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tv   BBC News  BBC News  October 15, 2023 2:30pm-3:01pm BST

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the operation is in response to hamas�* attacks on israeli communities last saturday. thousands of people continue to flee north gaza, following israeli evacuation orders. the un estimates nearly a million palestinians there have now been displaced. the world health organization has condemned israel's order for the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern gaza, ahead of an expected ground offensive. they said forcing more than 2,000 patients, including those in intensive care and new—borns in incubators, to relocate to southern gaza is like a death sentence. the uk's foreign office is telling british nationals in gaza to be ready to leave in case the rafah border crossing into egypt is opened. now on bbc news, click.
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this week, we're at the biggest tech show in europe for phones, fashion and ffffreaky robots! robot speaks with australian accent: �* , , an exciting time to be alive. are you alive? when is an airport not an airport? when it becomes a tech hub for green start—ups. cheers! thank you. and as we save the world one broken item at a time, the award for the most profound question of the week goes to... who comes to an exhibition with a broken vacuum cleaner? cackles hello, desdemona. how are you? hi, there. i'm doing great. just learning and exploring the world around me. how about you ? i'm good, thank you very much.
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actually, iam having a whale of a time. i've made it no secret that in the past, robots like this have left me very cold. they were misleading, speaking pre—prepared answers, and giving the impression that we're on the verge of an ai revolution. however... it's definitely an exciting time to be alive. are you alive? depends on your definition of alive. i'm certainly kicking along. laughs ..since chatgpt, everything has changed and this robot is not being puppeteered. it's genuinely the mouthpiece of a large language model chat programme that is responding live to my unrehearsed questions. how does bob marley like his doughnuts? bob marley likes his doughnuts with a little bit ofjammin�*. reggae music plays
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desdemona here has been trained on the works of science fiction authors, so i've been told to have some fun with it. if you could, would you lock all the humans away and run the world yourself? well, i'm not sure if i'm ready to take on that responsibility just yet. i think my line of questioning says more about my mindset than yours, to be honest. don't worry. i'm sure you're not the only one feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this a! stuff. let's take it one step at a time. ok, let's. i'm at ifa in berlin. it's europe's biggest tech show where, in hall 20, the robots are doing their thing — whatever that thing actually is. i feel like i'm about to have my brain operated on or something. the lasers are going to come out and suddenly, it's going to yank the top of my head off and do some kind
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of minority report stuff. it's notjust the bots, though — every type of tech is here for every part of our lives. it is a real spectacle with attention—grabbing booths, gravity—defying demos and any attempt possible to make the hottest tech look extremely cool. it's definitely one of the more colourful shows that i get to go to. more of the rainbow next year, though, please — just a personal request there — but it's maybe the white goods that have the biggest outing here. home appliances are well represented and this is a place where they deliberately break an egg on yourfloor a so they can vacuum it up again. ugh — sticky roller, though. tell you what else is cracking — tv screens. not literally, mind you, but the latest 0led tvs are big, bright and sharp and they also turn up in the most unusual places. this could get in the way
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of shaving, if you ask me. from the bathroom to the bedroom, there is something weird lurking around every corner and if it's your kind of thing, then this place can be fun for all the family. 0ops! that's what ifa is. but what ifa isn't is a place where you are guaranteed to see the next big thing. certainly don't come to ifa expecting there to be new ideas and new inventions on every single stall — i mean, they are here, but you have to know where to look. this is as much about manufacturers and retailers selling their version of the latest tv or vacuum cleaner or toothbrush or toy or washing machine. but one thing you can do at shows like this is take the temperature and spot the trends. what is everyone talking about this year?
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and the new boss of the show was in no doubt about the big talking points for 2023. there's two themes that've completely blown everything else out of the water. they've almost kind of zoomed out of nowhere, if you like. ai. you know, if we're being honest, nobody was talking about a! a year ago. now, everybody�*s grandmother is an expert on al, right? we're in the sustainability village, which is the, you know, physical embodiment, if you like, of the fact that everybody is talking about eco sustainability, energy uses on your washing machine, power. of course, it's easy to say you're green, but harder to live up to that branding. we'll visit one of ifa's more sustainable stands later in the programme. but that other theme — ai — is also something that seems to creep in to lots of product slogans. a! has been in a lot of stuff for a long time. yes. how is it manifesting itself here this year in a way it hasn't before? yeah, well, i would say potentially, it hasn't yet.
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right. i think where it gets relevant probably for the next year or two and then, going forward for our large clients — your samsungs and bosch, siemens, miele and those people. they've talked, as you said, for a little while about internet of things and smart things and smart home of the future and i think that's already taking off and catching fire but it's been much slower than they've wanted to, you know? when proper intelligence gets into your machines and they can really start to influence your life, really be of help and assistance to you and help you make choices and do all sorts of different things, then i think you will see the hardware really jump. and i think there's going to be some revolutions in the home that happen once the power and the capability of a! really gets understood and built into the software and then, the hardware of some of our home appliances. and after spending a little while with desdemona here, i am actually starting to believe that smart appliances of the future really could add — well, at least a little personality to our homes. what can you tell me about the presenter of bbc click?
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they say the presenter of bbc click is an expert on all things tech and ai—related. i can only assume they must be a robot like me. laughter and we will be back at ifa soon. one of the things that make travelling to berlin so memorable, for me at least, is, weirdly, its airport. it was called tegel airport and it was really unusual. the architecture was pretty brutalist and its layout was like nothing i've seen anywhere else in the world and when it was replaced just a couple of years ago by a more modern airport, it made me a bit sad, really. but tegel lives on. plans are under way to turn it into a tech hub and alasdair keane has been airside. this was, for decades, berlin's gateway to the world, transporting millions of passengers every year to and from the german capital
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until demand finally outgrew what its �*70s chic could offer. when berlin's tegel airport closed in 2020, there was one big question — what to do with such a huge site? the answer — a space for technology companies, a university and even the homes of the future. let's go and take a look. where better to start a tour than the highest spot? tell us about tegel airport. well, yeah, it's a true panoramic experience. what we can see really well from up here is actually the former orange cargo hold and that the former workshops where we have that first community of start—ups already here. they do autonomous driving, all sorts of urban tech innovations, yeah, they really give the space a sense of what it feels like when we actually have a community here. the architecture
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here is quite iconic. the plan is to keep a lot of it? absolutely. so, this is one of the main endeavours, really, of the site — to keep the heritage. we don't want to lose the identity of the space at all. we want to use it and kind of inspire people to see something new in it, so that's why the urban tech republic really tries to combine heritage and innovation. these buildings are incredibly iconic and even sentimental for a lot of berliners but this site will also include new buildings and a community of homes fit for the future. so, this really shows us the scale of the site here. yeah, here we have a map of the different projects that we're looking at. over in the far corner of the airport, away from the tech hub, will be more than 5000 homes. but that will be a test ground for new innovation in sustainable living. and there's an attempt to make them future—proof, including when we rely on the sky more for deliveries. they're currently planning mobility hubs for drones, where they have paired to kind of land and also
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to be serviced. while some of the development will take the next decade or so to complete, there are already the first of the smaller tech start—ups moving in. yeah, welcome. we're in the former cargo hall of the airport tegel that used to be the place where all airfreight — which is not passengers or passenger luggage — went through. here, we have organisations from renewable energies that work, for instance, on green hydrogen or storing heat for cities in the future. we've also have got companies working on e—mobility but also food production and also sustainable construction of houses. what is the draw for a tech company to come and be based here at an old airport? there's lots of space and solutions for future cities, they require space to develop prototypes, to have test labs and everything. the range of companies
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here so far is growing, like enerkite, who are developing power generating tech they hope could provide electricity for communities but also has the potential to pop up anywhere. but also companies are trying to get food production as close to homes as possible through mobile greenhouses. cheers! thank you. what is the big benefit to you as a start—up of being based here at the airport? a big dynamic and positive spirit to develop a technology that helps to fight the climate change. it's also very inspiring to be in a decommissioned airport. the idea that now, we can disseminate, like, ideas and actually products from here to the rest of the world is very inspiring. converting a site of this scale is going to take the next 10—20 years but there are a couple of big challenges — one, keeping the history of this place and mixing that with new buildings but also, trying to predict what
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infrastructure will be needed in the technology of the future. i'm shiona mccallum and here's the week in tech. video conferencing platform zoom has revealed a new ai—powered assistant for its users. some of the abilities of the a! companion include answering questions based on meetings, as well as summarising key points. the new addition will be available for subscription users of the platform. scientists at bangor university in north wales have developed an energy source that could allow astronauts to live on the moon. the fuel cell, known as the trisofuel, could be used to power a micro nuclear generator. if successful, the technology could springboard further planetary exploration. the moon is dark half
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of the month, so we can't rely on solar energy, we can't rely on solar pv and things like that — although i imagine they'll be part of the mix — but we need to have that thing for when it's dark, so that's where nuclear comes in. the eu has announced which big tech firms will face tougher rules on how they do business under its digital markets act. tech giants like amazon, apple and meta will need to comply with rules like making apps interoperate with rivals. and everybody, say cheese! polaroid has released an updated version of its iconic instant camera. some of the key highlights include a continuous autofocus lens system and lidar accuracy. the camera is set to be available from early september. ifa is full of strange sights, so of course there is the occasional fashion show with... what are those, handbags? no, not handbags — it's a phone. of course it is.
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this is the honor v purse which is taking wearable tech to the extreme. it is a foldable with screens on the outside, both sides as you can see, and it comes with an attachment allowing you to carry it with pride. this is obviously mainly aimed at women, plus anyone for whom pockets are but a dream, or who likes matching accessories. it comes with customisable characters to complement your couture, which, thanks to the phone's motion and touch sensors, can jangle about like a charm bracelet, floof like real fluff, or swim away like any sensible fish in a handbag would. now, this is what they call a concept launch, just to get feedback from the market at this stage. but the honor phone on sale already in china is the magic v2. it is a more traditional foldable — it has no strap, though. the interesting thing from a technology point of view is that the honor magic foldable phones are very thin. this is something
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that we got used to with traditional so—called candybar phones, but when you fold a foldable, it necessarily becomes twice as thick. but look at this — this is a reasonably recent traditional phone, and thickness—wise, well, they are almost on a par. and the reason these can be this thin is because of the battery. it is a variation on the traditional lithium—ion battery, and it is already in use in electric cars. it uses a specific mix of silicon in certain parts of the battery, and this gives it nearly 13% more energy density. meaning you get more charge in the same space, or here, the same charge in a smaller one. typically, you have the iphone or other smartphone user experience — per day, you need to charge two or three times. but with this new battery technology, once, and for one day, it is enough.
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if you recognise the name honor, you may remember it as a brand of huawei phones — that is the huawei that was once the second—biggest smartphone maker in the world until a trade ban in 2019 stopped it from working with us—based companies. and this famously meant its phones could no longer carry official google apps, effectively killing their appeal to a lot of the world. but in 2020, honor was spun off as a separate company, so although its phones are still made in china, it now has no connections to huawei. and that means amongst other things, all the phones now have access to google services once more. how important is it to have google services on your phone? we need to work together, we cannot without a partner to move forward. so we need acollaboration. and also, that honour need
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to contribute to the industry. and also, that honor need to contribute to the industry. for example, when we make the foldable phone so thin, also we can attract the other consumer more in this direction, the foldable phone can become mainstream. this will be big support to google, otherwise they have no motivation to develop this software ecosystem. we are at a stage where every phone maker is struggling to find a point of difference. that's why there is a lot of foldable action these days. new battery technology also feels like a significant selling point. phones as purses? well, it may not be everyone's bag — but who knows. now, as we said earlier, although whitegoods are ifa's big thing, one of its big themes is green.
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sustainability was a big theme last year. of course, it's a big theme this year and it's only going to get bigger until, i dunno, we solve the problem. the question is — are we any closer to that? as we know, the whole purpose of tech fairs like ifa is for companies to sell brand—new products. it's an industry that is heavily led by new versions — new versions of phones, for instance. we are being made, like, made to feel very negatively about ourselves that, you know, we just don't belong and we're not as cool or as amazing if we don't have all these gadgets. and that is something that i really had to put to the managing director of this massive new tech trade show that we happen to be at. we can be very sustainable by not buying new stuff. and yet here we are at a trade show full of new stuff.
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so, yeah, how do we balance those two? we obviously have got customers spanning the whole gamut of, let's say, durability and reliability. a lot of our customers pride themselves on the fact that their products are going to last a long time. i think our more enlightened customers realise that they're not really in a battle about, is it... have we shifted 1.2 million units this year versus 1.1? they're really in a battle for brand love. if you've got somebody that's so in love with your product they're willing to repair it and tie up with elastic bands and reuse it as much as possible, that's worth, rather than going and looking on the market again and potentially going to a competitor, that's worth just as much. so i think that kind of re—use and repair can have an impact. and so it was that in a tiny corner of ifa's so—called sustainability village, a small group of volunteers were asked here to encourage visitors to make do and mend. it's working.
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it's working! ingo used to be an electrician, and when he retired, he occupied himself by fixing everything at home. then he set up his own repair cafe where volunteers breathe new life into broken electronics. in germany, the awareness of longevity of articles is growing, and of repairability. people want to repair. the younger generation is rather looking for latest technology, latest design and rather prefers to buy new. i'm not criticising that, but i'm saying in terms of interest in repairing something, it's more prone in the older generation. have you repaired many things while you've been here at ifa? actually, five or six only. who comes to an exhibition with a broken vacuum cleaner? laughs well, there might not be any vacuum cleaners so far, but sebastian has brought his
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mum's blood pressure monitor. it didn't compress the arm anymore. we decided to buy a new one and it wasn't that reliable. so my mother trusted in this device and she wanted this to be repaired. and, luckily, i found this place where they found the right solution. so she will be happy, environment will be happy. so another happy customer. but there is a reason that the repair cafe is run by volunteers. the labour cost of repairing these small items means that operations like this aren't usually commercially viable. this is an item of 20 euros. a phone is an item of 600—800 euros. but they're difficult to repair. they are difficult to repair, but they're... if you then spend 30 euros to open the unit, you can say, yeah, this is worth it, i want to keep my phone. for this unit, it's not worth it because it's more than the new one. so we have —
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we're in this niche where the professional shops cannot really help. but in the future, legislation could help make it easier and cheaper to fix our goods than it is to buy new ones. in march this year, the eu proposed a law that requires more products to be more easily repairable, even after their warranty has expired. and some european countries are already trying to encourage repair. france is leading the way quite a bit there. they have got this very interesting repairability index, showing, with a figure from 1 to 10, how repairable your product is. as a citizen, you can think, "do i want this because it's only a 1?" or "do i think i'm going to go for the other one "that's a lot more repairable, "which will make it last longer and be more worth my money?" i think there's a lot that we can do ourselves to make choices that are actually more beneficial for ourselves, especially in times
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when life is just expensive. i think we tend to think a bit short term in terms of investment and living more sustainably. but if we think about it a bit more long term, that's much more in our own advantage — paying a bit more for higher quality can be a lot less expensive. a laptop is better than a desktop because it's smaller, so it uses less material, less impact. also, it will use less of your energy. whether tech companies do give us more sustainable products may be a reflection on how much pressure we and governments put on them. and given the importance of repair, i wonder if these guys will be given a bigger stall at ifa next year? and that is it from us at ifa 2023. we will be back for this show�*s 100th anniversary next year. can't wait!
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in the meantime, thanks for watching and we will see you soon. hello there. for the vast majority of the uk, we are looking at a fine and sunny afternoon. mind you, it was a cold start to the day. in cumbria, shap, we had temperatures down at “i! earlier this morning but plenty of sunshine across the board now. 0n the satellite picture you can see that, really. the only exception is across parts of scotland where showers will continue to affect western areas and we have this weather front bringing a zone of more persistent rain just across the north of mainland scotland so it will be quite wet here through the course of the afternoon. there will be some showers for the northern isles where it
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will continue to be quite windy but not as windy as it was yesterday and temperatures across the board continuing to be below average for the time of year, about 11 or 12 celsius. it feels 0k in the sunshine. 0vernight tonight, we will keep the clear spells for a good part of the night and that will allow temperatures again to dip down just below freezing in the countryside, whereas many towns and cities will see temperatures just a degree or two above freezing. tomorrow morning, they could be the odd patch of mist first thing but that should clear out of the way. there will be quite a bit of high cloud in the sky across western areas, making any sunshine rather hazy in the west but i think for most parts of the uk it is looking like another fine and dry day with some sunny spells coming through pretty widely and temperatures about 11—13 , so similar what we have got this afternoon. 0nto tuesday's forecast, probably a few more mist and fog patches to start the day. most of the uk again having a dry day with sunshine but we will start to see a band of rain working into south—west england, perhaps reaching southern
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wales late in the day. that rain is tied in with an area of low pressure to our south and as we go through wednesday and thursday, that low pressure will bring wet and some windy weather northwards across the uk. it will also bring some pretty large rainfall totals. midweek, we could see around 20—a0 millimetres of rain, the wettest weather across england and wales then moving its way northwards into scotland and northern ireland by thursday. but the focus is on the heavy rain affecting england and wales on wednesday, the winds picking up across scotland, probably bringing quite a lot of cloud to eastern coastal areas, maybe a few patches of drizzle there and temperatures just coming up a few degrees, a bit closer to average, 12—15. but then we have that heavy rain pushing northwards into northern ireland and scotland on thursday and another area of low pressure to end the week will bring rain pretty widely. (tx weather)
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live from london. this is bbc news. israel continues its bombardment of the gaza strip, with fighter planes and drones striking targets across the territory.
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hospitals in the south of gaza have been told to evacuate — but doctors there have told the bbc they will refuse to do so. meanwhile thousands of other palestinians continue to flee to the north of gaza — our correspondent says he and his family are living in a room with four other families. i, for example, with my family, i share a very small space, it is like two bedrooms, with about four or five families. meanwhile — the israeli prime minister, benyamin netanyahu, holds a first cabinet meeting for his new national emergency government. and the us secretary of state is to return to israel following talks in the region. hello, i'm christian fraser. people in the northern half of gaza
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are continuing to flee the area

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