president trump has denied making the remarks, including the use of an expletive. president trump has warned that he'll re—impose sanctions on iran in less than four months — a move that would undermine the agreement under which tehran curbed its nuclear programme. he now wants the us and europe to impose new restrictions on the iranians. facebook has announced what it says is a major change to its news feed — prioritising posts from family and friends, over those from advertisers and media organisations. the change follows criticism that too much fake news and misinformation has been ending up on the social network. now on bbc news, it's the travel show. looking at the front pages of beforehand. the guardian looks at donald trump's alleged racist

comments and that the president should not get his hopes of an invitation to the royal wedding according to the mail. angela merkel getting ready to form a coalition government and tips on how to help dementia is of the top story in the express. the sun says there is pressure on the bbc to sackjohn humphrys over comments he made off their over equal pay and the telegraph has an interview with the presenter in which he says he did not know he was being recorded. meanwhile, the daily star has some alternative advice to keeping the bug at bay. now on bbc news, it's the travel show. this week: on the travel show, we

catch up with our blind backpacker is the rise in bethlehem. this is the place wherejesus was born. simon is here with his top tips for travelling by train across europe andi travelling by train across europe and i am in paris seeing the city of light turning into an all—night party. the number of people isjust crazy, we are talking about 100,000 people. 800,000. first up, we are on the road with a

backpacker who has clocked up more than 120 countries and has done all that without being able to see. my name is tony, i am from england, i am totally blind and severely deaf andi am totally blind and severely deaf and i travelling around the world, trying to visit every country. previously we join trying to visit every country. previously wejoin him trying to visit every country. previously we join him as trying to visit every country. previously wejoin him as he explored jerusalem. very smooth. but today he heads into palestinian territories to make his way into the holy town of bethlehem.” territories to make his way into the holy town of bethlehem. i am now at the checkpoint betweenjerusalem and bethlehem. walking across the

checkpoint and go to the wailing wall. going through the checkpoint isa wall. going through the checkpoint is a little bit complicated. slightly more complicated and confusing than i thought. and then sought of trying to follow other people and people pushing me from one way to the other. i would say we are in the palestinian side, the palestinian territories. it is quite exhilarating. as you come out the tunnel into the taxi area, where the wall is, you

can hear people talking, you can smell food and coffee and that is quite loud and interesting. can you show me to a taxi? church of the nativity. 0k. show me to a taxi? church of the nativity. ok. | show me to a taxi? church of the nativity. ok. i will take show me to a taxi? church of the nativity. 0k. iwill take you show me to a taxi? church of the nativity. ok. i will take you for a photograph on the wall.” nativity. ok. i will take you for a photograph on the wall. i will take it with my camera. 0k, cool. are you happy? all ways. how big is the world ? happy? all ways. how big is the world? it happy? all ways. how big is the world ? it is happy? all ways. how big is the world? it is big. ten metres? it is large. tony, welcome to bethlehem. you want to go to the church? the church of the nativity. 0k. all this

way on the wall, you have a lot of ba nksy way on the wall, you have a lot of banksy on the wall. i am feeling excited to be in bethlehem, a new city, a newtown, new experiences. driving through bethlehem, along the wall, it has given me a brief glimpse of how long the ball can be. it certainly feels quite long, driving along here. in my mind it seemed quite impressive. i guess it is quite scary to a lot of people. here is the church, tony. is quite scary to a lot of people. here is the church, tonyli is quite scary to a lot of people. here is the church, tony. ijust called to let them know i am still

coming. hello, we are at the church. hello? hello? give it to me i will call them. hello. 0ne hello? hello? give it to me i will callthem. hello. one minute and they will come here. thank you, mohamed. hi, tony. hi, adam. good to meet you. looking forward to seeing your place. yes, my plays. how many countries have you visited before? your place. yes, my plays. how many countries have you visited before ?|i have visited 124 countries. 0h, countries have you visited before ?|i have visited 124 countries. oh, my god, yes, nice. hill at all like alibaba. —— you are like. have you

done much travelling? no, just here. it is not easy to move or to travel in another country. so he get travellers to come to you. yes. you have steps here. in theory, you stay for free here. you have steps here. in theory, you stay forfree here. you live in a castle. yes. a used a website. you find people on it. and if they want to meet travellers will want to travel, thatis meet travellers will want to travel, that is how it works. this is home. we have landed. thanks. i have had a

range of experiences. i have slept on floors, mattresses like these, couches, and in africa, in a heart where the toilet is outside and it isa where the toilet is outside and it is a hole on the ground. —— in the ground. ido is a hole on the ground. —— in the ground. i do not see the dirt, the danger, ijust ground. i do not see the dirt, the danger, i just get ground. i do not see the dirt, the danger, ijust get on with it. you are meeting the people, the local hosts and they are sharing their food, culture and knowledge, whatever they can offer you and hopefully you make friends. good night and good dreams. and to you. people think, oh, being blind us be terrible but they do not understand it, they do not know what they are

talking about. i am so lucky. i am leading a brilliant light. i go from country to country, i can go whereupon two, very few restrictions. the come ham and you see people, and they can see but they cannot go places. you want directions? you go directly this way. just straight. 0k. directions? you go directly this way. just straight. ok. i directions? you go directly this way. just straight. 0k. iwish directions? you go directly this way. just straight. ok. i wish you be happy and luck in your life. 0k thank you. good to meet you, adam. this is the entrance to the church? yes stop you can go in that, straight. 0k, thank you. i can

roughly hear a voice but it is a bit disconcerting echo. it splits the sound and it takes away the direction. we will get there. it cannot be far. a big metal thing with studs which could be... yes, it isa with studs which could be... yes, it is a gate. 0h, with studs which could be... yes, it is a gate. oh, there is oil, candles. it has a waxy smell. finding the entrance is like reaching my goal, reaching my target and anything else after this is a bonus.

i think they have started singing, it is louder so i need to get closer to these because they will be a lot of energy involved and i will try to get closer and closer and eventually use bike came to pick out the steps. a guide held me down. singing. realising i was the only person to get close to hear that makes me feel very privileged, very warm inside. i am absolutely buzzing after that. the energy is incredible. that was cool just to the energy is incredible. that was cooljust to be here for that if

nothing else. it is quite crowded going down the steps. it is very deep. my goodness. from the fire into the furnace. it isa from the fire into the furnace. it is a very hot in here. i guessing the rack candles and more people coming in. this is my hand. this is the place where jesus was born. this is the start were he was born. kneel down, more, more, more. kneel down. you can touch the place where jesus was born. this is the star, it has 14 points. it is the star of david. marble? no, it is a silver. the

ground is marble. this is where jesus was born. you feel it? this is the grotto. yes, he was born here. it is not ok like this. let me help you a little bit. like this, you can ta ke you a little bit. like this, you can take a photograph. a very humbling experience. being in a place where one might argue history occurred 2000 years or so ago. so visiting

the church, the smells, the sounds, thatis the church, the smells, the sounds, that is what makes travelling for me special. i travel by myself because it is my challenge. it is like climbing a mountain. you think it is difficult, it is a struggle but you get to the top and, yes, i have made it. it is magical. and that is what it. it is magical. and that is what it is all about, broadens my horizons and helsby come a better person hopefully. helps me. still to come on the travel show. i am in the french capital, paris, for its bustling festival of light. —— dazzling. welcome to manchester airport and

the slice of the show that tackles your questions about getting the best out of trouble. coming up, the merits of a trip to sri lanka during monsoon season and how to get from north—west england to south—east europe by train. first, work is beginning on southeast asia's leading high—speed rail project from kuala lumpur to singapore. when it opens in 2026 it should reduce the journey time tojust opens in 2026 it should reduce the journey time to just 90 minutes. at present it takes seven hours to reach the singapore border from the malaysia capital. at this time of year many people are heading south from europe to australia and facing this problem. i am helping from europe to australia and facing this problem. iam helping my

elderly parent to apply for a shortstay tourist visas to australia but i am increase —— confused about which one to use. many people plan a holiday, a business trip or a family visit and all they need is an easy is utter. and electronically stored trouble authority. the application process to visit australia is quick and easy and confirmation is normally given within a few minutes. ve visitor is valid for one year for stays of up to three months and it is free unless you inadvertently go through a website that seeks to divert visitors from the official government side and charges fees while adding no value. so look for border .gov.au to be certain it is the official scientific and sri la nka the official scientific and sri lanka in may. while it is perfectly possible to enjoy sri lanka in may, i would

recommend you choose another time of year to visit this lovely indian 0cean island. manias when the south—west monsoon begins, bringing heavy rain and humidity. agreed it also coincides with the dry season in the north and east of the island but i prefer to be in sri lanka between december and march when highlights, concentrated in the south—west quadrant, a relatively cool and dry. aside, may is a wonderful time to be in the mediterranean, particularly on a greek island. and speaking of greece, we have this question. from manchester you can happily reach el grade in serbia by train, going via london, paris, munich and croatia. from here, however it gets

rob lamented that it you can get as far as the greek border by train but from there you are likely be transferred via bus to thessaloniki, a city which i strongly recommend you explore. from there to athens, trains are fast and cheap. whether you are contemplating a trip to the nation next door or the ends of the earth, iam nation next door or the ends of the earth, i am here to help. e—mail your question to the address on the screen. i will do my best to find you an answer. from me, simon calder, the gullible guru, see you next dash —— the global guru. finally, i am in paris where the city has been celebrating. e.g. the city has been celebrating. e.g. the city of lights gets even brighter as artist ‘s and performers light up paris with free events from sunsets

sunrise for one night only. the festival ta kes sunrise for one night only. the festival takes over the whole city. i have come down to the river for a behind—the—scenes look at rehearsals for one of this year's most eye—catching installations. the theme of the event is working together. and it is all about getting corinthians and tourists alike involved in the art. when it is up and running, this giant installation will give visitors a chance to send a message across the city. altogether we have 42 letters because it 42 is the answer to everything. people have an app and there they can see a list of topics. for each hour of the night, from

seven p. m. until seven for each hour of the night, from seven p.m. until seven a.m. we have a single topic and people can make suggestions, according to this topic. the suggestion with the most votes wins. and moving these giant letters takes quite a knack, as i discovered when i tried to move just one. i think i'm picking up a life skill here. make it straight. make it completely parallel to the direction. as the on the night the letters came to life and i decided to make my own suggestion for the first phase of the evening. you download the app

and you can either vote for the next phrase to appear on the bank or you can create your own. i will go for allons—y. my suggestion did not quite make it. this was what the peruvians preferred. —— parisians. since it began in paris, the white knight id has spread to nearly 30 cities around the world. and back in its birthplace, it is still as popular as ever. the number of people going is crazy. we are talking about 800,000 people. you can feel it. on one side you have walking and contemplating the city and on the other side you have the artistic project. i think this is

why it is so famous. and it certainly seems to have worked. there are over 150 events on throughout the night and every venue we went to was packed. the most popular events are the ones that a more immersive. i enjoyed this quite serene exhibition about european rail travel. it is a soundscape that has been composed to evoke the history of rail. and with the smoke it is quite atmospheric. the whole of paris seems to come together for this event with restaurants, bars and public transport staying open through the night. for those in it for the long haul. if you are hardy you can party until seven a.m. but i am not quite able to make it that

far. it is past one a.m. and this party is showing no signs of letting up. it is the end of this week ‘s travel show and coming up next week... henry's in australia's red centre to find out how a ban on climbing the sacred side of uluru could affect tourism in the area. at the moment, tourist are allowed to go the moment, tourist are allowed to 9° up the moment, tourist are allowed to go up to the peak. that is about to change. join us then if you can. in the meantime, don't forget you can keep up with us on the road and in real—time by signing up to our social media needs, details from which are on the screen right now. from me and the rest of the team here in paris, it is goodbye. hello there.

for many of us, the weather has not changed a great deal over the last couple of days. look at the satellite picture from thursday and i will show you what i mean. a largely cloudy day across many areas of the british isles. here's a satellite picture from yesterday again showing extensive cloud cover. we'll leave the satellite picture behind for a moment. today's headline, can you guess what it'll be? yes, another cloudy day. but the weather is not that straightforward. a weather front in the west is bringing outbreaks of rain for some of us. there's at least one change. now, the weather will be fairly slow moving again on saturday because this weather front is coming in off the atlantic and is running into this massive area of high

pressure, that's influencing the weather across much of northern and central europe, so the front will not make much progress against that massive blocking area of high pressure. it means where we start off with outbreaks of rain in western areas, that rain band will probably be in the same kind of areas right way through the day. but further across central and eastern england and central and eastern scotland, for the vast majority of us for much of the day it's going to be drive extensively cloudy, but a bit of breeze around. a few gaps in the cloud to allow some brighter moments. there is the forecast through saturday night. this weather front in the west will fizzle overnight with a bit of rain going in across north—west england, into central and eastern areas of scotland. the winds fall light across england. we could get some mist and fog patches, with maybe the cloud thickening up a bit to allow drizzle on sunday. but for sunday, another cloudy one for most of us. a change coming into the north—west. we will see another atlantic fronts moving in. this one bringing some heavy rain and fairly strong winds with it, but this one will be a big player to finally break our spell of cloudy weather.

this is what happens. sunday night and on into monday, the front swings its way southwards and eastwards across the british isles. behind this cold front, the air gets colder. starting to come in with a more north—westerly direction and the skies will brighten up. down go the temperatures. through monday afternoon, highs of four or five celsius for northern and western areas of the british isles, cold enough for snow in the hills of scotland. colder air on the way for next week, which means more in the way of sunshine. it means the weather will be getting colder and at times it could turn very windy, but it also means there is the risk of some snow next week, particularly in the north down to low levels, but the hills further south could also see some snow at times. hello, this is breakfast, with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. dentists warn of a child tooth decay crisis in england. a record 43,000 operations to remove rotting teeth were carried outlast year. ministers say they're determined to tackle the problem. good morning, it's saturday

the 13th of january. also this morning: african leaders demand an apology from donald trump after he is accused of making vulgar and disparaging comments about poorer nations. a ban on credit and debit surcharges comes into force today, but there are concerns companies could