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Agtech start-up FBN raises $110m for farm analytics platform
 Farmers Business Network (FBN), a farmer-to-farmer digital network offering data insights, input procurement, and crop marketing services, has raised $110 million in Series D funding.

FBN is one of just a few farmtech startups that have raised rounds larger than $100 million: vertical farming group Plenty and biological inputs startup Indigo are two recent examples. This latest round brings FBN’s total fundraising to $200 million.

The round attracted new, lead investment from two large institutional investors: global asset management firm T. Rowe Price and Singapore state fund Temasek. These lead investors typically invest in later stage, private equity deals, highlighting how far FBN has come since its founding three years ago, argues Charles Baron, cofounder and VP of product.

“These are blue chip investors who are investing in the growth and proven track record FBN has built,” he told AgFunderNews. “We’ve built a phenomenally high-growth business with membership doubling year-on-year to nearly 5,000 farms around the US across 16 million acres, taking on another million acres each month.”

To put this in perspective, there are about 50,000 large-scale farms growing commodity crops like corn and soy in the US where FBN has focused most of its attention.

Existing investors Acre Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GV (Google Ventures) and DBL Partners also participated in the round.

The company has grown in other ways too: its input procurement business has expanded from selling 170 products initially to over 1,200, it launched a crop marketing business earlier this year, it is expanding into Canada, and its team is now 200-strong, with plans to increase by another 100 in the next 12-18 months.

This growth puts an exit for the founders and investors in FBN in the cards within the next few years, and while most agrifood tech startups plan to exit their businesses through a trade sale to one of the large agrifood corporates, FBN has always planned to remain an independent company, according to Baron.

“We’d like to be a public company that farmers can invest in; that’s the best way for us to realize the vision of an independent company,” he said, adding that a public listing and IPO is likely in the next two to five years.

What is FBN?

FBN started life as an ag data platform with the intention of helping farmers manage their data and gain insights from each other on areas such as seed selection, compare productivity, and benchmark field performance over time. The platform predominantly collects data extracted from farm equipment but also aggregates farmers’ manually recorded data.

It later launched a seed finder app to share seed performance results and research with farmers to help them make better purchasing decisions.

Using data collected and crowdsourced from farmers about their seed and other input purchases, FBN was able to bring transparency to an otherwise opaque input pricing system.

“Prices are rarely listed online, and zone pricing is incredibly common where input suppliers will divide up the country into zones and charge different prices: a farmer in northern Illinois can pay a totally different amount to a farmer in southern Illinois,” said Baron.

FBN has also used its network to crowdsource genetic information about seeds, and revealed that the exact same genetic variety of seed could be sold by as many as 12 different companies under different brand names and at different prices.

“That’s been a total black box for farmers, but we were able to build up a database from thousands of seed label pictures of the exact seed varieties uploaded by our farmers,” said Baron.

An Input Procurement Business

So the natural progression was for FBN to start selling inputs to farmers with this transparent pricing and it now sells over 1,200 seed, pesticide, fertilizer, and other input products from a variety of suppliers including direct from the manufacturers.

“The way to think about FBN Direct is as an open marketplace; we welcome anyone that wants to supply our farmers from the major agrochemical companies to smaller distributors. Many companies have been blocked from reaching farmers as they can’t get into the highly consolidated retail market that works predominantly with the agrochemical majors; we’re creating more competition,” said Baron.

The input procurement business FBN Direct is now an e-commerce platform enabling farmers to discover and purchase supplies completely online — FBN Direct launched as an over-the-phone service initially — which also offers farmers credit on their purchases through flexible payments or loans via third-party providers. This part of the business, that enables farmers to share their farm data with financial providers, could naturally develop into a more general farm loans marketplace in the future, added Baron.

“The farm economy is not set up to meet the needs of farmers, but to meet the needs of the supplier,” said Baron. “FBN puts farmers first in the system and closer to the consumer by helping them to get the benefit of industry aggregation via the network and the scale of e-commerce.”

Industry insiders tell AgFunderNews that FBN’s business model does pose a threat to ag retailers and the large agrochemical companies: “There is enough money and energy behind FBN for it to be something big ag needs to keep an eye on, especially if you look at how other industries have been disrupted,” said one insider from a large agribusiness.

“Any startup that can successfully harness technology to drive network effects is going to be a huge threat to the incumbents,” said Rob Leclerc, CEO of AgFunder. “Like we’ve seen time and time again in other industries, the incumbents usually don’t get it until it’s too late.”

But some insiders are also critical of FBN’s approach and rhetoric around the role of the retailers.

“You don’t have to demonize the retailer to be still creating value. Retailers provide much more than prices and product sales; they provide a service including consultancy,” said the insider.

He added that the retailer and agrochemical majors are also starting to move some of their sales online in some geographies so will adapt to the online trend FBN is taking advantage of.

“FBN is trying to disrupt ag retail and grain brokers, not directly the suppliers. In essence, they are attempting to raise more capital than anyone to brute force a business model,” said another industry insider.

A Crop Marketing Platform

FBN last raised funding in March of this year with a $40 million Series C and raised the Series D preemptively “to capitalize on its new businesses, particularly crop marketing,” according to Baron.

The company will use the latest proceeds to build out this crop marketing platform with the intention of enabling buyers from all over the globe to buy directly from US farmers.

“This is where an online, digital network can be so transformational; now a food company from anywhere in the world can work with FBN and the best farms in America to avoid going through multiple middlemen,” said Baron. “It also allows farmers to use data to market their crop better, yield them better prices, but also bring them production contracts in advance so that they can know their price and costs before the season has even started to a much greater level of detail.”

FBN will also provide them with cash advances for working capital, “taking the risk with them” said Baron.

FBN has hundreds of thousands of acres under contract for the 2018 growing season, according to Baron.

Moving into New Territory

FBN serves farmers growing 25 different crops across 42 states. The majority still grow the major commodity crops, corn, soy, and wheat, but the company’s footprint is growing in large specialty crops like lentils, and chickpeas as well as orchard crops and vegetables on the west coast, according to Baron.

The company’s offering is slightly different for these farmers as they aren’t capturing the same data from machinery as the broadacre farmers are; it’s more focused on pricing intelligence and input benchmarking, according to Baron.

FBN will also use the proceeds of this round to expand into Canada where it’s opening offices shortly. New territories globally are also in the pipeline, and with investment from Singapore’s Temasek, it’s likely Asia will be a target in the medium term.

Output: US agriculture technology start-up Farmers Business Network (FBN) has raised a further $110m in a funding round led by Singapore sovereign-wealth fund Temasek and asset management firm T. Rowe Price. FBN, which also raised $40m in March, enables farmers across 42 US states to find and purchase products including seed, fertiliser and pesticides online, as well as gain access to credit. The latest funding will be used to build out FBN's platform and expand into Canada and potentially Asia.


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Redrow Hiring spree sees 2017 trainee recruitment surge to record
 Redrow, the multi-award-winning housebuilder,has reported a 19% increase in the number of trainees it has taken on this year, achieving a record 353 such recruitments in 2017 compared to 297 in 2016.

The trainees work across many disciplines across the company from general construction tradesmen and civil engineers to quantity surveyors and designers. With 22% of Redrow’s trainees being female, the proportion is significantly higher than the 13.5% of women reported as the industry’s workforce average.

The range of trainees includes a significant proportion of those undertaking construction trade apprenticeships, there are also many graduate trainees. There is a wide spectrum of qualifications available, from NVQ to degree, and the opportunity, over time and funded by the housebuilder, to join respected professional organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Building, the Institute of Civil Engineers or the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Part of the company’s approach to training is the way that apprentices are encouraged to undertake projects in the community, as a way to develop leadership and management skills.

“Redrow’s work in the community gives our trainees a holistic experience that allows them to develop soft skills such as communication, leadership and problem solving, alongside their on-the-job experience, through working with local schools and charities,” says Karen Jones, HR director at Redrow and also trustee of the Construction Industry Training Board. “We feel that this rounded approach to development sets up our trainees for a successful future and ensures the next generation of housebuilders are the best they can be.”

Among current examples are graduates working on Considerate Constructors project, the Big Build Challenge, engage with local schoolchildren and get them thinking creatively about the environment, and a dozen graduate trainees from the area recently completing a project in partnership with Help Bristol’s Homeless in converting an empty shipping container into somewhere the city’s homeless population could inhabit.

Jones adds: “Redrow has a strong history of giving young people the skills they need to succeed in the housebuilding industry. This year we welcome another record intake of new trainees who will have the best possible start to their careers. The construction industry faces a looming skills gap that will only be exacerbated by Brexit. Housebuilders like us are investing in the next generation of construction industry talent and the government’s Autumn Budget contained a set of additional commitments to support more young people into the sector which we warmly welcome.”

Redrow is a member of the 5% Club, where a company commits to at least 5% of its workforce comprised of apprentices, graduates or sponsored students over the next five years. Redrow already exceeds this aim by far, with 17% of the total workforce as trainees.

One example of Redrow’s current graduate trainee team is Matthew Finch, who joined in September this year as part of the rotational graduate scheme. The 26-year-old gained a Bachelor of Science degree, a PGCE and an NVQ Level 6 in Construction Management before joining, and had also already worked on site as an assistant site manager.

Matthew says: “Although I knew I wanted to work in the housebuilding industry, I want to gain a holistic view of the business. The rotational scheme is allowing me to rotate in all the different departments before going into the department which is most suitable for me and the business. Thanks to the grad-scheme, I now know I will have the expertise and foundations to be successful within the business.

“I am looking forward to spending time scoping out new developments and like the thought of being able to take a scheme from the very beginning to completion with residents moving in and communities forming. I think that will be incredibly rewarding.”

His ambitions are strong and he already feels ‘at home’ with one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders: “I’d like to progress up the corporate ladder in the future and become more involved with not only building the best homes, but building them in the best locations. Since joining Redrow, I have really enjoyed the atmosphere and company culture. Everyone here is so accommodating and helpful. Despite being extremely busy, senior members of staff are always willing to take the time to set me tasks, ensuring that I fully understand and are genuinely interested in my personal development.”

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Output: Housebuilder Redrow has hired 19% more trainees this year, recruiting a record 353 from 297 in 2016. It's taken on staff across departments including construction, civil engineering, quantity surveying and designing. More than a fifth of trainees are female, higher than the 13.5% average for the industry, and comprise graduates and apprentices.


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Regus Regus opens fourth office centre in Bulgaria
 November 30 (SeeNews) - Luxembourg-headquartered provider of flexible workspace solutions Regus said on Thursday it will open its fourth office centre in Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv.

"[...] our plans are to continue to grow in the country." Luydmila Uzun, general manager of Regus Bulgaria, said in the statement.

Regus operates three office centres in Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Output: Regus, the workspace provider operating from Luxembourg, has launched its fourth office facility in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-biggest metropolis. Regus also has three office centres located in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, with plans to open further locations in the country.


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US retailers fall short of consumer expectations
 Retailers are still coming up short on winning shoppers over with in-store experiences.

More than one-third of shoppers said they "feel nothing" when asked about their initial reaction after shopping in stores, GPShopper found in its latest report, "Reality of Retail: Consumer Connection."

GPShopper's study, which was conducted with research firm YouGov, asked roughly 1,200 U.S. adults what innovations — both digital and physical — they want retailers to incorporate in stores.

The survey found:

86 percent of shoppers like "experience stores," where they can test products in stores but buy on mobile or online, similar to the Samsung store concept.

85 percent like the idea of product recommendations based on ratings, similar to what Amazon

80 percent like buying items online and picking purchases up in stores, as Wal-Mart Target

78 percent like stores that were first online and then developed physical storefronts, similar to Warby Parker.

"We believe in retail but also think [stores] need to evolve to meet the modern consumer," said Maya Mikhailov, CMO and co-founder of GPShopper.

"The modern consumer is connecting to retail digitally. ... The most important device for them is the mobile phone."

Mikhailov added that traditionally brick-and-mortar retailers are now "stumped" about what to do with excess square footage amid the age of digital. And as evidenced by GPShopper's latest survey, many retail companies have yet to hit a high note with consumers' emotions.

Following "feeling nothing," many shoppers appear to be "anxious."

Output: Big US department stores are falling short of customer expectations in the digital age, with 86% of consumers preferring "experience stores" to traditional outlets, according to a survey by GPShopper. 85% of the 1,200 US adults surveyed bought products based on online recommendations, while more than one third said they felt nothing when shopping in traditional stores. Retailers such as Warby Parker, Ulta and Apple, which offer the chance to "experience the brand" instead of simply selling products, are the sector's big winners, according to GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders.


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Dubai's Abraaj to build natural gas power plant in Mexico
 Dubai-based Abraaj Group has invested in a 111 MW natural gas-fired power plant in Mexico – the first phase of the company’s plan to develop a 500 MW power generation platform in the country.

The investment in the Chihuahua plant was made through an Abraaj-managed fund focussing on opportunities in Mexico, and the company has partnered with Emerging America – a Mexican firm that develops natural gas-fired projects. No price was mentioned in the announcement by the group.

The 500 MW platform is being financed with debt from local banks Banorte and Nafinsa, and is expected to commence operations at the beginning of 2019.

Saad Zaman, partner at The Abraaj Group, said: “This plant represents the first of many investments that Abraaj intends to carry out in the Mexican energy infrastructure sector.

“We have an advanced pipeline of attractive projects and will leverage our global energy expertise to develop complementary natural gas-fired and renewable energy platforms.

“Buoyed by a strong regulatory framework, the Mexican energy infrastructure sector is a long-term and sustainable investment opportunity for Abraaj. We are delighted to partner with Emerging America to deliver efficient and more affordable power to the country.”

Output: Dubai-based Abraaj Group plans to build a 111 MW natural gas-fired power plants in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. The project is the first phase of investment for a 500 MW natural gas power generation platform in Mexico. It will be financed by local banks Banorte and Nafinsa, and is expected to commence operations at the beginning of 2019.


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GM aims to roll out commercial self-driving cars in 2019
 GM says it will have a ride-sharing service featuring its line of self-driving Chevy Bolts ready to go by 2019. That would place the No. 1 US automaker ahead of its main rival Ford, which has said it plans to unveil its own self-driving car without pedals or a steering wheel by 2021.

GM’s top executives made the announcement today during a call with investors. The company recently allowed reporters to take rides in its autonomous test cars through the congested streets of San Francisco. Most reported that the car handled most situations proficiently, with a few hiccups.

GM is obviously feeling pressured to fast-track its self-driving taxi service

But GM is obviously feeling pressured to fast-track its self-driving taxi service, especially in light of recent developments like Alphabet’s Waymo deploying its fleet of autonomous minivans in Arizona without a human driver behind the wheel.

Waymo’s technology may be more advanced than GM’s, and its cars may have racked up more miles of experience, but GM has been on a buying spree as it seeks to shore up its position in both autonomous and electric vehicle development. Last month, Cruise, the self-driving unit of GM, said that it would buy Strobe, a startup that makes LIDAR sensors that help autonomous vehicles “see” their surroundings. Cruise itself was acquired last year for over half a billion dollars.

The race to deploy a commercial, self-driving product pits GM against untraditional players like Waymo and Uber. Uber has self-driving vehicles ferrying passengers in Pittsburgh and Phoenix, but has yet to say when it plans to start monetizing its service. Waymo plans to start shepherding passengers in its fully driverless minivans (no safety driver) within the next few months, but that will only be available to a very limited group of passengers. GM is unique in its position that it will have a scalable commercial product in just two years.

Output: General Motors plans to launch autonomous vehicles for the commercial urban market in 2019, with a focus on ride-sharing functionality. The automaker is currently testing its fully autonomous Chevrolet Bolt in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Detroit, with plans to expand into Manhattan in 2018. Human reserve drivers are still accompanying the cars at present, but the vehicles have reportedly demonstrated the capability to navigate complex traffic.


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60% faster, cheaper, cover 45x more alerts: CS’ compliance bots
 Credit Suisse says that a new big data platform and the intelligent deployment of software robots is reversing years of rising compliance costs.

Since deploying an advanced data analytics and technology platform earlier this year, the Swiss bank says it has generated a 45-fold increase in the number of productive alerts from its predictive monitoring of transactions compared to last year. Resolution of the alerts is 60% faster despite the volume of data, and the result comes at a fraction of the historical cost of such monitoring.

The shake-up in the compliance function follows the creation in 2015 of an independent Compliance and Regulatory Affairs organisation (CCRO) reporting directly to the CEO.

Lara Warner, who heads up the unit says: "Over the past two years we have gone from a human-led approach to compliance, where we were carrying out periodic checks, to a technology-led approach in which we are continuously monitoring activities across the bank to enable earlier prevention and detection."

The pool of data and advanced analytics accessible to compliance teams via the platform comprises some four billion records. Thanks to a combination of real-time processing and on-the-money monitoring, the bank is now able to perform KYC checks on international client transactions 80% faster at approximately 40% lower costs.

Initially designed to spot patterns of money laundering, the algorithms deployed on the platform are now being adapted to detect fraud and monitor transactions, says Warner.

Credit Suisse has also been deploying an army of software robots to carry out certain repetitive compliance tasks. One of them, dubbed 'James the Robot', is used for suitability and appropriateness checks - to ensure clients are invested in the right products. James conducts these checks 200 times faster than when they were done manually, representing a significant reduction in risk for the bank.

In a statement, the bank says: "After three years of rising compliance costs at Credit Suisse, due both to new regulation and investment in technology, the deployment of the new platform and the use of data analytics in 2017 has turned the tide."

Output: After three years, tech investment, including the deployment of big data analytics and software robots, is starting to positively impact compliance costs at Credit Suisse, which claims to be 60% faster and much more cost efficient resolving alerts from monitoring transactions, even though the number of alerts has increased 45-fold compared to 2016. The bank’s bots have reportedly made KYC checks on international transactions 80% faster and roughly 40% cheaper. They are also being used for fraud detection and reducing risk by executing repetitive tasks like suitability and appropriateness checks around 200 times faster than they were manually.


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California's largest solar plant to inject steam in oil wells
 Yesterday, Aera Energy and GlassPoint Solar announced plans to build California’s largest solar energy project. Located at the Belridge oilfield west of Bakersfield, the project will be used to generate steam to inject into the ground to help extract oil.

The site will produce 12 million barrels of steam per year, replacing 4.8B ft3 of natural gas that would have been burnt to generate the steam. The oil-producing solar project is projected to save more than 376,000 metric tons of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to the emissions of 80,000 cars per year.

Belridge Solar will consist of two power plants, a solar thermal plant and solar electric plant. The solar thermal facility will output 850 MW of thermal energy, producing 12 million barrels of steam per year via reflecting sunlight from large mirros on a centrally located tube. The solar electric plant will produce 26.5 MW of electricity.

Aera and GlassPoint plan to break ground on the Belridge Solar plant in the first half of 2019 and expect to be producing steam and electricity as early as 2020.

An explanation for the purpose GlassPoint’s solar thermal project was provided:

Heavy oil is produced by injecting steam into the reservoir to heat the oil so it can be pumped to the surface. This process, known as thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), typically generates steam using natural gas. By harnessing the sun’s thermal energy to replace the combustion of natural gas, GlassPoint is enabling Aera to reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint at Belridge.

A patent was given for ‘solar augmented geothermal energy‘ that looks very similar to this oil extraction method and was actually referenced by GlassPoint in its own patent filings. The image below gives a rough description of the flow of steam in the power plant:

Five other plants have been built globally with this technology. Glasspoint has been involved in three of them. The first pilot plant for the technology was built in California in 1983 by Arco Solar. Early in November, Glasspoint finished construction on Phase 1 of the same technology in Oman. The Oman plant will be 1GW in size.

The technology is deployed in 28MW blocks that cover 14 acres:

A gorgeous collection of images mostly from the Oman site:

A video of the Oman project:

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Tweet me to pick apart quote.

For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articles.

Output: Aera Energy and GlassPoint Solar have announced plans to construct California's largest solar energy facility. The solar thermal site will produce 12 million barrels of steam per year to be injected into the Belridge oilfield for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The system will replace natural gas in EOR and save more than 376,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.


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Finserves seek computational edge via quantum computing start-up
 A host of financial services firms, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, have joined a C$45 million Series B funding round for Vancouver-based quantum computing startup 1QBit Information Technologies.

Led by Fujitsu, the round, comprising equity and revenue contracts, was also joined by insurance giant Allianz, CME Group's venture arm, and Accenture.

Over the last four years, 1QBit has built up a team of over 50 researchers, software developers, and industry experts who specialise in developing algorithms and software for quantum and classical computing, focused on machine learning, optimisation methods, and simulation.

The firm works with clients in areas such as finance, energy and life sciences, helping them tackle "computationally intensive problems". The latest round will not only pump money into the company as it builds up its hardware-agnostic software platform, but also see Accenture and Fujitsu offer the technology to their clients.

Paul Daugherty, chief technology and innovation officer, Accenture, says: "The 1QBit platform accelerates our client’s ability to leverage the most advanced quantum and classical processors available to solve their most complex business challenges, and gives them a hardware-agnostic solution that enables them to stay ahead of the computational curve."

Output: Quantum computing start-up 1QBit Information Technologies has raised CAD45m in a series B round featuring Royal Bank of Scotland, Allianz and CME Group. The hardware-agnostic 1QBit platform is expected to help clients stay ahead of the computational curve in solving complex business challenges, said Paul Daugherty, CTO at Accenture, which also participated. In addition to development, the latest round will see Fujitsu, which led the round, and Accenture, offer the technology to clients. Boasting a team of over 50 researchers, software developers, and industry experts, 1QBit creates software for quantum and classical computing, focusing on optimisation, simulation and machine learning.


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Bitfinex, Tether deny mismanagement as links come under scrutiny
 SAN FRANCISCO — As the price of Bitcoin has soared, the virtual currency has edged toward the mainstream.

Square, the fast-growing payments company run by the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has begun selling Bitcoins to ordinary consumers, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will soon allow banks to trade on the value of Bitcoin.

But if you want to see where the price of Bitcoin is actually determined in round-the-clock bidding, you have to go to a number of unregulated exchanges that often fly in the face of American and European laws.

These days, no exchange is bigger than Bitfinex, an opaque operation that provides no information on its website about where it is or who operates the company.

Output: Bitfinex, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, and dollar-linked cryptocurrency issuer Tether have denied claims of mismanagement weeks after a $30m hack of the platform. Both condemned the allegations as being made by "questionable actors" and said Bitfinex aims to be "the most transparent crypto exchange in the industry". However, the exchange provides no information on management and it has only just acknowledge its links with Tether after the connection was revealed in the leaked Paradise Papers.


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No Isolation uses avatar to overcome loneliness in ill children
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The hardest thing about the hereditary syndrome Jade Gadd developed at the age of 13 wasn’t the pain, even though that could be hard. Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome affects every system in the body, but not at the same time, so Jade never knows when she might lose her speech, or when her fragile bones might break, or when her skin might become so sensitive that she can’t bear being touched.

At 17, Jade has become accustomed to the changing nature of the disease. But she has always struggled with the loneliness that comes from long periods of isolation.

“I felt like I was disappearing from the world,” she says of the time after her diagnosis. “I used to go to after school clubs and have friends that felt like family. But when I came out of hospital they disappeared and I was devastated.”

Now Jade has a new social life through a robot called AV1 that she has nicknamed Bee. The robot is the creation of No Isolation, a Norwegian company founded two years ago with one big goal: to end loneliness.

The NHS estimates that there are more than a million children in the UK who have a long-term or lifelong illness and need medicines for the foreseeable future. Schools and other local authorities have a responsibility to make sure children with chronic illnesses receive a full education, but in practice, services can be slow and expensive. It took Jade a year to get a science teacher at home.

AV1 costs £1800 to rent for one year, which includes a 4G subscription and unlimited support. That sounds a lot, but it quickly earns its keep when a school has to pay for home tutoringin sever al different subjects.

Karen Dolva, the 26-year-old co-founder of No Isolation, describes AV1 as “a phone wrapped in a robot”. It is a small, white avatar, designed to sit on a desk with its head down until a remote user signs on at home through their tablet or phone. Then the head comes up and lights go on behind the the eyes, where there is also a camera, speaker and microphone. Unlike a phone, however AV1 has no screen.

“You’re not having your best day when you’re ill at home in bed. So we took away the screen,” Karen says. “The kids get it instantly, but they are more used to playing games and having avatars represent them than we are.”

AV1 is not only a pair of eyes and ears in a classroom. It also allows the user to respond to questions and hold conversations. One afternoon at the No Isolation office in Oslo, Karen shows me the iPad interface. It includes options to raise your hand, which is signalled by flashing lights. There’s a button to whisper, which brings the volume on the robot down so low that only someone with their ear pressed to the speaker can hear. Finally, there’s the option to signal that you are present, but tired and unable to talk much or answer questions.

“You can set a blue light so you don’t have to say, ‘Today I’m not feeling well,’ because that’s not always an easy thing to say,” Karen says.

No Isolation came out of a friendship between Karen, who had trained in user experience design; Marius Aabel, who specialises in electronics and hardware; and Matias Doyle, a software designer. They all worked at Startup Lab, an incubator and early stage investor, in Oslo around 2012. No Isolation was founded in the summer of 2015. The trio set out on months of research, talking to parents who cared for sick children and some whose children had passed away.

During the research, they became especially close with Anne Fi Troye, a Norwegian woman who lost her daughter to cancer 12 years ago. Since that time, Anne Fi had been doing whatever she could to help children with illnesses battle loneliness. The feedback helped the founders realise that children needed an avatar that could be present not just in the classroom, but in the breaks, so they can keep up their friendships and develop socially with their peers.

“The telepresence robot goes out on your behalf,” Karen says. “You have a presence every day so that you don’t miss anything. So the day you are there in the classroom, it’s not a big deal, because everyone spoke to you yesterday.”

Jade, who lives in the North East, was the first UK user of AVI, though there are about 700 AV1s in use across the world. She got used to using it in the holidays, when her dad would take it to the shops so that Jade could pick out her own fruit and toiletries.

Jade says: “It sounds trivial, but when life doesn’t have days or nights and you can count the people you see in an average week on one hand, being able to see Tesco is like traveling to the moon.”

Her maths teacher, Steve McArdle, said the difference to Jade’s wellbeing is huge.

“The maths and further maths programme is intensive and fast paced,” Steve says. “Jade has been attending lessons when well but through the link and our wider support programme she has so far missed nothing.”

The reaction from fellow students has also been positive. “[They were] excited at first and keen to be involved in the support programme,” McArdle says. “The avatar uses her normal desk and they see it as her, if remotely rather than a machine.”

AV1 cannot record sessions, just as a pupil could not record a lesson in class. No Isolation have worked with the Norwegian Government to make sure that the robot won’t breach privacy of teachers and students. Karen says: “That’s a big part of it, the teachers should not feel like they are being monitored or that the parent might be watching.”

No Isolation has had two rounds of funding. The first round raised €850,000 last February and then a seed round raised a further €2 million last November. The team is already onto its next business idea: a simple interface to combat loneliness in the elderly.

This so-called compassionate computer, or KOMP, is in the trial phase. It is designed to receive videos, links, photos and text and display them in a readable format, with no pop ups or clicks that might confuse older users.

“You have so many different types of loneliness: chronically ill adults, seniors, even city loneliness,” Karen Dolva says. “We can make a difference, we know we can.”

Output: Norwegian start-up No Isolation has developed a small robot device that helps chronically ill youngsters combat loneliness by offering an avatar-like link to the outside world. The AV1 sits on a classroom desk and is activated via a smartphone. Its camera, speaker and microphone enable children to answer questions in class and interact with others from home, while a blue light reveals when they are present but unable to participate. The company has sold 700 AV1 units, costing £1,800 ($2,412) per year's rental, including 4G subscription and support, and is planning to develop a similar device for the elderly.


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Olam looks to boost smart farming in Asia and Africa
 SINGAPORE/LAMPUNG -- On a sunny day in late July in Lampung, a rural farming town in the southern part of Indonesia's Sumatra Island, an employee of agricultural-goods trading company Olam International was busy making the rounds of cocoa farms, collecting data from farm owners.

"How old are your cocoa trees?" he asked. "What is your crop yield?"

Output: Singapore-based Olam International is using artificial intelligence and big data as part of its smart farming initiative, the Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS). It aims to boost production and value for smaller cocoa, coffee and nut growers in Africa and Asia, as well as improve efficiency, quality and traceability across the global supply chain. The company also plans to launch an online platform under its Olam Direct programme, where farmers can sell crops, purchase fertilisers and access insurance and other financial services. Olam is a major provider of foodstuffs such as nuts and cocoa beans to world agriculture businesses.


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Factory production will be affected by global warming
 As the mercury rises, industrial facilities will become less efficient. That’s the finding of a new study, which crunched data about production rates from half a million Chinese manufacturing plants from 1998 to 2007.

The research, published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, suggests that factories across China will see their output fall 12 percent by the middle of the 21st century if they don’t adapt to climate change. That would be equivalent to a loss of $39.5 billion in 2007 dollars.

There would be two major effects at play. The first, which we’ve described in the past, is that humans are affected by extreme temperature. When it’s hot, they work less, and they are less productive when they do manage to work.

But the new analysis shows that both light industries, such as food manufacturing or timber processing, and heavy industries, like chemical refining or metal smelting, find their productivity dented by the heat. Because light industry is more reliant on humans and heavy industry is more reliant on equipment, that suggests high temperatures are taking a toll on the productivity of both labor and capital.

In other words, the machines themselves are less productive in the heat.

Perhaps even more intruiging, thought, is that high-tech industries, such as production of medical supplies or manufacturing of computer parts, appear to feel the same effects. “This is striking, as firms in high-technology industries tend to operate in air-conditioned environments,” the researchers write.

The findings are, of course, limited to China. But they are likely to apply to the rest of the world. Either way, the global economy is interconnected. As the authors point out, “any climate change damage to the Chinese manufacturing sector is likely to affect global prices and thus welfare around the world.”

Output: Global warming will make industrial facilities less efficient, according to research into the production rates of half a million Chinese manufacturing plants between 1998 and 2007. The study suggests that factories throughout the country would see a 12% fall in output by the middle of the century without action to tackle climate change. The research found that, as well as human productivity, rising temperatures would also affect the productivity of machines. Unexpectedly, the study found that high-tech industries, which tend to have air-conditioned environments, would also experience the effects.


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Three Chinese life insurers ordered to stop introducing new products
 Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-20 19:55:32|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's insurance regulator said Monday that it has banned three life insurance firms from issuing new products in the next six months.

The three companies, the Bank of Communications Life Insurance, ABC Life Insurance and Greatwall Life Insurance, have violated certain regulatory provisions, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said on its website.

Investigators have found serious problems in the companies' product design and management, the commission said, ordering the companies to recall the defective products and rectify the problems.

CIRC said it will continue to tighten regulatory supervision and punish irregularities.

This came amid the country's efforts to intensify financial regulation and supervision to contain financial risks.

Output: The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has issued bans on the issuance of new products for three life insurance firms, the Bank of Communications Life Insurance, Greatwall Life Insurance and ABC Life Insurance for violation of regulatory provisions. The regulator found that the companies' product design management was flawed, leading to defective product recalls. The CIRC plans to strengthen its supervision and be more stringent against financial risks.


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Website crypto-miners run scripts after exiting browsers
 How Does This Browser Technique Work?

"This type of pop-under is designed to bypass adblockers and is a lot harder to identify because of how cleverly it hides itself," Jérôme Segura, Malwarebytes' Lead Malware Intelligence Analyst, says in the post. "Closing the browser using the "X" is no longer sufficient."

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How to Block Hidden Cryptocurrency Miners

Some websites have found using a simple yet effective technique to keep their cryptocurrency mining javascript secretly running in the background even when you close your web browser.Due to the recent surge in cryptocurrency prices, hackers and even legitimate website administrators are increasingly using JavaScript-based cryptocurrency miners to monetize by levying the CPU power of their visitor's PC to mine Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.After the world's most popular torrent download website, caught secretly using, a browser-based cryptocurrency miner service, on its site last month, thousands of other websites also started using the service as an alternative monetization model to banner ads.However, websites using such crypto-miner services can mine cryptocurrencies as long as you're on their site. Once you close the browser window, they lost access to your processor and associated resources, which eventually stops mining.Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore.Security researchers from anti-malware provider Malwarebytes have found that some websites have discovered a clever trick to keep their cryptocurrency mining software running in the background even when you have closed the offending browser window.According to a blog post published Wednesday morning by Malwarebytes, the new technique works by opening a hidden pop-under browser window that fits behind the taskbar and hides behind the clock on your Microsoft's Windows computer.From there (hidden from your view), the website runs the crypto-miner code that indefinitely generates cryptocurrency for the person controlling the site while eating up CPU cycles and power from your computer until and unless you notice the window and close it.Researchers say this technique is a lot harder to identify and able to bypass most ad-blockers because of how cleverly it hides itself. The crypto-miner runs from a crypto-mining engine hosted by Amazon Web Servers.To keep itself unidentified, the code running in the hidden browser always takes care of the maximum CPU usage and maintains threshold to a medium level.You can also have a look at the animated GIF image that shows how this clever trick works.This technique works on the latest version of Google's Chrome web browser running on the most recent versions of Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows 10.If you suspect your computer CPU is running a little harder than usual, just look for any browser windows in the taskbar. If you find any browser icon there, your computer is running a crypto-miner. Now simply, kill it.More technical users can run Task Manager on their computer to ensure there is no remnant running browser processes and terminate them.Since web browsers themselves currently are not blocking cryptocurrency miners neither does the integrated Windows Defender antivirus software, you can use antivirus programs that automatically block cryptocurrency miners on web pages you visit.For this, you can contact your antivirus provider to check if they do.Alternatively, you can make use of web browser extensions, like No Coin , that automatically block in-browser cryptocurrency miners for you, and regularly update themselves with new mining scripts that come out.Created by developer Rafael Keramidas, No Coin is an open source extension that blocks Coin Hive and other similar cryptocurrency miners and is available for Google Chrome , Mozilla Firefox , and Opera No Coin currently does not support Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Internet Explorer. So, those using one of these browsers can use an antimalware program that blocks cryptocurrency miners.

Output: Security researchers have discovered that some cryptocurrency websites have found a way to keep crypto-mining Java script running on users' computers even after they have closed the site. Experts from Malwarebytes have reported that the technique involves opening a new pop-up window that hides on the desktop and uses the machine's processing power to run crypto-mining code until the user notices the window and closes it. Anti-virus software can be used to block cryptocurrency miners on webpages, and there are also browser extensions available including No Coin, which can be used with Chrome, Firefox and Opera.


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Land Registry aiming to digitise 95% of transactions by 2022

 Post navigation

The Land Registry yesterday announced a new business strategy, aimed at speeding up the buying and selling of homes in England and Wales.

The new strategy is also aimed at making the process cheaper and simpler.

The Land Registry aims to digitise 95% of its daily transactions within five years, and to create a more definite record of property ownership.

A pilot digital register for a “small selection” of properties will be in place by the end of next month.

Called Digital Street, this will be “machine readable” and capable of being updated instantly.

The Land Registry said: “Digital Street will contribute towards a property industry where people will buy, rent, sell, finance, build and manage property with ease.”

The new five-year plan is aimed to make it the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

The Land Registry currently contains over 25m titles showing evidence of ownership of some 84% of the land mass of England and Wales.

Output: The UK's Land Registry is aiming to digitise 95% of its daily transactions over the next five years in order to speed up services for customers and simplify property transactions. The public agency holds records of ownership for 25 million properties in England and Wales, accounting for 84% of the land mass. The project, called Digital Street, will create a machine-readable digital register that can update instantly. A pilot using a small number of properties will be in place by the end of the year.


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Irish Stock Exchange to be bought by Euronext for €137m
 Euronext to Acquire Irish Stock Exchange

Euronext announced the acquisition of 100% of The Irish Stock Exchange plc (ISE), for 137 million.

ISE is currently owned by five Irish financial institutions, J&E Davy, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Investec Capital & Investments, Cantor Fitzgerald and Campbell OConnor that have all committed to sell their shares.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q1 2018.

A strategic venue to join Euronexts federal model

Headquartered in Dublin, ISE is Irelands incumbent stock exchange operator and a global leader in the listing of debt and funds securities. ISE is the first pool of liquidity for Irish equities (51 listed companies, c. 122bn total domestic equity market capitalisation[3]), the first debt listing venue globally (30,000+ securities and listings1 from 90 countries) and the first fund listing venue globally (5,242 Investment Funds Securities and 227 ETFs1).

ISE generated revenue of 29.4m, EBITDA of 9.6m and a net income of 8.0m in 2016. For the first 9 months of 2017, ISE generated 24.2m of revenue, up +13.3% compared to the same period in 2016, and an EBITDA of 8.5m, up +22.4% compared to the same period in 2016.

The combined group pro forma 9 months of 2017 revenue would amount to 416.9m and an EBITDA of 227.7m before synergies.

ISE to join Euronexts federal model for further growth opportunities and increased efficiency

The transaction brings together two highly complementary businesses with significant growth opportunities and expands Euronexts federal model to a new attractive European country. It creates a leading global player in debt and fund listings, combining the listing expertise of ISE with the traded markets expertise of Euronext.

Euronext will benefit from ISEs leading global positions in debt and fund listings as well as its unique product and listing expertise. The acquisition will also enhance Euronexts growth outlook thanks to ISEs embedded core businesses growth, complemented by the additional strategic growth plans for ISE, which will be reinforced with the full support of Euronext.

Ideal positioning of ISE in a dynamic environment, to take advantage of post-Brexit opportunities

The acquisition of ISE by Euronext, combined with Irelands very competitive economic environment, will further strengthen Irelands position as a strong European anchor to take advantage of Brexit opportunities. This transaction will also develop the Irish capital markets ecosystem within a European context and as part of Euronexts core mission to power the real economy.

ISE is at the centre of Irelands highly competitive financial ecosystem. The country provides a recognized finance-friendly environment, with a highly educated workforce, and a business-oriented mind-set, as well as an attractive economy within the Eurozone, with forecast GDP growth of c.3.8%[4] 2017e-18e. Ireland is in a strong position to seize opportunities arising from Brexit since it is both close to the UK business culture and strongly rooted inside the Eurozone.

Dublin will have a strong group-wide position within Euronexts highly inclusive federal governance structure, notably as the global centre of excellence for all Euronexts group-wide activities in the listing of debt, funds and ETF securities.

ISE will then benefit from a strong European anchor to support and develop the Irish listed companies ecosystem within a European context and as part of Euronexts core mission to power the real economy.

Integrated federal governance at the core of Euronexts federal model

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For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:

Output: Euronext, the pan-European stock exchange group, has offered to buy the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) for €137m ($162m). The offer came as Ireland makes attempts to deepen ties with Europe as Brexit uncertainty continues, and Europe tries to take on London as a financial centre. If it obtains regulatory approval the deal is expected to conclude early next year. Last year ISE made revenues of €29.4m and had a net income of €8m.


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Luxembourg signs fintech partnership with Japan
 Source: The LHoFT

As part of the Luxembourg State visit in Japan and following the Luxembourg-Japan Business Forum in Tokyo highlighting the future of financial relations between Japan and Luxembourg, the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology Foundation (LHoFT) is pleased to announce the signature of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Fintech Association of Japan (FAJ) on Wednesday, 29 November.

This MoU was signed by Nicolas Mackel, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, on behalf of the LHoFT, and witnessed by H.E. Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Finance Minister, as well as other distinguished guests from the Luxembourg official delegation.

Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT commented: “This cooperation agreement with the Fintech Association of Japan is the confirmation of the strong and trusted relationship between Japan and the Luxembourg financial centre. The agreement confirms that Luxembourg is becoming a core hub for Fintech and for corporations looking for Fintech investment opportunities across Europe.”

Shirabe Ogino, Director of the FAJ added: “Through this MoU, we believe members of the Fintech Association of Japan will have better access to the European Union and receive up-todate information on trends or policies in the EU. We are also welcoming European Fintech startups to explore the financial sector in Japan.”

Output: The financial technology sectors of Luxembourg and Japan will work together closely, following the signing of an agreement between industry bodies in the two countries. The leaders of both organisations expressed hopes that the partnership will lead to mutual investment opportunities. Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology Foundation, added: "this cooperation agreement with the Fintech Association of Japan is the confirmation of the strong and trusted relationship between Japan and the Luxembourg financial centre".


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Coinbase reaps the rewards of bitcoin surge
 Bitcoin is a whisker away from the $10,000 mark, as it continues its spectacular run this year. It has gained 900% since January. One company in particular is benefiting from this bull run. The startup “unicorn” Coinbase is adding thousands of bitcoin-curious users daily and now has more registered users than the number of active accounts at the stock brokerage Charles Schwab, CNBC reported.

Coinbase, which operates one of the biggest consumer-facing bitcoin wallets and exchanges in the business, added 100,000 users yesterday alone. Over 780,000 new users have signed up so far this month. That’s according to data it publishes on its website, and which was collated by cryptocurrency fund manager Alistair Milne.

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Coinbase’s rise is also apparent in its App Store rankings. It’s ranked 53 out of all apps in the US App Store, up from 1,264th place in September. Yesterday it claimed the third spot among finance apps, behind only Square’s Cash and PayPal’s Venmo. Square Cash has long held the top spot, and it’s perhaps no coincidence that it is also experimenting with a feature that will let customers buy and hold bitcoin.

Coinbase appears to be far more popular among consumers than other cryptocurrency firms that have raised comparable amounts of venture funding. It has raised over $200 million since 2012, at an estimated valuation of $1.6 billion. While Coinbase has nearly cracked the top 50 most popular apps among US iOS users, the rival wallet service Blockchain.info, which has raised $70 million to date, is ranked 760th. Blockchain claims 19 million wallets have been created on its platform, while Coinbase claims 45 million wallets. Circle, which once allowed users to buy and hold bitcoin within its app, has raised $137 million, and is ranked 1,036th. Circle no longer lets users buy and sell bitcoin directly, but it still uses the cryptocurrency in the background to settle transactions.

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Company US App Store ranking Funds raised Coinbase 53 $217 million Circle 1,036 $136 Blockchain.info 760 $70 Source: Crunchbase, Sensor Tower

If the oft-quoted analogy that bitcoin is like the internet of the 1990s is taken seriously, then Coinbase is the AOL of the bitcoin world, acting as a user-friendly, on-ramp for millions to a weird and wonderful new network—while collecting a healthy chunk of fees. No matter how bitcoin trades in the coming days, Coinbase has already reaped the rewards of the cryptocurrency’s bull run.

Output: Bitcoin wallet and exchange site Coinbase has benefited from the soaring price of bitcoin, with the company seeing registered user numbers rise by more than 780,000 in November alone. Coinbase's app is ranking 53rd on the App Store in the US, skyrocketing from 1,264th place in September this year. The company's popularity has led to more than $200m in investment since 2012, with a present valuation of approximately $1.6bn. Coinbase reportedly holds 45 million wallets.


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AI helps Facebook combat terrorist content
 SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook says it's able to remove 99% of Islamic State and Al Qaeda terrorist content before it's flagged by users thanks to advances in artificial intelligence that are helping stop the spread of terrorist content.

Once Facebook is aware of the terrorist content, it removes 83% of it within an hour of it being uploaded, the company said Tuesday.

"We are encouraged by these numbers but we know we have to work to do and we are working on getting better and faster," said Monika Bickert, who runs global policy management. She would not say how much terrorist content — how many posts, images, videos and the like — is removed from Facebook.

"The 99% and 83% that are removed are pretty impressive on the surface but the question is: Are we talking about 1,000 videos or 10,000, or 100,000?" says Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the program on extremism at George Washington University. "What's glaringly missing are the actual hard numbers."

Attacks on Western targets and sharp criticism from European officials have intensified pressure on Facebook to crack down on terrorist activity. European officials are calling on technology companies to take more responsibility for the content on their networks and to provide more information to authorities that could help them foil or investigate attacks.

Terrorist groups use popular Internet services such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to spread propaganda, attract and train new recruits, celebrate terrorist attacks and publicize executions. They also use messaging services to communicate.

Facebook says it's rooting out and removing extremists' propaganda and messages by using sophisticated algorithms to mine words, images and videos.

Artificial intelligence can't do the job alone, so Facebook has a team of more than 150, including counterterrorism experts, who are dedicated to tracking and taking down propaganda and other materials. It's also collaborating with fellow technology companies and consulting with researchers to keep pace with the ever-changing social media tactics of the Islamic State and other terror groups.

Facebook is part of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, which was formed in June with companies such as Google, Microsoft and Twitter. The companies share a database of "hashes" — essentially digital fingerprints — to track and take down videos and images that appear on their services.

More:Facebook taps artificial intelligence in new push to block terrorist propaganda

More:Russians used Facebook the way other advertisers do: By tapping into its data-mining machine

More:Zuckerberg: We're responsible for halting violent content on Facebook

Facebook says it has prioritized going after Isis and Al Qaeda because it believes they pose the greatest threat globally but it plans to expand to terrorist content posted by other extremist groups.

The challenge: When chased from Facebook, terrorists set up shop elsewhere. Terrorism experts say extremists have decamped to smaller outfits such as messaging service Telegram, which use end-to-end encryption.

Some of the techniques being developed by Facebook to combat terrorism can be deployed in other areas including Russian propaganda, Bickert said.

A Russian organization linked to the Kremlin targeted unsuspecting Americans with Facebook posts and ads to stoke outrage over polarizing issues from gay rights to gun rights in the tense political climate surrounding the 2016 presidential election.

Executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google were recently summoned to a series of hearings on Capitol Hill to answer questions about election interference by Russians on their platforms. Russia has denied any meddling in the election.

"Facebook is having conversations with Capitol Hill at a higher clip than before," Hughes said. "It's going to raise the question: If you can do this on terrorist content, then why can't you do this on fake news and Russian propaganda?"

Output: Facebook is using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to detect and remove pro-terrorist content from the site. Facebook claimed the system enables it to remove 99% of propaganda content before it is flagged by users, and 83% of it is removed within an hour of being uploaded. However, the company has not released figures for how many posts these percentages represent. The company has a team of more than 150 staff working on its counter-terrorism effort, and is part of a joint project with other technology firms called the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.


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Google accused of data protection breach in UK class action
 More than 5 million people in the UK could be entitled to compensation from Google if a class action against the internet giant for allegedly harvesting personal data is successful.

A group led by the former executive director of consumer body Which?, Richard Lloyd, and advised by City law firm Mischon de Reya claims Google unlawfully collected personal information by bypassing the default privacy settings on the iPhone between June 2011 and February 2012.

They have launched a legal action with the aim of securing compensation for those affected. The group, called Google You Owe Us, says that approximately 5.4 million people in Britain used the iPhone during this period and could be entitled to compensation.

Google is accused of breaching principles in the UK’s data protection laws in a “violation of trust” against iPhone users.

The lawsuit was unprecedented and represented “one of the biggest fights of my life”, said Lloyd, who has led legal actions against companies before.

“I believe that what Google did was simply against the law. Their actions have affected millions, and we’ll be asking the courts to remedy this major breach of trust.

“Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we’re not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken.

“In all my years speaking up for consumers, I’ve rarely seen such as massive abuse of trust where so many people have no way to seek redress on their own.”

He added: “This is … the first case of its kind in the UK against a major tech company for misusing our valuable personal data.

“I want to spread the world about our claim. Google owes all of those affected fairness, trust and money. By joining together, we can show Google that they can’t get away with taking our data without our consent, and that no matter how large and powerful they are, nobody is above the law.”

A Google spokesperson said: “This is not new. We have defended similar cases before. We don’t believe it has any merit and we will contest it.”

Output: Google is facing a class action lawsuit that could entitle more than five million people in the UK to compensation if the company is found to have harvested their personal data unlawfully. The Google You Owe Us group pursuing the action, which alleges Google unlawfully collected the data by bypassing default privacy settings on iPhones between June 2011 and February 2012, is led by a former executive director of consumer group Which?, Richard Lloyd, and advised by City law firm Mischon de Reya. Lloyd said Google's actions were a "massive breach of trust". Google is contesting the action.


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SocGen to cut 900 more staff, close 300 branches in savings drive
 French bank SocGen is taking the axe to its business once again, announcing plans for a further 900 job reductions and the closure of 15% of its branch network.

The three-year plan will involve a further rationalisation of the branch network, cutting the number of high street outlets from 2000 to 1700 stores, a consolidation of back office centres from 20 to 14, and the automation of 80% of front-to-bck processes.

The bank is also dedicating EUR150m to "disruptive innovation projects", which will be achieved through equity investments in startup businesses..

The overhaul could lead to a headcount reduction of approximately 900 employees, in addition to the 2,550 already announced at the beginning of 2016, taking the total number to around 3,450 by 2020.

The reorganisation will result in the bank recording an exceptional charge of around EUR400 million in Q4 17, with the aim of generating EUR1.1 billion in annual savings.

Output: French bank Societe Generale plans to cut 900 jobs as it closes 15% of its network of branches over three years in a bid to make annual savings of €1.1bn ($1.3bn). The company is reducing high street stores from 2,000 to 1,700 and back office centres from 20 to 14, while 80% of front-to-back processes will be automated. It follows cuts of 2,550 staff last year. SocGen will also invest €150m ($178m) into "disruptive innovation" initiatives by start-ups.


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Marketers look to institute strict whitelist strategies after scandal
 The fear and disappointment that gripped brands in the wake of the brand-safety crisis on YouTube in March has been replaced with pragmatism and caution in the latest one.

Last week, investigations by the BBC and The Times of London found ads that ran against content and comments that exploited kids, which pushed brands such as Adidas, Mars and Diageo to freeze spend on YouTube. The platform has since deleted hundreds of accounts and removed 150,000 videos. British advertisers’ trade body ISBA called Google execs to a meeting with top marketers to dress them down over the problems. But despite the tough talk, marketers for the most part aren’t threatening to pull ad spending, unlike the previous brouhaha. Now, marketers are more likely to take the onus on themselves to institute proper whitelist strategies.

“We [L’Oréal] can’t say we’re not going to use this channel because of certain issues [like brand safety]. At the end of the day, consumers are there,” said Stéphane Bérubé, L’Oréal’s CMO for Western Europe. “I can tell you we’re working very closely with Google and Facebook [on ad placement] and have seen a lot of improvement in this area. It’s our responsibility as advertisers, not just L’Oréal, to be able to find solutions that let us control the environments where our ads are served.”

Bérubé discussed the importance of brands acknowledging the nuances of content on the site. The cosmetic brand won’t advertise on certain YouTube channels even if they are brand-safe because they are at odds with its own values. While most big brands would agree with Bérubé, preferring to adopt stricter whitelists, some are happy to display ads next to safe but edgier YouTube channels because this is where their audience is, according to Aydin Moghaddam, head of paid search at digital agency Roast.

The safety or suitability of other content is subjective, added Andrea Ching, CMO at OpenSlate, a video analytics firm specializing in YouTube. Marketers must continue to balance maintaining suitable environments for their brands and staying current with the “changing content landscape and shifting social norms,” she said.

It comes down to advertisers knowing what they’re buying, said one media expert who consults with marketers on media strategy, speaking on condition of anonymity. During the first brand boycott of YouTube, the source’s client took advantage of the cheaper rates and bought more ads on the site. “When everyone else pulled out, the marketer said, ‘As long as you know what you’re buying and you’re chasing an audience, you can go deeper into the platform,’” the source said. “There will be more of that same pragmatism from brands toward YouTube because for all the fear and complexity, marketers are saying they have to get on with it.”

YouTube is too big for most global advertisers to refuse even if they don’t have full confidence in it. In the U.K., 18- to 34-year-olds watch an average 55 minutes of YouTube videos a day, according to comScore data cited by Google. What’s driving the attention to YouTube is the content, much like it is for TV, according to Ronan Harris, Google’s U.K. managing director.

YouTube’s pitch to brands, however, has left many demanding more from the video giant. As proactive as Google has been at addressing some of the industry’s trust issues, the perception is it’s still struggling to get to the root of the problem. Take Google Preferred, for example. In the wake of the initial brand-safety crisis, YouTube moved some advertisers to its Preferred lineup of the most popular channels, which were also sold as advertiser-safe content zones. Yet videos that brands don’t want to be associated with still slip through the net. Google Preferred combined with greater monitoring still doesn’t offer 100 percent protection, said Matt Bushby, Just Eat’s head of growth marketing.

Speaking to Digiday prior to the latest brand boycott of the video platform, he said: “There’s a lot of gamer content in there [Google Preferred], which might be a good audience for us, but actually is it premium content? That’s a conversation we’re having with YouTube because while we have lightened our spend there, we’re still on the platform, and it’s a challenge that we have to work together to solve as an industry.”

Neither Jellyfish nor M/Six believe Google Preferred is the most cost-effective or efficient way of buying media on YouTube.

Digital agency Jellyfish uses a system that plugs into the YouTube application programming interface to select each individual video its clients appear against at scale. “No one can say 100 percent of their activity will always be brand-safe, but we’re pretty confident our technology, in conjunction with Google’s approach, is better than relying only on Google Preferred,” said Daniel Wilkinson, head of paid media at Jellyfish.

YouTube will remain consistent with past behavior, proactively working to resolve the content problem, argued Todd Krizelman, CEO and founder of ad sales insights platform MediaRadar. But for those keeping score, he said, “the perception is that YouTube is struggling to solve this problem.”

Output: Marketers are likely to establish proper whitelist strategies themselves in the wake of the YouTube brand safety crisis. Brands including Diageo and Adidas recently froze spending on YouTube after ads were found against content that exploited children. The Google-owned platform has since deleted hundreds of accounts and 150,000 videos. But marketers are unlikely to threaten to pull ad spending altogether and are instead likely to work with platforms to address the problems. Stéphane Bérubé, L'Oréal's CMO for Western Europe, said it was the responsibility of all advertisers to help find solutions to control environments where ads are served.


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Facebook allocates more of budget towards series for Watch
 Facebook is spending more on individual shows for its Watch video-viewing section as the company scales back the total number of deals it signs with content partners. In doing so, the company is also looking for longer periods of exclusivity for the programs it funds.

Facebook launched Watch in August in an effort to bring more TV-like video programming to its platform. Instead of short, 60- to 90-second clips that work well within the news feed, Facebook wants more long-form material for Watch — and is willing to pay for it. Budgets for the first batch of “spotlight” (short-form) shows for Watch, which totaled in the hundreds, were roughly $10,000 to $40,000 per episode. For “hero” shows (TV-length original series), Facebook was willing to spend anywhere from $250,000 to more than $1 million per episode, according to sources.

While Facebook is no longer using the “spotlight” or “hero” labels for shows in conversations with original content partners, multiple sources said Facebook is spending two or three times the money it previously allocated for individual short-form series. Three sources that have recently sold shows to Facebook, including several renewals from Facebook’s first batch of original series, said Facebook is spending between $50,000 and $70,000 per episode for their short-form programs.

Facebook’s original content team has also told media partners in these conversations that it’s looking to spend more per show, while buying fewer shows overall, with one source describing the approach as “bigger budgets, fewer shows.” Overall, Facebook is willing to spend up to $1 billion on content through 2018, which could include live sports deals, according to an earlier Wall Street Journal report.

“They went out and did what a lot of the digital platforms do when they want original content,” said one Facebook Watch original content partner. “They made a bunch of different deals with different kinds of content companies and populated their platform.”

“It got more producers and publishers thinking about Watch,” added a second Facebook Watch original content partner. “If they had greenlit only 10 shows from their top publishers, yeah, we could direct a lot of traffic, but it would not be part of the Hollywood conversation that it currently is. Because they have hundreds of partners doing it, there are now Hollywood agents telling clients to take their ideas to Facebook.”

Now, Facebook is focused on renewing shows that drive repeat viewers, as well as new projects that look and feel more like YouTube and TV than news-feed videos.

“Since we launched Watch, we have learned a lot. We want to work closely with our partners to develop strong communities around their shows, with compelling storylines and characters that drive conversation. We are encouraging partners to experiment with different formats and the limited shows that we are funding are lighthouse examples of this type of engaged storytelling,” said Nick Grudin, vp of media partnerships at Facebook, in a statement.

The second Facebook Watch partner, which has had series renewed by Facebook, said Facebook has an internal repeat-viewers metric it uses to benchmark the success of shows. If a show can get at least 10 percent of its total audience to watch every episode, Facebook considers it a success and is likely to renew the series for additional seasons, according to this partner. So far, Facebook has confirmed that it has renewed four shows, including “Returning the Favor,” “Ball in the Family,” “Loosely Exactly Nicole” and Refinery29’s “Strangers.”

“They want more sophisticated, premium content — which will cost more money,” said a third Facebook Watch partner. “Based on what they’ve bought from us, it has the look and smell of TV-type formats, not Facebook-type formats.”

Facebook is also pushing media partners to make longer episodes — which naturally require bigger budgets.

“One of their notes to us was that our show was great, but instead of doing seven-minute episodes, we could have made them 20-minute episodes,” said the second Facebook Watch partner. “We told them we could, but it would cost us more.”

As Facebook is willing to spend more on shows, it’s also asking for longer periods of exclusivity for them, according to sources. Previously, the “spotlight” shows Facebook ordered were exclusive to Facebook for about two weeks, after which the content partners could distribute and make money off the shows elsewhere. While the terms vary by project, Facebook is now asking for anywhere from three months to a year of exclusivity on the shows it funds, these sources said.

“It’s all negotiable, and we build it into the budget,” said the third Facebook Watch partner. “The longer they want to hang on to content, the more money we need. It’s a math problem.”

Facebook also wants more long-form, TV-size shows that it can own outright. In these deals, the content partner essentially works as a hired production company but does not have any rights to the content after it’s produced. Here, Facebook still plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more per episode, sources said. (The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that content partners expect Facebook to focus more on bigger-budget projects.)

“That’s a matter of ease; they’re not trying to build some massive library [of TV shows] that they can claim residuals off of,” said the first Facebook Watch partner. “It’s just easier when you don’t have to deal with rights issues for big properties that you’ve poured a lot of money and resources into.”

Output: Facebook is allocating bigger budgets for individual episodes while scaling back the total number of series on its Watch video site. The social media giant launched Watch in August in a bid to attract TV-like programming to its site. Funding for its early short-form shows were between $10,000 to $40,000 per episode. But for long-form TV-length original series, Facebook was reportedly ready to spend between $250,000 and over a $1m per episode. It is also apparently willing to spend up to $1bn on content next year, including live sport deals, the Wall Street Journal has reported.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
South Africa's Sasol looks to sell Canadian shale gas assets
 JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's Sasol is pulling out of all of its gas-to-liquids (GTL) greenfield projects including one in Louisiana project expected to cost US$13 billion to US$15 billion, the company said on Thursday.

Walking away from the project, which would have been the biggest investment abroad by a South African company, underscores the headwinds the industry is facing in a volatile market with generally depressed prices.

"While our current GTL assets are generating good returns and cash flows, the value proposition for Sasol to build new GTL projects is uneconomic against a volatile external environment and a structural shift to a low oil price environment," the company said in a statement.

The company had previously delayed its final investment decision on the project because of low oil and gas prices.

Sasol will also divest from its Canadian shale gas assets on which it took a 9.9 billion rand (US$715 million) impairment on its 2016 earnings.

"There will likely be further write-downs on it," Bongani Nqwababa, Sasol joint CEO and president, told Reuters. He cited prices and accounting requirements related to the pending sale as the main reasons.

But the company is forging ahead with its Louisiana ethane cracker project, which is now estimated to cost $11.13 billion to complete and will be the biggest foreign investment by a South African company. It is now 79 percent complete.

The plant will take ethane, a component of natural gas, and turn it into ethylene, used in the manufacture of plastic products.

Sasol said it had completed reviews on more that half of its global assets and they "have confirmed that the majority of the company’s assets will be retained".

The company, which pioneered the conversion of coal to fuel when South Africa was subject to sanctions under apartheid, also said it saw no need to boost its crude oil refining capacity, which currently stands at 270,000 barrels per day in South Africa.

Sasol also said it had increased its revolving credit facility to US$3.9 billion from US$1.5 billion and extended its maturity to five years.

The syndication closed oversubscribed with 17 banks committing to the transaction which allowed the company to increase the facility from its target size of US$3.0 billion.

The company said it aims to raise its dividend payout ratio to 40 per cent of earnings per share by 2022 from 36 per cent currently, and later to 45 per cent.

Output: Johannesburg-based energy firm Sasol has decided to sell its Canadian shale gas assets, described as "non-core" following a review of the company's holdings. Sasol said most of its holdings would be retained and it will begin a structured sale process alongside Canadian asset partner Progress Energy. The company also revealed it will not be investing in any more greenfield gas-to-liquids schemes or crude oil refining capacity.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Facebook works with publishers to test breaking news feature
 Facebook will set a cookie to keep you logged in, but it won't set one to remember whether you want to stick with a chronological News Feed. That sort of thing makes it hard to tell at a glance how old a story from a media outlet in your Feed might be. To counter that, the social network is giving certain publications access to a "breaking" tag for their posts. The bright red tag sits below a post's image and highlights how long ago it was published. Recode writes that publishers will be able to flag a story for between 15 minutes and six hours, and that it can be used once every 24 hours.

For now, the list of publishers who can use it is small and includes ABC News and Vox Media, and Facebook is keeping the full list of media organizations involved close to the chest. The breaking tag won't weight a post's ranking within Facebook's algorithms. At least not yet. A spokesperson told Recode that part of the test was to decide whether or not a breaking news story should have preference over other posts in the News Feed.

Facebook has been working with news organizations on different ways to post, host and promote their stories for awhile. Instant Articles, for example, were fast-loading versions of news stories hosted by Facebook, made their debut a few years ago. Then there's the split News Feed that keeps posts from Pages and friends siloed off from each other, and the Explore Feed. We've reached out to Facebook for more information and will update this post should it arrive.

Output: Facebook is letting some publishers test a breaking news feature for developing stories. Publications including ABC News and Vox Media will be allowed to have a bright red "breaking" tag beneath a post's image, which highlights how long ago the story was published. Publishers can mark a post as breaking for between 15 minutes and six hours, once every 24 hours, according to reports. The tag will currently not be used to determine a post's ranking within Facebook's algorithm, but whether a breaking news story should have priority over others is thought to be part of the test.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Intel, Warner Bros team up for AR, VR entertainment in robo-cars
 Video: Intel's self-learning AI chip aimed at autonomous machines

Intel said it has formed a partnership with Warner Bros., to create in-cabin and immersive experience within autonomous cars.

The chip giant, which acquired Mobileye for a play in the autonomous vehicle market, also threw a jab at Nvidia, a key rival.

Speaking at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich outlined the Warner Bros., partnership. While the focus on autonomous vehicles has revolved around mapping, vision, sensors, and the Internet of Things, Krzanich argued the in-cabin design and entertainment systems will be just as ground breaking.

Read also: Intel's Mobileye purchase may really be about thwarting Nvidia's car to cloud, data center connection | Intel buys Mobileye for $15.3 billion, eyes autonomous driving market, computer vision

In a post that went with Krzanich's keynote, he said:

So much of the discussion around autonomous driving has naturally focused on the car as a mode of transportation, but as driverless cars become a reality, we must start thinking of the automobile as a new type of consumer space. In fact, we have barely scratched the surface in thinking about the way cars will be designed, the interaction among passengers, and how passengers will spend time while they are riding and not driving. In this respect, autonomous driving is today's biggest game changer, offering a new platform for innovation from in-cabin design and entertainment to life-saving safety systems.

Intel and Warner Bros., will develop new experiences and layouts for autonomous vehicles. The effort, called the AV Entertainment Experience, will revolve around a proof-of-concept car that will be added to Intel's 100 autonomous car test fleet.

Although Intel is initially focusing on the entertainment experience in autonomous vehicles rest assured that smart office applications will follow. Intel and Warner Bros., will feature virtual and augmented reality tools as well as advertising. But freeing up humans who spend hundreds of hours behind the wheel driving will also create opportunities for mobile offices.

Intel noted Mobileye's advanced driver assistance technology, advances in safety systems, and autonomous decision-making and said efficiency will matter. Enter the Nvidia dig.

Krzanich's post noted:

And finally, safety systems of the future will rely on technologies with maximum efficiencies to handle the enormous amount of data processing required for artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, we closed our deal with Mobileye, the world's leader in ADAS and creator of algorithms that can reach better-than-human-eye perception through a camera. Now, with the combination of the Mobileye "eyes" and the Intel microprocessor "brain," we can deliver more than twice the deep learning performance efficiency than the competition. That is a huge difference and one that matters. More than two times the deep learning efficiency leads to better fuel economy and less expensive cooling solutions.

The Intel-Nvidia efficiency argument rhymes with benchmark wars with AMD years ago. When benchmarks are touted it usually makes sense to go right to the footnotes.

Here's Intel's footnote on Nvidia:

The comparison is based on Mobileye EyeQ5 TOPS performance expectations vs. NVIDIA claimed Xavier platform DL Performance of 30 TOPS at 30W. Source:http://www.nvidia.com/object/drive-px.html Deep learning Tera Operations Per Second (DL TOPS) - Typically 1 multiply-accumulate operation = 2 DL OPS. The widths of the integer matrix multiplication vary by architecture, dedicated hardware and supported topologies. Any claimed DLTOPS number depends on several assumptions such as frequency, number of MACs and various other hardware specifications. Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing. For more information on performance tests and on the performance of Intel products, visit Intel Performance Benchmark Limitations. Results have been simulated and are provided for informational purposes only. Results were derived using simulations run on an architecture simulator. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.

Previous and related coverage

Intel: We've found severe bugs in secretive Management Engine, affecting millions

An attacker can use Intel's flaws to run malware that's invisible to the operating system.

Intel: We're ending all legacy BIOS support by 2020

Intel will drop BIOS support as part of a plan to boost UEFI adoption.

Output: Intel has partnered with Warner Bros to develop augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) entertainment systems for autonomous vehicles. "As driverless cars become a reality, we must start thinking of the automobile as a new type of consumer space", said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. The partnership will focus on a proof-of-concept vehicle in which it tests new experiences, layouts and advertising, as part of what the companies’ call their AV Entertainment Experience project. Intel and Warner Bros have also hinted at the creation of smart office products for use in self-driving cars.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Redrow Residents express concerns about plans for a new school
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The news that a £30million school could open in Leckhampton has stirred up some strong opinions.

We revealed earlier that Gloucestershire County Council has earmarked land off Kidnappers Lane as the preferred location for a new secondary school, in a bid to ease Cheltenham's shortage of places.

The land was previously identified by developers for housing, but the county council has now expressed an interest in the land for a school.

Some residents have expressed concerns that the move will only add to Leckhampton's traffic problems and spoil its countryside.

But there is also excitement from parents who are hopeful of more options for their children.

Balcarras School, in Charlton Kings, will launch a bid to run the new school.

Dominic Burke, headteacher at comprehensive Balcarras, has said the school is needed to provide extra capacity for Cheltenham pupils.

(Image: Bing)

Kit Braunholtz founded the LEGLAG community group, which campaigns to protect Leckhampton green land.

He said: "I don't think the south of Cheltenham is the right place for a new school because of the traffic problems it would generate.

"Anyone who uses Shurdington Road already finds themselves queuing up for hours to get past the traffic lights.

"The land is part of the view from Leckhampton Hill. I think we all agree that should be protected."

Mr Braunholtz believes the new school and Redrow's development of more than 300 homes on Farm Lane will together create "terrible" traffic problems.

He added: "A lot of people will be extremely unhappy."

Other residents took to social media to vent their frustrations over the possible development.

Roger Merrett wrote on Facebook: “First Tewkesbury Borough Council allow Redrow to build houses in the fields off Farm Lane and now Gloucestershire County Council want to plonk a school off Kidnappers Lane.

“Why do the local authorities seem intent on ruining the countryside around Leckhampton?”

Marina Mason commented: “Glad I don't use Shurdington Road to get to work.... That will cause absolute mayhem in the morning!”

And Sarah Abbott added: “Would need a late start, my husband can take up to 30 mins some days to get down that small stretch of Shurdington Road!”

Mr Burke outlined plans to set up a trust to run both Balcarras and a new comprehensive school.

He said: “Balcarras is still in the process of preparing a bid to sponsor a new school for Cheltenham.

“The motivation is that we do think Cheltenham needs extra capacity. We have been under pressure for some time.

“We want to be part of the solution. The answer to that is not just to keep expanding schools.

“There comes a point when you can’t do that any longer. We are absolutely crammed. We are already over capacity by about 50 children on our site.”

Mr Burke described today’s announcement from the county council as “very welcome”.

He said: “During our consultation recently we stressed that we didn't have control over the site and that we awaited news from other parties as to where the location might be.

“Wherever the school is sited we want it to be an outstanding school in every sense.

“The prospect of being chosen to sponsor the school is exciting but we realise what a great responsibility it will be.”

Cheltenham Bournside School has previously expressed an interest in sponsoring the school.

Mum Marti Toth-Norris, from Up Hatherley, who has two children aged three and two, thinks the news is “very exciting”.

She added: “Cheltenham has such good schools, hopefully this will be another great one.

“The location is certainly wonderful. Hope they will make it accessible though as that area is infamous for those awful narrow roads.”

There was also support from Councillor Max Wilkinson (Lib Dem, Park).

Bournside, Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council have been approached for comment.

Output: Residents of the Leckhampton area of south Cheltenham have raised concerns that a new school will increase traffic problems. Kit Braunholtz, founder of the LEGLAG community group, said that the new school, combined with Redrow's residential development on Farm Lane, would cause "terrible" traffic issues.