hundreds of billions of dollars and cause severe damage to people's health and way of life, all of which is at odds with president trump's stance on the issue. the spanish prime minister says he still hasn't got the british guarantees he wants on gibraltar, suggesting that a summit in brussels on sunday to approve an eu deal on brexit could be postponed. mr sanchez said if there was no agreement on the draft deal, the summit would not take place. people in taiwan are voting in local elections and in several referenda, including one on the legalisation of same—sex marriage. the issue has divided the island, despite the top court ruling in favour, giving parliament two years to amend laws or pass new ones. shortly on bbc news, it is newswatch. but bofore that, here is click. —— before that.

the californian wildfires are the deadliest the state has ever seen. they have claimed the lives of more than 80 people, hundreds are missing, and whole towns have been destroyed. but, as residents tried to escape, the firefighters did what they always do. they ran towards the danger. it is a profession that relies on courage, education, and increasingly, the latest science and technology, to better understand how fires behave, and how to beat

back the flames. and, if you want to be a firefighter, this is where you learn your craft. the international fire training centre in darlington, in the north of england. this is where brave firefighters come from around the world to learn the latest techniques in fighting all kinds of blazes. they can simulate a huge variety of fire scenarios here. oil rigs, industrialfires, that's an overturned fuel tanker, and they can simulate any size of aircraft, from the smallest to the largest. that is an airbus a380, and this is a boeing 747. and it is notjust about gearing up and grabbing the hose. every fire is different. and each needs to be treated intelligently to make sure that you, and the people you're trying to save,

have the best chance of survival. wow. oh, my goodness. they're using the water as a protective shield. so they're keeping the two fires apart using the water, keeping the left at bay and then extinguishing the right one, before we deal with the left. the centre tries to make the fire as realistic as possible. not just the fire, but the treatment of the casualties, too. it's fascinating to see the science behind firefighting. for example, in a kerosene fuel fire, water won't put it out. this cone of water controls the blaze, so that another firefighter can come in with a powder extinguisher. that is what finally tames the flames. and, once they're gone,

does that mean the job is done? well, that's where this thermal imaging camera comes in, to see what our eyes cannot. so, once it looks like the fire is out, you still have to cover the area in water, just in case there are some hotspots. you can see here the vent in the top of this engine is still white—hot, according to this thermal imaging camera. and there are many other ways to detect and deal with fires, and lara lewington has been looking at some of them. for the past two years, half of the uk's fire brigades have been deploying these drones. they focus on the safety of firefighters, and their on—board hd and thermal imaging cameras can provide much greater visibility, which means a better understanding of a fire and the way that it's spreading. using a drone, we can get pretty

much an instant overview of the whole fire in less than five minutes. and start moving our machines and firefighters around like chess pieces, really, all controlled by drone footage. it brings a massive benefit, as we can see fires as they're developing. the team here have also used them for rescues and searching for people in quarries or water. the hd camera being able to clearly zoom in on a face up to a mile away. but of course, when it comes to the spread of fires, what's happened recently in california is at the forefront of our minds. well, the university of westminster is researching a system that combines sensors on the ground and those in a drone. the aim — a solution for wildfires. these solar—powered prototype sensors are tracking carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxygen, humidity, temperature, gps, and altitude. the aim is to combine them

into one miniaturised, cost—effective version, which could be deployed en masse in areas susceptible to wildfires, providing immediate feedback. if there is something, they will alert all their neighbours also, form into a network, alert taken, take measurements, convey to the master node, which then conveys it further up to the server, which alerts the drones, which come up to give a visual. it comes with all the information it has got from the drones, from the ground sensors, and it knows what the wind speed is, what the direction is, what the temperature variations are, and where the fire will be. then it makes a release from the air and then you have the heavens opening, with these lovely pellets flying in and hitting the target when the fire is. and you can fight fires day and night, 2a hours a day,

with no visibility. meanwhile, this is the stinger. it can pierce through metal and pretty much any roof, dramatically blasting foam or water into the heart of the blaze. the quantity and force of that water is pretty incredible. this pumps 1,000 litres a minute, with an even more powerful jet to the side, capable of 4.5 times that. it also has an on—board thermal imaging camera to assist with that precision. blackburn is currently the only uk fire service using this kit, though. i'm told it costs over £600,000. but maybe as costs come down, and all this technology evolves, this next generation of firefighting will become the norm. i'm at leicestershire fire

and rescue, the first service in the country to invest in virtual reality. their hope is that money will be saved by replacing some of the expensive training techniques with vr alternatives. i've seen the demo and the fire looks quite intense, so i don't think it's going to be what i'm used to when it comes to virtual reality, which isjust having a nice time. let's see. all the scenes in the training are scanned from the real world. for instance, this arson hotspot investor is a good reference for investigators looking for clues. it's the inside of a destroyed smoke alarm. ijust need to say, like, the environment is like i'm

standing on ash. it feels very real. teleportation. oh, my gosh. 0k, there's a body down there. if you enjoy the training, you're going to get more out of it. it's already been proven. there's a study in the united states, where if you train in the virtual reality environment, the retention rate is 75%. most of the talks i do on road safety on powerpoint, we tend to make 5%. you can see why we are looking at this because our training is going to be enhanced so much. if you want to go 10 seconds forward, you can do it on the controller, just skip forward and fast—forward the fire. if you remember from the scene you saw a minute ago, that monitor was completely melted. you can see how it physically affects things that are not even burning yet. yes, then the idea is, when it stops, we show the people putting out the fire, and you get the ability

to dive straight back in the scene, and you're in that same burn scene. yeah, seeing the impact of the fire is pretty remarkable. it moves quickly. part of the reason this experience feels so intense is the realism. for leicestershire fire and rescue, this was important — that they move away from gamification and into real life. they have been working with a company called rivr to make this happen. the scenes are created using photogrammetry. both cameras and lasers photograph in real life, 360—degree scenarios up to thousands of times. we've seen how fire services are using virtual reality but what about other first responders? here at the defence science and technology laboratory, they are hard at work on how police might use virtual reality in ourtraining. number 7 ferguson house, caller reports sounds of violent disturbance. i can see some feet already.

so i don't think people wouldn't expect to put the police and virtual reality together. why is it so important that police are interacting with technology in this way? you can replicate one—off events. so an event which could be a dangerous or hazardous environment, you can recreate as a one—off, and people would never, ever get the opportunity to rehearse that. but in vr, we can, so we can give them that vehicle and the opportunity to do a one—off scenario and do it safely. there we go — oh, my gosh. ok, i'm going to see if she is alive. she's obviously taken some pills. there's a heartbeat here. i can definitely see already how it could be used to — in the way that a lot of games are, really, to open up your mind to possibilities around crime, why people may have committed criminal activities. those kind of questions are definitely there already. yeah, that was more enjoyable

than the fire one, i think, which perhaps shouldn't be my takeaway. but like, i could go back into that world, whereas the fire scene, ijust wanted to get out. and that is the shortcut of click. the full—length version is waiting for you on iplayer right now and we will put some amazing footage from this place up on social media as well, on facebook and on twitter. we live @bbcclick. but for now, thanks for watching, and we will see you certain. —— soon. hello and welcome to newswatch with me samira ahmed. did bbc news tell us what the draft brexit agreement says or was it too busy discussing the career prospects of theresa may and her rivals? and - i'm a democrat. don't patronise me, i'm as much a democrat as you are. was that anyway for andrew marr

to speak to a labour peer? first, the distinctive figure ofjacob rees—mogg has become increasingly familiar to viewers of bbc news. at a news conference he held on tuesday, with fellow members of the european research group, he was asked this question by newsnight‘s political editor. you admonished me last week for saying you are staging a coup against theresa may. it's certainly not succeeded. doesn't it have more of a sort of dad's army feel about it? i've always admired captain mainwaring. amid much mocking of the erg online, that analogy with the classic bbc series was picked up by several of the next day's newspapers. the bbc‘s political assistant editor norman smith used it again on thurday‘s news at one. it's not going to win over the hard brexiteers,

the dad's army brigade. there may be enough in this t get some of those middle ground brexiteers on board to back the government. chris 0ldershaw had this reaction. but if the prospect of a leadership challenge were being ridiculed by some, it was certainly being treated as headline news by the bbc from last weekend on. the comments pile more pressure on a prime minister struggling to maintain cabinet unity. a change of leader would bring uncertainty, she says, that could delay or frustrate the talks. speculation continues over whether the prime minister will face a vote of no confidence this week. the prime minister pushes on with her brexit deal. that focus on the prime minister's future irked a number of viewers

with janet wait writing: and mike willmont echoed that. bbc news has been making some attempts to explain what is in the draft agreement and the political declaration.