TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has quit as the Chinese-owned video sharing app faces enormous backlash from President Donald Trump. "In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for," Mayer said in a memo to employees that was obtained by CNN Business. "Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company."TikTok hired Mayer, a former top Disney executive, less than four months ago to run the app, which is the first owned by a Chinese company to gain significant traction in western countries. In addition to his CEO responsibilities, Mayer became chief operating officer of ByteDance, TikTok s parent company. Since then, though, TikTok has come under fire from the US government, and Trump has threatened to ban the app if it isn t sold by ByteDance. "We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. Even before Trump issued executive orders calling for TikTok s ban, the company was rethinking its corporate structure. The Wall Street Journal reported in early July that ByteDance was considering establishing a headquarters for the video app outside of China or a new management board to distance the service from the country. A TikTok spokesperson told CNN Business at the time that it was "evaluating changes." Mayer s departure is a "huge setback for the company," said Edith Yeung, who spent years investing in Chinese companies with venture capital firm 500 Startups. She is a partner with Race Capital, investing mostly in US firms. "[A] leader cannot jump ship in the most critical time for a company," she added. According to Trump s executive orders, TikTok poses a national security threat because the app collects a lot of data on users, which "threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information." The move against TikTok is part of an escalating US-China tech war that has already ensnared other Chinese apps and tech firms, such as Tencent-owned WeChat and Huawei.TikTok has sued the Trump administration over the initial executive order, calling it "heavily politicized." The company said Trump s order illegally rests on emergency powers law in ways that do not apply to TikTok. The company has also said that it stores data on its US users in the United States and in Singapore, and that it would refuse any request by the Chinese government for US user data. TikTok has 100 million users in the United States. The company has explored selling its US business, which industry experts say is worth between $40 billion and $50 billion, to Microsoft and reportedly to Oracle as well. Microsoft said it is exploring a deal to buy TikTok s operations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the US business. "The role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally -— will look very different as a result of the US Administration s action to push for a sell off of the US business," Mayer said in the memo to employees. "I ve always been globally focused in my work, and leading a global team that includes TikTok US was a big draw for me." ByteDance launched the Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, in 2016. The international version debuted the following year and has grown to become one of the most popular social media apps in the world. As of July, TikTok said it had nearly 690 million global monthly active users. That still trails Facebook s 2.7 billion monthly active users, but the app is also considerably younger than its US rival. By August 2020, TikTok said it had surpassed two billion global downloads. Vanessa Pappas, the former YouTube executive who joined TikTok last year to become general manager of North America, Australia and New Zealand, will serve as interim head for TikTok globally, according to Mayer s memo. If Mayer had stuck it out, "he would be running one of the biggest social media companies in the world," Yeung said, though she added that "no American would blame him for quitting." "I wish he would hang in there," she said. "He could change the course of China-US tech history. Oh well."

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma could be about to pull off a record-breaking IPO for the second time. Ant Group, the financial affiliate of Ma s e-commerce company Alibaba (BABA), filed this week to list its shares in Hong Kong and on Shanghai s Star Market, China s Nasdaq-like tech board. The company is reportedly seeking to raise $30 billion, according to the Financial Times and Reuters, citing people close to the process or with knowledge of the matter. Ant Group did not disclose how much it hoped to raise, and a spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. But the company could be worth more than $200 billion, according to analysts at brokerage firm Bernstein, and if it rakes in $30 billion, it would become the largest IPO in history. Alibaba, which has a 33% stake in Ant, raised a record $25 billion when it debuted on Wall Street in 2014. That number has only been surpassed by Saudi Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion in its Riyadh IPO in December 2019.The documents Ant filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday did not mention the price range of the new shares, nor the expected date of the IPO. But they did offer a look under the hood at one of the world s most valuable tech companies. The company reported revenue of 72.5 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) for the six months ended in June, up 38% from the same period a year earlier. Profit for the period was 21.9 billion yuan ($3.2 billion). Ant owns Alipay, one of the most popular payment apps in China, and also offers online financial services such as loans, investments and credit scoring systems. Alipay has 711 million monthly active users, Ant reported, and processed some 118 trillion yuan ($17 trillion) worth of transactions in the 12 months ended in June. The Hangzhou-based company s decision to IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai comes as relations between the United States and China are rapidly deteriorating.An escalating tech war between Washington and Beijing has resulted in sanctions and threats against big Chinese tech companies. President Donald Trump recently issued executive orders that would ban transactions with TikTok and WeChat, apps owned by Chinese companies ByteDance and Tencent. Trump also ordered ByteDance to sell TikTok s operations in the United States. TikTok has sued the Trump administration over the threatened ban, calling the order "heavily politicized." Tencent has said it is reviewing the WeChat order. The Trump administration has also indicated that it could even go after Alibaba. Ant Group cited the executive orders and the potential for more US sanctions as risks to its business. Restrictions that may be imposed by the United States in the future "may materially and adversely affect our ability to acquire or use technologies, systems, devices or components that may be critical" to Ant Group s business, the company warned. Recent US sanctions against Huawei, for example, have cut off the Chinese tech firm s access to semiconductors and advanced chips. Analysts called the move a "lethal blow" and a "death sentence" for Huawei.

Facebook is planning legal action after the Thai government forced it to block a group deemed critical of the country s monarchy. The social media company said it was "compelled" by the Thai government to prevent users in Thailand accessing Royalist Marketplace — a group with 1 million members featuring posts about the Thai royal family. Facebook said the government had deemed the content "to be illegal." "Requests like this are severe, contravene international human rights law, and have a chilling effect on people s ability to express themselves," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Business. "We work to protect and defend the rights of all internet users and are preparing to legally challenge this request." News of the group being blocked was first reported by Reuters.Facebook (FB) said it has been under pressure from the Thai government to restrict some types of political speech in the country, with the government threatening criminal proceedings against Facebook s representatives in Thailand. Thailand s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, which Facebook said it has been in discussions with, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under Thai law, defaming the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent can mean a 15-year jail sentence. The law has increasingly been used as a political tool, as ordinary Thai citizens — as well as the government — can bring charges on behalf of the King. Despite that, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the country s capital, Bangkok, in recent days, with some demanding reform of the country s monarchy. Royalist Marketplace was started by Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an exiled Thai dissident based in Japan. Pavin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN, but told Reuters that Facebook was "cooperating with the authoritarian regime to obstruct democracy and cultivating authoritarianism in Thailand." It s the latest clash between Facebook and authorities around the world. The company is also facing parliamentary scrutiny in India, after a report last week by the Wall Street Journal revealed that a politician from India s ruling party was allowed to remain on the platform despite flouting Facebook s hate speech rules. In the United States, Facebook s decision to label some posts by President Donald Trump and take down posts by his campaign have sparked further controversy.

Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again. Everyone from Amazon (AMZN) to Silicon Valley startups are trying to eliminate lines in retail stores. Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence to see what you ve taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out. Some startups such as San Francisco-based Grabango are closely mimicking Amazon s approach of using AI-powered cameras mounted in ceilings to identify what you ve removed from a shelf and then charge you for those items.But others are trying an entirely different route to skipping the checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you ve placed in them. A built-in scale weighs items, in case you have to pay by the pound for an item. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or by using Apple Pay or Google Pay. When a customer exits the store, a green light on the shopping cart indicates that their order is complete, and they re charged. If something goes wrong, the light turns red, and a store employee is summoned.The startups behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it s much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon s Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed. So far, Amazon has focused on small format stores of about 2,000 square feet or less.Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store. Amazon reportedly considered expanding to thousands of the Go stores. But it s only opened a couple dozen so far, possibly adding credence to the point that they re expensive to operate. Two of the stores are currently closed for renovations. Amazon declined to comment for this story. Neither Caper AI nor Veeve have said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats. Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said he s finding increased interest from retailers given Amazon s steady expansion of Go since opening the first store in Seattle in 2018. "We re always happy when Amazon is doing something," Siddiqui said. "They force retailers to get out of their old school thinking."Veeve is testing several of its shopping carts in an unnamed Seattle retailer. It s announcing a larger deployment in early 2019, and Siddiqui says the company is in talks with two of the country s 10 largest retailers. Siddiqui said the shopping carts will eventually offer customers real-time coupons. When a customer puts, say, peanut butter in their cart, they may be offered a 10% discount on jelly. But there are still kinks to work out in the technology. Caper, which has small pilots in Canada and New York City, is currently having customers scan items on a barcode scanner built into the cart, before placing them in it. The process helps to teach the AI system to identify the store s items. Anytime a business uses artificial intelligence and cameras, it raises questions about customer privacy and the impact on jobs. Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer s hand and part of their arm will be captured on camera. Siddiqui said he envisioned grocery store cashiers shifting to roles where they freely float around stores and answer customers questions, a format similar to the Apple Store.

TikTok said Saturday it plans to go to court to challenge a Trump administration executive order that seeks to ban the short-form video app from operating in the United States unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, finds an American buyer."To ensure that the rule of law prevails and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system, TikTok said in a statement to CNN, adding that the legal challenge could come as soon as this coming week. TikTok added that while it had tried to work with the US government on a solution to its national security concerns, what it encountered instead was "a lack of due process as the Administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses." ByteDance formally announced Sunday that it will sue the US government to challenge the Trump administration executive order. "In order to ensure that the rule of law is not abandoned, and to ensure that the company and users are treated fairly, we will safeguard our rights and interests through litigation," ByteDance said in a statement released on the company s official WeChat account. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN s request for comment. The Department of Justice declined comment. Microsoft (MSFT) said earlier this month that it was pushing forward with talks to acquire TikTok s US operations, following a conversation between CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump. Since then Larry Ellison s Oracle (ORCL) has emerged as a potential rival suitor, and last week Trump indicated he would support such a bid. "I think Oracle is a great company and I think its owner is a tremendous guy, a tremendous person," Trump said Tuesday. "I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it. The Trump administration has argued that TikTok s ties to China could result in US users data being transferred to the Chinese government. TikTok has rejected those claims, saying it would refuse to give American data to China even if it were asked. Cybersecurity experts say there is a theoretical risk of Americans data falling into the wrong hands, but that there is no evidence to suggest it has occurred and that many US tech companies, which collect similar data, are just as much a target for spying.

Ride-hailing firm Lyft says it is suspending operations in California after a judge ordered it to treat drivers as employees. Both Lyft and Uber were told they must classify their drivers as employees and not contractors by Friday. Lyft has now said its services in California will stop at 23:59 local time on Thursday (06:59 GMT on Friday). Uber has warned it will have to do the same if a stay is not granted by an appeals court before the deadline. But Uber has yet to make any formal announcement. "This is not something we wanted to do, as we know millions of Californians depend on Lyft for daily, essential trips," Lyft said in a statement posted online. What happened? Both firms have always argued their drivers are self-employed contractors. But a California law that came into effect earlier this year, known as AB5, extended classification as an employee to workers in the "gig economy". The judge s ruling that the law applied to both Uber and Lyft means the firms need to provide drivers with extra benefits, such as unemployment protection. Both companies filed an appeal to the judgement - and asked for a stay on its enforcement while the courts dealt with the appeal. Unless the stay was granted, both companies had 10 days to undertake what they saw as a significant overhaul of their business in California. They both warned that they could be forced to pull services from the state after 23:59 local time Thursday. What did the firms say? Lyft claims that four out of five of its drivers do not want to be classified as employees. Both argue that flexibility is valued by those who choose to work for them. The two firms had been emailing customers and sending app push notifications to try to drum up support for their side of the argument. Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, meanwhile, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times, arguing that his firm was not truly against paying the costs of things like health insurance. Instead, he argued that the choice between being a full-time employee and a "gig" worker was a problem itself, and laws needed to be changed. He argued for a system where companies pay benefits based on a rate per hour worked. But he has also said that the company can only offer full jobs to a tiny fraction of its workforce. In a podcast interview with Vox Media, he summed up the problem as: "We can t go out and hire 50,000 people overnight." Lyft echoed that sentiment, telling the court that it "cannot make the changes the injunction requires at the flip of a switch". The companies do have some outside support. Some drivers do not want to be classed as employees, and the mayors of San Diego and San Jose - one Democrat and one Republican - joined forces to warn that shutting down the services "virtually overnight" would hurt one million residents in the state. What happens next? There is a potential way out for the ride-sharing firms in the coming months. A ballot that will be put to vote in November, at the same time as the US presidential election, would grant Uber and Lyft an exemption from the law. It is known as proposition 22. "Your voice can help," Lyft wrote in its blog post about suspending services. "Prop 22, proposes the necessary changes to give drivers benefits and flexibility, while maintaining the rideshare model that helps you get where you need to go," it said. Both companies, along with other supporters such as food delivery app DoorDash, are reported to have spent millions of dollars in lobbying and campaigning for the law. Labour groups, meanwhile, are set firmly against it, arguing it will save the companies vast sums of money at the expense of drivers. It is possible that a shutdown of services could last until at least November, when the issue may be decided by the outcome of proposition 22.

Taiwan is preparing to ban iQiyi (IQ) and Tencent (TCEHY) from operating streaming video services on the island, the latest in a series of moves by governments around the world against Chinese tech giants. Tencent Video and iQiyi have been "operating illegally" in Taiwan by partnering with local broadcasters and distributors to provide their video content through streaming services, according to a government notice published online Tuesday. To put a stop to that, Taiwan s National Communications Commission announced new rules that would prohibit Taiwanese individuals and companies from providing services to mainland Chinese streaming operators and distributing their content, according to the notice. The regulator s decision is provisional pending a 14-day public comment period. The rules are set to take effect on September 3. Tencent declined to comment, while iQiyi did not immediately respond to questions from CNN Business.Taiwan is a self-governing democracy which Beijing continues to view as part of its territory. With a population of around 24 million people, the damage to the Chinese companies will be limited. But the proposed ban is further evidence of the growing backlash against China s tech champions in global markets. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have been souring ever since the election of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, who was perceived by the Chinese government as being in favor of the island s formal independence. Washington has also moved closer to Taiwan. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar s historic visit last week was intended to convey President Donald Trump s support for the democratic island. Taipei also finds itself in an increasingly precarious position in the US-China tech war, as the world becomes ever more dependent on Taiwanese company TSMC for the most advanced semiconductors. Tencent Video and iQiyi both offer services that are similar to Netflix (NFLX). They stream licensed content, and also produce original television shows and movies that have become popular with Mandarin-speaking audiences. In earnings reports last week, Tencent said its video service had 114 million subscribers and iQiyi reported nearly 105 million. The vast majority of those subscribers are in mainland China, according to analysts. Trump earlier this month threatened to ban Tencent s popular messaging app WeChat and TikTok, the wildly popular video sharing platform owned by China s ByteDance. Trump last week also ordered ByteDance to divest interest in TikTok s US operations within the next 90 days.Earlier this week, the Trump administration further restricted Huawei s access to advanced semiconductors, a move analysts called "a lethal blow" to the Chinese tech firm s smartphone and telecommunications equipment business. British officials last month cited the disruption to Huawei s supply chain as a key reason it banned the company from the United Kingdom s 5G network. The Indian government in recent months has also banned TikTok and WeChat, as well as dozens of other popular Chinese apps. Government officials often cite national security concerns for the restrictions, although companies such as Huawei and ByteDance have repeatedly denied that their apps pose a national security risk. Financial regulators are also taking a much closer look at Chinese companies listed on global markets. US regulators are probing iQiyi after a short-seller in April accused the company of vastly overstating its subscriber numbers and revenue. iQiyi pushed back on the allegations at the time, asserting in a statement that "the report contains numerous errors, unsubstantiated statements and misleading conclusions and interpretations."

The United States has cut off Huawei s access to vital, advanced computer chips, striking a deadly blow to the Chinese tech champion. The US Commerce Department on Monday announced fresh sanctions that restrict any foreign semiconductor company from selling chips developed or produced using US software or technology to Huawei, without first obtaining a license to do so. Restrictions announced in May had already limited companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) from making and supplying Huawei with chips designed by HiSilicon, a subsidiary of the Chinese company. Monday s measures effectively extend that ban to all chip designers, such as Taiwan s MediaTek, whose shares plunged nearly 10% Tuesday.It is just the latest sign that President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Beijing, as the United States and China battle over who controls the technologies of the future. In the last three weeks, the Trump administration has threatened bans on popular Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat, and signaled that it could soon restrict Alibaba s operations in the United States. Washington has long alleged, without providing proof, that Huawei products threaten national security because they could be used to spy on Americans. Huawei, who did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, has repeatedly denied that its gear and products pose a national security risk. Hopes dashed Paul Triolo, head of geotechnology at Eurasia Group called the latest US restriction "a lethal blow to China s most important technology company." It is "potentially [the] most serious effort by the US government to choke off the company s ability to obtain advanced semiconductors for all of its business lines," Triolo wrote in a note on Monday. Huawei relies on foreign-made semiconductors to power its 5G telecommunications gear. British officials cited the uncertainty to the company s supply chain as a key reason for banning Huawei from the United Kingdom s 5G network last month. The new US sanctions could also be the final nail in the coffin for Huawei s mobile phone business. Huawei s hope that it could rely on third-party chip designers to continue making smartphones "has been dashed," Edison Lee, an analyst with brokerage firm Jefferies, wrote in a note on Monday. Fallout for US firms US companies will also suffer. "These broad restrictions on commercial chip sales will bring significant disruption to the US semiconductor industry," said John Neuffer, president and CEO of Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group representing American chipmakers. Chip sales to China "drive semiconductor research and innovation here in the [United States], which is critical to America s economic strength and national security," Neuffer added in a statement. Qualcomm (QCOM) had reportedly been lobbying the US government to grant it a license to sell chips to Huawei, arguing that Huawei generates billions of dollars in sales for Qualcomm and helps the US firm fund development of new technologies, according to The Wall Street Journal. Micron (MICR), another US chipmaker, had obtained a license to supply some memory chips for Huawei s smartphones, after the company was barred from buying US tech and parts last year. But David Zinsner, Micron s senior vice president and chief financial officer, warned in an earnings call in June that the company was "seeing an impact from the recent restrictions imposed on Huawei." Other US tech companies could also become collateral damage in Washington s campaign against Huawei, according to Triolo, of Eurasia Group.The United States latest move against Huawei and recent threats against other Chinese tech firms means "a punitive move from Beijing against a leading US tech firm is highly likely," he said. Beijing on Tuesday pushed back against Washington s restrictions. "China firmly opposes the deliberate smear and suppression of Huawei and other Chinese companies by the United States," Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China s Foreign Ministry, told reporters. The United States "has generalized the concept of national security, abused national power, imposed various restrictive measures on Chinese companies such as Huawei, and bully without providing any evidence," Zhao added. Meanwhile, Huawei rival Apple (AAPL) could be hurt by the Trump administration s potential restrictions on WeChat. Apple s business in China is at risk, according to Lee of Jefferies. It remains unclear whether iPhones in China will be allowed to install WeChat or WeiXin (the Chinese version of the app) given "Trump s recent announcement to ban US companies from doing business with WeChat," Lee said. That would make Apple devices a lot less attractive in China, where WeiXin is known as a so-called super app, and is used to hail rides, message friends and family, pay electricity bills, order food delivery and much more.

Google is using its homepage to warn Australians that a proposed law designed to benefit the news media would harm their ability to search and lead to "consequences" for YouTube users. The company published an open letter on its website on Monday, warning users that the legislation would "hurt how Australians use Google Search and YouTube." In the memo, Google Australia Managing Director Mel Silva claimed that the measure "could lead to your data being handed over to big news businesses, and would put the free services you use at risk in Australia." She argued that under the proposed law, Google (GOOGL) would have to tell news companies how they could gain access to its users data, while also being "given information that would help them artificially inflate their ranking over everyone else." Regulators dispute those claims. Google posted a link to the letter on its local homepage on Monday, serving a warning to users in Australia. "The way you search with Google is at risk," the message read. "The products Aussies rely on will be hurt by new government regulation."A screenshot of a warning message from Google, posted on the company s homepage in Australia on Monday. Another executive warned in a separate blog post this week that the regulation would lead to "consequences" for users of YouTube, which is owned by Google. "YouTube may be obligated to give large news publishers confidential information about our systems that they could use to try to appear higher in rankings on YouTube, disadvantaging all other creators. This would mean you could receive fewer views and earn less," wrote Gautam Anand, head of YouTube s Asia Pacific business. Regulators are fighting back. In a statement on Monday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accused the company of spreading "misinformation" in its open letter. "Google will not be required to charge Australians for the use of its free services such as Google Search and YouTube, unless it chooses to do so," it said. "[And] Google will not be required to share any additional user data with Australian news businesses unless it chooses to do so." Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the regulator s statement. Rising tensions The latest exchange marks an escalation of animosity between the two parties. Last month, regulators released draft legislation that would let news publishers in the country negotiate compensation with Google and Facebook (FB) for sharing or displaying their stories. Both tech firms expressed their concern. The new law would allow certain media outlets to bargain either individually or collectively with Facebook and Google — and to enter arbitration if the parties can t reach an agreement within three months, according to the ACCC, which put out the proposed legislation. That process would involve an independent arbitrator looking at offers from both sides and settling the matter within 45 business days. Regulators say the move is needed to level the playing field for the news media in Australia. Since January 2019, more than 200 newsrooms across the country have reduced service, closed temporarily or permanently shut down, according to estimates from the Australian Newsroom Mapping Project, which is run by the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, a local nonprofit group. Facebook said last month that it was "reviewing the government s proposal to understand the impact it will have on the industry, our services and our investment in the news ecosystem in Australia." The company declined to comment further on Monday. Google has taken a more forceful approach. Silva has previously said that "the government s heavy handed intervention threatens to impede Australia s digital economy and impacts the services we can deliver to Australians." Her letter this week doubled down on those concerns.The outcome of the proposal is likely to be closely watched across the globe. Other countries have previously passed legislation to try and force internet giants to pay publishers — albeit with limited effect. The proposed law is currently undergoing a public consultation phase, after which it will be finalized and put forward to the Australian parliament. On Monday, the ACCC said it would "continue to consult on the draft code with interested parties, including Google."

Telecom Egypt (TE) has said it is continuing to closely follow the developments in Saudi Telecom Company’s (STC) 55% acquisition of Vodafone Egypt, due to the importance of its investment in the company. In a recent report attached to its financial results for the second quarter (Q2) of 2020, TE added that it is working with its consultants to identify all available alternatives and evaluate them.

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.