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Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the US presidential race has led to new deepfake videos of the 81-year-old being shared on social media.
The latest one being shared on the platform ‘X’ shows faked footage of the president sat at a table, making a speech on ‘PBS News’ announcing his withdrawal, using a number of expletives.
On the social platform, PBS News’ official account posted:
“A deepfake video of President Joe Biden bearing our logo is circulating on social media. Biden did not make this statement. PBS News did not authorize the use of this video and we do not condone altering news video or audio in any way that could mislead the audience.”
A deepfake video of President Joe Biden bearing our logo is circulating on social media. Biden did not make this statement. PBS News did not authorize the use of this video and we do not condone altering news video or audio in any way that could mislead the audience.
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 22, 2024
It is the latest in a number of deepfakes made of both Biden and Donald Trump during their election campaigns in the US
In the real world, the president shared a written withdrawal statement, saying “it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down”.
He has backed vice president Kamala Harris to take his place, but it is not clear what the process will be for selecting the Democrats’ new candidate.
After the chaos surrounding the Microsoft/Crowdstrike IT issue that impacted people all over the world, there’s a warning that something similar is ‘likely’ to happen again.
Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, believes a global IT outage is “likely” to occur again unless governments and industry work together to “design out” technological flaws.
The issue, which gave computers what some call the ‘blue screen of death’ led to flights being grounded, train delays, and banks and health services were hit too, all because of ‘a defect in a recent update’ according to Crowdstrike.
In the UK, the NHS has warned of “delays” as services recover from Friday’s global IT outage.
The British Medical Association said GPs would “need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend”.
Daniel Keane, the Standard’s health reporter, tells Tech & Science Daily why GPs appear to be the worst hit in the health service, and why London practices are particularly struggling at the moment.
Farming and environment groups in the UK say we need to double the amount of land used to grow fruit and vegetables.
An open letter to the government, co-ordinated by the charity Soil Association, warned that if the current decline in British fruit and vegetables continues, the country will “face further disaster” for supermarket shelves, health and the environment.
The letter to PM Keir Starmer says that more land is currently used to play golf than to produce fruit and vegetables in the UK.
The groups have also called on the government to ensure that farmers and growers are given a fair deal to deliver sustainable food security and healthy diets.
Also in this episode:
US researchers hopeful of a ‘one and done’ flu-jab within five years
Half of Kew Gardens' trees at risk of death as climate warms
20% of parents ‘think social media is better at teaching children about money’
Listen above, find us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you stream your podcasts.
Here’s a fully automated transcript of this episode:
Hi, I'm Jon Weeks, and this is The Standard's Tech and Science Daily podcast.
Coming up, the US scientists betting on a one-and-done flu jab.
But first, Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the US presidential race over the weekend has led to some fresh deep fake videos of the 81-year-old.
The latest one, being shared on the platform X, shows fake footage of the president sat at a table making a speech on PBS News, announcing his withdrawal using a number of expletives.
It's just the latest in a number of deep fakes made of him and Donald Trump during their election campaigns in the US.
In the real world, though, the president shared a written withdrawal statement, saying, It's in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down.
He's backed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place, but it's not clear what the process will be next.
It's thought if anyone else puts themselves forward, Democrats may have to vote for their next presidential candidate.
Now, after all the chaos surrounding the Microsoft CrowdStrike IT issue that impacted people all over the world, there's a warning that something similar is likely to happen again.
Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, reckons a global IT outage is likely to occur again unless governments and industry work together to design out technological flaws.
The issue, which gave computers what some call the blue screen of death, led to flights being grounded, train delays, and banks and health services were hit too, all because of a defect in a recent update, according to CrowdStrike.
Professor Martin said that if there's going to be regulation to try and iron out these flaws, it'll probably have to come from the US.
And he also warns that unless and until the structure of the way we do tech changes, we're going to have to learn to cope with these things rather than eliminate them.
And speaking of coping with these things, it turns out the NHS is struggling to do just that.
It's warned of delays as services recover from Friday's global IT outage.
Daniel Keane, The Standard's health reporter, says GPs appear to be the worst hit in the health service because of the systems they use for booking appointments.
GPs use a system called the EMIS system to book their appointments in to access patient records.
And for a lot of GP surgeries across England, this went down completely, which meant that doctors weren't able to deliver appointments.
And of course, we already know there's delays in accessing GPs, so this only compounded that.
The British Medical Association said GPs would need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend.
And Daniel said this is just the latest issue impacting practices, particularly those in London.
In London, we saw a few weeks ago just how bad the disruption was after the cyber-attack on the Synovus pathology labs, which meant that people couldn't get their blood tests processed.
And this is just adding kind of fuel to the fire, really.
I think a lot of GPs feel in London that nothing is going right for them at the moment.
The BMA said its GP committee would continue to talk to NHS England and patient record systems supplier, EMIS, to secure a better system of IT backup to ensure the disaster was not repeated.
Next, in the UK, farming and environment groups say we need to double the amount of land used to grow fruit and vegetables.
An open letter to the UK government coordinated by the charity Soil Association warned that if the current decline in British fruit and veg continues, the country will face further disaster for supermarket shelves, health and the environment.
The letter to Sir Keir Starmer says that more land is currently used to play golf than to produce fruit and vegetables in the UK.
The groups have also called on the government to ensure that farmers and growers are given a fair deal to deliver sustainable food security and healthy diets.
Coming up, a universal flu jab is in the works.
Plus, parents vs. social media.
Who knows best when it comes to money?
Stay up to date with the latest tech and science news.
Hit follow during the break.
Welcome back,
Scientists say a universal flu jab that protects against every form of flu could be available within five years.
The influenza virus, which we shorten to flu, is constantly evolving, so new vaccines are needed each year to keep it at bay.
However, after a successful trial in monkeys, researchers in the US say their innovative approach targets a part of the virus that doesn't mutate.
The researchers said their work gives them hope that a one-and-done vaccine that provides lifelong immunity against an evolving virus could be on the horizon.
Now,
A report warns that more than half of the 11,000 trees at London's Kew Gardens could be at risk by 2090 as the climate changes.
The report was put together by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew after it lost more than 400 trees during the drought in 2022, compared to an average of 30 lost most years.
The report used modelling to assess how well species are adapted to a given climate and how that might change over time.
Among those they found at risk were native trees such as the English oak, common beech, silver birch and holly in areas that will have a similar climate to Kew.
And finally, who do you trust to give you money advice?
Your parents or people on social media?
Well, according to a survey, one in five parents reckon you should actually go to your socials for financial advice instead of speaking to them.
The research for Santander UK found that 42% of parents surveyed said they don't feel they know enough about money management themselves to guide their children.
The vast majority, though, 95%, agreed that they should have a role in teaching their own children about money.
You're up to date.
Come back at 4 o'clock and search for The Standard Podcast for the latest on the US election.
We'll be back tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock.
See you then.
