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Protein at all 3 meals may help preserve seniors' strength
 (HealthDay)—Eating protein at all three daily meals, instead of just at dinner, might help seniors preserve physical strength as they age, new research suggests.

The Canadian study found that protein-rich meals evenly spread throughout the day staved off muscle decline, but did not increase mobility, in older people.

Study co-author Stephanie Chevalier said, for seniors, "The important point is to create three meal occasions with sufficient protein to stimulate muscle building and greater strength, instead of just one."

Chevalier is an assistant professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal.

The functional decline associated with aging often leads to falls, mental impairment and loss of independence. Chevalier's team wondered if more evenly distributed protein consumption might be tied to better physical performance and a reduced rate of decline.

To find out, they tracked more than 1,700 relatively healthy Quebec men and women, aged 67 to 84, who were all enrolled in a three-year study.

The participants provided dietary information and underwent yearly hand, arm, and leg strength testing. They were also tested for mobility.

Over the three years, the researchers found that both men and women saw their overall physical performance worsen, with muscle strength fading more significantly than mobility.

But those who consumed protein more evenly throughout the day appeared to retain greater muscle strength—though not greater mobility—than those who consumed most of their protein late in the day.

However, Chevalier stressed the researchers only observed an association between protein distribution and muscle strength, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

"In other words, we cannot conclude that older people had greater strength because they were ingesting protein evenly distributed at every meal," she said.

Establishing direct proof would require more research, she said.

Still, the study finding held up regardless of the total amount of protein consumed, she noted.

Prior research has indicated that adults of all ages should consume a minimum of 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. (To convert pounds to kilograms, divide your body weight by 2.2.)

For a 155-pound man, that would add up to about three ounces of protein a day, Chevalier said. Spread across breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would mean about one ounce of protein at each meal. A 130-pound woman would require a little less than one ounce per meal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Dietary Guidelines call for those over age 50 to consume 5 to 7 ounces of protein foods daily.

In general, one ounce of meat, poultry or fish or one egg or one tablespoon of peanut butter, one-quarter cup of cooked beans or one-half ounce of nuts or seeds qualify as an ounce of protein, according to the USDA.

An outside nutrition expert offered one explanation why the new findings might work.

"Muscle protein is constantly being broken down and built back up. We need protein in our diet daily to make this happen," explained Lona Sandon, a dietetic educator.

That's true at any age, but in late life muscle protein tends to break down faster than it builds up, added Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Also, research has shown older adults require a higher amount of protein, she said.

"Eating protein throughout the day seems to be a means to stay in a positive protein balance longer than just eating most of your protein for the day in the evening meal," said Sandon.

Sandon said distributing protein intake evenly throughout the day is likely beneficial to everyone, young and old.

Much of the research in this area stems from sports nutrition studies, she added. "This research has also shown a benefit to spreading protein throughout meals over the day for increased muscle mass and strength benefits in active individuals and adults," she added.

However, she cautioned that eating protein alone is not an anti-aging silver bullet.

"You can't just eat a steak and suddenly have bulging biceps," she said, noting the need for some level of physical activity or resistance training as well.

The study was published in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

More information: Stephanie Chevalier, R.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, department of medicine, McGill University, and associate member, school of human nutrition, MUHC-Research Institute, Montreal, Canada; Lona Sandon, Ph.D., RDN, LD, program director and assistant professor, department of clinical nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; July 2017 The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition There's more on seniors and nutrition at U.S. NIH Senior Health. Journal information: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Output: Eating protein at all three daily meals, instead of just at dinner, might help seniors preserve physical strength as they age, new research suggests. The Canadian study found that protein-rich meals evenly spread throughout the day staved off muscle decline, but did not increase mobility, in older people.


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eazyScripts gets $2M to help telemedicine providers e-prescribe
 Chicago-based eazyScripts, a provider of e-prescribing software for telemedicine, has completed $2 million in Series A financing through private equity firm Bluff Point Associates.

The company’s e-prescribing solution was built to address the specific needs of telemedicine providers, aiming for a user experience that’s fast and efficient. EazyScripts said its clients are saving time, increasing patient volume and improving patient and provider satisfaction.

Its user interface, striving for modernity, enables providers to begin using it without any training, and it’s adaptable to a provider’s preferences, running on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Providers can send an electronic prescription in a matter of seconds, the idea being that they can put a greater focus on patients’ health outcomes. EazyScripts also offers secure electronic prior authorization and medication adherence options

“This will be my second opportunity to work with Bluff Point Associates. We are very pleased that they believe in our growth potential as much as we do,” said Reed Liggin, eazyScripts’ CEO, in a statement. “We see tremendous interest and excitement among telemedicine providers for our e-prescribing platform. The availability of this funding will allow us to capitalize on market opportunities, and rapidly move forward with our product enhancement strategy.”

As part of the transaction, Bluff Point Associates Managing Director Kevin Fahey will join the eazyScripts Technology Board of Directors.

“Having worked with Reed Liggin during the funding and acquisition of his former company, RazorInsights, we are confident that his leadership will be instrumental in the future success of eazyScripts,” said Fahey in a statement. “We are very excited about this partnership and believe that eazyScripts is well positioned for tremendous growth and taking e-prescribing to the next level.”

Bluff Point Associates is a private equity firm based in Westport, Connecticut. It actively invests in the healthcare information services sector, as well as information services companies supporting the banking, trust, securities, retirement and wealth management sectors of the financial services industry

Output: Chicago-based eazyScripts, a provider of e-prescribing software for telemedicine, has completed $2 million in Series A financing through private equity firm Bluff Point Associates. The company’s e-prescribing solution was built to address the specific needs of telemedicine providers, aiming for a user experience that’s fast and efficient.


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The future of U.S. caregiving: High demand, scarce workers
 By Mark Miller

CHICAGO (Reuters) - If you are hovering around retirement age today, you will be closing in on your eighties in the year 2030. With any luck, you will be healthy and mobile - but imagine for a moment that you are not. Let's say a debilitating illness requires that you receive care in a nursing home.

It is an unsettling future to imagine. But now ask yourself this - who will take care of you? The United States is headed toward a severe shortage of caregivers - paid and unpaid - in the decades ahead, according to human resources expert Paul Osterman. A professor of human resources and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Osterman is the author of a new book, "Who Will Care for Us: Long-term Care and the Long-Term Workforce" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2017), which examines trends in the labor force market for caregivers.

His conclusion? “It’s an absolute train wreck waiting to happen.”

Our aging population will push up demand, although Osterman notes that roughly half of demand for care will come from younger, disabled people.

He examines the projected rising demand for care in the coming decades, and then matches up the demand side with trends in the labor force for paid certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and home care workers, including the availability of unpaid family and friends - the most common source of care for many people.

He finds that in 2030 there will be a national shortage of 151,000 paid direct care workers and 3.8 million unpaid family caregivers. By 2040, the shortfall will be much larger: 355,000 paid workers, and the family and friends shortfall will be a shocking 11 million.

"These are conservative estimates,” Osterman said in an interview. “They assume no changes in immigration policies, and that family members will be willing to provide care at the same rate they do today - that’s not likely, due to smaller families and more geographic dispersion.” If family caregivers become more scarce, that can only put further pressure on demand for paid care.

DAMAGING IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration in the United States will only worsen the situation. In 2015, 18 percent of CNAs and 27 percent of home care aides were immigrants, Osterman estimated, citing Census data. Among immigrant home aides, 24 percent each come from Central America and Asia, 23 percent come from the Caribbean and 10 percent are from Africa.

But he cautions that the impact of a shrinking immigrant labor pool will be uneven, due to the huge variation in immigration patterns among the states. “New York and California have very large immigrant populations, but it would probably have very little impact in a state like Ohio,” he said.

The highest percentages of home care aides who are immigrants are found in New York (64 percent), New Jersey (47 percent) California (46 percent), Florida (38 percent) and Texas (22 percent). By contrast, just 8 percent of the home care aide workforce in Ohio are immigrants; in Georgia, the figure is 12 percent.

Osterman also does not believe a crackdown on undocumented workers would affect the caregiving labor market much. Young men make up a very large part of the undocumented population and nationally, nearly 90 percent of direct care workers are female. “Undocumented workers as a group are unlikely to be a dominant source of labor for these jobs,” he said.

Caregivers earn very low wages - median income for CNAs in 2015 was $20,000, and home care aides earned a median of $15,000, according to Census data. Normally, a labor shortage would resolve itself by putting upward pressure on wages - which would bring more workers into the field. But in this case, the impact on wages - and the caregiving shortage - will be uneven, Osterman said.

Two-thirds of long-term care in the United States is funded by the federal Medicaid program, with the remainder paid through private commercial insurance or out of pocket. Medicaid payment policies vary widely among the states, but Osterman worries that in many states, care facilities funded by cash-strapped Medicaid programs will not be able to boost wages.

"It’s difficult for wages to rise because they are set bureaucratically according to Medicaid reimbursement rates,” he said. Meanwhile, wages in the high-end private payer market will rise, with a corresponding impact on the cost of care and insurance.

Osterman’s book is not completely doom and gloom. He holds out hope that we can attract more workers to caregiving by making the occupation more attractive. One needed change, he said, is attitudinal. Many key actors in the profession - doctors, hospitals, regulators, legislators and insurance companies - simply do not demonstrate respect for direct care workers, which is an obstacle to improving the job.

The second challenge, he writes, is the complexity of our care delivery system and its financing mechanisms, both of which make reforms difficult to implement.

Osterman also argues for restructuring the roles of caregivers. Currently, new caregiving workers receive only about two weeks of job training; expanding that could open the door to broader responsibilities.

"In some states, a caregiver can’t administer eye drops, or help with wound care,” he said. He thinks caregiving workers could be trained to help with responsibilities like physical therapy, or coaching people with diabetes on eating and exercise.

That could attract more workers, he thinks, and save money in the healthcare system by shifting tasks away from higher-paid workers such as nurses.

“The point of my book is not to be nice,” he said. “It’s really a financial case for doing this, and an argument for an important social policy.”

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Output: If you are hovering around retirement age today, you will be closing in on your eighties in the year 2030. With any luck, you will be healthy and mobile - but imagine for a moment that you are not. Let's say a debilitating illness requires that you receive care in a nursing home.


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Regus Regus' Spaces to open new Arlington, Virginia location in November
 Camps are just the beginning of what’s in store at Art House 7 this summer. We’re thrilled to offer an array of exciting classes for both kids and adults!Rediscover your creativity with some of our AH7 favorites, such as drawing, hand-sewing, modern embroidery, and our popular 3-week Jump into Crochet classes. But that’s not all! We’ve added some fresh and exciting options to our summer class selection, guaranteed to spark your imagination.

To enhance your artistic journey, we have intensified some of our Ceramics: The Wheel classes to a full 3-hour duration. This extended time allows for more creativity and skill development in each class session. If you’re eager for a captivating twist, give Contemporary Still-Life Drawing & Painting a go. Or why not try an immersive outdoor painting adventure? We have a unique opportunity for you to bring your painting skills to life while learning and creating in the great outdoors with our Landscape Painting: Studio and Plein Air class!

We invite you to visit our website and explore our full Summer Session schedule, brimming with a diverse range of classes and camps. Classes and camps begin June 20th. Unleash your inner artist, broaden your horizons, and embark on a summer adventure like no other. Let’s make this a summer to remember at Art House 7!

Output: Regus plans to open its Spaces concept, which targets tech firms, in the former Artisphere in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia this November. The firm agreed to terms on 45,000 sq ft of space at the 1101 Wilson Boulevard site owned by Monday Properties last August. The location is expected to feature 22,000 sq ft of office space, plus an event space, outdoor patio and gym. Spaces also opened a large co-working space in D.C.’s Uline Arena in April.


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Takaful premium growth slows as oil slump affects Gulf states
 Growth in gross premiums in the Islamic (takaful and Islamic cooperative tawuni) insurance sector in the GCC slowed significantly to less than 1% in 2016, according to a report published yesterday by S&P Global Ratings.

Output: Declining oil revenues have contributed to a slowdown in premium growth of takaful, or Islamic insurance, in the Gulf states to less than 1% last year. The drop from as much as 20% annual growth in previous years is also attributed to a plateauing of pricing, according to S&P Global Ratings. Although earnings were higher for the insurers, S&P warns profits were unevenly spread across the sector and that the capital and credit strengths of some companies have been eroded.


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Rimmel eyeliner campaign uses Facebook AR app
 Cosmetics maker Rimmel London experimented with augmented reality in June 2016 when it let users virtually try on makeup using an app. Now, Rimmel is hoping to widen the audience for the same idea using Facebook Stories.

On Wednesday, the Coty-owned brand launched interactive filters on Facebook’s new Camera Effects platform. In Facebook’s in-app camera, users say “wow” to cycle through four different Rimmel eyeliner looks on their faces. They can then take a photo of their favorite style and share it to Facebook Stories.

It’s been hard to get people to use AR via apps because there’s a high bar to getting people to download a new app, but the hope is that with Facebook, it will reach a wider audience. “This is allowing us to take a lot of the learnings we had with the app-based model and make it more scalable,” said Fred Gerantabee, global vp of digital innovation at Coty.

Rimmel wouldn’t say how many users have downloaded the free “Get the Look” app, but according to the Apple App Store, only 15 people have rated it, not enough for the store to display an average.

Developers can use Facebook’s AR Studio to create custom effects at no charge, which is also cheaper than building an app. Gerantabee said on Snapchat, meanwhile, similar filters “are notoriously expensive and usually run for one or two days, or a week at best.”

Rimmel is one of the early adaptors of Facebook’s AR technology. At Facebook’s annual F8 Developer Conference in April, Facebook announced it would share its Camera Effects API with a closed beta group of developers. U.K.-based augmented reality agency Holition, which worked with Rimmel to develop the try-on effects, was one of the developers invited to be part of the beta group.

It’s unclear when Facebook will open the beta group to others and begin monetizing the technology. “These tools are still in the early days, so we will work to optimize both the Camera and the Camera Effects Platform for people first,” said a Facebook spokesman. “In the future, if appropriate, we will consider paid ways for businesses to participate.”

Other brands such as soccer club Manchester United, game developer EA, Nike and Rimmel’s sister brand Gucci have experimented with the AR effects. Nike used the technology to overlay a sweatband on a user’s head and pull in a map of their running route.

“It’s always a risk to introduce something new,” said Gerantabee. “But the great thing about playing in platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and even Snapchat, is that you are adding functionality to things people are already using.”

Output: Cosmetics brand Rimmel London has launched interactive filters on Facebook’s new Camera Effects platform in its latest foray into augmented reality (AR), following a June 2016 campaign. Using the same technology behind Rimmel’s Get the Look app, Facebook users say "wow" before having four different Rimmel eyeliner looks superimposed on their faces. Rimmel is hoping to reach a wider audience with the Facebook campaign than its Get the Look app, which has not been reviewed enough times to be given an average, according to Apple's App Store.


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Nesa plans to raise ZAR85m for South African solar projects
 The NIH fund invests in a portfolio of commercial rooftop solar energy projects.

Nesa Investment Holdings (NIH) has opened its second capital raising round, providing investors with an opportunity to invest in SA's renewable energy sector.

The fund invests in a portfolio of commercial rooftop solar energy projects and related technologies, and earns revenue through operating, renting and maintaining these projects to its clients.

NIH says the initial round of capital raising in the first quarter of 2017 quickly yielded R10.5 million, 65% of which has been invested successfully in projects currently under way.

NIH is a 12J venture capital company co-managed by Nesa Capital and CreoVision. It was established in the first quarter of 2017 as a vehicle for providing innovative funding of rooftop solar photovoltaic (solar PV) projects on commercial and industrial buildings.

The venture capital company says it has an additional qualified investment pipeline of R40 million, of which it has received R20 million in letters of intent or term sheets from clients requesting funding for their solar projects.

It expects to raise a further R85 million in the third quarter of 2017, due to the growing demand for the technology in the market.

Peter Frolich, director of NIH, says modern solar technology has advanced in leaps and bounds. "Increases in production outputs and costs efficiencies mean industries, households and ultimately countries will be powered by the sun in the not-too-distant future.

"As finite fossil fuels become depleted, installed solar capacity can provide an alternative and clean energy source and alleviate the burden on already strained installed power grids around the world."

He points out that SA's power grid is especially strained, with its growing population and rising energy costs.

According to Frolich, costs of solar PV projects are dependent on the size of the installation, but can cost anywhere between R500 000 to approximately R50 million.

"As SA is still in the early adoption phase of solar PV and the sector still relatively unregulated, the market is finding its feet and gradually trusting the technology. Clients are looking for performance assurances to mitigate their risks when investing in a solar system," Frolich says.

"There is no shortage of demand for projects in the market as developers recognise the numerous benefits of energy harnessed by solar PV. However, not every project is a viable investment, and the NIH team's strict appraisal process of investigating financial, engineering and sustainability elements determines whether or not to proceed with offering funding."

Describing the investment strategy, Frolich says NIH invests in small-scale embedded renewable energy projects. Income is generated through the operation, maintenance, renting and/or sale of power generated to underlying clients.

He points out the typical rental term is between five and 15 years, but the client has the option at any time to buy the system outright. The rental fee is structured so that it is equal to or lower than the savings generated from the solar system.

Investors of the fund are allocated shares that receive dividends derived from the rental income generated by NIH's portfolio.

"A transition from coal-powered energy production to renewable energy is critical to the sustainability of the South African energy grid, and the environment. National power utility Eskom is currently installing additional power capacity, but new and sustainable energy sources are key to reduce operational costs and facilitate growth," Frolich concludes.

Output: South Africa's Nesa Investment Holdings (NIH) expects to raise ZAR85m ($6.4m) in the third quarter after raising ZAR10m in Q1, 65% of which has been deployed in solar projects currently underway. NIH invests in commercial rooftop solar energy projects and related technologies, and has a qualified investment pipeline of ZAR40m, including ZAR20m in letters of intent or term sheets from clients.


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No hack no payment: court backs refusal to pay for email scam
 A tool and die manufacturer that lost $800,000 when it fell victim to “spoofing” emails cannot recover under the computer fraud provision of its insurance policy because it was not a “direct” loss “directly caused” by the use of any computer, says a federal court ruling.

On March 18, 2015, the vice president of Grass Lake Michigan-based American Tooling Center Inc. sent an email to one of the company’s vendors requesting copies of all outstanding invoices, according to Tuesday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in American Tooling Center Inc. v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America.

The vice president received emails purportedly from the vendor instructing ATC to send payment for several legitimate outstanding invoices to a new bank account, according to the ruling.

Without verifying the new banking instructions, ATC wire-transferred about $800,000 to a bank account that was not, in fact, controlled by the vendor.

But by the time the fraud was detected, the funds had been transferred, and the wire transfers could not be retracted. ATC eventually paid the vendor about $400,000, according to the ruling.

ATC filed a claim with its insurer, Hartford-based Travelers, which denied coverage on the basis the loss was not a “direct loss” that was “directly caused by the use of a computer” as required by the policy.

ATC filed suit seeking coverage. The District Court agreed with the insurer. Intervening events “between ATC’s receipt of the fraudulent emails and the transfer of funds (ATC verified production milestones, authorized its transfers and initiated the transfers without verifying bank account information) preclude a finding of ‘direct’ loss ‘directly caused’ by the use of any computer,” said the ruling.

“There was no infiltration or ‘hacking’ of ATC’s computer system,” said the ruling, also. “The emails themselves did not directly cause the transfer of funds; rather, ATC authorized the transfer based upon the information received in the emails,” said the ruling, in granting Travelers summary judgment dismissing the case.

Output: A court has ruled in favour of insurer, Travelers, after it refused to pay a claim to a company that was stung by a spoof email scam. American Tooling Center was lured into transferring $800,000 to the scammers' bank account in the belief it was paying legitimate bills to a vendor. The company sued Travelers after the insurer baulked on the grounds that ATC didn't suffer a “direct loss” that was “directly caused by the use of a computer”, and couldn't be treated as the victim of computer fraud. The court agreed, saying ATC had not been hacked.


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Indian state urged to launch newborn insurance
 KOCHI :Since most insurance companies in the country do not have products tailored for child healthcare, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), Kerala chapter, has submitted a proposal to the state government to introduce a scheme for newborns till they reach the age of one.:“We have submitted the proposal and government is considering it. This will help if any congenital disease is detected in newborns,“ said Dr MN Venkiteswaran, president, IAP , Kerala chapter. The state chapter had in the past tied up with United India Insurance Company Ltd to provide medical insurance to a child till the age of one but it failed to get a good response.Children do get cover under the family insurance scheme but the numbers are less. “Just about six per cent children admitted in our hospital have any type of medical insurance,“ said Sanjeev Singh, medical superintendent, AIMS.“Once speciality hospitals for children register a growth in the state, we can start a conversation with insurance companies to introduce customised products for children,“ said Dr Harish Pillai, CEO, Aster Medcity. KIMS Hospital said they have introduced insurance scheme for newborns.

Output: The government in the Indian state of Kerala has been urged to provide a healthcare insurance policy for babies up to the age of one. The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) made the proposal to cover a shortfall in childcare provisions contained in commercial insurance plans. The IAP said that a tiny proportion of children admitted to hospital in the state were covered under any policy, and added that if adopted the proposal may eventually stimulate insurance companies into providing childcare products.


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Brands that object to being sold on Amazon have few options
 Whether a retailer wants its products to be sold on Amazon or not, the brand will most likely end up being listed on the platform by third-party sellers. Those independent vendors — which are typically unauthorized by brands — are becoming a headache for many retailers.

In late July, Amazon reportedly contacted thousands of third-party vendors about participating in its Fulfillment by Amazon program, in which Amazon would buy their inventory at full price and then sell those products on its site. The move incensed Birkenstock CEO David Kahan, who wrote in a letter to Birkenstock retailers that the company prohibits its retail partners from reselling even a single pair of Birkenstock sandals on Amazon.

“I have never in my 25+ years in this industry ever heard of a retailer on such a scale as Amazon, actively soliciting other retailers for a brand’s inventory in the case of such brand not choosing to sell them,” Kahan wrote.

Despite Birkenstock’s efforts, its sandals are still sold on Amazon today. And that’s the case for many brands that don’t want to be sold on Amazon. If a product is in high demand, Amazon will get it from distributors and third-party sellers, said Matt Sargent, svp of retail for consulting firm Magid Associates. The best thing for brands to do might be to work with Amazon to limit their risk.

Since Amazon seems to get its way, not working with the retail giant is risky because it means retailers have no recourse if a third-party seller provides a low-quality image or an erroneous product description of the brand on Amazon, according to Eric Heller, founder of retail agency Marketplace Ignition, and James Thomson, partner of Amazon account management firm Buy Box Experts and former head of Amazon Services.

So a brand should at least participate in Brand Registry — in which a company can register as the sole brand owner on Amazon and submit the proper product information for each item — to make sure product images and descriptions are accurate, they said.

Brand Registry has its limits, though.

“The root cause of the Amazon problem is a brand’s distribution problem,” said Thomson. “At most companies, their director of e-commerce and director of sales are competing with each other. Brands should control their overall distribution strategy, and Amazon is just a byproduct.”

For the first six months of this year, third-party sellers accounted for over half of the items Amazon was selling. Last year, Amazon generated nearly $23 billion in third-party seller service revenues, compared to $16 billion a year prior, according to Statista.

Those third-party sellers are enrolled in Amazon Marketplace (where members use the Seller Central portal), and they can participate in Fulfilled by Merchant or FBA. Most third-party sellers would choose the latter because Amazon handles the shipping on their behalf and FBA members are Prime-eligible (items are designated on the product page and at checkout with the Prime logo) by default, according to Heller.

Marketplace lets Amazon expand its assortment and outsource merchandising while small retailers get high visibility on the platform, Sargent said.

Amazon Marketplace makes it harder for brands to manage their product distribution. For instance, Nike decided in June to directly sell a limited product assortment on Amazon because third-party sellers were listing Nike on Amazon anyway, including fakes. Hair color brand Madison Reed, on the other hand, limited sales of its products to its own site, QVC, Sephora and Ulta, but it’s now available on Amazon because of third-party sellers. Amazon started rolling out a brand gating program in August 2016 to prohibit third-party merchants from selling certain established brands like Microsoft and Burberry, but companies not on the list still suffer due to unauthorized sellers.

A brand cannot run a test buy to see where the warehouse of a third-party seller is because if the seller uses FBA, Amazon handles the shipping, according to Thomson.

“It’s almost impossible for brands to get away with Amazon because everyone can set up an account as a third-party seller and disguise their identity,” he said. “If a brand only sells in its own stores, it may be able to control the distribution. But what if I divert products? I can go to Seller Central and resell the item, or if I’m a professional product diverter [someone who acquires products at scale outside of authorized distributors], I will use the new Vendor Express program.”

Output: Brands that refuse to allow their products to be sold directly by Amazon should join it anyway or run the risk of their inventory being sold on Amazon via third parties, according to industry insiders. Registering with the Brand Registry offers a partial solution as it ensures product images and descriptions are accurate, but Amazon's control of product distribution through Amazon Marketplace makes it harder for brands to manage stock. During the first half of this year third party sellers accounted for more than half the items available on Amazon.


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Africa Renewable Energy Initiative rows with major donors
 Enabled by Asoko Insight’s proprietary datasets and broad in-country research footprint, we deliver hard data, in depth-analysis and written reporting to answer your research needs.

Asoko’s Digital Engagement solution addresses the challenge by combining Asoko’s deep data-set on African companies, its strong brand recognition among African executives and its best-in-class digital engagement infrastructure.

Compliance Support

Asoko Insight can support your compliance information needs in 25+ African countries. Whether it is the straightforward and rapid acquisition of transcripts and scans of official documents or doing a deep report on Ultimate Beneficial Ownership.

Output: Civil society organisations from 25 African countries have accused the European Commission and France of gaining "premature, undue approval of their [electricity] projects" via the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI). They also accuse AREI of moving away from its principles of "sustainable development, enhanced wellbeing and sound economic development" and the board of directors has come under fire for a lack of transparency. The initiative aims to bring clean energy to Africa, with the first phase, aiming at 10,000 MW of power, due to begin this year. The organisations also object to the EU and France pushing to be on AREI's board.


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Group Nine Media wins more views by showing fewer viral videos
 Since publishers are at the mercy of algorithms when it comes to making articles and videos catch fire, Group Nine Media has focused on limiting its duds rather than trying to make videos go viral.

Viral videos used to be a bigger part of Group Nine’s views. In June 2016, videos with more than 10 million views drove 37 percent of the publisher’s total social video views, according to Tubular Labs. This past June, that percent was down to 19 percent of its total social video views.

Since reducing its reliance on viral hits, monthly video views have gone up year over year by 59 percent to 4.6 billion in June, per Tubular. In the same period, the number of videos it published per month increased 34 percent, to 2,670.

While Group Nine — a holding company that includes digital publishers Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker — formed in October, its brands existed before, so these statistics compare like properties. The company’s social video views have quickly grown. In 2014, the properties it now owns had just a few a million video views per month, said Ashish Patel, svp of audience development and insights at Group Nine, but the company’s thinking is that its current approach is more sustainable.

“You generally don’t want to pore over your mistakes; you want to psychologically brush them under the rug and move on,” Patel said. “But viral hits are out of our control, and it’s more clear what we can do to eliminate [poorly] performing content.”

Group Nine increased the views on its less popular videos by testing multiple versions of the same video, Patel said. It found that videos of talking heads needed lots of text to keep users interested, while videos with more interesting visual imagery performed worse with added text.

It also discovered that unless the camera angles alternate at the beginning of a video, mobile users quickly click out of videos featuring a person speaking directly to the camera, Patel said. That’s why, as seen in this video featuring former Vice President Al Gore, the camera angle frequently changes to keep users’ attention.

Another tactic that helps prevent users from exiting a video of a person speaking is to split the screen with another image. The videos below are essentially identical, but the first video starts with a split-screen image, while the second video shows just a single image. Juxtaposing two images for just a few seconds at the start of the video increased views by 36 percent.

Group Nine is becoming less beholden to viral videos at a time when going viral has lost some of its appeal. Viral publishers like Upworthy and Distractify, which relied heavily on social platforms, were left exposed after algorithm changes led to inconsistent traffic. Elite Daily’s parent company wrote down the entirety of its investment in the millennial-focused publisher, leading to Elite Daily’s sale to Bustle. Viral Thread is eliminating “viral” from its name and rebranding itself as VT.

Photo via Group Nine

Output: New York-based digital media holding company Group Nine Media has increased its monthly video views by 59% year-on-year to 4.6 billion in June, following a decision to focus on improving poorer-performing content instead of relying on viral videos. Ashish Patel, senior vice-president of audience development and insights at Group Nine, revealed that, during research, the company discovered videos featuring talking heads with plenty of text, alternating camera angles at the start of a video and split screens helped maintain viewer engagement.


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Vice separates in-house agency from Vice Media team
 Vice Media U.K. is separating the Virtue team, its in-house agency, from its Vice Media team.

Virtue, with 70 staffers in the U.K., used to centralize its creatives, strategists and account managers so they could work on Vice digital work that’s distributed on Vice Media’s own channels, and Virtue work that can also be distributed on clients’ own platforms.

“We’re clarifying the work we’re doing from an operational, organizational and financial point of view,” said Matt O’Mara, CEO of Vice Media U.K.

The separation will help Virtue grow its business with clients that might not typically opt for distribution on Vice channels.

Virtue, which launched in 2006, has run branded-content campaigns with Chanel, Timberland and Lululemon in the past year. Lululemon used Virtue’s creative and strategic services for the global ad campaign “This is Yoga,” which showed the principles of yoga, such as meditation and self-discipline, being used by regular people, but it didn’t run on Vice Media’s properties. Priya Matadeen, gm of Virtue U.K., estimates roughly half of Virtue’s branded-content clients don’t distribute across Vice Media’s channels.

“We are a better partner if we don’t mandate that,” she said.

Ideally, closer direct client relationships could lead to more retainer-based partnerships with brands, which can last for months, rather than sporadic campaign-by-campaign work. Virtue, which operates an agency model, bills by the hour for creative work. By contrast, Vice Media has a pricing model more typical of media buys either through CPM, sponsorships, co-creation or production investment.

“Creative work is demanding in terms of resource,” said Sanjay Panchal, senior director in the partnerships and emerging media team at Essence. “If [Virtue] does more speculative work, it could want some element of a retainer to cover that.”

While most publishers have in-house branded content solutions, the creative is often an add-on to the media buy. U.K. publisher Great British Chefs is another that believes its strategy and audience insight is valuable enough on its own and is working with Kellogg’s to realign its strategy in the U.K., India and Mexico, but it is not running any advertising or media placement.

“Some clients buying our agency capabilities have had a tendency to think they get media distribution as a product of doing that; that’s not the case,” said O’Mara. “In the world of more transparency for brands and clients, this sets out the ideation and process in a fit-for-purpose and modern way.”

The company hopes to complete delineating the teams in the next month, in time for Rob Newlan’s arrival to the new role of CEO for Virtue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Newlan is coming from Facebook, where he delivered brand campaigns, and worked at Unilever, Diageo and Coca-Cola before that.

Separating the teams will mean filling gaps to ensure each team can still perform creative and strategy work. For instance, the creative director is positioned at Vice Media, leaving a vacant post at Virtue. Virtue has also created a client services department rather than have project managers deal directly with clients, Matadeen said.

“Bigger clients need more process and rigor in order to deliver the right work for them,” she said. “We need enough process to function like the big boys, but not too much to stifle the creativity out of the whole place.”

Image via Vice

Output: UK-based firm Vice Media is splitting its in-house agency Virtue from its main team, allowing the former to grow its business. It is hoped the separation will be complete in time for the arrival of of its new CEO for Virtue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Rob Newlan. The split will also bring other changes, including the creation of a client services department at Virtue.


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Warner Bros. digital studio focuses on short-form series
 The market for short-form digital series is booming, with a growing number of video-streaming and social platforms seeking entertainment content to attract young viewers that spend a lot of their time on mobile devices. Warner Bros., one of the most prolific TV producers in the world, wants a piece of that action.

Two years ago, Warner Bros. created Stage 13, a digital studio focused on making short-form shows for emerging platforms. In June, Stage 13 premiered its first digital series, “Snatchers,” on Verizon’s Go90 streaming platform. The show, which spans eight episodes, is a horror comedy about a “status-obsessed” high schooler who loses her virginity only to discover she’s pregnant with an alien baby.

“Besides super-serving a young, multicultural audience, we’re all in the same business: looking to reach audiences anywhere, at any time,” said Diana Mogollon, svp and gm of Stage 13. “We saw an opportunity in short-form content, which meant episode lengths anywhere between five to 15 minutes, with the sweet spot being in the 10- to 12-minute episode range.”

This is far different from what Warner Bros. is primarily known for. For the coming 2017-18 TV season, Warner Bros. Television will be producing more than 35 prime-time shows — all with hour- or half-hour-long episodes — ranging from “The Big Bang Theory” for CBS to “Westworld” for HBO.

But even in the era of peak TV, there are opportunities to sell shows to digital newcomers seeking short-form video series, including Verizon’s Go90, Comcast’s Watchable, Facebook and Snapchat. Top digital publishers, including BuzzFeed, Mashable and Bleacher Report, are feeding the demand by building their own studio businesses.

“Snatchers” is one of 11 scripted and unscripted shows that Stage 13 has completed. For the others, the studio is in discussions with a range of distributors, said Mogollon. “This is a time when everyone wants great content — just look at Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, and how they’re creating opportunities to showcase video,” said Mogollon.

Stage 13 sits under the Warner Bros. Digital Networks Group, which includes the cartoon subscription streaming service Boomerang, the Korean drama subscription service DramaFever, gaming-focused YouTube network and studio Machinima, LeBron James’ Uninterrupted and Ellen DeGeneres’ Ellen Digital Ventures. Mogollon and Stage 13 can work closely with other companies in this portfolio, which she said gives Stage 13 an advantage over other studios.

As is the case with any digital unit owned by a major media company, Stage 13 is described as a startup — its Los Angeles headquarters aren’t even on the Warner Bros. lot. The studio has more than a dozen employees with backgrounds in independent film, cable TV, music and digital entertainment.

“The way Kevin [Tsujihara, Warner Bros. CEO] and Craig [Hunegs, Warner Bros. Digital Networks president] framed it was: This is a startup, go off the lot; you’ll get the funding and resources you need, but let’s make sure there’s no red tape holding you back,” said Mogollon.

Image via Stage 13

Output: Warner Bros. is embracing the short-form digital TV series, with episodes lasting between five and 15 minutes. This follows the launch of Snatchers, which airs on Verizon’s Go90 streaming platform. Via its digital studio start-up Stage 13, part of the broadcaster's Digital Networks Group, Warner Bros. is set to provide content for Facebook, Comcast’s Watchable and Snapchat, ahead of rival short-form digital publishers BuzzFeed, Mashable and Bleacher Report.


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Codecademy launches paid service
 This summer has seen two prominent coding bootcamps close because they couldn’t make their business models work. Meanwhile, a major provider of free online educational resources for those learning to code announced new paid options that company leaders hope will make its business sustainable.

Codecademy aced the first part of the Silicon Valley playbook, which says to first attract masses of users. The company claims 45 million people have registered to use its free materials. But they hadn’t solved the revenue part of the equation, says Zachary Sims, the company’s CEO. In fact, back in late 2015 the company got to a point of “almost certain death” unless it found a way to get at least some users to pay. (The company has raised $42.5 million since it started in 2011.)

Sims says that after talking with users, and running quiet tests, they’ve settled on a three-tier set of paid offerings that essentially break the tasks of traditional teachers into distinct parts at different prices. The cheapest option is the ability to get a live person to answer questions by chat when a student gets stuck (that costs $20 per month). The second option is to go through a course with a cohort and attend weekly live video seminars and get assignments graded (for about $200 per course). The highest-price offering includes all of that support, plus the chance to set up a weekly one-on-one video chat with a mentor during the course (for $500 per course).

The company says all of the free resources will remain free.

Sims says what he’s doing is “a completely different business” than in-person coding schools like Dev Bootcamp, which is closing shop at the end of the year. Because Codecademy has no expensive classroom space and is fully online, he says, “from the start our business was designed to scale.”

LaceyBathala is one of the first students to try the new Pro courses, after finding the pilot version of the paid offerings when she was Googling how to learn SQL, a language she needed for a new job.

It took her about three weeks to go through the course, and she frequently used the on-demand help. Throughout her work day, she would take breaks from her duties to go through the course’s short interactive exercises, and she’d finish about one lesson per day that way. “As a working mom of two and wife and wanting to further my career, it was perfect,” says Bathala, who is 35 and working remotely for Microsoft from Plano, Texas.

Of course, Bathala already had a basic understanding of coding. Sims says he hopes the paid versions will also appeal to a broad audience, even those who don’t aspire to be fluent coders but want to understand technology better for their jobs.

It’s not clear how big that “casual coder” audience is. (For every essay arguing that everyone should code, you can find a hot take refuting the idea.) Of course there’s plenty of competition for paid online coding bootcamps. And it will be interesting to see whether people will try to use these low-cost options as a replacement for an in-person bootcamp, which cost an average of $11,400, according to Course Report.

The new paid offerings also turn Codecademy into a competitor to Coursera and Udacity, which started out offering free Massive Open Online Courses but later pivoted to put more energy into paid options.

Codecademy officials say that the pilot phase of the paid offerings over the past 18 months has already brought in $6 million in revenue.

Output: New York-based Codecademy has launched three paid options running alongside its free coding courses, following quiet testing and discussions with users. The move put the company into competition with Coursera and Udacity. The options range from $20 per month to $500 per course, and have already brought in $6m in revenue, following the recent closure of two prominent coding bootcamps. Codecademy claims it has registered 45 million free users.


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Offensive content displayed on hacked billboard in Cardiff
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A big screen in Cardiff’s main shopping street was reportedly hacked with images of swastikas and messages about ‘Shariah’ appearing.

The giant billboard in Queen Street was allegedly hacked on Tuesday night by a group who claimed on social media that they “had a little fun”.

A poster on the thread Politically Incorrect, on internet site 4chan, wrote on Twitter: “Some Anons from /pol/ were able to hack into a billboard in Cardiff, Wales.

“As you can see, they had a little fun.”

(Image: @polNewsForever)

Images of a swastika and a message that read “Warning. This is a Shariah controlled zone. No alcohol. No gambling. No porn” were projected onto the board above the Superdrug store in the busy street in the heart of the capital – just as thousands of children are off school during the summer holidays.

There were also images of memes and a poster which read “Big Brother is watching you”, according to the social media account.

(Image: @RTBiscuit)

A South Wales Police spokesman said they were investigating the incident after receiving a number of calls from concerned bypassers.

In a statement they said: “On Tuesday evening South Wales Police received a number of calls relating to concerns regarding messages being displayed on the screens in Queen Street, Cardiff.

(Image: @polNewsForever)

“We alerted the city council and will investigate any crimes which may have been committed.”

The billboard is operated by blowUP media, who have been contacted for comment.

A spokesman Cardiff council said: “The council has contacted the company that own and operate the advertising screen. The screen was switched off at midnight on Tuesday night.”

Output: South Wales police are investigating after hackers took over a billboard in Cardiff’s Queen Street, and posted content including images of a swastika and Donald Trump. Passers by reported the incidents to the police. Cardiff council subsequently switched off the screens. The perpetrators are members of alt-right forum 4chan, according to the site's twitter account.


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European heatwave threatens food crops
 Eleven southern and central European countries have issued extreme heat warnings amid a brutal heatwave nicknamed Lucifer, with residents and tourists urged to take precautions and scientists warning worse could be still to come.

Authorities in countries including Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia are on red alert, the European forecasters’ network Meteoalarm said, and swaths of southern Spain and France are on amber.

As temperatures in many places hit or exceeded 40C (104F) in the region’s most sustained heatwave since 2003, emergency services are being put on standby and people have been asked to “remain vigilant”, stay indoors, avoid long journeys, drink enough fluids and listen for emergency advice from health officials.

At least two people have died from the heat, one in Romania and one in Poland, and many more taken to hospital suffering from sunstroke and other heat-related conditions. Italy said its hospitalisation rate was 15% above normal and asked people in affected regions only to travel if their journey was essential. Polish officials warned of possible infrastructure failures.

A spokeswoman for Abta, the UK travel trade organisation, reinforced the advice for holidaymakers, saying they should take sensible precautions, keep hydrated by drinking plenty of water, stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, and follow any advice issued by health authorities in specific destinations.

A cyclist waits to cross a road next to a thermometer showing 41C in Valencia, eastern Spain. Photograph: Manuel Bruque/EPA

The heatwave, now in its fourth day and expected to last until next Wednesday, follows an earlier spell of extreme temperatures last month that fuelled a spate of major wildfires, exacerbated droughts in Italy and Spain, and damaged crops.

The highest temperature on Thursday was 42C in Cordoba, Spain, and Catania, Italy. Split in Croatia also hit 42.3C on Wednesday. The spell is forecast to peak at the weekend with temperatures of 46C or higher in Italy and parts of the Balkans.

Authorities in Italy, which is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, have placed 26 cities on the maximum extreme heat alert, including Venice and Rome. Many of Rome’s fountains have been turned off, and last week the city only narrowly averted drastic water rationing.

In Florence, the Uffizi art gallery was temporarily closed on Friday when the air-conditioning system broke down. In Hungary, keepers at Budapest zoo cooled down two overheating polar bears with huge ice blocks.

Temperatures along parts of Croatia’s Adriatic coast, including Dubrovnik, were expected to hit 42C during the day. In the Serbian capital of Belgrade there were reports of people fainting from heat exhaustion.

Highs in Spain, including in popular holiday resorts on the Costa del Sol and on the island of Majorca, are set to reach 43C this weekend, with extreme conditions also forecast in Seville, Malaga and Granada. Ibiza and Mallorca could hit 42C, Spain’s Aemet meteorological service warned.

While Europe’s record high is 48C, set in Athens in 1977, current temperatures are in many places as much as 10-15C higher than normal for the time of year and likely to result in more fatalities, experts have said.

Europe’s record-breaking 2003 heatwave resulted in more than 20,000 heat-related deaths, mainly of old and vulnerable people, including 15,000 in France, where temporary mortuaries were set up in refrigerated lorries.

Such spells of extreme heat in southern Europe could be a foretaste of things to come. French researchers last month predicted summer conditions in some of the continent’s popular tourist destinations could become significantly tougher.

Szeriy, a polar bear at Budapest zoo, has been given blocks of ice to combat the heat. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists said if a similar “mega-heatwave” to that of 2003 were to occur at the end of the century, when average temperatures are widely expected to be noticeably higher after decades of global warming, temperatures could pass 50C.

The researchers noted that climate models suggest “human influence is expected to significantly increase the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves in Europe” and said their modelling suggested that by 2100, peak summer temperatures could rise by between 6C and 13C against historical records.

The village of Conqueyrac in the Gard department of France hit 44.1C on two occasions in the summer of 2003, the highest temperature ever recorded in the country, meaning “the record maximum value could easily exceed 50C by the end of the 21st century”, the scientists concluded.

The current extreme temperatures, coupled with strong winds, have fanned wildfires that have already caused more than 60 deaths this summer in Portugal and caused widespread damage in southern France, Greece and Italy.

About 300 firefighters and military personnel were fighting 75 wildfires on Friday in Albania, with firefighters also busy in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Greece and the French island of Corsica.

Children cool off in water on a square in Tirana, Albania. Photograph: Malton Dibra/EPA

In Italy, fires killed a 79-year-old woman in the central Abruzzo region and forced the closure of the main Via Aurelia coastal motorway that runs northwards from Rome to the Italian Riviera.

The country’s winemakers have started harvesting their grapes weeks earlier than usual due to the heat. The founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, said no harvest in living memory had begun before 15 August.

The heatwave is likely to cost Italy’s agricultural sector billions of euros, with as many as 11 regions facing critical water shortages. Olive yields in some areas are forecast to be down 50% and some milk production has fallen by up to 30%.

Bosnian officials said the heatwave and drought had nearly halved agricultural output, which represents 10% of the country’s economic output, and Serbia said its corn production could be cut a third.

Output: Eleven countries in central and southern Europe have warned citizens of the Lucifer heatwave, which has seen temperatures exceed 40C. The heatwave is the most sustained and dangerous since 2003, when over 20,000 people died. Last month, French researchers predicted that if a similar “mega-heatwave” to the 2003 event occurred towards the close of this century, global warming could see temperatures on the continent exceed 50C. Italy’s agricultural sector faces losses of billions of euros, while Bosnia has lost 50% of its agricultural output and Serbia will see corn production fall by a third.


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Newham council to start rating lettings agents
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The local authority which set up the first borough-wide mandatory licensing scheme of every rental property is to launch the UK’s first letting agents’ rating scheme. Effectively, it will publicly name and shame bad agents.

Newham Council’s declared aim is to protect residents and landlords from rogue agents.

The London borough’s mayor, Sir Robin Wales, and cabinet have approved plans to rate all of the borough’s letting agents from zero to five stars (where five is the best), and then publish the list in full on the council’s website.

The list will offer potential tenants and landlords all the information they need to pick the best and most professional agents.

They will also know which agents have in the past failed to refund deposits, pass on rental income, charged unjustified and astronomical fees or failed to address complaints.

The ratings are based on the results of Newham’s Fair Lettings Project, which over two years has seen all letting agents in the borough audited by the council.

The audit considered performance, compliance with the law, delivery of best practice, and customer feedback. It resulted in the award of a star rating for each agency.

The Fair Lettings Project has seen businesses up their game and 71% (109 businesses) are three stars or above, while 29% (43 agents) remain non-compliant and fall below three stars.

Once the star ratings are determined each agency is informed of their result and given 21 days to appeal if they think the information is wrong or out of date.

At the end of the appeal period, a table of all letting agents and their star rating will be published in full on the council’s website. Renters and landlords will be encouraged to avoid any agents rated below three stars.

The letting agents rating scheme is designed to run alongside Newham’s Private Rented Sector licensing scheme, which has resulted in more than 1,100 prosecutions of criminal landlords.

Sir Robin said: “The extreme demand in the private rented property sector is being exploited by some unscrupulous letting agents, who rip off landlords and tenants.

“We have seen tenants charged outrageous fees and had deposits withheld, and landlords who never see the rent that is due to them.

“The law gives us limited powers to act against these cowboys, but by scrutinising their activity, and sharing information with our residents and landlords, the ratings should see the unscrupulous agents pushed out of business, while professional and hard-working agents are rewarded.”

Newham’s borough-wide mandatory licensing scheme has since been widely copied across the country, suggesting that other local authorities will be looking closely at Newham’s approach to letting agents.

Output: The London borough of Newham will launch the UK’s first rating scheme for letting agents, publicly naming rogue agents in an effort to protect its residents. The borough has already mandated a licensing scheme for every rental property and the new system will ask tenants to rate letting agents from zero to five stars, with the results published on the council’s website. The list will inform potential tenants and landlords of all the information they might need when choosing a reputable letting agent and will provide data on whether agents have failed to return deposits, charged unjust fees or ignored complaints.


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L&G America offers life insurance quotes based on selfies
 Life Insurance Company Partners with Lapetus Solutions to Launch Innovative Website to Produce a Life Insurance Quote Based on a Selfie Photo

Legal & General America has launched an easy and engaging way to obtain a life insurance quote: simply submit a photo of yourself, otherwise known as a ‘selfie’, and let technology do the rest.

SelfieQuote.com provides a life insurance quote by estimating an individual’s age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) using an individual’s selfie photo. Legal & General America is the first in the life insurance industry to roll out the selfie-quoting technology. This groundbreaking digital experiment, now in beta phase, is made possible through a partnership with Lapetus Solutions, Inc (LSI), the science and technology company that created the new facial analytics technology. Utilizing their platform, Legal & General America is able to analyze a selfie to provide an indicative quote for life insurance. A customer can then provide exact answers, update the amount of desired life insurance, and receive a personalized quote based on accurate information. Customers can then apply for a term life policy online which takes just a few minutes.

“This could revolutionize the life insurance application process for millions of consumers, as it allows for a much more engaging user experience while also showing in a matter of seconds how affordable a life insurance policy can be,” said Jim Galli, Executive Vice President, Business Strategy and Innovation for Legal & General America.

The initial beta launch of SelfieQuote will be available for a limited time. Insights from this experiment will determine if selfie-quoting will become a permanent feature on LGAmerica.com. Users can test-drive this feature at SelfieQuote.com. Learn more about SelfieQuote on Legal & General America’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About Lapetus Solutions Inc.

Lapetus Solutions is a science and technology growth company developing tools and platforms that enable industries relying on life event prediction to reduce and replace their dependence on traditional assessment methods with faster, more cost-effective and accurate results. Lapetus has a team of internationally recognized scientists in Biodemography, Facial Analytics, Health, Aging and Data Science. Learn more at www.lapetussolutions.com.

About Legal & General America

Legal & General America (LGA) is part of the worldwide Legal & General Group. For over 65 years, the Legal & General America companies have been in the business of providing financial protection through life insurance for American families. The Legal & General America companies are Banner Life Insurance Company and its subsidiary William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York. With more than $48 billion in new coverage issued in 2016, LGA is ranked in the top ten of U.S. life insurers and ended 2016 with in excess of $678 billion of coverage in force with almost 1.2 million U.S. customers. LGA shares Legal & General’s independent financial strength ratings: A+ Superior from A. M. Best and AA- Very Strong from Standard and Poor’s and Fitch. To learn more, visit www.lgamerica.com.

Source: Legal & General America

Output: Legal & General America claims to have invented a new way to give a life insurance quote by asking customers to provide a selfie. Its website, SelfieQuote.com, estimates a person's age, body mass index and gender based on selfies and generates an indicative quote. Customers then provide more precise answers to receive accurate quotes, and can apply for a life insurance policy online in just a few minutes.The programme, which is in beta, was created with the aid of facial analytics technology from Lapetus Solutions.


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Chinese government may force Anbang to sell Waldorf Astoria hotel
 When Anbang Insurance Group Co. agreed to buy New York’s iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel for $1.95 billion in 2014, the world took notice. It was a defining moment in the global rise of China Inc., a deal that would help kick off one of the greatest acquisition sprees in history.

But now the Waldorf, along with more than $10 billion of Anbang’s other deals, could become symbols of corporate China’s rapidly shrinking global ambitions. Chinese authorities have asked the embattled insurer to sell its offshore assets and bring the proceeds back home, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.

The unprecedented request marks an escalation of China’s clampdown on its biggest overseas dealmakers, which until now has focused on slowing the pace of new takeovers and prodding domestic lenders to pay more attention to their exposure. While there’s no indication that the four other active acquirers singled out by China’s banking regulator in June face similar pressure, the Anbang request underscores President Xi Jinping’s determination to rein in debt-fueled investments and restrict capital outflows before a key leadership reshuffle later this year.

“Anbang’s days as one of China’s most influential firms are clearly over, and asset sales are part of that transformation,” said Christopher Beddor, an associate at political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group. “It’s abundantly clear that the power of the state is increasing vis-a-vis private firms.”

Another Setback

For Anbang, it’s another setback in what has been a remarkable fall from grace. The company rose from obscurity to global prominence in just over a decade until its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, was detained by investigators in June, becoming the most high-profile target of an industrywide crackdown on risky investment practices.

It’s not clear yet how Anbang will respond to the government’s request on overseas asset sales, said the people, who didn’t mention the Waldorf Astoria or any other specific foreign holdings. Anbang hasn’t received such a request and “at present has no plans to sell its overseas assets,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Anbang’s Deal Spree Leaves It With These Assets Around Globe

Anbang’s October 2014 agreement to buy the Waldorf, which set a price record in the American hotel industry, catapulted the once-obscure insurer onto the global stage. Over the next two years, Anbang bought real estate and financial services companies in Asia, Europe and North America, including Strategic Hotels & Resorts and an office building in midtown Manhattan to house Anbang’s U.S. headquarters.

The insurer’s rise was fueled by sales of lucrative investment products that offered among the highest yields in the industry. But Anbang’s buying binge fizzled as Chinese authorities cracked down on such products this year, part of a wider campaign to rein in financial risks before the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade leadership reorganization.

“Authorities clearly do not want other insurance companies to copy Anbang’s growth model, which relies on short-term products,” said Steven Lam, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “The signal from the government is very strong on proper asset-liability management and being responsible to policyholders.”

In June, Chinese regulators stepped up scrutiny of other serial dealmakers such as HNA Group Co., Fosun International Ltd. and Dalian Wanda Group Co., asking banks to report their exposures to the companies. At a conference on financial regulation convened by President Xi in July, policy makers pledged to rein in corporate borrowing and said that preventing systemic risk was an “eternal theme.”

Chinese acquisitions, even by firms under regulatory scrutiny, haven’t completely come to a standstill. On Friday, Shanghai-based Fosun, whose businesses range from insurance to pharmaceuticals, said it agreed to team up with a state-backed dairy producer to buy French margarine maker St Hubert for 625 million euros ($733 million). HNA, which has taken on least $73 billion of debt as it transformed from a small regional carrier into a global conglomerate, recently announced it will buy the operator of one of Brazil’s busiest airports.

Still, the pace of deals has fallen dramatically. After a record $246 billion of announced outbound takeovers in 2016, cross-border purchases plunged during the first half of this year. Announced Chinese acquisitions of overseas assets fell 37 percent to $99.9 billion, from $157.9 billion in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

As the government’s tolerance for debt-funded deals wanes, some firms have already begun selling assets. Wanda, led by billionaire Wang Jianlin, agreed in July to sell most of its Chinese theme parks and hotels for $9.4 billion.

Potential Buyers

Anbang’s U.S. assets, which in addition to the Waldorf Astoria include trophy properties such as New York’s JW Marriott Essex House and the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, may be attractive to sovereign wealth funds because of their prestigious profile, said Lukas Hartwich, a lodging analyst at Green Street Advisors LLC. Blackstone Group LP, which sold Anbang the bulk of the insurer’s U.S. real estate and has previously bought back assets it sold near market tops, would also be an “obvious candidate” as an acquirer, Hartwich said. A Blackstone representative declined to comment.

“These are mostly really nice hotels,” Hartwich said. “The Waldorf is more of a turnaround play to return the hotel to its former glory.”

If China exerts strong pressure to sell, whoever buys is likely to negotiate a discount. “All the potential acquirers know there’s blood in the water and that’s not usually a strong bargaining position to be in as a seller,” Hartwich said.

The Waldorf Astoria may potentially be appealing to a residential developer. Anbang shut the hotel down in March to convert most of the property into luxury condominiums. Christopher Nassetta, chief executive of the hotel’s manager, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., said on the company’s earnings call last week that the project is on track. He said Anbang has told Hilton it has the financial capability to complete the conversion, which is scheduled to take about three years. The market for New York luxury condos has softened as the supply of such properties mushroomed.

Hilton is unlikely to buy back the Waldorf, having spun off its real estate into Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. in January. Park Hotels is focused on internal growth and New York isn’t one of the spinoff’s key expansion markets.

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.

Topics USA New York China

Output: Anbang Insurance Group may be forced to sell the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan as part of a crackdown by Chinese authorities, which are seeking to bring money tied up in overseas corporate assets back to the country. China is looking to slow takeovers and force domestic lenders to limit their exposure to overseas deals, and over $10bn of Anbang’s assets are currently under scrutiny by the government, which has asked that they be sold and the investment repatriated. The company said it has not received any request to sell the Waldorf Astoria and had "no plans" to sell other overseas assets.


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South African farm calls for action after bird flu outbreak
 Calls for govt to intervene after another bird flu outbreak

A second outbreak of avian influenza on an astral poultry breeding farm in Mpumalanga has been confirmed.

JOHANNESBURG - A local poultry farm that’s confirmed a second outbreak of bird flu has called on government to take swift action as it did with the maize industry when it was hit by the fall army worm.

A second outbreak of avian influenza on an astral poultry breeding farm has been confirmed.

That outbreak has since been dealt with and the farm is under quarantine. However, there’s been an isolated outbreak at another farm in Mpumalanga.

Astral Foods says there are a number of poultry farms in the Welbedacht area and this outbreak could pose a threat to its operations there.

But Astral adds that the lessons learnt from the first outbreak will be used to stop the spread of the bird flu virus.

The company says this new outbreak is unrelated to the June outbreak at its farm in Villiers and is isolated.

It says the virus has impacted one shed on the Welbedacht farm and is being managed.

Astral Foods also says it would like the government to better assist the poultry industry by regulating the use of vaccination programmes.

Thousands of chickens have been culled in the country since bird flu was detected in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Free State earlier this year.

(Edited by Winnie Theletsane)

Output: South African poultry farm company Astral Foods has called on the government to act quickly to limit the spread of bird flu after a second outbreak was confirmed at one of its farms. Astral Foods said the outbreak had been contained and dealt with. The farm in question is in quarantine and the incident is not related to June's outbreak at its farm in Villiers. Bird flu has been detected in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Free State this year, prompting the cull of thousands of chickens. Astral also urged the government to do more to regulate vaccination programmes.


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23andMe to research the role of genetics in mental illness
 The Food and Drug Administration approved the first home DNA tests Thursday that let people find out if they have a genetic risk for certain diseases.

The FDA decision allows home DNA test company 23andMe to directly market its gene tests for 10 diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and some rare blood diseases.

“These are the first direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests authorized by the FDA that provide information on an individual’s genetic predisposition to certain medical diseases or conditions, which may help to make decisions about lifestyle choices or to inform discussions with a health care professional,” the FDA said in a statement.

“Consumers can now have direct access to certain genetic risk information,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which approves these kinds of tests.

“But it is important that people understand that genetic risk is just one piece of the bigger puzzle. It does not mean they will or won’t ultimately develop a disease.”

Related: Stop Selling Home DNA tests, FDA Tells 23andMe

A person’s genes almost never make for a 100 percent risk of any disease. Instead, many different genes usually interact with a person’s lifestyle and other factors to cause disease. For instance, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) notes that many genes are involved in developing Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s not clear how much each one raises the risk.

Related: 23andMe Faces Class Action Lawsuit in California

“It is unlikely that genetic testing will ever be able to predict the disease with 100 percent accuracy, researchers believe, because too many other factors may influence its development and progression,” the NIA, one of the National Institutes of Health, says on its website.

"It does not mean they will or won’t ultimately develop a disease.”

And some genetic mutations are inherited, some develop before birth, and some occur as people live their lives. How, where and when these changes develop can affect whether such changes causes disease.

Related: Smoking Permanently Scars Your DNA

Samples are prepared for DNA testing at the Genetic Institute Nantes-Atlantique (IGNA) on Dec. 10, 2015 in Nantes, western France. Home DNA testing company 23andMe got a go-ahead from the FDA to market a home genetic test for 10 diseases. Georges Gobet / AFP-Getty Images

The FDA’s decision, which is sure to stir up controversy, is a big turnaround from 2013, when the FDA singled out 23andMe, ordering the company to stop marketing its over-the-counter gene test.

23andMe is especially aggressive in marketing its home tests, usually offered as saliva tests that customers can send in for analysis.

This test does not include checks for genes that predispose people to cancer. They look instead for DNA variation involved in 10 conditions:

The FDA says these are all serious conditions and customers must first click an acknowledgement that they understand the results could cause them anxiety, a spokeswoman said. "The 'opt-in' page includes links to recommendations from professional medical associations on the benefits and risks of genetic testing for users to read before deciding whether to receive test results," the FDA spokeswoman, Tara Goodin, said via email.

Related: Mutant Gene Protects Against Heart Attack

New York University bioethicist Art Caplan says he is surprised the FDA approved the home tests, given the questions that still surround even genetic tests done by physicians.

"So much remains unknown, both about the accuracy of testing and the ability of consumers to process genetic information without counseling or help," Caplan said.

"Even physicians have a difficult time knowing how to interpret genetic test risk information. So this decision may wind up frightening as many people about genetic risk as it does empower them."

Kathy Hibbs, chief legal officer at 23andMe, said the company had changed the tests to address those issues.

"We had to conduct studies to show that consumers drawn from abroad swath of society could understand and use the product appropriately," Hibbs told NBC News. "We call those ‘user comprehension’ studies. We conducted those and submitted them to FDA to demonstrate that Americans can access and understand and use the product in a safe and effective way."

Hibbs says the tests will explain that having -- or lacking -- a genetic predisposition to a disease does not make for perfect certainty. "We provide information on how to access genetic counseling, although we don’t provide genetic counseling ourselves," she said.

"Even physicians have a difficult time knowing how to interpret genetic test risk information."

And the FDA says the test will recommend that customers "speak with a healthcare professional, genetic counselor, or equivalent professional before getting the results of the test."

Medical geneticist Dr. Robert Green of Harvard University said people who buy the test tend to understand the risks. "We're moving as a society toward empowering people with health related information and this is, I think, a welcome step, along that journey," Green said.

Caplan says it's also not clear what privacy people have and how well 23andMe could safeguard their test results, or even their actual samples.

Related: How Much Cancer is Due to Genes?

The FDA said it reviewed the tests through a new process.

Consumers can expect more such tests to hit the market now.

“In addition, the FDA intends to exempt additional 23andMe genetic health risk tests from the FDA’s premarket review, and genetic health risk tests from other makers may be exempt after submitting their first premarket notification,” the FDA said.

“A proposed exemption of this kind would allow other, similar tests to enter the market as quickly as possible and in the least burdensome way, after a one-time FDA review.”

Output: The Food and Drug Administration has given its approval for the DNA test company 23andMe to market its gene test for ten diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The approval makes 23andMe the first direct-to-consumer test provider for predisposition to medical diseases or conditions. The tests will offer insight into genetic risk, but will not be a confirmed diagnosis, as tests cannot provide predictions of diseases with 100% accuracy.


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Purplebricks responds to BBC investigation across two programmes
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Purplebricks this morning issued a statement to the Stock Exchange following yesterday’s You and Yours, and Watchdog programmes.

It reads as follows:

The Board of Purplebricks Group plc notes the recent share price movement.

The Group was the subject of two BBC features on Wednesday 2 August relating principally to the clarity of the deferred payment facility available to customers, the Group’s compliance with a recent Advertising Standards Association (“ASA”) ruling, and alleged exaggerated claims by some of its Local Property Experts about levels of instructions and/or sales they had obtained.

The Board is confident that disclosure of the terms and nature of the deferred payment facility, provided by Close Brothers, are clear and transparent. The registration and acceptance process of the facility has been reviewed by the Property Ombudsman and by the Trading Standards Institute and no issues were raised or changes requested. The Group has received complaints relating to the payment terms and facility from only 0.2 per cent of customers.

Furthermore, from the last 47,000 facility agreements entered into by customers only two complaints were considered by the Financial Ombudsman and in both cases neither were upheld.

The purpose of the facility is to offer Purplebricks’ customers an alternative to immediate payment on instruction, and the majority of customers take up this option. The facility comes with no additional cost or interest to the customer.

In the context of the small number of cases where customer feedback has indicated that the disclosure does not match Purplebricks’ high standards for transparency, the Group has nevertheless committed to enhance the clarity of its notification to customers accordingly.

With regard to the ASA ruling, Purplebricks has previously sought to quantify to potential customers in its marketing literature the levels of savings that they might on average achieve based on publicly available data, such as the Which survey on estate agent commission levels. In a ruling in 2016, the ASA requested that Purplebricks no longer refer in its marketing to an indicative average saving, based on the premise that this could prove misleading.

The Group had in any case already decided to remove references to this figure from its marketing materials. The BBC drew attention to examples of a standard email format that inadvertently still included the savings figure. The Group immediately removed this reference and apologises for this oversight.

The BBC also aired claims that certain LPEs have provided exaggerated instructions and/or sales figures for their respective areas.

Whilst Purplebricks has not had access to the precise data and areas being reviewed by the BBC, the Board believes that the figures provided by the LPEs concerned have fairly reflected the performance of the teams operating in those areas. However, the Group has committed to ensure through its ongoing training that LPEs are clear about the statistics that they use and the territories and postcodes to which they are referring.

Michael Bruce, founder and Chief Executive of Purplebricks, commented: “The Board and the Group are committed to the highest levels of customer service and disclosure, and we believe this is reflected in the business’ sales growth and the high levels of customer satisfaction evidenced by its 23,000 Trustpilot reviews with an average score of 9.5 and its rating of Excellent. The Group is the most positively reviewed estate agent in the UK.

“We seek to satisfy and surpass our regulatory obligations at all times, and where we find circumstances where we have fallen short we seek to rectify these situations at the earliest opportunity. The Purplebricks’ offering has already saved consumers in the UK tens of millions of pounds when selling their properties, and we are focused on building on this position still further.”

Output: Online estate agent Purplebricks has issued a defensive statement, following discussions on the BBC’s latest features on the company. You and Yours and Watchdog recently aired investigations into the firm, causing its share price to drop. The statement, given to the London Stock Exchange, stated that Purplebricks is “confident” that the disclosure on deferred payment facilities is “clear and transparent”. The company maintains that the Property Ombudsman and the Trading Standards Institute have given their approval, with only two complaints ever lodged and dismissed from the prior 47,000 facility agreements.


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Indonesia wants to accelerate oil spill lawsuit
 Jakarta: One of Indonesia's most senior ministers has called on Attorney-General George Brandis to help speed up a class action on behalf of thousands of seaweed farmers who claim their crops were devastated by a 2009 oil spill.

More than 13,000 seaweed farmers from East Nusa Tenggara, one of the poorest regions in Indonesia, launched a $200 million class action against PTTEP Australasia in the Federal Court in Sydney last August.

Maritime Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters he understood the class action, which is being run by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, was taking place right now in Sydney.

"I just tried to reach George Brandis to ask their support in order to speed up this process," he said. "It's been ... nearly eight years. It's too long."

Output: Almost seven years after an oil spill near Semau Island in Indonesia, seaweed farmers in the region are calling on Australian Attorney General George Brandis to speed up the AUD200m ($158m) class-action lawsuit launched in August last year. Thousands of seaweed farmers from East Nusa Tenggara, one of Indonesia's poorest regions, said their industry has been devastated by the oil spill.


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Green & Black’s issues first non-organic, non-Fairtrade chocolate
 Green & Black’s is launching its first UK chocolate bar that is neither organic nor Fairtrade-certified.

The move by the organic chocolate maker – owned by US food giant Mondelēz International, parent of Cadbury – is likely to further undermine the Fairtrade movement amid concerns about a proliferation of rival alternatives.

Founded in 1991 as a pioneering organic brand, Green & Black’s is famous for its Classic bars, which have “organic” displayed prominently on wrappers under the company’s logo. But the new Velvet Edition dark chocolate bars going on sale in UK supermarkets this month makes no claim to be organic.

The Fairtrade logo has also been ditched as the cocoa beans for the range have been sourced via a certification scheme called Cocoa Life, set up by Mondelēz. The US confectionery giant says Cocoa Life will be a “world-leading” alternative with the scale and clout to help more struggling farmers growing cocoa in developing countries.

The familiar blue and green Fairtrade mark – a gold standard of ethical trading and arguably the world’s most trusted food certification scheme – is also being removed from Cadbury’s Dairy Milk range this month. By 2019, Cadbury’s entire chocolate range in the UK and Ireland – including Flake, Twirl and Wispa – will display the Cocoa Life branding. Green & Black’s Classic range will be expanded and relaunched next year, but will remain both Fairtrade-certified and organic, made from cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic.

Some 1.65 million farmers and workers in more than 74 developing countries benefit from the Fairtrade system, which guarantees decent working conditions and a minimum price. In the UK it is administered by The Fairtrade Foundation – an independent certification body that licenses the use of the ethical label on 5,000-plus products, from coffee and tea to bananas and flowers.

Recently, the UK’s biggest Fairtrade retailer, Sainsbury’s, came under fire from charities and ethical campaigners for dropping the Fairtrade label on its own-brand tea.

Green & Black’s was founded by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley in their west London flat. Its best-selling Maya Gold bar received the UK’s first Fairtrade mark in March 1994. The brand was bought in 2005 for an estimated £20m by Cadbury, which was later acquired by Mondelēz (formerly Kraft Foods) in 2010.

Green & Black’s Maya Gold received the UK’s first Fairtrade mark in March 1994. Photograph: Catherine Shaw/The Observer

Sams and Fairley, retained by Mondelēz as paid consultants, said “supply chain issues” meant it was not possible to source a sufficiently large volume of cocoa beans – from Ghana in west Africa – for the new range. Velvet Edition is aimed at consumers who find the flavour of traditional dark chocolate too rich.

Sams denied the move spelled the death knell for Fairtrade, saying Cocoa Life was “Fairtrade with knobs and whistles on”. He also pointed out that Fairtrade was a partner in Cocoa Life.

But Rachel Wilshaw, ethical trade manager for Oxfam GB, warned: “There is a risk of shoppers being left confused as some brands and retailers move away from the Fairtrade scheme to introduce their own certification schemes. With the Fairtrade mark on products, consumers are clear about what they are getting.”

Brad Hill, Fairtrade strategy manager at the Co-op, added: “As a customer-facing business we have concerns around the introduction of yet more ethical schemes which will easily be confused with Fairtrade and the benefits Fairtrade has delivered.”

In 2009, Cadbury announced its Dairy Milk brand would be made from Fairtrade cocoa. But last November, it said it would be rolling out the Cocoa Life scheme across the entire Cadbury range.

Mondelēz claimed the $400m (£302m) scheme was already helping 92,000 cocoa farmers, and the organisation’s goal is to reach 200,000 cocoa farmers and one million people in six key cocoa-growing countries by 2022. Independent verification showed that farmers’ incomes had increased by 49% under Cocoa Life compared with farms not in the scheme, Mondelēz added.

Glenn Caton, northern Europe president at Mondelēz, insisted the company was sticking to Green & Black’s founding principles. “Great taste, high quality and a commitment to sustainability – we will never compromise on those promises, and remain loyal to the brand’s heritage,” he said.

Output: Green & Black’s, the organic chocolate maker owned by Mondelez International, parent company of Cadbury, is releasing its first chocolate that is neither organic nor Fairtrade. The new Velvet Edition dark chocolate bars, which will be available in UK supermarkets this month, will not carry the Fairtrade logo as the cocoa has been sourced via Mondelez’s own certification scheme, Cocoa Life. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk range will also remove the Fairtrade mark this month.


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Millions of European eggs contaminated with toxic insecticide
 Millions of eggs are being recalled from shops and warehouses in Germany and the Netherlands and being blocked from sale in Belgium after some were found to contain high levels of a toxic insecticide banned from use in the production of food for human consumption.

About 180 Dutch farms have been temporarily shut down and a criminal investigation has been launched as authorities seek to establish the scale of the problem.

A European commission spokeswoman, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, told reporters in Brussels: “The eggs are blocked. The contaminated eggs have been traced and withdrawn from the market and the situation is under control.”

Tests of chicken droppings, blood and eggs showed high levels of the insecticide fipronil, a common ingredient in veterinary products for getting rid of fleas, lice and ticks, but banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption.

According to the World Health Organisation, the highly toxic substance can damage the liver, thyroid glands and kidneys if ingested in large amounts over time.

Belgian prosecutors are said to be examining the client list of two companies in Flanders specialising in the production and supply of anti-lice agents to Dutch and Belgian farms, among others. It is feared the illegal substance was mixed with an insecticide used legally in the keeping of chickens to improve its effectiveness.

The Dutch newspaper Trouw suggested one of the companies may have had clients in the UK, France and Poland, although there is no suggestion so far that contaminated eggs are being sold in those countries.

The Dutch daily newspaper de Volkskrant reported that the illegal mix had been used on farms in the Netherlands for more than a year. The Dutch food and product safety board, the NVWA, told the newspaper it was unclear whether contaminated eggs had been sold to customers over that period. “We have no way of checking because the eggs have been eaten,” a spokesman said.

On Monday, the NVWA warned consumers that one batch of eggs “had such elevated levels of fipronil that their consumption would present a serious public health risk”. They advised that eggs from at least 27 other farms should not be eaten by children.

The extent of the scandal has since grown. “We are still estimating the number of farms which have been affected, and the analysis of 600 samples is still ongoing,” a spokesman for the NVWA said.

On Thursday, the Netherlands’ two largest supermarket groups, as well as the German supermarket group REWE, said they were removing some eggs from their shelves. “We want to give our clients total transparency,” the German company said in a statement.

Customers of the German chain who had already bought Dutch eggs have been told they can return them and be reimbursed. Lidl and Aldi have removed some Dutch eggs from their shelves.

Around a million eggs destined for Germany were recalled from the border with the Netherlands this week.

The German agriculture minister, Christian Schmidt, called a “crisis teleconference” with his counterparts in German states where the insecticide had been detected.

It has been reported that 2.9m eggs from companies believed to have used the fipronil anti-lice agent were delivered to Germany before 22 July, when exports were blocked, although many of them remained in packing stations.

Belgian media, citing the Flemish organisation that represents chicken and rabbit farmers, said several dozen Belgian producers had had their products blocked because of ongoing inspections.

The president of the Dutch poultry producers’ union, Hennie de Haan, warned against an overreaction. “If other retailers follow the example of REWE, then the disaster cannot be overlooked”, she said. “If this is temporary, it is still possible to catch up, but if it takes longer then the entire Dutch sector, including traders, is bankrupt. You do not just find a market for 4.5bn eggs a year.”

The Netherlands has almost 1,000 lay hen factory farms producing 11bn eggs a year, of which more than half are exported, mainly to Germany.

The Dutch food and product safety board has been criticised its handling of the scandal. At first officials said there was no danger to human health, before issuing a warning about certain batches of eggs. Its deputy director was subsequently reported as saying that consumers should avoid eggs altogether until tests for a banned pesticide had been completed.

The board expects to complete tests on eggs from 180 farms which used the contaminated pesticide by the end of the week.

Output: Millions of eggs have been recalled from sale in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands after they were discovered to contain high levels of the toxic insecticide fipronil. A criminal investigation has been launched in the Netherlands, where 180 farms have been closed. Fipronil is commonly used in veterinary products to counter fleas, lice and ticks, but is banned from use on animals that will be consumed by humans. The World Health Organisation states that the insecticide can result in damage to the kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.