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The US engineering behemoth ‘Jacobs’ has long been dominating majority of London’s infrastructure including £500 million-worth of projects related to the High Speed Two rail line, £5 billion super-sewer project, restoration project of Palace of Westminster worth over £4 billion, and many more.

In short, Jacobs is the biggest company people in London have never heard of.

According to research by the Standard, the company is reportedly working on massive UK infrastructure projects worth nearly £200 billion. Jacobs’ dominance has raised several concerns that it has become too big to fail or too strong when it comes to offering public work. Its huge size, owing to working as both contractor and project manager, has also led to perceptions of conflict risks.

In 2017, the US behemoth acquired its awkwardly-named US rival CH2M in a £2.5 billion deal, giving a big push to Jacobs’ overbearing presence. In addition, the deal created an engineering giant with 10,000 workforce in the UK alone, and 80,000 worldwide.

Both the companies were already serious heavyweights in the UK. CH2M came to prominence when it was assigned to be project manager of the London 2012 Olympics, alongside Mace and Laing O’Rourke.

Jacobs’ dominance, on the other hand, surged more stealthily through a long chain of acquisitions of which CH2M is the latest.

Potential conflict of interest has been raised long before the merger which led to CH2M’s withdrawal from Phase 2 contract of the HS2 line, although it was named development partner of the project on Phase 1 in 2012.

Despite the termination, Jacobs still holds the Phase 1 contract, assigned to CH2M, to manage and evaluate all the professional services firms operating on Phase 2. Most interestingly, most of those projects have gone to Jacobs’ other divisions.

In 2016, Jacobs was named design partner on the first phase of HS2; in the following year, on second phase of the route, the company achieved the role of Environmental Overview Consultants.

Jacobs’ spokesperson said that the firm is one of the premier professional services consultants supporting major infrastructure projects in the UK and taking into account the degree of talent, it has been awarded several high-profile contracts. This along with consolidations in the industry can give rise to risk of conflicts of interest, the spokesperson added.

Moreover, many in the industry complain about the company’s influence over officials in public sector.

Jacobs have claimed that they remain dedicated to ensuring integrity in the delivery of key public programs to the customers’ satisfaction.

Evening Standard (ES) reported that the company’s access to the British public’s money makes its shares a honeypot for investors.

Jacobs’ chairman and chief executive Steve Demetriou highlighted the company’s business strength in the UK. Last year, it raised $3.3 billion through a sale of one division and is on the lookout for more acquisitions. Jacob’s plans for domination is not over yet, ES reported.

In a new report on world economic outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that escalation of Trump’s trade war with China and a no-deal Brexit could undermine global economic growth.

The IMF is now predicting the world economy to grow 3.5% in 2019, though it forecast the growth of 3.7% in October last year. As reported in BBC news, the global figure projects weaker growth than a year earlier.

For the UK, the report estimates the GDP to grow by 1.5% this year and 1.6% in 2020, however, it said that there is considerable uncertainty around that figure.

Tariff increases enacted by the US President in the nation and its counterpart in China have already been a major factor of the previous economic slowdown.

For China, the IMF expects the slowdown to continue, while growing by 6.2% this year and next.

The new assessment also includes revisions for the developed economies, particularly the European nations.

Unexpected developments have inflicted the economic damage, the report said, which in Germany followed the introduction of new fuel emissions standards, leading to disruptions to the motor industry in terms of sales and production.

In Italy, concerns are raised as the financial markets have been unstable by the government plans to expand spending, while economy slumped amid the battle with EU officials over the budget this year. According to the report, there are continued weaknesses in Italy’s banking system as well.

The UK’s economic outlook is particularly uncertain, the report said. The 2019 figure is unchanged but there appears to be small upward revision to the forecast for 2020. Earlier, the IMF had also warned that no-deal Brexit would involve significant costs to the Britain’s economy.

Rising trade tensions could spark a further deterioration to the global economy growth this year which have also been a recurrent topic in the latest IMF assessments. According to the organization, the main priority of shared policy is for nations to resolve quickly and co-operatively their trade disagreements and resulting policy uncertainty, instead of raising destructive barriers further and destabilizing an already plummeting world economy. It had already witness a downgrade in the October forecast due to impact of the tariff increases imposed by the US and China, the report added.

The IMF said that there are also risks from financial markets. Moreover, trade tensions and financial markets have intertwined in the most recent times which tightened the financial conditions, while increasing the risks to global growth.

Dublin-based fashion retail chain Primark has reported a rise in market share as profits increased during the Christmas season sales in its retail stores across UK. The fashion chain which only sells its products at the high street retail stores has never launched its products on its website although they are available on other ecommerce platforms including Amazon and eBay.

One third of all products sold online are returned implying that Primark’s modest product prices won’t be able to cover the shipping costs, according to the John Bason, finance chief of Associated British Foods, Primark’s parent company. Accordingly Primark has adopted a strategy of staying away from online sale of products and rather focused on expanding offline retail presence. The chain recently announced new store launches in Eastern Europe such as Slovenia and Poland as the sales in Eurozone increased by over 5% for 16 weeks leading up to 5 January 2019.

In terms of volume of sales the company is already Britain’s biggest fashion retail chain, while in terms of value its ranked third after Marks and Spencer who retains the top spot. Primark’s good performance over the Christmas season is an aberration in the industry as many retail chains announced store closures owing to increasingly shifting consumer preference from retail to online shopping. Marks and Spencer was recently in news for closure of 17 retail stores.

Mr. Bason said that although rivals stepped up expenditure on promotions, the firm could turn up profits owing to the several fashion hits this season such as faux sheepskin jackets and animal printed dresses despite a reduction in discounting. Other contributing factors were tighter stock control and lower prices. Primark exceeded its performance expectations after a December update which threatened challenging trading conditions. Its shares rose by over 6% after the announcement.

ABF, the parent company with huge presence in food business warned of losses in its bakery business which owns Sunblest, Allinson and Kingsmill brands. The company which has launched nine stores in USA and planning two more has reported a strong sale in the country along with Spain, another high performer. As worldwide sales in established stores fell by 2% over the period of four months, the strengthening of pound against dollar, which is primary mode of payment to eastern countries, prompted a rise in profit margins.

Mr. Bason said that although customers love the comfort of online shopping, they can offer the lower price range because they don’t have to bear the cost of home delivery. He added that Primark’s strength lies in the fact that its stores are a place where people come to have fun and don’t leave without buying something.

The European Union is working towards the finalization of a new copyright law which has alarmed search giants including Microsoft and Google. The new copyright law seeks to give publishers the right to demand compensation from Google-parent Alphabet Inc. and other online platforms including Facebook if small snippets of news from their articles appear on their search results. Google is considering to wind up its news service from the Europe completely if the controversial law gets passed.

Google’s public policy manager for Europe region, Jennifer Bernal said that the company is contemplating the prospect of complete wind-up of its news service in Europe as a response to the new law. She added that the Google would consider all possible options before making any final decision but any withdrawal would be reluctant decision.

Two proposed rules have attracted the most controversy, one Article 11 of the law may force Google, Microsoft and others to pay publishers if small snippets appear on its search results and another Article 13 requires online platforms like Instagram and Youtube to verify copyrights before letting users upload it on their site. When Germany and Spain first implemented Article 11 like rule, the news publishing websites reported a plunge in website traffic from the search engines.

The European Commission first proposed these rules in 2016 but due to the disagreement among various member states about the scope of the law it has postponed the implementation of the rules. The EU had plans to finalize the rules by the first week but resistance among member states may drag the legislation process longer.

Google claims that it doesn’t make any money from its news aggregation service and that a harsh withdrawal would not lead to any financial consequence to the company. However, news results from publishers entice the mobile users to come back to the search panel leading to more searches which generates lucrative ad revenues for the company. Google’s withdrawal would also mean losing grounds to other competitors in the news aggregation service field which includes Apple and Microsoft.

Although there are numerous issues surrounding the legislation, but one important issue includes the concerns small print publishers. The first draft of the rules included a provision which enabled some publishers to waive their rights to the news content appearing on the search engine. This meant that larger news organizations with deep pockets would allow their content to appear freely on the search engine in exchange for increased web traffic to their sites. This would prove a disadvantage for small publishers. But European parliament introduced a provision taking into consideration the concerns of the small print publishers which disallows any publishers from allowing their content on Google freely.

Some activists and small publishers are blaming Google’s intense lobbying efforts for the delay in legislative process to finalize the rules. The law has pitted the search giant against small publishers and activists. Although Google has threatened withdrawal, Mr. Francois Godard, a European Media analyst said that he doesn’t buy the threat saying that Europe being the key market for Google, ‘’they cant afford to lose it’’.

Youthful general cognitive ability (GCA), a multiple set of skills involved in perception, memory, and thinking which includes reasoning, is a ‘strong predictor of cognitive function’ and reserve later in life compared to other factors including higher education, complex occupations, and participating in late-life intellectual activities, according to a recent study.

Higher education and late-life intellectual pursuit like socializing, reading, or solving puzzles are linked with improved cognitive reserve and lower risk of dementia. Cognitive reserve is the ability of the brain to improvise or find alternate ways to complete a task, and may even help people adjust with changes related to aging.

In the new study, a team of researchers at the University of California San Diego sought to address the confusion posed by these associations; whether being in highly complex occupation help maintain cognitive abilities or individuals with higher cognitive ability are likely to be in more complex jobs.

The team examined over 1,000 men taking part in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of aging. All were veterans, of which around 80% have reported no combat experience. In addition, all the participants, now aged between 50 and 60 years, took the Armed Forces Qualification Test in their 20s which is a measure GCA.

As part of the new study, the research team assessed performance of participants who are in their mid-60s using the same GCA measure, including assessments in seven different cognitive domains such as verbal fluency, abstract reasoning, and memory.

The researchers found that participants’ GCA at age 20 accounted for 40% of the variance in the same measure at age 62, and nearly 10% of the variance in each cognitive domain. After the GCA analysis, they concluded that other factors had no or very small effect; lifetime education, job complexity, and participating in intellectual activities accounted for even less than 1% of variance at age 62.

Findings of the study, published in the journal PNAS, suggest that the impact of other factors than GCA on cognitive function later in life likely reflects reverse causations. According to first author William S. Kremen, they are widely downstream effects of youthful intellectual capacity.

Further, the researchers discovered that age 20 GCA, but not higher education, was associated with the surface area of the cerebral cortex at the age 62. This part of the brain is responsible for thinking, understanding language, perceiving, and producing.

Additional investigations are needed to confirm the finding, the researchers said.