The short-form video app TikTok has quickly become a key part of popular culture in the US, serving as a platform for viral memes as well as political satire and activism. Facebook, the dominant force in social media, has tried to copy the app, but so far that has not slowed down its rapid rise. But now TikTok faces the most direct threat to its expansion in the US -- not from a competitor, but from the US government. President Donald Trump said Tuesday his administration is "looking at" banning the app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, affirming remarks on Monday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It s just the latest, and most high-profile, example of Washington raising alarms about the app that s popular among younger users in the US, where TikTok has been downloaded 165 million times. Other prominent critics have previously highlighted TikTok as a potential spying threat. Last year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton called for the intelligence community to assess the risk TikTok may pose to national security. TikTok has pushed back on those claims, calling them "unfounded." To underscore its independence from China, TikTok has cited its recently hired American CEO, and said it has "never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked." The US is not alone in seeking to clamp down on TikTok. India said this week it would ban TikTok and other Chinese apps after a bloody border clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers.Although leaders like Pompeo have described TikTok as a clear and present danger, many in the cybersecurity community say the reality is more complex. While TikTok could become a clear threat to US security under certain scenarios, they say, the danger is currently largely hypothetical or indirect. Some analysts also say the matter is complicated by Trump s aggressive approach to China overall — arguing the situation is a reflection of the administration s political priorities. Experts have raised similar concerns about Trump s approach to Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, saying Trump has inappropriately conflated national security with trade negotiations. "The Trump administration has taken almost like a whack-a-mole approach to dealing with these issues, because it seems that as soon as a Chinese company is in the news, all of a sudden that becomes the new target," said Justin Sherman, a fellow with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. "It seems very unlikely that there is thinking going on about the longer term strategy, and much more likely that the focus instead is on this politically motivated attack on an application because it s a Chinese-owned app, even if there are real security questions." The China question To understand why policymakers view TikTok as a risk, it helps to know how the company works. TikTok is owned by the world s most valuable startup, a Chinese company named ByteDance. But TikTok does not operate in China and functions as an independent subsidiary. Policymakers chief worry is that ByteDance could be forced to hand over TikTok s data on US users to the Chinese government, under the country s national security laws. TikTok has said it stores American user data on US-based servers that aren t subject to Chinese law; skeptics argue TikTok s parent, ByteDance, is ultimately a Chinese business that s still beholden to Beijing. But several security experts told CNN Business that, although TikTok s links to a private Chinese company are worthy of concern, the app simply wouldn t be that useful for espionage. "It s right to be suspicious of the Chinese," said James Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a security think tank. "But I m not sure TikTok is a good intelligence tool for them." Like some other social media apps and technology companies, TikTok automatically gathers users geolocation information, IP addresses, unique device identifiers and the content of in-app messages, according to its privacy policy. That is a lot of data, but far more sensitive information -- and potentially more damaging to national security -- was exposed by data breaches affecting the Office of Personnel Management, announced in 2015, and Equifax, disclosed in 2017, according to Lewis. Even if TikTok collected enough of the right kind of data from the right people to pose a unique threat, it is not guaranteed the Chinese government would be able to access it easily. China s national security laws contain more gray areas than many realize, according to Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School who has studied the Chinese laws. Chinese companies have successfully resisted or thrown up roadblocks to Beijing s demands for data in the past, Sacks told lawmakers at a Senate hearing in March. "The Chinese government does not necessarily have unfettered real-time access to all companies data," Sacks said in her testimony. "Chinese corporate actors are not synonymous with the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party, and have their own commercial interests to protect." Concerning security flaws An alarming technical report about TikTok this year has only added to the concerns about its security, though experts say there is an important distinction between identifying individual security gaps and labeling something a threat to national security. In January, a team of security researchers announced they had found several vulnerabilities in TikTok. The flaws, if left unpatched, could have let attackers gain control of TikTok accounts, change the privacy settings on TikTok videos, upload videos without permission, and obtain user data such as email addresses.The discovery raised important questions about TikTok s ability to safeguard user privacy. But company engineers appeared to operate in good faith, according to Oded Vanunu, a security specialist at Check Point Research, who led the group of researchers that announced the findings. TikTok, he said, seemed motivated to fix the flaws. "They were concerned about the optics of it, and their PR people, there was some friction there," said Vanunu. "But from our perspective they were very happy to get this kind of information and were happy to cooperate." Asked whether the vulnerabilities he found might lend credence to claims TikTok cannot be trusted, Vanunu said security flaws are something that all software companies grapple with, even large ones. The difference, he said, is that TikTok is a relatively young and inexperienced company. "TikTok is committed to protecting user data," TikTok said in a statement at the time of the disclosure. "Like many organizations, we encourage responsible security researchers to privately disclose zero day vulnerabilities to us." The bigger concern with TikTok Even as technical experts describe TikTok s espionage risk in mostly theoretical terms, policymakers argue TikTok could still threaten US interests in softer ways — by influencing the global conversation on its platform. And in this respect, some experts warn, the danger is already being felt. TikTok has faced mounting criticism, for example, over its handling of content that s critical of the Chinese government. Last year The Guardian reported on leaked documents that it said instructed moderators to clamp down on critiques of socialism and Tiananmen Square. ByteDance told The Guardian at the time that those guidelines were outdated. In November, allegations of politically motivated censorship increased when several former US employees of TikTok told The Washington Post they often felt pressured to clamp down on videos that their colleagues in Beijing found subversive, prompting Schumer and Cotton to express concerns in their letter to intelligence officials. TikTok has said that its content and moderation policies are developed by a team of American employees and that the policies are not influenced by any foreign government. TikTok s investors include large international names such as Sequoia Capital and Softbank, and in May, the company hired Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive, as its CEO.In addition to restricting some speech, TikTok could become a major platform for misleading speech, policymakers and security experts fear. Reports have already found Pizzagate conspiracy theorists on the platform and users spreading false claims about the coronavirus. And if TikTok were to suffer a data breach, said Vanunu, it might be that much easier to target users with bogus information that could undercut American democracy. So TikTok s handling of content and user data could plausibly weaken US power and influence, experts say, but more abstractly than directly spying on government officials or monitoring troop movements. That says more about the US s lack of policies regulating data, privacy and platforms than it does about TikTok, many of them said. "I think people are blending a lot of different values here related to human rights, privacy, censorship — and it s at risk of getting bundled into a security argument," said Karl Grindal, a cybersecurity expert at Georgia Tech.

When Butterfly Network first began rolling out its handheld ultrasound scanners in 2018, much of the focus was on providing tools to parts of Africa and Latin America, where access to large and more traditional ultrasound machines was far more restricted. But two years later, a technology that was positioned to help the developing world may find a new use in the United States as hospitals adapt to the new challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. Getting an ultrasound examination can be a long process that usually entails a visit to the hospital and the use of equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars. And while ultrasounds can help in the treatment of the coronavirus by scanning a patient s lungs, getting patients to an exam room risks exposing others to the virus and further straining an already overstressed healthcare system. That s where Butterfly Network s device and others like it could help. The Butterfly iQ consists of a handheld probe similar to the one attached to traditional ultrasound machines, but instead is attached to a cable that connects to a smartphone or tablet through its charging port. Doctors can then view the images on the screen through Butterfly s app. "I don t need to transport that patient to another area of the hospital for additional imaging and exposure to additional staff and potentially patients along the way," said Mike Stone, a Portland-based emergency physician and Butterfly Network s director of education. "The fact that I can bring a handheld ultrasound system that plugs into a phone into a room, do the exam I need, get the information I need, walk out and disinfect a phone and a probe — compared to wheeling in a cart with three different probes on it, doing that same exam, getting that same information ... it s really night and day," he added. The Butterfly iQ is one of several products trying to streamline the process. Companies such as GE and Philips, as well as some smaller firms, are also building tools that allow doctors to carry ultrasound devices in their pockets. While there may be limitations and some tradeoffs in quality, some doctors believe the benefits are clear. "The image quality may not be great, but the image quality is there, it can communicate the message that I m trying to see," said Jagat Narula, director of the cardiovascular imaging program at New York s Mount Sinai hospital system. "And if I m going to do a point of care ultrasound on the bedside of a patient, it would give me almost everything that I require." Narula is not affiliated with Butterfly Network and has only done a brief demo of the Buttefly iQ, though he said he regularly uses similar products from Philips and GE. The coronavirus has opened up a new front in the technology s use, allowing doctors to conduct lung scans much faster and with minimal exposure to the virus. Butterfly Network has previously attracted high-profile investors including financial services firm Fidelity and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which took part in a $250 million fundraising round in 2018 that valued the company at $1.25 billion. Butterfly says its handheld devices are used by thousands of hospitals around the world, and earlier this year it signed a deal with North Carolina-based hospital network Atrium Health to deploy them at dozens of hospitals in the US.It s another example of hospitals turning to newer technologies as they deal with the coronavirus, from virtual reality training for doctors to two-way video calling devices for providers to check in with patients and even drones to deliver personal protective equipment. Portable ultrasound treatment, despite some limitations on the kinds of tests it can do, is "relatively inexpensive, lightweight, and portable [and] compares favorably to the physical exam," according to an analysis last year published by the American College of Cardiology. Handheld devices also cost much less than traditional ultrasound machines. The ones sold by Butterfly, GE and Philips range in price from around $2,000 to $5,000, whereas traditional devices can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Narula. There are some limitations to the kind of functions the smaller devices can perform. The Butterfly iQ is currently equipped for 19 different types of scans and tests, which don t include some of the more complex tests a traditional ultrasound machine can do. A "major" limitation, according to Narula and the ACC analysis, is the inability to perform the spectral Doppler test used to identify some more acute heart conditions. Stone says Butterfly Network does not aim to replace traditional ultrasound machines altogether. "We re not trying to make the Butterfly iQ compare with a $200,000 ultrasound system," Stone said. He also stressed that the device is not capable of diagnosing the coronavirus on its own — patients would still need a nasal swab test for that. What ultrasound can do is identify signs of stress in the lungs that can ensure more targeted and faster treatment.Despite their limitations, handheld ultrasound machines can be an effective substitute for many common scans, ensuring that larger machines can be used to treat only the most critical cases, Narula says. He estimates that handheld machines can help rule out the need for 70% of patients to get a test done in the lab. "So I ll be able to optimize my testing," he said. While the pandemic may help with wider adoption of the devices, Stone says the technology s applications both precede coronavirus and will continue after the pandemic is over. "You can scan close to the entire body," he said. "We were using lung sonography to look at patients with shortness of breath and chest pain far before Covid and we ll be using it to look at them long after Covid has hopefully been handled."

China s largest semiconductor maker could raise as much as $7.5 billion this year by listing its stock in Shanghai — a move that could deliver the Chinese mainland its largest share sale in a decade, and reduce the country s reliance on foreign chips. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), which already trades in Hong Kong, said in a stock exchange filing last week that it wants to raise at least $6.6 billion. The bigger number would be hit if the company exercises an "over-allotment option" and issues additional shares in response to strong demand from investors. A $7.5 billion raise would make SMIC s offering the world s third biggest share sale this year, according to Dealogic. It would also be China s biggest offering on the mainland since Agricultural Bank (ACGBF) went public in 2010, according to data provider Refinitiv.The company is the largest chipmaker in China, pulling in 22 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) in revenue in 2019. SMIC was the fourth largest standalone chipmaker in the world in terms of sales in 2018, behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM), GlobalFoundries and United Microelectronics Corporation, according to IC Insights. But ranked among all semiconductor suppliers — including huge players like Intel (INTC) and Samsung (SSNLF) — the Chinese firm isn t even among the world s top 10. SMIC, whose major shareholders are state-owned companies, said in its prospectus that it wants to use the money to invest in technology and catch up with its global competitors. A listing in Shanghai suggests that SMIC thinks it can best grow by relying on Chinese investors. The company used to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, but delisted a little over a year ago, citing low trading volume. And in the weeks since it announced plans to list in mainland China, it has raised more than $2 billion from state-backed development funds. SMIC hasn t yet said when it will start trading, but it plans to list shares on China s Star Market — a Nasdaq-style stock market that launched a year ago. A persistent gap Much of China s supply of chipsets comes from foreign companies, which power everything from Chinese smartphones and computers to telecommunications gear. Last year the country imported $306 billion worth of chips, or 15% of the value of the country s total imports, according to government statistics. Beijing has pledged to improve its chipmaking technology and match the industry s most advanced leaders by 2030. Through its Made in China 2025 initiative, the country is trying to compete with the United States in developing the technologies of the future.Analysts say that SMIC still has a long way to go to be a global competitor, though. "SMIC currently lags behind TSMC in technology by about five years, and we believe the gap will persist over the next five years," Citi analysts wrote in a research report last month. TSMC and Samsung, for example, have the ability to produce tiny chipsets that can pack more technology into a smaller space, analysts from Jefferies wrote in a recent research note. In its prospectus, SMIC admitted that it has to narrow the gap with global leaders, adding that it has to spend more on research and development to do so. Huawei sanction risks The Chinese chipmaker also faces risks as US-China tensions escalate, spilling over into everything from national security and trade to technology. SMIC uses American-made software and equipment to create its chips, which it then supplies to other companies — including embattled Chinese tech firm Huawei. But in May, the US Commerce Department announced a rule restricting companies from exporting computer chipsets and other key components to Huawei if those firms use American equipment to make them."SMIC will definitely be required by the new US rule to obtain an export license from the US before being able to make any ... chipsets for Huawei," according to the Jefferies analysts. "It would, in our view, be unimaginable for SMIC not to comply with the new rule as it would risk being cut off from further supplies of US semi equipment and access to US software." The chipmaker warned in its prospectus that the US tech restrictions could create obstacles preventing it from providing products and services to its clients, though it did not mention any names. Trade frictions and diplomatic disputes between China and other countries could also affect the company s overseas supply of raw materials and equipment, SMIC added.

Egypt s Ministry of Health announced Saturday that it has begun following up on a national project to manufacture plasma derivatives, with the participation of the Arab Company for Drug Industries and Medical Appliances (ACDIMA) as a major shareholder alongside a Korean company, and the National Investment Bank. The announcement came during a meeting presided over by Health Minister Hala Zayed and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait for the general assembly of the ACDIMA. Zayed discussed the assembly s work, the approval of the budget and the company s business lists, and approved her contribution to the project for collecting and manufacturing plasma derivatives. The ACDIMA is one of the country s strongest arms in meeting the drug market s needs for oncology and infant formula, and ensuring the availability of insulin is at 100 percent, she said. And on Sunday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting to follow up the latest developments in plasma derivative manufacturing, in the presence of the Minister of Health and the Minister of Planning and Economic Development. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been closely following this project, Mabouly said, and explained that Egypt s Sovereign Wealth Fund will enter as a partner in this promising industry with a plot of land set aside to establish a factory. Egypt said in April that it has begun a trial using plasma taken from recovered coronavirus patients to treat severe cases. Plasma in the blood of recovered cases can contain antibodies. Egypt s therapy trial for injecting coronavirus patients with plasma taken from recovered cases has been a success, the Ministry of Health and Population announced in June. The trial therapy came as part of state efforts to help find a cure for the coronavirus disease. The plasma treatment was used on several critical cases in hospitals belonging under the Health Ministry. It showed promising initial results via a good recovery rate for patients, reducing the need for ventilators while increasing rates of recovery and hospital discharge. The Health Ministry implored those recovering from the coronavirus to go to the nearest blood transfusion center affiliated to the National Blood Transfusion Services of the Ministry of Health and Population 14 days after their recovery to donate their plasma.

is under a lot of pressure. Fresh US sanctions have cut off the Chinese tech company s access to vital American technology to a greater extent than ever before. Countries and mobile network operators around the world are now questioning whether Huawei will be able to deliver on its 5G promises. And rising anti-China sentiment in India and elsewhere is not helping matters. 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." Those remarks were "a bit pre-emptive," said Carisa Nietsche, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.Pompeo lauded countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia for "only allowing trusted vendors in their 5G networks." But Nietsche noted that many of those countries made up their minds last year, when they signaled they wouldn t work with Huawei. And European countries with much bigger economies, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, have yet to announce a total ban on Huawei. But there is "the beginning of a sea change in Europe," Nietsche said. European countries and mobile carriers are now worried that Huawei won t be able to provide 5G infrastructure as promised given the "massive hit to their business" from the new US export controls, she said. Huawei s 5G business in grave danger Huawei has been here before. Last year, the US government barred American firms from selling tech and supplies to the Shenzhen-based company without first obtaining a license to do so. Huawei stockpiled inventory and found alternative suppliers, and as a result, continued doing brisk business despite the US ban. The company s overseas smartphone sales took a hit, though, because it was forced to release new models that weren t able to access to popular Google apps. Even after reporting a strong finish to 2019, however, Huawei warned that 2020 would be "difficult." That would prove to be all too true.The latest US sanction announced in May cuts much deeper than last year s ban. It applies to any global firms using American equipment to make semiconductors. The new rule restricts companies like TSMC, a Taiwan-based firm, from exporting computer chipsets and other key components to Huawei. Without those chipsets, Huawei can t build 5G base stations and other equipment, according to analysts at brokerage firm Jefferies. "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 on a recent call with investors. "If the law doesn t change, and if the US-China tension does not de-escalate, then I think there s a big risk that Huawei will stop being able to provide 5G equipment" from early next year, he added. Asked for comment for this story, Huawei spokeswoman Evita Cao said "we continue to receive support from our customers," without going into further detail. The company said in May that it "categorically opposes" the latest US sanction, calling the new rule "discriminatory." "It will have a serious impact on a wide number of global industries" and damage "collaboration within the global semiconductor industry," Huawei said in a statement. "We expect that our business will inevitably be affected," it added. That may already be happening in the United Kingdom.On Saturday, the UK-based Telegraph newspaper reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to begin phasing out Huawei 5G tech in Britain "as soon as this year," walking back a decision that granted Huawei a limited role in building that network. Earlier last week, Oliver Dowden, the country s digital and media secretary, said that the US sanctions will "likely have an impact on the viability of Huawei as a provider for the 5G network." "I am not a Sinophobe, I won t be drawn into Sinophobia," Johnson said on Tuesday. But "I do want to see our critical national infrastructure properly protected from hostile state vendors, so we need to strike that balance." Huawei said earlier this year that it has secured 91 commercial 5G contracts, more than half (47) are in Europe, 27 are in Asia and 17 are elsewhere in the world. China tensions The United States has long viewed Huawei warily, suspicious of how closely the company is tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The company maintains that it is a private firm owned by thousands of its employees. Critics also say Beijing could force Huawei to spy on other nations. Huawei says that has never happened and if it did, the company would refuse such orders. Yet even as it claims independence from Beijing, Huawei has been caught up in sparring between China and the United States, and to an increasing degree, the European Union and countries such as India that are growing more wary of China.The coronavirus pandemic has only strained relations further. Some countries, such as the United States, have blamed China for the outbreak, and others have been put off by what they see as Beijing s aggressive response to criticism. There was a moment during the pandemic "where China was able to assert itself on the global stage as a leader, and I think they fumbled that," especially in Europe, after China sent masks and respirators of dubious quality to countries experiencing outbreaks, said Nietsche. EU countries are concerned about their lopsided trade and investment relationship with China, and they have taken steps in recent months to prevent subsidized Chinese companies taking over the bloc s industrial champions or winning public contracts. Beijing s repression of the Uyghur ethnic minority in the northwest province of Xinjiang is another major area of concern. There are now "excellent signals" coming from Germany and the United Kingdom "that they will move to exclude or at least will take Huawei out of the core [5G] network," said Nietsche. Germany, for instance, is scrutinizing Huawei s data flows to see if the company is breaching European laws, she said. India, meanwhile, had been going back and forth over whether to include Huawei equipment in the country s 5G network, said Chaitanya Giri, an analyst with Indian foreign policy think tank Gateway House. Huawei received the green light to participate in 5G trials late last year.But tensions between New Delhi and Beijing have risen dramatically in recent weeks after at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in border clashes with Chinese troops stationed in the Himalayas. China has also been singled out in India for blame over the coronavirus pandemic, according to Giri. Some Indians have been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods. And in a move widely seen as retaliation against China, the Indian government last week banned TikTok and several other Chinese apps, saying they pose a "threat to sovereignty and integrity." Huawei may now get caught up in the escalating tensions, according to Giri. Public sentiment has now "consolidated, that we are not going to use any of the Chinese equipment," he said. What Europe and India share, according to Giri, is a growing sense of unease following years of substantial investment by China. "Big democracies right now are singing in a chorus," he said. "They understand what s at stake."

Tesla sales and production were hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. But not as much as some other automakers. The electric car company reported Thursday it delivered 90,650 cars to customers during the quarter. That s down 5% from a year ago, but far less than the drops of 30% or more reported by other automakers on Wednesday. Tesla s second-quarter sales were up a bit from the 88,400 cars it delivered in the first quarter. Production was down, though, falling 20% from the first quarter, as Tesla s factory in Fremont, California, was shut for a couple of months. CEO Elon Musk strongly objected to the orders to remain closed, calling stay-at-home orders "fascist" in a call with investors in late April. Tesla filed a lawsuit to get the factory open once again in mid-May. Content By BMW Exploration is a way to understand the unknown Zhang Zhoujie explains his process in creating art and design using digital design. The solid sales number was good news for those hoping that Tesla would be able to maintain its path of profitability despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Tesla s stock, which had been up 6% in premarket trading before the sales and production release, climbed even higher on the news.Shares have been on a run recently, making Tesla the most valuable automaker in the world, despite still having only a fraction of the sales of the established automakers. Shares are up 168% this year, through Wednesday s close.

Egypt has participated in 72 clinical studies on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa, according to The Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology. The academy s June Scientific Research Index reported that research on coronavirus included 12 studies implemented by Ain Shams University, nine by Cairo University, nine by Assiut University, and seven by Tanta and Mansoura Universities. Twenty-six Egyptian institutions in total participated in the studies. The Research Index is a science and technology index issued by the Academy s Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation. The Academy was established in February 2014 to promote the development of a knowledge-based economy, and to help decision makers set policies in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. The aim is to help Egypt face future challenges and to unify sources of data and technology in Egypt. The observatory has been identified as a primary source of information, scientific data, technology, and innovation for international organizations such as UNESCO and the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD).

Egypt has participated in 72 clinical studies on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa, according to The Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology. The academy’s June Scientific Research Index reported that research on coronavirus included 12 studies implemented by Ain Shams University, nine by Cairo University, nine by Assiut University, and seven by Tanta and Mansoura Universities. Twenty-six Egyptian institutions in total participated in the studies. The Research Index is a science and technology index issued by the Academy’s Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation. The Academy was established in February 2014 to promote the development of a knowledge-based economy, and to help decision makers set policies in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. The aim is to help Egypt face future challenges and to unify sources of data and technology in Egypt. The observatory has been identified as a primary source of information, scientific data, technology, and innovation for international organizations such as UNESCO and the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD).

Boycotts can be extremely effective - as Facebook is finding out. In the late 18th century, the abolitionist movement encouraged British people to stay away from goods produced by slaves. It worked. Around 300,000 stopped buying sugar - increasing the pressure to abolish slavery. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign is the latest movement to use boycott as a political tool. It claims that Facebook doesn t do enough to remove racist and hateful content from its platform. It s convinced a series of major companies to pull its advertising from Facebook - and some other social media companies - including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Starbucks. Loss of trust Can that boycott hurt Facebook? The short answer is yes - the vast majority of Facebook s revenue comes from ads. David Cumming from Aviva Investors told the BBC s Today programme that the loss of trust, and a perceived absence of a moral code, could "destroy the business". On Friday, Facebook s share price dropped by 8% - making chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, theoretically at least, £6bn poorer. But whether this could be bigger - an existential threat to Facebook s long-term future - is far less clear. First of all, this isn t the first boycott of a social media company. In 2017, major brand after major brand announced they would stop advertising on YouTube - after ads were placed next to racist and homophobic videos. That particular boycott is now almost totally forgotten. YouTube tweaked its ad policies, and three years on YouTube s parent company Google is doing just fine. And there are more reasons to believe this boycott isn t as damaging to Facebook as you might think. Lots of low spenders Firstly, many companies have only committed to a one-month boycott in July. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, much of Facebook s advertising revenue comes from thousands and thousands of small- to medium-sized businesses. CNN reports that the highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2bn in Facebook advertising last year - or about 6% of the platform s ad revenue. So far, the vast majority of medium-sized companies have not signed up. Mat Morrison, head of strategy at advertising agency Digital Whiskey, told me there s a huge number of smaller businesses that "can t afford not to advertise". He says that for smaller businesses - which are priced out of advertising on TV - cheaper and more focussed ads on platforms like Facebook are essential. "The only way our business works is having access to these highly targeted audiences, that aren t mass media audiences, so we ll continue to advertise" Morrison says. In some ways Facebook looks like a good choice of company to lobby. The structure of Facebook gives Mark Zuckerberg a huge amount of power to affect change. If he wants something, he ll get it. You only need to change the mind of one man. But the reverse is also true. Shareholders aren t able to put pressure on Mr Zuckerberg in the same way as other companies. If he doesn t want to act, he won t. So far though, he has shown signs he s prepared to move. On Friday, Facebook announced it would begin to tag hateful content - and look out for further announcements this week. These changes won t be enough to make Stop Hate for Profit go away though. And elsewhere others are taking action of their own. This Monday, Reddit has banned The_Donald forum as part of a wider crackdown on "subreddits" whose members have engaged in harassment and threatening behaviour. The community was not officially linked to the President, but had helped widely spread memes that supported him, before Reddit took earlier steps to limit the posts reach. In addition, Twitch has temporarily banned an account run by the Trump campaign. The Amazon-owned video-streaming site said two videos broadcast via the platform of Mr Trump s rallies had broken its rules on hateful conduct. One dated from 2015, before he was elected, at which he had said Mexico was sending rapists to the US. The other was from earlier this month, in which the President had described a fictional "tough hombre" breaking into the home of an American woman. "We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content," Twitch said in a statement. This year is going to be a rocky year for all social media companies. Facebook is by no means the exception. But companies will always be guided by their balance sheets. If the boycott drags on into the autumn - and if more and more companies sign up - this could be a defining year for the social network.

Astronomers say big cool patches on a "supergiant" star close to Earth were behind its surprise dimming last year. Red giant stars like Betelgeuse frequently undergo changes in brightness, but the drop to 40% of its normal value between October 2019 and April 2020 surprised astronomers. Researchers now say this was caused by gigantic cool areas similar to the sunspots seen on our own parent star. There had been speculation that Betelgeuse was about to go supernova. But the star instead began to recover and by May 2020 it was back at its original brightness. Betelgeuse, which is about 500 light-years from Earth, is reaching the end of its life. But it s not known precisely when it will explode; it could take as long as hundreds of thousands of years or even a million years. When the giant star does run out of fuel, however, it will first collapse and then rebound in a spectacular explosion. There is no risk to Earth, but Betelgeuse will brighten enormously for a few weeks or months. It should be visible in daylight and could be as bright as the Moon during night time. Because it takes about 500 years for the light to reach us, we would be viewing an event that had happened centuries in the past. Various scenarios have been put forward to explain the recent changes in the brightness of the star. Astronomers have previously considered that dust produced by the star was obscuring it, causing the steep decline in brightness. Red giants exhibit a behaviour known as pulsation, caused by changes in the area and temperature of the star s surface layers. Pulsations can eject the outer layers of the star with relative ease. The released gas cools down and develops into compounds that astronomers call dust. To test the dust idea, the astronomers used the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These telescopes measure electromagnetic radiation in the submillimetre wave spectral range. The wavelength of this radiation is a thousand times greater than that of visible light. This part of the electromagnetic spectrum is particularly good for observing the distribution of cosmic dust. "What surprised us was that Betelgeuse turned 20% darker even in the submillimetre wave range," said co-author Steve Mairs from the East Asian Observatory in Taiwan, which operates the JCMT. The result isn t compatible with the presence of dust, say the researchers. Instead, the astronomers say, temperature variations in the photosphere - the luminous surface of the star - most likely caused the brightness to drop. "Corresponding high-resolution images of Betelgeuse from December 2019 show areas of varying brightness. Together with our result, this is a clear indication of huge star spots covering between 50% and 70% of the visible surface and having a lower temperature than the brighter photosphere," said co-author Peter Scicluna from the European Southern Observatory (Eso). "For comparison, a typical sunspot is the size of the Earth. The Betelgeuse star spot would be a hundred times larger than the Sun. The sudden fading of Betelgeuse does not mean it is going supernova. It is a supergiant star growing a super-sized star spot." said co-author Prof Albert Zijlstra from The University of Manchester, UK. Compared with our Sun, Betelgeuse is about 20 times more massive and roughly 1,000 times larger. If placed in the centre of the Solar System, it would almost reach the orbit of Jupiter.

Mobile network O2 has been sending some of its former customers refunds, 15 years after the end of their contracts. Several people posted on Twitter that they had received a letter and cheque from parent company Telefonica stating: "You ve got a refund." Some were suspicious that the letter was sent by cyber-fraudsters. But O2 confirmed that it had sent cheques to a group of people who were over-charged more than 10 years ago - with interest. "We identified a billing issue which meant some customers were charged twice on their final bill before leaving O2. We have been contacting those affected to apologise and send their refund," the company said in a statement. One customer said they had been offered a refund of £127, while another was sent a cheque for about £2. In the attached letter, Telefonica said the refund amounts included 4% interest. "We have a responsibility to do all we can to reimburse any customer for what s rightfully theirs, even if they ve since left the network and it s a low-value amount," the company said. O2 said it had identified a group customers it had over-charged at the beginning of the year, but had delayed sending out cheques until coronavirus lockdown measures had been eased. It told the BBC it was not a common issue. The company also said it had made efforts to trace former customers latest addresses, so that it could issue the 15-year-old refunds.

Egypt s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat announced on Tuesday that internet usage among citizens has increased due to the coronavirus. He explained that prior to the coronavirus pandemic peak internet usage was typically five hours from six pm until 11 pm, but has increased to over 15 hours per day now. “We are continuing to invest in the infrastructure of the internet,” Talaat said during a phone interview with the “Ala Massoulity” (By My Responsibility) TV show. Loads have increased twice recently, he said, and added that Egypt has 95 million mobile service subscribers. This change in internet patterns will also change the way citizens live, Talaat said, and credited the state project to develop Egypt s internet as the reason it has been possible for networks to accommodate this sudden shift. He noted that his ministry is providing electronic service packages online and is working to develop digitizing more internet government services before the coronavirus crisis ends. The National Telecom Regulatory Authority agreed with mobile phone operators back in March to promote the buying and selling of goods or services online amid the coronavirus outbreak through offers on e-transaction services on each company s web application, as well as through the use of e-payment services. Customers will receive 30 times the charged balance as free minutes or units when using e-payment options under the offer, which extends for one month, as part of the government s efforts to encourage Egyptians to stay at home as much as possible to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Some of Apple s latest changes to the iPhone experience will look very familiar to Android users. On Monday, Apple (AAPL) unveiled a long list of updates coming to its newest iPhone operating system, iOS 14, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, some of which borrowed from features previously introduced by other tech companies, including Slack (WORK), Facebook s WhatsApp and, of course, Android, which is owned by Google. As part of the changes in iOS 14, the iPhone home screen will look quite a bit more like an Android device. iPhone users will soon be able to pin widgets, or shortcuts to features found inside an app, to their home screens. They can now be stacked or customized based on work, activity or travel. Widgets have long been a part of Android devices, as well as on Windows phones.Beyond that, Apple s new App Library automatically organizes the apps on your home screen so you don t have to scroll through several pages, similar to Android s app drawer. Apple also unveiled a significant new feature called App Clips, which offers a small part of an app for use at the moment it s needed, such as ordering food from a restaurant or paying for parking. It s a similar concept to Google s instant app feature, which was first announced in 2016. With Google s tool, apps and games can run without being installed, allowing users to try them out first. Apple also appears to have taken some inspiration from a rival product to address a pain point for some iPhone users: videos (and FaceTime calls) taking over the entire screen when you re performing some other function. Now, users will be able to multi-task and switch to other applications while still watching a video with a feature called Picture in Picture. Samsung Galaxy phones have been able to do this for years.While tech companies are fond of touting their unique "innovations," it s also common for them to copy or borrow features from one another, whether it s Facebook cloning Snapchat features or Samsung copying Apple. Android isn t the only place where Apple appears to be taking inspiration. Its new updates to group chats, such as mentioning people directly, have been popular features on WhatsApp and workplace messaging app Slack. Apple will also allow you to pin conversations to the top of your inbox. Pinning individual messages is a widely-used function on Slack.

one of the world s most popular games, has reportedly removed police cars in its latest season as protests against police brutality have erupted across the United States. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, and multiple users on Reddit also noticed the change. Epic Games, Fortnite s developer, didn t immediately respond to CNN Business request for comment. Police cars in earlier versions of the game were for decorative purposes and couldn t be driven by players, according to the newspaper. Epic Games regularly releases new Fortnite seasons to keep players engaged. But the rollout of the most recent season of the game, which was released last week, was briefly delayed because of the widespread protests and outrage over George Floyd s death at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis. "Recent events are a heavy reminder of ongoing injustices in society, from the denial of basic human rights to the impact of racism both overt and subtle against people of color," Epic Games said in a blog post on June 3. "The team is eager to move Fortnite forward, but we need to balance the Season 3 launch with time for the team to focus on themselves, their families, and their communities." Floyd s death has sparked calls for Corporate America to do more in the fight for racial justice. Many companies have expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement but remained publicly silent on iFloyd s death has sparked calls for Corporate America to do more in the fight for racial justice. Many companies have expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement but remained publicly silent on its proposal to defund police departments. One notable exception is Ben & Jerry s, which used its Juneteenth message on Friday to called on Americans to "dismantle the old system and build a new one that guarantees freedom and justice for all." The company also posted a detailed breakdown on its website and social media profiles of what the movement to defund police means.

Apple may be gearing up for a big update under the hood of its computers that could result in several changes for its users. The company could announce a long-rumored switch to its own chips for its Mac computer lineup — instead of the Intel (INTC)processors they currently use — at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference that starts Monday, according to a report from Bloomberg. The ARM-based chips, which Apple (AAPL) makes in-house and already uses a version of in iPhones and iPads, could make their way into new iMacs and MacBooks by 2021. And while there s likely to be a transition period, analysts say the move could eventually result in big benefits for the company as well as its users. "I think it is likely that we will see the switch happen in stages," said Adwait Mardikar, an analyst at tech research firm Canalys. "We might see the switch to Apple chips for Apple s MacBook lineup in 2021, but I believe it will be quite a while before we see the entire Mac lineup on its own chips." Better battery and sleeker devicesWhen that does happen, the major changes Mac users are likely to see include better battery life and sleeker devices. Apple s in-house chips have a smaller architecture and are more efficient because they are designed for smartphones, according to David McQueen, research director at ABI Research. ARM is the processor design developed by UK-based chipmaker Arm Holdings, which it then licenses to various tech manufacturers for their own use. "Moving to ARM-based chips can bring efficiencies and better battery life without sacrificing performance," McQueen said. "It may also help to cut out some size issues, possibly allowing Macs to be made thinner, while also negating the need for fans," he added. McQueen says having the same chips running on iPhones, iPads and Macs would also make it easier to standardize the user experience across all three devices."It will allow all Apple devices to work more seamlessly together," he said. "It should also make it much easier for developers to create apps that are capable of running across Apple devices." There s another big potential benefit to using the same chips for iPhones and Macs, particularly with the growth of 5G networks. "Although Apple has given no indication that it is looking to do so, this switch does also open the doors for Apple to launch MacBooks with cellular connectivity capabilities," Mardikar said. How Apple will benefit For Apple, bringing processor production in-house will likely allow the company to offer better performance upgrades with each generation of devices because it will no longer be tied to Intel s upgrade cycle for new chips. "They also get to control their own product launch cadence," said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC. "In the past, they had to really wait on Intel to launch new processors before they could refresh the Mac lineup."Switching to in-house chips could also allow Apple to better integrate its supply chain and lower manufacturing costs. But unfortunately for consumers, that s unlikely to result in cheaper computers. "I think Apple s main use for switching over would be to offer a better product, not necessarily a cheaper product," Ubrani said. "You may see better value in some cases but I don t think we ll see cheap iMacs or cheap MacBooks going forward." While Apple is likely capable of handling the chip switch and has been able to power high-performing devices such as the iPad Pro, it could potentially struggle to match the firepower of Intel chips on some of its more advanced computers, according to Mardikar. "The real challenge for Apple will be its high-end computers — the MacBook Pro, iMac Pro and Mac Pro," he said. "These run on high-performance CPUs like Intel Xeon chips, and it remains to be seen if Apple can come up with processors that can match the performance." The company will also likely have to give developers a lot of lead time to adapt to the new setup. "At the end of the day the switch is not going to be successful if it doesn t have the apps, and consumers are not going to love it if they don t have access to their favorite apps," said Ubrani. "It s not like every developer can switch over right away... My guess is they would have some sort of a bridge solution ready until everyone is ready to port over."

Covid-19 has brought untold hardship to Africa, but lockdowns are also driving a move to online shopping in a continent where it has been slow to take off. The whole of Africa had only around 21 million online shoppers in 2017 — about the same number as Spain. That s less than 2% of the world s total, according to the latest UN data. Covid-19 had infected more than 260,000 people in Africa, as of June 18, and lockdown restrictions have forced many open-air markets and retailers to shut, with consumers being told to stay at home. In response, digital entrepreneurs across the continent have launched new services for ordering and delivering supplies. "E-commerce has been a turnkey solution," Torbjörn Fredriksson, head of e-commerce and digital economy at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), tells CNN Business. It has enabled "supply chains to continue to function and to get food from farms to tables," he adds. Opening up online Farmcrowdy began life in 2016 as a digital platform providing small farmers across Nigeria with access to finance and support. But in April, it launched Farmcrowdy Foods, an online store where people can buy fresh food from farmers. Kenneth Obiajulu, the company s managing director, told CNN Business that it started developing the marketplace model in 2019, but decided to fast track the launch as Nigeria s lockdown made it difficult for farmers to sell produce. Through the food platform, Farmcrowdy collects produce from its network of more than 25,000 farmers situated in the rural north of the country, before transporting it to storage facilities in the south, near Lagos, where there is most demand. "We list all the produce that we have sourced directly from the farmers. Then individuals can order it and get it delivered to their homes," says Obiajulu. Since launching, during what it describes as a pilot phase with limited marketing, it has received more than 2,000 orders via its hotline, WhatsApp and mobile app.Nigerian startup Flutterwave, which began as a digital payments company, also launched an online marketplace in April, where businesses can set up a storefront on the platform and list and sell their goods. The service is now available in 15 African countries. Olugbenga Agboola, the company s founder, told CNN Business in May that the online store was created as a lifeline for small companies that have been closed during lockdowns, and that more than 1,000 businesses had signed up to sell products. Jumia (JMIA), one of the continent s largest e-commerce operators, reported a four-fold increase in sales of groceries in the second-half of March, compared with the same period last year — although its food delivery service was impacted by restaurants shutting down. Shifting shopping habits Starting from a low base, e-commerce in Africa was on the rise before the pandemic. According to UNCTAD, the number of online shoppers on the continent has grown by 21% annually since 2014, higher than the world s average growth rate of 12%. The launch of new platforms in response to Covid-19 has accelerated this growth, says Fredriksson. A recent study from market research firm Nielsen found that around 30% of online consumers in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya shopped more online during the lockdown period. But Fredriksson warns that it won t all be plain sailing. "The shift to online platforms and services is far from automatic in Africa," he says, adding that many countries lag in terms of broadband access, transport and infrastructure. The biggest hurdle is gaining consumer trust, says Obiajulu. But the pandemic could be the turning point. "Individuals won t be buying the same way as they used to before," he says. "People are becoming comfortable with the fact that they don t need to step into the market to get what they need to eat. We are positioning ourselves for that new normal."

China and India are locked in a tense diplomatic and military standoff after a deadly border skirmish earlier this week. The economic stakes are high too, given the huge trading relationship and particularly close ties in technology. India imports more goods from China than any other country. And over the past decade, India and China have enabled each other s rise as emerging technology powerhouses. Chinese tech giants have invested billions of dollars into India s biggest startups, while its smartphone makers dominate the country s market and Indians have flocked to apps like TikTok. Now, the dispute threatens those ties. Growing anti-China sentiment in India has already led to calls for a boycott of Chinese products and services, while new rules on foreign investment could constrain China s ability to cash in on India s internet boom. Deep ties China has created a significant place for itself in India s technology sector over the last five years, according to a report published by Indian foreign policy think tank Gateway House. Unable to convince India to sign on to its global infrastructure project known as the Belt and Road Initiative, China entered India s tech scene by flooding the market with cheap smartphones from brands such as Xiaomi and Oppo and plowing money into Indian startups.Gateway House estimates that Chinese investors have poured some $4 billion into Indian tech startups since 2015. Alibaba (BABA), for example, has invested in Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal, digital wallet Paytm and food delivery platform Zomato. Tencent (TCEHY), meanwhile, has backed Indian messaging company Hike and ride hailing app Ola. Gateway House found that more than half of India s 30 unicorns — private firms worth more than $1 billion -— have Chinese investors. And Huawei is still in the running to help build 5G networks in India s fast-growing internet economy, despite a US-led campaign against the Chinese company. "China was hoping to be the dominant player in this internet market," said Amit Bhandari, fellow at Gateway House and co-author of the report. But earlier this year, India signaled it was taking steps to curb China s growing influence. In April, the government announced that foreign direct investments (FDI) from countries that share a land border with India would be subject to more scrutiny. Analysts say the new rules are vague. For example, investments in social media platforms that would raise questions about data storage and privacy will likely receive more scrutiny, Bhandari said. The government says the rules are intended to fend off opportunistic acquisitions and takeovers of Indian companies grappling with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. They also appear to be aimed squarely at China. Pakistan, India s arch rival, is not going to invest in India in any meaningful way, according to Bhandari, and the rest of the countries that share a border with India are small and not known for making large investments. "It was directed at China, but not in a direct way," he said. Bhandari said tightening FDI rules was a message to Chinese firms that they can still export software and hardware to India, but they won t be able to dominate Indian s internet ecosystem. Basically, "China will not have a free run in this market," he said. The government policy was initially met with skepticism by some in India s tech sector. Then a cross-border skirmish between Chinese and Indian forces broke out in May, resulting in minor injuries to troops.The incident — at a remote, mountainous crossing close to Tibet — was the latest in a long line of border flare-ups, and it fueled a fresh round of anti-China sentiment in India. Tensions ramped up considerably on Tuesday, when at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed during a clash with Chinese troops, according to the Indian army. Redirecting China s influence China is bristling at the negative attention. State-run tabloid The Global Times said in an article published earlier this month that India s move to tighten FDI rules "shows the Indian government has been hijacked by domestic anti-China sentiment." The tabloid also criticized a recent app downloaded by millions of people in India called "Remove China Apps" that promised to help users scrub Chinese software from their smartphones. Google (GOOGL) yanked it from its app store earlier this month for violating terms. "If India allows narrow-minded nationalism to spread to the field of science and technology, it will definitely hurt its own interests in turn," the Global Times wrote.Chinese companies are seeking to establish a long-term presence in India, and their investments in Indian companies give them an enduring stake in the market, according to a Brookings India report published in March. "I don t think there s a widespread understanding of how difficult it would be to completely reduce India s reliance on China," said Ananth Krishnan, former Brookings India fellow and author of the report. India relies on China for everything "from heavy machinery and all kinds of telecom and power equipment, to active pharmaceutical ingredients," said Krishnan, who is now a reporter with The Hindu newspaper. In his Brookings report, Krishnan estimated that the total current and planned investment from China into India is at least $26 billion. Trade between the two countries reached more than $87 billion in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to India s Department of Commerce. China was India s second largest trading partner that year, just behind the United States. But the relationship is one-sided. China exports far more to India than the other way round. "These are structural dependencies on China which boycott campaigns aren t really going to address," he said. Krishnan said the recent tightening of FDI rules weren t aimed at stopping Chinese investment into India, but rather about "redirecting Chinese investment to areas where it will be of greater use to India — into actual [manufacturing] facilities and generating jobs." Cutting off China could mean job losses for Indians Chinese smartphone makers have already built factories and created jobs in India. India s emergence as the biggest overseas market for Chinese mobile phone companies is one of the most significant developments in China s relations with India over the past five years. Last year, four of the top five best-selling smartphone makers in India were Chinese: Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Realme, according to market research firm IDC. South Korea s Samsung, the only non-Chinese brand, was the No. 2 seller.The India sales of those top Chinese smartphone brands totaled more than $16 billion in 2019, according to IDC. And all of them have manufacturing facilities in India. Doing so allowed the Chinese firms to both embrace Prime Minister Narendra Modi s "Make in India" program and avoid stiff import tariffs. Xiaomi manufactures 95% of the phones it sells in India locally. "So if you re talking about cutting down the sales or shipment for these guys, it also impacts the factories that they have in India," which will "absolutely" affect Indian jobs, said Kiranjeet Kaur, an analyst with IDC. She added that campaigns urging Indians to boycott Chinese goods have happened before, during previous border skirmishes. But they never put a dent in sales of Chinese smartphones in India. So even though many Indians are vowing to cut off Chinese hardware and software, "I really don t think it s going to change their buying decisions at all," Kaur said. "They re so dependent on these Chinese phone ecosystems, there s hardly any other choices."

YouTube announced on Monday the launch of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services in Egypt. YouTube Music is a music streaming application and YouTube Premium is a paid subscription website providing ad-free access to the catalogue of the famous video website worldwide.

Scientists have identified a green light in the atmosphere of Mars. A similar glow is sometimes seen by astronauts on the space station when they look to the Earth s limb. The glow comes from oxygen atoms when they re excited by sunlight. The phenomenon has long been predicted to occur on other planets, but the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) - a joint European-Russian satellite at Mars - is the first to make the observation beyond Earth. "It s a nice result," said Dr Manish Patel from the UK s Open University. "You d never plan a mission to go look for this kind of thing. Today, we have to be very clear about the science we re going to do before we get to Mars. But having got there, we thought, well, let s have a look . And it worked." Martian mud flows like boiling toothpaste America s next Mars rover will be called Perseverance The woman making history in sea and space To be clear, this is different to classic aurora like the Northern and Southern Lights. These emissions are the consequence of collisions between atmospheric molecules and charged particles that are racing away from the Sun. On Earth, this type of interaction is heavily influenced by our planet s strong magnetic field, which pulls those particles down on to the poles. Image copyrightESA Image caption Artist s impression of the TGO at Mars: The observation was made with a spectrometer, which analyses light Aurora are not focussed in quite the same way on Mars because this world doesn t have a global magnetic field, but such emissions nonetheless exist and have already been observed. The green glow seen by astronauts at the edge of the Earth - and now by the TGO at Mars - has a separate origin. It s sunlight that s doing the work. Oxygen atoms are raised to a higher energy level and when they fall back to their resting state, they produce the tell-tale green emission. Earth has abundant oxygen in its atmosphere. But on Mars it s largely present only as a breakdown product of carbon dioxide. Sunlight will free one of the oxygen atoms in CO2, and it s the transition of this atom that s glowing green on the Red Planet. The TGO detects the excited oxygen not with an imager but with its Nomad spectrometer package. This instrument sees the oxygen at very particular altitudes. In a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, these altitudes are at 80km and 120km above the surface. The precise altitudes are dependent on the pressure of CO2. "And by looking at the altitudes of where this emission is, you can actually tell the thickness of the atmosphere and how it s varying," explained Dr Patel. "So, if you were to keep observing this phenomenon, you could see the height of the atmosphere change, something it does for example when it heats up during dust storms. This is an issue we face when we try to land on Mars because we re never quite sure just how thick the atmosphere will be when we plough through it to get to the surface." Theoretically, therefore, you could use observations of the green glow to help inform the models that guide the entry, descent and landing of Mars probes. The glow at Mars was detected by the TGO s Nomad instrument, which is led by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (IASB-BIRA). Dr Patel is the co-principal investigator on Nomad s ultraviolet and visible spectrometer.

For all its promise, the rollout of 5G has also been fraught with rumors and conspiracy theories — most recently, a narrative spread on social media that the wireless network technology fueled the coronavirus pandemic. It did not. While baseless, the theory gained such prominence that social media platforms were forced to take action to stop its spread after a string of cell towers were set on fire. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to the rumor saying, "5G technology does NOT cause coronavirus," and UK government officials called it a "crackpot conspiracy." The theory attempting to link the pandemic to 5G is nonsensical. Covid-19 is caused by a contagious virus, and it s spreading in areas of the world that don t yet have 5G technology. But such theories are not new; concerns about 5G s effects on health were spreading even before coronavirus. Experts say these fears, too, are unfounded. "Is there anything to worry about? The short answer is no," said Chris Collins, a professor and research director in the radiology department at the New York University School of Medicine. "If people are not worried about current cell phone technology, they should be worried even less about 5G." What is 5G? 5G is the next generation of wireless network technology that is steadily being rolled out across the United States and around the world. It provides faster data speeds and network capacity than existing 4G LTE technology, and is expected to enable such new innovations as smart cities and robotic surgeries. To understand why a small group of people are freaking out about it, it s time for a little gobbledygook: At its core, 5G is a set of technical specifications which a section of the radio frequency spectrum wireless devices use to communicate with the cell network. It s the same way 3G and 4G worked only, with 5G devices can access a wider range of radio frequency waves than before, allowing for improvements to speed and bandwidth. There are three different types of 5G networks: networks that use the low-band, mid-band and high-band of the radio frequency spectrum. Low-band networks provide wide coverage but only mild improvements to speed, mid-band networks balance speed and coverage and high-band networks provide superfast speeds but signals don t travel very far. Eventually, low- and mid-band networks are expected to cover much of the country. High-band networks will be built mostly in cities because they require installing multiple small cell sites in a given area to make up for the fact that signals struggle to travel. Debunking 5G fears Many conspiracy theories about the dangers of 5G focus on the radio frequencies that signals travel over. But experts point out that low-band and mid-band 5G networks operate at largely the same frequencies as existing networks. "There s nothing different in terms of exposure," said Kenneth Foster, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, whose research focuses on the health and safety aspects of electromagnetic fields interacting with human bodies. Major advancements from 5G will come as a result of high-band networks, where signals travel over millimeter wave frequencies. But millimeter wave frequencies should prompt even less concern, NYU s Collins said, because they can t penetrate surfaces such as walls, trees or human skin (that s one of the reasons they don t travel well). "It s a little ironic that there s all this worry about 5G, because the difference is that 5G is going to operate at higher frequencies," Collins said. "It will actually not penetrate as deep into the body ... it really doesn t get past the skin." Millimeter wave frequencies are already used in other technologies people are familiar with, including airport security scanners. "If you think about these airport scanners, that s using mmWave energy," Collins said. "You know it doesn t penetrate the body, because all you see in the image on the screen is the outer surface of the body." Is there anything to worry about? The short answer is no." CHRISTOPHER COLLINS, PROFESSOR AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Like FM radio waves and visible light, radio frequency waves are a form of "non-ionizing" radiation, which means they don t have enough energy to damage the DNA inside of cells and cause cancer, unlike X-rays, for example. Decades of research suggest that the only way wireless technologies could interact with the body is by heating the skin, but power levels are so low that s not a problem, experts say. What are governments doing? The US Federal Communications Commission, like government agencies elsewhere, regulates radio frequency exposure levels from wireless devices like cell phones. Exposure levels from 5G radio frequencies fall well below the agency s limits. "The weight of scientific evidence has not effectively linked exposure to radio frequency energy from mobile devices with any known health problems," the FCC notes on its website. Still, some critics argue that too few studies have been done on the potential effects of 5G. In response, most government agencies have stressed that they will continue to track research on 5G as network infrastructure expands. "We first need to see how this new technology will be applied and how the scientific evidence will evolve," Vytenis Andriukaitis, head of the European Commission s Cabinet said in a 2017 response to critics that asked the Commission to put the 5G rollout on hold over fears about possible health effects. "Rest assured that the Commission will keep abreast of future developments in view of safeguarding the health of the European citizens at the highest level possible," Andriukaitis said. Foster said such a response is the best possible course of action in response to fears over 5G. "We can only protect against dangers that we know exist," Foster said. "The EU s approach is as good as you can get — if something indicates a problem that is reasonable, well then we ll look at the literature."

Sony has kicked off its PlayStation 5 launch event with a first look at Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The video game centres on the star of the firm s recent hit movie - Into the Spider-Verse - and briefly showed off some of the new console s graphics power. Racing game Grand Turismo 7 and an "enhanced" version of Grand Theft Auto 5 have also been announced. The games machine will compete against Microsoft s forthcoming Xbox Series X. Sony s forthcoming console is set to go on sale later this year, seven years after the PS4. In addition to being able to deliver improved visuals, the new machine also has a customised hard drive that will make it possible to radically reduce load times. Sony is building a library of launch titles that will only be available on its next-generation machine. This contrasts with Microsoft s approach, which is to initially release new first-party games on both its current and next-gen consoles. However, the coronavirus pandemic may pose a challenge to both companies. Although they have both said that production is on track for winter 2020 releases, it is unclear what level of demand there will be. "Console gaming has proven to be resilient to economic downturns because it continues to offer good per-hour entertainment value," Piers Harding-Rolls wrote in a research note for Ampere Analysis. "Even so, the recession and growing unemployment in key sales territories will undermine adoption - less so at launch [but] more significantly after mid-2021." Sony streamed a pre-recorded video rather than a hosted live event because of the virus. The video is being broadcast at 1080p resolution, much lower than the PS5 is capable of. The PS4 outsold the Xbox One globally by more than a 2:1 margin, but the gap has been much smaller in the UK. In advance of Thursday night s event, one industry insider said there were two things he was most excited about. "The first is the new controller - the adaptive triggers offer deeper and more meaningful feedback for gameplay," explained Robert Karp, development director at UK developer Codemasters. "The other is the super-fast loading. On PS5, waiting to get into the action is a thing of the past."