of cobbling together false claims that he has strong ties to russia. mr trump says the allegations are "fake news" and described those behind them as "sleazebags." meanwhile, the us congress has taken the first step towards dismantling the controversial obamaca re health—ca re law. however, lawmakers remain concerned about a lack of replacement for the controversial system that was championed by the outgoing president. the united nations and aid agencies are calling on european governments to do more to help thousands of migrants and refugees at risk of freezing to death. several people have already died in the sudden cold snap that has hit parts of the continent, including serbia and greece. it was intended as a light—hearted comedy about a rumoured road trip which michaeljackson, marlon brando and elizabeth taylor are supposed to have made together. but the choice of a white actor, joseph fiennes, to playjackson, has proved controversial.

the programme prompted criticism from the late pop star's daughter, an on line petition and, today, sky decided to drop the show, as our arts correspondent, colin paterson, reports. i sensed danger... this is all that audiences are going to see ofjoseph fiennes playing michaeljackson — two clips from a trailer for a new sky show, urban myths. today, sky announced they will no longer be broadcasting the episode. the reason: concerns expressed by michaeljackson‘s immediate family, adding that they never intended to cause any offence, and thatjoseph fiennes fully supports the decision. michael jackson's daughter paris was asked on twitter what she made of a white actor taking on the role of her black father. she said she was incredibly offended, and it made her want to vomit. the scottish actor brian cox plays marlon brando in the show, and thinks the decision for it to be

dropped is ridiculous, especially when this year's hottest ticket is hamilton, a musical where a predominantly black and hispanic cast play america's white founding fathers. i think is truly, truly ridiculous. sky has lacked the courage to stand by this. it's almost eight years since michaeljackson died, but he still has legions of devoted fans, many of whom come to the national football museum to see this statue, which used to be outside fulham's ground. stories about him make headlines around the world, but this is far from the first time a white performer has played him in a comedy. leigh francis‘ take on michaeljackson was a huge part of channel 4 show bo‘ selecta. while one of the biggest names in us comedy, amy poehler, regularly impersonated him

on saturday night live. it's just the flu, liz taylor. i'll be back on my feet soon. moonwalking, climbing trees... when probably the most famous black performer certainly ever is being cast, they still cast a middle—class white guy. i can understand why people would be annoyed by that. it's believed that the decision for sky to drop the episode was made at the top of the organisation. they insist it's a matter of taste, and not censorship. coming up a little later, newswatch. but first, here's click. driving stateside can be a liberating experience.

wide roads, big trucks, massive cars, but at a desert bottleneck like las vegas, it can be ever so slightly frustrating. beep, beep! come on. but today i am driving an audi with a little more brainpower under the hood, sorry, bonnet. there is extra information about the current speed on it, and it also is telling me there is a red light that will turn green in about 30 seconds up ahead. three, two, one. here we go. the car is connected to las vegas‘s

traffic management centre over ag. it reports its position and the centre tells them how long until the next light turns green. indicate left, and the centre informs me about the left light instead. and round we go. one of the advantages, says audi, is that it is a bit of a stress and tension relief as you know you have some time before the light goes green so there is no point getting impatient. at the moment, this is only available in certain models of car, and only in las vegas, because this city has just one traffic management centre that handles all of the lights. some cities have more than 100 different authorities in charge of their signals. so, one obvious use for this in the future is to feed into an autonomous driving system.

if the car knows when the lights are going to go green in front of it, then it can better driver itself. if it has some kind of backup data signal from the traffic management system then it should get it right more. which is a good thing. it is judging that i will not make these lights. oh, and it is right. now, i do not know much about the car industry, but what i do know is getting into it when you are a new player is really tough, and complex, and expensive. faraday future is a company that heard all of those warnings and said, eh, let us try anyway. how is that going for them then? dave investigates. faraday future, a new car company that promises to beat tesla

at its own game. last year at ces they showed us a scale model of a concept car they had no real intention of making. this year they promised something more, well, real. introducing the ff 91. they're pretty proud of it, they say it can do zero to 60 quicker than a bentley or a ferrari, and of course, a tesla model s. it can even park itself. just press a button and... record rip. it is being lazy tonight. i'm being cruel. it can park on its own. i saw that for myself. it's going wide at the minute. this is a three—point turn. one of the reasons we do that is because we want to make sure all of the sensors in the car, of which there are many, can get a full view of the empty spot to verify there is no one there. look at that. spot on.

straight. quite impressive. it is all well and good, but it will be some time before you can actually do this yourself. each and every car park will need to be approved by faraday future before the feature will work. and there would need to gather data on the system and future cars so it is less chicken and egg and more chicken and $150,000 car that isn't even on the market yet. speaking of which, faraday future have promised it will be ready by 2018. there is a lot of potential but it is hard for them to deliver. the factory they need to build this thing for example, they showed a picture of it and it isjust a pile of dirt at the moment. the factory. to build its car, they have planned a huge plant in the nevada desert planning to become possible to make the cars next year. there are reports the factory is on hold because they are running out of money. hello? it looks ready for construction but there is no equipment, no materials. and if they want this place ready by 2018, it doesn't look like they are

making much progress. we are resource—limited at sometimes. things like this need to take priority. construction of the factory has stopped for some point and it still looks like it is stopped. it will start soon. was it because of financial restrictions? it is a matter of keeping the cash flow balance between the projects we are trying to do. not too encouraging. but the good news is if they ever release a car it will blow your socks off. all right. heads back. hold on. let's go! oh my god! that is so quick. oh my god. this is now the fastest production vehicle in the world. and we are just getting started. well...

well it is not very useful on a school run, is it, really? that was dave with faraday future. hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week facebook announced it would start trialling ads in the middle of videos, and norway became the first country in the world to turn off its analogue radio signals. it was also the week the us military released footage of a test in california where it launched a swarm of 103 mini drones into the sky from fighterjets. the unmanned aerial vehicles were deployed to operate autonomously. it's thought the system could potentially be used to carry out surveillance operations in the future. hello, i'm charles martinet and i'm the voice of... it's a me, mario! woo—hoo! and luigi too! haw—haw! and wario! and baby luigi! and baby mario!

let's go! ya—hoo! and that was charles martinet, the voice of mario, nintendo's most famous character. and he's helping us to introduce ninty‘s brand—new games console. it's a little bit different as you might expect and marc has been trying it out. nintendo switch is an unusual games console because it does a couple of different things. firstly it's a portable machine. it's got this tablet like touchscreen with a 720p resolution, it can be played out and about on the move and then when it docks in this little station here, like mario after he has chowed down on those power—boosting mushrooms, it supercharges the machine graphics capabilities up to 1080p full hd and can be played using a normal television becoming a home console. the controllers, which nintendo has dubbed joycons, can slide off the side of the portable unit and they can be configured in a couple of different ways.

the individualjoycon parts can be used for multiplayer and when it's docked, the player can use a separate controller or plug them into a battery pack, turning them into this beast. now, thejoycons have got a number of different motor control features that can be demonstrated in this mini game here. it's called quickdraw and weirdly what it does is it pulls the player away from the screen and towards one another. so to that end i have a cowboy opponent here and we're going to have a shootout. so let's load our weapons, get ready. this is where you get your best clint eastwood on. and i live to fight another day! but what that ably shows is that the designers are thinking differently about the kind of games that can be played using this device. as far as games are concerned, in the works is a new title

for the portly italian plumber, the real—world set super mario odyssey and the legend of zelda: breath of the wild. nintendo's last console, the wii u, had a bunch of issues from day one. there was an additional controller for their already wii console, where in fact it was a brand—new console. with the switch they have the same issue again but this time they have to nail down the third—party support and getting more of the core gamer back on board with their product. perhaps the biggest hurdle for the switch is its price. at £279, the switch might have a tough time against its rivals from microsoft and sony. we'll find out when it's released on march the third. bbc click, here we go! that was lara and i've been out of bed for precisely the length

of that report. about time i turn in for the night but oh, no, i've forgotten to make the bed. fortunately i've got a smart duvet, which means that from anywhere in the world i can click the app and the thing makes itself. it's got an inflatable sheet inside and the idea is you programme it to do this at any time you want on any day you want. yes, it is a bit noisy but the idea is you're not meant to be here when it does it. it might scare the cat mind you. but that's not the end of the story. if you're a snorer or you sleep with a snorer then pay attention because tonight i am sleeping on nora, which is an anti—snoring device you put under your pillow.

if this microphone detects the sound of snoring during the night, it will activate this silent fan which inflates nora, moving the pillow and your head just enough to reactivate your throat muscles, open your airways and stop you from snoring. you can track how many times it's been activated during the night on the app if you want, or you canjust have a good night's sleep, safe in the knowledge that whoever else is in the room with you is also getting a good night's sleep.