is that the (du will now wait guess is that the cdu will now wait and see, see how very important elections go in march to big stakes in germany in regional elections and see how armin laschet is doing, how the poles will turn out. so let's see. frankly, 16 years ago, no one thought angela merkel is charismatic enough, she was not very exciting, but that is exactly what the germans want. they are not as into... they kind of like it boring, let's put like that. in times like these when it is a pandemic going on and so on, we will see. the problem is with armin laschet, he was always considered, his management of a pandemic was considered very poor. his views on current domecq foreign foreign policies have been criticised very widely. so let's

see. i would criticised very widely. so let's see. iwould not criticised very widely. so let's see. i would not bet on him become chancellor yet.— chancellor yet. really interesting. thank ou chancellor yet. really interesting. thank you very — chancellor yet. really interesting. thank you very much. _ now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. a lot of the snow has melted. we are looking to the north—west to see some showers coming in. those continuing to get blown across northern ireland into parts of england and wales for a while overnight with clear skies returning later in the night. it will be chile tonight. temperatures close to freezing and it brings the risk of some icy patches especially where we had that snow earlier on today. heading into tomorrow it will look different for eastern parts. for any parts of england wales it will be dry and sunny. not my showers at the north—west but more cloud coming into scotland and is renowned, some showers here. the bulk of the towers and weather scotland replaced by longer spells of rain in the afternoon. temperatures around six, seven or eight, near the time of

year. next week the weather turns warm settled. the winds will be struggling especially for england and wales. summer rain, heavy at times, and that unfortunately brings the risk of some further flooding. hello, this is bbc news with reeta chakrabarti. the headlines... calls for more support for the uk's travel and tourism sector — after the government imposes tougher restrictions on arrivals to keep out new strains of coronavirus. stricter covid restrictions come into force in scotland — with changes to takeaway and click—and—collect services. india launches one of the world's biggest covid vaccination programmes — the government hopes to inoculate 300 million people in the coming months. president—electjoe biden sets out plans to speed up immunisations in the united states — promising to vaccinate 100 million people within his first 100 days in office. germany's christian democrats have

elected armin laschet as their new leader — a key moment in the race to succeed angela merkel as chancellor. now on bbc news, click. this week, it is the consumer electronics show, but not as we know it, featuring a tv camera crew with a box. wow! a payment chicken. and, in fact, something for all tastes... perfectly blended. ..or not. not the best choice of ingredients, though! every january, the tech world descends on las vegas

for the consumer electronics show. it's a massive affair where companies launch their products for the year and fight to be seen and heard over the din. and this year... wind howls. ..not so much. not a casino or convention centre in sight! it's weird, really! after going to vegas every january for 15 years, i was so over it. and then, this year, it turns out i really miss it. i know. ourjanuaryjaunt may not be happening but that doesn't mean that technology is standing still. of course it's not. yeah. ces is still happening — it's online—only — and we're gonna try and bring you a sense of what the show is like. and yes, there will be weird gadgets, there will be big announcements, but there won't bejet lag! and i'm still in for a bit of a treat. i'm being spoiled this week by having someone film me remotely using something being shown at ces this year.

so you may have heard us mention by now that we're both self—shooting our bits of the show, and that can mean a bit of stopping and starting as we're trying to respond to changes in lighting, or tweaking focus if we move a bit — all the bits that you never need to know about that can be rather fiddly for us. ratherfiddly? it drives me up the wall! well, i did not need to worry about any of that this week — sorry, spencer — as i unwrapped crew in a box. ok, it's not literally a crew inside a box, but it is a high—end plug—and—play studio kit in a box, to be operated remotely. lift the lid and you'll find a 6k camera, a teleprompter, a triple led light panel, two microphones and a whole load of leads. once you figure what goes where, you just power it up

and you can meet your remote production team. award—winning director ira was one of a trio of hollywood professionals who co—founded the company back in march after realising that production could be disrupted for a while. so i think it was march 17 — i think that was the day that we found out that there would be a lockdown in la and i imagine, like a lot of other people in the business, i panicked, thinking when would production ever come back? my first call was actually to dallas. dallas sterling is a really innovative cinematographer that i have worked with and he is also really great with building things, so i brought him on board and i think within two months, dallas had built a prototype in his garage. as soon as talent receives crew in a box and they plug it in, it immediately connects over bonded cellular, over the internet, to a remote operator. and at that time, the remote operator controls all of main integrated components the box.

outside of the us, it does need a wi—fi connection, though. but once set up, i had nothing to think about, other than to sit down and talk. let's talk through what you're doing to this image of me. so that's off and that's on. watch your eyes — i'm going to go full—blown. there you go, that is full up. and then i have the ability to control the warmth of it, so that is max cool and this is max warmth. it makes me want to move around and cause more bother to give you more work to do. it's challenging. the box comes with a serious price tag of $55,000, but it is mostly intended for rental use. and this is a high production value set—up, so you have to think about what it's actually replacing. and right now, it maybe just keeping things going. phone rings. patrick! currently, it does only offer a static locked—off shot, though, which does limit

its uses — but i guess that is not that dissimilar to my at—home click studio anyway. still, it's got to help though, hasn't it? honestly, i am so jealous of you right now. someone, just someone to come and pull focus for me! i'd kill for that! yes! it really did make things easier! now, as we said, ces has moved online this year, and for the organisers, that has been a massive undertaking, a big risk and a huge unknown. since 1967, people have been flocking to ces to see the latest innovations in technology. last year, it attracted more than 170,000 people. these big tech shows can be overwhelming but many, many companies feel that they are essential to attend, whether to network, to make deals orjust to get a taste of what is going on in other tech areas. so how do you recreate all

of that noise, the excitement and the buzz of being in las vegas when you are forced to go online—only? ces is organised by the consumer technology association, and i caught up with its president gary shapiro. so we've adjusted in just about every way you can adjust at this point. and it'as not been easy, i'm not going to lie! and, you know, we had concerns about the speed and the pace and the offering. to be honest, i was expecting ces online to be this 3d world of virtual conference halls, but it's not — it's a directory of exhibitors. the larger of which will have their own flashy micro sites, but the smaller start—ups, who usually only have a small booth anyway, well, theyjust get a page to upload their presentations to. we get around i would say 20,000 contacts there, so that's a big fallout

if you're not there. we are not so impressed currently, because itjust looks like a big phone book of companies in alphabetical order. so i'm thinking it's really hard to be noticed there, unless someone is specifically looking for you. a lot of people assumed we would go ar, vr, 3d as you mentioned. and we said we're not going to do that, we're not even going to encourage that because it's too high of a reach, frankly. given the current unknowns, next year's ces will be an as yet unspecified mix of real—world and online events. the pandemic has shown us that we don't really all need to fly to one city to do business. but i can't help thinking that the need to touch and feel the tech and to look each other in the eye will mean that these big, physical events will be back. online or offline, ces remains

popular for major tech unveils. lg teased a smartphone with a roll—out screen. it's pegged for release this year, but no specs and no price means no promises. lenovo showcased its latest lightweight smart glasses, capable of supporting 3d visualisation and augmented

dogs and cats will need to wear a bluetooth colour, though. it also all costs nearly $3000! maybe just give spot a key? in a world where no—one wants to touch anything at the moment, it is no surprise that contactless payments are now the preferred way to pay. you just tap your card on a terminal to make a transaction. it's done using nfc chips — nfc is nearfield communication — and you get them in your credit cards, on your phone

or in smart watches. but these chips, well, they can be put into anything. which explains why i have been sent some headphones, a lipstick, and a chicken. wearables company tappy has partnered with mastercard is to put payment chips into practical accessories like rings, watch clasps and watch straps, and non—practical accessories just designed to get media coverage. hmm. which works, apparently. but why might you want a payment chip in something other than a nice, small, thin credit card? let's say if you are shopping in a grocery shop and you are already checking out with a lot of things in your bag. at the same time, you want to take your wallet out or your phone out and pay, you just feel that sometimes, it won't be as efficient. so if it is already on your wrist, it isjust much more convenient, it's quicker for the checkout. first, you associate a chipped item to a particular credit

card using this cradle and going through a security set up on the accompanying app. and from then on, your whatever it is acts just like a contactless payment card, but with the added advantage that you can activate and deactivate items at will using the app. now, there are always plenty of weird and wonderful things on show at ces, so let's see what the team have found as they wander virtually around this year's show, and we're going to start with wearables and omar mehtab. so there are a few devices featuring at ces that can actually help you avoid touching stuff, and i'm talking work computers, touchscreens, phones, all of that. first up, this wristband by corso. it houses a biosensor that reads muscle movements, so by making gestures, you can control the laptop, the phone, the tablet that you are connected to via bluetooth. it is kind of like using the force. look. click on spencer kelly.

and we've got spencer. argh! no, i did not mean to do that! let — let go of the window! it does take some getting used to, it's a little bit unruly sometimes, but once you've the hang of it, it is actually quite useful. for general use, for gaming, controlling robots, prosthetics and rehabilitation for amputees. right, that is corso done. next up... poof! ..is this ring created by a company arcx. it's for your workout, so that instead of getting your phone out, you can control it using this little joystick here. so what that means that i'll put this on and then i can control what song i'm listening to, the volume, i can also take calls and take split times of my exercises. i can then continue my workout and if i'm saying "oh, i want listen to the next track", boom! music plays. i can listen to it as i do my press—ups. ooh!

oh, ok — that's enough. honestly, though, it doesn't work for every exercise. i mean, if i am using the dumbbells, sometimes the joystick will hit the side and do something that i don't want it to do. another drawback is that it is connected via bluetooth, so if you put your phone in a locker and it's quite a big gym, you walk quite far away to do your exercises, this will eventually stop working. but while it is connected, it does work really well. right, that's for your private devices though. what about for public ones like touchscreens? well, that's where ultraleap comes into play. their touch—free app allows touchscreens to become touchless. a camera and motion controller are retrofitted to detect and track hand movements, but in set—ups with ultraleap built in, they include ultrasonic speakers to enable haptic feedback. they sound waves to create pressure at certain points, like the tip of your finger, to make you feel as if you are actually touching a screen. well, there you have it — a few of the key wearables at ces. and given the current

climate, they may actually become quite popular. up next is lara with the latest home gadgets from the show. with more time than ever spent at home right now, it's little surprise to see the tech to better our home lives is taking virtual centre stage. last year, we saw a burst of new sleep tech, much of it not just about tracking your slumber but improving it. but maybe rather than fancy headphones and other wearables, it's our actual pillows we should be rethinking. here i have the dozzycozy interactive smart pillow. it's pretty heavy and it does feel a little mechanical to sleep on, especially considering it is plugged in all night. but the idea is that this could track your movement, so it will adjust height according to whether you are sleeping on your side or on your back — you just need to wear this small device around your waist. when it actually came to trying

to sleep with the pillow, though, i actually felt that the shape was a bit too boxy and even though it does, in theory, move to the perfect height for you, that's not necessarily how you want your pillow to feel. it can also play white noise or music to help get you off to sleep in the first place, although i did find it slightly disappointing that it played that out loud. i wanted it to be a subtler kind of music straight into my ear through the pillow so it wouldn't disturb the person next to me. if, like me, you can't bear the sight of lots of wires around the place, then how about this? a wireless charger that sits beneath the surface of a table or desk so that you can then put your device on top to charge. that surface does need to be under two and a half centimetres thick, but it can be built into a fitted kitchen, for example. the process of calibrating it did feel a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. we had lost daylight in the process but did, after an hour,

find its sweet spot. using it after this, though, was a lot simpler, as the positioning didn't need to be so precise to charge. of course, your device does need to support wireless charging, and it's only compatible with the newest iphone when used on a thinner surface, so it may not cater for the whole household just yet. meanwhile, if a smart blender is what you've been waiting for, then meet millo. this wireless, rechargeable device can be used anywhere, and it can make up to ten drinks per charge. its processor is monitoring its blending in real—time, synching to a smart phone app to keep track of your favoured settings. wow! a graph of the blending. i'm not sure if this is massive over—engineering or actually really exciting.

ok, i get that the novelty may wear off. it sounds like it's going to take off! and if the app is surplus to your blending requirements, then you can just use the touch display. it moves around depending on where you tap it, an inexplicably compelling feature. maybe that's just the effect of lockdown. i never knew that i wanted a graph of my smoothie—making before. perfectly blended. i'm not quite sure about the choice of ingredients, though. but it does come at a pretty high price, so it really depends how much you want to soup up your soup. this cricket bat is designed to be the exact same size and weight as one that you would use on the pitch

in a match. just like in a real game, if you hit the ball, you will feel feedback coming from here. but if, like me, you miss, you won't feel anything. hit it again! i feel like if i didn't feel the bat vibrating i honestly wouldn't even know i hit it. there is a series of sensors around the group that are tracking the bat and headset. it's tracking with submillimetre accuracy though it is important. if there is lag, it can have an impact on the immersive experience. the makers of this cricket bat, centurion vr, say having a headset enhances the experience because everything in the simulation from the height of the ball to the bounce is accurate. that was my first time ever playing cricket so i want to apologise to any of the cricket fans out there. but now to a sport that i actually know something about, baseball.

this is strike, a smart baseball. it is almost identical to this one, but it is packed with technology to analyse player performance. by the time i finish this sentence, the data from this pitch will be on an ipad, and that ipad is being analysed by the coach. we wanted to test it against the radar gun but my pitching wasn't fast enough to actually register, so i rested my arm while one of the coaches give it a go. we measured it against our spin rate radar gun. the spin rate gun cost about $2000. it held up. the velocity was fairly accurate. the spin rate was fairly accurate. being as accurate as it was, and as close as it was, is the most important part. it connects to the application via bluetooth. there were a few times are disconnected, which meant that my pitch was not recorded. we were able to track data included in the path, speed, and direction

of the ball. there is also release time, slow motion recording, and training reports. i have to say this is one of the best uses of integrating technology into something simple. they didn't go over the top. the company tells me that the ball can withstand some impact, but, when i asked about batting, they strongly suggested that i did not. back in the uk, chris foxx has been looking at some of the newest smartphone technology from samsung. chris, catch! thank you. this is the samsung galaxy s21 ultra. it has been announced a little earlier this year. sales for samsung dropped last year. it was a year that was weird, but some companies managed to increase their sales. there has been a redesign. the camera has some new tricks, with a new director view which lets you see footage from all the various lenses

at the same time, so you can choose on—screen which one you want to switch to if you are filming an event. the s21 ultra can also film in super high resolution 8k video. you can freeze frames from that if you want a still picture. you get 100 times hybrid zoom — although at the extreme end, the picture is usually quite grainy. i went into the park to take some photos. here is a wide shot of the pond with some geese. when i zoomed in 100 times you could make out that it was a goose, but this is not going to win the wildlife photograph of the year. there is another photo i took someone walking a dog. at 100 times, you can see what is going on, but you would probably not put this photo on display. that said, i got some nice shots just using the telephoto lens, the equivalent of ten times optical zoom — that is closer in than you will get on the most expensive iphone. a few things have gone from the galaxy s range. you won't find a charger.

apple have done the same, thing was not they say this will reduce pollution with less lorries on the road because of the smaller boxes, and will also reduce e—waste. but the s21 ultra can now use the samsung s—10 stylus. you can interact with the phone and draw the screen and write notes. they suggest you could use it for video editing, because the pen lets you get really precise. typically, the s—pen only works on the note range. there is no slot on the phone to store the s—pen. while you can store the galaxy note by drawing air gestures, it doesn't work on the s21 ultra, because the pen does not have a battery. the pen is sold separately for £35. but this is bringing the note range and the galaxy s range closer. we haven't decided.

we certainly have seen as technology has evolved definitely a blurring of the lines between the two. but what we decided with the s21 ultra is more about taking the great tech we have in our note range and bring it to the s series. it has been a hard year for samsung. what do you think needs to change? there are obviously many reasons why last year was a little bit odd and not as a normal year. i think as a company we need to look at what consumers are telling us, and keep giving fantastic value, keep investing in amazing technology, stay ahead of the competition, which is obviously very fit and we welcome. and that was our take on ces 2021. we hope to be able to bring you the latest and greatest from ces 2022 from las vegas itself. i will get on the strip and kiss it! i am going to give

everyone a big high five! good plan. but is it from us for this week. as ever, you can keep up with the team on social media. find us on youtube, facebook, instagram, and twitter — @bbcclick. thank you for watching, and we will see you soon. goodbye. hello there. a lot of the snow we had earlier this morning across some eastern parts of england has melted. and overnight tonight, we are looking to the north—west to see some showers coming in. those showers continuing to get blown across northern ireland into parts of england and wales for a time overnight, with clear skies returning later in the night. it will be chilly tonight.

we are going to find those temperatures close to freezing, and it brings the risk of some icy patches, especially where we had that snow earlier on today. heading into tomorrow, though, a different look to the weather for eastern parts of england. for many parts of england and wales, it will be dry and sunny. not many showers left in the north—west, but more cloud coming in to scotland and northern ireland. some showers here. the bulk of the showers in western scotland placed by longer spells of rain in the afternoon. temperatures around six, seven, 8 degrees. near—normal, really, for the time of year. as we head into next week, the weather turns more unsettled. the winds will be strengthening, especially putting in and wales. there will be some rain, heavy at times, and that, unfortunately, brings the risk of some further flooding.

this is bbc news. the headlines at four... calls for more support for the uk's travel and tourism sector — after the government imposes tougher restrictions on arrivals to keep out new strains of coronavirus. stricter covid restrictions come into force in scotland — with changes to takeaway and click—and—collect services. the world's biggest vaccination programme gets under way in india. the country hopes to inoculate 300 million people byjuly, with priority being given to front line health care workers. feeling absolutely safe, absolutely fit, absolutely fine. verijyous, very ecstatic. president—electjoe biden sets out plans to speed up immunisations in the united states — promising to vaccinate 100 million people within his first 100 days in office. and in half an hour,

the travel show is in turkey,