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Didi Chuxing to build its own EV charging network across China

 China’s Uber competitor Didi Chuxing is getting in on the nation’s electric-vehicle boom.

The company announced today it will begin building a network of EV charging stations across the country, highlighting the seriousness with which both China’s government and private enterprise are approaching the emerging industry.

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According to Didi, the stations will be accessible both for Didi drivers and others. It will build the stations through a joint-venture with Beijng-based Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO). The venture will be known as Global New Energy Vehicle Service. A feature in Didi’s app for drivers will display which charging stations are nearby. The company did not lay out a timeline for the stations’ deployment, or specify how many it intended to build.

“The future of transport is new energy vehicles, and ridesharing will be a key link in promoting new energy on the road,” said Didi CEO Cheng Wei in a statement today at an energy summit in Beijing co-sponsored by the United Nations and GEIDCO.

China already leads the world in EV charging stations. As of 2016, there were about 150,000 stations across the country, amounting to about one per every seven electric cars (link in Chinese), according to China’s National Energy Administration. It expects the number of charging stations to surpass 1 million by year’s end. The US, by comparison, has about 16,000 public vehicle charging stations, with 43,000 connectors.

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China also leads the world when it comes to EV purchases. According to the International Energy Agency, 40% of the EVs sold in 2016 went to China, amounting to twice the number sold in the US.

The country has seen a surge of EV buying thanks in part to government subsidies and incentives, both for buyers and manufacturers. The city of Shenzhen, for example, picked cars from EV maker BYD to fill its taxi and bus fleets.

Didi says it now has over 260,000 EVs in its network of 21 million drivers.

Output: Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing will partner with Swedish firm NEVS to develop and build its own charging station for electric vehicles (EVs). CEO Cheng Wei said the stations would serve the more than 260,000 EVs on its platform as well as cars owned by the public. Didi Chuxing aims to increase its fleet to one million EVs by 2020, while China accounts for 40% of all global EV sales, according to the International Energy Agency.


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Property firm Lendlease publishes gender pay report
 When it comes to gender equity we are committed to creating a level playing field so everyone has an equal chance of success.

This applies to all our processes and policies, ensuring opportunities are fair and equitable for all.

Foreword from Neil Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Europe

We want to create a level playing field at Lendlease in which everyone has the opportunity to succeed and fulfil their potential. At Lendlease, we’ve already achieved equal pay, meaning both men and women get paid the same amount for doing the same role. Whether through recruitment, training or ways of working,

Lendlease is committed to providing long-term, rewarding careers for all its employees. This approach is helping us to close our gender pay gap and since we started the process in 2017, we have seen a 6 per cent increase in female representation overall.

Lendlease UK now has a female representation of 35 per cent (from 29 per cent) and our construction business is at 26 per cent (from 19 per cent). I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done to achieve this. Representation is an industry-wide problem, but at Lendlease we are spending time levelling the playing field so that everyone has access to the opportunities we offer.

Gender will not secure a role at Lendlease, but talent will, so it’s critical that we do what we can to ensure talented people from all backgrounds are able to join our business.

We have set specific recruitment targets for our construction business and changed the way we recruit so that our roles reach more people. We have seen great progress since making these changes and in 2019, for the first time, more of our graduate intake was female (64 per cent).

But we can always do more. One of the areas we are focusing on is increasing the number of women in senior roles. So far, we have worked hard to reduce unconscious bias; pushed our recruiters to have inclusive shortlists; consciously helped women to seek promotion within the business; and created several programmes designed to support our employees with their individual needs.

Over the next 12 months our senior leaders will be working towards achieving targets that help them to increase representation within their areas. We will also continue to run our development programmes, including the introduction of a brand-new programme for people returning to work after a career break. In addition to this, we’re doing more research into flexible working so that this becomes a real option for those working on live construction sites.

Lendlease is already an outstanding place to work but if we get these things right, we can make it even better.

Gender Pay Reporting Requirements

All UK organisations which employ over 250 employees are required to report annually on their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is defined as the difference in the average earnings of men and women over a standard period of time, regardless of their role or seniority. Due to historical mergers and acquisitions Lendlease has a number of business entities. Only our construction entity is required to publish data under the regulations, however we felt it was important to analyse and publish data for our Lendlease UK business overall. Read our Gender Pay Gap Report here.

Output: Property management and construction company Lendlease has issued a report on gender pay ratios. The firm currently has a ratio of 71% men to 29% women on its staff overall, while its construction business has 19% female employees, dropping to 7% for senior management roles. The study showed that, in the construction business, among the lowest 25% of earners, one-third were women, compared with 67% men, while women made up just 6% of the top percentile. Lendlease's report also demonstrated around 78% of male and female employees received a performance-related bonus during the 2016 financial year.


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Investors concern over fees comes under scrutiny
 Finding the lowest fee for the service level that will make you a successful investor won’t always be the cheapest option.cacaroot/Getty Images/iStockphoto Share

Three facts about financial literacy:

1) You need to understand the cost of all the financial products you own and use.

2) Lower is better when it comes to cost – it means less of your money is being transferred to the financial industry.

3) Value is nearly as important as cost in determining whether you have the right product, and that includes investment advice.

November is Financial Literacy Month, so expect to hear all kinds of messages about how to be smarter about money in the weeks ahead. Here's my contribution: Be ruthless about finding out the price of investing products and advice, but understand that a race to the bottom on costs may deprive you of the help you need to reach your goals.

A lot of Globe readers ask me these days about exchange-traded funds, which are basically very low-cost mutual funds that trade like a stock. Often, these readers are fuming about the fees they pay for mutual funds or for the services of an investment adviser. They're convinced their fees are too high and that ETFs are the answer.

ETFs are the lowest-cost way to build an instantly diversified portfolio, but you need to know some investing basics to work them properly. For example, you must be able to set a mix of bonds and Canadian, U.S. and international stocks that works for your needs, then keep that mix in line over the years.

As you age, you'll have to adjust the mix to reflect approaching retirement. Then, you'll need to make major renovations to your portfolio as you move from the saving phase of life to living off your retirement income. On top of all this, you need to be comfortable using an online broker and choosing ETFs from a selection of hundreds.

An ETF portfolio would be a much lower-cost way to invest than having an investment adviser and a somewhat cheaper avenue than using a robo-adviser. But if you can't manage those ETFs effectively, the higher costs of robo and human advice can be a good value.

Find the lowest fee for the service level that will make you a successful investor. Sometimes, this won't be the cheapest option.

Subscribe to Carrick on Money

Are you reading this newsletter on the web or did someone forward the e-mail version to you? If so, you can sign up for Carrick on Money here.

Calling all seniors

Some colleagues and I are looking at when various generations reached milestones such as buying a house, getting married, having kids and retiring. We've heard from lots of people in all age groups – except those of you aged 65 and older. If you're in that group, please help us out by filling out our short online survey.

Rob's personal finance reading list…

The top 10 perks of debt-free living

Life is better when you're out of debt.

The overdressed investment portfolio

My experience interacting with investors tells me this advice is right on the money – stick to the basics in building a portfolio and avoid trends and new flavours.

Equifax deserves the corporate death penalty

Many more Americans were affected by the security breach at the credit reporting company Equifax than Canadians. But that still doesn't explain how much angrier Americans are about this lapse. Here's an example – a call for the company to be dissolved.

Wedding costs have gone crazy

A woman looks at what her parents $2,000 wedding in 1974 would cost in 2017 dollars. The inflation-adjusted cost would be $10,000. The actual cost is different story. Warning: Some foul language is used here. It's just the vernacular of young personal-finance writers.

Today's featured financial tool Wondering how much you can safely withdraw from your savings every year when you're retired? Try the Big Picture, an online tool that you can access for free through a 10-day trial.

Ask Rob The question: "In a registered retirement income fund, do you think the iShares Canadian Financial Monthly Income ETF (FIE-T) is a good choice? What factors should one consider in making this decision?"

The answer: "FIE has a high dividend yield of about 6.4 per cent, so I get why I've been asked a few times about it lately by readers. A couple of things to watch out for: the high management expense ratio of 0.94 per cent and the concentration on financials, a sector to which many Canadian investors are already over-exposed. FIE is almost like a balanced fund, with a mix of dividend stocks, preferred shares and corporate bonds in the financial sector. As an alternative, what about a more broad-based Canadian dividend ETF, with exposure to financials and other market sectors as well?"

Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Sorry I can't answer every one personally. Questions and answers are edited for length.

More Carrick and money coverage

For more money stories, follow me on Twitter and join the discussion on my Facebook page. Millennial readers, join our Gen Y Money Facebook group.

Send us an e-mail to let us know what you think of my newsletter.

Want to subscribe? Click here to sign up.

If you like Carrick on Money. We've launched a new Top Business: Evening Edition newsletter providing a summary of the biggest business headlines of the day. Sign up for it and more than a dozen other Globe newsletters here.

Output: Investors' obsessions with low management fees is causing many to miss out on helpful financial advice, argues personal finance columnist Rob Carrick. Punting for the lowest-cost investment options, nominally exchange-traded fund products, may save money upfront, but it may backfire is financial plans aren't developed and stuck to. "If you can't manage those ETFs effectively, the higher costs of robo and human advice can be a good value," wrote Carrick.


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London housing development to accommodate religious requirements
 A London council is to build housing with religiously compliant features designed to appeal to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, in what is thought to be a first for a local authority.

Hackney council’s development, Tower Court in Stamford Hill, north-east London, will include lifts which do not require manual operation on Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath; open balconies to accommodate temporary enclosures during the religious holiday of Sukkot, and separate kitchens which can be easily adapted to kosher requirements.

Some of the 132 flats will be larger than the norm, with four or five bedrooms. Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, families typically include seven or eight children.

The development will also house the London headquarters of Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer medical emergency service, which operates around the world.

Tower Court used to be an estate of 67 homes, which was demolished in 2014 ahead of regeneration. The project was put out to competitive tender, with a brief to pay special attention to the the housing requirements of the Haredi community.

Thirty-five percent of the new homes will be available for social rent, with half sold on the open market and 15% sold under special schemes such as shared ownership.

Design and access statement for Tower Court. Photograph: Adam Khan Architects & muf architecture/art

“All homes for rent will be allocated according to housing needs,” said a spokesperson for Hackney council. The flats had not been designed solely for Haredi families, he stressed, and they would not be prioritised. Some flats would be allocated to former tenants of the demolished estate.

Stamford Hill is home to more than 30,000 Haredi Jews, one of the largest communities in Europe, which is growing at a rate of about 4% a year. A shortage of suitable available housing has forced some members of the community to leave London to establish a new Haredi community in Canvey Island, Essex.

Adam Khan Architects, which is responsible for the design of the new development, held consultation sessions with the Haredi community to establish its needs and priorities.

“We showed models and drawings, and we had people grabbing the pencils out of our hands to show us what they wanted,” Khan told the Guardian. “They were very generous in sharing intimate details of family life to give us a better understanding.”

Among the issues raised by Haredi families during the consultation were the need for a wall to accommodate shelves of religious books; master bedrooms to be big enough to hold twin beds, and storage space sufficient for meat and dairy kitchen equipment and ceremonial dishes.

Some flat will have open balconies for temporary enclosures used during religious holiday of Sukkot. Photograph: AKA MUF

The development will include door entry systems and a lift which complies with the rules of Shabbat, under which observant Jews are forbidden from activating electrical equipment. Some flats will have open balconies required for the erection of sukkah, the temporary enclosure in which observant Jews eat and sleep during the religious holiday of Sukkot.

Rabbi Abraham Pinter, who speaks for the Stamford Hill Haredi community, said the development was “really exciting”.

“The council is putting a lot of effort into recognising the community’s needs, which is quite difficult in an area of inner London where there are a lot of competing needs,” he said.

“This is a major development the council has initiated. It is appreciated, and hopefully it will lead to other developments.”

Philip Glanville, the mayor of Hackney, said: “With 13,000 families on the council’s housing waiting list and 3,000 households in currently living in temporary accommodation, we are not only doing everything we can to build the new homes Hackney needs, but making sure that these are firmly rooted in their communities.

Construction of the flats is expected to begin early next year, and be completed in 2020 or 2021.

Output: London’s Hackney council plans to build a housing development in Stamford Hill aimed at the area’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Tower Court will feature lifts requiring no manual operation on the sabbath, kitchens suited for preparing kosher meals, and balconies designed support temporary enclosures during Sukkot. A number of the flats will feature four or five bedrooms, in order to accommodate larger families. Of the new homes, 35% will be available for social rent, 15% will be available through shared ownership, and half will be sold on the open market.


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Outsourcing firm Capita fails to pay hundreds of trainee doctors
 This article is the subject of a complaint on behalf of Capita Plc

Hundreds of trainee GPs have not received their salaries from the outsourcing company responsible for paying them, forcing some to turn to charities for emergency funds, according to the BMA.

It says that some GPs have been unable to cover their mortgages because of the delays by Capita, which holds a contract to administer training grants for GPs in three areas of England through a body called Primary Care Services England.

A letter sent to NHS England on 30 October by the British Medical Association and seen by the Guardian warns that some practices were “having to pay trainees out of already overstretched practice budgets, or trainees are going months without being paid if the practice cannot cover the shortfall”.

Capita denies being responsible for the delays and says it has not failed to reimburse any trainee GP salaries in the three areas - Thames Valley, Yorkshire and the Humber and part of Wessex.

It says it has outstanding payments to some trainee GPsas a result of waiting for information from their employers. It said that it was chasing details of those trainee GPs and that salaries would be reimbursed immediately once those were received. Capita was unable to say how many trainee GP salaries it is responsible for paying, or how many it had been unable to pay.

The BMA estimates that hundreds of trainees have been affected, although NHS England was also unable to give a number. The Cameron Fund, a charity for the prevention of hardship among GPs and their dependents, said it had received three applications for emergency funding in the last week alone.

“This is actually probably the tip of the iceberg,” said the treasurer of the charity, Dr David Wrigley. “NHS England has commissioned out what was a very efficient service run within the NHS, and now Capita runs this contract in what I’d call another botched privatisation.”

A trainee GP in one of the affected areas, who asked not to be named, was not paid for two consecutive months by Capita. At the end of October she posted on a private message board for GPs asking: “Anyone know of how I access hardship funds (quickly) to feed children/pay nursery/mortgage (quickly)?”

She applied for charitable assistance immediately afterwards, she told the Guardian. The Cameron Fund gave her emergency funds so she could buy a present for her daughter’s seventh birthday.

“It’s pretty stressful. A constant drain. I’ve run out of energy to be able to fight it,” she said. Her surgery also provided her with a loan last month to tide her over, but did not hold enough surplus funds to do the same to help her again.

But in the last 24 hours, she says, “partners literally just stepped forward [and have] all taken a pay cut and provided me with a loan to get me through the month as they were worried about my family”.Capita has faced issues with its primary care support services contract since it was awarded in June 2015, including missing records, administrative errors preventing GPs from working, and missing payments. Critics will see the latest claims as evidence of the dangers of outsourcing NHS services.

An NHS England spokesperson said it was “holding Capita’s feet to the fire on needed improvements”. It added: “In the meantime, the lead employer for Health Education England or the GP practice are responsible for paying their GP trainee salaries and are subsequently reimbursed for this. Backlogs are being prioritised by Capita.”

But while it now says that it is piling on the pressure, six months ago NHS England appeared to be sanguine about Capita’s performance, with the GPs’ magazine Pulse reporting NHS England saying it was “encouraged” by the progress made by its much-criticised contractor in implementing a recovery plan.

Capita says that in cases where there are outstanding payments it has not received all the information it needs to pay salaries from the relevant employers and that it had reimbursed salaries where information had been provided to them. A spokesperson said the problems were an “inevitable” part of “a major transformation project to modernise a localised and unstandardised service”.

It added: “We have made significant investment to deliver improvements and these have been recognised by NHS England and demonstrated through improved service performance and improved customer satisfaction. We are continuing to transform locally managed operations into a modern and efficient national customer-focused service for NHS England and all primary care organisations.”

The BMA’s letter, to the NHS chief executive, Simon Stevens, says there are a range of problems with Capita.

“We are disappointed at the lack of progress that has been made,” it says. “These issues have been ongoing since NHS England commissioned Capita … and it is unacceptable that more progress has not been made to getting these resolved.” The BMA also claims there have been significant issues with processing both locum and trainee GPs’ pension contributions.

“The reality is that there are huge levels of funding that should be going to GP practices that are not going through,” said a BMA spokesperson, Dr Krishna Kasaraneni. “All the issues we’ve identified add up to this being a patient safety matter. Patients are at risk.”

A doctor in her third year of GP training in one of the affected areas, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian her salary had not been paid from April until August this year.

“My surgery gave me a loan initially, and then when it still wasn’t being paid, I had to dig into savings,” she said. “I was pretty frustrated. The people who were in charge of solving it clearly weren’t all that bothered, and it took a lot of very angry emails to get the fifth month paid. If it hadn’t been I was about to apply to a charity for help as I was running out of money.”

At the Cameron Fund, Wrigley says he believes Capita’s alleged failings are so serious that the public accounts committee should be investigating the contract.

“NHS England have known about this for a while and the BMA has been putting constant pressure on, and it’s all promises that it’ll get better but it doesn’t. I heard [that in] Nigeria trainee doctors weren’t getting paid but you don’t expect it in the world’s fifth richest economy,’ he said. “It’s a complete failure and I’d like the contract taken back to be run by the NHS.”

New systems for cervical screening and GP payments and pensions that are also contracted out to Capita are due to go live next July. The BMA has told NHS England that it has “no confidence” in Capita’s ability to deliver these services.

“The consequences of failings will be very serious for practices, potentially affecting their viability,” its letter concludes. “All of us who work in general practice and who depend on this service, expect to see much more robust stance taken by NHS England to resolving these many problems.”

At the Cameron Fund, Wrigley is anticipating more requests for help. “I expect we’ll see more [applications],” he says. “There’s no sign of Capita sorting its act out.”

Output: Capita, an outsourcing company, has failed to pay hundreds of trainee GPs in the UK, forcing some to rely on charities for emergency funds, according to The Guardian. Capita holds a contract to administer training grants to the doctors via a body named Primary Care Services England. On 30 October, the British Medical Association sent a letter to NHS England claiming that some practices were “having to pay trainees out of already overstretched practice budgets”. Capita, which was awarded its contract in June 2015, has previously faced criticism over missing records and payments, as well as administrative errors.


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Q3 insurtech investment ahead of 2016 levels
 Investment in insurtech startups by carriers and venture capitalists continued an uneven ascent in the third quarter of this year, with 48 deals totaling $312 million outpacing the same period last year by about a third.

That's according to the quarterly Insuretech Briefing report, released today by Willis Towers Watson and CB Insights. Though Q3 2017 represents a precipitous drop in terms of funding from the nearly $1 billion invested in Q2 -- the second-most lucrative quarter for insurtechs -- the almost 50 deals completed in the quarter are the third-most by that measure. In the third quarter of 2016, 38 total deals yielded $230 million in funding.

Study data goes back to 2012, and the relatively new industry has had periods of intense activity followed by comparatively calm ones. Three quarters -- Q2 2015, Q1 2016 and Q2 2017 -- have reported funding volume between $783 million and $1.85 billion. However, funding in the calm periods has been on a steady climb over the past year.

Of the total deals, 28 included direct investment by insurance companies and/or their investment arms, with some making multiple deals:

4 deals

Ping An

3 deals

AXA

Allianz

2 deals

MassMutual

Hannover Re

China Life

Aviva

CMFG

Driving the year-over-year increase, as well as buoying the insurtech funding trend, were significant investments in these health insurtechs, according to the report:

Output: A total of 48 deals, accounting for $312m, occurred in the insurtech sector during Q3 2017, according to a report from Willis Towers Watson and CB Insights. Investment in the sector is roughly one-third greater than during Q3 2016. China's Ping An led the way, completing four deals during the quarter, while European stalwarts Allianz and Axa both closed three.


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Early Palliative Care Is Key Driver in Reducing Costs
 SAN DIEGO, California ― Palliative care can substantially reduce healthcare costs for advanced cancer patients, and when initiated early, it is a key driver in lowering expenditures, according to a new study.

"To put it into context, we took the average savings of approximately $3000 per patient [found in the study] and applied it to the 595,000 cancer deaths in 2016," said lead author Wendi G. Lebrett, a medical student at the University of California, San Diego. "That is approximately $1.8 billion in cost savings, and this helps highlight the impact of palliative care."

Lebrett presented the findings of her study at the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium (PCOS) 2017.

A number of recent studies have investigated the impact of palliative care on healthcare utilization and its potential for reducing costs. One study conducted at Johns Hopkins Medicine found that opening a palliative care unit saved the facility $367,751 in direct costs.

Another study showed that palliative care substantially reduces aggressive end-of-life care compared with end-of-life care with no palliative component, which in turn would lower related costs.

Lebrett explained that her group has also previously found that palliative care decreases healthcare utilization, so "the next logical question is that if it decreases utilization, then what does this mean in dollars and cents?"

Quantifying the impact of palliative care has been understudied by investigators, she pointed out.

The Earlier the Palliative Care, the Lower the Cost

To determine the impact of palliative care ― and of the timing of that care ― on healthcare costs among elderly patients with advanced cancer, Lebrett and colleagues compared cost between case patients and control patients before and after the palliative care intervention. All direct costs were included, such as costs associated with inpatient, outpatient, and home healthcare, as well as hospice care and medical equipment.

Using SEER data, they identified 166,124 elderly patients with advanced disease. After applying exclusion criteria, about 3600 patients had received palliative care. "The vast majority ― 72,000 ― had not," she said.

They further excluded about 1400 patients because they had their first palliative care consult on the day of their death, and therefore the timing was not sufficient for that care to have had an impact on their healthcare costs.

The final analysis included 1288 matched pairs.

The demographics were balanced between the two groups, but more of the palliative care patients had been treated in a teaching hospital compared to the control patients (67% vs 58%).

"This is consistent from what we know in the literature, that patients who receive palliative care are also more likely to be treated at a teaching hospital," she pointed out.

Among the entire cohort of 2576 patients (ie, the matched pairs), the total healthcare costs per patient in the 30 days before palliative care consultation were similar between palliative care patients ($12,881) and control patients ($12,335).

However, after the initiation of palliative care, total healthcare expenditures declined. The total cost of care per patient in the 120 days after palliative care began was $6880 vs $9604 for control patients ― a 28% decrease in spending (P < .001).

Timing of palliative care was very important with respect to cost. When a palliative care consultation took place within 7 days of death, healthcare costs declined by $975, but when the palliative care consultation occurred more than 4 weeks before death, costs decreased by $5362.

"The palliative care patients had consistently lower average daily costs compared to controls," said Lebrett. "Timing of care was a significant factor in determining the magnitude of savings in cost."

High Priority and Skill Set Needed

Approached for an independent comment, Steven D. Pearson, MD, president, Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, Boston, Massachusetts, explained that making high-quality palliative care available to patients with cancer should be a high priority for all clinicians, provider groups, and insurers.

"The evidence continues to pile up that it can improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, but there are structural problems with the way that care is paid for and in the ability to identify high-quality providers of palliative care," he told Medscape Medical News. "There is also a gap in the awareness and ability of clinicians to integrate palliative care into their practices.

"Many clinicians think they can do it themselves, but there is a clearly defined skill set that really requires specific training, and so most oncologists will need to figure out how to collaborate with clinicians ― but not necessarily physicians ― who can provide these services in a seamless way," Dr Pearson added.

Wendi Lebrett has disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Dr Pearson is president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium (PCOS) 2017. Abstract 91, presented October 27, 2017.

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Output: Palliative care can significantly lower healthcare costs for patients suffering from advanced cancer, and could have saved approximately $1.8 billion for the 595,000 patients who died of cancer in 2016, according to research presented at the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium 2017. The study, carried out by lead medical student Wendi G. Lebrett of the University of California, found that there were average savings of around $3,000 per patient when palliative care was provided. Another study from Johns Hopkins Medicine found that establishing a palliative care unit saved the healthcare facility $367,751 in expenditures. Palliative care has also been shown to reduce the amount of aggressive end-of-life care, when compared with no palliative service provision, also helping to reduce costs. The University of California study compared the expense for case patients and control patients before and after palliative care was implemented, and included all costs, such as for hospice care and medical equipment. Palliative care was more frequently deployed in teaching hospitals (67 percent versus 58 percent). The total healthcare costs in the 30 days before palliative care between the two groups were similar, but after it was implemented, total healthcare expenditures significantly diverged, with the cost of care per patient 120 days after implementation dropping 28 percent from $9,604 to $6,880. Palliative care was more effective for reducing costs when offered well in advance of death; within seven days of death, the costs dropped by $975, but with four weeks in advance of death, the costs dropped by $5,362. Steven D. Pearson, the president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, said that the “evidence continues to pile up that it can improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, but there are structural problems with the way that care is paid for and in the ability to identify high-quality providers of palliative care". He encourages specific training for clinicians and oncologists, as well as collaboration for a “seamless” partnership.


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Interdisciplinary approach needed for geriatric patients
 You understand intuitively that the patients in your practice, and the population in general, are aging. The problem many dentists face is not knowing what practical steps can be taken to help these patients. Leonard Brennan, DMD, a pioneer in treating aging patients, urges a focus on interdisciplinary approaches and patient communication to aid these patients and your practice.

Many healthcare practitioners of all specialties -- and even patients -- believe that oral disease is just an unfortunate part of getting older. But this is nothing more than a myth to be debunked, according to Dr. Brennan.

"Seniors need a model of care where they afford and receive care," he said in a presentation at the recent 2017 ADA annual meeting in Atlanta.

Dr. Brennan practices in Portland, ME. He is a member of the ADA's National Eldercare Advisory Committee and also co-director of the geriatric dentistry fellowship at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

Interdisciplinary teams

Dr. Brennan brought up the common condition of older adult patients having xerostomia, or persistent dry mouth. More than 400 pharmaceuticals can cause dry mouth in these patients, which means interdisciplinary communication is crucial to find solutions, he said.

"There needs to be communication across the dental-medical silos to find solutions that allow these patients to not have dry mouths and to be able to eat and taste their food," he told the audience.

Dr. Brennan recounted many times when he's talked with physicians who had no idea what effects the drugs they prescribed had on their patient's oral healthcare.

"Don't misunderstand me, those drugs have a role to play," he said. "But all of us in healthcare need to be thinking about polypharmacy issues."

Dr. Brennan said that what his older adults patients are most interested in is being able to eat, taste food, and smile. Eating and tasting food are separate issues, he noted.

"The senses of smell and taste are correlated," he said. "After age 60, we all have a reduced ability to taste sugar and salt."

Whether the patient lives in the community or a long-term care facility, communication between healthcare professionals is crucial to help patients eat and taste their food. Often, this reduced ability to taste sugar and salt means these adults add more of these substances into the food they eat, he said.

Dr. Brennan gave the example of observing a patient he knew who previously had added one spoonful of sugar to her coffee now was adding four or five spoonfuls.

"This behavior directly affects what we do as dentists when we are treating these patients," he told the audience.

Communication tips

One of the advantages of treating older patients is their compliance, according to Dr. Brennan. As long as your communication is good and they can hear, these patients are happy to please you, he noted.

— Leonard Brennan, DMD “How we communicate is what changes their life.”

"Seniors are conscientious. If you give them instructions on what to do, they will do it," he said. "How we communicate is what changes their life."

Dr. Brennan cautioned, however, that your practice can't expect to treat older patients on the same schedule as younger patients. Dental teams need to take the time to properly communicate with these patients.

"Our problem often is that we are working on a schedule and don't take time to properly instruct these patients," he said.

Dr. Brennan offered several recommendations for communicating with these patients:

Avoid terms of endearment.

Structure and organize your message.

Do not present too much information at one time.

Listen.

Keep your face well lit and face the patient as you speak.

Speak slowly.

Ask open-ended questions.

Oral care for seniors

Another myth Dr. Brennan was quick to bust concerned the issue of oral care in long-term living environments.

He said he was talking with a staff member at a long-term facility when he relayed that it seemed as if the staff did not put much time into cleaning their patients' teeth.

"And I was told quickly that it was a myth that caregivers don't want to clean their patients' teeth," Dr. Brennan said.

The issue at these facilities, he said, is not willingness to care for the patients but rather staff turnover.

"Turnover at these facilities can be high," Dr. Brennan said. "We can train staff, but it's difficult to train everyone if people leave all the time."

Output: A new interdisciplinary model of care is needed for seniors’ dental treatment in how they receive and pay for care. As part of a speech given at the 2017 ADA annual meeting, Leonard Brennan, DMD, a specialist in treating aging parents, set out a series of recommendations for treating and communicating with senior patients. In particular, he argued that there needs to be better communication between professions and older patients around senior dentistry, particularly that oral disease is not a necessary aspect of growing older. For instance, when talking with physicians, he understood that they did not consider the effect on oral healthcare of drugs they had prescribed. Taste and appetite are often connected, and taste loss from drugs may hurt a patient's physical health. Unlike other patients, seniors are more prepared to listen and effective communication ensures the continued health of older people. Further to this, he observed that in long-term care facilities, staff support was hindered by a high turnover or caregivers. These issues will only be overcome if dental practitioners encourage better communication with their patients and in their practice.


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Fried chicken order debuts test of drone deliveries in Japan
 Almost seven years after the nuclear meltdown in Japan’s northeastern Fukushima prefecture that was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, life is very slowly returning to normal. But in some areas, the conveniences of Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores remain out of reach.

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Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten and convenience-store operator Lawson have zeroed in on one city in Fukushima, Minamisoma, to test drone deliveries. Yesterday (Oct. 31) the first delivery by drone was made to residents in Minamisoma, whose population is mostly elderly people who still have difficulty getting access to daily necessities.

The delivery was an order of fried chicken and croquettes (link in Japanese)—staples of Japanese convenience stores—to a 70-year-old man, who was apparently very pleased with the order. It’s also the first drone delivery conducted by a convenience store in Japan.

Minamisoma is located just 25 kilometers (about 16 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and most of its 71,000 residents were forced to evacuate after the disaster. Last year, the evacuation order was lifted and residents started to return, with the population now at some 57,000. Schools also reopened this spring, according to Rakuten. As part of its recovery efforts, the city is working with the government to turn Minamisoma, a mountainous region, into a sort of ”testing ground for robotics technologies.”

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Rakuten started experimenting with drone deliveries last year, and this year delivered hot soup to surfers on the Fukushima coast over a distance of 12 km.

The food items were delivered from a Lawson store in Minamisoma, which reopened in October 2016. Lawson also operates mobile stores, but not all items are available at these mobile sales vehicles. Residents can place their orders at these mobile outlets, after which an employee will call a Lawson store and have the order delivered by drone. Mobile stores are currently available twice a week (link in Japanese) in Minamisoma.

Rakuten said it would test its drone delivery program in Fukushima for six months before deciding whether to make it a more long-term offering. The company said it is also experimenting with using drones to deliver medicine to residents of Minamisoma.

Output: Japanese convenience store operator Lawson has partnered with e-commerce company Rakuten to test deliveries by drone. The trial took place in the city of Minamisoma, and involved a delivery of fried chicken and croquettes from a Lawson store to a 70-year-old man at his home. The area was evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear accident, and the city is developing its potential as a robotics testing ground as part of recovery efforts. Rakuten will test the drone deliveries for the next six months before deciding whether to expand the service.


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HomeOwners Alliance urges £1,000 fine for home-purchase failures
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Anyone responsible for a property purchase falling through should have to pay £1,000 to the other side if they pull out.

The call has come from the HomeOwners Alliance, which says that fall-throughs are costing buyers and sellers over £500m a year.

It is proposing a £1,000 reservation agreement – a legally binding bond paid by both the buyer and seller and held by their own solicitor – in answer to the Government’s latest call for evidence into the home buying and selling process.

The organisation is also calling for estate agents to publish fuller particulars of sale for a property at the time it is listed.

The organisation claims that providing the TA6 particulars of sale form earlier, as well as introducing a reservation agreement, would iron out any problems earlier and speed up the process.

The HOA said: “Sellers will have to fill out TA6, the standard property information form which includes all material information such as length of lease and ground rent if leasehold, before the reservation agreement.

“This is simply good practice, and there is no reason they cannot do this before putting their house on the market and the estate agent can provide it to the buyer, and the estate agent can then provide those details to the seller before they make an offer.”

If a prospective buyer then decides to make an offer, a refundable reservation agreement would need to be paid by both sides to their respective solicitor.

Here is how the HOA proposes a reservation agreement would work:

– Before the reservation agreement, the buyer will need proof of funds such as a mortgage in principle. In the reservation agreement, the buyer’s solicitor will confirm to the seller’s solicitor that the buyer has sufficient funds.

– Both sides agree to pay the other side £1,000 if they pull out of the transaction for any reason.

– Both pay their conveyancer/solicitor a repayable £1,000 bond to cover the payment if they do pull out.

– If any previously undeclared material issues emerge during the surveys and searches that potentially affect the value of the property by more than 1%, then either side has the right to renegotiate. If they can’t agree a change of price, then the side that is detrimentally impacted will have the right to pull out without losing their £1,000 bond.

– If either side breaches their commitment to being a “genuine” seller or buyer – such as by putting the property back on the market, accepting a higher offer from another buyer, or the buyer putting in a lower offer after the sale price agreed, then they will be deemed to have pulled out of the transaction, and are liable to pay the other side the £1,000. If either side pulls out over matters that are financially less than 1% of the value of the property (eg over whether a cooker is included) they will be liable to pay the other side £1,000.

– If either side is worried about being able to afford the £1,000, they can take out home buyers/sellers insurance.

– There would need to be a backstop date for completion of the purchase, say three months after the reservation letter. If both sides want to continue with the transaction, they can agree to extend the deadline, but if one side has failed to meet their requirements, then they will be deemed to have pulled out, and have to pay the other side £1,000.

– Interpretation of a fall-through and any disputes should be covered by standard industry guidance, or failing agreement between the conveyancers, by the Property Ombudsman or the small claims court.

– Only those that cause the collapse of the chain will have to pay and will pay £2,000 if they are both buying and selling and pull out of both transactions at the same time.

The consumer group estimates consumers waste £500m a year on failed attempts to buy and sell properties.

It come to this figure using the Government’s call for evidence on the home buying process that claimed – without a source – that failed transactions cost on average between £695 and £744 for buyers, and £582 and £740 for sellers.

There were 1.24m property transactions last year according to the ONS, which the analysis then multiplies by 28%, which is the estimate of fall throughs by property buyer Quick Move Now.

This comes to 344,000.

It then adds the £744 and £740 figure to give a cost of £1,484 for both sides of a sale. This figure is then multiplied by the £344,000 to give an estimated sum of £511m wasted per year.

Paula Higgins, chief executive of the HOA, said: “This is the true cost of the UK’s not-fit-for-purpose home selling and buying system – home owners losing more than £500m down the drain every year.

“It is no surprise that some parts of the property industry have too often resisted previous government attempts at reform – this is extra business for them.”

Output: A pressure group has proposed a £1,000 ($1,328) penalty for any party that pulls out of a home-buying deal, saying it would help reduce transaction collapses that cost consumers $500m a year. The HomeOwners Alliance, which aims to represent the interests of domestic property owners and aspiring buyers, issued the proposal in response to a government review of the homebuying process. It said a £1,000 bond should be paid by both parties and held by their solicitors until completion or forfeited in the event of a pulled deal.


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UK government publishes Draft Tenants’ Fees Bill
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Lettings agents in England will face civil and criminal charges for flouting a ban on fees, the Government has revealed as it publishes its Draft Tenants’ Fees Bill today.

It will create a civil offence with a fine of £5,000 for an initial breach of the ban, and create a criminal offence where an agent has been fined or convicted of the same offence within the past five years. Penalties of up to £30,000 can be issued.

A ban on lettings fees to tenants was first announced a year ago and there was a consultation in June answered by 4,700 respondents.

The Government has also launched a consultation on making membership of client money protection schemes mandatory for letting and managing agents that handle client money.

The Bill will:

Cap holding deposits at no more than one week’s rent and security deposits at no more than six weeks’ rent. The draft Bill also sets out the proposed requirements on landlords and agents to return a holding deposit to a tenant.

Create a civil offence with a fine of £5,000 for an initial breach of the ban on letting agent fees and create a criminal offence where a person has been fined or convicted of the same offence within five years. Civil penalties of up to £30,000 can be issued as an alternative to prosecution.

Require Trading Standards to enforce the ban and to make provision for tenants to be able to recover unlawfully charged fees.

Appoint a lead enforcement authority in the lettings sector.

Amend the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to specify that the letting agent transparency requirements should apply to property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla.

The full draft bill can be viewed here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-tenants-fees-bill

Output: The British government has published its Draft Tenants' Fees Bill, setting out their plans to ban letting agents charging fees to tenants. The proposed legislation would create a civil offence with fines of up to £5,000 for an initial breach of the ban, with criminal sanctions and fines of up to £30,000 for repeat offenders. It also contains provisions to cap the amount that can be taken from tenants as a deposit and sets out new rules on returning it to them.


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Toyota investigates airless tyres to reduce weight in EVs
 TOKYO -- Toyota Motor is exploring airless tires to help reduce the weight of battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles and boost performance, even though the technology is years away from being ready for commercial use.

The automaker is using airless tires -- featuring individual motors in each wheel -- on a vehicle for the first time with its hydrogen-powered concept car, Fine-Comfort Ride, unveiled at the Tokyo auto show last week, chief engineer Takao Sato said in an interview. Since such tires comprise a band of rubber encircling a plastic-aluminum hub, the premise is that they could one day compensate for the weight of the motors, he said.

Currently the concept tires weigh about the same as their pneumatic cousins, but Sato is counting on developments in the technology that can help shave 11 pounds -- or about 30 percent -- from each tire's weight by as early as 2025.

Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which supplied the tires and has been testing them on local "kei" minicars and golf carts, said other Japanese carmakers are also interested, particularly for smaller EVs.

"For automakers, the attraction of airless tires is for electrified vehicles," Sato said. While Toyota's Fine-Comfort Ride is the size of a crossover, "these wheels could be used on any electrified vehicle," he said.

Wako Iwamura, head of the five-year airless-tire project at Sumitomo Rubber, said his personal target is to have a commercial product ready by 2020.

The Japanese tiremaker is actually a late entrant to the world of airless tires, following others including Bridgestone and Michelin & Cie. Michelin's Tweel -- a combination of tire and wheel -- is currently available for lawnmowers, golf carts, construction machinery, and recreational all-terrain vehicles. The technology is still unproven on passenger cars, and manufacturers will need to convince both automakers and the public that they are safe.

A lighter tire is only one of Iwamura's goals. The other challenge to overcome is rolling resistance, or the friction that works against the tire when it's in motion. He estimates it's 10 percent to 20 percent worse than current pneumatic tires, a level unacceptable for vehicles that need to squeeze every kilometer of driving range from their lithium ion batteries.

Cost, however, won't be a hurdle. Iwamura says his tires are already comparable in price to those filled with air.

Output: Automaker Toyota is testing airless tyres to lower the weight of battery-electric and fuel cell cars, though the technology is unlikely to be ready for commercial use for several years. The airless tyres use individual motors for each wheel, which comprise a plastic-aluminium hub with a rubber casing to offset the motors’ weight. Though they still weigh the same as currently-used tyres, it is hoped that 30% of the wheel's weight, or approximately 5 kg, can be removed through technological advancements by 2025.


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Germany paid customers to use up excess electricity
 Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Germany generated enough wind power at the weekend for consumers to get free energy.

So much was generated by wind turbines in weekend storms that costs fell to below zero. Bloomberg reported that power prices turned negative as wind output reached 39,409 megawatts on Saturday.

To balance supply and demand in this situation, energy producers close power stations or pay consumers to take extra electricity from the network.

Ahead of the weekend, Bloomberg said it would be the first whole day this year that the average price for electricity was negative, rather than just being negative for a few hours.

Wind Europe, which promotes wind power in Europe and globally, said in a press release that European wind energy broke a new record on 28 October.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 / 13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The organisation, which tracks daily wind power in Europe, said that over 24 per cent of the EU’s electricity demand was powered by wind on Saturday, the highest per cent ever recorded. This beat a previous record set on 7 October of over 19 per cent.

Offshore wind accounted for 2.8 per cent of the EU’s electricity demand while onshore wind accounted for 21.8 per cent. Wind represented 61 per cent of electricity demand in Germany.

Wind Europe attributes the record figures to both the continued expansion of wind energy in Europe and to the weekend’s weather – particularly strong northern winds and a wave of polar air travelling across central, eastern and south-eastern Europe.

Output: German utility companies were forced to pay customers last weekend as a result of excess energy production. On 28 October, wind output reached 39,409 MW, the same energy output as 40 nuclear reactors. German electricity prices turned negative as excess wind energy forced energy producers to close their power facilities, or pay consumers to use electricity and remove it from the network. According to Bloomberg analysis, it was the first 24-hour period this year in which average electricity prices were negative.


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Demand for online fintech courses driven by finance professionals
 Financial professionals are taking online financial technology (fintech) courses to fend off competition and stay ahead of disruption.

The boost in uptake is due in part to a feeling among those in the industry that financial technology has reached a turning point in its evolution.

A report from Citigroup in 2016 caused widespread debate when it estimated that between 2 million and 6 million jobs would be lost in banking across the U.S. and Europe over the next 10 years.

That was attributed to both automation and artificial intelligence (AI), innovation and the rise of more efficient and less cost-intensive challenger banks. Santander's fintech-focused venture capital fund, Santander InnoVentures, estimates cost savings for banks that implement blockchain technology as high as $20 billion per year by 2022.

Highly-regarded educational institutions are also being forced to innovate and provide the resources to the financial industry to up-skill and stay ahead of an ever-steepening curve.

The likes of Oxford University and Princeton now offer online courses aimed at busy and high-level banking executives.

According to a report from e-learning software provider Docebo, online education in general is set to grow by 5 percent over the next decade and generate over $240 billion by 2023.

Output: Seasoned professionals and executives from some of the world's biggest banks are among the students driving demand for online fintech courses. LinkedIn and Princeton have started their own programmes and more than half those who signed up for Oxford University's online fintech teaching product are company leaders. In 2016, a report by Citigroup estimated between two and six million jobs would disappear from the banking sector over the next decade due to automation and artificial intelligence.


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Cryptology, cryptocurrency university courses surge in popularity
 In a nod towards the direction cryptocurrencies are heading, the youth of the globe are surging towards university courses that offer teaching in cryptography, as well as cryptocurrency.

The value of Bitcoin is soaring, and students are identifying a new market that is emerging that they are trying to ready themselves for with university accredited courses.

Hugely popular

Dan Boneh, co-director of the Stanford Computer Security Lab and a professor of cryptography has noted that security and cryptography represent the second-most popular subject in the university's computer science department, behind only machine learning.

He added: "A lot of people are attracted to the huge valuations in these currencies. Cryptocurrencies are a wonderful way to teach cryptography. There are a whole bunch of new applications for cryptography that didn't exist before."

The rise in popularity has been comparable to the growth of the digital currency which is making all the noise, Bitcoin. It has hit the mainstream in a big way, and now there is a second wave of those who are looking to be more than just investors in the potentially revolutionary technology.

In 2015, Boneh began teaching a class on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and was quickly attracting over 100 students. Boneh said that more than one mln people have signed up for an online cryptography class he teaches through the website Coursera.

Spreading across the campuses

In Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon's Vipul Goyal is using Boneh's interactive online textbook for a class called Special Topics in Cryptography that the school is offering for the first time this year.

About 20 students, mostly PhD candidates, are taking the class which focuses on Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The trend is not just limited to these two universities: the University of California at Berkeley launched a class last year called the Cryptocurrency Decal, and in 2015 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab established the Digital Currency Initiative.

Bitcoin, its underlying technology Blockchain, and the theory behind it, Cryptography, is big business as there has already been evidence of growth in the job market for the associated disciplines.

It is understandable thus that University students would want to align themselves with a burgeoning technology that is desperate for growth and can only benefit from additional human capital.

Output: Growing numbers of students are flocking to cryptography and cryptocurrency courses following the boom in bitcoin and blockchain. Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon have all launched classes linked to the sectors. Dan Boneh, co-director of the Stanford Computer Security Lab said: "Cryptocurrencies are a wonderful way to teach cryptography. There are a whole bunch of new applications for cryptography that didn't exist before". More than a million people have signed up for Boneh's cryptography class via online learning site Coursera.


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Ride-hailing company Grab allows payments through mobile wallet
 Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab on Wednesday said users can now pay for goods and services in shops and restaurants using GrabPay, the company's mobile wallet.

The option is currently available in Singapore, but the company's co-founder, Tan Hooi Ling, told CNBC it will be rolled out simultaneously across Southeast Asia by 2018 if the company gets regulatory approvals.

At the moment, Grab has 25 restaurants and food stalls in Singapore that signed up to accept cashless payments using GrabPay — and the long-term focus for the company is to target the 20,000 odd merchants in Singapore, as well as businesses across Southeast Asia, who still prefer to use cash.

There's no dearth of digital-payment options in Asia due to a pickup in smartphone ownership and the widespread penetration of the internet. But in August, a PayPal study found that cash is still king in many major markets, including those in Southeast Asia. For example, more than 70 percent of the respondents to the PayPal study in the Philippines and Indonesia said they used cash most often.

Cash can be hard to keep track of, can be easily misplaced and is inefficient, according to Tan. Still, merchants have not yet moved to cashless payment options "because it's difficult and it's expensive," she said.

She pointed to the various points of sales that are accepted in large supermarkets as an example: Setting up those payment options take time and it's also expensive because there is a need to put in the right hardware and to train people.

"What we're providing is the complete opposite of that: something that is super easy to install, easy to use and something that's going to be affordable for the merchants, as well as the customers," Tan said.

Moreover, Tan said, many businesses face high merchant discount rates (MDRs) — the transaction fee that is deducted by the payments processor from the total amount received — for accepting cashless payments. That, she added, is likely due to costly hardware and sales processes that make the technology inefficient and "more expensive than it needs to be." MDRs are a common way for many digital payments platforms to make money.

Output: Ride-hailing firm Grab has unveiled a service enabling customers to make payments via its GrabPay mobile wallet. Available at 25 restaurants and food stalls in Singapore, the system aims to wean people off cash, still the preferred method of payment in Southeast Asia. To persuade businesses to adopt the system, Grab said it will initially offer a zero merchant discount rate - a usually high payment processors' fee - before increasing it to a "reasonable" level. Grab has 63 million downloads in Southeast Asia, with four million in Singapore, but has no plans to expand beyond the region.


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Charity urges end to developers' social-housing dodge loophole
 Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Property developers are dodging their commitment to building thousands of affordable homes each year due to a legal loophole, new research has revealed.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests show developers have sidestepped local planning policy to avoid building 79 per cent of social homes they had initially committed to, due to a legal loophole called a “viability assessment”.

A sample of 11 local authorities across nine cities in England shows developers were able to first win planning permission by promising to build a required number of affordable homes, but later go back to the council to say they can no longer honour the pledge because it would reduce their profit margin.

This means many developers face no penalty for overpaying for land because they can recover the costs by reducing their commitments to building homes that are affordable for people on middle and low incomes.

The research, carried out by the housing charity Shelter, reveals that viability is used most frequently on larger developments, which are generally managed by the country’s biggest developers.

It shows that the worst affected areas were Manchester, Birmingham and parts of London, where viability was used to reduce the affordable housing to less than 1 per cent of homes being built.

Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey said the loophole was largely due to changes made by the Conservative Government, which he said has seen the number of affordable homes councils have been able to demand of developers through the planning system halve since 2010.

“This is one big reason why new affordable housebuilding has fallen to a 24-year low, and the number of new social rented homes has fallen to the lowest level on record,” the Labour MP said.

“After seven years of failure on housing, hard-pressed households desperately need more low-cost homes to rent and buy.”

It comes after it emerged housing developers in Kensington and Chelsea used the same legal loophole to dodge their commitment to build more than 700 social homes in the borough – which would have been enough enough to house all the survivors of the Grenfell fire plus many more.

Just over three months after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, as around 200 households still wait to be resettled, the figures showed developers had avoided building 706 social homes in the borough over the past seven years.

Shelter is now calling on the Government to change national planning laws so developers can no longer use this loophole to get out of delivering affordable homes.

Polly Neate, chief executive of the charity, said: “What this research reveals is the scale at which developers are able to use legal loopholes to protect their profits and dramatically reduce the numbers of affordable homes available for people.

“The Government needs to fix our broken housing system – and it must start by closing this loophole to get the country building homes that are genuinely affordable for people on middle and low incomes to rent or buy.”

The

Geoff White, interim head of UK external affairs at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said in a statement about what it is doing to address affordable housing issues: ““The delivery of adequate and affordable housing is an important public policy objective [...]

"We recognise that the measures adopted by the Government, regional and local authorities have not succeeded in addressing the shortfall in housing of all kinds, particularly in areas of high demand."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 / 50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 June 2023 A cyclist trains in the early morning, as hot weather continues, in Richmond Park, London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 June 2023 A performer walks on a tightrope at Covent Garden during a sunny day in London AP UK news in pictures 8 June 2023 A women rides her horse through the river during the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 7 June 2023 The Princess of Wales during a game of walking rugby during her visit to meet local and national male rugby players at Maidenhead Rugby Club PA UK news in pictures 6 June 2023 An aerial view shows the dry bed of Woodhead Reservoir, revealed by a falling water level after a prolonged period of dry weather, near Glossop, northern England AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 5 June 2023 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak onboard Border Agency cutter HMC Seeker during a visit to Dover PA UK news in pictures 4 June 2023 A hot air balloon rises into the sky above Ragley Hall, Alcester, south of Birmingham in central England AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 June 2023 Skaters use the mini ramp at the Wavelength Spring Classic festival in Woolacombe Bay in Devon PA UK news in pictures 1 June 2023 The And Beyond installation, during a photo call for the London Design Biennale at Somerset House in London PA UK news in pictures 31 May 2023 Emergency services attending to a blaze at a derelict listed building in Samuel Street, Belfast PA UK news in pictures 30 May 2023 A robot named Stella interacts with visitors during the International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA in London AP UK news in pictures 29 May 2023 Dave Hackett and his daughter Daisy, five, explore the laburnum arch in the grounds of Preston Tower, East Lothian, in the warm Spring Bank Holiday weather PA UK news in pictures 28 May 2023 Great Britain’s Nick Bandurak scores their side’s third goal of the game during the FIH Hockey Pro League men’s match at Lee Valley, London PA UK news in pictures 27 May 2023 People enjoy the sunny weather at a park in London AP UK news in pictures 26 May 2023 People drink coffee inside Daleks during MCM Comic Con at the ExCel London in east London PA UK news in pictures 25 May 2023 King Charles III and Queen Camilla during a visit to Enniskillen Castle, Co Fermanagh as part of a two day visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 24 May 2023 Horses enjoy the sunny weather on Middleham Gallops in North Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 23 May 2023 An aerial view of a yellow rapeseed field in Hemel Hempstead, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 22 May 2023 Manoj Malde and Clive Gillmor kiss after getting married, the first wedding ever at the Chelsea Flower Show AP UK news in pictures 21 May 2023 People enjoy the warm weather as they take punt tours along the River Cam in Cambridge PA UK news in pictures 20 May 2023 Protesters emerge from the sea as Surfers Against Sewage hold a UK-wide paddle-out protest at Brighton West Pier in East Sussex PA UK news in pictures 19 May 2023 Good Karma ridden by Daniel Muscutt (right) wins the Earl & The Pharaoh Novice Stakes at Newbury Racecourse, Berkshire PA UK news in pictures 18 May 2023 Choristers from the Choir of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge look out from the top of the Chapel Tower before performing the Ascension Day carol - a custom dating back to 1902. PA UK news in pictures 17 May 2023 Oxfam activists wearing 'big heads' of G7 leaders during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, highlighting their lack of action to tackle the East Africa hunger crisis ahead of the start of the G7 summit in Japan PA UK news in pictures 16 May 2023 Part of a child’s jacket during a photo call for the China’s hidden century exhibition, which opens at the British Museum PA UK news in pictures 15 May 2023 Viewing assistant and History of Art student Emma Scarr Hall takes a closer look at @Pink Roses’ (1923) by Scottish Colourist artist Leslie Hunter which is estimated at £60,000-80,000 in the forthcoming Bonhams Scottish Art Sale in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 14 May 2023 Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, Sharon Horgan and Anne-Marie Duff, with the award for Drama Series, for Bad Sisters at the 2023 BAFTA TV Awards in London EPA UK news in pictures 13 May 2023 Singer Loreen performing on behalf of Sweden celebrates with the trophy after winning the final of the Eurovision Song contest 2023 AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 12 May 2023 Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer views a cancer tumour under a microscope during a visit to the Francis Crick Institute in north London where he met scientists working on research into lung cancer PA UK news in pictures 11 May 2023 Judging takes during the artisan cheese awards at St Mary’s Church, Melton Mowbray PA UK news in pictures 10 May 2023 A dog joins members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) on the picket line outside HMRC in East Kilbride during a strike in the long-running civil service dispute over pay, jobs and conditions PA UK news in pictures 9 May 2023 Two trains carrying 170 Eurovision song contest superfans arrive into Liverpool Lime Street train station PA UK news in pictures 8 May 2023 Britain’s Prince Louis eats toasted marshmallows as they take part in the Big Help Out, during a visit to the 3rd Upton Scouts Hut in Slough, England, AP UK news in pictures 6 May 2023 King Charles III and Queen Camilla can be seen on the Buckingham Palace balcony ahead of the flypast during the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla Getty UK news in pictures 5 May 2023 Britain's King Charles III leaves after speaking to well-wishers on The Mall near to Buckingham Palace in central London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 May 2023 A night time rehearsal in central London for the coronation of King Charles III PA UK news in pictures 2 May 2023 Teacher members of the National Education Union (NEU) at a rally in Westminster, London, as they stage walkouts across England in an ongoing dispute over pay PA UK news in pictures 1 May 2023 Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the tarmac after disembarking "Trump Force One" at Aberdeen airport on the north-east coast of Scotland AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 April 2023 Handout photo issued by the Big Partnership of walkers at the start of The Kiltwalk 2023 from Glasgow Green. PA UK news in pictures 29 April 2023 England’s flanker Marlie Packer celebrates with the trophy and teammates after winning the Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam at the end of the Six Nations international women’s rugby union match between England and France at Twickenham in south-west London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 28 April 2023 Lucy Williams, from Aberfan, holds her son Daniel Williams, one, as he takes the handbag of the Princess of Wales, during her visit with her husband the Prince of Wales, to the Aberfan memorial garden, to pay their respects to those who lost their lives during the Aberfan disaster on October 21st 1966 PA UK news in pictures 27 April 2023 Teachers on the picket line outside Bristol Cathedral School, College Square, Bristol, as they take strike action in a dispute over pay PA UK news in pictures 26 April 2023 Protesters wait for the arrival of King Charles III and the Queen Consort for their visit to Liverpool Central Library PA UK news in pictures 25 April 2023 Wreaths are laid at the Cenotaph in central London, in commemoration for Anzac Day PA UK news in pictures 24 April 2023 Waves crash over Tynemouth pier on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 23 April 2023 People cross the finish line at the 2023 London Marathon Getty UK news in pictures 22 April 2023 A Wrexham fan in a Deadpool costume ahead of the Vanarama National League match at The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham PA UK news in pictures 21 April 2023 A demonstrator wears a costume as people protest during the Extinction Rebellion's 'The Big One' event, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 20 April 2023 The funeral cortege of Paul O’Grady travels through the village of Aldington, Kent ahead of his funeral at St Rumwold’s Church PA UK news in pictures 19 April 2023 Georgia Harrison, who was a victim of revenge porn, at a demonstration organised by Refuge outside the Houses of Parliament, calling for a violence against women and girls code of practice to be added to the ‘Online safety bill’ PA

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said: “Affordable housing is a top priority for the Government. That’s we have confirmed that funding for affordable homes will be increased by a further £2bn to more than £9bn and since 2010, we have delivered almost 333,000 affordable homes.

“Where a local authority recognises the need for affordable housing they should set policies for meeting this as part of their local plan.

“We are currently consulting on a proposed changes to the approach to viability assessments. Our measures would speed up decision-making and increase transparency, so that local communities know what is expected from developers on new sites.”

Output: UK homeless charity Shelter is calling on the government to close a legal loophole that allows housebuilders to renege on pledges to build affordable homes. So-called viability assessments of a project's impact on profit margins have enabled developers to avoid building 79% of previously promised social homes, contributing to a chronic shortfall, according to figures obtained via freedom of information requests. Shelter said Birmingham, Manchester and parts of London were the worst affected, and that larger developers were the biggest culprits. The Department for Communities and Local Government said proposed changes to viability assessments were being considered.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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The Advertising Association supports DCMS on gambling review
 The Advertising Association has voiced its support for the Department of Culture Media and Sport after it announced it was pressing ahead with a long-awaited gambling review to establish whether current rules do enough to protect children and vulnerable people from the potential for harm in gambling advertising.

Advertising Association responds to Gambling Review with support pledge

This follows the establishment of a focus group by the association, composed of sports broadcasters and gambling industry representatives, to thrash out their formal response, arguing that the imposition of further restrictions would be "ineffective" at dealing with the issue.

Output: The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has gained the backing of The Advertising Association (AA) for its reconsideration on current regulations for gambling advertising. The DCMS is evaluating whether present rules are enough to protect children and vulnerable adults. The AA's specifically-created focus group, though believing the regulations are sufficient, has suggested a two-year media campaign encouraging responsible gambling, with a proposed annual budget of £5m to £7m. The advertising would cover television, cinema, radio and digital content and would raise awareness of the risks of gambling, suggesting outlets for help and support.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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New funding to help Kano offer coding kits to North American kids
 EdTech hardware startup Kano has raised $28m (£21m) in a Series B round led by Thames Trust and Breyer Capital.

Index Ventures, the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund, LocalGlobe, Marc Benioff, John Makinson, Collaborative Fund, Triple Point Capital and Barclays also participated in the round, which includes both debt and equity funding.

The London-based company was co-founded by Saul Klein, his cousin Alex Klein and Yonatan Raz-Fridman.

Kano has created computer coding kits to help children learn to code projects such as Pong, Snake and Minecraft.

Alex Klein, the CEO, commented on the news: “We believe the time has come for a new kind of computing, premised on people’s need to understand and shape the world around them – not just swipe, tap, and wait for the latest similar-looking screen.

“The next generation is rising and ready to make their own technology,” he added.

Alongside the funding, Kano said its coding kits will be available in over 4,500 shelves across North America.

“Kano has grown into a category leader, with hardware and software that prepares all ages for the future,” commented Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital. “The financing, expansion into mass retail, and new products will expose the unique Kano experience to millions more.”

Kano previously landed $15m in Series A funding and raised $1M on Kickstarter in 2013.

The startup’s Seed round drew participation from Index Ventures, James Higa, Troy Carter and Shana Fisher.

Check out our UK tech investment tracker for all the latest industry deals.

Output: Education technology start-up Kano has raised $28m in its latest investment round, enabling the London-based firm to make its coding teaching kits available in thousands of outlets across North America. The kits help children learn computer coding for use with applications like Pong, Snake and Minecraft. Funding was led by Thames Trust and Breyer Capital. CEO Alex Klein said Kano is helping young people to "make their own technology".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US 'pivot to video' isn't receiving the same response in the UK
 While publishers in the U.S. have “pivoted to video” in droves, those in the U.K. haven’t done so to the same degree, due to a smaller market, fewer VC-backed publishers and comparatively less reliance on Facebook.

The much-mocked term “pivot to video” has become a catch-all phrase for replacing text-based journalists with video specialists. Since 2016, publishers like MTV News, Fox Sports, Mic, Vocativ and Mashable have all laid off writers to focus on creating more video. The argument is people want to watch video, and with programmatic display advertising stagnating, there’s more potential to make money through video’s higher CPMs.

In the U.K., it’s a slightly different story: Video’s importance is increasing, but not at the expense of other formats. Much of that is due to the fact that the U.K. has fewer venture-backed media companies scrambling to live up to inflated expectations, comparatively less Facebook dependence, and a less perky video ad market.

The U.S. publishing market is filled with digital-first publishers, like Vox Media, BuzzFeed and Refinery29, backed by venture capital and legacy media companies. CB Insights forecast that funding from legacy media companies for digital-first publishers in 2016 would reach a new high of $4.5 billion across roughly 130 deals. The audience growth has been a success story hard to ignore, and the pressure is on VC-backed companies to keep the lines going up.

“The structure and the mentality for VC-backed companies is different. VCs can hedge their bets and invest in many companies on the next big thing, knowing that only a small fraction will succeed,” said Jamie Bolding, founder of Jungle Creations. “VCs talk about making money in five years’ time. In the U.K., it’s about survival: With less funding, there’s more requirement to earn revenue now.”

The publishing landscape in the U.K. mostly consists of legacy publishers that have transitioned to digital such as News UK and Trinity Mirror, or Facebook-first, so-called viral publishers like Ladbible, Jungle Creations’ VT and Unilad.

With Facebook’s shift toward video, publishers more reliant on the platform for traffic have followed suit. While Facebook is a source of traffic for U.K. publishers, most are unlikely to reach the same level of scale and dependence on the platform as those in the U.S.

To make money off platforms, publishers need scale. For Facebook’s mid-roll ads, this means hundreds of millions of views, and even then it’s tough.

Facebook partners with big publishers closer to its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, to test its new formats, like Facebook mid-roll ads in videos over 90 seconds long. U.K.-based publishers might be impatient to join Facebook’s programs, but they can learn from afar.

“I have allocated a lower priority to this revenue stream on the U.K. road map based on industry forecasts and feedback,” said Mick Greenwood, head of video at Time Inc. UK, which is waiting for confirmation from Facebook that it can join the mid-roll program, but details are scant.

“[Mid-roll ads are] only on a decent CPM on Facebook’s 20-second views, and we don’t have any way of judging what the CPM would be where sold,” he said. “If eCPM was calculated against Facebook’s three-second views, I think our rate would be low.”

Facebook’s popularization of the three-second view and subsequent metric flubs shows how imperfect its measurement is. Add to that the increasing difficulty in growing organic reach, and Facebook has publishers in an even tighter grip by limiting audience growth.

Ultimately, publishers will follow the ad dollars. In the U.K., video ad spend, which includes programmatically traded video, branded content and video-on-demand formats, will account for 13 percent of total digital ad spend in 2017, according to eMarketer forecasts. For comparison, eMarketer forecasts this figure in the U.S. to be 16 percent. If the growth of video is hampered in the U.K., it’s because of constraints in premium programmatic video inventory outside of social platforms, said Bill Fisher, senior analyst at eMarketer. “As more outstream formats are released programmatically in the U.K., this will balance out,” he said.

With revenue from platforms scant, publishers are turning to branded content, which requires investment in production, studios, account management, client services, distribution and proving return on investment for clients. For some publishers, that’s a whole new business.

Output: The trend of US publishers "pivoting to video" by replacing text journalists with video specialists has not be replicated to the same degree in the UK. The difference can be explained by the smaller number of British digital-first publishers, and less funding from venture capitalists, according to industry figures. The rise of video content has been driven largely by Facebook, meaning those companies reliant on the platform for traffic have had to increase their video output. Currently, advertising spend on video in the UK stands at 13%, while in the US it is 16%.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Healthtech Grail seeks extra investment despite $900m funding
 Grail, the cancer detection start-up backed by tech giants Alphabet and Amazon , is already seeking new funding, mere months after it closed a $900 million round in March. The company had previously raised $100 million in 2016.

Grail is primarily pitching sovereign funds, with mixed success, according to two sources familiar. It has approached Softbank and Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's $125 billion sovereign fund, according to one of the people.

The start-up is primarily planning to use the funds for its massive breast cancer trial that it announced in April of this year. That study involves analyzing the blood of 120,000 women in many different locations.

But the company has also had some other expenses that may be pushing it back to the fund-raising market.

Grail announced in March that some of the proceeds from its financing would be used to buy a large portion of its shares from parent company Illumina , reducing Illumina's ownership to a minority stake. The aggregate purchase price was $278 million, according to a public filing.

It also shelled out more than $100 million to merge with a Chinese company called Cirina, according to one of the sources. Cirina is developing an early-stage commercial test for a type of cancer called nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Additional funds were earmarked for another expensive clinical study, its Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas Study (CCGA), which involves enrolling 10,000 participants. This study is meant to give Grail a more detailed map of cancer genetics.

The company declined to comment on its financing plans, but said "we are always in touch with the capital markets."

Meanwhile, the company has seen multiple senior leaders depart in recent months, including former CEO Jeff Huber, formerly of Google; data scientist Franz Och; and former head of clinical development Mark Lee. These departures were previously reported by Buzzfeed. Business development lead Elaine Cheung also departed recently, according to her LinkedIn profile.

When Grail burst onto the scene in 2016, it announced an ambitious objective to have its first test on the market within three years.

The idea behind such early-detection tests, which are in development by Grail and its chief competitors Guardant Health and Freenome, is to catch cancer early by picking up signals of free-floating tumor DNA in the bloodstream. The hope is that at that point, it would be easier and cheaper to treat.

The biggest challenges to get these tests to market include price -- the tests might be too expensive to get covered by insurers -- and high rates of both false positives and negatives. For that reasons, these companies need to invest heavily on clinical studies.

Output: Alphabet and Amazon-backed healthtech Grail is seeking additional funding, despite closing a $900m round in March and securing $100m last year. According to insiders, Grail has approached Softbank and Abu Dhabi's $125bn sovereign fund, Mubadala, with mixed results, sources said. Grail is running a massive global breast cancer trial and has also spent heavily recently, including the $100m acquisition of Chinese firm Cirina and a $278m purchase of shares to reduce the stake of parent company Illumina. Grail, whose CEO, Jeff Huber, left the firm in August, said it was "always in touch with the capital markets".