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Police have arrested 179 people, including four in the UK, as part of a global crackdown on dark web opioid trafficking.
More than $6.5m (£5m) in cash was seized in a series of arrests and raids across the US and Europe, which came more than a year after the Wall Street Market darknet site was closed down.

At the time the site – which was operated by three German nationals – was one of the largest online illegal marketplaces, allowing users to purchase illicit items ranging from fraudulent documents to drugs and weapons.
It was accessible though the anonymity-preserving Tor browser, which is legitimately used around the world by people whose access to the internet is controlled by authoritarian governments, but which has also provided criminals with a mechanism to frustrate law enforcement.

‘We get them online for 40p’: Warning over ‘dangerous fake’ anti-anxiety drugs

The US Department of Justice nicknamed the crackdown Operation DisrupTor – a reference to the software – and said its investigators were continuing to work to identify individuals behind darknet accounts.

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The three Wall Street Market administrators were arrested last year after conducting a so-called exit scam, suddenly disappearing with the cryptocurrency they held in escrow for the vendors and purchasers who traded on their site.

Alongside cash and virtual currency, the crackdown led to the seizure of more than 500kg of drugs – around 275kg of which was captured in the US – and 64 firearms.

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The drugs included 17kg of fentanyl and 97kg of methamphetamine, along with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and other opioids.
FBI officers in Ohio shut down what was described as “one of the most prolific online drug trafficking organisations” in the US, “which operated using the moniker ‘Pill Cosby’.”
Another narcotics vendor called “NeverPressedRX” was, the FBI said, “so intent on securing his online criminal enterprise that he conspired to use explosives to firebomb and destroy a competitor pharmacy”.
The arrests included 121 in the US, two in Canada, 42 in Germany, eight in the Netherlands, four in the UK, three in Australia and one in Sweden, according to the US Department of Justice.
“There will be no safe haven for drug dealing in cyberspace,” the DoJ said in its statement.
“Today’s announcement is very much a success story in international law enforcement cooperation, as crime on the darknet is truly a global problem that requires global partnership.
“However, the global nature of the threat also means that foreign countries who fail to act can easily become safe harbours for criminals who seek to pump lethal, addictive drugs into the US from abroad.”

Airbus has unveiled three concepts for a zero-emission commercial aircraft powered by hydrogen rather than jet fuel, which it says could be carrying passengers by 2035.
The three concepts are each based on a different idea for how to achieve zero-emission flights and use different aerodynamic configurations for what the company said was its ambition of “decarbonising the entire aviation industry”.

The crucial power source for all of these planes, codenamed ZEROe (for zero emissions), is hydrogen as a clean aviation fuel.

Image: The turbofan configuration could fly 2,000+ miles
The aerospace company said its concepts are yet to be evaluated and validated to see whether they could become real planes in the future.
One of these is a turbofan design capable of carrying 120-200 passengers with a range of 2,000+ miles by using modified gas-turbine engines powered by liquid hydrogen stores in tanks behind the rear pressure bulkhead.

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Image: The turboprop configuration could make shorter journeys
Another design using a turboprop engine (modified from gas-turbine engines) could carry up to 100 passengers more than 1,000 nautical miles – making it a “perfect option for short-haul trips” according to Airbus.

The third futuristic design uses a blended-wing body and could carry up to 200 passengers to distances similar to the turbofan fan concept.

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In this design the wings merge with the main body of the plane, giving it a wide fuselage which allows for greater hydrogen storage capabilities and a new kind of cabin layout.

Image: The blended-wing body configuration could also fly 2,000 miles
“The transition to hydrogen, as the primary power source for these concept planes, will require decisive action from the entire aviation ecosystem,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.
“Together with the support from government and industrial partners we can rise up to this challenge to scale-up renewable energy and hydrogen for the sustainable future of the aviation industry.”
But airports will require “significant hydrogen transport and refueling infrastructure to meet the needs of day-to-day operations,” the company warns – something which will require investment.
“Support from governments will be key to meet these ambitious objectives,” the company added.

NASA have outlined plans for a space programme which will see the first woman sent to the Moon in 2024.
The programme, called Artemis, will also send a man to the Moon – it will be the first lunar landing since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Astronauts will launch on a rocket called SLS and travel in a spacecraft called Orion, which is similar to capsules used in previous Apollo missions.

Image: Artemis will be the first NASA Moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972
The first phase, named Artemis-1, will involve an uncrewed test flight around the Moon in autumn 2021, enabling all of the critical systems, including life support and communication capabilities, to be tested.
Artemis-2 will repeat the same trip with a crew onboard in 2023 as well as conducting a new test – a proximity operations demonstration.

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This demonstration will involve astronauts manually piloting Orion after it separates from the upper-stage of the SLS rocket, known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage.

In preparation for Artemis, new probes will be sent to the Moon by NASA – with two a year planned from 2021.

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In 2024, Artemis-3 will see astronauts land on the lunar south pole of the Moon.
They will have modern spacesuits enabling more flexibility than those on previous Apollo missions had.
The astronauts will spend seven days on the lunar surface collecting samples and carrying out various experiments before returning to Earth.
NASA have said the concept for the programme also involves building infrastructure later in the decade.
This will help establish a base camp which would allow long-term surface expeditions of the moon with more crew involved.

Image: NASA have said the programme will help build momentum towards the exploration of Mars
The Artemis programme also hopes to extract resources, such as water-ice, to create other usable resources such as oxygen and fuel.
The programme is estimated to cost $28bn and is currently dependent on $3.2bn being approved by Congress.
NASA administrator bJim Bridenstine said: “The budget request that we have before the House and the Senate right now includes $3.2bn for 2021 for the human landing system. It is critically important that we get that $3.2bn.”
He added: “We’re going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new a generation of explorers.
“As we build up a sustainable presence, we’re also building momentum toward those first human steps on the red planet.”

The mysterious cause of an entire rural Welsh village’s broadband being knocked out at 7am each morning has finally been uncovered – an old television set.
Frequent tests consistently showed that Aberhosan’s network itself was working fine but even after local engineers replaced large sections of cable, the problems continued.

After 18 months of fruitless investigation, Openreach’s Chief Engineer team – “the telecoms equivalent of the SAS” according to the company – were dispatched to the Powys village to look into the outages.
They hit their first obstacle when discovering there was no room for them to stay in Aberhosan itself.
“Accommodation was understandably hard to find due to the COVID-19 lockdown but we did eventually manage to find a guest house with a field near Llandrindod Wells,” Openreach engineer Michael Jones said.

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Based there, the team made the 55-mile journey early in the morning and “walked up and down the village in the torrential rain at 6am to see if we could find an ‘electrical noise’ to support our theory,” Mr Jones explained.

The theory was that the fault was being caused by a phenomenon known as SHINE (Single High Impulse Noise Event), with electrical interference emitted by a local appliance affecting broadband connectivity.

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A SHINE is a powerful radio wave emitted at the same frequency range as that of the broadband service, which effectively scrambles the signal in a similar manner to military-grade radio jammers.
“And at 7am, like clockwork, it happened!” said Mr Jones, who explained that the team’s spectrum analyser picked up a large burst of electrical interference in the village.
“The source of the ‘electrical noise’ was traced to a property in the village,” he added.
“It turns out that at 7am every morning the occupant would switch on their old tv which would in-turn knock out broadband for the entire village.”
He said the resident was mortified to discover that their old second hand television was the cause of the entire village’s broadband problems, and they agreed to switch it off and never use it again.
Openreach’s engineering chief for Wales, Suzanne Rutherford, said: “Our team were delighted to have been able to solve the broadband mystery in Aberhosan and it is a testament to their determination and commitment.
“Sadly this isn’t quite as a rare as people may think. Anything with electric components – from outdoor lights to microwaves to CCTV cameras can potentially have an impact on your broadband connection.
“We’d just advise the public to make sure that their electric appliances are properly certified and meet current British Standards and if you have a fault, report it to your service provider in the first instance so that we can investigate.”

Astronomers have identified a new mini-moon about to join Earth’s orbit – however it’s believed to be manmade space junk.
Mini-moons are typically asteroids which temporarily join the Earth’s orbit before being flung back into space.

However, experts have said the characteristics of this object suggest it isn’t an asteroid and is instead consistent with something manmade.

Image: The mini-moon is expected to join Earth’s orbit next month
The object, named 2020 SO, has an Earth-like orbit of a little over a year and low velocity which is not typical of an asteroid.
Objects arriving from the moon have a lower velocity than asteroids, however experts have said it’s slower than moon rocks too.

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A NASA official has suggested it may be a discarded part of a rocket which launched experimental payload, Surveyor 2, to study the moon in September 1966.

The trajectory it is following means 2020 SO is likely to be captured by Earth’s gravity in October, and will continue to orbit the planet until around May 2021.

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Despite being considered space junk, 2020 SO has been classified as an Apollo asteroid – these are known to cross paths with Earth’s orbit.
Various mini-moons have been detected in the past, however only two of them have ever been confirmed.
The first being 2006 RH120, which orbited Earth between 2006 and 2007, and the other 2020 CD3, which arrived in 2018 before departing earlier this year.

Image: Reusable rockets are only recent solutions, with multi-stage rockets being used for decades
Reusable rockets have only been invented in recent times, with multi-stage rockets designed to fall apart being used for decades.
The booster stage of a rocket falls back to Earth for reuse, however the rest of the rocket is discarded in space after completing its job, resulting in space junk.
Experts have said due to the various factors in space, items can easily get lost.
2020 SO is expected to have two near encounters with Earth.
On 1 December it is expected to pass at a distance of 50,000 kilometres, and on 2 February 2021 it will fly by around 220,000 kilometres away.
Neither instances will be enough to enter Earth’s atmosphere, however they may allow a closer study to determine what the object is.

Xbox Series X and S pre-orders are available today and rapidly selling out across the world, with one website hit by demand.
Although the consoles won’t be physically available until 10 November – for £249 for the smaller Xbox Series S, and £449 for the flagship Series X – consumers wishing to avoid the queues can purchase theirs online today.

Demand appears to be very high with pre-order stock of the Series X completely selling out in Australia, while in the UK the website for high street retailer Game going down this morning as customers tried to use the site.

Image: The website for Game was down while ‘dealing with large volumes of customers’
Game told Sky News: “Xbox customers have come out in force with an exceptional response to pre-orders going live at 8am this morning, in-store and online. We’re dealing with large volumes of customers visiting our website and are working hard to serve their needs.”
A number of retailers in the UK have sold out of the Series X, although the Series S is still available at most outlets.

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When pre-orders went live for Sony’s rival console the PlayStation 5 they sold out in significantly less than an hour.

According to Microsoft, customers in 12 countries – including the UK, US, Australia and South Korea – will be able to pay for the consoles and a gaming pass through a monthly plan starting at $24.99 for two years.

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The cheaper Series S will not have a disc drive and will have lower specifications than the Series X, relying on users to download and stream games.

Image: The new Xbox console will be launched without Halo Infinite. Pic: Microsoft
Despite this Microsoft said the Series S will “deliver everything that is core to next-generation gaming – faster load times, higher frame rates, and richer, more dynamic worlds”.
The main difference between the two versions is the graphics resolution, with the Series S graphics processing unit not as powerful as the Series X, and being unable to output 4K video.
While there are also two new PlayStation 5 consoles, with the flagship model retailing for the same £449, the cheaper digital edition which also doesn’t have a disc drive will cost £359 – £110 more than the cheaper Series S – because Sony said it does not have lower specs.
The new PS5s will be available in the UK from 19 November.

A British man who helped steal information from several companies as a key member of The Dark Overlord hacking group has been jailed for five years in the US.
Nathan Francis Wyatt pleaded guilty in federal court in St Louis, Missouri, to conspiring to commit aggravated identity theft and computer fraud.

The 39-year-old, of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, was also ordered to pay around $1.5m (£1.17m) in restitution.

Image: Wyatt’s actions helped the other hackers to remain anonymous, the court heard
In an unrelated case in 2016, Wyatt was arrested by UK police investigating the hacking of an iCloud account belonging to the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister, Pippa Matthews.
The father-of-three was released with no further action in relation to that case in September 2017.

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Federal prosecutors said The Dark Overlord stole medical records, client files and personal information from the US companies, then demanded between $75,000 and $300,000 (£58,000-£234,000) worth of Bitcoin to return the information.

While none of the companies paid the ransom, the conspiracy cost them due to the intrusion and release of data, according to federal prosecutor Laura Kathleen Berstein.

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She told the hearing that Wyatt set up a phone account and Twitter and PayPal accounts that were used to communicate and receive money.
Wyatt apologised during the hearing – which was held via Zoom – and said he was on medication for mental issues that led him to make bad decisions, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“I can promise you that I’m out of that world,” he said.
“I don’t want to see another computer for the rest of my life.”
His lawyer Brocca Morrison noted that Wyatt did not orchestrate the hacks and is the only hacker of the group that has been identified.
Ms Bernstein said Wyatt’s actions helped the other hackers to remain anonymous and that his phone account was used to send threatening text messages to relatives of victims.
Wyatt lost his appeal at the High Court to avoid extradition to the US for trial last year.
He had been serving time in prison since 2017 for separate blackmail and fraud convictions.

A deal to prevent TikTok from being banned in the US has been plunged into peril.
The Chinese company ByteDance had reached an agreement with Oracle and Walmart that was designed to allay national security concerns, but Global Times, a newspaper backed by the Chinese state, has suggested Beijing is unlikely to give its approval.

Under the plans, a new US subsidiary would be tasked with running TikTok, a video streaming app that is immensely popular with teenagers.

What data does TikTok collect on its users?

But the newspaper’s editorial denounced a requirement that four of the five board seats of this company must be held by Americans, with only one reserved for a Chinese national.
“It is clear that these [terms] extensively show Washington’s bullying style and hooligan logic. They hurt China’s national security, interests and dignity,” the article warned.

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Another paragraph added: “If the reorganisation of TikTok under US manipulation becomes a model, it means once any successful Chinese company expands its business to the US and becomes competitive, it will be targeted by the US and turned into a US-controlled company via trickery and coercion.”

This isn’t the only threat to the TikTok deal, which requires approval from regulators in both Beijing and Washington.

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While ByteDance says it will continue to own 80% of the TikTok Global subsidiary, Oracle has said that the Chinese company won’t have a direct stake in the business.

Image: The app is especially popular among US teenagers
US President Donald Trump has said that he won’t approve the deal unless he is satisfied that Oracle and Walmart have “total control” over TikTok – and warned he is prepared to scrap it.
“If we can save it, we’ll save it, and if we can’t we’ll cut if off,” he told reporters. “We have to have total security. That’s the only thing, very important, we have to have total security.”
The US Commerce Department had proposed to ban all downloads of the TikTok app in the US from last Sunday, but this measure was delayed by one week to give the companies time to finalise the deal.

Twitter has launched an investigation after users claimed that its image cropping feature favours the faces of white people.
An automatic tool on the social network’s mobile app automatically crops pictures that are too big to fit on the screen – and selects which parts of an image should be cut off.

But an experiment from a graduate programmer appeared to show racial bias.

Image: Twitter has vowed to investigate
To see what Twitter’s algorithm would pick, Tony Arcieri posted a long image featuring headshots of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at the top and former US president Barack Obama at the bottom – separated by white space.
In a second image, Mr Obama’s headshot was placed at the top, with Mr McConnell’s at the bottom.

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Both times, the former president was cropped out altogether.

Following the “horrible experiment” – which came after an image he posted cropped out a black colleague – Mr Arcieri wrote: “Twitter is just one example of racism manifesting in machine learning algorithms.”

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At the time of writing, his experiment has been retweeted 78,000 times.

Twitter has vowed to look into the issue, but said in a statement: “Our team did test for bias before shipping the model and did not find evidence of racial or gender bias in our testing.
“It’s clear from these examples that we’ve got more analysis to do. We’ll continue to share what we learn, what actions we take, and will open source our analysis so others can review and replicate.”
A Twitter representative also pointed to research from a Carnegie Mellon University scientist who analysed 92 images. In that experiment, the algorithm favoured black faces 52 times.
Back in 2018, the company said the tool was based on a “neural network” that uses artificial intelligence to predict which part of a photo would be interesting to a user.
Meredith Whittaker, the co-founder of the AI Now Institute, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: “This is another in a long and weary litany of examples that show automated systems encoding racism, misogyny and histories of discrimination.”

Microsoft has agreed to buy the company behind hit games such as Fallout, Doom and The Elder Scrolls in a $7.5bn (£5.8bn) deal.
The acquisition of ZeniMax will help Microsoft strengthen its Xbox video game offering as competition with rival Sony heats up ahead of Christmas.

Gaming has been boosted by growing demand at a time when consumers have been stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Image: The new Xbox models will hit shelves on 10 November. Pic: Microsoft
Microsoft and PlayStation 5 maker Sony are launching their next-generation gaming devices in November, with pre-orders for the Xbox going live on Tuesday.
ZeniMax is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, whose titles include Wolfenstein and Dishonored.

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Microsoft plans to make Bethesda’s future games available on its monthly Xbox Game Pass subscription service – which currently has more than 15 million subscribers.

Its latest acquisition will mean it has more hit titles in its gaming library – a key selling point for gamers choosing a console.

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Microsoft said gaming was the “largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment in the world”, expected to be worth more than $200bn (£154bn) in annual revenue in 2021.
Chief executive Satya Nadella said: “Gaming is the most expansive category in the entertainment industry, as people everywhere turn to gaming to connect, socialise and play with their friends

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“Quality differentiated content is the engine behind the growth and value of Xbox Game Pass – from Minecraft to Flight Simulator.
“As a proven game developer and publisher, Bethesda has seen success across every category of games and, together, we will further our ambition to empower the more than three billion gamers worldwide.”
The ZeniMax deal comes shortly after Microsoft’s bid to take over the US operations of TikTok was rejected by the video app’s Chinese owner ByteDance.
TikTok is instead looking to enter into a partnership with Oracle and Walmart.