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Australian critical infrastructure operators face new oversight
 The Australian Government is looking at federal regulation of infrastructure assets from a national security perspective, which would include significant disclosure obligations and a last resort power to direct entities to take action to mitigate significant national security risks.

This month the Australian Government released the Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill 2017, the first Australian endeavour to regulate energy, port, water and telecommunication assets and infrastructure at the federal level and from a national security perspective, for public consultation by Friday 10 November.

The proposed law seeks:

to establish a protected Critical Infrastructure Asset Register and reporting regime for owners and operators of critical assets, requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership and supplier arrangements; and

and reporting regime for owners and operators of critical assets, requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership and supplier arrangements; and to create the Ministerial Power of Last Resort to direct owners or operators of a critical asset to take actions to mitigate significant national security risks.

This follows Singapore's key cyber security reforms, including the designation of Critical Information Infrastructure (computer systems essential to Singapore's national security and economy) and the reporting requirements for owners and operators of CIIs to the Commissioner of Cyber Security. An important insight arising from the proposed Singaporean regime is the need for safeguards and structural checks and balances ‒ particularly if requiring companies to disclose sensitive commercial information and directing entities to take action to prevent a cyber threat.

In this article we will consider the key Australian proposed reforms, which will impact:

State and Territory governments and agencies;

regulators; and

owners and operators of critical electricity, ports, water and telecommunications assets.

What are Critical Infrastructure Assets (CIAs)?

CIA are infrastructure assets deemed critical to Australia’s economic interests, the delivery of essential services and national security and include:

a critical electricity asset; or

a critical port; or

a critical water asset; or

an asset declared under section 49 to be a critical infrastructure asset; or

an asset prescribed by the rules.

The Bill defines CIAs by reference to the ownership and operational information the Australian Government wants to capture. For example, critical port assets are prescribed by name, electricity assets are captured by the magnitude of generation or transmission and distribution (as the case may be) and water assets are critical if they service 100,000 or more water or sewerage connections.

Critical Infrastructure Asset Register

A key reform in the Bill is to enable the Australian Government to access significant information about CIAs through the establishment of a protected Register of Critical Infrastructure Assets. Administered by the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, the Register will provide the Australian Government with information about who owns and controls CIAs. The Register is also backed up by an extensive reporting regime which is designed to provide information about the extent of foreign interest in Australia's critical infrastructure assets.

The Australian Government has stated it will use information on the Register to conduct risk assessments to identify national security risks. If a potential risk is identified, the Secretary will have the power to obtain further information or documents to consider the risk and the Minister may direct an entity to take action under the Act (considered below).

Two types of entities who must report

Entities who are either direct interest holders or responsible for the asset will need to provide interest and control information and operational information to enhance the Australian Government's understanding of the ownership and control of listed critical infrastructure assets. Entities responsible for operating assets must disclose to the Australian Government the assets' location, its services, details of arrangements under which it operates and for each responsible entity or operator, its country of incorporation. Entities should be aware they might be required to provide this information by the end of the grace period of the asset (six months) or 30 days after the entity becomes a reporting entity for the asset for the purposes of the Act.

Direct interest holders must provide interest and control information, including details of any ultimate interest holders or beneficial owners. As noted in the explanatory document, the Australian Government is requiring entities to disclose commercially sensitive information. To address the significant risks associated with inadvertent disclosure of this sensitive information, the Bill provides that the information listed on the Register and the Register itself will be treated as "protected information" under the Australian Government Protective Security Policy Framework. Section 43 of the Bill makes it an offence to disclosed protected information, including a penalty of two years imprisonment or 120 penalty units or $25,200, or both.

A new continuous disclosure obligation

Reporting entities also have a continuous disclosure obligation to report on notifiable events within specified timeframes. Notifiable Events are:

events that affect the completeness of operational information or interest and control information provided;

an entity becomes a reporting entity for the asset or a reporting entity for the asset becoming an entity to which this Act applies.

Section 24 of the draft bill sets out a table of Notifiable Events and the required reporting timeframes.

The Bill prescribes civil penalties for non-compliance with these reporting obligations. Interestingly, the penalties are relatively low ‒ 25 penalty units or $5250. Smaller penalties are typical for infringement notices but more unusual in corporate regulatory regimes ‒ given that civil penalties need to be litigated and thus tend to be set to an amount that is worthwhile pursuing in court.

Ministerial last resort power

The other key reform proposed by the Bill is to grant the Minister the power to direct owners and operators of CIAs to take action to manage national security risks. As currently drafted, the directions power in section 30 of the Bill appears alarmingly broad:

"The Minister may, subject to subsections (3) and (4), give an entity that is a reporting entity for, or an operator of, a critical infrastructure asset, a written direction requiring the entity to do, or refrain from doing, a specified act or thing within the period specified in the direction."

The explanatory document states that the Minister's power will be used as a last resort. Subsection 30(1) makes it clear that the Minister must be satisfied that the act or omission would be prejudicial to "security" within the meaning of the ASIO Act. "Security" under the ASIO Act is defined as:

"(a) the protection of, and of the people of, the Commonwealth and the several States and Territories from:

espionage; sabotage; politically motivated violence; promotion of communal violence; attacks on Australia’s defence system; or acts of foreign interference;

whether directed from, or committed within, Australia or not; and

(aa) the protection of Australia’s territorial and border integrity from serious threats; and

(b) the carrying out of Australia’s responsibilities to any foreign country in relation to a matter mentioned in any of the subparagraphs of paragraph (a) or the matter mentioned in paragraph (aa)."

Further, subsections (3) and (4) provide important safeguards for owners and operators of CIAs. Unlike the Singaporean equivalent directions power which is investigative and may be exercised for threats less than national security risks, the Minister's proposed directions power is subject to a number of preconditions - the most decisive of which is that entity has had an adverse security assessment. The other key precondition is that the direction must be reasonably necessary to reduce the national security risk; presumably this means the direction must be in a sense proportional to the extent of the risk identified.

Before exercising his or her power, Minister will also consider whether existing alternatives are available, including whether any regulatory system could be used to reduce the risk. The Minister will also have regard to the potential impact of exercising the power on both the relevant industry and the customers of that entity. Further still, section 31 requires the Minister to consult with the relevant State or Territory Minister, the relevant entity and any other persons at the Minister's discretion. The relevant entity will also be able to make representations to the Minister in relation to any proposed direction within certain timeframes under the Act.

Key concerns for infrastructure owners and other businesses

This being so, entities will no doubt be concerned about the range and magnitude of the directions issued by the Minister. This is especially so given the civil penalty for non-compliance with a direction is, in contrast to reporting breaches, 250 civil penalty units or $52,500 for each day of non-compliance. Enforceable undertakings and injunctions as prescribed in the Regulatory Powers Act might also be used to compel compliance with a direction under the Bill.

The explanatory document for the Australian Bill offers an example of the type of direction the Minister may issue under this section of the Bill:

"…the Minister directs a critical infrastructure asset operator to move currently stored offshore corporate and operating data to a more secure data storage provider. The direction will provide a specific timeframe within which the entity must comply. A further example of a direction is the Minister may direct a critical infrastructure asset owner to not outsource operations of its core network to certain providers. This direction may specify that the condition exists in perpetuity. Alternatively, the Minister may specify in the direction that the entity must consult the Government before entering into future outsourcing arrangements." [emphasis added]

The examples suggest the Minister's directions may have significant commercial implications for businesses that own and operate CIAs. For instance, a direction to relocate operating data from an offshore data centre to an Australian-based centre may require extensive, and costly, operational restructuring. As extracted above, the Australian Government has also indicated the Minister may issue directions which apply in perpetuity. While the Australian Government has indicated that the Minister only expects to exercise his or her power once every three years across CIAs, the significant costs associated with any exercise of the power indicates that entities should begin re-evaluating their relationships with offshore entities that may be the focus of regulatory action, with a view to minimising their expose to commercial risk.

Another key concern, as identified from the Singapore reforms, is whether a direction will involve the acquisition of property by the Australian Government. Section 33 of the Bill provides that any direction by the Minister will not be of a kind that results in an acquisition of property on just terms as defined under section 51(xxxi) of the Constitution. The Australian Government states in the explanatory document that entities only need to comply with a direction to the extent the outcome of compliance is not an acquisition of property on just terms. However the onus is on the entity to prove with supporting evidence that section 51(xxxi) of the Constitution would apply in their case. Further, while short of acquiring property, it is open to the Minister on the current construction of section 30(2) to issue directions that interfere with property rights. For instance, the Minister might direct an entity to install, or have installed by a third party, anti-threat software into proprietary computers or systems ‒ which may store customer data.

Next steps for the Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill 2017

If passed, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill 2017 would be a new world order for owners and operators of critical infrastructure assets in Australia. The measures proposed by the Bill are more invasive than expected, granting the Minister the power to directly interfere with business activities (including foreign investment) and property.

It will be interesting to see what amendments are made to the exposure draft following public consultation with key stakeholders including the States and Territories and the affected industries. Given its national security focus, the Bill will be scrutinised by the consequential Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security after the Bill's introduction into the Senate.

We will be keeping a close eye on the Bill's progress through the legislative process.

RELATED KNOWLEDGE

Output: The Australian government intends extending regulatory oversight of those responsible for critical infrastructure assets to minimise cyber attack risks. When enacted, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill 2017 would introduce a reporting regime for owners and managers to include disclosure of beneficial ownership. It would also establish the Ministerial Power of Last Resort to allow operators to be overridden to mitigate national security risks. The new law would cover energy, water, port and telecommunication assets, as well as other critical infrastructure. The bill will be open to public consideration until 10 November.


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Expro develops world's first wireless reservoir pressure data system
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Expro announces world’s first proven electromagnetic transmission of reservoir pressure data to surface across an open-hole well section without casing (photo: Expro)

International oilfield services company Expro has successfully accomplished the world’s first proven wireless transmission of reservoir pressure data to surface, from a recently abandoned subsea appraisal well which incorporated a rock-to-rock cement plug.

The system was installed in the North Sea and will be used to improve understanding of the reservoir and to optimise future development planning of the field, while ensuring full compliance with local well abandonment regulations.

This achievement provides operators with a more cost effective option for well abandonment design and consideration of wider well barrier techniques, while maintaining the ability to monitor the reservoir or plug integrity.

Expro’s cableless telemetry system (CaTS™) wireless gauges, using electromagnetic (EM) technology, were installed in the reservoir of the main bore and casings were cut below the side-track kickoff point to install the cap rock cement plug.

CaTS repeaters placed in the side-track enabled data transmission across the open-hole section and to the seabed transceiver for storage and transmission to an overhead vessel. The system provided continuous reservoir data, which began immediately after the drill stem test (DST), allowing extended pressure build-up analysis without rig support.

Expro’s Executive Vice President, Alistair Geddes, comments, “This latest achievement demonstrates our leading position in understanding the physics behind downhole EM telemetry. It allows us to instrument more wells with casing breaks or longer open-hole sections, partnering with customers to develop the most effective plug and abandonment strategies.”

“For nearly two decades, Expro has pioneered the use of EM for long-term reservoir monitoring, delivering advancements in 3D analysis models for open-hole communication – without the need for a continuous metallic path for data transmission. We recognise the value that technology brings to our industry, which is why we continue to expand our capability and deliver maximum value through innovative new applications,” adds Geddes.

CaTS gauges can deliver substantial cost savings in side-tracked wells with appropriate well barriers, as this permits long term interference testing to be completed from the main bore to side-track, without the need to drill a separate appraisal well.

Expro has the most extensive track record of instrumenting subsea abandoned wells and has successfully deployed CaTS gauges for its Advance Reservoir Testing™ (ART) application.

Output: UK-based oil and gas company Expro has deployed its cableless telemetry system wireless gauges in the North Sea to carry out the first-ever wireless transmission of reservoir pressure data to surface. As well as offering a greater understanding of the reservoir and more data on its future, the system gives operators a cost-effective option for well abandonment design. The breakthrough will enable the company to develop increasingly effective plug and abandonment strategies, said Expro’s Executive VP Alistair Geddes.


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University of Sydney blockchain outperforms Visa payment capacity
 New trials from the University of Sydney’s Red Belly Blockchain have found that it can process financial transactions 50 times faster than originally thought, making ...

New trials from the University of Sydney’s Red Belly Blockchain have found that it can process financial transactions 50 times faster than originally thought, making it quicker than Visa for worldwide payments.

Back in July, it was initially reported that researchers at the university had developed a new model of blockchain that could process 440,000 transactions per second on 100 machines. This is compared to Visa’s network, which can process 56,000 transactions per second. Bitcoin is limited to around seven per second whereas the ethereum blockchain can process 20.

These latest results from the university show that the technology’s performance improves as it scales up, according to an announcement from the university.

Dr. Vincent Gramoli, who heads the Concurrent Systems Research Group developing the blockchain, said:

Our latest tests showed the Red Belly Blockchain can process more than 660,000 transactions per second on 300 machines in a single data centre. This is a notable improvement from our tests earlier in the year, which showed our blockchain achieved a performance of more than 440,000 transactions per second on 100 machines.

The test results were taken from 14 different locations ranging from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S. Ten machines took part in the testing of each area.

Dr. Gramoli added that he doesn’t know of any other blockchain that can achieve these same results.

Our results confirmed that our blockchain achieves better performance than existing technologies used by financial institutions – including Visa – even when the machines that have to collaboratively provide the service are located in different continents.

The Red Belly Blockchain is being built to prevent problems currently facing digital currencies such as double spending. It is different from proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains in that it offers a performance that scales without consuming much electricity.

The next stage for the Red Belly Blockchain is to make it available to all Internet users.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Output: Global tests have proven that the University of Sydney’s Red Belly blockchain not only outperforms other financial transaction systems, including Visa and bitcoin, but also improves with scale. The latest studies, spread across 14 different countries, revealed that Red Belly could process more than 660,000 transactions per second on 300 machines in one data centre, compared to Visa's 56,000 transactions per second and bitcoin's seven.


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MintHealth launches blockchain-powered EHR
 At the Connected Health Conference in Boston last week, San Diego-based MintHealth announced the launch of a self-sovereign personal health record built using blockchain technology.

MintHealth is led by CEO Samir Damani and President Vishal Verma. Damani is also the founder of MD Revolution, a which focuses on chronic care management, and Verma serves as CEO of Nucleus Health, a medical imaging company that utilizes blockchain.

During an interview at the Connected Health Conference, Damani said MintHealth combines the knowledge of both organizations. It seeks to improve outcomes for patients while also making use of blockchain technology, through which it can break down data silos.

“It’s no wonder we haven’t reached the promise of predictive personalized medicine, because even though the data’s out there, it’s not put in one format,” Damani said.

Its use of blockchain also empowers patients to take control of their own health data.

Patients can access MintHealth online or via a mobile app. Each individual has a global identifier that enables them to access their information and oversee permissions to it.

The platform also offers digital incentive tokens called vidamints, which are funded by payers. Patients receive the tokens when they participate in healthy behaviors. They can then use the vidamints to help pay for healthcare-related costs such as co-pays, premiums and pharmacy expenses. Damani said there will be a token launch in December or January.

“We … can layer on the one thing that we’ve missed out on in the reimbursement model, which is: How do you incentivize the patient?” he said. “Doctors are incentivized, but why aren’t patients incentivized?”

Additionally, MintHealth will release a solution through which providers can help manage and monitor the care of their patients.

The ultimate purpose of the model, Damani noted, is to align all stakeholders — providers, payers and patients — around the goal of helping patients reduce their risk of suffering from chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart failure.

To start, MintHealth will roll out its platform to commercial health insurers, who can purchase tokens to give to patients. But Damani foresees the model will be of interest to other players, such those in the government, as well.

“What you have to do is … give the data to the patient and let them be the ones that are sharing it,” he noted. “I think ultimately only that’s going to really solve the problem that we face with chronic conditions. Anything else is cost prohibitive.”

Photo: a-image, Getty Images

Output: San Diego-based company MintHealth has launched a blockchain-backed electronic health record platform that puts patients in control of their own health information. Users accessing MintHealth's platform via an app are given a global identifier, enabling them to decide who has permission to see their data. The company will also issue tokens called vidamints as a reward for users who try to live healthily, which can be used to offset health-related costs. The platform will be initially rolled out to commercial health insurers, while the first token launch is expected in December or January.


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Japanese AI instantaneously detects bowel cancer
 New software built in Japan can detect bowel cancer in less than a second, researchers claim.

In recently-conducted trials, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered system was able to spot colorectal adenomas -- which are benign tumours that can evolve into cancer -- from magnified endoscopic images. The images were matched against 30,000 others that were used for machine learning.

The system analysed more than 300 colorectal adenomas in 250 patients, taking less than a second to assess each magnified endoscopic image and determine the malignancy of the tumours with 94 percent accuracy, researchers claim.

"The most remarkable breakthrough with this system is that AI enables real-time optical biopsy of colorectal polyps during colonoscopy, regardless of the endoscopists' skill," said study leader Dr Yuichi Mori from Showa University in Yokohama, Japan, who presented the results at United European Gastroenterology Week in Barcelona, Spain.

While the system is yet to obtain regulatory approval, Mori believes it could spare many patients from needless surgery.

"This allows the complete resection of adenomatous (cancerous) polyps and prevents unnecessary polypectomy (removal) of non-neoplastic polyps," he said.

"We believe these results are acceptable for clinical application and our immediate goal is to obtain regulatory approval for the diagnostic system."

The early detection of cancer through the use of AI and other technologies is being explored globally. Earlier this year, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and Intel said they are working together to make cancer detection more efficient through AI. A team of scientists, hosted by the University of Warwick's Tissue Image Analytics laboratory, have been creating a digital repository of known tumour and immune cells based on thousands of human tissue cells.

The database of cancer information will then be used by algorithms to recognise these cells automatically, the companies said at the time, with the collaboration initially focusing on lung cancer.

Architecture including TensorFlow, originally designed by Google, will form the basis for the AI system and will be powered by Intel Xeon processors, Intel and NHS said in May.

Also in May, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia announced that researchers from its Data61 division have been developing software that could enable the detection of angiogenesis -- the development of new blood vessels -- which precedes the growth of cancers.

Researchers at Data61 and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences analysed 26 high-resolution 3D micro-CT images of the brains and livers of 26 mice at various stages of cancer growth and developed an algorithm that generates what CSIRO claims is an accurate geometric representation of blood vessels.

Data61's software will enable the monitoring of subtle proliferations in blood vessels over time, providing a better understanding of how patients are responding to anti-angiogenesis treatment.

"The accurate quantification of vasculature changes, particularly the number of terminal vessel branches, can play a critical role in accurate assessment and treatment," CSIRO said at the time.

This is not the first time CSIRO has looked into cancer detection; in December, the government-backed organisation announced that a new, more accurate blood test to detect bowel cancer recurrence, known as Colvera, had been launched in the United States.

The blood test, which detects cancer-specific chemical changes in fragments of DNA from tumours found circulating in blood, is the result of a collaboration between CSIRO, Flinders University, and Clinical Genomics.

California-based Guardant Health is also looking into early cancer detection and raised $360 million this year to sequence the tumour DNA of more than 1 million cancer patients within five years and use the data to develop blood-based tests for early cancer detection.

Freenome, a South San Francisco-based liquid biopsy startup that uses a combination of machine learning and biology to detect the cell-free DNA sequencing of cancer before it becomes deadly, also raised $71.2 million to date from investors such as Google Ventures, which has also backed Freenome competitor Grail.

In January, Grail, a spin-off of the NASDAQ-listed DNA-sequencing giant Illumina, raised $900 million in a Series B round led by Arch Venture Partners, with contribution from other investors such as Johnson and Johnson's innovation arm.

With AAP

Output: Researchers at the Showa University in Yokohama, Japan, have developed an artificial intelligence capable of identifying and diagnosing bowel cancer in seconds by using magnified endoscopic images. In tests to determine the level of malignancy of each tumour, the software achieved a 94% accuracy rate, and study leader Dr Yuichi Mori believes it could help prevent unnecessary surgery. The system is currently awaiting regulatory approval.


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Those at top public schools 94 times more likely to be UK 'elite'
 The enduring power of the old boy network has been laid bare by a study that found alumni from nine leading public schools are 94 times more likely to reach the elite than those who attended other schools.

Granted unprecedented access to all 120 years of biographical data in Who’s Who, researchers from the London School of Economics calculated that the so-called Clarendon schools, which include Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Westminster, continue to produce nearly 10% of entrants. This is despite those schools having traditionally educated fewer than one in 500 (0.15%) of pupils aged between 13 and 18.

Alan Milburn, the chair of the government’s social mobility commission, said it showed the lengths Britain had to go before it ceased to be an “elitist nation”.

While the Clarendon schools’ power was found to have diminished since the country’s establishment guide first published biographical data in 1897, they still hold “extraordinary power”, according to the study.

Highlighting that the two key politicians on either side of the Brexit debate – David Cameron and Boris Johnson – attended Eton, it said the elite schools, which also include Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors’, Shrewsbury, St Paul’s and Winchester College, continue to exert a “profound influence”.

The researchers also observed that the decline in the Clarendon schools’ powers stalled over the past 16 years.

The joint lead authors, Aaron Reeves of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE and Sam Friedman of its department of sociology, said: “Although the Clarendon schools have not always been the best performing schools in the country, they have consistently remained the most successful in propelling their alumni into elite positions.

“Clearly their power lies beyond simple academic excellence and is likely rooted in an extensive extracurricular education that endows old boys with a particular way of being in the world that signals elite male status to others.”

Some entrants to Who’s Who are included automatically upon reaching a prominent position – such as MPs, peers, judges, senior civil servants and heads of public bodies or large arts organisations – while others are selected by advisers.

For the paper, published in American Sociological Review, the researchers split the sample into five-year birth cohorts to allow comparison over time. During the period analysed, the Clarendon schools were male-only.

Among those born in the 1840s, approximately 20% of those in Who’s Who had attended one of the Clarendon schools. In the most recent cohort, 8% had attended a Clarendon school. Women constituted only 23% of the most recent cohort, although their presence has grown steadily over time.

Milburn said: “Of course the best people need to be in the top jobs – and there are very many good people who come from private schools. It’s the degree of dominance that is wrong. Few people believe that the sum total of talent in Britain today resides in the 7% of pupils who happened to attend a private school. Britain has a long way to go before we cease to be an elitist nation.”

A Who’s Who spokeswoman said the guide recognised distinction and influence rather than conferred it. “It is a mirror to the trends of the day, and the aim of each edition has always been to reflect society and its changes,” she said.

The authors put forward a number of theories as to why the influence of the elite schools appears to have waned since the 19th century. They include the reduced significance of – and fewer reserved places in Who’s Who for – the military and the clergy due to the decline of the British empire and the secularisation of British society.

They also point to 20th-century educational reforms that standardised qualifications and expanded access as creating a more competitive environment.

The Harry Enfield character Tim Nice But Dim is referenced in the study

The authors say the reforms have forced the elite schools to become effective producers of educational excellence. Referring to the character played by the actor Harry Enfield, the paper said these schools “may no longer provide educationally less-meritorious alumni, epitomised by the caricatured comic figure of old boy Tim Nice But Dim, with the same guarantee of a future elite position … Whereas Tim Nice But Dim could have conceivably become a judge in 1916, he may only become a lawyer in 2016.”

Nevertheless, the proportion of new entrants in Who’s Who from Clarendon schools and the 209 independent schools in the elite Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) has remained relatively constant over the past 16 years at 8% and 30% respectively, the study found. Alumni of “other” HMC schools are 35 times more likely to be a member of Who’s Who than those who went to non-HMC state and private schools.

While Oxbridge graduates have always comprised between 30-40% of the Who’s Who entrants, the authors found that Clarendon alumni who went to Oxford or Cambridge universities continue to be approximately twice as likely to reach the elite as Oxbridge graduates who went to other schools.

Conor Ryan, director of research at the Sutton Trust foundation, said the study highlighted the need to “ensure that access to the best schools and universities is not restricted to those from better off backgrounds.

“Doing so has a major social and economic cost, and prevents talented people from low and middle income backgrounds achieving their potential, and making a full contribution to modern Britain.”

The HMC chair, Chris King, accused the authors of criticising excellence. “This research shows the consistent quality of these schools through times of change in society and government policy,” he said.

“It is wrong and illogical suggest the richness of their extra curricular provision ‘signals’ male status; in fact it is the essence of a rounded education and helps develop resilience, team work and appreciation of others’ points of view.”

He added that independent schools were increasingly sharing teachers and facilities with their state counterparts.

Old boy network: Who’s Who entries from the ‘top nine’ schools

Boris Johnson (Eton)

Moved from Eton to Balliol College, Oxford, to study Classics. Served as president of the Oxford Union. Once won an award for a limerick in which he referred to President Erdoğan of Turkey as a “terrific wankerer”.

Nick Clegg (Westminster)

Went to Cambridge University in 1986 to study Archeology and Anthropology. Worked briefly as a journalist before moving into politics. Quickly ascending the ranks, he was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2007.

Stephen Glover (Shrewsbury)

Educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University, he worked at the Daily Telegraph before going on to co-found The Independent in 1986.

Sir Alan Duncan (Merchant Taylors’)

Following an education at Merchant Taylors’ and St John’s College, Oxford, he began his career as a trader. Elected to parliament in 1992, the current minister of state for Europe and the Americas has served in ministerial positions since 2003. His Who’s Who entry says he is a member of the Beefsteak Club.

Salman Rushdie (Rugby)

Educated at Rugby School and then King’s College, Cambridge, the Booker prize-winning novelist was knighted in 2007. His 1981 novel Midnight’s Children is included in the Penguin Books list, Great Books of the 20th Century.

Benedict Cumberbatch (Harrow)

After seeing him perform in numerous plays while at Harrow, his drama teacher is said to have referred to him as “the best schoolboy actor” he had ever seen. He has to date been nominated for awards including five Emmys, four Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globes.

George Osborne (St Paul’s)

Left St Paul’s in 1990 to attend Magdalen College Oxford. Finding it difficult to break into the ranks of journalism, he opted for a political career instead (before eventually returning to the media as editor of the Evening Standard).

Cathy Newman (Charterhouse)

After a degree in English at Oxford she became a journalist, starting at the Independent and making her way to become a presenter on Channel 4 News. Her Who’s Who entry says that she is a member of Soho House and enjoys watching Agatha Christie adaptations.

John Whittingdale (Winchester)

The former culture secretary studied economics at University College, London after leaving Winchester. He lists his interests as cinema and music.

Beatrix Willimont

Output: Alumni from nine UK public schools are 94 times more likely to become part of the country’s elite than those who attend other schools, according to research by the London School of Economics, drawing on biographical data in the reference work, Who’s Who. The study, based on unprecedented access to 120 years’ worth of data, found that the Clarendon schools, Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors’, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St. Pauls, Westminster and Winchester, continue to produce 10% of those with entries in the publication. Such schools have traditionally educated just 0.15% of UK pupils aged between 13 and 18.


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Vietnam university adds bitcoin payment option for student fees
 There are many ways to speed up the adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in general. And the Southeast Asian country Vietnam has just implemented one of the most interesting ones yet: using Bitcoin to pay for tuition fees at one of the country’s top universities.

While Vietnam has no real laws or regulations pertaining to Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies at the moment, Le Truong Tung of FPT University has issued a statement confirming that they have started accepting Bitcoin from students as tuition fees, Vietnam-based ANTD reports. One of the reasons cited is the convenience for the students themselves, which are mostly African and mainly from Nigeria.

Speaking about the problem that the use of Bitcoin solves, Le Truong Tong said in a statement that the students often faced difficulties in transferring money overseas to pay for tuition. And if you’re at all familiar with how Bitcoin works, then you’d know instantly that it does solve this particular problem.

If this attempt at using Bitcoin for university tuition fees becomes successful, there may be room to use Bitcoin later on for other school-related fees, or perhaps all sorts of other in-campus expenses. There are a few interesting possibilities in store here but the primary use of tuition fee payments has to succeed first and foremost.

Not everyone is in favor of the move to accept Bitcoin for tuition fees, with some people claiming that it might cause some negative effects on the students, but the idea seems solid enough. FPT University is currently going ahead with the experimental tuition payment option with Bitcoin and will likely keep it as an option if its first attempts turn out successful.

Whatever happens, the university will need to eventually follow the country-wide rules and regulations regarding cryptocurrencies whenever they are declared by the authorities. Until then, FPT University students can say they’re living the future of tuition fee payments, thanks to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Ref: ANTD

Output: A university in Vietnam has begun accepting bitcoin from students as payment for tuition fees. The private FTP University said accepting the cryptocurrency would make it easier for international students from African countries to transfer the funds. Vietnam currently has no specific regulations on the use of cryptocurrencies.


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Eccentric Grimsby home goes on sale for 18 bitcoin
 Доступ к информационному ресурсу ограничен на основании Федерального закона от 27 июля 2006 г. № 149-ФЗ «Об информации, информационных технологиях и о защите информации».

Output: A Grimsby artist is thought to be the first private seller to ask for payment for a house in bitcoin. Sean Atkinson's Welholme Road house, which features a cloudscape ceiling and a colourful back room decorated by Atkinson as well as visitors and friends over the years and many other imaginative touches, is on the market for 18 bitcoin or about £80,000 ($106,000). Atkinson has said he would accept cash but would prefer the digital currency, as it is a "much better longer-term investment".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US researchers develop transparent solar cells
 The engineering team that led the project have argued that the widespread use of such highly transparent solar applications, alongside rooftop units, could generate enough energy to meet total U.S. electricity demand, and drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels.

“Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” said Richard Lunt, the Johansen Crosby Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at MSU. “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar, while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”

The technology utilizes organic molecules to absorb invisible wavelengths of sunlight. The researchers can adjust these materials to up ultraviolet and near infrared wavelengths which are processed into electricity.

The scientists have estimated that up to 7 billion square meters of glass surface in the U.S. could be covered by the material, with the potential of supplying 40% of energy demand in the U.S.

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“The complimentary deployment of both technologies, could get us close to 100 percent of our demand if we also improve energy storage,” Said Lunt.

Nevertheless, Lunt reported to Nature Energy that while see-through solar technologies will never be more efficient at converting solar energy to electricity than their opaque counterparts, they can get close and offer the potential to be applied to a lot more additional surface area. Right now, transparent solar technologies are only at about a third of their realistic overall potential.

“That is what we are working towards,” he said. “Traditional solar applications have been actively researched for over five decades, yet we have only been working on these highly transparent solar cells for about five years. Ultimately, this technology offers a promising route to inexpensive, widespread solar adoption on small and large surfaces that were previously inaccessible.”

Output: Engineers at Michigan State University (MSU) have developed transparent solar cells that they believe could provide all of the US's electricity needs. The hardware uses organic molecules to absorb wavelengths of sunlight. If the material covered all the glass surfaces that could accommodate it, 40% of US electricity demand would be satisfied, the engineers said. That figure could rise to nearly 100% when combined with traditional rooftop solar arrays and improved energy storage. Transparent solar technology is at a third of its potential, according to MSU professor Richard Lunt.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
2016 saw record increase in CO2 concentration in atmosphere
 Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800 000 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The abrupt changes in the atmosphere witnessed in the past 70 years are without precedent.

Globally averaged concentrations of CO 2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015 because of a combination of human activities and a strong El Niño event. Concentrations of CO 2 are now 145% of pre-industrial (before 1750) levels, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

Rapidly increasing atmospheric levels of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases have the potential to initiate unprecedented changes in climate systems, leading to “severe ecological and economic disruptions,” said the report.

The annual bulletin is based on observations from the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Programme. These observations help to track the changing levels of greenhouse gases and serve as an early warning system for changes in these key atmospheric drivers of climate change.

Population growth, intensified agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation, industrialization and associated energy use from fossil fuel sources have all contributed to increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial era, beginning in 1750.

Since 1990, there has been a 40% increase in total radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate - by all long-lived greenhouse gases, and a 2.5% increase from 2015 to 2016 alone, according to figures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration quoted in the bulletin.

“Without rapid cuts in CO 2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, we will be heading for dangerous temperature increases by the end of this century, well above the target set by the Paris climate change agreement,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “Future generations will inherit a much more inhospitable planet, “ he said.

“CO 2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer. The laws of physics mean that we face a much hotter, more extreme climate in the future. There is currently no magic wand to remove this CO 2 from the atmosphere,”said Mr Taalas.

The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO 2 was 3-5 million years ago, the temperature was 2-3°C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now.

The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reports on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Emissions represent what goes into the atmosphere. Concentrations represent what remains in the atmosphere after the complex system of interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and the oceans. About a quarter of the total emissions is taken up by the oceans and another quarter by the biosphere, reducing in this way the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

A separate Emissions Gap Report by UN Environment, to be released on 31 October, tracks the policy commitments made by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and analyses how these policies will translate into emissions reductions through 2030, clearly outlining the emissions gap and what it would take to bridge it.

"The numbers don't lie. We are still emitting far too much and this needs to be reversed. The last few years have seen enormous uptake of renewable energy, but we must now redouble our efforts to ensure these new low-carbon technologies are able to thrive. We have many of the solutions already to address this challenge. What we need now is global political will and a new sense of urgency," said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment.

Together, the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin and Emissions Gap Report provide a scientific base for decision-making at the UN climate change negotiations, which will be held from 7-17 November in Bonn, Germany.

WMO, UN Environment and other partners are working towards an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System to provide information that can help nations to track the progress toward implementation of their national emission pledges, improve national emission reporting and inform additional mitigation actions. This system builds on the long-term experience of WMO in greenhouse gas instrumental measurements and atmospheric modelling.

WMO is also striving to improve weather and climate services for the renewable energy sector and to support the Green Economy and sustainable development. To optimize the use of solar, wind and hydropower production, new types of weather, climate and hydrological services are needed.

Key findings of the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin

Carbon dioxide

CO 2 is by far the most important anthropogenic long-lived greenhouse gas. Globally averaged concentrations for CO 2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015. This record annual increase of 3.3 ppm was partly due to the strong 2015/2016 El Niño, which triggered droughts in tropical regions and reduced the capacity of “sinks” like forests, vegetation and the oceans to absorb CO 2 . Concentrations of CO 2 are now 145% of pre-industrial (before 1750) levels.

The rate of increase of atmospheric CO 2 over the past 70 years is nearly 100 times larger than that at the end of the last ice age. As far as direct and proxy observations can tell, such abrupt changes in the atmospheric levels of CO 2 have never before been seen.

Over the last 800 000 years, pre-industrial atmospheric CO 2 content remained below 280 ppm, but it has now risen to the 2016 global average of 403.3 ppm.

From the most-recent high-resolution reconstructions from ice cores, it is possible to observe that changes in CO 2 have never been as fast as in the past 150 years. The natural ice-age changes in CO 2 have always preceded corresponding temperature changes. Geological records show that the current levels of CO 2 correspond to an “equilibrium” climate last observed in the mid-Pliocene (3–5 million years ago), a climate that was 2–3 °C warmer, where the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melted and even some of the East Antarctic ice was lost, leading to sea levels that were 10–20 m higher than those today.

Methane

Methane (CH4) is the second most important long-lived greenhouse gas and contributes about 17% of radiative forcing. Approximately 40% of methane is emitted into the atmosphere by natural sources (e.g., wetlands and termites), and about 60% comes from human activities like cattle breeding, rice agriculture, fossil fuel exploitation, landfills and biomass burning.

Atmospheric methane reached a new high of about 1 853 parts per billion (ppb) in 2016 and is now 257% of the pre-industrial level.

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is emitted into the atmosphere from both natural (about 60%) and anthropogenic sources (approximately 40%), including oceans, soil, biomass burning, fertilizer use, and various industrial processes.

Its atmospheric concentration in 2016 was 328.9 parts per billion. This is 122% of pre-industrial levels. It also plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. It accounts for about 6% of radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases.

For further information contact: Clare Nullis, media officer. Email cnullis@wmo.int. Tel + 41 22 730 84 78 or Cell + 41 79 709 13 97

Notes for Editors

The WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Programme coordinates systematic observations and analysis of greenhouse gases and other trace species. Fifty one countries contributed data for the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. Measurement data are reported by participating countries and archived and distributed by the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) at the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Output: The earth’s atmosphere contained record levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) last year, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization. The increase, which saw average concentrations of CO2 rise to 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400 ppm in 2015, was 50% higher than the average of the past decade. The record levels, higher than those seen for 800,000 years, were a result of human activity and the El Niño. The report shows that methane levels in the atmosphere also rose, prompting fears of a vicious circle that could see methane levels increasing warming, thus causing further methane emissions.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
The Guardian grows membership scheme from 75,000 users to 300,000
 The strategy to rescue the Guardian from financial oblivion has attained a landmark position by increasing its revenue from readers to a point where it now outweighs the paper’s income from advertising.

This significant shift in the Guardian’s business model, making it less dependent on a highly challenging advertising market for media companies, results largely from a quadrupling in the number of readers making monthly payments under the title’s membership scheme, which has grown from 75,000 to 300,000 members in the past year.

The paper has also slightly increased – to 200,000 – its subscriber base for its print and digital products. And in a development which has even surprised senior Guardian executives, a further 300,000 individuals have made single donations to the paper, which has been posting appeals at the end of articles, urging readers to financially support its commitment to open access journalism.

These one-off donations, totalling several million pounds, come from 140 countries but a substantial proportion has arrived from the US, suggesting that despite a recent diminution of the Guardian US operation, the paper has a committed audience in a country with established traditions of supporting public interest journalism through philanthropy.

Together, the 800,000 contributors (members, subscribers and donors), along with casual sales of the physical paper, give the Guardian a record number of paying readers; more than the half-a-million pinnacle in print circulation achieved in the late 1980s.

After a long cycle of eye-watering annual losses, amounting to more than half-a-billion pounds since 2009 and causing many to believe that the 196-year-old paper was on its way to bankruptcy, there is finally cause for optimism.

Reader revenue strategy reaps rewards

In a long interview with The Drum, timed to coincide with the revelation of the new figures, the chief executive of Guardian Media Group, David Pemsel, reveals some of the secrets behind the rise in reader payments. “Our readers contribute more to this organisation now than advertising,” he says.

He predicts that Guardian News & Media will drive down its annual losses to £25m for the year to 31 March 2018 (compared to the £45m shed last year).

That puts him and editor-in-chief Katharine Viner on course to meet the ambitious three-year target they have set of breaking even by April 2019. “If we get to the end of this year and the minus 25 (million pounds) number, we have in effect halved our losses and kept our revenues broadly flat,” he says. “No one is ever complacent… but pretty much every number we have set out we have achieved, as well as supporting arguably some of the best journalism we have ever done.”

Pemsel, who became GMG’s CEO in 2015, joined the company as chief marketing officer in 2011, having previously been at ITV. He was then GMG’s chief commercial officer and therefore must take some responsibility for the Guardian’s past financial pain.

Why is it that a paper that always positioned itself as a great soothsayer of the media’s digital future has taken so long to see the value of reader relationships?

It is a “million dollar question”, says Pemsel, as he makes a spirited defence of GMG’s historic digital strategies and avoids criticism of Alan Rusbridger, the journalistically brilliant former Guardian editor-in-chief and architect of an ambitious programme of international expansion which coincided with the paper’s financial difficulties.

“If you go back to 1995, from then to where we were in 2015, then you cannot fault the Guardian’s progress against its digital hunger to innovate [and] to fully embrace all of the digital opportunities,” he says. “You go from the ninth largest newspaper (in the UK) to the third largest English speaking news organisation in the world, with 160 million browsers and over 1bn page impressions almost every month for the last seven months. That is a proof point of the effectiveness of our digital strategy and of our journalism.”

He accepts that “some might say ‘Well, you did that at the cost of X-amount of money’” but argues that the strategy was right in recognising that “the future ultimately was going to be an open, widely distributed ecosystem”.

Re-evaluating reach online

The trouble was that a vast audience, though it was an endorsement of Guardian journalism, wasn't in itself the business model that GMG executives imagined it to be.

“The problem with reach is that it can breed complacency,” Pemsel says now. “You can look around the building and you've got screens with big [audience] numbers and monthly dashboards going out saying ‘Hey, we’ve got bigger’. But it masks the relationship you are cultivating with your readers.”

He points out that “some of the most atrocious content companies in the world can be big, it doesn't mean that you are being read or making an impact on the world…it just means you are big”.

Pemsel says that, as commercial boss, he was starting to monetise the Guardian’s online audience when “a huge swing to programmatic” advertising, led by Google and Facebook, meant that the “the connection between digital reach and revenue snapped”.

So GMG has had to learn to think beyond reach.

The advertising downturn coincided with Viner taking over from Rusbridger, and Pemsel being promoted to CEO in a relationship that, due to the dire financial position, has led to the Guardian's editorial and commercial teams working more closely than ever before.

Emphasising the “agility” that this arrangement brings, Pemsel says the approach is essential to maximising the value of reader relationships. “If you are going to put the reader at the heart of everything, you need to have a common data set and a common understanding of reader journey to know what parts of the site can be optimised to deliver reader relationships [and] reader revenue. You can't do that in silos.”

The break even strategy has been about saving money as well as making it. Viner and Pemsel have overseen a programme of deep cuts that has seen the loss of more than 300 posts. “It was incredibly tough but we have said that we will break even and we will,” he insists.

Converting readers into members

The strategic transition from reach to reader relationships is known within GMG’s building at King’s Cross in London as “anonymous to known”.

When the Guardian first announced its three-tier (rising to £60-a-month) membership scheme in late 2014, shortly before Rusbridger announced he would be standing down as editor, many of the paper’s rivals sniggered at its presumptions of reader loyalty. But while there have been errors – a plan to use a Grade II listed railway warehouse as an events hub was scrapped – the latest figures are a vindication of the idea, which gives members benefits such as exclusive emails and ad-free reading.

Pemsel has no compunction in using inclusive language such as “contributor” or “supporter” to encourage payments from readers who were once encouraged to expect free access to a publisher that would be funded by advertising. He notes that the “most transactional” publishers (think of News UK) are now using the term “member” in their marketing.

The largest group of Guardian members is, unsurprisingly, from the UK, although there is a sizeable cohort from the US. Pemsel is bullish about the prospect of making even more money from this scheme and from one-off donors. “We are at the foothills of genuinely exploring how far that strategy can take us,” he says. “We have got 160 million browsers at the top of our funnel and we are doing a lot of strategic analysis of our data to work out how many regulars we have, and on the conversion of the number of people we have got a paying relationship with. We have got a long way to go.”

He credits chief customer office Anna Bateson, and her predecessor David Magliano, with playing key roles in driving reader contributions. “In partnership with people in editorial, our data teams are now working out the most scientific way to optimise by article and by country and by genre, the most efficient way to be able to drive reader support,” he says.

The previous presence of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on the Guardian’s board has helped to generate insights into how the online encyclopedia harnesses financial support from its user community. “It's interesting to listen to Jimmy’s vision of Wikipedia, and how they have worked out some incredibly technical and scientific ways to optimise for support. I'm not saying that we are replicating what Wikipedia are doing but that level of digital and analytical sophistication is now being worked through [here].”

Refining the appeal message

The Guardian is continuing to experiment with its financial appeal message – known internally as "the epic". “We are optimising that by article and within video and podcasts and are trialling how we optimise that off-platform,” Pemsel says. “That's just us getting really smart about understanding the triggers for getting people to contribute.”

These “triggers”, says the CEO, are often related to breaking news. “We are obviously very sensitive about not asking for contributions around content that is reporting on some of the horrors. But when there are news surges, whether that be announcements on Brexit or in the States around what’s happening to Trump, we can see spikes in our traffic and news articles that create levels of contribution.” He adds that the Guardian is looking to do more to “create our own moments” which might move readers to take action.

“I think we will explore the opportunity around articles. I can imagine some kind of product set that brings to life how one optimises certain parts of the site. I’m not going to lay out our product roadmap for the next six months but I do believe through our data understanding we will be able to create a set of products which will allow people to want to keep contributing.”

An early sign of the willingness of readers to donate money to support Guardian journalism came through a series in the US called “This Land is Your Land”, which highlighted the threat to America’s public land in journalism that was backed by over $114,000 in public donations. “The Defenders”, a newer international series on environmental activism produced with the NGO Global Witness, has also generated support from donors.

Although competitors have tried to suggest that Guardian US is a busted flush that underperformed at the last US election, Pemsel is clear that it remains central to GMG’s strategy. “We ended up having to halve the number of people in the US office but since then, as opposed to it being a financial drain on the business, this year it will make a positive contribution.”

Similarly, the paper’s Australian operation is seen as being suited to reader contributions. “We are very clear on our strategic agenda editorially over there because we are not just doing wide waterfront news, we are very [strong] on environment, indigenous people… there’s a whole theme out there which is quite specific and is driving reader contribution.”

As it pores over an audience of 160 million monthly browsers and around 9 million daily uniques, the Guardian will methodically look at ways to turn regular readers into financial supporters. “We are prepared to explore country by country because we know that audiences are slightly different from Australia to the US to here,” says Pemsel.

He is “agnostic” about whether readers give support as subscribers, members or donors. Either way, their data is valuable. “For every person that contributes we know more about them and that can be translated into a richness of understanding that advertisers can understand,” he says.

The Guardian's financial future

Pemsel is not shy about talking about making money. It is, after all, what he’s paid to do. At a business known for its liberal left values and its social conscience he takes home a salary and benefits package of £706,000.

Some Guardian readers might be uncomfortable at the thought of being “monetised” but equally they might count themselves fortunate to access the paper’s consistently outstanding journalism free of charge, which is no doubt why so many are bringing out their credit cards.

The CEO argues that its the Guardian’s unique ownership model, run by the Scott Trust, that is the key motivation for those who wish to support its journalism, particularly those making one-off donations. “We are a truly independent company, protected by a trust, and people feel compelled to make a re-occurring contribution with no reciprocal value exchange other than supporting the Guardian.”

When Viner and Pemsel drew up their three-year target to break even by April 2019, they didn’t realise that they were putting themselves on a similar timetable to Theresa May and David Davis in delivering a deal to leave the European Union. But much has happened in the world in the past 18 months, and the recent political turmoil speaks to the Guardian’s mission.

“When we launched this relationship strategy, Brexit wasn't known, the Trump situation was not known… and the fear generally about how the world is behaving right now, we didn't know that,” Pemsel says. “If anything, the break even aspiration and our purpose has become critical because the role of the Guardian, as with other quality news organisations, has become more important than ever.”

Ian Burrell's column, The News Business, is published on The Drum each Thursday. Follow Ian on Twitter @iburrell

Output: The Guardian has quadrupled the number of users in its membership scheme over the past year, from 75,000 to 300,000. The UK newspaper has also slightly boosted the subscriber base for its print and digital products, to 200,000. Another 300,000 people have made one-off donations to the Guardian, which urges readers to back its commitment to open access journalism. The one-off donations have raised several million pounds, and come from 140 countries. The 800,000 contributors have given the paper a record number of paying readers, surpassing its peak print circulation of the late 1980s.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
New York Times turns to handy Guides to boost digital revenues
 Getting paying subscribers is the new obsession of publishing companies. The New York Times is famous for its Pulitzer-winning news coverage, but it’s the how-to pieces that are among the best performers when it comes to signing up new subscribers.

The Times has had service journalism as part of its bundle since at least the ’70s, but it’s taking a more systematic approach to it today as part of an effort to double its digital revenue. One way it’s doing that is through a new Smarter Living initiative and its set of interactive features called Guides.

The Times is on track to publish 35 Guides this year, covering everything from how to clean your home to putting on makeup to completing a workout in nine minutes. It hopes to do another 50 next year, incorporating more video. The Guides started three years ago with Cooking and Well, the Times’ personal health desk, and have been extended to other features desks, including business, travel and climate.

Evergreen, service journalism is the workhorse of a newsroom because it can be promoted repeatedly and drive continual readership. The Guides often are among the Times’ most popular articles of the day, and they are twice as likely to get repeat visits as regular news articles. As much as Trump coverage may have driven readership and subscriptions for the Times and other news publishers, service journalism can play a counterprogramming role when people get burned out from the news. Viewership of Guides from January to September is up 170 percent year over year, according to the Times, which wouldn’t give raw numbers.

“The news cycle is relentless, and people are always looking for other ways to escape,” said Karron Skog, editorial director for Smarter Living. “The Times is expanding to say, ‘Come to us for everything.’”

Traditionalists have bristled at the Times’ efforts to move into service journalism over the years, but the Guides crew argues that there’s no tension between news and service; the same people who want to read the latest on Niger might also want to know how to make the perfect pie crust. They say that today’s service effort isn’t replacing anything the Times does; it’s just more coordinated than it’s been in the past.

“There’s grumblings, but there’s grumblings when we started feature sections in the ’70s,” Skog said. “I think there’s room in the Times for all kinds of coverage. The heart of what we do is news, investigative journalism. Different things appeal to different readers at different times of day.”

That’s not to say expanding service journalism isn’t tricky. The Times has to make its service something people can’t already get elsewhere, and do it without alienating readers who expect a more traditional news package. So the Times’ approach is to apply the same reporting rigor it brings to the rest of its reporting.

“It’s new territory in some ways,” said Sara Bremen Rabstenek, senior product manager at Smarter Living. “Topics they cover can appeal to new readers and push the boundaries of what is Timesean. So we can think about, what can a Timesean makeup guide look like? It’s managing the expectations that our current readers have with what new audiences expect from other media outlets. We want to apply the same depth of coverage to topics that might not seem Timesean at first but are really important.”

Image via NYTimes.com

Output: The New York Times is expanding its online service journalism in an attempt to double its digital revenues. How-to pieces, covering topics such as how to clean your home or put on make-up, are among the best performers for signing up new subscribers. The NY Times will publish 35 interactive features called Guides this year, with another 50 planned for next year, supplemented with more video. Guides are twice as likely to get repeat visits as news articles, with viewing from January to September up 170% year on year, according to NY Times figures.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Walmart looks to expand as an advertising platform
 Walmart is making a push to grow its advertising by positioning itself as a media platform.

Walmart’s pitch is that it controls transaction data from customers, which can help brands retarget consumers off Walmart.com, according to executives familiar with the matter. The big differentiator being pitched is Walmart’s brick-and-mortar locations — fulfilling a big promise of retail media that it can connect online with offline. And Walmart is making it count, trumpeting its combination of scale and offline data as a differentiator from Amazon. It’s doing that via more meetings with buyers, as well as at learning sessions and summits it’s holding with brands and agencies.

Walmart has over 5,000 locations, and e-commerce in the second quarter has grown 50 percent year over year, according to its most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Online sales are a smaller part of its $486 billion annual revenue, but ad buyers say its acquisitions of e-commerce sites Jet.com, Bonobos, Moosejaw and ModCloth indicate it will continue to grow its ad muscle. Retail purchases often begin with online searches — and if Walmart can own more searches, it can capture more of that valuable search traffic. “If Walmart.com can relaunch its advertising with the Jet.com back end, this will buy it some clout and some breathing room,” speculated one buyer.

Walmart did not respond to a request for comment.

Walmart Exchange uses programmatic infrastructure combined with in-store sales data to target ads, through private marketplaces and ad exchanges. The retailer also offers display media across desktop, mobile and tablet as well as native ads within the shopping experience. There are also options for more traditional paid search and product listing ads, along with “audience extension” through Walmart co-branded ads. That means brands can target shopper behaviors through ads on and off Walmart.com. (Amazon began offering a similar program, “audience match,” in July.)

Results on Walmart’s ad platform vary. One buyer said ROI has been either flat or negative — and that the back end continues to lack sophistication. Another buyer said it’s somewhat effective, but that Walmart is subtly telling brands that for their advertising to be effective, they need to negotiate with Walmart for other things, like shelf space.

Agency executives report that Walmart holds invitation-only summits that replace training for buyers and brands. Partners including brands and agencies are invited to these summits, dubbed “WMX summits,” in which Walmart ad executives reveal new tools. Merchants also hold senior leadership sessions, where people gather to discuss changes to product lineups, back-end tools and advertising.

“You have to be super proactive to make sure you’re getting the most out of your relationship,” said Heidi Froseth, evp and senior group director at Catapult, a shopper marketing agency.

Buyers said Walmart doesn’t directly pitch its platform. That’s left to Triad Retail Media, a group part of WPP that helps Walmart and Sam’s Club sell ads and run product promotions. It also manages all of the asset execution with Walmart suppliers.

The big question, said Froseth, is how buyers and brands negotiate with Walmart to figure out what comes next. “That’s part of the deal; everyone has to learn in their own way how to grow their categories and what you’re getting from partnerships like this,” she said. “You find out where foot traffic is — is that through e-commerce or physical — get that data and then figure out how to use advertising.”

Retail media, like the kind Walmart is pushing hard to build, has sprung up in the past year. Aside from Walmart, big retail media players include Amazon, of course, but also companies like Kroger and Nordstrom. Even retailers that are dwarfed by Amazon or Walmart, like Overstock, have built up media, recognizing it as a high-margin revenue stream. The pitch is similar: Brands know what people are searching for and buying; therefore, the ad platform can offer them more sophisticated targeting and analytics.

“Every retailer is building a vendor marketing platform,” said Alex Sherman, founder of Spotfront, which works with retailers to help them build theirs. Sherman, who doesn’t count Walmart as a client, said the challenge is to figure out how to differentiate. “It’s a shift from a commodity ad network to a premium channel that benefits shoppers as well as advertisers.”

Output: Leading US retailer Walmart is promoting itself to agencies and brands as an advertising platform. The company's e-commerce turnover in the second quarter of the year increased by 50% year on year, and it has also acquired a number of other e-commerce sites including Jet.com and Bonobus. It is now offering its Walmart Exchange platform to advertisers, making use of in-store data and customer searches to target ads more effectively. It also offers display media and paid search and product listing ads to help brands target customers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Westpac launches battery-free wearable for contactless payments
 Westpac has debuted its new range of “wearable, hands-free and battery-free” payment accessories, forgoing the need for consumers to reach for their wallet or smartphone.

Customers will soon be able to utilise Westpac’s new “PayWear”, which involves a silicone band and “keeper”, which can be attached to a customer’s watch or fitness band. It incorporates a microchip (PayWear Card), which is linked to the customer’s everyday transaction account.

The new wearable payment tech can be used in the same manner as a ‘tap-and-go’ debit card.

In addition to being battery-free, Westpac states the new payment accessories are also waterproof.

George Frazis, Westpac’s Group Chief Executive of Consumer Bank, states the new innovation will offer support and aid to the Australian lifestyle:

“Unlike many other wearable payment options, our customers don’t require an expensive device to access this technology. Customers will be able to get a PayWear Essentials accessory free of charge for a limited time, making it accessible to all our everyday banking customers”

“Australia has the highest contactless penetration in the world, and cards continue to replace cash as consumers demand convenience. We’re always looking for new ways to help make our customers’ lives easier, and with our new PayWear products, customers will be able to pay on-the-go, in one hands-free step”

“With PayWear, there is no need to search through a bag, login to an app or worry about battery life. It will be on the go with our customers and ready for use when they are”

Following a study which revealed that 70% of Australian consumers would only wear a wearable device if it met their personal style, the bank has decided to partner with a variety of Australian designers to develop diverse aesthetics.

Award-winning surfboard shaper and entrepreneur, Hayden Cox, has been nominated as the first Aussie designer to collaborate with Westpac’s new range of wearable tech.

Mr Frazis states of the bank’s decision to merge technology with style:

“When speaking with customers, personal style and choice were important. In fact, 70% agreed that they would only wear a wearable device if it suited their own personal style and lifestyle”

“This is why we will collaborate with iconic Australian designers to create a variety of wearable accessory designs to suit different tastes, preferences and styles”.

Hayden Cox affirms that the decision to collaborate with Westpac is a natural fit:

“Working with Westpac to create an exclusive range of wearable accessories which evolve the way people make contactless payments is exciting to me. This product signals an inevitable and innovative progression of our everyday routines”

“While some customers may opt for the simpler Essentials range, there is also a part of the market that will want something with a little more flavour. This is where the products I’m designing will sit”.

The bank states all customers with an everyday banking account and an eligible Debit Mastercard are able to order a PayWear Card online, which can then be easily inserted into a PayWear accessory to their preference.

Westpac’s PayWear Designer Range is scheduled to be available to consumers in early 2018.

Output: Australia's Westpac bank is launching a range of battery-free wearable accessories for making contactless payments. The 'PayWear' uses a silicone band which can be attached to customers' watch, and is waterproof. The devices work in the same way as contactless payment cards, needing no battery or connection to another device. As well as the 'Essentials' range, the bank will also offer a designer range created in collaboration with surfboard entrepreneur Hayden Cox.


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London fintech sector receives surge in investment despite Brexit
 London is set to further its lead as the centre for financial technology startups in Europe, with 2017 expected to set new records for investment in the sector, despite fears that Brexit will harm the industry.

According to the latest figures from London & Partners (L&P), the Mayor of London’s official promotional firm, investors from around the world have backed London-based fintech firms to the tune of £825m so far this year. This is a positive sign for the industry after UK fintech investment plummeted by more than a third in 2016 as investors put off decisions in the wake of the Brexit vote.

London is currently the fourth best city for fintech venture capital, behind San Francisco, Beijing, and New York, but is remains many times larger than any European rivals, such as Stockholm, Paris, or Frankfurt.

The last few years have seen a number of London-based fintech firms become household names as they revolutionised the sector, with the financial backing of investors around the world. One of the biggest London fintech success stories, currency exchange platform Transferwise, is reported to be in discussions with investors to raise a further £77m, which would value the company at more than £1.2bn.

Earlier this year, peer-to-peer fundraising platform Funding Circle, also raised another round of financing. The London-based firm reportedly became a “unicorn, a term used to startups worth more than a billion dollars, back in 2015, and is seeing 90 percent year-on-year growth, according to TechCrunch.

However, a major part of London’s appeal as a hub for fintech companies is the role the city plays as a truly global financial market with straightforward access to the European single market. London’s Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, stressed the importance of the UK remaining in the single market after Brexit, saying:

Output: London is expected to set records in fintech investment this year, despite concerns over the impact of Brexit. Global investors have backed London-based fintech companies with a total of £825m ($1.1bn) so far this year, according to figures from London & Partners, the Mayor of London's promotional outfit. The UK capital is the fourth most attractive city in the world for fintech venture capital, with San Francisco, Beijing and New York in the lead. However, despite investment dropping by a third in 2016 after the Brexit vote, the London market is still larger than that of Paris and Frankfurt.


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Redrow Redrow to release 122 homes in latest phase of Swindon development
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Redrow Homes has released a collection of new homes as work starts on the latest phase of the Badbury Park development near Swindon.

The housebuilder is to release 122 homes over the next stage of construction with a further 59 to follow that.

The first of these two, three and four-bedroom homes are due to be completed in the Spring of 2018.

The current releases start from £299,995 for a three-bed semi-detached property with terrace and detached properties to be released at a later date.

There are also four discounted properties available at the development to help local people to get on the housing ladder.

The properties, which are being offered at a 20 per cent discount on the market price, are available for people who have lived in the Swindon area for at least two years. They include two two-bed and one three-bed terrace homes and a one bed coach house available from £112,796.

Situated on the edge of the picturesque Coate Water Country Park, looking out on glorious Cotswold countryside, Badbury Park is a mixed-use development which, when completed, will provide up to 396 Redrow homes.

The site will also boast a local retail centre, a primary school and extensive areas designated as public open space such as recreational and ecological areas.

With a combination of two, three and four-bedroom detached, semi-detached and terrace family homes, the development is conveniently placed just three miles from Swindon and near the M4 and A419 with its fast links to Cirencester and Gloucester.

Sabrina Abolghasemi, Redrow sales manager for Badbury Park, said: “We are expecting these properties to get snapped up quickly.

“Badbury Park offers a rare combination of the countryside idyll with convenience of town. With its beautiful homes and plenty of green open space, Badbury Park is a great place to raise a family and is really convenient for those working in bigger towns and cities like Swindon, Bristol and Reading.”

The Heritage Collection homes being built at Badbury Park take design inspiration from the 1920s and 30s Arts and Crafts movement while offering every contemporary comfort and convenience. The new build properties offer an average of 35 per cent improvement in heat loss compared to those built just 10 years ago.

For more information about Badbury Park please call 01793 391751 or visit www.redrow.co.uk/developments/badbury-park-swindon-240220.

Output: Redrow will release 122 homes in the latest construction phase of its Badbury Park development, near Swindon. The first of the two, three and four bedroom homes will be finished by the spring, with prices for the current releases starting at £299,995 ($400,000) for a three-bedroom, semi-detached home with terrace. Badbury Park is a mixed-use development on the edge of Coate Water Country Park. The site will include up to 396 homes, a primary school and a retail park when completed. Four properties will be available at a discount to local people.


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Insurance exec questions Lloyd's market's hiring policies
 Derek Hansen, head of property and facultative at insurer Sompo Canopius, said that the problem with graduates is that while they have strong academic records, they lack personal and communication skills, as well as the ability to relate to people and do deals.

He said that the insurer has frozen its graduate programme while it looks at how it can attract recruits with a broader range of skills.

To help it do this, it has signed up to Connect Mentors, an online mentoring programme, to help it find people from marginalised and unconnected backgrounds.

Output: Lloyd's of London, as a market, should adjust its hiring policies and diversify away from recruiting mostly middle-class graduates, said Derek Hansen, head of property for Sompo Canopius. By focusing recruiting on too-narrow a segment, insurers may miss out on candidates with strong communication skills and an ability to facilitate deals, said Hansen. His firm has suspended its graduate recruiting programmes, opting to sign up for an initiative dubbed Connect Mentors aiming to diversify the background of employees the firm brings on board.


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Facebook adds tools to improve ad transparency
 Following recent discovery that there was Russian interference in the US Elections on Facebook, Facebook has plans for new transparency tools and measures. This will allow users and brands to tell who the advertiser is and the ads they are running – this is especially for political ads.However, the measures are not limited to political ads, explained Facebook in a blog post. This will allow all users, including brands, to click “View Ads” on a Page and view ads which a Page is running on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, in the process giving them a look into competitor Facebook ad activity. This is regardless whether or not the person viewing is in the intended target audience for the ad.“All Pages will be part of this effort, and we will require that all ads be associated with a Page as part of the ad creation process,” the post explained. The measures are effective next month and will be tested in Canada before roll out to US and broadly to other countries at around the same time. The initial test will only show active ads.The move comes days after Twitter launched the Advertising Transparency Center in a bid to “dramatically” boost transparency for all ads on its platform, including political and issue-based ads. In a blog post, Bruce Falck, GM revenue product and engineering, Twitter, said that it will also be improving controls for consumers and embracing stringent advertising policies. The updates will first roll out in the US before launching globally.For Rika Sharma, managing partner, group head of [email protected] Singapore, the move is a definite indicative of the "walled gardens" of big social media networks such as Facebook coming down as more people want transparency. When asked about what the move means for marketers, Sharma said that more transparency essentially comes with greater clarit,y and the need for more responsibility on the advertisements that are put out.Advertisers have to be more accountable as testing is no longer easy.She added that now, marketers need to be wary of A/B testing the same advertisement with multiple messages, and be geared for potential backlash that might arise from doing so.Read also: Is it too late for Facebook to apologise for its inflated video metrics?A more level playing field?Sharma explained that following the move, there will be a bigger onus on marketers to spend more time on research and really understand their competitors' work on its social media platforms.For marketers, it's now a level playing field with competitors since everyone’s ads are visible."Any change on the platform will also brings with it a unique creative opportunity. Marketers might use this change to their benefit and engage consumers in a high involvement activation across a series of multiple ads," Sharma said."People want transparency and consumers find themselves in the unique position of being like Will in Netflix's Stranger Things, about to experience 'True Sight' for the very first time. Their perception of the world will never be the same," Sharma explained.Agreeing with Sharma was Andrew Stephens, CEO, Ambient Digital, who said:"Although we have seen broad improvements in the recent years for ad governance, it is imperative that brands, publishers, agencies and even digital media players remain diligent and dedicated in the ongoing efforts to promote transparency."To better leverage the new features, marketers in Asia need to focus on highly-targeted cross-device digital advertising, including mobile, Stephens added.

Output: Facebook is launching measurement tools that enable users to find out who an advertiser is and learn more about campaigns. The tools will cover all advertising, not just political messages and all ads will have to be linked to the Facebook Page for the business they are associated with. Industry insiders have said the move toward greater transparency could mark the beginning of the end for social media's walled gardens, and makes advertising on such sites more of a level playing field. The features will be tested in Canada in November, before being expanded to the US and other countries.


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Redrow Redrow unveils new show home at popular Bedminster development
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Redrow Homes is unveiling a show home at one of its most popular developments in the South West, Abode at Bedminster , enabling the public to come and take a look at the new properties.

More than a fifth of the plots at the unique Bristol development on Bedminster Road sold off plan before being accessible – the most ever sold off plan from Redrow’s Bristol office.

The new four-bedroom show home will be opened on Saturday, 4 November, and is a spacious property spread over three levels of living space to reflect the flow of modern family life.

The 110-home development is due for completion next summer and there are currently a variety of three and four-bedroom properties available from £389,995 with one and two-bedroom properties to follow soon.

The show home will enable people to come and have a look at the development and get a feel for the new homes while Redrow’s sales team will be on hand to answer any queries.

Charlotte Newnes, Redrow area sales manager, said: “There is no better way to get a feel for a development than coming to see it in person. The new show home provides a perfect opportunity for people to take a look. The Abode at Bedminster development has proven incredibly popular so we expect to see a steady stream of people coming through our doors.”

For more information about the Abode Bedminster development, please call 0117 2392454 or visit www.redrow.co.uk/abodebedminster .

Output: Redrow has unveiled a four-bedroom show home at its popular Abode at Bedminster development in Bristol. More than a fifth of homes at the site have already been sold off-plan, a record for the company's Bristol office. The spacious show home, with three levels of living space, will be open to the public from 4 November. The 110-home development is set to complete next summer, with three- and four-bedroom homes available from £389,995 ($515,600). One- and two-bedroom properties will be available soon.


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Vestas to test world's most powerful wind turbine in US
 MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will test its V164-9.5 MW turbine, the world's most powerful wind turbine, at Clemson University in South Carolina, the parties said today.

The 50/50 joint venture between Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (TYO:7011) has decided to carry out all testing and verification of the turbine's gearbox and main bearings at the university's 15-MW test bench. The move represents MHI Vestas' first major investment in the US and comes as the manufacturer says the V164-9.5 MW is the turbine most likely to be used for the first round of major offshore wind projects in the country.

A total of USD 35 million (EUR 29.7m) will be invested in the testing, with Clemson to receive up to USD 23 million over five years. The project will allow MHI Vestas to better understand how the 9.5-MW gearbox and bearings will react over a lifecycle of more than 20 years. The company said the test results can help it optimise the service strategy for the turbine to ensure its reliability and minimise the fatigue on components.

Clemson University boasts a USD-98-million facility to test wind-turbine drivetrain technology, supported by a 2009 grant from the US Department of Energy.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.850)

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Output: MHI Vestas Offshore Wind plans to test its V164-9.5 MW turbine, the most powerful of its kind in the world, at Clemson University in South Carolina. The turbine is the result of a $35m joint project between Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems. Vestas aims to use the turbine to spur further investments in offshore wind projects around the United States. The facility will provide important data on the turbine's gearbox and component lifecycles over two decades.


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Redrow Redrow opens Priory Mews show homes in Newport Pagnell
 Redrow serves up magical new show homes in Newport Pagnell

Eagerly awaited show homes open at Priory Mews in Newport Pagnell this Saturday (November 11) giving buyers their first taste of life in a brand new Redrow home.

Properties at the development have so far been selling off-plan and to reward buyers for their patience Redrow is serving up afternoon tea ‘on the house’ from 11am to 2.30pm.

Visitors are sure to be spellbound by the Georgian inspired Regent Collection designs and there will even be a magician to help them experience the magic of life in a brand new home.

Potential customer will also be able to appreciate the tricks of the trade of Redrow’s interior designers as they explore professionally styled and fully furnished examples of the three-bedroom Brunswick and four-bedroom Wellington.

Tonia Tyler, sales director for Redrow Homes (South Midlands), said: “The opening of the show homes at Priory Mews marks a real milestone for the development. While some people have been happy to reserve based on plans and images only - or to travel to other areas to view similar properties - nothing quite beats viewing a show home in the location where you want to live and we have lots of eager buyers keen to see inside. We’d encourage potential purchasers to visit at the earliest opportunity.”

The Brunswick is a perfect example of how the architecture of the past has been combined with carefully planned interiors designed to suit how people live today. The spacious lounge is welcoming and inviting, with a door leading directly into the combined kitchen and dining room.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms including master with en-suite, which along with the handy downstairs cloakroom helps minimise the morning rush for the family bathroom.

For those looking for a larger property, the Wellington with three floors of generous living space offers the ideal solution.

The open plan kitchen and dining room is at the front, with the relaxing lounge overlooking the rear garden through patio doors. A handy laundry cupboard and convenient cloakroom complete the ground floor.

Three bedrooms and the family bathroom are on the first floor; while the piece de resistance of this family home is the top floor master bedroom with en-suite, providing parents with a sanctuary at the end of a busy day.

Current prices at Priory Mews start from £399,950.

Located on Tickford Street, the properties are ideally close to the heart of Newport Pagnell and just five miles from Milton Keynes

To enjoy the magic of life in a new Redrow home and afternoon tea ‘on the house’ visit Priory Mews this Saturday (November 11) from 11am to 2.30pm. The show homes will be open daily from 10am to 5.30pm.

For more information, see redrow.co.uk/priorymews.

Output: UK house builder Redrow is inviting the public to explore show homes at its Priory Mews development in Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes. The properties, which include Redrow's three-bedroom Brunswick and four-bedroom Wellington designs, start at £399,950 ($530,000) and have previously been selling off-plan. The show homes are open between 11.00 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. on 11 November.