this is bbc news. the headlines. ukraine says russia has carried out another air attack, narrowly missing a hospital. the us says it will "rush" patriot air defence missiles and ammunition to ukraine as part of its new $6 billion military aid package. scotland's first minister seeks to save his political career, inviting leaders of other parties to talks, hoping to change their plans to oust him. humza yousaf insists he won't resign despite a week of political turmoil. wildlife in antarctica is being exposed to potentially damaging levels of ultraviolet light because of a hole in the ozone layer caused in part by australian bushfires. scientists say animals and plants are at risk from the rays.

you're watching bbc news. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week... james is racing across the globe testing the latest ai translation tools. we're in miami to see the data behind basketball. whilst you're there, why not grab yourself a beer... ..and turn it into leather? she sings. and we're on the stage helping musicians get used to what it feels like to get a standing ovation or a slow clap. silence how did it do that?

silence. how did it do that? thank you! i think we've heard enough. yeah. she does voice exercises. ladies and gentlemen, this is your call to take your places for the performance. - places, please. places. 0k, they're ready for you. good luck. thank you. heartbeat thumps. your heart is racing. the adrenaline is flowing. this is your moment. applause. it's time to conquer your nerves, face the crowd, and let all that practice pay off. # sweeter than roses...

some say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert, and forjosephine shaw, this performance is part of that journey, as she blows our socks off with a rendition of sweeter than roses to a very unusual audience. she trills. i've always loved singing. my parents say i was a bit of an annoying child growing up. i was making lots of weird noises and apparently would hum myself to sleep. so, eventually, they were like, "let's put this into something useful," and, um, got me some singing lessons. talk to me about nerves. do you get them? and how do you get over them? um, yeah, i get nervous all the time.

getting overthem, it's always a tricky balance. sometimes the adrenaline helps you, but also you don't want the nerves to affect your singing or your technique if you're getting all tense. music distorting, cutting out. researchers here at the royal college of music in london say that practising and then performing is very different to practising performing. and so while it's difficult to get regular access to the real theatres and venues, they can simulate the experience here in their performance laboratory. and that simulation begins before they step out into the lights. one of the things we've learned from our research is that our body's stress response to performance can be as, if not more, powerful backstage than it is onstage. it's that anticipation of performance where anxiety can really hit, and this helps us tailor our training to make sure we're not only preparing them for what happens onstage, under the lights, in front of the audience's eyes, but also how they're coping backstage. how do they manage that anxiety? how do they get themselves physically and mentally into a place where they're ready to walk out onstage and give their

best performance ? the parallel to that in the surgical world would be allowing surgical students to go through the process of gowning up, washing up, doing a preoperative briefing with their team and making sure that they're all on the same page. and once the students are onstage, george waddell can control everything. he can change the venue. he can change the reaction to make the night go as well... silence ..or as badly as he wants. the performance laboratory is running in unreal engine, the video game software. each member of the audience is an individual video games character. they all behave independently and they don't all always show up. i got lucky tonight! and what's really interesting about this space as well is there are 64 speakers hidden in the walls and ceilings, so if you change the venue, that changes the acoustics, which forces you to

change your performance. getting that sense of the acoustic makes it not so huge a jump when you're then performing onstage, compared to in all the practice rooms we have, which tend to be a much drier sound. so when it's suddenly a much bigger space that you have to fill, it's great to get a little bit of an experience of what it might sound like ahead of time. so, there's the prep, there's the lights, there's the sound. but let's talk about that audience. it's a weird crowd in tonight, i can tell you. we want to test our performers�* focus. we want to make sure they can hold it together. so that might be very subtle. a little cough, perhaps. soft coughing. and it might be more dramatic. phone rings. audience shushes. the performer is expected to ignore this, i guess. that's right. and even if there's a momentary lapse, it's about then continuing after that. i mean, performers make mistakes.

it's how they react after that mistake that sets apart the professional. for many of our performers, it's not actually this full house that is the most intimidating to them. it's perhaps when the marketing hasn't gone so well... spencer laughs ..and there arejust a rare few in the audience. this can be quite intimidating, trying to bring that energy to a sparse crowd. i've been there! well, i think we all have, unfortunately. but this new multimillion—pound performance lab isjust part of the work the college has been undertaking to help prepare students for the real thing. heart rate and breathing monitors measure activity and stress levels, and special glasses can even track the musicians' eye movements to find out if they're being distracted mid—performance. he plays sorcerer's apprentice. they also measure how dilated your pupils are, which can be another indicator of anxiety. now, it is possible to practise more thanjust musical performances here — public speaking, business presentations.

the venue and the audience are ready for any type of rehearsal. and then there's this lot. yes, you can even simulate an audition panel. george can make each of the judges purr like sharon osbourne or sneer like simon cowell. so what are they going to make of this little stand—up routine i knocked up with the help of chatgpt? good evening. how's everyone doing tonight? i mean, have you seen those vocal processers? they can turn a voice that sounds like a dying cat into something that could rival freddie mercury. how did it do that? thank you! i think we've heard enough. yeah. yeah, i think i'll leave it to the experts. # is love to me. applause and cheering oh, thank you.

# oh, i'm living my best life # best life... alasdair: welcome to miami, a city of golden beaches, glamour and entertainment... # wanting it, wanting more... ..and the home of the miami heat basketball team. # i just want to celebrate life's too short # tonight i'm joining fans for a match. it's an experience not to miss when visiting this city — as much about the pre—game entertainment as it is about the sport. but this isn'tjust a sports team. this is a tech start—up. most people wouldn't think of this when thinking of a professional sports team, but we have a very robust technology operation. as spectators move around the venue, data is carefully being gathered

about everything they do and purchase, before being analysed on the team's own data platform that they call 601 analytics. we knew that we had reached an inflection point and this was roughly eight, nine years ago, where we have all of this technology in the building and we wanted to know what the technology was telling us. and so we went to market to see if there was anything out there. we couldn't find anything, so we started building it for ourselves. after a few years, we found it really impacted our business. so think about from the time you walk into a building, the time you purchase a ticket, you purchase something at food and beverage. i can even see when folks scan into the building what gates they're coming in from, so if we need to redeploy staff and release the bottleneck. we can see what people are doing in the arena. we can see whether they're transacting with us, whatjerseys they're buying, where they're buying them at ourfingertips. it's like having an app

for your entire business. not only does the 601 analytics platform create individualfan profiles, it can also be used to analyse historical data and make predictions about future games. this allows the team to bring in the right resources, potentially saving money. it's perhaps not a surprise that data about all these transactions is being gathered. but what strikes me is that this is a sports club taking the tech into their own hands and spinning out a successful start—up. it is an interesting model, but i think that's what contributes to our success. because if you think of a tech company and the customers that they serve, how many tech companies actually live in the customers' world day in and day out and get their questions and their asks and understand their problems? now their services are being used by more than 20% of nba teams, and their market is growing, with customers beyond just the main basketball league.

so, our clients range from sports teams in the nba all the way over to venue operators that are hosting concerts, comedy shows, different art events and things like that. we found something that we needed. like we said, we built something that we could use ourselves, and other teams were just kind of knowledge—sharing with us and asking us, "hey, you know, what are you guys doing over there?" we realised this is actually something that other teams can benefit from, so why not share the wealth of knowledge? now this start—up are taking their product outside of the us too — their first venue using this tech in the uk opening in manchester this year. but back to miami, and the data being gathered at this stadium is helping in some slightly more unusual places. you might think everything here is about the action on the court, but this is miami, so of course there's a nightclub underneath the stand. # so, baby, why don't you dance with me?

# baby # wanna see ya dance with me # closer... it's a straight—up nightclub. it's ultra lounge, nightclub. loud music, lights going everywhere, cryo effects, confetti and stuff like that. so that's kind of what we do here. data is even helping you choose the music for the nightclub? it helps us put together music platforms that, you know, are very, very, very broad, you know? so, pre—game experience, given the fact of what our demographic breakdown is, i know that we need to play music that is going to cater, you know, from all the way from the �*60s all the way up to current music. with the game about to start, the fans are packing into the stadium, but do they realise just how much data is being gathered about them? you don't realise it, but you are aware, because when you log into your amazon account and it remembers the kind of paper towel

that you last ordered, that's a piece of data on you, but you find it relevant and you find it helpful. we try to do the same thing, and we're doing it because the fans expect it. with technology now impacting every aspect of running a business, i'm sure it won't be long before more sports teams are following the start—up model of miami heat. thank you.

is being sued for allegedly sharing personal information with third parties. a claim lodged at london's high court says highly sensitive information such as people's hiv status was allegedly stared with advertisers. the app said it will respond vigorously to the claim. and nasser�*s voyager one spacecraft has begun beaming useful data back to earth. the 46—year—old probe started spouting gibberish in november due to a fault, but has since started communicating more sense with scientists after a successful fix.

i really, really wish that i could, but unfortunately i can't speak any other languages fluently other than english. in chinese: in french: what if i could speak...polish? he speaks in polish artificial intelligence is making it far more easy to communicate in any language, from budget options... ai translates his speech ..to some pretty high—end versions aimed at the corporate sector. the implications of this tech are huge, but how good is it, and does it really work? this is how we are able to recreate an accurate... ...creation of your head. the first company we're reviewing is called heygen. now, heygen didn't want to be interviewed as part of this piece, but we've reviewed them anyway.

it's simple. try to make sure you look straight to the camera and do not look anywhere else during the recording. you upload a video of yourself, and then you just simply wait for the al to translate that video into pretty much any language that you choose. the key thing that you have to remember is you have to leave... i do a quick video of myself, upload it onto heygen and wait, and then out pops a video of me speaking the language that i chose — in this case, spanish. in spanish: and here's the really cool bit. and here's the really cool bit. when 0mar, the producer on this piece, got into the shot, it detected his voice was different to mine and translated his voice too. you are in shot, my friend. i've actually managed to fool some friends using this. it really is impressive. in london, there's one company that's trying to make an absolute killing out of this technology.

synthesia was one of the very few minted unicorns last year in europe, a company worth more than a billion dollars. it's based in london, and it makes avatars designed to be used by corporate clients. but before my avatar is made, the system has to learn what i look like and what i sound like. my name is james clayton and this video recording... the idea is that you can generate a video of yourself saying anything in any language that can quickly be sent to employees, like a sort of visual email. if you think of tiktok�*s interface, there's almost no text unless you click on the comment section. you're literally swiping through videos, right? and i think that as video becomes so easy to produce, i think we'll see that more and more of our online experiences is going to be kind of video first. with my avatar created, i had a play around with it. creating the video itself is easy, it's like making a powerpoint presentation. today we celebrate world book day. ai translates his speech yeah, so that that feels to me like what i'm saying. my hand movement is right.

roughly, my facial expression is right, but at the same time, you can still definitely tell that that's an ai—generated avatar but, at the same time... ..is that better than just words on a page? and, actually, for a lot of people, particularly visual people, considering that that's only taken five minutes, perhaps that is quite useful. i wanted to see what victor thought of my take. i played around with it and it looks like me, but i don't think anyone will be fooled into thinking that it actually was me. what would you say to that? i think you're right. i think by the end of this year, if not before, we'll definitely get there. but i think what we have seen in basically all modalities, really, with al, right, is that we can all see that it's very impressive, but it's not really there, right? like, gpt technology is still... these technologies are still not one to one on par with a real person. that said, i can see why this tech is sparking so much interest. the applications for it goes way

beyond corporate videos. we've seen that with, like, ngos all over the world where they can produce video content instead of written content for people who may have a difficult time reading if you do it in local languages. so just this kind of dissemination of information in people's native language via video and audio is very, very powerful. ground control... as it gets easier and easier to change the words that come out of our mouths, there's also a worry that this kind of technology could increase the amount of misinformation on the internet. i still believe... but when it comes to translating educational videos or sending a message to someone in their own language... in german: at kernel brewery in london's bermondsey, something unusual is brewing. this grain left over from beer production is commonly used for animalfeed or can even end up in landfill, but here it's getting a new lease of life.

it's going to be transformed into a leather alternative known as new grain — no animals, no plastic. and now it's time for all of this to head back to arda biomaterials' lab around the corner. once these sacks arrive at the lab, it's time for the process to begin. first of all, it's emptied out into a container like this, and then an alkaline solution is added. that's stirred for about an hour to extract the protein from the grain. then the husk will be separated, and the protein liquid will move along to the next stage, where some natural ingredients will be added. this will be stirred for another couple of hours, and at this point protein strings start to develop, and that means that it's ready to be poured into the trays. now, this tray here has got a pretty smooth finish, so that will create something that looks like a lot of natural leathers. if you want something even

smoother than that — well, there's a tray for that too. and for something that's a bit more of a crocodile look, well, you've even got a version like that. varying the beer that the grain comes from by, say, using stout, will result in different final colours. after the material's been sitting in the tray for a day, it's ready to peel off. that's so smooth. that's like pvc. yeah. no, we've... it's completely shiny because it's unbacked. and now thatjust needs its sustainable backing added. one of the big environmental issues with leather production is actually the tanning process, though — and arda is hoping for a solution. we are exploring using natural colouring agents, so there's actually a lot of deep tradition in old tanning before the advent of petrochemicals or chromium tanning. so we're exploring these old dyes that are naturally derived and work with the environment and biodegrade. and now for a look at some of the finished product. we've got a whole roll of it here. it looks very much like leather.

this one's quite soft. we've got some here that have been dyed. it's external companies that do that, because that's not actually done here. but there are different textures. this is a bit harder, a bit more like a leather that maybe you'd have on a sofa. now, if i smell it, because i know that is the instinct with leather... ..it doesn't smell of much — a bit like a new car maybe, which i guess could be the smell of leather. it's not quite the same, but they are looking at being able to customise it to smell however somebody might want it to — or of nothing, possibly. these two are made from different types of beer, so the colour is authentic. they do feel less like leather to me, i think because they're harder and more solid. the more flexible ones that are used for something like a handbag feel more like leather, and they've just got that movement to them. on a big sheet here — this could make a bag that could actually fit my laptop — that feels a lot softer. it moves around more like leather does. but i think the main point is there's a lot of flexibility

as to how the finish is going to end up looking and what can be done to it afterwards. there's competition, though. there are lots of other leather alternatives that are coming online, and they each have different positives and negatives. our solution offers a way to scale. do you think it's going to be cheaper than leather? yes. how much cheaper? well, currently, a lot of the breweries we work with at the moment give away their grain for free, so our feedstock is coming in at an extremely low value. some of the bigger breweries sell it. it's quite low. so, at scale, we calculate that we can undercut leather and plastic leather. and when do you think i'm going to be able to go out and buy a handbag made out of this? hopefully, this time next year. and it's going to be a cheap handbag? it'll start as a small collection to certain clients, and then into luxury, and then slowly moving down the luxury market into more

commodity and high street. and what's worth having if there isn't a queue or a waiting list? and that's it from us in the performance lab at the royal college of music in london. hope you've enjoyed the show. we're about to find out whether this lot have. thanks for watching, and we will see you soon. cheering and applause oh! oh, thank you! thank you, thank you! hello there. there's certainly going to be winners and losers with the weather story for the rest of the day. the best of the sunshine so far has been in the far north and west, but most of us under this influence of low pressure, and this weather front ahead of the main low, well, that has brought some outbreaks of rain. it's weakening all the time as it drift its way steadily northwards, a band of cloud and drizzle. so the best of the sunshine certainly has been in north—west scotland, just take a look

at the western isles early on this morning. for scotland, for northern ireland and northern england as we go through the afternoon, it's a case of sunny spells and scattered showers, but we keep that cloud and drizzle across the midlands and into north wales. slowly brightening up south of the m4 corridor, but that in turn could trigger off one or two sharp, thundery downpours. temperatures today generally across the country a little below par for the time of year, so still that disappointing feel 9—11! degrees. but it will turn a little milder at the weekend continues. but it will also turn wetter through the evening and overnight as we see more rain spilling its way up from the channel and spreading across eastern england. here we'll see temperatures holding up, but to the far north and west under those clearing skies, low enough once again for a touch of frost. but it's this low pressure that will bring some wet and increasingly windy weather, but it's also bringing some milder weather with it as well as the wind direction changes to more of a southerly or south—easterly. so a spell of heavy rain

which will linger across north—east england and eastern scotland. west will be best through the afternoon. it'll be windy with the cloud and rain, and as a consequence, the temperatures really disappointing once again, 7—10 degrees, highest values of 13, possibly ia. now, as we move into monday, not a bad start, and with that wind direction still coming from the south, some sunshine and some warmth. yes, it will turn cloudier and wetter from the west as we go through the day, but in that sunshine we could see temperatures peaking at 16, and it should feel quite pleasant, particularly in comparison to of late. warmer still as we go to the middle part of the week. this area of low pressure will bring outbreaks of rain at times, but we're tapping into a south—easterly wind direction, and that will continue to drive in some warmer air, so temperatures just a little above where they should be for this time of year, but don't expect anything too dry, settled or sunny.

live from london. this is bbc news.

pentagon says it will �*rush�* air defence missiles to ukraine as a hospital in kharkiv was damaged in the latest russian attack. british troops could be deployed on the ground in gaza to help deliver aid via a new sea route. with the scottish government on the edge after a week of turmoil, first minister umza yousaf insists he won't resign. south africa celebrates freedom day — thirty years since the end of apartheid and its first democratic elections. a great heaviness lifted from our shoulders. 0ur shackles had been cast off. hello, i'm lewis vaughanjones. the ukrainian military says russia has carried out another massive air attack.

the mayor of kharkiv, ukraine's second city,