Transcripts For BBCNEWS Click 20240923

Now on Bbc News click. Lara this week, the atmosphere is electric on the water, but celebrity sparks will fly as we find out which famous faces are behind the wheel. Spencer were also in New York, where marcs with the Microsoft Team monitoring misinformation. And we hearfrom the iranian women whose Social Media Feeds have been used by the authorities to put them in prison. I was accused of propaganda against the Islamic Republic and sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Welcome to Lake Como. Its a beautiful part of italy, and the town of como itself was the home of the 18th Century Physicist Alessandro volta, who is credited as being the inventor of. The battery. Correct the clue was in the name. But i wonder if Signore Volta could ever have imagined his invention powering what Alasdair Keane has found on the same italian waters. Theres a new Race Craft in town thats fast and designed to perfection. But this isnt racing on the road or in the air. Although actually they look More like Sci Fi Spacecraft than boats. This is the racebird its been created for the all new Ei Racing Series that aims to prove the potential of electric power in the marine industry. We can use our Sport Platform in order to test and validate the solution, and then possibly change the way we will navigate in the future for billions of people. Hey, how are you doing . Good. How are you . Nice to meet you. Youve just come off the boat. How was it out there on Lake Como . It was amazing. You know, our teams are working hard. Weve been looking at data and weve been trying to do everything we can to be the fastest boat. We are the pioneers of a brand new series. So, this is electric hydrofoil powerboat. Theres nothing like it. This is the first invention of its type here that were racing in e1 series. Will smith is here. He is who owns our team and were looking to throw down, hopefully, some good times to get our first win. All right. Have fun. All right. Yeah, you did hear right. Will smith owns this team. And he isnt the only celebrity backer. Before the main event tomorrow, first some competition between the team owners. In the red, Hollywood Legend Will Smith. And in the orange and purple, Tennis Champion Rafa nadal. Copy that. Ready to go. These boats can reach 50 knots. Thats around 93km h. So, how do they reach those speeds . The key bit here is getting up on the thin bits of the foil and staying above the water to have the speed. Thats right, yeah . Exactly. If youre on the edge of the foil and youre as high as possible, its less drag in the water, so youre getting the More. The most kph. But, you know, theres some techniques that are coming into play as we learn these boats on whats fast. Its really tough to stay on the foil. Youll see us always doing as much as we can to stay on it, but its not easy. Were very busy in the cockpit. Were doing a lot to make sure to keep the boat happy, but it always wants to stay unhappy, so its a challenge, being a pilot in the racebird. With the boat back on dry land, theres a question im desperate to ask. Can we get in and have a look . Of course, yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. Its tight. Yeah, it is very tight, yeah. Yeah, i think Will Smith had a bit of a hard time getting into that, actually. Can we fire it up . Yeah, of course we can, yeah. We cant go to the full. Full load because were in the garage. But basically, turn the master on. So, itjust takes a little while to boot up. Youll see the screens just flashing on. When the pilots are out in the water, to get that important lift for the speed, theyre actually having to press quite a lot of buttons and do quite a lot at the same time. Yeah, they are. Obviously, the most important one, which i havent mentioned at the moment, is this one, which is the boost button. So, theyll add 20 seconds of boost and then they have to have a0 seconds of rest to cool the battery down. Its just drawing too much power. And while they lift. And that lifts them up onto the foils. While theyre on the foils, we can then obviously play around with the lift, which is on the left Hand Side of the wheel, and also on the left Hand Side of the screen, and the trim on the right Hand Side. And were just altering that by a few points, depending on wave conditions, or whether were going into the corner. This sport is still in the very early stages. The nine teams have the same boat, but theyre working out how to push the tech and try to get ahead of the competition. You try not to fly the boat out of the water because then theres no grip whatsoever. So, you actually need to have it in the water but as high up the water without the foils cavitating, without Air Being produced around the foils. You need to keep the flow attached to the foils, so thats the trick. And a lot of this is secrets . Yeah, its stuff that the teams are working on at the moment. Weve all got different ideas about it. And, yeah, its something that probably were all doing exactly the same, but were not going to tell Each Other that were doing it. As the Days Practice sessions come to an end, are westbrook racing feeling the extra pressure of their owner watching on . Were racers, were used to this pressure, right . We thrive off of that. So, of course, theres always pressure, no matter what, whenever you get into anything to perform, and so i dont think its adding any extra. But obviously we want to make him proud and we want to win just as bad as he does, and so were doing everything we possibly can to make that happen. Doing everything means working late into the night to make sure the boats are in the best condition for tomorrows races. And you can find out how the teams did when we return for Race Day later in the programme. Now, two years ago this week, Mahsa Amini was arrested in iran for not wearing her mandatory hijab correctly. She later died in Police Custody and her death prompted a wave of protests across the country, bringing the phrase woman, life, freedom to international prominence. The iranian government is now using digital surveillance to clamp down hard on Dissent And Bbc verifys Reha Kansara has been speaking to some of the iranians arrested for their Social Media activity. And just a warning, this report includes accounts of violence that you may find distressing. Chanting. I was accused of propaganda against the Islamic Republic and sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Over the past few months, weve carefully gathered the testimonies of five people from iran who were arrested for their Social Media activity. The bbc and other independent media are not allowed to report freely from the country. Theyve taken great risks speaking with us, and for their safety, weve kept some details vague. Court documents shared with us show iranian authorities are using Social Media to build cases against people, charging them with propaganda against the state and for taking part in the women, life, freedom protests. Chanting and clapping. Shortly after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, women were legally required to cover their hair, but these protests, ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, have unleashed a stream of Civil Disobedience on Social Media and on the streets. Police firing into crowds. Gunshots. Women cutting their hair and burning hijabs in rage. Zan, zendegi, azadi, meaning woman, life, freedom, became the rallying cry for womens rights in iran. Now the movements being met with an even harsher clamp down on dissent using state surveillance. I had joined a protest and i got into an argument with a group of Islamic Republic forces blocking the road. 0ne Officer started shooting at my body with a paintball gun. He shot me in the eye. With a smirk on his face. I lost my eye. I had gone blind. I posted about those who were killed and injured like me, and through our instagram pages, we became the voices of those who had experienced what we had. L in my court sessions, they had printed outl all my instagram stories. There was a heavy case against me. Based on my Social Media. Kosar was sentenced to over four years in prison and was banned from using Social Media and smartphones. Her charges included propaganda against the Islamic Republic. She says she had no choice but to leave the country. Chanting. The commander of Irans Riot Police has denied his forces intentionally shot protesters in the face. And like kosar, four of the bbc sources received suspended Prison Sentences and remain in iran. So, how is the State Spying on its citizens . In the past, its relied on More traditional methods, like reporting your neighbours to the authorities. But with the advent of the internet, its become much More pervasive. Within the first few months, we saw upwards of 20,000 protesters arrested. And of course, the majority of these protesters belong to Gen Z. And of course, we know Gen Z are extremely online. Their digital footprints are very wide. And so relying on the content on their Social Media, their private messages, either when theyre incarcerated through detaining their devices or through tracking, you know, the activities of protesters before theyre detained, we saw a lot of this kind of surveillance and monitoring. The Islamic Republic has also advanced technologically to tighten its grip on society. Theyve built their own version of the internet, incentivising it by making it cheaper to use than the world wide web. But iranians are cautious because accessing it means handing over your data to the government. The government has also reportedly used Phishing Techniques to hack devices and access peoples data. Theyve blocked western Social Media platforms, like instagram, whatsapp and telegram, because they cannot control them. But iranians are using vpns to disguise their Location And Access these platforms. Experts say iran is learning from surveillance states like china and intensifying its methods to catch women who refuse to wear the hijab. They can geolocate your. Where is your Mobile Phone. They can see what Mobile Phone is connected to what kind of ip addresses, and then they figure it out, whats the identity of the people who are using that particular Mobile Phone . They can track you. They have developed some Mobile Phone applications and other tools for the police or those volunteers who are already vetted by the government. Un experts have told the bbc no one should be jailed for a peaceful post online. We contacted the iranian government and put forward to them the allegations made, but they did not respond. And though mass demonstrations have come to a halt, people are protesting in More subtle ways. And this movement thats led by women and driven by a right to Life And Freedom shows no signs of stopping. I feel a lot of sorrow about it, but i now really cherish this eye injury. Its Living Proof of a crime against humanity for me. Time for a look at this weeks tech news. Meta has announced new Privacy Settings for teenaged instagram users. Under 165 will automatically be placed into new teen accounts which means theyll have More restrictions turned on by default, theyll need a parent or guardian� s permission to make changes. Social media sites like instagram which is owned by meta have been accused of failing to keep younger users away from harmful content. Google has won its challenge against a £1. 26 billion fine from the eu. The fine was imposed for googles alleged abuse of its dominant position in online search to favour its own Shopping Comparison Service over competitors. While the fine was quashed, europes second top court upheld much of the European Commissions original findings. A team at the University Of Michigan has developed a flexible screen. It can store and display encrypted images using Magnetic Fields rather than electronics. The screen can display a public image when near a standard magnet, or an encrypted image when placed over an intricate array or magnets acting as an encryption key. The team decided on its design by studying squid and octopi which change colour by expanding and contracting pigment sacs in their skin. One of the worlds busiest Tourist Spots times square, here in New York city. Its an unlikely location for a highly secure facility that monitors foreign governments attempts to destabilise democracy. But thats precisely whats going on in an Office Building that way. Away from the crowds and traffic, weve gained exclusive access to mtac the Microsoft Threat Analysis centre. The work thats carried out here is extremely sensitive. Were the very first people that have been permitted to film inside. Take a look now at an actor. Founded by former employees of the russian ministry of defence. Individuals from this organisation serve on a special president ial committee in the kremlin, advising putin on Russias War in ukraine. Analysts here advise governments like the uk and us, as well as private companies, about a variety of digital threats. Were known as mtac. Its job is to detect and assess and disrupt any sort of influence threats, we would say, cyber enabled influence threats to democracies worldwide. Specialist teams here focus on different potential perpetrators of digital threats. They call the people behind these Disruptions Threat actors. We have a russia analysis team, an iran team and a China Team to try and detect everything from propaganda to disinformation. For russia, its always a constant. They see political warfare as Part And Parcel of their Foreign Policy objectives worldwide. So, weve seen them continue their campaigns with Disinformation Outlets weve tracked. The us Department Ofjustice recently announced it had seized 32 websites tied to a kremlin aligned online influence campaign. Dubbed doppelganger, it uses ai generated content, targeting us elections, the war in ukraine, as well as spreading pro russian narratives. The fbi had this to say about doppelganger. By seizing these websites, the fbi is making clear to the world what they are russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society. Doppelganger is best known for cloning the websites of well known international media. It makes fake versions of Fox News, the washington post, which look very much like. The original but are reworked entirely with pro russian propaganda. So, youve got some examples up on your screen here. This one here this is an article which says its from Fox News but is in fact an article which is from this group called doppelganger. This was in fact. Made in moscow. Iran has just entered the fold in recent months. Four years ago, in 2020, we saw them come in very late, using both cyber attacks and influence operations to try and cause chaos. This is one of the newer sites the iranians have stood up as part of a set of inauthentic news sites. Fake Social Media Accounts Retweet and support them. Theyre focused on stories that are anti saudi, anti israeli, anti american and those are often telltale signs that something is potentially iranian run. Then china, in previous cycles, we saw almost nothing from china. But in this case, we do see them establishing Social Media accounts and websites, which they use to provoke some sort of conversations with american voters. And this is the first cycle where weve had all three that we can definitely point to. And the dramatic nature of the us election has created complications for those attempting to interfere with the process. The biggest impact of the switch of President Biden for Vice President harris has been. Its really thrown the russians so far off their game. They had focused everything, really, on President Biden, had going back to 2018 19. They had really focused on biden as somebody they needed to remove from office to get what they wanted in ukraine. Today that has changed almost entirely. But what is the real World Effect of these digital threats . Henry ajder is an expert on al, deepfakes and synthetic media. The jury is still kind of out on how effective these campaigns are, at least right now. But what it might be doing is really increasing the amount of hostile engagement on Social Media. But at this moment in time, we dont have the evidence to prove that its actually swinging elections. While its debatable these digital efforts influence election results, with seven weeks of campaigning left, theres plenty of time for online surprises to emerge. Spencer that was marc in New York. Now lets head back to italy, to Lake Como, to the E1 World electric powerboat series. Now, can anyone spot alasdair . There he is. Alasdair right now were on the gentle, tranquil waters of Lake Como. But all of that is about to be disturbed because its Race Day. Music funiculi, funicula by luigi denza. And who better to explain to us how this competition works than some of the drivers themselves . E1 is a brand new racing concept. Its foiling boats with an Electric Motor in a format thats never been done before. The course here is basically a big figure of eight, but its a little bit More complicated with the long lap and the starts and things like that. So, youll see a series of single point turns and then turns that have larger apexes. Were racing in some really spectacular locations on the sea and lakes and were really trying to push the foiling technology to the max. So, every team has a male and a female pilot, and its up to the team to decide which pilot will go first. After the first race, Theyll Alternate from there. Qualifyings done in a single boat format, so were all about maximising our one lap time, and then we go into the semifinals and the finals, which is head to head racing. This stage has been set. Five teams are in the final, but who will win . Theres only one way to find out. Definitely in e1, the most challenging part is the starts. Getting those right can really affect the race. I you want to get in the clean water at the front because, as soon as youre behind, youre in the wake of the other boats. And those waves can really interrupt how the foil performs. You can always tell when youre having a really good lap because the race has this kind of hum to it, when youre really cooking and flying and its really unlike anything its unlike any boat, any jet ski, any watercraft. The course is a very simple loop, but those green buoys mark an extra special part of the track, and the teams have to choose very wisely when to take that turn. You have to take the long lap one lap during the race. You can win or lose races with long laps. If youre at the back, you can do it early and then try to catch the gap back when youve got some Cleaner Water in front. If youre at the front, you want to do it last so that you can try to build the gap to the others. So, its a big tactical strategy. If you nail the timing, depending on where youre at in the pack, you can either pass other pilots or you can stay out in front, so a lot of it has to do with team strategy. The team in the tower is watching where the other boats are at and theyll help you with your timing. Its a very much a tactical I Team Thing that we make up as we go. Theres no Set Plan and it completely depends on where we are during the race. And, yeah, it can change in a matter of minutes. I at the end of the day, you know, the teams really have to work together. Both pilots have to be consistent. You know, one pilot can be really fast. If the other one is slower, then it may come down to the wire. So, having two very consistent pilots that can work together is how youre really going to win. Lets pop that champagne this is a competition that has attracted some big name investors despite only being in its first year. But there are challenges ahead. Can it keep those Celebrity Backers . And can it build a big audience for this high Tech Racing . I think the groundwork for this championship is amazing. You know, the names behind it now are incredible. Ive heard some good rumours of teams coming in for next year as well, so i think the format is really exciting. I think a lot of people are really interested and excited about the new technology and also the Sustainability Message behind the championship, so i hope it continues for many years to come. Thats all for this week from the waters of Lake Como. Nice work if you can get it thanks for watching and well see you next time. Hello. Well, its already been a lively start of the weekend, with a number of thunderstorms reported on saturday across england and wales. This was one cluster of storms that went across the skyline of ashbourne in derbyshire. The same storms earlier in the day dumped what seems to be marble sized hail in wolverhampton. That cluster of storms will clear away northwards from merseyside, cheshire, north wales. But then our Focus Shifts towards the south and across northern france, where weve got More Thundery Downpours waiting, and they will swing in. Now, worst Case Scenario on sunday, some communities could see a Months Worth of rainfall, so theres an increasing threat of seeing some localised Flooding Building in as we progress through sunday. Next few hours, then, sees those storms arrive from the south. In Scotland Weve still got a lot of low Cloud And Drizzle across eastern areas, a bit misty too. Temperatures for the most part about 13 16 degrees for england and wales, a bit cooler than that in scotland. Sundays forecast, then those Thundery Downpours with us for much of the day. And therell be some places that see storm after storm, particularly, i think, across parts of the midlands and parts of wales as well. Further north eastwards into eastern scotland, another cloudy and dull day, with some mist patches around the coastline. Still some spots of drizzle. Should be brighter and drier in Northern Ireland, with some sunny spells, and sunshine for West Scotland too. Monday weve still got some rain to come across england and wales, heavy and thundery still. Another area of rain works into Northern Scotland through monday. Thats actually a Cold Front, so thats going to be starting to drop the temperatures across Northern Scotland. Highs of 12 in stornoway, 13 for aberdeen and just ten in lerwick. In towards the middle part of the week, we see areas of low Pressure Move across the country, bringing some heavy rain, particularly focused on england and wales. 0nce thats cleared through, we then get these north westerly Winds Diving in across the country, and that will really drop the temperatures as the week goes by. Tuesday we pick up on our Cold Front in scotland, bringing some rain here. That will move into Northern Ireland and Northern England as we go through the day. Further southwards across the rest of england and wales, it finally stops raining. Should be a drier day, with More in the way of sunshine, and still some reasonable temperatures in the south. Its turning colder in the north, though just ten in Aberdeen And 1a for belfast. And as we go deeper into the new week, it stays unsettled. Therell be rain at times, but temperatures for all of us will be well below average. Good morning. Welcome to breakfast, with Rogerjohnson And Sarah campbell. 0ur Headlines Today cheering. Keir starmer arriving for his Party Conference but rows over free clothes, leaks and cuts to Winter Fuel payments threaten to overshadow Labours Message of change. Israel limits civilian gatherings as it continues to attack targets in lebanon linked to hezbollah. The Crown Prosecution Service confirms it reviewed an allegation of rape by Mohammed Al fayed in 2015, but took no action because of a lack of evidence. A brutal upset. Daniel dubois delivers a knockout blow, defying expectations to defeat anthonyjoshua and retain his ibf heavyweight World Title in front of 96,000 at wembley stadium