will see what cloud feed in here, eventually some outbreaks of rain. in england and wales, a lot of dry weather. 17—21. a small chance of a shower in the south on tuesday and some rain on wednesday. but towards the end of the week for most of us it will be mostly dry. hello, this is bbc news, with shaun ley. the headlines: the united nations says military leaders in myanmar should be investigated for genocide against the country's rohingya muslims. food prices in the uk are expected to rise in the coming months, as farmers feel the effects of this year's extreme weather. a mother and her daughter have been stabbed to death in the street in solihull, in the west midlands. with almost one in five sales now made on the internet, rather than on the high street, uk warehouse space has doubled injust a decade. more news at the top of the hour. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week, another chance

to see our sustainability special from june, featuring robots hunting killer starfish. a hurricane in a tube. and a gravity train. florida, america's sunshine state. and home to the us‘s first sustainable town. this is babcock ranch. powered, befittingly, almost entirely by that big burning ball in the sky. it's 33 degrees. the humidity is, i believe, about i,000,000%.

and i've come to a solar field, so you don't have to. 343,000 solar panels span some 440 acres, providing 75 megawatts of electricity. and that's enough to power 15,000 homes. one of the big problems with solar energy has been when the clouds come over — or especially when it gets dark, the whole thing effectively goes dead. and we haven't really had a way of storing solar energy until very recently. but over there, ten buildings full of batteries. so it's a start. a pretty good one too. babcock has the largest combined solar and storage facility in the us. the batteries can store a0 megawatt hours of electricity, which is enough to keep around 2,000 average us homes alight for four hours. of course, lithium batteries are just one way of storing

energy to use later. and we've seen other methods before. there's electric mountain, in wales, which holds water at a top reservoir until power is needed, it then releases it back down to the lake below. switzerland's air cave fills itself with compressed air and then blows it out to turn turbines. well, now, over in california, kate russell is on track to see a new solution. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, california has invested heavily into wind and solar power, with the latest state legislation calling for 50% renewable energy by 2030, and all new homes must have solar within two years. the state is way ahead of its target, so much so that they've had to start paying neighbouring states to take some of the energy from them. as we've heard before, the problem is storage. the grid was built to handle fossil

fuel generated power and storage solutions like hydroelectric dams are in short supply. batteries, too, are very bad for the environment, turning unused renewable energy into not such a green solution. california—based company aries have come up with one alternative. aries was really an attempt to think of a way to use the inexhaustible, always reliable power of gravity. right? we know gravity is going to be there for us. we don't have to worry about shortages or any of that. so how do we use gravity to store and then discharge power when we need it? one of the most efficient ways to move mass known to man, which people have spent billions of dollars to perfect, are railroads. right? 150 years of experience, incredibly efficient, steel wheels on steel rails are one of the most efficient ways to move mass. dubbed the gravity train, energy is stored using electricity

to push its weight uphill. when you want to take the energy out, you let gravity pull the train back down, using the friction of braking to slow the train in order to make power. it's the same way hybrid electric cars like the prius work. you see those wind turbines behind me, they're completely still, even though there is clearly plenty of wind right now. it's not because they're broken, it's because there's no more room to store the energy they would create. and that's a problem the gravity train will solve. when you're into excess energy production, use it to power the train up a hill, and when you want the energy back, you just send the train back down again. this demo train carries almost five tonnes uphill, storing energy as it goes. a full—scale installation will return 80% of the stored energy, which is not quite as efficient as a huge dam, but has a lot less impact. the amount of energy we store

is the weight of the train times the height of the hill. simple mathematics. so the more weight and the higher the hill, the more energy we can store. we need long, gently sloping plains. but we had clients who approached us and said well, i only have steep, rocky, craggy mountains, so we've developed a new variation on the aries technology at almost vertical. in october, the company breaks ground on the first full—scale aries in the state of nevada. it'll be used to fine tune the inconsistent energy flows that are a natural part of using solar and wind power. minute by minute, it will trim the imbalance between load and generation on the grid, so our trains may need to go uphill for a minute, they may need to go downhill for five minutes, they're constantly acting like a large flywheel, that allows the grid to stay at exactly 60 hertz. it's early days yet and the concept

has still to be proved in nevada, but it could help solve one of the renewable industry's biggest conundrums right now, balancing the ebb and flow of nature—made energy in a more sustainable way. after we run 30 or a0 years providing energy storage and helping people, we can remove all of our facilities very quickly, 96% of them can be either repurposed or recycled, so only 4% of our facilities could ever go into a landfill. and we're trying to reduce that. and we can then plant some native vegetation and six months you never know our facility was there. that was kate on a roll in california. back at babcock, i'm going for a solar—powered spin in an autonomous shuttle, with its chief financial officer. so i guess the motivation for having these autonomous

vehicles is that you — you're encouraging families here to not have as many cars. correct. i think our thought is that over time, most families in the us have a two—car family. our hope is that we can get from a two—car to a one—car family. where you have a car for the family, perhaps, but if you have a car for a commuterfor work, you won't need it anymore, you can take an autonomous shuttle or an autonomous vehicle to work. over time, which will take a long time perhaps, there are no cars. but i think, realistically, within the next 10—15 years, you could see a time when you go from two car to one car. you think the us government at the moment does understand? i think they get it. i think they're getting it. the government's a little slow to move, typically. in major cities, major metros, where traffic and pollution are an issue, technology can come in and save a lot of that. i think governments are willing to step up and make sure this comes to fruition. and we're seeing that slowly. what we're hearing and reading about is that a lot of the major urban cores are going to become,

there'll be restricted access, if you're driving your car and you're trying to get there, you can't get there — up to a certain mile, three miles outside of the city core, you can't get into the city core without being in an autonomous vehicle, for instance. but outside of autonomous vehicles, building a city or a town that is sustainable, i mean, you're not going to be able to do this in colder, more crowded parts of the world. no, i think that's right. i think this is fairly unique. we have a unique situation here where we have the benefit of scale. there's not a lot folks that own 18,000 acres of land. that's a big chunk of dirt. along with autonomous shuttles, babcock has its own water and waste facilities, and as well as reclaiming water, there's a restriction on the amount that you're allowed to use. the tin roofs reflect heat, making homes 10% better at keeping cool, and the ranch's on—site gym is environmentally friendly too, it's powered by the treadmills. 0ne incentive to get off the couch, i suppose. it is a commendable vision to build a town with all these sustainable values, but i can't help thinking

that you can only really do this when you are building a community from scratch. i mean, could you imagine trying to retrofit an existing town with all of these technologies? you'd basically have to tear up the infrastructure and tear down all the buildings and start from scratch anyway. babcock has been built in the style of older towns, to attract people who aren't necessarily fans of the new—build feel. hi. are you expecting me? people like the kinleys. do you mind if ijust step inside your air—conditioning and stay here forever? yeah, yeah. they've got a robot vacuum cleaner... a coffee—making fridge... no, it's set up so it won't spill all over the place. ..and, of course, an electric car. for richard, a self—confessed geek and actual real fan of click, babcock was his calling. just reading tech blogs all the time on the internet, and it sounded fascinating to me.

i liked the idea that it was environmentally friendly and was looking forward, as far as energy solutions. we — in atlanta, we lived just downwind from one of the biggest coal polluting plants in the country, and i thought that cannot be healthy. i think of it as guilt—free living. in the uk, when you have a small town with a central area that you can walk to, it encourages walking, so it's the lifestyle. and while the buildings may look like historic florida, for me, it was also all the technology, all the — you know, having one gigabyte of fibre optic internet to the home... yeah, you like that, you definitely like that. hello, and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that facebook had to apologise again, this time, for deleting content

from right—wing non—profit group. it came as president trump accused tech firms of being biased against the right—wing. with wi—fi and phone signals now widely available on planes, it seems the ocean is the last place on earth to get some it tranquillity. however, it seems researchers found a way to break the barrier. it is hoped that in future, the technology could be used to locate missing black box recorders at sea. it was also the week that in colombia, authorities began using drones to hunt out illegal fields of the cocaine plant that produces the drug. critics, though, say the problem needs political action,

not technological solutions. and finally, a video did the rounds on twitter this week of a very human looking robot out for what looked like a stroll. thankfully, though, rather than being a sign of the robot uprising, it is actually a clip, short film using impressive on the flight computer graphics rendering. i for one, however, welcome a computer—generated overlords. hurricane season is just around the corner in the us, and that means that south florida is once again at risk from deadly winds and storm surges. much of it lies less than five metres above sea level. miami airport is just one metre. and in the further future, even moderate estimates of climate change will mean the sea will swell in much of this area by the year 2100. so it's probably no surprise that some of the most advanced hurricane research in the world

is going on here, at the university of miami. this is a hurricane simulator — it's a 23—metre—long glass tank filled with water and connected to an enormous fan, which means they can generate the strongest winds over water anywhere in the world. up there, they can simulate a category—five hurricane. a 1,500—horsepower motor drives 65—metre—per—second winds, whipping up spray and smashing waves into whatever they put into the tank. the sensors in the tank measure how

those waves behave and what they do the florida's buildings, because it is not so much the winds as the storm surge — the water driven inland by the storm which causes so much destruction and loss of life. in a land—falling hurricane, about two metres high floodwater is accompanied with large waves on top of that, and the wave loading is really dramatic. that is what we are talking about — when waves are breaking and coming and hitting structures. and it is impulsive force that is repeated many times during a storm that is only an hour, that can really do dramatic damage. what have you found so far? how can you build houses better now because of what you've found? one of the key things we've found with some recent measurements is that with this decking, it is actually when the wave chops there underneath it.

it is like an explosive output force, so we really have to look at how we engineer the attachments. 0k, we're about to go to full speed. ok, here comes the spray now. understanding the forces on these models will help develop new guidelines on what support structures would help a building to withstand the onslaught of a storm surge. so if somehow, you were under the sea during a hurricane, this is what you would see. it's better than being on top, i tell you that! have you ever been in there when it's on category five, even in your christmas parties? no, we wouldn't go in there, because there's not much to hold on to and the back of it is

like a cheese slicer. so i don't really want to be turned into sausage or cheese. the team here aren'tjust trying to make stronger buildings. they are also testing ways of stopping the full force of the waves from getting to the land in the first place. here, they're looking at the effect of a seawall on protecting the house. but further out in the water, something you might not expect. a coral reef. we've actually been reading some global studies which show that wave energies actually dissipated 97%, on average, as waves hit a reef crest and go towards shore. so they act like a 97% efficient wave break? that's right, if it's a healthy reef, with a good reef crest. it doesn't look to me like there's that much coral there. and it doesn't come to the surface. does that really do a good job? it can, actually, yes. with the waves, you have the kind

of circular motion that happens at the top, which causes circular motion all the way down, in a little ellipsis down to the sea floor. anything that disrupts that helps to slow down the wave. the problem is thatjust when we need coral to protect from climate change, climate change is killing coral. although corals — much like the trees in a rainforest — are the principal habitat builders of the ecosystem, it you lose the corals, just like if you lose the trees in the rainforest, you end up with no ecosystem. the corals building that habitat are very thermally sensitive. they are some of the most climate change sensitive species on the planet. the reason they are so sensitive to climate change is because they are very vulnerable to small changes in temperature. an unusually hot summer causes a coral to turn white, in a process we call coral bleaching. that's a process whereby this symbiosis between the coral animal and these tiny single—cell plants

that live inside its tissue, that symbiosis breaks down and the coral spits out its algae, turns white, and unless it can somehow recover those algae, it will die. it starves, through lack of food. andrew baker has spent the last 25 years trying to create coral that's more resistant to increasing temperatures. we have found over the years that by gently bleaching corals deliberately in the laboratory, we can encourage them to change their symbiotes in favour of this thermally tolerant type. just now, we're starting — for the very first time — this pilot experiment of doing this out in nature, in the field, in reefs off miami, where we're calling stress hardening these corals, encouraging them to change their algae in favour of the tolerant ones that will help them to resist bleaching and hopefully persist

into the future. so beautiful, isn't it? and while they're working towards growing more resilient corals here in miami, there are of course projects going on across the globe to protect the coral we already have. nick kwek went to see one such project at the most famous coral reef in the world. the great barrier reef, australia, wonder of the world. earth's largest living thing, sprawling some 1,600 miles. but this paradise could soon be lost at the hands of a very surprising vandal. crown of thorns starfish eat coral, and although they‘ re found here naturally, recently, too many have been pouring in at once due to major weather events and ocean pollution. you would think a starfish would be a cute, gorgeous thing you would see on the great barrier reef. the crown of thorns starfish, not so much. they're a bit spiky, ugly, they can have up to 20 or 30 arms. but the biggest issue with crown

of thorns starfish is that they can eat up to one metre of coral per day. when they're in plague proportions, they can absolutely decimate a reef. to the rescue, the ranger bots. these underwater drones autonomously scour the reef for starfish and prick them with a deadly dose of biosalt. the bots use an algorithm to identify starfish and then target them. their developers say they're 99.4% accurate. and they get smarter with time. traditionally, divers have monitored the reef by going out and doing a visual check. they record their findings on a slate — something time consuming, not to mention expensive. they can only be in the water for up to three or four hours a day. they can't dive at night. whereas the ranger bot has the capacity to be in the water for eight hours a day.

it can dive at night. it also doesn't have some of the human failings that we know that we have, where we see and miss things as we're getting dragged along under the water. working around the clock could make a big difference too. evidence suggests the thorny carnivores come out more at night. the newer bots have lights, so their cameras can still see once the sun goes down. so inside these things, you have got inertial sensors, pressure sensors, a gps so it knows where it's going. and it's also has two computers working simultaneously. one to process the images, and one to know where it's going and understand the navigational route. the game changer is — these thrusters, which allow it to go forward, backwards, up, down, left and right, but also side to side, so when it spots the crown of thorns starfish, it doesn't need

to do a big loop—the—loop, it can just stop and zap them where they are. the bots are team players, too. the beauty of having this is that if we have multiple vehicles, we put them here, we send them off in all directions, they pop up 500 metres away, they already know how many they've seen. so we say, ok, zero, zero, zero, ten. ok, that's our focus area. within 20 minutes, we know roughly where we should be focusing our efforts. we'll never outcompete a human and we're not trying to outcompete a human, but if we can give them the tools to extend their operational capability, that's a goal. constantly patrolling the reef, the rangers can also monitor water quality, measure coral bleaching and map the deep blue like never before. one of the biggest issues we have about the great barrier reef is that it's so big, so we only know a fraction of what is going on under the water. without that information, it makes it difficult for marine park managers

to have a true understanding of what's going on, and where they need to direct their time, management, resources and people. but they are still weather dependent. too strong a current, and the poor little ranger can be thrown violently off course. for all their ingenuity, isn't the relatively small work being done by these botsjust a drop in the ocean? the great barrier reef is facing many threats. there isn't going to be a silver—bullet solution. but the ranger bot is just one step in that path we can take, in terms of trying to make sure that we can look after the great barrier reef on a local level, while the world really gets its act together on climate change. that was nick, in queensland. and that is it for our sustainability special from babcock ranch, here in florida. in the meantime, we live on twitter at @bbcclick. thank you very much for watching and

we will see you soon. good afternoon. it is not a bank holiday everywhere today, but in those places where it is, i think this is the day when the weekend redeems itself weather—wise. after the rain yesterday which was brought by this area of cloud, that has slid away to the north east. still a fair amount of cloud feeding in on a westerly breeze and some showers around, but if you are lucky, some spells of sunshine for the rest of the afternoon. and through this week, we will not see an awful lot of rain and it will be warmer than it has been over the last couple of days. three the rest of the afternoon, generally fairly large areas of cloud, but sunny spells and drizzly showers are especially affecting western areas. temperatures, eastern parts of

scotla nd temperatures, eastern parts of scotland with brightness, 18 degrees, maybe 19 in parts of central areas. cloud big enough to give drizzle at at times and a similar story across north west england, wales, perhaps the south—west. but the cloud is quite broken and is towards the south east, sunshine lifting temperatures to 20 degrees. this evening and night, the cloud melts away for a time, but we could see areas of low cloud, mist and fog across the southern half of the country. further north and west, the wind strengthens with extra cloud and northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland where the skies stay clear from aberdeen towards newcastle, relatively cool night. it tomorrow, very similar data today in many areas with a lot of dry weather, spells of sunshine, but generally fairly large areas of cloud and perhaps some patches of early mist and fog to contend with. through the afternoon, the wind strengthens bomb northern ireland and scotland ahead ofan northern ireland and scotland ahead of an approaching band of rain.

temperatures ahead of that, 17—21d. this rain band associated with a cold front slides across northern ireland and scotland on tuesday night, brisk winds across northern areas. also for wednesday, a little areas. also for wednesday, a little area of low pressure trying to spin up area of low pressure trying to spin up from the near continent which could introduce showers across southern and south—eastern areas. a lot of uncertainty about that. all the while, a lot of dry weather and spells of sunshine and those temperatures around 17—21d. and towards the end of the week, again, it will be mainly fine. there will be some spells of sunshine and temperatures generally in the high teens or low 20s. this is bbc news, i'm sean ley. the headlines at three: the united nations says military leaders in myanmar should

be investigated for genocide against the country's rohingya muslims. food prices are expected to rise in the coming months as farmers feel the effects of this year's extreme weather. a mother and her daughter have been stabbed to death in the street in solihull in the west midlands. also this hour: the building boom fuelling the uk's obsession with online shopping. with almost one in five sales now made on the internet rather than on the high street, warehouse space has doubled injust a decade. and in half an hour, tom brook goes behind the scenes for talking movies and explores how hollywood is dealing with issues of race and diversity.