Physical concerts may be on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but you can catch the annual ChildAid fund-raising concert from the comfort of your home next month. Organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times, ChildAid2020 - Virtually Yours will feature a leading-edge 360-degree immersive video experience as well as 8D technology for a better audio experience. The 16th edition of the concert will run for 45 minutes on July 15 and feature home-grown musicians including ChildAid alumnus Nathan Hartono, jazz maestro Jeremy Monteiro, orchestra conductor Wong Kah Chun as well as singer-songwriters Jasmine Sokko and Benjamin Kheng.Wong, chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, will lead an ensemble of musicians and vocalists from Asia and Europe to present Beethoven's Ode To Joy in a show of global solidarity in the battle against Covid-19. The show will also feature young artists like singers Heema Izzati Zainudin and Syah Riszuan, as well as international musicians such as saxophonist CC Lee from China, and drummer Krishna Kanhaiya and jazz pianist Joey Alexander, both from Indonesia. Mr Jeremiah Choy, artistic director of ChildAid 2020, says the concert "explores how digital technology can be used so that audiences can experience a performance in a way they would not be able to in a normal theatre or concert hall". The show aims to raise funds for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF), which helps about 10,000 disadvantaged students pay for their meals and transport, and The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BTBAF), which supports lessons in the performing and visual arts for 1,000 financially disadvantaged children who are artistically talented. Both funds have been actively supporting families affected by the Covid-19 outbreak in Singapore. UOB and Citi are the main sponsors again this year, but organisers welcome other corporate donations. This year's concert marks two key milestones - The Straits Times' 175th anniversary and STSPMF's 20th anniversary. Mr Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings' English, Malay and Tamil Media Group, hopes this year's ChildAid concert will galvanise the Singaporean community to donate to the two funds to help struggling families impacted by Covid-19.Mr Fernandez, who is also editor of The Straits Times, says: "This is an unusual time and we are all having to learn to do things in interesting new ways. So, too, for this year's ChildAid, which goes virtual. It promises to bring together many talent for the much loved annual concert for our two charities, the BT Budding Artists Fund and the ST School Pocket Money Fund, the latter of which marks its 20th anniversary this year. "The show will also be a special way to mark The Straits Times' 175th anniversary, the online video approach reflecting our efforts to transform ST from a print newsroom to a truly multimedia one. "In a way, the manner in which everyone - the performers and crew, the organising team and our other stakeholders - adapted and showed great resilience in the face of the Covid-19 situation, speaks very well for the future of our efforts." The concert hopes to rope in some 200 past ChildAid performers and others below 19 to join in a choir performance of the ChildAid theme song, A World To Imagine, composed by the late music maestro Iskandar Ismail. Readers wishing to be a part of the choir in the video can apply at
The Volkswagen Group and Ford have completed their $2.6 billion (£2.1bn) investment in autonomous tech startup Argo AI, 11 months after it was announced. The deal was finalised by executives from both companies on Monday, despite both taking a significant financial hit due to the ongoing pandemic. A crucial part of the deal is Audi's transfer of its Autonomous Intelligent Driving division, valued at £1.28bn, to Argo AI. The German car maker's Munich-based division will become Argo's European hub, with its 200 employees and already-developed technology integrated into it. It will be Argo's fifth engineering centre and the only one outside of the US. Prior to the crisis, Ford intended to spend $4bn overall on its autonomous vehicle development, including starting a subsidiary firm for the commercial side of it. Volkswagen will put forward just under £2.1bn in total and purchase shares from Ford over a three-year period. This increases the total valuation of Argo AI to more than £5.6bn. The two car makers claimed last year that Argo AI’s self-driving system is the first with commercial deployment plans for Europe and the US. It plans to deliver a Level 4-capable self-driving system for “ride-sharing and goods delivery services in dense urban areas”. Argo AI's self-driving system is said to be the one with the most potential to scale rapidly and extensively, with the first commercial rollout scheduled for 2021. Road trials of its well-developed system in locations such as Washington, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, Miami and Detroit have already begun. Ford CEO Jim Hackett said last year: "While Ford and Volkswagen remain independent and fiercely competitive in the marketplace, teaming up and working with Argo AI on this important technology allows us to deliver unmatched capability, scale and geographic reach."
