the us climate envoy has said the world can't wait for the end of the covid—19 pandemic before facing up to the environmental crisis. john kerry warned that the suffering caused by not tackling climate change would be much worse than coronavirus. there's been severe flooding across central china. it's caused widespread disruption, with video footage showing images of roads turned into rivers, and cars being stranded by fast—rising water. scientists say some regions have experienced an entire years�* worth of rain in the past three days. the uk home office says a record number of migrants in a single 24—hour period have crossed the english channel. at least 430 migrants made the crossing on a flotilla of small vessels.

the met office issued a new—style extreme heat weather warning, and told people to watch out for sunburn and heat exhaustion. the amber warning, in place until thursday, covers large parts of wales, all of south—west england and parts of southern and central england. the heat warnings are in place across the country, including here in southsea. but not everyone can get to the cooling coastline. what if you live in the tenth floor of a block of flats? that's what kelvin does. by flats? that's what kelvin does. by mid afternoon, his lounge is at 30 celsius. kelvin is 57, and struggles to keep the heat down. it's already at 30 degrees here and it's pretty sticky. degrees here and it's pretty stic . ~ , , degrees here and it's pretty stic , sticky. absolutely, if you weren't _ sticky. absolutely, if you weren't here, _ sticky. absolutely, if you weren't here, the - sticky. absolutely, if you weren't here, the stop i sticky. absolutely, if you - weren't here, the stop would be off, it's as you feel it now, there still and warm, and you feel it on your skin, the

warmth. you grin and bear it. there were more than 10,000 heat —related deaths in britain last year, which is why doctors are now warning people of the dangers of this oppressive weather. we dangers of this oppressive weather-— dangers of this oppressive weather. ., ., , ., , ., ~ , weather. no one is able to keep an e e weather. no one is able to keep an eye on _ weather. no one is able to keep an eye on you — weather. no one is able to keep an eye on you and _ weather. no one is able to keep an eye on you and get _ weather. no one is able to keep an eye on you and get help - weather. no one is able to keep| an eye on you and get help when you are having heat exhaustion within 30 minutes, you could get heat stroke which is a medical emergency and that is when you have to call an ambulance and get help straightaway.— ambulance and get help straightaway. for the first time this _ straightaway. for the first time this week, _ straightaway. for the first time this week, the - straightaway. for the first time this week, the met | straightaway. for the first - time this week, the met office hasissued time this week, the met office has issued new style extreme heat weather warnings. aimed at alerting all sectors of our lives. �* , . alerting all sectors of our lives. �*, . ., , lives. it's all about impacts, im acts lives. it's all about impacts, impacts on _ lives. it's all about impacts, impacts on the _ lives. it's all about impacts, impacts on the health - lives. it's all about impacts, impacts on the health of. impacts on the health of vulnerable people but also impacts on infrastructure, such as energy and impacting on the wider business community. find wider business community. and it seems the — wider business community. and it seems the impact is also long—term, doctor nick pepin has looked at climate change were 26 years and says weather patterns are now very distinct. you would always expect to be unusual heat waves and cold

spells but i think the point here is the frequency of the warm events is definitely increasing and the frequency of the cold events appears to be decreasing. the cold events appears to be decreasing-— decreasing. today is officially the hottest — decreasing. today is officially the hottest day _ decreasing. today is officially the hottest day of _ decreasing. today is officially the hottest day of the - decreasing. today is officially the hottest day of the year i decreasing. today is officially| the hottest day of the year so far. 32 degrees at heathrow. part of a summer to be carefree but also cautious. duncan kennedy, bbc news. now on bbc news, click. 0n the weekend of the british grand prix, we're at silverstone for a race with a difference. we go back in time to show off some electrifying classics. and i'm at goodwood race circuit to see if i can drive round this historic track using just my head.

silverstone is the home of british motorsports and i'm here at the britcar championship. but this is a race with a difference, as one team is made up entirely of drivers who have some form of disability. but thanks to a bit of technology, they have serious hopes of taking home the silverware. more on that in a few minutes, but where's spencer? i said silverstone! are you lost? no, i've had an invitation that i could not refuse from another race outfit here at goodwood. now, we've got the whole circuit to ourselves today so i'm going to be on this track later, putting some brand—new assistive tech to the test... ..at racing speeds! just don't go breaking anything. i'll try not to.

here in silverstone, things are busier and noisier, and that's because everyone here is racing for real and we've been invited into team brit's garage. so paul is over there having a nose about and hopefully can tell us more. nosing about is what i do best. and here at the home of british motor racing in silverstone, there's certainly lots to see. but specifically, i'm here to meet team brit — a competitive motorsport team with a difference. they're made up of six disabled drivers using bespoke, specially adapted cars to compete in races against non—disabled drivers on a level playing field. my visit came during testing ahead of the latest round of the britcar championship.

aaron morgan is one of team brit's two drivers in the endurance event, driving an aston martin gtii. aaron became a wheelchair user in 2006 following a motocross accident. the disabled drivers on the team use control systems developed by engineers in—house. these are completely sort of bespoke, completely developed from the ground up by team brit. they, and the other engineers within the team said, "right, we've got this problem. this is what we need to achieve" and this is the solution they come up with, and it's by far the best in the world. the control�*s linked to a system of actuators and sophisticated electronic systems to drive the vehicle. so aaron, can you just explain to me a little bit about how the hand controls work and how you use them to drive the car? yeah, of course. so, with the accelerator, you just pull this paddle here and obviously, you know,

there's various levels of throttle you can apply there. 0n the other side is the brake paddle which works in exactly the same way, so you can modulate it. and then these grey buttons inside the steering wheel operate the gears. now, the way the car's set up, you have the up shift on the left side, so while you're on full throttle with your right hand, you've then got your left hand to change the gears, and then it's vice—versa for braking as well. so while you're braking with your left hand, you can go down the gears with your right hand. the key thing about these controls is that they're designed to be used by drivers with a range of impairments. these could be driven by someone with only the use of one arm, for example. aaron's team—mate in this event is autistic and the car remains drivable by him in the usual way, as the adaptations coexist alongside the regular controls. hand controls per se aren't new — i use them to drive my car — but these are quite different to what you might find on a road car as they're tuned for a racing environment. but a racing team is more than just the drivers,

and building systems like this into already finely tuned machines isn't a straightforward process. and so, you obviously work with different iterations of these controls. how does that process work and how did you get to where you are now? well, first of all, we start with looking at the drivers and seeing what their needs are, you know? what their disabilities and what physical limitations they've then got. and then we start, from there, with the ergonomics of the control system that we're designing — and by that, i mean the paddles that are on the steering wheel. and when we started designing this, we started with a very different steering wheel to the one we've got now, so we're constantly improving it and developing it, based on driver feedback. definitely challenges there — and a lot of that's integrating our system with the car system. cars aren't particularly good at tolerating other things being added into the network. and so, we do have that challenge but we love it, you know? it's part of what we do and it's why we do it. team brit's ultimate aim is to make racing history and take a team to the world—famous le mans 24—hour endurance race, becoming the first ever british all—disabled team to do so. so what are the team's

goals for this year? the aim for this season is to win the britcar endurance championship within our class. we're well up there in the championship — we've achieved two class wins so far this season. hoping for another one here this weekend at silverstone. paul there with a look at the tech. and i'm joined by lucy sheehan, one of the professionals behind team brit. tell me, why is today so important? today's so important. today's about getting ready for the racing, and that is what we have to do so well. we are not here to make up the numbers. we're competing against able—bodied racers on a completely level playing field, so the tech has to be right, the current set—up has to be right. drivers have to be comfortable. we've taken home the silverware in all three races so far this year, and we want to do it again this weekend. wow, we've seen what great access the company gives to people with some driving experience, but how about for anyone with a disability? how accessible it is this, really? there are loads of different ways they can get involved,

and we can help them, so from karting, real grassroots motorsport, through to track day experiences that we can offer them where they practice on the simulatorfirst. we give them help and support to get used to our hand control technology, then they get out on the track. so it's a staged approach and we are there with them all the way, and of course, there's the money as well because motorsport is not cheap. so for a full season's racing, you're looking at about £15,000 as a starter, which will put a lot of people off. but we help them with that, and there are ways in. so definitely, the door is open in ways that it has never been before. so please, we'd love people to get in touch and find out more. great, just need some skills and sponsorship. right, time now to connect up to goodwood race track, where spencer is. hey, lara, that looked great. it's amazing how the opportunity to race is opening up to more and more people. where are you exactly? yeah, funny story... this is a look of part amazement and part terror. i'm a passenger in a modified chevrolet corvette c8 stingray, but it's who is driving, and how he's driving that is blowing my mind.

we've met sam schmidt before. he's a racing driver who was paralysed in an accident in 2000, and five years ago, he took us for a ride through las vegas in a car that allowed him to drive using just his head and his mouth. so, the steering system, it's an ir camera system and whichever way you turn your head steers the car — he'll turn his head angle into a steering angle. the gas and brake, it's a sip and puff system, so we have a tube connected to a pressure sensor. positive pressure, blowing — that's your accelerator pedal. negative pressure, sipping — that's your brake pedal. the sam car is legal to drive in the us and sam has a driver's license. and since 2016, the system has been fine—tuned so that it's now not only safe and responsive enough to drive at road speeds, but at race speeds. 123, 128... 128, wow! er...

in fact, sam has taken this car up to 201mph. not today, though. anyway, the reality is that operating equipment without using arms or legs has many more applications than just on the race track. where i also see this technology being very beneficial is in the workplace. industrial applications, forklifts, harvesters, trains — i mean, it's kinda scary but i could operate a train, you know, sitting in my living room with this technology — so i would really like to see disabled veterans and people of all disabilities have an opportunity to go back to work and, you know, many of them just want to be a productive member of society and haven't been given the opportunity or the technology to do it. can i just say, that was incredible.

you are just incredible. i think really you should try the car from over here with my controls. 0k. i'm happy to do that, but not at that speed. well, this is a first. what an honour. what a thrill! what a potential humiliation! to drive the car, you're gonna point your nose where you wanna go. don't lean — leaning's not gonna work — you actually have to rotate your head. ready to give it a shot? i'm ready to give it a shot. i'm just gonna let it go, and then start puffing. and here's the thing — from pretty much the start of the first lap, i get it. it does take a lot of concentration but as long as i stay focused, sam's car looks after me.

well, how was it? are you gonna take myjob away? uh, haha, that was pretty emotionalfor me because actually, it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be. and so, it kinda shows how this kind of control system could be used by ordinary people who aren't mad racing drivers. i need a few more laps. honestly, that was incredible but also really hard, i'm actually a much better driver than that with normal controls, i promise you. i think that's a challenge, then. why don't you do a lap with the normal controls, i'll use my controls, we'll see who's faster. umm... can i phone a friend? 0h, hi. hey, lara, so, yeah, it's me. sam's just challenged me to do a lap of the track — me using standard controls and sam using his controls

to see who's fastest. what do you think? my money's on him. he is a race car driver — you do know that? yes, i am aware of that. thank you. wish me luck. good luck. and don't break anything! you said that last time. we're here at the britcar championship while spencer is getting ready for the race of his life down in goodwood, and we'll be catching up with him injust a bit. in a moment, we want to talk space tech and show you the secret life of a lab technician at mit, but right now we're not leaving track—side. it's kind of over there. jen's there somewhere, taking a look at a local company that's transforming old cars. and it has a bit of a famous fan. i'm also here at silverstone. we're about to go into

the lunaz workshop where they're re—engineering classic cars into electric cars. it's incredible in here. there are so many beautiful cars. lunaz is making the world's first fully electric rolls—royces and bentleys. there are about 18 classic cars in the building, most dating from the 1960s. john hilton is the technical lead here. he was an aeronautical engineer at rolls—royce before moving into formula 1. among a long list of accomplishments, he was a technical lead for michael schumacher�*s 1994 world championship win. what do you actually do? you're converting this car into an electric vehicle? this car has a petrol engine in today. we'll be removing the engine, the gear box, the fuel system, the exhaust system and all the things that make the engine work, and replacing with a brand—new electric powertrain. the full renovation of the car takes about 26 weeks, and for rolls—royces and bentleys the cost of the work starts

at about £350,000. it would be very much more expensive if you want to start with a car like this. how much would this car cost to buy? the petrol versions of this are regularly going for about 350,000. so 700,000 once you're done? yep. yes, we have a number of other cars here. this is a big rolls—royce phantom 5 — the bumblebee, as we call it colloquially. they're very rare. in fact, it's the only one i've ever seen. how much would that cost? not far off £1 million. this was in a james bond movie. wow _ these are absolutely incredible vehicles, and this rolls—royce is from 1960. the craftsmanship within this building isjust incredible. it's across the board, people that want a electric rolls—royce, or it's people

that have an absolute love for the classics and never wanted to go down that usabilityjourney and the drivability of these vehicles. 0ne investor is former england football star david beckham. he has taken a 10% stake in the company. and it's notjust the classic cars that are getting a new lease on life. this recycling lorry would have to be decommissioned in 2025 because of its diesel engine and now it's being fitted with an electric motor. you've got two billion vehicles on this planet. we're doing a transition to ev. we cannot look at scrapping these vehicles. there's vehicles are in great condition. that is a perfect candidate to be re—engineered for an ev future. we are looking at all classes where we think re—engineering is a better choice. it's so embedded into us. and range rovers are being made over too. they are famous for their

off—road capability. we are maintaining that so they are still four—wheel drive. they will still climb steep sales and all those things range rovers can do. it will be fast. much faster than standard. we are building this with 375 horsepower, electric. 220 or so. and smooth and quiet. and a good range. we are expecting more than 200 miles. the absolute key here is we are moving to a clean air quality future, and i think we all saw it in this past year, it's a fantastic shift that we are now making and we should all be playing our part within that. as you see vehicles move away from diesel and petrol, the world is going to be a better place.

hi, my name is paula do vale pereira. my masters receipt is right there. welcome to the star lab. here we build shoe box—sized satellites called cubesat. they cost a fraction of traditional satellites so we can launch many more satellites into space, collecting a lot more data. that allows us to track global warming and interplanetary life more accurately. these networks could also bring a wider spread, faster internet coverage across the world. some cubesats now use superfast communication lasers to interact with each other. these liquid—filled lenses

bend light by 90 degrees so the information sent can travel more directly between cubesats. of course, lasers need power to operate, which is why we built another solution. this project is called flaps — the folded lightweight actuated positioning system. this hinge bends when heated, so we can angle our satellites' solar panels to collect maximum energy from the sun. this joint can also direct tools like antennas or cameras. materials often behave differently in space, so i tested this in zero gravity. planes like this recreate the weightless atmosphere of space by dropping several miles in altitude in a matter of seconds. this is a replica of demi, a star labs cubesat that is already in space. demi's mirrors reflect distracting, unwanted light away, giving scientists

a better look at far—away planets. the demi's tracked by our rooftop antenna so we can see when its closest to boston to send comments or collect data from it. we could find life outside our planet for the first time in the next few decades. our goal now is to have new star lab satellites launched every couple of years. thank you so much forjoining us in our lab tour today. earlier on, i met sam schmidt, who took me for a few laps at goodwood. hitting 128mph using just his head and his mouth. now he has challenged me to do a faster lap than him, me with conventional controls

and him with his controls. if this goes wrong, make sure they edit it kindly. i've spoken to some of the team here and they say, you know the black stuff on the track, stay on that. thanks. all right, wish me luck. see, in my mind this isn't a foregone conclusion. in some ways, i have an advantage. i know this circuit and i'm using the same controls that i have for my entire adult life. all right. hi. well, how'd i do? 1.50... is that good? respectable. laughter. so let's see if sam can beat my flying lap of 1.50. well, the very best of luck, sir. confident? don't really need it, but 0k. laughter.

i mean, it's honest! so... you know that bit about it not being a foregone conclusion? yeah, i don't stand a chance. right back at the first meeting we knew it was going to take months, we knew it was going to take a lot of commitment from the engineers, resources from arrow and my time, and they thought it was funny after an hour i said, look guys, i'm very interested but not unless we can do 100mph. you won. congratulations, 1.45. i mean, there was kind of no contest, really, was it. how do you feel being able to do this? you know, it's so... i guess the best word i can use is freedom. you know, just... i'm in total control and there's very few things in my life that i have control over, you know, and to be able to steer

and gas and brakejust like the old days... sam, thanks for being so inspiring. i've gotta make a call now and let someone know how i did. thanks, spencer. uh—oh. hey, lara. yeah, sam beat me. not a surprise, really, when you think about it. no, but you did well. how do you feel? i feel inspired, very humble, a bit sick and glad it's over. anyway, i'll see you later. that is it for this week. thank you so much for watching. as ever, you can keep up with the team on social media. find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter @bbcclick. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon.

hello. the heat goes on, and it will do for a couple more days and indeed nights. because of the persistence of the heat, the met office have issued an extreme heat warning. two particular areas have been identified, this one to the south west of england covering parts of the midlands and wales, this one across northern ireland which comes into force on wednesday. it doesn't mean that these are the areas exclusively affected by the heat but these are two areas identified as potentially having the biggest impacts. you can see the heat an issue from first thing on wednesday. we start our day with temperatures around 20 celsius in many areas. it will be a little cooler through wednesday perhaps down some of the north sea coast, just because we will pull a little bit more cloud in here but overall, still a very hot day lies ahead.

temperatures across the southern uk widely in the high 20s to low 30s, hotting up significantly will be northern ireland, hence while itjoins that heat warning perhaps 30 degrees towards the south west here. warmer along the north coast than yesterday but still cloudy for northern scotland with some lingering sea fog. here temperatures are peaking in the mid teens. that is the area that stands out as being significantly cooler, ater in the day, potentially for showers across the north west of england — certainly another hot, humid night to come for many. we move into thursday, i suspect there will barely be a cloud in the sky and the temperatures will rise accordingly. still for northern scotland some cloud around and that does just hold things back in terms of the temperatures but even here things are creeping up — stornaway getting closer to 20 degrees, potentially 31 for south west northern ireland, 31 for the south of england and wales. a change friday, a subtle one

to start off with, an easterly wind and temperatures start to edge back. but through friday evening and overnight into saturday and on into the weekend low pressure starts to take hold from the south west. it will inject showers into england and wales, some heavy spells of rain to come for some. it will pull cooler air across all parts of the uk. so by saturday some sunshine still for scotland and northern ireland but a fresher feel for all of us.

welcome to bbc news — i'm david eades. our top stories... the us climate envoy john kerry issues a passionate plea to step up efforts to tackle climate change, with a stark warning about any failure to act now. this test is now as acute and as existential as any previous one. torrential rain in central china causes widespread disruption and huge anxiety for passengers caught in one flooded subway system. i'm sarah mulkerrins live in tokyo where although the opening ceremony is still two days away, the action has got underway with hosts japan kicking things off in softball. and the billionaires space race heats up as amazon founderjeff bezos launches to the edge

of the cosmos — taking him on an emotional high.