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TalkTalk TalkTalk among 40 companies that join Manchester Tech Trust network
 Manchester Tech Trust (MTT), the non-profit organisation set up a year ago to link up investors and early stage tech businesses, has announced a powerful new network.

The Tech Trust Network launches with 40 of the city’s tech leaders and influencers - including Siemens chief executive Juergen Maier, Urban Splash chairman Tom Bloxham and MusicMagpie co-founder and CEO Steve Oliver - who believe the city can be a "world-class hub for technology".

MTT chairman Neil McArthur MTT chairman Neil McArthur

The plan is to expand the network by invitation to embrace a wide spectrum of supporters from all areas of the Greater Manchester tech ecosystem.

Network members have committed to helping entrepreneurs and early stage companies with practical business advice and guidance, sharing their network and making introductions, and spreading the word about Manchester’s tech offer.

MTT chairman Neil McArthur, a co-founder of Talk Talk, says: “The Manchester tech sector is growing but still has yet to reach its true potential. We are building a strong and visible network of like-minded people who love Manchester and want to see it thrive.

"Through our Manchester Tech Trust website and events, we have established ourselves as a super connector, the ‘go to’ organisation in the city to bring people, support and finance together to make things happen quickly and effectively.”

Siemens chief executive Juergen Maier Siemens chief executive Juergen Maier

Siemens chief executive Maier, chairman of the NW Business Leadership team, also joins MTT’s Advisory Board.

He said: "Neil McArthur and the team are part of a proud Manchester tradition built around innovation, entrepreneurship and giving back to the community. These ingredients are exactly what Manchester needs as it seeks to forge its own path to creating a truly globally recognised base for the future of tech."

Others involved in the Network are Simon Calver, Chairman of UK British Angels Association and partner at BGF Ventures, Hugh Campbell, founder and managing partner of GP Bullhound, Allied London CEO Michael Ingall, Bruntwood CEO Chris Oglesby, Code Computerlove CEO Tony Foggett and Reality Mine co-founder Garry Partington.

The full list of Tech Trust Network members can be seen here.

Output: The Manchester Tech Trust (MTT) has launched a wide-ranging network comprising 40 of the city's leading tech business figures. The Tech Trust Network includes Urban Splash chairman Tom Bloxham, Siemens chief executive Juergen Maier and MTT chairman Neil McArthur, the co-founder of Talk Talk. “The Manchester tech sector is growing but still has yet to reach its true potential. We are building a strong and visible network of like-minded people who love Manchester and want to see it thrive," said MTT chairman Neil McArthur.


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AI can boost insurance processes insurtech has left behind
 The insurance industry has seen a great amount of digital transformation in recent years, but two areas that have not reaped the benefits yet are policy development and claims handling. However, with advancements in artificial intelligence, this is set to change.

That's according to Nathan Root, VP of insights and data for insurance at consultancy Capgemini Financial Services. Root, formerly an SVP in charge of underwriting transformation at CNA, says that AI's impact on claims can drastically reduce cycle time.

Insurers are using AI technology to analyze their old paper claims, submission applications, and policies. These digitized documents can then be subject to analytics that can inform carriers' policy and claim strategies going forward.

Daniel Bujack - Fotolia

“Within the claims process, insurance companies are looking to deliver a better outcome and an overall better customer service experience,” Root says.

For example, he says, AI is allowing companies to dramatically cut claim routing times. Companies he is working with are using AI and data analytics to create a system where a new claim can automatically be routed to an adjuster depending on the severity of the claim and the experience of the adjuster. This cuts the process of assigning a claim from days to just minutes.

In order to deliver this improved experience, Capgemini works with clients to combine the growing abilities of AI software to understand natural language with existing technology, such as character recognition, to digitize the data in their new claims.

Root described the maturity of the big data and analytics capabilities when it comes to mining old claims as “mainstream" -- but it hasn't yet peaked, he says. For example, there's still a lot of potential for insurance companies to use AI to automate data collection and analysis.

“It has not yet hit its threshold of maturity,” he said. “In five years, it will be more mainstream and more mature. It will get more innovative with machine learning.”

Output: Artificial intelligence is allowing insurers to automate and streamline parts of the insurance value chain yet to benefit from insurtech, according to Nathan Root, VP of insights and data for insurance at consultancy Capgemini Financial Services. Carriers are harnessing the learning power of AI to analyse old claims documents to identify new business strategies, Root said. That's helping companies to reduce claims handling times from days to minutes.


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Redrow Redrow announces final round of homes for sale in Chorley
 Final round of family homes at Chorley development

Redrow has announced the final round of homes for sale at its Lucas Green development in Whittle le Woods, near Chorley.

Just 10 four and five-bedroom homes remain at the development, which has been built around a Grade II Listed gun mounting which protected the town’s Royal Ordnance Factory in World War Two.

News that the development is now 85% sold has prompted the award winning homebuilder to fire a warning to would-be buyers…

“Lucas Green has been such a popular development that there has always been a constant stream of buyers looking to invest in the fabulous family homes we have here,” said Claire Jarvis, sales director for Redrow Homes (Lancashire). “But with only 10 homes now left for sale, those who are interested can’t afford to put off a decision any longer.”

Lucas Green is one of Redrow’s prize winning developments. Its former Henley show home was highly commended as one of the best in the North West at last year’s UK Property Awards; and the development was a Bronze winner at the 2015 What House? Awards for best landscape.

The remaining homes at Lucas Green are premium properties in a stunning location and from Redrow’s award-winning Heritage Collection, which combines Arts & Crafts inspired, traditional exteriors, with contemporary and stylish interiors, very much geared to today’s modern family.

Among them is the detached Marlborough, a truly fabulous five-bedroom detached home priced from £444,995. A selection of four-bedroom homes is coming soon.

Impressive and oozing character, the Marlborough has a spacious kitchen/dining area with patio doors which open out onto the rear garden, and a fully-fitted kitchen with a range of top-name integrated appliances, guaranteed to form the heart of the family home.

A separate lounge provides that private space to relax and unwind, while a snug/study creates a home office or an extra play room for the little ones. Of course, while style is paramount so too is practicality, and a utility and cloakroom prove essential when it comes to streamlining everyday living in a busy home.

For more information about the final homes at Lucas Green, visit redrow.co.uk/lucas or call into the sales centre, usually open 10am to 5.30pm (closed Tuesday/Wednesday).

Output: Redrow Homes has announced the final round of homes for sale at the Lucas Green development in Whittle le Woods, near Chorley in Lancashire. Of the development, 85% have been sold, and just 10 four and five bedroom homes remain available at the development.


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Trump offshore order risks safety and the environment: NYT
 As Americans flock to the nation’s beaches this summer, it is important to understand what Mr. Trump’s recent moves portend. Specifically, his executive order calls for the reconsideration of a critical safeguard that is the most important action the government has taken to reduce offshore drilling hazards. This safeguard, the well control rule, tightened controls on blowout preventers designed to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. The rule was based in part on lessons the commission learned about the root cause of the BP disaster.

Had this common-sense rule been in place on April 20, 2010, that calamity might well have been averted. Weakening or rescinding this rule would increase the risks of offshore operations, put workers in harm’s way and imperil marine waters and coastlines.

Mr. Trump’s order also directed the Interior Department to review current rules on offshore drilling. Opening more areas to exploration, as the Trump administration moved to do last week, could threaten the fragile Arctic Ocean off Alaska as well as environmentally sensitive reaches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. A spill in any of those waters could threaten multibillion-dollar regional economies that depend on clean oceans and coastlines.

Nothing has changed to justify these moves since the current five-year offshore leasing plan, which runs through 2022, was finalized after years of public and industry input. Broad public opposition to expanding drilling into frontier areas has not diminished. Nor are the identified potential harms to economies and ecologies any less significant.

In short, drilling in the outer continental shelf remains risky business. Safety and oversight in offshore drilling continues to need improvement, not roll backs.

Output: Safety recommendations adopted by the US Department of the Interior in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak could be abolished under an executive order by Donald Trump, according to an op-ed in the New York Times. The April offshore energy order begins “the process of opening offshore areas” to exploration. Last week, Trump also opened the public comment period for a 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing programme on the environmentally sensitive outer continental shelf region. The moves undermine the “well control rule,” designed to prevent underwater explosions, and threaten workers’ safety and the environment.


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Global warming could be worse than anticipated: Harvard
 Hopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive temperatures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research.

The work shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even worse than feared.

How much global temperatures rise for a certain level of carbon emissions is called climate sensitivity and is seen as the single most important measure of climate change. Computer models have long indicated a high level of sensitivity, up to 4.5C for a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere.

However in recent years estimates of climate sensitivity based on historical temperature records from the past century or so have suggested the response might be no more than 3C. This would mean the planet could be kept safe with lower cuts in emissions, which are easier to achieve.

But the new work, using both models and paleoclimate data from warming periods in the Earth’s past, shows that the historical temperature measurements do not reveal the slow heating of the planet’s oceans that takes place for decades or centuries after CO2 has been added to the atmosphere.

“The hope was that climate sensitivity was lower and the Earth is not going to warm as much,” said Cristian Proistosescu, at Harvard University in the US, who led the new research. “There was this wave of optimism.”

The new research, published in the journal Science Advances, has ended that. “The worrisome part is that all the models show there is an amplification of the amount of warming in the future,” he said. The situation might be even worse, as Proistosescu’s work shows climate sensitivity could be as high as 6C.

Prof Bill Collins, at the University of Reading, UK, and not part of the new research, said: “Some have suggested that we might be lucky and avoid dangerous climate change without taking determined action if the climate is not very sensitive to CO2 emissions. This work provides new evidence that that chance is remote.” He said greater long term warming had implications for melting of the world’s ice sheets and the rise of sea levels that already threatens many coastal cities.

The reason the historical temperature measurements indicated a lower climate sensitivity than models or paleoclimate data is because the Earth has a fast and a slow response to increases in carbon emissions, Proistosescu said.

Land, mostly in the northern hemisphere heats up quickly. But there is also a slow response, he said: “This is mostly associated with warming over the oceans. They are big and full of cold water, especially at depth, and take a long time to heat up.” Furthermore, when the slow warming does kick in, it is likely to reduce the cloud cover that shades the Southern ocean and the eastern tropical Pacific, amplifying the heating.

The new research shows the 4.5C upper limit for climate sensitivity is real and means projections for global temperature rises cannot be reduced. The global temperature is likely to be 2.6C to 4.8C higher by the end of the century if emissions are not cut, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or 0.3C to 1.7C if sharp emissions cuts begin in the next few years.

The world may already be seeing the increasing rises in temperature, said Prof Piers Forster at the University of Leeds, UK: “It may already be happening – the rapid increase in temperatures since 2014 could be partly due to the eastern Pacific catching up.”

Reconciling all the estimates of climate sensitivity has also shown that climate models are not flawed. “Historical observations give us a lot of insight into how climate changes and are an important test of our climate models,” said Prof Peter Huybers, a colleague of Proistosescu’s at Harvard University. “But there is no perfect analogue for the changes that are coming.”

Output: Future global warming could be even worse than expected, according to research from Harvard. Climate sensitivity, or the rise in temperatures resulting from a certain level of carbon emissions, is viewed as the most significant measure of climate change. Computer models have previously suggested a level of sensitivity of up to 4.5C per doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere, while some recent research has suggested sensitivity might be as low as 3C. The new study suggests that previous measurements do not factor in the slow heating of the oceans and warns that sensitivity could actually be as high as 6C.


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Tesla engineer claims she was fired for alleging harassment
 The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was “be bold for change” in the fight for a “more gender inclusive world” – but some at Tesla had a different plan for the day.

It was an opportunity for women to discover essential oils. A “health and wellness group” at the electric car company invited female staff members to an 8 March “lunch ‘n learn” about oils and how they can help improve people’s “health and happiness”, according to emails seen by the Guardian, which reveal that the proposed event was quickly met with vocal criticism. It was particularly offensive to some given that a week earlier, AJ Vandermeyden, a female engineer, had publicly accused Elon Musk’s company of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Tesla postponed the oils session. The company organized a town hall meeting on diversity for that day, which included six male executives and one woman, according to multiple attendees. At the crowded meeting at the Fremont factory, women took the microphone one-by-one and shared stories of sexual harassment, mistreatment by male managers, unfair promotion decisions and more, sources said.

Vandermeyden, who attended the meeting, thought the outpouring of comments validated her own story. But soon after, Tesla fired her, accusing her of pursuing a “miscarriage of justice” by filing a lawsuit that alleged “pervasive harassment” and pay discrimination. Testimony from the town hall – along with internal emails from Musk, and Vandermeyden’s first interview since her termination – paint a picture of a company that has struggled to respond to mounting complaints about gender discrimination and has aggressively attempted to discredit a woman who publicly criticized it .

“They just want to absolutely crush anyone who speaks up,” said Vandermeyden, 33, seated inside her attorney’s San Francisco office on a recent afternoon. “I spoke up, and I was made a sacrificial lamb for it. It’s a scary precedent.”

Vandermeyden detailed the painful experience of losing a job she loved while facing harsh personal attacks by Tesla in the media. She has come forward at a time when the tech industry is grappling with high profile sexual misconduct scandals at Uber, a prominent venture capital firm and a popular startup incubator.

Tesla, known internationally for its battery-powered vehicles and self-driving car technology, has strongly rejected Vandermeyden’s claims, saying she was terminated for “falsely attacking our company in the press”. But the flurry of criticisms that emerged at the town hall suggests that her complaints are not unique.

‘Predator zone’

Musk was not at the meeting, which was attended by roughly 70-100 people, and featured comments from more than 20 women, according to Vandermeyden and another attendee. One woman described parts of the factory as a “predator zone” for harassment. When the moderator asked women in the room if they had ever been catcalled, a significant number of women raised their hands, according to Vandermeyden.

Other women allegedly talked about feeling unsafe around male managers and facing sexist remarks from superiors. Women talked about being dismissed and talked over in meetings with no other female employees, and asked questions about diversity in hiring and the lack of women in leadership positions.

Some of the executives seemed genuinely concerned and taken aback by the women’s comments. One male leader said it was unacceptable, noting that he had daughters, said Vandermeyden.

One female manager, who was present but no longer works for Tesla, told the Guardian she was offended by that comment: “It’s insulting. You shouldn’t have to have daughters to know this.” She said executives’ responses to questions about diversity were generic and filled with corporate jargon.

Workers inside Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. Photograph: Handout Handout/EPA

Tesla said in an email that a Women in Tesla group hosted the event and that “executives attended because they wanted to hear directly from employees about their experiences and learn about how to improve the workplace”.

The company disputed the Guardian’s characterization of the meeting, saying: “Employees stood up to ask the executives questions, share their experiences at Tesla – both positive and negative – while others spoke of things that they believed Tesla was doing right and some came with suggestions. In some instances, employees were only looking for better collaboration with their HR business partners in general and had nothing to do with any allegations of harassment.”

The company statement said that when an employee referenced an area of the factory as a “predator zone”, it “surprised many in the room who had never heard of this term”. Immediately after the meeting, Tesla said it sent a factory-wide message to supervisors about its “strict policy against any kind of harassment”, adding, “Any complaints of catcalling in the factory are thoroughly investigated and action is taken where necessary.”

Tesla also said that at the meeting, “there was a lot of energy around ensuring we are proactively sourcing diverse talent and ensuring that we have an interview and assessment process that is free from bias”.

Vandermeyden said she talked briefly about her experience at the meeting, adding: “It was finally giving women a venue to voice what was going on. It felt like Tesla had been saying I’m making all this up. And here were all the women saying, ‘No, it’s happening.’ It’s too big to deny.”

Her lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that after she was hired in 2013, she was promoted to a manufacturing engineering position in a department that consisted mostly of men and where she was paid less than male engineers whose work she directly assumed.

Men were also granted positions over her, and she and other women were denied promotions despite their equal or superior qualifications, the complaint said. She also said that Tesla retaliated against her after she raised concerns about sexual harassment and catcalls she routinely faced on the factory floor.

Vandermeyden went public with her story in an interview with the Guardian in February, prompting Tesla to vehemently deny her allegations, claiming that an internal investigation concluded that there was no harassment, discrimination or retaliation.

On 23 May, Tesla announced the hiring of Gaby Toledano as the new chief people officer to oversee HR amid growing concerns about unsafe working conditions at the factory. Toledano joined as the only woman in the “c-suite”, meaning group of chief executives.

One of her first major acts was to fire Vandermeyden.

I’m the one who spoke up, and they’re saying, ‘One way or another, you have to leave.’ How is that right? AJ Vandermeyden

Toledano asked Vandermeyden to meet for coffee one-on-one without lawyers on 29 May, the Memorial Day holiday. Vandermeyden said she thought it was an opportunity to discuss ways to improve the workplace and address her concerns, but instead she was told she could resign and get a severance package or she would be terminated immediately and should not show up for work the next day.

“It felt like they were trying to intimidate me. I’m the one who spoke up, and they’re saying, ‘One way or another, you have to leave.’ How is that right?” Vandermeyden recalled in the recent interview. Toledano’s message to her was clear, she added: “‘You can end this now or this is going to be litigation going on for years.’”

She refused to resign and was fired, she said. She has yet to return to Tesla to clean out her desk.

AJ Vandermeyden ... ‘It was finally giving women a venue to voice what was going on.’ Photograph: Ramin Talaie/The Guardian

Tesla disputed Vandermeyden’s account of the meeting, saying: “Gaby did not intimidate Ms Vandermeyden. She disagrees that there was any intimidation, nor did Ms Vandermeyden ever express feeling intimidated during the meeting. In fact, they both had a positive rapport and expressed mutual support, as Gaby was new to her role at Tesla and was attempting to resolve the matter in a positive and mutually supportive manner for the company and for Ms Vandermeyden.”

Vandermeyden struggled to process the news and was further shocked when Tesla released a 430-word statement to the Guardian justifying the termination.

“Vandermeyden was given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualifications, and that negatively impacted other more qualified individuals,” the statement said, saying that she behaved in a “fundamentally false and misleading manner”. The company said she “falsely attacked” Tesla in the press, amounting to a “miscarriage of justice”, adding: “It is impossible to trust anyone after they have behaved in such a manner.”

Her lawyer, Therese Lawless, well known for fighting discrimination in Silicon Valley, said the statement was clear evidence that Tesla’s termination was retaliation for raising concerns about workplace conditions, which is her legally protected right.

In addition to saying she was not qualified for her job, Tesla has also repeatedly noted that Vandermeyden did not have an engineering degree, a fact many tech journalists have repeated in articles. But according to Vandermeyden and another Tesla employee, this is not uncommon; she said she knew of at least two male engineers in her department without a degree.

Musk’s warning to employees: don’t sue Tesla

Musk also appeared to reference Vandermeyden in a company-wide email sent two days after her termination. In the email – with the subject “Doing the right thing”, sent at 2.29am – Musk lamented the scrutiny that his company faces, saying, “The list of companies that want to kill Tesla is so long, I’ve lost track.”

As as a result, he continued, employees must work harder and faster than competitors, adding they can’t be a “jerk” in the process.

Elon Musk at the company’s headquarters. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Musk did not name Vandermeyden, but went on to offer what seemed to be a thinly veiled attack on her lawsuit: “If you are part of a less represented group, you don’t get a free pass on being a jerk yourself. We have had a few cases at Tesla where someone in a less represented group was actually given a job or promoted over more qualified highly represented candidates and then decided to sue Tesla for millions of dollars because they felt they weren’t promoted enough. That is obviously not cool.”

Vandermeyden, who had not seen the email until the Guardian provided it to her, said it was painful to read: “It’s saying everything I’ve done at Tesla, all the hard work, it’s dismissing it all. It hurts because there are going to be some people who believe that.”

She also noted that she has consistently received positive performance evaluations and called his email “defamatory”.

Asked about the email, Tesla said in a statement: “This email in fact did not reference Ms Vandermeyden or her case.”

Vandermeyden said she wished that Musk would consider that “dissent isn’t disloyalty” and that her love of Tesla drove her to advocate for better working conditions. “I was never your enemy,” she said, adding: “I still believe in the importance of transitioning the world to sustainable energy, but now I don’t get to be a part of it.”

She recalled getting a T-shirt with Musk as a superhero when she first joined Tesla, and that it was hard to realize that “sometimes your superheroes aren’t always super”.

Output: A former female engineer at Tesla has accused the automaker of firing her for making accusations of sexual harassment. AJ Vandermeyden was criticised by the company for pursuing a “miscarriage of justice” when she launched a lawsuit alleging that the company was responsible for “pervasive harassment” and pay discrimination. Speaking to The Guardian, Vandermeyden said that her claims were supported by at least 20 other women speaking at a company meeting on International Women’s Day in March. One woman allegedly referred to parts of the Tesla factory as a “predator zone”.


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Brexit threatens climate change progress: IIEA
 Institute of International and European Affairs director general Barry Andrews: “When it comes to climate change, under all Brexit scenarios the most profoundly negative consequence are not felt by the UK, but by the EU and internationally.”

Brexit could have a profoundly destabilising impact on global momentum to address climate change, according to a report published by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

“One thing is clear: further to the damaging withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, the last thing global efforts to tackle climate change need is Brexit; and the harder the Brexit, the worse the climate impact,” said report author Joseph Curtin. He is a research fellow at UCC and the IIEA in Dublin, and a member of the Government’s climate change advisory council.

The analysis explores the political impacts for climate change, within the UK, at EU level and globally, under four scenarios including in the event of remain (“a reversal of the decision to leave”). Apart from remain, all scenarios come with negative consequences for climate protection, Mr Curtin said.

The negative consequences, according to the report, ripple out from the loss of UK influence at the EU negotiating table. The UK has historically been a leader in EU climate policy, aligning itself to the clean and green grouping of member states, including Germany and the Nordic countries.

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Greenhouse gasses

It has taken on the most challenging commitments to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gasses and has also been a leading proponent of reforms to the EU’s flagship climate policy, its carbon trading scheme. “If the UK leaves, even in a ‘soft Brexit’ scenario – where it remains in the EU single market and customs union – the balance of power tilts towards the less ambitious grouping of member states, led by Poland. EU leadership and ambition suffer,” Mr Curtin added.

The report finds that under all three Brexit scenarios, there may be a requirement for the EU to resubmit a less ambitious pledge to the UN’s Paris climate accord on curbing global emissions. This is because the UK contributes disproportionately to the overall EU pledge (a 40 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030), and other member states are “unlikely to take up the slack post-Brexit”.

In an “ultra-hard” scenario, a “hard Brexit” (leaving the single market and customs union) but followed by domestic rollback of environmental legislation where the UK seeks to gain competitive advantage through deregulation, the situation is worst. In this case, the report argues, the UK would be unlikely to submit an ambitious national pledge to the Paris accord, if indeed it submits a pledge at all. The very survival of the accord could be threatened, it adds.

Paris accord

“This scenario would have profound implications for trade, carbon leakage and potentially competitiveness between the UK and its major EU trading partners, including Ireland. It would have highly destabilising repercussions for the Paris agreement and likely result in a diminished commitment to climate finance.”

Somewhat counterintuitively, in most scenarios, the implications for the UK’s national climate policy are limited. “This is because the UK’s climate ambition is underpinned by domestic legislation such as the Climate Change Act (2008),” Mr Curtin said, “and is not a function of EU membership per se”.

The exception, the report contends, is in the ultra-hard Brexit scenario, where the UK rolls back its domestic climate policy following a hard Brexit. In this instance, “there are profoundly destabilising impacts on decarbonisation momentum at all levels: within the UK, and at EU and UN fora”.

Speaking at the report’s launch, IIEA director general Barry Andrews said this analysis of the impact of Brexit on climate change “shows different results to other areas of policy we are exploring. In most areas, the UK will be disproportionally negatively affected by its decision to leave the EU, be it in trade, foreign policy or security. However, when it comes to climate change, under all Brexit scenarios the most profoundly negative consequence are not felt by the UK, but by the EU and internationally.”

Output: Brexit could destabilise global efforts to combat climate change, according to a report by the Institute of International and European Affairs. Author of the report Joseph Curtin, who is a member of the Government’s climate change advisory council, stated that “the harder the Brexit, the worse the climate impact”. The study argues that the negative impacts would stem from the fact that the UK has traditionally been a leader of European Union (EU) climate policy. Brexit could tip power within the EU towards countries that look to pursue less ambitious climate goals, such as Poland.


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Regus Hilton Hotel in Nottingham undergoes refurbishment
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The Hilton Hotel in Nottingham city centre is undergoing a major revamp to its exterior.

The 113-year-old venue, in Milton Street, is covered in scaffolding as refurbishment work takes place over the next month.

Hilton Nottingham general manager, David Rowley said: “This iconic Victorian property in the heart of Nottingham’s city centre is undergoing a significant programme of investment into its exterior.

“Work taking place on the 1904 building includes repointing of the front-facing brick work, refurbishment of the original Victorian sash windows and upgrading of the roof. This phase of work is expected to conclude by the end of July.

“This project will help to improve and uphold the stylish, vintage look of one of Nottingham’s finest surviving properties from that era.”

(Image: Joseph Raynor)

Hilton Nottingham, which has 177 rooms, features a 60 ft indoor heated swimming pool, LivingWell health club with sauna, function rooms for up to 200 people, and a Regus Express Business Lounge.

The four-star hotel was completely refurbished by Franklin Ellis Architects in 2000.

The £13m project involved redesigning the ground floor to provide a new reception, bar and restaurant, while the basement was converted to incorporate the 12,000 sq ft health club and swimming pool.

Output: The Hilton Hotel in Nottingham city centre is undergoing a significant refurbishment of its exterior to accentuate its vintage aesthetic. The 113-year old building contains 177 rooms, a heated pool, a LivingWell health club and a Regus Express Business Lounge. Renovations will include a roof upgrade and work on the Victorian sash windows, with scaffolding set to remain in place throughout July.


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Researchers develop short lifecycle rice for bioenergy studies
 Rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population and a model for studies of candidate bioenergy grasses such as sorghum, switchgrass, and Miscanthus. To optimize crops for biofuel production, scientists are seeking to identify genes that control key traits such as yield, resistance to disease, and water use efficiency.

Populations of mutant plants, each one having one or more genes altered, are an important tool for elucidating gene function. With whole-genome sequencing at the single nucleotide level, researchers can infer the functions of the genes by observing the gain or loss of particular traits. But the utility of existing rice mutant collections has been limited by several factors, including the cultivars’ relatively long six-month life cycle and the lack of sequence information for most of the mutant lines.

In a paper published in The Plant Cell, a team led by Pamela Ronald, a professor in the Genome Center and the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis and director of Grass Genetics at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), with collaborators from UC Davis and the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), reported the first whole-genome sequenced fast-neutron induced mutant population of Kitaake, a model rice variety with a short life cycle.

Kitaake (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica) completes its life cycle in just nine weeks and is not sensitive to photoperiod changes. This novel collection will accelerate functional genetic research in rice and other monocots, a type of flowering plant species that includes grasses.

“Some of the most popular rice varieties people use right now only have two generations per year. Kitaake has up to four, which really speeds up functional genomics work,” said Guotian Li, a project scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and deputy director of Grass Genetics at JBEI.

In a previously published pilot study, Li, Mawsheng Chern, and Rashmi Jain, co-first authors on The Plant Cell paper, demonstrated that fast-neutron irradiation produced abundant and diverse mutations in Kitaake, including single base substitutions, deletions, insertions, inversions, translocations, and duplications. Other techniques that have been used to generate rice mutant populations, such as the insertion of gene and chromosome segments and the use of gene editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9, generally produce a single type of mutation, Li noted.

“Fast-neutron irradiation causes different types of mutations and gives different alleles of genes so we really can get something that’s not achievable from other collections,” he said.

Whole-genome sequencing of this mutant population – 1,504 lines in total with 45-fold coverage – allowed the researchers to pinpoint each mutation at a single-nucleotide resolution. They identified 91,513 mutations affecting 32,307 genes, 58 percent of all genes in the roughly 389-megabase rice genome. A high proportion of these were loss-of-function mutations.

Using this mutant collection, the Grass Genetics group identified an inversion affecting a single gene as the causative mutation for the short-grain phenotype in one mutant line with a population containing just 50 plants. In contrast, researchers needed more than 16,000 plants to identify the same gene using the conventional approach.

“This comparison clearly demonstrates the power of the sequenced mutant population for rapid genetic analysis,” said Ronald.

This high-density, high-resolution catalog of mutations, developed with JGI’s help, provides researchers opportunities to discover novel genes and functional elements controlling diverse biological pathways. To facilitate open access to this resource, the Grass Genetics group has established a web portal called KitBase, which allows users to find information related to the mutant collection, including sequence, mutation and phenotypic data for each rice line. Additional information about the database can be found through JGI.

Additional Berkeley Lab scientists who contributed to this work include co-first authors Rashmi Jain and Mawsheng Chern; Tong Wei and Deling Ruan, both affiliated with JBEI’s Feedstocks Division and with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Nikki Pham and Kyle Jones of JBEI’s Feedstocks Division; and Joel Martin, Wendy Schackwitz, Anna Lipzen, Diane Bauer, Yi Peng, and Kerrie Barry of the JGI.

Support for the research at JBEI, a DOE Bioenergy Research Center, and JGI, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, was provided by DOE’s Office of Science. Additional support was provide by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Output: Scientists who are developing crops suitable for biofuel production are investigating the genes that control vital traits, such as disease resistance, water-use efficiency and crop yield. Rice is a model grain for bioenergy studies and a team of US researchers has reported the first whole-genome sequenced, fast neutron-induced mutant population of Kitaake, a model rice variety with a short life cycle. Whole-genome sequencing at the single nucleotide level allows researchers to study functions of the genes by examining the loss or gain of certain traits when one or more genes are altered.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Sinclair Pharma Kelo-cote offers effective treatment for scarring
 I want your scars to look pretty. Particularly in larger scar surgeries (think tummy tucks or breast reductions and breast lifts), the less you see the scar, the better everything is. There are some skin types which tend to scar more poorly (Asian skin, darker skin types, people with a history of hypertrophic or keloid scars).

This is a data sheet put out by the makers of biocorneum (so yes, take it with a grain of salt) which states 16 studies demonstrate why “biocorneum is the number 1 and only FDA cleared choice for initial scar management.” I do not own stock in biocorneum / Kelo-cote. I do not get kick backs. I simply like products which have scientific studies to prove their claims. And I simply want your scars to be pretty.

So.

How does it work?

Unlike other methods, it does not use pressure, temperature, oxygen tension, or occlusion.

It does involve hydrating the top layer of the skin, and helps the release of low molecular weight silicone fluid

It helps prevent water loss across the skin. Why does this matter? It is thought the hydration state of the skin cell signals fibroblasts to produce collagen (scar) Silicone gel increases production of basic fibroblast growth factors, which reduces collagen proliferation seen in hypertrophic scars.

Split scar studies showed

Silicone gel improved the appearance of scars on both the VSS and global physician evaluation over 3 months, but not on the untreated side.

When compared to placebo, silicone gel significantly improved scar pigmentation vascularity (redness) pliability height pain size itchiness

Treatment resulted in 67% of scars being rated normal (with no treatment 28% were rated normal) 26% rated as mildly elevated (with no treatment the rate was 46% mildly elevated, and 26% hypertrophic or keloid)

There was no difference in redness or brown pigmentation

No adverse events.

So what do I think?

As I have said before, I like pretty scars, and this product has scientific studies backing it up. It is not perfect. Some of my patients don’t like to have to wait for it to dry. If that is the case, I would recommend silicone sheets or tape. But it has been shown to be more efficacious than some other products on the market like mederma (onion extract). And for sure I like it better than Vitamin E.

Think of your healing scar like a sleeping baby. You want to treat it kindly, be gentle, don’t irriate it. That is what gives the best scar.

Output: The Lauren Greenberg MD practice in California has listed on its blog scientific reasons for why Sinclair's Kelo-cote, a topical liquid silicone, offers an efficacious way to manage scarring from plastic surgery. By not relying on pressure, temperature, occlusion or oxygen tension, and reducing the water loss across the skin that causes the production of collagen, treatment with the gel has been shown to generate significant improvements in terms of factors such as scar pigmentation, size, vascularity and itchiness.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Two LSE economics professors warn of 40% property collapse
 – UK house prices on brink of massive 40% collapse

– UK at ‘edge of worst house price collapse since 1990s’

– Two leading economists warn of property crash

– “We are due a significant correction in house prices”

– Brexit and wages failing to keep up with inflation to trigger collapse

– Trend starting in London before fanning out to rest of UK

– UK homeowners unconcerned – 58% expect prices to rise

– Over 1 million mortgages under threat in UK

– Concerns of return of new “negative equity” generation

– Huge denial amid recency bias and endowment bias – emotional attachment to expensive things we buy – especially our homes

– Good news for first time buyers – bad news for UK banks and indebted, vulnerable UK consumers and economy

Editor: Mark O’Byrne

Two leading economics professors have warned that the UK housing market is on the brink of a 40% collapse, echoing the early 1990s property crisis.

“We are due a significant correction in house prices. I think we are beginning to see signs that correction may be starting” Paul Cheshire, a professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics told the Mail on Sunday.

The sharp correction or crash may come about due to two primary factors – Brexit and a fall in real wages as they fail to keep pace with rising inflation.

Despite these warnings following swiftly on the tail of recent poor housing market data, homeowners seem unfazed by what the future might hold, disregarding the parallels that are being drawn between today and the run up to the 1990s property crash.

Brexit deals another blow

Professor Christian Hilber and former Government housing adviser, and Professor Paul Cheshire warned that Brexit could be a catalyst for the correction which will see thousands of homeowners plunged into negative equity.

Hilber warned that the crash will not be short and sharp:

“If Brexit leads to a recession and/or sluggish growth for extended periods, then an extended and severe downturn is more likely than a short-lived and mild one.”

Brexit continues to create massive uncertainty. Last week we reported on the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report which pointed towards an ‘adverse shock’, such as Brexit and how it might ‘may amplify a negative feedback loop.’

Wages fall short of inflation

The Professors also explained how wage growth’s failure to keep pace with inflation could result in a fall in house prices.

Last month official measures of inflation showed it was at 2.9% (although we know real inflation rates to be much higher) whilst incomes climbed by just 2.1%.

The OECD painted a bleak picture of the UK economy back in June when it showed that ‘inflation at 2.7% during 2018 would dwarf wage growth of 1.5% and result in the UK have the weakest real income performance, alongside Finland, of any of its 34 rich member states.’

The situation for the UK economy is not expected to improve as growth slows from 1.8% in 2016 to 1.6% this year and just 1% in 2018, according to OECD figures.

Follow the (London) leader

“Historically, trends seem always to start in London and then move out across the rest of the country. In the capital, you are already seeing house prices rising less rapidly than in other parts of Britain,” Cheshire told the Mail on Sunday.

This falls in line with our coverage last week of the weakening of prices in the London housing market. In the same week the Council of Mortgage Lenders said the housing market had ‘stalled’ and that in May over 75% of houses in London sold for less than the asking price.

In contrast an ‘ex-Bank of England guru’ predicted last week that we should not worry about the recent weakening in the housing market. David Miles, professor at Imperial College London, somewhat complacently told the Telegraph:

“The conclusion that I draw is that it is not implausible that house prices, which have become very expensive relative to people’s incomes, instead of over the next 30 or 40 years reversing that to go back to where we were in the 1970s and 80s, either stay as expensive as they are right now relative to incomes, or conceivably, unfortunately, rise further.”

With mixed predictions from experts and mortgage rates still very low, is it any wonder that we are seeing little reaction from homeowners themselves?

A petri dish of market emotion

Despite evidence showing that house prices are coming down, inflation is climbing and incomes are falling a Halifax survey shows that 58% of people agree with Prof. Miles and expect the average property price to rise in the next 12 months whilst just 14% expect house prices to fall.

According to the Council of Mortgage lenders there are 11.1 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth over £1.3 trillion. With that many stakeholders in the property market is it unsurprising that they fail to believe times are taking a turn for the worst?

The confidence of house market participants seems to come from a place that is unaffected by major issues such as affordability and political instability. Instead it is a market psychologist’s petri dish of examples of emotional biases.

Instead of looking at inflation rates, incomes or Brexit worries homeowners are boosted by the likes of recency bias and herd behaviour – they forget the damage of the crash in the 1990s or the booms and busts exist at all instead remembering the most recent good times of climbing house prices (recency bias).

We saw this in the 1990s when the housing market crash of the early-1990s followed a housing boom in the late 1980s. At the time very few of the so called experts predicted the crash and most denied it would happen – even as it began to happen.

This recency bias is spurred on by the local herd (estate agents, parents at the school gate) telling them that house prices should be this high and that the area is desirable (confirmation bias).

All of this feeds into endowment bias – we place a higher value on an item that we own ourselves and we get emotionally attached and vested in things we personally own.

Our homes are more often than not the most expensive things we will ever own, to imagine it will be worth less than we paid for it, is rarely something we can bring ourselves to consider.

Confidence boosts equity release schemes

Endowment bias feeds into the minds of those who are looking to release equity from their homes.

The number of people who have chosen to release equity from their homes has climbed 72% so far in 2017, compared to the same period last year. According to Responsible Equity Release research this is to ‘cover pension shortfalls, prop up savings accounts hit by low interest rates and pay off mortgages.’

It is in the South West of England where homeowners are really taking advantage of the high house prices. More than four times (357%) more equity has been taken out of 2017 to date, in the South West, compared to last year.

All of these people who are either stepping up the ladder to a bigger house and therefore bigger mortgage or are releasing equity from their homes are clearly choosing to ignore the many warning signs.

Conclusion

Whilst Brexit and inflation threats appear to be the stuff of media hype the past and the history of property bubbles should not be ignored.

The LSE professors have drawn parallels with today’s potential crash and that we saw in the early 1990s. That very crash saw house prices fall nearly 40% over six years and sent over one million people into negative equity.

Often economic downturns hit households hard because of their uncanny ability to believe these things won’t happen to them. We no longer live in a society where people prepare for the worst.

We have been encouraged to believe the boom times are here to stay and the bad times are just a minor blip, which may or may not happen.

Unfortunately that results in poor and damaging financial decisions, such as leveraging you and your family to the eyeballs when it comes to buying a house or releasing equity in your family home.

Homeowners would be sensible to open their eyes to this currently uncertain and unsustainable situation and take the necessary precautions. These include paying off mortgage debt and reducing exposure to property and risk assets in the UK.

Prudent diversification and not having most of or all your eggs in the certain baskets remains the key, as does having an allocation to physical gold to hedge the growing risk of a property crash.

News and Commentary

Gold looking `vulnerable’ — drops to seven-week low (Bloomberg.com)

Gold marks lowest finish in nearly 8 weeks (MarketWatch.com)

Gold hits 8-week low as US bond yields spike (Investing.com)

U.S. Mint’s 1st-Half Sales of American Eagle Gold Coins Weakest Since 2007 (Reuters.com)

North Korea says intercontinental ballistic missile test successful (Reuters.com)

Longest squeeze on household incomes since 1970s – ONS (Independent.co.uk)

Can the Bank get Britain to kick its cheap credit habit? (TheGuardian.com)

Nasdaq Triggers Market-Wide Circuit-Breaker As AMZN “Crashes” 87% After-Hours (ZeroHedge.com)

Saudi-Qatar rift has elements of world war potential (Gefira.org)

No ‘shock’ if stocks fall 25% and gold soars 50% by October – Ron Paul (CNBC.com)

Gold Prices (LBMA AM)

04 Jul: USD 1,224.25, GBP 947.32 & EUR 1,078.81 per ounce

03 Jul: USD 1,235.20, GBP 952.09 & EUR 1,085.00 per ounce

30 Jun: USD 1,243.25, GBP 957.43 & EUR 1,090.83 per ounce

29 Jun: USD 1,246.60, GBP 959.88 & EUR 1,093.14 per ounce

28 Jun: USD 1,251.60, GBP 976.25 & EUR 1,101.91 per ounce

27 Jun: USD 1,250.40, GBP 980.31 & EUR 1,111.36 per ounce

26 Jun: USD 1,240.85, GBP 975.56 & EUR 1,109.32 per ounce

Silver Prices (LBMA)

04 Jul: USD 16.15, GBP 12.48 & EUR 14.23 per ounce

03 Jul: USD 16.48, GBP 12.72 & EUR 14.49 per ounce

30 Jun: USD 16.47, GBP 12.69 & EUR 14.44 per ounce

29 Jun: USD 16.83, GBP 12.98 & EUR 14.76 per ounce

28 Jun: USD 16.78, GBP 13.08 & EUR 14.78 per ounce

27 Jun: USD 16.66, GBP 13.07 & EUR 14.79 per ounce

26 Jun: USD 16.53, GBP 12.98 & EUR 14.79 per ounce

Recent Market Updates

– Gold Up 8% In First Half 2017; Builds On 8.5% Gain In 2016

– Pensions Timebomb In America – “National Crisis” Cometh

– London Property Bubble Bursting? UK In Unchartered Territory On Brexit and Election Mess

– Shrinkflation – Real Inflation Much Higher Than Reported

– Goldman, Citi Turn Positive On Gold – Despite “Mysterious” Flash Crash

– Worst Crash In Our Lifetime Coming – Jim Rogers

– Go for Gold – Win a beautiful Gold Sovereign coin

– Only Gold Lasts Forever

– Your Future Wealth Depends on what You Decide to Keep and Invest in Now

– Inflation is no longer in stealth mode

– James Rickards: Gold Will Start Heading Higher On “Dwindling” Supply

– Billionaires Invest In Gold

– Brexit and UK election impact UK housing

Output: The UK housing market is on the verge of a 40% collapse, according to two leading academics. Paul Cheshire and Christian Hilber, both professors of economic geography at the London School of Economics, warned the market was due a significant correction in house prices and this will be prompted by two factors – Brexit and a drop in real wages as inflation rises. They also warned that an extended and severe downturn is more likely than a short-lived and mild one if Brexit leads to recession.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
City banking royalty Hambro backs insurtech start-up By Miles
 By Miles, a London, UK-based insurtech startup, raised £350k in funding.

Backers included InMotion Ventures, Hambro Perks and other angel investors.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop its technology and hire new people.

Co-founded by James Blackham and Callum Rimmer, By Miles provides a pay-per-mile can insurance product, which is in private beta with selected testers. The company’s monthly subscription will cover a car when it’s parked and it will only charge customers for the exact number of miles they drive.

By Miles’s pruduct is expected to be launched soon.

FinSMEs

03/07/2017

Output: Insurtech start-up By Miles has generated £350k in funding from investors that include InMotion Ventures and Hambro Perks, which was co-founded by Hambro Bank scion Rupert Hambro. The London-based start-up will put the funds towards technological advancements and team hires. By Miles offers a pay-per-mile insurance system, currently in private beta testing. The monthly subscription fee charges customers for the precise number of miles driven, and will also cover parked vehicles.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Edtech BrightBytes acquires Authentica for K-12 data integration
 A handful of companies have announced acquisitions in the K-12 space recently. And the Canadian publisher Nelson continues to make deals at a busy pace, following a series of announcements of partnerships with U.S.-based companies with a new acquisition closer to home.

BrightBytes Acquires Authentica: BrightBytes, San Francisco-based learning analytics organization, has acquired Authentica Solutions, developer of an education data integration platform as a service (IPaaS), according to an announcement.

BrightBytes’ Clarity platform, a decision support platform for K-12 educators, seeks to provide research-based analysis and organizes and deliver data across dashboards and reports. Authentica’s DataSense platform provides a single, unified approach to managing all data integration, transformation, and migration processes between all of an education organizations’ critical applications, according to the statement.

“Bringing these two companies together will, for the first time, give educators an end-to-end solution for data-driven decision making,” said BrightBytes’ CEO Traci Burgess.

The addition of Authentica to the BrightBytes family “will help education leaders cost effectively manage data integration and analysis, improve the quality of data collection, and free education institutions to use their data for the intended purpose of student achievement and success,” BrightBytes argued.

In an interview with Marketplace K-12, Burgess noted that the acquisition was the first for BrightBytes, and said that by combining the two organizations the company has “an opportunity to help support learning in the personalized learning environment for K-12.” Join the Conversation Visit Education Week’s K-12 Technology Leaders Group on LinkedIn and share your thoughts about the most pressing ed-tech issues facing school districts. And check out EdWeek Market Brief , a service that provides companies doing business with schools with news, analysis, and original data on the needs and priorities of K-12 systems.

She declined to disclose the financial and structural terms of the deal but said “the two companies will have a full integration plan to work seamlessly together.”

As a result of the acquisition, Authentica CEO Russell Long will become the general manager of the DataSense platform and will report to Burgess; CTO Gene Garcia will become the CTO for DataSense. In addition, BrightBytes will maintain an office in Atlanta as well as their two current offices in Salt Lake City and San Francisco.

Nelson Acquires Technology Assets of Edusight: Canadian educational publisher Nelson has entered into an agreement to acquire the technology assets of digital portfolio company Edusight, according to a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As its “first purely digital acquisition,” the deal” signals Nelson’s further investment in meeting the evolving needs of educators and students across the country, ensuring unparalleled access to the educational resources they need,” Toronto-based Nelson noted.

The purchase “enables us to help re-conceptualize the learning experience for both teachers and students, reinforcing our 100+ year connection to the Canadian classroom in a fresh and meaningful way,” said Steve Brown, Nelson president and CEO.

Edusight is designed to intuitively align with teacher workflow on both the web and via mobile app to provide visualization of data that leads to a better understanding of student learning, according to Toronto-based company, which has received venture capital funding from Imagine K12, the education vertical within Y Combinator.

The move is one of a spate of deals announced recently by Nelson. In May, the company agreed to acquire the K-12 business holdings of McGraw-Hill Ryerson, the Canadian subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Education. As a result of the acquisition, Nelson will take on all development, production, sales, distribution and marketing of the McGraw-Hill Ryerson K-12 portfolio in Canada, including the publishing and distribution of educational materials in both print and digital formats.

In fact, Nelson has formed a series of partnerships over the past year with U.S.-based K-12 companies to help that sell and distribute materials into the 5 million-student Canadian market. (EdWeek Market Brief members should see our recent story about the Canadian K-12 landscape, which describes Nelson’s dealmaking with U.S. providers.)

Nelson also recently unveiled a partnership with Microsoft “to explore the future of classroom learning for K–12 schools.”

Certica Acquires Unbound Concepts: Wakefield, Mass.-based ed-tech platform Certica Solutions has acquired Unbound Concepts, which provides an application that aims to help educators, librarians, readers and curriculum buyers search, browse and discover books, Certica said in a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition enables Certica to provide its network of ed-tech partners with the ability to tag and describe content using “artifacts”; and to embed content search capabilities into key applications, the company said.

“The addition of Unbound Concept’s app, dubbed Artifact, complements Certica’s Academic Benchmarks™ collection of over 3.9 million learning standards and taxonomic terms, utilized by nearly 200 education sector providers to enrich, align and power improved search of content. Both capabilities will be available to publishers, booksellers and educational system providers, such as learning management system (LMS) vendors, via the Certica Connect platform,” Certica explained.

“Unbound Concepts has made important connections between book publishers, distributors, buyers and educators, by creating a common language between those stakeholders,” said Mark Rankovic, Certica’s president and CEO. “We’re excited to execute the synergies between Artifact and our existing platform capabilities, to benefit our business partners.”

Abl Raises $7.5 Million: Ed-tech startup Abl has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding, led by Rethink Education. Sinovation Ventures, Owl Ventures, Reach Capital, and First Round Capital also participated in the round.

In an email to EdWeek Market Brief, Abl founder and CEO Adam Pisoni—who previously served as CTO and Co-Founder of Yammer— said the company spent the past year developing its first product with a number of design partner schools. “This helped us get clarity on the problem and the demand,” he said. “What it’s shown us is that the demand for master scheduling solutions is high among all types of schools of all sizes and types.”

Abl raised the funding round to accelerate growth by hiring more engineers and designers to build out more of the product to handle more school use cases – especially elementary and district needs; invest in easier data integration and onboarding – including building out a larger customer success and implementation team; and expand the sales and marketing team to accelerate growth, Pisoni explained.

The company provides a school scheduling platform that aims to make “it easy to design and manage the daily life of a school through a simple, cloud-based system that eliminates the spreadsheets, magnet boards, and calendaring tools most schools use today,” according to the company.

Mystery Science Raises $2 Million: Mystery Science, a provider of lessons designed to inspire kids to love science, has joined accelerator Y Combinator and raised $2 million, the company said a blog posting on Medium.com.

In addition to Y Combinator, investors included Learn Capital, Reach Capital, and 500 Startups, according to VentureBeat.

The company was started by Doug Peltz and Keith Schacht. Peltz is a former master classroom teacher, science department head and creator of an original science curriculum; Schacht was previously a product manager at Facebook.

Be sure to check back on Marketplace K-12 for updates on mergers, acquisitions, fundraising, and other dealmaking.

Output: San Francisco-based learning analytics firm, BrightBytes, has purchased education data integration specialist Authentica Solutions. BrightBytes’ Clarity platform, a decision support tool for K-12 teachers, provides data analysis, organisation, and delivery across dashboards and reports. Authentica’s DataSense platform provides a unified way to manage data integration, transformation, and migration among education organisations’ main activities. “Bringing these two companies together will give educators an end-to-end solution for data-driven decision making,” said BrightBytes CEO Traci Burgess. The acquisition, a first for BrightBytes, will extend the company’s remit in K-12 personalised learning. Authentica CEO Russell Long will join as general manager of the Authentica DataSense platform.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Gibraltar seeks post-Brexit fund and UK insurance gateway status
 The British territory on the tip of Spain is hoping to attract big business in the wake of Brexit, according to its minister of commerce.

Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of Spain, is seeking to reinvent itself as a gateway to the U.K. for fund managers and insurers after the U.K. leaves the European Union in 2019.

The Gibraltarian government is in the process of reviewing regulations to make the enclave attractive to insurers wanting a piece of the growing bulk annuity market. It is also researching new fund structures and consulting on financial technology rules to appeal to asset managers seeking alternative fund structures and financial blockchain firms seeking a regulated market. It is hoping that the new measures will be sufficient to entice insurers to establish new offices in Gibraltar and fund managers to domicile new funds there, too.

The pitch appears to be working: Gibraltars commerce minister, Albert Isola, tells Institutional Investor Gibraltar has already attracted new applications from 26 insurers, fund managers and financial technology firms since the U.K.s referendum on European Union membership.

The applications are predominantly from insurers looking to obtain a license to write regulated business under Gibraltarian law and from fund managers looking to establish funds in alternative asset classes. Isola hopes to attract life insurance groups who want to win a slice of the UKs burgeoning bulk annuity market. In a bulk annuity transaction, an insurer takes on a companys pension obligations in exchange for a fee.

For insurers, the attraction of Gibraltar is clear. Under Gibraltarian Protected Cell Company rules, they can operate corporate structures that allow them to underwrite insurance risks without these risks affecting their profitability.

U.K. corporate pension schemes are increasingly outsourcing their future pension liabilities to insurance companies through these transactions. A report by investment consultants LCP, released at the end of last year, said £70 billion ($90.7 billion) of UK retirement assets had been transferred to insurers over the past 10 years, accounting for some five percent of the total assets in the defined benefit pensions market.

We already have a lot of insurance firms in Gibraltar but we are looking to see how some of our products  Protected Cell Companies, for example  can be used to support the life and pensions sector, Isola says.

In fund management, Isolas team is also hoping to attract fund firms looking for new structures that will accommodate new asset classes. In July, Gibraltar became the first European jurisdiction to regulate an exchange-traded fund investing exclusively in bitcoin, according to a Reuters report.

Isola says while most European governments have been lobbying to encourage the relocation of business from London after Brexit, Gibraltar is focusing on giving European firms access to the U.K. market after Brexit, when passporting rules will no longer apply. Passporting refers to firms being allowed to sell financial products cross-border throughout the European Union. As it stands, the U.K. will no longer be included in this when the Brexit negotiations conclude in 2019. Isola says the British government has made assurances that Gibraltar will continue to enjoy equivalent regulatory status to the U.K. through its regulator, the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission.

Gibraltar has been a British overseas territory since 1713, but Spain has always contested British rule. Since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, Spain has said it would use its veto power for any plans that will give Gibraltar special treatment after Brexit. The European Councils guidance on Brexit negotiations, however, states that Gibraltar is a separate issue for Spain and the U.K. to negotiate separately.

Financial technology companies and organizations specializing in blockchain technology have been attracted to Gibraltar because of forthcoming legislation that will regulate these businesses, according to Isola.

Reputable businesses are looking to be regulated in that space. By early next year we hope to be in a place to start regulating DLT business, he says. We have an innovation team at the regulator and they acknowledge that if we dont innovate it is going to be difficult for us to get ahead.

Mark Maloney, chief executive of investment firm Gibraltar Asset Management, says he believes the appeal of being regulated in Gibraltar as opposed to London is down to the level of access firms have to the local regulator, which can make it easy to check rules, set up businesses or apply for authorization.

If you look at the companies that Gibraltar now attracts, these are big companies, he says.

Output: Gibraltar has been looking to establish itself as a gateway to the UK for insurers, a domicile for investment funds and a hub for fintech following Brexit. The government of the British territory on the southern coast of Spain has been working on regulations to attract insurers who want a stake in the annuity market. Gibraltar's commerce minister Albert Isola has received applications from 26 fund managers, insurers and fintech companies since the UK's EU referendum.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Property-focused P2P lender LandlordInvest secures seed funding
 LANDLORDINVEST has received financial backing from London property investor Alan Gabbay.

The peer-to-peer buy-to-let platform has raised an undisclosed sum of seed funding from Gabbay, director of property investment firm O&H Properties.

Filip Karadaghi, chief executive of LandlordInvest, said the funding would be invested in technology on the platform.

“We are delighted that we have received backing from Alan Gabbay, director of one of the largest private property investment companies in the UK,” Karadaghi said.

“It serves as an acknowledgement that established companies are beginning to embrace the technological innovation of a traditionally offline industry.

“In addition to changing the property industry, our platform is innovating the UK investment industry by making an asset class, previously reserved for the wealthy, available for anyone with at least £100 to invest.”

Read more: LandlordInvest’s IFISA customers invest 19pc more money

Gabbay joins other financial backers including LNK Capital and angel investors Reece Chowdhry and Lee Josephs.

O&H Properties currently runs a £1bn property portfolio in London.

“The rapid success LandlordInvest has enjoyed since its launch proves there is a clear gap in the market for a service that integrates the requirements of landlords seeking financing in a simple and efficient manner or investors seeking returns in a low rate environment,” Gabbay said.

The investment comes after LandlordInvest reported a boom in demand following the launch of its secondary market in May.

Read more: LandlordInvest adds flexibility to IFISA

Output: Property-focused peer-to-peer lender LandlordInvest has received an undisclosed sum of funding from London property investor Alan Gabbay. The buy-to-let platform aims to innovate the UK investment industry by rendering the asset class accessible to anyone with £100 ($129) or more to invest. LandlordInvest plans to use the money to finance its technology development. The funding suggests that established firms are starting to "embrace the technological innovation in a traditionally offline industry," said LandlordInvest CEO Filip Karadaghi.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Developing world exploited by hackers for testing cyber attacks
 SAN FRANCISCO — The attack had the hallmarks of something researchers had dreaded for years: malicious software using artificial intelligence that could lead to a new digital arms race in which A.I.-driven defenses battled A.I.-driven offenses while humans watched from the sidelines.

But what was not as widely predicted was that one of the earliest instances of that sort of malware was found in India, not in a sophisticated British banking system or a government network in the United States.

Security researchers are increasingly looking in countries outside the West to discover the newest, most creative and potentially most dangerous types of cyberattacks being deployed.

As developing economies rush to go online, they provide a fertile testing ground for hackers trying their skills in an environment where they can evade detection before deploying them against a company or state that has more advanced defenses.

Output: The developing world is being exploited by hackers for trial cyber attacks. Developing economies offer fertile ground for hackers seeking to test their skills in environments where they can evade detection before using them on a government or business that has more advanced defences. A 2016 attack on Bangladesh's central bank is thought to have been a precursor to similar attacks in Ecuador and Vietnam. Cybersecurity researchers are now increasingly looking at countries such as India to find the newest and potentially most dangerous kind of cyber attack methods.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Associate member option added by UK's P2P Finance Association
 The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association has this morning launched a new category of membership, broadening its potential reach beyond peer-to-peer lenders for the first time. The association, which was originally formed to lobby for the P2P lending sector to be regulated, currently boasts nine members – all of which are P2P firms.

The body has now added an associate membership option, allowing a range of professional and ancillary service providers which support the P2P sector to sign up.

Eight new associate members have been announced at launch. These are: Alterest, Altus Consulting, Equifax,Fox Williams LLP, Grant Thornton UK LLP, Orca Money, Simmons & Simmons and TLT LLP.

AltFi understands that associate membership costs £3,000 per annum.

“The P2PFA has, from its inception, been the authoritative voice of self-regulation in the UK peer-to-peer lending space, promoting high standards of business practice, making the case for robust transparency and an effective regulatory regime, as well as being a source of information and education about this exciting part of the alternative finance sector,” said the P2PFA’s independent Chair, Christine Farnish, ahead of the launch of its associate membership. “The decision to admit associate members demonstrates the continued ambition of the P2PFA to broaden its ambit to include major players who, whilst not having an involvement in direct lending, are important to the continued growth and success of peer-to-peer lending in the United Kingdom."

Output: The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Finance Association has introduced an associate membership category to encourage professional and ancillary service providers involved in the P2P sector to join. Companies including Altus Consulting, Grant Thornton and Fox Williams have already joined under the newly launched membership category. While these firms may not be directly involved in lending, they are important to growing P2P lending in the UK, said Christine Farnish, the association's independent chair.


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Intel to lay off more than 100 workers after cuts to IoT products
 97 jobs are to be lost in Santa Clara and up to 40 more in Leixlip, Ireland.

See also: Intel Cans IoT Products [Mannerisms]

IoT accounts for less than 5% of Intel’s sales. The group had revenues of $721 million last year,

The news came after Intel notified the Californian employment officials of the proposed cuts.

The cuts to the board products raised speculation that Intel is cooling on its commitment to the IoT market.

See also: Samsung overtakes Intel to be No.1

Output: Intel will axe more than 100 internet of things (IoT) jobs after cuts to three of its IoT products. Ninety-seven posts will be lost in Santa Clara, California, and up to 40 more in Leixlip, Ireland after Intel made cuts to its Joule, Edison and Galileo boards. The move has raised speculation that Intel is reducing its commitment to IoT.


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Germany takes preemptive measures against G20 summit cyber attack
 Protests at next week's G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, could also come from all over the internet.

And that's what's worrying Germany's top cybersecurity officials. Dozens of experts will stand by at a 24/7 command center among the 20,000 police with dogs, horses and helicopters there to deal with potential physical violence from the expected tens of thousands of protesters, reports Reuters.

"As the national cybersecurity agency ... we're concerned about everything from (persistent threats) to groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec that could be planning political protests using cyberattacks," said Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany's Federal office for Information Security, in an interview with the news agency.

Besides political protests from hacker groups, Schoenbohm is also concerned about attacks from cells linked to foreign governments, including Russia, which have been targeting Germany's political parties and think tanks ahead of the country's national elections in September.

It's not the first time such attacks and attempts by hacker groups linked to Russia have taken place. The US elections were meddled with, and more recently, Russian hackers appeared to have targeted campaign staff of French president Emmanuel Macron with phishing attacks.

Output: Germany’s cybersecurity officials have expressed concerns that a major cyber attack may be orchestrated during the G20 summit, which has led to a cyber command centre being established for 24/7 monitoring of potential issues. Hackers from groups such as Anonymous or LulzSec could launch political protests via digital means, according to Arne Schoenbohm, president of the Federal Office for Information Security. There are also fears that attacks could be carried out by cells connected to foreign governments, such as Russia, which have already targeted German think tanks and political parties.


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Bank of England scrutinises consumer credit sector
 The Bank of England is stepping up its scrutiny of banks and other lenders on credit cards, personal loans and car purchases amid fears that growing consumer debt could rebound on the banking system.

Threadneedle Street is writing to the firms it regulates after reviewing the consumer credit sector, where lending is growing at 10.3% a year – outpacing the 2.3% rise in household income.

The bank is calling on firms to look at the terms under which they are granting 0% balance transfers on credit cards and the basis on which they are issuing personal loans, and to consider the impact of a fall in value of a car when providing vehicle finance.

Its regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, found that while the current pace of growth was not being driven by a relaxation of lending standards, it was concerned that to achieve their future plans they would have to do so.

The PRA found “that the resilience of consumer credit portfolios is reducing, due to the combination of continued growth, lower pricing … And some increased lending into higher-risk segments”.

The statement issued on Tuesday followed the Bank’s announcement last week that lenders would be required to put aside £11.4bn of capital to help prepare for any rise in bad debts from consumer lending.

Providing more information on that decision, the Bank said its financial policy committee (FPC), which looks at risks in the financial system, had recently discussed the risk that lenders “might be placing excessive weight on recent good performance in this sector, given that the current environment was likely to have improved the credit scores of borrowers”.

Threadneedle Street said banks were themselves the best way to protect against rising consumer credit. “The FPC agreed that firms remained the first line of defence against these risks. Effective governance at firms should ensure that risks were priced appropriately and benign conditions did not lead to complacency by lenders.”

The Bank asked for a series of information from lenders, including - on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the last interest rate rise, - “whether today’s ‘new generation’ of borrowers (without experience of higher interest rates environments) has implications for their credit-scoring models”.

Car finance, the fastest growing part of the consumer finance sector, is being driven by personal contract purchase deals which now make up 80% of the market. The Bank said a fall in car prices could lead to a surplus of vehicles coming on to the market which could mean losses for lendersand asked lenders to analyse the impact on capital from each incremental 10% fall in car prices.

The Bank’s data showed that in the credit card market, the average term on zero-balance transfers has more than doubled to nearly 30 months, and its latest report was published as TSB cut its rates on loans between £5,000 and £7,499 to a market-leading 3.3% APR.

The Bank said, though, that the practices the industry followed before the 2008 crisis were no longer being adopted. Credit card write-offs were 6.5% in 2006 and 2007 – more than double the current rate.

The PRA – which regulates 40% of providers of car finance and 80% of the credit card market – looks at the consumer finance market from the perspective of the lenders. The impact on borrowers is considered by the Financial Conduct Authority, which is scheduled to provide an update on its views later this month but on Tuesday told firms to scrutinise their bonus schemes. “We expect firms to understand the effects their staff incentives might be having,” said Jonathan Davidson, executive director of supervision at the FCA.

Output: The Bank of England has asked banks and other lenders which it regulates to re-examine the terms under which 0% balance transfers on credit cards are granted, the basis on which personal loans are issued, and the impact of car values in relation to vehicle finance. The consumer credit sector is currently seeing lending grow at 10.3% per year, compared to an increase in household income of just 2.3%. The bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, warned that there was a danger that future growth could be driven by the relaxation of lending standards.


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Honda and Hitachi to develop EV company
 Honda and Hitachi Automotive Systems (HAS) have established a new joint venture that will develop, manufacture and sell all-electric vehicles.

According to AutoCar, around £34 million will be invested into the new company, with HAS taking a controlling stake of 51 per cent ownership to Honda’s 49 per cent.

It will produce its own vehicles and also supply other manufacturers with electric vehicle hardware.

This is part of Honda’s aim to meet its self-set target for two-thirds of sales to be of electrified models by 2025.

This target was announced when Honda formed a new electric vehicle development division in October 2016.

Plans have also been confirmed to launch two electric vehicles next year.

Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo told Autocar earlier this year that the first model will feature “a high-density, lightweight battery pack, integrated heat management and the evolution of energy transfer functions – both to and from the vehicle", which relate to areas of expertise for HAS.

Output: Honda and Hitachi Automotive Systems (HAS) have started a joint venture project which aims to design, manufacture and sell all-electric vehicles. £34m ($44m) will be invested in the enterprise, 51% of which will be owned by HAS, and the project will also supply other automakers with electric vehicle hardware. Honda's decision has been positioned as part of its wider objective to have electric models represent two-thirds of its output by 2025.


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Oat, wheat prices rocket over drought and supply fears
 Wheat futures soared Monday as a worsening drought in the northern U.S. Plains and tougher crop conditions in Canada renewed supply concerns.

Besides the drought, analysts say managed money short-covering in wheat along with commercial buying are helping to propel the market higher.

"We have continued hot and dry conditions for spring wheat, particularly Montana and North and South Dakota — and the weather pattern is not changing," said Brian Hoops, president and senior market analyst at Midwest Market Solutions, a commodity trading and marketing firm based in Springfield, Missouri.

Added Hoops, "In fact, it's intensifying as far as drought-like conditions. So the crop is being perceived as smaller and smaller."

Spring hard red wheat futures in the September contract last traded at $8.16 per bushel Monday on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, a four-year high and up nearly 6 percent from Friday. It soared almost 16 percent last week and Monday represented its ninth straight session of gains.

Spring wheat grown in the Dakotas and Montana is a high-protein variety considered a premium quality by bakers and millers over the Chicago-traded soft white winter wheat. The high-protein grain is used in artisan foods such as hearth breads, rolls, bagels and pizza crust.

The Chicago-traded September winter wheat, a more actively traded contract, jumped more than 5 percent Monday and settled at $5.55 a bushel, its highest level in about two years. It had been as high as $5.56 a bushel, or levels it has not seen since 2015.

The outlook for meaningful precipitation in the drought areas of the Dakotas and Montana is grim, and there are also concerns about unfavorable conditions for growing across the border in Canadian wheat provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan. The drought also is believed to have contributed to several lightning-related fires in the past month.

Last month, North Dakota's governor declared a drought emergency and the state's forestry agency warned that the extended dry conditions are making wildfire risk worse.

"You're going to have multiple days of 90- to 100-degree temperatures with no [precipitation] on an already really, really stressed crop," said Joe Lardy, research manager at CHS Hedging, a commodities broker in St. Paul, Minnesota. "And there's just not any good substitution for spring wheat, either."

The spring wheat crop, which was planted in April and May in the U.S., is particularly vulnerable in June and July during its pollination stage.

Analysts say there have been more hedge funds and speculative money pouring into the wheat markets in Chicago and Minneapolis. Also, there have been cases of commercial users buying out of fear that prices will go even higher.

"Every day these prices go up we're seeing end users scrambling to buy, which is adding to the supportive undertone in the futures market," said Terry Reilly, senior agriculture futures analyst at Futures International in Chicago.

As for the outlook on spring wheat, Reilly said it could reach "maybe even the $10 [a bushel] area if the weather doesn't improve. It's not just U.S. and Canada weather." Reilly explained that there have been downgrades to the Australian wheat crop and to the European crop. For example, he said Ukraine's wheat crop is having weather problems and parts of Russia are seeing similar challenges.

Analysts point out global supplies of wheat are ample, but the high-protein wheat grown in the U.S. northern Plains and Canadian prairie provinces is the big question mark.

"The cash market continues to whip higher for high-protein wheat," Reilly said. "So it tells us that the global supplies of high-protein wheat might be a lot shorter than what the trade was looking at maybe a couple of months ago."

The oats market, which is thinly traded, also has been rallying on the coattails of wheat. Reilly said there has been end-user buying in the oats market, too.

Chicago-traded oats futures for December delivery rose as much as 8 percent during Monday's session but settled up about 4 percent.

"Oats has basically the same growing patterns, same fundamentals as spring wheat," said Hoops. "It's a bullish commodity."

Oats futures have jumped more than 30 percent in the past two months, while wheat during the same time is up just under 20 percent.

Output: A worsening drought in the northern US Plains along with unfavourable crop conditions in Canada have caused wheat and oat prices to soar because of concerns about supply. Analysts add that managed money short-covering in wheat coupled with commercial buying are also helping to push the market higher. It was also noted that while global supplies of wheat are ample, the high-protein wheat of the sort grown in the US northern Plains and Canadian prairie provinces may be becoming scarcer.