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UK government wants to keep EU cyber security links post-Brexit
 The UK government will seek to continue to collaborate in-depth with its former European Union (EU) partners on cyber security matters after Brexit.

It hopes to maintain Britain’s participation in the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security’s (Enisa’s) Cybersecurity Incident Response Team (CSIRT) Network and Network and Information Security (NIS) Cooperation Group, according to recently released position paper on foreign policy and defence.

In the document, the government set out a wide range of proposals offering the EU a “deep security partnership” as the region faces a number of significant global threats such as illegal immigration and terrorism, and even raised the prospect of the UK continuing to make financial contributions to EU defence operations.

“The cyber threat the UK and its European allies face from state actors and non-state actors remains significant,” wrote the paper’s authors.

“This threat knows no international boundaries and the UK and European partners operate in a single cyber space. We collectively get stronger when each country improves its cyber defences. But we are vulnerable to attacks on parts of the networks that are essential for the day-to-day running of our countries and economies.”

The UK is already a global leader in the cyber security field, said the government, with last year’s National Security Cyber Strategy reiterating a previous commitment to splash £1.9bn on the UK’s cyber security capabilities.

It said the UK was one of the first nations to make these capabilities available to support Nato operations, with 22 EU member states also being members of the Nato alliance.

The UK has worked consistently with EU partners and other allies on the application of international and human rights law in cyber space and diplomatic efforts to counter malicious online activity, among other things.

Read more about Brexit and cyber security Most UK firms are planning to hire extra staff to help them meet the requirements of the EU’s new GDPR data protection regulation.

The free flow of data after Brexit is essential for UK trade and security, a Lords’ inquiry has found, urging the government to ensure transitional measures are in place.

“Cyber security is a key element of protecting European security and values, and to ensure that European nations remain at the forefront of technology. It will continue to grow in importance,” said the paper.

“The UK is a world leader in cyber security and seeks to maintain the broadest possible cooperation to address the shared cyber security threats that the UK and its European partners face.”

Besides retaining the UK’s participation in the CSIRT network and Cooperation Group, sharing threat information, conducting joint analysis and coordinating investigations into cyber attacks, the government set out a number of other objectives that it will seek to secure agreement on during the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

These include the continuation of collaboration to promote frameworks for conflict prevention, cooperation and stability in cyber space, to support “common prosperity and social well-being”; the continuation of work on developing effective cyber security legislation and international standards and a consistent and robust stance to deter harmful activity; and the continuation of work to encourage the development of the cyber security industry across borders.

Output: The UK government will seek to "maintain the broadest possible cooperation" with the European Union’s cyber security working groups after the country leaves the bloc in 2019, according to a position paper on foreign policy and defence. The document sets out Britain's wish to participate in the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security’s cyber security incident response team network and network and information security cooperation group, but adds that the nation and the EU are "vulnerable to attacks on parts of the networks that are essential for the day-to-day running of our countries and economies".


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GE develops 4 MW onshore turbines to win market share in Europe
 General Electric’s latest turbine release reaffirms the wind industry’s leading trend: the bigger the turbine, the better.

On Tuesday the company unveiled its 4.8-megawatt turbine, with a rotor diameter of 158 meters, the length of a Boeing 747. The turbine will be among the largest on the market, but likely not for long.

“This is a much larger turbine than what’s typically out there,” said Aaron Barr, a senior consultant with MAKE Consulting. “This new class of 4-megawatt turbines has really just hit the market over the last year-and-a-half, and they’re so new that very few of them have been prototyped to date, but every turbine manufacturer is rushing toward this space.”

The play by GE could make the manufacturer more competitive in the European market, where limited and expensive space for wind farms means bigger turbines are advantageous.

As shown in the chart below from MAKE's global trends report, the European market’s average turbine is expected to climb past 3 megawatts by 2024.

“The European market is quickly racing toward this 4-megawatt installment,” said Barr. “This move to introduce the new larger turbine size is clearly aimed at trying to increase their market share in the European market.”

According to MAKE, GE ranked second in the world for onshore wind in 2016, with 12.7 percent market share. But GE held only 8 percent of market share in Europe, coming in sixth place. Barr said about 80 to 90 percent of GE’s current onshore installs are in the 2-megawatt class. With this innovation, the company could change that.

The announcement comes on the first day of the HUSUM Wind conference in Hamburg, where MAKE expects other platform announcements from competitors like Nordex and Intercon. All are hoping for a larger slice of the blossoming wind market in Europe.

While GE’s new turbine represents a bold move forward for the manufacturer, it also speaks to larger forces at work in the onshore wind industry that are especially observable in Europe.

As turbines get bigger and blades get longer, turbines can produce more energy at lower costs. An August report from MAKE showed turbine sizes steadily climbing globally.

In 2010, 40 percent of onshore turbines were 2 megawatts or more. In 2016, that figure reached 90 percent.

While the growth is more pronounced in Europe, economies of scale mean bigger turbines will also gain in popularity in markets with plentiful, windy space like the United States and Latin America.

According to Barr and several members of GE’s onshore team, the innovations are all geared toward achieving the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE). “That’s the whole name of the game,” said Barr. “You want to maximize the output of every turbine. By doing so, they’re able to limit the LCOE and also generate a lot more energy per turbine.”

While GE has not yet disclosed pricing details, the release of this turbine puts LCOE front and center. “The LCOE race never ends, but our mission is to get out front and stay out front,” said Pete McCabe, GE’s president and CEO of onshore wind business. “This technology will do it.”

The company is now making final decisions on design and production logistics (which presents challenges because the blades are so large), as well as European locations for a prototype install. That installation will be complete before the end of next year. The turbine will be on the market for customers by the end of 2019.

Output: General Electric (GE) has unveiled designs for a 4 MW onshore wind turbine. With a rotor diameter of 158 meters, the turbine is aimed squarely at the European market, where space for wind farms is limited and greater yield from individual turbines is an advantage. The turbine, which generates energy at a lower cost, could help GE to better its sixth place and 8% share of the European onshore-wind market; globally it is number two with 12.7% market share.


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Apple announces Apple Watch Series 3
 Apple announced its Apple Watch Series 3 today, the first to include LTE connectivity. This means that you can now stream music, make phone calls, and send texts without being tethered to your phone.

Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, calls the new device "the ultimate expression of Apple Watch." Aside from the LTE watch, Apple CEO Tim Cook also declared the Apple Watch the "number one watch in the world" (likely in terms of revenue), beating out Rolex, Fossil, and Omega. Cook also said the device experienced 50 percent year-over-year growth, though Apple was characteristically cagey about sharing unit sales numbers.

The new Apple Watch Series 3 costs $399 with cellular connectivity, and $329 without it. It's available in either 33mm or 42mm case sizes. Orders start on September 15th, but the watch will be available on September 22nd. You can check on carrier availability here. The Series 1 now starts at $249. The company didn't mention the Series 2, which is likely being replaced by the non-LTE Series 3.

All models of the Series 3 include a new dual-core processor that Apple says is 70 percent faster, thereby allowing Siri to actually talk. This new W2 chip is said to deliver 85 percent faster Wi-Fi while also being 50 percent more power efficient, which will prove important because of cellular connectivity depleting battery more rapidly. (Apple says the Watch should have up to 18 hours of battery life.)

Williams says that the Apple Watch team had to rethink how it builds its Watch to accommodate LTE. Instead of a conventional antenna, the display itself serves as the antenna, and although users need a SIM, the Series 3 features a smaller, electronic SIM. Still, even with the cellular connectivity, the Series 3 is the same size as the Series 2, although the back is expanded by 0.25mm.

The Series 3 Watch comes in gold, silver, or space gray and is being launched with new band colors and styles, including an updated woven nylon. The cellular version features a red digital crown and an exclusive "explorer" watchface that'll display cellular connection. Hermès and Apple are launching unique models, too, that'll feature designer bands and a watchface inspired by the brand. They start at $1,149.

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There have always been workarounds to LTE. You can, for example, store music locally on an Apple Watch (earlier models had 8GB of internal storage with 2GB allocated for music) and play music that way. The Series 2 Watch also had built-in GPS, which means you didn’t need to have your phone with you to get an accurate reading on workout distances.

However, this is the first smartwatch from Apple that features true connectivity independent of the phone, which presents some existential questions about smartwatches that we can’t answer until we use the device.

Output: Apple has announced the Apple Watch Series 3, calling it "the ultimate expression of Apple Watch". The device is the company's first to feature long-term evolution (LTE) connectivity, enabling wearers to stream music, send texts and make calls without requiring a smartphone. Apple claims the Series 3 has up to 18 hours of battery life, and all models will include a new dual-core processor, powerful enough to enable conversations with Siri. LTE-enabled versions will cost $399, while Apple and Hermès are set to launch bespoke models, retailing from $1,149.


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Nissan marketing boss says ad fraud main issue not brand safety
 The Times' expose into how brands are funding extremist content has provoked action from global marketers to ensure they're not the face of the next brand safety crisis. However, Nissan’s global marketing boss has cautioned that ad fraud is the more damaging problem being overlooked.

That's not to say Roel de Vries hasn't taken the damning ‘brands funding terror’ reports seriously. Alongside the marketers from the UK government, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, it reviewed its media buying processes and bulked up internal know-how. Speaking to The Drum, the head of brand and marketing applauded how much more time and investment is going into blocking and excluding unsafe and illegal sites.

And thanks to marketers actively tackling the problem, the dial is moving is moving in the right direction. According to the Media Quality Report from Integral Ad Science, brand safety risk in the UK fell from 6.8% in the second half of 2016 to 3.7% in the first half of 2017.

But a more pertinent concern is measurement and fraud, with de Vries warning that despite the promises from Google and Facebook to break down the so-called 'walled gardens' it's still a "risky" area of the marketing mix.

In another blow to Facebook - which is still overcoming reports of mismeasurement on video ads from last year - it was found by one research firm to be claiming to advertisers that it can reach more young people than actually exist in the UK, the US and Australia.

In the UK for example, Facebook says it can reach 7.8 million users aged between 18 and 24, however, the Office of National Statistics notes there were only 5.8 million people in that age group in the whole in the country in 2016.

This is a big problem for Nissan, which was estimated to have spend over $2bn on ads in 2016.

“The industry, and the big players in the industry, are still not very secure in making sure that we only buy the real stuff," said de Vries.

“They are going to fix that over time but in my view it’s still not resolved. I’m more worried about our dollars and our pounds going into things that we are not getting results from as opposed to brand safety.”

Following the fallout of a 2016 media transparency report from the US Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and K2, a recent World Federation of Advertisers Study WFA found that transparency remains the number one priority for almost half (47%) of brands.

The figure forecast to be lost to ad fraud in 2017 currently stands at $16.4bn, and the WFA claims that 40% are developing internal solutions to the problem, highlighting a trend for brining digital buying capabilities in-house or working to a hybrid model.

Nissan has sought to mitigate the risks of an industry grappling with what’s been described by others as a “murky at best fraudulent at worst” digital ecosystem by in-housing its digital media buying.

But away from problems like online safety and viewability, de Vries believes there is a tougher nut to crack – creativity.

While he has recruited in-house digital media specialists, Nissan – unlike other brands – doesn't’ have a dedicated in-house media team. Bringing in more internal data and analytics capabilities are high on the agenda but there are elements of this which are still contracted out to agencies, including OMD which handles the brand's media account.

“My biggest focus now is how we can create agile creative,” he added, giving the example that advancements in digital targeting mean that during the costumer journey Nissan can be faced with over 27 shopper profiles, each in three or four different phases of the purchase consideration – all of whom could potentially buy a car.

“You now need 75 or 80 pieces of creative that still lather up to one message and that’s still going to be a bigger challenge in the future,” de Vries asserted.

With agencies going through an intense period of consolidation, brands have been turning to different models to tackle this step-change – Airbnb for example works to a hybrid in-house/agency model to produce creative content, while others like Unilever have been turning to UGC platforms like Vidsy to produce various iterations of creative campaigns for local markets or building their own in-house content studios.

For Nissan, it's unlikely the latter will be an option, with de Vries putting this down to the company's own internal capabilities. When it comes to creating agile content, however, on the production side the brand is "absolutely" looking at what should be done in-house and what should be outsourced.

Within the wider industry, de Vries is firm in his belief that the model is going to change. From Nissan's point of view, it has "far more" direct relationships with media owners – the Google, Facebook, the Twitter as well as big broadcasters –than it has in the past.

"That trend will continue – some companies will have internal departments for creative and some will keep outsourcing it but in five years time the industry will look completely different. The role of a creative agency, the role of a media agency, the role of data and analytics, the role of a client; all of these things are changing at a rapid pace."

With change, comes opportunity - and discussion around the role of agencies has not gone unnoticed by management consultancies which are snapping at the heels of creative shops. The likes Accenture and Deloitte are increasingly encroaching into ad land’s turf, and while de Vries acknowledged that his brand is using the services of these businesses more, he remains unconvinced of the role they will play in the creative arena.

"Today, you see media companies starting to produce creative, you see more creative companies working across data and analytics – so everybody is jumping on the bandwagon to try and solve these [industry issues] and it’s not clear yet where they will go.

De Vries is aware that everyone "wants a piece of the pie" when it comes to creative; "we need to think about what the role of the agencies will be, and I think in a few years time the agency grid will look completely different."

Output: Advertising measurement and fraud are more of a concern than brand safety, according to Roel de Vries, Nissan's global head of marketing and brand strategy. With regard to walled garden issues with Facebook and Google, he said: "The industry, and the big players in the industry, are still not very secure in making sure we only buy the real stuff," and added he worried that money was being poured into "things we are not getting results from" rather than about brand safety issues. Ad fraud is forecast to cost $16.4bn in 2017, according to a World Federation of Advertisers study.


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Facebook enables retailers to recreate print catalogues on mobile
 Facebook has expanded the capabilities of its ‘collection’ ad format, which enables retailers to display their products in a carousel under a video or image-based ad.

Collection, which was launched back in March, has been given the addition of a new creative format called lifestyle templates. This feature enables retailers to bring digital versions of their print catalogues to mobile via a full-screen template.

In addition, the new ad format comes with the ability to tag products directly to help with product discovery, and retailers can add a store locator card to their template to show people where there nearest store is.

Furthermore, the feature can be used to re-engage high intent consumers who have previously engaged with the retailer’s Facebook catalogue. Facebook says it only surfaces product categories to the most relevant people.

“Given the shift to digital, and as eCommerce accounts for more than 50 per cent of our business, innovation is at our core to ensure we continue to tell our brand stories in new formats,” said Felix Carbullido, CMO at kitchenware and home furnishing company Williams-Sonoma. “The lifestyle template for collection is an exciting opportunity to unify our heritage in catalogue with a new lifestyle digital format designed to inspire our customers to discover new products, all on mobile where we know they are spending their time,”

Output: Facebook has expanded its Collection ad format to include "lifestyle templates". The move allows marketers to display versions of their print catalogues on mobile devices. The full-screen templates allow products to be tagged and let advertisers add a store locator card. The templates can be used to re-engage with consumers who regularly purchase items, although Facebook said the feature would not be used to swamp people with ads.


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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon denounces bitcoin as fraud
 JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon took a shot at , saying the cryptocurrency "is a fraud."

"It's just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed," Dimon said Tuesday at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

Dimon joked that even his daughter bought some bitcoin, looking to cash in on a trend that has seen it soar more than 300 percent this year.

"I'm not saying 'go short bitcoin and sell $100,000 of bitcoin before it goes down," he said. "This is not advice of what to do. My daughter bought bitcoin, it went up and now she thinks she's a genius."

In an appearance at a separate conference earlier in the day, Dimon said bitcoin mania is reminiscent of the tulip bulb craze in the 17th century.

"It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed," Dimon said at a banking industry conference organized by Barclays. "Currencies have legal support. It will blow up."

Dimon also said he'd "fire in a second" any JPMorgan trader who was trading bitcoin, noting two reasons: "It's against our rules and they are stupid."

Bitcoin fell to its session lows after Dimon's comments. As of 3:01 p.m. in New York, bitcoin traded at $4,106.23, down 2 percent.

Dimon's criticism comes at a time when some of the most well-known figures on Wall Street are starting to embrace the cryptocurrency. Fundstrat's Tom Lee said he sees bitcoin surging to $6,000 next year and value investor Bill Miller reportedly owns bitcoin.

Output: JP Morgan's CEO Jamie Dimon has said that bitcoin is a 'fraud' that will eventually be closed. He made the remarks in appearances at two conferences in New York on Tuesday, likening the popularity of bitcoin to the tulip bulb craze of the 17th century. Bitcoin initially fell by 2% on his remarks, which he repeated later in the day in another interview. In other remarks, Dimon warned about further declines in trading for JP Morgan, with Q3 trading expected to be down 20% year-on-year.


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Syrian hospitals turn to solar power to combat fuel supply risk
 Prior to the outbreak of war in 2011, Syria was an electrified nation with 95% of homes connected to a reliable grid system. But after six years this has completely changed. The transmission network and power stations have been destroyed both tactically and accidentally, leaving Syrians predominantly reliant on heavily polluting and expensive diesel generators to keep the lights on.

The lack of power has had a dramatic effect upon people’s lives, and nowhere is this felt more acutely than within hospitals and health facilities. The UOSSM has set about changing this, by providing solar panels to hospitals to ensure respirators, incubators and operating rooms can always be kept going.

A decimated network

Syria was once a power hub, producing enough power not just for domestic use but also for exportation. This was thanks to a network of 15 power plants, including the Aleppo thermal power plant and three hydropower dams; however, since the outbreak of war, $5bn worth of infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged.

“Civilian parts of [the power network] have been destroyed, power generation capacity in power plants has been completely out of service, certain transmission lines also have been destroyed, and a number of transformer stations have been destroyed,” says UOSSM Syria Solar Initiative projects director Tarek Makidssi. “The last comprehensive assessment of the power network conditions within Syria as a whole, showed that within the regime areas a number of them still operate but at a much lower capacity.”

Electricity infrastructure has been specifically targeted by different warring factions. The effects of these tactics have left those within opposition held areas in particular without access to reliable power. As such, most have been turning to alternative sources of power. People have been forced to make their own candles out of fats and rice for light, and have turned to diesel generators for electricity. There are a number of downsides to this, including reliability of supply, cost and pollution. But the people of Syria have been left with no alternative.

“Since the outbreak of war, $5bn worth of infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged.”

Now renewables are increasingly being viewed as a means to securing energy independence. “We see renewables as a way to transition from diesel to increase the resilience of the population, to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure, to reduce dependence of diesel, the commodity at the centre of the war economy, and we see it as the first way to break the cycle of this economy as there is a different alternative,” says Makidssi.

Solar panels for hospitals

The concept of installing solar panels on hospitals was first suggested by the UOSSM in 2013, when it became apparent that hospitals along with other health organisations had to rely solely on diesel generators for power.

“Then, in the middle of 2015, there was a huge diesel cut when the route that usually brought fuel to the area was disputed between different armed groups,” says Makidssi. “That caused the markets to suddenly shrink, which was especially bad for hospitals because there’s only a certain amount that they could actually procure. So at that point, larger NGOs started to actually look at alternative power planning and feasibility studies and primary agencies evaluated some system development work for it which came through last March.”

Work began to install UOSSM’s first solar panels at the end of 2016, and continued throughout the winter into 2017, despite dangerous conditions. The system is now in operation at the hospital, providing a security of supply of power. “It’s a hybrid PV system based on an energy storage system and a diesel generator that runs in parallel,” says Makidssi. “The system is composed of 480 solar PV modules, each at 265W capacity, formulating a 127KW PV system PV capacity.”

“The system throughout the year is expected to generate 30%-40% of the hospital’s total energy use,” Makidssi continues. “This, obviously, is in the standard operating scenario where you do have diesel in the market and you are operating at full capacity in the hospital.” Alternatively, should there be a problem with supply, the solar panels will ensure that key parts of the hospital such as surgical rooms are able to remain active.

A modular system was specifically chosen to ease maintenance and operations, “because you can have certain sections of the system offline and still have the rest of the system operating and providing electricity,” says Makidssi. There were 18 inverters installed within this project.

During installation, the local maintenance team at the hospital were trained to be able to operate the PV system, as well as make basic repairs using locally sourced materials should the panels or other elements become damaged.

Humanitarian solar power

One particular area where renewable power could make a difference is within refugee camps. A recent report titled ‘Heat, Light and Power for Refugees: Saving Lives, Reducing Costs’ by Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, showed that current systems providing energy to displaced populations are economically, environmentally and socially unsustainable. The report claims that in 2014 the cost of household energy usage for displaced peoples was an estimated $2.1bn. This amounted to 3.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent.

Alternatively, the report states that “the widespread introduction of improved cook stoves and basic solar lanterns could save $323m a year in fuel costs in return for a one-time capital investment of $335m for the equipment”.

Along with the economic benefits, there are also clear environmental and safety incentives. Diesel generators, kerosene lamps and wood fires are dangerous. However, governments have been resistant to pursuing renewable power networks within refugee camps, as to do so would accept a level of permanence.

“The widespread introduction of improved cook stoves and basic solar lanterns could save $323m a year in fuel costs in return for a one-time capital investment of $335m for the equipment.”

Renewables, in particular solar, have been making a contribution to relief efforts elsewhere. Following the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal, 1.4 million people were in need of immediate help. NGO Sunfarmer set about raising money and providing solar powered water purification to ensure those affected had access to clean water.

Solar lanterns have now been used in the wake of several disasters, including the Haitian earthquake in 2010. Access to clean, safe and economical sources of light has many benefits, not least safety for women and girls to move about at night as they are particularly at risk following disasters.

Solar for Syria?

Looking towards the future, there is hope that solar, amongst other renewable sources, will play an increasingly important role within Syria. UOSSM alone is pursuing five more solar PV projects for hospitals around the country.

“Those hospitals have been selected based on criteria that ensure diversity of medical services that are provided in case of an all diesel outage,” says Makidssi. “We see them as low risk of vandalism; the hospitals were selected after a comprehensive survey of 140 hospitals.”

As Syria moves forwards, a new energy network will have to be practically built up from the ground. While this is a colossal task, it also brings new opportunities regarding which energy sources it will be reliant on. But Syria’s energy priorities remain unclear and dependant on stability. Despite solar powers obvious advantages, there will be challenges to overcome.

Not least is Syria’s inexperience with solar power, something which provided one of the greatest challenges to UOSSM’s project. “Because it’s the first time a project of this scale has been deployed in Syria…sometimes we had problems with material access, with logistics, with the capacities we needed in order to actually deploy the system,” says Makidssi. This lack of experience and easily accessible technology will undoubtedly play a role in the uptake of solar.

A key consideration is Russia and its involvement with the Bashar al-Assad regime’s and Syria. Russia entered the Syrian war in 2013, bombing opposition forces despite US and western condemnation. Its motives have been questioned, and it seems clear that oil plays a role in Russia’s interest in the conflict. The Russian energy company Soyuzneftegaz has a permit for exploration in Syrian waters, and it has been suggested that Assad has signed agreements giving Russia the right to operate regardless of a change of government.

Russia suffered greatly for the downturn in oil prices, and a large portion of its economic policy remains reliant of oil and gas exports. As such, it seems evident that it will be backing oil and gas activity in Syria which would deprioritise renewables such as solar.

Nations recovering from war have found the high CAPEX required by renewables hard to come by, and in the dash to rebuild a country, refurbishments to previous thermal power stations have been favoured. In Iraq, despite the war officially ending in 2011, access to reliable energy remains out of reach. Diesel generators still account for 8% of the country’s total electricity supply and the country is an estimated quarter short of meeting demand. Foreign companies have a monopoly over its oil and gas fields, while alternative potential power sources are largely ignored. As the country endeavour’s to rebuild its economy, investment focus remains firmly with hydrocarbons, a situated Syria could easy fall into.

None of this bodes particularly well for solar power. But some remain optimistic that with stability will come greater decentralisation, and a greater focus on renewables. “Previously we’ve had a very centralised national grid,” says Makidssi, “and in the future there are a number of considerations and a number of points of view about how this will transition in the post-conflict era.

“I personally see it heading more towards decentralisation, perhaps more along the lines of local mini-grids. Syrians can have local renewable energy based mini grids for different villages, or combine three or four villages together to make a mini grid.”

Output: Hospitals in Syria are being fitted with solar panels to help secure their energy needs amid uncertainty over fuel supplies. The national electricity network in Syria has been crippled by the civil war, with $5bn of infrastructure destroyed or damaged, leaving hospitals largely reliant on diesel generators. International humanitarian alliance UOSSM began installing solar panels at one hospital at the end of 2016, and the system is expected to provide 30-40% of the facility's energy needs, making it more resilient to future fuel shortages.


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Talks continue over expanding UK exports of pig trotters to China
 Negotiations will continue on getting permission for more meat plants to export trotters to China, after three plants were granted permission last month.

But it will not be a quick process and might not happen until at least 2018, AHDB Pork strategy director Mick Sloyan told the recent NPA’s producer group meeting.

In August, it was announced that two plants in Northern Ireland – Karro’s Cookstown plant and Cranswick’s Ballymena facility – had been approved for export to China, including trotters. A third plant – Cranswick’s Hull facility, already approved for export to China – was also approved to export trotters.

While this provides a timely boost for the sector, there is a disappointment that the approval for trotters doesn’t apply to other pig meat plants already approved for export to China.

Mr Sloyan explained that the two Northern Ireland plants were inspected by Chinese officials in 2015, along with Cranswick’s Hull factory, initially with a view to wider UK permission for trotters.

But, while the three inspected plants have got the go ahead, the Chinese authorities have now confirmed they want to inspect other plants individually before granting permission.

Mr Sloyan said: “We are pressing to get the rest of the country approved for trotters without the need for inspection. That’s going to be hard work – the chances are there will need to be an inspection visit and that’s not going to happen this year. It may happen next year.”

He praised the work of the British Embassy in Beijing in helping to secure the latest deal, alongside the efforts of UK and Northern Ireland Government officials, AHDB and the meat processors.

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Output: Negotiations to allow more British producers to export pig trotters to China are continuing, after three UK facilities were approved to begin supplying the product. While Karro gained approval for exports from its Cookstown plant in Northern Ireland, and Cranswick for its plants in Ballymena and Hull, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is frustrated at the slow pace of approvals. Chinese officials had inspected the sites in 2015, but only gave them the nod in August. Chinese officials said they wish to inspect other facilities individually, meaning any further approvals for exports may not happen until 2018 at the earliest, the AHDB said.


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Swedish researchers look to extract lignin from wheat straw
 In Sweden, University of Borås researchers are investigating ways to extract and refine lignin from wheat straw for use in industrial applications.

Lignocellulosic ethanol plants currently use lignin to heat and power plants, but high investment costs and low profitability are driving the need to valorize more of fractions.

“If biofuels are to become a reality, we need to realize the industrial potential of lignin and get more value from it,” says UB research Swarnima Agnihotri. “Seeing the complexity and richness of its functional groups, there are various potential applications of lignin by converting it in variety of value added products like high performance carbon fiber, bio-oil and vanillin, to name a few.”

Once the extraction from wheat straw is optimized, the group will work to transform the pure lignin into bio-oil through a hydrothermal liquefaction process.

Agnihotri’s work is part of AGROinLOG, a European Union Horizon 2020 project.

Output: Researchers from the University of Borås in Sweden are developing a method to efficiently turn lignin from waste wheat straw into bio-oil-based products. While the use of lignin-based feedstock in ethanol plants is not new, these projects' low profitability has meant they are unsuitable for commercial production. However, the researchers are still developing the hydrothermal liquefaction process for transforming the lignin into high-value bio-oil. Lignin can also be converted into high-performance carbon fibre, bio-oil and vanillin, researcher Swarnima Agnihotri said.


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Swedish researchers look to extract lignin from wheat straw
 Lignin, a waste product in biomass and ethanol production, now finds new value as bio-oil in new products. At the University of Borås, Sweden, a team of researchers has investigated methods to extract and refine lignin for industrial applications.

While the commercial lignocellulose-to-ethanol plants use lignin after pretreatment as biomass feedstock to heat and power plants, in the Horizon 2020 project AGROinLOG, lignin is instead transformed into bio-oil-based products.

The researcher Swarnima Agnihotri has spent a year at the University of Borås refining the methods to extract the lignin from lignin-rich wheat straw. She says, "If biofuels are to become a reality, we need to realize the industrial potential of lignin and get more value from it. Seeing the complexity and richness of its functional groups, there are various potential applications of lignin by converting it in variety of value added products like high performance carbon fibre, bio-oil and vanillin, to name a few."

The project uses an agricultural residue, wheat straw, which is available in surplus in Sweden, and also in other European countries.

What is there to gain for the society or industry from your part of the project?

Wheat straw lignin valorization will add value to the whole process, and in turn provide benefit to industry, as well as further insight in creating value from lignin, which has been considered a waste until now.

Integration of lignocellulose-based feedstock in ethanol plants is not new. There are a number of techniques already producing ethanol from lignocelluloses at commercial scale.

It is the high investment costs and the low profitability of the process which needs to be addressed. The goal with this AGROinLOG project will be to see the possibilities of adding a high valuable byproduct, eg. bio-oil, to the whole production chain, and therefore increase the profitability of the process.

What challenges did you face in the project?

Finding a cost-effective biomass fractionation process was a challenge. There is a lot of ongoing research on pretreatment for a better lignin extraction from lignocelluloses, but still the main challenge is to bring the cost down. The results are interesting and motivating.

What is the next step in the project?

Now, when we have optimized an efficient pretreatment process for effective lignin extraction from wheat straw, we will scale up the process, and the pure lignin obtained will be transformed into bio-oil through a hydrothermal liquefaction process done, that is, extracting liquid and get a concentrated oil. The bio-oil product obtained will be a high valuable byproduct since it can be further upgraded in refineries to obtain green chemicals and biofuels.

Provided by University of Borås

Output: Researchers from the University of Borås in Sweden are developing a method to efficiently turn lignin from waste wheat straw into bio-oil-based products. While the use of lignin-based feedstock in ethanol plants is not new, these projects' low profitability has meant they are unsuitable for commercial production. However, the researchers are still developing the hydrothermal liquefaction process for transforming the lignin into high-value bio-oil. Lignin can also be converted into high-performance carbon fibre, bio-oil and vanillin, researcher Swarnima Agnihotri said.


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China's Huawei lures graduates to Japan lab with double pay
 TOKYO -- China's Huawei Technologies is causing a stir among young Japanese job seekers by offering monthly salaries of around $4,000 for prospective science and engineering graduates.

Huawei, the world's No. 3 smartphone maker by sales, will set up a major "production research laboratory" in Japan as early as this year, and is determined to hire the best engineers.

Output: China's Huawei Technologies is seeking to lure graduates to work in its new Japanese production research lab with an offer of monthly salaries that are roughly double those paid by local rivals. The company will pay bachelor's degree holders upwards of JPY401,000 ($3,650) per month and monthly salaries for master's degree holders will start at JPY430,000. The move is intended to draw talent that would otherwise opt to work for Japanese rivals, such as SoftBank, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.


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Pollution crackdown dents output in China's Shandong province
 A man rides a scooter along a street in heavy smog in Liaocheng, Shandong. The government’s efforts to improve air quality have led to the closure of dozens of oil and chemical plants in the province. Photo: Reuters

Output: China's attempts to curb emissions from energy plants in Shandong province are putting small and medium-sized oil and chemical businesses under pressure as refineries struggle to comply with new standards. While random environmental inspections formerly scrutinised large state-owned facilities, the authorities' targeting of smaller companies has caused 30 independent refineries to shut since mid-July. Additionally, a number of chemical plants making propylene oxide (PO), PVC and rubber tyres in the region have stopped production, according to industry sources and market analysts. The amount of lost production is not known; however, China's imports of PO have risen 40% since the start of the year.


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SA anti-corruption campaign targets KPMG and McKinsey
 T he speed with which anti-business campaigns can snowball in the internet age never ceases to amaze.

Following last week’s implosion of Bell Pottinger over its South African smear campaign for the Gupta family, KPMG is in the line of fire.

The accounting giant is auditor to the Guptas, who are accused of winning state contracts due to their friendship with the president Jacob Zuma. KPMG, anti-Zuma campaigners allege, played a “central role in facilitating state capture”.

Already, stung by virulent social media, several South African companies have distanced themselves from the firm.

The world’s press has picked up on the digital buzz in South Africa, and today KPMG finds itself splashed all over the Financial Times. Desperate to get ahead of the story, KPMG has launched a review into its Gupta work and pledged to “rebuild the public’s trust”, an admission its reputation has been badly damaged.

Next will surely be McKinsey. Its South African operation is accused of turning a blind eye to corrupt payments to the Guptas by the state utility Eskom, a McKinsey client.

McKinsey has launched an independent inquiry into itself, but that won’t stop the clamour. Particularly after Reuters today quoted ex-McKinsey employees saying that local staff warned the firm off the contract as early as 2013. Back in the day, multinationals would have seen little blowback in their important western markets from such African skirmishes.

Now, with Twitter and Facebook having the power to spread bad news globally in milliseconds, a well-organised local campaign in a faraway place can sink a business within weeks.

Bell Pottinger, once famed for its skills in organising such campaigns itself, will not be the last to learn that to its cost.

Barclays battler back

An update from a pal at Barclays’ Canary Wharf tower gives cause for cheer.

Back in March, in the aftermath of the Westminster terror attack, we were looking for positive stories to counter the gloom. We alighted on Barclays in Canary Wharf, where 60 traders were spending the day on a charity effort on the office gym’s StairMasters to “climb Mount Everest”.

Their efforts — which raised a chunky £70,000 — were to support their colleague on European rates sales, Tarun Mathur, who was fighting a gruelling battle with cancer.

I’m delighted to report that Tarun yesterday returned to the bank’s vast dealing room for the first time, to a standing ovation from the whole floor. The noise resounded across the North Colonnade, leaving not a dry eye in the house.

Great to have you back, Tarun. Now, crack on and tell us when the ECB’s putting up rates.

Output: KPMG faces criticism and its clients being urged to sever ties with the firm over its alleged involvement in controversial business deals in South Africa. The Save South Africa campaign says the company risks "becoming the Bell Pottinger of the auditing profession." It accuses KPMG of being involved in numerous deals by members of the Gupta family, which has faced widespread public criticism amid accusations of corruption in their links to President Zuma's government. McKinsey is also now under scrutiny as its South African operation stands accused of turning a blind eye to corrupt payments made to the Guptas by one of its clients, Eskom.


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SA anti-corruption campaign targets KPMG and McKinsey
 Campaign call on corporates to urgently review business relations with auditing firm

KPMG could be the next Bell Pottinger

The Save South Africa campaign calls on corporate South Africa to urgently review business relations with KPMG in light of ongoing revelations about the audit firm’s central role in facilitating state capture -- and to cancel their contracts where possible.

We support demands by other civil society organisations, including FutureSA, for ongoing action and pressure against KPMG, as well as full investigations by regulatory bodies into their relationship with the Gupta family.

Organised business, including formations such as Business Leadership South Africa and Business Unity South Africa, must take a clear stand given that many corporates continue to use KPMG as their auditors despite the revelations. These include British American Tobacco, BHP Billiton and other mining companies, a number of leading financial institutions – including Standard Bank, Old Mutual, Barclays Africa, Absa, Investec and Nedbank – and the JSE itself.

(A full list of South African companies using KPMG for auditing services is published here: http://www.biznews.com/global-investing/2017/08/10/kpmg-gupta-state-capture/)

KPMG was clearly a central player in several controversial Gupta deals, including the acquisition of Optimum coal mine and Shiva uranium mine. It was also involved in “auditing” Linkway Trading‚ which channeled R30m in public money to fund the Gupta wedding in Sun City, and helped Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas set up shop in Dubai by advising on investments and company formation there.

Output: KPMG faces criticism and its clients being urged to sever ties with the firm over its alleged involvement in controversial business deals in South Africa. The Save South Africa campaign says the company risks "becoming the Bell Pottinger of the auditing profession." It accuses KPMG of being involved in numerous deals by members of the Gupta family, which has faced widespread public criticism amid accusations of corruption in their links to President Zuma's government. McKinsey is also now under scrutiny as its South African operation stands accused of turning a blind eye to corrupt payments made to the Guptas by one of its clients, Eskom.


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Insurtech Metromile secures reinsurance package
 Pay-per-mile personal auto insurer Metromile announced a partnership with global reinsurance broker JLT Re for a risk transfer and unique reinsurance agreement. Hudson Bermuda led this reinsurance agreement which also includes MAPFRE RE.

Metromile said the agreement gives it additional leverage for future growth.

Metromile claims that while the industry is grappling with an increase in frequency of claims, its pay-per-mile model creates a hedge against this trend. That makes the company attractive to reinsurers because of the lower volatility in the loss ratio, according to an Preston, CEO, Metromile.

“This reinsurance agreement provides continued validation that the pay-per-mile model is efficient and highly scalable,” said Preston. “It also emphasizes our innovative customer experience and strong retention which is driven by our customers’ desire for technology-first solutions.

Metromile uses machine learning for claims modeling, which lowers risk and further enhances the model’s appeal to reinsurers, according to Preston. Last month Metromile paid its first completely automated claim.

Metromile’s pay-per-mile insurance is currently available in seven states, including California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia. and Washington.

JLT Re’s Insurtech and Transportation teams led by Gregg Holtmeier and David Johnson, worked with Hudson Structured Capital Management and MAPFRE RE to develop the bespoke agreement. JLT Re is part of the Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc.

Related:

Topics Carriers Reinsurance

Output: Pay-per-mile auto insurer Metromile has secured a reinsurance agreement led by Hudson Bermuda. The firm said its use of machine learning, which it utilises in its claims modelling, makes it appealing to reinsurers. Metromile is available in seven US states. The reinsurance agreement will allow the insurtech firm to pursue future growth, according to a company statement.


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LNG exporter Tellurian buys Haynesville shale assets
 Houston-based Tellurian Inc. last week veered into the upstream sector, making a deal to buy gassy Haynesville Shale acreage near its planned natural gas export facility in Louisiana.

A subsidiary of Tellurian last Thursday made an $85.1 million pact with a private, undisclosed seller for some producing assets and undeveloped acreage in northern Louisiana.

“Acquisition of natural gas producing assets is integral to our growing business,” said CEO Meg Gentle. She formerly was a top executive at LNG developer Cheniere Energy Inc., co-founded by Tellurian cofounder Charif Souki.

“We expect our full-cycle cost of production and transport to markets will be approximately $2.25/MMBtu, which represents a significant savings to natural gas we will purchase at Henry Hub and other regional liquidity points,” Gentle said.

Included in the transaction, set to close by the end of November, are 9,200 net acres in Red River, DeSoto and Natchitoches parishes, with 138 operated Haynesville and Bossier sand drilling locations. Tellurian estimated the total resource potential at 1.3 Tcf.

The properties now have 19 producing wells with net output of 4 MMcf/d, along with associated midstream facilities that have additional capacity available.

The acreage is 100% held by production and 92% operated, which would allow Tellurian to control the pace of development for its multi-year drilling inventory.

Tellurian is developing the Driftwood LNG export terminal in Louisiana’s Calcasieu Parish south of Lake Charles, which would be able to export up to 26 million metric tons/year, requiring up to 4 Bcf/d of feed gas. The design for the project, now set to go online in 2022, includes five plants, each composed of one gas pretreatment unit and four liquefaction units.

A 96-mile pipeline would deliver feed gas to the facility from the interstate pipeline grid, according to the filing with FERC [PF16-6]. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Driftwood’s pre-filing request in June 2016.

In August 2016, Tellurian merged with privately held Magellan Petroleum Corp.to advance the Driftwood project and other ventures. By late 2016, other takers were coming aboard. In November 2016, GE Oil & Gas made a $25 million preferred equity investment in Tellurian. Last December Paris-based oil major Total SA , which works in the Barnett Shale in North Texas, bought a 23% stake in Tellurian for $207 million.

“Actually owning a stake in production, and doing it much closer to the LNG facility, both secures supply and should minimize transportation costs,” said NGI’s Patrick Rau, director of strategy and research. “Tellurian could take that vertical integration one step further by owning a stake in the production.”

Several local distribution companies have tried to vertically integrate in similar ways via a regulated cost-of-service model, but not all public utility commissions are amenable, Rau said. “There’s no such worry with Tellurian.”

Total’s stake in Telluride is not a new concept. BG Group plc, formerly one of the largest global LNG players now owned by Royal Dutch Shell plc, once had a 50-50 joint venture with Exco Resources Inc.in the Haynesville, and BG also held export capacity at Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Texas.

“Having supply close to the export facility was part of the concept there,” Rau said.

Output: Tellurian has agreed to buy 9,200 acres in the Haynesville shale for $85.1m from an unidentified company, the first US firm to secure cheap natural gas for its export terminal by producing the power-plant fuel itself. It eventually wants 40% of the gas supplying its Driftwood LNG facility, due to begin production in 2022, to come from its own wells.


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India rejects Russia offer for stake in five Siberian oil fields
 NEW DELHI: India has rejected Russia’s offer of stake in five more oilfields in the Vankor Cluster in Siberia as it doesn’t want to concentrate its upstream investments in just one country, people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. Indian state oil firms are now taking it easy after having invested about $5.4 billion last year to buy substantial stakes in two Russian fields. “We don’t want to put all our eggs in just one basket. Russia can keep offering fields but we can’t keep accepting every offer,” one of the persons cited earlier told ET. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India, IndianOil and Bharat Petroleum together bought 49.9% in Vankor last year for about $4.22 billion from Russian state firm Rosneft. Indian companies also signed a preliminary pact with Rosneft early last year to buy stake in three satellite fields, referred to as the Vankor Cluster. Oil India is leading the negotiations for five state firms, including ONGC, IndianOil, BPCL and HPCL, which are interested in the Vankor cluster. Mid-way through the negotiations, Rosneft had offered to club five more fields in the same region to the three that were already on the table, another person said.These five fields are not developed assets. Indian companies had a preliminary look at the offer and then conveyed to Rosneft that they had no interest in the five new fields being offered and would like to limit their negotiations to just three fields of Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye that were already being discussed, he said.This new offer and rejection delayed the negotiation for the Vankor Cluster, which has taken one and a half years and not yet closed, the person cited earlier said. “The evaluation is underway. We have invested enough in Russia, so there is no urgency to quickly seal the deal,” he said. “Besides, there are competing investment opportunities across the globe for Indian oil firms, which have limited capital and wouldn't want to put all of it in just one region.”Investments in Russian fields so far have been a mixed bag, with some of the fields offering rich dividends and others turning out to be dud. Selling stake in oilfields last year brought oil-rich Russia lot of cash, which was useful in dealing with hardship due to sanctions imposed by the US. India has been trying to diversify its energy security risk by procuring from a range of suppliers across geographies and spreading out upstream investments across regions.

Output: India has rejected Russia’s offer of a stake in five more oilfields in the Vankor Cluster in Siberia after state oil firms invested $5.4bn last year on substantial stakes in two Russian fields, according to people with direct knowledge of the negotiations. Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India, IndianOil and Bharat PetroleumBSE together bought 49.9% in Vankor last year for about $4.22 billion from Russian state firm Rosneft. Indian companies also signed a preliminary pact with Rosneft early last year to buy stake in three satellite fields, referred to as the Vankor Cluster.


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FirstEnergy to sell 1.6 GW of assets to LS Power Equity for $825m
 Dive Brief:

FirstEnergy Corp. announced yesterday that it has revised the terms of sale for several generating assets to LS Power Equity Parners III LP, lowering the price and raising the capacity first announced in January.

FirstEnergy now says it has entered into a revised agreement for the sale of 1,615 MW of competitive natural gas and hydroelectric generation assets located in Pennsylvania and Virginia for an all-cash price of $825 million.

When the deal was announced in January, the transaction included 1,572 MW of generation capacity being sold for $925 million in cash.

Dive Insight:

No explanation was given for revisions to the deal, but FirstEnergy says its plan remains the same: transition to a fully regulated company and exit from commodity-exposed generation.

As originally announced, the assets included: Bath County Hydro, a 713-MW pumped-storage hydro plant in Warm Springs, Va.; five units totaling 638 MW of the Springdale facility in Springdale Township, Pa.; two units totaling 88 MW at the Chambersburg plant in Guildford Township, Pa.; two units totaling 88 MW at the Gans station in Springhill Township, Pa., and the 45 MW Hunlock Creek plant in Hunlock Creek, Pa.

The revised deal also includes Allegheny Energy Supply's indirect interest in a joint venture that owns the Buchanan Generating Facility in Oakwood, Va., which accounts for another 43 MW of gas generation. This asset was not included in the original purchase agreement.

The transaction involving the Springdale, Chambersburg, Gans and Hunlock power stations is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017. The sale of the interests in Bath and Buchanan is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, the company said.

Last year, FirstEnergy said it could sell more than a dozen power plants as it shifts back toward a focus on its regulated assets. A series of regulatory approvals will be required for the sales to go through. The utility, along with AEP, has attempted to win income supports from regulators for a group of aging coal and nuclear plants, but were forced to change approach after FERC blocked the subsidies.

FirstEnergy said it expects proceeds from the sale will be invested in its unregulated money pool and may be used for the repayment of debt and other corporate purposes. Once the divestiture is complete, FirstEnergy will own or control generating capacity totaling more than 15,000 MW from a range of technologies across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia and Illinois.

Output: FirstEnergy said that it has revised the terms of sale for several generating assets to LS Power Equity Parners III LP. It will now sell 1,615 MW of competitive natural gas and hydroelectric generation assets located in Pennsylvania and Virginia for an all-cash price of $825m after agreeing in January to sell 1,572 MW of generation capacity for $925m.


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Kidman, SQM sign $110m lithium joint venture
 Kidman Resources has finalised a $US110 million, 50-50 joint venture agreement with Chile’s SQM (Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile) at the Mt Holland lithium operations in Western Australia.

The two companies, which flagged they would form a JV in July, intend to build a mine and concentrator producing 6 per cent lithium concentrate.

They eventually aim to develop a refinery — currently undergoing a feasibility study — for the production of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, dependent on the continued potential of the in-demand ore.

The JV represents a considerable step for Kidman into the lucrative lithium mining industry, drawing on what the company’s managing director Martin Donahue refers to as SQM’s “considerable metallurgical expertise”.

Kidman will retain sole marketing rights to its 50 per cent share of lithium production, as well as all rights to Mt Holland’s gold resources as part of the deal.

The $US110 million JV is broken into two parts. SQM is paying $US30 million for a 50 per cent share of the Mt Holland tenements, while the remaining $US80 million will also be paid by SQM for further project funding.

SQM is one of the world’s major players in the lithium industry, controlling 26 per cent of the global market as of January 2017.

WA has experienced a boom in lithium production over the last year, increasing from just one mine to seven, and also hosts the world’s largest lithium mine, Greenbushes, a joint Sino-American venture.

Lithium has become something of a hot property in the mining industry, with its demand fuelled in part by emerging technological developments.

Australia is the world’s largest lithium-producing country, though the so-called South American ‘Lithium Triangle’ of Chile (the world’s second-biggest producer), Bolivia, and Argentina edge out Australian reserves overall.

Demand for emerging green technologies, such as solar panels, EVs, (the upcoming Tesla Model 3 is expected to be a game-changer for the nascent electric car industry) and flow batteries, as well as high demand from Chinese producers, have all been explained as reasons behind the surge in popularity.

Output: Kidman Resources has finalised a $110m, 50-50 joint venture agreement with Chile’s SQM to exploit lithium resources at Mt Holland in Western Australia. The two companies, which flagged they would form a JV in July, intend to build a mine and concentrator producing 6% lithium concentrate. They eventually aim to develop a refinery for the production of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Kidman will retain sole marketing rights to its 50% share of lithium production, as well as all rights to Mt Holland’s gold resources. SQM is paying $30m for a 50% share of the Mt Holland tenements, while the remaining $80m will also be paid by SQM for further project funding.


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Tianqi says expansion of world's biggest lithium mine to go ahead
 A looming legal dispute will not affect plans by China’s Tianqi Lithium to expand its Greenbushes mine or double the capacity of a proposed processing plant at Kwinana, according to the company’s Australian general manager.

In June, Tianqi announced a 1.34Mtpa expansion of its Greenbushes mine in the South West to provide feedstock for a doubling of capacity of its proposed lithium hydroxide plant from 24,000tpa to 48,000tpa to supply the burgeoning electric vehicle battery market.

But the Resource Capital Funds-owned Global Advanced Metals, which has rights to other minerals at Greenbushes, has taken issue with the company’s plans, arguing the expansion will effectively waste its tantalum resource.

The Greenbushes mine is the world’s biggest lithium mine, producing 31 per cent of global supply, and is operated by Talison Lithium, a joint venture between Tianqi (51 per cent) and US-based Albemarle Corporation (49 per cent).

GAM argues Talison did not discuss its expansion plans for Greenbushes with it as required by a reserved minerals rights agreements over the asset. It wants the company to halt the expansion and negotiate in good faith before proceeding.

Tianqi Lithium’s Australian boss Phil Thick told a Benchmark Mineral Intelligence conference in Perth yesterday he thought the dispute would be resolved.

“Our legal opinion is about as crystal-clear as I’ve seen — we’re going ahead with the expansion,” he said.

“It’s not my company so I’m speaking a bit out of school but I expect they’ll just come to a commercial settlement at some point that will allow them to go on.

“But it’s not stopping us in any way and I’m not concerned about it.”

GAM chief executive Andrew O’Donovan said the company’s tantalum rights at Greenbushes were valuable and critical to its position as the global leader in the integrated supply of a range of tantalum products for use in high-tech industries.

He said Talison had not complied with its contractual obligations to GAM.

Mr Thick said Kwinana would be Tianqi’s global headquarters outside of China. The company wanted to be considered in the same league as Rio Tinto, BHP, Woodside and Wesfarmers in terms of sponsorship and support of the WA community.

Output: A looming legal dispute won't affect plans by China’s Tianqi Lithium to expand its Greenbushes mine in Western Australia by 1.34 million tons per annum (mtpa) or double the capacity of a proposed processing plant at Kwinana to 24,000 tpa, the company’s Australian general manager said. Resource Capital Funds-owned Global Advanced Metals, which has rights to other minerals at Greenbushes, has said that the expansion will effectively waste its tantalum resource. The Greenbushes mine is the world’s biggest lithium mine, producing 31% of global supply, and is operated by Talison Lithium, a joint venture between Tianqi and Albemarle.


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IBM and UBS to build in-vehicle blockchain payments platform
 UBS, IBM and car parts manufacturer ZF are working together to build a blockchain-based payments system that automatically collects fees for things such as parking and power charging.

The partners say that their Car eWallet will act as a digital assistant, enabling secure and convenient payments on the go. The system is likely to become increasingly useful as driverless cars become a reality, providing a way to independently authorise payments without the owner or user having to be active themselves.

Veronica Lange, head of innovation at UBS says: “In today's digitally connected world, no single institution works in isolation. As a leading financial services institution we pursue the development of a new platform that will transform how transactions and payments between vehicles and other machines can be done efficiently and safely.”

In the future, the platform, provided through the IBM Cloud and driven by Hyperledger Fabric 1.0, will not only be used for parking and tolls, but also car sharing, electric charging and delivery services.

Dirk Wollschlaeger, GM, IBM Global automotive, aerospace and defence, says: "The world of mobility is quickly evolving with self-driving vehicles, electric cars and new mobility services having quickly evolved from visionary concepts into reality. Time of great change requires transformational solutions.

"Together with UBS and ZF, we are engineering a new mobility platform to redefine how, when and where traditional transactions occur."

Output: Car parts manufacturer ZF is teaming up with IBM and UBS to launch a blockchain application to enable car-related payments. The Car eWallet is being marketed as a "digital assistant", automatically collating parking costs with little to no input from the driver, and making secure payments. The system will also pay for electric charging, digital services and car sharing once those technologies become commonplace.


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Restaurant-focused mobile payments firm Glance expands into US
 Glance Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based company that specializes in mobile payments for the restaurant industry, has signed its first U.S.-based customer in Ta’cul Mexican Cocina, located in California, according to a press release.

Glance also announced it has set up its U.S. head office in Silicon Valley.

"Our U.S. expansion is key to our strategy of signing large North American restaurant chains," Glance CEO Desmond Griffin said in a statement. "Silicon Valley is an ideal location for us to access the world's premier high tech ecosystem as we continue to develop our technology."

Glance Pay is a payments system that enables users to order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipts, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards and interact with merchants. The app is available for Android and iOS.

Output: Canada's Glance Technologies is expanding into the US with its mobile payments system for restaurants. The Glance app lets restaurant users place orders, make payments, redeem deals and interact with owners. The Vancouver-based company has signed its first US-based customer and opened its US head office in Silicon Valley. "Our U.S. expansion is key to our strategy of signing large North American restaurant chains", said Desmond Griffin, CEO at Glance.


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Real-time simulator slashes product design time
 Multi-physics software developer, ANSYS, has released its Discovery Live platform, which allows engineers to make changes to a CAD model and have the simulation updated in front of them, instantaneously. The new level of interactivity means that the physical results of a design change can be seen as they are being made, bringing a new level of intuitive engineering capability. The company insist that the assumption that multi-physical simulation programs are only for specialist engineers or PhDs is outdated, and plan to get simulation in the tool box of every engineer by 2020, up currently from the estimated 1 in 6.

Instead of taking days, months or weeks to set up, run and analyse digital prototypes with traditional engineering simulation solutions, Discovery Live allows engineers to immediately examine the impact of their design changes. Users can pose what-if questions upfront in the design process to rapidly explore thousands of design options and receive immediate feedback – enabling the user to digitally explore the impact of changes with results updating immediately.

For the first-time, engineers can rapidly explore design options and receive instant and accurate simulation results with new cutting-edge technology that can be run on most standard laptops. The only upgrade that might be needed is the graphics card.

“We've rewritten, from the ground up, the classic simulation algorithms to run natively on the GPU architecture, and that’s what gives you the speed,” said Mark Hindsbo, vice president and general manager at ANSYS. “And it's not some insane graphics card, it’s a modern 4GB NVidia graphic card with a number of CUDA cores to run on.”

Discovery Live supports fluids, structural and thermal simulation applications – enabling engineers to experiment with design ideas and see instant feedback. Users can run an analysis first approach as they design – enabling them to iterate with a 3D model and interactively explore the impact of simple and complex changes.

“The tool allows us to use multiple physics and the results are practically instantaneous, so we can get answers to the quick ‘what-if’ studies very quickly – helping us engage more people in simulation with the ultimate goal of moving faster,” said Bob Tickel, director of structural and dynamic analysis at engine developer, Cummins. “We are committed to analysis-led design and I believe that Discovery Live will propel us forward faster in this area.”

The Ansys Discovery Live platform is currently available today for technology preview and is available for download at: www.ansys.com/discovery/

Output: ANSYS, a multi-physics software developer, has launched the Discovery Live platform, enabling engineers to alter CAD models and to see update simulations instantly. The instant design change and immediate feedback the platform provides compares with the days, months or weeks to set up, run and analyse digital prototypes with traditional engineering simulation solutions, ANSYS claims.


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Zelle launches peer-to-peer mobile payments app
 BI Intelligence

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Zelle, a bank-based P2P offering operated by Early Warning, is launching its long-awaited standalone app for both Apple and Android users on September 12. (It has been available within its partners' banking apps since late 2016.)

To use Zelle, the sender and recipient can download the app and conduct transactions using an email address or mobile number — regardless of bank affiliation. Customers can also use Zelle to split payments, if need be. The app will compete directly with other mobile and digital P2P services like Venmo and Square Cash.

This app will provide consumers with another channel to access Zelle's services.

Almost anyone with a debit card can now use Zelle. Zelle is partnered with many major banks — including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi, among others. The app will also allow consumers with accounts at smaller banks and credit unions that don't support Zelle on their digital platforms to use its services. And through partnerships with Visa and MasterCard, almost anyone with a debit card linked to a US bank account can use the app. Additionally, the Zelle app won't support credit cards, allowing it to offer free transfers. That could extend its reach to up to 86 million users.

Zelle is partnered with many major banks — including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi, among others. The app will also allow consumers with accounts at smaller banks and credit unions that don't support Zelle on their digital platforms to use its services. And through partnerships with Visa and MasterCard, almost anyone with a debit card linked to a US bank account can use the app. Additionally, the Zelle app won't support credit cards, allowing it to offer free transfers. That could extend its reach to up to 86 million users. A standalone app makes Zelle a competitor for millennials' P2P business. Digital P2P payments tend to be favored among millennials, but Zelle's bank-app focus has helped it target an older generation, by introducing them to digital P2P in a familiar environment. But as a standalone service, the app will more directly compete against players like Venmo and Square Cash in the crowded market. That could heat up the space — Venmo, the market leader, saw $14.8 billion in volume in the first half of 2017, while Zelle partner banks' P2P services were used for 100 million transactions worth $33.6 billion.

It remains to be seen how Zelle will fare on its own, but its current success, combined with an appetite for mobile P2P, could position it well. Zelle already counts about 50,000 new enrollees a day. But the app could broaden its reach, especially since it has a much more inclusive audience than third-party services, like Venmo, which might have a more sophisticated sign-up process. And the differentiating features, like free instant cashouts, could help it stand out, though other providers have similar offerings. That means that, though Zelle is off to a good start, the firm could stand to build out its in-app offerings in order to establish a unique need, or a specific use case, to grow its own audience and beat out the competition in a market where no one player holds a majority share.

Jaime Toplin, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on mobile P2P payments that:

Forecasts the growth of the P2P market, and what portion of that will come from mobile channels, through 2021.

Explains the factors driving that growth and details why it will come from increased usage, not increased spend per user.

Evaluates why mobile P2P isn’t profitable for companies, and details several cases of attempts to monetize.

Assesses which of these strategies could be most successful, and what companies need to leverage to succeed in the space.

Provides context from other markets to explain shifting trends.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

Output: Zelle has launched a peer-to-peer mobile payments app for Apple and Android users. Zelle users can transact using a mobile number or email address, irrespective of where the user banks. Payments can also be split as necessary. Zelle has a longstanding relationship with such banks as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, but with the launch of its standalone app opens its services to a much broader userbase.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Race to the bottom: average estate agency fees slide to 1% ex-VAT
 Post navigation

The average estate agency fee has fallen to almost exactly 1% excluding VAT – and is likely to fall further, despite mounting costs for agents.

Peter Knight, of the Property Academy, said that moving off the high street and/or going ‘hybrid’ would not be a solution for most agents because of their marketing and staffing costs.

In the 2017 Home Moving Trends Survey carried out for this month’s EA Masters event, 5,838 home sellers were asked about fees.

Knight said: “In simple terms, you can break things down into three thirds.

“One third pay more than 1%. One third pay less than 1%. And one third pay 1%. The average fee is now, as near as damn it, 1%.

“And as if this isn’t concerning enough there’s a worrying trend – the fees are going even lower.

“Those currently selling are paying less in percentage terms than those who have sold within the last 12 months.

“This confirms data Stephen Hayter of My Home Move shared with me that estate agent fees fall between 0.1% and 0.15% every 12 months.

“On that basis, in the first quarter of 2019, the average fee could be as low as 0.75%.”

The study of home movers showed that relatively few (30%) were selling for over £1m, and most (60%) were selling for £250,000 or less.

Knight told EYE: “This is the tenth year we’ve surveyed people who are currently selling a property and we’ve seen a marked reduction in the average fee.

“In 2011, 76% of sellers were paying in excess of 1%, whereas today it’s just 31%.

“We will be sharing further insights from this survey and also two others, the 2017 Landlord Survey and 2017 Tenant Survey, at the EA Masters.

“In addition, we will also be revealing insights from our 30,000 mystery shops for the Best Estate Agent Guide and highlighting what it takes to be exceptional.”

Knight said the continuing reduction in fees cannot continue – “unless the industry is prepared to experience even greater levels of change than those of the last few years”.

He said the main costs of staff and marketing are going up, not down: “So, while a small saving can be achieved by leaving the high street and working from a conventional office, or from home, or going ‘hybrid’, this isn’t enough to compensate for the reduction in fees.”

Knight said that the subject will be tackled at the EA Masters on September 22. There are just 50 tickets left for what will be the largest estate agency event ever staged in the UK.

Details here – where you will also find a rather stirring short video about the Best Estate Agents Guide, also to be part of the event:

Output: The average estate agency fee has dropped to nearly 1%, excluding VAT, and is on a trend to decrease further despite the strain on agents. Agents are limited in their options because limits of marketing and staffing costs mean they cannot move from the high-street or become “hybrid” to compromise. Property sellers are paying less in terms of a percentage than those who have successfully sold within the last 12 months, with predictions putting average fees at 0.75% by Q1 2019. In 2011, 76% of sellers paid more than 1%; presently, that figure stands at 31%.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Telehealth May Ease Docs into ACOs, MedPAC Suggests
 WASHINGTON -- Incentivizing doctors to use telehealth services under Medicare's new value-based payment models might be a good way to get fee-for-service Medicare providers to consider joining an accountable care organization (ACO) or another new model, a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) said Thursday.

"We need to be building incentives to providers to want to get out of fee-for-service and get into an environment where there is more accountability and more risk-sharing," said Sue Thompson, of UnityPoint Health in Des Moines, Iowa. "So perhaps telehealth is one of those things you have an opportunity to do in a risk-sharing environment -- an [alternative payment model] that involves risk, or Medicare Advantage, or an ACO that has upside and downside risk."

"I think we'd have an easier time recruiting providers into behavioral health modalities and family practice modalities if we could talk about how this creates a lifestyle that's pretty attractive," she said. "Telehealth is a piece of the puzzle that offers all kinds of opportunity."

The commission heard a presentation on how telehealth services are being paid for under Medicare. Staff members Zach Gaumer and Amy Phillips defined telehealth as falling into six categories:

Basic care and consultations for patients and their doctors who are connecting to another doctor

Basic care and consultations for patients connecting to a doctor from their home

Basic care and consultations for doctors connecting to one another without the patient present

Remote monitoring of patients in the hospital

Remote monitoring of patients at home

Storing and forwarding data -- including images and scans -- to a remote clinician for evaluation

Currently, under Medicare's fee-for-service system, a healthcare facility that originates a telehealth visit is paid a flat fee of $25 by Medicare, while the remote site at which the consulting physician works is paid 100% of the fee-for-service facility rate. Patients have a cost-sharing responsibility of 20% for the telehealth visit. This method encourages the healthcare system to increase the volume of telehealth services provided, the presenters noted.

Substitute or Supplement?

Two schools of thought exist on telehealth, they noted: some say it can be cost-effective by substituting for in-person visits, while others say it adds costs because it is used as a supplement to in-person visits and patients still see the doctor in person anyway.

Commissioner Craig Samitt, of the Anthem health insurance company, in Indianapolis, came down on the side of cost-effectiveness. "We're currently covering and paying for a large number of low-value services, and [here] I feel we are resistant to paying for what I think is a high-value service," he said. "We seem to think telehealth is not equivalent to in-person health. But telehealth ... is in fact a substitute. It enables people to give care through an alternative modality."

"The potential value in telehealth is reduction in total cost of care," Samitt continued. "This is not a replacement or supplemental visit; this is a way to avoid multiple downstream [costs] that we would otherwise not capture in the absence of it. I would love to jump into the debate about the way telehealth is factored into the Medicare Advantage package. This should be included in the benefit package as opposed to being a supplemental benefit."

Pharmacy Services Discussed

The commission also heard a presentation on the structure of pharmacy services, including pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies. Staff member Rachel Schmidt noted that in addition to negotiating drug prices on behalf of health plans, most large PBMs have their own specialty pharmacies -- a relationship that may present financial conflicts, since the PBMs are supposed to lower drug expenditures for their customers, but they have an incentive in their pharmacies to increase revenue as much as possible.

But commissioner Amy Bricker, RPh, of the Express Scripts PBM, in St. Louis, disagreed with that idea, adding that it is not true that PBMs will often require customers to use the PBM's pharmacy: "To suggest there's some leverage over the client isn't the case, because of the competitiveness of the industry," she said. "If you're not lowering the cost for the plan sponsor and not servicing patients appropriately, you're going to be fired."

Commissioner Jack Hoadley, PhD, of Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute, was not so sanguine. "I'm not as comforted as Amy by the notion of competition in this market," he said. "It's really unclear where the system saves money and where it adds cost. There is evidence of both, and that's what we need to try to untangle."

For example, in the Part D drug benefit world, there are cases of competing drugs -- such as etanercept (Embrel) and adlimumab (Humira), which are both prescribed for arthritis and psoriasis, "and we've seen those prices [for both] go up pretty constantly over time. We have not seen a lot of formulary competition; it's the opposite of what you'd normally expect."

Sharing the savings that come from drug rebates is a good issue for MedPAC to examine, Hoadley added. "We could think about ways to share the benefit, such as putting caps on coinsurance so beneficiaries aren't as affected by [drug price increases]."

"It's hard not to be struck by how complex this is," said commissioner Rita Redberg, MD, of the University of California San Francisco. "I feel like there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of secrecy, a lot of fees, and the whole rebate thing that's secret makes me very uncomfortable, and the whole designation of specialty drugs basically means that if you raise your prices high enough you're a specialty drug. This does not seem like a very efficient system.

"It does seem more complicated to me to have drugs covered under Part B and Part D ... I wonder if it's worth considering if there should be just one drug benefit and not to separate it like this," she said.

Rural Hospitals and Physician Supervision

On Friday morning, commissioners briefly discussed the issue of physician supervision at critical access and rural hospitals. Medicare regulations have mandated that certain procedures -- such as chemotherapy and cardiac rehabilitation -- have physicians available to supervise, even if they are not necessarily in the room. After concerns were raised by hospitals that these rules might make it more difficult for them to operate, Congress suspended enforcement of the rules from 2010 to 2016, and has proposed doing so again in 2018 and 2019.

MedPAC staff members interviewed staff from several critical access hospitals and found they were not having any trouble complying with the rules. The hospitals "are using the emergency department or family physicians in the same building or nearby to address physician supervision requirements," said MedPAC staff member Ledia Tabor. She noted that in a MedPAC report issued in 2012, the commission had said that "expectations for quality of care in rural and urban areas should be equal for nonemergency services rural providers choose to deliver."

Commissioners seemed satisfied with the idea of sticking to that wording, but possibly providing a little additional guidance as well: "It's important to take a strong position that the standard of care, whether urban or rural, must be consistent," said Thompson. "Yet we did hear from those [hospitals] leaders a plea for clarity," such as knowing how quickly a supervising physician would need to respond: "I do believe a call for clarity would be quite welcome from these organizations."

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Output: Providing incentives for physicians to incorporate telehealth services under the new Medicare value-based payment model may encourage fee-for-service Medicare providers to consider becoming part of an accountable care organization (ACO), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has noted. Telehealth may provide the risk-sharing environment that proves appealing to providers and patients alike, with the practice potentially being used to introduce providers to behavioral health and family practice modalities. The Commission defines telehealth as covering basic care and consultation for patients and doctors connecting to other physicians; patients connecting with doctors from home; doctors connecting to other physicians; remote hospital monitoring; remote home monitoring; and storing and forwarding data for remote evaluation. Under the Medicare fee-for-service system, cost-sharing is shared 20 percent with patients for telehealth, with the patient’s facility being paid a $25 flat fee, and the receiving remote facility paid 100 percent of the rate for fee-for-service. For providers at present, telehealth is either considered a cost-effective replacement for in-person consultation, or an additional supplemental service that extends costs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Accenture unveils analytics, business platform for asset managers
 Source: Accenture

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has launched a new business analytics service for investment management institutions to help them benchmark, analyze and improve the performance of their business processes and technology.

The service will provide year-round industry research and subject matter expertise to the asset management sector. It will address key business issues including client and product management, intelligent automation, cloud, big data, cyber security and analytics for portfolio management, distribution and operations. Investit chief executive Catherine Doherty and her team of industry specialists have joined Accenture’s asset management practice to form the new service.

“The top 35 investment management firms in the UK alone spend about five billion dollars annually on technology and operations, but in the new wave of digital innovation many will need to rethink their strategies,” said Owen Jelf, senior managing director and head of Accenture’s global capital markets practice. “Under heavy regulatory and market pressures, the health and performance of business processes and technology will be a growing factor in the competitive landscape. By bringing leading benchmarking experts and capabilities to Accenture’s capital markets practice, we can help our clients compete in a fast evolving sector.”

“Our team has worked with many of the world’s largest investment firms, providing insights to help them make key business decisions,” said Doherty, who will be head of the service. “As part of Accenture we can scale up to provide world leading insights for asset managers across Europe, North America and Asia.”

This launch marks Accenture’s most recent initiative to expand its asset management consulting and technology capabilities to help global investment managers, institutional investors and asset servicers use emerging digital innovations and technology to improve competitiveness and profitability. Earlier this year, Accenture completed its acquisition of InvestTech Systems Consulting, a North American technology consultancy, and in 2015 Accenture acquired Beacon Consulting Group a management consulting firm whose clients include five of the top 10 North American investment management firms.

Output: Management consultancy Accenture has launched a new business analytics service to provide subject expertise and industry research to asset managers. The company has taken on British benchmarking provider Investit and its chief executive Catherine Doherty to run the new service, and will focus on key business issues including big data, cyber security and other tech issues. The move is the latest move by Accenture to expand its consulting capabilities for asset management clients to help them adapt to emerging digital innovations and technology.