Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Iron Ox start-up targets robot-boosted farm production
 UNITED STATES (REUTERS) - Head of fresh organic lettuce - sold at the same price as one grown in the field with pesticide. That is the goal of the founders of Iron Ox - and it is one they think is possible thanks to its robots.

Iron Ox chief executive officer Brandon Alexander, gave up his job as a Google engineer - and is now getting into farming, just like his grandfather before him, and he is using his tech skills to boost production.

Says Mr Alexander:"Our mission statement isn't just build core robots or just to build great machine learning. It's to make high-quality fresh produce more accessible to everyone and we believe the way to do that is to leverage advanced robots, leverage things like AI but do it in such a way that we can actually supply better produce than they have access to today."

But unlike crops like wheat, corn and soy, that have been cultivated using GPS guided sprayers and automatic combine machines, fresh produce is much more challenging.

This machine by Agrobot can only pick berries grown in a structured way - although the next iteration promises to be one that can handle more chaos in the fields.

Abundant Robotics says its big challenge is to get the robot to pick the apples without bruising them and avoid damaging the trees. It is aiming to be ready for commercial use next year.

And Iron Ox chief technology officer Jon Binney believes - that where his robots will outfarm humans is not out in the fields - but at a greenhouse.

Iron Ox is looking to set up greenhouses across America -starting with the San Francisco Bay Area - and will focus on fast-growing crops like lettuce, basil and any other greens that can go from seed to the table in six weeks.

Output: California-based company Iron Ox is set to develop advanced robots and artificial intelligence to help grow and harvest fresh produce. CEO and former Google engineer Brandon Alexander wants to build a series of greenhouses across the US, beginning in San Francisco, and believes sophisticated robots will eventually do a better job than humans of growing and harvesting produce. Companies such as Agrobot and Abundant Robotics have both developed fruit-picking machines, but challenges remain about damage to fruit and trees during harvesting.


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Ransomware costs expected to total $11.5bn by 2019
 Not many organizations end up paying $67 million in ransomware related costs like United Health Services (UHS) did last year following a September 2020 attack that crippled its network. The organization is, however, an example of the increasingly heavy financial toll that these attacks have begun to exact from victims over the past two years.

Security experts that have been following the trend point to several factors as driving the increased costs associated with ransomware attacks, especially for organizations in the healthcare sector. One of the most obvious is an increase in the average ransoms that attackers have been demanding from victims.

An analysis of claims data from policyholders by cyber insurance firm Coalition last year showed the average ransom demand jumping 47% from just over $230,000 in Q1, 2020 to $338,669 in Q2, 2020. Some, like the operators of the Maze ransomware strain hit victims with an average ransom demand of $420,000. A study by Coveware found actual ransomware payouts skyrocketing too—from just over $84,000 in Q4, 2019 to over $233,817 in Q3, 2020.

However, the ransom itself is only part of the total cost and is often not a factor at all for organizations that refuse to accede to extortion attempts. Even for such organizations, the cost of attacks has increased steadily over the past two years or so. Here, according to security experts, are five of the most common reasons why that has happened.

1. Downtime costs

Downtime has emerged as one of the biggest—if not the biggest—costs associated with a ransomware attack. Ransomware victims can often take days and sometimes even weeks to restore systems following a ransomware attack. During that time normal services can be seriously disrupted resulting in lost business, lost opportunity cost, lost customer goodwill, broken SLAs, brand erosion and a slew of other problems. The bulk of UHS's costs, for instance, was tied to lost income because of its inability to provide patient care services as usual and billing delays.

Such issues could get even worse. In recent months, adversaries have begun targeting operational technology networks to maximize downtime for victims and to increase pressure on them to pay. One example is an attack earlier this year on packaging giant WestRock Company, that impacted operations at some of the company's mills and converting plants. A similar attack on Honda in 2020 temporarily disrupted operations at some of the automaker's plants outside Japan.

Two-thirds of respondents in a survey of nearly 2,700 IT professionals that Veritas commissioned last year estimated it would take their organizations at least five days to recover from a ransomware attack. Another report from Coveware pegged the average downtime substantially higher at an average of 21 days in Q4, 2020.

Ryan Weeks, CISO at Datto, says a survey the company did last year showed that the average cost of downtime related to a ransomware attack in 2020 was a startling 93% higher than it was just one year ago. "Downtime is often immensely more costly than the ransom itself," he says. "The rate at which the cost of downtime is increasing really puts the ransomware epidemic into perspective."

The company's data showed the average downtime from a ransomware attack can cost upwards of $274,200—or much higher than the average ransom demand. This can make it tempting for organizations to simply accede to attacker demands, Weeks says. "For example, in 2018, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, was hit by a ransomware attack that cost the city upwards of $17 million dollars to recover from. However, the ransom payment itself was only $51,000," he says.

Such numbers point to the need for organizations to have a well-considered cyber resilience strategy and business continuity plan, Weeks says. When considering a business continuity plan, organizations need to think about issues like recovery time objective (RTO)—the maximum duration of time within which business operations must be restored—and recovery point objective (RPO)—how far back in time they need to go to retrieve data that is still in usable format. "Calculating your RTO helps determine the maximum time that your business can afford to be operating without access to data before it’s at risk. Alternatively, by specifying the RPO, you know how often you need to perform data backups," he says.

2. Costs associated with double extortion

In an especially troubling development, ransomware operators have begun stealing large volumes of sensitive data from organizations before locking up their systems and then using the stolen data as additional leverage to extract a ransom. When organizations refuse to pay, the attackers leak the data via dark websites set up for that purpose.

A study that Japan's Nikkei conducted in collaboration with Trend Micro found that more than 1,000 organizations worldwide fell victim to this type of a double extortion attack just in the first 10 months of 2020. The practice is believed to have started with the operators of the Maze ransomware family but was quickly adopted by numerous groups including the operators of Sodinokibi, Nemty, Doppelpaymer, Ryuk and Egregor ransomware families. Seven-in-ten of the ransomware incidents that Coveware responded to last quarter involved data theft.

"The fact that many ransomware groups now steal data before they encrypt it increases the risk of a data leak," says Candid Wuest, vice president of cyber protection research at Acronis. "This means that all the related costs such as brand damage, legal fees, regulatory fines and data breach clean up services are more likely to be needed, even if the systems were restored without any major downtime."

The trend has upended the traditional math associated with ransomware attacks. Ransomware victims—even those with the best data backup and recovery process—now must contend with the real possibility of their sensitive data being leaked publicly or sold to rivals. As a result, victims of ransomware attacks will likely have to bear the brunt of financial penalty from regulatory bodies, says Xue Yin Peh, senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows. The publishing and exposure of data stolen from victims may constitute a breach under regulations such as the EU's GDPR, California's CCPA and HIPAA.

"Victims might also face legal consequences in the form of third-party claims or class action lawsuits," Peh notes. The potential for such trouble increases when the data that is stolen and published by attackers involves other organizations—such as third-party data files or client data. "If consumer data was exposed, a firm could expect costs around breach notification and as well. Cyber insurance premiums could also increase as a result of a ransomware attack.”

3. IT upgrade costs

In the immediate aftermath of a ransomware attack, organizations can sometimes underestimate the costs involved not just in responding to the incident but also in securing the network from further attacks. This is especially true in situations where an organization might assume the best option is to pay the attackers.

"In a scenario where paying a ransom has secured the release of infected machines, victims have no guarantee that the attackers no longer have access to their enterprise," says Migo Kedem, head of SentinelLabs at SentinelOne. They have no assurance that the attackers haven't implanted more malware on their systems or that they haven’t sold or transferred their illicit access to another criminal group. There is no guarantee that once paid, the attackers will disinfect machines, delete pilfered data, or give up their access to the victim network.

To mitigate against further attacks organizations often must upgrade their infrastructure and implement better controls. "The hidden costs that victims fail to take into consideration are the incident response and IT upgrade costs necessary to secure that network from further attack," Kedem says.

4. Increased costs from paying a ransom

Many companies pay a ransom assuming it's cheaper than restoring data from scratch. That's a mistake, say security experts. A survey that Sophos conducted last year showed that more than one-quarter (26%) of ransomware victims paid their attacker a ransom to get data back. Another 1% paid a ransom as well but didn't get their data back anyway.

What Sophos discovered was that those that did pay a ransom ended up paying double in total attack-related costs compared to those that didn’t. The average cost of a ransomware attack—including downtime, device and network repair and recovery costs, people time, opportunity cost and ransom paid—for companies that did pay a ransom was roughly $1.4 million compared to around $733,000 for the non-payers.

The reason is that victims still need to do a lot of work to restore data, Sophos found. According to the company, the costs associated with data recovery and a return to normalcy are roughly the same whether an organization recovers data from backup or with an attacker-provided decryption key. So, paying a ransom only adds to those costs.

5. Cost of reputational damage

Ransomware attacks can erode consumer trust and confidence and result in an organization losing customers and business. A survey of nearly 2,000 consumers from the US, UK, and other countries that Arcserve conducted last year showed 28% saying they would take their business elsewhere if they experienced even a single service disruption or experience where their data was inaccessible. More than nine-in-ten (93%) said they considered an organization's trustworthiness prior to purchasing and 59% said they would avoid doing business with a company that experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months.

The recent emergence of a group calling itself Distributed Denial of Secrets could soon make it harder for organizations to play down data breaches. The group, which has modeled itself along the lines of WikiLeaks, claims to have collected troves of data that ransomware attackers have leaked online and has said it will publicly publish the data in the name of transparency. The group has already published data belonging to multiple companies that it says it obtained from sites and forums used by ransomware operators to leak stolen data.

Output: An uptick in the frequency of ransomware cyber attacks will cost the global economy approximately $11.5bn in 2019. In 2015 such attacks cost $325m. The prediction comes even as fewer victims are agreeing to pay the ransom demands issued by hackers deploying this method of attack. In particular, the healthcare sector is said to be particularly vulnerable. The number of attacks on healthcare firms is slated to increase four-fold by 2020.


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DoJ steps in to block AT&T's merger with Time Warner
 Rumors surfaced earlier this month suggesting the Department of Justice was laying the foundation for an antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T's $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. On Monday, the litigation came to fruition.

The development serves as a major blow to a deal that's been in the works for more than a year. Bloomberg first reported on the news earlier in the day.

The proposed merger was announced in October 2016. The goal, among other things, is to give AT&T more leverage in the rapidly changing entertainment landscape by allowing them to bundle mobile services with video products. Time Warner, as you may know, owns Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros and HBO, thus serving as a significant influencer in the production and broadcasting space.

According to Bloomberg, the deal appeared to be headed toward approval as early as a month ago. That, however, was before new US antitrust Makan Delrahim came into power and took over the investigation. Delrahim apparently encouraged AT&T to sell its Turner broadcasting arm or DirecTV but the company declined.

Delrahim said in a statement today that the merger would greatly harm American consumers, adding that it would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy.

David R. McAtee II, Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, AT&T Inc., responded to the lawsuit:

"Today's DOJ lawsuit is a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent. Vertical mergers like this one are routinely approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market. We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently." "Our merger combines Time Warner's content and talent with AT&T's TV, wireless and broadband distribution platforms. The result will help make television more affordable, innovative, interactive and mobile. Fortunately, the Department of Justice doesn't have the final say in this matter. Rather, it bears the burden of proving to the U.S. District Court that the transaction violates the law. We are confident that the Court will reject the Government's claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent."

AT&T intended on closing the deal by the end of 2017 but given the DoJ hurdle, that now seems unlikely.

Output: The assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice's antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, has begun legal action to prevent AT&T’s $85.4bn acquisition of Time Warner, claiming the deal would lead to higher costs and less choice for US viewers. The proposed merger was first announced in October 2016 and looked set to win approval until Delrahim's appointment. AT&T's general counsel, David McAtee, called the lawsuit "a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent".


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PayPal invoices functionality added to Facebook Messenger
 PayPal users selling their old Lego bricks can now create and send invoices within Facebook Messenger.

To use the new feature, sellers open the extension tray within Messenger, select PayPal and create the invoice, with the item name, description, price and quantity.

They then send it to the buyer, who can press the Pay with PayPal button and complete the transaction with PayPal One Touch.

The move comes a month after PayPal introduced person-to-person payments within Messenger. The firm also has a Messenger customer service bot.

Output: A month after PayPal launched person-to-person payments within Facebook's Messenger, it has added functionality that enables users to create and send invoices over the social media site's service. Upon receipt of the invoice, transactions can be completed using PayPal One Touch.


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NatWest software to offer investment advice to customers
 UK and US move closer to transatlantic data bridge deal The British and American governments have committed, in principle, to a new data bridge agreement that will ease the free flow of personal data across the Atlantic

University of Manchester hit by cyber attack The University of Manchester has been hit by a cyber attack of an undisclosed nature

CDEI publishes portfolio of AI assurance techniques The UK’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation has published a variety of case studies to show how different assurance techniques can build and maintain trust in artificial intelligence systems

Sweden’s Ikano Bank outsources core banking to TCS Ikano Bank moves to cloud banking platform from Indian IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services

Vulnerability exploitation volumes up over 50% in 2022 Data from Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 threat intel specialists reveals insight into the scale of vulnerability exploitation in the wild

UK gets new rules to regulate crypto sector The Financial Conduct Authority is introducing new rules to regulate the cryptoasset sector, after being handed a government remit to oversee crypto promotions

Clop may have been sitting on MOVEit vulnerability for two years The Clop cyber extortion gang may have been keeping the MOVEit SQL injection vulnerability they used to penetrate the systems of multiple victims secret for two years

Netherlands enables contactless payments on entire public transport network All modes of public transport now accept payments using contactless technology after the completion of major project in the Netherlands

Government and industry figures meet to discuss AI regulation Tech industry figures are broadly supportive of the need for artificial intelligence (AI) to be regulated, but despite growing consensus there is still disagreement over what effective AI regulation looks like

Bishop Fox’s Vinnie Liu talks offensive security skills There is growing demand for offensive security testing, but it needs a multi-layered skillset that can be hard to quantify. Bishop Fox’s CEO and co-founder explains why and some potential mitigation strategies

UKtech50 2023 winner: Michelle Donelan/Chloe Smith, secretary of state, DSIT Computer Weekly looks at the achievements and successes of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, as its secretary of state is recognised as the most influential person in UK technology for 2023

UKtech50 2023: The most influential people in UK technology Computer Weekly has announced the 13th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

NatWest and University of Edinburgh form partnership to research data use in banking sector Scottish university and banking group set up research centre that will aim to improve the use of banking data

Welsh ambulance service upgrades life-saving communications Welsh ambulances going through major communications upgrade as part of wider NHS programme

Researchers in Belgium move towards industrial production of qubits Using existing equipment and know-how, researchers at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Imec) in Belgium are finding ways of mass-producing qubits

Open banking regulator sets out next steps Plans for ongoing evolution of the UK open banking sector have been set out by regulator in bid to grow the open banking sector in a ‘safe, scalable and economically sustainable way’

Clop cyber gang claims MOVEit attack and starts harassing victims The Clop cyber extortion and ransomware operation is demanding organisations pay a ransom to avoid data stolen via an exploited vulnerability in a file transfer product being leaked

Payments regulator makes APP fraud reimbursement mandatory UK payments regulator confirms changes to rules around repaying customers who lose money to authorised push payment fraudsters

Government to test rural broadband options with £7m fund Government to fund tests of technologies that could be issued to improve internet connectivity for rural communities

Google launches hacker-backed SME security training scheme Citing research that shows almost half of SMEs are struggling to recruit cyber security specialists, Google is launching a programme designed to upskill more people to fill thousands of vacant roles

Indian IT services giant takes UK teachers’ pensions contract from Capita Tata Consultancy Services bolsters its growing UK public sector customer base with key contract win

Apple's $3,500 headset offers VR at a premium Apple devices have always commanded a premium, but will consumers and business splash out $3,499 on its new Vision Pro headset?

Mercedes Pay turns vehicles into payment devices German car manufacturer add contactless payment feature to enable drivers to find and book parking spaces and pay automatically when they arrive

Victims of MOVEit SQL injection zero-day mount up The BBC, Boots, and British Airways are among the victims of cyber incidents arising from a recently disclosed vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer, exploitation of which is spreading fast

Netherlands makes case for harmonisation of cloud security standards Harmonisation of cyber security standards is necessary to reduce the regulatory burden on Dutch SMEs – and regulators need to cooperate better

ESA uses NetApp as-a-service for space data ‘hot’ archive The European Space Agency collects data from millions of miles away. It must get storage right when there’s no chance of a u-turn to take more photos or re-record data

TechUK publishes ‘UK tech plan’ for next government Technology businesses are calling on UK politicians to devise a ‘comprehensive, forward-thinking strategy’ to realise the benefits of technology ahead of the next general election

Cyber spotlight falls on boardroom ‘privilege’ as incidents soar Three quarters of data breaches now involve a significant human element, and the higher up they get in an organisation, the more risks people seem to take, according to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report

Workers ‘deeply uncomfortable’ with digital surveillance at work Employees express discomfort towards employers’ use of various digital surveillance and monitoring techniques, which are often powered by artificial intelligence

Bank of International Settlement sets up channel secure from quantum breach The Bank of International Settlement has worked with two of Europe's central banks to explore preventing the security risks posed by quantum computers

UK has time limit on ensuring cryptocurrency regulatory leadership, says Parliamentary report Parliamentary report makes 53 recommendations to the government's plans to regulate cryptocurrency

Medical regulator drops probe into NHS whistleblower Peter Duffy amid dispute over email evidence The General Medical Council has dropped an investigation into an NHS whistleblower who exposed widespread clinical harm at Morecambe Bay Trust amid questions over disputed email evidence

Sweden is developing its own big language model Artificial Intelligence Sweden is leading an initiative to build a large language model not only for Swedish, but for all the major languages in the Nordic region: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese

NBN unveils uncapped data plan for remote Australia Following a successful trial to examine delivery of an improved satellite service, including the capability to achieve faster burst speeds of up to 100Mbps, an uncapped usage plan has been launched to address data needs of rural Australia

Qualcomm beefs up Snapdragon Space XR Developer Platform for immersive future Mobile platform technology giant launches immersive technology designed to create a cross-device, extended and augmented reality ecosystem that will enable head-worn experiences from existing smartphone applications

AI interview: Dan McQuillan, critical computing expert Critical computing expert Dan McQuillan speaks to Computer Weekly about the top-down imposition of artificial intelligence on society, and how AI is a fundamentally political technology shaped by humanity’s most reactionary tendencies

Met Police director of intelligence defends facial recognition The Met Police’s director of intelligence has appeared before MPs to make the case for its continuing use of facial-recognition technology, following announcements from the force and the Home Office that they intend to press on with its adoption

CIO interview: Adam Warne, CIO, River Island The privately owned fashion retailer places a premium on its high street presence, but sees digital innovation as key to improving customer service in stores

How India’s DICV is tapping smart manufacturing Daimler India Commercial Vehicles has deployed augmented and virtual reality, advanced sensors, data analytics and other technologies to improve manufacturing processes and customer fleet management

Output: Royal Bank of Scotland-owned NatWest will offer its customers investment advice through robo-advisors, in response to customers' demands for more digital services, according to Phil Northey, managing director of premier banking at NatWest. For a £10 ($13) charge, customers can access the NatWest Invest platform and get advice on investments, as well as receive information about risk and which of the five funds on offer are right for them. This year, RBS said 220 face-to-face adviser roles were cut as a result of automated services.


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Google 'Send Money' allows payments via email
 Coinbase Super Bowl marketing stunt prompts debate over QR code security

News Experts are torn over QR codes and whether the cyber security threat they theoretically present is actually enough to warrant genuine concern in real-world scenarios

Output: Google will launch its peer-to-peer payment service, Send Money, in the UK over the coming weeks. The facility is available only to Gmail users who have Google Wallet accounts, and allows money to be sent via email, even to recipients without Gmail addresses. The service has been available in the US for several years. The move pits Google squarely against rivals PayPal and Snapchat’s Snapcash, while a similar service from Facebook is also reportedly in the works.


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Lightning Network executes first bitcoin-litecoin exchange
 The Lightning Network brought to Bitcoin with Segwit enables users to instantly exchange Bitcoin for Litecoin and vice versa. The first ever transaction between the two coins has now happened.

Segwit (short for Segregated Witness) brought with it many new exciting features for Bitcoin when it was implemented in August this year, not least of them atomic swaps and the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network is an off chain network, that can, among other things, help reduce the load on the main Bitcoin blockchain.

Billions of transactions can theoretically be made instantly through the application of smart contracts. Transfers are made with other parties with a 10-day lock-in period, allowing the exchange to either occur between the two parties or have them cancel and be refunded. The first swap can be seen taking place on the YouTube video below. it was released yesterday by Lightning Labs who devised the code.

SegWit and Its Progress

Are there downsides to any of this? Not really unless you are a miner, no. Bitcoin miners will not be making as much profit from receiving transaction costs, as there stands to be less of them made. Whether this will prove to be a decent combat to the increasingly centralized nature of the current state of Bitcoin mining remains to be seen, as large corporate controlled operations rather than a collective of truly decentralized users, hold a vast, potential unfair sway over the Bitcoin network.

Marshaling the approval of pool owners and mining operators has been key, however, to bringing the power of SegWit to both Litecoin and Bitcoin, as combined hashing power was needed in order to activate the SegWit changes on the entire blockchain.

Litecoin’s SegWit implementation came first, ahead of Bitcoin, not by design, as infighting prevented agreement for the change happening sooner for Bitcoin. This ultimately meant that Litecoin was able to act as a testbed for both the implementation of SegWit itself and also actually running the Lightning Network code which was originally written for Bitcoin by Lightning Labs but could be implemented on Litecoin as the coin is essentially a fork of Bitcoin.

Litecoin And Bitcoin Highways

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee wrote:

Think of it being two highways: Today, Bitcoin is packed full of cars and Litecoin is empty. Even with Bitcoin packed, the cars are not coming to use the Litecoin highway today because it’s not connected and it’s inconvenient (centralized exchanges and slow on-chain transfers) to go across. LN will build bridges over the highways.

The potential benefits of the two coins working together is well summed up with Charlie Lee’s highway metaphor, users need speed and the Lightning Network would appear to more than deliver on that front while also easing congestion on the blockchain.

The news brought an increase in Litecoin’s price as well, as it rose from $63 to $72 in 3 hours, happening during Bitcoins bull run in the last 24 hours to $8k.

Are you exciting for the upcoming months? Will this help retail adoption of Bitcoin payments with its speed of use? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images courtesy of the Bitcoinist archives, BigStockPhoto

Output: The first instant transactional exchange between bitcoin and litecoin has taken place, using technology known as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and the Lightning Network. The system enables billions of transactions through smart contracts, speeding the exchange process. The move will reduce profits for bitcoin miners, who add value through transaction volume, but it proved that SegWit and the Lightning Network code are functional and can increase transactional speed.


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Japanese shun new-build tradition for cheaper home renovations
 From van and bus conversions to trailers and tiny homes, discover the best in small living and find out how to downsize your own living space.

Output: A lack of money is forcing young Japanese to buck tradition and renovate properties instead of build new housing. The nation's housing market has developed a culture of much shorter building lifespans, with houses typically lasting just 20 years to 30 years and having little resale value. The pattern has been reinforced by past poor building standards and a lack of incentives for home improvements. As a result, buyers tend to acquire land and demolish the property on it, building a new house instead.


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China to stabilise land prices through stiff regulation
 A man walks in front of advertisements for residential property in the glass facade of a real estate agency in Guangzhou, Guangdong province of China.

Chinese authorities have said they will head off the risk of a property market crash by stiffening regulation and preventing high land prices.

Regulators from land and housing ministries, as well as the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC), have agreed plans to curb speculation in bricks and mortar, Reuters reported, citing comments on Chinese state television (CCTV).

The authorities said they would stop funds being illegally funneled into property and that capital flow would be more forcibly balanced between real estate and other industries.

CCTV also reported that there would be greater scrutiny of the land market to prevent the underlying cost from pushing up property prices.

Output: The People's Bank of China and the country's regulators have agreed on a series of measures aimed at ensuring the housing market does not heat up, following President Xi Jinping's recent statement that "housing is for living in, not for speculation". According to Chinese state television, capital flow will be balanced between real estate and other sectors, and the land market would be subject to greater scrutiny to prevent a rise in prices. Province leaders were also warned to enforce regulations governing building and lending restrictions.


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UK faces food price inflation due to La Niña and Brexit: Rabobank
 UK consumers could be hit by a new bout of food price inflation next year after the return of the La Niña global weather phenomenon, which may hit production of key commodities including coffee and cocoa.

The UK is expected to be particularly exposed to the effect of the event, which tends to prompt dry weather in the US midwest and heavy rainfall in south-east Asia and Australia, because of the uncertainty caused by Brexit.

Stefan Vogel, head of agri commodity markets at Rabobank, predicted a “year of anxiety for UK farmers and consumers”.

Vogel said: “We see significant threats on the horizon to global food prices in 2018, which have been relatively stable or even trending lower for a number of years.

“Chief among them is the potential of La Niña, a weather event caused by the cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean that could affect areas ranging from grain fields in the Americas to palm oil plantations in Asia.

“Unfortunately, the current high-inflation environment in the UK makes it disproportionately exposed to any significant movement in food prices, while the uncertainty over trade deals when Britain leaves the EU exacerbates the situation further.”

According to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the chance of La Niña conditions strengthening and lasting over the northern hemisphere winter is currently between 65% and 75%.

The UK’s Met Office has also warned of an “increasing risk” of a La Nina event this winter, bringing a cold snap to the UK.

It says it is unlikely there will be a major La Niña event, as experienced between 2010 and 2012, when severe droughts in key growing areas including the US midwest devastated crops while excessive rains in Columbia led to the spreading of a deadly coffee fungus.

In its outlook report for 2018, Good Buy, Low Prices, Rabobank’s analysts predict that La Niña is likely to prompt volatile prices for commodities – ranging from palm oil in south-east Asia, where above-average rainfall and isolated flooding can take place, to crops in parts of Argentina, Peru, southern Brazil and the US that might be affected by drought or low rainfall.

Jara Zicha, a commodities analyst at Mintec, said the effects of a La Niña and its stronger brother El Niño were hard to predict. A change in the weather could also be beneficial to some crops.

Two years ago, one of the strongest El Niños on record brought rain to drought-stricken California helping fruit and nut farmers in the region, for example. “What is important is how strong La Niña is,” Zicha said.

But he added: “This just adds another level of uncertainty. The UK already has very weak sterling making prices expensive and we are slowly starting to see those now. Going forward, Brexit is another uncertainty and La Nina is another factor the UK has to deal with.”

Rising crude oil prices and global freight costs as well as the potential imposition of new tariffs on the import of goods once the UK leaves the EU, could all add to price rises according to Rabobank.

Further price rises would come on top of increases in the price of fish, fats and vegetables which have driven food price inflation to the highest level in more than four years.

City analysts and some retailers had predicted that the big drop in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote in June 2016 would cease to have a strong upward effect on prices by the end of this year. But Rabobank’s analysts suggest otherwise.

“Alongside weather, the rising cost of global trade and potential currency fluctuations also create upside risks for food prices,” Vogel said. “Our view is these outweigh the downside risks in 2018. Food and agribusinesses must therefore plan ahead to manage these risks proactively and appropriately.”

Output: The La Niña weather event could impede production of key commodities, including cocoa and coffee, leading to further food price inflation in the UK next year, according to Rabobank. The UK is particularly exposed to the impact of the event due to Brexit uncertainty. La Niña results from the cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean and could affect regions from grain fields in the Americas to Asian palm oil plantations. Rabobank said that weather events pose “significant threats on the horizon to global food prices in 2018”.


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UK faces food price inflation due to La Niña and Brexit: Rabobank
 Rabobank’s outlook for 2018 indicates that, while global agri-commodity stocks are historically well-supplied, balance sheets are tightening. The key risk factor to the current low-price environment is a severe supply shock, driven by potential adverse weather in a major producing region.

Video: Outlook 2018 In some browsers, you may only see a black screen below without a play button. Please click on that black screen to view the video.

Report summary

Prices for agricultural products mainly continued to trend further down in 2017, for both G&O and softs. Ongoing weakness in emerging currencies supported the export competitiveness of producing countries like Brazil and Russia—keeping pressure on commodity prices—as did the absence of major adverse weather events in the main agricultural areas. But what will 2018 bring? A look to the near future is crucial to the business success of F&A companies.

Approaching 2018, the oversupply of G&O remains an ongoing issue, as record-large global stock levels will keep prices under pressure. For producers and buyers, we envisage opportunities—for example, low agricultural prices can provide ample opportunities for consumer hedging strategies, and the steep contango seen in a few agricultural commodities provides farmers with the opportunity to lock in higher prices by selling forward further into the future.

But an adverse weather event, like La Niña, could disrupt crops across key regions and cause food prices to spike trade headwinds. Producers also face trade risks from increasing freight and input costs along with fluctuating currencies.

Rabobank expects strong demand for coffee and cocoa, and a bullish outlook on wheat with rising consumption eating into stocks after US acreage record lows.

Output: The La Niña weather event could impede production of key commodities, including cocoa and coffee, leading to further food price inflation in the UK next year, according to Rabobank. The UK is particularly exposed to the impact of the event due to Brexit uncertainty. La Niña results from the cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean and could affect regions from grain fields in the Americas to Asian palm oil plantations. Rabobank said that weather events pose “significant threats on the horizon to global food prices in 2018”.


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Researchers claim their device makes hydrogen fuel affordable
 A team of engineers has created a device that it claims could not only make hydrogen cars affordable, but could power homes cleanly, too.

Affordable, plentiful and clean hydrogen fuel could offer the greatest way for us to ditch our internal combustion engine cars, but the cost of its production and use of rare minerals in harvesting has kept it as a niche solution.

But now, a new device developed by a team of engineers from UCLA aims to allow people to produce their own hydrogen energy from abundant supplies of water to power their cars as well as their homes.

In a paper published in the journal Energy Storage Materials, the team revealed its device that uses solar energy to convert water into hydrogen energy, which would be particularly helpful in rural areas.

How it works

Unlike typical hydrogen energy production, this method uses the abundant minerals of nickel, iron and cobalt, making it much more affordable.

Also, unlike traditional hydrogen fuel cells and supercapacitors that have two electrodes – one positive and one negative – to create the hydrogen, this new device has a third electrode.

This extra electrode means it can act as both a supercapacitor to store energy, and as a device for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen – a process known as water electrolysis – to create the energy.

All three electrodes connect to a single solar cell that serves as the device’s power source, and the electrical energy harvested can be stored in one of two ways: electrochemically in the supercapacitor, or chemically as hydrogen.

Its creators say the device is a major step forward in hydrogen fuel production because it does so in an environmentally friendly way. Currently, about 95pc of hydrogen production worldwide comes from converting fossil fuels such as natural gas into hydrogen.

A breakthrough moment

Richard Kaner, the study’s senior author, compared the breakthrough to the first time a phone, web browser and camera were combined on a smartphone. He added that its full range of applications may not yet be known to science.

Currently capable of fitting into the palm of your hand, the team believes the device can be expanded, given that its key components are all made from abundant and inexpensive minerals.

Mir Mousavi, a co-author of the paper, said: “For hydrogen cars to be widely used, there remains a need for a technology that safely stores large quantities of hydrogen at normal pressure and temperature, instead of the pressurised cylinders that are currently in use.”

Output: US scientists have developed a device for producing hydrogen, which they have claimed could make the gas a cheap fuel source. Engineers from the University of California, Los Angeles said the device is a major step forward in producing environmentally friendly fuel efficiently. It makes hydrogen using inexpensive metals such as nickel, iron and cobalt, reducing the cost of manufacturing, and relies on solar energy to power the process. A third electrode allows it to act as a supercapacitor to store energy, as well as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis.


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Locus Robotics secures $25m for warehouse robots
 Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, MA-based startup, raised $25 million in a Series B funding led by Silicon Valley Scale Venture Partners, with additional participation from existing investors. Locus plans to use the funds to expand into international markets and build up its growing subscription-based robot fleet. Locus business model uses Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) which allows customers to use Locus’ solutions without a large-scale capital investment.

The story of how Locus came to be is almost as interesting as to why their mobile robots and RaaS business mode are getting so much attention and acceptance.

In March 2012, in an effort to make their distribution centers (DCs) as efficient as possible, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million and almost immediately took them in-house. There was a year of confusion after the acquisition whether Kiva would continue providing DCs with Kiva robots. It became clear that Amazon was taking all Kiva’s production and that, at some future date, Kiva would stop supporting their existing client base and focus entirely on Amazon – which happened in April 2015 when Amazon renamed Kiva to Amazon Robotics and encouraged prospective users of Kiva technology to let Amazon Robotics and Amazon Services provide fulfillment within Amazon warehouses using Amazon robots.

Locus Robotics came to be because its founders were early adopters of Kiva Systems robotics technology. When they couldn’t expand with Kiva because Kiva had been taken off the market by Amazon, they were inspired to engineer a system they thought better and which empowered human pickers with mobile robots. The Locus mobile robot and related software are their solutions.

Output: American startup Locus Robotics has raised $25m in a series B funding round. The funds will be used to support the expansion of Locus' fleet of warehouse robots. The company uses a subscription model called "Robots-as-a-Service" (RaaS), allowing customers to hire their technology without making a large capital investment. The company was created to provide an alternative service for former customers of robotics company Kiva Systems, which stopped servicing its existing user base in 2015 after being acquired and renamed by Amazon.


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Perlego offers online textbook subscription service
 The Netflix model is a tricky beast: Offering all-you-can-watch takes immense funding, as Netflix's 7-billion-dollar 2017 content budget proves, and it only pays off once you have a massive user base to match it. Yet companies keep trying to replicate it in different industries. I've written on the Netflix for podcast model, which is currently a major battleground, and I've written on Netflix for books, which I consider a failed venture, given that the two major players, Scribd and Oyster, are both essentially out of the game.

It was that last article that caught the attention of Perlego, a subscription service that is attempting to crack the all-you-can-read model by focusing on a niche: textbooks. After a quick interview, I'm cautiously optimistic about the project.

What's Perlego?

Perlego is a monthly ebook subscription service that offers university students unlimited access to over 200,000 titles for £12 a month (which is about $15.50 U.S., or, more importantly, less than the price of a single print book). Students can sign up for free and read over 50,000 public domain ebooks or can shell out Premium money to read 150,000 ebooks and publications from most of the leading professional and academic publishers across a range of subjects, from Business to Philosophy.

“Premium users can read any title they like, as many times as they want, Perlego's Head of Growth Oliviero Muzi Falconi tells me, “but they currently cannot download the ebook or read it offline.”

Their mission is to make textbooks both more affordable and more accessible, which is a pretty easy mission to get behind: Prices for textbooks have risen 1,041 percent since 1977.

“When we were at university,” Oliviero says, “we would spend £400 each year to buy all of our reading material (in the US the average annual spend is closer to $1,200), we would only read a few chapters of each title, pass the exam and then stack the books in a corner of our room, hoping to sell them back to our friends. If we we're ever lucky enough to find the book in the library – which rarely happens for core textbooks – we'd have to deal with waiting lists and the inevitable late-return fee. Most of us were using Netflix for movies and Spotify for music – so why not have a ‘Spotify for textbooks'?”

How It's Rolling Out

Perlego was founded in August 2016 by Gauthier Van Malderen and Matthew Davis with £500k in Seed funding.

A Beta version was released in the UK in January with 65,000 titles from a few leading publishers such as Wiley and Palgrave to test the product with university students.

“Up to this stage, we have been heavily focussing on acquiring content and most of our energy was spent negotiating distribution deals with the top publishers such as Pearson, Wiley or OUP. Today we have signed over 200,000 titles from most of the leading publishers including those mentioned above and the ebook distribution giant Ingram. We are launching a new version of the platform with thousands of new titles and many new features for the beginning of term (around the end of September). Perlego is sold both directly to student (B2C) and to the University (B2B).”

They are currently focused in the UK, but are planning to expand in the near future. So what sets it apart from the failed Netflix of books models I've ranted against in the past?

Why It Works

Oliviero pitched the service to me by stating it was unlike Scribd or Oyster — and like Spotify — because they paid publishers a fixed amount dependent on how much of the publisher's content was read that month. However, paying publishers more for each view their content gets actually is the model that Scribd used, and it's what hurt them: Voracious genre readers wound up costing Scribd more than they were worth, just as too many gluttons at an all-you-can-eat restaurant can put it out of business.

The reason this model works great for Perlego? Their niche isn't something most people love reading: It's a chore to slog through a textbook, and few people have a textbook-a-day reading habit. And since textbooks tend to be wildly overpriced, there's a huge gap in the market for a startup like Perlego to slip in.

But that's also what seems to be a potential stumbling block for the young streaming service: Why are incumbent publishers bothering to partner with Perlego, who might steal their customers? To complete the analogy, plenty of TV providers out there are wishing they hadn't been so quick to licence to Netflix, which is now eating their lunch.

Why Publishers Are On Board

I asked Oliviero about initial resistance from publishers, and how Perlego won them over.

“Much like record labels have resisted the move to a subscription model for music,” he told me, “most publishers have looked suspiciously to previous ebook subscription models. The two main reservation publishers have about the model are that cheap subscriptions cannibalise their sales and DRM methods are easy to crack and the content will leak on the internet. In reality, professional publishers have been losing business as they have wildly overpriced core-textbooks and students have resorted to finding different solutions to avoid paying for new books altogether.”

Second-hand market sales now account for 30 percent of total textbook sales, according to Oliviero, meaning that publishers don't see a dime of a third of their market. Some chose to rent instead, and pirated copies of the most recent edition are also running rampant. Perlego offers publishers a way to monetize all those students who would never have bought a textbook new in the first place. They even shared data on who's reading what, helping the publishers out more.

And They're Positioned to Expand

If their niche is as profitable as it looks, Perlego could grow fast and earn revenue quickly: The textbook-rental service Chegg IPO'd in 2013 and is worth $1.4 billion now. But for now, they are sticking to what they know: Oliviero tells me they have no plans to go beyond “academic and professional content.”

“We want to be the ‘world's learning library' so in that sense we don't feel limited to the textbook format in particular. We have already added 80,000 publications, white-papers and professional reports from publishers such as The Economist or OECD which are very popular with Business and MBA students. In the next months we will also add thousands of Case Studies to increase our offer to Business students, the largest student segment,” he says.

But if anyone at Perego does have Netflix-sized ambitions, it's easy to see how they'd get there: Strong revenue from a great niche could power the kind of content acquisition that no other Netflix-of-books model has had the chance to try.

Output: A company offering a Netflix-style subscription service for university textbooks has launched in the UK. Perlego offers users access to 200,000 textbooks for a subscription of £12 ($15.50) per month, or 50,000 public domain books with a free registration. It launched in January with £500,000 of seed funding, and aims to capitalise on the demand for textbooks that are too expensive to buy or have limited availability in university libraries. Academic publishers signing up to the service hope to pull revenue from students who would not otherwise buy new textbooks.


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Nano-mapping used for precision DNA imaging and sequencing
 Jason Reed, Ph.D., member of the Cancer Molecular Genetics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center and an associate professor in the Department of Physics at the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences. Credit: John Wallace at VCU Massey Cancer Center

A team of scientists led by Virginia Commonwealth University physicist Jason Reed, Ph.D., have developed new nanomapping technology that could transform the way disease-causing genetic mutations are diagnosed and discovered. Described in a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, this novel approach uses high-speed atomic force microscopy (AFM) combined with a CRISPR-based chemical barcoding technique to map DNA nearly as accurately as DNA sequencing while processing large sections of the genome at a much faster rate. What's more—the technology can be powered by parts found in your run-of-the-mill DVD player.

The human genome is made up of billions of DNA base pairs. Unraveled, it stretches to a length of nearly six feet long. When cells divide, they must make a copy of their DNA for the new cell. However, sometimes various sections of the DNA are copied incorrectly or pasted together at the wrong location, leading to genetic mutations that cause diseases such as cancer. DNA sequencing is so precise that it can analyze individual base pairs of DNA. But in order to analyze large sections of the genome to find genetic mutations, technicians must determine millions of tiny sequences and then piece them together with computer software. In contrast, biomedical imaging techniques such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) can only analyze DNA at a resolution of several hundred thousand base pairs.

Reed's new high-speed AFM method can map DNA to a resolution of tens of base pairs while creating images up to a million base pairs in size. And it does it using a fraction of the amount of specimen required for DNA sequencing.

"DNA sequencing is a powerful tool, but it is still quite expensive and has several technological and functional limitations that make it difficult to map large areas of the genome efficiently and accurately," says Jason Reed, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study. Reed is a member of the Cancer Molecular Genetics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center and an associate professor in the Department of Physics at the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences. "Our approach bridges the gap between DNA sequencing and other physical mapping techniques that lack resolution. It can be used as a stand-alone method or it can complement DNA sequencing by reducing complexity and error when piecing together the small bits of genome analyzed during the sequencing process."

IBM scientists made headlines in 1989 when they developed AFM technology and used a related technique to rearrange molecules at the atomic level to spell out "IBM." AFM achieves this level of detail by using a microscopic stylus—similar to a needle on a record player— that barely makes contact with the surface of the material being studied. The interaction between the stylus and the molecules creates the image. However, traditional AFM is too slow for medical applications and so it is primarily used by engineers in materials science.

"Our device works in the same fashion as AFM but we move the sample past the stylus at a much greater velocity and use optical instruments to detect the interaction between the stylus and the molecules. We can achieve the same level of detail as traditional AFM but can process material more than a thousand times faster," says Reed, whose team proved the technology can be mainstreamed by using optical equipment found in DVD players. "High-speed AFM is ideally suited for some medical applications as it can process materials quickly and provide hundreds of times more resolution than comparable imaging methods."

Increasing the speed of AFM was just one hurdle Reed and his colleagues had to overcome. In order to actually identify genetic mutations in DNA, they had to develop a way to place markers or labels on the surface of the DNA molecules so they could recognize patterns and irregularities. An ingenious chemical barcoding solution was developed using a form of CRISPR technology.

CRISPR has made a lot of headlines recently in regard to gene editing. CRISPR is an enzyme that scientists have been able to "program" using targeting RNA in order to cut DNA at precise locations that the cell then repairs on its own. Reed's team altered the chemical reaction conditions of the CRISPR enzyme so that it only sticks to the DNA and does not actually cut it.

"Because the CRISPR enzyme is a protein that's physically bigger than the DNA molecule, it's perfect for this barcoding application," says Reed. "We were amazed to discover this method is nearly 90 percent efficient at bonding to the DNA molecules. And because it's easy to see the CRISPR proteins, you can spot genetic mutations among the patterns in DNA."

To demonstrate the technique's effectiveness, the researchers mapped genetic translocations present in lymph node biopsies of lymphoma patients. Translocations occur when one section of the DNA gets copied and pasted to the wrong place in the genome. They are especially prevalent in blood cancers such as lymphoma but occur in other cancers as well.

While there are many potential uses for this technology, Reed and his team are focusing on medical applications. They are currently developing software based on existing algorithms that can analyze patterns in sections of DNA up to and over a million base pairs in size. Once completed, it would not be hard to imagine this shoe-box-sized instrument in pathology labs assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases linked to genetic mutations.

Output: US scientists have developed a technique for mapping DNA at a much faster rate than existing methods, and using smaller specimens. The researchers were led by Dr Jason Reed of Virginia Commonwealth University's Cancer Molecular Genetics research programme. Their method speeds up existing atomic force microscopy (AFM) by more than a thousand times, using optical instruments to detect molecular reactions. They then use a new chemical barcoding system to place markers on DNA molecules to identify patterns. The new process has many potential applications, including helping to diagnose and treat genetic mutations that cause diseases such as cancer.


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Al Jazeera moves on from quick-hit clips as YouTube views surge
 Al Jazeera’s AJ+ was one of the first distributed media brands to quickly build an audience off the back of Facebook with short, text-on-screen news alerts and mini-explainers covering politics, international news and social issues. But as AJ+ looks to evolve beyond the quick-hit clips that work well within news feeds, the publisher is paying more attention to YouTube.

Now, AJ+ is focused on developing episodic franchises, multipart investigative series and explanatory journalism pieces for YouTube. Series include “Direct From With Dena Takruri,” “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine” and “Divided America.” Its YouTube series typically have episodes with running times between seven and 15 minutes. The focus on serialized content is meant to drive retention, as people come to expect that certain video series will have new episodes on a certain day.

“YouTube is a search engine, but it’s also the world’s largest video-on-demand platform. The audience is naturally looking for a different style of content, something that’s more in-depth and presented,” said Zainab Khan, social content editor for AJ+. “YouTube pushes this as well in terms of having a publishing schedule; people on the platform want to know when to come back for a new video.”

AJ+’s decision to pivot to YouTube, which began in earnest in the summer of 2016, was driven by a desire to get people to spend more time watching its videos. The publisher was getting hundreds of millions of views per month on Facebook, but people aren’t accustomed to watching videos there for more than a few seconds at a time. (The average time spent on a Facebook news feed video is nearly 17 seconds, according to Facebook.)

“We’re doing well on Facebook, but we were also looking at the retention numbers, and those were not as high as we would like them to be, especially on the content that we were putting a real investment into, which is our in-depth and investigative reporting,” said Michael Shagoury, director of audience development for AJ+. “This is real, quality journalism, and that’s just not flying on Facebook, so we knew we needed to build an audience somewhere that would appreciate this type of content and would consistently come back for it.”

This meant taking a harder look at YouTube and developing a strategy that could lead to consistent audience growth on the platform. Today, AJ+ publishes about 12 to 15 videos per month on YouTube. Prior to the pivot, AJ+ posted up to 200 videos per month on YouTube, treating the platform as an archive of everything the publisher created.

Once AJ+ scaled back how many videos it put on YouTube, the publisher saw no drop-off in subscriber growth, allowing it to focus on the types of videos it saw were performing well on YouTube. AJ+ has more than 370,000 subscribers on YouTube, putting it behind some competitors such as Vox.com, which has nearly 3.2 million subscribers and is also spending more time focusing on YouTube.

AJ+ has 20 staffers within its organization focused on creating the type of content it puts on YouTube. This wasn’t an easy transition for them to make, according to Shagoury.

“We were high on Facebook numbers for a long time, and our producers got used to getting millions of views and that being the metric of success,” Shagoury said. “Slowly, over time, we’ve worked with them to get them to value retention and watch time.”

A year and a half into its YouTube pivot, AJ+ only recently started to see its subscribers spike. In the last three months, AJ+ has added new subscribers at four times the rate of previous months. Average video view duration has increased from 1 minute and 31 seconds to 4 minutes and 6 seconds, the AJ+ execs said. And 68 percent of AJ+’s YouTube traffic is coming from the platform’s suggested videos and browse features, which means AJ+ is getting a boost from the YouTube algorithm.

AJ+ is part of a wave of video publishers — especially in news — paying more attention to YouTube. In addition to Vox.com, The Atlantic has also said it’s devoting more time to YouTube, driven by the desire to get people to watch videos for longer periods of time and for a more consistent form of revenue with YouTube’s more established ad ecosystem.

“Even if we wanted to focus on revenue for YouTube, we really had to build that audience up a lot more than what it was and to get those important metrics up to where they needed to be for us to even properly consider YouTube as a revenue stream,” Shagoury said.

AJ+ remains a core part of Al Jazeera’s digital efforts, especially after a failed attempt earlier this decade in launching a successful cable news channel in the U.S. In 2013, Al Jazeera spent $500 million to buy the cable network Current TV and rebrand it as Al Jazeera America. The cable news channel was shut down in 2016 after the company failed to attract an audience. With AJ+, Al Jazeera has a brand with an established audience on social platforms, which could help it grow both in the U.S. and internationally — AJ+ just launched in France.

Facebook, meanwhile, remains a key part of AJ+’s distribution strategy, but as a top-of-the-funnel platform meant to “expose new people to the AJ+ brand,” Shagoury said. “Facebook is a great growth engine and provides us with the widest brand awareness. YouTube is the platform that’s one level deeper down the funnel, where people can spend more time with us and form a deeper connection.”

Output: AJ+, an online current affairs channel run by Al Jazeera, has started to see increased engagement 18 months after choosing YouTube to host its serialised video content. Michael Shagoury, director of audience development for AJ+ said the "real, quality journalism" wasn't working on Facebook, where average video views are 17 seconds, but it had built up a following of more than 370,000 subscribers on Google's video-sharing site, with pieces running between seven and 15 minutes. AJ+ subscriber figures have risen fourfold in the past three months.


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Study finds that product placement doesn't bother UK audiences
 From simple props to bespoke multi-dimensional deals, product placement has evolved into an experience-focused proposition designed to enhance the viewing experience.

Love Island and the Great British Bake Off have been two of 2017’s standout TV shows so far. One a reality dating show, the other a baking competition but both massive ratings winners for their respective channels.

Channel 4 splashed out £75m to poach the Great British Bake Off from the BBC, a risk that has paid off. The show’s final episode on 31 October was watched by 11 million viewers, Channel 4’s largest audience for 32 years.

Now in its third year, Love Island attracted 2.43 million viewers for its final episode on 24 July, the highest number in ITV2’s 19-year history.

Whereas Love Island signed Superdrug as a headline sponsor and included a number of bespoke product placement deals, Channel 4 decided to make the Great British Bake Off entirely product placement free in order to maintain the “integrity” of the series. It did, however, sign up Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Dr. Oetker as headline sponsors.

READ MORE: Great British Bake Off – Will brands rise to the challenge?

Reports in the Guardian suggest Channel 4 decided to give up lucrative product placement deals in order to keep the show “commercially clean” and as close to the BBC original as possible, the implication being that consumers dislike product placement.

But is that necessarily true? Viewers are certainly aware of product placement, with 74% regularly or frequently noticing it in TV programmes, films and music videos, according to a survey of more than 1,000 British consumers conducted exclusively for Marketing Week by audience research platform Lucid.

However, just 15% say they dislike it, while the majority (56%) say they don’t mind it.

We saw Gabby on the show and thought she really epitomised who we feel the Quiz girl is. We knew immediately that we wanted to collaborate with her. Lesley Morton, Quiz

Some 44% of those questioned believe product placement has increased over the past 12 months, while 53% think it has stayed the same. Just 3% feel it has decreased. The majority of product placement is seen on satellite or cable TV (33%) or blockbuster films (33%), followed by reality TV (31%) and terrestrial TV (26%).

The main issues with product placement, however, are that it distracts from the film or TV show (37%) and makes viewers suspicious of the show’s independence (36%).

The research, therefore, suggests that while consumers are clearly aware of product placement, the majority do not mind seeing it in their daily lives.

Evolving opportunities

Product placement is no longer just props used to make drama seem more realistic. It is now more about bespoke deals that mix continuous on-screen exposure with tactical multichannel brand executions.

ITV senior creative manager, Katherine Marlow, thinks a big part of this shift has been driven by producers who are increasingly getting in touch with commercial opportunities.

“What you had in the UK was a long history of prop placement where brands were used to improve the realism of our programmes, so [producers] were a bit unclear about what more we needed to give to a client if they’re now paying for it.” she explains.

“So there was a bit of an education job that we needed to do and a lot of that was us trying to be a little bit brave about what we could offer, as long as it felt natural within the editorial.”

Marlow describes the introduction of the ‘Bush Scrabble’ challenge for Mattel during the 2015 series of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here as a “real turning point” for commercial working with the producers on product placement that became gameplay in the context of the show.

After the episode aired, 41% of viewers were reminded of “how much fun Scrabble was to play”, according to ITV research, while 10% of viewers had their opinion of the game improved. Some 69% of those questioned said the Scrabble game scored “well for fit” in the context of I’m a Celebrity, while 82% thought it scored well “for enjoyment”.

ITV has been running product placement in Coronation Street and Emmerdale for the past six years, which Marlow believes works well due to the scale, heritage and trust the soaps have among the general public.

We initially trialled product placement in the last series of TOWIE on a ‘test and learn’ basis and have now continued this activity into a second series. Suzy Brown, Visa

While reality TV does lend itself to product placement, she explains that each show differs in the way these partnerships work. A structured reality programme like The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) has to be mindful of the lives and experiences of the cast, whereas a show like The X Factor offers a greater degree of control. Brands like Three, Aer Lingus and Turkish Airlines have all had recent placements in the programme, showing the contestants directly experiencing their products or services.

READ MORE: Just Eat builds on The X Factor sponsorship with biggest ever brand campaign

Marlow explains that the ultimate goal is to enhance the viewing experience, because the last thing the broadcaster wants to do is put any viewers off.

“If you’re already an existing customer does the fact that you’ve then seen that product used in The X Factor make you feel more loyal to that brand? Likewise, if you had never bought that brand, does it make you want to go out and buy it?” Marlow asks.

“It’s a really fine line to tread and we’re trying to, on a very implicit level, elicit a favourable response. It’s just about how subtle we can be.”

Long standing relationships

As TV formats change and brand objectives adapt, the nature of the product placement relationship has to evolve. Visa started working with ITV three and half years ago with a view to increasing the knowledge and adoption of Visa contactless payments outside London.

The product placement started with subtle integrations into two retail locations in Coronation Street and Emmerdale, showing the characters using contactless transactions as a way of normalising the behaviour.

“That was really interesting because we were then placing a behaviour, not a product,” Marlow explains.

“That’s fine when you’ve got characters who then play within that world. What we always need to be careful of is something like The X Factor. It is real people’s lives, so it’s about thinking of the most natural scenarios where they could use those products.”

After two and a half years Visa wanted to evolve the message to show mobile pay being used outside traditional retail environments, targeted specifically at young consumers. At that point Visa moved the deal from the soaps to TOWIE.

Forget rummaging around for cash… stay sleek like @OnlyWayIsEssex @ChloeLewis01 and tap for brunch with Visa using your mobile! ☕ pic.twitter.com/DHhWF1ehFy — Visa UK (@VisaUK) November 1, 2017

Suzy Brown, Visa marketing director for UK and Ireland, explains that the strategy is less focused on product placement and more on finding ways to drive millennial engagement with the brand. The company also wanted to reinforce the ease and speed of using contactless, as well as the flexibility of paying with Visa while on holiday.

“We initially trialled product placement in the last series of TOWIE on a ‘test and learn’ basis and have now continued this activity into a second series [the last series ending 5 November],” Brown explains.

“TOWIE has been a good partnership as we have been able to integrate a number of our key marketing objectives into the current series including a Visa cross border payment, a Visa Checkout payment and five mobile payments worked into the storyline across different episodes.”

Brown says that TOWIE was selected due to the level of audience engagement it attracts and the fact the typical viewer demographic index highly for shopping.

“We are targeting a new type of viewer, people who dip in and out of TV, watch on catch-up and so forth,” she adds. “What’s more, this is an audience that is multi-screening while watching TV, focusing as much of their attention on social media as what is happening in the programme.”

This means that while the first round of product placement activity in the previous season was entirely in-show, this series Visa used second screen activations and ran competitions across social media to coincide with the placements. The social activity was then amplified by content being shared via the official TOWIE channels and the cast’s personal accounts.

Jumping on a trend

Finding your products featured on one of the biggest shows of the year presents a real opportunity for any brand. This was the situation for clothing label Quiz, which saw its dresses worn by a number of Love Island’s female contestants during the series which ran from 5 June to 24 July.

Contestants Jessica Shears, Olivia Attwood, Camilla Thurlow and Tyla Carr were seen on screen wearing lace dresses and embroidered playsuits from Quiz’s latest collection. The clothing brand worked with Shears after she exited the show for its #LostInSummer blogger event while the remaining contestants were still in the house.

Camilla Thurlow (left) and Tyla Carr (right) wear Quiz on Love Island.

Then in October the brand launched a collaboration collection with Love Island finalist Gabby Allen. “We saw Gabby on the show and thought she really epitomised who we feel the Quiz girl is – she is fun, she doesn’t take herself too seriously, has a cracking sense of humour and of course great style, but she’s also a real girl’s girl, which is something that is really important to us,” says Quiz head of marketing, Lesley Morton.

“We just loved her whole vibe and we knew our customers would love her too. We knew immediately that we wanted to collaborate with her.”

Split in two, the first half of the collection featured a selection of casual items and partywear “designed to give customers a slice of Love Island style”, Morton explains. The second drop, released on 7 November, is focused on party glamour and statement pieces for the festive season.

It all comes down to the show itself and ensuring that it remains as natural as possible. Katherine Marlow, ITV

“From a marketing perspective, we’ve been focusing on creating great content and experiences with Gabby. Of course, social media has been a key channel for us for pushing the collaboration, both on our own channels and Gabby’s,” says Morton.

“This has also been done in conjunction with our wide network of influencers, with more than 100 influencers wearing and posting images and products from the collection.”

While capitalising on the popularity of a show like Love Island has been important for Quiz, the brand has also trialled product placement in the past, albeit on a smaller scale. Morton explains that product placement worked for the brand from an awareness perspective and is likely to form part of the strategy going forward.

The Love Island effect

The standout success of Love Island this summer represented a “revolution” in the way ITV approaches the amount of activation around its product placement deals, says Marlow.

Now on its biggest shows the ITV team are maximising their partners’ exposure on screen via social media and embarking on secondary partnerships that sit alongside the headline sponsor.

“We’ve done 16 product placement deals this year and only about a third of those are relating to a sponsorship, all the rest are new brands,” Marlow says.

“Superdrug is an example of where we’ve done it for a sponsor [on Love Island], but then we have done a deal with Ministry of Sound. We’re crafting a partnership that still has enormous value outside of the sponsor. We are very careful how we go about doing that because there is ultimate respect for the overall sponsor. “

Such was the success of the show that the broadcaster sold more than 100,000 personalised water bottles (designed in the style of those used by the cast) direct to fans through its Love Island app and signed a licensing deal with Primark on Love Island branded merchandise, which sold out nationwide.

Love Island also saw the broadcaster evolve beyond continuous deals. Due to the nature of its products, sponsor Superdrug was guaranteed exposure across the whole series. However it would not have been possible to stage a party every night with a Ministry of Sound DJ, so the team took more of a phased approach.

“Some deals can be continuous and some deals might be tactical. With Ministry of Sound’s new album coming out in the summer we did a live party and DJ Colin Francis went into the villa to do a live set,” Marlow explains.

“Going forward, given the scale of the show, it’s about all of us across the commercial team, the producers and editors thinking, where do we want to take it? What brands do we feel could really enhance that experience? Also, every single brand has to feel like they are getting good value, so you need to have discreet packages where they feel like they’re owning something.”

Marlow acknowledges that there is lots of demand around the show, which returns for a winter edition in the New Year, meaning her team will need to choose the “right brands, on the right terms”.

“This year has been crazy for us in terms of not only the volume, but the ambition for these deals, so we remain really excited and we’ve got some announcement coming out in the New Year where we’re going to take it to a new level,” she adds.

“However, it all comes down to the show itself and ensuring that it remains as natural as possible. That’s still the best way for anyone.”

Output: More than half of UK TV viewers don't mind product placement in shows, while just 15% dislike it, according to a survey by Marketing Week. The study also showed that 53% of the 1,000 respondents felt levels of product placement had stayed the same over the past 12 months, while 44% thought they had increased, and 3% felt levels had dropped. The main criticism of the advertising device was that it distracted from the programme, according to 37% of respondents, while 36% said it made them question a show's independence.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UPS eyes expansion of East Midlands Airport freight terminal
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More than 1,000 new jobs could be on their way to East Midlands Airport after parcel delivery firm UPS submitted plans to build a new £100 million-plus air freight terminal.

The firm wants to build a huge new sorting and delivery complex on a 28.5-acre site to the east of the Castle Donington airport.

East Midlands is already UPS’s biggest air gateway in Britain and its second biggest in Europe, behind Cologne.

Its current hub covers 86,000 sq ft and employs 342 package handlers, screeners, clerical workers, support staff, team leaders, supervisors and a manager.

Over the past decade it has processed 100 million packages there, serviced by six flights a day.

It is understood the parcel giant could invest up to £114 million in the new site – making it one of the biggest projects it has ever undertaken.

A design and access statement submitted as part of a planning application to North West Leicestershire District Council show the 24-hour operation could employ 936 people within two years and 1,392 within eight years.

The site, between the airport and M1, is next to Pegasus Business Park and is currently used for parking.

Planning documents say the new complex would speed up the operations of UPS at the airport and provide it with room for growth.

The main hub would have more than 450,000sq ft of floor space. A smaller office building to the east of the main hub would have 28,000 sq ft of floor space.

In a statement a UPS spokeswoman said: “UPS is always looking to make strategic investments that provide opportunities to grow our business and to strengthen the services and solutions that we bring to our customers.

“We can confirm that planning permission has been submitted for expansion of our operations at the East Midlands Airport.

“Given that the planning stage is not finalised at this time, we are not able to provide further specifics.”

East Midlands Airport is already the UK’s busiest pure cargo airport, second only to Heathrow – handling more than 320,000 tonnes of flown cargo every year.

The airport hopes to triple freight shipments to one million tonnes a year within the next 10 to 20 years.

It is already a UK hub for UPS, and provides support operations for TNT and Royal Mail.

And, last year DHL, opened a £90 million extension to its huge depot on the site.

Andy Cliffe, managing director at East Midlands Airport, said: “There are still very positive growth conversations at the airport – UPS has recently submitted £100 million plans for a new parcel distribution facility here.

“That’s a significant addition to what they already have at the airport and we take transatlantic flights for those guys and from all over Europe.

“DHL have their extension, while on the passenger side we are still in growth mode.

“I would describe this as a time of enormous opportunities, but at the same time some of the risks (associated with Brexit) are very significant.”

Output: Delivery company UPS is planning to build a new airfreight terminal at East Midlands Airport that could generate more than 1,000 new jobs. The company's existing facility at the site is its second-largest in Europe, handling 100 million packages in the past decade and employing 342 people. Plans submitted to the local authorities envisage a £114m ($152m) sorting office providing 450,000 sq ft of floor space, enabling the company to speed up and expand its services.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Chinese solar unit GCL's shares surge as insurer takes a stake
 Under a non binding agreement signed, Taiping Financial Holdings will lead a US$1 billion fund to buy new shares and convertible bonds

Output: Chinese solar farm GCL New Energy, a unit of solar panel materials manufacturer GCL-Poly Energy, saw its shares rocket after announcing that a unit of China Taiping Insurance is to purchase a major stake in the company. It is hoped this will ease GCL's debt load. Under a non-legally binding “cooperation framework agreement”, Taiping Financial Holdings will lead an HKD8bn ($1bn) fund to make the purchase. Many pension funds and private equity companies are investing in solar and wind farms because of their long-term stable cash flows, according to UBS's head of Asian utilities, Simon Powell.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Large food companies exposed to water scarcity problems
 “Food companies are in the bull’s eye of climate change, and hotter temperatures are making water one of the biggest risks to the $5 trillion industry’s bottom line,” a recent analysis of food companies’ exposure to water risks reveals.

Climate change is causing both extreme rain and extreme droughts, leading to issues not just around water shortages, but increased risk from insufficient water management and inadequate infrastructure. How corporations respond to these threats can vary according to a recent report entitled “Feeding Ourselves Thirsty,”

Ceres, a nonprofit focused on working with investors to encourage sustainable practices at large corporations, analyzes 42 of the world’s largest food companies’ water practices across the packaged foods, beverages, agricultural products and meat industries using data from financial statements, corporate sustainability reports and survey responses. The study is a follow-up from a similar one from 2015, and shows some progress in terms of reporting and transparency, but less in terms of proactive action.

The top scoring companies were Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

Nestle is a controversial player in the world of water, consistently warring with local municipalities for rights to bottle spring water, but the report rewards disclosure of water risk exposure, proactive evaluation of future water risk, and incorporation of water risks into business planning.

In fact, 83% of the companies evaluated make some formal risk assessment regarding water. 75% make some form of public disclosure of water metrics such as water use or wastewater discharge.

The lowest scoring company was Monster Beverage with a score of zero along with Pilgrim’s Pride and Chiquita Brands, each scoring one.

First Losses Roll In

The financial risk of climate change is no longer theoretical. A drought in Brazil in 2016 led Fresh Del Monte to lose $2.5 million and abandon some growing areas in the country. The company is ranked 39 out of 42 companies in the report with a score of eight out of 100.

In 2017, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo lost more than 1 million retailers in Tamil Nadu, India when a drought left a bottling operation competing with the local populations for groundwater. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo received relatively high overall scores in the analyses (72 and 70 respectively).

A recent MSCI analysis of food companies valued the global revenue risk from lack of water availability for irrigation or animal consumption at $459 billion. What’s more, $198 billion is at risk from changing precipitation patterns affecting current crop production areas, according to the same analysis.

With figures like this, it’s no wonder that funds and corporations are hearing more concern about water from investors.

“Even five years ago these issues were more addressed by more specialized investors, but mainstream investors really have jumped into the fray,” said Cambria Allen, corporate governance director for the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, a $59 billion fund and the largest payer of retiree benefits in the US aside from government programs Medicare and Medicaid, at the recent Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Ceres report backs up this claim; “Some 85 percent of the companies scored in this report cited water as a material risk in their financial filings. More than 90 food companies so far this year have highlighted water risks on their earnings calls with investors.”

In another encouraging sign, the study notes that corporate board interference on the issues of climate and water is correlated with a better score in the study. Additionally, 12 of the 42 companies link water efficiency goals and executive pay – the strongest of these links put in place by Dean Foods, J.M. Smucker, Molson Coors and WhiteWave Foods.

The average company score increased by 10 percent since the 2015 study with Nestle and Smithfield making the largest improvements. Packaged food and beverage companies were the best performers overall with agriculture products and the meat industry continuing to lag.

The report concludes that investor pressure from both institutional and individual investors is effective. And increasingly, investors are making sure that large food players are making moves to control their water futures. Shareholder proposals on the topic of water rank at number three behind climate change and deforestation, according to Ceres water program manager Eliza Roberts.

Read the full report here for detailed company rankings.

Output: The world's largest food companies are paying attention to the problems caused by inadequate water supply and mismanagement, according to a report by non-profit organisation Ceres. It analysed the practices of 42 firms, and found that 83% carried out a formal risk assessment about water, while three-quarters released public disclosures about water metrics. The study said that Nestlé, Coca Cola, PespiCo and Unilever were the top-performing companies. It also revealed that 85% of the firms mentioned water as a material risk in financial filings, while 12 firms linked water risk to executive pay.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Digital pills send alert to doctors once they are swallowed
 The latest weapon in the fight against opioid addiction may be sensors in prescription opioids that alert physicians whenever their patients pop a pill. These digital pills aren’t on the market yet, but a small test run shows that they can help doctors monitor how patients use prescription painkillers at home.

Sensors alert physicians whenever their patients pop a pill

By prescribing opioids equipped with radio transmitters to patients treated for broken bones, researchers tracked patients’ pill use in real time. The research team, led by Peter Chai at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, found that most of the patients started spacing out their doses after a few days, and stopped before their pills ran out, according to the study published in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia. (The participants turned their remaining pills in to their docs).

Prescribing too many pills might lead patients to take more than they need, the study says — or leave them with extra pills to be sold. So giving researchers a way to track how many pills patients actually use could help doctors write better opioid prescriptions that leave fewer pills left over. Digital pills could also help doctors spot — and stop — dangerous drug use early. This level of detail is a first: typically, doctors have no way to monitor opioid use once a patient goes home with a bottle of pills. “We’re placing the onus of one of the most dangerous medicines we have into the hands of patients,” says Chai, a physician and medical toxicologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“One of the most dangerous medicines we have.”

Chai wanted to know if there was a way to spot problematic drug use as the behavior emerges. If someone suddenly starts taking their prescribed painkillers more frequently, for example, it could mean they’re suffering from a painful complication. Or it could mean they’re growing tolerant to the drug, and could begin misusing it. “Those are two different conversations,” Chai says — and they’re ones that are only possible if a doctor can track their patients’ pill use.

That’s where the digital pills come in. Made by a Florida-based company called eTectRx, they’re gel capsules that contain both the drug and a radio transmitter “about the size of a sesame seed,” Chai says. (They’re a little different from the digital versions of antipsychotic Abilify, which the Food and Drug Administration just approved.)

Once the pill hits the patient’s stomach, the gel cap dissolves — releasing both the oxycodone tablet and the transmitter. The transmitter powers up when it touches stomach acid, and signals to an iPod-sized device via a patch stuck to the patient’s belly. This device then beams a message to a database in the cloud, telling the doctor that the patient has swallowed a pill. (Patients need to put on the device when they take the pill in order for it to register.) Eventually, the patient poops out the tiny transmitter. Chai says he does not want the transmitters back.

Eventually, the patient poops out the tiny transmitter

The team sent 15 patients who’d been treated for broken bones home with 21 of these pills, along with instructions to take them for a week as needed. The researchers found that most patients started tapering their opioid doses on their own, and stopped after about four days — before the full week was up. None took all 21 pills, and most took many fewer — which means doctors might be sending people with fractures home with too many painkillers that could then be sold or misused.

The researchers also spotted an alarming trend: people were taking painkillers right before going to sleep to pre-empt waking up with pain. But Chai says this could lead to dangerous drops in breathing for some people — and it’s a practice they might not have identified without the digital pills.

Output: Researchers from Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women’s Hospital are testing a smart pill that sends doctors an alert when patients take prescription painkillers. The digital pills are equipped with tiny radio transmitters in a gel cap that are triggered by stomach acid, which then emit a radio signal to a patch attached to the patient, which is forwarded on to the patient's doctor. It is hoped that the pills will allow doctors to monitor the medication habits of patients and help them to spot dangerous drug use. The pills are made by a Florida-based company, eTectRx.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Global storage market to rapidly grow by 2030: Report
 This article first appeared on the BNEF mobile app and the Bloomberg Terminal.

Forecast shows one-fourth of deployments in the U.S.

$103 billion invested in energy storage over this period

Global cumulative storage deployments

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

The global energy storage market will double six times between 2016 and 2030, rising to a total of 125 gigawatts/305 gigawatt-hours. This is a similar trajectory to the remarkable expansion that the solar industry went through from 2000 to 2015, in which the share of photovoltaics as a percentage of total generation doubled seven times. Eight countries will lead the market, with 70 percent of capacity to be installed in the U.S., China, Japan, India, Germany, U.K., Australia and South Korea. Energy storage, both utility-scale and behind-the-meter, will be a crucial source of flexibility throughout this period and will be essential to integrating increasing levels of renewable energy.

See the full research report here.

BNEF Shorts are research excerpts available only on the BNEF mobile app and the Bloomberg Terminal, highlighting key findings from our reports. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact us.

Output: The US and China are among eight nations set to lead the global energy storage market in the coming decade. A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts the market will double in value six times between now and 2030. The study also said the market will reach 125 GW, or 305 GWh, and follow a curve similar to the explosion of solar energy between 2000 and 2015. It added that utility-scale and behind-the-meter storage would be "essential to integrating increasing levels of renewable energy".