BRITISH HERALD
ISSN 2632-8836
WHERE BRITAIN MEETS THE WORLD
£4.00
VOL 2 ISSUE 2 MAR-APR 2020
P/41
P/52
Italy in coronavirus lockdown as deaths soar and economy fades
Why automakers are on a drive to sell electric cars in Europe
COVID-19 The Pandemic bringing the World to a screeching halt1
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
BRITISH HERALD
2
March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
British Herald is among the world’s leaders in online news and information delivery. With our service, one can read up-to-the-minute news stories and receive Breaking News text alerts. British Herald is a registered trademark owned by Herald Media Network Limited, United Kingdom. Herald Media Network Limited is one of the leaders in the global media market. Leveraging on its consolidated strengths in the digital media and communication market, as well as its well-established branding and advertising networks. The efforts in producing quality content and transforming them into a multimedia platform have been well recognized and has accreditated British Herald both at National and International levels.
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
3
BRITISH HERALD
EDITOR'S NOTE
A Royal Exit- And What Lies Ahead
W
hether it was years of living in a fishbowl under constant media scrutiny, the pressure of being a senior royal member, a fear of history repeating itself or just simply seeking out the best for their family that pushed them to make the move, Prince Harry and wife Meghan decided to step down from their senior royal family roles. On January 8th, the royal family’s most visible members Harry and Meghan made an announcement that shook the nation- they announced their trans-Atlantic shift and their intention to spend more time in North America forgoing their senior royal duties. It was the couple’s decision to work towards becoming financially independent as they transitioned and split their time between the UK and North America. This desire to no longer capitalise on their royal status was met with unequivocal support from the public. Through this move, the couple sought out a more peaceful life.
The Queen’s reaction was one long-awaited and she finally spoke five days after the announcement- she expressed her support of the young family’s decision. Harry, Meghan and Archie shall now be holding a dual role- supporting the Queen while making their own money. In the past few months, they have been living in a £14 million waterside mansion in Vancouver with their son Archie. They have also been on the lookout for property in California. While Meghan can quite easily get back to her acting career, Harry doesn’t have the most colourful resume. However, without a doubt, the couple can surely make millions of pounds public speaking or from book deals or some rather lucrative contracts. Given their global profiles, this move has been micro-analysed to a great extent- but it is no different from moving out from your parents home in exchange for a little bit of freedom. Let’s hope this move is the break from the limelight that the couple deserves. It has been, after all, refreshing to see both of them- a
Read more! log on to: www.britishherald.com
4
March-April 2020
little happier, smiling a little brighter in their more recent public outings. Putting their mental health and family ahead of everything else is actually quite refreshing. So, what do you think? Was #Megxit (as Twitterati has dubbed it) a move akin to dropping the hourglass from the royal mantle or a rather triumphant mic drop? Only time will tell.
Best,
ANSIF ASHRAF Managing Editor, British Herald ansif@britishherald.com
www.facebook.com/britishherald
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
CONTENTS
MARCH-APRIL 2020 | VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 02
6
36
6 | COVID-19, The Pandemic bringing the World to a screeching halt
20
29
36 | Extensive preparations underway as UK markets plunge
76
20 | Ethanol makers see demand surge on hand sanitizer stockpiling
29 | London stocks join sea of red as oil crash compounds recession fears
76 | In Tokyo, a growing sense of angst over virus-hit Games
22 | Samsung Display asks Vietnam not to quarantine 700 engineers
43 | EU unveils climate law, Thunberg calls it 'surrender'
54 | Coronavirus piles pressure on Europe's stricken auto industry
WHERE BRITAIN MEETS THE WORLD
ISSN 2632-8836
Managing Director & Group Editor-in-Chief Ansif Ashraf www.ansif.com, Senior Editor Ashly Christopher, Associate Editor Neha Nambiar, Contributors | Via Reuters Steve Gorman, Nichola Groom and Alex Dobuzinskis, Paul Sandle, Isla Binnie, Julie Zhu and Kane Wu, Sinead Cruise and Huw Jones, Edward Taylor, Matthew Stock, Josh Horwitz, Stephen Nellis, Kate Kelland and Julie Steenhuysen, Tom Miles, David Shepardson, Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman, Paresh Dave, Jayson Mansaray, Pascale Denis and Richard Lough, Sheila Dang, Jamie Freed, Paul Carsten and Alexis Akwagyiram, Emily G Roe., Layout & Design Sooraj SV., IT & Support Rajagopal Gangadaran Advertising & Sales Shameela Jabeen (advertise@britishherald.com) Digital Marketing Adnan Niroukh Published by; HERALD MEDIA NETWORK LIMITED Company Number – 11289223, Registered Address: 156 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW31HW, England. United kingdom, T +44 20 8123 7074, M mail@britishherald.com W www.britishherald.com ©2019 Herald Media Network Limited. © 2019 BRITISH HERALD, as to material published in the U.K., All Rights Reversed. ©2019 Herald Media Network Limited, as to material., British Herald e-Magazine is published bi-monthly. Copying for other than personal use or Internal reference or of articles or columns not owned by BRITISH HERALD without written permission of Herald Media Network Limited is expressly prohibited.
Views and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Herald Media Network Limited, Its publisher and/or editor. We (at Herald Media Network Limited) do Our best to verify the information published, but do not take any responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the information. Herald Media Network Limited does not accept responsibility for any investment or other decision taken by readers on the basis of information provided herein. British Herald ® is published under a license Agreement with Herald Media Network Limited, 156 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW31HW, England. ‘’BRITISH HERALD’’ is a trademark used under license From Herald Media Network Limited.
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
5
COVER STORY
BRITISH HERALD
CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19)
COVID-19
The Pandemic bringing the World to a screeching halt
6
COVID-19- a name that puts everyone on high alert, of late. Since its origin and detection for the first time in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the deadly virus has spread globally affecting thousands of individuals and claimed the lives of several. And the effect it has seems to be spiralling out of control. As a society, we need to grab the reins and get the situation under control. March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY
COVID-19 L
et’s take a peek behind the curtain and start at the very beginning.
So, what is COVID-19? If your memory serves you well, you probably remember the 2002 SARS outbreak in China, which also spread worldwide but was contained within a matter of time. Since 2004, there hasn’t been a case of the SARS. Both SARS and COVID-19 are two members of a large family of viruses known to cause illnesses in humans as well as animals. In humans, coronaviruses present as respiratory illnesses which may be as simple as the common cold to more complex forms. In December 2019, a not-so-close relative of the virus responsible for the SARS outbreak which had not been detected so far came into the limelight- the COVID-19. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). It found its origins, again, in China in Wuhan and
facebook.com/britishherald
has swiftly spread to several countries around the world. COVID-19 coronavirus has seen significant outbreaks in China, South Korea, the United States, Italy and Iran pushing the World Health Organisation to grant it ‘pandemic’ status. Public anxiety surrounding the coronavirus is real- we hear reports of people dying after being handed a positive coronavirus diagnosis, travel bans are being implemented, people are being requested to work from home and large-scale big-budget events are getting cancelled. Something as small as a cough or a sneeze is putting people on edge, revealing facets unseen- revealing the bigotry of the human race with subdued (or in some instances, outright) acts of racism. In instances of outbreaks like these, it’s quite natural to wonder how to keep yourself safe from contracting the virus. Keep an eye out for the symptoms and self-quarantine yourself for a fortnight in case you suspect having contracted the virus.
March-April 2020
7
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY
Everything you need to know about COVID-19 Symptoms Commonly seen symptoms are: •
Fever
•
Cough
•
Shortness of breath
Less commonly seen are: •
Muscle pain
•
Sputum production
•
Sore throat
•
Nausea
•
Diarrhoea
Emergency warning signs for COVID-19 include: •
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
•
Persistent pain/ pressure in chest
•
New confusion
•
Bluish lips or face
*This list is not all-inclusive. Consult your medical provider for other severe and concerning symptoms.
HEADACHE MUSCLE PAIN
COUGH/SNEEZING
SHORTNESS OF BREATH
8
SPREAD
HANDWASHING
HUMAN CONTACT
USE MASK
AIR TRANSMISSION
AVOID CONTACT WITH ANIMALS
CONTAMINATED OBJECTS
March-April 2020
The infection spreads from an affected individual to the other by respiratory droplets, most often produced by coughing or sneezing. The virus can also remain on a surface or object, be transferred by touch and enter the body through the mouth, nose or eyes.
Incubation Period From exposure to the virus to becoming symptomatic could take anywhere between 2 to 14 days, with an average incubation period of 5 days.
Diagnosis Listed here are the current testing methodologies.
FEVER
PREVENTION
Spread
A sample is obtained using a nasopharyngeal swab or sputum and sent to the laboratory. COVID-19 is standardly diagnosed by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). In addition to this, a blood serum sample can also be used for an antibody assay to diagnose the infection. COVID-19 can also be diagnosed by spotting the symptoms, risk factors and a chest CT scan which shows pneumonia.
Distinctions from the Flu It is quite apparent that the fever, sore throat and aches and pains which coronavirus presents with is not too different from the flubut they’re nothing alike. While they’re similar on grounds of how they spread, they vary in two ways- their contagiousness and vaccine against the disease.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY identified definitively so far, the best bet of the original host of the virus is believed to be the bat.
The Science Behind Coronavirus Once the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters the body, it first infects the lung lining’s epithelial cells. The process first begins in the upper respiratory tract (nose, mouth, larynx, bronchi) with the infection of the goblet and cilia cells. A protein on the virus receptor attaches on to the host cell’s receptors to penetrate the cells. Once it enters the host cell, the virus starts replicating to the point that it kills the cell. At this point, the immune system response kicks in and the body creates a hostile environment for the virus with higher temperatures which manifest in the form of a fever. Coughing and a runny nose are COVID-19 spreads at twice the frequency of the normal flu. The flu vaccine is an effective way to prevent seasonal flu, but the COVID-19 does not have any vaccine for its prevention in place yet.
How did it begin? The COVID-19 outbreak began in the city of Wuhan in China with a population of 11 million people. This dangerous virus finds its origins in a “wet market” which was set up for the illegal sale of animals like bats, snakes, rabbits and birds. The close unhygienic contact of humans with living and dead animals in these wet markets led to the transmission of the virus from the animals to humans. It is said to have first infected the stallholders in the wet market. The first person to die of the virus was a 61-year old frequent shopper at the market. Once the disease began to spread, Chinese officials imposed a nationwide ban on the sale of wild animals in markets, restaurants and retail stores. While the animal source has not been Image credit: www.usatoday.com
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
9
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY the lung is damaged and oxygen does not reach the rest of the body resulting in multi-organ failure and eventually death. Severe developments which result in death after the coronavirus infection are uncommon- at-risk groups include those aged over 70, individuals with weak or compromised immunity, pulmonary abnormalities or suffering from chronic diseases.
Now, Officially a Pandemic On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) changed their classification of COVID-19 from a public health emergency of international concern to a pandemic. Image credit: www.usatoday.com
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General
the body’s response to getting rid of the mucous. The patient presents with mild symptoms like dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, headache, muscle pain and tiredness- all very similar to the flu. This process takes a week or so. As the infection moves on to the lower respiratory tract, the symptoms become more severe. Respiratory problems like bronchitis and pneumonia arise. In an individual with a fairly strong immune response, the virus is contained in the upper respiratory tract of the patient. The virus wages a war on the host- the fatality is a result of the outcome of this war. Severe infection is usually attributed to the restriction of oxygen into the bloodstream and therefore to major organs like the liver, kidney and brain. Mortality occurs if a significant portion of Image credit: www.usatoday.com
10
March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY which started in Hong Kong caused by a virus called MEV-1 in the movie and it kills 20 per cent of people affected with it.
“Prevention. Preparedness. Public health. Political leadership. And most of all: people. We’re in this together — to do the right things with calm and protect the citizens of the world. It’s doable”- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, DirectorGeneral of the WHO.
of the WHO, explained that the WHO “has been assessing this outbreak around the clock, and we are deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.” “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death. Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do,” Dr Tedros went on to explain. An epidemic is “an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area” whereas a pandemic is an escalation and “refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a
facebook.com/britishherald
large number of people.” COVID-19 is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
Mentions in Popular Fiction •
A 1981 published thriller novel called The Eyes of Darkness written by Dean Koontz mentioned a virus dubbed Wuhan-400 which was created as a weapon in a laboratory.
•
A 2008 published book titled End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World by Sylvia Browne predicted the global coronavirus outbreak
•
In the TV Show, The Simpsons, viral flu which was seen to be originating from Japan as the workers ship the Osaka Flu to Springfield has been mentioned.
•
A 2011 movie called Contagion had a similar plot to coronavirus outbreak. The film is about a virus outbreak
Implications of Bio Warfare Whenever there is an issue affecting people all around the world, keeping conspiracy theories at bay might not be the easiest. Biological warfare has been a part of wars for as long as history goes. In 400 BC, armies poisoned the wells of their enemies and killed them using poisoned arrows. In 18th century America, smallpoxridden blankets were given by British colonialists to the native Americans to kill them in an epidemic. During World War I, Germany developed anthrax, glanders, cholera and a wheat fungus and are also said to have spread plague in St Petersburg, Russia. It is believed that a few countries are developing offensive biological and chemical weapons. People are convinced that COVID-19 is man-made and is engineered to wipe out a large segment of the human race. There are claims that vaccines have already been manufactured along with wild exaggerations about the numbers of sick and dead, and potentially harmful claims about bogus cures. Debunking the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was a result of Bio weaponry required tracing its family tree through its evolving DNA sequence. The genome has thousands of mutations dispersed throughout, which reveals that it is not engineered and seems to have naturally evolved.
March-April 2020
11
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY
The Impact of the Coronavirus lockdown- national quarantines to school closures- all of it. Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, has been locked down for over six weeks, and many other Chinese cities still face travel restrictions. At its peak, China's quarantine spanned at least 20 provinces and regions.
Medical workers in protective suits disinfect an intensive care unit (ICU) ward of Union Jiangbei Hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak
Coronavirus is not a Hall pass for Racism The coronavirus outbreak revealed another growing epidemic among the human race- racism. And it is spreading faster than the virus itself. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, reported first in Wuhan on December 31st, several accounts of racism and xenophobia have been reported and documented all over social media. While such incidents related to the outbreak have been denounced by some governments and politicians, others think much more could be done to show support for Chinese communities worldwide. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. human rights chief, even called on member states to combat discrimination triggered by the virus.
12
March-April 2020
Cities on Lockdown To limit the spread of COVID-19, some of the world’s major cities are placing its citizens on
After a surge in cases in Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte put the entire country on lockdown- restricting travel, leisure, work, churchgoing and other aspects of life for its 60 million citizens. Italy has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world outside China with a minimum of 15,000 people infected and more than 1,000 deaths. Italy's lockdown may be the largest quarantine outside of China, where about 780 million people were under some kind of travel restriction. Denmark became the second European country to impose a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus.
View of the empty street - Naples
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY However, if you do have to travel at this point in time, exercising caution and being responsible is a priority. Here’s a few pointers: •
Avoid close contact with other people
•
Always wash your hands with soap and water, especially before eating
•
Keep away from the seemingly symptomatic
•
Do NOT wear a mask when travelling on an aeroplane
•
If you are sick, stay home
School Closures New Zealand announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all individuals entering the country. El Salvador has imposed a national quarantine on its 6.4 million population and banned foreigners from entering the country despite having no confirmed coronavirus cases so far.
Travel Restrictions
now experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and taking action that may limit traveller mobility, including quarantines and border restrictions. Despite the enforcement of these travel bans and intense screenings, there have been instances of undetected COVID-19 cases passing through borders. This shows that although these measures may temporarily delay coronavirus spread, it will not be effective in its prevention.
Schools in the US states of Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, Maryland, Kentucky and New Mexico have been told to shut on Monday for at least two weeks. The state of Washington has already closed schools in three counties. French schools will be closed from Monday for 15 days, while those in Belgium will be closed until Easter. The German states of Bavaria and Saarland said their schools would be closed until the end of Easter holidays in late April, and
If you had planned a trip of a lifetime sometime in the last three months, chances are that fear got the better of you and you decided not to go. Many countries have started imposing travel restrictions in an attempt to limit COVID-19 spread. Governments are responding to outbreak threats in their own countries with diverse degrees of caution and enforcement of public health orders. Governments are attempting to urge their citizens to reconsider their non-essential travel abroad at this time. Many areas throughout the world are
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
13
BRITISH HERALD the capital Berlin will also start closing its schools next week. The governments of the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka closed their schools and colleges, affecting tens of millions of students. In the UK, the government said school closures were being considered but the scientific advice was that "this could do more harm than good" at this stage. All school trips abroad were banned, however, and anyone with a cough or high temperature was advised to self-isolate for seven days.
Work in the time of Coronavirus The coronavirus outbreak triggered a trial run for remote work on a grand scale worldwide.
COVER STORY More and more firms are switching their businesses to a digital channel and people are trying to avoid physical gatherings and conferences as much as possible. A digital employee is as effective, if not more than one present physically in-office. Even if temporary, the coronavirus may end up making us far more isolated than most of us ever have been at work. A digital work environment can sometimes be far more engaging, participatory, and full of human connection, context, and contact than ever before. Big Tech companies worldwide have urged their employees to work from home and selfquarantine if necessary along with putting off non-essential work travel. The outbreak has also led to the cancellation of several big international conferences.
Economic Impact Globally - Switzerland will make 10 billion Swiss francs ($10.52 billion) available in immediate aid to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. - The Indonesian government has prepared a 120-trillion-rupiah ($8.1 billion) stimulus package to support its economy as the spread of coronavirus disrupts global activities. - Japan's government is expected to cut its assessment of the economy in a monthly report due later this month. - Norway's central bank said on Friday it had offered the first in a series of extraordinary loans to the banking industry, along with a surprise half-point cut in its key policy interest rate. - France will help all companies in which the French state has a stake to weather the coronavirus crisis, its finance minister said on Friday, putting the growing cost of measures to soften the economic fallout at "dozens of billions". - Germany's KfW state development bank has roughly half a trillion euros in support available to help support Europe's largest economy, which risks being stricken by the coronavirus epidemic, the Economy Minister said on Friday. - Sweden's central bank said on Friday it would lend up to 500 billion crowns ($51 billion) to Swedish companies via banks - China's central bank cut the cash that banks must hold as reserves on Friday for the second time this year, releasing 550 billion yuan ($79 billion) to help its coronavirus-hit economy.
14
March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY SOCCER * All elite soccer matches in England, including the Premier League, Football League (EFL) and Women's Super League (WSL), were suspended until April 4. However, the National League - the fifth-tier of English football - said all its weekend's matches will go ahead, including the lower level Conference North and South divisions.
- Kazakh President KassymJomart Tokayev ordered his government on Friday to allocate 300 billion tenge ($740 million) towards measures to boost employment through infrastructure maintenance projects. - A gauge of stocks across the globe bounced back led by a late rally on Wall Street, after U.S. President Donald Trump freed $50 billion to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Impact on Major Sporting Events Major sports events around the world that have been hit by the coronavirus outbreak:
OLYMPICS * The Tokyo 2020 Olympics torch lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia was held without spectators. * The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) suspended the remainder of the Torch relay
facebook.com/britishherald
through the country to avoid attracting crowds.
NORTH AMERICA * The NBA has suspended its season. * The NHL has suspended its season. * The MLB will delay its 2020 season's opening day of March 26 by at least two weeks.
* The German Football League (DFL) called off matches scheduled for March 13-15 in the Bundesliga and second tier Bundesliga 2. They recommended that both leagues be suspended until April 2. * UEFA postponed all Champions League and Europa League matches due to take place next week. * The Confederation of African Football has postponed two rounds of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers scheduled for March 25-31.
ATHLETICS
* CONCACAF suspended all competitions scheduled to take place over the next 30 days, including the Champions League and men's Olympic qualifiers.
* The World Athletics Indoor Championships (Nanjing; March 13-15) were postponed. They will be held in the same city from March 19-21, 2021.
* The Paraguayan FA has suspended all games until March 24 and recommended that clubs stop collective training sessions.
* The Paris and Barcelona marathons were postponed.
* The Colombian league has suspended all tournaments until further notice.
* The annual London marathon which was due to take place on April 26 has been postponed to Oct. 4. * The race walking team championship scheduled for May 2-3 in Minsk has been postponed.
* The top two tiers of French football -- Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 -- have been suspended until further notice. * All soccer matches in Spain's top two divisions were postponed for two weeks.
March-April 2020
15
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY start of the knockout rounds was moved back to September.
BASKETBALL * Euroleague Basketball suspended all 2019-20 EuroLeague, EuroCup and Euroleague Next Generation Tournament games.
MOTORSPORT * Formula One have cancelled the Australian Grand Prix and postponed the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China.
* England's friendly internationals against Italy and Denmark at Wembley on March 27 and 31 will not take place while Denmark cancelled their March 27 friendly against the Faroe Islands. * The Norwegian Football Federation said it did not plan to hold Norway's Euro 2020 playoff match against Serbia that was scheduled for March 26. * Poland's soccer league has postponed all games at least until the end of March. The resumption date is expected to be announced next week. * U.S. Major League Soccer has suspended its season. * All soccer in the Netherlands was suspended until the end of March. The national team cancelled their Euros warm-up matches against U.S. (March 26) and Spain (March 29). * FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation have agreed to postpone Asian World Cup qualifying matches in March and June. * FIFA said South American qualifying matches between March 23-31 for the
16
March-April 2020
2022 World Cup were postponed. * Bundesliga: Borussia Moenchengladbach v Cologne (March 11) was played without fans. RB Leipzig v SC Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund v Schalke 04 (both March 14) will be played in empty stadiums. * Spain's Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad (Seville; April 18) was postponed. * New seasons in the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean leagues were postponed. * A four-team event in Doha featuring Croatia, Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland (March 26-30) was cancelled. * A friendly between Germany and Italy (Nuremberg; March 31) will take place without fans. * Tickets are not being sold for the Euro 2020 qualifying playoff semifinals between Bulgaria and Hungary and Bosnia and Northern Ireland. * Asian Champions League: Matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were postponed. The
They hope to start the season in Europe at the end of May, putting the Dutch and Spanish races currently scheduled for May 3 and 10 in Zandvoort and Barcelona in doubt. * Four rounds of the MotoGP season in Qatar, Thailand, Texas and Argentina will not go ahead as scheduled. * NASCAR races at the Atlanta Motor Speedway (March 15) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 22) will be held without fans. * Round four of the World Rally Championship in Argentina that was scheduled from April 23-26 has been postponed. * The World Rallycross Championship opener in Catalunya-Barcelona scheduled for April 18-19 has been postponed.
TENNIS * The ATP suspended its professional men's tennis tour for six weeks after the Miami Open (March 23-April 5) was cancelled. * The Fed Cup finals (Budapest; April 14-19) were postponed.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
COVER STORY
* The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells was cancelled.
championships in Seoul have been postponed until at least October.
* The WTA said its events in Mexico and Colombia in March and April would not be held. The Xi'an Open and Kunming Open had already been cancelled.
* The March 16-22 world figure skating championships in Montreal were cancelled.
RUGBY * Three Six Nations matches were postponed.
* The Players Championship in Florida was cancelled after the first round. The next three PGA events have also been scrapped.
* The Singapore and Hong Kong legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series were postponed from April to October.
* The Honda LPGA Thailand event and the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore were cancelled.
* Rugby Europe announced a suspension of all its matches and tournaments from March 13-April 15.
* The Indian Open, the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur and the China Open have all been postponed.
* France's rugby federation said on Friday that it was suspending all its competitions.
CYCLING
ROWING * Two World Rowing Cups and the European Olympic Qualification Regatta, all scheduled for Italy, were cancelled.
TABLE TENNIS * The world championships in South Korea, were pushed back provisionally from March to June.
WINTER SPORTS * The International skiing federation cancelled the final races of the men's Alpine skiing. * The World Cup finals in Cortina were cancelled along with the last three women's races in Are. * The women's world ice hockey championships in Canada were cancelled. * The Speed skating world
facebook.com/britishherald
GOLF
* The final two stages of the UAE Tour were cancelled after two Italian participants tested positive. * The Paris-Nice cycling race will end a day early after the eighth stage into Nice was cancelled. * The Giro d'Italia, scheduled to start in Budapest, Hungary on May 9, has been postponed.
BASEBALL * The final qualification tournament in Taiwan for the Olympics was put back from April to June 17-21, while the March 22-26 qualification event in Arizona was postponed.
* The start of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, scheduled for March 29, has been postponed until April 15. * The cricket boards of India and South Africa agreed to reschedule the ongoing three-match one-day international series to a later date. The first match on March 12 was washed out. * England's two-match test series in Sri Lanka that was scheduled to start on March 19 has been postponed.
JUDO * The International Judo Federation cancelled all Olympic qualification events through to the end of April.
GYMNASTICS * The All-Around World Cup (Stuttgart; March 20-22) was cancelled.
HANDBALL * The International Handball Federation has postponed all competitions in March and AprilJune. The European Handball Federation said matches until April 12 will not be held as scheduled.
SQUASH
* Japan's professional league postponed the start of the season.
* The Professional Squash Association said World Tour and Challenger Tour events taking place up to and including the week commencing April 27 will not take place.
CRICKET
BADMINTON
* Australia's three-match one-day series against New Zealand in Sydney and Hobart is being held without fans.
* The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has suspended all BWF World Tour and other BWF-sanctioned tournaments from March 16 until April 12.
March-April 2020
17
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
BioSpectrum India Announces Industry Winners of Excellence Awards 2020 India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru • Top Biosupplier (Distributor) – DSS Imagetech Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi • Top Analytical Instruments Company (MNC) – Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai • Top Analytical Instruments Company (Distributor) – DSS Imagetech Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi
B
ioSpectrum India is organising BioSpectrum Excellence Awards 2020 in India which shall be taking place on the 27th of March, 2020 at The Lalit Ashok, Bangalore. This annual much-sought-after Awards Night felicitates stalwarts of the Indian Biotechnology and Health Science Industry. “We are very glad to inform you all that we have relaunched the BioSpectrum Excellence Awards from 2020. The surveys have been completed, discussions have been done, and the decisions are out.” – Ankit Kankar, ManagerStrategic Communications, BioSpectrum India
BioSpectrum Industry Awards The top Biotech companies in the country will be honoured. The top companies in the industry who will be honoured were selected on the basis of an industry survey held in 2019.
18
March-April 2020
V – Industrial Enzymes Section
BioSpectrum Industry Ranking Awards I – Biopharma Section • Top MNC Biopharma Company – Novo Nordisk India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru • Top Indian Biopharma Company – Serum Institute of India, Pune II – Diagnostics Section • Top Indian MedTech Company (Indian) – Transasia Bio Medicals Ltd., Mumbai III – Bio-Services Section • TOP CDMO company – Piramal Pharma Solutions, Mumbai
• Top Industrial Enzyme Company (Indian) – Rossari Biotech Ltd, Mumbai • Top Industrial Enzyme Company (MNC) – Novozymes South Asia Private Limited, Bengaluru VI – Bio Incubator Section • Top Bioincubator in Public Sector – Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, Bengaluru, Karnataka • Top Bioincubator in Private Sector – KIIT Technology Business Incubator, Bhubneswar, Odisha VII – Editor’s Choice Awards (BioSpectrum Awards)
• TOP CRMO company – Syngene International Ltd, Bengaluru
• Bio Supplier Industry Leader Award – Dr. G. M Warke, Founder & CMD, Hi Media
• TOP CRAMS company – Suven Life Sciences Ltd, Hyderabad
• Innovation in CRO sector in India – TCG Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd,
• Top CLRO Company – Veeda Clinical Research Limited, Ahmedabad
• “Digital Media Disruptors” in Biotech & Life Science – Thermo Fisher Scientific
• TOP CRISP company – Anthem Biosciences Private Limited, Bengaluru IV – Biosupplier Section • Top Biosupplier (MNC) – Waters
• Top Innovator for Biologics Packaging & Delivery – West Pharma BioSpectrum Jury Awards will be disclosed on the same day.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Finland's Nokia announces 5G partnership with Intel
F
inland's Nokia Oyj has entered into partnership with Intel to accelerate its so-far sluggish shift to 5G the company said, after announcing a similar deal with Marvell Technology. Nokia has struggled with slowerthan-expected development of its Reefshark system on chips (SoC), which allow a single chip to carry an entire computer system, enabling Nokia to produce equipment more cheaply. "Nokia is working with multiple partners to support its ReefShark family of chipsets, which are used in many basestation elements," the Finnish firm said.
Nokia draws $560 million R&D loan for 5G
F
innish telecoms equipment maker Nokia drew a 500 million euro ($561 million) loan last month to help it to accelerate development of 5G technology, its annual report shows.
The company's finances have been in focus since it halted dividend payments in late 2019 and said it would need to invest more than previously expected in development of its 5G equipment.
Nokia said that its R&D loan facility with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has an average maturity of about five years after disbursement, was agreed in August 2018 and available until last month. It drew the loan on Feb. 24.
This week Nokia rehired former executive Pekka Lundmark from energy group Fortum as its new CEO to lead efforts to revive its faltering 5G business.
facebook.com/britishherald
A Nokia representative was not immediately available to
comment on details of the loan. "Nokia will use the loan to further accelerate its research and development of 5G technology, the next-generation mobile telecommunication standard," the company said when the deal was signed in August 2018.
March-April 2020
19
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Ethanol makers see demand surge on hand sanitizer stockpiling
S
ome ethanol producers worldwide said demand is up for their products due to customers stockpiling hand sanitizer - which can be made using the biofuel - as the coronavirus outbreak worsens.
alcohol, used to make many hand sanitizers.
The coronavirus has infected more than 110,000 people in 105 countries and territories and 3,800 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Governments and health agencies have advised people to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer to curb the virus's spread, prompting an increase in demand for ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, industrial alcohol and denatured
Tereos, one of the largest producers of bioethanol alcohol in the European Union and headquartered in northern France, said it also saw a spike in demand and had a special order for 20,000 hectoliters (528,000 gallons) of additional denatured alcohol in the past days.
20 March-April 2020
Minneapolis-based Cargill, which produces and commercializes ethanol, said that demand for its denatured ethanol in Europe has doubled since last february, 2020.
The company is unblocking some of its stocks and making
these requests a priority, a company spokesperson said in an email. Meanwhile, Sacramentobased producer Pacific Ethanol confirmed that industrial alcohol sales are rising, said Paul Koehler, vice president of commodities and corporate development. Toiletries and cosmetics, which include hand sanitizer, account for almost a quarter of U.S. end-markets for industrial alcohol, according to the most recent data available from the Renewable Fuels Association, a U.S. trade group.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Amazon recommends New York, New Jersey employees work from home due to virus said in a statement. Amazon did not immediately respond to a question on whether its policy applied to fulfillment center workers. The advisory specified "employees who are able to work from home." Amazon has created more than 7,000 full-time jobs in New York and more than 17,500 in New Jersey, according to its website. Amazon's remote work recommendation includes its Seattle headquarters, the San Francisco Bay Area and greater Milan, Italy through the end of March, the company said. Amazon and peers in the technology industry, including Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp, have embraced remote work so the virus does not spread in their sprawling offices, which often have cafeterias and other communal spaces for employees to congregate.
A
mazon.com Inc has extended its work-fromhome advisory to include employees in New York and New Jersey, the company, as the world's largest online retailer and other corporations aim to lower the risk of coronavirus transmission among their ranks.
Amazon said one of its Seattle workers tested positive for the virus, which originated in China late last year and since has come to at least 105 countries and territories, infecting more than 110,000 people and leading to thousands of deaths.
"We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve," Amazon
As of Nov. 2018, Amazon had 2,000 employees at its New York metropolitan area technology hub, with another 2,000 jobs planned for future years.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweets that "coronavirus panic is dumb"
T
esla Inc's Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that the coronavirus "panic" was "dumb".
The number of people infected with coronavirus surpassed 100,000 across the world. The outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people and spread across more than 90 nations, with six countries reporting their first cases.
facebook.com/britishherald
Stock markets have plunged and concerns have led to shortages of face masks, disinfectant and other items. Companies across the world are changing the way they work, asking and requiring employees to work from home, for instance, and stopping corporate travel. Tesla stock is down more than 20% since the news of the virus outbreak triggered a broader sell-off in the stock market
around mid February, 2020. Billionaire Musk, with more than 30 million followers, has a history of being outspoken on his Twitter account, one of corporate America's most-watched.
March-April 2020
21
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Samsung Display asks Vietnam not to quarantine 700 engineers from virushit South Korea
S
amsung Display, a supplier for Samsung Electronics and Apple, has asked Vietnam to exempt 700 engineers from coronavirus-hit South Korea from a mandatory quarantine, saying they need to prepare for the production of screens for new smartphones.
"Around this time of the year, Samsung Display sends engineers from Korea to Vietnam to prepare for new products scheduled to be launched in the latter half of the year," a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Vietnam has mandated a 14-day quarantine for people coming from South Korea to curb the spread of the virus, which can be transmitted from person to person and has already reached more than 60 countries. South Korea has reported one of the highest number of infections outside China.
Samsung Display, a Samsung Electronics unit, is in talks with the Vietnamese government about exemption for its engineers travelling from South Korea from quarantine if they present medical examination reports, the person added on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
This has come as a blow to South Korean firms, which are the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam. Samsung Display runs a factory in the Southeast Asian country where it assembles OLED displays used in smartphones made by Samsung Electronics, Apple and Huawei.
The Southeast Asian nation is South Korea's No. 3 export market as well as the fifth-biggest source of Korean imports. Samsung Electronics alone accounts for a fourth of Vietnam's exports and makes over half of its global smartphones there.
22 March-April 2020
"Travel restrictions could deal a setback to such plan."
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
U.S. clears Infineon's $10 billion takeover of Cypress in the United States (CFIUS) informed Cypress that it had determined "there are no unresolved national security concerns" with the merger, the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement.
S
hares in Cypress Semiconductor Corp jumped in after-hours trade after the company said U.S. officials found no national security concerns with its proposed $10 billion takeover by German chipmaker Infineon Technologies. The Committee on Foreign Investment
said it would create an automotive leader with a 13% market share by combining its prowess in managing electric drivetrains with Cypress's edge in in-car entertainment. Infineon, a constituent of Germany's DAX blue-chip index, had hoped for a lift into the world's top-10 semiconductor makers through the deal.
Shares of both companies took a hit after a report said, citing sources, that the U.S. Treasuryled CFIUS had advised President Donald Trump to block the deal due to national security risks.
With footprints in the United States and China, it however finds itself in the middle of a deepening technology trade conflict between Washington and Beijing.
Cypress shares were up about 45% at $22.20 after market close.
Its takeover of Cypress still needs approval from China's State Administration for Market Regulation, Infineon said in a statement.
Munich-based Infineon, announcing the deal last June,
Vodafone, TIM to win conditional EU approval for tower deal
V
odafone and Telecom Italia (TIM) are set to secure conditional EU antitrust approval to create Europe's biggest mobile towers company, part of a strategy to roll out lucrative 5G services, sources said. The companies announced a plan last July to create Italy's largest mobile towers group through the transfer of Vodafone's Italian mobile masts to INWIT, TIM's 60%-owned subsidiary. When the 10-billion-euro ($11.2 billion) merger is complete,
facebook.com/britishherald
TIM and Vodafone will each have a 37.5% stake and equal governance rights in the enlarged INWIT. The telecoms providers offered to give rivals access to some of their infrastructure for up to nine years to address EU antitrust concerns. This included making available between 400 and 630 sites annually in towns with more than 35,000 people to allow rivals to provide current and future mobile and fixed telephony services, according to an EU document.
The deal includes a network sharing agreement and a partnership to roll out 5G infrastructure jointly across Italy. The telecoms industry sees deals such as combining towers or sharing networks as a way to reduce debt and share costs, as well as a way of getting around EU antitrust regulators' reluctance to clear mergers that reduce the number of players in a market.
March-April 2020 23
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Heineken to pour $183 million into expansion in Brazil
H
eineken NV will invest 865 million reais ($183 million) to expand its Ponta Grossa brewing plant in Brazil, the company said, as competition between the world's two largest beer makers bubbles up. The Dutch brewer will make the investment this year and next and focus on it Heineken and Amstel brands at the third-largest brewing facility in Parana state in Brazil, its most important market worldwide. The company did not give details of the expansion plan, stating only that production would rise by 75%.
24 March-April 2020
"We are bringing forward by one year all the investments of our strategic plan. Brazil is a key market for us," Heineken Brazil Chief Executive Officer Mauricio Giamellaro. "Basically, we are building a new brewery," he said in an interview. Despite the slow recovery of the Brazilian economy, the world's second-largest brewer after Anheuser-Busch InBev is not waiting to expand its beer production in a market that is more important for sales than the United States or Europe.
Heineken has reduced the lead in Brazil of top beer seller Ambev, the Brazilian unit of AnheuserBusch InBev, after buying the operation of Japan's Kirin for $1.2 billion (917.8 million pounds) in 2017, which doubled its Brazilian output. Heineken says it now has 22% of the market. The expansion announcement came just one day after Ambev announced it will invest 2 billion reais to open a new brewery in northern Brazil, a malting factory in the southeast region, along with a can producing unit and additional premium beer production lines.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Cathay Pacific warns of substantial first half loss, slashes more capacity
H
ong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said it expects to report a substantial loss in the first half of this year and slash more capacity as the coronavirus outbreak erodes travel demand, after posting a drop in 2019 earnings. It posted a net profit of HK$1.69 billion (168.80 million pounds) for the year ended December 2019, down 28% from a HK$2.35 billion profit in 2018. That was in line with an average estimate of HK$1.63 billion from 11 analysts polled by Refinitiv. Cathay's performance in the second half of 2019 was hit by widespread, sometimes
facebook.com/britishherald
violent anti-government protests in Hong Kong. It also faced mounting Chinese scrutiny after some staff supported the demonstrations. The airline is now grappling with a fresh crisis due to the coronavirus and said it has slashed capacity across its network by 65% in March and April, up from earlier plans for a 40% cut, as travel demand has been hit globally. The airline said that at the end of February, planes were flying half-full despite capacity cuts of 30% and air fares had also fallen significantly compared to the prior year. "Travel demand has dropped substantially and we have
taken a number of short-term measures in response," Cathay Chairman Patrick Healy said in a statement. "These have included a sharp reduction of capacity in our passenger network. Despite these measures we expect to incur a substantial loss for the first half of 2020." Cathay said it had unrestricted liquidity of HK$20 billion and it expected to remain a going concern given the availability of sources of funds and costcutting measures such as asking all staff to take three weeks of unpaid leave. Its major shareholders include Swire Pacific Ltd, Air China Ltd and Qatar Airways.
March-April 2020 25
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Coronavirus brings no-contact food delivery to United States contactless delivery to be rolled out shortly and is reminding consumers that they can leave instructions for drivers in the app, which can include a photo of the spot where food should be placed. The COVID-19 virus has infected more than 111,600 and killed more than 4,000 people globally, largely in China, according to a Reuters tally. In the United States, more than 700 people have been infected and 27 people have died. Last week, new cases spread quickly from just a couple states to a majority of states.
L
eaving bags of food on doorsteps or texting your delivery driver a picture of where you want your meal dropped off these are new methods for U.S. consumers to get their orders as the coronavirus spreads. The virus led McDonald's Corp, Starbucks Corp and other companies in China, where the outbreak originated, to broaden their use of contactless delivery last month as consumers were stuck at home, often in locked-off apartment complexes. Now, that concept is growing in other parts of the globe along with the illness. San Francisco-based Postmates introduced no-contact delivery options in its app in all of the 4,200 U.S. cities in which it operates.
26 March-April 2020
"We think it is a way to make both customers and the fleet comfortable while making and receiving deliveries," the company said in a statement. Postmates users got an email notifying them of the new service called Dropoff Options. Three choices pop up when a customer places an order - delivery to the door, leave it at the door, or meet the customer outside - for "whether you're feeling under the weather or are working from home in your pjs," the email said. Customers have also long been able to leave similar digital notes for delivery people via delivery platforms Grubhub Inc and Uber Technologies Inc's Uber Eats, which operates in 45 countries, when placing an order. DoorDash is also testing enhanced drop-off options for
As more people consider staying home to limit exposure, restaurant traffic could take a hit. Technomic Inc, a consulting and research firm, found that more than 30% of U.S. consumers said they plan to not leave the house or go to restaurants as often, though only 13% of those people said they will order more delivery. The report surveyed 1,000 consumers from Feb. 28 to March 2. "The reduced foodservice visit incidence could be a boon for the grocery business, as almost half of these consumers say they will stockpile grocery foods and beverages as a substitute for away-from-home meals," the firm said. In Europe, German supermarket chain REWE said that a significant increase in demand has led to longer online delivery times since
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD it has limited delivery slots and drivers are already fully loaded. British online supermarket Ocado has advised customers to place orders further in advance because of "exceptionally high demand," indicating a possible reaction from shoppers to the spreading coronavirus outbreak. Dutch online grocer Picnic BV has been getting more and larger orders and is "at about 20% beyond capacity," Chief Executive Michiel Muller told broadcaster RTL.
BUSINESS
Faceless Delivery
up as coronavirus cases grew
U.S. delivery companies contacted by Reuters will not say whether they are yet seeing any increase in demand.
His average pay per order rose from about $3.20 in mid-February to $4.72 during the last week of the month, though it was $4.37 during the first week of March, according to screenshots of his driving stats.
But one driver for DoorDash Inc in the Washington, D.C. area said his shifts had gotten busier. The driver, who did not want to be named, said his pay per delivery - which usually rises during busier times or bad weather - has also steadily gone
People are scared to go to restaurants, he said. "So they're paying $15 to $20 delivery fees for a small fry and an ice cream scoop," he said.
Domino's Pizza names Beam Suntory executive Shattock as chairman
B
ritain's biggest pizza delivery company Domino's Pizza Group appointed Beam Suntory executive Matt Shattock as its chairman, replacing Ian Bull who has held the role on an interim basis since
last year.
Shattock, who was a tank troop leader in the British army before entering the industry, previously held senior roles at Cadbury and Unilever. He will join Domino's from Jim Beam maker Beam Suntory, a unit of Japan’s Suntory Holdings, where he has served as the non-executive chairman since April. Shattock joined Beam Inc in 2009 as president and chief executive officer and oversaw the integration of the company and Suntory's spirits businesses after the Japanese firm's $16 billion acquisition of Beam. "Shattock has the necessary credentials for the role," Jefferies analysts said in a client note. Shares in the company were up 5.3% at 299 pence by 0931 GMT.
facebook.com/britishherald
Domino's said last year its long-serving Chairman Stephen Hemsley will step down from the board in the wake of the Financial Reporting Council's revised corporate code that emphasised the need for boards to refresh themselves. The British company, a franchise of U.S.-based Domino's Pizza Inc, is also looking to replace its Chief Executive Officer David Wild and appoint a chief financial officer after David Bauernfeind died in a snorkelling accident last year.
March-April 2020
27
BRITISH HERALD
BUSINESS
Nissan to pull out of venture fund with Renault in cost-cutting drive It also highlights the extent of the automaker's cost-cutting under new CEO Makoto Uchida, who is under pressure for a quick turnaround. Alliance Ventures is aimed at finding "learning opportunities" for the alliance through investing in startups, and is supposed get up to $200 million (153.3 million pounds) a year from the three alliance partners, although it never achieves that full amount, the first source said.
N
issan Motor Co is likely to pull out from a venture capital fund it runs with alliance partners Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors, as part of the Japanese automaker's drive to cut costs and conserve cash, two sources said. Nissan will formally take a decision on whether to leave the fund, Alliance Ventures, by the end of this month, the two Nissan insiders, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public. The likely move comes after Nissan's junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, told an alliance meeting that it would no longer
28 March-April 2020
continue to inject money into the fund, one of the sources said. The decision to leave the Amsterdam-based fund was all but a done deal, the other source said, adding: "Of course we're out. The house is on fire." A Nissan spokeswoman said it was speculation and declined to comment. A Mitsubishi spokesman said no decision had been made. The move comes as Nissan - which has seen its earnings slump - is now facing a downturn in China, its biggest market, due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. China sales plunged 80%.
It was set up under former alliance head Carlos Ghosn, whose dramatic arrest in Japan culminated in an escape to his childhood home of Lebanon in December. Ghosn faces multiple charges in Japan, including of under-reporting earnings and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. According to its website, the fund was set up with a $200 million initial investment and aims for up to $1 billion by 2023. Portfolio companies include WeRide, a Chinese robo-taxi startup and Tekion Corp, a cloud-based retail platform for cars. "It wasn't established by Ghosn as a way to make money. It was for those learning opportunities we get from investing in smart startups," the first source said. "But given the tough financial situation we are facing, we are looking at investment return."
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
London stocks join sea of red as oil crash compounds recession fears "It has been quite an extraordinary day overall in the markets," OANDA analyst Craig Erlam, said. Fears of a global recession have also been amplified by a reduction in global growth forecasts as the unchecked spread of the virus prompted harsher containment measures and crippled supply chains. Britain is making extensive preparations for additional measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
L
ondon's FTSE 100 plunged to an almost four-year low as a crash in oil prices driven by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia stoked global recession fears, with investors alarmed about the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. Oil majors BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc recorded their worst day ever, as Saudi Arabia slashed its official crude selling price following Russia's refusal to cut output to match lower demand on the back of the health crisis. The wider oil and gas sector plunged more than 18% and led the bluechip decline. The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 slumped 7.7%, its worst day since the global financial crisis in 2008, while the domestically focussed mid-cap index shed 6.4%.
facebook.com/britishherald
All but one stock listed on the FTSE 100 fell, with auto parts, banks and mining stocks among the biggest decliners. "Stock markets have plummeted today as continued fears about the coronavirus combined with the fresh worries of a price war in the oil market has battered sentiment," CMC Markets analyst David Madden said. "Dealers are terrified that more swathes of Europe will go into quarantine, and that has been a factor in the brutal sell-off in stocks ... there are serious concerns that some economies could slow down or even get pushed into a recession," he added. European firms have lost $3 trillion in value since fears of the economic damage from the epidemic sparked a worldwide sell-off last month, with the equity market now firmly in bear market territory.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose by 30% to 273, the government said, and a third person who tested positive for the virus has died. Central banks around the world have taken measures to inject more cash into financial markets, as the US federal reserves have cut rates again after an emergency reduction. All eyes are now on the European Central Bank meeting, but analysts have questioned the efficacy of monetary policy easing to revive supply chains. "Monetary and fiscal policy will be of limited effect until prices more broadly reflect a very high probability of recession," said Bill Zox, chief investment officer for fixed income at Diamond Hill Capital Management.
March-April 2020 29
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
Money markets wary, not yet flashing red as Fed offers tonic
A
precipitous drop in global equity markets has seeped into higher demand for dollar funding, putting investors on guard for the kinds of money market stresses that tend to exacerbate cross-border financial crises. While there are some signs of investors hoarding funds to shield against further turmoil, markets have not yet reached the point where borrowers are scrambling to secure short-dated funding, according to analysts such as Marija Veitmane, senior strategist at State Street Global Markets.
30 March-April 2020
Memories still linger of the sort of money market seize-ups that triggered the 2008 global crash or those seen during the 2011 euro zone crisis that effectively shut European banks out of interbank lending. So, investors are keeping a close eye on the following barometers of market stress:
FX SWAPS Non-U.S. banks tap into liquidity pools in foreign exchange swap markets to secure their dollar funding needs.
These instruments shot into the limelight during the financial crisis and the euro zone debt crisis when global regulators poured in billions of dollars to unfreeze the market. Three-month euro/dollar basis swaps, which measure demand for dollars from European borrowers, rose sharply to minus 31 basis points, double late February levels - signalling a willingness to pay more to get hold of dollars. But the levels are far from the highs seen last year or during the euro zone debt and financial crises.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
Dollar/yen basis swaps have moved more aggressively, but historically that level has been much higher too. The dollar usually gains during times of market stress as a worsening funding situation triggers a stampede into the world's most liquid currency, but the greenback has actually weakened in recent days thanks to plunging U.S. Treasury yields.
U.S. BANK STRESS Another widely watched indicator is the U.S. LIBOR-OIS spread, which measures the difference between secured and unsecured lending in the United States and seen as one gauge of money market stress. A higher spread suggests banks are becoming more nervous about lending to each other. The U.S. Federal Reserve stepped up its repo operations by increasing the size of its fund injections to head off any further signs of stress. The one-month spread had earlier rocketed to 42.78 bps, up from as low as minus 5.85 bps at the start of March. Still, that is only the highest level since late 2018. Analysts at Barclays said they believed the Fed's decision to raise repo operations was "driven more by deteriorating market sentiment about credit and recession risks than a genuine pullback in unsecured funding markets". Vitor Constancio, ex-European Central Bank vice president, said on Twitter that this was "not like
facebook.com/britishherald
FINANCE
2008 because it's an economic shock that didn't start in the financial sector. Money markets not frozen, no concerns with banks' solvency". But he warned that the more elevated spread did indicate some "mistrust within the financial system".
U.S. Forward Rate Agreement And Overnight Index Swap Market The spread between the threemonth forward rate agreement and the three-month overnight index swap rate reflects rising interbank lending risk or dollar hoarding, analysts said. The FRA-OIS spread measures the difference between the three-month Libor or the inter-bank lending rate and the overnight index rate, which is the risk-free rate set by central banks. In the case of the U.S. dollar, this would be the three-month Libor less the Federal Funds rate. The spread is a gauge of funding stress or tightness, with higher spreads indicating a rise in the short-term funding costs for the banking sector. The spread was 48 basis points, said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior rates strategist at TD Securities in New York, the widest gap since early 2018 when the market experienced some volatility and funding questions. Before that, the spread had expanded to 58 basis points at the height of the European sovereign debt crisis in 2011.
Systemic Risk Index Another measure shows a steep rise in systemic risk, although it is the size of the move rather than the absolute level that is concerning. State Street Global Markets' Systemic Risk Index has jumped from less than the 10th percentile to nearly the 100th, but that only brings it to levels last seen in October. It underlines just how subdued markets had been in the run-up to the coronavirus-induced selloff.
Volatility Surge Volatility across asset classes is surging. That illustrates how investment strategies centred on borrowing in low-yielding assets to buy relatively higher-yielding markets are being rapidly unwound. The equity VIX index, which measures implied volatility in the S&P 500 and is known as the "fear index", hit 62, its highest since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. That is a jump of 300% in less than three weeks. Broader currency market volatility, as measured by Deutsche Bank, has shot up to its highest since 2017. In specific currency pairs, such as dollar/ yen, the surge is even more notable - hitting levels last seen in 2009. But the volatility jump must be seen in the context of a market unusually calm - and complacent - before panic selling started.
March-April 2020
31
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
Wall Street clobbered as crude plummets, virus crisis deepens The sell-off began over the weekend when an oil supply pact between Saudi Arabia and Russia collapsed and both countries vowed to hike production amid weakening global demand due to the coronavirus and signs of an economic slowdown. Oil prices registered their biggest one-day fall since the 1991 Gulf war, with Brent crude futures closing down 23.88% and front-month WTI falling 25.1%. That sent the S&P Energy index sliding 20.1%, its largest one-day drop on record.
W
all Street suffered its biggest one-day loss since the 2008 financial crisis and recession worries loomed large as tumbling oil prices and ongoing coronavirus fears prompted investor panic on the anniversary of the U.S. stock market's longest-ever bull run. All three major U.S. stock averages plunged sharply at the opening bell, triggering trading halts put in place in the wake of 1987's "Black Monday" crash. The Dow plummeted a record 2,000 points out of the starting gate on a day that marked the current bull market's 11th year. S&P 500 futures declined about 1% after the bell, briefly extending their loss to just over 20% from
32 March-April 2020
their record high on Feb. 19 and suggesting the bull market may have ended. Investors generally consider a drop of 20% from a recent high to signify a bear market, raising the expectations of a drawn out period of negative sentiment. "There's a lot of fear in the market and if the price of oil continues to move lower it's an indication that a global recession is not far away," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. The CBOE Volatility index, a gauge of investor anxiety, touched its highest level since December 2008. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields briefly sank to 0.318%, a record low.
Global markets were already on edge as worldwide confirmed cases of COVID-19 surged past 110,000, causing widespread supply disruption and largescale quarantine measures as governments scramble to contain the outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,013.76 points, or 7.79%, to 23,851.02, the S&P 500 lost 225.81 points, or 7.60%, to 2,746.56 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 624.94 points, or 7.29%, to 7,950.68. All 11 major sectors of S&P 500 ended the session deep in red territory, with energy and interest rate-sensitive financial stocks suffering the largest percentage losses. Boeing Co was the biggest drag on the Dow, tumbling 13.4% following the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) rejection of the planemaker's
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE in China in February amid the coronavirus crisis. Chipmakers registered their largest drop since October 2008, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index falling 8.3%. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 17.86-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 19.11-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 229 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded nine new highs and 1,049 new lows.
proposal regarding wiring systems in place on its grounded 737 MAX aircraft.
Apple Inc shares fell 7.9% after data showed the company sold fewer than 500,000 smartphones
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 17.22 billion shares, compared with the 11.05 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
Trump blames oil fight, 'Fake News' for stock market drop Major U.S. stock indexes dropped 7% with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting 2,000 points after oil prices slumped as much as 22%.
U
.S. President Donald Trump blamed a fight for oil market share between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as well as unspecified "Fake News," for a precipitous drop in U.S. stock prices, amid sliding demand for crude due to the coronavirus. In a series of tweets, Trump also said the associated plunge in oil prices would benefit Americans: "Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!" In referring to "Fake News," Trump appeared to be referring to coverage of the coronavirus. The spread of the virus around the world - and a mounting death
facebook.com/britishherald
"Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop," Trump wrote on Twitter.
toll from COVID-19, the disease it causes - has rattled global markets. Throughout his presidency, Trump, who faces re-election in November, has frequently pointed to rising stock prices and recordhigh market indexes as a signal of the American economy's health.
In a separate tweet, he downplayed the impact of the coronavirus, comparing the number of American lives it has taken to the greater number of deaths from seasonal influenza. "Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on," he wrote. "Think about that!"
March-April 2020 33
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
Banks at risk of losing billions of dollars in fee-based revenues
M
ajor banks are at risk of losing billions of dollars of fee-based retail revenue as they face increased regulatory pressure and growing competition from new entrants offering no-fee services, Accenture Plc said. Revenues derived by banks across 12 markets globally through overdraft fees or other charges for services like crossborder payments and foreign transactions will erode on average by 5% over the next three to five years, it said in a study. The research is based on quantitative analysis of banks' revenue pools in 12 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and
34 March-April 2020
Hong Kong and a survey of nearly 15,000 bank customers. It comes as tech-savvy startups seek to secure market share from big banks by offering a wide range of financial services, including checking accounts and international money transfers with lower or no fees. In the United States, for example, digital bank Chime offers fee-free overdrafts for up to $100, while London-based Revolut allows users to transfer money abroad at the interbank exchange rate. "These players are acting as a catalyst to force the industry to change," said Alan McIntyre, global head of Accenture's banking practice. Banks will not
be able to be as reliant on nontransparent fee-based revenues as they have been doing in the past, he added. The report also said banks' revenues may shrink because regulators are starting to mandate simpler fee structures to protect consumers. The study suggests that banks make use of technology such as artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to gain more of their customers' trust and capture more revenue growth. For example, banks could use predictive analytics to provide advice on which payment option would generate more rewards, it said. More than half of the consumers surveyed said they would pay fees for relevant add-on services from their bank.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
European stocks record worst daily loss on record
investment strategy at Union Investment. "We think the focus should really be on the provision of liquidity into the financial system, and on the solvency side of things." Stocks in Italy, the European country most affected by the virus, ended nearly 17% lower, their worst session ever. The Italian government recently initiated a countrywide lockdown. Bank stocks were the biggest drag on the Italian index. The bank-heavy Spanish index also shed 14%. "The issue (for banks) isn't so much on the supply side for credit, but on the demand side between the virus, the oil shock. The message that the market is hearing is that the demand side of the economy is definitely going to slow down more," said Donald Calcagni, chief investment officer at wealth manager Mercer Advisors.
E
uropean shares plunged 11.5%, their worst daily loss on record, as responses by governments and central banks to combat the potential economic hit from the fast-spreading coronavirus got a cold welcome. Airline stocks in particular took a major beating all day after the U.S restricted travel from Europe, while bank stocks were hard hit amid growing signs of corporate distress.
more than $15 trillion in less than month. The benchmark STOXX 600 index has been on a downward spiral since the outbreak, marking large daily losses while slipping further into bear territory. A shock crash in oil prices at the start of the week had also spurred heavy selling.
The absence of a rate cut from the European Central Bank gave little comfort to bank stocks, which dipped to record lows again.
The index has now lost nearly a third of its value since midFebruary. In another indication of market strife, the Euro STOXX Volatility Index, considered to be a fear gauge for markets, rose to its highest since the 2008 financial crisis.
The fast-spreading coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation termed as a pandemic, has spooked risky assets across the world wiping out
"For the moment we have to consider and we have to admit that we're staying in this rather turbulent market environment," said Philipp Brugger, head of
facebook.com/britishherald
"What's it going to take to put a floor under this - we need to see new cases in Italy begin to level, to plateau, like in China." Automobile and insurance stocks were the worst performing regional subindexes for the day, shedding more than 15% each. Travel and leisure stocks ended down 13.2% as airlines Air France KLM, Lufthansa and British Airwaysowner IAG plummeted in wake of the travel restriction. Lufthansa closed 14% lower, ending at a near eight-year low as the epidemic forced it to halt the sale of the international operations of its airline caterer LSG. Norwegian oil equipment provider TGS NOPEC Geophysical Co was the sole gainer on the STOXX 600, rising about 1.2%.
March-April 2020 35
BRITISH HERALD
UK
Coronavirus fear: PM Johnson says extensive preparations underway as UK markets plunge discuss when to bring in more stringent measures, though the government said it was not yet advising the closure of large events. Food supplies, it said, would continue. "We remain in the contain phase of the outbreak but ... our scientists think containment is extremely unlikely to work on its own and that is why we are making extensive preparations for a move to the delay phase," Johnson said at a news conference. "Whatever is happening in other countries, whatever measures are being urged upon us, be in no doubt we
C
oronavirus fears pushed British stocks to an almost fouryear low but the government said it was not yet time to close mass events and insisted food supplies would continue. As the worries about the economic impact of the outbreak battered global markets, Britain announced its fourth and fifth deaths from the virus and said that it now had 319 confirmed cases, up from 273. Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an emergency government meeting to
36 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
UK
BRITISH HERALD
are considering absolutely all of them and in due time they may of course become necessary but ... timing is crucial." The new coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, causes a disease called COVID-19. It has spread around the world, infecting more than 110,000 people and 3,800 people have died worldwide, according to a Reuters tally. The FTSE 100 plunged to an almost four-year low as a crash in oil prices driven by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia stoked global recession fears, with investors alarmed about the economic fallout of coronavirus. Yields on some benchmark British government bonds went negative for the first time as panicked investors dumped shares and rushed to the safety of gilts to hedge against the feared economic shock of the coronavirus. Early in the day the
facebook.com/britishherald
two-year gilt yield sank as low as -0.035%, down 13 basis points on the day, while benchmark 10-year yields hit a record-low 0.074% before rising off this low later in the day.
Government Response Speaking alongside Johnson, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said he was expecting numbers to "increase initially slowly but then quite fast." "We are now very close to the time, probably within the next 10-14 days when ... we should move to a situation where we say everybody who has even minor respiratory tract infections or a fever should be self isolating for 7 days afterwards," he said. As some British supermarket shelves were emptied of basics such as lavatory paper, the British
government said it had set up a team to tackle "interference and disinformation" around the spread of coronavirus. The country's biggest retailer, Tesco, has restricted bulk buying of products such as antibacterial gels and wipes, dried pasta and long-life milk. Health minister Matt Hancock told parliament he was "confident that food supply will continue even in our reasonable worst case scenario". The government later announced it would extend the hours that deliveries can be made to supermarkets to allow them to replenish their shelves more quickly. UK-based airlines easyJet and British Airways are expected to reduce their flights to northern Italy soon after Italian authorities ordered a virtual lockdown of the area.
March-April 2020
37
BRITISH HERALD
COVER RELEASE
‘Unstoppable’ PM Boris Johnson for British Herald Magazine Cover Launch British Herald Patron Lord Ranger CBE met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to hand over a copy of the January-February 2020 issue of the British Herald Magazine featuring the latter on the cover.
The elections also proved that Boris Johnson is the most powerful Prime Minister in office since Tony Blair. He’s kept changing the face of British politics and this is just the beginning.
Lord Ranger CBE, a Conservative Life peer in the Lords since 11 October 2019, was keen to feature the undefeated British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the cover of the British Herald Magazine after his landslide election victory.
Boris Johnson has never been one to shy away from proving his critics wrong and defying the odds. When everyone told him he couldn’t get a new Brexit deal, that’s exactly what he did. The negotiations for the relationship between Britain and the European Union begin soon and with his steadfast vision that got the country this far, Johnson is truly ‘UNSTOPPABLE’…
With Johnson’s election victory last year, he guaranteed one thing- he’s the one who governs his own image. 38 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
UK
Britain's Johnson faces lawmaker revolt over Huawei 5G decision installing hardware produced by a company that they acknowledge to be 'high risk'," Conservative lawmaker David Jones. The Conservative rebels acknowledge that they do not have the numbers to force a change to government policy. But they hope to fire a sizeable warning shot across the newly installed government's bows and influence Johnson to take a harder line.
B
ritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces his first rebellion over the government's decision to allow China's Huawei a role in building the country's 5G phone network. Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, has been caught in a stand-off between Washington and Beijing after the United States accused the company of spying to steal Western secrets. The company denies those allegations and Britain decided in January to allow Huawei into what Johnson's government said were non-sensitive parts of the British network, capping its involvement at 35%.
facebook.com/britishherald
High-profile rebel David Davis said the hope is that an "emblematic" vote on the proposed amendment would spur the government to enter further discussions. If not, he said, the rebels would try to force the government's hand at a later date. The decision angered the United States, which wants to exclude the Chinese company from the West's next-generation communications systems and has urged Britain to rethink. A group of Johnson's Conservatives, which the rebels say number anything from 30 to 50 lawmakers, oppose the decision. Some of them plan to back an amendment to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill to ensure that the companies termed by British security experts as "high-risk vendors" - such as Huawei are stripped out of networks completely by the end of 2022. "We hope to curb the government's enthusiasm for
Mike Rake, the former chairman of broadband and mobile company BT and an adviser to Huawei, said the Chinese company has a vital role in building the 5G network Britain needs. "Any attempt to further restrict Huawei 5G equipment, or to remove existing 4G equipment, will not only incur very significant costs but prejudice trade relationships with China and will significantly set back the government's broadband ambitions," he said in an open letter. "This, in turn, will further damage our competitiveness as an economy at what is a critical moment."
March-April 2020 39
BRITISH HERALD
UK
'False fears' about vaping stopping smokers using e-cigarettes Health authorities in the United States have said that vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent added to cannabis vapes, is the likely primary cause of the U.S. outbreak. The substance is banned from UK-regulated nicotine vapes and e-cigarettes. John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, said the PHE report's findings were "disturbing".
M
"Smoking remains the biggest avoidable cause of death and disability in the UK, and using electronic cigarettes is an effective means of quitting smoking," he said.
ore than half of UK smokers now wrongly believe that nicotinecontaining "vapes" or e-cigarettes are as dangerous as tobacco cigarettes and these "false fears" are preventing smokers from switching, health experts said on Wednesday.
The report, the sixth by PHE on this issue, is likely to deepen divisions in opinion about the potential risks of e-cigarettes.
In a report commissioned by the health agency Public Health England (PHE), scientists at King's College London said the mistaken belief that e-cigarettes are more harmful than smoking had gained ground rapidly following thousands of reported cases of lung injury in the United States in late 2019.
"It is concerning to see how much the U.S. lung disease outbreak has affected smokers' views on e-cigarettes here in the UK," said John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE.
But the belief is "out of line" with expert reviews from Britain and the United States concluding that using regulated nicotine vapes is far less harmful than smoking, they said.
40 March-April 2020
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month it had recorded more than 2,800 cases of lung injury linked to vaping.
"Safety fears may well be deterring many smokers from switching, leaving them on a path to years of ill health and an early death due to their smoking," he said. PHE says smoking causes 220 premature deaths a day in England alone.
He called for campaigns to ensure that "all smokers understand that switching to e-cigarettes is one of the most effective ways of quitting smoking and protecting their health". The report reiterated PHE's view that "e-cigarettes are much less harmful than tobacco but are not completely safe". They contain far fewer of the harmful chemicals which cause smoking-related diseases, it said, "but the longterm impact of using e-cigarettes will remain unknown for some time". The U.S. government has proposed a sweeping ban on all vaping flavours that are seen as attracting young users. The PHE cautioned against any similar move in Britain, saying it would deter smokers from switching and would "ultimately cost lives".
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
EUROPE
Italy in coronavirus lockdown as deaths soar and economy fades
Tonilo, 35, a teacher from the northern town of San Fiorano, which was placed under quarantine. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte unexpectedly expanded the so-called red zone to the entire country, introducing the most severe controls on a Western nation since World War Two. The move shocked many small businesses, which feared for their future. "It looks like an apocalypse has struck, there is no one around," said Mario Monfreda, who runs Larys restaurant in a smart Rome residential area. Under the government order, all bars and restaurants will now have to close at 6.00 p.m. "It is a total disaster. This will reduce us to nothing ... More people are going to die as a result of the economic crisis that this lockdown is going to cause than the virus itself."
S
hops and restaurants closed, hundreds of flights were cancelled and streets emptied across Italy, the first day of an unprecedented, nationwide lockdown imposed to slow Europe's worst outbreak of coronavirus. Just hours after the dramatic new restrictions came into force, health authorities announced the death toll had jumped by 168 to 631, the largest rise in absolute numbers since the contagion came to light on Feb. 21.
facebook.com/britishherald
The total number of confirmed cases rose at a much slower rate than recently seen, hitting 10,149 against a previous 9,172, but officials warned that the region at the epicentre, Lombardy, had provided incomplete data. The government has told all Italians to stay at home and avoid non-essential travel until April 3, radically widening steps already taken in much of the wealthy north, which is the epicentre of the spreading contagion. "Our civic duty is the only thing that can save us," said Marzio
However, the prosperous northern region of Lombardy, centred on Italy's financial capital Milan, called on the government to introduce even more stringent measures. "I would shut down all the shops. I would certainly close down public transport and I would seek out all businesses that could be shut without creating excessive damage to the economy," said Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana. While Lombardy accounts for 74% of all the fatalities, the disease has now touched all of the country and the government is worried that if it worsens, the health system
March-April 2020
41
BRITISH HERALD
EUROPE The Milan stock exchange fell a further 3.3%, meaning it has now slumped 29% since Feb. 20. Italy's borrowing costs are also shooting up, reviving fears that an economy already on the brink of recession and struggling under the euro zone's second-heaviest debt pile could be plunged into crisis. In the wake of the clampdown, neighbouring Austria said it would deny entry to people arriving from Italy, Malta and Portugal cut all travel links to the country, while British Airways and Easy Jet cancelled their flights to and from Italian airports. Spain also banned flights from Italy.
in the less developed south will collapse, causing deaths to spike.
Economic Hit Rome landmarks including the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps were largely empty, while the Vatican closed St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica to tourists. Police told holidaymakers to return to their hotels.
offer customers a pause in their mortgage repayments. It also called for the European Union to relax its rules to allow more state spending. "We will ask for the rules to be changed, it is a necessary condition, otherwise people will die," Industry Minister Stefano Patuanelli told Radio Capital.
The coronavirus first emerged in China last year and the country's foreign ministry said its top diplomat, Wang Yi, had called his Italian counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, to offer his condolences for the situation in Italy. He said he would increase efforts to send Italy more masks, and medical equipment, and also offered to send a medical team.
For at least the next three weeks, anyone travelling in Italy will have to carry a document declaring their reasons. Outdoor events, including sports fixtures, have been suspended and schools and universities are all shuttered. A former Treasury chief economist predicted that the lockdown measures were reducing Italy's economic output by around 10-15%, with the tourism and transport sectors down about 90% on their normal levels. Looking to mitigate the impact on ordinary Italians, the government is considering making banks
42 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
WORLD
EU unveils climate law, Thunberg calls it 'surrender'
Thunberg, 17, said the law fails to address the next 10 years. "'Net zero emissions by 2050' for the EU equals surrender. It means giving up," she and 33 other youth climate activists said in an open letter. "We don't just need goals for just 2030 or 2050. We, above all, need them for 2020 and every following month and year to come."
U.N. Summit Deadline Environment groups also objected to the law's plan for the Commission to review the EU 2030 emissions target by September.
T
he European Commission unveiled a "climate law" to make the EU's 2050 net zero emissions target legally binding, but Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and NGOs said more urgent action was needed to beat the climate crisis. The European Union's executive approved the proposed regulation at a meeting attended by Thunberg. The climate law, which needs the approval of the European Parliament and member states, would commit the 27-nation EU to reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. It omits a target that was included in a draft of the law -- to achieve net "removals" of greenhouse gases after this date.
facebook.com/britishherald
That is only two months before a deadline at the U.N. climate summit in November, when all parties to the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change must make more ambitious emissions pledges to put the world on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the regulation, 2050 will be an EU-wide goal, which raises the possibility that some member states could reduce their emissions to net zero at a later date if other countries decarbonise early.
Twelve EU countries – including France, Italy and the Netherlands but not the EU's biggest emitter, Germany – want the Commission to revise the 2030 goal in June. They say that would leave enough time for the EU to adopt the new 2030 target and use it to pressure large emitters such as China to raise their climate pledges before the summit. "Delaying discussions until September would crush the EU's ability to play a leading role in global climate talks," Greenpeace climate policy adviser Sebastian Mang said. The NGO projected an image of flames onto the European Commission building in Brussels, urging leaders to tackle climate
March-April 2020 43
BRITISH HERALD
change as urgently as if a house were on fire. The Commission wants to tighten the EU's 2030 climate target to a 50% or 55% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, rather than the current minimum of 40%.
WORLD
From 2030, the law would give Brussels power to impose tighter EU interim emissions targets every five years to steer the bloc towards its 2050 goal.
qualified majority of members of the European Parliament or member states could reject the proposal but would not have the power to propose an alternative.
The Commission would impose these new targets through a delegated act, whereby a
Member states may find this proposal hard to swallow. "One thing that will absolutely not fly is the delegated act. It's dead on arrival," said Michael Bloss, a German member of the European Parliament. The European Council – grouping EU governments – agrees climate targets now by unanimity. A single country can block a climate aim. Legal experts say the climate law would give Brussels extra tools to pressure countries before 2030. Starting in 2023, the Commission will name and shame member states not complying with EU climate targets and publish recommendations to get on track.
44 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
WORLD
Meaningless or sensible? Net zero by 2050 divides climate community
temperatures of at least 3C above pre-industrial times. To achieve "net zero by 2050" goals - which involve producing no more climateheating emissions than can be absorbed by planting carbonsucking trees or otherwise trapping greenhouse gases - governments, businesses and citizens need to do much more than make a declaration, climate analysts say. If Britain, in particular, wants to show the world it can walk the talk as it encourages states to come to November's U.N. climate summit in Scotland with more ambitious emissions-cutting plans, then it must step up its efforts at home now, they argue.
W
hen the European Commission unveiled a draft law that would make binding a target to cut the bloc's planet-warming emissions to "net zero" by 2050, it exposed a sharp divide among supporters of climate action.
climate strikers from European nations wrote in an open letter. Their call for swift action aims to avoid losing within a decade any chance of sticking to the lowest global warming limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
While that increasingly popular goal might sound ambitious, young activists, including Greta Thunberg, have called it "giving up".
A U.N. climate science panel has said global emissions need to be slashed by 45% by 2030 and to net zero by mid-century to have a 50% chance of keeping warming to 1.5C.
"Distant net-zero emission targets will mean absolutely nothing ... if high emissions continue like now even for a few years," 34 school
But emissions are still rising, and countries' existing plans to cut them put the planet on track for a highly risky rise in average
facebook.com/britishherald
"You've got to be on track for your own target," said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), pointing to projections that Britain will not meet its 2030 goal to reduce its emissions by 61% from 1990 levels. That shortfall "is going to spur the government this year to come out with new policies, because otherwise they are not going to be able to wear that leadership mantle when we get to Glasgow", he said. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are asked to submit improved or updated climate action plans in 2020, with a view to accelerating efforts to ensure the pact's goals of limiting global warming to "well below" 2C, and
March-April 2020 45
BRITISH HERALD ideally 1.5C, are met. Until Brexit this year, Britain was covered by the European Union's "nationally determined contribution" (NDC) for the Paris Agreement - but London must now produce its own climate plan.
WORLD Denmark and New Zealand have enshrined a net-zero target in law. Britain was the first G7 nation to do so, in June 2019 - and is now working out how to put its promise into practice.
zero emissions would be more honest. Besides planting more trees, there were no short-term options to remove emissions from the atmosphere, and even a massive expansion in forestry would have only a small effect, it said.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the plan, being developed, would be published before the U.N. summit and represent an increase on Britain's "current international target".
Mike Hemsley, team leader for carbon budgets at the UK Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government, said 2050 was the earliest "sensible" deadline for achieving net zero, and even that would be a tough task.
Britain has cut its emissions by 43% since 1990, while growing the economy by three-quarters, BEIS added, describing it as the best performance among G7 nations on a per person basis.
It involves big shifts such as fitting a projected 30 million households with low-carbon heating by 2050. Today only 10,000 such systems are sold each year, he said.
Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, a group of more than 1,300 climate organisations, said any goal of getting to net zero by 2050 had to be backed up with interim targets for the coming 10 years.
To meet the 2050 target, changes including more energy-efficient buildings, technology to capture and store carbon, and a doubling of clean electricity capacity will have to be in place by the mid2030s, Hemsley noted.
To achieve zero emissions without relying on carbon removal, the report said, people would have to make some sacrifices like giving up flying and eating red meat, while driving smaller electric cars and switching from gas boilers to heat-pumps.
Other measures to help get to net zero could include planting trees to expand the amount of wooded land in Britain from 13% to 17-19%, shifting diets away from meat and banning fossilfuel vehicles as early as 2030, he added.
Proposals like these are being debated by a cross-section of the British public at a citizen's climate assembly, which will finalise its recommendations in later.
"The science says it's what we do in the next decade that is critical to achieve any long-term objective," she said.
Tough Task According to a recent ECIU analysis, nearly half the world’s gross domestic product is now generated in places where authorities have set or are proposing to set a target of bringing emissions to net zero in or before 2050. Two tiny and heavily forested countries - Suriname and Bhutan - have already achieved carbonneutrality, and five wealthy nations - Sweden, Britain, France,
46 March-April 2020
Lack of Consensus Among experts and the public, there is no firm consensus on how best to reach net zero, which will require a wide range of actions and technologies, not all of them palatable or proven. A 2019 report by the governmentsponsored UK FIRES research project on resource efficiency in industry said aiming for "absolute"
Using machines to directly capture carbon from the air and then store or use it would require more clean energy than is likely to be available by 2050, said project leader and University of Cambridge professor Julian Allwood. In climate policy circles, "there is a kind of optimism about what technology can deliver, assuming the incentives are right" - but that is not realistic, he said.
The ECIU's Black said Britain, as host of this year's U.N. summit, could offer to help the world's poorest countries and small island states work out a viable plan to put their net-zero targets into practice, drawing on its own experience. "It's not like it's all rocket science but if you are a relatively small or medium-sized developing country, you may lack the technical capacity to do it well," he said.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
ASIA
Masks in luggage: How a Malaysian tech firm reopened its China factory managed to get as many as 50,000 masks for the Xiamen staff - enough to last them until the end of March. The Xiamen factory was featured in a Chinese TV programme in february, 2020 after it became one of the first in the city to comply with virus regulations, allowing it to reopen soon after the Lunar New Year. It issues one three-ply mask per person per day plus a two-ply mask to place over the first later in the day when the first one wears out.
W
hen news of the coronavirus outbreak spread around the world in January, officials of the Malaysian tech company Qdos quickly realised what they needed to do to keep their factory in China running: get enough surgical masks for the 800 staff there. The company, which makes flexible printed circuit boards and caters to five of the world's 10 biggest smartphone makers, could not secure enough masks in China, where supplies quickly ran out as the virus crisis grew. But that was not the case in Malaysia. When the factory in the Chinese city of Xiamen closed for the Lunar New Year, and Malaysian employees came home for the
facebook.com/britishherald
break, Qdos decided that on their return, they and their families would stuff as many masks from Malaysia as possible in their luggage. "Lots of Malaysian employees coming and going, with families, so 150 kg of masks per family!" Qdos Group Chief Executive Jeffrey Hwang told Reuters at one of its two factories in Malaysia.
"Two-ply masks are not hard to get, they don't really filter the virus," Hwang said. "Masks are now very precious." Still, Qdos, like many other Malaysian electronics and electrical companies hit by supply chain disruption, has cut its sales growth outlook to "the low tens" from an initial forecast of 20%.
"Without it, your employees can't go to work. We still need more masks." Qdos eventually
March-April 2020
47
BRITISH HERALD
OIL
Oil crashes after Saudi Arabia starts price war amid slumping demand
O
il prices plummeted around 30% after Saudi Arabia slashed its official selling prices and set plans for a dramatic increase in crude production next month, starting a price war even as spread of the coronavirus erodes global demand growth. Prices fell by as much as a third following Saudi Arabia's move after Russia balked at making a further steep output cut proposed by OPEC to stabilize oil markets hit by worry over the economic impact of the coronavirus. Brent crude futures were down $12.23, or 27%, at $33.04 a barrel by 0552 GMT, after earlier dropping to $31.02, their lowest since Feb. 12, 2016. Brent futures are on track for their biggest daily decline since Jan. 17, 1991, at the start of the first Gulf War. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell by $11.88, or 29%, to $29.40 a barrel, after touching $27.34, also the lowest since Feb. 12, 2016. The U.S. benchmark was potentially heading for its biggest decline on record, surpassing a 33% fall in January 1991. "I think all forecasts are out the window," said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment officer at Probis Securities in Sydney. "It seems like a race to the bottom to secure order(s)." The disintegration of the grouping called OPEC+ - made up of OPEC plus other producers including Russia - ends more than three years of cooperation
48 March-April 2020
coronavirus," Goldman Sachs said. Saudi Arabia over the weekend cut its official selling prices for April for all crude grades to all destinations by between $6 and $8 a barrel.
on supporting the market, most recently to stabilize prices under threat from the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi Arabia plans to boost its crude output above 10 million barrels per day (bpd) in April after the current deal to curb production expires at the end of March, 2020. The world's biggest oil exporter is attempting to punish Russia, the world's second-largest producer, for not supporting the production cuts proposed last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers last battled for market share like this between 2014 and 2016 to try to squeeze out production from the United States, which has grown to become the world's biggest oil producer as flows from shale oil fields doubled its output over the last decade. "The prognosis for the oil market is even more dire than in November 2014, when such a price war last started, as it comes to a head with the signiďŹ cant collapse in oil demand due to the
Virus Impacts Demand Meanwhile, China's efforts to curtail the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the world's second-largest economy and curtailed shipments to the biggest oil importer. And the spread of the virus to other major economies such as Italy and South Korea and the growing number of cases in the United States have increased concerns that oil demand will slump this year. Goldman Sachs and other major banks such as Morgan Stanley have cut their demand growth forecasts, with Morgan Stanley predicting China will have zero demand growth in 2020. Goldman sees a contraction of 150,000 bpd in global demand. Goldman Sachs cut its forecast for Brent to $30 for the second and third quarters of 2020. In other markets, the dollar was down sharply against the yen, Asian stock markets sharply lower, and gold rose to its highest since 2013 as investors fled to safe havens.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
OIL
Big oil faces 'survival mode' payout strategies as prices dive
A
n oil price plunge means the world's top energy companies will have to review promises to return billions to investors, either by slowing down share buybacks or reintroducing non-cash dividends, analysts said. Brent crude dropped 24% to $34.36 a barrel as analysts lowered share price forecasts for top oil and gas producers. [O/R] The Brent benchmark has fallen by as much as a third, just before Russia walked away from an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output. The slide is expected to force a rethink of spending plans by boards that had cut costs in response to a 2014 oil downturn when OPEC opened wide the oil taps to try to protect market share following the U.S. shale oil revolution. On that occasion, Eni reduced its dividend, while peers kept up payouts but introduced other austerity measures. Now the sector is also struggling to retain investor appetite because of concerns about long-term sustainability as the world seeks to curb its use of climate-warming fossil fuel. To try to keep investors on side, the boards of major oil companies boosted dividends and share buyback programmes. But even with an average Brent price of $64 a barrel last year, most companies were hardly able to balance their income with their spending. The oil majors were entering "survival mode" in these market conditions and will have to assess
facebook.com/britishherald
where they can cut spending, Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel said in a note. "Buybacks and dividend growth are now almost certainly off the table, and questions on who will need to cut the dividend first will be topical," Gammel said. Chevron Corp pledged to return up to $80 billion to shareholders over the next five years. Goldman Sachs said that "depending on the duration of the crude downcycle," Chevron could taper its buyback programme while Exxon Mobil Corp could slow down its $33 billion spending plans in 2020 and dividend growth. That followed earlier warnings, including from Royal Dutch Shell Plc that it would slow its $25 billion share buyback programme as the coronavirus weighs on the global economy and depresses fuel demand BP Plc said it would raise its dividend, even though its profits last year fell by about a quarter. "We are in unchartered waters at least for the short term," analysts at Bernstein said after downgrading their recommendations for Shell, Eni, Repsol Total and Equinor. Bernstein added in a note it expected divestments to happen and investments to be reduced, but saw no dividend cuts. Bernstein analyst Oswald Clint said that breakevens among European majors had improved since the last downturn. Since the 2014 crash, companies
have cut costs by billions of dollars, with many configuring their business to withstand oil prices of around $50 a barrel. Majors including Total and Royal Dutch Shell, introduced scrip dividends after the last slump, which allowed them to issue dividends in the form of shares, rather than cash. "A return to scrip dividends is not unlikely if this develops into a 6 month 'price war'," Stuart Joyner, an analyst at Redburn, said. Redburn said it expected Total and Chevron to maintain payouts, Shell to pare back its buybacks further and Equinor and Eni to come under pressure to discontinue current buybacks. Equinor, Norway's largest oil and gas producer, said the company's strong balance sheet put it in a "robust position" to handle volatility. Eni said in a statement that it had bolstered its oil and gas upstream business in recent years in order to make it "resilient... to cope with similar situations." U.S. shale producers, which face some of the highest production costs, rushed to deepen spending cuts and reduce future output. BP and Shell declined to comment. Other majors had no immediate comment.
March-April 2020 49
BRITISH HERALD
OIL
Oil extends gains as U.S. output cut hopes grow
But growing scepticism about Washington's stimulus package knocked the steam out of an earlier rally in Asian shares. The fast-spreading coronavirus also weighed on investor risk appetite. The death toll in Italy due to the virus jumped to 631, while China's new cases rose for the first time in five days as infected individuals arrived from overseas. "The rebound in crude oil is not expected to last long, with Saudi and Russia boasting about how much they can boost output by as the battle for market share begins," ANZ said in a note. Saudi Arabia said it would boost its oil supplies to a record high in April, raising the stakes in a standoff with Russia and effectively rebuffing a suggestion from Moscow for new talks on production levels.
O
il prices climbed for a second day as hopes U.S. producers would cut output lent support, but gains were capped by growing doubts about Washington's stimulus package to fight the coronavirus, which continues to spread globally. Brent crude futures rose $1.26, or 3.4%, to $38.48 a barrel by 0418 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $0.91, or 2.7%, to $35.27 a barrel. They have recouped nearly a half of the 25% loss, which was triggered by the clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia.
50 March-April 2020
"Expectations that U.S. shale oil producers will need to trim output helped improve the market sentiment," said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities. U.S. shale producers, including Occidental Petroleum, deepened spending cuts that could reduce production after crude prices slumped to their lowest levels in more than three years. Oil and equity markets staged solid rebounds after the previous day's pummelling, on signs of coordinated action by the world's biggest economies to cushion the economic impact of the epidemic.
"Saudi had failed to boost its market share when it temporarily raised output in 2014 as U.S. shale oil producers showed stronger tolerance to tanking oil prices due to improved efficiency, underlining Saudi's limited influence as a swing producer," Ito Mashino, an analyst at Mitsui & Co. Global Strategic Studies Institute, said. "Still, the breakdown of the latest round of OPEC+ talks won't mean the end of OPEC+ framework...their actions will depend on oil prices," she said. U.S. crude oil inventories rose, while gasoline and distillate stocks dropped, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
AUTOMOBILE
Automakers' sales sink in China due to coronavirus epidemic
7,612 units in February, down 92.2% year on year. - GM's Guangxi-based venture with SAIC Motor and a local partner sold 11,800 units in February, down 88.1% year on year. - Great Wall, one of China's top sport utility vehicle manufacturers, said it sold 10,023 units in February, down by 85.5% year on year. - Honda Motor, which has joint ventures with GAC and Hubeibased Dongfeng sold 11,288 units in China last month, down 85.1% year on year. - Volkswagen's Anhui-based electric vehicle partner JAC sold 11,550 units in February, down by 63.4% year on year. - JMC, in which Ford also has a stake, sold 4,672 vehicles in February, down 64.5% year on year.
V
ehicle sales in China, the world's biggest car market, tumbled in February as customers stayed at home and away from dealerships due to the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 3,100 people in the world's secondbiggest economy. Passenger car retail sales in China fell 80% in February because of the coronavirus epidemic, preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed last month. Below are details on carmakers' announcements (in alphabetical order):
facebook.com/britishherald
- Electric vehicle maker Nio Inc delivered 707 cars in February, down 12.8% year on year. - BAIC BluePark, electric unit of state-owned BAIC Group, sold 1,002 units in February, down by 65.1% from a year earlier. - Shenzhen electric vehicle maker BYD sold 5,501 cars last month, 79.5% lower year on year. - Guangzhou-based GAC, which has joint ventures with Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and FCA, said it sold 19,347 vehicles in February, down 81.1% year on year. - Geely Automobile said its sold 21,168 Geely and Lynk & Co cars last month, 75% lower than a year earlier. - General Motors' Shanghai joint venture with SAIC Motor sold
- Nissan, which has a joint venture with Dongfeng, said China sales dropped 80.3% year on year to 15,111 units in February. - China's biggest automaker SAIC Motor, which has joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors, said group sales dropped 86.9% to 47,365 units last month. - Japanese automaker Toyota, which has joint ventures with FAW Group and GAC sold 23,800 Toyota and premium Lexus cars, 70.2% lower year on year. - Volkswagen's Shanghai-based venture with SAIC Motor sold 10,000 carsin february, 2020, down 91.0% year on year.
March-April 2020
51
BRITISH HERALD
AUTOMOBILE
Why automakers are on a drive to sell electric cars in Europe miles of driving range in an hour, depending on the capability of the vehicle, and a direct current fast charger takes between five and 30 minutes to add 100 miles of range.
Who Is Forcing Carmakers To Sell Low Emission Cars?
C
armakers are under pressure in Europe to sell more electric cars or face huge fines for breaching new emissions rules aimed at tackling global warming. The European Union set automakers a target to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40% between 2007 and 2021, but they are collectively far short of this goal due to the popularity among drivers of heavy, polluting models such as SUVs. EU lawmakers also agreed in December 2018 a further cut in CO2 emissions from cars of 37.5% by 2030 compared with 2021 levels - raising the bar just as the
52 March-April 2020
EU lawmakers have set a general target that emissions from all new cars sold by an automaker should on average not exceed 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre by 2021. However, the target for individuals carmakers varies because it takes into account the starting weight of each companies' fleet in the base year of 2007. fines from the previous target are about to kick in.
Why Haven't Electric Cars Gained Traction So Far? Battery-driven cars take longer to recharge compared with the roughly three minutes needed fill up a petrol or diesel tank, although the exact time depends on the type of charger and the vehicle. Many countries have also been slow to roll-out charging points. According to Volkswagen's subsidiary Electrify America, a 240-volt charger can add 20 to 30
Manufacturers with fewer than 300,000 new passenger car registrations in a given year will also be able to apply for exemptions, according to the European Commission's website.
What Is The Penalty For Non-Compliance? Manufacturers will face a penalty of 95 euros for each gram of excess CO2 they emit compared with their individual targets. Evercore ISI analysts estimate carmakers face up to a combined 33 billion euros ($37 billion) in fines based on reported 2018 CO2 emissions levels.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD Analysts at PA Consulting estimate fines for individual carmakers would have been as follows, based on 2018 fleet emissions. The actual penalties are likely to be lower as carmakers sought to sell more hybrid and electric cars in 2019.
What Investments Are Required? Fitting more electric components will cost carmakers between 800 and 5,000 euros per vehicle to ensure compliance with 2021 targets, Evercore ISI say. Mild hybrid systems - where electric motors are used to assist a combustion engine - give rise to an additional cost of between 800 and 1,200 euros per vehicle, while plug-in hybrids - where the electric motor can take over add 2,000-5,000 euros.
AUTOMOBILE Out of the 144,000 charging points available across the EU, more than 26% are in the Netherlands, 19% in Germany, 17% in France and 13% in the United Kingdom, according to ACEA's website. Germany's auto industry association VDA has said a ban on combustion engine vehicles in 2030 would threaten more than 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers. Jobs will disappear because it takes less time to build an electric car than a conventional one. A combustion engined car has 1,400 components in the motor, exhaust system and
Until now, the auto industry has relied on profits between 500 and 1,500 euros per vehicle in the mass market, and between 2,000 and 5,000 euros for a premium vehicle.
Why Has The Industry Been Slow To Embrace Electric Cars? Reasons include a lack of charging infrastructure, a threat to employment in the industry, and uncertainty over levels of customer demand. Three quarters of all charging points in Europe are located in four countries that only cover 26% of the continent's total area, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) says.
facebook.com/britishherald
Supply Bottlenecks The drive to sell more electric vehicles, which has increased the industry's reliance on Asian battery cell makers, has led to supply bottlenecks even before measures to contain the coronavirus caused further supply-chain disruptions. Audi has had to slow down production of electric cars at its plant in Brussels due to a battery cell shortage. Volvo and Volkswagen may also face challenges after battery supplier Samsung SDI issued a profit warning due to the coronavirus outbreak. "We have flown parts in suitcases from China to the UK," Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Chief Executive Ralf Speth said last month, as Britain's biggest carmaker warned of the impact of the virus on supply chains.
Launch Plans Volkswagen Group said in March 2019 it planned to launch almost 70 new electric models by 2028. transmission. An electric car's battery and motor has only 200 components, according to analysts at ING. In Europe, there are about 126 plants making combustion engines, employing 112,000 people. The largest is Volkswagen's factory in Kassel, Germany. A shift to plug-in hybrid cars would help to protect jobs since they take 50% more time, or up to 9 hours longer, to make than cars with only a combustion engine. But pure electric cars are much less complex. For example, while a Volkswagen Golf has around 50 ball bearings, the electric Chevrolet Bolt has only six.
BMW has said it plans to offer 25 electrified models by 2023, with more than half being fully electric, and expects their sales to rise on average by 30% a year until 2025. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) plans to offer 12 electrified models by 2021, including both hybrid and full electric vehicles of all types. Italy's Ferrari has said it plans to have "a full hybrid range" by 2021 and wants 60% of its cars sold by 2022 to be hybrids, but will not release a fully electric model until after 2025.
March-April 2020 53
BRITISH HERALD
AUTOMOBILE
Coronavirus piles pressure on Europe's stricken auto industry in regions hit by extensive quarantine measures which disrupt public life. Forecasters at LMC Automotive revised their estimate for light vehicle sales downward by 4% this year, or 3.7 million cars, to 86.4 million units, the lowest level since 2013. The revisions come as the World Health Organization described the Corona COVID-19 virus as a pandemic." A moderate pandemic could worsen the outlook by another 2-3 million units, LMC said adding that supply chain disruptions have caused higher logistics costs and that matters will get worse before they get better. “The impact of COVID-19 on the auto industry has gone well beyond the initial focal point of China, resulting in downward forecast revisions across most major markets,� said Jonathon Poskitt, Director Global Sales Forecasts at LMC.
E
urope's major car and parts makers rushed to close factories and cut output in Italy and considered sending workers home elsewhere, in the first signs that coronavirus is disrupting the region's struggling automotive industry.
54 March-April 2020
Fiat Chrysler said it was temporarily halting operations at some of its Italian factories and would reduce production in response to Europe's largest coronavirus outbreak. Carmakers face disruptions to supplies of parts being delivered from China as well as a fall in demand
Fiat Chrysler has stepped up measures across its facilities, including intensive cleaning of all work and rest areas, to support the government's directives to curb the spread of the infectious disease. Italian tyremaker Pirelli had said it was cutting production at its Settimo Torinese plant in northern Italy after a worker tested positive for the virus. Italy is the worst-affected
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
AUTOMOBILE
country in the world after China and the unprecedented lockdown of the country has heaped fresh pressure on the region's ailing car sector. Other companies including Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Peugeot owner PSA were also scrambling to deal with infections among staff, highlighting the risks to business beyond supply chains and Italy's borders. The French carmaker was beefing up safety rules at its Mulhouse plant with a 5,000-strong workforce in eastern France after one employee tested positive, a spokeswoman said. The man has been on sick leave since Feb. 29. Volkswagen, meanwhile, cancelled a shift at a plant near Barcelona in Spain, operated by its Spanish unit Seat, because the coronavirus outbreak has hit its supply chain. The German carmaker may also send staff home temporarily from that facility and another one in the Navarra region of Spain if supply issues worsen. "The Martorell plant (near Barcelona) is currently working normally. However, there are several risks derived from COVID-19, which has affected the supply chain," a Seat spokesman said. Volkswagen's Czech unit Skoda also said there was the risk of a shortage of parts from China that might affect several of its plants.
facebook.com/britishherald
Brakes On
by the worsening virus outbreak.
The disruptions are the latest blow to Europe's carmakers, which are struggling with weak global demand and high costs of meeting the region's tough emissions targets.
"It all looks like it is going to be requested," said Carnero, a representative for UGT, the main labour union at Seat, referring to the potential temporary layoffs.
The virus has already taken its toll on business in China, the world's top car market, where vehicle sales tumbled as customers stayed home due to the epidemic. An industry association warned last week that car sales in Italy, Europe's third-largest economy, could shrink by more than 15%. Seat would make temporary layoffs if it had to cut production due to supply issues, the spokesman said. Seat union representative Matias Carnero said the company's supply chain was being affected
Under temporary layoffs, Spanish workers are normally paid part of their salary. The company spokesman said the duration of any layoffs had not been discussed, but Carnero said they could last between two and five weeks, adding this could potentially affect about 7,000 people at the plant. Italian brake maker Brembo warned that its northern Italian production could struggle if the government introduced even more stringent measures to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.
March-April 2020 55
BRITISH HERALD
AUTOMOBILE
Tesla plans to expand car parts production capacity in Shanghai - government document
T
esla Inc plans to increase its production capacity for certain car parts at its $2 billion factory in China, according to a government document seen by Reuters, as it pushes to localise its supply chain in the world's biggest auto market.
Reuters request for comment.
documents seen by Reuters.
But according to the document, Tesla wants to almost double its annual building capacity for cooling pipes, a key part in a car's heat management system, to 260,000 sets a year from 150,000. It did not provide capacity details for other parts.
The Shanghai factory is key to Tesla's growth strategy. There it aims to produce 150,000 Model 3 sedans and later hike output to 250,000 a year, including the Model Y, according to a Shanghai government filing in 2018.
The U.S. automaker, which started delivering Model 3 electric sedans from its Shanghai factory in December, plans to add lines to make more battery packs, electric motors, and motor controllers, according to the document submitted by Tesla to Shanghai government.
The planned production line will not include battery cell manufacturing but will package out-sourced battery cells at the plant, the document said.
Tesla, which as of end-December used about 70% imported parts for the cars it made in China, did not immediately respond to a
The company is also building an additional stamping line to speed up car production in Shanghai, according to construction
56 March-April 2020
Tesla has previously said it wants to localise its entire supply chain in China by the end of this year.
The company aims to deliver more than 500,000 vehicles globally by end-2020. Tesla's production and delivery plans in Shanghai, however, have been disrupted by a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 3,100 people in the world's No.2 economy. Passenger car retail sales in China plunged around 80% in February due to the epidemic, industry data shows.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
TECHNOLOGY
AT&T partners with Google Cloud for 5G edge computing AT&T Inc has partnered with Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud to use 5G edge computing technologies to help clients improve speed and increase security by running applications closer to end users. The process of allowing data to be analyzed where it was created before moving to the cloud is known as edge computing, which to be effective, needs speedy wireless connection, and tuning it up with 5G solves the problem. AT&T's 5G network currently covers 80 million people in the
networks. Gartner predicts that 75% of all data generated by enterprises will be processed outside the traditional cloud by 2025.
United States. Companies would be able to use edge computing to process huge amounts of data generated from the internet of things (IoT) gadgets - where devices and appliances are controlled over
"Our co-innovation with AT&T aims to bring a multitude of 5G and Edge Computing solutions to address a diversity of use cases, driving real business value in industries like retail, manufacturing, gaming and more," Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said in a statement.
UK defense committee to probe security of 5G network on Huawei concerns
B
ritain's parliamentary defense committee will investigate the security of the country's 5G mobile network, the group of lawmakers said, amid continued concerns about the role of Chinese company Huawei. In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided to grant Huawei a limited role in Britain's 5G mobile network, frustrating a global bid by the United States to exclude the firm from the West's next-generation communications systems. The security of 5G will now be subject to an inquiry by a subcommittee of the parliamentary
facebook.com/britishherald
we ask the uncomfortable questions about the possibility of abuse," he said on Twitter. Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang said in an emailed statement that the company would work with the committee to answer their questions. defense committee, it said. Lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, launching the inquiry, said that once 5G was introduced it will be an "unextractable" part of British infrastructure. "It is paramount that, as we negotiate this new technology,
"Over the last 18 months, the government and two parliamentary committees have conducted detailed assessments of the facts and concluded there is no reason to ban Huawei from supplying 5G equipment on cyber security grounds," he added.
March-April 2020
57
BRITISH HERALD
TECHNOLOGY
Amsterdam's boats go electric ahead of 2025 diesel ban 2025, helping the city's efforts to combat climate change. The transition among commercial vessels is well underway, with 75% of the 550 on the city's water qualifying as emissions free, according to city spokesman Wouter Keuning. Canal boats were a natural fit to go first. They are Amsterdam's most popular tourist attraction, each in use up to 14 hours per day, with 320 of them conveying nearly 4 million passengers through the city's waters annually. The Gerarda Johanna has its own berth and charging station. "People always overestimate what they can do in one year, but they underestimate what they can do in 10-20 years," said Kees Koolen, founder of Super
T
he century-old Amsterdam canal boat Gerarda Johanna looks like a classic with wood panelling, but beneath its floorboards lies a high-tech underbelly: rows of lithium ion batteries, 66 in all, with an electric drive train powering its propeller. The boat is part of a push by Amsterdam's new Green Party mayor to ban diesel engines from the centre's ancient canals by
58 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
TECHNOLOGY B, the company that supplied the batteries used in the Gerarda Johanna. He said cheaper solar energy and new forms of storage would bring about emission-neutral transportation faster than most are expecting. Converting ships like the 1922 Gerarda Johanna takes equal parts engineering and artistry. It would cost a million euros ($1.1 million) to build a new electric canal boat, but owner Rederij Kooij, one of the city's largest operators, is converting its existing fleet one by one as they come up for maintenance, adding around 50,000 euros to a 150,000 euro repair bill. So far 13 out of 29 are done. Kooij monitors its fleet, including battery levels, from a modern control booth inside an old stone building near Amsterdam's Dam, where spice-laden ships rolled in from the East Indies in the 1600s. Of Amsterdam's 12,000 recreational boats, mostly smaller privately-owned vessels, only 5% are emissions-free, by city estimates. Converting them to electric would cost 4,000-40,000 euros depending on size, though many will likely be sold or replaced. "The city is actively involved with rolling out the installation of chargers, which is a rather complex project" Keuning said. The city is working with contractors to have 100 boat charging stations installed by the end of 2021, as well as a floating charging station launched by startup Skoon Energy this week, expected to help with grid balancing.
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020 59
BRITISH HERALD
TECHNOLOGY
Robotic arm designed in China could help save lives on medical frontline The robots were almost entirely automated, and could even disinfect themselves after performing actions involving contact, Zheng said. "But the feedback from doctors was that it would be better if there be less automation, as a personal presence would comfort and calm the patient," he said. The team now has two robots, which have been trialled by doctors at hospitals in Beijing. One is still at the team's lab at the university, but the other is at the Wuhan Union Hospital, where doctors started training to use it on Thursday.
R
esearchers at one of China's top universities have designed a robot they say could help save lives on the frontline during the coronavirus outbreak. The machine consists of a robotic arm on wheels that can perform ultrasounds, take mouth swabs and listen to sounds made by a patient's organs, usually done with a stethoscope. Such tasks are normally carried out by doctors in person. But with this robot, which is fitted with cameras, medical personnel do not need to be in the same room as the patient, and could even be in a different city. "Doctors are all very brave," said Tsinghua University Professor Zheng Gangtie, the robot's chief designer. "But this virus is just too
60 March-April 2020
contagious ... We can use robots to perform the most dangerous tasks." The idea came to Zheng around the turn of the Lunar New Year. Wuhan had just been put on lockdown and the number of cases and deaths was rising rapidly every day. As an engineer, Zheng wanted to do something to contribute to the relief effort. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, he heard from his friend, Dong Jiahong, executive president at Beijing's Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, that the biggest problem was that of frontline workers getting infected. Gathering a team, Zheng set to work converting two mechanized robotic arms with the same technology used on space stations and lunar explorers.
according to the plan, be put to use on coronavirus patients in Wuhan from Sunday, Zheng said. It would be joined on its ward rounds by a nurse or other member of staff. Zheng would like to build more such robots but funding from the university has run out. The robots cost RMB 500,000 ($72,000) a piece to make. He does not plan on commercializing his robot design but hopes a company comes along to take that on. China has sent tens of thousands of medical workers to the epicenter of the outbreak, Hubei province, state media say. More than 3,000 medical workers had been infected by late last month, including whistleblower Li Wenliang, whose death in early February sparked a brief and rare outpouring of grief and rage on Chinese social media.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Cameroon's 'Gurl Boss' crew takes on male-dominated film world "In style I am very colourful, yeah. In my videos you always see lots of pink, blue," says Beyala who is working as scriptwriter, director, choreographer and editor on the shoot. "So, I try to leave the feminine soft-touch, even if am going for a dark video." She began her film career as a model in other people's videos, then got a masters degree in cinematography and started organising her own productions. Two years ago she set up her company which now employs a full-time staff of seven women.
T
atapong Beyala sets up her camera in a studio in Yaounde, Cameroon, surrounded by an all-women team of technicians, make-up artists and assistants. For the 27-year-old owner of Gurl Boss Productions, it is the perfect crew to take on the male-dominated world of film production in her central African country and beyond. "I have a lot of difficulties with my own colleagues, like the other male directors who don't even want to accept me," Beyala says on the set. "I decided to have an all-female production team, firstly based on my history, my experience, the difficulties I faced, which I still face."
Cameroonian rapper Lor's new track "Stop". "All these jokers think they've got something on me," Lor raps, as masked actors crowd around her. The performer and the extras are dressed in stark black, but other scenes from Beyala's videos - including one for Lor's "On Connait" - burst with bright colours.
So far she has worked on around 50 videos for Lor and other artists that have spread far and wide online. Many of her fans assume she is a man. "I have people (saying) 'Beyala I like his work. I like his work' and when they come on set and they realise it's a girl. They look at your age, they look at your physical appearance.
"And even when you give them the good work ... they think you are a joke."
The shoot is a music video for
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
61
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Weather reports from Greta Thunberg as cult UK show 'Spitting Image' returns
B
ritish satirical puppet show "Spitting Image" returns this autumn, caricaturing a new generation of public figures to rival past stalwarts from Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan. The original TV show ran from 1984 to 1996, lampooning Queen Elizabeth as a middleaged housewife, her son Prince Charles as a hapless victim of his growing ears and then prime
62 March-April 2020
minister Thatcher as a tyrannical boss calling her cabinet "the vegetables". It regularly drew 15 million viewers, more than a quarter of the British population. The new series will ridicule the likes of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his powerful advisor Dominic Cummings, plus Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
It will also feature weather updates from Swedish teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who has led global youth anger at potentially catastrophic climate change. "The new Spitting Image will be global through a uniquely British eye. It will be more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation," said Roger Law, co-creator of the original show, who returns to lead the new version's creative team. That sets the bar high.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
In the old show, Thatcher's successor John Major was represented by a grey puppet to convey his dullness. Then U.S. president Reagan was shown in one episode talking about two guys named Frank and Marc, having not understood that the topic was the currency rates of the French franc and German mark. "The timing is right, the puppets are ready, the people have spoken," said Law, mocking Johnson's recent election campaign rhetoric, which focused on a promise to "get Brexit done". "And the message for the doomsayers and gloomsters is, this autumn we will get BritBox
facebook.com/britishherald
ENTERTAINMENT
done!" said Law. The new show will air on BritBox, a streaming service created by the BBC and ITV broadcasters, which costs subscribers 5.99 pounds ($7.66) a month. After the previous show was cancelled in 1996, some of its most frequent targets confessed that they had rather enjoyed the notoriety it gave them. "It was quite a status symbol to be on Spitting Image," said Edwina Currie, a Conservative politician portrayed as a witch. "In retrospect, I think they got my caricature about right. I grew quite fond of it."
March-April 2020 63
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Money can buy you early Beatles stage at New York auction
T
The stage was removed from Lathom Hall in the Beatles' British home town of Liverpool, where the band gave its first advertised performance in May 1960 as the Silver Beatles. As the Beatles, but without Starr on drums, the band played there 10 more times until February 1961 - more than a year before the release of debut single, "Love Me Do."
he wooden stage of the small Liverpool venue where the Beatles performed before they rocketed to fame is going up for auction, along with Paul McCartney's hastily scribbled notes for a studio recording of the hit song "Hey Jude." The stage and the lyrics are among 300 items of Beatles memorabilia being sold in New York on April 10, including an annotated shooting script of the band's 1967 "Hello, Goodbye" music video and an ashtray used by Ringo Starr at the Abbey Road recording studios in London,
64 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT Bagism, a term the couple created to satirize stereotyping, that was featured in their 1969 "Bed Peace" documentary, which has a preauction estimate of $80,000 to $100,000. The auction will take place online and at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, New York.
It is expected to sell for $10,000 to $20,000. "The stage is a unique piece to come to market," said Jason Watkins, music specialist at Julien's Auctions. "There's not a ton of market history for something quite like this. So it'll be interesting to see where the price goes." A sheet of paper with partial "Hey Jude" lyrics, written by McCartney for a recording session in 1968, has an asking price of up to $180,000. "The 'Hey Jude' lyrics are a very rare, valuable special piece. It's obviously a very iconic song that everyone's familiar with. These handwritten lyrics were used in the studio as a guide when they were recording it," said Watkins. Other highlights include John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono's drawing of
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020 65
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
A Masquerade Ball Unlike Any Other! Other elite guests dressed in their best surround you in this exclusive black-tie event with mysterious masquerades and elaborate costumery. Models walk down the ramp in stylish outfits and body art, artistic shows, marvellous pylon dances. The guests are also treated to a spectacle of the Miss Elite 2020 pageant Grande Finale. This is the highlight of the evening and features 20 of the most beautiful and smartest ladies compete to earn the title of Polish Grace Kelly!
Venice in Warsaw 2020 On the 29th of February 2020, the Elite Club of Monaco extended an invitation to VIP guests to participate in Venice Grand Masked Ball and the Miss Elite 2020 pageant. The event also included a Charity banquet- all taking place at the spectacular Palace Zamoyski, Warsaw!
Wine, Dine and Unwind! The Grand Venetian Masked Ball kicked off with a classy champagne reception in the Palace Zamoyski followed by a gala dinner complete with a service of fine wines. The Royal Banquet prepared by topnotch chefs of the country.
The enchanting evening was complete with the best of entertainment. Songs from musicals came to life around you at this spectacular venue with a live performance from world-famous Opera diva Delia Grace Noble from Monaco. It sure was an evening to remember.
Traverse the 1200-kilometre distance between Venice and Poland in a split secondthe Palace Zamoyski played host to Venetian dreams with this incredible event!
66 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Foreign Fame She persisted, finding international success. In 2016, she toured Europe with The Nile Project, a collective of musicians from countries that feed into or lie along the world’s longest river. These days, she plays on instruments ranging from electric drums to traditional hide stretched over wood. "From buckets to 'sufurias' (pots) to desks to car bonnets. Car bonnets!" she exclaimed in a recent interview in the Kenyan capital.
Marching to the beat of her own drum: Kenyan breaks gender taboo
S
tanding outside a cow pen in an east Kenyan village, six-year old Kasiva Mutua started to notice rhythms.
The wind blowing, a goat bleating, distant laughter. And where they crisscrossed - more rhythm. Mutua, now 31, felt she had a special relationship with sound and tempo – one that propelled her to become Kenya's leading female percussionist in a country where drumming was long considered taboo for women. She started playing percussion seriously in high school, after
facebook.com/britishherald
seeing the rare sight of a female drummer. "What she was doing called me. Like when people say the lord has called them – it called me in that manner," said Mutua, who has a gaptoothed smile under short black dreadlocks and a silver hoop nose ring.
In 2017, she was asked to give a talk at the prestigious TedGlobal event in Tanzania about her mission to teach the importance of the drum to young boys and girls. "Women can be custodians of culture, too," she argued and proved it by starting an all-female percussion group called Motra to combine the words modern and traditional. For three years, the Nairobibased collective has offered lessons and mentorship to women interested in drumming. "It became a sisterhood," she said proudly.
She began performing gigs in Nairobi, but found it challenging most of the men who dominated the industry offered little support.
Group member Evelyn Githina said she had been searching for something like Motra for a long time.
"Once a man asked me – 'How do you think you look like, holding that drum between your legs? You need to sit like a lady,'" Mutua told after a gig in the Kenyan capital.
"It's just fulfilling," Githina said. "You've heard it all about guys doing it better, but we know for sure we can do it better."
March-April 2020
67
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
'Onward' leads Box Office with ho-hum $40 million
D
isney and Pixar's "Onward" debuted 6 March 2020 to $40 million, enough to lead box office charts but still a somewhat disappointing start given the studio's near-flawless track record when it comes to animated fare. Internationally, the film brought in $28 million for a global tally of $68 million. "Onward," a fantastical adventure about two brothers (voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt), ranks among Pixar's lowest
68 March-April 2020
opening weekend's in modern times, joining 2015's "The Good Dinosaur" and its $39 million as a rare blemish for the Disneyowned company, known for producing hits such as "Inside Out," Coco" and Up." Pixar films typically cost $175 million to $200 million to produce, a huge sum that doesn't include global marketing fees. Directed by Dan Scanlon, "Onward" received mostly positive reviews, though it didn't welcome the kind of rapturous reception that greets most Pixar
titles. Still, "Onward" looks to benefit in coming weeks as one of the few options for family audiences. It scored an "A-" CinemaScore, signalling that moviegoers enjoyed the film. "Pixar has earned an incredible reputation for delivering quality to audiences, and based on their response, they are being touched by it," said Cathleen Taff, Disney's president of global distribution. "We're excited to see such good word-of-mouth. That bodes well for the life of its run in theatres."
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD Another high-profile release, Warner Bros.' sports drama "The Way Back," also fell short of expectations. But box office experts suggest it was the movies themselves -- not fears of coronavirus -- that stifled ticket sales. "Onward" was tracking an opening between $40 million and $45 million even before threats of coronavirus in North America. "I think there was zero impact," Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore, said. "With $40 million for 'Onward,' a small drop off for 'The Invisible Man' and 'The Way Back' getting solid scores from audiences, it looks like people are in the habit of going to the movies." Overall box office receipts are down 50% from the same weekend last year, an inevitable dip given last year saw "Captain Marvel" arrive with a huge $153 million. That drastic dip pushed the year-to-date box office down almost 2%, the first year-overyear decline in 2020. "The Way Back" brought in $8.5 million when it launched in 2,718 theatres, enough for third place on box office charts. It's a lacklustre start given its A-list leading man, but an improvement from Warner Bros. recent mid-budget duds like "The Good Liar" ($5.6 million) and "The Kitchen" ($5.5 million). The film, which cost roughly $21 million to make, was poised as a big-screen comeback for Affleck. His performance as an alcoholic construction worker who is recruited to become the head coach of a high school basketball team has been praised, but it didn't get the level of reception that smaller dramas need these days to make an impact at the box office. Among opening
facebook.com/britishherald
ENTERTAINMENT
Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog" landed at No. 4, bringing in another $8 million. After four weeks in theatres, the animated family film has made an impressive $140 million.
weekend crowds, 64% were over the age of 35. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' president of domestic distribution, noted it's a demographic that doesn't usually rush out on opening weekend. "Our reviews were really strong and we have a 'B+' CinemaScore, so we're in a really strong place," Goldstein said. ""The story gears toward an older audience that doesn't rush out. I think we can capture an older audience, assuming a coronavirus scare doesn't keep audiences away." In second place, Universal and Blumhouse's "The Invisible Man" added $15.5 million in its second outing for a cumulative total of $52.6 million. Internationally, the Elisabeth Moss-led thriller generated $17.3 million. Its box office receipts currently stand at $98.3 million, already a win for the studio since it cost just $7 million. Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog" landed at No. 4, bringing in another $8 million. After four weeks in theatres, the animated family film has made an impressive $140 million. The blue speed demon, voiced by Ben Schwartz, has also been a draw overseas, where it has made $154 million. Globally, "Sonic" is
nearing the $300 million mark with ticket sales currently at $295.6 million. Disney's "The Call of the Wild" rounded out the top five, pocketing $7 million in its third frame. The adaptation of Jack London's novel, starring Harrison Ford and a CGI dog named Buck, has generated $57.5 million in North America and $99.6 million worldwide, a weak result because the film cost a head-scratching $125 million to make. Given the high price tag, sources estimate "The Call of the Wild" needs to earn between $250 million and $275 million to get out of the red. At this point, it will be difficult to reach those heights so "The Call of the Wild" is expected to lose around $50 million. Among indie releases, A24's "First Cow" made $96,059 when it opened in four venues -- translating to $24,015 from each location. Directed by Kelly Reichardt, the film is set in the Pacific Northwest and follows a 19th century cook who travels with fur trappers to the Oregon Territory. Sony Pictures Classic's "Burnt Orange Heresy" had a rocky start in limited release, bringing in $18,296 from four screens for a theatre-average of $4,574. The heist thriller stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki and Mick Jagger. Elsewhere, Focus Features' "Emma" amassed $5 million when it expanded to 1,565 theatres, bringing its domestic tally to $6.8 million. The adaptation of Jane Austen's novel also earned $1.5 million this weekend at the international box office for a global bounty of $20.9 million.
March-April 2020 69
BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Argentine filmmaker throws spotlight on abortion amid legalisation push The documentary follows young women between the ages of 14 and 24: one teenager goes to hospital to terminate a pregnancy after being raped; another suffers a haemorrhage after taking a pill to end an unwanted pregnancy; a third has a difficult delivery due to injuries from an abusive partner. "It's a painful film about a social emergency," Testa said. One campaign, #NiĂąasNoMadres, founded among others by Amnesty International to denounce sexual violence and forced childbirth, estimates eight girls aged 10 to 14 years old give birth every day in Argentina, one every three hours.
A
mid a renewed push in Argentina to legalise abortion, filmmaker Andrea Testa hopes to spotlight the plight of young women in a country where campaigners say that every three hours a girl between 10 to 14 years old gives birth. Testa's new documentary, "Girl Mother", follows women from socially vulnerable backgrounds who are forced to have children under Argentine law where abortion is illegal, except in cases of rape and when there is danger to life or health. "Many girls are in this situation because of violence, not only because of unplanned pregnancies which they have to take care of," Testa, 32, said.
70 March-April 2020
It comes at a time of potential tectonic shifts in Argentina, where President Alberto Fernandez is pushing a bill to Congress to legalise abortion that would make the country the first major economy in Latin America to do so. A previous bill to legalise abortion up to 14 weeks was passed by the lower house but rejected by the senate after a campaign by the country's powerful Roman Catholic Church. "It's great that (Fernandez) is spearheading this legislation as president. I hope the best possible law comes out," added the director, whose black-andwhite film premiered ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, 2020.
Abortion is illegal in almost all of Latin America, a predominantly Catholic region where only Cuba, Uruguay, Guyana and Puerto Rico have fully legalized the practice. In the homeland of Pope Francis, the fight for legal abortion has been a struggle, with strong opposition from the Catholic Church, which is holding its own rally on March 8 under the slogan "Yes to women. Yes to life." Testa said the push for abortion and other rights remained a battle facing many obstacles. "(These women) face violence from partners, from society, in the hospital. So this is a film about women who survive."
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS
Head Out To India’s Pink City For Asia Cup Polo 2020 airline flying to more countries than any other, we continue to ensure that our partners are instrumental in our growth journey. We wish luck to all the participants and look forward to the great match.” The Chief Guest of the Jaipur 2020 Asia Cup Polo International Day was HH Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh and several members of the Jaipur Royal Family were also in attendance.
T
he Asia Cup Polo International Day was introduced in 2007 in England as the flagship of the CelebrAsian festival event calendar, which aimed to bring people together via shared mediums. The Asia Cup continues to host events in both England and India venues and for the first event of 2020- the prestigious event took place on the 1st of February 2020 in Jaipur, India. The VIP invitation-only event began with a pre-polo cocktail party at the Jaipur City Palace on 31st of January 2020. Following that, the Asia Cup Polo International match between the Royal Jaipur & Singapore teams
facebook.com/britishherald
took place on the 1st of February 2020 followed by an elegant high tea. The title sponsors of the Asia Polo Cup event are Sen Group & De Nuevo. Turkish Airlines was the official airline partner for the 19th Asia Cup Polo International Day. Expressing delight on this partnership, Mr Huseyin Ozbek, General Manager North and East India said “We are elated to come together with Asia Cup Polo for its seventh edition in Jaipur, India and 19th overall International Day. This association proves our commitment towards staying engaged with our customers and providing them with new lifetime experiences. As an
The Pink City of India has an unmatched polo tradition and the Jaipur Royal Family’s equestrian glory is unparalleled in the Indian subcontinent. It was under the patronage of the Jaipur Royal Family and their proud heritage that Asia Cup Polo has become the annual internationally renowned spectacle that it is. Maharaj Narendra Singh has played in the Asia Cup many times both in India and England and now his son, His Highness Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh, has continued the tradition. Their Rajasthan Polo club in Jaipur has graciously hosted the Asia Cup Polo in the past and is the stunning venue again for the 19th Asia Cup Polo International Day. The Sen Group also hosts the Asia Cup International Day in London and will be celebrating its 20th event in summer of 2020. They also hope to launch new events in Singapore and Dubai later this year.
March-April 2020
71
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS
Asia Cup Polo International Day- Jaipur 2020
B
ritish Herald headed on over to the Indian subcontinent’s Pink City to participate in the spectacular 2020 Asia Cup Polo International Day celebrations.
31st January 2020: Cocktail Party at City Palace The 19th Asia Cup Polo International Day event celebrations commenced with a cocktail party for VIP guests on
72 March-April 2020
31st January evening in Jaipur City Palace’s Sobha Niwas room, hosted by Asia Cup founder Neil Sen and the Royal Family. The resplendent location played the setting to a memorable evening with a guest list featuring elites from Jaipur, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore and London.
1st February 2020: International Polo Match
The guests were welcomed with the warmest greetings, J Oppman wines and sweeping vistas of fort and temple, beautifully illuminated against the dark evening skies. With an evening of extensive networking and merry-making, the eventful
The day began with an international match between the Singapore and Royal Jaipur teams. The Singapore team was captained by Kwan Lo and the Royal Jaipur team was captained by His Highness Maharajah Padmanabh Singh.
evening drew to a close with rising anticipation of the events from the next day’s polo match.
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS the Match for his outstanding performance.
1st February 2020: Prize Distribution and Closing Ceremony The prizes to all the winners were presented by His Highness Maharaj Narendra Singh, title sponsors De Nuevo’s Monty Singh and DDotsquares’ Bahul Chandra.
Playing any sport away from home fields are challenging, to say the least. In the sport of polo, this is the case even more so as horses play such a significant role in the sport. Despite these challenges, the Singapore team played brilliantly. Patrick Furlong especially put on quite the show, keeping up his +4 handicap, the highest of both teams. At the end of the second chukka (polo has four 7-minute segments called ‘chukkas’) of the match, Royal Jaipur led by 3-2. His Highness Maharajah Padmanabh Singh displayed his fine Indian polo season form contributing 3 goals with Pratap Kanota and Vikramaditya Singh Barkana pitching in with 2 goals leading the home team to a comfortable 7-3 win. Needless to say, the Royal Jaipur team were the winners of the match but Patrick Furlong from the Singapore team was awarded the title of Man of
facebook.com/britishherald
The prizes were not limited to the winners of the polo match and the man of the match. A lucky member of the VIP crowd in attendance won a Business Class return ticket from Turkish Airlines, presented by Ritika Seth.
Upcoming Events The upcoming 20th Asia Cup Polo International Day event shall take place in London in the summer. Coincidentally the 20th Asia Cup Polo International Day happens in the year 2020! A few more events are in the pipeline in Singapore and Dubai later in the year. So, watch this space for more!
March-April 2020
73
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS
The 28-Year-Old Motorsport Entrepreneur – Ludovic Pezé The Formula for Formula 1
A
t 28-years-ofage, Ludovic Pezé has a long list of achievements to ramble on about. But at first glance, he seems quite shy, with a discreet smile plastered across his face and oozing impeccable class. He’s a well-known personality in the motorsport world- across Europe and Africa.
roots of his career did not reveal an inkling of his bright future ahead in motorsports.
As a teenager, Pezé showed an interest in Formula 1- the epic racing battles, glitterati and travel piqued his interest. His father, a karting mechanic by profession, introduced him to the world of international circuits. The Monaco Grand Prix courted not far from home and Pezé was allured! Formula 3, an antechamber of the Formula 1, also held his interest, making him a true motorsport enthusiast. During these years, he acquired as much knowledge as he could on the field and surrounded himself with peers who shared his passion. In spite of these lofty dreams and interests, Pezé’s studies remained to be his first priority. Until, one day, an unforeseen
He is the Founder and Director of MFT Global Solutions Ltd.
Origin Story Ludovic Pezé was born to a Mauritian mother and a French father in the Principality of Monaco. He has been raised in a multiorigin background but he truly identifies with his Mauritian roots. Pezé graduated with an accounting management degree in Monaco before making the shift to the world of digital marketing. The
74 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS He now dons the triple cap of playing a motorsport consultant, driver agent and a business manager. At present, Pezé represents and advises several drivers from Formula E, Formula 2, Formula 3, Prototype and Karting across France, Monaco, South Africa and Kenyan motorsport circles. Motorsport superstars- France’s Andrea Pizzitola and Monaco’s Fabrice Pantani accompany Pezé on a daily basis. In addition to them, Germany’s Pascal Wehrlein also features in his address book.
event changed the course of his life… Pezé fell severely ill and was diagnosed with meningitis putting him in a coma for several days. He was forced to remain under bed rest for almost a year, which affected his memory and physical abilities direly. It took him a year of rehabilitation to get back to a normal life. But he remained positive and looked for the light at the end of the tunnel. He decided to look
at this as a second chance and decided to make the most of itfinally making the switch into the world of motorsport.
Pezé’s Second Chance
In preparation for the competitions, Pezé coordinates getting his drivers around, securing the best of accommodation, sponsors and cars. He prepares them, albeit discreetly, to deliver their best performance.
He made the most of his second chance at life and a shot at his passion of motorsport. Pezé made contacts, expanding his address book and proving his abilities in an environment of professionals twice his age.
Work-Life Balance Managing a company, so many trips and dealing with the competition along with maintaining a private life is definitely not easy. Pezé attributes his ability to plan and organise along with his great analytical ability to manage partners, drivers, mechanics and factors to how he handles it all. In his free time, he enjoys sports, travel and history- especially those which deal with pirates!
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
75
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS
In Tokyo, a growing sense of angst over virus-hit Games
"Nothing has been decided. On the inside, it's a mess," said a person briefed on the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The final decision belongs to the powerful International Olympic Committee chief, Thomas Bach. Companies such as Coca-Cola Co, Bridgestone Corp , Canon Inc, Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp sponsor the Games, and Japanese brands have for decades been some of the most generous. The IOC said that "the preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 are continuing as planned." Tokyo 2020 organising committee did not respond to a request for comment.
F
or weeks, Olympic organisers have relentlessly pushed a consistent message: The Summer Games in Tokyo will not be cancelled or postponed. Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said "cancellation or delay of the Games would be unacceptable for the athletes."
decision on whether - or when there would be any changes to the Games. "A lot of people are starting to worry, but there's nothing much we can do," a representative of an Olympic sponsor, who was present at the previously unreported meeting.
But behind the scenes, sponsors who have pumped billions of dollars into the Games have grown increasingly nervous about how the coronavirus outbreak will impact the tournament.
"If this continues into April, May, June, it will be an issue, but we're still waiting to see what will happen," added the representative, who was not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When organisers and sponsors met privately to discuss preparations, the companies learned there had been no
The meetings between the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and "partner companies," including sponsors, take place regularly.
76 March-April 2020
The meeting brought into focus the scale of what organisers are grappling with: pressure to avoid a coronavirus crisis among 600,000 expected overseas spectators and athletes at an event that could see $3 billion (2 billion pounds) in sponsorships and at least $12 billion spent on preparations evaporate. Haruyuki Takahashi, one of more than two dozen members of the board of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, it has just started working on scenarios for how the virus could affect the Games. But a sponsor representative present at the meeting last week said those plans are not being shared with the companies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has staked his legacy as the longestserving Japanese leader on staging a successful Games and bringing a massive jolt, estimated at $2.3 billion, to the stagnant
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
SPORTS
economy with tourism and consumer spending. Some Olympic qualifiers and test events have been relocated or delayed. The Games themselves don't start until late July, leaving some time for the organisers to make the final call. Neal Pilson, the former head of CBS Sports, who was involved in broadcasting rights negotiations for three Winter Olympics said he expected organisers to assess the situation by early May at the latest, when they "will have a better fix on whether the epidemic is tapering down or continuing to expand." Olympic Minister Hashimoto said the end of May was a possible time frame for a decision. Organisers have begun to modify their tone. At a news conference, Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Mori vehemently denied that the Games would be cancelled, but added that planners were "listening to various opinions" and responding "flexibly because the situation changes day by day."
'Seriously Threatened' Hashimoto was questioned in parliament on the clause in the contract between the IOC and the organisers in Japan that determines when the Olympic committee could terminate the Games. One of the scenarios is the inability of the host city to hold the Olympics in 2020. The mention of the clause touched off speculation that the minister was hinting at a delay, which sponsors at meeting were told sparked the ire of the IOC.
facebook.com/britishherald
As a result, Hashimoto called senior members of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee to explain how she was "misunderstood." According to the contract, the Tokyo metropolitan government, the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the Japanese Olympic Committee signed away any right to indemnity, damages or compensation from the IOC. The contract says the IOC may scrap the Games when safety is "seriously threatened," among other reasons. Those three bodies have formed a task force on the virus that consults closely with the World Health Organization, which warned against "false hopes" that the virus would disappear with warmer summer weather.
Delay or No Spectators? Many sports in Japan, such as rugby and sumo, have held recent matches without spectators. Although keeping spectators away would cost estimated $800 million in lost ticket sales, it could still
provide billions in revenue from broadcast and marketing rights. But experts said it would still be difficult to organise safe Games with thousands of athletes living in close proximity. "In the Olympic village alone, you're bringing together 17,00018,000 people, they're living in close quarters, interacting with each other, coming from all over the world," said Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College specialising in sports economics. A Tokyo 2020 official involved in the discussions on Olympics and the virus said that delaying the games until later in the year would be difficult. Takahashi, of the organising committee, said a one- or two-year delay would better accommodate professional sports schedules, which are planned years in advance. "We need to start preparing for any possibility. If the Games can't be held in the summer, a delay of one or two years would be most feasible," Takahashi said.
March-April 2020
77
BRITISH HERALD
Leicester's Vardy not ruling out England return with strikers injured
SPORTS "Who knows? Gareth and I both agreed the door would still be open for whatever reason and then we would sit down and have a talk about it (if needed)," Vardy, who has seven goals in 26 appearances for England, told Sky Sports. "We've not had the chat or anything yet and nothing has been spoken about. The lads (Kane and Rashford) are out injured, but they're looking to be back in time. So only time will tell." Southgate said last week both Kane, who returned to training, and Rashford were on track in their recoveries but would not close the door on a recall for Vardy. The striker admitted, however, that being out of the England side had helped him. "I'm not going to lie, I've had a few extra days off in the international breaks so I've been able to switch off completely from football and it's always beneficial," Vardy said. "Knowing that when you get back it's constant again, it's 100% football every day so it's one of those things that has benefited me."
L
eicester City striker Jamie Vardy refused to rule out a return to the England side for Euro 2020 with first-choices Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford nursing injuries, but the 33-year-old said he had not discussed it with national coach Gareth Southgate. Vardy, who retired from England duty following the World Cup in 2018, is the Premier League's top scorer this season with 19 goals, following his brace in their 4-0 win over Aston Villa. With Tottenham Hotspur's Kane recovering from a hamstring operation he had in January and Manchester United's Rashford out with a back issue, Vardy has emerged as an option for the Euros in June and July.
78 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
Creative Clothing Company FZC is one of the leading CMT factories in the Middle East established in the year 2000, renowned for the manufacture of detailed, complicated garments. With talented production staff that understands and caters for the UK High St retailers.
We are a Sedex approved facility with with high ethical standards geared up to manufacture the best quality fashion jersey wear and knit wear. Creative Clothing is already an established CMT supplier to Next, Arcadia, New Look, River Island etc.
With over 300 employees we manufacture over 100,000 garments a month. Creative Clothing works with fashion houses in the UK and works on a CMT base model. We pride ourselves on cultivating a special understanding with our customers in order to grow consistently. Having a partnership with a factory like us who is established in the UAE is prominent To get in touch with us or to learn more about manufacturing with us please call us on the following: +971555479701 or you can email us on: ahmed@creativeclothingco.com
facebook.com/britishherald
March-April 2020
79
BRITISH HERALD
80 March-April 2020
www.britishherald.com