Image caption
China’s Star market launched a year ago this week in Shanghai
The Star market, China’s answer to the Nasdaq, celebrates its first anniversary this week.
The tech-heavy stock market was set up at the request of President Xi Jinping as relations with the US began to sour.
Officially called the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, it now includes more than 120 firms.
It’s already Asia’s most valuable stock market, valued at more than $400bn (£314bn).
This month it hit a record level in terms of new listings as it raised more than $7bn, a 46% increase on July 2019 according to figures from data firm Refinitiv.
This was boosted by last week’s listing of semiconductor manufacturer SMIC, China’s biggest share sale in a decade.
Experts believe the Star market is in a strong position to attract listings from both Hong Kong, given the political tensions there, and the US which is clamping down on the listing of Chinese firms.
Nasdaq to tighten rules amid concerns over Chinese firms
The man trying to stop the virus (and fix China’s image)
But can it rival the Nasdaq 100 which is more than 20 times bigger?
The Nasdaq (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) stock market includes its biggest tech firms within an index called the Nasdaq 100.
This index features some of the world’s most valuable technology companies including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. It was worth almost $10tn at the end of 2019.
To mark its first year anniversary, the Star market announced on Thursday that it was also splitting off its biggest listings, to be included in the Star Market 50 Index.
“The move to fully open the Chinese capital markets is obviously a long term reality – so the success of a mainland-type Nasdaq is always going to happen in the future,” said Andy Maynard, managing director at China Renaissance investment bank.
“The reality of the size and complexity of China’s new economy play will always make China attractive globally – just as Nasdaq has done since the ‘dot.com’ days.”
“The conditions are very attractive and would definitely make the Star Market a worthy rival of the Nasdaq,” added Jacob Doo, chief investment officer at Envysion Wealth Management.
A major factor is that the Star market’s listing requirements “are less stringent as compared to the Nasdaq, which has imposed restrictions on IPOs for Chinese companies”, Mr Doo said.
Ant Group – Alibaba’s financial arm – plans to list on the Star market this year and could attract more tech companies to follow suit.
Chinese carmaker Geely, which makes London black cabs, also has plans to list on the Star market.
However, experts say the Star market needs to be more accessible to foreign investors to continue to attract more listings.
NCSC said its report found hackers were trying to compromise sporting organisations on a daily basis, often by targeting business email
A Premier League club came close to losing £1 million during a transfer deal due to cyber hackers.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was only the intervention of the unnamed club’s bank that stopped the theft.
It was one of several incidents highlighted as evidence that sport needed to improve its cybersecurity.
“The impact of cybercriminals cashing in on this industry is very real,” said the NCSC’s Paul Chichester.
A new report from the NCSC says the email address of a Premier League club’s managing director had been hacked during a transfer negotiation, leading to the attempt to steal the £1 million.
The report also says that a Football League club was targeted by hackers who cut off its security systems, blocking turnstiles and almost resulting in a fixture postponement.
And it added that in one incident a member of staff at a racecourse lost £15,000 after attempting to buy groundskeeping equipment from a fake version of eBay.
Sir Hugh Robertson, chair of the British Olympic Association, said in the report: “This report is a crucial first step, helping sports organisations to better understand the threat and highlighting practical steps that organisation should take to improve cybersecurity practices.”
Corporate giants including Nike face growing calls to cut ties with suppliers alleged to be using “forced labour” from China’s Uighur people.
Activists have launched a campaign accusing firms of “bolstering and benefiting” from exploitation of the Muslim minority group.
The US has also ramped up economic pressure, warning firms against doing business in Xinjiang due to the abuses.
Nike and other brands have said they are tracking the issue.
Nike said it was “conducting ongoing diligence with our suppliers in China to identify and assess potential risks related to employment of Uighur or other ethnic minorities”.
It said it does not source materials directly from Xinjiang, the region in western China that is home to much of the country’s Uighur population and many of the factories said to use the labour.
Apple also said it had investigated the claims. “We have found no evidence of any forced labour on Apple production lines and we plan to continue monitoring,” the firm said.
Who are the Uighurs?
China ‘using birth control’ to suppress Uighurs
Politicians and activists say companies need to do more if they do not want to be complicit in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.
“Brands and retailers should have left long ago, but they haven’t and that is why this public call to action is important and necessary,” said Chloe Cranston of Anti-Slavery International, one of the more than 180 organisations involved in the pressure campaign.
“It’s not just about ending a relationship with one supplier. It’s really about taking a comprehensive approach.”
What is happening in Xinjiang?
Reports by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the US Congress, among others, have found that thousands of Uighurs have been transferred to work in factories across China, under conditions the ASPI report said “strongly suggest forced labour”. It linked those factories to more than 80 high-profile brands, including Nike, Apple and Gap.
China, which is believed to have detained more than one million Uighurs in internment camps in Xinjiang, has described its programmes – which reportedly include forced sterilisation – as job training and education.
Officials say they are responding to risks of extremism and have dismissed claims of concentration camps as “fake”.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionChina’s ambassador Liu Xiaoming: “There is no such concentration camp in Xinjiang”
Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said getting companies to shift business away from Xinjiang is critical to convincing the Chinese government to change its policies.
“Until now, there have been condemnations of what the Chinese government has been doing but there have not been any actions,” he told the BBC. “The Chinese government will not do anything unless there are some real impacts, so therefore targeting the companies means a lot.”
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
Xinjiang produces an estimated 80% of China’s cotton
What are governments doing?
The call for action comes as the US has also ramped up economic pressure over the issue.
This month, it sanctioned Chinese officials overseeing the region and warned firms against doing business in Xinjiang.
American border officials also seized a shipment of 13 tonnes of hair products from the region worth an estimated $800,000 (£628,000), while the Commerce Department blacklisted 11 more companies – suppliers said to work with firms such as Apple – a move that limits the ability of those firms to buy US products, citing abuses.
Image copyright US Customs and Border Protection (
Image caption
One of the products seized in the US
Lawmakers in the US Congress are considering legislation to explicitly ban imports from Xinjiang, while politicians in the US and in Europe have also threatened legislation that would force companies to monitor the issue more closely.
“Companies all over the world must reassess their operations and supply chains and find alternatives that do not exploit the labour and violate the human rights of the Uighur people,” said US congressman James McGovern, who leads a committee on China.
Mr Kanat said he believes an international movement is growing, pointing to recent comments by UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses and said sanctions could not be ruled out.
“This is encouraging,” he said. “It is the first step.”
What do the companies say?
The activist campaign is focused on clothing brands because Xinjiang produces the majority of China’s cotton, which accounts for about 20% of the world’s supply.
Apparel companies said they were taking the issue seriously.
Nike said after it confronted one of its suppliers, Taekwang Group, about the issue, the firm stopped recruiting employees from Xinjiang at one of its factories. The sportswear company said that Taekwang said those workers “had the ability to end or extend contracts their contracts at any time”.
“This remains an issue of critical importance,” the firm said. “We are continuing to draw on expert guidance and are working with brands and other stakeholders to consider all available approaches to responsibly address this situation.”
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
A Taekwang Group factory
Gap also said it has policies that bar involuntary labour in its supply chain and does not source clothing directly from Xinjiang.
“We also recognize that a significant amount of the world’s cotton supply is grown and spun there,” it added. “Therefore, we are taking steps to better understand how our global supply chain may be indirectly impacted.”
UK accuses China of ‘gross’ abuses against Uighurs
‘Forced labour’ Chinese hair imports seized by US
Other companies disputed the claims that their supply chains were tainted.
Adidas said it had never sourced products from Xinjiang and the company cited in the ASPI report had falsely claimed to be a supplier.
“The adidas workplace standards strictly prohibit all forms of forced and prison labour and are applicable to all companies across our supply chain,” it added. “The use of forced labour by any of our partners will result in the termination of the partnership.”
Apple said it had not found any issues, despite conducting several surprise audits of its long-time supplier O-Film – one of the firms cited by the US Commerce Department.
Some of the Chinese companies accused of using forced labour from Uighur workers have also disputed the claims.
“We absolutely have not, do not, and will never use forced labour anywhere in our company,” said the Esquel Group, a Hong Kong based shirt-maker, reportedly a manufacturer for brand such as Lacoste.
It added that it was “deeply offended” by the US decision to add it to its export blacklist this week.
“We are working with all relevant authorities to resolve the situation, and we remain committed to Xinjiang as we are proud of our contribution in the region over the last 25 years.”
Twitter has announced a crackdown on the QAnon conspiracy theory, banning thousands of accounts and blocking web addresses linking to videos and websites spreading QAnon’s bizarre ideas.
It’s a fringe movement but one that has picked up a tremendous head of steam online, particularly in the United States.
So what is QAnon and who believes in it?
What is it?
At its heart, QAnon is a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that says that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.
QAnon believers have speculated that this fight will lead to a day of reckoning where prominent people such as Hillary Clinton will be arrested and executed.
That’s the basic story, but there are so many offshoots, detours and internal debates that the total list of QAnon claims is enormous – and often contradictory. Adherents draw in news events, historical facts and numerology to develop their own far-fetched conclusions.
QAnon: What’s the truth behind a pro-Trump conspiracy theory?
Where did it all start?
In October 2017, an anonymous user put a series of posts on the message board 4chan. The user signed off as “Q” and claimed to have a level of US security approval known as “Q clearance”.
These messages became known as “Q drops” or “breadcrumbs”, often written in cryptic language peppered with slogans, pledges and pro-Trump themes.
Twitter cracks down on QAnon conspiracy theorists
Image caption
“Where we go one we go all”, often abbreviated as “WWG1WGA!” is one of the most popular QAnon slogans
Nobody actually believes it, right?
Actually, thousands do. The amount of traffic to mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube has exploded since 2017, and indications are the numbers have gone up further during the coronavirus pandemic.
Judging by social media, there are hundreds of thousands of people who believe in at least some of the bizarre theories offered up by QAnon.
And its popularity hasn’t been diminished by events which would seem to debunk the whole thing. For instance, early Q drops focused on the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
QAnon supporters claimed Mr Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election was really an elaborate cover story for an investigation into paedophiles. When it concluded with no such bombshell revelation, the attention of the conspiracy theorists drifted elsewhere.
True believers contend deliberate misinformation is sown into Q’s messages – in their minds making the conspiracy theory impossible to disprove.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
QAnon supporters bring banners and flags to rallies in support of President Trump
What impact has it had?
QAnon supporters drive hashtags and co-ordinate abuse of perceived enemies – the politicians, celebrities and journalists who they believe are covering up for paedophiles.
It’s not just threatening messages online. Twitter says it took action against QAnon because of the potential for “offline harm”.
Several QAnon believers have been arrested after making threats or taking offline action.
In one notable case in 2018, a heavily armed man blocked a bridge over the Hoover Dam. Matthew Wright later pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
US conspiracy theory shuts school festival
Could it have impact on the US election?
Studies indicate that most Americans haven’t heard of QAnon. But for many believers, it forms the foundation of their support for President Trump.
The president has, unwittingly or not, retweeted QAnon supporters, and last month his son Eric Trump posted a QAnon meme on Instagram.
How influential is a pro-Trump conspiracy theory?
Dozens of QAnon supporters are running for Congress in November. Many have little hope but some, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia – appear to have a good chance of winning a seat.
It’s quite likely that a QAnon supporter – or someone sympathetic to the conspiracy theory – will sit in the next US Congress.
With additional reporting by Jack Goodman and Shayan Sardarizadeh
What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch
Image caption
Janice Dunphy, owner of the Web Adventure Park indoor play centre
As the nation gradually unlocks, nightclubs and soft play centres still don’t know when it will be their turn to reopen.
“On Friday there was the devastating news that everybody else apart from ourselves and nightclubs could open,” says Janice Dunphy, owner of the Web Adventure Park indoor play centre in York.
“We’ve been closed now 133 days so it’s really difficult to accept,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money.
Indoor play centres, along with nightclubs, have not yet been given permission to reopen and so far no date has been set for them to work towards.
That’s leaving business owners such as Janice unable to plan for a return of their customers and the financial boost that would provide.
Recent weeks have seen non-essential shops, theme parks and outdoor play areas reopen and at the start of August it will be possible for bowling alleys, casinos and ice rinks to welcome customers back.
But as Boris Johnson announced the lifting of those restrictions, as well as a return to full services for beauticians, he added: “Nightclubs and soft play areas will sadly need to remain closed for now – although this will be kept under review.”
Janice says: “My financial director told me we have to lose £200,000 off our wage bill over the next 18 months. Some of the staff that we’ve had to let go have families.”
Image copyright Janice Dunphy
For the Web Adventure Park that meant significant redundancies, as they could not afford for furloughed staff to continue accruing holiday pay.
“We used to have 65 staff but I’ve just made nine redundant and had to lay 20 off temporarily. Then we have 20 staff working in the nursery, which is still open.
“The ones we have had to lay off are mostly the younger workers, the 18-year-olds.”
‘No clarity’
Janice is not just a business owner, she also sits on the management committee for the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions.
It claims that up to two-thirds of soft play centres could close by October if they don’t receive support that reflects their extended lockdown.
“We have supported everything that we’ve been asked to do,” says Janice. “I actually produced the reopening protocol that was approved by [the Health and Safety Executive] so we’ve ticked every box as far as we’ve been asked.
“We would remove ball pits and anything that was a potential hazard would be taken out. Our members have foggers that they can clean surfaces with.”
Image copyright Janice Dunphy
“However there’s been no clarity, nothing has come back from government. There’s questions as to why certain industries that are indoors that have large numbers like inflatables parks, like trampoline parks can open but we can’t.
“If we had some idea of why, if we could speak to the government and ask why we could answer some of the questions but we’ve had no communication at all.”
‘Really frustrating’
The nightclub sector is another that remains locked down despite the easing of restrictions elsewhere.
“I think what’s really frustrating with our nightclub is we just have no idea when we might be able to reopen and it’s really hard to plan that way,” says Charlie Gilkes, a nightlife entrepreneur and the co-founder of Inception Group, which includes a nightclub.
“We understand that nightclubs are quite hard to operate with any social distancing in place, they are social environments, but we just need to have some sort of clarity of when they think it will be, even if that’s next year.
“And we need some sort of promise that the furlough scheme will be extended for nightclubs so that our staff can remain on that and there can be some specific support for the businesses which aren’t allowed to open.”
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We recognise the frustration of businesses which have had to remain closed because of the pandemic and we are working to help them reopen as soon as it is safe.
“We are also providing businesses and their employees with an unprecedented package of support during this national emergency including £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans and the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme.”
You can hear more of these interviews by downloading the Wake Up To Money podcast.
Image caption
OneWeb has a factory in Florida with the capacity produce two satellites a day
MPs have launched an inquiry into the government’s $500m (£400m) investment in bankrupt satellite firm OneWeb, amid disclosure that a top civil servant warned that taxpayers could lose out.
The government took a stake in the satellite broadband company as part of a post-Brexit space strategy.
It emerged on Wednesday that an acting permanent secretary raised concerns, warning that the deal was “unusual”.
Parliament’s business committee chief Darren Jones called the deal a gamble.
Mr Jones, chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said in a statement that news of the permanent secretary’s worries “heightens concerns around this investment” and “prompts further questions about how the government… came to plump for this largely US-based bankrupt satellite company”.
He went on to say that “using nearly half a billion pounds of taxpayer money to gamble on a ‘commercial opportunity’ whilst still failing to support manufacturing jobs with a sector deal is both troubling and concerning.”
OneWeb is creating a satellite network to support broadband and GPS services. But the firm collapsed in March, blaming the Covid crisis for not being able to raise more financial support.
Earlier this month, a joint offer from the UK government and India’s Bharti Global mobile operator won a bidding war for the firm.
But it was disclosed on Wednesday that Sam Beckett, the top civil servant in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said all the money put forward could be lost.
“While in one scenario we could get a 20% return, the central case is marginal and there are significant downside risks, including that venture capital investments of this sort can fail, with the consequence that all the value of the equity can be lost,” she wrote.
The comments were part of a letter for “ministerial direction”, an avenue for civil servants to register a stronger than usual opinion. Ministers are obliged to formally overrule the official’s objections to instruct the spending to go ahead. The contents of the letter must also be made public.
Overrode concerns
Ms Beckett said that an assessment by the UK Space Agency had identified “substantial technical and operational hurdles” that OneWeb would need to overcome in order to become a “viable and profitable business” and there was a high likelihood that further taxpayer funding would be necessary.
However, Business Secretary Alok Sharma overrode Ms Beckett’s concerns and the government went ahead with the bid.
Mr Sharma said Chancellor Rishi Sunak had agreed to the purchase, and other private sector investors were involved in the bid for OneWeb.
Image copyright ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE
Image caption
OneWeb’s largest unsecured creditor is the rocket operator Arianespace
The government hopes that London-based OneWeb, can take the place of the EU’s Galileo programme, which the UK left when Brexit took effect in January this year.
Ms Beckett said: “I completely understand your, the Prime Minister’s and the Chancellor’s interest in wider benefits such as the potential long-term geopolitical advantages for foreign policy and soft power that would come with sovereign ownership of a fleet of satellites.
“Moreover, I do not underestimate the potential opportunity that this investment represents for UK interests globally.
“It would be the first mega-constellation operator, if it succeeds, and would have the potential to connect millions of people, in particular those in remote, rural locations without broadband access.”
However she wrote that she could not be sure that the investment met Whitehall’s strict value-for-money requirements and so requested the formal order from Mr Sharma to proceed.
OneWeb, which has its headquarters in London and a manufacturing base in Florida, is aiming to complete the construction of a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites.
UK takes £400m stake in satellite firm OneWeb
UK space company blames coronavirus for collapse
The UK government sees satellites as a way to meet commitments on the roll-out of super-fast broadband and believes OneWeb’s constellation could also deliver a precise satellite navigation system.
Seventy-four satellites in an initial network of 648 had been launched when the company announced it was seeking bankruptcy protection. Most experts believe a further $3bn at least is needed to bring the full constellation into use.
Electric car maker Tesla has shrugged off the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic to report its fourth quarterly profit in a row.
The California company earned $104m (£82m) in the three months to 30 June, with the growth setting it on course for inclusion in the S&P 500.
That means Tesla’s shares, already surging, will see even more demand from investors who track the index.
The stock crested higher in after-hours tradingon publication of the results.
Tesla said its bottom line was helped by salary cuts as well as the opening of its new factory in China, where costs are lower.
Boss Elon Musk said the firm is focused on growth, with other plants in the works, including one in Germany and a new one he announced would be located near Austin, Texas.
“I’ve never been more excited and optimistic about the future of Tesla in the history of the company,” Mr Musk said.
Ahead of expectations
In the US, the pandemic forced boss Elon Musk to keep the company’s main factory in California closed until mid-May.
While the shutdown weighed on the firm’s output, it still beat analyst expectations.
Tesla said it produced 82,272 cars and delivered 90,650 to customers, down about 5% from the same quarter in 2019. The decline hit revenue, which also fell about 5% to $6bn.
But the overall resilience marks a contrast with rival car-makers, such as General Motors, many of which have reported sales declines of more than 30%.
Tesla said it still hoped to deliver on promises to make 500,000 vehicles this year.
“We have the capacity installed to exceed 500,000 vehicle deliveries this year, despite recent production interruptions,” the company said. “While achieving this goal has become more difficult, delivering half a million vehicles in 2020 remains our target.”
Image copyright Getty Images
Tesla’s share price has nearly quadrupled since the start of the year, from $430 to more than $1,550.
The eye-popping increase has added to the long-running debate over Tesla, which many critics maintain is overvalued.
This month, the firm overtook Toyota as the world’s most valuable carmaker, with a market worth of almost $300bn – although the Japanese company sold about 30 times more cars last year.
Tesla had posted years of losses since its start. Achieving a fourth quarter in a row of profit makes it eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500, though its addition would have to be approved by the committee that governs the index.
Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said this could lead to a further rise in the share price, but he warned: “While questions about the group’s long term future may be a thing of the increasingly distant past its valuation remains a sore point for many.”
On 1 May, Mr Musk himself tweeted Tesla’s share price was too high. The rise puts him in line for another major payday and has helped propel him into the ranks of the world’s 10 richest people, according to billionaire rankings by Bloomberg and Forbes.
Apple has defended the fees it charges developers to sell their digital products via its App Store.
The iPhone-maker says a study it commissioned shows content makers give away a similar cut to dozens of other online markets, and an even bigger share if their goods are sold offline.
Apple is facing complaints about the matter on both sides of the Atlantic.
The EU launched a competition probe in June, and chief executive Tim Cook will give testimony to Congress on Monday.
He will appear before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee alongside counterparts from Amazon, Facebook and Google. The tech giants all face claims that they have abused their market-leading positions.
It has emerged that ahead of the hearing, Microsoft’s president briefed the panel that his firm had concerns about the way Apple operated the App Store.
According to a report in the Information, Brad Smith has drawn attention to issues including::
apps cannot easily be installed onto iOS devices by other means
moderators’ decisions about whether to approve or reject apps sometimes seem arbitrary
developers must share a cut of in-app fees, and cannot promote alternative ways to pay within their products
Public row
The is the second time in two months that Apple has published a report from the Analysis Group about its digital store.
In June, the Boston-based consultancy suggested that the App Store had “facilitated half a trillion dollars” of trade in 2019.
But that report was quickly overshadowed by the European Commission’s announcement that it was investigating complaints from the music streaming service Spotify and e-book store Kobo. They alleged that Apple’s rules gave its own digital products an unfair advantage.
To compound matters, Apple also got involved in a public spat with the makers of email app Hey, who were refusing to give it a share of their subscription fees.
Apple subsequently announced changes to its apps review process as a concession. But the latest report indicates it is not willing to compromise over the charges it imposes.
The Analysis Group compared Apple’s App Store to 37 other digital and e-commerce marketplaces.
It found the firm’s standard demand of a 30% cut of sales was in line with what Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Samsung took.
But there were some exceptions. The group said:
Epic Games video games marketplace takes a 12% share
Freelance work platforms including TaskRabbit and Upwork take between 5% and 20%
Amazon Prime Video takes a 50% share of purchase and rental sales
Kobo’s audio book platform takes a 55% to 68% cut
Chinese app stores often charge 50% or more
The study also suggested that developers and publishers got a smaller share from offline “bricks-and-mortar” channels, where stores and other intermediaries typically take:
a 55% share of video games sales
a 50% share of newspaper sales
a 60% share of magazine sales
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
The leaders of Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon will all give testimony to a US anti-trust hearing next week
The report also highlighted that other e-commerce marketplaces also had rules to prohibit sellers from directing buyers to pay offsite in order to avoid fees. Examples given are:
eBay
Etsy
Walmart
Amazon
Airbnb
However, when pressed on this last point, one of the report’s authors conceded that while shoppers were aware they could always go elsewhere to buy physical goods, they did not always realise they could buy subscriptions and other digital products outside an app.
Developers often offer cheaper deals on their own sites as they do not have to split the charge with Apple, but the tech firm forbids them from alerting users to the possibility via a link or other “call to action” within their own apps.
The Analysis Group said it believed most users would be aware it was possible to subscribe to Netflix and the bigger brands via a smart TV or website, but acknowledged this was not the case for smaller publishers.
Apple is under fire – from developers big and small, from politicians and from regulators – over the way it runs its App Store.
The firm has indicated this report doesn’t necessarily represent the testimony Mr Cook will offer when quizzed by the US Congress next week.
But if he does rebut claims of unfair practices with “we’re no worse and sometimes better than Amazon, Google, Uber and Microsoft”, he may not win over the politicians.
That argument certainly won’t impress developers like Basecamp’s David Heinemeier Hansson, who fell out badly with Apple over his email app Hey.
Although that dispute was settled, Mr Hansson still wants radical change.
“The power of Apple and the rest of the big tech monopolies is insufferable,” he told me, making it clear he was working with regulators and politicians to change things.
“That’s where permanent relief is going to come from.”
Apple can expect a long battle, but we’ve begun to see the shape of its defence.
The aviation and holiday industry are due to hold urgent talks with government this week in a bid to bring coronavirus testing to airports.
Companies say testing could end quarantine restrictions and save what’s left of the key holiday season.
It is hoped that Covid-19 testing could be introduced at UK airports by the start of September.
Negative results would free travellers from quarantine rules when arriving in the UK from high risk areas.
Sources at a steering group that is in talks on behalf of the industry say that once the government is happy that the Covid-19 test results are of a verified and of a certified health and scientific standard, they could then be used.
The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swab test that is proposed in airports is the type in operation at NHS facilities across the UK.
Nurses would carry out the airport swab tests at clinics run by medical firm Collinson. The company has said previously the trial is about “modifying” the quarantine.
Passengers would pay for the tests themselves. A negative result could take as little as five hours, but the aim would be to notify every participant within 24 hours.
The Department for Transport declined to comment.
Airlines call for joint US-EU virus testing scheme
Virus drives airlines to ‘worst’ year on record
Sources who have spoken to the BBC have expressed their frustration at the slow response of government to make testing in airports happen.
The holiday and aviation sectors has been crippled by the pandemic. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost at airlines and handling companies as the skies closed for months.
The lucrative transatlantic route between Europe and North America is seen as crucial to trade and holidays.
On Tuesday, US Vice-President Mike Pence called for a unified approach to airport testing to get people flying again and allow travellers to be freed of quarantine restrictions.
Image copyright Getty Images
Those close to this new steering group expect that routes from specific cities in the US to London could be prioritised because of their importance to trade, such as New York or Dallas.
Major tour operators such as TUI and Jet2 restarted their holiday operations to popular European holiday destinations about a fortnight ago. Numbers were down on the previous year but they have seen some demand bounce back.
Renewed concerns
But there are now major worries about the coronavirus infection rate in Spain.
Earlier this week, Spain’s north-eastern Catalonia region recorded a daily Covid-19 infection figure of more than 1,000, leading to new new restrictions. And at the weekend residents in Barcelona were advised only to leave their homes for essential trips.
Regional authorities on Spain’s Balearic island of Majorca on Wednesday ordered the immediate closure of bars on three streets popular with hard drinking tourists to limit the potential for coronavirus outbreaks.
Concerned that many tourists are not respecting social distancing guidelines, authorities elected to close the venues on the Platja de Palma strip in the capital Palma, and at Magaluf, a favoured haunt with young Britons.
If public health measures meant that Spain is re-categorised and taken off the quarantine-free travel list, it would pose tremendous problems for the aviation industry.
One leading voice in the sector said “this industry relies on Spain, take it out and there will be major problems”.
The source said the industry was worried about what would happen to the thousands of UK holidaymakers who are currently in Spain and whether they need to quarantine on return.
The travel sector is also concerned that those who are booked to travel in coming weeks could get cold feet and begin a second avalanche of cancellations and refunds.
These problems could be negated with the acceleration of a rigorous testing programme in airports, something the aviation industry has been pushing for for months.
Despite criticism of the government’s quarantine scheme and its impact on the travel industry, ministers have insisted that public health must came first.
Image caption
Slack is designed to make it easier for co-workers to communicate with one another.
Work messaging platform Slack has filed an antitrust claim against Microsoft, claiming the tech giant’s rival app Teams has an unfair advantage.
Slack said Microsoft’s bundling of Teams within Office 365 software was “illegal and anti-competitive practice” and that the tech giant was “abusing its market dominance”.
The complaint will now be reviewed by the European Commission.
Microsoft said that it was providing the EC with information.
“We created Teams to combine the ability to collaborate with the ability to connect via video, because that’s what people want,” said a spokesperson.
“With Covid-19, the market has embraced Teams in record numbers while Slack suffered from its absence of video-conferencing. We’re committed to offering customers not only the best of new innovation, but a wide variety of choice in how they purchase and use the product.”
“We look forward to providing additional information to the European Commission and answering any questions they may have.”
Slack argued that it was seeking a “level playing field” and suggested that, by offering Teams to Office 365 users, Microsoft was making it harder for Slack to sell its own software to the market.
“We want to be the 2% of your software budget that makes the other 98% more valuable; they want 100% of your budget every time,” said Jonathan Prince, Slack’s vice president of communications and policy.
With millions more employees working from home during the pandemic, rivalry over the technology that makes remote working possible has deepened.
Microsoft Teams users grew from 44 million in March to 75 million in April and Slack has also seen a large rise in users in recent months, reaching 12.5 million by late March.
The antitrust claim contrasts with comments made by Slack’s chief executive Stewart Butterfield in May, when he told CNBC: “What we’ve seen over the past couple of months is that Teams is not a competitor to Slack.”
He went on to mention the fact that Microsoft bundles Teams with Office 365 and argued the growth of Teams users during the past three years was unimpressive.
“They still only have 29% which means 71% of [Office 365] users have said ‘No thank you’.”
