this is bbc news, the headlines. tensions between israel and syria have intensified, after israeli fighter planes launched bombing raids across the border, following the shooting down of one of its jets. israel says it's been targeting iranian positions on syrian territory used to fly drones over israeli airspace. the us and russia have expressed concern over the attacks while the un has called for an immediate de—escalation. a double—decker bus has overturned in hong kong, killing 19 people, and injuring 62 others. reports suggest the bus was going too fast. police have arrested the driver and charged him with causing death by dangerous driving. the uk has threatened to cut funding for oxfam — following claims the charity covered up a scandal involving aid workers and prostitutes in haiti. penny mordaunt, the international development secretary, condemned what she called the "horrific behaviour" of some oxfam staff. traffic light labelling on food and drink should become mandatory

after brexit according to the local government association. they say the scheme, which is currently voluntary, helps customers understand what's in the products they buy. charlotte gallagher reports. we're used to seeing these traffic light labels on much of the food and drink we buy. they allow us to see at a glance how much fat, saturates, sugar and salt a product contains. but the labels, introduced by the department of health in 2015, are voluntary. the local government association says only around two thirds of products sold in the uk currently have them. the european union currently regulates food labelling, and the lga has called on ministers to make the traffic light scheme a legal requirement once eu legislation are transferred into british law. it says the scheme is popular with consumers and helps them make informed choices about what they are eating and drinking. they believe making the labels mandatory would help tackle the britain's obesity crisis.

the department of health says it's committed to giving people clear information about what they eat and will continue to help consumers to make healthy choices. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. now on bbc news — the travel show. this week on the show... on the run... in central mexico. this experience tonight is one of the craziest things i've done on this planet. wild and rugged scottish holidays. and painting a picture of denmark. skagen has special colours and a special light. we are starting this week right in the middle of mexico,

in the state of hidalgo, just two hours‘ drive north of mexico city. the landscape is exactly what you might expect. the sheer cliffs and prickly cactus are so abundant it's almost cartoonish. wow. this particular area is gorgeous. central mexico is incredibly beautiful and it's hard to imagine why anybody would want to leave. but they did. this is ixmiquilpan, now a bustling friendly place to pick up some lunch. butjust a couple of decades ago people say it

looked like a ghost town. they were leaving for the united states in sizeable numbers, as they were from many towns and villages across mexico. in the crook of this ravine, a group of recently returned illegal immigrants decided they wanted to solve the problem on their own, years before any talk of a border wall. they wanted to convince their children and grandchildren that they'll have a better life here in mexico and to warn them about the dangers of crossing. the notorious crowning glory of the park was the brutal night walk, which allows tourists to experience what it's like to illegally cross the us border, albeit a fake one. their hope? that it would be a deterrent. we're told to meet

inside the main gate. this is the real deal. and even though these guys are playing a part, they really mean business. the guy yelling at the top of his lungs is a coyote. that's what you call somebody who takes you across the border. he's taking his character extremely seriously. he is yelling out orders to our group. already my heart is beating so fast. they are trying to make this as realistic as possible. breaking in... listen to him. breaking into the usa. i think i'm going to have to start going. firstly, we are alljumping

on the back of a pickup truck. i have no idea where we're going. he's not giving us any tips. she is saying this is her second time doing the border crossing. she's not very scared, however this guy right here, his first time, i'm pretty scared. we are going to all cross, or attempt to cross, the border they've created for us tonight. i have to watch my step. hold on. this is intense. there's gunshots, sirens,

this bridge is totally not stable and there's people crawling on the ground. i don't even know what's going on, but the group is slowly... i went through! you 0k? yeah. unsure footing i can kind of deal with. screaming. but things get much scarier when you're forced to the ground by these very authentic looking armed bandits. gunshot. i'm actually afraid to make too much noise. i don't want him to come back. normally you would welcome the arrival of the police with open arms, but our coyote tells

us to run. do you think people coming here and experiencing this, it works and makes them want to stay in mexico? the whole point of this park is to show people the hardships and the work that goes into a border crossing and tonight's been a perfect example of that so far. look at this. the whole point of this park is to show people the hardships and the work that goes into a border crossing and tonight's been a perfect example of that so far. look at this. this is... i have a cactus stuck in the bottom of my shoe. look at that! it went all the way through the side of my shoe. this is the moment, this is the moment... ..when we can hopefully cross the border. our coyote is stressing out. we're waiting for the next truck. as soon as it comes we're jumping straight in the back. they're coming! the sirens are off in the distance.

the number of illegal migrants being arrested at the border is coming down significantly. us border patrol said it stopped 44% fewer last year than in 2016, but the journey still kills hundreds annually. here at eco parque they are hoping it will end up saving many of those lives. it has certainly given the guests here tonight pause for thought. that was seriously one of the most difficult things i have done in my life. however, if you are planning to come to this area here is a guide to some of the things you can see and do in and around mexico city. top of our list would be the street food. you will see tacos, quesadillas and tortas on every corner. it's all incredibly cheap and delicious though,

to be on the safe side, make sure whatever you're eating is made fresh in front of you. and if you're feeling really brave, head to sanjuan market and try a handful of crunchy scorpions or grasshoppers. the frida kahlo museum is in the pretty southern suburb of coyoacan. it's where the artist was born and lived along side her husband, diego rivera. inside you'll find collections of work from both of them. some rooms have been left in the same state they were in when the house became a museum in the 1950s. our tip is to get there early to beat the long queues. this is an incredibly popular attraction. the same advice goes for chapultepec castle. it gets crowded in the high season but is well worth a look. the beautiful 18th—century building started life as a retreat for aztec rulers and sits in the world's largest urban park. and while you're there, check out the voladores, a mesoamerican ceremony in which four orfive men perform suspended from the top of a 30 metre pole. and xochimilco is the unesco listed canal district a short distance outside the city. rent a colourful trajinera boat and take in the gardens and wildlife. on saturday the place comes

alive and becomes kind of a floating party district. it's quite a sight. 0ne weird highlight is the island of the dolls, a creepy diversion hidden deep in the canal network. still to come on the travel show... our global guru is here with recommendations for scotland in the summertime. and the artistic secrets behind denmark's biggest fishing port. it's a beautiful place because you can see all around and that gives inspiration. the travel show, your essential guide wherever you're heading. welcome to the slice of the show that gets you the best out of your travel. an island escape in scotland, and the perennial problem

of tipping, who and how much — this time on a river cruise. first, high—speed rail should be arriving shortly in saudi arabia. after some teething problems, the link between mecca and medina across the arabian desert should be opening in march. spanish—built trains will be covering the 270 miles between the two holy cities in about two hours. helen is looking forward to christmas — the place, not the day. christmas island, a beautiful coral atoll in the heart of the world's biggest ocean, is the only isle in the republic of kiribati who has an international air link. it's a stop on the way between honolulu and fiji. there are many ways to reach honolulu from the uk with a single change of planes at a mainland us airport, but you will need to make sure you are there at noon

on a tuesday when the only flight of the week takes off for the three—hour flight south to christmas island. next, kelly is seeking a different kind of island escape. the hebrides, the islands off the west coast of scotland comprise raw, elemental landscapes with a dramatic seashore punctuated by pretty ports and superb beaches. agreed, the weather is not always clement and the mediterranean is rather more warm than the north atlantic, but when the sun shines the western isles have few rivals for sheer beauty. while the outer hebrides have a compelling character, for a family, the one island that is likely to be just right is the inner hebridean island of mull.

it is easy to reach, just an hour on the caledonian macbrayne ferry from the handsome seaside town of 0ban. in terms of timing, the later you can go in august the better, for a wider choice of accommodation and fewer crowds. bill fearnley—whittingstall is also stepping on board, taking a river cruise on the danube. he wants to know... a river cruise is a superb way to experience the cities and landscapes of central europe, and the danube is my favourite waterway. tipping on european river cruises is different from ocean cruising, there is no intense pressure and you could leave nothing at the end of the cruise, but the cruise lines offer recommendations and they tend to be quite similar. 12 euros per person per day for the ship staff, plus two or three euros per person per day for the the cruise director.

were i paying a handsome amount for a danube cruise, i would probably tip the staff but leave the cruise director to negotiate his or her own fees direct with the company. whether you are contemplating a trip to the nation next door or the ends of the earth, i am here to help. so email your questions to me and i will do my very best to find you an answer. from me, simon calder, the global guru, bye for now, see you next time. finally, we are off to skagen, the most northerly town in denmark. it is possibly best known for hosting a colony of scandinavian artists known as the skagen painters who worked here in the 19th century. and, more than a century later, their influence still lives on. one of my favourite paintings

is this one, ps kroyer‘s midsummer painting of the bonfire at stjohn‘s night, and it is adding together a lot of the things that these skagen painters and the colony was all about, really, because it shows us the artists and the local fishermen together in the same painting. actually, we still today are celebrating stjohn‘s night in the same ways as we see on the painting. back in the 1870s and 1880s, the skagen painters started coming here. they were from denmark, norway, sweden, great britain, and at this time travelling was part of the education of becoming an artist. they found a fishermen‘s village

on the top of denmark, where these two oceans meet each other. this touch that the artists made on this town, i think, is very important to skagen today. so this is going to be a sketch for a bigger painting in my studio. that's the idea. it's a beautiful place because you can see all around, you have both seasides and you have the houses of skagen which are quite important, especially with the colours, the yellow, the red, the white. most of our paintings are from the period

1870-1920, ‘25, ‘30. that is when the artist colony was really alive. they would come back nearly every summer. the artists met at broendums hotel, mainly, and there is this social connection between the people, the locals and the artists, was very important. i usually say it all began here at broendums hotel. it is a very historical place, we want to keep that special atmosphere because it is what the people want to see when they come here. degn broendum, who was the owner of the hotel at the time, said to the artists that they don't have to pay anything for staying here, they could just

give him the pictures. it was here that all the artists were having big dinners, playing cards, have a lot of discussions about paintings and so on. this is my drug, you know, i have to paint. i need it every day to have my life, i cannot live without painting. it gives me the speed of being alive. we have a lot of paintings focusing on the fishermen, and that was like a core motif for most of the skagen painters, because that was what they met, these ha rd—working local fishermen, living and dying from the sea. more than 100 years back,

this town was more or less a very small town, where the fishermen landed their catches on the beach, beaching the smaller boats. i can't help feeling a lot of respect for the fishermen and the circumstances they had to work under. in 1907, the construction of the port was finished, which meant a whole new opportunity. since the past 13 years — or 14 years, actually — we have been the largest fishing port in denmark. when it is working out well within the port area and for the businesses of the port, it is working out very well for the town of skagen as well. that's the way it's always been. i like very much to paint big and heavy.

being a painter in skagen today is not as it were, of course, but it is still the same energy and still the same colour, attitude that i use, because skagen has special colours, and has a special light. you can actually come into the museums, look at these paintings, and you can go outside and you can find these different motifs that you see on the canvas. i think the fact that there was an artist colony here plays a very important role in putting skagen on the map. the people of skagen in denmark, bringing this week's show to an end. coming up next week... we'll be on board africa's freedom

railway, a vital artery connecting zambia's copper belt region to the tanzanian coast for over a0 years. we placed seven lions, chasing a zebra, it was like a movie! but this was real! finding what the future holds for this now creaking train line. and in the meantime, if you would like to join our adventures on the road, you can follow us on social media, but for now from myself and the rest of the travel show team in mexico, it's adios. hello there.

pa rt part two of the weekend is looking brighter than saturday from most of us, lots of sunshine around but it will fill that bit cold as well. we start both written and morning with very strong winds across the east and south—east of the country slowly easing away and for most of us there will be sometime wintry showers. there is the area of low pressure pushing off into the north sea, taking the gulf was winds with it. all the airdigging in taking the gulf was winds with it. all the air digging in behind the system and allowing those wintry showers to dive their way south eastwards. when the showers from the word go across western scotland, northern ireland north—west england, further, some snow over the high ground, certainly across the western half of scotland. what this on the eastern scotland, central and eastern scotland, central and eastern part of england but some showers may even if the south beach but for rich the south—east. it will feel cold with those bass riddled with dolly wins. the better 3—7. it stays cold as we head through the

course of sunday night first thing on monday, further snow showers across the north and west and the temperature is below freezing for many, certainly out of town we will see a risk of ice to greet us first thing monday morning. watch out about heading out early, you will certainly have to scrap your part in many places. wintry showers across england and on the whole, not a bad day for monday, a lot of dry weather, plenty of sunshine, the winds will be lighter than the one area of high pressure. behind the u can see the next with a front which will be moving in off the atlantic and without increasing wind, coming in from the south—west on the gal forces around some irish sea coast was yvonne simms the cold air, some snow on its leading edge and certainly over the high ground, northern england and scotland, a fairamount of northern england and scotland, a fair amount of snow and in fact further south it will be mainly rainy, certainly the lower levels and other moves away leaves in its wa ke and other moves away leaves in its wake sunshine and showers some of them again wintry across the north and west it is going to feel quite

cold once again. as literature is tonight, again another weather system tonight, again another weather syste m m oves tonight, again another weather system moves in from the south—west those winds picking up as the rain bumps into the cold there and another round of snow and heavy significance not across northern half of the country tend to go for 10- 20 half of the country tend to go for 10— 20 centimetres over the high ground of scotland, this is going to be very disruptive is keep tuned to the weather forecast further south it will be cloudy on wednesday with outbreaks of rain. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: there's mounting international concern — as israel launches a wave of air strikes against what it calls iranian targets in syria. the uk threatens to cut funding for 0xfam — following claims the charity covered up a scandal involving aid workers and prostitutes in haiti. and — britain's foreign secretary says myanmar must ensure rohingya muslims return home safely — he's set to meet aung san suu kyi on sunday.