this is bbc news. the headlines: a former british member of an islamic state terror cell has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of western hostages in syria. el shafee elsheikh was part of a group — nicknamed the beatles — involved in torturing, beating and executing prisoners. the french president emmanuel macron says his russian counterpart, vladimir putin, has agreed on the need to send inspectors to ukraine's zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as fears grow about its safety. the site has been under russian occupation since early march and the area has recently come under heavy fire.

in a show of solidarity for sir salman rushdie — authors have been gathering in new york to demonstrate their support, a week after he was seriously injured in a knife attack. hundreds of writers gathered at the city's public library to read his works and pay tribute. now on bbc news: click. in an unassuming garage in the netherlands there is an

electric car with a secret. no, it is not its ultralight ultra—strong carbon fibre frame although that is important to the story and it is not the aerodynamic design that makes it seem like a future car from the 1950s although that is important, too. the closer at that shiny finish and you will see paint. the entire thing is covered in solar panels. it also means if it is parked in the shade the section is

lower in the sun work at full capacity. even though the battery can take you 440 miles in a single charge, a days worth of sunlight will only provide about 45 miles. the rest has to come from plugging it in. however. 45 might be enough to get you to work and back. and basically that happens every day. in the summer in the netherlands, you wouldn't have to charge for months if you do just your commute. really. i'm from the uk, i know what you're talking about. yeah. and, basically, uk and the netherlands are the worst i%, right? it will get a lot better when you go to south europe. why did you set up a company here, then, and not in the sahara? because we love the sun

because we see it so less. actually, the netherlands is a european leader in solar power, getting as much as i7% of its energy from the sun. lex is a bit of a world leader, too. in 2012, he co—founded the team that went on to win the solar challenge cruiser race across the australian outback four times in a row. unsurprisingly, the design of lightyear one is somewhat more conventional. now, solar cells are getting better and better at turning sunlight into electricity, but lex's company is more focused on making what energy it can harvest go further. the result will be the most energy—efficient five—seater on the market when it launches, with a ruthlessly aerodynamic design weighing about half a tesla model s, and which trades the crazy acceleration of that beast for range and efficiency. so the tendency has been for electric cars to look at high acceleration

and large batteries. so, because of those two, cars get very heavy, and very heavy cars that accelerate quickly, they need very high power. so we say it's more important to get to the destination quick than it is to be quick at a traffic light. and what's great about in—wheel motors is that they are direct drive, so basically there's no gears at all. there's just four moving parts — four motors. that's it. so it means that no heat is lost in drive shafts or other gears, etc. so every bit of energy goes directly to the motors and to the wheels and that makes it more efficient. and therefore, on the same amount of solar you're getting, you can drive more. now, lightyear 0ne isn't the only solar—powered car being developed. this one from german outfit sono is due to hit the market in 2023. and, look, of course, it makes sense to get your electricity free of charge from the sun rather than from fossil—fuelled power stations. but solar cars also come with new challenges. for a start, you're going to need to keep it clean to maximise charging. and you know those stone chips you get in your windscreen? well, now much more of the car

is covered in glass, although lightyear does say that any chips can be filled with resin in the same way as windscreens. it does seem like it's been a long time coming, but looking at this, it is a bit easier to believe that one day your car might be wearing a sea of solar cells. but you know what, lara? it is slightly depressing that even with a highly efficient body, it's those solar panels that need to get more efficient if we're going to run completely on solar in the future. yes, maybe for now, we need to focus on getting more power into batteries quicker, then. yeah, that's a nice idea, but it is hard. can i show you something that might help? uh-huh. well, here's a british company hoping it's solved the fast—charging challenge. the nyobolt cell is the same size and weight as a traditional lithium ion one, but it can power things better whilst it's doing the job, and, crucially, it charges

a lot faster. the eventual aim? three minutes compared to three hours. and here in this lab, batteries are being tested, along with visualisations of their charging speed, heating and the current. the cells are then grouped together and tested in regular devices. it's possible to charge batteries in five minutes. we've had robotic vacuum cleaners charge in three minutes. it's possible to charge power tools in ten minutes or less. much of the success here lies in the development of a new material which allows lithium ions to transfer quickly at a safe temperature. the heating that you get — primarily because your anode and your cathode materials are not able to move lithium ions fast enough, and then the heating causes a whole series of degradation. the electrolyte decomposes, the cathode decomposes, giving off oxygen and causes fires.

but even having addressed this, there are still challenges for the fast charging of the thing that many of us care about the most — our smartphones. years of miniaturising their components despite their subsequent growing screen sizes has made this more difficult. these limitations come from the components, so, like the wires and the connectors, and usually they're limited to about five amps. that's what you have in most of the usb sockets. so usb—c has got to go to its next generation that can allow for faster charging, and the chargers, you've got to have chargers that wouldn't become too big and bulky to carry around, too. vehicle charging is on the agenda, too. when it comes to recharging electric vehicles, there are a lot of variables. this isn't exactly your

standard electric car. right now, to fully power up something like this would take about three hours. now, that's partly because the initial bit of that charging happens quite fast and then it slows down later on. but these batteries should overcome that problem, making it possible to reach full charge injust five to six minutes. driverless taxi pods could spend more time shuttling people rather than sitting charging. the company has also been busy working on this prototype mobile charging device. the idea is it could be used on building sites or maybe to even charge cars. it can move forwards and backwards, from side to side, and here you've got three detachable batteries. they only take three minutes to charge. there are also ac sockets here, and thanks to 2,000 cells inside, it can provide 30 kilowatts of power. that's about the same as a tesla powerwall. there are still other issues to be overcome. what happens to the battery at the end of its life? and there are some compromises. if you don't mind an additional 10% lower run time or 20% lower

run time, but you're able to get all that energy in five minutes, this is something that our technology allows. once the lab trials are finished, it'll be time for industrial testing and validation, in the hope that these fast—charging batteries could be speeding up our lives in the next few years. this is greenwich naval college in london with its brand—new

authorities are also using laser scanning drones to help create 3d models of the site. as part of its move towards net zero the government in britain has ordered research to begin on orbital solar farms. on orbital solarfarms. proponents of on orbital solar farms. proponents of solar power on orbital solarfarms. proponents of solar power in this form believe they can provide round—the—clock renewable energy which is wirelessly beamed to earth and fed into the grid and finally, dyson have announced the launch of a new noise cancelling headphones that come with a built in air purifier. they claim it can deliver a continuous stream of clean air without touching the wearer's face. you heard it here first. you heard it here first. this is greenwich naval college in london with its brand—new cycleway, play area,

benches and bike park. it's an urban regeneration that didn't need any council approval and, in fact, it was only completed about ten minutes ago. yeah, it's a visualisation of how things could be. the kind of thing that you see skilled urban designers make, although this is betastreets — a tool that can be used by anyone. quite often, you know, the visualisation can be done at the end of hundreds of thousands of pounds of design work, and the decision makers decide that they don't like it. and therein lies a bit of a problem because a lot of money and time has been spent getting there. we've deliberately kept betastreets as a simple, easy—to—use tool for most people, and not something that you need to work in street design for two years to be able to do. the idea is that anyone, even me, can take a photo of their local area, upload it to betastreets, and the software will do a lot of the work for you. this tool analyses the photo to work out the geometry of the image, and that makes adding street furniture,

cycle lanes and trees a doddle. is that a sensible place to put a bike hanger? well... that's a no, then. laughter this is chaos. this is... you do not want someone like me having a go at your street. let's bung a slide here over the kerb. so what you can do is you climb up there and then slide down onto the red bit of the road. have you got flumes? haven't got flumes, i'm afraid. it's something we could add in. i can see the shadows of the tree are... yep. ..tracing across the bench there. 3d gaming engines like unity and unreal engine take care of the visuals, allowing objects and lighting to be easily manipulated and opening up a previously highly skilled profession to many more people. they've been around a while, but it's more that people's computers can now handle what we're giving it. i mean, this is fun.

yeah. it's a disaster for me and for everyone that lives down that street. but it's fun, so i can kind of see how people would actually engage with this. yeah. it's incredibly easy as well. and that's the first time you've used it. and, 0k, you've made a bit of a mess, but it looks... it looks semi—believable. i mean, whether or not you put that... ..whether or not you put those objects there. "and it looks..." longest pause in the history of television. . believable." the system was recently used by the charity london cycling campaign to start a conversation about making london streets greener and more cycle—friendly. not sure i want to have the conversation with the residents of this street. i think i will leave it to the professionals. and because this tool runs in a browser, it's a fairly easy step to make it run on a tablet or even a phone,

which means you can take the photo you need and then just stand on the street corner and do your sketch right there and then. now, different cities will require different solutions in their quest to become sustainable, so let's go somewhere completely different now. i'm going to hand you over to captain lewington. it's icy out there. it's very, very icy. with 3,000 kilometres of coastline and nearly 300,000 islands, sweden plays host to a variety of sailing vessels. motor boats use fuel that creates greenhouse gases. they can leak petrol and they can cause noise pollution. so i'm here to take a look at some electric boats that aim to overcome these problems, including one that doesn't cut through the waves but glides above them. right, i'm following you. yes, come. under this 25—foot craft is a wing for hydroplaning and sensors that collect hundreds of data points every second.

you'll have to take the passenger seat first. 0k. and then we'll let you drive. we need to stabilise it, much like a fighterjet. when we feel how we're oriented, where we are in the world, and then about 100 times per second, we are adjustable by twisting it and changing the angle of attack to keep stable. this is where it gets exciting. let's go. wow! i can feel the sensation of the boat lifting up. it does actually feel like we're flying. and without the hull in the water, it's using 80% less power than a boat would conventionally need. batteries are still no way close to the same energy density as gasoline. but as hydroplaning reduces

friction, electric becomes a more viable energy choice. this feels beautiful. whilst most electric boats eat up more energy the faster they go, this consumes the same at five knots that it does at 20. on a full charge, it can hydroplane for two hours, covering 50 nautical miles at a sensible 20 knot cruising speed. and we can have a conversation like this. it's not like it's slamming in the waves. which is very sociable and it also feels very smooth, like an electric car. you want to try it? i'd love to. ok, let's do it. apparently, this is easy, and when i raced a tesla a little while ago and beat the race car driver, that was way easier than i was expecting. so, let's do this. seat belts on, everybody. seat belts on. i took to this like a duck to water. well, after a few bigger than planned splashes. ok, that feels faster

than you went. 0k, and now pull it down a little bit. 0k, pull it down a bit. i'm heading for the big waves. whoa! that was amazing! good work! i barely felt those. a very different experience to our producer's boat. muffled chatter it's a leader amongst its electric peers, but i do wonder if prices — starting from around $300,000 — might stall adoption, especially when similar—sized motorboats can still travel several times further and go around ten knots faster. of course, there's going to be petrol—powered boats for quite some time, but, i mean, once you try this kind of experience, it's quite easy to imagine everyone driving like this.

yeah. and when you're here looking at this beautiful water and the beautiful scenery, it feels good to know that you're not damaging the environment whilst you're out. 0n land, bigger crafts are under way, with a 40—foot public shuttle set to launch with the city of stockholm next year. this is our first electric hydrofoiling ferry. this one will be able to carry 30 passengers. and it's exactly the same technology, just scaled up? exactly. it's the same concept. but next for me is another swedish company called x shore that's making electric boats better connected. hey! hello. nice boat. thank you. she's a beauty. i believe you have something to give me before we get on board. i have. so you will be able to start the boat with this one. garmin�*s gps and

vitals—tracking smartwatch comes with added nautical functions. man overboard on, unlocked. and then if you fall in, then it stops. now this won't be as energy—efficient as hydroplaning, but it's still powerful. in four seconds, we will be up well above 30 knots, so everyone needs to hold on. is everyone ready? yes. give her everything you got. just full throttle. laughter yep, i'm flooring it. it's similar to candela in cost and top speed, but can cruise slowly for double the time. as it sails, the vessel collects 150 data points each second. everything is shared back to h0 to optimise performance, but with private info being beamed straight from my wrist, i was curious about security. technically, you can hack pentagon, right? so you can probably hack our boat, if you're that good, but we have the same kind of security layer as any car company. just like connected cars share data to improve urban spaces,

smart boats could help local authorities improve life at sea. so this is our r&d lab. s0, this information like water quality and water temperature... mm—hm. you can't do anything about it. no.

roughly 80 metres in height,

and the ambition is that this will sail in 2025 or early 2026. what makes it really, really interesting is of course it is free of charge. you know they will be wind in the future. up there, you will have very little disturbance. it has been a lot of learning, we have roughly around 150 sensors measuring up to 200 data points every ten seconds. pressure, wind, wind speed and also the direction of the ship. when you change the angle, that will be a big difference. how can you optimise the how, how can you optimise the how, how can you optimise routing, combining that we get up to 90% c02 reduction. there are of course unexpected things going on. one example, when the wings are flipping over, it also starts

to move backwards so these are things that we have learnt and we are looking at how we can work on that and making sure you avoid this going forward. when it comes to the full systems of the atlantic ocean, you will have very good solid wind, more or less all the time. if you get closer to the equator, you would have less wind where you need to put in some other kind of energy. it could be wind assisted where you just reduce the c02 you just reduce the co2 emissions from the engine, and you need a back—up system in case you have no wind. taking new steps will be a challenge. the shipping industry has been going on for the last hundred years, basically. what we can do is show if this is a profitable way going forward, it is also a very environmentally friendly way, that would make it super interesting for all shipowners interesting for all shipowners in the world.—

interesting for all shipowners in the world. that was nicholas del finishing — in the world. that was nicholas del finishing off _ in the world. that was nicholas del finishing off this _ in the world. that was nicholas del finishing off this journey . del finishing off this journey on what turns out to be our 22nd birthday. we are making a few changes behind—the—scenes on the programme so while we get things sorted, will treat you to a few of our favourite episodes from the last few months. do enjoyed those. we will still be on social media. thanks for watching, and we will be back soon. hello there. we ended the week with some warm sunshine but some showers, mainly in the north, close to an area of low pressure. and that same area of low

pressure is sitting in the same place for the start of the weekend. but around the base of it, we've got this weather front thickening the cloud, bringing some rain and some stronger winds as well. ahead of that, with some clear skies in england and wales, it'll be a cooler start on saturday morning, significantly cooler than the previous night in southeastern parts of england. some sunshine for england and wales, one or two showers pushing across in the morning, ahead of this main band of rain that's heavy for a while, accompanied by some strong and gusty winds, sweeping away from scotland and northern ireland, followed by sunshine and a few showers. that rain band is quite narrow, but it could be quite heavy rain as it gets stuck in northern england. elsewhere for england and wales, some sunny spells, just one or two showers, but most places will be dry. and temperatures very similar to what we had on friday, so getting up to the mid—20s at best. that area of low pressure will keep the showers going into the first part of the night. across scotland, another area of low pressure moving very slowly in from the atlantic will push a lot of cloud ahead of it. it means the sunnier skies probably further north this time on sunday. those showers easing in scotland. sunny spells here, some sunshine for northern ireland, the far north of england for a while. other parts of england

and wales probably turning more cloudy, the cloud thickening to give a bit of rain and drizzle, mostly for western wales and southwest england, where temperatures will struggle to around 20 degrees. once again, we're 18 or 19 for scotland and northern ireland. the cloud continues to thicken on sunday night. we start to see a bit more rain proper coming in from the atlantic as that low pressure heads in from the west. having said that, there will be little or no rain for northern parts of scotland, some patchy rain elsewhere, the odd heavier burst for a while. nothing particularly organised, mind you. and some western areas should turn drier and brighter through the afternoon. temperature—wise, making 23 again across southern england and south wales and 18 in the central belt of scotland. now, into next week, this is where the jet stream is going to be positioned. it may start to buckle a little bit, but it does mean that any warm air is stuck in the southeast of england, confined to the southeast, and no heatwave on the way by any means. temperatures near normal for this time of the year. monday looks the wetter day. after that, it looks mostly dry, and there will be some

sunshine from time to time.

you're watching to bbc news — i'm rich preston. our top stories... life in prison for el shafee elsheikh, a british fighter from the islamic state group, sentenced for his role in the murders of western hostages. relatives of his victims say justice has been done.... now we receive the best of our country. and i am very grateful, obviously, but that is what makes it a hollow victory, if you will. after turkey successfully brokered ukraine's grain export deal — can president erdogan help end russian military operations at the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant? the widow of basketball legend kobe bryant says she was left devastated

by first responders' photographs of her dead husband and daughter