to the three islamist extremists who attacked the satirical magazine, charlie hebdo, and ajewish supermarket in paris nearly six years ago. 17 people were killed. the longest sentences — 30 years — were given to a close friend of one of the attackers and his former girlfriend who is believed to be in syria. china has agreed to allow in a team of world health organization scientists next month to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. beijing has been reluctant to agree to an independent inquiry into the outbreak causing a series of diplomatic rows with other countries. the uk's prime minister boris johnson has urged people to keep christmas celebrations "short" and "small" to reduce the risk of spreading covid—19 over the festive period. despite warnings over rising infections from many scientists and doctors, restrictions are still due to be relaxed between december 23rd and 27th.

now on bbc news, click. this week — spluttering safely to a stop. out of the house and into the gamebox. and what do gaming and protests have in common? hey, welcome to click! hope you're doing 0k. it may be getting cold up here in the northern hemisphere but this is the year when we're all being encouraged to spend as much time as possible outside — ventilation and all — and one person who spends a lot of time outside is lara lewington. yes, i've been running outside more than ever. i think itjust gives

you a sense of freedom and at the moment, some sort of sense of normality — although i have been getting very annoyed. this week, people have not been indicating properly! the cars are just turning around the corner! but i do understand that runners aren't actually that popular at the moment. don't run on the road! now, listen, talking of which, a lot more people have been doing this as well lately. in the last year or so, i've e—scootered around bits of london, copenhagen, wellington and auckland. seems like a lifetime ago now. it certainly does. they are legal in many countries but in the uk, you could only ride them on private land — untiljuly this year, that was, where a trial to see how rental e—scooters could work in uk cities commenced. there are some concerns though — one being the safety of the riders and other people, and another being the fact that not every e—scooter on the road is allowed to be there. in a follow—up to last year's report, omar mehtab has been taking a look at what's being done to tackle these issues.

sirens wail. well, hey! i'm riding a e—scooter around! ona road! brakes sqeual. chuckles. whoa! chuckles. right. that might not seem like a big deal, but it is. and the reason is because up until recently, you couldn't ride e—scooters on public roads in the uk. ok, let's rewind to last year when i first looked at these light e—vehicles. even then, e—scooters were taking over cities around the world. their growth was supercharged by a cheap and easy rental system. find one, download an app, scan a code and ride away, paying by the minute. but while they have excited consumers, they have proven a major headache for regulators and the uk's position was to put the brakes on their roll—out — both for rental companies and private ownership.

it hasn't stopped people buying and riding them on the road. now, let's fast—forwa rd to may 2020, when the uk's transport minister grant shapps announced a year's trial of rental e—scooters, designed to give people an alternative to public transport during the pandemic. this is a big deal, because the uk is finally joining the likes of france, germany, most states in the us, australia and many others in allowing e—scooters on public roads. we went to milton keynes to visit e—scooter rental company lime and their warehouse, and ride one of their vehicles. they're the first operator allowed to rent them in a town in the uk. now, this was filmed a couple of months ago and since then, places in the uk such as nottingham, birmingham, manchester have started running these trials, and london as well is close to having most boroughs running these services in the near future. but there are some caveats. you must ride your rental

e—scooter on the road — not on pavements, just roads. and other light e—vehicles such as hover boards or e—skateboards, they're still illegal — you cannot ride them out in public. and when it comes to your e—scooter, it must be a rental, it cannot be privately owned. if it is, because it is classed as a motor vehicle, you need things like tax and mot insurance — things you cannot readily get for e—scooters at the moment. but not everyone is getting that message. like other areas around the city, where i live in east london has not yet allowed the rental of e—scooters but that's not stopping people from riding their personal ones around. this one even zipped past as we were filming a couple of times. so i asked a couple of riders if they knew. did you know that these are illegal? ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. you know they are illegal? yeah, yeah, yeah. but you still ride it around anyway? they say if you want to use it, you can use it, it is up to you, but you can use this

one only on the park. only on the park, ok. but you used it on the road as well, so you're just hoping that they don't catch you? yes, sometime i can use it. even when i go to inaudible, there is a lot of people then. and the police as well, they don't complain about it. now, as you heard, someone thought that it's still ok to ride one, despite knowing it's illegal, just because they saw others do so too. is that a good enough reason? no, that's a — that's a pathetic argument, isn't it? to say "i know it is illegal but i see other people doing it, therefore i'm going to do it" is a pathetic argument that just, you know, passes the buck to other people. if you're riding this, you're committing the offences, you're putting yourself at risk and you're putting other people at risk. but now, companies are coming up with innovative solutions to keep riders safe. e—scooter rental company tier includes a collapsible helmet as standard. so all you do is you take it out, build the thing — if i can.

but that is not the only innovation that they have come up with. they've also got indicators on the handlebars, letting pedestrians as well as cars know when you're turning. there's even a wireless charging slot for your phone. dog barks. and then there's link e—scooters. they have some pretty unique features. link scooters can check their gps location against maps stored directly on the vehicle and immediately enforce geofences around no—go zones, such as pavements or restricted land. and so, this bypasses any phone—to—cloud lag that you would normally have. so what should happen, thanks to the geofencing here, is that as soon as i get on the pavement, it starts cutting out. you get a beeping... scooter beeps. ..there we go, there we go. and it's limiting my speed, like, a lot. it's not going, it's not going! chuckles. now, it did take a second or two to power off, but that is because i don't want to suddenly stop

and launch over the handlebars. but that's not the only thing. the scooter is also able to self—diagnose, so what it's doing is it's constantly asking itself am i working all right? are my components all working absolutely fine? are any of them about to fail? so in theory, what should happen when i put this scooter on its side... ..it comes up as a notification on that interface there. and it does! hasn't stopped! but its features did not always work perfectly. this is — this is not working again. now, to be fair, the e—scooter needs to ride in the geofenced area quite a few times to increase its accuracy, and it did improve over time. i can't ride it anymore! and there is another company that allows automatic braking of their e—scooters.

voi has integrated an ai computer vision system. developed by luna, an array of cameras and sensors allows scooters to detect hazards in its path, even if the rider does not see them, and by accounting pedestrians, the system can even detect where the scooter is being ridden. so it looks like companies are quickly innovating to try and combat any objections. and with the uk's transport committee of mps pushing for legislation, it does not seem like a question of if they will be legalised, but when. so what does the uk have to look forward to? let's hear from a city where they've been legal and hugely popularfor a while. my suggestion would be do as much community—led engagement and safety sort of launches around how to safely ride a scooter, how to ethically ride a scooter. it's nice to be able to convey to somebody how many miles have been ridden, how many trips have been taken to really demonstrate to people what — how important this is and how it's offsetting trips

from their commute. i don't see an end to it anytime soon. the popularity of it is too great for us to not to lean into it and find a way to make it safer over time. so whether you like it or not, it looks like e—scooters are probably going to become an integral part of future urban transport. and there are loads of benefits for riders in the cities. but questions about infrastructure and about regulations still need to be answered. and so, the work needs to be done now to make them as well integrated and as safe as possible. hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that uber sold off its self—driving car division and its flying taxi arm elevate. we've barely got 5g but now, nokia has been named leader of europe's project to develop 6g. and japan is turning to ai

matchmaking to boost its record low birthrate, investing 2 billion yen — that is around $90 million. in other a! news, nvidia has found a way to train models with 10—20 times fewer images than usual. the advanced neural network approach has been used to generate artwork in the style of famous painters. it also created images of cancer tissue, starting with under 1500 images. a robot kitchen could now make you dinner and then wash up! as long as you have nearly £250,000 spare. this chef's algorithms are trained on human movements to allow it to retrieve ingredients, work at the hob, pour, mix and, of course, plate up. and finally, mit has created a shape—shifting basketball hoop that makes shots harder the better you get. this tightens and raises upward when players get consistent

baskets, thanks to sensors that track the ball‘s movements. its makers say it could help players who cannot afford coaches. now, that's a slam dunk for science! for the first time in months, i'm making a video outside of my house! so i have gone straight into a darkened room to play games in front of a computer screen! back in 2016, i went to a tech show in paris where i tried out a virtual reality gaming booth that worked with projectors instead of a headset. and four years later, this mightjust be an idea whose time has come. this is the electric gamebox. it's sort of like a cross between an escape room and virtual reality. but instead of the headset, ijust need to wear a visor with this tree of tracking dots on, and those let the cameras and computer know where in the room i am. there are eight rooms at this venue with four projectors in each, providing 360

degrees of visuals. the walls are touch sensitive and, of course, there are motion—tracking cameras. in this game, i'm being tested by aliens to see how intelligent i am, and i've got to control this character and collect as many coins as i can, moving him around with my body. 0h! no, this way! the business was co—founded by will dean, who is also behind the tough mudder endurance events. this year's have had to be postponed due to the pandemic, but electric gamebox has been able to reopen two of its venues. at the moment, you can only play with your household or bubble, but groups are separated from one another and the equipment is all easily cleaned after use. the question is after months of zoom quizzes and video calls, will people want this type of screen time? well, we believe that what we're doing here is making screen time social again. i went and did an immersive vr

experience, and i went with a friend of mine, and when we finished i realised i really have not been with my friend at all. the trouble with vr is it's almost too immersive. here, the fundamental ethos and mission of the business is bringing people together through the value of shared play. some people have compared this to an escape room. obviously in an escape room, there's a lot more physical props. won't people find that more immersive? well, an escape room is a static adventure. it's once and done. here, in some ways, we are a bit more like a movie theatre or a cinema. you can come back, you can play different content each time and as such, we believe we have far more potential because people keep coming back time and time again. there's also the potential to beat your old score, and we see a lot of people coming back to do that. as well as providing a pandemic—proof activity for families to do, venues like this could help breathe new life into the high street, which has seen big brands fall into administration or even close this year. while shops are struggling, there is a growing appetite for experiences. electric gamebox is about to open its first venue in the united states and its manchester venue will reopen once restrictions there are relaxed.

now, hong kong has seen a year of pro—democracy demonstrations after china passed a controversial national security law which reduced hong kong's autonomy and made it easier to punish demonstrators. just this week, three prominent activists were sentenced to jail for their involvement in protests last year. in fact, one of the activists, joshua wong, featured on click, talking about how internet freedoms were being threatened by the newly imposed law. danny vincent has been keeping us posted with the protests from inside hong kong. and this week, he's been meeting some protesters who have been explaining that the strategies that they use actually come from multiplayer online games. in a gaming room somewhere in hong kong, a team of young protesters dressed in black bloc have agreed to meet. they are what is known

as frontliners. last year, they were active in the city's anti—government protest movement. they took to the streets in their thousands. in hong kong, activism is unconventional. protests are fast—moving and leaderless. to some, the tactics, the collaboration, resemble multiplayer online gaming. translation: the hong kong protest evolution was just so quick. it was quicker than any protest movement you could have seen before. we learned a lot from the games, and also from real life in hong kong. hong kong has one of the most innovative protest movements in the world. but many of the young people on the front lines say that many of the strategies and ideas, they come from computer games. translation: this game is called league of legends and it's liked by lots of the younger generation. i personally think, since it has a map and objectives, it's like during a protest.

in hong kong, more than one third of high school students play three hours of online games a day. 10% of primary school students are said to suffer from gaming addiction. for some, gaming is a way of life. but real—world divisions have also played out in the virtual world. last year, hong kong gamers dressed as protesters in grand theft auto v and started a mass violent campaign. they were met with mainland chinese players dressed as riot police. bella is a former protester. she agreed to speak to us under the conditions of anonymity. translation: there are some correlations between playing games and the actual protests. for example, you can learn a lot of strategies from playing. during the protests, you are like the protagonists inside the games, fighting against rivals, trying to run to escape. it's quite the same.

protesters, she says, learn from their mistakes, like in games, and adapt. some scenarios in the games, like standing up against rivals, are similar to protesters standing up against the police. but you also learn from failed missions and look at what worked and apply it to the next protest. since the introduction of a new national security law, hong kong has seen fewer organised mass demonstrations. there have been more than 10,000 protest—related arrests since last year. more than 1000 are under 18. translation: what is the difference between reality and the virtual world ? well, in reality, when you fail, you can't restart and complete again. you might get injured in a protest or put in jail, or even killed. the consequences in real life are more serious. you would need to face the consequences as a team, notjust on your own.

it's not like in a game, where you can replay after you've failed, you can try unlimited times. in reality, you just have one chance. that was jeff talking to danny vincent in hong kong. right, before our next story, lara, i would like you to have a guess at what these three things have in common. you ready? i'm ready. fire away. ok — cyberspace, flying cars and dreaming sheep. well, it sounds like research for this show! chuckles. but i'm guessing it's not going to be, so enlighten me. no, they are all mainstays of or inspirations for the sci—fi genre known as cyberpunk. 0h, 0k! love a bit of cyberpunk! yes! now, one of the biggest video games of this year is cyberpunk 2077. and marc cieslak has been chatting to the brains behind the game. so let's find out if any of those things turn up in his film. a giant megalopolis to explore.

cybernetic enhancements. futuristic hacking skills. and, to top it all, keanu reeves as a rock star who lives inside your head. maybe we'll fit together after all. welcome to one of the most anticipated video games of the year — cyberpunk 2077. cyberpunk for me, as a sci—fi genre, has always had something of an ‘80s vibe about it. instead of adventures taking place in outer space, cyberpunk is concerned with urban sprawls and cyberspace, dark futures blighted by environmental collapse and technology run rampant. is any of this starting to sound familiar? let's put it this way — the cars don't fly. that's about it. um, ok, let's see. we've got a plague, we've had some nuclear accidents, we've had some wars. we've had a loss of really amazing hacking exploits going on.

governments fold before corporations. we've corporations rise, fall, gut countries and then move on. i've personally know somebody who hires mercenaries for corporations in foreign countries. you know, all of this stuff, it's all there. um, so, you know, if you're about living in a cyberpunk future, i suggest you look at the news. the cyberpunk game has its roots in pen and paper, rather than pixels. created in 1988 by mike pondsmith, it started life as a tabletop role—playing game. pondsmith had a background in video games and managed to filter the films and books of the time into a successful role—playing franchise. and in doing so, he managed to predict much of the world we live in today. it's just amazing what's out there. the problem becomes we don't know how to vet it, we don't know how to tell what's going to be true. for example, i wrote a variation of cyberpunk called cyberpunk v3.0, where its primarily message is about what happens

when you have an information collapse and people are able to pick their own information to build realities. so we have what's called ‘culture cough‘, where people are fighting over "my reality‘s better than your reality, and here's what really happened back in 1962" or something. well, we're there. we're looking at it right now. worldwide, people are rewriting realities and there's nothing out there to really balance that out, and so people are going to have to become a lot smarter. pondsmith's table—top fiction has been digitally realised by polish developers cd projekt red — the team behind the hugely successful witcher video game series. cd projekt red are responsible for, of all the things in the past or 10 years the witcher 3: wild hunt, which is one of the most exciting, sprawling, huge rpgs that we have seen, and people absolutely love it. when the pandemic hit, the developers carried on, completing their work from home. the game has been plagued

by reports of crunch in its later stages, though, with developers working a six—day week in an effort to get the title completed on time for release. and even though work continued on the game, its release has been delayed several times. these delays have sparked anger on social media. in extreme cases, it led to threats being levelled at the development team. we try not to take in too much of the negative comments when they arrive. and of course, there are also situations which never can be really accepted, like some kind of threats and situations like those, which also happened, unfortunately. so, has all of that effort on the part of the developers been worth it? well, on first impressions, night city certainly is a good—looking mash—up of every cyberpunk visual trope. rain, neon and intricately details urban squalor — they‘ re all here. like the setting, missions draw on the history of the cyberpunk genre.

tech heists abound. combat can be approached different ways via stealth and using technology, or the player can choose a more direct let the boomstick do the talking approach, or a combination of all of these things. cybernetic upgrades enhance the player's body, improving your chance of survival in night city. something else which is less fun are the bugs, which is not really surprising, considering the size and detail of the world and the effect of the pandemic on developers working from home. patches will no doubt follow, but more worrying are reports of flashing lights at particular sections of the game, inducing an epileptic seizure in one reviewer. the game's developers have responded by saying they'll add an additional splash screen, warning about potential triggers. and they've created an alternate visual effect, replacing the one which has caused this problem and will change it via an update. so far, cyberpunk 2077 is an ambitious and good—looking example of an open world fps, but it's not without its problems. that was marc in full cyberpunk mode, and that is it for this week.

as ever, you can find the team on social media throughout the week on youtube, instagram, facebook, and twitter at @bbcclick. thanks for watching and we will see you soon. bye— bye. hello there. on wednesday, we saw a pretty deep area of low pressure sweep up from the south to bring rain and gales, particularly to western areas. today, though, it's looking a bit quieter. we're in between weather systems, so we should see a good deal of sunshine around. it'll stay quite breezy too, though, not quite as windy as it has been. so that's wednesday's low pushing away to the north of the uk. this feature will come in during thursday night. and in between, we've got

a good slice of drier weather. there'll be a few showers around this morning, mind you, across southern and western areas. plenty of sunshine across eastern scotland, central and eastern england — areas here staying dry all day. out west, we'll see further showers and the clouds will tend to build up here through the afternoon, and the outbreaks of rain will start to arrive across northern ireland, along with strengthening winds. it'll be quite fresh across northern and eastern areas — 9—10 celsius around average, but it will be turning quite milder further west, as this band of rain and stronger winds starts to spread across the country, as we head through thursday night. it will be followed by further areas of cloud and showers to the south and west, and it'll be turning very mild across the south — lows overnight 12—13 celsius. and after a chilly start in the north, it'll be turning milder there too. now, this is the pressure chart for friday — and you can see we're back to very unsettled weather. this very active weather front, with lots of isobars on the chart, means wet and windy weather moving our way. so we'll start off with a little brightness across the north—east england, north—east scotland, but generally a rather

cloudy, misty, murky day. some patchy drizzle across the east. heavy rain across western areas. chances of flooding for south—west england and south wales — areas which have seen lots of rain already. and it'll be a windy day. those gusts showing 30—110 mph for many, particularly across southern and western coasts. with our winds coming in from the south, it's going to be a very mild day for the time of year. highs of 13 to maybe 15 celsius, for example, in parts of north—east wales. low pressure sticks around as we head on into the weekend. it'll send bands of showers into the northern and western areas. but there will be some sunshine around too. you will notice though the mild air starts to get replaced with those bluer tinges, so it will be cooling down through the weekend. so a sunshine and showers weekend. most showers across western areas. and then, it'll be cooling down, and that'll be particularly noticeable as we head through sunday.

this is bbc news. our top stories: in a giant leap for pandemic diplomacy — the world health organization is given the green light to visit wuhan in china to investigate the orgins of the virus. a court in france returns guilty verdicts in the trial of 1a people accused of taking part in the charlie hebdo attacks in paris. nigerian officials say they won't pay ransoms for the boys kidnapped from a boarding school in the north of the country last friday. and a chinese space capsule has successfully returned with the first samples of moon rock in more than a0 years. smile and the world smiles at you — a study of facial expressions reveals just how similar to one another humans really are.