Headline: Disaster Recovery Center Open in Dixie County
Disaster Recovery Center Open in Dixie County
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – FEMA has opened a Disaster Recovery Center in Dixie County to provide one-on-one help to Floridians affected by Hurricane Debby and Hurricane Helene. Survivors of any of the storms can visit any center.
Survivors do not need to visit a center to apply for assistance. Survivors are encouraged to apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov or by downloading the FEMA App. FEMA does not distribute cash at Disaster Recovery Centers.
Center location:
Dixie County Old Town Education Center 841 SE Hwy 349 Old Town, FL 32680 Hours: 9 a.m.–7 p.m. Monday-Sunday
To find other center locations go to fema.gov/drc or text “DRC” and a Zip Code to 43362. All centers are accessible to people with disabilities or access and functional needs and are equipped with assistive technology.
Homeowners and renters are encouraged to apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov or by using the FEMA App. You may also apply by phone at 800-621-3362. If you choose to apply by phone, please understand wait times may be longer because of increased volume for multiple recent disasters.Lines are open every day and help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service, captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA your number for that service. For an accessible video on how to apply for assistance go to FEMA Accessible: Applying for Individual Assistance – YouTube.
If you applied to FEMA after Hurricane Debby and have additional damage from Hurricane Helene, you will need to apply separately for Helene and provide the dates of your most recent damage.
For the latest information about Hurricane Helene recovery, visit fema.gov/disaster/4828. For Hurricane Debby recovery information, visit fema.gov/disaster/4806 . Follow FEMA on X at x.com/femaregion4 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fema.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that young people are behind most knife crime in the UK. Media coverage often focuses on youth involvement, and the government’s plan to halve knife crime focuses specifically on young people and vulnerable teenagers.
Evidence shows that most knife-involved crime is committed in the home, between adults, in the form of intimate partner violence. Only around 18% of knife offences are carried out by 10- to 17-year-olds. These usually involve other young people.
Although young people’s share of knife crime is low, their involvement is a significant concern and has risen starkly in the last decade.
Choosing to carry a knife out of the home, into the streets, or into school is a rare choice that most children never make. Estimates show that between one and four in 100 young people carry knives.
For those few who do, it is important to understand the complex factors behind why. This is what we, and many other academics, have been studying in our research.
Both researchers and young people themselves cite protection as a factor in knife carrying. Many young people are fearful of being victims of knife crime, and knife carrying may offer a sense of security and defence from potential threats.
This fear is not necessarily correlated to reality. Young people tend to overestimate the prevalence of weapon carrying among their peers. What’s more, those carrying knives for defence often end up having their own knife used against them.
Seeing images of knives
One reason that young people may have a fear of knife crime is because of how the threat is presented to them through images.
Media reports and anti-knife campaign material often features images of shocking weapons, such as zombie knives. Depictions of piles of seized weapons and vicious blades all paint a picture of a risky landscape.
You probably noticed that the photos illustrating this article do not include a picture of a knife. This is a deliberate choice. Our research has found that such knife imagery can evoke fear or excitement for some young people.
Their heightened emotional responses suggest that these young people are the most likely to be vulnerable to future knife carrying. Those who feel most unsafe in their communities are the most likely to respond negatively to graphic imagery.
Interestingly, the young people who participated in our research self-reported knife imagery as having little impact on them. But our study investigated their unconscious emotional response through an implicit association test. This approach is key in a research area vulnerable to self-presentation bias, where young people might attempt to hide their true feelings.
The test we used assessed response speeds to determine associations between images of knives and words relating to fear and excitement. Overall, response times were faster (showed more association) for fear-related words.
Other evidence suggests that anti-knife crime imagery and messaging can create exaggerated belief about the prevalence of knife carrying. This may increase, rather than reduce, the fear of victimisation, and further encourage people to carry knives.
Floods of knife images in a young person’s social and educational environment may normalise knife carrying. Nearly two-thirds of young people report experiencing secondary traumatic stress when viewing knife crime news on social media.
When knife imagery is used in intervention materials presented by someone in a position of authority (a teacher or police officer, for example), it can validate the fears even more.
In other words, the more we talk about knife crime, the scarier it can seem, and the more young people feel the need to protect themselves by carrying a weapon.
Labour’s plan to cut knife crime – including a ban on zombie knives that has just come into effect – should go a long way to reducing the availability of “status” weapons. It may also mean that images of these knives are less prevalent in the media, which, given our research findings, would likely have a positive effect.
But, as noted earlier, most young people are not at risk, and have had no exposure to knife crime. Knife carrying is not normal behaviour for most young people. Anti-knife messaging would serve young people better by avoiding the use of knife imagery, and instead focus on discussing how to keep safe by avoiding risky behaviour, and how to get help if a dangerous situation arises.
Dr Charlotte Coleman receives funding from N8 Policing Research Partnership.
Dr Charlotte Coleman is a member of the Youth Justice Board Academic Liaison Network
Dr Charlotte Coleman is an executive member of the Society for Evidence Based Policing.
Jess Scott-Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Definitive Healthcare (Nasdaq: DH), a leader in healthcare commercial intelligence, today announced the launch of Monocl Conferences. This solution is designed to enhance conference planning and participation for life science organizations by providing medical affairs, marketing, and conference planning teams with rich, contextualized conference data and access to the experts driving conference activities.
By delivering a comprehensive overview of key conference insights—including information about presenters, timing, and locations of the most relevant scientific and medical updates—Monocl Conferences can help biopharma and medtech organizations make the most of every conference.
Key features of Monocl Conferences include:
Visualized conference data: A user-friendly dashboard delivers powerful data visualization, making key insights easy to understand and eliminating the need for cumbersome spreadsheets.
Searchable conference insights: Users can quickly find relevant sessions, speakers, and topics across numerous presentations to identify important discussions and data readouts to attend.
Comparable data: Organizations can monitor year-over-year trends, presentations, topics, and conference activity of other key players across the industry with historical conference data for deeper insights.
“We understand the vital role that conferences play in the biopharma and medtech industries,” said Kristoffer Gustafsson, VP Platform Monocl at Definitive Healthcare. “Monocl Conferences is designed to streamline the planning process, drive strategic engagement, and ultimately support organizations in delivering innovative therapies and medical devices that improve patient outcomes.”
Monocl Conferences offers quick access to presentations, allowing users to uncover both their and their competitors’ share of the program. Additionally, the platform provides insights into conference discussions via social media listening, revealing trending topics and key online contributors, along with access to presentation titles and abstracts that highlight conference focus areas and details about the presence of centers of excellence.
Monocl Conferences is tailored to support diverse teams within life science organizations. It can help enhance scientific communication and expert engagement for medical affairs teams, streamline event organization and execution for conference planners, and provide marketing teams with insights to inform their conference selection, messaging, and presence. Together, these capabilities enable organizations to refine their conference strategies and derive maximum value from every event.
At Definitive Healthcare, our mission is to transform data, analytics, and expertise into healthcare commercial intelligence. We help clients uncover the right markets, opportunities, and people, so they can shape tomorrow’s healthcare industry. Our SaaS products and solutions create new paths to commercial success in the healthcare market, so companies can identify where to go next. Learn more at definitivehc.com.
NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Unlimited, an investment firm and ETF sponsor that uses proprietary technology to provide low-cost alternative strategies to a variety of investors, published its Q3 2024 Hedge Fund Barometer today, showing emerging markets hedge funds leading their peers with an average 5% gross return in the quarter. Global macro and managed futures funds saw the weakest performance in the quarter at -1.2%.
According to Unlimited’s latest Barometer, aggregate hedge fund performance was moderately positive across most strategies in Q3 2024. To read the full report, click here.
Unlimited’s Barometer uses machine learning and multiple data sources to track performance for the major hedge fund strategies. It also provides a near real-time view into how hedge funds are positioned across major asset classes, industry sectors and geographies.
Unlike Q2 where equity long/short funds outperformed other hedge fund strategies, emerging markets managers had the strongest performance in Q3 and long/short equity and event driven managers rode through the summer turmoil to deliver positive returns. Hedge funds generally have also reduced their exposure to Japanese equities, which performed strongly in Q1.
“One of the more acute market moves in the quarter came in onshore and offshore Chinese equities,” said Bob Elliott, CEO and CIO of Unlimited. “While managers appear to have trimmed underweights from earlier in the year, as those stocks sold off, their position remained more neutral despite the recent market action.”
Unlimited Hedge Fund Barometer Q3 2024 Findings
Despite a turbulent August, long/short equity managers continue to hold roughly normal levels of overall equity exposure while continuing their rotation toward large cap growth stocks and away from small and mid-caps. Fixed income managers have started to trim their near peak exposure to corporate spreads after their approach of levering up into secularly low spreads backfired in August as spreads rose. Other highlights include:
Average gross returns across strategies were just below +3.5%
The best performing fund style was Emerging Markets equity at +5%
The worst performing fund style was Managed Futures at -1.2%
As we enter the last quarter of 2024, Unlimited’s Barometer also shows hedge funds:
Were modestly overweight equities – specifically growth stocks – following a period of being underweight stocks in ‘22-’23. They also remained underweight small and mid-cap stocks.
Were roughly neutral on the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, as Fed policy has shifted to a more dovish stance over the last several months. On the British pound, short positions were closed in recent months. They were modestly long the yen.
Remained relatively neutral bonds, weighing the risks between reacceleration and recession. Earlier in the quarter Fixed Income managers held near historical peak levels while spread levels approached all-time lows, a strategy that backfired in August. Subsequently, managers appear to have reduced risks in credit spreads.
Have reduced positions in energy commodities as prices have fallen. Positions in other growth-oriented commodities like metals have remained roughly neutral in recent months.
Click here to view a video on how Unlimited’s technology works.
About Unlimited Founded in 2022 by Bob Elliott, Bruce McNevin and Matt Salzberg, Unlimited is an investment firm using proprietary technology to create strategies that offer lower-cost access to 2 & 20 style alternative investment strategies, such as hedge funds, to a wide variety of investors. Mr. Elliott has built innovative hedge fund strategies for more than two decades, including at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Mr. McNevin is a Professor of Economics at New York University and has held various data science positions at hedge funds Clinton Group and Midway Group, along with positions at Bank of America and BlackRock. Mr. Salzberg serves as a Managing Partner at Material and Board Director of Unlimited. Learn more at unlimitedfunds.com.
For informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. The data shown herein represents past performance and should not be construed as providing any assurance or guarantee as to returns that may be realized in the future. No representation is being made that any investment will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown herein. No investment strategy or risk management technique can guarantee return or eliminate risk in any market environment.
TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rise8 announced its selection for a SPRUCE Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle to provide the VA with streamlined delivery services and teams. As one of 10 awardees for the contract vehicle, with a total ordering ceiling of $2.4B, Rise8 will support the VA with a multidisciplinary, expert team to assist with developing modern digital products that maximize results for Veterans.
With the SPRUCE contract vehicle, the VA will connect VA product owners with best-in-class industry partners to deliver high-quality digital products and improved user experiences. SPRUCE requires expertise in critical areas including software development and operations, technical advising and architecture planning, service design and user research studies, data science and data analytics, and product support operations.
This is perfectly aligned to Rise8’s mission of enabling large enterprises to continuously deliver valuable software that users love. “We’re proud to be a part of the VA’s mission to incorporate more modern software development practices, and make those streamlined services available to VA employees and Veterans,” said Bryon Kroger, CEO and founder of Rise8. “This opportunity represents much more than just a contract win to me – as a Veteran myself with a father who struggled with VA care, I vowed to take Rise8 to the VA to help the great people there better achieve their mission to serve Veterans and provide exceptional experiences. Working with the VA on this is one of the most meaningful things I have ever been able to do. They are heroes serving heroes, and we can’t wait to serve them.”
This latest contract award marks another significant milestone in Rise8’s work with the VA. In 2022, the company delivered a continuous Authority to Operate (cATO) to the VA in support of the Lighthouse Program, equipping them with the ability to ship software earlier and continuously. Last month, a separate program within the VA also awarded Rise8 a $10M Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract for VA.gov Watchtower, providing support and improvements for observability, monitoring, and site reliability.
To learn more about how Rise8 works to create a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software, visit https://www.rise8.us/.
About Rise8 Rise8 enables large enterprises with critical missions to continuously deliver valuable software that users love. Rise8 is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with headquarters in Tampa, FL, and a fully remote workforce. Learn more at https://www.rise8.us/ and on LinkedIn, and X.
The views expressed are those of Rise8 and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. government.
Media Contact: Casey Dell’Isola REQ for Rise8 rise8@req.co
IP Address Indexing is the first in a series of major performance and scalability enhancements to the Flowmon AI-powered Network Detection and Response & Network Visibility offerings.
BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS), the trusted provider of AI-powered infrastructure software, today announced the latest release of Progress® Flowmon®, the network observability platform with AI-powered detection for cyberthreats, anomalies and fast access to actionable insights for greater network and application performance across hybrid cloud ecosystems. With today’s release, the Flowmon platform enhances IP search efficiency up to tenfold with innovative IP address indexing that empowers network administrators to swiftly track network activities tied to specific IP addresses. The result is a significant reduction in the time needed for data analysis and troubleshooting, providing robust protection for optimal network performance.
“For many IT teams, retrospective analysis while hunting for threats amidst growing volumes of telemetry data can be time-consuming, especially in large and complex networks. In the ever-shifting terrain of cybersecurity, the urgency to resolve network performance and security issues rapidly—within moments, is paramount,” said Sundar Subramanian, EVP and General Manager, Infrastructure Management, Progress. “With the addition of IP Address Indexing in Flowmon, IT professionals can perform near-immediate searches to process IP address data swiftly, gaining critical insights essential for quick troubleshooting of their networks.”
As networks grow, the volume of telemetry data expands exponentially. This growth, while beneficial, results in increasingly longer search times and slows threat-hunting efforts. Near-immediate answers to retrospective analysis of compromise indicators are now available such as, “Did anyone from my network communicate with the following malicious IPs last month?” This solution propels IP search queries to new heights, achieving up to tenfold increase in speed. Network administrators and cybersecurity professionals can now rapidly identify network activities associated with specific IP addresses. This significantly reduces the time required for thorough data analysis and effective troubleshooting. Additionally, the IP Address Indexing is designed to scale alongside network growth, driving sustained search efficiency regardless of the expanding number of IP addresses.
Additional features include:
Enhanced Usability and Streamlined Workflows: Flowmon now sets IP Conversation as the standard selection for the most important statistics, delivering instant insights into network interactions. Moreover, the Analysis chart has been updated to allow selectively switching network performance monitoring metrics on or off for a more customized and relevant view of data. The Monitoring Center, along with the Dashboards and Reports, has been improved with new application information icons for external IP addresses and now prominently highlights denied IP addresses from Flowmon ADS blacklists.
Precision and Reliability in Event Reporting: Flowmon now introduces flexible event reporting with Syslog messages over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This enhancement delivers targeted and reliable event reporting to designated IP addresses, accelerating the time for data processing and capturing and issue identification.
Flowmon network observability solution, with AI-powered detection for cyberthreats and anomalies, allows fast access to actionable insights for greater network and application performance across hybrid cloud ecosystems. For more information about the latest release of the Flowmon platform, please visit http://www.flowmon.com.
About Progress Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS) empowers organizations to achieve transformational success in the face of disruptive change. Our software enables our customers to develop, deploy and manage responsible, AI-powered applications and experiences with agility and ease. Customers get a trusted provider in Progress, with the products, expertise and vision they need to succeed. Over 4 million developers and technologists at hundreds of thousands of enterprises depend on Progress. Learn more at http://www.progress.com.
Progress and Flowmon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the US and other countries. Any other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Press Contact: Kim Baker Progress +1-800-477-6473 pr@progress.com
From navigating antitrust laws and understanding the intricacies of import-export regulations to managing labor relations and ensuring ethical supply chains, employees must navigate complex legal requirements to ensure an organization stays compliant. By having strong training programs, companies can significantly reduce the likelihood of violations and avoid costly penalties.
“Managing and minimizing these risks requires all employees to be familiar with regulatory requirements and know how to recognize and report potential violations,” said Michael Johnson, Chief Strategy Officer at Traliant. “Ongoing training equips employees with the knowledge and tools needed to stay compliant, mitigate risks and uphold ethical standards across all operations.”
Penalties for failing to comply with U.S. antitrust laws reached a record $5.7 billion in fines and settlements in 2022. Similarly, violations in export controls can result in civil and criminal penalties with fines up to $1 million per violation. Forced labor in global supply chains is also a growing concern, with nearly 20 million people worldwide estimated to be victims of forced labor. These risks to organizations underscore the importance of employee training.
In addition to the introduction of new Labor Relations training, Traliant enhanced existing courses by adding realistic workplace scenarios, fun games and interactive quizzes to increase engagement, learning and retention. To learn more about Traliant, visit: https://www.traliant.com/.
About Traliant Traliant, a leader in compliance training, is on a mission to help make workplaces better, for everyone. Committed to a customer promise of “compliance you can trust, training you will love,” Traliant delivers continuously compliant online courses, backed by an unparalleled in-house legal team, with engaging, story-based training designed to create truly enjoyable learning experiences.
Traliant supports over 14,000 organizations worldwide with a library of curated essential courses to broaden employee perspectives, achieve compliance and elevate workplace culture, including sexual harassment training, diversity training, code of conduct training, and many more.
Backed by PSG, a leading growth equity firm, Traliant holds a coveted position on Inc.’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America for four consecutive years, along with numerous awards for its products and workplace culture. For more information, visit http://www.traliant.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
RENO, Nev., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Plumas Bancorp (Nasdaq:PLBC), the parent company of Plumas Bank (the “Bank”), today announced that the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on Plumas Bancorp common stock of $0.27 per share, payable November 15, 2024, to stockholders of record as of November 1, 2024.
About Plumas Bancorp
Plumas Bank is a subsidiary of Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ: PLBC), a bank holding company headquartered in Reno, Nevada. Plumas Bank is a locally managed, award-winning community bank founded in 1980 and headquartered in Quincy, California. With 15 branch offices in Northeastern California and Northern Nevada, and loan production offices in California and southern Oregon, Plumas Bank is one of the top performing community banks in the country. For more information regarding Plumas Bancorp and Plumas Bank, visitplumasbank.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve the risks and uncertainties, including the timely availability and acceptance of Bank products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the management of growth, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Bank’s publicly available regulatory reports.
NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Orderly Network is proud to unveil its groundbreaking expansion to the Solana Network following the successful deployment of its omnichain vault on the Solana Blockchain, allowing both EVM and non-EVM users to trade perps from a single, shared orderbook.
Centered around unified liquidity, the mainstay of Orderly Network’s DeFi solutions, the initiative known as Orderly Unity will see Solana become the latest blockchain equipped to provide a truly omnichain trading experience to users.
Solana-based traders can now deposit their assets on Orderly and trade against counterparts on all other Orderly-supported chains from the same orderbook, without their funds ever needing to leave the parent network. As of today, the Solana integration is now live on testnet, with mainnet set to go live in November.
By bringing Solana into the fold, Orderly takes another decisive step forward in creating a DeFi ecosystem where anyone can trade any asset seamlessly, on any platform.
Thanks to Co-Founder Ran Yi’s unique background in traditional finance, Orderly is able to position itself via Orderly Unity as the equivalent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
By deploying asset vaults on multiple chains, with all trades then executed and settled on the Orderly Chain, cross-netting capabilities and better capital efficiency is created. The result is an inclusive, trader-first approach to the expansion of DeFi that’s not yet been seen, with Orderly leading firmly from the front.
Focused on creating omnichain trading infrastructure with ready-to-use liquidity for builders, Orderly is already deployed across major chains, such as Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, Ethereum Mainnet, OP, Polygon, and now Solana, wrapping up an impressive market offering that will allow traders better access to popular assets such as memecoins. Through Orderly, traders and exchanges have access to over 50 markets, ensuring robust liquidity on all major chains through a unified trading infrastructure.
“We’re excited to see Orderly take its place as the first trading solution in DeFi to unite onchain perps trading for both EVM and non-EVM users in the same shared orderbook,” says Ran Yi, Orderly Network CoFounder. “This is in-line with our protocol’s charge forward: Orderly Unity. We’re on a mission to unify liquidity across all chains and create an environment for trading without limits.”
“Solana is renowned for its high throughput, low latency, and cost-effective transactions, making it an ideal network for the next phase of Orderly’s omnichain expansion,” says Arjun Arora, Orderly Network COO.
“By deploying our omnichain vault on Solana, we are bringing a seamless perps trading experience to Solana’s vibrant ecosystem of traders, builders, and dApps. This expansion marks the first in the space to offer perpetuals to both EVM and non-EVM users within one unified orderbook, supporting our Orderly Unity mission of a truly omnichain DeFi ecosystem.”
The latest in a string of useful, high-profile integrations and initiatives, 2024 has been a year of consistent growth for Orderly Network, which has already surpassed its recent milestone of $83 billion in total trading volume.
About Orderly Network Orderly Network is transforming DeFi with its cutting-edge cloud liquidity infrastructure by unifying cross-chain trading through its Orderly Chain and a single shared orderbook, while enhancing trading efficiency, delivering deeper liquidity, and ensuring tighter spreads. The platform provides seamless access to over 50 markets, empowering developers, traders, and exchanges to engage in limitless trading through a streamlined, cohesive trading ecosystem.
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC. (NYSE- AMERICAN: FSI), is the developer and manufacturer of biodegradable polymers for oil extraction, detergent ingredients and water treatment as well as crop nutrient availability chemistry. Flexible Solutions also makes nutraceuticals, biodegradable and environmentally safe water and energy conservation technologies. Today the Company announces top line revenue for third quarter (Q3), 2024.
Sales were up in Q3, 2024 compared to Q3, 2023. Flexible Solutions’ top line revenue increased from $8.721 million (Q3, 2023) to $9.287 million (Q3, 2024), up approximately 6.5% year over year.
Complete financial results will be available after market close on Thursday, November 14, 2024, concurrent with the Company’s SEC second quarter filings. A conference call will be scheduled for 8:00 am Pacific Time, 11:00 am Eastern Standard Time, the following business day, Friday, November 15, 2024. See the FSI November 14, 2024 financials news release for the dial in numbers.
About Flexible Solutions International Flexible Solutions International, Inc. (http://www.flexiblesolutions.com), based in Victoria, British Columbia, is an environmental technology company. The Company’s NanoChem Solutions Inc. subsidiary specializes in biodegradable, water-soluble products utilizing thermal polyaspartate (TPA) biopolymers. TPA beta-proteins are manufactured from the common biological amino acid, L-aspartic and have wide usage including scale inhibitors, detergent ingredients, water treatment and crop enhancement. Along with TPA, this division started producing other crop enhancement products as well. The other divisions manufacture energy and water conservation products for drinking water, agriculture, industrial markets and swimming pools throughout the world. FSI is the developer and manufacturer of WaterSavrTM, the world’s first commercially viable water evaporation retardant. WaterSavrTM reduces evaporation by up to 30% on reservoirs, lakes, aqueducts, irrigation canals, ponds and slow moving rivers. HeatsavrTM, a “liquid blanket” evaporation retardant for the commercial swimming pool and spa markets, reduces energy costs by 15% to 40% and can result in reduced indoor pool humidity.
Safe Harbor Provision The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “Safe Harbor” for forward-looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts, are forward looking statement with respect to events, the occurrence of which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted, either positively or negatively, by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Flexible Solutions International 6001 54thAve, Taber, Alberta, CANADA T1G 1X4
Company Contacts Jason Bloom Toll Free: 800.661.3560 Fax: 403.223.2905 Email: info@flexiblesolutions.com
Through real-time risk monitoring and integrated sustainability and due diligence data, Sphera Supply Chain Transparency helps strengthen every link in the supply chain
CHICAGO, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In today’s world where risk exposure in global supply chains is dynamic and regulations related to sustainability and supply chain due diligence are ever-evolving, businesses need tools and actionable insights that enable them to withstand the uncertainties, get ahead of disruption and be compliant.
Supply chains are under closer scrutiny now in many parts of the world as regulations — such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) — have emerged to hold companies accountable for human rights and environmental impacts within their supply networks. By integrating Supply Chain Sustainability (SCS) and Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) into one platform, Sphera’s Supply Chain Transparency (SCT) product line provides organizations with end-to-end visibility across the entire supply chain to effectively manage supply chain risk, sustainability and regulatory compliance.
“Supply chains have been facing unprecedented volatility with network disruptions resulting from extreme weather events, economic trends, cyber incidents and ESG-related risks,” said Paul Marushka, Sphera’s CEO and president. “Companies are also facing growing pressure to meet global ESG regulations and consumer demands for greater transparency and ethical sourcing practices. A holistic approach to managing risk and sustainability in the supply chain not only enables businesses to address risk before it disrupts operations but also enables enterprises to build resilient supply chains that can adapt faster to evolving situations, withstand impacts and recover quickly.”
The Supply Chain Transparency (SCT) product line from Sphera, the leading provider of Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services, provides procurement, supply chain and sustainability professionals with an innovative solution for mitigating risk and strengthening their supply chain. Having the ability to proactively monitor risk, collect and assess direct supplier data and comply with evolving standards, helps businesses reduce potential costs associated with risk, gain competitive advantage and build transparent, agile supply chains.
Sphera SCRM (formerly riskmethods) leverages AI along with a team of risk research experts to validate and manage information from internal and external data sources to provide real-time risk monitoring. Having an improved risk profile helps companies gain competitive advantage with a well-managed approach to ensure business continuity, protect their reputation and reduce the costs related to supply chain risk. Sphera SCRM issues alerts to users, which provide actionable insights that enable companies to implement countermeasures at the earliest opportunity, proactively monitor the situation to address additional developments and mitigate consequences. Some examples include:
In the lead-up to the traffic jam in the Panama Canal — which sees 6% of global maritime trade and 40% of all U.S. container traffic relying on the passageway — the first alert went out in April 2023 when the Panama Canal Authorities imposed restrictions for the first time. Starting August 8, 2023, Sphera SCRM began informing customers about delays on the Panama Canal due to low water levels and continued during the crisis.
During a period of historic flooding in Europe, alerts indicated heavy rainfall in the southern parts of Europe as early as September 5, 2024, and a total of 115 alerts were issued to users as the flooding progressed and included impacts such as power outages and product delays. The impacts caused some factories to stop production lines, some stores to close and challenges in moving materials by rail.
When a potential for a strike by dockworkers at 36 major ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States loomed, early warnings were sent to users on August 13, 2024, via the Countrywide Industrial Disputes indicator and sent 10 alerts between then and the second day of the strike.
Sphera SCS (formerly SupplyShift) provides unparalleled tracking of ESG-related and regulatory risks with direct visibility into every tier of a company’s supply chain. The solution empowers streamlined supplier engagement and direct performance visibility with standardized assessments, multi-tier data collection and audit-ready, quantifiable supplier data to ensure regulatory compliance and help companies build more responsible supply chains. Sphera SCS helps businesses:
Connect every tier of supply chain data with broader sustainability initiatives.
Identify, analyze and measure supplier performance to drive improvement.
Operationalize compliance and sustainability goals by integrating industry-specific supplier data with enterprise systems, including the collection of direct Scope 3 data.
Ensure legislative compliance through robust tracking, auditing and validation processes.
Naved Siddique, Sphera’s chief product officer, said, “With increased regulatory pressure coupled with a host of hidden risks in the supply chain, companies need to be empowered to proactively mitigate risk and build resilient, sustainable supply chains. This is what we deliver with our Supply Chain Transparency solution. Supply Chain Sustainability provides deeper visibility into multiple tiers of the supply chain and enables seamless collection of supplier environmental, human rights and other sustainability data, while Supply Chain Risk Management provides AI-powered insights for early risk detection and real-time monitoring throughout a supply network. This provides businesses with unparalleled risk visibility, proactive risk management, sustainability integration and regulatory compliance.”
About Sphera Sphera is the leading provider of Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services focusing on Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S), Operational Risk Management (ORM), Product Stewardship and Supply Chain Transparency. For more than 30 years, we have served over 8,400 customers and a million-plus users in 95 countries to help companies keep their people safe, their products sustainable and their operations productive. Learn more about Sphera at http://www.sphera.com. Follow Sphera on LinkedIn.
For media inquiries, please contact: Amanda Meador / Alaina Caruso, pro-sphera@prosek.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In today’s fast-paced business environment, more and more finance departments are beginning to turn to automation to improve efficiency and job satisfaction. As automation continues to transform the landscape of financial operations, new data suggests that accounts payable (AP) professionals with a higher degree of automation are benefiting both in their careers and lifestyles. According to a new survey conducted by the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM), in partnership with AvidXchange, more than 500 AP professionals across various industries revealed that greater automation within AP departments is linked to improved job satisfaction, healthier work/life balance, and more opportunities to work on strategic initiatives to advance their careers.
Career and Lifestyle Satisfaction
Based on the survey results, higher levels of automation are correlated with higher career satisfaction and growth opportunities. The majority of AP professionals who are “extremely satisfied” with their role work in mostly automated AP departments, and staff in fully automated departments are twice as likely to “strongly agree” that there are career advancement opportunities at their organization compared to those in manual environments. AP professionals believe the lack of automation in their departments impacts their career advancement opportunities, with 74% believing access to technology like automation aids in professional development and skills growth.
Automation isn’t only enhancing job satisfaction; it’s also contributing to a healthier work/life balance for AP professionals. The survey revealed that nearly 75% of AP departments with some level of automation operate remotely or in a hybrid setting. In contrast, departments with lower levels of automation are often confined to office-based work. In fact, the survey showed that teams relying entirely on manual AP processes are more than twice as likely to work exclusively in the office compared to those with fully automated systems, showcasing how automated systems support flexible work environments. Additionally, there has been a decrease in AP professionals working solely in the office between 2023 and 2024, highlighting a broader movement towards more flexible work environments. For departments aiming to adapt to this trend, investing in automation is essential.
Strategic Decision-Making
Another significant finding from the survey highlights the advantages AP professionals can gain from greater access to automation, advanced reporting, and key analytics. Finance teams are becoming an increasingly important influence on business growth and operational efficiency, and they are being tasked with more value-added responsibilities such as data analytics, business advisory, and financial technology integration.
Finance teams with mostly manual processes can spend much of their time on repetitive tasks, leaving little room to focus on strategic initiatives. AP professionals with a higher degree of automation are more likely to work on strategic initiatives. 78% percent of AP professionals in mostly automated departments also have access to the technology, reports, and analytics they need to make strategic business decisions, making the connection between the level of automation and the ability to engage in strategic work clear.
“The results of this survey are reflective of the value we’ve been bringing to our customers for years,” said AvidXchange President Dan Drees. “Automation is a game-changer for modern AP professionals. Not only does it improve work/life balance and enable access to data-driven analytics, but it also empowers finance teams to work on more strategic initiatives. AvidXchange is proud to pioneer solutions and tools that help finance teams succeed.”
For more information on how end-to-end AP automation can help companies improve overall satisfaction and work/life balance and for a deeper look into the AP professional career satisfaction survey results, download the white paper: 2024 Accounts Payable Career Satisfaction Report.
Survey Methodology
IOFM conducted a survey, in partnership with AvidXchange, comprising of more than 500 Accounts Payable professionals. Survey respondents worked in organizations with annual revenue ranging from less than $500,000 to $1 billion or more from various industries and represented staff, middle management, and upper management. The survey was conducted in June 2024.
About AvidXchange AvidXchange is a trusted, leading provider of accounts payable (“AP”) automation software and payment solutions for middle market businesses and their suppliers. AvidXchange’s Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) based, end-to-end software and payment platform digitizes and automates the AP workflows for over 8,000 buyer customers, and it has made payments to more than 1.2 million supplier customers of its buyers over the past five years. Additionally, AvidXchange, Inc. is a licensed money transmitter for US B2B payments, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have an applicable license.
To learn more about how AvidXchange, and its publicly traded parent AvidXchange Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVDX), are transforming the way companies pay their bills, visit avidxchange.com.
About the Institute of Finance & Management
Accounting and finance professions have each undergone nothing short of a complete transformation since the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM) was founded in 1982. Since then, our mission has been, and continues to be, to align the resources, events, certifications, and networking opportunities we offer with what companies need from the accounting and finance functions to deliver market leadership. IOFM empowers accounting and finance professionals to maximize the strategic value they offer their employers. Our enduring commitment to serving the accounting and finance professions is unmatched. IOFM has certified over 25,000 accounting and finance professionals and serves several thousand conference and webinar attendees each year. IOFM is proud to be recognized as the leading organization in providing training, education and certification programs specifically for professionals in accounts payable, procure-to-pay, accounts receivable and order-to-cash, as well as key tax and compliance resources for global and shared services professionals, controllers, and their finance and administration (F&A) teams. Learn more at IOFM.com
Guangzhou, China, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Top KingWin Ltd. (“Top KingWin” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: TCJH) announced today that effective on October 21, 2024, its Class A ordinary shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “WAI”. This new ticker symbol will replace the Company’s previous ticker symbol “TCJH”.
No action by the Company’s shareholders is required with respect to the ticker symbol change. The Company’s Class A ordinary shares continue to be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market and the CUSIP number remains unchanged.
About Top KingWin Ltd
Top KingWin’s main clients are entrepreneurs and executives in small and medium-sized enterprises in China. Services provided by Top KingWin to its clients including (i) corporate business training services, which mainly focus on providing training services of advanced knowledge and new perspectives on the capital markets, (ii) corporate consulting services, which mainly focus on providing a combination of customized corporate consulting services to fulfill client’s unique financial needs, and (iii) advisory and transaction services, which mainly focus on connecting entrepreneurs and businesses with diversified sources of capital. Its mission is to provide comprehensive services to address clients’ needs throughout all phases of their development and growth.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the use of proceeds from the Company’s offering, the intent, belief or current expectations of Top KingWin and members of its management, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the Company’s registration statement and in its other filings with the SEC.
For more information, please contact: Bonnie Email: IR@tcjhgw.cn
HERNDON, Va., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SMX®, a leader in next-generation mission support, digital transformation, and IT solutions, announced today that it has been awarded the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Cloud Governance and Administration of Technology and Engineering (cGATE) contract through the General Services Administration’s (GSA), Assisted Acquisition Support, Alliant 2 vehicle, to provide cloud-based licensing and services. CFTC cGate is a competitively awarded contract with a total maximum value of up to $79.4M and a 5-year contract length.
The cGATE contract represents a cornerstone of the CFTC’s ongoing efforts to enhance its oversight of the futures and derivatives markets, ensuring integrity and transparency. SMX has supported the migration of several applications and the transition of numerous workloads to Azure and AWS for mission critical data and market oversight applications. Under this contract, SMX will continue to provide cutting-edge technology and support services in the areas of cloud operations, data management, and advanced security, that enable CFTC to advance its critical mission of protecting market participants and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices.
Sandeep Dorawala, President of the SMX Digital Solutions Group, commented, “We are honored to have been selected by the CFTC to support their critical mission through the cGATE contract. This award is a testament to our team’s continued dedication and expertise in delivering high-quality technology solutions that meet the complex needs of our federal clients. We look forward to continuing to partner with the CFTC to enhance their capabilities in market oversight and enforcement.”
As a trusted partner to the federal government, SMX brings deep domain expertise, a commitment to excellence, and a history of successful project execution. This contract award reinforces SMX’s position as a leading provider of IT solutions in the federal marketplace.
About SMX SMX is a leader in next-generation cloud, C5ISR, and advanced engineering and IT solutions operating in close proximity to clients across the U.S. and around the globe. SMX delivers scalable and secure solutions combined with the mission expertise needed to accelerate outcomes for the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, Public Sector, Fortune 1000 and other public and private sector clients. For more information on our services, please visit https://www.smxtech.com/.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Truxton Corporation (OTCPK: TRUX), a financial holding company and the parent of Truxton Trust Company, announced that its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.43 per common share payable December 24, 2024, to shareholders of record as of December 10, 2024.
About Truxton Truxton is a premier provider of wealth, banking, and family office services for wealthy individuals, their families, and their business interests. Serving clients across the world, Truxton’s vastly experienced team of professionals provides customized solutions to its clients’ complex financial needs. Founded in 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee, Truxton upholds its original guiding principle: do the right thing. Truxton Trust Company is a subsidiary of financial holding company, Truxton Corporation (OTCPK: TRUX). For more information, visit truxtontrust.com.
ITASCA, Ill., Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Revenera, producer of leading solutions that help technology companies build better products, accelerate time-to-value, and unlock new revenue opportunities, today released the Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Piracy and Compliance 2025 Outlook report. Based on the results of a global survey of 418 leaders at global technology companies, this report is the 2nd in a three-part annual series, which provides product executives at software, intelligent device, and IoT companies with benchmarks about the prevalence and scope of unlicensed software usage.
Piracy, overuse, and misuse are currently equally significant problems, with approximately ⅓ of respondents reporting that each is a “major problem” contributing to revenue leakage. This aligns them with more traditional business problems, such as customer churn, also cited by ⅓ of respondents as a “major problem.”
“Software and tech companies are pushing hard to deliver high customer value at a good profit margin, but yet, they often treat customer compliance, which can be a significant revenue stream in some segments of the industry, as an afterthought. Losses of more than 30 percent of revenue are on the rise for all forms of unlicensed software usage, including piracy, overuse, and misuse,” said Nicole Segerer, General Manager at Revenera. “Accurate data into software use is essential to complement revenue loss and to implement effective monetization models that capture revenue opportunities.”
Piracy, overuse, and misuse are equally concerning issues, with major financial ramifications.
Approximately ⅓ of respondents citing each as a “major problem,” putting them on par with more traditional problems like customer churn (major problem for 30 percent) and inefficient monetization models (major problem for 37 percent).
Losses of more than 30 percent of revenue are on the rise for all forms of unlicensed software usage.
Churn risk is a major problem for ⅓ of respondents, putting this long-standing problem on a par with piracy, overuse, and misuse and that each must be addressed in order to comprehensively address revenue leakage.
Unlicensed software usage, a global issue, must be addressed for successful revenue recovery initiatives.
While reflecting an improvement over the past year, approximately 1 in 10 respondents are still unaware of how much revenue is lost to unauthorized software usage.
Awareness of how revenue loss is taking place is improving. Presently only 5 percent are unaware of how they are losing revenue to software piracy, overuse, or misuse, falling from 21 percent a year ago.
Barriers to essential usage insights remain: Only 57 percent of respondents can see if utilization for a specific customer is increasing or declining; fewer (47 percent) can see the fundamental metric of whether a customer is using the software at all.
The global use of unlicensed software presents an $18.7 billion revenue opportunity for software suppliers. Aggregate data from Revenera’s Compliance Intelligence customer, identifying the top 20 piracy and license compliance hotspots, reveals opportunities for revenue recovery.
Methodology
The Revenera Monetization Monitor 2025 Outlook series of reports is based on 418 complete responses to a survey conducted by Revenera from May through July 2024. Job levels of these survey respondents were C-level/executive (23 percent), SVP/VP (17 percent), director (44 percent), manager/team leader (15 percent), and individual contributors/non-manager/consultant (1 percent). The first report in this series focuses onSoftware Monetization Models and Strategies. This report focuses on Software Piracy & Compliance. The final report will focus on Software Usage Analytics.
Follow Revenera
About Revenera Revenera helps product executives build better products, accelerate time-to-value, and monetize what matters. Revenera’s leading solutions help software and technology companies drive top-line revenue with modern software monetization, understand usage and compliance with software usage analytics, empower the use of open source with software composition analysis, and deliver an excellent user experience—for embedded, on-premises, cloud, and SaaS products. To learn more, visit http://www.revenera.com.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FloQast, an Accounting Transformation Platform created by accountants for accountants, announced today that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Retail Competency status. This designation highlights the proven value of FloQast’s Accounting Transformation Platform in helping retail customers drive financial transformation both in the cloud and across their broader businesses.
Achieving the AWS Retail Competency differentiates FloQast as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that provides specialized accounting workflow automation designed to help retail enterprise businesses adopt, develop, and deploy complex projects on AWS. To receive the designation, APN members must possess deep AWS expertise and a proven track record with retail clients to deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS.
“Achieving AWS Retail Competency is a great milestone for FloQast and reflects how far we’ve come since our partnership with AWS started in 2014,” said Mike Whitmire, CEO and co-founder of FloQast, CPA. “We’ve always placed importance on helping retail customers streamline their accounting operations, and this recognition reinforces the impact of our platform. It’s yet another step forward as we continue to grow and innovate to meet the evolving needs of the industry.”
FloQast’s Accounting Transformation Platform was developed over more than a decade of innovation, incorporating direct customer feedback and the latest advancements in artificial intelligence. Designed to meet evolving market demands and the growing pressures on accounting teams, the platform empowers organizations with AI-driven efficiencies and insights for more strategic decision-making.
AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify Consulting and Technology APN Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.
About FloQast
FloQast, an Accounting Transformation Platform created by accountants for accountants, enables organizations to automate a variety of accounting operations. Trusted by more than 2,800 global accounting teams – including Twilio, Los Angeles Lakers, Zoom, and Snowflake – FloQast enhances the way accounting teams work, enabling customers to automate close management, account reconciliations, accounting operations, and compliance activities. With FloQast, teams can utilize the latest advancements in AI technology to manage aspects of the close, reduce their compliance burden, stay audit-ready, and improve accuracy, visibility, and collaboration overall. FloQast is consistently rated #1 across all user review sites. Learn more at FloQast.com.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Starbox Group Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: STBX) (“Starbox” or the “Company”), a service provider of cash rebates, advertising, and payment solutions, is excited to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Starbox Technologies Sdn. Bhd. (“Starbox Technologies”), has launched its AI-Driven Digital Human System for merchants on WeChat Channels, supporting over 800 Starbox Technologies’ merchants and over two million existing users via live streaming and short videos.
Marking a significant advancement in e-commerce, Starbox Technologies has launched its AI-Driven Digital Human System, enabling merchants to create and publish live streams and short videos on WeChat Channels. This initiative enhances the reach of Starbox Technologies’ existing cash rebate platform by allowing merchants to promote and sell their products through video content.
Merchants can now create content and host live streams using the AI-Driven Digital Human System. Virtual hosts powered by AI can continuously engage consumers with 24/7 availability, forging connections between consumers and brands. Further, the cash rebate platform’s intelligent engine analyzes consumers’ user behavior and delivers personalized video and product recommendations to consumers, which may boost the sales conversion rate and strengthen the cash rebate platform.
Leveraging the reach and engagement of WeChat Channels, the cash rebates platform and the AI-Driven Human System offer users instant cash rebates, which are designed to make cross-border shopping more rewarding and efficient. This strategic expansion supports Starbox Technologies’ mission to innovate in the evolving world of e-commerce, particularly through video content, with a focus on the Southeast Asia region.
“This innovative approach aligns with global market trends and supports our expansion efforts, especially in Southeast Asia, significantly expanding Starbox Technologies’ cash rebates market reach,” said Lee Choon Wooi, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Starbox. “By tapping into WeChat Channels’ extensive monthly active user base, we aim to strengthen our global presence and our presence in Southeast Asia, and deliver our cutting-edge solutions to a wider audience.”
About Starbox Group Holdings Ltd.
Headquartered in Malaysia, Starbox is a technology-driven, rapidly growing company with innovation as its focus. Starbox is aiming to be a comprehensive technology solutions provider within Southeast Asia and also engages in building a cash rebate, advertising, and payment solution business ecosystem targeting micro, small, and medium enterprises that lack the bandwidth to develop an in-house data management system for effective marketing. The Company connects retail merchants with retail shoppers to facilitate transactions through cash rebates offered by retail merchants on its GETBATS website and mobile app. The Company provides digital advertising services to advertisers through its SEEBATS website and mobile app, GETBATS website and mobile app and social media. The Company also provides payment solution services to merchants. For more information, please visit the Company’s website: https://ir.starboxholdings.com and WeChat Channels: StarboxTechnologies.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on the Company’s current expectations and projections about future events that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “approximates,” “assesses,” “believes,” “hopes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “may” or similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the Company’s registration statement and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. References and links (including QR codes) to websites have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release.
VILNIUS, Lithuania, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WhiteBIT cryptocurrency exchange has once again confirmed its commitment to top-tier security standards by successfully passing the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification. The company achieved the highest Level 1 certification.
This certification verifies that the WhiteBIT platform adheres to the best practices for storing, processing, and transmitting payment card data, ensuring the privacy and security of its users’ financial information. Payment data on WhiteBIT is securely protected from cyber attacks and online fraud, allowing customers to safely perform bank card transactions (deposit/withdraw funds) using methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
“The security of our customers has always been a top priority at WhiteBIT. We set a high standard for cybersecurity and work tirelessly to safeguard our users’ data against potential threats,” said Volodymyr Nosov. “Today, over 5 million clients trust us, and we continually implement innovative solutions to ensure their safety and the transparency of our processes.”
Benefits of PCI DSS Certification for WhiteBIT Crypto Exchange:
Enhanced Fraud Protection: The certification ensures that WhiteBIT implements advanced security measures, such as encryption, tokenization, access controls, and monitoring, to protect and process payment card data. This greatly reduces the risk of data breaches and cybercrime.
Data Privacy: WhiteBIT handles card data in line with top industry standards, ensuring clients’ sensitive information remains secure and confidential.
Wider Range of Trusted Payment Options: PCI DSS certification enables the integration of multiple secure payment methods, including bank cards from various payment systems. Additionally, all payment providers partnered with WhiteBIT are also required to comply with PCI DSS standards.
Global Recognition: Certification proves that WhiteBIT adheres to international security practices, which is a key consideration for global partners and investors.
PCI DSS certification highlights WhiteBIT’s commitment to user safety, allowing customers to confidently use their bank cards on the platform without concerns over data breaches.
To maintain PCI DSS certification, WhiteBIT undergoes an independent audit annually, assessing its compliance with 12 core security principles. This audit is conducted by an accredited third-party organization.
In addition, WhiteBIT performs external penetration testing of its platform to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities.
About PCI DSS
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a global security standard established by the payment card industry to protect cardholder data. It was developed by five major payment networks: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB. The standard encompasses over 300 criteria related to various aspects of information security, organized into 12 key principles. There are four levels of certification, determined by the annual volume of transactions processed.
About WhiteBIT
WhiteBIT is one of the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in Europe, founded in Ukraine in 2018. The platform offers more than 580 trading pairs, 270+ assets, and supports 10 national currencies. WhiteBIT partners with global payment system Visa, the e-sports platform FACEIT, and the telecom operator lifecell. It also supports FC Barcelona (Spain), Trabzonspor (Turkey), and the Ukrainian national football team. Additionally, WhiteBIT collaborates with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The company’s mission is to promote the widespread adoption of blockchain technology in Ukraine and around the world.
Jaime Battiste, Member of Parliament for Sydney–Victoria, Nova Scotia, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, along with the Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) Cape Breton announced a joint investment of more than $1.2 million to plant over 208,000 trees in eastern Cape Breton through the 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program.
October 17, 2024 Sydney, Nova Scotia Natural Resources Canada
Today, Jaime Battiste, Member of Parliament for Sydney–Victoria, Nova Scotia, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, along with the Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) Cape Breton announced a joint investment of more than $1.2 million to plant over 208,000 trees in eastern Cape Breton through the 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program.
The trees will be planted over four years. Outcomes of this will include:
Restoration of ecosystems in areas of eastern Cape Breton that had been deforested.
The planting of 208,000 trees, along with native plants and shrubs.
Habitat restoration for diverse flora and fauna in Nova Scotia.
Increased local capacity to plant and maintain trees thanks to workforce training, mentorship opportunities and student partnerships.
Increased community knowledge of forest restoration practices that help mitigate floods and other extreme weather events.
The 2BT program helps to clean the air, create jobs and fight climate change while protecting nature. By working together with provinces, territories, local communities, non- and for-profit organizations and Indigenous Peoples, Canada continues to build a strong, healthy and green future for generations to come.
Quotes
“Forests clean the air we breathe, make our urban spaces more enjoyable, provide new habitats for wildlife and help us adapt to our changing climate while also mitigating its impacts by sequestering carbon emissions. The funding announced today will play an important role in bringing these benefits to Nova Scotians and will help achieve our federal government’s ambitious goal of planting two billion trees over a decade. Through this project, we are showing how collaborative work can ensure that the right tree is planted at the right place at the right time for the benefit of all Canadians.”
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
“Partnership and collaboration play a critical role in the sustainable management of our forests and tackling the dual crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss. The Government of Canada is pleased to be partnering with the Atlantic Coastal Action Program-Cape Breton to continue making progress toward planting trees that will clean the air we breathe, improve water quality and mitigate climate change across Canada, creating a healthier environment for generations to come.”
Jaime Battiste Member of Parliament, Sydney–Victoria, Nova Scotia
“Trees planted as part of the 2 Billion Trees program create greener, healthier and more resilient communities in the face of a changing climate. Canada is supporting the Atlantic Coastal Action Program-Cape Breton to support the restoration of Canada’s forests and important habitats, all while ensuring there is cleaner air and sustainable jobs in communities across Canada.”
Mike Kelloway Member of Parliament, Cape Breton–Canso, Nova Scotia
“We are honoured to be part of Canada’s 2 Billion Trees commitment here in Unama’ki-Cape Breton. The trees we plant will help restore forest ecosystems and create a more-resilient climate legacy for our communities as well as the creatures we share this land with. These lands will not only sequester carbon but also provide habitat, food and shade for our warming lands and waters and help filter water in the watersheds that furnish our drinking water.”
Dr. Kathleen Aikens Executive Director, ACAP Cape Breton
Quick facts
Since 2021, the Government of Canada has been supporting governments and organizations across the country to plant trees to help meet the Government of Canada’s commitment to planting two billion trees.
The 2 Billion Trees program collaborates with partners to understand their plans for preparing sites, how they are selecting species and how they plan to monitor after planting. Partners report every year, and the program conducts site visits and will be using remote sensing to monitor the progress and the health of the trees. By ensuring the initial job is done well, nature can then thrive, maintaining the long-term health of forested sites.
To date, the Government of Canada has secured or is negotiating agreements to plant over 553 million trees.
SMEEs allow crews to exchange best practices and sharpen the edges of their technical expertise in foreign environments.
“It was an invaluable experience and incredibly beneficial getting to work alongside our peers in the 5 Squadron” said Lt. Brian DePaola, aircraft commander, VP-10. “Sharing our experiences and skills not only strengthens our partnership but fosters a unified approach to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific.”
The Red Lancer crew conducted multiple briefings, flights, and exchanges with their RNZAF counterparts covering topics ranging from anti-submarine warfare to search and rescue.
“Search and rescue operations were a particular area that the RNZAF was able to showcase and demonstrate their extensive expertise in,” said DePaola. “Since the U.S. Navy and RNZAF both operate the P-8A Poseidon, the techniques for surveillance and rescue operations were exchanged seamlessly, supporting unified and refined responses to catastrophic events.”
Among the many opportunities over the seven-day event, the VP-10 crew practiced anti-submarine warfare tactics on an Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target (EMATT) alongside MH-60Rs from the Royal Australian Navy 816 Squadron and a Royal New Zealand Navy Anzac-class frigate, the HMNZS Te Kaha. This provided invaluable experience for interoperating with allies and partners in both the air and sea domains.
The Red Lancer crew also participated in community outreach, volunteering at a local animal shelter and helping to build animal enclosures for the Hayward Heights branch of New Zealand’s largest no-kill animal shelter, HUHA (Helping You Help Animals).
“I can confidently speak for the entire VP-10 detachment in saying that we truly enjoyed the uniqueness and the hospitality that New Zealand had to offer,” said DePaola.
The “Red Lancers” of VP-10 are based in Jacksonville, Florida. The squadron conducts maritime patrol and reconnaissance as well as theater outreach operations, supporting Commander, Task Force 72, U.S. Seventh Fleet, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command objectives throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. Seventh Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Asda Stores Ltd has been handed a £250,000 fine for displaying food beyond its use-by date, following an investigation by Derby City Council’s Trading Standards Team.
The case was heard at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court, where, on Wednesday 16 October, District Judge Jonathan Taaffe found Asda Stores Ltd guilty of 11 offences. These related to having unsafe food on offer for sale contrary to regulation 19 of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.
Asda Stores Ltd were then handed down a fine of £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £74,117.69 and a victim surcharge of £190.
This sizeable fine comes after an inspection at Asda’s Sinfin store on 15 July 2021. During the inspection, Trading Standards officers found 18 food items on shelves past their use-by date. This followed previous warnings on two occasions from Senior Trading Standards Officers.
Use-by dates are applied to highly perishable food items by the manufacturer and are crucial to ensuring customers are buying and consuming safe items. According to the Food Standards Agency, these dates are the most important to remember for food products. Shoppers are advised never to eat food beyond the use-by date, even if it looks and smells ok.
District Judge Taaffe determined that Asda Stores Ltd did not provide a satisfactory defence, but instead failed to prove that they had implemented their system properly and failed to show that they had made improvements following the warnings received from the Trading Standards team.
Councillor Shiraz Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regulatory Services, said:
A fine of this scale reflects the seriousness of the situation and the risk it posed to the people of Derby.
“We are lucky that we have a Trading Standards team who are committed to keeping our city safe, and I am incredibly proud of the work that they continue to do. This case serves as a reminder that we are prepared to take whatever action necessary against businesses that break the rules, no matter how big or small.
The investigation was led by Victoria Rose, Senior Trading Standards Officer, who said:
Customers should be able to rely on stores such as Asda to supply food that is safe to eat. It’s my role as a Senior Trading Standards Officer to help protect the public when this is not the case, especially when some of these foods were aimed at children and found to be on the shelves six months past their use-by date.
Donna Dowse, Trading Standards Service Manager, added:
This was not an easy case to bring before the courts, and as a service we faced many barriers put before us due to the nature of Primary Authority Partnerships when trying to take enforcement action.
The Primary Authority blocked our enforcement action in this case. As such, Victoria Rose had to take the matter first to the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and then to the Secretary of State before we could look at a prosecution. If it wasn’t for this commitment to keeping the public safe, then Asda would not have been held accountable for their failings as they have been today.
A Primary Authority Partnership is an agreement in law between a business and a local authority. If the local authority provides that business with “assured” advice, then the business can rely on that advice when being investigated by other local authorities, and the Primary Authority can block enforcement action being taken in respect of that advice.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in ACS E&T Water looks at PFAS in drinking water.
Prof Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry, RMIT University,said:
“PFAS are a family of man-made chemicals based on carbon-fluorine bonds. They are often termed forever chemicals because they are very resistant to degradation. The name is also a little chemistry joke as the F in forever, and C in chemicals can also stand for Fluorine and Carbon, respectively. Unfortunately, the term is misleading as it implies that PFAS never break down and that if they get in your body, they are there forever – neither of which is true.
“This new research about PFAS in drinking water may initially sound scary and raise some concerns with the public. However, the authors do not claim to have assessed risk, and we should remember that the mere presence of something does not mean it will automatically cause harm. Any discussion about toxicity is meaningless without both dose and context. For example, we know you can get skin cancer from exposure to UV light, but that does not mean you will get cancer as soon as you go outside. Similarly, you will have no problem drinking a glass of water, but if you inhale the same amount into your lungs, you’ll have health risks.
“While PFAS have been linked to a range of health effects, the concentrations of PFAS needed to cause such effects are much higher than the levels reported in this study. In some respects, the work is good news: even the highest total PFAS level reported was just 9.2 ng/L. For reference, one nanogram per litre is 1 part per trillion. This is equivalent to 1 second in 31.5 thousand years. So, yes, 9.2 ng/L is an incredibly small amount, and the risk of PFAS exposure at this level is also very small. Since the researchers only measured ten compounds, it is possible that there was more PFAS present than was reported, but the risk is still very low.
“The other thing to remember is that PFAS are now ubiquitous in the environment, so if you look hard enough at almost any sample, you will find them. Background contamination from clothes and lab equipment is a problem when assessing PFAS at such low levels, but the authors don’t say how they accounted for this in the main part of the paper.
“We might say, ‘Why not make the risk zero completely’? But this is impossible to achieve. There is risk in everything we do; for example, if I drive to work, there is a risk I might crash, I go for a swim, I might drown. Both are low risks, but not zero. We could never be sure PFAS concentration was zero, just that it was lower than the minimum amount we could measure. Even the recent US limit of 4ng/L for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water is not based on acceptable risk but just one that can be achieved and reliably measured.
“So overall, while this paper is interesting it does not mean you need to avoid bottled (or tap) water”.
DrOvokeroye Abafe, Lecturer in Environmental Sciences, Brunel University of London, said:
“The study’s conclusions show insights into very simple contaminant reduction methods that can easily be adopted by consumers. The result provides further understanding on the distribution of PFAS in drinking water sources and shows that simple AC filtration and boiling can significantly reduce the concentrations of some PFAS in drinking water, thereby minimising exposure arising from this route. It is interesting to see very simple and easily adaptable home solutions that can significantly minimise the concentrations of PFAS in drinking water, thereby safeguarding public health. However, the sample size is relatively small, which is a limitation to be aware of.”
‘Factors Influencing Concentrations of PFAS in Drinking Water: Implications for Human Exposure’byChuanzi Gaoet al.was published inACS E&T Waterat 13:00 UK time on Thursday 17th October.
Declared interests
Prof Oliver Jones: “I don’t have any conflicts of interest in this case, but I have in the past received funds from the Environment Protection Authority Victoria and various Australian Water utilities for research into environmental pollution, including PFAS.”
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that $35 million in State funding is being distributed by the New York City Housing Authority to help address COVID-related rental arrears for NYCHA residents. This funding secured by the Governor and State Legislature will provide up to 12 months of unpaid rent for NYCHA tenants and ensure these families maintain stable, affordable housing during recovery from the pandemic.
“We’re continuing to support vulnerable New Yorkers who were hit hard by the pandemic and helping to ensure families remain in their homes,” Governor Hochul said. “This funding builds on our efforts to provide meaningful assistance to NYCHA tenants with COVID-related rental arrears, while also furthering our commitment to helping NYCHA make vital repairs and improvements.”
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is expected to use these funds to address rental arrears accrued by NYCHA tenants. Qualifying households could be covered for up to 12 months of past due rent accumulated during the period of March 2020 – May 11, 2023.
This commitment builds on Governor Hochul’s previous efforts to help ensure that tenants throughout New York adversely affected by the pandemic could remain stably housed, including NYCHA and other public housing residents and recipients of federal Section 8 vouchers.
Separate from the $35 million highlighted today, New York State has delivered payments totaling approximately $159 million to date on behalf of more than 27,000 NYCHA households through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).
The Governor and the Legislature secured more than $1 billion in State funding to supplement federal ERAP funding in the FY 2023 and 2024 Enacted Budgets, including the $35 million targeted for NYCHA and more than $350 million in the FY 2024 budget to ensure there were sufficient funds in New York State’s ERAP for public and subsidized housing residents, including NYCHA tenants, Section 8 tenants and other subsidized housing residents across the state.
Previously, the Governor signed legislation creating the New York Public Housing Preservation Trust, to address overdue repairs, rehabilitation, and modernization of 25,000 NYCHA apartments.
New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Barbara C. Guinn said, “The uncertainty and instability caused by the pandemic was especially hard for those already struggling to make ends meet, including many NYCHA residents who fell behind on their rent. Thanks to Governor Hochul and the Legislature, this funding will eliminate a significant debt for some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers while enabling them to remain stably housed in their homes.”
New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas said, “All New Yorkers deserve safe and stable housing. This $35 million investment is just one example of our State’s commitment to NYCHA residents. We thank Governor Hochul for her leadership on ensuring housing stability and dedication to New Yorkers still affected by the COVID pandemic.”
NYCHA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt said, “We have fought tirelessly for COVID-related rental relief for NYCHA residents, and I am delighted that this additional $35 million will supplement the aid that came through ERAP. We’re so thankful to Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature for providing support that will bring both financial relief and stability to NYCHA residents.”
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, “Many of New York’s families have yet to recover from the devastating economic impact of the pandemic. By paying back up to 12 months of their past-due rent, we’re helping NYCHA families find their footing again and shift their money toward other goods necessary to support their families. The Assembly Majority remains committed to ensuring New York’s families have the resources they need to thrive and this announcement is a step towards that direction.”
Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal said, “Protecting New Yorkers from eviction during an affordability crisis must be a priority for New York State. That is why I proudly advocated for the inclusion of an extra $35 million in last year’s state budget to help struggling New York City Housing Authority residents pay their rental arrears. Every NYCHA resident deserves a second chance at becoming financially whole after surviving the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Equally important, all levels of government must also provide NYCHA, one of the greatest sources of affordable housing in New York, with the resources it desperately needs to keep the lights on in developments across the city. I look forward to working with partners on the federal and local levels to fund our public housing authorities next session.”
Assemblymember Grace Lee said, “I’ve seen firsthand the severe impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on NYCHA residents in my district. This additional funding is crucial to helping New Yorkers hardest hit by the pandemic recover and ensuring families can stay in their homes. It will provide direct relief to thousands of families across the city, including many in my district. I thank Governor Hochul for her leadership and providing much-needed support to our most vulnerable residents.”
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Elizabeth Chappell, Researcher Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University
The 2024 Nobel peace prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organisation created by survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts and public appeals by survivors, who are known as hibakusha, and has sent annual delegations to the UN.
Their work was commended by the Nobel committee, who decided to award the prize to Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.
Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, said: “I never expected we would win the Nobel peace prize. Now we want to go further and appeal to the world to achieve lasting peace. We are old, but we never give up.”
There are an estimated 106,000hibakusha still living in Japan, with many more alive around the world. There are also survivors – and their descendants – of the more than 2,000 nuclear tests that have taken place worldwide since 1945. Some of these people use the term hibakusha to describe themselves.
This was not the first time the prize had been awarded to a nominee for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament. And it probably won’t be the last.
In 1985, the prize was awarded to an organisation called the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. And then, in 1995, the prize was won by Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to have left the Manhattan Project – the US government’s research project to produce the first atomic bomb – on moral grounds.
Barack Obama was next in 2009, for his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons”. His administration made efforts to renew the strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia, and Obama became the first US president to visit one of the atomic bombed cities when he made a special trip to Hiroshima in 2016.
The following year, the prize was won by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for its “groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of nuclear weapons”. This was a reference to the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, which from 2017 has outlawed states from participating in any nuclear weapon activities.
Nihon Hidankyo may not be a household name, but two of its former co-chairs are quite well known internationally. Hiroshima-born Sunao Tsuboi was photographed in one of the few known images to be taken on the day of the bombing.
Tsuboi and fellow survivor Shigeaki Mori also spoke with Obama on his visit to the city. It is said that Obama’s visit was, in part, triggered by Mori’s research. He had spent 40 years searching for the identities of 12 US prisoners of war who had been killed in the bombing of Hiroshima.
Another of Nihon Hidankyo’s former co-chairs, Nagasaki-born Sumiteru Taniguchi, spent three-and-a-half years in hospital after the bombing of his city and never fully recovered from his wounds.
Taniguchi’s story became famous after the publication of his 1984 memoir, The Postman of Nagasaki. The book’s author, Peter Townsend, was a Royal Air Force pilot in the second world war and is known in the UK for his affair with Princess Margaret, sister of the late Queen. The memoir was made into a film in 2022.
The logic of nuclear deterrence
We are currently at a time where the threat of nuclear weapons is growing. This was reflected by the committee who, when awarding Nihon Hidankyo with the prize, noted that the “taboo” against their use was “under pressure”.
Nuclear deterrence relies on the logic of the threat to inflict “unacceptable damage” on the enemy. But nuclear deterrence is not foolproof. What is unacceptable to one adversary may be acceptable to another, depending on the circumstances.
It’s worth remembering that the 1945 atomic bombings were not, as is commonly believed, the only reason the Japanese surrendered the following week and brought the war to an end. Various factions in the war council had been attempting to find ways to surrender for over a year, and the bombs offered Japan’s Emperor Hirohito a way to save face.
The bombs didn’t force the Japanese to surrender, they gave Hirohito the opportunity to surrender … News of the Nagasaki bomb came as they were having a meeting of the imperial war council about what to do about the Soviets coming into the war. It should be known that there was never any special imperial war council meeting after the Hiroshima bomb. That wasn’t considered weighty enough to make everyone drop what they were doing and head to the Imperial Palace.
The effects of radiation on the human body were little known in 1945, due to censorship both by the Japanese military and the US occupation that followed. As I was told in an interview with a hibakusha called Keiko Ogura, who was eight when the first bomb was dropped: “No one understood why people were still dying days, weeks, months and years after the attacks – they thought the atomic bomb was poison gas.”
We now know much more about the devastating consequences of radiation for humans, animals and the environment across generations. However, research is still not widely publicised, with ICAN taking the lead as an international forum for important new findings to be shared and known.
Let’s hope this year’s award will help inform the world once and for all of the nature of these weapons. As former US president, John F. Kennedy, said in a speech to the UN in 1961: “A nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike.”
Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. This prize should help ban what Kennedy described as the “sword of Damocles” that still threatens life on earth.
Elizabeth Chappell does not work for or receive funding from any external organisation.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Richard Massey, Professor of extragalactic astrophysics (dark matter and cosmology), Durham University
Illustration of the Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in Chile’s Atacama desert.ESO, CC BY
In recent decades, we’ve learnt huge amounts about the universe and its history. The rapidly developing technology of telescopes – both on Earth and in space – has been a key part of this process, and those that are due to start operating over the next two decades should push the boundaries of our understanding of cosmology much further.
All observatories have a list of science objectives before they switch on, but it is their unexpected discoveries that can have the biggest impact. Many surprise advances in cosmology were driven by new technology, and the next telescopes have powerful capabilities.
Still, there are gaps, such as a lack of upcoming space telescopes for ultraviolet and visible light astronomy. Politics and national interests have slowed scientific progress. Financial belts are tightening at even the most famous observatories.
This is article is part of our series Cosmology in crisis? which uncovers the greatest problems facing cosmologists today – and discusses the implications of solving them.
The biggest new telescopes are being built in the mountains of Chile. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will house a mirror the size of four tennis courts, under a huge dome in the Atacama desert.
Reflecting telescopes like ELT work by using a primary mirror to collect light from the night sky, then reflecting it off other mirrors to a camera. Larger mirrors collect more light and see fainter objects.
The Extremely Large Telescope under construction atop the Cerro Amazones peak in northern Chile.
Another ground-based telescope under construction in Chile is the Vera C. Rubin telescope. Rubin’s camera is the largest ever built: the size of a small car and weighing about three tonnes. Its 3,200 megapixels will photograph the whole sky every three days to spot moving objects. Over the course of 10 years, these photographs will be combined to form a massive time-lapse video of the universe.
Astronomy used to be a physically demanding job, requiring travel to remote telescopes in dark sites –- but many astronomers began working from home long before COVID. In the late 20th century, major ground observatories started to put in place technology to allow astronomers to control telescopes for observations at night, even when they were not there in person. Remote observing is now commonplace, carried out via the internet.
Expect the unexpected
The view of any telescope on the ground is limited, though, even if it’s on top of a mountain. Launching telescopes into space can get around these limitations.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s operational history began when the space shuttle lifted it above the atmosphere on April 25 1990. Hubble got the full 1960s sci-fi treatment: a rocket to launch it, gyroscopes to point it, and electronic cameras instead of photographic film. But one plan fell through: for Hubble to host a commuting astronaut-astronomer, working decidedly away from home.
Webb, launched on December 25 2021, now spends a third of its time looking at planets around other stars that weren’t even known about when it was designed.
The stated goal of an expensive telescope is usually just a sales pitch to space agencies, governments and (shhh…) taxpayers. The Webb telescope should achieve its original science goals, but astronomers have always known that seeing further, finer or in more colours can achieve so much more. The unexpected discoveries by telescopes are often more significant than the science objectives stated at the outset.
Taking the long view
For scientists, it’s a relief that telescopes go beyond their brief, because Hubble and Webb both took more than 25 years from napkin to launch. In that time, new scientific questions arise.
Building a large space telescope typically takes about two decades. The Chandra and XMM-Newton space telescopes took 23 years and 15 years to build, respectively. They were designed to observe X-rays coming from hot gas around black holes and galaxy clusters, and were launched very close together in 1999.
Similar timescales apply to the European Space Agency’s Hipparcos and Gaia space telescopes, which have mapped all the stars in the Milky Way. The Cobe and Planck missions to study the microwave-light afterglow of the Big Bang also took two decades. Precise dates depend how you count, and a few exceptions have been “faster, better, cheaper”, but national space agencies are generally risk averse and slow when developing these projects.
The latest space telescopes are therefore millennials. They were designed at a time when astronomers had measured the universe’s newborn expansion following the Big Bang, and also its old-age, accelerating expansion. Their main goal now is to fill the gap –- because, surprisingly, interpolations from early times to late times don’t meet in the middle.
The measured rates for the expansion of the universe are inconsistent, as are results for the clumpiness of matter in the cosmos. Both measurements create challenges for our theories of how the universe evolved.
Observing the middle age of the universe requires telescopes operating at long wavelengths, because light from distant galaxies is stretched by the time it reaches us. So, Webb has infrared zoom cameras, while the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope, launched in 2023, and Nasa’s Nancy Grace Roman telescope, which is set to launch in 2026, both have infrared wide-angle views.
Three buses come along at once
Most stars shine in ultraviolet and infrared colours that are blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, as well as the colours our eyes evolved to see.
Extra colours are useful. For example, we can weigh stars on the other side of our galaxy because massive stars are bright in infrared, while smaller ones are faint – and they stay that way throughout their lifetimes. However, we know where stars are being born because only young stars emit ultraviolet light.
In addition, independent measurements of the same thing are vital for rigorous science. Infrared telescopes, for example, can work together and have already made surprising discoveries. But it’s not great for diversity that the Webb, Euclid and Roman space telescopes all see infrared colours.
Earthly politics gets in the way, too. Data from China’s Hubble-class space telescope, Xuntian, is unlikely to be shared internationally. And in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022 Germany switched off its eRosita X-ray instrument that had been operating perfectly, in collaboration with Russia, a million miles from Earth.
Cheap commercial launches may save the day. Euclid was to have lifted off on a Russian Soyuz rocket from a European Space Agency spaceport in French Guiana. When Russia ended operations there in tit-for-tat reprisals, Euclid’s launch was successfully switched at the last minute to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
If large telescopes can also be folded inside shoebox-size “cubesat” satellites, the lower cost would make it viable for them to fail. Tolerating risk creates a virtuous circle that makes missions even cheaper.
But perhaps the most unusual telescope technology, which may bring the most unexpected discoveries, is gravitational wave detectors. Gravitational waves are not part of the electromagnetic spectrum, so we can’t see them. They are distortions, or “ripples”, in spacetime caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe. These might include a collision between two neutron stars (dense objects formed when massive stars run out of fuel), or a neutron star merging with a black hole.
Asked what the next generation of observatories will discover, I have no idea. And that’s a good thing. The best science experiments shouldn’t just tell us about the things we expect to find, but also about the unknown unknowns.
Richard Massey receives funding from the UK Space Agency to support Euclid, and leads UK involvement in the SuperBIT balloon-born telescope.
As people who research ageing like to quip: the best thing you can do to increase how long you live is to pick good parents. After all, it has long been recognised that longer-lived people tend to have longer-lived parents and grandparents, suggesting that genetics influence longevity.
Complicating the picture, however, is that we know that the sum of your lifestyle, specifically diet and exercise, also significantly influences your health into older age and how long you live. What contribution lifestyle versus genetics makes is an open question that a recent study in Nature has shed new light on.
Scientists have long known that reducing calorie intake can make animals live longer. In the 1930s, it was noted that rats fed reduced calories lived longer than rats who could eat as much as they wanted. Similarly, people who are more physically active tend to live longer. But specifically linking single genes to longevity was until recently a controversial one.
While studying the lifespan of the tiny worm C elegans at the University of California, San Francisco, Cynthia Kenyon found that small changes to the gene that controls the way that cells detect and respond to nutrients around them led to the worms doubling their lifespan. This raises new questions: if we know that genetics and lifestyle affect how long you live, which one is more important? And how do they interact?
To try to tease out the effects of genetics versus lifestyle, the new study in Nature examined different models of caloric restriction in 960 mice. The researchers specifically looked at classical experimental models of caloric restriction (either 20% or 40% fewer calories than control mice), or intermittent fasting of one or two days without food (as intermittent fasting is popular in people looking to see the positive benefits of caloric restriction).
Because we now know that small genetic variations affect ageing, the researchers specifically used genetically diverse mice. This is important for two reasons. First, as laboratory studies on mice are normally performed on genetically very (very!) similar mice, this allowed the researchers to tease out the effects of both diet and genetic variables would have on longevity.
Second, humans are highly diverse, meaning that studies on genetically near-identical mice don’t often translate into humanity’s high genetic diversity.
The headline finding was that genetics appeared to play a larger role in lifespan than any of the dietary restriction interventions. Long-lived types of mice were still longer lived despite dietary changes.
Diet counts, but genes count more
And while shorter-lived mice did show improvements as a result of dietary restrictions, they didn’t catch up to their longer-lived peers. This suggests that there’s truth to the “pick good parents” joke.
Caloric restriction models still increased lifespans across all the types of mice, with the 40% restriction group having improved average and maximum lifespans compared with the 20% group.
And the 20% group showed improvements in both group average and maximum length of lives compared with the control group. It’s just the effects of genetics were larger than the effect of the dietary interventions.
While all the caloric restriction models resulted in increased lifespan in the mice on average, in the most extreme caloric restriction model tested (40% less group) changes that could be seen as physical harms were observed. These included reduced immune function and losses in muscle mass, which outside of a predator- and germ-free laboratory environment could affect health and longevity.
There are some important caveats in studies like this. First, it’s not known if these results apply to humans.
As with most caloric restriction research in mice, the restricted feeding groups were fed 20% or 40% less than a control group who ate as much as they wanted. In humans, that’d be like assuming people eating every meal every day at a bottomless buffet is “normal”. And people who do not eat from limitless trays of food are “restricted feeding”. That’s not an exact parallel to how humans live and eat.
Second, although exercise wasn’t controlled in any way in this study, most groups did similar amounts of running in their in-cage running wheels except the 40% caloric restriction group who ran significantly more.
The researchers suggested that this extra exercise in the 40% group was the mice constantly hunting for more food. But as this group did so much more exercise than the others, it could also mean that positive effects of increased exercise were also seen in this group alongside their caloric restriction.
So, while we can’t pick our parents or change the genes we inherit from them, it is interesting to know that specific genetic variations play a significant role in the maximum age we can aspire to.
The genetic cards we’re dealt dictate how long we can expect to live. Just as important in this study, however, lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise that aim to improve lifespan should be effective regardless of the genes we have.
Bradley Elliott receives funding from the Physiological Society, the British Society for Research on Ageing, the Altitude Centre, and private philanthropic individuals, and has consulted for industry and government on longevity research. He is on the Board of Trustees of the British Society for Research on Ageing.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michelle Bentley, Professor of International Relations, Royal Holloway University of London
The Apprentice – a new film dramatising Donald Trump’s business career during the 1970s and 80s – is the latest in a presidential election full of controversy.
The movie charts Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) professional rise from an awkward nobody to hotshot real-estate tycoon. Trump’s Pygmalion-like transformation is credited to his friendship with Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Cohn was an infamous prosecutor who worked with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Communist and Lavender (homosexual) scares, and as a political fixer for Richard Nixon.
The key storyline is that Trump becomes Cohn’s apprentice, learning underhanded ways of business and Machiavellian deal-making. Other figures said to have influenced Trump’s career, such as political adviser Roger Stone, get only cameos at best.
Trump does not look good. He is portrayed as vain, using amphetamines as diet pills and getting plastic surgery including liposuction and a scalp reduction. Trump rejects his alcoholic brother and later Cohn, who dies from AIDS in social disgrace.
Trump is also shown to rape his then-wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova) – a scene which made headlines after the movie’s Cannes Film Festival premiere earlier this year. The rape claim was made during the couple’s divorce proceedings, although Ivana said afterwards that she did not consider the incident “rape” in a criminal sense.
Director Ali Abbasi says this depiction isn’t a take-down of the former president but a more nuanced exploration of Trump’s character. Indeed, there is sympathy for Trump – for example, by detailing the emotional pressure from his father.
The film explores how this experience fuelled Trump’s obsession with winning, which is cultivated by Cohn and his three rules of success: “attack, attack, attack”, “deny everything” and “never admit defeat”. The film seeks to get inside Trump’s mindset, not only as a businessperson, but unpicking what drove him in the White House, as well as the election he’s now fighting.
Some have criticised this approach for being too soft on Trump. A review in The Guardian called the film “obtuse and irrelevant”. A further concern is that presenting Trump as a “winner” could actually be seen to legitimise amoral business practices as successful, especially given that Trump’s later six bankruptcies are not clearly mentioned.
The Apprentice is also a deeper commentary on America. Another character comments that Cohn’s three rules also describe US foreign policy. The film raises big questions about the US, not least where Cohn repeatedly highlights what he identifies as the country’s virtues, and justifies his (sometimes illegal) actions as upholding these. The audience is left to consider what shapes America and its foreign policy – and what may be toxic about this.
Will the film influence the upcoming election?
The Apprentice’s screenwriter, Gabriel Sherman, insists the movie is not designed “to influence people’s minds”. Yet the film’s release so close to the polls means it is inevitably political.
The Apprentice is unlikely to radically shift the electoral needle. Trump’s negative portrayal may make some voters on the fence question his suitability for high office. But beyond this, the film will reinforce what people already thought.
Pro-Trumpers won’t like the movie, but this upset will likely just give oxygen to their support. Those against Trump will also be able to feel their opinion has been affirmed, even by those who would have wanted the film to take a harder line. Although it’s perhaps uncertain whether anyone who dislikes Trump will want to spend two hours watching even more of him than they already have in this election.
While the film likely won’t influence the final outcome, it is still a major marker in this election thanks to the huge controversy around it. Concern over its divisive portrait of Trump meant the movie took five years to reach production. Clint Eastwood turned down the option to direct due to the perceived business risk involved. Distribution also took time to secure – a situation Abbasi describes as a “boycott or censorship”.
Distribution problems were also exacerbated by legal threats. After Cannes (where the film received an eight-minute ovation), Trump’s legal team issued a cease-and-desist letter. Communications Director for the Trump election campaign, Steven Cheung, said the film was “garbage” and “pure fiction”, constituting election interference.
Strong resistance also came from billionaire and close Trump associate, Dan Snyder, who was involved in the film’s financing, thinking it would paint a positive picture of the presidential hopeful. Snyder later sought to block the film’s release after seeing a preview.
Controversy has only raised the movie’s profile. And while people will watch it for very different political reasons, some will buy a ticket purely because this film is now a standout event in one of the most contentious US elections in history.
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Michelle Bentley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kieran Maguire, Senior Teacher in Accountancy and member of Football Industries Group, University of Liverpool
When the Premier League broke away from the rest of English football in 1992, its 22 clubs generated £205 million in its debut season, and the average player earned £2,050 a week. Thirty years later, despite having two fewer clubs, the league’s revenue had increased by 2,850% to £6.1 billion and the average player earned £93,000 a week.
At the heart of this extraordinary growth is an American revolution. In the Premier League’s inaugural season, football was still in recovery from the horrors of the stadium disasters at Hillsborough and Heysel. Owners tended to be from the local area and with a business background. The only foreign owner was Sam Hamman at Wimbledon, a Lebanese millionaire who bought the club on a whim having reportedly been much more interested in tennis. The season ended with Manchester United (under Alex Ferguson) winning the English game’s top league for the first time in 26 years.
Now, if the bid for Everton by the Friedkin Group (TFG) is ratified, 11 of the 20 Premier League clubs will be controlled or part-owned by American investors. The US – long seen as football’s final frontier when it comes to the men’s game – suddenly can’t get enough of English “soccer”.
Four of the Premier League’s “big six” are American-owned – Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea – while a fifth, Manchester City, has a significant US minority shareholding. Aston Villa, Fulham, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Ipswich Town also have varying degrees of American ownership.
And it’s not even just the glamour clubs at the top of the tree. American investment has also been significant lower down the football pyramid, led by the high-profile acquisition of then non-league Wrexham by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny, and Birmingham City’s purchase by US investors including seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady. American investment in football has reached places as geographically diverse as Carlisle and Crawley in England, and Aberdeen and Edinburgh in Scotland.
Manchester United was the first Premier League club to come under American ownership – after a row about a horse.
In 2005, United was owned by a variety of investors including Irish businessmen and racehorse owners John Magnier and J.P. McManus. Their erstwhile friend Ferguson, the United manager, thought he co-owned the champion racehorse Rock of Gibraltar with them – a stallion worth millions in stud rights. They disagreed – and their bitter dispute was such that Magnier and McManus decided to sell their shares in the football club.
The Miami-based Glazer family – already involved in sport as owners of NFL franchise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – had already been buying up small tranches of shares in United, but the sudden availability of the Irish shares allowed Malcolm Glazer to acquire a controlling stake for £790 million (around £1.5 billion at today’s prices).
The fact Glazer did not actually have sufficient funds to pay for these shares was a solvable problem. In the some-might-say commercially naive world of top-flight English football before the Premier League, Manchester United was a club without debt, paying its way without leveraging its position as one of the world’s most famous football clubs. Glazer saw the opportunity this presented and arranged a leveraged buy-out (LBO), whereby the football club borrowed more than £600 million secured on its own assets to, in effect, “buy itself” in 2005.
Despite the need to meet the high interest costs to fund the LBO, United continued winning trophies under Ferguson – including three Premier League titles in a row in 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as a Champions League victory in 2008. Amid this success, the club felt that ticket prices were too low and set about increasing them, with matchday revenue increasing from £66 million in 2004/05 to over £101 million by 2007/08.
Commercial income was another area the Glazers were keen to increase. United set up offices in London and adopted a global approach to finding new official branding deals ranging from snacks to tractor and tyre suppliers – doubling revenues from this income source too.
But in this new, more aggressive world of “sweating the asset”, the debts lingered – and most United fans remained deeply suspicious of their American owners. (Following their father’s death in 2014, the club was co-owned by his six children, with brothers Avram and Joel Glazer becoming co-chairmen.)
Today, despite its partial listing on the New York Stock Exchange and the February 2024 sale of 27.7% of the club to British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe for a reputed £1.25 billion, United still has borrowings of more than £546 million, having paid cumulative interest costs of £969 million since the takeover in 2005. But with the club now valued at US$6.55 billion (around £5bn), it represents a very smart investment for the Glazer family.
Indeed, while the prices being paid for football clubs across Europe have reached record levels, they are still seen as cheap investments compared with US sports’ leading franchises. Forbes’s annual list of the world’s most valuable sports teams has American football (NFL), baseball (MLB) and basketball (NBA) teams occupying the top ten positions, with only three Premier League clubs – Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City – in the top 50.
With NFL teams having an average franchise value of US$5.1 billion and NBA $3.9 billion, many English football clubs still look like a bargain from the other side of the pond.
The risk of relegation
The latest to join this US bandwagon, TFG – a Texas-based portfolio of companies run by American businessman and film producer Dan Friedkin – is reported to have offered £400m to buy Everton, despite the club’s poor financial state.
“The Toffees” have been hit by loss of sponsorships as well as two sets of points deductions for breaching the Premier League’s financial rules, leading to revenue losses from lower league positions. While the new stadium being built at Liverpool’s Bramley-Moore dock has been yet another financial constraint, it will at least increase matchday income from the start of next season.
Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock will open in time for the start of the 2025-26 season. Phil Silverman / Shutterstock
A wider reason for the relative bargain in valuations of European football clubs is the risk of relegation – something that is not part of the closed leagues of most US sports. While the threat of relegation (and promise of promotion) has always been an integral part of English and European football, the jeopardy this brings for supporters – and a club’s finances – does not exist in the NFL, NBA, Major League Soccer and similar competitions.
The Premier League, with its three relegation spots at the end of each season, has featured 51 different clubs since it launched in 1992. Only six clubs – Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton – have been ever present, with Arsenal now approaching 100 years of consecutive top-flight football.
Other Premier League clubs have experienced the dramatic cost-benefit of relegation and promotion. Oldham Athletic, who were in the Premier League for its first two seasons, now languish in the fifth tier of the game, outside the English Football League (EFL). In contrast, Luton Town, who were in the fifth tier as recently as 2014, were promoted to the Premier League in 2023 – only to be relegated at the end of last season.
While it is difficult to compare football clubs with basketball and American football teams, the financial difference between having an open league, with relegation, and a closed league becomes apparent when you look at women’s football on both sides of the Atlantic.
Angel City, a women’s soccer team based in Los Angeles, only entered the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in 2022 and is yet to win an NWSL trophy. But last month, the club was sold for US$250 million (£188m) to Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and TV journalist Willow Bay – the most expensive takeover in the history of women’s professional sport.
In comparison, Chelsea – seven-time winners of the English Women’s Super League and one of the most successful sides in Europe – valued its women’s team at £150 million ($US196m) earlier this summer. While there are a number of factors to this price differential, the confidence that Angel City will always be a member of the big league of US soccer clubs – and share very equally in its revenue – will have made its new owners very confident in the long-term soundness of their deal.
The story of Angel City FC, the most expensive team in women’s sport.
A further attraction for American investors is the potential to enter two markets – one mature (men’s football) and one effectively a start-up (the women’s game) – in a single purchase. In the US, the top men’s and women’s clubs are completely separate. But in Europe, most top-flight women’s teams are affiliated to men’s clubs – with the exception of eight-time Women’s Champions League winners Olympique Lyonnais Feminin, which split from the French men’s club when Korean-American businesswoman Michele Kang bought a majority stake in the women’s team in February 2024).
While interest in, and hence value of, the WSL is now growing fast, the women’s game in England is dwarfed by viewer ratings for the Premier League – the most watched sporting league in the world, viewed by an estimated 1.87 billion people every week across 189 countries.
These figures dwarf even the NFL which, while currently still the most valuable of all sporting leagues in terms of its broadcasting deals, must be looking at the growth of the Premier League with some jealousy. This may explain why some US franchise owners, such as Stan Kroenke, the Glazer family, Fenway Sports Group and Billy Foley, have subsequently purchased Premier League football clubs.
Ironically, for many spectators around the world, it is the intensity and competitiveness of most Premier League matches – brought on in part by the threat of relegation and prize of European qualification – that makes it so captivating. However, billionaire investors like guaranteed numbers and dislike risk – especially the degree of financial risk that exists in the Premier League and English Football League.
European not-so-Super League
In April 2021, 12 leading European clubs (six from England plus three each from Spain and Italy) announced the creation of the European Super League (ESL). This new mid-week competition was to be a high-revenue generating, closed competition with (eventually) 15 permanent teams and five annual additions qualifying from Europe. According to one of the driving forces behind the plan, Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer:
By bringing together the world’s greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid.
The problem facing the Premier League’s “big six” clubs – and their ambitious owners – is there are currently only four slots available to play in the Champions League. So, their thinking went, why not take away the risk of not qualifying? However, the proposal was swiftly condemned by fans around Europe, together with football’s governing bodies and leagues – all of whom saw the ESL proposal as a threat to the quality and integrity of their domestic leagues. Following some large fan protests, including at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, Manchester City was the first club to withdraw – followed, within a couple of days, by the rest of the English clubs.
Under the terms of the ESL proposals, founding member clubs would have been guaranteed participation in the competition forever. Guaranteed participation means guaranteed revenues. The current financial gap between the “big six” and the other members of the Premier League, which in 2022/23 averaged £396 million, would have widened rapidly.
For example, these clubs would have been able to sell the broadcast rights for some of their ESL home fixtures direct to fans, instead of via a broadcaster. All of a sudden, that database of fans who have downloaded the official club app, or are on a mailing list, becomes far more valuable. These are the people most willing to watch their favourite team on a pay-per-view basis, further increasing revenues.
At the same time, a planned ESL wage cap would have stopped players taking all these increased revenues in the form of higher wages, allowing these clubs to become more profitable and their ownership even more lucrative.
American-owned Manchester United and Liverpool had previously tried to enhance the value of their investments during the COVID lockdowns era via ProjectBig Picture – proposals to reduce the size of the Premier League and scrap one of the two domestic cup competitions, thus freeing up time for the bigger clubs to arrange more lucrative tours and European matches against high-profile opposition.
Most importantly, Project Big Picture would have resulted in changing the governance of the domestic game. Under its proposals, the “big six” clubs would have enjoyed enhanced voting rights, and therefore been able to significantly influence how the domestic game was governed.
Any attempt to increase the concentration of power raises concerns of lower competitive balance, whereby fewer teams are in the running to win the title and fewer games are meaningful. This is a problem facing some other major European football leagues including France’s Ligue 1, where interest among broadcasters has dwindled amid the perceived dominance of Paris St-Germain.
So while to date, American-led attempts to change the structure of the Premier League have been foiled, it’s unlikely such ideas have gone away for good. The near-universal fear of fans – even those who welcome an injection of extra cash from a new billionaire owner – is that the spectacle of the league will only be diminished if such plans ever succeed.
And there is evidence from the women’s game that the US closed league format is coming under more pressure from football’s global forces. The NWSL recently announced it is removing the draft system that is designed (as with the NFL and NBA) to build in jeopardy and competitive balance when there is no risk of relegation.
Top US women’s football clubs are losing some of their leading players to other leagues, in part because European clubs are not bound by the same artificial rules of employment. In a truly global professional sport such as football, international competition will always tend to destabilise closed leagues.
Why do they keep buying these clubs?
Does this mean that American and other wealthy owners of Premier League clubs seeking to reduce their risks are ultimately fighting a losing battle? And if so, given the potential risks involved in owning a football club – both financial and even personal – why do they keep buying them?
The motivations are part-financial, part technological and, as has always been the case with sports ownership, part-vanity.
The American economy has grown far faster than that of the EU or UK in recent years. Consequently, there are many beneficiaries of this growth who have surplus cash, and here football becomes an attractive proposition. In fact, football clubs are more resilient to recessions than other industries, holding their value better as they are effectively monopoly suppliers for their fans who have brand loyalty that exists in few other industries.
From 1993 to 2018, a period during which the UK economy more than doubled, the total value of Premier League clubs grew 30 times larger. And many fans are tied to supporting one club, helping to make the biggest clubs more resilient to economic changes than other industries. While football, like many parts of the entertainment industry, was hit by lockdown during Covid, no clubs went out of business, despite the challenges of matches being played in empty stadiums.
Added to this, the exchange rates for US dollars have been very favourable until recently, making US investments in the UK and Europe cheaper for American investors.
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So, while Manchester United fans would argue that the Glazer family have not been good for the club, United has been good for the Glazers. And Fenway Sports Group (FSG), who bought Liverpool for £300 million in 2010, have recouped almost all of that money in smaller share sales while remaining majority owners of Liverpool.
Despite this, the £2.5 billion price paid for Chelsea by the US Clearlake-Todd Boehly consortium in May 2022 took markets by surprise.
The sale – which came after the UK government froze the assets of the club’s Russian oligarch owner, Roman Abramovich, following the invasion of Ukraine – went through less than a year after Newcastle United had been sold by Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund for £305 million – approximately twice that club’s annual revenues. Yet Clearlake-Boehly were willing to pay over five times Chelsea’s annual revenues to acquire the club, even though it was in a precarious financial position.
Clearlake is a private equity group whose main aim is to make profits for their investors. But unlike most such investors, who tend to focus on cost-cutting, the Chelsea ownership came in with a high-spending strategy using new financial structuring ideas, such as offering longer player contracts to avoid falling foul of football’s profitability and sustainability rules (although this loophole has since been closed with Uefa, European football’s governing body, limiting contract lengths for financial regulation purposes to five years).
Chelsea’s location in the one of the most expensive areas of London, combined with its on-field success under Abramovich, all added to the attraction, of course. But there are other reasons why Clearlake, along with billionaire businessman Boehly, were willing to stump up so much for the club.
From Hollywood to the metaverse
While some British football fans may have viewed the Ted Lasso TV show as an enjoyable if slightly twee fictional account of American involvement in English soccer, it has enhanced the attraction of the sport in the US. So too Welcome To Wrexham – the fly-on-the-wall series covering the (to date) two promotions of Wales’s oldest football club under the unlikely Hollywood stewardship of Reynolds and McElhenney.
Welcome To Wrexham, season one trailer.
The growth in US interest in English football is reflected in the record-breaking Premier League media rights deal in 2022, with NBC Sports reportedly paying $2.7 billion (£2.06bn) for its latest six-year deal.
But as well as football offering one of increasingly few “live shared TV experiences” that carry lucrative advertising slots, there may also be more opportunity for more behind-the-scenes coverage of the Premier League – as has long been seen in US coverage of NBA games, for example, where players are interviewed in the locker room straight after games.
According to Manchester United’s latest annual report, the club now has a “global community of 1.1 billion fans and followers”. Such numbers mean its owners, and many others, are bullish about the potential of the metaverse in terms of offering a matchday experience that could be similar to attending a match, without physically travelling to Manchester.
Their neighbours Manchester City, part-owned by American private equity company Silverlake, broke new (virtual) ground by signing a metaverse deal with Sony in 2022. Virtual reality could give fans around the world the feeling of attending a live match, sitting next to their friends and singing along with the rest of the crowd (for a pay-per-view fee).
Some investors are even confident that advancements in Abba-style avatar technology could one day allow fans to watch live 3D simulations of Premier League matches in stadiums all over the world. Having first-mover advantage by being in the elite club of owners who can make use of such technology could prove ever more rewarding.
More immediately, there are some indications that competitive matches involving England’s top men’s football teams could soon take place in US or other venues. Boehly, Chelsea’s co-owner, has already suggested adopting some US sports staples such as an All-Star match to further boost revenues. Indeed, back in 2008, the Premier League tentatively discussed a “39th game” taking place overseas, but that idea was quickly shelved.
The American owners of Birmingham City were keen to play this season’s EFL League One match against Wrexham in the US, but again this proposal did not get far. Liverpool’s chairman Tom Werner says he is determined to see matches take place overseas, and recent changes to world governing body Fifa’s rulebook could make it easier for this proposal to succeed.
The potential benefits of hosting games overseas include higher matchday revenues, increased brand awareness, and enhanced broadcast rights. While there is likely to be significant opposition from local fans, at least American owners know they would not face the same hostility about rising matchday prices in the US as they have encountered in England.
When the Argentinian legend Lionel Messi signed for new MLS franchise Inter Miami in 2023, season ticket prices nearly doubled on his account. And while there is vocal opposition to higher ticket prices in England, this is not borne out in terms of lower attendances for matches against high-calibre opposition – as evidenced by Aston Villa charging up to £97 for last week’s Champions League meeting with Bayern Munich.
Villa’s director of operations, Chris Heck, defended the prices by saying that difficult decisions had to be made if the club was to be competitive.
Manchester United’s matchday revenue per EPL season (£m)
For much of the 2010s, with broadcast revenues increasing rapidly, many Premier League owners made little effort to stoke hostilities with their loyal fan bases by putting up ticket prices. Indeed, Manchester United generated little more from matchday income in the 2021-22 season, as football emerged from the pandemic, than the club had in 2010-11 (see chart above).
However, this uneasy truce between fans and owners has ceased. The relative flatlining of broadcast revenues since 2017, along with cost control rules that are starting to affect clubs’ ability to spend money on player signings and wages, has changed club appetites for dampened ticket prices. This has resulted in noticeable rises in individual ticket and season ticket prices by some clubs.
However, season ticket and other local “legacy” fans generate little money compared with the more lucrative overseas and tourist fans. They may only watch their favourite team live once a season, but when they visit, they are far more likely not only to pay higher matchday prices, but to spend more on merchandise, catering and other offerings from the club.
Today’s breed of commercially aware, profit-seeking US Premier League owners – pioneered by the Glazer family, who saw that “sweating the asset” meant more than watching football players sprinting hard – understand there is a lot more value to come from English football teams. The clubs’ loyal local supporters may not like it, but English football’s American-led revolution is not done yet.
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Kieran Maguire has taught courses and presented on football finance for the Professional Footballers Association, League Managers Association, FIFA and national football associations in Europe.
Christina Philippou is affiliated with the RAF FA, and Premier League education programs.
