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Social media influencers carry more weight than government ministers in persuading customers about travel, according to the boss of Hays Travel.

Speaking at Travel Weeklys Future of Travel Spring Forum, chair Dame Irene Hays said travel had become much more fashionable and fast-moving.

People watch what is current, and whats trending and what the influencers are highlighting at a given time, she said. Then you see a flurry of enquiries.

Hays Travel having its own tour operation made it easier to react to trends, she said. When you can control that within the business and because were a very flat structure in Hays Travel we dont have any hierarchy really you can see where that demand is, you can respond much more quickly, said Hays.

She said various comments by government ministers about whether its legal to book holidays influences consumer sentiment and behaviour to an extent, but added: I dont think it has as much of an impact as the social influencers do, or what has most recently been shown on television.

What were seeing is a vastly more fast-moving market around appetite than we ever have before. Travel is becoming a fashionable product, and must-have its influenced by which celebrity is seen where, or what is popular.

Hays said the days the brochure being relevant were long-gone. Now, the time frame around responding to customer appetite is vastly faster than it has ever been before, she said.

Ministers might have some influence. I do not think they are the most influential. But clearly, in terms of regulation and prevention they are. But its a mixed picture. So we sometimes see some surprising spikes, and then you realise why.

As well as making Hays Travel more fleet of foot, Hays said the in-house tour operation also allowed it to look after customers better.

When we introduced the peace of mind guarantee, the rationale behind was so we could take control and make sure that our customers were looked after properly. And if they wanted to cancel, or they wanted to amend, that we would make arrangements with our suppliers for that to happen without all of the problems we experienced during 2020, she said.

Revealing that the tour operation was still relatively small compared to the groups overall business, but growing slowly, Hays said future scope of the division would depend on market demand.

Were absolutely delighted with the arrangements which weve put in place with colleagues whove joined us [from Travel2] and our existing colleagues. Its the depth and the quality of the product and [going forward] its a case of watching what the market wants, said Hays.

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Social media stars 'more influential than government ministers' on travel - Travel Weekly UK

Ever since The Circle returned for series three, its been keeping us uentertained with all the crazy twists and the incredible contestants in The Circle 2021 line-up.

So far weve seen multiple catfish, one clone, and contestants playing slightly different versions of themselves, as they all aim to win the 100k cash prize.

The Circle works by contestants communicating solely through a social media app, and they never get to meet one another until a blocking takes place, with each contestant living in a separate apartment in the Salford block of flats.

From time to time, we see contestants move around the apartment block, whether that be to visit the gym or the roof top jacuzzi. And this year, the shows host Emma Willis was given her own room to deliver messages to the contestants.

So, how does it all work? And how do the contestants never hear each other?!

Its not unusual for contestants to get quite excited in their apartments when alerts are made, so how comes none of the other contestants hear them? In The Circle this could be a HUGE giveaway!

RadioTimes.com spoke to the shows executive producer Toni Ireland, and creative director Tim Harcourt who filled us in on what happens behind the scenes, from how they stop the contestants from bumping into one another when they leave their apartments, to how the social media app works. (Spoiler alert: Its not actually voice activated.)

Read on to discover the secrets of The Circle.

The show is located in a block of flats in Salford, however, Channel 4 only has access to 10 apartments, plus some extra rooms.

Toni explained: So we have a apartment block in Salford and a few months before, we start to rig it with cameras and sound and we have our art director who goes in and designs all of the apartments so that theyre all looking amazing each year and brand new. That takes a few months to set up and then our players enter and we start the show.

She added: We have 10 apartments which are decorated for the players to go and live in and we have them on rotation, so if a player gets blocked, well go in and do a refresh and then another player might move. We have the extra spaces like the yoga room, the gym and the roof terrace, and then this year, Emma had her room where she could go in and create some mischief.

To capture all the madness, over 100 cameras are used, says Toni.

Weve got about 115 cameras throughout the apartment block. I could also probably tell you how much cabling we use theres a lot! So, thats in each apartment and covering our extra spaces as well which is their sort of the chill out area. We call them hotheads, so theyre all sort of remote cameras which are controlled by our gallery, she explained.

On the show, we only ever really see the contestants in their apartments and occasionally in the gym, or on the roof terrace enjoying a soak in the jacuzzi. But thats as far as they can go. Players cant leave the building completely until after theyre blocked.

Jodi continued: Once theyre in The Circle, they are part of The Circle. The biggest challenge in this show is not giving anyones identity away so we could never risk them leaving the building or overhearing production. That might give away the magic of the show so we have to be super careful on that.

The Circle Channel 4

One of the things that has had us confused when watching The Circle is how the show manages to keep the contestants from hearing one another when theyre in their apartments.

Believe it or not, we think these apartments must have pretty thick walls because they just dont hear each other, Toni explained.

In Series one, when Freddie used to scream, we were like, How can you not hear Freddie? but they didnt. When were moving the players around the building, we make sure theyre extra careful so they have ear defenders when theyre moving from their apartments.

She continued: All our players are offered gym time and outdoor space each day and its like mission controlled in the gallery. We can see all our players on the cameras and we have a floor team as well in the apartment building who are there to move the players around. So the gallery will know whos in the gym, and then well move them back to their apartments and then the coast is clear to send the next person to the gym. So thats how we ensure that the players dont bump into each other.

Contestants are, however, given a day off filming to do whatever they like (except leave the building.)

For this day, filming stops completely and they dont have to interact with any of the other contestants.

There normally is one day a week that we call a down day, Tim revealed.

Sometimes theres a few late nights where theyre up recording till like one in the morning, playing games so we make sure they get a day where theyre not on camera. The game just stops, like half time in a football match and most of them spend the day eating takeaway, watching Netflix or having a nap. We dont let them watch the outside world like the news or anything. Thats the closest it sort of gets to normal life in there on that down day.

Natalya The Circle 2021 contestant Channel 4

Despite being allowed a day off, contestants must still abide by the rules of the game and arent allowed contact with the outside world, which means they cant use their mobile phones.

I think this is the hardest thing for players that go in there. Theyre like, What do I do with myself? Im normally on my phone during my downtime. This is why I suppose you see the players doing jigsaws or playing Jenga. Theyre not addicted to their phones like theyd usually be. We couldnt risk anything like that when we were making it, Toni said.

On series three, we watched Billy struggle with how to work the oven. He did eventually get it to work, and you might be surprised to hear that despite his lack of ability, he did have to fend for himself and cook his meals on the show as there are no cooks or cleaners in the building.

Its down to them, Toni said.

This is the interesting thing for me. I love watching what each player cooks and what they order. We take a food order before they join The Circle and make sure their fridge is stocked. I always remember Dan from series one used to make the most amazing meals. He was like hollowing out pineapples and then other players are sat there with a pot noodle. I love this sort of window into peoples lives. Some do a roast dinner on a Sunday, and then you had Billy this year who couldnt even turn on the oven.

So, do the contestants get any help?

We dont let them starve, Toni laughed. We can give them a nudge like with how to work things.

The Circles Yolanda has cloned Tally, and has become Orange Tally Channel 4

On The Circle, we see contestants reading out their messages, which instantly appear in the chat on the social media app, however, it isnt actually voice activated. In reality, each player actually has a producer who writes their messages down after theyre dictated.

I think its no secret that its not actually voice activated, Tim said. We did look into that right at the beginning but I think theres a reason why that doesnt work that well because its really hard. So, the contestants dictate their message and we read it back because we dont want people saying anything wrong or offensive and then it goes through the system.

Everyone has their own individual producer who dictates what theyre saying. Theyre sat in the gallery, which is almost like air traffic control so theres a desk and a producer for each of the players and they have a relationship with them. They help them type up the messages theyre going to send and they get to know them quite well.

As its not actually a super-fast, voice-activated network, things actually take a lot longer than it appears on the one hour episode.

Toni explained: Things take longer than you would imagine. A player constructs a message, they dictate it, it appears on the screen, we make sure theyre happy with it, they send it, the other player receives it and theyre constantly telling us how they feel about things as well. So its not as quick as your WhatsApp.

Its like WhatsApping your nan. It can take a while, Tim added.

The Circle series three contestants Channel 4

While we only ever see about 10 players on the show, there are actually about 12 more in lockdown ready to go in once a contestant is blocked, but they dont all get used for the series.

We have a pool of contestants who are potentially going into the series and theyre sort of on lockdown and are waiting to be pooled and asked to go in, Toni said.

Speaking of the need to keep The Circle diverse, Tim explained why they dont always get used.

He said: Theres a pool because you wouldnt want it to be all men. We want diversity. We have a good pool of about 10/12 extra people.

The Circle continues Sunday-Friday, 10pm on Channel 4 and All4. To apply to take part in a potential future series of The Circle visithttps://www.thecirclecasting.com or email: thecircle@studiolambert.comCheck out the rest of our Entertainmentcoverage or visit ourTV Guide to see whats on tonight.

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All the behind-the-scenes facts from The Circle 2021 - from the number of cameras to how the social media app works - RadioTimes

Those fighting to halt climate change call the Amazon rainforest the "lungs of Earth," and they're frustrated that Brazil's current president has made his country a chain-smoker.

A healthy Amazon is crucial for the global fight against climate change. Human activity is pumping unsustainable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, trapping enough heat to warm the planet in ways that profoundly disrupt the climate. Trees, and the soils they grow in, store carbon that might otherwise reach the atmosphere, but trees that are cut down or burned release more carbon into the air.

That makes rapid deforestation of the Amazon an urgent problem for the entire planet. Clearcutting of trees in the region has been a problem for decades, but the January 2019 inauguration of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil, home to more than 60 percent of the remaining Amazon tree cover, has made matters much worse.

Bolsonaro has stripped environmental protection agencies of funding and manpower, which flashes a bright green light to those who want to cut and burn trees to open land for farms and cattle ranches. Bolsonaro's bid to use Brazil's military to police the Amazon has failed, perhaps because the president himself and some of Brazil's army brass may not believe in the mission.

The results speak for themselves. In 2019, more than one-third of all destruction of the world's tropical forests took place inside Brazil alone. The Amazon lost more trees in 2019 than at any point in the previous decade, and then, despite the pandemic, beat that record again in 2020. When confronted with evidence that the number of fires in the Amazon has spiked sharply on his watch, Bolsonaro accused "greenies" environmental activists of setting the fires deliberately to "bring problems to Brazil."

Bolsonaro and his supporters in Brazil don't like it when outsiders demand new protections for the Amazon. "OUR SOVEREIGNTY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE," he tweeted last year in response to threats of economic sanctions over the Amazon from then-US presidential candidate Joe Biden.

But outsiders concerned about the climate are increasing their pressure. The EU has warned that failure to protect the rainforest is an important obstacle to completion of a blockbuster trade deal between Europe and Mercosur, a Brazil-dominated South American trade bloc. Institutional investors are pushing too. But Brazil has (so far) been able to resist these pressures, in part because it exports far more to China than to either the US or Europe, and Beijing isn't pushing for change.

That said, economic threats have helped mobilize Brazil's business community. Many companies have promised to cut carbon emissions and to remove products produced via deforestation from their supply chains. An alliance of Brazilian CEOs and scientists has called for investment in sustainable development.

But so far, Bolsonaro has shrugged off external and internal pressure for a change of course, in part, perhaps, because a challenging election campaign next year might depend on the continued support of his political base including farmers and ranchers in the Amazon, who say that their industry is important for feeding Brazil and maintaining the country's position as an agriculture superpower. In particular, Brazil is now the world's top exporter of soy beans.

Joe Biden hopes a mix of carrots and sticks might help. The new US president has asked his climate envoy John Kerry to lead an international effort to raise $20 billion for the Amazon, though there are plenty of debates to come over how that money should be used. The money won't flow unless deforestation is reduced, but the new US president hopes that engaging, rather than threatening, Bolsonaro can produce a better result.

In the end, the size and density of the Amazon is itself part of the problem. The ground it covers is larger than all of Western Europe, so whatever agreements are forged and promises made, it will never be easy to police Amazon deforestation.

But Ibama, Brazil's civilian environmental protection agency, must be given the resources to try, climate experts warn, because those trees are crucial for all of us.

See the original post here:
Who controls the lungs of Earth? - GZERO Media

Inkbit, an MIT spinout that has developed a first-of-its-kind 3D printing platform with vision-based feedback control, has secured a $1.7 research grant from the United States Air Force. As part of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, Inkbit will build three of its additive manufacturing systems, which will ultimately be installed at USAF bases across the United States.

Since having launched the Inkbit Vista just a month ago, Inkbit has caused quite a stir in the AM industry and has already attracted the interest of the U.S. military. The highly automated polymer AM technology, called Vision-Controlled Jetting (VCJ), is based on inkjet deposition technology, integrates closed-loop feedback control, multi-material capabilities and is powered by 3D machine vision and AI. The system is intended to facilitate the transition from prototyping to full-scale production through the combination of advanced computational techniques and a highly scalable configuration.

The three systems destined for USAF use are some of the young companys first commercial systems. The first to be available will be deployed by the Texas National Guard to facilitate the production of parts. The USAF contract will reportedly also fund the development of technical improvements and software tools to advance Inkbits proprietary technology and vision system. This will specifically draw from research conducted by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Texas National Guard is proud to be the leader in adopting additive manufacturing into the National Guard, said Lt. Col. Alex Goldberg, Chief Innovation Officer, Texas Air National Guard. We are excited to take the technology developed by agencies like DARPA to initiate expeditionary parts production efforts that will greatly reduce costs across the force.

We are thrilled to be awarded this substantial contract from the United States Air Force, added Davide Marini, co-founder and CEO at Inkbit. We are at an inflection point in our business where the technology is undoubtedly making a difference in how additive manufacturing is used to create materials that are appropriate for end-use, pass quality assurance standards, and reduce general production costs from legacy systems. We are looking forward to working with the USAF and are excited to make a difference with additive manufacturing.

Inkbit is also notable for having received substantial funding from a series of high profile investors, including Stratasys, DSM Venturing, Ocado, IMA, 3M and Saint-Gobain. Prior to the USAF contract, the company had raised $15 million in equity investments, and had already received funding from DARPA and NSF. The companys Inkbit system is available for pre-order.

Original post:
Inkbit to supply Vision-Controlled Jetting 3D printers to USAF in $1.7M contract - 3DPMN

REFORMS OVERVIEW

STARTING A BUSINESS (more info)

At the fifteenth position, worldwide, and first in Africa, under the Starting a Business index of the 2020 Doing Business ranking, Togo sustains its reformative dynamics with more reforms.

ENFORCING CONTRACTS (more info)

Compared to some years ago when it was one of the lowest rankers under the Doing Business Enforcing Contracts indicator, Togo, leveraging many efforts to improve its business climate, was able to jump significantly on the index in the recent years... .

CONTRACT EXECUTION (more info)

Creation of special chambers of commerce for small debts Creation of chambers of commerce at the Court of Appeal Civil and commercial cases now handled by distinct clerks Establishment of commercial courts in Lom and Kara Lawyers and bailiffs now have access to the FORSETI COMMERCIAL platform A maximum period of 100 days was fixed to settle a commercial dispute .

TRADING ACROSS BORDERS (more info)

In comparison to previous years,Togo has significantly improved its ranking under theTrading across borders indicator by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

In comparison to previous years, Togo has significantly improved its ranking on the Trading across borders index by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitalization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (more info)

After moving from the 133rd to 127th place under the 2020 Doing Business construction permit index, Togo intends to reiterate this feat in the coming edition of the global ranking. To this end, it has introduced this year multiple reforms.

GETTING ELECTRICITY (more info)

Over the past two years, Togos ranking under the Doing Business Getting electricity and water indicator has increased consistently. Owing this performance to multiple reforms aimed at making it easier for businesses to access power and water, Lom plans to introduce even more reforms this year to keep up its improvements.

REGISTERING A PROPERTY (more info)

Out of all the 'Doing Business indicators, Property Registration is where Togo has improved the most since 2018. Indeed, after spending years in the lowest part of this ranking, the country now seeks to beat Rwanda which is the best performer on this index in Africa. To do so, Lom has been introducing many reforms, with the latest batch implemented this year.

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT(more info)

From professionalization to digitization, through legislative regulations, Togos public procurement framework is constantly being modernized. Several reforms have been implemented to improve the sector much to the benefit of the private sector, which is the focus of the National Development Plan.

PAYING TAXES AND DUTIES (more info)

To improve its business environment, Togo introduced some important reforms related to the payment of tax and duties. From the replacement of some taxes to the cancellation of others through exemptions, the country has only one objective: offer the most attractive tax framework to investors and economic operators. To achieve this, the authorities relied on digitization.

Excerpt from:
Government to reinforce controls after a surge in Covid-19 cases - Togo First