Hello. This is bbc news with me, martine croxall. Well be taking a look at tomorrow mornings papers in a moment first the headlines. The government defends its decision to allow students to return to university despite several outbreaks of coronavirus, leaving many confined to their rooms. But in scotland students are told they can return home as long as they follow the rules on self isolating. Cardiff and swansea have gone into local lockdown tonight, with another three areas in wales facing new restrictions from tomorrow. The murdered Police Sergeant matt ratana is remembered at the rugby club where he was head coach as the suspect is named as 23 year old louis de zoysa. Theres been heavy fighting between armenia and azerbaijan, over the disputed nagorno kara bakh region, with reports troops and civilians have died. More than 200 people are arrested in belarus, as theres no let up in weekend protests against president lukashenka. Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are Rachel Cunliffe comment features editor at city am and george eaton senior online editor at the new statesman. It almost looks like they are in the same room. I promise you they are not, it is just an optical illusion with matching bookcases full stop nicely aligned, folks the front pages you have got to have some fun somewhere the telegraph is saying that people are encouraging people the telegraph says the government is encouraging people to report neighbours who do not self isolate after
testing positive for coronavirus it also has a picture from the one minute silence held at East Grinstead rugby club today to remember the murdered Police Sergeant matt rata na who was their head coach. The metro leads with growing calls for borisjohnson to reconsider the 10pm pub curfew with some tory mps calling it a draconian use of power. The ft headlines donald trump saying the Affordable Care act in the us, known as obamaca re, will be terminated a day after announcing Amy Coney Barrett as his nomination for the Supreme Court. The i says the roll out of the uks Coronavirus Vaccine potentially faces years of delay. The mail says police will carry out spot checks and act on tip offs to ensure people are adhering to new covid i9 self isolation rules. A similar headline in the express, which headlines the prime ministers crackdown on people who ignore the quarantine rules. And the guardian leads with World Leaders including borisjohnson pledging to clamp down on pollution and Plastic Waste in order to halt the climate crisis. Theres a lot to get through there really is then outside pack this
running orderfor us, running order for us, so running orderfor us, so we running order for us, so we will start with the metro, call time on cu rfew. Start with the metro, call time on curfew. Rachel, a lot of people in some places not really paying any attention to the tipping out time of 10pm. I think the problem is that they are paying attention to it and they are paying attention to it and they are paying attention to it and they are staying in until the last possible moment, at which point every bar, pub and restaurant forces customers out into the street and back home, often on public transport, where social distancing is actually made harder by the cu rfew is actually made harder by the curfew rules. We have seen this in liverpool, london and actually it is exactly what various people warned would happen if you have the same end point and kick everyone out at exactly the same time, so firstly there is the Economic Impact of forcing these hospitality venues to close early, but itjust doesnt seem to be having the desired effect. What is interesting to note is that the 10pm curfew idea didnt actually come from the scientists at sage, it seems to have been a
compromise policy put together by Boris Johnsons tablet to try to limit social contact without having to close these venues altogether. Boris johnsons cabinet. To close these venues altogether. Borisjohnsons cabinet. Also it seems to be entirely counter productive. Entirely counterproductive. The daily express saying that boris is defying the blitz on. Cheats. Quite a lot of his own mps are not happy with these measures, but he is saying lets go further and expose those who are not complying . Yes, you can see why tory mps are upset, particularly those on the libertarian wing they would see this asa libertarian wing they would see this as a affront to Civil Liberties and to typical british notions of freedom, but the rationale that borisjohnson will use is freedom, but the rationale that Boris Johnson will use is that if people do break the rules and there are some statistics to suggest that people havent been following such guidelines, then it will necessitate further measures and raises the risk
of more draconian restrictions. But i think it is a difficult argument for the government to sell because, for the government to sell because, for instance, i dont think they have made a persuasive case for the 10p and curfew, they havent made an argument for it at all. As rachel says, it seems to have just been a political fudge, says, it seems to have just been a politicalfudge, presented says, it seems to have just been a political fudge, presented with no accompanying evidence. The other problem is also i dont think there is enough relief or Financial Support being provided. Two people, beneath the below beyond the rather tokenistic £200 payment. To be able to protect their Living Standards while cipher slating, that is the area where the government is open to criticism. The delhi telegraph is talking about universities who are being urged to refu nd fees universities who are being urged to refund fees to students, who have gone back to university and some of them are either confined to very small groups or to their flats. Some of them just want to go home, they could have stayed at home and on the
courses online. But in that they we re courses online. But in that they were encouraged to return to university and promised it was safe, many of them paying quite high rents in order to be there on campus, even though they are getting next to no in person teaching and it is all being done online. Some of the way stu d e nts being done online. Some of the way students have been treated, not at all universities, but particularly Scottish Universities and manchester metropolitan university, they are basically being treated like prisoners with some private security guards keeping them locked in their rooms, they have been told to take down posters and they are saying help, let us out. There is this fundamental error universities have made, and indeed politicians make, which is not treating students as full citizens, full boaters and in the universities case, for consumers. Remember they are paying £9,000 fee is at least in england for this teaching, which is substandard, if it is going to be done entirely remotely. Fees that they are being charged interest on and their Student Loans from the day that they attend university, and now
they are being told, you have to stay in your room is basically indefinitely and we, the university, can kick you out at any point if you break these arbitrary rules. We dont treat any other section of society quite like that. I think even some of the people in our presence have more cause to address then our students are at the moment, it is an absolute scandal. Then our students are at the moment, it is an absolute scandallj then our students are at the moment, it is an absolute scandal. I think for a couple of weeks they might think it is a novelty, but that will soon wear off and their parents are obviously massively worried about them. Lets look at the eye, roll out a uk vaccine faces years of delay, why . Yes, this is incredibly important story because what did we see at the briefing by chris whitty and patrick valla nce briefing by chris whitty and Patrick Vallance and then in borisjohnsons television address . All hopes are being pinned on a vaccine, it is really being presented as a panacea and the cure that will allow us to emerge from these restrictions, but the i makes a very good point that
the i makes a very good point that the level of production required in their distributing net around the country is a huge logistical challenge and given the governments and confidence to date, is it really wise for us to trust them to deliver this to the scale required . So, they say some key suppliers in relation to this such as for personal protective equipment, and transport for these, remain protective equipment, and transport forthese, remain in protective equipment, and transport for these, remain in short supply. Some experts say ministers havent beenin some experts say ministers havent been in contact to set up the supply chains, so all of these practical challenges are things that the government needs to plan for now and it is worrying that there isnt much evidence of that, given as i said he hopes that are being pinned on a vaccine. It is worth noting of course that scientists will still say we shouldnt assume there will bea say we shouldnt assume there will be a workable vaccine early next year, that there are other coronavirus diseases for which there isnt a vaccine. The research has been promising, so there is cause
for optimism, but a lot more caution and scepticism is needed before we see 2021 is our salvation. Away from corrina bo saw a moment, a quick comment from both of you if you would on the financial timess story, brexit teams in race against time as trade talks into the final straight. A p pa re ntly talks into the final straight. Apparently a tunnel or submarine of talks, depending on your preference, has been taking place, rachel, giving some signs of optimism. How so . I feel like i have read this story a couple of times before, the last chance for a brexit deal, but it does seem like now actually it is the last chance because Michel Barnier has said if it is not sorted by the 15th of october in that eu summit then it is not going to get sorted before the end of the transition period. The government has negotiated, their negotiators are cautiously optimistic, they say are cautiously optimistic, they say a deal is possible. Borisjohnson is a p pa re ntly a deal is possible. Borisjohnson is apparently very pro getting a deal andi apparently very pro getting a deal and i think what george was saying about logistics planning and the
problems with the vaccine apply here as well. A new deal brexit as possible. It doesnt seem like enough planning has been done to make sure that it would go smoothly, not certainly not in the next couple of months. Im going to move you on actually, rachel. Thank you so much for that. George, a brexit related story in the daily mirror, frank and food warning, ban this held meat from the uk the mirror is saying it exposes what has been going on on farms in the united states, which could be providing food in the event of a us uk trade deals. What is wrong with this meat . Yes, well, there are obviously concerns on Animal Welfare grounds and also concerns over whether it is safe for consumers, although i am sure plenty of uk tourists will have eaten such meat in the us, frankenfood beat. But the political angle is whether, as they put it, whether these terrifying products are going to be part of a
potential us uk trade deal, but the governments case has always suggested that hormone injected beef would not be part of a trade deal and they have also rejected the idea of chlorinated chicken and also any changes to the nhs, so you have had all of these red lines drawn by the government, sol all of these red lines drawn by the government, so i think in a way this investigation, is interesting and revealing as it is, i think politically i dont see how a us uk trade deal is going to be completed at the moment, so in short i dont think it is going to be something that uk consumers will have to worry about. And just briefly, rachel, that uk consumers will have to worry about. Andjust briefly, rachel, not just the daily mirror, but also the male has been campaigning against this sort of food encroaching on our dinner plates and also the impact it could have on farmers here. Yes, and it is worth remembering about the farming fora it is worth remembering about the farming for a lot of people, it is a big part of the constituency voting
for the tory party, they tend to vote for them and they need their votes a nd vote for them and they need their votes and they have promised to maintain the highest standards of Animal Welfare in agriculture, but getting a us trade deal across the line is going to depend on compromises there, simply if it is going to get through the us congress, so they cant have it both ways. Do they want to stand by what they have said and protect the uk farmers . Or do they want that deal over the line in order to claim a victory and maintain that special relationship . George, the Daily Telegraph carries a very poignant photograph for members of the East Grinstead rugby club paying tribute to Police Sergeant matt ratana, who was their head coach. Yes, so a terribly sad scene and obviously there are always tributes following a tragic event of this kind, but he does seem to have been a remarkable character and that, is i think reflected in that he was notjust
very highly regarded within the police force and he was actually very close to retirement after a distinguished career, but also he was head coach at East Grinstead by was head coach at East Grinstead rugby club and it really is a tragedy and obviously raises questions of what more can be done to ensure Police Safety without going down the road of having all police armeds yes, and the police expecting to be safe in their own custody centres. That is why we understand that Sergeant Matt ratana had gone to work there, rachel. Yes, and george is right about making sure that Police Officers have the protection that they need and it is a tragic story and we are right to be shocked by it. I think it is also worth noting though that he is only, this is the eighth Police Shooting in the last 20 years, so one of the reasons we are shocked is that it is such a rare event and i think if we look at other countries and how they deal with firearms and police having
firearms we should be grateful that it is such a rare event and all the more shocking for it. Lets finish, rachel, with the financial times. Trump says obama care will be terminated after the november poll. They had a go at seeing off this Affordable Care act that came in under barack obama. Here in britain we are used to having an nhs, which is free at the point of receipt. It is free at the point of receipt. It is quite perplexing to a lot of people in this country that obama care, which makes medical care more affordable, is such a hot issue. Not just more affordable, but affordable at all. So back to the affordable ca re at all. So back to the Affordable Care act 20 million americans have health care coverage, which they did not have before. As you said the republicans challenged it and one of the conservative Supreme Court justices, a republican appointee, sided with the democrats in order to defend and protect obama care. It is coming through the Supreme Court again just
coming through the Supreme Court againjust after the coming through the Supreme Court again just after the election on the 10th of november, trump is obviously trying to force his Supreme Court nominee threw in a matter of weeks and where that to happen and where thejudgment to and where that to happen and where the judgment to go against obama care, then the Affordable Care act and insurance for millions of americans would potentially be withheld and withdrawn in the middle ofa withheld and withdrawn in the middle of a pandemic. Withheld and withdrawn in the middle ofa pandemic. So withheld and withdrawn in the middle of a pandemic. So those are the sta kes of a pandemic. So those are the stakes of the us election. We are going to keep watching here, i imagine. We are going to join a press co nfe re nce imagine. We are going to join a press conference in President Trump just a minute, but the reason obama ca re just a minute, but the reason obama care might be injeopardy is because of the nominee to the Supreme Court is the conservative Amy Coney Barrett and we know that she is a critic of it, george. Yes, and the appointment of a conservative justice would mean you would have a 63 justice would mean you would have a 6 3 conservative majority on the court, so the last time that the afforda ble court, so the last time that the Affordable Care act was up for review on the courts, it was 5 4
ruling that the act should stand and that it was not unconstitutional, so this is a remarkable political thing where it is obviously so close to the election. The democrats will hope to use this to their advantage, by saying that this shows the republicans animosity towards one of the few recent steps which has made health care more affordable where i think it has given around 20 million Americans Health insurance who didnt previously have access to it. But it does obviously raise the question ofjoe it. But it does obviously raise the question of joe biden it. But it does obviously raise the question ofjoe biden potentially being in office, but not fully empowered. The polls still suggest that he is on course to win, but of course in the us the separation of powers makes it possible that the republicans could retain control of the senate and have a big majority on the Supreme Court, so in several respectsjoe bidens on the Supreme Court, so in several respects joe bidens hands on the Supreme Court, so in several respectsjoe bidens hands could be tied. That is it for this hour, but theres quite a lot to talk about
tonight on the paper, so rachel and george will be back again at 11 30pm. We will be back with you in about 45 minutes. We are not going to the press conference after all with President Trump. I think it is polite to say that it is rather wide ranging in its remit. We will bring you a digest at 11pm. Coming up bring you a digest at 11pm. Coming up next, it is click. Hey, welcome to click. Dont know about you, but the weather has turned very autumnal around these parts, and as expected, the restrictions are being tightened up as the numbers here rise. Here we go, then. On the way into winter. Lara, how are you doing . I have actually been a little bit under the weather this week. Dont worry, not coronavirus, but it did get me thinking that if im ever unwell it would be quite handy to just have a spare version. So i have been working on a virtual version of me. I mean, we are a technology programme. Yeah, we are, but weve always said is that the danger, right . If ever they create a convincing version of us, then were out of a job, right . Hi, spencer, im virtual lara. Ok, you may not be fooled, but do you think anyone else will notice . What was that . where did that come from . I was created by a video generation platform synthesia. It seems that anyone can have a virtual them. What do you think . I think that is absolutely incredible. I think the only thing that didnt fool me was the lip sync. Your mouth was doing Something Weird like you had just come out of the dentist or something. But that is brilliant. Can we bring up the real lara . What have they done here . Have they basicallyjust reanimated your mouth . Yes, well, it was quite frightening to see how wonky my mouth actually is. Ive never noticed that before. But the purpose of this is that it could be used for Something Like corporate training videos where a familiar face or even calling people by their names could be helpful. Ok, how did you make it . Well, i had to make a video of me presenting the exact same thing five times. Now, to do this, i needed to follow their guidelines, which included sitting rather still, not moving my arms and not getting too animated which, for me, felt rather unnatural. So i was expecting the end result to be a little bit strange as a result of that. With all your different mouth movements to add whatever sound you have given them, making it look as though youre actually saying it. Now, they can do it using one of their voices or your own. And it also means that there is the opportunity to be able to give you different accents or even make you speak in different languages. American accent hi, spencer,
im the new virtual lara. She speaks spanish. Si, si, excellent spanish. Thank you. Somebody who can tell us a little bit more about the purpose of this is synthesias ceo, victor ripabelli. Hello, victor. Now, we have looked at your technology before on the programme. At the moment there is an option of voices available on the platform or you can pre record your own. But how about creating an artificial version of our own voices . Is that something that is likely to be possible soon . Yeah, absolutely. Ithink, you know, thats the natural next progression of this type of technology. We can now replicate your image in a very believable way and soon your voice as well. The Voice Technology is kind of there today. But it requires a lot of audio to really work. Usually the kind of rule is Something Like 15 20 hours in a professional Recording Studio of you reading aloud a text. Why is it so much harder to do voice than video . Well, there are several reasons, but one of the reasons is that if you think about what a computer sees, right, then if you replicate a video of you in the kind of style you have seen with lara, there is the kind of space of possibilities is quite constrained. Right . Its like, we are replicating video of someone sitting here speaking and we need sync their lips and head movements and things like that. If youre trying to do Something Like this with a voice, the Training Data will be a lot more limited. So lets say even if you have two hours of you talking, right, that is still very, very little of all the things that very little part of all the things that you could possibly say. So could i use your platform to upload a video of anyone . Not me, and create a virtual version of them . No. Why not . We need written consent from whoever is being uploaded. Everything goes through manual review and we only do custom avatars
for corporate clients. So clearly you have protocols in place, but is the very existence of this technology, the fact that all of this is possible, not a pretty big risk in itself that the wrong people will use it . We have seen these kind of things happen before. Definitely. I think that synthetic media as a whole definitely comes with potential for misuse and that something that is really important that we address, both from a technical perspective but also from an educational perspective. I think this technology can be used for good and for bad. Im not sure i think that deep fakes or video is uniquely different from being able to forge text or images or tweets, which has been possible for the last 20 years. But its certainly that something we need to be really aware of. Thanks, victor. So the reality is that making fake videos has become a lot more sophisticated. And we are already all too familiar with how false information can cause real harm and has damaged Peoples Trust in news. And even though most of the conversations have been
centred around facebook, youtube has also been a big contributor to the spread of misinformation. Now, the upcoming us election is going to take place even more emphasis on this issue. And so the bbcs specialist disinformation reporter, marianna spring, has been finding out more. Youtube has an incredibly smart algorithm at least smart enough to make the company a lot of money. More eyeballs on a video and more engagement equals more cash. Its simple. But what is not simple is how potent this combination has become. Videos from Fringe Groups with extreme ideas surfacing to the top and influencing users views. The pandemic has pushed the issue to new levels, with false information about the coronavirus often finding a much larger audience than trusted sources. As the months have gone on, youtube has become inundated
with documentary style films from pseudoscientists promoting conspiracy theories. This plandemic documentary received millions of views. Despite efforts to remove it from youtube, facebook and twitter, users were constantly re uploading the clip. And in recent weeks, demonstrators have taken to the streets in london to promote some of the most popular coronavirus conspiracy theories, mainly seen online. A man who would like to remain anonymous got in touch with us after his mum decided to go along. Mum had two posters. One read, arrest bill gates for crimes against humanity. The other had a qanon hashtag, save the children. She was first taken in by coronavirus conspiracy theories on youtube and now she has been radicalised by qanon on there too. Its so hard to have a normal conversation. Qanon is a Conspiracy Theory that suggests President Trump is waging a secret war against satanic paedophiles in government, media and business. Since the last us election,
the social media giants have had a bit of a reckoning. They are all trying to clean up their act to stave off heavy handed regulation facebook with its oversight board, twitter with its more robust warning labels and now on youtube says it has added a new tool to its arsenal to combat misinformation. It partnered up with Fact Checking sites to warn users if the phrase they are searching has been refuted and pointing them to information by a trusted source. Put simply, its a tool where when users go to search for a particular topic on youtube, if there happens to be a fact check, these fact checks are generated by third party publishers, and that will trigger in the results of that particular query, right at the top of the query, and it will link out to that fact check, saying whether that particular claim is false. Oftentimes Fact Checking publishers have a rating of that type of claim, and that will be displayed as well. This is one of the many tools youtube says it uses to reduce misinformation on the site. But none of these measures seems to be proactive and doing nearly enough to reduce exposure to misleading information. With the changing nature
of information around this pandemic, what is the new type of misinformation that might pop up . Before there was the conspiracy around 5g and covid, who would have guessed those two randomly separate pieces of technology and science would be linked together . Well, that happened in the course of the pandemic, so we had to adjust very, very quickly to change our enforcement guidelines. You say that these conspiracy theories are new and evolving but a number of the ones that are still being promoted on your platform have been around for months, especially in foreign languages, including russian and hindi, of false conspiracy theories about the origin of coronavirus or even doubting its existence. For content that might not clearly cross the lines of our policies, we reduce that content in our recommendations, so if its borderline content in nature, because as i said, misinformation can be murky, but we still want to reduce the exposure to it. Youtube says its removed millions of videos containing misinformation from the platform, in many instances before anyone has viewed them at all. But there have been numerous examples of videos promoting false claims and conspiracy theories about coronavirus, especially in foreign languages. And those have stayed on for months, accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. The Mozilla Foundation behind the firefox browser has decided to act. This week it has released a new extension for both chrome and firefox called regretsreporter. The idea is that the user can report any recommended content that they found unsavoury. Mozilla says this helps Crowdsource Research into youtubes recommendation problem and it hopes it can force youtube to become more transparent about how its algorithm works. I think that youtubes algorithm is really one of the most opaque ones out of all of the platforms out there, which is why they have a lot more work to do. So youtube has come out with a lot of statistics like saying
that they have increased introduced policy changes that have worked to decrease recommendations of borderline content by upwards of 70 . But the problem is that there is really no way to verify whether or not this is the case without involving the public, without involving, you know, researchers, sociologists, people who have knowledge that goes beyond just the boardrooms of silicon valley. That together we are better able to solve this problem of misinformation surfacing in recommendations. That was marianna spring, and thats it for the short cut of this weeks click. The full length version is, as ever, waiting for you on iplayer, right now. As ever, you can keep up with the team throughout the week on social media. Find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter bbcclick. I dont believe it shes already gone and left her virtual self to do all the work. Seriously. All right, from the real me and the not so real her,
thanks for watching, and we will see you soon. Bye bye. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Headlines for viewers in the uk fighting breaks out between armenia and azerbaijan in the disputed region of nagorno karabakh, with casualties on both sides. President trumps pick for the Supreme Court prepares for a tough reception from democrats, asjoe biden urges senators to postpone her confirmation. The murdered london Police Sergeant matt ratana is remembered at the rugby club where he was head coach, as the suspect is named as 23 year old louis de zoysa. The uk government defends its decision to allow students to return to university despite several outbreaks of coronavirus, leaving many confined to their rooms. And as new york schools continue a phased reopening, well look at the impact months of disruption will have on
literacy rates across the world