ooh! i'll be visiting the largest concentrated solar power plant on earth... i've never seen anything quite like it. samir, hello. salem alaykum. ..discovering how morocco�*s world—famous cuisine is being grown against the odds... that was not a bit of dust, that was a lot of dust! ..and meeting the start—ups building the worlds of tomorrow. can you actually make me look better than i do there? yeah, promise. this is tecthlore morocco. with stunning surf, arid plains and bustling cities, this north african country is one of contrast. this is spectacular!

my innovation journey starts inland, south of morocco�*s major cities and mighty atlas mountains, just north of the sahara desert, near the quiet outpost of ouarzazate. this part of saharan morocco is known as the door of the desert. the landscape out here, it's almost like it's from another world. feels like we could be on mars. these plains receive three times the sun as parts of northern europe... ..and are home to a world—leading project of staggering scale. this is noor, a solar power station, putting morocco

at the forefront of pioneering renewable technology. i'm used to feeling small, but this makes me feel even smaller. hello, abed, salam. hello, my friend, salam. nice to meet you. nice to meet you, too. this is incredible! and lots of sun. lots of sun, yeah. which is what we want for something like this. yeah. this is not an ordinary solarfield. panels with over 7,000 mirrors follow the sun. and i can hear lots of sounds at the moment. it's quite eerie. is that the panels moving? yes, the movement, just with a small speed. all of these reflect the sun back at this dazzling monument. so, look at this. this is where the magic happens. yeah.

you can see that's the tower. it's extraordinary! it's so bright at the top, i can barely even look at it. i probably shouldn't look at it without my sunglasses on. 215 metres up, this white—hot beacon can hit 1,000 degrees celsius. a liquid salt absorbs and transports this heat, using it to produce steam and generate electricity on the ground. all of these mirrors just point up at it, it's like they're worshipping the tower. it's incredible. while solar is used across the globe, what's special here is the molten salt, which retains energy eight hours after dark. so it's almost like a giant battery. yes. you're able to store all of that electricity, to be used at night when there's no sun. yes. this sprawling arena is the latest of several solar plants built here since 2016. similar plants do exist in other countries, but with an output of 582

megawatts, this is the largest in the world. so, we scaled noor�*s viewing platform to take it all in. look at this! these panels go on as far as i can see. it's 2.5km. it's like a sea of solar. while morocco has always relied heavily on fossil fuel imports, noor�*s green energy has been transformative. not only it helps to produce renewable energy, but it's also succeeded in supplying nearly 2—millions of moroccans with green electricity, and it also helps preventing up to i—million of greenhouse gas emission each year, so it's quite an achievement for morocco. electricity generated here goes to morocco's national grid. from there, some is already cabled to spain. it can be a big and reliable

partner for either europe or other countries, however it has to maintain this trade off between meeting or answering the domestic demand and international level, so there is this fine lines that morocco needs to assess. and, as the sun moves west, these panels have already completely changed direction. you can really see the evidence of them following the sun. if these seem rather sandy, dusk brings one last surprise... ..as ijoin the night team for operation mirror clean. ha—ha! wow! i've never seen anything quite like this! wow! 0h, cool!

it's a bit like a giant carwash. and i'm about to get very wet, if i don't more out of the way. this is a lot of water, but left unwashed, reflectivity could drop by more than 20%, so a fleet of these beasts do nightly rounds, scrubbing into the early hours. so, as loud and as exciting as this is, it is actually doing very important work, keeping these solar panels sparkling clean, so they can generate as much electricity as possible. as the sun rises over the atlas mountains,

this 3,000 hectare site is ready to power up once again. i'm back in marrakech, visiting its famous markets. it's clear that morocco's plentiful sun isn'tjust a major power source, it's vital for the huge variety of crops grown here. he chatters but morocco must fight for its food security. it's a country that's looking to technology to ensure that future generations can continue to grow and enjoy produce like this. i'm travelling an hour north of marrakech to morocco's farming lands. almost half of the population here works in this industry.

samir, hello. salam alaykum. so, this is your olives? ah, it's beautiful. samir, like many other farmers around the world, has been hit hard by extreme drought. he's now working with a local start—up called agriedge to try and weather some of the worst impacts of climate change. sensors dotted around the farm are measuring moisture and salinity of the soil and combining this with real—time weather data and satellite images. so, it helps you collect data and different depths. once the data is collected, we have our own a! models that we have developed

and thanks to these models and our agronomic knowledge, we send recommendations to farmers. this information is mapped, showing samir which trees are in greatest need of water in real—time. so, you use this phone to help show you everything. and i would imagine, in places like morocco that are having drought issues at the moment, saving water is important. of course. it helps them save water, but not only that, it also helps them to optimise their use and get good quality. data also helps farmers to decide where to put fertilisers and how much. machine beeps 0oh! oh, wow, here we go. that was quite something!

that was not a bit of dust. that was a lot of dust! the big farming machinery has been replaced by this super—sized drone... ..something samir can use on demand, rather than investing in expensive equipment. i've got a mouth full of dust! lucky for me, it's time for tea. it's really great to have seen these go from out there in the field to here on the table and with the help of technology as well. they taste amazing! technology is giving these farmers a fighting chance to survive and helping cut down the amount of harmful

fertilisers used in the fields. climate change affects us all and it's clear that solar and irrigation technology made here could have huge impacts across the world. my deep dive into moroccan tech has already revealed projects worthy of the world's attention. but as more people choose to swap deskjobs for digital ones, cities like marrakech are also attracting remote workers, known as digital nomads. hey! lovely to meet you. how are you doing? yeah, good, thank you. shall we go and have a seat? julie is a digital nomad from belgium who runs an online marketing startup. it's her second stint here, though she's also worked from the ivory coast, france, panama, mexico and more. so i guess my first question to you is what brings you to morocco?

the kindness of people is the most memorable thing. i've been invited to eat couscous and tagine at, like, a taxi man's house. sounds good. it was so nice, yeah. it doesn't happen in my country. i don't know if it does in yours, but... not very often. facebook groups meetup and instagram help digital nomads connect. and there's a growing sense of community here, too. the tech sector has been booming in morocco. there's actually co—working, just of startups. you can even feel that they're proud of it. just around the corner, julie's favourite co—working space caters to digital nomads from many countries. the ability to go surfing on the weekend or the ability to go hiking on the weekend definitely makes it even better. when i arrived at marrakech airport, they asked me, - what am i going to be doing? and i said, i'm going. to be working remotely. and they weren't . worried about that. i love just being able to find i cheap food in the souks and,

you know, not having to cook in my airbnb all the time. - another part ofjulie�*s co—working space has an exhibition all about the country's rich cinematic history — a reminder of how morocco's film industry has attracted many visitors throughout the years. ah, so this is casablanca. here's looking at you, kid. and that's my next stop. casablanca is the country's largest metropolis where moroccan tradition and international influence culminate in new fashion, food, art and film. truly modern, this is a city that has long inspired hollywood, even though the classic movie casablanca wasn't actually shot here. in recent years, action—packed scenes for the point break, john wick and mission impossible franchises have all been filmed here, and i'm making my own on—screen debut as a digital avatar.

it's through cutting—edge virtual worlds like this that creatives are developing the new media morocco of tomorrow. hey, hamza. hey, paul. hi. how are you doing? great to meet you! yeah, great to meet you as well. i'm really excited to see what you've been working on! my avatar is just a bit of fun knocked up pretty swiftly. its creator's specialism is in designing digital worlds. he's brought me to casablanca's commons co—working space to showcase his studio skills. i mean, i look pretty cool. you've even got my watch on there. models like this are crafted using the game design platform unreal engine. can't believe how realistic that looks. this calls on different specialists across modelling, texturing, lighting and character design. so everything on here is an individual texture. how do you then go about —

which i imagine is the difficult thing — how do you go about making it move? we make like the rigging. it's like creating virtual bones. i've actually got a virtual skeleton inside me. can you actually make me look better than i do now? yeah, i promise that. well, don't promise too hard! but, yeah, 0k! yeah, that'll be easy! i can make you look better! all right. hamza's professional game assets are astonishingly intricate — a sign of morocco's ambition to become the video game hub of africa. 0h, there's trains. i love trains. yeah. and you can really see, when it's like this, the individual elements and all of the little textures that go into making something like this. one of these objects can take weeks to craft and whole game worlds like this one take years. six million views? yeah. crazy numbers. let me see if it's worth it. i'll be thejudge. yeah. made for a south korean studio, this strategy game

is certainly impressive. it looks so real. yeah. thank you. my goodness! i can't wait to play this. it looks awesome. yeah. beyond games, the team even develops 3d simulations for autonomous carmakers. because we can, like, train these cars, like, safely. thank you so much for showing me your amazing work. as a gamer myself, it's been so great to see myself in a virtual world like this. yeah. thank you. i'm convinced these immersive worlds will transform the future of media — in gaming, the metaverse and beyond. from virtual trains to real ones, i'm excited to be taking africa's first high—speed rail, which can hit i99mph. i'm hurtling north on the 200 mile al boraq line to the port city, tangier. located on the strait of gibraltar, a stone's throw from spain, this is a hub of maritime industry.

the water looks quite calm, which is very good because i'm about to get much, much closer. tangermed is the biggest port in africa and one of the largest in the world. and being this close to all of these containers and these huge ships, you really get a sense of that scale. i'm meeting another sustainable energy startup, rather aptly named wave beat. taha, lovely to meet you. hello, paul. here, the harbour wall itself is being put to work. well, hopefully, i won't fall in, but you never know. we're sailing along the 3km breakwater to see how these waves can generate power. located where mediterranean and atlantic waters meet, the rising seafloor creates powerful internal swells, even beneath a calm surface.

does it usually get rougher or is it more choppy than this? yeah, today, unfortunately for us, eh, not a lot of energy! it's a good day for me and my seasickness! but even today's small surf activates the mechanics. 0ur wave beat technology is based on a free float... 0k. ..that is following the level of the water. ok, so, like, we're moving up and down here, that's moving up and down, as well? exactly. the conversion of energy from the vertical movement to the electricity don't take a lot of steps. 0k. yeah. so the efficiency is better. so this feels like a very simple and elegant, yet effective solution to generate electricity because all of this energy in the water is already here. in wilder weather, this float rises and falls by up to four metres. descending 20 metres deep, this is easier to access and maintain than a device out at sea, and it's 50 times more

efficient than solar in terms of the space it takes up versus its energy output. it's like we are using some space no—one can... could use it. no impact... no impact on the wildlife. ..on the environment. what do you see is the future for technology like this? if we use all the whole that you have in tangermed port, we could ensure the autonomy of a city of one million person. one million people?! wow. that's a lot! this would require 145 devices, including newer, larger versions, and is based on personal energy consumption in africa, which is the lowest in the world. 0perating round the clock, ports like this are massive energy consumers and would benefit from sustainable solutions. in one year, we've handled over than 7—million containers.

seven million?! yes! that's a lot of containers. yes. a lot of small boxes! paul chuckles what is the benefit, then, of working with small startups like wave beats? when you're big, it's not always easy to install and promote innovation, because innovation needs agility. it needs to be... to go fast. progressively, the port has launched its own coding school. the mission of such a school is, of course, to enrich our reservoir of digital skills and also digital entrepreneurship. in the wave beat workshop, taha explains how computer modelling lets the team prototype different scenarios. and, as night draws in, sparkling lights shine into life. a small demo, yes, but entirely

electrified by the sea. the technology i've seen here may be at an early stage, but it's really not hard to imagine how, one day, all these beautiful lights could be powered by the waves. it's clear to me that morocco is not only a country blessed with natural assets, it's beginning to nurture an exciting, home—grown tech scene. from pioneering new startups, to ambitious, globally—focused projects. and it's been a realjoy on myjourney to see a small glimpse of what the future holds for this beguiling place.

temperatures have been pretty balmy for this time of year. in the sunshine it has felt springlike. staying married into this week, saturday and sunday. we will have some weather fronts pushing sunday. we will have some weatherfronts pushing in to the latter half bring outbreaks of rain. the orange colours moving in as we head through saturday indicating temperature is maybe a little bit higher than what we had on friday. a lot of clubs around on saturday, some thicker cloud with some spots of rain. glimmers of brightness, particularly eastern england but then the rain splashes into northern ireland, spreads across the irish sea into

britain as we move through saturday afternoon. those temperatures well above what they should be first february, 12 to 14 they should be first february, 12 to 1a degrees. those weather fronts spread across the country during saturday night, should clear much of the north of the uk but there is still? as to how quickly these fronts clear england and wales as we head on into sunday. it could be quite a way to start for england and wales and they could be a bit of a hang back across north and eastern england for a time, perhaps east anglia and the south is continuing to see the clouds, some spots of rain throughout the whole day but elsewhere brightening up, the dry and brightening up, the dry and bright weather, scotland and northern ireland. although temperatures a degree or so down across the north, still mild for the time of year. as we head into monday, high pressure located at the south—west of the uk, sporadic weather fronts travelling from west to east across its northern periphery. 0ne west to east across its northern periphery. one such frontal spread across the country on monday, barely anything on it as it starts spreading towards eastern england, showery bursts of rain. behind it skies brighton, plenty of sunshine, the air will be that little bit

fresher, looking at eight to 11 degrees in the north, 12 to 13 further south. as we move into tuesday, a more substantial frontal system will start to push into northern and western areas we think. i surpassed closer together so we breezy day, i think, closer together so we breezy day, ithink, on closer together so we breezy day, i think, on tuesday. that's the theme. it will be turning windier late in the week. that's where the front sinks its way southwards, brightening up but turning chilly across scotland where it will be breezy, single figure digits here with a few wintry showers over higher ground. generally, most of the country mild again, very breezy with outbreaks of rain, quite a lot of cloud. wednesday, some more substantial areas of low pressure spreading across the country so a windier day i think to come for all and the rain will be pretty widespread. it looks like it could be quite a blustery wet morning on wednesday, most of the rain clears away to leave sunshine, blustery showers. again, some of these have a wintry element in the north—west. some cool air moving in behind this front during the course of wednesday

but ahead of it, still into the low teens. the jet stream does take a dive south, we think, from the middle part of the week onwards and in this trough week onwards and in this trough we could see deeper areas of low pressure developed which could bring spells of gales and it will feel noticeably cooler but we'll be back to that flip—flopping milder cooler regime as we push into the following week. you can see that evidenced here, cold air starts to dive south eastwards on the north—westerly winds and in that trough of the diving jets, we could see some deeper areas of low pressure developing. this one could bring a swathe of gales as we push towards the end of next week. it will be unsettled, certainly from wednesday onwards, wind is starting to pick up. spells of heavy rainfall and with that colder air, gauging across the country, temperatures returning a bit closer to the seasonal norm but a bit of wintry knits over the high ground and the north. —— wintry nurse.

live from washington, this is bbc news. ukraine's army says it's withdrawing from a strategically important town of avdiivka in the east to avoid further bloodshed. an international outcry over the death of alexei navalny. his wife has called forjustice. translation: they will be held responsible for everything - they have done to our country, to my family, and to my husband. and in other news, a new york judge orders donald trump to pay more than $350 million for inflating the value of his assets.

hello, i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. we begin with a developing story — the ukrainian army says it has withdrawn from a key eastern town to avoid encirclement by russian forces. the town of avdiivka is a gateway to the russian occupied city of donetsk. the retreat comes after months of fierce fighting. it's the biggest change to the conflict's front lines since may of last year. in a post on facebook, ukraine's commander in chief, 0leksandr syrskyi said: a ukrainian soldier had recently said that the situation in avdiivka had, at times, been worse than in bakhmut — a town that fell to the russians last may. just a day ago, we aired a report by the bbc�*s andrew harding from avdiivka. given these latest events,

we wanted to show you a clip from that report that foreshadowed the withdrawal.