between saudi arabia and iran is fuelling the political crisis in lebanon. the american secretary of state has warned other countries against using the country for proxy conflicts, following a crisis triggered by the resignation of its prime minister. one of the latest figures in american entertainment to be accused of sexual misconduct, the comedian, louis ck, has admitted that several allegations made against him are true. five women had accused him of various acts of indecency. in a statement, louis ck expressed remorse for his actions. it looks like a new trans—pacific trade deal is moving forward without the usa. canada has dropped its objections in talks on the sidelines of the annual asian economic forum being held in vietnam. in around 10 minutes it's time for newswatch. first, though, here's click welcome to china, to shenzhen.

believe it or not, this place was once a small fishing village. yeah... not anymore. now, it's a mega—city of nearly 20 million people. it's most famous for creating consumer electronics, often imitations of premium brands. but as china has opened its doors to international trade in the last decade, it has undergone a transformation, making strides toward becoming a global power and moving away from that image of being a simple manufacturer of good, fake or otherwise, to one of innovation, especially of tech. "made in china" is fast becoming "designed in china." next week, we'll visit some

of the companies that call shenzhen home, but this week, we are meeting this guy. this is little cloud, and recently, he's gone where no turtle has gone before. he's just completed a test flight of a journey that one day might take humans to near space. this is kuang—chi's traveller project. we have seen this kind of stratospheric helium project before. we visited worldview in the us back in february to see their enormous inflatable. i think you have the world's biggest table. and a spanish outfit,

zero to infinity, is also trying something similar. so why does the traveller project's director feel he can beat them to it. we want to be the first one. we need to try hard to become the first one. because, in shenzhen, the environment is very good, and a lot of people want to do big things. and the government supports us. so, i think that shenzhen gives us a very good environment to accelerate the progress. the secret, though, is also in the science. now, the balloon material looks quite ordinary, but of course, it's not. it is a special kind of polyethylene which has to resist the low,

low temperatures of the stratosphere, damaging effects of ultraviolet and ozone. and tt also needs to be able to stop the really, really tiny molecules of helium from escaping. this kind of space tourism is billed as being cheaper and safer than rocket—based alternatives being trialled by virgin galactic and spacex. normal people, even older ones, can do this. you don't need a strong body. you must be very strong to be an astronaut and train for many days and years. however, this does not need that. why did you choose a turtle. ah, that's a good question. because the turtle has a long life. sometimes it can be living for more than 100 years! the turtle can live in water, it can survive in an low—oxygen environment. is it cruel to send a turtle up there? hmm... what can i say? ijust say we need to do this kind of experiment before human beings in the near space.

we need to pick up a kind of animal. hmm... well, as usual, not a great life being an animal involved in human exploration. while these guys are busy trying to win a race to space, others are trying to put a rover on the moon. and, fortunately, this time, it's not a real dog. now, you may remember earlier in the year we visited the indian space start—up, indus, in their bangalore warehouse. they are one of five teams competing for a $20 million prize if they are the first company to land and drive a robot on the moon. and one thing we learned

while we were there was that to save costs, they're sharing their rocket space with a japanese competitor, ispace. well, now we're paying them a visit to find out how they think they're going to win. this is the space suit. and this is a hammer to break something. 0k.

well, with the important stuff out of the way, time to talk space. what inspired you to enter this challenge? i have always been interested in space. i worked for a firm that one weekend asked me, why don't you help in the lunar race? it may be a small operation, but what they lack in size they certainly make up for in style. it is notjust the skyhigh rents of tokyo responsible for the diminished dimensions of the office, it is also because their plan to hitch a ride on the team indus lander means ispace only have to build the rover, ideally one that is faster than team indus. a little bit of a weapon on the side to bump them into a hole. they are not prepared to cheat

but it definitely looks like a smart ride. a depth camera is being designed to recognise unexpected rocks and stop before it collides with anything. and because of a communications delay ofjust over a second, it will be steered and moved one step at a time to give everyone time to think as it gradually moves across the surface. mind you, you still need the very best pilots and technicians in the business to command and strive this thing. looks like i'm going to scrape that rock. seriously? oh, man! this isjust a demo unit for numpties like me to use, but the real prototype is being developed just across the office in the clean room.. and the one they build next will be the one that actually goes to the moon, well, if nothing goes wrong, say, by letting me touch it. it is so light. just four kilograms. remarkable. i am john walker, the chief engineer. the worst thing that can happen is we go to the moon

and for whatever reason we don't get any function. we are trying to win, but at the end of the day, we want to keep going back to the moon again and again. so we need that starting point, we need data. we need simulations. that is why a huge part of the mission‘s costs goes towards testing, and that means rigourous checks on the bespoke wheels, control systems, electronics, and perhaps most crucially of all, the communication system. of course, it is notjust team indus and hakuto in the competition, there is america's moon express, israel's space il, and synergy moon, made up of six continents. they all have contracts, but when they take off is anyone‘s guess. it is very secretive. what happens if you find out they launch in november? it is possible. however, it is very difficult to launch without any notification beforehand.

so, i'm still very... i am sometimes nervous when they will make an announcement. yeah. just like the other teams, ispace is about more than just one mission to the moon. they are hoping that the data they gather and the skills they learn could have much more profound complications after the mission whether they win or not. we recognise this race isjust the start of everything in the future. and we think that the moon is the best place to mine resources and then supply resources such as fuel into space. this is the first step for this establishment. there is certainly a loss

that could go wrong. besides the perils of space, they still need to waste a huge deal of cashier on terra firma before anything can take off. one thing is for sure, though. we are so excited about this race to the moon. but what has become apparent is it is notjust about getting there first, it is notjust about the prize money, it is just as important to get data back and build up this knowledge to be able to go there again and again and again in the future. and when these guys launch, we are going to bring that to you. that is it for this weak. there is

more on line. have you ever wanted to meet us in the flash? —— flesh. me either. this is where you can go to the click live show. you can see some of the things we have wrought to you on the show live on stage. —— brought. thank you for watching. we will see you soon. hello and welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. a huge leak of financial documents dominated bbc news at the start of this week. did they deserve all that attention, or was this journalistic self—indulgence? and did the bbc unfairly suggest wrongdoing on the part of politicians, royalty and celebrities when they had broken no laws? another week, another departure

from theresa may's cabinet. pressure had been building on priti patel since the emergence last friday of her undisclosed meetings while on holiday in israel. but was some of that pressure imposed in an unwarranted way by the media, particularly the bbc, which broke the story? yes, according to andy ramsbottom, who asked: and keith brown thought: the long predicted end came for priti patel after her hastily arranged journey home from africa, monitored at one point by 22,000 people on a flight tracking website, as shown on the bbc news channel. that prompted ian miller to tweet: while a user called kubrick's lens

cap thought: when the soon—to—be ex—international development secretary reached heathrow airport, the coverage switched from flight tracker to helicopter camera, and the complaints continued. here's roy ramm: it was a huge information dump, the leak of over 13 million documents, worked on for a year by almost 100 different media organisations. a lot of work clearly went into the so—called paradise papers, and despite it being a busy news week as well, the bbc gave

the story a lot of airtime. tonight on panorama,...