reports of a mysterious illness among diplomatic staff known as havana syndrome say they may have identified the cause. a us intelligence community assessment concludes some cases could have been caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy. it didn't say who might be behind it. russia has condemned the announcement by the united states that it will deploy 3,000 troops to support nato allies in europe. the russian foreign ministry called it an unjustified and destructive move. it's the first major movement of us forces since the russian military began massing on the ukrainian border. new zealand has announced a five—stage process to reopen its international borders, which have largely been closed for almost two years because of the pandemic. vaccinated new zealand citizens and some others from australia will be granted entry without spending two weeks at an official quarantine centre.

now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week: swinging satellites! and fruit. sensors to keep the city that never sleeps lit up. and using tech to get better at football. . .apparently. why are we throwing an apple at each other? because this week's first story is about launching satellites into orbit. oh, you're not gonna try to launch this apple into orbit, are you? no, but if i did, which direction would i have to launch it? not upwards. not up! because if i did, it will come straight back down again. that's gravity.

that's gravity! no, if you wanted this to go into orbit, you would have to make it go really fast sideways, about 17,000 miles an hour, so as it fell, it missed the surface of the earth and just went around it. that's why rockets need so much fuel. exactly! which has been a problem since forever. but there is another way to get this apple to go that fast. any ideas? go on, amaze me. so, you could attach it to a long arm and then start spinning it round and round and round, and round and round, getting faster and faster, and once you're at the right speed...you let it go! that's bananas! no, it's an apple. all right, here we go. oh, my gosh! robotic voice: 200 miles an hour. # hey! you're not going to believe what i can see through this window. in fact, you're going to have a hard time believing this story at all. i certainly did to start with. in this chamber is a new way to

launch satellites into orbit. oh, my gosh — it's becoming a blur. 400 miles an hour. and it's just that far away from us! yes. and can you just, one more time, go over what it is you're planning to do, because it's like... i still can't believe it. so, spinlaunch is capable of literally throwing satellites into space. laughs we will cut the laughing. yep, you heard it right. david and i are currently looking at a live video feed of a prototype spinlauncher in new mexico. when the full—size one is built, it will take a small satellite, stick it inside a giant dart, load it onto a 100m—long arm, gradually spin it round and round, faster and faster and then... ..let it go at 5,000 miles an hour.

don't believe me? i don't blame you! this idea sounds completely nuts. well, you know what's nuts is rockets. rockets are combustion chambers that burn cryogenic propellants at temperatures that are greater than, like, the surface of the sun. they have thousands of components that are made out of the most exotic materials known to man and are on the verge of blowing apart at any possible minute. i think spinlaunch is quite a bit less nuts than a rocket. and, look, as the day's gone on, i've started to believe it. by getting the projectile above the atmosphere, you've done away with the need for most of your fuel and most of your weight. without air resistance, a much smaller rocket can then get the satellite up to 17,000 miles an hour and into orbit. spinlaunch gets you most of the way there and then, there is a small rocket that

get you all the way there. right, 0k. the vehicle is passively stable, so you can see it has a heavy tip in the front, fins in the back. that provides passive stability that stabilises it like a dart. so if it comes out a little bit sideways, it automatically stabilises. how many gs is this thing pulling as it goes around? so, the system pulls 10,000 gs at peak speed. you can't put people in this, can you? you cannot put people. i mean, you could put people in but you won't get people out. to prove it works, these guys put an iphone 4 into the accelerator and got it up to 12,500 g. it still works. 0op! hmm. the company says it's eventually planning for up to five launches a day and it will cost about $500,000 per launch, compared to $7 million for a rocket launch. before then, testing is ongoing using the 33m arm in new mexico

and a 12m arm here in long beach, california. and i've been invited to witness a test launch first—hand. now, the 12m accelerator won't be launching into the air. this much smaller projectile will be fired down a tube and straight into a steel plate. what happens to this after it's launched from that? so this mostly turns to dust as it hits the end of the tunnel. oh, my gosh. dramatic music now, where were we? oh, yeah! 500 miles an hour. so, now you're going about as fast as a jet. the actual projectiles and the spinning arm are made of carbon fibre — pretty much the only substance that can withstand the forces involved. 700 miles an hour. and in order to spin up to nearly 1,000 miles an hour today, this entire chamber needs to be a near vacuum, and that's why we can hardly hear anything. system is supersonic.

if this were full of air, we'd get a sonic boom on every single revolution. you can hear a little bit. can you hear it? just a little bit? a little bit of vibration too. arming system... here we go. so, he's doing the launch sequence now. ten... nine, here we go. ..seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... launching... whoa! that was it. applause yeah! decelerating system. in my mind, this has gone from nonsense to plausible in the space of a few hours. and in october last year, the first test launch in new mexico proved that the carbon—fibre dart could not only launch, but also survive a landing in which it buried itself in the desert. i have been blown away by a launch technology that doesn't blow things away.

in fact, by throwing things away, there's less to throw away. i mean, wejust watched something launch. there was no great big fireball or smoke. it's clean! it's clean, it's very clean. i mean, at some point, that was going supersonic straight towards us. yeah! and then it went round. and then it came towards us again. multiple times per second. oh, wow. yeah, multiple times per second. thank you for letting go at the right point! yeah, it's all in the timing. you have to... laughs yeah. lara: nice! which made more mess, though — the dart or the apple? 0h, ultimately, it has to be the dart, i think! lara laughs well, whilst you are having fun in la, — i was still living la vida las vegas. oh, you weren't out all night again, were you? no, i was actually up at the crack of dawn, looking at smart city tech. spencer chuckles beneath the bright lights of this city that never sleeps seems to be a sensible side. it's now gambling on becoming

a world—leading smart city — a safe, efficient and sustainable still kind of noisy oasis. las vegas isn't the obvious place to be trying to be a sustainable city. it's full of big bright lights, you've got a huge casino, loads of air con... why not? why not las vegas? everything else here is big, over the top. we are the capital of entertainment around the world. why not be the world's smartest city, the city that is leading edge? right above you are these palm trees that are made out of steel, but they are actually solar panels. so, sustainability is kind of in our dna. all the electricity the city of las vegas uses or consumes is actually — we produce. so, we are actually, in that regard, net neutral on the ability to consume and generate electricity. there are several solar initiatives in las vegas and in and around the nevada valley,

which provide that sustainability effort. it turns out that because of the issues to do with climate, water management and so on, vegas really has to be at the tip of the sphere in sustainability initiatives. 0k, and it seems to mean business, starting with this pilot that's taken to the streets. all around las vegas, so many cameras and sensors have been installed and they're collecting enormous amounts of data. right here is a lidar sensor, and that's keeping track of pedestrians and vehicles, to check that they're moving around efficiently and safely. there's even a sensor just above this street sign, which is triggered by emergency vehicles, so that the lights can turn green for them as soon as it's safe to do so. carbon monoxide monitors have also been built in to monitor the flow of carbon—heavy traffic. and we know this isn't a city polluted only by day. at night—time, this is one of the busiest spots in vegas. there are delivery vehicles dropping off, minicabs picking up, so that curbside activity

is being tracked by cameras and sensors, and as soon as a vehicle stops, it will feature here on this screen. it has 2.5 minutes to do whatever it needs to do and once that counts down to zero, an alert will be sent to a local traffic warden to come and give them a ticket. siren wails which can also help keep law and order. in this spot, video analytics are being used to see if anybody is climbing up on this sign or doing any other sort of vandalism. there will be an alert triggered and then a speaker will tell them that they need to get down. it's also looking at how much rubbish there is around, so if there is a fair bit to clear up, somebody will be told to come and do so. and this is just the start. next is the tracking of the huge, sprawling buildings here and how they use their energy. but at the heart of all this is data, and that data's being shared through what's called a digital twin. what we are building

is essentially a digital brain for a city. this enables all of the sensors placed around the city — which are monitoring everything from air quality to traffic, pedestrian movements, security — to all be brought into a single system and then processed using artificial intelligence. you'll be able to go anywhere in the city virtually and see things like how many spaces are available in the car park or how many, you know, watts of electricity are being used by vehicle chargers and that sort of thing. the technologies employed in this project are 56, artificial intelligence or ai, another one is blockchain, another one is digital twins, and we are going to use the internet of things, and that means everything around us is becoming smart and connected and we are able to tap into that in a very safe and secure way. so, whilst las vegas benefits from a bit of smarting up now, the hope is that this could easily be replicated in other cities.

hello. welcome to this week in tech. it was the week that google was sued in the us over accusations it deceived people about how to control location tracking. nvidia and meta announced plans to build the fastest ai supercomputer in the world by 2022. and youtube said it was exploring nfts for is creators, following the likes of twitter and instagram. next, and you have to see pictures of this — a flying car has completed a 35—minute trial in slovakia. it takes 2 minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car to aircraft and once its wings are extended, the air car can hit speeds of over 100mph and fly at an altitude of over 8,000 feet. the world's most powerful space telescope has reached its final stop. 1 million miles from earth, the james webb telescope has

entered orbit around the sun, where a giant shield will allow it to take pictures. and, finally, drones to shoo away pesky pigeons. researchers in switzerland have been using an autonomous system that spots the roof—invading birds and then sends them a drone to harmlessly chase them away. while flocks can gather for hours, the a! system cut loitering down to just a couple of minutes. it seems that al is eagle—eyed! there's all kinds of tech being woven into football to improve both the players and the beautiful game itself, such as video assistant referee and goal line technology. but what about us — the fans of the sport? the sunday leaguers, the ones who hope to go pro one day or the ones who play every week until we can't run anymore? well... now, there's tech for us too.

a few companies who provide state—of—the—art kit to the pros have now created consumer versions of their products. first up, we've got statsports, whose vests are worn by players underneath their shirts. they house black pods which are trackers that collect different data points on the wearer. and now, they're letting the public give it a go too. they've gone into partnership with the biggest club in football, arsenal, who've used their wearable tech for years. now, consumers will be wearing a slightly different vest, but the black pods that they'll be wearing are exactly the same ones that the gunners use... but here is where it gets a little bit more interesting. i've got the kit on and i'm out on the pitch and i'm ready. but then... i'm in a lot of pain, so i have had to sit out for now. but then we've got producer 0z over there doing it for us so we will be looking at his data. oh, and am i glad he did. where's 0mar?

i hope that's a real injury... it did not, watch the replay! watch the replay. he's knackered. 0nce he's done, we'll check out that data that's being collected on the pod. total distance run, max speeds, intensity and fatigue. iam dead. i'm dead, mate. and whilst you're at it, you can compare yourself to players at the club to see how far off you are from reaching their level and what you would need to improve on. and if you register outstanding results, you could be referred to arsenal, maybe with a chance to make it big. 94.2, 64.5... very happy with that. he's a whole 11 kilometres an hourfaster than me.

he's also a whole 16 years younger than me. when i came to arsenal i was probably never be that quickest, however it gives you perspective on how much you actually run, because you get accused of not running at all as a centre—half, but it gives you a great foundation to build the player up to their physical top abilities because that is what you need. that is the foundation to reach the highest level. to reach the top. there we are. so 0mar, talk me through. speed is one of the metrics we would get in the gps unit itself and when we add on speedtest tests there would be players kind of competing against each other and having a look at the ipad to see who is quicker but it does increase that competitiveness. well done. next item. this is another system for the pros, rezzil. it is a virtual reality app with foot trackers so users can kick around a digital ball. now, they are offering a bit of a scaled—down version for the consumers on less powerful headsets like the quest. they are still really

testing the user. it's called player 22 and though you can only use your hands are not your feet, it still has a number of drills to test the user, be it their reactions, fitness and accuracy, but there's also a very football—specific drill, heading. something that can hurt in real life. so to make it less painful, they've made a drill for it in vr. ok, that's enough. what? 0h. 0h, hey! top! that was weird. the heading itself was really accurate, but not having the pressure of the ball on your head is kind of strange. i could get used to it but i'm curious, even though you are not actually hitting the ball you are still moving your head around quite a bit and your brain inside might bouncing around.

during a game, we can see players heading maybe up to 20 balls depending on their position, but that's going to be multiplied significantly during training. heading the ball is i think four times more impactful than not so obviously that level of safety is increased by using vr and removing actual impact with the ball itself. and to be fair, even the kids were enjoying it. that was amazing, that was really good. whoa, this is cool! which is a good thing, as heading is something that is banned in games for children under 12 in the uk. the fa have also made new measures to reduce the amount of headers in professional training sessions to lower the risk of long—term damage. so maybe theyjust need to switch to heading virtual balls instead. last up we have playermaker, wearable trackers that go inside of these moulds which fit around your boots. these are used by pro clubs such as fulham and club brugge, but now the company has come up with their consumer version, uno. you put the trackers inside the moulds and then slip

them onto your boots. connect them to the app via bluetooth and then play away. as you're playing they are supposed to pick up physical metrics similar to statsports but also things like kick velocity, time on the ball, number of touches and more. and you can also compare yourself to the pro players on this platform, too. i used it a lot coming back from an injury, so i could get back to the numbers that was getting, and from the feedback from the playermakers gave me that, and i knew what i had to work on so it really accelerated me getting back to where i was pre injury. so even in injury these trackers are useful. however, there is a problem with all of the products that we have looked at. they are just so expensive! playermaker uno, 200 quid. statsports, 250 quid and rezzil, it's only £11 in the store but to get a quest in the first place, at least £300. it's hard to justify paying that much for extra data when kicking a ball around the park is free. but also, i remember something per said to me.

quick thinking, especially when making the right decision on the pitch, will make you into a world—class player. if you looked at me just based on physical data when i was younger, i probably wouldn't have made it, so everyone is on a different path so we need to respect that. so maybe these are nice to have rather than essentials, as reaching that next level of footballing greatness takes more than just extra data. so maybe tech isn't the answer. that was 0mar. left his ball behind. oh my goodness, what are you doing in the middle of this park? i'm just relaxing, doing a spot of yoga. are you really? in my coat, in the freezing cold. i tell you what, on the subject of relaxation, do you use meditation apps? do i look like i use meditation apps? i think you should. nick kwek is up next and he is looking at the latest music therapy apps that not only play you soothing music, but also listen back to you to understand you more.

that sounds relaxing, why didn't you tell me earlier? you are playing the strings, you are bringing them towards yourself, the sound pulls at your heart and it feels like you are healing yourself by each pluck. nailah hunter is an la—based composer and harpist, with a special interest in spell work, other worlds and healing. that was beautiful. thank you. she is crafting new songs for a local start—up that aims to prescribe music as medicine. there is a lot going on in the sort of new—age community right now and i think even the term itself has a negative connotation, it can be a little bit hokey, a little bit la if you will, but i really think that neal's approach was interesting to me because it was really about science. sona founder neal is convinced that good mental health

is all about brainwave frequencies and that his tailored tracks can lower them from an anxious beta state to a calmer alpha state. we have been conditioned as a society to view music as a means of entertainment and we listen to bob marley, john mayer, or different types of pop music all the time and we think that it's having this relaxing restorative effect on us but it's actually further engaging our brains, it's making our brains work harder whereas our music has a restorative effect on the brain. a 23% drop in stress levels, apparently. but sona isn't the only player in this space. dutch outfit alphabeats monitors your stress levels as you use it and it rewards users for chilling out and punishes them of they don't. by utilising your phone's accelerometer and gps centres it measures your breathing, subtly changing the sound of your favourite tracks along the way. the brain is always searching for the most optimal sound, so in order to get there it will just try to find solutions

to get to a better music experience, and we reward the search for the best music. alphabeats can also take live data from your smartwatch and using ai eventually produce personalised playlists. meanwhile sona is now seeking approvalfrom the us food and drug administration, joining the gruelling music prescription sector, promising better health and a potential replacement to costly pills. we've just gone through one of the most traumatic experiences in human history, being able to bring goodness and calm through sound to anyone as important, it's definitely important. are you feeling relaxed there? no, everything is under tension right now. just pretend you are a tree or something. yeah, alright, i'll do that, shall i? can we finish now? yes, that's fine.

alright, that was nick and that's it from us. as ever you can find us on social media, on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter, at @bbcclick doing this sort of thing. i think i've pulled me chi. thanks for watching, we'll see you soon. bye— bye. hello there. it's been mild for the time of year, for the last few days. thursday's also another mild day for most of us. quite a bit of cloud around once again, but i think we should see a little bit more sunshine into the afternoon. and it's going to be breezy, as well, i think a windier day today than what we had on a wednesday. you can see why more isobars on the charts, particularly across the north of uk, and especially when this cold front arrives across the northwest of the country later on. but we're still in this mild

wedge of air, as you can see from the yellow and orange colours there. so, a mild, rather cloudy, rather breezy start to the day. some spots of light rain and drizzle across northern and western hills, which should tend to fizzle out. increasing amounts of sunshine, we think into the afternoon, but this weather front will bring some more persistent rain to north—west scotland, northern ireland later on. it'll be a blustery day for all the winds picking up, but turning very strong across the northwest, with this weather front in excess of 50 mph. now, for most of us, it's going to be mild, 10—13 celsius, but it will be turning colder behind that weather front — only five celsius there for stornoway. so you can see why this colder air moves in behind the cold fronts, as the name suggests, as it slowly works its way southeastwards during thursday night. so it'll be lying through central parts of the country by the middle parts of the night. eventually, that rain will be pushing through england and wales, a little bit of wintriness on its back edge as colder air digs in. there'll be wintry, blustery showers and clear spells for scotland and northern ireland. could see a touch of ice across northern parts of the country by

the end of the night, but less cold further south and east ahead of the weather front. so for friday, then, we start with that wet weather with that weather front lying across the southeast. could see some wintriness on its back edge as it clears away — eventually it will — and then, all of the country will have a chillier but bright day for friday with blustery showers. these will be wintry across northern and western areas, not even down to the hills, maybe even down to lower levels, as well. temperatures much lower than of late, 3—9 celsius. factor in the strong northwest wind and it'll feel even colder than those temperatures suggest. it is a fairly short—lived cold spell because, as we head on into the weekend, we start to draw up some milder air again from the southwest. air again from the southwest. but it will be quite a windy weekend, and this weather front will be waxing and waning across the country to bring outbreaks of rain. so a milder theme into the weekend, particularly on sunday, but that weather front�*s likely to bring thicker cloud with outbreaks of rain to many areas. that's it from me, bye for now.

this is bbc news. our top stories: president biden approves the deployment of 3,000 troops to europe — russia calls it an unjustified and destructive move. the united states stands shoulder—to—shoulder with our nato allies. the current situation demands that we reinforce the deterrent and defensive posture on nato's eastern flank. president biden has been clear that the united states will respond to the growing threat to europe's security and stability. new zealand begins the phased re—opening of its borders — vaccinated citizens in australia can finally return home. a key part of the brexit deal unravels as northern ireland halts customs checks on goods coming from the british mainland. and putting his back into it, the cuban strong—man who can break records and cans with his shoulder blades.