up the great al—nuri mosque in mosul. one general called it a crime against all iraq. the mosque is where abu bakr al—baghdadi made his only public appearance as the leader of is, after proclaiming a new caliphate three years ago. britain's minority government has set out a range of measures in the queen's speech that it hopes to bring into law over the next two years, with brexit at the top of the agenda. the prime minister said she could tackle the challenges the country faces, while the opposition said her government was in chaos. king salman of saudi arabia has changed the kingdom's line of succession, replacing his nephew with his son as heir to the throne. mohammed bin salman has been making major changes to the country's economic and energy policies. he's also overseen saudi arabia's ongoing war in yemen. now on bbc news, click. ok, let's play. this week we are punching above our weight. driving around the bend and dropping gunk in a bucket. right.

let's see. dragons? right. let's see. dragons? check. singing pirates? check. orcs... yes. all of which can only mean it is time for e3, the world's maddest video games expo, in the heart of downtown los angeles.

this is where new games are launched and new hardware is lauded. it is always big, loud and bright but this year, for the first time, it is notjust open to those who work in the games industry. 15,000 members of the public have also been allowed in, each paying up to $250 for a ticket. you do the maths. all of which means things have got a lot bigger. personally hasn't affected my enjoyment of the show at all. but the question is, are this year's crop of announcements worth the wait? how exciting it is, depends on whether the big console manufacturers have any big announcements or not. this year, microsoft generated the most excitement by announcing a new console. we got hands—on. welcome to e3 2017. and with that, phil spencer kicked off the xbox e3 press event. it is a big yearfor xbox as it announced a brand—new console,

code—named scorpio, is now called... xbox 0ne x. its high—end spec includes six teraflops of graphic performance. that compares to the ps4 pro's 4.2. it is capable of producing 4k high dynamic range visuals at 60 frames a second. as well as producing dolby atmos audio. all this adds up to a whole lot of horsepower for a console. it is being billed as the most powerful console ever, but is more computational grunt enough to shift sony from its number one position in the console market? in an attempt to do just that a parade of 4k resolution games assaulted the senses, including a peek at the latest addition to the popular assassin's creed series, 0rigins — this one set in egypt. the expendable's terry crews brings the smack down to crackdown 3. open world smashed everything

in sight, destructo—fest. as well as family—friendly platform super luckey‘s tale. these games will play on the old xbox one and will play with 4k graphic enhancement on the xbox 0ne x. leading that 4k charge with the new machine, racer forza motorsport 7 and anthem, a new sci—fi exosuit game created by bioware. and weirdly, 4k enhanced minecraft. one of the few games where high—end lighting effects do not seem necessary. a strong line—up then for the new xbox. but is it strong enough? that was long and loud. but, 42 new games. very little in the way of fan

favourites and franchises such as gears of war. some franchises people know will be coming, halo, gears of war. i spent last month, i was at both the studios last month looking at amazing work they were doing. we fill this arena with great games without even bringing in the biggest game franchises. is more power than important when bringing out a new machine? nintendo has done quite well with its new machine which is arguably the least powerful console on the market. power important to the discerning premium customer. you also want games like minecraft, one of the biggest games on the planet, playable across a whole lineup of consoles, connecting everyone together. it is about content for everybody. here it is. the most powerful console that microsoft has ever made. we do know what it looks like.

it is actually quite slimline. smaller than the old machine, the xbox one s. and we know how much it costs. £449. and we know it is released on november seven. we do not know what games are like when you actually power the machine up, grab hold of the controller and play them on it. to find that out, i have to go over there. ok, now you may think that my driving here is a little scrappy but there is method to my madness. by damaging the car i can see the additional level of detail it has added. you can see individual raindrops. a smorgasbord of different weather effects going on here. all of them showing what this machine is capable of. the first time i played a game on the new xbox 0ne x and ijust played forza motorsport 7.

the most recognisable of all titles will be launched with this machine when it comes out later this year. it is fantastic. the beautiful game to look at and as you expect, it has 4k resolution. but there is more to this than just incredible graphics. that was mark and, interestingly, no talk of vr at microsoft but, neverfear, mohammed is here. the cool thing here is that this is a htc vive running without the usual cables trailing to a pc. this has, until recently, been very, very hard to do because there is just too much of a delay between movements and what you see on the headset when you do not use cables. that results in much motion sickness. but displaylink has managed to cut the cords and use its own compression technology and 60 gigahertz transmitter on the headset

to reduce latency to less than five milliseconds. right. next up, nintendo's big announcement at e3. nintendo has not had the best couple of years. its last console, the wii u, failed to connect with the public. with the release of the switch and its success as the fastest selling console in nintendo history, crowds flocked to the booth at e3 this year. nintendo does not do big public announcements any longer, choosing to make its announcement via an online presentation. fun and battle, always locked together. # here we go, off the rails. 0dyssey sees mario

travelling around the globe. mario is able to throw his hat, just like that, pop on a rocket and accelerate away. and it is notjust rockets. his hat is a key game mechanic, used to break bricks, collect coins, ride around and even inhabit the body of anything his headwear lands on. as one of nintendo's most popular characters, is mario the ace up the sleeve of switch? translation: (certainly, that is the case. notjust with mario but with many other things as well. we have heard from people who have maybe not played a nintendo system since n64 or super nintendo. but they have wonderful experiences from childhood and they sees things in super mario 0dyssey that will pull them back in. that is a wonderful opportunity to bridge a lot of new experiences that we offer as well.

mario was the star of the show again in another game, mario rabbids. nintendo has allowed another games company to create this game, sanctioned by the gaming legend, mr mario himself. i said, whatever you do, do not make a jump game or a platform. make a mario game that has never been made before. it is not unheard of for nintendo to work with other studios but it is amazing to see one outside of japan. and there was plenty more, including kirby, meteoroids and one that got many hearts racing, a pokemon rpg. but with no release date announced, we could be waiting a while. translation: i would like to know myself when it comes out. with the switch taking mainstage at this year's event it seems

that this is clearly their present and their future. and as it it has mobile capabilities, what does it mean in the long—term for nintendo's other hand—held devices? hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that apple's tim cook announced the compa ny‘s developing a self—driving car system, and roaming charges ended for uk mobiles within the eu — just make sure you read the small print. following months of scandal and reports of sexism and harassment within the company, uber‘s ceo travis kalanick announced he will be taking a leave of absence. and a bt ad featuring ryan reynolds was banned after claims over its "great value" were found to be misleading by britain's advertising watchdog. sleep tracking device hello says goodbye. despite raising £i.9 million in crowdfunding, followed by a staggering £30 million further investment, it's curtains down.

a robot has been composing its own music. researchers at georgia institute of technology have been working on shimon, the marimba—playing bot. it uses deep learning to create its own works after having listened to over 500 tunes and millions of segments of sound from artists including the beatles and beethoven. and finally, ever thought fish don't hold enough power in this world? well, tech artist neil mendoza's latest work has created a solution. as smashie swims, he's tracked by a webcam with software calculating the velocity needed to translate his moves into powering the hammer. apparently, it empowers fish to break people stuff. now, although gaming is massive, the fact that they are video games operated by often quite complex controllers means that

if you have a disability, they are quite difficult to play. well, kat has met up with one guy who's made it his mission to improve accessibility and make games playable for all. i received a challenge recently — come and play me at killer instinct. fight on! it didn't say "if you dare", but it might as well have done because, as it turns out, ben is somewhat of a combo expert. ok, now you're punishing me. i can't do anything! ben, have mercy! this is unbelievable! just unbelievable! ben hasjust taken me out in about 20 seconds. i could have done it quicker than that if i didn't screw up my inputs at one point. we're playing killer instinct, a 5—year—old combat game. it's a big esports title with players competing for millions

of dollars each year, but it's not only its popularity that makes this game stand out. so there, kathleen has blocked low and the only reason i know she blocked low was because i heard that sound that you heard there. ben is relying on his hearing because he's blind, which makes his win even more impressive. if you throw a fireball, it travels and that rather satisfying connecting sound at the other end when it hits the opponent. when i say, do you realise you're fighting a guy who can't see, they are like, no, i did not realise that at all. and they're like, how does this work? and that starts conversations in itself about how games are and aren't accessible. and you're passionate about taking that conversation further now? i think it needs to go further because gamers without sight are kind of being left in the dust. things like being able to tell your friendly team and your enemy team apart, so, different footsteps.

it can be done. it's not an impossibility. audio—only games have been around for many years and i think it's only now that sound designers are beginning to harness the potential of modern hardware. i am now beginning to understand how crucial sound design is to accessible gaming. i was intrigued. where do you even begin and what if the thing you're designing for is as iconic, visceral and downright scary as alien? i am at the bafta—winning sound design studio creative assembly, getting a behind—the—scenes look at what went into the xenomorph of alien isolation. metal creaks there are bits of the game where the alien will be an event above the corridor and you will not know he is there apart from bits of slime that will drip down. the sort of thing we would do for that would be to drop handfuls of it into the bucket. look at that, we have got wallpaper paste and porridge and we are creating the sound of an alien. obviously the visuals are incredibly

important but without sound, they become kind of... there is no weight to them. it is incredible to see the mess and extremes that went into the sound of the game. creaking it has got a good creak in it. no! but despite all this, someone like ben would still struggle to play alien isolation. and the reason for that is the menus are not visible to him. episodes, clips, gadgets, spencer kelly, about click. on the web, a screen reader speaks out the menu options. it took years of the internet before accessibility features like this became commonplace and it is still not 100%. and as for games consoles, currently blind gamers have to memorise the menus within games. that is what their real big barrier is. it is the middleware,

the tools people use to make games, they are not compatible with the software that blind people use to operate technology. if that barrier could be removed, we will see a big increase in the amount of blind accessible games there are. ian hamilton has produced accessibility guidelines for games developers. his mission is to make gaming more inclusive. accessibility‘s job will be done when people stop innovating with technology. there is always going to be some kind of new barrier that needs to be overcome. ian has been working with people like ben for years but it is really now down to the console makers to bring about change. we want to make sure the games and consoles we build are accessible to any kind of player, whether it is somebody who has sight issues, hearing issues. we are working with apis with our controller, we announced co—pilot modem, where two people can use two controllers to play one version of the game. if somebody maybe cannot use all of the buttons there. microsoft is really leading the way now when it comes to accessibility for blind gamers.

they have released a new text— to—speech api which means, for the first time, in—game menus will be read out. let's see what ben thinks about this news. if other developers — so sony, nintendo, anybody else, — they want to make their content more accessible using in—game menus and spoken ui elements, that is brilliant. if i can buy a game on day one without having to worry about how much i am paying for it versus its accessibility, that would be ideal. games, games and more ps4 games. sony kicked off its playstation press event with a bang, thanks to a trailer from developers naughty dog's latest adventure, uncharted: the lost legacy. you don't like anything. thank you. i'm slipping. the crowd certainly liked that sony made it snow in sunny la for robo—dinosaur mash—up horizon zero dawn's expansion, frozen wilds.

and everyone's favourite, friendly neighbourhood spider—man swung into action in a new game which features an innovative use of spidey‘s athletic abilities and his web slinging. hi. is this the flight to newark? and unlike xbox, who did not even mention vr, playstation renewed its commitment to techno worlding goggles, sorry, "virtual reality", by showing off a host of vr games, like platform adventure star child. join me. and an utterly bonkers final fantasy vr fishing game. final fantasy 15, monster of the deep. playstation is riding high at the moment with its ps4 outselling its rival, the xbox one. but with the super powerful xbox one x on the horizon,

will things like vr help sony to maintain its lead? i think that over the long term it really is an opportunity to create a new entertainment medium, but i do stress that it is over the long term. in the last six months to a year, we have seen a little bit of overhyping of the category out there. certainly not by ourselves. we saw this as the start of a very long process of bringing vr into the mainstream. you will see lots more technology innovation. i think content makers, game makers and others, including folks making television programmes, they are really only starting to learn what the tools are to make really good vr content. microsoft launched the xbox one x yesterday. it is an enormously powerful machine. it sony in danger of being left behind in terms of producing the most powerful console out there? i think the consumer will have to look at both systems and make a comparison.

obviously there is a significant price differential between the two units, which plays somewhat towards our advantage and i also think that with playstation 4 pro, you get some additional tangential benefits if you're interested in vr. suffice to say, i think we are very confident where we stand right now. well, that was marc at sony, and now three more people playing video games. actually, two playing games, and one watching a movie, all on the same screen. but depending on where you sit, you get a different view. the secret is actually in the special reflective screen, which only reflects the light from this projector straight back in this direction. that means no—one else can see this. you can have a load of projectors all shining different stuff at the screen and each person only get that light reflected back. the result is ok but

i could see traces of the other viewers' images. maybe there is a bit more work to do. there are a few things you can guarantee at e3 every year, bright lights, lots of noise, and lots of sequels, too. these are the fan favourites which seem to get a new iteration every 12 months. it has long been said that these franchises are in danger of getting repetitive, but this year, some franchises have thrown up a few surprises. video games publishers, like movie studios, love a sequel. it is easy money. all you have to do is take your popular title, make a few tweaks to it and push out an annual refresh. money in the bank. however, at this year's e3, there are a couple of sequels which are having to work a little bit harder than usual. time to show what you're made of, soldier. a good example is call of duty. gone is the fan polarising sci—fi

settings of the last couple of games and it has been replaced by the period in history which originally inspired this series, the second world war. who needs ray guns, robots and energy shields? i've got a rifle, a steel helmet and the determination to take this beachhead. the gameplay is chaotic, noisy, frantic. it is everything you want from cod. and that is it from click at e3. we are back in the us next week. in the meantime, you can follow us on twitter. and on facebook. thanks for watching and we will see you soon. hello, there.

we saw the peak of the heatwave on wednesday afternoon, with temperatures across southern britain soaring into the low to mid—30s celsius. it was 35 degrees recorded at heathrow, which was the warmest day of the year so far, but also the warmestjune day since 1976. wales also saw its hottest day with 31 degrees recorded in cardiff. further north, though, it is a little bit cooler, and we start to see a thundery breakdown developing, particularly across northern england and west scotland as we head into wednesday evening. that heat will continue to retreat back into the near continent as cooler and fresher conditions push in off the atlantic, with a fair old breeze. this introduction of cooler air into the heat will spark off further thunderstorms through the overnight period. mainly across the northern half of the uk, tending to ease down towards thursday morning. we'll have a lot of mist and murk developing across western coastal areas.

it will be a touch fresher here, but still a warm and muggy start first thing on thursday. it means will be a warm and humid start in the south—east, but we will likely see a line of showers and thunderstorms move through the midlands and in towards the south—east during the morning period, and then clearing away. and then another ripple of showers and thunderstorms pushing in towards northern england and eastern england in the afternoon. so quite a messy picture. there will be some sunshine in the north and west — a bit cooler and fresher here. cooler and fresher feel to things in the south—east, 25 or 26 degrees. mid—20s instead of mid—30s. you will notice that difference. late on thursday, things will turn more unsettled across scotland and northern ireland, and that's because this vigorous area of low pressure arrives. this sets the scene for things becoming more unsettled from friday onwards, with cooler and fresher air pushing in off the atlantic. so we'll have some sunshine in the south and east on friday. further north, a band of rain moving through, and some of it will be quite heavy. for scotland and northern ireland,

a breezy and windy day as that of low pressure sweeps through. it will feel cooler and fresher, as well, with temperatures in the mid to upper teens celsius, here. we could make 25 degrees in the south east. into saturday, a breezy day, as you can see with these wind arrows. a few showers developing, mainly across the north and west. the odd heavy one here. top temperatures 20—23 celsius in the south—east, so still feeling cool and fresher. sunday, winds will come down from the north—westerly direction, so it will be a touch cooler still across scotland. further south—east, we could make 21 or 22 degrees. so the main message is it's turning cool over the next few days. certainly into the weekend, it will feel cooler. fresher, with temperatures near normal for the time of year. it will be breezy with a mixture of sunshine and showers. hello, i'm tom donkin. a warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: the american and iraqi army say the islamic state group blows up mosul‘s historic mosque.

one general calls it a "crime against all iraq." a queen's speech dominated by brexit and missing some key conservative manifesto pledges. re—drawing the saudi line of succession. king salman replaces his nephew with his son as heir to the throne. and fighting to preserve the future of our planet. scientists in bolivia are storing ice from ancient glaciers before it's too late.