Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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The Times learns that commenters are its most valuable customers
 To start putting a value on those who engage with its platform, The Times of London analyzed comments on its website from May 2016 to April 2017. The News UK title found that those who comment, which amount to about 4 percent of its subscribers, read three times as many articles as those who don’t comment.

For now, only Times subscribers can comment. The Times’ 1.2 million registered users can read comments, but they can’t participate in discussions. In time, the publisher plans to explore using comments to turn registered users into subscribers.

“We’re massively striving to get readers to use their subscription more frequently and drive habitual behavior,” said Ben Whitelaw, head of audience development at the Times and The Sunday Times.

Eventually, further research will help connect commenter behavior to where commenters are in the subscriber life cycle, which will help the Times reduce churn rates. “When we start putting a value on these people, then we can weigh up what weapons we have to engage them,” said Whitelaw, “but we need that data first.”

The majority of the most commented articles are about Brexit and can fetch about 2,000 comments, some of which are 400 words long, but the publisher also sees comment spikes on exclusive content and analysis of U.S. politics, such as the Times’ interview with Donald Trump in January.

“[The value in comments] is where there are multiple views and ideas being challenged, and experts — journalists or readers — get involved in the debate and add something to improve what’s above the line,” Whitelaw said. “We think it’s a clear point of difference and can drive business results.”

To free up resources, the Times switched in November 2016 to moderating comments after they had been published, rather than before. The switch allowed appropriate comments to appear on the site faster, said Whitelaw. Since then, the total number of comments has increased by 25 percent, although the number of commenters has remained the same. Comments on articles covering topics that incite passionate responses and a diverse range of opinion — like immigration, gender or race — are still moderated before publication. Since moving to this system, the Times hasn’t seen an increase in the number of comments it removes for breaching its terms of participation.

The Times’ audience development team has seven people. Five of them, rotating on a daily basis, are responsible for monitoring comment threads, steering conversations away from more contentious issues or involving journalists. They also encourage journalists to respond to readers. Whitelaw said the journalists are often happy to get involved because they have written a column on the subject.

For readers, part of the appeal of commenting is access to experts and the Times journalists. “We’re emphasizing to journalists that this is part of their job,” said Whitelaw. “Readers like it, and you can see the benefits in terms of engaging readers and renewing subscriptions.” Politics columnist Danny Finkelstein wrote a book review about one of the men involved in the Libor scandal. The man’s wife wrote a long comment defending him, which was flagged to the author who then replied. Columnist Janice Turner responds to requests for recipes under an article on her new favorite dish.

This is the first time the Times has delved into how comments can affect the bottom line of business, according to Whitelaw. Elsewhere, The New York Times is opening up more articles to comments, but it needs to automate part of the process to manage moderation. The Financial Times has also found those who comment are more engaged.

The Times of London uses social platforms for low-risk community-building experiments, like its Red Box bot newsletter and its Brexit Facebook group. The latter now has more than 1,200 members, up from 150 in April, and attracts a mix of Times subscribers and non-subscribers.

A surprising discovery from the research concerned recommended comments, which appear at the top when feeds are sorted by “most recommended.” Popular comments get about 50 recommendations, said Whitelaw. The Times’ research found that those who recommend comments read twice as many articles as those who don’t recommend comments.

“Commenting is what you see; that’s the tip of iceberg,” Whitelaw said. “But there’s a mass of activity that goes on beneath the surface, which recommendations fuels. Because people only recommend a handful of comments, they pick topics they are most knowledgeable on and spend more time thinking about it. They are like silent Times readers. These could be people we should be gravitating toward or rewarding.”

Output: People who comment on articles on The Times' website read three times as many articles as those who remain silent, according to an analysis of the site between May 2016 and April 2017. Ben Whitelaw, head of audience development at the Times and The Sunday Times, said the data would help the newspaper try to engage with more readers. At present only subscribers are allowed to comment on The Times' articles. The publication has seen a 25% rise in comments since it introduced moderation on certain threads.


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iRobot growth plan involves selling data mapped from robo-vacuums
 Remember Roomba, the cute robotic vacuum cleaner who's been navigating around your house for years?

Well, its creator, iRobot, has hinted(opens in a new tab) it may sell Roomba-derived maps of your home to one or more of the Big Three — Amazon, Apple and Google's Alphabet — in the next couple of years.

SEE ALSO: Live your best life with the help of these 9 robots

"There's an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared," said Colin Angle, iRobot’s CEO.

Mapping your home

If the idea of a device spying on your flooring plan — along with other data about your home — and then selling that info to companies to help them improve their targeted ads seems particularly creepy to you, that's because, well, it is creepy.

Mapping and space in general is the next big step in the tech industry's big push to make homes "smarter."

Many of the "smart" devices already on the market — smart home lighting, thermostats, security cameras as well as other housecleaning robots — are actually pretty dumb when it comes to have a grasp of the surrounding physical space. That means they just move around or detect things randomly.

Conversely, iRobot's Roomba 900 not only uses short-range infrared or laser sensors to detect and avoid obstacles, but is also able to create a map of the environment thanks to a camera, new sensors, and software.

The so-called Slam technology — simultaneous localization and mapping — allows Roomba build the map while simultaneously keep track of their own position in it.

Privacy issues

It's easy to see why big tech companies are interested in this data.

In March, iRobot announced(opens in a new tab) it'll add Amazon's Alexa voice commands to its Roomba 900 series robot vacuums for U.S customers in Q2 of this year.

Data derived from "robo-vacs" could help companies improve their smart speakers, for example, by mapping the room's acoustics and provide ad hoc audio solutions; same for smart air-conditioning units or lighting that can adjust with the natural lights.

A quick look at iRobot's terms of service shows that the amount of data iRobot collects (opens in a new tab)from social media or third parties is pretty daunting. But even worse, when users sign to the company's Home app, they basically already give iRobot the right to sell their data anyway.

The privacy policy (opens in a new tab)indeed states iRobot could share the users' personal data with other companies owned by iRobot, third party vendors and affiliates, the government, and "any company transaction, such as a merger, sale of all or a portion of company assets or shares."

Colin Angle, iRobot co-founder and CEO, speaks during the Japan launching presentation of new Roomba 980 vacuum cleaning robot in Tokyo Japan. Credit: Hoshiko/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Naturally, that has raised privacy concerns among advocacy groups.

"This is a particularly creepy example of how our privacy can be undermined by companies that want to profit from the information that smart devices can generate about our homes and lives," Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said in a statement to Mashable.

"Smart household products may enable companies to obtain information that we consider to be private, such as floor plans of where we live. However, this is not necessarily personal data as protected under data protection law.

"Companies should treat data collected in people’s homes as if it is personal data and ensure that explicit consent is sought to gather and share this information. Taking an ethical approach, rather than complying with minimal legal requirements, would build trust with customers."

Angle said iRobot would not sell data without its customers' permission, but "he expressed confidence most would give their consent in order to access the smart home functions," Reuters reports.

UPDATE: July 25, 2017, 1:07 p.m. EDT A previous version of this story was headlined "Roomba may be selling maps of your home to Google, Amazon, and Apple." However, in an interview(opens in a new tab), Angle told Reuters that iRobot could reach a deal to sell the data in the future (rather than the company selling that data at the present moment). This post and headline have been updated to reflect that timeline.

Output: iRobot, the company behind smart vacuum Roomba, has suggested it may sell maps created by the device of users' homes to the likes of Amazon, Google or Apple in the coming years. The news follows the recent addition of Amazon's voice-activated assistant Alexa to the Roomba 900 series. While some suggest the maps, created using simultaneous localisation and mapping technology, would be invaluable for smart homes, advocacy groups have warned of the potentially "creepy" invasion of privacy.


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Videogame publisher Ubisoft choose UM to run ad campaigns
 Entertainment and gaming company Ubisoft has chosen UM as its U.S. media agency of record after a competitive review that started in late 2016.

The IPG Mediabrands network’s San Francisco office will handle planning and buying duties for the company, which is best known for the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Just Dance game series.

“The impressive and thorough work by UM made it an easy decision to select them as our agency,” read a statement from Ubisoft’s vp of media and audience management Vanessa Vignon.

Output: Media agency UM has been chosen by Ubisoft to handle planning and buying duties for the company, before the release of Just Dance 2018, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Far Cry 5. The decision concluded a competitive review that started in late 2016 and was Ubisoft's first in a decade. "Our model has been to take a very data-led, analytical approach. That was appealing to such a digital company," said UM's United States CEO, Kasha Cacy.


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iRobot CEO says it won't sell home data from robo-vacuums
 Colin Angle, iRobot CEO Image: iRobot

Editor's Note, August 8, 2022: Back in 2017, we conducted an exclusive interview with iRobot's CEO Colin Angle about Roomba privacy issues. Last week, Amazon announced its acquisition of iRobot, which sparked Roomba privacy questions anew. We reached out to Angle to confirm whether iRobot's privacy policy will remain unchanged, but the company hasn't yet responded. In the meantime, here's our 2017 interview. We'll update when we receive a reply from iRobot.

It's been a challenging week for iRobot, the company behind the popular Roomba robotic vacuums.

It started with an interview in Reuters, in which the company's chief executive Colin Angle gave a clear impression that iRobot was selling consumers' home mapping data. We picked up the story and covered it here on ZDNet. In a column published on Wednesday, I looked at the security implications and wrote an open letter to Angle about my concerns.

Last night, Angle and iRobot got back to me on this issue. They provided the following response to the concerns I and others shared.

In response:

First things first, iRobot will never sell your data. Our mission is to help you keep a cleaner home and, in time, to help the smart home and the devices in it work better. There's no doubt that a robot can help your home be smarter. It's the data it collects to do its job, and the trusted relationship between you, your robot and iRobot, that is critical for that to happen. Information that is shared needs to be controlled by the customer and not as a data asset of a corporation to exploit. That is how data is handled by iRobot today. Customers have control over sharing it. I want to make very clear that this is how data will be handled in the future. You may also want your robot to work with other connected devices in your home. For this to work, we will also require your permission, and we will always ensure secure means of communication between devices. Together, we're creating a future where robots help people live richer lives and ultimately retain their independence as they age. These conversations are useful in that they allow for clarity in our mission and commitments to our customers - and to have our commitment challenged and tested. I hope this helps clarify our stance. Sincerely

Colin Angle, Chairman, CEO and Founder, iRobot

I had some additional questions for Angle and iRobot, which they kindly responded to as well. As with Angle's letter above, the responses below were not edited in any way.

The Reuters report indicated how iRobot was in talks to sell the data. Can you respond with whether that was a misinterpretation by the reporter or a misstatement on the part of Angle? Was there, in fact, never any monetary negotiations or discussions over data?

This was a misinterpretation. [Angle] never said that iRobot would look to sell customer maps or data to other companies. iRobot has not had any conversations with other companies about data transactions, and iRobot will not sell customer data.

Where does data like photos or images taken from the camera get stored? Is it ever stored outside the home? If so, how is imagery data being used? Is it just being parsed and sent back to the robot, or is it being used to populate a larger database?

The Roomba 900 Series vacuuming robots capture mapping and navigation information via vSLAM, which stays on the robot. On all WiFi-enabled Roombas, usage data (e.g. how long did it clean, how far did it go, did it encounter any error codes, is it functioning correctly) can be sent to the cloud so it can be shown on the customer's mobile device. Images used for navigation are NOT sent to the cloud. If a user agrees to having their map data viewable on their mobile device, then the map that the Roomba creates during a cleaning job is sent to the cloud where it is processed and simplified to produce a user-friendly map that ultimately appears in the iRobot HOME App. It's also important to point out that the camera doesn't see things like we do. The robot perceives its environment as a pattern of light and dark points in its field of view. This pattern enables the Roomba 900 Series to localize or confirm its position on the map, so it can clean an entire level of a home. The camera is a low-resolution camera that is tracking multiple points of a room, such as along the edges of a table or light and dark contrasts of a window on a wall. It uses these points of reference to continually build and update its map of rooms within a home.

Special thanks to ZDNet's Jason Cipriani for facilitating the discussion between iRobot and ZDNet.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

Output: iRobot, the company behind smart vacuum Roomba, has pulled back from suggestions it may sell maps of users' properties to providers of smart home products and services. "First things first, iRobot will never sell your data", CEO Colin Angle said in a statement. "You may also want your robot to work with other connected devices in your home. For this to work, we will also require your permission, and we will always ensure secure means of communication between devices."


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Apple's 'Search Ads' has 50% conversion rate of app downloads
 If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy

Apple VP of Advertising Platforms Todd Teresi (right) speaks with TUNE CEO Peter Hamilton at the Postback conference.

Apple VP of Advertising Platforms Todd Teresi in a keynote Q&A session at the Postback conference in Seattle on Tuesday explained the company's switch away from iAd in favor of the new Search Ads platform, revealed never before seen internal metrics and discussed the future of app advertising.

Speaking with Peter Hamilton, CEO of ad measurement platform TUNE, Teresi said Search Ads now boasts an over 50 percent conversion rate, meaning more than half of the people who interact with iOS App Store ads download the target app. The statistic comes less than one year after Search Ads launched last October.

As for the switch away from iAd, Apple's former advertising platform for developers that shut down in September, Teresi said the company decided to pivot in a new direction that made better use of its resources. Specifically, Search Ads was designed with app discovery and exposure in mind, benefits for both consumers and developers.

Elaborating on the effectiveness of Search Ads, Teresi said Search Ads offers a level playing field for developers. More importantly, the platform incorporates an optimized relevance algorithm that boosts app discovery.

"We take great pride in making sure that if you are searching on a specific type of app that someone from an entirely different genre or category can't come in, just because they have more money, and sit on that term," Teresi said. "Relevancy is the core. You don't even get into the auctions unless you first pass our relevancy bars."

With the deployment of Search Ads, Apple is looking to bring install and engagement metrics available from services like TUNE more in line with those measured by the App Store.

Using current third-party tools, advertisers measure ad performance by tracking installs, which are counted as the first time a user opens an app. There is a discrepancy between numbers gathered by attribution systems and those seen by Apple, as a portion of customers — 20 percent of installs on average, Apple says — opt in to limited ad tracking. Further skewing data are apps that are re-downloaded and opened for a second time.

To help bridge the gap, Apple will work on providing install metrics and similar information to client attribution services. Like any Apple initiative, customer data privacy is of the utmost importance.

"Trust is the important foundation of the industry," Teresi said. "We will work with TUNE to expose this information to help developers understand this."

The data sharing will help developers better target consumers, and should lead to a better App Store experience for their customers.

Teresi emphasized the goal off Search Ads is to cultivate discovery on the App Store. The company is looking to expand internationally this year, but only when it feels comfortable that the right product is ready for consumption.

Output: Apple's Search Ads platform has a conversion rate greater than 50%, according to VP of Advertising Platforms Todd Teresi. Speaking at the Postback conference in Seattle, Teresi said the platform was designed with a view to app discovery and exposure, helped by its optimised relevance algorithm. "Relevancy is the core. You don't even get into the auctions unless you first pass our relevancy bars", he said. Apple is also working to offer third-party install metrics to clients on Search Ads.


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Polymer production method cuts catalyst use by 1,000 times
 Researchers have developed a chemical process that could make a class of polymers known as polysulfates more competitive with polycarbonates -- sturdy plastics that can form structural panels like the ones pictured here. Such panels can be used as building materials. Polycarbonate plastics are also used for safety goggles and water bottles, among other applications. Credit: falconsoft/Pixabay

A team of researchers has developed a faster and easier way to make sulfur-containing polymers that will lower the cost of large-scale production.

The achievement, published in Nature Chemistry and Angewandte Chemie, opens the door to creating new products from this class of polymers while producing far less hazardous waste. The researchers' reaction technique, dubbed SuFEx for sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange, combined with a newly identified class of catalysts that speed up the reactions, could be used to make everything from water bottles and mobile phone cases to medical devices and bulletproof glass.

When a useful molecule is discovered, there are few reactions that chemists can use that are simple and efficient enough to meet the industrial production requirements for cost-effectively scaling up. In 2001, Nobel laureate K. Barry Sharpless introduced a new concept to organic chemistry known as "click chemistry," describing a suite of controllable, highly reactive reactions that are high-yielding and require little to no purification.

Following nature's example, click reactions follow simple protocols, use readily available starting materials, and work under mild reaction conditions with benign starting reagents. Click chemistry has become a valuable tool for generating large libraries of potentially useful compounds as industries look to discover new drugs and materials.

A researcher demonstrates bulk synthesis of a polysulfate, which relies on a chemical technique dubbed a SuFEx reaction. Credit: Berkeley Lab

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab) Molecular Foundry, a facility that specializes in nanoscale science, worked with a team led by Sharpless and Peng Wu, professors at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). The team created long chains of linked sulfur-containing molecules, termed polysulfates and polysulfonates, using a SuFEx click reaction.

"Click chemistry is a powerful tool for materials discovery, but synthetic chemists are often not well-equipped to characterize the polymers they create," said Yi Liu, director of the Organic Synthesis facility at the Molecular Foundry. "We can provide a broad spectrum of expertise and instrumentation that can expand the scope and impact of their research."

The SuFEx reaction, introduced as a new family of click reactions in 2014, reliably and quickly creates new chemical bonds, connecting compounds together with sulfates or sulfonates. While polysulfates have shown great potential as competitors to polycarbonates (strong plastics used for eyewear lenses and water bottles, for example), they have been rarely used for industrial applications due to a lack of reliable and easily scalable synthetic processes.

To overcome the challenges of mass-manufacturing polysulfates and polysulfonates, the TSRI team explored various catalysts and starting reagents to optimize the SuFEx reaction. They relied on their collaborators at the Molecular Foundry to assess physical properties and determine if the newly created polymers were thermally stable products.

A newly developed chemical technique could make polysulfate plastics more competitive with polycarbonates, which are used to make safety goggles like the ones shown here. Chemical diagrams relevant to the new technique are displayed in the background. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Berkeley Lab

Polymers are assembled from smaller molecules - like stringing a repeating pattern of beads on a necklace. In creating a polysulfonate "necklace" with SuFEx, the researchers identified ethenesulfonyl fluoride-amine/aniline and bisphenol ether as good "beads" to use and found that using bifluoride salt as a catalyst made the previously slow reaction "click" into action. Researchers found that the high efficiency of the reaction results in a remarkable 99 percent conversion, from starting reactants to products, in less than an hour.

Researchers found that the new reaction requires 100 to 1,000 times less catalyst than other known methods, resulting in significantly less hazardous waste. Bifluoride salts are also much less corrosive than previously used catalysts, allowing for a wider range of starting substrate "beads," which researchers said they hope could lead to its adoption for a range of industrial processes.

"There are many new polymers that haven't been widely used by industry before," said Liu. "By reducing waste and improving product purity, we lower the cost and make this reaction much more industry friendly."

The Molecular Foundry is a DOE Office of Science User Facility that provides free access to state of the art equipment and multidisciplinary expertise in nanoscale science to visiting scientists from all over the world.

Output: Researchers at the Molecular Foundry of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have worked with a team from the Scripps Research Institute to develop a faster and easier way to produce sulphur-containing polymers. The method is expected to significantly reduce the cost of large-scale production. The scientists created long chains of linked sulphur-containing molecules using "click chemistry", a term for high-yield, controllable reactions. The reaction needs up to 1,000 times less catalyst than most popular methods, reducing both material and disposal costs.


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Facebook launches 'Discover Growth' business-to-business campaign
 Today, Facebook launched Discover Growth, its first global business-to-business ad campaign to focus on growth marketing via the social network.

Discover Growth will kick off with a 30-day ad campaign in the U.S., targeting both direct-response marketers and traditional brands, and it will run on and off the Facebook platform.

The on-platform portion will consist of one ad per day on Facebook, Instagram and the Facebook Audience Network. The ads will be a mix of video lead ads and link ads—complete with relevant direct-response data and insights—directing marketers to sign up or go to fb.me/growth for

Output: Facebook has launched its first-ever business-to-business ad campaign, Discover Growth, aimed at helping marketers grow their customer base via the social media site. Direct-response marketers and traditional brands will be targeted during a 30-day ad campaign for Discover Growth, which offers ads both on and off platform. "The purchase cycle has been completely turned on its head and Discover Growth will help marketers and agencies tap into these shifts in consumer behaviour", said Facebook North America marketing director Michelle Klein.


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Additive makes Californian B20 biodiesel cleanest liquid fuel in US
 SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Air Resource Board announced on July 20, 2017 that it has certified a biodiesel additive that will make B20 blends in California the cleanest proven and tested diesel fuel with the lowest emissions profile available anywhere in the U.S.

"Biodiesel has been a key to help California meet its intense carbon reduction goals. With this announcement, America's Advanced Biofuel will continue to deliver a cleaner burning, American made alternative under the state's low carbon fuel standard," said Donnell Rehagen, National Biodiesel Board CEO. "Biodiesel will gladly take the role as the cleanest certified diesel fuel available."

The additive takes already clean-burning biodiesel and ensures it reduces every measurable regulated emission, including NOx, when blended with California's unique diesel formulation called CARB diesel. NBB led the initial research and development into the additive to maintain biodiesel's competitive advantage under the state's low carbon fuel standard.

Branded VESTA™1000, the CARB certified additive ensures compliance with the January 1, 2018 implementation of CARB's Alternative Diesel Fuel Regulation. A 20 percent blend of biodiesel with VESTA™ 1000 reduced NOx by 1.9 percent and particulate matter by 18 percent compared to CARB diesel fuel. California Fueling, LLC will produce the formula, and Pacific Fuel Resource, LLC will deliver the product to market. The two companies will work cooperatively with NBB members as well as those in the California fuel community to support the ongoing use of biodiesel diesel blends up to B20.

"This impressive NBB-led effort, over the course of the past eighteen months, has resulted in a first-of-a-kind CARB approval, which enables biodiesel to be the renewable fuel of choice to meet California's stringent LCFS carbon reduction requirements," said Pat McDuff, CEO, California Fueling, LLC.

"As a result of this effort, biodiesel will continue to play a major role in helping Californians meet their renewable energy and clean air goals," said Paul Nazzaro, President, Pacific Fuel Resource, LLC. "By increasing biodiesel use up to a B20 blend, estimated to be an additional 600 million gallons of cleaner-burning biodiesel annually, California can now achieve its goals under the LCFS."

For information about VESTA™1000, valuation, additive access, purchasing and market development please Contact Paul Nazzaro at 978-438-6090 or [email protected]pacificfuelresources.com

NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers, and fuel distributors, as well as the U.S. renewable diesel industry.

For more information on biodiesel, visit www.biodiesel.org.

Contact: Kaleb Little, NBB

800-841-5849

[email protected]

SOURCE National Biodiesel Board

Related Links

http://www.biodiesel.org

Output: The California Air Resource Board (CARB) has announced that a CARB certified biodiesel additive, VESTA 1000, will make B20 blends the cleanest tested diesel fuel available in the US. Blending 20% biodiesel with VESTA 1000 was found to reduce NOx emissions by 1.9%, while reducing particulate matter by 18% when compared with diesel fuel. Pacific Fuel Resource will deliver the product to market while California Fuelling will produce it.


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Instagram influencers use 'comment pods' to promote posts
 Comment pods are growing in popularity among Instagram influencers — established and upcoming — and are causing some consternation among advertisers.

Instagram comment pods are a relatively new phenomenon. Essentially, they’re groups of up to 30 Instagrammers (the platform allows up to 30 in a group chat) that work with each other to comment on each other’s posts on a daily basis. The idea is to hack Instagram by increasing engagement. Because of the way Instagram’s algorithm works, this leads to Instagram “favoring” pods, which means influencers in pods often appear in the Explore tab, leading to more visibility. Pods emerged because influencers were left scrambling to keep their work visible when the Instagram algorithm debuted — the relationship between posters and users as well as timeliness determines what is seen.

“For brands, working with an Instagrammer that is part of a pod may mean their own numbers are wrong,” said YouTuber and editor Zach Bussey. “If you had hoped to get your message in front of X number of people, if you subtract other pod members, that number is dramatically reduced. That said, it’s not impossible for those pod members to be interested in the message — it’s just not their reason for being there.”

SwellShark, an indie media buying agency that works with clients including Applegate and pet food brand Wellness, said it is working with attorneys to put language in contracts with influencers to disclose if they are part of a pod. CEO Nick Pappas said pods can and do skew results. For example, say the company was working with a client that wanted to reach mothers who are into clean eating. When contracting with an influencer, it did research on the demographic of that influencer’s follower base to make sure it was those mothers. Influencers will provide numbers on average engagement. With pods, it ends up being five to 10 influencers who are friends with the person — not five or 10 influencers with the right kind of audience. “OK, so my post is getting engagement, but it’s not with the right audience,” said Pappas.

Pods are also skewing payment. Agencies evaluate influencers on size of audience. But top influencers who are showing high numbers are commanding high prices, and the brand or agency no longer knows if the engagement was genuine. “I want the transparency behind it,” said Pappas.

Pods don’t have to be bad. If the pods are of a similar interest group to the target audience, they can actually increase engagement and visibility of posts. “I’m OK if you’re in a pod, and it’s all other food bloggers who are closely tied. But I need to know,” said Pappas.

Publishers are also feeling the effects of pods. One publisher said that while it has seen less Instagram engagement, new publishers (mostly bloggers) are joining pods and growing in multiples, adding a couple of thousand followers a day.

Erin Dwyer, a branding consultant and former svp of global ecommerce at Haven, said the issue goes back to validating the true value of influencers versus them simply excelling at hacking a platform for gain. It also goes deeper: Dwyer said it comes down to how platforms create this kind of behavior and further it because of secret algorithms and curation. Essentially, platforms created this beast.

There’s no doubt pods create results. Influencers report going from around two comments a day before joining a pod to 40-100 comments on the same post after being “activated” in the pod.

In the closed Facebook group for The Rising Tide Society, a community for creative freelancers that mostly includes bloggers and photographers, a search for pods brings up hundreds of requests to either join a pod or start one.

Many rules govern pod behavior. Comments should be at least four or five words. Emojis aren’t good enough. Avoid language that is too generic, like “love it.” Don’t post in the pod — just direct people to your account because a “like” inside a comment thread doesn’t count toward total engagement.

Overall, those who have left pods overwhelmingly say pods end up hurting the Instagrammer, too. Bussey said his look inside pods shows they create false competition. “If you’re a small, organically grown Instagrammer, how do you compete with someone who is corking the bat? You see people in pods growing rapidly, getting brands’ deals.” Pod members are also harmed because pods artificially improve numbers, and it’s not sustainable.

Jas Deol, a graphic design consultant who has participated in many pods, said she left because they’re too much work. She said she’s also seen paid pods, where moderators request between $5 and $20 from users who want to join a pod, which keeps people accountable and wanting to participate. She said she’s seen followers jump from 12,000 to 120,000 because of a pod.

Pods are in some ways a throwback to the beginnings of the influencer industry, when bloggers would form a supportive group to grow each other’s communities, said Cait Weingartner, a blogger who runs the Pretty & Fun blog and director of collaborations at Collectively. But now, there is a “shadiness” to it. Pods will often focus on sponsored posts that brands paid for and ask pod members to make sure to leave comments about the brand. For instance, for an outfit post, pod members’ approach could be to comment about how much they love the watch in the post because the watch brand sponsored the ad. “It can add a layer of recommendation, but it also needs disclosure,” said Weingartner.

Instagram did not respond to a request for comment. Nothing in its terms of service forbids this kind of engagement farming. Jeremy Leon, vp of strategy at Laundry Service, said pods can be beneficial to brands if they generate or lead to more organic distribution and that the platform wouldn’t be worried about pods. “Instagram’s algorithm exists to make sure someone sees good content and keeps them on the platform longer, so they can be served more ads,” he said. “[Pods keep] them on the platform longer. That’s it.”

Output: The growing popularity of pods on Instagram – groups of users or influencers that help increase engagement – has come under fire from some media agencies, which claim the trend is opaque, creates false competition and can harm ad campaign results. Media buying agency SwellShark's CEO, Nick Pappas, said pods can be misleading about who is engaging with content, while branding consultant Erin Dwyer at Haven said the issue comes down to establishing the validity of influencers as against them just exploiting the pod. Once in the pod, influencers have reported their comments going from two a day to 40 to 100.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Scotland smashes wind power record in first half of 2017
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Wind power output in Scotland has helped set a new record for the first half of the year, according to an independent conservation group.

Analysis by WWF Scotland of data provided by WeatherEnergy found wind turbines provided around 1,039,001MWh of electricity to the National Grid during June.

Renewable energy figures show the power generated last month was enough to supply the electrical needs equivalent to 118 per cent of Scottish households or nearly three million homes.

In the first six months of 2017 enough power was generated to supply more than all of Scotland’s national demand for six days.

Renewable energy is making waves in Europe

Turbines provided 6,634,585MWh of electricity to the National Grid, which analysts say could on average supply the electrical needs of 124 per cent of Scottish households, or more than three million homes.

Dr Sam Gardner, acting director of WWF Scotland, said: “The first six months of 2017 have certainly been incredible for renewables, with wind turbines alone helping to ensure millions of tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions were avoided.

“Scotland is continuing to break records on renewable electricity, attracting investment, creating jobs and tackling climate change.

“If we want to reap the same rewards in the transport and heating sectors, we need the Scottish government to put in place strong policies on energy efficiency and transport in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill.

“That’s why we’re calling on people to act for our future and tell the First Minister they want a strong climate bill that will deliver a fairer and healthier low carbon Scotland.”

The figures for January to June this year showed an increase of 24 per cent compared to 2015, when wind energy provided 5,359,995MWh.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 / 10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke – filled with the carbon that is driving climate change – drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. “Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals,” says the photographer. “Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow.” Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a “public health emergency”. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

Scotland’s total electricity consumption including homes, business and industry for first six months was 11,689,385MWh.

Renewables experts say this means wind generated the equivalent of 57 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity needs.

Karen Robinson, of WeatherEnergy, said: “It’s great to see this data confirm that Scotland is knocking it out of the park on wind power with total output for June in particular up on the same period compared to the past two years.

“There’s no doubt renewables are helping households increasingly avoid fossil fuels for their electricity needs.”

Scotland’s energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “It’s great to hear renewable electricity generation in Scotland has reached a new record high. In the first quarter of this year, generation was up by 13 per cent compared to the same period last year, there was also a 16 per cent increase in capacity, and more than half of all gross electricity consumption in Scotland continues to come from renewables.

“Scotland’s total installed renewable capacity, that’s the amount of renewable electricity we are capable of producing, now stands at 9.3 GW – four times what it was only a decade ago. These statistics reinforce our country’s reputation as a renewable energy powerhouse and are a vindication of the Scottish government’s energy policy.”

Output: Scotland has set a new record for wind power output during H1 2017, producing enough electricity to power every home in the country for six days, according to analysis by WWF Scotland. Experts said wind made up 57% of Scotland's energy needs, while total renewable capacity stood at 9.3GW, all of which was helping the country attract jobs and tackle climate change.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Halliburton touts chemical proppants as sand per well falls for first time
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Texas oil is booming, and so are the numbers of sand mines needed to keep fracking the wells.

Ohio-based Fairmount Santrol announced it will build yet another sand mine in the Permian Basin to churn out more Texas sand to pump into West Texas wells to crack open the shale rock and release the crude oil through hydraulic fracturing.

The continually growing number of Texas mines comes as the amount of sand per well has surged because of deeper and longer wells, as well as more sand pumped per foot. The largest wells now consume up to 25,000 tons - 50 million pounds - of sand each, up from 1,500 tons, or about 3 million pounds, just a few years ago.

Still, Fairmount Santrol's news comes as just as U.S. fracking leader Halliburton said it saw its sand usage decline in the second quarter for the first time. With sand costs rising and availability temporarily limited, Halliburton was more strategic with its sand use for its customers.

Energy analysts, however, said the data points to sand rates per well growing, even if the pace has slowed. Halliburton buys its sand and produces its own injection chemicals, so Halliburton stands to financially benefit by touting chemicals and downplaying sand.

"It's not free," Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller said of sand.

Miller said escalating sand prices are pushing Halliburton to maximize science - the injection chemicals - and become more strategic, as opposed to blindly blasting more sand.

However, energy analysts James West, of Evercore ISI in New York, said Halliburton's decline is more a temporary blip reflected by temporary sand shortages before new mines open up.

"You're still seeing increased amounts of sand being consumed overall," West said.

Raymond James energy analyst Praveen Narra agreed the Halliburton commentary is more of a "hiccup" than a trend. Still, Miller's comments caused the stock values of sand producers to plummet Monday, and there is the concern of sand miners overcompensating and opening up too much new sand capacity in the next year or so.

"While we do think that proppant intensity growth rates are slowing and will eventually top out, we also believe we are still a decent ways away from that phenomenon," Narra noted, remaining relatively bullish on sand.

Most frac sand has historically come from the fine-grain "northern white" sand from Wisconsin and Minnesota, but the rapidly growing demand and longer travel distance has increasingly led more companies to build more Texas sand mines to serve the booming Permian Basin. The Texas brown sand isn't of quite as high a quality, but proponents argue it's not far off. Also, the Texas sand is cheaper and much closer.

As for Fairmount Santrol's latest project, the company signed a 40-year lease to open a mine on 3,250 acres of sand reserves near Kermit in Texas' Winkler County in the Permian Basin. The reserves contain about 165 million tons of fine-grade sand. The proposed mine is expected to churn out 3 million tons of proppant sand production annually. Fairmount is planning to spend $110 million to build the mine and have it opened by mid-2018.

"The unique characteristics of this property, which include contiguous reserves of fine mesh sand, water availability and prime access to existing roads, make this an excellent opportunity for Fairmount Santrol to expand our broad product offering by providing a low-cost, in-basin solution to meet the changing requests from some of our customers," said Fairmount CEO Jenniffer Deckard.

Texas-based sand companies are growing as well. The Woodlands-based Smart Sand recently went public to help fuel its expansions. Houston-based Hi-Crush is building a mine at the former Dunes of Kermit. Fort Worth-based Emerge Energy Services bought a recreational mine south of San Antonio that sells sand to golf courses that it will transform into a much larger frac sand mine operation. And out-of-state rivals U.S. Silica and Unimin Corp. also are building new Permian mines.

Output: Halliburton, the biggest provider of services to the US shale drilling industry, said it saw its sand usage per well decline in the second quarter for the first time as it sought to be more strategic with the resources amid rising prices. The company instead has been investing in the quality of the chemicals it uses in the fracking process. The amount of sand per well has surged in recent years as they grow deeper and longer and more sand is pumped per foot. Analysts said that the decline is probably temporary and may reflect a shortage of sand.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Drone makes 58-mile round trip to inspect offshore asset
 Drone Completes Over-the-Horizon Platform Inspection

UK-based startup FlyLogix, an operator of inspection drones for the offshore industry, says that it has completed the longest-distance civilian drone flight in Britain – a shore-launched inspection of an unmanned offshore platform. Flylogix's Condor fixed-wing drone took off at Blackpool and flew a 50 nm round trip to Centrica’s DP3 gas production platform, located in Morecambe Bay in the East Irish Sea. The aircraft obtained infrared imagery of the facility, removing the need to deploy staff.

The time savings will help Centrica, which is prioritizing the refurbishment of its holdings in the Morecambe Bay. The firm recently announced that it is spending $80 million to renovate nearby production platforms DP6 and DP8; the company says that its investments will give it access to an additional three billion cubic feet of natural gas from the formation.

The Telegraph reports that Flylogix had to obtain special permission from Britain's Civil Aviation Authority to fly the drone beyond visual sight, a practice that is ordinarily prohibited. A human pilot in Blackpool controlled the aircraft's movements and kept it under a legal flight ceiling of 400 feet.

“This is a major milestone for FlyLogix as we showcase the significant benefits of our long range offshore drone service, and ultimately demonstrate the future of offshore inspection and logistics," said FlyLogix chairman Charles Tavner. "We are grateful for the support of the CAA, Centrica, Blackpool Airport and other air space users, to ensure the success of this record service."

Drone inspections are taking off in the offshore industry, as they can shave hundreds of man-hours of labor off of the process of checking for corrosion, cracking and other signs of degradation. Drones are beginning to gain traction in the world of commercial shipping as well, where they are increasingly being used for tank inspections and as an aid for class surveys.

Output: FlyLogix, an operator of inspection drones for the offshore industry, has announced that it has completed the longest-distance civilian drone flight in the UK. Flylogix's Condor fixed-wing drone flew from Blackpool to Centrica's DP3 gas production platform, in Morecambe Bay, in a 50 nautical mile round trip. The drone was able to pick up infrared images of the facility, reducing the need to send out a crew and costs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Earth Overshoot Day to fall on 2 August 2017
 The Earth is a pretty amazing thing. Every year, it regenerates an enormous amount of the environmental resources – water, soil and clean air – that we humans use up. But in the last few decades we've started using substantially more of those resources than can be replaced every year.

That's why, in 1986, environmental groups began calculating the day each year on which we go over our limit and start living on credit. This year, the day falls on August 2. "By August 2, 2017, we will have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the whole year," the WWF and Global Footprint Network said in a statement.

"In other words, humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than ecosystems can regenerate. This is akin to using 1.7 Earths. This means that in seven months, we emitted more carbon than the oceans and forests can absorb in a year, we caught more fish, felled more trees, harvested more, and consumed more water than the Earth was able to produce in the same period."

Earlier and earlier

The milestone arrives earlier and earlier every year. In 1987, the first year it was calculated for, it fell on December 19. In 1995 it was November 21. In 2007 it was October 26. About 60% of humanity's ecological 'footprint' comes from burning coal, oil and gas.

Individual countries have their own Overshoot Days. Australia hits it on March 12, the United States a couple of days later, and the UK on May 4. You can find data for your country on the Overshoot Day website .

There is a silver lining to this bad news, though. The rate at which Earth Overshoot Day is moving up the calendar is slowing down, the groups say. To slow that rate further, we (meaning: you) need to eat less meat, burn less fuel and cut back on food waste.

Output: Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which humans will have used up more environmental resources than the earth can replace each year, will fall on 2 August in 2107. The date, which has been moving forward each year, was first calculated for 1987 when it fell on 19 December. This year’s date means that during the first seven months of the year alone, humans have emitted more carbon than can be absorbed by oceans and forests in a year and have caught more fish, cut down more trees and consumed more water than can be replaced in that period.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Half of UK airports fail to provide free drinking water: MSE

More than half of the UK’s international airports do not have free drinking water fountains installed in their departure lounges, a leading consumer website has revealed.

As a result, thirsty travellers are being left to buy expensive bottled water from airside retailers or forced to ask for water at bars and restaurants, according to MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE).

MSE asked 30 UK international airports if passengers can fill up free of charge at a water fountain after going through security. While many of the bigger airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted, do have fountains on the airside, 18 said they did not.

The website is now calling on the bosses of these airports – which include Cardiff, London City, London Southend, Liverpool John Lennon and Newcastle – to introduce this “basic” but important facility.

For more than a decade – as a result of tougher security rules – passengers have not been allowed to take liquids of more than 100ml through security at airports.Passengers are also routinely encouraged to throw away bottles before security checks, although the Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed that they are allowed to take an empty bottle through security to fill up before getting on the plane.

“It can be infuriating for passengers to have to abandon bottles of water before going through security, then shell out for pricey bottles in the departure lounge,” said Steve Nowottny, news and features editor at MSE.

“Taking an empty bottle through security and then filling it up at a water fountain is the simplest answer – we’ve had a massive response from users since publishing a list of airport water fountains earlier this summer. We’re now urging airports that don’t already have fountains to take action and install them as soon as possible, ensuring all passengers can fill up for free.”

The Guardian has recently highlighted the scourge of single-use plastic drinks bottles, fuelled by consumers who are too embarrassed to ask a pub or restaurant for a glass of tap water or a refill of their empty bottle.

Output: Over 50% of the UK’s international airports do not provide free water fountains in departure lounges, according to consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE). As a result, travellers are purchasing expensive and environmentally damaging bottled water or asking for water in bars and restaurants. Of the 30 airports surveyed, 18, including Cardiff, Liverpool John Lennon, London City and Newcastle, failed to provide fountains. Anti-terrorism rules mean that passengers are not allowed to take over 100ml of liquid through airport security. Empty bottles are permitted and MSE is calling on all airports to provide facilities for filling these.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Patients do not have to complete full antibiotic course: BMJ
 Telling patients to stop taking antibiotics when they feel better may be preferable to instructing them to finish the course, according to a group of experts who argue that the rule long embedded in the minds of doctors and the public is wrong and should be overturned.

Patients have traditionally been told that they must complete courses of antibiotics, the theory being that taking too few tablets will allow the bacteria causing their disease to mutate and become resistant to the drug.

But Martin Llewelyn, a professor in infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex medical school, and colleagues claim that this is not the case. In an analysis in the British Medical Journal, the experts say “the idea that stopping antibiotic treatment early encourages antibiotic resistance is not supported by evidence, while taking antibiotics for longer than necessary increases the risk of resistance”.

There are some diseases where the bug can become resistant if the drugs are not taken for long enough. The most obvious example is tuberculosis, they say. But most of the bacteria that cause people to become ill are found on everybody’s hands in the community, causing no harm, such as E coli and Staphylococcus aureus. People fall ill only when the bug gets into the bloodstream or the gut. The longer such bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the more likely it is that resistance will develop.

The experts say there has been too little research into the ideal length of a course of antibiotics, which also varies from one individual to the next, depending in part on what antibiotics they have taken in the past.

In hospital, patients can be tested to work out when to stop the drugs. “Outside hospital, where repeated testing may not be feasible, patients might be best advised to stop treatment when they feel better,” they say. That, they add, is in direct contravention of World Health Organisation advice.

Other experts in infectious diseases backed the group. “I have always thought it to be illogical to say that stopping antibiotic treatment early promotes the emergence of drug-resistant organisms,” said Peter Openshaw, president of the British Society for Immunology.

“This brief but authoritative review supports the idea that antibiotics may be used more sparingly, pointing out that the evidence for a long duration of therapy is, at best, tenuous. Far from being irresponsible, shortening the duration of a course of antibiotics might make antibiotic resistance less likely.”

Alison Holmes, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said a great British authority, Prof Harold Lambert, had made the same point in a Lancet article entitled “Don’t keep taking the tablets” as early as 1999. “It remains astonishing that apart from some specific infections and conditions, we still do not know more about the optimum duration of courses or indeed doses in many conditions, yet this dogma has been pervasive and persistent.”

Jodi Lindsay, a professor of microbial pathogenesis at St George’s, University of London, said it was sensible advice. “The evidence for ‘completing the course’ is poor, and the length of the course of antibiotics has been estimated based on a fear of under-treating rather than any studies,” she said. “The evidence for shorter courses of antibiotics being equal to longer courses, in terms of cure or outcome, is generally good, although more studies would help and there are a few exceptions when longer courses are better – for example, TB.”

But the Royal College of GPs expressed concerns. “Recommended courses of antibiotics are not random,” said its chair, Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard. “They are tailored to individual conditions and in many cases, courses are quite short – for urinary tract infections, for example, three days is often enough to cure the infection.

“We are concerned about the concept of patients stopping taking their medication midway through a course once they ‘feel better’, because improvement in symptoms does not necessarily mean the infection has been completely eradicated. It’s important that patients have clear messages and the mantra to always take the full course of antibiotics is well known. Changing this will simply confuse people.”

England’s chief medical officer, Prof Dame Sally Davies, said: “The message to the public remains the same: people should always follow the advice of healthcare professionals. To update policies, we need further research to inform them.

“[The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] is currently developing guidance for managing common infections, which will look at all available evidence on appropriate prescribing of antibiotics.

“The Department of Health will continue to review the evidence on prescribing and drug-resistant infections, as we aim to continue the great progress we have made at home and abroad on this issue.”

Output: Received wisdom that patients must complete a full course of antibiotics, rather than stopping when they feel better, is misguided, according to a new analysis in the British Medical Journal. The researchers argue that “the idea that stopping antibiotic treatment early encourages antibiotic resistance is not supported by evidence, while taking antibiotics for longer than necessary increases the risk of resistance”. The study also argued that the ideal length of a course of treatment can vary from patient to patient and can be affected by an individual’s previous antibiotic use.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK government’s clean air plan criticised by council leaders
 The government’s new clean air plan has been branded inadequate by the leaders of eight heavily polluted cities, as campaigners said banning petrol and diesel cars from 2040 would not help the thousands dying each year from illnesses linked to toxic fumes.

The long-awaited report was published by Michael Gove, the environment secretary, on Wednesday, after a court ruled last year that the government must improve its proposals for tackling illegal levels of pollution.

It confirmed conventional petrol and diesel cars would be banned in 23 years but the government refused to legislate for more “clean air zones” that would charge the dirtiest vehicles to enter some of the UK’s most polluted cities.

The plan also stopped short of bringing in a scrappage scheme to encourage people to give up diesel cars, considering only a “targeted” version to incentivise some some groups of people on low incomes or in particularly polluted areas.

In a letter to Gove, the leaders of Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton, Leicester and Oxford city councils called for urgent legislation and a proper diesel scrappage scheme, saying the long-awaited air quality plan would not enable them to keep to their legal limits on pollution.

The city leaders said the “updated clean air plan, while indicating long-term ambition, still lacks some specific actions that would enable us to meet the legal limits and establish safer air sooner rather than later”.

The criticism means the government could face further legal action to force it to produce a more comprehensive plan, with environmentalists, doctors and opposition politicians arguing it is insufficient to deal with a “health emergency” estimated to be killing 40,000 people a year.

Some energy experts also warned that a wholesale switch from

conventional to electric cars could put the National Grid under huge pressure and require many new power stations.

ClientEarth, the environmental lawyers that previously took the government to court, said it appeared to be “little more than a shabby rewrite of the previous draft plans and is underwhelming and lacking in urgency”.

“The court ordered action by the UK to obey its own laws as soon as possible. This plan kicks the can down the road yet again,” said James Thornton, chief executive of the firm. “The 2040 diesel and petrol ban, while important is a diversionary tactic and doesn’t deal with the public health emergency caused by illegally polluted air, now.”

Ministers had been urged to introduce charges for vehicles to enter a series of clean air zones (CAZs) in new cities, adding to existing plans for such measures in Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Nottingham, Southampton, and London.

But the government said it only wants new charging zones to be considered as a last resort, despite its own research showing that such clean air zones are the “quickest, most cost-effective way” to tackle the problem.

It named 80 A-roads and motorways with particularly poor air quality but said councils should exhaust other options before opting to impose charging, and restrictions should be time-limited and lifted as soon as pollution is within legal limits.

Instead, most councils will be given money from a £250m pot to tackle pollution hotspots with “surgical interventions” such as improving public transport and changing road layouts. Labour said the government was “shunting the problem on to local authorities”, which have 18 months to submit their plans for action.

In their letter to Gove, six councils warned that some of these suggestions for surgical interventions risk “displacing the problem elsewhere in our cities rather than solving it .... and they could also increase traffic and congestion”.

“Only national backing of local action, in law and in resources, will enable us to tackle this crisis effectively,” they said.

Another council, Sheffield, called the report “woefully inadequate”, with Jack Scott, cabinet member for transport, saying he was “highly sceptical that the government’s announcement today even meets their legal duties on air quality”.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, also joined in the criticism saying the ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2040 was a “half-hearted commitment” that Londoners cannot afford to wait for.

This was echoed by Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader and energy secretary, who said he feared the new ban in 23 years’ time was a “smokescreen for weak measures to tackle 40,000 deaths a year from air pollution now”.

Gove had also been pressed to bring in a scrappage scheme for diesel cars, but the final document only said the government would consider a limited programme to incentivise drivers to switch the most polluting cars for cleaner vehicles.

This would be directed at those who most need support, such as those on lower incomes or those living in the immediate vicinity of a clean air zone. It sounded a negative tone about the idea, saying previous schemes have been “poor value for the taxpayer and open to a degree of fraud”.

The report’s flagship measure was a pledge to ban new sales of conventional diesel and petrol cars by 2040, but this did not go as far as expected because hybrid car sales would still be allowed. Previously, the government had said 2050 emissions targets required “almost all new cars and vans sold to be near-zero emission at the tailpipe by 2040”.

Senior doctors specialising in child health expressed dismay at the failure to take more decisive action. Prof Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said there was “indisputable evidence demonstrating the tragic effects it has on the development of the lungs and hearts of children”.

“Having been told [by the courts] to go back to the drawing board so many times, that the government’s final air quality plan still lacks sufficiently strong measures to clean our air is frankly inexcusable,” she said.

Prof Jonathan Grigg, from Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry, also said more urgent action was needed

“The 2040 target means that several generations of children will suffer the long term consequences of inhaling sooty particles and oxides of nitrogen,” he said. “The government needs to act now, with a faster and more robust response to this public health emergency.”

Industry figures criticised the lack of detail and Mike Cherry, chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said it “still leaves many small businesses in the dark, particularly regarding any potential diesel scrappage scheme”.

Others were concerned about jobs when conventional cars are phased out. Tony Burke, assistant general secretary of Unite, said nothing should be done to jeopardise the “hard won” success of the car industry, adding: “The announcement has wide-ranging implications for the UK economy and future employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of skilled workers. We are calling for a national debate embracing employers, unions and ministers.”

Mike Hawes, the boss of car industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said it was crucial that the government supported the development of electric car technologies and attracted the major battery manufacturers to the UK to prevent the industry, which supports 814,000 jobs, from being damaged.

Environmental groups also reacted with disappointment. Friends of the Earth, the green charity, said it was a cynical move for the government to grab headlines with the eyecatching promise to ban new diesel cars in future, when there is little in the plan to deal with immediate problems.

The plan was described as gimmicky by Areeba Hamid, a clean air campaigner at Greenpeace UK. “While this plan makes the right headline-grabbing noises, in reality it means that children across the UK will continue to be exposed to harmful air pollution for years to come, with potentially irreversible impacts,” she said. “The government cannot shy away any longer from the issue of diesel cars clogging up and polluting our cities, and must now provide real solutions, not just gimmicks.”

Opposition parties criticised the plan for failing to go far enough and highlighted the weakness of proposals to deal with air quality in the short and medium term.

Sue Hayman, the shadow environment secretary, said there had already been “seven years of illegal air pollution under this Conservative government, who have only acted after being dragged through the courts”.

“Despite the scale of the problem of illegal air pollution, we are presented today with further consultations and delays, a squeamish attitude to clean air zones, shunting the problem on to local authorities and no detail about how the government’s 2040 target will be achieved,” she said. “With nearly 40 million people living in areas with illegal levels of air pollution, action is needed now, not in 23 years’ time.”

The plan was defended by Gove, who said it “sets out how we will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide”.

“This is one element of the government’s £3bn programme to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions,” he said.

Output: The UK government’s new clean air plan has been criticised as inadequate by the leaders of eight cities suffering from high levels of pollution. In a letter to environment secretary Michael Gove, the leaders of Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Oxford and Southampton councils demanded urgent legislation and the introduction of a diesel scrappage scheme. The plan, which will ban petrol and diesel cars by 2040 but does not include proposals for further “clean air zones” or a full scrappage scheme, was published on Wednesday after a court ruled in 2016 that previous government proposals were insufficient.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Researcher converts dirty tinfoil into biofuel catalyst
 Ahmed Osman. Credit: Queen's University Belfast

A researcher at Queen's University Belfast has discovered a way to convert dirty aluminium foil into a biofuel catalyst, which could help to solve global waste and energy problems.

In the UK, around 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging is wasted each year - enough to stretch to the moon and back. Most of this is landfilled or incinerated as it's usually contaminated by grease and oils, which can damage recycling equipment.

However, Ahmed Osman, an Early Career Researcher from Queen's University's School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, has worked with engineers at the university to create an innovative crystallisation method, which obtains 100% pure single crystals of aluminium salts from the contaminated foil. This is the starting material for the preparation of alumina catalyst.

Usually, to produce this type of alumina it would have to come from bauxite ore, which is mined in countries such as West Africa, the West Indies and Australia, causing huge environmental damage.

Osman, who took on the project under the University's Sustainable Energy, Pioneering Research Programme, has created a solution which is much more environmentally-friendly, effective and cheaper than the commercial catalyst which is currently available on the market for the production of dimethyl ether - a biofuel which is regarded as the most promising of the 21st century. Osman says making the catalyst from aluminium foil cost about £120/kg while the commercial alumina catalyst comes in at around £305/kg.

Its unique thermal, chemical and mechanical stability means it can also be used as an absorbent, in electronic device fabrication, as a cutting tool material or as an alternative for surgical material for implants.

The ground-breaking research has been published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Osman commented: "I have always been inspired by Chemistry and I believe that catalysis especially can make the world a better place. One day I took a walk through our laboratories at Queen's and found lots of Aluminium foil waste so I did a little digging and after speaking to my colleagues, I ran my experiment and was astonished by the ultrapure single crystals – I didn't expect it to be 100% pure.

"At Queen's, our scientists and engineers often work hand in hand on common challenging problems for the society. By using our joint expertise, we have been able to tackle the issue of sustainable development and come up with a research solution which lies in an area between chemistry and chemical engineering.

"This breakthrough is significant as not only is the alumina more pure than its commercial counterpart, it could also reduce the amount of aluminium foil going to landfill while also sidestepping the environmental damage associated with mining bauxite."

Osman is hoping to continue his research into how these catalysts can be further improved and explore the opportunities for commercialisation of biofuel production or use the modified alumina catalyst in the catalytic converters in natural gas vehicles.

More information: Ahmed I. Osman et al. A Facile Green Synthetic Route for the Preparation of Highly Active γ-Al2O3 from Aluminum Foil Waste, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03839-x Journal information: Scientific Reports

Output: An engineer at Queen's University Belfast has developed a method of obtaining 100% pure single crystals of aluminium salts from used aluminium foil, potentially sidestepping the environmentally damaging bauxite industry, according to research published in Nature Scientific Reports. Ahmed Osman came up with the innovative crystallisation method, which costs about £120 ($157)/kg to make, compared to a commercial alumina catalyst's £305/kg. In addition, Osman's alumina has the thermal, chemical and mechanical stability to perform a wide range of applications, from surgical material to cutting tools.


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Kidnap vigilance urged as employee travel to high-risk countries rises
 Approximately 40,000 kidnappings occur every year and over 40% of these are of business personnel or their dependants. Regions with the highest risk such as Mexico, Libya and Bangladesh*, are well known and employers may have been aware of these risks for some time. However, kidnappings can occur in any region and it’s important that employers consider the risks wherever they send their staff.

It is vital that companies have adequate protection for their staff to ensure they are properly prepared should the worst happen. Employers also need to remember, this isn’t only relevant for expats, but any staff that travel for work.

What has changed?

Data suggests high-risk areas are expanding their territory and getting more dangerous. Business travel to these regions is also rising. Result Group, the risk and crisis management consultancy, reports a significant deterioration of the safety situation across Africa in the last four years** – an attractive continent for business due to its rapid economic growth.

Kidnap and ransom, whilst most common in high-risk regions is not exclusive to them, it can happen anywhere, so it is understandable that employees may be getting more worried about their personal safety. Indeed, research*** from ABTA shows that safety is employers’ number one concern for staff that travel abroad for work.

Given this context, it is now a priority for employers to be prepared, wherever they are sending staff. In practice this includes conducting research before travel, getting advice from experts and ensuring the relevant insurance is in place. Not only will such steps ensure adequate protection is in place, it also enables a company to fulfil its legal obligations to staff, and is a reassurance for staff working abroad.

Sarah Dennis, Head of International for The Health Insurance Group said: “Sadly, we have to recognise that the risk of kidnap and ransom is increasing and it isn’t just limited to high-risk areas. The good news is, there are specific kidnap and ransom policies that have been designed to specifically protect companies with staff working abroad. A kidnap and ransom policy should be an integral part of the provisions that employers make to meet their duty of care for overseas and travelling staff – wherever they’re working.”

What is needed?

Employers must recognise the increasing threat of kidnap and ransom as they seek to grow their business, not only in high-risk areas. To meet the duty of care they have to staff it is essential for businesses to seek expert advice and have kidnap and ransom policies in place before sending staff abroad.

Output: Employers should adopt more vigilant measures against the kidnap risk to their employees as travel becomes an increasingly essential component of business activities, according to the Health Insurance Group. Since almost half of the 40,000 kidnappings occurring every year involve business personnel or their dependants, companies have been urged to ensure kidnap and ransom policies are in place to help protect their staff. The UK-based independent healthcare and wellbeing adviser warned that high-risk regions around the globe are on the increase.


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Korean firms to develop new batteries over cobalt shortage
 In response to a supply shortage of cobalt, a key ingredient used in lithium-ion batteries, South Korean battery makers Samsung SDI and LG Chem are stepping up development of new batteries and diversifying their material suppliers.

Amid growing demand for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and smartphones, cobalt, the key energy metal, has seen a decline in production this year driven mainly by the unstable political situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for more than half of global cobalt production.

In July, the price of cobalt came to $61,000 per ton, a 90 percent jump from early in the year, according to industry data.

The continued political instability of Congo and rising demand for electric vehicles will lead to a supply shortage of cobalt from 2018, which will last for four straight years, Macquarie Research predicted. The global EV market is forecast to grow from 6.7 million units in 2015 to 10.4 million units by 2020, according to Japanese market research firm B3.

Leading Korean battery makers Samsung SDI, LG Chem and SK Innovation -- whose combined EV battery sales stand at around 20 percent of total global sales -- are responding to the short supply by developing new batteries that can reduce the use of cobalt.“We are developing a new lithium-ion battery with a reduced portion of cobalt in response to the price rise of the energy metal,” said Kang Chang-beom, an executive of LG Chem’s battery business strategy division, on a conference call with analysts on July 19.Current lithium-ion batteries are comprised of cathode material, anode material, electrolytes and separators. The cathode material includes nickel, cobalt and manganese, whose proportion is currently at a 6:2:2 ratio. But the three firms are developing new batteries to change the ratio to 8:1:1.Improving the proportion of nickel could allow EVs to run farther on a single charge.“The new batteries with the reduced portion of cobalt could be developed in three to four years, although it would be difficult to get rid of cobalt completely anytime soon,” said a source from LG Chem.Alongside the development of new batteries, the battery makers are also diversifying their cathode material suppliers.“The price surge of cobalt has become a very sensitive issue recently. We are trying to diversify our cathode material suppliers and to make a long-term contract (in order not to be affected by short-term political instability) with them,” a Samsung SDI official said.Currently, both Samsung and LG are provided with cobalt from several cathode material providers, including local firm Ecopro and Belgian firm Umicore.Some industry watchers have said the government should move to secure the necessary metals at a national level to support local battery firms.However, the government is not in a position to do so, as most public projects that tap on overseas resources, which began under former President Lee Myung-bak in around 2010, have come under fire for lacking in meaningful contributions.In June, the government announced a massive restructuring plan of public organizations, including Korea Resources Corp., and said there would be no more new investments in overseas resources.“We agree that there is the necessity to exploit cobalt for the private sector. But we have no plan to make any new investments in overseas resources, as the tax burden caused by past failures is too massive,” said Kim Doo-yeol, an official in charge of developing overseas resources at the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Energy.By Shin Ji-hye ( shinjh@heraldcorp.com

Output: South Korean tech firms Samsung SDI, LG Chem and SK Innovation are responding to the predicted global supply shortage of cobalt - a key ingredient of lithium-ion batteries - by developing new technology which relies less on the material. Researchers are aiming to change the proportion of cathode materials nickel, cobalt and manganese from a 6:2:2 ratio to 8:1:1. A source inside LG Chem said the batteries with less cobalt could be developed in three to four years, though it would be "difficult to get rid of cobalt completely anytime soon".


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Irish courts drafting contempt laws on social media influence
 Procedures are needed so contempt of court laws can be used against those who disrupt court proceedings with social media, the Chief Justice Susan Denham has said. Video: Colm Keena

Procedures are needed so contempt of court laws can be used against those who disrupt court proceedings with social media, the Chief Justice Susan Denham has said.

Her comments come in the wake of an unprecedented social media campaign during the Jobstown trial, but also reflect a more general concern amongst the judiciary about social media, in particular as to how it can affect jurors.

"To date, it has been rare that courts in Ireland have had to use contempt of court law to curb inaccurate and disruptive online communications about cases," Mrs Justice Denham said at the launch of the 2016 Annual Report of the Courts Service.

“It would be naive of us not to plan for the future in this regard,” she said. “The fundamental right to a fair trial does not change in the face of any new means of communication. Rules can and must reflect the new reality.”

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She said she will this week send a draft discussion paper on guidelines on the use of social media in the courts to the presidents of all the courts, and ask the Courts Service to engage with the media and the legal professions on the matter.

There has been some discussion already about the possibility of banning certain devices from courtrooms unless they are being used by legal professionals or journalists, as well as how to prevent jurors being influenced by social media or online material.

One of the matters to be considered is who in the system would be responsible for trying to enforce any new rules.

Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan said he was “most anxious that the area of civil and criminal contempt”should be reviewed.

The issue of social media use and court proceedings had arisen on a number of occasions in recent times and he was keen to see the topic reviewed.

“Everyone is entitled to a free and fair trail, without outside interference,” he said. He looked forward to ensuring that any recommendations that emerged from a review would be implemented.

Mrs Justice Denham, who is the chair of the Courts Service board, is to retire as Chief Justice soon and will have her last court appearance on Friday.

She said that in 2016 the Courts Service supported 24,588 court sittings involving 170 judges.

The courts deal with approximately 750,000 civil and criminal cases and other matters each year, with 516,000 of these being in the District Court where 60 per cent of cases relate to road traffic offences.

The 2016 report showed a 15 per cent increase in personal injury cases, despite the existence of a parallel non-court process for such claims, she said.

“Strikingly there was a decrease of 32 per cent in new possession cases year on year,” she said. “Hopefully this is a sign that the effects of our great recession are fading, and that the alternative mechanisms for dealing with personal debt are successful for many.”

There has been a 125 per cent increase over two years of applications under the debt resolution mechanisms of the Personal Insolvency Act. That such legal avenues to exit debt exist is to be welcomed, she said.

The number of trials heard in the Central Criminal Court have increased by 48 per cent over two years, ensuring that waiting times for murder and rape trials do not grow longer.

The final phase of the Fines (Payments and Recovery) Act 2014, which aims to reduce the number of people going to prison for the non-payment of fines, has commenced and enforcement notices were last week sent to more than 2,000 people who have failed to pay fines imposed by the courts. These people must now appear in court in September, but the Chief Justice pointed out that it is still possible to pay in full the fines at issue, right up to the court appearance date.

On social media, she said in order to protect the right to a fair trial, it will be necessary to introduce draft guidelines on “the who, when and what of using social media in courtrooms”.

Also, there has to be a discussion among those who work in and around courts about how such guidelines might work. And, thirdly, there was a need to look at legal reform to take cognisance of the new reality of instant communication.

Output: Irish Chief Justice Susan Denham will send a draft discussion paper on potential guidelines for the use of social media in courts, stating that legal proceedings can be disrupted with contemptuous use. The regulations may be able to halt the spread of inaccurate online communications about cases and undue influence on jurors, with devices potentially being banned from courtrooms unless legally necessary.


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Aetna purchases Bupa Thailand as part of its Asia focus
 Aetna Inc. announced it has acquired UK-based Bupa Group’s Thai business, Bupa Thailand, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will significantly increase Aetna’s presence in Asia, and is key to the company’s strategy to go “broader and deeper” into local healthcare markets, the company said in a statement.

“This is a significant and exciting expansion for Aetna in Asia, and clearly demonstrates our commitment to investment and growth in the region and globally,” said Richard di Benedetto, president of Aetna International.

“Thailand is an important market for us, with increasing local wealth driving greater adoption of health insurance. Aetna’s wide product portfolio, together with an excellent talent and knowledge base transferring from Bupa, will put us in a very strong position in the local market,” he added.

Bupa Thailand was established over 30 years ago, and is Thailand’s leading specialist health insurer, with more than 300,000 members and a network of over 400 healthcare providers in the country, said Aetna, noting that Bupa Thailand will continue to operate under the Bupa brand for a short time before rebranding as Aetna.

Source: Aetna

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions

Output: Aetna has acquired Bupa's business in Thailand, Bupa Thailand, for an undisclosed sum as it seeks to expand its influence in Asia. The US-based company says it plans to go "broader and deeper" into Asia's local health care markets. Bupa Thailand, which is the southeast Asian nation's leading specialist healthcare insurance provider, has more than 300,000 customers. It will continue to operate under the Bupa Thailand name for a brief period, before being rebranded as Aetna.


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World Bank issued $4.8bn in political risk, credit insurance in FY17
 World Bank Group commitments to help developing countries take on poverty and boost opportunity reached nearly $59 billion in loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees in fiscal year 2017 (July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017).

A statement issued by the World Bank and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said the commitments from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)—which provides development knowledge to countries, combined with financing and risk management products—were at $ 22.6 billion in FY17.

It said this reflected the Bank’s careful attention to ensuring continued strong capital adequacy ratios and prudent financial management into the future while responding to client countries’ most pressing development challenges.

“With aspirations of the poor on the rise, and overlapping crises such as forced displacement, famine, and climate change, adding urgency to our mission, our staff this year worked to provide marked increases in financing from IDA, IFC, and MIGA,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.

“While this year we have had to actively manage IBRD lending, the Board and management are discussing approaches to ensure adequate capacity across the World Bank Group to best help countries achieve their development goals. As always, we are committed to working with our member countries and other partners to crowd in private investment and maximize resources for the poor,” he added.

The statement said the commitments from the International Development Association (IDA), which provides zero or low-interest loans and grants to the world’s 77 poorest countries, hit $19.5 billion in FY17.

It said the IDA’s increased commitments reflect strong demand for financing, as well as IDA’s efforts to better leverage resources and expand financing options for borrowing countries.

It said the FY17 continued to reflect very high demand for IDA financing from clients, fully committing the three-year resource envelope of IDA17.

It noted that these efforts include an additional $ 3.9 billion allocated for non-concessional lending to finance transformational projects in qualified IDA countries.

It said increased financing has also allowed IDA to respond rapidly to global crises, including a special allocation to Jordan and Lebanon to respond to the refugee crisis and funding from IDA’s Crisis Response Window to provide immediate relief and strengthen resilience in countries affected by famine.

It said the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector, leveraged its capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities wherever they were needed most.

It said preliminary and unaudited data as of June 30 indicated that IFC’s long-term investments totalled approximately $ 18.7 billion, including funds mobilized from other investors.

It said in FY17, IFC made nearly $ 11.9 billion in long-term investments from its own account and mobilized about $ 6.8 billion from other investors.

These often-complex investments supported 342 long-term finance projects in developing countries around the world, it stated.

It said the IFC maintained its strategic focus on the poorest countries and regions; adding that it provided more than $4.6 billion in long-term financing to accelerate development in IDA countries, including funds mobilized from other investors.

These countries accounted for nearly 25 per cent of IFC’s total investments. Investments in businesses in fragile and conflict-affected areas totalled $858 million, including funds mobilized from other investors.

It said this was in line with the Bank Group’s broader strategy to channel resources to hard-hit countries.

As the Bank Group continued to look for new ways to ramp up infrastructure investment, in October 2016, IFC introduced MCPP Infrastructure, a pioneering initiative to mobilize up to $5 billion from insurance companies and other institutional investors for investment in infrastructure projects in emerging markets.

It said the effort builds on the success of IFC’s $ 3 billion Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Programme, a loan-syndications initiative that enabled third-party investors to participate passively in IFC’s senior loan portfolio.

It said the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group, issued a record $4.8 billion in guarantees in FY17 in support of 33 projects, helping draw in $15.9 billion in foreign private capital to developing countries.

Output: The World Bank said that its political risk insurance and credit enhancement unit, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, issued a record $4.8bn in guarantees in the year through June 2017, in support of 33 projects, helping draw in $15.9bn in foreign private capital to developing countries.


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New South Wales mulls neighbour compensation for unruly Airbnbs
 Residents who let out their spare rooms to rowdy guests through sites such as Airbnb could be forced to pay compensation to their neighbours under a plan being considered by the New South Wales government.

Apartment owners would also be forced to pay extra strata funds, and there would be limits on the number of days a property can be let out without a development application.

The proposals are among several to be released for public consultation on Friday after the Berejiklian government earlier this year called for input on how to regulate the booming industry.

Solutions for the private short-term rental market, which usually operates on sites such as Airbnb and Stayz, range from self-regulation to changes to strata and planning rules.

One proposed strata rule change would allow owners’ corporations to ask the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to order owners to pay compensation when guest behaviour affects others in the building, or issue a temporary ban on short-term letting, News Corp Australia reports.

It’s unclear whether the government will adopt the proposals. The discussion paper has already been criticised for failing to distinguish between short-term rentals in the city and regional areas.

“If this distinction is not recognised, it will have damaging consequences for the economy and jobs in regional towns like Port Macquarie and Kiama,” the director of corporate and government affairs at Stayz, Jordan Condo said.

“Why should someone who owns a beach shack and has for decades leased it out to others when not using it themselves suddenly be handed a bunch of red tape and financial burden for providing accommodation in the parts of NSW where it is needed the most,” he said in a statement on Friday.

“It does not make any sense and it’s not evidence-based policy-making.”

There are more than 40,000 Airbnb listings in NSW, including 17,000 in greater Sydney alone.

The average Airbnb host in NSW earns $4,400 in a year sharing their home.

Output: Airbnb landlords may have to pay compensation to neighbours for inconsiderate guests, according to new legislation being considered by the New South Wales government. Property owners would also be required to pay extra strata (a version of commonhold) funds and obey limits on the number of nights a property can be let. The legislation is under discussion, with critics objecting to the fact that it does not distinguish between city and regional short-term rentals. There are more than 40,000 Airbnb listings in NSW.