hello this is bbc news. the headlines: freezing temperatures are continuing into the weekend after snow causes more travel chaos overnight. russian president vladimir putin has said that russia is withdrawing from the cold war—era intermediate—range nuclear forces treaty after a similar move by the united states. england's minister for schools says pupils should be banned from taking plans to prevent censorship during debates at universities have been drawn up following a number of incidents where speakers were banned from campuses. floods in the north—east australian state of queensland have reached catastrophic levels. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. we are less than two hours away from the second six nations match of the season, and they have a lot to live up to in edinburgh, after wales‘ dramatic win in paris. first up today, it's scotland — the strong favourites against italy — who once again are tipped to be

the bottom team come mid march. anytime i believe now, there is pressure on the team to perform. for me, we were always respect the opposition and we do, because in the last game, we played against them, we should have been beaten, but it a lwa ys we should have been beaten, but it always comes back to us as a team. we can't worry about who is coming here. it's up to us to hold our standards and we are confident we can take anybody on here at home. that one is live on bbc one, and then, at 5:30, ireland, the defending champions, host england in dublin. ireland are once again the team to beat, while england have something to prove if they are genuine world cup contenders later this year. need to get a really tight game like this, you are going to need little slices of luck. both limit both teams will need to prepare to make sure you are in the right place physically and mentally to implement your game plan physically and mentally to implement yourgame plan and physically and mentally to implement your game plan and make your plays, your game plan and make your plays, your face plays, but

your game plan and make your plays, yourface plays, but ultimately, there will come little bounces of there will come little bounces of the ball. you can be at the right place at the right time to seize opportunities and both teams will need a slice of that. these are games, you really need to realise it's a privilege to kind of play enzyme. full house, big start toa campaign play enzyme. full house, big start to a campaign against a top quality team, so we realise we are extremely fortunate to be in this position. like i said, we are going to get ourselves mentally switched on. there will be no such thing as a lost cause this season, after wales staged the biggest second—half comeback in six nations history in paris last night. they trailed france 16—nil before their second—half recovery. george north scored two tries, including one in which he pounced, when the rain was making ball control rather challenging. the howler there summing up the french second half, and north won the match when his anticipation and then his speed completed the comeback and 2a—i9 victory. the west indies will be looking to bat themselves out of sight when the third day of the second test starts in antigua this afternoon.

their lead is already 85. for a time on the second day, england's bowlers offered the tourists hope that their first innings score of 187 wasn't going to be too costly. but the windies' patient approach, mixed with the occasional flamboyant shot, paid off and three batsmen scored more than a0. stuart broad was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, but the west indies will resume in control on 271 for six. that's all the sport for now. coming up next, it's click. this week: barriers without walls. can tech trump the border? how microsoft came back from the dead. and the magic behind the avengers. the construction of a wall

at the us—mexican border has dominated american politics since donald trump joined the presidential race back in 2015. we are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. it reached its crescendo in december, when the now—president announced a federal government shutdown over its funding. we're going to have a shutdown. there's nothing we can do about that. a record 35 days later it was finally lifted, without any real resolution, and it could easily be back on within weeks. as trump tweeted out a new design for his wall,

now made of steel rather than concrete, the democrats did offer a potential compromise — to fund a border which used technology rather than physical barriers. but is that feasible, and what would it look like? we sent nick kwek to arizona to investigate. so i'm on my way to the nogales border patrol station, one of the most technologically advanced control centres on the us—mexico border. the checkpoint itself processes hundreds of thousands of people every month. but today, i'm going on a ride—along with agent dan hernandez of border patrol, whose job it is to keep out those attempting to cross illegally. hey, just be advised i'm going to be around your location. we have 262 linear miles of border fence with mexico, but thousands of miles on the north end on the american side.

it's a daunting task, and it's very vast, but with the technology, we're able to get a leg up on our adversaries. dan's patrol zone is larger than the state of newjersey. his sector of duty, tucson, made almost 40,000 arrests in 2017. out in this unforgiving terrain, field agents like him go about their daily patrol. every piece of technology used by them is vital, and has to be reliable, even down to their radio coms. this one has to have an encryption that's even stronger than most police departments, because of the national security concerns, because of the criminal element. you have a radio that is equipped with gps. so if something should happen, i become incapacitated, i could press that button and help will come. help will come from here, the nogales control centre, where officers can literally see what is going on,

thanks to a newly updated surveillance system. their solar—powered integrated fixed towers, also known as ifts, have long—range video and thermal imaging cameras, coupled with radar, to provide high—altitude points of view, with watchful eyes back at base. we have tracking systems that can detect movement, and it places the camera at the source of the movement. before, we'd see some pixelation. with the cameras, just by the remote nature of their placement, it was very difficult to focus far away. but with technology, we've increased the amount of distances we can see and the accuracy of the images, and we're seeing really crisp, sharp images. so we're able to identify things that come over the fence, people that come over the fence, contraband that comes over the fence, and not only that, but it increases safety. if i go out to an area and i don't know what i'm waiting on, and i don't know what's out there,

and i run into an assailant with a firearm, it might be a bad situation. but if i know that, prior to going in there, i might be able to bring other resources with me. as well as saving agents' time, and potentially saving them, the ifts have helped secure areas where physical barriers are not. down near mariposa wash, fencing has been raised to prevent erosion from waterflow, but a person could easily walk through here. for all intents and purposes, we consider this defence the wall. so we don't want to think this is the only thing keeping america safe. we have the fencing as a tool, as another system we can utilise, but it by no means is supposed to keep anybody in or out. we are the force, with the agents, in conjunction with the technology, and this being utilised as a tool, that seamless integration of all three components is what makes the border secure, is having the agents to make an arrest, the wall, and then the technology to supplement both. this could be just a couple of miles, or it could be a couple

of hundred yards. five minutes down the road, dan shows me a border section where technology is already having to do most of the work in keeping people out. just looking at this, this is completely not what i was expecting to see, i guess, when people have visions of the wall or, you know, the mexican border, the us—mexico border. like i said, the presence of the fence isn't here. it's not a very powerful fence, by any means. it's just meant to keep vehicles out. whilst these sticks won't stop determined individuals, i'm told scattered sensors buried in the ground all around the area could catch them offguard. technology is intended to help agents do their duties. but, of course, it is not always criminals that get caught in the net. the recent migrant caravan crisis highlighted how many families make the perilousjourney in hope for a better life in the us. many have been torn apart,

and some children have died since being detained by authorities. for dan, he says he is just doing hisjob. no matter on what side of the spectrum you fall on, border security is important for the entire country. we're law enforcement officers. we don't dictate the law, we just enforce the laws, so the best way to enforce the laws is by doing it in the most effective and most efficient way. in 2017, border patrols seized over 890,000 pounds, or 400,000 kilos, of smuggled drugs across the us—mexico divide. drug mules, they try to camouflage themselves into the natural environment, so a lot of times you may not be able to see them. but the cameras can detect body heat, and infrared technology allows us to see them in the middle of the dark night. so our technology is usually one step above the criminal element. as well as giving agents eyes—on from a long range of rural terrain, imposing structures have also been

used to mitigate crime in urban areas. nogales is a city divided in two. 0n the us side — 20,000 residents. 0n the other — 210,000. so up that hill there is a rvss tower, or remote video surveillance system, which is keeping a close eye across this area, which historically has been quite dangerous. but having that eye in the sky has helped improve safety — or so i thought. on top of that tin roof there. yes, those are rocks. yes, those are all rocks thrown at agents. 0k, we got to get out of here. yeah, you got to go, you got to go, you got to go. so actually — we actuallyjust heard a rock land on the top of that garage there, so obviously people up there are throwing stones at us. so we're heading out. no—one is hurt, just be advised it's for safety. this is an area where usually scouts

or people involved in human smuggling are perched, and i believe there's one person underneath that tree. so he's a human smuggler scout. how does that feel, knowing there is a guy who is watching you? it's a constant. they're there all the time. you get more and more used to it. while scouts may sit for hours at a time, people crossing the desert move from place to place, so border patrol have mobile surveillance trucks to reach remote areas. they're equipped with thermal rangefinders, enabling operators to measure the distance between themselves and people crossing, and laser pointers, to give agents in the field wearing nightvision goggles a heads—up. 0ne multiple surveillance capability truck can do the work of six people, orfour people.

customs and border protection has also begun testing drones with facial recognition cameras to help monitor the border from an even higher vantage point, and border patrol is trialling a new mobile—based navigation tool so agents can keep track of each other‘s live whereabouts. the border is changing every single day, and technology or investment in technology allows us to keep up with the trends, with the smugglers, with counteracting any kind of negative action towards the united states at the border. whilst trump's wall continues to be a bone of contention, maintaining the border stretches beyond simply erecting more steel fencing. as i have come to learn, communication tools and surveillance systems play a pivotal role in everyday operations. whether technology can replace a wall altogether here is something which will be debated in the coming weeks. hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that samsung announced a giant, 1 terabyte internal storage chip for smartphones.

apple acknowledged the flaw in its facetime software which allowed eavesdropping. and the us justice department filed criminal charges against chinese company huawei and its chief financial officer. the company and its cfo deny the charges, which include bank fraud, obstruction ofjustice and theft of technology. the facebook research app paid 13 to 35—year—olds for almost complete access to their smartphones. the app is now no longer available on apple's app store. previously, the social network could let people install apps without going through apple. meanwhile, mit has made an inflatable pills to monitor the interior of your stomach. the sensors inside the ingestible tablet can potentially monitor problems inside the tummy for up to 30 days. it rapidly absorbs water once inside the body, and to deflate, patients simply drink a calcium solution to shrink the jelly—like pill back to a size which can go...out the other end.

one more robot story for you from the italian institute of technology. it has unveiled a soft robot which mimics plant tendrils. the plastic tube stretches when electricity passes through it and coils when the voltage is removed. researchers hope it could eventually help develop wearable devices that can change shape. so i get the jazzy bright yellow headphones. i'm in seattle with amos miller and his guide dog, trevor, and i'm about to try soundscape, a navigation app that uses no visuals, just 3—d sounds. ok, so i'm hearing voices. the 0verla ke transit center is 200m that way. as i turn around, the phone adjusts the stereo sound so that the speech appears to keep coming from the correct direction.

having it in 3—d space in that way makes it really effortless to know where things are. you don't have to do calculations in your head, and engage with them. you can just hear where it is. this 3—d audio is called dynamic binaural sound, and we're now going to use it to find our way to our destination. now, instead of giving you step—by—step instructions, the way that soundscape works is it will place an audio beacon, a virtual audio beacon, on the destination. so you can hear where it is, and we can decide how to get there. beacon, 210 metres. i'm hearing it. which side are you hearing? and it really is quite instinctive — just head in the rough direction that the sound is coming from. i think it's in this direction here. 0k. so do we just walk in the direction? so now, we use our analytical skills to pay attention to what's around us. right, we don'tjust walk into that tree there.

we don't walk into that tree. trevor, my dog, is pretty good at avoiding trees. so should we go? i don't know, dogs and trees, they kind of — you know. what is incredible, if you have never tried dynamic binaural sound, as i turn my head around, the trapping stays in the direction it should be coming from. i'm sorry, trevor, i overshot. this is augmented reality in audio and it's a really great idea. the sound is instinctive and unobtrusive which means we can have a chat without stopping and listening to spoken instructions. three steps, here we go. one, two, three. find the doll, boy. he's arrived. that is, in the true sense of the word, that is a beacon. an audio beacon that we've just followed, as if someone was calling us.

exactly. so, you may be asking, whose headquarters am i at? which cheeky start—up has come up with this idea? remember these guys? yes, microsoft. go on, admit it. you thought they were so last century, didn't you? paul allen and bill gates's company defined an era with their all—conquering windows operating system for pcs. but now we all use google and apple phones, which have left microsoft way behind. microsoft are, by the time the iphone and other smartphones came along, very complacent. they had this really successful software business with office and windows and the xbox, and it couldn't manoeuvre the way a smaller, more focused company kind of could. you get an established business doing one thing, you put all your efforts into doing that one thing and then you struggle to manoeuvre or anticipate the new technology

that is coming along, and that may disrupt you. about 25 years ago, they were on top of the technology industry, and now where are they? it turns out they are back on top of the technology industry. never mind apple, forget google and facebook — at the end of november 2018, microsoft became the most valuable company in the world for the first time since 2002. so where did it all go right? well, i'd say about here. five years ago, satya nadella became the boss and he was able to turn this super tanker around. any ceo of the company sets the tone, the direction. steve clayton is microsoft's chief storyteller, realjob title, and he's well versed in explaining microsoft's resurgence that has seen

its value more than triple since nadella took over. where this guy caught the wave of personal computing, and this guy missed and the sky missed the wave of portable computing, this guy was determined to catch the next big one — cloud computing. it turns out it's not devices that are mobile, its people that are mobile and what the cloud has allowed us to do is to put software anywhere on any device. nadella seemed to accept that to move with the times, the company was going to have to do what it did in the beginning and be guided, at least in part, by the youngsters. let me show you a demo of the hypezone. young employees like lenin hsivalingam, whose passion for games streaming led him to win the company's fourth internal hackathon in 2017. so our idea, they are going to run computers on these live streams, pixel by pixel and finding interesting moments and showing them

to people. the result is the hype zone. that means fans of the most popular games in the world such as fortnite, mean they can use microsoft's games streaming site, mixer, to find the best battles. the game is kind of boring during the start. it gets really interesting. during the endgame, there are only two or three players left so we try to use this technology to identify these super exciting end games. and any microsoft employee with an idea can come to this space, the garage, to hack, to build and work on new ideas. and is there anywhere cooler than a garage? yes, that would be the batcave. i'm looking at a visualisation of global earthquakes over the last 50 years or so.

microsoft changed the way we worked once with windows, and here is one possible workspace of the future. using its augmented reality headset, hololens, this is a glimpsejust of how our computing workspace may one day be all of our physical space. so today, we havejoining us, some of my team—mates. peter andjinna. jinna in new york, hi. and there is peter. from san francisco! spencer, how's it going? and they can see us as well. this is spatial, a prototype environment where people can appear to be in the same room and share the same images, videos and even 3—d models. so you have a big model of mars here. oh, my goodness. amazing though this is, it might seem a bit too futuristic right now, but i wonder how futuristic those early graphical

user interfaces like windows seemed way back in the ‘80s. whichever way you look at it, microsoft seems to be thinking differently to its previous incarnation. it is really interesting, the difference that a ceo makes to even a massive company like this. ok, the previous ceo, steve bulmer, once called open source a cancer, and yet here we are with a company that is embracing all things open source, actively embracing other people's ideas, other people's software and the numbers don't lie. microsoft is back in the game. it's february and that means it's awards season, and the one award we really love here at click more than any is the one for best visual effects. last year, we talked

to the visual effects teams behind all the most amazing looking movies, and the next four weeks, we are going to be speaking to some of the biggest names in the industry as they tell us how they made some of the biggest films of past year. and frankly, no movie was bigger than avengers: infinity war, so big in fact it needed several effects houses to work on individual sequences in the film in order to bring's earth's mightiest heroes to life. in time, you will know what it is like to lose, to feel so desperately that you are right, yet to fail all the same. it's 3,500 vfx shots, which is a huge number for a film. hear me, and rejoice. it was a major sequence, so it's the part of the film where ebony moore comes down to try and get the time stamp

from dr strange. we have a capture lab here who collect data and do motion capture and that sort of thing and they went out to greenwich village and i think pretty much photographed all of it. in terms of the actual set, they were acting on the stage at pinewood atlanta, mainly blue screens. brief was that it was war—torn, the trees were on fire. so all the trees on atlanta had their leaves on them. everything you see, that's close—up and burning. it's fairly immersive. because we were on the show fairly early, in a preproduction phase, all of the designs of the suits were really only in a 2—dimensional form. marvel had worked those up. part of our brief was to try to realise them in cg and realise them in terms of motion, how

they actually would move and work. its nano—tech. robert downey, jr had quite a bit of input into how that worked. it has a couple of cords that you pull. and the suit tightens and allows the nano—tech to come out and spread over it, which was his idea. spider—man has got his own problems as the character because he is so bendy, and i think quite often, the dislocations in his anatomy that would occur if you got into that position are quite often hidden artfully. a lot of the effects are defined by the story and the storyboard. down to what happened to bricks, making darts out of bricks. he is an alien so it's hard to find a reference.

the character is old in quite distinguished, he is a wizard, so we looked a distinguished looking english actors. like peter cushing and christopher lee. took their hair, what does their skin look like? try and infuse some of that character. bring me the stone. don't forget, we are all over social media. you will find us on facebook, youtube, instagram and twitter where we live at @bbcclick. thanks for watching and we will see you soon. hello, we have had a lot of snow

from the last couple of days, i'm glad to say we won't have that much new fresh snowfall throughout the remainderof new fresh snowfall throughout the remainder of the day. ice is still a concern and will still be as we go into this evening as temperatures fall away. this note i was a mostly peppering eastern and western coasts as well as the far north, but for many in... it's dry, and sunny, not poetically warm, only four to six celsius, but of the arms and lie so when is, will be an improvement. as we head through the night, temperatures fall away, they plummet to even minus 4——5 in major towns and city, we can see minus 10——12 over the snow fields. but it all changes as we go... there will be

some rain, sleet and snow for northern ireland than scotland and northern england, mostly dry and ran across southern and central areas until later on but it will become miles from the west as time goes by. good afternoon. snow and ice have caused another night of disruption for parts of the uk. in kent, police reported answering hundreds of emergency calls and work to re—open the m3 near basingstoke in hampshire continued into the early hours of this morning. forecasters are warning of more severe weather over the weekend with the possibility of temperatures dropping to minus 16 degrees celsius in parts of scotland overnight. caroline davies reports.