The Lancet editor on Britain’s response to coronavirus — and being labelled a pariah

Paul Volcker, who died at the weekend, was one of the most influential monetary policy makers of the 20th century. The FT’s Gillian Tett spoke to the former central banker at his home in New York last year about his views on good government, regulating finance and US China relations. In this podcast, she shares some excerpts from the conversation.

Contributors: Katie Martin, markets editor, and Gillian Tett, chair of the FT editorial board (US). Producers: Fiona Symon and Aimee Keane

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Sonos has introduced a trio of new hardware today, adding three new smart speakers to its lineup, including the Sonos Arc soundbar that includes Dolby Atmos support, as well as Sonos Five, the next version of its Sonos Play:5 speaker, and a third-generation Sonos Sub. All of these will require the new S2 app that […]

In its April Short-Term Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that U.S. electricity generation will decline by 3% in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 related economic slowdown. Most new generating capacity built in 2020 will use renewable energy sources. EIA expects renewable generation to grow by 11% in 2020. Although EIA expects renewable energy to be the fastest growing source of U.S. electric generation in 2020, the economic slowdown will reduce the total amount of new generating capacity over the next few months. The electric power sector will add 19.4 gigawatts of new wind capacity and 12.6 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity in 2020. These annual wind and solar capacity additions are 5% and 10% less, respectively, than EIA forecast in its March outlook. This update combined with EIA's forecast lower overall electricity demand, leads to a decline in U.S. fossil fuel generation, especially at coal-fired power plants. EIA expects that coal generation will fall by 20% in 2020.

With Patrick Mahomes looking set to dominate the NFL for the next decade after his Super Bowl heroics, Sportsmail take a look at the other young hot shots next in line to rule their sport.

Business Wire India

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation, Asia’s premier blockchain company pioneering the adoption of highly secure decentralized asset management, has partnered with Asia’s largest digital asset platform OSL of BC Group, DraperDragon Fund, CarbonBlue of BSN, and Academy Award Winning Studio Cross Creek Media. This deal signifies a major move for the blockchain, digital assets, and the expansion of global media and Hollywood. These partners create a global powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region, which plan to harness industry-leading blockchain solutions for their business needs.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

The Monsoon-OSL deal will explore opportunities to accelerate the drive towards the digitalization of assets, money, currencies, and decentralized blockchain ledgers (where all transactions, storage of payments and data will be inviolably recorded). Combining intellectual property, deal flow, large scale investors, and blockchain capabilities, Monsoon Blockchain is looking to create a digital asset powerhouse in the US and Asia.

OSL is the Hong Kong region’s most comprehensive digital asset platform, providing Software-as-a-Service, brokerage, exchange, and custody services for institutions and professional investors. OSL manages over $1.5B in transactions per month in digital asset trading. After reaching $171 billion this year, the value of business-to-business and cross-border payments carried out on blockchain systems is estimated to exceed an astounding $4.4 trillion by 2024.

Recently, Fidelity International, a spin-off from the U.S. financial services brand Fidelity Investments, invested in BC Group (stock code: 863 HK), the Hong Kong-based operator of crypto exchange OSL. Including custodial accounts, the firm reported $8.3 trillion in assets under administration - a spike from the reported $6.7 trillion in 2018.

Both Monsoon and OSL will participate in launching multiple digital assets and tokens including media and telecommunications tokens, Monsoon Token, and other branded assets within the Monsoon ecosystem. Monsoon has been making worldwide news in blockchain after partnering with China’s largest phone retailer, Dixintong (D.Phone), which generated a reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019.

Monsoon will be joining the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), which was recently launched on the Chinese Mainland on April 25th, 2020 and will officially be available for global commercial use by June 25^th. China Mobile, China UnionPay, and Red Date Technology are the founding consortia partners that created the BSN protocol and infrastructure, which has been deployed in over 100 cities in China. The BSN is a global interoperability protocol that allows companies to connect to different blockchain ecosystems, as well as create and run new blockchain-as-a-service applications. The BSN will accelerate the development of digital economies and smart cities deployment by providing global interconnectivity and integrated blockchain cloud computing services for participants on the network.

Additionally, Monsoon has formed a new partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to integrate cloud computing capabilities on top of the BSN protocol, allowing the creation of new low-cost blockchain cloud computing offerings suitable for developing regions of the world. CarbonBlue Innovations is a leading venture building and investment company that is focused on rapidly commercializing and scaling blockchain, fintech, and digital finance innovation around the world. Not only does CarbonBlue Innovations focus on both fintech infrastructure solutions, but also digital assets and investment banking services to allow the institutional adoption of regulated digital assets.

Michael Sung, Chairman of CarbonBlue Innovations asserted: “Monsoon’s unique cloud computing optimization technologies complement the existing multi-cloud offerings of the BSN and can further enhance our ability to customize blockchain cloud services for the developing world. With this partnership, we will be able to offer compelling low-cost solutions to enable SMEs (small and medium enterprises) globally to join the digital economy, which will massively drive self-sufficiency and financial inclusion in these developing regions.”

Monsoon will also be able to leverage the partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to create innovative digital asset securitization and digital finance solutions for the market. Leveraging CarbonBlue Innovation’s strong academic and institutional finance affiliations, the new partnership will allow the creation of a vertically-integrated digital asset investment banking platform to address the massive opportunity in the future digitization of the world’s economy. CarbonBlue Innovations is able to provide full-stack solutions, vertically-integrating fintech technology infrastructure, legal/regulatory best practices, and institutional financial engineering expertise for digital finance.

Michael Sung added, “CarbonBlue Innovations has created a strong strategic partnership network consisting of the top digital asset companies leading the industry. Combined with Monsoon’s access to various industry ecosystems and pipeline of tokenization projects, our partnership will enable us to immediately scale to take a leadership position in the market and allow our clients to leapfrog into the future of finance.”

Partnering with Monsoon Blockchain, Cross Creek Media ($1.5B in the worldwide Box office) will expand its digital assets in film, television, and IP into the blockchain universe. The aim of the partnership is to achieve streamlined digital content management systems, and to gain broader access to worldwide audiences. Cross Creek has been a co-financier/producer of such films as Oscar winner Black Swan and has been behind hits American Made,Everest, Black Mass, Bloodshot, Hacksaw Ridge and the upcoming The Trial of the Chicago 7. Cross Creek is well positioned to be the next generation of production houses. Additionally, Cross Creek will announce a token style offering alongside Monsoon Blockchain Corporation. Timmy Thompson, CEO of Cross Creek Media stated: “We are very excited to work with Monsoon and continue developing award-winning properties. Furthermore, we believe Cross Creek's portfolio of new media technology investments perfectly positions us to take advantage of the new distribution paradigms.”

“We are very honored to work with such insightful leaders and innovators, the breadth of participants in this deal demonstrates the significant impact blockchain will have across a wide variety of industries,” Dr. Donald Basile added, “tokenization of asset classes has a tremendous upside on both the investment level and security level. Gartner’s prediction of over $3 trillion of business value added by blockchain seems increasingly likely.”

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation is focused on innovative cloud solutions in the blockchain ecosystem. Dr. Donald Basile, its CEO and founder, is the former CEO of Fusion IO, a company known for playing a major role in implementing the cloud systems at Apple and Facebook as well as partnerships with HP, IBM, and Dell. Recently, Monsoon Blockchain added advisory board members Ken Goldman, President of Hillspire (Eric Schmidt’s family office), and former CFO of Yahoo and Fortinet and Xiaoma Lu, former Dalian Wanda Investments CEO and former board member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to their team.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

Pichot has vowed to jolt World Rugby out of 'copy and paste mode' if he manages to unseat chairman Sir Bill Beaumont, with online video game Fortnite an unlikely pillar of his plan.

The GNSS simulators R&S®SMW200A and R&S®SMBV100B are remote-controllable in realtime and can process position coordinates, kinetic parameters, and vehicle attitude information from a HIL simulator. The R&S®SMW200A and R&S®SMBV100B update the simulated receiver position in realtime according to the HIL input commands (via SCPI or UDP).

Before kick-off at the Luzhniki, all the talk was about the member of the great Spain side of 2010 who was absent - however it was those that remained ended up under the harsh spotlight.

Real Madrid used to be the club that most frequently broke the transfer record now they are the club who spend the most on what they believe will be the next big thing.

In posts shared on Twitter under #imthisold and collated by Bored Panda , people from around the world looked back at the movies, games and toys that were in fashion when they were growing up.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, experts say the coronavirus crisis - or rather, the experiences gained, and lessons learned during it - might in time give many of us a psychological boost.

SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: It is very seldom I tip against England, if ever, as I just never see them losing at rugby. But I must confess I make France the favourites in Paris.

Argentina and Lionel Messi remain optimistic about their future despite another year without a trophy. There is some hope despite the team's 2-0 loss to Brazil.

Sir Keir Starmer has warned Labour activists the party risks being out of power for a generation unless it unites and fights the Tories.

EXCLUSIVE: Ninth generation farmer Jaap Korteweg, 57, revealed how he turned his back on meat - and his centuries-old family business - to launch a range of vegetarian products.

Boris Johnson has bounced onto our television screens looking uncustomarily grave, and brandishing a 'battle plan' which is full of draconian-sounding measures that may have to be taken.

New graphs from NRC Health show that all generations, including Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation reported worsening mental health.

'I can't wait to see Bernie debate Mr Trump,' the 94-year-old comedian said in a Friday endorsement video for Bernie Sanders.

The luxury 4x4, which BMW dubs a sports activity vehicle, broke cover this week. It goes on sale here in November, writes RAY MASSEY.

The new model will be 17 per cent more economical than its predecessor. The Fabia is expected to go on sale in the UK early next year and will cost between £10, 000 and £16, 000.

Including the new BMW 6 Series Convertible, Coupe and Gran Coupe. The cabriolet will go from rest to 62 mph in just 5.5 seconds. All petrol models will have a sports tuned exhaust system.

Amid all the fashion models and cars at the Paris motor show, Kia's sports utility vehicle turned heads. The seven-seater promises improved ride, handling and crash safety, writes RAY MASSEY

In a stunt worthy of the latest Bond film Spectre — for which the firm is supplying many of the cars — the XF (pictured) was revealed in a dramatic stunt high over the Royal Dock in Canary Wharf.

Ray Massey drove the fully stocked four-wheel-drive 2-litre TFSI, which was adept at whipping around the Cotswolds in style. The range starts at £31,995 and the Audi can cost as much as £50,000

Jaguar's elegant new products are leaping ahead to rival German companies such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The elegant new sports saloon XF is the latest to hit the road

Growing families may be contemplating a bigger car as the summer holidays give way to 'back to school' - and work. Korean car company Kia is preparing to unveil its new fourth generation Sportage.

Moves such as cutting higher rate tax relief are often depicted as hitting the wealthy older generation, but that's disingenuous.

A leading doctor who helped save Boris Johnson's life says coronavirus is 'this generation's polio' and warned it will have long-term effects on patients.

In an article saluting veterans on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Keir Starmer said the care sector needs attention after the pandemic to help those who 'protected our country in its darkest hour'.

Andre Villas-Boas ruffled a few feathers by complaining about a ‘difficult atmosphere with no support’ at White Hart Lane after Tottenham’s narrow 1-0 win against Hull last Sunday.

The 72-year-old Swede has watched on in recent years as the likes of Gareth Southgate, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have taken on jobs at the highest level.

Little known Lviv in Ukraine heads up the list of the top ten cities identified by Airbnb as having the highest growth in bookings over the past 12 months.

Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi believes Africa Cup of Nations semi-finalists Nigeria are standing on the brink of a golden future.

Moves such as cutting higher rate tax relief are often depicted as hitting the wealthy older generation, but that's disingenuous.

Nearly 1.5m first generation smart meters were installed in households across the country last year - despite the fact these installations do not count towards official target figures.

Here's a selection of Business Standard Opinion pieces for the day

 Toyota brings the second generation Innova to light at the ongoing Auto Expo 2016. Prior to India, the Indonesian market made a ramp for the global debut of the model. The current generation of Innova came into existence in 2005. Though the MUV ...

Shouldn't “fixing the delivery system” itself be one of the central planks of second-generation reforms, asks Ramesh Ramanathan.

After much wait and delay since October 2012, Apple has finally released the updated iTunes 11 on November 30 and now the next generation highly acclaimed online music service is now available for OS X and Windows users globally. The update

Honda is planning to sell the outgoing Honda City sedan alongside the new models at the same time. This news was confirmed according to a report by Autocar India. Moreover, the new Honda City is likely to get a suffix in

Queen Elizabeth led tributes to veterans of World War Two recalling the "never give up, never despair" message of Victory in Europe Day 75 years ago as the coronavirus damped commemorations for the end of the war on the continent.

Singapore : Springer, 2020.

London : Palgrave Macmillan, [2017]

Cham : Springer, 2020.

Online Resource

Hayden Library - PN6767.B56 G46 2017