The UK will tell the EU next week that it must consider the millions of pounds British taxpayers spent on the creation of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab as the two sides look to resolve an ongoing row over vaccine exports.
The UK and EU are set to resume talks from tomorrow over Brussels' threats to block the export of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured at a Halix plant in the Netherlands. (Getty Images)
The UK will tell the EU next week that it must consider the millions of pounds British taxpayers spent on the creation of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab as the two sides look to resolve an ongoing row over vaccine exports.
The UK and EU are set to resume talks from tomorrow over Brussels’ threats to block the export of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured at a Halix plant in the Netherlands.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has publicly threatened to block shipments of vaccines from the plant destined for the UK, unless the company gives more units of the jab to EU countries.
AstraZeneca has fallen behind on its scheduled delivery of vaccines to the EU, with the pharma giant blaming production and supply chain issues for the delays.
The UK government made orders of the vaccine, created in Britain, earlier and on a larger scale than the EU, meaning that units manufactured in the bloc are being sent to the UK.
Von der Leyen has called for “reciprocity”, after 21m vaccine units have been sent from EU plants to the UK with none coming the other way.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that British officials will tell the EU in negotiations that it was £84m of UK government funding that helped create the jab and that without this cash no vaccine would exist.
The UK will push for overall investment into vaccines to be counted into the EU’s calculations during negotiations next week, with Boris Johnson’s government spending more than £6bn to develop and procure vaccines.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden told Sky News today: “Our position is very clear, that the EU should not be engaging in blocking exports and that they should honour the pledge that Ursula Von De Leyen gave to Prime Minister Boris Johnson a short while ago, whereby they agreed that any contracts should be honoured, so that is to say that if vaccines have been provided in honouring of the contracts, that should be honoured by the EU and we expect them to abide by that.”
East London Overground services will run all night on Fridays and Saturdays starting from Friday 15 December to help those working throughout the night, as well as those enjoying east London's nightlife.
Which bit of the Overground is getting the 24 hour service?
Services will run between New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction, but Whitechapel won't get the Night Overground service until Crossrail works are complete. That's expected to join in the fun from next summer.
Here's the route:
(Source: TfL)
Are there plans to expand the Night Overground service after that?
Yes, Transport for London (TfL) plans to extend it to Highbury & Islington next year.
So the new Night Overground service will connect up with some of the Night Tube spots?
That's correct. The Night Overground will link up with the Night Tube network at Canada Water on the Jubilee Line, and then with Highbury & Islington on the Victoria Line next year.
How many Night Tube services are there again?
Five at the moment. It began on the Central and Victoria Lines in August last year, before being rolled out onto the Jubilee Line in October, the Northern Line in November, and then the Piccadilly Line last December.
The Night Tube services:
Central Line: trains run between Ealing Broadway and Loughton / Hainault
Victoria Line: trains run on the entire line
Jubilee Line: trains run on the entire line
Northern Line: trains run from High Barnet and Edgware to Morden via the Charing Cross branch
Piccadilly Line: trains run between Cockfosters and Heathrow Terminal five
Will Night services be expanded to other Tube lines though?
TfL is eyeing a wider rollout on its sub-surface Tube lines, but has to tie up an upgrade on them first including the introduction of a new signalling system, with work underway to improve the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines.
The modernisation of the lines, due to be completed in 2023, should mean Night Tube services can be introduced on them in the future.
The decade anniversary of the device feels short and at the same time a lifetime. On 9 January 2007, we had no idea how the pocket sized computer would change our lives and business as we knew it.
The decade anniversary of the device feels short and at the same time a lifetime. On 9 January 2007, we had no idea how the pocket sized computer would change our lives and business as we knew it.
One man did, of course, and whether that was just bravado or not, reflecting 10 years later, he turned out to be right. Jobs in trademark black polo neck announced on stage at the MacWorld Expo that the “magical” iPhone would “revolutionise the industry".
The impact of the iPhone is something that WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell describes as life-changing.
“The impact has been fundamental although Blackberry missed out on a major opportunity. It changed speed, communication (both internal and external) and entertainment - in fact it's a way of life. And we're still in the foothills given virtual reality, artificial intelligence, voice recognition and more,” he said.
There were smartphones before, but the iPhone pioneered its popularity with a completely touch screen device, ushering in the age of second screens and an always on mentality - whether it be shopping, reading the news, planning a journey, getting updates from friends, looking at your finances, telling the time (bye-bye watch), watching a movie, or (unfortunately, perhaps) catching up with email.
Maybe even making a phone call? Let’s be honest that’s unlikely. No wonder on average say Ofcom, we now spend the equivalent of a day a week online.
It’s no longer the iPhone itself, but what it allows us to do.
WATCH: Steve Jobs's keynote announcing the iPhone
Five billion people in the world now have a mobile phone, 2.5bn of them are now smartphones, according to research from Benedict Evans at Andreessen Horowitz. In 2011 smartphone sales overtook that of PCs.
It wasn’t until more than a year after the first iPhone was unveiled that the app store was launched with an, at-the-time astonishing, 500 or so apps which included Facebook and MySpace.
Again, Apple didn’t invent applications, but it made them a household name via an almost magical concoction of seductive image and marketing: remember “there’s an app for that”? By 2010 app had become the word of the year.
“There’s an app for that”
And in tandem with the rise of cloud computing, anyone could quickly, easily and cheaply reach a consumer's palm - and make money from it.
Entire businesses such as Uber, Angry Birds-maker Rovio and Monzo would not exist without Apple ushering in the smartphone age with the seductive iPhone.
New figures from Apple reveal developers earned $20bn from the App Store last year, a rise of 40 per cent on 2015. Total earnings since 2008 now stand at $60bn and the global app economy is forecast to be worth $100bn by 2020, according to App Annie.
WATCH: The first TV ad for the iPhone
The UK’s digital economy now makes up 10 per cent of the UK’s GDP - the largest internet economy in the G20, according to figures from Boston Consulting Group. Official economic figures fail to take account of all the economic benefits of the digital economy, leading MPs have said, “such as time saved, increased, choice and lower cost of production.”
The London Stock Exchange’s James Clark, who is in charge of technology business development, said: “Looking at companies in the FTSE 100 over the 10 year period it’s impossible to miss the sweeping changes that digital has made to virtually entire industry base.”
Any analysis of the changing face of the FTSE over the last decade does not work half as well as those popular charts shared on social media that show how Apple and other tech firms supplanted the likes of General Electric in the US as the biggest companies, he points out.
“Take the finance sector which has comprised 25-30 per cent of FTSE 100 companies over the last decade. Banks have been digitally powered in the back-end for decades now, but in the last 10 years their customer face is almost entirely digital to the point that you now have mobile only banks,” said Clark.
"The real legacy of iPhone has been the consumer at the centre of corporate technology spending."
The world will pass the smartphone tipping point in 2017, eMarketer predicts.
“For the first time, more than half of the world’s mobile phone users 53.1 per cent, according to eMarketer’s estimate - will regularly use a smartphone,” said principal mobile analyst Cathy Boyle.
“Now, more than ever, success for businesses hinges on how quickly they learn and adapt to how smartphones are changing the way people communicate, consume media, engage with brands and shop.”
How City A.M. covered the iPhone launch
The launch of the iPhone was, as ever with Apple, long-awaited and much-hyped, with rumours swirling beforehand that it was getting into the telecoms business.
But it wasn’t a splash-worthy event. A page two picture was warranted of Steve Jobs posing with the pocket-sized device.
“UPWARDLY MOBILE: Apple spikes on unveiling of iPhone” the headline read.
“Shares in Apple Computer leapt 8 per cent in New York last night as company chief Steve Jobs, above, unveiled his latest innovation, the iPhone — a touch screen mobile phone handset.
"The device will cost from $499 to $599 (£257 to £310) and will go on sale in America from June and in Europe from October.”
In the front page, however, Apple had already made an impact, perhaps signalling things to come. An iPod urging readers to download “tomorrow’s news today” on your iPod featured.
There also appeared an unspecified mobile phone prompting you text a number to get “stories to your mobile daily from 6pm” like an early precursor to chatbots.
(Click or tap on the images to see them in full screen)
A University spin-out company is changing the way we access the Internet with the world's first "LiFi" dongle. Imagine if every light bulb in the world could ... Wednesday 5 October 2016 9:31am Steve Vance
Edinburgh-based PureLiFi is recognised as the leader in '‘LiFi’ – the use of light based communications to transmit data. (Source: PureLifi)
Imagine if every light bulb in the world could transmit data at ultrafast speeds? The global bandwidth shortage would be wiped out overnight as street lights and billions of other light sources in homes, businesses, devices and appliances were mobilised as wireless communication devices – without the need to build countless radio masts.
This ‘what if’ scenario isn’t fantasy, but is possible today using the technology and products of PureLiFi, a light communications company formed in 2012 as a spin-out from The University of Edinburgh.
“The radio spectrum is the traditional way of transmitting data, but it is limited,” explains PureLiFi founder Harald Haas, who has been developing this technology for more than ten years and is known as the ‘father of LiFi’.
“We don’t have enough capacity on the radio spectrum. What light provides is 1,000 times more capacity than radio. This additional capacity comes for free, as there is no regulation on the visible light spectrum for wireless data communication. To enable future economies to grow, we need an additional wireless data transmission lifeline, and light provides this.”
PureLiFi harnesses the very high flicker rate of LED light bulbs – which can achieve one billion on-off cycles per second versus the 100 cycles per second of a standard TV or computer monitor – to transmit data digitally.
World leader
PureLiFi is recognised as the leader in '‘LiFi’ – the use of light based communications to transmit data.The company, which employs 17 people and is based at the Edinburgh Technology Transfer Centre, recently launched the world’s first mobile LiFi dongle. Called LiFi-X, this is a data storage device the size of a credit card that allows users to connect to the Internet when they walk under an LED light source.
This represents a key step towards mass-market adoption and helped secure Series B financing from Singaporean investment company Temasek. PureLiFi has now raised over $12m to date.
“We’ve had strong support from Singaporean investor Temasek and we now have funding to grow the business significantly over the next couple of years,” Haas says. “It will be a steep uphill journey, but we’re now on the way to leveraging a good fraction of the $100bn LiFi market opportunity forecasted by 2024.”
Professor Harald Haas, co-founder and chief scientific officer, PureLiFi:
There are also very good skills here in Scotland, there are many universities and in the photonics space, the skills being developed here at The University of Edinburgh’s Informatics Forum are the best in the UK."
Growth environment
In 2013, The University of Edinburgh set up the Li-Fi Research & Development Centre to lead the global development of Li-Fi technology.
“The University of Edinburgh has been hugely supportive – they see the benefit of the technology we’ve brought to Edinburgh,” Haas says. “They have also provided funding through local mechanisms like Scottish Enterprise’s Proof of Concept funding, and that has given me the freedom to develop novel and different ideas.”
“Scotland also has a strong angel investor base, to help small businesses develop concepts into commercial products,” Haas adds.
Edinburgh’s award-winning lifestyle is another key benefit.
“The quality of life was an important factor for my family when we came to live here,” he adds. “We enjoy the schools and the outdoor activities. It’s very unique that within 20 minutes you can enjoy being out of reach of anyone.”
Global ambition
Since 2013, PureLiFi has recorded year-on-year revenue increases of over 300 per cent and has secured international partnerships to develop new LiFi-enabled products and services with businesses including Cisco, and Lucibel.
“We want to grow PureLiFi into a large, multiple hundred million dollar company in a relatively short time,” Haas says. “Because once we turn any LED light bulb into a LiFi light bulb, many new applications can run on that device.”
“In the future, the LiFi function will be integrated into any smart phone or smart device. It will be in every home appliance, allowing them to connect to the Internet as part of the new ‘Internet-of-Things’. LiFi will be in every street lamp, in every car headlight, in every aircraft and in every public building."
"Companies will be able to develop new applications around that technology, and this will allow us to develop a new LiFi ecosystem in this region that will provide great commercial and economic benefits for this country.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that Night Tube services will start on the Piccadilly line on Friday 16 December – sticking to his pledge to have five lines running by the end of the year.
It follows the launch of the service on the Central, Victoria and Jubilee lines, with the Northern line getting the Night Tube treatment on Friday 18 November. The Mayor hopes that by getting the Piccadilly line Night Tube up and running before Christmas, it should provide a boost for festive shoppers, as well as those enjoying the capital's nightlife.
The 24-hour weekend Piccadilly line service will run between Cockfosters and Heathrow Terminal 5. It'll make it easier for Londoners and visitors to the capital to visit everywhere from Kensington to Hammersmith and the West End after hours.
Patricia Bench, Hammersmith BID director, said: "People who come here to enjoy an evening at the Eventim Apollo or Lyric Hammersmith won’t have to rush off to make the last Tube; they’ll now have the option to stay a bit longer and make the most of the town’s pubs and restaurants.”
More than one million journeys have already been made on the Night Tube. The services are cutting journeys across the capital by an average of 20 minutes and are expected to boost the capital's night-time economy by £77m a year, supporting around 2,000 permanent jobs.
We’ve seen how enthusiastically Londoners have embraced the Night Tube, and I am delighted that we’ve exceeded expectations with more than one million journeys made already. The addition of the Piccadilly line will help even more thousands of Londoners every weekend, from those taking in the capital’s cultural landmarks to the many workers who keep London open around the clock.
After months of umming and ahh-ing, London’s long-awaited Night Tube services launch exactly a week from today on 19 August (hurrah). Friday 12 August 2016 10:00am Nina Edy
The 24-hour weekend service will begin on Central and Victoria lines from 19 August (Source: Getty)
Transport for London (TfL) first unveiled plans for a 24-hour Tube service in September 2014 - the bright idea of then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Ready to get going? Here’s everything we know so far.
Which lines included in the launch?
The first lines to open will be the Victoria and Central lines, with the Victoria Line running through the entire route while the Central line trains will run between Ealing Broadway and Loughton / Hainault
The initial Night Tube service map (Source: www.tfl.gov.uk)
Timings
Central Line trains are expected to run every 10 minutes between White City and Leytonstone, and approximately every 20 minutes between Ealing Broadway and White City, and Leytonstone and Loughton/ Hainault.
There will be no Night Tube services between North Acton and West Ruislip, Loughton and Epping, or Woodford and Hainault.
Meanwhile, the Victoria Line will run every 10 minutes.
What next?
Other lines to be added later in the Autumn include:
Jubilee line: trains will run on the entire line.
Northern line: trains will run on the entire line except on the Mill Hill East and Bank branches.
“We also plan to expand the night time service to parts of the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines once our modernisation programmes are complete” TfL has said.
