might mean that an opportunity for fundamental, sustained change may be missed. In the US, a federal government US$50 billion bailout fund – part of which will fund cash grants going towards airline workers, and the other part loans for the airlines themselves – was rolled out piecemeal in March, with revisions announced on April 14. More than 200 airlines applied. American Airlines will get US$5.8 billion, Delta US$5.4 billion, and Southwest US$3.2 billion, among others. Donald Trump, the US president, stated that the airline bailout was needed to return the industry to “good shape” and was “not caused by them.” Another US$4 billion is available for cargo airlines and US$3 for contractors. In the UK, it was initially announced that no industry-wide bailout would be offered. Instead, the industry would have to rely on broader aid packages covering 80% of salaries (below a cap) for furloughed employees. But subsequently, the government quickly gave easyJet a £600 million loan (US$740 million). Flybe, a smaller regional or “secondary” airline with pre-crisis financial issues, was not bailed out and collapsed. Many money-making routes Flybe ran have since been picked up by others. Continental Europe is in worse shape. Italy has re-nationalised Alitalia, forming a new state-owned entity and investing €600 million (US$650 million). France has indicated it will do whatever it takes to bailout Air France/KLM (France owns 15% and the Dutch 13%), with a possible €6 billion bailout package (US$6.5 billion). Meanwhile, Australia’s Qantas secured a A$1 billion loan (US$660 million). Debt-laden Virgin Australia, meanwhile, was denied a A$1.4 billion loan (US$880 million) and has subsequently plunged into voluntary administration. Singapore Airlines, however, got a US$13 billion aid package. The airline industry has faced many crises before – 9/11 and the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption, for example. But these pale in comparison to the economic hit that airlines are currently facing. Some are asking: can it recover? Is this an economic crisis that could reshape how we travel and live? Or will it turn out to be more of a pause, before returning to business as usual? And what role does the climate crisis play in all this – how will sustainability figure in any rebooting of the industry going forward? We are all experts in the airline industry. Darren Ellis (Lecturer in Air Transport Management) considers these questions first, looking at the industry’s structure and response. Jorge Guira (Associate Professor in Law and Finance) then explores bailout options and likely future scenarios for the industry. Finally, Roger Tyers (Research Fellow in Environmental Sociology) considers how the industry might just be at a turning point in terms of how it tackles climate change. This article is part of Conversation Insights The Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges. A global problem Darren Ellis, Lecturer in Air Transport Management Most of the global airline industry is currently grounded. Although some routes are still managing to operate, and there is evidence of a gradual domestic air market rebound in China, 2020 will certainly not see the 4.6 billion annual passengers of 2019. The long-term trend of ever-rising air passenger numbers year on year has been brought to a dramatic and rapid halt. What this means for the global airline industry is vividly on display at airports around the globe as terminals remain empty and aircraft occupy any available parking space. Like the predominately national response to the virus, so the airline industry is also seeing a wide range of policies and practices tailored and implemented almost exclusively at the national level. This means that some airlines, thanks to well-chosen national policies, will fare better, while others will flounder. This is because beyond the multilateral single air market of Europe, the global industry remains firmly structured on a bilateral system. This web of country to country air service agreements (ASAs) is basically made up of trade treaties which governments sign with one another to determine the level of air access each is willing to permit. Even in Europe, the single air market essentially acts as one nation internally, while externally, individual European countries continue to deal with many countries on a bilateral basis. The bilateral system is based on a bundle of rules and restrictions, including airline ownership (typically, a minimum of 51% of an airline must be owned by people from the country where the airline is based), national control, single airline citizenship and home base requirements. This effectively locks airlines into a single country or jurisdiction. Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE Despite this structure, global cooperation in aviation is strong, particularly across safety standardisation, but less so on the economic front. A lot of this cooperation happens via the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the industry’s specialised UN agency. Meanwhile, the IATA supports and lobbies on behalf of member airlines. Likewise, international mergers and acquisitions are rare – aside from in Europe, where partial mergers have created dual and multiple brands like Air France/KLM. Where single airline brands have been created with cross border mergers – such as LATAM Airlines in South America – national aircraft registration and other restrictions remain in place, thereby reflecting multiple airlines in these respects. Consequently, national responses will be front and centre as the industry responds to the current pandemic. In countries where a single flag carrier is based, such as Thailand and Singapore, governments are unlikely to let their airlines fail. While in others, where multiple airlines operate, a level playing field of assistance and support is more likely, even if outcomes differ widely. This is not to say that all airlines will necessarily survive what is likely to be an extended U-shaped crisis, unlike the more V-shaped crises of the past, such as 9/11 and the 2008 global financial crisis. The national structure of the industry also highlights why major airlines failing is relatively rare. Yes, airlines have merged in domestic air markets like the US, and individual brands have disappeared as a result, but few major airlines have gone out of business because they failed. Even Swissair, which was famously bankrupt and defunct in late 2001, soon reappeared as Swiss International Airlines. And so, although airline brands have come and gone, the industry had remained on a growth path for decades. It will take time to recover from the pandemic. Some airlines will fail. But widespread changes to the industry’s structure are unlikely to occur. People will, of course, need and want to travel by air again when this pandemic is over. Which airlines survive – and which go on to thrive – will largely depend on how successful individual countries’ economic support packages turn out to be. David Arquimbau Sintes/EPA-EFE Bailout essentials Jorge Guira, Associate Professor in Law and Finance The global outcomes of the crisis, then, are firmly anchored in national responses. The airline industry is cyclical: it is used to peaks and valleys. Bailouts have repeatedly been vital for airlines, so many countries have some sort of precedent to go by. In any bailout, the key question is whether this is a solvency or liquidity crisis. Solvency means that the airline will be very unlikely to ever remain financially viable. Liquidity means that the airline has a high risk of running out of cash flow but should be solvent soon, if supported. Assessing this is sometimes complex. Cash is king. “Streamlining” – a fancy word for cost cutting – can help. Unencumbered assets such as aeroplanes can be sold, or used as collateral for loans. But many planes are often leased, so this may be problematic. Existing contracts must be reviewed. Breach of covenants, which are legally binding promises to do (or to refrain from doing) things in a certain way, may need to be waived. For instance, lease agreements for the planes often require flights to carry on, and business as usual is suspended at present. Other agreements require flights to maintain landing spaces in airports – leading to the “ghost planes” many were appalled by earlier on in the crisis, and that still continue. Certain financial tests may not be met, such as how much debt there is compared to earnings. These can alarm creditors. And this can lead to deterioration in bond credit ratings, reflecting increased financial distress. Other triggers may also arise. Defaulting on one financial contract usually requires informing other creditors. This can trigger defaults on other agreements, creating a domino effect. Kimimasa Mayama/EPA-EFE So renegotiating operating and financial contracts is crucial. Airlines may have to pick and choose who to pay first. Unions must be kept happy, and other stakeholders must focus on recovery. All this means that state bailouts, help and other guarantees are crucial for the industry to survive. In the US, for example, net operating losses are carried forward and used to shield revenues and offset these from tax for when things return to normal. If liquidity is the problem, the real issue is time: how long will it take for the airline to get back on its feet and resume flying more normally? If solvency is the problem, the company cannot survive the demand collapse it is facing. The COVID-19 pandemic is such a fraught time for airlines because of the difficulty in predicting when the crisis will end. This can complicate determining whether it is a more temporary liquidity crisis or a deeper solvency concern. After 9/11, the airline industry completely shut down in the US. People witnessing the horrifying scenes of the Twin Towers’ collapse were hardly eager to board a plane. So, the government chose to step in to restore confidence. And it did so, successfully, by offering aid including loans and used warrants, which involves investing in airlines when the stock is at a reduced or rock bottom price and waiting for it to go up again. The US government’s COVID-19 financial rescue package parallels this approach. Tannen Maury/EPA The US approach is noteworthy because of its size and scale, and the fact that it is built on the 9/11 case and has been modified for the unique present circumstances. It is also an interesting counterpoint to the strategy of the strongly free market-oriented UK, and Australia, which has been more restrained in its approach. Airline norms suggest that 25% of revenues should be kept in case of any emergency, but this has tended not to happen recently. Corporate earnings have generally not been held for a rainy day, and now that rainy day has arrived. This creates a classic moral hazard problem: many airlines seem to act as if they are too important to fail, because in the end, they believe they will be bailed out. And regulation does not otherwise hold any excesses in check. Compounding this, some US airlines have recently been accumulating cheap debt, due to low interest rates and lots of credit availability. The five big US carriers, instead of paying off debt, have been spending 96% of available cash on stock buybacks. Many question whether airlines should be bailed out in these circumstances. Limits on paying dividends, buyback of stock, and other terms would logically apply here, as in the earlier US bailout measures announced in March. While the US case may provide a helpful initial focus, the UK approach is likely to be highly influential, perhaps more so given the reduced resource level – and greater level of climate awareness – there. As Darren pointed out earlier, one model does not fit all but this may offer a useful comparative framework for other approaches that favour national champions or nationalisations. The UK is reportedly considering partial nationalisation, such as in the case of British Airways. British Airways has furloughed 35,000 employees, with many pay packets supported by the government – for now. British Airways appears better placed to cherry pick key routes, assets and companies as it ranks in the top group for liquidity. Steve Parsons/PA Wire/PA Images If Virgin Atlantic were to collapse, its size means it may fit in the too important to fail category. It appears that bailout talks are ongoing but Richard Branson’s life as an offshore UK resident, and Delta’s ownership of a 49% stake, present potential political clouds. Questions about whether it should get state aid given current crisis conditions also arise. This is generally forbidden, although the EU has temporarily indicated a COVID-19 relaxation of the rules. No environmental strings have apparently been attached, as former EU officials and others have suggested should be the case. Overall, the survival of the global industry therefore depends on bailouts, not only to keep airlines afloat but also for the wider travel and leisure ecosystem. The lack of of sustainability conditions in UK and indeed US bailouts appears to be mirrored globally. But a Green New Deal in a second recovery phase of aid could provide this. And greater awareness of the issue thanks to the likes of Greta Thunberg, an increased culture of working from home, and ongoing measures to increase accountability and reporting of emissions means this aspect may well play a vital role in the repackaging of airlines going into the future. Much of it begins with how emissions targeting interacts with the COVID-19 crisis. Read more: Coronavirus: how economic rescue plans can set the global economy on a path to decarbonisation Aviation and climate change Roger Tyers, Research Fellow in Environmental Sociology As Jorge says, for the growing number of people concerned by aviation’s rising carbon emissions, this pandemic may be a rare chance to do things differently. When air travel is eventually unpaused, can we set it on a more sustainable trajectory? Even before this pandemic hit, aviation faced increasing pressure in the fight against climate change. While other sectors are slowly decarbonising, international aviation is forecast to double passenger numbers by 2037, meaning its share of global emissions may increase tenfold to 22% by 2050. Most flights are taken by a relatively well-off minority, often for leisure reasons, and of questionable necessity. We might wonder whether it is wise to devote so much of our remaining carbon “allowance” to aviation over sectors like energy or food which – as we are now being reminded – are fundamental to human life. Regulators at the UN’s ICAO have responded to calls for climate action with their Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) scheme. Under this, international aviation can continue to expand, as long as growth above a 2020 baseline is “net-neutral” in terms of emissions. David Fernandez/EPA-EFE While critics cite numerous problems with it, the idea is to reduce emissions above the 2020 baseline through a combination of fuel efficiencies, improvements in air traffic management and biofuels. The remaining, huge shortfall in emissions will be covered by large-scale carbon offsetting. Last year, IATA estimated that about 2.5 billion tonnes of offsets will be required by CORSIA between 2021 and 2035. This plan has been thrown into disarray by the COVID-19 crisis. The emissions baseline for CORSIA was supposed to be calculated based on 2019-20 flight figures. But given that the industry has come to a standstill – demand may take a 38% hit in 2020 – that baseline will be much lower than expected. So once flights resume, emissions growth post-2020 will be much higher than anyone predicted. Airlines will need to purchase many more carbon offset credits, raising operating costs and passing these onto customers. Airlines trying to get back on their feet will be hostile to any such additional burdens, and will probably seek methods to recalculate the baseline in their favour. But for environmentalists, this might be an opportunity to strengthen CORSIA, which despite its flaws is the only current framework for tackling aviation emissions globally. Some still consider CORSIA to be an elaborate sideshow. The real game-changer for sustainable aviation would be fuel tax reform, which might receive more scrutiny when attention shifts onto how to repay the eye-watering levels of public debt incurred during lockdown. Since the 1944 Chicago Convention, which gave birth to ICAO and the modern aviation industry, putting VAT on flight tickets and tax on kerosene jet fuel has been effectively illegal. This is the primary reason why flying is relatively cheap compared to other transport modes, and arguably why the industry has under-invested in research into cleaner fuels. With the most-polluting form of transport enjoying the lowest taxes, this regime has long been questionable in terms of emissions. It may soon become untenable in terms of tax justice, too. In 2018, France’s Gilets Jaunes movement was partly motivated by anger at increased fuel tax for cars and vans, while air travel continued to benefit from historic tax exemptions. This anger may return when governments inevitably raise taxes to repay their multi-billion-dollar COVID-19-related debts. Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA-EFE Campaigners are already demanding that any airline bailout be linked to tax reform, and there is huge potential there. Leaked EU papers in 2019 suggest that ending kerosene tax exemptions in Europe could raise €27 billion (US$29 billion) in revenues every year. Such sources of revenue may soon become irresistible, and national governments might seek to collect them unilaterally, with or without a coordinated ICAO response. Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, once said that no politician facing election would ever vote to end cheap air travel. But – to state the obvious – these are unprecedented times, and public attitudes to flying may well change. On the demand side, once borders reopen, there could be a short-term travel boom as postponed flights are rebooked and stranded people fly home. But even after an official virus “all-clear”, those considering holidays may think twice before sharing cramped plane cabins with strangers. Business travellers, crucial to airline profits, may find that they’ve got so used to using Zoom, they don’t need always to fly to meetings in person. As members of the industry admit, by the time passengers return to air travel in significant numbers, the airlines, routes and prices they find may look very different. Governments will face huge industry pressure to safeguard jobs and return to business as usual as soon as possible. But managed properly, this could be the start of a just and sustainable transition for aviation. The future’s up in the air All three of us feel the airline industry is at a key turning point. The size and scale of bailouts will vary. Government political will and philosophy, access to capital, and the viability of the industry itself are key factors that will inform whether a company is worth saving. Any future must be based on the premise of preserving economic vibrancy while reducing climate risk. But not all governments will factor this in. Events are moving fast, with Emirates in Dubai starting to test passengers for COVID-19 before boarding. Meanwhile, easyJet is considering social distancing on planes as part of a “de-densification” policy, with fewer passengers and higher prices, albeit across more routes. Longer term, there are various ways this could play out. All depend upon the duration of the crisis and the confluence of political, legal and economic factors. It is possible that market structure remains unchanged, with ownership of airlines staying relatively stable, supported by bailouts. Under this business-as-usual scenario, sustainability would incrementally be enhanced through airlines retiring older, less carbon efficient planes and replacing them with better ones. But this scenario is subject to tremendous uncertainty. Or, sustainability might become more important after the crisis, thanks to increased environmental awareness, demand loss, and new green investment. This would take place at different speeds, with Europe perhaps being more proactive through government incentives and serious emissions targeting. The US would lag behind, but making some advances due to increased stakeholder concerns. In this scenario, there is some scaling down of travel to meet demand, which is reduced. Increased sustainable investment emerges. Due to partial recovery, a new normal emerges. It is also possible that prolonged, severe shortage of capital and an awareness of the climate crisis could, hypothetically, lead to massive change. But governments’ concern for jobs is likely to crowd out environmental concerns. Political forces on the left and right would have to mend fences and agree that, in a depression-like scenario, a new world is needed, not just a new normal. For you: more from our Insights series: To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Tencent joins $160m investment round for mobile banking firm N26

Berlin-based mobile banking start-up N26 has raised $160m to back global growth. The series C funding was led by Allianz Group investment division Allianz X and Chinese technology company Tencent. The company offers online-only bank accounts accessed through Android and iOS. It already has 850,000 customers in Europe, plans to launch in the UK and US this year and says it wants five million customers by 2020. Solmaz Altin, Allianz chief digital officer, said N26 was a “clear frontrunner” in mobile banking. Five-year-old N26 has already launched an investment scheme, a savings account and an insurance product.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/20/european-mobile-banking-startup-n26-raises-160-million-from-tencent-and-allianz/

Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here. Mobile banking startup N26 has raised $160 million in a series C round of funding led by Allianz Group’s investment arm Allianz X and Chinese tech titan Tencent, with participation from other existing shareholders. Founded in 2013 as Number26, the Berlin-based startup rebranded as N26 two years ago when it obtained its own banking license. The company serves 850,000 customers across 17 European markets with online-only bank accounts that can be accessed through Android and iOS apps. The underlying promise is speed and efficiency, as people can open an account within minutes of applying. N26 had previously raised around $55 million from some notable investors, including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, which led its series A round. With another $160 million in the bank, the company said it plans to double down on its global growth efforts. N26 had already announced plans to launch in the U.S. later this year in what could be the company’s first non-Eurozone market, though it also plans to introduce the service in the U.K. this year. The company’s longer-term goal is to hit 5 million customers by the end of 2020. Strategic investment Nabbing financial services giant Allianz is a major win for N26, and it won’t be too surprising if this strategic investment is a precursor to something a little more integrated further down the line. Upstart fintech companies are an attractive proposition to larger incumbents, as it gives the latter access to innovation and top technical talent. Spanish banking giant BBVA, for example, snapped up U.S. fintech startup Simple in a $117 million deal four years ago. “N26 is a clear frontrunner in mobile banking,” noted Solmaz Altin, chief digital officer at the Allianz Group. “N26’s banking platform is modernizing traditional business models of financial services, ultimately providing a better customer experience.” Alternatively, Allianz could just view N26 as the perfect vehicle through which to sell some of its own products, such as insurance. N26 has made no secret of its plans to create a modern bank constructed from various financial technologies and services. N26 previously partnered with peer-to–peer money-transfer firm TransferWise, and it went on to launch a new investment product in conjunction with Vaamo and a savings account with Raisin. It’s already offering insurance, too, via a tie-up with German insurance platform Clark. As one of the most valuable technology companies in the world, Tencent requires little introduction, and it has already invested in hundreds of companies around the globe — from Tesla to Snap. Its connections and experience across the technology spectrum will be particularly appealling to N26, which wants to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) to make the “banking experience even smarter and more personalized,” according to a statement it released. Tencent, as it happens, has been investing significantly in AI. “We are very pleased to have Allianz X and Tencent leading our series C,” added N26 cofounder and CEO Valentin Stalf. “Not only are they powerhouses in their respective fields of financial and internet services, but they also understand the power of intelligent technology and design to disrupt industries.”

Payment tech firm Intelligentpos expands in Europe

Edinburgh-based Intelligentpos, the payment tech firm that was acquired by Sweden's iZettle last month, has expanded its "one-stop shop" integrated payment and point-of-sale service into Germany. The move will give the company access to about four million small and medium-sized businesses. It plans to expand "significantly over the coming year" and will more than double its staff from a current 40 employees to 85.

http://www.scotsman.com/business/companies/tech/payment-tech-firm-intelligentpos-expands-in-europe-1-4269383

Intelligentpos has embarked on its European expansion with the launch this week of its electronic point-of-sale software in Germany as it looks to double its workforce. Intelligentpos was acquired by Sweden's iZettle last month. Picture: Contributed The Leith-based firm said its latest move has been enabled by its acquisition last month by Sweden’s iZettle. The deal led to the creation of a “one-stop shop” integrated payment and point-of-sale service for commerce in store and on the move. General manager Graeme Horsfall said it is “tremendously exciting to see our software being rolled out across Europe within a month of the partnership being agreed”. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Intelligentpos explained that moving into the new market with a German version of its website gives it access to about four million small and medium-sized businesses. Horsfall added that the firm, which was set up in 2013, has always been ambitious, both in terms of its software and the business, “and the drive to expand will see us grow our workforce significantly over the coming year”, with recently unveiled plans to grow staff in the Scottish capital to 85 from 40. He added: “As an Edinburgh-based business, I also feel that we are cutting a path for other Scottish tech firms with the talent and ambition to grow worldwide.” Jacob de Geer, chief executive of iZettle, said: “We’ve worked hard with the team at Intelligentpos to scale quickly and the launch of Intelligentpos in Germany today takes [it] further in its mission to provide small businesses globally with the business services they need to work less, live better and earn more.”

DAK Americas' hurricane outages give boost to European PET firms

European PET companies have been boosted by US producer DAK Americas having to import the product because of outages in monoethylene glycol (MEG) production caused by Hurricane damage. A force majeure declaration by the US company led to an order for more than 10,000 tonnes of PET from Europe, which one trader said would clear out EU stocks. The supply problems had caused a spike in MEG prices. Until the hurricane hit, the PET market had seen lower momentum and European producers had forecast a plateauing of the market with little change until the end of 2020.

https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/09/11/10551780/us-dak-force-majeure-prompts-unusual-european-pet-exports-helps-alleviate-excess-stocks

LONDON (ICIS)–A force majeure declaration by US producer DAK Americas has propelled the European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) market on a new course as an exporter. Traditionally an import region, Europe is responding to requests for thousands of tonnes to be sent to the US. DAK Americas declared force majeure on PET earlier this week after Hurricane-related outages in US monoethylene glycol (MEG) restricted its supply of feedstock, according to sources. “Already more than 10,000 tonnes have been done and there are more to come. It will clear out EU stocks!” a trader said. Others concurred, with one producer saying it had sold “big volumes” at a higher price than what is achievable in Europe. Spot prices in Europe moved down just as production costs looked like they were on the way up. MEG prices spiked due to unexpected supply constraints, but primary feedstock paraxylene (PX) weakened. – With crude slipping and negativity continuing to pervade broader economic markets, the European PET arena lost momentum going into September. – Buyers are covered, particularly as the fourth quarter is low season for bottlers, and after months of relative silence from importers, some are expecting deliveries by the end of September or in October. Until the sudden interest from the US, the consensus in Europe was that the market was plateauing and not much would change as the year tailed off, and the new year began. The market was very much in a wait-and-see position. “If European buyers try to speculate and are buying small amounts to survive the week at the very last minute, soon Europe can be short, because everyone is now selling to the US and nobody is waiting for Europe to wake up,” a seller said. Typically, Europe exports less than around 3-5% of its capacity. With unusual requests for 3,000-tonne, 5,000-tonne, or 10,000-tonne lots this week alone, a spate of scheduled European shutdowns in October/November and tightness in upstream MEG, this could indeed cause a ripple of concern among buyers. PET resins can be broadly classified into bottle, fibre or film grade, named according to the downstream applications. Bottle grade resin is the most commonly traded form of PET resin and it is used in bottle and container packaging through blow moulding and thermoforming. Fibre grade resin goes into making polyester fibre, while film grade resin is used in electrical and flexible packaging applications. PET can be compounded with glass fibre for the production of engineering plastics. Front page picture: Facilities operated by DAK Americas in Charleston, South Carolina Source: DAK Americas Focus article by Caroline Murray

Coal giant files for bankruptcy

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal company, has become the latest filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest in a series of coal giants to file for bankruptcydo so. The bankruptcy filing is one of the largest on record in the commodities market. The energy company's sShares of the energy companyhave faellen 75% percent this year;, driven by the low demand for and the price of coal , which has also fallen since 2011. Peabody also cited the increasing use of natural gas and ongoing regulatory challenges as reasons for its filing. Producers accounting for about 45% percent of U.S. coal production have filed for bankruptcy since coal’s steep decline began. THIS STORY FEATURED TWICE IN THE EDITING QUEUE YESTERDAY Google Fin puts Peabody shares down 73.05% YTD as at today - I see BI quotes that they're down 95% over past year (rather than 'this year') while Vox puts metallurgical coal down 75% from its peak in 2011, does it say Peabody shares are down 75% for Q1 or YTD (sorry, I couldn't find it in either) Is the steep decline in coal also 'since 2011'?  

http://uk.businessinsider.com/peabody-energy-files-for-bankruptcy-2016-4?r=US&IR=T

A truck driver walking past a giant mining truck at the largest open-pit gold mine in Australia, called the Fimiston Open Pit, also known as the Super Pit, in the gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie, located about 500 kilometres east of Perth, in 2001. Reuters Peabody Energy, the world's largest privately owned coal producer and the second biggest on earth, has filed for US bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy comes after a sharp fall in coal prices that left it unable to service a recent debt-fueled expansion into Australia, saying it is taking "a major step to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt amid an unprecedented industry downturn." The company listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $10 billion (£7 billion) to $50 billion (£35 billion), according to a court filing. Peabody's bankruptcy filing ranks among the largest in the commodities sector since energy and metals prices began to fall in the middle of 2014 as once fast-growing markets such as China and Brazil began to slow. The company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which according to the US government "generally provides for reorganization, usually involving a corporation or partnership." It further explains: "A chapter 11 debtor usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time. People in business or individuals can also seek relief in chapter 11." Here's what Peabody CEO Glenn Kellow had to say in a statement released Wednesday: This was a difficult decision, but it is the right path forward for Peabody. We begin today to build a highly successful global leader for tomorrow. Through today's action, we will seek an in-court solution to Peabody's substantial debt burden amid a historically challenged industry backdrop. This process enables us to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt, build upon the significant operational achievements we've made in recent years and lay the foundation for long-term stability and success in the future. While the bankruptcy proceeds, Peabody will continue to operate as normal, the company said: All of the company's mines and offices are continuing to operate in the ordinary course of business and are expected to continue doing so for the duration of the process. No Australian entities are included in the filings, and Australian operations are continuing as usual. The firm warned in mid-March that it may have to file, saying it potentially lacked "sufficient liquidity to sustain operations and to continue as a going concern." At the time of its warning, the company said it had skipped a $71.1 million (£50.45 million) interest payment on some of its debt. Peabody's shares have fallen by more than 95% in the past year. Prices for coal have followed the general trend for commodities in the past few years, crashing ever lower. Coal's market price has halved since 2011 and fallen 41% since late 2013. Here's how that looks: Investing.com Coal has been particularly badly hit by the commodity crash as governments across the world have started to look at using more renewable energy sources and lowering carbon emissions. In late 2015 the COP21 conference in Paris ended with an international agreement on cutting carbon emissions, which will necessitate less use of coal. Peabody is not the first coal miner to file, with its rivals Alpha Natural Resources and Arch Coal entering bankruptcy within the past year. Other coal-based firms that filed for bankruptcy protection last year included Walter Energy and Patriot Coal.

Coal giant files for bankruptcy

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal company, has become the latest filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest in a series of coal giants to file for bankruptcydo so. The bankruptcy filing is one of the largest on record in the commodities market. The energy company's sShares of the energy companyhave faellen 75% percent this year;, driven by the low demand for and the price of coal , which has also fallen since 2011. Peabody also cited the increasing use of natural gas and ongoing regulatory challenges as reasons for its filing. Producers accounting for about 45% percent of U.S. coal production have filed for bankruptcy since coal’s steep decline began. THIS STORY FEATURED TWICE IN THE EDITING QUEUE YESTERDAY Google Fin puts Peabody shares down 73.05% YTD as at today - I see BI quotes that they're down 95% over past year (rather than 'this year') while Vox puts metallurgical coal down 75% from its peak in 2011, does it say Peabody shares are down 75% for Q1 or YTD (sorry, I couldn't find it in either) Is the steep decline in coal also 'since 2011'?  

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11420882/peabody-energy-bankruptcy-coal

The US coal industry is imploding. And here's the biggest casualty yet: Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in St. Louis on Wednesday. It's hard to overstate what a seismic shift this is. Peabody has been a giant in the mining industry seemingly forever, after starting out in Chicago in 1880 with just a wagon and two mules. A decade ago, coal provided fully half of America's electricity, much of it dug up by Peabody in Illinois, Kentucky, Wyoming, Colorado. At its peak in 2008, the company had a market cap of $20 billion, supplying coal to 26 countries worldwide. But then came the fall. The rise of fracking and cheap shale gas in the United States, coupled with stricter environmental regulations, has helped push hundreds of coal-fired power plants out of business in recent years. US coal production has nosedived from 1.17 billion metric tons in 2008 to just 752.5 million in 2016. Coal consumption in China, another crucial market, has also cooled off of late. Between 2012 and 2015, Peabody laid off more than 20 percent of its global workforce and started closing some of its US mines. Today, the company is saddled with $10.1 billion in debt and its future looks much bleaker than it once did. Hence the bankruptcy filing. Peabody made a disastrously bad bet on selling coal to China Arguably Peabody's biggest mistake came in 2011, when it made a disastrous bet on Chinese coal demand. At the time, the Chinese steel industry was roaring and the country's appetite for metallurgical coal — a lower-moisture type of coal used in coke production — appeared bottomless. Met coal prices were at an all-time high. So Peabody plunked down $5.1 billion to acquire Macarthur Coal, an Australian mining firm that supplied the steel industry. That move blew up in Peabody's face. In the years since, China's demand for metallurgical coal has waned, as the nation's rapid industrial growth hit a saturation point. In the 2000s, China's steel production was growing a whopping 15.7 percent each year. In 2015, it actually declined 2.1 percent: As the coal market started softening, Peabody CEO Gregory Boyce kept insisting that demand would rebound. It never did. The price of met coal ultimately fell 75 percent from its peak in 2011. In the end, a number of US coal companies, including Peabody and Walter Energy, were stuck with a bunch of unprofitable met-coal investments at the exact same moment that demand for the thermal coal (or "steam coal") used in US power plants was also declining. The result was a bloodbath across the entire industry: On Wednesday, Peabody conceded that the situation had developed not necessarily to its advantage. "The factors affecting the global coal industry in recent years have been unprecedented," the company said in announcing its Chapter 11 filing. "Industry pressures in recent years include a dramatic drop in the price of metallurgical coal, weakness in the Chinese economy, overproduction of domestic shale gas and ongoing regulatory challenges." Peabody clarified that all of its active mines and offices would continue to operate during the bankruptcy process. That includes the North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming, the largest coal mine in America. The US filing would also not affect its mining operations in Australia. Peabody is now the fifth US coal company to declare bankruptcy, joining giants such as Alpha Natural Resources and Arch Coal. Some of these companies will reorganize under Chapter 11 and carry on in diminished form — after all, coal still provides 28 percent of the nation's electricity, so someone has to mine it. But that fraction is expected to keep shrinking in the coming years, especially if Obama's Clean Power Plan pushes utilities to clean up their carbon-dioxide emissions. Coal will likely never regain the dominance it once enjoyed in the US. Instead, Peabody is looking abroad. "Globally, thermal coal is expected to continue to fuel hundreds of existing coal generating plants as well as scores more that are under construction," the company said in a statement. (I've recently written about the hundreds of new coal plants being planned worldwide — it's unclear how many will get built.) Peabody has been shedding obligations to retired miners (while executives got big bonuses) Typically in bankruptcies, a big looming question is how any restructuring might affect pension and health care promises to workers. Peabody still has hundreds of millions of dollars in obligations to workers who helped dig up all of that coal, many of whom have developed serious health problems in the mines. For now, the company says it does not expect any changes "to the vast majority of pension benefits" for current workers and retirees. But that's not the end of the story. There's another gruesome twist here: Over the past decade, Peabody has been trying to get rid of obligations for thousands of other retired miners. That story starts in 2007, when Peabody spun off 13 percent of its coal reserves into a brand-new company, Patriot Coal. It also, curiously, transferred 40 percent of its health obligations at the time, covering some 8,400 retired miners. Later on, Patriot also assumed some retiree obligations from Arch Coal, ending up with more than $3 billion in liabilities for some 22,000 miners, retirees, and spouses in all. Then... Patriot went bankrupt. I'll let my colleague David Roberts tell the sordid tale: Patriot Coal filed for bankruptcy in 2012. And it wasted no time asking a bankruptcy judge to let it jettison health care liabilities. (The judge said yes, just as she said yes two weeks prior when Patriot asked for permission to pay their executives almost $7 million in "retention bonuses.") Patriot had no loyalty to these retirees, of course. For the most part, they'd never even worked for Patriot. ... Ditching its obligations to workers — "restructuring," in the antiseptic language of corporate law — didn't save Patriot. It filed for bankruptcy again in 2015. Its efforts to escape its liabilities are ongoing. Coal-employee pension funds have subsequently sued Peabody and Arch, accusing them of setting up Patriot to fail as a way of squirming out of their obligations. These "liabilities" included promised medical benefits to retired miners who are now dealing with black lung and other health problems. (I talked to a few of those retirees here.) The legal battles around responsibility for these workers are likely to rage for years to come. By the way, if you're wondering how Peabody's executives are faring... A 2015 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the top five Peabody executives continued to reap their usual multimillion-dollar salaries during the period the company was careening toward ruin: But even that's finally changing. According to Ben Storrow of Wyoming's Caspar-Star Tribune, Peabody is overhauling its management team and announced that "it has decreased annual cash incentive awards for executives and salaried employees by 50 percent." Another big question: Will Peabody clean up its old coal mines? It's not just miners and retirees who could be affected by the bankruptcy. Peabody Energy also has dozens of strip mines and underground coal mines in the West and Midwest that will ultimately need to be rehabbed once the digging stops. Clean-up typically involves restoring the scarred landscape, cleaning up water pollution, making sure there are no toxic metals leaking into nearby streams and groundwater sources. According to a 1977 federal law, Peabody is technically responsible for cleaning up this mess. That cost has been estimated at around $1.4 billion. But the company could try to wiggle out of some of those obligations in bankruptcy — which could in turn leave taxpayers on the hook for clean-up costs. A recent piece in the Washington Post by Steven Mufson and Joby Warrick explained the situation well: The biggest coal companies typically pay third parties to ensure that mine sites are cleaned up in the event of financial hardship. But in recent years, many coal companies have relied on a cheaper technique called "self-bonding," pledging only their own names and financial wherewithal to guarantee their cleanup obligations. With mounting losses and debt loads, the companies do not have enough money to pay for all their obligations, and self-bonding is "not worth [the] paper [it’s] written on," Steve Jakubowski, a bankruptcy lawyer with the firm Robbins, Salomon & Patt, said in an email. ... Bankruptcy restructuring could provide coal companies with a way of escaping obligations to restore land. This is a big story in Illinois, where, Mufson and Warrick write, "environmental groups and industry experts are closely watching three Peabody mines with cleanup obligations of $92 million covered by self-bonding." Further reading: -- 11 maps that explain energy in America -- David Roberts took a longer look at Peabody's maneuvers to get rid of its obligations to former workers. -- The real war on coal is happening in China right now -- From a global perspective, note that hundreds of coal plants are still being planned worldwide.

ASIC not consulted on new regulation of litigation funders

ASIC told a parliamentary inquiry into litigation funding it was not consulted about its role in regulating class action funders ahead of the public announcement by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in May. The watchdog previously told the Australian Law Reform Commission that it had reservations about being responsible for regulating how class actions are funded. The new rules were issued in response to growing concern that Corporate Australia is facing an increasing number of class actions funded by unregulated groups.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/asic-kept-out-of-the-loop-on-litigation-funder-regulation-20200714-p55bvk.html

The corporate watchdog says it was not consulted with about its new role regulating class action funders and only found out about the new rules the day before they were announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has revealed it was kept out of the loop before Mr Frydenberg announced on May 22 that all litigation funders would be required to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) like investment managers and financial planners and will be policed by ASIC. ASIC says it was not consulted with before Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the corporate cop would also be responsible for policing litigation funders. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen The new rules came into place amid growing concerns corporate Australia was facing a spike in the number of class actions being funded by unregulated groups, which bankroll cases against companies and take a large cut of any damages won by class action claimants. Mr Frydenberg has also loosened listed company disclosure rules until November to safeguard listed groups from class actions at a time when it is difficult for directors to properly assess the impact of the coronavirus and ever-changing restrictions on their businesses.

Middle East struggles with cybercrime despite investments

Despite heavy investment in cyber protection, the Middle East is still disproportionately affected by cyberattacks. The United Arab Emirates is the second most targeted country for cybercrime, while in 2017 Saudi Arabia had the highest rate of malicious emails and spam. While individual governments are acting to tackle the problem, experts have called for a more unified response across the region. PwC has observed that many businesses are not prepared for attacks and lack awareness of the risks, while Deloitte has highlighted other factors, not least the need for a culture change on issues of compliance and risk management.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/cybercrime-why-cant-the-middle-east-get-to-grips-with-the-threats/

Video: Triton malware targeting industrial facilities in Middle East. When you see the figures, it's no surprise that the cost of cybercrime is causing considerable concern to governments and business leaders across the globe. Cybercrime costs almost $600bn worldwide, or 0.8 percent of global GDP, up from close to $500bn, or 0.7 percent of global income in 2014, according to a February 2018 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and McAfee By 2021, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts, cybercrime "will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually". An international 2018 PwC study of 1,293 CEOs revealed their fear of cybercrime as a risk to growth is up 16 percent in the past year alone, perhaps reflecting emerging anxieties about ransomware and state-sponsored hacking. Major Middle East concerns Compared with their peers, leaders in the Middle East ranked fears around cyber threats higher, at 54 percent, than anywhere else. More widely, cyber threats ranked just behind overregulation on 42 percent and terrorism, 41 percent, and on a par with geopolitical uncertainty. Fears about cybercrime feature strongly among leaders in the Middle East. Image: PwC The concerns of leaders in the Middle East and North Africa appear justified. CSIS and McAfee's study reported the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the second most targeted country in the world for cybercrime, costing the Emirate an estimated $1.4bn per year. Meanwhile, 2017's Norton Cyber Security Insights Report highlighted a number of other considerations, including the 47.9 hours lost per consumer to cybercrime in the Emirates last year, compared with a global average of 23.6 hours. With 3.72 million people affected, which is more than half UAE's population, the impact, as in other countries, ranges from malware infections on 53 percent in UAE versus 48 percent globally, through to ransomware victims, 18 per cent of whom in UAE, and 17 percent globally, paid the ransom but did not receive access back to their files. SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic) Other Gulf nations are facing the same challenges. A recent Internet Security Threat Report, volume 23, March 2018, from Symantec listed Saudi Arabia as the country with the highest email spam rate, 69.9 per cent, in 2017. The same study ranked Oman fourth and found that the Sultanate is the country with the highest email malware rate in 2017, with one in 156 emails in the country deemed "malicious". With Saudi Arabia fifth and Kuwait eighth on this list, three Gulf countries were in Symantec's Top 10 nations for email malware last year; and four were in the top 10 for spam rates. Allied to this issue, as Gulf News reported, illegal cryptocurrency mining on the region, is on the rise. "The astronomical rise in cryptocurrency values last year inspired many cybercriminals to shift to coinmining as an alternative revenue source," Haider Pasha, chief technology officer for emerging markets at Symantec Middle East told them. Cybercrime significance and solutions The rise in cybercrime has occurred despite heavy investment by Gulf Cooperation Council states in cyber protection, and the adoption of various measures including legislation, wrote Joyce Hakem, a research fellow at Chatham House and co-editor of the Journal of Cyber Policy last year. "Cybercrime threatens growth of the digital economy. It shakes trust in the foundations of digital commerce, and in the smart infrastructure of interconnected devices, adaptive systems and other digital technologies that governments in the region are developing, and which they aspire to expand," she wrote. As countries in the Middle East see the further take-up of smartphones, the deployment of Internet of Things technologies, and the expansion of their smart-city ambitions, so the opportunities for cybercrime will increase. Many governments in the region are alive to these issues and are taking steps to address current and future cybersecurity needs. As Sevag Papazian at Strategy& told ZDNet last year: "We've noticed that awareness of the importance of cybersecurity has increased in the region. Governments are actively seeking to act on this important topic." Papazian highlighted Dubai's recently published cybersecurity strategy and the emirate's plans for blockchain as steps in the right direction. But he also noted how the distributed nature of government can also made it potentially harder to address imminent threats. Papazian was one of the authors of a Strategy& report in 2015, which argued for "a centralized national cybersecurity agency that reports to the highest authorities". "In most countries, cybersecurity is still distributed across several government agencies, and there's no empowered centralized entity that builds momentum and ensures collaboration," he said. Future cybersecurity issues With new challenges such as illegal coinmining gaining momentum, arguably the need for bodies such as Saudi Arabia's new National Authority for Cyber Security is greater than ever. Chatham House's Joyce Hakem also makes the case "for stronger cooperation mechanisms at national, regional and international level". "Most Gulf Cooperation Council cybercrime laws do not provide an adequate legal framework for cooperation," she wrote. "Nor do they include clear procedural provisions for implementation. In this sense, they are not fit for purpose. An overhaul of laws that addresses these gaps is needed." To this mix, we must also recognize that In the Middle East, the importance of smaller companies to local economies presents another challenge. Historically, this sector has lagged behind in terms of ICT infrastructure and online presence, and there is a need for increased awareness and solutions to meet their cybersecurity requirements. SEE: Cybersecurity in an IoT and mobile world (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic) Meanwhile, as the recent hack of the UAE ride-sharing service Careem showed, even larger organizations are not immune to these challenges. Personal data, including people's names, phone numbers and emails, for 14 million people were believed to have been exposed. Government agencies, regulators, law makers, businesses and citizens must all play a role in tackling issues of cybercrime, as acknowledged by UAE's Data Privacy Day in January. With even the most confident online users potentially falling prey to cyber attackers, as shown in successful phishing attempts, and the use of the same passwords across multiple accounts, there's a need for individuals to also take some responsibility to protect themselves. These cybersecurity challenges at consumer, business, regulatory, and intra-government level are not unique to the region. But the extent of the region's exposure is well documented. In 2016, PwC observed in their Middle East Economic Crime Survey that, "Most companies are still not adequately prepared for or even understand the risks faced. Only 33 percent of Middle East organizations have a cyber-incident response plan." Jump forward to 2018, and Deloitte highlighted additional issues such as regulatory fatigue, skills, and buy-in, and the need for culture change on issues of compliance and risk management. Given a global landscape described by Cybersecurity Ventures, as one where we will see "a dramatic increase in hostile nation state-sponsored and organized crime gang hacking activities, a cyberattack surface that will be an order of magnitude greater than it is today", now is not the time for the region, or anywhere else, to rest on its cybersecurity laurels. Previous and related coverage What's driving Middle East's rush to social media? The rise of visually orientated social networks, video, and messaging apps is helping shape usage. Fourth-generation Android espionage campaign targets Middle East Smartphone snoopers install malware which can provide attackers with information on almost every activity performed on the device. Skype banned, WhatsApp blocked: What's Middle East's problem with messenger apps? Some Middle Eastern countries seem to have a difficult relationship with VoIP services and messenger apps. Inside the boot camp reforming teenage hackers CNET A UK program offers young cybercriminals an alternative to detention and hopes to turn them into legit tech professionals. Where next for mobile in the Middle East? Big changes are coming The Middle East and North Africa is a complex region, but mobile usage and services are changing fast. Triton malware targeted critical infrastructure in the Middle East TechRepublic Mayer Brown partner and attorney Marcus Christian explains the exploit in Triconex systems, how hardware hacks work, and the legal ramifications of cyberattacks that target infrastructure.

Android's recent 'Oreo' update to improve cyber security

Developers of Android's Oreo update have introduced several measures to improve the security of its open source operating system. These include an update mechanism to regularly improve the security of devices, regardless of device types, and a reminder for users about the type of app they're downloading from third-party stores. Android security also tracks malware families on the web and monitors malicious infrastructure for ransomware threats. However, 86% of Android device owners use versions that are at least two years old, and some of these devices may never support Android Oreo.

https://www.wired.com/story/android-oreo-security-improvements

Android's recently released Oreo update packs in plenty of features, including a battery life boost and a notifications rethink. But Oreo's most important improvements will happen behind the scenes, with a host of security updates designed to evolve with ever-expanding digital threats. From halting ransomware to blocking malicious apps and easing Android's longstanding fragmentation woes, Oreo tackles some big problems. For the security developers who work behind the scenes, though, it's just one more step on a journey that never really ends. With more than two billion monthly active devices, the majority of them not on the latest—or even recent—version, Android presents a popular target for hackers. Stopping them takes more than a yearly release. It takes the kind of longview, holistic effort that Google has employed for years. "It’s funny how much the world focuses on the launch of a specific product. In the security world that approach doesn’t really work," says Adrian Ludwig, the director of Android Security. "Sometimes a change we made three years ago becomes relevant this year, or a change we’re making now becomes relevant four years from now. It’s iterative, we make changes with every release. Visibility and quick response go hand in hand with the ability to make longer-term changes and bake them into the platform." Android Security's long view may be an asset, but the group doesn't waste the chance to capitalize on the more tangible benefits of Android's marketshare and Google's reach. Virtually all of the new defense features in Android Oreo stem from or were informed by analysis to spot trends in threat data, Google Play activity, and user behavior. “There hasn’t been a huge widespread bug that affects every single version of Android recently, but there are still a lot of critical vulnerabilities that are affecting the core Android framework and platform,” says Andrew Blaich, a security researcher who specializes in Android at the mobile security firm Lookout. “But with the Oreo security updates they’re at least minimizing the impact because there is an update mechanism in place. And Google is able to react quicker to a lot of [security incidents] now, which is a good thing.” Just how much more secure will Oreo make your phone? That depends in part on if and when you'll get the update. But assuming you do, it's quite a haul. App World Take Google Play Protect, part of Android Security’s detection and reaction infrastructure, which scans devices for suspicious app activity. With 50 billion apps scanned per day, precision counts. The app scanning that goes into Play Protect has existed behind the scenes under other names for years, but Android Security surfaced the mechanism for customers this year and has used it to do a new type of visibility research. Android data scientist Megan Ruthven and others have developed techniques for detecting distribution of extremely targeted malware, the type that might be narrowly distributed to high-value marks. So far, Ruthven's research has turned up 3,000 unique samples of malware, each with an average of just 130 users affected. This ability to detect such a faint signal helps protect each individual user, while also allowing Android Security to spot nascent threats early. "Google Play Protect has such a high penetration rate over all Android devices that we are able to find these specific, targeted spywares," Ruthven says. Android’s scanners don’t catch everything, though, and researchers still regularly find malicious software that has made it past Google’s protections to land in the Play Store. In August alone, third-party analysts discovered hundreds of compromised financial apps, spyware, and even apps that spread malware to build Android botnets and power DDoS attacks.

Agriculture & Soil Degradation — The Conscious Challenge

Land degradation is happening at an alarming pace and is affecting regions inhabited by over one-third of the global population. This phenomenon contributes to a dramatic decline in the productivity of croplands worldwide, thereby threatening food security and environmental quality. A major part of soil depletion is due to the lands over-use and the products that we pour on it. We can consider that agriculture is responsible for 80% of the soil degradation in Europe and scientists estimate that 40% of lands in Europe are already degraded because of human actions.

https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/agriculture-soil-degradation

Some major aspects identified as drivers of soil degradation are: Biodiversity decline Induced by soil contamination, erosion, salinisation and sealing; Soil biodiversity reflects the mix of living organisms in the soil. These organisms interact with one another and with plants and small animals forming a web of biological activity. Soil compaction Induced by machinery use leads to a reduction in biological activity, porosity and permeability. It reduces water storage and conduct and make soil less permeable to plant roots, can affect water infiltration capacity and increase erosion risk by accelerating run‐off. Livestock In this desertification of our soils we can target livestock and animal exploitation as the biggest actor in the changes that we know. Livestock are also responsible because of their excrement, which are highly toxic for the atmosphere. When too many animals are concentrated in a small area, the amount of excrement, in the long term, can degrade the soil and create erosion, in addition to the greenhouse emissions. But even if animals are spread over a big territory, the soil can suffer from degradation. A cow for example, can eat between 40 and 75 kg of food per day. So, if we consider that they are on the same land all year long, they will eat all the resources without the possibility of regeneration for the soil. Livestock are also responsible indirectly with the land needed, to grow their foods. Because it is not directly for human consumption, people use to give to animals second-class agricole products, like GM(genetically modified) soja, GM corn or even animal origin flour. These exploitations are massively polluting and source of soil erosion. For example, in South America, we consider that 60% of the soil is degraded and 70% of this degradation comes from the land used to grow food for animals. Cultural inappropriate practices Practices in the agricultural world are one of the biggest threat for the soil. Farmers in the previous 50 years did not pay attention to the soil, animals or even people who used pesticides and fertilizers in big quantities. Now the biggest threat is GMOs but all the products used in the past, are still used which make the agricultural world even worse. Soil salinization (irrigation) Soil salinisation is, in some regions, is a huge problem for the agricultural world. It can lead to the reduction of soil productivity or even the impossibility to grow plants. As rocks and soil are eroded by water, small amounts of the mineral salts they contain are carried to rivers and lakes. Thus, the latter seep into the irrigation water. If an insufficient amount of water is used in a field, the salts become encrusted in the soil. But the most serious danger for the soil is too much water. In fact, in these conditions, the soil is engorged and raises the level of the water under the first layer of soil. The soil then functions as a sponge and absorb water into the rhizosphere by capillarity. This effect can attract water to the surface for about 1.5 m, depending on soil types. Water evaporates and salt stays around the roots, impeding their ability to absorb water. A process encountered particularly in arid regions. Currently, only 17% of all agricultural land is irrigated. But they account for 40% of worldwide food production. This is why we should start thinking about soil salinization.

Uzbekistan requests expressions of interest for 200 MW solar

Uzbekistan's Ministry of Energy has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) for a 200 MW tender for a solar park, slated for the country's southeast. The deadline for EoI is 22 February, while a Request for Qualification is scheduled for March. The solar project is part of a joint initiative with the Asian Development Bank to deploy 1 GW of solar in Uzbekistan.

https://renewablesnow.com/news/uzbekistan-invites-eois-for-200-mw-plus-solar-project-685890/

Uzbekistan has issued a request for Expressions of Interest (EoI) as part of a tender for the construction of an over 200-MW solar park in the country's southeastern regions. The invitation by the Ministry of Energy was released this weekend as part of a joint programme with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that will facilitate the deployment of 1 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in Uzbekistan. The first project of this initiative will have a capacity of at least 200 MW and will be installed in the Sherabad district in Surkhandarya province. Interested parties will be able to apply until February 22. After pre-qualifying bidders through the EoI, the Energy Ministry will issue a Request for Qualification (RFQ) in March 2020, which will be followed by Request for Proposals (RFPs) in May 2020. Winners are expected to be announced in August, with the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) planned to occur a month later. The selected bidder can be a single entity, a group of companies or a consortium. It will be tasked with the design, funding, construction, ownership and operation of the solar farm and will also have to build a 220-kV substation and a transmission line. The National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan (NENU) will be the power off-taker for 25 years. Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!

Poland wants to combat its smog problem with 'sniffer' drones

Polish drone company Flytronic has developed a device that can analyse the particulates produced by people's heating systems to determine whether they are breaking the law and burning polluting fuels. The company carried out a pilot test of its sniffer drone, the Nosacz, in collaboration with the City Guard in Katowice, one of Poland's most polluted cities. However, despite the test's success, Flytronic may encounter headwinds thanks to the country's drone laws, which are currently under discussion and include issues of privacy.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/sniffer-drones-the-answer-to-polands-suffocating-smog-problem/

Video: How the Nosacz, or Sniffer, drone helps fight smog. Polish cities have a huge smog problem. It's mainly caused by the country's almost religious use of coal-fired heating, but exacerbated by people burning rubbish instead of not-so-clean-but-still-cleaner fossil fuels. Now, one Polish company is offering some technology that should simplify enforcement of environmental rules. Like most large cities in Poland, Katowice is struggling with choking smog. Indeed, 33 of the top 50 worst-polluted cities in Europe are in Poland. Katowice is right up there and, at one point during this winter, even had the worst air quality in the world, surpassing even the usual suspects, such as Kolkata and Mumbai in India. On a fairly regular basis, the particle norms are exceeded five or six times in the Polish city. Katowice is hardly an exception, even though the situation is worse in the industrial, coal-loving south of the country. Part of the problem is that consumers sometimes think of their heaters as easy waste disposal devices. While doing so is illegal, it is a law that's desperately hard to enforce. The City Guard, as the Poles call their municipal police, can only conduct inspections by randomly knocking on doors and taking samples. Adding to that problem are the fines, which are pitched low even by Polish standards at 100 zloty, less than €25 or $30, and not much is happening to combat this problem. But that may change thanks to a system thought up by Gliwice-based drone producer Flytronic. In February the company conducted a pilot project with the Katowice City Guard to test their Nosacz, or Sniffer, drone above chimneys in the most-polluted areas. See also: Special report: Harnessing IoT in the enterprise (free PDF) Designing the Sniffer was not easy, says Przemyslaw Tomkow, head of training at Flytronic. "We needed measuring equipment that was especially produced to mount on our hexacopter," he tells ZDNet. "But producers only had stationary or handheld models of their sensor arrays. It took our partner three months to produce one." Flytronic wanted a laser sensor for the various particulates, and four additional sensors for chemicals such as formaldehyde that suggest the burning of rubbish like PVC, painted or wet wood. Not only did the array need to be able to measure the exact particles on the fly but it also had to be able to pinpoint the exact location of the samples using GPS. "The sensor array also had to be as light as possible, and we needed a good data connection." All that equipment has been mounted on a 13kg (28.5lb) hexacopter designed to stay in the air even in case of a failure of one of the propellers. "We are flying above urban areas, so we couldn't risk the drone crashing and possibly hurting passers-by." According to Tomkow, the test has been a success. "Our goal was to see if the data was accurate enough to warrant a ground inspection by local officers," he says. "In all cases, the ground inspection did turn up grounds for a fine." Now read: Smart office technology: What's working, what's failing, and what users want out of it Alone, samples collected by the drones don't constitute sufficient grounds for a fine. "But if authorities turn up, inhabitants would in all cases simply admit they burned illegal materials." Flytronic now wants to take it further, and demonstrate the Sniffer to other interested local authorities at the end of March, and also start tests to see how many instances the drone could detect in the course of a normal working day. But the technology might still come up against some legal issues. Drone laws are still being discussed in the country, which include privacy issues. "We've already heard claims that drones cannot fly above houses as it would violate their 'personal airspace'', even if there is no such thing," Tomkow says. Alone, samples collected by the drones don't constitute sufficient grounds for a fine. Image: Flytronic Previous and related coverage Poland's big broadband test: Getting firms to fight over high-speed links for rural areas With a 5G mobile rollout looming, Poland has been pushing to bring its infrastructure up to par. Poland now shuts shops on Sundays but forgets how tech can get round law Sunday closing to help smaller retailers just points to more tech innovation for shops that want to stay open. How new national cybersecurity center aims to make Poland a tougher nut to crack Juliusz Brzostek, director of Poland's NC Cyber, explains what the country's cybersecurity center has been up to in its first nine months of operation.

GreenApple launch learning platform dedicated to STEM jobs

Illinois edtech Green Apple has launched sister company Green AppleSTEM, a software-as-a-service offering tools for science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) education. The company hopes the platform will reach children in after-school clubs and camps, as well as in the classroom, and is also aimed at organisations and businesses. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts STEM-based jobs will grow to nine million by 2022, while the industry will be worth $15bn.

https://techli.com/2017/10/illinois-edtech-platform-releases-cutting-edge-platform-supporting-stem-education/

Illinois-based organization GreenApple has released a new STEM education platform this month aimed at providing training tools for the technological, scientific, and data-driven careers that are quickly becoming the highest-paid and most in-demand occupations around. The SaaS digital platform aims to enable educators and entrepreneurs to bring STEM – i.e., science, technology, engineering, and math – education courses to their classrooms, camps, after school programs, workshops, and organizations. The platform empowers students of all ages to become STEM-proficient through rich multimedia offering hands-on activities, a virtual coaching tool for additional support, and game-based assessment. Based in the Naperville, GreenApple’s innovative platform is striking while the iron is hot. STEM jobs are among the highest paid – with a salary around double that of other jobs according to the US Department of Labor – and yet, as economist Katie Bardaro told Forbes, there is still a lack of new graduates in these fields. And the demand for these jobs is growing. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in STEM-based occupations is projected to grow to more than 9 million between 2012 and 2022 – an increase of around 1 million jobs. By bringing courses and tools to any web-enabled device, GreenApple is helping educators and businesses to both meet an ever-growing demand and to do so through what is becoming the medium of choice. Education technology, whose worth was estimated at over $8 billion in the Education Technology Industry Network’s “2014 U.S. Education Technology Industry Market: PreK-12 Report,” is expected to be a $15 billion dollar industry by 2020. GreenApple, CEO Dee Guiney explains the platform is a pioneer in the STEM education market rather than an opportunistic latecomer. With 15 years of experience providing STEM education to several thousands of students, Guiney says, “We were doing STEM before STEM was cool!” GreenApple has a tradition of such forward-thinking training programs that has been bringing education to the forefront of emerging technologies. In addition to GreenApple®STEM, the organization boasts a GirlsTech program that empowers young women through technical and computing training, as well as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality programs that let kids design their own AR and VR projects and applications.

India calls for energy storage R&D projects

India is calling for proposals for projects that contribute to the development of sustainable, integrated transnational energy storage R&D projects. The country's ministry of science and technology has teamed up with Europe's ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems and international body Mission Innovation on the project, with the last offering €20m ($22.3m) in funds as part of its Joint Call 2019. The deadline to submit proposals for both short and long-term storage solutions is 12 November, with the projects expected to start by the end of 2020.

https://www.pv-magazine-india.com/2019/10/14/proposals-invited-for-transnational-projects-on-energy-storage-solutions/

The Indian partners will be funded by the DST, which has committed 2 million euros for the projects. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under India’s Ministry of Science and Technology, has partnered with the European joint programming platform ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems and the global Mission Innovation Initiative for supporting transnational research, development and innovation projects on integrated energy storage solutions. Funds available under the Joint Call 2019 on energy storage solutions (MICall19) amount to 20 million Euros. The Indian partners will be funded by the DST, which has committed 2 million euros for the projects. Other participating countries and regions include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Nordic and Baltic Region, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Scope and mission The initiative aims to ensure secure and resilient energy supply through up to 100% renewables with focus on the development of integrated storage systems. Transnational consortia are invited to submit proposals for projects which contribute to the development of sustainable, integrated solutions for both short- and long-term storage. Solutions employing electrical, electrochemical, material, thermal and/or mechanical storage can be developed and shall enable collaboration between stakeholders. The solutions shall contribute to solving challenges defined by Mission Innovation. Projects shall also consider adoption by addressing market and regulation topics and are highly encouraged to identify and involve “need-owners” in development. Funded projects will benefit not only from being part of a global innovation network but also of a network of associated partners providing the “need-owner” perspective and supporting projects from proposal phase until market uptake. Further, a transnational knowledge community will enable exchange with other energy experts and bring project results to a broad audience. Administrative, communication and content-related support is provided by the ERA-Net Knowledge Management Team through information material, events and feedback along the project lifetime.

FCA to kickstart sandbox with 24 applicants

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has accepted 25 applicants from a wide range of sectors including banking, insurance, IPO, and advice and profiling from a variety of countries including Singapore, Denmark, USA and Canada to participate in its fintech sandbox​, designed to "develop towards testing" innovative financial products and help them get authorisation. Seven out of the 69 applications were from blockchain and payments firm.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29480/fca-to-kickstart-sandbox-with-24-applicants

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has accepted 24 applicants, from a total of 69, to participate in its fintech sandbox, where innovative financial products can be tested before proceeding to authorisation. Speaking at a British Bankers' Association conference, Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, provided a two-year progress report on the watchdog's Project Innovate, designed to help incumbents and fintech startups navigate the regulatory maze and get new tech-driven products to market. He says interest in the sandbox has exceeded expectations, with applicants coming from a wide range of sectors including retail banking, insurance, advice and profiling and IPO, and from a spectrum of geographies, including Singapore, Denmark, USA and Canada "Of 69 applications, we have accepted 24 to develop towards testing, which met the sandbox eligibility criteria, leading us to expand our team to meet demand," says Woolard. "We have also offered assistance via Project Innovate or other colleagues to 40 of the applicants, in some cases to prepare for the next cohort of the Sandbox." Of the 69 applicants, seven came from payment firms - including blockchain firms. Speaking on the latter, Woolard adopts a cautious tone. "I have said before that the FCA does not view blockchain as a panacea, but at the same time although still in its relative infancy, the development of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and its application as blockchain, has the potential to offer genuinely innovative solutions to financial services," he says. "But there are a number of issues to be considered. For example, how do individuals gain access to a distributed network and who controls this process? What data security exists for users?" He says the watchdog is currently engaged in discussions with government and industry on these issues. Alongside, the sandbox, the FCA has also fielded 19 applications for the new Advice Unit, which was set up in the wake of the Financial Advice Market Review as a way of supporting firms developing automated models which seek to deliver lower cost advice. In total, nine firms were accepted onto the unit, of which eight were from established financial services firms, "who want to bring automated advice to the market at scale". "There will be lessons for everyone - from regulators to firms," says Woolard of the Advice Unit. "With that in mind, we aim to share publicly what we’ve learnt from the Advice Unit’s interactions with firms, in order to give greater clarity to the industry on how to take an automated advice model forward." Lastly, Woolard touched on the area of RegTech, a developing area in which technology is applied to unwinding the masses of red tape suffocating business development. The watchdog held its first TechSprint hackathon earlier this year, bringing together a cross-section of financial services providers and technology companies to develop prototype solutions to overcome seemingly intractable access barriers. Woolard says that three of the ideas generated at the event are now being explored commercially as products to bring to market. "We are now planning to hold a second TechSprint event later this year on the theme of ‘unlocking regulatory reporting’," he says. "This might not be as glamorous as some projects but the costs to firms and to consumers in due course, are very significant indeed, let alone the contribution that could be made to enabling us as regulator to do a better job."

Biotech Develops E25Bio 15-Minute Test for COVID-19

A new rapid antigen test kit could help identify people affected by COVID-19 in as little as 15 minutes. The test has been created by E25Bio, a Massachusetts, US-based startup. The company was spun out of Lee Gerke's lab, a part of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/tata-backed-mit-startup-develops-15-minute-test-for-covid-19-2215690

A new rapid antigen test kit could help identify people affected by COVID-19 in as little as 15 minutes. The test has been created by E25Bio, a Massachusetts, US-based startup that has previously made diagnostic tests for dengue and Zika. The company was spun out of Lee Gerke's lab, a part of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, backed by an MIT-affiliated organisation called The Engine. The test can detect if a person has been affected by COVID-19, caused by coronavirus, in a very short amount of time compared to other methods, and could play an important part in helping us return to normal from the current pandemic situation. Last month, E25Bio raised $2 million (roughly Rs 15.3 crores) from Khosla Ventures in order to create a rapid COVID-19 diagnosis kit. The two-year-old firm quickly started testing on human samples, and in just about a month, has completed work on its kit, according to a report published by MIT. The diagnostic test resembles an over-the-counter pregnancy test, although unfortunately, you still require a nasopharyngeal swab to carry out the test. “Our team is also working to determine if alternate samples, like saliva, can be considered, which would help reduce patient discomfort,” said Bosch. What's more, the test is also going to be substantially cheaper than most other alternatives. “Given the exponential rate of spread of the virus, there is a critical need to deploy fast, reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use point-of-care tests in order to flatten the curve by quickly detecting and isolating patients who need immediate care,” the team noted. Fast and cheap tests are going to be very important in the fight against the spread of coronavirus. Being able to detect COVID-19 in a timely manner will rely on extensive testing, and rapid testing will be important in opening up businesses such as air travel. Right now, airline passengers travelling by the Dubai-based Emirates reportedly have to carry out blood tests for COVID-19 before flying, and this could well be the future of air travel until a vaccine or cure is developed. According to a statement from the airline, the COVID-19 blood tests were done on passengers before departure. They were conducted at the check-in area and results were available within 10 minutes. German corporation Bosch has also developed a rapid testing kit for COVID-19, which it claims can detect a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection in patients in under two and a half hours. With the standard tests currently in use, patients must usually wait for one to two days for a result. At present, three lakh more Rapid Antibody Test kits being used for quick detection of the COVID-19 have been dispatched to India from Chinese city of Guangzhou, the Indian envoy said on Saturday, as per reports. This is in addition to 6.50 lakh Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits sent earlier. Editor's note: This article has been updated. An earlier version of the article misstated the details of E25Bio's affiliation with MIT, and hospital partners.

Cypto companies becoming prevalent player in sport sponsorships

With clubs such as Wolves and Arsenal engaging in major deals with crypto-platforms, as well as the likes of Didier Drogba, Eden Hazard and James Rodriguez, the industry is receiving a great deal of coverage from such partnerships. The likelihood is that with such exposure from these clubs and players, it will only be a matter of time until other sports teams adopt the same concept and move to crypto players for their sponsorship deals in the future.   

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/cryptocurrency/crypto-players-to-emerge-as-top-sponsors-of-sports-2727561.html

Moneycontrol News Cryptocurrency is on its way to becoming one of the topmost sponsors of sports, with club football leading the way for the emerging industry. Global cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDeal became the latest entrant after signing a sponsorship deal with English Premier League team Wolverhampton Wanderers, earlier this month. It will be the first time that a crypto-based platform would feature on player jerseys. Wolves are delighted to announce global cryptocurrency exchange platform @coin_deal as 2018/19 first team shirt sleeve sponsors. https://t.co/HMennhpDpX — Wolves (@Wolves) July 4, 2018 “I was always very close to the world of sports, managing players. At CoinDeal, we are very aware of the impact that football marketing can have on brand and its community, especially in an industry such as ours. We believe that a club like Wolverhampton Wanderers in a game as prestigious as the English Premier League will help carry our message globally. We only hope we can add a brick to the success of the Old Gold in this new challenge,” wrote CoinDeal co-founder Kajetan Maćkowiak on their official website. In January, English giants Arsenal secured a sponsorship deal with US cryptocurrency CashBet, which will see the London-based club promote the company’s initial coin offering (ICO) at the Emirates stadium. The deal, whose value was undisclosed, is the first time a major global sporting team has officially partnered with a cryptocurrency firm. “We are pleased to welcome CashBet Coin as our partner. We are looking forward to working with CashBet Coin as they launch their new cryptocurrency,” Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s chief commercial officer, told The Guardian. Belgium captain and Chelsea talisman Eden Hazard too has an association with the crypto industry as he promotes All Sports Chain’s SOC cryptocurrency brand. After Chelsea defeated Manchester United for the FA Cup in May earlier this year, All Sports Chain (SOC) took to Twitter to congratulate their brand icon. Thanks to a goal from SOC consultant Eden Hazard, Chelsea beat Manchester United to FA Cup glory! Congratulations to Hazard and Chelsea! @hazardeden10 pic.twitter.com/EY82VvdqSB — All Sports Chain (SOC) (@allsportschain) May 19, 2018 Bayern Munich star James Rodriguez launched his own cryptocurrency— JR10 — which was made available on the SelfSell App from May 27 this year. The Colombian playmaker delved into the industry with an aim to “reflect his brand values and build stronger fan relationships”. A brand “new me”, sponsored and brought by SelfSell, will be activated. Will you guess what it is? Jump to download SelfSell App and join me. @self_sell pic.twitter.com/OXugqJq3uH — James Rodríguez (@jamesdrodriguez) May 22, 2018

BHEL tenders for 22 MW floating solar, with balance of system

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has launched a tender for a 22 MW, floating-solar project at the Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project in Kerala. BHEL, which launched the tender for NCTP, also aims to procure the balance of systems for the floating-solar scheme. The bid-submission deadline is 5 June. Floating solar comprises roughly 102 MW of Kerala's 110 MW project pipeline, according to Mercom.  

https://mercomindia.com/bhel-seeks-bidders-floating-solar-kerala/

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has invited bids for a 22 MW (AC) floating solar grid-connected power project for NTPC Limited. The project will be installed at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project (RGCCPP) at Kayamkulam in Kerala. Through this tender, BHEL is also looking to procure the balance of systems (BoS) for the project. The last date for the submission of bids is June 05, 2020 and interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹2.03 million (~$26,855) as the earnest money deposit (EMD). In January 2020, BHEL had floated a tender for the design and supply of a solar floatation platform of 22 MW capacity. In this tender, the vendor had to supply floats and float accessories to fix 95,460 PV modules. BHEL had also issued a tender for conducting a detailed survey for a proposed 22 MW floating solar project in Kerala. The NTPC had floated a tender for the development of this project in June 2018. This project is financed through NTPC’s internal resources. This was an international tender under which engineering procurement construction (EPC) services were required by NTPC. To take part in the bidding process, the bidder should have executed similar projects in the last ten years. The bidder should have executed one similar work of at least ₹40 million (~$529,164), or two similar projects, each valued at least ₹25 million (~$330,727), or three similar projects of at least ₹15 million (~$198,436) each.

Air pollution prematurely ages skin: Report

Air pollution, including tiny particles called PMs, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), increases premature ageing, according to a range of scientific studies. One study found that age spots on cheeks of people in Germany and China increased by 25% with a small increase in pollution; another showed that eczema and hives were more common when people in Mexico were exposed to higher levels of pollution. The major cosmetic companies are creating medicine-like products to block the damage and specifically protect against skin ageing from air pollution. However, certain products like skin scrubs and glycolic acid, can make the damage from pollution even worse by destroying the skin's natural barrier.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/15/air-pollution-causes-wrinkles-and-premature-ageing-new-research-shows

Air pollution is prematurely ageing the faces of city dwellers by accelerating wrinkles and age spots, according to emerging scientific research. The effects of toxic fumes on skin are being seen in both western cities, such as London and New York, as well as in more visibly polluted Asian cities and in some cases may be the primary cause of ageing. The pollution is also being linked to worsening skin conditions such as eczema and hives. The scientific discoveries are now driving the world’s biggest cosmetics companies to search for solutions, including medicine-like compounds that directly block the biological damage. But doctors warn that some common skin care routines, such as scrubs, make the damage from air pollution even worse. Poisonous air is already known to cause millions of early deaths from lung and heart diseases and has been linked to diabetes and mental health problems. But perhaps its most visible impact, the damage caused to skin, is just beginning to be understood. “With traffic pollution emerging as the single most toxic substance for skin, the dream of perfect skin is over for those living and working in traffic-polluted areas unless they take steps to protect their skin right now,” said Dr Mervyn Patterson, a cosmetic doctor at Woodford Medical clinics in the UK. “Unless people do more they will end up wearing the pollution on their faces in 10 years’ time. It is definitely something people now need to take seriously.” Prof Jean Krutmann, director at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany, said: “UV [damage from the sun] was really the topic in skin protection for the last 20-30 years. Now I think air pollution has the potential to keep us busy for the next few decades.” Air pollution in urban areas, much of which comes from traffic, includes tiny particles called PMs, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). “What is very clear is that PMs are a problem for skin,” said Krutmann, whose work has shown PMs increase age spots and wrinkles. But one of the his newest studies showed NO2 also increases ageing. They studied people in both Germany and China and discovered that age spots on their cheeks increased by 25% with a relatively small increase in pollution, 10 microgrammes of NO2 per cubic metre. Many parts of the UK have illegally high levels of NO2, with London breaking its annual limit in the first week of 2016, with levels reaching over 200 microgrammes of NO2 per cubic metre. Krutmann said other factors, such as UV exposure, nutrition and smoking contribute to ageing: “But what we can say is that, at least for the pigment spots on the cheeks, it seems air pollution is the major driver.” “It is not a problem that is limited to China or India – we have it in Paris, in London, wherever you have larger urban agglomerations you have it,” he said. “In Europe everywhere is so densely populated and the particles are being distributed by the wind, so it is very difficult to escape from the problem.” The accelerated skin ageing was seen in relatively young people and Patterson said: “If you are seeing these changes in middle age, these are worrying trends.” Other recent research is summed up in a review paper in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, which concluded: “Prolonged or repetitive exposure to high levels of these [air] pollutants may have profound negative effects on the skin.” Understanding exactly how air pollution causes the skin damage is at an early stage, according to Krutmann: “We are just now dipping into the mechanisms.” But many of the pollutants are known to pass easily through the skin and cause a variety of impacts. “These agents have a very irritating effect and once they get into the skin, they activate multiple pathways of inflammation,” said Patterson. “Some pathways ignite the melanocytes, which create far too much pigment and end up giving you unwanted sun spots.” “Other pathways ignite messengers that make blood vessels grow, that’s what results in increased redness and potentially rosacea,” he said. “Also, if you damage skin, it goes into repair mode and excites enzymes which re-adsorb damaged collagen. When you have too much chronic inflammation, these enzymes remove more collagen than your skin can create. This produces skin laxity and that’s where fine lines and wrinkles come in.” Dr Debra Jaliman, a skin expert based in New York City, says her patients are now worrying about the impact of air pollution on their skin, which she said can cause darkening of the skin and acne-like eruptions, as well as ageing. “At the moment, there are not many products for prevention [of air pollution damage], however it may be a trend in the coming years as it becomes a much bigger issue,” she said. Major beauty companies have begun their own research and are launching the first products formulated to battle skin damage from toxic air. Dr Frauke Neuser, senior scientist for Olay, a Procter and Gamble brand, has run studies showing significantly lower skin hydration in people living in polluted areas and lab studies showing that diesel fumes and PMs cause inflammation in skin cells. Her team then screened for ingredients that could counteract some of the damaging effects. “We found niacinamide - vitamin B3 - to be particularly effective,” she said. “We have recently increased its level in several products by as much as 40%.” Frauke’s work has also shown direct correlations between spikes in PM air pollution in Beijing and an increase in hospital visits by people with skin conditions including hives. “This indicates that not only skin ageing but also skin health are affected by air pollution,” she said. L’Oreal, another cosmetics giant, published a medical study in 2015 showing that eczema and hives were more common in people in Mexico exposed to higher levels of air pollution, a conclusion supported by separate research in Canada. “The next step is to understand more deeply the environment-induced damages, in order to develop skin ageing prevention routines and products,” said Dr Steve Shiel, scientific director at L’Oreal. Clinique, a big makeup brand, has already launched a sonic face cleansing brush it claims better removes pollution. “This [air pollution] is not going to go away. This is not a problem that is easily fixed,” said Janet Pardo at Clinique. However, researchers are now working on medicine-like compounds that block the damage from air pollution from occurring in the first place. Krutmann’s lab helped Symrise, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of cosmetics ingredients, identify one, though the lab has no commercial stake in the product, which is called SymUrban. “We found one molecule that can do the job,” he said, and it is now being registered as cosmetic ingredient. “In a few years from now I expect we will see cosmetic products that can specifically protect against skin ageing from air pollution.” Patterson said it is possible for people to give themselves some protection now. “You don’t have to sit back passively and put up with it. You can take sensible, easy steps that will make a difference.” “If your skin is really healthy, it is quite a good barrier,” he said, explaining that the top layer is like a roof - flattened cells like tiles separated by protective lipids. “Certain skin care products are very disruptive to the surface of the skin,” he warned. “So a darling of the industry is retinoids, but these have a very profound negative effect on barrier function. Another darling of the industry is glycolic acid, but it is also very disruptive to the external skin barrier. People think these are good skin care, making the skin look smoother, but they are not helpful for the overall health of the skin barrier.” Patterson is also dismissive of face scrubs: “The skin is trying its damnedest to make this wonderful defence mechanism and what do women and men do? They scrub the hell out of it. It just doesn’t make sense.” He said products that help repair the skin barrier, by delivering the pre-cursor lipids the cells need, are beneficial, as are ones that tackle inflammation. “You can also put on a very nice physical shield in the form of good quality mineral makeup,” he said. “That produces an effect like a protective mesh and probably has some trapping effect, protecting against the initial penetration of particles. But you also need always to try to remove that shield in the evening, washing the slate clean every night.”

The Coronavirus Outbreak

A top British scientist who pushed for a lockdown resigns after breaching the rules. In the Philippines, a broadcaster critical of the president has been forced off the air. The E.U. economy is set to shrink 7.4 percent in 2020 with unemployment reaching 9 percent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/world/coronavirus-news.html?type=styln-live-updates&label=global&index=1&action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage#link-320a6b3e

Well, when I see people say, well America’s bullying the Chinese, we were demanding of them only what we demand of every nation: Be transparent, be open, be a reliable partner — the very things they say, the Chinese say they want to cooperate. Great, cooperation is about action. It’s about opening up. It’s about sharing this information. So the details of where “patient zero,” where this began are things that are knowledge that’s in the possession of only the Chinese Communist Party. They’re the ones that can help unlock that — if they need technical assistance, we’re happy to provide that assistance to them. We do need — the world needs — answers to these these questions for not only the current moment, but so that we can make sure that we reduce the risk that something like this could ever happen again with thousands and thousands of lives lost, and enormous economic cost to the entire world. We don’t have certainty, and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory. Those statements can both be true. I’ve made them both. Administration officials have made them. They’re all true. The most important piece here is that the American people remain at risk. The American people remain at risk because we do not know, to your point. We don’t have certainty about whether it began in the lab or whether it began someplace else. There’s an easy way to find out the answer to that: Transparency, openness, the kinds of things that nations do when they really want to be part of solving a global pandemic, when they really want to participate in the things that keep human beings safe, and get economies going back again.

South African Airways expands biofuel use

Biodiesel based on Sunchem's tobacco plant, Solaris, will be introduced into South Africa’s OR Tambo International Airport's ground-handling operations. In 2016, South African Airways (SAA) became the first African airline to power commercial flights using the biofuel, as part of Project Solaris. In a follow up project, Reya Fofa, the biodiesel will be expanded to OR Tambo. The SAA-endorsed project is a partnership between Sunchem, Swissport, The Royal Bafokeng Nation and iLive. The airline, which has a target of blending half its fuel with sustainable biofuel, plans to become Africa’s leading operator of flights powered by biodiesel.

https://biofuels-news.com/news/south-africas-or-tambo-airport-to-introduce-biodiesel-into-operations/

South Africa’s OR Tambo airport to introduce biodiesel into operations South African Airways (SAA) has welcomed the scaling up of the local sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply in South Africa, as the country’s OR Tambo International Airport looks to introduce biodiesel into its ground-handling operations. Together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Mango Airlines, SAA made history in 2016 as the first airline in Africa to operate commercial flights powered by SAF produced from Sunchem’s tobacco plant, Solaris. Known as Project Solaris, the approach demonstrated that it was possible to use a locally produced feedstock to manufacture bio-jet fuel for commercial aviation, which meets all necessary sustainability criteria required by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). The new follow-up project, Project Reya Fofa, will introduce Solaris-based biodiesel into the ground-handling operations at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa. It aims to support a feasible scale-up of feedstock production and infrastructure, so that a fully localised value chain for a refinery producing hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) may be achieved in the coming years to produce bio-jet fuel and green diesel. The next phase will be rolled out as a collaboration between Sunchem, Swissport, The Royal Bafokeng Nation and iLive, and is endorsed by SAA. SAA has set a goal of blending 50% of its fuel with locally and environmentally sustainably produced biofuel. The airline is working to become the leading African carrier to operation biofuel-powered flights on a sustainable basis within the African continent. Reya Fofa is Setswana and Sesotho for ‘We are flying’ and demonstrates the vision of the project to be inclusive and transformative.

Northwestern Mutual puts dollars behind creation of data institute

Insurer Northwestern Mutual has partnered with two universities to create a new data institute to boost the data science skills it has available. It is investing $40m in the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, in association with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University. The company is aiming to secure a place for Wisconsin as a national hub in the US for technology, research and business development, improving the supply talent in the fields of business, mathematics, behavioural sciences, process design and industrial engineering. It says half of its workforce already works almost entirely in the digital field.

https://www.dig-in.com/news/northwestern-mutual-looks-to-build-data-science-pipeline?utm_campaign=morning%20briefing-jul%2017%202018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&eid=c82018f0e3d6457b5e90e5a599eb2a23

Data science has become a critical business component in insurance, but there is a severe skills shortage. Life insurer Northwestern Mutual knew it needed to attract and nurture more data science talent in order to remain competitive and fill the gap. To that end, the company has increased its commitment to develop and retain data science talent in its home city of Milwaukee. It recently partnered with Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to invest nearly $40 million to create the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. In addition, in partnership with several other companies in Milwaukee, the company released a comprehensive study of technology talent and its impact on the local Milwaukee economy. “For Northwestern Mutual – and most large companies today – data needs to be integrated into everything we do to provide our clients with financial security and a leading digital experience, as well as provide a competitive advantage for our company and financial advisors,” says Karl Gouverneur, VP of digital workplace, corporate solutions and head of digital innovation at Northwestern Mutual. “As data science becomes more critical to how we do business, our enterprise data and analytics team has been growing rapidly and we need strong talent with the right skills and passion to fuel that growth,” he says. The company’s data and analytics teams take action on data insights to streamline and find new ways to solve business challenges and identify new business opportunities, he adds. Data science is used to streamline internal processes, assist in underwriting, create financial wellness scores and develop tools to pair prospective clients with advisors. The goal of the data science collaboration in Milwaukee, he explains, is to build a technology ecosystem and advance southeastern Wisconsin as a national hub for technology, research, business and talent development, while creating an organic pipeline of tech talent in the area. The approach is similar to a strategy by MassMutual. “We expect the Institute will help us stay on the leading edge of this field, as well as make intentional connections between education and job opportunities,” he says. “We need strong talent with skills in business, mathematics, behavioral sciences, process design and industrial engineering. The Institute will help us develop an organic talent pipeline to meet those needs.” In addition to helping with curriculum planning, Northwestern Mutual will also offer classroom and office space in its new innovation center, Cream City Labs (set to open in Fall 2018). Its technology leaders will also partner with the universities on teaching opportunities, internship programs and shaping curriculum around real-world business opportunities. By exposing data science students to the breadth and depth of opportunities to apply what they learn in the insurance and financial services industry, Northwestern Mutual can attract more talent, says Gouverneur. “As the digital experience becomes more important to our company and clients, more and more of our employees are working on digital projects and we have a large need for tech talent,” he explains. “One of the perceptions we face is that many people think of Northwestern Mutual as a traditional life insurance company and might not expect technology to be a large focus or core capability. However, nearly half of our workforce works almost entirely in the digital space.”

Iran Boosts Oil Recovery Rate To Counter U.S. Sanctions

The mean average rate of recovery across all of Iran’s oil fields was 5.5 per cent before U.S. sanctions were re-imposed in 2018, after which it dropped to the current 4.5 per cent.The plan now from Iran’s side is to reduce this recovery rate gap with its neighbour by increasing its own mean average recovery rate across its fields to 25 per cent within the next three years as well, a senior oil industry source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry told OilPrice.com last week.“If MAPNA can sustainably raise the recovery rates from these two fields and from the other fields in which it is also now engaged [Aban, West Paydar, Sepehr, Jofeyr, East Paydar, Dalpari, and Cheshmeh Khosh] to even seven per cent within the next twelve months, then it will be a major step towards reducing the influence of the IRGC in Iran’s oil sector as a whole, which in turn will mean that reconciliation with the U.S. and the resuscitation of the JCPOA gets that much closer,” the Iran source concluded.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Iran-Boosts-Oil-Recovery-Rate-To-Counter-US-Sanctions.html

Given the gaps available to Iran in the current U.S. sanctions environment to continue to export its oil – principally via rebranding as Iraq oil and various shipping scams – Tehran is making a move to dramatically improve the recovery rate on its key oil sites. Last week, the Islamic Republic’s Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, announced the awarding of a US$1.3 billion contract to improve oil recovery at two onshore oil fields in Khuzestan province to Iran’s main infrastructure and power construction company, MAPNA Group. In theory, as well, the awarding of this contract to MAPNA may be a sign of a partial shift in Iranian politics back to the more Western-friendly moderate view espoused by President Hassan Rouhani and his supporters. The mean average rate of recovery across all of Iran’s oil fields was 5.5 per cent before U.S. sanctions were re-imposed in 2018, after which it dropped to the current 4.5 per cent. By contrast, Saudi Arabia has a mean average rate of recovery of 50 per cent – genuinely correct, not one of its self-serving fantasy figures – and it has plans in place to bring this up to 70 per cent within the next three years. The ease of recovery per barrel (pb) from each country is largely the same, as evidenced by the identical lifting cost of US$2-3 pb (the total operating cost excluding capital expenditure), so there is no substantive reason why the recovery rates between the two should be much different. The plan now from Iran’s side is to reduce this recovery rate gap with its neighbour by increasing its own mean average recovery rate across its fields to 25 per cent within the next three years as well, a senior oil industry source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry told OilPrice.com last week. As Iran’s key cluster of oil fields – in the West Karoun region - together contain at least 67 billion barrels of oil in place, for every one per cent increase in the rate of recovery, the recoverable reserves figure would increase by 670 million barrels. This equates to around US$34 billion in revenues with oil even at US$50 a barrel. Related: Can Digital Tech Solve Oil’s Talent Crisis? Prior to the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, Iran was in the process of choosing from an array of very good options on the optimal way to increase recovery rates in each of its major fields. It had signed, or was in the process of signing, deals with a swathe of international oil companies to take control of these activities, including top European and Asian firms, until the U.S. announced its unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal in May 2018. At that point, though, over and above the withdrawal of France’s Total from the South Pars Phase 11 gas field (and the in-principle-agreed South Azadegan oil field), various other northern European companies were still willing to deal with Iran, given that the European Union did not support the U.S. JCPOA withdrawal to such a degree that it introduced the ‘Blocking Statute’. One of these companies with a considerable history of working with Iran, according to various sources, was absolutely confident that it could raise the mean average recovery rate to 12 per cent within a year, to 15 per cent within two years, and then to 20 per cent within three years. “As it was, though, the U.S. was able to put pressure on the company and the deal never went through, which meant that various companies associated with the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] took over the responsibilities of boosting the recovery rate, at which point it went down at least one per cent,” he told OilPrice.com. “This is why the [Iranian] government has now turned to MAPNA, as it is a proper, commercially-run, independent company with a good track record of achievement in building out Iran’s power sector,” he added. “This contract shows commercial considerations finally winning out over the move further towards the IRGC that we have seen since 2018, and may be a significant sign of things to come,” he underlined. MAPNA not only works closely with all of Iran’s leading universities to develop the required technologies and engineering systems required for its major projects but can also draw upon the ‘extra elements’ that it might need to optimise recovery rates from a range of other sources. For example, it has a longstanding good relationship with German engineering giant, Siemens, with which only a relatively short while ago it signed an agreement that would allow it to acquire the technological know-how to manufacture the German firm’s F class gas turbines in Iran, prior to which Siemens was to deliver two of these turbines to the flagship Bandar Abbas power plant. This commercial relationship runs in tandem with Iran’s extremely close relationship with the German government. “Germany has been the staunchest supporter of Iran against all of the recent U.S. moves against it, being an architect of the original JCPOA, and later invoking of the Blocking Statute and creating the INSTEX payment mechanism,” the Iran source said. “[Chancellor Angela] Merkel has held a personal animosity and distrust towards the U.S. ever since [2013] the revelations from Edward Snowden that the U.S. had been spying on its NATO allies for years, which went down especially badly with her, as she was brought up in East Germany being spied on by the Stasi,” he added. Related: Real Energy Independence Is An Illusion In addition to this, of course, Iran has access to all of the oil engineering technology and expertise of China and Russia, as part of the ongoing deals between the three countries, documented in depth in OilPrice.com. “Russia faced exactly the same problem of declining recovery rates across all of its major fields towards the end of the U.S.S.R. [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] but through the application of various technologies and IOR [Improved Oil Recovery] and EOR [Enhanced Oil Recovery] techniques completely turned the trend around to where it is now, being one of the top two oil producers,” the Iran source said. “And both Russia and China have pledged whatever financial support – of one sort or another – that Iran needs,” he added. The immediate focus for MAPNA, then, will be on the two fields covered in the contract in the southwest Khuzestan province: Parsi and Paranj. Currently producing a combined 52,000 bpd of crude oil, the objective of the 10-year contract is to raise this to 85,000 bpd. Although the core figure of the contract is US$876 million, the total investment is expected to reach around US$1.3 billion due to the scale of the work required to develop the relatively underdeveloped fields that are estimated to hold around 12 billion barrels of oil in place. This work will include broad-based desalination and the drilling of 29 new and submersible wells in addition to aggressive EOR techniques especially on Parsi, which used to pump around 450,000 bpd on its own in its heyday. “If MAPNA can sustainably raise the recovery rates from these two fields and from the other fields in which it is also now engaged [Aban, West Paydar, Sepehr, Jofeyr, East Paydar, Dalpari, and Cheshmeh Khosh] to even seven per cent within the next twelve months, then it will be a major step towards reducing the influence of the IRGC in Iran’s oil sector as a whole, which in turn will mean that reconciliation with the U.S. and the resuscitation of the JCPOA gets that much closer,” the Iran source concluded. ADVERTISEMENT By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Chinese exporters are front-loading shipments due to trade spat

Chinese exporters are front-loading shipments because of changes in global trade, according to the country’s commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng, although he did not specifically mention the trading row with the US which will decide this week whether to activate tariffs. In agriculture, grain futures have suffered from the growing threat of a trade war that could follow the introduction of US tariffs on a range of Chinese goods while soybean futures fell amid speculation that China could put retaliatory tariffs on imports of US soybeans.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2150726/china-says-exporters-front-loading-shipments-due

China could hit US soybeans with retaliatory tariffs if Washington follows through on threats to impose duties on Chinese goods, traders and analysts said. Photo: AFP

Rani Therapeutics raises $53m as its robotic pill nears clinical trials

Alphabet-backed Californian start-up Rani Therapeutics has raised $53m in a funding round that included GeneScience Pharmaceuticals and Shire, ahead of planned clinical trials of its robot pill. Marketed as an alternative to injections, Rani's pill makes its way to the small intestine, where it injects medicine into the intestinal wall. CEO Mir Imran said the company expects to move ahead with human clinical trials "within the next year". Rani, which was spun out of InCube Lab in 2012, has raised a total of $142m in funding from investors including Novartis and AstraZeneca.

https://www.therobotreport.com/rani-raises-53m-clinical-trials/

Rani Therapeutics has raised $53 million to support manufacturing as it gears up for clinical trials of its Rani robotic pill. New investors like GeneScience Pharmaceuticals and Shire (NSDQ:SHPG) joined existing investors like Alphabet’s GV, Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN). Rani has now raised $142 million in total funding. Rani is an InCube Lab spin-out that started in 2012. The Rani robotic pill delivers an intestinal injection of medicine without exposing the drugs to digestive enzymes. Investment Roundup: Robotics industry fundings, acquisitions & IPOs in January 2018 The pharmaceutical industry has long searched for a replacement for drug injections. Needles can be scary, which causes many patients to not take their medication. The Rani robotic pill is being positioned as just that – an alternative to needle-based injections. The Rani robotic pill travels through the stomach and eventually reaches the small intestine, where it injects the drug directly into the intestinal wall. “The addition of new top tier investors is great validation not only of Rani’s potential, but of the success we’ve already experienced in pre-clinical testing,” founder, chairman & CEO, Mir Imran, said in prepared remarks. “Building on our early achievements, we are now focused on manufacturing the RaniPill in order to move towards our next major milestone of human clinical trials, which we expect to enter within the next year.” Rani has tapped former global head of manufacturing for Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Ray Diradoorian, to serve as a consultant. The company also brought on Wilfredo Ortiz, who previously worked at Allergan, to take charge of manufacturing operations. “With this latest funding from key global investors, and the appointment of senior manufacturing executives, Rani couldn’t be better positioned to advance a long-awaited solution for hundreds of millions of chronic disease sufferers,” former Allergan chairman & CEO David Pyott added.

Samsung Pay goes live in Australia with Amex, Citibank

As of 15th June, Australian Citibank and American Express customers will be able to use Samsung smartphones to make mobile payments. As such, Australia will become the fourth country to support Samsung Pay, with Singapore expected to launch the software on the 16th June.

http://www.itnews.com.au/news/samsung-pay-goes-live-in-australia-with-amex-citibank-420787

American Express and Citibank customers will be able to make mobile payments on their Samsung smartphones from today as Samsung Pay goes live in Australia. Australia becomes the fourth country to introduce Samsung Pay behind the US, China, Spain and South Korea. The mobile payments platform will go live in Singapore tomorrow, and the company claims the technology has surpassed 5 million registered users. The contactless payments service is available on the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge running Android Marshmallow. Citibank credit card customers and American Express card members can use the service from today. Up to 10 payment cards can be registered in Samsung Pay. The platform uses near-field communications (NFC) to interact with payment terminals equipped with NFC readers. It can also be used with older, standard card readers through Samsung's proprietary magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology, which emulates a traditional card magnetic stripe. Samsung's Galaxy S6 and S6 edge devices don't support the MST feature. Transactions are authenticated via fingerprint scanning. An encrypted token replaces a user's payment data, while Samsung's Knox enterprise security technology scans the device to protect the payment information. The platform is based on technology developed by LoopPay, which Samsung took over last February. It joins Apple Pay, which arrived in Australia last November thanks to a partnership with American Express and became available for ANZ Bank customers in April, and Android Pay, which announced bank partnerships last year and is expected to launch imminently.

Govcoin's co-founder Robert Kay on transforming the welfare state using blockchain, his work with the Department for Work and Pensions and why the future lies in individual's monetising their own data

Govcoin, founded by former financier and entrepreneur Robert Kay, is piloting a UK blockchain solution in partnership with Npower and parent company RWE which allows welfare beneficiaries to have instant access to their benefit payments, improve ownership of identity and personal security, and eventually monetise their own data. Next month's Phase 2 will see more than 1,000 volunteers using the app for six months and a big roll-out in Phase 3 is planned for Q4 2017. Kay is keen to emphasise that Govcoin is not funded by the government and no government ministry has access to the application or data.

http://www.cityam.com/250993/govcoins-co-founder-robert-kay-explains-why-his-firm-using

Govcoin’s co-founder Robert Kay explains why his firm is using blockchain to change the lives of benefit claimants "When you get into this technology, you can let your imagination run wild with it. But as an entrepreneur, you have to focus. You can use a new technology to help those that can pay the most for it, or those who will benefit the most from it. It is our view that distributed ledger technology opens up opportunities to empower individuals in ways that have never been possible until now." This is Robert Kay, the mathematician, former financier, and entrepreneur who is now chief executive of Govcoin. The firm, which launched its heavily covered pilot in May and is co-founded with serial fintech and social entrepreneur John Edge, is trialling a blockchain solution for welfare payments, in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The technology looks simple enough: claimants can – voluntarily – download an app, which enables them to create virtual jam jars and apportion money to them. Whether that’s “rent”, “gas & electric” – it’s entirely up to them. “People who are on the fringes of financial inclusion, or who are financially excluded, need a special service which can give them instant access to their benefits – three days going through the banking system may mean using a payday lender, or being thrown out of your house.” To look at and use, “there’s nothing particularly special about the app – except that it’s designed for welfare beneficiaries and not millennial Hoxton hipsters,” explains Kay. Underlying the app is a series of private permission nodes, including Govcoin and Npower (the former is in partnership with Npower parent company RWE, which is also an investor). Crucially, the DWP has no access to the application or the data it has, nor is the government funding any of Govcoin’s work. Kay is keen for these points to be impressed: the DWP gets nothing out of the technology except for the tangential benefit of being able to make more accurate welfare payments, and it will, at scale, ease that distribution (every year, it pays out around £166bn of taxpayers’ money in welfare, and about £3.5bn of that is overpaid through fraud, claimant error and official error). Govcoin’s salient purpose is to help claimants, improving ownership of identity and personal security. Its technology “is based precisely around giving power over information to the individual whose information it is, so they can determine how it is used, and by whom – as well as helping them use it directly for themselves.” Block by block This is why Kay chose to use blockchain technology. “Do you need blockchain to do what we’re currently doing? No, you don’t. Indeed, at a small scale, you don’t need anything sophisticated at all. But when you embark on this kind of thing, you have to have a longer-term vision in mind.” Blockchain is very good at dealing with small transactions, and the point about having an immutable log of transactions, which exists independent of a single controlling entity, is the power it offers the individual user. Imagine, in a world of smart meters, if you could make regular energy payments – not waiting for the energy bill to arrive three months later and having to take out a loan because you’ve misjudged spend (this is where Npower comes in). Imagine if you had £50 saved one week and had the visibility to see that someone else was short and to then lend to them. What if you could monetise your own data? It’s not helpful to know that Kay and I are sitting in a bar in the City, but what if we could club together with others to show where we all were at a given point in time, and why we were there. Would certain firms and marketers be interested? And what if these capabilities were available to society’s most marginalised? This is what Kay thinks about every day – and he is no stranger to disruption. He got his “first appetite” for it back in the 1990s. Hired by Morgan Stanley to build a capability that would enable clients (passive fund managers) to create international index products, he turned a $20m initial investment made by the bank into a business that was subsequently sold for around $300m. “There are some entrepreneurs who are inventors, but most create viable alternatives to existing infrastructures. I think it appeals to my mathsy side: how do you change something in a way that delivers maximum benefit?” Having transitioned from financial services to running his own companies (Govcoin is the latest), Kay says he’s realised that, while a lot of people think they’ll be good at entrepreneurship, that’s simply not often the case. “That’s not a criticism, but you have to deal with a level of uncertainty about everything that most people just aren’t used to. Most people can’t deal with uncertainty well. It’s the same with responsibility. If there’s no-one to say that’s good enough, to provide approbation… it’s like being a trader. You have to be prepared to make a call in the morning, and by the afternoon, or the next week, to know that you were wrong.” Change all round Next month, Govcoin will roll out its second trial – “it’s like the pharmaceuticals industry: phase one is ‘will people take the medicine?’, two is finding out how much benefit they get, and three is a far bigger roll out. In May, Govcoin started with just eight welfare recipients in the North West, with almost 30 ending up coming on board for the first trial. Next month will see 1,000 plus volunteers using the app for around six months. And “phase three is not necessarily full-scale – but it’s a big roll-out and we’ll be doing that in the fourth quarter of next year.” Another group that will increasingly benefit from what Govcoin is doing is small businesses. People using the app pay directly through their phone to merchants on the Govcoin network. “This is also about empowering the small merchant who is in constant competition with bigger players who don’t struggle with merchant acquisition fees. If you try to buy a coffee from your local cafe with a card and it has a £5 minimum spend, you’ll give your custom to Nero. We think enabling direct payments there is a socially interesting thing to do – if only because the current structure is largely responsible for the destruction of the high street.” A problem for Govcoin is growing its system while maintaining that system’s attractiveness. Because it’s so young, network effects haven’t taken hold, and it doesn’t have hoards of merchants within its system yet. “People are often going outside our walled garden to pay. To enable them to do so, we give them a virtual debit card – and a physical one if they want it. But the challenge is that, if you make it too easy for people to operate outside your environment, you don’t attract people in.” In a world where “all apps are free”, the firm is looking to monetise through merchants – “we also haven’t looked at advertising opportunities yet, but clearly they exist”. And while financial data is the initial focus, “it is not the only one in the longer term” – Kay is looking at how his technology can “help in other situations where current infrastructure performs less than optimally – though we are not looking at replacement. Most of all, we want to deliver a technology to those who can benefit the most from it.”

Low-resistance tyres boost Volkswagen ID.3 range

Low-resistance Bridgestone Turanza Eco tyres have been fitted to extend the range of the VW ID.3 EV. Tests have shown conventional tyres cutting 20% from the range achievable with the Eco versions. The tyres are also lighter and have a 30% lower rolling resistance than conventional tyres. Bridgestone has also said it may use recovered carbon black in future tyre production.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128827_volkswagen-id-3-electric-car-gets-range-extending-rubber

The Volkswagen ID.3 electric car sports special tires to help extend its range. The Turanza Eco tires were specially engineered for the hatchback, and feature lower rolling resistance and lower weight than previous rubber, according to manufacturer Bridgestone. Their rolling resistance is 30% lower than standard premium summer tires, a Bridgestone press release said. Low rolling resistance is key to maximizing range in electric cars, as recent tests have shown. One test of the ID.3's predecessor—the Volkswagen e-Golf—showed a nearly 20% decrease in range when the stock low-rolling resistance tires were swapped for stickier performance tires. Also, with electric cars typically offering a different, more even weight distribution, and a rear-wheel-drive bias, they need different tires than the typical small hatchback. The ID.3 will be available with 18-inch, 19-inch, and 20-inch tires. The 19-inch and 20-inch tires are run flats that can temporarily reseal around punctures. Volkswagen ID 3 Bridgestone also said the ID.3 tires are about 20% lighter than comparable standard tires. That reduced weight not only helps increase range, but also equates to almost 4.5 pounds less raw material for production, reducing the overall environmental impact of the tires. That's something the company has tried to address. Bridgestone last year showed that for future eco-friendly tires, it might be using recovered carbon black. Tire particulate emissions may also be a major missing piece of the emissions puzzle. A recent study found these emissions could be higher than tailpipe emissions. As for the car riding on the tires, the ID.3 is the first model based on VW's MEB platform for compact electric cars. VW announced the start of production in November 2019, but the start of deliveries was delayed from mid-2020 to September 2020. The ID.3 isn't coming to the United States, which will get the ID.4 crossover based on the same MEB platform instead. Presumably the ID.4 will get similar, efficiency-focused tires.

Advertisers seek leverage versus Facebook in metrics screw-up

Facebook’s recent video metrics inflation scandal has led to calls from advertisers for auditing and accreditation checks to be made. Facebook miscalculated the measurements for average video watch times, dividing the total time spent watching by three-second views, rather than by the number of times viewed. The mistake has not cost ad spend, but the Association of National Advertisers has said that there are no “pragmatic reasons” why a media company should not be audited and accredited by the Media Rating Council to avoid such issues in future. However, time spent is not a key metric for allocating ad spend, leading some to call the situation a “non-issue”.

http://digiday.com/agencies/advertisers-might-finally-leverage-facebook-wont-matter/

Facebook’s accidental inflation of average video watch time will be used by advertisers as a bargaining chip to pressure Facebook into opening its platform to more third-party measurement providers. In fact, it has already begun. Last Friday, the Association of National Advertisers’ CEO, Bob Liodice, published a blog post calling on Facebook to have its metrics audited and accredited by the Media Rating Council. These are “table stakes” for digital advertising, he said. “ANA does not believe there are any pragmatic reasons that a media company should not abide by the standards of accreditation and auditing.” Facebook’s error was in miscalculating how it measured average video watch time on its platform. Instead of dividing total time spent by the number of times the video played, Facebook divided total time spent by number of three-second views — meaning the metric did not include any time a video started but did not pass the three-second threshold. GroupM, which claims to be responsible for a third of global ad spend, said Facebook’s mistake “further emphasizes the importance and need for third-party verification of all media — not only to verify trading terms but also to verify performance.” Multiple agency executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Facebook still makes them nervous, said clients have approached them about Facebook’s error to ask how big of a screw-up it actually is. Many agency executives privately say the mistake isn’t that big of a deal, but they also believe it’s going to be brought up at every meeting with Facebook. That’s because Facebook arguably holds more power over the ad world than any media company has. Advertisers, used to holding all the leverage, are often left in the uncomfortable role as supplicant. Here’s where it gets tricky: Facebook’s gaffe hasn’t affected ad spend because average video watch time is not a billable metric on the platform. Advertisers usually pay for campaigns based on metrics such as cost per completed views and 10-second views. Where Facebook’s screw-up is potentially problematic, according to multiple agency executives, is if brands made broader video investment decisions based on time spent on the platform. One agency CEO estimated less than 20 percent of advertisers consider time spent as a key metric in determining where to allocate spend. “It’s not that we were being billed or charged incorrectly,” the agency CEO said. “The issue is when clients are making decisions based on [time spent] information.” Facebook’s mistake was certainly the talk of Advertising Week as even other social platforms were questioned about the need for more openness and transparency in measurement. Both Snapchat and Twitter took the time to boast about their partnerships with various third-party data vendors. To be sure, Facebook has already opened its doors to some third-party measurement vendors, including Moat, comScore Nielsen and Integral Ad Science. What these advertisers want is more, with Facebook relinquishing some of the control it has gained from being one of the two biggest players — alongside Google — in digital advertising. The company made $6.2 billion in digital ad revenue in the second quarter alone. For its part, Facebook released a statement saying it’s “currently in dialogue with the ANA about how we can work more closely together. Trust and transparency with our partners are paramount to the operation of our company. Our focus has always been on driving business results for our clients, and we strongly believe in third-party verification.” “Facebook is on the back foot,” said the agency CEO. “I do see this is as a watershed moment to use this to strong-arm Facebook into adopting the MRC’s credentials.” Other agency executives are not convinced, pointing back to how little the video-watch-time metric actually mattered in deal negotiations. It’s much ado about nothing, they say. “The biggest story here is how badly the big holding companies are dying for leveraging; they will do anything to get the upper hand against Facebook,” said another agency CEO. “They want third-party measurement so they can charge more for every third-party system they can integrate into their margins. ‘Instead of 5 percent, we get 6 percent because we’ve added Moat.’” Ultimately, all agency execs agreed that Facebook’s flub wasn’t big enough to bring about sweeping changes to how the social giant conducts business. “Google is the exact same way with marketers and this has been going on forever,” said an agency executive. “Those are the two that you just can’t mess with. They will add some third-party vendors for measurement, which they’ve already been doing for PR purposes and posterity’s sake. That’s all good and well, but it won’t materially change anything.” “We need a bigger problem,” added the veteran media buyer. “If they were misrepresenting total impressions, that’s one thing. This is not a big enough error to drive anything.”

Malaysia's Belfrics opens Indian bitcoin exchange

Malaysia's self-termed "blockchain technology" firm Belfrics has launched a bitcoin exchange in India to capitalise on growing interest in digital currencies after the nation's demonetisation event. Belfrics said its trading platform would be accessible via desktop and mobile although there was no mention of an app. The firm is also introducing "point-of-sale and bitcoin payment gateway protocols for online and retail merchants" with no charges on bitcoin e-commerce transactions and over-the-counter settlements to encourage bitcoin adoption.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/malaysian-firm-belfrics-launches-bitcoin-exchange-india/

Belfrics, which refers to itself as a Malaysian ‘blockchain technology’ firm, has announced the launch of its bitcoin exchange operations in India. In a press ... Belfrics, which refers to itself as a Malaysian ‘blockchain technology’ firm, has announced the launch of its bitcoin exchange operations in India. In a press briefing, the firm claims to provide a liquid marketplace for buying and selling bitcoins with India’s fiat currency, the rupee. The firm’s foray into the country comes after the much-publicized and controversial demonetization event that led to a crippling cash crunch. Subsequently, interest and adoption of bitcoin as a digital currency has never been higher in the country. The lack of an authority wielding totalitarian moves has proven appealing for Indian adopters at a time when the country slowly begins to finds its feet after an unprecedented cash ban. Belfrics group CEO Praveen Kumar stated: The element of neutrality that the blockchain can bring to the financial system, without the involvement of an intermediary or a regulatory body, is going to redefine the way in which assets are transacted. Belfrics also says that it will introduce point-of-sale (PoS) and bitcoin payment gateway protocols for online and retail merchants in India, as a means to pushing bitcoin adoption. The company further adds that there will be no charges in transacting with bitcoins for e-commerce transactions or over-the-counter settlements. The firm says its digital currency trading platform will be accessible through desktops as well as mobile devices. There’s no word of a mobile application in the announcement. Bitcoin Premiums The launch of a new bitcoin exchange in India also comes during a time when continuing demand for the cryptocurrency sees bitcoin buying at a premium price. At Unocoin, a major Indian bitcoin exchange that snagged a record round of funding from investors home and abroad recently, the price of a single bitcoin is INR 66,590 (approx. $978.61). With taxes and fees via the KYC-enabled exchange, the total cost of a single bitcoin is INR 67,356 or $989.87. That’s over a $100 premium when compared to current BTC/USD rates on the Bitstamp Price Index. While significant, the figure pales in comparison to a near 35% premium for bitcoin buying toward the end of November 2016, the month that saw the country’s demonetization drive was enforced by the Indian government. Unocoin is leading the pack of Indian bitcoin exchanges pushing for adoption with the release of mobile applications and APIs for bitcoin- and blockchain-based remittance. Featured image from Shutterstock.

IWG Facebook keeps buying office space as workforce grows

Abstract: Facebook is buying a 400,000 sq ft campus complex in Bellevue, Washington for $367.6m from outdoor REI that had been planning to move into the previously unsure corporate HQ over the summer. The move comes despite most of Facebook’s staff working from home until July or next year and CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying he envisages half of the company’s employees permanently working from home within 5-10 years. The social media giant, which already has three other buildings under development in the same area, is also growing its workforce. In Q2 2020 it hired a net 4,200 new employees, taking the total to more than 52,000.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/14/tech/facebook-rei-headquarters-sale/index.html

New York CNN Business — Facebook is buying a previously unused corporate headquarters from outdoor retailer REI, despite the social media company’s plans to shift more of its employees to working from home. REI announced in August it had decided to sell the 400,000-square foot campus complex in Bellevue, Washington, that it had planned to move into this summer. It disclosed Monday that it had reached a deal to sell the property for $390 million. Facebook (FB) is buying the buildings and most of the land for $367.6 million, while the site developer is purchasing an undeveloped 2-acre portion of the property for the rest of the sales price. Like many tech companies, Facebook shifted most of its employees to working from home in March due to Covid-19. Last month the company said it is extending its work from home policy until July of next year due to health concerns. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that he could see half of Facebook’s employees permanently working remotely within the next five to 10 years. But Facebook has been adding staff throughout this year and adding office space along with them. “In order to address our rapidly growing workforce, we continue to make investments in physical office locations,” said a statement from Facebook. “In the second quarter of 2020, we added a record 4,200 net new employees and now have more than 52,000 employees. While Facebook envisions 50% of its employees will be working remotely within the next 5-10 years, our offices are still vitally important to our culture and will help accommodate anticipated growth and meet the needs of our employees that need or prefer to work from campus.” Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, already had three other buildings under development in the same business district as the REI site. “An internal employee survey the company fielded in May showed that approximately 65% of Facebook employees were eager to return to the office as soon as possible,” Facebook said. But some other tech companies are pulling back on office space plans, despite their own growth. Two weeks ago Pinterest (PINS) announced it had terminated its lease for approximately 490,000 square feet of office space to be constructed near its current headquarters in San Francisco. “As we analyze how our workplace will change in a post-Covid world, we are specifically rethinking where future employees could be based,” said Pinterest CFO Todd Morgenfeld in a statement provided to CNN Business. “A more distributed workforce will give us the opportunity to hire people from a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.” REI, which specializes in camping and other outdoor gear and clothing, is a co-op that is owned by its customers. It has 167 stores in 39 states. While it does not report quarterly results, most brick-and-mortar retailers reported a sharp drop in sales earlier this year due to store closings associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. REI also shifted its headquarters employees to remote working due to health concerns. The company said it has decided to now have its headquarters span multiple locations across the Puget Sound region. REI will also have headquarters employees working remotely as its normal model going forward. “We learned that the more distributed way of working we previously thought untenable will instead unlock incredible potential,” said CEO Eric Artz in August. “This will have immediate, positive impacts on our ability to attract and retain a diverse and highly skilled workforce, as we continue to navigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.” REI had been planning for the new headquarters for four years and it had been under construction for the past two. “The sale represents a positive return on the co-op’s investment in the property,” according to REI’s statement.

Prairie Mining Signs Litigation Funding Deal for AUD18m

Prairie Mining has signed a AUD18m litigation funding agreement with Litigation Capital Management to fund arbitration against the Polish government. Prairie is taking action over the Jan Karski and Debiensko coal mines alleging breaches of obligations under the Australia-Poland Bilateral Investment Treaty and the Energy Charter Treaty.

https://www.lse.co.uk/news/in-brief-prairie-mining-signs-aud18-million-litigation-funding-deal-jk1rcckpia5rrf9.html

Prairie Mining Ltd - Poland-focused coal development firm - Inks AUD18 million, or GBP10 million, litigation funding agreement with Litigation Capital Management Ltd in order to pursue international arbitration against Poland in connection with the Jan Karski and Debiensko coal mines. The funding can be drawn immediately and used for tribunal, legal, and external expert costs in Prairie's case, which alleges breaches of obligations under the Australia-Poland Bilateral Investment Treaty and the Energy Charter Treaty. Prairie said it damages claim may include lost profits for both mines and the value of Prairie's expenditure so far in developing Jan Karski and Debiensko. Current stock price: 13.54 pence Year-to-date change: up 26% By Anna Farley; [email protected] Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Intel is Spinning out McAfee as an Independent Company

Intel is setting up security software division McAfee in a deal that values the firm at $4.2bn. Intel will retain a 49% share, but sell 51% of its stake to private equity firm TPG, who will in turn invest $1.1bn in McAfee. The cybersecurity firm was acquired by Intel in 2014 and rebranded as Intel Security, but it failed to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The firm will revert to the McAfee brand when the deal is completed, set to be in 2017.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-mcafee-spinout/

Intel is spinning out McAfee, the security software division it acquired in 2011, in a deal that values the company at $4.2 billion. Intel is selling 51 percent of its stake to TPG, a private equity firm. TPG will also be investing $1.1 billion into McAfee, which will now be independent of Intel but the chipmaker will retain a 49 percent stake and get $3.1 billion in cash. Recommended Videos McAfee, the cybersecurity company founded by the notorious John McAfee, was acquired by Intel almost six years ago for $7.7 billion. The purchase was intended to help Intel diversify away from PC dependence and gain traction in the burgeoning cybersecurity space, but things didn’t quite pan out with other firms holding a stronger market share. In 2014, Intel rebranded McAfee as Intel Security in an attempt to distance itself from its colorful founder. The company will now revert back to the McAfee name once the deal is closed, which is expected to happen by mid-2017. Intel Security general manager Chris Young is taking over as CEO. In a statement, Young said that McAfee, with the support of Intel and TPG, was in a position to regain a strong foothold in the cybersecurity industry. “There is no shortage of buzz around cybersecurity these days,” he said. “Those of us in the industry, and those defending their businesses and families, have the unique privilege of standing on the good side of a fight that is too important to lose.” Intel has had a rough couple of years. In April it announced that it was cutting up to 12,000 jobs globally as part of a dramatic restructure of the company. At the same time, it has continued its mission to find new technologies and sectors to turn to in the face of ever-decreasing PC sales. This week it purchased Irish start-up Movidius, which develops computer vision chips for VR and drones, for a reported $350 million. Editors' Recommendations

Fintech start-up Plynk raises €25m for money-messaging app

Financial payments start-up Plynk has successfully €25m in in Series A funding to power its global roll out of its app. The round was led by Swiss Privee and marked one of the largest ever seen in Ireland. The company plans to increase its team from eight to 28 over the next year and a half as its user base has grown to reach 6,000 per week. The money-messaging app allows users to send and receive money instantaneously without being charged within conversations.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/irish-fintech-start-up-plynk-raises-25m-in-fundraising-round-1.3109313

Plynk co-founders Clive Foley and Charles Dowd. “Most of the hires will be in Dublin and we’re looking for at least 20 programmers,” says Mr Foley Dublin-based financial payments start-up Plynk has raised €25 million in a Series A fundraising round as it looks to roll out its money-messaging app globally. The investment, which has been led by Swiss Privee, is one of the largest-ever Irish Series A rounds. The company has also announced plans to increase headcount from eight to 28 over the next 12 to 18 months as the number of users it has in Ireland this week reached 6,000, easily surpassing its initial target of 4,000. Co-founded in 2015 by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley, Plynk has created a money-messaging app that lets phone users chat one-on-one or in groups and to send or receive money instantly and without charge from within the chats. READ MORE “The money we’ve raised will be used to increase the size of the team and to roll out the product across the EU. Most of the hires will be in Dublin and we’re looking for at least 20 programmers. We envisage taking on other people, most likely in business development in other countries, as we launch the app there but Dublin is home and we aim to keep the tech here,” said Mr Foley, the company’s chief technology officer. The Plynk app is primarily targeted at younger consumers. It has been developed to remove the complexities of money transfers among family and friends. The app, which is linked to users’s social networks, allows consumers to open payment accounts, get a card and make payments in euro, with other currencies to follow. Multiple outlets Once a Plynk account is created, users receive a dedicated IBAN and virtual Mastercard for online payments. In addition, the application plans to integrate with both Apple and Android Pay, enabling users to spend their money across multiple outlets. “We see cash as our biggest rival but feel we have a leg up on it because you don’t have to be beside someone to give them some of it,” added Mr Foley. Plynk has a licence to operate across the European Economic Area, which includes the EU along with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. While only available in Ireland, the start-up intends to roll out its app in Spain over the summer with Portugal to follow shortly after. “The aim is to run the company with an Irish heart but with a Silicon Valley approach to things and our primary motive right now is growth,” said Mr Foley. “Our next target is to roll out in at least two other countries and hit five figures in terms of users within the next 12 months. Spain is an obvious choice for us as it has a similar demographic to Ireland and the same currency,” he added. The Plynk app was developed over 15 months at the Bank of Ireland Workbench in Grand Canal Square. Last year, the start-up raised €725,000 in seed funding from a number of sources, including BoI, Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland and the National Digital Research Centre.

California utility begins $356m electric bus and lorry programme

Southern California Edison (SCE) has invested $356m in an EV charging project for electric buses and lorries. The Charge Ready Transport initiative aims to build 870 commercial charging stations in five years. The project will start with three school bus charging depots and two transit sites, charging 80 electric school and transit buses. SCE will install the necessary equipment ready for customers to choose their chargers. Meanwhile, the California Air Resources Board has ordered the state’s lorries to start moving to zero emissions in 2024.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/sce-begins-construction-on-356m-heavy-duty-ev-charging-program

Utility Southern California Edison has broken ground on a major charging investment for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, despite the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. The $356 million Charge Ready Transport program will see SCE laying the groundwork for at least 870 commercial charging stations over the next five years, expected to be capable of powering at least 8,490 vehicles. It constitutes a considerable early utility foray into charging infrastructure at a time when utilities across the country are figuring out what role they should play in the emerging overlap between the electric grid and the transportation sector. SCE’s utility territory covers the greater Los Angeles region, which contains a bustling shipping logistics industry as well as persistent air pollution issues. But it also stretches inland to the Nevada border, and north into California’s Central Valley. The initial sites include three school bus charging depots for the towns of Lancaster, Visalia and Porterville, as well as two Porterville Transit sites. Together, those sites will fuel 80 electric school and transit buses, said Justin Bardin, SCE program manager for Charge Ready Transport. SCE brings the grid upgrades; customers bring the charger The construction work, made possible during social distancing thanks to remote and virtual inspections, comes as electric buses are popping up in national climate policy conversations. The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force, convened to build policy consensus among the leading factions in the Democratic presidential primary, released its climate and energy proposals last week. That list included a call to convert the national school bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles in the next five years. Doing so would involve swapping around 500,000 buses, and would require accompanying investment in the equipment to charge those buses. SCE’s approach offers one model for how to accomplish this. The plan, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2018, empowers the utility to pay for and install the “make ready” equipment: any distribution grid upgrades needed to deliver the power, plus a meter and in some cases customer-sited panel and wiring. It falls to the customers to acquire the actual chargers of their choice, but certain customers can apply for rebates to lower the cost. Stacking a few high-powered bus chargers in one site can easily require substantial distribution grid upgrades to actually deliver the requisite charge; such fees can deter customers from making the switch if they have to bear the cost. The Charge Read Transport program takes that barrier off the table for customers while giving the utility scope to invest money in grid upgrades, giving both parties something to get excited about. "It really is about helping businesses get past that initial hurdle that can sometimes seem so insurmountable," Bardin said in an interview. "We're confident that once they start [electrifying fleets], they're going to fall in love with it." Plenty of funding still available Regulators stipulated that at least 40 percent of the funding has to go to disadvantaged communities or transit agencies, and 25 percent must go to ports and warehouses. Electrification of trucking took on new urgency last month when the California Air Resources Board ruled that the state’s truck fleet must begin the transition to zero-emission in 2024. So far, 55 projects are moving through various stages of the application process, Bardin said. That number includes 24 sites that have officially reserved funding, five of which are now under construction and should wrap up around September. Roughly one-third of the initial applications came from school districts. "If you were going to look at a vehicle that’s ideal for electrification, a school bus is it," Bardin said. School buses have long dwell times in which they can charge, and short routes. Plus, they often can use Level 2 chargers instead of more expensive, high powered ones. Those initial applications leave the vast majority of the Charge Ready Transport funding available. But the menu of heavy duty electric vehicles is still small; applicants in a few years will have many more options to choose from. The costs of grid upgrades for vehicle charging have inspired new business models, like FreeWire Technologies, which builds batteries into fast-charging stations to reduce their instantaneous demand on the grid. Amply Power helps fleet operators manage their charging schedules to reduce power bills once they switch to electric. On the passenger vehicle side, Michigan utility DTE recently rolled out an infrastructure-free program to reorient charging schedules around peak grid demand. Up to 1,000 drivers will earn $8 a month for charging outside of peak hours, as verified by advanced metering data and software analytics from Sagewell. That allows the utility to enroll drivers without needing to install any new hardware. Updated with additional information from an interview with Bardin.

MIT's solid-state battery breakthrough may see phones last for days

In a regular lithium battery, a liquid electrolyte serves as the medium through which the lithium ions travel back and forth between the anode and cathode as the battery is charged and discharged. One problem is that this liquid is highly volatile and can sometimes result in battery fires, like those that plagued Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.Replacing this liquid electrolyte for a solid material wouldn’t just make batteries safer and less prone to fires, it could also open up new possibilities for other key components of the battery. The anode in today’s lithium batteries is made from a mix of copper and graphite, but if it were made of pure lithium instead, it could break the “energy-density bottleneck of current Li-ion chemistry,” according to a recent study published in Trends in Chemistry.

https://newatlas.com/materials/mits-solid-state-battery-breakthrough/

One of the many ways scientists hope to improve the performance of today’s lithium batteries is by swapping out some of the liquid components for solid ones. Known as solid-state batteries, these experimental devices could greatly extend the life of electric vehicles and mobile devices by significantly upping the energy density packed inside. Scientists at MIT are now reporting an exciting advance toward this future, demonstrating a new type of solid-state battery architecture that overcomes some limitations of current designs. In a regular lithium battery, a liquid electrolyte serves as the medium through which the lithium ions travel back and forth between the anode and cathode as the battery is charged and discharged. One problem is that this liquid is highly volatile and can sometimes result in battery fires, like those that plagued Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. Replacing this liquid electrolyte for a solid material wouldn’t just make batteries safer and less prone to fires, it could also open up new possibilities for other key components of the battery. The anode in today’s lithium batteries is made from a mix of copper and graphite, but if it were made of pure lithium instead, it could break the “energy-density bottleneck of current Li-ion chemistry,” according to a recent study published in Trends in Chemistry. So, the huge potential of a pure lithium anode makes it a high priority among battery researchers, and a key stepping stone is the introduction of a viable solid electrolyte to make it work. But there are significant hurdles with that, too. As the battery is recharged, atoms build up inside the lithium metal causing it to expand, and decrease during use, causing the metal to contract. This makes constant contact between the materials nearly impossible and can result in the electrolyte fracturing. This is the problem that MIT’s new battery architecture could overcome. It involves a combination of solid materials known as mixed ionic-electronic conductors (MIEC) and electron and Li-ion insulators (ELI). These were built into a three-dimensional honeycomb-shaped architecture, with an array of nanoscale tubes made from MIEC forming the crucial piece of the puzzle. These tubes are infused with solid lithium metal to form the battery’s anode. And because there is extra space inside each of these tubes, the lithium metal has spare room to expand and shrink during charging and discharging. In this way, the material walks a fine line between a solid and liquid material, moving much like a liquid but maintaining a solid crystalline structure throughout the process. All of this takes place inside the honeycomb-structured anode, with the ELI coating the walls of the tubes and acting as a binder between them and the solid electrolyte. This means that as the battery charged, the fluctuating dimensions of the lithium metal are entirely contained inside the structure and its external dimensions are unchanged. The upshot of that is a battery anode that is chemically and mechanical stable as it cycles through the charging and discharging process, while the lithium doesn’t ever lose electrical contact with the solid electrolyte. The team sees this as a significant advance on other experimental solid-state batteries, which typically rely on some kind of liquid electrolyte mixed in to make the thing work. “But in our case, it’s truly all solid," says Ju Li, a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT. "There is no liquid or gel in it of any kind.” The team has conducted experiments putting the solid-state battery architecture to the test, and report that it was able to endure 100 charging and discharging cycles without any signs of fracture. Further down the track, the technology could make for anodes that weigh around a quarter of current designs, but with the same storage capacity. Combined with other cutting-edge designs for the cathode, the team says it could lead to smartphones of the same weight and size, that only need to be charged once every three days. The research was published in the journal Nature Energy. Source: MIT

Verizon to offer 5G service in Houston

Verizon Wireless is planning to launch 5G technology in the second half of 2018 in Houston as part of the company's four-market plan to deploy residential 5G broadband service; transmitters and other required infrastructure are being moved into place with the sales of 5G service to begin in 2019. The network will outcompete most home broadbands and is expected to spur on new applications such as over-the-internet navigation for driverless cars.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/bizfeed/article/Verizon-to-deliver-residential-5G-broadband-13100137.php?src=hp_totn

Verizon Wireless plans to launch 5G technology locally starting in the second half of 2018, making Houston the third city in Verizon's four-market deployment plan to deliver residential 5G broadband service. Verizon previously announced that 5G would be launched in Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif. The 5G broadband service will use radio signals, rather than copper or fiber cables, to provide internet and phone services to the home. Verizon isn't expecting 5G to be available for mobile devices until mid- to late 2019. FULL STORY AT HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Verizon will beam 5G into Houstonians' living rooms "With 5G we are ushering in a fourth industrial revolution that will help reshape cities and lead to unprecedented innovation, and Houston will be at the forefront of that innovation," incoming CEO Hans Vestberg said in the news release. Many times faster than current cell service, 5G potentially could outstrip even the fastest home broadband currently available. It is expected to open up new applications, from truly high-end gaming on mobile devices to over-the-internet navigation for driverless cars. Theoretically, 5G will be able to achieve speeds of tens of gigabits per second, though most telcos talk initially about 1-2 Gbps speeds. Many variables can impact performance, from weather to terrain to buildings. But overall, experts say it will be much faster than LTE. RELATED: 5G promises Houstonians faster internet, more choice Verizon has been operating a 5G test site in northwest Harris County, near Grant Road and Texas 249. A research group which found the site indicated that data speeds tested there were faster than a user would normally see with current 4G LTE service. Sprint has previously named Houston as one of nine cities that will get its version of 5G. Transmitters and other infrastructure are being moved into place here this year, with sales of 5G service beginning in 2019.

Payments service Toss receives investment from Paypal

PayPal joined a $48m Series C funding round for South Korean peer-to-peer money transfer service Viva Republic. The round was led by venture capital firm Goodwater Capital, while Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures also invested in the company. To date, Viva Republic's Toss app has been downloaded more than six million times, and has hosted over $3bn in transfers. Having partnered with 18 of Korea's 19 biggest banks, the firm wants to move beyond P2P payments into consumer loans, micro-insurance and cross-border transfers.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/30259/paypal-invests-in-south-korean-p2p-payments-app-toss?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=finextrafeed

PayPal has joined a $48 million Series C funding round for Viva Republic, the South Korean firm behind a Venmo-like money transfer app. The round was led by VC Goodwater Capital and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures, according to TechCrunch. Viva Republic's Toss app lets Koreans send up to $500 from their phones in three steps: entering the recipient, the amount being transferred and a password. Launched in early 2015, in just two years Toss has struck deals with 18 of Korea's 19 biggest banks and been downloaded more than six million times, facilitating over $3 billion in transfers. The firm has recently sought to move beyond P2P payments and into consumer loans, with micro-insurance and cross-border transfers also in the pipeline.

TalkTalk Gigaclear challenge looks set to further delay broadband rollout in Scotland

A lawsuit is expected to further delay the Scottish government's £600m ($743m) Reaching 100% superfast broadband project. Gigaclear launched a legal challenge after BT was named the project's preferred bidder, claiming ministers made a "manifest error" in the procurement process in relation to scoring BT's bid. Gigaclear wants BT’s award to be set aside. A procedural hearing is set to be held during August.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/06/fears-of-more-broadband-delays-in-scotland-from-gigaclears-lawsuit.html

Monday, Jun 29th, 2020 (9:24 am) - Score 3,674 At the end of last year the Scottish Government revealed that LOT 1 of their £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) project, which had given BT “preferred bidder” status and was aiming to extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage, had become the subject of a legal challenge by Gigaclear. Sadly the case is now threatening more delays. Back in October 2019 it was announced that BT (Openreach) had won the contracts for both LOT 2 (Central Scotland) and LOT 3 (South Scotland), which was due in no small part to them being the last bidder standing (here). The award of LOT 1 (Northern Scotland) took a bit longer (here), partly because several suppliers were involved in the bidding (BT, Axione UK and Gigaclear) and additional requirements came attached. NOTE: The vast majority of LOT 2 and 3 are being delivered using Fibre-to-the-Premises ( The vast majority of LOT 2 and 3 are being delivered using Fibre-to-the-Premises ( FTTP ) – see here and here for more details. The LOT 1 area is the largest one (valued c.£384m) and reflects about 100,000 premises around the Highlands and Islands, Angus, Aberdeen and Dundee. The contract also specified 9 mandated areas where 25% of premises must be able to get speeds of at least 100Mbps (on a Gigabit-capable connection). At present engineers are expected to reach around half of the target premises in LOT 2 and 3 – approximately 23,000 in Central and 12,000 in the South – by the end of 2021, with the majority of the build completed by the end of 2023 (LOT 3 by summer 2024). But until now there’s been very little information about the status of LOT 1 and Gigaclear’s legal challenge. The good news is that we finally have some solid details via The Herald, but the bad news is more delays are expected. Gigaclear’s lawyer, Mark Lindsay QC, is understood to have argued that Scottish Ministers made a “manifest error” in the procurement process (apparently this relates to the technical issue of bid scoring) and want the court to set aside BT’s award, with the possibility of financial damages as a “secondary remedy“. Mark Lindsay QC said: “The state aid cover expires at the end of the year and clearly it’s in the interests of both parties for this action to be resolved before then.” The reference to state aid cover above reflects the 2016 agreement with the EU (here) and, due to on-going Brexit trade negotiations, nobody is sure how this will be handled come the start of 2021. We have seen before how major projects (e.g. Devon and Somerset) can suffer significant delays if they get caught out by a change in the state aid regime and so they’ll need to get this resolved before 31st December 2020. Lord Clark said he agreed that the matter should be dealt with “as soon as possible” and gave the two sides 5 weeks to fine tune their cases before a procedural hearing. The ID and title for this case is as follows: CA172/19 Gigaclear Ltd &c v The Scottish Ministers. As is normal neither the Scottish Government, nor Gigaclear, have commented on the case itself. One difficulty for Gigaclear here is that, between 2018 and 2019, many of their other state aid supported contracts across England suffered significant deployment delays (often running up to 2 years late) due to a string of major problems with resources, planning and management (Devon and Somerset even scrapped their contract with the ISP). Suffice to say that this would have made it incredibly difficult for the Scottish Government to hand them such a big contract (i.e. the worst possible timing for such an award); politicians are highly risk averse. As a result there’s likely to be little sympathy for Gigaclear in terms of public support, which may sadly overshadow any potentially valid merits of the ISP’s case. All ordinary people will see is this causing yet more delays to the broadband roll-out.

Insurtech investment reaches $985m in Q2 17: report

In Q2 2017, $985m was invested in insurtech projects, according to research by global advisory service provider Willis Towers Watson. Investment has tripled since Q1 2017, with the insurtech sector moving toward a “modular economy” that is changing how services are provided in the market. Willis Towers Watson has said that incoming technology is not disruptive to the sector, instead saying that the disruption is the extent to which an insurance firm can apply technology successfully when compared to its peers. New technology in the insurance market is predicted to lead to higher customer satisfaction rates.

http://www.consultancy.nl/nieuws/14463/investeringen-in-insurtech-groeien-explosief-naar-bijna-1-miljard

Profiel Willis Towers Watson In het tweede kwartaal van 2017 is in totaal voor $985 miljoen geïnvesteerd in InsurTech-initiatieven. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van Willis Towers Watson. Ten opzichte van voorgaand kwartaal zijn de investeringen ruim verdrievoudigd. In navolging van de opkomst van FinTech, is in de verzekeringssector een soortgelijke trend gaande. InsurTech, technologische innovatie in de verzekeringsbranche die in veel gevallen afkomstig is van startups, is al langere tijd aanwezig op de achtergrond. De trend vindt zijn oorsprong in de internetboom van de jaren ’90, toen de overgang werd ingezet van traditionele retail en commercie, naar online verkoop via webshops. Verzekeraars lanceerden destijds websites om hun producten aan de man te brengen en zochten naar manieren om hun websites zo klantvriendelijk mogelijk te maken. De huidige ontwikkelingen gaan echter veel verder dan dat. Technologische ontwikkelingen en toenemende connectiviteit van klanten zorgen voor een verschuiving naar een zogenaamde modulaire economie. In deze economie worden alle producten en diensten opgedeeld in modules. De vraag van consumenten naar producten en diensten, en dan specifiek de behoefte aan modules daarin, bepaalt welke delen van een product of dienst gemeengoed worden en op welke delen leveranciers zich kunnen onderscheiden. Ook in de verzekeringsbranche zorgt de opkomst van de modulaire economie voor een disruptieve verandering in de manier waarop spelers in de markt opereren. Investeringsexplosie Ook investeerders hebben de potentie van de technologische innovaties in de verzekeringsbranche inmiddels scherp in het vizier, blijkt uit een nieuw onderzoek van Willis Towers Watson Securities. De Securities-adviestak van Willis Towers Watson, die zich richt op het leveren van advies over investeringsbankieren in de verzekeringswereld, heeft voor het uitvoeren van het onderzoek samengewerkt met Willis Re, een andere adviestak binnen Willis Towers Watson die zich richt op het adviseren van herverzekeraars. In het onderzoeksrapport wordt gekeken naar de ontwikkeling van nieuwe intreders in de verzekeringsindustrie en samenwerkingen met start-ups, evenals naar de manier waarop nieuwe technologieën op het gebied van claimmanagement worden ingezet. Het onderzoek toont aan dat in het tweede kwartaal van 2017 in totaal $985 miljoen is geïnvesteerd in InsurTech, verspreid over 64 deals. Dit betekent dat de totale investering ten opzichte van het kwartaal daarvoor met maar liefst 248% is toegenomen. Andrew Newman, President en Global Head of Casualty bij Willis Re, vertelt: “Het feit dat in het tweede kwartaal van 2017 $985 miljoen is geïnvesteerd in InsurTech, vormt opnieuw bewijs dat verandering aanstaande is in de sector. Of dit leidt tot disruptie of zorgt juist voor kansen is voornamelijk afhankelijk van waar een bedrijf zich bevindt in de waardeketen. Het is niet de technologie die disruptief is, maar de mate waarin een concurrent in staat is die technologie succesvol toe te passen in vergelijking met anderen.” Een van de voorspellingen die de onderzoekers doen op basis van de toename in InsurTech investeringen, is dat nieuwe technologieën in de verzekeringsmarkt tot een hogere klanttevredenheid zullen leiden. Per regio en fase Maar liefst 45% van de investeringstransacties in Q2 2017 betrof een overnamedoelwit in de Verenigde Staten. Hoewel daarmee bijna de helft van de overnames plaatsvond in de VS, is dit aanzienlijk lager dan het aandeel van 65% dat de VS heeft in alle transacties vanaf 2012 (605). 9% van de 64 transacties voltrok zich in de UK, net iets meer dan in Frankrijk met 8% van alle deals. Duitsland en India waren respectievelijk goed voor 6% en 5% van de deals. Het grootste deel van de transacties in Q2 betrof investeringen in de Seed/Angel of Series A-fase, met elk een aandeel van 31%. Daarmee ligt het aandeel Seed-investeringen in Q2 13 procentpunt lager dan de afgelopen 5,5 jaar, terwijl het Series A-aandeel 10 procentpunt hoger ligt. Na de 8% voor Series B en 5% voor Series C, valt vooral de 6% van Series D investeringen op – dit aandeel is drie keer zo groot als het aandeel over de periode van 2012 tot Q2 2017.

Bangladeshi party protests to potentially turn violent

Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are protesting against the Awami League (AL) government in the form of hunger strikes and protest rallies; BMI Research claims the demonstrations are unlikely to impact the AL in the next parliamentary elections but could lead to “opposition-led violent protests breaking out pre- and post- elections”. This was seen last in January 2015 when mass opposition-led protests for fresh elections saw more than 30 people killed and 7000 arrested in weeks of political unrest.

https://bdnews24.com/politics/2018/07/13/support-for-awami-league-to-remain-strong-in-election-bmi-research

“This raises the probability that the BNP could once again boycott the elections just like they did in 2014. We cannot rule out the possibility of opposition-led violent protests breaking out pre- and post-elections,” BMI said.

EU copyright violations could make smaller publishers struggle

A proposed European law that would make sites liable for the sharing of copyrighted material on their platforms could inadvertently hurt some publishers. Part of the rationale behind the reform is to give publishers the same rights online as film and music makers, said Angela Mills, executive director at the European Publishers Council. But there are concerns that smaller publishers, including many which rely on aggregators for much of their audience, will be dropped by platforms which are wary of breaking the law.

https://digiday.com/media/eu-targeting-platforms-copyright-violations-end-hurting-publishers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_source=uk&utm_content=180627

The duopoly is under threat in Europe on several fronts, including a new move by the European Parliament to overhaul European copyright law to require sites to monitor copyrighted material and make them legally liable for any sharing of copyrighted material. The proposed changes would also give publishers the right to charge platforms for displaying snippets of their content. The outcome of the vote has sparked outcry from various camps, anti-censorship and free speech campaigners among them. Pouring more fuel on the fire recently was Google, which faced criticism for encouraging publisher members of its Digital News Initiative to lobby against the proposed changes. But the proposed changes could end up hurting some segments of the publishing industry just as much as the platforms. Part of the purpose of the reform is to give publishers the same legal rights online as film and music producers, according to Angela Mills Wade, executive director at the European Publishers Council. Under the new proposal, aggregators and platforms don’t necessarily need a copyright license to display publisher content, just some form of contract with the publisher, like a revenue share, she said. “Publishers will have their right and their own legal standing. It’s up to them what they do with it,” said Mills Wade. “It boils down to whether you want an internet where those who invest in production are incentivized to continue to invest in production, or a law that facilitates free riding and allows companies in this gray area of scraping and reusing content to continue.” The concern is that smaller publishers, those who rely on news aggregators and platforms for a lot of their audience, will get cut by the tech platforms that will be wary of breaching the law. Those standing to benefit would be large publishers, those with recognizable brands and engaged direct audiences, which have an ax to grind with platforms like Google and Facebook sharing their content without receiving their fair reward. “It’s hard to find anyone in favor of it,” said Struan Bartlett, founder and CEO of publisher aggregator NewsNow, who has been campaigning against the directive for over a year. “Publishers we talk to aren’t; users aren’t calling for it; web pioneers aren’t in favor. It’s bizarre it’s being pushed forward.” In Germany, where publishers have flexed more muscle with tech platforms about copyright, Bartlett acknowledged there have been difficulties in enforcing specific publisher rights, but opponents feel expanding this to the EU level may not be the answer. “It’s European medicine for a German problem,” he said. “Article 11 is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. These sweeping new powers are overkill.” There have been criticisms of the reform: Opponents think it’s too vague about how “digital use” will be measured so publishers can levy fees, although the exact wording of the mandate will be more fully defined later. Earlier, similar laws were implemented at the national level in Spain and Germany, but unsuccessfully. Largely, said Mill Wade, this was because the laws were leveled too narrowly at news aggregators. “It isn’t practical. In Brussels, there’s no clear process or understanding of how the internet works and how that comes into the political decision-making process,” said an independent publishing consultant. “They are in their own filter. They have their lobbies, pressure groups, data activists and publisher organizations. But the outcome is far from adequate to daily business. They behave like aliens from a publisher perspective.” There have also been misconceptions. On June 26, European Parliament member Giorgos Grammatikakis, sent an email, seen by Digiday, to other parliament members debunking myths surrounding Articles 11 and 13 of the copyright reform. In it, Grammatikakis outlined what the reform would not do: censor users from sharing links, filter the internet and, thankfully, kill off memes. As with all legislation, a new law won’t be passed tomorrow. Sources say the reform — which was first proposed in 2016 — could be agreed on by the end of this year, giving member states 12 months before they need to amend national law. “[Last week’s vote] was an important hurdle for the legislation to get over, but it doesn’t tell us what the final text will be,” said Robert Guthrie, partner for international law firm Osborne Clarke. “That will have a big impact on how much power is given to the press publisher.” “There’s the big challenge in terms of how you regulate the internet. It’s very fast-moving. Process at the EU level is very slow,” he said. “By that point, the product might have moved on. The commercial strengths of the parties might have moved on.”

Using CO2 will significantly reduce the Chemical industry's footprint

The plastic industry could significantly cut its CO2 footprint if new developments in chemical processing are successfully applied. German materials manufacturer Covestro has been researching the potential for capturing carbon dioxide and turning it into plastic using a catalyst. The process they have developed so far is able to turn CO2 into polyol, a main component in polyurethane foam, and this will initially be used in the production of mattresses and other furniture. Further advances in the technique could produce other plastic materials and reduce the industry's reliance on fossil fuels.

http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2018/02/the-use-of-carbon-dioxide-will-reduce-the-industry-s-reliance-on-non-renewable-resources-to-manufacture-plastics

The use of carbon dioxide will reduce the industry’s reliance on non-renewable resources to manufacture plastics The chemical industry has long been exploring various ways of turning the carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into a useful raw material that can replace fossil feedstock and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint. Developing this technology is especially important for the plastics industry as most plastic is made from petroleum. The CO2 gas has one thing in common with petroleum: it contains the element carbon, a central building block for the chemical industry, and, unlike petroleum, it is an abundant raw material. Covestro has been working with partners from industry and academia on a number of projects to capture CO2 and use it to replace petroleum. The technology they have developed allows to use CO2 to produce a polyol, the main component of polyurethane foam, which is used almost everywhere – from furniture to building insulation. The foam manufactured from this CO2-based polyol will initially be used in the production of mattresses but could potentially find its way into other applications. (Cefic/ ChemistryCan ) From the Archive

Global battery energy storage system market (BESS) is poised to grow dynamically by 2020

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) will grow from 1.5GW in 2015 to 14 GW in 2020 as they are increasingly installed into electricity grids to make renewable energy power supplies smoother and more reliable, according to a new report from research and consulting company GlobalData. In addition, the report estimates that BESS prices will fall by almost 50% by 2020 and the market in the US will grow from $750m in 2015 to $1.7bn by 2020.

https://cleantechnica.com/2016/08/29/global-battery-energy-storage-systems-set-reach-14-gw-2020-globaldata/

According to a new report from research and consulting firm GlobalData, the installed capacity of global battery energy storage systems will grow from 1.5 GW in 2015 to 14 GW in 2020. GlobalData’s latest report, Grid Connected Battery Energy Storage System — Market Size, Competitive Landscape, Key Country Analysis and Forecasts to 2020, posits that the introduction of battery energy storage systems, or BESS, will continue to grow as renewable installations continue to increase and focus on grid stability is prioritized. BESS will provide numerous benefits for the power sector, including resolving concerns over energy time shift, load following and frequency regulation, renewable capacity continuity, transmission congestion relief, and energy tariff cost management. Further, BESS prices have already been declining in the fact of technological innovation, improvement in the manufacturing process, and growing competitiveness. BESS prices are expected to only continue to decline, falling by almost half from 2015 to 2020. “Climate change concerns, government initiatives including renewable portfolio standards, and consumer efforts are resulting in increased deployment of solar and wind resources,” said Swati Gupta, GlobalData’s Analyst covering Power. “However, the variability of solar and wind power makes it hard for electricity providers to integrate them into the electricity grid. To achieve this, BESS are being installed into electricity grids to make the power supply from renewable energy sources smoother and more reliable.” The US currently has the largest BESS market, valued at over $750 million in 2015, and is expected to continue to lead through 2020, with its market value reaching an impressive estimated $1.7 billion by 2020. “The US market for energy storage has so far been focused on frequency regulation – in other words, storage to balance out swift, short-term variation in power output,” added Gupta. “The country’s BESS market will expand as renewables continue to penetrate the power market.” 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 ...

Maruti Suzuki to launch CNG variant of Alto car

Maruti Suzuki has launched a CNG-powered version of its Alto model in India. The model, called the Alto BS6 S-CNG, is the company's first CNG vehicle to be compliant with India's BS6 environmental standard and offers a mileage of 31.59 km per kg. The vehicle also features dual interdependent electronic control units and an intelligent injection system. The Alto, which is already available in other BS6-compliant forms, has been India's best-selling car for 15 consecutive years.

https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/maruti-suzuki-alto-bs6-now-also-available-in-s-cng/

Maruti Suzuki India Limited today launched the S-CNG variant of India’s favourite car, Alto Consistently setting new benchmarks in the industry, Maruti Suzuki India Limited today launched the S-CNG variant of India’s favourite car, Alto. The CNG powered Alto BS6 will offer a mileage of 31.59 km/kg. Maruti Suzuki continues to pave the way for the new BS6 emission norms ahead of timeline with Alto S-CNG as its first BS6 compliant CNG vehicle. Maruti Suzuki offers the widest range of green cars with S-CNG technology. On the introduction of Alto BS6 S-CNG, Mr. Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, “At Maruti Suzuki, we continuously strive to offer products that are technologically advanced and environment friendly. With the introduction of Alto BS6 S-CNG, we reinforce our efforts towards sustainable green mobility. The Alto BS6 S-CNG is designed to deliver optimum performance, safety, engine durability, convenience, and mileage. Maruti Suzuki’s large portfolio of green vehicles is a testimony of its commitment towards environment. We are encouraged with wide acceptance of S-CNG technology by our customers.” The launch of Maruti Suzuki’s S-CNG vehicle range is aligned to and complements the Government of India’s vision of reducing oil import and enhancing the share of natural gas in the energy basket of the country from 6.2% now to 15% by 2030. Maruti Suzuki S-CNG vehicles are equipped with dual interdependent ECUs (Electronic Control Units) and intelligent injection system. Vehicles are specially tuned and calibrated to deliver optimum performance and enhanced drivability across all kinds of terrains. Maruti Suzuki Alto was the first vehicle to become BS6 compliant, and the Company has already sold over 100,000 BS6 compliant Alto in the country. With timely upgrades, the brand Alto has stayed relevant and continues to be the best-selling car in the country for 15 consecutive years. Additionally, 38-lakh strong Alto family is a testament to people appreciating the timely upgrades and newness in the brand. Maruti Suzuki recently introduced the new Alto VXi+ with the Smart play Studio which is tailor-made to offer a unique technology-driven experience to the customers. The factory-fitted Alto BS6 S-CNG will be available for:

ISIS threatens Facebook and Twitter founders

ISIS has released a video in which it threatens the founders of Facebook and Twitter reportedly because the social media outlets have closed ISIS-related accounts. The video explicitly targets Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey of Twitter. The video has been described as “something an elementary student threw together one night before the project was due”, and while prompting no response from Facebook, saw Twitter dismiss it as part of “everyday life” at the company.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/isis-hackers-threaten-facebook-and-twitter-founders-for-shutting-accounts-a6894921.html

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A group of pro-Isis hackers has reportedly released a video threatening the founders of Facebook and Twitter – because their social media accounts keep getting shut down. In a 25-minute video which began circulating on social media on Tuesday afternoon, pictures of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey were shown superimposed with bullet holes. Described by terror analyst Rita Katz as “looking like something an elementary student threw together one night before the project was due”, it claims to show hackers taking over social media accounts, changing profile pictures and using them to disseminate jihadist propaganda. Twitter has dismissed the personal threat to Mr Dorsey as part of “everyday life” at the global network, while Facebook is yet to respond to the video. It was uploaded and shared by a group calling itself “Sons Caliphate Army” – which the Site Intel Group has described as the latest “rebrand” of Isis’s supporters online. And while the direct threat to the two CEOs is unlikely to elicit any new reaction from their respective companies, the video does highlight the continued failure to prevent jihadists from using sites like Twitter and Facebook as a platform. Text appearing on the video reads: “You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league. “If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you [sic] sites, Allah willing, and will know that [sic] we say is true.” In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 / 74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qa’ida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qa’ida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work Earlier this month, Twitter said it had suspended over 125,000 accounts since the middle of 2015 “for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to Isis”. “We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service,” the company said. Facebook has previously said there is “no place for terrorists on Facebook”. Spokesman Andrew Souvall told Wired: “We work aggressively to ensure that we do not have terrorists or terror groups using the site, and we also remove any content that praises or supports terrorism.”

Florida to add 74 EV charging stations along its major highways

Florida plans to install 74 EV fast charging stations, which will be funded through a settlement with Volkswagen (VW) over the breach of the clean air laws. The charging points will be located along interstates 75 and 95, initially in Central and South Florida, where most of the state’s EV owners live. Florida was granted $166m from the VW settlement and will spend $8.5m on the charging infrastructure. The funds will later be used to further expand the state’s charging network and to back an electric or other clean fuel-powered bus fleet.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/07/10/watch-live-at-1245-gov-ron-desantis-makes-major-announcement-in-orlando/

Using money from a settlement, Florida is adding 74 new electric car charging stations along the state’s major highways. ORLANDO, Fla. – Using money from a settlement, Florida is adding 74 new electric car charging stations along the state’s major highways. Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Turkey Lake Service Plaza in Orlando Friday afternoon alongside the Florida Department of Environmental Protection secretary Noah Valenstein and representatives from Tesla to make what his office called a “major announcement.” He said the funds for the the investment come from a settlement against Volkswagen for violating the Clean Air Act. The state was awarded $166 million as part of the settlement. From that, $8.5 million will be used to create the 74 charging stations along Interstate 75 and Intestate 95, spanning about 1,200 miles. “While the coronavirus pandemic has caused some delay, I am pleased to be able to announce today that after developing and submitting a plan to the trustees of the settlement funds, getting that plan approved and then completing the planning and procurement process. We are now ready to award over $8.5 million in contracts to build 74 additional fast electric charging stations belongs to Florida has major highways and evacuation routes,” DeSantis said. There are plans in the future to add additional charging stations using that same settlement money. DeSantis said the charging stations will likely be completed within a matter of weeks. Valenstein called the move “another step forward for the environment here in Florida.” With the charging stations already slated to be built along the Turnpike by the Florida Department of Transportation, there will soon be about 100 charging stations statewide. Those Turnpike charging stations should be done within about 60 days. “The result of all this work will mean electric car owners will not have to worry about where they will be able to charge their car when using our major highway and this is important, obviously for travel normally, but also critically for hurricane evacuation,” DeSantis said. The focus initially will be on Central and South Florida, where most electric car owners live, and eventually move into the Panhandle and along Interstate 10. The governor added that electric car purchases have increased “tenfold” in the past nine years. Part of the investment, he said, is to ensure that the stations can quickly charge vehicles. “You know, you go in, you plug, you go to like a gas station or something inside the service store, get a drink, you come out, and the thing can be charged in a relatively short amount of time,” DeSantis said. “Some of the longer charging stations would take sometimes 30 minutes or more.” As far as the rest of the settlement money goes, DeSantis said it will largely be used on “electric or alternative fuel school and transit buses and the replacement of other high emission vehicles.”

StatSports eyes IPO after scoring investment from Raheem Sterling

Newry-based sports tech company StatSports is weighing a flotation in about two years time, at which point it expects to be worth in excess of £1 billion. Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have both recently invested seven-figure sums in the company in a new funding round that values it at more than £200 million. The sports tech company has developed performance-tracking technology that is used by leading European football clubs including Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/statsports-eyes-ipo-after-scoring-investment-from-raheem-sterling-1.3867466

Newry-based sports tech company StatSports is weighing a flotation in about two years’ time, at which point it expects to be worth in excess of £1 billion (€1.15 billion). The move comes as the company announced that Premier League footballers Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have both recently invested seven-figure sums in the company in a new funding round that values it at more than £200 million (€231 million). The sports tech company, which made headlines globally last year when it secured a five-year contract valued at £1 billion with the US Soccer Federation, has developed performance-tracking technology that is used by leading European football clubs including Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus. A consumer version of the technology was launched last year Mr Sterling, who plays for Manchester City and Mr Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is at Liverpool, have each invested more than £1 million (€1.1 million) in StatSports, whose APEX monitoring devices are also used by the Irish Rugby Football Union and sports teams playing in GAA, American football, hockey and basketball. READ MORE ‘Huge potential’ As part of the deal, the soccer stars are to become global ambassadors for the company, which was founded by Alan Clarke and Sean O'Connor more than a decade ago. “I see no reason that StatSports cannot be the next billion dollar-plus wearable company,” Mr Sterling said. “StatSports has already made a big name for itself in the elite game but it’s clear to me that there is huge potential for the technology and that’s why I’ve invested,” the English international added. Barcelona star Lionel Messi wearing the Statsports vest in training Mr Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has worn the technology since his early days at Southampton, was equally bullish about the potential for StatSports to score big. "I am super excited for where this will go, the sky is the limit," he said. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to invest at this early stage of what I believe will be the Instagram or WhatsApp of wearables." The investment by the footballers is the first outside one to be made in StatSports, which has been self-funded to date. The Newry company says it has been profitable since its inception, although it does not publish financial figures. "The company has been profitable year-on-year without taking any investment since inception in 2009. What is even more remarkable for a technology company to achieve global market leader status whilst being bootstrapped," said chief global strategist Jarlath Quinn. StatSports’ technology consists of small devices which are worn in vests and measure and analyse player performance in real-time to provide instant feedback to coaching staff on metrics such as distance and speed, as well as levels of fatigue and injury risk. Public listing While the company is primarily focused on a public listing, it is also believed to be open to a possible sale should a major player be prepared to stump up the cash. While initially targeted at elite athletes, StatSports last year introduced a consumer version of its Apex solution, which retails at €234.99. In doing this, the company is not only competing with direct rivals such as Catapult, but also with the likes of Apple, Fitbit and Garmin, which are all trying to win over customers for their devices. By being appointed as ambassadors as well as taking a stake in the company, Mr Sterling and Mr Oxlade-Chamberlain are following in the footsteps of sports stars such as NBA player LeBron James who helped drive sales of Beats headphones and reportedly earned $30 million (€27 million) when the company was sold to Apple in 2014 for $3 billion (€2.6 billion). Last year, StatSports won the deal of the year prize at inaugural The Irish Times business awards, in association with KPMG. It won the prize for its £1 billion deal with the US Soccer Federation.

Robots on the front line of keeping people safe from the coronavirus

Robots are playing an important role in combatting the coronavirus. Robots are used in hospitals to disinfect rooms using ultraviolet rays that also kill the coronavirus. Ultra-violet disinfection robots can destroy 99.99% of all microorganisms in a hospital room within 10 minutes. Suppliers of cleaning robots have experienced a surge in demand due to the spread of the coronavirus.

https://ifr.org/post/robots-on-the-front-line-of-keeping-people-safe-from-the-coronavirus

Robots are playing an important role in combatting the coronavirus. We look at some of the ways in which robots are keeping people safe, fed, and able to access the care they need through the pandemic. With many countries in full or partial lockdown to halt the progression of the coronavirus, robots are stepping in to perform vital tasks that keep people safe and enable virtual contact. Many robot suppliers are donating or lending robots to hospitals and care homes to help stem the spread of the virus. Here are some of the ways robots are being put to work: Cleaning and disinfection Robots are used in hospitals to disinfect rooms using ultraviolet rays that also kill the coronavirus. Ultra-violet disinfection robots can destroy 99.99% of all microorganisms in a hospital room within 10 minutes. While the room must be empty during disinfection, there are no negative effects of the UV rays. The robot’s route can be planned by hospital staff through an app and, once activated, cleaning robots move autonomously from room to room. On arrival, the robot makes an announcement asking anyone in the room to leave and close the door at which point cleaning can begin. Many of these robots can also operate lifts. Many hospitals already use these robots to combat infections caught during hospital stays, which account for around 37,000 deaths per year in Europe and almost 100,000 in the U.S. However, suppliers of cleaning robots have experienced a surge in demand due to the spread of the coronavirus. In Hong Kong, cleaning robots are now being used to clean carriages in the city’s Mass Transit Railway, which transports millions of passengers every day. The newly designed robot supplements the work of cleaning staff by spraying a hydrogen peroxide solution on to surfaces, focusing particularly on small gaps that human hands cannot reach. Keeping doctors and nurses safe and support lab staff Robots are being used to treat patients with the coronavirus, enabling doctors and nurses to carry out tests and interact with patients at arms length. The first US patient diagnosed with the virus was treated by a remotely-controlled robot equipped with a stethoscope and a screen that enabled doctors and nurses to communicate with the patient and take simple measurements. Robots, from suppliers such as KUKA and Universal Robots, are used extensively to automate the lab work, e.g. the processing of samples, vastly improving the productivity of testing for bacterial and viral infections. Also Yaskawa and ABB are collaborating with hospital and medical labs to develop applications where their two-armed robot support the staff and speeding up testing. Now, a robot that automates the process of taking mouth swabs, in order to test for the virus, is in clinical trials in China. The aim is to reduce infection risk to medical staff by eliminating the need for contact. Developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the robot can sense contact and pressure and is able to gently take a sample that is then sent for analysis, with no human interaction required. Helping older people stay in touch with carers and families Many countries are advising or mandating that older people stay at home and refrain from contact with any family members not already living with them. This creates a dilemma for carers in residential homes for older people. Telepresence robots, already used in many assisted-living homes to enable older people to live independently for longer, are stepping in to keep elderly people in touch with carers and family. The image of the remote user is displayed on the robot’s screen and the robot can be directed around the room to view anything in its vicinity. Most of these robots are controllable from any location with a smartphone or computer and internet connection. Family members, friends, doctors, and care givers can all log into the telepresence robot, drive it, interact with others, and explore the environment with audio and video. Delivering food and medical supplies Robots are used in a wide variety of sectors for delivering parts, supplies and food. Delivery robots – such as those from IFR members MIR and Photoneo - are already used extensively in hospitals to deliver medical supplies and heavy items such as bedding throughout hospitals, saving nurses and orderlies many hours of time. Typically, these robots deliver items to nurse stations, but they are now being used to make deliveries directly to patients in isolation both in hospitals, and in other locations. For example, robots delivered food to people who had been on a flight with passengers infected with the virus and subsequently ordered into quarantine in a hotel in Hangzhou, China. The robot announces its arrival at the door and the occupant takes their food tray off the robot’s inbuilt shelf. Delivery robots are also being used to bring groceries and pre-prepared meals to people, and to dispense hand sanitizer in public places. Food preparation Robots are starting to be used in food preparation, making pizza and in-store bread, for example. Now they have been enlisted in the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Robots have been used in China to prepare and serve food to medical workers so that hospital canteens do not need to be staffed round the clock. A food preparation robot delivered to a hospital in Wuhan, China, reportedly prepared 36 portions of rice casserole every 15 minutes. Public Information Mobile information robots are increasingly used in public spaces, for example airports and trade fairs, and in shops, to help people get to their destination and find goods more easily. Information robots are also playing their part in keeping people safe by keeping them informed and reminded of safety precautions related to the virus. A robot, supplied by Russian manufacturer Promobot, was recently rolled out in various locations in New York City to converse with passersby, who could also fill out an online questionnaire on the robot’s touchscreen. The robot can also be equipped with a thermo reader to detect early symptoms of covid-19 like elevated temperature. Promobot Thermo Control provides contactless recognition of initial COVID-19 symptoms © Promobot Meanwhile in China, UBTECH robots have been used at a hospital in Shenzhen for temperature monitoring of patients and visitors outside and inside the hospital and distribution of hand sanitizer, as well as providing information about the virus to arriving visitors. Flexible Manufacturing – Producing Medical Equipment and Auxiliaries In the current situation, we also well benefit from robots as flexible manufacturing tools that can quickly be reprogrammed to service changing needs. Robots are for example being drafted in to speed up the production of medical equipment such as surgical masks that are in short supply. Chinese robot manufacturer SIASUN has set up over 100 robotic production lines for face masks, for example. The first production lines of face masks are now available © SIASUN Also assembly equipment manufacturer PIA Automation helps to respond to the sharp increase in demand for face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE). The assembly equipment manufacturer offers fully automated assembly lines for the high-speed production of protective masks. Orders for 21 of these mask production lines have already been received. Each line can produce 140,000 pieces per day and even cover several product variants of two-, three- or four-layer disposable masks. The manufacturing process includes feeding of filter material, folding and pressing, feeding of nose bridge clips, forming of the masks, cutting of the masks, welding of the ear straps, packaging and other auxiliary processes. In order to meet the increased global demand, the machines are built in plants in China, Germany and the USA, which are distributed all over the world. Keeping businesses afloat Small-to-medium sized companies in a range of industries - from manufacturing to logistics, food processing, retail and healthcare – are investing in collaborative industrial robots that can support workers by completing fetching-and-carrying, heavy lifting, machine feeding, shelf-filling and other monotonous tasks. Employees are able to focus on higher-value tasks, from spending time with patients and interacting with customers, to overseeing multiple small-batch production runs. These robots are particularly useful for companies with variable demand for human resources, either because demand is seasonal, such as in retail and agriculture, or because orders are unpredictable as can be the case in manufacturing. These robots are ideal in times of short-term labour shortages, such as the current coronavirus, as they can be easily programmed to take over tasks of missing employees, and then shift back to other duties once those employees return to work. Examples on YouTube Robots used in a Chinese hospital for disinfection, delivery, and monitoring the temperature of arrivals. Source: South China Morning Post Telepresence robots enable carers and family to keep in touch with elderly people Source: Telepresence Robots A robot delivers food in a Chinese hospital. Source: New China News Delivery robots bring food and pre-prepared meals, and dispense hand-sanitizer. Source: CGTN The robot chef at a Wuhan hospital. Source: The Paper

Oyster farms aided by surge in Chinese demand as French market collapses

Dungarven shellfish company Harty Oysters has turned adversity into opportunity when the loss of the French oyster market in 2014 could have potentially scuppered its business. Instead, Harty Oysters used its latest packaging and purification plant to pivot its business to the Asian market, rebuilding its turnover to pre-2014 levels within two years. The company aims to double its capacity to 20 tonnes per week by opening a second plant, counting on the increasing demand for oysters by the middle class in China. By 2020, the company hopes to increase oyster production to up to 1,000 tonnes.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/silver-lining-in-asia-for-shellfishfirm-429362.html

Adversity turned to opportunity for Dungarvan shellfish company Harty Oysters when the loss of its only market in France in 2014 led to the opening up of a much more significant one in China. The collapse of the French market, due to an oyster glut, would have been catastrophic for the west Waterford company, but for the fact that it had just built a new packaging and purification plant. This allowed it to pivot its business to Asia and within the space of just two years, get turnover back up to pre-2014 levels. “Our biggest problem, now, is that we can’t supply the demand in China from our existing plant. In the spring we will start work on a second plant, which when up and running in August, will double capacity to 20 tonnes a week,’’ said company managing director Raymond Harty. Aiming to supply the growing demand for oysters from the burgeoning middle class in China, the company aims to increase its oyster production from 500 tonnes a year to between 800 and 1,000 tonnes by 2020. Now a finalist in two categories of this year’s Bord Iascaigh Mhara National Awards, Harty’s has been growing oysters in Dungarvan Bay since 1985. It began as a way to supplement the farm income, but by 1995 the family oyster business was employing 20 people and shipping 400 tonnes a year to France. A key decision in achieving this level of sales was switching from producing standard oysters to “speciales” which Mr Harty explains are ones which are grown for longer, in less dense conditions and receive more care. In 2012 the company invested in building a new nursery which allowed it to buy-in smaller sized oyster seed from France and then grow the oysters to maturity. “This gives us greater control over stock, quality shape and size and also the ability to meet year-round demand,” according to Mr Harty. A discovery by the company during 2012 about the French market prompted another major development. “We found out that some of the oysters we were sending to France were immediately being packed up and shipped to China. After that we spent two years researching the market in Asia and the type of purification system needed.” With the support of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Harty’s built a state-of-the-art plant with the capacity to purify and package 10 tonnes of oysters a week. The intention was to dip a toe in the Asian market and continue shipping to France. But, at the end of 2014, French wholesalers declined to purchase oysters from the company because of oversupply. Accelerating plans to use its new plant, Mr Harty secured help from Bord Bia in marketing its oysters in Asia. “My brother Joe went to China and Thailand and began knocking on doors. We got a few initial customers, mostly fish wholesalers and in May 2015 we started shipping orders,’’ he said. New tactics were required for a new market. Instead of shipping oysters in plastic containers, Hartys designed new timber boxes stamped with the Harty Oyster name and logo and began work on developing a brand identity. While French oysters may be better known than Irish ones, Mr Harty says the company has been able to capitalise on Ireland’s reputation for being clean and green. “We were selling the oysters at a lower price than the French and ramped up sales fairly quickly and by the end of 2015 we were shipping five or six tones a week,’’ he said. As well as growing sales quickly, the company has also been moving up the food chain. “We started by selling to fish wholesalers but now we are selling to distributors supplying five star restaurants in Beijing , Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.” Employing a staff of 40, the company is now shipping out 10 tonnes of oysters a week, selling to China and Thailand and London. “Once we open the second plant we can push out sales to other cities in China and other markets,” Mr Harty said.

Richmond to launch family sized frozen ready meals

Richmond, who are owned by Kerry Group the Ireland based food manufacturer, have announced the launch of their new frozen ready meals in the UK. The meals are intended to feed up to 4 people as look to target families.

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/meat/richmond-unveils-family-friendly-frozen-sausage-ready-meals/647932.article?adredir=1

Sausage brand Richmond is taking its first steps into the frozen ready meal category with two new family-friendly dishes: a sausage & tomato pasta dish and a sausage casserole. Launching into Iceland later this month (rsp: £4/1.4kg), Richmond said the NPD served four people and would allow the brand to cater to more family mealtimes. The products will also roll out across the wider grocery channel over the coming months, while single-serve formats are planned for 2021. With sausages a dinnertime staple – equating to 1.2 billion sausage occasions per year [Kantar w/e 17 May] – the Kerry Foods brand had already seen “huge success” in the frozen category, it claimed. Sales of its frozen pork, chicken and meat-free sausage lineup stood at £23m this year [IRI 52 w/e 12 June] representing a 17.8% share of the category. Richmond said the ready meals would also capitalise on a surge in interest in the frozen category, in addition to changing consumer habits during the pandemic, with 103 million more at-home evening meal occasions per week, up 23% on last year [Kantar state of the nation report, 2020]. “Over the past year, we’ve worked hard on innovating our offering to ensure we can cater to a whole variety of mealtime occasions,” said Kerry Foods category and marketing director Victoria Southern. “We know the frozen category is booming and as consumers’ lives get busier, convenience has become key. Because of this, we’re confident our new range will be a hit.”

Yahoo tracking survey pits banner ads against native ads -

Yahoo has commissioned a study which shows that native ads are more appealing than banner ads. Browsing time for native ads was 36% higher on Yahoo homepage and 32% higher on Yahoo’s mobile properties. Meanwhile, 29% of respondents were able to recall messages from native ads, while 57% of respondents would do further online research to understand more about products and services.

http://www.marketing-interactive.com/yahoo-tracking-survey-pits-banner-ads-against-native/

As Yahoo seeks to boost its native advertising proposition, the online group has released its own commissioned research which suggests native ads are more appealing than banner ads.The study, conducted last month by Yahoo Hong Kong and Cimigo, shows more than 60% of respondents revealed would take the initiative to search for relevant products or service information because of the native ad content.Respondents to the survey regard native ads as an information provider that are not intrusive, and do not disturb the browsing experience.Browsing time for native ads was 36% higher on Yahoo homepage and 32% higher on Yahoo's mobile properties.Meanwhile, 29% of respondents were able to recall messages from native ads, while 57% of respondents would do further online research to understand more about products and services.Survey results show the perceptions of native ads versus banner ads:The survey employed eyeball tracking technology with in-depth interviews for a total of 15 hours between 11 to 15 May to analyse browsing behavior on desktops and mobile devices.Respondents were aged from 18 to 49, with a mix of occupation and monthly personal income, and were non-rejecters of online advertisements.During the survey, respondents were required to put on eyeball tracking glasses to browse the Yahoo Homepage and Yahoo mobile front page, and use the Yahoo News app.Eyeball actions were recorded while each individual browsed. Respondents first watched the taped eyeball actions replay and then a personal interview was conducted afterwards.

Algonquin raises $724m to develop renewable energy projects

Algonquin Power & Utilities has raised a total of CAD983m ($724m) through a share sale and share issue to help back its renewables developments and for other corporate spending. The company sold about 37 million shares and issued almost 20.5 million more shares to an institutional investor for CAD350m. The deal was led by CIBC Capital Markets and Scotiabank.

https://renewablesnow.com/news/algonquin-power-raises-usd-724m-to-fund-renewables-growth-706897/

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp (TSE:AQN) has raised a total of CAD 983 million (USD 724m/EUR 632m) in gross proceeds from a couple of common share offerings. The Ontario-based utility has sold about 37 million common shares through a bought deal public offering at CAD 17.10 apiece for roughly CAD 633 million. A further 20.47 million common shares were issued and sold under a concurrent direct registered offering to an institutional investor for total gross proceeds of CAD 350 million. Scotiabank and CIBC Capital Markets led the syndicate of underwriters for the bought deal. Algonquin Power said it will use the net proceeds to finance in part its previously announced renewable development growth projects. What is left will be allocated for general corporate purposes. (CAD 1.0 = USD 0.737/EUR 0.643) Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!

Cree-Infineon deal boosts solar inverter, EV charger market share

US LED firm Cree has cemented its position in the semiconductor materials market with its €345m ($425m) acquisition of German outfit Infineon Technologies. The deal enabled Cree and its business unit Wolfspeed to put in place beneficial supply agreements for silicon carbide and gallium nitride, key materials in semiconductors used in the growing grid energy devices market, including solar inverters and electric-vehicle chargers. The move also follows a recent report suggesting shorter-life batteries could replace some of California's retiring peaker facilities.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/cree-infineon-wolfspeed-advanced-semiconductors-clean-energy#gs.8c__le8

Cree, well known as an LED lighting company, is also becoming an important supplier of semiconductors that play an integral role in solar inverters, electric-vehicle chargers and other clean energy assets through its Wolfspeed business unit. Cree’s recent €345 million ($425 million) acquisition of Infineon Technologies AG Radio Frequency Power Business doesn’t play directly into these markets, but it does increase Wolfspeed’s market share in the two key semiconductor materials that make up an increasing share of grid edge energy devices: silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). To be sure, the deal announced earlier this month is more of a play to cement market share and lock in mutually beneficial supply agreements for Infineon’s radio frequency (RF) power business, which makes semiconductors that control the massive broadcast wattages for cellular towers and base stations. This same logic drove Infineon to try to acquire Wolfspeed for $850 million, before the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States blocked the deal early last year, based on national security concerns. Infineon is a German company. But as Cree CTO and co-founder John Palmour said in an interview, the two companies are now a first- or second-place provider of a combination of SiC and GaN materials and components for the latest generations of inverters. They also hold a significant share of the EV charger power converter market and are making first moves into EV drivetrains. “Wolfspeed is really two components businesses,” he said. “All of our customers are working on silicon carbide for power, or gallium nitride for [radio frequency].” This matches the known benefits and drawbacks of these two different wide band-gap switching materials, with SiC largely better suited to heavy power applications, and GaN for more high-value, mid-voltage applications such as radio frequency, radar, or military scanners and jammers. “In silicon carbide power devices, there are market studies that say we are No. 1,” Palmour said. That's largely based on the market for switch-mode power supplies, primarily for servers in data centers, where single percentage points in increased efficiency make for massive reductions in electricity and cooling space. Another market is for solar inverters, where Wolfspeed has long sold silicon carbide diodes to pair with silicon switches, he said. Over the past few years, however, as silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, or MOSFETs, have started to become the technology of choice for high-efficiency inverters, Cree has offered its own integrated SiC MOSFETs as well, he said. “With the MOSFETs, it’s maybe 3 or 4 percent more efficient,” he said, which saves both electricity and waste heat. But “the bigger deal in solar inverters is that you can greatly shrink the size of the inverter, and that allows you to have a cheaper inverter.” While SiC is more expensive than silicon, these additional benefits shrink a SiC inverter cost to about 15 percent less than the larger and less efficient competition, he said. Wolfspeed SiC MOSFETs are now in inverters being shipped to market, he said, though he wouldn’t name the inverter partners involved, citing nondisclosure agreements. Electric vehicles are another promising application, Palmour said. The values of reducing size, weight, waste heat and overall efficiency are multiplied in EVs, and SiC chips are being integrated into both on-board and off-board charging systems, he said. In January, Palmour announced that Wolfspeed and Ford Motor Co. had demonstrated that its semiconductor devices could reduce drivetrain power conversion losses by up to 78 percent, resulting in a 5 to 10 percent improvement in battery efficiency overall. The market for gallium nitride RF systems is smaller, about $348 million worldwide this year, according to market studies Palmour quoted. “We’re currently ranked No. 2 in gallium nitride RF, worldwide.” Military applications, such as multi-phased array radar systems or IED jammers, are another major market for the technology. As for the broader energy implications, Palmour noted that about half of all electricity consumed is used to turn or spin motors, pumps, lifts and other such equipment. While much of this is still done with magnets and wire, SiC and GaN devices are making their way into higher-value motor controls, from robotics to variable frequency drive pumps and fans. “Ten or 15 percent on top of that is for HVAC, which we can also make more efficient,” he said. "The other 15 percent goes toward telecommunications or data farms. So really, when you look at all the applications outside lighting, we can improve the efficiency on all of those. And of course, we’re doing lighting too.”

UK consumers show preference for higher-quality items

UK clothes shoppers are turning their backs of cheaper fast fashion brands, showing a preference for longer-lasting, higher-cost items, according to a new report by the Fashion Retail Academy. The report revealed a growing number of consumers are choosing more expensive, longer- lasting clothes over cheaper items. The report also showed the average consumer owns clothes that are over seven years old.

https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/uk-shoppers-shun-cheaper-clothes-for-longer-lasting-items/2019022241737

UK consumers are shifting their attention away from fast fashion, and towards longer-lasting items, according to a new report by the Fashion Retail Academy. The report revealed that consumers are now 13 percent more likely to choose more expensive, longer-lasting clothes over cheaper items with a shorter lifespan, with 34 percent opting for better quality items. A smaller 26 percent said they will buy cheaper clothes that are unlikely to last until next season. Over a quarter (25.4 percent) said they are wearing their everyday items - like jeans and t-shirts - for at least two years before buying new ones, while 24 percent continue to wear items of clothing for over 10 years. The average consumer now wears their jeans and t-shirts for almost a year and a half (17 months), and the average consumer owns items of clothing that are over 7 years old. Men are less interested in fast fashion than women, according to the report, and are 7 percent less likely to buy cheap clothing, while 23-26 year olds are 5 percent more likely to buy expensive longer-lasting clothes than 31-35 year olds. Shoppers living in Edinburgh are the most likely to opt for longer-lasting garments (52 percent), while at the other end of the scale, shoppers from Belfast are least likely to invest in more expensive high quality clothing (23 percent), the survey found. UK consumers shift buying habits towards longer-lasting clothing The news comes amid mounting concern in the UK, and globally, about the harmful affect the fast fashion industry has on the environment. According to a report released by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) on Tuesday, the UK buys more clothes per person than any other European country, with the average consumer purchasing 26.7kg of fashion items per year, compared with 16.7kg in Germany, 14.5kg in Italy and 12.6kg in Sweden. The EAC's report also said that less than one percent of material used to produce clothing in the UK is recycled into new clothing, despite around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste being thrown away each year. “After years of shopping for trendy and - invariably - cheaper fast fashion, could consumers finally be making the move towards longer-lasting and timeless items?” Lee Lucas, principal of the Fashion Retail Academy, said in a statement. “This shift towards quality over quantity is surely a reflection of how customers are increasingly mindful of sustainability and the supply chain of clothes manufacturing - as well as acknowledging that more expensive price tags might mean more mileage from certain items of clothing. “There are still many people browsing the aisles or scrolling the internet for the latest trends and picking up seasonal items with a smaller price tag, but there are also new waves of consumers who are willing to invest in higher quality items, which may save them money in the long run. “Sustainable clothing brands such as Patagonia, which offer a lifetime guarantee on their clothes have become more and more popular over the years. This trend has filtered down and typically sustainable clothing is becoming more readily available at high street prices.” The Fashion Retail Academy’s report was carried out by Onepoll with a sample of 2,000 respondents aged 18-35, from 20 September 2018 to 8 October 2018.