Human trial begins of Imperial College London's candidate Covid-19 vaccine

Imperial College London's vaccine candidate is being developed and trialled with the help of more than £41 million in funding from the UK government and a further £5 million in philanthropic donations.

The human trial of Imperial College London's candidate coronavirus vaccine began on Tuesday with the first healthy volunteer receiving a small dose of it.

It is a second such trial in the UK. The first candidate vaccine that went for the human trial was from Oxford University.

The clinical team, which delivered a small dose of the vaccine to the participant at a West London facility, is closely monitoring the participant and report that they are in good health with no safety concerns, said the college in a press release.

The trials are the first test of a new self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) technology, which has the potential to revolutionise vaccine development and enable scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases, the college said.

The volunteer has asked to remain anonymous.

Imperial College London's vaccine candidate is being developed and trialled with the help of more than £41 million in funding from the UK government and a further £5 million in philanthropic donations.

Dr Katrina Pollock, from Imperial's Department of Infectious Disease and Chief Investigator of the study, said: "We have reached a significant milestone in this ground-breaking study with the first dose of a self-amplifying RNA vaccine delivered safely."

"We are now poised to test the vaccine in the dose evaluation phase before moving forward to evaluating it in larger numbers."

The volunteer will receive a second booster dose within four weeks. Several others are expected to receive the first dose over the coming days. The clinical team will continue to monitor all participants closely for safety, as well as look to see if they produce antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Trump threatens to cut intelligence sharing ties with nations over Huawei

Washington has been pressing allies to ban Huawei, one of the world's largest tech firms, from next-generation 5G mobile data networks, saying it is a security risk.

The United States' ambassador to Germany said Sunday that President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off intelligence-sharing with countries that dealt with Chinese tech firm Huawei.

Washington has been pressing allies to ban Huawei, one of the world's largest tech firms, from next-generation 5G mobile data networks, saying it is a security risk.

Ambassador Richard Grenell said Trump "instructed me to make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share intelligence and information at the highest level."

Grenell said on Twitter that the president had called him on Sunday from Air Force One, the presidential plane, to convey the message.

Key US allies in Europe, notably Britain and France, have said they will not ban Huawei from building 5G networks but will impose restrictions.

Publicly, the US has been restrained in its response, but Trump was reportedly furious with London.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that Huawei was a "Trojan horse for Chinese intelligence."

The tech company vehemently denies the US allegations, and Beijing has characterized its treatment as "economic bullying."

A US indictment on Friday laid more criminal charges against Huawei related to theft of intellectual property, adding to earlier allegations that the company stole trade secrets from American carrier T-Mobile.

Amazon hit by extensive fraud: Hackers stole money from 100 seller accounts

Amazon found the accounts were likely compromised by phishing techniques that tricked sellers into giving up confidential login information.

Amazon.com Inc. said it was hit by an "extensive" fraud, revealing that unidentified hackers were able to siphon funds from merchant accounts over six months last year.

Amazon believes it was the victim of a "serious" online attack by hackers who broke into about 100 seller accounts and funneled cash from loans or sales into their own bank accounts, according to a UK legal document. The hack took place between May 2018 and October 2018, Amazon’s lawyers said in a redacted filing from November that can now be made public.

Amazon said it was still investigating the compromised accounts and believed that hackers managed to change details of accounts on the Seller Central platform to their own at Barclays Plc and Prepay Technologies Ltd., which is partly owned by Mastercard Inc., according to the filing. Amazon found the accounts were likely compromised by phishing techniques that tricked sellers into giving up confidential login information.

An Amazon spokesman said the company had finished its investigation of the incident.

The case highlights how the world’s biggest online retail platform -- designed to be automated with minimal human input -- can be misused and how difficult it is for Amazon to find perpetrators.

Lawyers for Amazon asked a London judge to approve searches of account statements at Barclays and Prepay, which "have become innocently mixed up in the wrongdoing.”

A spokesman for Barclays declined to comment specifically on the the case, but said the bank tries to quickly close accounts used by criminals to help protect customers. Representatives for Prepay didn’t return emails seeking comment.

Amazon needed the documents “to investigate the fraud, identify and pursue the wrongdoers, locate the whereabouts of misappropriated funds, bring the fraud to an end and deter future wrongdoing," the company’s lawyers said in the court filing.

The filing doesn’t say how the suspected wrongdoers were able to add details of additional banks to the merchant accounts.

The Amazon units named in the filing include Amazon Capital Services UK Ltd., which makes loans available to sellers for as long as one year. The first fraudulent transfer occurred on May 16, according to the filing.

Amazon said Tuesday that it issued more than $1 billion in loans to merchants in 2018. It’s unclear how much the hackers stole.

Business Standard

From Paris, London to Tokyo, this is where the world's super rich live

Business opportunities, lifestyle desires, hospitals and transportation infrastructure are all factors that draw the super-rich to splash out on homes in large cities.

Business Standard : With their private jets and multiple houses, the world’s mega-rich are the ultimate globetrotters.

Yet about half of this elite population have their main residences within a group of just 10 cities, according to Knight Frank’s 2019 Wealth Report, which lists London, Tokyo and Singapore as home to the most people worth of at least $30 million. Although the US is the world’s largest economy, New York is its only city in the real estate brokerage’s top 10.

The data highlight the concentration of the ultra-wealthy living in the biggest metropolises. Business opportunities, lifestyle desires, hospitals and transportation infrastructure are all factors that draw the super-rich to splash out on homes in large cities. That’s especially true with London -- the UK’s political and financial center, and the world’s top wealth hub -- where foreign property buyers have faced criticism for pushing up prices. London’s richest include members of the billionaire Rausing family, who own packaging company Tetra Laval, and Chelsea neighborhood landowner Charles Cadogan.

“London has a very unique proposition,” said Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s global head of residential research. “There’s no other city that compares as a global hub for so many different sectors."

The world had almost 200,000 ultra-high-net worth individuals last year, according to the broker’s wealth study, with more than two-thirds of them across Asia, Europe and North America. Europe is the biggest regional center for this population globally, while the surge among Asian economies means the world will have more than 20 million people worth at least $1 million for the first time this year.

Whisky, Cars

Asia’s economic growth is boosting luxury investments worldwide. Last year, China and Hong Kong buyers accounted for about a quarter of purchases in London homes worth at least 2 million pounds ($2.6 million), according to Knight Frank, almost doubling from two years earlier. The region’s rich also boosted demand for luxury collectibles, helping push the broker’s Rare Whisky 100 Index up 40 percent last year.

Rarity and provenance also drove sales of art and vintage cars to new highs in 2018. Highlights include the $48 million auction of a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and the $90.3 million bid for a David Hockney painting, the most paid at auction for a work by a living artist.

“Direct flights between Edinburgh and Beijing point to the growth of whisky as an asset class,” Bailey said in reference to routes introduced last year by China’s Hainan Airlines. “There’s still a desire for wealthy individuals to dedicate part of their portfolios to tangible items.”

UK firm Skyline to launch weather insurance for Indian farmers by next year

The company's technology-powered weather insurance offering targets the global protection gap and recently secured funding to grow its business from innovation hub OneAdvent.

London-headquartered insurance technology company Skyline Partners has announced plans to launch its inaugural weather insurance product to provide protection to farmers in India by next year.

The company's founders, Gethin Jones and Laurent Sabatié, have spent the last year developing the technology-enabled insurance solution targeted at the underinsured markets of the world and believe their product will provide affordable protection for India's farmers.

"Our vision is to provide commercially viable and affordable insurance to the world's underserved markets,” said Jones and Sabatié, who were part of a fintech delegation led by the Lord Mayor of London to India last week.

"We are humbled to be part of this business delegation in India with the Lord Mayor of London. His business of trust is an inspiration and it is an honour to join efforts for a strong UK and India collaboration," they said.

The company's technology-powered weather insurance offering targets the global protection gap and recently secured funding to grow its business from innovation hub OneAdvent.

"Skyline Partners' unique technological offering is unprecedented in this space and will undoubtedly be a game changer in an industry that is at a crossroads. We are excited that both our investment and platform will provide them with the tools they need to break into the market,” said OneAdvent CEO David Hill.

Lord Mayor of London Charles Bowman added: "During the course of our visit to India there was lots of interest in their offer, and I look forward to hearing about the company's future successes as a result of our trip."

Business Standard