Sky News Articles

Boris Johnson’s moonshot testing programme “can be done”, according to a Chinese company which has developed a new 30-minute COVID-19 test.
The firm’s founder told Sky News it could provide the capacity to test one million people in the UK each day within a month.

Sabrina Li, the founder and chief executive of biotech company Coyote, said: “If Boris Johnson calls me, I’d say; ‘Hi Boris, we are ready to help the UK’.

Image: The company demonstrated the test at its lab in Beijing
“I think we have the best technology and we are definitely willing to help.”
At the end of July, Coyote won approval in China for its rapid testing instrument, which it believes to be the fastest polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in the world.

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The company demonstrated the test to Sky News at its lab in Beijing, with results produced in half an hour and delivered to a phone a few minutes later.

Around 500 units are now being used in hospitals and airports around the country.

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Image: The results of the COVID-19 test can be delivered to a phone within minutes
During recent COVID-19 outbreaks in Dalian and Urumqi this summer, it carried out 500,000 tests as part of its validation process.
Ms Li said: “For this kind of new test, everyone will have doubts. Is it precise or good enough?
“Although it’s quick, is it good enough? So we keep answering this kind of question to the professionals and the experts and then finally we pass [the Chinese government’s] test.”

Image: Sabrina Li is the founder and chief executive of biotech company Coyote
Ms Li said that the rapid test meets the same standards for sensitivity and specificity as slower tests.
The 30-minute test is not designed to replace less rapid, mass testing, which is required to chart the spread of COVID-19 through a population and doesn’t depend on a quick turnaround.
But rapid testing has applications in time critical situations like hospitals and border control.

What are the different types of COVID-19 tests?

Ms Li said: “The point of care tests like the 30 minute test is; let’s say if you got to the hospital and there is an emergency for the patient, they want to go to the ICU or even to operation very, very soon, then you need that short period of time to get that COVID-19 negative result, so that the nurses and doctors won’t get infected.”
A combination of slow and rapid testing means it’s feasible to test 10 million people per day in the UK, one of the reported goals of the UK government’s Operation Moonshot.

Ambition for ‘millions’ of tests per day

“It requires a lot of equipment,” Ms Li told Sky News. “But it can be done.”
If 10 swab samples are batched together in one tube – an approved method in China – 500 Coyote machines could provide 2,000 30-minute tests per day, meaning one million daily tests.
The technology is also relatively simple to operate compared to more traditional PCR tests, which could take pressure off UK testing facilities currently under strain.

Image: The rapid tests can be used in time critical situations such as hospitals and border control
Ms Li said: “For our test you can just train a nurse, even a layman to do it, and it’s very simple to operate.
“After training for maybe half an hour, you could operate it.”
Two machines are currently being validated in the UK through its Hong Kong-based partner, Prenetics, which is also carrying out COVID-19 testing for the Premier League.
Coyote expects approval by the end of the month.
Ms Li said Prenetics is speaking to FIFA about using the machine for the 2022 World Cup.

Ambition for ‘millions’ of tests per day

The company can currently produce 500 units per month at its Beijing facility and is aiming to increase capacity to 1,000 per month by the end of the year.
Ms Li added: “For this kind of instrument it actually has all these different controls – electrical, thermal, optical. And also biochemical reactions.
“It’s not as simple as a cell phone, so it’s not at that scale. It’s a medical device, a very complex medical device.”
Each instrument costs 350,000RMB, approximately £40,000.
Demand is high and the machines are currently sold out. But the Chinese government is providing support, including increased access to materials and components.
Ms Li said: “They are helping to increase our ability to manufacture, so that we can not only provide China or the Chinese people, we can provide our technology worldwide.”

An Uber safety driver who was behind the wheel of a self-driving car that struck and killed a woman in the US has been charged over the death.
Rafaela Vasquez pleaded not guilty to negligent homicide on Tuesday following the 2018 crash that resulted in the first recorded death involving a self-driving vehicle.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, died after she was struck by the car while walking a bike across a street at night in Tempe, Arizona.

Image: Investigators examine the self-driving car involved in the fatal crash
Uber escaped charges over the crash after prosecutors said last year that the company was not criminally liable.
Police have said previously that Vasquez was watching the TV show The Voice on her phone at the time of the crash and was repeatedly looking down instead of keeping her eyes on the road.

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Image: Rafael Vasquez is shown inside the Uber at the moment of impact
The 46-year-old is now due to face trial in February.

She told investigators she did not use her mobile phones before the collision.

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However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded her failure to monitor the road as she watched The Voice on her phone was the main cause of the crash.
The contributing factors cited by the board included Uber’s inadequate safety procedures and ineffective oversight of its drivers, Ms Herzberg’s decision to cross the street outside of a crosswalk, and the Arizona Department of Transportation’s insufficient oversight of autonomous vehicle testing.

Image: Police at the crash scene in Arizona
The board also concluded Uber’s de-activation of its automatic emergency braking system increased the risks associated with testing automated vehicles on public roads.
Instead of the system, Uber relied on the human backup driver to intervene.
The Uber system detected Ms Herzberg 5.6 seconds before the crash.
However it failed to determine whether she was a bicyclist, pedestrian or unknown object, or that she was headed into the vehicle’s path, the NTSB said.

Image: The vehicle damage following the crash
A toxicology report showed that Ms Herzberg tested positive for methamphetamine.
Before starting work as an Uber driver, Vasquez had previously spent more than four years in prison for two felony convictions – making false statements when obtaining unemployment benefits and attempted armed robbery, according to court records.
Uber reached a civil settlement with Ms Herzberg’s family several weeks after the accident.
Its driverless car programme, which was suspended in the wake of the crash, resumed last December.
Vasquez’s first name was listed on a driver’s licence as Rafael, but police say Vasquez identifies as a woman and goes by the first name of Rafaela.

Apple has launched a range of new products in its September event, but – for the first time in years – it has not released a new iPhone.
Three new Apple Watches were shown off, as was the updated version of watchOS.

The marquee new feature is a pulse oximeter which allows the wearable to detect blood oxygen levels by using red and infrared light to measure the colour of wearers’ blood.
This will be used with researchers in three studies focusing on respiratory diseases, including asthma and COVID-19.

Image: Apple Watch and iPad took the centre stage, with no iPhone announcement
The Apple Watch 6 will be available for £379 from 18 September, while the high-end version with GPS and cellular capabilities costs £479.

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Apple also announced the launch of a cheaper device, the Apple Watch SE, which will be available from £269 with just GPS, or £319 with GPS and cellular capabilities.

As part of the company’s move to generate revenue from services as well as its hardware devices, it announced a new Fitness+ service allowing Apple Watch users to take part in programmed workouts with world-leading fitness experts, with performance measured by the Apple Watch.

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Access to Fitness+ and other services is now available in a bundle called Apple One. This will be priced at £29.95 per month in a premier version which can be shared among family members, or for £14.95 per month on a limited subscription with fewer services.
The company also introduced its most powerful ever chip, the A14 Bionic, which will be available in the new iPad Air 4, available from £579.
The chip was described as “by far the most advanced we’ve ever made” with transistors so small they “challenge the laws of physics” with about 11.8 billion packed into a single chip.
“We’re talking about a scale so small, they’re measured in atoms,” the company said.
It is the first time such a chip has been announced in any product line other than the iPhone, potentially due to the delayed release date which the company warned investors about earlier this year.
According to Apple the iPad Air 4 is three times faster than the top-selling Android tablet, and six times faster than the top-selling Chromebook.
The iPhone 12 is expected to be the company’s first 5G device and will be launched at an event in October, according to reports.

The NHS is partnering with Facebook to enlist new blood donors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland ahead of a potential second wave of COVID-19.
The feature on Facebook will allow users to sign up to receive notifications to donate at local centres, as well as encourage their friends to donate too.

The NHS is particularly focusing on enlisting male plasma donors who have previously had the coronavirus, as their blood could help save lives for people with COVID-19.

The UK faces another national lockdown

More than 5,000 blood donations are needed by the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland every day to meet demand.
Each donation can save up to three lives – but there isn’t a good representation across all sections of British society in who is donating, with the majority of donors aged over 45

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Black people and men are particularly underrepresented, with rare subtypes, such as RO, far more common in people of black heritage – but currently only 1.5% of blood donors in England are black, compared to 3.5% of the population.

Men in general are particularly being encouraged to donate blood as well as plasma because their blood generally contains fewer antibodies, making it easier to match patients and use their donations in blood products such as plasma and platelets.

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“The timing of the tool is vital because ahead of any second wave of COVID-19, the NHS urgently needs people who’ve had coronavirus to donate convalescent plasma,” Facebook said in a statement.
This is antibody-rich plasma which can be transfused into people whose immune systems are struggling to respond to the infection.
“Men are especially needed because they are roughly 50% more likely to have high enough antibody levels for the trials,” the company added.

Image: Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the announcement
The Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the announcement.
He said: “Giving blood saves lives. The need for donors never ceases, and we have seen in the past few months how blood products can be used to treat those seriously ill with coronavirus.
“This new tool makes donations even easier, with donor centres sending notifications through Facebook to let people know when they can give blood in their area.
“I’m hugely grateful to new donors and everyone who has continued to donate throughout the pandemic, and I encourage anyone who can to give blood or plasma to help save more lives.”

The Japanese military have been given instructions to record and report sightings of unidentified aerial objects which could pose a potential threat to the country’s security.
Taro Kono, the country’s minister for defence, issues the instruction following the US department of defence founding its Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.

While the popular imagination has been excited by UFOs, the military takes UAPs – as they are formally known – very seriously.

Declassified: UFOs filmed by US navy pilots

The risk for security officials is that the spotted aircraft are something which an untrained observer is unable to identify, but which could be a foreign incursion into domestic airspace.
But sometimes the UAPs appear to be even more mysterious.

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Earlier this year the Pentagon declassified three videos of strange elliptical objects racing across the sky.

The black and white videos were recorded by Navy pilots – one in November 2004 and two in January 2015, according to the US Department of Defence.

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One of the clips shows a dark circular object flying in front of a jet, another shows a small object speeding over land and the third shows a circular object racing and then appearing to slow down as it approaches the camera.
Mr Kono cited these videos and explained that while the Japanese defence force pilots are not believed to have ever encountered a UAP, his intention wast to develop a procedure in case such an encounter ever took place.
It is not the first time that members of the Japanese government have broached the topic.

Image: Footage of UFOs has been released by the US DOD
The defence ministry previously stated in 2015 that it had never encountered alien spacecraft although the country’s then chief cabinet secretary, Nobutaka Machimura, said: “Personally, I absolutely believe they exist.”
Then-defence minister Shigeru Ishiba added that in his personal opinion there were “no grounds” to deny that there are UFOs controlled by alien life-forms, although this was not the official government position.
Celebrities fascinated by UFOs include rock star Tom DeLonge, who spoke to Sky News about his work on the subject earlier this month, saying he would not have put music on the backburner just “to chase monsters and ghosts”.

Former Blink-182 star on leaving rock for UFOs

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the lunar module pilot for Apollo 14, publicly stated he was personally 90% sure that many reports of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, “belong to visitors from other planets”.
He suggested that he had met officials from foreign countries who had personal encounters with alien beings, and suggested that governments were covering up such contacts.
That said, he always maintained that he had never seen a UFO, and that he had never been threatened regarding those claims. He also said that UFOs being covered up was his own personal speculation.

Facebook has launched a climate science information centre to promote authoritative voices on climate change following wildfires in the US and criticism of the platform for allowing misinformation to spread.
However, the company will continue to permit false information about climate change to be posted and promoted by politicians, as well as excluding opinion articles from its normal fact-checking processes.

Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and Facebook’s global policy chief, told reporters that the company would continue exempting false claims about climate change posted by politicians.
“No social media company has ever tried to do so for the simple reason that political speeches always are characterised by exaggerations, selected uses of statistics, and exaggerated claims of virtues from one candidate and vices of others,” he said.

Trump denies climate change in wildfires row

It follows dramatic wildfires across the west coast of the US, where the company is based, which have killed more than 30 people as they spread across the states of Oregon, California and Washington.

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The information centre project is similar to the information centres Facebook has launched for COVID-19 and the US elections, topics which the company has also acknowledged there was a substantial amount of disinformation around.

It comes as the company pledges that its global operations will meet a net zero carbon emission target and be completely powered by renewable energy by the end of this year – and aims for its supply chain to reach net zero carbon emissions in 2030.

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The information centre will provide “factual resources from the world’s leading climate organisations, including the Met Office in the UK, and steps people can take in their everyday lives to combat climate change”.
Facebook explained that it prioritises tackling misinformation that poses an immediate threat of harm, such as fake cures for coronavirus or hate speech which could incite violence.
Last month the company deleted a post by Donald Trump which included the false claim that children are “almost immune” from COVID-19.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in April, involving 2,500 children, which found about one in five needed hospital treatment compared with one in three adults.
A global review of dozens of studies also said children’s role in transmission was unclear but that “it seems likely they do not play a significant role”.
“COVID-19 appears to affect children less often, and with less severity, including frequent asymptomatic or subclinical infection,” concluded the study – done in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
According to Chris Cox, the head of the coronavirus information centre, more than 600 million people have clicked on the tool, which the company’s executives consider a success.

Scientists have discovered a rare molecule in the clouds of Venus, which suggests colonies of living microbes could be thriving in the oxygen-free environment high in the planet’s atmosphere.
While the surface of Venus is far too hot to sustain life, with a mean temperature of around 464C (867F), astronomers have speculated that life could survive high in the planet’s atmosphere where conditions are much more moderate.

Now an international team of astronomers led by Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University have announced the discovery of phosphine gas in these high clouds, a molecule which is produced on Earth by microbes that live in similar oxygen-free environments.

Image: Phosphine molecules have been detected in Venus’ clouds. Pic: ESO
The phosphine molecules, which consist of hydrogen and phosphorus atoms, were first detected from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
“This was an experiment made out of pure curiosity, really – taking advantage of the JCMT’s powerful technology,” said Professor Greaves, who led the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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“I thought we’d just be able to rule out extreme scenarios, like the clouds being stuffed full of organisms. When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus’ spectrum, it was a shock!”

After confirming the presence of phosphine, the international team of astronomers ran a number of calculations to see where it could have come from.

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They caution that natural processes couldn’t be ruled out due to the lack of information about the prevalence of phosphorus on Venus.
But work by Dr William Bains at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on natural ways to produce phosphine found that there was no way to produce the amount detected in Venus’ atmosphere.
To create the observed quantity of phosphine on Venus, organisms on Earth would only have to output the gas at about 10% of their maximum productivity, according to calculations by Dr Paul Rimmer of the University of Cambridge.

Image: Venus was observed from the JCMT in Hawaii. Pic: Will Montgomerie
Microbial life on Venus is expected to be very different to that on Earth, however, as it would need to survive in the hyper-acidic conditions of the planet’s clouds – made almost entirely from sulphuric acid.
On Earth, bacteria produces phosphine gas after absorbing phosphate minerals and adding hydrogen to it. This process is curious, as it costs the bacteria energy rather than gives it to them – so the evolutionary purpose for the process is unclear.
Some scientists believe phosphine is just a waste produce of another process, while some believe it could have an alternative purpose – such as warding off rivals.
The discovery offers a potential explanation for the mysterious dark streaks on the surface of Venus, detected by the Japanese space agency JAXA, which bizarrely absorb ultraviolet light.

Image: Venus is covered in clouds of sulphuric acid. Pic: JAXA
These dark streaks could be colonies of microbes, surviving in a pleasant 30C (86F) temperature of the high clouds, although the clouds themselves are incredibly acidic – made of about 90% sulphuric acid.
Professor Emma Bunce, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, congratulated the team on their work and called for a new mission to Venus to investigate their findings.
“A key question in science is whether life exists beyond Earth, and the discovery by Professor Jane Greaves and her team is a key step forward in that quest,” said Professor Bunce.
“I’m particularly delighted to see UK scientists leading such an important breakthrough – something that makes a strong case for a return space mission to Venus,” she added.

Microsoft’s bid to take over TikTok’s US operations has been rejected by Chinese owner ByteDance, with database specialist Oracle securing a deal to operate the popular video-sharing app.
The move comes just a week before President Donald Trump’s threatened ban on the app – claiming national security risks – is due to come into force.

Mr Trump had ordered the sale of TikTok’s operations in the US, where it has 100 million users.

TikTok hits back at Trump’s ban threat

ByteDance had been in talks to either sell to Oracle or a consortium led by Microsoft, and including retail giant Walmart.
But those talks were thrown off track after China updated export control rules last month – giving it a say over the transfer of TikTok’s algorithm to a foreign buyer.

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Microsoft disclosed on Sunday that its bid had been rejected.

It was later confirmed on Monday that ByteDance was to pursue a partnership with Oracle that it hopes will spare it from a US ban while also allaying any concerns from Beijing.

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The Chinese firm said the cloud computing specialist would serve as TikTok’s “trusted technology provider.”
The Reuters news agency, citing sources, reported that TikTok would create up to 25,000 new jobs in the US should the White House agree to the partnership.
TikTok is best known for short video clips that go viral on social media, especially among young people, but American officials are worried that user information could find its way into the hands of the Chinese government.
The app has said it would never share such data with Chinese authorities.

Trump: ‘I don’t mind’ if Microsoft buys TikTok

It was not yet clear whether Mr Trump, who favours an American tech firm owning a majority of TikTok in the US, would approve the deal.

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Oracle, whose chairman Larry Ellison is a supporter of the president, has significant technical expertise but no experience in running social media – instead dealing largely with corporate clients.
Its shares leapt more than 5% on news of the planned partnership.

UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings is to be sold to America’s Nvidia in a deal worth up to $40bn (£31bn).
But the sale was described as a “disaster” by Arm’s co-founder.

Nvidia said the company – which licenses its chip designs for use by major electronics brands such as Apple – would remain based in Cambridge and its site expanded.

Image: SoftBank bought Arm in 2016
However, Arm’s co-founder Hermann Hauser told Reuters: “It’s a disaster for Cambridge, the UK and Europe.
“It’s the last European technology company with global relevance and it’s being sold to the Americans.”

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Chip maker Nvidia is buying the business from Japanese technology empire Softbank, which acquired it four years ago for £24bn but has recently been seeking to raise cash.

The deal is likely to face close scrutiny from regulators and rivals.

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Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said: “Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge.
“We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields.”

2016: Arm co-founder Hermann Hauser comments on Softbank deal

Arm licenses its designs to most of the global semiconductor industry with customers including Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung.
The 180 billion chips sold based on its technology range from smartphones to toasters.
Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm is controversial because Arm’s customers are among Nvidia’s rivals.
The deal also puts the chip designer in the hands of a US-based firm at a time of trade friction between Washington and Beijing that is partly focused on technology – with Beijing trying to develop its own semiconductor industry.
Nvidia insisted that Arm would maintain the “global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success”.
Mr Huang said the deal was “pro competition” and could create a “genuinely alternative” rival to Intel’s domination of the sector.
However, Mr Hauser – who previously expressed his dismay about Arm’s sale to Softbank – said the Nvidia deal would destroy Arm’s business model as “the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry”.
He called on the UK government to demand: a guarantee of jobs in Britain, the preservation of Arm’s open business model; and exception to US security reviews on client relationships.

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Nvidia will pay SoftBank $21.5bn in shares and $12bn in cash for Arm, with the transaction expected to complete by March 2022. Arm employees will also be issued with $1.5bn in Nvidia shares.
Softbank could receive an extra $5bn in cash or shares depending on Arm’s business performance.
Experts at the time of Arm’s sale to Softbank warned of a “brain drain” and there have been renewed concerns about its future in the run-up to the latest deal.
Last week, Labour’s Ed Miliband urged the government to obtain “legally binding assurances” that the business would remain in the UK “rather than see jobs and decision-making moved across the ocean”.

For the first time in many weeks, the official measures of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak are all pointing in the wrong direction.