voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this week: spencer's at the zurich sports competition that's pushing innovation in assistive tech. these pilots have to do distinct things with their brain patterns to also turn left and right. we're in the arctic circle looking at ways to prevent avalanches. and as the latest formula e season gets under way, paul's finding out about the championships all—electric cars.

ah, this is where the magic happens. i'm sammy kunz. i'm from switzerland, from frauenfeld, and i'm a quadriplegic. i had my accident ten years ago when i fell into a river headfirst. in the beginning, it was really hard for me, actually, to not give up. i had bad thoughts, but i needed time, i needed friends. i read more, istudy more, and i try to, yeah, use my brain more because my body is not available to me any more. one of the things that sammy really needs, along with the 15% of the world's population living with a disability, is better and more affordable assistive technology that makes everyday life easier. and what better way to advance those areas of research than a full—on cyborg olympics? welcome to cybathlon 202a.

this is the crowd, this is the arena. and this is what it's all about. 67 teams from 2a countries are competing across eight disciplines. each is an obstacle course full of everyday tasks that disabled people have to deal with. amongst others, there are races for robotic legs, motorised wheelchairs, and full—on exoskeletons. sammy's competing in the robotic assistance race. now let's meet a couple of other pilots from the other disciplines. my name is salome and i am going to compete in the vision race. i'm owen collumb. i'm competing in the brain computer interface as their pilot.

what's interesting here is different teams have designed very different kit for each course. for example, while most of sammy's opponents will be using robot arms attached to their wheelchairs, he's turned up with two faithful friends called dingo and donkey. as i can't use my hands, i need assistance from other people. and in this race, we actually have tasks to solve with the robot. we developed a robot dog with a gripper on top, and with myjoystick i navigate through this course and try to solve those problems as well as possible. the dogs are manually controlled by sucking and blowing into something called a quad stick, which was originally designed as a gaming joystick. now, controlling two robots does seem much more versatile, but also way more complicated

than a simpler single robot arm. and talking of mental agility, for owen, it's all about his brain. his event requires him to control virtual objects just by thinking. it's not all about aggression and power. it's about having a calm demeanour at the right times. be focused, get your brain levels down to where they should be at. so we're measuring eeg or electroencephalogram, commonly known as brainwaves. this measures tiny electrical impulses in the brain. and so what we're trying to do is ask owen to regulate that brain activity by imagining movement. so you might imagine right arm movement for one command and left arm movement for another. however, we have a more complex controller where we can select up to six commands just by two imagined movements. we can translate that into a movement of a cursor ora bar. what we're trying to achieve is kind of perfect control. but that's easier said than done. i have eight minutes to perform ten challenges with the help - of a device that was i created by the team. that device consists

of a camera to detect salome�*s environment and a moving handle that guides her towards objects and around obstacles. the trickiest one is the one i where i have to walk on a path and my foot cannot leave the path, even if it's only icm or 2cm. the teams are getting ready for the main events. but regardless of how they perform here, the hope is that cybathlon will encourage researchers and disabled people to continue collaborating long after the competition has finished. i love this device. i really hope that i after the cybathlon, the team is going to. continue working on it because it is great. i would love to have one of these robots at home, actually, because when i need it, it would do something for me, like giving me something to eat, to drink, pick something up from the floor. and if i had this robot, it would give me more

independence. now it's time to concentrate on the present. will the tech work? will the pilots cope with the pressure? not intimidated by the atmosphere at all. it's actually hugely helpful to have those guys supporting us. and we're hoping to be there in the final. and we will find out how salome, sammy and owen get on later in the programme. deep inside the arctic, for much of the year, svalbard is a white wonderland. but with heavy snowfall, there also comes the risk of avalanches. and that can endanger the communities that live here. as you can see, longyearbyen sits at the bottom of two steep—sided mountains, and increasingly it's come

under the threat of avalanches. around the world, these hazards occur in mountainous regions when a mass of snow builds up on an incline then suddenly flows downhill. in 2015 a devastating avalanche swept into town causing the loss of two lives. two years later, an avalanche struck again, severely damaging homes here. it has been dangerous. we had two big avalanches

going straight into town and of course people died, so it was quite serious. above longyearbyen, physical barriers have been erected to hold back the snow and a huge protective wall has been built. and they've also turned to tech. so here we can see one of our stations. an early warning system that uses snow sensors and mobile technology has been piloted here by telecom firm telenor and the university of svalbard. obviously, there was little of the white stuff around when we visited, but this device helps measure the changing snow depth more accurately. several of these stations have been placed around the valley to collect real—time data. we have an ultrasonic transducer that emits a sound signal at a very high frequency. that travels from the transducer down to the ground. then it comes back up to the transducer again, and then we measure the time of the sound back and forth. it's a simple, low cost solution and the long—lasting battery keeps it working year—round, even in extreme cold — whereas previous equipment was expensive and used up lots of power sending the data.

this particular sensor, it can last for more than ten years on one battery change. we are also optimising the whole system for using as little power as possible. all that data is recorded and transmitted every ten minutes using a narrow bandwidth over the ag network. what do you do with that bundle of data that you gather? the data is sent by the wireless network where we have software services running. so we get a lot of raw data that we normalise into something that can be used for further analysis. and then we hand the data over to the avalanche forecasters. based on several indicators, they can look at how much avalanche danger will we have tomorrow and the next, for instance, three days. combined with weather reports and know—how about the snow and terrain, it's helped emergency teams quickly understand the risks. it helps us to know when to evacuate and to do it in time. and that's been the opinion in town, that we would

like to evacuate earlier than too late. we have had many evacuations here for the last few years. we haven't had any accidents since 2017. but with climate change, the risk is only getting worse. svalbard is warming six times faster than the global average, and those living here are facing a new reality. but landslides are also increasing so, you have it more all—year round. it used to be a winter thing but now, it's increasingly an all—year thing. it's the climate changes that is driving the change. the change is mainly because of rain and snow. telenor has also developed other applications for the same technology, such as measuring water volume more accurately to help fine—tune hydroelectric power production. they can just drop these tiny infrastructure pieces out there and start to gather data, and thereby predicting pretty accurate how much water do we have and where will it come

and when will it come. because they know exactly where the water comes and when it comes, it gives us the opportunity to reduce the consequences of floodings. and this type of early warning system could help protect other communities living with the threat of avalanches. time for a look at this week's tech news. the messaging app telegram has announced that it will now work with the internet watch foundation to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material on its platform. until now, the messaging app had repeatedly refused to engage with it, or any similar scheme. the internet watch foundation described telegram's position as "transformational" but warned it was the first step in a much longerjourney. kyra—mae turner, a lifestyle content creator, has won tiktok creator of the year for the uk and ireland. the awards took place in london for the very first time. 72 people were shortlisted

in 12 categories. when you started in march, did you ever imagine you would be here? no, not at all. i didn't even imagine people would want to watch and follow me, let alone win a tiktok award. it's crazy. and why do people love your content so much? i think it's because they feel like they know me and can, like, resonate with me. i keep it very real on my channel and authentic. and finally, happy birthday to the playstation. it's 30 years old this week. its co—ceo herman hulst has been talking about the use of ai in game development. he says that artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionise gaming, but he believes it will never replace the human touch of games created by people. formula e is the world's first fully electric racing championship with 16 races

being held around the world. ahead of the first race of the formula e season in brazil, jaguar tcs�*s preparations are well under way and have not been without their challenges. our very special championship—winning team photograph. i met with team principal james barclay for a look around and to find out more. but to start, i asked him to explainjust what formula e is. formula e — incredible start—up series still. it's actually now ten years old, about to start its 11th season, and it's the pinnacle of electric racing. it's also the world's first and only all—electric world championship. so, it's the formula i for electric cars is the best way, simplest way to describe it. it came about in 2014 at a perfect time, when the future of electric cars was starting to become clear. and as motor racing has always played a key role in the automotive industry, having a world championship for electric cars is a great way to not only pioneer the technology, demonstrate the benefits of zero emission mobility, but also create a phenomenal sport that has

a really relevant technology for a lot of audiences and customers that will drive electric vehicles in the future. jaguar tcs is currently riding the crest of a wave with last season's victories in both the teams and manufacturers championships marking a return to motorsport form for the uk—based racers. a very special place for us as a team. you know, motivational corner of the team base as well, right? to come and reflect and see, you know, the great successes we've had as a team. at the time of our visit, the team had been preparing for the final testing weekend

ahead of the new season in valencia. however, devastating and tragic flooding had hit southern spain, meaning the event had to be switched to madrid. this meant the drivers were in the simulator learning the new track, meaning it was off limits to our cameras. the remote operations room is exactly what it says on the tin. it's a remote team room. wherever we're racing in the world, we operate a group of people in this room whenever we're competing, so running the car in a virtual world in our driving loop simulator. oh, cool! oh, it looks really realistic, doesn't it? well, obviously you can't see it, but i can. wow. but obviously, the real star of the show in any racing team is the car itself. so, come on in. thank you. this is our race and test facility now. ah, this is where the magic happens. firstly, body work. as you can see, it's what we call a single—seater car. so, you have a place for one driver to sit in the middle. some racing cars have space for two drivers or by the regulations, so defined as a single seater.

that also means we have open wheels. aerodynamically, the car is not focused on high downforce, it's focused on more efficiency through the air. so we don't have big wings like you see on formula i cars. we have much lower—level wings in terms of the amount of downforce they produce, so the aim is to minimise drag, let the cars run through the air a bit easier and really, the focus is on driving efficiency. you talked about aerodynamics and stuff there. i mean, i imagine in terms of weight, because of the batteries and things, that these perhaps are heavier than perhaps, say, a traditional formula i car, for example? so, it's a really great question actually, because this formula e car, this gen3 formula e car, is actually around iookg lighter

than a formula i car full of fuel. really? so, yeah. from our point of view, a really, really great example of battery technology reducing in weight. we actually, for this generation, we've gone to a much smaller battery. so, in the past, we had a battery that lasted for — it gave us a full 45—minute race. now, the regulations have driven the battery size to provide 60% of the energy we need for the race. so, yeah, phenomenal technology. it means the car's lighter than a formula i car. that's really interesting. yeah, but we do up to 180mph and we accelerate 0—60mph in, last season, just over two seconds. our new car that we're racing this season is 0—60 in 1.8 seconds. wow! so, incredibly fast now. pulling some gs. absolutely. formula e cars are semi—standardised and all teams' cars use the same chassis, battery and tyres. so where does this leave the next target in technological innovation? software is a massive game in our sport. in formula e, we talk about software in the same way that formula i talks about aerodynamics. so, rather than making a little wing change here and there, we're making code changes. and what's very exciting — but challenging — is we can

update the code for our racing car week in, week out. so what i mean by that is every time we turn up at the race — the next race, we have an ability to put a new code in. and that speed of development on the software side, it's a bit like downloading a new update on your phone. the phone has more functionality, more features. the same on the racing car. and honestly, our sport is always evolving. technology like ai, machine learning — these are as important as material science as well. but all this isn't just about racing. the technologies being developed in formula e are already being used to improve the efficiency, speed and consumer appeal of electric road cars. what happens on the track will ultimately change the way we drive on the road. welcome back to cybathlon, one of the most inspiring tech competitions i get to go to. earlier, we met sammy, owen and salome, who are competing in three of the eight categories. they've all made it to the finals so now, it's crunch time. and first up, sammy. go! cheering and applause.

while the other pilots in the race are using wheelchairs with robot arms, sammy has to control his chair, plus the two hounds, using just his mouth and his breath. after an early drop on the first task, sammy and the dogs complete the next few challenges admirably and they really do test his precision controls. cheering and applause. well, the run itself went really well, actually. the first task, i messed up, unfortunately — the package fell on the floor — but the rest went really, really well. it was a good competition. a good race, actually. annoucement: from france, team ai and salome nashed. l everyone goes wild for the teams. but then, something very odd happens. silence.

it's the vision assistance race and it happens in complete silence. whispers: for this part you have to read the name of the object, find it on the floor amongst all the others, pick it up and put it in the bowl. although salome and the other pilots are using many different types of tech — including 3d cameras, phones on sticks and hand—held forced feedback kit — to complete a wide variety of tasks, most of the devices also talk their pilots through the course. on the second run, i was more confident, but something very stupid happened — it happened that the bluetooth of the audio cask was disconnected. i feel very thankful towards the team members. they supported me all along. now to brain computer interface. go!

here, paralysed pilots are controlling virtual objects on a screen with their minds! whispers: this is notjust about going forwards or stopping, these pilots have to do distinct things with their brain patterns to also turn left and right. honestly, i have no idea how that's achieved. but they're doing it. owen's through. this is real precision control now, moving the cup so it's perfectly under the ice dispenser. cheering and applause.

amazing! but there is one team that's approached this event differently, and it really shows. while the other pilots are wearing caps which detect brainwaves through the skull, phil — competing remotely from the us — has four electrode arrays implanted in his brain. and the difference? well, it's enormous. came close, but close is never good enough. philip from the states, that's just amazing technology. so, that's a clear difference between having implants and having external sensors. that's the difference

between chess and draughts. right. it's a different world. would you say that is the future? nobody�*s queuing up for implants, so this set—up is the future — non—invasive technology that you can pop on your head and work with the world around you, manipulate your environment. so, owen was fourth, sammy picked up bronze for the robotic assistance race, and salome finished the vision assistance final in second place, taking home the silver. my hope is that people are going to be more aware of disability, but also aware that even when we are disabled, we can do many, many things. you can basically operate any bluetooth device at the moment with your brainwaves, turn on tvs, possibly drive a wheelchair. that's the future of our technology, which i think is huge. i want to encourage everyone in a similar situation to not. give up, to take step. by step and sometimes, it goes backwards as well. that's part of life. i really hope that it's going to change the point of view of people about disability in general. cheering and applause.

what an absolutely mind—blowing, inspiring event the cybathlon is, and whether these teams have come first, second, third, fourth, whatever, it kind of doesn't matter as much as the fact that all of these designs could feed into a new generation of assistive technology. and that's what this is really about, after all. thank you so much forjoining us. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. hello there. storm darragh has continued to pull out, now weakened as it moves into the near continent. however, it's brought a swathe of disruption across parts of the country, with damaging gusts of wind. part two of the weekend does look better. although it'll stay very windy,

we should see some sunshine across northern and western areas, and it won't be quite as windy as what we had through friday night and saturday. however, the winds could still cause some travel disruption, particularly for the channel ferry crossing, so just stay abreast of the weather forecast and keep up to date with your latest local radio stations. you can see the system, then, pushing across the near continent, sitting over the low countries. still lots of isobars on the chart, so sunday will be a very windy day, especially so across more eastern and south—east areas in towards the channel islands, with gales here, further cloud and showery rain. wintry showers affecting northern scotland, but more in the way of brightness for western parts of the country — for northern ireland, wales, perhaps into western england. but when you factor in that cold northerly wind, it's going to feel cold wherever you are, with temperatures through the day ranging from around 5—9 celsius. so it stays blustery through sunday evening and sunday night across large parts of england and wales, south—east scotland, especially strong towards the south—east into the channel islands, where we'll have further showers here. further north, though, high pressure begins to topple in.

so for monday morning, it's going to be a cold start for scotland, northern ireland, with clearer skies here, light winds, some frost and some ice. a little less cold further south and east, but we'll have more cloud around and more of a breeze. but you can see the remnants of storm darragh pretty much fizzling out at this point. so we'll have more of a breeze again across the south—east corner, though nowhere near as windy as it has been. the further north and west that you head, closer to the high pressure. the winds will be much lighter with widespread sunshine here after that cold and frosty start. temperatures struggling to get much above three degrees, perhaps, through the central belt of scotland. further south, we're looking at 7—9 celsius. but as we move deeper into the week, this area of high pressure dominates the scene, sitting across the uk, bringing very light winds and settled weather — quite a difference to what we've had at the weekend. it does mean, though, it will turn quite chilly, and with that benign air mass with very little wind, we could see quite a bit of cloud at times too. where skies clear at night, we're likely to see a return to some frost and some fog. that's it from me. take care.

live from london, this is bbc news. syrian rebels declare damascus is free after reports from the police that president assad has fled the country. syria's prime minister says he will work with the rebels for a transition of power. two people die and thousands are without power as storm darragh continues to batter the uk with 70 mile an hour winds. notre—dame cathedral will hold its first mass this morning since fire ravaged the building five years ago. it reopened last night in a lavish ceremony

rebel forces in damascus have declared the capital city