hello, this is bbc news with ben brown. the headline... millions of people in the uk wake up to tougher covid restrictions as rule changes come into force. as the uk grapples with a new strain of coronavirus, france confirms its first case of the variant. former mi6 officer and soviet spy george blake has died aged 98 in moscow. and coming up... we'll tell you about the sport that is high—speed and environmentally friendly — welcome to the world of extreme e — backed by f1 champion lewis hamilton. just to tell you we have had some more information about the lorries that have been stuck in kent because of the french travel ban on all lorries coming in across the channel. the airfield is now clear,

only a handful there. as of about 1030 am, that is the picture the transport secretary tweeted, it is an empty airfield as compared to how it was on christmas day where it was packed with stranded lorries. we are hearing about 1600 are still on the m20 in kent. also 8000 hjvs have passed over the border. that was since the 23rd of december and almost... thousands of tests have been tested on lorry drivers and only about 30 positive results. now on bbc news, click gathers round the virtual christmas tree to explore the best tech that the season has to offer. ho, ho, ho, merry clickmas! this week, we've got the whole crew celebrating virtually.

as we look at some merry mixed reality, traditional tabla playing, and some festive flying. ah, there you are! come on in. welcome to clickmas 2020, i hope you're doing 0k. it's a bit different this year, isn't it? normally we would be getting to get around the table, having a laugh, cheering, having a good time. well, pretending to have a good time. filming a clickmas party is the most stressful thing in the world. but, just because we can't all be together doesn't mean we can't all be together! hello, everyone! look at you all, it's the fam! chris, loving the jumper!

candles are a go atjen‘s place. lj, that must be a musical rainbow, i'm guessing. omar, christmas furby, i see. and paul with his christmas duck, of course the well—known symbol of the festive season. the duck is brilliant and spencer your house looks so festive! you have totally outdone me with your decorations once again, not to mention the outfit. amazing. how is your clickmas going so far? costly on the electricity front, i have to say. but guys, i'm really missing you. i just want to get in the same room as you again. i just wanna do that. it has been a tough old year but we are so grateful that we have stayed on your screens, and today at least we can have a get—together, albeit 2020 style for the last show of this year. that's right, and for this show we've been able to go out and about filming, just a little bit, and if santa had asked me what would i like to do for christmas, if i could do anything at all what would i say? i would say, i want to be

like you, big guy, and fly. it's pretty early in the morning. i've been told to meet my driving instructor richard here, and he has told me i need to wear these. don't know why. dramatic music yeah, so it turns out richard is not in a fiat panda then. he's arriving goodwood speed week in style, as the chief test pilot of gravity industries, the start—up that believes they've finally nailed the jetpack. i hatched this idea in 2016 of, could you reinvent flight byjust adding the minimalist amount of equipment and using your brain and body to fly in a very unusual way.

no logical reason, that was just an interesting idea, i thought. so, i'm going to have a go on this? mm—hmm. any tips? well actually, it's like watching a child learn to ride a bike because if you describe a bicycle to somebody who has never seen one, it sounds very clever and complicated and difficult to learn but our experience is that when you let the inner balance brain take over, it is remarkable how well that collaboration between machine and human works and this is the same. right, so we're going to put the harness on. that will do a good job of connecting you to the suit as best as possible. if you stress and overthink it, it's really hard. walking and standing up is much more complicated than learning to fly this, so just relax into it and enjoy it. the jet suit is pretty daunting and although it is also pretty heavy, there's not that much to it. two turbines on each arm and one at the back and well, that's it. right, so if you look in the end, see the trigger? just get used to the pull of it. that's the throttle. so when you're up there, when you squeeze it and you can

feel the engines gradually ramp up. this finger will actually nudge the power up, and this one will nudge the power down. a couple of nudges, each nudge gives you a couple of kilos more thrust. so the idea is, you are learning about lateral stability and rotation, but it will still shove you around a bit, but once you get your weight over the top of it you'll notice that it is really not very much. i mean, it's really scary ‘cause i can feel the power and i can feel the heat all around me. the diesel fuel lasts for up to ten minutes. all of which, for me, will be spent at most a few centimetres off the ground. what the helljust happened?!

that was honestly really good. that was incredible! i don't know whether that's adrenaline orjust sheer terror or excitement, or what. the main application, richard thinks, is in entertainment. imagine seeing jetpack races across lakes, for example. but in september 2020, richard joined the great north air ambulance service to show how paramedics might quickly get to casualties in the rough terrain of the lake district. the great north air ambulance reached out and said that there appears, according to their analysis, to be a large cluster of cases where, if they could move very quickly out of a vehicle with this, that would work. and so we went up and tested it. the headline result was, i got to the casualty in 90 seconds when it took 25 minutes to walk there. hardly surprising, since richard broke the guinness world record for fastest speed in a body—controlled jet engine power suit, twice. they're noisy, impractical and expensive.

but, jet packs are now real, which is a good enough christmas present for this little fan boy. applause 0k, spen, i have a question. how long is it going to be before you are jet packing around the place like jetpack richard? uh, lets try never? seriously, you need really good core strength and really strong arms as well, to stop the jets from throwing you around like this. i'll tell you what, though, richard gave me two challenge coins being a good learner and getting just slightly off the ground, so that's something. 0h, spencer, that's brilliant! now, i have something else exciting for you. a present is about to arrive. . . now? ding! goodness me! how wonderful. oh my goodness, is this...? it's not a tv studio

in a box, is it? it is! i hope you like it, it should help you be able to make a tv show from home. that's a ludicrous idea, we'd never pull it off. look, though, it's got a light and it's got a green screen. if you're not familiar with green screens on tv, what we do is we get the green and we replace it with anything we want. maybe, i don't know, a cat. i'm sure that you will find something very useful to do with it. i've actually been using some of the kit over the past few weeks to make click, i did have to actually put it to the test. i've also been trying some other tech which will help us make better social media videos. unless you're an actual professional influencer, then the chances are that any photos and videos you put up on social media are quick self shoots after a few takes of checking your hair looks alright. but i'm not averse to upping my instagram game so i'm testing a few simple things that

could make a big difference. this set i gave spencer for christmas is a sign of the times. a kit for children, or anyone, so they can mimic theirfavourite youtube stars. but it is a cheap and cheerful way of covering the basics, and this phone grip attaches to the middle of the ring light. when you film through the middle, it produces, hopefully, flattering lighting and you can also change between daytime whites and warmer tones. of course, it's not the quality of professional kit, but considering the price, i can't really expect the earth, and i have been testing the light as part of my click home set up. it worked well, itjust could do with being a bit taller. right now it is the right height for a two—year—old but i think you've got to be at least five to be dreaming of being a youtuber. it also comes with a green screen that you just need to attach to something. and app like chromavid here,

can help you edit video to create the illusion that you are anywhere. it could be on a beach or doing a weather forecast. clear skies for most of us but a little bit of cloud cover coming later. for a full convincing effect, though, you do need to make sure that the screen is evenly lit. the green screener app will highlight any hotspots or creases so you can fix them before you film. lighting can make a real difference and these colour changing lights can run through the colours of the rainbow or you can set them to just one. they can help add a spot of creativity to what you are doing. things have come a long way since the selfie stick. these days they often double up as something else as well like a tripod or in this case, a gimble to stabilise your shots. this is the zhiyun smooth x. you just clip it to your phone and whether you are taking a selfie or filming some fast

paced action, it will always keep your shots nice and steady. if you want to get a bit more fancy and show your full surroundings, you could try a 360 camera. this camera by insta 360 comes with an invisible selfie stick. it disappears from your shot, letting you create drone style footage without a drone. and here is a tip that can make your videos more engaging and accessible. the free apple clips app can automatically subtitle your video as you record it. there are similar apps available for android too, like autocap, although sometimes have to really annunciate those words for it to understand. now you have all the ingredients you need to just let your creativity run wild! oh, i should never have given spencer that green screen! what is he doing?

i am doing everything, lara, and i shall be doing it for the whole of 2021. thank you so much. what a great present. pleasure! anyway, what's that you got there, jen? that looks divine. thanks, spen, it's just a traditional clickmas dinner, it's made mostly from vegetables because i'm a vegetarian. they wouldn't happen to be vegetables from the sewerage—powered greenhouse you went to earlier this year, would they? well, chris, it's funny you ask. no, the harvest there isn't actually ready yet, but i did go back to see how they are getting on. five months on and a lot has changed at the greenhouse sites as berry, st edmunds and norfolk. last time we put about plans for using waste heat from a nearby water treatment plant to warm the greenhouses. now the pipes are in place and water is being diverted. this is called a wet well and it was purpose—built for this greenhouse project here in norwich. it is diverting water from the treatment plant into this heat exchange building. so this is the heat exchanger

building and there's two types of pipes in here. the silver pipe is taking the effluent, so the clean water from the treatment plant, it's putting it into these heat exchangers. and from the heat exchanger, the heat is taken off, put into these red pipes which then pump it 2.5 kilometres down to the greenhouse. we're here at norwich, at the greenhouse, it's 94,000 square metres, and theyjust hang in the grow gutters. we are providing the climate computer that is controlling the roof ventilation, the screening, the heating, the c02, the evaporators, but also the irrigation. each plant grows out of these gutters and will be 13—15 metres long, trained along the wires. these wires stretch up to the roof. it's designed for high wire crops like cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. so, how long does it

take to grow a cucumber, and is it difficult? it takes about 18 days, it is difficult. there's a whole plethora of different actions that need to be taken at the correct time. it depends on the amount of sunlight as well, the quality of the water. everything has to be done correctly and once you get to your 18 days, there's thereafter another 18 days, another cucumber, to the extent you are getting about 200 cucumbers per square metre. in this one greenhouse, 16—18 million cucumbers will be grown every year, that's about 3%—4% of the uk's annual consumption and robots can also be deployed here. these heated rails will warm the plants but can also hold the machines. how might different robots work together in this greenhouse to produce more crops? a robot might go down each and every row, collect the data from every single plant and then determine, send that data back to a computer which will then determine how best to, where different pesticides are required or what fertilisers are needed where, and that granularity of data is something that

a robot could fundamentally change the way greenhouse operates. that data would be transmitted to this irrigation room where the fertiliser recipes are made. this is where the fertiliser recipes get mixed. all the water running through the greenhouse is pumped through this irrigation room and sterilised with uv lamps. this includes rainwater, recycled from the roof. that was fascinating! thanks for that. we will be back in the spring to see everything growing, a gift that keeps on giving. talking of gifts, who wants to give us a gift next? who is up? i have a present, except my present is a gift for all of you, notjust one. thanks paul! sweet! what is it? i will be the ghost of christmas past and take us all back to the 1950s, specifically, to a jazz club in vancouver called the palamar.

it was demolished in 1955. but thanks to the magic of live motion capture, and an incredible singer called jill barber and her band, she has recreated it for one christmas only, so grab a drink, sit back and let's go back in time. # the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. # since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. # it doesn't show signs of stopping, the lights # the lights are turned way down low.

# let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. that was jill barber and the phantom jazz band. after the performance, i managed to catch up with her at the bar. jill, to start with can you tell us about where we both are? sure, you and i are sitting at the palamar supper club. it's a club that was demolished in 1955. how are we doing that? i am actually sitting in front of a green screen in a film studio in vancouver british columbia, canada, and you are 7600 kilometres away at a studio at the bbc in london. but through the magic of cross reality technology, we can be here together at the palamar.

showcap, the company behind the performance, created this virtual venue using the unreal engine, a platform created for gaming. with the performers in motion capture suits shot against a green screen, they can be transported to the ‘50s while maintaining their intricate human movements. # i quit pretending... historically, motion capture and virtual production techniques have been used in the creation of blockbuster films, in big budget videogames, but with cinematic quality computer graphics that can be rendered in real time, we are starting to really explore the use of these things and live performance. jill's first palamar concert was broadcast online in november, but unlike many other performances we have all watched over the last year,

for me, something about this really stands out. it's more than just you performing in a space. you have created a back story and a feeling around it. tell me about how that came about, and for example, why the palamar? the palamar has this incredible history of hosting the likes of ella fitzgerald and louis armstrong and the mills brothers, billy holiday, and i thought how cool to continue that legacy and perform on the same stage that those artists graced back in the day. hang on! looks like my gift has arrived in time. wow! a present! this is so exciting! i wonder what could be? i got you an electronic tabla, because i know you love your music, you love your tech...

do you know how difficult it could be to make something like this? there is a reason that people don't... i'm sorry, i have to try it out, thank you, thank you so much! right, i've got work to do. this is an electronic version of a tabla, a hand drum set from the indian subcontinent. the electric one is the only one of its kind in the world. this one has sensors underneath here, 3d printed controls, and it's pressure sensitive, and who better to help me learn then the inventor behind the device, kuljit bhamra? hello kuljit, lovely to meet you! thank you so much for your time. i'm really excited to learn, but i also know the best way to learn is on a real instrument. let's do a quick lesson and i will show you how to play a simple rhythm. a thousand times yes!

it's so satisfying! the gentler you hit into the more you get out of it, it's like a breath. gah woop ping ping. plays tabla. it's incredible! you actually learned a rhythm and played it really well. maybe we should move to electronic version. i would wager a bit of money that you could play that exactly the same. there we go. plays tabla. this is amazing!

the amount of work that will have gone into creating a machine that can just do that, i am astounded... it depends on how much surface area your finger is hitting. they will measure the geography about exactly where your fingers are, plus, the amount of pressure that you are applying. no wonder it took five years to make! so what drove you to create an electronic version? the traditional tabla is really bulky and heavy, it goes out of tune, these blackspots in the middle are really fragile, and the other reason i think this is more important, is the attitude, so i really wanted to open up the sounds of it to the rest of the world, and there's no reason why these beautiful sounds can't appear more in pop and regular music. you may recognise the sound in this missy elliott track.

he aims to make these to order for around £1200 a piece — around four times the cost of a traditional tabla. that was absolutely brilliant! thank you so much for your time. i'm literally going to be sitting in front of the television practising this. let's meet up and some more! let's definitely do that. bye! that is so brilliant, but i'm afraid that it for our special clickmas special. it'll be back to normal next year. the show that follows clickmas normally is a look back to our last 12 months, but who he wants to look back to 2020? instead we will bring you a special live show where we look back at the past 20 years of click.

that's right! until then you can find us on social media, youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter. spencer, are you 0k? yeah i am, i'm just taking it all in really... this truly has been a special day. we didn't think we would be able to do it, but we posted a gift to each other, got everyone together, and when i say everyone, i mean everyone! it's been a challenging year for us all, but we have done our best to bring you your weekly dose of click. and everyone on the team just wanted to be here to say thank you. thank you for watching us, thank you for being part of our click family, so until next time, it's goodbye and merry clickmas! merry clickmas!

hello there. we have a stormy 2a hours ahead as storm bella starts to bear down across the uk. and there are still severe flood warnings in force from all the rain we have had lately. so any more rain on saturated ground and already overflowing rivers is not good news either. and you can see from the tightly packed isobars, it is notjust the rain. we are very concerned about the strength of the wind. amber warnings out from the met office for southern areas. i will come to that a little later. now, already the rain is with us in western scotland. mountain snow will spill into northern ireland, the rest of scotland through the day. there will be some drizzly showers, a lot of clouds gathering across england and wales,

but equally there could be a little bit of brightness and sunshine perforating the clouds at times. it is relatively mild, a milder interlude of weather for today and that is because we have got south—westerly winds, but they really escalate this evening coming across scotland, northern ireland, pushing their way southwards. a significant amount of rain falling. for many areas, another potential inch and those winds gusting in excess of 70mph could easily bring down trees or power lines. the combination of the gusty winds, very gusty inland as well, so some storm force winds around exposed coastlines. but the combination of the wind and the rains making for some treacherous conditions on the roads. so there is likely to be some disruption. that rain and strong winds still around in the morning. so a wild night and a wild start to our sunday. but behind, cold air establishes itself. so some icy patches in the north, some snow in the showers to lower levels. eventually that wintry weather, that cold air will filter southwards through the day. most of the wintry showers will be across central and northern areas, but i think by the time we get

to monday and that area of low pressure is meandering close to southern eastern areas, we could have a taste of winter here as well. not that we have not seen snow already in some areas, but we could have snow even into lower levels as we head into monday across southern and eastern areas as well. by that stage, the winds are starting to ease a little bit, but daytime temperatures will struggle to get much more than two or three degrees above freezing. it will feel bitterly cold indeed but some sunshine in between those wintry showers. and that cold air stays with us well into the start of the new year. as i say, we have plenty of warnings out, flood and severe flood warnings. warning for wind and rain.

good afternoon. millions of people are facing tougher covid restrictions as new rule changes have come into force across the uk. around six million more residents in east and south—east england have gone into tier 4 — england's highest level — and lockdowns have started in scotland and northern ireland. measures have also been reimposed in wales after being eased for christmas.