the opposition is going to be talking about for some time to come. this is bbc world news. the headlines: polls have opened in france in the first round of the french presidential election, with president macron facing a strong challenge from marine le pen. britain says there's further evidence that russian troops have a deliberate strategy of targeting civilians in ukraine. an inquiry into how the tax arrangements of the uk chancellor's wife became public is now underway, the bbc understands. the frontrunner to become pakistan s next prime minister says the removal of imran khan in a late—night confidence vote is a chance for a new beginning for the country. now on bbc news, click. this week, phones, phones and more phones. mobile world congress is back. we're going up a mountain

with this good girl. and the vfx behind the matrix resurrections. mobile world congress. every year, barcelona used to be lit up with smartphone launches and announcements of connected devices, beyond what you might ever think of or need. now, 2020 was pretty much a no—show, for obvious reasons, and last year — well, that was just weird. we've arrived. this is fira de barcelona. yes, the show was back on, but we couldn't go — although you were there in spirit, if not in body. yeah, the less said about that, the better. but this year,

it's back in full swing with all sorts of companies showing off their latest wares. so, whilst i'm here at the design museum in london, where behind me, there's a good old—fashioned brick phone and a nokia 3310 — remember those? — we know how fast these phones change, so we've sent omar mehtab and osman iqbal to barcelona. samsung, nokia, huawei, oppo, xiaomi — they're all here and all got something to show. that's the thing about mwc, isn't it? it's all about the big releases. say, for example, this — the samsung 522 ultra. the supposedly best of their 522 range, it comes with a touch bigger screen than its predecessor, a slightly more powerful cpu and a bigger sensor, so its cameras can take better pictures in low light. but they have learnt from the 521 ultra, because instead of flogging a 60 quid case to house the optional 5 pen, they've just given it to you, in here, and they've got a little slot for it within the phone,

which potentially spells the end of the note series? who knows. but what i can say is this does write smooth. you know, like a pen on paper. the problem is in some tests, the battery life is actually a little bit worse than the 521 ultra and its square design doesn't feel as natural in your hand, either. and at 1,200 quid, you wonder if it's worth the huge price tag with such little differences. but it pairs well with this — the newly announced galaxy book 2 pro. this is the most powerful of its line—up, the 360, and it starts at around 1,099 quid. it offers a few interesting titbits, like a 1080p front—facing camera and auto framing, which keeps you centred in your shot — for your video calls that undoubtedly became more popular over the last two years. can't find me! there it is! it's found me! but the multi control impressed the most, where you can keep watch of your smartphone and also use your tab 58 as a second screen,

creating quite an ecosystem. samsung stands for innovation, you know? typically where we lead, others follow. bringing all of those the elements of the note and bringing them to the 522 because we listened to our customers — they wanted that productivity, they wanted that solution from us. innovation and what our consumers tell us they want will be at the absolute heart of what we do going forward. and here's the problem. that's it. with smartphones, we've been held in a kind of a holding pattern for years with only incremental upgrades every release. once you've seen one, you've seen them all, and despite how impressive these handsets are, it's all kind of predictable. here's another example. huawei's latest p50 pro is just another smartphone with small upgrades since the last. and this super device software, which they announced at the show, is, again, incredible, but just another ecosystem they've built to bow against the likes of apple and samsung. look, here's the point i'm trying to make, 0k? here are some releases from some of the big companies.

and here are the notable improvements from their predecessors — camera quality, battery life, screen size. is that all we've got to look forward to anymore? 0k, yes, in recent times, we've had some exciting innovations, like the foldable or the rollable smartphones. 0ne noticeable trend is cheaper, but feature—packed phones, like from xiaomi here, or going a bit more retro again, like nokia. but otherwise, it'sjust variations of the same thing, and has been since apple debuted the iphone 15 years ago. giant screen. applause can we really call that innovation? is there a point to mwc if all you're going to do is go and look at a phone and say, "oh, look — that camera lens is bigger." there's innovation in the form factor, but there's all in — also innovation in the connectivity and the content. we've seen the content ecosystem basically develop over the last years as well, so i think with every touch point that the —

that the phone essentially enables, you'll also find subsequent innovation come from that. 0k, yes, innovations involving phones, but not the phone itself. look, it's no—one�*s fault, but the next killer device just hasn't arrived yet, and so, it's all a bit samey. so, maybe it's not worth coming to mwc again. there's nothing really special out on show. it's not just about the glitzy phone launches, is it? it's not just shiny things. there's a big mobile ecosystem and loads happening. i get that, but people care about the big phone launches. you don't get that, though, do you? what they may upgrade to next — that's what matters here to people. is that what matters?! of course it is! there's loads of stuff going on! you know, there's loads kind of innovation, small players, big players. i'll show you something so intense. cheer up! so, what are these companies working on in 2022? sg bartenders, robot dogs, vr roller—coasters and, you guessed it, the metaverse!

and as i finally get back to an in—person event, i'm being made very aware that companies are eager for me to embrace the virtual world. but here's one device that is 100% metaverse—proof. as screens get bigger and bigger, what happens if you make a phone with no screen at all? no buttons, no screen, purely voice controlled. put it on and, sayonara, social media. these are titan from mymanu. they are lig—enable earbuds with a phone's functionality, and they can even translate other languages in almost real—time while not needing to connect to a phone like most other devices. why don't you tell me an interesting fact about yourself? speaks french so, you're french, you're from the sunny coast

and you live in manchester, where it rains all the time. exactly. that's cool. that is awesome, that is awesome — i love that. and whilst one company is ditching the screen, the astro slide 56 is adding even more to it. a regular rectangular phone — where is the innovation? watch this. boom! it's a mechanical keyboard on a phone! and whilst i may enjoy a keyboard on a phone, it doesn't exactly scream rock star. but this does. zurich—based start—up mictic have developed what they are calling audio—augmented reality. these wristbands connect to a smartphone app and the sensors translate your motions into music. when you think of a cello, here's the neck of the cello and then my right hand is the bow hand, so it would essentially be like... plays cello that's all very cultured

but, let's be honest, nobody plays the air cello. i'll throw a beat behind it. plays electric guitar but the final word has to go to japanese company toraru who have found a truly novel way of transporting people to the other side of the world. this is a live video link to japan. someone is standing there with a tablet and you have these buttons along the bottom and all you do, if you want to turn around, you just press your button. look at that! you can even push buttons to pick things up or even pay for goods. but some parts do feel a bit dehumanising. and ifeel super guilty about this — is this button here. and i don't know why, but you can go boop! and they jump! that was a big jump!

the buttons that make other humans jump should just not exist. osman and omar, ola! it sounds like some companies are breaking new ground there, so has the visit to the show been worth it? for me? no, it hasn't, because it's the same as every other mwc that i've been to. a new smartphone with a couple of improvements from the last one. see, that's - absolutely not true! i've been trying to tell omar all along _ it's notjust - about these devices, it's about the wider ecosystem. we've seen the metaverse and the advancement i in connectivity needed. that conversation is happening. 56 low latency, things that are around the phone — - that's where the - innovation will happen. but there's nothing to see. there is no metaverse as yet, that's the point. yeah, it — because it needs these conferences like this| to sit down, get it done, advances connectivity. . it's not just about that. but the reason people care about these conferences is because of the smartphones, the main devices. not secondary things, you know? it's all about the smartphones. ok, you're like an old married couple. he's such a pessimist! i'm going to leave you to keep battling this out.

you are such a pessimist! we've got the optimist and the pessimist here. osman and omar, thank you. back in 2016, i met hitoshi araki, creator of a prototype augmented reality game called hado where players had to blast away their opponent's shields with fireballs. it was brilliant fun and what's even more brilliant is that six years on, hado is now a serious sport, played competitively in 28 countries. and now, i've been invited back to play against a former uk champion in a match with a difference. see, tom park is not in the same room as me. we're being connected using 5g, and this is an occasion where any delay across the network can seriously spoil the fun. most people, when you think about 5g, think about moving large amounts of data. we are not, we're moving very small amounts, but it has to arrive in the right order and it has to arrive quickly.

i could have done with a bit of lag, to be honest. where is he? oh, i've got him, i've got him! it's like they have attached it to a cat or something, haven't they? we have already done matches in the uk between different cities, and what we're looking to do is matches between different european countries. especially at the moment, travel is difficult. where is he, where is he? and it allows experienced teams to actually be able to play and train against each other, and the next stage on from that will allow us to get teams in tokyo, who are the best in the world, no question, to be able to train us without having to get on a plane to go there. and the reason that we're here is to see the cambridge wireless 5g testbed in action, which allows companies to experiment with how best to make use of the technology's speed and features, and understand its limitations. the testbed facility here at cambridge wireless allows you to put artificial lag, artificial stutter into the system, which means you can effectively try and push the data packets out of order with each other, you can delay them arriving, and you can see how much

you can cause problems with the system before you start to get a breakdown in the end result you want to achieve, and, therefore, know what you can operate within. what 56 would really like to exploit is what we see in the industry, where we can see manufacturing applications that we simply were not capable of delivering before. really what it means it us to control things at a long distance in real—time. ok, here's a different example of how 5g can stream a lot of data very quickly, and it's a more relaxed demo — well, for me at least. i'm driving this robot around the car park, and, in a moment, iam going to try and do something that may one day be needed in disaster zones and medical emergencies. myjob is to somehow get this multi—jointed monstrosity to grab this bag of fake blood and load it into this container. sounds easy, might be messy, but it turns out that in vr it actually isn't that bad. i have to say this is much more

intuitive than i thought it was going to be. i thought i was going to have to somehow embody a multi—jointed robot, but it is just a case of dragging the arm around to where i want it. lifting up the bag of blood... and... and if you look below you, there is a basket you canjust lift it over there... swinging the blood bag into the basket. bingo. perfect. nice! and so the idea with this is then that this could be happening anywhere in the world. exactly, anywhere — you could be in china doing this, you could be in low earth orbit, you could be down a mine shaft, and yeah, you can sit comfortably in your office and control a robot from wherever you need to be. now, i will be honest, there is a very slight lag, but for what i am trying to do, i think that lag is totally manageable. job done, blood delivered. well done, good job. yeah, it's all very easily when you are just pootling around a car park.

but now it is time to see how this can all be done in the wild. here's paul carter. the yorkshire dales national park in the north of england — a favoured destination for walkers, hikers and climbers. in the event that any of them get into difficulty, it's the volunteers of swaledale mountain rescue who go out to help. i am spending two full days with them during the changeable and challenging conditions of storm eunice to see how tech can make a difference. as beautiful as the landscapes right here can be, in conditions like today, they can be pretty treacherous — especially for emergency services like mountain rescue. and one of the biggest problems they face is the complete lack of any mobile phone coverage. i mean, i've got absolutely nothing. so what the team here are doing is they are trialling a range of solutions utilising 5g technology to help make their lives easier, and also to help save lives.

one of the best tools in a rescue team's arsenal is still of the canine variety. this is kez, a mountain search dog and all around very good girl. you want to throw they ball? good girl! what she doesn't know is thanks to the 5g network that has been installed here, her every move on the hillsides can be tracked remotely. back at base, we can see where she is going on a tablet. that's the dog on the screen there? yeah, just there, it is a little bit greyed out but he is running around, he's moving a bit. all of this is possible because of equipment stored at the temporary base station. what we have here is a mobile base, a 5g mobile base station, we bring it with us to fill the coverage where there isn't. it uses a closed mobile frequency spectrum backed up by an internet connection

via starlink satellites, which allow the team and people back at base to share communications, audio and video, and data at low latency and high speed. communications is vital to the team, it's vital to the casualty we are looking for and eventually find. the possibilities are endless. there is no greater need for speed than when lives are in danger. smrt took us out in the now driving rain to see a full—scale medical rescue drill in action. and just how important sharing data quickly in such scenarios can be. a0 minutes ago the police called the team to tell us there was an injured walker somewhere up the hill there. this is a 5g non—standalone system, we have two antennas, one here and one up there. we attach this to the wall because of the complexity of the weather conditions today. we did a range test and we reached all the way up to the hill, to the top of this

hill here with full bars of 5g. this rapidly deployed 5g network allows the rescue team to use medical devices to monitor the casualty on a phone and transmit this back to the crew at the base station. the remote monitoring devices mean the rescue crew don't have to stop to check the patient as they head down the mountain, and medical staff at base can keep an eye out while the crew are concentrating on navigating difficult terrain. so i am getting enough information here to tell me that i am happy with the casualty, so the lower doesn't have to stop at any point. for the volunteers, working at night brings extra challenges. using infrared and thermal imaging, which can also be streamed remotely, the team can locate casualties more easily. there may be something just beside this wall. this is currently all an ongoing trial. it's a partnership between

several bodies including safenetics, north yorkshire council, smrt and local universities. for these guys, where conditions can change any minute, connectivity is absolutely crucial. some of these ideas are still in their infancy, and logistically there are hurdles still to be overcome. but who knows — if you ever find yourself needing to be located by a search dog, you never know, shejust might be more on the grid than you are. dog barks. i think paul may have made a new best friend there. now this time of year is movie nomination season, and for us at click that also means the opportunity to talk to some of the greatest minds in visual effects to see what they have been up to over the past year. first up, a look at the bafta nominated matrix: resurrections. i've had dreams that

weren'tjust dreams. am i crazy? we don't use that word in here. for me, getting on board with the matrix was huge. i think a lot of people in this industry will probably have had the matrix affect them in different ways. there was a huge expectation on the movie's shoulders, but also on vfx, obviously we're revisiting a world that had been created 20 years ago, so we knew these assets were alive somewhere, we just had to try and track them down and find them. and it wasn't, sadly, the case that they all just live in a nice hard drive and we can just ask warner brothers, "hey, can we have the assets?", and they send them to us. lots of e—mail threads, different people, old companies looking through their backups and finding whatever they can. we eventually managed to restore, i think, a sentinel, a harvester and a foetus egg stalk. we found all the files but then we were like, how do we open it? none of the modern 3d packages will open these files. we found an old version

of the file that we could open it, export it in a different way and be able to pull it in. they needed upgrading. they were built a long time ago, topology is different, textures we obviously had to redo. so they gave us a perfect starting point to build on. and it was even just exciting opening those assets, this is from the first matrix, this is wicked! getting to spin around the models and see how they are made, it was really cool. we did add more details, the way the geometry intersected, and the way it was previously built, so we upped the detail and upped the resolution — we are a 4k movie, we had to make sure it held up in ak, where the previous versions needed a bit of a boost. the same with the foetus fields and foetus eggs, again we kept the overall design, we kept the foetus baby exactly the same, we just extended the stalks and added more detail, more cables. that fit in with the story in this case because this is 60 years, time has passed, and the machines have sort of evolved their harvesting methods to draw more power so we have the cable. io city is sort of the new zion of this movie,

like the expanded city. that was one of our biggest builds. we had to break it down into lot of small sections, we wanted to try and create a believable city that you could feel people have lived there for a while and they have figured out how to — irrigation channels, farming, dwellings, we tried to block out these different areas that you could buy as real, and then populate it with little people, little chimney stacks, atmospherics, it was set in a huge cabin so we want to make sure we have a sense of scale. our vfx work will always be better if we are building off the back of something real, or if we have something real to reference before we build out the effects. it will always look better, you can create whatever you like, you can create wonderful environments, as much imagination as you like, but as soon as you start putting something real into it you just need something to ground it. and i think if you do a partial set build of exactly the kind of idea that you want, you want to light your characters in a certain way, the background behaves a certain way behind them, so once you have got something

captured on camera it is so much easier to extend that in cg and build on the same thing, and you know, be a part of that. after all these years, to be going back to where it all started? back to the matrix. great work, and next week we will have the second in our visual effects series, not to be missed. that's it for this week though, as ever you can keep up with the team on social media, find us on you instagram, facebook and twitter and @bbcclick. thanks for watching, bye—bye. hello. i think the weather is looking decent enough for many of us this afternoon. it was a little bit on the chilly side this morning, and this afternoon is not going to be desperately warm

either, but at least it is looking dry and bright today. but tomorrow, however, rain in the forecast. not everybody is going to get it. here is the satellite picture with the pressure map, and you can see a weather front wrapping around this rather large area of low pressure. this weather front is approaching, and that's why the skies will turn hazier and hazier and eventually cloudy across western parts of the uk, even the possibility of a few spits and spots of rain in northern ireland in the middle of the afternoon. but the rest of the country should have that dry and bright day, 13 in the south, around 11 in newcastle. still on the parky side in aberdeen, 8 celsius. so the focus for this evening stays dry. they could even be some clear skies across the south and the south—east. but this weather front is very slowly approaching. you can see the winds blowing out of the south or the south—east. with that and all of the cloud, it is not going to be particularly cold tonight. perhaps a touch of frost in the highlands there, but for many of us you can see it is about 3—6 degrees celsius. so the weather map for monday shows that low pressure still way to

the west of our neighbourhood, but the weather front is brushing western parts of the uk. so watch these areas of rain moving into cornwall and devon, brushing parts of wales, and then eventually the irish sea coasts, perhaps some of it getting into lancashire, cumbria, south—western parts of scotland and northern ireland. but many of us towards the east and the south actually getting away with a decent enough day. cloudy at times, but up to 17 celsius in the south. that milder air is spreading in from the south, but it won't quite reach everywhere. it does look as though it's reaching scotland, doesn't it? but here, because we will have a fair bit of cloud and outbreaks of rain through the course of tuesday and a south—easterly wind off the north sea, it could still actually be quite chilly in places like aberdeen. to the south we have got the warmer air, some sunny spells and much higher temperatures, 18 or 19, for example, in london and norwich. so quite a mixed bag for many of us on monday and tuesday. here is the outlook for the rest of the week. wednesday, thursday and friday,

those temperatures continuing to climb. and at the moment, the easter weekend is not looking bad at all with high pressure building. bye— bye.

this is bbc news live. i'm tim willcox. broadcasting in the uk and around the globe. our top stories... polls have opened in france in the first round of the french presidential election, with president macron facing a strong challenge from marine le pen. i'm annita mcveigh in london. also on the programme: britain says there's further evidence that russian troops have a deliberate strategy of targeting civilians in ukraine. "put the weapons down" — pope francis calls for an easter truce in ukraine, leading to negotiations and peace. opposition parties in pakistan are preparing to form a new government, after the removal of imran khan in a late—night confidence vote.