tv Click BBC News May 2, 2020 12:30pm-1:01pm BST
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this is bbc world news, the headlines: adults are flocking outdoors to exercise in spain as one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus further eases its strict lockdown rules. the measures will be carefully monitored to prevent a resurgence of the disease. shops in austria have reopened for business and citizens there are now able to leave their homes, although they still have to maintain social distancing. hairdressers and beauty salons are also allowed to operate. trials are to take place in the uk to see if blood plasma from covid—19 survivors can help other critically ill patients. donors have so far given enough plasma — the liquid part of the blood — to treat 150 people. a smartphone app — to track coronavirus cases — is being made compulsory for all public and private sector workers in india.
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and now it is time for click. this week: surveillance satellites... ..medical drones... ..and gaming for all the family. hello, you! day 6,021 of lockdown here in the uk, and i'm still here. lara isn't, though — she is somewhere else. where are you? what's going on, mate? well, i had a bit of a problem, there was a leak in the ceiling in the original click studio so i thought i would
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have a change of scenery. and while i was about it, i'm really starting to miss you now so i thought it was time to get a nice framed picture of you. what do you think? uhh... actually this isn't true, it's notjust a picture of you, i'm missing omar, too. take a look at this! this is the neural digital canvas. you can upload your favourite pictures and moving images, and if you subscribe, there are tens of thousands of pictures. the picture resolution is fantastic. in the flesh, it really looks like a high—res framed photo. but the frame isn't great, and you do need to live with the fact that it has this slightly messy lead. but i've got another picture for you to look at here. right... what do you think this one may be? well, it's an aerial shot, isn't it? i don't know — some kind of oilfield, i'll go for. that's what it looks like,
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but this is actually the car park of disney world florida during lockdown. no cars, no mickey mouse, no mini, it does not look like a theme park at all. these pictures are taken by a company called planet. they've put loads of cubesats into orbit around the earth and our collecting photos of what is going on all the time. i remember we saw planet back in 2014, i think, just when they were getting started, and they were hoping to spot daily changes on the surface of the earth with these images. that's right. and as technology's moved on, so has their technology. their near—constant surveillance gives us insight into how the world is changing, covering everything from deforestation to refugee camps in myanmar. during the covid—i9, crisis these images can provide surprising insights into how the pandemic is impacting our world. that data is even used
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as an indicator of global economic health. governments can estimate crop yields, and investors can use it to monitor oil storage in areas across the world. you see a lot of effects on the economy. the most obvious cases are things like the ships either stacking up or disappearing from ports, planes stacking up at airports. we saw oil tanks getting full up because the oil was still being in supply but it wasn't being used as much, and so all the tanking capacity was being filled up. and there may be positives for the environment and new ways of working that will emerge from populations being locked down. pollution has gone down, and we have seen some of that effect with a factories going off or less people travelling on the roads and planes, and the effects of that.
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and in general, this is relatedly changing people's behaviour a bid. a bit like people are moving to zoom instead of travelling to meetings, we are seeing people use remote—sensing satellite data rather than going out to visit sites. but there's only so much that we can understand from flat images. the next step is utilising artificial intelligence to make the world searchable. with computer vision and machine learning, soon you may be able to ask for highly—specific information. how many houses are there in pakistan? give me a plot of that versus time, and you should be able to extract that out. orjust tell me where the trees have been cut down in the amazon between last month and this month, and give me the latitudes and longitudes so i can go and investigate that. we can now see daily pictures of every simultaneous
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economic, environmental and human activity all at once. when you add in al and other data sets, the insight, patterns and predictions we can glean are completely unique. it may turn out that these eyes in the sky will give us a whole new way of seeing our world. with the coronavirus epidemic only now starting to show signs of slowing in some countries, an equally big battle, termed an ‘infodemic‘ by the who, has also been ranging. a surge of fake and manipulated news and some outright lies have hit our screens. false stories about borisjohnson dying from the coronavirus, or that 56 was somehow involved in the epidemic, right the way through to claims that the dangers of the virus were overhyped, and that's led to people questioning the lockdowns.
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so we decided to take part in an exclusive investigation to look at how both extremist political and fringe medical communities are trying to exploit the pandemic online. carl miller has been involved in the investigation, he's online now. hey, carl. how are you doing? hi, spencer. we've all kind of come across the infodemic in one way or another, we've seen posts that have been forwarded to us, but the interests and ideologies are much less visible underneath it. so we joined forces with a counter—extremism think tank here in the uk called the institute for strategic dialogue really to try and understand how these social media posts which rubbish science, which spread conspiracy theories, which blame minority groups, how they spread and something of where they come from and the agenda which they're really pushing. so this study is ongoing, isn't it, and you're going to look throughout the study at different groups and how they're involved in the misinformation and why, is that right? we started with the far—right, because there's more evidence tying
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disinformation to the far—right than any other group, but they're by no means the only people that do this kind of thing, and in the weeks ahead we will look at the far—left, at radical islamists, of course states, to see how they too are exploiting this singular moment, spreading disinformation across the internet. what gathers pace on fringe websites or private chat rooms can quickly enter the mainstream. stories such as that bill gates created the virus got widely circulated, and another blaming muslims for spreading covid—i9, began in india before moving rapidly across the atlantic to america. the internet is awash with this kind of information. we see it in our timelines, sometimes it's shared to us by friends in private groups, we know it's there. but in these early weeks of the pandemic, we wanted to understand who is really propagating this and why. fake news spans the entire political spectrum. on any issue and for any argument you can think of, there's plenty of disinformation and hate circulating.
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but there's one community which more evidence ties to disinformation than any other — the fringe far—right. we've seen plenty of examples of false and misleading narratives, but this investigation between bbc click and the isd, the global think tank for researching extremism, is one of the first pieces of research that tries to really understand its scale. we honed in on 38 english—language facebook pages relevant to the global far—right, analysing more than 150,000 of their posts since january. what started to stand out were 18 key narratives, ones focused around immigration, islam, gun ownership, crime. most striking of all was that, as the lockdown progressed, there was a stark spike in chatter about the world's elites, the likes ofjeff bezos, the rothchilds, george soros, and bill gates. correspondingly, the amount of chatter tying them to the coronavirus also spiked. chloe colliver headed
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the investigation. we started doing this research because we were interested to look at the intersection between extremism and disinformation online, and we wanted to know how the coronavirus crisis was affecting those trends. ok, so the absolute number of posts today are small, and at a time when everyone is talking about coronavirus, wouldn't we expect far—right groups to be doing so as well? this was just a sample of facebook groups that we could get access to do this research. this is very much a kind of top—level example of the trends and proportions of the far—right's interest and activity around coronavirus. it doesn't show is what is much more concerning about the scale of this — the mainstreaming of their activity. drilling down even further, analysis revealed how each of these themes interacted with each other. the algorithm sorted the different far—right groups into five main communities based on what they spoke about. there were communities clustered around judaism, islam, immigration and lgbt issues.
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but the largest community by far was interested in global elites and related conspiracy theories. if you look at conspiracy theories around global elites who are trying to hide vaccines from people, or who created the coronavirus supposedly on purpose, those often have anti—semitic tropes in about a global elite that isjewish, and that allows them to promote anti—semitic content with a cover of talking about coronavirus. the research discovered that, along with tying it to elites, this community was more likely than any other to think the virus was engineered, overhyped or had an existing cure. ideas that encourage remedies like chloroquine and proven and potentially dangerous ideas, despite the suggestions of donald trump. many of the things that you hear out there are what i call anecdotal reports, they may be true but they are anecdotal,
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so the only thing i would say is that if you really want to definitively know if something works, you've got to do the kind of trial that you get the good information. we have been here before. misinformation we know is a major issue during elections, but this might be a lot more potent. it really could convince people to not listen to government advice about staying at home. it could convince them to not seek medical help. it might even convince them to use untested treatments, with dire consequences. we put our findings to facebook, who said: it seems that claims propagated by fringe groups will continue to thrive and exploit the pandemic.
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i think that we will see an increase in the ability of the far—right to successfully mainstream their activity around coronavirus, as we see disaffection with the public health measures that are in place across the world at the moment. that was chloe colliver, finishing carl's report. so, carl, do you know how many people are actually seeing this misinformation and how effective these messages are? well, that was the other half of this study, spencer. so we took 311 websites that the far— right often linked to, drawn from fringe medical and political communities largely, and that we know shared materially false information on coronavirus. now, when you look at the number of interactions they get on a platform like facebook, all the different comments on shares and posts which links to their websites receive, the numbers are really astonishingly large. you know, baselining against say the world health organization that
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gets around 6 million interactions over the same time period, there were websites on that list that received 48 million, and across all of them, over 80 million. of course there are caveats that are important here to remember as well, there are lots of other ways that the world health organization gets their message out, and interactions doesn't of course necessarily imply agreement whatsoever, but it does suggest that there is an empire of fringe medical and political communities sat on platforms like facebook that are able to harvestjust simply enormous amounts of eyeballs. does this study tell you anything about why this infodemic is happening? i think it really reveals something that is massively important that we don't often discuss about the infodemic — underneath all those pieces of information, there is community, there is activism, there is identity, there is belonging and meaning for the people that are involved. these are social architectures complete with heroes and villains and language and gift shops even.
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this is organisation, you know, and that really sits underneath all of this, and is really propelling the piece of information which we see, kind of, jumping into our timelines. my goodness, carl, this is chillingly fascinating. thank you so much, as ever, for doing these brilliant studies. when you have more findings, will you come back and talk to us? we will. thank very much, spencer. hey there and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week when whatsapp‘s limit on forward messaging cut the spread of viral texts by 70%. the measures were introduced to help vent the spread of coronaviruses misinformation. film piracy in the uk increased by 43% since lockdown measures came into effect, although bootleg television is down 5% owing to the lack of live sport. and spoilers from naughty dog's highly anticpated the last of us part ii hit the web this week. after the leak it was announced at the game would be released on the 19th ofjune after previously
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having no confirmed release date. forget a remote control, now it's possible to conduct robots with your muscles. a team from mit csail have developed a conduct—a—bot system that uses human muscle signals from wearable sensors to pilot a robot's movement. if you've ever wondered how an al's so—called ‘brain‘ might work, a virtual rat might be able to give us a clue. researchers at deepmind and harvard university have built and ai—powered virtual rodent that can carry out multiple complex tasks. it's hopeed that the rat will help the teams understand how its artificial brain works. and finally, forget zoom weddings during the time of quarantine, how about a ceremony via animal crossing? steffan and jana had to postpone their real—life april wedding until november, but didn't want to miss out completely so they had a virtual one on nintendo's hit game instead. i wonder how many bells that
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would have cost them. the use of drones for delivery is often hyped, but with strict regulations, has never quite ‘got off the ground'. will the current need for contactless deliveries jumpsta rt the sector? the village of moneygall140km south—west of dublin, and the site of a proof—of—concept partnership between drone company manna aero and the country's health service executive. manna aero are already testing essential food deliveries from this service station, but now with the coronavirus lockdown, they've shifted their attention to medicine. hello, dr o'reilly. the new service starts with a gp video consultation. cough bottle for that. the doctor sends a prescription by e—mail to a nearby pharmacy. and they're going to deliver the drugs back to you by drone delivery. ok, no problem.
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the medicine is attached to a drone and is transported back to the patient‘s door, in this case people who are currently self—isolating. i'm 70 years of age and we're told to stay in, so we've stayed in, we've never gone out anywhere. oh, sure, it's absolutely brilliant. i thought i'd never see the day where there'd be such technology that i wouldn't have to be driving into town and back home to get my medicine. the uk too considering how to use drones to transport vital medical supplies. we'd like to be there in the next few weeks, we'd like to start something in the uk with a similar set up to here in ireland, to support the local communities during these times. we're in discussions. our plant and office and r&d is in wales, so we'd like to do something initially in wales to show the uk public what it looks like. wales has already been the site of remote drone delivery testing. just before the lockdown, a drone successfully dropped a defibrillator over snowdonia, in wales. it was a successful beyond—line—of—sight test in collaboration with the welsh ambulance service.
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and another first—of—its—kind trial in the uk, bringing medical equipment by drone from southampton general hospital to st mary's on the isle of wight, is currently underway. in a joint initiative with the european space agency, the uk government has pledged £2.6 million for drone or satellite projects that could help the nhs, and the uk space agency says we may one day see dedicated drone corridors for shipping vital supplies. the possibility of air corridors between different locations to support the covid—19 outbreak is a possibility in months. you find a few hospitals who are aware of the challenges that they are facing and up for engaging with us, and we have got some who are already engaged within nhs england and supporting this who want to engage and have these testing and these pilots in their area. diagnostics too could also be done by drone. trials from the university south australia show how temperature and vital signs can be seen by a drone, identifying someone who is coughing and what their temperature is. the system is now being tested by a police force in the us
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with a dragonfly drone. researchers say it could one day be able to distinguish between different diseases, for example if someone is suffering from coronavirus or ebola. so is this a site we're going to have to get used to? drone delivery may be coming to our towns and cities sooner than we imagined. that wasjen. now, for anyone at home with kids, things have, of course, become a little more complicated of late, as we're always looking for ways to entertain them. so marc cieslak has been taking games to the next level. "why don't they go outside and kick a ball about?" that's the phrase often repeated by lots and lots of television preventers right after any item about videogames has just run.
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well, in the current circumstances, where all real—world ball—kicking activities have been cancelled for the moment... 0h! so sad! ..a lifetime spent playing video games has better equipped millions of people for life in lockdown than all the doomsday prepping of toilet paper in the world. but, for parents and carers, it can be difficult to find titles the whole family can enjoy, especially if you yourself don't play games. help is at hand in the shape of an online guide designed to help parents who don't know their mario from their mortal kombat. it's the work ofjournalist, youtuber and father—of—three andy robertson. collaborating with the games industry, he's come up with a guide that navigates the modern gaming landscape. parents can search for an individual title to see if it's right for them, or they can search
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through curated lists which are categorised by the type of experience games provide. talking to families, i'm often, kind of, suggesting games they should play. it can be quite hard to find games in the way it's presented to them with the information they need, which are things like pegi rating, how long will it take to play, what's the kind of time commitment. it's designed for parents in a form they can access. a game just released and quite timely is a game called animal crossing, played on the switch, a game where you escape the world and you go to your own desert island. but it is quite interesting as an experience because that ties the game to the real—world clock, so if there's things you need to do in the game at a particular time of day, you have to wait until that time of day to do it, so there's the benefit of the games offering you that kind of routine.
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the list also provides a heads—up about features like loot boxes and content where games could be asking players to shell out extra cash to purchase in—game items. you know, children may well, and probably are, using games to cope with what's happening in the world. they're finding meaning in games, they're finding calm and maybe a bit of hope and a bit of control, and so if we come in and just say what we can do to limit them, we take away something that's very supportive for this particular time. the guardian newspaper games editor keza macdonald has a podcast dedicated to parenting and gaming and she's compile a list for parents who may already be gamers but might want to find titles the whole family can play. so in my family i have a 14—year—old stepson, 3—year—olds and a seven—month—old baby. obviously the baby's way too young to play games with. i find with kids under five, they don't like levels and goals, they want to play with it like it's a toy, and there's lots of really good games,
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especially on the ipad or an iphone for that age group. especially anything by toca boca... ..and sago mini, and they are essentially digital toy boxes. is a difficult to find games that a family can all play together? it is actually quite hard to find games that appeal to everyone, especially if you've got lots of kids of different ages. i find generally the best thing to do is to split your family up into units. so if you've got some teens, the teens and the adults can play together. and if you've got little kids, the little kids can play with each other or the adults and the little kids can play with together. unfortunately, i don't have any kids that are old enough to play the kind of thing i want to play. so my own gaming time has to happen in the evenings now if i have any energy left at the end of the day. brilliant! that was marc, and you'll find the details to all of the games marc mentions pinned to the top of our twitter feeds. that's it for now, though. you staying in that place next week
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or are you moving around again? i don't know. tweet me — we could have a vote! through the week, you can keep track of all the team on social media on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter ? @bbcclick. thanks for watching, and we will see you soon. bye— bye. for those lucky enough to have a garden, it can become a real sanctuary in recent weeks. some of you have been working so hard to make them so immaculate. a lot of sunshine showing up there across sussex through the morning. there will be more around this afternoon
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as well. this weekend will bring us as well. this weekend will bring us a lot of dry weather although still some showers to come in the north—east. it was a very dry april for many parts of the uk so some of their showers in recent days actually bringing some welcome rainfall. below that brought them is 110w rainfall. below that brought them is now off to watch the continent and high pressure is trying to come in from the north. this weather front is sitting towards the south—west and will come into play of the for saturday, a lot of dry weather and sunshine but showers, initially across northern scotland is tending to clear but then congregating across the south east of scotland and north—east of england for the afternoon. quite a i think breeze along sea coast and will feel quite chilly here. temperatures in the mid teens, cool ever northern scotland. just 11—18. you can see the cloud trying to push towards the south—west of england through the afternoon. the late sunshine here turning increasingly hazy and that cloud pushing further rain overnight, perhaps a little bit of
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rainfora time overnight, perhaps a little bit of rain for a time for devon and cornwall. meanwhile the showers in the north—east fade away. temperatures overnight, five or 6 degrees. typical lows. a few clearer risk spells across scotland and there may be patchy fast. sunday morning, a quiet start. light winds, a lot of sunshine to get the day under way. showers quite quickly breaking out across northern reaches of scotland. the front to the south not manifesting much in the way of rain but definitely cloudy skies for england and wales to sunday morning. but the afternoon some sharper showers. some locally heavy downpours here. cooler than today as well. on into next week, the high does dry to wind out and it will eventually but still the system towards the south—west trying to bring us some rain and it looks like it will have a great success in doing that across south wales and southern england particularly tuesday and wednesday. just in the average if not somewhat cool temperatures for the first part of the week with a i think easterly
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good afternoon. thousands of people have registered to take part in a trial that uses blood plasma from people who have had coronavirus and since recovered to treat sick patients. it's one of the latest trials in progress aimed at tackling the virus. meanwhile, in the united states, emergency approval has been given for an experimental drug that was used for treating ebola. it comes as ministers here prepare to announce plans for lifting some of the restrictions in place across the uk.
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