London's West End plunged into darkness after mass power cut - Photos!

A power cut has plunged parts of central London into darkness.

It has hit the busy Soho entertainment district, which is packed with tourists, Black Friday shoppers and people out to enjoy the nightlife.

UK Power Networks said that "engineers are now on site" and have started investigations in to the cause of the blackout.

People at the scene posted images on social media of darkened streets, and Piccadilly Circus with many of its famous lights extinguished.

Theatregoers heading for the West End performance of Aladdin the Musical were told it had been cancelled.

A spokesman for the Disney West End musical, playing at the Prince Edward Theatre, tweeted: "Due to the ongoing power cut in Central London we regret that tonight's performance has been cancelled. Tickets will be refunded. Please refer to your original point of purchase for full details. We regret any disappointment or inconvenience caused by this unavoidable occurrence. Thank you."

The power cut meant that the bright lights of billboards in the West End went out, while rush hour commuters and office workers found themselves in darkness.

Passer-by Adrie van der Luijt tweeted: "You can't see where you are walking throughout Soho, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown. Astonishing. No traffic lights."

Transport for London said the Tube network has not been hit by the powercut but that travellers had been held at the stations such as Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus to prevent overcrowding.

UK Power Networks later tweeted that e ngineers had been able to get some power back on to the area by re-routing around the fault. Engineers estimated that power would be back on between 8.30 and 9.30pm.

 AP

Naira gains against dollar at interbank market

The Naira on Wednesday appreciated against the dollar at the interbank market, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The Nigerian currency gained 50k to close at N304.50 compared to N305 it traded on Tuesday.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the Naira was sold at N400 CBN controlled rate, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro traded at N565 and N500, respectively.

Skeletal, but clandestine trading at the parallel market saw the Naira close at N470 to a dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N565 and N500, respectively.

Traders said that dollar scarcity persisted in the market as dealers seek more unconventional ways of meeting the needs of their customers.

Security agents have repeatedly raided the black market in a bid to force down the exchange rate.

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday backed the ongoing crackdown on currency parallel market traders.

NAN

CBN endorses SSS raid on currency traders

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday endorsed the crackdown on parallel market forex traders by the officials of the Department of State Services (SSS) across the country.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

According to Mr. Emefiele, the foreign exchange regulation in the country forbids trafficking in currency.

He said that the SSS had the right to enforce the law and make sure that currency hawkers were forced out of the “illegal trade.’’

The governor, who said it was demeaning for traders to hawk currency on the streets, urged the traders to legitimise their business by applying for Bureau De Change (BDC) licence.

Officials of the SSS raided the parallel markets in Lagos, Abuja and Onitsha last week over alleged arbitrary sale of forex.

The raid, which worsened dollar scarcity at its wake, forced the naira to settle at N465 to a dollar.

Earlier, members of the MPC unanimously voted in favour of retaining the Monetary Policy Ratio (MPR) at 14 per cent, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 percent and the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.

The governor said that the members of the committee took the decision after a critical assessment of the risks to the economy.

NAN

Buhari Employs 200,000 Graduates

All is now set for the deployment of 200,000 unemployed graduates selected in the first batch of the Buhari administration’s plan to hire half a million Nigerians.

While the 200,000 were selected about two weeks ago, their names have now been sent to state governments and the FCT, who will deploy them to their specific program assignments.

The names will also be published this week on the N-Power internet portal, while the participants will start receiving SMS messages informing them of their selection as from Monday November 21, 2016.

State governments and the FCT are also encouraged to post the names of the successful first batch applicants in their local government areas while there would be further public announcements.

Between now and the end of the month, the states and the FCT would be engaged in deploying the graduates who would formally start working and earning their stipends on December 1, 2016.

Of the 200,000 in the first batch, 150,000 will teach, 30,000 will work in the agricultural sector and 20,000 in healthcare delivery, covering the three specific program assignments.

The N-Power Volunteer Corps is an expression of President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to invest in the human capital development of Nigerian citizens, particularly our young people.

The N-Power program is also an innovative means to enhance ailing public services in the area of basic education and primary healthcare. In the agricultural sector, it is aimed at achieving self-sufficiency by giving our farmers relevant advisory services.

The Federal Government of Nigeria hereby congratulates all 200,000 successful applicants in the first batch, and they are encouraged to take this opportunity seriously by learning the skills that will brighten their future. They are also implored to serve their communities with commitment and dedication.

For those who have not been selected at this time, there is a waiting list based on the total number of applicants, and subsequent batches will absorb more of the qualified applicants.

All together, the N-Power will engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates. It is a paid volunteering program of a 2-year duration that engages graduates in their immediate communities, where they will assist in improving the inadequacies in the education, health, and agriculture sectors.

The 500,000 graduates under the N-Power Corps program will be trained in skills that will enable them exit after two years to economically viable job and business opportunities.

As part of the program, the participants will own tablets that will contain information necessary for their specific engagements, as well as information for their continuous training and developments.

Participants will be provided teaching, instructional, and advisory solutions in 4 main focus areas, and will be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 during the program. The 4 main focus areas are in basic education, agriculture extension services, public health and community education (civic and adult education).

Besides the N-Power program for undergraduates, there are other schemes for non-graduates. These are: N-Power Knowledge, which would select 25,000 young Nigerians and N-Power Build 75,000, all of whom shall be trained and paid during the duration of the scheme.

NAN

Justin Trudeau tries to ease nerves over relationship with U.S. under Trump

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and leaders from Asian and Pacific nations — so eager to cement free trade in the region — are walking out of an annual summit facing an uncertain future about the movement of goods, people and services across borders.

That uncertainty has been created with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and his anti-trade rhetoric set to take over the White House, potentially leaving a leadership vacuum on the world stage.

Trudeau said on Sunday that he looks forward to welcoming Trump to Canada, hopefully soon after his inauguration in January. Following a meeting with outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama, Trudeau added that the two leaders discussed the softwood lumber trade issue that stems from an expired 2006 export agreement.

In the meeting with Trudeau, Obama spoke about the work the two have done on refugees and climate change — two areas where Trump has voiced concerns and vowed to roll back environmental funding and put in stricter immigration rules. Obama praised Trudeau and said he looked forward to the prime minister's continued leadership on those issues in the coming years.

Obama said he and Trudeau are going to push to get as much work completed on thinning the borders during the last two months of his presidency.

Trudeau said the ongoing softwood lumber dispute and pre-clearance for visitors crossing borders were among the issues the two discussed.

In a seeming nod to the shadow of Trump hanging over the summit, the outgoing president tried to ease nerves in Canada that the Liberal prime minister would clash with the Republican president-elect, who has also threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement unless he gets concessions from Canada.

"One thing that I think should be emphasized is that through Conservative governments, Liberal governments, Democratic or Republican governments, the relationship between the United States and Canada is one of the most important constants in the world and I have no doubt that that will continue," Obama said.
Trump may kill TPP

Trump's anti-trade rhetoric has shaken up the agenda of the meeting, particularly his threat to cancel a Pacific Rim trade pact that includes Canada.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would open up trade among 12 nations encompassing nearly 40 per cent of the world's GDP, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the United States.

Trump has vowed to pull the U.S. out of the deal, a move that would effectively kill the agreement that U.S. President Barack Obama touted as a counterbalance to China's growing economic sway in the Asia-Pacific region.

During a closed-door session Saturday with TPP members, Obama urged them not to give up on the deal.

Leaders in the room voiced support for moving ahead with trade pact if the stars aligned in the coming months, and no country said it was ready to walk away from the agreement, according to international officials who were in the room, but not authorized to speak publicly about the talks.

The final declaration from the 21 leaders of Asian and Pacific countries speaks of keeping borders open to trade, avoiding currency manipulation and devaluation, and ensuring that everyone benefits from economic growth because not all countries and sectors have rebounded equally from the 2008 global financial crisis.

Trump has referenced each of those as things he wants addressed in trade deals that he believes are unfair for the American economy.

"We're trying to focus in on globalization and economic growth that is also inclusive and sustainable. That's easy to say, but it's quite complex to know what it can actually mean in terms of policy development," said Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC secretariat.

China's president promised delegates at the conference that his country would continue to push for free trade deals in the region, saying countries needed to come closer together instead of being pulled further apart.

Xi Jinping vowed to give foreign investors more access to his country and to create pilot areas to test free trade in China.

CBC News

Ford going ahead with moving small car production to Mexico - CEO

Ford Motor Co is moving ahead with plans to shift production of small cars to Mexico from Michigan, while "two very important products" will be built in its U.S. factories, Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields told Reuters on Tuesday.

President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Ford for the decision to shift production of Focus small cars to Mexico in 2018, and said he would consider levying tariffs on Mexican-made Fords. Trump has also said he wants to scrap the North American Free Trade agreement, which also includes Canada, and to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop undocumented immigrants.

"We're going forward with our plan to move production of the Ford Focus to Mexico, and importantly that's to make room for two very important products we'll be putting back into Michigan plants," Fields said in an interview on the sidelines of the Los Angeles Auto Show. "There will be no job impact whatsoever with this move."

Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said last month he met with Trump. Ford has countered Trump's criticism, saying the company, founded by his great-grandfather, makes more cars and trucks in the United States than any other automaker.

Fields said with U.S. gasoline prices so low, "it's very difficult for us to be able to make money on a vehicle produced in the U.S." in the small car segment. If Ford decided to build the Focus small car line in the United States, and had to raise the price, "we wouldn't sell the vehicle."

The group that represents Ford and other major automakers in the U.S. has asked the Trump transition team to review and consider easing the Obama administration's fuel economy standards, which call for automakers to more than double the fuel efficiency of their fleets to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Fuel economy and trade "are two separate issues," Fields said.

Ford also is moving ahead with plans to use factory capacity in other markets to fill gaps in its U.S. lineup. Company executives used the auto show to promote a small sport utility vehicle called the EcoSport that the company plans to ship from India.

"We already have the plants and investment in other parts of the world. It frees us up to make further investments in the U.S.," Fields said, pointing to the money invested to launch a new SuperDuty pickup at a plant in Kentucky.

Ford has cautioned investors that it sees demand for cars and light trucks hitting a plateau in the United States. Fields said heading into the last two months of the year "we are seeing a tougher pricing environment."

"We expect the industry to be about the same as it was last year, probably a little lower on the retail side, and a continuing competitive pricing environment," Fields said.

Reuters

Naira loses ground to the dollar in all markets

The naira on Monday fell freely at the official interbank market to exchange at N350 to a dollar from N328 it traded last Friday.

At the Bureau De Change segment, the naira closed at N385 against the dollar, CBN rate, while the pound sterling and the euro closed at N564 and N510 respectively.

Trading at the parallel market saw the naira exchanged at N470 to the dollar, falling from N468 on Friday, while the pound sterling and the euro traded at N560 and N510 respectively.

Traders at the market express hope that the naira would see better days as Diaspora remittances was expected to boost liquidity at the yuletide season.

The Cable

Alibaba revenue beats expectations with strong e-commerce, media growth

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Thursday reported a 55 percent rise in second-quarter revenue, beating analyst estimates, on the back of core online sales and strong media and entertainment growth.

Revenue reached 34.3 billion yuan ($5.07 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with the 33.9 billion yuan average of 24 analyst estimates surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Net income attributable to shareholders fell to 2.97 yuan per share, or 0.45 cents, a 67 percent drop from 8.87 yuan per share in the year-earlier quarter.


($1 = 6.7600 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Yahoo Finance

These are the most innovative countries in the world

Switzerland has once again topped the table as the world’s most innovative economy, in the latest World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report.

It is the seventh year in a row that Switzerland has claimed the title. The European nation scores highly on a range of indices, but particularly well for high quality enterprises across sectors that strive for innovation and for commercially applicable products.

Keeping the competitive edge

The 2016-2017 report assesses the competitiveness landscape of 138 economies and ranks them based on several factors.

High scoring countries must have an environment that is conducive to innovative activity and one that is supported by both the public and the private sectors.

This could mean investment in research and development and the presence of high quality research institutions.

The report says that, “In these economies, firms must design and develop cutting-edge products and processes to maintain a competitive edge and move toward even higher value-added activities”

This year’s most notable change is Japan’s drop in the table. Consistently ranked in the top five between 2007 and 2015, Japan moves down three positions and now ranks eighth for innovation.

The role of innovation

Innovation continues to be a crucial building block for successful economies across the globe.

The report says that innovation occurs “in an ecosystem where businesses, regulations, and social norms promote connectivity, creativity, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and the adoption of the latest technologies to generate new ideas and bring new products and business models to market.”

WEFORUM