The future of facial recognition technology may depend on one very specific part of the face: the area around the eyes. Before the global pandemic, facial recognition systems typically worked by comparing measurements between different facial features in one image to those in another picture. But when you re wearing a mask over your nose, mouth, and cheeks, you re offering up a fraction of the information normally used to figure out your identity. Now, numerous facial recognition companies say they are focusing on better identifying people based on the portion of the face above the nose and, in particular, the eye region. The stakes are high to get it right, and soon. "If the [facial recognition] companies aren t looking at this, aren t taking it seriously, I don t foresee them being around much longer," said Shaun Moore, CEO of Trueface, whose facial recognition technology is used by the US Air Force to authenticate the identities of people entering bases. For many individuals and privacy advocates, it may be a comforting thought that a mask could offer some measure of invisibility from computerized surveillance. But for facial recognition businesses, it poses a unique challenge at a moment when the technology appears to be in even greater demand. Facial recognition technology has grown in prevalence — and controversy — in recent years, popping up everywhere from airport check-in lines to police departments and drugstores. And it may become even more popular as businesses look to contact-free security options because of the pandemic. Yet while it could add a sense of security and convenience for businesses who roll it out, the technology has been widely criticized by privacy advocates for built-in racial biases and potential for misuse.A late July report on facial recognition algorithms and masked faces by federal researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, confirmed that many pre-Covid algorithms were not up to the task. The most accurate facial recognition algorithms that the lab tested failed to make a correct match between 5% and 50% of the time. There was one key caveat, however: All the algorithms NIST tested were submitted before mid-March. In the months since then, a number of artificial intelligence companies have said they re working to ensure their facial recognition technology can figure out who is behind the mask. The visible portion of the face This spring, as the pandemic worsened, Tech5 cofounder Rahul Parthe started getting questions from customers about masks. Specifically, they wanted to know whether the accuracy of Tech5 s facial-recognition software would be hampered by facial coverings. Tech5, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, sells face, fingerprint and iris-recognition technologies to customers ranging from healthcare companies to law enforcement. Even before the pandemic, Parthe said, the company s technology had to deal with recognizing partly concealed faces, whether by religious face coverings or masks, which have been fairly common in southeast Asia for years. Nonetheless, its facial recognition technology appeared to perform worse with a mask — at least for the Tech5 algorithm NIST tested. The algorithm ranked in the top 10 on NIST s list, but it was still better at identifying non-masked faces than masked ones. Parthe said this algorithm was designed to identify someone who might be wearing big sunglasses or sporting facial hair they didn t have on a stored picture; it was not specifically meant to deal with face masks.Even before covid, Parthe said, the company was researching recognition technology that concentrates on the eyes and forehead, which it wants to combine with iris recognition to identify people. (Iris recognition requires a special scanner and tends to cost more than facial recognition.) Now, with an increasing number of requests for facial recognition software that works well with masks, Tech5 is working on a new algorithm that will ignore the face below the nose in a picture. The upper part of the face is also the focus of Venice, California-based Trueface. Like Tech5, the company s facial recognition technology was tested by NIST, though it fared worse. (It ranked 47 out of 89 algorithms on a test where researchers put a digital image of a light blue mask over the faces of people in visa photos.) "Masks have definitely caused us to rethink how we make our processes more efficient with the algorithms," Moore said. To improve on this, Moore said the company s researchers are currently working on just analyzing the visible portion of the face, rather than first trying to detect, say, a mask or a pair of sunglasses. By ignoring those objects, Trueface may speed up the overall process of recognizing the person in an image. Moore hopes this will be rolled out in four to six weeks. There are risks to this approach. Facial recognition in general has come under growing scrutiny due to concerns about its accuracy. In late 2019, for instance, a different NIST report found extensive racial bias in almost 200 facial recognition algorithms, with racial minorities much more likely to be misidentified than white people. Judging by the results of NIST s latest report on masks, this could be even more of a problem when a computer is relying on much less data about the face than it typically would. But focusing on the area of the face around the eyes and forehead makes a lot of sense to Marios Savvides, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies biometric identification. Savvides said the eye and eyebrow area (which is often referred to as the periocular region) is the part of the face that changes the least as you age, even if you gain weight. This means it s likely to look quite similar in different images of the same person, even if other parts of your face (your lips, for instance) grew or shrank. "It s a fortuitous finding in these times," he said. Accurate technologies can also be harmful While improving the accuracy of facial recognition for mask wearers could help businesses that want to use the technology — Trueface, for example, is now seeing demand for facial recognition to avoid employees touching key cards — it raises a host of accuracy and privacy issues. Clare Garvie, a researcher at the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology, is concerned that algorithms that are adjusted to better identify masked faces are simply going to become less accurate because they have less information to measure. "I just see the misidentification risk vastly increases because they have less biometric to go off of," she said. "It doesn t matter how they tune the algorithm."Maria De-Arteaga, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies algorithmic fairness and accountability, worries that masks meant to prevent Covid are providing reasonable-sounding justification for developing technology that would otherwise receive much more scrutiny. If it were being developed to identify people covering their faces at protests, for instance, it would yield a different reaction, she said. "Accurate technologies can also be very harmful," she said. Even if these new algorithms succeed, there may still be ways to cloak yourself to facial recognition software. If you re wearing a mask and sunglasses, for instance, hardly any of your face would be visible in a picture. "There s not much you can do with that," Savvides said.

will soon return to the Apple Watch after suddenly disappearing three years ago. The new app, which includes step-by-step directions and estimated arrival times, will be available to download in the coming weeks, Google said. This time around, Maps is a standalone app available in the Apple Watch app store — a bit of a change from its previous iteration, when iPhone users had to download the Google Maps iOS app then use it as an extension on their Watch. Several other apps, like Amazon and eBay, pulled their iOS apps support for the Apple Watch in 2017 without offering an explanation, according to previous reports. Google (GOOGL) is also rolling out an update this week that will expand its Maps app compatibility with Apple s CarPlay system. That means users can listen to music or check their calender in a side-by-side display of Google Maps. The maps appear on the left of the screen and other features, like the music, appears on the right. Apple s CarPlay infotainment system is available in 97% of new cars, according to the company.

The Japanese giant Toshiba has sold its final stake in the personal computer maker Dynabook. It means the firm no longer has a connection with making PCs or laptops. Sharp bought 80% of Toshiba s personal computing arm in 2018 for $36m (£27m), and has now bought the remaining shares, Toshiba said in a statement. Toshiba s first laptop, the T1100, launched in 1985. It weighed 4kg (8.8 pounds) and worked with 3.5 inch (8.8cm) floppy disks. It was launched at first only in Europe with an annual sales target of 10,000 units, according to the Toshiba Science Museum website. In 2011 Toshiba sold more than 17m PCs but by 2017 this had fallen to 1.9m, reported Reuters at the time. In 2016, it had ceased making consumer laptops for the European market, focusing only on hardware for businesses. Recent years have been difficult for the conglomerate: in 2015, the firm posted a full-year loss of $318m. That same year its president and vice-president resigned after an independent panel found the company had overstated its profits for the previous six years. In 2019, it wound up its nuclear business NuGen in the UK after failing to find a buyer for it. Consumer demand for laptops has soared in the last few months because of the Coronavirus pandemic and global lockdowns, but overall, the market for personal computers has been tough for quite a while, said analyst Marina Koytcheva from the firm CCS Insight. "Only those who have managed to sustain scale and price (like Lenovo), or have a premium brand (like Apple) have succeeded in the unforgiving PC market, where volumes have been falling for years," she said.

Based in Shenzhen and founded in 1998, the Chinese company Tencent enjoys huge popularity - and profits - in China. Its cute penguin symbol is as familiar to Chinese children as the McDonalds "golden arches" logo is to children in the West, says the BBC s China media analyst Kerry Allen. "Tencent is thought of as so much more than just a Chinese company in China - it has gained a reputation as a family-friendly organisation that connects families, friends and work colleagues in a digital age," she said. "It has a business model that other Chinese companies can only envy - it can reach an audience of, basically, everyone." But many people in the West have never heard of it. That doesn t mean it isn t present in our everyday lives, though - Tencent also owns chunks of some of Western culture s most popular games, music and movies. WeChat Like Google s parent company, Alphabet, Tencent has a broad portfolio of interests, although arguably it remains best known for its messaging services. US president Donald Trump singled out the app WeChat in his most recent executive order, which demands US firms stop doing business with it. WeChat has over a billion users, both inside China and around the world - the Chinese version is called Weixin. It is often compared to WhatsApp - and certainly it is widely used for messaging - several US messaging apps and social media sites are banned by the Chinese state so you can t (officially) Facebook message a friend in Beijing, for example. But there s a lot more to WeChat than messaging. It s more akin to a separate operating system: just like you might use Google s Android or Apple s iOS for a variety of tasks, it is used to read news, pay bills, order transport or food, and run small businesses. The firm has not revealed just how profitable WeChat is on its own, but it is clear that Tencent - as a whole - is thriving. Earning results for the first quarter of 2020 showed a total revenue of 108 billion Chinese yuan ($15.2 billion) - an increase of 26% year-on-year, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Alphabet s revenue for the same period was $41.2 bn. Crunchbase s Tencent entry lists 479 investments, with a fund totalling $6.6bn. It would be tedious to go through them all, but let s take a quick look at some of them. Gaming It is clear that Tencent makes a lot of money via gaming. Tencent is the largest video games publisher in the world. It has a stake in the two most popular Battle Royale-style games: Fortnite and PlayerUnknown s Battlegrounds (PubG). It owns a 40% stake in Fortnite studio, Epic games, and has the license to PlayerUnknown s Battlegrounds (PubG) - although it failed in its own battle to get the game approved for distribution in China. It also owns the entire League of Legends studio, Riot Games. In October 2019, PC Gamer published a list of 16 games firms outside of China that Tencent had publicly invested in, including Ubisoft and Discord. Music and movies It also invests in Western music and films. Tencent has recently completed a deal giving it a 10% stake in Universal Music. The record label includes major artists such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Drake and Kendrick Lamar on its books. In addition, Tencent already has its own music division - Tencent Music Entertainment (TME). And a share-swap in 2017 saw it take a 7.5% stake in streaming giant Spotify (Spotify got 9.5% of TME in return, reported Tech Crunch at the time). Tencent Pictures, its film and production arm, has been involved in a large number of Hollywood movies, including Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), Wonder Woman (2017) and the upcoming Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick - scheduled for release in 2021. Oh - and there s also the small matter of the Chinese giant owning 5% of the US electric car firm Tesla. What is the US concerned about? President Donald Trump says that the spread in the US of mobile apps developed and owned by Chinese firms "threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States". The US government says both Bytedance s TikTok and Tencent s WeChat "capture vast swaths of information from its users". "This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information," it claims. Tencent s chief executive and co-founder Ma Huateng, known as Pony Ma, is widely assumed to support the Communist Party. He is a member of the National People s Congress (NPC), China s national parliament. Trump s executive order also claims both WeChat and TikTok gather data on Chinese nationals visiting the US, allowing Beijing "to keep tabs" on them. Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert from Surrey University, points out that for international users, WeChat data sits on servers outside of China - meaning in theory that it is more protected from state scrutiny. However, he added that WeChat s privacy policy openly states that it will "comply with any legal requests from state agencies to hand over data they have in their servers". "Just as with TikTok, the concern is that the parent company is Chinese and thus it may be argued that they are indeed subject to the Chinese Intelligence Act," he said. Tencent has so far issued the briefest of responses to the news from the US: "We are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding," it said.

Twitter is introducing new labels to better identify accounts belonging to government officials and senior staff of state-backed media, the social media platform announced on Thursday. Key government officials such as foreign ministers, ambassadors and official spokespeople will receive the label, as will accounts belonging to "state-affiliated" media entities, their editors-in-chief and their senior staff, Twitter (TWTR) said. The label will appear as part of an account s bio and will also be attached to their Twitter username throughout the site. The accounts of government officials will show a flag image and the label "government account" whereas media accounts will show a podium with a microphone and a label that says "state-affiliated media." Personal accounts of heads of states will not receive the label, Twitter said, because "these accounts enjoy widespread name recognition, media attention, and public awareness." But corresponding "institutional accounts" that stay with the elected office will be labeled. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to CNN business that President Donald Trump s personal account, @realDonaldTrump, will not receive the label, but the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts will.To start, the labels will only apply to accounts from countries represented in the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Twitter said they will eventually expand to a wider range of countries."We believe this is an important step so that when people see an account discussing geopolitical issues from another country, they have context on its national affiliation and are better informed about who they represent," Twitter said in the announcement. Senior staff for state-affiliated media, which Twitter is defining as "outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution," will also get a label. Officials for outlets like the BBC in the UK will not be labeled as Twitter considers it state-financed but with editorial independence. Twitter also said it will "no longer amplify state-affiliated media accounts or their Tweets" through their recommendation systems and search. The labels are part of Twitter s efforts to crack down on state-backed accounts. Last year it stopped running advertisements from state-run media accounts, and banned all political ads globally.

SpaceX launched an experimental rocket prototype on a "hop test" this week during which the giant tank-like vehicle — reminiscent of an old metal grain silo — soared nearly 500 feet above ground before touching down safely on a nearby ground pad. The vehicle, dubbed "SN5," does not look like an ordinary rocket, but rather a large, steel cylinder with a rocket engine strapped underneath. The brief straight-up-and-down test flight was carried out Tuesday evening at SpaceX s development site in south Texas, and it s meant to help SpaceX figure out how to launch and land a large spacecraft with extreme precision. The prototype is the latest in a lineup of test vehicles SpaceX has constructed over the past year as the company races to develop a massive spaceship and rocket system called Starship, which CEO Elon Musk bills as the vehicle that will carry the first humans to Mars. Last year SpaceX carried out three brief hop tests using an earlier prototype, nicknamed Starhopper. But that vehicle was retired one year ago, and the company has spent the past 12 months assembling much larger testing vehicles and putting them through a series of ground tests. Most of those were destroyed during pressurization tests, where the vehicles are filled with extremely cold liquid to ensure they won t buckle under the intense temperatures and pressures associated with fueling, including the towering prototype vehicle Musk had shown off to reporters during a September 2019 media event. The previous Starship prototype, SN4, which is about twice as tall as Starhopper, was the first to make it through pressurization tests, though it was destroyed during a test fire of its rocket engine last month. The success of SN5 s Tuesday test flight will set SpaceX up to conduct "several short hops to smooth out launch process," before the company moves on to test flights that soar higher than 500 feet. It s not clear when SpaceX will attempt to send its first Starship spacecraft into Earth s orbit, a far more dangerous and difficult journey than suborbital hop tests. And SpaceX s current prototypes are — to be clear — still a long way from the final Starship design. SN5, like its predecessors, has only one rocket motor. According to current mockups, the final spacecraft will need as many as six engines. And, to reach orbit, SpaceX will also need to launch the Starship spacecraft atop a massive rocket booster, dubbed the Super Heavy, that will need more than 30 engines at its base. Starship is designed to carry massive loads of up to 100 tons of cargo — such as satellites or space telescopes — into Earth s orbit. And, SpaceX pledges, the vehicles can be retrofitted to carry dozens of passengers to the International Space Station, the Moon, or Mars. SpaceX has been pouring significant resources into Starship development since early 2019, and Musk has called the project his top priority. But his vocal excitement about the project has occasionally rubbed some of SpaceX s government partners the wrong way. Last year, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine called Musk out on twitter for hosting a glitzy press event about Starship while the company s Crew Dragon — a separate and much smaller crew-worthy spacecraft that SpaceX developed for NASA — had yet to launch its first operational mission. Last weekend, however, Crew Dragon completed its first-ever crewed mission by safely bringing NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to a splash landing in the Gulf of Mexico. That paves the way for Crew Dragon to begin regularly flying crewed missions to the International Space Station and for SpaceX to begin publicly shifting its focus to its experimental prototypes.

After days of whiplash over the future of TikTok, President Donald Trump said he would allow an American company to acquire the short-form video app — with a catch. Trump on Monday set September 15 as the deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer, failing which he said he will shut down the app in the country. In an unusual declaration, Trump also said any deal would have to include a "substantial amount of money" coming to the US Treasury. "Right now they don t have any rights unless we give it to them. So if we re going to give them the rights, then ... it has to come into this country," Trump said. "It s a great asset, but it s not a great asset in the United States unless they have approval in the United States." Asked in a subsequent press briefing whether the money for the Treasury should come from Microsoft — which is pursuing a purchase of TikTok — or TikTok s Chinese parent ByteDance, Trump said the US should get a significant portion of the deal "either way." "Whether it s Microsoft or somebody else, or if it s the Chinese — what the price is, the United States could — should get a very large percentage of that price. Because we re making it possible," he said. Trump described his proposal as being similar to a lease between a landlord and a tenant, adding that TikTok owes the US for its success. "TikTok is a tremendous success, but a big portion of it s in this country," he said.The President s requirement that some of the money from the deal go to the US Treasury doesn t have a basis in antitrust law, according to Gene Kimmelman, a former chief counsel for the US Department of Justice s Antitrust Division and currently a senior adviser to the policy group Public Knowledge. "This is quite unusual, this is out of the norm," Kimmelman said. "It s actually quite hard to understand what the president is actually talking about here. ... It s not unheard of for transactions to have broader geopolitical implications between countries, but it s quite remarkable to think about some kind of money being on the table in connection with a transaction." TikTok said it remains committed to its large American user base. "TikTok is loved by 100 million Americans because it is a home for entertainment, self-expression, and connection," company spokesperson Josh Gartner said in a statement. "TikTok will be here for many years to come."Microsoft says it is still discussing a potential purchase of TikTok, days after Trump first said he would ban the popular short-form video app from operating in the US. In a blog post Sunday, Microsoft said its CEO, Satya Nadella, has talked with Trump about buying the app. US policymakers have for weeks expressed concerns about the app as tensions between the US and China escalate, with many asserting that it could pose a national security risk. (Security experts, however, say the threat is largely theoretical or indirect.) "[Microsoft] is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury," the company said, adding that it will "move quickly" to talk with ByteDance "in a matter of weeks." Microsoft declined to comment beyond the blog post following Trump s remarks on Monday.The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted the short-form video app in recent weeks, citing concerns over the privacy and security of its American users. In response, TikTok has pointed to the fact it has an American CEO and that its servers reside in the US. The company previously considered a restructuring to ease concerns. "This is a purchase that wouldn t be necessary but for the Trump administration s hostility to Chinese ownership of any tech companies," said Mark Lemley, director of Stanford University s program in law, science and technology, adding that there isn t "much real evidence" that the app s Chinese ownership presents a security threat. "Instead, I think this is part of the splintering of the Internet into competing national networks," Lemley said. "I think that s a problem, and splitting TikTok into different national entities ... is only going to make that problem worse." White House trade adviser Peter Navarro expressed concern about a potential Microsoft acquisition because of the company s links to China, citing the availability of Microsoft services in the country including its Bing search engine and Skype video calling platform. "[Microsoft is] clearly a multi-national company that s made billions in China, that -- that enables Chinese censorship through things like Bing and Skype," he told CNN on Monday. Besides selling TikTok to a US buyer, ByteDance may also be considering other moves to further insulate itself from the US-China fight. Responding to reports that it is considering London for a new TikTok headquarters, ByteDance said in a statement that it was "committed to being a global company." "In light of the current situation, ByteDance has been evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok s headquarters outside of the US, to better serve our global users," the company said.

SpaceX s Crew Dragon spacecraft — carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley — splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, marking a safe end to an historic two-month mission and paving the way for the United States to once again become a world leader in human spaceflight. The Crew Dragon vehicle fired up its engines and safely plunged back through the Earth s thick atmosphere on Sunday afternoon before deploying parachutes and slowing the vehicle down for its target landing off the coast of Florida. Their mission to the International Space Station marked the first crewed spaceflight to launch from the United States since the Space Shuttle program retired in 2011. It was also the first time in history that a commercially developed spacecraft carried humans into Earth s orbit.Mission control dispatched a humorous welcome to the astronauts: "Thank you for flying SpaceX." Hurley and Behnken made their first post-splashdown public appearance after they were shuttled by helicopter, then airplane, to Houston, Texas, where the astronauts greeted their families. The men sat to address the public during a media event streamed on NASA TV: "We re not gonna stand right now," Hurley told an audience at a landing strip near Johnson Space Center. "For those of you who have done this before," he said, referring to the arduous trip home from space, "you know, it s not pleasant standing for a few hours after you get back." Behnken also thanked the leaders of NASA s Commercial Crew Program, including Kathy Lueders, the longtime program head who was recently promoted to NASA s head of human spaceflight. He also thanked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who flew into Houston to greet the astronauts after watching their return to Earth from SpaceX s mission control in Hawthorne, California. A visibly emotional Musk later remarked, "this is the result of an incredible, incredible amount of work from people at SpaceX, people at NASA," Musk said. "This has been 18 years to, to finally fly," he said, referring to the 18 years of SpaceX s operation, during which it has flown dozens of satellites to orbit, but never humans. The successful return of two NASA astronauts aboard a SpaceX capsule marked the culmination of a decade-long, and occasionally contentious, partnership between the space agency and Musk s hard-charging rocket company. NASA tapped SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to build vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The two companies were awarded fixed-price contracts worth $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion respectively, and both spacecraft were years overdue. But SpaceX beat Boeing to the launch pad. SpaceX s Crew Dragon was cleared for flight in May, and Behnken and Hurley took off aboard their spacecraft, nicknamed Dragon Endeavour, as millions watched. The pair spent two months aboard the space station before beginning their return trip home Saturday. Their return trip was made more dramatic by a two-day standoff with mother nature: Tropical Storm Isaias was barreling toward the east coast. But waters in the Gulf of Mexico remained calm enough for the astronauts capsule to splash down near Pensacola. A herd of unidentified boats that could be seen swarming around Crew Dragon shortly after splashdown were not invited guests, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a post-splashdown press conference. The Coast Guard was supposed to keep a large swath of ocean around the landing site clear, but Bridenstine said that after splashdown, some boats made a "beeline" for the capsule. He added that NASA "could have done better" and will likely need to deploy additional traffic control on future missions.In a statement issued Sunday evening, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard s Eighth Coast Guard District said they "worked closely with NASA and SpaceX to plan the recovery of the Dragon crew in a way that prioritized the safety of the boating public and those involved in the recovery operations." The boats encroached on the recovery operation before the spacecraft was determined to be emitting small amounts of NTO, or nitrogen tetroxide, a potentially toxic propellant used in the capsule s onboard rocket engines. NASA officials said the fumes were not potent enough to be harmful to humans, but it sparked concerns about how and why privately owned watercraft were able to gain such close proximity to a sensitive astronaut recovery effort. The Coast Guard said in its statement that the SpaceX capsule splashed down in an area that was outside its legal authority to patrol. "With limited assets available and with no formal authority to establish zones that would stop boaters from entering the area, numerous boaters ignored the Coast Guard crews requests and decided to encroach the area, putting themselves and those involved in the operation in potential danger," the statement said. Despite the oddities, NASA and SpaceX celebrated the historic Bhenken and Hurley s safe return. Their mission was technically considered a test flight, but Hurley and Behnken s safe return paves the way for NASA to officially certify Crew Dragon as a human-rated spacecraft. That queues up the vehicle to begin flying regular trips to the ISS, allowing NASA to take more control over US operations on the giant orbiting laboratory after years of relying on Russian spacecraft to fly crew. Another Crew Dragon spacecraft is already preparing to launch another mission, dubbed Crew-1, that will carry four more astronauts to the space station: NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japan s Soichi Noguchi. SpaceX also plans to refurbish Hurley and Behnken s spacecraft, which is nicknamed Endeavour, to fly on another crewed mission in the spring of 2021. That trip will include Megan McArthur — Behnken s wife and fellow astronaut — along with NASA s Shane Kimbrough, Akihiko Hoshide with Japan s JAXA space agency and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. NASA has been working to returning human spaceflight to US soil for nearly a decade: It lost that capability after retiring the Space Shuttle program in 2011. And at the time, few people at NASA expected Elon Musk s scrappy rocket startup would be the organization that brought crewed launches back to US soil. NASA s decision not to create its own replacement for the Shuttle — but to contract that task out to commercial companies — was hugely controversial in the early 2010s. The program, called Commercial Crew, sought to spur innovation and encouraged corporations to compete to bring down costs. In 2014. NASA awarded two contracts: $4.2 billion to Boeing to build its Starliner vehicle, and $2.6 billion to SpaceX, which planned to create a crew worthy version of the Dragon spacecraft that was already flying cargo to and from the International Space Station. Boeing, a longtime NASA partner that has worked on numerous human spaceflight programs, recently suffered a significant setback when a Starliner capsule malfunctioned during a key uncrewed test flight. NASA had repeatedly signaled that it expected Boeing to beat SpaceX to the launch pad. That changed after SpaceX soared through the final tests of its Crew Dragon capsule and readied for its historic launch in May. SpaceX s success is a major win for NASA, which has been pushing for more commercial partnerships and can use this program s success as evidence that it s an effective contracting method.

Apple continues to rake in cash as the pandemic rages. The company posted revenue of $59.7 billion in the three months ended in June, an 11% increase from the same period last year, it said Thursday. Apple (AAPL) stock spiked more than 5% in after-hours trading. The company also announced a four-for-one stock split. The blockbuster earnings for America s most valuable company come as the country s economy struggles with its first recession in more than a decade. Figures released earlier on Thursday showed that the US gross domestic product contracted 32.9% between April and June — its worst drop on record — as the pandemic ground most economic activity to a halt. Apple s net income of $11.2 billion for the quarter represented a 12% increase from a year earlier. "In uncertain times, this performance is a testament to the important role our products play in our customers lives and to Apple s relentless innovation," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement, touting the company s "record June quarter" that was driven by "double digit growth" in both products and services. International sales accounted for 60% of revenue for the quarter. Apple has thus far managed to weather the pandemic. It posted record earnings for the last three months of 2019 even as the coronavirus ravaged its market and supply chains in China; continued to grow slightly in the first quarter of this year; and even launched several new products and services virtually in the midst of global lockdowns. But the company has also had to shutter roughly a third of its US stores, after reopening and re-closing many of them, as coronavirus cases spike across several states. Apple (AAPL) is one of four tech giants — along with Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL) — to report earnings on Thursday, barely 24 hours after their CEOs were grilled by Congress over allegations that their companies have become too dominant and are stifling competition. Cook predominantly faced questions about Apple s App Store and the commissions the company charges some apps to list on it.

Boeing lost $2.4 billion over the past three months, the company revealed Wednesday. It s just the latest sign of trouble for the aerospace giant as it continues to grapple with the fallout over its beleaguered 737 Max aircraft and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a note to employees, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said that the "prolonged impact" of the virus will require the company to "further assess the size of our workforce," signaling Boeing will cut more jobs than the 16,000 — about 10% of its workforce — it previously announced. Wall Street wasn t shocked by the numbers. Investors already knew Boeing s deliveries 10 jets last month as it began ramping up production after its factory was shuttered by the pandemic. But Calhoun also revealed that Boeing is planning to further scale back production of all its commercial jets and, potentially, shuttering entire assembly lines of its 787 Dreamliner jets."We will also need to evaluate the most efficient way to produce the 787, including studying the feasibility of consolidating production in one location," Calhoun said. He declined to share further details with reporters. Boeing manufactures the 787 Dreamliner at a dedicated facility in Charleston and at the company s massive plant near Seattle. Boeing is now looking to produce just six 787s per month in 2021, according to the company, down from the current rate of 10 per month. Boeing is also planning to reduce its monthly output of 777 widebody aircraft to two per month, down from five. The company is still in the early stages of resuming production of its 737 Max jets, which was Boeing s best-selling aircraft but has been grounded since March 2019 following two crashes that killed 346 people. But Boeing said Wednesday it would slow down its plans to ramp up that production as well. It s aiming to produce 31 of those jets per month by 2022 — a target Boeing was expecting to hit next year.Boeing (BA) stock was up slightly during pre-market trading. But it fell about 4% in the early hours of Wednesday s trading session. The company revealed earlier in July that it was able to deliver only 20 commercial airplanes last quarter — the lowest number of commercial airplanes delivered in a quarter by Boeing since 1977. And 60 Boeing aircraft orders were canceled in last month, adding to the 150 orders canceled in March, 108 in April, and 18 more in May. Boeing s customer base, airlines, have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. The nosedive in demand for air travel has forced carriers to move thousands of jets into storage, leaving the airlines to bleed tens of millions of dollars every day with no end in sight. That s left little appetite for buying new jets from aircraft manufacturers like Boeing. "The reality is the pandemic s impact on the aviation sector continues to be severe," Calhoun, Boeing s CEO, said in his letter to employees Wednesday. "While there have been some encouraging signs, we estimate it will take around three years to return to 2019 passenger levels." But Boeing was already on rocky ground before the pandemic hit because of the 737 Max crisis.The company said Wednesday it has "made steady progress toward he safe return to service of the 737, including completion of FAA certification flight tests" last quarter. But, the pandemic has prevented Boeing executives from traveling abroad and holding the meetings it needs to regain international approval for the jet. Executives told investors Wednesday that Boeing has more than 457 of the jets sitting in inventory, and the company is planning to produce them at "very low rates for the remainder of 2020." Boeing previously said it expects the 737 Max troubles to cost the company a total of about $19 billion. Still, Boeing has more than 4,500 orders in its backlog — enough to keep its factories working for years to come. But the June results mean Boeing has 843 canceled or uncertain orders in 2020, compared to only 59 new orders.The company counted only one new sale last month: a 767 freighter destined for FedEx (FDX). Thanks to a surge in e-commerce orders and demand for hauling medical equipment across the globe, cargo carriers have proved to be the sole bright spot in the airline industry. To help ease the financial pressure, Calhoun said the company has temporarily stopped paying investor dividends, halted its stock buyback program, cut spending and costs, and taken on $25 billion in debt. "The diversity of our portfolio and our government services, defense and space programs provide some stability in the near term as we take these tough but necessary steps," Calhoun said of Boeing s planned job cuts. Boeing is able to reduce staff because it chose not to accept grants and loans via the CARES Act, though the company had previously said it needed a $60 billion bailout to survive the pandemic. The government barred companies that accepted CARES Act funds from cutting jobs at least until October. Major US airlines, however, did accept CARES Act funding. But those funds are quickly drying up, and carriers are now warning tens of thousands of airline workers may lose their jobs when the layoff ban is lifted in October. CNN Business Chris Isidore and CNN s Gregory Wallace contributed

Google (GOOGL) will let employees work from home until at least July 2021, a company spokesperson said on Monday. The company had previously said most employees would be working remotely through the end of 2020, with some employees being allowed back into the office sooner. But the decision to extend the remote work policy well into next year indicates that one of the world s largest tech companies is bracing for a long pandemic — and could prompt other businesses to follow suit. In a memo to employees, a copy of which was obtained by CNN Business, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company has reopened 42 offices around the world. "To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we ll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don t need to be in the office," Pichai wrote. "I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months." The tech industry has led the charge on remote work during the coronavirus crisis, with companies including Twitter and Facebook saying they plan to allow some employees to continue working remotely indefinitely.

Actors, activists and performing arts organizations are staging a 48-hour protest over the platform s handling of anti-Semitic posts over the weekend by a popular British rapper. Wiley, who has been described as the godfather of grime music, posted a string of anti-Semitic comments on his Twitter and Instagram late last week. Although some of the posts were blocked and removed, UK government officials and other public figures blasted both platforms for leaving other posts up for too long and for not doing enough overall to stop anti-Semitism. Wiley, who was honored with an Order of the British Empire award by Prince William in 2018 for his contributions to music, has now been temporarily locked out of his Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and Instagram accounts."There is no place for hate speech on Instagram. We have deleted content that violates our policies from this account and have blocked access to it for seven days," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. A Twitter spokesperson said the platform had taken swift action, blocking certain tweets and also locking Wiley out of his account. "Abuse and harassment has no place on Twitter and we strongly condemn it," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Our Hateful Conduct Policy prohibits the promotion of violence against -- or threats of attack towards -- people on the basis of certain categories such as religious affiliation, race and ethnic origin, and it is also against the Twitter rules to use hateful imagery." "We enforce our rules judiciously and impartially for all and take action if an account violates our rules," the Twitter spokesperson added. But UK Home Secretary Priti Patel accused the companies of acting too slowly to take down the hate speech. "The antisemitic posts from Wiley are abhorrent," she said in a tweet on Sunday. "They should not have been able to remain on Twitter and Instagram for so long and I have asked them for a full explanation. Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms." On Twitter, #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate and #48HoursSilence were trending on Monday as many prominent accounts encouraged others to join the digital "walkout." "We are joining the #48HoursSilence boycott of @Twitter to protest their inaction on antisemitism. We stand in solidarity with Jewish friends and colleagues against intimidation and discrimination. #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate," the Royal Opera House and the Royal Academy accounts tweeted."Harry Potter" actor Jason Isaacs posted: "I m in. Or out, rather. I m so used to antisemitic hatred, caricature and conspiracy theories from governments, looneytunes, the left, right and reasonable middle that I long ago lost hope for change online or in life. Maybe there s a window." Wiley s management company announced it was severing its relationship with the rapper on Saturday. His manager John Woolf tweeted: "Following Wileys antisemitic tweets today we at @A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism." Like other European countries, the UK government has been stepping up its pressure on internet platforms to act faster to remove hate speech. In March it announced that broadcast media regulator OfCom would be tasked with enforcing and regulating internet platforms to protect users from "harmful and illegal content" with "fair, proportionate and transparent" penalties.

This holiday season will see a showdown between new consoles from two of the biggest names in gaming: Sony and Microsoft. The companies have now given plenty of detail on their new consoles, Sony s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft s Xbox Series X. Both are coming this holiday season, though specific release dates and pricing have yet to be announced. CNN Business took a look at how these two hotly anticipated releases compare, from the technical specifications of the consoles to their designs and business strategies. We also spoke to Xbox following Thursday s games showcase to discuss the next generation of consoles. Tech specs When it comes to the processor, the Xbox Series X is slightly more powerful than the PlayStation 5, though the difference is unlikely to have a large impact on the gaming experience. The new Xbox s processor, also known as a CPU, can go up to marginally faster clock speeds at 3.8 Gigahertz compared to the PS5 s 3.5 Gigahertz. But those are just the numbers, so it remains to be seen how that plays out in performance. When it comes to the graphics, Microsoft appears to have the slight advantage -- at first. Graphics processing units, commonly known as GPUs, render game graphics. In general, the more processing power a console s GPU has, the better a game will look. Xbox has 1.7 more teraflops, a unit of measuring computing speed, on its GPU than PlayStation does. But before we write off Sony, it should be noted that the PlayStation has some differences in its GPU architecture that might translate into better graphics performance than it first appears. So we will only know how all those numbers impact the visual experience when we see how the graphics look on various games. The Xbox Series X wins out on internal storage. Xbox has 1 terabyte of internal storage compared to PlayStation s 825 GB. Any gamer will tell you that running out of storage on a console can be a hassle. But both console makers have cloud gaming solutions now — PlayStation Now and Project xCloud — and if more players rely on the cloud, storage will become less important.Sony does have one advantage. The PS5 can push through data at 5.5 GB per second, compared to the Xbox Series X, which works at 2.4GB per second. That could mean marginally faster load times, and less time spent on a loading screen. Both consoles are evenly matched elsewhere. They each have 16 GB of memory and support 4K and 8K resolution gaming. And when it comes to the latest flashy technology, both Sony and Microsoft have worked to incorporate ray-tracing, a technology that makes light and shadow look better in-game, and offer 3D audio for more immersive sound. While both consoles support 8K resolution gaming, most people don t own an 8K compatible television and most developers don t currently optimize games for 8K resolution. Sony and Microsoft built these consoles with 8K support to plan for the future. But the 8K TVs currently available are pricey, with a 55-inch Samsung model going for $2,499. Sony and Samsung have 98-inch 8Ks for $60,000. "When we designed the Xbox Series X... we designed it with the next seven to 10 years in mind," Jason Ronald, the director of program management for the Xbox Series X, told CNN Business. "So we ve absolutely designed the system to be able to do 8K." Business strategy In the current generation of consoles, Sony s PlayStation 4 has vastly outsold the Xbox One. Both were introduced in 2013, and since then PS4 consoles have sold 109 million units as of early 2020. While sales of the Xbox One aren t disclosed, it is estimated to have sold around 49 million units, according to Ampere Analysis. Nintendo, which releases consoles on its own schedule and whose Switch console is earlier in its product life cycle, surpassed Xbox One in lifetime sales, selling 53 million units by early 2020, despite coming out four years later. A lot of this boils down to content. Sony and Nintendo have compelling games that only can be played on their own consoles, locking fans of these franchises into their ecosystems. Some Nintendo franchises, such as "Super Mario" and "Pokemon," rarely come to other platforms and if they do, it s mobile, rather than console, versions of the games. Sony revs up fans every generation with a new set of PlayStation exclusives. Many Xbox titles, however, are released simultaneously for Xbox and PlayStation, meaning Sony fans don t need to migrate outside their preferred ecosystem to play them. Ampere Analysis games research director Piers Harding-Rolls predicts Sony will outsell Microsoft again, reaching 66 million consoles sold by the end of 2024, compared to an estimated 37 million for the Series X. His estimates are based on previous sales data and taking Sony and Microsoft strategies into account. Sony is continuing to rely on big exclusive games. "Sony is focused on pushing exclusives for PS5 to sell hardware and is remaining more traditional in its approach," Harding-Rolls told CNN Business, "It is looking to expand its audience through PlayStation Now, but it is far less aggressive in its approach compared to Microsoft with Xbox Game Pass." Microsoft is focused on selling games as a service, in hopes that gamers will purchase a monthly subscription to its Xbox Game Pass, which offers access to hundreds of games and starts at $9.99 a month. Microsoft said that all the new games it showed on Thursday will be available through the Game Pass. It s also promising that users won t need to upgrade to the next-generation console to play many games, as many games will be backwards compatible with the previous generation. And if players want to go on mobile, Project xCloud supports that. Ronald, the Xbox Series X director, said the company is "really focusing on the player and not trying to force the player to upgrade to an individual device or to make things exclusive to this device or that device." He added, "I think it s what really differentiates us from the competition." Ronald estimates that Xbox pivoted to focus more closely on the gamer than on the device around the time Phil Spencer became head of Xbox in 2014, a year after the Xbox One was released. It s a vastly different approach than Sony s, which is to market a new round of exclusives, including the forthcoming "Spider-Man: Miles Morales," as exclusive for the PS5. Sony declined to comment for this article. Xbox has a strong value proposition in offering hundreds of games for a low rate per month with its Game Pass subscription — if it can convey that value to its audience. "Microsoft in general struggles with marketing entertainment products. They are much more comfortable marketing tech specs to an IT crowd that does really care about those things. Unfortunately, that is a small fraction of the console buyer," said David Cole, an analyst at research firm DFC Intelligence. Some consumers may simply wait to see if the consoles are worth the upgrade. And the impact of the pandemic on many people s income could influence the decision. "There will be a lot of gamers happy to get by on their current consoles until they re forced to upgrade to play the newest release of a beloved series," said Laine Nooney, assistant professor and historian of video games at New York University.

Twitter (TWTR) has removed thousands of accounts linked to QAnon, a group known for spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation online. "We ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm," Twitter s safety team said late Tuesday in a tweet. "In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called QAnon activity across the service." More than 7,000 accounts have been removed in the last several weeks, according to Twitter. It also expects that additional actions it is taking to limit the reach of QAnon activity on its platform could affect 150,000 accounts worldwide. QAnon began as a single conspiracy theory. But its followers now act more like a virtual cult, largely adoring and believing whatever disinformation the conspiracy community spins up. Its main conspiracy theories claim dozens of politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. Followers also believe there is a "deep state" effort to annihilate President Donald Trump. "We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we ve seen more of in recent weeks," Twitter said. Twitter s multi-account policy prohibits coordinating with others to artificially engage or amplify conversations. There s no evidence that any of what QAnon claims is factual. ​ Followers make unfounded claims and then amplify them with doctored or out-of-context evidence posted on social media to support the allegations.The anarchical group s birth, and its continued seepage into mainstream American life, comes on the coattails of the Russian disinformation campaign that targeted US elections in 2016. ​ While the Russian campaign had an apparent objective — influence voters to elect Trump — QAnon is decentralized, having no clear objective aside from its popular slogan, "Question everything." Anyone can create a conspiracy, offer evidence to support it and tag it with QAnon hashtags to spread it. But no one is held responsible for the trail of chaos and disinformation it leaves behind. Twitter said it will also no longer serve content associated with QAnon in its Trends section and recommendations, prevent it from being highlighted in searches and block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on Twitter. "These actions will be rolled out comprehensively this week," the company said. "We will continue to review this activity across our service and update our rules and enforcement approach again if necessary." At least three GOP candidates have been sympathetic or supportive of QAnon: Jo Rae Perkins, a candidate for a US Senate seat in Oregon; Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Congressional candidate for Georgia s 14th district seat; and Lauren Boebert, who beat a Trump-backed, five-term incumbent during primary elections to become a candidate for Colorado s 3rd district.Twitter has been taking more aggressive action against disinformation on its platform in recent months, placing warning labels on a post by President Trump about mail-in ballots and another during a protest where he said "looting" would lead to "shooting." Facebook, which came under fire for not taking action against those posts, began adding labels to some of Trump s more recent posts. But rather than attempt to fact-check the posts as true or false concerning claims about mail-in voting, the labels direct users to a government website to learn more about how to vote. And while Twitter has implemented several policy changes to crackdown on misinformation, enforcing them could be a challenge and only have a limited impact on preventing the group s conspiracy theories from spreading. QAnon followers are active on Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other darker corners of the internet.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio on Tuesday that France would not ban China s Huawei from investing in the country, in contrast to Britain which has decided to purge the firm s equipment from its 5G network by 2027. Le Maire nevertheless condemned China s alleged abuses against the country s minority Muslim population. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took fresh aim at China last week, saying the United States would impose visa restrictions on Chinese firms such as Huawei that he accused of facilitating human-rights violations.

A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and triggers an immune response. Trials involving 1,077 people showed the injection led to them making antibodies and T-cells that can fight coronavirus. The findings are hugely promising, but it is still too soon to know if this is enough to offer protection and larger trials are under way. The UK has already ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine. How does the vaccine work? The vaccine - called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 - is being developed at unprecedented speed. It is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. It has been heavily modified, first so it cannot cause infections in people and also to make it "look" more like coronavirus. Scientists did this by transferring the genetic instructions for the coronavirus s "spike protein" - the crucial tool it uses to invade our cells - to the vaccine they were developing. This means the vaccine resembles the coronavirus and the immune system can learn how to attack it. What are antibodies and T-cells? Much of the focus on coronavirus so far has been about antibodies, but these are only one part of our immune defence. Antibodies are small proteins made by the immune system that stick onto the surface of viruses. Neutralising antibodies can disable the coronavirus. T-cells, a type of white blood cell, help co-ordinate the immune system and are able to spot which of the body s cells have been infected and destroy them. Nearly all effective vaccines induce both an antibody and a T-cell response. Image copyrightOXFORD UNIVERSITY Image caption Sample from patients are analysed as part of the trial. Levels of T-cells peaked 14 days after vaccination and antibody levels peaked after 28 days. The study has not run for long enough to understand how long they may last, the study in the Lancet showed. Prof Andrew Pollard, from the Oxford research group told the BBC: "We re really pleased with the results published today as we re seeing both neutralising antibodies and T-cells. "They re extremely promising and we believe the type of response that may be associated with protection. "But the key question everyone wants to know is does the vaccine work, does it offer protection... and we re in a waiting game." The study showed 90% of people developed neutralising antibodies after one dose. Only ten people were given two doses and all of them produced neutralising antibodies. "We don t know the level needed for protection, but we can maximise responses with a second dose," Prof Pollard told the BBC. Is it safe? Yes, but there are side-effects. There were no dangerous side-effects from taking the vaccine, however, 70% of people on the trial developed either fever or headache. The researchers say this could be managed with paracetamol. Prof Sarah Gilbert, from the University of Oxford, UK, says: "There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the Covid-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise." What are the next steps in the trial? The results so far are promising, but their main purpose is to ensure the vaccine is safe enough to give to people. The study cannot show whether the vaccine can either prevent people from becoming ill or even lessen their symptoms of Covid-19. More than 10,000 people will take part in the next stage of the trials in the UK. However, the trial has also been expanded to other countries because levels of coronavirus are low in the UK, making it hard to know if the vaccine is effective. There will be a large trial involving 30,000 people in the US as well 2,000 in South Africa and 5,000 in Brazil. There are also calls to perform "challenge trials" in which vaccinated people are deliberately infected with coronavirus. However, there are ethical concerns due to a lack of treatments. When will I get a vaccine? It is possible a coronavirus vaccine will be proven effective before the end of the year, however, it will not be widely available. Health and care workers will be prioritised as will people who are deemed at high risk from Covid-19 due to their age or medical conditions. However, widespread vaccination is likely to be, at the earliest, next year even if everything goes to plan. Boris Johnson said: "Obviously I m hopeful, I ve got my fingers crossed, but to say I m 100% confident we ll get a vaccine this year, or indeed next year, is, alas, just an exaggeration. "We re not there yet." What progress is being made with other vaccines? The Oxford vaccine is not the first to reach this stage, with groups in the US and China also publishing similar results. The US company Moderna was first out of the blocks and its vaccine can produce neutralising antibodies. They are injecting coronavirus RNA (its genetic code), which then starts making viral proteins in order to trigger an immune response. The companies BioNtech and Pfizer have also had positive results using their RNA vaccine. A technique similar to the Oxford one, developed in China, also seems promising. However, all these approaches are at the absolute boundary of science and have not been proven to work before. More traditional methods of vaccine development are also being investigated. The company Valneva is taking the whole coronavirus, inactivating it and then inject it. In total there are 23 coronavirus vaccines in clinical trials around the world and another 140 in early stage development. Will the UK get a coronavirus vaccine? The UK government has struck deals for 190 million doses of different vaccines. This includes: 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine made from a genetically engineered virus 30 million doses of the BioNtech/Pfizer vaccine, which injects part of the coronavirus genetic code 60 million doses of the Valneva inactivated coronavirus These have been paid for even though it is uncertain which, if any, of the vaccines may prove effective for immunising a nation with 66m people. Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, told the BBC: "What we are doing is identifying the most promising vaccines across the different categories, or different types of vaccine, so that we can be sure that we do have a vaccine in case one of those actually proves to be both safe and effective. "It s unlikely to be a single vaccine for everybody. "We may well need different vaccines for different groups of people." Follow James on Twitter INSIDE HEALTH: Why is there an elevated risk from Covid-19 for some groups in society? DIET AND MENTAL WELLBEING: Does the food you eat help or hinder you emotionally... What questions do you have about vaccines and the coronavirus? In some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.

Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among many prominent US figures targeted by hackers on Twitter in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The official accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West also requested donations in the cryptocurrency. "Everyone is asking me to give back," a tweet from Mr Gates account said. "You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000." Twitter said it was a "co-ordinated" attack targeting its employees "with access to internal systems and tools". "We know they [the hackers] used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf," the company said in a series of tweets. It added that "significant steps" were taken to limit access to such internal systems and tools while the company s investigation was ongoing. Meanwhile, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted: "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened." One cyber-security expert said that the breach could have been a lot worse in other circumstances. "If you were to have this kind of incident take place in the middle of a crisis, where Twitter was being used to either communicate de-escalatory language or critical information to the public, and suddenly it s putting out the wrong messages from several verified status accounts - that could be seriously destabilising," Dr Alexi Drew from King s College London told the BBC. Emergency response Twitter earlier had to take the extraordinary step of stopping many verified accounts marked with blue ticks from tweeting altogether. Password reset requests were also being denied and some other "account functions" disabled. By 20:30 EDT (00:30 GMT Thursday) users with verified account started to be able to send tweets again, but Twitter said it was still working on a fix. Image Copyright @jack@JACK Report Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded cyber-security company CrowdStrike, told Reuters news agency: "This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet." On the official account of Mr Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief appeared to offer to double any Bitcoin payment sent to the address of his digital wallet "for the next 30 minutes". "I m feeling generous because of Covid-19," the tweet added, along with a Bitcoin link address. The tweets were deleted just minutes after they were first posted. But as the first such tweet from Musk s account was removed, another one appeared, then a third. Others targeted included: the rapper Kanye West reality TV star Kim Kardashian West former US President Obama former US Vice-President Joe Biden, who is the current Democratic presidential candidate media billionaire Mike Bloomberg the ride-sharing app Uber the iPhone-maker Apple The Biden campaign said Twitter had "locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet". A spokesman for Bill Gates told AP news agency: "This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing." Instagram message The BBC can report from a security source that a web address - cryptoforhealth.com - to which some hacked tweets directed users was registered by a cyber-attacker using the email address mkeyworth5@gmail.com. The name "Anthony Elias" was used to register the website, but may be a pseudonym - it appears to be a play on "an alias". Cryptoforhealth is also a registered user name on Instagram, apparently set up contemporaneously to the hack. What is Bitcoin? How do crypto-currencies work? The description of the profile read "It was us", alongside a slightly smiling face emoticon. The Instagram profile also posted a message that said: "It was a charity attack. Your money will find its way to the right place." In any case, the real identities of the perpetrators are as yet unknown. These "double your Bitcoin" scams have been a persistent pest on Twitter for years but this is unprecedented with the actual accounts of public figures hijacked and on a large scale. The fact that so many different users have been compromised at the same time implies that this is a problem with Twitter s platform itself. Early suggestions are that someone has managed to get hold of some sort of administration privileges and bypassed the passwords of pretty much any account they want. With so much power at their fingertips the attackers could have done a lot more damage with more sophisticated tweets that could have harmed an individual or organisation s reputation. But the motive seems to be clear - make as much money as quickly as they can. The hackers would have known that the tweets wouldn t stay up for long so this was the equivalent of a "smash and grab" operation. There are conflicting accounts of how much money the hackers have made and even when a figure is settled upon, it s important to remember that cyber-criminals are known to add their own funds into their Bitcoin wallets to make the scam seem more legitimate. Either way, it s going to be very hard to catch the criminals by following the money. Law enforcement, as well as many angry users, will have some strong questions for Twitter about how this could have happened. Cameron Winklevoss, who was declared the world s first Bitcoin billionaire in 2017 along with his twin brother Tyler, tweeted a message on Wednesday warning people not to participate in the "scam". In the short time it was online, the link displayed in the tweets of targeted accounts received hundreds of contributions totalling more than $100,000 (£80,000), according to publicly available blockchain records. The Twitter accounts targeted have millions of followers Last year, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey s account was hacked, but the company said it had fixed the flaw that left his account vulnerable. Dr Drew recently co-authored a paper warning about the potential of Twitter being used to sow disinformation. She said the latest incident highlighted the need for all major social media platforms to check their security measures, particularly in the run up to the US Presidential vote. "Social media companies such as Twitter and, Facebook all have a duty to consider the damage and influence their platforms can have on the 2020 election, and I think some companies are taking that more seriously than others," she told the BBC. "Twitter actually has a good history of being forward-thinking and proactive in this space. "But whatever the source of this attack [it seems they have] still not done enough." The FBI s San Francisco field office put out a statement on Wednesday about the latest cyber-breach. "The accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud," it said. "We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident."

Amazon has warned its wireless earphones may be at risk of overheating and is urging customers to update their software, to make them safe. Customers were sent an email on Wednesday, saying in “very rare cases” Echo Buds could overheat in their charging case. Amazon said it had released a software update to fix the issue "out of an abundance of caution". “The safety of our customers is our top priority,” it said. Amazon would not say if this meant the earphones could catch fire or explode, but did disclose that its investigation had been prompted by a concerned customer getting in touch. Amazon said owners would automatically receive the update when the Echo Buds were connected via Bluetooth to a mobile phone and the Alexa app. It also said if the Echo Buds were a gift, the customer should alert the recipient immediately. The earbuds are still for sale on the Amazon site but labelled as "out of stock" until late August. Scorching-hot hacked computer burned my hand Washing machine danger revealed as recall launched The details of the email were shared by Daniel Bader, managing editor at the Android Central technology blog. “We are writing to inform you about an important software update for your Echo Buds,” the email said. “We recently determined that in very rare cases it is possible for Echo Buds to overheat while in the charging case." The email also said the same software update "improves the long-term performance of Echo Buds batteries". Many brands of wireless earbuds have their own battery inside the case, which automatically charges the earbuds when they are placed inside. Battery heat is often given out by devices while charging but usually stays within strict safety limits. Amazon did not say if the heat problem was caused by overcharging or any other specific issue within the battery case.

The United Kingdom has banned Huawei from its 5G telecom network, reversing a January decision to allow the embattled Chinese tech company a limited role in building the country s super-fast wireless infrastructure. Operators such as BT (BTGOF) and Vodafone (VOD) have been given until 2027 to remove existing Huawei equipment from their 5G networks, the UK government announced on Tuesday. Digital and Culture Minister Oliver Dowden said new US sanctions imposed on the company in May had "significantly changed" the landscape. "Given the uncertainty this creates around Huawei s supply chain, the UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment," Dowden said. The decision is a big win for the Trump administration, which has been pushing allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that the Chinese company is a threat to national security. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared last month that "the tide is turning against Huawei as citizens around the world are waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party s surveillance state." But it risks a backlash from China as Britain looks for new trading opportunities around the world after Brexit, and will delay the rollout of 5G across the country by at least a year, Dowden said. The US campaign against Huawei was having mixed success until the new sanctions in May further reduced the company s ability to manufacture and obtain semiconductor chips using American-made technology. That triggered another UK security review of the company s involvement in the British network, leading to Tuesday s decision by the National Security Council to order the phased removal of its technology. The decision is a huge blow for Huawei, which has operated in Britain for 20 years. Europe is a key market for the company, accounting for 24% of sales last year. Huawei on Monday announced half year results earlier than usual, reporting slower revenue growth. The company is already experiencing a decline in smartphone sales, after Washington blocked it from accessing popular Google apps. The phones became a lot less attractive in markets outside of China as a result. Huawei said it was confident that the recent US sanctions would not have affected "the resilience or security" of its products and described the UK announcement as disappointing. "It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide," said Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK. "Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security." The US sanctions restrict companies like TSMC (TSM), a Taiwan-based firm, from exporting computer chipsets and other key components to Huawei. Without them, Huawei can t build 5G base stations and other equipment. "Based on the current direct export rule that the US put on, I really think that Huawei s 5G equipment business is in grave danger," Jefferies analyst Edison Lee said last month. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had faced mounting pressure from lawmakers within his own party, along with the Trump administration, which argues that the Chinese government could use Huawei for spying and even sabotage. Washington had warned that US-UK intelligence sharing and military collaboration could be put at risk if Britain went ahead with its plan. Under Chinese law, Chinese companies can be ordered to act under the direction of Beijing. Huawei has consistently denied that it would help the Chinese government to spy, and says it is "100% owned by employees." Speaking early Tuesday before the UK announcement, China s Foreign Ministry repeated a previous warning by its ambassador that the decision would have consequences for the wider relationship between the two countries. "Whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies ... is a litmus test for British markets after Brexit, and it is also an indicator for China s investment in the UK," foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. Ban will cause delays and cost billions Huawei had lobbied hard to persuade the UK government it was a trustworthy partner, launching an advertising campaign last month emphasizing its history of investment and job creation in the country. This month, it announced that it had received approval to build a sprawling $1.25 billion research facility in Cambridge. Huawei is already an integral part of Britain s existing 4G infrastructure, and telecom operators will not be required to swap out the company s equipment in those networks. The Chinese company s European rivals said they were ready to fill the 5G void left by Huawei. Nokia (NOK) said in a statement that it has the "capacity and expertise to replace all of the Huawei equipment in the UK s networks at scale and speed." Arun Bansal, Europe and Latin America president for Ericsson (ERIC), said in a statement that the Swedish company "has the technology, experience and supply chain capacity," to help the United Kingdom reach its 5G goals. Nonetheless, the UK will pay a hefty price for kicking out Huawei. The government said Tuesday that the cumulative delay to 5G networks from the ban on new Huawei equipment and replacing its existing technology would be two or three years, at a total cost of as much as £2.5 billion ($3.1 billion). That means British consumers and businesses will have to wait longer, and possibly pay more, for the services that the extra bandwidth can support, such as self-driving cars and advanced manufacturing and healthcare applications. "Obviously we are disappointed because this decision — as the government has highlighted today — will add delay to the roll out of 5G in the UK and will result in additional costs for the industry," a Vodafone spokesperson said. BT CEO Philip Jansen said his company would be able to make the required changes without a significant impact on its timetable for 5G rollout. The implementation costs would be no higher than the £500 million ($627 million) BT estimated in January it would cost to comply with the previous UK decision to limit Huawei s role.

The coronavirus pandemic will get "worse and worse" if governments fail to take more decisive action, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "too many countries [were] headed in the wrong direction". Cases were rising where proven measures were not adopted or followed, he added. The Americas are the current epicentre of the pandemic. The US has seen a rise in cases amid tensions between health experts and President Donald Trump. The US, the worst affected country, has over 3.3 million confirmed cases and more than 135,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. What has the WHO said? At a briefing in Geneva on Monday, Dr Tedros said "mixed messages from leaders" were undermining public trust in attempts to bring the pandemic under control. "The virus remains public enemy number one, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this," he said. Dr Tedros said measures such as social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks in appropriate situations needed to be taken seriously, warning that there would be "no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future". "If the basics aren t followed, there is only one way this pandemic is going to go," Dr Tedros said, adding: "It s going to get worse and worse and worse." Who should wear a face mask or face covering? Where are the world s Covid-19 hotspots? Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO s emergencies director, said the easing of some lockdown measures in the Americas and the opening up of some areas had led to "intense transmission". Latin America has confirmed more than 145,000 coronavirus-related deaths, though the number is believed to be higher because of insufficient testing. Half of the deaths were in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has opposed strict measures to curb the spread of the virus. Dr Ryan said closing down large regions would have huge economic consequences, but that local lockdowns in specific places might be necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus. He urged governments to implement clear and "strong" strategies, adding: "Citizens have to understand, and it has to be easy for them to comply." What about a vaccine, or immunity? "We need to learn to live with this virus," Dr Ryan said, warning that expectations that the virus could be eradicated, or that an effective vaccine could be ready, within month were "unrealistic". He said it was not yet known whether recovering from the coronavirus would lead to immunity, or, if it did, how long that immunity would last. A separate study released on Monday by scientists at King s College London suggested that immunity to the virus may be short-lived. Scientists at the college studied 96 people to understand how the body naturally fights off the virus by making antibodies, and how long these last in the weeks and months after recovery. However, while almost all of those who participated had detectable antibodies that could neutralise and stop coronavirus, levels began to wane over the three months of the study. At the WHO briefing, health experts also said there was evidence to suggest that children under the age of 10 were only very mildly affected by Covid-19, while those over 10 seemed to suffer similar mild symptoms to young adults. To what extent children can transmit the virus, while it appears to be low, remains unknown.

Eye-tracking technology has helped people with medical conditions like autism, traumatic brain injuries and ALS, or amyotropic lateral sclerosis, communicate with others. Swedish start-up Tobii Technology, a global leader in the transformative field of eye tracking, offers those kinds of devices not just for medical use but also for gamers, who utilize the technology to detect where they are looking while playing fast-paced games like "Fortnite" and "League of Legends." In June, Tobii released the Tobii Eye Tracker 5, which costs $229 and has improved recalibration. It uses an algorithm for tracking the eye s patterns with a camera, enabling the software to pinpoint the direction of a subject s gaze, and over time, patterns of behavior. It can track players eyes and the direction of their heads, helping them determine where their blind spots are. "If we lose your gaze, then we are much, much faster in finding your eyes again," which helps with games such as "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and others, Martin Lindgren, head of gaming at Tobii, told CNN Business. The company reported revenue of $163 million in 2019, up 9% from the previous year, after currency adjustments. To set up the Tobii Eye Tracker 5, the device, which includes a series of sensors and two cameras, must be either magnetically attached or mounted onto a monitor with its USB cable plugged in. It will register your gaze by asking you to stare at specific points on the screen. I was able to give the technology a try. I wanted to improve my gaming skills, and I knew my slow eye movements were hindering that effort. I ran into some initial setup issues. The adhesive and the magnetic strip on the tracker were not strong enough so it kept falling off my monitor. Once I finally got started, I tested out Tobii s first feature aimed at helping people improve their gaming skills, its integration with Mobalytics, a gamer training app for "League of Legends." Mobalytics uses the data fed from Tobii s eye tracker to determine if the user (in this case, me) stares too long at the same spot on a screen, whether I m aware of my surroundings and what enemies may be lurking and how much information I can absorb. Just connecting an eye tracker to a game is enough to improve my gameplay, I found, even by a small margin. When you gaze at the screen with the eye tracker, a bubble representing your focal point floats across the screen. That bubble was distracting at first, but I grew accustomed to it, as it flit around the screen and reminded me to keep my eyes peeled for action, encouraging me to play better. A few snafus aside, Tobii s eye tracker did its job. I won more games and my character died less often. Eye-tracking in esports Professional esports players already use eye-tracking technology, taking the raw data and interpreting it to create more effective strategies at trying to win tournaments. Their eye data is on a whole other level. Lindgren said that esports athletes are at the same performance level as traditional sports athletes, if judged by how quickly their eyes move. "The fastest guys in sports are ice hockey goalies. They have incredibly fast reaction times because they re getting pucks shot at them at very fast speeds. So it s them and the [pitchers] in baseball," said Lindgren. "When we measure esports athletes, they have been just as fast, or in some cases, faster, with their eyes." Tobii has already been used in competitive play with games such as "Counterstrike" and "PlayerUnknown s Battlegrounds," but it s still adding more titles for both pro and casual play. "Watchdogs: Legion," coming from Ubisoft later this year, is another title that will support Tobii s eye tracking. "We ve only really scratched the surface of the possibilities, even though we ve done this a few years now," said Lindgren. "But there s lots of stuff that we can do better."