Astronomers have observed a distant planet where it probably rains iron. It sounds like a science fiction movie, but this is the nature of some of the extreme worlds we re now discovering. Wasp-76b, as it s known, orbits so close in to its host star, its dayside temperatures exceed 2,400C - hot enough to vaporise metals. The planet s nightside, on the other hand, is 1,000 degrees cooler, allowing those metals to condense and rain out. It s a bizarre environment, according to Dr David Ehrenreich from the University of Geneva. "Imagine instead of a drizzle of water droplets, you have iron droplets splashing down," he told BBC News. The Swiss researcher and colleagues have just published their findings on this strange place in the journal Nature. The team describes how it used the new Espresso instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile to study the chemistry of Wasp-76b in fine detail. The planet, which is 390 light-years from us, is so close to its star it takes just 43 hours to complete one revolution. Another of the planet s interesting features is that it always presents the same face to the star - a behaviour scientists call being "tidally locked". Earth s Moon does exactly the same thing; we only ever see one side. This means, of course, the permanent dayside of Wasp-76b is being roasted. In fact, this hemisphere must be so hot that all clouds are dispersed, and all molecules in the atmosphere are broken apart into individual atoms. What s more, the extreme temperature difference this produces between the lit and unlit portions of the planet will be driving ferocious winds, up to 18,000km/h says Dr Ehrenreich s team. Using the Espresso spectrometer, the scientists detected a strong iron vapour signature at the evening frontier, or terminator, where the day on Wasp-76b transitions to night. But when the group observed the morning transition, the iron signal was gone. "What we surmise is that the iron is condensing on the nightside, which, although still hot at 1,400C, is cold enough that iron can condense as clouds, as rain, possibly as droplets. These could then fall into the deeper layers of the atmosphere which we can t access with our instrument," Dr Ehrenreich explained. Wasp-76b is a monster gas planet that s twice the width of our Jupiter. Its unusual name comes from the UK-led Wasp telescope system that detected the world four years ago. One of the scientists on the discovery team, Prof Don Pollacco from Warwick University, said it was hard to envisage such exotic worlds. "This thing orbits so close to its star, it s essentially dancing in the outer atmosphere of that star and being subjected to all kinds of physics that, to put it bluntly, we don t really understand," he told BBC News. "It will either end up in the star or the radiation field from the star will blow away the planet s atmosphere to leave just a hot, rocky core." Dr Ehrenreich is a fan of graphic novels and asked the Swiss illustrator Frederik Peeters to produce an interpretation of Wasp-76b. "Often with these discoveries, we see detailed 3D compositions where it s difficult for people to tell whether it s a real picture or just a computer-generated image. By putting some fun into it, we re not fooling anyone," he said.

The UK cannot go climate neutral much before 2050 unless people stop flying and eating red meat almost completely, a report says. But it warns that the British public do not look ready to take such steps and substantially change their lifestyle. The report challenges the views of campaign group Extinction Rebellion. It believes the UK target of climate neutrality by 2050 will result in harm to the climate. The claim comes from the government-funded research group Energy Systems Catapult, whose computer models are used by the Committee on Climate Change, which advises government. Its report says: "A number of groups have called for net zero to be accelerated to 2025, 2030 or 2040. "Achieving net zero significantly earlier than 2050 in our modelling exceeds even our most speculative measures, with rates of change for power, heat and road transport that push against the bounds of plausibility." Glimmer of good news But the authors offer some optimism too. They calculate that the UK can cut emissions fast enough to be climate neutral by 2050 – but only if ministers act much more quickly. They say the government urgently needs to invest in three key technologies: carbon capture and storage with bioenergy crops; hydrogen for a wide variety of uses; and advanced nuclear power. The report modelled options for society to 2050. It concluded that if decisions are made early, the cost of climate neutrality can be held down to 1-2% of national wealth - GDP. Scenarios rely on some technologies still in their infancy, which will be controversial. For instance, it draws heavily on burning energy crops, capturing the carbon emissions and burying them underground. It says hydrogen use will need to grow to supply industry, heat and heavy transport. Electricity generation will need to double with heavy reliance on solar power and offshore wind. Controversially, it calls for small, modular nuclear reactors to support three-quarters of heating in cities through district heating systems. Modular reactors are much smaller than conventional reactors, and brought to a site in a kit of parts to be assembled. It warns that livestock production for dairy and meat may need to be cut by 50% rather than the 20% currently envisaged by the Committee on Climate Change. And people will need to eat less meat and dairy by the same amount. The report s author, Scott Milne, said: “Whichever pathway the UK takes, innovation, investment and inducements across low-carbon technology, land use and lifestyle are essential to achieve net zero. Image copyrightSCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage captionAdopting new technologies, such as hydrogen energy, will be crucial "And there are massive economic opportunities for the UK to lead the world in these areas." However, the report warns that the public do not appear ready for substantial lifestyle changes. It warns, for instance, that if people s homes are better insulated, they may choose to spend the same amount on heating to deliver a warmer home. It says: “Early evidence suggests a general willingness to adopt new technologies (such as new heating or mobility) as long as these can deliver the same experiences as before. “Conversely, approaching the subject of dietary change or aviation often elicits a more resistant and emotional response.” Some experts will be critical of the report s expectation that new technologies such as carbon capture and storage will be rapidly adopted. A recent report said it was unrealistic to expect that carbon capture and hydrogen will develop fast enough to achieve the net zero target. A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion told BBC News: "The global response to coronavirus shows we can radically address crises if we put our minds to it. Meanwhile, the net zero date has not been put to the people of the UK. "The science tells us that net zero by 2050 means a hell of a lot worse than giving up flying and red meat - people are dying now around the world as you read this due to governmental inaction." The report was not welcomed by the National Beef Association. Its spokesman Neil Shand told BBC News that scientific studies typically underestimate the role of livestock in capturing carbon in the soil. He said: “It does seem rather unfortunate that the report links beef production and aviation in this way. “The timing is more than a little ironic; the shops are full of people panic-buying and it seems clear that the nation s food sector relies very heavily on imports, and the associated transport that brings them into the UK. "Food produced on their own doorstep, using a system where animal and non-animal foods are symbiotic requires very little air travel, and makes excellent use of the resources our beautiful country provides. Foreign travel does not have the same necessity." In addition, a report from a group of environmentally-minded business leaders has called on the government to show increased ambition and delivery of carbon-cutting policies to get the UK on track to meet climate goals. It said there was an urgent need especially for policies to bring low-carbon heating to people s homes.

The American space agency has a new name for the rover it will be sending to the Red Planet this summer. To date, the project has been known only by its code name - Mars 2020. From now on, it will be referred to as the Perseverance rover. The name came out of a schools competition that drew 28,000 entries. The Perseverance rover will begin the process of trying to bring rocks back to Earth for study. It will trundle through an equatorial crater, looking for the best samples it can cache for retrieval by a later mission. Scientists think this will be the best approach to establishing whether or not life has ever existed on Mars. Can we finally answer the big question about Mars? Europe s Mars rover to make pit stop for repair Nasa s naming competition asked children to submit their favoured name along with a supporting 150-word essay. An army of volunteers — educators, professionals and space enthusiasts — was employed to whittle down the avalanche of ideas into a more manageable shortlist of nine on which the public was then asked to vote. Nasa s director of science, Thomas Zurbuchen, announced the winner on Thursday. The name Perseverance was suggested by Alexander Mather, a 13-year-old student from Virginia. The competition follows in the tradition of previous Mars rover missions. Nasa s first wheeled robot, which landed on the planet in 1997, was called the Microrover Flight Experiment until a 12-year-old student from Connecticut suggested the name Sojourner, in honour of abolitionist and women s rights activist Sojourner Truth. The 2004 rovers Spirit and Opportunity got their names from an Arizona student, and the agency s most recent vehicle, Curiosity, received its moniker from an 11-year-old Kansas pupil. Alexander Mather, who wants to be a Nasa engineer when he grows up, had referenced some of these missions in his winning essay. He wrote: "Curiosity, Insight, Spirit, Opportunity. If you think about it, all of these names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans. "We re always curious and seek opportunity. We have the spirit and insight to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond. "But if rovers are to be the qualities of us as a race, we missed the most important thing: Perseverance. "We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation, but as humans will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future." Media captionDeputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan describes the new rover s mission The Perseverance rover has recently arrived at Nasa s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin its final preparations for launch. This will take place between 17 July and 5 August. It s a seven-month cruise to the Red Planet. Engineers have targeted a touchdown for shortly after 20:30 GMT on Thursday, 18 February, 2021. Lori Glaze, director of the agency s planetary science division, said: "The Perseverance rover is going to be collecting samples. It s the first leg of the first round trip from Earth to Mars and back. We re hoping in the 2030s that we will be bringing those samples back here to Earth. That ll be incredibly cool." Three other missions are due to leave for Mars this year, including a rover from China and an orbiter from the United Arab Emirates. Europe is also supposed to be sending a rover called Rosalind Franklin but there is currently significant uncertainty over whether it will be ready in time.

They re as old as life itself but scientists can t say for sure if they re alive. They re written into our DNA, shaping the human saga through mutation and resilience. We touch hundreds of millions of them every day. As the novel coronavirus outbreak disrupts global markets and prompts unprecedented containment measures, it is worth asking a very basic question: what, precisely, is a virus? What are they made of? Where did they come from? And, perhaps most importantly, why are they trying to kill us? – Unimaginable numbers – The story of viruses is perhaps best told through mind-bending figures. According to Curtis Suttle, a virologist at the University of British Columbia, the physical properties of viruses make them hard for us to comprehend. Their tiny size, for starters. If each virus in a human body grew to the size of a pinhead, the average adult would become 150 kilometres (95 miles) tall. In a 2018 study, Suttle found more than 800 million viruses settle on each square metre of Earth every single day. In a tablespoon of seawater there are typically more viruses than there are people in Europe. “Most of us will swallow more than a billion viruses every time we go swimming,” said Suttle. “We are inundated by viruses.” A 2011 paper published in Nature Microbiology estimated that there are 1×10 to the power 31 (more than one quintillion, or 1 followed by 31 zeros) viruses on Earth. Lay them all end to end and they d stretch 100 million light years, or 1,000 times the breadth of the Milky Way. – The virus as concept – Viruses are best thought of as “molecular packages”, according to Teri Shors, professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and author of several books on the subject. “These packages have to be small enough to fit inside of a cell to cause infection,” she told AFP. Essentially strings of genetic material contained by a few protein molecules, viruses occupy a strange middle ground between the living and the inert. Since they don t have cells and do not produce energy through respiration — a key definition of living organisms — many scientists don t consider them to be alive. Yet, as soon as they enter their host, viruses spring into activity in ways rarely seen in nature, hacking cells with new genetic instructions to replicate at dizzying speed. Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town, said viruses were “as much a concept as a thing”. “I consider viruses to be alive, because when they are in a cell, they ARE the cell,” he told AFP. Shors said that viruses were “metabolically inactive”. “Unless they can enter a warm body and get inside of a cell, viruses are inert,” she said. But once it infects its host, “the entire cellular machinery is entirely devoted to making viral progeny”, said Suttle. “This is the living virus.” – Origins – While their beginnings are uncertain, viruses have left their imprint on nearly all life on Earth, including humans. Around eight percent of the human genome is of viral origin — that is, the remnants of ancient viruses that have infected us, developing species-wide tolerance. But their story begins aeons before humans. “We think that viruses were there at the very beginning,” said Suttle. “Whatever primordial soup gave rise to cellular life, likely gave rise to viral life at the same time.” – Are all viruses bad? – Most viruses come to our attention because they make us sick. Recent years have seen widespread outbreaks of viral infectious diseases, from the coronavirus epidemic today to SARS in the early 2000s and Ebola in western and central Africa. But there are virtuous viruses too. “Nearly all viruses are in fact harmless to humans,” said Rybicki. Indeed, many viruses benefit human health, infecting other organisms that would otherwise do us harm. Another benefit: the carbon uptake of ocean algae, which helps purify the air we breathe, is greatly accelerated by viruses. And they have widespread healthcare applications. Besides vaccines derived from weakened viruses, an emerging area of treatment known as virology is developing new ways to treat chronic diseases such as cancer. “These viruses replicate in cancer cells but not healthy cells, so this treatment is not as toxic as classic cancer therapies,” said Shors. For Rybicki, who has spent most of his professional life trying to unlock their secrets, the most remarkable thing about viruses is how many more mysteries they still hold. “They are the most diverse organisms on our planet, and there are more of them than anything else — and we still know hardly anything about them.”

Amazon and Facebook are encouraging their employees in Seattle to stay home after workers for each company tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Amazon (AMZN) revealed earlier this week that one of its Seattle-based employees has been diagnosed with the virus. On Wednesday, Facebook said a contractor who works at one of its offices in Seattle had tested positive. Facebook (FB) has closed the facility, which the worker last visited on February 21, for the rest of this week. "We ve notified our employees and are following the advice of public health officials to prioritize everyone s health and safety," Facebook said in a statement. Both tech giants are encouraging employees in the Seattle area to work from home through the end of the month. "We are recommending that employees in Seattle [and] Bellevue who are able to work from home do so through the end of the month," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. Google has also recommended that employees in its Washington offices work from home, if their positions allow for it, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to CNN Business on Thursday. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 11 people in the United States, the vast majority in Washington state, and sickened more than 100 people. There are more than 94,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, and nearly 3,300 deaths, mostly in China. According to an email sent to staff, the Amazon employee infected with the coronavirus became ill on February 25 and has not been back to work since then. Amazon, which is based in Seattle, said it has directly notified all coworkers who had been in close contact with the patient. The worker was based at the downtown office building the company refers to as Amazon Brazil, according to the email. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the email to CNN earlier this week, adding, "We re supporting the affected employee."

Scientists say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someone s body for the first time, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA, the chemical code of life, to treat diseases. A patient recently had it done at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for an inherited form of blindness, the companies that make the treatment announced Wednesday. They would not give details on the patient or when the surgery occurred. It may take up to a month to see if it worked to restore vision. If the first few attempts seem safe, doctors plan to test it on 18 children and adults. “We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see,” said Charles Albright, chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company developing the treatment with Dublin-based Allergan. “We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA.” Dr. Jason Comander, an eye surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, another hospital that plans to enroll patients in the study, said it marks “a new era in medicine” using a technology that “makes editing DNA much easier and much more effective.” Doctors first tried in-the-body gene editing in 2017 for a different inherited disease using a tool called zinc fingers. Many scientists believe CRISPR is a much easier tool for locating and cutting DNA at a specific spot, so interest in the new research is very high. The people in this study have Leber congenital amaurosis, caused by a gene mutation that keeps the body from making a protein needed to convert light into signals to the brain, which enables sight. They re often born with little vision and can lose even that within a few years. Scientists can t treat it with standard gene therapy — supplying a replacement gene — because the one needed is too big to fit inside the disabled viruses that are used to ferry it into cells. So they re aiming to edit, or delete the mutation by making two cuts on either side of it. The hope is that the ends of DNA will reconnect and allow the gene to work as it should. It s done in an hour-long surgery under general anesthesia. Through a tube the width of a hair, doctors drip three drops of fluid containing the gene editing machinery just beneath the retina, the lining at the back of the eye that contains the light-sensing cells. “Once the cell is edited, it s permanent and that cell will persist hopefully for the life of the patient,” because these cells don t divide, said one study leader not involved in this first case, Dr. Eric Pierce at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Doctors think they need to fix one tenth to one third of the cells to restore vision. In animal tests, scientists were able to correct half of the cells with the treatment, Albright said. The eye surgery itself poses little risk, doctors say. Infections and bleeding are relatively rare complications. One of the biggest potential risks from gene editing is that CRISPR could make unintended changes in other genes, but the companies have done a lot to minimize that and to ensure that the treatment cuts only where it s intended to, Pierce said. He has consulted for Editas and helped test a gene therapy, Luxturna, that s sold for a different type of inherited blindness. Some independent experts were optimistic about the new study. “The gene editing approach is really exciting. We need technology that will be able to deal with problems like these large genes,” said Dr. Jean Bennett, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who helped test Luxturna at the Children s Hospital of Philadelphia. In one day, she had three calls from families seeking solutions to inherited blindness. “It s a terrible disease,” she said. “Right now they have nothing.” Dr. Kiran Musunuru, another gene editing expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said the treatment seems likely to work, based on tests in human tissue, mice and monkeys. The gene editing tool stays in the eye and does not travel to other parts of the body, so “if something goes wrong, the chance of harm is very small,” he said. “It makes for a good first step for doing gene editing in the body.” Although the new study is the first to use CRISPR to edit a gene inside the body, another company, Sangamo Therapeutics, has been testing zinc finger gene editing to treat metabolic diseases. Other scientists are using CRISPR to edit cells outside the body to try to treat cancer, sickle cell and some other diseases. All of these studies have been done in the open, with government regulators approval, unlike a Chinese scientist s work that brought international scorn in 2018. He Jiankui used CRISPR to edit embryos at the time of conception to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Changes to embryos DNA can pass to future generations, unlike the work being done now in adults to treat diseases.

Australian scientists are developing a satellite that can better identify where bushfires might start. The small spacecraft would carry infrared detectors specifically tuned to the country s dominant vegetation - in particular to its widespread eucalypt trees and shrubs. The satellite s data will be used to help assess the "fuel load" and moisture content of forests. Authorities could then take the necessary action to mitigate any risks. The 2019/2020 fire season was a record-breaker. Hot, dry weather and an abundant forest floor "litter layer" made for perfect ignition conditions. Flames ripped through more than 20% of the nation s temperate woodlands. Australia fires were far worse than any prediction A visual guide to Australia s bushfire crisis Australia s NSW launches inquiry into bushfires Australian researchers already use satellites to investigate fire potential. The camera on Europe s Sentinel-2 spacecraft, for example, has shortwave infrared channels that are very good at checking on the state of vegetation. But a group led from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra believes a bespoke mission could provide more accurate and more relevant information. At the core of the team s system would be new sensors that were originally developed for astronomy. These high-speed detectors could delineate reflected light into the very fine bands that are most characteristic of the properties of eucalypt species. "We re trying to detect small changes in the spectral signatures of the trees," explained Dr Marta Yebra, an InSpace Mission Specialist from the Fenner School of Environment and Society. "So we might look for structural changes such as changes in the number of leaves in the canopy; changes in the lignin content; changes in the water content. All this is related to the conditions that affect the amount of fuel available to fires." Prof Rob Sharp is an instrument scientist at the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He said the infrared detectors came out of R&D work for an upcoming super-telescope known as the Giant Magellan Telescope. He recalled: "We were also planning a small space telescope to go on the space station to do astronomy because that s what we understand. And then as the wheels started to turn we sort of realised, well, if we can do astronomy with it, what happens if we turn it round to look at the ground?" "There are really interesting applications in the infrared for not only the bushfire work but for agricultural monitoring; and also mineralogical surveys, which is a big deal here in Australia." The ANU team says it will take a couple of years to build, test and launch the spacecraft. It would be suitcase-sized and have a resolution on the ground of about 10m. Ultimately, the researchers would like to see a constellation of small spacecraft. This would bring "eyes overhead" more frequently. The country is currently beefing up its space activities. In July 2018, it took the decision to set up a national space agency.

Tesco is issuing new cards to 600,000 Clubcard account holders after unearthing a security issue. The supermarket giant said it believed a database of stolen usernames and passwords from other platforms had been tried out on its websites, and may have worked in some cases. No financial data was accessed and its systems have not been hacked, it added. It said this was a precautionary measure and apologised for the inconvenience. "We are aware of some fraudulent activity around the redemption of a small proportion of our customers Clubcard vouchers," a Tesco spokesperson said. "Our internal systems picked this up quickly and we immediately took steps to protect our customers and restrict access to their accounts." The supermarket said it had emailed everybody potentially affected, that nobody would lose their points and new vouchers would also be issued. How do companies use my reward card data? Tesco Clubcard changes anger customers One of those who received an email was Josh, who works in IT. "The email was very ambiguous," he said. "I thought it was because I d just used a new bank card. I didn t realise it was actually my account details that could have been compromised. "It worried me - I feel better now it s been clarified." Others responded in good humour on social media, questioning how much their points would actually be worth to a hacker. The UK loyalty scheme offers one point for every pound spent in store. Every 100 points are worth £1. The BBC understands about 19 million people have a Clubcard account. Jake Moore, cyber-security specialist at the firm Eset, told the BBC plenty of people still use simple passwords or similar log-ins for many different platforms. "Cyber-criminals can do a lot of damage with a large breached list simply containing names and emails or other trivial data," he said. "The big risk is via brute force attacking the accounts where criminals use leaked common password combinations against the emails to try to break into other personal accounts." Mr Moore suggested using password managers to generate and store uniquely different passwords, and two factor authentication where possible - in which a text message or email code is required as well as the password.

Egypt has announced an ambitious plan to expand mangrove forests by launching the largest mangrove planting project along the Red Sea, according to Sayyed Khalifa, director of the mangrove forestry project in the Governorate. The project is funded by the Ministry of Scientific Research, in cooperation with the ministries of Agriculture and Environment and the Red Sea Governorate, he said. The project comes as part of efforts to address the risks brought on by climate change, according to Khalifa. Khalifa added in a press statement on Thursday that the project also comes as part of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi s directives to expand environmental tourism projects and take advantage of natural reserves. Four plant nurseries have been established for mangrove trees in the Safaga, Hamata, and Shalateen areas of the Red Sea Governorate, as well as the Nabaq nature reserve in South Sinai. The nurseries have been built on a total area of 500 feddans and are set to produce 300,000 seedlings a year, according to Khalifa. Khalifa stressed that the project is one of a number of initiatives from the ministries to contribute to achieving sustainable development and reduce the negative impact of climate change in the country, especially in promising tourist areas like the Red Sea, where luxury resorts and world-class diving opportunities remain an important draw for foreign travelers. Khalifa explained that mangrove forests are critical for bees, which, as pollinators, play an important role in the ecosystem by supporting the growth of trees, flowers, and other plants. He went on to say that the establishment of apiaries in mangrove forests would also provide job opportunities and contribute to producing high-quality honey. Expansion of mangrove planting on the Red Sea coast aims to maximize economic, environmental and tourism returns through scientific research, which is also part of the ambitious plans of the state in further developing beaches and achieving sustainable development, according to Khalifa. Khalifa said that the expansion of the project should turn the Red Sea coast region into one of the most important tourist and environmental destinations in Egypt. The project will also contribute to improving the living conditions of local fishermen and workers, he added. He argued that the project will protect beaches from erosion resulting from rising sea levels, commenting as well that mangrove trees are home to birds and other animals, and help to reduce the excess salinity of the surrounding area. Mangrove trees are also linked with the growth of other organisms such as seaweed and coral reefs and play an important role in maintaining environmental stability and balance in the local ecosystem, Khalifa said. Mangroves are salt tolerant trees and shrubs that grow in the inter-tidal areas of tropical and subtropical coastlines. They can also adapt to grow in low-oxygen areas and in places where freshwater mixes with seawater. While most live in muddy soil, mangroves can also grow on coral rock or sand.

An Apple employee who died after his Tesla car hit a concrete barrier was playing a video game at the time of the crash, investigators believe. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the car had been driving semi-autonomously using Tesla s Autopilot software. Tesla instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel in Autopilot mode. But the NTSB said more crashes were foreseeable if Tesla did not implement changes to its Autopilot system. The authority has published the results of a two-year investigation, following the crash in March 2018. Tesla s Autopilot software steered the vehicle into the triangular "gore area" at a motorway intersection, and accelerated into a concrete barrier. The front of the Tesla separated from the rear, causing two other drivers to crash. The Tesla driver, 38-year-old Walter Huang, was taken to hospital but died of his injuries. The other drivers survived. The NTSB said: The Tesla driver had not taken control of the car because he had been distracted by a smartphone video game The Tesla s collision avoidance system was "not designed to detect the crash [barrier]" Tesla s Autopilot system did not "provide an effective means of monitoring the driver s engagement" The use of Tesla s Autopilot software has been implicated in several crashes. The system lets the car operate semi-autonomously, changing lanes and adjusting its speed. But critics say the "Autopilot" branding makes some drivers think the car is driving fully autonomously. The NTSB said the driver had been "over-reliant" on the software. Tesla does instruct drivers to keep their hands on the wheel when using Autopilot, and an audible warning sounds if they fail to do so. But the NTSB said "monitoring of driver-applied steering wheel torque is an ineffective surrogate measure of driver engagement". "If Tesla does not incorporate system safeguards that limit the use of the Autopilot system to those conditions for which it was designed, continued use of the system beyond its operational design domain is foreseeable and the risk for future crashes will remain," it said. Recommendations The NTSB ended its report with several recommendations including: improving collision avoidance systems to include common obstacles such as traffic barriers evaluating Tesla s Autopilot to determine whether the ability to operate it "outside the intended operational design" posed an unreasonable risk to safety preventing automation complacency in drivers requiring all new passenger vehicles with semi-autonomous features to be equipped with a driver monitoring system that meets new standards It also suggested smartphone manufacturers should develop a "distracted driving lockout mechanism" to "disable any driver-distracting functions when a vehicle is in motion but that allows the device to be used in an emergency". And it urged Apple to "implement a company policy that bans the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices while driving by all employees and contractors". The NTSB also found a impact-absorbing crash barrier hit by the Tesla had been "in a damaged and non-operational condition at the time of the collision". It said the California Highway Patrol had failed to report damage following a previous crash and it was "likely" the Tesla driver would have survived the crash if the barrier had been replaced.

For decades, many of the biggest names in tech have leaned on a little-known law to avoid being held responsible for some of the most controversial content on their platforms. The companies have invoked this federal law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, in one court case after another to dismiss potentially costly lawsuits over messages, videos and other content created by users. But now, big changes could be coming to Section 230 that might expose Facebook (FB), YouTube and others to more lawsuits over hate speech and misinformation for the first time in their histories. If it happens, there could be sweeping repercussions for the internet platforms millions of people use every day. As social media sites have become hotbeds of hateful, misleading and dangerous content, an increasingly vocal group of critics from government and civil society are pushing for changes to the law. Congress and the Justice Department are now studying the issue: A draft bill by Sen. Lindsey Graham as well as legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley promise to dramatically reshape Section 230, and the DOJ last week held a public workshop to debate the matter. The push to rethink the law could become the latest flash point between Silicon Valley and the Trump administration. Together with state attorneys general, news publishers and online safety activists, Attorney General William Barr has elevated a campaign to weaken, if not repeal, the law, which dates back to 1996, years before companies like Facebook, Google (GOOGL) and their peers were founded. The proposals challenge the deeply held conviction in Silicon Valley that social media companies are just neutral platforms and conduits for information. And they could vastly expand the companies legal exposure, not only to federal prosecution but potentially state and private lawsuits. "No longer are tech companies the underdog upstarts," Barr said at last week s Justice Department workshop. "They have become titans of US industry. Given this change in the technology landscape, valid questions have been raised as to whether Section 230 s broad immunity is still necessary, at least in its current form." "The 26 words that created the internet" The original intent behind Section 230 was to nurture startups and entrepreneurs. One of its key architects, Sen. Ron Wyden, said as recently as last year that without the law, "all online media would face an onslaught of bad-faith lawsuits and pressure campaigns from the powerful." He s also said Section 230 encourages websites to remove objectionable content by creating a "good Samaritan" expectation: Under the law, tech companies can t be sued for trying to do the right thing, though the federal government can still sue platforms over criminal content. The seemingly simple language of Section 230 belies the sweeping impact it s had on the tech industry. Under Section 230, "interactive computer services" are considered legally separate from the users who generate their content. They can t be said to publish or "speak" the words of their users. In practice, courts have repeatedly accepted Section 230 as a defense against claims of defamation, negligence and other allegations. In the past, it s protected AOL, Craigslist, Google and Yahoo, building up a body of law so broad and influential that Section 230 has come to be described as "the 26 words that created the internet." The Internet Association, a major trade group that represents Amazon (AMZN), Facebook and Google, has called Section 230 a "fundamental pillar" of the modern internet, saying it protects not just tech companies but all groups that offer a space for online communications, including schools, libraries, churches, or neighborhood organizations. "Section 230 enables services that allows internet users to post their own content and engage with the content of others, whether that s friends, family, co-workers, companies posting jobs, someone posting an apartment for rent, fellow gamers, or complete strangers from the other side of the globe with a shared experience or interest," the association wrote to Barr in a letter last week. But the immense scrutiny facing Big Tech — on everything from election security to privacy — has created a ripe political environment for questioning Silicon Valley s most important legal shield. Are tech companies doing enough? At last weeks workshop, experts clashed over how much legal responsibility tech companies should bear for hosting malicious content created by its users. Social media companies say they re improving their ability to detect and take down content that violates their policies. "Section 230 protects the good actors who are cutting off the bad actors," Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group that represents many large tech companies, said at Wednesday s DOJ event. Without the law s good Samaritan protections, the industry argues, much of that good-faith moderation might end. Weakening Section 230 could also force websites to vet every piece of content created by their users before it goes online, according to defenders of the law — a task that only large and already powerful players like Facebook may be able to afford. Smaller, competing innovators that could break the grip of Google and Facebook might be snuffed out, said Patrick Carome, a lawyer who has represented tech companies in cases involving Section 230, at last week s event. But critics accuse tech companies of abusing their legal immunity to turn a blind eye to some of the worst content on the internet. These critics allege that powerful online platforms allow harmful material to stay online because it drives engagement — and profit. "Their financial incentives in content distribution may not always align with what is best for the user," Barr said at the event. To help drive the message home, the Justice Department has turned to child abuse experts who say companies like Facebook must bear responsibility for the child pornography and sexual predators that lurk on its platform. Facebook said it took action against more than 24 million pieces of child exploitative content last year. Most of it, the company has said, was caught automatically by Facebook s filters and that "we remove much of this content before people see it." Despite those successes, child sexual abuse content is still a widespread problem, said Yiota Souras, general counsel for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at Wednesday s event. Last year, the non-profit group received about 17 million reports of online child exploitation, including over 15 million linked to Facebook, nearly half a million concerning Google and tens of thousands related to Microsoft, Imgur and Snapchat, among others. One proposal backed by state attorneys general would amend Section 230 by giving them the power to sue platforms for hosting child abuse material, just like the federal government can. "We ll clean up your industry, instead of waiting for your industry to clean up itself," said Doug Peterson, Nebraska s attorney general, at the DOJ workshop. A fierce debate heats up over the future of the internet The Section 230 debate is tied to another politically charged tech issue: encryption, the technology that secures many everyday transactions ranging from iMessages to credit card swipes to sensitive business and government databases. Souras said online child exploitation will only get worse if Facebook moves ahead with plans to encrypt all messages on its platforms, scrambling their contents so that not even the company knows what child abusers may be saying — and to whom — in private. The thought of bad actors "going dark" has long been a fear of the FBI, which has asked companies like Apple for help decrypting the secure data of criminal suspects. But Apple and the tech industry have resisted. They ve argued that giving the authorities a special way to tap into encrypted communications will encourage hackers and foreign adversaries to exploit the same tool. If that happens, it could ultimately weaken digital security for millions of Americans. Some legal experts worry the Trump administration s push to impose new rules on tech companies could lead to broad expansions of government power. Those perceptions were reinforced earlier this month when Sen. Graham s draft bill on Section 230 began circulating around Washington. The bill seeks to withhold Section 230 s legal protections from tech companies unless they agree to implement "best practices" that would be designed by a commission and ultimately approved by the attorney general. Technology and legal experts slammed the bill, saying it would give Barr a blank check to write his own regulations designed to weaken encryption, expand domestic surveillance, and force tech companies to undermine user security using the threat of lawsuits. In other words, the deep, longstanding divide over encryption between tech and government may be driving some of the recent conversation around content policy. "Barr is cynically exploiting [child sexual abuse material] as a pretext for attacking the privacy of law-abiding Americans who would benefit from having secure communications tools," said Berin Szoka, president of the Washington-based think tank TechFreedom.

Things go bump on Mars on a fairly regular basis. That s the conclusion of a year of listening for quake signals on the planet by the InSight lander. The US space agency-led probe has detected over 450 significant seismic events since touching down in 2018. None are particularly big - at most, they re only 3 to 4 on the magnitude scale, which you might feel if you were standing directly above the tremors. The quakes size and frequency is actually not that dissimilar to the UK. The important message though to take away from the first detailed reports on the progress of the InSight mission is that Mars is far from being a dull, dead planet; it s an active one, says principal investigator Bruce Banerdt. He told reporters: "We finally for the first time have established that Mars is a seismically active planet and that the seismic activity is greater than that of the Moon, which was measured back during the Apollo programme, but less than that of the Earth (as a whole). "In fact, it s probably close to the kinds of seismic activity you would expect to find away from the plate boundaries on the Earth and away from highly deformed areas." That s pretty much the quake picture in Britain "give or take a factor of two", added Tom Pike from Imperial College London. A magnitude 4 event in the UK will occur on average roughly every two years. InSight arrived on Mars on 26 November 2018, touching down in an equatorial region of the planet known as Elysium Planitia. It settled in a small crater that has been informally named Homestead Hollow. In addition to its French-UK seismometer package, the probe is equipped with a heat sensor that aims to burrow into the ground, and an exquisite radio experiment that will measure how the planet wobbles on its axis. Taken together, Insight s data should reveal the position and nature of all the rock layers below the surface of Mars - from the crust to the core. It s information that can then be compared and contrasted with Earth. The results released on Monday - and published in a series of papers in Nature and Nature Geoscience - represent just the early phase in this science quest which could take some years to fulfil. Mars shows no obvious evidence of plate tectonics, of great slabs of rock jostling across its surface, which is the driving mechanism of quake activity on Earth. Instead, much of the quake behaviour on the Red Planet is likely the result of cooling and contraction. As Mars loses heat, it shrinks and its brittle outer skin then fractures in response. The probe s seismometers, although representing just a single station, do have some ability to locate the source of the bigger quakes and in Monday s published catalogue there are a number of events that have been pinpointed to a nearby terrain referred to as Cerberus Fossae. This is an area of Mars that satellite imagery has suggested may have experienced volcanism in the geologically recent past. In other words, within the last 10 million years. "It s possible that there s actual magma at depth that s cooling," speculated InSight deputy project scientist Suzanne Smrekar. "And as that (possible) magma chamber contracts, it causes deformation of the strong part (of the crust) - the lithosphere. "We don t have information from our quakes that say that this is what s going on. It s a hypothesis of how we connect what we see at the surface to the fact that we are observing Marsquakes in that region." Some modelling is required to trace the quakes back to Cerberus Fossae. That s in part because, so far, the mission still doesn t have great velocity data for the propagation seismic waves through Mars rocks. "We need to know what the velocities are to properly work out a distance," explained Prof Pike whose team developed the high-frequency sensors in InSight s seismometer package. "To do that we need either to unambiguously locate the quake separately, which we could do from a meteorite strike, but we haven t detected one of those yet; or by having a strong enough event that the waves would go around the planet twice, which is what most earthquakes on Earth do. And because we know the diameter of the planet - that would give us a calibration," he told BBC News. Indeed, to get a more resolved view of Mars interior, the team could really do with detecting the Red Planet equivalent of a "Big One". Even just one very large event could make a big difference to the overall analysis. Dr Banerdt said he remained hopeful: "It s the nature of statistics - sometimes things are clustered, sometimes there s large gaps in between. It s definitely not out of the question that we could see a couple of large quakes in the next few months." InSight is currently financed by the US space agency to continue gathering data for another Earth year. At the end of that period, it hopes also to have results from the radio experiment which should yield information on the size and density of the planet s core; and also from its heat-flow sensor. The latter is designed to burrow under the surface to measure the rate of Mars heat loss but the hardware has had difficulty getting into position. Engineers plan shortly to command InSight s robotic arm to push on the sensor to help it get underground.

A US daredevil pilot has been killed during an attempted launch of a homemade rocket in the Californian desert. "Mad" Mike Hughes, 64, crash-landed his steam-powered rocket shortly after take-off near Barstow on Saturday. A video on social media shows a rocket being fired into the sky before plummeting to the ground nearby. Hughes was well-known for his belief that the Earth was flat. He hoped to prove his theory by going to space. Mad Mike s rocket mission to check if Earth is flat BBC Earth: How we know the Earth is round Saturday s launch was reportedly filmed as part of Homemade Astronauts, a new TV series about amateur rocket makers to be aired on the US Science Channel. The project had to be carried out on a tight budget. With the help of his partner Waldo Stakes, Hughes was trying to reach an altitude of 5,000ft (1,525m) while riding his steam-powered rocket, according to Space.com. In the video of the launch, a parachute can be seen trailing behind the rocket, apparently deployed too early, seconds after take-off. In a tweet, the Science Channel said Hughes had died pursuing his dream. San Bernardino County Sheriff s Department said its officers were called to a rocket launch event at around 14:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Saturday. The sheriff s office said "a man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert". Hughes publicist confirmed to US media outlets that it was the pilot who had been killed. Darren Shuster, a former representative for Hughes, told TMZ the daredevil was "one-of-a-kind". "When God made Mike he broke the mould. The man was the real deal and lived to push the edge. He wouldn t have gone out any other way! RIP" he said. Mad Mike and his assistants built the homemade rocket in his backyard, spending around $18,000 (£14,000). The rocket uses steam ejected through a nozzle for propulsion. The daredevil, who lived in Apple Valley, made headlines internationally when he announced his intention to prove his theory that the Earth was flat. In March last year, Hughes managed an altitude of 1,870ft (570m) before deploying his parachutes and landing with a bump. Speaking afterwards, Hughes said: "Am I glad I did it? Yeah, I guess. I ll feel it in the morning. I won t be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight." He set a Guinness World Record in 2002 for the longest limousine jump - over 31 metres (103 ft) in a Lincoln Town Car stretched limo.

Apple may be about to give its customers a lot more control over their iPhones and iPads. The company is said to be considering allowing people to choose their default iOS apps for a broad number of tasks, including maps, web browsing and email, according to a Bloomberg report. This means you could potentially replace your iPhone s default Safari or Maps app with alternatives like Gmail and Google (GOOGL) Maps. This might seem like a minor, insignificant change, but it would signal a big concession for Apple. It could allow apps such as Spotify (SPOT) and Pandora (PANDY) to be streamed directly from Apple s HomePod smart speaker, giving other developers a fairer shot of competing against Apple s built-in services, the report said. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple (AAPL) embraced a closed ecosystem when it launched the Apple App Store in 2008. That benefited the company s bottom line and ensured a certain level of quality control over customers experience using their iPhones and iPads. But over the years, increased pressure from regulators, developers and consumers has slowly but surely opened up Apple s walled garden of an operating system. The company has progressively given its customers more control, such as letting them delete core apps and install third-party keyboards. But its efforts still largely trail behind Google s Android operating system, which has given its customers far greater ability to customize their phone experiences and default settings. Apple loosening its grip on the ecosystem would be a major win for its competitors, which could gain access to far more customers -- and data -- than before. "By simply becoming the default browser on an iPhone, developers like Google could easily gain access to potentially 900 million iPhone users and all their browsing habits on a constant basis," Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC, told CNN Business. "The same would apply to anyone creating a mail app or music app -- and that s important because it could potentially slow the growth for some of Apple s services." The move comes at a curious time for Apple as it looks to gin up more revenue from its Services business with apps like Apple Music and Apple TV+. But opening up its ecosystem even more could help Apple grow revenue, too. "Many consumers prefer Spotify and that could have prevented them from purchasing a HomePod," Ubrani said. "By allowing Spotify to be the default player on the HomePod, not only can Apple gain additional hardware revenue, they could potentially gain more services revenue as users subscribe to Spotify through Apple." Although it s unclear if Apple will adopt this strategy moving forward, it could also represent a new foundation for opening up other areas of iOS: It may seem like a long shot, but perhaps we could even see Alexa swapped in for Siri on iPhones of the future.

South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda said on Wednesday that the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh is now a “green city.” Fouda said that a factory will be established to manufacture environmentally-friendly paper bags, which will coincide with a ban on shipping plastic bags into the city, in addition to constructing a power plant to generate electricity using solar energy. The announcement came during a meeting held for the Chamber of Tourism Establishments in South Sinai over measures to prevent the use of plastic bags. The meeting was held in the presence of the President of the Chamber, Guevara al-Jafi, the President of the Investors Association in Sharm el-Sheikh Tamer Makram, and a number of hotel and resort managers in Sharm el-Sheikh. Fouda has called on the Investors Association and businessmen in Sharm el-Sheikh to establish a special association for the protection and preservation of the environment. The Governor reviewed ongoing environmental conservation efforts during the meeting, such as steps to increase reliance on renewable energy resources. The measures comes as part of efforts to transform Sharm el-Sheikh into a sustainable, green, eco-friendly city in cooperation with Egypt s Environment Ministry, and include the construction of a solar power plant with a capacity of 5 megawatts, which he expects to increase to 40 megawatts. He added that a marina for yachts and other small boats will be established alongside the “green areas,” in addition to the development of the Naama Bay area and its planned transformation into an “international tourist promenade.” Fouda previously directed authorities to determine a location for the construction of a factory for eco-friendly paper bags, an alternative to plastic bags, which will be banned completely in the Governorate when the alternative is available. Egypt s Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad said last year that the ministry supports South Sinai s initiative to transform Sharm el-Sheikh into a so-called “green city” in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Back in 2018, projects included steps to boost recycling and renewable energy use, as well as the reuse of water. The budget for the project, provided by the UNDP, totals $US 5 million.

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar is set to establish the Satellite City Industrialization and Assembly Center sometime this year in cooperation with China, the minster announced on February 16 – the Egyptian Space Day. He further announced carrying out cooperation protocols with various countries in space-related fields, such as the French Space Agency. Also on the Egyptian Space Day, organized by the Egyptian Space Agency in partnership with the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, Abdel Ghaffar noted the most important partnerships in space sciences with countries such as France, Kazakhstan, Italy, China, the US and referred to agreements signed during the TICAD Seven summit in Japan. Space related fields depend not just on the manufacturing and launching of satellites, the minister said, but also extend to scientific research in space medicine and other fields. The Egyptian Space Agency s CEO Mohamed al-Qousy unveiled future protocols with Egyptian universities and the agency s training programs. The agency anticipates setting a schedule over the next decade to help meet Egypt s ambitions in the space field, he said, which go beyond launching satellites. Egypt desires to explore outer space through sending its own spaceship, and conduct research on space medicine and waste, he explained. The Egyptian Space Agency was established in 2018 to coordinate the efforts of various scientific bodies concerned with studying outer space and satellite technology, promoting Egypt s development and protecting its national security. Qousy said that agency supports the efforts of Egyptian universities in setting up laboratories for space science. Egypt s Space Day saw the participation of ministers, ambassadors from involved countries and senior officials. A platform was launched to organize programs and activities in science, and promote promote dialogue between foreign researchers and scientists in Egypt, the wider Arab world, and Africa.

New York Attorney General Letitia James will not appeal a federal judge s decision to allow Sprint and T-Mobile to merge, setting the stage for the two telecom giants to finally complete their long awaited deal. New York and a dozen other states sued to block the $26 billion merger, arguing it would reduce competition in the wireless industry and harm consumers. But after two weeks of testimony in Manhattan federal court in December, ;last week US District Court Judge Victor Marrero rejected the states lawsuit and said the merger could go forward. The court battle was the final hurdle standing in the way of the combination of the third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers in the United States, after the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission approved the deal last year. "After a thorough analysis, New York has decided not to move forward with an appeal in this case," James said in a statement Sunday. "Instead, we hope to work with all the parties to ensure that consumers get the best pricing and service possible, that networks are built out throughout our state, and that good-paying jobs are created here in New York." The legal team for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who co-led the lawsuit with James, is currently reviewing the court s ruling and its options, an advisor to Becerra told CNN Business. Combining Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) will create three similarly sized competitors in the wireless business: the "New" T-Mobile, Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) (CNN parent company WarnerMedia is owned by AT&T). Satellite company Dish Network (DISH) plans to use the deal as a catalyst to become a new wireless services provider. The states argued in court that getting rid of smaller players would reduce the incentive for all three major companies to implement price cuts and other benefits for consumers. But Judge Marrero said in his ruling that he didn t envision the companies "would pursue anticompetitive behavior." He also said he believed Sprint would cease to be a viable industry player without the merger and that Dish would fill the gap in competition created by the deal. As part of the deal, Sprint and T-Mobile promised federal regulators they would sell off some assets to help Dish s wireless service get off the ground. Still, Dish is likely to have a difficult — and costly — road ahead when it comes to creating a wireless network and getting customers to sign on. Last year, T-Mobile also settled with a number individual attorneys general in other states that had initially opposed the merger and signed onto the lawsuit. In Texas, for example, T-Mobile agreed not to raise prices for consumers in the state for five years after the deal closes, and to build out a 5G network that covered the entire state, including rural areas, in the next six years. In her statement Sunday, New York Attorney General James noted that she is "gratified" that T-Mobile has also committed to creating jobs in Rochester as part of the deal. "We are committed to continuing to fight for affordability and access for all of New York s mobile customers," James said. The merger could be finalized in early April. A new website has been started to promote the combined companies at NewTMobile.com.

With each passing quarter, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have been setting new records, while cloud computing has become the invisible backbone supporting much of our daily lives. Its potential to become an even bigger part of people s daily existence is sky-high. – Uses – The rising popularity of the cloud has gone hand-in-hand with that of 4G broadband technology and of smartphones: The combined power of the network and of servers makes it possible for us to listen to music, to watch videos, to work remotely, to post on social media or to request a ride and watch it arrive, in real time, on a smartphone map. Companies and individuals can buy not just cloud-based storage but also processing power, Internet services and software, all of it situated not in one s computer or smartphone but in huge data centers. There are now even cloud services for video games, which require enormous amounts of data and extremely rapid response times. “Cloud gaming,” as with other uses, lets users dispense with expensive and fast-outdated equipment. – Market – Most big companies and institutions now access the cloud either through their own private servers or as a client of a public cloud provided by a company such as Amazon, Microsoft or Google. These big providers offer an array of options, from simple hosting to ultra-complete online services, with an a la carte menu of tools and software, and with programs ensuring maintenance and security. The public cloud can thus provide savings while also allowing greater flexibility as users needs evolve. In practice, many companies choose a hybrid approach, melding the lower cost, greater power and high adaptability of the public cloud with the comforting security of a private cloud. “Companies on average use about three different public-cloud providers,” said Bob O Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research. While some companies grew up in the data world, he added, “let s not forget that lots of companies have been moving slowly and cautiously; plenty of companies are just getting started.” In 2020, the market for the public cloud is expected to reach $266 billion, a 17 percent increase over 2019, according to Gartner Consulting. And market research firm IDC (International Data Corporation) predicts a near-doubling of the market by 2023, to $500 billion. – Players – The 2006 launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS) gave the online giant a huge lead over its competitors. Analysts put its current share of the global public-cloud market at 30 to 50 percent. AWS had 2019 revenues of $35 billion and claims millions of users worldwide. It did suffer one setback last year: In October, the Pentagon awarded a mega-contract worth $10 billion to Microsoft, the second largest player in the market. Against a backdrop of hostility between US President Donald Trump and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, the company is taking legal action in an attempt to block the Microsoft contract. A federal court on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to temporarily halt its work with Microsoft while the matter is reviewed. Microsoft, meanwhile, has not released precise figures on the success of Azure, its public cloud, making comparisons difficult. But the company s cloud division has turned in Microsoft s best performances, quarter after quarter. Azure controls approximately 15 percent of the market. Trailing it are Google Cloud and China s Alibaba, each with a five or six percent share. For Google, the American leader in internet research, the cloud is a growing priority: It showcases the company s capacity for very large-scale data analysis as well as the ability for users of the hybrid cloud or of multiple clouds to easily shift data from one provider to another. Google Cloud took in $9 billion in 2019 (up 53 percent in a year). – Outlook – All the providers strongly emphasize cybersecurity — their reputations for protecting sensitive data are essential to their survival — but also, and crucially, the capacity for automated machine learning to rapidly analyze and optimally use the mountains of data being produced at every moment. The Pentagon s mega-contract, for example, is aimed at modernizing the computer systems of the entire American military, to be managed with the help of artificial intelligence. The contract also seeks to reduce environmental costs, since sprawling data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity to cool their servers. Meantime, 5G wireless technology and self-driving vehicles will favor the development of so-called edge computing — locating computing and storage capacity relatively close to their end users, thereby improving response time. AWS has joined with Verizon, and Microsoft with AT&T, in the race to make cloud technologies more directly available to users. The goal is to process data collected by myriad connected sensors (located in homes, factories, vehicles, etc.) in real time, without having to pass through servers. Analysts say such “zero latency” promises to open dazzling new possibilities.

Facebook has delayed the launch of its new dating feature in Europe, after a last-minute visit by officers from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The DPC said it had been told about the feature just 10 days ahead of the planned launch and "no information or documentation was provided to us". "We were very concerned that this was the first that we d heard," it said. Officers had gathered documents during Monday s inspection of Facebook s EU headquarters, in Dublin, the DPC said. The move also affects the UK market, which is bound to EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period this year. Tinder to add panic button and anti-catfishing tech Why do gay apps struggle to stop fakes and frauds? Facebook, however, said it had completed the necessary paperwork and shared it when asked. "It s really important that we get the launch of Facebook Dating right, so we are taking a bit more time to make sure the product is ready for the European market," a representative said. "We worked carefully to create strong privacy safeguards and complete the data-processing impact assessment ahead of the proposed launch in Europe, which we shared with the [regulator] when it was requested." No new date has been set for the roll-out. What is Facebook Dating? Facebook Dating launched in the US in September as part of the existing Facebook phone app. The feature, a potential competitor to dating giant Tinder, uses Facebook s data on a person to show common friends and interests on their dating profile. It can also pull in posts from Instagram - a Facebook-owned company. Other dating apps - such as Tinder and Bumble - can also use Facebook login features to build the user s profile. Image copyrightFACEBOOK Because Facebook already had a lot of information about people s lives, the company said, it had made special efforts to ensure safety, security and privacy. Unlike Facebook Messenger, photos, videos, and links cannot be sent through the dating messaging service. It is also available to over-18s only and does not - unless requested - try to match users with their existing Facebook friends. The app has been available in selected countries for less than half a year, attempting to wrest some of the market share from leaders Tinder and Bumble, each of which has tens of millions of users.

LONDON (AP) — The British government says it will give regulators the power to fine social media companies for harmful material on their platforms. Plans announced Wednesday would give the UK s telecommunications watchdog, Ofcom, power to enforce a “duty of care” on companies such as Facebook and Twitter “to protect users from harmful and illegal terrorist and child abuse content.” Firms that allow harmful material to flourish or don t remove it quickly could be sanctioned. Ofcom currently keeps tabs on radio and television broadcasters, and has the power to levy fines or even kick repeat offenders off the air. The government said it was “minded” to make the changes, but new legislation will be needed for it to take effect. It said officials were working “at pace” to draft a new law. Ofcom will hold companies to account if they don t deal with harmful material, and platforms will have to remove “illegal content” quickly and “minimize the risk of it appearing.” In order to safeguard freedom of expression, the rules won t ban people from accessing or posting offensive but legal content, though the government indicated it would let internet companies decide what material is tolerated. Online companies “will be required to explicitly state what content and behavior is acceptable on their sites in clear and accessible terms and conditions and enforce these effectively, consistently and transparently,” the government said. Tech companies welcomed the regulations. “Facebook has long called for new regulations to set high standards across the internet,” said Rebecca Stimson, the social network s head of UK public policy. “New rules are needed so that we have a more common approach across platforms and companies aren t making so many important decisions alone.” YouTube, owned by Google, said it looked forward to “working in partnership with the Government and Ofcom to ensure a free, open and safer internet that works for everyone.” Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan said the new rules would be “proportionate and strong.” “We have an incredible opportunity to lead the world in building a thriving digital economy, driven by groundbreaking technology, that is trusted by and protects everyone in the UK,” she said. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said it welcomed “a duty of care model that puts the onus on big tech to prevent online harms.” But free-speech advocates have expressed concerns about state attempts to limit activity that may be harmful but is not illegal.

The Egyptian Space Agency is set to host “Space Day”on February 16, an open event aiming to inform the public of the agency s work and upcoming projects and provide a platform for exchanging research and experience related to the science of outer space and satellite technology in the Middle East and Africa. The event, which was organized under the slogan “Space for Society,” will be held between 9 am and 3 pm at the Leadership and Management Development Center in Giza s Agouza, and people of all ages, university students, and foreign and local officials and researchers are set to attend. “We invite members of Egyptian society to participate with us in this event and celebrate the launch of Egyptian satellites, which were designed and manufactured 100 percent by Egyptian minds,” said Mohamed al-Qousy, CEO of the Egyptian Space Agency. During the event, the agency will also present Egypt s achievements in the field of space exploration and related sciences, he said. The Egyptian Space Agency was established in 2018 to coordinate the efforts of various scientific bodies concerned with studying outer space and satellite technology, so as to promote development in Egypt and protect national security. The agency has supported Egyptian universities in their efforts to establish laboratories for studies related to space science, Qousy said. He went on to say that the event provides an exceptional opportunity for officials, researchers, and the public to get acquainted with the Egyptian space program. A number of ministers, ambassadors of concerned countries and senior officials will participate in Egypt s Space Day, during which a platform will also be launched to organize science programs and related activities, and promote dialogue between foreign researchers and scientists in Egypt, the wider Arab world, and Africa. The day s events will also include an exhibition for private companies and Egyptian universities to display their vision and attract young people interested in the space field, with officials from the agency set to host discussions on its programs and upcoming plans. Three workshops scheduled for Space Day will also give participants practical knowledge about building and using satellites. Moreover, sponsors of Egypt s Space Day and the winners of the Egyptian Space Agency s logo design contest will be honored at the event. Qousy stressed that efforts to organize Space Day are consistent with the general framework of the country s social and economic development plans for achieving Egypt s 2030 vision. In December, Qousy announced that the first-ever competition to send an Egyptian astronaut to space was set to begin in January 2020, adding that any young man or woman was welcome to apply for the contest. Also that month, Egyptian Satellite Company “NileSat” signed a contract to manufacture and launch the new satellite “NileSat 301,” alongside French aerospace company Thales Alenia Space. Development of the new satellite began almost three years ago, and it is set to launch in 2022. The new satellite will expand its coverage to countries in the south of the African continent and along the Nile basin. This should help to strengthen communication across the African continent in line with the ongoing efforts of political leaders to bolster ties between Egypt and other African nations, according to NileSat head Ahmed Anis.