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N. Korean hackers tried to steal Pfizer vaccine know-how: Lawmaker | — South Korea’ s intelligence agency has said North Korea attempted to steal information on coronavirus vaccines and treatments by hacking Pfizer Inc., a lawmaker briefed by the agency said on Tuesday. Digital espionage targeting health bodies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as state-backed hacking groups scramble to secure the latest research and information about the outbreak. Ha Tae-keung, an opposition member of the parliamentary intelligence panel, said the pharmaceutical giant was among those hacked in the bid to steal information on vaccines and treatments. “ There were attempts to steal COVID vaccine and treatment technology during cyberattacks and Pfizer was hacked, ” he said. Speaking to reporters after a briefing by the agency, Mr. Ha did not elaborate on the timing or success of the attempt, a transcript of his remarks reviewed by Reuters showed. Mr. Ha’ s office confirmed his comments but gave no details. Pfizer's offices in Asia and South Korea did not have an immediate comment. Tuesday’ s news comes after attempts last year by suspected North Korean hackers to break into the systems of at least nine health care firms, such as Johnson & Johnson, Novavax Inc. and AstraZeneca. South Korea’ s National Intelligence Service has said it had foiled attempts by its neighbor to hack into South Korean firms developing coronavirus vaccines. North Korea is often accused of turning to an army of hackers to fill its cash-strapped coffers amid international sanctions that ban most international trade with it. Health experts have said the North’ s hackers may be more interested in selling the stolen data than using it to develop a homegrown vaccine. North Korea is expected to receive nearly 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine by the first half of this year through the COVAX vaccine-sharing program. It has not confirmed any infections, but the NIS had said an outbreak could not be ruled out as the North had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China before closing the border in early 2020. Leader Kim Jong Un’ s wife, Ri Sol Ju, not seen in public for more than a year, is keeping a low profile to avoid infection risks, Mr. Ha said, citing the South’ s intelligence. More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.
( Reuters) — South Korea’ s intelligence agency has said North Korea attempted to steal information on coronavirus vaccines and treatments by hacking Pfizer Inc., a lawmaker briefed by the agency said on Tuesday.
Digital espionage targeting health bodies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as state-backed hacking groups scramble to secure the latest research and information about the outbreak.
Ha Tae-keung, an opposition member of the parliamentary intelligence panel, said the pharmaceutical giant was among those hacked in the bid to steal information on vaccines and treatments.
“ There were attempts to steal COVID vaccine and treatment technology during cyberattacks and Pfizer was hacked, ” he said.
Speaking to reporters after a briefing by the agency, Mr. Ha did not elaborate on the timing or success of the attempt, a transcript of his remarks reviewed by Reuters showed.
Mr. Ha’ s office confirmed his comments but gave no details.
Pfizer's offices in Asia and South Korea did not have an immediate comment.
Tuesday’ s news comes after attempts last year by suspected North Korean hackers to break into the systems of at least nine health care firms, such as Johnson & Johnson, Novavax Inc. and AstraZeneca.
South Korea’ s National Intelligence Service has said it had foiled attempts by its neighbor to hack into South Korean firms developing coronavirus vaccines.
North Korea is often accused of turning to an army of hackers to fill its cash-strapped coffers amid international sanctions that ban most international trade with it.
Health experts have said the North’ s hackers may be more interested in selling the stolen data than using it to develop a homegrown vaccine.
North Korea is expected to receive nearly 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine by the first half of this year through the COVAX vaccine-sharing program.
It has not confirmed any infections, but the NIS had said an outbreak could not be ruled out as the North had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China before closing the border in early 2020.
Leader Kim Jong Un’ s wife, Ri Sol Ju, not seen in public for more than a year, is keeping a low profile to avoid infection risks, Mr. Ha said, citing the South’ s intelligence.
More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here. | general |
ESC 2022: Azerbaijan releases its song [ PHOTO/VIDEO ] | Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2022 entry will perform at the contest with the song `` Fade To Black ''.
The country will be represented at the song contest 2022 by Nadir Rustamli, the Voice of Azerbaijan singing competition's winner.
`` Fade To Black '' was released on March 21 2022, with the official music video being released on the Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.
The song is written and composed by Thomas Stengaard and Andreas Stone Johansson. Thomas Stengaard songs are well known to Eurovision viewers, Eurovoix reported.
The songwriter was a part of the teams that produced the Eurovision entries “ El Diablo ” and “ Adrenalina ” for Cyprus and San Marino respectively last year.
Swedish songwriter Andreas Stone Johansson is best known for working on 2019 Eurovision entire “ Too Late for Love ” which was performed and co-written by John Lundvik.
Nadir has been into music since a young age. He took piano lessons for seven years, studied in music school and, while at university and joined a music band `` Sunrise '' as the front man. In the music band, he also served as the art director for the music band getting to indulge his creative side even further.
Eurovision 2022 will take place in Turin, Italy on May 10-14.
Nadir Rustamli will perform in the first part of the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
As a result of the draw, Azerbaijan's entry will perform on May 12. The first semi-final will take place on May 10.
The Azerbaijani delegation at Eurovision 2022 will be headed by composer and producer Isa Melikov.
Azerbaijan marked its debut in 2008 with the duo of Elnur and Samir, who managed to become the eighth in the final with their song `` Day after day ''.
The brilliant duet of Aysel and Arash, which represented Azerbaijan next year, took third place at the song contest, while Safura Alizada, who represented the country at the Eurovision 2010 in Oslo, became fifth.
On its fourth attempt with Ell and Nikki's `` Running Scared '' song, the Land of Fire won the event, bringing the contest to Baku's Crystal Hall in 2012. Ell and Nikki were the first mixed-gender duo to win the contest since 1963 and the first winners from Azerbaijan.
It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan reached the Top 5 in five consecutive contests - 3rd in 2009, 5th in 2010, 1st in 2011, 4th in 2012, and 2nd in 2013.
In 2018, Aysel Mammadova performed brilliantly at the Eurovision 2018 semi-final, but she couldn't make it to the final. The singer represented Azerbaijan with the song `` X My Heart ''.
Azerbaijan's Chingiz Mustafayev impressed all Eurovision fans with his stunning performance in 2019. The singer finished in eighth place at the song contest.
In 2020, the song contest was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, fans of the music contest had a great chance to enjoy a spectacular show `` Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light '', featuring 41 songs of this year's entries.
During the show, Samira Efendi pleased Eurovision fans with the song `` Cleopatra '' about trusting your gut instinct, standing up for yourself and being a `` Queen '' - even when things get tough and especially if someone betrays or hurts you.
Last year, Samira Efendi performed in the second half of the Eurovision 2021 final with the song `` Mata Hari '' and took place the 20th place. Speaking about the meaning of the song, Efendi noted that it is about female power.
She thrilled Eurovision fans with stunning performance that featured a giant orb in the background.
At the end of the stage show, the orb was lifted into the air where it exploded in a rain of golden sparkles, leaving the image of Nazar, a symbol of fortune in Azerbaijan.
Efendi's costume was adorned with precious and semi-precious stones; it combined Azerbaijan's traditional elements but with a modern twist. The costume was designed by world-famous fashion designer Rufat Ismayil was behind her outfit. | general |
MEMIC announces early dividend to policyholders | The MEMIC Group will distribute a $ 17 million dividend to its policyholders, the Portland, Maine-based insurer announced in a statement Wednesday. MEMIC’ s board of directors voted to release the dividend early to help its 18,000 policyholders through the economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the insurer said. Typically, MEMIC makes its annual dividend decision in September and distributes checks in November. Eligible policyholders can expect to see average dividends of more than $ 1,100, and more than 20 of its policyholders will receive checks in excess of $ 40,000, according to the statement. Policyholders can expect to receive their checks within three weeks. MEMIC has distributed more than $ 300 million in dividends since 1998.
The MEMIC Group will distribute a $ 17 million dividend to its policyholders, the Portland, Maine-based insurer announced in a statement Wednesday.
MEMIC’ s board of directors voted to release the dividend early to help its 18,000 policyholders through the economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the insurer said. Typically, MEMIC makes its annual dividend decision in September and distributes checks in November.
Eligible policyholders can expect to see average dividends of more than $ 1,100, and more than 20 of its policyholders will receive checks in excess of $ 40,000, according to the statement. Policyholders can expect to receive their checks within three weeks.
MEMIC has distributed more than $ 300 million in dividends since 1998. | general |
Mining Giants Are Boosted by Spike in Commodity Prices. Anglo American Is a Standout. | Geopolitical turmoil has restricted supplies of some commodities at the same time that postpandemic economic growth is boosting demand. This perfect storm could lift the valuation of mining giants like
Anglo American
.
Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine has caused commodities prices to leap more than 40%, with nickel’ s rise exceeding as much as 100% in recent weeks. Anglo derives the bulk of its earnings from platinum group metals, or PGMs, which accounted for 34% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, in 2021, followed by iron ore, copper, diamonds, and nickel. Anglo has no operations or offices in Russia or Ukraine.
Anglo ( ticker: AAL.UK) shares are up 31%, to 39.39 pounds sterling, so far this year, surpassing
Rio Tinto
( RIO) but trailing
Vale
( VALE). Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at Jefferies, says Anglo’ s stock could rise 16.1%, to £43, partly because commodities are likely to outperform even through a period of potential stagflation.
“ Anglo shares may be in a holding pattern in the very near term, but the company is well positioned to benefit from what we expect to be a decadelong structural upturn in demand and prices for some of its key commodities ( especially copper and nickel), ” LaFemina says.
About 40% of the world’ s palladium supply comes from Russia, and a possible tightening of supply for palladium, one of the PGMs used in the manufacture of autos, could help lift Anglo’ s stock, says Jonathan Guy, an analyst at Berenberg.
Anglo has a market value of £64 billion. It fetches 8.3 times this year’ s expected earnings and is valued in line with its peers. For 2021, the company
posted underlying Ebitda of $ 20.6 billion, more than double the $ 9.8 billion from the prior year
. Revenue for 2021 was $ 41.5 billion, up from $ 25.4 billion.
CEO Mark Cutifani, who
divested Anglo’ s thermal coal
and other noncore assets to focus on platinum mining, told
Barron’ s
in a statement, “ The large majority of our output and investment capital is focused on metals and minerals ” that are essential for decarbonizing global energy and transport systems.
Cutifani, who is stepping down in April after nine years, said the company will enhance its competitive position through organic growth of 35% over the next decade, starting with the new Quellaveco copper mine in Peru, which is set to start up later this year.
That demand will depend on continued economic growth, more infrastructure projects, and how inflation affects consumer spending. This means earnings and valuations will be largely dependent on the macro landscape.
Tyler Broda of RBC Capital Markets, rates the stock Outperform with a £42 price target. “ Anglo American stands to benefit commodity-wise on most fronts, ” he wrote, explaining that it is set apart because of its exposure to PGMs and diamonds.
Both commodities have supply constraints because of sanctions, but since Anglo’ s mines are not in Russia or Ukraine, it benefits from unaffected supply and rising prices.
Anglo owns 85% of De Beers Group, the
world’ s leading diamond company
. The diamonds business has contributed to annual Ebitda of $ 1.1 billion, according to Anglo’ s annual report. The U.S. is Anglo’ s biggest market for diamond sales, where it sells 51% of its stock, with China the second biggest at 13%.
Much of Anglo’ s gains will depend on the
economic recovery in China
, which is where Anglo sees its largest annual revenue at 25.4%, according to FactSet. With fresh Covid outbreaks shutting down large parts of the country, the macro drivers are not all positive. | business |
What Does Russia's War Mean for Supply Chain Globalization? | Those alarmed by the confluence of supply chain-crushing global events — a lingering pandemic and what’ s turning into an all-out economic war with Russia — would do well to remember that the Great Fire of London occurred during an outbreak of plague. People don’ t get a break on other disasters just because they’ re in the middle of a crisis, and that includes those managing international supply chains.
“ If there’ s any supply chain expert out there who says they know what’ s going on, they’ re lying, ” says Rich Kilgore, an instructor of management and business administration at Maryville College in eastern Tennessee. “ This hasn’ t happened before. ”
Kilgore says the just-in-time philosophy that gained so much traction over the last 25 years made a single supplier the preferred solution for most companies. “ Then COVID changed everybody’ s opinion, and now they want multiple suppliers, ” he says. The irony is that this realization would potentially have opened doors for suppliers in many of the companies now threatened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine — not just in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which are under sanctions, but other countries nearby, such as Poland and even east Germany. “ Now, that door is going to shut tight, ” Kilgore says.
Much of the pinch will be felt in the manufacturing sector, says Simon Geale, executive vice president and chief procurement officer at supply chain consulting firm Proxima. “ People talk about the crops coming out of Ukraine. That grabs the headlines. But it’ s things like the neon and metals that are going to have an enormous effect on the production of semiconductors and automobiles. I think it’ s really going to take the wind out of the sails of the return to predictability everyone was talking about. ”
Among the ructions caused by war comes a fresh reminder of the risks of globalization.
The pandemic drove many businesses to explore near-shoring their operations, but “ most didn’ t actually figure it out, ” Geale says. This time, it’ s different.
“ The war on top of the pandemic is really going to decelerate globalization, ” he says. “ Geopolitical risk used to be something that was just on a list of risks. But now, if you’ re in Europe at least, it’ s suddenly on your doorstep and potentially involving a huge proportion of the world’ s population, manufacturing and shipping routes. ”
A shift in sourcing strategies is evident in the global construction industry, where equipment and supplies can account for 80% of project spend, says Patrick Ryan, executive vice president for Americas at consulting firm Linesight.
“ What we see now is clients are prepared to commit to contracts earlier, to commit to warehousing costs, to pay the premiums for prefabrication and storage of items — everything from furniture, to prefabricated steel components, to walls, ” Ryan says. “ It's a necessity. And that all stems from risk mitigation strategies. ”
For automakers, the outlook is more grim. Those facing disruptions in Europe could seek suppliers in China, for instance, but they may risk political backlash.
“ The war is so fresh, and we haven’ t had a situation like this ever, so we just don’ t know the extent of the economic ramifications, ” Kilgore says.
Geale believes things are going to change permanently. “ I think the war has taken us over the tipping point. I think it will accelerate regionalization of trade, and cause people to really look at who their partners are, ” he says. “ When you look at the products of tomorrow, with all the chips and technology and rare gasses involved, the question becomes: Who do you want to depend on? Who can you depend on? ”
Among others, Geale notes a predominance of the terms “ resilience ” and “ agility ” over “ lean ” and “ just-in-time ” in today’ s discussions on supply chain best practices. In reality, many businesses have paid lip service to risk management, but pursued low sourcing costs at the expense of everything else — exposing themselves to risks they are only now truly beginning to understand.
Geale adds: “ The greatest thing that has happened to the resilience movement is the failure of the risk management movement. ”
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Data articles on risk management, derivatives and complex finance | The transition from LIBOR to RFR has brought challenges for structured products. There are still legacy IBOR products to consider and at the same time the pricing and risk systems need to be upgraâ¦
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Cincinnati Prevails In Pa. Athletic Club's Virus Coverage Suit | A Pennsylvania private gym and fitness facility saw its COVID-19 coverage suit tossed when a federal judge sided with Cincinnati Insurance Co. that the physical contamination and loss of use alleged did not amount to physical loss or damage.On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe also rejected Newtown Athletic Club's motion to send its suit back to state court. `` The court is sympathetic to businesses like Newtown that have been significantly affected by the pandemic, '' she wrote. `` However, many cases in federal court have reviewed nearly identical insurance claims under Pennsylvania law, and Newtown has failed to identify any... | general |
Hospitalization, fatalities more likely in COVID medical claims | While the majority of workers compensation claims for COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic involved a mild infection and no hospitalization, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California reports that coronavirus claims with medical payments were more likely to involve hospitalization, intensive care and fatalities. “ As a result, the average medical payments per COVID-19 claim during the first six months of medical treatment [ were ] almost two times higher than the average medical payments per non-COVID-19 claim, ” the WCIRB said in a report published Wednesday. “ For claims of similar disease severity, however, COVID-19 claims generally incurred lower average medical payments over six months than non-COVID-19 claims, except for COVID-19 death claims, which were more likely to involve hospitalization, have higher inpatient costs and longer hospital stays than non-COVID-19 death claims. ” The WCIRB reviewed a sample of nearly 6,000 COVID-19 claims filed with insurers for dates of injury between March 2020 and March 2021 that included medical payments for its analysis. The majority of claims, about 90%, were for mild illnesses and did not require hospitalization. The WCIRB reports that 4% of claims were for severe illnesses that required hospitalization but no time in an intensive care unit; another 4% required ICU care for critical conditions; and 2% were death claims. Average medical payments on COVID-19 claims increase significantly as infections become more severe. “ For COVID-19 claims with severe and critical infections, the payments for hospital admissions were the main cost driver, ” the report said. WCIRB reports the average medical payment on COVID-19 claims was $ 6,707 during the first six months of medical treatment, compared with $ 2,617 for all other claims. For mild infections, average medical payments were $ 787 on COVID-19 claims compared with an average cost of $ 2,007 for a mild non-COVID injury. The average medical cost of a severe COVID-19 infection was $ 30,316, compared with average costs of $ 32,933 for a severe injury. Critical COVID-19 infections had an average medical payment of $ 71,717 compared with $ 91,235 for critical non-COVID claims. Death claims for COVID-19, meanwhile, involved average medical payments of $ 77,156 compared with average medical payments of $ 22,099 on non-COVID death claims. WorkCompCentral is a sister publication of Business Insurance. More stories here.
While the majority of workers compensation claims for COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic involved a mild infection and no hospitalization, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California reports that coronavirus claims with medical payments were more likely to involve hospitalization, intensive care and fatalities.
“ As a result, the average medical payments per COVID-19 claim during the first six months of medical treatment [ were ] almost two times higher than the average medical payments per non-COVID-19 claim, ” the WCIRB said in a report published Wednesday.
“ For claims of similar disease severity, however, COVID-19 claims generally incurred lower average medical payments over six months than non-COVID-19 claims, except for COVID-19 death claims, which were more likely to involve hospitalization, have higher inpatient costs and longer hospital stays than non-COVID-19 death claims. ”
The WCIRB reviewed a sample of nearly 6,000 COVID-19 claims filed with insurers for dates of injury between March 2020 and March 2021 that included medical payments for its analysis.
The majority of claims, about 90%, were for mild illnesses and did not require hospitalization. The WCIRB reports that 4% of claims were for severe illnesses that required hospitalization but no time in an intensive care unit; another 4% required ICU care for critical conditions; and 2% were death claims.
Average medical payments on COVID-19 claims increase significantly as infections become more severe.
“ For COVID-19 claims with severe and critical infections, the payments for hospital admissions were the main cost driver, ” the report said.
WCIRB reports the average medical payment on COVID-19 claims was $ 6,707 during the first six months of medical treatment, compared with $ 2,617 for all other claims. For mild infections, average medical payments were $ 787 on COVID-19 claims compared with an average cost of $ 2,007 for a mild non-COVID injury. The average medical cost of a severe COVID-19 infection was $ 30,316, compared with average costs of $ 32,933 for a severe injury. Critical COVID-19 infections had an average medical payment of $ 71,717 compared with $ 91,235 for critical non-COVID claims. Death claims for COVID-19, meanwhile, involved average medical payments of $ 77,156 compared with average medical payments of $ 22,099 on non-COVID death claims.
WorkCompCentral is a sister publication of Business Insurance. More stories here. | general |
One in four women experience domestic violence before age 50 | Over one in four women ( or 27 percent) experience intimate partner violence before the age of 50, according to a worldwide analysis led by researchers from McGill University and the World Health Organization. The largest of its kind, the analysis covers 366 studies involving more than 2 million women in 161 countries. `` Intimate partner violence against women—which includes physical and sexual violence by husbands, boyfriends, and other partners—is highly prevalent globally, '' says McGill University Professor Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling. According to the finding published in The Lancet, one in seven women ( or 13 percent) experienced intimate partner violence within the last year of the study period between 2000 and 2018. The analysis also found high levels of violence against young women, estimating that 24 percent of those between the ages of 15 to 19 experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. While the numbers are alarming the true scale of violence is likely even higher, the researchers say, noting that the studies were based on self-reported experiences. Given the stigmatized nature of the issue, women can be hesitant to report their experiences, they explain. High-income countries reported lower rates of domestic violence The researchers found regional variations, with high-income countries having lower prevalence of both lifetime and past year violence. The lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 was highest in Africa, South Asia, and parts of South America. The regions with the lowest estimated lifetime domestic violence against women were Central Asia and Central Europe. The proportion of women who experienced intimate partner violence in the last year was around 5 percent for North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In regions of Africa, this number was as high as 15 percent to 30 percent. Violence against women by male intimate partners. Credit: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al. Canada among countries with lowest rates of domestic violence `` While Canada is among the top 30 countries with the lowest rates of intimate partner violence, it's still a problem that affects 1 in 25 women, '' notes Professor Maheu-Giroux. `` Some provinces in Canada are looking at different ways to address domestic violence. In Quebec, for example, the government approved a pilot project in 2021 to create a special court for victims of domestic and sexual violence, '' he adds. Calls to strengthen response in pandemic rebuilding efforts `` Overall, our research shows that governments are not on track to meet global targets to eliminate violence against women and girls. An important takeaway is that even in some high-income countries the prevalence of intimate partner violence is relatively high, which calls for investment in prevention at local and global levels, '' says Maheu-Giroux. `` In Québec alone, we witnessed a wave of 17 intimate partner feminicides in 2021—the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence and the highest number in more than a decade, '' he says. Globally, the problem is likely to have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers explain. There's an urgent need to strengthen the public health response to intimate partner violence, and ensure it's addressed in post-COVID-19 rebuilding efforts, they conclude. Explore further More than a quarter of women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, finds new study More information: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al, Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018, The Lancet ( 2022). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736 ( 21) 02664-7 Journal information: The Lancet
`` Intimate partner violence against women—which includes physical and sexual violence by husbands, boyfriends, and other partners—is highly prevalent globally, '' says McGill University Professor Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling.
According to the finding published in The Lancet, one in seven women ( or 13 percent) experienced intimate partner violence within the last year of the study period between 2000 and 2018. The analysis also found high levels of violence against young women, estimating that 24 percent of those between the ages of 15 to 19 experienced domestic violence in their lifetime.
While the numbers are alarming the true scale of violence is likely even higher, the researchers say, noting that the studies were based on self-reported experiences. Given the stigmatized nature of the issue, women can be hesitant to report their experiences, they explain.
High-income countries reported lower rates of domestic violence
The researchers found regional variations, with high-income countries having lower prevalence of both lifetime and past year violence. The lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 was highest in Africa, South Asia, and parts of South America. The regions with the lowest estimated lifetime domestic violence against women were Central Asia and Central Europe.
The proportion of women who experienced intimate partner violence in the last year was around 5 percent for North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In regions of Africa, this number was as high as 15 percent to 30 percent.
Canada among countries with lowest rates of domestic violence
`` While Canada is among the top 30 countries with the lowest rates of intimate partner violence, it's still a problem that affects 1 in 25 women, '' notes Professor Maheu-Giroux. `` Some provinces in Canada are looking at different ways to address domestic violence. In Quebec, for example, the government approved a pilot project in 2021 to create a special court for victims of domestic and sexual violence, '' he adds.
Calls to strengthen response in pandemic rebuilding efforts
`` Overall, our research shows that governments are not on track to meet global targets to eliminate violence against women and girls. An important takeaway is that even in some high-income countries the prevalence of intimate partner violence is relatively high, which calls for investment in prevention at local and global levels, '' says Maheu-Giroux.
`` In Québec alone, we witnessed a wave of 17 intimate partner feminicides in 2021—the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence and the highest number in more than a decade, '' he says.
Globally, the problem is likely to have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers explain. There's an urgent need to strengthen the public health response to intimate partner violence, and ensure it's addressed in post-COVID-19 rebuilding efforts, they conclude. Explore further More than a quarter of women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, finds new study More information: Lynnmarie Sardinha et al, Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018, The Lancet ( 2022). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736 ( 21) 02664-7 Journal information: The Lancet
Explore further | tech |
Dow ends 350 points higher as Biden touts NATO response to Russia-Ukraine war, Fed speakers | U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday afternoon, as world leaders met to respond to Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine and investors monitored remarks by Federal Reserve officials.
Technology and communications stock had some of the stronger gains Thursday, with chipmaker Nvidia
NVDA,
+9.82%
up 9.8%. The major indexes still were mixed for the week though, after recovering to levels seen before the start of the war in Ukraine, despite a jump in bond yields.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.02%
rose 349.44 points, or 1%, ending at 34,707.94.
The S & P 500
SPX,
+1.43%
gained 63.92 points, or 1.4%, closing at 4,520.16.
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+1.93%
climbed 269.23 points, or 1.9%, finishing at 14,191.84.
On Wednesday, the Dow fell 449 points, or 1.3%, while the S & P 500 declined 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.3%.
What drove markets
U.S. stocks closed near session highs Thursday as President Joe Biden wrapped up a series of gatherings with allies and world leaders in Brussels a month after Russian leader Vladimir Putin’ s invaded Ukraine.
The Biden administration rolled out more sanctions against Russia, with the White House saying the U.S. now has
sanctioned more than 600 Russian targets
. Biden, in a news conference in Brussels, said the new sanctions will “ cripple Putin’ s economy, ” while promising more military aid and $ 1 billion in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.
“ Until we see a cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, it is prudent for investors to raise cash and reduce exposure to stocks, ” said Richard Saperstein, chief investment officer at Treasury Partners, in emailed comments. “ While the stock market is attempting to recover from its correction, markets are fundamentally riskier and more uncertain than before Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine. ”
Investors also heard Thursday from several Fed officials on inflation and the central banking’ s likely response. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he sees
seven 25 basis point interest rate hikes
as likely this year, but warned “ there’ s a danger of overdoing it, ” while speaking at a business conference.
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans
pointed to the same pace
of hikes for 2022 as likely, with three more next year, which would bring the Fed fund’ s rate to a range of 2.75% – 3%. Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller told a housing conference he was watching the
“ red-hot ” market
to help gauge the appropriate monetary policy response.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this week left the door open to rate increases larger than the usual 25 basis point increment.
“ This very hawkish talk has not derailed the market rallying, which started about a week ago, ” said Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office, by phone.
“ It has been a surprise that equities have held up so well, in the face of a more hawkish Fed and rapidly rising bond yields, ” Chang said, adding that the more resilient equities end up being, the more emboldened the Fed likely will be to purse an more aggressive path to tighter financial conditions.
Chang also said he thinks there’ s not “ much additional upside ” in U.S. stocks at current multiples, but expects trade to remain volatile until there’ s more clarity from the next round of corporate earnings.
Other central banks also have geared up to tighten financial conditions. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday said monetary policy makers voted to raise a key interest rate
by half a percentage point to 6.5
%.
U.S. economic data showed first-time
jobless benefit claims fell
28,000 to 187,000 last week, the lowest since 1969. U.S.
durable-goods orders fell
2.2% in February, coming in below forecasts.
The S & P Global U.S. services flash purchasing managers index for March rose to 58.9 from 56.5 a month earlier, while the manufacturing flash PMI rose to 58.5 from 57.3. A reading of more than 50 indicates expanding activity.
In Europe, the MOEX Russia Index rose more than 4% after
Moscow Exchange resumed trading
after nearly a month with a shortened four-hour session in 33 out of 50 stocks listed on the benchmark. However, foreign shareholders are unable to sell shares, a restriction Russia imposed to counter Western sanctions against its financial system and the weakening ruble.
U.S. crude oil prices
CLK22,
-0.52%
finished 2.3% lower Thursday at $ 112.34 a barrel, after no new oil sanctions against Russia emerged from the gathering of world leaders. While the U.S. and the U.K. are boycotting Russian oil, other nations are still buying Russian commodities, notably Europe for its natural-gas needs.
Which companies were in focus?
Shares of
Uber
Technologies Inc.
UBER,
+4.96%
rose 5% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company has
struck a deal
to list all New York City taxis on its app.
KB Home
KBH,
-4.58%
shares fell 4.6% after
executives said
that issues with supplies and hiring enough workers harmed the company’ s ability to complete construction of homes early in 2022, and financial results missed expectations in a Wednesday report.
Olive Garden parent
Darden Restaurants Inc.
DRI,
+1.12%
rose 1.1% after the coronavirus omicron wave
drove an earnings miss
.
Other assets
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
2.367%
rose 2 basis points to 2.340%. Yields and debt prices move opposite each other.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
-0.06%
,
a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, rose 0.2%.
Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+0.05%
rose 4% to trade near $ 43,900.
Gold futures
GC00,
-0.16%
rose 1.3%, to settle at $ 1,962.20 an ounce.
The Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
-0.21%
fell 0.2%, while London’ s FTSE 100
UKX,
+0.09%
settled up 0.1%.
The Shanghai Composite
COMP,
+1.93%
fell 0.6%, while the Hang Seng Index
HSI,
-0.94%
lost 0.9% and Japan’ s Nikkei 225
NIK,
+0.25%
rose 0.3%.
—Steve Goldstein contributed additional reporting | business |
Spot the Difference: A Common Cold, or COVID-19? | Prior to the pandemic, if you got a runny nose and a sore throat, you would likely assume it was a common cold, swallow some painkillers, and resume your daily activities.
However, in recent years, this indifference has been replaced by a sinking feeling of dread as you fear that your sniffles are indicators of COVID-19.
How do you tell the difference between a common cold and the dreaded coronavirus? The most clearcut way to tell is by taking a test. In early December, researchers behind the ZOE Covid study warned that those with a sore throat, runny nose, and a headache – all symptoms of the common cold – are likely to be infected with the Omicron variant. Professor Tim Spector, who helped found the ZOE app, told the BBC that anyone with these symptoms should take a COVID-19 test.
Headaches are among the lesser well-known symptoms of COVID, but are one of the earliest signs. They are actually more common than the more classic symptoms of cough, fever, and loss of smell. What differentiates COVID headaches from standard cold ones is that the former tend to be moderately to severely painful, can be “ pulsing ”, “ pressing ”, or “ stabbing ”. They can occur across both sides of the head rather than in one specific area, and may last for longer than three days and tend to be resistant to regular painkillers such as paracetamol.
According to the ZOE study, a runny nose was the second most commonly reported symptom following headaches. Almost 60 percent of people who tested positive for COVID with loss of smell also reported having a runny nose. Prevalence of the disease is the most significant in determining if this is a sign of a common cold or COVID; when COVID rates are high, the chances of a runny nose being due to the virus are also high. When rates are low, a runny nose is more likely to be indicative of an allergy or a common cold than coronavirus. | tech |
Investors Settled More Cases Last Year, But Deal Values Sank | The number of investor class action settlements approved in 2021 reflects a 10-year high, but the median size and combined price tag of those deals were among the lowest seen in the past decade, according to a report released Thursday.Cornerstone Research said in its annual look back on securities suit settlements that `` there was no slowdown in settlement activity '' last year despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with 87 deals delivering a combined $ 1.8 billion in recoveries. `` Undeterred by the challenges of the pandemic, securities class action settlements occurred in larger numbers and were resolved more quickly than observed in prior... | general |
Eagles ' Remand Bid For COVID-19 Insurance Suit Sacked | A lack of unique legal questions and recent Third Circuit precedent setting the standard for jurisdiction selection in COVID-19 insurance suits means the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles won't have their dispute with Factory Mutual Insurance sent to state court, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Thursday.U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson rejected the Eagles ' argument that novel questions of state law related to COVID-19 business loss insurance coverage meant that the case should be remanded, with the judge adding that the Third Circuit's 2021 decision in DiAnoia's Eatery LLC v. Motorists Mutual Insurance Co. tells federal courts when to remand declaratory judgment matters... | general |
Russia’ s COVID-19 cases surge by almost 25,300 | Russia’ s COVID-19 case tally rose by 25,387 over the past day to 17,690,008, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday, Trend reports with reference to TASS.
In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.14%.
As many as 4,540 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 11.14% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 47 regions, while in 35 other regions the figure increased. A day earlier, 5,109 people were rushed to hospitals.
Moscow’ s COVID-19 cases surged by 1,163 over the past day versus 1,306 cases a day earlier, reaching 2,733,212, according to the anti-coronavirus crisis center. St. Petersburg’ s COVID-19 cases increased by 1,279 over the past day versus 1,431 a day earlier, reaching 1,492,804.
Russia’ s COVID-19 death toll surged by 418 over the past day to 366,220, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.
A day earlier 429 COVID-19 deaths were registered.
The average mortality rate remained at 2.07%, according to the crisis center.
Russia’ s COVID-19 recoveries rose by 66,476 over the past day, reaching 16,483,898, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.
The share of patients discharged from hospitals has risen to 93.2% of the total number of those infected.
A day earlier some 70,622 patients recovered. | general |
COVID vaccinations have ground to a halt in Ukraine, WHO warns, and Russia has carried out 64 attacks on healthcare systems and workers | Russia’ s unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine has brought COVID-19 vaccinations to a halt, the World Health Organization said Thursday, and has had a devastating effect on Ukraine’ s overall health system, severely limiting access to services and creating an urgent need to treat trauma injuries.
“ Prior to the invasion, at least 50,000 people were getting vaccinated against COVID-19 per day,
” the WHO said in a statement on the crisis.
“ Between 24 February and 15 March, however, only 175,000 people were vaccinated against COVID-19. ”
Almost 7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced since Russia started its attack, and almost 4 million have fled to neighboring countries.
“ That means that 1 in 4 Ukrainians are now forcibly displaced, aggravating the condition of those suffering from noncommunicable diseases, ” the agency warned.
Ukraine — and Russia, as well — had a low vaccination rates before Russia attacked. Russia had recorded the most deaths in Europe.
The WHO further condemned the 64 incidents it has verified of Russia attacking healthcare systems or workers as of March 22, causing 15 deaths and 37 injuries.
“ Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law, but a disturbingly common tactic of war — they destroy critical infrastructure, but worse, they destroy hope, ” said Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO representative in Ukraine. “ They deprive already vulnerable people of care that is often the difference between life and death. Health care is not — and should never be — a target. ”
In the U.S., COVID numbers are still falling nationally, although pockets of rising caseloads are emerging in certain areas as the more transmissible BA.2 version of the omicron variant is spreading fast. The WHO said Tuesday that BA.2 is driving rising cases in Europe and has become dominant around the globe.
The U.S. is currently averaging 30,259 new cases a day,
according to a New York Times tracker,
down 19% from two weeks ago, but slightly higher than the comparable figure on Wednesday.
The average daily number of hospitalizations stands at 20,463, down 39% from two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 919 a day, down 33% from two weeks ago, but still an undesirably high number.
In Arkansas, cases are up 31% from two weeks ago, while Rhode Island’ s cases are up 18% and Kentucky’ s are up 11%. In New York City, an early hotspot, cases have climbed 31% from two weeks ago.
Data released by the Census Bureau highlighted the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the U.S., finding that almost 75% of U.S. counties lost population in the last year, mostly due to the virus.
Kenneth M. Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire,
told the Washington Post
that almost 2,300 counties had more deaths than births over that one-year span and said it was “ unheard of in American history. ”
See now:
European countries lifted COVID restrictions ‘ too brutally,’ says WHO regional head, allowing BA.2 variant to spread
Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
• The chief executives of 10 airlines and cargo carriers told President Joe Biden
in a letter Wednesday
that it’ s time to
stop face-mask mandates
on planes, urging an end to pandemic travel precautions. “ Now is the time for the administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions — including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate — that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment, ” said the board of directors of the industry group Airlines for America, which includes the CEOs of United Airlines
UAL,
+0.94%
,
Delta Air Lines
DAL,
+1.74%
and American Airlines
AAL,
+1.73%
,
among others.
Read:
The stock market hit its COVID low two years ago. Here’ s how its performance stacks up since then.
• New York City’ s mayor was set to announce Thursday that he’ s exempting athletes and performers from the city’ s vaccine mandate for private workers, a move that will allow Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving to play home games and unvaccinated baseball players to take the field when their season begins,
the Associated Press reported.
Mayor Eric Adams was to make the announcement Thursday morning, and it will be effective immediately, according to a person familiar with the upcoming announcement who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine spurred the West to impose sanctions and the aviation industry is caught in the crossfire. As airlines face longer routes to avoid closed airspace and soaring fuel costs, WSJ’ s George Downs finds out how they plan to stay airborne. Illustration: George Downs
See now:
Pandemic relief money spent on luxury hotel, ballpark renovations and ski slopes
• Moderna
MRNA,
-7.66%
has now signed $ 21 billion in advance purchase agreements for 2022
for its COVID-19 vaccine.
That’ s up from $ 19 billion in signed agreements at the end of February. Moderna has not yet signed a new purchase agreement with the U.S.; in the news release, it confirmed that discussions for 2022 and 2023 agreements are going with several countries, “ including with the U.S. ”
• North Korea is at high risk of a runaway COVID outbreak that could allow for the emergence of new, more dangerous variants, according to a Washington Post
op-ed published Thursday.
The piece, written by three academics who sit on the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that North Korea has pursued a zero-COVID strategy for the past two years, which has cut off essential food and medical supplies and left most of the roughly 25 million population unvaccinated. “ An expert panel convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies
found
this month that this has made North Korea uniquely susceptible to a sudden outbreak of the covid-19 omicron variant that could kill more than 100,000 people, ” the authors wrote. “ That would obviously be terrible from a humanitarian perspective, but it could also worsen the pandemic by giving the coronavirus more chances to evolve and potentially even escape immunity provided by vaccines or previous infection. ”
Read also:
Moderna’ s stock, down 60% since the summer’ s delta wave, is rising again as COVID-19 cases increase
Here’ s what the numbers say
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 475.9 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.1 million,
according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University
.
The U.S. leads the world with 79.8 million cases and 974,834 fatalities.
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ s tracker
shows that 217.2 million people living in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, equal to 65.4% of the population. But just 96.8 million are boosted, equal to 44.6% of the vaccinated population. | business |
Semiconductor Q1 2022 Lead Time Report - Supply Chain 24/7 Paper | Currently, the global electronic components market is not in a great place. But its condition has improved significantly from the unprecedented disruptions that defined 2021.
Last month, Susquehanna Financial Group reported that average part lead times grew to 25.8 weeks in Q4 2021. The global chip shortage, unseasonably high demand, and clustered COVID-19 outbreaks in several manufacturing hubs are driving the delays. Plus, component companies are struggling to recruit enough skilled workers to staff their plants.
However, chipmakers worldwide are beginning to bring new production capacity online. Thanks to industry 4.0 innovations, many of those factories will boast a high level of autonomous functionality. As a result, the heads of AMD and Nvidia expect the supply chain bottleneck to finally ease up soon.
Sourcengine’ s market intelligence indicates that the semiconductor sector will move closer to normalcy in the next two months. Our forecast asserts microelectronic lead times and pricing stability will be up 25.59 percent quarter-over-quarter. Those developments suggest that the cost and fulfillment volatility that has affected the field since late 2020 is reaching an inflection point.
To start, most leading providers need at least 20 weeks to deliver volatile memory chips to buyers. On balance, older product types like SRAM, SDRAM, and DDRI/DDRII are more readily available than newer technologies like DDRII and DDR4. Supplies and more recently developed components are running low among multiple suppliers and are trending upward in price. That said, almost all Cypress Semiconductor SRAM products are on allocation.
However, as opposed to Q4 2021, volatile memory product pricing and availability will remain stable in the first quarter.
Unfortunately, Sourcengine projects EEPROM, flash-NAND, and flash-NOR will become more expensive and harder to find in the next few months.
Our information also indicates general discrete parts will experience an across-the-board jump in lead times and cost. Most power components are also set to rise in price and delivery dates in Q1. Visible LEDs will vary by brand. Cree, Everlight Electronics, and Samsung items will be stable, but Osram and Vishay Intertechnology products will go through more delays and upward volatility.
By contrast, optocoupler pricing and lead times look to stay consistent throughout the quarter.
Logic and linear chips will be less accessible as the winter goes on, with multiple packages and families already allocated. Conversely, Toshiba’ s linear devices should remain cost stable with 10 to 14 weekly times over the same period. | general |
Interview: Intense press coverage prompts new expeditions to Dyatlov Pass | The Dyatlov Pass Incident is a mystery that still reverberates through the scientific community and divides public opinion. In January 1959, a ten-member group consisting mostly of students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, led by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov, set off on a 14-day expedition to the Gora Otorten mountain in western Siberia amid extremely challenging weather conditions. The expedition met a tragic end: nine members of the group were found dead several days later, many with fractured bones and other severe wounds. The incident spawned a number of far-fetched theories, from murderous Yeti and foul-play by the KGB to secret military experiments. These theories were further fueled by the Soviet authorities who, after the briefest of investigations, attributed the deaths to a `` compelling natural force. '' Of the ten hikers, only Yuri Yudin, who turned back after falling sick on the second day of the expedition, survived. The incident resurfaced 60 years later when a journalist from New York called Gaume on his cell phone in Lausanne. The reporter asked Gaume, who heads EPFL's Snow and Avalanche Simulation Laboratory ( SLAB) at School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering ( ENAC) and fhe WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, to help him uncover what really happened to the members of the fateful expedition. Gaume then contacted Alexander Puzrin, Professor and Head of the Institute for Geotechnical Engineering at the ETH Zurich, to assist him with his research. In January 2021, the pair published their findings in Communications Earth & Environment. Their theoretical model indicated that a rare type of small slab avalanche could have injured the hikers and led indirectly to their deaths. But this rational explanation, which contradicted the Dyatlov community's folklore, came under fire. Doubts over the validity of their work triggered a rollercoaster of support and criticism before the theory was finally accepted by the Russian scientific community, after the local authorities reopened the investigation in 2019. This recognition meant a great deal to the researchers—not because they had shed light on a tragic series of events that will never be fully understood, but because it demonstrated the power of science to accurately and reliably explain and predict natural phenomena. Their research, and the responses to it, are explored in a follow-up paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. In the article, the scientists delve into the human side of their work and the incredible impact it generated, while confirming some of the assumptions behind their model. In this interview, Puzrin and Gaume reflect on the intense press coverage and how it has changed their lives. After you published your first paper, you fielded calls daily from journalists from publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic and Wired. How did it feel being in such high demand? Puzrin: At first, it was kind of exhilarating to know that our paper was getting so much attention. It was also a rewarding experience. But as time went on, I found it harder to deal with the constant barrage of calls. It was in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown, so I was at home with my wife and four-year-old son. My phone never stopped ringing. In the end, it became too much. Gaume: I had a similar experience. The constant calls became so much that we had to put our foot down. We 'd have journalists calling us in the middle of the night because of time-zone differences. And oftentimes, they 'd ask us to respond to criticisms of our theory. There's only so much pushback you can take. Who was criticizing your theory and for what reasons? Puzrin: After the extensive coverage of our first paper, the story was naturally picked up by the Russian media. Some tabloid newspapers challenged our assumptions and other parts of our work. For instance, they claimed there wasn't enough snowfall in the area at the time, or that the wind wasn't strong enough to pick up and carry such a large volume of snow. In short, our model—including the most substantive elements—was being picked apart. Gaume: The critics took aim at two key aspects of our theory, arguing that the slope wasn't steep enough and the conditions weren't right for an avalanche to be triggered. People living in the area swore that they 'd never seen an avalanche on the Dyatlov Pass. Most of the criticism came from relatives and conspiracy theorists. We felt as though many people were rejecting our scientific approach because they wanted to maintain a shroud of mystery around the tragic fate that befell the hikers. Why do you think that was the case? Gaume: For relatives, the avalanche theory is hard to stomach because it suggests that these seasoned hikers were somehow to blame for their own deaths. As a cross-country skier and winter sports enthusiast myself, this is an issue I 'm particularly sensitive to. I 've always been careful to explain that experienced skiers aren't immune to the threat of avalanches, precisely because they're able—and sometimes willing—to push themselves to their limits. A beginner skiing down a marked-out piste at a ski resort has almost no chance of causing an avalanche. But a seasoned off-piste skier, for all their skill and experience, is vulnerable to the threat of avalanches. In the Dyatlov case, the group had to assess the likelihood of an avalanche based on the information they had at the time and from the snow surface. When they pitched their tent, the possibility of an avalanche was impossible to discern. It's also important to remember that the Soviet authorities didn't put forward a plausible explanation at the time. They opened an investigation shortly after the tragedy, only to close it again very quickly, concluding that a `` compelling natural force '' had caused the deaths of the hikers. That created space for conspiracy theories to emerge. And I guess some people were unhappy that the most scientifically credible explanation was advanced by a group of foreign researchers. You helped organize three subsequent expeditions to the Dyatlov Pass. What were your objectives, and what did you find? Gaume: The first two expeditions were carried out for a documentary being filmed by Matteo Born. One of them was in the summer of 2021, where we used drones to measure the angle of the slope in the area above where the group had pitched their tent. We found that this angle is greater than 30 degrees, meaning that an avalanche release was possible. Another expedition took place that winter and revealed traces of a possible avalanche at a nearby slope. However, we were not entirely sure about the type of instability since we had only far-field video footage. Puzrin: Therefore, we decided to carry out a third expedition in January 2022 to investigate the slope further. Our goals here were to run another drone survey, generate snow profiles, perform stability tests, and conduct other research, but the weather conditions were so difficult—in fact, similar to those experienced by the Dyatlov group on the last day—that we weren't able to run any tests. However, the two expedition leaders, Oleg Demyanenko and Dmitriy Borisov, achieved something much more valuable than any test result: they filmed evidence of two recent snow-slab avalanches. This finally confirmed that avalanches do indeed occur on the Dyatlov Pass. As scientists, how did you find treading the line between reason and folklore? Puzrin: At no point did we set out to provide absolute closure on this case. Our main aim was to develop models to describe, explain and predict natural phenomena. It's a painstaking process that involves a huge amount of trial and error before you develop a model that works. I 've devoted the last 30-plus years of my life to this cause. Our research into the Dyatlov Pass Incident was no different: it was a series of intense highs followed by deep lows. One moment we thought we 'd developed a robust theory, only to be plagued by doubt again soon after. The fact that the Russian scientific community accepted our findings—and that our hypotheses were confirmed by recent field expeditions—means a great deal to me. Not because we can confirm the exact series of events that led to this tragedy over 60 years ago; we 'll never be absolutely certain what happened to the members of that group. But because it reaffirms my faith in science. For me personally, this whole experience has been about standing up for the scientific method as a valuable, reliable way of explaining natural phenomena. Explore further Using science to explore a 60-year-old Russian mystery, the Dyatlov Pass incident More information: Alexander Puzrin et al, Post-publication careers: follow-up expeditions reveal avalanches at Dyatlov Pass, Communications Earth & Environment ( 2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00393-x. www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00393-x Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment
The incident resurfaced 60 years later when a journalist from New York called Gaume on his cell phone in Lausanne. The reporter asked Gaume, who heads EPFL's Snow and Avalanche Simulation Laboratory ( SLAB) at School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering ( ENAC) and fhe WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, to help him uncover what really happened to the members of the fateful expedition. Gaume then contacted Alexander Puzrin, Professor and Head of the Institute for Geotechnical Engineering at the ETH Zurich, to assist him with his research. In January 2021, the pair published their findings in Communications Earth & Environment.
Their theoretical model indicated that a rare type of small slab avalanche could have injured the hikers and led indirectly to their deaths. But this rational explanation, which contradicted the Dyatlov community's folklore, came under fire. Doubts over the validity of their work triggered a rollercoaster of support and criticism before the theory was finally accepted by the Russian scientific community, after the local authorities reopened the investigation in 2019. This recognition meant a great deal to the researchers—not because they had shed light on a tragic series of events that will never be fully understood, but because it demonstrated the power of science to accurately and reliably explain and predict natural phenomena.
Their research, and the responses to it, are explored in a follow-up paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. In the article, the scientists delve into the human side of their work and the incredible impact it generated, while confirming some of the assumptions behind their model. In this interview, Puzrin and Gaume reflect on the intense press coverage and how it has changed their lives.
After you published your first paper, you fielded calls daily from journalists from publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic and Wired. How did it feel being in such high demand?
Puzrin: At first, it was kind of exhilarating to know that our paper was getting so much attention. It was also a rewarding experience. But as time went on, I found it harder to deal with the constant barrage of calls. It was in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown, so I was at home with my wife and four-year-old son. My phone never stopped ringing. In the end, it became too much.
Gaume: I had a similar experience. The constant calls became so much that we had to put our foot down. We 'd have journalists calling us in the middle of the night because of time-zone differences. And oftentimes, they 'd ask us to respond to criticisms of our theory. There's only so much pushback you can take.
Who was criticizing your theory and for what reasons?
Puzrin: After the extensive coverage of our first paper, the story was naturally picked up by the Russian media. Some tabloid newspapers challenged our assumptions and other parts of our work. For instance, they claimed there wasn't enough snowfall in the area at the time, or that the wind wasn't strong enough to pick up and carry such a large volume of snow. In short, our model—including the most substantive elements—was being picked apart.
Gaume: The critics took aim at two key aspects of our theory, arguing that the slope wasn't steep enough and the conditions weren't right for an avalanche to be triggered. People living in the area swore that they 'd never seen an avalanche on the Dyatlov Pass. Most of the criticism came from relatives and conspiracy theorists. We felt as though many people were rejecting our scientific approach because they wanted to maintain a shroud of mystery around the tragic fate that befell the hikers.
Why do you think that was the case?
Gaume: For relatives, the avalanche theory is hard to stomach because it suggests that these seasoned hikers were somehow to blame for their own deaths. As a cross-country skier and winter sports enthusiast myself, this is an issue I 'm particularly sensitive to. I 've always been careful to explain that experienced skiers aren't immune to the threat of avalanches, precisely because they're able—and sometimes willing—to push themselves to their limits. A beginner skiing down a marked-out piste at a ski resort has almost no chance of causing an avalanche. But a seasoned off-piste skier, for all their skill and experience, is vulnerable to the threat of avalanches. In the Dyatlov case, the group had to assess the likelihood of an avalanche based on the information they had at the time and from the snow surface. When they pitched their tent, the possibility of an avalanche was impossible to discern. It's also important to remember that the Soviet authorities didn't put forward a plausible explanation at the time. They opened an investigation shortly after the tragedy, only to close it again very quickly, concluding that a `` compelling natural force '' had caused the deaths of the hikers. That created space for conspiracy theories to emerge. And I guess some people were unhappy that the most scientifically credible explanation was advanced by a group of foreign researchers.
You helped organize three subsequent expeditions to the Dyatlov Pass. What were your objectives, and what did you find?
Gaume: The first two expeditions were carried out for a documentary being filmed by Matteo Born. One of them was in the summer of 2021, where we used drones to measure the angle of the slope in the area above where the group had pitched their tent. We found that this angle is greater than 30 degrees, meaning that an avalanche release was possible. Another expedition took place that winter and revealed traces of a possible avalanche at a nearby slope. However, we were not entirely sure about the type of instability since we had only far-field video footage.
Puzrin: Therefore, we decided to carry out a third expedition in January 2022 to investigate the slope further. Our goals here were to run another drone survey, generate snow profiles, perform stability tests, and conduct other research, but the weather conditions were so difficult—in fact, similar to those experienced by the Dyatlov group on the last day—that we weren't able to run any tests. However, the two expedition leaders, Oleg Demyanenko and Dmitriy Borisov, achieved something much more valuable than any test result: they filmed evidence of two recent snow-slab avalanches. This finally confirmed that avalanches do indeed occur on the Dyatlov Pass.
As scientists, how did you find treading the line between reason and folklore?
Puzrin: At no point did we set out to provide absolute closure on this case. Our main aim was to develop models to describe, explain and predict natural phenomena. It's a painstaking process that involves a huge amount of trial and error before you develop a model that works. I 've devoted the last 30-plus years of my life to this cause. Our research into the Dyatlov Pass Incident was no different: it was a series of intense highs followed by deep lows. One moment we thought we 'd developed a robust theory, only to be plagued by doubt again soon after. The fact that the Russian scientific community accepted our findings—and that our hypotheses were confirmed by recent field expeditions—means a great deal to me. Not because we can confirm the exact series of events that led to this tragedy over 60 years ago; we 'll never be absolutely certain what happened to the members of that group. But because it reaffirms my faith in science. For me personally, this whole experience has been about standing up for the scientific method as a valuable, reliable way of explaining natural phenomena. Explore further Using science to explore a 60-year-old Russian mystery, the Dyatlov Pass incident More information: Alexander Puzrin et al, Post-publication careers: follow-up expeditions reveal avalanches at Dyatlov Pass, Communications Earth & Environment ( 2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00393-x. www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00393-x Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment
Explore further | tech |
IRS Investigators Exposed $ 1.8B Pandemic Fraud, Office Says | Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service said they 've found $ 1.8 billion worth of fraudulent loans, credits, payments and other schemes across 660 cases involving money meant for workers, families and small businesses to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.Tax and money laundering cases related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act covered many types of criminal behavior, including wire fraud, the IRS Criminal Division said Wednesday in a news release. Then-President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law nearly two years ago, sending $ 1,200 checks to individuals and $ 349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses through... | general |
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An unfortunate combination of factors have meant that China has lagged other equities this year, with the MSCI China index hitting a six year low in mid-March. While it has rallied somewhat since then, it was down 15.7% from the start of the year by 18 March.
Headwinds facing China include, companies being at risk of being delisted in the US, Covid numbers on the rise, geopolitical concerns around Ukraine and ongoing challenges with the property developer Evergrande.
However, there has also been news out of Beijing with the government saying it would introduce `` policies that are favourable to the market ''. This has led Credit Suisse and Citigroup to announce they are looking to purchase more Chinese stocks.
To discuss these competing factors and the investment case for and against China more generally we are speaking to Jian Shi Cortesi, investment director at GAM Investment and David Rees, Schroders Senior Emerging Markets Economist.
BNY Mellon Fund Services fined €10.8m by Central Bank of Ireland
© Incisive Business Media ( IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR.Registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013 | business |
U.S. business investment falls for the first time in a year. A slowing economy? | The numbers:
Orders at U.S. factories for long-lasting goods sank 2.2% in February and business investment fell for the first time in a year, suggesting high inflation and ongoing supply shortages were restraining an otherwise strong economic recovery.
Orders for U.S durable goods — products meant to last at least three years — shrank for the first time in five months,
the government said Thursday
.
Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast 1% decline.
The drop off was concentrated in passenger planes and autos, two volatile categories that can swing sharply from one month to the next.
Yet bookings were soft in every major category except for computers.
A more accurate measure of demand, known as core orders, slipped 0.3% in the month. The core number strips out transportation and military hardware. It was first decline in 12 months.
Big picture:
Businesses still have plenty of demand for big-ticket items despite high inflation and disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Orders for durable goods have climbed 10% over the past year.
Headwinds are growing, however.
The conflict in Ukraine could tax already strained global supply chains, as could a fresh coronavirus outbreak in China. At home, the Federal Reserve is moving to raise interest rates to try to bring down high inflation. That will raise the cost of investment.
Economists predict U.S. growth will slow this year, but keep expanding at a steady pace.
Key details
: Bookings for new commercial airplanes tumbled 30% in February and accounted for most of the decline in the headline number. Boeing
BA,
+1.62%
reported half as many orders last month as the large jetmaker did in January.
Orders for expensive airplanes tend to be lumpy from month to month, however, and are not the best gauge of how Americans manufacturers are doing.
Automobile makers also reported a 0.5% decrease in new orders.
Americans still crave new cars even as gas prices and interest rates rise, but General Motors
GM,
+1.30%
,
Ford
F,
+0.90%
and others can’ t produce enough vehicles because of a lingering shortage of computer chips.
New orders were also soft outside transportation. Bookings fell for industrial metals, metal parts, electronics and networking gear.
The only category to post sizable increases were computers and defense.
The decline in so-called core orders, a measure of business investment, was the first since February 2021. These orders are viewed by investors as a signal of future business prospects.
Business investment has increased a robust 11% in the past year, however, and there’ s little evidence that companies are sharply cutting back.
Looking ahead:
“ Businesses may be more vigilant as recent events exacerbate logistics constraints and add upward pressure to prices, but they’ re unlikely to pull back significantly on investment, ” said lead U.S. economist Oren Klatckin of Oxford Economics.
“ Looking past the month-to-month noise, we continue to see steady, solid growth, ” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities.
Market reaction:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.02%
and S & P 500
SPX,
+1.43%
rose modestly in Thursday trades. | business |
New York City lifts vaccine rule that blocked athletes from playing home games | NEW YORK — New York City’ s mayor exempted athletes and performers — including Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving — from the city’ s vaccine mandate Thursday, while keeping the rule in place for private and public workers who risk losing their jobs for refusing to get inoculated.
Several public employees unions whose members were fired for refusing the shots blasted Mayor Eric Adams for apparently lifting the rule only for wealthy and famous athletes. Adams dismissed the criticism, saying exemptions for athletes and performers were important to the city’ s economic recovery.
The exemption is effective immediately. One of the first beneficiaries will be
Irving, a vaccine holdout who was allowed to rejoin the Nets in January
but only when they played out of town games. The Nets need him as they push for a playoff spot with nine games left in their regular season.
Adams’ predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, made vaccination mandatory as a workplace safety rule last year before he left office but created a loophole exempting players and performers who aren’ t based in New York City. Adams said he felt that was unfair.
“ Players attract people to the stadium, ” Adams remarked as he announced the change during a news conference at Citi Field, where the Mets play. Accompanying him were Mets President Sandy Alderson and Yankees president Randy Levine, both of whom praised the decision.
“ By putting our home teams on ( an) equal playing field, we increase their chances of winning and that has a real impact on our city, ” he said.
Public employees unions weren’ t buying that.
“ There can’ t be one system for the elite and another for the essential workers of our city, ” said Harry Nespoli, chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group of unions that together represent about 350,000 city workers.
The city’ s largest police union echoed that argument, saying its officers “ don’ t deserve to be treated like second-class citizens. ”
“ If the mandate isn’ t necessary for famous people, then it’ s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis, ” said union president Pat Lynch.
The city last month fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate. Adams said Thursday that he had no plans at this time to rehire those workers.
“ This exemption sends the wrong message that higher-paid workers and celebrities are being valued as more important than our devoted civil servants, which I reject, ” said City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is not related to the mayor.
Jay Varma, a health adviser to de Blasio, said in a tweet that the former mayor’ s mandate had legal standing because it applied to everyone.
“ # VaccinesWork … unless you’ re rich and powerful, in which case, # LobbyingWorks, ” Varma said. He added: “ The # KyrieCarveOut opens City up to entire scheme being voided by courts as “ ‘ arbitrary and capricious.’ ”
Adams said he would not have made the change if city attorneys had advised him it wouldn’ t stand up to a legal challenge.
The NBA and the players union issued a joint statement praising Adams’ decision.
“ We applaud the mayor for listening to the concerns of our New York teams, players, fans and communities and for leveling the playing field for home teams and their opponents, ” the statement said.
Concerns had been raised that De Blasio’ s vaccination rule would also impact Major League Baseball.
Alderson and Levine have declined to specify how many of their players were unvaccinated. Alderson said Thursday that it was “ a minority ” and Levine said “ very few. ”
Yankees star Aaron Judge
refused to directly answer a question about his vaccine status
earlier this month, leading to speculation that another New York team would be hobbled by a player’ s refusal to get inoculated.
When asked Wednesday about reports that the vaccine mandate for athletes was about to be lifted, Judge said he was “ happy Kyrie can play some home games. ”
The Yankees open their season at home against the Boston Red Sox on April 7.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen gave $ 1.5 million to a political action committee supporting Adams during his 2021 campaign. Adams is a Mets fan.
Adams has been rolling back other coronavirus restrictions, including on Tuesday when he said
masks could become optional
for children under 5 starting April 4.
Mask mandates for older children have already been removed, as have rules
requiring people to show proof of vaccination
to dine in a restaurant, work out at a gym, attend a show, or go to an indoor sporting event. | business |
What Does Russia's War Mean for Supply Chain Globalization? | Those alarmed by the confluence of supply chain-crushing global events — a lingering pandemic and what’ s turning into an all-out economic war with Russia — would do well to remember that the Great Fire of London occurred during an outbreak of plague. People don’ t get a break on other disasters just because they’ re in the middle of a crisis, and that includes those managing international supply chains.
“ If there’ s any supply chain expert out there who says they know what’ s going on, they’ re lying, ” says Rich Kilgore, an instructor of management and business administration at Maryville College in eastern Tennessee. “ This hasn’ t happened before. ”
Kilgore says the just-in-time philosophy that gained so much traction over the last 25 years made a single supplier the preferred solution for most companies. “ Then COVID changed everybody’ s opinion, and now they want multiple suppliers, ” he says. The irony is that this realization would potentially have opened doors for suppliers in many of the companies now threatened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine — not just in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which are under sanctions, but other countries nearby, such as Poland and even east Germany. “ Now, that door is going to shut tight, ” Kilgore says.
Much of the pinch will be felt in the manufacturing sector, says Simon Geale, executive vice president and chief procurement officer at supply chain consulting firm Proxima. “ People talk about the crops coming out of Ukraine. That grabs the headlines. But it’ s things like the neon and metals that are going to have an enormous effect on the production of semiconductors and automobiles. I think it’ s really going to take the wind out of the sails of the return to predictability everyone was talking about. ”
Among the ructions caused by war comes a fresh reminder of the risks of globalization.
The pandemic drove many businesses to explore near-shoring their operations, but “ most didn’ t actually figure it out, ” Geale says. This time, it’ s different.
“ The war on top of the pandemic is really going to decelerate globalization, ” he says. “ Geopolitical risk used to be something that was just on a list of risks. But now, if you’ re in Europe at least, it’ s suddenly on your doorstep and potentially involving a huge proportion of the world’ s population, manufacturing and shipping routes. ”
A shift in sourcing strategies is evident in the global construction industry, where equipment and supplies can account for 80% of project spend, says Patrick Ryan, executive vice president for Americas at consulting firm Linesight.
“ What we see now is clients are prepared to commit to contracts earlier, to commit to warehousing costs, to pay the premiums for prefabrication and storage of items — everything from furniture, to prefabricated steel components, to walls, ” Ryan says. “ It's a necessity. And that all stems from risk mitigation strategies. ”
For automakers, the outlook is more grim. Those facing disruptions in Europe could seek suppliers in China, for instance, but they may risk political backlash.
“ The war is so fresh, and we haven’ t had a situation like this ever, so we just don’ t know the extent of the economic ramifications, ” Kilgore says.
Geale believes things are going to change permanently. “ I think the war has taken us over the tipping point. I think it will accelerate regionalization of trade, and cause people to really look at who their partners are, ” he says. “ When you look at the products of tomorrow, with all the chips and technology and rare gasses involved, the question becomes: Who do you want to depend on? Who can you depend on? ”
Among others, Geale notes a predominance of the terms “ resilience ” and “ agility ” over “ lean ” and “ just-in-time ” in today’ s discussions on supply chain best practices. In reality, many businesses have paid lip service to risk management, but pursued low sourcing costs at the expense of everything else — exposing themselves to risks they are only now truly beginning to understand.
Geale adds: “ The greatest thing that has happened to the resilience movement is the failure of the risk management movement. ” | general |
Senators ' Absences Delay Vote On FCC Nominee Sohn | President Joe Biden's contentious pick for the Federal Communications Commission could be in for an even longer wait for Senate confirmation as Democrats struggle to put together a sufficient voting bloc to push the nomination through.Though the situation remains fluid, two Democrats have been absent from the Senate as they deal with COVID-19 diagnoses, and it's still unclear how close the leadership has gotten to 50 votes plus a possible tie-breaker from Vice President Kamala Harris to clear Gigi Sohn, whose confirmation would fill out a Democratic majority on the FCC.That means Democrats, at least this week, had to... | general |
Firms Urged To Prioritize Attys, Rule Of Law Over Profits | The legal industry is not doing as much as it can to change in areas such as inclusion, accessibility and ensuring that the rule of law is prioritized over profit, according to a paper released Thursday by a U.K.-based legal services provider.While law firms in recent years have loosened their requirements that attorneys constantly be in the office amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they have not gone far beyond that to enact meaningful, long-lasting change to create a better work culture for the next generation of attorneys, according to the paper by Obelisk Support. Obelisk provides contract attorneys and paralegals and freelance... | general |
Oil prices end more than 2% lower as war-driven volatility continues | Oil futures ended with a loss of more than 2% on Thursday, a day after settling at their highest price in more than two weeks, with the U.S. announcing fresh sanctions on Russia, as world leaders gathered to discuss actions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Price action
West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery
CL.1,
-2.30%
CL00,
-2.30%
CLK22,
-2.30%
fell $ 2.59, or nearly 2.3%, to settle at $ 112.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
May Brent crude
BRNK22,
-2.12%
,
the global benchmark, lost $ 2.57, or 2.1%, to close at $ 119.03 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Brent and WTI both gained more than 5% to settle Wednesday at their highest since March 8.
April gasoline
RBJ22,
-1.80%
declined by 1.4% to $ 3.39 a gallon, while April heating oil
HOJ22,
-1.49%
tacked on 0.9% to $ 4.153 a gallon.
April natural gas
NGJ22,
-0.24%
settled at $ 5.401 per million British thermal units, up 3.2%.
Market drivers
President Joe Biden on Thursday met with European allies and other world leaders in Brussels in response to Russia’ s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Crude prices declined amid expectations that NATO won’ t sanction Russian energy soon, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
“ NATO members are not throwin’ away a shot at ratcheting the pressure against Russia right now, ” said Moya, in a market update. However, “ they will take time before they have to resort to an oil embargo on Russia. ”
The Biden administration announced the
rollout of more sanctions against Russia,
including measures against 48 large Russian state-owned enterprises that are part of that country’ s defense-industrial base and produce weapons that have been used in the invasion.
Read:
What traders think of U.S.-led efforts to block gold transactions by Russia’ s central bank
The U.S. has already banned imports of Russian crude, and the U.K. said it would phase out the import of Russia oil by the end of the year. Europe, meanwhile, has remained divided.
Worries over the loss of Russian supply have contributed to market volatility, with crude jumping earlier this month to nearly 14-year highs before dropping sharply back below $ 100 a barrel and then bouncing higher.
Related:
Commodity trading houses face strains, but are they ‘ too big to fail’?
“ Many members of the European Union…have continued to show reluctance in targeting much needed Russian energy supplies with more sanctions, ” Brian Steinkamp, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric, said in a daily note. Still, “ major refiners in Japan have vowed this week to join others world-wide in phasing out oil deals with Russia. ”
Analysts said talk of progress around restoring the Iran nuclear deal, which would allow the country to resume crude exports, may have put some pressure on oil early Thursday.
Read:
Why OPEC+ is likely to stick to its oil output plan when it meets next week
Meanwhile, China continues to deal with the worst COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began, with lockdown once again put into effect and “ directly impacting industrial demand for petroleum products, ” said Steinkamp.
Supply data
The Energy Information Administration on Thursday reported that
domestic natural-gas supplies fell
by 51 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 18. That compared with the average weekly decline of 62 billion cubic feet forecast by analysts surveyed by S & P Global Commodity Insights.
On Wednesday, the EIA reported that
domestic crude inventories fell
by 2.5 million barrels for the week ended March 18. Gasoline and distillate stockpiles also declined. | business |
'Hamilton ' Production Co. Loses Bid For COVID Coverage | The Broadway production and investment company behind New York shows including `` Hamilton '' and `` Wicked '' failed to persuade a federal district judge that a Chubb unit should cover the company's COVID-19 losses.U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe on Wednesday adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation to dismiss a suit filed by The John Gore Organization Inc. that accused Federal Insurance Co. of breaching its contract by denying the theater company's claims for COVID19-related closures under its business interruption insurance policy.The production company behind `` Hamilton '' and other Broadway hits lost its bid to recover insurance payouts for its losses tied to the... | general |
Coronavirus tally: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought COVID vaccinations to a halt, WHO warns | Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine has brought COVID-19 vaccination to a halt, the World Health Organization said Thursday, raising concerns that the illness will continue to spread. `` Prior to the invasion, at least 50 000 people were getting vaccinated against COVID-19 per day, '' the WHO said in a statement on the crisis. `` Between 24 February and 15 March, however, only 175 000 people were vaccinated against COVID-19. '' Almost 7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and almost 4 million have fled to neighboring countries. `` That means that 1 in 4 Ukrainians are now forcibly displaced, aggravating the condition of those suffering from noncommunicable diseases, '' the agency warned. Ukraine, and Russia, had low vaccination rates before the start of Russia's attack, and Russia had the most deaths in Europe. The U.S. COVID numbers continue to decline and the nation is now averaging 30,259 new cases a day,
according to a New York Times tracker,
down 19% from two weeks ago, but slightly higher than Wednesday's count. The average daily number of hospitalizations stands at 20,463, down 39% from two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 919 a day, down 33% from two weeks ago, but still an undesirably high number. Globally, there have been 475.8 million confirmed cases,
according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University,
and 6.1 million deaths. The U.S. leads the world with 79.8 million cases and 974,830 fatalities. | business |
Seven managers added to FE fundinfo ‘ hall of fame’ | You are currently accessing Investment Week via your Enterprise account.
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The new members are: William Pattisson from Ardevora Asset Management, Sebastian Lyon from Troy Asset Management, Clive Hexton from Rathbone, William Lock from Morgan Stanley, Tom Holl from BlackRock, Yu Zhang from Matthews Asia and Jeremy Wharton from Church House Investment.
Jupiter had the most managers in the hall of fame out of any group, with six. Fidelity had four, while several others, including Baillie Gifford, which has the most in the alpha manager list, had two.
The ‘ alpha manager ' list recognises the top 10% of UK retail-facing managers based on their track records since 2000, with extra weighting for those with longer track records.
The hall of fame has 51 managers overall following the new additions. FE fundinfo noted that ten fund mangers have been in the list, without interruption, since their first appearance.
The consistent performers are: Martin Lau from First Sentier Investors, Harry Nimmo from abrdn, Mark Slater from Slater Investments, Richard Woolnough from M & G, Giles Hargreave from Marlborough Fund Managers, Leigh Himsworth from Fidelity, John Chatfeild-Roberts and Daniel Nickols from Jupiter, David Dudding from Threadneedle Management and Richard Pease from Crux Asset Management.
FE noted that this will be the last time that Giles Hargreave appears on this list, following his recent retirement.
Charles Younes, Research Manager at FE Investments, said: `` Given that out of the last seven years two have been marked by extreme volatility in the wake of the Covid pandemic and subsequent rises in inflation and interest rates, the 51 managers on the Hall of Fame have performed outstandingly well to navigate these challenges and market rotations.
`` Navigating these changing markets and wider economic events has been a constant feature of the alpha managers and for the most experienced managers, they have been able to do this successfully for years, if not decades. ''
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© Incisive Business Media ( IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR.Registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013 | business |
Opinion: What would it take for U.S. oil companies to ramp up production? A lot. | Even with oil prices above $ 100 a barrel and gas prices averaging over $ 4 a gallon at the pump, frackers show little interest in ramping up output.
Companies including Devon Energy
DVN,
-0.21%
,
EOG Resources
EOG,
-2.06%
,
Occidental Petroleum
OXY,
-3.49%
and Diamondback Energy
FANG,
+0.39%
have resisted increasing production. Instead, they are rewarding shareholders with juicy dividends and buybacks.
That’ s despite some
calls
to increase output to help lower gasoline prices.
So what would it take for U.S. shale companies to increase output? Turns out, there are several factors at play.
For starters, the industry faces a dilemma, says Rob Thummel, portfolio manager and senior managing director at Tortoise, a firm that manages about $ 8 billion in energy-related assets. U.S. producers are waiting for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC) to return to full production. He suggests that may happen this year.
Yet OPEC appears to be waiting to see how the U.S. and Iran hash out the removal of sanctions. If sanctions are lifted, Iranian oil may flood the market, and OPEC may be less interested in returning to full output, Thummel says.
“ There’ s this dance being played between OPEC and the U.S. producers, and that’ s what I think is holding back U.S. producers, ” he says.
Read:
SEC’ s landmark climate-change ruling could demand companies account for pollution they don’ t directly create
Pleasing investors
They also may need to test how receptive investors are to higher output levels after spending the past few years convincing buyers that the firms aren’ t back to their free-spending ways. Energy was the worst-performing S & P 500 sector in the past decade as the focus was not on stock performance but on production growth. During that time shale production grew substantially and the U.S.’ s position as a global crude-oil and natural-gas producer grew significantly.
Kari Montanus, senior portfolio manager for the $ 2.8 billion Columbia Select Mid Cap Value Fund
CMUAX,
+1.56%
,
whose No. 2 holding is Devon Energy, says the history of U.S. oil producers is boom-and-bust, especially the exploration and production companies.
“ Even when oil was at a reasonable level, these companies spent away their free cash flow, and always were issuing stock, generating net-negative free cash flow. The stocks never were sustainable outperformers, ” Montanus says, adding that major oil producers such as Exxon Mobil
XOM,
+0.30%
and Chevron
CVX,
+0.27%
could fit in that category.
Read:
The S & P’ s energy sector surged more than 50% last year – so how were green funds able to keep up with the stock market?
The mindset of hyper growth at the expense of capital discipline began shifting ahead of the pandemic. However, the onset of Covid-19 caused significant declines in oil prices, and producers reduced drilling activity, which also led to staff reductions and many of those individuals found work in other sectors. That’ s also contributed to the muted oil-output response.
“ Oil and gas drilling still requires a lot of manual processes. There’ s technology associated with it, but it still requires people and there’ s just not as many people going forward. So that’ s kind of how we got here, ” Thummel says.
Production is rising
Despite public companies capping output, crude-oil production is up, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’ s Energy Information Administration. Most recent data show the U.S.
pumped
about 11.6 million barrels per day ( bpd) of the sticky stuff, up 4.4% versus a year ago. Just before the pandemic, the U.S. was close to producing 13.3 million bpd. Almost all of that increase comes from private companies in the Permian Basin, Thummel says. Additionally, oil majors Exxon and Chevron said they plan to increase production in the region.
Read:
Biden to resume federal oil and gas development under stricter rules as ‘ social cost of carbon’ is battled in court
He expects to see an additional 500,000 barrels daily this year on top of that total, but the U.S. won’ t reach pre-Covid levels until 2023. Thummel also notes it can take about six months for companies to significantly boost production.
Part of the hesitation by public companies to boost production is the murky outlook for oil production in both the short and long term, Montanus and Thummel say. Deferred energy futures prices suggest more oil will spill on the market, as longer-dated prices are lower than nearby prices.
These producers may also be trying to figure out where they fit in the future. There’ s a push for energy independence and energy security from oil-producing nations, but energy independence also looks a lot like renewable energy, which is growing. The rise of environmental, social and governance ( ESG) investing means some people refuse to buy fossil fuels companies, Montanus adds.
Read:
Here are the oil and gas companies whose methane emissions intensity is 6 times the national average ( hint: it’ s not the majors)
Thummel believes if the world energy markets need U.S. oil, producers will ultimately raise production. But at the same time, they’ re trying to figure out their niche, and that just might be proving their business models are economically sustainable. Cash flow yields for companies in shale oil are generally three to four times higher than the S & P 500 at $ 70-a-barrel oil. Returns like that are attracting investors, including Warren Buffett, who is scooping up Occidental Petroleum stock.
Oil producers are cognizant that “ nobody wins ” with oil over $ 100 since it eventually reduces demand long-term, he adds, with the sweet spot globally for producers and consumers between $ 60 and $ 80.
Memories are also pretty fresh after two sharp crashes, once after oil rose to $ 100 in 2014 amid the OPEC price war and then 2020’ s Covid rout.
“ Those are pretty recent and were devastating to the industry. Producers are just trying to navigate and keep that from happening again, ” Thummel says.
Debbie Carlson is a MarketWatch columnist. Follow her on Twitter
@ DebbieCarlson1
.
More on MarketWatch:
‘ Drill, baby, drill’ is back amid the energy crisis, and that puts ESG efforts on the back burner
A dirty secret: Here’ s why your ESG ETF likely owns stock in fossil-fuel companies
Today’ s widely adopted ESG ratings and net-zero pledges are mostly worthless, two pioneers of sustainable investing say | business |
Ryan Cohen gets three board seats in deal with Bed Bath & Beyond | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Shopping carts outside a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021., Bloomberg
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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has reached an agreement with activist investor Ryan Cohen that will see three independent directors appointed to the retailer’ s board.
The new board members were chosen by Cohen’ s RC Ventures, according to a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Two of the three members will also join a special committee to weigh strategic alternatives for Buybuy Baby, an asset which the activist had identified to potentially be sold.
Mark Tritton, Bed Bath & Beyond’ s Chief Executive Officer, said in the statement that the company looked forward to integrating the new directors’ ideas. “ Our Buybuy Baby business is a tremendous asset, and we are committed to unlocking its full value, ” he added.
RC Ventures disclosed a 9.8 per cent stake in Bed Bath & Beyond this month, had called on the retailer to implement several changes, including exploring a sale of Buybuy Baby or the entire company. Cohen argued the company needs to narrow its focus and maintain the right inventory mix to meet demand.
Marjorie L. Bowen, Shelly C. Lombard and Ben Rosenzweig have been named to the board effective immediately, and Bowen and Rosenzweig will join the four-person Buybuy Baby committee.
Cohen, co-founder of Chewy Inc. and chairman of GameStop Corp., has had a strong following of retail traders who piled into shares of both the pet supply chain and video-game retailer at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. GameStop surged 688 per cent last year and 210 per cent in 2020.
Shares in GameStop rallied this week after Cohen bought 100,000 shares in the beleaguered video game retailer, boosting his stake to 11.9 per cent.
It’ s the second time Bed Bath has been targeted by activist investors. In 2019, the retailer was pushed to revamp its strategy by a group of investors, including Ancora Holdings, Macellum Capital Management and Legion Partners Capital Management. That fight also resulted in a settlement that saw four new directors appointed to its board. | general |
U.K. Retail Sales Drop as Brits Spend More in Pubs, Restaurants | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Shoppers on Oxford Street in central London, on March 24. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in February as an end to coronavirus restrictions saw Britons change their spending patterns as they socialized more and returned to the the office.
The volume of goods sold in stores and online dropped 0.3%, after rising 1.9% in January, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. Economists had expected growth of 0.7%.
Spending dropped at food stores as more Brits headed to pubs and restaurants, while sales at household goods stores also fell. Clothing sales picked up as more peopled returned to the office, and the proportion of sales carried out online fell to the lowest since March 2020.
Sales excluding fuel fell 0.7% in the month, the ONS said, and more declines in spending may be coming as consumers face a cost of living crisis. That’ s mainly driven by looming rises in energy bills that are likely to worsen due to the war in Ukraine, with the government’ s fiscal watchdog warning this week Britons face the biggest squeeze on living standards in at least six decades.
A separate survey by GfK showed that consumer confidence plummeted for a fourth-straight month in March to its lowest level since November 2020, when the country was under heavy restrictions. Consumers’ outlook for their personal finances fell to the lowest since 2008.
Bloomberg Economics sees spending slowing more in the coming months as the U.K. heads toward double-digit inflation and the Bank of England is poised to respond with further interest-rate rises. | general |
The DeanBeat: Wordle creator’ s inspirational talk was a joy to hear at GDC | GamesBeat Summit 2022 returns with its largest event for leaders in gaming on April 26-28th. Reserve your spot here!
Josh Wardle got a very nice round of applause at the Game Developers Conference when he said that he designed Wordle without giving a thought to monetization. He also triggered a thing that has been all too rare during the pandemic: a room filled with game developers laughing and smiling.
Wordle has been one of the rare sensations of gaming, as it was built by a single developer and has been played by millions of people since Wardle made it public in October 2021. The title had no monetization, but it went viral after Wardle made it possible to share daily results as emoji squares on Twitter.
Plenty of clones have appeared on mobile stores to steal some of Wordle’ s thunder, but Wardle was able to cash in for a seven-figure payment when The New York Times Company bought Wordle in January. Not bad for a software engineer and artist who made the game for his partner. It was one of the fairy tales of the game industry, like the stories around the creation of games like Flappy Bird, Threes, Stardew Valley, and more.
“ I think of myself as an artist. Running things is not interesting to me, ” he said. “ But the flip side of this is I didn’ t want to monetize the game. Other people are totally fine monetizing the game. I didn’ t want to make money from the game. This is probably the best possible outcome. ”
Wardle has inspired envy because he made the fine art of making a hit video game seem so effortless. He is a rarity, as he thought about himself as an artist and not a game developer at all.
“ I don’ t think of myself as a game developer at all, ” Wardle said. “ I kind of want to be upfront about that. Maybe what I’ m sharing with you here is like totally naive, but I just want to share what my experience was. ”
I walked an average of 15,000 steps a day this week at the GDC in San Francisco searching for this kind of story. Amid the fearful gloom of the pandemic and the Ukraine war — which has put 30,000 or more game developers, some of whom I know personally, at risk — it hasn’ t been easy to find inspirational tales lately. But I was pleased to come upon some moments that made the risk of venturing into crowds and possibly getting the coronavirus more palatable.
The rejuvenating thing about returning to an in-person GDC in San Francisco was the chance to randomly meet new people or hear a good story during a session. Anita Sarkeesian, the creator of the Tropes vs. Women series of videos, revisited her criticism of sexist patterns in games a decade after it originally ran. She was glad to find that the overt sexism she found in games a decade ago — like the frequency of female characters whose butts were highlighted in titles — had been reduced.
For instance, while she found a lot of tropes in the original Dishonored ( 2012) game, she didn’ t find any in the Dishonored 2 ( 2016) title from Bethesda’ s Arkane that came out after the Tropes vs. Women series ran. She warned that we are nowhere near equity for the depiction of women in games, and the industry has a long way to go, but she let herself get emotional. One developer approached the mic and tearfully thanked Sarkeesian for making it easier to come out as a trans person in games, thanks to her critical work. Sarkeesian got down from the podium, walked into the audience, and gave the developer a long hug.
The industry has been rocked by sexual harassment scandals at companies such as Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, and Ubisoft. But it is still heartening to see the occasional moment of brightness and human connection amid the gloom.
As I looked around for other touching moments, I came back to Wardle’ s talk. Wardle’ s creation has revived the category of simple word games, and Wordle has become of the world’ s biggest games.
The end result is a daily word guessing game. You try to guess a hidden word, and you only have six attempts. If you guess a letter and the box turns gray, then that means the letter is not in the word. If it turns yellow, then it means the letter is in the word but not in the correct position. If it turns green, then the letter is in the solution and in the correct spot.
Wardle got started on the title as far back as 2013. He was working on word games for the Android mobile platform. He had originally built the game with more than 13,000 words. But he thinned it out after testing the game with his partner. He didn’ t work on the title again until the pandemic.
Suddenly, it made sense to build something that could create a human connection for people who were stuck in lockdown. He made a series of decisions that might otherwise be considered mistakes, such as letting people play only once per day. He also decided it would be played on a website instead of a mobile app, largely because he knew how to develop for the web but was pretty bad at making apps. He chose not to monetize it because it was pointless if all he wanted to do was to make a game for his partner.
Wardle and his partner playtested the game for about six months on Wardle’ s website.
“ I made the game for her, ” he said.
He slowly expanded the access to the game. Then it took off as celebrities started playing it and posting their results on Twitter.
Since everyone was suggesting that he figure out a way to monetize it, Wardle decided he didn’ t want the responsibility. So he sold it off.
“ I made this game, but I had no interest in running a game business, ” he said.
He figured The New York times would be a good steward.
Wardles said one of his favorite quotes was from literary theorist Terry Eagleton, who said, “ Language is the very air I breathe. ” He believes human beings are creatures of language.
Wardle played a game called Mastermind when he was a kid, and Wordle is a kind of variation on it. While playing a New York Times crossword puzzle, Wardle decided to go back to the design of the Wordle game. ( He thinks crosswords are one of the best co-op multiplayer gaming experiences.) He also decided to have people work on the same game once a day so that they would have something to discuss on social media. And all you had to do to get a friend to play was to share the game on social via just a link.
“ That ended up being a huge part of the game, ” he said.
Wardle made it easy to share your results from the game, and he released that in December 2021. And he found that it took off like a rocket. Celebrities like Paul McCartney raved about it. Jimmy Fallon talked about it on his show. Trevor Noah talked about it as well, as did Monica Lewinsky. And the spinoffs came out in force.
But what pleased Wardle was the human connections. He came from a small town in Wales in the United Kingdom, and he was able to play the game with his father and his mother. It means that they stay in regular contact by sharing their words with each other.
“ That’ s what I want, ” he said.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is `` where passion meets business. '' What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Learn more about membership. | tech |
Hong Kong’ s Lam Says ‘ Forces’ Prevented Elderly Vaccination | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Residents queue outside a community vaccination center administering the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Covid-19 vaccine to children and the elderly ahead of its opening hours in Hong Kong, China, on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. Hong Kong’ s worsening Covid outbreak is likely to claim more than 3,000 lives by the middle of May, a forecast by a team of medical professors and health data experts showed., Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’ s leader has deflected blame for the city’ s failure to get the elderly vaccinated against Covid.
“ There are a lot of forces at work to prevent the government from doing what should be done, ” Carrie Lam said at a Friday briefing. “ In this case, vaccinate our old people. ”
Hong Kong is experiencing one of the deadliest outbreaks of the entire pandemic, after being largely Covid-free for two years. Since January there have been about 6,500 fatalities, the vast majority being unvaccinated elderly. Even now, only 41% of those aged 80 and above have received two vaccination doses, mostly of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine.
Lam said Hong Kong is a “ very free society, ” and suggested that the media is hindering the government’ s efforts.
“ As recently as a few days ago, a local newspaper was still presenting a headline which were misleading which will immediately give the old people, their relatives, and the whole community the wrong message of getting Sinovac as to be vaccinated, ” Lam said. “ I was very aggrieved and actually very angry. ”
Hong Kong distributed two vaccines, one from China’ s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. that uses traditional methods and one from BioNTech SE built using a more potent mRNA technology.
Lam said the government’ s focus has always been on getting the elderly vaccinated.
“ We can only say it’ s unfortunate for the whole of Hong Kong to miss the golden opportunity to get the old people vaccinated in time to prevent this tragic incident, ” Lam said.
Canada joins U.S., U.K. in diplomatic boycott of Beijing games
Trudeau weighs auto-content rules as next U.S. trade flashpoint | general |
When Your Running Companion is a Robot | When Your Running Companion is a Robot | designnews.com
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Image courtesy of MilanStock.com/Alamy
Arduino hobbyist Noel Noel Lomeli used an Arduino nano board to help design a robotic running companion.
Arduino hobbyist builds robot companion that helps him monitor pace during running.
For Arduino hobbyist and runner Noel Lomeli, the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to partake in physical fitness activities. Shuttered gyms left him the choice of running, but Lomeli did not consider that a good option as he could not run with others due to social distancing concerns. Because Lomeli did not want to run alone, he went out and invented a wheeled robot companion to accompany him.
presentation. Lomeli said he developed the robot to help him track his pace during solo runs. He spent six months on the project.
Lomeli used an Arduino nano board in conjunction with a mobile app that enables him to enter his desired running pace. Lomeil said he started the project by taking apart an old RC ( radio control) card from his brother, keeping the dc motor and servo. To fabricate the robot’ s parts, Lomeli wound up getting an old 3-D printer and printing the parts themselves.
The sensors were another challenge. After finding that available sensors could not accomplish what he wanted, Lomeli said he wound up getting a
, a fast vision sensor for DIY ( Do-it-yourself) robotics. Lomeli also uses a Bluetooth module to wirelessly work the sensor and robot control to monitor position.
Because it is impractical for a runner to hold a separate remote control to steer the robot, Lomeli designed Strider to operate hands-free, unlike a traditional radio-controlled car. To accomplish this, he teamed the Arduino nano board with a PID ( Proportional Integral Derivative) controller that, in conjunction with a camera and an orange square worn by the runner, tracks the robot’ s relative position. Based on the positional information, the PID controller signals the robot to change direction, speed up, slow down or stop, all the while maintaining an appropriately close but safe distance.
A short video of the Strider robot follows below.
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Flexible workspaces `` increasingly relevant in post-pandemic times '' | , which was revealed during a digital session this week.
hosted Dynamic Spaces, a 30-minute virtual event exploring how shared workspaces are evolving in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The session coincides with the release of the Dynamic Spaces e-paper, which identifies a need for flexibility in the way that office environments can be used and `` reveals insights for the work models that companies are creating now ''.
This will become essential for businesses looking to make their workspaces future-proof, according to Vitra.
Specifically, the brand has said that the answer to future workspaces lies in a balance of `` remote focus and in-person collaborative work and in a mix of spaces designed for intentional collaboration, mental extensions and focus work ''.
`` What had already been seen as a growing requirement in the office has gained further relevance as a result of the Covid pandemic: work environments must be easily adaptable to changing situations, '' said CEO of Vitra, Nora Fehlbaum.
`` This means more than just the addition or removal of workstations. Instead, it signifies the ability to modify environments and their functions, '' she continued.
`` The simplest solution is an open space with flexible work settings that can be structured to suit changing needs – a dynamic space. ''
The Dynamic Spaces session provides an insight into how flexible workspace environments can bring people, spaces, and technology together, and offers practical tips for businesses looking to implement change.
Vitra also offers a look inside some of its latest projects, including the On headquarters in Zurich and the Merantix AI Campus in Berlin.
, which directly responds to the requirements of the dynamic office.
Comma is a flexible system consisting of just a few different components. Photograph by Eduardo Perez
With a modular structure similar to a scaffolding system, Comma offers flexible solutions for desks, workstations, meeting spaces, breakout spaces and display systems.
Consisting of just a few different components, the system can be endlessly reconfigured for different activities.
`` It was our aim to create an intuitive system that requires no tools and which can be easily assembled by a few individuals whenever the need arises, '' explained chief design officer at Vitra, Christian Grosen.
`` A system that can define the space without interfering with the building structure, '' he continued. `` Comma can be reconfigured as needed: from a basic desk for four people, it can be expanded by simply adding a few elements. ''
This article was written by Dezeen for Vitra as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content | business |
Europe’ s Biggest Asset Manager Sees Stagflation, Prefers S & P 500 | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
A Covid-19 sign in the window of an empty restaurant in Hamburg, in March. Photographer: Imke Lass/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- Even Europe’ s biggest asset manager is turning away from the region’ s stocks.
“ Lower expected growth and looming stagflationary risks in Europe call for caution in the cyclical space and support the relative appeal of U.S. equities, with a focus on quality and dividends, ” Amundi said in its monthly investment outlook. “ The U.S. should continue to be more resilient compared to Europe, given the higher risk of an earnings recession, ” Amundi’ s team, led by Chief Investment Officer Vincent Mortier, wrote in a note to clients.
While the year started with record bullish bets on European equities, the region’ s relative outperformance faded after Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine triggered a spike in commodity prices. European countries are reliant on Russia for energy imports, and more vulnerable to the disruption caused by a wave of sanctions targeting one of the bedrocks of global commodity supply.
“ A global recession should be averted while Europe is more at risk for a technical one, ” Amundi said in its note. They recommend a neutral stance on global stocks, including in China. “ We have moved to neutral as well on Chinese equities amid exceptional volatility and risks from the renewed lockdowns. ”
Investors have been pulling money away from Europe, since the start of the war. Bank of America and EPFR Global data through Wednesday showed that Europe had a sixth consecutive week of outflows at $ 1.2 billion.
A reading of German business confidence for March plunged to the lowest level since the early months of the pandemic, seconding Amundi’ s pessimistic outlook for Europe. Meanwhile, a Bloomberg aggregate index of economic indicators showed that China struggled to boost economic momentum in March.
Within U.S. equities, Amundi prefers companies that reward minority shareholders through buybacks and dividend payouts. “ in our search for names, we continue to focus less on cyclical businesses and more on value, quality, ” according to the note.
The U.S. and the European Union will push to boost supplies of liquefied natural gas to European countries by the end of 2022 in a bid to displace Russian gas, a political framework that now leaves companies to sort out the details.
Rogers ' takeover of Shaw cleared one of three crucial hurdles Thursday.
Russian stocks fell on Friday, reversing most of the gains made in the previous session when the market reopened following a record long shutdown, while government measures to prevent a selloff helped limit the losses.
Oil fell as the European Union held off on banning Russian crude imports, while Kazakhstan said disruption at a key export terminal is set to ease. | general |
Austria Construction Industry Trends and Opportunities Report 2021: Market to Register an Average Annual Growth of 1.9% During 2022-2025 - ResearchAndMarkets.com | DUBLIN -- ( BUSINESS WIRE) -- The `` Construction in Austria - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2025 ( H2 2021) '' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The latest data released by Eurostat shows that Austria's construction industry value add grew by 2.7% in the first quarter of 2021, on a yearly basis.
The report expects the industry to continue expanding in the next few quarters and grow by 2.2% in real terms in 2021, and thereafter register an average annual growth of 1.9% during the period of 2022-2025. Growth in the industry is expected to be supported by public and private sector investment in the country's transport infrastructure, coupled with efforts to boost energy production.
Previously, in 2020, the industry had contracted by 2.1% in real terms in 2020, as a result of disruptions caused by the Coronavirus ( COVID-19) outbreak and the subsequent lockdown measures. The temporary closure of businesses across the country resulted in an increase in unemployment, a fall in disposable income and the weakening of investor confidence.
According to Statistics Austria, the country's economy contracted by 5.7% year on year ( YoY) in Q4 2020. This was preceded by Y-o-Y declines of 3.7% in Q3, 13.5% in Q2 and 3.6% in Q1 2020. Overall, in 2020, the economy contracted of 6.6% in real terms.
The vaccine rollout is expected to enhance the revival in investor confidence. Growth in the construction sector will also be supported by the government's focus on improving regional connectivity through the development of the country's rail and road transport infrastructure, coupled with efforts to boost energy production.
The development of Vienna airport, the upgrade of the Pottendorfer railway line and the aim of generating 100% electricity from renewable sources by 2030 are expected to support the industry and economy.
Detailed Market Analysis, Information, and Insights
Scope
Reasons to Buy
Key Topics Covered:
1 Executive Summary
2 Construction Industry: At-a-Glance
3 Context
3.1 Economic Performance
3.2 Political Environment and Policy
3.3 Demographics
3.4 COVID-19 Status
3.5 Risk Profile
4 Construction Outlook
4.1 All Construction
4.2 Commercial Construction
4.3 Industrial Construction
4.4 Infrastructure Construction
4.5 Energy and Utilities Construction
4.6 Institutional Construction
4.7 Residential Construction
5 Key Industry Participants
5.1 Contractors | general |
China’ s Worsening Virus Threatens Commodities Supply and Demand | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
( Bloomberg) -- Almost 80% of the Chinese economy has been affected in some way by the worst outbreak of Covid-19 in two years, straining the supply of commodities and posing an increasing threat to demand.
China’ s restrictions to contain the fast-spreading omicron variant have primarily hit travel over both short and long-distances, which is a direct drag on fuel consumption and a complication for supply chains.
The longer that Beijing persists with its Covid Zero policy, the greater the impact will be on the consumption of commodities as purchases are deferred -- think copper for electronic goods or steel for cars. Production is also at risk as inventories of raw materials dwindle and workers stay at home.
Widespread outages at metals processors, for example, could further lift markets that have already hit record highs in recent weeks because of the war in Ukraine. That would set the inflation-hawks at the central bank and economic planning agency on edge. Still, demand is also likely to shrink at some point, which would leave the net impact on prices uncertain.
Independent oil refiners clustered in Shandong province have been forced to resell crude cargoes and cut operating rates as demand has slipped. Industry consultant OilChem estimates these refiners, dubbed teapots, have reduced processing to around 50% of capacity. That’ s the lowest level in more than five years if you exclude the plunge caused by the pandemic in early 2020.
Dongying, a refining hub in Shandong, imposed traffic controls on some highways on March 16 for an indefinite period, slowing the delivery of fuel. Crude inventories at 20 sites in the province -- where half of China’ s teapots are based -- have risen over the past two weeks, compared with the overall national trend of falling stockpiles, according to Ursa Space Systems.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trimmed its forecasts last week for Brent crude prices and Chinese oil consumption in the second quarter due to the lockdowns afflicting centers from Shanghai to Shenzhen.
This week’ s lockdown of the key-steelmaking hub of Tangshan has resulted in the idling of some blast furnaces due to tight supplies of vital inputs like iron ore and coking coal. Traffic controls are disrupting operations at some mills in the northern city, which has long played a pivotal role in the world’ s biggest steel industry. Tangshan churned out over 130 million tons of steel last year, some 13% of China’ s output.
All of the major steel-producing provinces have some level of trucking restrictions, and mills could soon face a shortage of raw materials, according to Lange Steel Information Research Center, an industry group in Beijing. Tight supply of those materials will be the main driver behind a production drop if Covid-19 restrictions aren’ t eased next week, it said.
In base metals, the main impact so far has also been on the supply-side as travel curbs hinder the flow of raw materials and finished products. There haven’ t yet been reports of output losses at major smelters, where production is usually protected by local governments to ensure security of supply and given their importance to regional economies.
Still, cuts could be looming. One copper and aluminum fabricator has temporarily reduced output at its plants in Tangshan because of a lack of raw materials caused by the controls there.
The epidemic is disrupting coal production by slowing mining activity and stalling transportation from mines to factories. Queues of trucks waiting to pick up and deliver the fossil fuel are growing longer as they’ re forced to navigate lockdown requirements.
That’ s posing difficulties at a time when China is pushing for a massive increase in domestic coal output as it prioritizes energy security to limit disruptions to economic growth. Beijing has ordered power generators to sign long-term supply contracts with miners and build up inventories to last at least 15 days of consumption, but the strict virus measures are frustrating those efforts to replenish stockpiles.
There’ s also a flow-on risk for other commodities markets. Coal is China’ s mainstay fuel and a key determinant of metals prices, which will only strengthen if the cost of production rises because of scarcity of the fuel.
China’ s imports and exports of commodities could also ultimately be at risk as ports become more congested because of the logistical disruptions caused by the lockdowns. The backlog of goods in the major ports of Shenzhen and Hong Kong has risen to its highest level in five months. Rising infections in Shanghai, meanwhile, have spurred fears that measures to combat the virus could affect the transport of goods to and from the world’ s biggest port.
The U.S. and the European Union will push to boost supplies of liquefied natural gas to European countries by the end of 2022 in a bid to displace Russian gas, a political framework that now leaves companies to sort out the details.
Rogers ' takeover of Shaw cleared one of three crucial hurdles Thursday.
Russian stocks fell on Friday, reversing most of the gains made in the previous session when the market reopened following a record long shutdown, while government measures to prevent a selloff helped limit the losses.
Oil fell as the European Union held off on banning Russian crude imports, while Kazakhstan said disruption at a key export terminal is set to ease. | general |
Rahm Emanuel’ s Forceful Style Gets Unexpected Welcome in Japan | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, center, walks through an automatic ticket gate at Yokosuka Chuo station in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. A close associate of U.S. President Joe Biden and former Chicago mayor, Emanuel arrived in Japan to take up his post last month, ending a period of two-and-a-half years with no ambassador in place., Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- When Joe Biden held a video summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in January, the American president joked that his counterpart should be careful with the incoming U.S. ambassador.
Rahm Emanuel -- the former Chicago mayor and long-time Democratic Party insider with a reputation for butting heads -- seemed like an odd fit for a diplomatic post in a conservative country where change is often glacial. In the meeting with Kishida, Biden reassured the Japanese leader that Emanuel had his complete trust, according to an official with knowledge of the talks.
So far, Emanuel appears to be causing less friction than during his eight tumultuous years in city hall. Fellow diplomats and Japanese officials say Emanuel’ s hands-on approach at least in part explains Tokyo’ s surprisingly forceful response to Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine.
“ Everybody said it’ s unbelievably slow and it’ s going to be a torturous process, ” Emanuel, 62, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on March 17 at his residence in the Japanese capital. “ I’ m sure I’ ll run into it. But... that hasn’ t been the case. ”
While Japan’ s decision to sanction Russia is based on its own strategic interests -- including deterring any similar action by China against Taiwan -- the rapid clampdown stands in contrast to its muted response in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. Not only has the government stripped Russia of its most-favored-nation trade status and frozen assets, but Japanese companies have also halted business in Russia.
Officials in Japan say Emanuel, the onetime chief of staff to former U.S. President Barack Obama whose combative style earned him the nickname “ Rahmbo, ” has brought to the post a degree of political savvy not seen in decades.
“ The speed with which Japan came completely on board with U.S. and G-7 sanctions on Russia must be due at least in part to the effective communications facilitated by Ambassador Emanuel, ” said Jan Adams, Australia’ s ambassador to Tokyo, herself a veteran of trade negotiations with Japan. “ There’ s nothing like the political appointment that’ s so close to the president, the White House, the party and the Congress. ”
Emanuel’ s appointment, confirmed in December despite some objections from within the Democratic Party, ended a gap of two-and-a-half years with no envoy in place from Japan’ s sole treaty ally. While Caroline Kennedy brought star power to the job under the Obama administration, few with Emanuel’ s political experience and contacts have been picked for the post.
He began to influence events before setting foot in Tokyo in January, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara, a close aide to Kishida, and a senior diplomat at the U.S. embassy who asked not to be named. Both credit him with pulling together the virtual summit in January. The U.S. official said he also helped resolve the problem of Covid-19 cases linked to U.S. military bases in Japan that threatened to sour ties, reaching out directly to General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“ He’ s in Japan, but he’ s showing American leadership inside Japan, in the same way as in Washington, ” said Kihara, who has met with Emanuel several times. By bringing together Tokyo-based envoys from Group of Seven and European countries to discuss Ukraine, he’ s created a kind of U.S. “ hub ” that could in the future support the Free and Open Indo-Pacific agenda, he added.
Emanuel played a key role in reaching a partial agreement to lift Section 232 tariffs on Japanese steel that had rankled Tokyo since their imposition in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump. Trade Minister Koichi Hagiuda cited a request from Emanuel as one reason Japan agreed to divert some liquefied natural gas to Europe if needed, ahead of the Russian attack.
A pledge to prioritize the case of Greg Kelly, a former Nissan Motor Co. director who was charged with helping Carlos Ghosn understate his compensation, was also checked off the to-do list when Emanuel waved the American citizen off at the airport this month after he received a suspended sentence. This week, a dispute over tariffs on U.S. beef imports has been resolved.
Each of these steps has been highlighted in frequent posts on Emanuel’ s Twitter feed, which also shows him breaking with tradition by walking to meetings with senior Japanese officials and catching the train, rather than the standard armored BMW, to visit the U.S. naval base at Yokosuka.
The U.S. ambassador has emphasized common ground with Japanese officials, giving the country’ s music-loving foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, an autographed guitar strap from Chicago Blues legend Buddy Guy. He’ s scheduled to join Kishida on Saturday for a tour of Hiroshima, the site of the first of two U.S. atomic bomb attacks at the end of World War II.
Emanuel said domestic and international circumstances were aligned for Japan to bolster its U.S. alliance. The war in Ukraine has renewed focus on the security challenges posed by China, and Kishida faces a July election in which he will want to showcase a close relationship with Biden and an ability to manage the alliance.
“ We are at a different moment in a different time that requires we modernize and strengthen it in a way and at a pace that has not been true for the last 40 years, ” Emanuel said. “ This is a unique opportunity. ”
Stronger ties could enable the U.S. to be closely involved as Japan revises documents that define its security and defense strategy this year. They could also help in building an alternative economic framework to the regional Trans-Pacific Partnership which was rejected by Trump when he came to office in 2017.
Nonetheless, there’ s a limit to how much one person can sway a relationship that’ s remained largely solid since the end of the U.S. occupation 70 years ago.
While Japan has broken new ground in the past few weeks, such as by shipping nonlethal military equipment to Ukraine, its Self-Defense Forces remain hemmed in by a pacifist constitution unchanged since it was imposed by the U.S. after the war.
Kishida earlier this month told his ruling Liberal Democratic Party he planned to bolster Japan’ s defenses, strengthen the U.S. alliance and press harder for reform of the United Nations in response to Russia’ s invasion. But he’ s shut down suggestions of “ nuclear sharing ” with the U.S.
While sanctions on Russia are popular with Japanese voters, polls show few are in favor of direct military aid for Ukraine. The government has steered clear of banning energy imports or ending oil and LNG joint ventures with Russian entities, moves which might damage the economy.
“ Japan does have restrictions, so there are things we can and can’ t do, ” Kihara said. “ But we’ ll do all we can. ” | general |
‘ Testosterone-Fueled Bear Pit’ Discourages Women From Economics | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Morning commuters on London Bridge head towards the City of London, U.K., on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. Britain's labor market grew strongly despite a surge in coronavirus infections late last year, with vacancies hitting a record 1.25 million in the fourth quarter and unemployment falling unexpectedly. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- The field of economics has a “ dirty secret ” that’ s putting women off its pursuit in academia: It’ s a “ testosterone-fueled bear pit. ”
That’ s according to one of the U.K.’ s most influential economic policy makers David Miles. And it’ s one of the big reasons the field has been dominated by men, said Miles, head of macroeconomic forecasting at the country’ s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Miles made the comments to lawmakers in December, and his observation is borne out by a study of the data. In a 2020 survey conducted by the Royal Economic Society, more than 50% of respondents said they found the climate aggressive. Less than half found it respectful, and a third of women said they had been subjected to inappropriate sexually-related behavior, according to the survey of 181 academic economists.
It’ s not just a culture question. Women are grossly underrepresented in the field. And for those who stick it out, they deal with the widest gender pay gap among professors across subjects at U.K. universities.
“ If economics is toxic on the inside, as we draw more women into the subject, they’ ll be turned off, exit and retreat, ” said Victoria Bateman, a Cambridge University economist who co-authored an RES report on women in the field.
The problem isn’ t limited to the U.K. A paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research found that female academics in the U.S. were asked more patronizing questions in seminars. In 2018, Harvard economist Alice Wu used algorithms to show that there were more references to women’ s looks in online comments on an economics job forum than men’ s. And in 2020, former Federal Reserve economist Claudia Sahm argued that there’ s a macho culture of debate in economics.
Leaving female economists out of the ranks of academia has impact beyond just the make up of the field. It can steer the assumptions behind economic thinking and what to measure. Bateman cited the example of gross domestic product: “ It excludes the unpaid labor of women, and that has meant that transport becomes part of infrastructure investment, but not childcare. ”
For Britain’ s Royal Economic Society, the problem is so acute that it launched a four-year strategy to promote economics to women, support their careers and monitor their progress. The program began in 2019 and also introduced a code of conduct to make economics a less hostile environment, including guidance that participants shouldn’ t interrupt a presenter in the first 10 minutes of a seminar.
Analysis of the latest data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency by the RES showed that in 2018 just over a quarter of academic economists were female. Women were more likely to be employed at lower academic ranks, in research and teaching-only positions, instead of posts that combined the two. At the undergraduate level, only engineering and computer science had worse male-female ratios.
There’ s also a striking pay gap. While economics as whole is better paying than many other academic fields, female professors are earning less than their male counterparts. In the 2019-2020 academic year, economics had the widest gender pay gap among professors across subjects at U.K. universities, at 10% compared with the 6% average.
Not all female economists agree that the culture is a problem.
“ It’ s a little belittling of women to say academic economics is an adversarial system and women can’ t cope with it, ” said Rachel Griffith, professor of economics at the University of Manchester and research director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
And some argue that the problem goes further than the toxic culture and also encompasses attracting women to the field.
Sarah Smith, an economics professor at the University of Bristol, is co-chair of Discover Economics, a three-year campaign led by the RES aimed at changing the perception of economics in the U.K. She agrees that at its worst, academic economics is “ just a bunch of men asking a bunch of junior women aggressive questions. ” She also says that a bigger challenge is that girls are put off by the profession’ s association with money.
But Bateman of Cambridge says that fixing access problems will only delay women discovering the issues within the culture once they break into the field.
“ You need to tackle the problems on the inside before those types of campaigns to draw more women into the subject can have maximum effect, ” she said.
She added that women scarred by their experiences in academic economics tend either to enter other subjects such as sociology or philosophy or work as economists outside universities. The Treasury, for example, has a better male-female ratio than academia, with 38% of its economists being female.
The RES campaign is raising awareness of the problem, said Almudena Sevilla, co-chair of the group’ s women’ s committee. Still, she also said that -- rather typically for economists -- the strategy so far has become bogged down in the observation phase.
“ We’ re still arguing about the causes, but we’ re moving into documenting each hypothesis, ” said Sevilla, a professor of economics and public policy at University College London.
“ Once you document it, let’ s see what you can do to change it and monitor that change, ” she said. | general |
Hawkish Bank of Canada speech puts half-point rate hike in play | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Canada’ s 10-year yield rose to the highest since 2018 as a top Bank of Canada official said household finances are in good shape and that monetary policymakers are prepared to “ act forcefully ” to quell inflation.
Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki reiterated the central bank’ s “ unwavering commitment ” to wrestle inflation back to the 2 per cent target and said more aggressive action -- including shrinking holdings of government bonds, known as quantitative tightening -- will be discussed. She acknowledged that while rising borrowing costs impact Canadians differently, higher price pressures are “ especially painful ” for low income individuals.
“ I expect the pace and magnitude of interest rate increases and the start of QT to be active parts of our deliberations at our next decision in April, ” Kozicki said Friday. She also warned that Russia’ s war in Ukraine is driving inflation higher than expected in the bank’ s most recent quarterly forecasts.
Her remarks, delivered by video conference to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, come three weeks after the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate to 0.5 per cent, from the emergency low of 0.25 per cent set after COVID-19 hit North America.
Before the speech, markets were pricing in at least nine more 25-basis-point hikes over the next year. Traders ramped up those bets, with her comments boosting expectations for a bigger move next month.
“ This is a clear nod to the chance of a 50-basis-point hike at the April meeting, ” Benjamin Reitzes, macro strategist at Bank of Montreal, said by email. “ The door is wide open. ”
The comments helped strengthen the Canadian dollar, which rose above $ 1.25 per U.S. dollar for the first time since January, to $ 1.2481 as of 2:15 p.m. Ottawa time.
They also accelerated the bond sell-off: the benchmark Canada 10-year yield rose as high as 2.536 per cent, up about 14 basis points.
Canada’ s yield surge mirrored moves in the Treasury market, where traders are pricing in even more hikes for the Federal Reserve, with several policymakers at the U.S. central bank saying a 50-point hike is on the table.
Kozicki’ s speech shows the Bank of Canada is prepared to act swiftly and strongly to quell inflationary pressures, which hit a three-decade high of 5.7 per cent in January from a year earlier. She also mentioned the bank’ s concerns about inflation expectations drifting upward given the persistently high price gains.
Her remarks emphasized that differences in households’ wealth, debt and incomes can amplify economic shocks and impact decisions about fiscal and monetary responses. Still, Kozicki said that while debt risks persist, the bank judges that “ households on average appear to be in better financial shape now than at the start of our 2017–18 tightening cycle. ”
While Kozicki said high levels of indebtedness remain an important domestic vulnerability, a strong labor market and substantial savings accumulated during the pandemic have cushioned Canadian household balance sheets. | general |
Global Packaged Food Market Report 2021: Historical Data | Dublin, March 25, 2022 ( GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The `` Global Packaged Food Market, By Product Type ( Non-alcoholic Beverages, Dairy products, Confectionery, Ready Meals, Snacks, Breakfast Cereals, and Others), By Distribution Channel, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2026 '' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Packaged Food Market was valued USD 2976.41 Billion in 2020 and is forecast to grow at CAGR of 6.27% in value terms, to reach over USD 4261.36 billion by 2026.
The Global Packaged Food Market is witnessing consistent growth, owing to the improving standards of living of people, increasing consumption of healthy food, and changing consumer tastes and preferences.The popularity of packaged food items has increased with the increasing health consciousness among people who are increasingly choosing food and beverage options that provide health benefits. Moreover, factors such as changing eating habits and busy lifestyles have further contributed to the increased demand for the packaged food products.
Furthermore, rising consumer awareness of the health benefits associated with the nutritious and organic components used in packaged food items is propelling the growth of packaged food market. With the presence of different worldwide brands and a small market share of indigenous enterprises in both developed and developing countries, the Global Packaged Food Market is competitive.
Due to the continually changing nature, taste, and preferences of consumers, the launch of a new product has become the most crucial strategy above all others. Additionally, firms have also welcomed development through cross-border mergers and acquisitions, which have proven to be effective in expanding their presence. For instance, PepsiCo acquired Rockstar Energy in 2020, extending its foothold in the fast-growing energy drink business.Consumers are becoming more aware of the importance of consuming gluten-free, low-carbohydrate, high-fiber baked goods, and they are requesting novel options. This has encouraged packaged food companies to fortify their goods in order to accommodate the increased demand of health-conscious consumers, such as Tyson Foods recently launched a new line of plant-based products under the brand First Pride, which offers high-quality protein products. These products include bites, nuggets, and strips made with plants. The ingredients used in the products are bamboo fiber, soy protein and wheat protein, etc.Hypermarkets/Supermarkets held the majority of the market share in the Global Packaged Food Market due to their growing and diverse range of products. Whereas online retail channel is expected to grow at a higher pace in the forecast period as people turned increasingly towards online delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the only safe and available choice for customers.
Online sectors are predicted to develop at a faster rate in the forecast term. Furthermore, these hassle-free, technology-driven services provide them with increased convenience, resulting in a growing preference for online services. This is due to their stressful, fast-paced lifestyles, which drive them to the internet.
Online channels are expected to capture a large amount of market share during the projection period as a result of the e-commerce boom. Furthermore, these channels reduce the long chain and complexity associated with a long distribution network.Key companies are developing advanced technologies and launching new products to stay competitive in the market. Other competitive strategies include mergers & acquisitions and new service developments.
For more information about this report visit https: //www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lz5kml | general |
Remote working or a promotion? Here's what tech workers would choose | Workers want more from work – and employers ' old retention tactics might no longer be enough.
Owen is a senior editor at ZDNet. Based in London, UK, Owen covers software development, IT workforce trends and the evolution of tech and work.
In the ongoing war for talent, the power balance has tipped firmly in favour of employees, who are more willing than ever to vote with their feet if employers refuse to embrace new ways of working.
Employee expectations have shifted significantly in recent years, with the ability to work flexibly becoming a top priority. In fact, a survey of more than 6,100 professionals suggests employees would choose freedom and flexibility over progressing their career within their company, with 71% of respondents saying they would pass up a promotion in return for being able to work from anywhere, at any time.
The survey was conducted by IT company Ivanti, which canvassed 4,510 office workers and 1,609 IT professionals in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden and Australia to understand attitudes toward remote work, points of disagreements among demographics, and the varying experiences of remote working so far.
In this special feature, ZDNet examines technology's role in helping business leaders build tomorrow's workforce, and employees keep their skills up to date and grow their careers.
It found that 87% of employees don't want to work from the office full-time, and a strong desire for 'hybrid ' arrangements that combine working from an on-site workplace and working from another location – at home or otherwise. Companies that do insist on a full-time return to the office could face resignations: nearly a quarter ( 24%) of respondents say they 'd quit their job if they were forced to do so.
There are many good arguments for allowing employees to take more control over their working habits – not least the fact that research consistently shows that workers who are given flexibility report higher rates of job satisfaction, engagement, motivation and productivity, and are less stressed.
Other benefits of flexible working cited by respondents to Ivanti's survey is a better work-life balance and the money and time savings reaped by not having to commute so often.
The report notes that many employees had already relocated out of major cities and commuter hubs during the pandemic, which could make it even more difficult to convince them to come back – particularly when there are plentiful, well-paid jobs out there that do offer remote working.
In Spain, for example, 81% of office workers have relocated temporarily or permanently, Ivanti found. When asked what they would do if their boss asked them to come back to the office full-time, 24% said they would look for another job.
The workforce has already seen significant shifts in recent years. According to Ivanti, the number of digital nomads from the US has more than tripled from 4.8 million in 2018 to 15.5 million in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to much soul searching by work-weary employers, prompting large numbers of resignations and intense demand for tech and IT professionals among companies seeking to shore up their infrastructure, cybersecurity and digital platforms.
Nearly a quarter ( 24%) of employees have quit their jobs in the past year, Ivanti found, while 28% of survey respondents said they were planning to change jobs in the next six months.
Implementing a hybrid-working strategy will be crucial to attracting and retaining talent in the months ahead, with the demand for tech workers showing no sign of easing and tech workers themselves showing no indication that they will yield to bosses ' return-to-office mandates.
SEE: These are the things that coders want out of work. How many can you offer?
That's not to say that a shift to hybrid will be without its issues – there are myriad IT, security, logistics and personnel issues that will need to be addressed, and there won't be a one-size-fits-all solution.
However, those employers that do take on the challenge will reap rewards in the form of higher motivation, increased engagement and performance, while also keeping hold of their top performers.
`` Creating an everywhere workplace where employees can thrive is one of the biggest challenges business leaders and IT teams face today, '' said Jeff Abbot, CEO at Ivanti.
`` Creating a great place to work isn't about a ping pong table or fully stocked breakroom anymore; employees need the right tools to be their most productive and secure no matter where they work. ''
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Global Orthotics Market Report 2022: Market Valued at $ 3.81 | Dublin, March 25, 2022 ( GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The `` Global Orthotics Market - Analysis By Function ( Static, Dynamic), Anatomical Position, End User, By Region, By Country ( 2022 Edition): Market Insights and Forecast with Impact of COVID-19 ( 2022-2027) '' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The Global Orthotics Market was valued at USD 3.81 billion in the year 2021 with North America region leading the regional market share.
The key factors driving the growth of this market include rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders which impact the spinal and the nervous system of the patients propelling the demand for orthotics in the market.
Moreover, technological advancements in the field of orthotics along with higher demand from the rising aged population and rising cases of sports injuries is propelling the market growth in the world.
The other key factors propelling the growth are rising adoption of universal health coverage in the developed and developing markets, increasing product launches, rising healthcare infrastructure and expenditure along with presence of key market players who constantly undertake research and development activities in the market.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on the global orthotics market and the companies experienced a reduction in revenue due to a decline in number of patients. A significant decline was due to patients deciding to postpone their visits for various reasons including concern regarding their own health and safety.
Key Topics Covered: 1. Report Scope and Methodology2. Strategic Recommendations3. Global Orthotics Market: Product Outlook4. Global Orthotics Market: Size and Forecast5. Global Orthotics Market Segmentation - By Posture, By Anatomical Position, By End users6. Global Orthotics Market: Regional Analysis7. North America Orthotics Market: An Analysis ( 2017-2027) 8. Europe Orthotics Market: An Analysis ( 2017-2027) 9. Asia Pacific Orthotics Market: An Analysis ( 2017-2027) 10. Global Orthotics Market Dynamics11. Market Attractiveness12. Competitive Landscape13. Company Profiles
For more information about this report visit https: //www.researchandmarkets.com/r/by3py6 | general |
Global Medical Lasers Systems Market Research Report | Dublin, March 25, 2022 ( GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The `` Medical Lasers Systems Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product Type ( Diode Lasers, Solid-State Lasers, and Dye Lasers), Application ( Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Gynecology, Dentistry, Cardiology, Urology, Others), and End-User, and Geography '' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The medical lasers systems market is projected to reach US $ 5,834.02 million by 2028 from US $ 2,398.60 million in 2021; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2021 to 2028.The increasing prevalence of eye disorders is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Corneal diseases are the second-leading cause of blindness globally, after cataracts. According to the report released by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, cataracts affect more than 24.4 million Americans aged 40 and older. Also, diabetic retinopathy affects nearly 7.7 million Americans aged 40 and older.
To avoid this, laser vision correction through medical lasers systems is the most common surgical procedure. Additionally, advances in laser ablation profiles have resulted in a better quality of vision, including better night vision. Thus, the rising prevalence of eye disorders globally raises the demand for medical lasers.The solid-state lasers segment would account for the largest market share during 2021-2028. Solid-state lasers have gained attention in the global market owing to their significant improvement in the performance of such specialized lasers. This is evaluated as output power levels, wall-plug efficiency, reliability, and range of available wavelengths from the pump diodes and diode arrays.
Also, modular and multiwavelength solid-state lasers provide therapeutic radiation proving effective for laser-lithotripsy, laser-angioplasty, neurosurgery, general surgery, and dentistry. Furthermore, solid-state lasers have had successful medical applications for many years due to their quick use and low absorption power in the water, which penetrated deeply into the skin and is mostly used in dermatology for hair removal and tissue rejuvenation.By application, the medical lasers systems market is segmented into dermatology, ophthalmology, gynecology, dentistry, cardiology, urology, and others. The ophthalmology segment would dominate the market in the coming years. Advances in medical laser systems have enabled successful surgeries for multiple eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal tears, detachment, and macular degeneration. These medical lasers systems help prevent vision loss by improving sight.
Additionally, the manufacturers are bringing innovative products to the market. For example, Nidek, in May 2019, announced the launching of a new product by introducing the `` YC-200 S plus ophthalmic YAG and SLT laser system/YC-200 ophthalmic YAG laser system '', ensuring efficacious treatments for the patients.By end-user, the medical lasers systems market is segmented into hospitals, specialty clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, and others. Specialty clinics are centers of excellence assuring to deliver high standards of clinical outcomes. Specialty clinics focus on any one organ, a system of the body, or a particular disease.
Therefore, these clinics are staffed with para-medical and nursing personnel with specialized skills that have been perfected over time. The role of specialty clinics in detecting, diagnosing, and managing eye disease, cardiac diseases, and others has gained huge attention. Such aforementioned factors have raised the demand for medical lasers systems.
Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction1.1 Scope of the Study1.2 Research Report Guidance1.3 Market Segmentation2. Medical Lasers Systems Market - Key Takeaways3. Research Methodology4. Medical Lasers Systems Market - Market Landscape4.1 Overview4.2 PEST Analysis4.3 Expert Opinion5. Medical Laser Systems Market - Key Market Dynamics5.1 Market Drivers5.1.1 Increase in Prevalence of Eye Diseases5.1.2 Significant Rise in Elderly Population5.2 Market Restraints5.2.1 Stringent Safety Regulations5.3 Market Opportunities5.3.1 Untapped Potential of Emerging Economies5.4 Future Trends5.4.1 Large Number of Product Approvals and Launches5.5 Impact Analysis6. Medical Laser Systems Market- Global Analysis6.1 Global Medical Lasers Systems Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis6.2 Global Medical Lasers Systems Market, By Geography - Forecast and Analysis6.3 Market Positioning of Key Players7. Global Medical Lasers Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2028- By Product Type7.1 Overview7.2 Global Medical Laser Systems Market, By Product Type, 2021 & 2028 (%) 7.3 Diode Laser7.3.1 Overview7.3.2 Diode Laser: Medical Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 ( US $ Million) 7.4 Solid-State Laser7.4.1 Overview7.4.2 Solid-State Laser: Medical Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 ( US $ Million) 7.4.2.1 Holmium Yttrium Aluminium Garnet ( Ho: YAG) Lasers7.4.2.2 Erbium Yttrium Aluminium Garnet ( Er: YAG) lasers7.4.2.3 Neodynium Yttrium Aluminium Garnet ( ND: YAG) LasersMillion) 7.4.2.4 Potassium Titanyl Phosphate ( KTP) 7.4.2.5 Alexandrite Lasers7.4.2.6 Ruby Lasers7.5 Gas Lasers7.5.1 Overview7.5.2 Gas Lasers: Medical Lasers Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 ( US $ Million) 7.5.2.1 Co2 Lasers7.5.2.2 Argon Lasers7.5.2.3 Krypton Lasers7.5.2.4 Metal Vapor ( AU AND CU) Lasers7.5.2.5 Helium-Neon Lasers7.5.2.6 Excimer Laser7.6 Dye Laser8. Global Medical Laser Systems Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2028- By Application8.1 Overview8.2 Global Medical Laser Systems Market, By Application, 2021 & 2028 (%) 8.3 Dermatology8.3.1 Overview8.3.2 Dermatology: Medical Laser Systems Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 ( US $ Million) 8.4 Ophthalmology8.5 Gynecology8.6 Dentistry8.7 Cardiology8.8 Urology9. Medical Laser Systems Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2028 - By End User9.1 Overview9.2 Global Medical Laser Systems Market Share by End User - 2021 & 2028 (%) 9.3 Hospitals9.3.1 Overview9.3.2 Hospitals: Medical Laser Systems Market Revenue and Forecast to 2028 ( US $ Million) 9.4 Specialty Clinics9.5 Ambulatory Surgery Centers10. Medical Laser Systems Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2028 - Geographical Analysis11. Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Laser Systems Market12. Medical Laser Systems Market-Industry Landscape12.1 Growth Strategies Done by the Companies in the Market, (%) 12.2 Organic Developments12.3 Inorganic Developments13. Company Profiles
For more information about this report visit https: //www.researchandmarkets.com/r/98ehh1 | general |
Histogen Announces Closing of $ 4.75 Million Private | SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2022 ( GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Histogen Inc. ( NASDAQ: HSTO), a clinical-stage company focused on developing potential first-in-class restorative therapeutics that ignite the body’ s natural process to repair and maintain healthy biological function, today announced the closing of its previously announced private placement for the issuance and sale of 2,500 shares of Series A redeemable convertible preferred stock and 2,500 shares of Series B redeemable convertible preferred stock. Each share of Series A and Series B preferred stock had a purchase price of $ 952.38, representing an original issue discount of approximately 5% of the $ 1,000 stated value of each share. Each share of Series A and Series B preferred stock is convertible into shares of Histogen’ s common stock at an initial conversion price of $ 1.00 per share. Shares of the Series A and Series B preferred stock are convertible at the option of the holder at any time following the Company’ s receipt of stockholder approval for an amendment to the Company’ s certificate of incorporation that allows the Company to effectuate a reverse stock split of the Company’ s common stock. Histogen will be permitted to compel conversion of the Series A and Series B preferred stock after the fulfillment of certain conditions and subject to certain limitations. Total gross proceeds from the offerings, before deducting the placement agent’ s fees and other offering expenses, were approximately $ 4.75 million.
H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as the exclusive placement agent for the offering.
The Series A and Series B preferred stock permit the holders thereof to vote together with the holders of the Company’ s common stock on a proposal to effect a reverse stock split of the Company’ s common stock at an annual or special meeting of Company stockholders. The Series A preferred stock permits the holder to vote on such proposal on an as-converted to common stock basis based on the minimum price under Nasdaq rules on the issuance date. The Series B preferred stock permits the holder to cast 30,000 votes per share of Series B preferred stock on such proposal. The Series A and Series B preferred stock will not be permitted to vote on any other matter. The holders of the Series A and B preferred stock agreed not to transfer their shares of preferred stock until after the stockholder meeting. The holders of the Series A preferred stock agreed to vote their shares on the reverse stock split proposal and the holders of the Series B preferred stock agreed to vote their shares on such proposal in the same proportions as the shares of common stock and Series A preferred stock are voted on such proposal. The holders of the Series A and Series B preferred stock have the right to require the Company to redeem their shares of preferred stock for cash at 105% of the stated value of such shares commencing after the earlier of the Company’ s stockholders’ approval of the reverse stock split and 90 days after the closing of the issuances of the Series A and Series B preferred stock and until 120 days after such closing.
Additional information regarding the securities described above and the terms of the offering are included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ( “ SEC ”).
To the extent Series A or B preferred stock is converted or otherwise not redeemed after 120 days from closing, the Company will use such net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The offer and sale of the foregoing securities were made in a transaction not involving a public offering and the securities have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended ( the “ Securities Act ”), or applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities may not be reoffered or resold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and such applicable state securities laws. Under an agreement with the investors, the Company will file an initial registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission ( the “ SEC ”) covering the resale of the shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of the preferred stock no later than July 20, 2022, and use commercially reasonable efforts to have the registration statement declared effective as promptly as practical thereafter, and in any event no later than September 18, 2022 ( or October 18, 2022, in the event of a “ full review ” of the registration statement by the SEC).
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state.
Histogen Inc. is a clinical-stage therapeutics company focused on developing potential first-in-class restorative therapeutics that ignite the body’ s natural process to repair and maintain healthy biological function. Histogen’ s innovative technology platform utilizes cell conditioned media and extracellular matrix materials produced by hypoxia-induced multipotent cells. Histogen’ s proprietary, reproducible manufacturing process provides targeted solutions across a broad range of therapeutic indications, including joint cartilage regeneration, spinal disk repair, tendon, ligament and other soft tissue repair. For more information, please visit www.histogen.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “ safe harbor ” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other Federal securities laws. For example, we are using forward-looking statements when we discuss the intended use of net proceeds from the private placement. Because such statements deal with future events and are based on our current expectations, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties and actual results, performance or achievements of Histogen that could differ materially from those described in or implied by the statements in this press release, including: our ability to regain compliance with Nasdaq’ s continued listing requirements; our ability to obtain funding for our operations, including funding necessary to complete further development and any commercialization of our product candidates; our expectations regarding the arbitration proceeding related to emricasan and the joint development with Amerimmune for COVID-19 and other infectious and inflammatory diseases, including its ability to carry out the development of emricasan and the potential for delays in the timing of regulatory approval, the impact of the arbitration proceedings and the requirement for additional capital to continue to advance these product candidates, which may not be available on favorable terms or at all; our intention to independently assess our caspase selective inhibitors for inflammatory diseases; the uncertainties associated with the clinical development and regulatory approval of Histogen’ s product candidates, including potential delays in the commencement, enrollment and completion of clinical trials; competition in the orthopedics market, COVID-19 market and other markets in which we and our collaboration partner operate; the potential that earlier clinical trials and studies of our product candidates may not be predictive of future results; risks related to business interruptions, including the outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus, which could seriously harm our financial condition and increase its costs and expenses; the impact of any arbitration and litigation proceedings on our business and market and other conditions. The foregoing review of important factors that could cause actual events to differ from expectations should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with statements that are included herein and elsewhere, including those risks discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as otherwise required by law, Histogen disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, whether as a result of new information, future events, or circumstances or otherwise.
Susan A. KnudsonExecutive Vice President & CFOHistogen Inc.ir @ histogen.com | general |
Food packaging contains dangerous chemicals, report says | The highest levels of indicators for PFAS were found in food packaging from Nathan's Famous, Cava, Arby's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Stop & Shop and Sweetgreen, according to an investigation released Thursday by Consumer Reports.
Often called `` forever chemicals '' because they do not break down in the environment, PFAS are used in food packaging to prevent grease and water from soaking through food wrappers and beverage cups. PFAS can also be found in the ink used to print logos and instructions on food containers.
The new report comes more than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, when the public has relied heavily on takeout and grocery deliveries.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls exposure to PFAS ( per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) a `` public health concern, '' citing studies that found the human-made chemicals can harm the immune system and reduce a person's resistance to infectious diseases.
`` There is evidence from human and animal studies that PFAS exposure may reduce antibody responses to vaccines, '' stated the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. `` More research is needed to understand how PFAS exposure may affect illness from COVID-19. ''
More than 100 food products tested
The Consumer Reports investigation collected 118 food packaging products sold by 24 companies in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It tested those products for organic fluorine -- a marker for PFAS. Researchers then sent samples of products with the highest levels to an independent laboratory that could perform more specific tests, said Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist for advocacy at Consumer Reports.
Regulatory limits for how much PFAS food packaging should contain can vary greatly. In the US, there are no federal limits, leaving action up to the states. Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington have passed bills banning intentional use of PFAS in food packaging, but haven't yet specified a limit, according to Consumer Reports. In January 2023, a new law in California will set the limit at less than 100 ppm ( parts per million).
However, Denmark set a much lower regulatory limit of 20 ppm with great success, said Xenia Trier, a chemicals, environment and human health expert at the European Environment Agency.
`` In Denmark we 've seen both a decrease in noncompliance by industry from 60% to about 30% and a decrease in levels of PFAS in packaging products over the past 10 years, '' Trier told CNN. `` It does work to set limits and enforce them. It is possible to find alternative solutions and if one manufacturer can make packaging without PFAS, then it should be possible for everybody to do it. ''
The Consumer Reports investigation found the highest indicators for PFAS -- 876 ppm and 618 ppm -- in two types of bags for sides at Nathan's Famous restaurants.
High indicators of PFAS ( in the 500s) were also found in a Chick-fil-A sandwich wrapper and in fiber bowls at Cava, a Mediterranean restaurant chain.
Indicator levels in the 300s and 400s were found in a bag of cookies at Arby's, bamboo paper plates at Stop & Shop, and in a bag for both cookies and French toast sticks at Burger King.
Levels of PFAS indicators in the 200s were found in a Sweetgreen paper bag for focaccia, additional items at Cava, and in bags for french fries, cookies and Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's.
However, all of the companies listed had additional food packaging that tested at levels below 200 ppm. Four companies -- Arby's, Nathan's Famous, McDonald's and Stop & Shop -- also sold food in packaging that had no detectable levels of PFAS, the report said.
The Consumer Reports investigation did not test packaging from every food product sold at each company.
`` I would not urge consumers to take these brand names and only go to this one or that one, as this investigation only looked at just over 100 products, '' said Graham Peaslee, a professor of physics, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
`` However, this will hold industry's toes to the fire, so in that sense, I think it's a valuable report, '' he added. `` Measuring and saying PFAS is there and it's dangerous gets people's attention, and companies tend to avoid attention like that. ''
Health impact of PFAS
PFAS chemicals are in many products: nonstick cookware, infection-resistant surgical gowns and drapes, cell phones, semiconductors, commercial aircraft and low-emission vehicles. The chemicals also are used to make carpeting, clothing, and furniture resistant to stains, water and grease damage.
In use since the 1950s, PFAS are chemicals most Americans have `` in their blood, '' especially perfluorooctane sulfonic acid ( PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid ( PFOA), '' according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is charged with protecting the public from hazardous substances.
In the Consumer Reports investigation, the most common chemical found in the food packaging that was tested was PFOA, with PFOS coming in fifth, according to the report.
In addition to impacts on the immune system, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said studies in humans and lab animals have found links between certain PFAS chemicals and an increase in cholesterol levels, alterations in liver enzymes, a higher risk of developing kidney or testicular cancer, small reductions in infant birth weights and an additional risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women.
`` PFAS have also caused birth defects, delayed development, and newborn deaths in lab animals, '' the agency stated, while adding `` not all effects observed in animals may occur in humans. ''
As environmental groups and the public began to take notice of the health impacts of the chemicals, manufacturers started to voluntarily phase out the use of PFOS and PFOA in the US. Between 1999 and 2014, blood levels of PFOS in Americans had declined by more than 80% and blood levels of PFOA had declined by more than 60%, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry stated.
However, `` as PFOS and PFOA are phased out and replaced, people may be exposed to other PFAS, '' the agency continued. Newer versions of PFAS in food packaging appear to be absorbed by food more readily than the older versions, according to a 2016 study.
Studies in Denmark have shown that PFAS do `` migrate from the paper into the food, '' Trier said. `` Even though it was not 100%, we still saw substantial transmission. In general, transmission from packaging to food is increased as the temperature of the food rises and the time spent in wrapping materials increases. ''
Industry response
The Consumer Reports investigation mirrored results of reports in 2018 and 2020 by Toxic-Free Future and Safer Chemicals Healthy Families. Those reports found `` harmful '' levels of PFAS in fast-food packaging and in nearly two-thirds of takeout containers made of paper, like those used at self-serve salad buffets and hot bars.
In response to the 2018 report, Whole Foods became the first grocery chain in North America to publicly commit to remove PFAS from takeout containers and deli and bakery paper. Other companies have followed suit, including Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Amazon.com, Cava, Chipotle, Freshii, McDonald's, Panera Bread, Sweetgreen, Trader Joe's and Wendy's, according to Toxic-Free Future.
In the new investigation, Consumer Reports tested 13 food packaging products from retailers that had previously committed to phasing out PFAS. Seven of the 13 had levels of PFAS above 20 ppm, the report said.
Burger King, which had high levels of PFAS in three of six products tested, had not made a public commitment to phase out PFAS, according to Consumer Reports. Early Thursday, parent company Restaurant Brands International announced it will globally phase out any `` added '' PFAS from `` guest-facing packaging materials '' at the Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes brands `` by the end of 2025 or sooner. ''
Nathan's Famous, which Consumer Reports said also has not made a public commitment to reducing PFAS, told CNN the company had begun phasing out the bags. `` One of our goals in this complete package redesign is to reduce PFAS, '' said Phil McCann, vice president of marketing at Nathan's Famous. `` Full transition will be complete by December 2022. ''
Chick-fil-A told CNN it had been on a four-year journey to phase out PFAS: `` Chick-fil-A has eliminated intentionally added PFAS from all newly produced packaging going forward in our supply chain. While some legacy packaging may still be in restaurants, it is expected to be phased out by the end of this summer, '' the company tweeted Wednesday.
Cava, which had previously pledged to reduce PFAS but had five out of six products with indicators between 200 ppm and 548 ppm, told CNN that `` due to a multitude of factors related to the pandemic, and especially global supply chain shortages, the transition to eliminating added PFAS, which began in August of 2021, is taking longer than planned. Our teams are working with our suppliers to complete the transition within the year. ''
A McDonald's spokesperson said less than 7.5% of the company's global food packaging contained added PFAS at the end of 2020 and said the company was continuing its search for alternative materials that offered proper grease-resistant barriers, with a goal of reducing deliberately added PFAS by the end of 2025.
Sweetgreen told CNN the company was `` proud to share that we are currently in the process of rolling out new PFAS-free focaccia bags that will be available in all Sweetgreen locations by the end of Q2. ''
Jennifer Brogan, director of external communications and community relations for Stop & Shop, told CNN the company could `` confirm that these Nature's Promise brand plates have been removed from all store locations. ''
A spokesperson from Arby's told CNN in an email that the company has `` minimal packaging materials containing PFAs and is on track to have PFAs removed from all packaging products by the end of 2022. ''
Actions the public can take
Experts say people who want to avoid PFAS in their takeout and food delivery packaging should favor companies that have pledged to remove the chemicals.
Take food out of the container as soon as you receive it, and never reheat food in its original container. Instead, remove your food and heat it in ceramic or glass containers, Trier said.
The Consumer Reports investigation found some of the highest levels of PFAS were in paper bags ( 192.2 ppm) and molded fiber bowls and trays ( 156.8 ppm). Paper plates tested at 149 ppm, and food wrappers and liners came in at 59.2 ppm.
Don't be fooled by `` environmentally friendly '' claims -- they don't guarantee a product is PFAS-free. When Consumer Reports tested those products, some had levels of PFAS above 100 ppm, and most had some detectable levels, the report said.
Experts also suggest reducing the frequency of takeout meals to once a week or less, and recommend that people instead make food at home.
You can also reach out to your congressional representative and senators and support the bipartisan bill Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act, experts said. Designed to ban the use of any PFAS as a food contact substance, the bill was introduced into both chambers in November. | business |
Africa Products Demand Rebounds, Set for More Growth | African demand for oil products bounced back strongly last year after a precipitous fall in 2020 cause by the Covid-19 pandemic. | general |
American Express focuses on customer experience with new checking account and app redesign | With the implementation of its new checking account, the credit card issuer is looking to redesign its app experience around client needs.
Evan Zimmer is a journalist based outside of Denver, Colorado.
American Express is evolving their app experience for consumers. To facilitate the use of its new high-yield checking account, the company is looking to provide a seamless, intuitive experience that melds its banking and credit card products into one app.
These coveted cards are loaded with perks you wouldn't expect.
`` Our mission is to be essential in our customers ' digital lives by providing value, convenience and delight, '' Ashish Pawale, vice president of global mobile engineering at American Express, told ZDNet.
The redesign team wanted to make the new app experience as easy and convenient to use as possible by using one app for both banking and credit card customers. Beginning with the savings account AmEx introduced in 2021, the team saw it as a good opportunity to roll out visual and technical changes.
`` I think it was really vital for us to think beyond the card experiences that were already the central part of the mobile app, '' Johan Alexandersson, director of product design for global mobile at American Express, told ZDNet. `` As the conversation started around the checking account, we saw the opportunity to push this further and start to think about, more from a wider point of view, when it comes to different types of products that could potentially be integrated into the mobile app, '' he said.
In order to meld the credit card-focused app with the consumer checking account, the team had to create a new login and authentication process. Being the first thing customers interact with, it was important to get right. The company had a few things in mind when approaching the redesign.
`` When you're a customer, and you log on to the app, what does that experience look like? How do you put all of these products in one place, and how do you allow customers to move seamlessly between products? '' Delma Quash, vice president of product management for AmEx Mobile, said.
With the influx of digital consumers since the pandemic, it was important to provide customers with an attractive and easy-to-use application for them to control their funds. And though it is early, Quash said what they 've seen so far with customer engagement and the numbers of clients coming in after rolling out a few updates has been positive.
The creation of the all-digital checking account was also, in part, created to attract Millennials and Gen-Z consumers, as research shows they're more likely to use debit cards over credit cards or cash.
The checking account includes a debit card that earns 1x Membership Point for every $ 2 spent and features a high annual percentage yield ( APY) of 0.5%.
`` If you look at Millennials and Gen-Z, they like to use debit cards instead of cash. And, of course, they want to use digital products. Along with customer satisfaction and customer engagement, these are our key priorities, '' Pawale said.
The industry demand -- and customer expectations -- for digital banking was gaining momentum pre-pandemic. It was bolstered during the COVID-19 pandemic and isn't likely to decrease post-pandemic, Quash said.
In fact, a recent J.D. Power study found that 80% of digital consumers plan to stay digital after the pandemic ends.
`` The expectation is that you will have a digital banking experience, and so our job really is to respond to that expectation and create this holistic experience where you can have a complete self-service without having to walk into a bank, '' Quash said.
When asked if the team plans to integrate any financial wellness resources into the app for the younger generations they're trying to entice with the new products, they said it's an evolving process.
`` It's incredibly important for us to go through not just rigorous testing of the experiences that we do release, but also, really listen to our customers. Because at the end of the day, they are the experts on the experience they want, and that includes, of course, [ financial education resources ], '' Alexandersson said.
One of the key features of the checking account is the ability to link outside bank accounts to it and transfer funds between them. The Money Movement program, Quash said, is one of the best new features of the account, along with its industry-leading APY.
The checking account comes with a debit card that rewards cardholders for every transaction ( 1x point per $ 2 spent). It also features Purchase Protection, safeguarding consumer purchases more so than a typical debit card would. The Membership Rewards points the card earns can be deposited into the checking account, and each point is worth 0.6 cents.
There are more features on the way, like an intelligent search feature that's currently being tested in the U.K. The search feature is intended to help users find exactly what they need, as the app has a lot of features to sift through.
The team indicated the checking account and app features will be an evolving process fueled by customer feedback. `` It's an evolving experience, and we look to roll out a lot more throughout the year and beyond, '' Quash said.
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Google: We stopped these hackers who were targeting job hunters and crypto firms | Google and Mandiant detail North Korea's efforts to organize its offensive cyber capabilities within the government.
Liam Tung is a full-time freelance technology journalist who writes for several Australian publications.
Google has detailed its work to thwart not one but two North Korean hacking groups using a Chrome zero-day bug.
Google patched the bug in February but it was being exploited a month earlier. At the time, Google said it knew of reports that hackers were exploiting the Chrome bug CVE-2022-0609. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA) mandated federal agencies to patch the Chrome bug in February. Google's Threat Analyst Group ( TAG) says the exploit kit was being actively deployed from January 4, 2022.
According to Google, the North Korean hacking groups who were using this exploit are linked to Lazarus, the North Korean hacking group accused of both the Sony Pictures hack and massive theft via an attack on the SWIFT international bank-messaging system.
These groups ' work have been referenced by researchers at other cybersecurity firms as Operation Dream Job and Operation AppleJeus.
`` We suspect that these groups work for the same entity with a shared supply chain, hence the use of the same exploit kit, but each operate with a different mission set and deploy different techniques. It is possible that other North Korean government-backed attackers have access to the same exploit kit, '' said TAG's Adam Weidemann in a blogpost.
`` In line with our current disclosure policy, we are providing these details 30 days after the patch release. ''
The attackers made use of an exploit kit that contained multiple stages and components. The attackers placed links to the exploit kit within hidden iframes, which they embedded on both websites they owned as well as some websites they compromised, according to the security researchers.
The group has targeted US organizations in news media, tech, cryptocurrency and fintech sectors, according to Google. Organizations in other countries may have been targeted too, it notes.
According to Google, one of the groups targeted 250 people from 10 organizations in news media, domain registrars, web-hosting providers and software vendors with bogus job offers in emails impersonating recruiters from Disney, Google and Oracle. The emails contained links to spoofed versions of Indeed and ZipRecruiter — two popular sites used in the US for recruiting tech talent.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis estimates that North Korean hackers linked to Lazarus stole nearly $ 400 million worth of cryptocurrency in 2021. A United Nations panel of experts in 2018 concluded that its cryptocurrency hacks contributed to North Korea's ballistic missile programs.
Google says the other group targeted over 85 users in cryptocurrency and fintech industries using the same exploit kit.
Once they were discovered, all identified websites and domains were added to Google's Safe Browsing service to protect users from further exploitation, and Google also sent all targeted Gmail and Workspace users government-backed attacker alerts notifying them of the activity.
Mandiant, which Google is buying for $ 5.4 billion, also released a new report this week on North Korean hacking. It says North Korea is borrowing China's strategy of corralling hacker groups to work within the government.
Mandiant identifies the Lazarus-linked hacking groups as Lab 110, TEMP.Hermit, APT38, Andariel, and Bureau 325. They operate under North Korea's foreign intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which has seven sub-organizations that handle operations, reconnaissance, foreign intelligence, relations with South Korea, technology, and support.
Each group is specialized to target different industries and gather intelligence from organizations about geopolitical events or raise revenues through cryptocurrency theft.
`` TEMP.Hermit, APT38, and Andariel are likely subordinate to Lab 110. Lab 110 is likely an expanded and reorganized version of `` Bureau 121, '' Mandiant researchers said.
`` The country's espionage operations are believed to be reflective of the regime's immediate concerns and priorities, which is likely currently focused on acquiring financial resources through crypto heists, targeting of media, news, and political entities, information on foreign relations and nuclear information, and a slight decline in the once spiked stealing of COVID-19 vaccine research. Information collected in these campaigns will possibly be used to develop or produce internal items and strategies, as in vaccines, mitigations to bypass sanctions, funding for the country's weapons programs, and so on. ''
Computer science vs. computer engineering: What should I study?
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Meituan’ s Revenue Slows in Latest Sign of China Crackdown Toll | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
A food delivery courier for Meituan uses a smartphone on a motorcycle in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. Chinese delivery giant Meituan has raised $ 9.98 billion from a record top-up placement and a convertible bonds sale as it doubles down on efforts to fight the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in newer areas such as online groceries. Photographer: Yan Cong/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- Meituan’ s revenue slowed for the third straight quarter after weakening Chinese consumer spending and regulatory pressures constrained its online food and travel businesses.
The food delivery behemoth’ s net loss for the December quarter totaled 5.3 billion yuan ( $ 830 million), versus the 7.2 billion yuan projected. Revenue rose 31%, the slowest in more than a year, to 49.5 billion yuan.
Meituan’ s results reflect the challenges ahead for the company backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., which is grappling with regulatory scrutiny in areas from the welfare of its delivery riders to the commissions it charges restaurants. Fierce competition with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’ s food delivery platform Ele.me as well as sporadic Covid-Zero lockdowns will also take a toll on the company’ s financials.
Meituan and its rivals now have to embrace a new normal of slower growth as Beijing’ s tech crackdown reins in the once-unchecked expansion of the country’ s tech sector. Alibaba, Tencent and Pinduoduo Inc. all reported the slowest revenue growth since their initial public offerings during the same quarter.
A steady rise in food delivery demand on mainland China, particularly amid lingering Covid-19 concerns among the population, could have resulted in economies of scale which lowered average order costs and lifted the business unit’ s profitability during October-December vs. the same period a year earlier. Such gains may reverse in the March quarter as Meituan reduces delivery fees for restaurants and spends more on incentives for end-users to help lift these catering entities’ online revenue.
Beyond regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds, Meituan and its rivals are also under pressure to do their bit to share the wealth in Xi Jinping’ s “ common prosperity ” drive, and alleviate widespread pain as China battles several Covid outbreaks. In February, the government issued a call to aid the ailing service industry, asking food delivery platforms to cut the fees they charge restaurants -- wiping $ 26 billion off Meituan’ s value in a single day. Meituan’ s stock is now down 40% in 2022.
Meituan said on March 1 that it would reduce its technology service fee by 50%, capping it at 1 yuan, or 16¢, for merchants in pandemic-hit regions if their daily average user transaction volume has fallen more than 30%. Ele.me, the second-largest platform, said on March 2 that it would cut or waive commissions for merchants in areas hit by Covid for at least 15 days.
The company is keen to comply. Meituan, whose high-profile billionaire Wang Xing last year drew fire for apparently criticizing the government’ s regulatory campaign, has been accused of exploiting merchants by charging high commissions and forcing them to sign exclusive contracts. It disputes such criticism but began to make changes when China’ s top market regulator made it the target of an antitrust investigation in April 2021. | general |
COVID, Inflation Set Pension Scheme Funding Back A Decade | The knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mounting cost-of-living crisis in Britain have pushed back the long-term funding goals of pension plans by approximately a decade, a retirement savings consultancy has said.XPS Pensions said that the events of the past two years have taken a toll on the financial position of retirement plans in the U.K. The consultancy added that it had originally estimated in December 2019 that pension scheme deficits would fall by £100 billion ( $ 132 billion) by March 2022. But the deficits are actually £50 billion higher than had been expected three months ago. XPS said... | general |
Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plotters wanted to disrupt a Biden presidency, one member testifies | `` We wanted to cause as much of a disruption as possible to prevent Joe Biden from getting into office, '' Ty Garbin said in court Wednesday. Garbin is one of two people originally charged in a federal indictment in connection to the kidnapping plot who testified against the remaining co-defendants.
Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta face federal charges of conspiring to kidnap the Democratic governor. Fox, Croft and Harris face additional charges of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction including explosive devices, according to court documents. Croft and Harris are also charged with possessing destructive devices, counts added in a second indictment last April. All have pleaded not guilty.
The case underscores the political tensions in Michigan that reached new heights as Whitmer faced backlash for restrictions she imposed in 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Garbin said the group's goal was to kidnap Whitmer before the presidential election in November 2020. The men were concerned they might lose their opportunity to kidnap her if they waited until after the election because they thought she might be named to Biden's Cabinet, he testified.
The men were eventually arrested in October before they could allegedly act.
Kaleb Franks, who also pleaded guilty to kidnapping conspiracy, testified Thursday that he joined the group's plot because of his suicidal ideations. `` I was hoping that I would be killed in the process, '' Franks said. `` Because I no longer wanted to live. A large portion of my family had died, I was struggling financially and just wasn't happy. ''
In early summer 2020, the men and their alleged co-conspirators ran in circles with like-minded individuals who were disenchanted with the political situation in the US, gathering several times in multiple states to discuss what they could do about it, including violent measures.
The defendants also gathered with others on multiple occasions for militia-style training events to practice their tactical skills.
The alleged conspiracy against Whitmer gained traction in September as the men actively discussed the plot in encrypted chat threads, made moves to obtain explosives and trained specifically for the kidnapping.
At a training event Garbin hosted on his property in Luther, Michigan, he set up a `` shoot house '' made of tarps and wooden posts meant to simulate going through Whitmer's home during an `` extraction. ''
`` This one was to be as close to a actual home residence as we could get without having the blueprints, '' Garbin said in court.
Prosecutor Nils Kessler asked if Garbin thought his alleged co-conspirators knew the training exercise was specifically meant to prepare for the plot to kidnap Whitmer.
`` No question, '' Garbin said.
At night, Garbin, Franks, Fox, Croft and others went on a reconnaissance mission to surveil the area where Whitmer has a family vacation home in Elk Rapids, Michigan, according to Garbin and Franks.
Law enforcement eventually obtained dashcam footage the group recorded that night to use as a reference for future planning.
Fox, the alleged plot leader, gave orders that night to review the area surrounding Whitmer's home in three cars, Garbin said.
`` The plan was for one vehicle to go down the street to get actual eyes on the house itself. Another vehicle was going to be ( the) security car to patrol. And then the third vehicle we had was going to go take a look at the bridge and the marina, '' Garbin said.
Defendants Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta didn't make it on the surveillance trip because they were drunk at the training site, Garbin and Franks both said, but the men later asked for a summary of the mission.
`` Was ( Fox) the leader of this conspiracy in your opinion? '' Adam Fox's lawyer asked Garbin during cross-examination.
`` Yes, '' Garbin said.
In an encrypted messaging chat, Fox invited the other defendants to another training at his workplace to `` work on acquiring an asset and detaining through extraction. ''
The group planned to extract Whitmer from the vacation home and bring her to a nearby boat launch where the men would take her by boat out of the area via Lake Michigan, according to Garbin. They also planned to bomb a nearby bridge to slow down responding law enforcement, he testified.
Croft specifically discussed using his grenade launcher and a mounted machine gun to thwart law enforcement response to the scene, Franks echoed during his testimony Thursday.
Croft and Harris, a former Marine, also practiced detonating an explosive filled with shrapnel that weekend using human silhouettes made of paper, Franks said.
A man who knew Adam Fox from another Michigan militia group, Matthew Keepers, testified Wednesday morning that Fox reached out to him earlier that summer for help with explosives. Fox sent Keepers messages on Facebook asking him to procure him explosives, help him build explosives or at least teach him how to do it himself.
Role of 'Dan '
Prosecuting and defense attorneys all placed a paid confidential informant `` Dan '' at the crux of this case. The military veteran who initially joined the militia-style group Wolverine Watchmen looking to practice weapons handling with a militia, quickly blew the whistle on the group, alarmed by their violent discussions, prosecutors said.
The four defense attorneys have argued their clients were entrapped by Dan and other paid confidential informants and undercover FBI agents who lured them to events and meetings where they secretly recorded conversations.
Franks testified Thursday that that he personally spoke to each defendant about their plans to kidnap Whitmer, contrary to defense attempts throughout the trial to pin the scheme on confidential informants.
What's next
Garbin, 26, was sentenced to more than six years in prison last year and could receive a further sentence reduction for his continued cooperation.
Garbin testified for a grand jury in this case and began cooperating with the government early on, prosecutors have said.
Franks, 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in June. He's hoping for a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony.
Kaleb Franks is expected to continue testifying Friday morning, answering questions from defense attorneys.
Defense attorneys said in court Thursday afternoon that they want to attack Franks ' credibility, questioning him about prior convictions and an incident during his most recent incarceration connected to this case.
Franks admitted to using a controlled substance while detained, prosecutors said, acknowledging an investigation is underway.
Prosecutors said they intend to rest their case by the end of next week.
Defense attorneys have classified potential witnesses as training event attendees, law enforcement agents not called during the government's case and character witnesses.
An attorney for Adam Fox said he may call a controversial paid informant during his defense case, despite the informant expressing his intention to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. | business |
UK Kicks Off Review Of COVID Events Reinsurance Scheme | The government said on Friday that it is beginning a review of its reinsurance program for live events during the COVID-19 pandemic, a measure to help protect promoters and artists against losses caused by cancellation arising from lockdown restrictions.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said it will review the project as it makes `` ongoing efforts to make sure the scheme achieves its objectives to support live events following the impacts of COVID-19. `` The live events sector can help inform the review by answering some questions, the DCMS said. The ministry wants organizers to tell it how many people... | general |
U.K. Covid-19 Infections Surge by One Million in Just a Week | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
A Covid-19 test is processed at All Saints Catholic College in Dukinfield, Great Manchester, U.K., on Friday, March 5, 2021. On Monday the U.K. begins to ease lockdown with schools reopening to all pupils in England. Photographer: Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- The number of people infected with Covid-19 in the U.K. soared by almost a third in a week just as the government prepares to end free virus testing for most people.
About 4.25 million people currently have the disease, almost a million more than last week, according to an estimate by the Office for National Statistics.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of virtually all pandemic-related restrictions in January, betting that the roll-out of the country’ s vaccination program and the emergence of the less severe omicron variant would limit deaths and boost economic activity. Next month, most people wanting to take a lateral flow test will have to pay for them.
But as more people return to the office and socialize, a second wave of the omicron has spread. So far, though, the number of people dying of Covid has trailed that of those infected. According to the ONS, about 670 people died of the disease in England and Wales in the week ending March 11, the latest data available.
Canada joins U.S., U.K. in diplomatic boycott of Beijing games
Trudeau weighs auto-content rules as next U.S. trade flashpoint | general |
Watch, Clock, Measuring Device Global Market Report 2022 | New York, March 25, 2022 ( GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report `` Watch, Clock, Measuring Device Global Market Report 2022 '' - https: //www.reportlinker.com/p06247469/? utm source=GNW The global watch, clock, measuring device market is expected to grow from $ 88.83 billion in 2021 to $ 114.66 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate ( CAGR) of 29.1%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $ 287.85 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 25.9%.The watch, clock, measuring device market consists of sales of the watch, clock, measuring device, and related services for measuring time and physical quantity.Watch is a portable timepiece worn by individuals around the wrist, attached by a strap.A clock is a device used for measuring and indicating time, using pointers moving over a dial. A measuring device is an instrument used to measure various parameters in the physical used to measure various parameters.The main types in the watch, clock, and measuring device are watches and clocks, measuring devices.A measuring instrument is a device that is used to estimate the quantity of a parameter.Measurement is the process of collecting and analyzing physical quantities of real-world objects and events in the physical sciences, quality assurance, and engineering.The various price ranges are low range, mid-range, and luxury.The various distribution channels are offline retail stores, online retail stores. The various end-user are women, men, and unisex.The Asia Pacific is the largest region in the watch, clock, measuring device market in 2021.North America is the second-largest region in the watch, clock, measuring device market.The regions covered in this report include Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa.The rise in disposable incomes was a major driver of the watch, clock, measuring device market.The rise in disposable incomes was mainly driven by economic growth and middle-class population growth in developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil.According to the World Bank, the world’ s middle-class population – defined as that earning between $ 10 and $ 100 per day – increased from approximately 1.5 to 2 billion. Moreover, China’ s economy grew at 6.9% and India’ s GDP grew at 7.1%. Increased earnings greatly increased disposable incomes in the emerging markets, contributing to the watch, clock, measuring device market’ s growth.Rising trade protectionism acts as a major challenge in the watch, clock, measuring device market.Trade protectionism is characterized as a country, or a group of countries working related as an exchange alliance, making exchange boundaries with the particular objective of protecting its economy from the potential dangers of worldwide trading.The target of trade protectionism is to ensure a country’ s fundamental monetary interests, for example, its key ventures, wares, and work of laborers.A wide number of trade barriers have been introduced since mid-2018, the major one has been higher tariffs on bilateral trade between the US and China.This increase in protectionism has contributed to a slowdown in global growth through direct effects on trade flows, supply chains, and import costs, and indirect effects on business sentiment, uncertainty, and investment around the world. Therefore, rising trade protectionism will negatively impact the watch, clock, measuring device market’ s growth.Internet of things ( IoT) driven smartwatches are the highly preferred choice of watches.Smartwatches connected to the internet offer a wide range of features such as time, health monitoring, fitness tracking, receiving calls and messages, entertainment, cardless payments, and connectivity to other IoT devices to improve the quality of the user’ s life.With increasing consumers’ interests in health and fitness, convenience in day-to-day activities, and smart homes, wearable IoT devices such as smartwatches offer various features. The global smartwatch shipments increased to 14.2 million units in 2019.In November 2019, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, acquired smart watch maker, Fitbit, Inc. for a deal amount of US $ 2.1 billion. Alphabet said that the acquisition helps them in the advancement of its smartwatch software, Wear OS. Fitbit, Inc. is an American company that makes fitness bands, smartwatches, and accessories that helps in tracking footsteps, exercises, heart rate, and weight.The countries covered in the watch, clock, measuring device market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and the USA.Read the full report: https: //www.reportlinker.com/p06247469/? utm source=GNWAbout ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. | general |
Harvard Economist Says Covid Hit Worse by Education Than Gender | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
The Harvard University campus. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg, Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- While the pandemic disproportionately hurt women in the workforce more than men, the bigger divide was among education levels, according to a new paper by Harvard University economist Claudia Goldin.
When restaurants, retailers and other service providers closed, those without college degrees were more likely to lose their jobs. Meantime, many college-educated Americans could continue to work from home.
“ The pandemic produced both a he- and a she-cession, ” Goldin wrote in a report discussed at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity conference Thursday. “ Relative to previous recessions, women have been harder hit. But the largest differences in pandemic effects on employment are found between education groups rather than between genders within educational groups. ”
“ And that makes it more similar to previous recessions, ” she wrote.
In May 2020, more than 60% of men and women with college degrees were working at home due to Covid-19, Goldin said. Among those with less education, only about 25% of employed women and roughly 14% of men were.
Goldin compares the percentage of people “ at work ” during the pandemic -- a measure that excludes those who said they had a job but were not actually working, like someone who was furloughed -- with the share in prior periods.
Among those ages 20-54, female college graduates at work fell by 2.7 percentage points from fall 2018 to fall 2020. That compared to 2.6 percentage points among male college graduates. For non-college graduates, those figures dropped by more than double.
Goldin also found that by and large, employed mothers didn’ t leave the labor force, despite greatly increased time demands for their children amid school and day-care closures. However, the share “ at work ” fell more precipitously for Black and Hispanic women and those with young children. | general |
Three More Developers Join Earnings Delay: Evergrande Update | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
( Bloomberg) -- Three Chinese developers joined an expanding group of peers to warn of missing the deadline for releasing audited 2021 results, with Powerlong Real Estate Holdings Ltd. also becoming the latest to lose a major international auditor.
Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP plans to gradually exit auditing Chinese private property developers, according to a REDD report. PwC has resigned as an auditor this year from Powerlong, Ronshine China Holdings Ltd., and Hopson Development Holdings Ltd.
Chinese high-yield dollar bonds fell 1 cent to 2 cents on the dollar Friday morning, according to credit traders, led by a slump in Powerlong notes. A Bloomberg index tracking that market rose for the sixth consecutive session Thursday, matching a streak in January. A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of developer stocks erased earlier gains to fall 1.1%.
Bonds of China Bad-Debt Managers Offer Value in Rout, Funds Say ( 3:08 p.m. HK)
The bonds of Chinese companies that manage the distressed debt of others look attractive amid the rout in global debt markets, according to some Asian fixed-income investors.
Dollar-denominated debt issued by so-called asset management companies have outperformed China’ s broader investment-grade securities this week amid optimism regulators will increasingly call upon them to help clean up the troubled property sector.
Yuzhou’ s Local and Offshore Creditors Make Divergent Bond Bets ( 3:00 p.m. Hong Kong)
Yuzhou Group Holdings Co.’ s dramatically diverging bond prices show that local and global investors are betting on wildly different outcomes for their investments in the beleaguered Chinese developer.
The firm’ s most active onshore note is priced at more than 70% of its face value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, most of Yuzhou’ s dollar bonds have fallen to about 10 cents on the dollar since the firm missed a dollar note’ s interest payment earlier this month.
China Builders Face Worst Earnings in Decade With Audit Woes ( 11:24 a.m. Hong Kong)
Investors in Chinese developers are bracing for tone of the worst earnings seasons in more than a decade -- and even then, they’ re unlikely to get the full picture right away.
At least nine property firms including defaulters China Evergrande Group and Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. expect to miss this month’ s deadline for reporting audited annual results -- the first round of earnings since a credit crunch sent shockwaves through the industry and triggered a wave of defaults.
China Great Wall AMC Sells 10b Yuan of Bonds At 3.3% ( 11:20 a.m. Hong Kong)
China Great Wall Asset Management Co. sold 10 billion yuan ( $ 1.57 billion) of three-year bonds at 3.3%, according to a statement on the Shanghai Clearing House website.
The state-run bad loan manager said earlier that the proceeds will be used to help major developers resolve financial risk and and repay its own debt.
PwC to Gradually Exit Auditing Chinese Private Developers: REDD ( 9:23 a.m. Hong Kong)
Following Evergrande’ s troubles last year, PwC became cautious about signing off on the 2021 annual financial statements for some developers, REDD reported, citing three sources.
Sunshine 100 China to Delay Publishing 2021 Results ( 8:33 a.m. Hong Kong)
Sunshine 100 China Holdings Ltd. will delay the publication of its 2021 preliminary annual results since it has not yet completed the preparation, according to a stock exchange filing.
The developer said it needs more time to obtain information mainly on its debt and make accounting valuations to estimate the value of assets, adding that it will apply for suspension of share trading from April 1.
Powerlong Real Estate, Unit to Delay Issuing Audited Results ( 7:11 a.m. H.K.)
Powerlong likely won’ t be able to publish its 2021 audited results by month’ s end, attributing it partly to China’ s Covid-19 control policy and following PwC’ s resignation, according to an exchange filing.
The developer said it wasn’ t able to agree with its former auditor on a mutually acceptable timetable to complete work. Powerlong has engaged Elite Partners CPA as its new auditor and aims to issue unaudited results on March 29.
Modern Land to Proceed With Offshore Debt Restructuring ( 5:34 a.m. H.K.)
Modern Land China Co. will proceed with implementation of the proposed restructuring after creditors representing more than 75% of outstanding principal amount of existing notes entered the deal, the developer said in an exchange filing late Thursday.
China Sees ‘ Unprecedented’ Capital Outflow Since War, IIF Says ( 10:08 p.m. H.K.)
China has seen investors pull money out of the country on an “ unprecedented ” scale since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, marking a “ very unusual ” shift in global capital flows in emerging markets, according to the Institute of International Finance.
High-frequency data detected large portfolio outflows from Chinese stocks and bonds, even as flows to other emerging markets held up, the IIF wrote in a report.
Greenland Hong Kong to Delay Release of Audited 2021 Results ( 9:12 p.m. H.K.)
Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. needs extra time to publish its audited figures, saying the process has been delayed due to Covid-19-related travel restrictions in China.
The firm plans to publish unaudited annual results on March 29, when it will disclose the expected date of announcement for the audited data.
Sunac Said to Plan Meeting With Bond’ s Holders on Extension Bid ( 4:26 p.m. H.K.)
Sunac China Holdings Ltd. will have a meeting with holders of a bond puttable April 1 about its payment-extension proposal, according to people familiar with the matter.
A date hasn’ t been set, said the people, who are not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. The firm didn’ t immediately offer a comment when reached by Bloomberg on Thursday.
Rogers Communications ' takeover of Shaw cleared one of three crucial hurdles Thursday.
A new report from CIBC’ s fixed-income team says that if the Bank of Canada decides to deliver a double-dose of monetary tightening with a 50 basis point rate hike, it would be best served by waiting for the central bank’ s June meeting.
Canada will increase oil and gas exports by the equivalent of 300,000 barrels a day to help nations that are trying to shift away from Russian supplies, the country’ s resources minister said.
A group of Bridging Finance investors plan to make a last-ditch effort in an Ontario court Friday to allow them to have a greater say in the future of the troubled private debt lender rather than have its court-appointed receiver wind down the firm. | general |
3 Things We Learned From Teen Vogue’ s Town Hall On The State of AAPI Women | In partnership with The Asian American Foundation, Teen Vogue hosted a town hall discussion on the state of Asian American and Pacific Islander women in the U.S today. Moderated by Teen Vogue Editor in Chief Versha Sharma, we heard from four women who’ ve played major roles in the advancement of AAPI women through advocacy, legislation, and allyship: New York Congresswoman Grace Meng, White House AAPI Senior Liaison Erika Moritsugu, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Executive Director of The National Asian Pacific American Women’ s Forum ( NAPAWF) Sung Yeon Choimorrow.
In recognition of the one-year anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings and the 339% increased in anti-Asian hate crime reports last year, they discussed the challenges, growth, and momentum seen by AAPI women across the country. Here are three compelling insights we gained from this crucial conversation.
Earlier this month, NAPAWF released a report on the state of safety for AAPI women in the U.S. After surveying more than 2,400 AAPI women from every region, they found that 74% of AAPI women across all ethnic groups reported personally experiencing racism and/or discrimination in the last year, 38% experienced sexual harassment, and 12% experienced gender and/or race-based physical violence within the last year. An astounding 91% think that elected officials “ need to better understand the intersectional ways AAPIs experience hate while investing more resources in directly impacted communities. ”
Executive Director of NAPAWF, Sung Yeon Choimorrow says, “ The majority of people who said they had experienced discrimination or harassment happened on public transit or in public spaces. And 57% of them said that the perpetrator was a stranger. ” The fear of just leaving the house is causing AAPI women extreme mental distress, with 71% of those polled reporting anxiety around discrimination or violence, the report found. “ People are afraid to just go outside, ” she added.
Although the passing of legislation like the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is important, according to Rep. Grace Meng, it’ s not enough for community resources to just exist — they have to be accessible to everyone. “ We need to empower our community organizations with resources at all levels that are culturally competent and linguistically accessible, ” she says. “ We have too often seen that there may be existing resources at all levels of government, but because they're not accessible to our diverse communities it’ s almost as if they don’ t exist. ”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says, “ We have to fight for every woman in America to feel safe in her community, to be able to feel safe going to work. This is not a responsibility for Asian American women to solve by themselves. ” Between March 2020 and 2021, 65% of anti-Asian hate incidents were reported by women, according to Stop AAPI Hate. The Violence Against Women Act, which was reauthorized last week and “ should never have been allowed to lapse ” according to Gillibrand, will provide more resources for domestic violence shelters and education — but it will also, notably, put more money towards policing.
“ Is any woman of color in America surprised [ by the violence ]? No. We’ ve lived our entire lives feeling targeted and living and walking in public spaces with the threat of violence, ” Moritsugu says. “ Throughout American history, AAPIs, particularly women, have been targeted time and time again, starting with the Page Act of 1875, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women into the United States out of the belief that they were engaged in ‘ lewd and immoral purposes. ' ” She notes that Rep. Meng’ s hate crime bill passed after the Atlanta shootings, but she had been long aware of the racial violence that has been “ simmering ” all along. “ We recognize there’ s a lot of work to be done in combating the long standing systemic prejudices, but we’ re going to ensure that [ AAPI women ] and their families and communities are not only safe from the threat of violence but are empowered and able to thrive, ” says Moritsugu.
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Germany’ s Covid Situation Probably Won’ t Get Better Soon | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
( Bloomberg) -- Germany’ s Covid situation probably won’ t improve in the coming weeks, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Friday, suggesting millions more people will catch the virus and thousands more will die before warmer weather arrives.
The risk of infection is greater than ever, with some 300,000 new cases being reported in Germany in each of the last few days -- a figure that probably captures less than half of the true infection level, Lauterbach said. The country has recently reported about 300 daily deaths, a burden that could rise in coming weeks, Lauterbach warned.
“ We can’ t talk about Freedom Day, ” he said. “ It’ s not enough to simply wait for the weather to get better for this to go away. We have be active again. ”
With hospitals struggling in many parts of Germany because of high patient loads and many doctors and nurses out sick or in quarantine, Lauterbach urged the country’ s most-affected regions to maintain restrictions. He also renewed calls for vaccine mandates, saying that even one dose can reduce the risk of death or severe illness within a week for a previously unvaccinated person.
Germany has as many as 10 times more unvaccinated people at high risk of severe Covid than does England, he said. While that poses a threat for the weeks ahead, it will also require societal restrictions in the fall and winter, he said. Lauterbach also urged millions of Germans who are eligible for a fourth dose to get one, saying only a small number of people have done so. | general |
What is the nuclear risk in Ukraine? Radiation expert Vadim Chumak speaks from Kyiv about his fears. | Vadim Chumak monitored radiation after Chernobyl. He explains what could go wrong now, and says he’ s “ old enough to sacrifice ” his life.
Russian troops have been bringing death and destruction to Ukraine since they invaded on February 24. But there’ s a risk they could cause a nuclear accident too, according to Vadim Chumak, head of the external exposure dosimetry lab at Ukraine’ s National Research Center for Radiation Medicine in the country’ s capital, Kyiv.
Russia has taken control of two nuclear power plants inside Ukraine. Some reactors inside those plants have been cut off from their power sources, and radiation-monitoring devices have been disconnected, leading to concerns of a potential nuclear disaster.
“ The need to prevent a nuclear accident becomes more pressing with each day that passes, ” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a March 23 video statement.
Of particular worry is that if a nuclear catastrophe strikes, scientists might not be able to monitor it or measure its impacts, says Chumak, who works on ways to monitor radiation exposure and played a key role in dose assessment following the Chernobyl disaster, when a nuclear reactor at the site exploded in 1986. Today, he remains close enough to Kyiv to help should a nuclear disaster result from Russia’ s invasion.
From a house in Ukraine’ s countryside, Chumak spoke to MIT Technology Review about his hopes and fears, the risks of radiation leaks from hospitals, and the fact that much of the country’ s radiation monitoring equipment is obsolete.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Well, I did my day-to-day work in my lab, but after the invasion, we moved out. There was a hit at the TV broadcast tower in Kyiv, which is about one kilometer away from my lab. And there was another hit at a factory that makes military equipment less than a kilometer from the lab. So it’ s quite a dangerous area. We were really under fire—it was not possible to stay there. So all my staff are working remotely.
At the moment there are two large nuclear facilities which have been taken by Russia. One is in Chernobyl, and another is in Zaporizhzhia. In Zaporizhzhia they have six reactors, plus spent fuel storage. The spent fuel is very dangerous—it contains a lot of very radioactive stuff.
Fresh fuel is much less dangerous than spent fuel. After these fuel assemblies work for a couple of years in the reactor core, they accumulate an enormous amount of fission products which are very radioactive, such as iodine, cesium, and strontium. If there was any damage to the spent fuel assemblies stored at Zaporizhzhia, it could result in an enormous radiological emergency, comparable to what happened in Chernobyl.
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I don’ t think it’ s likely that the reactors themselves could be destroyed. They are housed in special buildings which are tough and very difficult to destroy. These buildings are designed in such a way that a large jumbo jet could fall directly straight on one of them, and it would still stand.
But the Russian military has shot projectiles at Zaporizhzhia, which is completely crazy. Maybe they have some weapons that could destroy this building.
The real danger is the spent fuel. Used fuel assemblies, which are bundles of fuel rods, are stored at the same site.
The spent fuel assembly storage was never designed to be attacked by tanks or missiles, and what Russia is doing now in Ukraine. In nuclear installation safety assessments, buildings are designed for what’ s known as the “ maximum projectable accident, ” which is considered the worst-case scenario. But they can’ t withstand anything beyond that.
That happened in Fukushima, for instance. The developers put countermeasures for a tsunami in place to protect the equipment. But the tsunami was one or two meters higher than predicted for the worst-case scenario. The spent fuel storage in Ukraine was designed to be very strong, and under normal operation maybe it could even resist the jumbo jet fall. But it definitely can not resist a strike by modern weapons.
There are around 20,000 spent fuel assemblies stored at the Chernobyl site. They are old, and a lot of the material has decayed. But they still contain a lot of long-lived radionucleotides like cesium and strontium. So if Russia was crazy enough to demolish that, it would pose a problem.
Even well-meaning attempts to participate in the news can play into bad actors’ campaigns.
It is something we need to consider, because in this war, many unthinkable things have become real.
There are two medical sources of radiation. One is machinery, like X-ray machines or linear accelerators, which are used to treat cancer. They emit some radiation, but only if they are switched on. Once you switch it off, it’ s just a piece of metal.
But the second source uses isotopes like cobalt or cesium, which are used in nuclear medicine and radiation therapy, for instance in positron emission tomography ( PET). They are physically protected in the hospital, which means they are protected from theft. But they are not protected against being hit by a bomb.
If they were compromised, we might see something like the Goiânia accident in Brazil in 1989. Then, some people stole and dismantled a radiotherapy device from an abandoned hospital site in order to sell the parts as scrap metal. They discovered this small ampule filled with cesium, which glowed blue at night. It’ s a long story, but the single destroyed source of radiation contaminated much of Goiânia. Four people died, 20 needed hospital treatment, and 249 people were contaminated. Eighty-five houses were significantly contaminated, and 200 of the people living in these homes were evacuated. So this kind of scenario needs to be considered. And that’ s without thinking about malevolent use of the sources.
The spent fuel assemblies, for example, are a very good material for making a dirty bomb, which is a scenario for a terrorist attack. The more technical term is a radiological dispersion device. If you attach such radioactive sources to a device and explode it, then it will result in contamination of a large area with radioactive material. There are a lot of radiological scenarios of this kind now on the table.
Radiation monitoring networks were set up at each nuclear power plant, but they have been disconnected now, so Ukrainian and international agencies no longer receive real-time data from them. The Ukrainian government and authorities no longer have access to this network, which was quite sophisticated and operational before this invasion.
There is also a remote monitoring network set up around the country to detect radiation. I think that the points nearest to the plants are also disabled, or at least cut from this general network. If something really bad were to happen, it would be noticed by more distant monitors. It’ s not real-time control—hours would pass before it would be noticed. Unless it was reported by people who are under Russian control.
What I know from official reports is that soon after the invasion, before the connection was cut, about a fivefold increase in radiation dose rates was recorded at the Chernobyl site. The most plausible explanation is that tanks disturbed radioactive material on the ground.
The Chernobyl exclusion zone is a restricted area. Some tourism is allowed, and if you follow the rules it’ s pretty safe, but it can still be dangerous. What they did was move tanks back and forth, off road. This was a very heavily contaminated area following the accident in 1986, and some of the most contaminated areas were purposely covered with soil and vegetation to keep radioactivity from resuspension.
The tanks could immediately disturb these heavily contaminated layers of soil. Those guys [ Russian soldiers ] not only neglect law, but they also neglect any reasonable radiation safety rules. Now they’ ve inhaled this dust and they have radiation in their bodies. It’ s stupid from the ecological point of view, and the global point of view. At the local level it’ s very dangerous and stupid. The fivefold increase in dose would present a local problem.
There are two or three types of devices that are really important at the time of the accident. But many of the devices we have now in Ukraine are obsolete.
After the Chernobyl accident, between 1987 and around 1991, we went through a period of accumulating radiation monitoring capacity. Since then, the interest in Chernobyl has been much lower. As a result, many of our dosimetry devices are from 1991 or 1992 at the latest. The normal lifetime for those kinds of instruments is 10 years. Now, they are more than 30 years old. The equipment that is still operational is not in very good shape. As a result, we really need that [ new equipment ]. We have made some official demands for such equipment, but I have also made requests to colleagues in the US.
One type is called a survey meter. They are radiometers, like a Geiger-Müller tube. They have a display that shows you the dose rates, so you can see which area is dangerous and which is not. There are also some special dose-rate meters, which are useful for measuring contamination of clothes, hair, and surfaces after an emergency.
So-called whole-body monitors are specially calibrated to measure internal contamination, for example, in people who drink local milk or inhale contaminated air. Personal dosimeters look like badges. They are small, maybe 10-gram devices that are attached to people’ s clothes. They are sent to labs to determine the dose a person has been exposed to.
Not really. Following the Chernobyl disaster, everything was under complete control. It was possible to mobilize and recruit a thousand buses to evacuate the population. It was a completely different story.
Now we have fights—some territories are out of control, and others are under fire. I can not imagine such an evacuation process being possible. We don’ t have the means for such an evacuation, and we don’ t know where to evacuate to. The routes of evacuation could be attacked and bombarded, like what’ s happening in Mariupol.
My recommendation, if such an emergency were to happen, is to shelter for as long as possible before receiving special orders from the authorities. Don’ t move. Don’ t try to escape. Simply shelter. It doesn’ t have to be underground—even apartment blocks provide sufficient shielding against radiation if you stay away from the windows.
I am close to Kyiv, about 25 kilometers away, in a country house. Fortunately, this area is reasonably safe and I’ m able to communicate with Kyiv. I’ m staying within a one-hour drive of Kyiv, so I can go to Kyiv if necessary. I’ m in standby mode—if my competence or my work is needed I will go back to my workplace. That was the reason why we decided not to flee.
I’ m optimistic about the success of the Ukrainian military against the Russians. Ukraine will simply not be subdued. To give up or forgive is simply not an option.
Our children have two 4-year-old daughters, so we moved them to a safer place. But the elderly stay here. I’ m old enough to sacrifice my life if needed.
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European Stocks Edge Higher as Investors Weigh Growth, War Risks | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
( Bloomberg) -- European stocks opened slightly higher, looking set for a subdued finish to the week as investors mull concerns over surging inflation and slowing growth amid the war in Ukraine.
The Stoxx 600 Index was up 0.2% at 8:03 a.m. in London, led by gains in chemicals stocks and miners. Banks were the biggest fallers.
After last week recouping losses sparked by Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine, the benchmark is slightly lower on the week so far as central banks signal an aggressive tightening in monetary policy and economic data indicate an “ unprecedented ” rise in costs for parts and raw materials. Although the index has crept away from a technical bear market, it is still about 8% below its January record high.
“ Investors appear to be slowly coming to terms with the prospect of higher rates perhaps on the basis that even a 1% move in rates by the summer would merely put the Fed funds rate back to the level it was pre-pandemic, ” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Data released Friday showed U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in February as an end to coronavirus restrictions saw Britons change their spending patterns. Focus later in the day will be on the March reading of the German Ifo business confidence index.
In the latest geopolitical developments, President Joe Biden called for Russia’ s removal from the G-20 group of major economies, and the U.S. and its allies warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against using biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Rogers Communications ' takeover of Shaw cleared one of three crucial hurdles Thursday.
A new report from CIBC’ s fixed-income team says that if the Bank of Canada decides to deliver a double-dose of monetary tightening with a 50 basis point rate hike, it would be best served by waiting for the central bank’ s June meeting.
Canada will increase oil and gas exports by the equivalent of 300,000 barrels a day to help nations that are trying to shift away from Russian supplies, the country’ s resources minister said.
A group of Bridging Finance investors plan to make a last-ditch effort in an Ontario court Friday to allow them to have a greater say in the future of the troubled private debt lender rather than have its court-appointed receiver wind down the firm. | general |
Traders Are ‘ Playing With Fire’ Using Fund to Bet on Russian Stocks | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Pedestrians walk by Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. Facing a rising wave of Covid-19 infections and a vaccination rate that isn’ t keeping up, the Kremlin is trying to contain the epidemic without alarming Russians., Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- With few options left on U.S. exchanges to bet on Russian assets, investors have rushed into a tiny closed-end fund tracking eastern European stocks.
Trading volume on the $ 51 million Central and Eastern Europe Fund ( ticker CEE) managed by DWS Group spiked in recent weeks after major Russia-focused exchange-traded funds were halted. Nearly 1.4 million shares were exchanged during the week ending March 18 amid news of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, the highest weekly trading volume since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Piling into CEE doesn’ t come without risk, and it’ s not all geopolitical. Closed-end funds -- unlike ETFs -- issue a fixed number of shares, so their trading price can quickly diverge from its underlying assets as demand for the shares shifts. CEE traded at a 24% premium on Thursday, the highest on record for a fund that typically trades below the value of its underlying assets, making it difficult to use the fund as a tool to closely track Russian stocks. And most of the fund’ s Russia-linked securities are depository receipts, which are still halted on exchanges and therefore difficult to value.
“ There was nowhere to trade, no one could make bets on Russia, no one could hedge their exposure, so a lot of people came here, ” said James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. But, he warned, “ anyone trading these things is playing with fire right now. ”
Since closed-end funds aren’ t required to report holdings daily, investors don’ t know what they’ re holding in real time and may not understand how they value their assets.
Roughly 60% of CEE’ s holdings were in Russia-linked securities, as of Feb. 24, disclosures show. By March 14, they’ d marked virtually the entire allotment down to zero. While Alrosa PJSC, the only local Russian stock that the fund holds, resumed trading this week in Moscow, the remaining Russia-linked securities were depositary receipts.
Securities are given a “ fair value ” if their market prices are not readily available, which for CEE is the amount that it “ might reasonably expect to receive for the security upon its current sale, ” DWS said in a statement. But any valuations assigned to CEE’ s Russian securities are “ subject to change and may be reduced to potentially as little as zero, ” according to the firm. Such securities could actually be worth nothing if Russia is completely shut off to foreign investors, Seyffart said. CEE doesn’ t plan to make new investments in Russian securities, the firm said.
Meanwhile, CEE is trading at a premium as demand for the fund has likely exceeded the amount of available shares, Seyffart added. Investors may be wanting to play the Russian market or hedge against trades they have on other Russia-linked securities that are frozen, he said. But these moves are risky, since “ there’ s no guarantee that it’ s going to correlate to the price of the underlying assets. ”
Russia-focused ETFs could also lure investors away from CEE, if and when they begin trading again, said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at ETF Trends. This could lead to lower liquidity for the fund and make it difficult for investors to exit their positions, he added.
Before Russia-focused ETFs were halted, they suspended share creations, making them behave similar to a closed-end fund. But such ETFs made purer bets on the country and offer more transparency than CEE, Rosenbluth said.
“ Investors’ comfort with ETFs has surpassed their comfort in using closed-end funds, so I do think the ETFs are more likely to win out. ”
Canada’ s 10-year yield rose to the highest since 2018 as a top Bank of Canada official said household finances are in good shape and that monetary policymakers are prepared to “ act forcefully ” to quell inflation.
Far off the hedge fund world’ s usual map is a small firm in Toronto, filling out the second floor of a tidy brown office tower, just above a pizzeria.
Canadians who are struggling to buy a home could find they get better bang for their buck by purchasing physical property through real estate investment trusts, some analysts say.
The U.S. and the European Union will push to boost supplies of LNG to European countries by the end of 2022 in a bid to displace Russian gas | general |
Lumber rally cools with transport snarls easing, buyers balking | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Lumber headed for its biggest weekly loss since July as transportation snarls that sparked a rally start to ease.
Futures tumbled to $ 974.80 per 1,000 board feet on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday, heading for a sixth straight decline. That’ s the longest slump since January. The pullback signals soaring costs are crimping consumer demand, just as more timber supplies are set to hit the market.
“ I think the price decline is tied to the DIY ( do-it-yourself) sector slowing down due to high lumber prices, with people spending their money on other things like travel, ” said Russ Taylor, president of Russ Taylor Global in Vancouver.
Lumber prices, which reached a record high in May, had soared anew in recent weeks as deliveries to customers slowed. Flooding in British Columbia disrupted supplies in late 2021, and volumes that were stuck at mills in the West will move more quickly in better spring weather, resulting in more supplies in the market after months of tight inventories, Taylor said.
Wood prices have been volatile since the pandemic began. They touched the record highs amid a Covid-19 inspired building boom, then collapsed because sawmills ramped up production and high prices stifled demand.
Buyers may have extra inventory once all their late shipments show up as transportation challenges ease, said Steve Loebner, director of risk management at Sherwood Lumber. Higher prices for all consumer goods and higher interest rates are also making homes less affordable, he said.
“ Overall demand is still strong right now but there are headwinds in terms of overall affordability, ” Loebner said in an email.
Canada’ s 10-year yield rose to the highest since 2018 as a top Bank of Canada official said household finances are in good shape and that monetary policymakers are prepared to “ act forcefully ” to quell inflation.
Far off the hedge fund world’ s usual map is a small firm in Toronto, filling out the second floor of a tidy brown office tower, just above a pizzeria.
Canadians who are struggling to buy a home could find they get better bang for their buck by purchasing physical property through real estate investment trusts, some analysts say.
The U.S. and the European Union will push to boost supplies of LNG to European countries by the end of 2022 in a bid to displace Russian gas | general |
Brett Girard's Top Picks: March 25, 2022 | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Between energy-led inflation, labour market strength, developments in Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine and equity sector dispersion, there has been no shortage of headlines so far in 2022. As these trends evolve over the balance of the year, investors should expect to be ( unfortunately) more than repaid for the suppressed volatility of 2021.
In light of this, portfolio management must be a focus. Sticking to a target asset mix and maintaining a broadly diversified set of holdings, with appropriate position sizes, allows for risk to be kept in line with premeditated goals. Doing so also helps avoid the temptation of sweeping portfolio changes at an inopportune time.
On security selection, investors should focus on pricing power as an inflationary hedge, appropriate levels of corporate leverage and the capital allocation skills of a given management team. Moreover, investors need to consider ungluing from the daily noise and enjoying the first Canadian spring largely free of COVID-19 restrictions in two years.
Brett Girard, chief financial officer and portfolio manager at Liberty International Investment Management, discusses his top picks: Fairfax Financial, CN Rail, and Novozymes.
2021 was a turning point in the business with revenues growing 34 per cent, net earnings ( including one-time items) up 15x and the consolidated combined ratio down to 95 per cent from 97.8 per cent. Going forward, their insurance businesses are expecting continued hard pricing while the float is short duration and will benefit from higher interest rates. Trading near 1x book value is a discount to the sum of the parts.
With global resource supply chains in flux, Canada, as a commodity rich nation is poised to benefit. 2/3 of CN Rail’ s revenue is attributable to moving commodities including petroleum, grain and fertilizers. Further, transporting goods via train vs. truck is a quarter of the fuel. New CEO, Tracy Robinson, joined from TC Energy with extensive experience in rail shipping. Dividend increased 19 per cent Y/Y and a CAGR of 14 per cent over the last decade.
This Danish biotech offers multiple lines of business that harness biology to reduce costs and increase output. Examples include enzymes to improve laundry detergent efficiency in cold water, biocontrol solutions for crops, probiotics for livestock and ethanol and biodiesel production. With high switching costs and strong market share ( e.g. ~50 per cent industrial enzyme market) Novozymes is well positioned to participate in the impending green revolution.
Brett Girard, chief financial officer and portfolio manager at Liberty International Investment Management, discusses his past picks: Brookfield Asset Management, Analog Devices, and Stryker Corporation.
Canada’ s 10-year yield rose to the highest since 2018 as a top Bank of Canada official said household finances are in good shape and that monetary policymakers are prepared to “ act forcefully ” to quell inflation.
Far off the hedge fund world’ s usual map is a small firm in Toronto, filling out the second floor of a tidy brown office tower, just above a pizzeria.
Canadians who are struggling to buy a home could find they get better bang for their buck by purchasing physical property through real estate investment trusts, some analysts say.
The U.S. and the European Union will push to boost supplies of LNG to European countries by the end of 2022 in a bid to displace Russian gas
Sony is preparing to introduce a new video game subscription service for the PlayStation as early as next week, said people familiar with the plans.
A new venture fund led by a co-founder of Shopify Inc. and a retired squadron commander from Canada’ s Joint Task Force 2 is aiming to bring cutting-edge national security technologies to Bay Street.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has reached an agreement with activist investor Ryan Cohen that will see three independent directors appointed to the retailer’ s board.
Is it still possible for buyers to protect themselves against hidden defects and costly repairs, and still obtain a home in an in-demand neighbourhood? Experts say yes, as long as they're willing to think outside the box. | general |
Gennady Timchenko Is Richest Russian to Have Family Face U.S. Sanctions | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Gennady Timchenko, Russian billionaire, walks between sessions on day three of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum ( SPIEF) in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday, June 4, 2021. President Vladimir Putin will host Russia’ s flagship investor showcase as he seeks to demonstrate its stuttering economy is back to business as usual despite continuing risks from Covid-19 and new waves of western sanctions., Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- By the time the Biden administration sanctioned Gennady Timchenko this week, it was nothing new for the Russian billionaire. He’ s one of the few ultra-rich individuals who has been penalized by the European Union, U.K. and U.S.
But it came with an added sting: The sanctions included his wife and two daughters.
That makes Timchenko the wealthiest Russian billionaire yet to face U.S. sanctions directly applied to family members, as the government looks for new ways to step up pressure on Vladimir Putin and his allies a month after the invasion of Ukraine.
“ They personally gain from the Kremlin’ s policies, ” President Joe Biden said in a tweet Thursday announcing sanctions on more than 400 individuals and entities. “ And they should share in the pain. ”
The Timchenko family didn’ t reply to requests for comment sent through the Elena & Gennady Timchenko Foundation.
The latest move by the U.S. is part of a widening crackdown on Russian elites and family members who could be benefiting from their assets or helping to protect them. Timchenko, 69, is founder of the now-sanctioned Volga Group, an investment firm with interests in energy, transportation and construction. He has a fortune worth $ 12.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“ Ultimately, governments have unease with targeting based on your bloodline, ” said John Smith, former director of the U.S. Treasury’ s Office of Foreign Assets Control, who’ s now at Morrison & Foerster. “ It’ s not something a government generally wants to do, but they can be forced into it by the bad acts of the people who use their families as human shields. ”
Timchenko’ s sanctioned daughters have connections in the West. Ksenia Frank, who sat on the board of Timchenko’ s firm, Transoil, has Finnish nationality and heads the family foundation’ s supervisory board.
Frank studied French and philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, according to the foundation’ s website. She also earned a master’ s degree from the Insead business school, which is the alma mater of her husband Gleb Frank, the son of a former transport minister under Putin and who was also sanctioned.
The sanctions also hit Timchenko’ s wife Elena, the founder of the family foundation who also has Finnish citizenship, and daughter Natalya Browning, who has British nationality. His 131-foot yacht, Lena, which has been blocked by Italian authorities, was also on the sanctions list.
Gennady Timchenko’ s son, Ivan Timchenko, wasn’ t sanctioned.
The measures indicate the U.S. is turning more aggressive in applying sanctions, said Rachel Alpert, co-chair of Jenner & Block’ s national security, sanctions and export controls practice.
In early rounds, family members were targeted for having some connection to the Russian state or its military, but now “ just being an adult child of a person who is sanctioned is enough, ” she said.
The U.S. has sanctioned other prominent Russian families since the Ukraine invasion as well.
Those close to Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov “ live luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov’ s civil servant salary, ” according to the U.S. Treasury. That includes the multimillion-dollar apartment given by Russia’ s government to his wife, Tatiana Navka, an Olympic ice skater. Peskov’ s daughter, Lisa, who has a popular Instagram account, posted on her Telegram channel that the penalties were a “ witch hunt ” fueled by “ frenzied hatred of everything Russian. ” They are all sanctioned.
The Treasury Department also sanctioned family members of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who financed the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-linked troll farm that interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
It additionally targeted the wife and daughter of Nikolay Tokarev, the president of Transneft who served with Putin in the intelligence services in the 1980s. The $ 50 million real estate empire of Tokarev’ s daughter includes an oceanfront island villa in Croatia, according to the Treasury.
Smith, the former OFAC director, said enforcers in drug wars would target kingpins’ family members who were used to hide assets, and authorities are using the same strategy when applying sanctions on influential Russians.
Sanctions of Russian family members have been selective. Suleiman Kerimov transferred his main asset, a stake in Russia’ s biggest gold miner Polyus, to his son Said in 2015. Suleiman, worth $ 12.4 billion, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 and by the U.K. and EU this month. Said hasn’ t been sanctioned.
The Kerimov family shifted the headquarters of the holding company that controls its Polyus stake from Jersey to Cyprus, according to a filing this week.
In the U.S., a 2020 Senate report found Igor Rotenberg helped his father avoid 2014 sanctions with asset transfers, by using shell companies and the secrecy of New York art auction houses.
“ If an oligarch is using his family as a pasture for his wealth, then it’ s an easy issue for governments to say we’ re going to stop that sanction evasion and sanction the spouse or children, ” Smith said.
Timchenko was born in Armenia in 1952, grew up in Ukraine and East Germany and studied engineering before working at a Soviet builder of nuclear reactors. He joined the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade, and by 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, he positioned himself at a key European importer of Russian oil.
In 2000, he started his own oil trading company, Gunvor. By then he had befriended Putin while he was the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. Putin was also chairman of a judo club that Timchenko co-sponsored.
As Gunvor thrived, Timchenko in 2007 formed what was then called Volga Resources. Through the investment firm, he bought stakes in gas producer Novatek, which came to constitute his most valuable holding. He sold his position in Cyprus-based Gunvor in 2014 ahead of U.S. economic sanctions, in which the Treasury alleged that Putin had investments in Gunvor and could have access to the company’ s funds.
Timchenko has since expanded into other industries, acquiring stakes in construction company Stroytransgaz and the rail company Transoil, which was sanctioned this week along with Volga.
On March 21, Timchenko resigned from Novatek’ s board of directors. The company didn’ t provide a reason for his resignation, but it came in the weeks after the EU and U.K. sanctioned him. | general |
India Aviation on Growth Path as Waning Covid Pain Lures Fliers | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
Workers and media at an Airbus SE A350 aircraft at the Wings India 2022 Air Show held at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad, India, on Thursday, March 24, 2022. The air show runs through March 27., Bloomberg
( Bloomberg) -- India is expecting local air passenger traffic will surpass the pre-pandemic level within a year as fliers return, emboldened by a steep fall in new Covid-19 infections.
“ I am very confident in the days to come, in the months to come, within the next year, we will surpass the pre-Covid level ” of 415,000 daily passengers, India Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said at Wings India airshow in Hyderabad on Friday. India may need to add as many as 120 jets every year, he said, urging local carriers to expand their fleet of widebody aircraft needed for international operations.
India is gearing up for this anticipated demand boom by building airports even in the smallest of cities, training more pilots and crew as well as improving maintenance facilities, Scindia said. The government plans to approve 15 new flying training schools expanding the network of such 34 current institutes.
The travel recovery in India has already helped IndiGo, India’ s top airline, and SpiceJet Ltd., both of which posted surprise profits in the quarter through December. The South Asian nation resumed international flights earlier this month after two pandemic-hit years.
Aviation will work as a jobs multiplier and can bring in a more than threefold return on investment, he said, adding the need to boost connectivity with the less accessible northeastern states in India and the islands.
While only 8% of India’ s almost 1.4 billion population travels by air currently, Scindia said planes can become a mass mode of transport.
“ Today’ s civil aviation is going to be tomorrow’ s railways in terms of transport in our country, ” he said. “ That is the potential we need to tap. ” | general |
'Varsity Blues ' Trial To Restart After Judge's COVID Quarantine | The trial of a former University of Southern California water polo coach in the `` Varsity Blues '' college admissions case will resume Tuesday, less than a week after the presiding judge tested positive for COVID-19.A courthouse representative previously confirmed that U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani tested positive for the virus, halting Jovan Vavic's trial following testimony on March 23. The parties were initially slated to return to court Monday morning, but a brief docket entry said trial will now resume Tuesday `` following CDC quarantine period. `` Counsel for Vavic and a government representative both declined to comment when reached Friday afternoon.It was... | general |
Mexico's Aeromexico rents nine Boeing planes in deal with Air Lease | Air Lease will provide Aeromexico with two new 737-8s and seven new 737-9s, which will arrive between July 2022 and August 2023, the aircraft leasing company said.
The deal comes after Aeromexico said last week it would spend $ 5 billion over the next five years on upgrades, including revamping its fleet to reach 147 aircraft by the end of the year.
`` The 737 offers the most modern, fuel-efficient technology to enhance the global capabilities of Mexico's premier airline, '' Air Lease Corporation Executive Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said in a statement.
Aeromexico declared bankruptcy in mid-2020 after travel demand plummeted following the coronavirus pandemic.
The airline came to an agreement with debtors in a U.S. court in January, and then it recently carried out a forward stock split and subsequent reverse split to shuffle company control, formalizing its exit from bankruptcy.
Aeromexico shares were up 8.45% Friday morning after a volatile week on Mexico's principal market. One analyst said shares would continue to behave erratically until traders had more information about the airline's financial situation.
Shares in Air Lease were up some 1.35% on the New York Stock Exchange following the announcement.
( Reporting by Noe Torres and Kylie Madry; Editing by Aurora Ellis) | business |
New method for generating potent, specific binding proteins for new drugs | A team of scientists has created a powerful new method for generating protein drugs. Using computers, they designed molecules that can target important proteins in the body, such as the insulin receptor, as well as vulnerable proteins on the surface of viruses. This solves a long-standing challenge in drug development and may lead to new treatments for cancer, diabetes, infection, inflammation, and beyond. The research, appearing today in the journal Nature, was led by scientists in the laboratory of David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. `` The ability to generate new proteins that bind tightly and specifically to any molecular target that you want is a paradigm shift in drug development and molecular biology more broadly, '' said Baker. Antibodies are today's most common protein-based drugs. They typically function by binding to a specific molecular target, which then becomes either activated or deactivated. Antibodies can treat a wide range of health disorders, including COVID-19 and cancer, but generating new ones is challenging. Antibodies can also be costly to manufacture. A team led by two postdoctoral scholars in the Baker lab—Longxing Cao and Brian Coventry—combined recent advances in the field of computational protein design to arrive at a strategy for creating new proteins that bind molecular targets in a manner similar to antibodies. They developed software that can scan a target molecule, identify potential binding sites, generate proteins targeting those sites, and then screen from millions of candidate binding proteins to identify those most likely to function. The team used the new software to generate high-affinity binding proteins against 12 distinct molecular targets. These targets include important cellular receptors such as TrkA, EGFR, Tie2, and the insulin receptor, as well proteins on the surface of the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 ( the virus that causes COVID-19). `` When it comes to creating new drugs, there are easy targets and there are hard targets, '' said Cao, who is now an assistant professor at Westlake University. `` In this paper, we show that even very hard targets are amenable to this approach. We were able to make binding proteins to some targets that had no known binding partners or antibodies, '' In total, the team produced over half a million candidate binding proteins for the 12 selected molecular targets. Data collected on this large pool of candidate binding proteins was used to improve the overall method. `` We look forward to seeing how these molecules might be used in a clinical context, and more importantly how this new method of designing protein drugs might lead to even more promising compounds in the future, '' said Coventry. Explore further Toward one drug to treat all coronaviruses More information: Longxing Cao et al, Design of protein binding proteins from target structure alone, Nature ( 2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04654-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04654-9 Journal information: Nature
The research, appearing today in the journal Nature, was led by scientists in the laboratory of David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
`` The ability to generate new proteins that bind tightly and specifically to any molecular target that you want is a paradigm shift in drug development and molecular biology more broadly, '' said Baker.
Antibodies are today's most common protein-based drugs. They typically function by binding to a specific molecular target, which then becomes either activated or deactivated. Antibodies can treat a wide range of health disorders, including COVID-19 and cancer, but generating new ones is challenging. Antibodies can also be costly to manufacture.
A team led by two postdoctoral scholars in the Baker lab—Longxing Cao and Brian Coventry—combined recent advances in the field of computational protein design to arrive at a strategy for creating new proteins that bind molecular targets in a manner similar to antibodies. They developed software that can scan a target molecule, identify potential binding sites, generate proteins targeting those sites, and then screen from millions of candidate binding proteins to identify those most likely to function.
The team used the new software to generate high-affinity binding proteins against 12 distinct molecular targets. These targets include important cellular receptors such as TrkA, EGFR, Tie2, and the insulin receptor, as well proteins on the surface of the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 ( the virus that causes COVID-19).
`` When it comes to creating new drugs, there are easy targets and there are hard targets, '' said Cao, who is now an assistant professor at Westlake University. `` In this paper, we show that even very hard targets are amenable to this approach. We were able to make binding proteins to some targets that had no known binding partners or antibodies, ''
In total, the team produced over half a million candidate binding proteins for the 12 selected molecular targets. Data collected on this large pool of candidate binding proteins was used to improve the overall method.
`` We look forward to seeing how these molecules might be used in a clinical context, and more importantly how this new method of designing protein drugs might lead to even more promising compounds in the future, '' said Coventry. Explore further Toward one drug to treat all coronaviruses More information: Longxing Cao et al, Design of protein binding proteins from target structure alone, Nature ( 2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04654-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04654-9 Journal information: Nature
Explore further | tech |
HIMSSCast: Interoperability's role in the healthcare ecosystem | Healthcare IT News Executive Editor Mike Miliard sat down at HIMSS22 with Google Cloud Director of Global Healthcare Strategy and Solutions Aashima Gupta and Healthcare and Life Sciences Industries Managing Director Joe Miles to discuss the future of hybrid care, what COVID-19 revealed about information silos and how technology can strengthen human-to-human connections.
Google to acquire Mandiant for $ 5.4B | tech |
Apple’ s ‘ CODA’ Is a Come-From-Behind Contender in Close Oscar Race | The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
( Bloomberg) -- In an industry that loves a good tale of overcoming adversity, Apple Inc.’ s “ CODA ” has emerged as a surprise front-runner to win best picture at the Oscars on Sunday.
A little over a year ago, the film about a high schooler forced to choose between a music education and staying home to help her deaf family won top honors at the Sundance Film Festival and was sold to Apple for a record $ 25 million. Still, “ CODA ” was seen as a longshot, even after scoring one of the 10 best-picture nominations last month.
Now all that’ s changed. The Producers Guild of America gave “ CODA ” its top award last week, and the director of its chief competition, “ The Power of the Dog, ” is getting heat for some controversial remarks. “ CODA ” is now tied as favorite to win best picture at the Academy Awards on March 27, according to the website GoldDerby.com, which tracks Oscar predictions.
“ ‘ The Power of the Dog,’ ‘ Belfast’ and ‘ West Side Story’ are solid by any measure, ” said Richard Licata, a former NBCUniversal executive who advises Hollywood studios on award campaigns. “ But all share downbeat themes, whereas ‘ CODA’ was a tribute to the power and resilience of family. ”
If “ CODA ” wins best picture, it will mark a number of firsts: the first film from a streaming service to win Hollywood’ s top prize, the first recipient of Sundance’ s grand jury award to achieve that honor, and the first best-picture winner to feature a mostly deaf cast. Noteworthy too: Neither “ CODA ” nor “ The Power of the Dog, ” a Netflix Inc. film, has generated meaningful box office revenue.
The picture, from American filmmaker Sian Heder, is an English-language remake of the 2014 French movie “ La Famille Bélier. ” Philippe Rousselet, one of the original movie’ s producers, and fellow producer Patrick Wachsberger approached Heder to direct a new version for an American audience.
In the process of writing the story, which was shot in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Heder learned American Sign Language, which accounts for just under half of the dialog, according to interviews she gave before the film’ s Sundance premiere.
“ CODA, ” which stands for Child of Deaf Adult, stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, a teen grappling with the pressure to help her family’ s fishing business while trying to fulfill her own passion for music.
Also produced by a partnership of France’ s Pathe Films and Vendome Group, “ CODA ” has three Oscar nominations: best picture, a best-supporting actor nomination for Troy Kotsur in his role as the father, and best adapted screenplay. Other than Ruby, all of the family members are deaf, including her mother, played by Oscar winner Marlee Matlin.
The film’ s rise to front-runner status was cemented when it won the top award from the Producers Guild. That group’ s recognition correlates closely with the ultimate winner of the best-picture Oscar.
But what got “ CODA ” there was its uplifting story of a family struggling through trying circumstances and emerging stronger, playing alongside today’ s real-life headlines about the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The campaign for ‘ CODA’ has also been based on the support the film has received from organizations that raise awareness for the deaf community, “ a world we know very little about, ” Licata said. “ I think that’ s what’ s giving it a groundswell. ”
The director of “ The Power of the Dog, ” Jane Campion, may have also given “ CODA ” an inadvertent boost after winning the Critics Choice Award for best director. Joking about the scarcity of women directors, she called out tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, whose family biopic “ King Richard ” is also a best-picture nominee, for not having to “ play against the guys, like I have to. ”
The joke struck some watchers, including the writer Roxane Gay, as derogatory, and Campion later apologized.
Like the cast of many nominated films, the principals from “ CODA ” have been busy appearing at other awards shows and events that lead up to the Oscars, creating an aura of togetherness that can only boost the film’ s chance. Like the Rossi family in the film, they’ re the underdogs to root for.
“ Family perseverance was a theme in the real world, ” said Erik Davis, managing editor of Fandango, the theater ticket site. “ The cast has felt like a family in real life, going together to every ceremony, every Q & A. There’ s a narrative there that’ s important too. ” | general |
EMEA Morning Briefing: Stocks Set for Modest Gains as Market Unease Continues | MARKET WRAPS
Watch For:
Eurozone M3; Germany Ifo Business Climate Index; Italy Consumer/Business Confidence Surveys, Foreign Trade non-EU; UK Automotive Manufacturing, Consumer Confidence, Retail Sales, Capital issuance; updates from Lufthansa, Vitesco Technologies, Erste Group Bank, BASF, Rheinmetall, Banco Sabadell, Repsol, Banco Santander, Smiths Group, United Utilities, Steinhoff
Opening Call:
Investors face the ongoing worries of inflation, Fed policy tightening and the war in Ukraine, with stocks struggling to break free of recent ranges as a result. In Asia, major benchmarks were mixed, with tech losses dragging the Hang Seng down almost 2%. Elsewhere, the dollar edged lower, bond yields and gold ticked up and oil extended its modest retreat.
Equities:
Europe faces another cautious session Friday, with modest opening gains seen capped as investors continue to grapple with rising inflation, mixed economic signals, the war in Ukraine and the continuing disruptions from the pandemic.
The market looks like the February lows won't be breached and equities are entering a more temperate period where investors will try and digest everything that has happened so far, said JMP Securities analyst Mark Lehmann. `` We 've had a lot in a very short time, '' he said. `` The market's trying to figure itself out. ''
U.S. stocks closed near session highs Thursday as Joe Biden wrapped up a series of gatherings with allies and world leaders in Brussels a month after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
`` Until we see a cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, it is prudent for investors to raise cash and reduce exposure to stocks, '' said Richard Saperstein, chief investment officer at Treasury Partners.
`` While the stock market is attempting to recover from its correction, markets are fundamentally riskier and more uncertain than before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. ''
Economic Insight:
The U.K. faces potential civil unrest as the country's European Union exit and coronavirus hit the economy and force up housing and childcare costs, according to a study. The country came second to last in a table of 36 major economies based on economic sustainability, with only Latvia faring worse, the report by L'Atelier BNP Paribas, a research unit of the French bank, suggests.
High accommodation costs, limited childcare support and concentration of economic gains among relatively few people constrain social mobility and raise the prospect of `` social unrest, protest and extremism. ''
A growing deficit fueled by the impact of Brexit and coronavirus-related borrowing is mainly responsible for the high costs and deteriorating economy, according to the report.
Forex:
The dollar weakened slightly in Asia while the yen made gains.
SPI Asset Management said the yen has strengthened on possible demand by Japanese companies to repatriate profits on foreign holdings to Japan for accounting purposes ahead of the country's fiscal year-end on March 31.
However, the Bank of Japan's accommodative monetary-policy stance compared with the tightening bias among a number of countries such as the U.S. may help to limit yen's gains, analysts said.
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Sterling may gain against the euro as the Bank of England continues to raise interest rates and the European Central Bank is slower to start following suit, but gains will be limited, TD Securities said. `` The short-term outlook favors a bit more downside in EUR/GBP, likely retesting the 0.825/0.830 area. ''
Sterling still offers yield advantage while the ECB inches towards policy normalization. However, the next big move in EUR/GBP will be higher, TD said. The eurozone has greater potential for fiscal stimulus while yield curves and market pricing for peak interest rates point to a rise in EUR/GBP.
TD expects EUR/GBP to increase to 0.88 by March 2023.
Bonds:
Treasury yields continued to tick higher in Asia after they mostly rose Thursday, with the 2- and 10-year rates at some of their highest levels of the year.
This followed the U.S. decision to roll out new sanctions against Russia and as investors continued to assess remarks by Federal Reserve officials on the need for further rate increases.
Energy:
Oil prices extended declines in early Asia trade after settling more than 2% lower Thursday.
Traders are digesting reports that Kazakhstan's Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal could partially resume oil exports, as well as news that the EU hasn't been able to agree on a plan to boycott Russian oil, Phillip Securities said.
Focus will be on developments in a European boycott agreement, without which the U.S.'s sanctions won't have the same effect. SPI Asset Management said that if Germany eventually caves to U.S. over Russian oil embargo demands, that could push Brent to $ 150 a barrel.
Metals:
Gold futures nudged higher as uncertainty around the war in Ukraine continued to stoke risk-off sentiment in Asia.
Bullion settled at its highest level in about two weeks on Thursday, with futures further boosted by headlines indicating the G-7 has agreed to crack down on any gold transaction involving Russia's central bank, which will be subject to existing sanctions, FXStreet said.
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Aluminum was almost 1% lower on fears of weak economic growth due to China's lockdowns and the war in Ukraine, but prices could rise as supply remains tight, ANZ said.
`` To date, there are no U.S. sanctions on aluminum. However, sanctions by market players world-wide have caused constraints on the supply of raw materials to Russia, '' ANZ said.
High energy prices are also putting cost pressure on producers, which may further support aluminum. `` Aluminum buyers will scramble to secure supply amid low inventories and strong demand. ''
Other News:
Fitch said commodity prices could rise further, expecting the Ukraine war to drag on into the second quarter and for Western sanctions on Russia to continue broadening as a result.
`` The deepening conflict in Ukraine will maintain heavy pressure on the commodities complex in the short term, with energy bearing much of the brunt. ''
Oil and gas prices could remain high over the first half, which would spill over into agricultural commodities and other energy-intensive resources. Sugar, cotton and palm oil face likely price upside, while nickel, aluminum, copper and palladium face export-disruption risks, Fitch said.
TODAY 'S TOP HEADLINES
Fed's Evans Sees 'Many ' Rate Rises Ahead This Year
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said on Thursday that he agrees with the central bank's collective view that monetary policy will need to move to a restrictive stance to get high levels of inflation under control.
In a public appearance, Mr. Evans said he is on board with the seven rate rises penciled in for 2022 by the central bank at last week's Federal Open Market Committee. Regarding last week's monetary policy action, he said `` our recent 25-basis-point rate hike was the first of what appears to be many this year. ''
European Lawmakers Reach Deal on Sweeping New Digital-Competition Law
BRUSSELS-European lawmakers reached agreement late Thursday on the main points of a new digital-competition law focused on the world's biggest tech companies, setting the stage for one of the most sweeping pieces of technology-regulation legislation to go into effect next year.
The new law, known as the Digital Markets Act, is part of the biggest proposed expansion of global-tech regulation in decades. It seeks to impose new obligations and prohibitions on a small cadre of digital giants the European Union defines as gatekeepers-backed by fines for noncompliance that, based on early drafts of the legislation, could rise into the tens of billions of dollars.
BOJ's Kuroda Says Yen Hasn't Lost Its Credibility
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Friday that the recent weakening of the yen doesn't mean the market has lost trust in the Japanese currency.
`` It is desirable for foreign exchange rates to reflect economic and financial fundamentals and move in a stable manner, '' Mr. Kuroda said in a parliamentary committee meeting. A weaker yen is generally positive for the Japanese economy and prices, while its impact is different on each economic entity, he added.
Biden Calls for Russia to Be Expelled From G-20
BRUSSELS-President Biden said Russia should be expelled from the Group of 20 major economies and pledged the U.S. would take in up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine as he met Thursday with world leaders to discuss new sanctions and humanitarian aid in response to Moscow's invasion.
The gatherings in Brussels came amid concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin could order the use of chemical or other unconventional weapons in Ukraine, a move Mr. Biden said would trigger a response from the U.S. and allies.
Ukraine Strikes Russian Navy as War Enters Second Month
Ukraine said it struck the Russian-occupied port in the Azov Sea city of Berdyansk on Thursday, igniting a large fire and hitting a Russian warship at the site, which has become a major logistics hub for Moscow's invasion forces.
Footage from the area showed smoke billowing from a ship and secondary explosions from detonating ammunition. Footage also showed two smaller Russian ships fleeing the port after the explosions, one of the ships on fire.
Russian Central Bank Chief Tried to Quit Over Ukraine War
Russian Central Bank Gov. Elvira Nabiullina tried to resign after the invasion of Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said. Her effort was rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin who instead nominated her for a third term.
Over nearly a decade Ms. Nabiullina has been one of Mr. Putin's most stalwart allies in buttressing the Russian economy against volatile oil prices and U.S. sanctions in a growing face-off with the West, while remaining one of the few liberals who hold senior positions in the Russian government.
U.K. Car Manufacturing Had Worst February in 13 Years, War to Hurt Further
( MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
03-25-22 0127ET | business |
Meet the company building Europe's first fossil-free plastics plant | Plastics are everywhere, and the problems they pose are well documented. In 2020, the world produced an estimated 353 million tonnes of plastic waste, vast amounts of which have gone on to pollute landscapes, oceans and even the air, causing detrimental impacts to our climate, ecosystems and health.
Plastics are now in our food, our drink, the air we breathe and almost every product we buy. So ubiquitous has the material become, it feels almost irreplaceable in the modern economy.
If that sounds too much like wishful thinking, it is precisely the type of material a new manufacturing plant near Delfzijl in the Netherlands aims to begin producing once it is up and running from 2024. The pilot facility is set to use a novel process that has been years in development, and the Dutch company behind the technology, Avantium, has just secured the final chunk of the $ 209 million financing needed to begin construction work.
The company already boasts relationships dating back 10 years with Coca-Cola and Danone — both of which are shareholders — in addition to working with Carlsberg on developing `` paper '' beer bottles. And should the pilot plant prove successful, and the company gains further traction among packaging producers and brands in the coming years, then Avantium's plant-based polymers could represent an important breakthrough in the battle against plastic waste, according to the firm's CEO, Tom Van Aken.
`` I think it's very good news for industry, but also for everyone who is interested in sustainable plastics, that in 2024 a new bio-polymer is coming to the market, and hopefully will come to your supermarket or can be found in your refrigerator, '' he tells us. `` I 'm very pleased that we 've made this important step to make it a commercial reality. ''
Given the scale of the plastics crisis — which saw 22 million tonnes leak into the environment in 2020 — the proposed plant remains small in scale, with an initial capacity to produce just 5,000 tonnes of plant-based plastic a year — enough to make around 200 million bottles.
But the project is attracting significant interest from leading plastic packaging producers, with Avantium having already signed five offtake contracts which together cover the first 50 percent of the plant's capacity, in addition to securing another major brand as a partner for the facility.
Van Aken is reluctant to disclose the names of these firms at the present time. But on paper, at the very least, it stands to reason consumer goods, food, beverage and packaging companies with large plastic footprints would be interested in the solution Avantium has developed. Legislative walls have been gradually closing in on single-use plastics and waste right around the world in recent years, particularly in Europe. The U.K. has set a goal to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042, for example, and earlier this month hundreds of countries agreed to get the ball rolling on drawing up a landmark, legally-binding global plastics treaty, akin to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Corporates, which were already feeling increased pressure from consumers to reduce their dependency on plastic, have stepped up their ambitions too, through initiatives such as the UK Plastics Pact, which sets targets to eliminate unnecessary single-use packaging and ensure 100 percent of packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
But these companies will struggle to rid themselves of plastics altogether, and so alternative polymers such as that touted by Avantium offer a means to massively cut carbon and environmental footprints right across their value chains. Once the pilot plant is up and running, the plan is to license out the technology to allow other firms to expand production worldwide.
The material Avantium is aiming to manufacture at scale is called polyethylene furanoate ( PEF), a 100 percent plant-based plastic it claims is fully recyclable and degradable. The company has developed a process that converts plant-based sugars — such as fructose syrup or agricultural feedstock — into purified furandicarboxylic acid ( FDCA), a chemical building block for plastic. That FDCA can then be taken to polymerization plant to be turned into PEF, which has a vast array of potential end uses, according to Van Aken.
He estimates around 75 percent of its PEF would probably be used for packaging such as bottles or food-grade plastic film, with the remainder potentially going into industries such as textiles, electronics and automotive for use as plant-based synthetic fibers in clothes, shoes and upholstery.
`` In other words, the possibilities are — well, they're not endless, but they are very large and diverse in terms of the potential outlets for this new material, '' says Van Aken.
Crucially, fully recyclable polymers such as that developed by Avantium can help to replace conventional plastics that might be harder to recycle, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. So if — as many backers of the mooted UN global plastics treaty are hoping — efforts are made to improve recycling infrastructure and product design worldwide while at the same preventing waste where possible, that is all to the good, according to Van Aken. But he says what is also needed is a sea change in the types of plastics that are used, away from hard-to-recycle conventional plastics, towards plant-based, polymer plastics. Only that way can the much-heralded vision of a circular economy be realized.
`` A few years ago there were companies that thought they were going to be recycling themselves out of this problem, '' he explains. `` A few years down the road, the big brands all realize that recycling is great, but it is not enough. We're never going to be looking at recycling as the solution to get us into the circular economy, we need to have other solutions too. That is because many of the plastics we are using today are not well suited at all for recycling, or because we don't have the right collection and recycling systems.
`` We require a new, different mix of polymers and plastics to get to that circular economy. There's not going to be one polymer that does it all, unfortunately. ''
Van Aken is keen to stress that Avantium's PEF is far from the only new polymer that will be needed to wean the world off its addiction to conventional plastics, and stresses that waste prevention and reuse should always be the first port of call when disposing of materials, ahead of recycling. But when all is said and done, even the most robust recycling supply chains are likely to see plastic waste leak into the environment, which is where Avantium's PEF boasts another green advantage: It is degradable. While most bacteria and microbes will not eat conventional plastics that take hundreds if not thousands of years to break down in the environment, they will happily chow down on PEF, which has been shown to degrade 100 times faster.
`` The nice thing about a new, next-generation polymer like ours is that if 10 percent ends up in nature, it is going to disappear in a few years ' time, because the microbes and bacteria are going to digest it, just like a piece of wood, '' Van Aken explains. `` But I don't see PEF as an end-of-life solution. We want all of these plastics we create to be returned through a deposit or collection system so we can recycle or reuse it. Then we can keep the material in the loop. That is the circular economy where we want to fit in. The whole degradable part is a sort of safety valve, so if it unintentionally ends up in nature, it is not going to accumulate — it will be gone in a few years ' time. ''
The fact that the PEF is fossil fuel-free also means production of the material has a far lower carbon footprint, and it is far less exposed to the volatile, geopolitically fraught oil and gas market, which can heap sudden cost hikes on conventional plastic producers. Moreover, it shines the light on another fascinating aspect of Avantium, which has far more strings to its bow than simply manufacturing alternative plastics.
The company was originally founded at the turn of the millennium as a spin-out from Shell. But although it has not held a stake in the company for two decades, Shell remains a customer of Avantium, which derives much of its present income from making catalysts for oil refineries and petrochemical plants.
Even so, Van Aken is clear that the firm's future lies in sustainable chemistry. `` We believe in a fossil-free economy in 2050, so I think it's very clear we want to be out of petroleum and natural gas by 2050, '' he says. `` You can see that the whole industry is moving away from these fossil resources and really wants to make that shift towards renewables. This will have major implications not only for energy but maybe even more importantly for the chemical industry, which is currently around 95 percent dependent on petroleum. The industry will have to come up with new feedstocks, new products, new processes. If you're a scientist or an engineer, this is just going to be a great time to be working in the chemical industry, because we basically have to reinvent almost everything. ''
Which, as it happens, appears to be precisely what Avantium is doing. Not content with threatening to disrupt the plastics, oil, and gas, the firm also has its sights on carbon capture use and storage ( CCUS) opportunities.
One criticism of the plant-based plastics sector is that while it is currently relatively modest in size, it does still require feedstocks that, like the biofuel industry, could have knock-on impacts on land use. As such, Avantium is exploring how it could harness CO2 as a feedstock for producing the chemical building blocks of fossil-free plastics, through a process it claims to have already proven at small scale. The potential here is, of course, reliant on the scale-up of carbon capture capacity for Avantium to tap into as an off-taker of the resulting CO2, but should the cost of carbon and climate policies kick in as expected and the CCS industry scale up over the coming decade and beyond, then there should in theory be little shortage of feedstock. CCS projects should inevitably prefer to sell the CO2 they capture than pay to bury it underground. The company has even been working with Swiss direct air capture pioneer Climeworks over the potential for using the CO2 it sucks out of the air.
`` You don't need to drive far in Europe to find all kinds of cement, steel or electricity plants that dump millions of tonnes of CO2 into the air, so finding good sources of CO2 is not so difficult, '' explains Van Aken. `` And there will of course be an increasing burden for having to pay to release that CO2 into the atmosphere, so there's a driver there to see if we can use it. If we can capture the carbon and use it to make materials or fuels, that is something which has much more promise than storage. ''
Still, having spent 15 years developing the plant-based plastics technology, Van Aken's immediate focus is very much on getting the pilot PEF plant up and running over the next couple of years. It may have taken some time to get the financing in place, but investor interest is palpable. As well as negotiating $ 98.97 million in debt financing for the pilot plant from a consortium of four Dutch banks — ABN AMRO Bank, ASN Bank, ING Bank and Rabobank — Avantium has secured backing from, among others, engineering giant Worley, which is partnering on the development of the project.
Getting to this stage has not been plain sailing. We last spoke to Van Aken two years ago, just days before COVID-19 led to a lockdown in the U.K. and across many parts of Europe. The pandemic posed significant challenges in negotiating the financing over the past couple of years and slowed timetables down somewhat, Van Aken admits, but he also weathered a tough period around the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and has never once considered throwing in the towel.
`` It's not really in my personality to give up easily, '' he says. `` If I had a different personality, I would have stopped a number of times, because in 2008 it was extremely challenging to raise money for these types of long-term projects. It's quite tough to find the investments and form the capital for these types of innovations, as they are capital intensive and long-term, which is a difficult combination. ''
But despite the challenges, Van Aken says he has enjoyed the ride, the success of which he puts down to his colleagues. `` It has been incredibly fun and rewarding to be working on this, '' he reflects. `` People really like to put in that effort for something where you have the prospect of making a real impact on a large scale on really meaningful issues, like climate change and plastic pollution. That really gets the best out of people, and is what has really gotten us to this point. '' | esg |
4 FAQs About Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks | MPO offers the world’ s only natively unified cloud platform for Multi-Party Orchestration. The platform complements existing…
Gartner released the 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks ( MESCBN). According to Gartner, “ MESCBNs are an essential technology component to a successful digital transformation. ”
While this is undoubtedly true, businesses rarely say “ I need a MESCBN solution. ” Instead, they address pain points, such as a lack of visibility or the inability to swiftly resolve exceptions.
They then turn to popular supply chain software and systems options, such as a Control Tower or Transportation Management System to address those limitations.
There is a better way to approach digital transformations, and it begins by understanding the relationship between the supply chain technology you choose and the complex business networks they ultimately serve.
1. How do MESCBNs Relate to Digital Transformations?
Companies today are part of a greater business ecosystem: Supply chain planning and execution involve multi-party collaboration between suppliers, carriers, manufacturers, warehouses, and many others.
Yet, too many solutions focus on narrow segments of the supply chain, which IDC Research Manager Jordan K. Speer, explains as “ maximization of a part versus optimization of the whole. ”
The value chain makes up about 80% of external network activities for many companies, so a too-narrow focus on enterprise systems puts businesses at a disadvantage. Business networks can offer extraordinary, untapped potential for improving order fulfillment, boosting customer service, lowering inventory levels, reducing transportation costs, and lessening working capital.
“ Executives must understand that their company needs to operate within such networks to stay competitive - in other words, minimize risk, increase efficiency, reduce cost and capitalize on opportunities. CSCOs leading such a digital transformation initiative must familiarize themselves with MESCBNs to effectively communicate the value to the C-Suite. ”
Technology is evolving to provide more sophisticated capabilities, such as real-time end-to-end visibility, integrated and intelligent workflows, and insight into how previously isolated areas of the supply chain affect one another.
Successful digital transformations look beyond solving individual pain points and consider holistic technologies that will improve their business ecosystem wholesale.
2. Can MESCBN Technology Help You Stay Resilient and Agile in Times of Disruption?
With the right supply chain technology, the answer is a resounding “ Yes! ” As supply chain expert, Bryce Boothby explains, COVID-19 “ has supply chains scrambling for business network alternatives ” because too many companies neglected to adopt a flexible – and therefore resilient – platform that would allow them to deploy a “ Plan B. ”
Successfully dealing with uncertainty and disruption requires not just leveraging your network, but dynamically networking. A Supply Chain Orchestration platform is configurable, so it allows businesses to seamlessly switch between existing partners, or else easily onboard new ones. That way, as circumstances change and current partnerships become less than ideal, you can seamlessly adapt to choose the best possible option for that moment.
3. What are the Key Functions of a Supply Chain Orchestration Platform?
For a supply chain technology to truly leverage the multi-party network as a whole, it must enable systems unification; in-app, network-wide collaboration; and intelligent and automated process convergence.
Systems unification – Unless disparate systems are all joined through a single, unified platform, your network will operate in silos, which leads to errors and delays.
Intelligent, network-wide collaboration – Collaboration must extend across the entire ecosystem, including suppliers, contract manufacturers, VMI specialists, 3PLs, and warehouses. Supply Chain Orchestration must also offer real-time alerts, status monitoring, and in-app exceptions management.
Intelligent and automated process convergence – All network flows, processes, and functions must be viewed and treated as part of a greater business ecosystem. Therefore, visibility and control should span all order types, as well as all upstream, downstream, and reverse flows. For efficiency and optimization, all converged flows should be further governed by intelligent automation.
4. What makes MPO’ s Supply Chain Orchestration Platform a Visionary one?
MPO offers the world’ s only natively unified cloud platform for Supply Chain Orchestration. Uniquely customer- and order-centric, it is the only platform able to optimize each and every customer order of any type, offering a kind of tailored “ micro supply chain ” for every customer order.
The MPO platform is truly an end-to-end solution, as it converges all orders and processes, providing granular visibility into inbound, outbound, interplant, returns, repairs, and rebalance flows, as well as holistic insight into how they all affect one another. The combination of holistic and granular oversight makes it easy to balance operational excellence ( on-time, in-full commitments, stock levels, costs) with superior customer service levels.
Regarding multi-enterprise supply chain business networks, companies can both dynamically choose the best partnerships for any given circumstance, as well as make highly informed and strategic decisions that consistently benefit all partnerships across the end-to-end supply chain.
MPO was named `` Visionary '' in Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks. To learn more about the platform's revolutionary approach to supply chain orchestration, download a complimentary copy of our white paper The “ Multi-Multi ” Supply Chain Problem That No One Is Talking About. You can also get in touch by reaching out to [ email protected ] or requesting a demo today!
The “ Multi-Multi ” Supply Chain Problem That No One Is Talking About In this white paper, we examine why the average organization is losing significant profits from supply chain disruptions and why we need to understand the deeper problem to change the outcome. Download Now!
The Age of the Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Network This white paper offers insight into leveraging your network to derive the greatest possible value under any circumstance, such as through a Supply Chain Orchestration platform that can automate and streamline a wide range of your business needs. Download Now!
Multi-Party Orchestration Platform In this brochure, you 'll find a guide to MPO's unified cloud platform for multi-party orchestration, including its rich and flexible solutions: Control Tower, Supply Chain Visibility, Digital Order Management, Transportation Management, Network Inventory Management, Returns Management, Spare Parts Management, and Supply Management. Download Now!
OpenText™ operates the world’ s leading B2B network. Built on the strength… | general |
Insurtech investment strong in 2020 despite COVID-19: Deloitte | Insurtech investments this year have been robust despite the COVID-19’ s economic fallout and could approach 2019’ s record-breaking year, says a report issued Monday. There has been a total of $ 2.19 billion in insurtech investments during the first half despite the massive rise in unemployment, a negative GDP and volatile capital markets, according to the report issued by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, a unit of London-based Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., which is based on data collected by San Francisco-based data firm Venture Scanner. The $ 2.19 billion, which was invested in 67 insurtech firms, puts the sector “ well on track ” to finish with the second highest amount of investments, topping the $ 2.7 billion to $ 3 billion full-year figures recorded for 2015, 2017 and 2018 and perhaps approaching 2019’ s $ 5.54 billion, according to the report, COVID-19 Pandemic Shifts InsurTech Investment Priorities. Funding, however, was concentrated among the top 10 insurtech firms, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of first-half investments, with the top four accounting for 44% of the total. While this concentration is not new, “ it is accelerating, a phenomenon becoming more pronounced over the past few years, ” which has been described by more than one investor group as an ongoing flight to quality, the report said. The report said priority in investments “ will likely be given to those addressing the most pressing digitization and operational efficiency challenges faced by insurers hurriedly adjusting to the post-pandemic world, both internally and externally. ” More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.
Insurtech investments this year have been robust despite the COVID-19’ s economic fallout and could approach 2019’ s record-breaking year, says a report issued Monday.
There has been a total of $ 2.19 billion in insurtech investments during the first half despite the massive rise in unemployment, a negative GDP and volatile capital markets, according to the report issued by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, a unit of London-based Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., which is based on data collected by San Francisco-based data firm Venture Scanner.
The $ 2.19 billion, which was invested in 67 insurtech firms, puts the sector “ well on track ” to finish with the second highest amount of investments, topping the $ 2.7 billion to $ 3 billion full-year figures recorded for 2015, 2017 and 2018 and perhaps approaching 2019’ s $ 5.54 billion, according to the report, COVID-19 Pandemic Shifts InsurTech Investment Priorities.
Funding, however, was concentrated among the top 10 insurtech firms, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of first-half investments, with the top four accounting for 44% of the total.
While this concentration is not new, “ it is accelerating, a phenomenon becoming more pronounced over the past few years, ” which has been described by more than one investor group as an ongoing flight to quality, the report said.
The report said priority in investments “ will likely be given to those addressing the most pressing digitization and operational efficiency challenges faced by insurers hurriedly adjusting to the post-pandemic world, both internally and externally. ”
More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here. | general |
Cyber, supply chain, environmental issues seen as top threats | Cybersecurity, supply chain interruptions and resilience, and environmental issues dominate two key reports released last week. The World Economic Forum’ s Global Risk Report and Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE’ s Risk Barometer 2022 also note the interconnectedness of risks and the continuing influence on other risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, which itself still ranks among the top exposures. The Risk Barometer, based on a survey 2,650 risk management professionals, including Allianz customers and staff, from 89 countries, pegged cyber incidents, business interruption, and natural catastrophes as the most important global business risks for 2022. Climate change placed sixth, its highest rank ever, rising three positions from the 2021 barometer. Cyber reclaimed the top spot after slipping to second last year, noted Rani Christie, regional head of distribution, North America, in Alpharetta, Georgia, for AGCS. “ Ransomware attacks, data breaches and information technology outages are at unprecedented levels. We’ ve seen a trend over the last few years almost like a commercialization of cybercriminal activity, ” Mr. Christie said. Risk managers are building resilience to contend with cyber criminals facing a much lower barrier to entry in terms of technical skills and financing, and who have a global reach, he said. The WEF’ s Global Risk Report identified heightened supply chain and cyber risks among top near-term challenges, as climate and environmental issues dominated the long view. The report is based on the organization’ s Global Risks Perception Survey, using 959 responses from professionals across eight regions in technology, economics and other fields. Risk factors often bear upon one another, as events such as the pandemic led to changes, such as working from home, that in turn heightened cyber exposures, said Colleen Zitt, chief risk officer at Zurich North America in Schaumburg, Illinois. “ The digital transformation and working from home certainly has attracted bad cyber actors and ultimately increased the risk to companies and businesses, ” she said. “ Last year’ s report talked about COVID overshadowing much of the risk landscape. This year, it hasn’ t gone away, highlighted by how COVID-19 is pushing and causing things as a knock-on effect. ” “ The remote work environment we’ ve been in for the last couple of years, that’ s obviously created vulnerability, ” Mr. Christie said. The pandemic has acted almost like a stress test for business systems such as supply chains, highlighting weaknesses. “ We started to see where the limits of our supply chain and the resiliency were, ” said Reid Sawyer, head of the emerging risks group and U.S. cyber consulting practice in Chicago for Marsh LLC. The interconnectedness of the risk factors complicates addressing exposures, Mr. Sawyer said. “ How do you stress test for pandemic, even environment, because all of these things intersect with supply chains at some point. ” Business interruption, the second greatest threat according to Allianz’ s Risk Barometer, can directly affect supply chains, Mr. Christie said, again showing how the perils impact each other. “ The ripple effect of business interruption is massive, ” he said. Environmental concerns dominated the WEF Global Risk Report’ s long-term view, with “ climate action failure, ” “ extreme weather events ” and “ biodiversity loss ” ranking as the top three most severe risks over a 10-year horizon. “ It’ s clear that a transition is needed from fossil fuels, ” Ms. Zitt said. Mr. Sawyer said climate change poses some of the same comprehensive risk and exposure challenges as COVID-19. “ How do we think about systemic risk? It’ s the same system dynamics that are now being tested in ways they haven’ t been over the past 10 to 15 years, ” he said.
Cybersecurity, supply chain interruptions and resilience, and environmental issues dominate two key reports released last week.
The World Economic Forum’ s Global Risk Report and Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE’ s Risk Barometer 2022 also note the interconnectedness of risks and the continuing influence on other risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, which itself still ranks among the top exposures.
The Risk Barometer, based on a survey 2,650 risk management professionals, including Allianz customers and staff, from 89 countries, pegged cyber incidents, business interruption, and natural catastrophes as the most important global business risks for 2022. Climate change placed sixth, its highest rank ever, rising three positions from the 2021 barometer.
Cyber reclaimed the top spot after slipping to second last year, noted Rani Christie, regional head of distribution, North America, in Alpharetta, Georgia, for AGCS.
“ Ransomware attacks, data breaches and information technology outages are at unprecedented levels. We’ ve seen a trend over the last few years almost like a commercialization of cybercriminal activity, ” Mr. Christie said.
Risk managers are building resilience to contend with cyber criminals facing a much lower barrier to entry in terms of technical skills and financing, and who have a global reach, he said.
The WEF’ s Global Risk Report identified heightened supply chain and cyber risks among top near-term challenges, as climate and environmental issues dominated the long view. The report is based on the organization’ s Global Risks Perception Survey, using 959 responses from professionals across eight regions in technology, economics and other fields.
Risk factors often bear upon one another, as events such as the pandemic led to changes, such as working from home, that in turn heightened cyber exposures, said Colleen Zitt, chief risk officer at Zurich North America in Schaumburg, Illinois.
“ The digital transformation and working from home certainly has attracted bad cyber actors and ultimately increased the risk to companies and businesses, ” she said. “ Last year’ s report talked about COVID overshadowing much of the risk landscape. This year, it hasn’ t gone away, highlighted by how COVID-19 is pushing and causing things as a knock-on effect. ”
“ The remote work environment we’ ve been in for the last couple of years, that’ s obviously created vulnerability, ” Mr. Christie said.
The pandemic has acted almost like a stress test for business systems such as supply chains, highlighting weaknesses.
“ We started to see where the limits of our supply chain and the resiliency were, ” said Reid Sawyer, head of the emerging risks group and U.S. cyber consulting practice in Chicago for Marsh LLC.
The interconnectedness of the risk factors complicates addressing exposures, Mr. Sawyer said. “ How do you stress test for pandemic, even environment, because all of these things intersect with supply chains at some point. ”
Business interruption, the second greatest threat according to Allianz’ s Risk Barometer, can directly affect supply chains, Mr. Christie said, again showing how the perils impact each other. “ The ripple effect of business interruption is massive, ” he said.
Environmental concerns dominated the WEF Global Risk Report’ s long-term view, with “ climate action failure, ” “ extreme weather events ” and “ biodiversity loss ” ranking as the top three most severe risks over a 10-year horizon. “ It’ s clear that a transition is needed from fossil fuels, ” Ms. Zitt said.
Mr. Sawyer said climate change poses some of the same comprehensive risk and exposure challenges as COVID-19. “ How do we think about systemic risk? It’ s the same system dynamics that are now being tested in ways they haven’ t been over the past 10 to 15 years, ” he said. | general |
Watch: Bringing Visibility to Parcel Delivery | Dana von der Heide, chief commercial officer and founder of Parcel Perform, explains what’ s driving the need for greater visibility in parcel delivery, and how to achieve it.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a “ huge boom ” in e-commerce activity, von der Heide says, and with it the need for more carrier capacity to deliver parcels to buyers. But higher volumes and the number of players also led to more complex orchestration and a greater need for visibility throughout a package’ s journey
In today’ s e-commerce world, shoppers looking to track the progress of their orders are often directed to the website of the courier that’ s handling it. A better way, von der Heide believes, is for the customer to obtain that information directly from the merchant, engendering more loyalty and increasing the possibility of repeat business with that seller. But that requires a high level of standardization of data platforms across all merchants and carriers. Forcing the buyer to access a separate site for status information presents “ a huge opportunity to disgruntle the customer, ” she says. “ You’ re losing all the trust, and giving the experience away to the carrier. ”
For carriers and merchants today, providing basic visibility can still be a problem. Customers typically aren’ t informed of the progress of an order as it moves through the warehouse and is picked up by the carrier. Only when it begins transiting the last mile do they receive updates on the status of the package.
Machine learning can help to overcome the complexities of tracking packages and conveying the information to the customer, von der Heide says. It makes possible the creation of one global reporting standard for hundreds of carriers, operating in multiple countries and time zones. And that translates into satisfied shoppers at the end of the transaction.
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War Dims Global Business Outlook as Inflation Plight Worsens | Factories from Australia to Europe are seeing already surging costs jump further as Russia’ s war in Ukraine and the barrage of sanctions rolled out in response roil commodity markets and trade.
While the relaxation of pandemic restrictions helped overall business activity weather the initial shock from the invasion, dwindling confidence is threatening economic growth in the coming months, according to March surveys of purchasing managers by S & P Global that offer a first glimpse at the conflict’ s spillover effects.
Rising expenses are denting sentiment in Asia, with input prices at a 14-year high in Japan and a record in Australia. In the euro zone, which borders Ukraine, manufacturers are facing an “ unprecedented ” rise in costs for parts and raw materials that’ s set to feed into consumer inflation.
“ Had it not been for the easing of COVID-19 containment measures to the lowest since the start of the pandemic, business activity would have weakened far more sharply, ” Chris Williamson, an economist at S & P Global, said about the currency bloc.
While this short-term boost will fade in the coming months, record price pressure on factories “ will inevitably feed through to higher consumer prices in the months ahead, ” he said Thursday in a statement.
The fear is that soaring inflation will weigh on economies, with the International Monetary Fund poised to cut its global growth forecast for this year. While the U.S. has “ fairly strong fundamentals, ” other countries face the risk of recession, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said this week.
Despite inflation running at three times the European Central Bank’ s 2% target, President Christine Lagarde played down stagflation concerns this week, saying that even the “ severe ” 2022 scenario modeled by her staff envisages growth of more than 2% for the euro-zone economy.
Still, the bloc “ has the most to lose ” from the conflict because of its dependence on Russian energy and closer trade ties with that nation, according to Bloomberg Economics.
In the U.S., S & P Global data showed input price growth accelerated to a near-record high and businesses’ outlooks slipped to a five-month low amid concerns about the war and even higher costs. Even so, the flash U.S. composite PMI advanced to an eight-month high as easing COVID-19 restrictions and less severe supply chain disruptions supported demand and production.
There are signs of disruption in Germany, where the war has thrown into doubt a planned spin-off of Thyssenkrupp AG’ s steel business. Car-parts maker Schaeffler AG has also scrapped its earnings forecast, while Mercedes-Benz AG is readying plans to cope with potential natural-gas shortages.
In the U.K., Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Wednesday that this year’ s growth projection has been cut to 3.8% from 6%, with the Treasury identifying inflation — at a three-decade high — as the No. 1 economic threat.
While looser virus curbs helped Britain maintain robust growth this month, deteriorating business expectations signal softer activity ahead, S & P Global said. The combination of a potentially sharp slowdown and a worsening cost-of-living crisis “ paints an unwelcome picture of ‘ stagflation,’ ” Williamson said.
“ We’ ve never managed the business through a period of inflation like the one we’ re seeing at the moment, ” Simon Wolfson, chief executive officer of U.K. clothing and housewares retailer Next Plc, said Thursday as the company lowered its profit and sales guidance for this year. “ It’ s very difficult for us to make an assessment as to what effect our price increases will have on total sales. ”
Read more: U.S. Retail Sales Soften as High Gasoline Costs Begin to Bite
Governments in the U.K. and across Europe are trying to ease the war’ s knock-on effects for households by offering tax breaks, cheaper fuel and income support.
But with the extent of the crisis still unclear, a European Commission gauge of confidence has slumped to its lowest level since the early months of the pandemic, while statistics offices in countries including France have halted forecasts due to the uncertainty.
“ A number of recent developments look more worrying than the resilient PMI headline numbers, ” said Frederik Ducrozet, global strategist at Banque Pictet & Cie SA, “ Today’ s stagflation shock is massive, hurting supply chains at the worst possible time. ”
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Wyndham Reveals More About New Extended-Stay Brand | Get exclusive stories and unlimited access to Skift.com news
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As the economy extended-stay segment tends to perform well during periods of both economic boom and bust, Wyndham's new brand should put the company in a prime position to continue posting profitable quarters.
Rashaad Jorden
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Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. completed the sale of the 368-room Embassy Suites Chicago and the 361-room Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Downtown/Magnificent Mile. The Chicago Hotels were sold for a combined gross sale price of $ 129.5 million. The company’ s operations for January and early February 2022 were impacted by group cancellations and lower business volumes as a result of a surge in Covid case counts. SHO said that total portfolio occupancy as of mid-March 2022 is at the highest level since the onset of the pandemic. SHO said they have begun repurchasing shares again. On March 7, 2022, The Company announced that it had elected to terminate the covenant relief period associated with the amended debt agreements governing its credit and term loan facilities and senior unsecured notes. Prior to the termination of the covenant relief period, the Company was restricted from repurchasing its own stock. From March 8 through March 16, 2022, the Company repurchased 3.2 million shares for a total repurchase price of $ 35.1 million. The Company has $ 464.9 million remaining under its existing share repurchase authorization.
Skift Note: Sunstone has seen its recovery driven by a rebound in leisure travel as business travel volumes as like many hotel companies, it won’ t see a full recovery in business travel anytime soon.
The Singapore Hotel Association said the vaccinated travel lanes have largely benefited the tourism scene but the spillover effects are not equally distributed yet. In the opposite of the hotel recovery in the US, Singapore is seeing a stronger rebound in business travel while leisure travel is still slow to return. The SHA said they have been seeing healthy arrivals from the United States, Europe and Australia. The average length of stay has increased beyond two to three nights compared with 2019 figures. Marriott International said they are seeing business travel in Singapore return to 25% of pre-pandemic levels and expects this to slowly increase as traveler confidence returns. The Garcha Group said they have seen occupancy at their hotels rise by 10% since the VTLs were launched, mostly from business travelers but said they are seeing more Singaporeans thinking of traveling abroad as global travel rules ease but do not see equal demand for travelers to Singapore. Marina Bay Sands noted an overall uptick in bookings but said it was from their key leisure markets while also seeing increased interest in business travel. Pan Pacific Hotels Group said about 44% of its bookings for its Pan Pacific Singapore hotel this month came from international guests, compared with 22% last month.
Skift Note: Vaccinated travel lanes have driven a rebound in business travel — but not one in the leisure sector — largely because corporate travelers are the only visitors to Singapore who can afford to use them.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts unveiled new details about its upcoming economy extended-stay hotel brand. Among them, newly awarded contracts to develop 50 new construction projects with its first two partners, Sandpiper Hospitality and Gulf Coast Hotel Management. Operating under the working title “ Project ECHO ”, the all new-construction brand fills whitespace within the larger Wyndham Hotels & Resorts portfolio while strategically expanding the company into a segment that has seen record growth and resiliency. Wyndham has been developing the brand since summer 2021. The purpose-built, 124-room Project CHO prototype requires just under two acres of land, has a highly competitive cost per key, and features multiple characteristics that intentionally separate it from traditional economy brands. With 50 hotels already in the pipeline, 25 each from Sandpiper and Gulf Coast over the next five years, Wyndham is looking at additional growth opportunities. The brand expects to open its first hotel in 2023 and is actively talking to additional, multi-unit operators with experience in the segment. Wyndham has assembled a dedicated leadership and operations support team around Project ECHO, one deeply rooted in experience with extended-stay brands. The team is led by Vice President of Operations Dan Leh.
Skift Note: Wyndham, like many hotel companies, are investing in extended-stay brands because they tend to perform well in periods of both economic boom and bust.
Radisson Hotel Group Americas unveiled the new Radisson Inn & Suites brand, an upper mid-scale, limited-service hotel brand intended to defy the repetition and predictability of this hotel segment. The Radisson Hotel Group Americas team developed the brand as a companion to its Country Inn & Suites by Radisson brand to deliver guests the same feeling of belonging and being looked after while being away from home, but with modern décor and amenities. The owner-driven Radisson Inn & Suites brand features furniture, fixture, and equipment selections that are timeless and modern while cost-effective and long-lasting. Radisson Inn & Suites offers open and friendly lounges social spaces allowing guests that use the public space in a way that fits their lifestyle. In response to the growing social network of gamers, influencers, and other content creation professionals, the Radisson Inn & Suites design delivers a one-of-a-kind Creative Content Studio featuring monitors, gaming chairs, and a high-speed Internet connection for social media content creation or video game play. The Radisson Inn & Suites brand will drive significant incremental growth for the company across the Americas in Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean and Latin America region.
Skift Note: Radisson’ s new brand, which targets the growing segment of gamers, is a welcome step for a company that needed to differentiate its brands.
Marriott International has signed an agreement with Sunnyland Investment Group to open the first Marriott Executive Apartments in Australia. The 180 key all suite hotel will be part of a mixed-use development comprising 244 fully residential apartments with premium amenities and services. Construction of the $ 170 million project is due to begin in 2024 and will be completed by mid-2026. The apartments will be located just three kilometers from Melbourne CBD and will feature studios, 1 bedroom and dual key apartments with separate sleeping, living and working areas, as well as gourmet kitchens. Marriott has added three hotels to Melbourne this year – W Melbourne, Melbourne Marriott Hotel Docklands and Courtyard by Marriott Melbourne Flagstaff Gardens, bringing the total number of hotels in Melbourne to eight. Marriott currently operates 27 hotels in Australia across 12 brands.
Skift Note: Marriott’ s further expansion in Melbourne comes about a month after Australia fully reopened to vaccinated foreign visitors.
Essential industry news for hospitality and lodging executives in North America and Asia-Pacific. Delivered daily to your inbox.
Updated Mar. 25, 2022 | general |
Watch: Bringing Visibility to Parcel Delivery | Dana von der Heide, chief commercial officer and founder of Parcel Perform, explains what’ s driving the need for greater visibility in parcel delivery, and how to achieve it.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a “ huge boom ” in e-commerce activity, von der Heide says, and with it the need for more carrier capacity to deliver parcels to buyers. But higher volumes and the number of players also led to more complex orchestration and a greater need for visibility throughout a package’ s journey
In today’ s e-commerce world, shoppers looking to track the progress of their orders are often directed to the website of the courier that’ s handling it. A better way, von der Heide believes, is for the customer to obtain that information directly from the merchant, engendering more loyalty and increasing the possibility of repeat business with that seller. But that requires a high level of standardization of data platforms across all merchants and carriers. Forcing the buyer to access a separate site for status information presents “ a huge opportunity to disgruntle the customer, ” she says. “ You’ re losing all the trust, and giving the experience away to the carrier. ”
For carriers and merchants today, providing basic visibility can still be a problem. Customers typically aren’ t informed of the progress of an order as it moves through the warehouse and is picked up by the carrier. Only when it begins transiting the last mile do they receive updates on the status of the package.
Machine learning can help to overcome the complexities of tracking packages and conveying the information to the customer, von der Heide says. It makes possible the creation of one global reporting standard for hundreds of carriers, operating in multiple countries and time zones. And that translates into satisfied shoppers at the end of the transaction. | general |
Last Mobile Vaccine Clinic Set for Franklin Center - The Santa Barbara Independent | Santa Barbara County Public Health to Shrink Program
The free Mobile Vaccine Clinics that Public Health has been running for about a year will make a last visit to the Franklin Center on Wednesday, March 30. Nearly 30,000 people around Santa Barbara County have received their first, second, or booster dose of the COVID vaccine through the clinics. But the vaccine is now broadly available at pharmacies and medical clinics, and fewer people have been coming to the mobile sites, said Jackie Ruiz, spokesperson for Public Health, which is why the program is being scaled back.
It was the power of collaboration that made the clinics so successful, said Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso. With the help of trusted community partners, her department was able to bring 360 vaccine clinics to far reaches of the county and to neighborhoods that have no pharmacy, doctor’ s office, or bus service nearby.
The walk-in clinic on Wednesday takes place between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the Franklin Center, 1111 East Mason Street in Santa Barbara. Pfizer shots will be available for children, as well as first, second, and booster doses of Pfizer for adults. The Moderna booster will also be available, as well as the Johnson & Johnson single COVID shot for adults. Anyone can line up to receive a flu shot, too, as long as they are over the age of 5.
Ruiz stated that though case rates of COVID infection in Santa Barbara County are trending downward, “ It is critical to be prepared for what may come next. ” The mobile vaccine clinic will continue in a more limited way, through June 2022. For more information, visit publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
Support the Santa Barbara Independent through a long-term or a single contribution. | general |
War Dims Global Business Outlook as Inflation Plight Worsens | Factories from Australia to Europe are seeing already surging costs jump further as Russia’ s war in Ukraine and the barrage of sanctions rolled out in response roil commodity markets and trade.
While the relaxation of pandemic restrictions helped overall business activity weather the initial shock from the invasion, dwindling confidence is threatening economic growth in the coming months, according to March surveys of purchasing managers by S & P Global that offer a first glimpse at the conflict’ s spillover effects.
Rising expenses are denting sentiment in Asia, with input prices at a 14-year high in Japan and a record in Australia. In the euro zone, which borders Ukraine, manufacturers are facing an “ unprecedented ” rise in costs for parts and raw materials that’ s set to feed into consumer inflation.
“ Had it not been for the easing of COVID-19 containment measures to the lowest since the start of the pandemic, business activity would have weakened far more sharply, ” Chris Williamson, an economist at S & P Global, said about the currency bloc.
While this short-term boost will fade in the coming months, record price pressure on factories “ will inevitably feed through to higher consumer prices in the months ahead, ” he said Thursday in a statement.
The fear is that soaring inflation will weigh on economies, with the International Monetary Fund poised to cut its global growth forecast for this year. While the U.S. has “ fairly strong fundamentals, ” other countries face the risk of recession, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said this week.
Despite inflation running at three times the European Central Bank’ s 2% target, President Christine Lagarde played down stagflation concerns this week, saying that even the “ severe ” 2022 scenario modeled by her staff envisages growth of more than 2% for the euro-zone economy.
Still, the bloc “ has the most to lose ” from the conflict because of its dependence on Russian energy and closer trade ties with that nation, according to Bloomberg Economics.
In the U.S., S & P Global data showed input price growth accelerated to a near-record high and businesses’ outlooks slipped to a five-month low amid concerns about the war and even higher costs. Even so, the flash U.S. composite PMI advanced to an eight-month high as easing COVID-19 restrictions and less severe supply chain disruptions supported demand and production.
There are signs of disruption in Germany, where the war has thrown into doubt a planned spin-off of Thyssenkrupp AG’ s steel business. Car-parts maker Schaeffler AG has also scrapped its earnings forecast, while Mercedes-Benz AG is readying plans to cope with potential natural-gas shortages.
In the U.K., Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Wednesday that this year’ s growth projection has been cut to 3.8% from 6%, with the Treasury identifying inflation — at a three-decade high — as the No. 1 economic threat.
While looser virus curbs helped Britain maintain robust growth this month, deteriorating business expectations signal softer activity ahead, S & P Global said. The combination of a potentially sharp slowdown and a worsening cost-of-living crisis “ paints an unwelcome picture of ‘ stagflation,’ ” Williamson said.
“ We’ ve never managed the business through a period of inflation like the one we’ re seeing at the moment, ” Simon Wolfson, chief executive officer of U.K. clothing and housewares retailer Next Plc, said Thursday as the company lowered its profit and sales guidance for this year. “ It’ s very difficult for us to make an assessment as to what effect our price increases will have on total sales. ”
Read more: U.S. Retail Sales Soften as High Gasoline Costs Begin to Bite
Governments in the U.K. and across Europe are trying to ease the war’ s knock-on effects for households by offering tax breaks, cheaper fuel and income support.
But with the extent of the crisis still unclear, a European Commission gauge of confidence has slumped to its lowest level since the early months of the pandemic, while statistics offices in countries including France have halted forecasts due to the uncertainty.
“ A number of recent developments look more worrying than the resilient PMI headline numbers, ” said Frederik Ducrozet, global strategist at Banque Pictet & Cie SA, “ Today’ s stagflation shock is massive, hurting supply chains at the worst possible time. ” | general |
Cyber insurance to grow amid digitalization, rise in attacks | Raf Sanchez, head of cyber services at insurer London-based Beazley PLC, expects continued growth in the cyber insurance segment this year, as more organizations go digital amid the COVID-19 pandemic and cyber attacks grow, Reinsurance News reported. Mr. Sanchez said that the increasing number of cyber attacks will also drive directors and officers’ liability insurance claims and third-party litigations related to the cyber security incidents.
Raf Sanchez, head of cyber services at insurer London-based Beazley PLC, expects continued growth in the cyber insurance segment this year, as more organizations go digital amid the COVID-19 pandemic and cyber attacks grow, Reinsurance News reported. Mr. Sanchez said that the increasing number of cyber attacks will also drive directors and officers’ liability insurance claims and third-party litigations related to the cyber security incidents. | general |
Insurance software firm Duck Creek raises IPO price range | – Duck Creek Technologies Inc., a software company that serves the property/casualty insurance market, on Wednesday raised the price range for its initial public offering and expects to raise about $ 375 million. Boston-based Duck Creek, which is backed by private-equity firm Apax Partners, expects its offering of 15 million shares to be priced in the range of $ 23 to $ 25 per share, valuing it at about $ 3.21 billion at the top end of the range. The company had earlier expected its IPO to be priced between $ 19 and $ 21 per share. The coronavirus pandemic is pushing the insurance sector to rely heavily on technology to reach its customers, putting the focus on startups such as SoftBank-backed Lemonade Inc., which recently priced its IPO well above the targeted range. Following the COVID-19-induced slowdown in global insurtech investment during the first months of 2020, $ 1.56 billion was raised in the second quarter, up 71% over the first quarter, according to Willis Towers Watson PLC’ s recent insurtech report. The property/casualty sector accounted for 68% of funding. Insurance software companies have seen rising demand for products that give customers instant access to their information and help insurance providers cut costs. Duck Creek said funds advised by private equity firm Apax Partners will own about 33.8% of its common stock after the IPO, while IT consulting firm Accenture will own about 22.5%. Goldman Sachs & Co, BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan are among bookrunners for the offering.
( Reuters) – Duck Creek Technologies Inc., a software company that serves the property/casualty insurance market, on Wednesday raised the price range for its initial public offering and expects to raise about $ 375 million.
Boston-based Duck Creek, which is backed by private-equity firm Apax Partners, expects its offering of 15 million shares to be priced in the range of $ 23 to $ 25 per share, valuing it at about $ 3.21 billion at the top end of the range.
The company had earlier expected its IPO to be priced between $ 19 and $ 21 per share.
The coronavirus pandemic is pushing the insurance sector to rely heavily on technology to reach its customers, putting the focus on startups such as SoftBank-backed Lemonade Inc., which recently priced its IPO well above the targeted range.
Following the COVID-19-induced slowdown in global insurtech investment during the first months of 2020, $ 1.56 billion was raised in the second quarter, up 71% over the first quarter, according to Willis Towers Watson PLC’ s recent insurtech report.
The property/casualty sector accounted for 68% of funding.
Insurance software companies have seen rising demand for products that give customers instant access to their information and help insurance providers cut costs.
Duck Creek said funds advised by private equity firm Apax Partners will own about 33.8% of its common stock after the IPO, while IT consulting firm Accenture will own about 22.5%.
Goldman Sachs & Co, BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan are among bookrunners for the offering. | general |
Roundup: New Zealand lifts vaccine pass, QR code mandate, Nelson Marlborough moves to cloud, and more briefs | From 4 April, the use of vaccine passes and QR codes will no longer be required in New Zealand.
In a statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that vaccine passes `` will no longer be mandated '' after COVID-19 cases came down from their peak.
Yet, the government will still maintain systems in place and update the passes over time to include boosters.
`` Should there be a variant that demands it, or a change in circumstances, we may yet need them again, '' Ardern said.
The government will also stop requiring the use of QR codes as it sees no need to conduct wider contact tracing, except in high-risk environments, such as residential facilities for vulnerable people.
But Ardern told the public to still keep their NZ COVID Tracer app, which stores their QR codes, to stand ready when contact tracing will be mandated again once a new variant emerges.
`` Scanning has been a really important part of what we’ ve achieved, so thank you everyone for playing your part. But for now, we can all stop hovering around the entrance to a supermarket or venue while we stumble around on our phones – a welcome change for us all, '' she said.
The Nelson Marlborough District Health Board in New Zealand has recently moved to the AMS Pulse cloud.
The DHB has switched from running its roster-to-pay on-site to adopting a cloud-based workforce management solution from AMS.
Its move will help in managing their workers under different employment agreements amid an ongoing pandemic and the changes in Multi-Employer Collective Agreement ( MECA) settlements and the remediation and rectification related to the Holidays Act.
According to a media release, NMDHB stated three factors for its move to the cloud. `` Firstly, there was removing the need to have [ an ] in-house expertise to manage an increasingly complex technical environment – including managing test environments in delivering the Holidays Act and the many MECA changes, '' said General Manager for People and Capability Trish Casey.
Second is security, especially given the recent cyber attacks on DHBs. `` We were looking for a much stronger, inbuilt, discipline around data security and system access, '' she said.
Finally, their workforce said they wanted to have remote access to their roster and pay systems.
AMS has also set up a cloud data replication service using Microsoft Azure that accurately updates all relevant data, according to Ben Barlow, AMS head of workforce management. The service, he explained, ensures that the customised internal reporting and integrations built by NMDHB for on-premise can be sustained in the cloud.
A new data portal by Australia-based employment marketplace SEEK has revealed that information managers are among positions in the healthcare and medical industry that have fast-growing average salaries.
Based on data from SEEK's Laws of Attraction portal, their average salary went up 20% year on year to A $ 113,880, the second-highest average salary among roles.
Resident medical officers are earning the most with an average salary of A $ 128,812, which is 31% higher compared to last year. Other positions that have seen increasing salary hikes are dental officers, house officers, and registrars.
The Laws of Attraction portal also showed the top drivers attracting candidates in the healthcare and medical industry, which are work-life balance, salary and compensation, and career development.
`` We work across Australia to fill a variety of roles in the healthcare and medical industry. Over the last two years, and especially right now, we have seen a huge spike in the volume of jobs available for candidates, making it a challenging market for hirers, '' Cornerstone Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos commented on the latest insights from SEEK. | tech |
TikTok is propagandists ' new tool to win elections in Southeast Asia | Scholars and political observers have raised concerns over public opinion manoeuvring on social media in Southeast Asia as three countries in the region - the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, are gearing up for elections.
Propagandists’ strategic manoeuvring of public opinion on social media remains a dangerous threat to democracy in Southeast Asia. Over the years, strategic use of cybertroopers in Southeast Asian countries has been prominent, especially during the election periods.
Political actors have attempted to sway public opinion via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to push for a political narrative to garner more supporters in the region.
Now, TikTok, as the most downloaded app in Southeast Asia would serve as a new strategic tool for propagandists to push for political narrative during the electoral period.
TikTok provides unique features enabling propaganda to reach a greater public, as its content-sharing model is novel compared to its predecessors, where it does not rely on the number of followers but instead focuses on the content itself.
This means anybody who could create “ interesting-enough ” content can land on the “ for you page, ” opening doors of opportunities for political opportunists to push for political narrative by creating engaging audio-visual content.
With its recommended system, radical propaganda could result in extremism among fanatical followers as TikTok would push for similar content to users. This model could create an information bubble that would feed users with certain narratives and influence their worldview.
Unlike its predecessors, TikTok is relatively new in the global-fame-game after a sudden burst of new downloads worldwide at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google have taken serious steps to combat the misuse of their platforms by propagandists, TikTok does not have as rigorous policies.
TikTok has been heavily criticized by scholars and media for allowing extremism to be on its platform, which led the tech company to rebut with improved policies through their community guidelines.
Relying mostly on in-house and AI monitoring framework and community flagging system, as an audio-visual platform, TikTok seems to struggle to oversee content its users produce on its platform.
TikTok has established its latest community guidelines to avoid individuals’ misuse of the platform.
However, political propaganda is still rampant on the platform, for example on the ‘ live’ section of the platform.
The ‘ live’ feature on TikTok has been misused to spread political narrative in several countries, including the US and Russia.
Unlike the uploaded audio-visual content, the live feature posed a distinctive challenge due to its synchronous real time-streaming nature, which makes AI monitoring less effective compared to humans in content moderation.
But, relying on 24/7 human monitoring of live videos is unrealistic as it is impossible and economically impractical to hire enough workforce to monitor millions of content uploaded on TikTok daily.
Therefore the next best way is to harness community engagement by developing a community flagging system to help identify content in violation of its policy.
As general elections in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia are looming, we should not disregard TikTok as a space for political information warfare amid elections in the region.
Seeing how Russian influencers were paid to disseminate pro-Kremlin propaganda on TikTok, my prediction, similar trends highly likely will happen in the Southeast Asian countries.
Digital propaganda strategies for disinformation campaigns that we have seen on other social media platforms include coordinated use of paid influencers, cybertroopers, bots, deepfakes.
These could be replicated on TikTok during the Southeast Asian elections considering the platform gained popularity in the region in the past three years.
As information disorders ahead of the election are to be expected, one of the ways to mitigate information disorders is through media and information literacy efforts.
While fact-checkers can only do so much, citizens should also be well equipped with the right skills to check information for themselves.
In Southeast Asia, media and information literacy education are still behind compared to other parts of the world, despite the current climate of information pollution. While information disorders will never go away, equipping citizens with the right skills would help in mitigating its spread. | business |
Georgia says it will lose over $ 1 billion because of Ukraine | `` Russia and Ukraine are our main trading partners, '' Irakli Kovzanadze told the TV channel TV Pirveli, according to Russia's TASS news agency. `` Russia is second, and Ukraine is fifth or sixth place. ''
He said the Ukrainian crisis would reduce not only exports but also tourism income and remittances from abroad.
`` I think Georgia's economy will lose $ 1-1.2 billion, '' Kovzanadze said.
Although growth was likely to fall short of 6%, he said there would be no problems implementing the state budget.
Georgia's gross domestic product expanded 10.6% in 2021 as it recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic after a 6.2% drop in 2020, according to preliminary data.
The International Monetary Fund estimated Georgia's GDP at around $ 18 billion in 2021, in U.S. dollar terms.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.
The West has imposed sweeping economic and financial sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces, but the conflict is also set to ravage Ukraine's economy.
( Writing by Kevin Liffey; editing by Jonathan Oatis) | business |
Vanguard reclaims top target-date fund manager spot it lost in 2020 | Vanguard Group captured the most new investor money in its target-date funds last year relative to other asset managers, reclaiming the top spot it 'd held for over a decade before being dethroned in 2020, according to a new Morningstar report.
Target-date funds, or TDFs, have become popular in 401 ( k) and other workplace retirement plans over the last decade and a half. Investors select a fund whose date best approximates their likely year of retirement; the fund gets more conservative as investors near retirement age, shifting from stocks to bonds.
Many employers use the funds as a de facto investment for employees who are automatically enrolled in a 401 ( k) plan.
TDFs raked in $ 170 billion of new contributions in 2021, an annual record, according to Morningstar. Total fund assets approached $ 3.3 trillion, up almost 20% from 2020.
Investors have been shifting toward lower-cost funds for years. Vanguard, which has branded itself as a low-cost provider, and other popular TDF managers have capitalized on the trend.
Retirement savers invested a net $ 55 billion in Vanguard's Target Retirement Funds in 2021 — almost a third of all the money that flowed into TDFs, according to Morningstar.
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Fidelity Investments ' Freedom Index Funds, the firm's most popular flavor of TDFs, pulled in $ 45 billion, ranking second. ( The total was a smaller $ 35 billion across all Fidelity's target funds, because investors withdrew money from its flagship Fidelity Freedom series, according to Morningstar.)
The American Funds Target Date Retirement Series collected about $ 26.2 billion of net money in 2021, ranking third. BlackRock's LifePath Index funds collected $ 25 billion of net money in 2021, ranking fourth, Morningstar said.
BlackRock and Fidelity had the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in 2020, respectively.
`` Vanguard had held the top spot since 2008, but took a dip [ in 2020 ], '' said Megan Pacholok, an analyst on Morningstar's multi-asset manager research team and co-author of its annual target-date report, published Wednesday. `` This year, they climbed to the top again. ''
Vanguard, Fidelity and BlackRock have among the lowest-cost target-date funds.
In 2020, BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard captured about $ 22 billion, $ 19.8 billion and $ 19.5 billion in their most popular TDFs, respectively.
The Covid-19 pandemic likely played a big role in the scramble atop the leaderboard, Pacholok said.
`` We believe it's primarily because of the market drawdown in 2020, '' she said. `` People were a little more hesitant to keep up with their contributions. ''
A BlackRock spokesperson declined comment.
`` The Freedom Funds were launched in 1996, making Fidelity one of the only providers with a demonstrated track record that extends over 25 years, '' said Claire Putzeys, a Fidelity spokesperson. `` Fidelity has an unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional outcomes for plan sponsors and participants in our target date funds. ''
Vanguard managed roughly $ 1.2 trillion of TDF assets at the end of 2021, about 36% of the total market, according to Morningstar. Fidelity managed $ 460 billion ( 14% of the total) and BlackRock $ 289 billion ( 8.8%). ( BlackRock ranks fourth in total TDF assets, behind third-place T. Rowe Price, with $ 374 billion.)
BlackRock, unlike Fidelity and Vanguard, is not also a 401 ( k) plan administrator.
Low costs are a common theme among the TDFs most popular with both investors and the employers who choose to make them available to their employees.
This trend has occurred more broadly across the investment industry, as investors pivot to index funds over those that are actively managed. The former tend to have lower annual fees for investors.
The cheapest fifth of TDFs received $ 59 billion of investor money in 2021, up from $ 41 billion in 2020, according to Morningstar. Meanwhile, the three most-expensive quintiles saw investors withdraw a net $ 38 billion.
`` Low fees... continue to drive target-date mutual fund flows, '' the Morningstar report said. `` Cheaper mutual fund target-date series have attracted more investor interest than those with higher price tags. ''
The Fidelity Freedom Index, Vanguard Target Retirement and Schwab Target Index have the lowest fees among target-date mutual funds, according to Morningstar. Investors pay an annual 0.08% fee on their money. ( A $ 10,000 investment costs about $ 8 a year.)
The BlackRock LifePath Index and State Street Target Retirement funds are similar, with a 0.09% annual expense.
The American Funds series is actively managed but has low costs relative to its peers and has been one of the top-performing series over the last five and 10 years, Morningstar said.
TDFs may not make sense for all investors, though.
Some financial advisors think the `` set it and forget it '' funds are best suited for younger employees, who often have a less complex financial situation, or those with less investing experience; the funds help put savings on autopilot, by managing essential functions like de-risking and portfolio rebalancing.
That's not to say TDFs aren't well suited for investors closer to retirement; but it's a good idea to reconsider how they do or don't fit within the construct of their overall finances, which tend to get more complex over time. ( For example, your TDF may have a larger share of stocks to bonds than makes sense for your overall portfolio.)
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect a correction in Morningstar's report. | business |
2021 Annual Report now published | Investor AB has today published the Annual Report 2021 including the Sustainability Report, on www.investorab.com.
2021 was characterized by the covid-19 pandemic, but also by economic recovery and rallying equity markets, making it a strong year for Investor.
In the Annual Report, Jacob Wallenberg Investor's Chair of the Board, and Johan Forssell Investors ' CEO comments on the situation in Ukraine.
`` Tragically, 2022 will forever be remembered for the unprovoked Russian invasion and war in Ukraine, the first major war in Europe in over 80 years. Regardless of how this tragedy unfolds, the terrible suffering it is causing and its huge implications for global security will undoubtedly cast dark shadows for decades and serve as a stark reminder of the lethal threats to democracy. Many companies have not only been vocal in condemning the war, but quick to support the people in Ukraine as well as curb their operations in Russia '', writes Jacob Wallenberg.
During 2021, we continued to focus on further future-proofing our companies, making sure they are at the forefront of major trends, such as digitalization and sustainability, and well positioned to outperform competition over time. For instance, we sharpened our climate targets and joined the UN initiative 'Race to Zero '.
`` I am impressed by how much our companies have already achieved when it comes to transforming processes related to procurement, production, and distribution into low-carbon alternatives. At the end of 2021, our companies had cut their emissions by 49 percent compared to 2016 '', writes Jacob Wallenberg.
Our companies performed well operationally, managing rapid swings in demand and significant supply chain constraints, safeguarding customer deliveries. Many of our companies made important strategic acquisitions, while continuing to focus on agility and constant efficiency improvements.
`` Regardless of how the global economy and equity markets will develop, Investor stands strong. Our portfolio consists of great companies with leading positions in attractive markets, and they are managed by highly skilled and experienced people. We also have a strong financial position, enabling us to act on attractive opportunities in all three business areas '', writes Johan Forssell.
For further information:
Viveka Hirdman-Ryrberg, Head of Corporate Communication and Sustainability, Phone +46 70 550 3500viveka.hirdman-ryrberg @ investorab.comMagnus Dalhammar, Head of Investor Relations, Phone +46 73 524 2130magnus.dalhammar @ investorab.com
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Russia-Ukraine political tension threatens Beijing Olympics insurers | The threat of war between Russia and Ukraine is the biggest risk for insurers covering the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, WSAU reported citing Reuters. War between the two nations could result in team withdrawals, non-appearance of athletes or event cancelation, which could lead to insurance claims by broadcasters or other entities that suffer losses of any kind. COVID-19 also continues to be of concern for insurers.
The threat of war between Russia and Ukraine is the biggest risk for insurers covering the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, WSAU reported citing Reuters. War between the two nations could result in team withdrawals, non-appearance of athletes or event cancelation, which could lead to insurance claims by broadcasters or other entities that suffer losses of any kind. COVID-19 also continues to be of concern for insurers. | general |
Cyber incidents are greatest peril to business: Allianz | Cyber incidents were rated as the greatest peril to business in 2022, followed by business interruption and natural catastrophes, according to the 2022 Allianz Risk Barometer released Tuesday. “ Ransomware has become a big business for cybercriminals. We will see more attacks against technology supply chains and critical infrastructure, ” Scott Sayce, global head of cyber at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty SE, said in a statement with the report. The pandemic outbreak and changes in legislation rounded out the top five perils as cyber topped the list for only the second time, regaining the top spot after slipping to second in 2021. Climate change placed sixth, its highest ranking ever, rising from ninth last year. The annual survey from Allianz is based on responses from 2,650 sources in 89 countries and territories, including CEOs, risk managers, brokers and insurance experts, among them Allianz employees and customers. While cyber challenges topped the list globally, in the U.S. business interruption was the chief concern, named by 50% of respondents, with cyber second with a 37% share, according to report data. Business interruption also placed first with the U.S.’ s largest trading partner, China with 36% of respondents. The two perils traded places across the globe. In France and Germany, business interruption was first followed by cyber. In India and Italy, cyber was first, followed by pandemic outbreak and business interruption, respectively. Business Interruptions will likely remain the key underlying risk theme in 2022, ” according to AGCS Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty CEO Joachim Mueller. “ For most companies, the biggest fear is not being able to produce their products or deliver their services, ” he said in the statement with the report. This year, he added, “ promises a gradual easing of the situation although further COVID-19-related problems can not be ruled out. ” Pandemic outbreak slipped to fourth in 2022 from second in 2021, but the report notes that “ Omicron is a reminder that COVID-19 remains an unpredictable threat, with potentially long-term and far-reaching consequences ” as shown by the entry of shortage of skilled workforce into the top 10 risks at number nine, “ with staff absences and shortages expected to disrupt business again in 2022, ” the report said. That natural catastrophes and climate change rose to third and sixth position, respectively, is “ telling, ” said the report, “ with both upwards trends closely related. ” While Risk Barometer respondents are most concerned about climate-change-related weather events causing damage to corporate property followed by business interruption and supply chain impact, they are also concerned about managing the transition of their businesses to a low-carbon economy, meeting complex regulation and reporting requirements and avoiding potential litigation risks for not adequately taking action to address climate change.
Cyber incidents were rated as the greatest peril to business in 2022, followed by business interruption and natural catastrophes, according to the 2022 Allianz Risk Barometer released Tuesday.
“ Ransomware has become a big business for cybercriminals. We will see more attacks against technology supply chains and critical infrastructure, ” Scott Sayce, global head of cyber at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty SE, said in a statement with the report.
The pandemic outbreak and changes in legislation rounded out the top five perils as cyber topped the list for only the second time, regaining the top spot after slipping to second in 2021. Climate change placed sixth, its highest ranking ever, rising from ninth last year.
The annual survey from Allianz is based on responses from 2,650 sources in 89 countries and territories, including CEOs, risk managers, brokers and insurance experts, among them Allianz employees and customers.
While cyber challenges topped the list globally, in the U.S. business interruption was the chief concern, named by 50% of respondents, with cyber second with a 37% share, according to report data. Business interruption also placed first with the U.S.’ s largest trading partner, China with 36% of respondents.
The two perils traded places across the globe. In France and Germany, business interruption was first followed by cyber. In India and Italy, cyber was first, followed by pandemic outbreak and business interruption, respectively.
Business Interruptions will likely remain the key underlying risk theme in 2022, ” according to AGCS Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty CEO Joachim Mueller. “ For most companies, the biggest fear is not being able to produce their products or deliver their services, ” he said in the statement with the report. This year, he added, “ promises a gradual easing of the situation although further COVID-19-related problems can not be ruled out. ”
Pandemic outbreak slipped to fourth in 2022 from second in 2021, but the report notes that “ Omicron is a reminder that COVID-19 remains an unpredictable threat, with potentially long-term and far-reaching consequences ” as shown by the entry of shortage of skilled workforce into the top 10 risks at number nine, “ with staff absences and shortages expected to disrupt business again in 2022, ” the report said.
That natural catastrophes and climate change rose to third and sixth position, respectively, is “ telling, ” said the report, “ with both upwards trends closely related. ”
While Risk Barometer respondents are most concerned about climate-change-related weather events causing damage to corporate property followed by business interruption and supply chain impact, they are also concerned about managing the transition of their businesses to a low-carbon economy, meeting complex regulation and reporting requirements and avoiding potential litigation risks for not adequately taking action to address climate change. | general |
Roundup: New telehealth services launched in Hong Kong and more briefs | iMeddy, a startup nurtured by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, is providing free video medical consultations via its online healthcare platform for COVID-19 patients.
Supported by Y.Elites Association and the Hong Kong Youth Development Alliance, the service runs in two phases: the first round, which has been completed, delivered teleconsultations to low-income families, and the upcoming second round will cover senior people living alone and those living in nursing homes.
According to a media release, the telehealth service is meeting a quota of 3,000 COVID-19 patients amid a severe fifth wave of COVID-19 infections in the city. `` This will help share the burden currently faced by the medical system as well as promote the use of innovative technology in the medical field, '' the statement read.
Cellular and digital services provider Telenor Pakistan has teamed up with Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk to educate farming communities in Pakistan about diabetes.
Through the partnership, users of Khushaal Watan, Telenor's mobile lifestyle app for farmers, will receive text messages and live shows about diabetes and its early signs.
Additionally, Telenor will launch a rural health service called Khushaal Sehat to further its awareness campaign.
Novo Nordisk General Manager Rashed Rafique Butt noted that Pakistan now has the world's third-largest population with diabetes. In the country, millions of patients, especially in rural areas, are deprived of access to adequate health facilities. `` This is a call for everyone to join hands and do whatever it takes to curb this unfolding pandemic, '' Butt said.
According to Telenor, their programme will benefit over 16 million users of Khushaal Watan in agricultural communities.
`` We’ re committed to bringing benefits and solutions possible through our 4G network to every Pakistani. The collaboration with Novo Nordisk, a first of its kind, is a development towards the same aim, providing accessible digital healthcare solutions and information that contribute towards healthier lifestyles and consequently the economy, '' said COO Khurrum Ashfaque.
Healthcare provider India Health Link has launched an unstaffed digital health centre in the remote district of Khagaria in the state of Bihar.
The IHL Care Digital Health Centre at Adarsh Nagar features the health kiosk called hPod, a self-service health station that is capable of screening over 20 vital parameters, such as blood pressure, temperature, pulse, blood oxygen saturation, and ECG. It also enables teleconsultation with doctors from Apollo TeleHealth.
Moreover, the health facility allows patients to create their own IHL health accounts, which integrate with the nationwide Ayushman Bharat Health Account.
India is experiencing shortages in its healthcare workforce where the doctor to patient ratio is below the recommended figure set by the World Health Organization, noted IHL CEO and founder Dr Satyender Goel.
He also said that India is `` sitting on a time-bomb of [ non-communicable diseases ] and Indians neither prioritise their preventive care nor they do their initial health screening ''. Many preventable diseases in rural areas are not detected early on, resulting in an increasing burden of disease, he stressed.
The IHL digital health centre can collect data on risk factors of patients in Khagaria, home to over 1.6 million people, which Dr Goel said the government could use to plan and implement programmes on maternal and child health, women's health, and prevention of NCDs.
`` The facility of quick preventive health check-ups for individuals at their convenience will prove to be the boon for preventive healthcare to the people of the rural town, '' Nilesh Kumar, franchisee of the IHL Care Digital Health Center in Khagaria, also commented.
Shanghai Mental Health Center, a mental health institution in China, has partnered with youth-oriented online video platform Bilibili for mental health awareness.
SMHC will launch four official accounts on Bilibili to deliver video content around mental health.
As part of the collaboration, the mental health centre will also support Bilibili's Energy Gas Station, an online service that helps users cope with negative emotions, by having its team of psychological intervention volunteers respond to some inquiries. Additionally, SMHC doctors will be available at certain times to provide online support to users under emotional distress.
`` We noticed that more and more people are paying attention to the importance of mental health. We are glad to form [ this ] partnership with Bilibili to support the public on mental health issues, especially the young generation, '' said Xie Bin, the secretary of SMHC's Party Committee.
Insurance firm Cigna Hong Kong and telecommunications provider SmarTone have partnered to launch a teleconsultation service for families of SmarTone customers.
According to a media release, the six-month free trial service provides SmarTone 5G subscribers with access to Cigna's telehealth service in partnership with Teladoc. It includes video consultations with primary care physicians and general practitioners, as well as body check discounts for comprehensive health screening and outpatient discounts at Cigna's partner clinics in the city.
Up to four people, including the main subscriber and three dependents below the age of 18, can share the same account to access the telehealth service. Moreover, SmarTone is waiving charges for data usage for local consultations.
Cigna Hong Kong CEO Jonathan Spiers added that this partnership `` enables us to provide health services that are easy to access for SmarTone customers no matter if they are in Hong Kong or abroad, with wide operating hours and unlimited access to online consultations ''.
`` With SmarTone's 5G network, we can offer customers and their families a stable and reliable telehealth service, providing them an easy and convenient way to access medical advice and doctor consultations, '' SmarTone Deputy CEO Norman Tam also said. | tech |
Hair-trigger China lockdowns are hurting supply - project44 | China’ s zero tolerance approach to Covid-19 has seen it go an entire year without reporting a single death from the coronavirus, despite it having killed 6 million people globally to date.
The Chinese see this as a triumph for autocracy over democracy, while the West simply points out that declining to report something doesn’ t render it non-existent.
Whatever the truth of China’ s Covid death stats, there can be no denying the effect its hard-line stance on controlling the spread of the disease is having on the ability of global supply chains to function properly.
Just how seriously China’ s hair-trigger lockdowns are continuing to hit global supply chains has been laid bare by a report from supply chain visibility specialist, project44.
When it comes to electric components, Shenzhen is a global powerhouse, not least because it’ s home to the world’ s leading electronics manufacturer, Foxconn, which makes parts for Apple, Sony, Nintendo, and HP, among others.
Foxconn was among the many hugely important Shenzhen companies to be becalmed by the latest lockdown. It took a mere 60 Covid cases to send the 17.5-million-people manufacturing metropolis into a seven-day lockdown.
And even though that lockdown has since been lifted, the citizens of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, are required to go through three rounds of coronavirus testing, slowing the wheels of commerce even further, and doing nothing to cut the eye-wateringly large queue of vessels outside Yantian International Container Terminal, the world’ s fourth-largest port.
project 44 reports SEKO Logistics APAC Manager Jasmine Wall as saying that even though port authorities in Shenzhen have said the port will stay open, congestion is increasing, as port workers and truckers are forced to stay at home. “ Already, container loading is decreasing massively, ” she says.
project44 points out that previous lockdowns in Yantian had a disruptive effect on global shipping that was more significant than that caused by the six-day closure of the Suez Canal, when the giant container vessel Ever Given ran aground.
A consequence of China’ s zero-tolerance policy is that its population has little of the herd immunity seen in Europe and North America. Project44 says that, given Omicron’ s highly infectious nature, this means China’ s zero-tolerance will inevitably lead to further radical lockdowns.
“ A shutdown in Chinese exports will exacerbate supply chain delays and reduce inventories held by businesses, which could drive further price increases, ” project44 reported BIMCO Chief Shipping Analyst Niels Rasmussen as saying. ( BIMCO is a shipowner association.)
In conclusion, project44 says “ China’ s manufacturing sector is paying a high price for this zero-tolerance policy, which leading medical experts think is fundamentally flawed. Maybe this will lead the Chinese authorities at some point to rethink the reasoning of shutting down a 17.5-million metropolis for just 60 Covid cases. ”
Meet Guido Amendola, SVP of Corporate and Group Supply Chain at Snam. Amendola will be speaking on Day 1 ( 27 April) of Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE…
Meet Don Perigny, Senior Manager, Global Procurement, Werfen, a specialist in diagnostics. Perigny will speak on Day 2 of Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE…
Supply Chain Digital is the digital community for the global supply chain & logistics industry that connects the world's largest supply chain & logistics brands. Supply Chain Digital focuses on procurement and supply chain news, key interviews, supply chain videos, along with an ever-expanding range of focused procurement and supply chain white papers and webinars. | general |
Insurtech seen eating into market share of established insurers | – Established insurers will face a squeeze on profits and market share as new financial technology companies muscle in on the industry, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday. More fintech firms are expected to offer insurance, helped by the impact of the coronavirus crisis which has encouraged the swifter adoption of new technology in the workplace and business, said Martin Merlin, the European Commission’ s director for banking, insurance and financial crime. “ The insurance sector will need to innovate and adapt itself in order to keep its market share, ” Mr. Merlin told a panel at the Reuters Events Future of Insurance Europe conference. Insurers and reinsurers such as Axa SA and Munich Reinsurance Co. have been investing in insurtech companies, considered a faster way for them to adapt to technology changes. Stephen Catlin, chairman and chief executive of Convex, a newcomer to the insurance, told the event that fintech firms faced a learning curve to compete with established players. “ I’ ve been approached by many fintech companies and so often they have very little appreciation of the industry, ” he said. Mr. Merlin also said climate change risks were likely to be similar across regions, making it tougher for insurers to diversify their risks. “ That is a difficulty that large insurance companies typically would have to grapple with, ” he said.
( Reuters) – Established insurers will face a squeeze on profits and market share as new financial technology companies muscle in on the industry, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday.
More fintech firms are expected to offer insurance, helped by the impact of the coronavirus crisis which has encouraged the swifter adoption of new technology in the workplace and business, said Martin Merlin, the European Commission’ s director for banking, insurance and financial crime.
“ The insurance sector will need to innovate and adapt itself in order to keep its market share, ” Mr. Merlin told a panel at the Reuters Events Future of Insurance Europe conference.
Insurers and reinsurers such as Axa SA and Munich Reinsurance Co. have been investing in insurtech companies, considered a faster way for them to adapt to technology changes.
Stephen Catlin, chairman and chief executive of Convex, a newcomer to the insurance, told the event that fintech firms faced a learning curve to compete with established players.
“ I’ ve been approached by many fintech companies and so often they have very little appreciation of the industry, ” he said.
Mr. Merlin also said climate change risks were likely to be similar across regions, making it tougher for insurers to diversify their risks.
“ That is a difficulty that large insurance companies typically would have to grapple with, ” he said. | general |
Insurtech Lemonade soars in stock market debut | – Shares of insurance startup Lemonade Inc. surged 73% in their market debut on Thursday, capitalizing on the rebound in U.S. investor demand for new listings following the coronavirus outbreak. The company’ s shares opened at $ 50.06 on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with their initial public offering price of $ 29. The opening price values the company at $ 2.75 billion. Lemonade on Wednesday raised $ 319 million after pricing its offering above an already elevated range. The company was looking to sell its shares between $ 26 and $ 28 apiece and had originally targeted $ 23- $ 26 per share. The company said it has digitized the entire insurance process, replacing brokers and paperwork with algorithms, helping it provide policies to homeowners and renters in as little as 90 seconds and claim payments in three minutes. Lemonade, which started operations in late 2016, is part of a fast-growing fintech sub-sector called “ insurtech, ” short for insurance technology, that uses artificial intelligence and big data to disrupt existing business models, maximize efficiency and mitigate insurance risk. “ This company is a disruptor in the insurance arena, ” said Jeff Zell, senior research analyst and partner at IPO tracking firm IPO Boutique. “ The valuation of Lemonade must be viewed, in our opinion, through the lens of extensive growth in the future. ” The company’ s valuation at the opening price is well over the $ 2.1 billion it was valued at last year, after it raised $ 300 million in a funding round led by Japan’ s SoftBank Group Corp. and which included insurer Allianz SE and Alphabet Inc.'s venture capital arm, GV. SoftBank owns a 27.3% stake in Lemonade. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Allen & Co. and Barclays served as lead underwriters for the offering.
( Reuters) – Shares of insurance startup Lemonade Inc. surged 73% in their market debut on Thursday, capitalizing on the rebound in U.S. investor demand for new listings following the coronavirus outbreak.
The company’ s shares opened at $ 50.06 on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with their initial public offering price of $ 29. The opening price values the company at $ 2.75 billion.
Lemonade on Wednesday raised $ 319 million after pricing its offering above an already elevated range. The company was looking to sell its shares between $ 26 and $ 28 apiece and had originally targeted $ 23- $ 26 per share.
The company said it has digitized the entire insurance process, replacing brokers and paperwork with algorithms, helping it provide policies to homeowners and renters in as little as 90 seconds and claim payments in three minutes.
Lemonade, which started operations in late 2016, is part of a fast-growing fintech sub-sector called “ insurtech, ” short for insurance technology, that uses artificial intelligence and big data to disrupt existing business models, maximize efficiency and mitigate insurance risk.
“ This company is a disruptor in the insurance arena, ” said Jeff Zell, senior research analyst and partner at IPO tracking firm IPO Boutique. “ The valuation of Lemonade must be viewed, in our opinion, through the lens of extensive growth in the future. ”
The company’ s valuation at the opening price is well over the $ 2.1 billion it was valued at last year, after it raised $ 300 million in a funding round led by Japan’ s SoftBank Group Corp. and which included insurer Allianz SE and Alphabet Inc.'s venture capital arm, GV.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Allen & Co. and Barclays served as lead underwriters for the offering. | general |
Insurtech Hippo to go public | — Hippo Enterprises will go public through a $ 5 billion merger with a blank-check firm backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, in a sign of rising interest in the fast-growing “ insurtech ” sector. The deal, announced Thursday, comes when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the insurance sector to rely heavily on technology to reach customers, helping the insurtech sector that uses artificial intelligence and big data. Founded in 2015, Palo Alto, California-based Hippo sells homeowners insurance online and the merger with special purpose acquisition company ( SPAC) Reinvent Technology Partners Z will include a private investment of about $ 450 million and give it $ 1.2 billion in cash. Global insurtech investments jumped in 2020, even as the larger insurance industry faced huge and varying claims from businesses and households hit by the pandemic. Total annual insurtech funding reached an all-time high of $ 7.1 billion last year, with 377 deals inked — the highest in any year to date, according to a report by broker Willis Towers Watson PLC. Hippo and its peers such as Unqork, Waterdrop, Oscar Health, Bind Benefits and Newfront Insurance received a total of $ 1.1 billion in funding in the final quarter of 2020. Many insurtechs have gone public, with Oscar Health, backed by Google parent Alphabet Inc., raising $ 1.2 billion on Tuesday. Insurance startup Lemonade Inc. also became a public company last year. Hippo's SPAC merger follows the recent deals by CCC Information and Metromile Inc. The deals also underscore expectations that total value of premiums generated by insurtech platforms will exceed $ 556 billion in 2025, from $ 250 billion in 2020, according to a study by Juniper Research. SPACs are shell companies that raise funds through an IPO to take a private company public.
( Reuters) — Hippo Enterprises will go public through a $ 5 billion merger with a blank-check firm backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, in a sign of rising interest in the fast-growing “ insurtech ” sector.
The deal, announced Thursday, comes when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the insurance sector to rely heavily on technology to reach customers, helping the insurtech sector that uses artificial intelligence and big data.
Founded in 2015, Palo Alto, California-based Hippo sells homeowners insurance online and the merger with special purpose acquisition company ( SPAC) Reinvent Technology Partners Z will include a private investment of about $ 450 million and give it $ 1.2 billion in cash.
Global insurtech investments jumped in 2020, even as the larger insurance industry faced huge and varying claims from businesses and households hit by the pandemic.
Total annual insurtech funding reached an all-time high of $ 7.1 billion last year, with 377 deals inked — the highest in any year to date, according to a report by broker Willis Towers Watson PLC.
Hippo and its peers such as Unqork, Waterdrop, Oscar Health, Bind Benefits and Newfront Insurance received a total of $ 1.1 billion in funding in the final quarter of 2020.
Many insurtechs have gone public, with Oscar Health, backed by Google parent Alphabet Inc., raising $ 1.2 billion on Tuesday. Insurance startup Lemonade Inc. also became a public company last year.
Hippo's SPAC merger follows the recent deals by CCC Information and Metromile Inc. The deals also underscore expectations that total value of premiums generated by insurtech platforms will exceed $ 556 billion in 2025, from $ 250 billion in 2020, according to a study by Juniper Research.
SPACs are shell companies that raise funds through an IPO to take a private company public. | general |
Insurtech Root eyes $ 6.25B valuation in market debut | — Automobile insurance startup Root Inc. said Tuesday it plans to raise as much as $ 604.1 million in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, the latest in a line of insurers looking to tap the current boom in U.S. capital markets. The firm, which provides insurance to customers through mobile applications, expects its initial offering of 24.2 million shares to be priced between $ 22 and $ 25 a share, and is looking at a top-end valuation of about $ 6.25 billion. Sources had told Reuters earlier this year that Root was looking at a valuation of between $ 5 billion and $ 6 billion. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Wells Fargo Securities are the lead underwriters for the offering. With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing customers to buy financial products online, Root is among several firms trying to tap the digital market.
( Reuters) — Automobile insurance startup Root Inc. said Tuesday it plans to raise as much as $ 604.1 million in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, the latest in a line of insurers looking to tap the current boom in U.S. capital markets.
The firm, which provides insurance to customers through mobile applications, expects its initial offering of 24.2 million shares to be priced between $ 22 and $ 25 a share, and is looking at a top-end valuation of about $ 6.25 billion.
Sources had told Reuters earlier this year that Root was looking at a valuation of between $ 5 billion and $ 6 billion.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Wells Fargo Securities are the lead underwriters for the offering.
With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing customers to buy financial products online, Root is among several firms trying to tap the digital market. | general |
Tracking the air cargo industry's response to Russia's war on Ukraine | Here is a rundown of operational adjustments that air cargo carriers have made due to the invasion.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has added another obstacle for air cargo-reliant supply chains already challenged by climbing rates and limited capacity.
Airlines large and small have adjusted their operations to minimize the war's impact, leading many to cancel services and flights to Ukraine and Russia as early as Feb. 24, when the attack began. The two countries are also home to fleets that specialize in handling extra-large cargo, which are hard to find elsewhere.
Commercial flights have vanished from the skies of Ukraine and surrounding areas as carriers avoid the conflict's airspace. Rerouted flights and climbing fuel costs have resulted in higher surcharges for shippers and further flight cancellations as some services between Europe and Asia became economically unviable for carriers. This has happened during a period of already limited cargo space, as the COVID-19 pandemic grounded many aircraft due to plummeting passenger demand.
`` With the crisis in Ukraine now, we're sort of back to those early days of the pandemic because lots of capacity has been sidelined, '' Neel Jones Shah, Flexport's executive vice president and global head of airfreight, said earlier this month.
Some air cargo carriers are still traveling freely through Russian airspace. Airplanes for China Southern and Air China were doing so on Wednesday afternoon, per Flightradar24. But at least 11 of the world's top 25 cargo airlines, according to the International Air Transport Association's ( IATA) 2020 rankings, and smaller operators have made some sort of adjustment due to the war.
Here is a rundown of those changes. Included in the list for most carriers is 2020 data from IATA on cargo tonne-kilometers ( CTK) flown, a measure of cargo activity. This list will be updated regularly.
Topics covered: logistics, freight, operations, procurement, regulation, technology, risk/resilience and more.
Topics covered: logistics, freight, operations, procurement, regulation, technology, risk/resilience and more. | general |
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China's crude throughput in March is set to be lower than in February as state refiners cut operating rates for scheduled maintenance, while independent refineries further lower throughput due to weak refining margins and sluggish demand amid a domestic COVID-19 resurgence, latest data from S & P Global Commodity Insights showed March 25.
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The country's crude throughput averaged 14.04 million b/d over January-February, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.
The average utilization rate at China's four state-owned refiners has fallen to around 80.9% in March from a three-month high of 82.7% in February, despite being two percentage points higher than the 78.7% utilization rate a year earlier.
Sinopec is the leading contributor to the utilization fall in March, with 564,000 b/d of its refining capacity shut since mid-March for scheduled maintenance. These refineries are Yangzi Petrochemical, Hainan Petrochemical and Tahe Petrochemical.
PetroChina in April will shut its 110,000 b/d Liaohe Petrochemical refinery for maintenance, while the turnaround at its 200,000 b/d Huabei Petrochemical has been postponed to August from the initial plan of April, S & P Global data showed.
However, the outages in March and April are expected to be lower than in the same period last year, when about 800,000 b/d and 1.7 million b/d of capacity respectively was offline for scheduled maintenance.
China's refineries have also flipped their production strategy in recent months to boost oil product output as petrochemical demand slows and profit margins for the latter narrow.
`` We have been cutting petrochemical yields since February as their price hike is much slower than that of oil products, '' a Sinopec refinery source said.
Sources with PetroChina said they had adopted the same strategy.
This will help China to sustain oil product output when both state-owned and independent refineries cut runs.
China raised its oil product output yield in the first two months of the year by 10 percentage points from a year earlier to 76.5% as petrochemical demand slowed, NBS data showed.
S & P Global data covers 48 state-owned refineries in March, compared with 45 in February. It include 26 Sinopec refineries, 20 PetroChina refineries, CNOOC's Huizhou Petrochemical and Sinochem's Quanzhou Petrochemical refinery.
These refineries will process a combined 8.3 million b/d in March, against their combined capacity of 10.26 million b/d.
The combined capacity of the 26 Sinopec refineries polled is 5.6 million b/d, accounting for 92% of the company's total capacity, while the 20 PetroChina's refineries represent a combined capacity of 3.9 million b/d, accounting for 95% of the oil giant's total capacity.
Independent refineries in Shandong province are likely to trim their average utilization rate to 56% in March from 66% in February, according to a local energy information provider JLC.
`` High crude prices and slow demand amid pandemic lockdowns in March are squeezing independent refineries ' margins further, '' a Shandong-based analyst said. Some refiners may even resell their crude cargoes to peers as they trim throughput, the analyst added.
Moreover, the 400,000 b/d Hengli Petrochemical ( Dalian) and 800,000 b/d Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical refinery complexes are likely to cut their throughput in April due to poor petrochemical margins, despite their runs in March being stable from February.
Hengli Petrochemical is operating at around 102% of its capacity in March, compared with 103% in February. ZPC has slightly lifted its utilization to 89% in March from 88% in February, according to refinery sources.
* * Sinopec's Hainan Petrochemical shut the 9.5 million mt/year refinery March 15 until May 10 for overall scheduled maintenance
* * Sinopec's Yangtz Petrochemical shut the 14.5 million mt/year refinery March 15 until May 28 for scheduled maintenance
* * PetroChina's 5.5 million mt/year Liaohe Petrochemical will shut for maintenance over April-June
* * PetroChina's 3.7 million mt/year Qingyang Petrochemical will shut for maintenance over late May to mid-July
* * PetroChina's 2.5 million mt/year Yumen Petrochemical will shut for maintenance over June to mid-July
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