Stéphane Ruffier during PSG-ASSE, August 14, 2018. – JEE / SIPA
AS Saint-Etienne (L1) coach Claude Puel dismissed the iconic Greens goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier for the entire 2020-2021 season, we learned from the club on Wednesday, confirming information from Infosport +. Ruffier, who has one year of contract to ensure, is not in the trio of players who will keep the cage of ASSE during the next season, the same source adds.
Claude Puel announces that Stéphane Ruffier has been sidelined for the entire 2020-21 season. (@team)
The goalkeeper turned down the number 2 position at the club. pic.twitter.com/d8fqYZ7wv4
– BeFoot (@_BeFoot) August 5, 2020
“I warned the two players. Mon [Jessy Moulin] that he was going to start the season, the other [Stéphane Ruffier] that he would be second. And the second confirmed to me that he would never be the understudy of Jessy Moulin. That’s why we built our trio and Stéphane will not be part of it, ”said the Stéphanois coach in an interview broadcast on Wednesday by the sports channel of the Canal + group.
This interview was carried out on Monday, the management of AS Saint-Etienne told AFP. The latter also indicates that the trio of goalkeepers selected for this season is made up of Jessy Moulin, 34, with Stefan Bajic, 18, as a lining and Etienne Green, 20, as the third goalkeeper.
“One day a club” – Saint Etienne A new cycle for ASSE
All the sport news with INFOSPORT + https://t.co/u6BZuPnEdy pic.twitter.com/jQKVxmOyNZ
– INFOSPORT + (@infosportplus) August 5, 2020
Stéphane Ruffier, 33, returned to training last week, following a layoff sanctioned by a six-day payroll deduction. The club management accuses him of having refused to participate in part of the training on July 10 when he was summoned with the unsuccessful players to play against Nice the next day at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium.
Free to sign in January wherever he wishes
Asked by AFP, Stéphane Ruffier’s agent did not wish to comment on this formalization of the sidelining of the player, nor wanted to indicate whether he was looking for a new club. Stéphane Ruffier, who has played 383 matches in the Stéphane jersey since his arrival in summer 2011 from Monaco, is the goalkeeper who has played the most with the Greens in the 1st division, ahead of the legendary Ivan Curkovic.
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The Galaxy Z Fold 2’s exterior screen now nearly fills the side of the device
Samsung has tackled one of the biggest criticisms of its original folding-screen smartphone by giving the new version a much bigger external display for use when it is closed.
The original Galaxy Fold’s “cover screen” was a relatively small 4.6in, leading to claims it was fiddly to use.
By contrast, the Galaxy Z Fold 2’s external screen is 6.2in – the same as the best-selling Galaxy S20.
Even so, one expert said its high price would mean sales remained limited.
But he noted it would at least serve as a better “halo device” to generate excitement for the firm’s wider line-up, which also includes updated versions of its stylus-enabled Note handset, as well as a new smartwatch, tablet and wireless earphones.
“Samsung has addressed the biggest shortcoming of the Fold. Its external display was extremely small, which made it difficult to use as a one-handed smartphone,” commented Ben Wood from the CCS Insight consultancy.
“With a larger external display you really do get the best of both worlds with regards to being able to use it closed as a traditional phone and then having the benefit of a mini-tablet when unfolded.
“That said it’ll probably be priced as a super-premium product, so will only have a niche market.”
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
The previous edition of the Fold had a smaller exterior screen
The South Korean company is in need of an attention boost.
The coronavirus pandemic caused the biggest decline in smartphone sales the sector has ever experienced in the second quarter of the year, but Samsung was even harder hit than its rivals.
Those that can afford the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will also benefit from it having a larger internal display than before, measuring 7.6in – up from 7.3in in the original version. The firm said it had also been given a “firmer snap” action when being shut thanks to an improved hinge.
It did not disclose a price but said more details would be announced on 1 September.
Faster frame rate
In terms of sales, Samsung’s focus will be on its new Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra phones.
Both deliver 5G connectivity, but otherwise represent a more modest revision to their predecessors than the change in the Fold.
Image copyright Samsung
Image caption
The Note 20 smartphones allow users to zoom up to 50 times into a subject
The Ultra offers the benefits of a larger screen – 6.9in versus 6.7in – which is also capable of showing up to 120 frames per second, double the rate of the basic model. Samsung suggests this should make it more attractive to gamers.
Other changes centre around the stylus and include:
faster response times when using the S Pen, to help make writing and drawing feel more natural
the addition of five S Pen off-screen gestures to control the device, including flicking to the left in the air to go back a page and a shake to take a screenshot
handwriting recognition that automatically straightens scribbled text
Image copyright Samsung
Image caption
The Note 20 phones straighten handwritten text
Additional new features include the ability to stream video to a compatible TV while continuing to let the handset be used for other tasks – similar to the AirPlay function on Apple’s iPhone.
And files can now be transferred wirelessly by pointing one of the phones at another “ultra-wideband-enabled” device, similar to the way Apple’s AirDrop and Huawei’s Share OneHop work.
The Note 20 will start at £849 and the Note 20 Ultra at £1,179 when they go on sale on 21 August.
Image copyright Samsung
Image caption
Samsung also unveiled the Galaxy Buds Live wireless earphones, the Galaxy Watch 3 smartwatch and two versions of the Galaxy Tab S7 tablet
Its smartphones saw a much steeper drop in demand than Huawei and other Android competitors over the past quarter, despite the Galaxy 20 family having only been released in March.
And one expert said she did not expect the Note to turn things round.
“There’s now talk of second and third pandemic lockdowns, which is causing people and their employers financial uncertainty,” commented Marta Pinto from the market research firm IDC.
“These are amazing devices, but at this price they are a hard pitch.”
Ms Pinto said that recent price cuts made to the Galaxy S20 range would only make the new Notes a harder sell.
Image copyright Samsung
Image caption
The Note 20 can wirelessly transmit video to a TV while the user gets on with other tasks
But she added that one factor in Samsung’s favour was that Apple had said it would release its next iPhones a few weeks later than normal, providing Samsung a slightly longer window of opportunity to promote its phones’ 5G advantages.
Mr Wood also had doubts about the new phones’ appeal, but said Samsung had little choice at this stage but to release them.
“You have to remember that Samsung’s product development cycle takes so long that it was committed to the Note 20 a long time before the pandemic arrived,” said Mr Wood.
“But a broader question is whether there is still enough differentiation to justify having two flagship ranges. The Galaxy S and Note phones now have similar screen sizes, and the only key difference is the S Pen.
“I wonder if it would make sense to converge the two, save money on a second launch, and then focus on other parts of the portfolio like Samsung’s [mid-range] A series.”
Image copyright Samsung
Image caption
Samsung launched its new gadgets via a video stream rather than in front of an audience because of the Covid-19 pandemic
Other new products included:
Galaxy Buds Live – wireless noise-cancelling earphones that are designed to double up as remote microphones for video recordings
Galaxy Watch 3 – a smartwatch that can take blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG) heart readings, but only if local regulators give approval
Galaxy Tab 7 and Tab S7+ – 11in and 12.4in tablets that can also act as second screens for Samsung PCs
Image caption
Comedy series The Good Place can be seen on Netflix, which saw an increase in new subscribers
Lockdown measures enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a surge in TV watching and online streaming, according to media watchdog Ofcom.
Its annual study into UK media habits suggested adults – many stuck indoors – spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen, on average.
Time spent on subscription streaming services also doubled during April.
At the height of lockdown, adults spent an average of six hours and 25 minutes each day staring at screens.
Screen time overall was up almost a third (31%) on last year.
People watched streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, for one hour 11 minutes per day, and 12 million people joined a service they hadn’t used previously. Three million of these viewers had never subscribed to any service before.
The majority signed up to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, although Disney+ overtook Now TV as the third most popular paid-for streaming platform.
Older viewers, who typically watch more traditional broadcast TV, increased their use of streaming platforms, too.
One third of 55-64-year-olds, and 15% of people aged 65+ used subscription services in the early weeks of lockdown.
The study, entitled Media Nations 2020, suggested that as lockdown measures eased towards the end of June, the uplift in streaming services held firm – 71% up on the same time last year.
This figure also included people viewing more non-broadcast content on platforms like YouTube and gaming sites.
And more than half of UK adults (55%) with new streaming subscriptions said they will keep them and spend the same amount of time watching streamed content in future.
In contrast, Netflix saw 28 million new subscribers for the whole of 2019.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionCoronation Street filming has resumed following a break during the pandemic
“Growth is slowing as consumers get through the initial shock of coronavirus and social restrictions,” the company said.
As for the public service broadcasters – BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – they achieved their highest combined monthly share of broadcast TV viewing (59%) in more than six years in March, as people turned to trusted news services for updates on the virus.
The BBC was the most popular source of news and information about Covid-19 – used by 82% of adults during the first week of lockdown.
Analysis by Amol Rajan, BBC media editor
In the age of information overload, our attention is the most precious resource. These days we devote ever more of it to screens. And that was before lockdown.
The surge in screen viewing through the pandemic is genuinely extraordinary.
It’s important to remember that many of the companies or services that have turned us into screen addicts didn’t exist a decade ago.
Sadly for Britain’s commercial broadcasters, all these eyeballs haven’t turned into revenue, as advertising is in sharp retreat, for now at least.
Before lockdown, the creative industries were growing several times faster than the rest of the economy, albeit powered by US companies.
Never mind “Eat Out to Help Out”; might “Tune In to Help Out” be a slogan to boost Britain’s path out of recession?
Broadcasters’ video-on demand services also received a boost in lockdown. Dramas Normal People and Killing Eve helped BBC iPlayer attract a record 570m programme requests in May 2020 – 72% higher than in May 2019.
Channel 4’s on-demand service, All 4, generated 30% more views among 16-34s in the first two weeks of lockdown compared with the same period in 2019; and viewers spent 82% more time year-on-year watching ITV Hub.
However, the boost to PSBs’ linear audiences was short-lived as coronavirus interrupted production of soaps including EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as major sporting events like the Olympics and entertainment broadcasts such as the Glastonbury Festival.
By the end of June and with lockdown easing, the amount of time viewers spent watching traditional broadcast content fell 44 minutes to three hours and two minutes per day. Broadcast TV viewing is now comparably lower than it was in 2014-2017, although it remains 11% higher than this time last year.
Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
For its last, the Coupe de la Ligue did not see big, but it saw far. Very far. Until the penalty shoot-out. And in the end, it is Paris Saint-Germain who wins (0-0, 6-5 in the tabs).
The Mustache Cup therefore ends as it began. Olympique Lyonnais now need the ultimate Champions League miracle to play Europe next year.
Thirty-five degrees at kick-off, barely less than 30 at the final whistle, two more-than-necessary cool breaks. Like the entire Paris basin, the Plaine Saint-Denis was transformed into an oven on Friday evening. The players, who did not necessarily need this to draw, necessarily suffered, with the lot of technical inaccuracies that implies. From the start of the second half, the Lyon midfielder showed signs of fatigue on the Parisian blocks, splitting the team block in two. And after the hour of play, Paris got into it too. The result: the two teams played a nice ping-pong match at regular intervals. We had come to see football, but why not.
Mbappé missed, OL (almost) took advantage
Thomas Tuchel is struggling to play his team without Kylian Mbappé. Uninspired, his team swung a lot ahead, hoping that Icardi or Di Maria discovered unsuspected talents of hares. Obviously in vain. Without the threat of the “Bondy TGV”, OL were able to apply their plan by playing fairly regularly high by spinning the ball until Depay, or Cornet played Kurzawa, not to his advantage tonight. ‘like his counterpart Mitchel Bakker, whom one wonders even if he has the level to play in National 2. It is often passed on the Parisian right lane, therefore, but less in the axis, where Memphis and Dembele, despite a few flashes of brilliance often collided with the Presko-Thiago hinge.
Marco Verratti above the fray
The Italian will have been one of the rare satisfactions of PSG, with Neymar. Thomas Tuchel, who had promised a Verratti “fit” yesterday at a press conference after having spared him against Saint-Etienne in the final of the Coupe de France had not therefore lied, the Italian appeared solid on the lawn of the Stade de France, Friday, as evidenced by his playing time tonight. Well-felt tackles, an interesting volume of play – in the 98th he even made a deep left side call – despite the weather conditions and above all, above all, this fascinating ability to get out of dangerous and / or desperate situations unscathed. The John McClane of Paris Saint-Germain.
Anthony Lopes above the clouds
If the Stade de France was able to fall asleep in front of a soporific extension, it is thanks to the OL goalkeeper. The Portuguese thwarted Neymar’s plans. Whether on free kick or head (89th), the Brazilian hit a wall. In his own style, Lopes has often pitched in the toes and flown above the clouds to keep his goals untouched. And, of course, he got tangled up with a PSG player. A full match, therefore, for Toto Lopes.
Rafael and Traoré below everything
There could have been no penalty shootout. At the very last minute of extra time, Rafael mows down Di Maria at the edge of the box, concedes an ultra-dangerous free kick and takes a red card. Unfortunately for Bertrand Traoré, Neymar did not put his free kick to shorten the meeting. On the other hand, he coldly transformed his penalty just before the Lyon striker failed in front of Navas. Like what, the plague status of the match is sometimes played for nothing.
OMF Oh my fake: What are these cognitive biases that trick our brains? – BalthazarKorab – OMF
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Rostec turned to President Vladimir Putin with a request to instruct the Cabinet of Ministers to stimulate the transition of domestic airlines to the Russian reservation system, which is being developed by the state corporation (the letter is at the disposal of Izvestia).
To operate the unified settlement system on the territory of the Russian Federation, Rostec created the RT-Transcom enterprise. The company is faced with the task of creating a modern and secure data center in the country, “as well as transferring data from leading Russian airlines, primarily Aeroflot and S7 PJSC, from imported to domestic software,” the appeal says.
Today Aeroflot works with the American Saber reservation system, and Ural Airlines – with the European Amadeus.
Sergey Chemezov suggests linking the provision of state support to airlines with the transition to the use of domestic software products.
In July 2019, the Russian government issued a decree according to which, by October 31, 2021, airlines will have the right to work only with those reservation system providers that store and process information about domestic Russian transportation – passengers, fares and fees – in the Russian Federation.
Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:
Software – we fly: airlines want to transfer to the domestic booking system
Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho is interested in signing Colombia winger Luis Diaz, 23, from Porto.(Record – in Portuguese)
Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer side owned by former England captain David Beckham, want to make Barcelona and Uruguay forward Luis Suarez, 33, their first big-name signing. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish)
Manchester City and Paris St-Germain target David Alaba’s agent is asking Bayern Munich pay the 28-year-old Austria left-back 20m euros (£18m) a year to extend his contract. (Bild – in German)
Talks between Manchester United and 23-year-old English goalkeeper Dean Henderson – who spent the season on loan at Sheffield United – are at a vital stage after weeks of negotiations. (Sky Sports)
Chelsea are prioritising the signing of Leicester City’s England left-back Ben Chilwell, 23, over other options in that position, including Ajax’s Argentine defender Nicholas Tagliafico, 27, and Getafe’s Spain Under-21 international Marc Cucurella, 22. (Goal)
West Ham United are interested in Queens Park Rangers and former Republic of Ireland Under-21 full-back Ryan Manning, 24. (Telegraph – subscription required)
Atletico Madrid have rejected an improved offer of 25m euros (£22.6m), plus 21-year-old France midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, from Arsenal for Ghana defensive midfielder Thomas Partey, 27. (AS – in Spanish)
English former Burnley, West Ham and Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart, 33, is close to a move to Scottish champions Celtic.(Sun)
Brazil forward Hulk, 34, is considering a move to the Premier League when his contract at Shanghai SIPG expires in January. (Talksport)
Premier League newcomers Leeds United are targeting FC Utrecht’s 25-year-old Dutch right-back Sean Klaiber as they look to do early business in the transfer window. (Voetbal International – in Dutch)
However, Leeds’ hopes of signing Argentina Under-20 winger Thiago Almada are fading, with the 19-year-old telling his Velez Sarsfield team-mates he wants to stay in his homeland. (Leeds Live)
Watford are in talks with Vladimir Ivic over their vacant manager’s job after the 43-year-old Serb left his role as head coach at Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he won consecutive league titles. (Mail)
Barcelona are looking to offload February signing Martin Braithwaite, 29, with the Denmark forward not in manager Quique Setien’s plans for next season. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish)
MacKenzie Scott Gives 17 Billion to Historically Black Colleges and
MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s richest women, pledged one year ago to give away her money “until the safe is empty.”
On Tuesday, Ms. Scott, an author and philanthropist who was once married to Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, said she had so far given $1.7 billion to a long list of institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities as well as organizations that support women’s rights, L.G.B.T.Q. equality, and efforts to fight climate change and racial inequities.
“I gave each a contribution and encouraged them to spend it on whatever they believe best serves their efforts,” Ms. Scott said in a Medium post in which she listed more than 100 organizations that received donations.
Ms. Scott, who was married to Mr. Bezos for 25 years, is estimated to have a net worth of $36 billion and is the fourth-richest woman in the world, according to Forbes. Ms. Scott, 50, received 4 percent of Amazon’s shares as part of the couple’s divorce settlement.
A Princeton graduate who studied under Toni Morrison, Ms. Scott pursued a career as a writer even as she helped Mr. Bezos start his business.
Soon after the divorce, Ms. Scott, still using her married name, signed the Giving Pledge, noting that she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share.”
Other wealthy individuals like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have also signed the pledge, a project that encourages billionaires to promise to give away at least half of their wealth over their lifetimes.
Several of the organizations that received donations from Ms. Scott, including Howard University and Tuskegee University, said the gifts were the biggest contributions their institutions had ever received.
Howard University said it received $40 million, a donation it described as “transformative.”
The university said Ms. Scott’s gift would help support a student retention program that gives financial assistance to students who receive the maximum amount of aid under the federal Pell grant program.
“We hope that other donors will follow her example to lift the financial burden off of deserving students and help make ends meet so they can focus on graduating on time,” Wayne A.I. Frederick, the president of the university, said in a statement.
Lily D. McNair, president of Tuskegee University, said Ms. Scott had donated $20 million to the university.
“This gift comes at an opportune time for us,” Ms. McNair said in a statement. She said she envisioned the money would help fund student scholarships and campus improvement projects.
“The gift will allow us to become the Tuskegee of the 21st century,” she said.
In her post, Ms. Scott said that last fall she asked a team of nonprofit advisers to help her identify organizations that have directly helped marginalized groups.
“I began work to complete my pledge with the belief that my life had yielded two assets that could be of particular value to others: the money these systems helped deliver to me, and a conviction that people who have experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions,” Ms. Scott wrote.
She added that the work of giving away more than half her fortune “will last for years.”
Unlike other ultrawealthy donors, who often establish their own foundations, Ms. Scott gave directly to causes and underrepresented groups doing work on the ground, said Rob Reich, a Stanford University political science professor who has written about the drawbacks of modern philanthropy.
He also noted that her donation had no strings attached, an approach he praised as “anti-paternalistic.”
But Professor Reich emphasized that the public should realize that the Giving Pledge does little to a reduce a person’s overall wealth.
“If you pick the year that someone signed the Giving Pledge and look at their wealth today, almost all of those people today have more wealth than they did when they signed the Giving Pledge,” he said. “They’re richer today than when they signed the pledge because their wealth has grown more quickly.”
The public should generally be wary of billionaire philanthropy, said Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, which has examined how the wealth of those who signed the Giving Pledge has continued to grow exponentially.
“They’re giving their money away so that’s better than building a multigenerational dynasty or buying another yacht,” Mr. Collins said. “The generous impulse is real.”
But those donations are often used to write off taxes, shifting the burden to other taxpayers, Mr. Collins added.
“We should have healthy skepticism about these big gifts and announcements because we the taxpayer give a pretty substantial subsidy to the wealthy to pay for them,” he said.
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One tonne of high technology: Seven instruments, 23 cameras, two microphones and a drill
The multi-billion-dollar, decade-long effort to bring rock samples from Mars to Earth gets under way on Thursday.
It starts with the US space agency’s latest rover, called Perseverance, which is launching from Florida.
When the robot lands on the Red Planet in February, it will not only search for evidence of life but also package rock samples for return to Earth labs.
This will take an elaborate mix of future missions, but it all begins with the one-tonne, six-wheeled rover.
Lift-off of Perseverance on a United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket is timed for the start of a two-hour window that opens at 07:50 local time (12:50 BST; 11:50 GMT).
It’s the third mission heading to Mars this month after launches by the UAE and China.
Image caption
Artwork: Did Mars ever host life? The evidence could be held in the planet’s rocks
Once Perseverance takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, it faces a seven-month cruise to the Red Planet.
It’s being targeted at a 40km-wide, near-equatorial bowl called Jezero Crater.
Satellite images suggest this held a lake billions of years ago. Scientists say the rocks that formed in this environment stand a good chance of retaining evidence of past microbial activity – if ever that existed on the planet.
Perseverance will spend at least one Martian year (equivalent to roughly two Earth years) investigating the possibility.
Unlike the previous four rovers Nasa has sent to Mars, its new machine is equipped to directly detect life – either current or in fossilised form.
But any evidence it uncovers will almost certainly have its sceptics, which is why researchers want to bring whatever Perseverance finds back home for the deeper analysis only sophisticated laboratories on Earth can perform.
How is Perseverance different from earlier rovers?
At first glance, Perseverance looks to be a copy of the Curiosity robot Nasa sent to Mars’ Gale Crater in 2012. Indeed, the new robot even incorporates some leftover parts from the earlier mission.
But the seven instruments on Perseverance are either major upgrades or totally new.
Expect some remarkable new imagery from the 23 cameras on the vehicle – and sound, because the Perseverance mission carries microphones as well.
“We hope to capture some of the sounds of entry, descent and landing; and some of the sounds of driving around, merging that with the video we can take,” explained Jim Bell, the principal investigator on the rover’s mast-mounted camera system, MastcamZ.
In addition to geological investigations and the search for life, there’s an emphasis on future human exploration.
The Moxie instrument will practise making oxygen from Mars’ carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere; and there are even samples of spacesuit material aboard to see how they cope in the planet’s harsh environment.
This is purely a technology demonstration. Ingenuity aims to prove that aero vehicles can operate in Mars’s rarefied air.
The 1.8kg machine will be deployed from Perseverance’s belly once a suitable location for its flight experiments has been identified.
Ingenuity’s twin, counter-rotating blades will have to spin extremely fast to get off the ground.
Engineers have five sorties planned over a 30-day period, with the ambition on each excursion of climbing ever higher into the sky and getting further away from Perseverance.
“Today, we simply don’t use the aerial dimension in space exploration, but in future we will,” said Nasa’s Ingenuity project leader, MiMi Aung. “They will be used, for example, in a scouting function. When humans arrive, or indeed future rovers, the rotorcraft will go in front and gather high-definition images of the way ahead,” she told BBC News.
Image copyright NASA/Cory Huston
Why is Jezero Crater so interesting to scientists?
Jezero is named after a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In some Slavic languages the word “jezero” also means “lake” – which should explain the fascination.
This 500m-deep bowl once saw huge volumes of water flow in through the western wall to pool on the crater floor.
Where the water entered, it even deposited sediments to form a delta. Perseverance will try to land next to this feature.
Jezero displays multiple rock types, including clays and carbonates, that have the potential to preserve the type of organic molecules that would hint at life’s bygone existence.
Particularly enticing is the “bathtub ring” of sediments laid down at the ancient lake’s shoreline. It’s here that Perseverance could find what on Earth are called stromatolites.
“These are ancient fossilised microbial mats,” explained rover deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan.
“They leave behind very thin layers, with concentrations of particular elements and organics at repeated intervals. We’ll be looking for those fine laminations, looking for chemistry and textures you wouldn’t expect if these things were just abiotic, or didn’t involve life.”
We know from the search for the earliest life on Earth that the evidence can sometimes be controversial.
So, even if Perseverance stumbles across rocks that appear to have been fashioned by some ancient Martian biology, it will almost certainly require confirmation by analytical instruments on Earth that are far superior to the miniaturised versions carried on the rover.
That’s why a key task for Perseverance will be to package its most interesting rocks in small metal canisters and leave them on the Jezero Crater floor.
Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa) intend to go fetch these tubes with two more missions that are scheduled to leave Earth in 2026.
It’s a remarkable endeavour involving a second rover, a Mars rocket and a huge satellite to ship the sample tubes home, getting them here in 2031. “You can argue that what we’ll be trying to do is as complicated as the Apollo Moon landings – when you think of the complexity of the robotics involved,” David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration at Esa, told BBC News.
“And it will also be a step on the way to sending humans to Mars because the architecture of this Mars Sample Return project is really a scale model of a human mission with its multiple vehicles that have to launch, land, launch again, rendezvous in orbit and return to Earth.”
Nasa and Esa estimate the total cost of getting samples back to Earth, including the $2.7bn (€2.3bn; £2bn) cost of Perseverance, will come to at least $7bn (€6bn; £5.4bn).
An illustrated guide to Mars Sample Return
Click here to see how will Nasa and Esa bring rocks from Mars to Earth.
Image caption
Caught between nations: Chinese-owned TikTok faces a US investigation
TikTok has launched a direct attack on Facebook, accusing it of being a “copycat” and trying to end TikTok’s presence in the US under the guise of patriotism.
It comes as TikTok, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, faces fresh scrutiny.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said TikTok was now being reviewed over national security concerns.
Meanwhile, Facebook and other big tech firms are due to defend their practices in front of the US Congress.
TikTok has long battled allegations that it is too close to the Chinese state – something it fiercely denies.
Announcing the review, Secretary Mnuchin said TikTok was being investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which examines commercial transactions for national security concerns.
A recommendation would be made to President Donald Trump this week, he said. Mr Trump separately said that his administration was “thinking about” making a decision on the app later this week.
It came shortly after TikTok published a firmly worded defence of its role in the United States.
‘Not the enemy’
Chief executive Kevin Mayer said that while big firms “rightly” come under scrutiny, “we have received even more… due to the company’s Chinese origins”.
He went on: “TikTok has become the latest target, but we are not the enemy”.
He also took direct aim at Facebook, writing off its new Instagram Reels feature as a TikTok clone.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionWATCH: Will TikTok be banned?
Much like Tiktok, the app is focused on short-form ephemeral video.
“Facebook is even launching another copycat product, Reels (tied to Instagram), after their other copycat Lasso failed quickly,” Mr Meyer’s statement said.
Lasso had been referred to as “a TikTok clone” by media outlets for its similarities, but was shut down in July.
Mr Meyer also defended the cultural impact of TikTok, and warned that without his firm, American advertisers would be left with fewer options.
A repeated theme was that TikTok was good for competition. Without it, he wrote, “competition would dry up and so too will an outlet for America’s creative energy”.
He also insisted the company had no political leanings or agenda.
This is not the first time TikTok has faced trouble. It was recently banned in India amid heightened tensions between that country and China.
