hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: as plans to ease lockdown in england start to be revealed, residents in care homes will be allowed indoor visits by a member of their family or a friend, from next month. number ten says reuniting families and allowing people to have more social contact will be an "absolute priority" in easing lockdown after schools reopen. security forces in myanmar have opened fire on protesters in the city of mandalay, killing at least two people and injuring more than 20 others. president biden declares a major disaster in texas as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure.

hsbc says it's reviewing its procedures for fraud victims after a bbc investigation reveals one victim was kept on hold for 20 hours, before they were able to speak to someone. now on bbc news, click. this week, military training in vr. cardboard computers. and, are you coming around to the clubhouse? it is time to find out what everyone is talking about.

hey, welcome to click. hope you're doing 0k. lara, how are you this week? good, thanks, just about managing to stay entertained. i keep going through phases of what i am actually doing and this week it has been all about live radio. do you know, me too! i'm listening to more and more live radio these days and ijust feel i need to hear a live human voice coming through the speaker, rather than just a song playlist. ifeel like i need company. do you listen to just uk stations or have you gone further afield? funnily enough, i used to listen to antarctic radio when it was a thing. it was cool and funky. really? there is also radio garden, which allows you to listen to over 30,000 local radio stations from across the globe. fancya spin? yes, please!

it is almost like peeking through the window of someone else�*s party! a collaboration between two interactive design companies and the netherlands�*s institute for sound and vision, the platform, now in its fifth year, has grown hugely and allows any station to appear afterjust submitting an application online. we are using internet radio and it is quite an ancient technology by now. all of these stations broadcast online and through the web we are basically able to link the streams that are already occurring. we just embed them on the platform and you just play them. radio garden encourages you to explore four hours. by transporting you to different places, it may offer some much—needed comfort. last year we went very viral in italy

during the hard time when many people were sick and dying and we were seeing selfies of doctors and hospitals taking care of people, and it was very emotional and impressive to see, like, how radio garden touches people. it's a lovely old thing, isn't it? and in a way it points towards one of the big tech trends at the moment which is seen good old audio having a bit of a resurgence. podcasts are changing money for silly hands these days and there is one particular audio—based app which is creating a bit of a buzz in silicon valley. clubhouse is a mash up of social network, events platform and live podcast. everyone is getting a bit giddy about it. but are they right? lj rich has been finding out. how we communicate online is about to change. we are used to our social media containing text, video and images, but now good old—fashioned voice chat is making a comeback. everyone can be a host on clubhouse.

it is an audio — only social network where celebrities, entrepreneurs and pretty much anyone with an account can hold their own show. you can even drop into a discussion. what was the learning experience like for you to put that production together? enter the app and you will see thousands of audio chat rooms hosting them. you can also follow people or subjects. it is like stepping in and out of lots of different conference calls or live podcasts. clubhouse is still in invite only beta but even though it is only available on ios devices it has had 4 million downloads and attracted $100 million worth of investment. find an event, topic or interview that takes your interest and go in. you are free to stay silent and listen or even join in conversation yourself if you feel brave enough to raise a hand.

after the chat ends, the room disappears and there is no option to listen again. let's keep going and have fun because it is a bleep up at the end of the day. dropping in on random, unmoderated conversations means there is a chance of hearing something controversial will be interesting to see how harassment and misinformation is handled on an audio platform. certainly, there are technologies around audio monitoring and listening but deploying them, right, also creates a certain dynamic with the community in terms of, you know, these conversations are being recorded and tracked and all of that stuff. but clubhouse are not alone in the move to audio—based social networking and the tech giants are working on their own versions. facebook is said to be building a competing product but way ahead is twitter with its

offering, spaces. and it is also invite—only beta testing — up to 11 people canjoin a space for now and listeners request to speak by raising a hand icon. 0ne huge advantage twitter has over clubhouse is that users already have established followings, so there is no need to start from scratch. with close to 200 million daily users, there will be no shortage of topics to tune into. we crave conversation and the text takes you a good bit of the way but what it lacks is the empathy and nuance that comes from the voice. that comes from hearing. sometimes there is nothing more meaningful than to hear somebody�*s voice. i hope that because of that unique interaction between the text space, live nature of twitter, and the connection back to spaces that it will be big. how does anyone moderate audio? to do so with audio requires us

to think about things like muting controls, being able to invite people to the conversation to speak, and knowing when to have somebody say ok, time to pass the microphone. knowing whether or not you want to close a space so people can feel safe, depending on the nature of the topic, or make it more open to others. feel free to have a conversation about anything, even something controversial. but do so in a way that feels inclusive, respectful and empathetic. the buzz around clubhouse and other tech companies getting in on the conversation shows at least there is an appetite for this format, certainly one talking point is that audio could signify the next game changer for social media. hello and welcome to the week

in tech, the week that as layoffs —— mass layoffs were reported at flying car company weeks after its transition granting hybrid was given a license or take—off by the federal terrafugia. microsoft updated its accessibility guidelines, launching a new testing platform for developers and pc and xbox games to make gaming more accessible. and after a seven month journey, nasa's perseverance rover landed safely on mars. sending its first images back to earth. it will spend the next two years looking for past life on the planet. it was also the week that facebook banned the sharing of all news, local and international, in australia across its platform, rejecting a pay for news proposal. users outside of australia are also unable to read or access any australian news publications on the platform. the proposed law, which passed through the country's parliament, would force companies like google and facebook to pay for news content.

300 human linejudges on 18 tennis courts could be replaced at this summer's wimbledon by the hawk—eye line system. the all england club is looking at the use of the technology to replace line judges at the australian open. the first time they have been replaced by this technology at a major tournament. and finally this week on al robot has announced her first art exhibition in london. ada will be exhibiting at the design museum in may. named after ada lovelace, her exhibit is expected to feature self portraits and a font she designed. vr has had its ups and downs, hasn't it? we're supposed to be the next big thing and it never quite got there, but it has found its feet in areas like gaming, movies, conferences. and it has really taken off, i think, in training, and i know the other presenters have looked at that before but i was interested to find out what happens when you really push vr to its limits. can it match up to the real

world when it is a matter of life or death? i'm heading to raf honington, where the raf regiment is about to conduct some tests of a new vr system developed by a small british tech company. tom constable is the developer who has created the vr tech being used today. in 2018, tom started a company building training tools for the military based on the oculus rift s headset. i connected the dots between my military background, my degree in computer games design and the new technology that is coming up and there was clear military application for virtual reality training. in 2020 the uk government's security accelerator announced that tom's company would be given a series of trials using his vr technology known as saftac. it is these trials we have come to see, and the results will determine whether his vr tech will be adopted by the british military.

big day for you, so how are you feeling? looking forward to it. are you ready to get involved in saftac? yes. i am the wrong person to train you on military tactics are happily enough i have simon mitchell who will help you take you through some skills and drills. if you look down, grab your hands, you should reach forward and you feel the controllers as you grab them. this is a surreal thing to do. normally when i look at my feet i see high heels and a handbag, and now i have an assault rifle! you have all of the kit you need to take on an enemy position which is great. and now for a crash course in military training. you can grab the grip on the rifle. i have got it. brilliant. oh, my word! oh, no, i dropped it. oh, god, ijust fired it. wow, it is a terrain i am not at all familiar with, but i think as a training exercise actually it is pretty good so far. training over, it was time for the section attack. for most of us, the closest we get

to being shot at is in video games but for these young gunners, being shot at could be a reality. for them, this vr experience is no game. but the software used to create this experience has been influenced by gaming. tom's vr training tool is based on software called the unreal engine which was created by the makers of the popular game fortnight. you have now been transported to a whole new domain. platform allows developers to create and run 3d virtual worlds using ready—made parts, for example the in—game physics, to make bullets fly the right way. it has flat furniture for gaming software. the benefit of the unreal engine for game designers is that it can be constantly updated, improved and added to by everyone, something tom has made the most of. the airfield for example we have been training on today was bought from the marketplace for, i don't know, say $50. i then took it and optimised it and changed it to the specific use that these guys wanted but within a day i had an airfield

ready to go within saftac, which i think again is probably new to defence, they are not used to that kind of rapid process. this type of rapid development means that environments could be specifically created for each mission. the time had come to use my new—found military tactics in the vr section attack. i am going around this corner. and now i'm going forwards, between these two hangers. charlie, in position. ok, so now... i am so nervous. this gun is actually shaking in my hand. start moving now. please, don't shoot! hands in the air! on your knees! stop, stop, stop, troops. well done! we have played through the scenario. i found the controllers quite difficult. it has taken me a little while to get the hang of, you know,

holding on to the weapon. there is a much else going on. yeah! that is weird, isn't it? so i have yet to compare it to the real thing but are you going to look after me tomorrow as well? so now to the moment of truth. would any of what i had experienced in virtual reality actually prepare me for the real thing? apparently i'm going to need a bit more kit this time. thanks, 0z. enemy down! for the raf regiment, when the bullets start flying for real, any mistakes could lead to lives being lost and so there can never be enough training opportunities. being in the thick of it really hammers home how virtual reality can never totally prepare you but it does not mean it cannot be a useful training tool that complements these exercises.

vr could never simulate the shockingly cold temperature in this hangar, but on the other hand, in vr, the raf regiment gunners can learn what to do when enemy shells are exploding during an attack — something that can't be easily recreated on the training field. well, cold or not, my heart is pumping. just need a second. you can't really explain the adrenaline, i think, what you don't get in the vr isjust how, you know, how loud that gunfire is. even though i felt prepared coming here, i was thinking, i know what i'm doing, i did it yesterday, it looks kind offamiliarto me, i'm going to be ok, and i am 0k, but you just can't beat the intensity, i think, of that physical world experience. it's been completely on another level. but of course, i'm not the expert here. for tom, what the troops think is crucial.

you really need that buy—in, don't you? absolutely, yeah, fundamental. this is not going to get off the ground without buy—in from the personnel. and, yeah, if i didn't get invited back after the first one, then i'd know my answer. so, time to find out what the professionals thought. i'm not particularly au fait with gaming or virtual reality but if the truth be told, within, probably a couple of minutes of wearing the equipment, the benefits of undertaking virtual reality training were immediately apparent to me. but ultimately, there's one person who has to see the value in vr for the armed forces, and for that, you have to go right to the top. i think in all of the environments in which we use synthetic training, there's real operational advantage in doing so. i mean, it feels like the genie is already out of the bottle. it's obviously the way forward and we're excited about integrating it even more into the way we do our business. when i left tom, i said, you know, we don't know

whether his dream is going to come true and this is going to get the investment. can i phone him up and give him some good news after this? well, you can tell him that all appears to be going very well indeed. i don't think we have made a final decision yet. but it's a product that has been very, very well received by those who have used it so far. the vr concept, i think, is accepted as the way that we're going, but exactly which product we buy is a decision for others to make. but i'm not sure the company could have done any more. so it's good news for tom. and it looks like virtual reality is indeed part of the future of military training. while vr can't yet come close to the real experience, it seems widely accepted it's a very handy supplement. ultimately, on the battlefield, fine margins mean life or death, so the extra preparation vr training provides could be critical. zoe kleinman there. now, spencer, something's been bugging me for all this time.

what's going on with your click sign? ah, yes, i was wondering when you would notice. are you ready? one, two, three! 0h? it's not the real one! look at this! laughter. it's a cardboard version! it's been sent to me. i've also been sent something else, which is absolutely beautiful. this is a cardboard version of a very important part of my life — the bbc micro. isn't it lovely? wow. that's really cool. so, both of these have been made by a former computing teacher, now a stem champion who has been teaching technology in a very unusual way, namely, using cardboard. hello, i'm alan 0'donohue! i'm here in my home at the cardboard museum of computing! for me, it started with this cardboard mac classic. one of the first computers

that had a mouse with a graphic user interface. yeah, i certainly do remember the first apple macintosh home computer, debuted by stevejobs back in 1984. so, i had no idea when i built this cardboard version that it might lead to some more cardboard computers, and then maybe even a whole museum? and this is just such a beautiful bbc micro. so i started making these during the lockdown, and i think it's a really nice activity to get you away from your screen, to be thinking about computers and technology, but in a different way. and if you fancy making your own models, then these paper cut—outs are available online. we have a microzbit, codebug, a memory device, an arduino. it's a very small, pocket—sized museum that people can download. and the inspiration seems to be catching.

since i started sharing some of these projects online, other people have been inspired to build some themselves, just using cake or lego... inspiring technology doesn't have to be all coding and computer chips. we've got to be careful that we're not forcing too much technology on ourselves and our children. just spend some time unplugged, away from the computer, and see what you can create. though, i'm not sure i've got space at home for the largest piece in alan's home museum — a section of what's widely regarded as the very first programmable electronic digital computer. that's a lot of cardboard! but i do know where it lives in real life, over in the uk's bletchley park — alex humphreys has been to check it out. you may have seen bletchley park in the movies — yep, that one with benedict cumberbatch playing alan turing.

during the second world war, this was the home of the codebreakers. beeping and whirring. the uk's smartest minds, who, through sheer determination and extreme intellect, managed to break the secret code the germans used to send tactical messages from berlin to forces on the ground. this is the very latest, the bbc microcomputer... but i'm here to celebrate a different hero, perhaps one of education — the bbc micro. it's turning a0 this year! these computers were launched back in the 80s, and the aim was to get kids programming. and it worked! it was so successful. and as result, many in the uk would have started on one of these. it was made by acorn computers, the so—called apple of the united kingdom.

around 1.5 million units were sold. and thanks to a government subsidy, it went into more than 80% of primary schools in the country. tom is the man in charge of the bbc micro exhibit at the national museum of computing. he told me a bit more about why it was so successful. it had a very good programming language with it, bbc basic, and that meant it was really good in education and was used well by industry as well. it was one of the fastest industries about, for its time when it launched, so streaks ahead of the competition for a very low price point, really. ok, so i'm getting to play on a real micro. i am playing chuckie egg. it's taken me about a quarter of an hour to work out the controls. this is so cool, i love it. but i'm not the only one playing. the museum invited gamers

across the country to take part in the microlympics, giving players a chance to play classic bbc micro games on like repton, citadel and elite on emulators online. a far cry from the likes of fortnite and roblox, but it gives kids a chance to experience what their parents might have played back in the 80s. they're very different! like, the overall concept, and also the controls, you've got to be more focused. i normally play, like, games like mario kart, like, the graphics are quite different. it was a lot more simplistic and also like, the sounds. it was still interesting and just as fun. i find the controls quite difficult. - very. i thought they were quite random, like, you have 0, s and t, which are far apart on the keyboard. thousands of kids and adults alike have since found inspiration for coding in its descendants, the bbc micro:bit, and its version two, which launched in october. and so the legacy of this great british computer lives on.

0h! that brings it all back, it really does! chuckie egg, repton, elite, brilliant! honestly, the bbc micro is the reason that i do what i do today, and why i fell in love with computers. so, happy birthday, bbc micro, mwah! from all of us here at click — that was probably a bit too much, but there you go. and that's it from us for this week. as ever, you can keep up with the team on social media — find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter, at bbc click. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. bye— bye.

good afternoon. the weekend has started on an exceptionally wet note for western parts of the uk. rain has already caused flooding in parts of southern wales, where a met office amber warning is in force. over the very highest ground, we may have seen up to 200 millimetres of rain falling by the end of today. this is the radar over the last 2a hours, which shows that the rain has been relentless, also falling heavily across the south—west of england, parts of north—west england. the rain has been pushing across parts of northern ireland and scotland as well. eastern parts of england will hold on to dry and relatively bright weather. in the best of any sunshine, highs of up to 17 celsius. but it is mild across the board. windy for all as well, with the strongest winds up these western coastal areas, gusts up to 60 mph, and perhaps stronger than that for a time.

0vernight, the strongest winds will transfer into the north—west of scotland. they will ease a little elsewhere. we keep a band of cloud and patchy rain and drizzle down towards the south—east, and some showers towards the north—west. many places will end the night with clear spells and temperatures holding 5—11 c. physically mild in the south—east corner, to the south—east of this weather front. it will still hang around during tomorrow, bringing some cloud, some patchy rain and drizzle. some uncertainty about the exact track of this weather front tomorrow. rain is likely to feed back into the south—west, parts of east wales through the day. further north and west, we see sunshine and showers and temperatures 11—15 c. heading into monday, the old weather front will still be in place giving us a little bit of rain but that will tend to ease through monday night and into tuesday. then another frontal system which is in from the west, bringing heavy and persistent rain

to parts of scotland and northern ireland. to the south—east of that system, we will be tapping in once again to some exceptionally mild air for the time of year. temperatures will peak in the south at around 17 celsius. some rain to the north—west for a time, but drier for most of us by the end of the week.

this is bbc news. the headlines at 4pm... care home residents in england will be allowed to have one person visit them regularly from the 8th of march, as easing of lockdown measures start to be revealed. number ten says reuniting families and allowing people to have more social contact will be an "absolute priority" in easing lockdown after schools reopen. prince charles has visited the king edward vi! hospital in central london where his father the duke of edinburgh is being treated. a court in russia upholds a decision to jail opposition leader alexei navalny forjust over two—and—a—half years and finds him guilty of a further charge. president biden declares a major disaster in texas — as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure.