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Pavegen to create 'selfie-tunnel' at Berlin Festival of Lights
 Footsteps of visitors to "first-of-its kind" selfie tunnel power 176 coloured light panels and generate video recordings of their experience

We are a team of writers, experimenters and researchers providing you with the best advice with zero bias or partiality.

Pavegen, the smart flooring company founded by 2017 Young Gun Laurence Kemball-Cook, has partnered with Google to create what is thought to be the largest ever energy harvesting walkway at Berlin Festival of Lights.

Described as a “first-of-its kind” selfie tunnel, visitors’ footsteps are converted into off-grid electricity that powers a synchronised lighting display and generates videos recording their experience. These are then shared with them as GIFS by a photo pod at the end of the array.

The 26-square metre installation uses Pavegen’s latest V3 flooring system, with 100-electro-manetic generators powering 176 coloured light panels.

The Berlin Festival of Lights was started in 2004 as a celebration of the visual arts, bringing dynamic light installations to the city’s most famous places. This year’s event runs from Friday 6 to Sunday 15 October from 7pm every night.

Founded in 2009, Pavegen’s flooring solution generates energy and collects data from footfall and can be used to power off-grid applications such as games, lighting, and environmental monitoring.

To date, it has delivered 200 projects in 30 countries and worked with some of the biggest brands and organisations in the world including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Heathrow Airport, Shell and Westfield.

Cook commented: “The Berlin project marks a pivotal moment for us during a year when we have delivered significant permanent installations in other important cities including Washington and London.

“Working with Google, we’re creating a highly immersive experience with which people can interact physically, showing how the cleaner smart cities of the future will also be fun and vibrant places to be.”

Output: London firm Pavegen has partnered with Google to create a "selfie-tunnel" at the Berlin Festival of Lights. The walkway – the largest energy-harvesting pathway of its kind – converts people's footsteps into off-grid energy to power a lighting display and a video camera. It uses 100 electromagnetic generators powering 176 coloured light panels, and is one of 200 projects completed by Pavegen, which counts Coca-Cola, Heathrow Airport, Shell and Adidas among its clients.


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Heads to roll as China gets ready to reshuffle Central Committee
 At least eight full members and three alternate ones expected to be expelled when Central Committee meets this week

Output: China is set to reshuffle its Central Committee, with President Xi Jinping expected to expel at least eight full members and three alternate members from the 200-member body as part of his anti-corruption drive. A total of 17 full Central Committee members and 17 alternate members have been dismissed by the president since he took over in 2012, which is more than the total for the four previous Central Committees combined. Further overhauls to the Central Military Commission are deemed likely, following major recent personnel changes after reforms to the military. Two generals are under investigation and may also be expelled from the Central Committee.


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Expert System and Lloyd's of London seal major AI deal
 Lloyd’s of London wants to infuse artificial intelligence technology into the daily business it does with its customers.

The world’s largest insurance market signed a global deal with Expert System that will bring on cognitive automation, via the company’s Cognito software, to modernize its business processes in order to support the needs of market participants.

Neither side disclosed financial terms.

Craig Civil, head of Data Innovation with Lloyd’s said the agreement will help boost the productivity of its market members.

“Artificial intelligence drives productivity by changing the way we benefit from data, and Lloyd’s continues its history of innovation,” Civil said in prepared remarks. “Expert System’s cognitive applications help meet our strategic objective and evolve business models through new applications.”

Nicky Singh, VP UK and Ireland for Expert System, said in prepared remarks that “a significant part of the insurance industry will be powered by AI” and “it is a reality that we need to embrace.”

Expert System markets its technology to insurers and banks, defense and intelligence agencies, public administration departments, the health and pharmaceutical industries, the energy industry, publishing and media and other sectors.

Source: Expert System/Lloyds

Output: Lloyd's of London has agreed a deal to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into its business. The world's largest insurance market has partnered with Italian technology company Expert System, which will use its Cognito software to bring greater AI capabilities to Lloyd's. Similar technology is increasingly being used by the insurance sector, and the deal will assist the exchange in modernising in order to improve its members' productivity.


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Lemonade facilitates third-party adoption with API launch
 NEW YORK, October 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Lemonade, the insurance company powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, today launched its public API, allowing anyone to seamlessly offer Lemonade policies through their apps or websites.

Through its API platform, Lemonade will initially offer developers access to its renters, condo, and homeowners insurance, and expand the API as the company introduces new insurance products to market. Commerce sites, real estate apps, financial advisors, bots, IoT and smart home products will now be able to complement their offering with insurance, allowing their customers instant coverage and a hassle-free experience without ever leaving their app or website.

"It takes years to pull together the licenses, capital and technology needed to offer insurance instantly through an app, which is why it's almost nonexistent. Today's API launch changes that. Anyone with a slight familiarity with coding can now include these capabilities in their app, in a matter of hours," said Shai Wininger, Lemonade Co-founder and Chief Lemonade Maker. "We call on startups and entrepreneurs to use our platform to add insurance-related products and features to their apps and websites. We can't wait to see what entrepreneurs will create using our new API."

Lemonade's API is also ideal for established businesses such as real estate companies, mortgage originators, ecommerce sites and lifestyle brands to offer insurance to their customers, as a means to insure their residents or provide coverage for their valuable products.

Today's API launch comes on the heels of Lemonade's one year anniversary. Since its September 2016 launch in New York, the company has expanded to California, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas, and has been licensed - and will launch soon - in 15 more states, reaching more than 50% of the population. Most recently, Lemonade launched its Zero Everything product, offering new and existing Lemonade members a 'zero deductible' upgrade, so they can make up to two claims each year with absolutely no deductible payments and no rate hikes.

Customers can buy homeowners and renters insurance in seconds at lemonade.com, or through the Lemonade app, and choose a cause to 'Giveback' to. In addition to digitizing the entire insurance process, Lemonade reduces costs and bureaucracy through giving. In a reversal of the traditional insurance model, Lemonade takes a flat 20% fee and treats premiums as belonging to the insured, not the insurer, returning unclaimed money during its annual 'Giveback.' Giveback is a unique feature of Lemonade, where each year leftover money ('underwriting profit') is donated to a cause customers care about.

Users can apply for early access to become one of the first Lemonade API partners here: www.lemonade.com/api .

About Lemonade

Lemonade Insurance Company is a licensed insurance carrier, offering homeowners and renters insurance powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics. By replacing brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning, Lemonade aims for zero paperwork and instant everything. As a Certified B-Corp, where underwriting profits go to nonprofits, Lemonade is remaking insurance as a social good, rather than a necessary evil. Lemonade is currently available in New York, California, New Jersey, Texas, and Illinois, and licensed in 14 more states, and looks to expand nationwide.

Stay in touch at http://www.lemonade.com, @lemonade_inc or http://www.facebook.com/lemonade.

Media Contact:

Jill Burkes

[email protected]

SOURCE Lemonade

Output: Insurtech Lemonade has adopted an application programming interface (API), which will allow third-party companies to offer customers the firm's insurance policies as a value-add product. Start-ups focusing on areas like robo-advice, proptech and smart home products will be able to offer Lemonade insurance products by making use of the API. This should help such companies avoid the need to seek out licenses to offer insurance coverage via an app or online platform, something that can take several years and large amounts of money to achieve ordinarily.


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Meet buy-side needs for profitable equity research post-Mifid II
 The traditional business of providing equity research to asset managers has been under pressure in recent years, as managers, challenged to deliver alpha to their clients, seek new forms of research and asset owners turn increasingly to passive strategies. Now, new regulation—specifically, the advent of MiFID II in Europe in 2018—is about to escalate these pressures.

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The result will be an increase in both the magnitude and the pace of change in equity research, reducing the scale of the research business and reshaping its economics. Nonetheless, equity research still offers an attractive business opportunity for banks and broker-dealers that can adapt to deliver the types of research the buy side values and also successfully transform their operating models.

The trigger for accelerated change in the equity research business is the January 2018 go-live of European MiFID II regulations, which call for the explicit unbundling of charges for execution services and investment research by banks and broker-dealers. While the new MiFID regulations may strictly apply only to European asset managers, the impact is likely to be broader, as asset managers extend the MiFID II model of separate payments beyond Europe to their global operations. The result could be a sharp decline in the demand for equity research: the consensus view of banks we surveyed calls for an industry-wide drop in equity-research revenues of 30 percent or more over the next three years, although other scenarios could well play out (exhibit).

For the first time, bank and broker-dealer equity research will operate as a free-standing profit center, forcing a transformation of the business. The buy side will pay broker-dealers for actionable research that adds investment value, but the demand will fall far short of the mountains of research that banks currently supply “for free.” For asset managers, as research becomes an itemized cost, profits could be sharply reduced—by as much as 15 to 20 percent for firms in Europe. The resulting change to research operations could be enormous.

To succeed in this transformed environment and meet asset managers’ more exacting standards, banks and broker-dealers will need to focus on the changing nature of the types of research the buy side finds useful and overhaul their offerings. Long-only active managers and hedge funds focused on equities are demanding less in the way of traditional products (that is, single-stock research reports) and more in services, such as access to analysts and corporate management. Moreover, investors are seeking new forms of information and analytics, through big data and artificial intelligence (AI), which can complement conventional fundamental research in portfolio decision making.

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Beyond producing quality, differentiated research, banks will also need to adopt new operating models for their equity research businesses. This calls for focusing on four strategic priorities:

Establishing a research footprint that capitalizes on strengths of coverage in sectors and regions, and extending reach through joint ventures. Understanding the scarcity and perishability of ideas, and what value clients place on research in different forms—reports, analyst and corporate-management access, conferences, and other forms of information and analytics. Translating client preferences and demands into informed pricing structures. Explicit prices must be assigned to research, whether item-by-item for individual products and services or through packages or broad subscriptions. Adopting new technologies to generate novel investment ideas and lower costs. The sell side can leverage AI to interpret high-frequency market data in real time, patterns in both supply and demand chains, and social media. They can reduce costs by automating basic financial analysis and maintenance research. For client coverage, analytical tools can discern clients’ preferred means of research delivery and service.

Analytics in banking: Time to realize the value

Five business models may evolve for the provision of equity research and execution services in the future:

A few global banks will lead the industry with both global execution services and high-quality, broad-based research coverage. Another cadre of two to three firms, likely market makers that are not banks, will be global leaders in execution but offer no research or only a limited, specialized array. A second group of universal banks will attempt to maintain their current broad research efforts, combined with global execution at a smaller scale than the leaders. In view of dwindling research revenues and the competition for low-cost execution, however, this model is not likely sustainable, although some firms could make up the shortfall in client revenue internally from banking and wealth-management units. Accordingly, many firms currently large in both research and execution will have to make significant cuts in one direction or the other. The majority of banks will rationalize their research and execution capabilities by focusing on their “home-field advantage” in local sectors and regional markets. Demand from local and global clients will likely support one to three such banks per region. Independent research firms offering little or no execution should see significant growth in the new landscape, as they reverse the past trend among many research boutiques of offering execution as a means for the buy side to pay for research.

These strategic shifts are likely to take time, however, given several barriers to exit. Research is an entrenched part of capital-markets operations and provides value to banks’ investment-banking, wealth-management, and equities units, as well the intangible benefits of burnishing the corporate brand. Some firms will want to keep a hand in research as an option to scaling back up. Evolution will come fastest to European banks, followed quickly by the United States, while the Asian market may be slower to change.

Output: Providers of equity research can still be profitable following the implementation of Mifid II, but they will need to focus on what buy-side clients actually value. One way this is possible is by focusing more on providing a service than individual stock reports, according to McKinsey & Company. Such services could include access to analysts and corporate management. Additionally, research providers may have success if they can provide buy-side firms with access to analysis making use of artificial intelligence and big data processing.


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Torrent site incentivises visitor mining
 As cryptocurrency mining becomes more closely associated with 'pirate' sites, some private torrent trackers are implementing an interesting solution to their own economic problems. Through the use of miners, users are able to generate revenue for a site but they're also given so-called 'upload credit' in return, which in itself is a virtual currency variant used to 'buy' content.

Ever since The Pirate Bay crew added a cryptocurrency miner to their site last month, the debate over user mining has sizzled away in the background.

The basic premise is that a piece of software embedded in a website runs on a user’s machine, utilizing its CPU cycles in order to generate revenue for the site in question. But not everyone likes it.

The main problem has centered around consent. While some sites are giving users the option of whether to be involved or not, others simply run the miner without asking. This week, one site operator suggested to TF that since no one asks whether they can run “shitty” ads on a person’s machine, why should they ask permission to mine?

It’s a controversial point, but it would be hard to find users agreeing on either front. They almost universally insist on consent, wherever possible. That’s why when someone comes up with something innovative to solve a problem, it catches the eye.

Earlier this week a user on Reddit posted a screenshot of a fairly well known private tracker. The site had implemented a mining solution not dissimilar to that appearing on other similar platforms. This one, however, gives the user something back.

Mining for coins – with a twist

First of all, it’s important to note the implementation. The decision to mine is completely under the control of the user, with buttons to start or stop mining. There are even additional controls for how many CPU threads to commit alongside a percentage utilization selector. While still early days, that all sounds pretty fair.

Where this gets even more interesting is how this currency mining affects so-called “upload credit”, an important commodity on a private tracker without which users can be prevented from downloading any content at all.

Very quickly: when BitTorrent users download content, they simultaneously upload to other users too. The idea is that they download X megabytes and upload the same number (at least) to other users, to ensure that everyone in a torrent swarm (a number of users sharing together) gets a piece of the action, aka the content in question.

The amount of content downloaded and uploaded on a private tracker is monitored and documented by the site. If a user has 1TB downloaded and 2TB uploaded, for example, he has 1TB in credit. In basic terms, this means he can download at least 1TB of additional content before he goes into deficit, a position undesirable on a private tracker.

Now, getting more “upload credit” can be as simple as uploading more, but some users find that difficult, either due to the way a tracker’s economy works or simply due to not having resources. If this is the case, some sites allow people to donate real money to receive “upload credit”. On the tracker highlighted in the mining example above, however, it’s possible to virtually ‘trade-in’ some of the mining effort instead.

Tracker politics aside (some people believe this is simply a cash grab opportunity), from a technical standpoint the prospect is quite intriguing.

In a way, the current private tracker system allows users to “mine” upload credits by donating bandwidth to other users of the site. Now they have the opportunity to mine an actual cryptocurrency on the tracker and have some of it converted back into the tracker’s native ‘currency’ – upload credit – which can only be ‘spent’ on the site. Meanwhile, the site’s operator can make a few bucks towards site maintenance.

Another example showing how innovative these mining implementations can be was posted by a member of a second private tracker. Although it’s unclear whether mining is forced or optional, there appears to be complete transparency for the benefit of the user.

The mining ‘Top 10’ on a private tracker

In addition to displaying the total number of users mining and the hashes solved per second, the site publishes a ‘Top 10’ list of users mining the most currently, and overall. Again, some people might not like the concept of users mining at all, but psychologically this is a particularly clever implementation.

Utilizing the desire of many private tracker users to be recognizable among their peers due to their contribution to the platform, the charts give a user a measurable status in the community, at least among those who care about such things. Previously these charts would list top uploaders of content but the addition of a ‘Top miner’ category certainly adds some additional spice to the mix.

Mining is a controversial topic which isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. But, for all its faults, it’s still a way for sites to generate revenue, away from the pitfalls of increasingly hostile and easy-to-trace alternative payment systems. The Pirate Bay may have set the cat among the pigeons last month, but it also gave the old gray matter a boost too.

Output: An invitation-only torrent site has offered its visitors the choice of enabling a cryptocurrency mining feature on their machines, in return for upload credits. The move follows the discovery that such mining was taking place without consent on sites such as The Pirate Bay. The torrent site's offer has sparked a debate over the issue of consent, with some users arguing that low-quality ads run on machines without permission, and background mining was no different.


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Alibaba to build smart petrol stations with robot attendants
 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group will venture into smart petrol stations wherein robots are the attendants. The plan is to construct the first few gas stations in the company's home city of Hangzhou.

Gas stations in China will soon become manned by computer-controlled human machines as Alibaba will build the world's first 'intelligent' petrol stations. Part of the move is the QR code scanning that customers will use when entering and shopping at convenience stores.

Also read: Singapore's e-commerce biz dominates despite Amazon, Alibaba invasion

Construction of the said petrol stations will begin by the end of October while the launching is expected to commence in 2018. According to Chinese publication Caixin, the gas stations will use smart technologies to automatically document details of drivers and their cars, such as name, vehicle model and the fuel used.

As a cloud business, Alibaba has a vast treasure trove of consumer data which it can leverage to push its new ventures. The e-commerce company has long been investing in new businesses outside of its industry.

This is not the first time Alibaba entered into unmanned physical establishments. It opened a pop-up convenience store in Hangzhou a couple of months back where attendants are robots.

Output: China's Alibaba Group is set to begin construction on the world's first smart petrol stations that will use robots as attendants. A handful of garages will be built in Hangzhou, where Alibaba opened a pop-up convenience store manned by robots earlier this year. The smart petrol stations, set to open in 2018, will also document drivers' names as well as the make and model of their cars.


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Facebook eyes emerging markets for sports streaming opportunities
 Facebook isn’t ready to make a high-profile bid for major sports like basketball, football or soccer in established markets, but it’s eyeing up rights in emerging markets.

One interesting example is Facebook’s move trying to convince UEFA’s media bosses to let it live stream Champions League games in countries where they aren’t shown on TV. Both tournaments are not shown on TV in Africa or countries like India and Colombia. One big fly in the ointment: Facebook wants the rights for free under the idea that it would give the Champions League and Europa League tournaments tremendous reach outside of Europe. Needless to say, UEFA declined.

UEFA cannot be seen giving away rights for free when it has a premium product for which other broadcast partners pay substantial sums. UEFA now finds itself in the same precarious situation as publishers when it comes to assessing the platform dilemma of reach versus monetization.

“It is indeed good to be broadcast on Facebook in a market where the matches aren’t shown on TV,” said the source. “But on the other hand, it could damage negotiations in the future with other TV channels.”

The UEFA pitch is curious since Facebook was willing to pony up $600 million to bring the Indian Premier League cricket matches to the more than 1 billion people who live in India and its surrounding countries.

It is unlikely UEFA’s initial rejection will sap Facebook’s appetite for the rights. With over 650 million people following an account for a sports team, player or news outlet on Facebook and 200 million of these fans on Instagram, Facebook knows it has strong bargaining power now that it is a primary destination for sports. Misha Sher, vp of sport and entertainment at MediaCom, believes it’s only a matter of time before the biggest soccer games air live on Facebook. “Rights holders will need to consider the value that someone like Amazon or Facebook can bring to the table, and explore what types of models will work moving forward without undermining any existing broadcast agreements,” Sher said.

Facebook has made no secret of soccer’s importance to its aspirations as a broadcaster. It aired over 3,500 different live sports events in the first six months of the year alone. Despite the breadth of sports it shows, from American football to college lacrosse, Facebook insists it doesn’t want to replace traditional broadcasters such as Sky and BT Sport as the home of live games. Instead, the social network has cited its deal with Fox Sports to live stream Champions League matches in the U.S. as an example of its intentions over the coming months. If Facebook were to be the sole broadcaster of the Champions League in the U.S. now, it would likely struggle to recoup the $60 million Turner Sports paid to secure the broadcast rights for 2018-2021.

Monetizing video is still a problem for Facebook, as seen by the number of soccer clubs and advertisers rethinking Facebook Live’s value alongside the emergence of Facebook Watch. Monetizing video in emerging markets, however, could be easier; of Facebook’s 5 million advertisers, 70 percent are outside of the U.S. Among the fastest-growing countries are India, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, none of which are set to broadcast Champions League matches on TV between 2018 and 2021.

But this path isn’t without its problems, said Dror Ginzberg, the CEO of video creation platform Wochit. In many emerging markets, smartphone adoption is roughly 30 percent, according to Gsma, the trade body for the telecommunications industry. This is much lower than the global average of over 50 percent. In the short term, this may mean monetization could be slow to happen in these markets, especially as premium content such as the Champions League, regardless of location, is expensive, explained Ginzberg.

Ginzberg said Facebook has “deep pockets” to mitigate this, however, and is making a “bigger bet” on the demographics in emerging markets, where 25 percent of consumers are 14 years old or younger, compared to 16 percent in developed markets. “In a couple of years, these consumers will be the economic engine of emerging markets, which will greatly help with Facebook’s monetization play in these regions.”

Output: The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has rebuffed Facebook's request to give it free rights to stream live football matches in emerging markets (EMs), like India or Colombia, where games are not broadcast. Insiders claimed such a deal, if agreed, could harm UEFA's future negotiations with TV broadcasters. Despite the decision, some say it is a matter of time before Facebook agrees a rights deal for a major sport, more than likely targeting EMs. It is suggested that while smartphone penetration could restrict efforts to monetise content in EMs now, longer-term, their demographics could see Facebook’s bet pay off.


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Alibaba unveils $15bn global R&D plan to boost tech collaboration
 Alibaba Group has announced the launch of a global research program and its plan to invest $15 billion in R&D through the program over the next three years.

The program, called Alibaba DAMO Academy, is aimed at increasing technological collaboration globally, advancing the development of "cutting-edge" technology, and making the world more inclusive by "narrowing the technology gap", it said in an announcement on Wednesday.

The DAMO Academy, short for "Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum, and Outlook", will be led by Alibaba CTO Jeff Zhang.

In the initial phase of the program, Alibaba will open seven research labs in Beijing and Hangzhou in China; San Mateo and Bellevue in the United States; Moscow, Russia; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Singapore.

The labs will focus on research areas such as data intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), fintech, quantum computing, and human-machine interaction. Within those research areas, the labs will focus on machine learning, network security, visual computing, and natural language processing.

Alibaba is seeking to recruit 100 researchers worldwide to join the program, as well as to collaborate with established technology companies and educational institutions.

"Over the past 18 years, we have developed a robust technology infrastructure that supports the rapid growth of our business. With our global expansion, we have grown and refined our technology manifold," Zhang said in a statement.

"We are now looking for talented and driven researchers to join us in the quest for new disruptive technologies that would advance our everyday lives, benefit small businesses, and narrow the technology gap to make our world a more inclusive place."

Alibaba said the DAMO Academy has already established a partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, which will see the entities explore areas such as secured real-time computing through the RISE Lab.

"[DAMO] is the first major global initiative to focus on developing the global technological capabilities and infrastructure that will enable Alibaba to fulfil its commitment to serve 2 billion customers and create 100 million job opportunities in 20 years," the Chinese ecommerce giant said in an announcement.

Alibaba currently has around 25,000 engineers and scientists on its staff across its multiple businesses of ecommerce, cloud infrastructure, payment and financial services, logistics, marketing services, and digital media.

The DAMO Academy's advisory board members include professors from a range of educational institutions including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Beijing University of Technology, Peking University, and Zhejiang University.

In September, Alibaba announced that it would be setting aside 100 billion yuan over five years to boost its global logistics network as it pushes ahead with its "new retail" strategy. The aim of the investment is to fulfil online orders within 24 hours in China, and within 72 hours anywhere across the globe.

The Chinese ecommerce giant said that the funds will be used for research and development in logistics data technology, as well as for development of smart warehousing, smart delivery, and global logistics infrastructure.

Output: Alibaba CTO Jeff Zhang is to lead a $15bn, three-year R&D programme aimed at increasing global technological collaboration and narrowing the global technology gap. The Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook (DAMO) Academy will set up labs in the US, China, Russia, Israel and Singapore, where researchers will focus on fintech, quantum computing and human-machine interaction. Alibaba said DAMO's long-term aim is to enable it to "serve two billion customers and create 100 million job opportunities in 20 years".


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XL Catlin launches suite of coverages for HNW clients
 The products will be distributed through an exclusive broker panel and are aimed at the ultra high net worth client.

XL Catlin has launched Private Clients, a suite of coverages specifically designed to address the complex insurance needs of Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) individuals and their families.

According to the insurer the product suite, which is available via a very exclusive broker panel, offers broad policy coverage with the ability to write multiple homes (including overseas), large collections of fine art, jewellery and motor all in one single package with one renewal date.

Simon Mobey, head of

Output: XL Catlin has introduced a suite of coverage aiming to meet the needs of ultra high net worth clients. The suite, dubbed Private Clients, will allow the firm to write business covering multiple homes, motor vehicles, large art collections and jewellery within a single package. Coverage will be available via Catlin's panel of brokers.


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Speedy Hire Speedy Hire gets vote of confidence with bank facilities extension
 Tools, equipment and plant hire services company Speedy Hire has secured an extension to its existing bank facilities.

The group said on Wednesday that the £180m asset based finance facility, which was due to mature in September 2019, has been extended by a further three years, through to October 2022. In addition, terms have been improved, which will lower the cost of Speedy’s debt financing.

The additional uncommitted accordion of £220m remains in place through to October 2022, should further funding requirements be needed.

The facility is split equally between Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC and Wells Fargo and the interest margin ranges from 150 to 250 basis points, down from 170 to 275 basis points previously.

Chief executive Russell Down said: "We are delighted with this successful outcome which reflects our bankers' confidence in the business. At 30 September net debt is now expected to be less than £65m, and this revised facility, with significant headroom, gives us greater flexibility to support our strategy for growth, and lowers our cost of debt."

At 0930 BST, the shares were down 0.2% to 51.40p.

Output: Equipment and plant hire firm Speedy has been granted an extension to its bank facilities with improved terms, which CEO Russell Down said was a demonstration of bankers' confidence in the business. Speedy's £180m ($237m) asset-based finance facility will now mature in October 2022, instead of September 2019, while interest margin ranges have been reduced from 170 to 275 basis points to 150 to 250 basis points.


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World facing massive financial shock: Deutsche Bank
 Financial crises are happening more frequently, becoming almost a fixture of modern life, according to research by Deutsche Bank. While meltdowns remain difficult to see in advance, the next panic is almost certainly brewing, and it may well be provoked by the world’s major central banks.

The German bank’s study of developed markets uses this criteria to define a financial crisis: on a year-over-year basis, a 15% drop in stock markets, 10% decline in foreign-exchange, 10% fall in bonds, 10% increase in inflation, or a sovereign default.

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Deutsche Bank argues that crises have been increasingly frequent since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, which, after World War II, fixed exchange-rates and essentially linked them to the price of gold. That coordination ended in the 1970s when the US broke the dollar’s peg to the yellow metal. The link to a finite commodity helped limit the amount of debt that could be created.

As strategists at the Frankfurt-based lender see it, the resulting fiat money system has encouraged rising budget deficits, higher debts, global imbalances, and more unstable markets. At the same time, banking regulations have been loosened. In the US, the industry may soon have fewer restrictions and less oversight, a mere 10 years since the last worldwide crisis.

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Post-Bretton Woods, policy makers have the flexibility to create as much money as needed to sooth a financial meltdown. However, this can also provide the foundation for the next one, according to Deutsche Bank. A subsequent, potentially bigger, crisis is more likely because the problem has just been passed along to another part of the financial system. The Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, and European Central Bank now hold more than $13 trillion of assets on their balance sheets, up from less than $4 trillion in 2007, according to Yardeni Research.

The modern framework can allow credit stockpiles to climb: Global government debt is approaching 70% of gross domestic product, the highest since World War II and up from less than 20% in the 1970s, according to Deutsche Bank. The US has run an annual budget deficit for 53 of the past 60 years.

“We think this leaves the current global economy particularly prone to a cycle of booms, busts, heavy intervention, recovery and the cycle starting again,” Deutsche Bank said. “There is no natural point where a purge of the excesses is forced by a restriction on credit creation.”

Where will the next crisis come from? Deutsche Bank says there are plenty of things to worry about. Italy has a massive debt burden, a brittle banking system, and a dysfunctional government. China may have a property bubble on its hands and has long been fueling its growth with debt. Populist political parties could disrupt the world order as we’ve known it.

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But one of the most obvious problems is how to unwind central bank balance sheets of unprecedented size, during a time of record-high peacetime government debt, while bond yields are at multi-century low interest-rates. The bank’s strategists say they’re “quite confident” there will soon be another financial shock, a pattern that will be repeated until the world figures out a more stable financial framework.

Output: Another financial crisis is looming and central banks may be the cause, according to Deutsche Bank. It revealed financial crises have increased since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s, and blamed current instability on the fiat money system. The institution also pointed out the $13tn of assets held between the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, and bloated levels of government debt, hitting 70% of GDP. Deutsche Bank said: "there is no natural point where a purge of the excesses is forced by a restriction on credit creation".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Researchers develop new way of gauging water content in solvents
 Researchers from Germany have devised a new way to detect trace water in solvents. Their technique combines luminescent metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with a magnetic core to give a system that users can see change colour then fish out of the sample once the test is complete.

Unwanted water is a big problem for some areas of chemistry. Many materials are water sensitive and must be kept in a dry atmosphere. And in some organic syntheses, water can initiate unwanted side-reactions, so it’s important that solvents contain as little water as possible.

‘There are two main molecules that can be addressed for sensing: water and oxygen. If you look at how many goods are transported worldwide, such as over the ocean, humidity sensing becomes very important,’ comments Klaus Müller-Buschbaum of the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, who led the work.

Müller-Buschbaum and his colleagues have made a material that combines two different MOFs, one containing terbium and one containing europium, with superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 /SiO 2 microparticles. Water quenches the luminescent Tb3+ and Eu3+ centres unequally and concentrating the composite with a magnetic field means users can add it to test solvents to quantitatively determine how much water they contain by measuring then analysing the ratios of the luminescence bands.

‘We have the benefit that the magnetic properties allow us to have an additional chance to remove the sensor. We think that this is one of the exceptional things that this composite can do,’ says Müller-Buschbaum. ‘You can first disperse them and then concentrate them via a magnetic field. This is very good for strong signal augmentation,’ he adds.

The composite is very sensitive, with a detection limit of 40μg/l. This is equal to the classic Karl Fischer titration method, which uses either colourimetric or volumetric titration to spot trace amounts of water in a sample. However, due to the equipment it requires, the Karl Fischer method is unsuitable for use outside of a laboratory. Müller-Buschbaum and his colleagues, however, are keen to emphasise that their new composites allow for ‘on-the-fly’ analysis.

Sujit Ghosh, who researches MOFs at the Indian Institute for Science Education and Research in Pune, India, is cautiously optimistic about the composites: ‘The crucial steps of sensitivity retention and cost-effectiveness are important hurdles to cross before such materials can compete with existing techniques. However, this work has the potential to overtake Fischer titrations.’

Raffaele Riccò, who researches MOFs and magnetic nanoparticles at Graz University of Technology in Austria, says that the composites have great potential: ‘Applications ranging from analytical methods to biomedicine can be foreseen.’ Ricco’s colleague, Paolo Falcaro, is also encouraged by the work: ‘Petrochemical and food industries could benefit from this exciting composite.’

Output: Researchers from the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany have developed a method to determine how much water is present in solvents using luminescent metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). They combined MOFs containing terbium and europium and, using a magnetic field, were able to calculate water levels according to the brightness of the MOFs. Unwanted water is a problem in many chemical processes. Possible applications include within the petrochemical, food and biomedical industries, and lead scientist Klaus Müller-Buschbaum said the method is suitable for use outside the lab.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Regus Regus completes deal for 13,621 sq ft in Almondsbury, near Bristol
 A string of recent transactions at an Almondsbury business park has resulted in 85% of the office space being let or under offer.

Brotherswood Court in Almondsbury, provides 61,000 sq ft of high quality office accommodation. It was developed in the early 1990s from three farm buildings and now comprises eight separate office buildings housed within an attractive and mature landscaped area. The office buildings, together with a restaurant, create an interesting and attractive alternative to more traditional office parks. It is located near to the M4 and M5 providing excellent transport links.

Since the acquisition by M7 Real Estate in 2016, a number of recent lettings has resulted in Brotherswood Court now being 85% let or under offer.

Regus has just completed a deal to take 13,621 sq ft in Redwood House, meaning that this building is now fully let. Regus are offering smaller starter suites to sub-tenants.

The first floor of Willow House is now also fully let with Schade Lagertechnik expanding across the entire first floor, doubling the amount of space they occupy. Opus Land has also recently committed to a new long term lease in Willow House.

Daikin has agreed a new long term lease in Maple House for 6,027sq ft.

Birch House (3,762 sq ft) has been put under offer on a long leasehold basis, leaving Cedar House (5,993 sq ft) and Laurel House (3,876 sq ft) available either for sale as a whole or for lease either as a whole or in part.

James Chasen, Asset Manager for M7 Real Estate, says, “We have eight separate office buildings which all have their own unique character set within a landscaped business environment. We’re happy to agree flexible terms with tenants who wish to join the existing businesses who already enjoy the location and facilities here at Brotherswood Court.”

Alex Riddell from GVA, joint agent on Brotherswood Court with Burston Cook, comments, “This is a sensitively designed office development that retains many of its farmhouse origins within its character. Located close to the M4 and M5, its strategic location for businesses who need to be close to transport connections, with excellent parking ratios, couldn’t be better.”

Output: Regus has completed a deal to lease space in a business park near Bristol, taking lettings at the development to 85% of its capacity. Brotherswood Court in Almondsbury provides 61,000 sq ft of high-quality office space in former farm buildings, and was acquired by M7 Real Estate last year. Since then, it has seen a string of lettings including that by Regus, which has taken 13,621 sq ft in Redwood House, completing the occupation of that building.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Diversity recruitment sector emerging as major new industry
 The birth of the modern diversity-recruitment industry can be dated to Oct. 11, 2013.

That’s the day Tracy Chou, an engineer at Pinterest, published a post on Medium laying bare her company’s poor record at hiring women engineers. Within a week, employees at dozens of tech companies followed. The next year, tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple formally issued reports showing they, too, had dismal results in hiring women, along with black and Hispanic workers. By 2016, 250 companies across a wide swath of industries were sharing their data.

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By going public with these numbers—and with their commitment to improve their hiring record—the companies challenged themselves. And when they failed to meet their own goals, they opened a window for a new set of businesses that saw an enormous, and lucrative, opportunity.

Fortune 500 companies spend a collective $16 billion annually on hiring, or roughly $32 million per company, according to Ryan Williams. He’s a co-founder of Jopwell, a startup that matches minority candidates with employers, via an online database. About $2.5 million a year is spent on recruiting minority candidates, a figure that will at least double, and could increase four-fold, in the next several years as employers scramble to catch up to a country where demographics are changing rapidly. By the 2040s, people of color will account for the majority of Americans, Williams notes. “We’re at the tip of the iceberg here, in terms of what companies are going to be (spending),” he says.

The potential size of the diversity-recruitment market is a reflection of the urgency felt by employers, and how much the conversation around diversity hiring has changed in recent years.

For decades, diversity recruitment was viewed by corporations as a worthwhile pursuit, but not essential, something companies did out of a sense of social obligation if at all. Efforts were mostly on a small scale, and the pipeline of prospective hires often was managed by nonprofits, like Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, that provided candidates with coaching and mentoring.

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That began to change as corporate America woke up to the growing buying power of US minorities. Hispanic consumers just in the US, for example, are projected to spend $1.7 trillion in 2020, almost eight times more than in 1990. Gradually, executives realized that marketing to black and Hispanic customers is more effective when black and Hispanic people are involved from the outset, and it helps companies avoid blunders like naming their coffee chain “Beaner’s,” a slur for Latinos, a mistake that cost more than $1 million to fix (it’s now called Biggby Coffee).

But the biggest shift from thinking of diversity as a public good to a business imperative came in the last decade, once it became clear how diversity improved group decision-making. Research showed that teams with more women outperformed male-only teams, and groups of students with diverse racial backgrounds did better than homogeneous teams with higher test scores.

Corporate America’s monochromatic executive teams weren’t just an embarrassment for progressive CEOs; they were a business liability. McKinsey reported that ethnically diverse companies outperform their peers by 35%. And in a Korn Ferry survey of 400 executives, 96% said diversity and inclusion could improve their bottom lines.

Nothing motivates business like a threat to its profit margins. At many companies, diversity and inclusion has now moved from an obscure corner of the HR department to become a corporate priority, opening the floodgates of spending on consultants and vendors eager to solve the problem.

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In theory, the diversity-recruitment industry is one that should spell its own demise. Once women and minorities are represented in significant numbers, there shouldn’t be a need for extra efforts to recruit them. But in a world where just 1% of Google’s engineers are black, and only 18% of Microsoft’s leaders are women, there’s no reason to believe Jopwell and its competitors won’t be in business for years to come.

Output: A new industry of diversity-recruitment has evolved from the failure of US firms to broaden the base of their workforces, with Fortune 500 companies spending a total of $16bn each year on hiring, equivalent to $32m per company. Firms spend $2.5m annually on recruiting minority candidates and this figure is expected to double, or even increase four-fold, in the near future. Over the past decade, companies have also shifted from viewing diversity as a social good to something that is imperative for business success, with McKinsey reporting that ethnically diverse companies outperform competitors by 35%.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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California’s governor blames climate change for wildfires
 At least 15 people have died in northern California after what officials are describing as an “unprecedented” wildfire that has already destroyed 2,000 structures and devastated large swaths of wine country.

“We often have multiple fires going on, but the majority of them all started right around the same time period, same time of night – it’s unprecedented,” Amy Head, the fire captain spokeswoman for Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for fire protection, told the Guardian. “I hate using that word because it’s been overused a lot lately because of how fires have been in the past few years, but it truly is – there’s just been a lot of destruction.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Sonoma sheriff’s office said about 150 people were still reported as missing.

About 20,000 people have been evacuated, including hundreds of senior citizens from nursing homes, and public schools in Napa and Sonoma counties were closed on Tuesday. Major fires in those regions remain completely uncontained, threatening thousands of homes and vineyards in the wine country north of San Francisco.

Still, calmer conditions on Monday night helped fire crews get a handle on the situation, said another Cal Fire spokeswoman, Heather Williams.

“The acreage isn’t going up drastically, and hopefully over the next few days we’re going to start to see those containment numbers go up.”

California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has declared a state of emergency in eight mostly northern counties – Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Sonoma and Yuba counties. On Monday, during a visit to the state, Vice-President Mike Pence said he had spoken with Brown.

“The dryness of the climate, the strength of the winds – you all in California know much better than this midwesterner does,” Pence said. “But I can assure you, as I did the governor, that the federal government stands ready to provide any and all assistance to the state of California.”

Eleven of the deaths occurred in Napa and Sonoma counties, according to Cal Fire. Three were further north, in Mendocino county, and the last in the eastern Yuba county, officials said. Entire neighborhoods and a trailer park in the town of Santa Rosa, 55 miles from San Francisco, have already been razed, along with a Hilton hotel, according to local reports.

Years of drought in California, followed by an extremely wet winter, have meant that vegetation is thicker and more susceptible to the fires that tend to be at their worst in the autumn. Officials say the high winds are hampering firefighting efforts in the region about 140 miles (225km) north of San Francisco. To assist with the efforts the country’s largest firefighting aircraft – a converted 747 – has been deployed.

“It was an inferno like you’ve never seen before,” said Marian Williams, who caravanned with neighbors through flames before dawn as one of the wildfires reached the vineyards and ridges at her small Sonoma County town of Kenwood.

Williams could feel the heat of her fire through the car as she fled. “Trees were on fire like torches,” she said.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered in counties north of San Francisco Bay and elsewhere after blazes broke out late on Sunday.

00:37 View from the sky reveals California wildfires devastation - video

Williams, said that 17 major fires had started in the past 36 hours in the California, burning about 115,000 acres, mostly in the northern part of the state.

She added that unusually high winds had made the fires spread so quickly. “Night-time is when humidity is the highest and temperatures are cooler, but that wind, fueled by denser vegetation, really pushed these fires so quickly.”

The high number of deaths in one series of connected fires is unusual. There have been, on average, 13 wildfire deaths a year in the whole of the US since 2014, according to figures collated by the National Interagency Fire Center.

Head, the Cal Fire captain, said the fires were probably linked to a warming climate. “It has been hotter, it has been drier, our fire seasons have been longer, fires are burning more intensely, which is a direct correlation to the climate changing,” she said.

With so many fires, residents of Sonoma County struggled to figure out which roads to take, finding downed trees or flames blocking some routes.

Fires also burned just to the east in the Napa County wine country as well as in Yuba, Butte and Nevada counties, all north of the state capital. Cal Fire tweeted that as many as 8,000 homes were threatened in Nevada County, which lies on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Smoke was thick in San Francisco, 60 miles (96km) south of the Sonoma County fire.

00:17 Family film their escape from California wildfire: 'even the road is alight' – video

Pillars of heavy smoke rose from the hills surrounding the town of Napa as the sun set on one of the deadliest days of wildfires in California’s history. As darkness took over, the hills around wine country glowed red.

“We’ve never had a fire like this before,” said Mike Willmarth, a Napa middle school teacher who has lived in the area for 30 years. “We’ve never had devastation like this.”

Margaret Beardsley, 92, sat in a wheelchair next to her husband, Robert, and daughter, Nora. Beardsley used an oxygen tank and wore a surgical mask – the smoke in the air had irritated her lungs.

Burned out wine bottles sit on a rack at the fire damaged Signorello Estate winery. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“It’s terrible,” said Beardsley, who has lived in Napa for 46 years and never been evacuated before. “When we left we had no idea if we would have anything to come back to. I want to go home and sleep in my own bed.”

The lack of information was frustrating George Bradley, 74, a retired cement mason who has lived in the Napa area for his entire life. He hadn’t been able to contact his mother, and was worried about the house he had evacuated at about 1.30pm.

“We just paid it off. We just got the deed,” he said. “We don’t know if it’s still standing or not.”

The fire’s economic impact is not yet known – the hundreds of wineries in Napa and Sonoma valleys are their lifeblood. Reports indicate that two wineries – Signorello Estate Winery and Paradise Ridge Winery – were destroyed and that portions of another, Stags’ Leap, were also burned.

Although most of this year’s grapes have been harvested, the remaining 20% are some of the most valuable, said Jennifer Putnam, executive director of Napa Valley Grapegrowers, the Napa Valley vineyard trade association. “It’s some of the best fruit that Napa produces, all of the cabernet sauvignon, so it will have a major economic impact if this last 20% can’t be picked,” she said. “We will have to see where we are tomorrow and next week to see how the grapes are metabolizing all this smoke.”

Agencies contributed reporting

Output: The Governor of the US state of California, which is experiencing wildfires that have killed at least 15 people and destroyed huge areas of the Napa Valley wine region, has said that global warming will increase the chance of future fires. Jerry Brown is a leading figure in the campaign against climate change. The economic impact of the fires remains unclear. Although most of the region’s grapes have already been harvested, the 20% that remain are some of the most valuable. At least two wineries are believed to have been destroyed and the smoke could affect surviving crops.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
California’s governor blames climate change for wildfires
 SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- California Gov. Jerry Brown warns that catastrophic wildfires will keep ripping through the state as the climate warms.

Brown told reporters Wednesday that more people are living in communities close to forests and brush that easily ignite because of dry weather. Blazes burning in Northern California have become some of the deadliest in state history.

ALSO READ: Complete Coverage of Wine County Wildfires

Wine Country Wildfires: How You Can Help

He said a warming climate has contributed to catastrophic wildfires. "That's the way it is with a warming climate, dry weather and reducing moisture." said Brown. "These kind of catastrophes have happened and they'll continue to happen, and we have to be prepared to do everything we can to mitigate."

The governor has positioned himself as a leader in the fight against climate change.

Brown says the federal government has pledged assistance but points out resources also are going to hurricane recovery efforts in Texas and Florida.

© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Output: The Governor of the US state of California, which is experiencing wildfires that have killed at least 15 people and destroyed huge areas of the Napa Valley wine region, has said that global warming will increase the chance of future fires. Jerry Brown is a leading figure in the campaign against climate change. The economic impact of the fires remains unclear. Although most of the region’s grapes have already been harvested, the 20% that remain are some of the most valuable. At least two wineries are believed to have been destroyed and the smoke could affect surviving crops.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Jamie’s Italian tops nutritional ranking for children’s meals
 Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter 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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When it comes to healthy options on children’s menus, it’s historically been slim/chubby pickings, depending on how you look at it.

To mark World Obesity Day, the Soil Association have released a league table ranking the nutritional value of children’s menus at restaurant chains across the UK - and the results may surprise you.

In collaboration with TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall , the team have uncovered that a number of popular chains still fail to offer children healthy choices, with some serving hugely calorific dishes and charging extra for portions of vegetables.

Recommended This formerly obese model got the best revenge on school bullies

The campaign recruited 80 volunteer families as “secret diners” who were sent out to review more than 90 establishments. Restaurants and pubs were awarded points and subsequently ranked on the nutritional value of their children’s menus.

Jamie’s Italian was crowned the winner, followed by Strada (who serve a salad with every meal) while fast-food joint Burger King came last.

(The Soil Association (The Soil Association)

Surprisingly, popular chains such as Nando’s and Prezzo ranked poorly, whereas Wetherspoons and Beefeater scored in the top five thanks to their sustainable fish and organic offerings, despite being less known for their culinary delights.

At the lower end of the chart, some dishes were found to include additives such as E133, E120 (made from insects) and MSG, all of which have been linked to hyperactivity.

The most calorific dish on the league table was Harvester's chocolate cookie pizza - a cookie topped with chocolate sauce, marshmallows, strawberries, butterscotch sauce and chocolate buttons - which contains 721 calories.

Whilst there is clearly still room for improvement when it comes to children’s meals, the campaign notes that much progress has been made since it launched in 2013, with 13 chains now serving vegetables or salad with every meal and 12 using organic ingredients.

Plus, Pizza Hut and TGI Fridays have agreed to discontinue free refills of soft drinks from March 2018, whilst Harvester and Café Rouge will also be reducing the portion sizes of their children’s pudding offerings.

“Many restaurants are now prioritising child health and investing in healthier and more creative meal options,” said Rob Percival from the Soil Association.

“But there is still a national scandal unfolding in plain sight: 75 per cent of UK parents say they are worried by the portion size of children’s puddings when they eat out.

“We found that renegade chains are ignoring parent concerns by dishing up super-sized calorific junk, undermining national efforts to tackle childhood obesity,” he said.

The Out to Lunch campaign is using its findings to entice restaurant chains to improve their children's menus by reducing portion sizes and including vegetables with every dish.

Output: Jamie’s Italian and Strada have topped a league table produced by the Soil Association, which rates the nutritional value of children’s menus in UK restaurant chains. In conjunction with chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the environmental group found that progress had been achieved since its first ranking in 2013, with 13 chains including salad or vegetables with each meal and 12 using organic ingredients. However, some chains still served highly calorific meals and charged extra for vegetables. Beefeater and Weatherspoons were rated in the top five, while Prezzo and Nando’s received poor rankings. Burger King was bottom of the table.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Jamie’s Italian tops nutritional ranking for children’s meals
 Our Out To Lunch 2022 campaign sent an army of “secret diner” parents out to assess the quality of food on offer at 16 UK visitor attractions.

We gathered the results and marked the attractions out of 100. We revealed how attractions are “slicing, dicing and ditching” children’s menus as they battle with rising ingredient costs and staff shortages.

Output: Jamie’s Italian and Strada have topped a league table produced by the Soil Association, which rates the nutritional value of children’s menus in UK restaurant chains. In conjunction with chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the environmental group found that progress had been achieved since its first ranking in 2013, with 13 chains including salad or vegetables with each meal and 12 using organic ingredients. However, some chains still served highly calorific meals and charged extra for vegetables. Beefeater and Weatherspoons were rated in the top five, while Prezzo and Nando’s received poor rankings. Burger King was bottom of the table.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Battery-grade lithium made from spodumene concentrate in Mali
 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – China-based lithium carbonate producer Shandong Ruifu Lithium has produced a high-quality, low-impurity and battery-grade lithium carbonate using spodumene concentrate from Aim-listed Kodal Minerals’ Bougouni project, in southern Mali.

The chemical analysis of the final lithium carbonate product shows low levels of impurities, supporting its positioning as a premium product compared with many other products in the market.

Earlier test work had demonstrated the ability to produce spodumene concentrates ranging between 5.5% and 6.7% lithium oxide from Bougouni samples through flotation treatment of reverse circulation drill chips.

“The test work completed previously had demonstrated good metallurgical recoveries producing a high-grade spodumene concentrate, and these test results now confirm that this spodumene can be converted to a final lithium carbonate product that will be a premium product compared with many others in the market,” Kodal CEO Bernard Aylward said in a statement on Monday.

He added that Kodal was maintaining a busy exploration and definition programme at Bougouni.

The programme includes the extraction of a 5 000 t bulk sample to be shipped to China for further testing and review of potential plant design parameters.

“Our exploration drilling and definition work is scheduled to begin as soon as possible after the rainy season, with a drill rig contracted to undertake a large-scale programme testing our advanced prospects, as well as several high-priority new prospects.”

Output: China-based lithium carbonate producer Shandong Ruifu Lithium said it produced a high-quality, low-impurity and battery-grade lithium carbonate using spodumene concentrate from Kodal Minerals’ Bougouni project in southern Mali. "The test work completed previously had demonstrated good metallurgical recoveries producing a high-grade spodumene concentrate, and these test results now confirm that this spodumene can be converted to a final lithium carbonate product that will be a premium product compared with many others in the market", said Kodal CEO Bernard Aylward.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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TriForce Tokens, Coventry University form gaming services tie-up
 About The Author

The writer of this post is a guest. Opinions in the article are solely of the writer and do not reflect The Merkle's view.

Output: UK blockchain gaming start-up TriForce Tokens has partnered with the commercial arm of Coventry University as it prepares to launch a cryptocurrency platform. The Coventry-based firm will hold an initial coin offering (ICO) next month with the aim of raising $40m, after a pre-sale on 14 October. The new token and the infrastructure being launched alongside it are intended to give independent games developers easier access to a range of features, helping them with player reach and retention, in-game purchasing, tournaments and peer rankings.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Retailing brands in India accuse Amazon of 'ambush marketing'
 Indian retailing brands Big Bazaar, Hyper-City, Star Bazaar, D-Mart, Walmart-owned Best Price Modern Wholesale, Big-Basket have accused Amazon of 'ambush marketing'.

As reported by Economic Times, retailers are now removing the items as they see this as a move by Amazon to acquire their customers. Packs of brands such as ITC’s Yippee Noodles, Nestle’s KitKat chocolate and Coca Cola’s Sprite and Fanta soft drinks are among the brands that are, or were, being retailed at offline stores along with Amazon gift coupons.

Kishore Biyani, founder of Future Group said: “We will not allow ambush marketing at any cost. We have started removing such products from the shelves and told brands not to supply us packs that have any promotional tie-up with a rival retailer.”

“The act of promoting a specific distribution channel through a cash incentive on products sold through traditional distribution is not good for the growth of the industry,” he said. “Small traders and retailers will be significantly impacted from a promotion, which is incentivising consumers to shop in a competing channel.”

D-Mart chief executive Neville Noronha referred Amazon's bundled coupon move as one “below the belt.” He said: “Principally, the brands should have spoken to us. Amazon is using us as a channel to acquire customers without any agreement with us. We’ve communicated our point of view to the brands.

An Amazon spokesperson said : “Amazon regularly runs various kinds of promotional activities with sellers and brand partners in keeping with its vision to make online commerce a part of everyday life."

Recently, Indian online companies form lobby to combat global rivals Amazon and Uber.

Output: Established Indian supermarkets have withdrawn a number of big name brands from their shelves, after accusing Amazon of "ambush marketing" to steal their customers. Amazon had bundled gift vouchers with packs of Nestle's KitKat chocolate and Coca Cola's Sprite and Fanta, among others. In response, retailers including Bazaar, D-Mart and Walmart's Best Price Modern Wholesale have returned the products and complained to the brands involved. D-Mart's CEO has described Amazon's move as an attempt to attract customers from within rivals' stores.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Australian payments firm Mint joins with PoS distributor Sektor
 Retail and mobile computing distributor Sektor has signed a five-year distribution agreement with payment processing technology provider Mint Payments.

The agreement will see Mint’s payment products integrated into new and existing point-of-sales (POS) solutions sold by Sektor.

“Sektor is a great partner for Mint and the agreement gives us immediate access to a large SME market in Australia,” Mint Payments chief executive Alex Teoh said.

“Sektor’s well-established network of vendors’ services millions of businesses in this space and it gives us the capacity to ramp up users of our payment solutions beyond current levels.”

Mint said that this agreement will further ramp up user numbers, which currently sits at around 16,000 with a compound annual growth rate of around 106 percent.

The agreement aims to open up Mint’s offerings further into the retail, hospitality and enterprise mobility markets in Australia.

“Sektor is excited to have a full POS and payment offering for our integrator partners to take to market,” Sektor chief executive Rhys Warren said.

“It’s relevant for them to now be involved in these solutions, it provides additional growth for these partners, and the Mint solution is delivering many new benefits for their merchant customers.”

Sektor will acquire all of Mint’s existing hardware and manage the logistics of the payment solutions distribution, while also providing support for Mint’s marketing and promotion.

Mint said it will explore new distribution partnerships in Asia as well.

Output: Payment processing technology firm Mint Payments is set to expand its presence in Australia's retail and hospitality markets after signing a five-year agreement with Sektor, a distributor of PoS products, such as barcode scanners and PoS terminals. Sektor will acquire all Mint's hardware, manage its distribution and provide the firm with marketing and promotional support. Mint is hoping to use the deal to make further inroads into the enterprise mobility market, which comprises business users of mobile devices, wireless networks and mobile computing services. Mint currently has around 16,000 users and is eyeing distribution partnerships in the Asian sector.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Nokia Technologies to turn focus away from VR to digital health
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Nokia has announced plans to “halt” development of its Ozo VR camera, citing “slower-than-expected” virtual reality adoption in the digital media realm.

It was back in July 2015 that Nokia first announced the Ozo VR camera, a device that sported eight synchronized shutter sensors and microphones for stereoscopic three-dimensional video. With a starting price of $60,000, the camera was aimed squarely at professional filmmakers, though the price later dropped to a more palatable $25,000.

Image Credit: Nokia

Although some major media companies — including Sony Pictures — did invest in the Ozo VR camera, it seems the adoption rate hasn’t been what Nokia had hoped for, and now it’s pulling the plug.

“In digital media, the slower-than-expected development of the VR market means that Nokia Technologies plans to reduce investments and focus more on technology licensing opportunities,” the company said in a statement.

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Evolving

Ever since offloading its mobile phone division to Microsoft for $7 billion in 2014, and selling its Here mapping unit to a handful of German carmakers, Nokia has essentially consisted of two units: Nokia Networks, a broadband network infrastructure business, and Nokia Technologies, a division that seeks to keep the Nokia brand alive in the consumer realm. This has included digital health devices via a $192 million Withings acquisition and the Ozo VR camera. It’s worth noting here that Nokia has also been licensing its brand name out to a new standalone company called HMD Global, which has been bringing a growing number of Nokia mobile phones to market.

Moving forward, Nokia said that it will increase its focus on digital health and brand and technology licensing, in addition to maintaining its existing patent licensing business, which it says “is not in scope of planned changes.” By way of example, Apple and Nokia recently ended a long-running legal spat when they signed a multi-year patent agreement — Nokia’s arsenal of intellectual property (IP) patents is clearly a big money-spinner for the company.

Though Nokia said it will “maintain its commitments” to existing Ozo VR customers — after all, if you’d doled out $60,000 for a device you would expect nothing less — the company did warn that halting work on the camera will mean staff cutbacks. Nokia Technologies employs 1,090 people in Finland, the U.S., and the U.K., and the company suggested that around a third of those jobs are now on the chopping block.

Today’s news comes just four months after Nokia Technologies nabbed Gregory Lee, Samsung North America’s CEO, as its new global president. At the time of the hire, Rajeev Suri, CEO and president of Nokia and chairman of Nokia Technologies, gave no indication that the company’s VR business was on its last legs. “Gregory’s passion for innovation and operational excellence, along with his proven ability to build and lead global consumer technology businesses, make him well suited to advance Nokia’s efforts in virtual reality, digital health, and beyond,” said Suri.

But it seems that four months is a long time in technology, and a lot can change. When it comes to VR, Nokia clearly believes the writing is on the wall, and it’s quite possible that the world isn’t ready to embrace VR as Nokia had hoped.

“Nokia Technologies is at a point where, with the right focus and investments, we can meaningfully grow our footprint in the digital health market, and we must seize that opportunity,” noted Lee. “While necessary, the changes will also affect our employees, and as a responsible company we are committed to providing the needed support to those affected.”

Output: Nokia Technologies is to abandon its Ozo virtual reality (VR) camera development programme and instead focus on digital health and licensing. The Ozo camera was aimed at professional film-makers and did generate investment from major companies, including Sony Pictures. Nokia said it's pulling the plug after slower-than-expected uptake of VR in the media industry. It stressed, however, it will maintain its commitments to existing customers.


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Lingerie brand Freya latest advertiser to get into podcasting
 Wacoal-owned lingerie brand Freya is the latest advertiser to hedge its bets on original podcasts, with the group’s top marketer in Europe saying the medium is something the Japanese company – which also owns Fantasie, Goddess and Elomi – might now invest in across its portfolio.

The brand's podcast, When Life Gives You Melons, is hosted by TV presenter and radio host Maya Jama and aimed at busy young women. The eight-part series was created by PR agency The Romans and is poised to run through to the festive period, featuring weekly chats with celebrity guests around issues affecting young women, which includes everything from “from career advice to boobs”.

Laura Simon, Wacoal’s chief marketing officer for Europe, said the decision to produce original content with the power to weave its way into women’s everyday lives was a no brainer given that Freya’s target demographic of 25 to 34-year-olds counts for around 40% of the UK's podcast audience.

“The conversations women are having with friends around dating, relationships and work are very powerful. So, it’s about finding our place in that culture and doing something that connects with our audience in a way that is different within the [lingerie] category," she told The Drum.

From Wonderbra’s famous 90s ‘Hello Boys’ billboards to Curvy Kate’s body positive-centric campaigns, lingerie marketing has witnessed a significant shift in recent years, and for Simon this progression is something the Wacoal, which turned around ¥203bn (£1.37bn) in net sales last year, is throwing its weight behind.

"It’s really important that we move away from the historical male gaze stuff and go into being in the narrative of people’s lives and create something relevant. That’s what the podcast does," continued Simon.

What's more, she said, podcasts are personal; listeners have to make a conscious choice to download or subscribe, making them an attractive buy for advertisers seeking an alternative to potentially off-putting online ads which interrupt user experiences.

“We have a loyal consumer, but we want to think about attracting younger fans and establishing a clear tone of voice for the brand with a podcast that reflects our consumers,” she added, saying she believed podcasts give brands a chance to be culturally relevant and resonate with potential shoppers in a fresh way.

Freya’s timely choice to double down on podcasts comes amid similar moves from brands like Jaguar Land Rover which has been experimenting with immersive story-driven podcasts and eBay which is on the second series of its Open for Business how-to style show.

In the UK, Rajar figures from last winter claim that podcasts reach 4.7 million UK adults, but the US is arguably ahead of the curve. Earlier this year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) unveiled its first "podcast playbook" for brands looking to capture US listeners' ears while research conducted by PwC estimates podcast ad revenues in the States are set to top $200m (£151m) this year alone, an 85% leap on the previous year.

Freya's content sits alongside the likes of S-Town and BBC Women’s Hour, only recognisable as a branded podcast by the publisher name. Simon said the aim is to keep the conversation as natural as possible with the only mentions of Freya bookmarking the podcast at the start, middle and end – as any other sponsor would typically do.

The wider Wacoal group has undergone something of a marketing remodel since Simon joined in 2016, and while it's too early to measure results of the Freya podcast trials, anecdotal feedback has so far has been positive, she said.

The first episode peaked in the top 20 in the UK podcast charts, with Simon saying that across the wider group is now mulling further investment in the medium.

Output: Japanese lingerie manufacturer Wacoal Group is considering using podcasts to promote its portfolio, following the success of its Freya brand's original content, When Life Gives You Melons. Laura Simon, Wacoal’s chief marketing officer for Europe, said the medium offered a chance to be "culturally relevant and resonate with potential shoppers", and move away from the "historical male gaze stuff". The group, which saw net sales of JPY203bn ($1.81bn) in 2016, also owns the Fantasie, Goddess and Elomi brands.


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Start-up takes full-page WSJ ad to tease Jamie Dimon over cryptos
 Jamie Dimon called bitcoin 'a fraud' in September. REUTERS/Jason Reed

A cryptocurrency company took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday to fire back at JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who in September called bitcoin "a fraud."

The ad, taken out by Eidoo, a cryptocurrency wallet company, said "Maybe Jamie will fire you. But you will be free to trade in the crypto world."

That's alluding to comments made by Dimon on September 12.

While speaking at a Barclays financial conference, Dimon bashed bitcoin saying it is in a bubble "worse than tulips bulbs." Dimon added that he would fire anyone at the bank for trading the red-hot cryptocurrency for being stupid.

Bitcoin is up more than 350% year-to-date.

A full page ad in The Wall Street Journal can cost as much as $354,823, a high price tag for most startups. But Eidoo, which provides an app for cryptocurrency investors to store their various coins and tokens, appears to have cash to spare. So far, it has raised more than 79,000 ether tokens in an initial coin offering, according to its website. That's worth roughly $23,700,000.

ICOs allow startups to raise money by issuing their own cryptocurrencies. Recently, ICOs have come under scrutiny from regulators because companies can use them to raise quick money without having to disclose substantive information to investors.

They've become a darling of blockchain and cryptocurrency startups looking to raise cash without having to go through the traditional avenues of venture capital or an initial public offering.

Here's a picture of the ad:

Output: Swiss cryptocurrency wallet firm Eidoo has poked fun at JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon by taking out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, which said: "Maybe Jamie will fire you. But you will be free to trade in the crypto world". The ad followed a recent comment by Dimon when he dubbed cryptocurrencies "worse than tulip bulbs" and threatened to fire any bank employees trading them. Eidoo recently raised $23.7m in an initial coin offering, while bitcoin's value has risen by more than 350% this year.


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UK landlords would refuse tenants based on court, credit history
 Almost half of landlords in the UK would refuse to let to a new tenant with a poor credit score despite in depth credit checks not forming a part of the usual application process.

Some 46% said that they put weight behind credit history and 48% said they would refuse to take on a tenant with a county court judgement in the past while 42% would reject an application from a prospective tenant with past insolvency issues.

The research from tenant referencing and insurance agency Landlord Secure also shows that applicants with existing debts like credit cards or loans would raise red flags for 30% of landlords, while those in receipt of housing benefits would struggle to be accepted by 19% of landlords and those on universal credit would fail against 16% of landlords.

Although rent payment history does not form part of credit checks, there are increasing calls within the sector for this to become the norm, so those in rental properties can build a credit score based on regular and timely payments and have access to the same advantages as those with a mortgage.

The research report points out that usually letting agencies rely heavily on publicly available information like county court judgements or declarations of bankruptcy, which can give some insight into a person’s previous financial footprint, but not the full picture of their current situation.

The firm says that the fact that landlords would put so much weight behind credit scores suggests the market needs to make this comprehensive check a normal part of the application process.

‘Those in rental properties are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to building a credit rating because paying rent on time doesn’t count towards this score,’ said Steve Burrows, managing director at Landlord Secure and LateRent.

‘Given that landlords would put more weight behind a tenant’s credit score, those in rental properties should be given the chance to build a better credit score based on their history of paying rent on time,’ he added.

Landlord Secure has recently launched LateRent that allows landlords to report payment history to credit reference agencies, enabling them to carry out robust affordability assessments on potential tenants. It also allows tenants who pay on time to build up a good credit history.

Output: Almost half of UK landlords would reject a tenant with a previous county court judgement and a similar proportion said a poor credit history would be enough for them to reject an applicant. Research by tenant referencing and insurance agency Landlord Secure also found almost one-third of landlords would be troubled by tenants with debts such as credit cards or loans. Landlord Secure, which recently launched a tool enabling property owners to flag up payment histories to credit reference agencies, said the study results suggest a comprehensive credit check should form part of the tenant-application process.


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Mastercard opens fintech innovation lab in India
 PUNE: Mastercard today announced the launch of its first Lab in India, which will work with partners in the fintech industry to identify and experiment with future technologies. Mastercard Labs , which has been set up in Pune, is the ninth such lab for the company globally, and the second in the Asia Pacific region.In a statement, the company said that Mastercard Labs will work with financial institutions and merchant partners and the fintech community to identify and experiment with future technologies in a few key areas including digital payments, data solutions, financial inclusion, alternative payments and safety and security. The Lab will also support and work with startups developing next generation, breakthrough commerce solutions through Mastercard’s Start Path program.“Learning, innovation, and collaboration cannot exist in isolation. The launch of the first Mastercard Labs in India is evidence of our commitment to designing solutions that drive commerce and create more inclusive societies around the world,” said Ken Moore, executive vice president, Mastercard Labs. By bringing together a team of passionate individuals from diverse cultures and disciplines, we seek to further accelerate and enhance our ability to launch innovations that help us improve the lives of everyday Indians and help them move closer to our vision of a world beyond cash.”The lab will drive innovation for Mastercard in India, through collaboration and co-creation with academia, fintech experts, technologists and developers based in India. It will identify and experiment with future technologies and drive new concepts and innovations through incubation, proof of concept, pilot and commercialization, in order to deliver additional value to consumers and businesses of India.“The Mastercard Labs in India provides a significant opportunity to highlight the country’s standing as a world-class innovation hub, renowned for its entrepreneurial spirit and growing pool of science, technology, engineering and mathematics talent,” said Tobias Puehse, Vice President, Mastercard Labs, Asia Pacific. “By establishing the new lab in Pune, we are looking to deepen our active collaborations with governments, issuers and businesses in India and revolutionize the market’s digital payments ecosystem to drive greater acceptance and adoption of electronic payments, not just in India but around the world.”Mastercard Labs is the latest in a series of collaborations the company has undertaken this year. It has worked with the National Payments Corporation of India ( NPCI ) and other payments brands to develop Bharat QR, the world’s first interoperable Quick Response (QR) code acceptance solution, as part of a national push to streamline local electronic payments infrastructure.

Output: Mastercard has opened an innovation lab in Pune, India, its second in the Asia-Pacific region and ninth globally. The lab will collaborate with fintech firms, merchant partners and financial institutions to develop technologies covering digital payments, data solutions, financial inclusion, alternative payments and safety and security. The lab also aims to support start-ups working on next-generation technologies via Mastercard’s Start Path programme.


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Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com experience above-average growth
 Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com continue to outperform retailers worldwide, with the three e-commerce giants experiencing an average revenue growth rate of 30% in 2016, compared with a 4.3% average growth rate for retailers worldwide.

Amazon is the number one retailer globally but Chinese ecommerce giants are hot on its heels

A report from eMarketer, using data from UK-based OC&C Strategy Consultants, revealed the top ten retailers worldwide ranked by the increase in sales in 2016.

Output: Online retail giants Amazon, JD.com and Alibaba are significantly outperforming their global rivals in the industry. While the average growth rate for retailers worldwide in 2016 stood at just 4.3%, Amazon's sales surged by 27%, adding £23.5bn ($31bn) to its revenue. JD.com and Alibaba exceeded even that, recording increases of 41% and 33% respectively, although they posted smaller cash totals. These companies, both based in China, are also investing in physical stores across the country.


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Copycat adblocker app downloaded by 37,000 people
 If you use Adblock Plus with Chrome and downloaded the extension pretty recently, you may want to check what you've installed. Apparently, a fake Adblock Plus extension made it through Google's verification process and lived in the official Chrome Web Store alongside the real one. Google has taken down the phony listing after SwiftOnSecurity tweeted about it and put the company on blast, but by then, it has already been up long enough to fool 37,000 people. That's a drop in the bucket for a service that has 10 million users, but it sounds like trouble for those who were unlucky enough to download it.

Google allows 37,000 Chrome users to be tricked with a fake extension by fraudulent developer who clones popular name and spams keywords. pic.twitter.com/ZtY5WpSgLt — SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) October 9, 2017

Legitimate developers just have to sit back and watch as Google smears them with fake extensions that steal their good name pic.twitter.com/3Tnv4NtY9t — SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) October 9, 2017

I'm being mean to Google because there's no way their Chrome team is happy with this extension vetting/moderation situation. — SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) October 9, 2017

SwiftOnSecurity says the fake extension was created by a "fraudulent developer who clones popular name and spams keywords." Indeed, it's pretty hard to tell that it's fake, since its developer's name is "Adblock Plus," and it has a considerable number of reviews.

According to one of the fake Adblock's reviewers, he started getting invasive ads that open lots of tabs after he installed it. Unfortunately, it's unclear what else it can do or if it has even more detrimental effects that we still don't know of. We asked Google if it has unearthed anything about the fraudulent extension, but even if we never hear back, it may be best to re-install Adblock Plus if you notice getting random ads after downloading it.

Output: A copycat version of Chrome's AdBlock Plus has been downloaded by 37,000 people. Google removed the fraudulent extension from the Chrome Web Store after SwiftOnSecurity tweeted about it, but thousands had already been tricked by the phoney listing. Users are advised to re-install Adblock Plus if they notice random ads after downloading it.