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Have your say on Hate Crimes Bill

The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services has invited stakeholders and interested parties to give written submissions on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and the Hate Speech Bill.

Committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said the purpose of the Bill is, among others, to give effect to South Africa’s obligations in terms of the Constitution and international human rights instruments concerning racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, in accordance with international law obligations.

The Bill aims to provide for the offence of hate crime and the offence of hate speech, and the prosecution of persons who commit those offences. It aims to provide for appropriate sentences that may be imposed on persons who commit hate crime and hate speech offences.

“[It] also provides for the prevention of hate crimes and hate speech, provides for reporting on the implementation, application and administration of this Act, and effect consequential amendments to certain Acts of Parliament,” Magwanishe said.

Submissions must be received by no later than 1 October 2021, and submitters must indicate their interest in making a verbal presentation.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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SA’s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 80 000

South Africa’s COVID-19 death toll has crossed the 80 000 mark, after 516 more people succumbed to the respiratory disease on Wednesday.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), this means COVID-19 has claimed 80 469 lives to date.

Meanwhile, there are 13 251 more people who were confirmed to have contracted the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the laboratory-confirmed cases to 2 722 202.

According to the public health institute, KwaZulu-Natal recorded most infections after 3 627 people tested positive.

The province is followed by the Western Cape, which accounted for 3 338 new infections, 1 783 in the Eastern Cape, and 1 317 in Gauteng.

The NICD said the latest daily increase represents a 20% positivity rate even though the seven-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased.

Meanwhile, there has been an increase of 606 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.

The information is based on 16 162 825 tests, of which 66 244 were performed since the last reporting cycle.

In addition, 268 712 COVID-19 doses were administered on Wednesday, pushing the tally to 11 363 810.

The latest data show that Gauteng, Western Cape, and Limpopo distributed the most jabs.

According to the Department of Health, 143 313 people were fully vaccinated in the past 24 hours.

As of 25 August, there have been 213 050 725 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 448 352 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Global view

With over 4.5 million new cases reported between 16 and 22 August, the WHO said the number of new cases reported globally seems to be stable after increasing for nearly two months since mid-June.

Meanwhile, the regions of Western Pacific and Americas continue to report increases in new infections, with increases of 20% and 8% respectively as compared to last week.

“The South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions reported decreases in weekly incidence of 16% and 10% respectively,” the organisation said, adding that the European and African regions reported case incidence rates similar to those reported last week.

In addition, the number of deaths reported globally this week remains similar to last week, with over 68 000 new fatalities reported.

Two regions including Europe and the Americas reported a peak in new deaths of 11% and 10% respectively, while there was a decrease in the African and South-East Asia regions.

“The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 211 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just over 4.4 million.”

The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the United States (1 020 072 new cases, 15% increase), Iran (251 610 new cases, 7% decrease), India (231 658 new cases, 10% decrease), the United Kingdom (219 919 new cases, 11% increase), and Brazil (209 099 new cases, 1% decrease).

Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 192 countries, 141 countries have cases of the Beta variant, 86 have reported the Gamma variant, while 163 have the Delta variant.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Micro Insurance Company and Lofte Kesho Are Partnering to Offer Digital Solutions to Livestock Farmers

NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Micro Insurance Company (MIC) and Lofte Kesho are partnering to offer digital solutions to livestock farmers in an effort to improve their economic well-being. Lofte Kesho, an integrated FinTech and AgriTech player, was created to help farmers collateralize animals as assets for financial benefits such as loans, working capital, cow replacement loans, and investment loans. They have also created unique systems for animal identification as well as the process of tokenizing animals using blockchain.

Lofte Kesho is partnering with Micro Insurance Company in an effort to strengthen their mission of helping farmers to unlock the financial benefits associated with their livestock. By partnering with MIC, farmers will now be able to insure their livestock, which gives them access to credit opportunities – as they will now be able to use their insured livestock as collateral. This will help improve the financial state for many farmers. Furthermore, MIC is also offering a life and hospitalization cover to the middle and low segment Livestock farmers to safeguard them against many of the risks they face, so when the unexpected happens, they are able to bounce back swiftly.

Ms. Wairimu Njoki, Country Manager, Micro Insurance Company, says:

“We are pleased to be partnering with Lofte Kesho as they improve the inclusivity of livestock farmers for enhanced access to financial solutions. Farmers have always held assets through their livestock but are often locked out of financial access because historically, financial institutions have not considered livestock as a good form of security. By MIC insuring farmers’ livestock, it has enabled financial institutions to get on board with accepting livestock as a secure asset, and thus, feel confident in accepting it as collateral.”

Bernard Njathi, Co-Founder of Lofte Kesho, says:

“Our farmers are faced with multiple challenges. According to the World Bank, by the year 2050, food demand will increase by 70%. So what does this really mean? We need to support our farmers – both our Crop and Livestock farmers. This is why Lofte Kesho Kenya Limited acknowledges that our livestock farmers are not necessarily poor but lack a supportive ecosystem that properly promotes and unlocks animal identification, valuation, insurance and animal collateralized loans. As a result, Lofte Kesho is excited to partner with Micro Insurance Company to further our aim of providing value-added services to livestock farmers in the areas of animal health, nutrition, and productivity. Our partnership with MIC will further enhance our ability to offer peace of mind to livestock farmers.”

MIC and Lofte Kesho join forces to address both the financial and insurance inclusivity against the marginalized – using the FarmTrek platform as a route to access these services. This partnership combines Lofte Kesho’s knowledge of livestock along with MIC’s expertise in product design to ensure optimal product consideration and adjusted premiums.

About Lofte Kesho

Founded in 2018 with headquarters in Kenya, Lofte Kesho is an integrated FinTech and AgriTech player offering an animal identification and traceability platform. In partnership with InfoCorp Technologies, Lofte Kesho has rolled out FarmTrek, a solution that brings inclusive financial services to the livestock industry in emerging markets via its blockchain-based platform. Lofte Kesho works with smallholder farmers to unlock financial benefits associated with their animals.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit: https://www.loftekesho.com/

About Micro Insurance Company

Micro Insurance Company (MIC) is a global insurance platform delivering technology, underwriting, policy management, and distribution. MIC provides insurance to platforms, micro & small businesses, and to the 4 billion people on the planet that are currently unserved. Whereas most insurtechs seek to improve existing monoline products and markets, we follow the concept of straight through processing. We do this in order to create highly relevant insurance products that we can offer globally at a very low cost via our platform to support people in their local communities. Micro Insurance Company is the world’s first global end-to-end digital microinsurance platform that combines reinsurance capacity, in-country insurance licenses, world class distribution, and market leading AI functionality.

For more information, please contact wairimu.njoki@microinsurance.com or visit: https://microinsurance.com/

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Customertimes Announces Expanded Salesforce Industries Focus

NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Customertimes is announcing an expanded focus on its Salesforce Industries practice throughout EMEA and North America.

With the acquisition of Vlocity in 2020, Salesforce continues its push into industry vertical solutions. Customertimes is a Salesforce Master Navigator, and with deep experience across all Salesforce Industry clouds, it is well-positioned to deliver outstanding business results for any industry project.

Internationally recognized for its strong Salesforce partnership, this practice expansion will allow Customertimes to continue to deliver true digital transformation for complex verticals like Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Comms & Media, and Utilities.

“Currently, the industry is experiencing a huge gap in Vlocity skills,” says Rinoy Varkey, Practice Head & SVP Salesforce Industries (Vlocity) at Customertimes. “We are here to fill that gap. We have the right people in place at the right time – our 800+ certified global Salesforce consultants can handle any project from the ground up or help with staff augmentation on existing projects.”

“With more than 1400 Salesforce certifications and leading Salesforce Industries Cloud experts on our team, we are known for our value-driven service offerings and efficient program delivery,” adds Adriano Acciaroli, VP EMEA at Customertimes. “We have engagement models that suit any region or customer segment with uncompromising quality and support.”

Key areas of engagement currently include Enterprise Product Modelling, Enterprise Product Catalog Development/Configuration, CPQ Technical Architecture, CPQ Development/Configuration, and OmniStudio Consultation/Development.

To learn more:

About Customertimes 
Customertimes Corp. is a global consulting and software firm dedicated to making the top IT technologies accessible to customers. With more than 4000 projects completed and 1300+ highly skilled experts, their solutions are engineered to help clients realize true business transformation and achieve maximum value from their technology investments. An early entrant into the Salesforce consulting and implementation space in Eastern Europe and an award-winning product development organization, Customertimes Corp. currently has headquarters in New York City, along with regional offices in London, Paris, Toronto, Kyiv, Minsk, Riga, and Moscow. For more information, visit www.customertimes.com.

Media Contact:
Meriel Sikora
Customertimes
212-520-0059
meriel.sikora@customertimes.com

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GenScript Biotech annonce ses résultats du premier semestre 2021

L’entreprise affiche une croissance explosive de l’activité d’organisation de développement et de fabrication sous contrat (CDMO) de thérapie génique et cellulaire (GCT) et des investissements stratégiques en thérapie génique et cellulaire

NANJING, Chine, 25 août 2021 /PRNewswire/ — GenScript Biotech Corporation (HKEX: 1548.HK) (GenScript) a publié aujourd’hui ses résultats financiers du premier semestre 2021 pour le semestre clos le 30 juin. Le Groupe a également annoncé avoir étendu sa présence dans l’industrie de la thérapie génique et cellulaire grâce à des investissements massifs.

Au cours du premier semestre 2021, le Groupe a maintenu une forte dynamique dans tous les secteurs d’activité. Le chiffre d’affaires total a augmenté de 38 % pour atteindre 229,6 millions de dollars et la marge brute a augmenté de 28,1 % pour atteindre 138,6 millions de dollars.

Le chiffre d’affaires de l’activité de thérapie non cellulaire du Groupe a augmenté de 36,6 % pour atteindre 195,7 millions de dollars, avec un bénéfice brut de 104,7 millions de dollars, soit une augmentation de 23,0 % en glissement annuel, y compris la percée historique de son activité de développement et de fabrication sous contrat de thérapies géniques et cellulaires dans la croissance explosive du chiffre d’affaires. Ce résultat s’appuie sur les premiers investissements du Groupe dans ce domaine et sur ses avantages en matière de solutions de R&D et de fabrication de plasmides et lentivirus. En ce qui concerne l’activité de thérapie cellulaire du Groupe, le chiffre d’affaires a augmenté de 46,8 % sur un an pour atteindre 33,9 millions de dollars, grâce à la reconnaissance continue de ses succès et à des investissements importants.

En tant que fournisseur de synthèse génique numéro un dans le monde, GenScript a établi une base technique solide pour ses activités de thérapie génique et cellulaire. Tandis que les activités de GenScript dans le domaine des services et des produits des sciences de la vie, le développement de contrats biologiques et l’organisation de la fabrication, et les activités de thérapie cellulaire sont toutes en train d’atteindre une forte dynamique, le Groupe étend sa présence à travers la chaîne de valeur de la thérapie génique et cellulaire en investissement de façon intensive.

Au cours du premier semestre 2021, les dépenses de R&D ont augmenté de 51,6 % en glissement annuel pour atteindre 175,1 millions de dollars. L’entreprise de thérapie non cellulaire a investi environ 10 % de son chiffre d’affaires dans la construction d’installations de bonnes pratiques de fabrication et dans d’autres extensions d’infrastructures. L’activité de thérapie cellulaire a dépensé 154,5 millions de dollars en R&D, une augmentation de 52,1 % par rapport à l’année précédente, avec une concentration des investissements sur les études cliniques de cilta-cel et les installations de fabrication qui soutiennent les essais cliniques en cours et la commercialisation future de l’entreprise.

GenScript est en train d’inaugurer l’essor de la thérapie génique et cellulaire comme la prochaine révolution de l’industrie bio-technologique, en exploitant l’énorme potentiel des organisations de recherche contractuelle et des plateformes de développement et de fabrication contractuelles. Au cours des deux à trois prochaines années, l’entreprise de sciences de la vie et l’entreprise de développement et de fabrication de produits biologiques augmenteront leurs investissements stratégiques dans ce domaine. Cela comprend des investissements dans les services liés à la thérapie génique et cellulaire, l’utilisation de la technologie d’automatisation pour moderniser les lignes de production, et l’accélération du lancement des produits de thérapie cellulaire en cours et de la R&D dans les nouveaux pipelines.

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Etan Hon Named Product Manager of Turbo Aftermarket Services for Nikkiso Cryogenic Services

TEMECULA, Calif., Aug. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nikkiso Cryogenic Industries’ Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (Group), a subsidiary of Nikkiso Co., Ltd (Japan), is pleased to announce that Etan Hon has been appointed Product Manager of Turbo Aftermarket Services (AMS) for the Nikkiso Cryogenic Services unit (NCS).

This addition to their management team supports the Group’s objectives to further grow their AMS for Turboexpanders. The Turbo All Brands line will also expand to support and service more brands, including ACD, Rotoflow, Atlas Copco, and Cryostar among others.

Etan received a degree in Aerospace engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He started his career by providing oilfield services to customers within the oil & gas industry in Texas working for Schlumberger and Baker Hughes. In 2017, he joined ACD LLC as a Field Service Manager. After the acquisition by Nikkiso in 2019, he transitioned into the role of Service Manager of Turbo AMS for NCS and helped move the ACD Turbo AMS division into a new facility in Irvine, CA. He helped re-develop the standards and processes with the international service centers for the Turbo AMS in Irvine. The new structure has created a successful operating business locally and will ensure proper support to the Turbo AMS team globally.

“The NCS team is excited to have Etan in this new Turbo AMS Product Management role,” according to Jim Estes, President of NCS. “His years of experience and focus on customer service has exceeded our expectations. I’m looking forward to his success continuing in this new role.”

Nikkiso Cryogenic Services provides service and support globally, including locations in Malaysia, Germany, India, Australia, Taiwan and China as well as six locations in North America.

ABOUT CRYOGENIC INDUSTRIES
Cryogenic Industries, Inc. (now a member of Nikkiso Co., Ltd.) member companies manufacture engineered cryogenic gas processing equipment and small-scale process plants for the liquefied natural gas (LNG), well services and industrial gas industries. Founded over 50 years ago, Cryogenic Industries is the parent company of ACD, Cosmodyne and Cryoquip and a commonly-controlled group of approximately 20 operating entities.

For more information please visit www.nikkisoCEIG.com and www.nikkiso.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Anna Quigley
+1.951.383.3314
[email protected]