As it steps up efforts to reduce the number of migrants crossing the english channel. A big Anti Government protest is under way in beirut, as the death toll from tuesdays massive explosion rises to 158. Clashes have already broken out, with Lebanese Police firing tear gas to stop demonstrators getting to the parliament building. The use of face masks in england and scotland is expanded with coverings now compulsory at cinemas, museums and place of worship. Stricter lockdown measures are reinforced in preston following a spike in cases in the city. Now on bbc news, click chats to the president of microsoft, brad smith, about the ethical implications of technology. We also see how the internet is being used to encourage activism in hong kong. This week hong kong activists. A touch of Space Tourism. And cgi catwalks. Hey, welcome to click. Hope you are doing 0k. Lara certainly is, because look, she has got a new friend. Thats right. Basil, meet spencer, spencer meet basil. Hello, basil, nice to meet you. Look at us we are talking to plants, thats what lockdown has done to us. Yeah, this is what it has come to. This is a small example of my amazing gardening talent. You may recall a few weeks ago i planted a whole vertical farm. Yes i do, how was it, is it still alive . Yes, its doing really well, and i think devices like this or that really stop you from going wrong. Because once you have got them plugged in and you make sure they dont run out of water, the device does the rest of the job. Later in the programme i will show you all of the food that i have been growing. Wow, cant wait. Thanks lara. We will come back to laura in a few minutes. First of all, we are going to hong kong. Now, you will probably know that there have been protests in hong kong against the chinese authorities for over a year. And now beijing has introduced new laws to crack down on civil unrest. There are fears that these will give the authorities unfettered control over the internet, and many worry that the great chinese firewall is about to be extended. Danny vincent has been talking to hong kong tech activists on the front line. Every day at midnight, hong kongs most prominent activist, joshua wong, live streams his updates to the world on facebook. He is using the livestream to report his safety to his followers. Its one small way that young activists in hong kong are using technology in the wake of the new National Security law. Joshua thinks the authorities are building a case against him, and arrest is imminent. We have no confidence at all to guarantee all of our speech, and all of our statements could be illegal under the framework of the nat sec law. Hong kong saw thousands of protesters take to the streets last year in opposition to an extradition bill. They say they are now facing an even greater threat to their freedoms in the form of a new National Security law. They say theyre not only facing heavy policing on the streets, but also online. Glacier kwong is a tech activist, she sees the internet as a new battle ground. She says the new National Security law limits freedom of speech online. Digital sovereignty, its a word that china and beijing often use. They use it to describe that they have to have the right to control what information and what is Available Online for chinese citizens. This is how theyjustified their great firewall in china. And they are now trying to expand this kind of concept into hong kong by implementing the National Security law into hong kong. They are trying to argue that they have the sovereignty over hong kong and they have the rights to control what is available on the internet. The Central Government says the introduction of the new law is to restore order after a year of often violent protests. It criminalises state subversion. Punishment could mean life in prison. The law gives the authorities the power to force internet providers to delete content. China is evolving into a digital superpower. They have really smart and comprehensive approaches in controlling its people including hong kongers. They have the great firewall in china, and theyre implementing it in hong kong. Not the physical infrastructure, because we have the open telecommunication system, but then they are trying to implement it through having this National Security law because that will encourage platforms and their users both to censor themselves and their users, and therefore we have limited access to information. This footage is from a livestream of recent arrests of student activists suspected of violating the National Security law. Their phones and computers were taken into custody. Tech activists are worried about mobile phone Extraction Technology used by the police force, efluinment reportedly provided,. ,. ,. By an israeli company. The software allows users to access the content of mobile phones without using security features such as passwords. When the law was passed, people were thinking of deleting telegram and replacing with something else. When you are in custody, police can still use that hardware and software to obtain your deleted messages and recover all of them. There are cases proving that messages deleted could be recovered by that software. Encrypted apps like telegram were used for Mass Communication to organise the street demonstrations. Protesters like simon say the police are using data extracting technology to build cases against young protesters. Tony is an it professional, and protester. He asked us to hide his identity. He says the protesters and residents are adapting to the new changes. He says hong kongers have been deleting past messages and starting to use encrypted apps en masse. People feel empowered that their physical identities will not be traced easily to their virtual identities. Its a wise act that people start deleting their previous messages, because it might not have existed on a safe channel or on a secure medium. Its a prudent move that people switch to new alter egos. China and america are engaged in another tech war, donald trump is in the process of banning chinese app tiktok over National Security concerns. American social media apps could be banned outright in china. Hong kong seems stuck in the middle. There are fears here that this city, promised Political Freedoms for 50 years, may becoming just another chinese city. Ok, that was danny vincent. Danny is with me now from hong kong. Danny, how are you right now . It was a huge shock to notjust the activists and protesters and the tech activists but ordinary people. They did not expect this law and these changes to come about so quickly and it feels like the city is really bracing for what comes next. Do you get the sense that youre not going to be able to report as freely from hong kong . For me as a journalist working here, the lines have simply changed almost overnight. In some ways, you could say it feels even stricter than Mainland China because in the mainland, at least you have a reference point. You know what can be written about, what can be said live on tv, you know what the lines are. But here in hong kong today it is not clear what the lines are. It is not clear what the future will bring. And the city, in some ways feels quite unrecognisable. Just to reiterate, whenever i had been to china and hong kong the difference is very stark. As soon as you cross the border from hong kong into china, google stops working and other Services Become unavailable and it pretty much does happen at the border. And so the worry may be as then, are you saying that that will extend into hong kong . That is the fear. The issue of the law is that it is so vague, people do not know exactly how it will be interpreted. They do not know how people will be charged and they dont know how quickly some of these further changes will be implemented. Right now, the activists i have been speaking to, they are confident that at least online when it comes to the apps they are using like facebook, like twitter, like instagram, they think they will still be able to continue using them for a while. People ive spoken to are very much aware that hong kong is now caught in the middle of this new cold war, essentially, between washington and beijing. Is the worst Case Scenario that the great firewall and all of the restrictions that there are on Mainland China just extends and hong kong are subject to exactly the same restrictions . That is the worst Case Scenario. There is a feeling here that hong kong is living on borrowed time. Of course, many people now choosing to leave the city because they do think it is going to become just another ordinary chinese city with those type of restrictions. 0k, danny, thank you so much for doing that report. And stay in touch. Welcome to the week in tech. It was the week that the European Commission announced it will carry out a full scale probe into googles takeover of fitbit. Nasa launched exploration rover perseverance into space as it begins its seven month journey to mars. But, while that goes up, spacexs crew dragon splashed down. Yes, the first commercial spacecraft to travel to the International Space station came straight back down to earth after a successful mission. Samsung has unveiled the galaxy z fold2. Its screen is 1. 6 inches bigger than the last galaxy fold as its small and fiddly size was one of its biggest criticisms. And finally, the force is strong as a key scene from star wars the Empire Strikes back has inspired researchers to create electronic skin with feeling. It is made up of a network of sensors connected with a single electrical conduction. It can be used in robots or prosthetic limbs to potentially recreate a sense of touch that feels pain, temperature shape and texture. Its most recent development allows robots to read braille and classify objects. Vertical farming. A controlled environment to create perfect crops, sometimes even seen in restaurants or supermarkets. Now, home devices allowing you to do the same on a smaller scale are growing in popularity. And in my garage. Well, here is my click and grow smart garden. That is the actual name. As you can see, everything has grown pretty nicely. When i planted it, i logged it all in the app because the app does not sync up with the device, there is a bluetooth version coming soon that will do that. But it does provide a good diary function. I know i planted these 27 days ago, and i have given advice on how long it takes for them to be ready to eat. My lettuce is ready, my tomatoes are not. I never received the alert to refill the water that i should have done, but that was apparently down to a glitch in the app which im told has since been fixed. And walking away seeing lights left on did feel quite odd, but i was left with some really nice leaves. It will take you a fair few lettuces to get your moneys worth on buying the kit, but in the uncertainty of a global pandemic, devices like this do seem to have their own appeal. I feel like i was going to battle when i went to the Grocery Store with my mask and my hand sanitiser, and my wipes, so it has been really nice to be able to grow my own food here. To not have to worry about that. Here you see my mature plants and these are my newer plants coming in for my second harvest. New Modular Concepts do allow you to personalise your set up. Choosing whether you want one salad shelf or two, or three. And like many of the latest growers, this one connects to an app to remind you to add water or nutrients, or to harvest your veggies. One of the trickiest problems was getting the whole system integrated so that you can replace these trays, having it so you could add on trellises to the system, add on Modular Systems later, integrating all the sensor data of where the water is, and where the ph levels are and the nutrient levels. Putting all that into an app. While big brands lg and samsung have shown off some intriguing kitchen concepts, lesser known farm shelf has a device that might beat them to market. Its indoor farm uses sensors and Computer Vision to monitor the plants, automatically providing the right amount of water and nutrients. We are collecting data on how the plants are growing and monitoring those from a variety of equations as well as the way the images are analysed. And as that data set to grows we are able to automate more and more actions in the system as well as automatic notifications. And changes to the plant recipes at the plant progresses through its lifecycle. Everyone smile for communities like this womens shelter, having an on site farm has been a lifeline through the coronavirus crisis. This huge container can house 9,000 plants to help feed more than 1000 women and children staying there each night. Food supply chains have been varyingly broken across our country. One thing we knew that we always had was our farm. The container farm cost over 100,000, but it has certainly proved its value. We have produced in less than nine months over 40,000 equivalency, in fresh, leafy greens and vegetables. Whether its the pandemic orjust the everyday uncertainty of life in a homeless shelter, it has been a tool for learning and healing on every level. Although for most of us these high tech gardens will be more of a hobby, these self sufficient growers can seriously help out in unpredictable times. Maybe needs a bit of dressing, but its good. We have plenty of earthbound worries at the moment but that hasnt stopped developments in commercial space travel. Space by has now successfully sent a crew to the International Space station and back again. And it looks like Space Tourism outfit Virgin Galactic has been busy, too. The Company Recently announced a partnership with rolls royce to develop a supersonicjet at three times the speed of sound. That is london to sydney in five hours. But for now, the Company Still has its sights set on space, as mark reports. Work continues at Virgin Galactic to realise its goal of reusable space flight that allows space tourists to experience zero g and views of the earth from no orbit. I spoke with the chief space officer about the space flight testing during the pandemic. We have had a great run so far this year so the next flight we are going to do, we willjust have two pilots in the front. Soon after that, employees will help us test experience to make sure it is absolutely amazing for oui customers. Virgin atlantic has announced plans to cut more than 3000 jobs in the uk. The economic effects of the pandemic have caused big problems for Virgin Galactics founder Sir Richard Branson. Happier times when Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin Atlantic. The billionaire requested a financial bailout from the uks government for struggling Virgin Atlantic hit hard local airlines from the collapse in travel due to the pandemic. The government rejected the bid. This week, a uk court also heard that the carrier could run out of money if its creditors dont approve a £1. 2 billion rescue package which has now been secured through private funding. And as part of the court sanctioned process which needs the creditors approval, it has filed for bankruptcy protection in us courts. Since the crisis began he has now sold a £a05 million stake in Virgin Galactic part of which has now been pumped into the airline. How have the wider problems affected Virgin Galactic . We have in a relatively Strong Financial position before the covid hit and so we have been lucky to be in a relatively good place where, you know, although direct employees have been retained throughout this crisis. The pandemic means that galactic has turned to Virtual Reality as a means of revealing the cabin interior of its spacecraft to journalists. Welcome to Virgin GalacticVirtual Reality. The Vr Experience highlights the projects achievements to date and allows the user to meet galactics tests but pilots and astronauts. My name is kelly and i am a Virgin Galactic pilot. As well as giving us a virtual taste of space flight. Jeremy browne is responsible for the design of the ships cabin as well as the interior of spaceport america. We could not be more socially distant as he is on the other side of london but he is able to give me a quick tour in vr. You are right behind us 0k. I get the lowdown on some of the cabins main features. 17 windows on board. A 360 degrees view and we are capturing it with 17 cameras on board. Not only do we know the size of your suit and that is going to be perfectly fitting but also your seat as well. I bid jeremy farewell and continue my virtual space odyssey solo. Before we blast off, i can investigate the spacecraft and get up close and personal and you really can seal details and check them out. For me, this experience is all about getting up in the air and the beauty of vr as we can do that very, very quickly indeed. And here we are. Wow. That view, that is what you pay £250,000 for. The view of the planet earth from low orbit. Even in vr, i have to say, it is pretty breathtaking. And i can do something you cannot do in your spaceship and matters stick my head out of the ship. In galactics recent Financial Results it said the pandemic has slowed the companys pace and there it latest plan suggests