scale of this damage. but given the scale of this disaster, more than 10 million hectares of land has been scorched, it will be a very tough job, i think, for australia to rehabilitate its international reputation. as a safe and welcoming and prosperous place to come. 0utside outside of that, plenty of sunshine to come although that could turn a little more hazy in scotland and northern ireland at the far north—west, we have got some thicker cloud on a stronger atlantic breeze so cloud on a stronger atlantic breeze so it is more mild here. 6—8d in the sunshine, more cold weather that persists unlikely to thicken up during this evening, probably push

across the midlands towards east anglia. more cloud comes out across scotla nd anglia. more cloud comes out across scotland and northern ireland so it won't be quite as cold here but a frost widely through wales, the midlands and southern england could be —50 midlands and southern england could be -50 -6 midlands and southern england could be —50 —6 in southern england. that fog around for the rush around the money could be very slow to clear during the course of the morning, otherwise some sunshine, there will be something to the east of the pennines and in north—east scotland.

hello this is bbc news, with me, ben brown. the headlines: the queen has attended church at sandringham after reaching an agreement with prince harry and meghan over their future. the couple will no longer use their hrh titles and will give up all royal duties from the spring. said prime minister has been reacting to the news. said prime minister has been reacting to the newsli said prime minister has been reacting to the news. i think the whole country will want to join in wishing them the very best for the future. in other news — powers come into force this week to stop stalkers from contacting or approaching their victims — while police investigate allegations against them. the conflict in libya — key world powers begin a conference in berlin aimed at bringing an end to nearly nine years of fighting. could the house of lords leave london? the chair of the conservative party confirms it's an option being looked at.

those are our latest headlines. now it's time for click. this week, we are staring into the future. we are self—driving around china. that is a bit creepy. and we're flexing our... that looks painful! not quite. give me the chime, i'm doing it! ca rs. they are always one of the biggest draws at tech shows and last week's ces was no exception — there were plenty of innovations inside the vehicles and out.

say you wanted to rent this beauty for the weekend, and when you returned it, there were a few dinks in the bodywork — how do you conclusively prove that you didn't do them? what you need are a pair of these. these are check scanners. a french innovation that can inspect a carfor damage in the time it takes to drive through them. there are ten cameras on each side and machine learning has been trained to spot dents and scratches that can be compared to those that were there when you picked the car up. it is also useful for manufacturers to spot any imperfections in new cars, and in a world where we are buying more and more things online, at a distance, these could be useful for producing condition reports for second—hand car options. but much of the car innovation on display at ces was of the self—driving nature. after all, whoever steals a march

in this area will be in the best position to tap into the billions that this sector offers. it's taking longer to perfect them than some realised — it is all about data from testing, testing, and more testing. which is why, although private companies are at the vanguard, behind the scenes, the big nations are facing off to provide the most favourable regulations. the big rivals here? well, you probably guessed it... the us and china. the us was initially quicker to grant licenses for companies like waymo, but its superpower rival has also woken up with big deregulation plans of its own. the huge corporations on the front line, alibaba, google, ford, tesla, tencent and more are now battling to capitalise, to hone their algorithms and create the first truly autonomous road vehicle.

stephen beckett went to guangzhou to visit one of the global leaders in autonomous vehicles to find out more. this is guangzhou in the south of china. about 75 miles upriver from hong kong, it is one of china's biggest and most developed cities. home to around a0 million people, and now it is one of a handful of cities in china running large—scale trials of self—driving cars on public streets. this is pony.ai. you may not have heard of them, but here their cars have become a common sight in the area around their head office. over the last year, they have been running an autonomous taxi service in the city. at the moment, the trial is only open to selected family and friends of pony.ai employees. a pretty good deal though if you can get access, as it is completely free. with just a few taps on an app, an autonomous taxi will come straight to you. so this autonomous taxi service

is operating all around the district of nansha, in around a 100 square kilometre area, mainly the urban bit. so we have quite a lot of choice of where we can go. where shall we go? that is a bit creepy. the driver has got his hands in a kind of ready to go position. there is some chap driving on the wrong side of the road just there. the car did slow down a little bit. braking...but seemed to have got through that one unscathed. what is interesting is some of these things just don't happen in other places in the world. if you are building a self driving car in the us, then your car might not know what to do if it sees someone driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time. but here, fortunately, people are driving wherever they like. but making sure vehicles like these are safe enough to roam free without a back—up operator is the next big challenge for autonomous car companies around the world. this man leads the engineering operation here at pony, so it's his job to try to make that a reality.

sometimes in each different city, the traffic pattern and driving behaviours are totally different than, say, in the us — usually they obey the traffic a lot more and tend to yield to lane change, but in china the driving behaviour is more aggressive, so it is sometimes unpredictable, especially for cyclists, so you need to put everything into consideration. it's something they keep telling me here, chinese data is richer than data in the us. right now, most self—driving car companies are focused on getting their vehicles to work in their home countries, but once that is figured out, the rest of the world is next. and it could be that cars trained on unpredictable chinese roads will stand a better chance in places like india and africa. pony.ai was founded in december 2016, it is only three years old. we are almost as good as the best

autonomous driving car companies in the us. because the roads in america are a bit more predictable than they are here in china, do you think they will get to the self—driving dream first because the problem is a bit easier in america? actually, we think differently, because in china it is more of a challenge. i would say we drive one kilometre on chinese public roads — it is like ten times more value than driving one kilometre in united states. that is why we can improve faster. this screen here is designed to give the passenger an idea of what the car itself can see. that car, this car in front of us, is represented on here as a different coloured block. oh, you see, that was

an interesting situation. these guys are pulling up, this car is coming up on our right, but the car managed to handle it stopping — the driver didn't have to step in. we want to go here, i think that is why it is confused. this is a pretty confusing situation, even for a human. you can see why it is confused because it wants to go in here, and there is a lane of traffic there, so i think that is probably what i would have done as well. i am pretty impressed, it handled a few tricky situations, we had a guy on the wrong side of the road, but it didn't do anything that felt dangerous, which i think is the main thing. it wasn't exactly like a human driver, still some of the way it moves, the decisions it made, probably would feel a bit unusual to you if you were used to a human driver, but it is on the way. when it comes to technologies that are consumer—facing,

they don't have any obvious political impact or anything to do with content, the chinese government is very relaxed about letting entrepreneurs innovate first, seeing what happens and maybe regulating later. and that often is the opposite sequence to what happens in the uk or the us, where governments will get ahead of potential problems — for example, self—driving cars — implement regulations first and then the industry follows. the reality is that for a long time, china was lagging behind in autonomous technology, but as we know, when china makes a decision to do something, as it has here, things can happen very quickly. at the southern end of the las vegas strip is the mandalay bay hotel. on october 1st 2017 this was the scene of a tragedy. the us‘s deadliest

ever mass shooting. a gunman in one of the rooms opened fire on a crowd of concert—goers across the road. he killed 58 people and injured more than 400. the incident sparked a review of security across the city, but now it is being taken further. richard taylor has been looking at whether technology can stop would—be perpetrators in their tracks. here's the dilemma. how do you keep the world's entertainment capital safe for revellers without turning it into a party pooping security fortress? patriot 0ne believes it has the answer, using unobtrusive sensors which generate information feeds which can be assessed to see if someone is carrying a weapon. this vegas casino resort is now rolling out the technology, which has been in testing

for the past two years. we have got various bits of hardware here... the system can be placed in a building entrance or a turnstile, and unlike a metal detector, it creates an invisible fence. you wouldn't even know it was there. if i am carrying a concealed weapon on my person, or worse still, intent on an act of violence, the system as it is deployed here invisibly in these planters, can kick in, the ai making a determination of whether or not this is benign and alerting the security authorities to take the relevant action. it works on several levels. microwave sensors bounce off objects creating resonance frequency patterns that identify the shape of an object. another sensor creates a magnetic field and detects disturbances as an object passes through.

but the real smarts lies in the ai algorithms. within seconds, they assess the data against that already in the database to figure out if weapons are being hidden. with daily shootings in the us and a knife crime epidemic in the uk, the allure of a system to keep us safe is seductive. we are in the business of rolling out, north america is our genesis, our starting point. the uk market will be important to us, particularly when it comes to knives because of the knife crime crisis and the fact knives are being used by terrorist groups for mass attacks. but ground—breaking as the tech is, it is largely unproven. how accurate is your system?

because when it comes to ai, the machine is only as smart as the data that you are feeding it. we have been out for a long time with tremendous partners who have allowed us to get a lot of data here. the university of north dakota has been hugely supportive in that way. we have built sufficiently large data holdings that we now have confidence in the accuracy of our systems. enough confidence that we are now into our first commercial deployment. 0ur early adopters also understand that the systems get better and better, the more data is fed in, so they are equally allowing us to ingest data for training the system. still, the system isn't100% accurate or foolproof, an assailant may well get into the premises another way entirely or a weapon may be hidden in something different shaped object, like a metal box. an additional security layer is needed. so if i'm openly brandishing a weapon, that is where the eyes of the system kick in, the so—called machine vision where a security camera can make an assessment based on what is in my hand, against on what is in its database, and if it finds it is likely to be a weapon, it will trigger

a relevant alert. the idea of augmenting human eyes with the smarts of computer vision is catching on globally. a number of outfits promising enhanced security through person and object detection. but understandably, that leaves many people uneasy. we are very conscious of the fact people don't want to live in a mass surveillance society, and so, there are very different ways in which you can gather data. we don't capture any personal information or we don't store or distribute personal information. we are looking for objects. people are of no interest to us unless they are carrying a threat object. so, what our ai has been trained to recognise is the threats. it is not making any determination on people or capturing personal information or body image. and that, i think, puts us on the right side of that line between too much surveillance and not enough security. hello and welcome to the week in tech.

it was the week that us president donald trump clashed with apple over the tech giant's data encryption rules. apple refuses to unlock iphones to assist in criminal investigation, citing privacy concerns for users. microsoft ended its support for windows 7 after ten years, meaning users will no longer receive security updates. the uk's national cyber security centre is recommending that windows 7 users replace their unsupported devices as soon as they can. london's heathrow airport is installing a new anti—drone system that will allow it to pinpoint unauthorised aircraft, as well as their pilots. the move comes as airports are looking to increasingly prevent drone disruption following a temporary closure at gatwick in 2018. tesla cars are being enabled to talk to pedestrians in a baffling british accent. car: well, don'tjust stand there staring, hop in! in true knight riderfashion, tesla ceo elon musk tweeted a video of a car speaking to passers—by. the feature will apparently be used to talk to other road users and pedestrians, as well as provide a flatulence function.

what a time to be alive! and finally, if you've ever wondered whether your pet pooch would enjoy a podcast... spotify has introduced a new range of personalised playlists for pets. pet playlists is a new experience where spotify users can get curated playlists for their pets based on their tastes and character attributes. pet sounds, anybody? there isjust so much to see here that i've been getting my hands, ears, eyes, nose and mouth onto wearables. first up, no, this is not a pair of goggles. it is the prototype of an air—purifying mask. the finished product will look like this. with claims it is 50 times more effective than the market—leading cycling mask, the a0 air uses nanotechnology and air pressure to filter out

harmful particulate matter. what's described as a multi—stage filtration system provides the process of air being sucked in. that air will then be cleaned and pushed out at the front, creating your own environment of pure, clean air. currently, the prototype is a lot less comfortable than the finished version, and this is a size large — i need a smaller one. ifeel like my nose is being held, and i probably sound like that. it will take some getting used to, but it is actually adjusting according to my respiration rate, so right now, the fan speed is at 16%. i can make the fan go up more if i want more air to be pumped. i feel like i'm at the dentist! imagine what i could do. i certainly couldn't run like this but maybe i could ride a bike. i don't know. but it is notjust about the device. this is also about collecting data, localised air quality data and also respiratory information. there are some plans to use that for some health tech in the future, particularly maybe in meditation.

it has five hours' battery life and in time, the device will be miniaturised. but despite the fact that i thought i looked completely and utterly ridiculous, it has actually made it to the catwalk, featuring in new york and seoul fashion weeks. back on the show floor, there was also the sixth finger. sixto is a device for people who have limited mobility in one hand, so it could be due to a stroke or something like that. now, the way it works is that you position the bad hand where it needs to grab hold of something and this joystick, which will be held in the good hand, is used to be able to close the device so that you can actually pick something up. one of the other benefits of this is that it actually encourages somebody to use a hand which isn't functioning properly, rather than holding their arm in a position where it is likely to get stiffer. but in the depths of one slightly more secret meeting spot came this view into the future. this is a contact lens that

provides augmented reality. apparently, it fits like any other scleral or semipermeable contact lens. now, this could be used for something like translation, where the words would come up in front of when you are having a natural conversation with someone. the idea is that this is all about invisible computing, that something like this should be less intrusive than having your phone in front of you. wow! that is incredible! in a way, the fact that there is little enough information for it to not be totally distracting makes it better. i think if they put too much up, it would become too overwhelming. whilst i wasn't allowed to actually wear it, just holding it up, i could see some simple stats right before my eyes which, having been sceptical in advance, i was pretty blown away by. so, how is it possible to fit all of this into the lens? we had to build our own wireless protocol between the contact lens and another wearable accessory,

because we had to manage power and data and size of chip, and that accessory connects to your mobile phone or the cloud, to access additional computing resources and information. it is very comfortable, it fits to your eye, it corrects your vision when you wear it so if you have a prescription, we build up your script into the lens. heart rate data, speed, and even with your eyes shut, you would able to see this because it is lit up and obviously the lens is sitting beneath your eyelid. it feels seriously sci—fi. and there you have it — what to wear, to see and feel in the future. there! never taken that photo before! the thing about coming to las vegas straight after christmas is you eat lots of food, followed by lots more food. and chris fox has decided

that he is going to use technology to help knock him back into shape. this is what he has found. these three new apps are designed to help with your fitness goals using image recognition, machine learning and motion sensors. but are any of these apps advanced enough to replace a personal trainer? i've come to the gym to find out. first up is vay sports, which uses image recognition and a selfie camera to make sure you're doing the exercises properly. you choose a trainer and put the phone a few metres away and follow the instructions in your headphones. 0k, great, i can see you. here we go with push—ups today. get into the starting position so i can see you at all times. based on what the camera sees, the app gives you feedback to correct your form. you call that a rep? your hips are a bit too high up. it also counts how many reps you do properly so you can track your progress. nice work! how are the back of the arms feeling?

at the moment, the app only works with body weight exercises so to move on to weight training, i'm trying gymfitty, a virtual trainer you can talk to. i'm done. rest for two minutes. how many reps did you do? 10. well done! let's do another set. the app creates a bespoke work—out tailored to your goals and it remembers how well you did last time, so you don't have to log your work—out or write anything down. i want you to add another five kilograms to each side of the bar. ping me when you are done. to relax, i'm finishing off with some yoga. this is yoganotch, which uses motion—tracking sensors to detect my position and correct my form which, fair warning, is going to be terrible. not quite. give me the chime, i'm doing it! chime. oh, i gota chime! i did it right. i'm not sure whether setting up these sensors every time will take some of the zen out of yoga, although the company says it is more accurate than using image recognition.

oh, come on! these apps certainly add a layer of interactivity to a work—out but can they match the kind of encouragement you get from a human personal trainer? you can train just as effectively but near in mind that it is able to process huge amounts of information that is very specific to you, and it's with you all the time. and there you have it — a downward —facing dog from a forward—facing fox. was that cheesy? i know, we're in vegas! although next week, we won't be — we're going to la! and with 0scar season just around the corner, for us, that means we start our very special look behind the scenes at the best, most innovative work in visual effects that's up for awards this year. i cannot wait. what? please do join us then. in the meantime, you can find us all across social media on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter at @bbcclick.

thanks for watching and we will see you in la. hello there. after a very cold and frosty start this morning, many of us frosty start this morning, many of us will continue to see some sunshine. but there are still some areas of mist and fog and that has brought some very hazardous conditions across quite a limited pa rt conditions across quite a limited part of the uk but still having an impact on many people. travelling on the m5, the m6, the m56, the midlands towards lancashire, still has a fog. it will be rather patchy, visibility is on the whole are tending to improve, properly only briefly. 0utside tending to improve, properly only briefly. outside of this, a lot of

sunshine. it will turn a bit more hazy across scotland and northern ireland and in the far north—west and towards the northern isles, we have thicker cloud, stronger atla ntic have thicker cloud, stronger atlantic wind bringing in some milder air. further atlantic wind bringing in some milderair. furthersouth, atlantic wind bringing in some milder air. further south, with the sunshine, temperatures like yesterday, 6—8, code aware any of the fog persists. it is underneath a large area of high pressure, a very high area of high pressure. around the top of that, where we are drawing in atlantic winds through the night and blowing in more cloud, further south across scotland into northern ireland as well. south of that, the clearer skies and the fog may be developing more widely and thickening up in the midlands, drifting towards east anglia as well. a widespread frost. could be down to —50 —6 in southern england. it gets a bit milder as you had further north. where we have more clout that will continue into monday. the fog through the midlands, across the fens, lincolnshire, could be slow to lift in the morning. elsewhere, we will see some sunshine. sunshine further

north, to the east of the pennines and the north—east of scotland. the rest of northern parts of the uk hanging on to more cloud but the temperatures will be a little higher. that high pressure still in charge in one shape or another over the weekend, getting squeezed a little by the weakening weather front heading southwards. again, it brings a north—south split in the weather with a frosty start in england and wales, more cloud, may be some light rain and drizzle coming down across scotland and northern ireland that even that peters out in the afternoon. the first signs of any rain in the next few days. i decided that, there may be some sunshine but some mist and fog patches in southern parts of england and into wales and the midlands. that is the sort of story through the rest of the week. a lot of cloud around, pockets of frost and fog that so many of us, it's going to be dry.

good afternoon. the queen has attended church near sandringham this morning following the agreement with the duke and duchess of sussex that they'll step down from royal duties. the queen has said she supports prince harry and megan's decision to lead a more independent life away from what she called the ‘intense scrutiny‘ they've faced. under the agreement, their hrh titles will be dropped and they will no longer receive public funding. here's our royal correspondent daniela relph. the queen at church near sandringham this morning